The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/1374) is an English emergency statutory instrument that replaced the second lockdown regulations from 2 December 2020. As initially made, it brought back the three-tier legal framework first introduced by the first COVID-19 tier regulations in England (in effect 14 October – 5 November 2020), but with changes to the restrictions within each tier.
More relaxed rules on gatherings were to be permitted during the Christmas period, 23–27 December 2020. Following a continued rise in infections in London and the South East, those areas were moved up to the highest level, tier 3, on 19 December. One day later, following continued significant concerns, a new tier 4 was added with restrictions similar to those of the second lockdown regulations. At the same time the Christmas period was reduced to Christmas Day only for tiers 1 to 3 and was abolished entirely for tier 4.
The regulations were sometimes referred as the "second tier regulations" or the "all tiers regulations".
From 6 January 2021, further amendments moved all areas of England to tier 4 in what was described by politicians and the press as a third national lockdown.
The regulations were originally stated to expire on 2 February 2021, later changed to 31 March, but in the event were replaced on 29 March by The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021.
Context and earlier regulations.
In response to the developing COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government issued advice to English schools on 12 March 2020 that they should cancel trips abroad, and on 16 March that the public should avoid non-essential travel, crowded places, and visits to care homes. This was followed by the closure of schools, colleges and nurseries from 21 March.
On 21 March the government used emergency powers to make business closure regulations, enforcing the closure in England of businesses selling food and drink for consumption on the premises, as well as a range of other businesses such as nightclubs and indoor leisure centres where a high risk of infection could be expected. Five days later the restrictions were made more extensive. On 26 March 2020 the even more stringent Lockdown Regulations came into force. These became the principal delegated English legislation restricting freedom of movement, gatherings, and business closures, and were progressively relaxed on 22 April, 13 May, 1 June, and 13/15 June. The No. 2 regulations of 4 July 2020 further relaxed the rules throughout most of England, apart from City of Leicester and the surrounding area which became the subject of the first of a series of local regulations. Between July and September 2020, more extensive and increasingly rigorous ad hoc local regulations were introduced, which in many areas proved unsuccessful in controlling spread of the virus.
These were followed by the first COVID-19 tier regulations (in effect 14 October – 4 November 2020), which placed each local authority area under one of three levels of restrictions. As infections increased in many areas, these were replaced by the more rigorous nationwide second lockdown regulations (in effect 5 November – 1 December 2020).
On 2 December 2020 SI 2020/1374 revoked the second lockdown regulations one day before they were due to expire, and reintroduced a countrywide three-tier legal framework. Later amendments introduced a fourth tier.
Legal basis.
The regulations were made on 30 November 2020 by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, using emergency powers under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, the stated legal basis being "the serious and imminent threat to public health which is posed by the incidence and spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in England". Hancock used section 45R of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 to enact the regulations without prior parliamentary consideration, subject to retrospective approval by resolution of each House of Parliament within twenty-eight days. The regulations entered into force on 2 December 2020 and expire at the end of 31 March 2021 (originally 2 February 2021).
Return of the tiers.
The regulations revived the three-tier legal framework from the first COVID-19 tier regulations in England, though with changes to the restrictions defined by each tier. The areas within each tier were also different: almost all of England was placed into tier 2 or 3, with only Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight being placed in tier 1. A fourth tier was added by SI 1611 on 20 December 2020.
Current local authority areas within each tier.
For the purpose of these regulations, England was initially divided up mostly by local authority areas at various levels including unitary authorities, county, district and metropolitan borough councils. By 6 January 2021, all areas of England were in tier 4, where they remained until the regulations were repealed on 29 March 2021 by The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Steps) (England) Regulations 2021.
Restrictions on gatherings, all tiers.
In all tiers, gatherings are restricted by size. In the spaces listed, the only permitted gatherings are as follows unless one of the exceptions applies:
Large gathering offence.
On 29 January 2021 SI 97/2021 introduced a new 'large gathering offence' subject to penalty charges on a sliding scale between £400 and £6400. The offence is committed when the above restrictions are breached by more than 15 people who are gathered in a private dwelling, in educational accommodation, or at an indoor rave.
Exceptions to the restrictions on gatherings.
General and tier 1 exceptions.
A substantial list of exceptions is provided for. All apply to tier 1, with more restricted and fewer exceptions applying to tiers 2, 3 and 4.
Tier 2 exceptions.
These are the same as for tier 1 except as follows:
Tier 3 exceptions.
These are largely the same as tier 2 but there is no exception for wedding and civil partnership receptions.
Tier 4 exceptions.
These are the same as tier 3 with the following exceptions:
Restrictions on leaving home in tier 4.
As originally made, SI 1374 controlled social interactions by imposing rules on gatherings; there was no general prohibition against leaving home. The amendments introduced on 20 December 2020 by SI 1611, however, brought in a new tier 4 with much stricter rules, very similar to those of the second lockdown that was in place between 5 November and 2 December. There remains no general prohibition against leaving home in tiers 1 to 3.
In tier 4 the general rule is that no-one is allowed to leave or be outside their own home (which includes any associated garden or yard) without "reasonable excuse". No exhaustive definition of "reasonable excuse" is provided, though it includes any of the following exceptions:
Exception 1: leaving tier 4 home necessary for certain purposes.
This exception covers a variety of situations:
Movement between tiers.
There is no general prohibition against leaving a home tier area, or against movement between tiers. An individual who travels between tiers to join a gathering is generally subject to the rules of their home tier, or the tier of the place to which they have travelled, whichever is higher. Anyone living in tier 1, 2 or 3 is permitted to travel to a higher tier area, but must not participate in any gathering that is prohibited in the higher tier area. Anyone living in tier 2, 3 or 4 who travels to a lower tier area must not participate in any gathering that would be prohibited in their home area. As noted above, people who are resident in tier 4 are permitted to leave home and travel only if they have a 'reasonable excuse' to do so.
Business closures.
Certain businesses are required to close or limit their operations.
Tier 2 business restrictions.
The tier 1 list of businesses that must close and the opening hour restrictions also apply in tier 2. In addition, there are the following restrictions:
Tier 3 business restrictions.
The tier 1 and tier 2 lists of businesses that must close also apply in tier 3. In addition, there are the following restrictions:
Tier 4 business restrictions.
These are similar but not identical to those of the second lockdown that was in place between 5 November and 2 December.
Linked households.
The concept of "linked households" (referred to in government statements as "support bubbles") is brought forward from previous regulations, but in extended form. Two households that are linked under these regulations can generally meet as if they were one household. First and second households may link if all the adults in both households agree. The first household must comprise:
Where the first household includes a higher education student on vacation, the presence of the student is ignored for this purpose.
There are no limits on the second household, which may include any number of adults and children.
A household may only be linked with one other household at any one time. But for the first time, linked households may be changed if all members of a linked household agree; this is subject to a minimum 10 day period (14 days prior to 14 December 2020), counted from when the old household first met or did something they could only do by virtue of being a linked household.
Linked childcare households.
The concept of "linked childcare households" is brought forward from previous regulations. It is separate from "linked households".
A household with at least one child aged 13 or under can link with another household who will be providing informal childcare (formal childcare, for example by a childminder, is excluded). Only one linked childcare household is permitted at any one time, and all adults in both households have to agree. Changes to the linking now are allowed subject to a minimum 14 day period (reduced to 10 days from 14 December 2020) between the final meeting of the former linked childcare households and the first meeting of the new.
Linked Christmas households.
As originally made, the regulations provided for more relaxed Christmas rules on gatherings during the 'Christmas period', defined as 23–27 December 2020, but three days before they were due to enter into effect SI 1611 altered the definition and restricted the Christmas period to 25 December only. The amended Christmas rules given below applied to tiers 1 to 3 only; there were no special Christmas arrangements in tier 4.
The Christmas rules introduced a new concept of "linked Christmas households", separate from "linked households" and 'linked childcare households".
One or more members of one household could form a linked Christmas household with one or more members of no more than two other households from a tier 1, 2 or 3 area, regardless of size, to form a linked Christmas household for the purpose of gathering during the Christmas 2020 period, if all people to be so linked agreed. Two households that were already linked households counted as one household for this purpose. A person could be a member of only one linked Christmas household, except that a child who did not live in the same household as both parents could be a member of a linked Christmas household formed by each parent. There was a special exception for higher education students on vacation.
Linked Christmas households were exempted from some of the restrictions on gatherings on 25 December. During that period, gatherings of no more than three linked Christmas households were permitted provided that they took place in a private dwelling, a place of worship or a public outdoor place (defined as anywhere the public are admitted free of charge, as well as outdoor sports grounds, botanical gardens, gardens or grounds of a castle, stately home, historic house or other heritage site, but excluding fairgrounds and funfairs). Attendees could also travel together, as gatherings in conveyances were permitted.
A Christmas gathering could extend beyond the Christmas period (25 December) in the event that an attendee could not return home due to unforeseen travel disruption.
These Christmas-specific rules were ultimately revoked on 19 January 2021.
Declaration on leaving the United Kingdom.
On 8 March 2021, SI 2021/247 introduced a new requirement for travellers leaving the United Kingdom to have with them a completed travel declaration form when they arrive at an embarkation point. On the form, the traveller must give a variety of personal details, must state the reason for being away from home, and must certify that the information provided is true. Anyone who has failed to complete the form and who does not do so when directed by an authorised person may be required to return home or to leave the embarkation point without departing from the UK. Failure to comply is an offence. The regulations provide a long list of travellers who are exempt from the declaration requirement, including diplomats, essential government workers, transit passengers, hauliers, seamen, aircraft crews and channel tunnel workers.
Reviews and expiry.
The Secretary of State must review the need for the restrictions every 28 days, and also the applicability of the tier areas every 14 days, with the first review (for tiers 2 and 3 only) due by 16 December 2020 and subsequent reviews required for tiers 2, 3 and 4.
The regulations were originally stated to expire at the end of 2 February 2021. This was later moved to 31 March 2021.
Enforcement.
Breaches of the regulations are offences and can be prosecuted or dealt with by fixed penalty notices with penalties ranging up to £10,000 for repeated violations.
Inconsistency in government guidelines on exercise.
The regulations do not define what constitutes exercise, nor how far an individual may travel to in order to undertake exercise. Government guidelines state that individuals should exercise in their "local area", but there is no such requirement in the regulations. Similarly, the guidelines state that exercise "should be limited to once per day", but the regulations do not require or even mention such a thing.
On 6 January 2021 fixed penalty notices were handed to two women by Derbyshire Police, reportedly for travelling to go for a walk. The police force subsequently stated that it was reviewing the action based on new national guidelines, but issuance of the notices was nevertheless supported by the health secretary, Matt Hancock. This led to calls for greater clarity as to what travel was legally permitted for the purpose of exercise. Four days later it was announced that the notices had been revoked and that Derbyshire Police had apologised to the women.
It was subsequently reported that, on 10 January 2021, Boris Johnson has been cycling in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park which is from Downing Street. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick stated that the trip had not been "against the law - that's for sure" but called for greater clarity in the regulations.
Summary of main changes, by date.
This chronological table lists the main changes to the second tier regulations.
Local authority areas in each tier, by date.
This table lists the dates during which specific areas were within each tier.


