Category Archives: Progress

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer is a defensive guru and a man who has built a reputation by being one of the leagues best coaches at shutting down opposing offenses.

But after Minnesotas offensive line struggled with injuries and execution in 2016, Zimmer has had more of a hand in helping the line get ready for the upcoming season.

Part of it is, I want them to know Ive got their back, Zimmer said. Im going to sit in there with them. Im listening to them and communicating with them. Im trying to tell them things, defensively.

I talk to Sam [Bradford] all the time about things that I think defensively and how other people might think. While Im sitting in there they might ask me, With this rotation, wheres the blitz coming from? Or, Hows the linebacker going to react to this kind of play and things like this. Ill tell them the things that I see thats really tough on a defensive end or whatever, Zimmer said. I think its been good and its not that Im overlooking any of those guys. I want them to know that theyre my guys.

The Vikings used eight different starting offensive line combinations in 2016, and started five different left tackles. Minnesota ranked last in the NFL with 1,205 rushing yards and was last with an average of 3.2 yards per carry.

The Vikings and General Manager Rick Spielman beefed up the line this offseason, adding a pair of tackles in Riley Reiff and Mike Remmers. Both are expected to start this season.

Minnesota also added center/guard Pat Elflein and guard Danny Isidora in the draft, bringing young talent to the position group.

Veteran Joe Berger, who started 2016 at center and finished at right guard, worked at right guard with the first team during Organized Team Activity and minicamp practices beside center Nick Easton.

Add it all up, and left guard Alex Boone could be the only lineman who resumes the same starting spot he had at the start of the 2016 season.

With Reiff and Remmers on the outside, the interior of the line could see Boone at left guard, Easton at center and Berger at right guard.

Zimmer noted that Easton and Elflein will fight for playing time during training camp.

Theyre both doing good, Zimmer said. Again, its going to come down into training camp and things like that. We may look at some other scenarios as well.

With Vikings offensive line coach Tony Sparano back for his second season in Minnesota, players said they can sense a revamped attitude within the unit.

Ive got great teammates, great guys in the room, Reiff said earlier this spring. Were in the beginning steps right now. Were working. Its all we can do. Im not going to say much, but were out there working together, building camaraderie.

Added Remmers: Just from what Ive heard from the guys who have been here, going into this season has been a completely different change of pace and a different mindset. From what Ive seen, everyone works so hard here. Were going to do everything we possibly can to have the most success on the field.

At the end of spring practices, Zimmer noted the real test will come in pads whether thats at training camp or in the preseason.

But in the few weeks that Zimmer has spent with his new-look offensive line, he likes what he observed.

They seem pretty focused, Zimmer said. Theyre not a big joke-around room, they have their little fun here and there. I think they just want to get it right.

Like Reiff said to me, Ive made money in this game, I just want to win a Super Bowl. Thats kind of his mentality, Zimmer added. I think its good for the football team.

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Zimmer Evaluates Progress of Revamped O-Line - Minnesota Vikings - Vikings.com

On June 20, CMS published a much-anticipated proposed rule that, according to a CMS press release,(www.cms.gov) aims to simplify the Quality Payment Program (QPP) in 2018.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act requires that the program be updated annually.

The proposed rule, available now for public inspection(s3.amazonaws.com) and scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on June 30, devotes special attention to the hurdles faced by physicians in small, independent and rural practices who want to participate in the program.

At the same time, it addresses other CMS primary responsibilities: ensuring fiscal sustainability of the Medicare program and maintaining a high level of quality care for Medicare beneficiaries.

"We've heard the concerns that too many quality programs, technology requirements and measures get between the doctor and the patient," said CMS Administrator Seema Verma, M.P.H., in the release. "That's why we're taking a hard look at reducing burdens."

The proposal seeks to ease the onerous administrative tasks that bog physicians down and keep them from their clinical responsibilities, she noted.

"We aim to improve Medicare by helping doctors and clinicians concentrate on caring for their patients rather than filling out paperwork," said Verma.

"CMS will continue to listen and take actionable steps towards alleviating burdens and improving health outcomes for all Americans that we serve."

In response to the proposal's release, the AAFP published a statement, attributed to AAFP President John Meigs, M.D., of Centreville, Ala., expressing overall support.

