Car drives into a crowd at a parade in Virginia Saturday. The car, driven by an elderly man, injured 50 to 60 people, but there were no fatalities in the crowd.
By Debra McCown,?Associated Press / May 18, 2013
Hiker "Quinoa" is given credit for saving the lives of Carson Balckburn, Dalton Thomason, and Faith Ritchie after he ran them and others off the road with a water gun during a festival parade in Damascus, Va., Saturday, May 18, 2013. Second later, a car came down the road and struck several people.
(AP Photo/Bristol Herald Courier, Earl Neikirk)
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An elderly driver plowed into dozens of hikers marching in a Saturday parade in a small Virginia mountain town and investigators were looking into whether he suffered a medical emergency before the accident.
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About 50 to 60 people suffered injuries ranging from critical to superficial, but no fatalities were reported. Three of the worst injured were flown by helicopter to area hospitals. Their conditions weren't immediately available.
Another 12 to 15 victims were taken to hospitals by ambulance and the rest were treated at the scene, where some paramedics and other first-responders were participating in the parade.
It happened Saturday afternoon in the hamlet of Damascus, during the Hikers Parade at the Trail Days festival, an annual celebration of the Appalachian Trail, a majestic hiking route through the Appalachian Mountains that spans 14 states from Georgia to Maine.
Damascus Police Chief Bill Nunley didn't release the driver's name or age but said he was participating in the parade and he had traversed the Appalachian Trail in the past. Multiple witnesses described him as an elderly man.
Nunley said the man's 1997 Cadillac was one of the last vehicles in the parade and the driver might have suffered an unspecified medical problem when his car accelerated to about 25 mph (40 kph) and struck the crowd on a two-lane bridge along the town's main road. The driver was among those taken to hospitals.
"It is under investigation and charges may be placed," Nunley said.
Witnesses said the car had a handicapped parking sticker and it went more than 100 feet (30 meters) before coming to a stop.
"He was hitting hikers," said Vickie Harmon, a witness from Damascus. "I saw hikers just go everywhere."
Amanda Puckett, who was watching the parade with her children, ran to the car, where she and others lifted the car off those pinned underneath.
"Everybody just threw our hands up on the car and we just lifted the car up," she said.
Keith Neumann, a hiker from South Carolina, said he was part of the group that scrambled around the car. They pushed the car backward to free a woman trapped underneath and lifted it off the ground to make sure no one else was trapped.
"There's no single heroes. We're talking about a group effort of everybody jumping in," he said.
Nunley cited quick action by police, firefighters, paramedics and hikers to tend to the victims, including a volunteer firefighter who dove into the car to turn off the ignition. The firefighter, whose name wasn't released, suffered minor injuries.
Mayor Jack McCrady encouraged people to attend the festival on Sunday, its final day.
"In 27 years of this, we've never had anything of this magnitude, and is it our job to make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.
The H1N1 virus strain that caused a 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was detected in northern elephant seals off the coast of central California.
Scientists say this is the first time marine mammals have been found to carry the H1N1 flu strain, which originated in pigs. The seals seem to have picked up the virus while at sea, but it's unclear how this happened.
"We thought we might find influenza viruses, which have been found before in marine mammals, but we did not expect to find pandemic H1N1," Tracey Goldstein, an associate professor with the UC Davis One Health Institute and Wildlife Health Center, said in a statement. [10 Deadly Diseases That Hopped Across Species]
"H1N1 was circulating in humans in 2009," Goldstein added. "The seals on land in early 2010 tested negative before they went to sea, but when they returned from sea in spring 2010, they tested positive. So the question is where did it come from?"
Contact with humans carrying the virus is unlikely when the elephant seals are at sea, because the creatures spend most of their time looking for food in a remote part of the northeast Pacific Ocean off the continental shelf.
Exposure could have occurred through feces dumped out of shipping vessels passing through this area. The researchers noted in their report in the journal PLOS ONE this week that H1N1 has been detected in stool samples of hospital patients. Another possible avenue of transmission might have been contact with aquatic birds, thought to be reservoirs for other flu viruses, the researchers say.
