I write this post at the expense of being classified a 'relationship blog'. You have to understand that there is time for everything, and we have different stages in our life. Perhaps, I'm at this stage NOW...lol! Enjoy!
1. He must be a born-again Christian.
Oh well, it seems like I've got only one requirement. Now, is that too much to ask? Please bear in mind that in saying he must be a born-again christian, several issues have been covered. e.g. smoking, drinking, clubbing (raving), unfaithfulness e.t.c.
By saying he is a born-again christian, I don't mean just a church-goer (a sunday-sunday kind of guy..lol). I mean a born-again christian in every sense of the word.
Now, I ask again is that too much too ask? No, I don't think so. It's very sad to think that some girls think such a guy does not exist. And if you belong to that school of thought, I'm forced to believe that you're not that type of girl yourself. So darling, go first and set your way straight with the Lord, before you start trying to find your Mr. Right or better still, before you start waiting for your Mr. Right to find you.
blah, blah, blah. Where have all these ever gotten anyone? What's the point of desiring a handsome man and at the end of the day, anytime he goes out without you, you're calling him every 30minutes, just to make sure he is where he said he went to. Or worse still, you frown at every female waitress that goes out of her way to be nice to your 'handsome' husband. Who will be getting the wrinkles and high blood pressure eventually?
Oh, you're not so interested in the handsome bit, you say. All you ask for is for him to be tall, considering that you're not so tall yourself. Hmmn, good idea, makes it easier for him to put you underneath him and give you a good beating anytime you both have an argument, right? By the way, you can easily cook up stories about how the pot of soup poured on you when you're colleagues ask about the oringin of the numerous marks on your body.
Common, asking for him to be loaded (rich) isn't too much. Afterall, he needs to be the head, right? Yes, it's true. But should being rich come at the cost of the children not having their dad around on their 1st birthday because he's attending an 'important business meeting" or never helping with their homeworks which mum has no clue about because he has to stay back to work overtime? Or is it having numerous lonely nights that sounds attractive to you? No? But you asked for it the day you decided to put these as your first four requirements, right before 'God-fearing'.
What exactly am I getting at, you ask? Are all these listed above bad things? Of course not. Do I want them, of course I do. But at the expense of him being born again? Certainly not.
Please note that it's not a sin to ask God for specifics like he should be fair, dark and so on. Afterall, I have one too (*now whispering in your ears* lol). And the bible also says in Matthew 7:7 that we should ask and we shall be given. It only becomes a problem when these are your top priority or must-haves as against add-ons.
I hope this blesses us all.
Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions and so on.
lol!!! U're just awesome! I love this post! Straight from the heart. I love it, and I agree. We'll talk more about it - but I love this!
Like I said, U're just awesome! I guess its that time, (for marriage), so this message is timely - what with people getting divorced and all. Instead of going into a marriage only to have it break up 72 days later or 6 yrs later, plan ahead.
U̶̲̥̅̊ go gal.i like!thumbs up!
lol! Tom Tom excellent article. you talk am well. lool @ the wrinkles and blood pressure bit. God forbid mehn. but on a serious note, God's desires first before ours. as the Bible says in Matt 6:23 ("seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you"). the truth is when we put Him first and seek to please Him, He always grants us our heart's desires and even exceeds our expectations.
Thanks everyone, I'm glad it blessed you. Thank God!
i luv it.More of God's grace,power,presence and anointin in ur lyf.U're gifted gal.U most likely hv a purpose in link wit relationships(tink bout dis).
Hello anonymous. A big amen to that!


We've done other sunglasses in the past but these shades by Oliver Goldsmith are particularly cool, and sure to attract attention as you stroll in the summer sun.
The Times in 1970 referred to Oliver Goldsmith as "to sunglasses what Vidal Sasson is to hair and Mary Quant to clothes." 36 years on, a number of the sought-after vintage styles have been reissued- with our favourites being these Sophia Loren sunglasses.
This particular pair evoke the classic glamour of their namesake, and if you want to capture a bit of her Italian style you can't go too far wrong with these at around £180.
You can find stockists and see more images of the reissued range on the website.


Which countries REALLY win the Olympics?
Olympic medal counts don't really show you which nation was the most successful, because larger countries have a huge advantage. There's a better way to measure a nation's Olympic success. Here are numbers from the last 10 Olympics.


text:
World's Largest Reef Shark And Ray Survey Finds Sharks Absent From 20% Of Reefs
Marbled ray and wedgefish swim near bait bag at Ashmore Reef. Australian Institute of Marine Science / Global FinPrint
By Rachael Funnell
Sharks, often painted as the villain of the piece, have been suffering from exploitation for decades but until now there haven't been many wide-scale surveys into how years of mistreatment have affected these animals' populations. Previous estimates worked on catch records from industrial fisheries, leaving large gaps in the record as coastal species were often excluded.
Groundbreaking research published in Nature has revealed that sharks are now virtually absent on many coral reefs across the globe. Video recordings from underwater cameras revealed that sharks were not seen on 20 percent of the 371 reefs they surveyed in 58 countries.
The researchers of the Global FinPrint study used 15,000 baited remote underwater video stations in an effort to estimate the conservation status of reef sharks across the globe. Fishing was found to have a profound impact on reef shark populations, and reef sharks were almost completely absent from reefs in several nations. These worst-affected areas were often associated with socio-economic complexities such as poor governance and overpopulation, which the researchers state could explain increased fishing of threatened species and less money invested into conservation efforts.
The study used baited underwater cameras to capture footage of shark species present on the reef. Australian Institute of Marine Science / Global FinPrint
Interestingly, reef shark species in Australia appeared to be doing well as their populations remain nearly intact. Thriving species included the grey reef, whitetip reef, and blacktip reef sharks.
The researchers highlight that while much of the news is grave, there are still available solutions to employ that could turn things around for these amazing animals. Shark sanctuaries, closed areas, catch limits, and the removal of gillnets and longlines were all associated with areas where reef sharks were rife, demonstrating the efficacy of these protective measures. The study authors explain that this data should serve as a model to inform policies put in place to restore shark populations, working to improve the treatment of these animals both with the local fisheries but also gaining support from governments.
Adult tiger shark approaches bait bag at Ashmore Reef. Australian Institute of Marine Science / Global FinPrint
"Our survey not only reveals the plight of sharks on coral reefs, which is in many cases very worrying, it also reveals how control of shark fishing can make effective conservation gains," said Dr Meekan, from the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Perth and principal investigator for the Global FinPrint project in the Indian Ocean region.
"Sharks are important for the ecology of coral reefs, particularly at a time when they are facing so many other threats from climate change. But few people realize that reef sharks are also an important part of the economies of many small island nations around the world because they are a key attraction for reef tourism."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
<?php

namespace Tests\COG\ChronoShifter\Evaluator;

use COG\ChronoShifter\Direction\Increasing;

/**
 * @author Kristjan Siimson <kristjan.siimson@cashongo.co.uk>
 * @package Direction\Tests
 */
class IncrementTest extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    /**
     * @uses COG\ChronoShifter\Period\Period
     */
    public function testNextMovesToNextPeriod()
    {
        $periodMock = $this
            ->getMockBuilder('COG\ChronoShifter\Period\Period')
            ->setMethods(array('next'))
            ->getMockForAbstractClass();

        $periodMock->expects($this->once())->method('next');

        $direction = new Increasing();
        $direction->next($periodMock);
    }

    public function testCompareEqualDates()
    {
        $direction = new Increasing();
        $this->assertEquals(0, $direction->compare('2014-01-01 00:23:23', '2014-01-01 00:25:25'));
    }

    public function testFirstDateAfterSecondDate()
    {
        $direction = new Increasing();
        $this->assertEquals(1, $direction->compare('2014-01-02 00:00:00', '2014-01-01 23:59:59'));
    }

    public function testSecondDateAfterFirstDate()
    {
        $direction = new Increasing();
        $this->assertEquals(-1, $direction->compare('2014-01-01 23:59:59', '2014-01-02 00:00:00'));
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Can I refer people to iKhokha for a reward?
As an iKhokha merchant we issue you with a unique discount code that you can share with your friends or clients if they are interested in signing up to iKhokha.
By using the discount code when signing up, your friend or client will receive R250 discount off the purchase price of iKhokha and we will give you a R500 reward? It is a win win scenario.


