Why is the US not cracking down on Sudan?
The Obama administration is seeking constructive engagement with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. Instead of kowtowing, Washington should intensify pressure on the government of Sudan.
Appeasement is strategically and morally flawed.
Bashir has been indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Rather than insist on accountability, the ICC shelved its investigation of genocide in Darfur because the prosecutor lacks support from the UN Security Council.
Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Karti and Ibrahim Ghandour, Bashir's chief assistant, traveled to Washington to meet U.S. officials in February. In turn, the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor recently visited Sudan.
The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control recently amended Sudan's sanctions to allow exports of personal communications, including smartphones and laptops.
The U.S. appeasement policy coincided with the 12-year anniversary of Darfur's genocide. With an estimated 400,000 Darfuris dead, Darfur is the largest genocide of the 21st century.
Recently, Bashir has launched new atrocities in Darfur. Human Rights Watch confirmed that 221 women and girls were raped in the Darfur village of Tabit by members of the Sudanese army in October 2014.
Since January, the Sudanese army and the Janjaweed militia have renewed their offensive in Darfur, the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile State. Thousands of civilians have been killed and displaced in the East Jebel Marra region of North Darfur. Military operations seek to pressure armed opposition movements ahead of elections in April.
Appeasement sends a message of impunity to Bashir. Sudan is contemptuous of demands by the international community. It ignored UN Security Council Resolution 1556 (30 July, 2004), which demands that the government disarm the Janjaweed militias and bring its leaders to justice in 30 days.
Darfuris are skeptical about the UN and its rhetorical resolutions. The United Nations and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) is a disaster. UNAMID is the largest peacekeeping mission in the history of the UN. Not only has it failed to protect the people of Darfur. UNAMID cannot even protect itself. Government-sponsored militias have routinely wounded, killed, and abducted UNAMID personnel in government controlled areas of Darfur.
Bashir will never willingly allow Sudan's peaceful transition to democracy. He amended Sudan's constitution, not as part of a reform process, but to enhance his power and strengthen the military's grip. In a cynical move, a recent constitutional amendment transforms the notorious National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) into a police force tasked with law and order.
Khartoum also fails the transparency test. Not only has it evicted 13 international humanitarian organizations working with the displaced peoples in the region. It prevents journalists from entering Darfur. NISS shut down 14 daily newspapers in Khartoum, in clear violation of the freedom of expression and press. State prisons are bursting with political prisoners as Bashir readies for one-man, one-party elections later this year.
Sudan remains on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism. So, why is Washington relaxing its restrictions?
Bashir appears to have alliances with extremist groups in Libya, the Sahel region of Africa, Middle East and Iran. And U.S. officials have good reason to believe that Sudan is smuggling weapons to Hamas.
Instead of giving breathing space to the government of Sudan, the United States should support the agents of change in Sudan — the Sudan Revolutionary Front and political parties. It should also expand assistance to refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as civil society organizations — youth groups, women's groups, and union organizers who are trying to establish an inclusive, pro-democracy movement. The oppressed people of Sudan share values with Americans, especially a commitment to universal human rights.
Darfuris and other victims of Khartoum's aggression count on the West. They want Washington to hold the line on diplomatic and economic sanctions to change the behavior of Bashir and his criminal regime.
David L. Phillips is director of the program on Peace-building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the Study of Human Rights. Ahmed Hussain Adam is a visiting fellow at Cornell University. They co-chair The Two Sudans Forum.


