So I am really pleased to introduce to you Brian Halverson. He's a teacher in the Grand Forks Public Schools. I heard him discuss this presentation at a joint meeting we both attended about cancer prevention in North Dakota. Brian was diagnosed with melanoma in 2007 and he's been reaching out to kids for 12 years with this presentation on Sun Safety and Skin Cancer. Brian is a native North Dakotan. He is from Minnie Walken and as I said he's currently a middle school teacher in Grand Forks. And with that I introduce Brian and I thank him very much for sharing his time with us today with these very important messages. Good afternoon everyone. This is my 527th time doing this presentation and it's kind of the hardest because I don't have an audience so hopefully I don't bore you to death. So I was diagnosed 12 years ago and I'll get into my story a little more once I get started. But it kind of I reached the point when I was diagnosed and I wasn't having the best news. I kind of had the I was asking myself why me you know why was I chosen for this and then it kind of hit me that I have access to all the kids here in school in Grand Forks. So I thought I would hate for any of the kids here to go through what I went through. So I've been kind of reaching out to them over the last 12 years. I go in and talk to every seventh grader and every sophomore in town here as that's they have health in the middle school at seventh grade and then they have health again as sophomores in high school. So I hit him twice with my message hoping they take something away from it. But I continue to do this. Like I said I've done it. This will be 527. I've done it for over 11,000 kids. So I this is kind of my healing process and this is what I do to continue getting my message out there. Hope I'm doing some good and helping some kids out. So with that I will get started. A lot of this my presentation is what I give to the kids. So some things are just pointing out. I'm gonna be a little different. But as Julie mentioned if you have questions please type them in. When I do my talk I let the kids ask any questions they have as I go along. So my presentation is actually titled It Can Never Happen to Me and that was my attitude when I was in seventh grade and then when I was in the sophomore and high school and even when I was in college and I know a lot of the kids they share with me that they have the same attitude that they they don't worry about these things that they have the not me they never all these things always happen to someone else and I know even as a you adults out there I'm sure some of you maybe have that same attitude because I carried that same attitude with me till I was 38 years old. So kind of thought I was like Superman where I was invincible the kids get a kick out of that one where you know nothing bad is going to happen to me. And like I said that's why I go out and talk to the kids. I share my story, talk a little bit of my story, talk a lot about prevention. We talk about making choices and I never tell the kids what they have to do. I just hope I can give them some good words of advice and that they make better choices in me. And then the last thing which we won't be able to do is we go under a skin scope and actually they look at their face and see how much damage they've done but that's the four parts of my presentation. So where it all began 30 years ago, what job did I have where I spent all day outside? Well in small town North Dakota I was a lifeguard and that's kind of my this is kind of how I get the kids attention and drag them in with these slides telling them they get a little kick out of it and that's kind of I feel like where I grab them and start going from there. So obviously that's not me but well it could be maybe not but no it's not but that's me. That's me on the beach. So I was a lifeguard and the kids often asked well didn't you have cameras back then? We had cameras but as you guys know we didn't have the cell phones with the cameras on it so but I was a lifeguard and when I was outside I never used sunscreen and my excuse and I'm sure some of you have the same thing as I just wanted a tan and I again I never worried about skin cancer because I had that attitude that nothing bad would happen to me that I was invincible and even though it could never happen to me it did when I got skin cancer and I got melanoma and I was diagnosed with that when I was 38 years old and even at that age at 38 and I tell the kids this I still had that attitude where I didn't worry about these things so I didn't know a lot about melanoma as I diagnosed because I never paid attention to these things because it wasn't going to affect me so I had to do a Google search when I found out and the first thing I read was that the deadliest of all skin cancers and that's when reality hit me. My doctor in format developed my melanoma 20 years after I was a lifeguard and never protected myself from the sun so I tried to hit home with the younger people that the damage they're doing now can catch up with them later on in life as it did with me it took 20 years but it came back and it got me and then as I take you on my journey or share my story all this could have been avoided if I'd only worn sunscreen so I always ask my kids you know who's the one person I can blame for all this and that's me I have no one else to blame I'm no one that made the poor decisions so it all falls on my shoulders so they first found melanoma on my face and people always wonder especially kids what does what did it look like initially and that that is me I'm on the left but so I always ask people to look to see if they can see my skin cancer and that one it's a little bit harder to see so I do this next one is kind of goofy but that's the only one the only picture I had really from that time of where my cancer was and my melanoma was that little dot right on my cheek right on that on my right cheek that little dot right below my glasses that was it that was my cancer and I always tell people and the kids and you guys out there too that and actually my principal came and talked to me last night about a spot and I always tell people if you have anything questionable you need to go in and get a checked out because you never know and plus once you find out you know hopefully that it's non-cancerous that it's just a takes a load off your shoulders too but if you're ever questioning anything that you have anywhere on your body please go on and get a checked out I was doing this talk up in Park River years ago and there was a senior in the crowd and he started when I was doing this he was started thinking about a spot he had in the middle of his back and he went in he thought yeah I need to get that checked out so he went in and got it that spot checked out and it was actually melanoma and since he had gone in and they caught it so early they removed it they caught it in time and he went out he's still you know he's cancer-free living a good life so that's one of my more prouder stories from this presentation but but that was my spots that spot was there for six months and I didn't think anything about it because even like I said I was didn't worry about it there couldn't be cancer these things don't happen to me and my wife who's in the picture with me she's the one who said we need to go in and get this checked out so I went to a dermatologist and he did a biopsy he cut the top layer of it off and sent it in and that's when it came back and that's when I initially found out that I had melanoma so when they whenever you have skin cancer the first thing they got to do is cut it out or cut it off so this was after my first surgery they cut me open dug out that little spot and then stitched me up and they thought they caught it in time so they said go home and live a good life but about six weeks later I had a big lump in my neck so I went back to the to the doctor and it turned out it was a lymph node that was enlarged so I had to get that lymph node taken off because it wasn't it was just one lymph node and it was right below where my cancer was so they cut me open and plucked out that one lymph node and sent it in and unfortunately the melanoma had now spread from my face down into my neck and the doctors also thought the cancer had spread to my spine and I will be honest dealing and going through this once they started using the word spread that's when I got pretty scared and pretty concerned about what was going on here so the spreading to my spine was kind of a big deal because the doctor informed me I had a less than one in five chance to live for five more years if I'd cancer in my spine so basically he told me you know I had less than five years to live which you know as I talked to the kids was not obviously the news I wanted to hear when I first heard that news I was shocked and then I remember once the shock wore off then I got really angry and I always you know I asked the kids who do you think I was angry with wise angry with myself because my reality was when I was their age and I you know had the choice to wear sunscreen or not I didn't make the right choice and because of my poor choices now I was going to take my life and now that was hard to deal with and I I always tell the kids I'm not going to be with them nor am I going to be with any of you out there you know when it's time to be outside and it's time to apply that sunscreen so I always tell the kids if when you when you have to make that decision you know ask yourself if I don't put sunscreen on what's the worst thing that can happen to me well for me this was probably the worst thing that could happen to me and you know I tell the kids if you're okay with that make your choice but they sent me home for the night I went back the next day and they did some