Category Archives: Progress

Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD) is a public grant agency that part funds entrepreneurs, students and companies to make new products and solutions that better the lives of Danish people.

The agency currently has over a million euros in active investments. In 2020 alone IFD funded 1002 projects, with 90+ funded projects aimed at improving the health of the population.

For 2021 the agency has been allocated DKK180m (24.2m) for health investment through the Grand Solutions Program, which focuses on challenge-driven research and innovation projects that create new solutions, technologies and valuable new knowledge in life science, health, welfare and clinical research.

DKK 63.3m (8.5m) of that is exclusively for clinical research that focuses on optimising the quality of patient treatment, disease prevention, health technology, and the health services organisation.

The grants are competitive and only the most innovative solutions are successful. As well as innovation, prospective projects are evaluated on social welfare improvements, increased societal wealth, jobs, reduction of CO2 emissions and more.

Clinical Trials Arena sat down with Innovation Fund Denmark investment officer Steen Bennike Mortensen, who recently spoke at this years Outsourcing in Clinical Trials & Clinical Trial Supply Nordics conference, to find out what the grant agency looks for when choosing projects to fund, the flurry of decentralised clinical trial applications in the wake of Covid-19 and some of the exciting innovations in healthcare that have been funded this year.

Steen Bennike Mortensen: We see a lot of research within diseases associated with an ageing population. It could be Alzheimers or other diseases related to ageing where we try to help make the symptoms better. We have seen a lot of new inventions within the daily care sector such as virtual reality to make people feel less alone and like they are participating with other people in daily life because they cannot get out of the house.

We see a lot of incentives within general practices because we have a lot of data in Denmark we monitor everything that happens from birth to death so you can link all that data to test a medication. This data is very difficult to get in other countries because of data security and you do not normally have this kind of data in one place like in Denmark.

We see a move towards decentralised trials and home health. In doing these clinical trials, of course, theres all the legislation around privacy and GDPR thats a really important item to solve in order to be successful here. Especially in Denmark and the Nordic countries, where we have information about all patients.

SBM: I think some of the important projects we have funded are within the area of decentralised clinical trials because its simply a new concept and it makes life so much easier not only for patients but also for the [research] companies. They are much cheaper. For example, you can reach out to patients by using social media. Its much easier to recruit them and make the agreements and the general population is much more interested in using technology now.

SBM: It was started before the pandemic actually but Covid-19 seemed to increase the number of applications because we had a specific call where we [provided grants] in relation to the pandemic. That brought a lot of very interesting applications and it was a very hectic time. Hopefully, for those that succeeded, we will see more mature products in the coming years.

SBM: Sometimes in trials, you need to get samples from people, like blood samples. I think thats where the most critical need is. There needs to be some innovation on how we do sampling closer to or in peoples homes. Right now we are picking the low-hanging fruits with diseases that do not need so much one-to-one interaction with a healthcare professional.

We foresee that in the future, we will start to train more relatives to have these direct actions with their family members involved in a trial. So, you might ask how do we make it fun to be part of these kinds of trials?

SBM: One is Novo Nordisks smart insulin pen for patients with Type 2 diabetes, which is both a glucose monitor and insulin doser at the same time. It can be done already, but its young people hacking themselves. Its something that needs to be very tightly regulated, and thats why you need a clinical trial to test that it actually works. Thats something we have funded as its very expensive to involve patients.

We funded a virtual trial platform that uses mobile phones to check skin conditions like psoriasis and we also funded a project from the University of Copenhagen called FluoGuide, which makes cancer cells fluorescent, enabling surgeons or robots to remove the cancer without damaging healthy tissue.

SBM: First of all, it needs to be a really good idea, with an element of innovation. It needs to be different from all the rest. For example, within clinical trials even the idea of getting the data handling correct is innovative. How can you get the data without violating GDPR regulations? How do you make the app? How do you actually get the app to the patients? A lot of innovations are very practical. It could be a really small problem that when solved would be really beneficial for everybody.

Hopefully, you would have done some initial experiments that show that what you are trying to do can actually be done. You have to set up a team that we believe would actually be able to deliver. You need to have the right partners, have the right competencies and you need to be realistic about your budget, so its not under or over-financed.

You have to describe how you would do it and we need to know that you have actually talked with the people you plan to enrol in the project. Finally, we need to see what you plan to do afterwards whats the next step? It could be plans for a Phase II trial or plans to attract additional funding from private investors.

