At a consultative meeting with the communications industry held last week, the Communications Regulatory Authority of Namibia (CRAN) submitted its proposals to amend the current regulations that control so-called number portability between operators.
"The purpose of the Amendment to the Numbering Regulations is to make provision for the implementation of fixed and mobile number portability, and to ensure that all services and technology neutral licensees provide number portability and to set out additional requirements in the numbering plan for fixed mobile number portability" said the regulator's Chief Executive, Festus Mbandeka in a statement released after the consultations.
Number portability is the facility in the software systems of communications service providers to accommodate the telephone numbers originating in systems other than their own. Number portability is a function of the National Numbering Plan which was published on 01 April last year.
This plan required a one-year transition period to enable all service providers to modify their number control systems to receive the numbers from competitors.
The transition period ended on 31 March this year. By then it was expected of all telecommunications companies to comply with the National Numbering Plan which ultimately will enable the full transferability of any number between mobile, fixed and even VOIP (voice over internet protocol) platforms.
Number portability is now in the phase where the regulator deemed it necessary to amend the regulatory framework, to ensure full future compliance.
"The Regulations will apply to service and technology neutral telecommunications licensees issued with one or more number licences for the provision of electronic services. The implementation of fixed and mobile number portability will commence within 12 months from the final publication of the proposed regulations" said Mbandeka.
"CRAN's role and legal obligation is to ensure that all holders of number licences adhere to this numbering plan and implement number portability in accordance thereto and within the prescribed 12 months" he said.


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Fresh Pressed [new music friday] – 057
Joe DeAndrea April 13, 2018 • 10:00 am
What better way to kick off a weekend than with new music? Fridays are always chock full of the latest songs and albums ready to be the soundtrack to everyone's antics, and here you'll find some of the week's standout releases. Whether you're ready to spin an anticipated song from a favorite artist or just taking a look at what's out there, there's a whole lot of tunes to dive right into. Who knows—maybe you'll find your next obsession.
Nicki Minaj – "Barbie Tingz" / "Chun-Li"
Nicki Minaj was once the queen of rap—that was until Cardi B stepped in and snatched the crown away with little resistance. This is mostly because, other than a few tracks, Minaj hasn't delivered a full album since 2014. With her new singles "Chun-Li" and "Barbie Tingz" Minaj attempts to make her way back to the top with songs that are filled to the brim with attitude, letting the music world know that she hasn't gone anywhere.
5 Seconds of Summer – "Youngblood"
It's safe to say 5 Seconds of Summer has gone through a full-on reinvention with their new music and, really, it's great to hear. The brand of pop-punk that turned them into breakout stars—mixing crunchy guitars onto radio—appears to be on its way out with Youngblood. The title track "Want You Back" has much of the same DNA as its predecessor, with its bouncy riffs surrounded by a booming drum beat.
EXO-CBX – Blooming Days
K-pop subunit EXO-CBX make their triumphant return to the game with their breezy EP Blooming Days. Featuring members from EXO, this 3-man group allows fans to get a taste of a different side of their favs—and the music speaks for itself. With co-writers who have worked with Lights, Ariana Grande, Little Mix and more, the seven-track collection is a joy and the title track is a major standout.
Swae Lee – "Guatemala"
Camila Cabello took us all the way to "Havana" with her spicy hit single and now Rae Sremmurd's Swae Lee is heading further south with "Guatemala." The rapper's latest solo single is a summery jam that takes a page out of Drake's "Passionfruit" handbook in the best ways—as Auto-Tuned vocals supply the icing on the cake.
Nothing,Nowhere. – Ruiner
A debut album is an important one and Nothing,Nowhere. makes his presence known with an excellent first record. Recently signed to Fueled By Ramen, singer/songwriter Joe Mulherin lays it on the line with heartfelt hip-hop infused emo-pop. Acoustic guitar takes precedence on the majority of the tracks as Mulherin's flow is solid to the point where even Post Malone would want to take some notes.
Zayn – "Let Me"
Zayn hasn't released an album for over two years but he certainly hasn't left the spotlight. With collabs featuring Taylor Swift, Sia, and PartyNextDoor, the guy's been busy. And he's clearly improving with each piece that drops. "Let Me" is his first pure solo offering since 2016's Mind of Mine, centering in on a pop-focused vibe compared to the R&B flavor in previous material. Overall, his pitch-perfect falsetto is something to marvel at and it's a big reason why you'll be coming back for more.
– "Starlighter (Echo, Utah)"
If you didn't know any better, you might think that Hawthorne Heights are releasing their first ever record. That's because the material off their upcoming sixth full-length sounds just as fresh as their debut did 14 years ago. "Starlighter (Echo, Utah)" is youthful pop-punk bliss that showcases Hawthorne Heights' skill set effortlessly—excellent musicianship coupled with ear-dominating hooks.
The Longshot – The Longshot
Green Day, Foxboro Hot Tubs, The Longshot… Who really cares what name Billie Joe Armstrong is making music under as long as he's making it? His latest project is called The Longshot and he just unveiled a three-song EP. Albeit brief, these songs are even better than most of what Green Day has offered over the past few years. Raw and energetic, there's nothing that an Armstrong fan—or a punk fan in general—wouldn't love from these tracks.
Megan and Liz – "Hand on Mine"
Country pop sister-duo Megan and Liz are back at it again doing what they do best; making sugary sweet melodies best suited for just about any situation. Their latest single "Hand on Mine" makes use of their strengths as steady guitar strums go hand in hand with mesmerizing harmonies.
Taylor Swift – Spotify Singles
Taylor Swift is next in line to flex out her chops with two offerings for Spotify's live singles series. First, a cover of Earth, Wind & Fire's "September" lets Swift escape back a little bit to her country roots. Meanwhile, a rendition of Reputation's "Delicate" gives the electro-pop track a fresh coat of laid-back paint.
As It Is – "Hey Rachel (Jukebox Edition)"
Unique is an understatement for As It Is' newest version of their song "Hey Rachel"—one they've called a "jukebox edition." Imagine sitting at a diner in the 70's, sipping on a milkshake, and slotting a coin in a jukebox, and this major pop-punk track plays with its super retro sound. The funniest part is that, somehow, it works amazingly well, so the only natural progression is to give the rest of their album this old-school treatment.
Other new releases:
Chvrches – "Miracle"
Breaking Benjamin – Ember
A Summer High – "About You Now"
Bury Tomorrow – "Black Flame"
Cash Cash – "Finest Hour" (feat. Abir)
Snow Patrol – "Life on Earth"
Twin Shadow – "When You're Wrong"
Calpurnia – "Louie"
Youngr – "Drive"
Florence + The Machine – "Sky Full of Song"
Bebe Rexha – "Ferrari"
G-Eazy – "1942"
Pentatonix – Top Pop, Vol. 1
David Bowie – Changestwobowie
The Chainsmokers – Everybody Hates Me (Remixes)
Carrie Underwood – "Cry Pretty"
Janelle Monae – "Pynk"
Jason Aldean – Rearview Town
Tinashe – Joyride
Sigrid – "High Five"
50 Cent – "Crazy (feat. PnB Rock)
Princess Nokia – A Girl Cried Red / "For the Night"
Gavin James – "Always"
Marian Hill – "Wish You Would"
Kideko – "Good Thing"
Wet – "Softens"
Waterparks Drop "REAL SUPER DARK" + 'INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY' is Coming
idobi Staff
Chaos vs Balance: The Siiickbrain Style of High Fashion Punk
PVRIS Returns with the Hypnotic "GODDESS"
Like Moths to Flames Takes Action

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


An effective marketing plan proposal needs to be accurate and detailed about its goals. For you to be able to come up with a solid strategy, you need to know what the essential components are for this plan. One of the best resources for proposal templates recommends five crucial elements that are found in every winning pitch.
While it may be tempting to place all related facts and figures on your marketing plan proposal, stick to key statistics that prove how severe the problem is. If you're uncertain which points to put in, choose three figures that provide the best support for your argument.
Market Research – Every company should know their target audience. That way, you can tailor your marketing strategies to catch the interest of your potential customers. Identify their buying habits, your market size, and other developments in your industry. Also create a target market description, or buyer persona, that describes the types of people who will most likely buy your products and services. If you want to target millennials, market research will provide you with details on how to reach them, which is via social media.
Market Positioning – Know how your customer sees you. If you own a clothing store, do shoppers go to you for the latest trends in fashion or do they come for the classic styles? Communicate clearly how you want to be distinguished from your competitors by improving your branding and marketing messages.
Competitive Analysis – Recognize who the competition is and how you can differentiate their products from your goods. Identify the standard price point at which your competitors are selling and what sector of the market they're reaching. Knowing how your competitors are doing can help you stay ahead of them by better positioning your business.
A detailed marketing plan makes it easy for you to come back after a while and check in on the progress that your company is making. Create a list of the specific benefits that you or your clients will get from the solutions you proposed aside from the obvious advantage of solving the issue. If the business is having difficulty in improving traffic to the website and you suggest promoting your content on social media, a bonus from gaining more organic visitors would be an increase in conversion rates.
If you're creating a plan for your company, provide a month-by-month schedule of how much you're willing to spend on your marketing strategies. Also, it's recommended to have a "red light" limit. This is a metric for each tactic that will let you know when to stop investing in that method when it's no longer producing enough return on investment (ROI).
If you're proposing a plan to a client, write down your pricing fees. The information should be clear and easy to understand. Include a fee description associated with your proposed solutions so that the client knows what they're paying for. It's best to price your services in "fee packages" as opposed to individual fee items.
For marketing firms working with clients, conclude your proposal with a concrete call to action. This way, you let your customers know what the next steps are so that the project can begin. Again, make it simple and clear to avoid any confusion and misinterpretations on the terms of the agreement.
A solid marketing plan ought to bring in more leads for you or your client's business. It should also be detailed enough that every department can understand the necessary steps to gain more customers. After all, marketing and sales need to work hand-in-hand to bring in buyers and retain them.