more testing on my spine and thankfully when they looked at my spine there was no cancer there but I share this and I tell the kids I share this with them because when you're going through something like cancer there's highs and lows and this certainly was a low point but I still had cancer on my face I still had it in my neck so all that all true here in Grand Forks they didn't want they sent me to a Mayo immediately to get treated so I had to down to Mayo Clinic and the plan was to do surgery neck dissection radiation and then immunotherapy so that was my initial treatment so first thing was surgery they cut me open from the top of my ear down through the middle of my neck and they took out all the lymph nodes because one of my lymph nodes had cancer so now they wanted to take them take out all the lymph nodes in case there's any more cancer they also took out my right parotid gland which is kind of located right below my ear because they thought the cancer could have spread into my right parotid gland the problem of taking the right parotid gland out is that produces saliva so I can't produce saliva on this side of my mouth anymore because they took that gland out so everything they took out the right parotid gland all those lymph nodes they sent it in for biopsy and everything came back cancer-free so that was that was a good day for me even though it was cut open but that was a good day for me that kind of started my clock of being cancer-free so that was October 4th 2007 so every October 4th is another year that I am cancer-free so every year I look forward to October 4th and hoping that I can keep keep going with what I'm doing so but that's what I look like I had a drain you can see that big spot open wound there there was a drain stuck in there I used to share a lot more of this story with you but I actually had a kid pass out and fall on the floor so I kind of do the abbreviated version but that's what I look like and like I tell the kids and they look at me they look at me to see what my scars look like today and they're there and I tell them it's just a reminder of the poor choices that I made and how lucky I am to still be alive and be there talking to them so that was my surgery then we did radiation so they're going to shoot radiation to where my cancer was I had to do five treatments and all I did like a Monday Thursday Monday Thursday Monday each treatment was 23 minutes but that's the machine they used I laid on the bed that's the nurses get me ready and like I tell the kids and I tell them we always tell you to have a good attitude so I tried to go in with the good attitude but things kind of would go downhill from here because they actually had to lock me to the table and you can see here where I'm actually locked to the table because they wanted they wanted me to not move so the radiation would go to the same part of my face and my neck every treatment so like I'd say I'd started with the good attitude and then everyone leaves the room and after about five ten minutes and I remember I'd get really angry and then of course I would ask the kids who was I angry at why is angry with myself because because of my poor choices growing up and even as an adult of not wearing sunscreen this is what it got me and this is something I could have been you know prevented but here I am because of the my stupid decisions and I tell the kid just another example when it's time to when you're outside and it's time to make that choice whether you want to have healthy skin or not you know if you're okay like going through this then make your choice so after radiation and I did immunotherapy which is kind of the next best big thing in cancer treatment for me I took a drug called lukine and what lukine did is it boosted my immune system that's where they get immuno from then they called it amping up it made my immune system super duper strong so the hope was when I was on lukine that if I had any cancer in my body my own body would actually fight it off and get rid of it and it must have worked because for three years I was on lukine I you know I was cancer-free and actually you know I teach school I didn't get sick once which is crazy when you think about all the sick kids that come to school but it certainly was the healthiest I was for three years but the problem with lukine is you just don't take a magic pill you got to get shots in the belly and I am definitely afraid of needles I don't do don't do well with needles at all my doctors at Mayo wanted me to give myself a shot but I said I could I'd probably pass out and I'd wake up and there'd be a needle stuck in my belly and I'd probably pass out again so my wife who's the brave one would give me my shot I'd have to get one every night so I'd get one every night for two weeks and then I'd have two weeks off where I'd get a shot in the belly I did that for three years and I jokingly tell the kids this is my wife also had a problem putting that needle through my six pack abs which you guys yeah I don't have those but yeah I did that for three years so I had 543 shots in my belly and the kids you know are just like oh that's awful you know it kind of hits home with them and then I show them that picture that was my last after I was done because you can only use the needle once so that was all the needles that I used and I saved him so I could get that picture but this is about all the you know all of my story I share I could talk for two more hours of everything I've been going through I tell the kids that this is an ongoing process even today I have to go to the dermatologist every six months and it's more common that she has to take something off of my body that's questionable and send it in and see if it has you know if it's melanoma I have pockmarks all over my body now from having biopsies but again that like I tell the kids that's just part of the process and what I you know what I put myself through because I couldn't take time to put sunscreen on so I I feel I'm very lucky I tell the kids I'm lucky to be there so time to get busy living so we talk about prevention and sunscreen so I time I asked this is where the kids I ask them you know what are your feelings and sunscreen I it'd be really interesting to hear what some of you as adults think about sunscreen because the kids have all the excuses that I had didn't have time it's sticky it smells I didn't think it was that importance didn't know that much about sunscreen I just want that nice looking tan that's usually the high school girls of course that are saying that but those are all the excuses that I would add I'm hoping you guys don't have that out there but what should you look for in each bottle of sunscreen well we talked about SPF which is Sun Protection Factor but the most important thing I try to hit home is the numbers because the numbers will tell you how much of the UV rays are blocked so an SPF of 20 will block 93% of those rays SPF of 30 will block 97 and anything 50 to 100 will block 99% of the Sun's UV rays so just to let you guys know too that a 50 SPF is the same as a 100 and we talk a little bit about marketing and why there's different numbers there but the main thing that they do is the higher the number they can just charge you more money at the store to pay for it so I tell them if they have anything 15 above they're doing great and even though I know this this will tell you guys a little bit about me even though I know this because I've done the research I when I go to the store I still buy the 100 because I'm like well it's got to be better but you know I just kick myself because I just spend the extra money what I don't need to but never use a sunscreen oh I'm sorry sunscreen can range from one to 100 never use a sunscreen below 30 that's the lowest you want to go so if you have a 10 15 or 20 that really doesn't you know doesn't do as much as what you can do with some higher so please try to always have 30 or higher okay here's the spray and we I talked to the kids about what they prefer the spray or the cream this spray here is a 30 that's the lowest they want to go here's a cream that's a 50 and I feel there's I I because I try a little bit of everything when I see something out there so I basically tried them all and the creams really have gotten a lot better they have I mean if you look back to when I was younger some of those things we love the sunscreen was absolutely horrible but the creams have gotten a lot better when I go outside I put the creams on my face and my ear in my neck I use that and then I use the spray on the rest of my body one thing that's important to know is what if you're using the spray make sure you rub it in because it doesn't if you just spray it on and don't rub it in it doesn't activate so spray it on thoroughly I've watched people put sunscreen on before where they just do like a light mist and then they're done no you got to spray it on thoroughly and rub it in but this is my sunscreen a choice I like Neutrogena this one's a hundred plus so obviously it must be really good but yeah Neutrogena because it's not sticky it's not oily it's not greasy so that's that's the one I prefer to use and I've tried you know a lot of the sprays like the banana boat I've tried the target off-brand which is cheaper and those have all worked for me too but this is just the one that I prefer to use that's me on the beach and it's time to reapply and I tell the kids because one of the biggest things that people have for not wearing a sunscreen is they just don't have the time well I can do my legs my arm my face in under two minutes and that to me to have healthy skin that's not a big chunk of your time out of the day so I can always equate it to brushing your teeth that everyone brushes their teeth and because they want to have healthy