This is often the case on a 12 game sleep, but I feel like especially for today The stacking options are really good. There are no options discussed in the show today where I feel like it's a Well, I guess if I have to and the well I guess if I have to stack is pretty common for shorter slates and stuff like that but for tonight We're definitely not getting those. These are legitimate stacks I feel good about ones that I am excited to use for tonight We're gonna break down what those stacks are top pitching options and more to get you ready for Friday night in MLB DFS Welcome on into the solo shop. That's right here on the fan dual podcast network and Number fire calm. My name is Jim Saunas. I am a senior writer and analyst for number fire here to break down Friday's 12 game Main slate will accept for 705 p.m Eastern for tonight couple weather notes before the slate the first one is that there is a chance of Thunderstorms in Atlanta for the Braves in the Marlins. They appear to be isolated. So Should be good to go there, but check back on that later Finally very high temperatures in Kansas City in St. Louis for tonight That is 93 degrees the Royals and the Dodgers in Kansas City and 91 degrees in St. Louis for the Cardinals in the Yankees There is some chance of thunderstorms in St. Louis But if they play I jack up offenses for the Yankees Cardinals Royals and Dodgers and those teams will be focuses for us in the stacking section later on not just because of the weather But it definitely does not hurt. So Check back on the timing of storms for St. Louis and Atlanta But jack up offenses in Kansas City and St. Louis We'll dive on into this slate talks and pitching talks and stacks later on in just one second A first-day reminder to make sure you're subscribed to the number fire daily fantasy podcast Wherever you get your podcast We are now podcast Spotify, etc. Etc. If you like what you hear leave us a five star rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify And of course a day show also over on the the Fandall YouTube page and Fandall TV plus as for next week I have out for the entire week. I am moving to Chicago So we'll not be working at all next week But Tom Beckia will be here to cover the solo shot for me Austin Swain covering covering the spread There will be no show Tuesday because that is July 4th, but they'll be with you Monday Wednesday Thursday Friday Keeping this operation running There will be no shows on the family YouTube page or Fandall TV plus So just on the podcast feed So if you want these shows next week and you typically watch on YouTube or Fandall TV plus Make sure you subscribe to the number fire daily fantasy podcast feed and the covering the spread podcast feed wherever you get your Podcasts baseball season is in full swing and there's no better place to get in on the action than Fandall America's number one sportsbook because right now new customers get a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 That's it to $1,000 back in bonus bets if your first bet doesn't win So don't miss your chance to snag a no-sweat first bet up to $1,000 when you join Fandall today Fandall official partner of Major League Baseball Major League Baseball trademarks used with permission must be 21 Plus and president select states First online real money wager only $10 deposit required refund issued is non with trouble bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt restrictions apply seafold terms at fandall.com a slash sportsbook Fandall is offering online sports waging in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas star casino LLC gambling problem Call 1-800 gambler or visit fandall.com slash RG in Arizona 1-800 next step or text next step to 5334 to in Connecticut 1-88-789-7777 or business easy Pg.org slash chat in Indiana 1-109 with it in Wyoming in Kansas 1-105-2-2 4700 we're in Kansas KS gambling help calm Louisiana's 1-877-770 stop in Massachusetts Gambling help line ma.org or call<PHONE_NUMBER> or 24 7 support in Maryland MD gambling help org in New York 1-877-8 open wire text open Y and in West Virginia go to 1-800 gambler.net Pitching preview for this Friday main slate Shane McClanahan comes in with a high salary of $11,000 followed by James Paxton at 10-1 John Gray 10,000 flat followed by Bobby Miller at 98 Jose Barrios is 97 with Pablo Lopez at 95 Griffin canny is 93 with Alex Cobb also at 93 out the IL Freddy Peralta 92 Bryce Miller 91 With Dean Kramer and Michael Lorenz and as the others at $8,000 for hire Now on most slates I do want to spend up a picture and I'll be DFS because that gets you more upside and stuff like that on this Slate though the top two guys are Shane McClanahan and James Paxton Both of whom are on the road and coming off of injuries back injury from a clan of hand knee injury for Paxton And I want to stack the Dodgers later on who have high salary So I actually feel okay spending down at pitcher for tonight making my top play a value play That guy is Dean Kramer whose salary is $8,700 against the twins. I like Kramer quite a bit overall Kramer has not been great this year He has a 4.5 oh era with a 4.33 skill interactive era And that's not something you want to feel super good about but we did see Kramer make a start a tweak Seven starts ago and in that start he basically ditched his slider entirely Instead leaning more in his cutter now That's a sweeper over baseball savante the slider is and he had decent numbers on that according to baseball savants But the cutter is a pitch you can throw to both righties and lefties. It's a more dynamic pitch This has been a pretty good shift for Kramer because in those seven starts he has a 3.91 skill interactive era He has a 24% strike average for which for this slate isn't too bad He has not had more than seven strikeouts yet, but he's had at least five in each so maybe there is upside for more if we get those strikeouts super concentrated and Some of those matchups were tough. He's facing the twins at home and the twins give a big boost to righties 28% strikeout rate against righties on the current act of roster. That's the highest number on the slate by a decent margin I think that allows us to use Kramer at $8,700 if we had more firm studs if Paxton were healthy or McClanahan were healthy, maybe we'd go at them but I think on this specific slate with the way things break down Kramer actually is a guy who makes a lot of sense So Dean Kramer not typically a stud we turn to in DFS before tonight specifically on this slate I do like him in the salary savings he brings at $8,700 The number two slot is a more traditional stud That's John Gray who has had some hiccups recently. He's facing the Astros But I do like him despite that the hiccups to me on gray are the bigger concern He had a short outing against the blue Jays and in that game the velocity was down, but then last time out Gray lasted just five innings against the Yankees. So back-to-back starts with some sort of red flag But in the Yankees game the velocity for gray was back up and it's not like he got knocked around He just didn't get many strikeouts or many whiffs So that's why he's not first in this list the concern that I have from those past two starts But again, the Vila was fine against the Yankees He was still throwing his slider and sometimes if guys are banged up You might see them cut back on breaking pitches, but the slider uses there for gray was still very good Even including those two down starts. We've got eight starts with gray using his slider more often once again And in that time he has a 3.64 skill interactive ERA with