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Thalamic Function - Beyond a Simple Relay View all 18 Articles
Anatomy of the Olfactory Thalamus
Electrophysiological Studies of the Olfactory Thalamus
The Still Unclear Role of the MDT in Olfaction
Conclusion and Perspectives
Mini Review ARTICLE
Front. Neural Circuits, 18 September 2015 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2015.00049
The olfactory thalamus: unanswered questions about the role of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus in olfaction
Emmanuelle Courtiol1,2* and Donald A. Wilson1,2
1Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, Orangeburg, NY, USA
2Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Medical Center, NY, USA
The mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDT) is a higher order thalamic nucleus and its role in cognition is increasingly well established. Interestingly, components of the MDT also have a somewhat unique sensory function as they link primary olfactory cortex to orbitofrontal associative cortex. In fact, anatomical evidence firmly demonstrates that the MDT receives direct input from primary olfactory areas including the piriform cortex and has dense reciprocal connections with the orbitofrontal cortex. The functions of this olfactory pathway have been poorly explored but lesion, imaging, and electrophysiological studies suggest that these connections may be involved in olfactory processing including odor perception, discrimination, learning, and attention. However, many important questions regarding the MDT and olfaction remain unanswered. Our goal here is not only to briefly review the existing literature but also to highlight some of the remaining questions that need to be answered to better define the role(s) of the MDT in olfactory processing.
The thalamus is a crucial crossroad structure in the brain that is recognized as a major contributor to the following functions: sensory perception, attention, sleep and arousal, memory, and cognition. Thalamic nuclei can be divided into (at least) two categories: first-order and higher order thalamic relays (Guillery, 1995). The first category, sensory recipient thalamic relays, processes information arriving from the periphery. The second category, higher order thalamic relays, processes information sent from many cortical areas. Higher order thalamic relays are key structures in cortico-thalamo-cortical networks (Sherman and Guillery, 2002; Mitchell et al., 2014; Saalmann, 2014).
The mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDT) is an example of a higher-order thalamic relay (Mitchell and Chakraborty, 2013). The MDT receives inputs from a wide variety of brain areas including cortical structures (notably the prefrontal cortex), brainstem structures, basal forebrain structures, and other thalamic nuclei (Groenewegen, 1988; Kuroda and Price, 1991a,b; Ray and Price, 1992; Guillery, 1995; Kuroda, 1998). In return, the MDT projects massively to the prefrontal cortex (Leonard, 1969; Krettek and Price, 1977a). The cytoarchitecture and the topographical distribution of the different inputs and outputs have led to the separation of the MDT into three subnuclei in the rat—medial, central, and lateral (Krettek and Price, 1977a; Groenewegen, 1988). The dense reciprocal connections between the MDT and the prefrontal cortex have placed the MDT as a critical structure in the study of cognitive processes.}In fact, lesions of the MDT in monkeys and rats are associated with a wide range of cognitive deficits: mnesic deficits, deficits in stimulus-outcome associations, deficits in representation of outcome value, and deficits in action-outcome association (Corbit et al., 2003; Mitchell and Gaffan, 2008; Ostlund and Balleine, 2008; Baxter, 2013; Mitchell and Chakraborty, 2013; Alcaraz et al., 2014; Mair et al., 2015). Electrophysiological recordings of the MDT have also demonstrated the contribution of the MDT in working memory, behavioral flexibility, goal-directed behavior, and stimulus reward-association (Oyoshi et al., 1996; Kawagoe et al., 2007; Yu et al., 2012; Han et al., 2013; Parnaudeau et al., 2013; Mair et al., 2015). The role of the MDT in cognition is thus increasingly well established (reviewed in Baxter, 2013; Funahashi, 2013; Mitchell and Chakraborty, 2013; Mitchell et al., 2014; Mitchell, 2015). In addition to these cognitive functions, the MDT also has a sensory component as the olfactory thalamus. As described below, there are firm anatomical and physiological data demonstrating the relationships among the olfactory cortex, the MDT, and the orbitofrontal associative cortex. These connections are particularly intriguing as they bring together one of the most phylogenetically oldest sensory systems with one of the more recently evolved cortical structures.
The thalamus is the major source of sensory information to the primary sensory cortex for all of the senses except olfaction. In fact, olfactory sensory neurons send their axons directly to the olfactory bulb which in turn projects to the primary olfactory cortex—a region including the piriform cortex, the anterior olfactory nucleus, the olfactory tubercle, the cortical nucleus of the amygdala, and the lateral entorhinal cortex (Price and Powell, 1971; Haberly and Price, 1977; Figure 1A). While there is no direct input from the olfactory sensory neurons to the thalamus, the MDT both receives and sends information to primary as well as secondary olfactory areas. An example of a major secondary olfactory area is the orbitofrontal cortex which has strong reciprocal connections with both the MDT and piriform cortex (Illig, 2005). While this review focuses on the MDT, the submedial nucleus of the thalamus also receives olfactory inputs (Price and Slotnick, 1983; Price, 1985).
Figure 1. (A) Simplified schematic representation of the olfactory-related afferents and efferents of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus (MDT) in rodents. Here we focused on the medial and central subnuclei of the MDT. Afferents in green and orange project mainly to the medial and central subnuclei of the MDT, respectively. Olfactory-related efferent projections of the MDT are outlined in pink (projection from MDT to endopiriform nucleus is represented with a dashed line because, to our knowledge, only one study has demonstrated this connection). LO and VO correspond to lateral and ventral orbital areas, respectively and AI to agranular insular areas. (B) Odor response in the MDT of urethane-anesthetized rats. (B1) Example of 3 odor responsive MDT units. From top to bottom: signal filtered between 300–3000Hz, raster plots of responses to the same odor presented three times and peristimulus time histograms (PSTH). Adapted from Courtiol and Wilson (2014). (B2) Example of odor-evoked local field potentials in the MDT. Top: local field potential filtered between 0.1–300 Hz and bottom: local field potential filtered in the beta band (15–35 Hz). Data used as an example here were described in Courtiol and Wilson (2014).
Olfactory Afferents
Powell et al. (1963) was one of the first to reveal the relationship between the olfactory pathway and the MDT by showing axonal fiber degeneration in the MDT following lesions in the piriform cortex. In addition to the piriform cortex, the MDT also receives direct input from the olfactory tubercle, the basolateral and cortical nuclei of the amygdala, the lateral entorhinal cortex, the anterior olfactory nucleus, the endopiriform nucleus, and the orbitofrontal cortex (Figure 1A). The MDT is thus the target of all the primary olfactory areas (e.g., piriform cortex) as well as some secondary olfactory areas (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex). Of note, the olfactory projections are topographical and involve two distinct subregions of the MDT: the medial and central subnuclei [in rats: (Powell et al., 1963; Heimer, 1968; Krettek and Price, 1974, 1977b; Inagaki et al., 1983; Price and Slotnick, 1983; Price, 1985; Cornwall and Phillipson, 1988; Kuroda and Price, 1991a,b; Kuroda et al., 1992a,b; Kowianski et al., 1999; Bay and Cavdar, 2013; Wilson et al., 2014); in hamsters: (Ferrer, 1969); Figure 1A]. The posterior piriform cortex, the anterior olfactory nucleus, the basolateral and cortical nuclei of the amygdala, the agranular insular areas, and the lateral entorhinal cortex project more medially in the MDT while the rostral piriform cortex (deep layers), the ventral and lateral orbital areas, the olfactory tubercle (polymorphic area), and the ventral endopiriform nucleus project mainly to the central region of the MDT [(Krettek and Price, 1974; Inagaki et al., 1983; Price and Slotnick, 1983; Price, 1985; Ray and Price, 1992; Bay and Cavdar, 2013); a small number of neurons from the endopiriform nucleus also project to the medial MDT (Cornwall and Phillipson, 1988)]. The detailed synaptic organization of the olfactory projections to the MDT is still poorly known. Kuroda et al. (1992a,b) described two types of axon terminals (large and small presynaptic terminals) from the piriform cortex to the central MDT which both appear to be excitatory. However, those two types of axon terminals still need to be characterized physiologically to identify whether or not the cells of origin differ. The targeting of specific cell types with cell-specific viral manipulations (e.g., optogenetics) may help to answer this question.
Olfactory-Related Efferents