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Pedego Kawartha Lakes opens new store as cottage country laps up electric bikes
January 31, 2022 /in Store Openings /by Josh
Lindsay, Ontario — Get ready for even more two-wheeled traffic in Peterborough and Omemee this summer with the opening of Lindsay's newest store. Pedego Kawartha Lakes has opened its second location selling the number one electric bicycle brand in North America: Pedego Electric Bikes. Conveniently located at 66 William Street North, a few blocks away from two major trails to the north and the east, Pedego Kawartha Lakes, Lindsay sells 19 models of electric bikes, from cargo bikes and commuters to folding bikes and fat tire bikes, perfect for riding on the snow or in the sand. Electric bike rentals will be offered for those locals or tourists who wish to explore the region using the world's newest transportation technology. The store follows the first Kawartha Lakes store which opened in Bobcaygeon in May 2018, as well as another two locations opening across Canada in 2019, making Pedego the fastest growing electric bike brand in the country. Allen Hussey is the owner of Pedego Kawartha Lakes. Allen discovered electric bikes in 2017 after a health issue had him wondering about his ability to get home on his normal bicycle. He started researching ebikes and discovered that a pedal-assist bicycle with an electric motor would help him stay active but lessen the challenges of steep hills or strong headwinds. "People have been riding bicycles for a century [but] we're selling a new idea. There seems to be some confusion about what an ebike is and we'd like to make it clear a Pedego is not a scooter," Hussey says. Rather, it's a bicycle with an electric motor that can be used whenever the rider wants to energize their journey. Pedego Electric Bikes are designed in California and sold around the world. It is the company's belief that electric bicycles transform people's lives by getting them off couches, out of cars and having fun — lots of fun! For More information: Contact Allen Hussey at 800-478-1237, kl@pedegocanada.ca, Mike Clyde, Pedego Canada, 888-777-2066, info@pedegocanada.ca
Canada's Huggable Car and Pedego Dealer Survives Covid-19 to Hug Again
https://pedegoelectricbikes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/dealer-photo-kawartha-lakes-lindsay.jpg 720 1280 Josh https://pedegoelectricbikes.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/logo.png Josh2022-01-31 22:32:232022-03-10 02:31:36Pedego Kawartha Lakes opens new store as cottage country laps up electric bikes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Axelle Crevier (born March 22, 1997) is a Canadian water polo player. She plays for Canada's national women's water polo team.

Career highlights

Youth competitor
As a youth competitor, Crevier helped her team win silver at the 2013 Pan American Youth Championships and at the 2014 FINA World Youth Championships the following year. In 2015, the team finished 4th place.

Senior competitor
Crevier has participated in multiple FINA Water Polo World League championships, helping her team finish 6th place in 2014 and 2015 and 7th place in 2016.

In 2017, she helped the team finish 4th at the FINA World Championships. The team would later go on to win silver in the FINA Water Polo World League.

In 2018, her team ranked 4th at the FINA Water Polo World League and 6th at the FINA World Cup.

Crevier was the youngest player of Canada's women's water polo team to compete at the Lima 2019 Pan Am Games. Winning silver, the team secured their ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. She also competed at the 2019 FINA World Championships, where the team finished in 9th place.

2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics
At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Crevier scored eight goals, with Team Canada finishing seventh after beating Team China 16-7.

Personal life
Crevier's mother Marie-Claude Deslières was on the first Canadian women's Olympic water polo team at the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics, and at the 2012 London Summer Olympics was the first woman to referee an Olympic final. Deslières was also one of Canada's international officials at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Crevier is the youngest of three children.

References

1997 births
Canadian female water polo players
Olympic water polo players of Canada
Water polo players from Montreal
Living people
Water polo players at the 2020 Summer Olympics

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For a big batch of fresh, savory vegetables that go with almost any meal.
Vegetables accomplish so many things: They add satisfying bulk to a low-calorie diet. They pair with all kinds of protein, from grilled chicken to baked salmon — maybe even chop these roasted veggies smaller, and fold them into an omelet. Of course, they're full of healthy antioxidants and fiber, nutrients you just can't get easily from processed foods.
This recipe produces a large batch of savory cooked vegetables — enough to serve a crowd at dinner time, or store in the refrigerator to rewarm quickly in the microwave for another night's side dish. Feel free to experiment with the veggies you prepare in this super-easy manner. If you're not wild about eggplant, for example, try substituting cubed butternut squash or chopped summer squash in its place. Fresh thyme works well, too, instead of the rosemary. The technique of chopping veggies, tossing them in olive oil with seasonings, then roasting, is versatile and will work with many combinations of vegetables and herbs.
Sprinkle eggplant with salt, and let stand 30 minutes. Pat dry. Preheat oven to 400°.
Toss together eggplant and remaining ingredients, and arrange in a single layer in a large aluminum foil-lined roasting pan or baking pan.
Makes 10 to 11 (3/4 cup) servings.
My wife and I have found a whole new outlet for eating healthy at home! Thank you VANDY! We are both your patients, but my wife especially has tons of food allergies. We use several of your recipes weekly! Thank you, Phil and Sarah Bryan of Murray KY.
Phil, we are so glad these recipes help! Bon appetit!