Booking.com: Hotels in Archidona. Book your hotel now!
Almohalla 51 is set in the Andalusian town of Archidona, 20 minutes' drive from Antequera and 32 mi from Malaga. It offers a seasonal outdoor pool, free Wi-Fi and free bicycle use.
Located in Archidona, Albergue Ciudad de Archidona offers rooms with shared bathroom and have free WiFi. A buffet breakfast is available daily at Albergue Ciudad de Archidona.
Huerta Espinar is located in Archidona and offers free bikes, an outdoor swimming pool and barbecue facilities. Guests staying at this vacation home can use the fully equipped kitchen and a terrace.
Featuring air-conditioned accommodations with a terrace, La Pedriza del Mojon is located in Archidona. This country house also features a private pool.
Featuring air conditioning and free Wi-Fi, Apartamentos San Juan are located in Archidona, 40 mi from Malaga and the coast. Some apartments includes balconies.
Offering a restaurant with characteristic meals from Andalucía and a bar, Hostal Restaurante Las Rejas is located just outside the town of Archidona. Free Wi-Fi is available in all areas.
Located in Archidona, La fortuna de Villabuona provides air-conditioned accommodations with a terrace and free WiFi.
Hotel Escua has a rural location in Archidona, Andalucía, only 0.9 mi from the A-92 Motorway. It offers free Wi-Fi in all areas, 24-hour reception and free private parking.
Offering a private outdoor pool and hot tub, Cortijo Alzamigaja is located in Archidona, 9.3 mi from Antequera. The 8-bedroom country house features a large garden with BBQ facilities.
Located in Archidona, Casa Rural - Santo Domingo Rural offers accommodations with a patio.
Located in Archidona in the Andalusia region, Casa Rural Villabuona Di Amao features a garden. Housed in a building dating from 2012, this vacation home provides free WiFi.
Located in Archidona, Málaga Cortijo Puerto Nuevo has accommodations with a private pool. Guests staying at this vacation home can use a fully equipped kitchen.
Set in Archidona, this detached holiday home features a terrace and a garden with a seasonal outdoor pool. The property features views of the pool and is 29 mi from Málaga.
Located in Archidona in the Andalusia region, Molino de madaura has a terrace. Guests staying at this villa can use a fully equipped kitchen.
Villa N/S is located in Archidona. This villa has barbecue facilities. The villa includes a kitchen with an oven and a microwave, as well as a coffee machine.
16 properties found in Archidona.


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Software Localisation
Software localisation simply refers to modifying existing software to adapt to a different language environment. The process involves translation, but many other issues also have to be taken into account such as: support for CJK character, local settings (such as calendars, time zones, and currencies), names and titles, and many other issues relating to cultural correctness and appropriateness.
The process of software localisation involves working with software resource files, graphic editing, help files translation, product packaging, and multimedia editing. Usually the process involves the following steps:
Assessing the requirements of the software for the intended foreign-language audience.
Identifying and extracting elements such as menus, dialog boxes, icons, graphics, and various multimedia contents.
Translating these elements and testing the software to identify and resolve any issues or bugs which may arise after modification.
The above process ensures that your product works correctly after they have been localised for the intended foreign-language market.
Protecting Yourself from the Dangers of the Web
The Magic of Unicode
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Downtown Chapel is located in the historic district within steps from waterfront dining and shopping.
Built in 1897, The Downtown Chapel was originally purchased and shared jointly by the Masonic Lodge and the Swansboro Baptist Church. The property remained a church until the 1950's when it was sold to the Parker Family and then to our family in 1991.
Maxine Russell and my late father in law, William E Russell a retired Marine and Navy Cross recipient was assigned to Camp Lejeune, NC and brought their family to this area. After their second assigned tour of duty at Camp Lejeune they decided to call Swansboro home.
In 1995, David and Shannon Russell married and settled here also. Our family has restored several historic buildings which includes The Downtown Chapel.


Equipage Infracore Private Limited of Bhubaneswar, Odisha requires qualified candidates for following vacancy.
Eligibility: Graduation/ MBA with 5 to 8 years experience.
Eligibility: Graduation/ MBA with 1 to 3 years experience.
Eligibility: Diploma in Mechanical/ Automobile with 2 to 4 years experience.
Eligibility: ITI/ Diploma in Mechanical/ Automobile with 1 to 2 years experience.
Eligibility: Graduation with 2 to 4 years experience in handling spare parts.


You can take every precaution to protect yourself from misfortune, but sometimes, despite your strongest efforts to avoid harm, the lack of care and attention of another person or entity can cause you an avoidable injury. Are you just expected to sit back and suffer without acknowledgement of your pain and inconvenience? Of course not! The Compensation Experts can help you obtain the financial compensation you deserve so you can move on with your life.
What is a Physical Injury Claim?
Physical injury claims can be caused as the result of an accident, assault, physical trauma, or even illness. You may be injured doing nothing more than walking down a public street or through a shopping centre, eating a celebratory meal at a restaurant, playing a game of football on the weekend, or driving your children to school.
Road traffic accident, such as whiplash, fractures, or even crushed limbs.
Assault and injury as the result of a criminal action, including during the act of being robbed.
Sporting injury whether professional or amateur.
Accidents or illness at work like those sustained due to inadequately maintained equipment or lack of proper training.
Faulty goods causing injuries like electric shocks, cuts, or crushed fingers.
Dog bites sustained in public or private spaces.
Horse riding injuries resulting from with incorrect tuition or supervision from an instructor or riding school.
Fatal injury and wrongful death such as being electrocuted at work.
Deafness caused by working in an excessively loud environment.
If you have been injured as the result of another party's negligence you may be entitled to compensation for the pain and suffering, as well as the cost of any medical treatment or expenses like loss of earnings, you have endured. The Compensation Experts are able to assess the circumstances around your injury to determine whether your claim has a significant likelihood of success.
The earlier you seek expert advice about making a personal injury claim for compensation, the sooner we can begin to gather the evidence necessary to demonstrate that your injury arose directly from the other party's negligence and that you have suffered unfairly as a result. It is important these two items are firmly proven for your claim to be successful, and The Compensation Experts work with both legal and medical professionals to do this.
The amount of compensation paid to you will be determined by the impact your injury has on your life now and in the future. For example, will you still be able to drive, or has this freedom been taken from you? Can you return to work in your current role, or will you have to retrain to accommodate physical limitations? Compensation will account for any financial loss from not being able to work or having to pay for medical treatment like physiotherapy. In the instance of wrongful or accidental death, compensation can also cover funeral expenses as well as provide for those who were financially dependent on the deceased.
There is a statutory time limit for making a personal injury claim so contact The Compensation Experts today and find out how we can help you obtain the compensation to which you may be entitled.
Each client is provided with their own Personal Injury solicitors who will work on the case from start to finish, being there every step of the way. You will be provided with a direct phone number and direct email address of the solicitors.
We work on a No Win No Fee basis, meaning if we don't win your case you don't pay! Once you make contact, our experienced team will work to recover the maximum compensation that you are entitled to.
Whether you are ready to make a physical injury claim, or you would just like a free conversation with a legal professional, we have trained advisors on hand to give you all the information you need. Take the first step to getting what you deserve by filling in our quick contact form and we will call you back whenever suits you.


