text:
\section{Introduction}\label{sec:intro}
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity globally. Echocardiogram is a non-invasive ultrasonic imaging test that exams the heart in motion. Because of the relatively low cost and ease of access, it has become a routinely used diagnostic tool in cardiology. Echocardiogram provides a wealth of information. Besides the assessment of the geometry and pumping capacity of the heart, echocardiogram has been used for the evaluation of the global and regional myocardial contractibility using speckle tracking techniques \cite{carasso2012velocity}.

The use of contrast agents in echocardiogram has been proposed to further improve the imaging quality of echocardiogram. The advantages of using contrast include 1) a sharper demarcation between the left ventricular cavity and the myocardium, and 2) easier detection of sludges and thrombi in the heart. In addition, a high-power ultrasound beam produces a swirling pattern in the contrast-enhanced blood pool, which facilitates the visualization of the ventricular flow vortex. Unlike the conventional color Doppler technique, which estimates the flow velocity along a specific angle, the vortex imaging in contrast echocardiogram enables flow visualization and quantification in 2D, which is an important hemodynamic indicator of the heart's pumping performance and efficiency \cite{abe2013contrast}. In this work, we aim to achieve dense tracking of the myocardium in non-contrast echocardiogram and the blood flow in contrast echocardiogram, in an effort to make echocardiogram a one-stop shop for both myocardial contractibility assessment and ventricular flow pattern analysis

There are many previous methods on deformable registration that can be utilized for dense tracking in echocardiograms \cite{curiale2016influence}. Traditional registration methods are based on the optimization in registration field space such as elastic-type models \cite{bajcsy1989multiresolution,shen2002hammer}, FFD \cite{rueckert1999nonrigid}, Demons \cite{thirion1998image} and statistical parametric mapping \cite{ashburner2000voxel}. Diffeomorphic transformations preserve topology and many methods are derived from them such as LDDMM \cite{beg2005computing} and SyN \cite{avants2008symmetric}. The optimization of these traditional methods typically require substantial time. Deep learning based registration methods usually rely on ground truth of registration field \cite{rohe2017svf,sokooti2017nonrigid}. Recent unsupervised deep learning based registrations, such as VoxelMorph \cite{balakrishnan2018unsupervised}, are facilitated by the spatial transformer network \cite{de2017end,jaderberg2015spatial}, and the VoxelMorph is further extended to diffeomorphic transformation and Bayesian framework \cite{dalca2018unsupervised}. Adversarial similarity network adds an extra discriminator and uses adversarial training to improve the unsupervised registration \cite{fan2018adversarial}. These purely learning based methods cannot be directly applied to ultrasound images for velocity estimation especially for vortex detection in cardiac blood flow because of great noise in echocardiogram, large velocity variations of cardiac blood flow and large amounts of missing and new blood within the ultrasound plane.

Inspired by the improvement of multi-scale registration and neural network parameterized  optimization \cite{curiale2016influence}, we propose a neural self-supervised optimization based multi-scale framework for dense tracking in echocardiograms as illustrated in Fig. \ref{fig:framework}. The neural self-supervised optimization yields accurate velocity field estimation by eliminating the gap between the estimation on the training set and that on the test set and alleviating the optimization difficulties such as local minima. Multi-scale strategy provides a sequential optimization pathway to the flow tracking that naturally emulates the formation of the fractal patterns of turbulent flow.
\section{Neural Multi-Scale Self-Supervised Registration}\label{sec:nmsr}
We denote an ultrasound sequence by $\bm{I} = \{\bm{I}_1, \bm{I}_2, \cdots, \bm{I}_t, \cdots, \bm{I}_n\}$, where $\bm{I}_t \in \mathbb{R}^{h \times w \times c}$ is the $t_{th}$ frame of $\bm{I}$, and $h$, $w$ and $c$ are image height, width and the number of channels respectively. In this work, we focus on calculating the registration field $\bm{F}_t$ as velocity field estimation which can be used by dense tracking for the two neighbor frames $\bm{I}_t$ and $\bm{I}_{t+1}$. We employ U-Net with skip connections to obtain the velocity field $\bm{F}_t$ \cite{ronneberger2015u}. The framework of neural multi-scale self-supervised registration (NMSR) is illustrated in Fig. \ref{fig:framework}.
\begin{figure}[t]
\begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/framework9.png}
\end{center}
\caption{\small Framework of the proposed neural multi-scale self-supervised registration. We employ U-Net to parameterize the registration function $\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^s$ for velocity estimation between the reconstructed frame $\bm{M}_{t+1}^s$ from last scale $s/2$ and $t+1_{th}$ frame $\bm{I}_{t+1}^s$ in the scale $s$. Neural self-supervised optimization with reconstruction loss and smoothness loss is conducted to yield robust and accurate velocity field for each scale.}\label{fig:framework
\end{figure}

Because the velocity of cardiac blood varies greatly, we extend the neural self-supervised registration to a multi-scale framework. We construct multi-scale U-Nets with scales $\{S, 2S, \cdots, s, \cdots, 1/2, 1\}$ to parameterize the registration fields of these scales where $S$ is the coarsest scale. In the registration of each scale $s$, we try to obtain the registration field $\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^s$ by which we transform the reconstructed frame $\mathcal{T}(\bm{I}_t, \bm{F}_t^{s/2})$ from the last scale $s/2$ to the $t+1_{th}$ frame $\bm{I}_{t+1}$, where $t=1,\cdots,n-1$ and $\mathcal{T}$ is a spatial transformer network \cite{jaderberg2015spatial}. If $s$ is the coarsest scale $S$, $\mathcal{T}(\bm{I}_t, \bm{F}_t^{s/2}) = \bm{I}_t$. Given an ultrasound sequence $\bm{I}$, we firstly resize the moving image $\mathcal{T}(\bm{I}_t, \bm{F}_t^{s/2})$ and the fixed image $\bm{I}_{t+1}$ to the current scale $s$ for data preparation a
\begin{equation}\label{eq:nmsr}
\begin{aligned}
    \bm{M}_{t+1}^s = \mathcal{P}_1 ( \mathcal{T}({\bm{I}}_t, {\bm{F}}_t^{s/2}), s ), \quad \bm{I}_{t+1}^s = \mathcal{P}_1 (\bm{I}_{t+1}, s),
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where $\bm{M}_{t+1}^s$ is the scaled reconstructed frame and $\mathcal{P}_1$ is the down-sampling.

In addition to the high variations of velocities for cardiac blood flow, the signal-to-noise ratio of ultrasound image is typically low which easily leads to inaccurate prediction of the registration field. This aggregates the difficulty of learning and inference in the multi-scale registration model because the error can be accumulated over scales and the noisy error along the high dimensional output space makes the learning even harder than learning in the ultrasound space which is empirically observed in our experiments. We propose neural self-supervised optimization based on one ultrasound sequence, considering that the optimization based methods can eliminate the undesirable generalization ability of purely learning based model, and the settings and motions are consistent within one ultrasound sequence. We use stochastic optimization for the neural parameterized registration to alleviate the optimization difficulties such as local minima in traditional registration methods \cite{kingma2014adam}. The neural self-supervised optimization for the current scale $s$ and ultrasound sequence $\bm{I}$ can be formulated
\begin{equation}
    \begin{aligned}
        &\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s} = \bm{N}(\bm{M}_{t+1}^s, \bm{I}_{t+1}^s; \bm{\theta}^s),\\
    &\bm{\theta}^s_{\star} = \mathop{\arg \min}_{\bm{\theta}^s} \sum_{t=1}^{n-1} {\mathcal{L}_{R}( \mathcal{T }(\bm{M}_{t+1}^s, \Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}), \bm{I}_{t+1}^s; \bm{\theta}^s) + \lambda \mathcal{L}_{S}(\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}; \bm{\theta}^s)}, \\
    \end{aligned}

\end{equation}
where $\bm{N}$ is the neural network with parameters $\bm{\theta}^s$, $\mathcal{L}_{R}$ is the reconstruction loss to measure the similarity between the moving image and fixed image, $\mathcal{L}_{S}$ is the smoothness loss for the registration field, $\lambda$ is the trade-off between reconstruction loss and smoothness loss.

We use negative local cross-correlation loss as reconstruction loss and $L_2$ norm of registration field gradient as the smoothness loss. For clarity, we omit $s$ in the reconstruction loss $\mathcal{L}_{R}$ and write the two losses a
\begin{equation}
\begin{aligned}
    \mathcal{L}_{R}({\bm{M}}_{t}, \bm{I}_{t}; \bm{\theta}^s) &= -\sum_{\bm{p}} \frac{ \big( \sum_{\bm{p}_i} {(\bm{M}_{t}(\bm{p}_i) - \bm{M}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p}) ) (\bm{I}_{t}(\bm{p}_i) - \bm{I}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p}) )} \big)^2}{\sum_{\bm{p}_i} (\bm{M}_{t}(\bm{p}_i) - \bm{M}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p}) )^2   \sum_{\bm{p}_i} (\bm{I}_{t}(\bm{p}_i) - \bm{I}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p}) )^2 }, \\
    \mathcal{L}_{S}(\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}; \bm{\theta}^s) &= \| \nabla_x \Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s} \|_{L_2} + \| \nabla_y \Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s} \|_{L_2},
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where $\bm{p}$ is the pixel position in the frame and $\bm{p}_i$ is the pixel position within a square with the center as $\bm{p}$, $\bm{M}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p})$ and $\bm{I}_{t}^{\prime}(\bm{p})$ are local means of pixel position $\bm{p}_i$ in $\bm{M}_{t}$ and $\bm{I}_{t}$ respectively.