a 27% strikeout rate and just a 35% Hard-hit rate allowed. He is a very good pitcher as long as we can believe that he's healthy and still Clicking along as well as he was before this year. I think I've seen enough here to believe that he is So I am gonna use gray with his salary of $10,000 I think there are enough red flags to push him below Kramer for me, but it's not enough for me to cross gray off entirely So to me the top two pitchers are Dean Kramer and John Gray I Feel a bit of uncertainty with both of them for one reason or another but you're not gonna find a Rocks rock sock and loaded if that's actually a phrase starter on tonight's slate So I do feel good enough about about gray to use him here at $10,000 The third slot is between Pablo Lopez and Griffin canning both these guys have tough matchups Lopez facing the Orioles on the road Canning gets Arizona at home. I'm gonna go canning for the reasons we'll discuss But Lopez is in play for tournaments for sure Part of the reason I like canning is the status of Corbin Carroll He left yesterday's game with a shoulder issue now. He's day-to-day There's a chance he does not play here and that would make Arizona Not a bad offense, but not as good as they've been with their 113 WRC plus in the current act of roster against righty. That's not all Corbin Carroll So they'll still be tough but not as tough and canning is pitching it really well right now His velocity has stabilized now over his past eight starts and in that time canning has a 3.75 skill interactive era with a 24% strikeout rates and a 5% walk rate The big issue he's had is hard contact He's had some bad starts as a result of that But still it's a 3.40 era overall in this time and that's even with five of the eight starts coming on the road I do have Lopez projected for more strikeouts than I think canning But I feel more firm and canning for whatever reason so I would say it's kind of a coin toss I'd probably keep exposure between the two pretty even but I would keep it lower than what I want for gray and Kramer so Focus more so on Kramer and gray But I do think that canning and Lopez both viable options for tonight for that third slot So to me Kramer's the top guy followed by gray and then coin toss between canning and Lopez for the third stop Third slot Let's talk now about these really fun stacks and typically the Tigers not a team will have in this section Especially not if we're enthusiastic about the stacks for tonight But they're at course Facing Austin Gomber and I think we can actually get pretty excited about them here Especially given their salaries are still very low It does help a lot that Gomber is a lefty the Tigers have a 99 a WRC plus against lefties And they're I so go up to 173 with a lot of fly balls So they are much more palatable as an offense against lefties than against righties and Gomber is still struggling Most recently he's been throwing more sliders his past five starts and the strikeouts have gone up a bit But his hard hit were in that time is forty nine percent. It's led to continued poor results I don't think that shift is going to be the skeleton key for Austin Gomber overall this year He has a seven point oh one er a with a six point eight six expected er a and Acquires field he has struggled against some pretty poor offenses And I don't think the Tigers count as a poor offense against lefties So they're not our favorite offense by any means But I do want to be on them for tonight again It does help that the salaries to them did go up, but the baseline was so low. They're still pretty low even at course field The within this offense. They've been hitting Andy Ibanez pretty high in the order recently Ibanez is a 30 so not expecting some like massive massive surge out of him But he did hit for power in triple a and his barrel rate in the majors is pretty good Salary here is twenty eight hundred dollars I've used Ibanez as a one-off a couple times recently even in like not as elite matchups So getting him below three thousand a course field pretty tough to turn down in general We can't feel good about the righties here So I think the Tigers deserve to be our top stack in Ibanez very much in that mix I have a similar sentiment about the Tigers as I do to the New York Yankees The Yankees are an offense that stinks with against righties without error and judge But against lefties their WRC plus in the active roster goes up to 111 and the right so is 211 I think that allows us to stack them here against Matthew liberator I actually did like liberator a lot when he first came back up I used him in his first start back from triple a he looked great down there first start was awesome But over his past four starts The velocity is stabilized back out for a liberator and it stabilized at a lower level than what it was before So the Velo's been down in those four starts He has a five point five one skill interactive Yarae 15% strikeout rate and 45% hard hit rates The results have fallen behind too and part of that is tough matchups But again the Yankees are a tough matchup when it's a lefty and it's crazy hot as far as the weather for tonight in St Louis so I think we can stack them here with an okay amount of confidence even though Things have been rough for the Yankees so far I still think they're a good play for tonight specifically facing off against liberator in very good hitting weather John Carlos Danton definitely having a bad year His OBP is 260 But the hard contact is still there 15.9 percent barrel rate a 43.7 percent hard hit rate and those numbers haven't been as good since he came back off the IL So I don't think we have to go bananas here with Stanton, but his salary also below $3,000. I'm very open to it I think I've seen enough of him to still feel okay about him now that we're getting a salary discount And there are a lot of guys here you can feel good about in the Yankees Harrison Bader's been hitting the ball pretty well I mean Glaber Torres Josh Donaldson has actually been okay against lefties perceived with caution there obviously, but I Do think the Yankees are a fine play for today Despite their overall struggles the third sack will be where we can spend all that salary flexibility. That's in the Dodgers. I We do see teams have a bit of a lull after leaving elevation of course field And that could happen here with them because they were just there But again crazy hot in Kansas City and the matchup is good So I feel like we want to go back to the Dodgers here again They're facing Alec Marsh making his big lead debut in Marsh has had some flashes in the main in the minors Got a ton of whists both in triple a and double a and he got some ground balls as well But he walked a lot of guys and that could be an issue against a very veteran offense That is a 10% walk rate against righties and Marsh was not overly restrictive with hard contact in triple a his hard hit rate allowed It was 39% is era and double a was 5.32 So may have struggled with con hard contact there as well We don't have the data to prove whether that's true now Marsh is facing the Dodgers in Warm temperatures good for hitting He could wind up doing well, but I mean they've got no big league tape on him yet Maybe that helps but I do think that the best way to play things here is to stack the Dodgers and make Marsh prove It before we avoid stacking against it Typically, I'll try to find like a value player some like trendy guy to discuss in the like hitting section of the stack But I also just want to take a second here to marvel at JD Martinez the heater He's on right now. He had three home