text:
Home Technology Reviews
Apple Watch Series 3 Cellular Is Still The Perfect Smartwatch & Lets Us Leave Our Phone At Home
Akshay Bhalla Updated: May 27, 2018, 11:57 IST
Apple Watch Series 3 Cellular India Review:
Can make phone calls independently Can stream music without using an iPhone 50-meter water resistance Arguably the best fitness watch you can buy
Battery life falls short with heavy cellular usage Needs to be recharged every night
MXP EDITOR'S RATING
Apple Watch has been dominated by wristwatch sales all over the world and now, it beats traditional watches when it comes to sales figures. We tested the watch for three weeks ever since it launched in India, and we've been using it on the Airtel network. The Apple Watch Series 3 was already a perfect smartwatch in our opinion and with the added feature of making and receiving calls, without ever having a phone with you, makes the evolution of the smartwatch a bit more exciting.
The cellular version of the AW series 3 is an independent device that doesn't need a smartphone in order to work. It can be used for all daily activities such as fitness tracking, step counting, listening to music and now making calls. Here's our detailed opinion on the new Apple Watch and why we feel it is the best one yet.
How Is It Different?
Well, it isn't much different from the GPS variant of the AW Series 3 aside from the fact that this model can make cellular calls. The cellular model has LTE connectivity and also has more storage i.e. 16GB. Aside from those factors, the AW Series 3 Cellular is not much different, i.e. the dimensions, processor, weight, and display are exactly same. This also means if you are a previous Apple Watch user, all your accessories are compatible with the cellular variant.
The Cellular version also has a red dot on the crown which basically distinguishes it from the generic Apple Watches out there. This makes this version of the Apple Watch a little bit more special and sets you apart. The Apple Watch Series 3 cellular also has an exclusive watch face called 'Explorer'. Basically, it is very much similar to the 'utility' watch faces with the addition of a signal strength indicator.
If you want to know more about our opinion about the design, performance, battery life and build quality of the Apple Watch Series 3, you can read our review of the GPS variant here.
How Does One Set it Up?
Setting up the cellular model of the AW Series 3 is fairly simple, however, a word of caution — it currently only works with Airtel and Jio for postpaid customers. Getting it set up is very easy as it shares your existing mobile number with the Apple Watch. Once you initiate the setup, a prompt will appear asking if you want to set up mobile data. Follow the easy steps and sign in to your network provider's account. Once done, you're all set up and ready to go. Be aware though the cellular services will not work in International roaming and will also like a normal Apple Watch when you do not have connectivity.
The Apple Watch Series 3 has been known for having a better battery life, GPS, and waterproofing. With the additional feature of cellular connectivity, we have to review its call quality and other capabilities. By default, the Apple Watch has data connection which means, you do not need to carry your iPhone with you. The smartwatch can even stream music directly from Apple Music to your Bluetooth connected device without having the phone around you. This is the first time a smartwatch is truly independent of a smartphone.
The call quality is great on the cellular version, in fact, while testing, a simple phone call with my fiancé showed us how good it was. The call quality was as good as you would expect from a smartphone, and one could only notice I was using the Apple Watch when I pulled my arm away from my mouth while talking. The system behind this technology is quite smart, as the smartwatch is smart enough to direct calls to your watch instead of your phone when appropriate.
Having said that, using cellular features has a downside as it will use more battery life and cost more if you want this feature on your Apple Watch. Apple has already thought of this and the way it works is that, the cellular capabilities only come to play when it is unable to reach your iPhone. If the Apple Watch Cellular is not connected to your iPhone via Bluetooth, or you are far away from your phone, the App Watch will automatically start using cellular services. Once you are near your iPhone, it will automatically switch off cellular features in order to conserve battery.
The Final Say
Even though the cellular variant of the Apple Watch Series 3 looks identical to the previous model, it does more than any smartwatch can do today. It gives you the freedom to not be tied to your smartphone and enjoy your workout without any distractions. If you happen to get an important phone call or text, you don't need to have your iPhone around to carry out tasks. So if you're the kind of person who gets important phone calls while you're out for a run, the cellular variant will be the perfect companion for you.
Photo: © YouTube (Main Image)
Apple Watch Series 4 Review READ NOW " Hands Down The Best Smartwatch Money Can Buy Right Now"
Reviews The Apple Watch Series 3 Review
Wearables Why The Apple Watch Series 4 Will Be The Greatest
Wearables 1.9K The Apple Watch Saved Yet Another Life Of A Woman And This Time It Happened In India
Wearables 1.5K Apple Watch Saves Man's Life
Wearables Future Apple Watches Could Prevent Users From Skin Burns And Even Prevent Skin Cancer
Wearables 9.7K The Apple Watch Saved Yet Another Life & This Time Of A Woman In A Car Submerged Underwater
Wearables 8.6K The Apple Watch Alerted Emergency Services & Saved A Man's Life After He Fell On His Bathroom Floor
Wearables The Apple Watch Series 3 Is Expected To Launch This Fall
Wearables 1.8K 5 Times The Apple Watch Saved Somebody's Life & Proved It's More Than Just A Smartwatch
Wearables Apple Watch Saves A 76-Year-Old Man's Life
Wearables Apple Watch Series 3 Cellular Model Is Finally Coming To India & Here Are All The Details
Wearables The Apple Watch Can Detect Serious Heart Problems With 97% Accuracy And Help Save Lives
Wearables 5 Reasons Why The Apple Watch Series 4 Is Expected To Be The Best Smartwatch On The Planet Again
Wearables Apple Watch Detects A Hole In A Man's Heart
Wearables Apple Watch Saves Man's Life By Detecting Heart Disease
Wearables The Apple Watch Is Outselling Every Other Smartwatch & Has Overtaken Fitbit As The Leader
Wearables Apple Watch May Finally Add Sleep Tracking Feature
Wearables 1.9K Apple Watch Saves Man's Life Again
Wearables The Apple Watch Helped An 80-Year-Old Woman Survive A Dangerous Fall, Thanks To Its Fall Detection Feature


text:
The orange-dotted tuskfish (Choerodon anchorago) is a species of wrasse native to the Indian Ocean from Sri Lanka eastward to French Polynesia in the western Pacific.  Its range extends north to the Ryukyus and south to New Caledonia.  It inhabits reefs at depths from .  This species can reach a length of .  It is commercially important, and can be found in the aquarium trade.

Along with blackspot tuskfish and a few other wrasse species, orange-dotted tuskfish have been observed taking small bivalves into the mouth and smashing them against a rock, a form of tool use by animals.

References

External links

Fish of Thailand
Orange-dotted tuskfish
Fish described in 1791

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Address open Layer in QGIS project by processing script, convert Python console into a processing script I created this code in the Python console, a new point layer is created with some attributes and set into edit and AddFeature mode. I would like to bring it in QGIS algorithms. I have tried a few things but I just don't have the expertise.
from qgis.PyQt.QtCore import QVariant
#creat new layer
v_layer = QgsVectorLayer("point", "Windenergy", "memory")
# set CRS
v_layer.setCrs(QgsCoordinateReferenceSystem.fromEpsgId(25832))

# Add new fields to tabel
pr=v_layer.dataProvider()
pr.addAttributes([QgsField("anl_typ",QVariant.String),QgsField("producer",QVariant.String),QgsField("power",QVariant.Double),QgsField("rdiameter",QVariant.Double),QgsField("hubheight",QVariant.Double),QgsField("total",QVariant.Double)])
v_layer.updateFields()

QgsProject.instance().addMapLayers([v_layer])

# aktiv editor and add feature
iface.setActiveLayer(v_layer)
qgis.utils.iface.actionToggleEditing().trigger()
qgis.utils.iface.actionAddFeature().trigger()

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Telavancin is a bactericidal lipoglycopeptide with a multifunctional mechanism of action. We conducted a randomized, double blind, active-control phase II trial. Patients S18 years of age with complicated skin and skin structure infections caused by suspected or confirmed gram-positive organisms were randomized to receive either telavancin at 10 mg/kg intravenously every 24 h (q24h) or standard therapy (antistaphylococcal penicillin at 2 g q6h or vancomycin at 1g q12h). A total of 195 patients were randomized and received at least one dose of study medication. Clinical success rates were similar in all analysis populations at test of cure. In microbiologically evaluable patients with Staphylococcus aureus at baseline (n = 91), 96% of the telavancin group and 90% of the standard-therapy group were cured. Among patients with methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) at baseline (n = 45), clinical cure rates were also 96% for telavancin and 90% for standard therapy. Microbiologic eradication in patients with S. aureus infection was better with telavancin compared to standard therapy (92% versus 78%, P = 0.07) and significantly better in patients with MRSA (92% versus 68%; P = 0.04). Therapy was discontinued for an adverse event (AE) in 6% and 3% of the patients receiving telavancin and standard therapy, respectively. Except for two cases of rash in the telavancin group, these AEs were similar in type and severity in the two groups. The overall incidences and severities of AEs and laboratory abnormalities were similar between the two groups. These data support the ongoing studies assessing the efficacy and safety of telavancin in the treatment of serious gram-positive infections, particularly involving MRSA. Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.


Whenever you think of migrants arriving in Europe, think of this image.
You may or may not have seen this image on Facebook or Twitter in recent days, by freelance photographer Daniel Etter for the New York Times.
It depicts a Syrian refugee from Deir Ezzor, in tears while holding his son and daughter after arriving on the island of Kos in Greece, on 15 August.
He and his family had travelled on a flimsy inflatable boat carrying around 15 men, women and children.
After more than two hours of driving the boat had lost air, water had leaked into it, the refugees were soaked when they arrived at the shore. They were then completely relieved to have arrived safely.
In that moment, it all came at them together, the joy of having done it; the love for their family; the grief over what had happened.
The image has provoked an emotional reaction from thousands of people online and social media users are sharing the picture to counter people's perceptions of migrants.
The UN reports that the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece is accelerating dramatically, having passed the 160,000 mark for the year.
The number of sea arrivals in Greece from 1 January to 14 August 2015 was 158,456 and the number through the land border with Turkey was 1,716, taking the total to 160,172.
Last week, a total of 20,843 people arrived by sea in Greece, 82 percent of which were from Syria, 14 percent were Afghans and 3 percent were Iraqis.
The UN says that the overwhelming majority of these people are likely to qualify for refugee status.
The total number of refugees and migrants crossing the Mediterranean this year so far is 264,500, 158,456 of which are to Greece, approximately 104,000 to Italy, 1,953 to Spain and 94 to Malta.
Sometimes the numbers don't quite get across the scale of the human tragedy involved, however. But this photo does.
← @yourfive by AJ Heath.


text:
Plaid demand answers over County Hall's pensions U-turn
SEARCHING questions are being asked of Carmarthenshire county council leader Kevin Madge after the authority's executive board backed down over a disputed £16,350 payment to chief executive Mark James in lieu of pension contributions, as a tax avoidance measure.
The Plaid Cymru opposition group, at a meeting last night, demanded answers from the council leader.
"This matter has been one of intense public interest since the Wales Audit Office declared the payment to be unlawful," said Cllr Peter Hughes Griffiths, who leads the 28-strong Plaid group at County Hall.
"The executive board, after insisting all along that the pay supplement policy to senior officers was perfectly lawful, has now done a U-turn by saying it will be 'withdrawn on procedural grounds'. I'm asking the leader to explain exactly what that means.
"Despite being told by the Wales Audit Office that the payment to the chief executive was unlawful, the executive board insisted on taking their own legal opinion from a leading QC, in the hope of proving otherwise.
"It's obvious they've been advised to back down by the barrister, but they still deny that the arrangement is 'intrinsically unlawful'.
"This is quite an incredible situation, which shows that the Labour-Independent regime which runs this council has made a shambles of the whole affair.
"The taxpayers of Carmarthenshire have a right to know just how much this sorry affair has cost us to date. We, in Plaid Cymru, feel that those responsible should be called to account."
The council have told the Guardian they are unable to answer any questions.
"The executive board has reconsidered the matter at its meeting of December 4," ran a statement.
"As discussions are ongoing with the Wales Audit Office it would be inappropriate to discuss the matter further until those discussions are concluded."


