Hello, I'm Dominic.  It's a pleasure working with ITTT. It's a beautiful company and I assure you your time with the company is going to be a fruitful one. I am an English teacher and I hold PhD, MBA, Bachelor of Education and I do have Certificate in Teaching English. First of all, I have 50-hour Teaching English to Young Learners, as you can see. And then I have 120-hour TESOL, also here. So don't worry, you are in good hands. My goal as a teacher is to help as many people communicate in English as possible. I'm skillful in delivering the four skills in English, reading, writing, listening and speaking. I usually employ the ESSA strategy based on the level of my students. And so, it doesn't matter your level of English, remember that English is fun with Dr. Dom. I'll see you soon. Thank you and goodbye.


OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network. All right, so officially, hello, everyone. Good morning. Welcome to our session, California Adult Ed Technology and Distance Learning, a look at the data. My name is Anthony Burick. I'm the coordinator for distance learning projects with OTAN. And I want to introduce my co-presenter, Matthias. Oh, hi. Thanks, Anthony. I'm an adult education researcher. I'm doing my PhD at Simon Frasier University that's in Vancouver, Canada. And I work also for other projects with the Canadian Immigration Authorities and Language Programs. And I'm sorry, I should say. And Anthony and I are working on the annual distance learning report that we're sharing some preliminary data with you today. Thanks for having me. And welcome from Canada, our neighbor to the north. Thank you. So here's our agenda for the next hour. It's just a little bit about OTAN. And then we'll talk about the distance technology and distance learning report. We also want to talk about the California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance. So hopefully by now, you're familiar with it. You've heard about it. Maybe you've looked at it. Maybe you've read sections of it. But we want to talk about the guidance today as well. We're going to take a look at the data. It's sort of a slice of the data that we're going to look at today. We're still actually putting the report together. But we wanted to give you just kind of a sense of some of the data that's going to be included in the report. And then we'd like to do an activity both with folks in the room and for those of you online, give you a chance to get into smaller groups, talk about some of the data a little bit more intensively, see what questions you have, what things come to mind when you look at this data. We're interested in getting some feedback from you all on kind of your reaction to the data that we're going to share today. Kind of as we go along here, we'll take questions. But also if there are questions towards the end, we'll address them at that point as well. And so I do have a bitly link here. So in the folder, there's a copy of the slides that we're going to look at today. And then also when we get to the activity, our activity documents are going to be there as well. So these resources will be available after today. So feel free to take a look at them, come back to them later at some points. Great, Anthony. I put the bitly link in the chat for the online folks. Great. Thank you, Matthias. Appreciate it. Thank you for setting it up. Yeah, sure. OK, just a reminder about OTAN. So we are one of three state leadership projects in California that support adult education. We focus on technology application and integration. And for this particular report, we actually do a lot of work with our partner, CASAS. So CASAS says, you know, collect data. They're the data folks, the assessment folks, the data accountability folks. And so a lot of the data that we get comes from CASAS. So that's one of our data sources. And we'll talk about that a little bit later. But we just want to give a shout out to CASAS for the work that they do that benefits us when we put the data, the distance learning report together. OK, Matthias, over to you on the report itself. Absolutely. I'm just also setting up the transcript here. So just so everybody knows online, there is also the live transcript available. Fantastic. Thanks, Anthony. So starting in 2001, adult education agencies submitted what became the annual technology and distance learning plan, or TDLP for short. It was meant to capture an agency's ongoing and proposed technology integration goals. There was also a self-assessment of teacher technology skills and a learner survey on technology access and usage. The aggregated information from the TDLP has been included in OTAN's annual reports since then. In the 2016-17 OTAN annual report, there was a comprehensive distance learning report for the first time. It took a deeper dive into both the TDLP and the national reporting system, NRS for short, the data from there. In the annual report since then, TDLP and NRS data has been included and reviewed with more in-depth analysis. In the last few years, recommendations for further research were also added. And recently, the TDLP was incorporated into a new reporting deliverable known as the Continuous Improvement Plan, or CIP for short. Agency technology goals and the teacher and learner survey data are gathered for the CIP and are still key elements of distance learning reports. For the last report, Penny, and shout out to Penny. Is Penny in the room? She is. Yes, I'm here. All right, fantastic. Good to see you. So yes, for the last year's report, Penny and I made some changes. Because we wanted to move beyond the quantitative analysis. And so we added some qualitative findings from focus groups with selected agencies about what and how they were making the shift to online and back to in-person or back to blended. For the last two years, the report has also referenced data from prior years, provided comparisons and offered insights into some of the new delivery models, such as high-flex options. There were great presentations yesterday. We included data from the program implementation survey and added findings from the student technology intake survey. This year, instead of the focus group, Anthony and I decided to do a survey with all agencies so that we can cast the net wider and get a better sense of where things are heading. You will see some trends in the data that we're sharing with you today. This year's reports with findings from the last program year will be available a little bit later in the spring. We are sharing some preliminary findings with you today. And we will use these for our discussion today. We may also mention some of the discussion points from today in the report. That's why we will be asking you to take notes in our shared Google Doc during the discussion. And that goes both for online and for the in-person participants of the session. After we have a look at some selected findings, you can join one of those three groups in person or in the breakout rooms. And Anthony and Penny and I will drop in to see how things are going. But first, Anthony will tell you all about the guidance. Please, Anthony. Thank you, Matthias. OK. So we just wanted to make kind of a reference to this new document that has appeared in the fall of last year, the California Adult Education Digital Learning Guidance. And so again, hopefully by now you've had a chance to take a look at it. You've heard about it. You know how it's organized. You know what the guidance is about. Basically, it's really meant for the adult education field to kind of have a sense of all of the different topics that are related to digital learning, learning online, in blended environments, in high-flex environments. And a lot of different things that go into digital learning, this is sort of the state of digital learning. So we actually, on the OTAN website, you can get a copy of the guidance from there. We're actually building out our digital learning guidance website. And we hope to add a lot more information there as well. So if you are familiar with the guidance, this is basically how the guidance is organized. So there is an introduction. And then there are six chapters, which form sort of the core of the guidance. And you can see the topics that are listed here. And so Matthias and I, when we started looking at this year's report, this inserting report, it's hard not to notice the fact that there's now this guidance document that's been created that's very extensive. A lot of folks in the field actually contributed to the guidance document. And so one of the things that we're trying to do, starting with this year's report, is think about the data, but sort of in a different framework. And that framework would come from the digital learning guidance document itself. So for example, you may notice that I've bolded chapters 2, 3, and 5 here. So some of the data that Matthias is going to talk about, these topics are mentioned in the guidance document directly. So for example, a lot of the student data is sort of interesting when you take a look at chapter 2, which talks about ensuring digital equity and access. So this is really like what is sort of the state of students? What kind of devices do they have? What is their ability to connect with online learning blended learning and high-flex learning? What sort of digital skills do they possess?  What are the skills that students either have or don't have? And we're finding that the data directly corresponds with the topics that are covered in the guidance. So starting with this year, we'll see how far we can get into it. But we really like to sort of create a tighter connection between the data that we collect for this report and the topics that are mentioned in the guidance so that for all of you, it will give a lot more kind of hard data on these topics that are covered in the guidance. So that's kind of the sort of new framework that we're operating under. And as we get more into our reporting, we find that probably we'll be able to cover all of the chapters. Maybe not the last chapter. So the last chapter of fostering healthy, equitable, and inclusive digital communities talks about topics like, for example, social-emotional learning is mentioned in that chapter. I'm not sure if any of us are collecting data on adult education and SEL at this point. But maybe in the future, that might be a recommendation that we come up with that we may find that we really aren't collecting data on chapter seven topics. So maybe that's a new direction that we need to go in in terms of data collection. But again, we're really trying to put these two things together in a much tighter format. So more to come on that when the report comes out, as Matias mentioned later this year. OK, so Matias, I'm going to turn it back over to you. And Matias is going to talk about some of the data that we want to share today in the presentation. Right. Thanks, Anthony. And what I'm sharing now, you will also be able to see in those Google Docs that we set up for the discussion groups and, of course, in the slides that are in the shared folder that we shared a bit.ly link to before. So what you see here, the chart and this slide and the table on the next slide show the combined adult student enrollment for regular classroom and distance learning students for the program year from July 2017 to June 2022. Last program year, the number of distance learning students declined by 24% while the number of students in regular classrooms increased by 28% compared to the previous year. You can see that in the chart nicely here with the blue line tilting upward and the red one tilting downward again. And that's not surprising, of course, with the return to in-person instruction. So on the next slide, you see the same data in the table. So in the table on top, you can see the student number corresponding to the chart. We just looked at in the last program year, 2021 to 2022. There were 187,371 students in the regular classrooms and 67,588 in distance learning classrooms. This is the increase of students in regular classroom and a decrease of students in distance learning over the previous