Goldstein and colleagues tested nasal swabs from more than 900 Pacific marine mammals from 10 different species from Alaska to California between 2009 and 2011. The elephant seals that were studied had been satellite tagged and tracked so that researchers could tell where they had been before and after they were tested for disease.
H1N1 was detected in two northern elephant seals within days of their return to land after they went out to sea to forage for a few months. Antibodies to the virus were found in another 28 elephant seals. None of the seals had any signs of illness, which means marine mammals can be infected with zoonotic pathogens but be asymptomatic, the researchers said.
The report recommends that people working with and around marine mammals need to take proper biosafety precautions to prevent exposure to diseases that could be quite harmful in humans, even if they don't cause illness in seals.
The new research on marine mammals is part of an effort to understand emerging viruses in animals and people by the Centers of Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance program, funded by the National Institutes of Health.
"The study of influenza virus infections in unusual hosts, such as elephant seals, is likely to provide us with clues to understand the ability of influenza virus to jump from one host to another and initiate pandemics," Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, a professor of microbiology, said in a statement. Garcia-Sastre directs of the Global Health and Emerging Pathogens Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine, which collaborated with the team from UC Davis on the study.
Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted in Best Practice, Language, Leading Volunteers, Valuing Volunteers tagged community leadership, Leadership skills, Managers of Volunteers at 4:21 am by Sue Hine
A member of parliament resigned this week, in disgrace.? For ten days the news media communicated to the public arena all the ill-chosen words that were spoken, emailed and twittered, plus as many details as they could extract from the Prime Minister. ??The MP could not have managed better his exit from the political stage.? All because what he said, the way he said it and the medium he used compounded his errors.? His resignation and departure saves the coalition government?s slender majority, and shows us all how critical the choice of words and the way they are said can be.
Put a bunch of managers of volunteers together, ask them to nominate the most important principle in leading volunteers, and 80% will tell you it?s Communication.
Of course!? Except Communication is a really big carpet-bag word, stuffed full of a range of meanings and processes and practice ? and technologies.? It?s time we unpacked the implications of the word and understand how it is best used in the context of a volunteer programme.
Communication is about Exchange of Information?? Yes, the sending and receiving of accurate information is all-important to help volunteers into the organisation and for on-going retention.? Ensuring information about volunteers and the volunteer programme is spread to other staff and senior managers is also important.? And ? being timely in responding to queries and messages: there?s nothing worse than sitting around waiting to hear back from someone, even if it is simply an acknowledgement your message has been received.
Because Communication is also about Relationships ??It?s about creating personal connections, getting to know people and their circumstances.? It?s about getting alongside paid staff, creating goodwill, and their understanding and appreciation of volunteer work.? And you don?t get good relationships going without being a Listener.? You have to be really genuine in meeting and greeting and appreciating volunteers ? they will see through formulaic responses very smartly.
Communication is about inter-connectedness?? Communication is the way to create links with communities, to network with other managers of volunteers, and to open up intra-organisation channels.? Beware the pitfalls of ?talking past each other? whether in cross-cultural communication or in everyday exchanges.? It?s the intimacy of interpersonal interaction that counts towards real connections.
Communication is a leadership dynamic?? A leader?s support, encouragement, enthusiasm and inspiration do not happen in isolation ? by definition there is always a following team.? So a leader is tuned to know which buttons to press and when and what words to use, and how to draw in the reluctant player, or to spur the confidence of the shy and retiring volunteer, or to find new ways to develop volunteer talents. ?A good communicator will also demonstrate the value of a volunteer programme to the organisation.
You cannot not communicate??? There?s a truism for you!? The experts can demonstrate how just 10% of a message is conveyed in words.? The rest is non-verbal, the body language, the tone of voice, the facial expression.? So even a tight-lipped poker-face is sending a message, whether they mean to or not.
