#adjustable kwanza

[dreiddesigns]

Kwanzaa Stretch Bead Bracelet

[econscholaru]

Ndii’s Lottery May Work Not But We Have A Country

That no one saw it coming isn’t true even as Kenyans adjust to the new norm— a government that kept promising left half of the citizens baking broken dreams while the other half kept an eye on the man in a cloak. In any case, Kenya Kwanza had just come from spending itself out of depravity with the Executive Office requesting for additional chairs. Certainly, no one was to be left behind even as…

[realtykilop]

Proxie pay

Once the customer complete remaining payment by visiting nearest ATM, the extension will verify payment status and change order status accordingly.That proposal, which asks the company to report data on median and adjusted pay gaps, was approved by 59% of shareholders that voted by proxy at Disney’s annual meeting.ĭisney currently reports figures for its gender pay gap in the U.K. After that, the extension will create a reference for that store transaction and send due payment details to the ProxyPay API Gateway. Upon store checkout, the customer can easily place an order just by making a selection of ProxyPay without any further interaction or redirection. Now, your Magento 2 store is ready to accept payment in Kwanzas. After that, set custom ProxyPay Payment title to display in the store frontend & configure remaining options as per your business need. By adding sort order, the admin can display ProxyPay at the top of all payment methods.įirstly, add the ProxyPay Payment Gateway token to the backend configuration.You can enable the ProxyPay Payment Gateway for one or more countries by making a selection from the backend.The store admin can also set the order status based in ProxyPay gateway activity.Built-in sandbox mode for testing extension functionality.You can also set customer interface language if needed.Enter required the ProxyPay Payment Gateway token to accept payment.Backend option to set custom payment method title to display in store frontend.Easy option to enable or disable extension from the store backend.No customer data is ever entered into, or stored on, the Magento server. Once the payment process is complete, customers will be redirected back to your store. There, he or she enters his or her payment information directly into their secure environment ProxyPay Gateway API so that the store never comes into contact with the customers payment data. Upon checkout, the customer will be redirected to the ProxyPay website. For ProxyPay Pricings and business inquiry kindly content them via Official Email Address. Simply enter the Proxypay token into store backend for connecting your Magento 2 store with ProxyPay Gateway API. To make use of this extension, you must have ProxyPay merchant account. While checkout, the customer just needs to select ProxyPay Gateway and complete order without further interaction or redirection to Gateway page. Using this extension, it will automatically generate a reference through which customer can easily make payment by visiting the nearest ATM or Home Banking service. ProxyPay Payment Gateway Extension by MageComp integrates ProxyPay Payment Gateway API with Magento 2 for securely accepting payment in Kwanzas (currency of Angola, Africa). At the end of 2011, there were 2377969 valid Multicaixa cards, 1629 ATMs installed in the country, and 18199 POS terminals and 91007767 transactions were performed at the ATMs & on the POS terminals. Multicaixa is the one and only brand names for debit cards issued in Angola that offers universal network and interbank sharing of ATMs and automatic payment terminals in stores and other Points of Sale(POS). ProxyPay is powered by the Multicaixa network, and is one of the most popular and secure payment solutions for receiving payments in Kwanzas.

[silyabeeodess]

FusionFall Holiday Headcanons:

Between the holidays we know irl like Christmas and Kwanza and the cartoon-specific holidays like Low Tides Day, things can get really hectic in the world of FusionFall when they all come around.  This list is also gonna get crazy enough with just Christmas-focused things in mind, so I’ll largely be keeping to that for now:

During Aku’s reign, certain mortals and magical beings worked together to preserve their holidays and traditions against the Shogun of Sorrow’s tyranny.  The last thing Aku would want is for people to have their celebrations of hope and goodwill, so he worked hard to try to snuff them out--thankfully without much success.  As a result though, many holiday figures did have to go into hiding, and some even set up heavy defenses to protect themselves from whoever Aku would send after them, like the Elf Strike Squad. 

Another measure to ensure the holidays would last was by having multiple individuals pose as said holiday figures, like Santa. Therefore, you may find one Santa at the North Pole and another at Mt. Whitehead (not to be confused with Mt. Blackhead, as it was a separate, snowy mountain seen in the Camp Lazlo holiday special).  This shared identity also allows them to reach more people, and many will network to cover different parts of the globe.  Should one fall short on their work, however, it can still cause trouble for the group as a whole.  While they avoid outsiders, they’re not against getting help when they need it.     