year that is noticeable in the chart as I just said before. And that's not surprising given the end of some of the limitations and challenges with respect to in-person program delivery due to the pandemic during the 2020-21 program year. And in that year, when there was a decline in regular classroom enrollments and an increase in distance learning enrollments. Before the start of the pandemic in 2018-2019, there were 299,720 students in regular classrooms and 10,574 distance learning students reported. Notable is that regular classroom enrollments were only reduced by more than half and that demonstrates a need for in-person instruction which increased again of course in 2021-22. At the same time, distance learning enrollments had increased by more than eight times in 2020-21. And that because of the pandemic. On the chart below, when students were asked on the table below, excuse me, when the students were asked during the last program year if they wanted to continue learning online, 63.1% said they would like to continue here and that compared to 93.9% in the previous year. Yeah, next slide please. Thank you. When students were asked how they connected to the internet, less students, 76.8% said that they used a connection at home than last year when it was 86.9%. In program year 2021-22, more than a third, 35.8% used their phone to get online compared to only a quarter, 22.6% in the program year 2020-21. In the same year 2021-22, no, in the last year, sorry, 2021-22, laptops or computers were still the most common choice of devices used for online learning at 64.3% and that was compared to 76% in the previous year. Alongside cell phones at 64.1% and tablets, 19.7%. But there are more than four times more respondents in this last year and that's 4.3% that you see in the table below there on the right who said that they did not have a device at all and the year before there was only 1%. Next slide please. Thank you, Anthony. Over one-third of students said that they had to share the device with others at home. There were also data limits that kept 19.4% of respondents from learning and 15.7% did not have a quiet place to study this last year. And that was compared to 12.6% in the previous year. Given the limited access to in-person services at adult schools and places with public internet connectors during the pandemic, of course not being able to use a device and connect to the internet at home meant that limited access meant also that that was limited access to educational opportunities. When students were asked if they had ever taken an online class before, 54.4% said that they had and that's compared to 71% in the previous year. And on the one below, when students were asked about what would help them to study online, 14.1% said that they needed a mobile hotspot to get on the internet. 41.2% said flexible study times, 27.3% said a device to study online and 24.8% said that they needed assistance with getting into online textbooks or classes. And 15.1% said that technical troubleshooting would be helpful. These needs increased by between one and three percentage points compared to the previous program year. So that's going up that need. Yes. Sorry, Ryan raises hand. So Ryan, are you going to come on? Please. Sorry, I could have put it in the chat if you prefer. No, no, no, that's all right. Yeah, I'm just curious what the end is on this survey. I'm sorry, what's the... How many respondents we have? How many respondents? Oh, this is data. This is that's a good question. Why? I can check for that. This is data that we get from CASAS. Yes. So this is this is a this is a pretty large sample. I thought so. That's incredible. Yeah, quiet place to study is concerning and has me thinking. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's and that's very good points, Ryan. And that's in the discussion groups, I think you can together discuss that a little bit more and then also document your discussion. That'll be very helpful for us to get some some input there. I appreciate that. Yes, Anthony. So let's move on to professional development. It's the next slide. Great. Thanks. So teachers were also asked to rate their skills and the importance they place on various tasks. In the program year 21-22, teachers rated themselves equally strong as in the previous program year with respect to integrating technology into daily instruction at 20% acting as a guide for learners when researching on the internet at 19% and using technology to manage, organize their work at 18.9%. When they were asked about the importance placed on tasks, they rated integrating technology into daily instruction at 70.8% using technology to manage and organize my work at 17.3% and troubleshooting problems that occur when using technology during and for instruction at 17.1% the highest. So that was the last column that you see here in the slide. And on the last slide, about the areas of technical needs and improvements what teachers said that they needed, more than half agreed or strongly agreed that they needed more time to learn to use applications. That's 58.8% in this last program year and that's compared to 62.4% in the year before. A third indicated that they needed more time to integrate technology into the curriculum. That's 33.2% compared to 36% the year before. Less than in the previous year said that they needed more options for professional development in the areas of technology. This year 28.4% compared to 36.2% the previous year and that they needed more technical support to keep computers and applications running through assigned technical support. This year there was 29.4% compared to 33.1%. And that's combined, the strongly agree or the agree. Okay, so yes, on the next slide you'll see our discussion groups. And so we would like to, if possible, I don't know how many people, how many people are in the room, Anthony? So we have about 10 in the room here and I think we have about 10, 12 online or so I think. Yeah, I see 13 that of course counts myself and you probably, so it's about even. Okay, so yeah, so what we wanna do here is we have three Google Docs set up and if you're in the folder, you should see them there. So we've organized, again, what we're sharing today is just a very kind of small slice of the data, right? But Matthias and I think that these are pretty, the topics themselves are pretty heavy, they're pretty weighty. These are probably topics that you're talking about at your agency already. So the first topic is about blended distance learning. And so those were kind of the first slides that we looked at. The second topic is digital access and equity. Those were the second two slides that we looked at about devices and connecting and things like that. And then the last group, the last topic is professional development. Those are the slides that we just saw, that Matthias just showed to us. So what we wanted to do, so maybe for about the next 10 or so minutes, 10, 15 minutes is we'd like folks to get into smaller groups, sort of depending on the topic that you're most interested in. And let me switch to the folder that might be a little easier. I'm gonna create three breakout rooms, okay? Yeah, actually I think we, Matthias, I already have the room set up. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. So I couldn't see them. So I guess you have to activate them for me to see them, right? The, yes, we need to turn them on, exactly. Yeah. More bro. So here we go. This is what we're looking at. So we have, so again, we have a copy of our slides in there, but then we have the three Google Docs. So let me just open up the first one for you. And I also put the bit.ly links for the Google Docs in the chat. Thank you, Matthias. So again, you'll see the slides, you'll see the slides that reference this particular topic on blended and distance learning. And then at the, so this is sort of our, sorry, at the bottom here, below the slides. This is sort of our prompt for the groups. So when you take a look at the data, sort of what are your initial observations? Anything that stands out to you? Any questions that you might have? Any and all of those comments, questions, ideas, go ahead and put them in the Google Doc at the very bottom. So let's come back together as a whole group. But we have our online friends back in the room. So what we can do is, why don't we go through each of the three groups? We'll start with the first group on the blended and distance. And maybe just get kind of, some of your comments, things that stood out. Why don't we start with the, let's start with the online folks. What were some of the topics that came up for you in your discussion? Nothing. Yeah, that's okay. Okay, so online folks, who was in the blended and distance discussion group? Is this a specific little sheet? No, I didn't. I was talking in typing. There were three of us in there, Anthony. Florence was there, and I'm sorry, I missed the name of the gentleman. That was me, Corey. Corey, yes. Okay, great. And we talked about a variety of things, but we just kind of discussed our different options. And I brought back up the concern about having a place to study and work in a quiet environment, a good learning environment. And we were kicking around. I learned at Pittsburgh, they have six hours a day, Pittsburgh Unified Adult, correct me if I'm wrong, six hours a day where they have open lab time for students available, but they don't offer it at nighttime. They don't have that at nighttime. In Sweetwater, we don't have it at all. We don't have any true lab time set up like that. And so yeah, even in our own two institutions, there's a lack of access and opportunity. And we talked about how there's no time at night. And in California, as many of you know, the Californians know, there's typically, or not typically, but often multiple families in one household, which means a lot of kids and a lot of learning happening. And that makes it harder for the adults to learn. So maybe we need to think about providing opportunities at night while night classes are going on for daytime students to come and work in a nice place. Okay. Thank you, Ryan. Any other topics that came up in that group one, besides the quiet place to study? Yeah, I'll just say quickly that we talked about the second question there about the what's your feeling about online learning online? And just how grateful I am that we have that data because it's a way for us to actually use data to make our decisions and not kind of intuition or our own biases or our own preferences. So I'm really excited about that data. And I'm looking forward to seeing how that evolves over time. Great. Thank you, Corey. Okay. What about our group? How about our in-person group? What things did you talk about in your group on the blended in distance? So we talked about, so some of our schools are different. So before COVID in terms of regular classroom participation and then distance learning, some of our schools already had a different learning program as an option before COVID and some of our schools didn't. So that played into a factor whether the new mandate after COVID is to come back to face-to-face. And that's what people transition from Zoom to now mandatory face-to-face or whether students transition to lesson doc. People seem to like online systems learning. How can we accommodate our students a little bit more of those who need it? And some of our programs actually did adopt more distance learning in terms of the same as before or some of us decided no face-to-face. So that might be one of the reasons why it seems that in-person classrooms seem to decline from before and also it might be that the population that we're serving in this economy in California, a lot of people are moving out of the state might have to do economics and might have to be that more people need to work in jobs to survive in the economy. Might be why more in-person members have declined also to be declining, it went up a little bit but it seems to be on decline from 17 to 27,000 members. Aaron, and then anything else you want to say? Yes, we were speculating about different factors