Monthly Archives: February 2021

source: Ascension St. Mary's

Ascension St. Marys in Saginaw released the following on Friday, Feb. 5, 2021:

Ascension St. Marys physicians Safwan Kassas, MD, Asim Yunus, MD, and Pater Fattal, MD, recently implanted the next-generation Watchman device in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The structural heart team at Ascension St. Marys hospital was the first in the Great Lakes Bay Region to offer the Watchman FLX Left Atrial Appendage (LAA) closure device, built upon the most studied and implanted LAA device in the world, as an alternative to the lifelong use of blood thinners for people with AF not caused by a heart valve problem (also known as non-valvular AF).

February is National Heart Month, which serves as a timely reminder of the increased risk of stroke among up to 6 million Americans who are estimated to be affected by AF an irregular heartbeat that feels like a quivering heart. People with AF have a five times greater risk of stroke than those with normal heart rhythms. Other serious risks from AF include heart failure, chronic fatigue, additional heart rhythm problems and inconsistent blood supply.

The Watchman FLX device closes off the left atrial appendage area of the heart to keep harmful blood clots that can form from entering the bloodstream and potentially causing a stroke. By closing off that area, the risk of stroke may be reduced, and over time, patients may be able to stop taking their blood thinner. This next-generation technology has a new design to help treat more patients safely and effectively to ensure the best long-term outcomes.

Building upon the well-established Watchman technology, this new device serves as a safe and effective stroke risk reduction alternative for patients with non-valvular AF, especially those with a compelling reason not to be on blood thinners, said Dr. Safwan Kassas. Ascension St. Marys has extensive experience implanting these devices, offering patients a potentially life-changing stroke risk treatment that will allow us to treat a broader range of patients going forward.

The Watchman technology has been implanted in more than 100,000 patients worldwide and is done in a one-time procedure. Its a permanent device that doesnt have to be replaced and cant be seen outside the body. The procedure is done under general anesthesia and takes about an hour. Patients commonly stay in the hospital overnight and leave the next day.

A recent patient expressed how grateful he was to receive this new state-of-the-art technology at Ascension St. Marys sharing, I will no longer have to worry about blood clots in their heart or bleeding from the blood thinner. I can now live my life with less fear.

See the original post:

Ascension St. Mary's Patients Successfully Treated with Next Generation Permanent Heart Implant - WSGW

GONZALES Sheriff's Deputy Daniel Haydel was just finishing his 12-hour patrol shift on the roads of Ascension Parish, was parked in his driveway in St. Amant and about to turn off his police radio and head indoors when the call came in the early morning hours of Jan. 27.

A pickup truck with children inside had gone off winding Weber City Road in St. Amant, seven minutes from Haydel's house, and was sinking in the dark, cold waters of New River Canal.

Haydel was out of his driveway and in the bayou in minutes, soon followed by many others, and broke out the back window of the truck with his bare hand, what officials have called an act of "brute strength" fueled by an "adrenaline dump" that helped save lives.

Thursday, Ascension leaders hailed that moment of grace in Haydel's driveway and the life-saving heroism that followed: that Haydel was still in his police unit when the call came, that his radio was still on, and that he and others so quickly and willingly put their own lives at risk in a murky bayou during the dark of night.

"I was called to do this job," Haydel told reporters Thursday. "It was ...," Haydel added, holding back some emotion, "it was something I had to do."

In the middle of the night, in a misty rain and fog, a deputy dove in a canal to punch out the window of a truck sinking in the water and pull

Outside the Parish Governmental Complex in Gonzales, Ascension Sheriff Bobby Webre, Parish President Clint Cointment, St. Amant Fire Chief James LeBlanc and others honored Haydel, Deputy Jamie Wolfe, Dispatcher Karly Gutierrez and volunteer Sorrento firefighters Jeff Kelly and Shane Wellman for their "service beyond self."

Until Thursday, the first responders had shunned media attention for heroic actions that they said was just part of their jobs, actions that saved the lives of a mother, one of her two children and another woman trapped in the submerged truck.

"When you save another human being's life, that is service beyond self because you're normally putting your own self at great risk when you're saving someone's life and that's what these men and women and first responders do," Webre said.

Jason Molder, 4, of St. Amant, one of the two children pulled from the sunken truck, later died at the hospital. His mother,Alayna Duncan, 24, of St. Amant, remains in critical condition.

Each of the people honored Thursday did his or her part to prevent the crash from being much worse, the officials said.

Deputy Wolfe was still starting his shift to replace Haydel and rushed to the scene and into the water shortly after Haydel.