After the neural self-supervised optimization, we obtain the optimal parameters $\bm{\theta}^s_{\star}$ of the neural network and can calculate the velocity field $\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}$ for the reconstructed frame $\mathcal{T}({\bm{I}}_t, {\bm{F}}_t^{s/2})$ from the last scale $s/2$. We calculate the registration field $\bm{F}_t^{s}$ for the ultrasound frame $\bm{I}_t$ by combining registration field $\bm{F}_t^{s/2}$ of the last scale and intermediate field $\Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}$.
For each pixel position $\bm{p}$ in the ultrasound frame $\bm{I}_t$, we can obtain the final position $\hat{\bm{p}}$ and the combined registration filed $\bm{F}_t^{s}$ by
\begin{equation}

    \bm{F}_t^{s}(\bm{p}) = \hat{\bm{p}} - \bm{p} = \bm{F}_t^{s/2}(\bm{p}) + \mathcal{P}_2 (\frac{1}{s} \Tilde{\bm{F}}_t^{s}, \frac{1}{s})(\bm{p} + \bm{F}_t^{s/2}(\bm{p}) ),

\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{P}_2$ is the linear interpolation and we use linear intepolation to calculate the field for $\bm{p} + \bm{F}_t^{s/2}(\bm{p})$.
\section{Experiments}\label{sec:expe}
We collected echocardiograms from 19 patients with 3,052 frames in total for myocardial tracking, and contrast echocardiograms from 71 patients with 11,462 frames in total for cardiac blood tracking. For testing, we randomly choose three patients' echocardiograms with 291 frames for myocardial tracking, and three patients' echocardiograms with 216 frames for cardiac blood tracking from the two datasets. The rest of echocardiograms are used as training. All echocardiograms have no registration field ground truth.

We only use the first channel of echocardiography images (e.g., treated as gray-scale images) with the pixel values normalized to be in $[0, 1]$.
For cardiac blood tracking, we extract cardiac blood region by 1) creating masks of the left ventricular blood pool at the end of the systole and the end of the diastole, 2) using active contour model to fit 100 uniformly sampled spline points along a circle into the boundary of cardiac blood mask \cite{kass1988snakes}, 3) using linear interpolation to get 100 interpolated spline points for each frame, 4) using radial basis function in interpolation to get the final smooth cardiac blood boundary from the 100 spline points. Removing myocardial region is crucial to cardiac blood tracking.

For unsupervised learning or self-supervised optimization, one of the main challenges is the model evaluation. Manually labeling the corresponding points for evaluation is time-consuming, laborious and inaccurate, because the total size of one frame is $1024 \times 768$ and the signal-to-noise ratio is low. Instead of using pixel position based evaluation metric, we use reconstruction based metrics, i.e., the mean square error (MSE) and the mean local cross correlation (Mean CC) with radius as 10. For the metrics in Table \ref{tab:comp}, we calculate the average MSE and Mean CC over all frame pairs $\bm{I}_t$ and $\bm{I}_{t+1}$ with the pixel value of range $[0, 1]$. For MSE and Mean CC of one frame pair, we take the average of square error and local cross correlation over the masked region.

\begin{table}[t]
\caption{\small Comparisons on myocardial and cardiac blood dense tracking among ANTs, VoxelMorph and NMSR. NMSR obtains the best performance.}\label{tab:comp
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\multirow{2}{*}{Methods} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Myocardial tracking} & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Cardiac blood tracking} \\ \cline{2-5}
                         & MSE (10\textsuperscript{-3})      & Mean CC (10\textsuperscript{-1})       & MSE (10\textsuperscript{-3})      & Mean CC (10\textsuperscript{-1}) \\ \hline
ANTs & 15.5179\textpm9.4637 & 3.1597\textpm1.3913 & 3.9344\textpm1.4660 & 4.2062\textpm1.0576 \\ \hline
VoxelMorph & 1.2266\textpm0.5457 & 4.7363\textpm0.5457 & 5.8654\textpm1.6943 & 3.3462\textpm0.5891 \\ \hline \hline

NMSR & 1.3438\textpm0.6248 & 4.6270\textpm0.5340 & 5.9511\textpm1.6789 & 3.2228\textpm0.5754 \\ \hline
NMSR (1/8) & 1.7938\textpm0.5992 & 4.1428\textpm0.5066 & 6.8603\textpm1.4958 & 2.3314\textpm0.5497 \\ \hline
NMSR (1/4) & 1.8185\textpm0.5437 & 4.2746\textpm0.4700 & 5.6694\textpm1.3347 & 2.7566\textpm0.6186 \\ \hline
NMSR (1/2) & 1.5405\textpm0.4515 & 4.5508\textpm0.4601 & 4.6870\textpm1.0579 & 3.2854\textpm0.7191 \\ \hline
NMSR (1) & \bf{1.3204\textpm0.4058} & \bf{4.8954\textpm0.4173} & \bf{4.0337\textpm0.9903} & \bf{3.9781\textpm0.6917} \\ \hline \hline

NMSR\textsubscript{V} & 1.2158\textpm0.5473 & 4.7809\textpm0.4952 & 5.7780\textpm1.6222 & 3.3942\textpm0.5868 \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{V} (1/8) & 1.6937\textpm0.5616 & 4.2084\textpm0.5086 & 6.8108\textpm1.8189 & 2.3948\textpm0.5495 \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{V} (1/4) & 1.7022\textpm0.4434 & 4.3377\textpm0.4674 & 5.6577\textpm1.3317 & 2.7109\textpm0.5988 \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{V} (1/2) & 1.4363\textpm0.3625 & 4.6459\textpm0.4451 & 4.6228\textpm1.1381 & 3.3155\textpm0.6691 \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{V} (1) & 1.2420\textpm0.3041 & 5.0280\textpm0.3922 & 3.9287\textpm1.0209 & 4.1209\textpm0.6188 \\ \hline

NMSR\textsubscript{VI} (1/4) & 1.3504\textpm0.4885 & 4.4140\textpm0.5005 & 5.6106\textpm1.2424 & 2.7331\textpm0.6779  \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{VI} (1/2) & 1.0929\textpm0.3775 & 4.7155\textpm0.4569 & 4.5089\textpm1.0272 & 3.3879\textpm0.7524 \\ \hline
NMSR\textsubscript{VI} (1) & \bf{0.9206\textpm0.3236} & \bf{5.0881\textpm0.4107} & \bf{3.7944\textpm0.9384} & \bf{4.2519\textpm0.7181} \\  \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}

We compare our approach to symmetric normalization (SyN) with cross-correlation similarity as implemented in ANTs \cite{avants2008symmetric,avants2009advanced}, and VoxelMorph \cite{balakrishnan2018unsupervised}. ANTs (SyN) is a traditional optimization based method and VoxelMorph is a deep learning based unsupervised registration with a similar network structure and loss function as NMSR. For the purpose of ablation studies, we report the results of {\bf{1)}} NMSR, using only one scale and neural self-supervised optimization, {\bf{2)}} NMSR (1/8), the coarsest scale of neural multi-scale self-supervised registration, {\bf{3)}} NMSR (1/4), the second coarsest scale of NMSR, {\bf{4)}} NMSR (1/2), the third coarsest scale of NMSR, {\bf{5)}} NMSR (1), the final scale of NMSR after sequential multi-scale optimization, {\bf{6)}} NMSR\textsubscript{V}, NMSR\textsubscript{V} (*), which use training-data optimized NMSR as an initialization and conduct self-supervised neural optimization afterwards, and {\bf{7)}} NMSR\textsubscript{VI} (*), which use the neural weights from the last scale as an initialization

For all these multi-scale based methods, we use four different scales $1/8$, $1/4$, $1/2$ and $1$. We use radius of 6 pixels for the local cross-correlation loss in all these methods. We set the number of optimization steps to 200 for each scale in ANTs. We use learning rate of $1\times10^{-3}$ and Adam optimizer to update the weights in neural networks for both NMSR and VoxelMorph \cite{kingma2014adam}. The $\lambda$ is set to be 10. We set the number of optimization steps to $3500$ per ultrasound sequence for the self-supervised neural optimization, and set the number of iterations to $3500 \times$ the number of training ultrasound sequences for VoxelMorph.
\begin{figure}[t]
	\begin{center}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/antsMuscle5.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/vmMuscle6.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr8Muscle5.png}
		\end{minipage} \\

		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr4Muscle5.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr2Muscle5.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr1Muscle5.png}
		\end{minipage}
	\end{center}
	\caption{\small Visualization of myocardial tracking based on ANTs, VoxelMorph and NMSR. The right side of velocity field by VoxelMorph is inaccurate. NMSR yields smooth, coarse-to-fine and accurate velocity estimation.}\label{fig:muscle
\end{figure}

Quantitative comparison results of our model against the state-of-the-arts on both myocardial and cardiac blood flow dense tracking are shown in Table \ref{tab:comp}. We highlight the following a few observations:  1) NMSR\textsubscript{VI} (1) achieves the best performances, and outperforms ANTs in terms of both MSE and mean CC on both tasks, likely due to the representation and optimization efficiency of deep neural nets;  2) NMSR\textsubscript{V} yields consistently better results than VoxelMorph, demonstrating the efficacy of self-supervised optimization during the test phase for improving velocity field estimation and reducing the estimation gap between training and testing; 3) NMSR (1) achieves better performance than NMSR on all experiments, demonstrating the benefit of sequential multi-scale optimization in echocardiogram registration.  The multi-scale scheme alleviates the over-optimization of reconstruction loss, which can be visually noticed from Fig. \ref{fig:muscle} and \ref{fig:blood}; and 4) NMSR\textsubscript{V} (1) obtains better performance than NMSR (1), illustrating the benefit of using pretrained models as an initialization for NMSR, further confirmed by the better performance of NMSR\textsubscript{VI} over NMSR\textsubscript{V}.