that might contribute to that chart we were looking at the spikes and declines. And then we were questioning the survey about the feelings about learning online because it looks like it's from an intake survey so are these returning students that are maybe filling this out for not the first time because if they're continuing to learn online means they've already been doing that versus I don't think I can. So yeah, I was kind of myself anyway I was kind of wondering how students were thinking about that question and those options answer choices. But that is a good question too is who exactly are these students, right? Are they inverse farmers to the adult program or have they been with us for the last couple of years and are just sort of continuing it with their interest in staying online? Right, if they had much support in that of course we're looking to improve our program and the supports we provide so might we change their minds? Yeah. Isn't that wondering for the students that said they have to look at my glasses on that they can learn online right now? I don't think I can learn online. How many of those responded to the idol metal fight place? Right, so yeah, what are the, so the question, I think ultimately the question is where do some of these data points connect, right? So are the people who say, do the people who say I don't think I can learn online right now is it because they don't have the quiet place? They don't have the flexibility. They don't have enough, they don't have a dedicated device for themselves. So right, and Matthias is there, I don't know, you're the data analyst here. Can we make some of those connections? Have we made those in previous reports? No, no, we haven't. But the questions are, they're very good questions. That would be something, if we wanted to investigate that in the next report, for example, we would have to talk, I think, to Angela and see, right? Angela, she's the data analyst wizard at OTAN and then asked specifically for to get data filtered, for example, by those two questions and to see where the intersections are. I'm sure she can do that, but we definitely would have to ask specifically for those kind of things. Yeah, so those are good things that we should include Matthias and the recommendations for the last section. Absolutely, yeah. Okay, so let's move on to the topic too. So Penny and your group, I think we didn't have an online group, but why don't you go ahead and let us know what you were talking about in group two? Well, we were looking at the second question and talked about that for a little bit, which device, oh, on the first slide. Okay. Which device do you or can you use for online learning? And we thought, you know, it might be helpful to have some more clarifying questions so we can really understand when students might choose to use one device over another if they have more than one. And then also maybe asking the question in a way where we can see which students have only a cell phone. How many students can only use a cell phone? How many students might have a cell phone in the laptop that they can choose from? So, you know, changing that question and maybe adding a few more to give some deeper information about that. Also, we were saying for the fourth option, I don't have a device for that question. That is probably also going to, that percentage is probably higher than it actually shows here because students who don't have a device might not be taking the survey and repeating it. And I don't know if you wanted to add. Yeah, we were talking about the quiet places, that he too is just trying to understand that more on the following slide. Because, you know, just as hard to understand that I was sharing like in our program, we tried it free and post pandemic because we had really bad luck with it. So I was thinking, you'd be nice to know like what programs these students connected with because like our ESL has zero interest in our school but our high school programs really love it. They love having a study hall and make them in even though they can do everything at home. And so we talked a little bit about that. And then we were encouraged that there's a 55% retention rate basically that they've taken on online class before and are returning. So Lisa, there is some type of like consistency with students that you're getting. That's great. Anthony, the question came up, how do, and this relates to this, I think, how do agencies get their hands on data that is collected through the service that OTAN conducts. So the student technology survey and the teacher and the self-assessment, right? Right. And is it possible, and then my follow-up question would be, is it possible for agencies to get the raw data for their agencies so they can run those kind of queries themselves? So in the room here, we have Renee Collins who's the director of OTAN who can speak to both of those points. So Renee. Right. So the student technology intake survey is available to our VOA agencies via the online application and reporting site. Actually, I believe it's under resources or maybe it's on F, but that should be available and up-to-date at all points for VOA agencies. If you are a non-VOA agency who has been doing the student technology intake survey and we do want you to do that, so if you're a paid agency and not a VOA-funded agency, that data can still be shared with you, but you would have to specifically contact OTAN, you know, VR support box that we'd be able to probably email that information to you. As far as the teacher self-assessment, that is going to only come out and be released with every continuous improvement plan, which is generally done on an annual basis. But this year, because we were doing the request for application for VOA, there is not a CIP. And so the teacher survey will not be released this year. So it will be coming out again next year. If you do, if your agency does want to have access to it, you can make a special request for it, but generally speaking, it's not going to be made available to everybody. But the student technology intake survey has recently been updated. And as of July 1st, you'll notice some differences on it. The advisory team that originally built the survey came back together within the last month and made recommendations for improvement. So those will go into effect as of July 1st. And so anything July 1st or later should be that new, your agency should be utilizing that new survey. Okay, thanks, Rene. Yeah, okay. Why don't we move on to the group three? Group three talked about professional development. And why don't we start with the, I know there was a group online that talked about that. So do any of the folks in the group three want to speak to the topics that you talked about? Let's start with the online folks. Anybody in group three that was talked about professional development online. Hi, Anthony, can you hear me okay? Hey, Tanya. Yes. Yeah, we can. Hey. So we talked about, in particular, the concept of time. So in that professional development slide, that second one on the document. And the concept of time and how, you know, what does time mean? Does it mean paid time? Does it mean literal time? Because perhaps they're connected, you know, if people have more paid time, maybe they'll then have more actual time to participate in professional development. So we discussed that a bit. And I think someone else in the group had a comment and then Matthias joined the group. And then someone else in the group had a comment and then Matthias joined us and helped us out with trying to figure out that first slide, because there was a little bit of confusion there for us. Okay. Thank you, Tanya. How about the, our, how about our, how about our in-person group? What were you talking about with the, with the PD? We had like a great discussion about our challenges with PD. And we talked about how the transition can be overwhelming for some people transitioning from different technologies. But also one of the things that we really delved into was the consistent PD offerings, like the consistently give those offerings, but also that you have to follow through with the professional development and it's an agency effort and OTAN and CalPro can help out with that. But the important thing is the follow-through with the professional development. It has to be admin teachers and other staff that participate in it so that it can be successful. And it's not just the tools. You can't just be given the tools. You have to teach how to use those tools and then follow through with teaching how to use those tools. That was in that shop. Great. Great. Any other talk? No, you gave us in that shop. Okay, super. So this is great stuff. Matthias, do you have any, I know that you spent more time with the online group. So you want to add any, add anything? No, it all came up and the access to the data was one of the, one of the main points. So thank you for clarifying that. Okay. Great. Yeah. Thank you, Anthony. And for. We're doing the in-person. Groups as well. That works. Fantastic. Yeah. So if you can, if he, whether you were in-person or online, if you can get your comments onto the Google docs, that'd be great. As we, as we said, Matthias and I are starting to work on the. The final version of the, of the report. And so we want to make sure to be able to refer to some of these comments. And then we'll be back when we put the, when we put the report together, especially the, so that in the report towards the end of the report, Matthias does a very good job of sort of organizing like, so what are some things that we should be looking at, that we're not looking at now, right? Or what are further questions about the data that we actually have collected that maybe we need some more information about. So like when Monica was saying, well, it would be good if actually we had a little bit more depth to some of these questions that we're asking, right? Because on the surface, it seems like good information, but actually it's, we could use a little bit more clarity and sort of fine tuning of some of those questions. So that's, that's great feedback. That's what we can include in the reports so that we're sort of all aware maybe future directions for data collection when it comes to, when it comes to upcoming reports. And then again, as well, like I said earlier, we're trying to, we are trying to make this connection between the data that we're taking a look at and this guidance document. This guidance document is really, is providing a great framework for these big topics that we're trying to tackle, trying to tackle at our agencies, but it's really helpful to connect data with those topics, right? So we, we have a sense of the sort of, you know, where the issues lie or are things going okay, or where do we need improvement? And then you can also use that, you know, when you're looking at your own individual agencies as well, like how are you comparing to what's going on a, on a state level or a larger level? So I think we're almost done.  No, well said. Anthony, thank you everybody for participating for your thoughts. I think that's very valuable. Like Anthony said, feel free to still add to those stocks if you have time. We also have the live transcript. So I will save that. And yeah, enjoy the conference. I'm sorry I can't be there maybe next year, hopefully. Yeah, thank you Matias. Yeah. And as Matias mentioned, yeah, we are working on the final version of the disinserting report. We hope to have that out relatively soon, maybe the next month or so. And then once that comes out, we'll make sure to share it with the field and look for other opportunities to connect with the field on, on the findings in the report. All right. I think with that, we will take a break for lunch and thanks so much Matias. And thanks to everyone online for your participation. Thanks to everybody in the room.


I designed the recipes. It took me like four years to do it because I don't have a food background. I was a pianist, engineering, finance, you know, investment banking sort of stuff. So literally you were an Asian kid before. So now...