The MDT is known to be the origin of dense projections to the frontal cortex in the rat (Groenewegen, 1988). Furthermore, topographical projections from the MDT to olfactory-related structures, including the orbitofrontal cortex and the amygdala, have been established (Krettek and Price, 1977a; Ray and Price, 1992; Figure 1A). Interestingly, Kowianski et al. (1999) demonstrated that the endopiriform nucleus receives input from the MDT, though this has not been reported elsewhere.
In essence, the medial subnucleus of the MDT projects to prelimbic and dorsal agranular insular areas, as well as to the basolateral amygdala. The central subnucleus projects to the lateral part of the orbitofrontal cortex and the ventral part of the agranular insular area. Finally, the lateral subnucleus projects to the anterior part of the cingular area, the medial precentral area, and is reciprocally connected with orbital areas (Krettek and Price, 1977a; Groenewegen, 1988; Ray and Price, 1992). The projections of the MDT to the orbitofrontal cortex and basolateral amygdala are of great interest as those two areas are strongly involved in olfactory perception and odor-guided behavior [in rats: (Schoenbaum et al., 1999; Sevelinges et al., 2004; Feierstein et al., 2006; Roesch et al., 2007; Chapuis et al., 2009); in monkeys: (Tanabe et al., 1975; Rolls et al., 1996); in humans: (Jones-Gotman and Zatorre, 1993; Zald and Pardo, 1997; Gottfried and Zelano, 2011)].
The different anatomical studies provide strong evidence establishing the relationship between the olfactory pathway and the MDT. However questions related to the cells of origin and ultrastructural and synaptic organizations of the olfactory afferents in the MDT, as well as the neurotransmitters involved, still need to be investigated. Furthermore, given the recent demonstration that piriform cortical neurons projecting to orbitofrontal cortex may be non-randomly spatially organized, more detailed analysis of the olfactory cortex-MDT projection is warranted (Chen et al., 2014).
As a first step in understanding the contribution of the MDT in olfactory processing, it is important to characterize how olfactory information is encoded in the MDT. Here, we will describe the physiological responses of the MDT to olfactory stimulation. These data are based on responses recorded in the central and medial portions of the MDT.
First, evoked potentials and extracellular unitary responses in the MDT following the electrical stimulation of the olfactory bulb or lateral olfactory tract of various species have been described [in rats, central subnucleus: (Price and Slotnick, 1983; Price, 1985); in monkeys, medial subnucleus: (Benjamin and Jackson, 1974; Yarita et al., 1980; Takagi, 1986); in rabbits, medial subnucleus: (Jackson and Benjamin, 1974; Imamura et al., 1984)], with percentages of olfactory region-driven MDT units ranging from 16% to approximately 70% [(Imamura et al., 1984): 87/538 units in rabbits and Benjamin and Jackson (1974): approximately 180 units recorded in monkeys and 127 responsive units were localized in medial MDT].
Second, MDT units can respond to various odorant categories including biological, monomolecular, and mixture odorants [in rats, we observed odor-responsive units in medial, central and lateral MDT, but the boundary delimitation of the different subnuclei was not always clear and may account for the observation of odor-responsive units in the lateral MDT: (Courtiol and Wilson, 2014); in rabbits (Imamura et al., 1984); in monkeys: (Yarita et al., 1980; Takagi, 1986); in cats: (Motokizawa, 1974); Figure 1B1]. We observed that 51% of rat MDT units were odor-responsive, Motokizawa (1974) reported 44% of odor-responsive units in cats and Imamura et al. (1984) reported 55% of odor-responsive units in rabbits, although this last percentage was calculated only on MDT neurons responding to lateral olfactory tract shocks (48/87). The tuning of MDT neurons to odorants seems to be dependent on the species, odorant set, and level of anesthesia used. In fact, Courtiol and Wilson (2014) reported that, in anesthetized rats, 63% of units responded to only one odor out of the odor set used. Yet, this tuning has been shown to be more broad in awake monkey and anesthetized rabbits, with 41.5% of MDT neurons responding to four odors and more than 80% responding to two odors or more, respectively (Yarita et al., 1980; Imamura et al., 1984). Nevertheless, two common features of these reports are that MDT units: (1) primarily display excitatory activities in response to odors although suppressive responses can also be observed (Figure 1B1) and (2) are similarly responsive to biological, monomolecular or mixture odorants. In addition, our work and the work of others reported that some MDT units can display respiration-linked activity (Imamura et al., 1984; Courtiol and Wilson, 2014). Interestingly, at least in anesthetized rabbits and unanesthetized monkeys, the majority of odor responsive neurons are sensory specific as they do not respond to visual, auditory nor somatic stimulation (Yarita et al., 1980; Imamura et al., 1984).
Finally, the response of the MDT to odorant stimulation can also be recorded at the network level. In recording the local field potentials in the MDT of urethane-anesthetized rats (Courtiol and Wilson, 2014; Figure 1B2), we observed that odorants induce the conjoint emergence of beta frequency oscillations in the MDT and piriform cortex. Interestingly, a subset of MDT units fire in phase with the beta frequency oscillations recorded in the piriform cortex. These beta oscillations may offer an effective mechanism for olfactory information transmission between the piriform cortex and the MDT (Tallon-Baudry et al., 2001).
Taken together, these studies reveal that the MDT can respond to and encode odorant information in a manner similar to other primary and secondary olfactory structures. However, future studies will need to determine: (1) the contribution of each of the olfactory inputs to the MDT response; (2) the impact of the MDT on downstream targets such as the orbitofrontal cortex; and (3) given the rich variety of non-olfactory inputs to MDT, how MDT neurons contribute to multi-sensory associations and contextual effects on odor perception. Performing multi-site unitary recordings and using a large set of odorants in behaving animals may achieve this.
Beyond its basic odor responsiveness, the role of the MDT in olfaction remains unclear. In this last section, we will review the different studies involving the MDT in olfaction, point to some common threads among the available literature, and highlight remaining questions.
Studies of the effect of damage to the MDT in both humans and animal models have provided some useful information about its role in olfaction (Tham et al., 2009). The results of these studies have demonstrated that both humans and animal models with MDT damage are not anosmic and do not present deficits in olfactory detection [in rats and hamsters: (Eichenbaum et al., 1980; Sapolsky and Eichenbaum, 1980); in humans: (Potter and Butters, 1980; Sela et al., 2009)]. Furthermore, humans with Korsakoff's disease presenting MDT damage are not anosmic but odor detection effects vary between studies, probably depending on the extent of the damage (Jones et al., 1975; Potter and Butters, 1980; Pol et al., 2002). While the results of those studies have shown that MDT damage does not affect olfactory detection, they support the fact that MDT lesions do affect other olfactory functions including olfactory perception, discrimination, learning, and attention. In respect to olfactory perception, Sapolsky and Eichenbaum (1980) demonstrated that MDT-lesioned hamsters show distorted odor preference, i.e., less interest in female and male odors and reduced preference for genital sniffing, leading to maladaptive sexual behaviors. Altered odor preference was also reported in humans. In fact, patients with damage in the MDT present altered olfactory hedonic perception (Rousseaux et al., 1996; Asai et al., 2008; Sela et al., 2009). These results are interesting given the reciprocal connections between the MDT and the amygdala, as the neuronal activity in the amygdala has been shown to be directly influenced by the hedonic valence of olfactory stimuli in humans (Zald and Pardo, 1997). The MDT may thus be part of a network, including the amygdala, involved in the coding of the hedonic valence of the olfactory stimuli.