teeth and everyone is just in the habit of brushing your teeth that's what they do so I tell the kids you just need to get in the habit of applying your sunscreen and once you get in that habit then it's just something you do excuse me now this day I did take a little bit longer because I had my sandals on so I had to get between the toes and the feet so that does take a little bit longer and another thing I point out to the kids too is when I'm outside I always have a hat on because I have lost a lot of a lot of hair that's just from being a middle school teacher but I tell the kids and they don't believe me but I say some of you are going to lose that hair you need to protect that scalp when you're outside so all my pitches when I'm outside I will be wearing a hat because I got to protect my scalp I don't want to burn my scalp so majority of people only apply 25 to 50 percent of the recommended amount of sunscreen so we're hardly putting enough on so what what does that mean when the bottle will tell you to apply frequently that's what it'll tell you well this is what you got to do if you want healthy skin if you don't want those wrinkles if you don't want those age spots if you want to be at a lower risk for skin cancer this is what you need to do apply 15 minutes before you go out into the sun as it needs to absorb into your skin so when I'm teaching like my first class is at nine for if it's nice enough to go out I always put my sunscreen on at 845 and then if you're outside for a long time you should reapply every two hours which like I said I tell the kids you just got to get in the habit of you know putting it on and getting out there and and just make it a habit and then it should be no big deal so 15 minutes before you're outside and then every two hours reapply after swimming sweating or tolling because some of it will wipe off or wear off I would parts do people forget to protect their nose their ears their feet and then with kids it's always their shoulders I know for adults it's always there a lot of them people burn their ears because they maybe wear ball caps outside and their ears are sticking outside of it so they don't protect their ears but those are the four things Sun is the strongest from 10 until 4 so I tell the kids make sure you have your sunscreen on you can sit in the shade I wear long sleeves if I'm out golfing or whatever to protect my arms I always have the hat on you can get clothing now it's pretty common to get summer clothes like a target that has SPF in it girls can get makeup they can get you know lip balm that is SPF so there's a lot of things you can do besides sunscreen because the Sun causes over 90% of the damage we do to our skin which as I tell the kids will lead to wrinkles and of course when you talk into a seventh grader that doesn't mean much but I tell them one day they're gonna wake up and look in the mirror and there will be wrinkles there and the same thing with age spots or liver spots that's just from sun damage from people not wearing their sunscreen and of course skin cancers okay because I tell them they don't want to end up looking like that hopefully so I know that's not very common here in North Dakota that's more so probably down south where they're outside 12 months out of the year but the kids always get a big kick out of that one how gross it is or that or that one you can see the arm all the wrinkles on the arm there's some damage there's the age spots I tell them about and they're usually like oh yeah my grandma crap I has that or that or on the arm or hand that's you know that's actually skin cancer on the face thankfully mine didn't look like that and this is I just tell them here wherever you have skin you can get skin cancer so on the island and of course they had to cut it out or cut it off just like here here's a great example of a older gentleman that's lost a lot of hair so what was exposed to the Sun was the scalp looks like you didn't protect it or that one okay that's actually an untreated melanoma but I don't know the story behind that so when I was decided to do this talk I actually got to meet with the head of the melanoma department at Mayo Clinic so he was like the big man on campus and he told me the one thing that I really have to hit home especially with high school girls is to stay out of the tanning bed because he said that's the absolute absolutely worst thing you can do and I tell the kids right now I think it's 18 states where it's illegal for minors to use a tanning bed one of those states is Minnesota so I tell them if they were to cross the river and go use a tanning bed after school they'd be breaking the law North Dakota you just have to be 16 and you need your parents permission hopefully they won't give that permission but I'm hoping North Dakota will eventually just outlaw you know for minors hopefully I know there's entire countries that like Brazil and Australia I think is one the entire country is just outlawed it for everyone banned it because that's how dangerous they are so using a tanning bed once a month for only 10 minutes increases your chances of developing skin cancer 75 percent so that's not ten minutes a day or ten minutes a week that's ten minutes a month so so I I don't know how many of you out there have a younger dodger younger daughters but hopefully you don't let them keep them out of the tanning beds here's Tony if anyone needs a little motivation to not lay in a tanning bed here you go so there's like a before and after so she was a tanning bed user and when I my dermatologist that male told me that almost every teenage girl she sees that a skin cancer been using a tanning bed so they they're seeing more and more teenage girls because that's who's using the tanning beds and when I talk to them like when I go to the high schools here up to the sophomore classes I have seen a decrease in tanning bed usage but there's still are some that do and they always have some excuse like you know I only used it six times for a trip or I only used it five times for homecoming well it doesn't matter here's a true story that I have Brian you'll not know who I am but I work with a friend of yours 12 years ago I lost my wife to Melanoma it was caused by seven sessions in the tanning bed so she would have a tan for a trip we were taking well needless to say 11 years later she had cancer and the first question that the oncologist asked her was have you ever used a tanning bed he then told her it was the cause of her cancer anyway I applaud you and the education you're giving to others about the dangers of tanning and I will do the same until I join Lynn I confront everyone that looks like they are going to use a tanning bed and tell them of Lynn's two and a half year battle she was a real trooper hers was discovered too late so this is true story from Roger in Wyoming his wife used a tanning bed seven times and it took her life so she did the damage and her cancer came back a letter came 11 years later mine took 20 years hers took 11 and then I tell the kids I think of someone that they care about a lot a mom a sister aunt best friend and how hard it would be to watch them fight for two and a half years and lose that battle because of a stupid tanning bed and that is a picture of Lynn with her family and the one that bothers me and I tell the kids this is the one that bothers me is that one because that's the family on vacation and who's missing from vacation well Lynn mom well where's your mom well mom passed away well what happened well mom used a tanning bed and it took her life so I tell the kids think about how hard that'd be to deal with to lose your mom or your wife because of a stupid tanning bed okay and then I have a video here that shows a girl getting into a tanning bed I can't play it but the tanning bed turns into a coffin and when I did the research for this there are a lot of websites that actually called tanning beds I call them death beds because they're so dangerous so why do you know what can you do beside if you want to get a little color and I get that but there's spray tans and there's tanning with lotions and why are these safe because there's no UV rays like I said I started doing this talk about 12 years ago and about six years ago the girls at the high schools both high schools here in town I have not had a complaint on spray tans in the last six years and they are getting to be more popular so something changed with the product or whatever but to keep the high school girls happy for the last six years that's pretty pretty good for those of you that have teenagers but they've said yeah I've used a spray tan they work great they don't turn me orange or not runny those are some of the excuses so something changed about five six years ago and I've heard nothing but positives with the spray tanning the tanning with lotions that just recently especially at one of the high schools in town here has gotten to be pretty popular where the girls have told me they've done that and it works and the best thing about both these is there's there's no UV rays they're not damaging your skin okay so here's I show them what a tanning spray when you go to get the spray tan looks like you stand in the booth and gives you a little little color a little before and after before and after and I tell the girls if they get that spray tan like here the wind will always blow through their hair like the girl on the right so and before after after the first shower and and you know the colors not there forever I tell them but if you need it for homecoming or wedding or whatever you have going on you have it and you haven't damaged your skin there's a bronzer you can rub on and there's one you can spray on so thoughts on tanning skin cancer can take up to 20 years to develop trust me I know