Hang on a minute ? a heck of a lot of our communication these days is not face-to-face.? You?ve got everything from formal letters, newsletters and written planning and policy papers, to email and social media, to websites and webinars.? So the written word is still a primary tool for communicating ideas and information.
Being a communicator and minding our language comes with the territory of managing volunteers. I reckon we could teach foolish MPs a thing or two.
I need a single-frame cartoon drawn up of three birds sitting in a grape vine, having a conversation. The style can be a simple line drawing and be in B+W, but I'd need high-res jpeg or vector files supplied.
Exact details of the cartoon and conversation between the characters will be supplied to shortlisted proposals.
The winning bidder will also need to supply a quick concept sketch of their drawing for approval before working on and delivering the finished file.
I'd suggest the sketch would take half an hour, and the finished work and file deliverables would be a further two hours' work.
Please give a full cost estimate of the job in your proposal.
Any questions, just ask! Good luck.
Meeting the Dalai Lama can have sharp diplomatic and economic consequences with Beijing, as Britain's Prime Minister Cameron, who wants to lead a trade mission to China, has found out.
By Peter Ford,?Staff writer / May 13, 2013
The Dalai Lama answers questions during His Holiness the Dalai Lama Environmental Summit on "Universal Responsibility and the Global Environment" at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Saturday, May 11, 2013 in Portland, Ore.
Motoya Nakamura, The Oregonian/AP
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Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has never had very good relations with the Chinese government. But now his personal envoy to Beijing is offering to help another British leader who seems to be even more firmly in the Chinese doghouse ? Prime Minister David Cameron.
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Beijing Bureau Chief
Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.
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Mr. Cameron, who would dearly like to head a trade and investment mission to China, incurred Beijing?s wrath last May by meeting the Dalai Lama. The fact that it was a private meeting, on sacred ground in St. Paul?s cathedral, makes no difference. He will be persona non grata until he apologizes.
That status can be costly: A 2010 study by academics at the University of Gottingen in Germany found that countries whose top leadership received the Dalai Lama lost an average of 8.1 percent of their exports to China over the following two years, though the effect wore off after that punishment period.
Enter Sir David Tang, Hong Kong fashion tycoon and flamboyant London socialite, who also heads Prince Charles?s charitable foundation in Beijing. He told the Daily Telegraph?s gossip columnist over the weekend that he is ready to help defrost London?s diplomatic relations with Beijing.
?Look at the Prince of Wales,? he told the paper. ?He?s now very engaged with lots of Chinese people.?
?Twas not ever thus. The Prince?s stock here hit rock bottom in 2005 when somebody leaked the private diary he had kept in 1997, when he represented the Queen at the handover of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. He famously described the assembly of top Chinese leaders at the ceremony as ?appalling old waxworks.?
In 2009, however, Prince Charles opened a Chinese branch of his international foundation, funding projects that build sustainable communities. That has helped, but he has still never visited mainland China.
Charles himself is close to the Dalai Lama, which makes him a suspicious character in Beijing?s eyes. The Chinese authorities go to extraordinary lengths to persuade foreign leaders not to meet the Tibetan leader, whom they accuse of being an anti-Chinese? ?splittist,? and when those leaders fail they grow very angry.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy?was subjected to such anger when he met the Dalai Lama.?
France emerged from such a period of diplomatic and trade punishment in 2009, only after it signed a joint statement with China clarifying that Paris ?fully appreciates the importance and sensitivity of the Tibet issue and reaffirms ? that Tibet is an integral part of Chinese territory.?
Since the Dalai Lama himself has also said, repeatedly, that Tibet is part of Chinese territory, and that he does not seek independence, French diplomats could argue that they were not conceding anything. But the symbolism of the statement was clear.
London appears to have escaped the export boycott: A British government spokesman pointed out that UK exports to China had climbed by 13.4 percent last year.
He also defended Cameron?s right to choose who he meets in private regardless of China?s feelings on the matter. ?It is entirely reasonable for the prime minister to decide who he meets,? the spokesman said.?