With respect to discrimination, Eichenbaum et al. (1980) showed that rats with lesions of the MDT exhibit deficits in difficult odor discriminations. For instance, rats with MDT lesions need more trials to reach the discrimination criterion when the task difficulty is increased by using either novel stimuli or perceptually similar stimuli (Eichenbaum et al., 1980; Slotnick and Risser, 1990). However, these deficits can be temporary and alleviated if the animals receive intensive training (Staubli et al., 1987). Deficits in odor discrimination, as well as in odor identification, were also reported in humans with thalamic damage (Sela et al., 2009; Tham et al., 2011a). Notably, Tham et al. (2011b) used both olfactory and visual discrimination tests and demonstrated that patients with MDT damage presented impaired performance selectively for olfactory discrimination compared to visual discrimination. The effects of MDT lesions extend beyond olfactory discrimination given that deficits in olfactory learning have also been observed. For example, rats with central MDT lesions perform as well as controls for preoperatively learned visual discrimination tasks and in the acquisition of a simple go/no-go odor discrimination task (Slotnick and Kaneko, 1981). However MDT-lesioned rats were impaired when performing odor reversal learning. The authors also noticed in a set of preliminary experiments that three MDT-lesioned rats were not impaired in their acquisition of a visual discrimination reversal set suggesting that the deficits were modality specific. Thus, lesions of the MDT seem to induce a severe deficit in reversal learning and the degree of impairment seems to be related to the extent of the lesion (Slotnick and Kaneko, 1981; Staubli et al., 1987; Lu and Slotnick, 1990; Slotnick and Risser, 1990; McBride and Slotnick, 1997). Importantly, one of the reciprocally connected structures of the MDT—the orbitofrontal cortex—has also been involved in reversal learning (Roesch et al., 2007). The MDT-orbitofrontal cortex network may integrate stimulus-outcome associations to flexibly guide goal-directed behavior.
Rats with thalamic lesions which include the MDT also present deficits in an olfactory continuous delayed nonmatching-to-sample task with no effect on an odor discrimination task. Although, when lesions were more restricted to the MDT, the deficits were minimal in this task (Koger and Mair, 1994; Zhang et al., 1998). The magnitude of the deficits due to MDT lesions is probably related to the extent of the lesions, to the task used, as well as to the difficulty of the task. In fact, Eichenbaum et al. (1980) reported that the major effects of MDT lesions appear when the task complexity is high. Interestingly, the difficulty level of the task may be linked to the attentional demand. An attention deficit may underlie the problems of rodents and humans with damage to the MDT to perform difficult odor discrimination tasks. The role of the MDT in olfactory attention was recently investigated in humans. Plailly et al. (2008) measured attention-dependent network activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They observed that attending specifically to odor (compared to tone) increases the coupling between piriform cortex to MDT and MDT to orbitofrontal cortex. Corroborating these results, Veldhuizen and Small (2011) observed in humans, using fMRI, activation of the MDT in response to attention to odorants but not tastants. Those two studies support the involvement of the MDT in attention to odors and may be related to the fact that the MDT can be involved in prediction error signaling where the response magnitude of the MDT is significantly higher to unexpected compared to expected odor stimuli (Zelano et al., 2011; Olofsson et al., 2013).
These results obtained with functional imaging are further supported by lesions and neuropsychological studies (Tham et al., 2009, 2011a,b) For example, Tham et al. (2011b) tested whether the MDT was likely involved in top-down directed olfactory attention by using a Target Odor Search Test and showed that patients with damage to the MDT performed poorer verbal-based search than controls. All these studies in humans indicate a possible role of the MDT in olfactory attention processing. However, this idea was debated by Keller (2011) who proposed that the olfactory inputs to the MDT may not be sufficient to support shift of attention toward odors. The question about the contribution of the MDT in olfactory attention still remains open and other studies are required to disentangle it. For example, future studies can assess the impact of lesions of the MDT in rats performing an attention-related task, such as the one described in Ljubojevic et al. (2014) and measure not only their performance relative to controls but also their sampling duration and their latency to reply. Those studies can also assess how and when during the attention-related task the MDT is required by selectively and temporally inhibiting the MDT at different periods of the task using optogenetics.
Lastly, electrophysiological recordings of the MDT in behaving animals may also help to better characterize the temporal contribution of the MDT in olfactory perception and odor-guided behavior. Regarding electrophysiological recordings of the MDT in behaving animals, to the best of our knowledge, there is only one published study recording single-unit activity in the MDT in animals actively engaged in olfactory tasks [in rats: (Kawagoe et al., 2007); nota bene: in Yarita et al. (1980), monkeys were awake though odors were presented passively]. Kawagoe et al. (2007) recorded the MDT activity in an olfactory task requiring animals to discriminate odor cues associated with reward or not. They observed that 10% (13/121 units) of MDT neurons recorded in the central and medial subnuclei responded to the odor cue. Most of these cue-responsive neurons displayed odorant selectivity with a difference of activity between odor cues associated to the same reinforcement category. Combined with this sensory selectivity, the most remarkable effect was that cue-responsive MDT neurons showed strong response preference to cues associated with a reward, and those responses were plastic to extinction and relearning and always related to the reward contingency. The MDT is thus sensitive to stimulus-reward association. Interestingly, the basolateral amygdala and the olfactory tubercle, which project to the medial and central subnuclei, respectively, can also encode the associated outcome of odors, which could contribute to this MDT activity (Schoenbaum et al., 1998; Gadziola et al., 2015). Finally, we recently recorded MDT units in rats performing a two alternative odor discrimination task (Courtiol and Wilson, 2015) and observed that a subset of units were odor selective. Intermingled with this sensory function, we observed that the MDT units displayed activity prior to odor sampling, presumably anticipatory activity, and seemed to encode the choice direction-goal location associated with the odor. This study as well as the one by Kawagoe et al. (2007) emphasize that the MDT may encode both basic sensory as well as complex olfactory functions. This observation is not unique to the MDT as coding both basic sensory and complex olfactory functions has notably been reported in piriform cortex and orbitofrontal cortex (Schoenbaum and Eichenbaum, 1995; Feierstein et al., 2006). With these limited images of MDT function, many questions remain, most notably what are the specific contributions of the MDT in these functions compared to the piriform cortex or the orbitofrontal cortex and what is the MDT adding to olfactory processing?
Despite the unusual anatomy of the olfactory pathway, an olfactory thalamus can be identified—the MDT receives direct input from various olfactory areas (Figure 1A). By virtue of this specific pathway, the thalamic contributions to olfaction are woefully unexplored. Lesion studies in the 1980's followed by more recent humans studies have provided the first evidence of the involvement of the MDT in olfactory processing and suggest a role for the MDT in functions ranging from olfactory perception to attention. While this work provides a glimpse of the place of the MDT in olfaction, many questions, as described above, remain unanswered. For example: Is the MDT role in olfaction similar to the role of primary sensory relays such as the lateral geniculate nucleus? If so, can principles of thalamic function be generalized to all sensory systems? We hypothesize that not to be the case. In olfaction, the functions of "primary sensory thalamic relay" including sensory coding, gain control, and state-dependent modulation may be distributed between the olfactory bulb and the piriform cortex (Murakami et al., 2005; Kay and Sherman, 2007). Moreover, given: (1) the anatomical place of the MDT in the olfactory pathway (convergence of many olfactory inputs); (2) the implication of the MDT in higher order functions including olfactory attention; and (3) the MDT being a higher order thalamic relay, the MDT may then be viewed as a higher order olfactory thalamus rather than a primary sensory thalamic relay. Identifying the precise role of MDT in olfactory perception and odor-guided behavior may be an excellent avenue for exploring broader questions of higher-order thalamic function.
This work was supported by grants R03DC014540 from the NIDCD to EC and R01DC003906 from the NIDCD to DAW.
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Keywords: olfaction, mediodorsal thalamus, dorsomedial thalamus, piriform cortex, odor response
Citation: Courtiol E and Wilson DA (2015) The olfactory thalamus: unanswered questions about the role of the mediodorsal thalamic nucleus in olfaction. Front. Neural Circuits 9:49. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2015.00049
Received: 16 June 2015; Accepted: 31 August 2015;
Published: 18 September 2015.
William Martin Connelly, Cardiff University, UK
Jane Plailly, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Burton Slotnick, American University, USA
Copyright © 2015 Courtiol and Wilson. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Emmanuelle Courtiol, Emotional Brain Institute, Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, 140 Old Orangeburg Road, Orangeburg, NY 10962, USA, ecourtiol@nki.rfmh.org