{\bf{Visualizations}} We visualize the myocardial tracking results based on ANTs, VoxelMorph and the intermediate registration fields from NMSR\textsubscript{VI} with four different scales in Fig. \ref{fig:muscle}. We randomly choose one frame from these ultrasound images. From Fig. \ref{fig:muscle}, we note that the registration field from ANTs is noisy, and the velocity direction from VoxelMorph for the right myocardial is incorrect. By contrast, NMSR (1/8) produces the smoothest registration field, and NMSR (1) generates more detailed velocity estimation that preserves both large and low-scale velocity variations.  The coarse-to-fine results illustrate that the multi-scale optimization scheme coupled with deep neural nets can be very effective in dealing with the highly challenging case of image registration in echocardiograms.

\begin{figure}[t]
	\begin{center}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/antsBlood6.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/vmBlood6.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr8Blood6.png}
		\end{minipage} \\

		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr4Blood6.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr2Blood6.png}
		\end{minipage}
		\begin{minipage}{0.325\linewidth}
			\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{./fig/nmsr1Blood6.png}
		\end{minipage}
	\end{center}
	\caption{\small Visualization of cardiac blood tracking based on ANTs, VoxelMorph and NMSR. ANTs and VoxelMorph produce noisy velocity fields. NMSR successfully detects the vortex and yields coarse-to-fine and smooth velocity field.}\label{fig:blood}
\end{figure}

We visualize the cardiac blood tracking results in Fig. \ref{fig:blood}. From the registration fields from ANTs and VoxelMorph, we cannot easily recognize the vortex in cardiac blood flow. By contrast, the vortex flow pattern from NMSR is readily recognizable. The general vortex pattern is apparent from the coarsest level registration by NMSR (1/8), followed by finer-scale registrations to introduce details of local velocity field variations. The final velocity field produced by NMSR (1) includes both easily recognizable vortex flow, as well as details of local field variations.

{\bf{Computational Cost}} For ANTs, the average computational time is 214.10 \textpm54.04 seconds for the registration of two consecutive frames on 12 processors of Intel i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz. For an ultrasound sequence of 50 frames, the computational time is about {\bf{three hours}} for ANTs. Because the inference of VoxelMorph only relies on one feed forward pass of deep neural network, the average computational time is 0.11\textpm0.47 seconds for one pair frames on one NVIDIA 1080 Ti GPU. The NMSR takes 279.97, 101.65, 68.79, 66.09 seconds for neural self-supervised optimization with the scale 1, 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 respectively on one ultrasound sequence of 49 frames by one NVIDIA 1080 Ti GPU. The NMSR takes less than {\bf{nine minutes}} on the neural self-supervised optimization in total for one ultrasound sequence, achieving {\bf{20}} times speedup over ANTs
\section{Conclusion}\label{sec:conc}
In this work, we propose a novel framework, neural multi-scale self-supervised registration (NMSR), for both myocardial and cardiac blood dense tracking. To produce accurate velocity estimation from noisy ultrasound images and reduce the estimation gap between training and testing, we incorporate self-supervised optimization in the registration framework. To handle large variations of velocity fields in echocardiogram tracking, a multi-scale scheme is integrated into the proposed framework to reduce the over-optimization of similarity functions. Our proposed method consistently outperforms state-of-the-art methods on both myocardial and cardiac blood flow dense tracking. With further improvements on model and optimization, to consider for example other loss functions and extend it to diffeomorphic registrations, it seems plausible to have a fully automated method for echocardiogram analysis.

\bibliographystyle{splncs04}
 \small {

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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text:
SOUTH KITSAP SCHOOLS: Board members to get new boundaries
Sun | West Sound
By David Levesque, Sun Staff — Jun 16th, 2001
* Monday's vote will adjust districts according to 2000 Census population increases for SK.
Population in South Kitsap grew by 12,527 people - or 25 percent - during the last decade, according to the 2000 Census.
Unfortunately for the South Kitsap School Board, the growth wasn't spread out evenly.
The school board has been working to adjust the population within each of the five areas that school board members represent.
The goal is to have each board member representing close to the same number of residents.
The board Monday is expected to vote on the proposed adjustments to their district boundaries.
The most noticeable differences will be in the areas being represented by members Ken Ames and Doug Bear.
Bear's district generally includes the Olalla, Harper, Mullenix Ridge and Sedgwick Road areas. Ames's comprises Overlook, and the Lundberg and Bethel roads areas.
In the adjustments, Ames' district will gain a greater geographical area because it lost population. Because of tremendous growth, Bear's district will need to be reduced geographically.
The changes will not affect South Kitsap voters, who vote for each of the five school board positions regardless of what district the voters live in. That's true for the primary election, as well.
The revision of the boundaries, though, could affect anyone interested running for the seats held by Bear and Ames, both of whom are up for re-election in November. Both men don't plan to run for re-election.
Someone who doesn't live in Ames' district today could end up there Monday. Likewise, someone's neighborhood could be pushed out of Bear's territory.
The district hired Sammamish Data Systems of Bellevue to work out the details of the redistricting.
Superintendent Bill Lahmann said the districts are reviewed following each Census.
Aside from making sure population numbers are fairly divided among school board members, the data gives him a good idea of what's happening in the district.
For example, Bear's area, which is the southeast portion of the school district, tells Lahmann that more people are commuting.
"People either want to be closer to the Narrows Bridge or the Southworth ferry," he said.
Lahmann said it appears Ames' district - the area around Orchard Heights Elementary - is experiencing a change as well.
"That's the highest density housing area we have. It appears a lot of families grew up and moved away," he said.
Following Monday's vote, residents can find out how their district changed by calling South Kitsap Schools Communications Coordinator Aimee Warthen at 874-7385.
Reach reporter David Levesque at (360) 792-9215 or at dlevesque@thesunlink.com.
SOUTH KITSAP SCHOOL BOARD: Two incumbents will not seek district re-election this fall
* Ken Ames has moved out of his elected area, and Doug Bear will focus on more family time. The race for two South Kitsap School Board seats in November probably will not include incumbents Ken Ames and Doug Bear. Bear said he will ... [Read More...]
SOUTH KITSAP SCHOOL BOARD: Emergency meeting set to replace superintendent
The South Kitsap School Board has scheduled an emergency meeting for Monday to begin the process of replacing Superintendent Bill Lahmann, who accepted the top job in the Olympia School District. School board members will meet during a special study session at 6 p.... [Read More...]
NEVADA CANDIDATE: SK superintendent selected
* All that remains is a visit to her district in Reno. Dr. Beverly J. Cheney, a Reno, Nev., school administrator, has been selected to become the new superintendent of the South Kitsap School District. The South Kitsap School Board unanimously voted late Thursday ... [Read More...]
COUNTY REDISTRICTING
Eder area's surge shifts voting lines >b Faster than average population growth in Central Kitsap means CK Commissioner Billie Eder's district boundaries must shrink. By Julie McCormick Sun Staff John Horsley and Win Granlund are squeezing Billie Eder's territory. No, it's not ... [Read More...]
NORTH KITSAP: School board revises district boundaries
* The preliminary, census-based districting tries to ensure that directors will represent roughly equal populations. North Kitsap's population base has shifted, well, north. More people live in Kingston and fewer live in Pearson. This leaves the North Kitsap School District tinkering with the boundaries ... [Read More...]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Transmembrane protein 44 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the TMEM44 gene.

Gene

mRNA sequence of the TMEM44 gene is 1483 base pairs long, with 13 exons.

Locus

TMEM44 gene is located at the end of the long arm of chromosome 3 in humans (Homo sapiens).

Protein

TMEM44 is 428 amino acids in length. The molecular weight of the protein is 47.1kDa, and its formula is  C2086H3315N585O611S22, with a total of 6619 atoms. TMEM44 is predicted to be integrated in the plasma membrane of the endoplasmic reticulum.

Expression

There is an overall low level expression of TMEM44 protein throughout the developmental stages of an organism.

Transcripts

There are 12 isoforms of TMEM44 including isoform a, isoform b, isoform c, isoform d, isoform X1, isoform X2, isoform X3, isoform X4, isoform X5, isoform X6, isoform X7, isoform X8.

Transmembrane Region Allocation

There are seven predicted transmembrane domains in TMEM44 protein.

Interacting Proteins

GSK3B (Glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta) is a protein predicted to physically interact with TMEM44.

Post-Translational Modification

TMEM44 is predicted to undergo threonine, tyrosine and serine phosphorylations.