runs in two in three games of course field his ISO overall This year is now 319 and it's 342 against righty specifically. So we're talking about the Dodgers against a righty I'm gonna prefer Mookie Betts still because he's more likely to run But I think Martinez has pushed himself up into the two-slot as far as prioritizing guys for stacking against righty So above Freddie Freeman above Will Smith above Max Muncie. I think it's Mookie one Martinez to and then those guys from there So good problem to have where it's we're pushing down good batters because we have someone so good and hitting the ball So well this year and it's fun that Genie Martinez back to kind of his old ways once again Let's go now to things to watch didn't talk about shame and clannahan briefly He's facing the Mariners and that's a super high strikeout matchup But coming off a start where he left early due to a back injury and his strikeout rate wasn't super high heading He did that start either so I'm gonna avoid McClann hands night personally but it also could be a spot where that looks stupid just because He could be healthy could go overlooked as a result of that as a result of a salary So I won't be going here personally But if you're drawn there go ahead because it's a really good matchup for strikeouts or McClann hand against the Mariners Going back to the Yankees Cardinals game. I do like the other side of that game as well That's the Cardinals against Luis Severino Severino has struggled this year But he did seem to regain a bit of form last time out And that's why I had the Dodgers above the Yankees or the Cardinals for stacking for today But very receptive to them. Maybe that star could have been a fluke I respect Severino long term as far as a pitching a pitcher goes but Wouldn't mind going at the Cardinals within that same game as well Finally the Rockies are facing Michael Lorenzen, which is not a terrible spot Lorenzen has had good results this year But that's partly due to a lot of plus matchups in the AL central now. This is a plus matchup, too But it's that course field. That's a different scenario. I think we can stack the Rockies here There's definitely a scenario where they win this game. I actually bet their money line for tonight So if they win it that means they score more runs than the Tigers, which would make them probably the better stack so very much in the range of outcomes that the Rockies are the better stack at course field I do want to put them in my player pool as a result. Let's finish up here with the Dinger calls for today I don't typically go with two guys in the same team because it's kind of boring, but I Wanted a fun one to put my money where my mouth is and have a fun Or boring one to put my money where my mouth is and a fun one and that happened to be on the same team So the boring one is young Carlos Stanton I feel like we need to buy into the bad of ball data and kind of you know put myself out there a little bit for him It is a low salary. So it's not a boring or from that perspective But it is young Carlos Stanton really good weather for hitting So we'll go Stanton as the boring home run call for today, but the fun one Anthony Volpe Puts the ball in the air a lot against lefties has hit for hit for power so far this year I think that's a pretty fun combination and probably don't view him really as being a guy with a lot of power batting Lower in the order now. So maybe there's a downside there But I do think the power is fun So we'll go with the young Carlos Stanton Anthony Volpe despite the fact that both you'll probably bat lower in the order for tonight That's all we got for today here on the solo shot But as mentioned next week we saw the shows here despite the fact I'll be gone as Austin Swainman Tom Beckio filling the seats Tom here on the solo shot Austin over on covering the spread So big thank you to both those guys in advance follow Tom on Twitter at DFS underscore Tom and follow Austin at a swing three If you got any questions for me, I'll be kind of MIA for the next week or in weeks and week and a half or so back The Monday of the all-star break, but feel free to reach out. I got if you have questions I'm on Twitter at Jim Sonnis J. I am s a and yes want to thank you all for tuning in for today Good luck to you with your MLB DFS lineups Not just tonight, but also across the next week and we'll talk to you once again here on the solo shot After the all-star break. This has been the solo shot right here on the fan dual podcast network


T. F. N. N. Headline news update. Good morning, folks. Steve Rhodes coming to you live from the shores of a very pleasant Delray Beach, Florida. This year, 11 a.m. update and we start our day with a mixed bag. The mix goes like this. It's down to 15 points, basically flat. The S&P's off four point, basically flat. You got the NASDAQ up 36. Russell's up 12. That's a 6-10% move there. Semi is up over 1%. 54 points there. Tranny's down 38. New York Stock Exchange off a tad. Gold's down 10 bucks. Silver's off 46 pennies. And U.S. Dollar Index is a bit lower. Hmm. Something to think about. You got the Lights We Crew trading off a buck down at $78.18. Natural Gas up 8 pennies at $168.30. Treasury down 7 takes. Printed out at $1.18.28. Let's figure out what all that means by looking at that 9-panel market update chart. We begin the ESMini up the left-hand side. No topping pattern that is in place right now. A bearish reversal candle at day's end would confirm a rogement to mid-cater top. That would just simply suggest moving back to the 50-50 to level. It's still an out, a potential outcome as long as that spot bell takes your mains above its 50-day. It closed just below it on Friday. It's trading right at it about right now. $13.89 is a 50-day, $13.93 is the current print. The NQ still retains its roads. No, it does not. I take that back. It does not have any kind of a topping pattern. It needs a bearish reversal candle to confirm that. Right now, price is trading above the top of its daily profile. It's in bullish mode. US dollar index, again, finding its support down at the bottom of its profile. That profile levels 103.66. If that area fails, we likely see price head lower. Otherwise, the consolidation continues between 103.66 and 104.42. Goldilocks, nice little rally on Friday, just rallied right into its descending trend line resistance. We're getting towards that cone out there. And we'll see a break at some point in time of this pattern. Silver's got an A to B equal CD to the downside. Price is consolidating with inside its profile. That says that it's got support at $22.29, resistance $23.24. Lights recruit, ran into the top of its daily profile last week, also descending trend line. Perhaps price is going to pull back and test support in the 73.15-ish area out there. Natural gas has a buy the D point pattern. You'd love to see price stay above the top of its daily profile, 1.754. If it does that, it increased the odds of a further rally. 30-year Treasury, what do we take a look at here? March, really, we should be switched nowhere to June. Give me a moment here to do that. M24. I don't see what we've got here. You've got the 30-year Treasury consolidating with inside his profile. Hit resistance this morning up at 1.19.22. That's where the sellers reside. Support between 1.17.21 and 1.18. Even Steven, again, that's the June contract for the 30-year Treasury. Folks, stay tuned for the Trader Zen Show. But if you have to start your Monday, please have a magnificent one. Thanks for joining us. We'll look forward to being with you again soon. Take care now.