Everybody forced here with eminence beef a world cup guitar Hobby case number one random hit style. There's 10 hits inside this case 10 spots in this break We will type in the hits as we go along show the cards one by one We're gonna have some fun. Hopefully and then I will random at the end to see who gets which hit Whoo Let's have some fun. Good luck everybody in this break. Thank you for filling these up. I don't really need the trash can I guess yeah Sorry Jack seal right there all sealed inside too He's good he's good Jack's good. All right there is man I've been in soccer Clean this thing up. Oh, baby. Oh now there's dust over here. I'm gonna sneeze again. I'm gonna sneeze again on t-minus like 25 seconds All right. All right.   That's diamond guarantee. There'll be some diamond relics in this box If you need to use it with all their high end that has diamonds Okay Hmm. Let's start Here This is so awesome All right, we're gonna start Really nice hit here. Adrian Robbio on the gilded graphs one of ten Adrian Robbio auto one of ten Robbio All right the IOT We'll buy it Robbio There's the back of the card. Sorry Very nice start there and the order is so tough to decide on these and we'll go here next Another there's a French legend here Diamond relic auto David Trezeguet ten out of ten David Trezeguet ten of ten on the diamond relic auto No, I'm not Blake Maybe for the maybe for the cases two and three and now it gets tough to decide where to go All right, the order the order might be a little off here, but it's tough to decide I'm gonna go with this one first for a reason David Beckham auto two of five David Beckham Cannot bend this card. It is in it is encased David Beckham two of five will go with this one next This is nasty. I gotta see something real quick Patch auto name our junior two of ten huge patch Player worn by name our junior Two out of ten final card of the top half of the case is a One-of-one platinum foil auto Mason Mount One-of-one Mason Mount Good stuff good stuff really good top half there Some legends some young stars a one-of-one a patch auto alright Now on we go And on we go. What is that on the lens of the camera next up a Jean-Luc Abusio auto eight of ten Jean-Luc Abusio auto eight out of ten Signature salutes dual diamond rookie auto of Ricardo Pepe five out of ten Yeah, these are on card Dual diamond rookie auto Ricardo Pepe five of ten Yeah, there will be some sticker autos On on like bit like like book cards and things like that Ricardo Pepe. Yeah, he's gonna he's gonna be huge going forward for the US. Let's see where to go now This is tough I'll start with this rude Van Nisleroy auto five out of ten grand signatures rude Van Nisleroy Five out of ten. This is a good case so far. Okay, I got it Gilded graphs Filippo in Zaghi two of ten Filippo in Zaghi Two out of ten another legends In soggy sick hit there as well back-to-back legends You got a relic here Unmatched Shoe ounce of 14 karat gold three of three Florian verts Bo 14 karat shoe ounce of gold three of three verts Florian verts That kid is going to be a stud. I mean he kind of already is No ink, but a 14 karat gold of Florian verts. Yep, that's sick. Oh, there's a How many hits was that that's ten right? Yeah, there's an 11th hit There's an 11th hit. We'll have to random something but dude this one this big Yeah, there is. Yeah, there's gonna find out. I'll pull the card first Masters of the pitch Diamond auto one of ten Luca Modric Back Luca Modric, so there's 11 hits in this case Yeah Yeah, it is I Just text Elaine. I haven't seen him in chat though. You probably have to combine then yeah Which is also tough to do. Yeah, or we can take This Okay, that is there any more cards, let me check the entire thing No more cards. Just wanted to make sure It's like 15 cards in there. We honestly Wait All right guys, so what we're gonna do since there's 11 Caleb and I have decided We're gonna have to combine two of the hits together what we're gonna We're gonna bind the Jean-Luc Abusio and the Adrian Robbio Together yeah, that's what we'll do. Yeah, you would you would not grade eminence You would not grade an eminence card Yeah, Abusio and Robbio are gonna get combined together. So that'll make 10 hits theoretically Um, the others are just too big to I think combo. There's a few really really big ones obviously and then the others are I think are just a little too large. So Robbio, where's Bousio at? Robbio Bousio Trezeguet, Beckham, Neymar, Mount, Pepe, Van Nisleroy, Zaggy, Vertz, and Modric All right did not expect that Yeah, so Yeah, let me actually Reward that Okay. Yeah, we'll do that All right. Good luck on the random everybody Might not be perfect, but we got an extra hit. So I mean either way that's a good thing for the break in general So that's how we got to look at it Good luck We're gonna randomize the names and the hits same amount of times put them side by side to see who's getting what here As a nine six and three the Neymar patch is disgusting So again names first nine times One two three four five six seven eight and nine Andrew M down at Thomas J and then the hits nine times here Good luck everybody one two three four five six seven eight and nine The Van Nisleroy down to the one-of-one mount top to bottom there There you have it Andrew M with the rude Van Nisleroy Tickus Gannis with the Florian Vertz gold bar hang Y with the Rabio and the Bousio Brian S the Trezeguet diamond auto Chunwei with the Beckham auto to five Gary O the Ricardo Pepe dual diamond rookie auto to ten Lucky Z with the Insagi auto to ten Tickus Gannis with the Luca Muldridge diamond auto one of ten aid S with the Neymar patch auto and Thomas J With the Mason mount auto one of one Thanks again everybody. We'll get the results posted to the site moved on the case to


As aquatic animals became adapted for land, their entire bodies underwent complex changes, which meant complex changes to their organ systems, their digestive, respiratory, circulation systems. The metabolic rates for amphibians or reptiles was more than that of fish and the metabolic rates for mammals is more than that of reptiles, which means their cells need a constant supply of nutrients and oxygen at a much different rate from each other. And that means the way that the blood who is carrying all these nutrients and oxygen, the way that the blood circulates through their bodies, even that needs to be changed, even that needs to be adapted. Finally, the pump or the heart who is pushing the blood through their bodies also underwent changes to meet these needs. And in this video, we will look at how the structure of the heart changes from fish to reptiles to mammals and also how the way that the blood is circulating through their bodies, how that changes as well. Let's start with the fish. This is how the circulation of blood in fish looks like. This is the heart in between and we can see that it has, this has two chambers. This has two chambers. Deoxygenated blood, which is blood that is poor in oxygen because all the oxygen has been used up by the cells and tissues that circulates to one of the chambers of the heart, which is called, which is called atrium. And then from atrium, the blood goes to ventricle. From ventricle, it goes to the gills where it gets oxygenated, where by diffusion it gets oxygenated and then the blood is circulated throughout the body. And then again, it returns and the cycle continues. Now if you start from gills and you, if you try to complete one circuit when you return back to gills, you will see that the blood flows through the heart only once and this type of circulation is called, this is called a single, a single circulation. This is when in one complete circuit or one complete cycle, the blood will flow past through the heart once. Well now we can, we can wonder if this, if this single circulation, will this work for amphibians or reptiles? A reptile or an amphibian is considered to be generally a more active organism than a fish. That is because it has a far more developed nervous system. It needs to, it needs to crawl, jump, sneak. It, it carries out many more activities than just a fish. So the cells, cells of the reptile or an amphibian, it, they need, they need energy at a much faster rate. Or we can say that the metabolic rate of a reptile or an amphibian is more than that of fish. And over here when, when ventricle pumps out the deoxygenated blood, it enters the capillaries where diffusion happens and it comes back to arteries. In this process, the blood loses a lot of velocity. Let's see, let's see how that happens. Deoxygenated blood, which leaves the heart, it enters the capillaries in the gills where it gets oxygenated and then it leaves, leaves the gills and travels to the rest of the body. But in this process, as the blood is passing through the capillaries, it loses a lot of velocity. That is because initially blood was, blood was, it was deoxygenated, so I'm just drawing it in blue. Initially it was traveling in a much wider vessel. So it was experiencing friction from the walls of the vessel, but only these two, these two layers, the boundary layers were experiencing friction. But as it enters the capillaries, which are far narrower vessels, they are, they are extremely tiny narrower vessels. Now more blood, more blood is in contact, is in contact with the walls of the vessel and in this case the capillary. So now more of the blood is experiencing friction because more of it is in contact with the walls of the vessel. So it loses a lot of velocity. And as the capillaries join together to form larger vessels, they do regain some velocity, but it has already lost considerable amount of velocity as it passed through the capillaries because of the friction experienced by the blood from the walls of the vessels. So when the blood leaves the gills, it has already lost a lot of velocity. And that is actually how the circulatory system of a fish works. Now we can ask ourselves, is this circulatory system, is this pathway good enough for a reptile or an amphibian? Turns out it doesn't work. The rate at which the blood is flowing is not enough to meet the requirements of the high metabolic activity of an amphibian or reptile. It's good enough for a fish because its swimming movements help to move the blood through the body, but not for an amphibian or a reptile. So there needs to be an evolutionary adaptation. From single circulation, we now go to double circulation. So let's see how that looks like. In double circulation, blood has to pass through the heart toys in one complete cycle. Over here the deoxygenated blood, it enters this chamber of the heart and this is called the right atrium. Now it's called right instead of left because think about it from the perspective of the organism itself. For the organism, this would be their right. From their perspective, this is their right. And from here the blood goes into the ventricle. This is the ventricle. From the ventricle, it goes to the lungs where it gets oxygenated. And because we're talking about amphibians, some of the oxygen also comes from the skin. The oxygenated blood is then passed on to the left, the left atrium. This right here is