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4 Types of ACL Injuries Women Soccer Players Should Know
When you think about ACL injuries, the first one that comes to mind are ACL tears - the most infamous of them all. But there's more. Women soccer players in particular need to educate themselves about the various ACL injuries because they have a higher risk. This post will examine 4 types of ACL injuries and how women in soccer can protect themselves.
4 Types of ACL Injuries
The ACL can sustain injuries in more ways than you'd imagine. But there are four common types of these injuries that can affect soccer players.
ACL Sprain
An ACL sprain occurs when fibers or threads of the ACL ligaments get overstretched, partially torn, or completely ruptured. There are three grades of this:
Grade I ACL Sprain - Mild sprain (no tearing) that presents with swelling, moderate knee pain, and some loss of mobility. Treatment doesn't involve surgery since medications, crutches, and ice will provide relief.
Grade II ACL Sprain - Moderate sprain with partial tearing that presents with symptoms of mild sprains. But the symptoms are more severe and there is instability. Treatment may or may not need surgery.
Grade III ACL Sprain - Severe sprains that involve complete tearing of the ligament. Symptoms include severe pain and stiffness and treatment almost always requires surgery.
ACL Avulsion Fracture
ACL avulsion fractures aren't too common, but they can affect soccer players from time to time. They occur when a piece of bone breaks off where the ligament attaches to the thigh or leg. The usual cause of this injury is overuse/overexertion or blunt trauma during sports (such as soccer). For example, a hard blow to the leg during a tackle from an opponent trying to steal the ball can result in this type of injury.
ACL Deficient Knee
Many people have knees that have poorly functioning or poorly formed ACLs, a.k.a ACL deficiency (insufficiency). This can happen due to genetics or through injury. It often causes the knees to buckle, especially during physical activity. Although you can live with this injury, it often leads to complications such as osteoarthritis.
Complex and Multi-Ligament Knee Injuries
An ACL injured in more than one way may indicate multi-ligament damage or what's known as a complex injury. Diagnosing this type of injury usually requires an X-ray and MRI. Multi-ligament damage may include knee dislocations, fractures, meniscal tears, and more. These injuries need advanced medical attention (casts, surgery).
Women's Risk of ACL Injuries
Why do women soccer players, in particular, need to know about these types of ACL injuries? The answer is female anatomy. Years of research have shown that female athletes have anatomical differences (compared to men) that make them more prone to ACL tears. Two big factors that put them at a higher risk are their "Q-Angles" and hormonal output.
The Q-Angle
The Q-angle refers to the angle formed between the quadricep muscles (quads) and the patella tendon (knee joint). Doctors use this angle as a measurement of sorts.
The wider your q-angle is, the higher your risk of ACL injury becomes. Why? Wide angles are present in people who have wider hips, and wider hips put more strain on the knees. Women typically have wider hips than men, making their knees more likely to buckle under pressure.
Hormonal Differences
Besides having wider Q-angles, womens' hormonal profiles can affect the stability of their ACL joints. Research studies have linked hormonal fluctuations to changes in ligament stability. It appears to happen more frequently during menstrual cycles.
During the menstrual cycle, hormones such as estrogen and progesterone may cause ligaments to become more "lax" (less stable). This could make them more likely to stretch or tear.
Reduction of ACL Injury Risk
Preventing ACL injuries boils down to conditioning, wearing protective gear, and recovery. Focusing on these three areas can make a world of difference.
Three Steps to ACL Injury Prevention
Neuromuscular Training. Overstretched ligaments can occur when players ignore their warmups. But too much stretching before can make joints laxer and more prone to injury. FIFA's 11+ neuromuscular exercises prepare the nervous system so that muscles and joints move better without overexertion. They can reduce ACL tears as well as other ligament injuries.
Leg Guards. ACL injuries can occur when you sustain hard impacts or blunt force trauma to the legs. For example, this can happen with an unintentional kick from a tackle or challenge. Leg guards can reduce up to 90% of impact forces to the legs and knees. Of all women's soccer protective gear, a leg guard (the right one) is the most effective way to reduce leg injury risks.
Proper Recovery and Rest. ACL injuries often strike soccer players who don't get enough recovery time. High-volume practice and game schedules don't allow for enough recovery time, which is a recipe for injury. Players need to rest and not overdo it on the pitch. Also, recovery protocols such as diet/supplementation, percussion therapy guns, ice baths (cryotherapy) can also help.
Putting ACL Injuries to Rest
Not all women have a very high risk of ACL injuries, of course. With that said, it's now possible to know your risk by undergoing an assessment from physical therapists or kinesiologists. They'll examine your biomechanics and measure your Q-angle to determine whether you run or move efficiently.
This can help you figure out whether you're at a greater risk for ACL injuries compared to others. Regardless of the outcome, you can protect yourself from the miseries of an ACL injury, and dominate the pitch.
Need protective equipment for the lower body? Browse through our line of soccer protective gear for women!


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\section{Introduction}

Humans possess the remarkable capability of learning continuously, even in a sequential set-up.
In machine learning, learning from data continuously arriving possibly in a non \textit{i.i.d.} way such that tasks may change over time is called continual learning, lifelong learning, or incremental learning.
Another prominent aspect of human learning is that humans do not always require supervision for the concept of an object, and they can learn by grouping similar things. In contrast, neural networks show a tendency of forgetting previously acquired knowledge when learning new tasks in a sequential manner \cite{kirkpatrick2017overcoming} which is commonly referred to as catastrophic forgetting.

With the ever-increasing diversity of data, the lack of labelled data is a common problem faced by supervised machine learning models. However, unlabelled data is plentiful and readily available to be utilized for training machine learning models. In a standard (non-continual) setting, several unsupervised learning approaches exists that can learn based on some notion of similarity without supervision. However, semi-supervised learning models can leverage both labelled and unlabeled data, thus, achieving the best of both worlds.

Most of the existing approaches for continual learning have focused on the supervised classification setting. Some recent works have explored continual unsupervised learning setting \cite{lee2019neural,rao2019continual} focusing on generative models for the image generation task.

However, most of these approaches have not investigated the semi-supervised continual learning setting. One recent work by \cite{smith2021memory} explores continual semi-supervised setting, but their setting uses the super-class structure of the CIFAR dataset, and, thus, the sequentially arriving tasks are different from our setting. Moreover, their approach uses a discriminative classifier, whereas our approach uses a generative model as the model learns the distribution of the inputs.

Hence, we investigate a novel setting for continual semi-supervised learning where the continual learner comes across sequentially arriving tasks with labelled and unlabelled data. Similar to the standard semi-supervised learning setting, the unlabeled data and labelled data are intrinsically correlated in each learning task enabling the learner to leverage labelled and unlabelled data.

Majority of the continual learning approaches combat catastrophic forgetting by consolidating knowledge either in the weight (or parameter) space \cite{kirkpatrick2017overcoming,li2018learning,zenke2017continual,VCL}
 or in the data space \cite{AGEM,rebuffi2017icarl,shin2017continual,lopez2017gradient,aljundi2019gradient,rolnick2019experience}.
 As per the studies of the human brain, the semantic knowledge or ability to solve tasks is represented in a meta-space of high-level semantic concepts \cite{handjaras2016concepts,caramazza2003organization,mahon2009category}. Further, the memory is consolidated periodically, helping humans to learn continually \cite{caramazza1998domain,wilson1994reactivation,alvarez1994memory}. Inspired from this, recent work by \cite{joseph2020meta} proposed a framework, namely, \underline{Me}ta-Consolidation fo\underline{r} Continual \underline{L}earn\underline{in}g (MERLIN), that consolidates the knowledge of continual tasks in the meta-space, i.e., the space of the parameters of a weight generating network. This weight generating network is called the \textit{hypernetwork}, and it generates the parameters of a \textit{base network}. Such a base network is responsible for solving the specific continually arriving downstream task. We model the hypernetwork in \cite{joseph2020meta} using a Variational Auto-Encoder (VAE) model with a task-specific prior. However, they focus only on the supervised learning set-up. Thus, the base network is a discriminative neural network such as a feed-forward neural network or a modified Residual Network (ResNet-18).

In this paper, we propose \ourmodel{}: Meta-Consolidation for Continual Semi-Supervised Learning, a framework motivated from MERLIN \cite{joseph2020meta}, in which the continual learning takes place in the latent space of a weight-generating process, i.e., in the space of the parameters of the hypernetwork. However, \cite{joseph2020meta} uses a discriminative classifier (ResNets) as the base network and, thus, they focus only on the continual supervised setting. In contrast to \cite{joseph2020meta}, our model uses a modified form of an auxiliary classifier generative adversarial network (ACGAN) \cite{odena2017conditional} as the base network to perform continual semi-supervised learning. The auxiliary classifier in the GAN provides the ability to learn classification using the labelled data. Inspired from \cite{salimans2016improved}, we modify the discriminator in the ACGAN to handle the unlabelled data, and we call it \textit{Semi-ACGAN}. This leads to having a supervised and an unsupervised component in the Semi-ACGAN training objective. Thus, the VAE-like hypernetwork learns to generate parameters of the Semi-ACGAN base network, which performs the downstream task of semi-supervised classification.

\section{\ourmodel{}: Meta-Consolidation for Continual Semi-Supervised Learning}
This section starts with the problem set-up of Continual Semi-Supervised Learning. Following this, we present the overview of our proposed framework. Then, we describe the Semi-ACGAN as the base model and the training mechanism of Semi-ACGAN. Moreover, we provide the details of the hypernetwork VAE that learns the task-specific parameter distribution. Further, we describe the details of the meta-consolidation of the hypernetwork followed by the inference mechanism.

\subsection{Problem Set-up and Notation}
The problem of continual semi-supervised learning deals with learning from sequentially arriving semi-supervised tasks, as the data for a task arrives only after the previous task finishes. Let $\mathcal{T}_1, \mathcal{T}_2, \cdots, \mathcal{T}_{K}$ be a sequence of semi-supervised tasks such that $\mathcal{T}_k$ is the task at time instance $k$.
Moreover, each task $\mathcal{T}_j$, for $j\in\{1,\cdots,K\}$, consists of $\mathcal{T}_j^{tr}$, $\mathcal{T}_j^{val}$ and $\mathcal{T}_j^{test}$ that corresponds to training, validation and test sets for task $j$ respectively. Further, we define $$\mathcal{T}_j^{tr} = [\{(\bs{x}_m,y_m)\}_{m=1}^{M_{tr}^j}, \{\bs{u}_n\}_{n=1}^{N_{tr}^j}],$$

where $(\bs{x}_m,y_m)$ is the $m^{th}$ labelled sample, $\bs{u}_n$ is the $n^{th}$ unlabelled sample, and the total number of labelled and unlabelled training samples for $j^{th}$ task are $M_{tr}^j$ and $N_{tr}^j$ respectively.

