Responsible for repositioning and stabilizing newly acquired properties throughout Texas and the Mountain West regions; and help lead third party property management expansion in those regions. ResProp serves national property owners of US-based residential real estate. We are best-in-class in acquisitions, asset management, property management, and construction management.


text:
using Free.FileFormats.VRML.Interfaces;

namespace Free.FileFormats.VRML.Nodes
{
	public class dummyTorus : X3DNode, X3DGeometryNode, IDummyNode
	{
		// TODO
		// http://doc.instantreality.org/documentation/nodetype/Torus/

		internal override X3DPrototypeInstance GetProto() { return new dummyTorusPROTO(); }
	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Flick's circus back in town
RIGA - Continuing review of a lawsuit that former head of the national airline airBaltic Bertolt Flick has filed against Latvijas Krajbank and Latvia's Transport Ministry, Riga Regional Court has temporarily arrested the state-owned shares in airBaltic, reports LETA.
According to the court's press secretary Aigars Berzins, the court's decision cannot be appealed.
Flick's attorney Viktors Tihonovs also confirmed to LETA that the court had ordered airBaltic shares arrested, adding that the airline has been banned from increasing its share capital.
Tihonovs previously said that, pursuant to the government's agreement with banks and airBaltic creditors, reached on Oct. 3, 2011, no deals were supposed to take place with airBaltic shares until Dec. 31, 2012. However, the state violated the agreement by buying 47.2 percent of airBaltic shares from Krajbanka, which Flick had used as security to take out a loan from the bank, and thus the state became owner of 99.8 percent of airBaltic shares.
"The shares belonged to Baltijas Aviacijas sistemas, which in turn belonged to Flick, and the shares were the security that Flick offered to banks to guarantee that he would honor his obligations. It is but logical that, if the main asset put up as security is sold in violation of the agreement, such a transaction must be ruled void," said Tihonovs.
In the meantime, the Regional Court has postponed review of an 70 million lats (100 million euros) airBaltic lawsuit against Flick until Dec. 10. AirBaltic is demanding more than 20 million lats from Flick and 50 million lats from the company that insured Flick's liability.
AirBaltic previously informed Nozare.lv that the proceedings were launched over Flick's harmful activities as the airline's sole board member, such as signing unfavorable contracts and assuming fictitious liabilities against Investbank.
The proceedings were also started over spontaneous and unjustified flight cancellations without duly warning airBaltic passengers, abuse of power, when Flick signed contracts with his own and affiliated companies, essentially skimming funds from the company, malevolent manipulations of airBaltic brands, divulging commercially sensitive data on the airline and its employees to third parties on questionable conditions, and damaging the airline's reputation – basically running the airline as his personal bank account, and into the ground.
Flick quit airBaltic in the fall of 2011 after it became apparent that the airline's losses had reached a record-breaking amount. The airline's current CEO Martin Gauss said that airBaltic operated with a loss of 77 million lats in 2011.
The Riga Regional Court's decision to arrest state shares in the airline will have no impact on the airline's daily operations and the process of finding an investor for the airline, said the Transport Ministry.
Wounded Ukraine soldiers arrive in Latvia for treatment (video)
Lithuania spy leaked NATO secrets to Belarus
Riga named among hipster capitals in the world
Lithuania's foreign minister: dialogue with Russian society key
Estonia, Lithuania, UK, Denmark call for EU action on Russian information warfare; Latvia refuses to join
Latvian Muslim fighing in Syria, say security service
Estonia tops world internet freedom list

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Porcelanosa Trendbook
The Jury of the 8th PORCELANOSA Awards: Fermín Vázquez
Within a few months of celebrating the 8th Architecture and Interior Design Awards ceremony held by PORCELANOSA Group, we are beginning to know the identity of the professionals who will be in charge of the selection process, and also as a members of a jury, they will the ones who select the winning projects.
Firstly, we focus on the figure of Fermín Vázquez, an architect by ETSAM (Architecture College in Madrid), who founded his own studio -b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos- in 1997 together with Ana Bassat. Throughout his career he has been awarded numerous honours, becoming an international benchmark in architecture. He has been awarded several prizes, such as AIT Awards 2014 -Special Best Worldwide and First Prize: Retail / Trade Fair Design, by Mercat dels Encants de Barcelona project; First Prize: WAN Award 2013 in Commercial Category, also by Mercat dels Encants project; or First Prize: Coloured Concrete Works Awards 2012, by Ciutat de la Justicia de Barcelona project.
Thanks to his extensive experience in the world of architecture, Fermín Vazquez has given lessons in very renowned institutions, such as the Architecture College in Barcelona, la École d'Architecture et de Paysage in Burdeos, and the European University in Madrid. He has also given courses and lectures in numerous universities and institutions worldwide.
From his b720 studio, with headquarters in Spain and Brazil, Fermín Vázquez and his team take part in worldwide projects. Because of their condition of large-scale projects, it is worth highlighting among them The Tourny Square in Burdeos (France), The Law Courts in Barcelona, (Spain), The Mola Hotel and Conference Centre in Terrassa, (Spain), the Harbour Front in Porto Alegre, (Brazil), the International Airport in Chinchero, (Peru) and the Spanish Pavilion in the International Exhibition in Milan 2015, (Italy).
In this 8th announcement of the Architecture and Interior Design Awards the participants in the "Future Projects" category, Professionals as well as Students, can present their projects of the interior design of a yacht (Rodman Group) by making use of the wide range of materials by the eight firms of PORCELANOSA Group. The deadline is on April 13th, 2015. Read the Rules of the competition or fill in the pre-registration in the webpage of the competition www.porcelanosa-interiorismo.com.
The 12th Porcelanosa Awards Finalists: the XLight collection from Urbatek and Krion™ play the leading roles in the transparent "Tarima" project.
The 12th Porcelanosa Awards Finalists: the most hipster KRION™ in Forward-Looking Student Projects
The 12th PORCELANOSA Awards: "Gom, a window to the sea" by Ángel Fito. Best Design of the Year and the 2019 Special Award


The authors introduce Alembic, a new static analysis tool that frees programmers from having to manually move computation to exploit locality in PGAS programs.
Magnus Robertsson shows how to control the code architecture to avoid an architectural drift leading to a big-ball-of-mud: peer review, code analysis, and zero tolerance to warnings and errors.
Creating secure code requires more than just good intentions. Static source code analysis can be used to uncover the kinds of errors that lead directly to vulnerabilities. Brian Chess shows you how.


text:
Word Carrier Trading Post
Bird Cage Book Store.... Mercantile
On a wintry day in December 1890, near a creek named Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the Seventh Cavalry of the U.S. Army opened fire on an encampment of Sioux Indians. This assault claimed more than 250 lives, including those of many Indian women and children. The tragedy at Wounded Knee has often been written about, but the existing photographs have received little attention until now.
Eyewitness at Wounded Knee brings together and assesses for the first time some 150 photographs that were made before and immediately after the massacre. Present at the scene were two itinerant photographers, George Trager and Clarence Grant Morelodge, whose work has never before been published. Accompanying commentaries focus on both the Indian and the military sides of the story. Richard E. Jensen analyzes the political and economic quagmire in which the Sioux found themselves after 1877. R. Eli Paul considers the army's role at Wounded Knee. John E. Carter discusses the photographers and also the reporters and relic hunters who were looking to profit from the misfortune of others.
For this Bison Books edition each image has been digitally enhanced and restored, making the photographs as compelling as the event itself. Heather Cox Richardson tells the story behind the endeavor to present a meaningful account of this significant historical event.
Eyewitness at Wounded Knee (Great Plains Photography)
SKU: 978-0803236097
Lily Mendoza
lilym@rap.midco.net


