13 May 2020 --- Salt reduction remains high on the agenda for food manufacturers and brands tapping into increased demand for healthy products with a clean label. Under pressure following official recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) to drive down salt intake in the global population by 30 percent by 2025, food innovators face the ongoing challenges on lessening their reliance on sodium. This must be achieved, of course, without compromising on taste and delivering on health and wellness characteristics demanded by consumers who still expect the enrichment, complexity and premiumization in their savory choices with a low salt label.

Low sodium-based launches have grown considerably over the past five years, notes Innova Market Research, with a 7 percent average annual growth of food & beverage launches tracked with low/reduced sodium claims (Global, 2015-2019). Baby & Toddler foods have the highest percentage of launches with low/reduced sodium claims, citing the importance of salt reduction from an early age while Sauces & Seasonings and Soft Drinks are second and third, respectively. This is followed by Snacks (9 percent), Bakery (7 percent) and Cereals (6 percent).

While salt reducing focused NPD is obviously popular across various categories, taking away some of the standards from a manufacturers toolbox, such as salt, MSG and yeast extract, can create taste challenges.

Food manufacturers are now looking for solutions that allow them to reduce the sodium levels of their products, while also achieving the great taste and texture that consumers expect. It is, however, not only food producers who are increasingly aware of the importance of salt reduction in food public consciousness and awareness of the health impact of excess sodium has risen just as much, Mark Austin, Global Business Development Manager, DSM Food Specialties tellsFoodIngredientsFirst.

A recent DSM survey, which interviewed 5,000 people across 10 countries, found that 65 percent of respondents seek foods that contain less salt, while 71 percent and 66 percent of people questioned also reported looking for products that have lower levels of sugar and fat respectively.

This means that to really meet consumer needs for better-for-you products, producers must take a holistic approach to develop healthier options, considering not just salt reduction, but sugar and fat, too. The clean label movement has seen more consumers seeking products with shorter and more recognizable ingredient lists, with 71 percent of people in DSMs survey checking product labels and 66 percent buying goods made with ingredients they are familiar with, he continues.

When it comes to salt reduction, this means that producers must continue to look towards creating clean label solutions with reduced sodium content that appeal to consumers, Austin adds.

DSMs portfolio of yeast extract solutions for salt reduction can support food manufacturers in delivering healthy, tasty and appealing products. Yeast extracts are widely known for their rich savory taste profile, which can help producers create an authentic taste in low-sodium products. Part of DSMs sodium reduction toolbox, the Maxarome portfolio including Maxarome Select is ideally suited for a broad range of savory applications and can reduce salt levels in food, without compromising on taste or texture.

Suitable for both plant-based and meat dishes, these solutions have the ability to enhance the salty perception of goods, while delivering on umami, meaty or vegetable flavors, and masking off-notes and bitterness, notes Austin.

Processed food remains the leading contributor to salt intake in peoples diets. In industrial countries, approximately 75-80 percent of dietary salt is obtained through processed food, while 5-10 percent occurs naturally and the remaining 10-15 percent stems from salt that is added during cooking or at the table, continues Austin.

With the pressure from public health associations to reduce sodium intake continuing to grow, however, the need for manufacturers to adapt to ensure their product offering meets these demands is increasingly important, he says.

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Salt in the plant-based spaceSalt levels in plant-based products have recently come under scrutiny by UK organization, Action on Salt (AoS). It has recently published studies linking cutting salt helps support lower blood pressure which, it says, provide strong evidence for salt reduction as a major public health strategy for the UK which currently has voluntary salt reduction targets.

In the plant-based space specifically, AoS calls on the government to get tough on the eating out sector which lags far behind the food sold in retailers. This follows AoSs recent survey findings that show many healthy sounding plant-based and vegan meals served at UK restaurants, fast food and coffee chains, contain more salt than eight McDonalds hamburgers. Nearly half (45 percent) of meals eaten out of the home contain 3 g or more salt in just a single meal thats half the maximum daily limit for an adult. Additionally, over one in five dishes provide more than half an adults maximum daily recommendation for saturated fat.

Recognizing the demand for reduced salt in plant-based formulations, Roquette recently expanded its plant-based protein ingredient range that taps into the salt reduction trend. NUTRALYS L85M is a new specialty ingredient that further expands the existing range of NUTRALYS pea protein from Roquette. Beyond new tastes and new textures, Roquette will now offer its customers the ability to create plant-based meats with less salt to meet consumers demands and expectations when managing their daily sodium intake.

For Laura Queiroz Simon, Biorigin Global Product Manager, sodium reduction is no longer a trend, it is a confirmation of conscious consumption. She flags several categories that tap into convenience trends such as snacks and ready meals, as having a lot of opportunities to reduce the sodium content and to be more pressured by consumers and regulatory bodies.

Plant-based recipes tend to have a neutral taste profile and to compensate by giving more savory to these recipes the food companies are using salt. We know that consumers are aware and are pressuring the plant-based food industries to reformulate their recipes to reduce the salt and use clean label ingredients, she tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

The consumption is pushed by health concerns and consumers know that there is no point in consuming less meat in favor of plant alternatives if these recipes have a long list of ingredients with artificial additives and colors. Its well known that consumers avoid buying products with ingredients that are difficult to understand and are focusing on looking for products that contain ingredients perceived as natural, she says.

Meanwhile, Biorigin brings ingredients that help to reduce up to 50 percent sodium. Naturally rich in amino acids and nucleotides, there is a line of specific ingredients to promote the umami flavor the fifth basic flavor that brings a subtle and market sensation, increasing salivation and it is often perceived as a combination of sweet and salty flavors, allowing to compensate the salty taste loss and provide the overall recipe taste balance.

Bioenhance SFE 201 is designed to deliver a clean savory and umami notes, working in synergy with the recipe and compensating the sodium reduction. It is also able to mask off flavors when using different salts than Sodium Chloride (NaCl).

Biorigin offers a range of yeast extracts from standard savory to umami and roasted profiles to fulfill several applications and sodium reduction challenges and natural flavors that improve the salt perception with no sodium addition, maintaining the recipe taste profile, the company flags.

No need to compromiseFor Eelco Heintz, Product & Innovation Manager atNiacet, increasing consumer awareness of the harmful effects of excessive sodium consumption on health is driving demand for sodium reducing ingredients. At the same time, several countries have introduced legislation trying to tackle the issue. As a result, consumers are making a conscious effort to reduce sodium consumption and proactively checking sodium content on labels, he tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

As alternatives to the commonly used sodium-based preservatives gain ground, antimicrobials have an important role to play. There is no need to compromise between food safety and a healthy sodium content, he notes.

Next to sodium reduction there is an increased demand for shelf life extension and improved safety in a variety of food types, adds Heintz. Sodium-based preservatives are common, but there are preservation ingredients available that do not contain any sodium. Provian K, made with potassium salts, is one such example of a preservative that is proven to keep food safe and extend shelf life while reducing salt. Similarly, clean label solutions, such as Provian NDV, are made from naturally fermented vinegar and also contain no sodium, he explains.

Provian products are powdered organic acid-based preservatives, which makes it possible to simultaneously address both trends of salt reduction and increased shelf life.Originally, we focused on processed meat and poultry products, but this quickly expanded to other processed foods like fish, salads, spreads and a variety of ready-to-eat (RTE) products, Heintz notes.

Processed foods often contain a lot of salt, partly due to the high quantities of sodium-based preservatives used in them. However, by using high quality preservatives, manufacturers can create healthier products with lower levels of sodium. Preservatives such as Provian are highly effective at lower dosages, which will increase safety and extend shelf-life while reducing the amount of sodium in the final product, he says.

Not everyone is aware of the consequences of high salt intake. There are often cases of the public media warning against high salt intake, usually related to kidney or cardiovascular disease. Additionally, there is a clear trend visible of healthy and conscious living in the wider population. However, more can still be done, and it is obvious that awareness of sodium intake and a healthy sodium/potassium balance needs to be part of this trend, Heintz says.

Another category where salt reduction is an emerging trend is bakery. Baked goods substantially contribute to the daily sodium intake and a reduction is necessary to reach the goals set by governments and WHO. The industry has seen a voluntary reduction of sodium chloride content, but more still needs to be done. ProBake, from Niacet, offers world-leading standards in mold control with preservative options that contain no sodium, he adds.

Whats next?Rising demand for healthier, low-sodium food with a great taste and texture will continue to fuel product innovation and reformulation. Broader health trends will continue to drive thegrowing consumer trend for low-sodium clean label ingredients in their food. Consumers like the idea of products with easily identifiable ingredients, which can be difficult with preservatives as they often need to be labeled with a chemical name. However, preservatives made from natural ingredients can be used in products with natural claims and clean label ingredients. Niacets Provian NDV, for instance, is an effective clean label preservative, made from naturally fermented vinegar.

Manufacturers are searching for effective nutritional solutions for salt reduction that help them meet the trend for better-for-you food and stay ahead of the curve. Meanwhile, the continuing boom for plant-based products, innovation and R&D, will drive the need for more salt reducing solutions globally while more regulation is expected to be introduced around the world, forcing formulators who havent already done so to act.

By Gaynor Selby

To contact our editorial team please email us at editorial@cnsmedia.com

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Salt reduction: Preservation without sodium and delivering on taste - FoodIngredientsFirst

Adeles significant slim down has been credited to a combination of exercise and eating sirtfoods. So what is the sirt diet and could it work for you?

COVID-19 may still be daily overwhelming the internet, but for a few hours last week all the talk on social mediturned to just how singer Adele could havelost so much weight.

And the answer? Apparently (allegedly) shes been following the sirtfood diet, detailed in a book of the same name written by Aidan Goggins and Glen Matten.

The sirt in sirtfood stands for sirtuins a group of genes and the proteins they encode that play a key role in cellular homeostasis. Sirtuins have been implicated in the stress response, DNA repair and energy metabolism, but the area where they've whipped up more scientific interest (and hype) than any other isin relation to extending lifespan.

The finding that sirtuins were linked to longevity in yeast led to an explosion of research that has yielded ambiguous results. There have been some signs of life extension and improved long-term health, including an anti-diabetic potential in laboratory animals, but nothing thats been reliably shown to extend life in mammals.

The central tenet of the sirtfood diet is that eating certain polyphenol-rich foods red wine and dark chocolate are frequently citedas examples to make the diet seem sexier can stimulate sirtuins (coined your skinny genes by the authors) and create weight loss.

Activating sirtuins through diet is an intriguing theory, but theres little evidence to support it, and even less evidence that doing so would lead to significant weight loss in practice.

The diet promises a weight loss of 7 pounds in 7 days and that longer-term you will improve your resistance to disease while gaining incredible energy and glowing health.

If you dont gnaw off your arm in hunger before you get slim that is.

Phase one of the diet is three miserable days of consuming just 1000 calories including three green juices, followed by four more days when youre permitted 1500 calories but still have to gag on drink green juice.

Phase two lasts for two weeks and isn't a whole lot more appealing, while longer-term you have to continue consuming the same list of foods repeatedly.

Polyphenol-rich food such as apples and citrus, green leafy vegetables, berries and olive oil are all perfectly healthy but having to focus on them at every meal is faddish and restrictive.

And thats the real reason the sirt diet works for those that do stick to it despite sounding seductively sciencey the restraints mean its just another not-particularly-well-disguised route to cutting calories.

If it works for you and it worked for Adele, then great. But lets not pretend sirt diet success stories are down to anything other than eating less.

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Eat Like a Bird and Weight Loss Will Be a Dead Sirt - American Council on Science and Health

]]> An oil drilling rig in the North Sea. Credit: Erik Christensen.