Smoking in Turkey

Smoking in Turkey is banned in government offices, workplaces, bars, restaurants, cafés, shopping malls, schools, hospitals, and all forms of public transport, including trains, taxis and ferries. Turkey's smoking ban includes provisions for violators, where anyone caught smoking in a designated smoke-free area faces a fine of 69 Turkish lira (~€15/$18/£13) and bar owners who fail to enforce the ban could be fined from 560 liras for a first offence up to 5,600 liras. The laws are enforced by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Turkey.
History.
Smoking was first banned in 1997 in public buildings with more than four workers, as well as airplanes and public buses.
On 3 January 2008, Turkey passed a smoking ban for all indoor spaces including bars, cafés and restaurants. It also bans smoking in sports stadia, and the gardens of mosques and hospitals. The smoking ban came into force on 19 May 2008; however, bars, restaurants and cafes were exempted until mid-July 2009. On 19 July 2009, Turkey extended the indoor public smoking ban to include bars, restaurants, village coffeehouses and hookah bars.
The ban also forbids smoking advertising and the depiction of people smoking on television. Many foreign programmes or films that have scenes with characters smoking will usually have the cigarettes blurred out. In December 2018 the law was changed to require plain packaging of all tobacco products. Health warnings messages and images must cover both sides of packages and at least 85% of the packaging.
Progress is still being made in educating the public about the law. Actual enforcement of the ban is still being implemented. The president of the Istanbul branch of the Environmental Engineers' Chamber (ÇMO), Eylem Tuncaelli, said that the smoking ban is a way for political leaders to avoid dealing with the country's real air pollution problems.
See also: Regie Company
Prevalence.
A Gallup poll in May 2007 revealed that over half of Turks aged 15 to 49 had smoked on the day before the survey. This was the highest rate among the 100 countries surveyed, along with Lebanon (41%), Greece (40%), and Cuba (40%) in descending order. The figure went down to 12% in females and 40% in males in 2015, according to World Bank.
In 2016, 24% of the Turkish population said they smoked. Turkey was ranked the 10th country with the most smokers in the world.
Illicit Tobacco.
Turkey suffers from a severe and growing incidence of illicit tobacco consumption, spanning contraband and counterfeit tobacco products. In 2013 the estimated scale of illicit tobacco traffic in Turkey rose to 16.2 billion cigarettes per year.
According to the World Health Organization this problem is exacerbated by weak governance and a lack of high-level commitment to investigate and prosecute these crimes, ineffective customs and border controls, as well as complicity from within the tobacco industry, notably from the producers of precursor materials used in the manufacture of cigarettes. While the overall consumption of tobacco in Turkey has declined over the last thirty years, the price of cigarettes rose 4.17% annually between 1970 and 2006, driven in large part by successive layers of VAT and excise taxation.
The impact on street price for legitimate (taxed) products creates a lucrative market for illicit cigarettes that do not pay taxes and thus realize that margin as additional profit. Turkish security officials estimate the annual loss in tax revenue from illicit tobacco at around $9.5 billion. Counterfeit cigarettes are primarily purchased by younger and lower-income smokers, further exacerbating the health hazards universally acknowledged to be even worse than those associated with commercial tobacco products.
According to the European Parliament budget control committee, an estimated 40 percent of smuggled cigarettes sold in Turkey are produced in Bulgaria by the Bulgartabac company. These cigarettes are shipped first to Iraq, then smuggled into Turkey across the southeastern border. Methods of transit lean heavily on the exploitation of children in war-torn Syria.
Effect of laws.
The sales of outdoor heaters have increased because entertainment venues provide heated outdoor seating for smokers.
In July 2009 a customer shot and killed the owner of a restaurant in the southwestern town of Saruhanli because he was angry that his cigarettes had been confiscated.
A member of the state media watchdog commented on the television blurring in 2010: "Hülya Alphas said the blurring effect being employed so frequently works against the ban because it increases attention attracted to smoking by disrupting the concentration of viewers."


Sequah Medicine Company

Sequah Medicine Company began in 1887 as the Sequah Medicine Co Ltd selling patent medicines such as prairie flower and Indian oil using traveling salesman, known as Sequahs. The traveling salesmen were quack doctors. The original Sequah was William Henry Hartley, who sold supposed Native American remedies in Great Britain and Ireland. The successful pitch quickly drew imitators, to the annoyance of Hartley. One such example is Peter Alexander Gordon, who went under the pseudonym James Kaspar. Gordon sold the Sequah Patent Medicine in Great Britain, Ireland, the West Indies and North America and South Africa.
Sequah products were sold using the device of a traveling medicine show. These shows consisted of a warm-up act of music and other entertainments which attracted a crowd in order for the traveling salesman to begin his pitch. The British version, introduced in 1890, was made up of a fairground steam organ. The Government soon declared the practice of selling patent medicines in such a fashion illegal. The company went into liquidation in 1895 and was liquidated on March 26, 1909.