one blistering sunburn in your childhood more than doubles your chances of developing melanoma later on in life so I don't know how many out there of you that that would apply to but in a classroom typically of 15 kids I maybe have five three to five that have had a sunburn so bad it blistered so those are the kids where they've doubled their chances of developing melanoma later on in life and of course we talked about how the reason that happened is because they weren't wearing their sunscreen so then I ask them how often do you think I burned when I was your age and of course they all think that I burned a lot but I never burned ever so my number one reason and I can still hear me telling my mom why I don't need to wear sunscreen is because I don't burn so those of you that still don't wear your sunscreen because you say I never burn it doesn't matter you're still damaging your skin you're still out in the sun you're still you know that damages were caught up to me down the road so it doesn't have a lot to do with whether you're burned or not so that was my excuse and it was a terrible one and then I show them some pictures of the blisters like on the foot and ear and arm this was actually one of my students that came to school with that little lovely thing one day a little redhead and then we talk about once you burn or blister then you're going to peel which is not very appealing sorry seventh graders think that one's funny but and then a new thing I've kind of added in my into my presentation is when you are outside make sure you have your sunglasses on I found out that Mel Noman eyes on the rise because people aren't protecting your eyes my wife's best friend just lost her sister-in-law she got Mel Noman out in her eye and then it took her life so I tell the kids make sure that you wear your sunglasses make sure they block UV rays too so you need it because obviously we can't put sunscreen on her eyes so those of you outside for a good portion of the day got to protect those eyeballs without protection you're not invincible here's James I think are worried later on in life about skin cancer but not right now and that was my attitude at age 20 that was my attitude at age 16 that was my attitude at age 12 and look where it got me okay and I don't I tell the kids I'm not here to make them worry but I want them to be aware that the damage they're doing now can catch up with them later on in life or Marcy I've not thought about getting skin cancer I just want a tan and that is exactly what I would have said at that age the rate for melanoma is increasing faster than the rate of any other cancer and why is that well because right now having a tan is beautiful and again it's all about perception what you think looks good but of course when these kids turn the TV on and they see you know the tan right now is in talk about this girl on the right think she was a tanning bed user because she's got the raccoon eyes you can kind of see how it's white so she's probably in the tanning bed so that was not healthy and here we have natural skin color and I just tell kids your natural skin color and I truly believe this I think is just fine or maybe you're into that or that or that I don't know if you guys know who tan mom but that's tan mom and we talk about you know does this look good he's smiling but he wakes when he wakes up covered in blisters I don't think he's gonna be too happy and this guy we have to give him credit he did put sunscreen on because you can see where his fingers were reaching in his back but he obviously missed a big chunk there but he tried do you think that being tan makes you look healthier and I in my honest opinion to me it it doesn't matter you know here's a before and after like I tell the kids I think natural skin colors just fine same way with this young lady but of course trying to tell a 16-year-old girl that does could be next to impossible but the problem with people who think a tan is healthy is is not healthy okay what is a tan a tan does not indicate good health it is a response to injury skin cells signal that they're damaged by producing melanin and causing the darker color so basically it's your body telling you you've injured your body and I compare it that makes sense to the kids but I compare it to getting a black and blue mark so I when I see a kid that school that maybe comes back from Florida whatever and you can tell they got darker skin I tell them you've damaged your skin there's nothing healthy about it okay and then I got a couple of videos here that I show on this is the point where we're going to the skin scope so I give an example on the left is what you see with the naked eye and on the right is what you see in the skin scope because the problem is is the damage that everyone does outside you can't see it to the naked eye I mean the damage is there I got a great video I just can't play it for you here's a 17-year-old on the left that's the naked eye if you look around the bridge of her nose you can see all those dark spots that's all sun damage and of course as we get older here a 64-year-old on the bottom on the right there look at all that sun damage so she's a higher risk you know for skin cancer and here's two examples and of course when I have my kids going the skin scope and look none of them look like this but I tell them especially you know at this age if they're already starting to see some spots and they continue or go down the road this is this could be them you know higher you know higher risk for skin cancer wrinkles age spots this is what they're added to so here's the naked eye on the left and what you see in the skin scope on the right and there too and that's kind of what it looks like inside the skin scope and I give them directions and they go in and take a look and then when they come out we talk about what they saw the cool thing is is when I do it for them in seventh grade I tell them to remember what they look like because I will see them again as sophomores and if you could see some of the expressions on their face when they come out of sophomores because they realize that they've gotten a lot worse it's kind of a shock to their system and I hope that it's waking them up that they need to get in the habit of protecting your skin so that is all I have are there any questions Julie or where are we at all right well we've had a little discussion going on someone asked about basically they are allergic to the sunscreens yeah and Barrel said I've had good luck with Neutrogena hypoallergenic lotions and lip balm and Estee Lauder also makes lip gloss and is hypoallergenic and then made the recommendation to check with a dermatologist that's what I tell the kids because it's kids are hardly to sunscreen your dermatologist the problem we run into at the dermatologist especially in Grand Forks here is they're so busy it's so impossible to get in to see them I'm sure some of you have run into that same problem so and I wanted to just make a point again this is Julie garden Robinson I'm a food and nutrition specialist now that you've all heard about this please share this information with your kids or grandkids or spouse or whoever because this is important information to get out to the public and we do have toolkits around the state with Sun Safety information we have about six or eight derma scams like Brian described and you know we want to get this information out to especially gardeners and children outdoor workers so if you are enthusiastic and you want to help us we would gladly welcome your help which could even be putting up some of the poster displays that we have available and maybe Brian would even visit your town what do you think Brian well well in this part of the state I've been to yeah I've been to well Halla Drayton Thompson I've been to a lot of schools drove up to Devils Lake one time so if we can get it I drove out to Minot last summer so if we can get it to work with my school schedule whatever I am open like I said this is part of my healing processes and this is what I'm going to do so I'm more than happy to help out in any way yeah you'll never know the big difference that you've made probably I have another question has anyone heard about organic sunscreens have you looked into that at all yeah actually I was out in Missoula last summer and I was at a farmers market and they had some there and I bought it and it worked it was it was actually pretty nice I bought a talcum and then I also bought a roll on and they both work great the problem is in Grand Forks here I haven't been able to find it anywhere but I did use it I did try it and it worked great and it wasn't oily it wasn't sticky or anything so I have tried it I wasn't pressed Jennifer has a question or a comment she says I've seen sunscreen that has vitamin D in it which seems like a good idea since sunscreen blocks the ability to produce vitamin D and skin also antioxidants help prevent damage internally do you believe nutrition is a factor well I'll make a first comment and Brian because I'm a nutrition specialist I don't really believe that rubbing vitamins on your skin is going to do as much good as consuming foods with vitamin D in them so I haven't looked into that one but I would say up your your vitamin D and your diet through milk fortified cereals you know tuna or some of the main eggs have vitamin D haven't read much about spreading it on your body I just don't think it would be a absorb very well and hurt anything about that Brian yeah actually everything I've heard as far as vitamin D is just your normal like going outside in the sun every day just whatever your routine is is generally enough is what I've been told so in this part of the country we tend to be deficient in the winter because we're covering all our skin but yeah summer