While much of the oil and gas industry begins to focus its efforts on decommissioning, and transitioning to a world where oil production, if not oil usage, will form a smaller part of the global energy mix, there are a few companies continuing to invest in and extend the lives of their projects.

Equinors Statfjord field is perhaps the most obvious example, with the company recently announcing that the Statfjord A platform will continue to produce oil into 2027, close to its 50thyear of active operation. The field is estimated to have generated $180bn in income over its lengthy lifespan, and with the drilling of 100 new wells planned, the operators seem to be confident that despite the general trend of the industry, profit and productivity remain in the field.

But its not just majors who are engaging in asset life extension, with this optimistic approach trickling down to smaller players in the North Sea. One such company is Rockrose Energy, a UK-based independent that announced earlier this year that production at its Ross and Blake fields in the North Sea will be extended by five years, pushing the fields expected lifespans into 2029.

With the operators expanding the fields potential production by more than two million barrels of oil equivalent, the project is an identical case study in optimism and a focus on the bottom line to Equinors expansion, but on a more local scale. Yet it remains to be seen if Rockroses project will prove financially viable in the long-term, and how the expansion work will fit into an industry that, despite a few examples, seems committed to decommissioning.

Decommissioning is becoming an increasingly vital aspect of the North Sea oil and gas industry. Oil and Gas UK reported at the end of 2019 that the UK offshore sector is expected to spend over $19bn on decommissioning over the next decade, with well decommissioning in particular accounting for 45% of the forecast expenditure for oil and gas companies over the next ten years.

Yet Rockrose is undeterred, with managing director Peter Mann noting that it is part of the companys strategy to extend field life and push back decommissioning. Plans at Ross and Blake are in line with that.

The firm plans to invest $250m into the two fields, in which it owns a 30.8% stake, to fund new drilling work that will see two additional infill wells constructed

This optimistic investment follows a productive few years for the companythat has encouraged Rockrose to take a more proactive, expansionist approach to its assets, at a time where much of the industry is looking towards decommissioning. Rockrose has seen productivity increase at its operations in recent years, posting an increase in annual production across all of its operations across the North Sea of 117% in 2019 compared to 2018 figures.Furthermore,with over 100 million barrels of oil equivalent beneath its platforms in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) alone, the firm is optimistic that its projects will continue to be productive and profitable.

Mann was also eager to point out Rockroses recent commitment to proactive asset acquisition and ensuring high standards of occupational health and safety, both of which could help stabilise the company and its assets in an industry whose future is increasingly uncertain, creating a coherent identity for the firm to unite its operations across its assets.

Rockrose has established HSE policies in place, which ensure the safety and wellbeing of its employees and contractors, he said. This was reflected at Brae, where in 2019 the total number of HSE incidents fell by 39% to 17, with only seven of these taking place post-completion of the acquisition of the Marathon UK deal, which included the Brae assets.

As a result, Rockrose has aimed to position itself as an active and dynamic actor in a sector often considered backward-looking and resistant to change; last July, for instance, the company completed the $95m acquisition of Marathon Oil, a deal which saw assets worth 28 million barrels of oil equivalent come under the operation of Rockrose, significantly expanding the companys influence in the North Sea.

Rockroses approach appears to have yielded financial dividends, at least in the short term, with dramatic improvements in raw production figures and profits over the last year. The company saw a 311% increase in gas production from 2018 to 2019, alongside a 55% increase in oil production over the same period, and a total increase in revenues of 64% across its oil and gas operations.

In the companys annual report, executive chairman Andrew Austin echoed this sentiment, predicting a 9% increase in production between 2019 and 2020 that would see the firms total output reach around 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day

Yet while these figures are undoubtedly impressive, they are undermined by the companys vast capital expenditure, which has been enough to keep the company producing in the short term, yet it is unclear as to the sustainability of this level of investment; between 2018 and 2019, capital expenditure increased by a dramatic 624% to $76.9m. Perhaps most concerning, however, is the 292% increase in abandonment expenditure, with RockRose spending over $9m on abandonment work in 2019, despite its broad aims to delay decommissioning work where possible.

In 2017, Rockrose commissioned oil and gas evaluation firm ERC Equipoise to assess the companys long-term financial viability, and the companys conclusions could be a concern for Rockrose. ERC Equipoise predicted that cost inflation would increase from 1.02% in 2018 to 1.4% in 2034, which could drive up operational expenses for a company that has already invested a significant sum across its operations.

Yet according to Mann, this ever-increasing spend is simply part of a changing oil and gas landscape in the UK.

The UK North Sea continues to represent a significant opportunity, said Mann. There is a changing of the guard in the UKCS, with some of the larger international companies refocusing elsewhere, which leaves opportunities for smaller, flexible and ambitious companies with strong balance sheets, like Rockrose, to take on the assets and maximise their economic recovery and potential.

Should the oil and gas landscape shift away from major companies with decades-old projects, towards these smaller, more agile firms with fewer assets, Rockroses vision of smaller projects with significant financial margins could be realised. Despite investment of $248m into the Ross and Blake fields as part of the latest round of expansion alone, the firm still posted an end-of-year balance of $203m at the end of 2019, compared to $38m at the end of 2018.

Financial risks certainly remain for those eager to pursue asset expansion at this point in time, but Rockrose is proving that there could be a way forward for independent companies willing to take these kindsof financial risks.

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Asset life extension: viable in the long term for oil and gas? - Offshore Technology

Across the globe there has been a notable uptick in consumer interest in the provenance and standards of food products, while a surge in demand for fresh produce and packaged goods means shelf life extension and stability are paramount concerns for food manufacturers.

Thats why we will be shining the spotlight on both issues in an exclusive webinar on May 12, where Dr Lan Ban, Research & Development Director at Kemin Food Technologies, will be presenting expert insights.

According to the company: Food safety is every brands number one priority while keeping product fresh for longer allows business to optimise its returns.

However, meeting consumers demands for safe and high-quality food requires extensive understanding of the chemical and biological pathways that affect products.

Thats why in this presentation, Kemin will assess how minor, yet hugely important, ingredients such as antimicrobials play a pivotal role in delaying microbial growth and preventing foodborne illness, while simultaneously ensuring brand longevity and loyalty.

Key takeaways will include an understanding of common food safety and shelf life challenges, and listeners will be equipped with toolkit for the best use of antimicrobials to solve them and boost business outcomes at the same time.

Register for the webinar here.

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Shelf-life and food safety: Hear exclusive expert insights on two of the biggest industry challenges right now - FoodNavigator-Asia.com

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. The novel coronavirus has changed many facets of everyday life, including how families shop for food. Many consumers are facing limited hours and product shortages at their neighborhood grocery stores and naturally are worried about the availability and safety of their food.

A Penn State Extension webinar planned for noon to 1 p.m. May 14 will address these concerns, as well as provide suggestions on alternative places and methods for sourcing food.

COVID-19 has created vulnerabilities and bottlenecks in the food supply chain, and consumers have questions about what is happening, noted Benjamin Bartley, an extension educator specializing in food systems and local food development.

It can be confusing when consumers experience product shortages in the stores while hearing about dairies having to dump milk or vegetable producers plowing under a crop that is ready to harvest, he said. During this time of uncertainty, we want to reassure folks, answer their questions and highlight the various ways they can access food, including locally grown foods.

Bartley, Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of marketing and local/regional food systems, and Brian Moyer, extension education program associate, will host the webinar. They will explain what is happening in the food supply chain, share tools and resources for how and where to buy food from Pennsylvania farmers, and discuss what local producers and markets are doing to operate safely during this pandemic.

There are many ways to access local foods, and local farmers are adapting quickly to the new realities of serving the public during a pandemic, Bartley said. Its important to highlight the states farmers markets, on-farm retail markets, community-supported agriculture and food businesses providing online sales and home delivery. Equally important are the emergency food relief options for families in need and how customers can use their federal food assistance benefits at these various outlets.

For more information or to register for the free webinar, visit https://extension.psu.edu/empty-shelves-at-the-store-food-system-disruptions-and-covid-19 or call 877-345-0691.

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Empty shelves at the store? Extension webinar to focus on where to find food - bedfordgazette.com

Several accidents at the power station reveal serious issues in maintenance, safety systems

In the past five years, two major accidents and a minor accident occurred at the Neyveli Lignite Thermal Power Station (NLTPS) a lignite-based thermal power station located near the lignite mines of Neyveli in Tamil Nadus Cuddalore district.

Another accident at the plant owned by Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC), an undertaking of the Union government revealed serious issues in maintenance and safety systems in the old units running at NLTPS, for which the senior management should be held responsible.

NLC has a history of management issues. There have been frequent strikes by workers over several issues over the years. These strikes may be one of the reasons for poor operational practices at NLTPS.

Continuous delays in the commissioning of new units forced NLTPS to run its old units, scheduled to retire between 2011-15. Efficient and safe operating life of thermal power plant is considered to be around 25 years. At NLTPS, however, a large number of units are 25-57 years old.

Unit 6, where the incident occurred, is more than 26 years old and is to be retired due to unavailability of space for pollution control technologies, according to the National Electricity Plan, 2018.

NLTPS has distinct phases, where new units are usually commissioned, with auxillary utilities (like coal handling, water treatment etc) being common for different units in each phase.Phase one consists of units 1-6 (50 x 6 megawatts or MW) and 7-9 (100 x 3 MW), commissioned during 1962-70. All these units were scheduled to be retired between 2011-15.

This plan, however, could not be executed due to a continuous delay in commissioning of the new capacity.

The present total capacity of the first stage is 500 MW (unit 7, with a capacity of 100 MW, was retired in 2019). The expansion of phase one included two units of 210 MW capacity each.

NLTPS phase two has units 1-7 (210 x 7 MW) commissioned during 1988-93. Stage two expansion has two units of 250 MW capacity, each commissioned in 2014-15.

Two new units of 500 MW each, that were scheduled to arrive in 2014-15, were continuously delayed. One of them was added in 2019 and the other is yet to come.

These two units were critical as retirement of the old plant was based on the commissioning of these units. The retirement of old units (40-50-years-old) was continuously delayed due to delay in the commissioning of new units.

Source: CSE

History of disorder

2011:It was planned for NLTPS phase one to be decommissioned between 2011 and 2014. In 2011, however, the period of operations was extended for five years and still has not been retired.

2013-17: Frequent strikes in NLC on dilution of stakes and wages issues, with the matter in court till February, 2020.

May 20, 2014: Blast at a pipeline of a boiler in NLTPS phase one unit seven (100 MW) killed two people and injured four others. An NLC probe committee blamed an engineer for the incident and said it was satisfied with the built-in safety protection available in the scheme. It was claimed that a life extension programme and periodical residual life assessment studies were conducted to ensure safe operation of the plant.

June 2019:One person was killed and two others seriously injured in an explosion of the safety valve at one of the units in NLTPS phase two.

May 5, 2020: Minor fire incident at the conveyor belt in NLTPS phase two.

May 7, 2020: The incident occurred in the NLTPS phase two, unit 6 boiler of NLC India's second thermal power station. The pressure build-up inside the boiler caused the blast. Eight people, who were working in the area, were injured and taken to NLC's hospital.

There may be many technical reasons including excessive accumulation of ash and improper fuel combustion for a blast in a boiler, caused by uneven heat transfer at certain locations, said Ashu Gupta, a former general manager at National Thermal Power Corporation Limited.

All these issues are handled by power plants in day-to-day operations andmaintenance, he said. This blast is clearly a result of a failure of built-in checks and safety systems that are in place in all the power plants, Gupta added.