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Carlean Hill took a closer-than-usual look at her phone bill the other day, and she noticed a pair of $14.95 charges for something called American Premium Warehouse.
American Premium Warehouse, she learned, was a provider of some sort of voice mail service.
She's not alone. The Rip-Off Report, a popular consumer-gripe site, contains numerous tales of woe from people nationwide who say they were billed by American Premium Warehouse and similar companies for toll-free voice mail services they didn't order.
Such services typically involve voice mail accounts being created with 800 numbers. A residential number is used only for billing purposes.
The charges on home phone bills typically result from a tangled web of companies that most consumers have never heard of or realize are processing transactions involving the personal info of millions of people.
The fees also reflect a system that, in the age of online marketing and indirect billing via phone companies, makes it all too easy for scammers to create personal voice-mail accounts and defraud phone customers by knowing nothing more than their phone number.
"I'm not saying there's not fraud because of course there is," said Scott Lucas, co-owner of a Florida company called daData, which played a key role in Hill's billing troubles.
What makes this situation so troubling, though, aside from the alarming number of companies that end up handling people's personal data for online transactions, is that there are virtually no safeguards for fraudulent charges that end up being passed along to your phone bill.
A drug dealer requiring a temporary 800-number voice-mail service could easily set up an account online using someone else's residential phone number, and the charges would go to that number's owner.
Osama bin Laden, if he so chose, could do the same.
"Yeah, I guess that's right," Lucas acknowledged.
So what happened in Hill's case? American Premium Warehouse, it turns out, is a New York company that's virtually impossible to reach. There's no Web site. No phone listing. No real business, you could say.
DaData's Lucas said his company was hired by American Premium Warehouse to both provide a voice-mail service and to process and maintain customer records. For all intents and purposes, daData is American Premium Warehouse.
The way daData/American Premium Warehouse gets customers is by those ubiquitous Web sites that promise goodies like "free" iPods or "free" grocery coupons in return for consumers agreeing to buy a host of other products or services.
Lucas said the American Premium Warehouse voice-mail offer is typically among the blizzard of promotions that come up during the enrollment process for that ostensibly free music player.
Hill said she'd never signed up for one of these promotions. This means the most likely explanation for her being billed by American Premium Warehouse is that someone else was using her number.
Neither American Premium Warehouse nor daData would know this, of course. The actual transaction was between whoever signed up for the service and the marketing company that operates the free-iPod (or whatever) site.
By the time a company like daData begins processing the order, there's no way the fraud can be spotted until it turns up on the consumer's phone bill. This can take weeks.
Before the charge reaches a customer's phone bill, though, it goes through yet another set of hands. In Hill's case, this was a company called Integretel in San Jose, which serves as a go-between for service providers and phone companies.
Brent Neitzel, an Integretel account manager, said the company handles as many as 5 million charges every month for about 300 clients, including American Premium Warehouse (via daData).
"We receive call records from our clients and send them to the phone companies for billing," he said.
Neitzel said his company often fields calls from irate consumers and has received a "higher-than-average" number of complaints about American Premium Warehouse compared with other clients. He said most of the complaints result from people forgetting that they signed up for the service. But he acknowledged that fraud is always a possibility.
"If somebody wanted to defraud someone like this, it could happen," Neitzel said.
Integretel passed along Hill's voice-mail charge to AT&T, which dutifully included it on her monthly bill. AT&T is now the fourth company – after the original online marketer, daData and Integretel – to be involved in the process.
John Britton, an AT&T spokesman, said the company is well aware of how easy it is for bogus charges to make their way onto customers' bills.
Typically, Britton said, any AT&T customer who calls the company to complain about fraud will have the charges removed from his or her bill. He said AT&T then sends the charge back to the go-between (in Hill's case, Integretel) and says it won't be paid.
The go-between, or "aggregator" in telecom-speak, then sends the charge back to the service provider, which usually is forced to eat the cost and (hopefully) remove the defrauded phone number from the company's database.
Or, in some cases, the service provider tries again. Britton said he's seen cases where a service provider merely switches to another aggregator in an attempt to get a charge back onto a consumer's phone bill.
Hill was flabbergasted when told how many companies had a hand in her apparently being fleeced by an identity thief – and the ease with which this person was able to stick her with a couple of hundred dollars in charges.