Placerville, California is apple country. This time of year, apple farms line nearby country roads and all manner of apple products are sold - apple pies, dumplings, fritter, ciders, doughnuts, sauces, cookies, and of course...caramel apples. On our drive from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe last weekend Wayne, Jennifer, and I pulled over in Placerville to have a picnic lunch at one of the local wineries nestled in the Sierra foothills. On our round-about way back to the highway we also visited a couple of the local apple-centric attractions. It was just the reminder I needed. For years I've wanted to do a new caramel apple recipe for my site. I thought I might be able to do a version using apples, honey, cream, and salt. That's it. No white sugar, no corn syrup, and no melting of Kraft caramel squares.
I also wanted to avoid a few of the caramel apple pitfalls that have tripped me up in the past. For example, I needed the caramel to stay on the apple. Lots of people, myself included, have had trouble with caramel not setting on their apples. I decided to use the technique I use to make my favorite caramels - the honey-sweetened caramel gives the apples a beautiful, opaque, golden coat and tastes rich, chewy, and decadent.
A few things you should know before you start. You need a candy thermometer. I have one from Whole Foods Market that cost me about $4 - works fine. But I'm going to admit, this time around I used my infrared thermometer gun. Either way, a thermometer is important because the key to this caramel recipe is achieving a good set, you want your caramel to be able to hold a shape once it cools. To make this happen you need to heat the ingredients to a very specific temperature. I know it all sounds precise and fussy, and to a certain extent it is, but really all you're doing here is putting a very short list of ingredients together in a pot, and bringing the temperature up, up, up into what is considered "hard ball" territory 255F - 260F degrees. If you don't heat the caramel enough, it will likely run off the apple, but alternately if you go too hot the caramel will be difficult to bite into, and will have more of a tendency to peel off the apple.
The shot up above was taken by Jennifer Jeffrey on our Sunday morning, Sierra Mtn. stroll.
Please be careful when making caramel apples, you will be working with dangerously hot, sticky, ingredients - I always put on an apron and make sure I have a closed-toed pair of shoes on when making candy. Be extra, extra careful if you have kids around. On the ingredient front, I typically go for a mild clover honey when making caramels.
Push a lollipop or popsicle stick deep into each apple - in through the stem.
Fill a large bowl 1/2 full with ice water and set aside.
In a medium, thick-bottomed saucepan heat the cream and salt until tiny bubbles start forming where the milk touches the pan - just before a simmer. Stir in the honey. Bring the mixture to a boil. Now reduce the heat to an active simmer and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 15-20 minutes minutes or until the mixture reaches about 255-260F degrees. To stop the caramel from cooking, very, very carefully set the bottom of the saucepan in the bowl of cold water you prepared earlier - taking special care not to get any of the water in the caramel mixture. Stir until caramel begins to thicken up - you want the caramel to be thin enough that it will easily coat your apples, but not so thin that it will run right off. If the caramel thickens too much simply put the pot back over the burner for 10 seconds or so to heat it up a bit.
I tilt my sauce pan so all the caramel forms a pool on one side, and use my other hand to dunk and twirl each apple until it is thoroughly coated with caramel. Place each apple on the parchment lined baking sheets and allow the caramel to cool and set.
Makes 6 - 8 caramel apples.


The actress is working with Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson on the project.
Priyanka Chopra revealed Wednesday that she is developing a feature film based on the Netflix documentary Wild, Wild Country.
The actress shared the news during an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and said that she is partnering with Barry Levinson on the project, calling him an "iconic American director." The original Netflix series revealed details about the lives of controversial Indian spiritual guru Bhagwan Rajneesh, aka Osho, his assistant Ma Anand Sheela and the followers they amassed in the Rajneeshpuram community in 1980s Oregon.
"We're developing it as the character of Sheela, who was this guru who originated from India, his right-hand woman. And she was just devious and created a whole cult in America, brought people here," Chopra told DeGeneres.
Chopra said that she is not only producing the film, but also starring in it. Although, she did not reveal which character she will play. She told DeGeneres that she believes juggling acting and producing responsibilities "would be really cool."
Wild, Wild Country — directed by brother filmmaking duo Maclain and Chapman Way and executive produced by Mark and Jay Duplass among others — premiered at last year's Sundance Film Festival before making its way to Netflix in March 2018. The six-part series garnered major buzz on social media and received critical acclaim, winning a Creative Arts Emmy for outstanding documentary or nonfiction series.
During her interview with DeGeneres, Chopra also discussed married life with husband Nick Jonas — whom she wed in a lavish Indian affair in December — as well as her upcoming comedy, Isn't It Romantic, which hits theaters Feb. 13. Watch part of her interview below.


text:
Michigan Medicine Headlines> Strategy & Leadership
Fostering a culture of collaboration
September 19, 2017 // FOUND IN: Strategy & Leadership, Top Story
Patient safety is a top priority for everyone at Michigan Medicine, and the Daily Management System — or DMS — helps keep quality and safety an integral part of everyday conversations.
DMS engages unit-level staff across multiple disciplines in daily reviews of the "state of the unit." These reviews enable employees to raise issues — ranging from patient and staff safety concerns to equipment, supply or IT-related problems — share "kudos" with team members, and discuss quality and safety metrics connected to their unit, such as hospital acquired conditions and hand hygiene compliance.
The quick, 15-minute interactions help foster a culture of collaboration, real-time problem solving and continuous improvement across the unit — while also ensuring the team is prepared to best care for each patient.
Over the past year, all 43 inpatient care units at Michigan Medicine have implemented DMS reviews, joining more than 80 percent of the organization's ambulatory care units that also engage in daily huddles.
"Our unit had been holding daily safety huddles prior to adopting DMS, but we've found that the visual board and DMS review system have provided structure for our meetings and really increased team attendance," said Nicole Figueroa, RN, clinical nursing director for the child and adolescent psychiatric unit. "We now use our huddles to ensure that everyone on the unit is aware of how we're doing on all safety measures, and to make sure that all staff are aware of any patient-related issues that arise overnight. Since the patients on our unit are mobile, it's important that everyone know of any potential issues around patient interaction that could affect the team."
The DMS process also provides an opportunity for units to select which metrics for the visual board are most important to them.
"Historically, patient falls have been an issue on our unit, so it's great that our DMS board allows us to have real-time data on patient falls to share with the entire team," said Jennifer Kelley, MSN, RN, clinical nurse specialist on 12W at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. "Everyone on the team has shown a renewed commitment to finding processes or procedures to help keep our patients from falling when being transferred on or off the unit."
Empowering employees
The DMS review process also encourages greater employee engagement by providing a platform where staff members can offer ideas to address important issues and/or prevent reoccurrence.
"I have definitely seen an increase in the confidence level of the staff on our unit and a greater willingness to speak up and bring attention to issues or problems they are having," said Kelly Gawne, RN, clinical nursing director for the inpatient acute rehabilitation unit (6A). "Using the board as a guide, we have an open discussion — which includes everything from patient-related problems to issues with equipment or technology. Just the other day we were able to get a piece of equipment fixed in a matter of hours because someone brought it to the huddle and we were able to follow up on it immediately."
Other teams also reported a similar impact following the adoption of the DMS daily review process.
"We have noticed a huge improvement in team members' willingness to offer solutions to existing problems or suggestions on how we can improve care," said Kimberly Monroe, M.D., M.S., medical director, 12W/12E in Mott. "Recently, one staff member noticed a change in a medication from a created order set that would have adversely affected a large number of our patients. We quickly addressed the concern and minimized any potential impact on our patients."
The boards — and the conversations they drive — ensure staff members within each unit are on the same page.
"We use our DMS reviews as a time to provide news and unit-level updates, as well as any organization-wide initiatives that are relevant to our employees," said Cinda Loik, RN, BSN, MBA, clinical nursing director for the inpatient neurosurgery unit (4A). "A lot of our huddles turn into a Q&A discussion, but we also utilize our time to look over our quality and safety metrics."
"We started our DMS review in January and that same month we hit our highest ever hand hygiene compliance percentage," Loik continued. "Does DMS deserve all the credit? Not necessarily, but I certainly think our daily reviews have helped make a positive impact on our employees and on our patients."