SBM: We will set up the new call in December and it will be similar to last year. One minor change is that Innovation Fund Denmark would get a little less funding for trials but more funding will be available through the Independent Research Fund. Instead, IFD has got more money for digitalisation, which would involve the decentralised trials aspect.

To access more upcoming clinical trial events, visit the Arena International website.

Pharmaceutical Translations from English into Balkan Languages

28 Aug 2020

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Sage Therapeutics Alzheimer's drug likely to progress: regulatory roundup - Clinical Trials Arena

Our society has become far more open in recent years to the fact that race has been and remains a complicated and integral part of American history. A majority of Americans also accept the concept that gay, lesbian and transgender people have the legal as well as the moral right to live their lives as equals in society.

These and other social realizations and changes have become fuel for the latest culture wars that have deeply divided Americans, and this fall were called out to play a role in the statewide elections.

Wedge issues have become a mainstay in state and national politics, so their effective use during Virginias gubernatorial campaign came as no surprise. That those battles are being staged locally in School Board meetings, however, is tragic and, for those of us who support public education, frightening.

While gender identity and related issues have become part of the societal angst, race plays a pivotal role in much of whats going on today, as it always has. We cant change the past and we dont own it, but we must live with its consequences. For white America, the consequence has often been privileges not enjoyed by many of our black neighbors. To deny that is to deny what we can see with our own eyes.

If we are to understand racial difference in all its manifestations, then teaching history accurately in school, as well as encouraging students to have honest discussions about racial differences are critical parts of that effort. Had those discussions and those history lessons been taught during my youth more than half a century ago, we might have progressed further than we have in racial understanding and comity.

Instead, the powers who governed Virginia and other Southern states for decades were determined to keep the races separate, and to do so, they had to perpetuate the myths that had justified slavery for two-and-a-half centuries, and then Jim Crow laws for the better part of another century.

Doing so took considerable effort. Shading, and too often obliterating, historic fact were crucial to the effort. Thats why Virginia, in the 1950s, had a series of history books written that painted slavery as a benign arrangement that actually benefited African Americans, rather than the inhumane institution it was. Those same books erroneously taught that the Civil War as having nothing to do with slavery.

In one of those Virginia history books, we were taught that a feeling of strong affection existed between masters and slaves in a majority of Virginia homes.

We were not taught that, following the collapse of the tobacco industry in Virginia in the late 1700s, Virginias agricultural community struggled to find new sources of revenue, and that, for the half century leading up to the Civil War, a primary source of that revenue was the exportation of slaves, bred in Virginia and sold to plantations in the Deep South. When the importation of slaves from Africa became illegal, the price of locally grown slaves soared.

Nor, back then, did we learn about slaves who struggled to be free. We learned nothing about the remarkable network known as the Underground Railroad that shielded runaway slaves on their way to freedom in northern states and Canada.

We learned about carpetbaggers who came from the north and took advantage of poor whites after the Civil War, but we were not taught about the laws written throughout the South that were used to arrest freed blacks as vagrants if they had no money in their pockets, and then farmed them out to plantation owners for extended periods of time, thus nicely skirting the prohibition against slavery well into the 20th century.

Closer to our time, we learned nothing of the federal red lining of black communities that perpetuated and deepened the segregation of our urban areas and continues to hinder the progress of African Americans today.

Theres certainly room for discussion over what should or should not be taught in schools today, but thank goodness schools are teaching history more honestly now than they did in our time. And thank goodness children are being encouraged to talk with and learn from one another more than we ever were.

To try and reverse that will be a terrible mistake.

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.

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Don't reverse progress in teaching history honestly - Smithfield Times - Smithfield Times

Britains racism crises now come around as regularly as the seasons. As certain as Wimbledon heralds the summer, the next scandal is sure to appear on the horizon, and with it a storm that darkens Britains sunny view of its racial progress.

But like all storms, it will pass, leaving little but a sort of atmospheric discomfort, and even that eventually dissipates. Because it seems to have been decided, at some meeting to which an awful lot of people werent invited, that Britain has been cured of its racism ills. The occasional flare-up is something to be extinguished, rather than an indication that there is a larger undiagnosed issue underneath.

You can see it in how we have chosen to talk about race dragged kicking and screaming. What passes for a national conversation is just a weather front of scandal, one that rocks or shakes or engulfs an institution or, in rare moments, the country as a whole, before we all move on.