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Neuroimaging Analysis Center
"understanding the human brain through imaging"
Multidimensional MRI
Statistical Inference for Imaging and Disease
Image Features for Brain Phenotypes
Active Collaborations
Completed Collaborations
Fan Zhang, Ye Wu, Isaiah Norton, Yogesh Rathi, Alexandra J Golby, and Lauren J O'Donnell. 7/2019. "Test-retest Reproducibility of White Matter Parcellation using Diffusion MRI Tractography Fiber Clustering." Hum Brain Mapp, 40, 10, Pp. 3041-57.Abstract
There are two popular approaches for automated white matter parcellation using diffusion MRI tractography, including fiber clustering strategies that group white matter fibers according to their geometric trajectories and cortical-parcellation-based strategies that focus on the structural connectivity among different brain regions of interest. While multiple studies have assessed test-retest reproducibility of automated white matter parcellations using cortical-parcellation-based strategies, there are no existing studies of test-retest reproducibility of fiber clustering parcellation. In this work, we perform what we believe is the first study of fiber clustering white matter parcellation test-retest reproducibility. The assessment is performed on three test-retest diffusion MRI datasets including a total of 255 subjects across genders, a broad age range (5-82 years), health conditions (autism, Parkinson's disease and healthy subjects), and imaging acquisition protocols (three different sites). A comprehensive evaluation is conducted for a fiber clustering method that leverages an anatomically curated fiber clustering white matter atlas, with comparison to a popular cortical-parcellation-based method. The two methods are compared for the two main white matter parcellation applications of dividing the entire white matter into parcels (i.e., whole brain white matter parcellation) and identifying particular anatomical fiber tracts (i.e., anatomical fiber tract parcellation). Test-retest reproducibility is measured using both geometric and diffusion features, including volumetric overlap (wDice) and relative difference of fractional anisotropy. Our experimental results in general indicate that the fiber clustering method produced more reproducible white matter parcellations than the cortical-parcellation-based method.
Christian Lepage, Marc Muehlmann, Yorghos Tripodis, Jakob Hufschmidt, Julie Stamm, Katie Green, Pawel Wrobel, Vivian Schultz, Isabelle Weir, Michael L Alosco, Christine M Baugh, Nathan G Fritts, Brett M Martin, Christine Chaisson, Michael J Coleman, Alexander P Lin, Ofer Pasternak, Nikos Makris, Robert A Stern, Martha E Shenton, and Inga K Koerte. 6/2019. "Limbic System Structure Volumes and Associated Neurocognitive Functioning in Former NFL Players." Brain Imaging Behav, 13, 3, Pp. 725-34.Abstract
Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a neurodegenerative disease associated with exposure to repetitive head impacts. CTE has been linked to disruptions in cognition, mood, and behavior. Unfortunately, the diagnosis of CTE can only be made post-mortem. Neuropathological evidence suggests limbic structures may provide an opportunity to characterize CTE in the living. Using 3 T magnetic resonance imaging, we compared select limbic brain regional volumes - the amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus - between symptomatic former National Football League (NFL) players (n = 86) and controls (n = 22). Moreover, within the group of former NFL players, we examined the relationship between those limbic structures and neurobehavioral functioning (n = 75). The former NFL group comprised eighty-six men (mean age = 55.2 ± 8.0 years) with at least 12 years of organized football experience, at least 2 years of active participation in the NFL, and self-reported declines in cognition, mood, and behavior within the last 6 months. The control group consisted of men (mean age = 57.0 ± 6.6 years) with no history of contact-sport involvement or traumatic brain injury. All control participants provided neurobehavioral data. Compared to controls, former NFL players exhibited reduced volumes of the amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus. Within the NFL group, reduced bilateral cingulate gyrus volume was associated with worse attention and psychomotor speed (r = 0.4 (right), r = 0.42 (left); both p < 0.001), while decreased right hippocampal volume was associated with worse visual memory (r = 0.25, p = 0.027). Reduced volumes of limbic system structures in former NFL players are associated with neurocognitive features of CTE. Volume reductions in the amygdala, hippocampus, and cingulate gyrus may be potential biomarkers of neurodegeneration in those at risk for CTE.
Björn Lampinen, Filip Szczepankiewicz, Mikael Novén, Danielle van Westen, Oskar Hansson, Elisabet Englund, Johan Mårtensson, Carl-Fredrik Westin, and Markus Nilsson. 6/2019. "Searching for the Neurite Density with Diffusion MRI: Challenges for Biophysical Modeling." Hum Brain Mapp, 40, 8, Pp. 2529-45.Abstract
In vivo mapping of the neurite density with diffusion MRI (dMRI) is a high but challenging aim. First, it is unknown whether all neurites exhibit completely anisotropic ("stick-like") diffusion. Second, the "density" of tissue components may be confounded by non-diffusion properties such as T2 relaxation. Third, the domain of validity for the estimated parameters to serve as indices of neurite density is incompletely explored. We investigated these challenges by acquiring data with "b-tensor encoding" and multiple echo times in brain regions with low orientation coherence and in white matter lesions. Results showed that microscopic anisotropy from b-tensor data is associated with myelinated axons but not with dendrites. Furthermore, b-tensor data together with data acquired for multiple echo times showed that unbiased density estimates in white matter lesions require data-driven estimates of compartment-specific T2 values. Finally, the "stick" fractions of different biophysical models could generally not serve as neurite density indices across the healthy brain and white matter lesions, where outcomes of comparisons depended on the choice of constraints. In particular, constraining compartment-specific T2 values was ambiguous in the healthy brain and had a large impact on estimated values. In summary, estimating neurite density generally requires accounting for different diffusion and/or T2 properties between axons and dendrites. Constrained "index" parameters could be valid within limited domains that should be delineated by future studies.
Ashwati Vipin, Kwun Kei Ng, Fang Ji, Hee Youn Shim, Joseph KW Lim, Ofer Pasternak, Juan Helen Zhou, and Juan Helen Zhou. 5/2019. "Amyloid Burden Accelerates White Matter Degradation in Cognitively Normal Elderly Individuals." Hum Brain Mapp, 40, 7, Pp. 2065-75.Abstract
Alterations in parietal and temporal white matter microstructure derived from diffusion tensor imaging occur in preclinical and clinical Alzheimer's disease. Amyloid beta (Aβ) deposition and such white matter alterations are two pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. However, the relationship between these pathologies is not yet understood, partly since conventional diffusion MRI methods cannot distinguish between cellular and extracellular processes. Thus, we studied Aβ-associated longitudinal diffusion MRI changes in Aβ-positive (N = 21) and Aβ-negative (N = 51) cognitively normal elderly obtained from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset using linear mixed models. Aβ-positivity was based on Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative amyloid-PET recommendations using a standardized uptake value ratio cut-off of 1.11. We used free-water imaging to distinguish cellular and extracellular changes. We found that Aβ-positive subjects had increased baseline right uncinate fasciculus free-water fraction (FW), associated with worse baseline Alzheimer's disease assessment scale scores. Furthermore, Aβ-positive subjects showed faster decrease in fractional anisotropy (FW-corrected) in the right uncinate fasciculus and faster age-dependent right inferior longitudinal fasciculus FW increases over time. Right inferior longitudinal fasciculus FW increases were associated with greater memory decline. Importantly, these results remained significant after controlling for gray and white matter volume and hippocampal volume. This is the first study to illustrate the influence of Aβ burden on early longitudinal (in addition to baseline) white matter changes in cognitively normal elderly individuals at-risk of Alzheimer's disease, thus underscoring the importance of longitudinal studies in assessing microstructural alterations in individuals at risk of Alzheimer's disease prior to symptoms onset.
Alex V Nguyen, Andras Lasso, Hannah H Nam, Jennifer Faerber, Ahmed H Aly, Alison M Pouch, Adam B Scanlan, Francis X McGowan, Laura Mercer-Rosa, Meryl S Cohen, John Simpson, Gabor Fichtinger, and Matthew A Jolley. 5/2019. "Dynamic Three-Dimensional Geometry of the Tricuspid Valve Annulus in Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome with a Fontan Circulation." J Am Soc Echocardiogr, 32, 5, Pp. 655-66.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Tricuspid regurgitation (TR) is a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The goal of this study was to characterize the dynamic annular motion of the tricuspid valve in patients with HLHS with a Fontan circulation and assess the relation to tricuspid valve function. METHODS: Tricuspid annuli of 48 patients with HLHS with a Fontan circulation were modeled at end-diastole, mid-systole, end-systole, and mid-diastole using transthoracic three-dimensional echocardiography and custom code in 3D Slicer. The angle of the anterior papillary muscle (APM) relative to the annular plane in each systolic phase was also measured. RESULTS: Imaging was performed 5.0 years (interquartile range, 2-11 years) after Fontan operation. The tricuspid annulus varies in shape significantly throughout the cardiac cycle, changing in sphericity (P < .001) but not in annular height or bending angle. In univariate modeling, patients with significant TR had larger changes in septolateral diameter, lateral quadrant area, and posterior quadrant area (P < .05 for all) as well as lower (more laterally directed) APM angles (P < .001) than patients with mild or less TR. In multivariate modeling, a 1 mm/(body surface area) increase in the maximum change in septolateral diameter was associated with a 1.7-fold increase in having moderate or greater TR, while a 10° decrease in APM angle at mid-systole was associated with an almost 2.5-fold increase in moderate or greater TR (P ≤ .01 for all). CONCLUSIONS: The tricuspid annulus in patients with HLHS with a Fontan circulation changes in shape significantly throughout the cardiac cycle but remains relatively planar. Increased change in septolateral diameter and decreased APM angle are strongly associated with the presence of TR. These findings may inform annuloplasty methods and subvalvular interventions in these complex patients.
Filip Szczepankiewicz, Carl-Fredrik Westin, and Markus Nilsson. 5/2019. "Maxwell-compensated Design of Asymmetric Gradient Waveforms for Tensor-valued Diffusion Encoding." Magn Reson Med.Abstract
PURPOSE: Diffusion encoding with asymmetric gradient waveforms is appealing because the asymmetry provides superior efficiency. However, concomitant gradients may cause a residual gradient moment at the end of the waveform, which can cause significant signal error and image artifacts. The purpose of this study was to develop an asymmetric waveform designs for tensor-valued diffusion encoding that is not sensitive to concomitant gradients. METHODS: The "Maxwell index" was proposed as a scalar invariant to capture the effect of concomitant gradients. Optimization of "Maxwell-compensated" waveforms was performed in which this index was constrained. Resulting waveforms were compared to waveforms from literature, in terms of the measured and predicted impact of concomitant gradients, by numerical analysis as well as experiments in a phantom and in a healthy human brain. RESULTS: Maxwell-compensated waveforms with Maxwell indices below 100 (mT/m) ms showed negligible signal bias in both numerical analysis and experiments. By contrast, several waveforms from literature showed gross signal bias under the same conditions, leading to a signal bias that was large enough to markedly affect parameter maps. Experimental results were accurately predicted by theory. CONCLUSION: Constraining the Maxwell index in the optimization of asymmetric gradient waveforms yields efficient diffusion encoding that negates the effects of concomitant fields while enabling arbitrary shapes of the b-tensor. This waveform design is especially useful in combination with strong gradients, long encoding times, thick slices, simultaneous multi-slice acquisition, and large FOVs.
Markus D Schirmer, Adrian V Dalca, Ramesh Sridharan, Anne-Katrin Giese, Kathleen L Donahue, Marco J Nardin, Steven JT Mocking, Elissa C McIntosh, Petrea Frid, Johan Wasselius, John W Cole, Lukas Holmegaard, Christina Jern, Jordi Jimenez-Conde, Robin Lemmens, Arne G Lindgren, James F Meschia, Jaume Roquer, Tatjana Rundek, Ralph L Sacco, Reinhold Schmidt, Pankaj Sharma, Agnieszka Slowik, Vincent Thijs, Daniel Woo, Achala Vagal, Huichun Xu, Steven J Kittner, Patrick F McArdle, Braxton D Mitchell, Jonathan Rosand, Bradford B Worrall, Ona Wu, Polina Golland, Natalia S Rost, and Natalia S Rost. 5/2019. "White Matter Hyperintensity Quantification in Large-scale Clinical Acute Ischemic Stroke Cohorts - The MRI-GENIE Study." Neuroimage Clin, 23, Pp. 101884.Abstract
White matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden is a critically important cerebrovascular phenotype linked to prediction of diagnosis and prognosis of diseases, such as acute ischemic stroke (AIS). However, current approaches to its quantification on clinical MRI often rely on time intensive manual delineation of the disease on T2 fluid attenuated inverse recovery (FLAIR), which hinders high-throughput analyses such as genetic discovery. In this work, we present a fully automated pipeline for quantification of WMH in clinical large-scale studies of AIS. The pipeline incorporates automated brain extraction, intensity normalization and WMH segmentation using spatial priors. We first propose a brain extraction algorithm based on a fully convolutional deep learning architecture, specifically designed for clinical FLAIR images. We demonstrate that our method for brain extraction outperforms two commonly used and publicly available methods on clinical quality images in a set of 144 subject scans across 12 acquisition centers, based on dice coefficient (median 0.95; inter-quartile range 0.94-0.95; p < 0.01) and Pearson correlation of total brain volume (r = 0.90). Subsequently, we apply it to the large-scale clinical multi-site MRI-GENIE study (N = 2783) and identify a decrease in total brain volume of -2.4 cc/year. Additionally, we show that the resulting total brain volumes can successfully be used for quality control of image preprocessing. Finally, we obtain WMH volumes by building on an existing automatic WMH segmentation algorithm that delineates and distinguishes between different cerebrovascular pathologies. The learning method mimics expert knowledge of the spatial distribution of the WMH burden using a convolutional auto-encoder. This enables successful computation of WMH volumes of 2533 clinical AIS patients. We utilize these results to demonstrate the increase of WMH burden with age (0.950 cc/year) and show that single site estimates can be biased by the number of subjects recruited.
Lauren J O'Donnell, Alessandro Daducci, Demian Wassermann, and Christophe Lenglet. 4/2019. "Advances in Computational and Statistical Diffusion MRI." NMR Biomed., 32, 4, Pp. e3805.Abstract
Computational methods are crucial for the analysis of diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Computational diffusion MRI can provide rich information at many size scales, including local microstructure measures such as diffusion anisotropies or apparent axon diameters, whole-brain connectivity information that describes the brain's wiring diagram and population-based studies in health and disease. Many of the diffusion MRI analyses performed today were not possible five, ten or twenty years ago, due to the requirements for large amounts of computer memory or processor time. In addition, mathematical frameworks had to be developed or adapted from other fields to create new ways to analyze diffusion MRI data. The purpose of this review is to highlight recent computational and statistical advances in diffusion MRI and to put these advances into context by comparison with the more traditional computational methods that are in popular clinical and scientific use. We aim to provide a high-level overview of interest to diffusion MRI researchers, with a more in-depth treatment to illustrate selected computational advances.
Fan Zhang, Lipeng Ning, Lauren J O'Donnell, and Ofer Pasternak. 4/2019. "MK-curve - Characterizing the Relation between Mean Kurtosis and Alterations in the Diffusion MRI Signal ." Neuroimage, 196, Pp. 68-80.Abstract
Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is a diffusion MRI (dMRI) technique to quantify brain microstructural properties. While DKI measures are sensitive to tissue alterations, they are also affected by signal alterations caused by imaging artifacts such as noise, motion and Gibbs ringing. Consequently, DKI often yields output parameter values (e.g. mean kurtosis; MK) that are implausible. These include implausible values that are outside of the range dictated by physics/biology, and visually apparent implausible values that form unexpected discontinuities, being too high or too low comparing with their neighborhood. These implausible values will introduce bias into any following data analyses (e.g. between-population statistical computation). Existing studies have attempted to correct implausible DKI parameter values in multiple ways; however, these approaches are not always effective. In this study, we propose a novel method for detecting and correcting voxels with implausible values to enable improved DKI parameter estimation. In particular, we focus on MK parameter estimation. We first characterize the relation between MK and alterations in the dMRI signal including diffusion weighted images (DWIs) and the baseline (b0) images. This is done by calculating MK for a range of synthetic DWI or b0 for each voxel, and generating curves (MK-curve) representing how alterations to the input dMRI signals affect the resulting output MK. We find that voxels with implausible MK values are more likely caused by artifacts in the b0 images than artifacts in DWIs with higher b-values. Accordingly, two characteristic b0 values, which define a range of synthetic b0 values that generate implausible MK values, are identified on the MK-curve. Based on this characterization, we propose an automatic approach for detection of voxels with implausible MK values by comparing a voxel's original b0 signal to the identified two characteristic b0 values, along with a correction strategy to replace the original b0 in each detected implausible voxel with a synthetic b0 value computed from the MK-curve. We evaluate the method on a DKI phantom dataset and dMRI datasets from the Human Connectome Project (HCP), and we compare the proposed correction method with other previously proposed correction methods. Results show that our proposed method is able to identify and correct most voxels with implausible DKI parameter values as well as voxels with implausible diffusion tensor parameter values.
J Nitsch, J Klein, P Dammann, K Wrede, O Gembruch, JH Moltz, H Meine, U Sure, R. Kikinis, and D Miller. 3/2019. "Automatic and Efficient MRI-US Segmentations for Improving Intraoperative Image Fusion in Image-guided Neurosurgery." Neuroimage Clin, 22, Pp. 101766.Abstract