Orthologs
TMEM44 orthologs includes groups such as amphibians, birds, fish, mammals.

Paralogs
Predicted paralogous proteins of TMEM44 are C9IZ85, F8WCY1, F8WE47, H7C3X7, J3KQW3, Q6PL43, and Q96I73.

References

Further reading

Transmembrane proteins

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Unloading Scenes
Programming for Level Design
3.9 (19 ratings) | 1.4K Students Enrolled
Course 2 of 5 in the Unity Expert Gameplay Programmer Certification Preparation Specialization
Welcome to Programming for Level Design, the second course in Unity's Gameplay Programming Specialization! This course is exam preparation for Unity's Expert Gameplay Programmer Certification Exam. This course will challenge you with a series of realistic programming problems in Unity video-game projects, inspired by one or more of the topics covered in the Expert Gameplay Programmer Exam. Throughout this course, you will work on a 3D "Dual-Stick Survivor" game project. This will help you practice programming for level design, including configuring GameObject physics, spawning Prefabs, designing level logic and behavior, scripting animation systems and events, and working with in-game cinematics. This is an advanced-level course, intended for industry game developers or very experienced Unity enthusiasts who are looking to "level-up" their gameplay programming and implementation strategies. To succeed in this courses, you should have at least 2-3 years of experience developing games with Unity. You should be familiar with the full-game lifecycle (working from early concept to launch), creating and working with Prefabs, understanding game asset and animation pipelines, and have some experience with Unity Services. You should also have advanced programming skills, particularly in the C# language.
Loading and Unloading Scenes
Most games span multiple levels, and it simply wouldn't be efficient to include those in one giant scene. Even games that could be one scene would likely benefit from loading and unloading scenes, if they analyze their needs smartly. A clever transition from one scene to another only makes gameplay better. This week you'll begin adding scenes to your game that you'll need to load and unload without impacting the player's experience. By evaluating Unity's streaming parameters and limits, you'll devise ways of transitioning users from one part of the game to the other without them even knowing.
Loading Scenes1:50
Unloading Scenes5:51
Unity Technologies
Dustin Carroll
Senior Technical Artist & Adjunct Instructor
Select a languageAfrikaansEnglishSwedishThaiTurkish
When loading a scene, you have a few different options. Particularly, you can choose to load it, like it would at level start or you can load it asynchronously. Which means that the level will load as much as possible while the game continues to run. The latter method is generally preferable because you're able to load objects while the player still has control or while you're doing something else to entertain them. When unloading a scene, this is done asynchronously. All this is accomplished through the scene manager. Now if we have a look, I've created a couple new levels here. In particular, I have something called level main. In managers, I have level managers script, under which I've entered in the names of the levels that I wanted to go through. Now, level main doesn't have a lot. It's got my canvas, my player, cinematics, and the general managers, I think I'll be needing. Now level 1, has the lighting, somehow managers of its own for enemies and the world. Level 2 is very similar. It's got a different light and the objects are in different places, but I've also made sure that the enemy spawns slightly differently. Some spawn more often, some spawn less, I've also swapped the spawn points of to the enemies. Now, if I going to main and play, first off I'm getting the cinematic, I'm going to skip that. Go around and when it's time to go to the next level, you get a slightly different cinematic. And we are now in a different level, and I can keep on going through the different levels this way, but let's see how this has actually getting accomplished. If you go to my level manager, I'm storing now some information about the current level in the current scene. Now, I've got some test code here to help me go through the levels because I don't have the score hooked up quite yet, but we'll get to that. During on enable, we are registering with the scene manager to let us know when a scene is being loaded and unloaded. This will allow us to call different functions when those events happen. And we're making use of at least one of those. At start, I get some information that I'll be using to level or sending the initial level. Now when I advanced level, I simply pass in the current level plus one and if I want to load the initial level, it's simply level zero. Load level takes an integer for the level to load, Mix that to the current level and checks to see if it's beyond the array. It returns back the remainder if it does so that we're always cycling through our levels and we can keep on playing forever. We're calling scene manager load scene async. We're passing the loading scene by name and we're making sure that we're loading it additive. Loading an additive will add it to the current scene rather than destroy the current scene. Now, because we're storing a lot of information inside our main scene to keep track of the players health and actually that's where the player lives, we want to make sure that we're not unloading that. Finally with the on scene loaded method, we're passed in the scene that was loaded and how was loaded. Now, if it was loaded as additive, we're going to return, that was just for main scene. Now, if it wasn't loaded in additive mode, we're going to simply skip this function because that was the main scene loading for the first time, we're not interested in that. We tell the player to go back to his respawn. We set the added scene as the active scene. This is so that our prefabs, all our enemies are spawned in that scene and when is unloaded, they go with it. Finally, I'm disabling the old scene before I get rid of it. Now, in disable old scene. We're going to see if the scene is valid. If it is valid, we're going to find all the root game objects and we're going to set those to unactive. After we've done all this, we're going to unload the scene asynchronously. Now, the reason I'm disabling these objects is I want to make sure they're not going to interfere with the scene that was just loaded. I want the player to be able to play in that scene right away. If the unload takes any time, I'm making sure that scene objects aren't interacting with the player while they play the new level. Finally, after we've disabled the old scene, we're going to set the current scene to the scene that just loaded. That way then next time we try to unload a scene, this scene will be the one that gets unloaded. And finally, I have a call to our cinematics to play intro cinematic. Now, on scene unloaded I don't have any code yet. There is nothing I really want to be doing at this point. And on disable, I make sure they unregister these events with the scene manager. Now, this method is useful for scenes that are going to stay active for a while. If the player isn't going to go back to the old scene anytime soon, we can simply unload it. In the case where they are temporarily and a new scene that gets loaded, we can perhaps just disable the old scene if isn't going to take up too much memory. You have to weigh the choice of, do we want to wait for a load or can I afford the memory footprint off for disabled scene before making your decision as to how to manage your scenes. Go ahead and have a look at scene manager and make sure you can get your game loading scenes. I have a piece of advice with your scene main if you copy from only existing scenes, make sure that the NAV mesh is removed from it. If you load a level of NAV mesh and do it in additive mode, there was already a NAV mesh, Unity is going to attempt to merge those NAV meshes and it can cause some strange behavior in the enemies.


If you are a book lover, then you probably have shelves of them in your house. Books are bulky and whether few or many, they will occupy a lot of space. For this reason, extra storage is necessary. Books require careful keeping to ensure its durability. Proper storage implies keeping them safe and free of moisture, which may cause wear and tear and even result in the growth of molds on them. As a book lover, you should invest in the following methods for the proper storage and display of your books to keep them in good shape.
Bookshelves are the most traditional and conventional storage method for books. They are common in libraries and offer an easy and moisture free way of storing them. With these shelves, accessing specific reading materials is also faster. A quick scan through the shelves is all you need. Instead of chucking them in a box or all over your table, keeping your books on bookshelves can help you organise them and keep them in good shape as well.
Being creative with your bookshelf will add aesthetic value to your home and still serve the purpose. Creativity implies shifting away from the old stacks that make your home look like a library and embracing some fun, cheap and easy ideas. For instance, you can strategically put wall shelves in your living room or invest in a unique looking bookshelf like a hive-shaped shelf that serves as a decoration as well.
While many people may only see their staircases as a link to the upper rooms, they may well serve as a strategic book storage and display space. If you have an open staircase such as on your double-decker bed, consider filling those spaces with books. Alternatively, you can spruce up your home stairs by placing some shelves below the stairs and displaying your reading materials.
If your books are still littered all over or if your house simply does not have enough space to store your books, it is time to de-clutter your home with self-storage spaces. Whether you choose to store your other belongings away to make space for your bookshelves or to store your books in a secured space, an external self-storage facility like Work+Store is a great alternative for you. At Work+Store, you can access your books or belongings anytime using the 24 hours access card system and can rest assure that your books will be kept safely with 24hour CCTV surveillance. Self-storage units at Work+Store ranges from 6 sqft to 445 sq ft. Your choice of the storage units will depend on the number of books or belongings you have. Simply get advice from our team at Work+Store to help you choose the cheapest self-storage option for your needs. If you only have one or two boxes of books that require storing, you can opt for our Work+Store Valet Storage Service as well where your storage items will be picked up from your house and stored in a temporary space, all without having you leave your home.
If you have a bunch of old books that you no longer read or storybooks that your children have outgrown, why not consider donating them to the library or local communities who need them more? This will help you create space for more book while helping others at the same time.
Book lovers place a lot of importance in the care of their books, and this includes storing them properly to maintain their quality. Explore the methods above to help you show off your collection of books while keeping them safe and sound!