Similarly, corresponding to the validation and test set per task, we define $\mathcal{T}_j^{val} = [\{(\bs{x}_m,y_m)\}_{m=1}^{M_{val}^j}, \{\bs{u}_n\}_{n=1}^{N_{val}^j}]$ and $\mathcal{T}_j^{test} = [\{(\bs{x}_m,y_m)\}_{m=1}^{M_{test}^j}, \{\bs{u}_n\}_{n=1}^{N_{test}^j}]$ respectively.

\subsection{Model Overview}
In our proposed framework, the hypernetwork is a VAE-like model with task-specific conditional priors, and it models the parameter distribution of the base network.
For each task, multiple instances of the base network learn the downstream semi-supervised task using both the labelled and unlabelled training data.
We use the weights of these trained base models as the inputs for training the hypernetwork.
So, the hypernetwork learns to generate task-specific weights for the base network, which eventually performs the continual semi-supervised task.
Further, meta-consolidation enables the hypernetwork to consolidate the knowledge from the previous tasks. Moreover, after training, the weights for the base network are sampled and ensembled during prediction or inference.

\begin{figure*}[!htbp]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.95\textwidth]{images/base-model.pdf}
    \caption{Base model: Semi-ACGAN. D learns from the labelled (green arrow), the unlabelled (blue arrow) samples as well as the generated (red arrow) samples. D predicts both the source (real or fake) and the class label for the labelled and generated samples, whereas, for the unlabelled samples, D only predicts the source.}\label{fig:base}
\end{figure*}

\subsection{Base Model: Semi-ACGAN}
The base network is a modified auxiliary classifier GAN (Semi-ACGAN) and, thus, consists of a generator G, a discriminator D with an auxiliary classifier.
We denote the weights of the base network for task $k$ using $\mathbf{\Theta}_k$.

In Semi-ACGAN, G is conditioned on the class label $\bs{y}$ along with the noise $\bs{z}_b$. Thus, the generated samples $x_{\text{fake}}=\text{G}(\bs{z}_b, \bs{y})$ correspond to a class label. Let $\bs{s}$ denote whether the source of the sample $\bs{x}$ is real or fake. For a sample $\bs{x}$, the discriminator gives the probability distribution over the sources $p(\bs{s}|\bs{x})$ as well as the probability distribution over the classes $p(\bs{y}|\bs{x})$, i.e., $[p(\bs{s}|\bs{x}), p(\bs{y}|\bs{x})] = \text{D}(\bs{x})$.

Let us denote the real sample using $\bs{x}_\text{real}$ and the actual class of the sample using $\hat{\bs{y}}$. The training objective consists of the following:

(i) For Labelled data:

\hspace{0.4 cm} a. Log likelihood of the correct source,
\begin{align}
        \mathcal{L}_s^\text{L} = \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[\log p(\bs{s}=&\text{real}|\bs{x}_\text{real})] + \nonumber \\
        &\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[\log p(\bs{s}=\text{fake}|\bs{x}_\text{fake})]
\end{align}

\hspace{0.4 cm} b. Log likelihood of the correct class,
\begin{align}
        \mathcal{L}_c^\text{L} = \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[\log p(\bs{y}=&\hat{\bs{y}}|\bs{x}_\text{real})] + \nonumber \\
        &\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[\log p(\bs{y}=\hat{\bs{y}}|\bs{x}_\text{fake})]
\end{align}

(ii) For Unlabelled data:

\hspace{0.4 cm} a. Log likelihood of the correct source for real images,
\begin{align}
        \mathcal{L}_s^\text{U} = \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[\log p(\bs{s}=&\text{real}|\bs{x}_\text{real})]
\end{align}

The discriminator D learns by maximizing $\mathcal{L}_c^\text{L}+\mathcal{L}_s^\text{L}+\mathcal{L}_s^\text{U}$, whereas the generator G learns by maximizing $\mathcal{L}_c^\text{L}-\mathcal{L}_s^\text{L}$.

Note that since the class information of unlabelled data is missing, we do not consider the log-likelihood of the correct class in the case of unlabelled data.

The generator G is a neural network that takes both the class label and noise. The class label embedding is obtained from the class id using a class embedding layer that is trainable. Thus, G learns to generate class-specific samples.

The discriminator D is a neural network with shared layers and two separate output layers: i. validity layer: output layer for correct source, ii. auxiliary classifier layer: output layer for correct class label.
D utilizes only the validity layer for unlabelled data while using both the validity and auxiliary classifier layers for labelled data. Since the class information is known for the generated images, both the output layers of D are used for generated images.

The shared layers of D enable learning from both the labelled and the unlabelled data. As the training progresses, G learns to generate realistic samples with known class labels, enabling D to do better classification.

Figure~\ref{fig:base} shows the modules of the base network Semi-ACGAN. As the real samples can consist of both the labelled data and unlabelled data, the figure shows it using green and blue arrows, respectively. On the other hand, the red arrows depict the generated samples. Moreover, the outputs are colour coded similarly.

\subsection{Task-specific Parameter Distribution: Hypernetwork}
As $B$ instances of the trained base network are used as the inputs for training the hypernetwork, we denote this set using $\{\mathbf{\Theta}_k^l\}_{l=1}^B$ for task $k$.
Since a VAE-like model having task-specific conditional prior is used as the hypernetwork, we define the parameters of the hypernetwork as $[\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}]$ such that $\bs{\theta}$ and $\bs{\phi}$ are the encoder and decoder parameters of the hypernetwork respectively.

The hypernetwork VAE models the task-specific parameter distribution $p(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{t})$. Thus, learning the hypernetwork enables the consolidation of knowledge from the previous tasks in the meta-space.
The vector representation $\bs{t}_j$ for the $k^{th}$ task can be any fixed-length vector representation including Word2Vec \cite{mikolovdistributed}, GloVe \cite{pennington2014glove} or just a one-hot encoding of the task identity. We use $\bs{t}$ to denote $\bs{t}_j$ in this subsection for brevity.

Inspired from MERLIN \cite{joseph2020meta}, the hypernetwork is trained by optimizing a VAE-like objective \cite{kingma2013auto}.
The computation of the marginal likelihood of the parameter distribution $p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{t})=\int p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z},\bs{t}) p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\bs{t}) d\bs{z}$ is intractable because of the intractability in the computation of its true posterior $p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t}) = \frac{p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z},\bs{t}) p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\bs{t})}{p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{t})}$. Thus, we introduce an approximate variational posterior $q_{\bs{\phi}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})$ to resolve the problem of intractibility. The log marginal likelihood can be written as:
\begin{align}
    p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{t})= KL(q_{\bs{\phi}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})~\|~ p_{\bs{\theta}}&(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t}))~~+ \nonumber\\ &\mathcal{L}(\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})
\end{align}

where $\mathcal{L}(\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t}) = \int_{\bs{z}} q_{\bs{\phi}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t}) \log\frac{p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z},\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{t})}{q_{\bs{\phi}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})} $ is the evidence lower bound (ELBO). This lower bound can be maximized in order to maximize the log-likelihood.

Further, $\mathcal{L}(\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})$ can be expressed as (refer to \cite{joseph2020meta} for complete derivation):
\begin{align}
    \mathcal{L}(\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t}) = -KL(q_{\bs{\phi}}&(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})~\|~ p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\bs{t}))~~+ \nonumber \\
    & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}_{q_{\bs{\phi}}(\bs{z}|\mathbf{\Theta},\bs{t})}[\log p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z},\bs{t})]
    \label{eq5}
\end{align}
Maximizing Eqn.~\ref{eq5} minimizes the KL divergence term, causing the approximate posterior weights to become close to the task-specific prior $p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\bs{t})$. The second term is the expected negative reconstruction error, and it requires sampling to estimate. The hypernetwork parameters $\bs{\phi}$ and $\bs{\theta}$, also known as encoder and decoder parameters, are trained using backpropagation and stochastic gradient descent. We assume that $p_{\bs{\theta}}(.)$ and $q_{\bs{\phi}}(.)$ are Gaussian distributions. Moreover, the reparameterization trick \cite{kingma2013auto} is used to backpropagate through the stochastic parameters. Taking $\{\mathbf{\Theta}_k^l\}_{l=1}^B$ as the input, we train the hypernetwork by maximizing Eqn.~\ref{eq5}.

Unlike standard VAE, the task-specific prior is not an isotropic multivariate Gaussian. It is given by:
\begin{align}
    p_{\bs{\theta}}(\bs{z}|\bs{t})
    = \mathcal{N}(\bs{z}|\bs{\mu_{\bs{t}}},\bs{\Sigma_{\bs{t}}})
\end{align}

where $\bs{\mu_{\bs{t}}}=\bs{W}_{\bs{\mu}}^T\bs{t}$ and
$\bs{\Sigma_{\bs{t}}}=\bs{W}_{\bs{\Sigma}}^T \bs{t}$ such that
$\bs{W}_{\bs{\mu}}$ and $\bs{W}_{\bs{\Sigma}}$ are trainable parameters, and learned along with the hypernetwork parameters.