After having seen dozens of long COVID patients in my clinic and in my practice, as well as seeing the progression and the poor way that they're often treated in conventional medicine with dozens of medications being thrown at them and dozens of really doctors trying to treat them without much success in terms of healing, I thought I would share my two cents on the most common long COVID symptoms that I'm seeing and often how we approach them from the field of traditional Chinese medicine. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hein, Doctor of Acupuncture in Traditional Chinese Medicine and author of the health book, Master of the Day. So before we jump into this video, there are two very important links right below the video. The first link is for a free guide I've put together, which is four daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, you can reach out to my private practice and clinic with the link right below this video. So first, let's jump into the literature a little bit and take a look at some of the documented most common long COVID symptoms. Now in one piece of literature, it discussed that long COVID had similarities with other viral onset illnesses, like chronic fatigue syndrome known as ME, myalgic encephalomyelitis, as well as POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. So apparently according to this research paper, seeing these similarities has laid the way for some research, but there are many, many, many different systems in the body that encompass these, really that can have these symptoms. So cardiovascular, thrombotic, type two diabetes, chronic fatigue syndrome, POTS like symptoms, dizziness, palpitations, et cetera. And the final line here, symptoms can last for years, particularly in cases of new onset chronic fatigue syndrome, they are expected to be lifelong. And I'm going to leave that there because it's BS. So in my practice, there are three broad categories that I see probably 90% of patients come in with. The very first category is just general nervous system, right? These are the POTS like symptoms, palpitations, issues with heart rate regulation, tachycardia, racing heart, anxiety, panic attacks, insomnia, dizziness, and even sometimes hot flashes associated with nervous system dysfunction. The second category is digestive slash respiratory. And I share them because in the field of traditional Chinese medicine, we often treat them in some cases the same way or with the same formulas even. So some examples are gas and bloating, nausea, mysterious abdominal pain, chronic coughs and shortness of breath, sinus issues and runny noses. And the third is a hybrid category, one that I lump under the category of lymphatic issues. So some of them overlap with digestive and respiratory and nervous system, but they involve things like chronic wandering sensations or low grade pressure in the head, chronic low grade headaches, low immunity and things like that. So I would say of the 50 or so most recent long COVID patients I've seen, probably 90% of them symptoms have been in these three buckets and a very smaller percentage in other buckets. Now the million dollar question is why does it happen, right? Because not everyone that gets COVID develops long COVID symptoms. And based in the literature, each research paper has a different estimate for what percentage of people develop long COVID as a general through line statistic across the board. But let's talk about this a little bit more from my profession. The first factor predisposing you to long COVID really is not your own genetic makeup, it's really your own health. So within traditional Chinese medicine, going back thousands of years, our ancient medical texts have said that almost regardless how bad the external threat is in terms of a virus or infection. If it is something like respiratory for example, just because it is a very, very strong bug or pathogen does not mean guaranteed you're going to get very, very ill. And COVID was a perfect example. The whole world went into shutdown and lockdown and yet it was very easy to predict based on these predisposing factors based on your age demographics and based on some genetic factors, how bad your COVID is going to be, your body weight, medications you're on, other illnesses you may have like depression or maybe you're taking antidepressants. These were strongly correlated with your outcome of COVID. It wasn't like a grand mystery, right? Of course there are outlying events, no doubt about it, but the curve was pretty damn predictable. And what that means is that within our profession, traditional Chinese medicine, there are certain illnesses and predisposing factors and constitutional archetypes we'll talk about in a second that indicate you may have a worse outcome than other people. But the biggest one is if you are in poor health, of course all cause mortality. If you are in worse health and more overweight and a smoker and a drinker, you're more likely to die of a lot of different illnesses, not just upper respiratory infections, right? Good health leads to generally better outcomes across the board. Now if you've seen some of my other videos, I've talked about this battery charge idea and I want to specifically make this reference the context of young patients that come in to see me for long COVID because I've treated most of them who are people around 30 or 35. And a high percentage of them have not even been able to work, which is why they've sought out my help. Those that have come in, every single one has been back to work within six months or so. And I will say that for these people, it was again no mystery why they got sick, right? These were people inevitably who were overtaxed, overworked, under-rested, not exercising, not necessarily eating the best, and were not frankly in as good health as they thought. And so again, from my point of view in traditional Chinese medicine, this was not some mystery. It was not random chance at all for these people that I have seen. It was predictable actually. And for many of us that I have seen that are young and got it were not frankly in as good health as they thought. I mean it was really that simple. Or they had significant predisposing factors. So the second one is constitution, right? One of the things, one of the early research papers that came out from China when COVID was becoming a major issue in the news was doctors describing their initial findings. And if you can remember, one of the most concerning was patients that were coughing up almost like a glue-like phlegm that was the most thick sputum that they had ever seen or experienced. Now they kept saying these things like glue-like, right? Along my own patients that I had initially seen when COVID was on the scene and was the initial strain, like the alpha strain, that was a much more virulent one and people were getting much sicker. They kept talking about this glue-like sputum that they were having. And early doctors within TCM that were working in hospitals seeing this had noted that it primarily affects the tie-in organ system. Now tie-in is the lung and the spleen, spleen-pancreas organ pair. And why that's relevant is that these organs, we say in one of our ancient medical texts says the spleen is the origin of mucus and phlegm and the lung is the container. So very often chronic disorders involving chronic sputum production we treat via the digestion, not via the lungs. It's very interesting. But many lung COVID patients I've seen have issues with chronic sputum or chronic rhinitis, right? Chronic runny nose, drippy nose, congestion, cough with shortness of breath. And we're often treating the digestion and not the lung to make this issue go away. So that organ system was one of the ones most affected. Now why that's relevant is that if you constitutionally, if you genetically have had that tendency your entire life, then in general you are statistically, not guaranteed, statistically more likely to be harmed or get a more serious case of COVID. It's a lot like if you're an asthmatic prone to chronic respiratory issues, then of course fall and spring when leaves are falling or when flowers are blooming is probably going to affect you more than someone who has no susceptibility to basically anything respiratory stirring up their symptoms. So that's always important to keep in mind. Now my final note here is probably my most important note. This is one of those conditions that conventional medicine is almost entirely useless for. I don't really know another way to say that ethically, but that there are alternatives that this is not that scary. I see patients who've been ill for two years now on a dozen medications, typically an antidepressant, anti-inflammatory, sometimes steroids, sometimes a benzodiazepine as well. And the majority of them are not that scary to treat to people in my profession. I will leave a veiled meaning in this video for you if you need the help. And it is something that is completely utterly mistreated and is conventional medicine has been useless for besides medicating you to high hell. So it's not common that I'll be this bold, but I've seen how sick some young people can get and older people and very few of these cases are not able to be helped by our profession. So I'll leave that there for you in this video. And that is my two cents on the most common symptoms I'm seeing in long COVID. Before we go, check out those other links below this video. I have a lot more to say on this and maybe over the coming months, I'll put out more information on how I actually treat this clinically for the people that aren't able to see a practitioner because I know that some people have gotten really, really sick from it. So that's what I have for you today, guys. Check out those links below the video and I'll see you soon.


So I just want to show you guys what happened. I'm looking for a plush. Do you remember what I lost a long, long time ago? Yep, I just found the Pez dispenser. I just found it. Oh my goodness, I just found it. And I have the person's contact information, so I am going to reach out to them right now and see if they still want this item.


