I appreciate you being here today for this exciting launch. A lot of people have put in a lot of hard work to make this day happen, so we just appreciate the encouragement and support of all of these strong leaders that are with us here today. F.C. Will or South Carolina Women in Leadership is a new, multi-partisan organization that's bringing women and men who support women's leadership together to fight for a better South Carolina. Not only politically, but socially, economically, educationally and environmentally, and F.C. Will looks to do this through connection and engagement, that's a big thing, engagement of women to political and policy leadership. F.C. Will's not competing against any other organizations that have been created to advance women's issues, but rather Will's goal is to support organizations like the League of Women Voters, the AARP and REN, by providing future leaders with the tools and information they need to compete at a level playing field. As a former television journalist who arrived in South Carolina in the late 90s, I had a chance to cover the State House, and there were the stories that made the air and many, many stories that didn't. And I remember as a young woman looking back with horror, as I would talk to Representative Gilda Cobb Hunter behind the scenes, and she would tell me stories that she didn't want put out there for the public to hear because she didn't want to be perceived as weak, but she was getting multiple death threats just because she was an African-American woman who was an elected official, someone elected by the people to serve the state.  From where I stood also as a journalist, I watched women come to the State House with incredible ideas innovated, ideas to push our state forward. But in order to get those ideas anywhere, they had to search for a strong male legislator because without a strong male leader around their ideas, they would give those ideas over, they wouldn't pass. They didn't have a chance of being taken seriously, and that's how they would try to get their ideas recognized or a bill passed. We've definitely come a long way since I was a journalist in the late 90s, but the journey is definitely far from over as we all know. You only have to watch the news to see the not-so-progressive talk that happens sometimes in our state, and we want to move forward. We want to move beyond that. We are all born with different strengths and different talents, and my faith teaches me that's because we're supposed to come together as a community so we can get rid of those blind spots by working together, that together we are stronger. Together we're going to get things done. We talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but SC Will knows it's one thing to have a seat at the table and another to actually have a voice to be listened to and to be taken seriously. Women should not be relegated to only having an opinion on education and issues that are around the female, that are female-oriented. Instead, we know that women can be an accomplished businesswoman and an accomplished mother, and SC Will is here to support women, whether they want to be the head of a bank, the head of a major pharmaceutical company, or governor of South Carolina, SC Will is here for these future leaders. Now we're going to introduce you to one of SC Will's founders, a local leader who has a number of strong women in his life, Columbia City Mayor Steve Benjamin. It's awesome to be with you all here this morning. As a son of a smart and strong woman, as a husband of an incredibly smart and strong woman, many of you know DeAndre, I tell her every day that she is the best thing that ever happened to me, and she agrees with me. It's humbling to have the opportunity to address you briefly here this morning. When Barbara first reached out to me about becoming one of the founding members, it reminded me of a journey I guess we were on maybe over a decade ago, spending some time with South Carolina women in politics. She hired me to sell the articles of incorporation and help founded organization, and it was a continuous thread in what has been an incredibly blessed and charmed life for me. I had the incredible opportunity as a 29-year-old to serve Governor Hodges, my first job, real job, in politics and in government service. Like many of you, we study certain things in school, and then you actually have a chance to apply these ideas and these ideals in the real world. Getting an opportunity to see if all these things that you thought ought to work right, actually do work right in the real world. They gave me a chance to apply these things as director of the South Carolina Department of Probation and Pro-Impartment Services. I took that job 20 years ago this spring. It was an incredible opportunity, and I got there at the time the state's second largest law enforcement agency. I got there, we had 950 employees, $43 million budget. Actually had a pretty significant number of female employees at our agency, but we saw some troubling trends. We saw that regardless of how long our senior managers had served at the agency, that they were not advanced this quickly, that their pay was not commensurate with their peers, and decided that I'd served the governor for three years, Max was my commitment to him, and that we ought to use that window to do something meaningful to change the arc of the agency. We did a pay study and decided that everyone who was underpaid would be paid. We elevated their pay to that of where their peers were. Then decided that our agency had never had a female director at the agency, although we had some pretty talented long-serving managers at the agency. I figured the only way that I could decide who the next director would be since I was not the governor, I couldn't make that ultimate decision, was that I would make sure that every one of my deputy directors was a female, so that when, in fact, I did leave, the odds were pretty good, and we wound up with a series of female directors at the agency since I left. Not only was it the right thing to do, but it was a smart thing to do. The incredible amount of commitment that I've seen, particularly amongst this incredible group of leaders here in council chambers with me here today, feeds this idea, which I don't believe is theory, it's just fact. When you have women in positions of power, we realize that serving, particularly in the public realm, we realize that we're not talking about just serving customers, we're talking about serving citizens. How do we build people so that we can make sure that each and every one of us has the opportunity to live up to our God-given potential? How do we continue to feed families and feed the spirit that we are certainly all on this together? We are greater than the sum total of our parts. And study after study, regardless of where you go, shows that when women are in positions of power, that things get better. You start getting thoughtful policy-making. You get people who are not only principled, but also willing to work across the aisle at times to just get things done. We've seen that type of leadership here at the city of Columbia, through Anson Clear and Franny Heizer and Belinda Gergel, and so proud to serve at my mayor pro-town, Tameka Isaac Devine. We had the opportunity to work together to hire our very first female city manager, Theresa Wilson. And as a result, we're getting some fantastic results on behalf of the people of Columbia, on behalf of the citizens of Columbia. I do believe that it's part of our DNA. Many of you often hear me talk about John Lewis-Gervais and the naming of the city of Columbia over 200 years ago. But folks don't always realize that the name Columbia was actually coined and made popular by Phyllis Wheatley, the former enslaved African-American poet, in her 1776 letter to George Washington, casting the name Columbia as this land of opportunity for all citizens. And we have indeed worked over the last several years to try and make that a reality, a place where people from 194 sovereign nations of the world live here in this city. We speak 90 different languages. We worship various different religions, but we do it and we do it together. And I do believe that in these troubling times in which we live, we are still very much the greatest democracy in the history of the world. I believe that firmly. But we are facing some really troubling times in which there are forces that seek to have us fighting against each other as opposed to working to lift each other up. And if in fact we are going to do the great things that we know we can do, we're going to need a whole lot more of you, we need to do what you're doing, but also hopefully grabbing the mantle of public leadership in deciding that you will serve in public office. We have to continue to create that foundation. We need people on both sides of the aisle and right in the middle as independents, but we need you involved. We have to create the foundation. It allows you to do all the great things that we know you can. As the only man, I think who's fully authorized to be in the room, other than Chris Traynor, I can't leave without teasing Chris one time. It's a mutual admiration society. I, again, am humbled to have the opportunity to serve as one of the founding members and so excited about the future of this great organization. God bless you and keep you. Thank you. One young lady was talking to me as she came in and she was asking me how I got involved in this organization. And many, many moons ago, when Barbara Rex calls, you answer the call. So that's why I'm here today. And with that being said, I just really respect this woman's dedication to public service and her focus on women and making our community better. So with that being said, here's a founding board member, Ms. Barbara Rex. The clothes left. I think I found an old folder. So I'm going to, I just told the mayor he'd already said something that I was going to say, so I really didn't need to stand up, but there are a few things I want to add with my reading glasses. So people ask me all the time why I am so driven to persuade women to step up into leadership roles. And I want to tell you a story. So I'm an entrepreneur.  