Mr. Jingles from the Ben 10 holiday special was one of the people working to preserve the holiday back in the 1930′s, and was close friends with his “Santa.”  His team, however, was one of those targeted by Aku and he ended up being one of the few survivors--cursed to live in a pocket in time to wait for people who would never return to conduct their successful Christmas.  This pocket dimension and the machine that helped maintain it would gradually corrupt anyone who entered, resulting in most of the “elves” and their lost memories as well as Mr. Jingles broken state of mind up until the Tennysons arrived.    

The two most popular holidays around winter time are Christmas and Knishmas.  However, while there are different “Santas” hiding out in the world, there’s only been one Knish Kringle seen thus far.  Since he runs his holiday so differently and can be aggressive when he doesn’t get his way, he tends not to get along with most of the Santas.       

Poseidon kinda just volunteered his own men to help out by coming up with Low Tides Day, but also wanted it run on his own terms.   

There are some holidays like Edipan and Animas that can happen at different points of the year, Edipan due to it being a magical, “moving” holiday and Animas only occurring during the hottest day of the year (which members of the animal kingdom instinctively know, although whether it’s something based on region or globally wasn’t stated in the MGPaM special).  It tends to be an added stress when they hit during the winter season alongside the others.

Most of the holiday leaders are glad that they can breathe easier without dark forces like Aku or the Liche trying to ruin their work for the time being. Fuse is still a concern for them: It’s just that they tend to live in such isolated locations that--overall--the global spread of fusion matter hasn’t really touched them.  They mostly keep to what they’ve been doing, hoping that by sticking with that they know, they can continue to spread good morale and a sense of normalcy across Earth.    

If you’re a Fusion Fighter, 99% of the time, you’re guaranteed at least something for the holidays.  It might be a piece of equipment or you might only get one thing--because they recognize you’re putting you’re life/soul on the line for Earth even if you’re not technically on the “nice” list by your Santa’s standards-- but you’ll get something. If you’re actually “naughty,” that something just might also come with a written warning for next year. Those that celebrate Knishmas get a pass since all they have to do is remember to get a Shmingerbread House.

Princess Morbucks still gets coal.  Getting off the permanent naughty list is extremely difficult, and she hasn’t made much of an effort to change her ways.  

Since nanos are still pretty new, it’s hard to say whether or not a Santa would know to keep them in mind.  As such, it's the IE Donor’s responsibility to mention them in their letter(s) to the North Pole and/or supply their own gifts.  Their size should be kept in mind.         

Some Santas only give gifts to kids, others to all people no matter their age.     

A lot of creatures who came from the Ledgerdomain have adopted Edipan traditions/celebrations.  This includes Hex, who used to celebrate it with Charmcaster as a small way to help them adjust to their lives on Earth.  It was one of their only ‘vacations’ from his quest for power.  

[yarncafecreations]

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate! Also, I hope you had a Happy Hanukkah, if you celebrate too! And today is the first day of Kwanza so Happy Kwanza! 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕 I spent the morning playing around with colorwork and the pattern that came to mind while imagining this hat were trees and deer, we’ll see how they turn out. 🦌🌲🦌🌲🦌🌲🦌🌲🦌🌲🦌🌲 The New Year is upon us and I hope you all made it through 2020 successfully. It’s been a different year, to say the least, and we have all had to adjust in more ways than one. 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈 I have tried to remain positive, happy, loving, and accepting as we all work to get through whatever you want to call 2020. I want you to know, I have been sending you positive vibes. And these vibes aren’t being sent to benefit just you; they are also being sent to benefit me. When I’m focusing on staying mentally healthy during tough times, I assume that I’m probably not the only one feeling this way. #❤️ ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ #christmas #hannukah #kwanzaa #yarncafecreations #sofadedsweater #dyersofinstagram #knittersofinstagram #crochetersofinstagram #knittedsweater #knittedsocks #knittedshawl #yarn #yarnporn #yarnpornofinstagram #handdyedyarn #handdyed #handdyedwool #indiedyedyarn #knittingaddict #knittingaddiction #yarnaddict #yarnaddiction https://www.instagram.com/p/CJRnpUhpdO_/?igshid=utuxrm4fx8ab

[argentdandelion]

Things Anti-Monster Politicians Could Do (Mild)

(Mild) → (Moderate) → (Severe)→ (Extremely Angsty)

Note: This series assumes Mt. Ebott is in the U.S., based on Vegetoid’s description: “Not monitored by the USDA”. This presumably stands for the United States Department of Agriculture. However, most of the article would apply if Mt. Ebott were in other countries, too.