After Ascension Parish deputies rescued a mother and her two children from a truck that crashed and became submerged in a St. Amant canal earl

Firefighters Wellman and Kelly hadn't even been called to the scene other Ascension departments had been but went anyway because they were close and could help, LeBlanc said.

Dispatcher Gutierrez displayed quick thinking in directing Haydel and others to the crash, Webre added.

The initial 911 caller wasn't at the scene and Gutierrez had that caller give her the number of the person who was there, so she could talk to that person. Gutierrez was able to direct deputies and firefighters more precisely in the poorly lighted area of St. Amant where the crash happened, Webre said.

The Nissan Titan had gone off Weber City Road, also known as La. 429, around 3:11 a.m. near George Lambert Road.

The night was rainy and foggy. The road was slick. The truck went off the side of Weber City slightly, and Duncan appears to have overcorrected, causing the truck to spin off into the bayou, the sheriff has said.

When Haydel arrived at the crash essentially first, he said, the truck was submerged to its roof and its cabin filled with water. He said he didn't know if anyone was alive inside but "was just hoping."

Taking off his equipment, Haydel, a 30-year-old St. Amant native who has been with department since 2014, dove into a bayou that was so deep he could not touch the bottom.

Once he was nearer to the truck and could hear the children inside, Haydel said he knew he had to act quickly and "do everything it takes to get them out."

Haydel said his memory of breaking open the Titan's back window is a blur but recalls pulling the children and others out and handing them off to others in the water.

"I do remember talking to both children in the water and letting them know everything was going to be OK," Haydel said.

First responders performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation once the children and others were freed from the water. All had a pulse once at the hospital.

Haydel, who has once before as deputy recused some from a sunken vehicle in Ascension, had to be taken to the hospital later, he said, because he injured his right hand breaking out the window.

He had a brace on it during Thursday's ceremony as he and his colleagues were given certificates for their actions.

"Although many people were involved in this act of heroism, today we are here to honor five of those people," Cointment, the parish president, said. "Five people who put others before themselves, five people who used their training, education, knowledge, coupled with immense bravery and perseverance, five people who put themselves at risk to save others."

Read the original post:

Ascension deputy had to 'do everything it takes' to rescue family from sinking pickup - The Advocate

DELCAMBRE- Both the Ascension Episcopal Blue Gators and the Delcambre Panthers gave it all they had in an important district matchup Friday night.

The Panthers were able to get a road win last time the two teams faced each other, but the Blue Gators were road warriors this time around, defeating the Panthers 59-55 in a seesaw contest throughout the night.

The Blue Gators were able to hang on in the fourth quarter despite a strong surge by the Panthers, thanks to a series of clutch free throws.

Most of our games this year have been like that, Blue Gators coach Eric Mouton said. Weve been in just about every game, especially every district game. There were times that we didnt handle it as good as we should have with the lead. There were times where we made poor decisions because when you have a lead, the other team wants to speed you up, and tonight I felt like we were able to keep our composure and make great decisions as we played fast and handled the pressure with the lead.

Austin Mills step up in the fourth and drain eight free throws in a row for the Blue Gators, finishing with 14 points.

I dont think he (Mills) did (miss a free throw) in that fourth quarter, Mouton said. We lost at Teurlings, and he missed the front end of the one-and-one, and that allowed Teurlings to beat us at the buzzer. When the bus got back to school, I hear the ball bouncing, and thats Austin Mills at the free throw line working on his stroke, working on his touch. Weve struggled from the free throw line a little bit this year, but the last few days weve really concentrated on that, and its paying off. You put in the work, and its going to pay off.

Mills started the game mainly as a facilitator at point guard, but he was able to shoulder the scoring load down the stretch by getting to the line.

It feels good, Mills said. They (Delcambre) beat us a couple weeks ago at our place, and it did not feel good, so we just wanted to come here and leave with a dub. Just to take my time, its free points, take my time and take them (free throws). Im starting to get my groove back on the line. Just havent been shooting well all year, and to do this feels really good. They (Delcambre) were physical. I was trying to draw fouls and get to the line.

Much of the night consisted of a back-and-forth battle between each big man duo, but the Blue Gators senior big man duo of Matt Remondet and Jude Ardoin were up to the task.

We kept our composure, Mouton said. We know where we want to go with the ball. We probably have two of the best inside players in the district (Remondet and Ardoin). Those two guys (Kaleb Comeaux and Thomas Jones) they (Delcambre) have arent bad either, but we felt like if we could get the ball on the block, we could finish down there. They kind of did the same thing, so it was back and forth there, and I think we had a few more shooters than they did.

