Boom. What's up, everyone? Welcome to Simulation. I'm your host, Alan Sokian, really excited to be still in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We are at the Sioux Falls School District's Instructional Planning Center, IPC, and there, this is how we develop a school district for 25,000 kids in this area of the southeast corner of South Dakota. This is my hometown, as you know, and we are sitting down with two people that are at the forefront of developing out this school district. We have both Dr. Teresa Boyson and Dr. Brian Mahur joining us. Thank you so much for coming on to the show. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Our pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. And the backgrounds are really great here. Teresa has been working in the Sioux Falls School District for 25 years. She was the principal at Harvey Dunn for 12 years, and then also taught for multiple years before that third and fourth grade. Right. And it also taught sports as well, and has had a huge track record there. Brian Mahur was at Carney prior to being superintendent here, which is in Nebraska. He was there superintendent for eight years, and now has been here three and a half years with the Sioux Falls School District as a superintendent, and Teresa's assistant superintendent. And we're really excited to talk about developing out a school district and all of the nuance that goes into this, because it is how do you mold the 25,000 minds into our world? How do you assess what's the curriculum like? What's, you know, from the national level? How do you keep up with exponential technology? Sioux Falls is burgeoning in population. So we passed the $190 million school bond. So we'll be talking about that. Really excited to unpack this with you both. Thank you again. Let's let's start even before we talk about molding 25,000 minds into our world. What sparked the fire under you to care about education and kids? And yeah, take turns. Yeah. Since I have the mic, I'll go ahead and start. Awesome. I think for me, it was really the adults in my life when I was when I was young. I grew up very poor in a small, small Nebraska town and really had some some motivators for me who were teachers and coaches who made me believe I could do more than I really thought I could. That was kind of my spark to get into education, to be able to do what they were doing. Growing up poor, when I looked at teachers, I thought, gosh, they make a pretty good living. They can they can do well. And of course, I think now our teachers are grossly underpaid. But that was that was a motivator for me to get me going and get into the field of education. That's interesting because I believe that most people that get into education have that same history. You have someone in your life that was impactful for you when you were younger with it in the school district. And I grew up in the Super Bowl School District. And so that's exciting for me, third through 12th grade here and the teachers that made an impact on my life and for me to pursue my education and come back here and to see some of those teachers again, but then those those watch the students as they go through and the impact that we can have on education in our community. It's a reoccurring theme that we've seen with all the entrepreneurs and different people we host on the show where they say that mentorship has been such an influence on their development.  So OK, so now you see years to within these within these teacher roles and administrator roles, you've slowly been better and better understanding about, OK, thousands, tens of thousands of children. Well, I mean, we're talking, you know, billions of kids around the world need their need to be molded into society in a way that they can be fully actualized themselves, contribute to the collective. How does one even go through the process of dealing with the twenty five thousand school student school district and figuring out how to best assess with the curriculum seems super complicated and hard to to actually do? Right. Can we start? Sure. You know, I think when you look at it in that context, a very broad context, it is super hard and really tough to do. In fact, as you're asking that question, I'm on, oh, my gosh, I don't know if I'm cut out for this. I think what you what you do really is you figure out what can I do right now? Yes, as you were as you were formulating that question, one of the things that came to my mind was a came from a book that I read on John Wooden, who was a famous college basketball coach that UCLA. And one of the things in his book that he said was it's what you learn after you know it all that really matters. I think there have been several times in my life where I thought I knew it all and I've learned so much after that. Now what I've now what I think I realize is I know more today than I knew yesterday and hopefully I'll be able to say that tomorrow and next week and next month. And that's really, I think, where we are as a school district, too. What do we do? What do we know now and what are we doing now? But really, how are we developing the minds of kids to think because it's very clear now, if you look at history, that we're not we're not preparing kids for the world that I live in, just as the teachers that I had didn't develop me to live in the world that they lived in, but they did develop in me an ability to think and an ability to think critically so that I could handle those issues that came my way, whether that's society, society, politically, whatever realm those issues came in. And I think that's our charge and that's an evolving charge. So we'll ever have the answer, but hopefully we continually put together an answer. And that is my title is Academic Achievement. And so within that, everything curriculum and assessment. And so in the Sioux Falls School District, when you look at we have pre K 12 twenty five thousand students. How do we assess what we're doing and make changes so the students are college and career ready? And it starts in kindergarten. It starts before kindergarten. And the challenges that our students come in with the student. We have to meet their needs at the door. Look at where every student is. If I have a classroom of twenty five students, I know I have twenty five different needs because all students are different. And that teacher has a big job of being able to build that relationship with them, know where they are academically, emotionally, socially and develop all those skills. So we have a well rounded child at the end. And then when we look at the other end, college and career ready, continually to develop pathways and look at the businesses in our local community and how we can work together to support the businesses and feed their need also, but also have that student be able to take courses that are relevant for them, but also feel so passionate. So it's a big charge, but again, continually examining what we're doing, what's working, what's not working, look for those bright spots and build on those. There was two things there that just really drove me one from each of you with just it's almost like there's a torch that's being passed on from the previous generations to us now. And then now it's our turn to figure out how to add more to the torch and figure out where to keep pushing education forward. And then also this this idea that when even when you get a classroom of students, you have a diverse population of minds and and just even dealing with not only different learning styles, but also different parental involvements in education, different socioeconomic statuses. There's so much of that of that nuance where some kids are reading already at multiple levels beyond the classroom. And there's some kids that are still a level maybe behind reading. So how do you teach as a teacher? This is extremely difficult to be able to do. So OK, so let's let's talk about the the app. How does a curriculum build? How do how do we figure out? So the torch was kind of passed with the curriculum. It's been developed over time and also how we assess. But then there's like the national standards and testing that have to happen. So we're always trying to prep for the national testing. And then but then also there's the exponential technology that we're adding into the picture. So how does that all play out? OK, so when you think about curriculum, of course, we look at the national standards and the state standards and how they feed into that. And we have a process for reviewing that curriculum and those standards and purchasing a curriculum that's going to meet the standards, meet the students' needs and provide the ability for the teachers to add their own flavor into that also to meet the diverse needs of all our students. When we look at your comment of we have students that are reading beyond our grade level or below our grade level, providing the teacher supports and avenues to be able to differentiate that learning for those students. That's really important and to be able to meet all their needs because we know that within that one classroom you have multiple levels, whether it's math, writing, reading, all of those subjects. We do have those different levels. The state assessments and the national assessments that we're required to take