The anti-monster politician would ignore or dismiss monsters’ specific bodily or cultural needs, or make it inconvenient for them to fulfill particular needs. Loopholes, alternatives and workarounds to the policies are obvious, but discouraged or inconvenient.

Tactic 1: Gyftmas is Not Valid

--

Tactic 2: No Magic Lessons

On a slightly stronger note, anti-monster politicians (AMPs) could, rather than creating species-segregated schools, strategically adjust school rules and requirements.

AMPs (school superintendents, principals) could ban bullet patterns inside a school. In principle, this makes sense: humans could get hurt, and for particularly crowded schools, a lot of humans could get hurt at once. The AMPs could (at risk to sounding reasonable) ban bullet patterns on school grounds, so monsters can’t even do it at recess or shortly after being released from school.

School superintendents could make curriculum options that conspicuously omit magic-expression, even as an extracurricular. One plausible-sounding excuse for why they wouldn’t teach magic is due to a school being majority-human (but still close to Mt. Ebott), and humans being unable to use magic or find it as appealing or useful as monsters.

Even without specific regulations, AMPs could influence hiring decisions for human-only/human-dominant schools so they just happen to never hire magic-expression teachers, or block attempts to teach magic-expression because “it’s not part of the curriculum”. They could even block merging magic-expression lessons into art or communication classes. Alternatively, AMPs could mandate only monster-specific/monster-dominant schools need to teach magic expression, or specifically block all but monster schools from teaching it.

In total, these regulations wouldn’t endanger monsters, but only give them a sub-par species-specific education if they attend human-dominant schools. They could find workarounds, such as tutors, separate schools or parents teaching them, but it would be inconvenient.

--

Tactic 3: No Monster Food in Cafeterias

AMPs could suggest “accommodating monsters with magic food” (e.g, cafes, school cafeterias) is financially onerous for businesses, making monster food availability lower. They could also disguise not supplying monster food as personally not liking the cuisine or considering it unappealing to kids. After all, Chinese food is just more of a crowd-pleaser than, say, Lebanese food. Still, this would be absurd since monster food largely mimics common American foods.

Not supplying monster food would be extra inconvenient in cafeterias, because children have less of a choice in what schools or businesses they attend or work for than what cafes they visit. Even without official policies or justifications, AMPs could simply not supply any monster food, ever, in cafeterias. It would be very suspect because some schools do import food outside typical catering, and monster food would likely be healthier, tastier, or cheaper than human food. This is especially true when serving normal food a small percentage of humans are allergic to, but monster food is “made of magic” and might not contain allergens at all.

Since monsters apparently need to defecate if they eat physical food, AMPs could make this worse by forbidding them from entering student/employee bathrooms. Some possible excuses are: “so many unsupervised students/employees in one place could kill them”, or “we aren’t sure if our toilets can handle your waste”, or “monsters defecating is gross”, or “since you’re an “it” or “they”, you can’t go to the girls’ bathrooms or boys’ bathrooms) But, AMPs could suspiciously never supply a single toilet for monsters in the whole building to address the “waste” concerns, despite the existence of handicapped bathrooms/specific stalls that also serve a tiny minority. AMPs could also discourage, if not outright forbid, them from using the single-stall teachers’ bathrooms as a workaround.

Now, to make this even worse, AMPs could suggest, without any basis, that monster food is nutritionally inferior or reacts poorly with the human body. They could then use that to discredit monster-run food shops. (a la monosodium glutamate and anti-Chinese xenophobia) They could even fabricate or fudge the results for a study on monster food’s effect on humans, then use the fake results to support banning monster food from restaurants. While monsters can still eat physical food, shifting their diet to have drastically more physical food at once will surely lead to mass digestive troubles and possibly nutritional problems. (It would also sabotage humans, since monster food could be really handy in some situations.)

--

Tactic 4: No Body Accommodations

Taller monsters, such as Asgore, need bigger models of cars to safely fit in cars and/or comfortably drive. Smaller cars are generally more fuel-efficient, and harm pedestrians less in case of a collision. So, AMPs could make suspiciously-timed subsidies for smaller cars, outright ban big cars from cities or parking garages, or have buyback programs for bigger (and potentially monster-suitable) cars.