Periodically, a public figure of black or other minority ethnic background will reveal something horrifying about how they were treated by colleagues or superiors in their profession. And consistently, their demands for redress take too long to be met, which becomes an injury in itself. Whether its footballer Eni Aluko being told by the England manager to make sure that her Nigerian relatives werent carrying the Ebola virus; or most recently cricketer Azeem Rafiq allegedly being called the P-word by teammates, investigations are drawn out, then quickly closed, leaving little room for reflection on the climate that enabled the abuse.

For all the sound and fury of each incident, little changes because the country gives itself a pass. It either minimises the seriousness of the affair; or chooses to believe that, while there is a problem, it is the fault of a small minority. Its something that should not be amplified, rather than something endemic that calls for uncomfortable questions and meaningful reform.

Its banter or bad apple. Take your pick. For these are pretty much the only explanations offered for scandals that have engulfed a variety of institutions over the past five years: the Home Office, the police, the Football Association, with Yorkshire County Cricket Club just the latest. List them and they seem less like anomalies and more like features of contemporary Britain miscarriages of justice towards members of the Windrush generation, excessive use of police force, racial abuse towards footballers and cricketers. Thats a lot of banter, a lot of bad apples.

The incidents occur separately, different people at different times in different places, but still there is a subtle pattern in how the allegations are received. There is an incredulity, a pushback hesitant at first then increasingly confident an assertive and well-rehearsed damage limitation exercise that seeks to reassure the public that, however bad matters seem, things are very much in hand.

Part of this is best explained as the irony of racial progress: the more diverse and liberal a society becomes, the more that white people, more secure in their values and proximity to people of colour as friends, colleagues and even family, are likely to reject claims of racist treatment. And the result of that is a destigmatisation of slurs and behaviours that should have been heading to extinction.

When a formal investigation, in 2021, concludes that someone calling you the P-word is all in the spirit of friendly banter then what we are witnessing is a regression. One in which people have decided, without consulting those being insulted, that we are post-racial and that people should just really be able to take a joke.

For the larger manifestation of this retrenchment, look to the war on anything considered woke a campaign popular with both the tabloid press and certain liberals who increasingly define themselves in opposition to wokeness too.

Another step forward that has propelled us two steps back is a neighbourhood-watch-style understanding of racism: one that assigns white individuals the task of policing their own behaviour. This emphasis on what white people can personally do to check themselves, although welcome, also regrettably serves as a diversion from all the higher and broader ways in which institutional racism operates.

Whenever one of these racism scandals hits, it seems to me that the biggest fight of all is to challenge the complacencies and complicities of progress. To talk not in terms of the spirit or the good intentions behind the words of Rafiqs teammates, but what recent histories they echo, how they land, what hostility or inhospitality they create for players like Rafiq.

More representation and diversity is always touted as the answer, but they are not ends in themselves. They are merely part of a process of learning in which we figure out once again how we coexist in a country that is becoming more diverse and beneficially so but has decided that the hard graft is done and its journey towards equality is over. It isnt. And really, its fine for it not to be. The demand isnt to vanquish racism overnight, just to commit to the process of constant finessing. Better as a nation to be a work in progress than a prematurely ended project.

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Heres the irony of racial progress in Britain its now harder to call out racism - The Guardian

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Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a sprained ankle on the next-to-last offensive play of a Week Eight loss to the Packers. He has missed two games an unlikely win last week at San Francisco and an ugly loss today at home to the Panthers.

Next Sunday, the Cardinals travel to visit the increasingly desperate 3-6 Seahawks. So will Murray play?

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Murray is making good progress as he recovers from the ankle injury. Another source says theres a good chance Murray will play in Week 11.

It all depends on whether Murray continues to make progress. The other question is that, with the teams bye coming in Week 12, it could make sense to give Murray another week off, allowing him to have three more weeks off until the Cardinals return to one of their former homes to face the Bears.

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Kyler Murray is making good progress, has a chance to start next week at Seahawks - NBC Sports

The last time the Bears were 3-6 was in 2017, when the situation wasnt all that much different than it is today: A coaching staff on the hot seat and a rookie quarterback coming off a career-best game in another loss after Mitch Trubisky threw for 297 yards and a touchdown against the Packers at Soldier Field.

A promising quarterback wasnt able to save John Fox, in part because following a season in which Sean McVay worked wonders with Jared Goff Trubisky needed a quarterback whisperer as his head coach.