text:
Kayleigh McEnany: "God Put Me in This Position" as Trump's White House Press Secretary
By Megan Bailey
Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons
Kayleigh McEnany, President Trump's White House Press Secretary, is proud of her job. However, she is giving all the credit for her success in her journalism career to God.
In an interview with Fox News, McEnany said "God had a clear and definite plan for my life, and He put me on this journey in media and politics for a reason. I knew that God put me in this position, at this moment in time, for a reason."
"I recall both a former Democrat colleague at CNN as well as my dad telling me you come into your position 'for such a time as this' – words from the book of Esther, a book that my hometown church ironically did a series on during my time here at the White House."
When McEnany landed the position, she felt it was her duty to perform well in order to serve the Lord.
"I tell you this to emphasize I approached this position with a sense of responsibility to live up to the task God had planned for me…Know you can overcome through faith and that God has a path for you if you trust Him and follow it."
McEnany was raised as a Southern Baptist and attended a Florida Catholic all-girls school as a child, so her roots in Christianity are strong.
Despite her unwavering faith in her own divine appointment, McEnany has had a tense relationship with the American media this year. She has been heckled by reporters in press briefings as of late, because Donald Trump has yet to concede to the election results.
Megan Bailey is a Social Media Specialist and Content Producer for Beliefnet. She attended James Madison University where she received a degree in psychology.
President-Elect Joe Biden Regularly Attends Church, Leaving Politics Outside
Candace Cameron Bure Wants Her Followers to Read the Whole Bible
By Cecilia Buchanan
Candace Cameron Bure took to Instagram to encourage her followers to read the whole Bible. "Who's reading and listening to The Bible Recap with me?" she wrote. She told her followers it's "never too late." In her video message, she told her followers not to worry about falling behind and that "you're right where God wants you […]
Visions of Christ Are Bringing Iranians to Him
Billy Hallowell spoke with Rev. Lazarus Yeghnazar, founder of Transform Iran, on Faithwire last week to speak about the growing number of Christians in Iran, despite conversion to Christianity being illegal. Yeghnazar's organization works with underground churches and shared that many conversions are a result of visions and dreams that people are having. The visions have such an impact that, despite the […]
TV Host Bear Grylls Says Faith is Essential in a Survivor's Toolbox, Criticizes Western Church Culture
By Lauren McKeithen
Bear Grylls is the first to admit he's something of an unconventional Christian. The survivalist and TV host is unabashedly open about his faith and how it serves as his foundation for an empowered life. But he doesn't want to sanitize his message to make it inoffensive to a religious audience; frankly, he doesn't have […]
Man Wearing "Jesus Saves" Shirt Confronted at Mall of America For "Offending People"
The Mall of America continues to face backlash for its treatment of a Christian man wearing a "Jesus Saves" shirt. The video, which was shared on various social media outlets, shows a man named Paul Shoro in a confrontation over his "Jesus Saves" shirt with mall security guards. In the video, Shoro is seen wearing a bright […]


text:
Q: elasticsearch tokenize into word pairs given input "quick brown fox jumped", I would like to tokenize to
["quick brown", "brown fox" "fox jumped"]

But the tokenizers don't seem to offer this feature. This feels like it should be a common feature so I'm guessing im missing something obvious.
I can do ngrams, which allows like of
['q', 'qu', 'qui', 'quic', 'quick']

But I would like to get the combinations for words, rather than letters.
Is this supported?
Ps, the reason I would like to do this is to do suggesting next word - similarly to how google suggests the next word to use. I intend to use this tokenizer with phrase suggestor.

A: Ah it turns out I want shingles.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Murdoch UK media empire faces mounting pressure after Ofcom escalated its inquiry into whether BSkyB remains 'fit and proper' to broadcast.
The regulator has set up a special team to look at evidence emerging in the Leveson Inquiry and police investigations into phone hacking and corrupting public officials.
Since last summer it has been looking at all the publicly available material relating to the scandal, including parliamentary select committee evidence and newspaper reports.
Now it has moved from a 'monitoring phase' to an 'evidence-gathering phase' and called for documents not in the public domain as it accelerates the investigation.
Ofcom has asked Mr Murdoch's News Group Newspapers – publisher of the Sun and now-defunct News of the World – to provide it with documents in relation to the civil actions the company faces in the courts.
The regulator's investigation is considering whether Mr Murdoch and News Corp – which owns 39 per cent of BSkyB – are deemed 'fit and proper' to be allowed a broadcasting licence via the satellite TV firm.
If Ofcom decides to carry out a full 'fit and proper' test on News Corp, Mr Murdoch could ultimately face either having to sell his stake in BSkyB or lose his licence to broadcast.
But Ofcom made it clear that his departure from BSkyB did not make the broadcaster safe from having its licence revoked.
James Murdoch remains a senior executive at New York-based News Corp and the regulator said its decision would take into account the position of 'controlling directors and shareholders', which include News Corp.
Ofcom has said it does not have to wait until the end of any criminal investigation, nor is it necessary for any individual to be convicted for it to reach a conclusion.
But a decision on the 'fit and proper' test is not expected until the Leveson Inquiry and police investigations are more advanced.
The media regulator has also launched an investigation into Sky News, run by BSkyB, after it admitted it hacked into the emails of individuals suspected of criminal activities.
In his evidence to Leveson yesterday, Rupert Murdoch conceded that the phone-hacking scandal had forced News Corp to drop its controversial £8billion bid to take full control of BSkyB in July last year.
The bid was withdrawn nine days after the Guardian claimed that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked by the News of the World.