The AMPs could also suggest physical accommodations of any sort (e.g., entry ramps for legless monsters) would be expensive and useless. However, his particular tactic would probably cause humans with impaired mobility to team up with monsters, since they also need or greatly benefit from similar ramps. Indeed, this is classified as “mild” partly because the tactic could anger or greatly inconvenience humans, and so nudge them into making political alliances with monsters.

Workarounds

Workarounds for No Magic Lessons

Workaround 1. Gerson is hired to teach (human) history. AMPs figure he’s just teaching (human) history, and on the face of it he’d be a good history teacher. But Gerson just happens to make asides on monster history when it parallels human issues, and just happens to give demonstrations of bullet patterns in monster history, or re-creates artistic patterns throughout human history using his own bullets.

Workaround 2. A monster P.E. teacher (e.g., Undyne) notices the rule says “students can’t use bullet patterns inside school/on school grounds”. The monster demonstrates bullet patterns for the students to actually practice later. Better yet, the monster P.E. teacher takes one step outside the school’s legal property (e.g., a surrounding field, in the parking lot, on the roof), shows off bullet patterns, and has students take turns stepping just outside official school property to demonstrate. The monster teaches them how to express bullet patterns in an athletic way to justify it being part of athletic curriculum. Or, the monster realizes it’s still legal for P.E. teachers to play dodgeball with students (which can hurt), and so does “magic ball” instead, controlling bullet damage so it does exactly as much damage as getting hit by a dodgeball. (The monster P.E. teacher could probably say, “Frisk survived because they were so good at dodging! Knowing how to dodge magic attacks will keep humans safe in human-monster conflict!”)

Workaround 3. One reason/excuse for not teaching magic at a majority human school is the fact humans can’t use magic, and it not being important in human society. However, a function on Frisk’s monster-made cell phone changed their SOUL to Yellow mode, allowing them to emit bullets like a monster. (if in a very simplified fashion) Monsters providing SOUL mode technology or magical objects that emit bullets means humans wouldn’t feel left out in magic expression classes. Furthermore, of course human children would want to learn how to use magic in some way, even if it took years of practice. If humans with yellow SOULs can naturally emit bullets, that would cause an even greater faux pas to AMPs. People would probably argue they’d want to cultivate their abilities, and not providing magic lessons even as an extracurricular is discriminatory to Yellow SOULs.

Workaround 4. Humans can, in fact, use magic after monsters return to the Surface, and monsters teach them how to use magic.1 The fun and utility of humans knowing how to use magic encourages human-monster integration. While Tactic 2 suggests magic classes are of little to no use in purely human/human-dominant schools, the school with one or multiple magic classes in GlitchTale seems to be human-dominant.

--

Workarounds for No Monster Food at Cafeterias

Workaround 1: Monster students just bring bagged lunches. Alternatively, for teenagers allowed to go off-grounds for lunch, there could be a monster restaurant for cheap that’s very close to the school.

Workaround 2: Internet personalities who specialize in recording eating food or visiting restaurants make a point of eating monster food. They could even repeatedly swear or say really funny things to make the videos super-popular.

Workaround 3: Monster food-engineers supply magic-food equivalents to common allergen-containing foods, like oysters or peanut butter, allowing allergic people to taste what they’ve been missing out on and feel “normal”. The video would be highly “wholesome” and saccharine in a way that would make it super-popular, like unexpected puppies.

Workaround 4: An actual Chinese restaurateur makes a satirical video comparing monster food xenophobia to historic Chinese-food xenophobia.

Workaround 5: The fact monster food converts to energy (presumably upon being swallowed) heals HP (presumably minor injuries, in non-video-game terms), and probably doesn't contribute to weight gain 2 means it would be popular among humans, who might pack some monster food in their school lunches. Monster food's popularity and convenience among humans would just highlight AMPs' absurd monster-food restriction.

Made with the help of Batter-Sempai, CinnamonAzzy and Ihasafandom.

If you enjoyed this post, you may be interested in the author's Patreon and Ko-Fi.