Many years ago, I built a company named Rex. I must have done a pretty good job of it because people are still telling me that they wish I'd opened my store again and little things like that, but I've moved on to other endeavors. Some of you may remember shopping there, others may remember because your mom or your grandma told you that they once shopped there. Whether you remember or not, we built a $10 million company with stores in three different cities. It was great. I was the lone ranger. So the media would call me and they'd say, they'd ask me questions about women in business and business successes and different kinds of issues, and then they'd ask me to refer them to another woman or other women that were in similar positions. I thought, and I thought, I would have been honored to refer them to someone else, but there was no someone else. Remember, this is a few years ago. There were no bank presidents like Kim Wilkerson from Bank of America. There were no CEOs like Lou Woods Kennedy. There were no Joanne Turnquist running multi-million-dollar community foundations, and there were no women in the South Carolina Senate. The question from the media and my absence of peers at that point stuck with me and have driven me for all these years until we got to what I'm proud to announce today as the launch of South Carolina Women in Leadership. It's not just my dream. It's the dream of many others, but I'll get back to a discussion of those other dreamers in just a few minutes. So today's pool of women leaders is very shallow. Our mission at Wilk is to deepen that pool and to achieve what experts call critical mass, or 20 to 30 percent representation by women, we need to persuade a whole lot of women to set aside their learned and reinforced lack of self-confident confidence.  I'm not rich enough. I don't have nice enough clothes. I need more degrees. I need to take care of my family. I like to tell a joke sometimes that sometimes, and this is a broad brush stroke, so forgive me, Dwayne and other gentlemen that are in the room, but I like to say that sometimes men get up in the morning and they look at themselves in the mirror and they say, hmm, not bad. I think I'll run for Senate. Well, by contrast, women look at themselves in that same mirror and they make a long list of their shortcomings, why they can't even think about running for office. So studies say almost across the board that unless you have at least a 20 percent representation by women, outcomes do not change. They're at the table, but they don't say anything or they aren't listened to. But somewhere between 20 and 30 percent we achieve that critical mass and suddenly women voices are heard. Women approach the world through a different kind of lens. We have a different background. We're raised to be perhaps more compassionate, to be more aligned with each other to solve problems, and I've lost my place, but we challenge old-speak by asking things like, are you open to new information? Because I've got some ideas. So whether it's a Navy ship or the U.S. Senate or a seat on the board, all organizations function better with diversity. So women solve problems. I know that's a broad brush stroke. Not all women solve problems and not all men fail to solve problems. But if you consider presenting a problem to a group of men and women, my personal experience is that men say, who's going to fix this? And women put their heads together and they say, all right, let's do this. And we do. We get things done. Here you, it's got to get done. So Will aims to work with our allied organizations, like Wren, like AAUW, like AARP, to help identify prospective leaders and offer them the tools and resources to grow their leadership skills. We do not endorse issues. We do not support candidates. We provide tools and resources that every organization and every individual can use to learn how to run for office, how to become a public speaker, how to reduce polarization by improving our civic discourse. I think Allison told me not to use that term and there was a better one, but... Sorry about that. So today we launched our new website, scwomenlead.net. I will tell you it's not perfect, but a work in progress. One of the things that I learned in being in technology is that you're better off being 80% and on time than 100% and late. So we are 80% and on time, and I am counting on everyone in this room and everyone else who may hear this, just give us your feedback and tell us what we can do to improve it. We accept new information. We invite new information, and we will change as we gain that new information. So I want returning to my story. Why is this so important to me? So I have five children, three of them are girls. I have six grandchildren, and heaven forbid, I have another one on the way. I feel that I owe them all a way to ensure that their children and their children's children have the kind of bright future that I do or the bright opportunities that I do. I owe it to them to ensure that they are not lone rangers like I was with no one else, no peers to turn to to say, how do I do this better? Engage me, help me out. I want that list of peers to be so long that I run out of breath trying to read the entire thing. So I invite you all to become participants in women in leadership. South Carolina women in leadership will for short because we will overcome. We will get this done.


Recent research suggests that there is broad agreement among institutions when it comes to using riboa for trauma patients who are unresponsive to resuscitation efforts. However, there is still some variation in the exact criteria used for patient selection. This includes the systolic blood pressure threshold for early access to the femoral artery and the use of riboa for traumatic arrest or chest extremity hemorrhage control. This article was authored by Jonathan Nguyen, Andrew Beckett, Chan Spalding, and others.


This is Michigan control Houston that to call from a pilot Rick Sirfoss on board Atlantis indicating the crew has sited the Mir space station has it inside in its crew optical alignment site an optical site that's mounted in the windows of Atlantis cockpit incredible view of the Mir space station over the earth we're with you on the flight tech now congratulations to all of you on just a fine rendezvous no response required please feel free like we're in time to see a sunset on the mirror that's Houston your go for shuttle ODS hatch opening for Delta P under point two okay we're opening the hatch the two of you look great it's like they're welcoming you aboard verify you've installed the shuttle mirror air duct the ground one please verify shuttle mirror air duct installed and Houston you're going back to help out with Rick we should have that vent hooked up here in just a moment how do you like your new home okay well it's a bigger crowd than we usually get in space at one time I'd just like to begin by saying this today has been kind of an unreal day and a very real day for us the whole approach coming in though everybody kept commenting on board the shuttle how we just can't believe we're here mirror doesn't look real although it certainly is and it looked gigantic on the way in and that's the unreal part of it the real part though is the fact that there's a space station up here and we flew a shuttle up to it and dock to it and it's a just a good reminder now having done this three times that this is the operation of doing this is maturing and that this is what we ought to be doing this is the first time in my three-foot shuttle flight so I've actually gone someplace when I left the planet Earth and it's a very nice feeling thank you Shannon you're too kind and Dave we've brought some books along for the children of Yuri and because we both share the same dreams and that is for a future space exploration and for the future of our children and we both have talked about this before and we know it's very important that we continue on with our exploration of space and the construction of the space station and beyond not only for ourselves but for our children one of the finest aspects of our programs I'm over in the mirror with Yuri and I've got the PTVA autumn 47 and there he told me there's a refrigerator and specter what's up I want to store it in there my checklist as a base block chili we think it needs to go into the refrigerator in the base block and specter it we think it's too large to go into the test and it needs to be refrigerated and not frozen and that's why we don't want it in the teahawk so you want it in the base block and perhaps six that is in position 500 and just check that the green LED is on thank you copy that Linda did you have a completion time for F.O. 10 step 11 we may have had ready calm and I didn't copy that's correct Linda


And finally, since we are already on the dissection of the face, just to complete the picture let me show you the two vessels which are visible straight away we can see this vessel running up actually strictly speaking it is not running up, but it is coming from above down. And this is the facial veil it starts as an angular veil and below the infra orbital margin it becomes known as the facial veil and it continues down and there it meets with the anti-addiction of the retro mandible veil and it opens into the internal jugular veil. So, this is the facial veil and the other vascular structure that we can see here is this one here this is the facial artery and we can see it is highly torsions. The facial artery places from the external carotid artery in the neck and it gumps and runs up in the same direction as the facial veil which I described and we can see only a part of it here the point to be remembered is that it is highly torsions because it is located in the face and because of the movements of the facial structures it requires its torsion city. And the important branches of the facial artery gives in the face are one the submental branch we can see the submental branch here it gives an inferior labial branch a superior labial branch a lateral nasal branch and an angular branch at the angle of the eye these are the branches it gives in the face apart from that it also gives ascending palatine and tonsillar branches which supply the tonsill and the soft palate and it also gives a septal branch to the septum of the nose which participates in the nasal plexus which can be responsible for ap stexas. So, these are the vascular structures that we can see in the face that's all for now thank you very much for watching if you have any questions or comments please put them in the comment section below Dr. Sanjay Sanyal signing out have a nice day