"The proposed regulation will improve the ability of family physicians to participate successfully in payment reforms envisioned by the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act," said Meigs in the statement.

He noted that in addition to CMS' apparent effort to tame the administrative duties that plague physicians, an initial -- albeit brief -- review of the proposal revealed progress on other fronts.

For example, Meigs said the AAFP was pleased to see that the agency had incorporated some of the Academy's suggestions regarding medical homes, including a gradual rollout of the financial risk borne by these entities, as well as steps taken to reduce risk "for practices of all sizes" that are participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.

The AAFP also praised CMS for addressing virtual groups.

"This is a solid step forward in leveling the playing field for small practices who -- without a mechanism by which they can join other practices for reporting purposes -- would be subject to a negative payment adjustment," said the statement.

As always, a dedicated team of AAFP staff members will now dive into the details of the proposal and conduct a thorough analysis before the Academy responds to CMS within the 60-day commenting period allowed.

Related AAFP News Coverage MACRA: The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act

More From AAFP MACRA Ready: The Shift to Value-Based Payment

Additional Resource CMS fact sheet(www.cms.gov)

Read more:

First Look at Proposed Rule Shows Progress in Easing Burdens - AAFP News

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., right, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Calif. walk to a security briefing for lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 14, 2017, after a gunman opened fire wounding House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise of La., and others during a Congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Va. J. Scott ApplewhiteAP

One week after Steve Scalise was shot during a congressional baseball practice, the congressman has continued to improve, with his condition upgraded from serious to fair.

"Congressman Steve Scalise continues to make good progress. He is now listed in fair condition and is beginning an extended period of healing and rehabilitation," Medstar Washington Hospital, where Scalise is being treated, said in a statement Wednesday.

On June 17, the last time the hospital provided an update, the hospital said his condition was "serious," and that he had undergone another surgery but was continuing to improve. Before that, he had been in critical condition since he was brought to the hospital in shock after the shooting.

Scalise was shot Wednesday June 14, after a gunman opened fire at a GOP congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia. He was shot in the left hip, and t he bullet injured his internal organs.

"Hes in some trouble," President Donald Trump said last Thursday, "but hes a great fighter, and hes going to be OK, we hope."

The FBI said Wednesday they believe shooter James Hodgkinson , 66, of Illinois, who was killed in gunfire exchange with law enforcement, acted alone when he opened fire on the baseball practice.

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Steve Scalise Making 'Good Progress' After Shooting, Hospital Says - TIME

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) A dozen applicants that applied to grow and process medical marijuana in Pennsylvania have been approved by Pennsylvanias Department of Health.

The major step in developing a medical marijuana program in Pennsylvania will be followed by an announcement next week about the first round of dispensary permits.

We live in a world of seizures, and epilepsy, and medications that dont always work, Cara Salemme said at the Capitol on Tuesday.

Salemmes son has epilepsy. She says they have been fighting the disease and for medical marijuana for five years.

We know hes a complicated case and were going to need more access to comprehensive medication, Salemme said.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health announced the 12 permits to businesses looking to grow medical marijuana.

These are the creme of the crop, the folks who won. The people who have every T crossed, and every I dotted, Sen. Daylin Leach said.

Leach sponsored the medical marijuana bill, which was signed into law last year.

In the south central region, growers in Fulton and Franklin County were awarded permits. Ilera Healthcare in Waterfall and Grassroots Cannabis in Chambersburg.

This is what we want for the state of Pennsylvania. We want a smooth transition to this industry, and we want the best people involved in getting this off the ground, Leach said.

The Department of Health will spend the next six months helping the growers become operational. Growers can not grow until the department tells them they are operational. The department also requires the growers to grow medical marijuana in an indoor, enclosed, secure facility.

Im going to stand at the counter and let an employee know that Im there to pick up medicine for my son, finally, Salemme said.

Leach began his fight for medical marijuana following years ago. Following Tuesdays progress update, he said, in the end it is still all about the patients.

Theyre going to leave their homes today and theyre going to start to build a grow facility, and were going to start getting medicine to patients, Leach said.

The Department of Health predicts patients will have access to medical marijuana in 2018.