a left atrium. This right here is a ventricle. From the atrium, the blood is then passed to the ventricle and from the ventricle, then it goes to the body. Now to make up for the lost speed of blood when it passes through capillaries, blood again passes through the heart to the ventricle where it is pushed again and then it goes to every cell of the body. So here we can see that in one cycle, if you start from lungs and you come back to lungs, in one cycle the blood is passing through the heart toys. It passes through the heart once. Then it goes to the body. Then it again passes through the heart. Then it goes to the lungs. This heart has three chambers. So this is called a three-chambered heart. However, over here we see that this right atrium is receiving deoxygenated blood. This left atrium is receiving oxygenated blood from the lungs. However, in the ventricle, they get mixed up in the single ventricle which pumps out the mixed blood to the lungs and to the body. In the three-chambered heart of turtles or snakes or lizards, the ventricle is partially divided. So it kind of looks like this. We see that the ventricle is partially divided like this because of this less mixing of blood duggers. There is an exception to this, which are crocodiles. Ventricles are completely divided in them. So they have a heart with four chambers. Now because of the mixing of the blood, this is really called an incomplete double circulation. Incomplete because the blood is really mixing the oxygenated and the deoxygenated blood and double because the blood is passing through the heart toys in one complete cycle. Now we can again wonder if this circulatory pathway, if this makes sense for mammals like birds, elephants, people, we know that mammals differ from amphibian centripetals in one crucial way and that is that we are warm-blooded animals. We regulate our own body temperature and in order to do that, we need extra energy. The metabolic rate of ourselves is even higher than that of amphibian centripetals because they are cold-blooded animals. They don't regulate their body temperature. It depends on the external environment but their cells do not need this extra energy to maintain a constant body temperature. And in fact, a warm-blooded animal uses 10 times as much energy as an equally-sized cold-blooded animal. So this setup where the body is receiving mixed blood, not purely oxygenated blood, does not prove to be too efficient. And an evolutionary adaptation to meet this to deal with this is that the ventricles are also separated, they are separated by a wall. And this is how the heart looks like in mammals. So this is really, this is a four-chambered heart. Now over here, deoxygenated blood, it enters the right atrium and then it goes to the right ventricle. This right here is the right ventricle. From there, it is pushed to the lungs where it gets oxygenated. Then it is brought to the left atrium. From there, it goes to the left ventricle. And from there, it is pushed through the arteries to each and every cell of the body. Now here, purely oxygenated blood is being circulated, which proves to be more efficient to meet the metabolic needs of mammals. Now this type of circulation is called a double circulation. It's not an incomplete double circulation because there is no mixing of blood happening over here. And double circulation again, because the blood is passing through the heart twice in one complete cycle. All right, now to summarize, we went from two-chambered hearts to three-chambered hearts to four-chambered hearts. And each jump was made to meet a need and there were adaptations in how the heart is structured, also how the blood flows through the circulatory system for each of these organisms. For fish, we have a two-chambered heart with just one atrium, one ventricle. But the blood loses a lot of velocity in this pathway, not fast enough to meet the high metabolic needs of an amphibian or reptile. So therefore, the blood was again sent back to the heart where then it is pushed so that it can gain some velocity and then it reaches the cells and tissues of an amphibian or reptile. So here we have a three-chambered heart. We have right atrium, left atrium, and one ventricle. And finally, for mammals who regulate their own body temperature, so they need more energy, 10 times more energy as that of an equally sized amphibian or reptile. So they can't really work with a mixed blood. They need pure, purely oxygenated blood, blood carrying enough oxygen to meet the high metabolic needs. So therefore, you have a separation in the ventricle itself and now the heart became four-chambered. You have a right atrium, a left atrium, left ventricle, and a right ventricle.


We got we got a lot of the Lspd in the room anyone have any questions for the Lspd while they're here You know, I mean I speak on behalf of everybody whenever I say is the public relations officer the PRO the Lspd I hear in a few moments. There's gonna be a city hall kind of city city hall meeting I'm gonna go to that Alexis, what do you think that we should do as far as being able to get the word out? We're no for what? For my sheriff campaign. You need a campaign manager So I have that kind of but how do we how do we connect with people in a way that makes them feel like? Voting me for sheriff would be in their best.  Nothing else matters unless you give them eye contact and speak to them from the heart Okay, I think you're right. I think that's I think that's a good way of looking at it anyone else has helping you campaign They need to use twatter they need to make announcements. Okay. Good point So we got to get on twatter get on social media. Do you think people look at that? They do I don't but they do Okay, she jumps down like a numpty. Yep. You don't sound like a numpty It's backwards All right, cool. Um guard you so as you guys may have noticed today mayor all signups have happened If you think you can affect positive change highly recommend running for mayor Would be possibly very good The way that it works is first place Equals mayor second place equals deputy mayor.  Oh One thing that I encountered when I was running for mayor the first time is that I would talk to a lot of people A lot of people would say, you know max I'd vote for you, but you're gonna win anyway So instead I'm gonna vote for second place. Uh, and I know for a fact The large majority of the people running for mayor right now Are only running so that they can secure second place. They're telling people Yeah, like archie. They're telling people to their face. They're like, hey, um, I can't win But I can't get second place. Um, all I'm all I'm asking you obviously this benefits me because I am running again However, uh, keep in mind that the the spirit of The mayoral election, uh, is directly compromised if you're not voting for the person that you want to become mayor It is the mayoral election the way that the system was designed Is that it is supposed to be one person represents the majority and then the not majority is represented by the second person Okay, but obviously that becomes conflicted and difficult when you know people are deliberately targeting, uh, the deputy mayor vote Anyway, vote for mayor not for deputy mayor. Uh, that's my urging to you.  Uh, no, I've raised I've raised concerns with, uh, alan crane specifically because he's kind of been charged with the whole council Wait stuff and suggesting letting people vote for deputy mayor. I thought that would have been good Uh, it was shot down. Unfortunately 10 hours a day I was out there talking to people getting to know people getting them to vote in my favor and the number of people That I spoke to you're like, well, you're gonna win already. So I think I'm gonna work.  Just vote for mayor vote for mayor. How do we prevent election fraud? Um, no melon ballots. Excuse me, sir. Yeah, no melon ballots. Yeah, and check the voting machines highly recommend Um, signing up if you haven't signed up for available on the the government forum Uh, yeah, don't use chat gpd because uh, people will know. Okay. That's all Uh, we got we got a lot of the lspd in the room. Anyone have any questions for the lspd while they're here? As a former deputy, I'm just wondering what's your opinion on a sheriff's office? I think a sheriff's office is coming. Uh, it's coming soon. I need to uh, get some because the the police continuity act Plan establishes the mayor's office ability to Establish other departments that was on purpose because I was future proofing for the opportunity to make A sheriff's office because there's a large portion of the island that could probably stand from some Stand for some standard patrol with some conversation and talking with uh captain slacks captain slacks is in the crowd Or at least he was I don't know where he went. I'm right here. I'm right here Just catching a dirty criminal. That's all. Uh, we are We decided to do a public vote for sheriff because that's typically how it goes There are a lot of there are a lot of questions to be answered right now because the lspd is still in a recovery state After the city reopened the difficult and mostly thankless job. What's important is that we give people the opportunity Their numbers are bolstering which is good. Um, if we give people the opportunity to uh in the lspd Choose for a different base of operations I think that will ultimately benefit the people of Los Angeles because a lot of people live up north or in Sandy blah blah blah long story short sheriff's office cool I'll be speaking to high-ranking members of the lspd either tonight or tomorrow in order to Hammer out how precisely that chain of command would work because it wouldn't make sense to erect another department during this recovery state Uh, you know and cause conflict that way where you know, like who's my actual boss, you know, what the sheriff told me A sergeant in the lspd to go off duty. He's not my boss. He works at a different department Blah blah blah a lot of things to be worked out a lot of things that will be worked out Uh with uh cop input boom. Yeah, um, I'm wondering if we if you'd be willing to raise uh, the police department's pay So they can get driving lessons so they can stop running people over on sidewalks Yeah Yeah, I've been here a couple times Hey, who did that? I'm a witness to that. Um, did that happen today? Probably. I mean probably yes or no He's just making up. Yeah. I mean is it I don't know. I mean like it actually happened to me, but uh, it's like great Listen, yeah, the lspd uh since the reopening of the fine ports and harbors of los antos They've got a great track record at uh policing themselves a lot harder than they police the streets Uh as a result if you have any recording of that I believe that there may be some remnants still of that in the lspd And it will be very easy for you to get that person in trouble for not doing their job Surely one of these officers would would just admit they did it if they did it, right? Nah, well, you know how they are No, they would Personal responsibility. Listen if I may if I may personal responsibility It goes a long way in the police department and with something that we look