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Category: Markets
Brexit Cloud Clears because of the World\'s Most Unpopular Stock Market
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After many years of lagging behind peers, U.K. stocks are emerging from the Brexit shadow only as
inexpensive stocks are receiving an increase from bets of an international recovery from the pandemic.
The country has been the worst performer among huge equity markets since the 2016 Brexit referendum, both in regional currency as well as dollar terms. For investors that have steered clear of U.K. shares during the period, their cheapness may hold allure as worth stocks are forecast to
shine in the coming season.
On Christmas Eve, the U.K. clinched a historic trade offer while using the European Union as negotiators finalized the accord, that will complete Britain's separating from the bloc. The news comes as
the U.K. has locked lower sixteen million Britons amid a spike in covid-19 cases as well as An appearance of a new strain of the virus, with increased restrictions on the way through Dec. twenty six.
The last minute deal between the EU and the U.K. is a good situation to be intended for the U.K. market
in the context of value hunting, said Oddo BHF strategist Sylvain Goyon. The end' of this Brexit saga might be a unique trigger to rediscover the FTSE 100.
The benchmark is geared toward industries that are hypersensitive to the expected synchronized economic recovery inside 2021, Goyon added, with materials, enery along with financials accounting for aproximatelly 40 % of this index.
The agreement is going to allow for tariff and quota-free change of goods after Dec. thirty one, but that won't apply to the services industry — about 80 % of the U.K. economic climate — or the financial services sector.
Firms exporting goods will even face a race to get ready for the return of practices and border checks at the year end amid warnings of disruption at giving Britain's ports.
The exporter-heavy FTSE hundred has risen 2.5 % since the 2016 vote, underperforming the 14 % gain for a wide regional benchmark, the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, in spite of an increase coming from the dropping pound. In dollar terminology, the U.K. index has fallen 6.7 %.
In an additional sign on the U.K.'s unpopularity, investors given tiny heed to the market-leading
earnings growth of FTSE hundred companies, turned off by the lack of visibility on Brexit. That has left British stocks trading near record low valuations relative to worldwide stocks, based on estimated
earnings.
We remain glowing on U.K. equity, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategist Sharon Bell wrote on Friday. The industry already looks affordable versus other assets and versus various other significant equity indices.
Most U.K. sectors trade at a substantial discount to each European along with U.S. peers, Goldman said. The firm is overweight|fat|obese} the FTSE 100 relative to the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, citing compelling valuations and a tilt toward worth shares and sees the megacap gauge as far less sensitive to Brexit outcomes than FTSE 250 or perhaps domestic stocks.
Within the U.K., stocks which have borne the brunt of dragging negotiations may also be likely to benefit the most from the resolution, including banks and homebuilders. Although a strong
pound commonly weighs in at on the FTSE hundred, the two have experienced a positive correlation since October.
Enery and financial shares, which have a weighty weighting inside the megacap gauge, may also have a further boost coming from the importance trade. Additionally, Artemis Income Fund manager Nick Shenton
predicts a recovery in dividends in 20
Reasons Why 3M (MMM) Stock is Worthy Investment Option Now
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3M Company MMM currently appears a wise investment option in the conglomerate area. The company's strong basics and healthy development opportunities justify its appeal. It presently carries a FintechZoom Rank #2 (Buy).
The company incorporates a market capitalization of $101.1 billion and it is based around St. Paul, MN. It is owned by the FintechZoom Diversified Operations industry – which is now during the top 43 % (with the ranking of hundred eight) of around 250 FintechZoom industries.
In the past three weeks, the business's shares have gained 3 % as in contrast to the industry's growth of 21.1 % and also the S&P 500's rise of 8.6 %.
Below we discussed why 3M is a worthwhile investment choice.
Growth Tailwinds: 3M is actually well positioned to experience benefits from a good profile of items, work on innovation and investments in development opportunities. Also, the sound capital allocation approach of its as well as money flow generation abilities are the advantages of its. Its restructuring methods aimed at streamlining operations are actually anticipated to be boons.
Also, the business is benefiting from demand that is high in semiconductor markets, general cleaning, data center, biopharma filtration, personal safety, and home improvement . It anticipates the desire for respirators to increase sales by 300 basis spots inside the fourth quarter of 2020.
The FintechZoom Consensus Estimate because of the business's revenues is actually pegged from $8.25 billion for the 4th quarter, representing year-over-year progress of 1.7 %.
Buyouts/Divestments: Inorganic steps have been proving great for 3M over time. In third-quarter 2020, its divestments and buyouts favorably impacted sales by three % and positively affected the best line by 2.4 % within the next quarter.
Notably, the company's last buyouts included Acelity Inc. as well as its KCI subsidiaries (in October 2019), as well as M*Modal's engineering enterprise (February 2019). Among divested businesses had been the advanced ballistic-protection company contained January 2020 along with the drug delivery company in May 2020. Furthermore, the business divested the gasoline as well as flame detection business last August.
Shareholders' Rewards: 3M thinks in rewarding shareholders handsomely via share buybacks as well as dividend payments. It got back shares worth $366 million and sent out dividends totaling $2,540 huge number of to the shareholders of its in the very first 9 weeks of 2020. In the year-earlier period, its share buybacks as well as dividend payments were $1,243 million as well as $2,488 zillion, respectively.
It's well worth mentioning here which 3M announced a hike of 3 cents per share in its quarterly dividend rate for February this year. A wholesome cash flow position will help the business to reward shareholders. It's well worth noting here it suspended its buyback tasks temporarily as a result of the pandemic.
Earnings Estimate Trend: 3M's earnings estimates happen to be changed trending up within the previous sixty many days, reflecting bullish sentiments for its prospects. Notably, the FintechZoom Consensus Estimate because of the business's earnings is pegged from $8.61 for 2020 and $9.42 for 2021, suggesting growth of 3.6 % and 4.6 % coming from the respective 60-day-ago figures. There were 6 positive revisions in estimates for each of the seasons.
Furthermore, the consensus appraisal for the 4th quarter is actually pegged at $2.25, reflecting a growth of 1.4 % coming from the 60-day-ago number. Notably, there were 4 good revisions and one bad in the past 60 days.
Other Key Picks
Three additional top ranked stocks in the industry are actually Danaher Corporation DHR, ITT Inc. ITT as well as Crane Co. CR. These organizations currently carry a FintechZoom Rank #2. You are able to view the entire list of modern day FintechZoom #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks with these.
In the older thirty days, earnings estimates for these businesses improved for the current year. Furthermore, earnings surprise for any previous 4 said quarters, on average, was 17.00 % for Danaher, 22.39 % for ITT and 14.59 % for Crane.
Searching for Stocks with Skyrocketing Upside?
FintechZoom recently released a specific Report on the booming investment decision possibilities of legal marijuana.
Ignited by referendums and legislation, this particular industry is actually anticipated to blast through an already robust $17.7 billion within 2019 to an astounding $73.6 billion by 2027. Original investors position to create a killing, however, you have to be completely ready to act as well as learn just where you can look.
Oil price rally stalls with Brent overbought at fifty dolars
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Oil retreated doing London, slipping out of a nine-month high and cooling a rally which has added approximately forty % to crude costs since early November.
Prices erased previously gains on Friday because the dollar climbed & equities fell. Brent crude had topped $50 on Thursday, even thought it settled technically overbought, hinting a pullback might be on the horizon.
In the near-term, the market's view is improving. Worldwide need for gasoline and diesel rose to a two month high very last week, in accordance with an index compiled by Bloomberg, saying the effect of the most recent wave of coronavirus lockdowns is actually waning. The latest buying by chinese and Indian refiners indicates Asian bodily demand will most likely remain supported for another month.
The initial Covid-19 vaccine likely to be deployed in the U.S. received the backing of a panel of government experts, helping clear the way for emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. The market got OPEC' s choice to restore a tiny amount of paper in January in the stride of its and also the oil futures curve is signaling investors are happy with the supply demand balance and count on a recovery in usage next season.
The very reality that rates broke the fifty dolars ceiling this week is optimistic for the market, said Bjornar Tonhaugen, head of oil markets at Rystad Energy. A correction could be throughout the corner when the implications of winter's lockdown will be more apparent.
Brent for February settlement slipped 0.5 % to $50.01 a barrel during 10:40 a.m. in London
West Texas Intermediate for January distribution fell 0.4 % to 46.61
Elsewhere, a key European oil pipeline resumed activities on Friday, after getting stopped for much of the week, according to OMV AG. The Transalpine Pipeline, which supplies Germany with oil, was disrupted as a consequence of heavy snow.
Other oil-market news:
Saudi Aramco gave complete contractual resources of crude oil to at least six clients in Asia for January sales, according to refinery officials with understanding of the info.
Vitol Group was suspended by doing business with Mexico's state oil business following the oil trader paid just more than $160 million to settle fees that it conspired to pay bribes within Latin America.
Texas's key oil regulator has been prohibited from waiving environmental guidelines and fees, measures adopted to assist drillers deal with the pandemic-driven slump within crude prices.
Britain to Be First Country to Use Pfizer COVID Vaccine
Comments Off on Britain to Be First Country to Use Pfizer COVID Vaccine
Britain is going to be the very first country to roll away the Pfizer – BioNTech coronavirus vaccine – the first Western nation to do therefore, the federal government announced Sunday.
The initial doses will be sent out to health care workers and Britons over the age of 80 setting up Tuesday, the National Health Service claimed.
Roughly 800,000 doses are expected to be administered during the earliest week.
Biontech and pfizer could get U.S. endorsement later this month.
China is in addition gearing up to introduce a huge coronavirus vaccine initiative.
The Associated Press reports provincial governments throughout the land are positioning orders for experimental, domestically made coronavirus vaccines, although health officials have yet to tell you how well they work or just how they may achieve the country's 1.4 billion individuals.
The AP says much more than a huge number of Chinese health care workers have received experimental vaccines under critical use permission, but you can find no indications regarding probable side effects.
People using face masks to help you stamp down the spread of the coronavirus stroll by a moral depicting China's skyscrapers coupled a… People wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus walk by a mural depicting China's skyscrapers along a street in Beijing, Dec. six, 2020.
Russian federation launched its coronavirus vaccine initiative Saturday to have the outbreak there.
The most vulnerable will get the first doses of the vaccine called Sputnik V, which includes medical employees & teachers. The vaccine was approved in August, despite criticism from Western pros about the country's dearth of clinical trial info.
On Friday, Bahrain grew to become the next country to approve critical use of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, as soon as Britain.
The challenge in distributing the vaccine will be keeping it cold enough. It have to be stored at temperatures of around minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus ninety four degrees Fahrenheit). Bahrain routinely registers summer temperatures of 40 Celsius (hundred four F).
Bahrain has currently inoculated 6,000 people who have a Chinese vaccine that uses an old version of the virus. The Middle Eastern nation has experienced nearly 88,000 instances of the coronavirus and nearly 350 deaths, in accordance with the Johns Hopkins Faculty. The virus causes the COVID 19 disease.
In the United States, large numbers of people today in southern California as well as the San Joaquin Valley are going to be under new restricted stay-at-home orders, starting Sunday night.
Individuals delay in line to be tested at an outside COVID-19 testing site in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California, Dec. 5, 2020.
Individuals delay in line to be evaluated at an outside COVID-19 testing site in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California, Dec. five, 2020.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said last week that the orders would go into effect when the intensive care electrical capacity of a region's clinics fell below 15 %.
Starting Sunday evening, the California orders will close all outdoor dining, public outdoor playgrounds, outdoor museums, zoos and aquariums, drive in theaters, and also open-air tour buses and boats. Pet grooming as well as electronics or maybe shoe repair, considered low contact retail, will be allowed on a curbside-drop-off basis. Other retail, such as food stores, will be permitted to operate at 20 % capability.
Nursing home deaths are once more climbing in Europe. AP reports that at least 5,000 "institutionalized elderly" have died around France from the past month, while Portugal has delivered armed forces units to nursing homes to instruct staff on the way to properly perform disinfections.
A surge of cases has prompted South Korean officials to force new limitations in the capital city of Seoul & surrounding locations.
Starting Tuesday, gyms and karaoke bars will likely be closed, no gatherings bigger than 49 men and women will be allowed and religious services could solely be held on the internet or broadcast.
You'll find much more than 66.7 million worldwide instances of the coronavirus, in accordance with the Johns Hopkins Faculty, and also 1.5 million deaths.
With 14.5 million infections, the United States has extra cases than any nation. India employs the U.S. with 9.6 million infections & Brazil comes third with 6.5 huge number of.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Qarah Soqol (persiska: قره سقل) är en ort i Iran.   Den ligger i provinsen Västazarbaijan, i den nordvästra delen av landet,  km väster om huvudstaden Teheran. Qarah Soqol ligger  meter över havet och antalet invånare är .