Item Number – SCP-426 Object Class – Euclid Special Containment Procedures. I am to be sealed in a chamber, with no windows through which I may be viewed. The door to my chamber must have a label completely unrelated to my designation or identity, in order to prevent unintended spread of my primary effect. Any level 3 and above personnel are to know of my presence, and particularly of my properties. Assigned personnel are to be rotated out on a monthly basis to prevent contamination by my secondary effect. Psychiatric evaluation is mandatory at the end of the month. If personnel are deemed unaffected, they may be reassigned to me no less than 4 months after their last rotation with me. Any affected personnel are to be given a Class C amnestic and transferred to a different site. Description Hello, I am SCP-426. I must be introduced this way in order to prevent ambiguity. I am an ordinary toaster, able to toast bread when supplied with electricity. However, when any human being mentions me, they inadvertently refer to me in the first person. Despite all attempts, there is yet to be a way to speak or write about me in the third person. When in my continuous presence for over two months, individuals begin to identify themselves as a toaster. Unless forcibly restrained, these people will ultimately harm themselves in their attempts to emulate my standard functions. I was discovered in the home of the f***ing family, after the gruesome deaths of three of its members. I had been given to the younger Mr. and Mrs. W*** as a wedding gift. No card or any other identifying markings had been found on my box. Approximately two months after the family received me, fire crews were dispatched to the home due to an electrical fire. The younger Mrs. W*** died from the electric discharge that she had caused when attempting to devour an electric socket. The other two victims had died shortly before the fire occurred. The elder Mrs. W*** had gorged herself with nearly 10kg of bread before her stomach burst and she died of internal bleeding. The younger Mr. W*** died of severe blood loss after attempting to devour with me. The sole survivor was the elder Mr. W*** who was suffering from severe malnutrition. He stated that he had inserted some bread a week prior and was still waiting for the toast to pop out. I was confiscated by the foundation after police noted my unusual properties. A class CM Nastic was administered to the affected officers. Experiment Log 426-1 Date Expunged Subject D-Class Personnel D-426-1 Procedure D-426-1 was asked to describe what he believed was contained in my chamber. He was not informed about my identity or properties. Details D-426-1 stated, I'm probably some huge monster holed up in there. That's what you guys have all over the place, right? D-426-1 remained oblivious to his use of the first person pronoun. Experiment Log 426-2 Date Expunged Subject D-Class Personnel D-426-2 Procedure 426-2 was placed in my chamber and given regular meals through a dispenser. No communication with D-426-2 was permitted. Multiple cameras were situated in the chamber, positioned so that I was outside of their field of vision but allowing constant observation of D-426-2. We remained sealed until my secondary effect manifested in the subject. I was bolted to the floor so that I could not be moved into a camera's view. Details After 45 days of isolation, D-426-2 wrapped his arm around me and began conversing with me, stating that we were brothers. D-426-2 never deviated from using the first person plural when speaking with me. Subject was terminated one hour after this event. It is theorized that the isolation accelerated the progression of my secondary effect. Experiment Log 426-3 Date Expunged Subject D-Class Personnel D-426-3 Procedure A screw was removed from me and shown to D-426-3 who was asked to describe it. D-426-3 was not informed about my identity or properties. Details D-426-3 referred to it as my screw. Consistent with Experiment 426-1, the subject was oblivious of his use of the first person in his description. This suggests that, even if I were destroyed, my effects would still be inherent in my remains. Experiment Log 426-4 Date Expunged Subject D-Class Personnel D-426-4 Procedure D-426-4 was placed in isolation in a cell adjacent to my chamber to be observed until my secondary effect manifests. Details No effects appeared. D-426-4 was terminated 90 days after the start of the experiment. Thank God there are some limits to my effects. A lot of us were really starting to get worried about me. Dr. C Item Number SCP-459 Object Class Safe Special Containment Procedures SCP-459 is to be kept unpowered in a standard security locker. The access code is to be changed bi-weekly and known to level 3 and higher personnel. As of 04-15-2000, testing has been indefinitely suspended. Proposals for use should be directed to 05 level personnel. Description SCP-459 appears to be a standard home thermostat. The item is equipped with a small display, four buttons, and two dials on either side of the screen. The two buttons on the right side raise and lower temperature, and the other two appear to affect relative humidity in the area. However, these buttons will only work when both dials are set to the off position. The left dial, dial 1, is marked with several standard weather conditions, including rain, snow, and data expunged. The fourth and fifth positions have been respectively designated T-storm and hurricane. The right dial, dial 2, has different settings, all of which are unmarked. The rightmost positions on each dial are the off positions. SCP-459 can, when wired to a heating and cooling system, modify weather patterns in addition to temperature and humidity. The area of effect appears to be about 1500 square feet, or about 139 meters squared. The same amount is a modest home. How these effects are produced is currently unknown, as site-wide heating and cooling systems show no abnormalities in the area, even if the temperature is significantly different. Recent testing may suggest SCP-459 can access resources from other planets, and possibly other dimensions. Addendum 459-1 SCP-459 was discovered in a suburban home after reports from neighbors of loud noises and bright flashes at night. Authorities' first attempts to investigate resulted in attracting the Foundation's attention. A group of agents with standard protection gear cut power to the house, and proceeded to retrieve SCP-459 without incident. Wherein, all agents returned to site with the device. The bodies of the occupants of the home were recovered as well. Cause of death is officially listed as a gas leak. Test log 459-2 Pre-testing note. The default settings are 20 degrees Celsius and 50% relative humidity. Dr. Name. Dr. Date. 316. 2000. Temperature, humidity, weather setting. 20 degrees Celsius. 50%. Dial 1. Snow. Results. After 127 seconds, rain began to fall in the testing area. Temperature indicated by SCP-459 is confirmed. Weather cleared after 20 minutes. Notes. I thought it would decrease the temperature. Well, I was half right. This is, functionally, ordinary weather, and follows the same rules. Dr. Date. 316. 2000. Temperature, humidity, weather setting. 23 degrees Celsius. 75%. Dial 1. 4. Results. After 47 seconds, dark clouds began to coalesce, followed by moderate rain and occasional thunder. Wind speed inside the testing chamber peaked at 67 kilometers an hour. Weather cleared after 34 minutes. Notes. Nothing particularly unusual, though maybe we should have some weather gear close by next time we test this thing. Dr. Date. 316. 2000. Temperature, humidity, weather setting. 26 degrees Celsius. 80%. Dial 1. 5. Results. At first, outcome appeared identical to second test, but seven minutes after activation, weather conditions began to sharply deteriorate, with heavy rain and winds reaching up to 162 kilometers an hour, followed by rain. Weather took over two hours to clear up. Site-wide brownouts reported. Notes. Let's not try that again. While watching a handful of sopping wet researchers being blown around a test chamber is, in retrospect, hilarious. My assistant getting electrocuted and the risk of site-wide containment failure put a bit of a damper on the whole thing. Dr. Date. 324. 2000. Temperature, humidity, weather setting. 20 degrees Celsius. 50%. Dial 2. Leftmost position. Results. After five minutes of inactivity, Dr. Exited the test chamber due to a spontaneous nose bleed. At seven minutes and 32 seconds after activation, a breeze began to blow throughout the room, increasing in speed very rapidly, after which, the view was obscured by large amounts of unidentified red material data expunged. Sensors clocked the wind speed at 428 kilometers an hour before they were destroyed. Data expunged. Entire east wing locked down. Weather did not subside for a week after the incident, and further testing was suspended until the test chamber could be fully inspected and repaired. Inspection of the chamber showed large quantities of ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and other chemical compounds known to make up Jupiter's atmosphere. Notes. Was that the red spot? Dr. Date. 415, 2000. Temperature. Humidity. Weather setting. 20 degrees Celsius. 