GSK China scandal

The GSK China scandal was an imbroglio where the China branch of the global drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) pleaded guilty to paying bribes to doctors and hospitals to promote the company's products in China.
The scandal started with sex tapes of the company's China head, Mark Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend at a Shanghai department, which were sent to several senior executives of the company. The company's investigations into the sex tapes led to imprisonment of the paid investigator Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng in China, a country which has an opaque judicial system with a 99% conviction rate, on allegations that they had breached privacy law. Humphrey and his wife maintain their innocence and Humphrey claims he was tortured and denied medical treatment due to his refusal to confess to trumped up charges.
After the trial in Changsha in September 2014, the company apologized to the Chinese people, and paid one of the biggest fines in Chinese history worth ¥3bn (£300m; €350m; $490m). 4 executives of the company, including Mark Reilly, the only foreign citizens involved, were sentenced. Reilly received a suspended sentence and was also deported from China. The UK Serious Fraud Office concluded their investigation in 2019 after finding insufficient evidence
The scandal started with sex tapes of the company's China head, Mark Reilly and his Chinese girlfriend at a Shanghai department, which were sent to several senior executives of the company. The company's investigations into the sex tapes led to imprisonment of the paid investigator Peter Humphrey and his wife Yu Yingzeng in China on allegations they had breached privacy law. Humphrey alleges he was tortured and denied medical care due to his refusal to confess.
After the trial in Changsha in September 2014, the company apologized to the Chinese people, and paid one of the biggest fines in Chinese history worth ¥3bn (£300m; €350m; $490m). 4 executives of the company, including Mark Reilly, the only foreign citizens involved, were convicted. Reilly received a suspended sentence and was deported from China. In 2019 the UK Securities Fraud Office closed the investigation due to insufficient evidence.
Background.
Loose control over foreign companies.
China opened up its economy to global corporations since 1978 when it decided to adapt to a more market-driven economy. As American legal academic Jerome Cohen said, "for a long time, there’d been this policy of going easy on foreign enterprises. The government didn’t want to cause embarrassment or give outsiders the impression that China is plagued with corruption. But they’re not thinking like that anymore." However China's rising economic nationalism that favors Chinese companies instead of foreign ones lead to increased scrutiny of foreign firms.
Corruption in China's healthcare system.
According to experts, China's healthcare system is rife with corruption. Fake vaccines and bribes have been employed by doctors to improve their economic condition, According to Leon Liu, partner with the Shanghai-based law firm MWE China, Chinese citizens paid high prices for drugs partly due to corruption, which the government hoped to change. A year before the GSK's scandal, some Chinese companies had been investigated by the Chinese government. Yet, GSK did not pay much attention to the shift in the China market and consistently ignored the warnings of the China bribery before the scandal.
Whistleblower of the China scandal.
Emails to Chinese regulators.
Since December 2011, 24 anonymous tips from inside the GSK China were sent to Chinese regulators in 17-month time, which was not known to GSK high executives until April 2012. The tips reported details of GSK's fraud and corruption in China to the regulators. Although the company promised to the US regulators that they would not allow improper marketing and kickbacks to doctors in July 2012 after a remarkable fine, it did not stop doing so in China. Vivian Shi (), GSK's head of government affairs in China, was fired as she was believed to be the whistleblower, although officially, she was fired due to "falsification of travel expenses". Vivian Shi then used her connections to the Chinese political system to arrest Peter Humphry on what he alleges were trumped up charges.
Emails to GSK headquarter.
GSK's board received an email in January 2013 where allegations the China branch had committed fraud in its operations was detailed in 5,200 words. The email was written in English. The email said that GSK China disguised tourist travel in the disguise of international academic meetings. The company paid for the airline tickets and hotel rooms for such meetings to bribe Chinese medical professionals. The email continued by accusing GSK China of falsifying its books and records to illegally market drugs in China. The whistleblower made examples by the drug Lamictal, which was approved in China only for treating epilepsy, but was marketed as a drug for bipolar disorder aggressively. The drug killed a patient due to false marketing, but GSK chose to pay around 9,000 US dollars to silence the patient.
Bribery to Chinese regulators.
However, the warnings of the whistleblower were just regarded as a "smear campaign" as shown in the company's confidential report acquired by the New York Times. Xinhua, a state run media agency, said that years before the scandal, the regulators across China were receiving tips about GSK's bribery. Allegedly in 2012, Mike Reilly, Zhang Guowei () and Zhao Hongyan () of the company even founded a risk management unit to cope with the tips. Allegedly executives of GSK bribed regulators to change their focus to "unequal competition" instead of "commercial bribery". The executive admitted that the company tried to limit the fine within 50,000 dollars but failed.
Sex tape of the China head.
In March, 13 executives of the company's London headquarter, including the CEO Andrew Witty, received an email with a sex tape as an attachment from an anonymous writer called "gskwhistleblower." The secretly filmed tape showed Mark Reilly's sex with his girlfriend. The film had been edited to disguise the location, but had been filmed in the bedroom of Mr.Relly's Shanghai apartment. After receiving the email he moved to a more secure location. The email accused the company and Mark Reilly of using China Comfort Travel to bribe doctors.
GSK investigation into the whistleblower.
In April 2013, Mark Reilly, GSK's China head paid Peter Humphrey's ChinaWhys, a small risk consultancy which served Dell and Dow Chemical, to investigate into the break-in at his apartment and estimate the potential influence of the fired former employee, Vivian Shi, who was thought to be the whistleblower, in the government. Humphrey believed he was investigating a smear campaign. He visited Lanson Place where the tape was filmed and compiled a dossier of the potential suspects. On 6 June 2013, Humphrey submitted a report to GSK where he believed Shi to be the responsible party.
Internal investigation.
GSK's China business was plagued with alleged bribery. 56 employees in China were dismissed in the year before the scandal, among a total of 312 dismissals. Although the company did investigate into the allegations stated by the whistleblower, a week before the Chinese investigation, the internal investigation was concluded with "no evidence of corruption or bribery in our China business." The New York Times said an internal audit in 2011 already show serious problems in GSK China's facility.
Police investigations.
Early evidence.
The Chinese police denied that it was because of the internal conflicts and tips from inside the company that they launched the investigation.
According to Xinhua, a state run media outlet, and the police report, the Chinese investigations started with an investigation into an unknown Shanghai travel agency in early 2013. According to Shanghai-based media "the Economic Observer", the travel agency, namely Shanghai Linjiang International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. (), was founded 7 years ago before the investigation, by a Shanghai real estate developer and a major Chinese footballer. The Chinese police said that the travel agency had few products but its revenue rose from million to hundreds of millions RMB. An investigation into the travel agency with help from other government offices identified its links to GSK and other pharmaceutical companies.
Police action.
The Public Security Ministry assigned Changsha Police to form a task force to investigate into the lead. The task force gathered evidence for GSK's bribery in ten plus Chinese provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, Liaoning, Xinjiang in a year-long period. Shanghai and Zhengzhou Police were also assigned to make the investigation into the suspected economic crimes.
On 27 June and 10 July 2013, the Changsha Police, with the help from Shanghai and Zhengzhou Police, carried out raids in multiple GSK offices and related travel agencies in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing, acquiring files and laptops and interrogating employees. 4 executives were arrested in Shanghai, including Mike Reilly, the company's China head and protagonist of the sex tape. A total of 14 were arrested. The Changsha Police announced the operation in a short statement on Weibo on 28 June. Besides, AstraZeneca, UCB and other pharmaceutical companies' employees were also questioned by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and the police.
GSK response.
Mike Reilly left China on 27 June when police took action at GSK China, which was not stopped by the police. In a police press, head of China's fraud unit Gao Feng said GSK was the boss in the bribery networks. Gao continued, "This is a very serious violation and a high-profile case. We are wondering why we have not received any information. As for the chief of the China business, you had better ask him yourself why he has left China and is not willing to return so far." But he also said he was willing to cooperate with overseas partners. GSK responded that it would closely cooperate with the Chinese authorities. Later, Reilly voluntarily returned to China to help the police with the investigations.
Chinese media coverage.
Bribery to doctors.
The patent of GSK's leading hepatitis drug, Heptodin, expired in 2006. To cope with this, the company launched Changcheng () and Longteng () where the company used bribery to avoid Chinese doctors using Chinese equivalent of Heptodin.
According to Gao Feng, head of the economic crimes investigation unit at China's Public Security Ministry, GSK transferred 3 billion yuan to over 700 travel agencies and consultancies during a 6-year period, through which the company bribed doctors, hospitals, officials and medical associations. GSK bought services from the travel agencies at prices much higher than real prices, so that the agencies were able to serve as a fund for bribery which was independent of internal financial regulations of the company.
Xinhua described the hierarchy of GSK's bribery networks, where the company reps bribed ordinary doctors, area managers bribed major clients, regional manager bribed VIPs, the marketing department bribed academics, and the VIP department bribed institutes. To avoid regulation, the company paid 7 smaller drug companies including Jiangsu Tailing () to sell its products. The company bought cars, cameras, televisions, electrical autos and other non-medical equipment to bribed centers of disease control and vaccine injection centers for ¥13m.
Distorted drug prices.
GSK's Lamivudine was priced at 142 RMB in Mainland China, while it only cost 18RMB, 26RMB, 30RMB to buy the drug in Korea, Canada and Britain respectively. Adefovir Dipivoxil, another product of GSK, was as expensive as 182 RMB, but it only costs 103.5RMB and 59.92RMB to buy them in Japan and Hong Kong. The police investigation also showed how GSK manipulated their drug prices in China, which took 5 measures:
Chen Hongbo (), former manager of GSK China, said to Xinhua that transfer pricing was a common strategy of multinationals, where a product was first sold to a middle country at a high price, and then it was imported to the destination at an even higher price based on the sale price in the middle country. Another way was to import raw materials for drugs. For example, Zinacef's raw material was packed in Cyprus and then was imported to Italy at a transferred price. After bottled in Italy, the bottled drug was imported to China at a much higher price. After it was labelled in China, the price would be even higher. The police told media that during 2009–12, GSK China's revenues of main business were ¥397.8m, ¥486.2m, ¥552.9m, ¥697.5m, but profits were merely ¥11m, ¥-4.7m, ¥6.0m, ¥-18.8m, which was owing to the company's transfer pricing strategy. Another manager of the company Liang Hong () said that this helped the company avoid taxation in China.
GSK used bribery to stimulate the sales of extravagantly expensive drugs. A GSK rep told Xinhua that her boss said to her, "if the doctor wants money, then give them money; if the doctor wants academic achievements, then provides them with the opportunity." Liang Hong estimated that 30% of the drug prices were used in bribery in GSK China's sales. Although the compliance department and Internal Audit Department of GSK China showed evidence to the company that the company was faking invoices and fabricating records and books, the warnings were not taken seriously. Lan Shengke (), an executive of GSK China, said that Mike Reilly even fired a director at the compliance department as the strict enforcement of the compliance rules affected sales performance in 2011.
Court ruling.
The trial on the company's commercial bribery was held in the Chinese city of Changsha on 19 September 2014. According to Xinhua, the trial at Changsha Intermediate People’s Court was not public as requested by GSK who wanted to keep business secrets. Mike Reilly was sentenced to 3-year jail sentences with 4-year suspension and deportation from China. Other three Chinese GSK employees were sentenced to 2 to 4 years. The company was sentenced to a record 3 billion yuan fine.
The fine was the largest corporate fine in China, but GSK did not defend its actions. In a statement after the trial, the company said it "apologizes to the Chinese patients, doctors and hospitals, and to the Chinese government and the Chinese people." The company said it had learnt from the mistakes and would do "tangible actions to establish itself as a model for reform in China’s healthcare industry." The company also promised to continue to invest in China and would change its incentive program fundamentally. A source told China Business Networks that the sales group for hepatitis drugs, which was related to the company's bribery plans, was downsized after the scandal.
Impact.
Sales strategies of GSK.
Although the China market only contributed to a small fraction of overall revenue of GSK, it is the fastest-growing markets of the company. The company had heavily invested in the market, where it built both clinical and research facilities. GSK's sales in China recorded a 25% drop in the second quarter of 2014. Globally, the quarterly profits fell by 14% to £1.3bn, which was below analysts' forecasts, leading to a 5% fall in its shares price, the biggest single fall on FTSE 100. The company still faced investigation by UK's Serious Fraud Office and US department of justice, due to the laws against overseas corruption in the two countries where GSK was listed.
The legal suits in China forced the company to make a statement in December 2013, where changes in incentive programs, including cancelling individual sales targets and related bonus, were put forwards and expected to be enforced since 2014. To educate doctors about its products "transparently and without any perception of conflict of interest," the company also aimed to stop direct payment to any attendees at medical conferences by 2016, which was considered a significant move by the British Medical Association.
Following the scandal, GSK promised to lower the prices of its products in China, which was regarded as a signal to other drugmakers in China. National Development and Reform Commission said it would examine the drug prices by 60 firms, after it had succeeded in making some foreign infant formula producers to lower the price in an earlier price-related inquiry. But the low prices was predicted not to last long without a systematic change to China's healthcare system. Many Chinese doctors said they had no choice but to use these foreign drugs, when Chinese patients had little trust in the quality of the Chinese equivalents.
Foreign firms in China's anti-corruption campaign.
For a long time, corruption had been usually considered as part of the cost of doing business in China, and the medical industry was no exception. GSK's case occurred during the backdrop of Xi Jinping's anti-corruption campaign, which was believed to be focused on eliminating political opponents rather than stamping out corruption. Ben Cavender, an associate principal at China Market Research Group, said that the GSK's case could be part of the greater trend of fighting against corruption, where foreign firms were advised to carefully obey the law. However, the American Chamber of Commerce in China and US-China Business Council published reports, saying that foreign companies in China felt increasingly targeted by Chinese regulators. The president of the US-China Business Council doubted whether China was using such kinds of probes to protect its domestic industry.
The anti-corruption effort backfired at the communication between international pharmaceutical firms and Chinese academics and local firms. A senior research director in Shanghai admitted money-involving new cooperation between international pharmaceutical firms and Chinese academics and hospitals were suspended in 2013. Pharmaceutical companies usually invested in continuing medical education (CME) where the latest medical progress was discussed in order to encourage doctors to use their products. While CME was strictly regulated in Europe and the US, there was little oversight in emerging markets such as China. In China, foreign pharmas were usually the ones who paid for the educational programs that few Chinese companies paid.
Aftermath.
Humphrey's privacy breach.
According to lawyers via "the Financial Times", China's privacy law had become from one of the loosest one to a tighter one. In 2009, the country amended the criminal law to prohibit illegal transfer or trade of personal data and punish anyone who wants to buy or sell them. Violation of the law can lead to up to 3 years in jail.
On 10 July, which was 2 weeks after the police operations at GSK offices, Shanghai police arrested Humphrey and his wife Yu at their Shanghai apartment, charging them with privacy law breach. Harvard Humphrey, the son of Peter Humphrey accused of GSK of engaging his father “under false pretenses”, and described his father as "an honorable and law-abiding man". Humphrey and his wife Yu said that they accepted the offer as they believed that the bribery allegations were false and that they were investigating a smear campaign. Humphrey said on Chinese national television that it was not his intention to break any Chinese law. He refused to confess to the charges levelled against him..
Humphrey and Yu were found to have acquired 256 items of personal information. Humphrey was sentenced to 2 and a half and Yu was sentenced to 2 years by the Shanghai First Intermediate People’s Court, which was a much more severe sentence compared to other cases of similar conditions in Shanghai. After being denied care and tortured, Humphrey was released 7 months early and his wife Yu was released about the same time. They left China and went to the UK on 16 June 2015.
Illegal dismissal.
In the dismissal announced on 6 March 2015, 3 pregnant women and 4 nursing mothers were laid off. According to a former employee, the company talked to them individually, claiming that the employees had misbehavior and it had evidence for that. The company asked the employees to submit a resignation report by 9 March, and the company would consider it as a voluntary resignation. The employees were threatened by the company as it would leave a black mark in their employees' documents if the employees refused to comply with the requests. The laid-off employees' access to their office and emails were cut right on the day of the talk.
GSK China identified and terminated more than 110 employees which it had "dismissed as a result of a crackdown on illegal expenses" during the period preceding the scandal. The laid-off employees rallied before the GSK's Shanghai headquarter to protests against the dismissal. Approximately half of the terminated workers appealed their dismissal, and GSK's refusal to reimburse employees for expenses incurred before termination, before a labour dispute arbitration committee.
Vivian Shi and the whistleblower.
According to "the" "New York Times""," the whistleblower could be more than one person, as the emails to regulators were written in fluent English via a Gmail account while the emails with a sex tape were written in poor English thorough a Chinese email service. One of the email addresses responded to the New York Times, which denied Vivian Shi as a whistleblower. The response added,
The company denied that it was trying to dig out the whistleblower and instead the company was trying to fix a security hole for its employees. In 2015, Shi rejoined the company that fired her three years ago. GSK confirmed the information but refused to make further comment. Friends of Humphrey/Yu couple believed Shi was a key figure in the couple's detention and the couple's investigations into Shi's political relations resulted in them being sent to jail.
Investigations by other government.
UK Serious Fraud Office.
UK's Serious Fraud Office initiated an investigation in 2014, but the cased was closed by its new director Lisa Osofsky in 2019, after costing £7.5 million in the investigation. The Office's director said,
US Securities and Exchange Commission.
As GSK bribery in China was a breach of US's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act during 2010–13, the Securities and Exchange Commission launched an investigation into the company. In September 2016, GSK agreed to pay a civil penalty of $20 million to settle the case, but it did not admit or deny the allegations.


