Whitmar Publications | Advertise with us Paper manufacturer Sylvamo has introduced a new brand name, Berga, for its premium uncoated wood-free printing and converting paper range. The rebranded Berga portfolio is produced at the company’s Saillat mill in France and its Nymolla facility in Sweden, and will continue to be available in reel and sheet formats. The change is aimed at unifying the product line and adding a variety of future product enhancements, which are expected to be announced by the end of the year. According to Sylvamo, the Berga name and identity were created to promote greater alignment between the two European mills and to provide a more coherent and customer-friendly product offering. The brand was officially launched at Hunkeler Innovation Days 2025 in Lucerne, Switzerland, where the company claims it was well received by industry attendees. Berga covers a range of applications, including high-speed inkjet, offset, preprint, envelope and scholastic uses. The papers are optimised for colour reproduction through tailored ICC colour profiles and are designed to perform reliably across all print environments. The new branding also underscores Sylvamo’s environmental commitments, with the products meeting what the company describes as the highest standards in sustainability. Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * Comment *document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "ad4237987e085b5c937760d5d16aac23" );document.getElementById("hcb393b65c").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Europe, France, Sweden Sylvamo © 2025 Whitmar Publications Limited Website development by e-Motive Media Limited We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze how you use this website and provide the content and advertisements that are relevant to you These cookies will only be stored in your browser with your prior consent You can choose to enable or disable some or all of these cookies but disabling some of them may affect your browsing experience Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns First published: January 24, 2025 04:19 PM The municipal market of Berga, central Catalonia, is set for a major redevelopment.  With a capacity of 103 stalls, the market of the old town center has suffered the consequences of the loss of residents in the neighborhood and the opening of larger commercial areas.  Currently, only two stallholders remain in the market, whose licenses are to expire within four years.  The town's councilor for urban planning, Aleix Serra, doesn't believe it is possible for the market to regain its former vitality, "no matter how many renovations are made," he said.  Berga Council is working on projects to transform the existing market space and adapt it for other uses.  The remaining stallholders, currently the only ones taking care of the facilities, believe that the city abandoned them to "the hands of God."  "It's a shame that it's being lost because small businesses are being lost," Anna Maria Capdevila, the manager of the La Valenciana fruit stall said.   The manager of the Casa Madriles stall, Elena Venturós, points out that they earn their living in the market. "People know us and prefer to come and shop here," she said.  The urban planning councilor believes new uses, such as offices, can be put in place in the market while preserving the remaining stalls.  "They are the ones who have helped the market resist, and the council does not intend to expel them," Aleix Serra said.  The goal is for a specific project "in accordance with the stalls" to be defined within this council term.  Get the day's biggest stories right to your phone According to the National Institute of Mental Health Seasonal Affective Disorder — also known as S.A.D — is a “type of depression characterized by a recurrent seasonal pattern.” Phillip Jacob is an English major at UAA and said he was somewhat familiar with the specific form of depression even though he did not know anyone that may suffer symptoms Jacob said spending time with friends and family attending therapy sessions and finding hobbies can help improve mental health Anne Gutsch is an art major who said she felt S.A.D does slightly affect her mental health during the winter Gutsch said she is always tired in the morning as there is no sunlight to wake her up — by evening and lounging in the Pride Center with new people are all healthy ways to become more involved in the UAA community Gutsch said walking is a great form of exercise that could help improve mental health and S.A.D “The best exercise is the one that you will do Exercise doesn’t have to be this really intense workout … you can walk or do yoga,” said Gutsch said many people in Alaska talk about S.A.D and how it affects residents more in the winter While she has not personally been impacted by the condition Berga said that as the days get shorter and the winter months become colder evening classes become much more difficult when it has already been dark for hours Berga emphasized that one of the best ways to combat S.A.D during the semester is to study with friends instead of studying alone at home Berga said improvements UAA could make to improve the mental health of students could be more free activities, such as the Swing Dancing event last year to get you out and meet people would be fun if they did more of that,” said Berga Ben Malouf is a pre-med student who said that while he is unsure if S.A.D has impacted him or a family member personally he is sure some people he knows struggle silently Malouf said if he stayed indoors and did not have hobbies such as skiing he would be more likely to experience S.A.D “I think what you have to do is reach out from your immediate personal circle and branch out once you start branching out into other circles and meeting people that do different things Keira Wissa is a psychology major who has heard of S.A.D through friends who have become more depressed in the winter months has personally affected her much more this season “The only way I get through the winter is snowboarding and it’s cold and dark but there’s no snow Wissa said the earned gratification of being active and releasing serotonin through exercise is very good for mental health Wissa said inclusivity and a feeling of community on campus could be improved “I feel like you have to work hard to be involved here.”  She attributed the lack of community and social inclusion she feels as a freshman at UAA to the large separation between campus buildings and not seeing familiar faces you have to find something to keep you sane,” said Wissa The rich text element allows you to create and format headings and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually Just double-click and easily create content A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel Queen stage replaced with stage for sprinters at short notice The keenly anticipated toughest mountain stage of the 2025 Volta a Catalunya has been shorn of all its classified climbs at short notice due to high winds with the race being substituted by a 73-kilometre leg through central Catalunya The original stage 6 was planned to be a virtual carbon copy of last year's key day in the mountains continuing over the Hors Categorie Col de Pradell and ending on the summit finish of Queralt high winds in the area began to play havoc with the organisers' scheduled stage on Friday initially forcing the removal of the Pradell and effectively reducing the stage to 110 kilometres and the final ascent as winds continued to blast through the region saw the race start in Berga The first idea was for two laps of a 73-kilometre circuit with a flat finish after 146 kilometres riders continued to stay behind the organiser's car before organisers decided that the first circuit will be neutral to allow the organisers to assess the conditions If they determine the race can go on safely the riders will compete over the second lap with a finish in the centre of Berga the organisation announced the stage would end in Berga without a second circuit Riders expressed considerable confusion and uncertainty about the changes of plan with rumours flying around at the start as directors gathered with race organisers and UCI commissaires to try to decide on a clear plan of action in rapidly changing circumstances "I  would have loved to do the initial plan The weather here is absolutely crazy and when we get out of town where there's no cover So if it's a decision made for our health or security but I also don't want to race if there's crap all over the road We were driving here and a branch fell off a tree and hit the side of the bus." "You have to be aware because it's not like it's normal to be this windy here You just have to figure out what can be done It'll be disappointing if it doesn't happen The removal of all the climbs of the toughest stage of the Volta a Catalunya inevitably heightens the focus on stage 7 where Ayuso - assuming there are no changes after stage 6 - will defend a one-second lead in a circuit through Montjuïc Park was also reduced in length earlier this month while retaining its traditional series of final hilly laps because of a football match in the same part of Barcelona later in the day "A lot depends on what happens during the day," Ayuso said at the stage 6 start but maybe then we have to neutralize because if gets too dangerous then we'll have to stop If we race then we'll have to be up there and fight for the bonus seconds As for Roglič regarding stage 7 and how the stage could come down to a final battle in Montjuïc the 2023 Volta a Catalunya winner said that was not uppermost in his mind first today we see if we can race or not and then we'll see about tomorrow." Alasdair FotheringhamSocial Links NavigationAlasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991 He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain he has also written for The Independent,  The Guardian,  ProCycling you will then be prompted to enter your display name The report on the implementation of the Convention, due by States Parties every 6 years, includes a section on the elements inscribed on the Representative List. Read more on periodic reports Spain Inscribed in 2008 (3.COM) on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (originally proclaimed in 2005) The Patum of Berga is a popular festival whose origin can be traced to medieval festivities and parades accompanying the celebration of Corpus Christi Theatrical performances and parades of a variety of effigies animate the streets of this Catalan town located north of Barcelona The celebration takes place every year during the week of Corpus Christi An extraordinary meeting of the municipal council the appearance of the Tabal (a large and emblematic festival drum presiding over the festivities) and the Quatre Fuets announce the festivities Over the following days numerous celebrations take place Plens (fire demons) and giants dressed as Saracens parade in succession lighting fireworks and spreading music among the joyous audience All of these characters join to perform the final dance which has preserved its mix of profane and religious features through centuries stands out from the region’s other festivals that have come down from the Middle Ages owing to its richness and diversity the preservation of its medieval street theatre and its ritual component Although the survival of the celebration seems ensured it is to be taken care of that strong urban and tourist development do not lead to a loss of value of the Patum Password forgotten? One of Catalonia's most iconic folk culture events, Berga's La Patum, kicked off on Wednesday with the first parades and on Thursday night with the first of the largest events. The street celebrations that mark the Christian feast of Corpus Christi were recognized by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage, and date back to the 14th and 15th centuries. The party began on Wednesday at midday as is customary, with the 'passacarrers,' a parade where the 'tabaler', or drummer, inaugurates the week of excitement along with some 'gegants', giant human figures that are accompanied by a band playing music. Wednesday’s celebrations are just an appetizer for the main events during the weekend. Starting on Thursday, following a party until 5 am, thousands gather at the Plaça Sant Pere de Berga square for the festivities. Dances by various groups and Gegants giants entertain the crowd. Among the crowd was the leader of the Catalan Socialists’ party, Salvador Illa, who was greeted with “independence” shouts and whistles before the event started. Thursday evening is the event La Patum is famous for: ‘Salts.’ Thousands gather on the Sant Pere square for dances and around 200 people firing firecrackers until the early hours of the morning. "Participating is a very beautiful experience. It is difficult to explain, you have to experience it to understand it,” Veronica Carballo, a resident of Berga and member of the group firing firecrackers, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN). The rain delayed the celebrations by half an hour, but that didn’t stop those celebrating from jumping and celebrating. 131 kilos of gunpowder were used throughout Thursday night. A total of 400 kilos of gunpowder are reserved for the five days of La Patum. For the first time ever, people with auditory disabilities were given a vibrating vest, making them feel the traditional music played at the iconic festival. “I am very curious,” Rosana Camprubí, a citizen of Berga who doesn’t hear any sound, said. Camprubí explained that since she was little, she would follow the movement of others’ bodies during La Patum, but now is her first time feeling the vibrations of the festival. “I am very happy to try it,” another citizen of Berga, Marta Baliellas, said while trying out the vest for the first time. To take a breather after the wild party of Thursday, Friday is reserved for children’s activities. Around 150 kids from 4-14 years old celebrated their own mini-Patum at midday. “I really like fire, but I am a little bit afraid to get burned,” 10-year-old Arlet, attending his first Patum, said.  Luckily, the sun was the main character at this Friday celebration without incidents, except for a potential sunburn. v1.1.0. Copyright © 2025. Powered by EBANTIC. All rights reserved. One of Catalonia's most iconic folk culture events kicked off on Wednesday with the first parades The street celebrations that mark the Christian feast of Corpus Christi were recognized by UNESCO in 2005 as part of the world's intangible cultural heritage and date back to the 14th and 15th centuries.  The party began on Wednesday at midday as is customary with the 'passacarrers,' a parade where the 'tabaler' inaugurates the week of excitement along with some 'gegants' giant human figures that are accompanied by a band playing music.  The first event of La Patum is just an appetizer ahead of the main highlights – all in all hundreds of kilograms of powder will be fired during the week Here's a quick guide to the most famous celebration of this northern Catalan town:  12pm: 'passacarrers' with the 'tabaler' banging a 400-year-old drum to kick off La Patum also with giants parading along the whole town  8pm: 'passacarrers' with the same elements but also including dragons and demons 'Patumaires' stop several places traditionally outside the houses of local authorities  12pm: 'Patum de Lluïment' is a rather relaxed parade featuring most of the customary figures 9.30pm: 'salts,' where the action revolves around Sant Pere's square featuring all the groups and hundreds of firecrackers that are set off at the same time on several occasions as madness overcomes this jam-packed location where all lights are dimmed and a performance of some 200 people dressed up as demons that jump at once firing around a thousand firecrackers takes place 12pm: Patum parades and celebrations for kids with parades and music for children – it is a version of the regular Patum but without the 'plens' 6.30pm: several free concerts at plaça Cim d'Estela 7.30pm: 'passada' similar to that of Wednesday with a parade of some of the main figures and demons spitting fire that lasts hours 9pm: several free concerts at plaça Cim d'Estela including Els Catarres and Figa Flawas.  