text:
NS Pharma Announces Publication of Clinical Trial Data for Viltolarsen
NS Pharma, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku, announced that JAMA Neurology has published results from a clinical trial of viltolarsen. Viltolarsen is an exon skipping therapy being reviewed under the FDA Accelerated Approval pathway for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in patients amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy.
Click here to access the publication (open access)
This Phase 2, two-period, dose-finding study enrolled 16 DMD patients, from four to less than 10 years of age, who were amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Study participants were randomized to two doses of viltolarsen (40 mg/kg/wk and 80 mg/kg/wk) for 20 to 24 weeks. At the end of the study, treatment with viltolarsen was associated with statistically significant increases in mean dystrophin expression (40 mg/kg/wk: p<0.001; 80 mg/kg/wk p=0.012). Mean dystrophin levels of 5.7% and 5.9% were observed in comparison to mean baseline levels of 0.3% and 0.6% in the 40 mg/kg/wk and 80 mg/kg/wk groups, respectively. Fourteen out of 16 patients (88%) reached dystrophin levels greater than 3%.
The most common treatment emergent adverse events occurring in greater than one patient were: cold, cough, nasal congestion, bruising, joint pain, diarrhea and vomiting. No serious adverse events were observed in the study.
Viltolarsen has not yet been approved in the U.S. and its New Drug Application was recently granted Priority Review by the FDA with an anticipated action date in the third quarter of 2020. In March 2020, viltolarsen was approved in Japan for the treatment of DMD patients amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy.
NS Pharma continues to study the safety and efficacy of viltolarsen in the confirmatory Phase 3 RACER53 trial. This study was initiated in October 2019 and is currently enrolling. The purpose of this Phase 3 trial is to confirm the clinical findings that were submitted under the Accelerated Approval pathway.
About Viltolarsen
Viltolarsen has been granted Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations in the U.S. The viltolarsen New Drug Application was granted Priority Review by the FDA with an anticipated action date in the third quarter of 2020. In March 2020, viltolarsen was approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with DMD who are amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Prior to its approval in Japan, viltolarsen was granted with the SAKIGAKE designation, Orphan drug designation, and designation of Conditional Early Approval System.


text:
Homepage Liverpool Life > Waterside walk to help rough sleepers
Waterside walk to help rough sleepers
Stephen Bramhill, JMU Journalism
– March 12, 2020Posted in: Homepage Liverpool Life, Liverpool Life
Left to right: Aidan Keaney, Alex Reardon, Will Nicholls. Pic © Stephen Bramhill JMU Journalism
The Whitechapel Centre has hosted its first 'Waterfront Walk' in a bid to raise funds for homeless person's charity.
The walk, which was five miles, started at 7am on Saturday along Otterspool Promenade and finished at Riversdale Merseyside Police Sports and Social Association in Aigburth.
The aim of the event was to raise money as well as showing volunteers the amount each outreach worker for the Whitechapel Centre has to walk daily when helping those living on the streets.
There was a variety of groups taking part, benefitting the charity through their donations raised. Among those involved were three Year 12 students from St Anselm's College in Birkenhead.
As well as taking part in the walk, there was a stall set up at the college to donate socks for the charity to then pass on to those in need.
Will Nicholls, one of the participating students at St Anselm's College, told JMU Journalism: "I think this walk is very important to help stop homelessness in Liverpool. Places like the Whitechapel Centre depend on people like us and everyone else doing the walk.
"It's important to raise awareness, raise money and help out any way we can."
YouTube: Stephen Bramhill
Alex Reardon, another year 12 student who took part, said: "These events could get bigger and bigger and it's important to see the commitment people show to helping stop homelessness. At St Anselm's we're being proactive about it, not just having meetings at school, but we're also taking action on it and helping out the best we can."
Hettie Miles, the events and community fundraiser at the Whitechapel Centre, told JMU Journalism: "This sponsored five-mile walk is a new event for us. It is the equivalent of what our outreach team does everyday by going out everyday between 6am and 10pm.
"St Anselm's College is one of the schools who support us. They are a part of the 'Young Friends of Whitechapel', it's a volunteer group who come and support Whitechapel through fundraisers and they're a big help for the charity."
Roisin Maguire, the Edmund Rice Foundation's Director of Schools for England, said: "We are delighted that St Anselm's are doing this. They are responding to the great need of their local community and they are a great witness to others."
Tags: birkenhead, Charity, Education, homelessness, Liverpool
About Stephen Bramhill, JMU Journalism
The Whitechapel Centre
St Anselm's College
Liverpool Echo: Homelessness in Liverpool
Edmund Rice England
Whitechapel Centre: Waterfront walk


text:
Backstory:
When we realized that the Green Light Project was not yet ready for a venue beyond what the community centre can offer them, we decided that we needed to shift our focus to strengthening the Green Light Project's programmes. With talking with Ronell and Shelia and observing the children in the community, we learned that the children are all very musically talented. They love expressing themselves through singing and dancing. Using our knowledge of asset based community development, we decided to create a programme that allowed the children to practice their artistic talents. The programme looks to teach children how to mix and make their own music with a computer. We told them we could provide them with a compute if we could find someone to lead the project. Ronell and Shelia invited us to meet with Ibrahim Orrie. He is a 22 year old resident of MGV who Ronell and Shelia told us would be perfect for the job.
Cast of Characters: Ibrahim Orrie, Jules, Andrea, Sheila, and Ronell
Planning:
Questions to ask Ibrahim:
After explaining the programme – What is your opinion? Do you think children would be interested in the mixing music?
How computer literate are you? Do you already know how to use some mixing programmes?
What is your availability during the week?
How do you feel about working with children?
Do you have any suggestions on how the programme should be run?
Key "Take Home" Observations:
Ebi understands the need for talent upliftment through fun activities in the community and seems like the right person for the job.
Action and Observations:
We met Ibrahim in the Community Centre in the early afternoon. After five minutes of talking with him, we knew he was our guy. Asking us to call him Ebi, he told us that our music programme was a very good idea and that there would be a lot of interest among the children in the village. He also said that since he was not currently working he would be readily available throughout the week. Most importantly, Ebi knows how to create music using computer software and hence will be the perfect person to expose the kids to this technology. He also knows how to mix music and has been mixing music of his own for a while. He is very interested in teaching the kids how to mix music like his.
Reflection and Learning
By the end of the meeting, we felt confident that Ebi was our person. He was interested in getting involved and understood the purpose of starting the programme. He was very friendly and said he was excited to get started. He gave us the impression that he was willing to put a lot of effort into starting up the programme. We are excited to get started with the next two weeks and see how the programme progresses.
To go to the previous scene, click here! To go on to the next scene, click here!
Act 3 Main Page
MGV Homepage


text:
Erie County Shatters Daily COVID-19 Positivity Record
It's hard to believe that the COVID-19 pandemic started almost two years ago, and even though there have been positive signs over the course of the past 20-22 months, Erie County and the State of New York is dealing with a huge surge of the virus, thanks to the Omicron variant.
For Erie County, January 5th was by far the worst day for positive cases during the pandemic.
Erie County recorded nearly 4,000 new cases of COVID-19 today. The positivity rate was a mind-blowing 26.8 percent, and that is far and away a record, per Nick Veronica of WIVB.
According to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, 10 people died on January 5th from COVID-19. 90 percent of all hospital beds were occupied, as hospitalizations increase.
There have been over 17,000 new cases over the past seven days in Erie County, as the Omicron variant spreads across the region.
There is still a mask requirement for all indoor public spaces in Erie County, along with New York State.
As of now, that mask mandate will go to February 1st, although there is no word on when or if that mandate will be extended further into the winter by Governor Kathy Hochul.
The Erie County Department of Health and Poloncarz are still urging everyone to use caution and wear masks to slow the spread of the virus.
Answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions
Vaccinations for COVID-19 began being administered in the U.S. on Dec. 14, 2020. The quick rollout came a little more than a year after the virus was first identified in November 2019. The impressive speed with which vaccines were developed has also left a lot of people with a lot of questions. The questions range from the practical—how will I get vaccinated?—to the scientific—how do these vaccines even work?
Keep reading to discover answers to 25 common COVID-19 vaccine questions.
LOOK: Things from the year you were born that don't exist anymore
The iconic (and at times silly) toys, technologies, and electronics have been usurped since their grand entrance, either by advances in technology or breakthroughs in common sense. See how many things on this list trigger childhood memories—and which ones were here and gone so fast you missed them entirely.
The 100 Best Places to Live on the East Coast
Source: Erie County Shatters Daily COVID-19 Positivity Record
Filed Under: COVID-19 Coronavirus, Erie County