highly upon, okay? It's one of our main principles So, you know, I mean I I speak on behalf of everybody whenever I say is the public relations officer the pro of the lspd If uh, y'all have any issues or anything that y'all You know need to have sorted and somebody's running you over and not at least stopping to let you know who they are Make sure you're okay. Let me know. Okay, cleavage cornwood. Thank you. There's I think you were That's right. Yeah, that is impossible. There's no way I ran you over and didn't come back to check on you What if an officer sits on your shoes probably deserve Who pooped on your shoes slick? I don't want to sell him out because he gives me cell reps Okay, Jimbo, please stop Thank you. Thank you Jimbo. Um, yeah, I'm not a fan of it What can identify what is I don't confirm really Well, I do hear some whispering here about this sheriff's stuff like they were just seeing and I'm kind of wondering from a doctor's point A doctor sounds kind of familiar Do you think that the medical facility up north in sandy will open anytime soon? I don't if you can't answer it. It's totally fine. No, so if if that So the sandy shores sheriff's office, you know name pending whenever whenever that gets functional I I suspect highly that the adjacent and attached medical building will also be functional dependent on the department The sheriff's yeah, not necessarily dependent, but but when when construction work is di is diverted up there Um, that will probably also be the case I would love to see people working on that building because I think it's beautiful Yeah, all right. We'll get well soon if you need any help. I'm at the hospital Uh, be it be it including a council to determine which food stalls are more successful and that deserve an actual you know place to operate full time or you know Fleshing out the actual intricacies of you know, how available a food stall pass should be so on so forth Uh, hopefully if I'm re-elected I will finally receive the tools to do these things so that I can get everyone off Hopefully I can finally give everyone like what they have needed for months and I That's my major I I think we've been here for about an hour. So I'm gonna call it Over here over here if I may wait, where where wait, I'm not I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving Um, I will be behind the counter over there talking to people if you guys need to keep talking after this Um, I will do one more question.  I think this was a very sick meeting. I just wanted to say Oh gosh, I almost had a blast America Uh, we got a show after this coping records first-ever show liquid libraries So if you guys want to come out and support your local artists, you know, we'll be over there Thank you I play my inspiring message. Sure. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's go get set up. All right I think everybody could use a little bit of motivation after everything. So this is sponsored by cornwood Well out of there partner, are you ready to hit the old dusty trail?  You'd be a pussy if you did Strap on them spurs and let's hit them with another one I didn't know what you may be asking Why are you questioning me? What are you a commie?  I haven't seen you. I will be behind the counter.  Damian. That was incredible Do you like the ai cornwood? That was good. Yeah. I I mean, I love it now. That was awesome Yeah, that was fantastic.  Everybody can hop in you excited cornwood. You're gonna be sheriff Well, we'll see. I mean we got we got a we got an uphill battle I mean, there's a lot of people within unfortunately within the department trying to blame everything on me The five people here and not a single one of us asked bro.  You just need to go in there You need to pull out a revolver shoot them and ask questions later I love that. Just don't put an extra one in them. That might get you murder. Yeah, you can't be like You can't modern warfare to lobby them. You just Only if anybody sees me that's right. Actually. Yeah, if it's behind the building then we'll you know, we'll do what we gotta do True


Hello everybody, my name is Elena Moralejo and I'm the first author of the paper entitled The Influence of the Cycle Length on the PHA and Polyglucose Production from glycerol by bacterial enrichment in sequencing batch reactors that has been recently published in biotechnology and bioengineering journal. I'm a PhD student working at Delphi University of Technology in the Netherlands and the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Polyderoxial cannoids or PHA are naturally occurring polymers that many bacteria are able to synthesize. During the last years they become very important because of their plastic-like properties so that's why they are known as bioplastics. From the biological point of view they act as a storage of carbon and energy inside the bacteria. Carbon industrial PHA production process is based on the use of pure cultures and pure substrate so that results in a really expensive material that is limited to uses like medicine. What we propose is a low-cost PHA production process. It's based on the use of bacterial enrichment and waste as substrate. The advantages will be to fold. On the one hand we will be avoiding the costs associated to the sterile production and on the other hand since we are using our waste as substrate we will be enhancing the sustainability of the process that generates the waste. The process is based on two steps. The first step consists on selecting the microorganisms that have the ability to produce these storage polymers so we make use of activated sludge and we will apply a selective pressure in the system. The idea is that we are engineering the system instead of engineering the microorganism. This selective pressure is based on the natural role of PHA as carbon and energy reserve so we will dose the feed at certain time intervals and that will result in the so-called feast famine regime. So during the feast phase that's the time when substrate is available the bacteria that has the ability to produce PHA will store the substrate in the form of PHA and then during the period where no substrate is available that's the famine phase the bacteria that has the ability to store PHA will be able to grow using that polymers as carbon and energy reserve. So by repeating this feeding pattern we will wash out the microorganisms that can only grow and we will enrich the system naturally on microorganisms that have the ability to produce PHA. So we will switch from activated sludge to enrichment that is reached on a bacteria that has the ability to produce PHA. Once the bacterial enrichment is selected we will maximize this biopolymer content in the second step that's the accumulation step and we will dose a big amount of carbon source and we will prevent growth by limiting the presence of high essential nutrients that is usually ammonia. So at the end of this fermentation we have this the bacteria that contain up to 80 percent of PHA. So in this picture we can see how do bacteria look like at the end of the famine phase that's when they have consumed all the polymers that they stored in the previous phase as the fist phase and in this picture we can see how they look like when they are full of polymer at the end of the fist phase or at the end of the accumulation experiment and we can see the white inclusions inside the cell that that's the PHA. A special characteristic about the use of glycerol at substrate is that besides PHA we also obtain a polymer of glucose that we will refer to as polyglucose. Based on previous experiences we saw that the kinetics associated to the production and to the consumption of these two polymers were markedly different. So the aim of this study is to test the influence of the enrichment cycle length on the distribution of glycerol among these two polymers. So we will study and compare the performance of two different enrichment reactors. One operates with cycles of six hours so it will have six sorry four cycles per day and the second reactor operates with cycles of 24 hours so we will operate with one cycle per day. As we can see the distribution of glycerol among the two polymers among the PHA that was how PHA was present and polyglucose were different. So you can see the details of this study in the article and I would like to introduce my the co-authors of this paper. On the one hand we have Mark Balnoz-Drexana Robert Trellevesian from the University of Technology and Tanya Palmeiro-Sanchez and Nusca Mosquera Corral and José Luis Campos from the University of Santiago de Compostela. Thank you very much for your attention and I encourage you to read the article since we are presenting a natural mechanism to select from microorganisms with the ability to produce a value added product using waste as substrate. Enjoy your reading.


And the amalgamated union of foodstuffs and cattle dealers in Nigeria has threatened to resume its strike and cut off food supply nationwide. To protest failure of the federal government to pay the 4.75 billion Naira compensation agreed with them, the northern traders gave the government a three-week ultimatum to implement the signed agreement that led to the calling off of their strike in March this year. The union alleged its members were still being exorted by security agencies and harassed in the southeast. The northern traders had blocked food supply to south to demand a payment of 4.75 billion Naira compensation for lives of members and properties lost during the NSAS protest and Sasha market chaos. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


How about a wireless plan with no credit check, no contracts and most of the features of Post-Paid? That's Forward Pay on the region's premier cellular provider and it starts as low as $19.99 per month for unlimited talk and text. Forward Pay because we are you. We are. Appalachian Wireless. The Mountain Home Place Farm has reopened for their season and will be hosting their second Saturday series, Saturday, June 10th. The farm will feature a petting zoo, educational activities and will be held from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. So second Saturday series is a series at the Mountain Home Place Farm. It is to encourage children to come and explore and learn on the farm. This week we are focusing on farm animals. So we'll have an activity discussing the different types of animals we have on the farm, what they do and the history of animals on the farm. And then the children will have an opportunity to go out on the farm and explore.  The second Saturday series will include a farm tour and is $5 per person. So the Mountain Home Place Farm is a living history exhibit. It brings the life, history of Appalachian life, what it was like in the 1850s and what it is like today. And so it's very important that we teach the heritage that we have here in the mountains and the farm is a way to do that. Bringing the history of the past, coming in, the children being there, it's very interactive and it's also a fun, neat way to learn because play is learning. For more information, go to Mountain Home Place Farm on Facebook. Reporting for Mountain Top News, I'm Brianna Robinson.