our curriculum when by meeting the needs, by meeting those standards, feeds into that assessment. So we're using the materials that we have purchased in the curriculum writing and the testing that we do with in-house. It does feed those very naturally. So it's a good process. We have a great team that helps. We have teacher input on all those committees and writing in-house assessments. We have district assessments that align with our curriculum, align with the state and national standards to give us benchmarks along the way. So we're not waiting till the end to see if our students make the mark. We're assessing that along the way. And so we can make changes as needed. And we know from one group to the next we do need to make changes. So it's a great process. It's a great school district that really does value the feedback of the teachers when you look at the assessments along the way to make adjustments in the curriculum to make sure we're hitting mark for our kids. So they can, you know, we have AP classes. Our ACT scores are above the state and national. And it's because we believe it's because of that process. Sure. I think it hits the mark. What we'll see. To oversimplify a meta-analysis done by John Hattie. Planning, engagement, and feedback. That's the learning cycle. Our best teachers, no matter what curriculum they're putting in front of students, no matter what content they're in charge of, no matter what age of the students that they are in charge of. Planning, engagement, and feedback. Our best teachers are great planners. They're great at engagement and they give quality feedback. If you're missing one of those pieces, the whole curriculum development, educational cycle, bogs down. And it doesn't matter if you're in charge of 50 students or 25,000 students or 125,000 students. If you can master planning, engagement, and feedback, you will be doing right by the kids that we serve. And that's our challenge every day. Yeah, as you were speaking, I was also hearing this importance of feedback and then you gave this planning, engagement, feedback cycle. And then there's all of the importance of adding in the right sort of... You have AP classes, you have these different... You have... How does one even deal with a national assessment but also a state assessment? And I really enjoyed the way that... If you have a teacher that's doing a really good job planning, assessing, engaging, and then assessing, planning, engaging, and then getting feedback, that that process is... It does seem like a really good gold standard for education. I gave an analogy earlier, or I gave a little talk earlier about John Wooden, I'll go to another... Sport and another coach. Brian Sun is a ticker for cowboys, and you like football a lot. I did, and I still do. But I think the best coaches, there's a lot of leadership qualities that you can take for them that is generalized beyond the sport. I'll give an example of Tom Osburn growing up in Nebraska. Tom Osburn was the head football coach at the University of Nebraska for a number of years, and he talked about more than winning in one of his books. And really his point was this, that if you don't worry about winning, and I'll use the analogy there, if I don't worry about what those state and national standards are, and they're important, so I don't want to just dismiss them, but if I don't worry too much about what they are, rather I worry about blocking and tackling, I'm going to win enough. Yeah, that's interesting. I think about the fundamentals of the game of football, and I get exceedingly good at those fundamentals in football. I'm going to win a lot of football games. I make that transference to education, and I think if we do enough things right in terms of teaching kids how to think critically, and all those things that Dr. Boyce talked about in terms of developing the curriculum, all those things are necessary. But if in the end we think about, it's to think critically. Those assessments are going to take care of themselves. How we perform on our state and national standards will all take care of themselves. If we think about how we bring that individual along, it's kind of like planning engagement and feedback. It's that simple, and it's that complex. It's hard to stay focused on those little things because we're always getting the soup of the day to come in and help with reading, or help with writing, or help with math. And really what we're going to do is make sure that we're teaching kids how to think critically. Because they come to us at all different levels. You mentioned poverty. If all of our kids came to us at the same spot in terms of their development, the job would be easier. Now I would contend it would be less fun, but it would be easier. We get kids who can't nearly read at grade level, as you mentioned, and we get kids who are reading multiple years ahead of grade level in the same class. How do we teach them to read, but how do we teach them to be consumers of that information and to think critically? That's the complexity that we're dealing with. That's the challenge that we deal with every day. That part I don't think has changed since I was a kid. I don't think it will change for a long time. The technology has changed tremendously. How do we think critically so that we can consume and react to that information? That I think is our chief charge. I don't know how you assess that. As we talk about curriculum and assessment, how does a school district figure out how to stay up at the cutting edge of all the exponential technologies? You have programs like Code to the Future, which is really exciting, getting kids playing with MIT's scratch-based programming language. These are the cutting edges of getting kids involved in STEM education. You were at the STEM summit this summer in D.C. Tell us about that. That was really exciting to be a part of, number one, just the fact that it's in D.C. and the energy that goes with that. But also seeing our country saying, we're going to take a forward stance in this whole STEM conversation. That was excellent, just to be a part of that. Not only was it the folks from education there, but she had business and industry there, as well as obviously government there. Those are three entities that don't always play nicely together. We were all there under a common theme, so that was good. To your question of how do we stay on the cutting edge, I think that's a question that we always are asking ourselves. How do we stay on the cutting edge and how do we stay on the cutting edge without becoming just gimmick, just adopting something because it looks good. I'm reminded years ago of how we had some distance learning labs put together. We were very proud of this room because it looked 21st century back in the early 1990s. One of my colleagues said to me, how often do you use this room with your students? It just almost took me to my knees because we didn't use it nearly to the capacity that we could have used it. What do we do to stay on the forefront that really impacts kids? That's something that I think that we're always thinking about. So how do we do it? For us, I would say there are a couple of ways. Number one, we're the only school district in the state of South Dakota that's part of a national group called the League of Innovative Schools, Digital Promise. We are with like-minded districts around the nation twice a year trying to figure out, number one, what technology is out there, but how does that technology impact critical thinking for the students that we serve and how do we do that? I can tell you the folks here, they break into hives when I go to those meetings because I always come back with ideas that I want them to implement. But I think it's through being involved in those think tanks and getting out of the day-to-day grind, if you will, and being a part of that national movement on, how do we improve education nationally? We do it by improving education in Sioux Falls. We do it by improving education locally. Trisha, thoughts on the exponential technology? You spoke to Code to the Future and Code to the Future is a coding that we do with K through 8 students now and it really has helped students to think differently about what their careers could look like but what else is out there. When Dr. Maher talked about teaching students to think critically and persevere, that really, Code to the Future really has helped. Students do that. We see leaders in those classrooms who might not have been leaders before but now it's another avenue for them to shine and so that's been a great thing. Forestry Falls, avionics, robotics, all of those technologies that we have and then how do we use just our everyday Chromebooks that we have in the hands of second through 12th graders and to make sure it's not just an addition or replacing paper but how do we use it differently so they're not just a consumer of technology but a user of technology and so continually to support our instructional coaches and our instructional coaches support our teachers to look at things differently using an LMS, a learning management system within their classroom and all that platform of online learning really looking at micro-credentialing for our staff and so that's where they can do personalized staff development for them