Transcription regulation is a major controller of gene expression dynamics during development and disease, where transcription factors (TFs) modulate expression of genes through direct or indirect DNA interaction. ChIP sequencing has become the most widely used technique to get a genome wide view of TF occupancy in a cell type of interest, mainly due to established standard protocols and a rapid decrease in the cost of sequencing. The number of available ChIP sequencing data sets in public domain is therefore ever increasing, including data generated by individual labs together with consortia such as the ENCODE project.
A total of 1735 ChIP-sequencing datasets in mouse and human cell types and tissues were used to perform bioinformatic analyses to unravel diverse features of transcription control. 1- We used the Heat*seq webtool to investigate global relations across the ChIP-seq samples. 2- We demonstrated that factors have a specific genomic location preferences that are, for most factors, conserved across species. 3- Promoter proximal binding of factors was more conserved across cell types while the distal binding sites are more cell type specific. 4- We identified combinations of factors preferentially acting together in a cellular context. 5- Finally, by integrating the data with disease-associated gene loci from GWAS studies, we highlight the value of this data to associate novel regulators to disease.
In summary, we demonstrate how ChIP sequencing data integration and analysis is powerful to get new insights into mammalian transcription control and demonstrate the utility of various bioinformatic tools to generate novel testable hypothesis using this public resource.
The diversity of mammalian organs and tissues is manifested through differences in the gene expression across cell types with the same DNA sequence. To achieve this, specific sets of genes are activated or silenced during development using instructions which include epigenetic and transcription control mechanisms . Throughout development and differentiation, the fate of each cell type is primarily controlled by gene regulation, where genomic regulatory elements receive and execute transcription signals, dependent on their epigenetic state and chromatin accessibility, controlling the expression of key developmental factors . The chromatin immuno-precipitation followed by high throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) technology successfully maps the protein-DNA interaction at genomic locations in a cellular context [3, 4]. ChIP-seq has been used for the profiling of histone modifications and binding sites of other proteins. In particular, transcription factors (TF) are key players in the regulation of cell-specific gene expression. ChIP-seq of a TF allows the mapping of target regions in both promoters (the region surrounding the gene start, containing regulatory elements) and at gene-distal regions, including enhancers (regulatory elements located far from the corresponding gene start), and allows the subsequent identification of specific sequence motifs bound by a given TF.
The high throughput sequencing data generation is now no more a barrier, but this data is not yet used to its full potential by analysis and integration. The explosion of data has therefore opened new avenues of research. New methods and tools have been developed to facilitate this data-driven biology. The ENCODE consortium has provided in-depth analyses of the TF ChIP-seq generated [5–10]. Despite this, the data remains globally under-exploited and new analyses are both necessary and feasible. Furthermore, other available ChIP-seq datasets have not been investigated as thoroughly as the ENCODE dataset.
We therefore collected ChIP sequencing data from diverse compendia including  and consortia [12, 13], resulting in 928 ChIP sequencing samples for transcription related factors in around 100 cell lines and tissues in human and 807 samples in around 50 cell lines and tissues in mouse. We performed a systematic analysis of this data to understand diverse aspects of transcription control across mammalian cell types (Fig. 1). This work is built onto and expands analyses and tools we previously published [14, 15].
We analysed four large resources of ChIP-seq datasets, with between 156 and 690 transcription Factor (TF) ChIP-seq experiments from mainly the ENCODE datasets in human (hg19)  and mouse (mm10)  as well as the CODEX datasets  for human (hg19) or mouse (mm10). The number of peaks varied greatly across experiments. For example, a ZNF274 ChIP-seq in HeLa-S3 cell line had only 74 peaks while a CFOS ChIP-seq in MCF10A cell line sample had over 91,000 peaks in the ENCODE human data. We used the HeatChIPseq web tool (Fig. 2), a part of Heat*seq  to explore the global relationships across samples by clustering correlation heatmaps from peak overlap data (see methods).
In each datasets we noted similar groupings (Fig. 2). A large fuzzy cluster grouped ChIP-seq experiments with many peaks at promoter regions. This cluster included all RNA polymerase II (RNAPII) ChIP-seq experiments. Gene promoter coordinates were also included in this cluster (Fig. 2a-d, green lines). We noted that many transcription factors clustered according to the cell type rather than the factor. For example, Max and Myc clustered together in NB4 cell line, and also together in K562 cell line in the human ENCODE dataset. The same observation was true in mouse, where Max and Myc clustered together in MEL cell line and also together in CH12.LX cell line in the mouse ENCODE dataset. On the other hand, a very well defined cluster comprised of CTCF and cohesin ChIP-seq experiments from diverse cell types (including RAD21, SMC3, ZNF143) was present in all human and mouse datasets. Other individual clusters had peaks with little or no overlap with promoter or CTCF clusters. Many of these experiments tended to form small clusters of either chromatin regulators or enhancer-binding transcription factors. Globally, but with exceptions, binding profiles of two distinct TFs in the same cell type tended to be more different that binding profiles of the same TF in two different tissues.
The Heat*seq tool allows easy sub-selection of samples in each dataset based on factor or cell type. Figure 2e contains all TF ChIP-seq experiments done in HUVEC (Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells) in the human ENCODE dataset. It illustrates the three main groups of experiments: a tight CTCF cluster, a fuzzy promoter-proximal cluster including RNAPII, MAX and CMYC ChIP-seq experiments, and a cluster with more distal-binding factors such as CJUN, CFOS, and GATA2.
HeatChIPSeq can also be used to explore the fraction of cell-specific binding sites for different factors. Figure 2f includes selected experiments from the mouse ENCODE dataset in liver and heart. CTCF and RNAPII experiments from both tissues clustered together, reflecting mostly shared occupancy between tissues. EP300, on the other hand, formed two separated clusters, one for each tissue, reflecting a higher proportion of tissues specific binding sites.