a similar event that takes place on Thursday at midday It is a rather relaxed parade of most of the customary figures where dancing is central 9.30pm: La Patum ends with a high as the epic celebrations of Thursday night are repeated on Sunday evening a small square that can get packed with up to 6,000 people expect to barely move during the whole night  Listen to the podcast below to find out more. Traditional celebration in northern town of Berga has medieval roots and attracts thousands of people music and thousands of enthusiastic people jumping and dancing This is what visitors and locals see on the main day of the annual La Patum celebrations in the northern town of Berga Thursday evening is when the vast majority of Berga’s 16,600 residents get together to celebrate just as they have been doing for around 600 years it all starts on Wednesday afternoon and lasts until Sunday night in a square that can fit around 6,000 people The 2022 event is one of the most important celebrations in the history of Berga These festivities have always taken place in some way except for on two occasions The sights are spectacular, but it’s the sound of Patum - the beating of the drum - that gives it its name. Take a listen to the Filling the Sink podcast episode about La Patum to immerse yourself in the festivities Just hours before La Patum kicked off on Wednesday evening but it was pretty obvious something big was going on after the Covid hiatus Musicians were getting ready amid a heavy heat some even playing ‘Jingle Bells’ to see if those few dozen people gathering in the Plaça Sant Pere square might cool down upon hearing some Christmas carols But while people waited, some Berga residents were getting excited about jumping once again in the town’s main square three groups parade through the narrow medieval streets.  The Guita Grossa dragon spits fire from its mouth and demons carrying maces spend the night dancing and jumping among thousands of patumaires "The Tabal drum has not been changed [in all its history] It was badly damaged in 1726 and was fixed," Xavi Prat and some of the giants have been performing since at least 1621 On Thursday too, several groups celebrated their 400th anniversary the performance aimed to go "back to the past," since the old 'salt de plens' used to resemble what was witnessed on Thursday night they featured in the 'salt de plens' with firecrackers on both their tails and their heads for the first time since 2006 The Patum does not happen on a specific date Each year it varies depending on when Corpus Christi is celebrated despite the fact that it is not considered a religious celebration it all started back in the Medieval Age and is linked to the religious society of the time Corpus Christi processions used to honor the sacred sacraments "When the Church sees that celebrations are getting out of control and they don’t have the seriousness required prohibitions begin from the 15th century," Berga historian Albert Rumbo explained to Catalan News.  He used to be a ‘geganter’ carrying around the ‘gegants’ "The great miracle of Berga is not creating La Patum but keeping it going for centuries."  noise made by several people) was not only traditional in Berga It all started in the late 14th and early 15th century so it would be logical that it would appear back then," Rumbo said The vast majority of these bans came from the Council of Trent held between 1545 and 1563 part of Catholicism’s Counter-Reformation.  There's no other similar celebration from back then that has survived And that's why in 2005 UNESCO recognized it as intangible cultural heritage - a first for a Catalan tradition.  "We were concerned that Spain might not pick us as their bid because they could only pick one and there were celebrations like San Fermín But once they submitted our proposal to UNESCO I was sure we would be recognized and that’s what happened," Rumbo said.  One of the things UNESCO valued the most is the fact that it remains highly popular and unites the town and the whole county After the two-year hiatus because of Covid-19 residents and visitors could not wait to go back to Berga to celebrate La Patum "From the moment you are born - there are newborns here today - until you grow up while sitting next to a fire-spitting demon figure.  with her friend Cristina Urrea joked about being "born here under the dragon," as their "parents were already members of Guita Grossa." "There is no child in Berga that does not have something of La Patum at home," Tabaler Xavi Prat said.   One of the most important things for UNESCO to recognize La Patum as intangible cultural heritage is "the great value of the parade as it is unique and has endured until our day," Albert Rumbo said.  Guita Grossa is also one of the most important elements during La Patum and during "the parade it can get damaged," which is why some have started to prepare copies Cristina Farràs and Cristina Urrea explained.  the one being used "is still the original… [although] the neck used to be made of wood and a little bit longer but now is made out of metal and has been shortened."    you take care of it," Cristina Urrea said.  Fire and massive crowds in a small square might not feel like a safe place for children several of them enjoy the adult version of La Patum there are child-friendly activities on Friday – but there’s still fire involved the days most look forward to are Thursday and Sunday when the action revolves around Sant Pere's square featuring all the groups and hundreds of firecrackers that are set off at the same time on several occasions as madness overcomes this jam-packed location.  ‘Patumaires’ all gather for the 'salt de plens' a performance of some 200 people dressed up as demons that jump at once firing around a thousand firecrackers This is the apotheosis of La Patum's five days Berga residents await June with anticipation every year to feel they are part of a succession of generations that have shaped a unique event the Vestidors de Plens i Maces performed for a minute in silence "but La Patum without music would not be understood now," Albert Rumbo explained.  "It is one of the changes that generations have been adding to a medieval tradition," he said “But my brother and I were so close together that I felt like I lost my right arm.”The Vogel boys were born a year and a half apart the only children of a Jewish family in Brooklyn but younger brother Martin knew him—and adored him—as “Jack.” The two shared a love of reading and they both sped through advanced courses in high school the military was still offering draft deferments for college students Martin was interested in science and medicine; Jack planned on a career in law—all of their uncles were lawyers.As the U.S the military did away with the deferment policy where he rose to the rank of private first class He was deployed to Europe in the fall of 1944 “so I went down to the Draft Board and said ‘Draft me.’” He joined the 372nd Engineers and did guard duty at a prisoner of war camp in Germany’s Bad Kreuznach district for the remaining months of the war Their parents knew only the basics of his capture and death “They had gotten a telegram from the War Department that he was missing and that he was a prisoner of war,” Martin says the military shipped Jack’s body to New York and the family had him buried in a cemetery on Long Island Army records indicated that Jack’s body was found along with those of many other American POWs in a churchyard near a small town called Berga in eastern Germany.“Then,” Martin says But when relatives of the deceased men wrote requesting details government confirmed only that there had been a camp in Berga where American POWs had been sent to work Charles Vogel—one of Jack and Martin’s attorney uncles who had worked in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps during World War I—began sending letters and questionnaires to those who had made it home from Berga Martin knew very little about this endeavor hearing of it only through his parents.) Several former prisoners Anthony Acevedo from the 70th Infantry Division wrote to say they had known Jack and witnessed his death Among his recollections were the last words of a young soldier named Bernard Vogel Martin Vogel immediately phoned the article’s main author “He had been searching for answers to his brother’s death for six decades.” Drash put Vogel in touch with Acevedo and with another Berga survivor from Jack’s division “All of a sudden,” Vogel remarked in a phone conversation with Acevedo and Drash “the whole past has come up in the present.” Finally he could hear the voices of those who had been there with his brother—who had lived the story of Berga.Dec marked the start of the Ardennes-Alsace campaign—more commonly known as the Battle of the Bulge The “bulge” consisted of hundreds of thousands of German troops advancing 50 miles across Allied lines in the wooded Ardennes Mountains region of Belgium in Adolf Hitler’s last-ditch effort to turn the war around killed or captured in the six-week campaign Anthony Acevedo of the 70th Infantry Division and Pfc Bernard “Jack” Vogel of the 106th were among those captured and loaded into freezing railroad cars and taken to a prison camp called Stalag IX-B IX-B was already overcrowded with many thousands of POWs from Poland Acevedo recalls today that the stalag had no toilets—sewage flowed into trenches around the barracks The prisoners grew so hungry that one of them attacked the camp’s cook with a cleaver in an effort to steal food from the kitchen Until the Nazi guards could find the culprit they made everyone stand outside for 12 hours in the snow.Soon the guards began demanding information from the Americans about their pasts This was a clear violation of the 1929 Geneva Convention which states that POWs must not be coerced into disclosing anything more than their names and ranks Beyond interrogating him about his family’s business dealings in Mexico Gestapo officers tortured Acevedo: “They put needles in my fingernails to try and make me talk.” The U.S Army had issued the soldiers dog tags that identified The Jewish prisoners knew enough to fear for their safety and some did their best to hide or alter their tags Guggenheim’s documentary and Cohen’s book Soldiers and Slaves both detail how the guards lined up the American prisoners and ordered one step forward.” When not enough came forth the guards picked out those who supposedly looked Jewish as well as troublemakers and other “undesirables,” including Acevedo They selected exactly 350 young men and packed them onto another train to be brought to a new location: Berga “They made it look like as if it was going to be a very nice place much different from the prison camp,” Acevedo says “It turned out to be a slave camp.”Martin Vogel has never read Cohen’s book as part of an exhaustive account of the events before does include details about Jack and quotes and images from Acevedo’s diary According to the accounts by Cohen and Guggenheim the Americans from Stalag IX-B arrived to find a section of the Berga camp already populated by European civilians—some of them children and most wearing striped uniforms and Stars of David Brought in from Buchenwald and other concentration camps these prisoners were too wasted and weak for hard labor and the Nazis were shooting and hanging more of them every day The Americans were still relatively strong and healthy Hack put them to work expanding and deepening 17 interconnected tunnels dug into the banks of the Weisse Elster River Cohen’s book explains that these tunnels were to house an underground ammunition factory Boles said that the Army’s intent in having the prisoners sign the “Security Certificate” was solely to prevent them from talking about escapes and those who had tried to help them escape and it was construed as a secrecy document Acevedo believes—and Martin Vogel agrees—that the Army did want the survivors to remain silent about their entire imprisonment They suspect that the military did not want foreign authorities or companies to learn about the underground factory being built at Berga lest they glean dangerous information about new weapons that the Germans were developing Acevedo was among 16 Berga survivors who did not attend the ceremony in Orlando in part because he was “very upset” that it did not take place in Washington There are more recognition ceremonies being planned in the survivors’ local communities and when one happens near his current home in California “because I still think that a lot of our fellows deserve to be heard.” Wayne Drash spent three days at the Vogel household poring over the box of documents inherited from Charles Vogel noting the details of the lawyer’s early campaign for justice a distant relative of the Vogels in a government records office sent the family an enormous additional set of papers about the war crimes trial David Vogel is glad for the catharsis that the past year has finally allowed his father “We sat around a table at my parents’ house with my children and my brother’s children and so we had our generation and the next generation listening to the story,” he says “It’s come to life for them.” Several of Martin’s grandchildren have since written reports for school about what happened to their Great-Uncle Jack Bernard “Jack” Vogel and 349 other Americans worked and suffered and starved in 17 tunnels on the banks of a river in a faraway town Those tunnels have long since been sealed up and it will survive.     Writer and editor Katherine Duke is the college’s Ives Washburn Fellow This is her second cover story for Amherst magazine The chocolate Sepp Kuss cake in Bergà at the Volta a Catalunya The route profile of the challenging stage 6 feature in an exhibition in a Bergà museum as the Volta a Catalunya passes through Will the brutal stage 6 be another day for the dominant Tadej Pogačar Brutal mountain stage through Catalan cycling heartland features ultra-hard Coll de Pradell and tributes to racing past and present With multiple cycling clubs, an ongoing exhibition for historic Spanish team Kelme and a long overdue start to the Volta a Catalunya on Saturday's ultra-tough mountain stage to describe the Pyrenean town of Berga as cycling-mad would be no exaggeration But it's not just local riders who matter here. In Berga, they've even got a Sepp Kuss fan club And a metre-high chocolate Sepp Kuss as part of a cake proudly on display in one local baker's store Simply because with the Volta a Catalunya returning to Berga for a start this Saturday for the first time since triple Vuelta a España King of the Mountains Anthony Karpany won in 1959 a finish at the first-category Alto de Queralt summit finish just outside the city the opportunity to make a 'Sepp cake' was too good to miss "Yeah I saw a picture of it in the local paper and they made a nice mona de Pascua [Easter Cake] of me so that's really beautiful – they did a great job," Kuss told Cyclingnews on Friday It's really nice that the Volta can take advantage of such an amazing area." who are expected to gather in their yellow Visma jerseys on the Queralt climb "There's a Youtube channel who made a peña ciclista [fanclub] here I was surprised at the number of people that registered and now they'll have a nice day watching the race." but they reflect a widespread interest in cycling across the region explains one sports journalist based in the town Isaac Vilalta of Catalunya Radio and Volata magazine "There are cycling clubs in almost every village and town in the surrounding area and some in Berga as well And a lot of young people are getting interested in cycling and cyclo tourists come here because there's not much traffic around and loads of climbs," Vilalta told Cyclingnews "Plus, we've got a lot of cycling history, amateur races use this area, and there have been stages of the Setmana Catalana race here" – for many years Catalunya's second biggest bike race until it folded in 2005 – "And the Vuelta a España too." or not since 1959 – something hard to explain in a Catalan cycling 'heartland'.  