Medical marijuana is not supported by all Pennsylvania lawmakers. Rep. Matt Baker is chairman of the health committee. He released the following statement to ABC 27 news:

A past evaluation by several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), concluded that no sound scientific studies supported medical use of marijuana for treatment in the United States, and no animal or human data supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general medical use.

Marijuana should not bypass the US process for drug approvals for medical use. All medications, particularly those containing controlled substances, should become available only after having satisfied the rigorous criteria of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval process. That process has been carefully constructed over the past century to protect patient health and safety. There are compelling reasons to hold medical marijuana to the same standard that has served our nation well for the past century. The state laws that approved marijuana as a medicine did so through a political process rather than through a scientific process. This is unwise not only for medical marijuana users but it sets a dangerous precedent for other medicines seeking to bypass the standard of proven safety and efficacy.

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Originally posted here:

Lawmakers react to updated medical marijuana program progress - ABC27

The field of machine learning and artificial intelligence is making rapid progress. Many people are starting to ask what a world with intelligent computers will look like. But what is the ratio of hype to real progress? What kinds of problems have been well solved by current machine learning techniques, which ones are close to being solved, and which ones remain exceptionally hard?

There isnt currently a good single place to find the state of the art on well-specified machine learning metrics, let alone the many problems in artificial intelligence that are still so hard that there are no good datasets and benchmarks to keep track of them yet. So we are trying to make one. Today, were launching the EFF AI Progress Measurement experiment, and encouraging machine learning researchers to give us feedback and contribute to the effort.

We have drawn data from a number of sources: blog posts that report on snapshots of progress; websites that try to collate data on specific subfields of machine learning; and review articles. Where those sources didnt have coverage, weve gone to the research literature itself and gathered data.

Weve placed this information in an Jupyter / IPython Notebook, which you can read at https://eff.org/ai/metrics. The Notebook is hosted on Github, where the community can directly contribute.

What we have thus far is an experiment, and wed like to know: Is this information useful to the machine learning community? What important problems, datasets, and results are we missing?

EFFs interest in AI progress is primarily from a policy perspective. We want to know what types of AI we need to start engaging with on legal, political, and technical safety fronts. Beyond that, were also just excited to see how many things computers are learning to do over time.

Given that machine learning tools and AI techniques are increasingly part of our everyday lives, it is critical that journalists, policy makers, and technology users understand the state of the field. When improperly designed or deployed, machine learning methods can violate privacy, threaten safety, and perpetuate inequality and injustice. Stakeholders must be able to anticipate such risks and policy questions before they arise, rather than playing catch-up with the technology. To this end, its part of the responsibility of researchers, engineers, and developers in the field to help make information about their life-changing research widely available and understandable. We hope youll join us.

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Help EFF Track the Progress of AI and Machine Learning - EFF

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December 18, 2014

After an early run-up of summertime heat in the Corn Belt last week, grain traders are watching the latest crop progress report from the USDA to see if the condition ratings felt the effects.

In Mondays report, 67 percent of corn was rated good to excellent. The combined total is unchanged from last week, but there was a two-point shift into the excellent category. Minnesota saw a three-point gain with 81 percent rated good to excellent. However, Indiana continues to struggle with 45 percent in good to excellent condition.

In soybeans, 67 percent was rated good to excellent, a one-point improvement from the week prior. 89 percent has emerged, which is five points ahead of average.

Winter wheat harvest saw decent gains overall from last week. 28 percent is now in the bin, up 11 points from last week. Texas harvesters saw minimal gains, up two points, but the harvest is well ahead of average with 74 percent of the crop completed.

Spring wheat continues to struggle over much of the northern tier states. 41 percent is good to excellent; however, Minnesota is the exception with 89 percent rated good to excellent.

Original post:

Crop Progress Report Shows Indiana's Corn Struggles - AgWeb

BBC News

UN warns 'no progress' on 260 million missing school places BBC News Global pledges to provide education for all young people show little chance of being achieved, according to annual figures from the United Nations. There are 264 million young people without access to school, with few signs of progress, says Unesco. and more »

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UN warns 'no progress' on 260 million missing school places - BBC News

Executive Summary

The experience gained during 15 years of pursuing the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has been vast and invaluable for the Governing Bodies of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). From a regional perspective, this document presents a summary of the achievements toward the health-related MDGs and the remaining challenges to be considered by the post-2015 agenda. Its intent is to supplement the evaluations that will be conducted by Member States at the national, subnational, and municipal levels.