Knowledge of the exact tumor location and structures at risk in its vicinity are crucial for neurosurgical interventions. Neuronavigation systems support navigation within the patient's brain, based on preoperative MRI (preMRI). However, increasing tissue deformation during the course of tumor resection reduces navigation accuracy based on preMRI. Intraoperative ultrasound (iUS) is therefore used as real-time intraoperative imaging. Registration of preMRI and iUS remains a challenge due to different or varying contrasts in iUS and preMRI. Here, we present an automatic and efficient segmentation of B-mode US images to support the registration process. The falx cerebri and the tentorium cerebelli were identified as examples for central cerebral structures and their segmentations can serve as guiding frame for multi-modal image registration. Segmentations of the falx and tentorium were performed with an average Dice coefficient of 0.74 and an average Hausdorff distance of 12.2 mm. The subsequent registration incorporates these segmentations and increases accuracy, robustness and speed of the overall registration process compared to purely intensity-based registration. For validation an expert manually located corresponding landmarks. Our approach reduces the initial mean Target Registration Error from 16.9 mm to 3.8 mm using our intensity-based registration and to 2.2 mm with our combined segmentation and registration approach. The intensity-based registration reduced the maximum initial TRE from 19.4 mm to 5.6 mm, with the approach incorporating segmentations this is reduced to 3.0 mm. Mean volumetric intensity-based registration of preMRI and iUS took 40.5 s, including segmentations 12.0 s.
Kourosh Jafari-Khouzani, Kamran Paynabar, Fatemeh Hajighasemi, and Bruce Rosen. 3/2019. "Effect of Region of Interest Size on the Repeatability of Quantitative Brain Imaging Biomarkers." IEEE Trans Biomed Eng, 66, 3, Pp. 864-872.Abstract
In the repeatability analysis, when the measurement is the mean value of a parametric map within a region of interest (ROI), the ROI size becomes important as by increasing the size, the measurement will have a smaller variance. This is important in decision-making in prospective clinical studies of brain when the ROI size is variable, e.g., in monitoring the effect of treatment on lesions by quantitative MRI, and in particular when the ROI is small, e.g., in the case of brain lesions in multiple sclerosis. Thus, methods to estimate repeatability measures for arbitrary sizes of ROI are desired. We propose a statistical model of the values of parametric map within the ROI and a method to approximate the model parameters, based on which we estimate a number of repeatability measures including repeatability coefficient, coefficient of variation, and intraclass correlation coefficient for an ROI with an arbitrary size. We also show how this gives an insight into related problems such as spatial smoothing in voxel-wise analysis. Experiments are conducted on simulated data as well as on scan-rescan brain MRI of healthy subjects. The main application of this study is the adjustment of the decision threshold based on the lesion size in treatment monitoring.
Nadya Shusharina, Barbara Fullerton, Judy A Adams, Gregory C Sharp, and Annie W Chan. 3/2019. "Impact of aeration change and beam arrangement on the robustness of proton plans." J Appl Clin Med Phys, 20, 3, Pp. 14-21.Abstract
This study determines the impact of change in aeration in sinonasal cavities on the robustness of passive-scattering proton therapy plans in patients with sinonasal and nasopharyngeal malignancies. Fourteen patients, each with one planning CT and one CT acquired during radiotherapy were studied. Repeat and planning CTs were rigidly aligned and contours were transferred using deformable registration. The amount of air, tumor, and fluid within the cavity containing the tumor were measured on both CTs. The original plans were recalculated on the repeat CT. Dosimetric changes were measured for the targets and critical structures. Median decrease in gross tumor volume (GTV) was 19.8% and correlated with the time of rescan. The median change in air content was 7.1% and correlated with the tumor shrinkage. The median of the mean dose D change was +0.4% for GTV and +0.3% for clinical target volume. Median change in the maximum dose D of the critical structures were as follows: optic chiasm +0.66%, left optic nerve +0.12%, right optic nerve +0.38%, brainstem +0.6%. The dose to the GTV decreased by more than 5% in 1 case, and the dose to critical structure(s) increased by more than 5% in three cases. These four patients had sinonasal cancers and were treated with anterior proton fields that directly transversed through the involved sinus cavities. The change in dose in the replanning was strongly correlated with the change in aeration (P = 0.02). We found that the change in aeration in the vicinity of the target and the arrangement of proton beams affected the robustness of proton plan.
Magnus Herberthson, Cem Yolcu, Hans Knutsson, Carl-Fredrik Westin, and Evren Özarslan. 3/2019. "Orientationally-averaged Diffusion-attenuated Magnetic Resonance Signal for Locally-anisotropic Diffusion." Sci Rep, 9, 1, Pp. 4899.Abstract
Diffusion-attenuated MR signal for heterogeneous media has been represented as a sum of signals from anisotropic Gaussian sub-domains to the extent that this approximation is permissible. Any effect of macroscopic (global or ensemble) anisotropy in the signal can be removed by averaging the signal values obtained by differently oriented experimental schemes. The resulting average signal is identical to what one would get if the micro-domains are isotropically (e.g., randomly) distributed with respect to orientation, which is the case for "powdered" specimens. We provide exact expressions for the orientationally-averaged signal obtained via general gradient waveforms when the microdomains are characterized by a general diffusion tensor possibly featuring three distinct eigenvalues. This extends earlier results which covered only axisymmetric diffusion as well as measurement tensors. Our results are expected to be useful in not only multidimensional diffusion MR but also solid-state NMR spectroscopy due to the mathematical similarities in the two fields.
Sonja Stojanovski, Daniel Felsky, Joseph D Viviano, Saba Shahab, Rutwik Bangali, Christie L Burton, Gabriel A Devenyi, Lauren J O'Donnell, Peter Szatmari, Mallar M Chakravarty, Stephanie Ameis, Russell Schachar, Aristotle N Voineskos, and Anne L Wheeler. 3/2019. "Polygenic Risk and Neural Substrates of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms in Youths With a History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury." Biol Psychiatry, 85, 5, Pp. 408-16.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a major sequela of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in youths. The objective of this study was to examine whether ADHD symptoms are differentially associated with genetic risk and brain structure in youths with and without a history of TBI. METHODS: Medical history, ADHD symptoms, genetic data, and neuroimaging data were obtained from a community sample of youths. ADHD symptom severity was compared between those with and without TBI (TBI n = 418, no TBI n = 3193). The relationship of TBI history, genetic vulnerability, brain structure, and ADHD symptoms was examined by assessing 1) ADHD polygenic score (discovery sample ADHD n = 19,099, control sample n = 34,194), 2) basal ganglia volumes, and 3) fractional anisotropy in the corpus callosum and corona radiata. RESULTS: Youths with TBI reported greater ADHD symptom severity compared with those without TBI. Polygenic score was positively associated with ADHD symptoms in youths without TBI but not in youths with TBI. The negative association between the caudate volume and ADHD symptoms was not moderated by a history of TBI. However, the relationship between ADHD symptoms and structure of the genu of the corpus callosum was negative in youths with TBI and positive in youths without TBI. CONCLUSIONS: The identification of distinct ADHD etiology in youths with TBI provides neurobiological insight into the clinical heterogeneity in the disorder. Results indicate that genetic predisposition to ADHD does not increase the risk for ADHD symptoms associated with TBI. ADHD symptoms associated with TBI may be a result of a mechanical insult rather than neurodevelopmental factors.
B Kocev, Horst K Hahn, L Linsend, William III M Wells, and Ron Kikinis. 3/2019. "Uncertainty-aware Asynchronous Scattered Motion Interpolation using Gaussian Process Regression." Computerized Medical Imaging and Graphics, 72, Pp. 1-12.Abstract
We address the problem of interpolating randomly non-uniformly spatiotemporally scattered uncertain motion measurements, which arises in the context of soft tissue motion estimation. Soft tissue motion estimation is of great interest in the field of image-guided soft-tissue intervention and surgery navigation, because it enables the registration of pre-interventional/pre-operative navigation information on deformable soft-tissue organs. To formally define the measurements as spatiotemporally scattered motion signal samples, we propose a novel motion field representation. To perform the interpolation of the motion measurements in an uncertainty-aware optimal unbiased fashion, we devise a novel Gaussian process (GP) regression model with a non-constant-mean prior and an anisotropic covariance function and show through an extensive evaluation that it outperforms the state-of-the-art GP models that have been deployed previously for similar tasks. The employment of GP regression enables the quantification of uncertainty in the interpolation result, which would allow the amount of uncertainty present in the registered navigation information governing the decisions of the surgeon or intervention specialist to be conveyed.
Eve M Valera, Aihua Cao, Ofer Pasternak, Martha E Shenton, Marek Kubicki, Nikos Makris, and Noor Adra. 3/2019. "White Matter Correlates of Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries in Women Subjected to Intimate-Partner Violence: A Preliminary Study." J Neurotrauma, 36, 5, Pp. 661-8.Abstract
A large proportion (range of 44-75%) of women who experience intimate-partner violence (IPV) have been shown to sustain repetitive mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) from their abusers. Further, despite requests for research on TBI-related health outcomes, there are currently only a handful of studies addressing this issue and only one prior imaging study that has investigated the neural correlates of IPV-related TBIs. In response, we examined specific regions of white matter microstructure in 20 women with histories of IPV. Subjects were imaged on a 3-Tesla Siemens Magnetom TrioTim scanner using diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. We investigated the association between a score reflecting number and recency of IPV-related mTBIs and fractional anisotropy (FA) in the posterior and superior corona radiata as well as the posterior thalamic radiation, brain regions shown previously to be involved in mTBI. We also investigated the association between several cognitive measures, namely learning, memory, and cognitive flexibility, and FA in the white matter regions of interest. We report a negative correlation between the brain injury score and FA in regions of the posterior and superior corona radiata. We failed to find an association between our cognitive measures and FA in these regions, but the interpretation of these results remains inconclusive due to possible power issues. Overall, these data build upon the small but growing literature demonstrating potential consequences of mTBIs for women experiencing IPV, and further underscore the urgent need for larger and more comprehensive studies in this area.
Maria Angelique Di Biase, Fan Zhang, Amanda Lyall, Marek Kubicki, René CW Mandl, Iris E Sommer, and Ofer Pasternak. 2/2019. "Neuroimaging Auditory Verbal Hallucinations in Schizophrenia Patient and Healthy Populations." Psychol Med, Pp. 1-10.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVH) are a cardinal feature of schizophrenia, but they can also appear in otherwise healthy individuals. Imaging studies implicate language networks in the generation of AVH; however, it remains unclear if alterations reflect biologic substrates of AVH, irrespective of diagnostic status, age, or illness-related factors. We applied multimodal imaging to identify AVH-specific pathology, evidenced by overlapping gray or white matter deficits between schizophrenia patients and healthy voice-hearers. METHODS: Diffusion-weighted and T1-weighted magnetic resonance images were acquired in 35 schizophrenia patients with AVH (SCZ-AVH), 32 healthy voice-hearers (H-AVH), and 40 age- and sex-matched controls without AVH. White matter fractional anisotropy (FA) and gray matter thickness (GMT) were computed for each region comprising ICBM-DTI and Desikan-Killiany atlases, respectively. Regions were tested for significant alterations affecting both SCZ-AVH and H-AVH groups, relative to controls. RESULTS: Compared with controls, the SCZ-AVH showed widespread FA and GMT reductions; but no significant differences emerged between H-AVH and control groups. While no overlapping pathology appeared in the overall study groups, younger (<40 years) H-AVH and SCZ-AVH subjects displayed overlapping FA deficits across four regions (p < 0.05): the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum, as well as the anterior limbs of the internal capsule. Analyzing these regions with free-water imaging ascribed overlapping FA abnormalities to tissue-specific anisotropy changes. CONCLUSIONS: We identified white matter pathology associated with the presence of AVH, independent of diagnostic status. However, commonalities were constrained to younger and more homogenous groups, after reducing pathologic variance associated with advancing age and chronicity effects.
Matthew A Jolley, Andras Lasso, Hannah H Nam, Patrick V Dinh, Adam B Scanlan, Alex V Nguyen, Anna Ilina, Brian Morray, Andrew C Glatz, Francis X McGowan, Kevin Whitehead, Yoav Dori, Joseph H Gorman, Robert C Gorman, Gabor Fichtinger, and Matthew J Gillespie. 2/2019. "Toward Predictive Modeling of Catheter-based Pulmonary Valve Replacement into Native Right Ventricular Outflow Tracts." Catheter Cardiovasc Interv, 93, 3, Pp. E143-E152.Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pulmonary insufficiency is a consequence of transannular patch repair in Tetralogy of Fallot (ToF) leading to late morbidity and mortality. Transcatheter native outflow tract pulmonary valve replacement has become a reality. However, predicting a secure, atraumatic implantation of a catheter-based device remains a significant challenge due to the complex and dynamic nature of the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT). We sought to quantify the differences in compression and volume for actual implants, and those predicted by pre-implant modeling. METHODS: We used custom software to interactively place virtual transcatheter pulmonary valves (TPVs) into RVOT models created from pre-implant and post Harmony valve implant CT scans of 5 ovine surgical models of TOF to quantify and visualize device volume and compression. RESULTS: Virtual device placement visually mimicked actual device placement and allowed for quantification of device volume and radius. On average, simulated proximal and distal device volumes and compression did not vary statistically throughout the cardiac cycle (P = 0.11) but assessment was limited by small sample size. In comparison to actual implants, there was no significant pairwise difference in the proximal third of the device (P > 0.80), but the simulated distal device volume was significantly underestimated relative to actual device implant volume (P = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates that pre-implant modeling which assumes a rigid vessel wall may not accurately predict the degree of distal RVOT expansion following actual device placement. We suggest the potential for virtual modeling of TPVR to be a useful adjunct to procedural planning, but further development is needed.
Jie Luo, Sarah Frisken, Ines Machado, Miaomiao Zhang, Steve Pieper, Polina Golland, Matthew Toews, Prashin Unadkat, Alireza Sedghi, Haoyin Zhou, Alireza Mehrtash, Frank Preiswerk, Cheng-Chieh Cheng, Alexandra Golby, Masashi Sugiyama, and William M Wells. 12/2018. "Using the Variogram for Vector Outlier Screening: Application to Feature-based Image Registration." Int J Comput Assist Radiol Surg, 13, 12, Pp. 1871-80.Abstract
PURPOSE: Matching points that are derived from features or landmarks in image data is a key step in some medical imaging applications. Since most robust point matching algorithms claim to be able to deal with outliers, users may place high confidence in the matching result and use it without further examination. However, for tasks such as feature-based registration in image-guided neurosurgery, even a few mismatches, in the form of invalid displacement vectors, could cause serious consequences. As a result, having an effective tool by which operators can manually screen all matches for outliers could substantially benefit the outcome of those applications. METHODS: We introduce a novel variogram-based outlier screening method for vectors. The variogram is a powerful geostatistical tool for characterizing the spatial dependence of stochastic processes. Since the spatial correlation of invalid displacement vectors, which are considered as vector outliers, tends to behave differently than normal displacement vectors, they can be efficiently identified on the variogram. RESULTS: We validate the proposed method on 9 sets of clinically acquired ultrasound data. In the experiment, potential outliers are flagged on the variogram by one operator and further evaluated by 8 experienced medical imaging researchers. The matching quality of those potential outliers is approximately 1.5 lower, on a scale from 1 (bad) to 5 (good), than valid displacement vectors. CONCLUSION: The variogram is a simple yet informative tool. While being used extensively in geostatistical analysis, it has not received enough attention in the medical imaging field. We believe there is a good deal of potential for clinically applying the proposed outlier screening method. By way of this paper, we also expect researchers to find variogram useful in other medical applications that involve motion vectors analyses.
Ofer Pasternak, Sinead Kelly, Valerie J Sydnor, and Martha E Shenton. 11/2018. "Advances in Microstructural Diffusion Neuroimaging for Psychiatric Disorders." Neuroimage, 182, Pp. 259-82.Abstract
Understanding the neuropathological underpinnings of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, major depression, and bipolar disorder is an essential step towards the development of targeted treatments. Diffusion MRI studies utilizing the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) model have been extremely successful to date in identifying microstructural brain abnormalities in individuals suffering from mental illness, especially in regions of white matter, although identified abnormalities have been biologically non-specific. Building on DTI's success, in recent years more advanced diffusion MRI methods have been developed and applied to the study of psychiatric populations, with the aim of offering increased sensitivity to subtle neurological abnormalities, as well as improved specificity to candidate pathologies such as demyelination and neuroinflammation. These advanced methods, however, usually come at the cost of prolonged imaging sequences or reduced signal to noise, and they are more difficult to evaluate compared with the more simplified approach taken by the now common DTI model. To date, a limited number of advanced diffusion MRI methods have been employed to study schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder populations. In this review we survey these studies, compare findings across diverse methods, discuss the main benefits and limitations of the different methods, and assess the extent to which the application of more advanced diffusion imaging approaches has led to novel and transformative information with regards to our ability to better understand the etiology and pathology of mental disorders.