Ukrainian joint forces commander Sergei Neyev on November 30 demonstrated a Shahid drone which he said Air Defense Unit shot down over the weekend when Kiev suffered Russia's largest drone attack of the war Neyev said the drone was painted in black on purpose to make it inconspicuous and mislead air defense forces who use ordinary anti-aircraft guns. But according to soldiers who operated Jeopard anti-aircraft guns equipped with radial locators, a drone's color and positioning of exhaust does not. Matter Air Force Chief Mikhail Olsiak said 74 of the 75 drones launched at Ukraine on November 25 had been downed. The air raid warning lasted for six hours, the target of Saturday's attack was not immediately clear, but Ukraine has warned in recent weeks that Russia will once again wage an aerial campaign to destroy Ukraine's energy system as it sought to do last winter.  But the guys understand that they are professionals of their own business and are very well prepared. Therefore, these Shahids could not go through their air defense systems. The idea was that they were incomprehensible for a fire group that is located on the ground floor, that they were incomprehensible. But for the air raid, they are incomprehensible. The most important thing is that the target will fly a lot. Therefore, when it flies in turn, each target has a grip, a target is shooting, a target is shooting. There is a confirmation of destruction, we will capture another target. How was this night when we were working at the same time? That is, at a different time, at the same time. They flew into the zone of our enemy, four times. Guys, if you oil them and blow them up, there may be a problem. There may be a problem, but we will come out of this, that we will work at 100% to 200%. No, no, no, that's all. It is possible that the mobile fire group does not mean anything to us. It is not possible. At least in the summer, at least in the summer, they will paint it.


ld like to highlight a few things. So first off, thank you to the Council for approving the appointments. We're especially excited about having our Public Health Director joining us her first day, I believe it's like October 2nd. She's going to be coming in next week to start meeting with staff and preparing for her entry to the staff. I think she will be a really nice welcome addition to us. And as was pointed out, we do have vacancies at the high level, so this is good to get this one moving forward. For the other vacancies, you heard from the police chief search consultants that we have, you have the timeline for that. It's a pretty deliberate timeline. I will need to come back to you to ask for additional time to keep the temporary police chief, which I've noted in the memo at that time. But we will have a firmer grip on exactly how much time I will need. It's not going to be very much additional time I will request. So they spent the entire day today starting at 7.45 and concluded with you tomorrow. They again started 7.45. There's a public information meeting at 9 at the Banks Community Center and that's hopeful for people, hopefully for people like seniors and business owners, people who are finding it easier to attend something in the day. And then we also have one at 6 at the Jones Library. And the idea on this is that you don't have to be there at the beginning. You can just drop by and you can come by, you can stay for 15 minutes, say what you want to say and leave. But you're welcome to stay the entire time. But if you can't get there at 6, you get there at 6.30 or 7. That's all fine. So just so people know that it's more to listen to you. I've been really pleased with the work that our consultants have been doing. So I think this is a good outreach effort. And again, as I think they said, we have more outreach efforts that they will be doing with us. We are the finance director. We're reviewing that job description one more time before that gets posted. In the meantime, Roy, you've heard before that we have our co-in term finance directors, Jen LaFountain and Holly Drake. And also I put this in a town manager report. I want to note that your clerk of the council, Athena Keefe, is going to be taking on a pretty strong leadership role for our budget process, which is really terrific. Everybody needs support. The fact that Athena stepped up to take on this role. You know well, she's super organized. And that's exactly what we need at this point. And she's going to be helping to run all of our departmental budget meetings and move everything forward so we get the budget to you in a timely manner. So thank you, Athena. You saw communications director Brianna Sunred had heard last day. Last Friday there was a really nice send-off for her at Sweetser Park. That's a big hole to fill. Again, there are very few people in the Commonwealth have the skill sets that she brought to the job. So we're looking at that job description. It's always like whenever there's a vacancy, we start a sort of a zero-based budgeting approach, we think, because sometimes jobs develop around the person's skills. And that's what happened with this. This is a job that Brianna very rapidly grew into and developed in a very high level. So we want to look at exactly what we need for the town or other ways we can accelerate that position's activity. Notice that nomination papers are due by September 19th. There are a couple of neighborhood outreach sessions that the university is sponsoring on September 14th and 19th, I believe. And there's the East Gables ribbon cutting or grand opening on September 22, which I hope you can all attend as well. The North Common, you'll start to see work on that happening tomorrow. The DPW has gone and pretty much removed all of the appliances, as we call them out there, sort of like the bus stops, the parking meters, the picnic tables, things like that. They've done the trimming of the trees that they wanted to do before the contractor started and the contractor will mobilize. We anticipate tomorrow and then that work will begin. Most of the work they're going to be doing initially is really underground. It's going to be drainage work, water lines, sewer lines, things like that, the work that you probably won't see. But the drainage work is really important so that that entire parcel starts to not be such a wet area so that it can actually be used throughout the year. We will be relocating some of the events like Mary Maple and the Veterans Day, and the Veterans Director will be looking at some different locations. We could accommodate them on the Common, but we think that's probably better to find another location that's equally suitable for this year, at least, for Veterans Day. You will also see pretty soon some road construction work happening. There are second phase of road construction went out to bid. As we anticipated, we won't be able to do every road or all the roads in there because the bid came up higher than we had money, but that was intentional just in case they came in lower. There's already some work being done by the low bid contractor and the dig's safe to start to get ready to hopefully get some of those roads done before the winter ends, before the winter starts. So there's a lot of stuff happening. And I just conclude by saying I miss Sean. Big time. Paul, do you know the location for the UMass outreach meetings? I do. I think I put them in the report. There's one on lower Main Street, which is the first time they're doing it at Aspen Chase. And I can send them to you. They sent an update. The one this Thursday is on Fearing Street at 5 o'clock. No, it's actually on Phillips Street. It's on Phillips Street. Thank you. So we have hands up. A question, Paul, about the police chief. All of your communications, both publicly and to the council, have indicated that the counselors will have time to meet with the consultants next week and that a survey would be going out or Google sign up. We have not received that yet. When can we expect to receive that? Yeah, so these, I've got one of, I need to get the other consultants calendar. It's going to be a direct sign up with the consultants. So I've got one. I didn't get the right link. So it should have today, but you'll get it tomorrow. And in terms of, we have the website set up. There is a feedback form on the website that people can fill out. People can also just email if they prefer. And the consultants are also leaving their business cards so you can people can just write directly to them if they like. So we'll do more publicity of the website in the feedback form. Pam? Can we get an update of the Cress director and the status of that investigation, please? Yeah, so I can't share a whole lot about that because it is a personnel issue. Just that we're working very diligently on both the personnel issue and also on the sort of leadership issue at Cress directly. I'm hoping to have a little bit more to share with you in the next, you know, hot possibly this week. So at this moment, I can't, I don't have anything to share that substance, but we hope to, we know people are really interested to know what to know what happens, what's happening with it with the department. I can say that working with the DEI office, the police department and the fire department and the existing Cress leadership, we're working really hard to make sure that that department becomes success. That's our mission, make sure the department is successful because we're everybody in that room that we're when we're talking really committed to making sure that department is a success. Kathy? I have questions on a couple other parts. The VFW building that we bought, you noted, you noted that you're looking for demolition, but you have to also test for hazardous waste. So my question was when we pre-purchasing it, did we do any soil testing? Did we look at it? Was there any kind of insurance on it? That's part A of my question. The second part is when we saw the purchase price, did it include the demolition cost? So I'm just trying to get my arms around the cost of the project, because I know we're not even near to building something there. This is just the, we bought it and we're going to demolish it. So I have a question on another part, but I'll just wait for the answer for this. So for VFW, did do a preliminary analysis that I believe the funds are available for us to do the demolition of it. I don't know if we've got actual bids on it to say if we have enough funds. But in order to demolish it, we actually have to do a real formal, a real study to verify that there isn't asbestos in things like that. Okay. Can I do a second one? Or should I come back? No, go ahead. Okay. The second one is you have a note on some work done on North Pleasant up by the intersection on putting in a multi-use path. So we've had other discussions about that path, but I just want to make a comment that that's part of a larger plan that was referred to the council that we then referred to TSO in 2019. And I'd like to make sure we come back to that because all along the way down to UMass, there are plans for different crosswalks or bus stops. And so that we get a chance to take a look at that Mandy's questions about this is the public way. And in conjunction, be asking the question how much, if there's a cost, how much should we, you must be paying because this little stretch of sidewalk that was put in only goes so far. And it didn't repair the sidewalks that are actually falling apart. It removed a sidewalk. So it's just a question of setting our priorities as we look forward on that whole stretch of road. So I just want to make sure it gets back on the agenda. And I understand why it wasn't TSO has had a lot of other things bouncing it around. But before more work gets done on a plan that we have not yet discussed, I'd like to make sure that happens. Okay. Okay. Dorothy, I have a question and then a comment on different topics. Question is on community responders department going to the special program