text:
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
Toggle navigation Journal
(current)Journal
Front. Aging Neurosci., 06 May 2014 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00082
Voxel-based morphometry analyses of in vivo MRI in the aging mouse lemur primate
Stephen J. Sawiak1,2*, Jean-Luc Picq3,4,5 and Marc Dhenain4,5*
1Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, UK
2Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
3EA, 2027: Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et de Neuropsychologie, Université Paris 8, St-Denis, France
4CEA, DSV, I2BM, MIRCen, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
5CNRS, URA 2210, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
Cerebral atrophy is one of the most widely brain alterations associated to aging. A clear relationship has been established between age-associated cognitive impairments and cerebral atrophy. The mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus) is a small primate used as a model of age-related neurodegenerative processes. It is the first non-human primate in which cerebral atrophy has been correlated with cognitive deficits. Previous studies of cerebral atrophy in this model were based on time consuming manual delineation or measurement of selected brain regions from magnetic resonance images (MRI). These measures could not be used to analyse regions that cannot be easily outlined such as the nucleus basalis of Meynert or the subiculum. In humans, morphometric assessment of structural changes with age is generally performed with automated procedures such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM). The objective of our work was to perform user-independent assessment of age-related morphological changes in the whole brain of large mouse lemur populations thanks to VBM. The study was based on the SPMMouse toolbox of SPM 8 and involved thirty mouse lemurs aged from 1.9 to 11.3 years. The automatic method revealed for the first time atrophy in regions where manual delineation is prohibitive (nucleus basalis of Meynert, subiculum, prepiriform cortex, Brodmann areas 13–16, hypothalamus, putamen, thalamus, corpus callosum). Some of these regions are described as particularly sensitive to age-associated alterations in humans. The method revealed also age-associated atrophy in cortical regions (cingulate, occipital, parietal), nucleus septalis, and the caudate. Manual measures performed in some of these regions were in good agreement with results from automatic measures. The templates generated in this study as well as the toolbox for SPM8 can be downloaded. These tools will be valuable for future evaluation of various treatments that are tested to modulate cerebral aging in lemurs.
Cerebral alterations associated with aging affect quality of life for millions of people. One of the most described alterations associated with aging is cerebral atrophy. Animal models of aging are important for providing a means of testing interventions. Most commonly, rodents are used but they do not display severe cerebral atrophy with aging, indeed non-transgenic rodents often show cerebral growth with age (Maheswaran et al., 2009). Animal models of disease leading to cerebral atrophy in humans, such as Alzheimer's disease do not recapitulate the loss of cerebral tissue seen in patients (Delatour et al., 2006; Maheswaran et al., 2009). Non-human primates do show age-related changes more closely resembling human aging (Andersen et al., 1999; Dhenain et al., 2000). One of these, the mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus), is used as a model of age-related neurodegenerative processes. This animal is small (12 cm, 60–100 g) with a short maximum lifespan of approximately 10 years in captivity. This primate can thus be a useful compromise between practicality and relatedness to humans for laboratory studies (Languille et al., 2012). Previous studies in this model have shown atrophy of distinct brain regions (cortical regions, hippocampus, the caudate nucleus, and white matter regions such as the splenium) (Picq et al., 2012) including atrophy of some hippocampal subfields (Bertrand et al., 2013) as well as increased levels of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) (Kraska et al., 2011). Interestingly, in this non-human primate, cerebral atrophy has been shown to correlate with cognitive deficits (Picq et al., 2012). Currently this animal is used to evaluate the effect of various therapies against age associated alterations (Dal-Pan et al., 2011) or neurodegenerative diseases (Joseph-Mathurin et al., 2013). Previous studies of cerebral atrophy in mouse lemurs were based on the manual and tedious segmentation of selected regions of interest (ROI), or on the manual measurement of cortical thickness from T2-weighted magnetic resonance images (MRI) (Dhenain et al., 2003; Kraska et al., 2011; Picq et al., 2012). Although these studies had two reviewers for the delineation, reducing the inherent subjectivity of the technique, it is not practical to extend these techniques to large populations for routine assessment of morphological changes for more than a few regions as the workload becomes impractical. The same issue discourages manual studies of large cohorts of animals with various therapies or of longitudinal examination of developing pathology. In addition, manual studies are unable to uncover unknown regions of pathology, as such studies focus only on specific areas where changes are anticipated and not all anatomically distinct regions are identifiably distinct with usual image contrasts.
In human studies, morphometric assessment of structural change with age is generally performed with an automated procedure such as voxel-based morphometry (VBM) or the closely-related technique deformation-based morphometry (DBM). These methods can be used to detect changes with age on a voxel-by-voxel basis (Kalpouzos et al., 2009; Bergfield et al., 2010; Giorgio et al., 2010). Recent studies have shown that these methods can also be applied to animal brains and can be more sensitive than ROI-based methods (Lau et al., 2008; Sawiak et al., 2009; Ellegood et al., 2013). A principal advantage of the methods is that no region needs to be selected in advance for analysis and the whole brain can be assessed automatically in a user-independent manner.
In the present study, we apply VBM to the mouse lemur for the first time and identify specific areas of localized atrophy. In particular, atrophy was highlighted in some regions that cannot be manually outlined such as the nucleus basalis of Meynert, the nucleus septalis, the subiculum, the prepiriform cortex, Brodmann areas 13–16, the hypothalamus, the putamen, or the thalamus. In some cortical regions, cerebral atrophy was evaluated with both VBM and manual measures which have been previously validated. Strong agreement was found between the results obtained with the two protocols. The probabilistic gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and CSF templates in addition to the population atlas images which were created during this study are made publicly available with this article in supplementary material so that other researchers using these animals in any context can readily apply VBM for morphological assessments.
Animals and Image Acquisition
Thirty mouse lemurs aged from 1.9 to 11.3 years (7 "young" animals 2.2 ± 0.2 years, 11 "middle-aged" 4.8 ± 1.0 years and 12 "old" 8.3 ± 1.7 years, mean ± SD) were included in the study. All of the animals were born in a laboratory breeding colony (Brunoy, France Agreement number 962773) and all components of this study were in accordance with EU regulations relating to the use of animals in experiments. The research was conducted under the authorization number 91–326 from the "Direction Départementale des Services Vétérinaires de l'Essonne."
The animals were scanned at 4.7 Tesla following a protocol previously described (Dhenain et al., 2003; Kraska et al., 2011). Briefly, they were anaesthetized with atropine (0.025 mg/kg subcutaneously) and isoflurane, their respiration rate and body temperature were monitored and controlled to ensure stability throughout the experiment. Images were acquired using an inversion-prepared three-dimensional fast spin-echo sequence with an isotropic resolution of 234 μm with T2-weighting (TR/TEeff/TI 2500/45/200 ms, ETL 16, NEX 1 and acquisition time 44 min). MR images were zerofilled to reach an apparent isotropic resolution of 117 μm.
Automatic Evaluation of Cerebral Atrophy with VBM
Image processing was performed using SPM8 (Wellcome Trust Institute of Neurology, University College London, UK, (www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm) with the SPMMouse toolbox (http://spmmouse.org) for animal brain morphometry (Sawiak et al., 2013). An overview of the algorithm is given in Figure 1. Initial templates were constructed by using a single brain as a target for rigid registration to achieve a common alignment of each subject. The average image of the rigidly-aligned brains was segmented using a k-means algorithm (Mackay, 2003) with 4 segments: background, GM, WM, and CSF. These maps were manually edited to remove misclassified voxels, particularly around the edges of the brain where partial volume effects lead to mislabeling of GM voxels as WM. After smoothing with an isotropic Gaussian kernel of 600 μm, the maps for GM, WM and CSF were used with the unified segmentation algorithm of SPM8 (Ashburner and Friston, 2005). Affine regularization was set for an average-sized template, with a bias non-uniformity cut off FWHM of 10 mm, a 5 mm basis-function cut off and a sampling distance of 0.3 mm.
Figure 1. The steps involved in the voxel-based morphometry study. After image acquisition, affine registration adjusts the images to control for different head positions and scanner geometry as well as overall brain size. Unified segmentation iteratively warps the data whilst correcting for signal inhomogeneity due to the receiver coil and classifies each voxel as gray matter, white matter, or cerebrospinal fluid. The warping parameters are used to preserve the total amounts of each tissue in the modulation step, and smoothing serves the dual purpose of minimizing residual registration errors and reducing non-normality in the data for parametric testing in the statistics stage.
The resulting GM and WM portions were output in rigid template space and DARTEL (Ashburner, 2007) was used to create non-linearly registered maps for each subject and common templates for the cohort of animals. The warped GM portions for each subject were modulated with the Jacobian determinant from the DARTEL registration fields to preserve tissue amounts ("optimized VBM" Good et al., 2001) and smoothed with a Gaussian kernel of 600 μm to produce maps for analysis.
A general linear model was evaluated with the age of each subject with calculated total intracranial volume (TIV) as a covariate of no interest. Voxels with a modulated GM value below 0.2 were not considered for analysis and the sum of the tissue probability maps was used as an explicit mask. A one-tailed t-test contrast was set up to find areas where GM values decreased with age. A second model was fit to the WM images with the same parameters to investigate changes in WM and subcortical structures. To control for multiple comparisons an adjusted p-value was calculated to control the voxelwise false discovery rate (FDR) q < 0.01 (Genovese et al., 2002).
It is important to note throughout this study that the terms GM, WM and CSF refer to tissue classification in the MR images. In particular, some subcortical regions which are not strictly WM are labeled as such due to their appearance in the MR images. Throughout this article the classification of WM should be understood as including tissues with contrast similar to WM (e.g., white matter fibers or subcortical structures such as the thalamus).
Manual Evaluation of Cerebral Atrophy
Cerebral atrophy was also evaluated on the basis of manual segmentations of the brains performed with BrainVISA and Anatomist freeware (http://brainvisa.info/) as well as ImageJ, according to previously established protocols (Picq et al., 2012). Briefly, first, before morphometric analysis, the brain images from the different mouse lemurs were rotated to be positioned in a similar orientation. Standard neuroanatomic landmarks were used to correct deviations in all three orthogonal planes: the sagittal plane cut through the middle of the interhemispheric fissure, and the horizontal plane was parallel to the superior border of the median part of the corpus callosum and rigorously perpendicular to the sagittal plane, in accordance with the stereotaxic brain atlas of the gray mouse lemur by Bons et al. (1998), which was used as a reference for all anatomical landmarks. The thickness of 11 different cortical areas was estimated based on five coronal slices corresponding to +6.5, +3.0, +0.5, −2.75, and −4.0 mm from the middle of the inter-ear distance (Bons et al., 1998). These regions could be grouped as the frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital, and cingulated cortices (Figure 2). The thickness of the splenium of the corpus callosum was measured for evaluating the age-related decline in white matter and was estimated from the coronal slice where it was the thickest. Given that fibers of the cingulum bundle and dorsal hippocampal commissure border on the splenium, the measure probably also included these two other structures.
Figure 2. (A) Reference coronal slices used to measure cortex and splenium thickness in cortical regions. Left, Views of the six coronal MR images taken into account with yellow lines and numbers indicating the precise localization of each measure and the cortical area measured, respectively. Coordinates based on the stereotaxic brain atlas of Bons et al. (1998) are noted in the superior left corner of each slice. Right, schematic sections from the atlas of Bons et al. corresponding to the coronal slices on the left column with identification of the Brodmann's cortical areas measured (http://marc.dhenain.free.fr/Mouse-Lemur-Atlas/index-Mouse-Lemur-Atlas.html). Spl, splenium. (B) An overview of the cortical regions is shown in the table.
The measures of cortical and splenium thickness were performed by a single experimenter. Intrarater reliability was assessed by measuring each region of interest (ROI) on 10 animals (three from the young group and seven from the older group) on two separate days at least 1 month apart and by calculation of intraclass correlation coefficients. All of the obtained coefficients ranged from 0.99 to 1. The mean measuring error was below 1% for all ROIs and the maximal measuring error under 2%. A second investigator measured a sample of 6 animals (two from the young group and four from the older group) in order to assess interrater reliability. All interrater reliability values were >0.90.
Images of typical normal and atrophied animals are shown in Figures 3A–D. Gross cerebral atrophy leading to increased CSF around the brain can be clearly seen in some of the older animals. Evaluation of cerebral atrophy with VBM revealed a negative correlation between the total GM volume and age (r = −0.4, p = 0.02, Figure 3E). On the contrary, the total CSF showed a positive correlation with age (r = 0.8, p < 10−6, Figure 3E). No significant change was seen in regions classified as WM across the brain (r = 0.03, p = 0.4, Figure 3E).
Figure 3. MR image showing a young non-atrophied animal (A,B) compared with an example of old atrophied lemur (C,D). An increased cerebrospinal fluid associated to a severe atrophy process can be seen in the older animal (arrows). The evolutions of gray matter, white matter, and CSF volumes, evaluated with voxelwise studies, are shown in (E). Cd, caudate nucleus; H, hippocampus. Scale bars = 2 mm.
The statistical parametric map (SPM) for the VBM analysis of GM and regions classified as WM changes are shown in Figure 4. External views outlining cortical alterations are presented in the Figure 5. Also, full details of all of the clusters identified by VBM are shown in Table 1. Nearly all of the changes seen on SPM maps are symmetric with both sides of the brain affected. The majority of cortical regions displayed some atrophy with age, with the most prominent areas of reduction including the cingulate cortex, occipital cortex, parietal areas with frontal cortex partly spared. Subcortical regions such as the caudate or putamen were also particularly affected by aging. Other clusters such as the nucleus basalis of Meynert, the nucleus septalis, the subiculum, the prepiriform cortex, or the hypothalamus were also altered during aging. The maps corresponding to regions classified as WM show changes in the corpus callosum at the level of the splenium as well as a bilateral effect in the thalamus (Figure 4, Table 1).
Figure 4. Voxelwise areas showing decreasing GM values (A) and WM and associated subcortical regions values (B) with increasing age (p < 0.01 FDR-corrected). The labels represent the regions cited in Table 1.
Figure 5. External views [A: dorsal, B: ventral, C,D: lateral (right and left)] outlining age-associated cortical alterations in mouse lemurs.
Table 1. Clusters showing significant atrophy on the basis of VBM analysis in mouse lemurs.
Using the deformations required to bring each subject into common template space, it is possible to invert with exaggeration to make "caricatured" young and old brains to highlight visually the effects seen. We used the DARTEL deformations to create such images with gradually progressive factors to create movies of caricatured young to caricatured old brains. These videos, included as supplementary materials, highlight the differences seen in Figure 4 in a dynamic fashion.
The evaluation of cortical atrophy on the basis of manual segmentation revealed a linear correlation between cortical thickness and the age of the animals in 7 out of the 11 studied regions. The atrophied regions were the cingular cortices [Brodmann areas 23 and 24 (r = −0.67 and −0.66, respectively, p < 0.0001; most atrophied regions), the parietal cortices (areas 5 and 7, r = −0.41, p = 0.01 and r = −0.44, p = 0.008, respectively), the lateral temporal cortices (areas 21 and 22, r = −0.41, p = 0.01 and r = 0.49, p = 0.003, respectively) as well as the occipital cortex (area 18, r = −0.48, p = 0.003)]. All of these regions were also detected as atrophied when we used the VBM-based analysis. The thickness of area 17 in the occipital region was almost significantly correlated with the age of the animals (p = 0.1) and this region was found to be atrophied by VBM. The three last cortical regions that were not atrophied with aging were the frontal regions (areas 4 and 6, r = −0.06, p = 0.039 and r = 0.07, p = 0.035, respectively) and the entorhinal cortex (area 28, r = 0.17, p = 0.019). These areas were not detected as atrophied when we performed the VBM analysis. Manual evaluation also revealed an inverse correlation between the thickness of the splenium and the age of the lemurs (r = −0.6, p = 0.0003). This region was also found to be atrophied when we used the VBM method. These findings together show that VBM is in good agreement with measures of the cortical or splenium atrophy made manually.
Finally a good correlation was detected between the total CSF volume and the atrophy of the cingulated regions (23 and 24), the temporal regions (22 and 28), the frontal areas 4 and 6, and the splenium (all ps < 0.05), which suggests that the global CSF increase detected by SPM was originating from various brain regions. Similarly the global GM atrophy detected by SPM was also correlated to the atrophy level of various cortical regions such as the cingulated cortex at the level of the area 23, the parietal region (area 7), the temporal region (area 21), and the occipital regions (areas 17 and 18) (all p < 0.05), and thus originating from various cortical areas.