Such incidents are the blatant failure of maintenance and operational safety interlocks and should not be linked to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, according to Amit Kumar Singh, a power sector consultant.

There might be various technical reasons for the blast, but the real reasons will be revealed after the investigation report comes out, according to several experts.

Over the years, Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has been pushing hard to expedite the retirement of old units.

The execution of government plans for the retirement of old plants are continuously delayed. These old plants require significant investment for operation and safety, with poor management at the plant level making these units prone to such serious incidents.

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All is not well at the Neyveli thermal power station in Cuddalore - Down To Earth Magazine

NEW DELHI :Irdai, the insurance regulatory body, on Sunday said it has decided to further extended the grace period for renewal of life insurance policies whose premium was due in March till May 31 in wake of the extension of lockdown to fight spread of coronavirus.

"On a review of the recent situation of lockdown resulting from global pandemic of Covid-19 across the country and representations received, it has been decided that, for all life insurance policies where the premium falls due in the month of March 2020, the grace period shall be allowed till 31st May 2020", Irdai said in a statement.

Earlier, on March 23 and April 4, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority had announced additional grace period of 30 days for policies where premium fell due in the months of March and April.

This was done to provide relief to life insurance policyholders in wake of the unprecedented lockdown situation as a result of coronavirus pandemic, the insurance had said.

Now as the lockdown has been further extended up to May 17, 2020, the insurance regulator has extended the grace period up to May 31 for all life insurance policies whose premium was due in March keeping in view the difficulty faced by some policyholders to renew the policies in time.

All policyholders are requested to note that the objective of grace period allowed is to pay all the premiums due within that period so as to keep the policy coverage in force, Irdai further said.

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Life insurance policy: Grace period for premium payment extended further - Livemint

Express News Service

Evenduring regular days, childbirth is a stressful time and you can imagine what it would have been when the lockdown extension was announced and my wife Chanchal Jains expected date of delivery was April 4.

Her gynecologist Dr Anitha of Anitha Nursing Home in Malakpet advised her to go for a Caesarian section on April 1 when all the speciality doctors were available and we did not want to take a risk. So we decided to follow her instructions.

Only Chanchals mom was allowed to stay with her. Except for the emergency ward, nothing in the hospital or around it was open. So providing meals, that too a vegetarian no-onion, no-garlic meal made fresh was getting difficult as we were not allowed to ply on the roads after 5 pm. Although I live in a joint family with many experienced and wise senior citizens, we could take anyone to the hospital to oversee the new mom and baby due to the lockdown rules.

Our elder son Yuvan Jain, who is three-and-half years old, had to wait until his younger sibling came home after a week. The 21st day rasm, a big ritual for Jains, had to be a Zoom meeting and virtual asheervad.

Being a large family, nobody could control the excitement of meeting the newborn and take him into their arms. This was a huge challenge for us in the current pandemic. I filmed my doctors advise (dos and donts) and broadcast it in our family WhatsApp group and made the elderly in the house heed to it. They say one must always see the silver lining.

As the founder and CEO of a wedding and event planning firm, May and June are the most hectic months with weddings lined up. But this time, I had all the time in the world to take care of my baby. I dont see any big events happening until October. So I am prepared to spend over six months at home, to see my little one grow, one day at a time. Thats not bad, right?

Vardhaman Jain, Founder & CEO- Shooting Starz Events

I Believein time, in muhurta balam and therefore, I never had second thoughts about going ahead with my sister Alladi Sharanyas wedding with Rajesh. They got engaged on March 13, a few days before the lockdown and though most of our folks expressed their apprehension about her wedding on April 6, the peak of Covid-19, my brother and I decided to go ahead.

We lost our parents and seeing our sister get married was important for us. Originally, we had booked Krishna Reddy Function Hall near Sriramana Theatre in Amberpet and had expected to invite over 1,000 guests. Eventually, we had to perform her wedding at a local temple at Ashok Nagar in Golnaka.

We chose the temple as it had big premises and our 18 guests we had including the bride and groom and the pandit would have space for social distancing. We believe in traditions and rituals. So although we knew things would not be extravagant and will have to be conducted without many of our loved ones, we did not want to compromise on the rituals.

We did inform the local police station and followed all the norms set down. As planned, the wedding commenced with a few select family members and friends at 8 am. A close friend who is a florist arranged a small pandiri for us at the entrance of the temple. We used sannayimelam from YouTube for the music. The lunch, a feast nevertheless, had all that you would expect at a Telugu wedding from pulihora to laddu to bakshyam.

Again, a friend who runs a catering unit and his mom prepared the feast and sent it across just around noon. Luckily, my sister had picked an extra saree for her engagement ceremony and she could use it for the wedding. Our neighbour runs a bangles and fancy store at Ramantapur. So we went there during the mandated hours to buy bangles, pearls and thermocol balls, the typical paraphernalia for a wedding, from his shop.

This friend connected us to a steel shop owner who provided us with traditional cauldrons such as taambaalam etc. While we are brainstorming about how to get a rokali for the pasupu kumkuma ceremony, we remembered that one of our family friends had recently got their daughter married and they had the set. So we went to their place and picked it up.

We have a provision store and we could pick up the navadhyanalu etc from our own storeroom. At 12 noon, we finished the rituals, photographs (removed masks for a few seconds for the click) and lunch. The u-shaped courtyard came in handy. We arranged for 10 chairs on each side of the U while the bride and groom sat in the middle.

Our budget was around Rs 6 lakh and we spent about Rs 60,000. While we feel sad that we could not invite our loved ones for the only girls wedding in the family, we are happy that we could give her a couple of lakhs that we saved on the wedding expenses. The caterers and the wedding hall manager told us they would refund our money in three months after their business picks up. We hope to direct that to our dear sister. It was a simple, yet sweet marriage. Nothing over the top. It was an intimate and memorable wedding. Its all about how we make the best of things we have.

Alladi Ravi, Executive Auditor, Chroma Electronics

My 64-year-old aunt, who was suffering from cancer, passed away on April 28 and as the only youngster in the family, I had to travel all the way to Adilabad, driving overnight from Hyderabad in my car for about eight hours while she was laid down in the ambulance.

I had to rush at short notice and did not even find lunch anywhere. I bought 10 packets of processed chips, a few soft drinks, a bottle of water and started off. There were about 10 checkpoints and it meant, downing the car windows, displaying the permission letter, and explaining the situation over and over again.

Finally, when I did make it to my destination, the usual problems such as waiting time to get space in an electric crematorium, having to find cash at the last moment as they wouldnt accept Google Pay etc. Finally, when we went back home, we had to wash the premises ourselves and a friendly neighbour arranged a hot, fresh meal.

Then I had to rush back to the city and head to work the next day. There was no time to mourn and nobody to share the grief except the immediate family. During such testing times, its not just life, but death too, looks weird. Ah well, things happens when they have to happen and life goes on.

Pariskhit Reddy, Owner of Ridhima Boutique

Just staying at home seemed like a big hassle for many of us when the lockdown was announced. Eventually, we all learnt to accommodate the new normal called social distancing and homeisolation in our lives. While we cribbed and complained, three citizens handled three important miles of their lives with grace and dignity. We bring you those heart-touching tales here

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Life, death and a wedding: Hyderabadis narrate stories of COVID-19 lockdown crisis - The New Indian Express

New Delhi: Eight workers of NLC India Ltd were injured and hospitalised in a boiler blast at NLC India Limiteds thermal power station (TPS) II in Neyveli in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.

The power stations of the integrated mining-cum-power generating company are located at Neyveli in Cuddalore.

Here is all you need to know about at NLC India Limiteds thermal power station (TPS) II in Neyveli, the company where the boiler blast occurred.

Neyveli Thermal Power Station-I

The first unit of the 600 MW Neyveli Thermal Power Station-I was synchronized in May 1962 and the last unit was synchronized in September 1970

The 600 MW Neyveli Thermal Power Station-I consists of six units of 50 MW each and three units of 100 MW each.

The Power generated from Thermal Power Station-I is supplied to TANGEDCO, Tamilnadu which is the sole beneficiary.

Due to the aging of the equipments / high pressure parts, the Life extension programme has been approved by the government in March 1992 and was successfully completed in March 1999 thus extending the life by 15 years, the company profile reads.

This power station is being operated after conducting Residual Life Assessment (RLA) study. Government has sanctioned a 2x500 MW Power Project (Neyveli New Thermal Power Plant NNTPS) in June 2011 as replacement for existing TPS-I, it adds.

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NLC India TPS II, all about the company where boiler blast occurred in Neyveli - Zee News

Abdul Rahman Ibrahim

Kairulnieza Waynie

Tuah Jili

Mohamad Salman

Bilong Siting

BINTULU:Most people have adapted to the new life under the Movement Control Order (MCO) since it took effect on March 18.

Therefore, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassins announcement about the extension of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) until June 9 yesterday was not really a surprise to them.

Abdul Rahman Ibrahim, 51, regarded the CMCO as one of the ways to guide the people on the new norms post Covid-19.

Under the CMCO, there is more flexibility with the reopening of economic activities in most sectors, enabling the people to generate incomes, he said.

He said those with fixed salaries might not be affected by the CMCO, but workers in the private sector especially in the services industry that depended on customers had been suffering because of the restriction in peoples movement and also lesser spending.

This has affected their incomes not all people received the assistance from the government; there are those who are not entitled for the aid, but in reality, they really need assistance during this trying time, said Abdul Rahman.

Kairulnieza Waynie, 47, was glad that the situation in the country had been improving and the spread of Covid-19 infection had been contained.

However, we are facing a difficult and challenging economy, even with economic stimulus packages being implemented in phases. The unemployment rate has increased up to four per cent and the social impact is very worrying, he said.

He viewed the extension of CMCO as a realistic move.

The people have to live with the new norms and the standard operating procedure (SOP) it may seem awkward at first, but people would get used to it gradually, said Kairulnieza.

For singer Tuah Jili, 50, Covid-19 and the MCO had affected his life in many aspects.

Financial-wise, now we dont get any payment for entertainment jobs as we used to have as side incomes, which have helped me a lot although I do have a fixed salary, he said.

He said full-time singers had been adversely affected, since most activities planned earlier had to be cancelled or postponed.

Hari Raya and Gawai Dayak this year will not be celebrated as usual; they will not be as joyful as they were before, lamented Tuah, who has been stranded in Kuching since March 15.

Mohamad Salman Mahli, 37, agreed with the extension of CMCO.

Now we have to live with new norms, and emphasis on our personal hygiene and social distancing we have to get used to all these changes. Take this fasting month, for example theres Ramadan bazaar and no tarawih (mass nightly prayer during Ramadan). There will be no Raya prayer, and even Raya visiting will be limited.

Hopefully, people would be able to adapt to these changes and in terms of our occupation, we have to adapt to new ways to stop the transmission of the coronavirus, said Salman.

Meanwhile, Bilong Siting felt that the CMCO had been affecting everyday life and religious obligations.

Big families in the longhouse cannot get together to celebrate Gawai; the church activities are restricted, he lamented.

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Most have adapted to new life under MCO - The Borneo Post

Wildlife of Florida: A Webinar Series: Join UF/IFAS Extension agents Shannon Carnevale and Lara Milligan for a series of webinars on Floridas diverse wildlife and ecosystems. This week, participants learn about the biology and behavior of bats. Registration required at bit.ly/wildlife-of-florida. Free. 2-3 p.m. Monday.