To our knowledge, the available psychometric literature does not include an instrument for the quantification of social quality of life among older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. To address the need for a tool of this kind, we conducted two studies to assess the initial reliability and validity of a new instrument. The latter was created specifically to quantify the contribution of a) social networks and resources (e.g., family, friends, and community) as well as b) one's perceived power and respect within family and community to subjective well-being in non-clinical, ethnically diverse populations of older women.
In Study 1, we recruited a cross-sectional sample of primarily non-European-American older women (N = 220) at a variety of community locations. Participants were administered the following: a short screener for dementia; a demographic list; an initial pool of 50 items from which the final items of the new Older Women's Social Quality of Life Inventory (OWSQLI) were to be chosen (based on a statistical criterion to apply to the factor analysis findings); the Single Item Measure of Social Support (SIMSS); and the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36). Study 2 was conducted on a second independent sample of ethnically diverse older women. The same recruitment strategies, procedures, and instruments as those of Study 1 were utilized in Study 2, whose sample was comprised of 241 older women with mostly non-European-American ethnic status.
In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis of the OWSQLI obtained robust findings: the total variance explained by one single factor with the final selection of 22 items was over 44%. The OWSQLI demonstrated strong internal consistency (α = .92, p < .001), adequate criterion validity with the SIMSS (r = .33; p < .01), and (as expected) moderate concurrent validity with the MOS SF-36 for both physical (r = .21; p < .01) and mental (r = .26; p < .01) quality of life. In order to confirm the validity of the 22-item OWSQLI scale that emerged from Study 1 analyses, we replicated those analyses in Study 2, although using confirmatory factor analysis. The total variance accounted for by one factor was about 42%, again quite high and indicative of a strong single-factor solution. Study 2 data analyses yielded the same strong reliability findings (i.e., α = .92, p < .001). The 22-item OWSQLI was correlated with the SIMSS (r = .27, p < .001) in the expected direction. Finally, correlations with the MOS SF- 36 demonstrated moderate concurrent validity for physical (r = .14; p < .01) and mental (r = .18; p < .01) quality of life, as expected.
The findings of these two studies highlight the potential for our new tool to provide a valid measure of older women's social quality of life, yet they require duplication in longitudinal research. Interested clinicians should consider using the OWSQLI in their assessment battery to identify older women's areas of lower versus higher social quality of life, and should establish the maximization of patients' social quality of life as an important therapeutic goal, as this variable is significantly related to both physical and mental health.
The growing diversity of aging populations and corresponding expectations of successful aging have motivated multidisciplinary investigations of quality of life (abbreviated as QofL herein). Several researchers have highlighted the need to develop assessment tools to properly quantify psychosocial variance in older age [1–4]. Research on social facets of QofL in later life may contribute to an increased understanding of protective social resources that could enhance the biopsychosocial health of older adults. In turn, this process could assist in addressing the aging population's health care impact on public resources, leading to a more cost-effective use of the health care system [5–7]. The social QofL of older women in particular should be a topic of focused investigation because this population, compared to older men, typically seeks medical help more often, experiences less than adequate assistance with basic life activities, and reports fewer financial resources [8–10]. Considering the aforementioned disadvantages, maximizing older women's social QofL (assessed using a methodologically appropriate measure) is critical.
The focus of the present research is the initial validation of a new social QofL tool, which is intended for use with older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Ethnic minorities in general are understudied in QofL research for a variety of reasons. Several researchers have identified factors such as low socioeconomic status [11, 12] (a characteristic of many ethnically diverse older women ) and limited English-language proficiency  as barriers to the inclusion of ethnic minority groups in QofL studies. Also, scarcity of culturally-competent (preferably same-culture) researchers is often problematic . In addition, older women's limited financial means can present difficulties regarding transportation to research sites . We have minimized these challenging issues in the current research, as described in the Methods section. There is ample evidence on the contribution of social variables (such as the need to feel loved [16, 17] as well as respected and valued by others [18, 19]) to the well-being of older women (and men). Many such issues hold unique relevance among older individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds due to the emphasis placed upon family, friends, and the community at large, as they typically favor a collectivistic orientation .
In research on older women, a satisfying social life has been related to better physical health. For instance, in a study on 471 women over the age of 60 living with cardiac disease, respondents in recovery from cardiac events who had satisfactory social resources displayed fewer depressive symptoms and better coping skills . Moreover, those who reported greater social support exhibited enhanced emotional well-being, lower symptom impact, and greater perceived health. Social networks could produce satisfying and trusting relationships with family and close friends and, importantly, enhance older women's ability to compensate for physical functioning deficits by reducing levels of distress . Indeed, mental health is significantly related to satisfaction with one's social life and resources. Numerous studies have confirmed the positive role of social support, integration, and engagement in providing psychosocial benefits for improved mental well-being and QofL in later life [5, 24–26]. Additionally, Jang, Haley, Small, and Mortimer , in a study of 406 women (60 years old and older) diagnosed with cardiac disease, discovered that social resources enhanced psychological resilience. Social integration may also protect older adults from cognitive decline by positively influencing social competence and mood . Furthermore, emotional and social expectations attached to social interactions afford a perception of continued value, meaningful connections to others, and emotional support for reassurance and affection, which contribute to morale and satisfaction in older age [28, 29]. In addition, social resources are associated with enhanced feelings of self-esteem, which may strengthen older adults' coping skills and lessen the impact of negative life events, losses, and functional decline [22, 30].
Due to the lack of an appropriate measure to quantify social QofL in older women, to date, researchers interested in assessing psychosocial aspects of well-being in this population have relied mostly on health-related QofL measures that were typically not designed to capture the increasing diversity of older populations. Furthermore, by definition, all health-related QofL instruments confound physical health status with social well-being, if they assess the latter at all. Given the advanced age of our target population and the corresponding high potential for health problems and functional limitations that could extend to all areas of older women's lives, instruments need to be developed for the quantification of social QofL independently from physical/medical symptomatology. This task should be accomplished with a measure that is designed to be sensitive to culturally-relevant social variables, given the ethnic diversity of older women populations. However, few researchers have targeted the above-mentioned QofL issues within non-clinical older populations from diverse ethnic backgrounds . In fact, a web-based search for this kind of tool resulted in few qualified measures. What follows is a brief review of some of the popular QofL scales, organized by their limitations in assessing social QofL in the target population of the present research.
Most of the commonly used measures confound socio-emotional QofL with physical/medical health. For example, the utilization of the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36)  allows the quantification of both physical and mental health components of QofL. While researchers who implemented this measure have reported good sensitivity as well as cross-cultural generalizability [33–35], the MOS SF-36 was constructed mainly to quantify limitations in social (and other) activities caused by health problems, thus confounding general health status and functional loss with QofL. Similarly, the Quality of Life Index - Generic Version (QLI)  and the World Health Organization's QofL assessment (WHOQofL-100)  confound social aspects of QofL (such as social and family functioning) with health status.
Measures designed specifically for use with clinical populations (including individuals with acute mental disorders or medical diagnoses) may not be sensitive to minor changes in status within non-clinical populations. To offer an example, one of the earliest QofL assessments, the Spitzer QL-Index  has been shown to effectively assess general health, social support, and psychological outlook. However, this assessment tool was validated on cancer patients in palliative care. A scale designed to be relevant to individuals with terminal illness may not be sufficiently discriminatory or applicable to healthy--or relatively healthy--populations. Similarly, the 46-item Schedule for the Evaluation of Individual Quality of Life (SEIQoL)  and the SEIQoL-DW15-item version  were originally created to assess QofL in palliative care settings. Although empirical evidence seems to indicate that both measures are psychometrically sound, the appropriateness of their application for routine use in non-palliative care settings or with individuals without serious illness is dubious . Similar criticism can be applied to the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP)  and the Quality of Well-Being Scale (QWS) [43, 44], which primarily assess the impact of disease and illness, making their applicability to fairly healthy populations questionable.
Few QofL measures have been explicitly normalized or psychometrically validated on ethnically diverse populations, which limits their external validity. Indeed, researchers have challenged assumptions of the universality of health-related assessment tools such as the MOS SF-36 . In particular, Staniszewska, Ahmed, and Jenkinson discovered that cultural influences in White and Indian cardiac patients' descriptions of their physical health were similar, yet greater avoidance of terms such as "mental" and "emotional" surfaced among Indian participants. Additionally, different religious perceptions affected the interpretation of disease by these two groups. Deyo conducted a study  comparing the original English language version of the Sickness Impact Profile (SIP)  (a well-established self-report measure of physical QofL/functional health status) to a Spanish language version within a sample of non-Hispanic and Mexican-American participants with low back pain. The SIP produced results with English-speaking individuals that seemed highly valid, while findings for Mexican-American participants who used the English language SIP measure were poor. Mexican-American patients using the Spanish version of the SIP obtained the poorest results. This suggests that simply producing an adequate translation of the SIP does not address culturally unique responses to symptoms, such as the reluctance of some cultures to answer personal questions and the general effects that acculturation may produce in the comfort level experienced by individuals responding to scale items .
Many popular QofL measures appear to disregard older adults, a segment of the population for whom reliable assessment of the social components of QofL may be especially critical (for reasons briefly highlighted earlier). Unfortunately, current QofL measures are not well-designed to serve this population. For instance, Bowling stated that the MOS SF-36 does not cover sleep, economic welfare, sexual functioning, education, independence, or religion; these are all domains that influence QofL perceptions in later life . Moreover, the QLI referenced earlier  is reportedly less sensitive to QofL change in older adults with chronic illness than the MOS SF-36 . We identified a few instruments that cover social QofL issues and were used on older populations. However, a closer examination of such measures revealed many of the same limitations already discussed. For example, the Quality of Life Scale for the Elderly (QLSE) , which was ostensibly designed to quantify the social QofL of healthy older adults from non-clinical populations, was presented in a doctoral dissertation, but, to our knowledge, has not been used in peer-reviewed empirical research. More importantly, an examination of the content of the QLSE items reveals that this tool confounds social QofL with physical QofL. Another measure, the Quality of Life Enjoyment and Satisfaction Scale (Q-LES-Q) , covers social aspects of QofL. However, although it has been administered to older populations, it was not designed for older adults or older women in particular. Furthermore, all of the studies that we were able to identify on this scale covered clinical populations that presented some form of mental illness or disability [50–52].
The literature summarized above regarding available tools for the assessment of social QofL demonstrates a gap in the psychometric research on this topic concerning non-clinical populations of older women. An instrument constructed specifically for use with community-dwelling, ethnically diverse older women is critical to capturing the impact of familial and community support systems on these women's QofL, as well as their perception of power, respect, understanding, and honor within their family and community--all of which are concepts that are critical to social well-being in older age, as mentioned earlier. Before describing our two studies on this measure, it is appropriate to briefly illustrate their conceptual foundations. In a classic theorization (adopted as the conceptual framework of the present research), Engel [53, 54] argued that the boundaries between health and disease are intertwined with social, medical, and psychological factors. Thus, one's perception of social well-being represents an essential component of health and should not be neglected in research; based on this theoretical approach, we compiled original items that could best assess social QofL in older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. We focused on including in this measure items covering topics that emerged from the review of the existing literature on older women's social resources, particularly aspects of life related to their social ties (with family, extended family, friends, peers, neighbors, church members, and the community at large) that have been associated with QofL, yet not assessed via a single measure.