In this study, we evaluated cerebral atrophy in the mouse lemur model of cerebral aging by using two complementary methods based on voxelwise comparison and manual segmentation.
The voxelwise approach revealed for the first time cerebral atrophy in regions that cannot be outlined with manual methods. For example, we detected atrophy of the nucleus basalis of Meynert, subiculum, prepiriform cortex, Brodmann areas 13–16, hypothalamus, putamen, and the thalamus. The voxelwise approach also revealed atrophy in the nucleus septalis. The voxelwise and manual delineation of tissues also highlighted age associated atrophy in some regions such as the cingular, parietal, temporal, and occipital cortices and the splenium as well as a preservation of some regions such as the frontal and entorhinal cortices.
Most of the brain regions detected as atrophied for the first time in mouse lemurs have also been reported to be vulnerable to aging in humans. These include the nucleus basalis of Meynert (Lowes-Hummel et al., 1989), prefrontal cortex (Raz et al., 1997), cingulate cortex (Kalpouzos et al., 2009), the subiculum (La Joie et al., 2010), the thalamus (Sullivan et al., 2004) and the putamen (Raz et al., 2003). Thus the pattern of age-related brain degeneration in mouse lemurs is very close to that described in humans. Some of these atrophied regions are of particular interest. For example, the nucleus basalis of Meynert is involved in cholinergic transmission, a neurotransmitter system that is impaired early in the aging process (Bartus et al., 1982) and that was shown to be altered in aged lemurs (Mestre and Bons, 1993; Dournaud et al., 1994). The Brodmann areas 13–16 and cingulate cortex are involved in executive function in the lemurs and can be viewed as equivalents of prefrontal regions (Le Gros Clark, 1931). Impairments in executive functions are a common sign of cognitive decline in the elderly (Gabrieli, 1996). Previous publications demonstrated that executive functions are also especially vulnerable to aging in mouse lemurs (Picq, 2007; Picq et al., 2012) and revealed a relationship between alterations of executive functions and the atrophy of the nucleus septalis (Picq et al., 2012). Our report suggests that the areas 13–16, together with cingulate areas, are also candidate regions to be examined for determining the neuroanatomical correlate of the age-related executive decline in mouse lemurs.
In previous studies, we highlighted cerebral atrophy in mouse lemurs thanks to manual delineation of regions of interest. Most results from these manual studies are consistent with our VBM study (Picq et al., 2012). One partial discrepancy between the current and previous studies concerns the entorhinal cortex. In our previous cohort (Picq et al., 2012), the entorhinal cortex was atrophied whereas the reverse was found in the current study. However, in our previous cohort, only a limited subpopulation of older mouse lemurs underwent entorhinal atrophy. In the present study, four animals including three old and one middle-aged lemurs, had an atrophy level of the entorhinal cortex that was twice the standard deviation of the young animals, suggesting pathological atrophy. Hence, it is possible that the only difference between the two studies was the proportion of aged animals affected by this supposed pathological atrophy.
Few studies to date have directly compared voxelwise approaches to manual segmentation in animals, though it has been shown that VBM is more sensitive to subtle differences than manual volumetry in mice (Sawiak et al., 2009). Here, 12 regions were analyzed manually and there was only one small discrepancy between the voxelwise and manual methods. It concerned the occipital area 17 that was detected as atrophied with the voxelwise approach while only a trend toward atrophy was detected with the manual method. This small discrepancy can be explained by a higher sensitivity of the VBM method or because it assessed the whole cortex while the manual method involved only one measure of the cortex at a single location. The strong similarity between results obtained with voxelwise and manual approaches thus reinforces the validation of the voxelwise approach in lemurs.
The voxelwise approach will thus allow operator independent measures of cerebral atrophy in large cohort of mouse lemurs by evaluating the whole brain without any a priori hypothesis. The method is fast as compared to manual segmentations and may be more sensitive as suggested by its ability to detect atrophy in the area 17 while only a trend toward atrophy was seen in this region with the manual method. In order to facilitate the use of voxelwise studies in animals, our group designed a toolbox that can be used with SPM8 and made this toolbox freely available for the scientific community. This toolbox allows to manipulate easily animal images within SPM8 that is designed for human studies. One of the remaining difficulties when dealing with animal studies is to define an initial template that can be used as a starting point for VBM studies. Here, we created mouse lemur templates and provided these templates as Supplementary Material, in order to facilitate further studies by the scientific community interested by this small primate model.
Although the voxelwise technique allows to characterize the cerebral atrophy in aged lemurs, it is important to note some potential disadvantages of the method. In general the VBM processing pipeline is more sophisticated than that of ROI volumetry with the possibility at each stage of a systematic bias being introduced between groups that will cause subsequent rejection of the null hypothesis. It is important therefore when interpreting VBM results to eliminate artificial causes for differences between processed images that do not originate from genuine biological differences. In addition, image artefacts and voxel-misclassification is not as problematic with regional techniques as typically a large structure is integrated and under expert review artefacts are more readily identified and treated appropriately. Change in tissue structure that are not shape changes (especially, for example, iron deposition) will at least to some extent be sequence dependent and can cause the classification of affected voxels to change (Abbott et al., 2012). For this reason, it is important not to neglect this possibility when interpreting VBM findings and not to assume automatically that differences must be volume changes. In addition, it is worth highlighting past controversies regarding VBM applied to imperfectly registered images (Bookstein, 2001). The issue is that if the voxels compared are not truly homologous between individuals then a voxelwise comparison is difficult to interpret, particularly with the idea that with perfect registration there should be no differences left between images to detect. Generally, a consensus has emerged that by smoothing the data and taking account of tissue gained or lost in the registration process by modulating the tissue maps with the Jacobian determinant (as performed here) that the process is valid (Ashburner, 2001).
Finally, voxelwise techniques based on group comparisons do not detect individual cases of cerebral atrophy but rather those differences that are consistent across animals. The detection of atrophy in individual cases can be useful to include or exclude some animals in preclinical drug trials for example. Thus voxelwise techniques should not be used if the aim of the study is to detect individual animals with a particular atrophy pattern. This is highlighted by the apparently spared hippocampal regions in Figure 4. Previous work has shown that the temporal pole displays atrophy in these animals, but it is particularly heterogeneous. For voxels to be significant, the differences seen have to be large in comparison with the variability of the population. Larger studies will be required to detect changes in heterogeneous populations and indeed automated techniques such as VBM as validated here will be required to conduct these studies.
As a conclusion we have demonstrated that VBM can be used in mouse lemurs to directly identify age-associated atrophied regions with more precision and sensitivity than previous methods using region-based analysis. In particular, some brain regions such as the nucleus basalis of Meynert, subiculum, prepiriform cortex, Brodmann areas 13–16, hypothalamus, putamen, or thalamus were shown, for the first time, to be vulnerable to aging in lemurs. Our technique can be readily adapted to longitudinal studies which will be more sensitive to age-related changes. The templates generated in this study can be downloaded as well as the toolbox for SPM8 used for the analysis here. These tools will be valuable for future evaluations of the effects of various treatments that are tested to modulate cerebral aging and age-associated pathology in lemurs.
Our work was supported by the France-Alzheimer association, the National Foundation for Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, and the National Institute on Aging [R01-AG020197].
The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: http://www.frontiersin.org/journal/10.3389/fnagi.2014.00082/abstract
Abbott, D. F., Pell, G. S., Pardoe, H. R., and Jackson, G. D. (2012). Selecting appropriate voxel-based methods for neuroimaging studies. Neuroimage 59, 885–886. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.06.083
Andersen, A. H., Zhang, Z. M., Zhang, M., Gash, D. M., and Avison, M. J. (1999). Age-associated changes in rhesus CNS composition identified by MRI. Brain Res. 829, 90–98. doi: 10.1016/S0006-8993(99)01343-8
Ashburner, J. (2001). Why voxel-based morphometry should be used. Neuroimage 14, 1238–1243. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2001.0961
Ashburner, J. (2007). A fast diffeomorphic image registration algorithm. Neuroimage 38, 95–113. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.07.007
Ashburner, J., and Friston, K. J. (2005). Unified segmentation. Neuroimage 26, 839–851. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2005.02.018
Bartus, R. T., Dean, R. L. D., Beer, B., and Lippa, A. S. (1982). The cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction. Science 217, 408–414. doi: 10.1126/science.7046051
Bergfield, K. L., Hanson, K. D., Chen, K., Teipel, S. J., Hampel, H., Rapoport, S. I., et al. (2010). Age-related networks of regional covariance in MRI gray matter: reproducible multivariate patterns in healthy aging. Neuroimage 49, 1750–1759. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.09.051
Bertrand, A., Pasquier, A., Petiet, A., Wiggins, C., Kraska, A., Joseph-Mathurin, N., et al. (2013). Micro-MRI study of cerebral aging: detection of hippocampal subfield reorganization, microhemorrhages, and amyloid plaques in mouse lemur primates. PLoS ONE 8:e56593. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0056593
Bons, N., Sihol, S., Barbier, V., Mestre-Frances, N., and Albe-Fessard, D. (1998). A stereotaxic atlas of the grey lesser mouse lemur brain (Microcebus murinus). Brain Res. Bull. 46, 1–173. doi: 10.1016/S0361-9230(97)00458-9
Bookstein, F. L. (2001). Voxel-based morphometry should not be used with imperfectly registered images Neuroimage 14, 1454–1462. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2001.0770
Dal-Pan, A., Pifferi, F., Marchal, J., Picq, J. L., and Aujard, F. (2011). Cognitive performances are selectively enhanced during chronic caloric restriction or resveratrol supplementation in a primate. PLoS ONE 6:e16581. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016581
Delatour, B., Guegan, M., Volk, A., and Dhenain, M. (2006). In vivo MRI and histological evaluation of brain atrophy in APP/PS1 transgenic mice. Neurobiol. Aging 27, 835–847. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2005.04.011
Dhenain, M., Chenu, E., Hisley, C. K., Aujard, F., and Volk, A. (2003). Regional atrophy in the brain of lissencephalic mouse lemur primates: measurement by automatic histogram-based segmentation of MR images. Magn. Res. Med. 50, 984–992. doi: 10.1002/mrm.10612
Dhenain, M., Michot, J. L., Privat, N., Picq, J. L., Boller, F., Duyckaerts, C., et al. (2000). MRI description of cerebral atrophy in mouse lemur primates. Neurobiol. Aging 21, 81–88. doi: 10.1016/S0197-4580(00)00098-1
Dournaud, P., Gautron, J. P., Pattou, E., Bons, N., Mestre, N., Petter, A., et al. (1994). Age-related changes in choline acetyltransferase activity and somatostatin content in lemurian primate Microcebus murinus brain. Neurobiol. Aging 15, 727–731. doi: 10.1016/0197-4580(94)90055-8
Ellegood, J., Babineau, B. A., Henkelman, R. M., Lerch, J. P., and Crawley, J. N. (2013). Neuroanatomical analysis of the BTBR mouse model of autism using magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging. Neuroimage 70, 288–300. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.12.029
Gabrieli, J. D. (1996). Memory systems analyses of mnemonic disorders in aging and age-related diseases. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 93, 13534–13540. doi: 10.1073/pnas.93.24.13534
Genovese, C. R., Lazar, N. A., and Nichols, T. (2002). Thresholding of statistical maps in functional neuroimaging using the false discovery rate. Neuroimage 15, 870–878. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2001.1037
Giorgio, A., Santelli, L., Tomassini, V., Bosnell, R., Smith, S., De Stefano, N., et al. (2010). Age-related changes in grey and white matter structure throughout adulthood. Neuroimage 51, 943–951. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.03.004
Good, C. D., Johnsrude, I. S., Ashburner, J., Henson, R. N., Friston, K. J., and Frackowiak, R. S. (2001). A voxel-based morphometric study of ageing in 465 normal adult human brains. Neuroimage 14, 21–36. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2001.0786
Joseph-Mathurin, N., Dorieux, O., Trouche, S. G., Boutajangout, A., Kraska, A., Fontes, P., et al. (2013). Amyloid beta immunization worsens iron deposits in the choroid plexus and cerebral microbleeds. Neurobiol. Aging 34, 2613–2622. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.05.013
Kalpouzos, G., Chetelat, G., Baron, J. C., Landeau, B., Mevel, K., Godeau, C., et al. (2009). Voxel-based mapping of brain gray matter volume and glucose metabolism profiles in normal aging. Neurobiol. Aging 30, 112–124. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2007.05.019
Kraska, A., Dorieux, O., Picq, J.-L., Petit, F., Bourrin, E., Chenu, E., et al. (2011). Age associated cerebral atrophy in mouse lemur Primates. Neurobiol. Aging 32, 894–906. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2009.05.018
La Joie, R., Fouquet, M., Mezenge, F., Landeau, B., Villain, N., Mevel, K., et al. (2010). Differential effect of age on hippocampal subfields assessed using a new high-resolution 3T MR sequence. Neuroimage 53, 506–514. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.06.024
Languille, S., Blanc, S., Blin, O., Canale, C. I., Dal-Pan, A., Devau, G., et al. (2012). The grey mouse lemur: a non-human primate model for ageing studies. Ageing Res. Rev. 11, 150–162. doi: 10.1016/j.arr.2011.07.001
Lau, J. C., Lerch, J. P., Sled, J. G., Henkelman, R. M., Evans, A. C., and Bedell, B. J. (2008). Longitudinal neuroanatomical changes determined by deformation-based morphometry in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Neuroimage 42, 19–27. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.04.252
Le Gros Clark, W. E. (1931). The brain of Microcebus murinus. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 101, 463–485. doi: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1931.tb01023.x
Lowes-Hummel, P., Gertz, H. J., Ferszt, R., and Cervos-Navarro, J. (1989). The basal nucleus of Meynert revised: the nerve cell number decreases with age. Arch. Gerontol. Geriatr. 8, 21–27. doi: 10.1016/0167-4943(89)90066-6
Mackay, D. J. C. (2003). Information Theory, Inference and Learning Algorithms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maheswaran, S., Barjat, H., Rueckert, D., Bate, S. T., Howlett, D. R., Tilling, L., et al. (2009). Longitudinal regional brain volume changes quantified in normal aging and Alzheimer's APP x PS1 mice using MRI. Brain Res. 1270, 19–32. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2009.02.045
Mestre, N., and Bons, N. (1993). Age-related cytological changes and neuronal loss in basal forebrain cholinergic neurons in Microcebus murinus (Lemurian primate). Neurodegeneration 2, 25–32.
Picq, J. L. (2007). Aging affects executive functions and memory in mouse lemur primates. Exp. Gerontol. 42, 223–232. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2006.09.013
Picq, J. L., Aujard, F., Volk, A., and Dhenain, M. (2012). Age-related cerebral atrophy in nonhuman primates predicts cognitive impairments. Neurobiol. Aging 33, 1096–1109. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2010.09.009
Raz, N., Gunning, F. M., Head, D., Dupuis, J. H., McQuain, J., Briggs, S. D., et al. (1997). Selective aging of the human cerebral cortex observed in vivo: differential vulnerability of the prefrontal gray matter. Cereb. Cortex 7, 268–282. doi: 10.1093/cercor/7.3.268
Raz, N., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M., Head, D., Gunning-Dixon, F., and Acker, J. D. (2003). Differential aging of the human striatum: longitudinal evidence. AJNR Am. J. Neuroradiol. 24, 1849–1856.
Sawiak, S. J., Wood, N. I., Williams, G. B., Morton, A. J., and Carpenter, T. A. (2009). Voxel-based morphometry in the R6/2 transgenic mouse reveals differences between genotypes not seen with manual 2D morphometry. Neurobiol. Dis. 33, 20–27. doi: 10.1016/j.nbd.2008.09.016
Sawiak, S. J., Wood, N. I., Williams, G. B., Morton, A. J., and Carpenter, T. A. (2013). Voxel-based morphometry with templates and validation in a mouse model of Huntington's disease. Magn. Reson. Imaging 31, 1522–1531. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2013.06.001
Sullivan, E. V., Rosenbloom, M., Serventi, K. L., and Pfefferbaum, A. (2004). Effects of age and sex on volumes of the thalamus, pons, and cortex. Neurobiol. Aging 25, 185–192. doi: 10.1016/S0197-4580(03)00044-7
Keywords: aging, atrophy, mouse lemur, Microcebus murinus, MRI, primate, SPMMouse, VBM
Citation: Sawiak SJ, Picq J-L and Dhenain M (2014) Voxel-based morphometry analyses of in vivo MRI in the aging mouse lemur primate. Front. Aging Neurosci. 6:82. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00082
Received: 08 February 2014; Paper pending published: 19 March 2014;
Accepted: 16 April 2014; Published online: 06 May 2014.
Hari S. Sharma, Uppsala University, Sweden
Fabien Pifferi, UMR CNRS-MNHN 7179, France
Emmanuel Paul Gilissen, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium
Sonia Pujol, Harvard Medical School, USA
Copyright © 2014 Sawiak, Picq and Dhenain. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or 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: Stephen J. Sawiak, Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Addenbrooke's Hospital, University of Cambridge, Box 65, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 0QQ, UK e-mail: sjs80@cam.ac.uk;
Marc Dhenain, MIRCen, URA CEA National Centre for Scientific Research 2210, 18 route du Panorama, 92 265, Fontenay-aux-Roses, Cedex, France e-mail: marc.dhenain@cea.fr


