Marywood University’s music, theatre, and dance department will present its fall production of Sense and Sensilbity on Saturday, November 16, and Sunday, November 17, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. each day. The production will take place in the Sette LaVerghetta Center for Performing Arts on the University’s campus.

An adaptation of Jane Austin’s book by playwright Kate Hamill, Sense and Sensibility follows the characters, the Widow Dashwood and her three unmarried daughters, Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret, who, following the death of their husband and father, are left with only a small allowance to live. As the women navigate changes in circumstance, they must adapt to moving, finding suitable husbands, and regaining their status in the community. The play will be guest directed by Maura Malloy, master teaching artist for the Philadelphia Arts in Education Partnership.

For additional information, please visit the music, theatre and dance department at Marywood University, at www.marywood.edu/mtd/, or call (570) 348-6268. Ticket prices are $10 for general admission, $8 for senior citizens, $5 for non-Marywood students, and free for IHM Sisters or those with a valid Marywood ID. Credit card purchases can be made by visiting https://marywood.universitytickets.com/. Cash or check purchases can be made at the box office the evening of the performance.

Strategic intelligence analyst and author Avi Melamed will present “An Inside Look: At the War in Syria” on Sunday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. in the Kane Forum of Leahy Hall. The lecture, presented by the University’s Panuska College of Professional Studies, is free and open to the public.

The lecture further explores the topic introduced to the University’s incoming class of 2023 as part of the Royal Reads Program, which this year selected “The Bread of Angels,” a memoir about Stephanie Saldaña’s journey into Syria under the Baathist regime, as the book that all incoming students would read then discuss further during the academic year.

Melamed is a former Israeli intelligence official and senior official on Arab affairs. He is the author of “Inside the Middle East: Making Sense of the Most Dangerous and Complicated Region on Earth,” which offers a unique insight into the Arab world, challenges widely-accepted perceptions and provides a guide to make sense of the events unfolding in the region.

For information about the lecture, phone 570-941-6305.

Marywood University will gather with the community to kick off the start of the holiday season with its annual Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony on Wednesday, December 4, 2019, at 4 p.m., in the Rotunda, which is located in the Liberal Arts Center on the University’s campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Following the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony, attendees are invited and welcome to walk or drive through campus to see a lighting display, designed by students in the Interior Architecture Club at Marywood University, in coordination with their Lighting Design Class. The “Light up Campus” lighting display will be in place from December 4 – January 2, 2020. Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus will be in front of the University’s Post Office for children to meet and to drop off their Christmas wishes in the “Letters to Santa” mailbox. Also, a Toys for Tots donation drive is taking place to make the holidays a little bit brighter for those in need. Light refreshments will be served at the Tree Lighting ceremony and during the campus tour.

Additionally, Marywood’s award-winning radio station, VMFM-91.7, will add to the festive atmosphere by featuring commercial-free Christmas music, 24/7, immediately following the Tree Lighting ceremony through New Year’s Eve.

Marywood’s Music, Theatre, and Dance (MTD) department, which will provide music at the Tree Lighting ceremony on December 4, also will offer free Christmas performances from December 2 through December 8, including Tuba Christmas (Dec. 2), Wind Symphony Christmas concert (Dec. 4), Guitar Christmas (Dec. 6), and the Chamber Singers Christmas Concert (Dec. 8). For specific details on the times and locations of these performances, go to the MTD events calendar at marywood.edu/mtd/events.

The annual tradition of lighting the Christmas tree at Marywood University draws tremendous community support, and the program includes prayer, ornament presentation, holiday choral music with instrumental backing, and light refreshments. Each year, the Marywood community invites the public to share this special, joyous tradition of the holiday season in the Rotunda.

For additional information on the history of the Tree Lighting ceremony at Marywood University, please visit www.marywood.edu/blogs/blogs.html?id=121c6eb5-dfc7-483c-a129-cb481f28843c. For more information about the Interior Architecture Lighting Design class and events, please contact Maria MacDonald, instructor of practice in the School of Architecture at Marywood University, at (570) 348-6211, ext. 2688, or email . To learn more about the Communication Arts program at Marywood University, visit marywood.edu/commarts or email comm@marywood.edu. Listen to Marywood’s radio station locally at 91.7 FM or download the Tune-in app. To learn more about the Music, Theatre, and Dance department, go to marywood.edu/mtd or email dept.mtd@marywood.edu.

The University of Scranton String Orchestra will perform in concert on Friday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. in the University’s Houlihan-McLean Center (Mulberry Street and Jefferson Avenue). The concert is free of admission charge and open to the public.

The program focuses on music for string orchestra written by late 20th and early 21st century composers. Selections include dance-based music from a variety of cultures, such as Mosier’s “Baltic Dances” and “American Reel,” Newbold’s “Fire Dance,” and Spata’s “Maharaja,” as well as Hofeldt’s “She Will Hang The Night With Stars,” Atwell’s “Drifen” and Balmages’ “30,000 and Forever,” and more.