It should be noted that the new instrument proposed herein does not assess health-related QofL (to avoid confounding social QofL with health status), unlike most of the aforementioned tools such as the MOS SF-12/36, the QLI, the SIP, and the NHP, among others. Our social QofL measure quantifies instead the perceptions and reactions of older women to several facets of their environment (e.g., social and emotional). A similar conceptual framework provided the foundation for the Life Satisfaction in the Elderly Scale [55, 56]. However, the latter scale is not gender-specific and confounds health status with QofL. To our knowledge, our new measure is the first tool created specifically to assess community-dwelling older women's social QofL beyond health status. We hypothesized that, in both studies, the new instrument would show strong factor analysis, reliability, and initial validity findings. Concerning the latter, we expected that scores on our measure would be moderately related to the size of respondents' support network. Moreover, we anticipated a significant relationship between social QofL and both kinds of QofL that have been most commonly targeted in prior studies, i.e., physical and mental. However, only a modest association with these two facets of QofL was hypothesized, given the specific social focus of the new tool.
The ethnically diverse sample of Study 1 consisted of 220 older women who resided in several urban and suburban communities in Los Angeles County; each respondent self-identified as a member of one of seven ethnic/pan-ethnic groups. The demographic characteristics of the sample are displayed in Table 1. Participants ranged in age from 60 to 97 years, with a reported median age of 71 and an interquartile range of 66.25 to 78.00 years of age. A little over one-third of the sample was European-American; more than half indicated being born outside of the United States (U.S.). About 51% of the participants had a high school education or less. Most of the respondents were retired (and, therefore, unemployed) and mainly married or widowed. For Study 2, we recruited 241 older women who resided in the same urban and suburban communities of Los Angeles County as Study 1 participants. These women reported a median age of 68 years, with a total range of 60 to 90 years and an interquartile range of 64.00 to 75.00 years of age. In this second sample, women self-identified as belonging to one of seven ethnic/pan-ethnic groups. Table 2 illustrates the demographic characteristics of this sample. Approximately 40% of the participants identified as European-American and indicated an educational level equal to or lower than high school completion. Nearly half reported being born outside of the U.S. Inclusion criteria for both studies were as follows: 60 years of age or older (based on the age of many of the aforementioned studies' samples), English fluency (to minimize confounding the results with acculturation levels), ability to provide informed consent, and independent living status. Excluding individuals in assisted living facilities decreased the possibility of recruiting participants with significant cognitive impairment (who are often found in such institutions).
We recruited participants for both samples using purposive sampling through RAs' connections within their ethnic communities. Recruitment sites included senior centers, grocery stores, and libraries in Los Angeles County. A significant effort was made to identify and minimize barriers to recruitment, with a focus on relevance of questions posed, respect of cultural perspective, and alignment of research goals with those of ethnic minority populations [57, 58]. Additionally, we employed face-to-face recruitment to encourage research participation (as most ethnic minority older adults do not respond to advertisements of research studies in the media ) and refrained from asking participants to travel to a research center. Recruitment (for both studies) was challenging, as we attempted to recruit as many older women as possible from a vast variety of ethnic backgrounds; several of the women originally contacted were wary of research efforts and uninterested in participating in these two investigations. We allowed for flexible interview scheduling and assigned ethnicity-matched interviewers to establish initial contact and conduct interviews. Moreover, we tailored our recruitment strategies for inclusion of women from all income levels, as socio-economic factors often affect willingness of ethnic minority older adults to engage in research . The utilization of this selection of recruitment tactics and sites maximized the number of ethnic minority participants in the two studies.
Study 1 was conducted in three years (from 2002 to 2005), with two years of data collection, while Study 2 spanned four years (2006-2010), three of which were dedicated to data collection. The last year of funding of each study was dedicated to data entry, verification, and analyses. This federally-funded research was approved by the Institutional Review Board of California State University Northridge. All research assistants (RAs)/interviewers were extensively trained by the first author prior to participating in data collection. Weekly mentoring group meetings were convened to ensure that all of them were well-trained. We asked RAs to start each assessment session by explaining the purpose of the research and addressing any of the respondents' questions. Informed consent was obtained prior to administering the assessment battery. Participants were clearly instructed regarding their right to withdraw from the research at any time, as specified in the consent form. The first part of the assessment procedure involved the solicitation of basic demographic information from each participant and the administration of the brief screener to determine research eligibility. RAs read all items in the test battery aloud and were instructed to complete the assessment in two sessions, with a short break between sessions to minimize fatigue. We also asked them to write all responses to the measures in legible hand-writing in the assessment packets. RAs allowed flexible scheduling of assessment sessions and accommodated location preferences to maximize participants' comfort level. Typically, respondents chose to be assessed in their homes or at community locations including libraries and senior centers. We took great care to exercise patience and preserve the dignity of the older women participating in this research.
RAs were instructed to first administer an original Screening tool to verify research eligibility. This short measure employs a combination of items from a standardized tool as well as demographic items (i.e., age and living arrangement) required to determine eligibility. Specifically, it contains a brief portion of the Survey Psychiatric Assessment Schedule (SPAS) , a 51-item instrument with strong psychometric properties that was used exclusively for screening purposes (as its findings were not included in the data analyses). Our screener comprised only the first five items of the lengthy SPAS, thus excluding the SPAS section "Other survey questions about general health of subject." This choice allowed for the assessment of factors that are potentially indicative of gross cognitive impairment/dementia such as participants' ability to: spell their own name, remember their own birthday, and exhibit an awareness of spatial orientation. RAs were instructed to recruit only women with perfect scores in these three areas.
We used a brief Demographics list (created by the first author) to assess variables such as ethnicity, place of birth, education, and income, as well as marital and employment status. An indicator of social support, i.e., the number of people in one's social network, was quantified via the Single Item Measure of Social Support (SIMSS). Although extremely short, this instrument is a strong predictor of morbidity and has good psychometric properties . This single item is comprised of the question "How many people do you have near you that you can readily count on for help in times of difficulty such as watch over children or pets, give rides to hospital or store, or help when you are sick?" Response options are 0, 1, 2-5, 6-10, or more. Responses of 0 or 1 indicate low tangible assistance; 6-10 or more indicate high tangible assistance. Use of this short measure allowed us to avoid utilizing one of the much longer questionnaires on social support, thus rendering the assessment process less cumbersome for older women.
To assess physical and mental QofL, we utilized the Medical Outcome Study 36-item Short Form Health Survey (MOS SF-36). This tool was developed to assess general health status and functional loss  and quantifies eight health constructs, namely: 1) limitations in physical activities due to health problems; 2) limitations in social activities resulting from physical or emotional problems; 3) limitations in usual role activities due to physical health problems; 4) bodily pain; 5) general mental health (psychological distress and well-being); 6) limitations in usual role activities because of emotional problems; 7) vitality (energy and fatigue); and 8) general health perceptions. Subtotals for physical and mental health provided a quantification of physical QofL and mental QofL; clinical tests of the validity of this tool have achieved excellent results . We utilized the MOS software to conduct all the analyses relative to physical and mental QofL.
The Older Women's Social Quality of Life Inventory (OWSQLI) was used for the first time in the present research. This original measure was developed by the first author; unlike most of the currently available measures on this topic, it is not confounded with health status. As elaborated in the Results, the OWSQLI was created from an original pool of 50 items following an extensive literature review (briefly summarized in the Introduction). This tool was designed to target many culturally-relevant social QofL issues (e.g., feeling cared for by others, feeling valued and respected by others, and contributing to the lives of others). "Others" include family, friends, and the community at large. Item responses are coded on a 7-point Likert-type scale, ranging from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree." Two sample items are: "I have the power & respect I deserve in my community as an older person with experience & knowledge" and "My children fully understand my social needs."
We implemented all data analyses through the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 17.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). For both studies, we first calculated the sample's descriptive statistics. In Study 1, we conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the new tool; moreover, we computed the internal consistency/Cronbach's α value for the OWSQLI through a reliability analysis. Additionally, we validated the OWSQLI by relating its scores to those of instruments that measure social support (SIMSS), as well as physical and mental QofL (MOS SF-36). In cases in which a question was not applicable to a given respondent (e.g., for items referring to participant's children, if they were childless, or for questions assuming the availability of at least one friend, if respondents reported that they had none), this question was excluded from the analysis and from any scale construction for that given participant. This is preferable to a listwise deletion that would exclude the person in question from all analyses due to non-applicable responses to a few items. Once the results of the EFA in Study 1 were examined, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using Study 2 sample. The CFA was implemented specifically to ascertain whether the 22 items that emerged in Study 1 continued to represent a single strong factor from the original 50-item pool in Study 2. Furthermore, we repeated the reliability and validity procedures employed in the previous study and examined (preliminarily) potential ethnic group differences in OWSQLI scores.
Concerning the EFA in Study 1, our statistical consultant set the criterion of item retention at a factor loading of .32 or higher, which is generally accepted as the minimum value for an item loading on a given factor . A .32 loading is approximately equal to 10% overlapping variance with the other items on that factor. This provided a means to shorten the measure and, consequently, avoid burdening older women with a lengthy instrument in future research in this area. Based on this criterion, 22 of the original 50 items were retained. With 22 items, the mean of the OWSQLI was 39.13 and the standard deviation 20.78. Scores on one item were reversed, as this item is negatively worded (other negatively phrased items did not satisfy the statistical criterion for inclusion). The factor analysis of the OWSQLI obtained robust findings. Based on the 50 original items, the percentage of total score variance explained by one single factor was 44.04% (λ = 9.17). Thus, the comparative weight of this factor is strong. Examinations of the Eigen values also pointed to a single-factor solution with a clear drop in size between the first and second factor (9.69 to 1.76). Furthermore, the 7.99% total variance gained in moving to a 2-factor solution was not deemed sufficient, in view of the practical disadvantages of a longer scale and the related greater difficulty in interpretability. Table 3 contains the matrix with the factor loading, which illustrates the degree to which each of the 22 items loaded on one factor, with the most highly loaded items displayed first. To further confirm this 22-item, single factor solution, we conducted a CFA using Study 2 sample. Given the nature of this analysis, Principal Axis Factoring was chosen as the extraction method. All 22 items met the .32 loading threshold with this second independent sample. The OWSQLI yielded a mean of 40.41 and a standard deviation of 19.15. The single factor of the OWSQLI had a strong comparative weight, as it explained a high percentage of total score variance (41.90%, λ = 9.22). The matrix with Study 2 factor loading is displayed in Table 4 with the most highly loaded OWSQLI items appearing first.