50%. Dialed to one turn from leftmost position. Results. D-class personnel adjusted the device accordingly. After 742 seconds, data expunged. All further testing suspended indefinitely. Notes. It took three weeks to get the thing back. But it's completely undamaged. It's possible we could use this thing to help recreate natural environments for certain Earth-native animal SCPs. Dr. Item number, SCP-495. Object class. Safe. Special containment procedures. SCP-495 is to be kept in a locked room, plugged into a standard active 120-volt power outlet when not in use. A life-sized mold of a clam, oyster, or other species of sessile bivalve is to be stored within SCP-495. The mold is to contain no more than 100 grams of wax. Note. Personnel are reminded that not all bivalves are sessile. In the event of the mold being destroyed, consult with an on-staffed malacologist before obtaining a replacement. In the event of a power failure, at least one level one security personnel must enter the storage room and monitor the item for activity until power is restored. Researchers wishing to use SCP-495 must submit a written description of the planned experiment to Dr. Due to the results of experiment SCP-495, all molds and materials must be approved by at least one level three or higher personnel before use with SCP-495. At least one personnel with experience treating venomous bites and stings must be available on standby while SCP-495 is in use. Description. SCP-495 appears to be the oven from a 1992 Toy Mac's Creepy Crawlers play set. Save that the Creepy Crawlers logo sticker has been replaced with the logo from a 1964 Mattel Thing Maker hot plate, a toy of virtually identical function to the more recent Toy Mac's version, discontinued by Mattel in the 1970s due to insufficient safety features. While SCP-495 is plugged into a standard 120 volt power outlet, it functions as a normal Creepy Crawlers oven. When not plugged into a power outlet, SCP-495 displays the following anomalous behavior. Upon insertion of a filled or partially filled mold, SCP-495's activation switch moves to the on position automatically. The internal heating lamp appears to remain unlit, but the oven begins to gain warmth from an unknown source, reaching a peak internal temperature of 257.2 degrees Celsius as measured by infrared camera. After approximately eight minutes, SCP-495's activation switch moves to the off position automatically. Contrary to the behavior of a standard Toy Mac's Creepy Crawler oven, SCP-495's door will open immediately instead of remaining locked while the mold cools. All molded items will animate upon removal from the oven, behaving as though they were natural organisms. Animated objects are physically detailed well beyond what their molds would seem to allow, appearing physically identical to their natural counterparts, save for unusual coloration corresponding to the materials used to fill their molds. Dissection of animated objects reveals tissues and other internal structures composed entirely of whatever material was used to fill the mold. Any substance and mold used with SCP-495 will produce results, and made molds or substances other than Toy Macs or Mattel plastic goop, such as chocolate or wax, will result in animate objects. Addendum, just because they're made of plastic doesn't mean they're safe. Where the venom comes from, I don't know, but agent is now in the infirmary after being bitten by a tiny purple asp. Please treat the products of SCP-495 as you would any venomous animal. Dr. Item number, SCP-512. Object Class, safe. Special Containment Procedures, SCP-512 is held within the Site-77 Safe Object Repository. It is to be shut at all times, and testing during adverse weather conditions is forbidden. All outdoor testing proposals must be reviewed by Security Chief Anderson.  Maximum radius of canopy when open is 0.75 meters. Make and manufacture are unknown. A taped patch is visible on the canopy section. When open and pointed upward, SCP-512 exerts an upwards force and opposition to Earth's gravity in a roughly dome-shaped area directly above itself with a cross-sectional area of roughly 1.77 meters squared. Precipitation and other objects will be suspended and deflected within this area of effect. SCP-512 has no effect when closed or when held at a horizontal angle. Despite SCP-512's efficacy against normal precipitation, it is inadvisable to use the object during severe weather. Through an as-yet unknown process, the item's anomalous effect causes the air above it to become extremely ionized. This interaction also causes electrical current to greatly increase in amperage while in direct contact with the item. This causes the threat of direct lightning strikes to become exceptionally dangerous to any individual holding SCP-512, as evidenced through the death of its original owner, as well as D-512-33. Additionally, electrical current appears to travel across the surface of SCP-512, causing little to no damage to the item's structure. SCP-512 was recovered from a public park in Florida. Local emergency services had been summoned to evacuate the area due to reports of unusual lightning strikes. SCP-512 was discovered caught on a street lamp and fully opened, with evidence of several lightning strikes in the immediate area. Its handle was noted to be covered in ash. Foundation personnel intervened after local newspapers began reporting on SCP-512's anomalous properties. Addendum, testing summary. Upon recovery, SCP-512 underwent standard testing, through which its properties were determined. A range of items were held four meters above SCP-512 and then dropped, after which a mechanical apparatus would open SCP-512. Tested items include the following. One liter of purified water, dumped from a standard bucket. One liter of orange juice from concentrate. Approximately one kilogram of loose feathers. One kilogram of ice cubes. The assorted contents of junior researcher Renfield's bagged lunch. A standard running shoe. A standard watermelon. SCP-1108. A 5.4 kilogram bowling ball. A 40 kilogram steel containment crate. Testing materials slowed in descent approximately 0.5 seconds after SCP-512 opened. With the larger and less solid items coming to a stop approximately 0.35 meters from SCP-512's surface. All material will remain suspended in the air, unless made to slide to one side and resume free fall. Liquids in particulate matter are weakly repelled from the center of the effect. While more solid objects can be held in place with minor adjustments to SCP-512's angle. Addendum. Experiment D-512-33. Testing item. D-class personnel. Testing procedure. Object taken to Site-77 outdoors field for testing of the vertical distance of the anti-gravity effect. An unexpected severe storm occurred during testing and the rain repelled properties of SCP-512, coupled with exceptionally low pressure, caused a suction effect in the region directly above the object. SCP-512 pulled the D-class, D-512-33 holding it upward into the air and drifted on prevailing wind currents. D-512-33 was able to hold onto SCP-512 as it rapidly gained altitude. D-512-33 glided over Site-77 perimeter and into the surrounding area. It was observed that D-512-33 quickly developed skill in altering angle of anti-gravity effect to allow for semi-controlled flight. A helicopter was launched to pursue object and D-512-33. The object was recaptured following a lightning strike. D-512-33's remains were not recovered. Item number. SCP-520. Object class. Safe. Special containment procedures. SCP-521 and 2 are to be stored in an inanimate item containment locker with standard positive action defenses. Each object's handle is to remain perpendicular to its base. The handles and contacts must be secured with sturdy clamps made of insulating material. POI-520A and POI-520B are to remain in foundation custody. As long as they do so voluntarily, they are to be accommodated comfortably without communications access. All electrical devices in each POI's suite should be checked weekly for damage or modification. Should POI-520A and POI-520B agree to meet, they are permitted one hour of face-to-face or video conference time per week. Testing is currently suspended. See incident 5, 2016. Description. SCP-521 and SCP-522 are large quadruple knife switches constructed from wood, ceramic, and copper. A single unlabeled dial is mounted in SCP-522's base and a 48 character LED display is connected across its input contacts with insulated alligator clips. When connected to an electrical circuit, SCP-521 does not function normally to break or complete the circuit to which it is connected. Instead, it splices itself, briefly and remotely, into the primary power circuit of one randomly selected electrical device within 10 meters. Moving the handle from the on to the off position breaks the power circuit. While moving it from off to on completes the circuit, regardless of any other switches or current interrupters. Interruption or completion of the circuit is permanent. Wires are physically broken, fuses bypassed, and switches shorted out. The surface of metal connections formed or broken by SCP-521 bears signs of extreme oxidation, often to a chemically implausible extent. SCP-522 functions like SCP-521, but its targets are selected randomly only from electronic devices inside its active zone that are members of its current selection class. The active zone's current radius is displayed on the left side of the LED display. It may be set to any value between five meters and 2,500 kilometers using the dial and the object's base. The selection class is a subset of electrical devices specified by a brief English phrase. See Addendum 526 for examples. The active selection class appears in the center of SCP-521's LED display with a counter of remaining activations on the right. Each class is applied to exactly 10 operations before a new one is chosen at random. If there are no members of the selection class inside the active zone, the counter does not decrement until a suitable device can be affected. Over 680 pages of assorted hard copy documentation were recovered with SCP-520. They included eight technical papers on anomalous electrical engineering topics, two complete sets of construction diagrams for SCP-521, one annotated by hand to roughly resemble SCP-522, a set of meticulous step-by-step instructions for building a copy of SCP-521, written in the second person and sprinkled with personal and cultural references, and extensive handwritten notes on the process of constructing and modifying an SCP-520 instance. The retrieved notes and abruptly part way through debugging an attempt to add programmable target type specificity. Most handwriting in the documentation belongs to POI-520B, with occasional notes in POI-520A's hand. Many of the notes refer to an ongoing correspondence by phone and email, records of which have not yet been retrieved. Addendum 521B, SCP-520 related persons of interest. POI-520A is Sylvia Lynn, a 23-year-old human female formerly living in Syracuse, New York. She holds a recent bachelor's of engineering in electrical engineering and claims proficiency in electronics manufacture, including certain anomalous techniques. She claims to have built SCP-522 with assistance from POI-520B and professes considerable concern for POI-520B as a friend and mentor. She is largely cooperative with foundation requests, but remains reluctant to attempt to build new anomalous devices. POI-520B is Esther Pachazka, a 77-year-old human female born in Prague, Czech Republic, and formerly living in Utica, New York. She is a retired electrical engineer with an established history of building anomalous electrical devices. She claims to have designed SCP-521, written the manuals and diagrams retrieved with the object and provided the designs and