In Fig. 2g, we selected all experiments from mouse Embryonic stem cells from the mouse CODEX datasets. It allowed characterising further the factors that are neither mainly associated with RNAPII nor CTCF co-factors. We detected a well defined cluster of members from the polycomb complexes PRC1 and PRC2, as well as two clusters composed of pluripotency factors (and other TFs): the first cluster had experiments enriched with promoter-proximal peaks and included factors involved in transcription initiation process or enriched at promoters including Myc and Gata4, while the second cluster, including Sox2, Nanog, Oct4 and Esrrb experiments, had mostly promoter distal peaks. The same factor in the same cell type studied by different labs clustered together with few exceptions such as one Nanog sample in ES cells (GSM1090230) which was closely associated with Kdm4c rather than other Nanog samples.
The cluster analysis in the previous section indicated that some factors had a majority of their peaks close to gene transcription start sites (TSS) while others were mostly found at promoter-distal regions. We investigated this further by annotating each transcription factor peak (from the human an mouse ENCODE datasets) by its closest GENCODE gene TSS [16, 17] (see methods), and obtained for each factor the fraction of peaks overlapping a TSS, upstream to, or downstream to the nearest TSS (Fig. 3a and b). We divided experiments in three groups: Green labelled experiments (Fig. 3a and b) have more peaks located downstream of a TSS than upstream. This group includes ChIP sequencing experiments for the elongation specific pol II phosphorylated on serine 2, as well as ChIP-seq against ZNF274. ZNF274 (Fig. 3c) has more than 50% of its peaks downstream to the closest TSS, in agreement with Frietze et al. noting that ZNF274 binds the 3' ends of zinc-finger genes . S2-phosphorylated forms of RNAPII ChIP-seq, a modification reflecting the transcription elongation phase , also showed a bias toward more peaks downstream the nearest TSS. On the other hand, experiments indicated with magenta colour (Fig. 3a and b) constituted of experiments with higher fraction of peaks located upstream a TSS than downstream. It included RNA polymerase III and its co-factor TFIIIC (and to a lesser extent RPC155 and BRF1). The third groups contained the majority of experiments with about similar numbers of peaks upstream and downstream of TSS (Fig. 3 and b). Sorting the experiments in the third group by the fraction of peaks overlapping a TSS revealed a continuum, from factors with over 80% of there peaks at a TSS (including most RNAPII or some BRCA1 ChIP-seq experiments, Fig. 3e) to factors with less than 20% of peaks at a TSS (including most CTCF or MAFK ChIP-seq experiments, Fig. 3d).
Most factors showed a conserved fraction of promoter proximal peaks across experiments and or cell types. Nonetheless, we noted a few inconsistent cases. For example, six of eight CFOS ChIP-seq in the human ENCODE datasets had less than 10% of the peaks overlapping a TSS (Fig. 3f), while one experiment had around 30%, and another around 50% of their peaks overlapping a TSS. In the absence of biological replicates, it is difficult to conclude whether these differences reflect a real biological phenomenon or are simply due to technical biases .
For each TF, we compared the fraction of peaks overlapping a TSS in mouse and human (Fig. 3h). For most factors, their promoter proximal or distal preference was conserved, with an overall correlation of 0.83 (P-value <10−10). ETS1 and ZKSCAN1 had a greater fraction of peaks near TSS in human than in mouse, but the lack of replicates hindered assessing whether this is true biological difference or a technical variation. Overall, the linear regression slope was less than one, i.e. most factors had a higher promoter-bound fraction of peaks in human compared to mouse. It is unclear whether this reflects gene annotation differences between the species, gene density differences, or different affinity for promoters in different species.
We further clustered ChIP-seq experiments using only the promoter proximal or the promoter distal peaks separately, in the six human and the two mouse for cell lines with more than 30 ChIP-seq experiments. In the human ENCODE dataset, six cell lines (A549, GM12878, H1-hESC, HeLa-S3, HepG2, and K562), with a total of 474 experiments were selected (Fig. 4a and b). From the 553,211 regions bound by at least one factor in the 474 experiments, 300,901 were promoter proximal (<1 kb from the nearest TSS), and 144,514 were distal to a TSS (>10 kb). In the mouse ENCODE dataset, two cell lines (CH12 and MEL), with a total of 88 experiments were selected (Fig. 4c and d). From the 221,772 regions bound by at least one factor in the 88 experiments, 33,171 were promoter proximal (<1 kb from the nearest TSS), and 101,150 were distal to a TSS (>10 kb from the nearest TSS). We calculated the Pearson correlation coefficient between each pair of peak lists for the promoter proximal regions (Fig. 4a and c), and for the distal regions (Fig. 4b and d). The hierarchical clustering of the resulting correlation matrix for each of the two sets demonstrated that promoter regions share binding sites for many more factors compared to the distal regions. Indeed, correlation values between experiments were on average higher at promoter-proximal sites than at distal sites. The factors studied in the same cell type clustered together more often at the distal regions than at the promoter regions. The promoter proximal clustering in both human and mouse represented a tight CTCF/SMC3/RAD21 cluster and a large dispersed multi-factor cluster including diverse factors. At distal regions, the CTCF/SMC3/RAD21 cluster remained intact but many other experiments clustered according to their cell line of origin, meaning that TF binding at distal regulatory regions tends to be cell type specific.
Transcription factor hotspots are defined as genomic regions occupied by many factors in a given cellular context. They overlap with regulatory regions that are highly important for cell identity . We characterized transcription hotspots in human and mouse datasets by computing the TF binding density, i.e. the fraction of ChIP-seq experiments in each cell type with a peak in a given genomic region. The clustering of TF density for all genomic regions by k-means clustering (Fig. 4e and f) demonstrated that transcription factors hotspots are promoter proximal and distal. Transcription factor hotspots that are shared by all cell types are mostly found at the promoter regions, while transcription hotspots that are cell type specific are mostly found at non-promoter regions. This is in full agreement with our previous findings.