Fausto Lopo de Carvalho

Fausto Lopo Patrício de Carvalho (15 May 1890 – 23 May 1970), more commonly known as Fausto Lopo de Carvalho, was a Portuguese pulmonologist specialising in phthisiology, and the developer of pulmonary angiography in 1931, with Egas Moniz and Almeida Lima.
He was the son of eminent phthisiologist Lopo de Carvalho (founder of the first sanatorium in Portugal, in Guarda), and his wife Leopoldina dos Anjos Patrício de Carvalho. He studied at the University of Coimbra, earning a degree in medicine with the highest possible grade (20 out of a possible 20) in 1916; after completing his medical studies he worked at the Guarda Sanatorium under his father's guidance, where he prepared his thesis for a doctorate, entitled "Artificial Pneumothorax". He taught Medical Propaedeutics, first at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra and later at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, until 1934, when he was appointed to the newly-created Chair of Chest Diseases.
He was President of the International Union Against Tuberculosis from 1937 to 1939, and also presided over the Portuguese from 1931 to 1938.


Bad Vibes Forever (song)

"Bad Vibes Forever" is a song by American rapper XXXTentacion featuring rappers PnB Rock and Trippie Redd. It was released on November 22, 2019 as the third single from XXXTentacion's fourth and final studio album of the same name. The song was produced by John Cunningham.


Granuloma fissuratum

Granuloma fissuratum may refer to:


Stefan Lochner

Stefan Lochner (the Dombild Master or Master Stefan; c. 1410 – late 1451) was a German painter working in the late International Gothic period. His paintings combine that era's tendency toward long flowing lines and brilliant colours with the realism, virtuoso surface textures and innovative iconography of the early Northern Renaissance. Based in Cologne, a commercial and artistic hub of northern Europe, Lochner was one of the most important German painters before Albrecht Dürer. Extant works include single-panel oil paintings, devotional polyptychs and illuminated manuscripts, which often feature fanciful and blue-winged angels. Today some thirty-seven individual panels are attributed to him with confidence.
Less is known of his life. Art historians associating the Dombild Master with the historical Stefan Lochner believe he was born in Meersburg in south-west Germany around 1410, and that he spent some of his apprenticeship in the Low Countries. Records further indicate that his career developed quickly but was cut short by an early death. We know that he was commissioned around 1442 by the Cologne council to provide decorations for the visit of Emperor Frederick III, a major occasion for the city. Records from the following years indicate growing wealth and the purchase of a number of properties around the city. Thereafter he seems to have over-extended his finances and fallen into debt. Plague hit Cologne in 1451 and there, apart from the records of creditors, mention of Stephan Lochner ends; it is presumed he died that year, aged around 40.
Lochner's identity and reputation were lost until a revival of 15th-century art during the early 19th-century romantic period. Despite extensive historical research, attribution remains difficult; for centuries a number of associated works were grouped and loosely attributed to the Dombild Master, a notname taken from the "Dombild Altarpiece" (in English "cathedral picture", also known as the "Altarpiece of the City's Patron Saints") still in Cologne Cathedral. One of Dürer's diary entries became key, 400 years later, in the 20th-century establishment of Lochner's identity. Only two attributed works are dated, and none are signed. His influence on successive generations of northern artists was substantial. Apart from the many direct copies made in the later 15th century, echoes of his panels can be seen in works by Rogier van der Weyden and Hans Memling. Lochner's work was praised by Friedrich Schlegel and Goethe for its qualities, especially the "sweetness and grace" of his Madonnas.
Identity and attribution.
There are no signed paintings by Lochner, and his identity was not established until the 19th century. J. F. Böhmer in an 1823 article identified the "Dombild" (meaning "Cathedral picture") or "Altarpiece of the City's Patron Saints" with a work mentioned in an account of a visit to Cologne in 1520 in the diary of Albrecht Dürer. The notoriously thrifty artist paid 5 silver pfennig to see an altarpiece by "Maister Steffan" some seventy years after Lochner's death. Although Dürer fails to mention specifically which of Maister Steffan's panels he had seen, his description matches exactly the centre panel of the "Dombild Altarpiece". The altarpiece is referred to in a number of other records. It was repaired and re-gilded in 1568, and mentioned in Georg Braun's "Civitates Orbis Terrarum" in 1572.
German Gothic art underwent a revival in the early 19th-century Romantic period when the work was seen as a climax of the late Gothic period. The German philosopher and critic Friedrich Schlegel was instrumental in reviving Lochner's reputation. He wrote lengthy tracts comparing the "Dombild" favourably to the work of Raphael, and believed it exceeded anything by van Eyck, Dürer or Holbein. Later, Goethe was enthusiastic, emphasising Lochner's German "spirit and origin"; he described the Dombild as the "axis around which the ancient Netherlandish art resolves into the new".
Lochner's identity remained unknown for centuries, and no other known works were associated with the "Dombild" altarpiece. In 1816 Ferdinand Franz Wallraf identified him as Philipp Kalf, based on a reading of a name inscribed on the cloth of a figure on the right of the centre panel. He misinterpreted markings on the stone floor pictured in "Annunciation" to read 1410, which he took as the year of completion. Johann Dominicus Fiorillo discovered a 15th-century record that read "in 1380 there was an excellent painter in Cologne called Wilhelm, who had no equal in his art and who depicted human beings as if they were alive". In 1850 Johann Jakob Merlo identified "Maister Steffan" with the historical Stefan Lochner.
In 1862, Gustav Waagen became one of the first art historians to try to place Lochner's works in chronological order. His reasoning was based the assumption that Lochner developed from the early idealised forms usually associated with early 15th century Cologne, and later absorbed the techniques and realism of the Netherlandish painters. In this way, he placed the lighter "gaiety" of Lochner's Madonna paintings as from the beginning of his career, with the more stern and pessimistic crucifixions and doom panels at the end. Today, art historians believe the reverse to be true; the dramatic and innovative polyptychs came first, and the single Madonnas and panels of saints are from his mid-career.
Based on their similarity to the "Altar of the City Patrons", art historians have attributed other paintings to Lochner, although a number have questioned whether the diary entry was authentically made by Dürer. Documentary evidence linking the paintings and miniatures with the historical Lochner has also been challenged, most notably by the art historian Michael Wolfson in 1996. In either case, the extent of Lochner's direct hand, as opposed to those of workshop members or followers, is debated. Some panels formerly attributed to him are now thought to date from after 1451, the year of his death.
Life.
The outline of the historical Stefan Lochner's life has been established from a small number of records, mostly relating to commissions, payments and property transfers. There are no documents relating to his early life, a contributing factor being the loss of archival records from his supposed birthplace during the French occupation of Cologne.
The primary sources relating to Lochner's life are a June 1442 payment by the city of Cologne in relation to Friedreich's visit; deeds of 27 October 1442 and 28 August 1444 outlining the transfer of ownership of the house at Roggendorf; October 1444 deeds for the purchase of two houses in st Alban; his 24 June 1447 registration as a citizen of Cologne; his December 1447 election to the municipal council; his Christmas 1450 re-election to that post; an August 1451 correspondence with the city council; a 22 September 1451 announcement of the setting up of a plague graveyard next to his property, and finally, court records dated 7 January 1452 detailing the appropriation of his property.
Early life.
Through threadbare clues and supposition, mostly centred around a relatively wealthy couple that perished during a plague, believed to be his parents, Lochner is thought to have come from Meersburg, near Lake Constance. Georg and Alhet Lochner were citizens and died there in 1451. A "Stefan" is referred to as "Stefan Lochner of Constance" in two documents dated 1444 and 1448. However, there is no archival evidence that he was there, and his style bears no trace of the art in that region. There are no further records of him or his family in the town except for a mention of Lochners (a fairly uncommon name) in the village of Hagnau, two kilometers from Meersburg.
However records indicate that Lochner's talent was recognised from an early age. He may have been of Netherlandish origin or worked there for a master, possibly Robert Campin. Lochner's work seems influenced by Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden; elements of their styles can be detected in the structure and colourisation of Lochner's mature works, especially in his "Last Judgement", although neither is thought to be the master with whom he studied.
Move to Cologne and success.
By the 1440s, Cologne was the largest and wealthiest city in the Holy Roman Empire. It controlled and taxed the passage of trade from Flanders to Saxony, and became a financial, religious and artistic center. The city had a long tradition of producing high-quality visual art, and in the 14th century, its output was considered to be equal to that of Vienna and Prague. Cologne's artists concentrated on more personal and intimate subject matters, and the area became known for its production of small panels of "great lyrical charm and loveliness, which reflected the deep devotion of the writings of the German mystics".
During the 1430s, painting in Cologne had become conventional and somewhat old-fashioned, and still under the influence of the courtly style of the Master of Saint Veronica, active until 1420. After his arrival Lochner, who was earlier exposed to the Netherlandish painters and already working in oils, eclipsed other artists in the city. According to the art historian Emmy Wellesz, after Lochner's arrival "painting in Cologne became infused with a new life", perhaps enriched by the earlier exposure to the Netherlandish artists. He became widely celebrated as the most capable and modern painter in the city, where he was known as "Maister Steffan zu Cöln".
Lochner first appears in extant records in 1442, nine years before he died. He moved to Cologne where he received a commission from the city council for the provision of decorations for the visit of Emperor Frederick III. Lochner was seemingly well established and although other artists were involved in preparing for the event, he was responsible for the most important arrangements. The centrepiece seems to have been the "Dombild Altarpiece", described by modern art historians as "the most important commission of the fifteenth century in Cologne". He is recorded as having been paid forty marks and ten shillings for his effort.
Lochner bought a house with his wife Lysbeth around 1442. Nothing else is known about her and the couple apparently had no children. In 1444 he acquired two larger properties, the "zome Carbunckel", near Saint Alban Church, and the "zome Alden Gryne". Historians have speculated whether these acquisitions indicate a need to house a growing group of assistants due to his rising commercial success. It is likely that he lived in one house and worked in the other. The purchases may have caused a strain; in around 1447 he seems to have encountered financial difficulties, and he was forced to remortgage the homes. Second mortgages were taken out in 1448.
Plague and death.
In 1447 the local painter's guild elected Lochner as their representative municipal councilor, or "Ratsherr". The appointment implies that he had lived in Cologne since at least 1437, as only those who had been living in the city for ten years could take up the position. He had not taken up citizenship immediately, possibly to avoid paying the 12 guilder fee. He was obliged to act as "Ratsherr", and on 24 June 1447, he became a burgher of Cologne. The role of municipal councilor could only be held for a one-year term, with two years vacated before reoccupation. Lochner was re-elected for a second term in the winter of 1450–51 but died in office.
There was an outbreak of plague in 1451, and there are no surviving records of him after Christmas of that year. On 16 August 1451 the council of Meersburg was informed by officials in Cologne that Lochner would be unable to attend to the will and estate of his parents, recently deceased. It is presumed he was by then already ill; plague was widespread in the area. On 22 September Saint Alban parish requested permission to burn victims in the lot next to his house there was no longer room in their cemetery. Lochner died sometime between this date and December 1451 when creditors took possession of his house. Records from 1451 do not mention Lysbeth, who was presumably already dead.
Style.
Lochner worked in the late International Gothic ("schöne stil") style, already considered dated and old-fashioned by the 1440s, yet is widely regarded as innovative. He introduced a number of progressions to painting in Cologne, especially by filling his backgrounds and landscapes with specific and elaborate details, and by rendering his figures with more bulk and volume. Wellesz described his paintings as evidencing an "intensity of feeling which gives a very special and very moving quality to his work. His devotion is reflected in his figures: it charges with symbolic meaning the smallest details of his paintings; and, in a hidden, almost magical way, it speaks from the concord of his pure and glowing colours."
Lochner painted with oil, preparing the surface in a way typical of other North German artists; in some works, he attached canvas to the panel support underneath the usual chalk ground. This was probably done where there were to be large areas of plain gilding. Where the gold ground was to have a pattern such as a brocade, this was carved into the chalk ground before gilding, and, in some paintings, elements had moulded additions applied to raise the surface to be gilded. He employed a number of techniques when gilding, to give different effects. These included laying the leaf with water for burnished passages, and with oil or varnish sizing (mordant gilding) for the more decorative areas. His colour schemes tend to be bright and luminous, filled with varieties of red, blue and green pigments. He often employed ultramarine, then expensive and difficult to source. His figures are regularly outlined with red paint. He was innovative in his rendering of flesh tones, which he built up using lead whites to give pale complexions with almost porcelain qualities. In this, he refers to an older tradition of indicating women of high nobility whose paleness was associated with a life spent indoors, "shielded from toiling in the fields, which was the lot of most". In particular, this technique follows the Master of Veronica, although the earlier painter's figures had an almost yellowish, ivory hue. Lochner's Madonnas tend to be clothed in saturated blues which resonate with surrounding yellow, red and green paint. According to James Snyder, the artist "employed these four basic colors for his harmonies", but went beyond by using more subdued and deep hues in a technique referred to as "pure color".