Collegeink.in has 1,795 daily visitors and has the potential to earn up to 215 USD per month by showing ads. See traffic statistics for more information.
Collegeink.in has an estimated worth of 7,756 USD.
Microlifeline is a free entertainment site where one can send free SMS to any mobile network in India, play free online games for stress buster, and also enjoy free online chat with buddies on live chat room.


There have been some big changes on the Etsy platform this year, and the biggest one is, of course, the recent changes in the search algorithm. What are those SEO changes and what does it mean for your Etsy shop?
When it comes to Etsy SEO, one thing is for sure – it always comes with speculations, forum talks, and rumors, and that's not what we want to do here. We finally have some clarity because we finally have an official statement and a brand new shiny SEO guide from the Etsy team themselves, so we're not going to speculate. I'm not going to dive into some crazy SEO strategies, but I want to take the time with you to understand what really changed and what really is going on with Etsy SEO these days. To do that, I want to review five very important points.
We knew that before September but it's still important to note it: Etsy uses a technology called CSR or Context Specific Ranking. In plain English, it means that Etsy tracks and analyses shopper's behavior on the platform and that the results they will display for each shopper/visitor will be different.
If you type in "minimalist bracelet" and I type the same thing and we were to take a screenshot and compare the results – they would be very different. It's because Etsy is smart enough to know what I am most likely to like and purchase based on products and shops I visited in the past. Therefore there is no such thing as ranking #1 because everyone has a different #1 result.
It represents the search volume on the vertical axis and the conversion rate on the horizontal axis for a given keyword. The part of that orange arrow on that graphic are long tail keywords. Those keywords don't get as much volume as the general keywords, but they get a much higher conversion rate.
In plain English: people don't look for these keywords as often, but when they look for them, they're more likely to purchase and that's really what we want. Someone looking for "baby gift" (general keyword) is much less likely to purchase than someone searching for "baby romper dinosaurs" (long tail keyword).
The first keyword will have higher search volume but lower conversion. Imagine someone looking for a "baby gift" on Etsy. That's when the visitor or the shopper is just really trying to find even just an idea of what to get as a baby gift. Then they will find a few rompers and decide it's a good gift, so they type in "baby romper" in the search. Then they see a few cute dino patterns on a couple of listings and think "that's great, Maria would love that". Then they type in "baby romper dinosaurs" as they finally know what they want to purchase and boom! you just got conversion/sale.
That's why less volume / more conversion is good and you need to add long tail keywords to your listings. It's good for SEO, sales and helps Etsy understand even more what your product is about, making it easier for them to put it in front of the right people. Again, that's something that we knew before the announcement that Etsy made in September, but now they've really officialized it by saying that you should focus on the long tail keywords.
This is part of getting your listing actually CLICKED ON when it shows in search (as it boosts your SEO score when someone clicks on it). We already know images are super important for that, but Etsy said that titles are also important, and they recommend the titles should be "short and easy to read". Let's break that down.
You can use up to 140 characters for your titles, but Etsy is pretty much saying you don't need to necessarily use all of those characters. Instead, they want you to keep in mind that those titles need to be easy to read and there are two reasons for that. The first is mobile friendliness – more an more people are browsing Etsy on their phones and it doesn't show the same amount of characters than on the desktop.
The second reason is that Etsy wants your titles to be created by a human for humans, not for computers. Let's be honest, when you find a listing and the title is something like 'Mug Coffee Cup, large Coffee Cup, fine time gift, gift for her, cute mug, sarcasm mug, coffee Mug, Coffee Mug 12 ounces' this isn't really human-friendly. It was written to try to maximize that SEO game and Etsy says it's more important to be clear and concise to get that CLICK instead.
You want to have a title that people feel like they can click on because it resonates with what they're looking for. Be descriptive of what your products are and don't stuff your title with keywords and absolutely those 140 characters. It's better to have something like "Set of 4 Ceramic Espresso Cups Ruby Red". That's a bit more human, will play nicely on mobile and get you more clicks, which will help you with your SEO score for that listing.
Add free shipping only to local orders.
helps you rank even better as you have a better conversion rate.
It's a nice way of saying "don't bother". The effort isn't worth it, compared to all the other points we mentioned before to boost your SEO.
One more thing I'd like to mention is that pro and premium accounts on Etsy do not get preferential treatment when it comes to SEO score. I know that's something that is being discussed widely all over the Internet and it is simply not true. Etsy has confirmed that themselves and I really don't think they're lying to you, so don't feel that if you don't upgrade your plan on Etsy, your item won't rank as well because it has nothing to do with it.
SEO is important to make sure that your item gets found, but once your item is actually displayed in the search results, you have to make sure that people click on it and that they will purchase it, so really pay attention to the quality of your product images because that is key to more sales, a better conversion rate, and a better SEO score.
Don't put all your eggs in the Etsy SEO basket. I know it's tempting because it feels like it's so important and because everyone seems to be talking about when you sell on Etsy, but really it isn't. It's important to pay attention to it. It's important to take note of those changes and to make adjustments if necessary, but really you want to be driving your own traffic to your store as well. My recommendation has always been and still is to use Pinterest and an email marketing strategy to do so. So it would really recommend you look into diversifying your sources of traffic so that you don't rely only on the traffic that Etsy sent you.
Read the SEO Guide. If you're selling on Etsy and think that Etsy SEO is important and you're about to make changes to your listings to accommodate for the new announcement that Etsy made, but you haven't read the Etsy SEO Guide I believe that it is way worth your time to actually sit down for 45 minutes – it's really not that long – and to read it from a to z. I've summed that up for you in this video so it's better than if you didn't know anything about it, but I would still recommend you go and read every single thing in this guide before believing anything that you read on forums, Facebook groups, or anywhere else on the Internet. It's important that you use facts and when Etsy releases an official announcement, pay attention and take the time out of your week to actually read it.
What are your thoughts on Etsy SEO changes?
Handmade Photography Tips: What Apps Should You Use To Edit Your Product Photos?