Welcome back. It's still the breakfast and plus TV Africa. And of course, we're set for our second major conversation, January, as we said before the break is cervical cancer awareness month. It is said to be a perfect opportunity for the World Health Organization and its partners to raise awareness about cervical cancer and HPV vaccination. Don't worry, we'll get to know all that means. Well, we're told that 19 of the top 20 countries with the highest cervical cancer burden were in sub-Saharan Africa in the year 2018. Cervical cancer presents a significant public health threat to women on the African continent, all but one of the top 20 countries worldwide with the highest burden of cervical cancer in 2018, like we said, we're in Africa. What do we need to know about this ailment so that we live a long and healthy life? So we have joining us to discuss this Dr. Blossom, Madua Fokwa. She's a public health physician joining us as well as in Ligas. Dr. Madua Fokwa, good morning to you and thank you very much for your time. Good morning, Kofi. Thank you so much for having me. All right, all right. What is cervical cancer? Let's start from the basics. Yes, so cervical cancer is a disease that affects the neck of a woman's womb. So the neck of a woman's womb is like right below the womb, the womb is where the baby stays. So a cancer is a disease that not only affects the cell of the organ where it's part, but it can actually spread to other parts of the body and eventually it will lead to death. Wow, wow, wow. What are the risk factors for cervical cancer? So cervical cancer is a very interesting cancer. It's one of the cancers that we actually know the cause of this cancer in 99% of the cases. Cervical cancer is caused by a virus called human papillomavirus. So it's interesting in other cancers like breast cancer, colon cancer, we know, okay, let's say if you don't exercise or if your diet is high in fat, you're at risk. But in this particular cancer, we actually do know the cause and the cause in most of the cases is human papillomavirus. And it is sexually transmitted infection. And most people that are sexually active have actually come in contact with human papillomavirus. So it's actually quite common. This is a worry, worry. Are you saying the cervical cancer is a sexually transmitted disease?  And this is what a lot of people don't realize, yes. Wow, that's surprising, really.  Yes, absolutely.  But the difference between human papillomavirus and other sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea, syphilis, even HIV is ubiquitous. That is to say, everywhere. So if you've had unprotected sex, even once in your life, most likely you have come in contact with the human papillomavirus. Wow, wow, wow. Yes. So I mean, this human papillomavirus you're talking about, I hope I have mentioned it right. Yes, you are. How does one, maybe for instance, a carrier contract it? Is it hereditary? Because for someone to share it, they must have gotten it all. Is it basically just spread from person to person? Is it hereditary factor, a gene factor here? Or DNA factor here? So it's not hereditary, it's spread from person to person. So it sounds bleak as you're hearing it, but I don't want to say the good thing about human papillomavirus, but the thing about human papillomavirus is in 95% of cases, the infection will resolve on its own. So it will resolve and the individual wouldn't even know that they had the infection. So in 95% of cases, it resolves without doing any harm to the individual. But in 5% of the cases, it can now progress to cancer, it can not just progress to cancer of a cervix, it can progress to cancer of the oral cavity, the throat, the aenus, any part of your body that engages in sexual activity, it can actually progress to cancer in those areas. But usually in about 5% of the cases. Why, I know the kids are watching this morning, so I'm going to have to change the way I'm asking this question, these questions, but why the throat? Okay, so people that engage in oral sex, for example, so it can be transmitted from the perineal cavity from the pubic area, from the vagina to the throat. So people that engage in anal sex, it can also be transmitted to that area as well. All right, I think we will substitute the S word for intercourse, maybe just. Okay, yeah, okay. Yes, yes, yes. Those weren't really things. This is a heated topic, it's more heated than I thought it would be. But for the person who has it, I don't know, maybe the first person who ever had it, for people who do not engage in unprotected intercourse with persons who are carrying this human papillomavirus, is there another way to transmit it? Or is it not known to the pub to maybe sign so far, I mean, if there are other ways of getting it? Because, I mean, apart from unprotected intercourse, let's say. You also, like I said, it's a sexually transmitted infection, so that's really how it's transmitted. But that's actually not the big news. The big news here is 95% of the cases it will resolve, if 5% of the cases it will progress. But the bigger and the more interesting news is, it takes so long to progress from human papillomavirus infection to cervical cancer, for example. It can take up to 20 years. So that 20 years presents you with the opportunity to pick it up with screening tests and actually have it treated and you'll be completely fine. So we have so many screening tests that we do. We actually do have a vaccine for the human papillomavirus. So there's so many layers of protection that have been made available. And like you said at the beginning, most of the deaths from cervical cancer are for in lower middle income countries like Nigeria. And that's because of lack of healthcare access. So people lack access to the vaccine, people lack access to screening tests like the Pap smear, people lack access to all these protective services that can actually prevent you from either developing cervical cancer or dying from cervical cancer. So people actually don't realise in parts of the West, like the US, the UK, Europe, people really don't die of cervical cancer anymore because at four points your healthcare provider is going to pick it up and going to treat it and then you'll be fine. Interesting. Okay, so this is very good information and you're putting out here. Since we've seen it affects the women, how about men? Because the statistics that we put out earlier talking about, is it or something that the men are in danger of? Because the intercourse, most times we have legally and officially, it's between male and female. Yes, that's a fantastic question. I'm glad you asked that question. So back to what I had said initially. So you know, we've started vaccinating children between the ages of nine and 14 with the human papillomavirus vaccine. We are vaccinating boys and girls and this is why we're doing that. Because usually the man can transmit the virus to the woman, but if he's already vaccinated then he's not going to get the infection. That's fine. But for the men, if they engage in oral intercourse for example, they can actually get the human papillomavirus in the oral cavity on the throat and it can actually cause cancer in those areas. For people that engage in oral intercourse as well, they can actually have anal cancer from human papillomavirus. So that's how men are affected. Men don't have cervixes obviously, but they can have oral cancer through cancer and anal cancer as well from human papillomavirus. Hmm. Okay. Yes. All right. So we'll come to the prevention very quickly. We're almost out of time. So from what you've said, taking the vaccine as you mean, it's the HPV vaccine. It's one of the ways of preventing this. Is a vaccine for children alone? Can adults take it as well? Great question again. So the recommendation is children taking it between the ages of 9 and 14, they take two doses. From the ages of 15 and 26, they take three doses. After the age of 26, you have to have a discussion with your healthcare provider to understand your exposure, your possible exposure, and then your healthcare provider can advise as to whether you will benefit from the vaccine, depending on the level of exposure you've had who advised whether you benefit from the HPV vaccine or whether you should just go ahead and do other screening tests like HPV virus tests. There's a test for the HPV virus which you can readily get. Or you can get what we call the pap smear or you can get what we call the DIA. So these are things that you can do if you can't, if your healthcare provider decides that you may not benefit from the vaccine because you've already been widely exposed to the virus. You said it takes about 20 years for it to progress to the first stage. For those who get tested and they found to have this virus before it gets to the cancer stage, can they take a pill for it? Is there a