text:
Mayor Duggan Has Downtown Dreams For The Pistons
By Sarah Cox Sep 10, 2014, 10:07am EDT
It wasn't a press conference, but Mayor Duggan told a radio audience that before his term is up in 2017 he would like to see the Pistons relocate from the bumfuckery of Auburn Hills to downtown Detroit. He continued, "I even think Dan Gilbert would like to see the Pistons come downtown in his neighborhood." Interesting. Is the gravitational pull of the arena deal, Duggan, and Gilbert strong enough that Pistons owner Tom Gores can feel it out in the burbs? Unfortunately he has just spent $40M to upgrade the Palace of Auburn Thrills.
As the Freep points out, during his campaign Duggan liked to remind voters that he was part of the deal that got the Lions to ditch Pontiac for Ford Field in Detroit.
· Can Duggan make offer Detroit Pistons can't refuse to move downtown? [Freep]


Showing recent results 1516 - 1530 of 4358 products found.
R-506 - Z Technology, Inc.
The R-506 expands the Z Technology product line of cost effective test instrumentation with a rugged portable unit designed for the professional user. Accurate NIST traceable field strength measurement of RF signals.
The NivuFlow Mobile 600 was developed particularly for long-term measurements in field operation without external power supply. Measurements for checking and verifying can be carried out with the self-sufficient and portable system without any problems even in harsh environments. Battery lifetimes of several weeks or even months reduce personnel costs for maintenance and data readout significantly.
Analog output is built in or optional for connections to control products.
Series 110 - Fine Instruments Corp.