The Blue Gators have some big district games next week against Franklin and West St. Mary, and the hope is that they can carry over their current momentum.

Weve got a couple of tough games, Mouton said. The two leaders in our district, Franklin and West St. Mary, we have those two coming up, and we actually get both of them at home. I think his win can give us some momentum and a little pep heading into the home stretch. Were fighting for everything. My guys fight. I got to fight with them.

While the Panthers came up a little bit short, they didnt quit fighting and will look for redemption down the stretch and still have their eye on a home playoff game.

It was a very physical game, Panthers coach Benny Dronet said. They (Ascension) probably got away with a little more physical play than we did. We knew they were going to battle, we knew they were competitors. Coach Mouton does an outstanding job, and it was no surprise. Our guys didnt play as well offensively as we did last time, but they battled back. They fell behind, but I was proud of the way they battled back and had a chance. I think we cut it to two right there at the end, and of course they hit their free throws down the stretch, which is how youve got to close out a game."

View post:

Ascension Blue Gators fend off Delcambre to take thrilling district win on the road - The Advocate

This week, Jeff Bezos announced that hell step down as CEO at Amazon and transition to an executive chair role during the third quarter of this year. Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Andy Jassy will take his place, heading up a company currently valued at around $1.6 trillion.

Jassy, who joined Amazon in 1997 and has led AWS since its inception in 2003, believes Amazons decision to double down on AI early differentiated it from the competition. In May 2020, Gartner ranked AWS the industry leader in terms of vision and ability to execute on AI developer services. Beyond AWS, product recommendations on Amazon are powered by AI, as well as Alexa, Prime Air, Amazon Go, and the pick paths used in distribution centers to find products and fulfill orders.

So how might Jassys elevation to CEO impact Amazons AI initiatives? Interviews in recent years suggest Jassy is enthusiastic about cloud services tailored to the needs of machine learning practitioners, particularly for large enterprise applications. Controversially, Jassy has also said customers, not Amazon itself, are responsible for curbing their usage of potentially problematic AI technologies like facial recognition.

In a conversation with Silicon Angle in December, Jassy said he expects the majority of applications to be infused with AI in the next five to 10 years. While he endorses the idea of catering to expert machine learning practitioners who know how to train, tune, and deploy AI models, he asserts that AWS, more than rivals like Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, has aimed to democratize data science by lowering the barriers to entry.

There just arent that many expert machine learning practitioners. And so it never gets extensive in most enterprises if you dont make it easier for everyday developers and data scientists to use machine learning, Jassy told Silicon Angle. He stressed the importance of top-layer AI services that transcribe audio, translate text, and more via APIs, without requiring customers to develop custom models. But he said the most important thing Amazon has done to make AI more accessible is building fully managed services.

Enterprises have so much data that they want to use predictive algorithms to get value added, Jassy said during a keynote at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco last February.

SageMaker is one example of these fully managed services. Launched in 2016, its designed to let developers build, test, and maintain AI models from a single dashboard. Amazon says SageMaker, which gained nine new capabilities in December following the launch of SageMaker Studio, an integrated development environment for machine learning now has tens of thousands of customers.

Its a safe bet that investments in services akin and complementary to SageMaker will accelerate with Jassy at the helm. So too, most likely, will the buildout of backend tools Amazon uses to solve challenges like call analytics.

As Clay Christensen, author of The Innovators Dilemma, said people hire products and services to do a job. They dont really care what you do under the covers, but theyre hiring a product to do a job, Jassy told Silicon Angle. [Some people] dont actually want to hire machine learning [experts]. They want to have an easier way to get automatic call analytics on all of their calls And what were finding is that increasingly were using machine learning as the source to get those jobs done, but without people necessarily knowing that thats what were doing behind the scenes.

This work might be of a controversial nature. Inan interview at Recodes 2019 Code Conference, Jassy defended the companys facial recognition service, Rekognition, while calling for the federal government to introduce national guidelines. (In September 2019, Recode reported that Amazon was writing its own facial recognition laws to pitch to lawmakers.) Just because tech could be misused doesnt mean we should ban it and condemn it, he said, adding that Amazon would provide its facial recognition tech to governments, excepting those that violate the law or infringe on civil liberties.

Last year, Amazon declared a halt on the sale of facial recognition to police departments for 12 months but did not necessarily extend that restriction to federal law enforcement agencies. Prior to the moratorium, the company reportedly attempted to sell its facial recognition tech to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and police in Orlando, Florida and other cities have trialed it.