The situation is a little more complicated this time, with Matt Nagy coaching Justin Fields. At 3-6 with Fields taking his biggest steps yet in back-to-back games against the 49ers and Steelers, the Bears are accelerating into what Nagy would call the gray. Or as Bears fans would call it, The Twilight Zone: A non-playoff team with a quarterback ready for liftoff.

Unless Fields small steps turn into giant leaps that transform the Bears into NFC contenders stranger things have happened the focus will soon turn to Bears chairman George McCaskey and president Ted Phillips for an update on what they consider progress.

That was the bar McCaskey set for general manager Ryan Pace and Nagy in 2021 after both were retained following a second consecutive 8-8 season in 2020. McCaskey has not made himself available since that January press conference to define progress a silence that has become increasingly deafening as the Bears season has veered off course under Nagy.

It would seem likely that a non-playoff season would elicit a coaching change if not a house-cleaning that would include Pace as well. But they have a strange definition of progress at Halas Hall. This is the place where former GM Phil Emery once defined Jay Cutler as elite because he had a winning record, so please hold all tickets during the inquiry.

The Bears 29-27 loss to the Steelers showed just how tricky this could become. Fields game seemed like a breakthrough. He passed for a career-high 291 yards, with pass plays of 50, 39, 28 and 25 yards (Sunday to Aaron Rodgers, but a celebration in Chicago). And he was at his best when the Bears needed him most engineering a seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in 66 seconds to give the Bears a 27-26 lead with 1:46 to go. Yet, the Bears still lost again.

What if the rest of the season plays out like the Steelers game, with Fields showing actual progress, making big plays, looking like hes on the cusp of greatness but with the Bears still losing to the Ravens, Cardinals, Packers and Seahawks? That could be more impressive to George and Ted than beating the Texans, Vikings and Jaguars to pull out of a six-game losing streak. Then what?

That might be an easy call for you, but its a much tougher one for McCaskey and Phillips. Justin Fields looks like the real deal. At Halas Hall, thats progress.

2. Regardless of the NFL defending the bad call, the Bears got a raw deal when Cassius Marsh was called for taunting after a third-down sack in the fourth quarter. Is it really that difficult to call only the obvious taunting infractions? Its a fine line, but referees such as Tony Corrente have no idea where that line is.

That said, the Bears have themselves to at least partially blame for the crackdown that is leading to these bogus calls. The violent reactions by Javon Wims and Anthony Miller against Saints defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson last season heightened the NFLs sensitivity to taunting and on-field altercations and what they can lead to.

3. It was a close call, but Nagy probably should have tried a Hail Mary pass on the final play against the Steelers on Monday night instead of having Cairo Santos attempt a 65-yard field goal.

Both plays are long shots, but Nagy had none of the factors that usually come into play on kicks like that the wind at the kickers back, indoors, altitude or a kicker with a notably big leg.

Santos career-long field goal is 53 yards. His only other attempt longer than 55 yards was a 66-yard attempt against the Bears on the final play of the game in 2015. It never had a chance as the Bears won, 18-17 at Arrowhead Stadium.

Its worth noting that Nagy was on Andy Reids Chiefs staff at that time. Reid explained at the time that Santos had made kicks from that distance in practice 65 yards in training camp 65 and 67 yards at Arrowhead with the wind at his back. It was a long shot either way, Reid said.

4. For What Its Worth Dept.: The Bears have completed three Hail Mary passes in recent memory: Mitch Trubiskys 54-yard pass to Kevin White at the 1-yard line against the Patriots in 2018; Jay Cutlers 50-yard touchdown to Cam Meredith against the Buccaneers in 2015; and Shane Matthews 34-yard touchdown to running back James Allen against the Browns in 2001.

The Bears longest field goal in franchise history is Robbie Goulds 58-yarder against the Bengals in 2013. No kicker had made a field goal longer than 64 yards until the Ravens Justin Tucker kicked a 66-yarder at Ford Field (a big leg kicking indoors) in Week 3.

5. Signs of Progress: The Bears gained 414 yards against a Steelers defense that is allowing 345.7 yards per game this season. Its the only game in which the Bears offense has exceeded an opponents current average yards allowed.

The Bears 7.1 yards per play against the Steelers is the fourth-highest in Nagys four seasons. The top three all came in 2018, and against losing teams: the Buccaneers (8.3), Lions (7.6) and Dolphins (7.3).