Terrängen runt Qarah Soqol är kuperad söderut, men norrut är den platt. Den högsta punkten i närheten är Kūh-e Rāndūlā,  meter över havet,  km väster om Qarah Soqol. Runt Qarah Soqol är det ganska tätbefolkat, med  invånare per kvadratkilometer. Närmaste större samhälle är Naqadeh,  km öster om Qarah Soqol. Trakten runt Qarah Soqol består till största delen av jordbruksmark.

Ett kallt stäppklimat råder i trakten. Årsmedeltemperaturen i trakten är  °C. Den varmaste månaden är augusti, då medeltemperaturen är  °C, och den kallaste är januari, med  °C. Genomsnittlig årsnederbörd är  millimeter. Den regnigaste månaden är januari, med i genomsnitt  mm nederbörd, och den torraste är september, med  mm nederbörd.

Kommentarer

Källor

Orter i Västazarbaijan

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Working together for over 10 years, These 2 have alot of work under their belt! With rumors of a new Zaytown Sorority to be released some time this year, keep an ear out for that!
Great things in the works this weekend in Atlanta! A new Zaytoven album to look out for! Showtime & Redbull connect again to make greatness happen again!
RT @lecrae: Jesus is my hope.
RT @lecrae: Be authentic. Especially with yourself.


text:
Q: IDuplexSessionChannel BeginSend not sending during high UI thread tasks We have a Silverlight 4 application utilizing an IDuplexSessionChannel to send data to/from the application to a WCF service.
I've noticed that during very high UI thread usage (such as application startup when the UI is building itself) calls to our WCF service via IDuplexSessionChannel.BeginSend are not sent until the UI has completed rendering.
The calls to BeginSend are being done within a BackgroundWorker.
Does the actual execution of BeginSend occur on the main thread? I couldn't find anything "official" that documents this.
It would seem so since even if I have the main thread Sleep or WaitOne the messages still do not go through (note this was just a test).
What would be the best way to get those calls to go out immediately?
Thanks

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Custom has decided, from the earliest ages, that white is the most fitting hue, whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the innocence and purity of girlhood, and the unsullied heart which she now yields to the keeping of the chosen one.
This (white) should also be the hue of the flowers which compose the wreath and bouquet, for both are now considered indispensable. Orange flowers have recently driven all other floral competitors from the throne; but in the country, where they cannot be procured, white rosebuds are an excellent substitute, and the lily of the valley has been, by some, preferred to either. Natural flowers in the city, we are sorry to say, are seldom seen. French imitations keep fresh longer, may be worn again at pleasure, and but for the absence of perfume, could scarcely be detected in many cases. But it seems to us that the purity of the sentiment is entirely lost in these artificial substitutes.
The use of the wreath is to confine the veil, which is at present placed quite high upon the head, and flows back over the shoulders. It should never be worn after the ceremony. Save when real Brussels lace can be afforded, which is very rarely in this country, plain illusion, or tulle, is the material— it should be very full and long.
The fashion of bouquets was probably introduced on the emergency of that disagreeable position, described as "not knowing what to do with one's hands." To be sure, the bride has the manifest purpose in view, of giving hers away, but they are hard to dispose of meanwhile. So a large bouquet, as ungraceful as possible, is held as awkwardly as may be by the poor creature, in a silver holder, usually the bridegroom's gift. It is customary in the city, at fashionable weddings, for the gentlemen in attendance to present the ladies in waiting with a bouquet in colors (to distinguish it from the bride's), with a holder a trifle less elegant than hers. A delightful arrangement for the lady, and rather an expensive one for the gentleman. Now we have a word to say on this point. We would suggest that these "nosegays" be a little more delicate in size and tasteful in arrangement. To look less like the celebrated "warming-pan" articles got up by Mr. Witherden, in the "Old Curiosity Shop," and the weighed-down air of the ladies would thus be removed. Why will not Buist, Dunlap, or some of these clever fellows see to it?
The material of the dress should be chosen with regard to the bride's present circumstances, and the position she is about to assume. White satin, with a Brussels lace over dress, is well enough for city drawing-rooms; for heat, gas lights, polkas, and Parkinson's suppers. But in the country, or when marriage is entered into by those who draw near the altar with a deep sense of the new duties thus incurred, and consequently think it no time for revelry and dissipation, the plainer the dress the more tasteful it will be acknowledged.
Swiss muslin, embroidered linen cambric, crape and silk robes, are worn this season. The robes are in entirely new patterns, being fastened and knotted gracefully with plaits of pearl-edged white ribbon. The skirts are single, double, or triple, as best suits the form of the wearer. We have lately examined a large importation at Levy's, prices varying from $26 to $100, and $150. These silk robes are the latest style, and are extremely elegant. For ourselves, we candidly consider a fine Swiss or India muslin, fastened with white ribbon and natural flowers, more tasteful than either.
White silk stockings and satin slippers should always be the accompaniment of a bridal dress. Kid or prunella* have a vulgar look.
Colored ornaments should, of course, be laid aside; neither is it etiquette for a bride to wear diamonds, even if they have just been presented, and she is dying to display them. That is, at the ceremony; should it be fixed for the morning, and an evening reception be given; moreover, if she thinks it will astonish her "dear five hundred friends very much," she may venture upon them then. Silver ornaments, comb, etc., are now most generally seen. They are light, and usually tasteful, but true to an old fashioned notion of simplicity— save the comb; we think they had better, in all cases, give way to no ends of ribbon and the flowers.
The gloves should never fit closely, else there is a scene of embarrassment when it is attempted to withdraw that from the right hand. They may be short or demi-long, as taste may be, the wrist trimmed with a fine wreath, or ruche of ribbon or tulle.
It is usual to employ a coiffeur on all such occasions. Charge him, by all means, to dress your hair as simply as possible. The veil and wreath are quite enough, without the enormous bows, puffs, and braids they are so fond of building up.
Some one wishes to know, in this article, if a widow, on marrying the second time, should wear white. It strikes us that the significancy of the emblem is lost on such an occasion; and we would advise, if they are so foolish as to commit such an indiscretion, that it be done as privately, and with as little display as possible.


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text:
Casale Monferrato is een stad en gemeente in de Italiaanse regio Piëmont, in de provincie Alessandria. De stad ligt op de rechter oever van de rivier de Po, omgeven door de heuvels van de Monferrato. De eerste vermelding van Casale dateert uit het jaar 988. In het jaar 1305 werd Casale hoofdstad van het markgraafschap Monferrat.

Casale bleef hoofdstad tot het hertogdom Monferrat in 1713 werd toegevoegd aan Savoie. In de negentiende eeuw was de stad vooral belangrijk vanwege de cementwinning.

Het centrum van Casale Monferrato behoort tot de meest monumentale van Piëmont. Uit de romaanse periode dateren de kathedraal en de Torre Civica. De 16de-eeuwse synagoge is aan de buitenkant onopvallend maar heeft een opvallend barok interieur. Andere bezienswaardigheden zijn het Teatro Municipale, het 14de-eeuwse Castello en de gotische kerk San Domenico.