A number of academics have called Jassys stance on facial recognition technology, which runs counter to that of many Amazon shareholders, problematic at best. Anima Anandkumar, the principal scientist for artificial intelligence at Amazon, told PBS Frontline that facial recognition isnt battle-tested to work in the types of challenging conditions where law enforcement might use it (e.g., with low-light, grainy, or low-quality images). And dating back to 2018, AI researchers Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru, and Deborah Raji have found that facial recognition software from companies like Amazon work best for white men and worst for women with dark skin. Amazon has publicly dismissed their coauthored work, the Gender Shades project.

Given this history, it seems unlikely that Jassy will extend the moratorium on facial recognition sales when it expires in July. Hes also unlikely to curtail the law enforcement relationships that Ring, Amazons smart home division, has fostered since its acquisition by Amazon in 2018. Ring has reportedly partnered with over 2,000 police and fire departments across the U.S. dating back to 2015, when Ring let the Los Angeles Police Department test how front-door footage might reduce property crimes.

Advocacy groups like Fight for the Future and the Electronic Frontier Foundation have accused Ring of using its cameras and Neighbors app (which delivers safety alerts) to build a private surveillance network via these partnerships. The Electronic Frontier Foundation in particular has singled Ring out for marketing strategies that foster fear and promote a sale-spurring vicious cycle, and for [facilitating] reporting of so-called suspicious behavior that really amounts to racial profiling.

We dont have a large number of police departments that are using our facial recognition technology, and as I said, weve never received any complaints of misuse. Lets see if somehow they abuse the technology they havent done that, Jassy told PBS Frontline in a 2020 interview. And to assume theyre going to do that and therefore you shouldnt allow them to have access to the most sophisticated technology out there doesnt feel like the right balance to me.

For AI coverage, send news tips to Khari Johnson and Kyle Wiggers and be sure to subscribe to the AI Weekly newsletterand bookmarkThe Machine.

Thanks for reading,

Kyle Wiggers

AI Staff Writer

See the original post here:

AI Weekly: What Andy Jassy's ascension to CEO means for Amazon's AI initiatives - VentureBeat

Her self-styled business success also evokes Trump: She had her fathers money, from a construction business. A wealthy Alpharetta businesswoman is considering a run for the 14th Congressional District seat, the Rome News-Tribune reported in late 2019, one week after the districts congressman announced his retirement. Marjorie Taylor Greene did not yet live in the district. She folded up her congressional campaign in the district where did reside, nearer to Atlanta, and officially got into what was seen as the more winnable race for a Christian conservative, as the paper described her. No mention was made of her more extreme politics, the beliefs she apparently adopted in 2017, the earliest days of QAnon.

Like Trumps, Greenes conspiratorial worldview was out in the open before she seriously sought elected office. The man whose time in the White House ended without a concession, mired in obsessions about vast voter fraud, started on his path by pushing the lie that Barack Obama was an illegitimate president. On Facebook, meanwhile, Greene went from being a Trump supporter in 2016 to a QAnon follower within a year.

At the time, QAnons audience was still growing, and belonging meant becoming part of a kind of citizen media cargo cult, in which news stories on Breitbart or the Daily Caller were scrutinized for proof of the new pedophile world order. Greene was then a blogger, as Brandy Zadrozny at NBC News reported in June, responsible for posts like MUST READDemocratic Party Involved With Child Sex, Satanism, and The Occult, which rounded up far-right news sites doing their own dubious aggregating, giving Greene the fodder to connect the dots from anti-abortion legislation, the Satanic Temple, D.C. society power couples, John Podesta, Backpage.com, Hillary Clinton, and Jeffrey Epstein. The site where Green blogged, AmericanTruthSeekers.com, may have been a few rungs below those others on which it relied for content. But Greene had become part of the same media circuit, transforming local journalism into truth-shredding right-wing website fodder and again into headlines to drive traffic from Facebook back to those websites. And from there, perhaps to Fox News. (And eventually, from the presidents indiscriminate mouth.)

Like any aspiring influencer, though, Greene was going to have to stake out her own brand. She made her own videos poring over QAnon drops, laundering them from further-flung websites onto social media platforms. In a series of now-deleted tweets supporting QAnon, the Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported, Greene told her Twitter followers to message her and she would walk you through the whole thing. (Media Matters was tracking such posts all through the 2020 election cycle, in which it counted 97 congressional candidates who had embraced QAnon.) Some of Greenes videos, Politico reported, pushed antisemitic conspiracy theories about constant QAnon target George Soros. She adopted the style of other far-right video demi-celebrities, doing stunts like targeting Muslim members of congress Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, attempting to track them down at the Capitol. She wrapped a fairly standard-fare GOP Islamophobic trope in maternalism: I truly feel like as a woman in America, I really need to go talk to these ladies as an American woman, as a business owner, as a motherI have two daughtersI never want to see Sharia in America.