But no sooner had the queen finished her speech opening Parliament last Wednesday, than Cameron was offering olive branches to Beijing. A senior member of the ruling Conservative Party lobbed the prime minister a clearly pre-arranged question about Sino-British relations; Cameron lost no time in reassuring Parliament, and Beijing, of course, that ?we recognize Tibet as part of China. We do not support Tibetan independence and we respect China?s sovereignty.
?We do want to have a strong and positive relationship with China,? he stressed.
It remains to be seen whether this will be enough to placate Beijing.?
NEW YORK (AP) ? Police say a gunman used anti-gay slurs before fatally shooting a 32-year-old man in New York City's Greenwich (GREN'-ich) Village.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Saturday that the shooting, which occurred just after midnight, appears to have been a hate crime.
Kelly says the gunman was seen urinating on the street outside a bar, then made anti-gay remarks to the bartender and showed him that he was wearing a holster with a silver pistol.
The commissioner says the gunman then confronted the victim and a companion on the street and asked if they were "gay wrestlers."
Kelly says the man shot the victim in the face. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Police identified him as Harlem resident Marc Carson. The name of the suspect was not immediately released.
Contact: Aimee Frank newsroom@gastro.org 301-941-2620 Digestive Disease Week
Innovation for healthy outcomes presented at DDW 2013
Orlando, FL (May 18, 2013) The use of a smartphone application significantly improves patients' preparation for a colonoscopy, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week (DDW). The preparation process, which begins days in advance of the procedure, includes dietary restrictions and requires specific bowel preparation medication to be taken at strict intervals. The better the preparation, the easier it is for doctors to see cancer and precancerous polyps in the colon. The study, which was conducted by the gastroenterologists of Arizona Digestive Health in Phoenix, featured the first doctor-designed app of its kind.
"Getting ready for a colonoscopy is difficult. There are a lot of steps," said Nilay Kavathia, MD, a gastroenterology fellow at Phoenix VA, who is one of the application's developers. "For patients, having an interactive, simplified and personalized app on their phone is like having a doctor at their side throughout the process."
In the study comparing the quality of bowel preparation by patients who used the app and those who did not, Dr. Kavathia found that 84 percent of individuals who used the app received a good score on the nine-point Boston Bowel Preparation Scale. By contrast, only 56 percent of those who didn't use the app received a good score. The results, which correspond with health technology trends, show how advances in smartphones are helping physicians achieve better patient outcomes.
To help increase quality bowel preparation, Dr. Kavathia worked with Dr. Paul Berggreen, the president of Arizona Digestive Health, to develop the "Arizona Digestive Health" app. Patients enter the date and time of the procedure and the bowel preparation medication chosen by their physician. Timed alerts then appear on the phone to remind the individual of the next step in bowel preparation. In addition to the alerts, the app offers information explaining the procedure, tips and pictures of preparation quality. It is available for free download.
Dr. Kavathia would like to build upon his findings by studying individual outcomes of patients who use an app to get ready for a colonoscopy. "We know that better prep means a better colonoscopy," he said, "and now we know that this app improves prep. This finding has huge implications for treatment, patient satisfaction and further research in how the use of technology can impact healthy outcomes."
A colonoscopy serves as a screening test for colorectal cancer and allows a doctor to look for polyps, or precancerous growths, in the colon and rectum. When men and women are considered together, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and the third most common cancer for both sexes. Colonoscopies for average risk patients are recommended beginning at age 50.
The success of a colonoscopy depends greatly on the quality of bowel preparation by the patient. Inadequate preparation can force cancellation of an exam or can result in a compromised exam in which polyps go undetected, an increase in procedure time and more frequent surveillance.
###
Dr. Kavathia will present data from the study "Outcomes of smart phone application assisted bowel preparation for colonoscopy," abstract 143c, on Saturday, May 18, at 2:30 p.m. ET in Room 203AB of the Orange County Convention Center.
Digestive Disease Week (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW takes place May 18 to 21, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL. The meeting showcases more than 5,000 abstracts and hundreds of lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine and technology. More information can be found at http://www.ddw.org.