but they can do that at a time that works for them and an area that works for them that we support and we know that's good quality professional development so really looking outside the box of that traditional learning but that traditional staff development for our Sioux Falls district staff STEM is such an important field that is just exploding across every single industry so to have a focus on that and a focus on just cutting edge use of technology in the classrooms in ways that both maximize the child's ability to critically think but also minimize their distractions actually, Brian, when you were mentioning earlier the interesting analogy of playing a game of football and getting really good at the basics of whatever sport or whatever even potentially drawing or art or whatever the coding or the basics that the distractions come in as well and so to block out the distractions is so important especially with the development of a cutting edge technology because it can be used for distraction as well let's talk about the explosion of the population in Sioux Falls and how that's affecting class sizes in the schools it was so cool to read about the $190 million school bond that was passed for the Sioux Falls school district here that's gonna fund the construction of a new high school a new middle school a new elementary school a new renovations on additional educational infrastructure and that is that's so exciting to be to think about especially because there will be a it's not only that the city cares a lot about the economic development of the city as well as the minds of the children but also that it's great to see that the class sizes will hopefully decrease so that a teacher will have maybe 5 children instead of 32 or whatever so they'll have they can focus maybe more on each individual child's development so there's a lot of good that's going into this the school itself there's so much nuance that goes into this but the architecture of the new schools hopefully have more natural light coming in more of an ambiance of maybe some nature involvement in it so that's this is all really cool stuff and we're excited to learn from you about what this process has been like teach us about it sure well the first thing I'd say about a bond if you have anybody watching this and they're trying to figure out where to relocate Sioux Falls South Dakota might not jump to your list of places to be but if you have kids and you need them educated I know I'm biased better place than Sioux Falls South Dakota and I'll offer this for evidence we just asked the folks who live in this school district we asked them to raise their taxes so we asked them to spend more money and those things those votes are always 50-50 I mean they're close to if you pass it it's by the Harry or Chinny Chin Chin you know I mean it's our yes vote on that bond issue so we said will you vote yes to raise your taxes 85.46 of the voters said yes that's phenomenal I think it's unprecedented and until somebody tells me it's not I'm going to go with that that's amazing to have 85 out of 100 voters more than 85 out of 100 voters say yes do that to me that doesn't speak to to me or to us but it speaks to the commitment to education in this city and the folks in this community understand that this isn't about K-12 education this isn't about ending at the age of 18 this is about taking this city and continuing to have it grow and continuing to have a workforce that allows it to grow the fact the matter is we're preparing students like you Alan who are going to go make their mark well beyond the city of Sioux Falls as well as hopefully have their mark in the city of Sioux Falls but that's kind of my commercial but it's all based in fact I know this there isn't a better place to be a superintendent of schools than the Sioux Falls school district to have that support is incredible and then now it's a matter of now how do we make sure that the trust that was placed in us manifests itself in quality outcomes for the students of this city that's our goal that's kind of what we're talking about this is a multi-year project that's looking like till potentially three, almost four years probably four or five years before we see everything come to fruition probably three years before we actually have a new high school and a new middle school built and we're moved into them but in the meantime we're really engaging folks from the community to help us make sure that the design is what we want it to be and I don't mean just from an aesthetically pleasing perspective but from a functionally relevant perspective so that again we're trying to we're going to live in this building for a long time so we don't want it just to be ready to go three years from now but how can it be relevant 30, 40, 50 years from now for educating the kids that are going to come along at that point in time thoughts, Trisha? part of that work on like Dr. Maher referenced is making that building useful now and in the future and that's that architect and the design team has really been instrumental with us and engaging us in does education what will the facilities do now but then in the future and how does it look different than a Roosevelt a Lincoln or a Washington or high school models a lot different and it has been really fun to dream big and to look at other options out there and so we really are in those initial phases with the architect and the design team to see where we can go but then how does our teaching philosophies match that also so lots of challenges exciting or challenges or opportunities to look at that education system and what's it mean for our students in terms of STEM and entrepreneurship and all of those opportunities are those pathways for kids I remember watching a video where you were discussing with some press about well there will be a certain time that we are able to deal with the architects and we getting proposals and we are also looking to find a really important name that sticks on the school that indicates that we care about the future we are thinking about all these different layouts and how the school can stay relevant over time the locations of building them this is very difficult to be able to figure out how to actually deal with the developing school district in a population that's increasing in size so what I have been then because when we were first talking I ended up writing a very little bit a blog post about how I thought it was interesting how when we were speaking that I learned from you that well shouldn't we really be thinking about what is across the street from these buildings because if there is if there are archaic sort of businesses across the street then the kids may go and eat unhealthy and they may not be as inspired as if there were maybe healthier food options other size options, art options business options, entrepreneurship options science options and that's why one of the reasons why this high school is being built next to the career tech academy and southeast tech and zeal center for entrepreneurship and up in that northwest corner so maybe speak on some of the complexity that goes on with what we were just talking about so the importance of how you are planning to develop out the areas next to the schools and how much involvement even Sioux Falls School District has in those decisions I can speak to how do we engage the career tech academy and southeast tech with the new high school because those are three of our entities that we're one of the unique school districts where the southeast technical institute is under the Sioux Falls school district or a part of the Sioux Falls school district so how can we work with that tech academy and our career tech academy to develop courses for our students where they can easily flow between the three of them and then use the zeal center for entrepreneurship that's right across the street also so really looking at those pathways you know a medical pathway we're working on that a computer cyber pathway we're working on that and both career tech academy and southeast tech play into that and that would just be a natural flow for that high school but for our other three high schools also and just opportunities for students that they hadn't thought of before so making sure we can publicize that and get that information into the family's hands but also the students hands so they can take full opportunity of that I think maybe just to extend on that too we have a great relationship with our business community that plays into that relationship with southeast technical institute with the zeal center and opportunities that we have to be nimble rather than to take years to adapt to what our community needs maybe we can take months to adapt to what our community needs whether that be from a manufacturing standpoint or whether that be from a business start-up standpoint we can be real nimble into what our community really needs that's number one the other thing I would say in terms of the development we looked at a lot of things in terms of where we would place this high school certainly the synergy that exists with the technical institute right there the career and technical education academy right there the proximity to those two facilities was a piece of it but from a very practical standpoint we had