More:

The Ascension of Marjorie Taylor Greene - The New Republic

Food distribution date set

The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank in conjunction with Ascensions Health Unit will hold monthly distribution of commodities in Ascension Parish for the year of 2021.

The next distribution will be held 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday, Feb. 9, at the Frank Sotile Pavilion on 2162 Thibaut Drive in Donaldsonville. Distribution will be held on 8 a.m. to noon Wednesday, Feb. 10, at Lamar-Dixon Expo Center on St. Landry Road in Gonzales.

Please if you have not done so, certify or recertify at Ascension Parish Health Unit, Gonzales or at Ascension Parish Courthouse Donaldsonville. You must be a resident of Ascension Parish to qualify.

The federal commodities program makes donated foods available to emergency feeding organizations that provide food staples to qualified individuals and families to relieve situations of emergency distress.

The monthly USDA Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans Food for Seniors 40-pound box of commodity for Ascension parish will be distributed in Gonzales at St. Theresa of Avila Catholic Church Food Pantry's parking lot, 1022 N. Burnside Ave. on Tuesday, Feb 9 and in Donaldsonville at the Frank Sotile Pavilion, 2162 Thibaut Drive on Wednesday, Feb. 10.

The distribution days have changed. Both of these will be drive-thru distributions and the time is 7 a.m. 10 a.m. at both locations.

Seniors must be or will be at least 60 years old this month and meet federal income guidelines. New participants should bring Louisiana ID, income documentation and arrive no later than 9:30 am. Call toll free at (800) 522-3333 if you need more information or to verify your qualification.

This is the way to Ascension Parish Library to pick up a craft packet at all locations starting on Feb. 8. You will have everything you need to make a paper tube Baby Yoda and Mandalorian. The packet will include instructions and a link to a video if you need further help, while supplies last.

This program is for children in grades K-3. For more information call Gonzales at (225) 647-3955, Donaldsonville at (225) 473-8052, Galvez at (225) 622-3339, or Dutchtown at (225) 673-8699.

Join this virtual visit with one of the authors of the book "William Frantz Public School: A Story of Race, Resistance, Resiliency and Recovery in New Orleans." Why should you care about what happened at William Frantz Public School?

Well, the name of the school may not be familiar, but you are likely to recognize photographs of the building that were taken in 1960. Those pictures show a 6-year-old Black girl and four federal marshals walking into this school. The first grade student entering the iconic doors of William Frantz Public School in 1960 was Ruby Bridges.

At 6 p.m. Feb. 9, Martha Graham Viator will give a virtual talk on this new publication that highlights stories of school desegregation in New Orleans and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on public education.

To register for this virtual event, call (225) 647-3955.

Join the Ascension Parish Library at 3 p.m. Feb. 11 virtually on Zoom for a presentation on the rich history of the River Road African American Museum and its future vision. A virtual tour with highlights from the museum will be presented. To register for the virtual program, call the library in Donaldsonville at (225) 473-8052. After you register, you will receive an email link to join the live session.

Here is the original post:

Around Ascension for Feb. 3, 2020 | Ascension | theadvocate.com - The Advocate

M. J. Mert Smiley took his third consecutive oath as Ascension Parish assessor Jan. 19 before a small gathering, including his deputies and local officials.

The ceremony, scaled down because of coronavirus restrictions, was held at the assessors new main office in Gonzales. The Gonzales office, at 815 E. Worthey St., is the latest expansion under Smileys leadership. The Assessors Office has acquired two new locations to accommodate the influx of parish growth.

The ceremony began with the pledge led by Vietnam Purple Heart recipient and radio personality Roland Doucet. Residing over the inaugural tradition for Smiley was Roy Quezaire, former state representative and deputy director of the Port of South Louisiana.

Smileys wife, Ina, presented the ceremonial Bible and stood with him as he took his oath. Smiley was sworn in by longtime friend and retired Judge Marilyn Lambert, who has served as his officiant throughout his tenure as assessor.

Smiley expressed gratitude to his staff for its service and dedication and to the residents of Ascension Parish for entrusting him with the duties of assessor for four more years.

The assessor ran unopposed for this term.

Not being able to open the doors for a public celebration to show my gratitude is bittersweet, said Smiley, adding I have always considered serving the citizens of Ascension an honor and a privilege that I will always cherish.

Excerpt from:

Ascension assessor Mert Smiley takes oath of office for third term - The Advocate