6. Rookie offensive tackle Teven Jenkins was working out on the field prior to the Bears-Steelers game, an indication he likely will be able to return before the end of the season after having back surgery in August.

If Jenkins returns, the big question is where the Bears will play him. Jenkins is projected as the Bears starting left tackle for years to come. But veteran Jason Peters is starting there now, and arguably has been the Bears best offensive linemen this season. Would the Bears sit Peters so Jenkins could get a head start on next season?

Offensive line coach Juan Castillo didnt want to speculate.

I know this: When he comes back, hes going to be ready, Castillo said. I hope we have to make that decision.

7. Rookie Larry Borom has a long way to go, but the fifth-round draft pick hasnt looked out of place in two starts at left tackle against stiff competition.

In fact, fifth/sixth round draft picks by Ryan Pace combined for three touchdowns and a sack against the Steelers: Wide receiver Darnell Mooney (5-173 in 2020) scored on a 15-yard run and 16-yard reception; safety DeAndre Houston-Carson (6-185 in 2016) scored on a 25-yard fumble return; Bilal Nichols (5-145 in 2018) had a sack. And another Pace fifth-rounder, Jordan Howard (5-150. in 2016), gained 71 yards on 17 carries and scored his third touchdown in two weeks for the Eagles against the Chargers on Sunday.

8. Bits & Pieces: The Bears four pass plays of 25 or more yards (50, 39, 28 and 25) were as many as they had in their first eight games. Fields 291 yards was the sixth most in the NFL last week. Thats the first time a Bear quarterback has been higher than 21st this season. The Bears are 0-3 in the game after the bye in Nagys three seasons. the Bears final four 2021 opponents are currently 3-5 the Vikings, Seahawks, Giants and Vikings, so

9. Josh McCown Ex-Bears Player of the Week: Falcons running back/wide receiver/kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson had six receptions for 126 yards against the Saints including a clutch 64-yard catch in the final minute that led to the winning field goal in a 27-25 victory at the Superdome. Patterson is a three-time winner of this award already this season.

Patterson leads the Falcons in rushing (73-278, 3.8, two touchdowns) and receptions (38-459, 12.1, five touchdowns). He has more total yards in eight games with the Falcons (737 on 111 touches, seven touchdowns) than he did in 32 games with the Bears (550 yards on 113 touches, one touchdown).

10. Bear-ometer: 6-11 vs. Ravens (L); at Lions (W); vs. Cardinals (L); at Packers (L); vs. Vikings (W); at Seahawks (L); vs. Giants (W); at Vikings (L).

Expert analysis and reporting before and after every Bears game, from the journalists who cover the Monsters of the Midway best.

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Bears 1st-and-10: What is George McCaskeys definition of progress? - Chicago Sun-Times

Mr. Erlich is one of the authors of a book addressing the history of racial exclusion in the building trades. He notes that the original Boston Residents Jobs Policy in 1983 came out of the fight by Black workers for jobs on building sites. But it had to include residents and women to gain white political support and overcome the opposition of union leadership.

There is a legacy of racism, which by no means has been eliminated, Mr. Erlich said. I respect folks in the community that complain that things are not changing fast enough. And they are not changing fast enough. Still, he argues, unions realize that they need to become less homogeneous and reflect the demographics of the city.

And he warns that the nonunion contractors that will hire workers of color do not generally provide training or a career path, as unions do. The work is often more dangerous, he says, and it pays nothing like the wages in union shops.

Workers of color who make it into the unions acknowledge the opportunities that membership provides. On a sunny October afternoon in Dorchester, a roomful of apprentices and journeymen and women, assembled by Local 103 to talk to a reporter, lauded the unions efforts to broaden its ranks and called for patience.

Diversity doesnt happen overnight, said Sam Quaratiello, a recent graduate of the apprenticeship program who is of Asian descent. Walter Cowhan, a Black journeyman, argued that the union had become far more diverse in his 20 years of experience. Still, he said, if workers of color are to become more prominent on job sites, training is essential. If you dont prepare the work force, directly bringing in Black and brown workers could undermine the whole process, he said.

But among some of those pushing for racial equity, patience is wearing thin. Mr. Watson offered the words of the Black author and activist James Baldwin: Youve always told me it takes time, Mr. Baldwin said in the 1989 documentary The Price of a Ticket. How much time do you want, for your progress?