to have about 45 acres of land and so to find 45 acres of land in a developing city is sometimes difficult so there was a practical piece there and in terms of how will things develop around there I don't know what our impact will be but I think the biggest impact is the fact that we've said this is where we want an educational facility to exist so now we'll see how the area develops around certainly there will be residential there's already a lot of residential developing out in the northwest tons of residential it'll be exciting fun 25 years from now to look back to see how that did develop yeah yeah I'll just be blunt about it I really don't want to see McDonald's and a Burger King on those corners I think it's way archaic it's way overdue to have a different sort of style of corners that are developed in the suburbs of Sioux Falls it can potentially be a model corner right over there where the new high school is going to be it could be a model corner where you see healthy options for food you see a center for art you see an exercise center and when the kids everyday drive past it their brand recognition moves towards health to tech and art instead of to old archaic technologies and businesses it's very possible somebody would sell you the land out there to develop that yeah I hope that someone that's watching from the Sioux Falls community will take on that initiative of wanting to develop the land next to those 45 years and take it in that direction instead of in the old incumbent directions that we see developing out on so many corners of the developing areas of Sioux Falls now this has been there's a lot that goes into developing a school district and we were only talking about really the tip of everything it's so difficult to get down to all of the glacier that's located below the water that exists in a short less than hour conversation to try and understand how a school district works super tough and we'll aim to do this again when we come back to Sioux Falls and talk to you more about what's going on do these check-ins and build out a better understanding for people about what actually goes on within a school district and how it grows last thoughts on the way out there's usually one thing that someone can recommend that is maybe most profound for students, for teachers for parents what is the one thing that you can maybe say could accelerate to turn into a habit for a student for a teacher, for a parent what is that one habit that you think could be developed that could maximize the potential of education in our world you get to go first so my reaction when I get something that's a real deep question like that I go with what just popped into my mind two things popped into my mind and I think about my own development neither of these were natural for me but both of them are commonplace for me today two things that I do on a regular basis that I think have made a tremendous difference in my life and a tremendous difference in my ability to think critically which is a theme you've heard me go back to time and time again today one is to take time to be reflective there are a number of different ways that that can happen so I'm not here to profess that there's one way that's better than any other way but I can say for me it's important and it's important daily and the second thing I'd probably pick meditation if I could only do one but the other is to read and definitely to get yourself to think by reading and to me it doesn't even really matter what you're reading whether it's self-help or fiction I don't know that it really matters but I think it's important that you read and as a as a youngster growing up I'd much rather be out shooting a basketball than reading and so reading wasn't something that was natural for me but I over time realized how important it was for me and it has become natural for me as a result of understanding its importance and I would go back to what's important and for me it's is it reflection meditation or time for exercise whatever that looks like for you but that reflection and taking time to reflect on your day and what worked what didn't work what are you going to change and look forward to and information is so readily available and making sure you research your options and if we're talking about kids listen to them take time for them show them let them have time to develop their passions and spend time with them because when you spend time with your kids or whether it's kids in your classroom it comes back to you and you develop those relationships so taking that time is really really important to develop their interests those were so good I love those we frequently talk about that just how important it is to reflect how important it is to turn off the stimuli that we're constantly taking in and just breathe and be silent and go inward for periods of time even a couple minutes a day and what that does for our development for physiology, for creativity for our gratitude that we have love and compassion and also of course just turning these things into habits of passing time with our kids and the development so so good okay last question what do you guys think is the most beautiful thing in the world? I would say love whether it's love for another person or love for your environment and it's that passion that goes with it so that would be my answer is love for each other and the world and the environment that's way too deep for me Alan so I'm going to go a whole different direction here I'm headed tonight, I'm going to get on a plane I'm going to go to Dallas Cowboys playing the playoffs tomorrow and the most beautiful thing I can see this weekend is made kicks Dallas Cowboys kicker that's the most beautiful thing in my life this weekend that's right this weekend outside of the playoffs and football probably as a grandparent maybe I think the most beautiful thing is watching the development of my own grandkids and then try to transfer that to the development that we're in charge of for the kids in the city and really to kind of see that natural evolution and the iteration that is that human development that's what I'm committed to and that's what I think is a beautiful thing so this weekend it's made kicks it's made kicks it's those long field goals even the short ones are so important even the short ones are so important wow what a pleasure this has been thank you, thank you, thank you Dr. Chris Boyson, Brian Maher thank you so much, thank you guys both so much thanks everyone for tuning in we greatly appreciate it we would love to hear from you what would you think are the big principles and points that we should be discussing around molding children into our world, educating children developing our school districts how can we best do this around the world let us know about what's going on in your communities in your districts as well and also build the future manifest your destiny into the world everyone go build create execute thank you so much for tuning in and we will see you soon bye


It's lovely to be with everybody and I'm looking forward to just sharing some work that we've been involved in with colleagues. And if I just, you can see the logos there, but if I just move on one slide, these are all the colleagues. And some of the colleagues I know are on this are involved in this conference, which is great to see them. And so I'm going to talk about the use of compositional data analysis using geochemical data, and also the more recent work using air quality data, and it's to explore the associations with chronic kidney disease. So I suppose, first of all, we have to think about what is in our environment. And we're sort of aware now that obviously with, you know, carbon footprints we want to eat locally we want to use more local produce, but obviously that involves obviously our produce that's grown in the soil. But we're also very aware of what's happening around us in terms of air quality, the sorts of environmental toxins that we might be subject to, as we all try and do a little bit more exercise and even within lockdown, how that has impacted us. And especially if we open up a lockdown, it's very clear what's happening around us. So the World Health Organization has been very aware of how the trace elements do affect our health, and they have defined elemental trace elements into three different categories. One's ones that we're probably familiar with such as iodine and zinc and selenium, and even copper, molybdenum and chromium, but those are that are probably essential to our bodies, including nickel, but then also ones that are potentially toxic elements. And some of these, we're very aware are toxic. And these are particularly maybe have a been linked to chronic kidney disease such as cadmium and mercury that we'd be aware of and arsenic and lead. So I'm going to concentrate on chronic kidney disease and chronic kidney disease and our kidneys are incredibly important functions within our body. They are actually the hardest working organs in our body. They keep our bones healthy by balancing the levels of minerals in our body, and they also remove toxic waste from our body. So they are incredibly busy organs and important organs. And it's really important to have a look at how the environment might be affecting our body in terms of our