Tales Under the Trees: Readers from the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature take a book, and their children, outside for story time in the shade of trees. Each week features a different childrens book. Find it on the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature Facebook page. Free. 3 p.m. Saturday.

Florida Supernature: Join UF/IFAS Extension specialist James Stevenson for a series of webinars exploring the wonders of plants and animals in Florida. This week features Life of Lichen. Registration required at bit.ly/flsupernature. Free. 2-3 p.m. Wednesday.

Dead and Company: The group rebroadcasts video from a different concert every Saturday night during national social distancing. Watch it on the Dead and Company Facebook page. Free. 8 p.m. Saturday.

Florida Orchestra: We cant go to concert halls, so the Florida Orchestra comes to us in weekly radio shows. This week features Rachmaninoffs Piano Concerto No. 3. Tune in at WSMR-FM 89.1 and 103.9 FM radio or online at WSMR.org. Free. 7 p.m. Thursday.

Play It by Ear: Cirque du Soleil presents musical scores from numerous shows. Go to CirqueConnect at cirquedusoleil.com and play them on YouTube. Free. Anytime daily.

Arts In Music: Arts In is a new online video platform that makes arts and cultural experiences accessible from everywhere. Watch new music performances and moments from past music festivals weekly at creativepinellas.org/artsinmusic/. Free. Anytime daily.

Stonewall Programming: Scholar, educator and curator Jonathan David Katz will talk about works of art made in the 1980s and 90s during the height of the AIDS crisis and how they relate to the coronavirus pandemic. A question-and-answer session follows. Register at stonewall-museum.org under public programming for a Zoom code. Free. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Emerging Artist Exhibit Opening: Creative Pinellas curator Danny Olda hosts a virtual gallery opening of the Emerging Artist Exhibit live on the Creative Pinellas Facebook page. Artists include Patricia Kluwe Derderian, Lynn Foskett, Steph Hargrove, Mark Mitchell, Zoe Papas, Gianna Pergamo, Kodi Thompson, Judy Vienneau and Angela Warren. Free. 7-8 p.m. Thursday.

Dali Homeschool: The Dal Museum offers age-appropriate homeschool lesson plans and art projects for grades 3 through 6 and 6 through 12. To find them, go to lesson plans at thedali.org. Free. Anytime daily.

Typewriter Talks: Keep St. Pete Lit shares interviews with and readings of works by area authors. See them at Stories and Words on CreativePinellas.org. Free. Anytime daily.

FRIENDS Virtual Dance Party: Special needs families can burn some energy with a virtual dance party via Zoom. Disney attire is encouraged. Join at zoom.us/j/288231758. Free. 7-9 p.m. Saturday. (813) 245-2782.

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Virtual events for the week of May 11-17 - Tampa Bay Times

Glass box extensions get a bad rap, but here's how to pull one off with panache - this sophisticated South Dublin home has truly been opened out to the garden. We look back on the kitchen extension that featured in a 2016 issue ofImage Interiors & Living.

Looking at this South Dublin extension, we adore the additional glass box that houses a mini table and chairs. Architect Declan O'Donnell ofODKM, alongside MSVI Contractors, was tasked with bringing the client's brief to life.

"This is a semi-detached, Victorian house dating from the 1840s," begins Declan. "The owners wanted a single-storey extension and refurb to achieve a larger, brighter kitchen with informal and formal dining."

The site posed a bit of challenge for him to work around. "With a narrow plot built up on both sides, pulling in light from above was key."

Other significant hurdles included underpinning the rear three-storey return and dropping the floor level to link to the existing rear formal dining area in the centre of the house.

"We wanted to make a seamless connection to the rear garden, getting good vertical light into a tall north-facing rear garden property with large neighbouring properties either side." A conservationist at heart, Declan reused much of brick from the older structures in the new walls, complemented by glass, concrete and ceramic composite.

The floors are power-floated concrete, which is both cost-effective and hard-wearing in this busy kitchen. Thebespoke aluminium doors are powder-coated and the tops and gables were mitred for a seamless finish. The bespoke kitchen is by Dean Cooper.

As Declan explains, "we created a conversation between old and new by using salvaged materials in conjunction with the extension, and rationalised the flow and function of the ground-floor areas, cascading roof light from above."

Read more:An architect's advice on getting small spaces right

Read more:This terraced home in Irishtown is flooded with light, thanks to a central axis

Read more:This waterfront house with its own jetty in Baltimore, Co Cork is on the market for 1.5 million

Originally posted here:

This kitchen extension in Foxrock pulls out all the stops - image.ie

Ogden Newspapers

When it comes to responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has been one of the nations strictest, most vocal leaders. Thats why when he announced Wednesday that the state could potentially lift its stay-at-home order beginning next week, it marked a sign of optimism to those growing impatient for a return to normal.

It is thanks to all of you and your incredible sacrifices that we are making great progress, Hogan said. We are flattening the curve and we are preparing to launch our reopening plan.

Before the state does just that, however, Hogan announced that beginning on Thursday, Maryland would lift restrictions on a slew of outdoor activities including golfing, fishing, tennis, hunting and boating, among other things. The easement announcement was met with welcoming, open arms by some.

I kinda/sorta am excited, said Gail Mann, who works in the heart of downtown Frederick, Maryland, at Radcliffe Realty.

Having spent nearly two months practicing strict social distancing guidelines, she acknowledged that shell be taking baby steps toward getting back to life the way it was.

And shes not the only one. Residents in five states this week discussed how they feel not only about their states decisions related to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, but also what its been like to be cooped up inside their homes for weeks on end.

Pennsylvania

Gov. Tom Wolf plans to reopen the state through a three-phase system, which labels counties as red, yellow or green.

In the red phase, where case numbers and risk are still considered high, social distancing and business and school closures are being maintained. In the yellow phase, some of those restrictions have relaxed, with limits on large gatherings. The green phase, meanwhile, would lift the stay-at-home order and reopen most businesses, allowing the state to return to a new normal, according to the governors website.

Across Washington County, Pennsylvania, feelings about the state reopening have been mixed. While many want to get back to work, residents want to do so safely.

Bob Willard, of Washington County, said that as a casino worker, hes exposed to crowds in his work environment.

Were probably more worried about it than most, he said. But if people wear masks, I dont see why we couldnt open back up.

Kathy and Clyde Haught, of Washington, are glad that outdoor recreation has been encouraged during the pandemic, as the retired couple has been spending nice spring days in Washington Park. But when it comes to businesses opening back up, Kathy said she believes a lot of places just arent ready.

Clyde said hed like to see the number of new COVID-19 cases drop before the state reopens.

There are people who need to go back to work to feed their families, but we have to do it safely, Kathy said.

West Virginia

The Mountain State entered the second week of its West Virginia Strong: The Comeback plan, as small businesses with 10 or fewer employees, barbershops and hair salons, restaurants with outdoor dining and more allowed to reopen starting this past week. Gov. Jim Justices stay-at-home order transitioned to a safer-at-home directive, under which people are strongly encouraged to stay home except for essential activities, but they are no longer required to do so.

Parkersburg resident Steve Nichols said hes pleased with how Justice has handled the situation, gradually allowing businesses to reopen, with precautions remaining, based on the states COVID-19 numbers.

If it spikes, then theyve got to kind of recalibrate it, Nichols said.

Nichols said hes been shopping but is in no hurry to go back to restaurants.

Im probably going to wait a while to let them figure out the process, he said.

Since Justice announced the comeback plan in late April, Parkersburg Police Chief Joe Martin said hes noticed a definite increase in daytime traffic. When the statewide stay-at-home order was issued in March, daytime traffic decreased to evening levels, he said, while our evening traffic was more like nighttime traffic.

Vienna resident Cheyanne Moyers took her almost-2-year-old daughter, Everleigh, to Parkersburg City Park Thursday while her car was being worked on, the first such venture theyve made out in more than a month.

Its been very hard, sitting at home all day, not doing my normal life routines, said Moyers, a retail supervisor who has been furloughed from her job. I just wish that the world would open back up.

Moyers said this feels like a good time for the process to start.

If people use their common sense, then I think that everything would be all right, she said.

Ohio

Megan McDonald, a small business owner in Milan, Ohio, said she is ready for the state to move forward.

I feel like (progress is) very slow, she said. Im ready to just know where were going. It seems like theres a change every single day and its like whiplash. We hear one thing and we think were going this route and then we hear something else and its going a different route. With owning a business, its a lot of whiplash, a lot of back and forth in my opinion.

She said she and her family talk often about everything getting back to normal, but she is starting to realize that there will be a different normal.

I think that were entering a new normal one where masks are going to be required, she said. I think that moving forward, its going to be a long time before we can have our full capacity of people in here, or anywhere.

I think theres always going to be a limit for a really long time going forward, she then added, referring to capacity in restaurants and other businesses.

While keeping up with running her own business, McDonalds day to day life hasnt changed drastically, but even so, she has been trying to stay away from the news.

I just want to keep my head down and do what I can for the community, she said. I think that (politicians) all have a job to do, whether I agree with it or not. I think that theyre doing their job. If they tell me to wear a mask, Im going to wear a mask. It just is what it is. I just keep my head down.

Kansas

On the main street of Lawrence, Kansas, Thursday afternoon, Karina Critten walked down Massachusetts Street with a friend from out of town.

Im definitely ready for things to open back up, she said.

Shes concerned about the fate of the many locally owned restaurants and stores on Massachusetts Street, and said she hopes landlords will be merciful on rent.

Critten said she thought Douglas County, Kansas has done a good job of being cautious, but also noted that she expects the virus will eventually infect most of the population. She suggested that she would like to see hand sanitizer dispensers outside all businesses.

Despite Kansas beginning phase one of its reopening plan this past Monday, many businesses in Lawrence remained closed as of Friday.

Douglas Countys health department, meanwhile, took a more stringent stance on reopening. While the states stay-at-home order was lifted and dine-in restaurants were able to open back up with strict social distancing guidelines Douglas County ordered dine-in restaurants to remain closed through May 17.

Yen Tran, also on Massachusetts Street Thursday afternoon, said shes totally fine staying home. She wants the state to take a slower approach to opening back up, and feels like COVID-19 cases are still on the rise.

As of Thursday, the county had 56 positive cases, and a member of the local hospitals pandemic response team said the county was in the middle of a plateau of cases, which he anticipates could trail off next week.

Michigan

In Alpena, Mich., some residents support Gov. Gretchen Whitmers extension of the Stay Home, Stay Safe order, which she announced on Thursday, extending the restrictions until May 28, while others are tired of staying cooped up and think its time to lift the mandate.

Under Whitmers order, some sectors are now open, including construction and manufacturing, but the general public is urged to stay home unless they need to leave the house for grocery items or to go to work as an essential worker.

Lynn Edmonds said the stay-home order has done what it is supposed to do, which is control and limit the spread of the coronavirus.

I do think overall, things have been handled well, Edmonds said as she walked her dog on Thursday afternoon. I do think some people are naive, as far as risky behavior, but it doesnt really affect me because Im doing what Im supposed to be doing.

Still, she said she doesnt feel comfortable going to stores right now and she tries to avoid it if she can. The hardest part about the quarantine period has been not seeing family, she added. She has siblings in the healthcare field and her mother is over 60, so they have not been interacting in person to ensure everyones safety.

Her main concern is how to transition back into normalcy. Another fear for her is that the virus may come back in the colder months.

Theyre predicting three waves of it, Edmonds said. Weve got people relatively safe at this point in our county, but how long can we do that for?

Alysha Rogers watched her young daughter and cousins playing with sidewalk chalk as she talked about the stay-at-home restrictions on Thursday. She agreed that the restrictions have been working, but she thinks its time to open back up, and she was not pleased with the governor extending the order past Memorial Day.

