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AGAWAM When Michele Urbinatis grandfather, a 20-year Air Force veteran, died several years ago, she began raising money in his honor for Wreaths Across America. It hosts a wreath-laying event every December at the Massachusetts Veterans Cemetery in Agawam as part of National Wreaths Across America Day.
The Robinson Park School preschool teacher started raising money in 2016. Urbinati makes crafts to sell at fairs and farmers markets, gets donations from local businesses, sells 50-50 raffles at Agawam Youth Football games and organizes a district dress-down day for Agawam school staff that this year raised $2,000.
People support me because its such a good cause and because many have family members at the cemetery, she said. They also appreciate that what I raise stays local.
As the spouse of a veteran, Urbinatis grandmother is also interred at the cemetery. Every year at Christmas, her grandfather placed a wreath on his wifes grave. That personal family tradition continues today as part of Wreaths Across America. Urbinati will be among 1,500 people expected at this years wreath-laying on Dec. 17.
Paul Barabani is president of Friends of the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery at Agawam and a co-location coordinator for Wreaths Across America. He said efforts by Urbinati and many other wreath sponsors raised enough money for more than 9,000 wreaths which cost $15 each to ensure every Christian headstone will have a wreath.
When this program began at the Agawam cemetery in 2011, we estimate there were only 150 wreaths, he said. That number has increased each year, with full coverage reached in 2017 and every year since.
The purpose of the event is not to decorate the cemetery, he explained, but to remember every veteran at rest at Agawam.
The collective result of individual acts of remembrance creates a memorable visual demonstration of our respect for veterans much like the iconic image of wreaths placed at Arlington National Cemetery, where this tradition started.
What became Wreaths Across America began in 1992 when Morrill Worcester, owner of Worcester Wreath Company in Maine, realized his company had a surplus of wreaths near the end of the holiday season. He arranged for those wreaths to be placed at Arlington National Cemetery, starting what is now an annual tribute to veterans.
This homage to veterans was largely unnoticed until 2005 when a photo of the Arlington headstones adorned with wreaths and covered in snow gained nationwide attention. National and state cemeteries soon began replicating what had been done at Arlington.
Wreaths Across America is important to families of veterans who are buried at the cemetery, said Barabani.
Families with members in the service have an empty seat at the table that is always more impactful during the holiday season, he said. For Gold Star families, that seat will forever be vacant. Other families throughout the region also have loved ones at rest in the cemetery.
Barabani said families come together for this day of remembrance to pay respects to their loved ones service, and take strength in being joined by others from the community.
Its a powerful, emotional, uplifting experience to see such a response while realizing that the same thing is happening at more than 3,400 locations across our nation and overseas, he said.
He said wreath sponsorships at the Agawam cemetery extend beyond the town, with numerous out-of-state sponsors. Some local groups that sponsored wreaths this year include Doering School, Veterans Dragon Boat USA, Massachusetts Combat Wounded Veterans, Southwick Regional School and Friends of the Agawam Veterans Cemetery.
So many volunteers have showed up to lay wreaths that in 2019 organizers had to begin a shuttle service between the cemetery and off-site parking at Six Flags New England.
Event attendance outgrew the cemetery as well as its Main Street entrance, Barabani said. The year before, cars were parked for a mile in either direction from the entrance.
Barabani said Six Flags officials immediately agreed to let the event use their parking lot at 1623 Main St., Agawam, and have been a strong supporter of WAA ever since. Dennis King, an Agawam resident, Coast Guard veteran and owner of King-Gray Coach Lines, provided his companys coach buses.
The parking and shuttle service has contributed to the growth in popularity of our annual event, said Barabani. He added that using buses also allows bus ambassadors to make administrative announcements during the ride to the cemetery so the ceremonys focus is on remembering veterans. Shuttles begin running after the parking lot opens at 8 a.m.
Local television newscaster Dave Madsen will host the opening ceremony, which starts at 10 a.m. Barabani said the ceremony will be a professional and emotional tribute to our nation and those who served to preserve our freedom.
The ceremony will begin with a Vietnam veteran singing the national anthem, followed by placing wreaths in tribute to current members of the six military branches, the nearly 94,000 POW or MIA service members, and Gold Star families.