kidneys. The chronic kidney disease is a, I suppose a collective term, and we know that, you know, it basically it is progressive renal failure, and it is increasing worldwide and that's due to aging obesity and diabetes. But there's also this part that's known as unknown chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, and it has been linked to environmental factors. And this is certainly a worldwide concern. And again, the World Health Organization has set up a high level organization and to look into this. There is no definitive cause known, but there are known nephrotoxins and the ones that have been highlighted are individual elements such as lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic. The link between those and chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology still needs to be established. But obviously anything that affects the unknown etiology is also very relevant to chronic kidney disease, because it's irrelevant to the whole progression of our renal failure. And again, it might be linked to diabetes and hypertension. So it's incredibly important to look into all of these different factors. I'm going to introduce now the different data sets. And the first one is the chronic kidney disease data set, and this has been provided by the UK renal registry, and they have a requirement to collect data on all patients. They collect the data before the patients go on to renal replacement therapy. So basically before they start dialysis, and they collect the data on all of these patients and they've provided the data for this study, in terms of a standardized incidence rate. The data is collated over a period between 2006 and 2016 to avoid any small data area or issues. And they provided the data in terms of a census admin output, which is the smallest that we have available within Northern Ireland. They're equivalent to the super output areas of a local level in England, and they're called SOAs or super output areas. They are also provided within age brackets. So we have between 16 and 39, 40 and 64, the plus 65 year olds, all data are greater than 16 age group, and then also for this unknown etiology. And what a standardized incidence rate really means is that the data have been looked at in terms of what would be expected for the average age specific for a region. And so for Northern Ireland, an SIR above one means that the incidence is higher than would be expected, and below one is the incidence lower than would be expected. So these are the maps for all of Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the Northern part of Ireland. So we're in a unique and special location. And so you can see that across Northern Ireland, just by the administrative there are the super output areas. So if you look at sort of all of the data, which is greater, basically all data greater than 16 years. And as you progress through the different age brackets, you can see that it is spatially variable where these SOAs of an SIR, which is greater than would be expected for Northern Ireland. And certainly in the unknown etiology, the map for unknown etiology, you can see again that there seems to be a spatial interesting spatial distribution. And if we look at the maps for Belfast and Belfast is the largest urban area within Northern Ireland, and just over about 1.3 million people live in Belfast in the greater area of Belfast. And again, the maps show this spatial different spatial distribution, certainly for the 16 to 39 where we're certainly getting some SOAs that are showing higher than would be expected. And for the chronic kidney disease of unknown origin or unknown etiology, the SIR show up to 12 times higher than would be expected from Northern Ireland's average incident rates. So the second data set that I want to introduce is the deprivation measures. And for Northern Ireland, and I'm showing for Belfast here we have deprivation measures which are provided by our Northern Ireland statistics and research agency. And then they've been divided up into 890 sort of units and a low, so one is the lowest and if you SOA that scores 890 is basically not deprived, so very less deprived. So one is the most deprived area. So in these maps the darkest blue areas are the most deprived and unfortunately they show West Belfast and really North Belfast as being some of the most deprived areas. So the overall deprivation indices broken up into six different measures and employment and income make up 25% of the overall deprivation measure so that's our second data set. So the data set is a telus data set, which is a large regional geochemical data set and I'm showing it for well there's the whole of Northern Ireland, but also the one that we're going to look at is the urban the particular urban data set. So there's 1000 urban samples, and they were analyzed by XRF analysis. And we do know that there's a geological variation across Belfast we have an influence of the paleogene basalts and flood basalts, weathering of those, glacial weathering of those, but also some variation on metamorphic rocks, and also some sandstones across the area. Now the interesting thing about Belfast and many other urban cities is that it has seen a history of industrial growth. And in Northern Ireland our industrial growth really coincides with the opening of the Indian Wolf, which is our large shipbuilding manufacturing area, and really develops and you can map it into the 1858, which is really associated with the shipbuilding and 1901 and 1919 to 1939 and these really developed and developed across Belfast, and they are linked to different types of manufacturing, so that we know that there are anthropogenic sources of things like copper, zinc, tin, antimony and lead. And our most recent development is Belfast City Airport. And again that's obviously another potential anthropogenic pollution source. So the mapping of CKDU, and this is, so this is a one of unknown etiology, just across those different time zones for Belfast, you can see sort of an interesting again different spatial distributions across Belfast. And again, you can see that the deeper red in this case are the SOAs, which have a standardized incidence rate, which is above what you would expect for the average age distribution for Northern Ireland. So how do we model then the data, how do we actually look at the relationship between the different datasets. So obviously we're going to, in this conference what we're going to concentrate in is the use of compositional data analysis, but we're dealing with several different datasets that are all compositional in their, in their different ways. So obviously the geochemical data that we have, we have a ranking of the deprivation indices that we want to look at. And then we also have these standardized incidence rates for the chronic kidney disease. So we use a combination of, we've actually compared different types of log ratios. So we're using particularly the isometric log ratio, a pair wise log ratio, and we're also going to use this balance approach for log ratios. So once we have opened up the data into coordinate space, then we use a number of different types of regression models to really look at the relationship and try to assess the statistical, whether there's any statistical correlation between the datasets. So the first, I suppose, the first type of compositional data set or analysis that I sort of want to mention is one of the balance approach that we're using and we're using the cell ball algorithm. And that's obviously introduced by Riviera and put into an et al. And basically this we used it for all of our data so integrated all of our data. This allows us to look at the relative abundance that might be most closely associated with elevated incidence of chronic kidney disease and also chronic kidney disease of our known etiology. And the process uses an N4 cross validation procedure, and basically allows us to identify the best balance or the balance that comes up most to the highest frequency that is determined. A mean squared error is used to determine the number of components that is best used within the balance. And then we can use we can test that through different types of regression model to see if the if the balances are seen to be statistically significant. The results that I'm showing are just for the chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology and this is with all of the soil potentially toxic elements and six individual domains of deprivation. And the results in this case have shown that there are three most common balances and the frequencies are just shown there in the last row. One of those balances the cell ball algorithm is named as a global balance, but you can see that the different elemental compositions come up certain percentage and you know, nickel and molybdenum arsenic chromium are all coming up at least 45 or more percent of the time. And you can see the frequency of the balances coming up as well so balance one, nickel and chromium and balance two, molybdenum and arsenic are coming up with the greatest frequencies. So what do the results actually show us in terms of urbanization and our health then. Well, if we look at the overall results from this part of the analysis we can see that they, they suggest a correlation. And this is, I'm only