text:
https://homeofficemedia.blog.gov.uk/2019/02/20/home-office-in-the-media-blog-wednesday-20-february/
Home Office in the media blog: Wednesday 20 February
Posted by: Home Office news team, Posted on: 20 February 2019 - Categories: Leading stories
Today's Home Office stories include the Home Secretary's decision to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship, new drone legislation, and Special Grant funding for Grenfell Tower.
Begum stripped of British citizenship
There is widespread prominent coverage of the Home Secretary's decision to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship.
The teenager has been revoked of her citizenship after a public backlash to her comments in a series of interviews in which she appeared "remorseless" to the actions of Daesh, the Sun reports.
ITV News reported last night that her mother received a letter from Sajid Javid stating that her daughter, who has asked to return to the UK with her newborn baby, would be stripped of her citizenship and urging the family to inform her.
The papers report that the Home Secretary has been vocal in his opposition to Begum's return, but legal experts have argued that because individuals cannot be left stateless he does not have the power to stop her unless she is a dual national.
Her family's solicitor Tasnime Akunjee says that although her parents are Bangladeshi, she does not have citizenship there and holds no identify documents for any country other than the UK. The papers report her family would be "considering all legal avenues to challenge this decision".
In recent days the Home Secretary has clearly stated that his priority is the safety and security of Britain and the people who live here.
In order to protect this country, he has the power to deprive someone of their British
citizenship where it would not render them stateless.
We do not comment on individual cases, but any decisions to deprive individuals of their citizenship are based on all available evidence and not taken lightly.
Three-mile no-fly zones for drones
The Telegraph, Times, FT and Mail report on the announcement today that drones are banned from being flown within 5km of airports.
The Telegraph reports that the legislation will come into place next month, extending the current ban of 0.6 miles to 3 miles. The paper says that this announcement comes amid growing concern about drone misuse, following the incidents at Gatwick and Heathrow airports.
The Times reports that police are to use new stop and search powers and on the spot fines in the fight against rouge drone operators. The paper says the new legislation will give officers to ability to search anyone suspected of flouting restrictions on the use of small, unmanned devices, and will allow officers to impose £100 on the sport fines for lesser offences. The paper also says the bill will give police powers to access data stored on a drone.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said:
Extending stop and search to include drones will help police tackle disruption like the recent misery we saw at UK airports, when travel was ruined for thousands of innocent passengers, and bring those responsible to justice.
Police are clear that stop and search is one of the most powerful tools they have to target and disrupt crime and I remain committed to giving them all the support they need to protect the public.
Police denied full funds sought for Grenfell probe
The Independent reports that the Government refused to fully meet a special request for funding towards the Grenfell Tower police investigation, despite approving all other made last year.
The paper says that while the request for additional funding for the probe into the 2017 disaster was considerably higher than other lodged by the Metropolitan police, politicians have accused the Home Office of "denying justice".
The paper reports that in 2017-18, £10.1 million out of the £11 million requested was awarded for the Grenfell investigation, and in 2018-19, £11.4 million out of £13.5 million was given.
To date, we have awarded the Metropolitan Police a total of £22 million towards their Grenfell Tower response and investigation costs.
This includes reimbursing the force in full for the cost of its response and covers the vast majority of its investigation costs.
Tags: daesh, drones, grenfell, returnees
Shamima Begum - Home Office statement
Clarification: The Guardian on the EU Settlement Scheme


Whether you're an executive facing a new competitive landscape, or an employee with "intrapreneurial" potential, targeted coaching from a seasoned advisor can unleash your leadership capabilities.
Through executive coaching, consulting, and corporate team training, Robert Wallace helps clients navigate organizational challenges to capture new levels of growth. His practical advice and strategic guidance equip clients with leadership best practices that are backed by research and proven by Bob's real-world experience.
Bob's coaching and consulting services are tailored to meet each client's objectives, which ensures that his approach will be relevant to your unique situation. By pushing beyond conventional corporate pep talks, Bob drives profound changes that can transform your perspective and accelerate your performance.
Discover more about Bob's coaching services, watch a demo video of him in action, and read client testimonials to see how he can help your organization break through to new heights.


The University of Kent is proud to support postgraduate research, training and development through the following consortia.
The South-east Network for Social Sciences provides ESRC funded studentships and postgraduate training in Social Sciences. Details of the 2018 studentship competition will be announced in September 2017.
The Eastern Academic Research Consortium collaborates in doctoral-level training and research in digital humanities, quantitative social science and synthetic bilology.
The ARIES Doctoral Training Partnership offers fully funded NERC PhD studentships and bespoke training for postgraduate researchers in Environmental Science.
The Consortium for Humanities and Arts South-East Engand offers AHRC funded studentships in the Humanities-based subject areas.
SEPnet is a consortium of physics departments across nine universities that support collaborative doctoral research and industry-education partnerships.


Not only is Australian Gold's Botanical SPF 15 Continuous Spray the ideal sun protection due to it's non-chemical, mineral base, as well as it's non-sticky after-feel.
This mineral spray is hypoallergenic, making it perfect for all age groups. What's more, the incorporation of Red Algae provides skin with antioxidants Vitamins A & E as well as Iron, Folic Acid and three Amino Acids. Plus Kakadu Plum helps to mitigate damage caused by sun damage and free radicals, providing not only great sun protection but also high-quality skincare.
This natural spray is formulated with organic Alcohol for a naturally luxurious sunscreen experience that can be applied in a constant mist. Great sun protection for anyone looking to keep skin healthy and nourished whilst on the go.


And then there is rose.
Art Prescription: I've always loved pink. I picked pink and red for my 10 year old bedroom. Some things are just part of your personality.
Beautiful reflective colors in the vase. Love this one!


text:
import { URL } from 'url'
import HttpAgent from 'agentkeepalive'
import createHttpProxyAgent from 'http-proxy-agent'
import createHttpsProxyAgent from 'https-proxy-agent'
import LRU from 'lru-cache'
import SocksProxyAgent from 'socks-proxy-agent'

const HttpsAgent = HttpAgent.HttpsAgent

const DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKETS = 50

const AGENT_CACHE = new LRU({ max: 50 })

export interface AgentOptions {
  ca?: string
  cert?: string
  httpProxy?: string
  httpsProxy?: string
  key?: string
  localAddress?: string
  maxSockets?: number
  noProxy?: boolean | string
  strictSsl?: boolean
  timeout?: number
}

export default function getAgent (uri: string, opts: AgentOptions) {
  const parsedUri = new URL(uri)
  const isHttps = parsedUri.protocol === 'https:'
  const pxuri = getProxyUri(uri, opts)

  /* eslint-disable @typescript-eslint/prefer-nullish-coalescing */
  const key = [
    `https:${isHttps.toString()}`,
    pxuri
      ? `proxy:${pxuri.protocol}//${pxuri.host}:${pxuri.port}`
      : '>no-proxy<',
    `local-address:${opts.localAddress ?? '>no-local-address<'}`,
    `strict-ssl:${isHttps ? Boolean(opts.strictSsl).toString() : '>no-strict-ssl<'}`,
    `ca:${(isHttps && opts.ca) || '>no-ca<'}`,
    `cert:${(isHttps && opts.cert) || '>no-cert<'}`,
    `key:${(isHttps && opts.key) || '>no-key<'}`,
  ].join(':')
  /* eslint-enable @typescript-eslint/prefer-nullish-coalescing */

  if (AGENT_CACHE.peek(key)) {
    return AGENT_CACHE.get(key)
  }

  if (pxuri) {
    const proxy = getProxy(pxuri, opts, isHttps)
    AGENT_CACHE.set(key, proxy)
    return proxy
  }

  // If opts.timeout is zero, set the agentTimeout to zero as well. A timeout
  // of zero disables the timeout behavior (OS limits still apply). Else, if
  // opts.timeout is a non-zero value, set it to timeout + 1, to ensure that
  // the node-fetch-npm timeout will always fire first, giving us more
  // consistent errors.
  const agentTimeout = typeof opts.timeout !== 'number' || opts.timeout === 0 ? 0 : opts.timeout + 1

  // NOTE: localAddress is passed to the agent here even though it is an
  // undocumented option of the agent's constructor.
  //
  // This works because all options of the agent are merged with
  // all options of the request:
  // https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/350a95b89faab526de852d417bbb8a3ac823c325/lib/_http_agent.js#L254
  const agent = isHttps
    ? new HttpsAgent({
      ca: opts.ca,
      cert: opts.cert,
      key: opts.key,
      localAddress: opts.localAddress,
      maxSockets: opts.maxSockets ?? DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKETS,
      rejectUnauthorized: opts.strictSsl,
      timeout: agentTimeout,
    } as any) // eslint-disable-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
    : new HttpAgent({
      localAddress: opts.localAddress,
      maxSockets: opts.maxSockets ?? DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKETS,
      timeout: agentTimeout,
    } as any) // eslint-disable-line @typescript-eslint/no-explicit-any
  AGENT_CACHE.set(key, agent)
  return agent
}

function checkNoProxy (uri: string, opts: { noProxy?: boolean | string }) {
  const host = new URL(uri).hostname.split('.').filter(x => x).reverse()
  if (typeof opts.noProxy === 'string') {
    const noproxyArr = opts.noProxy.split(/\s*,\s*/g)
    return noproxyArr.some(no => {
      const noParts = no.split('.').filter(x => x).reverse()
      if (noParts.length === 0) {
        return false
      }
      for (let i = 0; i < noParts.length; i++) {
        if (host[i] !== noParts[i]) {
          return false
        }
      }
      return true
    })
  }
  return opts.noProxy
}

function getProxyUri (
  uri: string,
  opts: {
    httpProxy?: string
    httpsProxy?: string
    noProxy?: boolean | string
  }
) {
  const { protocol } = new URL(uri)

  let proxy: string | undefined
  switch (protocol) {
  case 'http:': {
    proxy = opts.httpProxy
    break
  }
  case 'https:': {
    proxy = opts.httpsProxy
    break
  }
  }

  if (!proxy) {
    return null
  }

  if (!proxy.includes('://')) {
    proxy = `${protocol}//${proxy}`
  }

  const parsedProxy = (typeof proxy === 'string') ? new URL(proxy) : proxy

  return !checkNoProxy(uri, opts) && parsedProxy
}

function getProxy (
  proxyUrl: URL,
  opts: {
    ca?: string
    cert?: string
    key?: string
    timeout?: number
    localAddress?: string
    maxSockets?: number
    strictSsl?: boolean
  },
  isHttps: boolean
) {
  const popts = {
    auth: (proxyUrl.username ? (proxyUrl.password ? `${proxyUrl.username}:${proxyUrl.password}` : proxyUrl.username) : undefined),
    ca: opts.ca,
    cert: opts.cert,
    host: proxyUrl.hostname,
    key: opts.key,
    localAddress: opts.localAddress,
    maxSockets: opts.maxSockets ?? DEFAULT_MAX_SOCKETS,
    path: proxyUrl.pathname,
    port: proxyUrl.port,
    protocol: proxyUrl.protocol,
    rejectUnauthorized: opts.strictSsl,
    timeout: typeof opts.timeout !== 'number' || opts.timeout === 0 ? 0 : opts.timeout + 1,
  }