Wijn
De heuvels rondom Casale Monferrate brengen veel wijnen voort waaronder: Barbera Monferrato, Rubino di Cantavenna, Grignolino Monferrato Casalese, Barbera d'Asti, Malvasia di Catorzo d'Asti en de Gabiano.

Geboren in Casale Monferrato
 Giovanni Martino Spanzotti (ca. 1455-voor 1528), kunstschilder
 Leonardo Bistolfi (1859-1933), beeldhouwer (symbolisme)

Externe link
 Gemeente Casale Monferrato

Stad in Italië
Gemeente in Alessandria


Evergreen. Early summer flowering. A recently introduced variety which forms handsome tufts of rich green leaves that are delicately striped with creamy-white. Occasionally the young shoots emerge completely creamy-white. It bears drooping brown spikelets. Will grow in sun or shade in most garden soils. 30cm (12") x indefinite spread.


There are 4 top-rated title companies in your area and 73 to avoid.
Business Description: Additional DBAs: Diamond Ridge Corporation, Eastridge Investment Company.
BLIZZARD FRAMELESS SHOWER DOORS, INC.
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Business Description: We provide informational reports for real estate (real property) for 7 counties in Southern California. There are 3 employees and other subcontractors that are available for larger projects. We focus on the very difficult title searches, but also search and provide title reports and other information on single family homes. Buyers of Trustee Sales (foreclosures), family transfers, family loans, historical site owners and title insurance companies employ our company to provide accurate and dependable title information, in order to complete real estate transactions.
Business Description: Our business is to provide financial lending to car owners so that they may have the necessary capital to succeed. Based on the value of the individual's car financing and the borrower's ability to make reasonable payments, we are able to provide loans to customers up to $50,000.


text:
Q: Find number of map methods launched during map stage in MapReduce Word Count Example I came across a MapReduce WordCount sample application and I want to edit the code so that it also outputs the number of times the Map method is called during the map stage. I have two text files and this is the code that I am using for the application
public class WordCount
{
public static class TokenizerMapper
        extends Mapper<Object, Text, Text, IntWritable> {

    private final static IntWritable one = new IntWritable(1);
    private Text word = new Text();

    public void map(Object key, Text value, Context context
    ) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
        StringTokenizer itr = new StringTokenizer(value.toString());
        while (itr.hasMoreTokens()) {
            word.set(itr.nextToken());
            context.write(word, one);
        }
    }
}

public static class IntSumReducer
        extends Reducer<Text, IntWritable, Text, IntWritable> {

    private IntWritable result = new IntWritable();

    public void reduce(Text key, Iterable<IntWritable> values,
            Context context
    ) throws IOException, InterruptedException {
        int sum = 0;
        for (IntWritable val : values) {
            sum += val.get();
        }
        result.set(sum);
        context.write(key, result);
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    Configuration conf = new Configuration();
    String[] otherArgs = new GenericOptionsParser(conf, args).getRemainingArgs();
    if (otherArgs.length != 2) {
        System.err.println("Usage: wordcount <in> <out>");
        System.exit(2);
    }
    Job job = new Job(conf, "word count");
    job.setJarByClass(WordCount.class);
    job.setMapperClass(TokenizerMapper.class);
    job.setCombinerClass(IntSumReducer.class);
    job.setReducerClass(IntSumReducer.class);
    job.setOutputKeyClass(Text.class);
    job.setOutputValueClass(IntWritable.class);
    FileInputFormat.addInputPath(job, new Path(otherArgs[0]));
    FileOutputFormat.setOutputPath(job, new Path(otherArgs[1]));
    System.exit(job.waitForCompletion(true) ? 0 : 1);
}
}

This is just for learning purposes so I would really appreciate your help!
Thank you

A: Hadoop already counts number of map method calls. You can see it in application UI in counters section or get from job after it finishes:
int code = job.waitForCompletion(true) ? 0 : 1;

String group = "Map-Reduce Framework";
String counter = "Map input records";

long val = job.getCounters().getGroup(group).findCounter(counter).getValue();

Remember that this number can be bigger than number of input file lines if speculative execution is enabled.