\subsection{Meta-Consolidation}
Training the VAE directly on $\{\mathbf{\Theta}_k^l\}_{l=1}^B$ causes a distributional shift, i.e., a bias towards the current task $k$.
So, the hypernetwork VAE needs to consolidate the knowledge from the previous tasks. We call this \textit{meta-consolidation}.
We store the means and covariances of all the learned task-specific prior, which adds a negligible storage complexity.
The meta-consolidation mechanism is described below:
\begin{enumerate}
    \item For each task $\mathcal{T}_j$ till current task $k$ ($j={1,\cdots,k}$),
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item Sample $\bs{z_{t_j}}$ from task-specific prior:
        $$\bs{z_{t_j}} \sim \mathcal{N}(\bs{z}|\bs{\mu_{\bs{t_j}}},\bs{\Sigma_{\bs{t_j}}})$$
        \item Sample $P$ many semi-supervised base pseudo-models from decoder:
        $$\mathbf{\Theta}_j^i \sim p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z_{t_j}},\bs{t}_j);~ \text{where}~i\in\{1,2,\cdots,P\}$$
        \item Compute the loss using Eqn.~\ref{eq5}:
            $$Loss = \sum_{i=1}^P \mathcal{L}(\bs{\theta},\bs{\phi}|\mathbf{\Theta}_j^i,\bs{t}_j)$$
        \item Optimize $Loss$ to update parameters $\bs{\phi}$, $\bs{\theta}$
    \end{enumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\subsection{Inference}
Learning the task-specific parameter distribution $p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z},\bs{t})$ gives the ability to sample multiple $\mathbf{\Theta}$'s during inference. This ability provides an \textit{ensembling} effect of multiple models without storing the models a priori. Like most of the other continual learning approaches, we use a small exemplar memory buffer $\mathcal{E}$ for fine-tuning during inference.

Our approach can work with or without task-specific information during inference. However, we focus on the task-agnostic setting as it is more realistic and challenging.
The inference procedure for task-agnostic inference is described below:
\begin{enumerate}
    \item Aggregate the stored means and covariances:
$$ \bs{\mu} = \frac{1}{k}\sum_{i=1}^k \bs{\mu}_{t_i},
\bs{\Sigma} = \frac{1}{k}\sum_{i=1}^k \bs{\Sigma}_{t_i}$$
    \item Sample $\bs{z}$ from prior with aggregated mean and covariance:
$$\bs{z} \sim \mathcal{N}(\bs{z}|\bs{\mu},\bs{\Sigma})$$
    \item Sample $E$ number of $\mathbf{\Theta}$'s (semi-supervised base models) from learned decoder:
$$ \mathbf{\Theta}^i \sim p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z});~ \text{where}~i\in\{1,2,\cdots,E\}$$
    \item Fine-tune $\{\mathbf{\Theta}^i\}_{i=1}^E$ on $\mathcal{E}$
    \item Ensemble results from $\{\mathbf{\Theta}^i\}_{i=1}^E$ and solve tasks $\{{\mathcal{T}_i}\}_{i=1}^k$
\end{enumerate}
\vspace{0.5cm}
The inference procedure for task-aware inference is given as below:
\begin{enumerate}
    \item For each task $\mathcal{T}_j;$ $j\in\{1,\cdots,k\}$
    \begin{enumerate}
        \item Sample $\bs{z_{t_j}}$ from task-specific prior:
    $$\bs{z_{t_j}} \sim \mathcal{N}(\bs{z}|\bs{\mu_{t_j}},\bs{\Sigma_{t_j}})$$
        \item Sample $E$ number of $\mathbf{\Theta}$'s from learned decoder:
    $$ \mathbf{\Theta}_j^{i} \sim p_{\bs{\theta}}(\mathbf{\Theta}|\bs{z_{t_j}},\bs{t_j});~ \text{where}~i\in\{1,2,\cdots,E\}$$
        \item Fine-tune $\{\mathbf{\Theta}_j^{i}\}_{i=1}^E$ on $\mathcal{E}$
        \item Ensemble results from $\{\mathbf{\Theta}_j^{i}\}_{i=1}^E$ and solve task $\mathcal{T}_j$
        \end{enumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\begin{table*}[!htbp]
\small
    \centering
    \resizebox{0.90\textwidth}{!}{
    \addtolength{\tabcolsep}{4pt}
    \begin{tabular}{|c|cc|cc|cc|cc|cc|cc|} \toprule
        \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Labelled data$\rightarrow$}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{500 (120)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{250 (60)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{100 (24)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{50 (12)}} \\
        \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){2-3} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){4-5} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){6-7} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){8-9}
        {\textbf{Methods$\downarrow$}} & $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$ & $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$ &  $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$& $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$\\
        \hline
        {Single-SSL}  & {59.57}& {2.90}&  {59.80}& {3.44}&  {57.35}& \textbf{1.87}&  {54.38}& \textbf{0.72}\\
        {EWC-SSL}  & {60.11}& {0.88}&  {60.89}& {3.20}&  {60.78}& {3.17}&  {59.65}& {2.23}\\
		\ourmodel{} (Ours) & \textbf{63.72}& \textbf{-4.61}&  \textbf{63.55}& \textbf{2.45}& \textbf{63.37}& {3.60}& \textbf{63.00}& {11.25}\\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
    }
    \caption{Average accuracy ($A$) ($\uparrow$ higher is better) and average forgetting ($F$) ($\downarrow$ lower is better) of \ourmodel{} and the baseline approaches modified to use both labelled and unlabelled data on Semi-Split CIFAR-10 dataset. The number of labelled data is varied, whereas, the number of unlabelled data is fixed to 1000 (240). The number inside () denotes the labelled memory buffer size.}
    \label{base-ssl-results}

\end{table*}

\begin{table*}[!htbp]
\small
    \centering
    \resizebox{0.90\textwidth}{!}{
    \addtolength{\tabcolsep}{4pt}
    \begin{tabular}{|c|cc|cc|cc|cc|cc|cc|} \toprule
        \multicolumn{1}{c}{\textbf{Labelled data$\rightarrow$}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{500 (120)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{250 (60)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{100 (24)}} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{\textbf{50 (12)}} \\
        \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){2-3} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){4-5} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){6-7} \cmidrule(l{2pt}r{2pt}){8-9}
        {\textbf{Methods$\downarrow$}} & $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$ & $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$ &  $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$& $\bs{A\uparrow}$ & $\bs{F\downarrow}$\\
        \hline
        {Single}  & {63.48}& {10.81}&  {59.54}& {1.81}&  {53.65}& \textbf{-3.76}&  {51.68}& {3.57}\\
        {EWC}  & \textbf{67.32}& {5.20}&  {59.25}& {10.01}&  {52.82}& {-0.39}&  {49.82}& {0.04}\\
        {MERLIN} & {59.71}& {0.51}&  {33.77}& \textbf{-0.48}&  {22.71}&  {2.07}& {17.84}& {1.06}\\
		\ourmodel{} (Ours) & {63.72}& \textbf{-4.61}&  \textbf{63.55}& {2.45}& \textbf{63.37}& {3.60}& \textbf{63.00}& {11.25}\\
        \bottomrule
    \end{tabular}
    }
    \caption{Average accuracy ($A$) ($\uparrow$ higher is better) and average forgetting ($F$) ($\downarrow$ lower is better) upon varying the number of labelled data on Semi-Split CIFAR-10 dataset. The number inside () denotes the labelled memory buffer size. \ourmodel{} (Ours) uses some unlabelled data, whereas other baseline models only use the labelled data.}
    \label{csl-mcssl}

\end{table*}

\section{Related Work}
Most of the existing continual learning approaches focus on the problem of continual supervised learning. These approaches consolidate knowledge either in the weight space, data space or meta-space.

Elastic Weight Consolidation (EWC) \cite{kirkpatrick2017overcoming} is a regularization based approach that penalizes drastic changes in the parameters that have a large influence on prediction. Variational Continual Learning (VCL) \cite{VCL} is a probabilistic regularization based approach using Bayesian neural networks. They treat the posterior of the current task as the prior for the next task as it naturally emerges from online variational inference.
Learning without Forgetting (LwF) \cite{li2018learning} uses knowledge distillation to preserve the knowledge of previous tasks.

Gradient Episodic Memory (GEM) \cite{lopez2017gradient} stores a limited number of samples to retrain while constraining new task updates to not interfere with knowledge of previous tasks.  \cite{aljundi2019gradient} extended this idea by selecting subsets of samples that approximate the region of the data seen in the previous tasks.

\cite{von2019continual} operates in the meta-space as it learns a hypernetwork that generates the weights of the base model. However, they learn a task identity conditioned deterministic function.
Similarly, recent work by \cite{joseph2020meta} consolidates the knowledge from previous tasks in the meta-space of weight generating hypernetwork. They learn the task-specific distribution of weights, giving them the ability to ensemble during prediction.

Some recent approaches focus on the problem of continual unsupervised learning.
\cite{rao2019continual} presents an approach for unsupervised representation learning with a dynamic expansion based approach using a latent mixture-of-Gaussians.
\cite{lee2019neural} focuses on the discriminative and generative tasks using Dirichlet process mixture models for dynamic expansion with a generative process different from \cite{rao2019continual}.

A recent approach, named, \textit{DistillMatch} \cite{smith2021memory} tries to address the problem of Continual Semi-Supervised Learning. However, the unlabeled data in continual tasks significantly differ from our set-up, as \cite{smith2021memory} uses the super-class structure of the CIFAR dataset.
DistillMatch combines pseudo-labelling for semi-supervised learning,
knowledge distillation for continual learning,
along with consistency regularization as it uses \textit{FixMatch} \cite{sohn2020fixmatch} as the base semi-supervised learner.
Moreover, it has an out-of-distribution detection scheme required due to its problem set-up.
However, unlike our approach, DistillMatch is not a generative approach, and thus, the distribution of input is not directly modeled.

\section{Experiments}
We propose a novel dataset for continual semi-supervised learning. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of our proposed model \ourmodel{} on the proposed modified CIFAR dataset and compare our model with other state-of-the-art approaches. We describe the dataset details, evaluation metrics, hyperparameter settings, experimental results and analysis in this section. All the results are shown for \textit{task-agnostic} setting as it is more realistic and challenging.

\begin{figure}[!hb]
	\centering
	\includegraphics[scale=0.48]{images/500_120_unlabelled_examples_per_task-crop.pdf}

	\vspace{0.2cm}

	\includegraphics[scale=0.48]{images/100_24_labelled_examples_per_task-crop.pdf}
	\caption{\textbf{Top:} Semi-Split CIFAR-10 dataset with varying number of labelled data, and fixed number of unlabelled data. \textbf{Bottom:} Semi-Split CIFAR-10 dataset with varying number of unlabelled data, and fixed number of labelled data. The number inside () denotes memory buffer size.}
	\label{fig:varying}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Dataset Details}
We experiment with the CIFAR dataset in a continual learning semi-supervised set-up. \textit{Split CIFAR-10 }\cite{zenke2017continual} dataset is a supervised continual learning benchmark dataset that has 10 tasks with 45,000 images in total such that each task contains 2 classes.
We modify Split CIFAR-10 dataset for continual semi-supervised learning set-up. Thus, we have 10 tasks in total where each task contains 2 classes with a varying number of labelled data and unlabelled data. We name this modified dataset as \textit{Semi-Split CIFAR-10}.