This project took a week of planning, three days of building, a large number of expletives, and some interesting use of very long tools. I hope you enjoy it!"
I love it. It just makes me look -- with a raised eyebrow of criticism no less -- at all my current hobbies.
Used Game Sales are a "Bigger Problem Than Piracy"


Symposium: Plants in the Service of Human Health: Continuing the search for new plant-based therapies.
Getting to Lake Forest College from the O'Hare airport.
1) Call 303 Taxi from the Airport 847-303-0303 (they have hotel/taxi call panels in the luggage pick-up areas).
30-45 minutes to LFC $38 plus tip and tolls.
Student Mixer: Monday, June 4th at 8 pm.
should make posters 3 feet tall by 4.5 feet wide.
Renovated in the late '90s, Deerpath Hall is a co-ed residence hall housing upper-class students in singles, doubles, and 5- and 6-person academic theme suites. Deerpath includes a large lounge with a baby grand piano and TV on the first floor, and a café that is open during the evenings. Additionally, Deerpath offers a workout room as well as laundry facilities. The 5- and 6-person suites are offered to groups of upper-class students who develop and propose an academic theme around which they design activities and programs for the residents of Deerpath. Deerpath supports a 24-hour quiet hours policy from Sunday at 5:00 p.m. to Friday at 5:00 p.m., 2:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Academic Theme Suites: Residency in the Deerpath Academic Theme Suites is available by special interest housing application only.
• Typical double-occupancy room: 10'8" x 14'7"
• Typical single-occupancy room: 9' x 14'7"


Search Magnolia Run homes for sale & real estate in Lexington! For information about Magnolia Run neighborhood properties for sale or to schedule a private home showing, contact your Magnolia Run real estate experts today.
Looking to purchase a home in Magnolia Run? Call the Nick Ratliff Realty Team, your local real estate team at (859) 554-2075. Your neighborhood real estate team will guide you through the Magnolia Run Lexington housing market.


PAUL BISHOP ~ WRITER: LAS VEGAS HARDBOILED: JAMES AND JAMES MYSTERIES!
LAS VEGAS HARDBOILED: JAMES AND JAMES MYSTERIES!
Jim Snow and his sister Karen have never been very close. In fact, they haven't seen each other since their mother's funeral two years ago, despite living just three miles apart. But then Snow gets a panicked phone call from Karen telling him that her estranged husband has been murdered and she is the number-one suspect. Snow agrees to help, seeing as he's the only family she has left. Plus he is a Las Vegas homicide detective—or at least, he was until he quit the force to become a full-time poker player.
But while his crime-fighting skills may be a little rusty, even he has to admit Karen is a likely suspect. She stands to collect on her dead husband's life insurance, which is quite the coincidence considering she's been living on her first two husbands' insurance for years.
Snow isn't sure whether or not his sister is innocent, and there's only one way to find out. He joins forces with feisty cocktail waitress-turned-cop Alice James and together they set out amidst the glittering lights of Vegas to solve this witty and entertaining whodunit.
Since first joining forces in Punctured, Alice James and Jim Snow have been a great—if odd—crime-fighting team. He's a forty-something former Las Vegas homicide detective who quit the force to become a full-time poker player. She's a model-turned-cocktail waitress whose foray into casino security led her into law enforcement.
Together they are the James and James Detective Agency, and their newest case is a doozy. Jack Roberts comes to them for help solving the brutal murder of his daughter Laura, a cocktail waitress whose body was found burning in the Nevada desert. Among the suspects: an obsessive ex-boyfriend, a mentally unbalanced construction worker, a temperamental roommate, a shady fiancé . . . perhaps even the client himself! Alice knows that if they can crack this case, business will come pouring in. But first she will have to manage Snow's ill-timed midlife crisis and deal with the chemistry crackling between them.
Ashes to Dust is pure entertainment, sure to please even the most hardboiled of mystery fans.


text:
Poll: Most voters say flap over Elizabeth Warren's ancestry is not "significant"
CNN May 23, 2012 11:40 PM ET
Brown had a one-point advantage over Warren, though the 48% and 47% they scored, respectively, is within the Suffolk University/7News poll's sampling error of plus or minus four points.
Recent polling in the state has showed a tight race, with Warren closing the gap since a February Suffolk poll, which showed her down by nine points, 49% to 40%…
Nearly seven out of ten likely voters, however, told the pollsters that the story is not "significant," while voters were split over whether Warren listing of herself as Native American in faculty directories, and possibly on other documents, impacted her career. Warren, who is a professor at Harvard University Law School but on leave this spring, said she highlighted her Cherokee roots to meet professionals of a similar background.
Read More From CNN
Should the NFL ditch its sudden-death rule for overtime?