Related Works Chara's Stomach Rumbles (a possible side effect of eating only monster food) The Perils of an All-Monster Food Diet (More detail on problems with eating entirely monster food. Still doesn't justify banning monster food from cafeterias, however) Undertale Character Heights (listed chronologically. Part 2 to 4 covers how human-designed objects and buildings are ill-suited for extra-wide or tall monsters)

The fan works GlitchTale (Season 2) and Endertale feature this. In GlitchTale, humans regain use of magic very quickly, suggesting they've kept theoretical knowledge on it, even if they couldn't actually use it. In Endertale, Frisk learns magic over three years. ↩︎

In the fanfiction Long Road (specifically Chapter 4), monster food is popular among humans for similar reasons. ↩︎

[dreiddesigns]

Kwanzaa Black Bead Bracelet

Kwanzaa White Bead Bracelet

[livingwellpage]

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

That is the topic of my most recent article in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy along with co-authors Mahlet Gizaw Tebeka, Kwanza Price, Chad Patel, and Kaleb Michaud.  The abstract of the article–titled “The Economic Burden of ACPA-Positive Status Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis“–is below.

BACKGROUND: Anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are serological biomarkers associated with early, rapidly progressing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including more severe disease and joint damage. ACPA testing has become a routine tool for RA diagnosis and prognosis. Furthermore, treatment efficacy has been shown to vary by ACPA-positive status. However, it is not clear if the economic burden of patients with RA varies by ACPA status.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the economic burden of RA varies by patient ACPA status.

METHODS: IMS PharMetrics Plus health insurance claims and electronic medical record (EMR) data from 2010-2015 were used to identify patients with incident RA. Patients were aged ≥ 18 years, had ≥ 1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient claims reporting an RA diagnosis code (ICD-9-CM code 714.0), and had an anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP; a surrogate of ACPA) antibody test within 6 months of diagnosis. Incident patients were defined as those who had no claims with an RA diagnosis code in the 6 months before the first observed RA diagnosis. The primary outcome of interest was RA-related medical expenditures, defined as the sum of payer- and patient-paid amounts for all claims with an RA diagnosis code. Secondary outcomes included health care utilization metrics such as treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) and physician visits. Generalized linear regression models were used for each outcome, controlling for ACPA-positive status (defined as anti-CCP ≥ 20 AU/mL), age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index score as explanatory variables.

RESULTS: Of 647,171 patients diagnosed with RA, 89,296 were incident cases, and 47% (n = 42,285) had an anti-CCP test. After restricting this sample to patients with a linked EMR and reported anti-CCP test result, 859 remained, with 24.7% (n = 212) being ACPA-positive. Compared with ACPA-negative patients, adjusted results showed that ACPA-positive patients were more likely to use either conventional (71.2% vs. 49.6%; P < 0.001) or biologic (20.3% vs. 11.8%; P < 0.001) DMARDs during the first year after diagnosis and had more physician visits (5.58 vs. 3.91 times per year; P < 0.001). Annual RA-associated total expenditures were $7,941 for ACPA-positive and $5,243 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $2,698; P = 0.002). RA-associated medical expenditures were $4,380 for ACPA-positive and $3,427 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $954; P = 0.168), whereas DMARD expenditures were $3,560 and $1,817, respectively (Δ = $1,743; P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: RA-related economic burden is higher for patients who are ACPA-positive compared with those who are ACPA-negative. Providers may wish to inform patients diagnosed with ACPA-positive RA about the likely future disease and economic burden in hopes that both stakeholders can be more proactive in addressing them.

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis published first on your-t1-blog-url

[rolandfontana]

International Manufacturing Contracts: Why Templates are a No-Go

Last week a relatively large company emailed me to ask what our law firm charges for “template Thailand and Vietnam Manufacturing Agreements.” A few hours later, I got the same request from a different company for Mexico. In response to these emails, I explained to both companies why we never do “template” manufacturing agreements anywhere in the world and why they should not want such an agreement. See China Contract Templates for $99 Each.

Then over the weekend, in cleaning up my emails, I came across one on which I had been cc’ed. This email was from one of our international manufacturing lawyers to a client. This lawyer was in the midst of working with a small company with a great product that is working quickly to get its product made in Thailand in time for the upcoming holiday season (a/k/a Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza). This company — like so many — is running a bit late because it switched its manufacturing from China to avoid the tariffs. See Moving Your Manufacturing Out of China: The Initial Decisions and US-China Tariff Updates: What You Can (and Should NOT) do NOW.