\subsection{Training Details and Hyperparameters}
The base model Semi-ACGAN uses convolutional deep neural networks for G and D. The validity and auxiliary classifier layers of D are both linear layers with sigmoid and softmax functions applied respectively to get the scores. During training, number of base models is 5, and for training these base models, we use Adam optimizer with initial learning rate of 0.0002. We provide the architecture details of G and D below.

Detailed architecture of G: [\texttt{BatchNorm}; \texttt{Upsampling}: scale=4; \texttt{Conv}: 3x3, 16 filters, stride=1, padding=1); \texttt{BatchNorm}; \texttt{LeakyReLU}; \texttt{Conv}: 3x3, 3 filters, stride=1, padding=1); \texttt{Tanh}].

Detailed architecture of shared layers of D: [\texttt{Conv}: 3x3, 16 filters, stride=2, padding=1; \texttt{LeakyReLU}; \texttt{Dropout}: p=0.25; \texttt{Conv}: 3x3, 32 filters, stride=2, padding=1; \texttt{LeakyReLU}; \texttt{Dropout}: p=0.25; \texttt{BatchNorm}].

The hypernetwork uses 5 base models to learn its encoder and decoder parameters. The chunking trick proposed by \cite{von2019continual} is used to keep the size of the VAE small. The weights of the base models are flattened and then split into chunks of size 250. We train the hypernetwork conditioned on the chunks, and the chunk embeddings are learned together with the hypernetwork parameters. The weights are assembled back for making the inference. We use the one-hot encoding of the task identity.

In the hypernetwork VAE, the encoder network has one fully connected layer with 30 neurons. Moreover, the decoder network architecture is a mirror of the encoder network architecture. This is followed by two layers for predicting mean and diagonal covariance vectors respectively. The dimension of latent $\bs{z}$ is 10. The hypernetwork VAE is trained for 5 epochs using Adadelta optimizer with an initial learning rate of 0.005 and batch size of 1.

During inference, we sample 15 models from the decoder for ensembling using majority voting. Further, the labelled and unlabelled data in the memory buffer are used to fine-tune the models. Since the base models are loaded sequentially at a time (saving only the final logits) not more than one model is ever loaded in the memory at one time.

\subsection{Evaluation Metrics}
We define $a_{k,j}$ as the accuracy on the test set of $j^{th}$ task, after model is trained on $k^{th}$ task.
Following previous works on continual learning, we use the metrics given below to evaluate the models:
\begin{enumerate}
	\item Average Accuracy:
	$$ A = \frac{1}{K}\sum_{k=1}^K A_k~; \text{ where }A_k = \frac{1}{k}\sum_{j=1}^k a_{k,j}$$
	\item Average Forgetting:
	\begin{align*}
		&F = \frac{1}{K}\sum_{k=1}^K F_k~; \\
	\text{ where }F_k &= \frac{1}{k-1}\sum_{j=1}^{k-1} \max_{l\in\{1,\cdots,k-1\}} (a_{l,j}-a_{k,j})
	\end{align*}
\end{enumerate}

\subsection{Results and Analysis}
We adapt EWC for continual semi-supervised setting, denoted as \textit{EWC-SSL}, and conduct experiments with a varying number of labelled data. We also train a single base model Semi-ACGAN without any continual learning mechanism and denote it using \textit{Single-SSL}.
The labelled data is used during continual training, and a small fraction of it is stored in a memory buffer for fine-tuning during inference. Table~\ref{base-ssl-results} shows the results on Semi-Split CIFAR-10 dataset. We compare our approach with Single-SSL and EWC-SSL as baseline continual semi-supervised approaches. We fix number of unlabelled data to 1000 per task with unlabelled data memory buffer size of 240 per task for all the models. The decrease in number of labelled data does not have much significant impact on the performance of \ourmodel{} as it consistently outperforms baseline approaches in all settings. This suggests that our approach generalises better in low data regimes.

In order to demonstrate the ability of our model to leverage unlabeled data, we also compare with other continual supervised baseline approaches in Table~\ref{csl-mcssl}. Here, \textit{Single} denotes a \textit{Resnet18} classifier trained without any continual learning mechanism. EWC also uses a Resnet18 classifier, whereas MERLIN uses a modified Resnet18 classifier as described in \cite{joseph2020meta}. Our model uses labelled data along with some unlabelled data, whereas other models use only labelled data. As our model outperforms other approaches in most settings, we observe that it does better than others as labelled data decreases. Decreasing labelled data has no significant effect on our model, whereas the performance of other models drops drastically.

In Fig.~\ref{fig:varying} (Top), we fix the number of unlabelled examples per task as 500 with 120 unlabelled samples in the memory buffer for fine-tuning as we vary the number of labelled examples per task. We notice that the accuracy slightly increases with an increase in the labelled data.
Here, forgetting tends to decrease as the labelled examples per task increases.

Fig.~\ref{fig:varying} (Bottom) shows a varying number of unlabelled examples upon fixing the number of labelled examples per task as 100 with 24 labelled examples in the memory buffer for fine-tuning. We observe that upon fixing the number of labelled data per task, the accuracy increases with an increase in unlabelled data.
Also, forgetting tends to increase as the examples per task increases, but it is not significant.

\section{Conclusion}
We proposed a novel continual semi-supervised learning scheme in which tasks with both unlabeled and labelled examples arrive sequentially. We developed a task-specific weight generation-based approach for continual semi-supervised learning problem. We utilize a semi-supervised auxiliary classifier GAN (\textit{Semi-ACGAN}) as the base model. We also extended other continual learning approaches to use both labelled and unlabelled data, and comparisons show that \ourmodel{} performs better on the \textit{Semi-Split CIFAR-10} dataset in most of the settings. We also outperform other continual supervised baseline approaches that show the ability of our model \ourmodel{} to leverage knowledge from the unlabelled examples. Moreover, \ourmodel{} performs well even for a low number of labelled examples. In future work, we plan to evaluate \ourmodel{} on more benchmarks and baselines.

\textbf{Acknowledgments:} This work was supported by Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship.

\bibliographystyle{named}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


In a new report from Burning Glass Technologies, hybrid jobs, which combine two previously unrelated skills together, are more frequently being seen in job postings.
The company analyzed job postings between 2013 to 2018 and noted that more employers desired workers with skills that were both technical and creative.
As hybrid jobs aren't usually entry level, the report notes candidates would need more experience or training beyond college, and colleges and universities should be teaching students how to combine skill sets.


text:
This article is more than 10 months old
Ebola: medics brace for new cases as DRC outbreak spreads
WHO says 103 confirmed and probable cases in outbreak centred in North Kivu province
Jason Burke Africa correspondent
Fri 24 Aug 2018 13.16 EDT Last modified on Fri 24 Aug 2018 16.50 EDT
A Congolese health worker administers Ebola vaccine to a woman in North Kivu. Photograph: Olivia Acland/Reuters
An outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has reached a pivotal moment and now endangers medical teams fighting to stop the spread of the disease, health workers have said.
Dr Peter Salama, the World Health Organisation's emergencies chief, said there were 103 confirmed and probable cases in the outbreak, which is centred in the eastern province of North Kivu, and that another wave of cases was expected.
The DRC's Health Ministry has confirmed 36 deaths. Another 27 deaths were suspected to be from Ebola, it said. Salama said 14 healthcare workers had been infected so far, one of whom had died.
Several cases of Ebola have already been identified in the city of Beni, raising fears of further infection in a crowded urban centre.
Just as worrying, health workers said, was a new case in the town of Oicha, which is almost entirely surrounded by an Islamist militia based in Uganda that has been responsible for a series of bloody raids across the region.
North Kivu is one of the most violent parts of Congo, and is a base for dozens of armed groups that contest government authority and exploit mineral resources in the region.
The WHO said a doctor in Oicha had been hospitalised with Ebola, and 97 of his contacts had been identified. "It is the first time we have a confirmed case and contacts in an area of high insecurity. It is really the problem we were anticipating and at the same time dreading," Salama said.
Karin Huster, coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières in Mangina, the epicentre of the outbreak, said new patients were arriving at the emergency treatment units every day.
"Obviously we are concerned. We are worried that we are not seeing the suspect cases coming into our centres that we should be seeing. It is not a situation where we are confident that the outbreak is under control," Huster said. "It is all about winning the trust of the community. It's super important to come early when they are sick and people often come too late."
The insecurity in the region and a mobile population has made vaccination campaigns like the one that helped overcome an Ebola outbreak that killed 33 in the north-west of the DRC earlier this year less effective.
Oly Ilunga, the minister of health, was more optimistic. "The situation seems to be stabilising following the different measures we have taken. But we must be prudent and remain prudent over coming weeks," Ilunga said.
Authorities have now approved a total of five experimental treatments against the virus in the hope they will help stop its spread.
Prof Steve Ahuka, a virologist at the DRC's national institute of biomedical research, said two brand new treatments were already being used on 10 patients, of whom two had been discharged after doctors decided they were out of danger. "We always ask for the consent of the patients. So far no patient has ever opposed being treated with these medicines," Ahuka, who is in Beni, said.
A significant problem is the belief among many local communities in and around Beni that the outbreak has been caused by sorcery, local civil society activists said.
"We've been trying to show people that Ebola is a disease that we've seen 10 times now in the DRC … When there is a case in a red zone [where security is poor] we call on Congolese army soldiers and the United Nations for help," said Kizito Bin Hangi, who heads a coalition of civil society groups in Beni.
The DRC, whose heavily forested interior makes it a natural home for Ebola, is at the forefront of a global campaign to combat the virus. The biggest recorded outbreak of Ebola killed 11,300 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone from 2014 to 2016.
Ebola first appeared near the northern Ebola river in the DRC in the 1970s. It has twice reached Kinshasa but, on both occasions, has been contained.
Additional reporting by Fiston Mahamba in Goma.
Suspected Ebola sufferer does not have disease, say Swedes
Tests negative for patient who had returned from Burundi and was treated in isolation
Are we on the cusp of a breakthrough in Ebola treatment?
Leading scientist hopes drug trials in DRC could lessen the impact of deadly virus
Ebola outbreak: Death toll tops 200 in Democratic Republic of the Congo
UN has called on armed groups threatening health workers to let them fight the disease
Wave of rebel attacks leads to surge in DRC Ebola cases
Disease outbreak centres on North Kivu and Ituri, amid calls for intensified response
UN employee in Democratic Republic of the Congo tests positive for Ebola
DRC resumes battle against Ebola after militia attack
DRC Ebola outbreak is officially declared over
NHS protest: how 'hostile' migrant charging policy came into being