text:
Blogging Guides
Niche Site Building
A Free Microsoft Word Alternative: WPS Office
I needed a free Microsoft Word alternative a while ago, so I went on to try out the WPS Office. I have had a good experience with Microsoft Word in the past but I like to try out new stuff.
So I did a little bit of digging and found out about two Microsoft Office alternative tools that a lot of people were talking about. Then, I decided to go ahead with the WPS Office.
Not only was it an alternative to MS Word, but it was also available for free.
I instantaneously downloaded and installed it.
When I started using, I realized, it's just like MS Word.
I started writing my articles from day one.
The software was easy-to-use and buttery-smooth. The interface was just like Microsoft Office so I had no problem switching to WPS Office.
A few days went by, something happened, and I decided to switch to its paid plan. It wasn't expensive at all, so I had no problem with spending a few bucks on great software. I'll share the reason why I bought the paid subscription of WPS Office in the features section.
Let me shed some light on why this software is worth buying.
Features of WPS Office
Here are some features of WPS Office that made me like and switch to the paid version:
Similar Interface to Microsoft Office
It might come as surprise, but it's true: WPS Office does seem like Microsoft Office. The options, tools, and interface look the same, which is why the transition was so easy for me. If you try out the free version, you'd notice that it's the same thing.
I'm the kind of person who doesn't like change when it comes to apps and software. I postpone and procrastinate as long as I could to avoid the change. But I didn't face a single issue in switching from MS Office to WPS Office.
WPS Cloud Storage
The paid version of WPS Office has a cloud feature, which automatically backs up the content as you Save it while writing. The benefit is that it remains saves on the cloud. Moreover, you can also store the same file on your computer using the Save As feature.
One of the reasons I switched to the paid version of WPS Office is cloud storage. A few months ago, I was writing a long article, and while trying to save the file using the Ctrl + S buttons, but I pressed Ctrl + N, which popped open a new blank file. I thought I lost the whole write-up. That day, I decided to buy the buy version of this software to keep the backup of every piece of content I write.
Now everything I write keeps on saving on the cloud storage.
One of the things I liked about WPS Office is that it does have multiple tools such as spreadsheets, presentations, and documents.
It simply replaces the separate softwares like Word, Powerpoint, and Excel. Once you proceed to create a new file, you have the option to choose the type of file you want to create.
The paid subscription of WPS Office comes with more tools. There are tools to create PDF files, convert PDF into a text file, file repairing, templates, and more.
One of the reasons I chose this tool over a few similar softwares was the affiliate program. They do have an affiliate program so that you can promote this software and make money off your blog. They use Avangate network for running their affiliate program.
5 Reasons to Try Out WPS Office
1. Easy to Use
As I've mentioned before, it's an alternative to MS Word so if you have used Microsoft Office, you won't feel much difference. It's easy to use and anybody can start using it right away.
2. Available for Free
You might not want to spend a few dollars on software yet or you may not have a bank card to purchase things online. Don't worry about those things because you don't need to purchase this software to get started with it. Use the free version as long as you want.
3. 3-in-1 Suite
One of the perks of WPS Office is that all three major office tools such as Documents, Spreadsheets, and Presentations are available in the single interface of WPS Office.
4. Backups
Backup is the feature that pushed me to buy the paid version of this software. I didn't want to lose my work just because I pressed a wrong combination of buttons on the keyboard. The paid version has a backup feature, which keeps your content save on the cloud storage.
5. Spell Check and Words Count
It might not be a big deal for us, but some bloggers and writers like both these tools. So WPS Office does have these two features that can help you track the number of words as well as highlight the spelling mistakes.
If you're looking to get a free Microsoft Word alternative for your home PC or laptop, feel free to try this software out because it's great.
If you're a blogger or a content writer, you might want to upgrade to the paid version because you got to use the tool at its full potential.
If you care about your work, you got to protect it, meaning, you shouldn't worry about $30 or so.
I can tell you that now I write content stress-free because I know that when I press Ctrl + S, it'd save my file onto the cloud storage of my account.
Just for the record, I also save my files onto my computer.
Check out this software and let me know what you think about this.
Leave a comment on this blog post once you try it out; it'd take 5 minutes to download and install the WPS Office.
Subscribe to this blog because we're getting good at affiliate marketing, and we'll share the secrets with you.
Copyright © 2023 | StartedBlogging.com | About | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Affiliate Disclosure | Contact


text:
Tiffany Haddish Says Racism Makes Her Fearful Of Having Children
Posted on July 29, 2020	 - By Veronica Wells
Source: Stephen Maturen / Getty
Tiffany Haddish is an open book and when she sat down to chat with former NBA player Carmelo Anthony, for his YouTube series, "What's in Your Glass?" the two laughed and joked but they also touched on some serious topics like Haddish's fear of having children in a country that has not been and is still not hospitable to Black people.
The 40-year-old actress told Anthony, "I'm a little older now and people are always asking when I'm gonna have some babies. There's a part of me that would like to do that, and I always make up these excuses like, 'Oh, I need a million dollars in the bank before I do that, I need this, I need that.' But really, it's like, I would hate to give birth to someone that looks like me knowing that they're gonna be hunted or killed," Haddish said through tears. "Like, why would I put someone through that?"
Anthony, who is the father to 13-year-old Kiyan, who he shares with wife LaLa Anthony said, "It's even scary to think about."
Haddish continued, "And white people don't have to think about that, that's something they don't have to think about. It's time to talk about that, and how we have to come together as a community and work as a unit. And maybe we don't all agree on the same things, but we need to just find some common ground and move forward as human beings."


text:
package cc.mallet.topics.tui;

import cc.mallet.util.CommandOption;
import cc.mallet.util.Randoms;
import cc.mallet.types.InstanceList;
import cc.mallet.topics.HierarchicalLDA;

import java.io.*;

public class HierarchicalLDATUI {

	static CommandOption.String inputFile = new CommandOption.String
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "input", "FILENAME", true, null,
		 "The filename from which to read the list of training instances.  Use - for stdin.  " +
		 "The instances must be FeatureSequence or FeatureSequenceWithBigrams, not FeatureVector", null);

	static CommandOption.String testingFile = new CommandOption.String
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "testing", "FILENAME", true, null,
		 "The filename from which to read the list of instances for held-out likelihood calculation.  Use - for stdin.  " +
		 "The instances must be FeatureSequence or FeatureSequenceWithBigrams, not FeatureVector", null);

	static CommandOption.String stateFile = new CommandOption.String
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "output-state", "FILENAME", true, null,
		 "The filename in which to write the Gibbs sampling state after at the end of the iterations.  " +
		 "By default this is null, indicating that no file will be written.", null);

	static CommandOption.Integer randomSeed = new CommandOption.Integer
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "random-seed", "INTEGER", true, 0,
		 "The random seed for the Gibbs sampler.  Default is 0, which will use the clock.", null);

	static CommandOption.Integer numIterations = new CommandOption.Integer
	  	(Vectors2Topics.class, "num-iterations", "INTEGER", true, 1000,
		 "The number of iterations of Gibbs sampling.", null);

	static CommandOption.Boolean showProgress = new CommandOption.Boolean
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "show-progress", "BOOLEAN", false, true,
		 "If true, print a character to standard output after every sampling iteration.", null);

	static CommandOption.Integer showTopicsInterval = new CommandOption.Integer
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "show-topics-interval", "INTEGER", true, 50,
		 "The number of iterations between printing a brief summary of the topics so far.", null);

	static CommandOption.Integer topWords = new CommandOption.Integer
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "num-top-words", "INTEGER", true, 20,
		 "The number of most probable words to print for each topic after model estimation.", null);

	static CommandOption.Integer numLevels = new CommandOption.Integer
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "num-levels", "INTEGER", true, 3,
		 "The number of levels in the tree.", null);

	static CommandOption.Double alpha = new CommandOption.Double
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "alpha", "DECIMAL", true, 10.0,
		 "Alpha parameter: smoothing over level distributions.", null);

	static CommandOption.Double gamma = new CommandOption.Double
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "gamma", "DECIMAL", true, 1.0,
		 "Gamma parameter: CRP smoothing parameter; number of imaginary customers at next, as yet unused table", null);

	static CommandOption.Double eta = new CommandOption.Double
		(HierarchicalLDATUI.class, "eta", "DECIMAL", true, 0.1,
		 "Eta parameter: smoothing over topic-word distributions", null);

	public static void main (String[] args) throws java.io.IOException {

		// Process the command-line options
		CommandOption.setSummary (HierarchicalLDATUI.class,
								  "Hierarchical LDA with a fixed tree depth.");
		CommandOption.process (HierarchicalLDATUI.class, args);

		// Load instance lists

		if (inputFile.value() == null) {
			System.err.println("Input instance list is required, use --input option");
			System.exit(1);
		}

		InstanceList instances = InstanceList.load(new File(inputFile.value()));
		InstanceList testing = null;
		if (testingFile.value() != null) {
			testing = InstanceList.load(new File(testingFile.value()));
		}

		HierarchicalLDA hlda = new HierarchicalLDA();

		// Set hyperparameters

		hlda.setAlpha(alpha.value());
		hlda.setGamma(gamma.value());
		hlda.setEta(eta.value());

		// Display preferences

		hlda.setTopicDisplay(showTopicsInterval.value(), topWords.value());
		hlda.setProgressDisplay(showProgress.value());

		// Initialize random number generator

		Randoms random = null;
		if (randomSeed.value() == 0) {
			random = new Randoms();
		}
		else {
			random = new Randoms(randomSeed.value());
		}

		// Initialize and start the sampler

		hlda.initialize(instances, testing, numLevels.value(), random);
		hlda.estimate(numIterations.value());

		// Output results

		if (stateFile.value() != null) {
			hlda.printState(new PrintWriter(stateFile.value()));
		}

		if (testing != null) {
			double empiricalLikelihood = hlda.empiricalLikelihood(1000, testing);
			System.out.println("Empirical likelihood: " + empiricalLikelihood);
		}

	}
}


text:
Home › Men's Mexican Track Jacket
Men's Mexican Track Jacket
XS - $85.00 USD S - $85.00 USD M - $85.00 USD L - $85.00 USD XL - $85.00 USD 2XL - $85.00 USD 3XL - $85.00 USD Quantity
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Mexico covers 1,972,550 square kilometers (761,610 sq mi), making it the world's 13th-largest country by area; with approximately 126,014,024 inhabitants, it is the 10th-most-populous country and has the most Spanish-speakers. Mexico is organized as a federation comprising 31 states and Mexico City, its capital and largest metropolis. Other major urban areas include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and León.


We desire to make MORE and BETTER disciples who TRANSFORM the community and RESOURCE the church.
Take your next step from attending to belonging. No matter where you are at in your journey there is always a next step. Click the button to take that step and learn more about how you can belong.