My children fully understand my social needs.
My children & grandchildren care about me & how I feel.
My children fully understand my physical needs.
I have the power & respect I deserve in my family.
I feel very loved by my whole family.
My family respects me for who I am regardless of my age.
My opinions are highly respected in my family.
My morals, values & priorities are highly respected in my family.
My children have given me the same respect & care I gave my parents.
My children fully understand my emotional needs.
I am spending a lot of time enjoying myself with my grandchildren.
My children fully understand my financial needs.
My family looks to me in time of need for advice.
I am satisfied with my life in my old age.
I feel that I have a lot to contribute to my family.
Family traditions are highly respected in my family.
I do not feel valued by my family as a source of wisdom.
I have the power & respect I deserve in my community as an older person with experience & knowledge.
People in the community respect me for who I am regardless of my age.
I feel that I have a lot to contribute to my community.
I am socially active with friends & in my community.
I have gained more respect from others over the years.
Extraction Method: Principal Axis Factoring. One factor extracted. No rotation.
Tables 5 and 6 illustrate the item-total statistics for Study 1 and Study 2; the 22 items correlated very well with each other for both samples, which was to be expected, given that they assess facets of one construct, social QofL. In these two tables, we displayed the content of each item next to its original number (out of 50 items).
I am spending a lot of time enjoying myself with my grandchildren & children.
My children have given me the same respect & care I gave to my own parents.
My morals, values & priories are highly respected in my family.
The new measure demonstrated the same high internal consistency in both studies (α = .92, p < .001). Moreover, as reported in Table 7 (which contains validity information pertinent to both studies), we conducted a preliminary validity test of the OWSQLI by relating its scores to those on size of social support network, as well as to MOS SF-36 total scores. Good (yet modest, as hypothesized) criterion validity was observed when OWSQLI scores were related to scores on the number of people in the respondents' social network (SIMMS) for both samples. Concurrent validity of the OWSQLI was assessed by comparing its scores in both Study 1 and 2 to those on physical and mental QofL. As expected, correlations among these scales were significant, although modest.
Finally, the samples from Study 1 and Study 2 were combined into one dataset to conduct a preliminary examination of potential ethnic group differences in OWSQLI scores. Combining the datasets was necessary in order to achieve the necessary sample size for mean comparison tests to be meaningful. Even with the significantly larger total sample, it should be noted that only pan-ethnic groupings (African-American, Asian-American, European-American, and Latino-American/Hispanic) rather than specific national-ethnic groupings (e.g. Mexican or Chinese) were possible. We conducted a one-way ANOVA, which was followed by Tukey post-hoc comparisons. Neither the overall omnibus test, F (5, 385) = 1.53, p = .135, nor any paired comparison between pan-ethnic groups was statistically significant, indicating the general absence of significant pan-ethnic between-group variation in OWSQLI scores.
The findings of Study 1 analyses indicate that the new tool presented herein is characterized by a strong single factor and high internal consistency. These findings were confirmed in Study 2 analyses, whose results were nearly identical to those of Study 1. Furthermore, as expected, the OWSQLI demonstrated adequate criterion validity with a social support indicator, as well as moderate concurrent validity with both physical and mental QofL. These validity results are noteworthy, because they confirm that our measure advances beyond assessment of social support as well as physical and mental QofL to quantify social QofL.
Upon examining specific items loading on the single factor explaining a large part of the OWSQLI's score variance, we discovered that our samples' social QofL scores were affected primarily by satisfying relations with family members. Friends and the community at large were also valued, but their contribution to personal sense of well-being was less critical than familial relationships. This finding substantiates evidence reported in prior literature that the family network is typically the primary social resource available for emotional and financial support in older age, although support from friends and community can provide similar protective effects [66, 67]. It also corroborates the notion, reinforced in a recent literature review , that family ties are particularly important for non-European-American older adults (as most of our participants had an ethnic minority status). Interestingly, the notion of respect appears in the items that have some of the highest loadings in the scale, which highlights the importance of respect and of one's role in the family in older age, especially considering compelling research relating family role to mortality in older age [69–71].
The fact that issues such as being loved and cared for by family and friends were strongly related to total OWSQLI scores suggests that it is imperative for mental health providers to encourage older patients to focus on ties with family and friends in order to strengthen such ties and, in turn, possibly enhance biopsychosocial functioning in later life. In particular, the "friends-related" finding offers supportive empirical evidence for Yeh and Lo's recommendations to provide incentives within communities to engage older adults in social activities and enhance their social contacts and resources . We also discovered that a sense of belonging and maintenance of status as a contributing family member is positively linked to older women's social QofL. These findings complement prior empirical evidence demonstrating that supportive relationships and activities that are perceived as important help maintain older women's self-esteem and reduce stress , and that social contact and frequent social interaction produce higher life satisfaction in later life .
Another consistent result across both studies was that perceived size of social network was significantly related to OWSQLI scores, again indicating that the amount of available help (i.e., individuals who are perceived as willing and able to provide practical assistance when in need) is an important factor with regard to older women's social QofL. These findings are corroborated by prior literature on this topic . Our results concerning the significant relationship between physical health and social QofL are also consistent with prior empirical evidence on this topic linking social resources to better physical health and a lessened impact of chronic disease . Moreover, the significance of the relationship between mental and social QofL corroborates the findings of other researchers [27, 30]. As a whole, the results of our two studies indicate that the new measure of social QofL is a psychometrically sound instrument with desirable properties for utilization with older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Moreover, the items comprising the OWSQLI employ rather simple language, which is a strength of the measure, given the modest educational level of both samples.
These two investigations have several limitations that could be addressed in future studies. Among them, our findings do not imply causation, because their design was correlational. Longitudinal research is needed to verify the present results. Also, the OWSQLI was not validated against a previously established socially-related QofL instrument. Yet, because, to our knowledge, this is the first tool of its kind, such a limitation was unavoidable. However, it would have been ideal to validate the OWSQLI against a measure of social support that was more lengthy and in-depth than the SIMSS. A focus on keeping the assessment battery short (to reduce fatigue among research participants) prevented us from using a lengthier social support instrument. In future studies, researchers could compare scores on the OWSQLI to those on other well-established social support measures such as the Q-LES-Q .
Another limitation of our research was that we recruited women exclusively; men's social QofL should also be studied using our tool, as the latter could be validated and modified accordingly for use with ethnically diverse older men. Furthermore, a few of the items in the OWSQLI are worded somewhat vaguely, especially given that the scale was administered to women as young as 60 (many of whom were still working). For instance, the meaning of "... regardless of my age" could be unclear; we meant that, no matter how old the participant was, she felt respected (or not) by the people in her community and by her family members. Having a few items with words that could be assigned different meanings is a shortcoming of most of the aforementioned tools. Special attention should be paid to clarifying the meaning of unclear items and encouraging research participants to raise questions if items are not understandable (although, in our research, none of the respondents asked to clarify the meaning of any of the scale's items). Moreover, the sample sizes of specific ethnic groups did not allow for the testing of national groups -- although we did attempt to unveil different social relationship patterns via mean comparisons across pan-ethnic groupings, but found no significant differences in mean OWSQLI scores. Interested researchers could identify how older adults from different ethnic minorities respond to this tool and develop culture-specific norms based on their findings. In this regard, the meaning of words such as "having power in one's family" could vary across ethnic groups. Ideally, these issues should be explored via in-depth qualitative interviews (in addition to administering paper-and-pencil measures) to clarify item comprehension and assignment of meaning to complex concepts like power. Including collection of qualitative data to study social QofL would allow a more in-depth study of this topic via mixed methods procedures.
Concerning additional limitations of these two research endeavors, all participants in both studies were fluent in English; interested investigators should consider using and validating this new tool in other languages. Also, our two cohorts were not based on random community sampling, so our findings may not be fully generalizable to our catchment area. However, about half of both our samples reported holding a high school degree at best, similarly to findings on the general Los Angeles County population (47.3%) . Judging from those statistics, the two samples utilized in this research are possibly representative of their catchment area. Nonetheless, our results could be due, at least partially, to variables not assessed herein such as medication use and/or acculturation. Further psychometric evaluation, such as testing for differences on a subset of the items of the OWSQLI (e.g., family items) across a stratified sample, may be warranted, but was beyond the scope of this preliminary test of our measure. Additionally, the exclusive use of self-rated measures, although implemented in most of the aforementioned investigations, is a limitation. Overall, in spite of multiple limitations, our studies represent a necessary step in the direction of properly quantifying the social QofL of ethnically diverse older women, thus making a needed contribution to the growing area of ethnogeriatric psychometrics.
In our research, we intended to start addressing a gap in the available geriatric literature concerning the need to develop an instrument to assess social QofL in older age independent of physical QofL. Our research findings with two non-clinical samples of community-dwelling older women from diverse ethnic backgrounds reinforce the notion that QofL in older age is truly multi-dimensional and must be carefully quantified through domain-specific tools that are sensitive to older adults' complex needs and resources. The evaluation of physical and mental QofL alone is insufficient for a comprehensive quantification of well-being in later life. As testing of our tool achieved promising results, clinicians who intend to assess social QofL in older women should consider adding this new measure to their assessment battery. This would allow them to gain a deeper understanding of social areas in which their patients are lacking support, as well as social areas of particular strength. Both could be enhanced via interventions such as individual therapy to increase psychosocial resilience, family therapy, and implementation of programs targeting social activities that the older patients in question find personally meaningful. Interested investigators should test the psychometric properties of the OWSQLI further; currently, in our laboratory, we are collecting data utilizing this measure on ethnically diverse older men in order to refine this tool for use with older male populations.
As a final consideration, researchers interested in clinical applications of the OWSQLI could relate its scores to those on adjustment to challenges commonly experienced in older age, including chronic impairments such as vision problems. Utilization of the OWSQLI, given its "family and friends" focus, could be ideal with clinical populations similar to the one targeted in a recent study  in which family was found to provide social support during the initial adaptation of older individuals to vision impairment, while friends provided support in long-term adaptation. Given the differences between our studies' non-clinical population and the clinical one in question, the factor structure of the OWSQLI for patients with progressive physical impairments could look significantly different (at different stages of their adaptation to the visual impairment) than the structure obtained herein.
These two investigations were supported by two grants from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, award numbers GM 48680 and 5SC3GM094075, Luciana Lagana', Principal Investigator. We thank Prof. Sun-Mee Cheng for her consultation on some of Study 1 statistical analyses, as well as the first author's students who gathered the data. The content of this article is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
LL, the principal investigator, created the OWSQLI, designed the two studies, conducted Study 1 analyses, and wrote most of the paper. MLB wrote some parts of the literature review and a first draft of a portion of this paper. IB wrote some parts of the literature review, contributed to the writing of all sections, verified the accuracy of the methodological parts of the paper, and conducted Study 2 data analyses. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.