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Late last year, InterContinental Hotel Group revealed it was investigating a widespread credit card breach across some 5,000 hotels worldwide but in February, IHG acknowledged a breach but said it appeared to involve only a dozen properties. Now, IHG has released data showing that cash registers at more than 1,000 of its properties were compromised with malicious software designed to siphon customer debit and credit card data.
"On behalf of franchisees and in co-operation with the payment card networks and acquiring banks, IHG is coordinating the investigation that is now under way," an IHG spokeswoman told the BBC. "Individuals should closely monitor their payment card account statements. If there are unauthorized charges, individuals should immediately notify their bank. Payment card network rules generally state that cardholders are not responsible for such charges."
A statement released on the hotel's website says that the malware, which infected the hotels' card payment systems, was identified between Sep. 29 and Dec. 29, 2016. The statement adds that "there is no evidence of unauthorized access to payment card data" after Dec. 29, it still took until March 2017 to ensure that the malware had been completely expunged from the systems.
The statement said that other properties with an encryption-based security measure were not affected. However, cyber security expert Brian Krebs stated that not many of IHG's hotels adopted this security measure.
"IHG has been offering its franchised properties a free examination by an outside computer forensic team," Brian Krebs said. "But not all property owners have been anxious to take the company up on that offer. As a consequence, there may be more breached hotel locations yet to be added to the state look-up tool."
IHG didn't say how many properties total were affected, although it has published a state-by-state lookup tool available here.
There have been a huge string of acknowledged breaches in the past two years: Kimpton Hotels, HEI Hotels and Resorts, Millennium Hotels & Resorts North America, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas (twice), Trump Hotels (twice), Golden Nugget hotels, Mandarin Oriental, Omni Hotels, and White Lodging all have been victims of data breaches.
In addition to data-breach insurance, there are other steps hotels can take to minimize risk. These include understanding the risk of a data breach, having a strict online policy bolstered by strong employee training, updating machines and technology, and being prepared in case you are targeted.


The tradition of setting New Year's resolutions is an important one. They serve as a road map for the year ahead, letting you plan where you want to be and what you should accomplish within the next 12 months to get there. Even if you don't achieve them all, resolutions force you to think about how you want to grow and what's worth pursuing.
If you've made resolutions this year, chances are that reading more books is one of them. Our lives are increasingly experienced in front of screens — we can thank smart phones, tablets and Netflix — and books are the surest way to unplug and gain a fresh perspective.
Thousands of books are published each year and it can be difficult, and frankly overwhelming, to figure out where to start. Thankfully, that's where the folks at Kramerbooks & Afterwords Café have us covered. Whenever we're in Washington, D.C., Kramerbooks is one of our favorite places to grab a book, a beer and a quick bite to eat in one go. On our last stop, we asked the staff for a few recommendations of what books we should be reading in the new year.
Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe is located at 1517 Connecticut Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC and is famously open for 24 hours on Fridays and Saturdays. Follow @kramerbooks on Instagram and "Like" their page on Facebook for updates on in-store events and book releases.


text:
The Old Prof The Hockey Writers
Published on Tuesday, September 8, 2020
Maple Leafs News & Rumors: Further Thoughts About the Andersen Trade
A few days ago, I wrote about the rumor that Toronto Maple Leafs starting goalie Frederik Andersen might be headed to the Carolina Hurricanes. That possibility is still flying around, however, further news and rumors have emerged.
Related: Maple Leafs Radical Trade Rumors: Nylander, Ekblad, Nurse & Subban
In this edition of Maple Leafs News & Rumors, I'll take a further look at what's happening on the Andersen trade front. I'll also speculate about why and where he might land. It's still a rumor but there is logic to what's being suggested.
Kyle Dubas Has Spoken With Frederik Andersen about a Trade
On Sept. 4, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was interviewed on Sportsnet 590 radio and shared information about the Maple Leafs and their starting goalie. He reported that general manager Kyle Dubas had taken an opportunity to talk with Andersen about the rumors.
"I think Kyle Dubas has reached out to Andersen, and spoken to him twice…from what I understand he has told him we are not shopping you, but we are getting asked about you."@FriedgeHNIC with @ScottyMacThinks & @mikezigomanis.#LeafsForever
??: https://t.co/dzxO125iVD pic.twitter.com/MkBKbsEfNJ
— Sportsnet 590 The FAN (@FAN590) September 4, 2020
Dubas' message was, "We are not shopping you, but there are a number of teams really interested in you and we are listening." Friedman's report makes sense. The NHL is a balance between business (any team could trade any player – even Wayne Gretzky) and team-building where relationships are developed over years of playing together.
Related: Who is the NHL's Top Goaltending Prospect?
The fairest way to conduct such business would seem to try to be as transparent with players as possible about what's going on, so that information vacuums won't lead to confusion. For what it's worth, Dubas seems to do that with his team.
Andersen just finished his fifth season with the Maple Leafs. He came to the team in 2016 for two draft picks (in 2016 and in 2017), which was good value for that trade. He's also been a strong goalie and a good teammate ever since. But, hockey is what it is; and, Andersen has to know that when teams call about your availability, management will pick up the phone. That's one of the downsides of being in a business where your salary is $5 million per season.
Hockey Insiders Weigh in About a Potential Trade
Sportsnet's Luke Fox, who publicly wonders whether trading Andersen is a good idea – who's better at the salary? – noted that the Maple Leafs have reportedly been called by the Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, Calgary Flames, and the Buffalo Sabres "to name a few." Each of those teams has a solid reason for asking about Andersen.
Frederik Andersen, Toronto Maple Leafs (Jess Starr/The Hockey Writers)
Friedman reported that he didn't know how Andersen took the news from Dubas about a potential trade, but early last week Sportsnet's Chris Johnston reported that the goalie was already assuming a move was coming and was preparing himself for it.
Johnston reported on Sept. 2, "I think there's a good chance Freddy isn't playing in Toronto next season. Teams have an interest and the Leafs are taking the calls. Even heard from Andersen's side that Freddy seems to be preparing as if he won't be back with Toronto."
Where Will Andersen Land?
Andersen's expiring contract probably won't make him a good fit for a number of teams with playoff potential who are close to the upper limit of the flat salary cap. However, for teams that aren't bumping up against the cap, he would be a great pick up. He only has one season left on a contract worth $5 million but with an actual salary of only $1 million – the Maple Leafs have already paid $4 million of his salary as a signing bonus.
Frederik Andersen, Toronto Maple Leafs (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
The upper limit of the NHL cap for next season is $81.5 million and the lower limit is $60.2 million. Theoretically, Andersen would be attractive for teams looking to hit the cap floor, but that doesn't want to spend their own money to do so. However, although a cap floor exists, few teams seem in jeopardy of not reaching it. In 2019-20, no NHL team was close to the floor. According to Cap Friendly, the New Jersey Devils had the lowest cap hit in the NHL at $72,895,143, almost $13 million above that floor.
Andersen's Attractiveness for a Rebuilding Team
Andersen would be a great pick up on a rebuilding team looking for an inexpensive goalie who might also become a trade-deadline asset as a rental. I have already mentioned the Ottawa Senators as a perfect landing spot for him, and they have prospects who could help the Maple Leafs. Furthermore, 2020-21 will not be the Senators' season to make a run at the Stanley Cup. The team is trending upward, and a run might happen soon, but not next season.
Related: 3 Teams That Should Be Interested in Judd Brackett
Andersen is used to facing high-danger chances given up by a porous Maple Leafs defense, he'd be used to playing on a struggling team. The Senators' goalie situation is up in the air with Anders Nilsson only possibly – perhaps not fully – recovered from concussion symptoms. Long-time stalwart goalie Craig Anderson's contract is expiring. Marcus Hogberg was a rookie last season and could use some help. Finally, at the end of the 2020-21 season, Ottawa general manager Pierre Dorion could again make hay (as he did this season with Jean-Gabriel Pageau) if he traded Andersen as a rental to a team heading into the playoffs that needs a goalie.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau, traded at the deadline to the New York Islanders (Photo by Mike Stobe/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Senators are not the only NHL team with salary-cap space ($7,180,631) for Andersen. During the 2019-20 season, the Colorado Avalanche had $5,329,123 in space; the Los Angeles Kings had $6,991,327 and the Devils had $8,604,857.
Of those teams, the Avalanche are the only ones ready for a Cup run, and they have goalie issues. Is anyone convinced that the trio of Philipp Grubauer, Pavel Francouz, and Michael Hutchinson couldn't be improved? The same could be said for the LA Kings' Jonathan Quick and Calvin Petersen. Finally, are the Devils willing to bet the team's future on MacKenzie Blackwood and Cory Schneider?
Any of these teams might see Andersen as a viable option, if only for a season.
Will Andersen Be Traded?
With trades, the best course of action never seems completely clear. There's always the risk that the Maple Leafs would trade a solid goalie without a dependable replacement. Is Jack Campbell ready? Or, is there another goalie that matches the team's needs?
Related: Maple Leafs' Auston Matthews Is Undergoing a Transformation
It's also hard to know what Dubas is thinking. His bottom line might be that Andersen wouldn't retain much trade value as he nears free agency. Given that likelihood, Andersen might be too valuable right now not to move him.
Smart money suggests Andersen is gone. If Johnston is correct, Andersen understands that already and is preparing for that eventuality.
Sign up for our regular 'Maple Leafs Newsletter' for all the latest.
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The new product of Shirin Novin was launched and introduced to the market and received a great welcome.
In The Year 2004, Shirin Novin Industrial Group commenced their activity in the food industry in the field of cakes, biscuits and chocolate production.
© Copyright 2014 by shirinnovin. All Rights Reserved.