Numbers arent really rising like they used to, and I work at the hospital, so its just now hitting here, but I feel like the majority of the numbers are at least confined, Rogers noted, referring to the nursing homes being hit hardest. Its not like everybody went to Walmart and now, random miscellaneous people are infected.

Rogers assumed Whitmer would extend the order, but she said she worries about the kids being stuck at home with nothing to do. She also worries about the toll that is taking on their mental health.

Im not surprised she extended the order, just because she just keeps extending it, Rogers said. I think Im just now getting used to it. But theres only so much that kids can do before they start to get bored.

Rogers, hanging out barefoot in the front yard, said now that the weather is improving, people are ready to get back into the activities they have been missing.

Its getting rough, and I think its really affecting a lot of peoples mental health, Rogers said, adding of the order, I mean, Im against it, but theres nothing that I can do about it.

Laura Smith said she understands the idea behind the orders but she doesnt think the restrictions are completely effective. One of the precautions she questions is wearing a mask. She said although people are wearing the cloth masks, they touch them with their hands all the time and go in and out of stores and public places, and so in her mind, people probably dont wash them enough for them to be effective.

Ogden staff writers Katie Anderson, Evan Bevins, LynAnne Vucovich, Lauren Fox and Darby Hinkley contributed to this report

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'I'm just ready to know where we're going' | News, Sports, Jobs - Marshall Independent

Futuristic Reports, The growth and development of Global Oral Probiotics Market Report 2020 by Players, Regions, Type, and Application, forecast to 2026 provides industry analysis and forecast from 2020-2026. Global Oral Probiotics Market analysis delivers important insights and provides a competitive and useful advantage to the pursuers. Oral Probiotics processes, economic growth is analyzed as well. The data chart is also backed up by using statistical tools.

Simultaneously, we classify different Oral Probiotics markets based on their definitions. Downstream consumers and upstream materials scrutiny are also carried out. Each segment includes an in-depth explanation of the factors that are useful to drive and restrain it.

Key Players Mentioned in the study are Oragenics, Life Extension, TheraBreath, Lallemand, Bluestone Pharma, Jarrow Formulas, Now Foods, BioGaia, ProBiora Health, Hyperbiotics, Bifodan

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On the basis on the applications, this report focuses on the status and Oral Probiotics outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, and growth rate for each application, including-

Child Adult

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Powder Chewable tablets Others

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NOTE: Our team is studying Covid-19 impact analysis on various industry verticals and Country Level impact for a better analysis of markets and industries. The 2020 latest edition of this report is entitled to provide additional commentary on latest scenario, economic slowdown and COVID-19 impact on overall industry. Further it will also provide qualitative information about when industry could come back on track and what possible measures industry players are taking to deal with current situation.

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You just drop an Email to:[emailprotected] us if you are looking for any Economical shift towards the New Normal on any Country or Industry Verticals.

Oral Probiotics Market Regional Analysis Includes:

Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia) Europe (Turkey, Germany, Russia UK, Italy, France, etc.) North America (the United States, Mexico, and Canada.) South America (Brazil etc.) The Middle East and Africa (GCC Countries and Egypt.)

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Gain perceptive study of this current Oral Probiotics sector and also possess a comprehension of the industry; Describe the Oral Probiotics advancements, key issues, and methods to moderate the advancement threats; Competitors In this chapter, leading players are studied with respect to their company profile, product portfolio, capacity, price, cost, and revenue. A separate chapter on Oral Probiotics market structure to gain insights on Leaders confrontational towards market [Merger and Acquisition / Recent Investment and Key Developments] Patent Analysis** Number of patents filed in recent years.

Table of Content:

Global Oral Probiotics Market Size, Status and Forecast 20261. Market Introduction and Market Overview2. Industry Chain Analysis3. Oral Probiotics Market, by Type4. Oral Probiotics Market, by Application5. Production, Value ($) by Regions6. Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2016-2020)7. Market Status and SWOT Analysis by Regions (Sales Point)8. Competitive Landscape9. Analysis and Forecast by Type and Application10. Channel Analysis11. New Project Feasibility Analysis12. Market Forecast 2020-202613. Conclusion

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Oral Probiotics Market 2020 Future Growth Prospects and Trends | Oragenics, Life Extension, TheraBreath and Others - Cole of Duty

More than a month ago, Gov.Tony Evers issued the emergency order directing citizens to stay at home and non-essential businesses and operations to close until April 24 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerns have only mounted since then, coming to a head recently when Evers extended the safer at home order until May 26.

Not long after announcing the extension and unveiling his Badger Bounce Back plan to get Wisconsin safely reopened, Evers, a Democrat, was met with backlash as Wisconsin Republicans expressed their own concerns, stating the order goes too far and has far-reaching economic and human impacts throughout the state.

I have heard from business owners and farmers in my district who are losing everything that they have worked for their entire life. They cannot endure this shutdown much longer, said Rep. Todd Novak, a Republican who represents Assembly District 51 in southwest Wisconsin. Im concerned about my businesses and farmers being able to survive.

Our hard-working constituents are ready to go back to work to support their families and communities. It is unfair to ask them to sacrifice these things for so long, said Rep. Treig Pronschinske, a Republican who represents Assembly District 92 in northwest Wisconsin.

With the Wisconsin Department of Health Services reporting that 60% of the states 72 counties have fewer than 10 cases, and 10% of those 72 counties have no reported cases, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald have now decided to challenge the governors action by asking the Wisconsin State Supreme Court to weigh in.

We continue to call on the governor to retreat from his one-size-fits-all approach and allow the state to safely open up regionally so people can get back to work, Republicans Vos and Fitzgerald said in a joint statement. Wisconsin is a diverse state; obviously, the Northwoods cant be treated like Dane and Milwaukee counties.

Farmers, who are no stranger to uncertainty, especially over the past several years, have expressed their frustrations with the stay-at-home order extension as well.

For Joe Bragger, president of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation and a dairy farmer in Buffalo County, most farmers understand the logic of herd immunity and the dangers of disease spread when something enters a herd that does not have a vaccine.

Taking proactive measures to keep livestock healthy and following biosecurity protocol on the farm is nothing new, he said. But at the same time, as a farmer, I am no stranger to the pain the agricultural community is feeling as a result of this pandemic.

Farmers are incredible people. Even while they face some of the most challenging times in recent memory, they are not afraid to step up and help people in need. Continue to support each other, because together is the only way we will get through this.

Bob Uphoff, a pork producer in south central Wisconsin, said theyve had zero sales of pork products since the first week of March because of the closure of restaurants. He had spoken to his distributors last week, and had hoped to have a possible production run on April 27.

Once the governor extended the closure of restaurants, we were back to no orders, he said. With the closure of major packing facilities in the Midwest, we are unable to get any hogs moved until sometime in May.

The Wisconsin Dairy Alliance, along with 18 other Wisconsin trade associations and 33 Wisconsin Chambers of Commerce, signed a letter to the governor in early April, urging him to begin the process of reopening the state on April 24, when the safer at home order was originally set to expire.

This was the last scenario dairy farmers anticipated, the Wisconsin Dairy Alliance said in a news release. Prompt action is critical to save this essential industry.

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Stay-at-home extension causes tension throughout the state - Leader-Telegram

Three score and ten is so 1970s. Today, the average baby born in the UK will live long enough to see the beginning of the 22nd century. Increasingly we also hear claims of longevity breakthroughs that could propel those children and maybe even their parents into triple digits and beyond. Is eternal life something we want outside of science fiction? And how will society cope if it is?

The first ten million years were the worst, said Marvin. The second ten million years, they were the worst, too. The third ten million years I didnt enjoy at all. After that I went into a bit of a decline.

So opines Marvin, Douglas Adams paranoid android, who follows the protagonists of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy around like a bumbling, grumbling storm cloud. Functionally immortal (and cursed with a brain the size of a planet), Marvin is the hubristic dream of eternal life printed and stamped in circuitry. While his human shipmates stumble from one disaster to another, devoting their limited talents to avoiding death at all costs, Marvin plods glumly along, bemoaning the pointlessness of an infinite existence in which there is nothing new to learn, no challenge to his intellect and in which everyone even his closest friend, a rat that nested for a time in his foot dies. Except him.

Marvin is archetypical of immortals. Our stories are not kind to them. The Ancient Greek gods were positively psychopathic in doling out eternal damnation as punishment for everything from stealing fire (the titan Prometheus, who was lashed to a rock and whose liver was pecked out by an eagle, every day, forever) to winning a sewing contest (Arachne, who with perhaps limited foresight challenged Athena to a weave-off and was transformed into a forever-spinning spider when she won). For centuries since, thats more or less been the lot of would-be immortals: vampires are stuck in castles, the future rich keep their youth (but lose their humanity), and seekers of life-giving plants, elixirs and artefacts end up eaten, cursed or crushed under collapsing temples. If ever you are invited on a quest to find the... well, anything of eternal life, the entirety of our literary canon says: dont go.

Yet at the same time life extension is, almost by definition, what we expect of medicine. Its feels odd to frame chemotherapy or cardiovascular treatments as life-extension technologies, but for cancer and heart disease patients thats exactly what they are. More generally, we expect some small increase in life expectancy for each new generation. Every ten years, the Office for National Statistics releases data on how long the populations of England and Wales are living, and for the last five decades, life expectancy at birth has risen by around two-to-three years per decade. And when that increase stalls (as it did in the late 2010s), scientists are rounded up for television interviews and grilled over what or who is toblame.

This is a paradox of human life extension: we expect our kids to live longer than we do, but not much longer. An extra half-decade sounds about right. An extra half-century does not. The latter would seem outrageous and unfair if it werent so fanciful. And yet, serious people are treating the postponement of ageing increasingly seriously. The UKs Nuffield Council on Bioethics, by way of example, published a paper titled The Search for a Treatment for Ageing in 2018, listing eight avenues of current life-extension research. In 2013, Google a company associated with many things, but not life extension funded Calico, a company which specialises in exactly that.

Various studies in mice and rats have shown what well-publicised studies in mouse and rat populations often do: that a thing (in this case, a potential anti-ageing treatment) has done something miraculous (slowed down ageing) for the mice and rats (who have since been dissected) from which we can extrapolate a comparable result for humans (who will live longer and healthier lives and not be dissected). Theres no one clear indicator that radical life extension is around the corner but this rise in funding, debate and vivisected mouse carcasses suggests that our everyday assumption that there is a right amount of life for people may be rooted more in experience than in rational thought.

I havent really, fully absorbed how deep-seated the irrationality is, says Dr Aubrey de Grey, biogerontologist and co-founder of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Research Foundation. De Grey has been both researching and campaigning for what he calls radical life extension for nearly two decades. His two most recognisable features are the long grey beard that reaches almost to his waist, and his utter impatience with what he has called The Global Trance: the cross-cultural acceptance that one day, in the not-so-far-future, all of us must necessarily stop existing. De Greys view that functional immortality may not only be possible, but that its disparate foundations have already been laid in laboratories around the world, is highly controversial.

Scathing appraisals of his proposals have been made by experts across the biological sciences, who argue that the technologies he presents as joint candidates for life extension are too early in their development to be useful for decades, if ever. But taking this macro view of deGreys ideas feels like missing the point. SENS is far from the only organisation with the goal of increasing lifespan and it is far from the largest. But deGrey is a powerful orator, cowing audiences into listening with the air of an otherwise jovial science teacher who cant quite believe how badly his class has done in their mock exam.