When it is time to get started in practice – where should you go first to get new patients? Well, remember this: Leaders multiply your practice and followers add to your practice. Examples would be a pastor, a school principal, or a police chief. A business owner or manager, the Mayor, a Senator, or a school board member. A Disc Jockey or a Gym owner. Bank Officers. These are leaders because they INFLUENCE a lot of people.
Schmooze – meet leaders. Leaders multiply, followers add. whether you are in a small town or a city – all communities have STARS!
B.J. is another great example of this essential! You remember he had a deal that celebrities could be treated for free no matter where they were in the country and if that chiropractor wouldn't do it – HE would pay for it! This man knew the importance of having these celebs as fans of chiropractic because they have the ability to influence thousands to become chiropractic patients. You can do the same thing. All communities have their own stars.
Another interesting example: The guy who did the tattoos for Colin Kaepernick – the San Francisco 49ers quarterback. Now he is in demand everywhere. If the same tattoos were on a "normal" person it would have been one satisfied customer. But because his tattoos are on the quarterback of the 49ers – he is a leader who influenced a lot of people and now his tattoos are on thousands!
Make the LEADERS of your community YOUR fans – just like B.J.!


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Cancer Fact Monday
Try-Athletes for TaTas
Dreams 4 Metas
From your donations, children of breast cancer survivors receive scholarships.
Soft-spoken, kind-hearted, a spirit of excellence, family-oriented, a Christian, a survivor — that is how people describe Nichel Holland-Swindler. With a heart of gold and a quiet elegance, she had remarkable strength of character that always shone through, especially during times of adversity. Nichel possessed a smile and dimples that warmed the hearts of all who were in her presence.
Always a passionate educator, Nichel began her teaching career at Alcorn Middle School. She also taught at Hopkins and Saint Andrews Middle Schools in Richland School District One. Dr. Swindler worked in various capacities throughout the educational system serving as team leader, department chair, vertical articulation facilitator, after-school program site coordinator, adult evening school teacher, and as a school district math lead teacher.
She was a math teacher in Richland One for twelve years and while working in Richland School District One, Nichel was twice selected as Teacher of the Year and recognized as a Wal-Mart Teacher of the Year. In 2010, she joined the U.S. Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) School System. As a part of the DoDEA, Dr. Swindler spent the rest of her career dedicated to the pursuit of instructing children and committed to excellence in education. She joined the DoDEA School System as a middle school math teacher at Mahaffey Middle School at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The following year, she began serving as an Assistant Principal at Lincoln Elementary School. In 2016, Dr. Swindler moved to the new elementary school at Fort Campbell. At the time of her passing, she was the Assistant Principal at Barsanti Elementary School at Fort Campbell.
When she was not at school, Nichel loved reading, spending time with family, and as an avid puzzle solver, working everything from crosswords to Suduko and oversized jigsaw puzzles. Nichel was a proud Gamecock who loved watching them play football, basketball and baseball. Always wanting to be in the presence of the Lord, Nichel was a dedicated member of Bible Way Church of Atlas Road in Columbia, South Carolina, maintaining her status even when she moved to Kentucky. She regularly attended Cedar Grove Baptist Church in Hopkinsville and was a devoted woman of God, who lived a life full of unwavering faith. It was this unwavering faith that helped her work through her diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
Nichel was adamant that her treatment would not stop her from living her life and continuing to educate children. She continued to work, even while doing chemotherapy and recovering from surgery, never letting her smile or her faith waver. It is that strength of character and drive to succeed that led to the creation of the Nichel Holland Swindler Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships to the children of breast cancer survivors.
Nichel Holland-Swindler Scholarship Fund
Help a Child of a Breast Cancer Survivor.
© 2017 InTheMiddle.org - All rights reserved. South Carolina, USA
inthemiddlebc@gmail.com