documentation to POI-520A as part of a long-distance mentor-student relationship. Since containment, she has expressed no desire to contact POI-520A. Shortly before being contained by the foundation, POI-520B suffered minor ischemic brain damage as a result of pacemaker failure with symptoms including partial retrograde amnesia. By studying her and POI-520A's notes since their containment, she has largely recovered her skills in electrical engineering. However, she claims confusion at the anomalous portions of the SCP-520 documentation, including her own writing and is sharply skeptical of the basic principles described therein. Addendum 526, Sample Selection Classes. The following device selection classes in reverse chronological order have been observed since SCP-520 came into Foundation custody. Fluorescent ceiling light, doorbell, Honda Accord power steering, library fire alarm, neonatal ventilator, synchrotron, safety control rod activation mechanism, pacemaker. Incident 5, 2016. On 5, 14, 2016, researchers conducting routine experiments activated SCP-5211 times. The first 10 activations affected Foundation-owned fluorescent lamps without incident. The 10th activation also changed the selection class to Boeing 747 aileron actuator. Since no aircraft were present in the effect radius, researchers took the opportunity to test SCP-522's function in the absence of suitable targets. When the switch was activated for the 11th time, however, researchers noted only slight stiffness in the handle. Later examination showed that the force applied to move SCP-522's handle was first diverted to adjust its effect radius selection dial and enlarge the active zone. Simultaneously, Contas flight was lost near Perth with all 532 passengers and crew. Foundation assets embedded with crash investigators successfully retrieved the airplane's relevant hydraulic flight control systems and confirmed all four aileron actuators to have been disabled by SCP-520. All testing with SCP-520 has been suspended, pending development of an alternate method of changing the object's selection class. Item number, SCP-594. Object Class, Euclid. Special Containment Procedures. SCP-594 is kept at Bioresearch Sector located on 54 kilometers squared of Mountainous Rangeland, located 35 kilometers from Alaska. Officially, Sector is listed as a munitions factory and testing facility. The perimeter fences and access gates are monitored remotely at all times with two level two guards posted at each gate in eight hour shifts. All fencing enclosed paddocks of static dischargers placed at two centimeter intervals. Main research enclosure and pens are to be cleaned on a daily basis to avoid buildup of excrement and allow for necessary repairs. Due to possible electrocution hazard, the following procedures are to be observed when interacting with SCP-594. All metallic items and electrical devices, including wristwatches and jewelry, must be removed and placed within provided plastic containers prior to donning protective gear. Prior to entering paddock, staffer advised to wear at minimum Tesla armor, heavy duty work gloves, ear protection, goggles and rubber sold boots. Also, staffer advised to keep on hand tobacco products, specifically Skoll style chewing tobacco or pipe tobacco, candies, dried fruit or good quality alcohol as a treat for 5941. Holding pens and fences are to be kept properly maintained at all times. Wool of mature adults, two years and older is to be kept shorn to a length of two millimeters by ceramic shears twice yearly and bailed in anti-static bags with strict adherence to guidelines set out in document number 594-S. Under no circumstances are shears with electrical motors to be used for shearing. Exceptions are 5941 and 5942 who are to be rude, loose wool plucked out by hand as per guidelines under document number 5941-2A and no attempts at shearing be made on either animal. Due to the nature of SCP-594, specifically 5942, all personnel with contact to SCP-594 and its byproducts may be subject to full cavity searches and all personnel must submit to pat-down search and metal detector scan before leaving the enclosure. Feeding of the approved formulated grain hay mix outlined in document number 594-F is to be done twice daily with fresh water and mineral licks made readily available around all parts of the enclosure. Foraging and grazing outside of regular feedings are to be carefully monitored. Description. Discovered in the all-time mountains during a routine fact-finding mission, SCP-594 is a flock of feral sheep of an unknown breed, resembling a wild Argali sheep in general build with a thick fleece like that of a domestic marino, around 135 centimeters at the shoulder and weighing 195 kilograms on average. Just station and reproductive cycles are similar to most domesticated sheep with ewes reaching sexual maturity at six to eight months of age and rams at four to six months. They enter a rut twice annually, typically in late spring and early autumn, but breeding can occur year round. Most ewes give birth to a single lamb or twins with triplets being exceedingly rare, 2% of all recorded births to date. The only documented case of triplets which survived to full maturity is 5941 and his siblings, 5942 and 5943. General coloration ranges from pure white to dark blue-gray wool, with a metallic sheen appearing once they've reached full maturity, typically two years of age. Only three animals, the aforementioned triplets, display atypical wool colors. Both sexes have horns, with uncastrated males having spiraling horns measuring 190 centimeters in length, the largest documented span belonging to 5942 at a length of 247.4 centimeters. Females and weathers have curved horns measuring 20 centimeters. The horns, hooves, and wool of older animals have unusually high concentrations of ferrous metals, along with traces of gold alloys. Examinations of newly butchered animals have revealed that SCP-594 skeleton also has large amounts of ferrous metals present within the bone matrix. The sheep are highly aggressive and territorial in nature and often attack unfamiliar personnel without warning or provocation. They will continue to behave in this manner until steps are taken to properly placate 5941, which is normally done by giving it treats, such as tobacco or candies. Once this is done, the flock will become docile and behave like normal domestic sheep. The exceptions to this pacifying behavior are 5942 and 5943, as outlined in the addendum on each. In contrast to adults, lambs typically are very easy to handle and display curiosity towards new objects and people in the paddock, often attempting to play with personnel, but will flee if threatened. The sound of a panicked lamb will cause nearby adults to attack violently, so caution is to be taken not to spook lambs. Lambs also show a tendency to form attachments to certain humans, often following them around the paddock and begging for food or attention. This is especially noticeable among bottle-reared lambs. Such attachments often last even after sheep has reached maturity, as seen in the case of 5942 and Dr. Maryweather. At present, the flock numbers 1314 mature sheep plus 448 lambs and immature sheep with selective culling of unwanted animals annually after the rutting season to maintain these numbers. The only animals exempt from culling are 5941, 5942, and 5943, or any lambs exhibiting similar traits. Deviation from the 1314 slash 448 pattern for more than a year's time will cause all mature lambs to data-expunged. Failure to follow the pattern for two years during preliminary research resulted in the deaths of D-class personnel and researchers, as well as near breach of containment by 5942. The defining characteristic of the sheep is that they are able to generate a substantial amount of static electricity simply by the friction caused during daily activities. The resultant charge is typically discharged at random with mature specimens producing arc flashes that have been recorded at 1,000 amps or more. Due to the electrocution hazard, personnel interacting with SCP-594 are advised to follow guidelines fully outlined in document 5944H. When faced with a threat, the flock will become highly agitated and mature ewes will attempt to form a ring around any lambs, rubbing their bodies together to generate an even greater static charge between them. Because this defensive behavior is especially pronounced when ewes are birthing, it is standard procedure to isolate all pregnant ewes and newborn lambs from the rest of the flock until a week after birthing. In addition to defense against predators, rams also appear to use their discharges as a type of dominance display with the older and stronger rams able to produce more powerful discharges during their dance. When in rut, rams will fight against themselves, performing the stomping dances prior to engaging rivals. These dances are often accompanied by excessive discharges, resulting in a rapid ionization of air and giving SCP-594 its local name, Thunder Sheep. Ground sensors have also detected telleric currents during these dances, with older rams creating extremely complicated patterns that often resemble data expunged. Free Martins, ewes which are behaviorally masculine and lack functional ovaries, will also perform stomping dances, but the patterns produced, while equally as complicated, show a marked difference from those created by rams. To date, weathers have not been observed to engage in this behavior. Another trait exhibited by SCP-594 is an inherent ability to walk on air or more accurately, levitate themselves at a distance on average of two to four meters vertically via manipulation of electromagnetic fields. Lams and younger animals have a tendency to lose control mid-flight, often falling from high cliffs, which can result in death of the animal. This may be the way the flock called out weaker animals in the wild, but more research is needed. Research has been done on the properties of SCP-594 wool, milk, meat, and horn. Results of these tests are pending full documentation. However, the meat, milk, and resultant dairy products have proven to be fit for human consumption. Approval to include thunder mutton and various cheeses made from the milk of SCP-594 in the Foundation's standardized menu is still pending. Data pending. Lesson complete. To continue with your orientation training, subscribe to SCP Orientation right now and make sure you don't miss any of our upcoming videos.