  if (proxyUrl.protocol === 'http:' || proxyUrl.protocol === 'https:') {
    if (!isHttps) {
      return createHttpProxyAgent(popts)
    } else {
      return createHttpsProxyAgent(popts)
    }
  }
  if (proxyUrl.protocol?.startsWith('socks')) {
    return new SocksProxyAgent(popts)
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: ETL for a frequently changing Table structure Scenario:
I have a Source which maintains the transactions data. They have around 900 columns and based on the requirements of the new business, they add additional columns.
We are a BI team and we only extract around 200 columns which are required for our reporting. But when new business is launched / new analysis is required, sometimes users approach us and request us to pull extra columns from the source.
Current Design:
We have created a table with extra columns for future columns as well.
We are maintaining a 400 column table with the future column names like str_01, str_02...., numer_01, numer_02... date_01, date_02... etc.
We have a mapping table which maps the columns in our table and columns in Source table. Using this mapping table, we extract the data from source.
Problem:
Recently, we have reached the 400 column limit of our table and we won't be able to onboard any new columns. One approach that we can implement is to modify the table to increase the columns to 500 (or 600) but I am looking for other solutions on how to implement ETL / design the table structure for these scenarios.

A: I suppose your additional columns are measures, not dimensions. So you can keep the dimensions in the individual columns and include them into sort key, and store measures in JSON, accessing them whenever you need. Also if you can distinguish between frequently used measures vs. occasional you can store the frequently used ones in columns and the occasional ones in JSON. Redshift has native support for extracting the value given the key, and you also have the ability to set up Python UDFs for more complex processing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


I don't know about you but the music industry can seem little confusing sometimes. Each day cases, lawsuits, statistics, company rivalries, and so much more hits are presented to us in various formats (magazines, newspapers, blog, forums etc). Today I'd like to carry on with the streaming music issues that have arisen.
The argument has been going on for so long, but who is right? No, really. Who is right? We are hit right and left with so many contradicting 'facts' and 'statistics'. Are these real, or just lofty opinions? We have to ask ourselves this question before we take any side in supporting artists or streaming companies.
Many people will say Spotify do not pay enough. Spotify pay out 70-75% of their revenue back to the artists and or record company (whoever is in charge of the accounting). If you didn't know, 1% of artists receive up to around 77% of the revenue earned in the music industry (radio, live, stream, downloads, merchandise, ads etc). Maybe that is one reason why Spotify isn't good for new artists. Of course it will be hard for any new artist hoping to promote themselves these days, when there is so much competition with so many people aspiring to be full-time paid musicians and artists. But, in my option, it is also down to the fact that generally people listen to what they know (commercial pop icons) or what is directly fed to them (commercial pop icons).
One thing is for sure though and that is Nothing is for sure in the music industry.


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A complete analysis of logistics trends, technologies, and services
The Audiovox Global Supply Chain
Global Trade Management Solutions | By Steve Banker • 09/29/2009
Audiovox Corporation is a publicly-traded company (NASDAQ: VOXX) headquartered in Hauppauge, New York. The company generated about $600 million in revenues in its last fiscal year. Audiovox started in the car radio business but its product portfolio has expanded over the years to include satellite radio, vehicle security, remote start and other mobile products. The company has made several significant acquisitions, including Thomson's Americas consumer electronics accessories business (the RCA brand) in 2007.
Audiovox's supply chain usually starts in the Pacific Rim where it purchases goods for sale, largely to North American customers, from overseas manufacturers. The company works directly with its suppliers to design and test the products. A large percentage of its products are sold to the automotive OEMs.
Following the acquisition of the RCA products, Audiovox recognized that it needed to streamline its global supply chain. Pat Moffett, Vice President of Global Logistics & Customs Compliance at Audiovox, helped to initiate two changes to streamline their processes. First, the company initiated nonstop, long-haul, team driving from its primary port of entry (Seattle-Tacoma) to its main distribution centers in Indianapolis and Memphis. Prior to this, the company relied primarily on rail shioments from the port to its DCs. However, because ship and rail schedules did not always sync up, lead times were often unacceptably long. This led the company to spend too much on costly air freight. Today, of the 4,000 forty-foot ocean containers Audiovox imports each year, 500-600 trailers now move by road.
Secondly, Audiovox implemented a global visibility solution called POET (Purchase Order Expediting & Tracking System) from E2E. Visibility for goods shipped by ocean (the company is not using POET for air shipments) begins with the purchase order and ends with delivery of the goods to a DC in the U.S. A foreign manufacturer notifies the freight forwarder when the goods are ready for pick up. The freight forwarder is in charge of entering the key data that drives end-to-end visibility into the system, and it also knows how long it will take to move the goods from port to port. It is the freight forwarder's responsibility to keep track of schedule changes and enter the new data into the visibility solution. According to Pat, POET is a good solution that is reasonably priced, but having freight forwarding partners with the right "discipline" is critical to making this solution work.
POET is both a trade and visibility solution, as key information entered into POET is also used for Importer Security Filings ("10 + 2") with customs.
Visibility from POET has given Audiovox more flexibility in how it routes goods from the port to the final destination. Planners can now make routing decisions later in the process. For example, if it looks like a ship-to-train shipment will take too long, a planner can changeover to a truck shipment as long as he notifies the ocean carrier 72 hours in advance. This process allows Audiovox to move goods from Hong Kong to Memphis in just 14 days. There are also rare instances when air freight from Asia is still necessary. Having advanced visibility allows Audiovox to marry up a 500 piece air shipment into Seattle, for example, with inbound ocean freight and then consolidate these into one truck shipment to Indianapolis. Or, if it looks like securing a timely rail shipment out of Seattle will be a problem, a planner might chose to ship to Los Angeles instead and use rail from there.
These changes have led to two main benefits: First, even though shipping by truck is more expensive than shipping by rail, the reduction in air shipments (along with other factors) was a major contributor in logistics costs dropping from 15 percent of revenues in 2002 to just 4 percent in 2009. Secondly, logistics personnel are now spending about half as much time answering the "when will this shipment arrive" question.
Audiovox has been a highly acquisitive company and its product line continues to expand. For example, the company will introduce a handheld TV in October. However, Pat is convinced that POET will scale and allow them to respond flexibly to whatever situations arise in the future.
Filed Under: Global Trade Management Solutions, High Tech & Electronics Industry Tagged With: "10+2", Audiovox, E2E, Global Trade, Importer Security Filing, Pat Moffett, POET, Pucrhase Order Expediting & Tracking System, supply chain visibility
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text:
The WWII Memorial: Inadequate and Out of Place (The Washington Post)
By Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post; Op-ed
Some causes are hopeless and yet still worth pursuing to the bitter end. And the bitter end comes soon for those who have for years opposed the ill-conceived World War II memorial. On Sept. 7, the National Capital Planning Commission, the last official body to rule, will undoubtedly vote to make it a fact.
After that, there will be lawsuits. One will claim that the site on which the memorial is to be established is, according to the National Park Service's own studies, an integral part of the Lincoln Memorial and thus presumably inviolable.
This and the other suits will prove nothing more than delaying tactics–although we should cherish the few extra months they will provide before the memorial ruptures the harmony of the Mall.
How so? Because of the site. The proposed site is the Rainbow Pool, just beyond the Reflecting Pool that sits at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. It is a magnificent space that offers a pristine vista stretching across the Mall from Lincoln to the Washington Monument to the Capitol.
The World War II memorial is to be erected directly in that line of sight. It will mar forever one of the most glorious spaces of any capital on the planet, a vast bucolic promenade stretching two miles from shrine to shrine.
The central problem remains today what it always has been: the disproportion in scale between the site, a modest patch of green, and the event, the greatest in American history since the Civil War. Anything modest enough to fit the site and not disrupt its subtle harmonies cannot do justice to the majesty of America's struggle in the Second World War. Yet anything large enough to match the grandeur of World War II will necessarily dwarf and crush the site.
It is because of that contradiction that the late Rick Hart, who sculpted the "Ex Nihilo" tympanum at the National Cathedral and the figures at the Vietnam Memorial, proposed an alternative: a grand monument to be erected directly across the Potomac from the Mall on an unused circle at the entrance to Arlington Cemetery. The circle could be the site of a triumphal arch or some other unapologetically bold architectural element, and the surrounding area could house a museum, making the memorial a place not just for contemplation but for education of future generations.
The site on the Mall originally had an underground museum, too. But it had to be scrapped because its size and weight, and the resulting traffic and congestion, would have grossly violated the serenity of the Mall.
The memorial was then accordingly and repeatedly scaled down. Until we now have what? A pool with an as yet unknown architectural element in the center, surrounded by 17-foot-high granite columns with wreaths. There will be 56 of these, representing the states and the territories.
In the desperate search for some subdued element, the plan chooses to represent states. What in God's name does this have to do with the Second World War? States? The Civil War was about states. Half the country is littered with monuments to the 54th Massachusetts or the 20th Maine or the 2nd Texas.
In the 1860s, Americans fought in state militias as representatives of their states. But the 1940s? The great war was forged from the contributions of farm boys and physicists, Brahmins and working men, women and blacks, immigrants and industrialists.
These were the sinews of war. If there were a museum, as there would be at a more suitable site, these would be the subject of study and exposition. (How the war, for example, was an incubator for the later emancipation of women and African Americans.) States? Have you ever read a paper titled "Idaho and the Second World War?"
There will be other elements added. A stone wall making it nearly impossible to walk directly east-west across the Mall. Two arches representing the Atlantic and Pacific fronts, rising a monstrous 41 feet above the Mall, dwarfing everything around. And more.
No matter. It will be built. And we will come. In reverence. We will go there to pay homage to the generation that waged the most monumental, most unequivocally righteous struggle in history. But we will feel a tinge of sorrow that, because of its location, their memorial necessarily could not rise to adequately represent the grandeur of their achievement.
They did, after all, save the world. They deserve better.
Tags: WWII Memorial
More Posts in WWII Memorial Media Archive
Some Vets Opposing WII Memorial (The Atlanta Constitution)
Wrong Thing, Wrong Time (Editorial by The Los Angeles Times)
Excerpt from 'How to Overthrow the Government'