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Eyedress premieres new "I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend" video & announces California tour dates via KEXP
By Force Field
in Tour Dates,Video Premiere
WATCH: "I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend" (Dir. by BRVINFREEZE) –
KEXP / YouTube / Spotify / Apple / More
photo credit: Matthew Cowen
Today Eyedress shares his new music video for "I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend" (directed by BRVINFREEZE) and announces upcoming California tour dates via KEXP. Check out the premiere here. KEXP described the song as "a Joy Division composition with the brutal nonchalance of 21 Savage, but coalescing in a way that's so just uniquely Eyedress."
Eyedress shared some thoughts on the video, stating ""I Don't Wanna Be Your Friend" is a song about betrayal amongst people I considered "friends," losing trust and people that play both sides. We filmed the video in an abandoned zoo in Griffith park on a whim. It was supposed to be a photo shoot but ended up being a video because the location was too rare."
Eyedress is the alias of Filipino artist Idris Vicuña, formerly lead guitarist of Manila based psychedelic indie/noise pop band Bee Eyes. Born in 1990 in the city of Makati, Philippines, Vicuña relocated to the US with his family at the age of 6. He was raised in Phoenix, Arizona before moving to San Clemente, California at the age of 13, where he started playing bass in a Crass-influenced crust punk band.
In 2005, Vicuña moved back to Manila where he formed Bee Eyes with friends Julius Valledor and Diego Abad. Valledor taught Vicuña the art of sampling and making loops. During downtime from the band Vicuña pursued his own solo project which would eventually become Eyedress.
He released his first record as Eyedress in 2013, entitled Hearing Colors. Well received by music blogs, it led to him signing his first record deal with XL Recordings imprint Abeano. Later that year they released his EP Supernatural which saw praise from publications such as The Guardian and NME.
He followed up in 2016 with his second full length, Shapeshifter, on his own label Babe Slayer. The title track featured King Krule under his Edgar The Breathtaker alias, as well as several underground artists including London rapper Oscar #Worldpeace and LA rapper Pyramid Vritra.
Signed to UK label Lex Records, he released his third full length record Manila Ice, an album about love and survival in the Philippines, in 2017. Showcasing his unique talent for lovesick composition and songwriting, the album was recorded around the birth of his first child and represents the hopes and fears of a young parent. It provided him with an escape from the realities of his personal life and the dramatic political events in his home city that continue to unfold.
Enlisting his local friends Jess Connelly, Ankhten Brown, Jasmine and Teenage Granny, Manila Ice sees Eyedress strip his electronic experimentation back to more traditional songwriting, bringing striking honesty to the DIY spirit and narratives that weave through the record.
The follow up was released in November 2018. Sensitive G is a deeply personal reflection on the joys and pains of his life in Manila told through the styles he was influenced whilst growing up in the US; R&B, dream-pop, indie rock, punk rock and G-funk. A more solitary affair, Sensitive G was recorded almost entirely by himself in his bedroom and demonstrates a more refined and visceral approach to his process and palette.
Following the release of Sensitive G he relocated from Manila to LA, and began collaborating with kindred spirits like Cuco and Inner Wave. Throughout 2019 his wild live show has been in high demand, and found him sharing stages with acts like Homeshake, Enjoy, Jasper Bones, N8NOFACE, and B Cool Aid, as well as supporting Inner Wave on their 13 date west coast tour in June.
11/15 – Santa Barbara, CA @ KCSB
12/4 – San Francisco, CA @ Bottom of the Hill
12/7 – Los Angeles, CA @ El Cid
12/10 – San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar
EYEDRESS LINKS:
Marion Belle (Fatal Jamz) shares debut solo single, "Soundcheck," a song about being on the road with Weyes Blood
Watch the official trailer for The Band documentary ONCE WERE BROTHERS, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Watch Bedroom's new "Gulf" video via EARMILK
Force Field PR is owned and operated by Daniel Gill out of the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. Force Field PR prides itself on its high caliber roster of artists and labels. Read More
RT @RelixMag: Watch the Trailer for Martin Scorsese's 'Once We Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson & The Band' Documentary Read more: https://…3 days ago
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Q: Facebook connect. Works in Firefox/Internet Explorer, not in Chrome/Safari/Opera I have an app wich is an index.php file with javascript and when the user is logged in the javascript loads the content of the page which is stored in content.php
(k, I've figured out that it works in safari if the user has allowed popups. I get the same error with firefox. So can popup windows be the enemy? How can i rewrite this to ton use popups?)
Index.php:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">