Mammalian transcription factors are known to work together by binding at the promoter or enhancer regions to activate or repress downstream target genes [22–24]. Importantly, individual transcription factors known to function combinatorially, i.e. even when expressed at high levels, are not sufficient to activate specific gene expression programs when alone . To unravel the combinatorial control of transcription factors in a cellular context, we grouped factors according to the cell type in mouse and human for cell types with at least 6 factors studied. We then built a M*N matrix of all binding events (peaks) for each cell type where M represents the loci (genomic location) bound by at least one factor in that cell type and N being the number of factors studied by ChIP sequencing in that cell type. For each cell type, there were 2N-1 combinations of binding patterns possible. We evaluated likelihood of frequency of these combinatorial patterns to occur by chance by comparing to 100 random datasets generated such that the total number of binding events for each factor was preserved (i.e. the number of non-zeros in each column of M*N matrix were unaltered during randomizations). This analysis re-discovered the transcription factors of the same family (e.g. SMC family members in murine ES cells, CEBP family members in murine macrophages, Stat family members in murine dendritic cells) known to bind to overlapping genomic locations due to highly similar sequence motifs, or the components of known complexes or well studies interactions (Table 1). CTCF, RAD21 and ZNF143 form a part of cohesin complex and clustered together in the global clustering considering all peaks. Accordingly, they were enriched across multiple cell types. In agreement with the literature, in mouse ES cells, 2350 genomic loci were occupied only by Oct4, Sox2 and Nanog (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) . In mouse MEL cells, Gata1 and Scl were co-bound at 1123 (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) genomic loci . Interestingly, we identified some novel combinatorial relationships whose functional relevance needs further investigation. For example, in mouse ES cells, 2655 genomic loci were co-occupied only by Suz12 and Sox2 (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) and in human GM12878, ETS1 co-occupied 1090 binding sites only with EGR1 (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) and 1249 binding sites only with P300 (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256).
Interestingly, there were a number of cases of combinatorial control where the two factors did not share most of the binding sites, therefore did not cluster together in the global clustering tree (Fig. 2) but significantly co-occupied a relatively small but statistically significant number of gene loci. For example, GTF2F1 and CTCF co-bound 2233 genomic regions in human K562 cell line (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) which were not occupied by any other factor. Similarly, E2A, FOxO1 and Pax5 co-bound 1087 genomic regions in mouse B cells (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−256) which were not occupied by any other factor studied. In human ES cells, 957 genomic loci were co-occupied only by RAD21 and TEAD4 (Bonferroni corrected P-value < 10−30). This postulates site specific role for these combinatorial interactions shadowed by the global analysis.
To investigate the sequence motif preference in genome wide biding patterns for each factor defined by ChIP sequencing experiment in a cellular context, we computed the enrichment of known motifs for each sample using HOMER . As expected, for the majority of the experiments, we detected the sequence motif specific to the factor as the top motif enriched for the factor. For example, a CTCF motif was top top motif of all CTCF ChIP sequencing experiments, a Runx1 motif was the top motif for all Runx1 ChIP sequencing experiments, and a GATA motif was enriched as the top motif for all GATA (Gata1, Gata2 or Gata3) ChIP sequencing experiments across all cell types studied in human and mouse. This firstly confirmed the quality of the most of the data in the compendia. This analysis furthermore highlighted known interacting partners of some factors: all LMO2 samples had ETS as the top motif, all MYB samples had RUNX as the top motif and all CBFB samples had CTCF as the top motif.
Tal1/Scl experiments had mostly ETS or RUNX or GATA as the top enriched motif, depending upon the cell type in which the factor was studied in both human and mouse. Similarly, the majority of RNAPII experiments across multiple cell types identified ETS as a top enriched motif, with only a handful of cases with a cell type motifs enriched such as GATA motif enriched in K562 RNAPII sample, or BZIP motif enriched in HeLa-S3 RNAPII sample. In embryonic stem cells (ESCs), OCT4-SOX2-TCF-NANOG motif was enriched for the ChIP sequencing of OCT4 and NANOG as expected; this motif was top enriched motif in SMAD3, P300, BCL11A, HDAC2 and CTBP2 samples as well. Interestingly, CTCF ChIP sequencing in different cell types did not result in enrichment of sequence motifs of cell type specific factors. This demonstrates that CTCF acts mainly as an insulator as well as defining gene regulatory boundaries which are largely independent of cell type.
Genetic variations can be one of the causal factors of complex diseases. Genome-wide analysis (GWAS) studies have revealed genetic loci significantly associated with a disease risk, but the majority of the identified loci lie within the non-coding regions, specifically in the regulatory regions defined by chromatin modifications and DNase I hypersensitive sites across cell types . We calculated the overlap of binding sites for each transcription factor in human in each cell type with GWAS high confidence hits and estimated the significance of overlap (whether or not possible simply by random chance) using bonferroni-corrected hypergeometric test. Three ChIP sequencing samples from the ENCODE data showed statistically significant overlap with GWAS disease associated loci. These tree factors, NELFE and HDAC8 in K562 cell line and BRCA1 in GM12878 cell line, with about 2% of the peaks for each factor in GWAS disease associated loci, have a well-studied role associated with cancer. BRCA1 mutations are causal for breast cancer . Accordingly, the majority BRCA1 peaks overlapped with the disease loci in breast cancer. Interestingly, 37 BRCA1 peaks overlapped with disease loci in inflammatory bowel disease. BRCA1 also has a role as an important mediator of innate immunity and BRCA1 gene therapy is known to reduce systemic inflammatory response . We noted that 12 BRCA1 target loci overlapped with genes involved in childhood obesity. This is in agreement with a finding that without BRCA1, muscle cells became diabetic by storing excess fat . Taken together, the analysis of transcription targets using ChIP sequencing together with disease associated loci can identify novel factors controlling the disease phenotype.
As the next generation sequencing is becoming a preferred tool of the experimental groups world-wide, the genome wide data will be ever increasing in public domain. Understanding the potential of this data for novel discoveries, huge efforts are ongoing in storing and assembling data in public repositories and databases [32–34]. One of the major challenges now is to generate methodologies and pipelines facilitating computational analysis of this large and under-exploited resource. This can be achieved in a plethora of ways, including integrating together with other datasets, to obtain new biological insights. To this end, the ENCODE consortium has taken a big initiative to provide a uniformly processed dataset to the scientific community for computational data integration and analysis . Similarly CODEX database  provides a uniformly processed and analysed data from blood and ES cells in human and mouse. The easy accessibility of pre-processed data is a major facilitator for generation of novel biological hypotheses from this resource.