There will be a rife salute by the cemeterys volunteer firing detail while two Agawam brothers, Gabe and Christian Rua, will sound taps. The ceremony will conclude with three sixth graders from Doering School singing a traditional patriotic song.
Wreaths will be distributed at five locations throughout the cemetery about 1,800 wreaths at each site. Two teams each from Barnes Air National Guard Base and Westover Air Reserve Base, and one team from the Eversource Veterans Association will distribute wreaths to volunteers, who will be asked to place them respectfully at all headstones displaying a Christian symbol.
To provide community input into the event, Barabani works with an advisory board. Members include Mike Brunetti, co-location coordinator; Jennifer Gannett, chief of staff from the mayors office; Kathy Goyette-Jediny, Doering School teacher; Dennis King from King-Gray Coach Lines; Chris Lanski, director of veteran services for the district that includes Agawam; Aldo Mancini, chair of the Agawam Veteran Council; and Les Tingley, Agawams cable access television and media manager.
Barabani said Wreaths Across America is driven by grateful Americans who give freely of their time and resources, sponsor wreaths and gather to express their appreciation for those who preserved freedom.
Motivated by love of family and freedom, the event at the Agawam veterans cemetery is the most meaningful patriotic event in the region, he said.
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Wreath-laying event will honor veterans buried in Agawam - Reminder Publications
This article has been updated to reflect the correct percentages of DLBCL patients who are cured and who relapse.
NEW ORLEANS An analysis presented at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting supports the routine analysis of minimal residual disease in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphomas using Foresight Diagnostics' PhasED-Seq circulating tumor DNA test as a surrogate endpoint in future studies.
Mark Roschewski, clinical director of the National Cancer Institute's Lymphoid Malignancies Branch, presented a pooled analysis from five clinical trials and reported that patients' MRD levels during and at the end of therapy as determined by PhasED-Seq were associated with progression-free survival and had high prognostic value compared to conventional response criteria using PET and CT scans. The news comes as Foresight is preparing to launch a lab-developed test based on the PhasED-Seq platform in 2023.
Roschewski's team pooled data generated by PhasED-seq MRD from prospective clinical trials evaluating chemotherapy combined with AstraZeneca's Calquence (acalabrutinib), Bristol Myers Squibb's Revlimid (lenalidomide), Roche's Gazyva (obinutuzumab) and Polivy (polatuzumab), and MorphoSys/Incyte's Monjuvi (tafasitamab). The study also drew on a large repository of tumor tissue collected by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Investigators analyzed tumor or plasma and peripheral blood mononuclear cells before, during, and at the end of therapy.
Median ctDNA levels decreased in both progressors and non-progressors after one cycle of therapy, Roschewski said. "But after two or three cycles, [ctDNA levels] were commonly undetectable in non-progressing patients, but remained detectable in most patients who ultimately progressed," he said. "This pattern continued, but was even more pronounced as 16 of 17 patients that ultimately progressed still had measurable residual disease by PhasED-Seq, while most patients who are currently progression-free had undetectable ctDNA."
The clinical sensitivity of the PhasED-Seq test was 94 percent for detecting future progression events with lead times as long as 30 months. On the other hand, 69 out of 70 patients who were MRD-negative at the end of therapy remained progression-free after a median follow-up of 17 months.
"The prognostic significance of achieving undetectable ctDNA appeared to increase throughout therapy," said Roschewski. "Achieving undetectable ctDNA after any of the first three cycles of therapy was indeed prognostic for predicting progression or death but it was the persistence of detectable DNA at the end of therapy that was the most prognostic and that identified patients with a markedly worse prognosis compared to those without detectable ctDNA."
PhasED-Seq, developed by Stanford University researchers Max Diehn and Ash Alizadeh, harnesses the co-location of two or more mutations in ctDNA to reduce sequencing errors and increase sensitivity of MRD measurements. Foresight has been working to integrate PhasED-Seq MRD testing in DLBCL as part of the standard of care for identifying patients who have not fully responded to therapy.
The data presented at this meeting, the investigators said, demonstrated the analytic sensitivity of PhasED-Seq to detect ctDNA at very low levels. Among patients who experienced eventual disease progression or died, 35 percent had ctDNA at the end of therapy at levels near or below 1 in 10,000 by PhasED-Seq. "These cases at least suggest that assays that are less sensitive would have considered them to be undetectable," said Roschewski.