Given this regional perspective; the political and socio-economic structural determinants such as income, education, gender, occupation, ethnicity or social class, and health systems; the determinants intermediates such as conditions and lifestyle determine the prevailing health standards for different segments of the population, highlighting the critical need to transform the aforementioned determinants into positive factors, through implementation of targeted social protection programs designed to increase access to and universal coverage by the health services, and by encouraging deliberate national policies that act positively on the social determinants of health. Said transformation is illustrated through descriptions of the positive impact that economic growthapproximately 5% per yearhas had on the Region during the last decade. Finally, this contextual background concludes by recognizing that, in addition to ethnic minority status or urban or rural location, gender is one of the most relevant determinants of inequality. However, promotion of gender equality first required carrying out a set of core tasks to lay the groundwork for a plan of action, one that may yield its first results in the near future.

These general considerations provide the basis for a summary of the progress and remaining challenges revealed by the regional indicators for each health-related MDG. The conclusion reached is that, in some cases, many of the MDG targets were met in the Region. Nevertheless, as pointed out throughout the document, gaps persist and will require special attention in the forthcoming stage.

PAHO has continuously collaborated, even prior to the Millennium Declaration, with Member States to transform objectives and goals into results; those are mentioned in this report. In addition, this MDG period represents a valuable source of experience for the countries of the Region and for PAHO itself. The lessons learned by countries and by PAHO provide essential conclusions that will shape new targets and the recently-adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This review concludes by looking ahead, beyond 2015. First, it summarizes the remaining challenges, highlighting the persistent high maternal, neonatal, and child mortality rates in some countries, especially among the poorest and those in the most vulnerable of situations, where the highest rates of chronic malnutrition also persist.

Gaps in reproductive health contribute to the persistence of high fertility rates, especially among young people 15-24 years old. In the Region, no significant reduction in HIV/AIDS prevalence has been achieved; simultaneously, antiretroviral drug coverage and access has required even further expansion.

Limited access to basic sanitation, in contrast to the increase in water service coverage, continues to create high health risks. Furthermore, because Latin America has become largely urban since the second half of the 20th century, the challenge of ensuring a safe water supply and basic sanitation requires massive investment in infrastructure. Such investment should not, however, surpass coverage of broad segments of the population that live in poorer areas, especially rural and peri-urban regions.

By acknowledging these remaining challenges, one deduces there is a need for more universalization of social policies to address local gaps, particularly gaps masked by national and regional averages. Broad demographic segments remain vulnerable due to geographic location, educational level, wealth, ethnicity, and gender issues. Furthermore, in view of the synergy in health and economic growth, it is essential that business cycles be closely monitored because recessions increase the vulnerability of the poorest populations. Social spending, in particular, decreases when biased austerity measures are imposed during adjustments made to overcome recessions.

This extensive experience and the networks that have been established should continue to support the process of sustainable development in the Americas and the Sustainable Development Goals. The last part of this document includes a set of suggested initiatives, the execution of which will help achieve the health-related SDG 3 and boost the generation of reliable evidence to support effective decision-making.

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Regional progress towards achieving the health-related Millennium Development Goals - ReliefWeb

Channel 6 military reporter Jillian Angeline talked with Major General J.T. Thompson about the progress of the War in Afghanistan.

Jillian Angeline and KCEN Web Team , KCEN 6:53 PM. CDT June 20, 2017

(Photo: Angeline, Jillian, KCEN)

FORT HOOD - Major General J.T. Thompson was at Fort Hood for the 1st Cavalry Sustainment Brigade change of command ceremony Tuesday.

He praised outgoing Col. Chris Colavitafor not letting the November suicide bombing on his brigade define his formation.

Channel 6 caught up with the 1st Cavalry commanding general about the progress of the war in Afghanistan as well.

A lot has changed in nearly 16 years.

2017 marks the third year in which the Afghan law enforcement is leading their own country. Right now, the U.S. Army is training, advising, and assisting the Afghan police and military forces.

Thompson said there are some bright pockets among the Afghan forces, but there is still work to be done. Thompson remains concerned about the recent attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan--called green on blue.