representing the significant correlations that were shown here between all ages of CKD so that's the data. For all ages greater than 16, and the multiple deprivation indices of employment and income. And those are those are the ones that were found to be significantly statistically significant. And the interesting thing about these MDMs or these multiple deprivation and to see domains is that they have been used as an indication of socioeconomic factors and linked to things like smoking so there is a health connection there. In terms of the historical industrial Belfast analysis and the most sort of the largest area obviously is the most recent the 1990 to 1939 so it had the most data within it. And the strongest correlation for CKDU, the undone etiology is with the elemental balance of copper and antimony. And these elements have been linked to industrial smelting of various industries. So there is a natural link there so we're the balance that are shown do make sense. And just a historical Belfast with the CKDU over. The results then show for this potential link with air pollution. Well for the sort of greater Belfast area the strongest correlation with CKDU at this point is fine with the sort of a balance of arsenic and and if we just plot the road sort of network on top of the map, you can see that there is an interesting sort of a potential association with the road network. And things like air pollution and traffic and breakware emissions have been cited as sources for these heavy metals. And arsenic and molybdenum have also been linked to atmospheric pollution, as well as obviously pollution from traffic. And interestingly breakware emissions have also been linked to sources of antimony and molybdenum and so the research into air pollution and kidney disease is very recent. So this is work on going on as I say not just the work that we're doing but other in the field of kidney disease they are exploring this link, this potential link with air pollution. And there have been studies that have shown that these ultra fine particles, and that does include lead molybdenum anatomy can become blood bond they can get into our bloodstreams and then translate it to other tissues, and that's including the kidney. So what our study this initial part of the study shows that there is evidence that these air pollution deposition of the modern pollutants and the graph I've just shown on the right hand side is the amount of molybdenum that is actually being developed worldwide. So this is partly in response to the need for brake pads. And we do hope that the electric vehicles will need less of this, but at the moment are our anthropogenic source of molybdenum is actually increasing worldwide. So the results from this part of the study show that urban soils can be used as a proxy for the availability of net nephrotoxins for environmental pollution. Briefly, I would like to sort of expand the study then on to more recent work that we've done so obviously the outputs of one of the previous work which is now being published does indicate this potential link with pollution air pollution, and maybe ground pollution such as traffic. And again, there have been some experimental work done between looking at the link between this and chronic kidney disease. Obviously, there are other links with respiratory disease and unfortunately, you know the recent ruling that air pollution did contribute to the death of a nine and nine year old in London is the most recent and the only ruling of actual link air pollution to health. But but chronic kidney disease is still not completely confirmed. But there have been some work that's looked at air pollution and particularly the very fine particulates PM 2.5 exposure. So for Northern Ireland, we have access to air pollution data that includes PM 22.5 PM or nitrous oxide, different types, sorry, and also PM to PM 10. So over the this final part of the study then what we want to introduce really is it to look further at the urban data sets and as we've already introduced the urban telus soil geochemical data set. The standardized incidence rates that I mentioned earlier the CKD for all of all data over 16 years and the chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology. So we're going to look at the environmental toxins, the air pollution, and again link that potentially with social deprivation. So the techniques that we've used are again the forward selection method using the cell ball algorithm at generalized linear regression, but also looking at the influence of spatial regression. So, what is the impact of this potentially so spatial dependence in our data. So we're looking at the data to confirm the types of data we're using going to we've used 10 geochemical elements and these again have been informed on the literature and the links with air pollution and health. So we've computed the geochemical data, according to the GS and I logical survey Northern Ireland requirements. And then we also use a geometric mean value for each PTA for each of the super output areas within the greater Belfast urban area and there are 365 SOAs for the air pollution data we use the 2006 data set to quite to try and coincide with the tell us survey and the UK are our data. And the air pollution covariates that we used were benzene carbon monoxide nitric oxide sulfur dioxide and then the particulate matter PM 10 and the finer particulate matter PM 2.5. And for the pollutants for SOAs with missing values, we use ordinary creaking with cubic models for imputation. So just looking very briefly very very briefly at the results. And these are the results for both chronic kidney disease for all age groups so basically above 16 years and also for chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology. And again, the cell ball method is very useful and that highlights these potential balances that we can then explore further through regression. And so for the PTEs for the all ages of chronic kidney disease, molybdenum zinc are again that balance is coming out as the most frequency of 64% the time, and the air pollutants, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, again, very high percentage of the time. So for the chronic disease of unknown etiology chromium and nickel the balance between chromium and nickel, and also the air pollutants of PM 2.5 so the fine particulates but also carbon monoxide. Five minutes, sorry. Okay, that's okay. I'm just sort of finishing up. So in terms of the results and just to sort of summarize those results. So using generalized linear regression with a log link. We did find a statistically significant correlation between the CKD for all age groups. Specifically, all age groups above 16. And these, these compositional balances of molybdenum to zinc. And also the multiple deprivation indices of employment income and health so they were the ones that were fine to be statistically significant using GLM. However, when we introduced a spatial lag so uses spatial regression, the coefficients were not found to be statistically significant. In terms of the data for the air pollutants then for chronic kidney disease again for all age groups above 16, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide were were found to be the most important. For chronic kidney disease of unknown etiology, the air pollutants of carbon monoxide again and the fine particulates PM 2.5 appeared most within the balances. But the association and the air pollutants for chronic for chronic kidney disease of unknown ages for a greater than 16. Again, when we looked at a spatial regression were not found to be statistically significant. So our preliminary findings and as we say the we've we've more work to do, but the findings are very informative and very interesting, and they do support the argument that these atmospheric pollutions in the form of from sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and certainly the particulates PM 10 and PM 2.5 may be negatively associated with renal disease. Obviously we do need to impact look at the impact further on on this, but it does one of the highlights is that it is raising the profile of some of these anthropogenic sources such as molybdenum from from brake pads that we need to consider. And the work needs to be discussed further and develop further, but I think compositional data analysis has shown us a very robust way to analyze the data. So just finally to say thank you to our sponsors. Some references. Thank you.