Like Conrad von Soest, Lochner often applied black cross-hatching on gold, usually to render metallic objects such as brooches, crowns or buckles, in imitation of goldsmiths work on precious objects such as reliquaries and chalices. He was heavily influenced by the art and process of metalwork and goldsmithing, especially in his painting of gold grounds, and it has been suggested that he may have once trained as a goldsmith. Evidence of his imitation of elements of their craft is apparent even in his underdrawings. Notable and elaborate painted examples include the tooled gold border of the angelic concert in his "Last Judgement", and Gabriel's clasp on the outer wing of the "Dombild altarpiece".
Lochner seems to have prepared on paper before approaching his underdrawings; there is little evidence of reworking, even when positioning large groups of figures. Infrared reflectography of the underdrawings for the "Last Judgement" panels show letters used to denote the final colour to be applied, for example "g" for "gelb" (yellow) or "w" for "weiss" (white), and there are few deviations in the finished work. He often rearranged drapery fold lines or to denote perspective, enlarged or diminished the size of figures. The underdrawings reveal a draughtsman of skill, dynamism, and confidence; the figures appear fully formed with little evidence of reworking. Many are extremely detailed and precisely modelled, for example, St Ursula's brooch in the "Altarpiece of the City Patron Saints", which contains closely detailed garlands and diadems.
Perhaps influenced by van Eyck's "Madonna in the Church", Lochner closely detailed the fall and gradient of light. According to the art historian Brigitte Corley, the clothes of "protagonists change their hues in delicate reaction to the influx of light, reds being transformed through a symphony of pink tonalities to a dusty greyish white, greens to a warm pale yellow, and lemon shading through oranges to a saturated red". Lochner employed the notion of supernatural illumination not just from van Eyck, but also from von Soest's "Crucifixion", where light emanating from Christ dissolves around John's red robe, as yellows rays eventually become white. There is a real possibility that a number of the faces of saints are modelled on historical persons, i.e. as donor portraits of the commissioners and their wives. Figures fitting this theory include St Ursula and St Gereon panels from the City Saints altarpiece.
Unlike the painters in the Low Countries, Lochner was not so concerned with delineating perspective; his pictures are often set in shallow space, while his backgrounds give little indication of distance and often dissolve into solid gold. Thus, and given his harmonious colour schemes, Lochner is usually described as one of the last exponents of the International Gothic. This is not to say his paintings lack contemporary northern sophistication; his arrangements are often innovative. The worlds he paints are hushed, according to Snyder, achieved with the symmetry of subdued use of colour and the often repeated stylistic element of circles. Angels form circles around the heavenly figures; the heavenly figures' heads are highly circular and they wear round haloes. According to Snyder, the viewer is slowly "drawn into empathy with the revolving forms".
Because of the paucity of surviving attributed works, it is difficult to detect any evolution in Lochner's style. Art historians are unsure if his style became progressively more or less influenced by Netherlandish art. Recent dendrochronological examination of attributed works indicate that his development was not linear, suggesting that the more advanced "Presentation in the Temple" is of 1445, predating the more Gothic "Saints" panels now divided between London and Cologne.
Work.
Panel paintings.
Lochner's major works include three large polyptychs: the "Dombild Altarpiece"; the "Last Judgement", which is broken apart and in several collections; and Nuremberg's "Crucifixion". Only two attributed paintings are dated; the 1445 "Nativity" now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, and the "Presentation in the Temple" from 1447, now in Darmstadt. There is a smaller, earlier version of the presentation scene at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, dated 1445. As secular works grew in demand and religious works became unfashionable in later centuries, 15th-century polyptychs were often broken up and sold as individual works, especially if a panel or section contained an image that could pass as a secular portrait.
Wing panels and other fragments of Lochner's larger works are today spread across various museums and collections. Two surviving double-sided wing panels from an altarpiece with images of saints are in the London's National Gallery and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne (this now sawn through so both sides can be displayed on a wall). The wings of the "Last Judgement" originally had six parts, painted on both sides, but have been sawn into twelve individual pictures, now divided between the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. It is probably from early in his career, but in subject matter and background differs from other extant and attributed works. While the elements are arranged in typical harmony, the composition and tone are unusually dark and dramatic. The "Crucifixion" is also an early work and reminiscent of late medieval painting. It has a heavily ornamented gilded background and the smooth flowing quality of the 'soft' Gothic style.
The extant works repeatedly address the same scenes and themes. The nativity is recurrent, while several panels depict the Virgin and Child, often surrounded by a chorus of angels, or in earlier panels, blessed by a hovering representation of God or a dove (representing the Holy Ghost). In many instances Mary is enclosed in her usual enclosed garden. Several reveal the work of a number of hands, with weaker and less confident passages attributed to workshop members. The figures of Mary and Gabriel on the reverse of the "Dombild" were drawn more rapidly and with less skill than the figures on the main panels, and their drapery is modelled with, according to the art historian Julien Chapuis, a certain "stiffness", while the cross hatching "achieves no clear definition of relief". A number of drawings have been associated with him, but only one, a c. 1450 brush and ink on paper entitled "Virgin and Child" and now in the Musee du Louvre, is attributed with confidence.
Illuminated manuscripts.
Lochner is associated with three surviving books of hours; in Darmstadt, Berlin and Anholt. The extent of his association in each is debated; workshop members were probably heavily involved in their production. The most famous is the early 1450s Prayer book of Stephan Lochner now at Darmstadt; the others are the Berlin Book of Prayers of c. 1444, and the Anholt Prayerbook, completed in the 1450s. The manuscripts are very small (Berlin: 9.3 cm x 7 cm, Darmstadt: 10.7 cm x 8 cm, Anholt: 9 cm x 8 cm) and similar in layout and colourisation and are each extensively decorated in gold and blue. The borders are ornamented in bright colours and contain acanthus scrolls, gold foliage, flowers, berry-like fruits and round pods. The Darmstadt book includes a complete cycle of the Martyrdom of the Apostles. Its illustrations contain Lochner's characteristic application of deep blue, reminiscent of his "Virgin in the Rose Garden".
The art historian Ingo Walther detects Lochner's hand in the "pious intimacy and soulfulness of the figures, always expressed so gently and elegantly, even in the extremely small format of the pictures". Chapuis agrees with the attribution, noting how many of the miniatures share thematic similarities to attributed panels. He writes that the illustrations "are not a peripheral phenomenon. On the contrary, they address several of the concerns articulated in Lochner's paintings and formulate them anew. There is little doubt that these exquisite images stem from the same mind." The text of the Darmstadt book is written in Cologne vernacular, the Berlin book in Latin.
Other formats.
There are extant liturgical vestments containing embroidered figures, including that of St. Barbara, in Lochner's style and with similar facial types. This has led to some speculation whether Lochner provided the models. In addition, a number of contemporary stained glass panels are similar in style, and there has been debate whether he might have been responsible for church murals; the over-life-size figures of the "Dombild" and "Virgin with the Violet" indicate his ability to work on a monumental scale.
Two drawings on paper in the British Museum and the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts were at times thought to be studies for the Munich "Nativity". The lines of the folds in the garments closely match those of the painting, although the technical ability does not. The Paris drawing has blotches of paint indicating that it was a study piece for workshop members. The London piece is superior, but its lines are more rigid, lacking Lochner's fluidity, and so its attribution has been relegated to a draughtsman closely associated with Lochner.
Influences.
Lochner's art seems indebted to two broad sources; Netherlandish artists van Eyck and Robert Campin, and the earlier German masters Conrad von Soest and the Master of Saint Veronica. From the former Lochner drew his realism in depicting naturalistic backgrounds, objects, and clothes. From the latter, he adopted the somewhat antiquated manner of depicting figures, especially females, with doll-like, eloquent and sensitive features, to present "iconic, almost timeless" atmospheres, enhanced by the then old-fashioned gold backgrounds. Lochner's figures have idealised facial features typical of medieval portraiture. His subjects, females in particular, usually have the high foreheads, long noses, small rounded chins, tucked blond curls and prominent ears typical of the late Gothic, giving them the characteristic monumentality of 13th-century art, placing them on seemingly similar shallow backgrounds.
Lochner probably saw van Eyck's c. 1432 "Ghent Altarpiece" during his visit to the Netherlands and seems to have borrowed a number of its compositional elements. The similarities include the manner in which the figures engage with their space and the emphasis on and rendering of elements such as brocades, gems and metals. Some figures in Lochner's paintings are directly borrowed from Ghent, and a number of facial features match those seen in van Eyck. His "Virgin with the Violet" has often been compared to van Eyck's 1439 "Virgin at the Fountain". Similarly to those in van Eyck's work, Lochner's angels often sing or play musical instruments, including lutes and organs.
He seemingly rejected some aspects of van Eyckian realism, notably in his depictions of shadows, and his unwillingness to apply transparent glazes. As a colourist, Lochner was more inclined towards the International Gothic style, even if this inhibited realism. He did not utilise the newly developed Netherlandish techniques of representing perspective, but rather indicated distance through the diminution of parallel objects.
Legacy.
The historical evidence suggests that Lochner's paintings were well known and widely copied during his lifetime, and remained so until the 16th century. Early examples in ink after his "Virgin in Adoration" are in the British Museum and École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts. The influence of Lochner's "Last Judgement" can be seen in Hans Memling's "Gdansk altarpiece", where the gates of Heaven are similar, as is the rendering of the blessed. Albrecht Dürer knew of him before his stay in Cologne, and Van der Weyden saw his paintings during his travel to Italy. The latter's "Altar of Saint John" is similar to Lochner's "Flaying of Bartholomew", especially in the executioner's pose, while his "Saint Columba altarpiece" includes two motifs from Lochner's "Adoration of the Magi" triptych; specifically, the king in the central panel with his back to the viewer, and the girl in the right hand wing holding a basket containing doves.
The "Heisterbach Altarpiece", a dismantled double set of wings now broken apart and divided between Bamberg and Cologne, is heavily indebted to Lochner's style. The inner panels show sixteen scenes from the lives of Christ and the Virgin that bear multiple similarities to Lochner's work, including in format, compositional motifs, physiognomy and colourisation. The work was for a period attributed to Lochner but is now generally accepted as bearing his strong influence. In 1954 Alfred Stange described the Master of the Heisterbach Altarpiece as Lochner's "best-known and most important pupil and follower", although research in 2014 indicates that the two may have collaborated on the panels.
Research in 2014 by Iris Schaeffer into the underdrawings of the "Dombild Altarpiece" established two guiding hands, presumably Lochner and an exceptionally talented pupil, whom she concludes was in probability the principal artist behind the "Heisterbach Altarpiece". A counter view is that Lochner's workshop was producing to a deadline, and he delegated as a matter of expediency.