I post the email below (stripped of any identifiers) because it so starkly illustrates why an off the shelf manufacturing cannot work and makes no sense, even in a rush situation.

If you will not have finalized your product specifications until after we can get your manufacturing contract executed, we can provide in the contract that those specifications will be “as later provided by Buyer.” You will need then to clearly identify your final specs that control the manufacturing process and the criteria for defects. The same holds true for the final production prototype. If that is not going to be complete until after your manufacturing agreement will  executed, we will need to write in that will be “as approved by Buyer prior to start of production.” Again, you will then need to be clear with your factory regarding what constitutes the final, approved production prototype.

It is not unusual for these matters to not be complete until the last minute. In fact, it is not unusual for these to change after production begins. The challenge for you is to keep track of what has been approved and what applies to the final product that will be manufactured. We will also need to keep clear with the factory that even though it will be participating in some or all of this process, your company owns everything and the factory will have no IP rights to anything.

For me, now that it is clear you will not be finished with these materials, I can begin drafting your Contract Manufacturing Agreement accordingly and we will do our best to complete our drafting and translation as soon as possible. In the interim, I suggest you work with the factory in Thailand to clarify your plan and to get confirmation that it has sufficient capacity to complete your order in your required timeframe.

Before we can begin drafting, we need to clarify/confirm terms. Please advise on the following. After you have answered all these questions, I will begin drafting the agreement. Once all the below items are clear, I can usually complete a draft in two to three days, so getting this stage done as soon as possible is key for completing the draft on an expedited basis.

1. Please provide a clear and complete description of the product you will purchase. You can do this with a simple one sentence description supported with an exhibit.

2. What agreement have you reached on price? Do you have a price quote we  include in the manufacturing agreement? If not, we can reference a separate price quote. What is the basis for the price? Note that FOB is meaningless for international shipments by sea. Free Carrier (FCA) is the proper term. It appears you will be shipping intermodal. Most intermodal carriers suggest FCA as the correct term, but this does not answer the question of where the factory will be making delivery to the carrier. Will this be at the factory or the port? As we discussed, you should get clear on the procedure and the correct shipping term and provide me with the information

3. You indicated you have already paid for your “tooling.” Please describe and provide a copy of the PO or other documentation showing this. We provide for a detailed tooling and ownership procedure in our standard contract. If you want to make this shorter and less threatening, we can simplify the tooling provisions. This would make sense if the value of the tooling is low and easily replaceable.

4. Do you have a written QC program/procedure? If yes, please provide. If no, we will draft a general description.

5. How will you pay for packaging? Will this be included in the cost of the goods or will it be charged separately? Have you agreed on a packaging program with the factory? If yes, please describe who pays for what, who will deal with the printer, who designs what, who obtains what materials, and please lists out any timeframes. Have you paid any deposit or other security or will you pay either of those? I assume you will own the copyright to the design of the packaging. Are there other concerns you have?

6. Your product is a custom product. You own the entire IP and the factory is prohibited from manufacturing for itself or for any other customer. Correct? For confidential information, we will provide that your existing NNN agreement controls. Confidential information will be limited to what is required in additional to the NNN if anything. I would urge you to read this article on NNN Agreements as it will give you a better idea on what and how they protect your IP. This article is on China NNN Agreements, but virtually everything is the same for Thailand.

7. What will be the term of your Contract Manufacturing Agreement? Since you are not required to submit an order, I recommend a three year term with automatic renewal thereafter for one year renewal terms unless either party gives advance notice in writing of its intent to terminate the contract. This does not put any obligation on you but it requires the factory to cooperate with you for three years.

8. Your pricing will be locked for one year. After one year, prices may be raised or lowered on an annual basis based solely on a) changes in costs, up or down and/or b) changes in the exchange rate. The adjusted price will then be applicable for another year. At the end of the three year initial term, if the parties cannot agree on price, the agreement will terminate.

9. To lock in the factory so it musts accept your reasonable purchase orders, you will provide a 12 month rolling estimate of purchases and you will update that on a quarterly basis. The factory will five days to reject this in writing and if it does not do so it will be deemed to have accepted. The factory then must accept any PO you submit within the projection in terms of quantity and delivery date so long as it is in accordance with the agreed price. You should complete a first estimate we can attach as an exhibit.