Follow us on Twitter @DDWMeeting; hashtag #DDW13. Become a fan of DDW on Facebook
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: Aimee Frank newsroom@gastro.org 301-941-2620 Digestive Disease Week
Innovation for healthy outcomes presented at DDW 2013
Orlando, FL (May 18, 2013) The use of a smartphone application significantly improves patients' preparation for a colonoscopy, according to new research presented today at Digestive Disease Week (DDW). The preparation process, which begins days in advance of the procedure, includes dietary restrictions and requires specific bowel preparation medication to be taken at strict intervals. The better the preparation, the easier it is for doctors to see cancer and precancerous polyps in the colon. The study, which was conducted by the gastroenterologists of Arizona Digestive Health in Phoenix, featured the first doctor-designed app of its kind.
"Getting ready for a colonoscopy is difficult. There are a lot of steps," said Nilay Kavathia, MD, a gastroenterology fellow at Phoenix VA, who is one of the application's developers. "For patients, having an interactive, simplified and personalized app on their phone is like having a doctor at their side throughout the process."
In the study comparing the quality of bowel preparation by patients who used the app and those who did not, Dr. Kavathia found that 84 percent of individuals who used the app received a good score on the nine-point Boston Bowel Preparation Scale. By contrast, only 56 percent of those who didn't use the app received a good score. The results, which correspond with health technology trends, show how advances in smartphones are helping physicians achieve better patient outcomes.
To help increase quality bowel preparation, Dr. Kavathia worked with Dr. Paul Berggreen, the president of Arizona Digestive Health, to develop the "Arizona Digestive Health" app. Patients enter the date and time of the procedure and the bowel preparation medication chosen by their physician. Timed alerts then appear on the phone to remind the individual of the next step in bowel preparation. In addition to the alerts, the app offers information explaining the procedure, tips and pictures of preparation quality. It is available for free download.
Dr. Kavathia would like to build upon his findings by studying individual outcomes of patients who use an app to get ready for a colonoscopy. "We know that better prep means a better colonoscopy," he said, "and now we know that this app improves prep. This finding has huge implications for treatment, patient satisfaction and further research in how the use of technology can impact healthy outcomes."
A colonoscopy serves as a screening test for colorectal cancer and allows a doctor to look for polyps, or precancerous growths, in the colon and rectum. When men and women are considered together, colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. and the third most common cancer for both sexes. Colonoscopies for average risk patients are recommended beginning at age 50.
The success of a colonoscopy depends greatly on the quality of bowel preparation by the patient. Inadequate preparation can force cancellation of an exam or can result in a compromised exam in which polyps go undetected, an increase in procedure time and more frequent surveillance.
###
Dr. Kavathia will present data from the study "Outcomes of smart phone application assisted bowel preparation for colonoscopy," abstract 143c, on Saturday, May 18, at 2:30 p.m. ET in Room 203AB of the Orange County Convention Center.
Digestive Disease Week (DDW) is the largest international gathering of physicians, researchers and academics in the fields of gastroenterology, hepatology, endoscopy and gastrointestinal surgery. Jointly sponsored by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) and the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract (SSAT), DDW takes place May 18 to 21, 2013, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL. The meeting showcases more than 5,000 abstracts and hundreds of lectures on the latest advances in GI research, medicine and technology. More information can be found at http://www.ddw.org.
Follow us on Twitter @DDWMeeting; hashtag #DDW13. Become a fan of DDW on Facebook
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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A member of parliament resigned this week, in disgrace.? For ten days the news media communicated to the public arena all the ill-chosen words that were spoken, emailed and twittered, plus as many details as they could extract from the Prime Minister. ??The MP could not have managed better his exit from the political stage.? All because what he said, the way he said it and the medium he used compounded his errors.? His resignation and departure saves the coalition government?s slender majority, and shows us all how critical the choice of words and the way they are said can be.
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Public release date: 18-May-2013
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