as the Setmana would come to the Bergà region a lot the Volta would deliberately avoid it as a kind of unwritten pact not to tread on each other's toes "But even when the Setmana stopped happening back in 2005 It's like we're rebuilding some of our cycling history." What the Volta has discovered is an area with no less than four Hors Categorie climbs, with the one tackled on Saturday, the Col de Pradell, widely rated by riders like Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) as being one of the hardest The climb is 14.5km long with an average gradient of 7% though the final 5.5km measure in at a leg-breaking 11% average and with two first-category climbs immediately afterwards and where Pradell is located is far from the finish but just far enough," Kuss told Cyclingnews "It's sometimes better to have the toughest climb there so it creates some action that way." Berga is not just celebrating cycling's present and the return of the Volta The Catalan town acted as a logistical base for one of Spain's most longstanding teams of the 1980s and 1990s Kelme – famous for its 'green paw' symbol and green-and-white team kit – and Kelme's manager there's an ongoing exhibition about the team in one of the town's museums the first-category climb where the summit finish takes place has been tackled in the past in the sport – but as part of the Setmana Catalana Stephen Roche all-but conquered the stage race with a victory there never tackled before in a bike race and only relatively recently surfaced which draws the attention the most – and live TV coverage has been extended by half an hour to ensure fans can watch its debut in the Volta "It's really hard," local pro Marc Brustenga of Kern Pharma who moved to the Berga area a few years back "It's so tough that the times I've gone up it I've thought of stopping and putting my foot on the ground the slopes are really steep and go on for a really long time "There's one point where you're going through a town with about five kilometres to go where it doesn't seem so steep because you're in a street and going past houses but in fact the gradient is oscillating between 15 and 20% but it just goes on being equally hard and it just finishes you off and there are parts with no corners at all – just one long straightaway of ultra-steep climbing It feels like your bike isn't moving on the surface either with the cement that's just underneath the tarmac that it'll be a climb where there's no strategy Just get up it as best as you possibly can." and there's a big chunk of two-lane highway to recover "But I can see people struggling a lot on the second last climb" – the Collada san Isidre peaking with 24km to go – "particularly after what they've had to tackle already If the race hasn't blown apart on the previous one "I rode up it today [Friday] and it's only four kilometres long "Then it's a constant up and down all the way back to Bergà and the final climb." The last ascent to the Sanctuary is narrow the organisation have deliberately toughened it up by adding an extra segment of climbing through the town you just swing off the main road and up to the climb," Brustenga said the organisers have designed the race route so they've got to go through some of the hardest ascents in the town as well "And that combination of going through the town's climbs and the normal ascent makes it all much more difficult Coming with all of what's already happened on the stage Asked about how he sees a rider like Tadej Pogačar tackling such a difficult stage Brustenga points out that "at the moment he's very much on top of his game and ahead of the field But this is a day where if you have a bad moment and crack "The climbs are so hard that not even getting on a teammate's wheel would work as a defence and if it's as warm as it was on Saturday it could make this the first day of high mountain racing in hot weather in 2024 "It doesn't seem like that's going to affect Pogačar Sangati Berga Form Strategic AllianceKice Industries Sangati Berga Form Strategic AllianceMarch 29 ACC Reveals Thoughts on President Trump's First 100 Days Pliant Therapeutics Cuts Workforce by Nearly Half Chobani Breaks Ground on $1.2B Natural Foods Plant Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved. 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Volume 8 - 2017 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00948 Disturbances and environmental change are important factors determining the diversity knowledge about how natural bacterial communities are affected by such perturbations is still sparse We performed a whole ecosystem manipulation experiment with freshwater rock pools where we applied salinity disturbances of different intensities The aim was to test how the compositional and functional resistance and resilience of bacterial communities alpha- and beta-diversity and the relative importance of stochastic and deterministic community assembly processes changed along a disturbance intensity gradient We found that bacterial communities were functionally resistant to all salinity levels (3 and 12 psu) and compositionally resistant to a salinity increase to 3 psu and resilient to increases of 6 and 12 psu Increasing salinities had no effect on local richness and evenness beta-diversity and the proportion of deterministically vs Our results show a high functional and compositional stability of bacterial communities to salinity changes of different intensities both at local and regional scales which possibly reflects long-term adaptation to environmental conditions in the study system the fact that disturbances occur frequently and at different intensities offers the opportunity to study whether adaptation to these conditions occurs and they are located close to each other so that they are all influenced by the same climate regime They are filled during rainfall and thus influenced by bacteria dispersed with rain Here we performed a whole ecosystem manipulation study where the salinity of rock pools was increased at three different levels and decreased back to their original salinity levels after rainfall The main aim was to determine how disturbance intensity affects bacterial communities in terms of composition We specifically hypothesize (1) that compositional changes along the disturbance gradient are stronger than functional changes due to functional redundancy; and (2) that increasing salinity acts as a strong environmental filter and thereby reduces (a) alpha-diversity and (b) beta-diversity because deterministic community assembly processes are enforced The experiment was performed in a rock pool area located on the island of Gräsö at the Baltic Sea coast of Sweden (latitude: 60.49824 The studied area contains approximately 250 pools of different sizes and different water characteristics and extends to approximately 325 m × 75 m (Supplementary Figure 1A and Table 1) a survey of small to medium sized pools was conducted and a selection of freshwater pools was made The selected pools (n = 27) differed slightly in size and volume but also regarding other physical and chemical properties (Supplementary Table 1) All pools were sampled at three times points (Supplementary Figure 2) and the following parameters were measured: (i) BCC and diversity (iii) environmental data including salinity/conductivity and chlorophyll a (Chl a) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations and finally (iv) functional properties such as carbon substrate utilization rate (CSUR) of the bacterial communities based on Biolog EcoplatesTM and community respiration (oxygen consumption) which is why they were chosen to manipulate disturbance intensities in this study The volume reductions compared to the initial volumes for the different salinity treatments were 5% for the 3 psu These differences ensured that the salinity in the pools approached freshwater conditions (0 psu) once they were re-filled by rainwater inputs Six pools were included for each treatment with exception of the controls that had nine pools three pools for each volume reduction treatment to be able to control for the effect of volume reduction Salt addition resulted in salinities between 2.6 and 3.4 for the 3 psu treatment and between 10.4 and 14.5 for the 12 psu treatment were covered to prevent dilution in case of a rain event An emergency blanket was used in order to reduce warming of the pools as a result of the covering (Supplementary Figure 1B) we uncovered the pools and took samples to address the response of the bacterial communities to the salinity change (T65) the pools remained open and we waited for rainfall to re-fill them After a rain event of approximately 3 days and one additional day initial conditions were regained and the experiment was ended each pool was sampled again to assess the extent of recovery of the community (T160) (Supplementary Table 1) Approximately 50–100 mL of each sample were filtered through 47 mm 0.2 μm Supor 200 filters (Pall Corporation, Port Washington, NY, United States). DNA extraction, 16S rRNA gene amplification and pre-sequencing processing of the PCR products were performed as in Berga et al. (2015) Amplicon sequencing was performed at the SNP&SEQ Technology Platform at Uppsala University using the 454 GS FLX pyrosequencing system (Roche/454) and Titanium chemistry (BIO Laboratories The sequences have been deposited in the NCBI Sequence Read Archive under accession number SRP065611 A total of 916,239 sequences were obtained from the sequencing center. Denoising with Ampliconnoise (Quince et al., 2011) and chimera screening removed 14.3% of the initial sequences resulting in 11,285 operational taxonomic units (OTUs). OTUs were defined by clustering the sequences at a 97% similarity with the furthest-neighbor (complete linkage) algorithm using Qiime 1.6 (Caporaso et al., 2010) the representative sequences for each OTU were blasted against the RDP library trained with the GreenGenes database in Qiime sampling efforts (number of sequences obtained per sample) were normalized across the 81 samples by subsampling the data A “subsampled OTU table” was created by performing 100 random subsamplings at 4,152 reads in R and then calculating the mean of each of the 100 subsampled tables we discarded four samples that had lower read numbers (Supplementary Table 1) The “subsampled OTU table” was then used for the calculation of community diversity and for all BCC analyses (see details below) Local diversity was estimated by calculating observed richness (S.Obs) and the Shannon index (H′) in each of the 100 randomized OTU tables and later calculating the average Pileou’s evenness (E) index was calculated by E = H′/Hmax Community respiration was estimated using an optic syringe following details in Berga et al. (2015) over a 48 h period. CSUR was obtained as described in Berga et al. (2012) and environmental parameters TP, DOC, and Chl a were measured as in Langenheder and Ragnarsson (2007) Statistical analyses were performed as follows: repeated measurement ANOVAs, one-way and two-way ANOVAs were performed in SPSS or R (R Core Team, 2016). Additional statistical analyses were performed using the “Vegan” (Oksanen et al., 2015), “car” (Fox and Weisberg, 2011), and “lme4” (Bates et al., 2012) packages in R To visualize overall changes in community composition in response to the experimental manipulation an NMDS based on Bray–Curtis (BC) dissimilarity was performed To test whether volume reduction had an effect on community composition we performed a PerMANOVA test on the controls at each sampling point using BC dissimilarity To identify potential effects of the manipulation on environmental parameters repeated measures ANOVA tests on log-transformed data were performed Due to the nature of the experimental design not be appropriate replicates since they were all different from each other in the beginning we analyzed time-dependent treatment effects by looking at changes of individual pools over time as an indicator of community turnover To do this we calculated the difference between the measurements at T65 or T160 and T0 within a single pool for the following variables: S.Obs and BC dissimilarity leading to the following new variables: ΔS.ObsT65 We performed the same calculation with the functional parameters resulting in ΔCSURT65 The ΔT65 values were used as proxy for resistance and ΔT160 as a proxy for recovery Then log-transformed or sqrt-transformed absolute values were used in two-way ANOVA tests to identify patterns in the magnitude of change for the different parameters between salinity levels and over time (ΔT65 and ΔT160) For those parameters where significant effects of salinity or a significant interaction between salinity and time were observed one-way ANOVA test and Bonferroni post hoc tests for each individual time point were performed to identify exactly which treatments differed from each other We tested if there were differences in the proportion of abundant and rare OTUs between the treatments with a one-way ANOVA on AsinSqrt-transformed data we determined the most abundant OTUs in the entire dataset defined as those with a number of reads ≥1% (including all the pools and time points) We then calculated the change in the number of reads for the most abundant OTUs between T65 and T0 to assess whether they were positively or negatively affected by the salinity change To determine whether the intensity of the salinity increase affected assembly mechanisms of the bacterial communities in the pools, we applied the null model approach based on the Raup–Crick metric (βRC) described in Chase (2007) and in Chase and Myers (2011) using the “Vegan package” in R. Raup–Crick results were obtained and analyzed as in Berga et al. (2015) deterministic processes are indicated by βRC-values between -0.95 and -1 as well as values between 0.95 and 1 Any other value of βRC indicates that the communities are stochastically assembled βRC metrics between pairs of communities were obtained after 100 iterations and was then recoded into binary data the proportion of stochastically (0) and deterministically (1) assembled pairs of communities was calculated for the entire dataset Differences in the proportion of deterministically assembled communities between salinity levels over time were then analyzed with a general linear model (glm in R) with binomial distribution followed by an ANOVA in R package “car.” In addition differences in beta-diversity within each salinity treatment over time were tested by calculating BC dissimilarities between all possible pairwise combinations of pools belonging to the same treatment We used a repeated measures ANOVA to test whether salinity and time had significant effects on average BC dissimilarities There were clear differences in BCC among pools at the beginning of the experiment (average BC dissimilarity at T0 = 0.86 ± 0.09) as well as changes in community composition over time within individual pools (Supplementary Figure 3) Volume reduction did not affect community composition of the control treatments at any of the time points as observed by PerMANOVA test (Supplementary Table 2) There were significant changes in DOC and TP over time (Supplementary Figure 4) which occurred in the form of minor increases after the manipulation (T65) and strong decreases at the end (T160) due to dilution caused by the rainfall (Supplementary Figure 4) Chl a concentrations did not change significantly over time There were marginally significant differences in Chl a concentrations among treatments (Supplementary Figure 4) There were significant changes over time compared to initial values in many of the studied metrics, whereas effects of salinity were only significant in cases of BC dissimilarities (Table 1) significant interactive effects between salinity level and time indicating that the degree of change of the parameters at