you're you're good and it only takes about the 10 minutes of sun exposure so not a lot we do have a I put a link in the in the chat we have a couple of websites one's called health wise for guys and once health wise for women and we do have some handouts about Sun safety on those and again we appreciate any help that all of you listening can do to be help us get this message out and I really thank Brian for all his efforts because it is really a huge issue with the teenage girls in particular and the sunbeds and some of these things so I really appreciate all your work because I have a teenage daughter myself well one of the things that I and I'm starting to hear more and more of it but one of the things I love is when I talk to him about you know what are their feelings on sunscreen and so many of the kids now I just ask him if they wear their sunscreen and a lot you know they are telling me they are and I always ask them are you wearing it because you want to or because your mom's telling you and a lot of times I'm hearing it's well my mom makes me wear it every time I go out so for all you parents out there keep it up and good job Amy has a question can you get skin cancer from sitting by a window or is there any protection through the glass see I've heard it both ways I've heard that like because I teach drivers Ed in the summer so I've heard that it will block we raise and then I've heard otherwise so I don't have an answer for that from my life my understanding is the glasses the glass will block the UV rays but don't quote me on that yeah I've I've also read it yeah read it both ways but the main things I've read is that it it isn't protective unless it was designed to be protective you know to have some skirts you know something into it yeah so that's why we do see some people who say are in a tractor get you know all sunburned on the side of the face that faces out right all right we get all kinds of kudos so great information telling teens this is something you're a control of thanks for sharing and much health to you so they're thanking you a lot and we'll take any final questions here's what is a comment I think the new thought is that you can get it the number of cancer is higher for the right arms of people or left arm she said whoops I suppose whatever side of the car you're on is gonna be the one that's affected and I've heard that you know and a lot of people will have the window open and have their arm hanging out so that's something to think about and Jennifer says thanks for sharing your message glad you are a survivor so any last questions before we thank Brian profusely for sharing his his message and his purpose in life I think here so I really thank you Brian this is great well I hope I didn't bore you everyone out there too much I appreciate your time I have had I'm at my workplace now and a lot of people have walked by wondering why I'm talking looks but I appreciate everyone listening and I hope I made a difference in some ways so thank you yes thank you and like all of the other webinars this one will be archived on our field to fork website so if you know someone who would benefit from watching this maybe you're the teenager in your house or 4-H group or young gardener group it will be up very soon so thanks to all of you I hope that you will join us again next week and you can hear about butterfly gardens but you're gonna need a hat and sunscreen if you're gonna be gardening so thanks a lot and thanks again Brian yep thank you


Insight into the global forest resources assessment process. Forests cover nearly one third of the land on Earth. They shelter most of the planet's irreplaceable biodiversity, help fight climate change and are a source of fresh water, timber and many other vital products and services to humankind. Reliable information on the status of the world's forest resources and their ongoing trends is crucial to halting deforestation and managing forests wisely to preserve their functions. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, known as FAO, published the first survey on the forest resources of the world in 1948 at the request of its member states. This survey was followed by a series of more comprehensive assessments that are now produced every five years under known as Global Forest Resources Assessments, or FRA. The results of these assessments have been used for many purposes, from assessing the availability of timber for post-war reconstruction to developing policies to fight tropical deforestation and the alarming associated loss of biodiversity. Today, FRA is the most comprehensive assessment of the world's forests, including their management and uses. It is also the only global assessment that is based on official national statistics. FRA data are widely used to support evidence-based recommendations by governments, civil society and the private sector and to inform international conventions and agendas. In particular, FRA plays a central part in monitoring progress towards sustainable development goal 15, life on land. But how does the FRA process work? While the earliest assessments were mainly conducted by FAO experts, the more recent ones are based on data provided directly by countries. These data are reported to FAO by national correspondents, national experts officially nominated by the countries to coordinate compilation of data from different national sources. The National Correspondent Network covers 187 countries and territories, which together contain 99.5% of the world's forests. FAO trains the national correspondents on how to compile country reports using commonly agreed terms and definitions and a standardized reporting methodology. This is crucial for consistent reporting across countries. Moreover, designated FAO experts support the national correspondents throughout the reporting process and help them to solve any issues. The actual reporting is facilitated by a dedicated online platform, which also gives the national correspondents access to external data sources, such as the latest satellite images and other geospatial data. But FRA is not only about numbers. National correspondents are also asked to thoroughly document all the data sources they have used to make country reports as transparent and complete as possible. When a report has been submitted, the FRA secretariat and external experts review the content to ensure that data are complete and consistent, and that common reporting methodology has been correctly applied. Country reports are then sent to the highest forest authority of each country, the head of forestry, for their final approval. Once published, the approved data are used to analyze the status and trends of global forest resources. The results of the assessments are offered to the public in a number of formats, including a global report, individual country reports, an online open access database, scientific papers and other summary outputs, all important to form a comprehensive picture of the world's forests.


Recently, a reverend Islam or revered Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, advised the federal government to support splinter groups among bandits as a way to end mass abductions of school pupils. He said many bandits were ready for a dialogue, arting that the government could use them to fight the ugly ones. A PDP chieftain has commented on the development, saying that if the initiative used by Gumi and former president, Shia Olusha Bassenjo, that was used in releasing the Afakar students were adopted, banditry would end in July. But how true is all of this? Well, joining us to discuss this is Efeu Wanago. He is an expert on security matters. Thank you very much, Efeu, for joining us. Only the pleasure to be with you. So Sheikh Gumi is back in the news. Before now, he suggested amnesty. He suggested negotiations. I mean, now he's coming up with the fact that we need to build splinter bandit groups to be able to put an end to insecurity. I'm not a security expert, but Common Sense is asking, why do we need splinter bandit groups? What does this even mean? Well, for me, it would be clear that he is just apparently out to make a caricature of the Nigerian government, basically. Because it will show that we have been unable to handle the task of governance, the task of possession of security, and taking care of criminal elements in the form of terror in terms of bandits as they have been cretined. So now he's suggesting, in addition to his various other unsavory suggestions that we should support his splinter group to, I think it's absolute nonsense. And I don't think anybody should pay heed to Sheikh Gumi. In fact, I'm one of those who believe that he should have been asked very serious questions. After his time and contact with these guys who have perpetrated criminality in the North West and parts of the North East. If you just ask my question, because I was going to ask next, why is Sheikh Gumi still in the news? Why is he still walking free and making some of these preposterous analogies or making these kind of recommendations? And he's still allowed to be in the news and taking interviews. I mean, of course, he has a freedom of expression, but when this borders on our security, should this be allowed in the first instance? It is terribly disturbing, Nerean. And for me, it should appear that he's somebody that could be charged as if he hadn't been an accessory before and after the fact of most of the crimes going on. And ordinarily, I would think that our security agencies and intelligence agencies would have swooped on him and used him to on earth the intricacies, the inner workings of these groups. And go ahead to neutralize them. But Sheikh Gumi seems to be like one of the class of sacred cows that we have in Nigeria who nobody can talk to, who nobody can talk to.  