Francisco Paesa

Francisco Paesa (born in Madrid, Spain, 11 April 1936) is a Spanish former spy and businessman best known for his implication in several corruption scandals and the faking of his own death in the 1990s.
Biography.
He began his business career conducting various businesses with Francisco Macías Nguema, the then dictator of Equatorial Guinea. In 1976 he was arrested by Interpol in Belgium and imprisoned in Switzerland and it is believed that he collaborated with the paramilitary group GAL.
Sokoa Operation.
In 1986, after serving his sentence, he posed as an arms dealer who sold two antiaircraft missiles to ETA. The terrorist group did not know that the missiles had a location signal. The police could find at Henday in France during July 1986 and for the first time, a major hideout in which a large number of weapons and documents were stored. Until then, the Spanish government knew virtually nothing about ETA logistics and this operation was an important turning point.
Judge Baltasar Garzón issued an arrest warrant for Francisco Paesa on December 1, 1988 for collaboration with armed mercenaries and the use of false identities.
Roldán.
Luis Roldán, known for being the Director General of the Spanish Civil Guard during a massive corruption scandal in 1993, had said that Paesa tricked him into stealing all the money that Roldán had previously stolen in that case but the judicial case on the research to hide the heritage of Luis Roldán was filed in 2004, as the crime had prescribed.
Alleged death and later years.
In 1998 he faked a fatal cardiac arrest in Thailand. Obituaries were published and a death certificate was forged. His family even commissioned thirty Gregorian Masses for his soul. The Spanish authorities believed that he had faked his death and he had escaped with two billion pesetas (given to him by Roldán).
He reappeared on Spanish media in 2004. He was mentioned as an organizer of an operation to overthrow Equatorial Guinea dictator Obiang with an army of mercenaries.
Some say that Francisco Paesa was spotted by a detective agency in Barcelona, others in France and some in Luxembourg. However, everyone agreed that he had an Argentine passport with the name Francisco Pando Sánchez.
In December 2005, the magazine "Interviú" surprised him in Paris, where he was interviewed by director . He was 68 years old and his figure was impeccable. He explained that "his death" had been a misunderstanding, since it was reported that he was one of the three people who died in a shooting in Bangkok. He was willing to show the scars. As for the Russian mafia, he asked journalists to not publish the photos because that would force him to commit suicide.
In September 2016, the magazine "Vanity Fair" published an exclusive interview with Paesa. According to Paesa, his supposed death in Thailand was a misunderstanding; he was on an Anti-Terrorism commission from the Argentine Government when he was shot, wounded in action and taken to an unknown boat where he spent 7 months in a coma.
In fiction.
The 2016 Spanish film "Smoke & Mirrors" is based on his life.


Frank Bowe

Frank G. Bowe (1947 – August 21, 2007) was an deaf American disability studies academic who served as the Dr. Mervin Livingston Schloss Distinguished Professor for the Study of Disabilities at Hofstra University. As a disability rights activist, author, and teacher, he accomplished a series of firsts for individuals with disabilities.
Early life and education.
Bowe held a M.A. from Gallaudet University and a B.A. (summa cum laude) from McDaniel College. His Ph.D in educational psychology (research) was earned at New York University. NYU awarded him its Distinguished Alumni Award. Gallaudet awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D), and McDaniel College has recognized him with two alumni achievement awards.
Career.
"Father of Section 504".
Bowe was the first executive director (CEO) of the first national cross-disability consumer advocacy organization, the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD). The Coalition's signature achievement was securing the long-delayed implementation of Section 504, the world's first civil-rights provision for persons with disabilities. Bowe conceived and led the nationwide protest that led to issuance of landmark regulations for Section 504 in 1977. He later wrote "Handicapping America", the first full-length text on social policy and disability, which was published by Harper & Row.
In 1980, Bowe was the first person with a disability to represent any nation in the planning of the United Nations (UN) International Year of Disabled Persons (IYDP-1981). Today, many countries are represented in key UN committees by persons who themselves are individuals with disabilities, including 14 who are, as Bowe was, deaf.
In the mid-1980s, he chaired the U.S. Congress Commission on Education of the Deaf (COED), which made 52 recommendations for improving education and rehabilitation. COED issued a public draft of its final report in January, 1988. The example he and COED set was not lost on the students at Gallaudet University across town when, in March, 1988, they launched the Deaf President Now protest.
Section 504 led, in 1990, to the Americans with Disabilities Act. That same year, Bowe was the principal architect of the Television Decoder Circuitry Act, which was sponsored in the Senate by Tom Harkin and in the House by Edward Markey. The act requires that TV sets receive and display closed captions. The 1996 Telecommunications Act took it a step further, mandating that broadcast and cable programs themselves be captioned. In 2005 and 2006, Bowe gave invited testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and conducted demonstrations of high-speed broadband communications for both the House and the U.S. Senate.
Bowe's textbooks are in use at colleges and universities around the country and in several other nations. "Making Inclusion Work" (Prentice Hall) and "Early Childhood Special Education" (Thomson Delmar Learning) are two examples. He was also author of "Universal Design in Education" (published by Greenwood Publishing), of the encyclopedia entries on deafness and disabilities in Scholastic's "New Book of Knowledge", and of several hundred articles in professional journals in public policy, special education, rehabilitation, and technology.
In "Disability in America 2006", a policy paper addressing health care, employment, and entitlements, Bowe outlined disability policy goals for 2006-2008.
Hofstra University.
As a professor at Hofstra University on Long Island, Bowe helped to prepare more than 2,000 special-education teachers. He was given the Distinguished Teaching (University Teacher of the Year) Award in 1996. For five years, he was program director for special education. He also chaired several committees at Hofstra and served on doctoral dissertation committees at NYU and other universities.
In 2006, he spearheaded a campus-wide project to make information and instruction more accessible to and usable by students, faculty, staff and alumni at Hofstra. The professor served on the editorial board of five professional journals and as governmental affairs consultant for the National Association of the Deaf (United States).
Awards.
Bowe is named in numerous Who's Who publications, including "Who's Who in the World", "Who's Who in Education", and others. In 1994, Bowe was inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Persons with Disabilities. In 1992, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the United States, signed by President George H. W. Bush.


The Nathaniel Witherell

The Nathaniel Witherell is a rehabilitation and skilled nursing facility at 70 Parsonage Road in Greenwich, Connecticut. It is owned and operated by the town on a non-profit basis, providing a range of primarily short-term care services on a campus north of the central business district. It was established in 1903, and its campus has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
History.
The Nathaniel Witherell began as a tuberculosis sanitarium, built in 1911 by Rebecca Witherell and donated to the town the following year. That building, now housing low-income senior housing, was built on land owned by the town and previous used for an almshouse and poor cemetery. The present main building was constructed in 1932 as an enlargement and functional replacement of the previous facility. Use of the facility transitioned from exclusively tuberculosis treatment to include other chronic ailments in the 1930s, and by 1955 it had become exclusively devoted to treatment of the elderly. The facilities underwent enlargement in 1961 and 1975, although the Colonial Revival design of the main building, by architect William Tubby, is still discernible.
Campus.
The facility campus is located about north of downtown Greenwich, occupying on the west side of Parsonage Road. The facilities now include 202 beds, divided for purposes of rehabilitation, long-term care, and memory care. They last received major updates in the 2010s.