T65 and T160 differed between salinity treatments Results from two-way and one-way ANOVAs testing the effect of salinity on differences in species richness (ΔS.Obs) Bray–Curtis dissimilarity (ΔBC) carbon substrate utilization rate (ΔCSUR) and respiration rate (ΔResp) between T0 and T65 and T0 and T160 Changes in (A) community composition (ΔBray–Curtis) (D) carbon substrate utilization rates (ΔCSUR) and (E) respiration rates (ΔRespiration) between T0 and T65 (filled symbols) as measurement of resistance and between T0 and T160 (empty symbols) as a measurement of resilience at the different salinity levels Dashed lines indicate the “0 value” (no change) salinity; T × S indicates the interaction When analyzing the proportion of OTUs that switched from being abundant (≥0.1% of the total reads) to rare (<0.1%) we found that 3–6% of the OTUs in each pool switched from being common to rare OTUs that switched from being rare to abundant ranged between 7 and 10% (Supplementary Figure 5) There were no significant differences in the proportion of these two classes of OTUs between treatments we did observe a significantly higher number of OTUs switching from rare to abundant than vice versa in treatments with low and intermediate salinities (3 and 6 psu; Supplementary Figure 5) The most abundant OTUs (>1%) in the entire dataset included 15 OTUs that all belonged to Bacteroidetes and Proteobacteria and were negatively affected by the mixing caused by the manipulation These most abundant OTU included both sensitive types that decreased in response to one or several salinity levels as well as tolerant OTUs whose abundance remained unchanged (Supplementary Table 4) Changes in the relative abundance of sequences associated to the main bacterial phyla families and genera over time and between salinity levels Changes in beta-diversity based on the average Bray–Curtis dissimilarity (A) and proportion of deterministically assembled pairs of communities (proportion of determinism) (B) over time and between salinity levels This study employed whole ecosystem manipulations to investigate the mechanisms by which freshwater bacterial communities responded to environmental change and aimed to identify whether functional and compositional recovery occurs The major finding was that community composition is the most sensitive parameter to salinity changes whereas community functions (respiration and CSUR) did not change These results support our first hypothesis because compositional resistance decreased with increasing salinity levels whereas functioning was stable due to functional redundancy community composition showed a high level of recovery became similar to pre-disturbance conditions once salinity changes were reversed the second hypothesis had to be rejected because alpha-diversity (richness and evenness) and beta-diversity were resistant to any of the applied levels of salinity change so that we cannot preclude that different results including concomitant changes in community composition and functioning along disturbance gradients are found if different functions are studied Rock pools are small and often temporary ecosystems that show strong fluctuations in environmental conditions over time it seems possible that their disturbance history and historical environmental filtering could explain why bacterial communities were relatively little affected by salinity the communities did not change unless they experienced strong increases in salinity (6 and 12 psu) which they have probably rarely experienced before This work was funded by grants from the Swedish Research Council Formas and KVA (Stiftelsen P F Wahlgrens minnesfond) The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest The authors would like to acknowledge the support by BILS (Bioinformatics Infrastructure for Life Sciences) and the contribution in the map preparation of K The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fmicb.2017.00948/full#supplementary-material Anthropogenic disturbance affects the structure of bacterial communities Resistance and resilience of microbial communities – temporal and spatial insurance against perturbations Global phylogenetic community structure and β-diversity patterns in surface bacterioplankton metacommunities CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Bates, D., Maechler, M., and Bolker, B. 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This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Mercè Berga, bWVyY2UuYmVyZ2FAaW8td2FybmVtdWVuZGUuZGU= Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page You will be automatically redirected to the requested page after 3 seconds.Don't close this page Professor and Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology Wake Forest School of Medicine I'm going to talk about a couple of different topics now you have to remember one of those other rare reproductive organs called the brain I'm going to talk a little bit from my vantage as a neurobiologist Most of my research is in neuroendocrinology and mostly what's not known about the use of aromatase inhibitors and SERMs and brain health and show you ha little bit of the research that we are doing The fact is the brain is a target for sex steroids There are several studies now that have found an association between perimenopause which is the study of women across the nation at midlife there was a four-fold increase in major depressive episodes at the time of perimenopause This leads to our current hypotheses that hormonal exposures have the potential to be both neuroprotective I think none of us want our brain to age any faster than it has to We're going to deal with a concept that estrogens actually may promote brain metabolism And that progestins might have the opposite effect and that SERMs and AIs may accelerate brain aging I'm not going to have a ton of facts for all of these That's just to show you that there really is pretty high powered research behind most of these ideas even if there isn't complete answers at this time I think most OBGYNs know that perimenopause and early menopause is a time of life when women start to report symptoms that are often called soft symptoms and difficult to treat in many ways because they're not really classical gynecologic complaints These include difficulty with word finding We also have begun to recognize in large population studies that women are at higher risk for neurodegenerative disorders or things that would actually masquerade as reduced ovarian function actually have the possibility of accelerating brain aging This is a lovely study that is relatively recent The little asterisks are showing the decrement in verbal learning and attention and working memory that's found in the early perimenopause When women actually become hypo estrogenic these are some of the symptoms that they report This is not where you spend most of your time thinking what you're going to do Sound bites that help frame this conversation for me are that not all hormones are the same The use of the word estrogen is kind of a big class of hormones There's a lot of misunderstanding about that Not all progestins are the same and not all women are the same We never have any trouble with that third one But the other concept that's really hard to get across is that hormones are potent It's actually a pretty narrow U-shaped curve for risk and benefit or what you want falls within a pretty narrow range How many of you have ever overdosed a person with levothyroxine Have you ever seen someone in thyroid storm Really they only have about a 10 or 20% increase in levothyroxine when you get that kind of a picture We haven't paid that much attention to doing so This is my homage to the cellular people in the room I kind of think of this as balancing the growth versus the atrophy But you don't want all the cells in your body to have overgrowth Some of what happens is that cells that are older actually aren't the same even if they're the same cell type as when they were younger because of telomere or shortening this is the famous group that was headed by Elizabeth Blackburn that won the Nobel Prize for discovering telomerase and telomere length is that cells keep dividing if they have long enough telomeres then they stop dividing and they develop essentially an atrophic syndrome trying to look at the relationship between telomere length and telomerase and the brain This was one that's looking at hippocampal volume in early aging The hippocampus is the part of the brain that's typically degenerating in Alzheimer's disease and it is important for location and memory Greater exposure to estrogen was associated with an increase in telomere length in this one study Telomere lengths were longer in women who had used hormones postmenopausal and low levels of estrogen and obesity were associated with shorter telomere length in this study That's about as far as people have gotten on that pretty complicated topic We're not sure what we want to recommend quite yet We are sure that hormones have a variety of effects These are some of the cellular effects that they have We've been talking about those cellular effects as they relate to endometriosis But now I'd like you to shift your attention to think for a moment about neurons and other cells in the brain Behind the background of this slide is two neurons Each neuron will have as many as 10,000 connections with another neuron group Each neuron can actually connect in 10,000 different ways If you think of all the neurons that there are suddenly you realize that this is an incredibly .. metabolically active would not quite do justice to it .. There are a lot of neurotransmitter systems all of which so far have been shown to be impacted by sex steroids These are some of the functions that those neurotransmitter systems mediate We all know that what patients report are their behaviors and their feelings What we're thinking about when they're reporting them are what body part is this involving I think most people just decide to back off and not think too much about it One thing that's fascinating about the brain is how much of your daily energy intake it actually requires Infants require 60% of their daily energy intake for their brain it's really not going to actually let you answer the kinds of questions about brain health that you might want I talked a little bit about getting thyroid hormone levels right People who have thyroid cancer have to periodically come off their levothyroxine to look for metastasis or expansion of their thyroid cancers people have put them in the neuroimaging machine to ask questions about what the brain is doing What you can see is there's a decrease in cerebral blood flow by about 23% and that's accompanied by a 12% decrement in brain metabolism you can find using positron emission tomography and looking at glucose uptake in brain regions You can give the brain activational tasks and see if the brain can respond to those tasks in the same way before and after perturbation It was before and after the addition of levothyroxine there were complaints that are pretty similar to menopause What's interesting is how few brain centers are impacted for the patients to be symptomatic These little spots are actually the brain centers that were different before and after levothyroxine but that had a very major impact on cerebral blood flow as well as a major impact on metabolism and behavior These are studies looking at women who are taking hormones who were randomized to stop or not This was about the time of the WHI and putting people on hormones at that point was kind of heretical they asked people if they would agree to be randomized to stop or not They came in on their customary hormone cocktail and then they were asked to either continue or not continue Then they were studied by PET scan at one and two years Hormone users showed relative preservation of frontal and parietal cortical metabolism The Estradiol users were three standard deviations better in verbal performance than Premarin users The E+P group had lower metabolism than the E alone group it's pretty hard to do a randomized clinical trial and see if they're going to get Alzheimer's or not because none of us are going to be around to count the data You have to use other pieces of the puzzle to try to figure out what's going on and lots of different methodologies have been basically utilized to try to address these questions Some of the questions that we've been trying to answer through a variety of methodologies are whether sex steroids promote plasticity and maintain brain function What are the risks of altering in premenopausal life It's a pretty metabolically active part of the body When you lose about 25% of these delicate little parts of your brain you start to have mild cognitive impairment This is before you can actually be clinically diagnosed before you start to see the brain malfunction due to a loss of synapses They were ovariectomized and then some were given back Estradiol and some were necropsied here without Estradiol You can see without Estradiol there is a loss of synapses The good news is by replacing Estradiol for three months you can actually have these synapses regrow you would probably be faster in your thought processes and if you had this brain you would probably be slower just because your neurons are now not as connected as they once were so if you go out and do the literature search on this is that Letrozole exposure actually reduces those spines in the brain That's a problem because this is a drug that's used for lots of different things We're talking about it today for breast cancer and as well as for endometriosis Of course you know it's an aromatase inhibitor It's going to underestimate probably the impact in humans certain parts of the brain are much more sensitive which is in fact the part of the brain that falls apart in Alzheimer's disease This is just another study showing the same and the reason I put it up there is that the male mice have a different response to Letrozole than do the female mice as shown here in both the males and the female mice In only the female mice do you see the spine number diminish many effects on neurons and the supporting part of the brain but at least they operate through ER alpha We're not sure all of the ways in which Estradiol keeps brain metabolism up so I can't tell you that we have a complete story but this is a nice picture to show that there are many mechanisms by which estrogens impact positively the brain This is the very first study that was done using a task to ask questions about whether estrogens helped This estrogen was conjugated equine estrogen and they're given just a very short exposure to conjugated equine estrogen for 21 days The task is reading and understanding what you've read they read better when they're on estrogen than off Then they do the neuroimaging studies to accompany this to show that the brain is actually more engaged or activated during the reading task when there's estrogen in the background This is a comparison of 17 beta Estradiol with a conjugated equine estrogen just to show that Estradiol in this study increased frontal activation and allowed the brain to tackle more complicated tasks There's been not that many of these studies That's the sum total of studies in humans looking at hormones and activation We do know that depressed mood can sometimes masquerade as reduced cognition Part of this story that we're trying to understand has to do with what impact hormones have on mood as well as directly on cognition You can imagine how much complexity that confers if there are more neurons than there are stars in the Milky Way This is serotonergic binding in the temporal lobe of a not depressed person This is the serotonergic hypothesis of depression showing that depressed individuals have less serotonergic drive This is one of our original studies looking at the impact of 17 beta Estradiol at the dose of 80 picogram per ML on recently postmenopausal women's brains is doing this region of interest analysis and looking at the frontal lobe we could