And now tonight's presentation of radio's outstanding theater of thrills Suspense tonight We bring you a story of Christmas shopping and a present that went astray We call it a present for Benny So now starring Jack Krushen here is tonight's suspense play a present for Benny Honey lamb they got a gorgeous airman on sale at Halgrim just gorgeous Look later later. Give me the rest of the mail and not the bills. Sure, baby. Oh Honey pot.  Sure. I'm upset You listen to this Dear Ricky I'm sending you this letter like kind of X misgrading.   I got enough trouble boss What are you gonna do? What do you think? What do you think?  No wait a minute. We got to do this careful You don't want no open war. You know what I mean. Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean boss just a couple of us see Two good heads and you and me and that's the best. Yeah. Yeah, sure. That's the best Artie the grunt. Yeah. Yeah, Artie and No, no, it's five. That's it. Just them Artie the grunt and no, no, it's five wish. Okay, Rick That's small time thing sure is room for only one of us and he's gonna find out which one it is you tell him honey lamb Didn't I tell you to make me a drink?   Did he swifty? I told you make me a drink a minute ago. I got ears. You never I'm telling you again.  We got to have us a conference Right now the way I see it.   Hmm. You got any ideas? No nose cheap boys. You don't want to use no choppers How about a good old ride? Don't how you're gonna get at him for a ride. What a dope What don't bother me. I got just the present. I'm gonna buy good good. That's good.  You can't send no bomb true to mail. You know that it's against the law Ain't you guys got any? Whoa wait a minute Yeah, I got something what boss How's about we could send them a little present, huh? What do you want you should send them a present for our ex must presence? He all wrapped up with paper and ribbon and everything icebox about though about this big and this wide and when he opens it Boom, but boss you just said we couldn't not through the mail from the store from Hey mill mill. What's the name of that store? You always buying that?  Oh gee whiz Okay, how grums. Yeah, that's a place real high class. Yeah, I like it. I like that Merry Christmas, Benny Boss you figure you're far for this you figure sure he would we get this door to deliver it How's he gonna suspect? Well, how are we gonna get them to deliver it boss? We don't worry about now. It gets delivered Otty mm-hmm. You got to make us for a bomb The old-fashioned kind, you know a lot of broken glass and nails. They're cool. Sure. What do you say? Yeah, yeah, he says you can make it. Oh, okay Now you take care of that and I want a day after tomorrow. All right, you make it a ticker see but don't set nothing till we're ready Yeah, yeah, Rick. I got a hand up here.   Any of genius? Yeah, yeah, you got the Christmas spirit tool.  We got to figure out a plan for the store to deliver it. Yeah, we got a figure You're coming to bed. No, I ain't coming to bed, but it's 2 o'clock a.m.  Why don't you finish thinking tomorrow so I can get some sleep? Don't you never think about nothing else but sleeping? Sure I've been thinking all day about that airmen and how grooms. I was telling y'all baby. Oh Baby, I love you baby. I love you to honey lamb. So why don't hey snap out of her boys? Follies I got it. What what mill is gonna get an omen from halberds Now listen boys here's how we do it. Oh just simply gorgeous feel the pelt sir notice the she I felt that I seen it through Jesus too much. I'll give you 1500. Oh, I'm sorry, sir It's been marked down from 32. We positively cannot sell it for under 2,000 now We have a nice mink for 1500 Ricky honey. Don't be chancey.  I'll see you at the house. Ain't you gonna buy it? It's so gorgeous for 1500. I'll buy it for two. I ain't interested now beat it.  You'll you'll take the airmen sir. Sure. I'm taking I want to surprise it here one Two G. Oh, yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Would you like it wrapped as a gift for the lady? Yeah, I want it in the box with lots of ribbon and experts junk all over you know And I want you should give me another box the same size see your ribbons and everything It's gonna be kind of an ex-mist. Joe kind of pal you get what I mean at the box You know, oh and give me a couple of cards to write out. Yes, sir. Will you have them sent? No, I'll take them both with me. Well, it'll just take a few minutes, sir. So I'll wait Hey arty when you got the timer set for it to go off I What do you say? He says he got it set for 23 hours. It'll go off at 4 o'clock tomorrow afternoon What happens if he opens it before? What do you say he says it'll go off anywhere. Oh, that's good. Nice work arty nice work Hey, I bet she opens it. Don't worry. I've been he ain't got no patience For instance, he gets a big tree beginning of December all the trimmings as piles around him a couple of cases old stag Christmas presents mean something to a guy like that. It is going through this year. That is for sure All right now you carry it swiftly and I'll take the airman home sure boys Now you know what you got to do. I am to take the bomb back to the store there I'm a finer guy. What sold you to Erma.  I got it Okay, arty when you get through cleaning up come over to my place. We'll play some poker tonight. Okay. Yeah, I see arty He's a good boy that arty. You know, I'm gonna get him one of the new 45s rexpers Hey, that'd be nice boss. You sure like me. I like a 38 better Don't make as big a hole, but it don't weigh you down so much. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know what you mean Yeah, will you hold my box a minute. I want to get a cigarette Listening to a present for Benny tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills Suspense Let's look ahead to 1966 and there you are in your beautiful new home. You've got automatic gadgets everywhere There's a sparkling new dream car in your garage. The youngsters aren't a fine college all's right with the world Is this just an idle dream? No, this is a real future that you can start building right now a Secure carefree prosperous future built with the United States savings bonds in 10 years You will get back $4 for every $3 you've invested Join the payroll savings plan where you work or buy bonds where you bank start in 1956 to make 1966 the beginning of the golden years And now we bring back to our Hollywood soundstage Jack Krushen starring in tonight's production a present for Benny a tale well-calculated to keep you in Suspense Boss that was close Oh, that's no good dirty. No a penny. He was not kidding about his kidding and me. I Wasn't kidding about getting him. I wait five minutes and you take the bomb down the stall like I said My boss Which one of you got you got the bomb or mills omen Oh, should I know you will hold them when we hit the dirt. I just picked one up.  You've got a mixed up the packages. What would a chopper going? I just didn't notice I'll give you such a hit What are we gonna do now? You got me bar. I guess they were about the same. So We cannot tell that way Boss, maybe we should have put different colored ribbons on him So as we could tell no now you're getting smart. No. No, he thinks of it Come on We're going back up to Artie's. Yeah, he'll open them up find them home with the bomb and then we'll wrap them up again Oh, sure I should have rubbed him out a long time ago You know boss, I sure wish I could be there and see his face when he opens up the farm Yeah, you know, it's too bad. He will not get time to read the guard. It's the whole of his problem Artie open up it's Rick Yeah, we had some trouble Benny and some of his boys as we was walking out they missed we ain't gonna Jerky here got the packages mixed up though. You gotta open up see which is which Well, come on, come on So open it up so it don't blow up What do you mean you can't what are your nuts? How am I gonna know which one you send that rat? Boss Boss, maybe we could have thrown a bomb in a river then it would be okay Oh, sure. Oh boy. What a schnook.   You just leave it to me boss What do you say he says you're really got a heart boss And don't need her you say nothing about the airman a mill to see her. I'll have to get her another one I won't say nothing Okay, Swiftie. I'll get going. I'll see you both back in my place You know, I was having a game and I couldn't wait for you to get back to you. I love you. Did you get it? What say I'm and no go make me a drink. Oh, baby lamp It didn't really. Oh You're kidding. You're gonna make it a surprise. It ain't gonna be no surprise on the counter I didn't get it and I go make me a drink Hey, no nose. Yeah, boss. I bought you a pretty oh Well, you're sure gonna look like something in it. Oh, well, you see okay. Okay. Yes, what I got you get look I don't feel like no games. It's been a tough day. I'm tired. Do me a favor make me a drink Then go to a movie or something will you? Hey Rick Where was I oh? Yeah, look, you better call a rest of the boys and tell them that Benny's our gunner for us Tell them to stay hit out until they hear from me seeing out of one. No trouble with the da.  Yeah Boy when he croaks you'll die laughing if he opens the other box first the other box Yeah, I'll tell you about it when mill's gone out Oh Yeah boss is a swiftie Yeah, you've got nothing to worry about Everything is taken care of the stuff goes off the first thing in the morning. Okay. Come on back. Sure, Rick I just thought that you should like to know so long What do you call these? Oh like what I asked for three minute boil these ain't even born yet Ain't you never gonna learn how to boil a make I'll fix you some more. I ain't hungry forget it party What time is it? No, it ain't arty. It's 1 30 boss Then he should have got the bomb by now What you want? I should call him and kind of ask after his help. No, no if he ain't got a jetty might get suspicious Oh boy is waiting.  