The building unions are huge obstacles to that progress, said Angela Williams-Mitchell, who heads the Boston Jobs Coalition, a community organization dedicated to increasing opportunities for people of color. They do not open their doors to create access for communities that have historically been excluded.

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Can Progress on Diversity Be Union-Made? - The New York Times

Cattle feeders seek to add another $2 to $5 to cash prices this week after last weeks solid rally. Feeders are seeing momentum with prices reaching their highest since spring 2019.

Last weeks 5-area steer price average was $129.23 per cwt., the highest average price since February 2018 when the top for the year was $129.75.

The fall calf run saw uneven prices at auction last week, with steers and heifers from $2 lower to $1 higher, according to Agricultural Marketing Service Reporters.

Demand was moderate to good, with yearlings having the best demand again, AMS reporters said. This time of year is always a struggle to hold calf prices up as there are so many of them in the marketplace.

Monday saw December live cattle futures rise 30 cents to $132.10, the contracts highest closing price since $132.20 on Sept. 2 and the highest settlement for a nearby contract since June 2017. January feeder cattle firmed 70 cents to $160.30, a two-week high close.

December live cattle extended last weeks gains behind strong cash fundamentals. Live steers in five top feedlot areas averaged $129.23 last week, the fifth consecutive weekly increase.

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Cattle Rally In Progress, Calf Markets Uneven - Drovers Magazine

No matter how its done, with whatever level of fakery, magnetic levitation just looks cool. We dont know about you, but merely walking past the tackiest gadget shop, the displays of levitating and rotating objects always catches our eye. Superconductors aside, these devices are pretty much all operating in the same way; an object with a permanent rare-earth magnet is held in a stable position between a pair of electromagnets one above and one below, with some control electronics to adjust the field strength and close the loop.

But, there may be another way, albeit a rather special case, where a magnet can not only be levitated, but locked in place using a rotating magnetic field. The video shows a demonstration of how the mass of a magnet can be used to phase lock it against a rotating field. In essence, the magnet will want to rotate to align with the rotating magnetic field, but its mass will mean there is a time delay for the force to act and rotation to occur, which will lag the rotating magnetic field, and if it is phased just so, the rotation will be cancelled and the magnet will be locked in a stable position. Essentially the inertia of the magnet can be leveraged to counteract magnets tendency to rapidly rotate to find a stable position in the field.

Whilst the idea is not new, Turkish experimenter [Hamdi Ucar] has been working on this subject for some time (checkout his YouTube channel for a LOT of content on it), even going as far as to publish a very detailed academic paper on the subject. With our explanation here were trying to simplify the subject for the sake of brevity, but since the paper has a lot of gory details for the physicists among you, if you can handle the maths, you can come to your own conclusions.

Thanks [keith] for the tip!

Link:

Development Of Magnetic Locking Idea Shows Great Progress - Hackaday

The Aztecs stand alone among Mountain West teams in the College Football Playoff rankings. How high can they rise after last weeks results?

Contact/Follow @MattK_FS& @MWCwire

After Fresno States epic stumble against Boise State on Saturday afternoon, the San Diego State Aztecs will venture into the second week of the College Football rankings on Tuesday afternoon as the one Mountain West football team likely to get ranked.

For all of the successes that the Aztecs have had in the last decade or so, this is new territory. The only thing standing between San Diego State and the inside track in the race for a New Years Six bowl bid is a little bit of chaos back east in the American Athletic Conference. New teams might jump into the top 25 to challenge both the Aztecs and the Bearcats after another fair bit of upheaval, though, so how might things have changed after the committees first impressions last week?

Heres how each current contender in the Mountain West stacks up:

SP+ rank: 39 | FEI rank: 62 | Sagarin rank: 55 | Strength-of-schedule rank: 111/125

Whats new for the Aztecs? One cant help but wonder how many committee members stayed up late (or DVRed for Sunday, at least) to watch the Aztecs put Hawaii in a sleeper hold, but it seems pretty evident that the Aztecs are comfortable with who they are and it works incredibly well: A ground-and-pound offense that doesnt make many mistakes, a defense thats the best in the Group of 5, and a special teams unit thats at least in a similar conversation.