        <title>My app</title>
        <link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="css/style.css"/>

        <link rel="stylesheet" href="css/validationEngine.jquery.css" type="text/css"/>

functions.js:
FB.init({
    appId  : '123456789',
    status : true, // check login status
    cookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the session
    xfbml  : true  // parse XFBML
});

FB.login(function(response) {
    if (response.session) {
        if (response.perms) {
            $.get("content.php", {get: "form"}, function(data){
                $('body').append(data);
            });
        } else {
            top.location.href="http://example.com";
        }
    } else {
        top.location.href="http://www.example.com";
    }
}, {perms:'publish_stream'});

It works in Firefox and Internet Explorer but in Chrome, Safari and Opera it doesn't.
I got this error in Chrome with the javascript debug:
Unsafe JavaScript attempt to access frame with URL https://www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key=123456789&skip_api_login=1&display=popup&cancel_url=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.ak.fbcdn.net%2Fconnect%2Fxd_proxy.php%3Fversion%3D0%23cb%3Df13bcfbe1%26origin%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fexample.com%252Ff1fd4b982c%26relation%3Dopener%26transport%3Dpostmessage%26frame%3Df206b2144c%26result%3D%2522xxRESULTTOKENxx%2522&fbconnect=0&next=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fdialog%2Fpermissions.request%3F_path%3Dpermissions.request%26app_id%3D152123456789%26redirect_uri%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fstatic.ak.fbcdn.net%252Fconnect%252Fxd_proxy.php%253Fversion%253D0%2523cb%253Df13bcfbe1%2526origin%253Dhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fexample.com%25252Ff1fd4b982c%2526relation%253Dopener%2526transport%253Dpostmessage%2526frame%253Df206b2144c%2526result%253D%252522xxRESULTTOKENxx%252522%26sdk%3Djoey%26display%3Dpopup%26api_key%3D123456789%26fbconnect%3D0%26locale%3Den_US%26method%3Dpermissions.request%26perms%3Dpublish_stream%26return_session%3D1%26session_version%3D3%26from_login%3D1&rcount=1 from frame with URL http://example.com/myfacebookapp/. Domains, protocols and ports must match.

In Opera it gets stuck on a popup window (popup allowed) with this url:
http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/connect/xd_proxy.php?version=0#cb=f5132b51b60fbe&origin=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Ff10a57ba8d445c&relation=opener&transport=flash&frame=f19023256ffd8&result=%7B%22perms%22%3A%22publish_stream%22%2C%22selected_profiles%22%3A1245738876%2C%22session%22%3A%22%7B%5C%22session_key%5C%22%3A%5C%222.buXjHddfcr_xKQHVeu_FXw__.3600.1299679200-1245738876%5C%22%2C%5C%22uid%5C%22%3A%5C%221245738876%5C%22%2C%5C%22expires%5C%22%3A1299679200%2C%5C%22secret%5C%22%3A%5C%22glwIAcpeG0HDT__0z1QI3g__%5C%22%2C%5C%22access_token%5C%22%3A%5C%22152384968151443%7C2.buXjHdcfcr_xKQHVeu_FXw__.3600.1299679100-1245738876%7CdyZCE5trqgMkU0HSzSorX3jqbIs%5C%22%2C%5C%22sig%5C%22%3A%5C%228724dd80df9f16e7c3a2ce1b06f8d1e1%5C%22%7D%22%7D

So my question is: How can I get this to work in all browsers (Firefox, IE, Chrome & safari preferably)?
(edit: I have changed the urls and removed codes and urls to my app)

A: I also had a similarly bad experience with the popups. Eventually I moved away from the client flow model you are using, to the server flow model, where the server does the redirecting.
(I never followed this through with Javascript, but what I can see in the docs, there does not seem to be an option to turn off the popup. http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/javascript/fb.login/)
I can't provide you with a php example, as my stuff is in .NET but I think it should work in a similar way for you:

*

*Create a link to your FB login page: e.g. FBLogin.php

*This page then uses a library (facebook php sdk?) to help create the login url for facebook with a return url (e.g. FBAuthorize.php) to your site.  You will then be redirected to the facebooke login url.

*After successfully authentication on FB, you will be sent back the FBAuthorize.php page, where the magic token exchanging should be handled by the library.

No popup, no javascript.


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Q: Python request get doesnt work on laravel public storage I'm running a python flask on http://127.0.0.1:6666 and a Laravel API on https://127.0.0.1:8080. My python project tries to get a file from my Laravel public storage via the following code:
data = requests.get('http://localhost:8000/storage/GdGqU2Vko3xl8RYCBPiRnok4BbWDTD4uHARaoYRq.png')

The request does not give any feedback and the process keeps going on forever unit I add a timeout to the request and the request fails.
Python does create the file that I try to access whenever I run the following code after the request.get()
with open(filename, 'wb') as file:
    file.write(data.content)

Does anyone know why the request to my Laravel public storage does not give a response back?


I didn't have time to write my usual weekly recap. Between running the LA Marathon, getting myself home from the race, some recovery time, and heading out for a celebratory meal at Universal Citywalk, I had no time to write. Today, I'm continuing the celebration at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. So the weekly recap probably won't show up until Wednesday. For today, I wanted to get this post up to let Y'all know that I survived one of the hottest LA Marathons ever! I had a lot of fun along the way. If you followed me on Twitter and Instagram, you saw some of the fun I had. I can't wait to tell you guys all about it!
LA Marathon Week Recap! Finally!
Thanks! It was a slow one for me, but oh so much fun!
Congrats Greg! I know how much this meant to you and I'm so glad you had a great time! Go out and enjoy all your hard work! Can't wait to read about it in the upcoming posts.
Thanks! It's been a busy week. So, the race recap will have to wait until next week, unfortunately. I did have lots of fun!
Congrats on finishing a super hard race! I kept a lookout for you but didn't see you!
Thanks. I saw you and Devin right as everyone was starting. You guys were a little too far away for me to get your attention and we were close to the start line. So, it wasn't a good time to catch your attention. It was a pretty hot last 6-7 miles! However, I really loved most of the course. I am planning on doing this race again next year. Hopefully, the weather will be a little better in February. That way I can see how fast (or slow) I am able to run a marathon. The focus for this year's race was pretty much on having as much fun with the course as I could. Congrats to you on finishing as well!


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Q: K-Means alternatives and performance I've been reading about similarity measures and image feature extraction; most of the papers refer to k-means as a good uniform clustering technique and my question is, is there any alternative to k-means clustering that performs better for an specific set?

A: You may want to look at MeanShift clustering which has several advantages over K-Means:

*

*Doesn't require a preset number of clusters

*K-Means clusters converge to n-dimensional voronoi grid, MeanShift allows other cluster shapes

MeanShift is implemented in OpenCV in the form of CAMShift which is a MeanShift adaptation for tracking objects in a video sequence.
If you need more info, you can read this excellent paper about MeanShift and Computer Vision:
Mean shift: A robust approach toward feature space analysis

A: A simple first step, you could generalize k-means to EM. But there are tons of clustering methods available and the kind of clustering you need depends on your data (features) and the applications. In some cases, even your distances you use matters and so might have to do some sort of distance transformation, if it is not in the kind of space you want it to be in.