Let's take it easy It'll go off if you don't want eggs honey. How about some nice hot coffee lover? Okay, okay, you'll feel better when when you see what I've got for you. They're sending it today. Yeah Should I open a boss? Yeah, I'll cover you. Oh you're so nervous all of a sudden this morning, honey. All right. All right. I'm nervous So, who is it? No nose I'll let him in. What do you say boss? What's in a package? Hmm? Oh This would have just come up for your from Hargram's elevator was bringing it up on I don't just boil it honey Lamb that's my present to you. You can take the wrapping paper off, but you can't open the box We got to put it under the tree when we get the tree Hey boss, that box looks awful familiar Yeah Mill you sure you bought this yesterday sure. I'm sure looks just like the ones we sent to Benny don't it Same size same ribbon Same everything Kind of makes you wonder don't be silly. They got millions of boxes like this. Oh It happens. There's something very Special in there for my sweetie. What's in it? Go ahead and open it. Go ahead. No, no, I'll wait I ain't like Benny. I can wait. Oh honey. You open it. It's okay. I'll get you something else to open on Christmas I'm sure why not boss. You need something to make you feel good. I feel good now I don't want to feel no better and I thought you'd like it so much. You'd go with me and maybe buy it chinchilla They got on sale at Hargram's. It's only 1,500. Just what you wanted to pay for the omen. I like chinchilla Come on boss. Open it up. All right. All right. I'll open it Hey Swiftie go get it. Oh, I can't wait for the lid to come off Yeah, yeah Yeah Yeah, well wait a minute. What a minute boss? No, it's that guy at the store Hargrams. Oh, Minci Yeah, you want me to open it for you honey? No Yeah, mr. McQueen. Yeah, this is mr. Minci in the third apartment at Hargrams. So Mr. McQueen, I'm terribly sorry, but I think there's been a mistake. Well, what kind of a steak? What do you mean a little confusion, but I'm sure it can be easily rectified your wife bought something for you yesterday Which was to be delivered this morning. Yeah. Yeah, it's already come. Yes Well There seems to have been an error made in the shipping department a matter of mislaid dress slips Now I wonder if you'd mind opening the package which you just received Perhaps since it's a Christmas parcel and surprise for you. No doubt your wife would rather do it. Well Why what's wrong with it? Well, you see those two boxes which your your man Brought in yesterday afternoon haven't gone out yet. They were to be sent to mr. Benjamin mollusk. I believe it is. Yeah I think the gift what you have is one of those and Well, yours is his and that is if you follow me now if you'd open it, I'm sure Boss there's something wrong.  That's a Quarter to two ain't you gonna open your present.  Swiftie. I got enough trouble without her hair on that.  Oh you get that thing out of here get it down in the store I gotta send a special messenger let him send all three boxes to that punk Benny. Well, what do I care? Maybe I should send him a Cadillac to go with it. You know what? I think I think it'd be cheaper to kill myself I'm kind of for a baby. Where's that Swiftie? Don't worry. You'll be here. Maybe Benny got him Yeah, maybe I should have sent you an arty with him Get it out. He's no nose a meal cover. Yeah, honey. Swiftie open up. I have got it all straightened out everything It's okay boy some dope. So this guy's done at the store. What's that? This? Oh This is your present the mill got for you. I told you they have got it all straightened out. Okay now You know how it's Christmas rush everybody's Meshuga, you know So now they have found a right slips wrapped up the boxes again and Benny's presents have been delivered right now and this one This is yours. You're sure this time. I sure what I make a lie out of myself this box You can open I guarantee it. Yeah, cuz you might not like the color I got you so I wish you would open it and if it ain't right We can take it back this afternoon and you can change it and maybe take a look at chinchillas I was telling you about this time. I'm gonna wait when Benny blows up. I open it What's the time that's uh? Two minutes to four you should is your what's right? Boss, I just call a tomato on a telephone. It gives you the time honey pot. You're too nervous It seemed like you're here. I'll open it for you. I'm ill you quit that. Oh, boy Sure take it easy for sure Oh, I bet you're just gonna love it. I just bet About Benny you open it. What do you bet?  That's what I feel like a dirty rat When I think what I try to do to you yes, T And all the time you was making never minds with the presence which I am my girl are right now wearing I think I could eat mud Yeah Such a ointment and the robot the greatest. Oh, pal. I am a hill But it ain't too late to change. Hey, what do you say we buried a hatchet? Yeah, I'll split with you on her first. I hijack from you and we're partners you and me run the town together What do you say? Yeah?  You hear me boy You're great guy Rick the greatest so long pal Mary X So long Benny, huh? Yeah This one's the bomb. Yeah Too bad. What's the time? It's three minutes after four three F Howdy the time has come and gone. How come it didn't go off? What do you say he says he did not want to blow nobody up son there to Christmas Then what's in the box? Huh, it's gonna show it Spence In which Jack Krushen starred in tonight's presentation of a present for Benny Next week a charming fantasy about a small boy who discovered a new world and live forever after in its enchantment We call it the cave That's next week on Suspense produced and directed by Anthony Ellis who also wrote tonight's script The music was composed by Renee Garaghan and conducted by Wilbur Hatch Featured in the cast were Stacy Harris Eve McVeigh Benny Rubin Junius Matthews and Joseph Kearns Times growing short for the youngsters to write to Bing Crosby the deadline for postmark letters is Thursday December 15th Midnight all your youngster has to do is write a letter to Bing telling what Christmas means to me Then mail it to Bing Crosby CBS Radio Hollywood 28, California The winner will read his letter in person when America sings with Bing Christmas Eve on CBS radio All youngsters 12 years of age and under are eligible that address once again Bing Crosby CBS Radio Hollywood 28, California Be sure the young letter writer puts his name and address on the letter Stay tuned now for five minutes of CBS radio news to be followed on most of these same stations by the Jack Carson show Every Saturday and Sunday on the CBS radio network


Research libraries need to show their worth to researchers and to their administrators and they want to measure and approve their services. It was in this light that Carl developed the LibQual Canada Consortium in 2006. Sam Kel was its first coordinator. Sam organized very successful pre and post conferences around our 2007 submission for which we had 54 participating institutions, the largest ever consortial submission to LibQual. LibQual Canada has provided us not only with an important way to gather data but it has also helped us develop a community of practice around assessment. This community was able to participate once again in 2010 and Sam led the charge as coordinator again. We were so fortunate to have Sam's time and his expertise all with the full support of Queen's University Library. He handed the file off to a successor this year and he still makes himself available whenever needed and everyone enjoyed working with Sam and very much appreciated his leadership on this file. Sam, on a personal note, I'd just like to say how much I really enjoyed working with you over these so many years. Congratulations once again on this award. Thank you, Sam, and congratulations. As director of institutional research at Queen's, I rely heavily on data. Data that support benchmarking with other universities, data that contribute to meaningful assessment and quality improvement, and data that tell stories about key issues within the university. Sam Kel has been a leader on LibQual for years, both within Queen's and across Canada because of Sam's efforts, Queen's and other Canadian universities can now compare, assess and explain complex university library operations. We couldn't have done it without Sam's commitment to assessment and to LibQual. So my thanks and congratulations to Sam Kel for getting us there. It's been a huge pleasure working with Sam at Queen's and seeing his contributions to the broader world of library assessment. He brought to the role of assessment coordinator a huge amount of experience in research libraries, in technical services, but also in a variety of other areas that really gave him a huge broad perspective of our work, and that was very beneficial for his role as assessment coordinator. I was also always very impressed with how Sam has that level of detailed analysis that is needed, but also the synthesis, and he was really able to help us make sense of things. So I know that the theme of your conference this year is Building Effective Sustainable Practical Assessment, ESP, and so I think it's so fitting that Sam is receiving this award today. It's really what he's been doing for his whole career. So Sam, on behalf of your Carl colleagues and Queen's colleagues who can't be with you today, we are sending our warmest best wishes and hearty congratulations.