text:
MDOT moving forward with local construction projects
Work in Itawamba County | Photo: MDOT
The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) is moving forward with major construction projects in North Mississippi, announced Commissioner Mike Tagert.
TUPELO, Miss. (Press Release) –The Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) is moving forward with major construction projects in North Mississippi, announced Commissioner Mike Tagert.
Bridge replacements on State Route 178 in Itawamba County
Work to replace seven bridges along State Route 178 in Itawamba County is on schedule. Construction of four new bridges over Hickory Creek and Bull Mountain Creek is underway. Bridge deck has been poured on one bridge. Forming for the bridge deck has been completed on the second bridge. Beams are being placed on the third bridge, and piling casings are being poured on the fourth.
Crews are working on replacing three other bridges over Gum Creek, Cypress Creek and a relief slough west of Patton Flatt Road. State Route 178 will remain closed to traffic until the new replacement bridges are constructed.
A signed detour route will be in place while construction takes place on this portion of State Route 178. Westbound traffic from Tremont now has access to Patton Flatt Road. The project is expected to be complete in early summer 2019.
"The original bridges were constructed in the 1930s, and they had outlived their serviceable life spans," Tagert said. "When the project is completed, it will put this section of State Route 178 back in full service."
Bridge replacements on State Route 145 in Prentiss County
MDOT is moving forward with plans to replace four bridges along State Route 145 in Prentiss County. Each bridge has weight limit restrictions and presents safety concerns for the traveling public.
Phase one started in late September and will replace three bridges over Twenty Mile Creek, Wolf Creek and the Wolf Creek tributary. Once work is complete on this phase, work will begin on phase two which will replace a bridge over Osborne Creek, a box bridge on State Route 145 and the realignment of County Road 7090.
Phases three and four of this project will replace a bridge over King's Creek and a box bridge along State Route 145 north of Booneville. Construction of these two phases will begin in late May 2019 and have a milestone completion date of the end of July 2019. MDOT anticipates the entire project to be complete by early summer 2020.
"These bridges have been on MDOT's deficient bridge list and have become a safety concern for the traveling public," Tagert said. "These projects will increase safety and mobility throughout the region."
Safety improvements, system preservation in Lee County
Work has started on a Gloster Street safety project in Tupelo. Turn lanes, traffic signal improvements and a mill and asphalt overlay will take place from McCullough Boulevard to Barnes Crossing. Turn lanes will also be added at both the Highway 45 interchange and the Tom Watson Drive intersection.
A high-friction aggregate course will be placed at McCullough Drive to help increase traction and reduce crashes. The new epoxy-based course will be applied on top of the existing concrete that has become smooth over time. In recent years, there has been an increase in wet weather crashes at the intersection.
"After MDOT looked at the number of crashes along this corridor, they identified improvements to increase the safety of the traveling public," Tagert said. "These improvements will help lower the number of crashes and improve traffic flow."
To limit impacts to traffic, MDOT expects most of the work requiring lane closures to happen at night. The project is expected to be complete by spring 2019.
A five-mile pavement restoration project is nearing completion on U.S. Highway 45 in Lee County from the county line to north of Brewer Road. Crews have completed asphalt work on the highway lanes, work remains to place the last lift of asphalt on the interchange ramps.
Construction zones present new traffic patterns and configurations that can cause confusion to some motorists. For information about how to navigate highway work zones safely, visit GoMDOT.com/drivesmartms.
"Workers may be present on these maintenance and construction projects," Said Melinda McGrath, P.E., MDOT executive director. "MDOT encourages drivers to slow down in work zones so our crew members can make it home safe to their families."
MDOT awards construction contracts
Construction contracts awarded for local MDOT work
MDOT projects underway in North Mississippi
Landslides worry MDOT engineers
MDOT pavement preservation project set to begin in Itawamba County
MDOT prepares for paving project in Lee County
State lottery funded repaving project in Yalobusha County, MDOT says
Starkville leaders move forward with Highway 12 sidewalk project
MDOT provides safety tips for winter travel


Add safety and security when Stepping in and out of the bath tub with the Bluestone non-slip bath step. The step adds almost 4 inches of extra height from the floor to make it easier to step over the side of the bath tub. Also can be used to help getting in and out of the shower. Features an extra-large 18 inch wide platform, slip-resistant top and rubberized feet to keep the step firmly in place. Unique design allows multiple steps to be stacked to add an extra 2 inches of height with every step. Supports up to 330 lbs.


Hybrid Electric Vehicles are being considered a convenient intermediate product in the conversion process from conventional to pure electric vehicles, due to their compromise on cost, fuel consumption, and driving range. Convex modeling steps for the problem of optimal battery sizing and energy management of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle with an electric variable transmission are presented. Optimal energy management was achieved by a switched model control, with driving modes identified by the engine on/off state. In pure electric mode, convex optimization was employed to find the optimal torque split between two electric machines, to maximize powertrain efficiency. In hybrid mode, optimization was carried out in a bilevel program. One level optimizes speed of a compound unit that includes the engine and electric machines. Another level optimizes the power split between the compound unit and the battery. The proposed method is used to minimize the total cost of ownership of a passenger vehicle for a daily commuter, including costs for battery, fossil fuel and electricity.


Our Master of Education with Emphasis in Reading and Literacy degree program is designed to focus on literacy development, foundations of reading, instructional methods, reading research and best practices in the area of reading. This degree is designed with education practitioners in mind.
Our graduate degree in reading and literacy is designed to be completed 100% online. You'll complete readings, assignments, discussions on Blackboard, individual projects and presentations, quizzes and tests throughout the semester. Recorded lectures via Mediasite will connect you with professors and other students on your own time. In all classes participation done via Blackboard and other resources like Collaborate, related to recorded lectures can be done at your convenience, rather than during a specific time. To fulfill your graduation requirements for this program, you have the option of writing a thesis or passing comprehensive exams. You must be physically present to defend your thesis, but not to take your comprehensive exams. We look forward to the opportunity to meet you in person!
If you fail to satisfy all of the following requirements for admission within your first 12 hours of graduate study at ENMU, you will be reclassified as a non-degree seeking student and you will not be allowed to register for further graduate coursework until all requirements for admission are fulfilled.
Thesis option: You must complete 9 hours of Curriculum and Instruction Core Requirements, 21 hours of required emphasis coursework and 6 hours of Master's Thesis. If a course is cross-listed, the RED prefix must be selected.
Non-thesis option: You must complete 9 hours of Curriculum and Instruction Core Requirements, 21 hours of required emphasis coursework, 6 hours of electives and comprehensive exams. If a course is cross-listed, the RED prefix must be selected.
You must complete 6 hours from the list below.
Must be completed in accordance with the 2018-20 Graduate Catalog (see Graduate Examinations).
If you are interested in pursuing a Master of Education in Reading and Literacy please submit an application or contact us for more information.
At ENMU, our mission is to combine a traditional learning environment with 21st century technology to provide a rich educational experience with excellent teaching and active learning. ENMU emphasizes liberal learning, freedom of inquiry, cultural diversity and whole student life. With affordable tuition, evening classes as well as select online courses, we offer an education that fits your lifestyle and puts your career goals within reach. Apply now or contact us for further information on how to advance your career by earning a Master of Education in Reading and Literacy.


Pull Your Pork BBQ provides the people of Phoenix with some dang tasty slow-smoked BBQ and all sorts of homestyle cookin'. Juicy smoked ribs, cold cut sandwiches, burger dogs, loaded tater tots, pasta, and so much more. Not only do they serve their delicious offerings curbside, but they can cater events and parties of all types and sizes. But wait. Hold the phone. Pull Your Pork offers a completely customizable menu at competitive prices too. Whatever your taste buds are craving or wherever your imagination will take you...you want it? They'll make it.
Even better, they offer pre-ordered ribs too. Tell 'em how many racks you want and your meat will be fresh, hot, and ready on Saturday. Can't wait for the Thanksgiving or Christmas meal but have zero desire to cook? Pull Your Pork has got you covered with a completely prepped holiday feast. Honestly, any day will feel like a special occasion if you're eating this amazing food.
Smoked Turkey - a whole turkey smoked low and slow for tender, juicy perfection- these flavors will give everyone a reason to be grateful on Thanksgiving.


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Q: How to debug remote-cache write failures? We're using Bazel (via Bazelisk) and set up a GCS bucket remote cache as documented. However when we run, it seems we regularly get BulkTransferExecptions during the Remote Cache writing phase:
>  bazel build //... --sandbox_debug --verbose_failures
INFO: Invocation ID: fba91f67-788f-47cc-be4e-24f92ed11301
INFO: Analyzed 25 targets (74 packages loaded, 3245 targets configured).
INFO: Found 25 targets...
WARNING: Writing to Remote Cache:
BulkTransferException
INFO: Elapsed time: 17.115s, Critical Path: 15.47s
INFO: 16 processes: 16 worker.
INFO: Build completed successfully, 39 total actions

As far as I can tell, I have the appropriate access (Storage Object Admin).
I've been trying to get more information around that specific exception, but I've been unable to.
And if the bucket wasn't working, I'd expect an exception when reading from the cache: I'd seen such things when attempting other URLs to reach the bucket, such as domain storage.cloud.google.com instead of storage.googleapis.com.
Any and all advice to help debug what's going on here is welcome! The documentation is sparse on what to happen if you get exceptions, and as far as I can tell no results are uploading so no caching is actually occurring.
Update 2020/07/09
For some unknown reason, when we moved from one bucket to a more permanent planned on, it stopped occurring. So things work for us, and as far as we can tell the buckets were the same, so we don't know why it was failing initially.