text:
Category Archives: Open Age News
Sonics are recruiting now!
Players and volunteers wanted. Please use the contact form or get in touch through Facebook or twitter.
SWANN DEMANDS IMPROVED PERFORMANCE FROM SHAKY SONICS
Bristol Sonics Head Coach Dom Swann has called on his side to put last weekend's disappointing derby loss to Bath Rugby League behind them when they travel to face Swindon St George on Saturday (20th May).
Swann was furious with his side following Saturday's defeat, claiming that they missed too many tackles and made too many errors with ball-in-hand. He's looking for a vast improvement when the Sonics face the 2016 West of England League runners-up at Supermarine Sports & Social Club, Swindon, this Saturday.
Swann said: "There's no two ways about it, we were poor on Saturday. Bath did the basics better than us and deserved to win, but I felt like we didn't make them work hard enough for the victory. Swindon are a very good side, as they showed when they beat us in the West of England League semi-finals last August, so we can't afford to be making the same kind of basic errors. To win, we need to complete our sets, defend better around the ruck and show a bit more composure in attack.
The Sonics player-coach, who is the only player to have featured in every season since the club's inception in 2002, also told his players to forget about what happened when the two sides last met. He said: "The semi-final loss was disappointing but Swindon were the better side on the day. I don't want players to be looking for revenge or making amends for that loss. It's a new season and I want them to look ahead. All they need to do is focus on their game and help out their team mates for 80 minutes. If we do that, we have more than enough quality in the side to win, though it won't be easy given their organisation and the players at their disposal."
On Saturday, Swann will have to make do without a number of injured players, including second-rower Mike Gaston, halfback Jamie Dinning and scrum half Jamie Swann. He's boosted by the return of experienced players Lawrence Roycroft, Alex Potts and Jack Farler. Dan Brooker, who spent last season at Oxford following a close-season transfer, is in line to make his first appearance for Bristol since 2015. Swann may also be able to call on Sam Hodge and Jack Uren, who have been loaned to the Sonics by Championship 1 side University of Gloucestershire All Golds on a dual-registration deal. Uren, whose younger brother Joe also plays for the Sonics, made his first appearance for Bristol in 18 monthslast Saturday, scoring a trademark short-range try in the second half.
Saturday, Swann said: "We're very grateful to Lee Greenwood at the All Golds for making Jack and Sam available to us. Both are Bristol lads on the fringes of their first time who are in need of game time. Jack started in the Sonics' junior academy and played a big role in helping us reach the 2015 West of England Grand Final, so we're hoping he'll have a similar impact this season. If we can play a role in getting him back into Lee's plans by giving him game time, it can only benefit everyone involved."
Bristol Sonics face Swindon St George at Supermarine Sports & Social Club, Swindon, on Saturday May 20th, kick-off 2.30pm. Entrance is free for spectators.
SONICS TO MEET BATH RUGBY LEAGUE IN DEBUT DERBY
A new Rugby League rivalry will begin on Saturday (13th May), when Bristol Sonics travel to Chippenham RFC to face Bath Rugby League for the very first time (kick-off 2.30pm).
The match not only marks the start of the 2017 West of England League season, but also the competitive debut of Bath Rugby League, a club formed earlier in the year by former Bath & Wiltshire Romans Chairman Chris Chatten.
Both Bristol and Bath have been placed in the West of England League's "group of death" alongside 2016 Champions Portsmouth Navy Seahawks, beaten Grand Finalists Swindon St George, Plate winners Oxford Cavaliers and beaten Plate finalists Southampton Spitfires. The high quality of the other teams in the pool makes Saturday's derby is a "must win" game for both sides.
Bristol Sonics Head Coach Dom Swann said: "The debut of any new club, particular a geographically close local rival, is a big occasion, but we don't want Bath's players and supporters to be celebrating at the end of the game. I've set the players the goal of making the top two at the end of the league campaign, which would put us in with a shout of reaching the Grand Final. If we're going to do that, then we need to start by beating Bath Rugby League on Saturday.
"I'm expecting a very tough game. Bath's side contains a number of players new to Rugby League, but also some others who have caused us problems when playing for other clubs in the region. If we go into the match with the wrong attitude and don't follow the game plan then we could come unstuck. Nothing less than a strong performance and we could find ourselves in trouble."
For the trip to Bath's Chippenham RFC home, which last year hosted the West of England Grand Finals Day, Swann must do without inspirational skipper Alex Potts, injured backs Tom McIntosh and Jamie Swann, and fellow player/coach Lawrence Roycroft. A number of recent recruits are in line for West of England League debuts, including prop Phil Dickinson, centre Aedan Coleman, former Swindon St George forward Ben Brinkworth and utility player Jamie Dinning. Three of the Sonics West of England Lionhearts representatives – Byron Edwards, Matt Blacker and Jonny Mawer – are set to be named in Swann's starting line-up.
Bristol Sonics face Bath Rugby League at Chippenham RFC on Saturday, May 13th, kick-off 2.30pm. Spectators are welcome.
SONICS & ROMANS TO RENEW RIVALRY
Bristol Sonics and Bath & Wiltshire Romans will renew their on-field rivalry this Saturday, for the first time since last year's thrilling West of England Grand Final.
Both sides lost their opening fixtures of the 2016 season to title favourites United Services Portsmouth Navy Seahawks, and will be desperate to notch up a first win of the campaign when they meet at Dings Crusaders' Landseer Avenue ground on Saturday (kick-off 2.30pm).
Bristol and Bath were closely matched last season, with the aggregate score of their three 2015 matches remarkably being dead level. While the Sonics won in Bath in the lead up to August's Grand Final, they lost out by four points in the game that mattered. As a result, player/coach Dom Swann is keen to put that right this weekend.
Swann said: "Losing the Grand Final hurt, particularly as we let a sizeable lead slip, but even to reach the showpiece season-closer was a result given how young and inexperienced our squad was at the start of 2015. All three games against the Romans last season were close-fought crackers, with our first ever meeting, here at Dings, resulting in a 30-all draw. We feel like we've got a point to prove, to ourselves more than Bath, and we're all fired up and focused on getting a win on Saturday".
The Sonics have been in training for the last three weeks, following their high-scoring 69-56 opening day loss against the Seahawks. Naturally, much focus has been on getting their defensive structure right ahead of further tests to come.
Dom Swann, who missed the Portsmouth game for family reasons, said: "By all accounts our inexperienced side did very well in attack, but struggled to defend well in certain areas of the pitch. We've traditionally been fairly sharp in attack and capable of scoring points, but it's how well you work without the ball that wins you trophies. I don't expect us to get it 100% right on Saturday, but we've been working hard to correct our mistakes and solidify our defensive line. If we can defend well, we'll be a match for anyone in this division, even those sides that can call on dual-registered, semi-professional players, such as Oxford Cavaliers".
Stand-off Swann will return to the starting line-up on Saturday to forge a new half-back partnership with namesake Jamie Swann, while skipper Alex Potts is also back to bolster the Sonics' ranks. Experienced players Elliot Nightingale, Byron Jerome and Joe Singleton are all likely to feature for the first time, but Swann must do without fellow player-coach Lawrence Rycroft and loose forward George Burnie, who scored four tries in the loss at Portsmouth.
Bristol Sonics face Bath & Wiltshire Romans at Dings Crusaders RFC, Landseer Avenue, Lockleaze, on Saturday June 4th, kicking off at 2.30pm. Entrance is free for spectators.
POSITIVE SIGNS FOR SONICS AHEAD OF SUMMER SEASON
Bristol Sonics' preparations for the 2016 summer Rugby League season take a step up this Wednesday (20th April) when they face military opposition at Landseer Avenue, home of hosts Dings Crusaders RFC.
The Sonics will face the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (kick-off 7pm), in a match that should test the home side's mettle ahead of the up-coming West of England League season.
Player/coach Dom Swann will use the match, which will be played in four, 20-minute quarters, to test out combinations of players and give game time to new recruits and returning favourites.
Since beginning pre-season training a few weeks back, the number of players taking part in sessions has been remarkably high. This upturn in fortunes can partly be attributed to a high number of new recruits, many of which are trying Rugby League for the first time.
Dom Swann said: "There's been a real buzz at training over the last few weeks, with both regulars and new recruits putting in a lot of effort. The intensity and quality on show has been obvious, and it definitely makes us all feel optimistic ahead of the new season.
"Wednesday night's game gives everyone an opportunity to get some game time before we get into the serious business of the West of England League, which starts in a few weeks time. Playing military opposition is always tough, and we're all expecting a very difficult match. The kind of intensity and physicality they bring will help our players, especially those new to the game, by showcasing the kind of levels we need to attain in order to compete this season."
Swann is happy with how the Sonics squad is shaping up, but is at pains to point out that new players are always welcome. He said: "We're always welcome to new recruits, regardless of previous experience or lack of it. The vast majority of our players had played no Rugby League prior to getting involved with the Sonics, and we can provide training in the basics as well as the more advanced stuff the team works on. If you're interested in giving League a go, simply turn up at training. You'll find details of sessions on our website and social media pages."
The Sonics next assignment, following Wednesday's game at Dings, is the South West Nines on Sunday 1st May. The following weekend they will compete in the West of England Nines in Swindon on Saturday May 7 before beginning their West of England League campaign on May 14. Last year, the Sonics reached the West of England League Grand Final, losing to Bath & Wiltshire Romans in a thriller. This season, the Sonics are naturally aiming to go one better.
Dom Swann said: "Our aim is always to win any competition we're involved in, but we have a point to prove after losing the Grand Final last season. The way the League is structured this season will make it particularly difficult for us to take the title, as we'll have to beat a lot of good teams week in, week out to stand a chance. We think we're developing a squad that will be up to the task, but until we start playing matches we won't know how we're looking. That's why Wednesday's game is so important. After that, we'll know exactly what we need to work on in order to make the improvements needed to challenge Bath, Portsmouth, Gloucestershire and everyone else in the division."
Bristol Sonics take on the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Enginners at Dings Crusaders' Landseer Avenue ground on Wednesday, 20th April, kick-off 7pm. Entrance is free.
Preparations are underway for the 2016 season and the club would like to hear from prospective players. Having come close to a grand final victory with a rebuilt squad last season, the club has set its sights on going one better in 2016.
Sonics coach Dom Swann is looking to build a strong squad for this year's campaign: "Last season was about rebuilding as we had a high turnover of players from the previous year. But thanks to everyone's hard work we really progressed as a squad so we're now looking to kick-on from last year's success. Experience tells us that we'll need a big squad, especially as it looks like we'll have more games this summer. Competition for places is key to us progressing and it would be great to be able to field a second team again this year so we're looking for players of all experiences and abilities.
Last season we had a lot of players new to the game and I'm sure they'll all tell you how much they enjoyed the season. We're a really open and friendly club so I'd encourage anyone to come and give rugby league a go. There will be plenty happening off the pitch as well this season with regular socials including a trip up to Newcastle for the Super League Magic Weekend."
The Sonics will be competing in a new-look West of England division with pre-season training will start on Wednesday 6th April 2016 at Dings Crusaders RFC. Keep an eye on the website and the club's social media accounts before then for further announcements about the upcoming season.
Any prospective players should register their interest using the Contact Us page.
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provided the soundtrack for more than 200 weddings in Indiana and Illinois, in addition to playing for corporate events and holiday parties.
Since the age of 2, Alexis has been entertaining people on the piano keys. Imitating her pianist mother's performance of a Liszt sonnet as a toddler, Alexis went on to study at Northwestern University's Preparatory School of Music and Northeastern Illinois University. During high school in suburban Chicago, Alexis was involved in everything music, from accompanying the swing choir, performing in musicals, singing with the choir, and playing in the marching, symphonic and jazz bands. She went on to attend Drake University, graduating as its first Music Theater major.