And they can say what they want to say, and there is no problem. But somebody else says this from some other part of the country and you get flags from the government and the government spokesman. So this is not right at all. Sheikh Gumi is not the public officer, he's not the security expert. But he has made comments, we have seen videos of him dissenting with the bandits or the criminals, whatever you call them. And nobody have, have swooped on Gumi. Nobody have even utilized his so-called networks, you know, and the myth they have to go in there and neutralize his people. So something is wrong, something is on me. Basically, I would expect that Sheikh Gumi would have been invited and through COVID and over to me, he would have been investigated thoroughly. And through the investigations of Sheikh Gumi and his acolyte, that the issue of banditry in the Mountain West and some central part of the country would have been definitely ended. But unfortunately that is not the case. Now it's the kidnappings and the grabbing of school pupils, whether they're a university or normal school children, seems to now be an everyday thing because every day we're seeing hundreds were taken, 22 were taken, I mean the numbers are bandit all around. And every day the people who are parents of these children who were taken keep telling us or churning out numbers or huge amounts of monies that they have paid as opposed to the security agencies saying, oh monies did not exchange hands, money should not exchange hands. But then we see that these parents have to sometimes have GoFundMe accounts so that people can help them to get their children out. Is this not a show of the fact that maybe we are not serious about dealing with this issue of banditry and paying these ransom again and again? Is this not also a way of funding terrorism in the country? How do we make sure that these issues are taken seriously because again the government keeps paying lip service to it, talking tough, but we do not see it matched by actions. Could it be that our security agencies are tired? Are they overstretched? What exactly is the case for someone who's in the field? What should we make of this? Because it's gradually becoming a norm and how long before it overruns the whole country? And Marianne, even for some of us security professionals and practitioners in the field of security, this appears to be some conundrum that Nigeria has been put in. It is inexplicable that ragtime groups, as I like to describe them, that believe that they are ragtime, would hold us to ransom for this long and that doesn't seem to be any concerted, definitive effort to get them out of business. So to speak, we keep on giving excuses. We keep on christening and re-christening with different nomenclature, from Boko Haram to Bandit to criminal headsmen and what are you, or non-gone men. But rather than do the work which government is supposed to do, we're not doing it. And I believe that the Nigeria security agencies have sufficient capacity to neutralize these groups that exist within the shores of Nigeria. Why we are not doing the needful beats my imagination. Let's take it clearly now. What training do they have? The Nigerian military, the police and the GSS have sufficient support, sufficient networks legitimately to call for support to neutralize these guys. So is it a political will as it is meeting? I cannot tell. We are aware of course that we have a deficiency of critical equipment, arms and ammunition and what have you. But even what we have and in manpower, are they sufficiently motivated in the proper direction being gotten from the highest quota to say, okay, this is what I want. And in one, two, three months, I want this definitively ended. If we remember clearly, in the last few months of presidential term, just before the election, after the first heat they had, Boko Haram that seemed to be very invincible. That seemed to be larger than life. Where there's a definitive blow. And the elections held in all parts of the country without any issues. So that proved to all Nigerians at the time that if the government decides to do what it ought to do, they are going to do it. So I think that- So does it mean that the government is not ready to deal with the insecurity that we're facing in the country? Is it that, how many more people, let me just put it this way, how many more people need to die? How much grounds do these kidnappers and bandits need to cover for the government to begin to take it seriously? Because one minute we think that the government seems to be serious, but then the next minutes, it's happening all over again. Is it that these guys have also taken advantage of the government's weakness or the fact that they're not moving as fast as they should to continue to do what they're doing? Absolutely. I would want to agree with the last supposition that it is possible that they are taking advantage of the government's seeming inaction or narrow space or uncoordinated outlook as far as this battle is concerned. That's what we think. Now, with regards to how many more people who died before a definitive response will be made, it's left for the government to explain. But for me, I believe that the government can do the meat food. I believe that the Nigerian Army and Air Force and the DSS and the police are not so weak that such ragtime groups will be running the whole country as short. No, this is not going to happen. It cannot continue to happen, rather. So for me, the government needs to display that it is doing all in its power. You partner, we saw how the late President of Chad, he was able to chase criminals into Nigeria. We saw how he definitely dealt vocal around serious blow in Chad before he met his death. Now, nobody would doubt the originality, the Air Force and the authenticity of the fight against vocal around in Chad. But I guess in Nigeria, many people are beginning to wonder, do we really want vocal around Bandit, whatever you call them or not government, to come to an end? For me, I think not. We're not ready. When we are ready, I believe it can be pushed to a definitive end. Wow. Well, I want to say thank you, if you want to go. This is all the time that we have, if you want to go. He is a security expert and he joined us live from Potaka. Thank you very much for speaking with us. Thank you so much for having me. All right. Well, we'll take a short break now and hear what Nigerians have to say about the alliance with Bandit. And when we return, I will give you my take. It's better because the killing is too much. If you go to the North now, you can't travel to the North. You can't travel to anywhere. I don't know where we are going to. So it's better the federal government to like negotiate with them. If the federal government can dialogue with the Bandits in as much as this killing, abductions, and what a view can stop. It's okay. But the problem with our people is whenever they dialogue with them again, the fear of another group raising up costumium in the country is still imminent. I said no. It is not good. It is not right. Because if you dialogue with them, automatically you are inviting other ones that will rise up and take over from them. Because when you dialogue with them, probably you give them, you see appointment or train them. I don't understand me. That will not stop criminality. The best thing is to arrest them, go to their creeks, go to their hideout, arrest them and make sure they are charged to cut the country. We have the laws in the land that deal with all this kind of issue. I don't believe the federal government should go for negotiation with the Bandits. No, it's totally wrong. Let the federal government look for a solution to ease, not to go to bargain and get anything. There is nothing like that. No, there is nothing I can't talk with Bandits. What are the people that have killed their family? The government knows what to do. They have been dealing with these people. There was a time there was negotiation with Boku Aram. If they think that that is the best way for our people to be free, you understand? I believe they should consider the life of people. If there are any relationships between the government and the Bandits, it will be better. For a reasonable government, there is no need for them to negotiate with terrorists. Because the international community they say that the full-time management is a terrorist organization. So there is no need for them to negotiate. The only thing they can do is for them to use their military strength. And make sure these full-time management are dealt with. Here's my take. It's saddening that every single day we keep harping on the same issues, hoping that governments will give favorable responses only to wake up to worse scenarios like suspending Twitter. Like we do not have enough problems or that the country is not suffering enough and taking economic and social hits. So this is why I always ask if our leaders really are there for us or for themselves. I mean these Bandits who are causing mayhem, the killers and the kidnappers, those targeting our police men are electoral officers. Should they not be our federal government and the presidency's priority? Why are we killing an aunt with a sledgehammer when we should be hitting hard on terrorists? Why is politics and ego more important to our leaders than the welfare of the average Nigerian?  Who comes up with these ideas, I wonder? As if we haven't suffered enough in this country. I think government needs to stop playing games and focus on the lives of every single Nigerian. Better our lots and give us a sense of safety. Bring us back to our pride of place. Give us unity, peace and progress. We need our Nigeria as it was. I am Mary Anokong. Thanking you for watching. Have a good evening.