"It's been down in previous years, but one is one too many," Thompson said. "The Afghan leadership, starting with President Ghani, are very concerned about it, they're serious about it. Green on blue is a simple term but it can be Taliban infiltrating, it can be someone re-radicalized, it can be a righteous person whose family is held hostage and so it's a very complex problem set."

The War in Afghanistan is the longest war in American history.

Thompson insisted he'd rather fight the enemy in their own backyard instead of on American soil.

"We have to remember what emanated out of that part of the world," he said. "There are a lot of bad terrorist organizations there that want to do damage to our homeland and attack us here."

2017 KCEN-TV

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1st Cavalry commanding general talks progress of Afghanistan war - kcentv.com

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Since Final Fantasy XIVs Stormblood expansion launched in early access on Friday morning, Ive leveled a Red Mage from 50 to 60 and taken my first steps into the city state of Ala Mhigo. Imagine what I could have accomplished had the servers been anywhere near stable!

While the crux of the Stormblood expansion involves characters venturing into Ala Mhigo and the Asian-inspired Doma with the intention to free them from the oppression of the Garlean Empire, I spent precious little time in the new areas. This was mainly due to the fact that one of the major progression quests for the new lands was nearly impossible to complete for the first two and a half days of early access.

When a special cinematic solo quest begins, the game creates a special instance just for the player doing the quest. Slammed with players new and old all attempting to do the quest at once, the games servers were having trouble creating new instances, leading to players lining up or gathering around the quest giver, desperately trying to move on.

Some players made it through. Others were kicked back to the same area after the quests cinematic played, having to start the process over. The problem wasnt limited to the one quest, either. I spent a large chunk of Saturday trying to log back in after a Red Mage quest disconnected me from the game upon trying to enter it. I could log other characters in, but my poor Red Mage was stuck in an endless disconnect loop. As an added bonus, my server (Goblin) had a login queue for most of Saturday, so I was essentially lining up to be disconnected from the game.

Instead of spending time in the new lands, I did what I could in the older areas. First I logged in to my original character, Back Clawtooth, and fiddled around with his revamped skills.

The Stormblood expansion brings with it a massive change to the games skill system. Core powers and abilities for each job have been removed or consolidated in order to make the game more approachable and less complex. It seems to work, though theres a bit of a learning curve.

Unfortunately Back hasnt finished Final Fantasy XIVs story quests leading up to Stormblood, so I set him aside (for now) in favor of a new character.

This is Clan. Clan Destine. I created her for the expansion, leveled her to 60 and completed the games story using potions available in the games offline store for $25 each (one for experience level, one for story progress).

The idea was to take her through the new areas as a level 60 Black Mage, but when I hit the quest roadblock I decided to take her in another direction.

The Red Mage is an interesting class, balancing White and Black magics and using it to power ridiculously strong melee attacks. In groups its a lot of hanging back, rotating a series of spells to help fill both sides of an on-screen meter. Once filled, the Red Mage rushes into battle, takes some powerful swipes and then leaps right back out. Its casting damage plus melee damage, the best of both worlds as far as I am concerned.

The new jobs start at level 50, so I had to earn 10 levels before trying the new area quest again. That worked out rather well, as the older areas of the game where I performed repeatable Fates (dynamic spawning quests for large groups) in order to level were stable for most of the weekend. Leveling went by quickly, and the only real issues I ran into were some of the aforementioned instances.

It was not a smooth start for Final Fantasy XIV. There were times I couldnt connect to the game at all. Players reported the game crashing on PlayStation 4, requiring the entire thing be reinstalled in order to fix it. Game producer Naoki Yoshida took to the forums on Saturday, apologizing for the problems and ensuring players fixes were in the works.

I finally managed to complete that first story quest in the new area late last night. The crown around the NPC had vanished, and chat was lit with reports of success. Looks like the major issues should be cleared up for the expansion packs wide launch tomorrow.

I completed the initial set of quests in the area, which left Clan Destine a sliver below level 61. I hopped into the leveling queue in the hopes of getting a random dungeon group to help earn the extra experience points. After waiting over a half hour the instance began to load. Then . . .

Look for more on Final Fantasy XIVs Stormblood expansion as we continue to explore the new lands, servers willing.

Originally posted here:

Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood Progress Report: Lost Connections - Kotaku