We are a certified public accounting firm in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We are located at the corner of Lyndale Ave. S. and 66th Street in the new City Bella Plaza. As CPAs, we have been serving the community and the metropolitan area for over 30 years. FM+L offers more than just your basic accounting services. We are honest, trusted, confidential advisors for our clients. We can assist you with tax, retirement, estate and strategic planning. We care about our clients and their businesses. We do not advertise or market our services. Referrals are our lifeline. If our clients succeed, we succeed.
We offer services ranging from tax preparation to financial statement audits. We can assist our clients from the start-up of a business to developing an exit strategy when they want to retire.


Welcome to this new series of short interviews. I ask each interviewee five questions: Who, What, Why, Where, Whatever… and each month I'll publish the most interesting ones. If you'd like to participate, please get in touch!
Jack Scott bravely accepted the challenge of going first. Here's what he made of the questions.
My name is Jack Scott. In 2009, I flogged off the family silver, jumped the good ship Blighty and waded ashore to Turkey with my husband, Liam. We planned to put our feet up and watch the pansies grow, but so many extraordinary things happened around us in such a short time, I just had to write them down. We'd wake up each morning thinking: What next? What started as a comical email narrative to the folks back home, morphed into a blog I called Perking the Pansies . For some inexplicable reason, the blog raced up the charts, striking a chord with many and even getting a mention in the Turkish national press. Someone suggested there might be a book in it. As it turned out, there was.
Not so long ago, I was a municipal bean counter, writing turgid business reports that ended up gathering dust on the shelves. The success of my first book Perking the Pansies: Jack and Liam move to Turkey changed all that. Before I knew it, I was in demand to comment on all things expat and Turkish. Suddenly, a career as a writer opened up before me. Then, something astonishing happened. My publisher, the force of nature that is Jo Parfitt, offered me a partnership and Springtime Books was born. Springtime specialises in publishing books from writers who have something novel to say about expatriate life. It's a niche but growing market that's badly served by other publishers.
Our time in Turkey taught us how to live differently and make do with less. It's a lesson we've learned well. Designer labels and fancy holidays are off the agenda and the wine cellar is more plonk than vintage. Still, we all need to eat and my career as an author and publisher provides enough to keep the wolves from the door. It's either that or stacking shelves in Tesco.
My second book, a sequel to Perking the Pansies , has just hit the shelves. As the blurb succinctly puts it, Turkey Street: Jack and Liam move to Bodrum is a "whirlwind tour of love and duty, passion and betrayal, broken hearts and broken bones, dirty politics and the dawn of a new Ottoman era". Early reviews have been remarkable. I'm chuffed.
This entry was posted	on Tuesday 30 June 2015 at 15:15	and is filed under Expat Interviews, Turkey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thank you for allowing me to be your inaugural guinea pig. I'm sure the series will be a huge success despite my ramblings!
Good lessons to learn, Jack.


In common with most brands, Xbox clearly recognises TV as an essential tool for communicating with the marketplace. We're aiming to get together a catalogue of every Xbox advertisement broadcast in Great Britain since 9/2006 when tellyAds was launched. We certainly don't wish to make any sort of evaluation about good and not-so good advertising. That's your call. We want instead to make it a piece of cake for you to see Xbox ads whenever the urge strikes you. In our view, quite often the adverts form the most enjoying part of an evening in front of the box. And no proper ad collection would be all-inclusive in the absence of a few Xbox advertisements. So you can have peace of mind that every time there's a new Xbox ad, you'll almost certainly find it here to watch on tellyAds.


text:
Łęki-Kolonia – część wsi Łęki w Polsce, położona w województwie łódzkim, w powiecie bełchatowskim, w gminie Zelów.

W latach 1975–1998 Łęki-Kolonia administracyjnie należały do województwa piotrkowskiego.

Przypisy

Łęki (województwo łódzkie)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
HawkREST
========
.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/hawkrest.svg
    :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hawkrest
    :alt: Latest PyPI release

.. image:: https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/hawkrest.svg
    :target: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/hawkrest
    :alt: PyPI monthly download stats

.. image:: https://travis-ci.org/kumar303/hawkrest.svg?branch=master
    :target: https://travis-ci.org/kumar303/hawkrest
    :alt: Travis master branch status

.. image:: https://readthedocs.org/projects/hawkrest/badge/?version=latest
    :target: https://hawkrest.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest
    :alt: Documentation status

`Hawk`_ HTTP Authorization for `Django Rest Framework`_.

.. _`Hawk`: https://github.com/hueniverse/hawk
.. _`Django Rest Framework`: http://django-rest-framework.org/

Full documentation: https://hawkrest.readthedocs.io/

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
GetUp's aggressive, progressive tactics may have backfired
Aaron Patrick and Bo Seo
May 23, 2019 – 12.00am
GetUp's bands of orange-shirted campaign volunteers were feared by conservatives, celebrated by social activists and feted by aspiring politicians.
But a crucial group of men and women working day, night and weekends to remove the Coalition government regarded them as pests: Labor candidates.
The aggressive tactics of the progressive pressure group, which says it deployed 9433 volunteers in the election, may have backfired by alienating wavering voters through an obsessive focus on climate change policy.
"On multiple levels I look at GetUp as a bunch of student f---ing activists taking money from people like my mum for scare campaigns about the Great Barrier Reef," said one unsuccessful Labor candidate for a Sydney seat that polls predicted he would win.
"If Bill had won they would claimed credit and said: 'How do we push the Labor Party further to the left?'"
A different reality
Only one of GetUp's six primary target seats fell. GetUp national director Paul Oosting denied inadvertently helping the Liberal Party and claimed credit for reducing the size of the swing to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, and removing Tony Abbott from his Sydney electorate, a defeat that paradoxically may improve Liberal Party unity.
On Sunday he emailed the organisation's mailing list expressing disappointment in the outcome but praising his volunteers' conduct during the election. "You did it with a friendly, convincing voice on the other end of the phone line, and a smile at doorsteps and polling booths," he wrote.
Labor candidates say the reality in some seats was different. GetUp volunteers were often pushy at polling booths, used strident language that turned off some voters, and taunted Liberal volunteers, many of them retirees.
GetUp leader Paul Oosting at a parliamentary hearing in 2016. Alex Ellinghausen
In Flinders, an electorate on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, GetUp activists followed Liberal MP Greg Hunt around with a giant papier-mache head of Peter Dutton to mock the health minister for supporting the Liberal leadership challenge last year.
The Labor candidate, Josh Sinclair, had planned a civil campaign. "That was not something I would have done," he says. "If they want to help Labor win they should put on red shirts and hand out how-to-vote cards."
Even though the Labor Party promised to set a 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, GetUp told voters that an independent candidate for the seat, ex-Liberal Julia Banks, had a superior climate change policy.
"Essentially this left-wing organisation was promoting the campaign of a former Liberal member backed by Alex Turnbull," Mr Sinclair says.
Shen Narayanasamy, GetUp's human rights campaign director, said she saw no evidence of bullying or aggressive conduct. "At the polling booths, I saw affectionate camaraderie," she says.
GetUp takes a lot of its inspiration from the US presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders. In September 2017, Mr Sanders recorded a video for GetUp's first national conference. "We need a globalised movement towards equality and shared prosperity," he said.
Independent position
In the election, GetUp was helped by three organisers from Bernie Sanders' campaign, including a senior economic adviser on his 2020 presidential run.
Despite Coalition allegations, GetUp is adamant it is independent of the Labor and Greens parties – a position backed by the Electoral Commission – and supports independent candidates who take stronger positions on climate change.
GetUp volunteers Michael Wiles and Rose Saltman in Tony Abbott's seat during election week. Louise Kennerley
In Wentworth, which covers Sydney's Bondi Beach, GetUp hammered the Labor Party because it didn't oppose the Adani coal mine, and unsuccessfully supported Liberal-leaning independent MP Kerryn Phelps, who had no influence over resources policy.
Tim Murray, Labor's candidate for the seat, was abused in person and online for his party's lukewarm support for the Adani coal mine, even though he had publicly said he didn't want it to go ahead, a comment that got him ticked off by Labor's head office. GetUp and another anti-mine group fostered anger over the mine, he said.
"I didn't feel GetUp was helping with the byelection or general election," Mr Murray says. "It was very frustrating. It was harmful to the non-Liberal vote."
GetUp has a history of inflammatory or untruthful statements that inspire its supporters but can turn off moderate voters.
A GetUp election poster accused the government of reducing penalty rates, a decision made by the Fair Work Commission under a president appointed by a Labor government.
Tony Abbott, who signed Australia to the Paris Climate Accord in 2015, has done everything he can "to wreck renewables and block climate action," the group told supporters last month. The Adani coal mine would "devastate" the climate, it said.
Little electoral impact
In an interview with the ABC this week, Oosting acknowledged that voters didn't act on the group's warnings about global warming.
"We have seen reflected in the polls that the majority of Australians want to see the transition to renewables but that's not, in this case, been reflected inside the polling booth. So we need to reflect there," he said.
There were other problems that may have fostered resentment towards the group. GetUp pulled an ad in late April portraying Abbott as a lifesaver refusing to help a drowning swimmer. It also apologised for automated phone calls made to voters in the Melbourne seat of Kooyong in the middle of the night.
Peter Cossar, the Labor candidate for Ryan in Brisbane, urged GetUp and other pressure groups to be careful any assertions they make are accurate.
"All these groups need to be based on some sort of evidence and facts," he says.
In general, GetUp had little electoral impact on its targets. Mr Dutton received a swing of 2.4 per cent and Attorney-General Christian Porter got a swing of 3.4. Mr Hunt received a 1.8 per cent swing against him.
Aaron Patrick is the senior correspondent. He writes about politics and business. Connect with Aaron on Twitter. Email Aaron at apatrick@afr.com
Bo Seo is a journalist for The Australian Financial Review based in the Sydney office. Email Bo at bo.seo@afr.com.au
GetUp
Influence campaigns
Biden on track to oppose Australia's digital news code