Why is corporate training so important today? It is because the performance of the employees in the company is what gives results in terms of business and profits. How an individual works is very important for the well being of the company. It is not just the individual growth, but the overall growth of the company that matters, which is why many companies across the world pay millions to get their employees trained in different areas. There are many corporate training programs offered by many institutes that train corporate employees. It is not just the low level employees but also those in the higher ranks are trained from time to time. There is stiff competition in the corporate sector, and in order to get ahead in this race, such programs are made compulsory. Based on the experience and qualification of the employees, they are given appropriate training.
In this training, sales training is of the highest importance because sales generate revenue for the company. Training is also given on soft skills which play an important role in sales. There are many leadership programs for corporate heads that will help them identify the areas in which they can motivate their team. This will help them create an environment that is conducive for work and make sure that all the team members are happy. As long as the team performs well, there will be good progress which is continuously required. Another area of training includes the code of conduct which makes the employees familiar with the policies of the company and basic dos and don't those have to be followed while working efficiently. The corporate training institute will cover many topics that are technical and non technical irrespective of the job profile. The communication skills and basic technical knowledge is very essential in any field.
Once the training is complete, the employees are expected to make use of all that they learnt in the training real time during the working hours. This is the primary intention behind training them. Many tests are scheduled that the employees have to take based on what they are taught in the training. If the training program improves the technical skills, then certificates may also be given for the same. The trainers who train such employees are professionals who have many years of training and also have real time experience in facing the various challenges that will be put forth in a working environment. Some companies will have clients from other countries, so their employees will have to learn foreign languages to communicate with those clients. Such foreign language translation is important so that the business is not affected. The companies are paying a lot of money for training their workers because it is the skill and the knowledge of the workers that will get them more clients and excel further in the business.
There are many such institutes that offer training in foreign languages. For example, if the client belongs to a German company then some employees may have to visit Germany to take the deals further or to learn more things about the business. There are many German spoken English training institutes that will help the employees to learn basic German language. For the success of the company, the workers have to undergo such training programs, although learning a foreign language can be an added personal advantage which can be added to their own resume or bio data. Corporate training is of great importance because unless the employees are not trained and updated with the latest trends in the market, other companies in the same field will go ahead and get the deal that you were looking for.


The fourth round of the Tekno Winter Series was held at the Hobbyplex indoor track in Omaha, Nebraska over the week-end with 115 entries. In Pro Nitro Buggy Jared Wiggins (Tekno RC) took the overall TQ while in Pro E-buggy it was Mason Fuller (TLR) who set the TQ. The 30-minute Nitro Buggy main will be a close affair between Seth VanDalen (Tekno RC) and J.Wiggins for the lead. J.Wiggins was able to hold a 5 second cushion and lead 41 of the 75 laps but with a couple mid race mistakes he would give up his lead to S.VanDalen and have to settle for second overall. M.Fuller rounded out the top 3. In E-buggy J.Wiggins was able to get by M.Fuller a couple minutes in and he kept it clean to take the overall win by 14 seconds. M.Fuller came in second while Alex Sturgeon (Mugen) finished third.


text:
Additional Public Works Appropriations: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Seventy-third Congress, Second Session, on S. 3348, a Bill to Provide for Additional Appropriations for Public Works, to Amend the National Industrial Recovery Act, and for Other Purposes. April 24 to May 30, 1934 ...
United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Education and Labor
U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934 - 301 pages
Additional Public Works Appropriations: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of ...
20 feet additional Administration American amount applications appropriation approved approximately areas Association authority believe bill bonds Bridge building capital carry chart Cleveland committee communities complete construction continue contract contractors cost Department depression direct drainage east effect emergency employed employment engineers estimated existing expenditures fact Federal Federal Government feet feet of concrete figures financing funds give going Government Grading highway housing improvements increase industries interest investment labor loans mapping March materials means meet ment Michigan months municipalities necessary normal North operation percent period planning possible present President problem production projects public-works reason record recovery relief represent result River secure Senator LA FOLLETTE situation South statement surveys thing tion unemployed United West York
Page 3 - One-third in the ratio which the area of each State bears to the total area of all the States ; one-third in the ratio which the population of each State bears to the total population of all the States...
Page 7 - Treasury, but no such extension shall be for more than sixty days. (c) Returns filed under this title shall be open to inspection in the same manner, to the same extent, and subject to the same provisions of law, including penalties, as returns made under Title II of the Revenue Act of 1926.
Page 196 - I have compared the preceding with the original law on file in this office, and do hereby certify that the same is a correct transcript therefrom, and of the whole of said original law. ' Given under my hand and the seal of office of the Secretary of State, at the city of Albany, this third day of May, in the year one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five.
Page 5 - ... to citizens of the United States and aliens who have declared their intention of becoming citizens, who are bona fide residents of the State, Territory, or district in which the work Is to be performed : Provided, That these preferences shall apply only where such labor is available and qualified to perform the work to which the employment relates; and (5) that the maximum of human labor shall be used in lieu of machinery wherever practicable and consistent with sound economy and public advantage.
Page 2 - With a view to increasing employment quickly (while reasonably securing any loans made by the United States) the President is authorized and empowered, through the Administrator or through such other agencies as he may designate or create, (1) to construct, finance, or aid in the construction or financing of any public works project included in the program prepared pursuant to section 202...
Page 3 - States seven-eighths in accordance with the provisions of section 21 of the Federal Highway Act, approved November 9, 1921, as amended and supplemented...
Page 5 - Any Federal reserve bank may make advances for periods not exceeding fifteen days to its member banks on their promissory notes secured by the deposit or pledge of bonds, notes, certificates of indebtedness, or Treasury bills of the United States...
Page 1 - Act and to utilize such Federal officers and employees and, with the consent of the State, such State and local officers and employees as he may find necessary to assist in the administration of this Act and to prescribe rules and regulations with respect thereto.
Page 7 - If the tax is not paid when due, there shall be added as part of the tax interest at the rate of 6 per centum per annum from the time when the tax became due until paid.
Page 7 - ... (or as of the date of organization in the case of a corporation having no income-tax taxable year ending at or prior to the close of the year for which the tax is imposed by this section).
Title Additional Public Works Appropriations: Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, United States Senate, Seventy-third Congress, Second Session, on S. 3348, a Bill to Provide for Additional Appropriations for Public Works, to Amend the National Industrial Recovery ...
Author United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Education and Labor
Publisher U.S. Government Printing Office, 1934
Original from the Library of Congress


Next month's TOTM will be Victory.
Every month this website will feature ten to twenty Horacek cartoons on a chosen topic. I chose them alphabetically. All cartoons are ©Judy Horacek. I'd rather you didn't use these cartoons without my permission, but if you must, I'd appreciate it if you acknowledge my authorship and the source. They are cartoons, not memes! Cartoons this month were first published in The Age, The Australian, Overland Magazine, Art Monthly and my very first cartoon book, Life on the Edge.
I also love your cartoons Judy, they are very evocative.
Graffiti is so rarely witty these days! Glad you enjoy the cartoons, I'll keep 'em coming!
You always make me smile even today when i have had a recent bereavement!
ps I loved the' Are we there yet' cartoon for the equality debate i put it on my triumph Human response to Crisis FB page after a friend posted it!
I don't laugh out loud much – but certainly do at your cartoons!
That "greatness" cartoon has set off an old Ian Dury song in my head ("I Wanna Be Straight") – which is much better than what was there before!
I love that Ian Dury song, but my fave is 'Reasons to be cheerful part Three' (or 'free' as it sounded). I used it as the name for an exhibition once years ago, all happy work.
I love these! "Some Days" and "Little Bo Peep" are particularly resonating at the moment… So disappointed I couldn't get to the recent exhibition. I hope it went really well!
Thanks Sarah. Yes, the exhibition went very well. I thought it looked great, and lots of people came, and quite a lot of work sold. Who could ask for anything more?
Love the cartoons. They brighten my life!
Exquisite, Judy! Keep up the AWESOME work!