10. Your POs should provide an “anticipated” delivery date. If delivery is made more than two weeks after the anticipated delivery date, a 1% per day charge will be applied for up to 30 days. This amount will be treated as a credit and the purchase price payable from your initial payment on your next order will be reduced by the amount of the credit. After 30 days (now six weeks from anticipated delivery date), the factory will be deemed to have breached the contract and you will have the right to terminate. If you do not terminate, the 1% per day penalty will continue to apply.

11. For QC: you will do QC. Defective product will not be shipped; defective product will be destroyed. The preferred option is to require the factory replace all defective so as to avoid a short order. If this is not possible AND the defect rate is below 3%, then a short order is permitted but the amount payable is reduced. If the defect rate is above 3%, the factory is liable for all direct losses of buyer and the buyer has the right to terminate the order or the agreement. Note that we base this defect rate on what we have seen agreed to around the world with products similar to yours.

12. You are paying on 35/65 terms. When exactly is each payment due? 35% five days from acceptance of PO? Note if the manufacturing on your product does not begin until the factory has received your initial 35% payment this further delays work on your product. It is therefore important we get clear on this. When is the 65% payment due? “On completion” of your product? “On delivery” of the product to you or “on delivery” to the carrier.  “Shipment” is common and means nothing and leads to all sorts of problems. What documents will be provided to you in relation to that second payment? This can be quite complicated and we need to get this clear with the factory. If it is unclear, I will provide you with a general provision that you can clarify in your accepted PO.

13. After you receive your products in the United States you will have the right to inspect. For defects discovered on that inspection, the factory will be obligated to repair or replace or credit against your next order, at your discretion. The 3% “epidemic failure” rule still applies. Will the factory also be providing you with a product warranty? If yes, will that be for one year or two years or for some other period of time? What is the factory’s if there is a product recall due to its negligence. Full costs? Do full costs include consumer lawsuits and government mandated penalties. Due to the nature of your product, these are obviously important issues we need to discuss.

14. How will compliance with U.S. product safety laws be handled? Will you assume the factory knows all the rules? Will you be responsible for communicating the rules to the factory? What is the penalty if the factory fails to follow these rules? Direct costs or all costs, including consumer litigation and government penalty? Is there any product/safety certification that must be obtained for your product before it is allowed into the United States? Same questions for the EU. If yes, who is responsible?  We have done a lot of work with products very similar to yours and so if you need any help in figuring out any of these things, just let me know.

I look forward to hearing from you soon on the above.

International Manufacturing Contracts: Why Templates are a No-Go syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[jotun-appologist]

Merry Christmas/Yule/Solstice/Hannuka/kwanza/whatever to all you strange strange fuckers following this shit storm (ha I'm punny). I hope you have a wonderful day today. Have a selfie for Christmas. I worked hard on my makeup. I'm dressed as an elf today. Don't ask. I like elves. And I'm spending the day with my boyfriends family so I thought I'd look cute for it. You can't see it but I have red and green eyeshadow. See, there's color somewhere. And I didn't even need to really edit this one, other than adjust some lighting. My face doesn't hurt me to look at anymore ^•^

[maxihealth]

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

That is the topic of my most recent article in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy along with co-authors Mahlet Gizaw Tebeka, Kwanza Price, Chad Patel, and Kaleb Michaud.  The abstract of the article–titled “The Economic Burden of ACPA-Positive Status Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis“–is below.

BACKGROUND: Anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are serological biomarkers associated with early, rapidly progressing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including more severe disease and joint damage. ACPA testing has become a routine tool for RA diagnosis and prognosis. Furthermore, treatment efficacy has been shown to vary by ACPA-positive status. However, it is not clear if the economic burden of patients with RA varies by ACPA status.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the economic burden of RA varies by patient ACPA status.

METHODS: IMS PharMetrics Plus health insurance claims and electronic medical record (EMR) data from 2010-2015 were used to identify patients with incident RA. Patients were aged ≥ 18 years, had ≥ 1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient claims reporting an RA diagnosis code (ICD-9-CM code 714.0), and had an anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP; a surrogate of ACPA) antibody test within 6 months of diagnosis. Incident patients were defined as those who had no claims with an RA diagnosis code in the 6 months before the first observed RA diagnosis. The primary outcome of interest was RA-related medical expenditures, defined as the sum of payer- and patient-paid amounts for all claims with an RA diagnosis code. Secondary outcomes included health care utilization metrics such as treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) and physician visits. Generalized linear regression models were used for each outcome, controlling for ACPA-positive status (defined as anti-CCP ≥ 20 AU/mL), age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index score as explanatory variables.