see that Estradiol plus progesterone restored the brain's serotonergic binding in key cognitive areas This is a study I think is very interesting to note you have high cortisol and if you're stressed long enough you can get depressed What's interesting is that cortisol actually interferes with estrogen action in many tissues including the brain I'll say that cortisol hijacks the cellular machinery needed for estrogen action This is a lovely study by [inaudible 00:19:21] showing exactly that that several hundred genes were co-regulated by both dexamethasone and Estradiol in an antagonistic fashion You really have to remember that there are major sex differences both at the level of the brain and other tissues Even a simple hormone like cortisol doesn't have the same effects This is just looking at gene expression in female rats and male rats What's even more interesting is when they were given LPS to mimic an infection the male rats lived longer and the female rats died earlier Cortisol in females actually was pro-inflammatory in this model This is another pretty complicated set of studies actually decreases the availability of estrogen responsive parts of the brain to estrogen Just the fact that you're stressed actually makes estrogens have a different action in the brain That's a much more complicated question now than one would be thought At least in terms of this one review by Pauline Mackey The two behaviors that were studied in this were female sexual initiation and female to female antagonism both of which are important things to understand Medroxyprogesterone acetate completely obliterated interest in sex it was wonderful for sustaining female to female antagonism I had a patient come in one day telling me that she'd been placed on Prempro and that she was telling people on the street how to behave She was about five foot one and 110 pounds You need to stop the hormone or otherwise you may not come to see me again You may not be alive long enough." We put her on something else We sort of triaged her behavior to the top of the pile This is anxiety and Estradiol versus Tamoxifen and just showing that if you give placebo to ovariectomized monkeys If you give some estrogen they're less anxious This is a study we started in Pittsburgh looking at early stage breast cancer survivors In the beginning we actually couldn't do very good MRI We started just with a batter of psychometric testing What she found is that cognitive impairment was more severe and there were more memory domains impacted by women who received Tamoxifen as adjuvant therapy versus nothing Then when people started using more commonly aromatase inhibitors Anastrozole was worse than was actually Tamoxifen I got to see these patients clinically because they were part of the star trial They were coming into my office with just an incredible load of complaints I had no perspective on how to handle them at the time This is the only study that's ever looked at an aromatase inhibitor and brain function What it showed is that in order to perform the same on the tasks they had to try harder and there was more brain activation when they were on an AI Then this is a lovely study in which women with breast cancer were given adjuvant therapy Then they looked at their cognitive function at the end of five years and then after one year off adjuvant therapy There was an improvement in psychometric performance I know you're not in necessarily the neurobiology world but I think when you start thinking about it from a mechanistic point of view There's reasonable data out there to worry about the impact of aromatase inhibitors and SERMs on brain function I think it should at least raise questions and it's prospective observational trial of men and women free of disease and enrollment at age 65 You can see that women have much higher rates of all cause dementia as they age and that the longer they used any kind of hormone We got curious as to the hormone levels in the CSF because you know the bloodstream isn't really where all the action is You may have wondered whether testosterone levels in the bloodstream translated into testosterone levels in the brain The menopausal brains not seeing very much at all If you give someone an aromatase inhibitor Because part of the estrogen in the brain comes from the circulation and part of it is made in the brain in glial cells you're going to take the estrogen away from both sources This is an interesting study because people have been all over the map about whether hormones are neurodegenerative or protective This is a wonderful study from Finland by Tommy McCullough And looking at vascular dementia and Alzheimer's dementia showing that hormones were helpful and reduced the risk of vascular dementia in his study by 38% Then this is the Olmsted county Minnesota studies looking at prophylactic oophorectomy before age 45 showing that women who have this have an increased risk of death I really came here to promote the concept of brain health When we're thinking about what to treat women with who have different disorders I hope that we will consider in the risk/benefit analysis and for those of us who like to that kind of work For those of you who want a little summary of what I've just said I want you to remember that estrogen affects a panoply of different brain functions so it's pretty hard to wrap your arms around this by measuring just one aspect of brain function But that estrogens may protect against depression or use of other hormones preexisting disease may actually counteract some of the effects of estrogen and it has to get into the brain for it to be fully neuroprotective We don't really understand the full effects of SERMs on brain At least the preliminary data that we have on aromatase inhibitors doesn't seem to indicate it's very brain friendly those who already had the least brain reserve were actually the most affected by SERMs and AIs I hope when we do our studies we really actually include the brain particularly it's pretty economical to measure regional cerebral blood flow with a PET scan It's not that hard to do and you can do task activation You can actually find out some things about how the brain is functioning when it's under the influence of different hormonal preparations NIH Funding - Present and Future - Lisa Halvorson, MD, FACOG Cancer Implications for Patients with Endometriosis - le-Ming Shih, MD, PhD With every gift to the Endometriosis Foundation of America YOU help support our mission of increasing disease recognition, providing advocacy, facilitating expert surgical training, and funding landmark endometriosis research. Endometriosis Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization as determined by the Internal Revenue Service under EIN 20-4904437. Gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. Demons group marks 400th anniversary with firecrackers on tails and heads ACN | Berga Berga's Sant Pere square witnessed the central day of the town's emblematic La Patum festivity on Thursday night with a mix of fire and revelry that took over the place for the first time in three years After beginning with a bang on Wednesday with a parade across the northern Catalan town action focused on the square on Thursday for the 'salt de plens' Yet, this year, the climax of the festivity had even more remarkable elements, not only because it was the first time since 2019 that took place, but also because several groups celebrate their 400th anniversary in this edition, including Vestidors de Plens i Maces. In order to mark the milestone, they exceptionally featured in the 'salt de plens' with firecrackers on both their tails and their heads for the first time since 2006. According to the group leader, Joan Sala, the performance aimed to go "back to the past," since the old 'salt de plens' used to resemble what was witnessed on Thursday night. Also, in a rare move they also decided to hold one minute of this unique tradition without music so that residents "become aware of the treasure" they have. And, indeed, it is such a treasure. Berga's La Patum has medieval roots dating back at least 600 years. Such remarkable history and the fact that it is still going on nowadays explains why in 2005 UNESCO included La Patum in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage, featuring traditions and other intangible treasures of humankind worldwide. The UN specialized agency praised its uniqueness and artistic and historical value, and not many such festivals can boast such recognition since La Patum was the first in Catalonia to get it – 'castellers' human towers and the Pyrenees' 'falles' were to follow a few years later. a city at the heart of Catalonia's countryside Spilling out of the square and into the side streets beyond spectators jam together in an effort to catch a glimpse of the festivities taking place outside the town hall.  the epicenter of Berga where the festival of La Patum is in full swing.  For those that have not had the pleasure of attending this UNESCO-recognized event before La Patum de Berga is a traditional street celebration that began as a medieval festival and parade to celebrate the Christian holiday of Corpus Christi Although it has segued away from its religious roots the heart and soul of the festival has remained and everyone in between join Berga locals to witness and take part in their fire-filled celebrations.  Although the festival’s acts parade through the town each day of the celebrations Plaça Sant Pere plays host to all of La Patum’s mythical characters on Thursday The night revolves around the famous salt de Plens Leading up to midnight and again at 2-3 am close to 200 figures dressed up as demons enter the square and join the crowd each holding a bounty of firecrackers and sparklers All the lights in the square are turned off and festivalgoers don the red and black hats seen hanging around their necks during the day Excitement builds as the live band starts to play until all hell breaks loose (so to speak) and the ‘demons’ adorned with leaves and branches light up releasing a plume of smoke that shrouds the entire square the crowd swells and shifts along with the music and movement of the ‘demons’ as a ceremonial way to ward off the influence of the ‘demons’ but second in a more practical sense to deter any of the sparks from setting their hair on fire Over the two and a half hours leading up to midnight onlookers are treated to a series of symbolic performances involving a number of different creatures and other animals each take their turn to dance around and excite the crowd Whether it be hushing one another before the climactic Ball de L’Àliga chanting along jovially to the folk songs played or dancing as a complete unit in unison to accommodate the movement of the central dancers the crowd at La Patum are truly a part of the celebrations For more information about the history of La Patum and what the festival entails, check out Catalan News' 'Unraveling Berga's secret: how La Patum festivities have endured 600 years'.  Music and dance are at the center of Berga's 'La Patum' festival. In fact, the UNESCO-recognized celebration of medieval origin is named for the sound of the drum that reverberates throughout Now musicians have a new tune to play after the discovery of a long-forgotten score in the inland Catalan town.  The 'Patum Dances' have not been performed since before the Spanish Civil War but have revived by local musicians.  Berga musician Lluís Gual discovered the long-long sheet music to accompany three of the festival's dances part of the archive of the collector Ramon Miquel Safont.  "I always say that I didn't find these scores they found me," Gual tells the Catalan News Agency (ACN).  The collector Ramon Miquel Safont invited Gual to visit his archive to consult some old scores that he thought might be of interest.  I discovered the sheet music of three dances that are not currently performed in La Patum," Gual explains.  Gual underlines the importance of the find pointing out that the documents date from 1925 to 1936 and saying it has been more than 30 years since new scores from La Patum have been discovered.  Arrangements by Gual of the three pieces will be performed by the Cobla Berga Jove on Sunday and on April 27 in L'Ametlla de Merola.  Listen to the podcast below to learn more about La Patum, Catalonia's medieval rave.  Some groups of performers turn 400 in massive northern Catalonia celebration to be held from Wednesday to Sunday There is hardly a more quintessentially Catalan street festival than Berga's La Patum It has all the elements that shape a myriad of local 'festes majors' annual celebrations and other similar festive events: medieval origins Berga's heart will beat again at the pace of La Patum's Tabal its devilish sound will celebrate the anniversary of the first document that mentions it (1621) this year since Covid prevented the 2020 and 2021 editions from going ahead.  the iconic instrument will thunder with more energy than ever from Wednesday to Sunday – and the hundreds of volunteers who parade every year will dance in rhythm to the Tabal Everything is now set to enjoy the festival after the pandemic hiatus but local authorities are wary of overcrowding especially because everyone has been waiting for so long and are more eager than ever.  Mayor Ivan Sànchez calls on the public to exercise "caution." He reminds visitors that only 6,000 people fit in the town's main square where the most iconic shows will take place on Thursday and Sunday night.  Authorities know that those two nights are the most popular because Sant Pere square becomes what may be closest to hell on earth with hundreds dressed as demons firing up to 1,000 firecrackers at the same time lighting up the place as everyone dances and jumps – yet in order to prevent it from being too hellish they have already said they are ready to close off the square to avoid overcrowding While the local council is somehow "scared" about what is about to come restaurants and similar establishments cannot wait they are set to turn over between 25% and 30% more than a normal week.  "We are happy that we will be able to refill the drawers that have been emptied during the pandemic," said Jordi Badia president of Berguedà County Hotels and Tourism Association.  Yet, it is unclear that sales will pay off for every restaurant. For instance, Frankfurt Berga expects to close at 1am instead of 6am like previous years. "In the old days we used to pay between €1,400 and €1,800 a month for the electricity bill, and last month we paid €5,400," explained Ester Olmedo bars and restaurants are much busier than usual and this can also lead to a common issue in such street festivals: too much alcohol.  The local council will distribute up to 20,000 bottles of water for free and will set up two bars offering non-alcoholic cocktails at €1 (at Plaça Viladomat and Plaça Cim d'Estela squares) hoping these are attractive alternatives.  A 'Purple Point' in order to avoid sexism and sexual abuse will also be set up at Plaça Viladomat and Berga will show again why in 2005 the UNESCO included La Patum in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage featuring traditions and other intangible treasures of humankind worldwide.  The UN specialized agency praised its uniqueness and artistic and historical value and not many such festivals can boast such recognition since La Patum was the first in Catalonia to get it – 'castellers' human towers and the Pyrenees' 'falles' were to follow a few years later.  UNESCO was amazed at what La Patum is about: short and sweet an ancient tradition consisting nowadays of five nights of a whole town united in celebrating with 11 groups of people parading across Berga and characters such as giants and dragons.  some of the groups parade in a more localized celebration where most of the attendees are from the town.  Sant Pere's square is the main location for the celebrations – they are the biggest and the ones attended by most people from outside Berga.  