Streptococcus pneumoniae contributes to a range of infections, including meningitis, pneumonia, otitis media, and sepsis. It has been suggested that infections by this bacterium may be associated with the phenomenon of molecular mimicry, which could lead to the induction of autoimmunity. To explore this hypothesis, we used a bioinformatics approach to identify 13S. Pneumoniae proteins that are similar to human proteins, with 11 of them being linked to autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes. We then used database mining to determine whether these proteins are involved in any known autoimmune disorders. Furthermore, we designed and validated an immune response via vaccine construction based on the antigenic, non-allergenic, and immunogenic sequences of these proteins. Our simulations and binding affinity assessments showed that Construct C8 binds to HLA molecules and TLR4 receptors with promising results. Additionally, our mapping of these mimics as conserved regions suggests. This article was authored by Mutabem Mushraki, Ahmad Al-Zamami, Nora Al-Turki, and others. We are article.tv, links in the description below.


I've just come from a media conference involving CEO Mick Burke and Professor Rob Joy and I just want to reinforce the comments made by those two gentlemen. The first thing is that today is a day where our first thoughts go to those who have in some way or in any way been affected through the history of past practices at Fisville. We know that there are a number of CFA members who are suffering from and indeed number have passed away from cancer. So our thoughts are with those people and their families but it's important that the report is a very important documentation of past practices which in some way answers the question as to what happened and in some way ask the questions why did this happen. It's important to reinforce CEO Mick's statements that those past practices we see are unacceptable and intolerable and we need to take very firm action to move on. It's very important that we reinforce amongst all of the people who are CFA members and their families that our first commitment as an organisation is the protection of life and the safety of our people. That is so important and we see that demonstrated in so many other ways but we have now a very serious report into those historical practices and we need to move on. I think what's very important in the report and in some of the independent reports that CFA has had from hygienists and environmental consultants they're saying Fiskville is safe to use. We have of recent weeks made the decision to ensure that everyone is of peace of mind. We're only using reticulated water from fresh water supplies for firefighter training. Really important that we emphasise Fiskville is not only a hot pad training area. We use Fiskville for a wide range of firefighter and emergency management leadership training. We use it for conferences. We use it for recruit firefighter and promotional training. It's used in many, many ways as well as been a very important symbol of the history and the culture of CFA. We have a firefighters memorial wall there. So to anyone who is suggesting that Fiskville should shut down, the first point we would say is there is no evidence or facts that would support that contention. In fact Professor Rob Joy himself reiterated that there is no evidence in his report or in the knowledge that he has that would support Fiskville shutting down. We make this commitment that on the evidence before us and we have done detailed evaluation, detailed measurements of the firefighting water and the grounds around Fiskville, there is no evidence that there is any significant risk to people who are using Fiskville or visiting Fiskville as a trainee or a visitor. However, we need to move on. The report does indicate that there are some residual environmental issues and water quality issues where we need to undertake some further investigation to satisfy ourselves that there is no risk to the environment or to the broader community. C.O. Mick and the board early this week affirmed that they will be following through and implementing every one of those 10 recommendations. In addition to that, the board has identified with CFA management a further 11 actions that we would propose to enhance the management not only of Fiskville but also of our regional field training grounds and generally our hot pad training facilities. It's important that Mick has made a commitment that we will pursue the relevant Australian standard for occupational health and safety and indeed that will underpin all of our occupation health and safety activities and adopting that standard throughout CFA will be a significant benefit for the organisation. I want to reinforce though that CFA has developed a culture around safety and sadly this was triggered by the tragic 1998 Linton fire but particularly since that time we've made some strident advances. We've developed a safety first culture and program. We've developed a culture of fire training, minimum skills training, leadership training, incident management training. We've just upgraded our radio system and our radio terminals and there is more to come in that area. We have significantly changed the design of our firefighting appliances including a retrofit bushfire survival burn over system. We've spent millions of dollars on issuing protective clothing both in a rural setting and also in an urban setting. We take the safety of our people very, very seriously and will act on this report to ensure that we follow through in the future with a commitment to the safety of our people and the families who might have been affected by Fiskville.


Let's take a look at the matrix presentation of a latent variable structural equation model. When you study books on SCM, you'll often see tables like this. So this is from Todd Little's book and he has all these Greek, lambdas, psi, phi, and they refer to matrices, then they are the Greek symbols. And if you look at statorius and manual, you'll find things like this. So they're matrices with their explanation. And why understanding all this stuff is useful? So it's Greek? Why you should know some Greek if you do SCM? There are a couple of reasons. First, your software might report matrices. And even if it doesn't report matrices by default, all SCM software that I know can report the estimates in matrices and that's actually very useful format for presenting things because it's easy to check what is being estimated, what is not estimated or what's constrained to be zero. The second reason is that some books or articles use matrices. Particularly if you go for more advanced books on SCM, then they use matrix equations to show some features of models. And to understand that, you need to understand a bit of the logic behind the matrix presentation of an SCM. Then if you want to calculate model implied covariances from a model, which you might want to do for diagnostic purposes, doing that by hand one covariance at a time tracing all the paths is very tedious, but with matrices you can calculate it all in one go. And then finally understanding the matrices or the different matrix presentations because they are more than one, then that can allow you to understand why your software will not allow for example certain kinds of covariances or certain paths. That might be because they are just not available in the matrices that that computer software uses. Let's take a look at Stata. Stata's user manual contains this example of S-stat framework, which says that it prints out the estimated structural equation modeling in bentler weeks matrix system. So there are different systems for constructing matrices and they vary in how many matrices are used and how large matrices are used, but they all basically work under the same principle. So we have these matrices. We have a beta, gamma, psi, alpha, pi and kappa and Stata fortunately provides as an explanation that kappa is the means of exogenous variables for example, but not all software do that in their output. So remembering what the different matrices are in your software is useful. So why would we want to take a look at these matrices instead of just taking a look at the parameter list that Stata prints out by default and many others of SCM software as well. Well, here we can see easily what is being estimated, what is being constrained. For example, we have the error covariances, we can easily see that all the error covariances are constrained to be zero, they are zeros. We can also see the pattern of regression coefficients here, what is being estimated, what is not estimated. We can see if there are any constraints with, for example, exogenous variables, we probably don't want to have those. And if we have, they are going to be shown here. So this shows you, in addition to the estimate, it shows you what is not being estimated and that's a very useful thing to take a look at every time after you estimate something. Let's take a look at more detail on these matrices. So this is from Reiko Markovic's book and they present the literal model, which is one of the more well-known models and one of the older ones. And they show that in literal model there are basically two sets of equations. So one is y, that's y equations, that shows that the observed variables y are functions or they depend on the later variables eta with the factor loadings and their error terms and intercepts. And then there's a model for the later variables. So the later variables are linked to other later variables using recursion coefficients stored in the beta matrix. And if you want to calculate the model implied covariance matrix, then you'll get that from this kind of equation. So what's the logic of this equation? We can take a look at the equation, it has basically two parts. This thing in the middle is latent variable covariances. So it's latent variable covariances multiplied by both sides with the factor loading matrices. So what's the logic here? Let's take a look at an example of an exploratory factor analysis model, which is a simpler