text:
Ipek Kotan
19/11/16 > 22/12/16
Nathalie Doyen (Personal show 2016).
Staying on the topic of nature, the sublime and timeless works by Ipek Kotan (1977 Istanbul, Turkey) are often compared to precious stones. Gems and minerals such as amethyst or pyrite can look like common rocks from the outside, but when you look inside them, you discover a magnificent microcosm; it is as if all the beauty in the universe got extracted and distilled into these little colorful rocks of shimmery, glassy or metallic crystals. It is precisely this kind of beauty Ipek Kotan is striving for.
Her pieces show an impeccable craftsmanship combined with an attitude of extreme independence. With all her rigour and stringency she creates variation upon variation of her elegant minimalist vessels. Working in dark stoneware or pure white porcelain clay Kotan varies the height and the angle of the rim or the thickness of the wall of her bowls and sands outer edges by hand until these become silky smooth, almost like marble. This perfection is striking on its own but peer inside and a new dimension unfolds. Framed like a painting in the midst of the bowl you'll find the insides glowing with one of Kotan's mystifying glazes. It is that delightful contrast between the inside and the outside that allows for the comparison to gemstones; the rough unpolished looking exterior of an amethyst rock and its breathtaking, rich and complex interior.
Her perpetual play with the nuances in shape and glaze is what critics have called an ongoing process of purification. The insides of the vessels have become crucial to her work. The vessel itself in all its perfection is in reality just posing as the container for the artwork within. Creating the glaze and experimenting with different materials -from molten glass to crystals - is one of her favourite parts of the process.
Kotan discovered her passion for ceramics nine years ago while in studying art and design in Rhode Island USA. She has since shown extensively with galleries across Europe and the USA while also creating works for Barney's New York. Her work is in collections of various museums including Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Museum of Decorative Arts in Dresden and the Presidential Art Collection in Ankara.


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Synopsis: A small village off the mainland is about to receive a huge winter storm. It won't be just another storm for them. A strange visitor named Andre Linoge comes to the small village and gives the residents havoc. He knows everything about them, and when he tells the truth about one of them, that person denies it. The town constable, Mike Anderson, tries to keep everyone in check with the huge storm and Linoge. Linoge keeps telling the people, "Give me what I want and I will go away"


Line Voltage thermostat Wiring Diagram Collections Of Honeywell Double Pole thermostat Wiring Diagram Trusted Wiring. Wiring Single Pole thermostat 240v Heater Installing Two Baseboard. Trane thermostat Wiring Diagram New Trane Wiring Diagrams Wiring. Wiring Single Pole thermostat 240v Heater Installing Two Baseboard.
If you are looking to install or repair a double pole thermostat, it's important to understand the wiring behind the device before you begin. Additionally, basic knowledge of what a double pole thermostat is and how it interacts with your HVAC system is essential.
Make sure to connect the ground to the thermostat or wiring box, if available. Stop (The next steps will differ depending on which thermostat you are installing) For single pole thermostats: Step 7. Using a wire connector, connect the hot supply wire to the thermostat wires. Typically, this is marked "L1" or "Line." Step 8.


This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2003 at 7:56 pm by Olivier	and is filed under Apple, Marko, Olier, Olivier. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
HairyPod. It sounds a bit like Harry Potter.


Engaging in open source will help you in recruiting and retention as well, as it provides a substrate for innovation in your company — but only if the product management and product engineering are also adapted to use open-source effectively.
However, there will be a strong motivation to keep data relevant to a particular business private — providing access in some cases over APIs and in other cases only using the data to provide a better product.
Alex drinks a lot of coffee and sometimes writes stuff.


This temple was rebuilt in 1961. The majestic sight of Gangatilaka Viharaya indicates that you have entered Kalutara. It is located to the south of the Kalutara Bridge. The speciality of this temple lies in its 'stupa' (mound-like structure, synonymous with Buddhist temples), which is the only one in the world that is entirely hollow. The interiors are a treat for history and art lovers as it portrays 74 murals depicting various aspects/stages of Lord Buddha's life. The temple was built in the 11th century by King Vikkam Pandaya and later destroyed by Portuguese invaders in the 16th century to make way for a fort. When the temple was rebuilt, the fort was completely destroyed. Another key highlight here is the Kalutara Bodiya.
This is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka. The sacred bo tree grew from one of the 32 saplings planted all over the country from the Anuradhapura Sri Maha Bodiya, which was planted in 288 BCE and is the oldest flowering plant in the world. Consider staying at AVANI Kalutara Resort so you'll be within close proximity to many of the city's attractions.
Built in 1896, the Richmond Castle remains the best example of 19th century architecture in the country. It was built by the Mudaliyar of Kautara of the time, Nanayakkara Rajawasala Appuhamilage Don Arthur De Silva Wijeysinghe Siriwardene. The design of the castle emulates that of the Maharaja of Ramnad India. The castle comprises of two floor and fifteen rooms, and all roofing timber, stained glass, fittings and ornaments imported from abroad. When you visit the castle, be sure to enquire of the sorrowful misfortune that overcame its inhabitants. The Mudaliyar moved into Richmond Castle when he married a local beauty from a noble family, Clarice Matilda Maude Suriyabandara. The couple never had children and as a result the garden of the castle had many statues of children gazing upon it. Further ill-luck befell the couple and the Mudaliyar left the castle and confined himself to room number 77 of the Queens Hotel in Kandy. The castle's surrounding gardens have been well maintained through the years and are a must-see.
Kalutara beach (most importantly Calido Beach) and the nearby Wadduwa beach showcase golden sand and shallow waters that is ideal for a dip. Many Kalutara beach hotels are located by the beach, offering amazing views and great service. Kicking back on the beach, taking in the sceneries and sunbathing is a popular pastime of tourists visiting Kalutara. Also, since it is not popular as Bentota, Hikkaduwa and Unwatuna, the beaches tend to be less crowded, giving you the chance to have an uninterrupted, tranquil holiday.
This shiny dark purple fruit is delicious and a favourite among locals and tourists alike. It is sold by street vendors, so be sure to try it while strolling through the town.