A: You can use --verbose_failures, which will make it print out a longer stack trace. I just had a very similar problem, and figured out that my problem was due to insufficient permissions my service account had on my GCS bucket. I got this more helpful error message with --verbose_failures:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><Error>AccessDenied<Message>Access denied.</Message>REDACTED@REDACTED.iam.gserviceaccount.com does not have storage.objects.delete access to REDACTED/cas/REDACTED.</Error>

I had to read the source code the message came from. I'll try to submit a PR to add this hint to Bazel documentation: https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazel/pull/12945

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BACON DEVILED EGGS — Crispy bacon, green onion and a hint of cayenne pepper are added to traditional deviled eggs in this kicked up version of the classic stuffed egg appetizer.
I love deviled eggs. Love! And the crispy bacon in these Bacon Deviled Eggs only makes them better. Because, as we all know, bacon makes everything better.
These eggs are a perfect addition to a brunch buffet. They also make great appetizers, and are fantastic protein packed snacks.
Of course, I usually eat a few too many to call it a snack…..so I'm going to say they're also great as a light lunch! Really, I can't eat just one or two of these delicious stuffed eggs.
Maybe that's why they're called deviled eggs…..because they're so tempting!
A little secret for getting your deviled eggs to sit flat on a plate or platter. Remove a tiny slice from the underside of the egg. This will create a flat bottom for the egg to rest on. No more deviled eggs tipping and sliding around your serving tray!
If you love deviled eggs as much as I do, then this bacon version is a must try. I hope you like them as much as I do. Try not to eat too many!
Be sure to save this Bacon Deviled Eggs recipe to your favorite Pinterest board for later.
Crispy bacon, green onion and a hint of cayenne pepper are added to traditional deviled eggs in this kicked up version of the classic stuffed egg appetizer.
Slice the hard boiled eggs in half lengthwise and gently scoop the yolks into a medium bowl. Set aside the whites.
Mash the yolks with a fork, then stir in the mayonnaise, green onions, Dijon mustard, vinegar and cayenne.
Stir in about 3/4 of the cooked, crumbled bacon, reserving the rest for garnish. Season the egg mixture with salt and pepper, to taste.
Spoon or pipe the filling into the reserved whites. Sprinkle with remaining bacon and additional green onion, if desired. Cover and chill for up to four hours before serving.
Oh YUM! I have not had a perfect deviled egg since my mother-in-law passed away about 8 years ago. Definitely need to make some. These look fabulous.
These eggs look delicious. I'll try the recipe next time I make deviled eggs.
These look lovely. Devilled eggs always remind me of my childhood as they seemed so much more popular then but I love them.
My hubby loves deviled eggs AND bacon, so he will love these!
Funny that we eat eggs and bacon every weekend, yet I've never thought of putting them on devilled eggs! These look delicious Danelle!
Whenever I go to a Church lunch or a Line Dancing social or anywhere else I go where a bring a plate is required I always take stuffed eggs. I even have a special stuffed egg carrier to transport and serve them with! I always try to take a different sort of egg each time. Devilled eggs will be a really nice change.


Photo Courtesy Zócalo Public Square Eric Liu: Citizen Who?
What does it mean to be an American citizen? Political buffs can explore that question in Culver City at the one-man performance by Eric Liu—former Clinton White House speechwriter and author of The Gardens of Democracy and The Accidental Asian. Weaving autobiography, reporting and conversations with ordinary Americans, Liu tells the stories of five different people who learn what it means to be a citizen. He also reflects on the path his parents took in the 1950s from Taiwan to New York City. Provocative questions will be posed, so prepare to chew on the heated query of who deserves to be called an American.


Tsimanes, in which our ONLY mission together, is to move our team into the most remote corners of this river system in search for BIGGER AND MEANER jungle gold!
– One professional English speaking fly fishing guide for every two anglers.
– An entire expedition team comprised of more than a dozen local Tsimane guides, half dozen local guides, Chef/chef helper, and 2-3 professional english speaking fly fishing guides.
Please remember that, due to unpredictable weather conditions and other potential external factors, expedition itineraries are subject to change.
8 total days , 7 fishing days (4 anglers per week) $5,950 per person.
Arrive Viru Viru International Airport (code VVI). An Angling Frontiers representative will meet you and transfer you to Los Tajibos Hotel and Convention Center. Check in and rest for an early morning departure to the jungle. (night of hotel included in package price).
Have breakfast and then transfer to the charter flight for the 2.35 hour flight to the jungle airstrip. Arrive and begin transfer to the main camp (Approximately 3 hours canoe ride upriver). Arrive and get settled in your tents and geared up. Lunch and introduction briefing. Then separate into 2 teams and fish around the home beats. Return back to camp before dark to pack for our expedition further up river the next day. Welcome dinner and rest.
Breakfast. Anglers will finish packing and leave their cargo in front of their tents. Our entire expedition team will already be loading cargo on our fleet of dugout canoes and making sure we have all the necessary supplies properly packed. All together as an expedition team we begin our river ascent deep into the uppermost headwaters of our river system. We will take turns (leap frog fishing) on our way up, stopping to fish at choice spots to maximize fishing and efficient use of our daylight. We will cover various pools, rocky and woody structure, runs/riffles, back-eddies and more, while navigating the river. While our team negotiates all these obstacles and takes care of pushing our expedition fleet upriver, the professional guides will handle our guests, putting them on different fishing scenarios hunting down dorado and other species along the way. Packed lunch on-the-go to take advantage of daylight. Our expedition team will eventually arrive at our campsite, unload cargo and set up camp, while our guests continue fishing upriver. Our anglers will arrive to a complete camp set up for them to have a bath and enjoy dinner and much needed rest.
Early breakfast. Pack gear up and load onto canoes. Our guides will go ahead first with our guests, fishing their way upriver in "leap frog" fashion. Our expedition team will lag behind them, moving camp to our next campsite for the week. Shore lunch on our way upriver to more fishing adventure. Our guests and professional guides will continue fishing the rest of the afternoon, and then turn back in time to make it to our new campsite before dark. Dinner and rest.
Breakfast. Anglers and guides will split into two teams and switch through beats every day, -or move all together 'leap frogging' our way, each taking turns beat by beat, day by day, working our way up even higher up the headwaters. There is enough water and enough fishing opportunities for each of the maximum of 4 anglers in this expedition to get at least 2-5 chances at a nice sized fish every day, and of course some days chances will be double that or more. Your guide will decide when it is time to return to make it back to our last camp or fly camp. Dinner and rest.
Early breakfast, begin packing for return to Casare Camp. Make our way downriver with guides and anglers leading the way. We will stop at choice spots to fish. Have our packed lunch on-the-go. Arrive to Casare Camp early afternoon and fish the home beats. Return to Casare Camp for dinner and rest.
that we consider your safety first, always, even if it means losing flights. Angling Frontiers will not be responsible for any extra charges associated with any changes required there-forth.) Once in Santa Cruz, either a transfer directly to the International Airport or, you will be transferred to the hotel. (2nd night included in the package).


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Explanations > Brains > Neural Aging > Dementia
Description | Treatment | See also
Dementia may be defined as:
'a clinical syndrome characterised by loss of function in multiple cognitive abilities…occurring in clear consciousness'
(Whitehouse et al., 1993);
Dementia can be seen less as a single condition and more as an umbrella term for a variety of processes affecting the brain, including those that affect:
The cortex (the outer brain layer)
Areas below the outer layer
Both cortex and deeper parts (eg. Lewy body)
Multiple parts and areas
Common forms of dementia include Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, fronto-temporal dementia, and Lewy body dementia.
Memory and problem-solving ability are commonly affected, though in different ways in each dementia form. Personality change may also appear.
Source memory, where a person remembers where and when they experienced or heard something, often fades.
Fixing new memories become difficult, for example recalling the name of a person recently met. Memory tasks that require effort may also just be too difficult.
Confusion may arise in various circumstances and simple tasks may not be understood. Loss of attention can easily result in distraction from tasks.
Dementia may also be progressive, worsening over a long period of time. It may be recognized early by spotting 'signatures' or patterns of impairment.
Early symptoms include difficulty with meaningful writing and naming objects, along with inner confusion and depressive symptoms.
It affects mostly older people. 5% of people over 65 are affected in some way whilst 20% of those over 80 are affected.
Diagnosis can be problematic. A common instrument for diagnosis is the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) in which a range of cognitive tests are given. A problem with this is that MMSE also correlates with socio-economic status and educational level. CAMDEX is another alternative, as is Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR).
Asking them to nod their head, or showing them a card with a written instruction to close their eyes, results in confused inaction.
Asking questions like 'what season is it now?' may get a confused response. Attention and concentration can be assessed by giving a simple task such as asking them to count backwards from 20 to 7.
Diagnosis can be difficult when considering the effects of normal aging and factors such as differing educational levels. Even a seemingly-simple task for one 'normal' person may be approached very differently by another person.
If you can delay the onset of a late-life degenerative disease, there can be a significant impact as the person may die naturally before the disease reaches its more traumatic stages.
Drugs that hold off or slow down progress are thus more than just a stop-gap, as are any dietary controls or cognitive or physical exercises that help with delaying onset and progression.
When a person realizes they have Alzheimer's, then they may well go through the K�bler-Ross grief cycle, including periods of denial, anger and searching for a cure.
Seeing yourself become incapable can be very depressing and up to 40% of Alzheimer's sufferers are further debilitated by this condition.
With careful disclosure, counselling and support, some of these reactions may be mitigated.
There are a number of ways that sufferers can be taught to cope with the difficulties that the different forms of dementia cause, for example with loss of semantic memory, new information can be taught.
One of the most important things a Dementia sufferer needs is care. Whilst they may be largely functional, there are other aspects that they find difficult. They may also become confused and frightened as what was once easy becomes bafflingly difficult.
Support for the care-giver can also be important. It can be very exhausting looking after a person who can have fits of extreme emotions in between bouts of depression and confusion.
The 'Person-centered model' puts the human at the core of treatment and seeks to give them control and choice in improving their quality of life. Rather than being 'nannied' or 'nursed' they are given support in retaining independence.
Learning and re-learning
Just helping the person learn and re-learn can be helpful, for example with spaced retrieval, where the information is recalled after increasing intervals.
Other methods can be used to provide the forgetful person with the information they need, for example with memory boards, calendars and and other aide memoires.
By providing structure and regularity the person may be helped in learning routines by which it is easier to know what to do next and help them cope.
This can be a good solution, although it can cause feelings of guilt in all parties. It also comes with its own problems such as sustaining a sense of individual identity within an institution. This can be helped with such as 'life story' photo montages and 'memory' wallets.
Caring for carers
Looking after dementia sufferers can be exhausting and very upsetting, especially if they are related to the patient. Counselling and breaks for these people can help both them and the person with dementia.
Carers can become jaded and take their frustrations out on the sufferer, sometimes subtly and sometimes without realizing what they are doing. They can disempower the person, treat them as a child, discount their requests, objectify and even intimidate them. With support they can be taught to avoid such dysfunction.