He concluded that end-of-therapy MRD status measured via PhasED-Seq could enhance current response criteria and holds promise as a surrogate clinical trial endpoint. To that end, he said, "clinical trials for large-cell lymphoma, in my opinion, should prospectively collect plasma at baseline during therapy and at the end of therapy for analysis of MRD."
Roschewski added that because the trials included in the pooled analysis are ongoing, some patients who have not yet progressed may still do so. "We have to follow these patients for a long time to truly call them a non-progressor," he explained. "At least in patients at our institution, we do have serial samples, and one of the plans is to follow them over time and see if you can get some patterns."
"In terms of our commercialization strategy, we've been focused on generating the evidence required to support adoption of this test clinically," said Foresight Cofounder and CEO Jake Chabon. "The data that [Roschewski] showed clearly demonstrated that using a single end-of-therapy time point, a single blood draw following the completion of curative intent chemotherapy in those patients, our test could very robustly identify which patients are cured and which patients will later experience a disease relapse. That's a major unmet clinical need right now."
Chabon noted that while the standard of care for assessing response following therapy in DLBCL is PET and CT imaging, many patients that will later relapse have no disease visible in scans. In contrast, Roschewski presented data at the meeting showing that PhasED-Seq MRD could identify which patients in complete remission according to imaging tests still have disease and which patients are likely cured with a sensitivity above 95 percent.
"That would give patients real peace of mind following the completion of therapy to know there is a 95 percent chance or greater that they are cured," said Chabon. "Whereas right now, in the clinical setting, it's more like a 60 to 70percent chance they're cured and a 30 to 40 percent chance their disease may come back."
Although, in theory, earlier detection could have value for guiding cancer treatment, Alizadeh, who serves as Foresights chief medical adviser, said, "there is no direct evidence to show that treating MRD in the absence of radiographic evidence of disease improves outcomes." That means that patients who test MRD-positive without such radiographic evidence may not receive treatment, but at least their doctors can make a case for them to be closely monitored for signs of recurrence through imaging. "But when patients have bona fide evidence of disease a few months afterwards, instead of neglecting the patients, you've caught a patient at the lowest disease burden," Alizadeh said.
On the industry side, Foresight wants to incorporate its PhasED-Seq platform into drug development. "It could enable faster drug development if this test were to be adopted or accepted by the FDA for use as an early endpoint [in therapy trials]," Chabon said.
Foresight has a number of studies underway, continuing to evaluate PhasED-Seq MRD in DLBCL and also in solid tumors. Meanwhile, it has established a centralized laboratory in Colorado for the PhasED-Seq test. Although initially Foresight will market PhasED-Seq as a lab-developed test, Chabon said that because the platform has the same workflow for every patient, it is amenable to other formats via partnerships with international laboratories or development as a kit.
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Study Shows Value of Routine MRD Analysis Using Foresight's ... - Precision Oncology News
The West Bottoms might be known for its vintage shops, but a just-opened maker collective full of new retail is hoping to add to the neighborhoods narrative.
12th Street Post a mixed-use retail space with about 80 local makers and vendors at 1501 West 12th St. celebrated its grand opening Dec. 2.
12th Street Post
The new project is led by Austin Mosier, who owns West Bottoms Plant Co. and Untamed Supply with his partner Tristan Carlson.
Its just a little something different in the West Bottoms, Mosier said. We do have a small vintage and thrifted area. But its all mostly new products all made by Kansas City (vendors) and then lots of plants, of course. I love all the vintage, but its fun to be a little different. Were the newbie down here.
12th Street Post has something for everyone, said maker Annie Austen whose jewelry and accessories are featured in the shop and the space has the potential to bring a different crowd to the West Bottoms.
Really providing representation to the 70-plus local makers that are represented in here is so important to us, she said, but also just adding a little different flair to that typical West Bottoms fare. I love a vintage find. I love shopping in the West Bottoms and this really just expands upon all the fun things that are happening here already.
After having to move out of their former West Bottoms Plant Co. location at 11th and Mulberry streets, Mosier said they were hoping for room to quickly grow, although the historic post office building has a little more space than they bargained for.
12th Street Post
This was really one of the only spaces available in the West Bottoms, he explained. We kind of wanted to upsize, but we didnt know it was gonna be this big necessarily. Then we just ended up having a group of friends who also were needing spaces. So it kind of happened very naturally. We havent really had to look for people to be artists here.
The retail space in the new building is about three times bigger, according to Mosier, which has allowed them to double the number of local makers that they carry.
Were still kind of growing that, too, he added.
Annie Austen with a customer in the 12th Street Post studio space
On top of the retail space, 12th Street Post will offer studio and working spaces. The resident businesses include Amity & Vine Salon (which offers pay-what-you-can hair cuts and complimentary yoga classes), Annie Austen, MackBecks, Motion House Studio, Untamed Supply, and West Bottom Plant Co.
For Austen whose jewelry and accessories can also be found at Shop Local KC and Bella Patina in the West Bottoms having the studio space is a game changer for the business she started during the pandemic, she said.
Click here to read more about Annie Austen and her business.
We started it in our house and everything kind of took off quicker than what we expected, she continued. When we were sort of manifesting as a dream studio space, we really wanted to be in a collective environment where we werent just isolated in some specific shop. We were going to be in an environment where other people were growing their businesses, as well, and where we could also monetize whatever space we were in. So its perfect for us. We are able to have a booth and events downstairs. We have our studio upstairs for private events or for me to make a mess and work away.
Austin Mosier, 12th Street Post
Mosier is hoping to be able to host pop-ups, charity events and artist fairs in the expanded space, he said. The shop also is planning Third Thursday events, which will allow customers to tip extra in order to gift a shopping or service experience to someone else.
They also would like to eventually add a coffee bar or space with grab-and-go food, Mosier added.
12th Street Post is about celebrating community and the incredible businesses that are excited about collaborating in a unique shared space that supports creating, he explained in a news release. Were so excited to reinvigorate shopping in the West Bottoms in a new way that offers customers the chance to meet the owners behind the business, explore unique pop-ups, and experience a new way to shop and support local.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit http://www.kauffman.org and connect at http://www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdnandwww.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
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'Newbie' maker collective adds gifts, plants and untamed flair with ... - Startland News
LEBANON, Pa. (WHTM) A family-owned cafe and bakery named Mill 72 is soon opening a new location in Lebanon County.
Mill 72, established back in 2018, officially opened its first location in Manheim in February 2019, according to co-owner of Mill 72 Brian Miller.
The cafe and bakerys name, Mill 72, is representative of two things, according to its website:
Mill 72 offers many different food and beverage options to its customers offering over 20 different specialty coffee/tea drinks, fresh baked pastries, all-day breakfast and lunch, salads, sandwiches, soups, and more, according to its website.
The cafe and bakery also have two other locations based in Manheim one location offers a full food and beverage menu, whereas the smaller location by the Pleasant View Communities offers just drinks and pastries.
Mill 72s Manheim locations can be found at:
According to Miller, the family decided on their new location in Lebanon County for a multitude of reasons, starting with being closer to one of their daughters who recently moved out to Lebanon. Mill 72 was also in need of more kitchen space due to growing demand for their products, which is why they chose to move into a 5,000-square-foot space.
With the opening of its third location, Mill 72 expects to create 12-15 mainly part-time jobs. According to Miller, the Lebanon Mill 72 has multiple available positions that they are hiring for, such as bakers, line cooks, and baristas.
Mill 72s new location is expected to open in spring 2023, according to Miller. The new Mill 72 will be located on 1784 Quentin Road in Lebanon, right off of Rt. 72 adding to the already increasingly noticeable development in that part of Lebanon. Currently, the family believes the new Mill 72 will share similar hours to their Manheim locations, which are:
One of the things we really want others to know is that this is more than just a business for us, Miller said. This is a place for the community to gather and enjoy.
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Family-owned, Lancaster-based cafe and bakery coming to Lebanon County - ABC27
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Discord is expanding on Connections, a feature that allows users to show what music they're listening to (among other things), by providing a way for folks to verify their identity using accounts on other platforms. Starting in the next few weeks, admins will be able to offer dedicated server roles to users who have authenticated profiles with accounts elsewhere.
The core idea behind these Linked Roles is to provide a stronger sense of trust. The platforms that support this feature at the outset are Xbox, PlayStation, Steam, Epic Games, Battle.net, League of Legends, Riot Games, Reddit, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, GitHub, Crunchyroll, PayPal and eBay. Discord bots for Destiny 2 (Charlemagne) and Roblox (Bloxlink) support Linked Roles too.
Discord
You can show these connected accounts on your Discord profile, along with certain details like your follower count or eBay seller feedback rating. If you're selling your art on Discord, for instance, you can indicate to potential customers that the work on a DeviantArt profile is actually yours, since the accounts will be linked. Discord admins and moderators can also choose to offer server roles with perks, such as access to certain channels, to users who authenticate their accounts with Connections and meet various conditions.
Admins will be able to select the parameters for unlocking Linked Roles. They can stipulate, for instance, that a user needs to link to a Steam account that's a certain number of days old and/or has a minimum number of Dota 2 or Team Fortress 2 items to show that they're genuine players. From a server's dropdown menu, users will be able to view the requirements for each Linked Role. Each role will automatically be granted to their profiles when they meet the conditions.
Discord
Discord is keeping privacy in mind here. Admins and moderators won't automatically gain access to info from your Connections even if you've already linked accounts before joining a server. You'll need to manually opt-in to a server's Linked Roles before details from your connected accounts are accessible. Moreover, if you're eligible, you can snag a Linked Role on a server without having to show any details from your Connections on your profiles. Discord can handle things on the back end without admins or moderators being able to see your info.
Linked Roles build on previous Connections features, such as being able to show off whatever Xbox or PlayStation game you're playing on your Discord profile. Discord is rolling out Linked Roles at a time when Twitter is upending its approach to account verification. Cross-platform authentication can help to verify a person's identity. You'll be able to tell, for instance, if a Discord profile actually belongs to a big name Instagram, YouTube or TikTok creator thanks to those accounts being linked.
Discord
Meanwhile, Discord is starting to roll out green checkmarks next to Connections for certain services. The icon will show that the connected app is from a vetted developer. Discord says this will "help establish an important level of trust between apps from developer partners and the millions of users who interact with those apps every day across Discord."
As of today, 22 of these "official" apps are available. Next year, Discord will start offering an application process for developers who want to have their apps designated as official. In the meantime, using a new API, developers can create or update apps to support Connections features.
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Discord users can soon verify their identities with linked accounts - Engadget
Earlier this week, Microsoft released the December 2022 Patch Tuesday updates for various supported versions of Windows. Now, the company has warned that the latest Windows Server updates could prevent IT admins from creating new virtual machines (VMs) in some Hyper-V hosts.
After installing KB5021249 on Hyper-V hosts managed by Software Defined Networking (SDN) configured System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), you might receive an error on workflows involving creating a new Network Adapter (also called a Network Interface Card or NIC) joined to a VM network or a new Virtual Machine (VM) with a Network Adapter joined to a VM network, Microsoft explained on the Windows Health Dashboard.
Specifically, IT admins could encounter Ethernet connection errors while creating a new virtual machine or a network adapter on an existing virtual machine. Additionally, these errors might appear when the SLB Load Balancer or SDN RAS Gateway services fail. Administrators may also see Ethernet connection warning messages during live migrations of non-highly available VMs.
The issue only affects new network adapters created after installing the latest Patch Tuesday updates (KB5021237 and KB5021249) on Windows Server 2019 and Windows Server 2022. However, it doesnt cause connection issues for existing VMs with network adapters.
Thankfully, Microsoft says that its engineers are currently working on a fix that should be arriving in the near future. As a workaround, Microsoft suggests users to run the following commands in PowerShell with administrator privileges:
$lang = (Get-WinSystemLocale).NameC:Windowssystem32wbemmofcomp.exe C:Windowssystem32wbem$langVfpExt.mflC:Windowssystem32wbemmofcomp.exe C:Windowssystem32wbemVfpExt.mof
Microsoft has provided a dedicated script to help organizations with large-scale deployments on the SCVMM Management Server. Moreover, there is also a post-installation script that can be used with patching tools. IT admins can download both scripts from this support page.
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Microsoft to Fix New Bug Breaking Hyper-V VMs in Windows Server - Petri.com