So hello and welcome to today's webinar, applying for a postgraduate research program at SOAS. My name is Kishla Prescott and I'm one of the doctoral school officers at SOAS and I specialise in PhD admissions. Before we begin, just to let you all know if you're interested in applying for a master's program at SOAS, this is not the webinar for you. Today we're discussing the application process for the PhD program. So these are a few of the areas that I'm going to be touching on during the process today. So the doctoral school offers two programs, the infill-phd program and the VRS program. You should note that neither of these programs are offered through distance learning. The research programs are continuous and the taught course term dates do not apply to research students. What that means is students are required to be in London at SOAS throughout the duration of the studies, regardless of the mode of study. So regardless of if you're full-time or part-time, you're required to be in London and at SOAS. We do not offer a standalone infill program. The infill-phd program is a PhD program. All students admitted to the PhD program and initially registered for the degree of infill, in the third term full-time or part-time equivalent, students are considered for a transfer to PhD by their supervisory committee. If the upgrade is successful, the date of registration for the PhD is then backdated to the commencement of your studies. Our visiting research student program is a non-award program. It's usually used by students already enrolled on a PhD program at their home institution. So students enrolled on the VRS program are not registered for a degree and are not formally assessed on their work. You can apply for either one term or three terms as a visiting research student. As a VRS, you would be entitled to up to five hours of supervision per term and you would be assigned a lead supervisor. So eligibility criteria for our PhD program. Or academically, we require students to have a good UK master's degree or overseas equivalent. Now I'm often asked, what is the definition of a good master's degree? The school's definition is a UK master's degree or overseas equivalent, which is generally in a relevant field to the program you have applied for. However, some departments do have more specific levels, which are generally advertised on the relevant departmental pages of the SOE's website. Administratively speaking, if you meet the school's definition, we will mark your application as academically eligible. For those of you that do not meet the school's definition, i.e., you do not hold a UK master's degree or overseas equivalent, you can still submit an application for the PhD program, but when initially assessed, your application will be marked as not academically eligible. It would then be at the discretion of the academic selectors on whether an offer of study was made. Any offers made for applicants considered to not meet the academic eligibility criteria must also then be approved by the relevant Associate Dean of Research. Regarding our English language requirements, we do set our requirements at a higher level than required for undergraduate or postgraduate taught. It is important when you're reviewing our requirements that you ensure you're referring to the doctor's school admissions pages. It is important also to note that we do not consider requests for an exemption of the English language requirement made at the application stage. If your application is successful and offers studies extended and you believe you have grounds for making a case, at that time it may be submitted to us. In general, due to strict Home Office requirements and the school's need to treat all international students, applicants and non-native English-speaking applicants alike, we require all applicants educated outside of one of the Home Office lists of a majority English-speaking countries or educated for less than three consecutive years at degree level within one of those countries within the last two years to submit a secure English language test or a SELT as it's known. Let's move on to the study of Economic English. For those of you that require Tier 4 visa to study in the UK, you must take a UK VI IELTS test. Again, your results must have been received within two years of the start date of the program in order to be considered valid. So for September 2018 entry, your results must have been received after the 1st of September 2016. Our entry points. For the majority of departments for the ENFL-PHD program, only one entry point is offered each academic year, which is in September. The only exception to this is the School of Finance and Management Studies. They offer entry points in September, January and April. The Visiting Research Student Program also offers multiple entry points again in September, January and April. The online system is currently only open to applications for September 2018, January 2019 and April 2019. The system will not open to applications for September 2019, January 2020 and April 2020 until November 2018 after the annual update process has been completed. Now deadlines is an important one to consider when you're making your application. The school's deadline for completed applications for September 2018 entry is 1159 p.m. on the 30th of June 2018. Strict deadlines doer here for the Visiting Research Student Programs and applications that remain incomplete after these deadlines will be withdrawn. So if you are applying for Visiting Research Student Program plus at September 2018, you must have a completed application by 1159 p.m. on the 30th of June 2018. Some departments may choose to remain open beyond the school's deadline. We are hoping to update our website pages in the next few weeks for this information on which departments will be staying open beyond the 30th of June. Please be aware the completed deadlines are the final deadline for you to provide all required information. Extensions beyond this deadline are not permitted. An incomplete application will be withdrawn from consideration. As the applicant, you are responsible for ensuring you have provided us with all required documentation and ensuring that two acceptable references have been confidentially submitted by your nominated referees via the specified deadline. If you are applying for a scholarship, please be aware earlier deadlines may apply. Just a reminder to those that have just joined us, if you have any questions, please send them through the group chat function and I'll answer all questions at the end of the session. Choose in your program. At SOAS, we do welcome applications for interdisciplinary research but only one application to one department may be submitted each academic year. Submission of multiple applications will result in withdrawal of these applications and may delay the processing of your chosen application. You are welcome to make contact with a potential supervisor to request feedback on your proposal however this is not a requirement of the application process. Any informal expression of interest does not guarantee a formal offer will be made or that if an offer is made that your proposed supervisor will be the academic that you have been in touch with in order to be considered all applications must be submitted through the formal application process. If you are not sure which department your research best fits, we recommend reviewing the expertise and research interests of the academics within the departments. This information can be located under the relevant departmental staff pages of the SOAS website. On your screen now you'll be able to see the link to the list of departments offering the PhD program at SOAS. So completing your application. I touched on this in my previous slide but just to reiterate in order to be considered for entry your application must be submitted through the online application system. Unfortunately we are not able to consider any application sent through alternative methods. When you are completing your application it is essential that you select the correct class or grade achieved for any previous qualifications you have been awarded. If you cannot locate your class achieved from the drop-down list you should select other and manually input the correct grade into the free text field provided. This is very important as we do recommend that applicants use the terminology provided on the official documentation they receive in order to prevent any confusion and reduce the risk of an accidental false declaration being made. What documentation is required to make your application complete? We have your supporting or personal statement. Basically this is your chance to tell the academic selected about yourself. Who you are, why you want to study your chosen program, why you want to study at SOAS. Ideally you should aim to write at least a page but you are welcome to write more than that. You are up to date CV. This must include dates and account for any gaps. For example if you spend a year travelling please note this. Your research proposal is one of the most vital parts of your application and it will be studied in detail by the academic selectors. We do have generic guidelines available on the doctoral school admissions pages of the SOAS website for writing this and we recommend that as a minimum your proposal should be at least 1000 to 2000 words. You must also include preliminary bibliography of the sources you intend to use. If you have a more detailed proposal please do submit this. Now we come to your transcripts. We do require copies of your official transcripts for all qualifications studied at a degree level or higher that detail the marks received throughout the duration of your study. We do understand that the previous studies section of the online application only allows you to detail up to three previous qualifications but any additional qualifications should be listed in your CV and you should provide documentation for all. Your degree certificate is the same as your transcripts for all qualifications awarded at a degree level or higher we do require you to provide us with official copies of your degree certificates. Even if you don't believe the qualification is relevant to the program you've applied to please ensure you include the qualification and the documentation in your application. The reason we say this is when the academic selectors review your application they may feel it is better suited to another department and may recommend we forward it to them for consideration. Your English language events if you have a valid English language test available at the time of your application please upload this. If you do not no need to panic your application can proceed without this documentation as long as all other required documentation has been provided. If your application is successful and a test is required this will be stipulated in the conditions of any offer made. Now references in order to be considered complete your references not only need to be nominated but your nominated