In this paper, we explored multiple resources and tools (Fig. 1), including integration with other data resources such as GWAS catalogue. We demonstrated the use of HeatChIPseq webtool to investigate global relations across ChIP-seq samples. We further analysed the genomic location preference of TFs across species. We showed that transcription hotspots are both promoter proximal and distal. We confirmed that promoter proximal binding of factors (including at transcription hotspots) is more shared across tissues, while the distal binding is more cell type specific. We identified combinations of factors preferentially acting together. Finally, we integrated the data with disease-associated gene loci from GWAS studies to highlight the value of this data to associate novel regulators to disease.
In summary, we demonstrate potential ways to develop new hypotheses about transcription control mechanisms. Importantly, the above results form only the tip of the iceberg of the potential insights from these resources. Our analysis has allowed us to reproduce and expand some observations previously made using these data. This shows that the in depth analysis of such data is still far from complete and must continue. Importantly, the analysis performed in this study can easily be extended to exploit ChIP-seq datasets in other species or in other cellular contexts, and therefore has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of a wide range of both normal and pathological cellular processes.
Peaks bed files where downloaded from ENCODE at UCSC (human data, http://hgdownload.cse.ucsc.edu/goldenPath/hg19/encodeDCC/wgEncodeAwgTfbsUniform/) or from the ENCODE data portal (mouse, encodeproject.org) for a total of 690 experiments in human and 156 experiments in mouse. Human and mouse peak files from ChIP-seq experiments were also downloaded from CODEX  (codex.stemcells.cam.ac.uk ), for a total of 238 experiments in human and 651 experiments in mouse.
For each of four datasets, all peaks lists were merged using bedtools merge  to find non-overlapping peak-containing regions. The merged peaks where then used to create a genomic regions x experiments binary matrix where each matrix cell indicates the presence or absence of a peak at a given region in a given experiment. This binary peak matrix was correlated and clustered, using Euclidean distance of the correlation values and complete hierarchical clustering from the relevant R functions. Clustering branches were re-ordered using the order.optimal function from the cba package . Processed data and detailed dataset processing instructions are available through our web application Heat*seq  and the related GitHub repository github.com/gdevailly/HeatStarSeq_gh . The mouse ENCODE dataset was implemented specifically for this study. TSS lists where obtained from GENCODE [16, 17], using the median TSS for genes with several alternative transcription start sites. CpG islands coordinates where obtained as a bed files from the UCSC table browser .
Individual peak files and merged peak lists from the human and mouse ENCODE datasets were annotated with the closest GENCODE [16, 17] TSS (v21 for human, after using lift-over to convert it back to hg19, vM14 for mouse) using Bedtools  closest command with the -D parameter. Annotated peak lists were used to analyse the distribution of peaks upstream to, at, or downstream to the nearest TSS.
Annotated merged peak lists were used to create binary genomic regions x experiments matrices of only the regions at less than 1 kb from the closest TSS or only the regions at more than 10 kb from the closest TSS. Promoter proximal and promoter distal matrices were then clustered as described before, using only experiments in the 6 cell lines (humans) or the 2 cell lines (mouse) with the most experiments (ENCODE data). The binary matrices were used to compute the TF density of each merged peaks for each cell line, defined as the number of experiment with a peak at a given location divided by the total number of experiments from the cell line in a dataset. TF density matrices of merged peaks x cell line were clustered using k-mean clustering to identify clusters of high TF density that were either ubiquitous or cell-line specific.
From each matrix of non-overlapping regions x experiments (ENCODE data for human and mouse), we computed Transcription Factor (TF) density by dividing the number of factors with a peak in that region by the total number of ChIP sequencing experiments done in that cell line, to obtain numbers between 0 and 1. The promoter proximal regions were defined as within 1kb of GENCODE TSS for both human and mouse, while promoter distal were further than 1kb from the nearest TSS. TF density matrices were then clustered using k-means clustering.
TO study the combinatorial control of transcription factors in a cell type, the cell types with more than 6 factors studied were chosen and over-representation of each combination was calculated using random binding sets and estimating Bonferroni corrected P-value. The random binding sets maintained the same number of targets for each TF.
The sequence motif enrichment for each ChIP-seq sample was performed using HOMER  with all peak locations as an input. A list of significantly disease associated genomic regions were downloaded from www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/. P values were calculated using hypergeometric test, and were adjusted using Bonferroni correction. The enriched combinatorial patterns were calculated by generating random binding data keeping the same number of peaks for each factor, and the significance was estimated compared to 100 randomizations.
AJ is a Chancellor's fellow and AJ lab is supported by institute strategic funding from Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, BB/J004235/1). GD is funded by the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions FP7/2007-2013) under REA grant agreement No PCOFUND-GA-2012-600181. The publication costs were funded by the University of Edinburgh.
The raw data used for the analysis is available in the public repository (GEO).
GD and AJ performed the analysis, interpreted results and wrote the manuscript. GD generated figures. Both authors approved the content.
Joshi A. Mammalian transcriptional hotspots are enriched for tissue specific enhancers near cell type specific highly expressed genes and are predicted to act as transcriptional activator hubs. BMC Bioinforma; 15. 2014;15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12859-014-0412-0.
Buchta C, Hahsler M. Cba: Clustering for Business Analytics. 2017. R package version 0.2-18. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=cba.