cure? Yes, absolutely. So what happens is you get the HPV test. So what we usually do, we give you the test along with the pap smear for the females. If you test negative for the HPV virus and you test negative on the pap smear, you don't get tested again for five years. But if you do get, if you get to get tested and you're positive, you have to see you in one year. So depending on the level of advancements that we see, for example in your pap smear, you might want to see you in six months and for some people, you might actually need to get treated immediately. So treatments are ready, they are available. We have cryotherapy, we have resection, there are so many things that can be done but you can actually get treated and not progress to advance cancer. How can people on Weapon Quick and People get tested and what's the recommendation for males and females to get tested? Is it every year? What kind of tests do they need to do? So the test is called the Human Papillomavirus Test. So it's available at lab facilities around Lagos. Some tertiary facilities also operate. So if you speak to your health care provider, they will be able to refer you to a lab facility that offers that test. So you just get yourself tested and for the females you get your pap smear done and once the results are reviewed and it's negative, you're basically fine for the next five years and then after five years you get tested. So now the HPV test is a little bit expensive so not everyone can afford it. For people that cannot afford it, you can get the pap smear. If your pap smear is negative, then we don't see you for the next three years. So you do it every three years if it's negative up to the time that you're 60 years old, after 60 years old you're going to do it every year for three years and then after that you don't do it at all. Okay.  I'm not judging anyone here but just for their safety. No, that's not what I'm here for. I'm not here to tell people what to do in their private spaces. I'm just here to present what options are available to protect yourselves and to prevent the stressful, high-primary mental disease. So I'm not going to tell you what to do at your own private time. Because if we hear that the advice is that the husband should refrain from the oral, maybe it might cause some issues in some marriages. I like the way you put it. All right. Is there anywhere people can get more information from? Is there anywhere people can get more information from? So yeah, people can get more information with the association of public health physicians of Nigeria and Lagos, France. So you can follow us on Instagram, APHPN Lagos. We have periodic information sessions that we put out there. So you can get a lot of information. You can also get really good information from the World Health Organization website. So these are really good sources where you can get accurate information. Yes. All right. Fantastic. Fantastic. Anything you want to add before we go? All I want to add is for your viewers, anyone listening to us right now, this might be the wake-up call that you need. Go to your health care provider. Remember, the PAPS smear is very cheap. It's not expensive. You can get it done and it can actually save your life. And if you have children between the ages of 40, please do get them vaccinated against HPV vaccine. Against HPV virus with the HPV vaccine. Please take care of yourself. Take care of your loved ones. Spread the information you could actually save someone's life. All right. Dr. Blossom Madua Fokwa is a public health physician and also the Public Relations Officer for the Association of Public Health Physicians of Nigeria Lagos. Blossom, thank you very much for your time. Thank you so much for having me. It was great. It was great being here. Fantastic having you and look forward to having you again. Thank you very much. And that's the size of our package. Very important, as she says, go get tested. The human papillomavirus test and for our ladies, where it's very important and you can decide if you want to stay away from the other things she talks about. Okay. Don't look at me like that. My name is Kofi Bartels. Please follow us on social media at Plus TV Africa, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. And of course on YouTube, we have two accounts, Plus TV Africa and Plus TV Africa Lifestyle. We're back tomorrow with more right here on the breakfast. Have a wonderful day. Up next is the news brief at night.


Hey guys she bear here today, we're going to check out this pulling chainsaw that I bought At a flea market here a while back Let's see if we can get it running an old pulling saw here It's kind of dirty pretty took some screws out of it because it didn't have spark All right, and I'll show you why it didn't have spark.  That is way too tight. See that or there's another problem, but that's too tight. You can't hardly You know, but we'll get into that and we'll check it out. We may go and pull his chain off While we work on it So I'm gonna take this now what I've got. Whoops. Sorry. I've got I Don't have an extra coil, but I have this black Hawk. This does run Far plug out of it to put in a blower the other day, but this one does run it runs. Okay, but it's really decent It's really clean down inside there, but I'm just you know I'm gonna take two of these and Build one. I don't know which one I'm going to use yet Let's see how well this one runs. We're going to take the coil off of this one put on here Try to start it and go from there, but I'm gonna go and take this outside blow it off with compressed air I'm not gonna bore you with that and We'll take the coil off the black Hawk and put on there should be the same thing I think we'll see if we can't get it to fire Okay, guys, I got this blown out a little bit Just to check and see If everything's gonna be alright There's just three screws that hold this top on here. So that's all I'm taking off right now because I got to get the part plug wire used and abused but It feels like it's got better compression than the black Hawk which they are both, you know pulling See that's what I've got to get to is the spark plug turn you this way.  Okay now We're gonna put this on here. Keep the magnets away. There's magnets on this flywheel right here See there's magnets there. So Keep your magnets away just for a second. All right Now we're gonna go ahead And put this on here it goes like this. There's adjustment on here. I'm gonna show you here in just a second That's why them holes are slotted. Okay. You have to adjust this coil So I'm going to pull it all the way back away from that flywheel Reading for that, and I'll show you that here in just a second Let me get these started in here All right, they're just finger tight just enough so this doesn't slide forward now bring your magnets around and You take a business card I Just so happen to have one of mine right here, and you take your business card Back out a little bit, and you put it in between here Right there just like that And we're gonna loosen these two two bolts these two screws actually they're not really bolts We're gonna loosen these up and let that Let the magnet pull this coil right up against it. Did you hear that? That's the perfect. That's how you adjust these You can use I've used match books before they That's kind of a little bit bigger gap than what you want But a business card something like that you can take a cigarette You know a piece of your cigarette pack, you know like this right here that right there that little flat That would be perfect if we fold it over three times I think two to three times you want to get these two tight Whoops, I'll see this one. I forgot I've got to put The ground on there Or it won't run gas next up ready to go for this thing That'll be our next deal We're gonna put Gas in it, and then we'll take it out and see if it'll fire up Okay, see that ground has to be on there because see this this coil is mounted in plastic Well, I can't make a circuit if it's grounded in plastic It'll just be like you shut the switch off So I don't get real super tight because you can't strip these out But make sure they are snug. Sorry can't see nothing but my hand and then Spin that cord out make sure nothing's hitting and you should be good feels good I probably shouldn't do this but here we're gonna plug this in and stick this in here And I'm gonna give that a spin And see if it's got spark. Well, it's got some good compression to it in it fast enough. I want to take Take the coil wire take the coil wire put it on spark clip have to go Right down in there, and then that goes like that and this little clip Goes on here to hold that and that keeps everything from rubbing on the flywheel just before This was missing the primer ballpark. I just happened to have one so I Just replaced it So that way, you know, I'm not screwing