at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I'd like to tell manager to explain a little bit more about that. And then I have a comment on the intersection at Amity. So it's called the Governance Performance Lab, which is out of the Kennedy School. We tried to get in last year. We weren't successful. We did get accepted this year. It's not going anywhere. What it is is they assign someone to work with our implementation team. They work with a number of cities and towns, actually all cities throughout the country to do the same kind of work. And they set up sort of interest groups. There's a group that's talking about dispatch issues. These are all very complex things. They'll be talking about staffing issues about what kinds of calls are people responding to. They basically create an online forum that people get together on, I think it's every month that they come together. And then if you're accepted to the program, they will assign one of their staff to work with you. They have a number of other communities. And it just sort of is a thought partner at the Kennedy School who can help guide us. So that's how we got admitted into that. And so we're really pleased to have done that. It doesn't require anyone to go to Cambridge or anything like that. That sounds very nice. I have a question. This is on page nine. The installation of rectangular rapid flashing beacons are our FBs at the following intersections. And yes, we are very grateful on Amity that we have been included in the list. But at a meeting I went to today, a resident of one side of Lincoln talked about crossing the street and it is still fraught because, yes, the beacons helped and one car on one side stopped, but the car on the other side just sailed right through the intersection while the other car was stopped. So we're wondering, can we have, there's a hill which really obscures some of the driver's vision. They don't really know what's coming ahead. Can we have like warning things on either side to give the drivers a little more notice that they may have to stop soon? Because it's still, and this was a grown up, not a child, it still did not feel safe.  So is there any possibility of like warning lights being, what a warning notice is being put? I mean, the first step is the RFBs, which I think is an important first step. I think the next step probably is enforcement by the police department to sit there and sort of monitor traffic. And I think that's a, it's an area where people do travel quickly and sometimes don't pay attention to what they're doing at that moment in time. There was an accident this weekend there at that intersection. So it is, I think it was at that intersection. So someone driving in a car just didn't notice a motorcyclist, so it was not a good situation. So I think the police, asking the police just do some enforcement there might be the way to go. Well, people are grateful for the movement towards safety at that area, and they are still very grateful for the light at the bottom of Amity Street at University Drive that tells you what you're doing, how many miles an hour you're going, because it does help. It helps me when I check my speed. So thank you. Pat. Yes, I do want to thank you for your work, Paul, but I also want to talk about the DPW. I went there this last Friday and really toward the building and I was appalled by the condition of the building. And we talk about there being $100,000 in emergency money and that's not enough. I don't know if the building can be saved, but here's my real issue. Talking to the employees, the men and women who work there, they are really feeling forgotten. And one of the things they asked for was some kind of timeline. Now, it's very easy for us to have a timeline. We have it swung out five years. I think that they're looking for something more detailed, and it might be helpful to say, okay, we did this, but it's a very intense situation in some ways. And you know, I support the fire department, but this may be more dire. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right on that. It is in a very, very poor condition. The fire department's gotten more attention, but I think they both are needed. I'm not going to judge one over the other. We did have the building commissioner or staff review the building. They may have been there on Friday as well. I'm not sure if you cross-pass with them or not. And you're absolutely right. The $100,000 is not going to go very far. So we are, even as of today, looking at different options available to us to address the situation. Saving the building is probably not going to be an option. We really need to do something else. Relaying the information as it develops, I think, would be extraordinary helpful for people who are really feeling like nobody's paying attention. Yeah. And I think you are, so I want them to know that. No, yeah, that's it. That's really good advice. Thank you. Anika. I'm sorry, being the mute button this evening. I did want to respond to Kathy and share that the north pleasant street is coming to TSO. So it will be, you'll see it on an upcoming agenda. And then also to Mrs. Pam's point, I did see the accident on Thursday there and it seemed very apparent that the driver had no chance to even see the motorcycle even coming. So that was a very scary sight. Thank you. I wanted to add one thing here, or two things, actually. The first is talking about amity and speeding reminded me that the other thing that TSO is going to be taking up soon is discussion of safety zones. And this is something that had been on the radar for a while. I think, Anika, can we confirm we're talking about that on Thursday? Thank you. So on Thursday, we're going to be discussing safety zones if folks had remembered back. This is something that actually had been referred to TSO and it was a carryover item. But this is where it would allow us to set certain speed limits in front of things like schools that aren't currently marked. So if you're interested in joining and listening to TSO's discussion on that, come on Thursday. I'll be there on the right day. And then the other thing I wanted to just mention about DPW is again, this is more just kind of a carry on or carry over here is that on the 13th, there's a hearing regarding a bill that would create municipal and public safety building authorities similar to what we have for the Jones Library, for the libraries and for the schools. And you can I know that we've authorized Lynn to provide some testimony here, but we also as individual counselors can offer our own testimony and encourage our constituents to do so as well. So you my time sensitive notice here is that you have to sign up if you want to provide testimony virtually or in person by midnight tonight, but you also can email in your testimony. And there's there's emails available on the house webpage. And I'm happy to share those out in whatever way I can do with folks. But just as a note, as an avenue for supporting our DPW building in the future, possibly maybe I'm going to comment more on that later. But Jennifer, go ahead. Yeah, thank you for that, Anna. But just, you know, echoing what Pat said, because I also with a couple of other counselors visited DPW in the rain a couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to talk to Paul about it a little after. But it is, I don't know how they may wait one more day. So and it feels like the town is very exposed. So just whatever we can do to get something very soon. Yeah, continuing with the theme of capital projects. Paul, can you remind me when the town council is going to receive the cost estimate and risk analysis for the library project? Yeah. So yeah. So again, losing Sean was was I think we were supposed to be doing it in the next month or two. So we want to update that I'm not exactly we have I'm not talked with the council president about when exactly that will be ready for presentation to the council. It's just going to be one of the things that we the existing staff have to pull together. So I don't have a date for you. But we know that we want to bring we need to bring something back to the council, at least this calendar year. And also, I'm not clear with was the plan be alternative only going to be pursued if if we don't go ahead with the project or was that something the town was going to undertake anyways? For the library? Yeah. So it's not a plan B. So it's not like one or the other. It's it's knowing what we would have to do if the if the current project stops for any reason. So it wasn't like, oh, now we make a choice between plan A or plan B. That's not the intent of this of the work that we that they've done. They've done the preliminary work to sort of assess things. They haven't gotten into a lot of detail until we know more directly what where the council's going to go on this. Okay. Thank you. Are there any other questions of the town manager? I'm sorry. I'm going to make a quick note. I'm working with the town clerk to get the the page ready for the candidate statements. So counselors who are running for reelection and any new candidates will receive information from the town clerk this week and then the deadline to submit candidate. And then we'll get an official email from the town clerk the day after nomination papers are due. And the deadline is the same date as the withdrawal deadline. So we'll have more information for you later this week. I'm sorry. The publication of candidate statements. Yeah. We'll have for candidates who are running for election. Correct. I got it. Yeah. Sorry. I wasn't clear about which candidates we were talking about. So many vacancies going on. Yeah. So this is for the town election. We'll have candidate statement information ready later this week. And then Sue will send out an official email the day after nomination papers are due with instructions and so forth. Thank you. Are there any other questions of the town manager? Are any other comments? Let me just mention very quickly. I'm glad that Anna mentioned the hearing coming up. The this is a hearing on Senate 1489 and House 3802. It's an act creating a municipal and public safety building authority. This is something we have actually pushed Joe Comerford and Mindy Dom to do and they have done they put these bills forward. And I am in the process of I have already submitted for testimony, but I also submitted just the summary that's in your packet. It's not for discussion tonight, but it's a summary that we put together way back in 2018 of our 17 even about these two buildings and the state of these buildings back then. So it's not even a current one because there was an opportunity in submitting to provide testimony to also submit pictures of buildings and statements of condition. So I wanted to just let people know that I drew upon the research that had been done back with the fire and DPW advisory committee that I happened to chair. So are there any other questions or comments at this time? Then we are adjourned and it's 902. Thank you. Bye.


California is prone to wildfires all year round, so it's important to prepare now never relying on luck to keep you safe. Prepare your home by creating a fire-resistant zone that is free of leaves, debris or flammable materials for at least 30 feet around your home. Create an emergency supply kit, which should include three days worth of non-perishable food and water per household member, along with blankets, flashlights and other supplies like important documents and medication. Have an emergency plan that includes two evacuation routes and meetup locations. And sign up for your local office of emergency management to receive critical emergency alerts. When it comes to surviving wildfires, it's not about luck. You need to be prepared and have a plan. For more information on how you can prepare for wildfires and other disasters, visit news.caloes.ca.gov. For everyone at CalOES, I'm Brittany Peterson.


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