The University of Scranton String Orchestra is a 33-member ensemble comprised of members of the University community – mostly undergraduate students, joined by a few members of the faculty and staff – who are brought together by a mutual love of music-making.

For more information, call 570-941-7624, email music@scranton.edu or visit scranton.edu/music.

A team of Geisinger researchers has discovered that the link between the pumping efficiency of the heart, known as the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and the resulting risk of death may not be as simple as previously thought. The team’s findings were recently published in European Heart Journal.

Traditionally, doctors have known that a low LVEF is most often due to heart failure and suggests a poor prognosis. Most physicians consider LVEF above 50 percent as being normal based on guidelines published by the American Heart Association (AHA). However, Geisinger researchers led by Brandon Fornwalt, M.D., Ph.D. discovered that the mortality risk for patients with LVEF above 70 percent is similar to that of patients with LVEF of 35 to 40 percent, which is indicative of severe heart failure. In collaboration with a leading heart failure specialist, Dr. John Cleland at Imperial College London, the researchers concluded that this new finding will ultimately have a significant impact on clinical care.

“These findings suggest that we may need to begin recognizing an entirely new type of heart disease characterized by patients with a supra-normal LVEF,” said Dr. Fornwalt, the co-director of the Cardiac Imaging Technology Laboratory at Geisinger. “This research shows that careful analysis of electronic health record datasets from large clinical populations is going to reveal new findings that challenge clinical dogma and demand attention both in the clinic and in future research studies.”

This work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Geisinger. The analysis included more than 203,000 patients cared for at Geisinger over a 20-year period spanning 1998 to 2018. These patients most commonly presented for evaluation of chest pain, shortness of breath or fatigue, coronary artery disease, aortic valve disease, and congestive heart failure.

While this work has importance for all patients who undergo imaging to assess heart function, it is particularly important for patients with heart failure since current clinical guidelines from the AHA place LVEF results for these patients into three categories: normal, borderline and reduced. This latest research reveals a potentially new category of patients with heart failure and a “supra-normal” LVEF that carries a nearly identical mortality risk to those categorized as heart failure with “reduced” LVEF.

“We believe this is the first large scale analysis of the relationship between mortality and routinely reported clinical measurements of the left ventricular ejection fraction, which is one of the most important metrics that physicians rely on to make treatment decisions across all medical specialties,” Dr. Fornwalt said. “We are excited to see how these findings ultimately impact future clinical care at Geisinger and beyond.”

About Geisinger
Geisinger is committed to making better health easier for the more than 1.5 million consumers it serves. Founded more than 100 years ago by Abigail Geisinger, the system now includes 13 hospital campuses, a 600,000-member health plan, two research centers and the Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine. With 32,000 employees and 1,800 employed physicians, Geisinger boosts its hometown economies in Pennsylvania and New Jersey by billions of dollars annually. Learn more at geisinger.org or connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.

The Northeast Regional Cancer Institute and the Board of Ambassadors and Associate Board will host its eighth annual Spirit of Hope Celebration on Friday, November 8, 2018 from 7:00pm to 10:30pm at Mohegan Sun Pocono in the Keystone Grand Ballroom.

The event features cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, food stations, live music by Paul LaBelle and Tony Vergnetti and dance music from EJ the DJ, a live and silent auction, gift card guarantee, and a lottery ladder. Tickets are $100 each and can be purchased by calling the Cancer Institute at (570) 941-7984 or online at www.cancernepa.org or purchased at the door the night of the event.

The Tribute to Courage honoree is York City Firefighter Ryan Robeson. Ryan participated in the 2019 Scranton Half Marathon courageously attempted to set a Guinness world record for running 13.1 miles in approximately 50 pounds of full fire fighter gear; all while breathing from a self-contained breathing apparatus. This daring feat not only astounded his hometown and community, but it also captured the attention, deservingly, of the renowned world news. Ryan did this in hopes to raising awareness and money for two charities, Operation Unite and Foundation 58. Foundation 58 seeks to compensate firefighters, first responders and their families who are struggling with the devastating effects of this disease. Cancer is estimated to affect 60% of firefighters due to an increased risk of exposure to toxins in modern structure fi​res.

The Board of Ambassadors is a group of individuals and business leaders in northeast Pennsylvania who have come together to raise funds & awareness to fight cancer in the local community through their support and promotion of a gala event.

The Spirit of Hope Celebration benefits the Cancer Institute’s Community-Based Cancer Screening Navigation Program. This program helps low income and un/underinsured individuals in northeast Pennsylvania get their recommended colorectal, breast, and cervical cancer screenings.

About The Northeast Regional Cancer Institute
The Northeast Regional Cancer Institute is a nonprofit community-based agency serving seven counties in northeast Pennsylvania with offices located in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.  Focusing on surveillance, community and patient services, and hospital and practice support services, the Cancer Institute invests 100% of its resources locally.