with you guys I'm gonna put this on so I'm gonna put these four screws in and the three screws back in this We'll put some gas in we'll take it outside and see if it'll start Hi guys up with gasoline. I Thought I was filming it But I wasn't you're gonna get to see if this thing will start or not see it's got Fuel in the primer bulb there. Can't see that switches on give it some throttle Let's see what happened Carburetor may need a little adjusting. I'm gonna keep one of these on which one what I'm gonna keep I'll put a new I'll put a new adjust the carb a little bit, but I think I think it's pretty good running engine You know how to change the coil on one of these and how to adjust the coil None to it. Well, you see there it's That's for the chain. So and since we don't have the barn chain on it. That's why it's spitting that oil out of there so I'm real good. So I think that's one I gave $10 for so Yeah, I gave 10 for that one 15 for the black Hawk they wanted 40 or 50 for the brand new one. I got it for 35. So And I know the black Hawk runs too. It doesn't have as much pep as this it could need a carburetor adjustment to but it takes one of them little special little screwdriver deals a little nut driver and I Strip mine out working on the weed eater. So but I think with the With an adjustment on that car about think it'll be alright, but this this sounds real good real peppy So getting on the carburetor the chain sharpen, but if I decide to keep that one I Got almost a brand new chain in there on the black Hawk. So there you go. It's how you change the coil Started up pretty good. I don't know how long it's been sent. I've had it for what a year I don't know why somebody would pull the coil off of it Maybe because it wasn't running quite right and they don't know how to adjust that car because it's got those little plastic Covers on them on the adjusting screws on the needle valves. You can only turn them so far but what I'll probably do on that one is Well drain gas I'll mix it 40 to one because that makes it a little heavy because I didn't know anything about it and I'll switch gas over to 40 to one and I'll pop them little plastic things off Adjust them where I want it where I want it to be and then pop them back on so Then I'll still have a little bit adjustment after that. So it runs pretty good guys. Thanks for watching. Oh This kind of stuff wears me out Shade bear 1000. I'm gone for now. Oh Yeah, it didn't want to start and I couldn't figure out why I Had to switch off Then it kept wanting to stall out on me. I'm like what's going on. I didn't have a choke all the way open. So All right guys see traffic never fails. All right guys. I'm gonna go for now. Thanks for watching Shade bearer myth man a legend. I'm gone for now. Bye. Bye guys. Hope this helps


But specific to this work. So though we did not use later, but the insect was one of the pieces where we had to apply control vocabulary and ontology. Right. We have some two, you know, two specific for our needs, you know, coming from smart logic, it's CMA4, which helps us to integrate the ontology into the system. And then future data, we will not be having any problem, such problem, at least we will be able to minimize the problem. Right. So, and then as I said, like some sort of normalization of the data had done in the background, right, we had a lot of insect values, they are sometimes in thousands. Sometimes they are in point decimals and so on. So we normalize based on the overall impact of that protein to two different classes or different classes of insects. So they get zero to five different classes. Right. And I already explained during the process itself for we have also done I know ML work for other pieces where we had a lot of features. Right. In this case, the feature was only one. That's the sequence right out. And I also explained to you how did we overcome that. Right. And once you use that, now you're generating too many features, that's another challenge. Right. So but what would we apply in addition to looking at say variable importance, which is, you know, like in various methods is that your domain knowledge, whether if I look at the sequence nature of, you know, nature of these amino acids within the sequence, if this is a physiochemical property, this needs to be like considered, right, that is the domain information. And then one of the important factors in model management is that how can you integrate different programming languages. Right. Our group is like extensively using our programming. And this, this is a Python toolkit. Right. And so what we did for that, we extracted all the features using Python, but then training validation and building dashboards, all this piece was taken care even data cleaning was taken care using by our programming. And heterogeneous skill level of end users, I don't know whether it is same for all the domains, but definitely in biology, biotechnology companies. So you build off, of course, you're going to build this model, but how are you going to give the product to the end users, right, you cannot ask them to run it on cloud or run it, you know, you cannot do that. Right. So somewhere it has to be, okay, just one click or do just some drop down selection and all. So, I mean, many of us not only we are doing it, I think, even you might be doing this piece, we are building, I mean, we built a dashboard, which basically helps them to visualize and then take the decision like for advancement decisions. Yes, protein A has to go for the next phase, protein B, no. And model management. So in a company or like probably many of you are coming from IT companies and different domains, maybe that is from the data science domain. Probably you might be the early adopters of some of these advanced technologies, right. But being a agriculture company, we may not be facing up with the existing technologies. So but we are, you know, we have understood the value of the data. And then we started like we moved into AWS now last five years, right. So then after that, we started looking at, you know, how to run these workflows, how to build the models on the cloud. So, so that is when, you know, we started using Pakistan. Now we are also having the, you know, the SageMaker available as well. So in, I mean, in future, we'll be also using all those things. And I already explained you why we used Pakistan. So now the, so some of the learnings in this is the data component basically. So we had to do a lot of data cleaning data, you know, if you do not do, right. So as I said, we use only feature earlier, and then we've got almost nothing other than the traditional method outcome. And in this case, we, after cleaning the data, so we had, you know, good amount of, you know, the comparison we could do, we could identify the patterns in the data. So all those stuff, that is one of the learnings and other learnings is like, you know, like when you generate a lot of features, what are different ways you can, you know, select those features. Important point. And what we want to do next is that we want to explore more descriptors. Basically, this toolkit has a lot of, a lot of other features, which we want to extract, right. So one of the problems we have in that is it generates the columns just with ABCD sometimes as a column header. Sometimes we are not, we are failing to identify what is this feature is about. But in some cases it gives the header of polarity and hydrophobicity, something like that, which we are very familiar with. So we are looking into the detailed scientific information of those, you know, the descriptors. And the second thing is recently, I think just a few days back, I feature was updated. And now we have a version called I learn on the GitHub, which also can be extended for DNA sequences as well. I think I don't, it can be also extended to any other sequences, basically generally. So wherever it is like continuously repeated, right, you can probably feed it generate the feature. So, and then, so what we want to do, based on the customer input, we did not consider the insect column. But what we also see is that, as I mentioned earlier, different proteins are effective against different insects. So, can we now include those insects as a feature, or a class of insect or order of insect as a feature, so then identify those potential, you know, proteins which can kill at least those groups of insects with more confidence we can tell those right. So that's the next aspect we are going to do it. So, now I'd like to leave it at where else this, you know, this this method can be used, definitely wherever you are using the proteins, wherever you are studying of the proteins, talk about, you know, pharmaceutical health domain, you know, cases, because we all know that cancers, right, diabetes, and age related diseases, right, your Parkinson's Alzheimer