Turf pathogens can be very difficult to control. Here's how to battle the worst of them this summer.
No one likes seeing spots in lawns. Fight these common turf maladies by being able to see symptoms right away.
Information from a letter by David Cassidy, NovaSource TKI group vice president, notifying customers of the voluntary product recall for ArmorTech ALT 70 and Viceroy 70DF.


The Ascension Providence DePaul Center is a psychiatric and substance abuse treatment division of Ascension Providence. This 64-bed facility is located at 301 Londonderry Drive, adjacent to the Ascension Providence medical campus, and is licensed by the Texas Department of Health and is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations. The Ascension Providence DePaul Center is also certified by Medicare and approved by Medicaid to provide services to individuals younger than 21 years of age.
A 24-hour help line is also available at 254-776-5970.
Ascension Providence offers numerous support groups covering a wide range of topics for every member of the family. All support groups are free of charge, unless noted otherwise.
Many support groups meet weekly at DePaul Center, including Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Al-Anon, Co-Dependency and other groups assisting mental health. The support groups are free and open to the community.
Voluntary and involuntary admissions are accepted. All patient information and inquiries are strictly confidential.
Ascension Providence DePaul Center provides free assessments and information regarding services. Call the DePaul Assessment and Admitting Office at 254-776-5970 for a free assessment and screening.