concerts by bands – mainly local groups – are the main events on Friday and the children's fireless Patum during the day are also a key part of the celebration.  but also some other groups such as the giants and 'guita grossa' turn 400 this year Every June, the Berguedà county capital in central Catalonia lets its hair down for five days of celebrations in which fireworks play a key role ACN | Barcelona One of Catalonia's most popular and well-known local summer festivals is La Patum Considered a Traditional Festival of National Interest the Patum was declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2005 La Patum's origins go back to pre-Christian summer solstice celebrations with some of its more bizarre elements added during the later Middle Ages which sees firework-wielding 'devils' dancing to the rhythm of drums and turning Berga's cramped main square into a vision of hell The festival features a number of mythical characters performing in public including the Turcs i Cavallets (Turks and Little Knights) and the Nans Vells (The Old Dwarfs) Many of these mythical figures in the festival were first documented as far back as the early 17th-century and also include Les Guites (folkloric "mules") and Els Gegants (The Giants) The one element that is present at all the activities in the festival is the Tabal a huge drum first mentioned in 1621 that marks out the rhythm for the event's public dances with hotels rooms selling out and as many as 6,000 people crowding into its small main square for the 'Plens.' With so many people in one place all determined to enjoy themselves La Patum has also become associated with raucous revelry and the overconsumption of alcohol.    The organizers have made efforts to curb this side of the festivities in recent years with measures such as subsidizing non-alcoholic drinks and offering free bottles of water This work, U.S. and Swedish Marines Conduct Maritime Exercise in Stockholm Archipelago, by Paul Ortiz, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker ACN / Ivet Puig Barcelona (CNA).-It is said that if you have not lived the ‘Patum’ Maybe because we find its roots in the theatrical performances of the 14th century or maybe because it is a truly unique festival that only Berga has been able to preserve intact throughout the centuries The ‘Patum’ main celebrations last for five days the dates vary each year so it always falls between May and June The festival comprises several parts and is a mixture of sound fire and parades of allegorical and traditional figures such as ‘Guites’ (mule dragons) The town will host thousands of people throughout the week and a multitude of feelings that make this festivity a challenge to describe in words The ‘Patum’ is a mixture of several elements: the ritualized performances by different groups  known as comparses the Festival’s natural settings which include the main square of the town and the adjoining streets the time of the year and a crowd that does not want to miss a thing Over these five days more than 100,000 people will visit Berga which is six times the current population of the town.  it was declared Oral and Immaterial Heritage of Mankind by the UNESCO in 2005 explains that at the beginning they thought “that this was going to increase tourism a lot” but actually Rumbo states that this international award has increased foreign media interest and that this festival “is not only for people from Berga but for all the Catalans and the international public” As for the promotion of the festival he points out that “it is not necessary as the festival is hugely popular in itself” Although every year the ‘Patum’ follows the same rituals and traditions the locals from Berga state that every year is different from the one before To give readers a hand CNA presents the key moments if you want to experience the ‘Patum’ 2016 by yourself and become a real “patumaire” (‘Patum’ fan) the demons known as ‘Plens’ are distributed throughout the crowd and they light the firecrackers they wear in their costumes The square becomes a real inferno full of fire and smoke and a thousand firecrackers explode during the performance as demons and the crowd spin around the square.  One of the most emotional moments which also happens during the Full ‘Patum’ The Àliga is a wooden eagle which dances according to the notes of its distinguished music It is one of the greatest choreographic values of the entire event While the Àliga is dancing the whole square remains in silence until the end of the music when it gets more animated and the crowd moves together with the figure It is one of the local’s favourite moments of the ‘Patum’ This performance shares many similarities with a typical Renaissance dance although its melody seems to originate from a Gregorian hymn at the ‘Patum’ which this year are celebrating their 150th and 125th anniversary the group responsible for the giants and also the organising committee of the festivity (Patronat de la Patum) have set up several activities an agreement that both entities have reached with Bruce Springsteen who has handed over the rights to the song “If I should fall behind” This song will be arranged by the director and composer Sergi Cuenca and the giants will dance to it only once on the Sunday of Corpus during the Full ‘Patum’ This song has been chosen by the group responsible for the giants as they used to imagine themselves dancing to the song with the giants in their meetings a baker that made a giant figure of Bruce Springsteen a few years ago had already met “the Boss” He acted as the broker on this occasion to access the rights to the song.  Peters square on Thursday and Sunday at 9.30 pm The ‘Plens’ (demons) perform after the second and the fourth cycles In every cycle all of the groups perform one after the other and in the same order First come the Turcs i Caballets (the Turks and Horses) the Gegants (Giants) and the Nans Nous (New Dwarves) These performances would originally have been interludes that were enacted during the Corpus processions and whose purpose was to educate the people and improve their morals recreating teachings from the Holy Scriptures these interludes lost their original catechetical intention with only the more festive parts of the performances remaining Daytime ‘Patum’ (‘Patum’ de Lluïment) is the same as the Full ‘Patum’ but with a few differences the ‘Plens’ do not perform and there are no Tirabols at the end The daytime ‘Patum’ starts after High Mass at 12 midday on Thursday and Sunday and it is performed with a certain solemnity by the groups so the public looking on are more spectators rather than participants Some of the groups also wear elegant costumes It is a quieter and more family friendly ‘Patum’ Passacarrers (processions) are held on Wednesday and Saturday evening and the festival is not concentrated in the square as it is a procession that moves around the streets of Berga the Guites and the Giants perform on the ‘Passacarrers’ The route can vary every year but it always ends with Tirabols in St These processions are multitudinous and can last up to 9 hours The Tirabols are like the closing party of every event in the ‘Patum’ and are always held in St Guites (Dragons) and Giants dance together with the crowd to a very animated musicians have the power to decide when the Patum finishes each day and they play with the reactions of the public who knows exactly how to respond to the songs The boys and girls from Berga perform their own Full ‘Patum’ on Friday They have exactly the same groups and figures but scaled down to the children sizes There are also ‘Plens’ and ‘Tirabols’ at the end All the children from Berga has the opportunity to participate in the groups (comparses) through a draw.  The Children’s ‘Patum’ is much younger.  It was given official status in 1956 the first year when the ‘Patum’ was performed on Corpus Friday The rehearsals for the Children’s ‘Patum’ last for two weeks during which the town children learn the various dances It is considered to be a real “school” for future ‘Patum’ performers explains that they wait the whole year for the Corpus Wednesday to arrive and that she feels so emotional when on Sunday the Giants retire to the town hall and she knows she won’t see them again until the following year explains that one of his favourite moments is when they turn on the street lights and it has been a good “salt” So there are many ways to enjoy the ‘Patum’ and many different feelings to live But among the differences there is a common element that lends its name to the festival and that is its heartbeat: the ‘Tabal’ or the Drum There is a person dedicated exclusively to playing it during the five days it was the only instrument used in the ‘Patum’ Today it is the only part present in all the events PA-TUM … is the rhythm of this unique festival.  the Penya Blau i Grana de Berga celebrated its 50 years of existence FC Barcelona president Joan Laporta wanted to be there with the supporters club from Berguedà one which is remarkably active and very much part of its local cummunity He was joined by director Josep-Ignasi Macià and the former player and current president of the FC Barcelona Players Group as well as Ignasi Montagut from the FC Barcelona Social Commission where they were greeted by the penya president They later went for dinner at a restaurant with about 150 guests which included the local mayor Iván Sánchez and the treasurer of the penyas group for Bages The speeches ended with some words from Mr Laporta himself who thanked the penya for its many years of support of the club and also spoke of how FC Barcelona intends to continue supporting the work done by its supporters movement Georgia (CNN) -- The photograph is a jarring image that shows Nazi Party members digging up graves of American soldiers held as slaves by Nazi Germany during World War II Members of the Nazi Party are forced to dig up mass graves of U.S soldiers investigating war crimes stand over them Two crosses with helmets placed atop them -- the sign of a fallen soldier -- are visible The bodies of 22 American soldiers were found in at least seven graves "Nazi Party members digging up American bodies at Berga." Berga an der Elster was a slave labor camp where 350 U.S and forced to work in tunnels for the German government The soldiers were singled out for "looking like Jews" or "sounding like Jews," or dubbed as undesirables More than 100 soldiers perished at the camp or on a forced death march It was on this day six decades ago, April 23, 1945, when most of the slave labor camp soldiers were liberated by advancing U.S. troops. The emaciated soldiers, many weighing just 80 pounds, had been forced by Nazi commanders to march more than 150 miles before their rescue. Watch survivor break down in tears over liberation » The new photograph was likely taken in May or June 1945 when U.S. war crimes investigators combed Berga. It was donated earlier this month to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum by Jim Martin and his family is believed to have snapped the picture as part of the war crimes investigation team The photo and dozens of others sat for years in Jim Martin's closet. Some of the photos, including graphic images of American corpses, were placed on record at the National Archives years ago. See shocking photos of the slave camp » But the image of Nazi Party members digging up graves doesn't appear to be part of that collection Martin said he was proud to hand over the photos This is something that's history and it belongs with something that's historical to tell that story I'm kind of sorry I haven't done it sooner who won a Silver Star for his valor in capturing images during the war struggled to keep a job when he returned home "I now see where it all started," he said What Elmore Martin and the war crimes soldiers seen in the photo couldn't have known that day was how the case would evolve The two Berga commanders -- Erwin Metz and his superior Hauptmann Ludwig Merz -- were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging government commuted their death sentences in 1948 and both men were eventually released in the 1950s Jim Martin said his father would have been upset at the freeing of the Berga commanders after the atrocities he documented "He knew it happened and to see that these people were released would be pretty devastating." who has spent nearly 30 years hunting Nazis responsible for the Holocaust government commuted the sentences and freed hundreds of war criminals like those at Berga after the war "They were more concerned about keeping out Communists than admitting victims of the Nazis," he said "The realities out there were very conducive of letting these people off the hook." How should Americans feel six decades later that the government freed the Nazi commanders responsible for atrocities against U.S "We're supposed to feel very pissed off about that and that feeling is very justified," Zuroff said The German government has since made reparations to the soldiers held at Berga government to do "the right thing." The Army said it is trying to figure out the best way to honor the Berga soldiers There are about 20 known survivors still living Army honors the service and sacrifice of all veterans who have fought our nation's wars The Army is working to identify the most dignified and personal way to honor the soldiers held at the Nazi slave camp The Army refused to answer further questions about the Berga case. Listen in as an elderly man learns about his brother's death at the camp » Survivors have long wanted to know why the sentences of the commanders were commuted War Department said the sentences of Metz and Merz were commuted because they were "underlings." The letter goes on to say that Metz "though guilty of a generally cruel course of conduct toward prisoners was not directly responsible for the death of any prisoners except one who was killed during the course of an attempt to escape." That soldier was Morton Goldstein Survivors say Goldstein tried to escape but was captured The soldiers who survived were not called to testify at the war crimes trial against Metz and Merz instead prosecutors relied on about a dozen soldiers' statements gathered through the course of the investigation "They bore the sole responsibility for the medical care," Metz told the court according to the book "Given Up for Dead," by Flint Whitlock "I ask you: Who must bear the responsibility Those comments don't sit well with Berga survivors medic who catalogued the deaths in a diary at the camp "Even the German guards were scared of him." Flip through Acevedo's diary from the slave camp » Berga survivors say they await any recognition from the Army that may come, especially after all these years. Morton Brooks, 83, said he constantly thinks about the day he was liberated. He was rail thin and had walked by political prisoners shot in the head during the forced death march. In the final hours before his rescue, his attitude was, "Let them kill us," he said. "I think all the time that I'm a survivor of this and I'm still around," said Brooks. "To me, it just amazes me. I don't know how I got through." Jim Martin said he's still trying to process his father's role as a forgotten American war hero, armed not with a gun, but a camera. First day of festivity features parade of dancing giants, demons and dragons with fire coming out of their mouths La Patum celebrations for adults began on Wednesday evening with a bang: thousands of people packed the iconic Plaça Sant Pere square and where the spirit of La Patum can be felt at every corner showing one more year that this annual festivity unites the northern Catalan town no matter the age and accompanies everyone in Berga throughout their lives the first of five nights began at 8pm with dancing old giants (Gegants Vells group) and dragons with fire coming out of their mouths (Guita Grossa) performing at the emblematic square La Patum is taking place with Berga residents as enthusiastic as ever the theatrical performance of the three groups performing on Wednesday were an incredible burst of joy and unity with thousands of people jumping and shouting at the same time with a band playing the folk songs linked with the celebration for centuries Party-goers raising their arms frantically defied the Guita Grossa dragon and its annual attempt to set fire to the town and its residents – this character turns 400 this year and the members of the group accompanying it make clear to Catalan News that the actual figure is four centuries old.  