Parkinson's, like you would have seen the old people in measuring the body and Alzheimer's like the people for it tend to forget after certain a all these are controlled by proteins. So right in the age people protein aggregates that process is called protein aggregation, which leads to this process, and scientists are having studying different sequences, which can probably minimize these efforts, right. So, this study can be extensively used in that, and also in the diabetes and the cancers, they have the time or like I'm done finance, wonderful. Yeah, so, and then agriculture, not only I talked about developing the insect resistant plants, right. So now you have identified, you are going to, you know, suggest to the scientists, so they will take it forward. Of course, right, so that that's that's there, but you want to develop plants resistant to different things like maybe drought, or more water, more shade, right, we have all those products, right. So, can we apply this for other studies as well that is like we are thinking in house as well as even like anybody working on plant science should be able to use and also like many bioinformatics studies right who many IT companies also do a lot of bioinformatics. So it is definitely useful there if you have to come up with say some medicine, you know if you are working with some health domains where you want to suggest what should be the target. You know, you are developing a drug, what should be the target, the sequence target, right. So that's, that's the place. So that's it I wanted to share. So if you have any questions. Okay, thank you also for this very interesting presentation. Can we have a round of applause for the speaker please. Questions. It's the last talk of the day, but any questions. Okay, there's one question here and then one question here. Given the diverse nature of biology, you are recommending a set of proteins to the scientists, but do we have any real true positive, which can be actually taken forward with many of the features can be actually incorporated in your method as you mentioned as since there are many different classes as a further descriptors can be included right. So likewise, on what basis to that there must be some benchmark. Do we have a real true positives which is validated by the experiments ourselves. Yeah, I think very, very good question indeed. So we do have a lot of controls included in this when I say controls, there are positive controls that are negative controls. So we already that the label data, we know that which proteins are performing, you know, highly efficiently in the in the house we have the biological proof for that, we have been using that as a product, we have those products in the pipeline, you know, in the public as a commercial product, right. So that we have included. And also we do have a lot of, you know, the proteins, which are not performing at all. We have taken care of that. Yesterday's session, Chris mentioned about selection bias. So I think there is somewhat similar to the problem that he was trying to address in the sense that whenever we continue to make selection according to some prediction that we have made, and we select only those which are according to that prediction. In that sense, we are so if there are some values which are true negatives, I'm sorry, which are predicted to be false, but they are actually true. Yeah, those are the cases which eventually get ignored. So is there anything that that compensates for that in your model? Okay, so I think it's a question related to feature engineering, right. So you have the features and you have built a model, right. So based on the performance of the model, right, when you look at your confusion matrix, so it all starts from the data you have. So in this case, one thing I did not mention is about the data bias also, which we took care of by, you know, different methods, using those different methods. So in this case, one point is that we had, as I said, like we have both components like, you know, the it is supposed to be active, but we are predicting it as inactive, the vice versa. Right. So that we can fine tune that, right, depending on the feature you are you are probably feeding it in there. Or the data you are feeding it in there, but it all depends on the what customers basically want. The feature engineering part, we can do it probably once we realize that, you know, some of these features are probably not contributing at all. So as I said, there are many more features only by exploring those we should be able to probably know that. Yeah, answers your question. The question was more about so in that the predicted to be false, but they are actually effective those proteins. So as we go on sampling from get gone making experiments based on our predicted results. So we are actually ignore those values. So we don't actually make experiments with those which are not predicted by the model. Yeah, maybe you want to answer. We just like I understood the question right. I think, you know, we're asking that what if a model predicts it right. And then if it's model predicts active, but then it's still inactive and then we are still pushing it to the training data and training it again with the same data. So to do that, we're actually we are running the models in the lab lab along with the we're continuing the biological process as well. So that's how we are validating and we're actually validating the models correctness before you push it to the production. So we'll make sure you know before you push to the production will make sure if the model is highly accurate in you know, reducing either the true positives or post negatives right so we make sure and then we'll push it to that. That's the only way we can improve that. We will be before you push it to the production will be testing biological process as well as model testing. Yeah, I mean, as I indirectly said like it is depends on how you need it. There will be bias definitely like when you start tuning those the values you're looking at right so definitely that's expected to happen. Any other questions. Okay, if not, thanks a lot. And this brings us to a close to this edition of the fifth elephant. Thank you everybody for staying with us through the two days of the conference.


One of the hidden gems in central Minnesota business community is helping small businesses in more ways than one. The Small Business Development Center at Central Lakes College has seen considerable growth over the last few years as it continues to partner in building up the local economy. The grant funded program aids people wanting to start a small business by consulting with them on the process as well as holding training seminars and offering one-on-one consulting. But what the center prides itself on is the role it plays in getting small businesses up and running and contributing to the local economy. By far it's the small businesses that really drive the economy in the Brainerd Lakes area. So they're very very important to us and so the work we do helping support those small businesses I hope anyway you know really makes a difference in helping them grow and expand, add jobs and really contribute to our economy. The center has currently has nine consultants that provide services approximately 400 clients per year. Also clients of the center raised over 23 million dollars last year in financing to help support growth in their businesses.


Hello. In this lesson, we will go over the market drivers for petroleum refining industry, an overview of refinery processes and refinery products, and the chemical constitution of Kuro. Obviously, the principal driver for petroleum refining industry economics that is now very closely tied to environmental regulations as well. So we need to look into the supply and demand picture, whether it is for the crude oil or the refined products, such as fuels, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, etc. and the environmental regulations and the composition of these fuels, as well as on the operation of the refinery and the flexibility of the refinery to respond to the demand shifts or supply shifts on either side of this operation. And we will go over finally the chemical constitution of this very complex feedstock crude oil and how we can, in essence, better understand how different each crude oil is and how a refiner can do to adjust the processes, to accommodate these differences in the crude oil supply. A recent development in the United States, the increased production of soil gas, which also produces some liquid byproducts that are entering the refinery as our tourism feedstock. So we need to really understand how these feeds could be refined to give us a conventional set of products that we produce in the refinery. So I look forward to seeing you in these lessons and go through the activities. Thank you.