Konstantin Kryzhitsky

Konstantin Yakovlevich Kryzhitsky (Russian: Константин Яковлевич Крыжицкий; May 17, 1858, Kiev (present-day Kyiv, Ukraine) - April 4, 1911, Saint Petersburg) was a Russian Imperial landscape painter and drawing teacher.
Biography.
He was born in a family with Ukrainian-Polish background. His father was a merchant. After finishing his primary education, he attended the drawing school operated by Nikolay Murashko. In 1877, he entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Academy of Arts, where he studied with Mikhail Clodt. He completed his courses there in 1884, receiving the title of "Artist First-Class" and a gold medal for his painting "The Oaks". From 1884 to 1906, he taught drawing at the "Nikolaevsky Orphan Institute" in Gatchina.
In 1880, he became one of the first members of the Society of Russian Watercolorists. In 1889, his painting "Forest Vista" was purchased by Tsar Alexander III and he was named an "Academician". He visited France and Germany in the 1890s and exhibited at the Exposition Universelle (1900). That same year, he became a full member of the Academy. Later, he served as Chairman of an art society created by a bequest from his friend Arkhip Kuindzhi. He often returned to the area around Kiev to paint landscapes in oils and watercolors.
In 1910, he was accused of plagiarism by the tabloid press because one of his paintings was similar to a work by Yakov Brovar (1864–1941). Apparently, the resemblance derived from a photograph taken in the Białowieża Forest, that was later used as a model by both artists, and involved a single, distinctive tree. When this was pointed out, his critics declared that using a photograph for a painting was a form of "cheating". Due to the negative publicity and its effect on his reputation, he committed suicide. His maid found him in his office, where he had hung himself and left a suicide note.


Nicole Markotic

Nicole Markotić is a Canadian poet and novelist who lives in Windsor, Ontario. She teaches creative writing at the University of Windsor. Markotic specializes in the subjects of Canadian literature, poetry, children's literature, disability in film and disability in literature. Previously she was an assistant professor at the University of Calgary. She was the co-editor, along with Ashok Mathur, of Calgary-based DisOrientation Chapbooks. She was the poetry editor of Red Deer College Press from 1998 to 2004.
She co-edited "The Problem Body: Projecting Disability on Film" a critical book about disability in film, which was published by Ohio State Press in 2010. She also edited "Robert Kroetsch: Essays on His Works", which was released in 2017.


Wai-Hong Tham

Wai-Hong Tham is a Malaysian associate professor at the University of Melbourne and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), and joint head of the division of Infectious Disease and Immune Defense. She researches the molecular biology of the malaria parasite "Plasmodium vivax".
Education.
Tham was involved in work in 2000 with the lab of Barbara Baker on the tobacco mosaic virus resistance gene N in tobacco plants at University of California, Berkeley, using deletion studies to identify important amino acids in the structure of the protein to fight off the virus. Tham was awarded her BA at University of California, Berkeley and her PhD at Princeton University with Virginia Zakian. During her PhD Tham studied telomeres of yeast, showing that the localisation of the left telomere of chromosome IV at the periphery of the nuclear membrane was essential for, but not sufficient, to prevent gene expression.
Career.
Tham continued to work on yeast for her next project in the lab of Angelika Amon; using strains with individual genes deleted to identify genes involved in the separation of chromosomes during meiosis. Disruption of these genes in the deletion strains led to nondisjunction. Tham also participated in identifying the protein FPR3 as a member of the recombination checkpoint program during meiosis.
Tham first started working on malaria in the lab of Alan Cowman at WEHI. Here she identified the human red blood cell protein complement-receptor 1 (CR1) as the binding partner for the "Plasmodium falciparum" (the major human malaria) invasion protein Rh4. Her further work in the same lab found the binding sites on the CR1 peptide for Rh4, and proved that phosphorylation of the cytoplasmic tails of Rh4 and other invasion proteins (sections of surface membrane proteins inside the cell) were essential for the malaria parasite to be able to penetrate red blood cells.
In 2018, Tham's lab proved that the "P. vivax" reticulocyte-binding protein binds the human transferrin receptor 1 protein in order to invade early red blood cells (reticulocytes). The same year, following on from this work, Tham's lab published a cryo-EM structure of the two proteins complexed together. This structure showed where antibody binding sites can obstruct the interaction and prevent host cell invasion.
Awards and accolades.
Tham was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute-Wellcome Trust International Research scholar in 2017. In 2018 the WEHI institute awarded Tham the Burnet Prize for work on the binding of "P. vivax" parasites and red blood cells, and the University of Melbourne awarded her the David Syme Research Prize. In 2019 Tham was a member of a team of "P. vivax" researchers from WEHI awarded the Australian Museum Eureka Prize. The 2020 International Prize from the Biochemical Society was awarded to Tham.


Sebaceous nevus syndrome

Sebaceous nevus syndrome is a cutaneous condition and may resemble CHILD syndrome.


Ebba Eriksdotter Vasa

Ebba Eriksdotter Vasa (circa 1491 – 21 November 1549) was a Swedish noblewoman. She was the mother of Queen Margaret Leijonhufvud and the second cousin and mother-in-law of King Gustav Vasa.
Life.
Ebba was the daughter of the nobles "riksråd" Erik Karlsson Vasa (1436–1491) and Anna Karlsdotter (Vinstorpa). Her father was a cousin of Erik Johansson Vasa, father of King Gustav Vasa, and she was thus the second cousin of the future king. She married "riksråd" Erik Abrahamsson Leijonhufvud on 18 January 1512 in Söderköping. She was, as other women of her position in contemporary Sweden, referred to as "Fru Ebba" ('Lady Ebba').
Widowhood.
In 1520, her spouse was executed during the Stockholm Bloodbath. During the bloodbath, Ebba and her children were guests in Västerås Abbey, where they had been lodged by her spouse for their safety when he departed for the coronation of Christian I in Stockholm. She and her children, therefore, avoided being taken to Denmark as hostages as the other women and children related to the executed of the bloodbath, such as Christina Gyllenstierna, Cecilia Månsdotter and Margareta Eriksdotter Vasa. Ebba was allowed to keep the family estates despite the execution of her spouse for heresy, likely because of the unstable political situation. She mainly resided at Lo Castle in Västergötland.
In 1523, her second cousin Gustav I became king of Sweden. She was granted certain privileges by him, such as the right to keep certain fines of the crown, and as a widow and head of her family, she performed the same duties as any noble vassal and equipped knights for the king's army. In 1525, her sister and brother-in-law Margareta von Melen and Berend von Melen became involved in the suspected attempt of Christina Gyllenstierna and Søren Norby to conquer the throne, and as a reward for her loyalty, lady Ebba was granted the confiscated property of her exiled sister in Sweden. As the king's second cousin, she likely belonged to those "highest lords and ladies of the realm" summoned to escort the new queen, Catherine of Saxe-Lauenburg to Sweden and attend the wedding of the king, during which her daughter Brita was married to the kings favored courtier Gustaf Olofsson till Torpa.
Court life.
In October 1536, the king married her daughter Margaret, making her mother-in-law to her second cousin the king, who addressed her as "Dearest Mother" and seem to have had a good relationship with her.
As the in-laws of the monarch, she and her children often attended court and was given favored roles to play in ceremonial court life. At the baptism of her granddaughter princess Cecilia in 1540, for example, she participated in the procession directly after her daughter the queen, who was escorted by her eldest son Abraham and the king, while she herself was escorted by two male members of the aristocracy.
Her son's were given offices, and she and her mother were granted land and several privileges, such as the right to some of the royal taxes from their tenants and the support of the king in most of their many court cases regarding land rights, and the right granted after the Swedish Reformation to retract land donated to the church by their ancestors in accordance with the Reduction of Gustav I of Sweden.
Reportedly, Ebba had a great deal of influence at court during the first years of her daughter's tenure as queen and did not hesitate to ask her son-in-law for favors: in February 1537, for example, the king issued a pardon in a court case "after the many prayers of our hearths dearest wife and her dearest mother". She was also issued assignments from the king, such as to examine whether the complaints of the governor of Alvastar was correct, and when he, during the Dacke War, asked her to prevent any abuse of the overseers of her son Sten (at that point his envoy in France) of the peasantry, so as not to provoke them to join the rebellion.
It is unknown whether she was ever given a court office, as the court staff from this period is only fragmentary known, but according to the list describing who occupied which room in the royal castles, Ebba was, alongside Christina Gyllenstierna, one of two women often given the best rooms closest to the queen when attending court. During the royal couple's trips around the country, Ebba and Christina Gyllenstierna, was on several occasions given the responsibility for the royal children, such as for example in 1540, when they were left in her care in Örebro Castle, while the king and queen visited Älvsborg. The royal children were regardless always in the care of their personal staff the cunning woman Brigitta Lars Anderssons, lady Margareta and Ingrid Amundsdotter.
Ebba was a stern Catholic, and in 1536 the king gave her Vreta Abbey in Östergötland, which was given her protection during the Swedish Reformation. Eventually, Ebba retired to Vreta Abbey, where she died of the plague in 1549.


Osteopathic Family Physician (journal)