model because it does not contain the beta matrices, we just look at the psi matrix here. So the modeling implied covariance matrix of this model is given by this matrix equation. So we take the factor covariances, we multiply on both sides using factor loadings and we add indicator error terms and their covariance matrix. So here are the matrices. So this is the factor loading matrix. You have indicators on rows. Latent variable was on columns and zero means that factor loading does not exist. One means that it's a scaling loading. So the first loading speaks to one and lambda means that it's an estimated loading. And then we have the factor covariances and variances here. So what's the logic behind this? So why do we construct it this way? Let's take a look at the multiplication of the first two matrices and what it gives. So these first two, multiplying all these matrices, these two matrices together gives us this six by two matrix. And we again have indicators on the rows and latent variables on the columns. And what this matrix actually contains is all paths from every indicator to every latent variable. So we can go from A1 to A and then to B using the correlation and we can go from B1 to B and B1 to A using the covariance and this matrix simply tells us that. So it's calculated using normal matrix multiplication rules. So we first take the first element of the first matrix and the first element of the second matrix so it's one times psi A and then we take the second element on the same and the second element on the row on the same column. So zero times AB. So there are no paths from A1 indicator to A that would go through the covariance B to A and that's what it tells us. So this is simply applying tracing rules. So you take every possible path from A1 to A for example and then you sum those paths. So you multiply everything along the way and then you sum the paths. And if we add a cross loading like so, lambda here, we can see that now there are two paths from A1 to A, there's the direct path and then there is the path along the covariance which is added to the model and the same thing from A1 to B using two paths. So there's the covariance path from A to AB to B using the covariance and then there's this cross loading. So all possible paths and then multiply everything along the path take a sum and that's what the matrices do. So when we look at these three matrices together the first two matrices contain all paths from every indicator to every latent variable and then the final matrix when we multiply it we simply go back to every indicator. So that gives us these model implied coherences. If we add the cross loading here then we will get more paths from A to all the A indicators and from A to all the B indicators. So this is a symmetric matrix. So this is simply application of the tracing rules that I normally teach using scalar format but it just automates the multiplication and summing. So remember that when you multiply two matrices you first do this element by element multiplication and then you take a sum of all those products and then you move to the next element of the matrix and that's how matrices are multiplied. So where does this come from? Where does this identity matrix minus beta inverse psi identity matrix beta prime inverse where does that come from? Well I don't think that going through that is very useful but if you want to understand how that is derived here is how you derive it so that's just the derivation. I got it from Susanne Jak, who is working on a book on SCM and I really look forward to seeing the book but this is as far as I have of the book now. Now the final thing is that matrices define what models can be specified. So this is from Stata's SCM builder and we have a simple confronted factor analysis model with a simple one factor and let's say that we try to add a path from the error term to a latent variable, we can do that. Stata tells us that we cannot correlate endogenous variable with exogenous variable. So why would that be the case? The reason is that the endogenous variables and exogenous variables, their covariances are two separate matrices and there is no matrix in the model that would contain the covariances between the error terms of endogenous variables and the exogenous variables. If we take a look at this literal model this also has some constraints, for example the indicators are allowed to depend on the latent variables but not the other way around. So the latent variables affect the indicators but not the other way around. Also you can't regress indicator on another indicator because only regressions between latent variables are allowed in this modeling framework. So understanding this Greek is useful for capillarism. First, your software will report matrices and they are called with the Greek names. Second, books and articles use matrices understanding those books. You need to understand the matrices. Then calculating implied correlations is a lot easier with matrices than by looking at individual colors or individual numbers. And finally, if you understand the matrix presentation of an SCM then you can understand what kind of models are possible and not possible with your SCM software.


Hi, everyone. Happy Tuesday. I'm Joe for jazby's casebreaks.com coming at you with 2019 2020 upper deck clear cut hockey 15 box Pick your team number six and a little bit of a giveaway right here as well if you bought at least two teams So a lot of fun stuff that we can pull out of here big. Thanks to everyone Here for getting into the action Thank you. All right, and we had to do a number block for a number of teams so For that group of teams it becomes a serial number break At their end there could be some non numbered cards for these for this group right here If that's the case, we're gonna collect those as one lot and randomize it to one person in this group right here for that group Teams I think 90% of these cards are numbered so we may not even run into that situation, but in case we do All right. Here's the second inner case that we had here With me where did that go three stacks of five for the 15 boxes next to me right here All right, there it is one premium card inside Good luck everyone. Now. We've got Eric Hala 14 out of 25 That's golden Knights.  There you go Now my hockey knowledge is not super strong. So you're gonna have to let me know if these are if these are big names or not I'm gonna be good going by your your reactions here Next up some of these guys. I'll know I know this guy young guns Austin Matthews Nice autograph there Toronto picked up straight up by Mike Samich. There you go, Mike It's a lost in Matthews stick it up right there already in case Pretty good-looking card That guy I do next up is Yeah, Willie love those young guns Adam Fox black amber rookies gold ink autograph for the Rangers Rangers are a number block team And this is not number so that's part of that not numbered lot that will randomize next up is Next up is the Center for the Wild Miko Kovu Minnesota picked up straight up by Jarell Taylor and the fifth box We've got three out of three Dylan Sakura for Chicago and That's Wade Preston Picked up the Black Hawk straight up Wade All aboard the Big Head Express Nice First train whistle of the day out of flies number get the world famous train. What's next one is Brady Kaczek For Ottawa think Ottawa is a number block team and this is not numbered so that's part of the non numbered group All right there one person on the randomizer on the random number block list. We'll get that next hockey player is gonna be Erasmus Sandin another autograph for Toronto and for Mike songs go Mike Next is Blake Lazat 61 out of 65 for the Kings Kings are a number block team. So that goes to Kings one Right here That's for Anthony Anthony all of it nice There you go. Hey, so the Kings youngsters seem a little ahead of schedule brutal game for them yesterday though brutal game for them yesterday Next up next up is Rem Pitlick for That's Nashville. That's gonna go to Steven sir SKS with the Preds Next one is for Vancouver Brock Besser. I've heard of this guy. This guy's pretty good too future watch autograph for Vancouver Vancouver is a number block team and this is not numbered So that's part of the not numbered group. That's growing growing that pile is growing. It's up to three autos now Brock Besser is probably the highlight of that group. All right next is Kale clay 41 out of 65 another king and another king for number one Anthony next one is Is another Brock Besser and that's also not numbered Wow To Brock Bessers and that's gonna be that's gonna be great for that group there All right few more to go. All right, there's Marcus Peterson for Pittsburgh Frank picked up the penguin straight up similar if you want to buy out that group break You better do it soon if you want to buy out those last 12 spots because there's about to be an hour-long break That's gonna start if those last two Surling spots go off our plus. All right couple more to go here. We've got Jake Wallman, St. Louis Blues Nate range with the STL and The last box good luck the last box is gonna be Embedded endorsements autograph Tobias Bjornfoot For my Kings 45 out of 99 Martin with Kings 5 All right, there you go ladies and gents Now let's flip back to this right now. Remember the number block as it says right here There are cards that are not numbered in this set all non-numbered cards in This block of teams we randomized one person as one lot at the end of the break here. We are at the end of the break Let's go to that list right here So everyone here has a shot at those one two three four autographs including the two Brock Bessers So let's randomize that list six and a one seven times name on top gets it one two three four five six and Seven and final time name on top is gonna be Mike's Sommage. There you go after six and a one. Yep Did it right seven times you'll get that block of Autographs right here including the two Bessers. I'm Joe for jazby's case breaks calm. Thanks for watching. Thanks for breaking with us I'll see you next time for the next break