referees must have confidentially submitted their references by the stipulated deadline. And finally if there is any document that you have uploaded to your application that are not in English then we do require accompanying certified translations from a legal translator or the administrative authorities at the awarding institution. Self made translations by the applicant will not be accepted. For all applications we require two references to be confidentially submitted. When deciding who to nominate as a referee please bear in mind the following. If you are currently studying or your most recent qualification was awarded within the last three years then you will need to nominate two academic references with at least one being from your most recent or current place of study. If your most recent qualification was awarded more than three years ago you can nominate either professional or academic referees. All references must come from individuals who have direct experience of supervising you in either an academic or professional capacity. If you nominate a referee is online and provide an official institution or professional organisational email account then they will be sent an automatic email by the application system notifying them of the nomination and inviting them to submit their reference directly through the online system. If you nominate your referees as online as sorry as offline you will then need to contact them directly so that referees that you nominate as offline you need to contact them and ask them to submit their reference for your application in one of the acceptable formats as detailed on the doctoral school admissions pages of the size website. Please be aware due to the volume of applications we receive we are unable to chase a referee on behalf of an applicant. We often get queries from applicants after they have submitted their application asking us to amend a document or add a new referee for consideration. As the applicant it is your responsibility to ensure that all required documentation has been provided for your application and the versions of your documentation uploaded are the final versions. Your application should only be submitted for consideration once you are satisfied that all documentation is final. However, we do understand that occasionally an error will occur but in those instances you should alert us at the earliest opportunity. It is essential that you fully review all documentation uploaded prior to submitting your application for consideration. It's also important to know that once your application has gone forward for consideration or the deadline for completed applications has passed, we will not be able to upload any further documentation for you. So how does it work? Well, you submit your application. Once your referees, once two referees have confidentially submitted their references for your application, your application will move into the queue to be initially assessed. At the time that initial assessment is completed, you will receive an email from the doctoral school admissions team updating you on your application status. This will either be a request for additional information or references or confirmation that your application is complete and has been forwarded to the department for consideration. From the date your application is forwarded to the department and not from the date that you submit your application, it may take between five to eight weeks for a decision to be returned. All formal communication regarding your application will come through the doctoral school admissions team and it is subject to the formal application process. Once the decision has been returned and processed for your application, you will be notified by email that a decision can be viewed. Please be aware we are unable to provide decisions over the phone or in person. Keeping in mind that when you do send us queries, we do process all information in date order received. So that is applications with references to be initially assessed, emails and posts. We do ask that applicants avoid sending duplicate queries as these delay our processing times. I also want to highlight here that when you do submit your application, as I've mentioned, it can only be assessed once two references have been confidentially submitted by your nominated referees. What that means, though, is if you submit your application for consideration today, the second of May, but your referees only submit their references on the 28th of June, then your application would only go into the queue to be initially assessed from that day and we process in date order according to our current volumes at the time. So the offer stage. If your application is successful, you will need to meet any conditions stipulated in your offer letter by the deadline specified. Failure to do so will result in your offer being expired and offer withdrawn. If you require a TO4 visa to study in the UK, you will need to have met all conditions specified and accepted your offer prior to applying for your CAS number. The relevant guidance for this is included in offer letters for successful applicants. If your offer is successful, but your circumstances change and you are unable to commence your studies in the year offered, you may consider applying for a deferral. Deferrals are not guaranteed and are subject to academic approval and availability. If approved, an offer can only be deferred once to the following academic year. Deferrals must be requested prior to the start date of the program offered and all queries related to deferrals should be sent to doctoral school admissions in the first instance. Now your note, I haven't touched on things such as fee status, tuition fees or scholarships in today's session. Tuition fees are managed by our colleagues in the fees team, not by the doctoral school office, so any queries related to fees should be sent to them. Scholarships, any SOE scholarships are managed by the scholarships team. We do not have any oversight of these in the doctoral school office and unfortunately we would not be able to answer your queries regarding them. If you want to be considered for a SOE scholarship, you will need to submit an additional application to the program application. If you are applying for scholarships, please be aware earlier deadlines may apply. Our colleagues in the scholarships team have advised us that the deadline for applications for one of the Bloomsbury College studentships has been extended until the 7th of May. This studentship is based in the History Department. If you have any further queries about the scholarship, please refer to the scholarship pages of the SOE's website. Thank you for tuning in with us today. If you need to get in touch with us during the application process, again please note we process all queries in day order received. We can be reached at any of the contact details on your screen at the moment. We also do have a postgraduate opening evening happening on Thursday the 31st of May. If you're interested in attending, please go to the link displayed on your screen there and book a place in. I do recommend that if you do have any queries prior to contacting us that you have checked the doctoral school admissions pages including our frequently asked questions section in the first instance to see if your query is answered there. Now I'm going to look at the questions received but I'm going to start answering those. Okay so our first question is, should I have to take the IELTS exam before applying? Well as I was in the required documentation section of today's session, it is not required that you have an English language test attached to your application at the time of applying if you do not have this available. However, if your application was successful and an English test required, it would be stipulated in the conditions of any offer made. The three questions are the similar so I'll answer them as one. Do I have to sit for an IELTS exam if I have a UK master's? Unfortunately we're not able to make a formal assessment of your English language requirement without a formal application being submitted and initially assessed. As mentioned earlier, we do require, we have, we do require all applicants in general that, that either international applicants or non-native English speaking applicants who have been educated outside of one of the home office list of majority English speaking countries or educated for less than three consecutive years at degree level within the last two years within one of those countries to submit an English test. So when your application is submitted if you do not have a test at the time of applying you do not need to worry about that, your application can proceed as long as all other required documentation has been provided. But if a test is deemed necessary then this will be stipulated in the conditions of any offer made. The next question is, is a person would discretionary leave to remain visa considered an international student and will the person still need a Tf4 visa? Unfortunately similar to the English language query I cannot make a formal assessment of your fee status without a formal application being submitted. If you want further information on how fee status is assessed then I recommend you go to the link in this previous screen who's going to put it back up on screen now just here the UK's site to give you further information about what the regulations are and the criteria that would need to be met in order for an applicant to be considered as a home student for the purpose of fee payment. Our next question is can I start part-time for two years and then following two years full-time. Thank you for your query, it's not guaranteed that if you make an application and it is issued an offer for part-time study that it would be possible to switch to full-time. That would be subject to the approval and availability of your lead supervisor and the approval of the research tutor for the department. The second question is if you study a full-time PhD how many hours work can you do part-time? This is dependent on any visa restrictions that an applicant may have and so if you require a T4 visa to study in the UK I recommend you get in touch with my colleagues and the student advice and well-being office on welfare at soas.ac.uk to find out further information of whether or not how many hours you would be able to work. For students that do not have any visa restrictions if you're studying full-time as a minimum we expect that a student is working 21 hours a week as a minimum on their thesis. So part-time work should not be impacting their studies or their attendance in any training requirements. Again all students how regardless of mode of study are required to be based in London and at so as throughout the duration of studies as we do not offer distance learning. How much on-site time is required as a part-time student? I believe I've answered that in my previous answer but again any additional courses that you may be either to required to attend an audit or taken pass