Berga's La Patum has medieval roots dating back at least 600 years and another group turning 400 (at least) is the Tabal those playing a namesake drum whose devilish sound will celebrate the anniversary of the first document that mentions it (1621) this year.  its characteristic constant beat led the celebrations that consisted of over 20 'salts' in Sant Pere square but also in several other locations across the town honoring local authorities The parade and party was expected to last until 2 to 4am on Thursday – but this will only be the beginning of a magic week: Saturday night will see the ritual of Wednesday repeated Sant Pere's square will be the main location for the celebrations – they are the biggest with all groups taking place and the ones attended by most people from outside Berga.  Recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage Such remarkable history and the fact that it is still going on nowadays explains why in 2005 the UNESCO included La Patum in its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage The UN specialized agency praised its uniqueness and artistic and historical value Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders Complete digital access to quality analysis and expert insights complemented with our award-winning Weekend Print edition Terms & Conditions apply Discover all the plans currently available in your country Digital access for organisations. Includes exclusive features and content. See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times. The Berga Hospital has admitted "significant irregularities" in their recruitment after it was found that a person had been working as a doctor for seven months at the health center despite having no medical training.  However, the hospital said that the woman was accompanied by a superior at all times, as she had said that she had only recently graduated.  A second hospital, the Dexeus-Quirón group, one of the biggest private hospitals in Barcelona, also announced on Friday that the fake doctor had worked with them for a period.  "She is very smart and cautious," the manager of the Berga Hospital, Antònia Baraldés, explained in a press conference on Friday. "It was only noticed that she asked her colleagues a lot of questions before making any report." Her colleagues did not notice any other irregularities.  The woman had not studied medicine or had any kind of training in this field. The hospital says there have been no complaints from patients and no anomalies in care given to patients.  Alert was first raised about the fake doctor's situation when a private company where the woman also wanted to work notified the hospital that she did not have the relevant degree. Immediately, the hospital removed the woman from her position, opened an internal investigation, and reported the fake doctor to the Catalan police. According to the center's internal investigation, there were significant irregularities in the recruitment process for the woman and as a result of this case, the head of HR has been dismissed.  "We consider that they did not do their job well", Baraldés explained, who added that the case was an "isolated" one, assuring that they have a "zero tolerance" policy for such errors. In a statement, the Metges de Catalunya doctors' union asked the Catalan health authorities for more control over recruitment to avoid another case of such professional fraud. The union considers that the shortage of doctors "cannot justify the laxity" in verifying candidates' training, skills, and work experience. "The controls must be exhaustive and the guarantees must be total."  By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy tamburins, the K-beauty brand owned by the eyewear brand Gentle Monster, continues to expand its fragrance range with a new Perfume Balm Prior to its latest release, the buzzy label dropped the Perfume Shell X — a cream version of its recently-launched scents “CHAMO,” “BERGA SANDAL” and “LALE.” In addition to the three the brand has added “SUEDE PEAR” to its solid perfume line the balm formula is packaged in a handy rectangular case perfect for carrying around and reapplying throughout the day Principal Patrick Deane stands with the 2023 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award The Distinguished Service Award reception was hosted recently at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts with Principal Patrick Deane presenting the awards to each of this year’s six recipients Inaugurated by the University Council Executive Committee in 1974 the Distinguished Service Award recognizes individuals who have made the university a better place through their exemplary service and extraordinary contributions Recipients are selected by the University Council Executive Committee Find out more about the Distinguished Service Award and the contributions and accomplishment of the recipients Media Contacts Florida (CNN) -- Samuel Fahrer and Sidney Lipson shake hands and smile It's the first time the men have seen each other in 64 years soldiers back on a forced death march in Nazi Germany in April 1945 and Samuel Fahrer meet for the first time in 64 years The men have endured years of contained emotions from what happened six decades ago when they were prisoners of war and held as slaves inside Germany They have come to a hotel in Orlando to be honored by the Army this weekend for the first time. Watch slave camp survivors reunite » Fahrer and Lipson were among 350 soldiers held at the slave labor camp called Berga an der Elster a largely forgotten legacy of the war and a subcamp of Buchenwald where soldiers were beaten starved and forced to work in tunnels to hide German equipment More than 100 soldiers died at the camp and on the death march. Buchenwald was one of the largest and first concentration camps on German soil. See photos inside Berga » The Berga soldiers are being honored thanks in part to CNN.com users The Army then conducted a months-long review of Berga at the urgings of Rep "These soldiers endured extreme hardships of forced labor and ultimately a forced march of over 250 kilometers [about 155 miles] prior to liberation by advancing U.S Armed Forces," Army Secretary Peter Geren said at the conclusion of the review "The survivors of Berga certainly deserve both our thanks and recognition for their service and sacrifice." Vincent Boles to honor the survivors on Saturday Six of the 22 Berga survivors will be at the event; most of those still living could not make it because of declining health Those here look forward to what the general has to say government commuted the death sentences of the two Berga commanders Both were tried for war crimes and initially sentenced to die by hanging until their commutations in 1948 "I'm very happy the Army is sending a general to see us," Fahrer says "But they should've sent the general to see us a long time ago when some of the fellas were still alive Fahrer was one of the primary survivors after the war who fought to get the government to carry out the death sentences for Metz and Merz "Things are beginning to break our way "Let's see what the general has to say when he gets here," Fahrer says His comrade, Morton Brooks, says, "I never wanted revenge, but I did think retribution would be proper. And I think they should've suffered a little bit longer for what they did. ... They wouldn't kick a dog, but they did that to us." Watch Morton Brooks describe the Germans' "work to death" program » "I'm glad to see you," Fahrer says Some of the Berga soldiers were killed in cold blood shot through the head and then machine-gunned His bullet-riddled body was placed in front of the barracks for all to see Bernard Vogel and Izzy Cohen were forced to stand without food and water for days Cohen was a 32-year-old father of two young children he kissed his family goodbye at a train station in California "Whatever happens happens." It was the last words he ever spoke to her Vogel's last words at Berga were: "I want to die! I want to die!" Hear Martin Vogel finally learn about his brother's final minutes » "They killed us slowly," Fahrer says so horrific that Sid Lipson doesn't remember much of anything about his captivity "I don't remember a damn thing from the march," he says "I think it's best." Brooks weighed 75 pounds when he was finally freed; Fahrer weighed 90 "The United States government did not acknowledge the fact that we were put in this slave labor camp," Fahrer says "We went through all these things and nobody wants to give us any help He says his time in captivity was a "$1 million experience that I wouldn't want to repeat for $2 million." His message to the world about the whole ordeal: "We have to learn to talk to one another and live together It's not necessary to go kill people for no reason." One of the survivors who won't be at this weekend's ceremony is Tony Acevedo, the U.S. medic who kept a diary inside Berga cataloguing the deaths and atrocities. It was Acevedo who CNN profiled in November, prompting a series of events culminating with the Pentagon deciding to honor the soldiers. See Acevedo's diary » tamburins, the cult-loved K-beauty label led by South Korean eyewear brand Gentle Monster, has unveiled its latest release — a cream-type fragrance dubbed Perfume Shell X Debuting in a campaign starring BLACKPINK‘s Jennie, the product is offered in three scents: “CHAMO,” “BERGA SANDAL” and “LALE,” which are from tamburins’ larger collection of 10 fragrances that launched earlier this fall. a 20-year-old Mexican American soldier named Tony Acevedo lay in the cold barracks of a Nazi concentration camp He pulled out a diary he kept hidden even from his comrades and began to write “Goldstein’s body was returned here today for burial — he was shot while attempting to re-escape. So they say, but actually was recaptured and shot through the [fore]head.” It was Private Morton Goldstein of Egg Harbor It’s largely thanks to the diary kept by the late Anthony “Tony” Acevedo that the world knows the fate of many American prisoners of the Nazis “His list was really one of the primary resources for our knowledge and the army’s knowledge of what the fate was for many of these men,” said Kyra Schuster of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum Why did you keep the list?’ Because certainly if he had been caught he would have been severely punished or beaten or possibly even killed for it And he just looked at me and said ‘It was my moral obligation to do so.'” Acevedo’s ‘moral obligation’ chronicled daily life at Berga a sub-camp of the Buchenwald concentration camp and a death march in the final weeks of World War II in Europe Holocaust survivor who registered with the museum,” Schuster said He was captured at the Battle of the Bulge, in January 1945. A month later, he was one of 350 American GIs selected to be slave laborers at Berga “It was hell,” he said in a 2013 oral history interview with the Holocaust museum “It was just one thought after another thought of praying that there wouldn’t be another day like this.” in 1924 to undocumented parents with Mexican citizenship His mother died when he was a toddler and his father his family was deported to Mexico and settled in Durango It helped him find the words he would live his life by: “If they treat you wrong this mantra developed in response to growing up with an abusive father “My grandfather would pistol-whip my father,” said Fernando And he would point to the neighbor down the street and say … ‘I wish you could be like him.'” Fernando said Tony’s response was always patience and compassion “What I remember about my dad is that he had this penetrating smile,” Fernando said because I was like a snot-nosed kid that was wondering why I couldn’t get my way about something or why things didn’t happen the way I wanted them to But there was something else Fernando remembers about his father or some part of the house where he would be able to be by himself and he would just start crying,” Fernando recounts When Acevedo was a teenager in Durango during the beginning of WWII he and a friend intercepted and deciphered a suspicious morse code message The two boys informed the authorities and two German agents who had allegedly been communicating with German submarines received a draft notice from the US Army soon after Pearl Harbor His unit arrived in France in December 1944 and was immediately rushed to the front to try to turn back the final German offensive of the war: what became known as the Battle of the Bulge his company was surrounded and forced to surrender Acevedo was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp in Bavaria according to his interview with the Holocaust museum they knew who he was; where he was born and where he grew up They taunted him about being deported because his parents were undocumented Acevedo said he was involved in getting two Germans in trouble with the authorities over a morse code communication They spent a night torturing him to try to get the truth he [the Gestapo] slapped my face,” Acevedo told the Holocaust museum in 2013 “Then he started to put needles in my fingernails.” but not in comparison to what was to come after about a month “We were forced to come out of the barracks and line up,” recalled Acevedo. There were about 4,000 GIs in the camp at that time “And then the commander said ‘All American Jews an order had arrived for 350 GIs who were to be used as slave laborers Acevedo recalled how Jewish GIs reacted to the line up in different ways. Some tried to etch out the letter H (for Hebrew) on their dog-tags or to bury them. Others, like his friend Norm Fellman refused to bury their identity and stepped forward Tony was impressed with how many men “held on to their faith.” The Germans started with the known Jewish soldiers “Then the commander came by,” recalled Tony pulled me … put me up front as an undesirable.” What followed is a familiar story to those who’ve studied the Holocaust but few know this happened to American POWs Acevedo remembered how the Germans put them on train crammed into a boxcar “like sardines … You couldn’t kneel The men scavenged snow from the sides of the car until they reached the concentration camp at Berga they took us to the cremation center to bathe us,” Acevedo said We thought they were going to cremate us.” The US soldiers passed corpses of gassed prisoners But Acevedo said that incident alone broke some of the men Any caught trying to escape — like Goldstein — were executed Acevedo started his diary slipping it inside his pants to hide it from the Germans with the allies closing in and snow still on the ground the Germans ordered the emaciated prisoners out of the camp They were forced to march for more than 200 miles — a death march They used a cart to carry those who couldn’t move and those who died were simply left where they fell the GIs saw groups of massacred civilians and even witnessed a massacre taking place “Up ahead we noticed that the Germans were slaughtering political prisoners,” said Acevedo but turned out to be they were Jewish fellows and families: children and some kneeled down and cried and kissed the ground because [of] the liberation.” Their rescuers refused to believe they were Americans at first Acevedo was 5’10” but he was down to just 87 lbs He remembers how he was pulled up onto the American tank “like a rag doll.” His buddy Norm also made it only about half of the 350 US POWs sent to Berga returned home the memory of liberation could still bring Tony Acevedo to tears  literally killed some of his friends just at the moment of liberation His artistic skill led him to a successful career in aerospace