These days Im very strong on not only saying, Look, have a sense of proportion, boys and girls: [ageing] is by far the major cause of suffering in the world. Hands up anyone who wants to get Alzheimers? Hands up anyone who wants anyone else to get Alzheimers?, he says, contrasting his current presentational style with the impatient brusqueness of his 2005 Ted Talk. But now I also tend to spend a fair amount of my time being a little bit more sympathetic to this irrationality and acknowledging that it only became irrational very recently... 20 years ago, it made sense to trick oneself into putting ageing out of ones mind and getting on with ones miserably short life rather than being preoccupied with this terrible thing, because there was no real reason to believe that we had much chance of moving the needle of actually accelerating the arrival of therapies that really bring ageing under control. So it kind of made sense; I have some sympathy.

20 years ago, it made sense to trick oneself into putting ageing out of ones mind and getting on with ones miserably short life rather than being preoccupied with this terrible thing, because there was no real reason to believe that we had much chance of moving the needle.

De Grey and the other researchers at SENS lay out seven factors that contribute to ageing, including cell loss and tissue atrophy, cancers and mitochondrial mutations along with novel biotechnologies that may one day mitigate their deleterious effects. SENS is not alone in suggesting potential therapies to delay ageing other candidate treatments have included the diabetes drug Metformin, resveratrol (the chemical compound/viticultural PR mega-win found in red wine) and gruesomely the transfusion of the blood of young people into the elderly. Life extension, as an investment, is high-risk-enormous-reward hence the glut of proposed therapies.

De Grey stresses that any sudden and significant change in life expectancy will not be the result of one breakthrough, but of many treatments working in concert. Attacking ageing from multiple angles will lead to what he terms Longevity Escape Velocity the idea that if you can develop treatments for age-related disease more quickly than they can kill people, not only does lifespan increase exponentially, but frailty is similarly delayed. Lifespan is almost the wrong term for what life-extension proponents are seeking a better term, already in academic use, is healthspan. Living to 150 and feeling it would be nightmarish. Proposed therapies must offer something more akin to eternal youth than eternal life.

This is something that I have to spend an enormous proportion of my time on, says deGrey. Just driving [that distinction] over and over again into peoples heads that lifespan is a side-effect of healthspan. Youve got to stay healthy to stay alive, and health is the major contributor to quality of life.

This is the second challenge for advocates of life extension: because we havent evolved, literally or culturally, to view extended, healthy lives as anything but fiction, almost nobody outside of the insular debate is equipped to properly assess its risks and virtues. If you accept that a sudden jump in healthy life expectancy is coming whether thats 50 years or 500 the lack of public discourse is troubling.

Very few studies have been performed to properly assess the publics view of living dramatically longer, and those that have show little coherence among subjects. The University of Queensland performed two such studies face-to-face studies and focus groups with 57 Australians in 2009; another, larger telephone study of 605 people in 2011. In both cases, participants views ranged from being strongly in favour to strongly against, with reasons for the latter position including issues of distributive justice, overpopulation, the breakdown of the traditional family unit and religious concerns. They showed, essentially, that most people dont know what to think, but one thing that is broadly shared is a concern that radical life extension threatens a sense of fairness.

Part of our attitude to what we think of as premature death dying before your time, is that its a sort of unfairness, and that idea of unfairness absolutely permeates across society, says bioethicist Professor John Harris. Besides teaching, Harris has acted as ethical advisor to the European Parliament, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UK Department of Health; has published or edited more than 20 books, and written over 300 academic papers on subjects from cloning to human enhancement to the ethics of ageing both in how we treat the elderly now and why we should be supportive of life extension in the future.

There are limitless examples of the unfairness of some people getting what they want and others not getting what they want not just lifespan, but money, or sex, or whatever, Harris continues. But we cant eradicate that, because to eradicate that unfairness would mean always levelling down, rather than levelling up. We dont say wed better make sure nobody goes to university, because that would give them an unfair advantage looking for a job. The alternative to living with that unfairness of accepting that some people get what others would like but cant have is not just applicable to life extension: its applicable to almost everything that is valued.

The question of who would have access to life-extension therapies might be the biggest concern in the debate. The refugee crisis and the post-2008 focus on the widening gap between rich and poor in the UK often viewed through the lens of an overstretched NHS have raised disturbing questions about how human life is valued. The spread of Covid-19 has further highlighted how closely intertwined money and life expectancy have become, with millions of people around the world simply unable to afford to heed governments advice to self-isolate and miss work. Recent science-fiction has mined this inequality to great effect, perhaps most successfully in Netflixs Altered Carbon (based on the novels by Richard K Morgan), in which the super-rich have literally ascended to a place where they will never die, leaving the rest of humanity to exist in violence, criminality and squalor. The idea of billionaires escaping not only taxes but death as well is becoming an increasingly popular dystopia.

We dont know how this would play out, Harris continues. There are ways [we could distribute treatments]: some would be fair and some would be unfair, like not funding them through national health services. Those arent arguments against life extension per se, but they may be arguments about how certain societies choose to deal with the desirability of longer life. There would be many strategies open and hopefully in democratic societies they would be debated democratically.

That distinction between life extension and what creates inequality is important. As Harris explains, the availability of life-extending therapies tells us nothing about how they should be used.

We are very familiar with life extension, but mostly it has appeared in the guise of life-saving strategies, like vaccination, he says. The vaccinations for polio and smallpox have saved hundreds of millions of lives, or to put it another way, have enabled hundreds of millions of people to live who otherwise would have died. Vaccination is an exercise in life extension but nobody throws up their hands in horror about its huge effect on life expectancy.

De Greys first answer not just to the concern of fair distribution, but also to fears of seismic societal and institutional change that may follow major breakthroughs in healthy life extension is also political: in functioning democracies, we have term limits on governments, and in his view any government that did not make life extension for all a priority as it became feasible would collapse in popularity with voters. His second answer is that whatever possible negatives we can imagine, its difficult to imagine a dystopian setting so bad that death would be preferable.

Which is not to advocate complacency: part of deGreys frustration with the lack of public debate is precisely that he sees these advances in increased longevity as potential flashpoints that a revolution in healthcare poorly handled could devolve into an actual revolution. Its not just a matter of when [these therapies] are ready: its the lead-up to it, he explains. One thing that Ive been putting more and more energy into is getting policymakers to understand that the planning needs to happen now, before the therapies are ready... At some point, public opinion is going to undergo a very sudden sea change.

Handled competently, what could radical life extension offer, beyond the obvious benefits of extra time enjoying the people and things that we value? One possibility is that, in the same way that we tend to value life more the longer it has to go (people die tragically young nobody dies tragically old), adding decades of healthy living onto the national or global average might raise the value we place on life in general. De Grey sees evidence of this over the past century.

[The world] has become, both at the individual societal level and also at the global international level, a much, much less violent place, he says. And a huge part of why [thats happened] is that there is greater value given to life. If we look, for example, within the USA at the areas that have the greatest amount of violence, they are the areas that have the lowest life expectancy. But thats not because a lot of people are dying from violence: its because a lot of people are dying from poor nutrition, lack of access to medical treatment and so life is valued less.

As a species weve become increasingly familiar with the clash between our biology and the mutagenic effects of technology upon it, but we have survived through adaptation. We think in tribes but thrive in cities. We cross the world without losing our roots. We marry our Tinder matches. If the next technological shift in our stars is the collapse of the milestoned life birth, work, family, frailty, death it will be because we see more opportunities than costs. We arent Marvins: were good, as individuals and as a species, at finding new things to do when the world changes around us.

The great thing about longevity is that you wouldnt have to choose just one career, Harris reflects. If I had my time again, I would probably have liked to be a biologist. And then once I had my 70-odd years as a biologist I might want to do something else. Nobody wants to just go on doing the same old stuff, but if we have the time and ability we can change. Its one of my regrets now, at the age that I am, that while I do go on doing philosophy and writing about the things I like writing about, I would like to learn about new things and do other things.

There are people who say, Oh, youd just get bored if you had all that time. But I dont think I would. I would gladly sample a few million years and see how it goes.

Finance

Postponing ageing isnt just a natural extension of what our healthcare system does (which, at its core, is stop people from dying) theres also a strong economic argument to pursue life-extension research.

According to the most recent available figures from the Office for National Statistics, the UK spent 197.4bn on healthcare in 2017 just under 10 per cent of GDP. As life expectancy rises, so does the length of time the average person can expect to require care or live in poor health. The number of chronic conditions linked to ageing is rising (dementia, for example, currently affects an estimated 850,000 people in the UK, with that number expected to grow to one million by 2025).

The cost of fighting these age-related conditions is astronomical: according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the NHS spends more than twice as much on the average 65-year-old as on the average 30-year-old. Patients aged 85 and over require, on average, five times as much spending as 30-year-olds.

All of which sounds like a pretty good argument against life-extension if we struggle to treat the elderly now, it follows that dramatically extending life should be disastrous. But there are two problems with this line of reasoning. First, it ignores the fact that life-extension is something that happens albeit slowly already. A child born today is predicted to live, on average, a little over eighty years or about five years longer than a child born in 1980. An increase in age-related diseases is a crisis were living already.

The second problem is that the financial argument conflates age and health. No-one who advocates radical life-extension is suggesting the goal should be an extra 50 years in a nursing home. A treatment for ageing isnt the same as a cure for death: the proposal is to extend healthy life.

The humanitarian benefits of longer and healthier lives aside, extending life while reversing the current trend (in which longer life correlates with a longer period of physical and mental decline) would not only reduce the burden on the healthcare service, but also mean that fewer people would be forced into retirement due to poor health.

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How to live when nobody dies - E&T Magazine

Writer Mike Makowsky was a firsthand witness of sorts to the real-life events inspiring Bad Education, which debuted at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and now sees wide launch via HBO. He was a six-year-old student in Roslyn Public Schools when he first met Frank Tassone, and witnessed firsthand how revered and influential the superintendent was until he was busted in 2004 for embezzling millions from the district, engineering the largest school theft in American history. With Makwoskys close ties to the saga, and Hugh Jackman and Allison Janney cast as leads, will the movie be more than just another based-on-a-true-story story?

The Gist: Roslyn High School is fourth in the country in college-acceptance rates. Fourth! And its all due to Frank Tassone. He meticulously grooms himself in the morning, spritzing cologne on his neck and plucking stray nose hairs. He walks into his office, decorated with silver balloons shaped like 4s, a snow day magic wand and issues of Life Extension magazine. He says absolutely perfect things to a helicopter parent hyperventilating about her sons troubles in school. He inspires a young journalist from the school paper to write more than just a puff piece about the schools multimillion-dollar skywalk project. Hes thanked with a basket of candy from local real estate developers, who love him for making the district great and therefore inspiring skyrocketing property values.

At lunchtime, Frank sits in the football-stadium bleachers with assistant super/business manager Pam Gluckin (Allison Janney). He laments the health-food smoothie hes consuming. I would kill somebody for a carb right now, he says, and she feeds him a big honking bite of her pastrami-on-rye. He leads the local ladies book club, and attendees didnt even read the selection. Theyre in awe of him, in his crisp light-blue oxford with white collar and cuffs adorned with fancy cufflinks. He offers to help with the dishes, and the hostess leans in, but he leans away. The memory of his late wife is too fresh, he says.

He goes to Vegas for a conference, and dutifully attends snoozy lectures while his colleagues gamble. Afterward, he sits down for a drink and recognizes the bartender: Kyle Contreras (Rafael Casal), a former student from 15 years ago when he taught English. Frank remembers his name, because he remembers everybodys name, because he and Gluckin stay at work late so she can quiz him on everybodys name. He and Kyle have dinner, and then go back to Franks hotel room and make out and then the movie cuts away. Hey now.