Because the Warriors have been inconsistent this year, though, the win isnt likely to move the needle in a vacuum for this week. Better news elsewhere, like Utahs blowout win over Stanford and Arizona scoring its first win of the year, should help buoy SDSUs overall standing even if theres still work to be done. Whether thats outweighed by Fresno States loss to Boise State, however, depends on whether the committee now views the Bulldogs as closer to a top-30 team or a top-40 one.

SP+ rank (through Week 10): 96 | FEI rank: 70 | Sagarin rank: 78 | Strength-of-schedule rank (per Sagarin/Sports Reference): 82/97

Whats new for the Aggies? After a slow start on the road in Las Cruces, the Aggies once again found a way to pull things together and, thanks to their explosive offense and surging defense, ended up coasting to a win over New Mexico State. Because NMSU continues to languish among the worst teams in the FBS, however, Utah States schedule-to-date takes a hit despite adding another win to the overall resume.

On the plus side, Blake Andersons Aggies continue to make progress by stringing together a pair of more complete games than they played earlier in the season. You can make the case theyre coming around and, given the opportunity to perhaps score another pair of wins against bowl-eligible teams in the next two weeks (San Jose State and Wyoming), it isnt inconceivable that the Aggies sneak into the top 25 should they run the table and make it to the Mountain West championship game.

Another thing that could help in the long run is that Utah States pair of losses were both competitive. If BYU can hold its standing against a soft November slate and Boise State can keep winning, you have to imagine that could change the committees perception of the Aggies (as would Washington State reaching bowl eligibility; the Cougars are now one win away from that after beating Arizona State last weekend).

SP+ rank: 68 | FEI rank: 63 | Sagarin rank: 46 | Strength-of-schedule rank: 98/111

Whats new for the Wolf Pack? It wasnt the prettiest win at home against San Jose State and though the elements on Saturday are at least partly to blame, it helps to explain why Nevada suffered a slight dip from last week by each of the above measures. As with Utah State, you have to think the Wolf Pack can only benefit from the Spartans finding a way to bowl eligibility, but the bigger hurdle is right in front of them this coming Saturday in Carson.

Beat the Aztecs on the road and the conversation about the Wolf Pack, who would have sole possession of first place in the West division with a win, will change drastically.

How do these Mountain West teams stack up against everyone else left in the hunt? Read on to learn more.

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College Football Playoff Rankings: How Much Progress Will San Diego State Make in the Top 25? - MWWire

On Monday, Wendy Williams addressed her legions of fans on Instagram, giving an update on her health condition after her extended absence from TheWendy Williams Show.

HOW YOU DOIN? I MISS YOU ALL! As everyone knows, my health has been a hot topic. Im making progress but its just one of those things thats taking longer than we expected. Im a woman of a certain age, and I know enough to listen to my doctors and will return to my purple chair as soon as we all agree Im ready. I want to thank all of my staff and our guest hosts for stepping up and stepping in while I cant be there.

The show was on hiatus after Williams had health issues related to Graves disease and coronavirus. After having the shows season debut was postponed three times, producer decided to premiere the show with guest hosts until Williams was well enough to return.

The popular daytime talk show host thanked the shows production company, Debmar-Mercury, and the television stations for being so understanding and supportive during her recovery. She also thanked her fans, writing that she has heard their prayers and comments while feeling their love.

According to The Wrap, ratings for the show have jumped 33% in household ratings the week ending Oct. 24 without Williams heading the show. The Season 13 premiere week garnered a 0.8 rating, up from the previous weeks 0.5.

Leah Remini guest-hosted for four days of the successful return to new shows. The Oct. 18 premiere episode was hosted Devyn Simone, Bevy Smith, Elizabeth Wagmeister and Michael Yo.

Two months ago, the shows official Instagram account revealed Williams had tested positive for COVID-19. TMZ also reported that Williams voluntarily admitted herself into a New York City hospital for a psych evaluation. The hospitalization came after the talk show hosts COVID diagnosis was confirmed. Her brother, Tommy Williams, gave her fans an update on his sisters condition, letting them know shes pushing through.

According toThe Sun, an insider implied that the 57-year-old Williamshad also indulged in alcohol before beingadmitted to a hospital on Sept. 14.

Williams has been transparent about her struggles with drug abuse and ailments like Graves disease, dating back to 1999. In 2017, she infamously passed out during the shows Halloween episode. That incident was later attributed to dehydration.

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Todays Hot Topic: Wendy Williams Says Shes Making Progress Toward Returning to Her Show - Black Enterprise