design yet his son Fernando remembers how Tony was almost always smiling “He was this dancing person,” Fernando said And he used to do this around the house with my mother Acevedo proudly flew the American flag and the POW flag on his lawn He was a conservative Republican but according to Fernando he had recently become concerned that politicians here in the US were pitting people against each other “He had a hard time with what he saw going on Tony Acevedo was a frequent guest speaker at schools and colleges across southern California to help prevent anything like the horror he experienced from happening again He warned students who scoffed that “it could happen.” He told the students that that there is only one way to fight hate You can read Acevedo’s full diary here.  delivered to your inbox every weekday morning Thanks to our sponsor PRX is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS: #263347402 Spain — A large Catalan independence flag hangs from the city hall of Berga a town of 16,000 inhabitants in the foothills of the Pyrenees the red-and-yellow striped design with a single star is also visible on almost all the surrounding buildings in the medieval square of Sant Pere reflecting the depth of feeling about Catalan nationalism in the town A few weeks ago, this flag briefly became the flashpoint for a confrontation between Madrid and Catalonia over the north-eastern region’s drive for independence from Spain at her home and took her to a nearby courtroom to appear before a judge The 31-year-old was accused of violating electoral laws by flying the Estelada from the town hall during the campaigns ahead of last year’s Catalan regional election and the Spanish general election Her arrest was specifically the consequence of her refusal to obey two earlier court summonses Nationalists in the region immediately seized on this as an example of the Spanish state repressing Catalan culture Throughout that November day, Venturós, of the leftist Popular Unity Candidacy (CUP), received messages of support from nationalists across the region. Among them was the Catalan premier, Carles Puigdemont who tweeted his backing to her “and all the elected officials who suffer persecution for their ideals.” Improvised demonstrations were held in other towns and that same morning the separatist Catalan National Assembly (ANC) designed a poster with an illustration of Venturós’ face next to the words “You’ll never walk alone.” It went viral dozens of supporters had gathered to cheer her Mayor of Berga Montse Venturós raises her fist as she leaves the courthouse in Berga in November 2016 | Pau Barrena/AFP via Getty Images This was just one of many clashes between Catalan politicians and the Spanish judiciary in recent months. The spotlight of nationalist outrage has since moved elsewhere, but Venturós’ CUP remains the fiercest expression of Catalan separatism in mainstream politics this anti-capitalist party has become a crucial player in the separatist drive — and one which could ensure the project’s success or bring it crashing to the ground ‘That’s Utopia,’” Venturós tells POLITICO in her office but who would have believed back then that right now we would be talking about a genuine separation of the Catalan institutions and Catalan people from the Spanish state?” The CUP is part of an eclectic front of secessionist parties that, following elections in September 2015, have been both governing Catalonia and pursuing a so-called “roadmap” towards independence The other partner in the alliance is Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes) itself a coalition of the center-right Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) and the Catalan Republican Left (ERC) These separatists treated last year’s regional election as a plebiscite on independence When Junts pel Sí won that vote but fell short of a majority in the 135-seat Catalan parliament but without formally entering the government these parties claimed their parliamentary majority gave them a mandate to push unilaterally towards independence — although they only had 48 percent of the popular vote Berga is deep in the Catalan nationalist heartland pro-independence parties accounted for 77 percent of votes here a figure that does not reflect the situation across the region with polls showing Catalans to be divided down the middle on the issue who is waiting to see if she must stand trial says her decision to hang the flag during two election campaigns was a deliberate “act of disobedience.” She justifies it by pointing to a statement of intent approved by the separatist front in the regional parliament in November 2015 which declared that the independence process “will not be subordinate to the decisions of the Spanish state [independence] becomes more imaginable for them’” — Enric Juliana “At some point — and it’s going to be quite soon — we’re going to have to carry out a massive act of civil disobedience in defiance of the Spanish state in the face of a right that is being denied to us,” she says She is referring to the next major stop on the roadmap: a referendum on independence that the Catalan government is planning for the fall of 2017 It has invited the Spanish government of Mariano Rajoy to bless the vote meaning the referendum would be technically illegal While its advocates insist that a referendum victory would trigger secession Rajoy has deemed such a vote and the entire roadmap unlawful “Without law there is no democracy,” he told the Senate in November “Catalans have an alarm inside them which says, ‘In case of emergency, break the glass,’” says the author and journalist Enric Juliana [independence] becomes more imaginable for them.” In recent years, Spain’s economic crisis and the institutional problems that accompanied it, such as a torrent of corruption scandals and voters’ loss of faith in their elites There are those who have long believed in the need for a separate state; then there are those who have converted to the cause because of tensions with the rest of Spain over recent years; and a third more calculating stratum sees the threat of independence as leverage in squeezing concessions from Madrid While many in the Junts pel Sí coalition are in the second and third categories socialism and feminism” are their guiding ideals and they have imposed on themselves strict moralistic guidelines including four-year caps on the tenures of their leaders and frugal salary limits (Venturós receives only €1,400 of the €2,700 she is entitled to each month) The CUP is also determined not to give ground on its principles. After last year’s regional election, the party stood firm on a promise not to support the continuation of Artur Mas of Junts pel Sí as Catalan regional premier and figurehead of the secessionist project His economic liberalism and the corruption scandals surrounding his PDECat party (then known as Convergència) jarred with the CUP’s austere anti-capitalism A last-ditch accord in January allowed Puigdemont to replace Mas spending cuts and graft scandals distance the CUP from its secessionist allies there is consensus on the grievances driving the independence movement CUP members burn a picture of Spain’s King Felipe during an anti-monarchy demonstration in Barcelona | Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images “We need independence because Catalonia pays a lot to the Spanish state and we get very little back,” says Rosa Prat a Berga local who is walking past the town hall “Independence would mean keeping that money here in Catalonia and things would improve a lot.” based on the fact that industry-heavy Catalonia is Spain’s wealthiest region Nationalists claim they pay €15 billion more each year to the central government than they receive back in investment; Madrid puts this figure at €8 billion Separatists believe the shortfall is visible in infrastructure such as Catalonia’s erratic rail network and its health care system But they point to a broader failure on the part of the Spanish state to understand their culture and language One recent example of this was in October, when the Constitutional Court rolled back a Catalan ban on bullfighting which was introduced five years earlier on the grounds that the region could not unilaterally decide such matters the courts have become a battleground for the conflict between Catalonia and Madrid Nationalists point to a litany of areas where political initiatives taken by their own regional parliament have been reversed by magistrates in Madrid while unionists see a rogue region overstepping its powers The most contentious instance of this was in 2010 when the Constitutional Court struck down several articles of a new statute granting increased powers to Catalonia despite the fact the document had been approved by Catalans in a referendum and by the Spanish Congress thus enshrined its reputation as “anti-Catalan.” The episode also undermined the faith of many Catalans in Spanish institutions As Rajoy has embarked on his second term as prime minister he has shown signs of wanting to take a less rigid approach to Catalonia The judge Santiago Vidal is one of many Catalans who converted to the independence cause in the wake of the statute furor he has become a vocal and controversial figure in his own right he was suspended by the judiciary for having drawn up a draft constitution for an independent Catalan state He sees two potential problems for the independence movement: a failure to secure more than 50 percent support in the referendum being planned; and the “unpredictable character” of the CUP their role is unquestionable and legitimate,” Vidal tells POLITICO in his office in Madrid a large independence flag hanging on the wall beside him “But whether they are convenient and of practical help is quite another issue and the truth is He worries the CUP’s radicalism might tarnish the independence movement’s image on the international stage “And nor does it help internally,” he adds “Because it creates extra obstacles to the already difficult conditions surrounding the development of the roadmap — the process — in a calm Tensions within the pro-independence front have become visible on several issues where the CUP has been determined to prioritize social justice with a giant ‘Estelada,’ the Catalan independence flag hanging from a balcony | David Ramos/Getty Images “Two things are happening in Catalonia at the same time,” says Juliana “There’s the unrest and anger fueled by the economic crisis which feeds separatist feeling but at the same time that feeds the internal tensions between the pro-independence parties.”  In recent weeks, as Rajoy has embarked on his second term as prime minister He has made a handful of what look like conciliatory appointments including deploying deputy prime minister Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría to lead his government’s management of the Catalan issue She has pledged “maximum willingness to intensify negotiations” and has started meeting with senior separatists But the independence movement is wary of this apparent change of tack especially given that Madrid’s previous toughness has been such an effective recruiting weapon columnist Francesc-Marc Álvaro described it as “a way of playing for time to see if separatist feeling dips.” Such initiatives certainly don’t impress the CUP which is struggling to maintain its purist principles while inching closer to achieving what once looked like no more than a utopian dream Corruption probes around the prime minister of Spain are coming to a head at a crucial moment for his fragile government With hundreds dead and Spaniards turning on their leaders parallels are being drawn with the 2004 Madrid train bombings Íñigo Errejón resigned and his former chief of staff was expelled in a snowballing scandal The Mossos d’Esquadra let the former Catalan leader slip through their hands in August No chances of going to church; but still our prayers are holding everyone up This day it reminded me of the hundreds of people attending mass at the cathedral in Durango This is an entry from the diary of Anthony Acevedo, which is housed inside the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington Acevedo was a former Army medic and a prisoner of war during World War II the 20-year-old Acevedo was held in captivity with other American soldiers inside a Nazi concentration camp called Berga building tunnels for underground fuel factories It was during this time that the Mexican-American medic kept a secret diary and documented the horrors he witnessed inside the camp Acevedo was liberated by American soldiers Acevedo held on to his war diary until 2010 he registered as a Holocaust survivor with the museum—the first and only Mexican-American to do so “He felt it was so important for the world to know exactly what happened to them with the hopes that this was would prevent it from ever happening again to others,” said Kyra Schuster ‘Mexicans Don’t Play Basketball’ This is to say that I had listened to NPR’s Latino USA about Anthony Acevedo’s reports about being in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945 and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. and Colette Steer are being recognized for making Queen’s a better place through their extraordinary contributions The 2023 recipients of the Distinguished Service Award are a group of community members and leaders who have each made a positive and lasting impact upon Queen’s University Recipients are selected by the University Council Executive Committee The Distinguished Service Award recognizes exemplary service to the university over an extended period of time “I am so inspired by the amazing work and contributions of this year’s Distinguished Service Awards recipients I have often said that Queen’s is not just ‘my’ university or ‘your’ university – it’s actually ‘our’ university And so it is only through our combined efforts that Queen’s will continue to be a place where excellence lives,” says Executive Committee Vice-Chair Marcus Wong (ArtSci’03) congratulations and thank you for everything you have done The 2023 recipients of the Distinguished Service Awards are: A trusted associate of five Queen’s principals since 1978 who has provided critical support to senior leadership and played an integral role in a multitude of operations and dedication to the betterment of the university A professor in the Department of history since 1996 and an inspiring academic leader Errington has made enduring contributions to graduate supervision Departmental Manager of the Biomedical and Molecular Sciences and a dedicated staff member since 1978 Lister has proven to be a critical facilitator of growth in undergraduate programming in the Faculty of Health Sciences who is wholly committed to the learning experience of all students Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship and professor at the Smith School of Business Murray is an innovative thinker and pioneer who created and prioritized entrepreneurial opportunities for students changing the landscape of business education at Queen’s and across the country Head Librarian for the Faculty of Education Reed is dedicated to ensuring that students have access to the resources they need has provided leadership and guidance in learning and research services and cares deeply about the success of students for the School of Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs and tireless name reader at Convocation ceremonies Involved in all aspects of the graduate student experience Steer has worked to ensure every opportunity for the success of each graduate student at Queen’s University Council was established by statute in 1874 and is one of the three governing bodies of the Queen’s University All elective members are elected by and from Queen’s alumni The University Council serves as both an advisory and an ambassadorial body to the university as a whole and is responsible for the election of the chancellor Questions about the Distinguished Service Awards can be directed to the University Secretariat at ucouncil@queensu.ca.