So about that young journalist, Rachel (Geraldine Viswanathan). Shes no longer OK with writing a crappy puff piece, so she confidently plops down in Gluckins office and asks about project budgets and contractor bids. Gluckin is only slightly icy when she tosses Rachel the key to the firetrap basement records room, although if Rachel saw Gluckins seaside near-manse and Corvette convertible, she might have even more questions about how a public school administrators humble salary can indulge such extravagant tastes. I mean, Gluckins husband is a car salesman. Gluckins niece (Annaleigh Ashford) is the office secretary who helps Rachel make a zillion photocopies of school records with some big numbers on them, and it seems like only a matter of time before some of the people in charge around there are something that rhymes with glucked.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Remember how Philip Seymour Hoffman totally owned Owning Mahowny, playing a buttoned-up gambling addict who bilked big stacks of cash from the bank he worked for? You dont? (Does anybody whos not a movie critic remember?) Well, watch the damn thing, and youll see a character whos pretty much the opposite of Frank Tarrone in a similar stressful situation.

Performance Worth Watching: This is easily one of Jackmans best performances possibly THE best, especially in the first act, when hes sparklingly charming. And the second act, when he tries to keep all the squirming puppies in the box And in the third act, when he shows how a life of subterfuge sad on one hand, infuriating on the other can quickly crumble, and he makes a hard left into villainy.

Memorable Dialogue: Skywalk is big. Gets us to first!, Frank chirps.

Sex and Skin: None.

The filmmakers cleverly embed character bits in the movies little visual details. The way Frank is yanked off a beanbag chair while chatting with sixth-graders so he can be informed of Gluckins malfeasance, for example. Or, in a touch of shrewd symbolism, how he carefully applies concealer to his eye wrinkles. Or how Rachel spreads out the schools sketchy budget paperwork on the floor of her bedroom with a pile of period-specific Beanie Babies watching. This is a terrific movie, smart, character-driven, frequently funny and highly entertaining.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Bad Education bullseyes the sweet spot between realism and elevated drama, making it several cuts above the usual based-on-a-true-story fodder.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

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Stream It Or Skip It: 'Bad Education' on HBO, a Funny White-Collar-Crook Bio Featuring Hugh Jackman's Best Performance Yet - Decider

An F-16 combat jet at Spangdahlem Air Base achieved a landmark 10,000 flight hours on Thursday, nearly 27 years after it rolled off the production line and began flying for the 52nd Fighter Wing.

The aircraft Tail No. 343 is the first Block 50 Fighting Falcon in Europe and only the second F-16 in the U.S. Air Forces inventory to reach the historic milestone, something maintainers hailed as a testament to its durability and their dedicated labor.

An F-16 at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan hit the mark a year ago, but that jet was delivered a year earlier than Spangdahlems, maintainers said. It also took 26 years and 11 months to reach 10,000 hours two months longer than No. 343.

It takes a lot of work and a lot of diligence and a lot of very thorough inspections to keep (the aircraft) safe and ready to fly, said Senior Master Sgt. Andrew Yates of the 480th Aircraft Maintenance Unit at Spangdahlem.

The planes been flying since before about 75% of the people in this building were even born definitely before any of us even joined the military, he said.

Both are true for 1st Lt. Christina Nunley, 25, the assistant officer in charge for the 480th AMU.

This aircraft has been at Spangdahlem longer than I have been alive, she said. Obviously, there are struggles that come with having an older aircraft, but the history behind it is a huge motivating factor and its something that we take a lot of pride in.

Chief Master Sgt. Chris Yager, 45, is part of that history. His first assignment out of tech school in 1997 was at Spangdahlem, where he worked on the jet and saw it reach 2,000 flight hours.

Back then, there were those old crusty guys that were out there training me how to work on aircraft and sometimes I wondered why they were training me the way they were, said Yager, the 52nd Maintenance Group superintendent.

With Thursdays milestone, Yager said he sees the fruits of that labor.

Keeping No. 343 airworthy involved about 190,000 hours of work by ground crews, maintainers said. The F-16 on average requires 19 hours of maintenance for every hour of flying time a figure that includes thorough inspections, refueling and basic maintenance such as changing tires and oil.

The wings vice commander, Col. Jason Hokaj, took the jet up Thursday afternoon for less than an hour to reached the milestone. Base firefighters hosed down the aircraft as it taxied down the flightline after landing.

This is such an amazing event to be part of, Hokaj said in a statement. To think about the amount of hands and minds used to get here, to keep this machine flying, its a testament to the professionalism of the 52nd Maintenance Group.

The Lockheed Martin Block 50 F-16s that the 480th Fighter Squadron flies were initially designed to last 8,000 flight hours, Yates said. But a series of upgrades has kept many of them going past that mark, he said.

Yager likened the F-16 to the Air Forces Cold War-era B-52 bomber, which is still in service after more than 50 years.

It was only designed for so many hours but it keeps going and going, he said.

Lockheed Martins F-35A Lightning II is the planned replacement for the F-16 across the service, but due to delays in the program, the F-16s are expected to receive service-life extension upgrades to keep them airworthy until 2048 and beyond.

No. 343 was part of the 480ths deployment for Operation Inherent Resolve to Iraq and Syria in 2016, when the squadron broke a record for number of munitions dropped by an F-16 unit within a six-month period.

Its just been a good, durable aircraft, Yates said. Theres a lot of superstition in the maintenance community rubbing the bellies and certain things but really, the biggest reason is making sure all the required inspections for this aircraft are complied with.

svan.jennifer@stripes.comTwitter: @stripesktown

U.S. Air Force Col. Jason Hokaj, 52nd Fighter Wing vice commander, prepares for takeoff in aircraft 343, an F-16 Fighting Falcon, at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, April 23, 2020. Later that day, Hokaj's aircraft passed the 10,000 flight hours milestone.KYLE COPE/U.S. AIR FORCE

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F-16 at Spangdahlem first in Europe to hit 10000 flight hours - Stars and Stripes

27 April 2020

The effect on jobs globally as a result of COVID-19 has been uneven to say the least. While some industries and organisations are booming and hiring thousands, others are being hit hard. The nuclear industry employment situation could be best described as behaving like a nuclear power plant - continuing reliably without creating much attention while competently adapting to the needs of the current situation, writes Callum Thomas, CEO of Thomas Thor Associates.

One of the benefits of safety being at the heart of the culture in the nuclear industry is that consideration for the health and well-being of workers is already the primary objective. Nuclear sites - operating, under construction or in decommissioning - have long established emergency preparedness procedures and continue to run smoothly. The main change has been a rapid transition to home working for the workforce, for all those other than essential workers on operating sites and construction projects. This has presented the same challenges that other industries have faced around providing the necessary equipment, access and security for people to work effectively from home. Non-essential projects and workstreams have been slowed down or put on hold in order to minimise unnecessary social contact. Although the number of permanent lay-offs is limited in the short-term, there are a significant number of workers from operating and construction sites deemed non-essential that are not doing their usual jobs right now.

The nuclear industry has not been at the forefront of remote working practices up until now but has adapted quickly in recent weeks. Every day I am speaking with people across the industry worldwide who are pleasantly surprised about how effectively they can carry out their jobs remotely. The other major feedback theme is around efficiency. The evaluation of activities to ascertain whether they are essential and the review of working practices to ensure social distancing rules are met have led to significant efficiency gains. Construction sites are continuing to meet milestones with fewer workers on site, and the number of meetings we are all physically attending has been drastically curtailed (although we are rapidly replacing them with video calls!).

The result is that there have not been large-scale reductions in workforce across the nuclear industry, and there are few industries in a better position to adapt to the new social-distancing workplace environment that will become the norm as we come out of this crisis. While this current picture is one of adaption and steadiness, the view of the future is far more radical.

Choruses of governments are basing COVID-19 policy and action on the advice of leading scientists. Imagine if our global response to climate change was formed on the same basis. Scientists are already loudly warning about the consequences of not acting now to slow down climate change. Maybe the COVID-19 crisis will mark a turning point in how seriously the scientific evidence will define and prioritise policy and action. We have an opportunity to apply the value of hindsight gained from the COVID-19 crisis to the climate change crisis, which has potentially far greater consequences but is playing out at a speed that seems to prevent us from seeing it as an emergency.

There are four priorities that will be paramount for countries after the COVID-19 crisis - economic recovery, job creation, energy security and addressing climate change. Nuclear energy provides a solution to all four of these priorities.

Creating jobs to boost the economy and build essential national infrastructure in the form of nuclear power plants and used fuel solutions that support energy security and reduce carbon emissions would contribute perfectly to the solution. It will take a while for this action to filter down to large-scale job creation.

Energy policy changes and unlocking of funding sources for new nuclear plants and used fuel facilities in the short term will lead to some new jobs being created in the coming years for work related to modernisation and plant life extension, and then on a larger scale over the next 5-10 years as new nuclear facilities start to be built. These will be highly skilled jobs delivering long-term projects and supporting facilities with long lifetimes, creating a competent workforce that will bring down the cost of future construction of new nuclear.

Commitment to invest in nuclear from governments and developers will provide the signal for investment throughout the supply chain in construction and manufacturing capabilities as well as skills development. This will lead to more high-value jobs, although the supply chain will need to see really firm commitment to give them the confidence to invest.

An immediate action for the nuclear industry that will have long-term workforce benefits is to collectively work on the employer brand of the industry. Never has job security been so important in the eyes of workers. The nuclear industry is offering long-term career opportunities working with cutting edge technologies to create solutions to climate change and environmental remediation. It also has a primary focus on safety and well-being, an extraordinarily collaborative and supportive working environment and an increasing culture of flexible working. This is a narrative that has not yet made it to the mainstream, but it could with the right communication effort.

Creating a workforce that is representative of the communities in which the nuclear industry serves is a core objective and organisations such as Women in Nuclear and EqualEngineers are doing great work to support this. We are increasingly appreciating the benefits of diversity in our teams and organisations, not just in the form of characteristics such as gender, age and ethnicity, but also cognitive diversity and diversity of experience. What better way to provide a boost to diversity to the global nuclear workforce than to bring people from different industries?

Hand picking individuals who have been responsible for on-time and on-budget delivery of projects, or the safe and efficient operation of complex facilities, will be essential if we are to achieve the Harmony Goal of 25% electricity generated by nuclear by 2050 and develop effective used fuel solutions. We are also seeing the effects of the stagnation of the nuclear industry in many parts of the world in the 1990s, which has led to gaps in succession for senior leadership roles. These gaps can be filled by bringing people from outside the sector.

The short-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis have not led to significant permanent job losses and have stimulated some positive responses from the nuclear industry, such as an accelerated transition to remote and flexible working and efficiency improvements at sites kept running by essential workers. The longer-term effects could well be radical. Governments could work out that Economic recovery + Job creation + Energy security + Climate change action = Investment in nuclear power plants and used fuel facilities. If the nuclear industry can effectively engage with stakeholders in the clean energy future to communicate the career opportunities available, then the workforce will grow and diversify while solving some of the world's biggest challenges.