RESULTS: Of 647,171 patients diagnosed with RA, 89,296 were incident cases, and 47% (n = 42,285) had an anti-CCP test. After restricting this sample to patients with a linked EMR and reported anti-CCP test result, 859 remained, with 24.7% (n = 212) being ACPA-positive. Compared with ACPA-negative patients, adjusted results showed that ACPA-positive patients were more likely to use either conventional (71.2% vs. 49.6%; P < 0.001) or biologic (20.3% vs. 11.8%; P < 0.001) DMARDs during the first year after diagnosis and had more physician visits (5.58 vs. 3.91 times per year; P < 0.001). Annual RA-associated total expenditures were $7,941 for ACPA-positive and $5,243 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $2,698; P = 0.002). RA-associated medical expenditures were $4,380 for ACPA-positive and $3,427 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $954; P = 0.168), whereas DMARD expenditures were $3,560 and $1,817, respectively (Δ = $1,743; P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: RA-related economic burden is higher for patients who are ACPA-positive compared with those who are ACPA-negative. Providers may wish to inform patients diagnosed with ACPA-positive RA about the likely future disease and economic burden in hopes that both stakeholders can be more proactive in addressing them.

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis posted first on http://ift.tt/2sF7oEr

[realselfblog]

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

That is the topic of my most recent article in the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy along with co-authors Mahlet Gizaw Tebeka, Kwanza Price, Chad Patel, and Kaleb Michaud.  The abstract of the article–titled “The Economic Burden of ACPA-Positive Status Among Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis“–is below.

BACKGROUND: Anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are serological biomarkers associated with early, rapidly progressing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), including more severe disease and joint damage. ACPA testing has become a routine tool for RA diagnosis and prognosis. Furthermore, treatment efficacy has been shown to vary by ACPA-positive status. However, it is not clear if the economic burden of patients with RA varies by ACPA status.

OBJECTIVE: To determine if the economic burden of RA varies by patient ACPA status.

METHODS: IMS PharMetrics Plus health insurance claims and electronic medical record (EMR) data from 2010-2015 were used to identify patients with incident RA. Patients were aged ≥ 18 years, had ≥ 1 inpatient or ≥ 2 outpatient claims reporting an RA diagnosis code (ICD-9-CM code 714.0), and had an anticyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP; a surrogate of ACPA) antibody test within 6 months of diagnosis. Incident patients were defined as those who had no claims with an RA diagnosis code in the 6 months before the first observed RA diagnosis. The primary outcome of interest was RA-related medical expenditures, defined as the sum of payer- and patient-paid amounts for all claims with an RA diagnosis code. Secondary outcomes included health care utilization metrics such as treatment with a disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) and physician visits. Generalized linear regression models were used for each outcome, controlling for ACPA-positive status (defined as anti-CCP ≥ 20 AU/mL), age, sex, and Charlson Comorbidity Index score as explanatory variables.

RESULTS: Of 647,171 patients diagnosed with RA, 89,296 were incident cases, and 47% (n = 42,285) had an anti-CCP test. After restricting this sample to patients with a linked EMR and reported anti-CCP test result, 859 remained, with 24.7% (n = 212) being ACPA-positive. Compared with ACPA-negative patients, adjusted results showed that ACPA-positive patients were more likely to use either conventional (71.2% vs. 49.6%; P < 0.001) or biologic (20.3% vs. 11.8%; P < 0.001) DMARDs during the first year after diagnosis and had more physician visits (5.58 vs. 3.91 times per year; P < 0.001). Annual RA-associated total expenditures were $7,941 for ACPA-positive and $5,243 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $2,698; P = 0.002). RA-associated medical expenditures were $4,380 for ACPA-positive and $3,427 for ACPA-negative patients (Δ = $954; P = 0.168), whereas DMARD expenditures were $3,560 and $1,817, respectively (Δ = $1,743; P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS: RA-related economic burden is higher for patients who are ACPA-positive compared with those who are ACPA-negative. Providers may wish to inform patients diagnosed with ACPA-positive RA about the likely future disease and economic burden in hopes that both stakeholders can be more proactive in addressing them.

Economic Burden of ACPA+ patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis posted first on http://ift.tt/2sNcj5z