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Immigration Policy: Challenging Its Myths Essay
Immigration Policy: Challenging Its Myths
America is a nation of immigrants. Yet, Americans have not always been happy with new immigrants. Benjamin Franklin worried that German immigrants would crowd out America's British culture. In the 1840s, mostly Roman Catholic Irish immigrants provoked the first organized anti-foreign movement. At the turn of the century, new immigrants from Italy and Poland were seen too different to become Americans. These days, Latino and Asian immigrants are inflaming same fears and criticism.
Since Congress began placing restrictions on new immigration, controversies over immigration policy have never ceased for more than a century. Whatever the rhetoric surrounding immigration policy, the public debate comes down to whether new immigrants are eating away our pie or not. Immigration proponents argue that immigration shores up the American economy, while opponents charge new immigrants undermine our economic potential. The conflicting views at both ends of the spectrum are attributable to a myriad of myths on which the immigration policy is based.
As I examine the truth and myths about our immigration policy, I found two major differences between the rival assertions. First, their perspectives on immigration are totally different. Proponents view immigration from global, long-term, and multi-cultural perspective, while opponents focus more on local, short-term, and acculturation viewpoints. Second, most opponents misread the reality. Pro-immigration segments were more receptive to the changing trends, whereas, anti-immigration segments, especially politicians, were politically and emotionally driven. To forge a sound immigration policy, we should not base it on myths, but on a compelling ...
...s and Facts',
Ghadar, Fariborz. Dec. 11, 2012. 'Dispel the immigration myths',
Saxenian, AnnaLee, 1999, 'Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. San Francisco: Public Policy Institute of California.
Welcome Dayton, 2014 < http://www.welcomedayton.org/about/ >
Welcoming Michigan, 2014
learn-more>
West, Darrel. Aug. 11, 2010. 'Seven Myths that Cloud Immigration Debate', USA Today,
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-09-01-column01_ST1_N.htm?csp=obinsite
White House, June 20, 2007. 'Immigration's Economic Impact', < http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/cea/cea_immigration_062007.html>
Immigration And The Canadian Immigration Policy Essay
- Immigration has played a large role in Canada's history, and essentially has crafted the Canadian identity. Each time Canada's immigration policy changed so did the flow and contextual backdrop of immigrants and thus the uniqueness of Canada (Passaris, 1998). Canadian immigration and essentially immigration policy is a multifaceted composition of an interrelated "set of guidelines, regulations and actions by government agents" (Green & Green, 2004). The economic forces of immigration have played a large role in influencing Canadian immigration policies over Canada's large and vast immigration history and three major intentions are emphasized.... [tags: Immigration, Immigration to the United States]
Immigration Policy Is Illegal Immigration Essay
- The chapter "Immigration" by Richard T. Schaefer discusses the immigration status in the United States. The number of immigrants had dramatically changed due to the government policy. The immigration policy changed a lot in the American history such as Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Emergency Quota Act of 1921, and Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.These policies changed the patterns of immigration to the United States. Also, Richard discusses the immigration policy today. The current immigration policies are less restrictive than before, so there are a lot of people can immigrate to the United States.... [tags: Immigration to the United States, Immigration]
The Best Immigration Policy or the Worst? Essay
- The Best Immigration Policy or the Worst The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) is viewed as one of the most important policy implementations in U.S. immigration history. As drafted, IRCA proposed to be a policy to control and deter all illegal immigration into the U.S., but the policy was truly directed at stopping the flow of Mexican immigrants that continues to be the largest immigration flow in the world. Daniel Tichenor writes in Dividing Lines that, "Originally designed as a restrictive enforcement measure, IRCA proved to be surprisingly expansive in both design and effect." By identifying the unintended consequences of the law, this paper explores why the policy faile... [tags: Immigration ]
Essay on Immigration Reform : The Current Immigration Policy
- Immigration Reform The current immigration policy is badly in need of repairing. Its harsh treatment of immigrates has created mistrust between citizens and law enforcement, is costly in terms of clean environment, resources and human lives. Fixing this policy will vastly improve living situations for both citizens and immigrants. Although illegal immigration is against the federal law, many states believe that the government isn't doing a very good job enforcing it. Some states, like Arizona, have came up with their own attempt in order to compensate for this issue.... [tags: Immigration to the United States, Immigration]
Immigration Policy : A Nation Of Immigrants Essay
- The United States has always been known as a nation of immigrants; however as of late, the policy enacted upon immigrants does not seem to reflect that ideology. In order to understand how to effectively write immigration policy, it is important to acknowledge the history, politics, and philosophy of such legislation. Particularly in the last ten years, congress has worked on a lot of immigration policy like the Dream Act, a piece of legislation that worked to provide citizenship to undocumented immigrants.... [tags: Immigration, Immigration to the United States]
Essay on The Immigration Policy Of The United States
- There may not be a more politicized issue in America than illegal immigration. People from all over the world travel to the United States to better their lives for themselves and/or their families, whether that be through education or job opportunities. Unfortunately, legislators from all across the country have tried, and failed, to pass laws reforming the immigration policy of the United States. In recent years, President Obama has issued an Executive Order granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants, a bipartisan group of senators crafted an immigration reform package, and President Bush attempted to pass illegal immigration reform.... [tags: Immigration, Immigration to the United States]
The Development Of Canadian Immigration Policy Essay
- This book is written from an economic perspective by three economics professor emeritus at Queen's university, all three of them has a PHD from world's prominent universities such as Harvard and Princeton. The purpose of the book is to inform readers in political science, public policy, governmental agency, and immigration studies of the changes and how to improve in immigration policy notably in skilled workers. It gives a statistic reference to professors and researchers. It is a great source for people that are interested in social studies to read.... [tags: Immigration, Immigration to the United States]
The United States Immigration Policy Essay
- The United States immigration policy is in immediate need of a reform in order to maintain the nation's societal, cultural, and economic needs. Reason being is because the main tasks the federal government is accountable for, acquires to regulate our borders and governs or limits individuals entering the United States. Regrettably, the federal government has continuously failed at solving this problematic situation, leading an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants and approximately 40 percent of dishonest immigrants overstaying on their legal visa term (Heritage Foundation Backgrounder No.... [tags: Immigration to the United States, Immigration]
U.s. Immigration Policy Policies Essay
- Have you been in recent years in a circus. Well, you probably haven't, but let me assure you that, yes, you actually have been. Lately, with the United States of America presidential election on the door, "Efforts to overhaul U.S. immigration policy often generate more show than substance" (Malakoff, May 31 2013). So, to obtain more substance than show, the United States of America needs compromised members of Congress to reform the immigration policy according to U.S. actual needs with clear and realistic objectives, and measurable intended outcomes.... [tags: Immigration to the United States, Immigration]
The Root of America's Racist Immigration Policy Essay
- The Root of America's Racist Immigration Policy On Tuesday May 16,2006 President George W. Bush started his State of the Union speech with, "We must begin by recognizing the problem with our immigration system". Although the ideologies and issues that America faces today with immigration may seem more complex, there not. The truth is America was founded by immigrants and has flourished with many new types of immigrants to this very day. As romantic as that sounds, immigrants have been met with racist policies that have been institutionalized.... [tags: US Immigration Policy]
The Intake of Potassium
Produnt Placement and Marketing
Viruses: Nature's Hackers
The Impact of Media on Teens
Understanding Acids and Bases
Agent Orange- An Herbicide


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Hi everyone (and by everyone I mean those 5 of you that seem to actually visit this website: I love you and you're gorgeous). I'm doing this new comic and I'm very happy with it. Starting next week, I'll be posting a couple of pages here every Wednesday.
I've actually finished the first chapter and, if you'd rather read it all in one seating, you can buy the floppy.
Buenos Aires, 1962. The military has forced the previous president to resign and Peronism is still banned, but it doesn't really matter: Estela and Norma are about to discover their favorite pop star.
If you don't want to wait for the weekly updates, you can buy chapter one in print.


Friedrich Koenig (1774-1833). German Inventor. The Engraving in Illustration, 1883.
This photo taken during World War I shows German merchant submarine Deustchland lying in Chesapeake Bay before returning across the Atlantic. In spite of the vigilance of English patrols, the Deutschland made two trips to the United States, landing once at Baltimore and once at New London. The Deutschland was a blockade-breaking German cargo submarine. It was private and owned by the North German Lloyd Line and had a capacity of 700 tons. Its commanding officer was Paul Koenig. It was used for high-value trans-Atlantic commerce, submerging to avoid British patrols.
Koenig Felipe VI, Koenigin Letizia von Spanien - Treffen der dt. Bundeskanzlerin mit dem spanischen Koenigspaar, Bundeskanzleramt, 1. Dezember 2014, Berlin.
Friedrich Koenig (1774-1833). German Inventor. The Engraving in Illustration, 1883. Colored.
Koenig Felipe VI, Koenigin Letizia von Spanien, BKin Angela Merkel - Treffen der dt. Bundeskanzlerin mit dem spanischen Koenigspaar, Bundeskanzleramt, 1. Dezember 2014, Berlin.
Markennamen: 'Koenig Ludwig Weissbier', Berlin.
Ezra Koenig Vampire Weekend backstage 2008 Coachella festival Indio.


text:
Directory Brentwood Brentwood Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters)
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto Sisters)
Deanery
54 Cromwell Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 5DZ
See below for a list of other churches, schools and religious communities in (Brentwood)
Cathedral Church of St Mary & St Helen
28 Ingrave Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 8AT
Ursuline Preparatory School
Old Great Ropers, Great Ropers, Lane Warley, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 3HR
Ursuline Convent High School
Queens Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 4EX
St Helen's Junior School
Sawyers Hall Lane, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 9BX
St Helen's Infant School
Ursulines (Brentwood)
Ursuline Generalate, 93 Queens Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 4EY
The Grange Community, 93 Queens Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM14 4EY
Mercy Sisters (The Institute)
41 Priest's Lane, Brentwood, Essex, CM15 8BU
Community of Our Lady of Walsingham
Diocesan House of Prayer, Abbotswick, Navestock Side, Essex, CM14 5SH