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text:
VoxEU Column Labour Markets
Minimum wages and firm employment: Evidence from China
Prakash Loungani
Gewei Wang
Yi Huang
Minimum wages are set to increase in China under the country's latest five-year plan. This column documents that past increases led to lower employment. However, the impact is heterogeneous. Firms with high average wages or large profit margins actually increase employment, while those with low average wages or small profit margins downsize.
The impact of the minimum wage on employment is a polarising issue in 'advanced' – the term commonly used for 'high-income' – economies. In the blogosphere, one side is often accused of cruelty ('they don't care about the working poor') and the other of stupidity ('they don't realise that labour demand curves slope downwards'). The evidence is mixed. The majority of studies find that minimum wage changes lower employment by a modest amount (Neumark and Wascher 2007) or have little impact (Schmitt 2013). Some studies find that the adverse employment impact is greater for certain groups such as low-skilled workers and teenagers, but this too is a matter of contention. Notably, a series of studies by David Card, Larry Katz, and Alan Krueger in the 1990s found that for fast-food companies in the US an increase in the minimum wage was actually associated with an increase in employment – a result consistent with the models of monopsony (see Card and Krueger 1995 for a summary).
For emerging economies, which account for the bulk of global employment, the evidence on the impact of minimum wages is fairly limited and inconclusive (Betcherman 2013). In recent work (Huang, Loungani, and Wang 2014), we study how minimum wage policies affect firm employment in China by matching a unique county-level data set on minimum wages to firm-level survey data on employment. We also investigate the effects of tightened enforcement of minimum wage policies starting in 2004. This evidence from China is important given the academic debate about the effects of minimum wages and the growing policy discussions in emerging markets on the appropriate level and design of minimum wage schemes (Fang and Lin 2013).
Minimum wages in China
A system of guaranteed minimum wages was formalised in July 1994 under a labour law that authorised provincial governments to set their own minimum wage standards taking into account local economic conditions. In March 2004, a new directive established more comprehensive minimum standards and tightened enforcement through threats of tougher punishment for lax enforcement of labour laws.
We have compiled minimum wages at the county level for all provinces in China, collected by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security using official reports from county governments. This dataset contains detailed information on all the adjustments of minimum wages at the county level and includes 2,805 county-level divisions. Since we have information on the dates of implementation of these minimum wage adjustments, we are able to calculate the effective minimum wage as the weighted average of minimum wages changes. By using other county-level data (e.g. on local unemployment rates), we can also try to capture the endogenous response of minimum wage changes to local economic conditions.
Figure 1 shows geographical variation in the effective minimum wage and displays different quartiles over time. These maps show that the minimum wage is not always lower in inland areas compared with coastal areas, and also that it varies over the years, including before and after the 2004 reform. The extensive geographic variation and the variation over time provide a rich avenue for estimating the impact of minimum wage changes on employment. To do so, we match the data on minimum wages to firm-level survey data on employment.
Figure 1. Geographic variation in minimum wages across Chinese counties
Impact on employment
Our regressions of firm-level employment on the county minimum wage suggest that a 10% hike in minimum wages leads to a decline of between 0.15% and 0.3% in firm employment, depending on the other controls included in the regressions. This range is not dissimilar to that found in the early literature on the impacts of minimum wages for advanced economies (though most of those studies were for impacts on teenage employment than for workers as a whole).
We also find that the impact of minimum wages on employment differs across firms. Low-wage firms or those with low profit margins tend to reduce their hiring in response to a minimum wage hike, while high-wage or high-profit-margin firms increase hiring. The impact when firms are grouped by deciles based on their average wage levels is shown in Figure 2. A 10% increase in minimum wages lowers employment for the lowest decile of firms by about 0.4%, whereas for the highest decile of firms employment increases by nearly 0.6%. For the bottom four deciles, an increase in minimum wages lowers employment while there is a significant positive impact for the top three deciles; in between the impacts are close to zero. Though more work is needed to fully understand this heterogeneous impact, one factor to note is that in China the high-wage firms tend to be the ones with more market power. Hence the prevalence of monopsony power, which the studies by Card and Krueger mention as the reason for the positive impact of minimum wages on employment, is more likely to be prevalent among the high-wage firms in China.
Figure 2. Effect of minimum wages on firm employment for different deciles, grouped by firm wages
Impact of increased enforcement
It is commonly believed that enforcement of minimum wage policies was strengthened after 2004. After this new law was passed, firms started to feel the pressure of rising labour costs, both from the tightened enforcement and from developments in the labour market. Figure 3 shows the decline after 2004 in the share of firms whose average wage was less than the legislated minimum wage.
Figure 3. Share of non-compliant firms
We test whether the increased enforcement affects our results by comparing the results for the full sample period for those estimated over the 2004–2007 period. As shown in Figure 4, our results are very robust to the 'natural experiment' of tightened enforcement.
Figure 4. Effect of minimum wages on firm employment after increased enforcement for different deciles, grouped by firm wages
The minimum wage policy of China provides new opportunities to evaluate the design and enforcement of labour market policy in emerging market countries (Lemos 2009, Basu et al. 2010, Li et al. 2012). As in advanced countries, the choice of the minimum wage in emerging economies has to balance the goals of ensuring labour market flexibility and protecting the interests of workers (Sobel 1999, Blanchard et al. 2013). Our results show that the impact of the minimum wage on employment is very heterogeneous. For firms in the middle of the wage distribution, the impacts of the minimum wage on employment are small. But low-wage firms show a negative impact and high-wage firms show a positive impact. There is a growing literature that considers the impact of minimum wages using regional data across US states and incorporating time-varying heterogeneity (Allegretto et al. 2013). Our paper is the first to document that such heterogeneous effects are also very important for China.
Allegretto, S, A Dube, M Reich, and B Zipperer (2013), "Credible research designs for minimum wage studies", Working Paper, Institute for Research on Labor and Employment.
Basu, A K, N H Chau, and R Kanbur (2010), "Turning a blind eye: Costly enforcement, credible commitment, and minimum wage laws", Economic Journal, 120(543): 244–269.
Betcherman, G (2013), "Labor Market Institutions: A Review of the Literature", World Development Report, World Bank Group.
Blanchard, O J, F Jaumotte, and P Loungani (2013), "Labor market policies and IMF advice in advanced economies during the Great Recession", International Monetary Fund.
Card, D and A Krueger (1995), "Time Series Minimum Wage Studies: A Meta-analysis", American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 85.
Card, D and A Krueger (1994), "Minimum Wages and Employment: A Case Study of the Fast Food Industry in New Jersey and Pennsylvania", American Economic Review, 84.
Fang, T and C Lin (2013), "Minimum wages and employment in China", IZA Discussion Paper.
Huang, Y, P Loungani, and G Wang (2014), "Minimum Wages and Firm Employment: Evidence from China", Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Globalization and Monetary Policy Institute Working Paper 173.
Lemos, S (2009), "Minimum wage effects in a developing country", Labour Economics, 16(2): 224–237.
Li, H, L Li, B Wu, and Y Xiong (2012), "The end of cheap Chinese labor", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26(4): 57–74.
Neumark, D and W Wascher (2007), "Does a higher minimum wage enhance the effectiveness of the earned income tax credit?", NBER Working Paper 12915.
Schmitt, J (2013), "Why does the minimum wage have no discernible effect on employment?", Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Sobel, R S (1999), "Theory and evidence on the political economy of the minimum wage", Journal of Political Economy, 107(4), 761–785.
Assistant Director, IMF Independent Evaluation Office International Monetary Fund; Adjunct Professor Johns Hopkins University
Research Assistant Professor Indo-German Energy Forum Support Office
21st Annual GEP-CEPR Postgraduate Conference
27 Apr 2023 - 28 Apr 2023 in Nottingham, United Kingdom
Labour Markets & Migration
A theory of fair CEO pay
Pierre Chaigneau
Alex Edmans
Daniel Gottlieb
The labour market in Ukraine: Rebuild better
Giacomo Anastasia
Tito Boeri
Marianna Kudlyak
Oleksandr Zholud


text:
Hargey launches Queen's Quay development consultation
Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey has today launched a consultation on the Pound 150m future development of the Queen's Quay area of Belfast's waterfront.
Situated on the eastern bank of the River Lagan this prominent site provides a key connection between the city centre and other developments such as the SSE Arena and Titanic Quarter, and proposed schemes at Sirocco Quay and Belfast Quays.
Minister Hargey said:
"This consultation focuses on the exciting Pound 150m major redevelopment of the prime waterfront site at Queen's Quay in Belfast. The blueprint for the area maps out how this significant site, located at one of most strategic gateways for the city centre, will be regenerated both socially and economically in the years ahead.
"The project will reinvigorate the eastern side of the city centre with new housing and key commercial space to an area close to landmark developments such as the SSE Arena, Titanic Quarter and the Obel Tower.
"The redevelopment of Queen's Quay will have an important role to play in helping to improve access for communities in east Belfast to the city centre and to become a high quality and shared space for all with a lasting legacy."
The Department's online public consultation exhibit on the proposals, supported by virtual consultation clinics, which will run on their website from 7th December until 31st January 2022.
The Minister continued:
"I invite members of the public and interested parties to view the exciting proposals or to register for one of the virtual consultation via my Department's website."
Hamilton Architects is leading the integrated consultant team to deliver the new vision for Queen's Quay, with Tetra Tech Consulting providing the planning advice.
Paul Millar, Partner at Hamilton Architects, said:
"Queen's Quay is a very prestigious and exciting project which will usher in a new era in the economic and social regeneration of Belfast's riverfront and connect different sections of the city as never before.
"Our team is experienced in urban regeneration and has a comprehensive understanding of the issues associated with planning, financial viability and commercial law. This is critical to enable the Department to bring forward this comprehensive development scheme."


open the eagleget interface, and manually start the download.
I also had a major problem with it yesterday, and had to reinstall. Some examples from youtube and softpedia.
Also, the "manual update button" doesn't work, and I find that sometimes I must restart eagleget to regain some functions, like the "trashcan" button.


text:
João Lourenço da Cunha (died ) was a Portuguese nobleman, 2nd Lord of Pombeiro.

Life
João was born in Portugal, son of Martim Lourenço da Cunha and Maria (or Margarida) Gonçalves de Briteiros, maternal granddaughter of Martim Afonso Chichorro, whose first husband was Martim Afonso de Sousa, having by him a daughter, Beatriz de Sousa, wife of Enrique Manuel de Villena, whom Leonor Teles would call her sister-in-law.

In 1365, he married Leonor Teles to whom he was still married when she met King Ferdinand I of Portugal and abandoned her husband to marry the Portuguese king. Two children were born of this marriage; a daughter who died in infancy, and a son Alvaro da Cunha, heir to the lordship of his father.

In 1379, King Ferdinand confiscated João Lourenço's properties and gave them to Fernão Afonso de Albuquerque. He left his country and returned to Portugal at the end of 1383 after the king's death.

According to the legends and traditions of Valladolid collected by Juan Agapito y Revilla, a 19th20th century architect and local chronicler, João Afonso Teles fled from the Portuguese court and found refuge in Valladolid where he lived the rest of his life and where he walked around the city wearing a hat with a string to which were attached silver horns manifesting his condition as a cuckold. This is in contradiction with Portuguese sources according to which, after the death of King Ferdinand, he returned to Portugal at the end of 1383 where he received several donations from the master of Aviz who, at João Afonso's behest, on 17 April 1385, issued a letter confirming that Álvaro, up to then considered a bastard son of Lope Dias de Sousa, was actually his son whose real name was Álvaro da Cunha. In his last will, João Lourenço da Cunha left his properties and title to his son Alvaro da Cunha, the son whom "he had never dared to mention during the lifetime of King Ferdinand.

João Afonso da Cunha died in Portugal in 1385 or shortly afterwards, according to Portuguese sources.

References

Bibliography

14th-century births
1400s deaths
14th-century Portuguese people
Portuguese nobility
Portuguese Roman Catholics