would be either stipulated in the offer issue to you or agreed upon in discussion with your lead supervisor after enrollment when you complete the training needs analysis form. So if during your first year of study you will be required to undergo all the training and for a part-time student the first two years is training and upgrade. So again it would be subject to a departmental discretion on how they structure their course. There's a query here on how long does it take on average for a supervisor to get back to us. Could you please provide some further clarification of what you're asking because it's not clear from this email from this query. If you are making contact with potential supervisor I cannot guarantee that they will get back in touch with you. It's at the discretion of the academic's availability to respond to those emails. Unfortunately we're not able to taste those for you because it's not actually a requirement of the application process for you to make contact with the potential supervisor prior to submitting an application for consideration. And we talked to supervisors from different departments for an application to a particular department. Again if you want to make contact with potential applicants sorry potential academic supervisors prior to submitting an application for consideration that is at your discretion. There is no rule in regards to which supervisors you make contact. If their contact details are on the website you can send them an email. However it is not a requirement of the application process that you do so. And I do recommend that as we are getting close to the school's completed application deadline that if you are going to make contact with a potential supervisor that you do it simultaneously to submitting your application for consideration. For the research proposal do I have to have connections with organizations people for the proposed topic already in the country? Or can this be a theoretical idea for which the practical connections and logistics can be developed after the application process? Thank you for this question Alina I would recommend that you read through the research proposal guidelines on the doctoral school admissions pages of the service website. That will give you an outline of what information does need to be included in your proposal. What if the supervisor does not reply in at least two weeks can an admission advisor help to expedite the request to an extended supervisor? Unfortunately as I touched on previously no and there's not a requirement of the application process to reach out and make contact with a potential supervisor. Again any informal expressions of interest do not guarantee a formal offer as all applications are subject to the formal application process. So I do recommend that if you are currently waiting for an potential academic to get back to you that you continue on with your application and getting that submitted before the application deadline. Thank you for your comment Alex. Unfortunately we do not manage those scholarships in the doctoral school admissions team. Details are available once the system is open to applications and applicants can then at that time start the applications and get them submitted. Can you reapply if unsuccessful? Unfortunately not in the same academic year only one application to one department may be submitted each academic year. If you aren't successful for September 2018 entry you would then be able to reapply for September 2019 entry but we would not be able to consider a second application for you for 2018. Thank you Ellen for your question. It can be it can take up to five to eight weeks for a decision to be returned once your application has gone forward for consideration. If after eight weeks you have not received a decision on your application please send an email through to us at the doctoral school admissions email address and we will be able to follow up your application on your behalf. Is it possible to finish your part time PhD early for example four years instead of six? It's a good question Joy but unfortunately no. If you were to submit your thesis for examination after four years rather than six it is you would have been considered to be working on a full-time basis and the full-time fees would have been will be retrospectively applied to you. Can foreign students apply for jobs on or off campus while pursuing your PhD of course subject to visa permits? Again I'm not able to advise you on this matter you will need to speak to the welfare team on welfarexos.ac.uk to find out what the visa restrictions are. Any teaching opportunities at SOAS are managed by the internal departments themselves generally they would not be offered to first-year students. Thank you Ellen how many months away from London are we allowed to have a primary research purposes i.e field research? So in your first year of your studies full-time that's when you undergo all the training requirements and also the upgrade process. In your second year full-time that is when most students undergo field work so for field work it can be up to the three terms and the third year is when students are writing up the work that they have gathered during the fieldwork year and at the end of the third year students will either submit for consideration or if they're not quite ready but have completed a full draft of their thesis they may apply to their committee for doing an extension of writing up continuation status which would allow them an additional one year only to complete and get their thesis ready for submission. Again research degrees are continuous and the talk course term dates do not apply we do require our research students to be based in London in SOAS. If there's no more queries for today then I will end the session I just wait to see if any few more comes through so it's a good question from Nina are there any facilities or possibility of getting an external supervision from a professor and another institution in conjunction with the supervision received at SOAS in case external supervision is required. So external supervision is very rare and is not guaranteed we don't offer a joint PhD program with any other institution. In the rare instance where the department feels that there is not the relevant entities required at SOAS they will consider making an application for an external supervisor to be either the second or third member of the committee. That has to go to the head of department for approval and then to the associate dean of research for approval so it's not something that would be considered at application stage it would not be considered until after enrolment. So after you've enrolled well let's go one step before that if you made an offer of study your offer of study will give you the name of your lead supervisor. In your supervisory committee there is currently three members. In the first six weeks after enrolment the second and third supervisory committee member are appointed and that's usually in discussions with yourself and your lead supervisor on who may be an appropriate fit to meet your research interests and expertise to help guide you through your process. If you have any more queries that you think of after the session ends today please email them through to us at dsadmissionsatsoas.ac.uk and either myself or my colleague will get back to you. Thanks for coming today everyone.


As your Army Chief of Chaplains, I send my best wishes for you to enjoy the traditional holiday season. The Chaplain Corps will be leading and providing many opportunities for faith observances and services. Whatever your faith tradition, I hope you take this time for significant observance this season. Those of you deployed, away from home station and family, know that you are in our prayers for a safe holiday season with your battle buddies. Chaplain and Chaplain assistants stand ready to help you as you celebrate the important holidays for your faith. Then how busy this season becomes, I encourage you to take the time for your personal observance of your faith tradition. Join the holidays and others in your community to celebrate with friends as we cherish one of our foundational privileges as Americans. Happy holidays and Army strong.


Today, we will discuss about DNA extraction. Extraction and purification of DNA is required for various molecular biology techniques. DNA can be extracted through different methods including organic method, inorganic method and even through commercially available kits. We will extract the DNA by the organic method. Before proceeding to the experiment, we should know about the sources of the DNA, materials and the instruments required and the basic steps that are involved in the DNA extraction. In the sources of the DNA, the DNA can be extracted from human tissues, blood sample, plant tissue sample, bacterial cultures, spores, soil sample and even forensic sample.


You can tell he was very intelligent. You know, when we first saw his film, we knew he could run, so he was fast. But then I think just really his personality, he was kind of quiet, but yet when he did open up and talk, you can tell that he had a lot going on up inside his head. You know, when we first recruited him, we didn't know whether he was gonna be a wide receiver or a running back. You know, we knew he was a great athlete. We knew we needed to get the ball in his hands. When we decided to switch him to running back and he just started getting tougher and tougher. Because the one thing about running back, obviously, you know, you're gonna take a lot of big hits and, you know, we just didn't know at the college level would he be able to do that, but the more and more he did it, wow, I mean, he really turned it on and was starting to break tackles. And so really probably that first full-time year, probably midway through that year, is when he really, really came on strong with that and really hadn't looked back ever since. I think just his versatility, I mean, his ability to catch the football out of the backfield. Then also the fact that when you're running the zone play, we should know you guys run that. And he is really, really patient. And then when it's time to hit the hole, he'll stick his foot in the ground and he's going to watch this out and he can take it to this. I think he'll be able to protect in the backfield as well. He's not extremely big running back, but he's so smart and he understands protections and so he'll know which guy needs to go protect. I love players that I think that you can approach and be able to pull forward and root for. He's gonna be that kind of player. And then I think just his electricity, he's gonna be able to profile on the field. You know, putting those two things together, I think that he's certainly gonna be a fan favorite. He is a first class human being, first and foremost, who happens to be able to run fast. And so, you know, to me, that's a great combination. I really believe that the Titans hit a home run with Darrington Evans and I'm so excited for our fans there to be able to watch them.