Callum Thomas

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Viewpoint: The impact of COVID-19 on nuclear jobs : Perspectives - World Nuclear News

US President Donald Trump with his first Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, in 2017. Mattis oversaw the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. Photo credit: US Defense Department via Flickr.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of nuclear policy in determining a US presidential candidates fitness to be commander-in-chief. Such priorities are evident in the Bulletins recently published special issue dedicated to discussing nuclear weapons policy ahead of the 2020 election. Nuclear issues played a prominent role in the 2016 election, but despite some anomalies, they have hardly factored into the 2020 campaign. This is almost certain to change even as priority is given to the COVID-19 pandemic response. Nevertheless, very few recent polls (with one notable exception) have attempted to identify preferences among the US population for President Donald Trumps nuclear policies.

To fill this gap, we worked with the firm YouGov in late 2018 after the release of the Trump administrations Nuclear Posture Review to conduct a nationally representative survey of 1,000 Americans. Previous surveys have illuminated US public attitudes on nuclear energy, extending the New START treaty, and even hypothetical nuclear retaliatory scenarios. It isnt clear, however, how Americans view the core elements of the Trump administrations nuclear policy: its Nuclear Posture Review and its overall strategies toward Iran and North Korea. We report our study results publicly for the first time here, offering insights for policymakers and presidential candidates as they weigh their positions on nuclear issues.

Nuclear Posture Review. The study highlights how the US public as a whole and various demographic groups view Trumps positions on nuclear weapons. To begin, we asked respondents to indicate whether they supported, opposed, or were unsure about key parts of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review.

Of course, many elements of the Trump administrations nuclear posture are continuations of longstanding US policy that have been preserved by Republican and Democratic presidents alike. Our survey questions did not indicate the current US administrations policy on different parts of the Nuclear Posture Review. So the results convey the respondents natural preferences for the policies themselves, not for the current occupant of the White House. Such data should prove useful to politicians staking out campaign stances on nuclear weapons that would have broad public appeal.

Our findings reveal that Americans overall express fairly low support for the administrations nuclear weapons policies, though indecision also runs high among the public. Further, the table of group preferences indicateswith a few surprising exceptionsthat males, Republicans, and older Americans are the most likely groups to back President Trump on nuclear issues. Even so, support is relatively modest among Trumps base, and several elements of the Nuclear Posture Review do not receive majority or even plurality support from Republicans.

Figure 1. Public Opinion on the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review

Figure 2. Group Support Levels for 2018 Nuclear Posture Review

Deterrence and nuclear retaliation. The Nuclear Posture Review continues the policy of extending a nuclear umbrella to over thirty allies and partners with approximately 1,750 deployed US warheads. Around 150 of these weapons are B61 tactical nuclear gravity bombs deployed in Europe. These policies of extended deterrence continue, despite Trump questioning the logic of the nuclear umbrella on many occasions. Similarly, our results indicate a skeptical public.

Only 34 percent of Americans support the longstanding policy of providing the nuclear umbrella in principle, and that number drops to 27.9 percent for nuclear deployments in Europe. It is no wonder that some experts have speculated that countries like Germany, Japan, and South Korea may soon consider building the bomb. Yet, even with Trumps rhetoric against these assurances, men and Republicans remain the most supportive of the nuclear umbrella and forward-deployed B61 nuclear bombs. Women, Democrats, and Independents respond less favorably. Additionally, Americans who came of age during the Cold War are more favorable toward these policies than their Millennial and Generation Z counterparts.

We also estimate that fewer than 20 percent of Americans support possible US first use of nuclear weapons. By contrast, disapproval stands at 63.5 percent. Somewhat unpredictably, we found that only 13.2 percent of Republicans approve of the US using nuclear weapons first, compared to 22.2 percent of Democrats and 22.7 percent of Independents. And despite being the age bracket most supportive of extended deterrence, respondents age 55 and older are least likely to back a first-use declaratory policy. The public is also broadly unsupportive of using nuclear weapons in response to cyberattacks. Greater Republican supportrepresenting a minority of Republicans nonethelessfor this policy than for nuclear first use more generally is slightly puzzling given its inconsistency.

Still, our counterintuitive findings regarding Republicans and Americans age 55 and older raise an interesting question: Why might groups that tend to support extended deterrence strongly oppose first use of nuclear weapons? We speculate that two factors may account for this puzzle, although further investigation is warranted to definitively answer the question. First, older voters are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats, so these results may be related. Research shows that Americans who were alive during the peaks of the USSoviet arms race are less likely to support nuclear use than younger generations. Second, it is possible that many individuals who have faith in the credibility and mechanics of deterrence simply find a first-strike declaratory policy unnecessary.

Regardless, a majority of every demographic group of Americanswhether by gender, political party, age, race, education, income, or region of residenceoppose a first-use doctrine. Public opinion may accordingly present opportunities for presidential candidates to favor a policy of no first use of nuclear weapons.

Modernization, development, and testing. On the whole, the public doesnt support the Nuclear Posture Reviews continuation of Obama administration efforts to modernize the nuclear stockpile and complex. The Congressional Budget Office notes this 30-year plan will cost $1.2 trillion by 2046. This may amount to $1.7 trillion after adjusting for inflation, or up to 6 percent of defense spending. Public opposition stands at 47.8 percent, with 31.3 percent approving and 20.9 percent undecided. But there are clear divisions along partisan and age lines. A slim majority of Republicans endorse the modernization strategy while a stronger majority of Democrats object. Since just 17.6 percent of Americans ages 1834 approve of such spending on nuclear weapons, it remains to be seen whether the modernization plan remains politically viable in coming decades.

However, even if the public is lukewarm about nuclear spending in principle, it is unclear to what extent voters understand the modernization program. Its projects include wide-ranging warhead and missile life extension programs, command and control upgrades, and new production sites like the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The program also calls for the development of several new strategic systems such as the B-21 Raider strategic bomber, the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine, the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent intercontinental ballistic missile, and the Long-Range Stand-Off air-launched cruise missile.

We surveyed Americans about two specific efforts that have received considerable media coverage: the now-deployed W76-2 low-yield warhead for submarine-launched ballistic missiles and the proposed new submarine-launched nuclear cruise missile. If negative attitudes toward modernization were informed by components of the program, we would expect the public to oppose both efforts. Instead, a plurality of the public favors eachwith stark gender, age, and political party divisions. A majority of men, a plurality of older Americans, and nearly two-thirds of Republicans approve. Women, young people, and Democrats are far less enthusiastic. Regardless, greater support for these systems versus modernization in general suggests the public may be relatively persuadable about other efforts to strengthen the US deterrent.

Last, we asked participants about the Nuclear Posture Review statement that the United States will not seek ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. A 2012 National Academy of Sciences study effectively addressed concerns about potential treaty verification and about the efficacy of the Stockpile Stewardship Program for maintaining a safe, secure, and reliable arsenal without nuclear explosive tests. And the administrations policy diverges from more than six decades of public opinion polling, including our own previous work showing 65 percent of Americans want ratification. Our findings were even stronger this time, indicating that only 10.1 percent of Americans agree with the Trump administrations policy of not seeking treaty ratification. On the other hand, 74.8 percent prefer US ratification and 15.1 percent remain undecided. Stunningly, a mere 11.4 percent of Republicans, 12.5 percent of Independents, and 7.5 percent of Democrats agree with President Trump on the issue. The door of public opinion appears to be wide open for presidential candidates to pledge their support for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

Iran and North Korea. Aside from the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, few foreign policy issues throughout Trumps term have commanded public attention like his nuclear diplomacy with Iran and North Korea. The presidents approaches toward these countries could hardly differ more. It is imperative for candidates to understand how the public views these divergent paths. Although there have been new developments in American relations with Iran and North Korea, the overall trajectory of US policy hasnt changed since we conducted our survey. The results therefore provide a useful snapshot of public views.

The Trump administration has overseen a dramatic worsening of USIran relations. Trump withdrew US participation from the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018. He has since waged a campaign of maximum pressure consisting of harsh sanctions and military threats. These actions led to mutual escalations including the killing in January 2020 of Iranian Quds Force commander General Qasem Soleimani by a US MQ-9 Reaper drone and retaliatory ballistic missile strikes against US air bases in Iraq. Both sides have since deescalated, and polling indicates the US public has no interest in war with Iran. Unfortunately, diplomacy still appears exceptionally unlikely in the future due to continuing high tensions.

The survey asked about support or opposition for Trumps position of withdrawing from the deal and reimposing sanctions on Iran. Opinion is predictably divided, with 54.1 percent favoring the withdrawal and 45.9 percent dissenting. Unsurprisingly, partisanship appears to be the primary driver of individual support for the agreement. A strong majority of Republicans (88.6 percent) favor remaining outside the deal with just 11.4 percent in opposition. On the other side of the aisle, only 23.4 percent of Democrats approve of President Trumps Iran policy and 76.6 percent would prefer to see the United States return to the deal. Among Independents, 53.5 percent back the withdrawal and 46.5 percent do not. While many of the survey results point to surprising public consensus on nuclear issues, approaches to Iran remain divisive.

USNorth Korea tensions have also been concerningly high at several points during the Trump administration. North Korea accelerated its nuclear and ballistic missile testing, and its Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and President Trump even famously exchanged nuclear threats, with the president issuing some via Twitter. However, Kim announced a unilateral moratorium on tests in April 2018, and the two subsequently held face-to-face nuclear negotiations in Singapore and Hanoi, Vietnam. But following the failure to quickly achieve a deal, at the beginning of 2020, Kim declared that North Korea was no longer bound by the testing moratorium. As of March 30, North Koreas Foreign Ministry stated that the country was no longer interested in dialogue with the United States. Denuclearization now seems as far away as ever.

We asked respondents to rate their satisfaction with the results Trump achieved at the Singapore Summit. This is an important matter because the administration has touted Singapore as an overwhelming success in North Koreas journey toward denuclearization. The public is somewhat evenly divided: 30.1 percent are satisfied, 33.1 percent are dissatisfied, and 36.8 percent are undecided. Predictably, support for Trumps diplomacy split along political party lines. Yet, average public attitudes toward ongoing diplomacy more closely approximate indecision than political polarization. Perhaps the public has come to the same conclusion that most policymakers seem to have reached. When dealing with North Korea, there are few ideal options, but none less so than war against a country with demonstrated nuclear weapons capabilities.

Toward the election. Voters need to understand candidates nuclear policy positions before heading to the polls. But public preferences must also be part of the equation. While the vast majority of Americans are simply not nuclear policy or technology experts, nuclear issues nonetheless evoke strong emotions. Our study demonstrates that, while indecision is widespread, the public has several clear preferences on topics related to nuclear weapons. Politicians would be wise to consider their broad contours when formulating campaign platforms.

What are the US publics preferences on nuclear weapons? In the age of America First, the public appears increasingly skeptical of taking on risks even on behalf of Washingtons closest allies. It may be time for leaders to articulate why alliances and the nuclear umbrella are important, or to begin reassessing policies like forward-deployed tactical nuclear weapons. The public also opposes the first use of nuclear weapons, even in response to a cyberattack. These findings suggest a need to revisit declaratory policy and the possibility of making a no-first-use pledge. Likewise, Americans emphatically support ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and slamming the door on US nuclear explosive tests. Overall, the public dislikes spending significant taxpayer dollars on nuclear weapons but appreciates the value of specific systems. And while nuclear diplomacy with Iran remains in bitter partisan gridlock, many Americans appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to Trumps talks with North Korea.

Whether presidential candidates heed Americans attitudes is up to them and their advisors. However, our study suggests that the US public would be receptive to politicians staking clear positions, even if they involve bold changes to longstanding nuclear doctrine. And if politicians and political parties dislike these public attitudes, then they ought to be held accountable to justify their alternatives.

Data and results from the study are available from the authors upon request.

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Poll: What the American public likes and hates about Trumps nuclear policies - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists