Traffic reports say the lorry shed its load at the Beddingham roundabout.

A spokesman for Highways England said: At 10.27am a HGV shed its load of a trio of stainless steel crates, weighing around a tonne each, on the A27 Lewes Beddingham Roundabout.

Narrow lanes were deployed and are still in place.

Estimated time of arrival for recovery is 45 mins to clear the crates, after which well be able to lift the narrow lanes.

No delays at current.

A Sussex Police spokesman added: At 10.17am on Tuesday (December 1), police responded to a report of a lorry shedding its load on the Beddingham roundabout where the A27 joins the A26.

The road was partially blocked by three one tonne steel items.

A ticket was issued to the driver for insecure load.

The Highways Agency were also called to the scene to remove the items blocking the road.

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A27 at Lewes partially blocked after lorry sheds its load - Sussex Express

Erie Times-News

Blind cat gets second chance as therapy animal

Christy Santoro dedicates her life to helping cats in need. When she was introduced to a cat with no eyes, it changed her life forever.

They make them big in Maine. Cats, that is.

The Maine coon the state cat of Maine is not only one of the largest domestic cat breeds, but also one of the most popular in the United States. It ranks fifth among the 45 breeds recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association. The laid-back cats enjoy playing in water, take well to walking on-leash, are known to play fetch, demonstrate mousing prowess, and are usually happy to keep four on the floor instead of seeking out the heights that attract other cats.

No one really knows how the breed was developed, but there are a number of fanciful stories behind its origin. One is that the first Maine coon was the result of a hookup between a cat and a raccoon or in some tales, a domestic cat and a bobcat. It's easy to see why those stories popped up, given the Maine coon's long, bushy tail said to resemble that of a raccoon and pointed ear tufts (known as lynx tips), like those of a bobcat.

It's also suggested that they made their way to North America some 1,000 years ago, arriving with Vikings who came, saw, and went back home perhaps leaving some of their cats behind to colonize the new land. The Maine coon and the Norwegian forest cat share a resemblance, although breed experts can point out differences in head shape and body type. Another theory is that Maine coons descend from six of Marie Antoinette's Angora cats, sent to New England in advance of the French queen. Not as lucky as her cats, she was unable to escape before being taken into custody.

More: Activist uses billboards, petition, email in Erie anti-cat-declawing campaign

The most likely origin story is that New England sea captains and sailors brought home long-haired cats from exotic ports, and that those cats then mixed with the local domestic cats to create the medium- to long-haired beauties we know today. In 1895, a brown tabby Maine coon named Cosey took Best in Show at the National Cat Show at Madison Square Garden, going home with a silver collar now on display at the Cat Fanciers Association's Feline Historical Museum in Alliance, Ohio (sadly, closed indefinitely due to COVID-19).

Nicknamed "gentle giant," or sometimes "coonasaurus," Maine coons can weigh as much as 25 pounds.It can be a surprise when they open their mouth and out comes a small trill, chirp or coo, as well as the usual meows and purrs, all delivered in a quiet tone of voice.

Other distinctive characteristics include a ruff around the neck; tufted paws; soft fluffs of fur, known as furnishings, inside the ears (protecting the delicate interior from snow, ice and chilly temperatures); and a coat that comes in a wide variety of colors and patterns. Brown tabby is the classic Maine coon look, but the cats also come in solids, calico, tortoiseshell, parti-color (one color plus white), and more. The only colors or patterns you won't see are chocolate, lavender and Himalayan (pointed).

These cats shed up a storm. If you take one home, grooming will become an important part of your life. It's often said that Maine coons don't mat excessively, but that's only true if you comb or brush them out at least weekly. More often is better. One health issue to be aware of is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the most common form of heart disease in cats. Using a genetic test, breeders can screen adult cats for the mutation that causes HCM before breeding them. Walk away from kittens whose parents haven't been tested.Maine coons' large size also makes them prone to hip dysplasia, which you may have thought only affected dogs.

For mouse patrol and companionship, you can't go wrong with a Maine coon. Given good care and nutrition, the furry giants can live 12 to 15 years or even more.

More: Erie County pet cemetery is the final resting place for Bonzo and plenty of family pets

Pet Connection is produced by a team of pet-care experts headed by veterinarian Marty Becker and journalist Kim Campbell Thornton of Vetstreet.com. Joining them is dog trainer and behavior consultant Mikkel Becker.

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Pet Connection: The first pedigreed cat 'made in America,' the Maine coon has its charms - GoErie.com

The deal includes its shareholding in AXA Gulf, AXA Cooperative Insurance Company and AXA Green Crescent Insurance Company. As part of the transaction, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, a conglomerate in the Gulf Region, will also sell its shareholding in AXA Gulf and in AXA Cooperative Insurance Company. Under the terms of the agreement, AXA will sell its ownership in its operations in the Gulf region for a total cash consideration of US$269 million.

Simplification of AXAs holdings continues

Thomas Buberl, CEO at AXA, commented: This transaction marks another step in AXAs continued simplification journey. We are convinced that AXAs operations in the Gulf region will benefit from GIGs leadership and scale in the region, to further pursue their focus on delivering growth and excellent customer service.

I would like to thank the management teams and all the employees of our operations in the Gulf region for their continuous contribution and engagement over the years and wish them all the success for the future.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of regulatory approvals, and is expected to close by 3Q 2021.

Recently, private healthcare company AXA PPP rebranded and is now AXA Health, by uniting AXAs health insurance (AXA PPP healthcare and Health-on-Line) and employee support brands (Health Services/ICAS-UK).

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AXA sheds Gulf insurance operations - ITIJ

An overnight fire damaged a shed and garage in Colebrookdale Township and remains under investigation.

The fire started in a shed to the rear of 962 W. Philadelphia Ave. at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday, officials said.

The fire was spotted and called in by an Eastern Berks Regional Police officer, and firefighters had it under control in about 30 minutes, officials said.

The shed sustained heavy fire damage, while an attached garage had only smoke and water damage, said Jeff Bealer, public information officer for Boyertown Area Fire and Rescue.

An SUV inside the garage also sustained smoke and water damage. A carport attached to the shed was not damaged, he said.

The fire appears to have been accidental, but the cause is still being investigated, according to Bealer.

A damage estimate was not yet available.

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Fire damages shed and garage in Colebrookdale Township - Boyertown Berk Montgomery Newspapers

Research has shed new light on the genetic risk factors that make individuals more or less susceptible to severe COVID-19.

The findings by researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC Boston, MA, USA) illuminate the mechanisms underlying COVID-19, and potentially open the door to novel treatments for the disease. A growing body of genetic evidence from patients in China, Europe and the US links COVID-19 outcomes to variations in two regions of the human genome, although the statistical association fails to explain how the differences modulate disease. In order to do that, scientists need to understand which proteins these sections of the genome code for and the role these proteins play in the body in the context of disease.

Over the last decade, the BIDMC researchers have generated exactly such a database - an immense library of all the proteins and metabolites associated with various regions of the human genome. When the researchers looked up one genomic hot spot found to be associated with COVID-19 disease severity, they quickly realized that the very same region was linked to a protein that has recently been implicated in the process by which the SARS-CoV-2 virus infects human cells. The second region was linked to a poorly understood protein that appears to play a role attracting immune cells called lymphocytes to sites of infection, which also merits further study. Early analyses from their work also suggest that these genetic variants and proteins may vary across races. Taken together, these findings provide important contributions as the scientific community works rapidly to understand the mysteries of COVID-19.

Groups are increasingly finding genomic hotspots related to diseases, but its often not clear how they impact the mechanisms of disease, said Robert E. Gerszten, MD, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at BIDMC, who led the study. We leveraged our huge database - its more than 100 terabytes worth of data - to very quickly determine that the protein most highly expressed by that region turned out to be a co-receptor for the virus that causes COVID-19, suggesting that this might be a target for therapeutic interventions. The so-called antibody cocktails currently available mostly target the spike proteins on the virus. In turn, our work identifies which proteins in the human body that SARS-CoV-2 and other coronaviruses latch on to.

Related Links:Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)

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Research Sheds New Light on Genetic Risk Factors That Make Individuals More or Less Susceptible to Severe COVID-19 - HospiMedica

Tests of wastewater from across Maine have shown a steady increase in COVID-19 cases in recent months, offering additional, localized insight into the spread of the coronavirus.

Some Maine colleges, meanwhile, have successfully used the stuff flushed down the toilet to detect and isolate cases before they lead to larger outbreaks. St. Josephs College, for instance, has found infected-but-asymptomatic individuals on campus after following the virus trail to specific buildings.

The wastewater has given us the tip off, said Oliver Griswold, a spokesman for the small, private college in Standish. In both of the two outbreaks weve had, we heard from the wastewater first.

Still, it would take more frequent and robust screening to turn the states massive network of toilets into an early warning system for infection spikes.

Individuals infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 shed fragments or genetic markers of the virus in waste. While research suggests the amount of active or live virus in feces is low, laboratories can detect and then amplify active or inactive markers as another way to detect trends before they begin showing up in the daily case counts.

This is allowing us to get a finger on the pulse of whats going on in the community, said Yolanda Brooks, an assistant professor of biology at St. Josephs College whose team has been testing samples from the Portland Water District, Yarmouth and the campus community.

The Portland Water District has been collecting weekly samples from its East End treatment plant in Portland and its Westbrook/Gorham facility for COVID-19 testing since July. Test results show levels of virus materials increasing starting in September and spiking in late-October. That correlates with surging case numbers within surrounding communities in recent weeks as Maine has seen the highest rates of infections and deaths since the pandemic arrived in Maine in March.

Traces of the virus in samples from the Westbrook/Gorham treatment plant, for instance, increased by a magnitude of 10 between Sept. 1 and Nov. 3. While Brooks said federal officials caution against estimating the number of infections in an area based on wastewater results, she noted that Westbrook/Gorham had just a handful of cases on Sept. 1 and roughly 50 as of last week.

It does confirm a correlation, said Brooks, who has a doctorate in microbiology and a background in studying fecal pollution.

Other towns in Maine, including Yarmouth and Augusta, also have contracted with St. Josephs College or a national lab to conduct testing.

St. Josephs internal testing program, meanwhile, illustrates the enormous potential for wastewater monitoring.

Because St. Josephs has its own wastewater treatment system serving a relatively small population, staff have been able to use the testing results to zero in on clusters of cases in individual buildings.

The process begins by collecting a series of samples from each of the three wastewater lift stations that serve different sections of campus. By analyzing those results, Brooks and her colleagues can see whether levels of the viruss genetic markers have changed since the previous tests and, in the event of an increase, order building-level testing in that zone.

The college can then test individuals residing or working in buildings that have elevated levels of the virus markers. The vast majority of the students infected with COVID-19, to date, were asymptomatic but potentially contagious, so wastewater testing enabled college health officials to find and isolate them, said Griswold, the colleges spokesman.

The early warning piece of it has given the whole campus a sense of we are going to know early what is going on campus, Griswold said. Whereas if you are just doing individual testing, you are going to know only when you have a problem, not before you have a problem.

St. Josephs College has had 15 confirmed cases during the past two weeks, prompting administrators to transition all students to remote learning and send them home early this week before the Thanksgiving break.

Three campuses of the University of Maine System Orono, Fort Kent and the University of Southern Maine also have been testing wastewater for COVID-19 since September. More recently, the UMaine lab where the test is done recently started analyzing wastewater from the town of Orono and is working with the University of New England in Biddeford on testing.

Both the UMaine and St. Josephs labs use a testing system developed by IDEXX Laboratories in Westbrook. The veterinary services company has also partnered with the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention to provide the equipment and materials used to conduct thousands of COVID-19 tests daily on nasal swabs collected from individuals.

Robert Wheeler, associate professor of microbiology who leads the testing effort from his Orono lab, said virus levels in wastewater have been rising since September but the increase has not been steady. Wheeler noted that the various campuses have had lower numbers of infections among students and staff than their surrounding communities.

The combination of sensitive testing technology and low virus prevalence rates allows them to detect slight changes.

If we dont have any known cases but we are seeing the virus in the wastewater, that is a disconnect and triggers a discussion about where to direct additional testing, Wheeler said.

Like Portland, UMaines testing is only done weekly, which limits the ability to quickly detect trends. Wheeler said his lab hopes to expand capacity this spring.

Ideally we would be testing all of these places every day, he said. The University of Maine doesnt quite have all of the resources to do that and the State of Maine hasnt provided those resources as of yet.

Scott Firmin, director of wastewater services at the Portland Water District, said it would be up to the member communities about whether to increase testing frequency. Tests cost $120 per weekly sample during the first, three-month period of the pilot project, but the district has since extended the agreement with St. Josephs College lab at $380 per sample.

With all of the focus on fragments of the virus in wastewater, Firmin stressed that drinking water is safe.

We use dual water treatments, ozone and ultraviolet light, that effectively inactivate viruses and kill pathogens, Firmin wrote in an email. COVID-19 is mainly thought to spread between people who are in close contact with one another, not through water, according to the CDC. The EPA states that the presence of the COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking-water supplies and based on current evidence the risk to water supplies is low.

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Wastewater testing sheds light on COVID-19 trends - Portland Press Herald - Press Herald

A wave of wild weather crossing Victoria, in the form of a trough that brought thunderstorms and substantial rainfall, damaged roofs and brought down fences and trees across Ballarat and some other parts of western Victoria.

The regional city's State Emergency Service (SES) unit was the second-busiest in the state as units responded to 402 jobs in 24 hours.

Ballarat SES controller Gordon Hicks said a "very focused weather event" affected a few streets in Alfredton, a suburb of Ballarat.

"We had a house that lost a few tiles off the roof, we also had another house that lost a fair proportion of its metal roof," he said.

"There were some smaller sheds in backyards that were picked up and moved around and parts of air conditioners on roofs that came off the roof and ended up in backyards of other properties.

"So there were quite a few properties affected by this weather event."

He said Ballarat saw similar damage from localised storms six or seven times each year.

"Ballarat get these fairly regularly, we're no stranger to these weather events," Mr Hicks said.

"These are very focused weather cells."

Deputy controller Olivia Lorkin said the period stretching from mid-morning Sunday through to Monday had been one of the busiest, and wettest, for the year.

"We've seen some particular storm cells in the Alfredton area, we've also seen some jobs out in Miners Rest, Creswick and also out in Warrenheip as well," she said.

"We've been out in isolated areas that have been most impacted by the storm cells and the rain and some of the flash flooding that's happened."

A resident of Canopy Street in the Ballarat suburb of Alfredton, Angela, said her neighbours described seeing a lightning strike hit one house this morning.

"About 5.30 [we heard] a massive gust of wind we described it like a truck just revving and revving out the front of our house, something I've never heard before," she said.

"It was over probably in about 60 seconds, maybe 2 minutes, it was really quick and really short.

"People have lost roofs off their houses, other houses completely lost their fences."

Bureau of Meteorology data shows more than 40mm of rain fell in Ballarat in the 24-hour time period to 9am this morning.

The Ballarat data from the city's aerodrome recorded a wind gust of 57 kilometres per hour late Sunday afternoon and gusts up to 35kph this morning.

During that time 30mm was recorded at Warrnambool, 28.4mm was recorded at Mortlake and 11mm at Ararat.

A supermarket in Ballarat East had to be evacuated late Sunday afternoon after water started leaking through the roof.

Meanwhile the Bacchus Marsh SES unit assisted with a rescue of an injured hiker at Lerderderg Gorge on Sunday afternoon just before the rain hit.

The team helped winch the hiker to safety before hiking through the pouring rain to respond to six more calls for help in the town for building damage and flooding.

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Storm cell picks up sheds, tears off section of roofs in Alfredton, Ballarat - ABC News

Julia Jennings"BEYOND THE READING ROOM": Literary Scholar Susan Beegel and Special Collections and Archives Education and Outreach Librarian Marieke Van Der Steenhoven (left to right) discuss the effect of one of Harriet Beecher Stowe's most popular novels on summer tourism in Maine.

In the third installment of the Beyond the Reading Room virtual lecture series hosted by Bowdoin College Librarys George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections and Archives (Special Collections), literary scholar Susan Beegel joined the Bowdoin community over Zoom on Monday to explore the role of Harriet Beecher Stowes novel in transforming Orrs Island from a fishing village to a summer tourist attraction. The event was open to Bowdoin students, faculty and alumni, as well as members of the Brunswick community and broader Midcoast Maine.

Within the short span of time that Harriet Beecher Stowe spent in Brunswick during the mid-19th century, she irrevocably shaped the future of some of Maines coastal communities. Through the publication of The Pearl of Orrs Island, Stowe painted an image of mid-coast Maine so vivid that readers flocked to the Maine islands to see it for themselves.

I think the impulse of tourism and the impulse to read are often very much the same. I mean, what are we looking for? Were looking for beautiful places, interesting experiences, to meet characters; thats what books are made of and thats what tourism is made of, Beegel said.

The lecture specifically explored how Stowes fictitious interpretation of the Orrs Island community became a reality as community members jumped to meet the demand of tourists seeking the world that Stowe created through her work.

Beegel, a writer whose work examines American literature and history, has utilized SC and A for her research on Stowe while also actively helping to grow the College Librarys collections of materials relating to the life and writings of Stowe.

I grew up on an island off the coast of Maine where the population tripled in the summer, and

so it was really fun for me to kind of make those personal connections as a viewer of her talk, Marieke Van Der Steenhoven, Special Collections and Archives education and outreach librarian and an organizer of the event, said in a Zoom interview with the Orient. I also think that the thread throughout it, which resonates with the work that we do in Special Collections, is thinking about how history is constructedand reconstructed.

For this virtual series, Special Collections has welcomed a variety of scholars and artists, all of whom have some connection to the work of the Bowdoin Librarys collections. Previous lectures have featured Maureen Cummins, creator of artists books based on historical research, and Pamela Zabala 17, now a PhD student at Duke University, who has used archival research to contextualize racial bias incidents at Bowdoin. The final installment of the series will occur on December 3 with a lecture from Don Westfall 72 regarding his research on Bowdoins history of land acquisition in Maine.

Through the virtual lectures, the Special Collections staff hopes to maintain engagement and build a virtual community, as well as to explore the lived impacts of materials and the dynamic nature of the archive.

We started the series this semester [in] an attempt to try to connect Special Collections and Archives with people in the world, Van Der Steenhoven said. Normally we do programming that brings people into the reading room for hands-on or close encounters with materials, and so it seemed like a natural thing to doto move beyond the reading room and to think about how the materials and the collection have been used.

While the lecture series has served as the main source of outreach for Special Collections and Archives this semester, Van Der Steenhoven and her colleagues have also been working with the archives behind the scenes. They have partnered with classes and worked to build the librarys digitized collection, which already contains over 300,000 materials.

[Our work] this semester and moving forward to next semester has been a way for us to sort of leverage the existing digital collections and then also grow those collections as necessary, Van Der Steenhoven said.

Special Collections hopes to continue offering online programming into the Spring semester, including the virtual revival of the monthly Audubon page turning. Van Der Steenhoven hopes that both the lecture series and the continued engagement with the SC and A will inspire the Bowdoin community to further consider the role of the archive and the evolution of primary sources.

Its one example of all the exciting things that people are doing for a wide variety of different reasons, Van Der Steenhoven said. Like how people become attracted to and what they end up doing with Special Collections. Its a way to think about the active life of these materials.

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Special Collections speaker sheds light on the living work of the archive - The Bowdoin Orient

A letter from the principal at Estrella Foothills High School said in early November a student threatened to harm themselves with a gun after band practice.

Quick action helped end a scary situation at a West Valley high school.

A letter from the principal at Estrella Foothills High School said in early November a student threatened to harm themselves with a gun after band practice.

Goodyear Police said another student tackled the teen and gave the gun to a teacher. All students are physically OK.

The gun was later found by police to be unloaded and the student was taken to the hospital to be evaluated.

It was kind of an out of left field, Andrew Glenn, director of music at Estrella Foothills High School, said.

Glenn said the incident brought to focus a different toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I think theres going to be this hidden cost that were not going to see probably for even years down the road, Glenn said.

Arizona Department of Health Services Director Dr. Cara Christ recently said 43 teens ages 17 and under have died by suicide this year, up already from 38 in 2019.

Calls into Teen Lifeline are also up 14% from last year.

Glenn said as a teacher, its been harder to keep tabs on students not seeing them in person every day.

Mentally getting over the barrier of Ive typed it and Im acknowledging that somethings wrong is definitely the barrier that we are at with the students, Glenn said.

Paula McCall Ph.D, a child psychologist, said the pandemic is playing a big role in mental health. Not only for students who are distanced learning but those that are on campus as well.

In-person is not what it used to be, and we have to be social distanced and masked and dont get to interact with other people the way that we had before, McCall said.

McCall said theres no profile of suicide but the pandemic has brought more risk factors.

A lot of our resiliency factors arent there like they were before and our coping strategies are impaired, McCall said.

She adds its good for parents to have open, honest communication with their teens.

We see marked sudden changes in behavior, if we see concerning extreme emotions, if we hear talk about suicide or suicidal thoughts, we need to respond to those and we need to talk about what that is, McCall said.

If you or a loved one are experiencing suicidal thoughts, the National Suicide Prevention line is available toll-free at 1-800-273-TALK.

Other resources available include:

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Incident at West Valley high school sheds light on mental health toll in the pandemic - 12news.com KPNX

Lewis Hamilton had to be convinced to join Mercedes by Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda, ushering the start of the most-dominant era in F1.

Former Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda played a crucial role in getting Lewis Hamilton to Mercedes. The three-time champion Lauda also played a key role in his development once he joined in, before his untimely demise.

Id spoken to Niki back home in Monaco, I was talking to him and he was talking to me about coming. Im pretty sure he was the first one I had spoken to. He was like, youve got to come to the team!

Ross Brawn had won the F1 title with Jenson Button at Brawn GP and was now the team principal at Mercedes. And according to Hamilton, Brawns visit to his moms house played a crucial role in him making the switch from McLaren to Mercedes.

I wasnt convinced necessarily at the beginning. I think the convincing stage which really made me look into it more was when Ross came around my mums house and sat with me in the kitchen. We had tea, and he showed me what the plan is for the team. That was the real in-depth insight into what the team was planning, the changes they were trying to do. That was really the selling point.

Also read: Mercedes writing an era of unprecedented domination in Formula 1, is there an end to their seamless triumphs?

Lewis Hamilton is an inspiration to many across the globe, with his sheer grit and determination to achieve success. Little would he have known that his ambition to become an F1 world champion would lead to him winning it 7 times. And he has a wonderful message for those who think long and hard before making a decision.

I knew I made a good decision when I made the decision. I knew it was the right thing for me. But jeez, did I know that we would win six world titles? No.

I think what it says is that in life, weve got to make sure that we take that leap of faith, do what you think is right for you and not what people tell you to do, and do the homework so you have the pros and cons, and then go with it. Go with it all in, whether its good or bad.

Also read: When can Ferrari return to prominence in Formula 1, and end Mercedes unprecedented dominance?

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Lewis Hamilton sheds light on the role Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda played in convincing him to join... - The Sportsrush