text:
\section{Introduction}
One of the main questions of students of the cosmology is the
cooling mechanism of the universe during its expansion. According
to the concepts from the classical thermodynamics the question are
as: (i) Is our universe non-adiabatic (i.e. universe is connected
to the cold thermal bath and losses its energy during the time) ?
The answer to this question is trivial, there is nothing outside
the universe, so thermodynamically our universe is adiabatic.(ii)
So, if our universe expands adiabatically the particles of gas
should loos their energy during the expansion of the universe by
bouncing off from the physical boundary of the universe during the
expansion which makes the cosmic fluid to cool down.

In the standard cosmological text books \cite{pady,winberg} and
pedagogical articles \cite{amr1,amr2,amr3,amr4}, the variation of
temperature of the cosmic fluid during the expansion of the
universe has been discussed in several ways. It has been shown
that the momentum of particles in the cosmic fluid decrease with
the inverse of scale factor of the expansion, however some of
these approaches such as dealing the motion of particles with the
special theory of relativity seems does not satisfy the students's
curiosity \cite{pady}. Here we use the natural general
relativistic approach to revisit this problem.

In the standard model of the cosmology the distance between any
two points in an expanding homogeneous universe is given by $r=ax$
where $a$ is the expansion factor and $x$ is defined as the
comoving distance. As the universe expands, the scale factor
increases and makes a larger distance between any two points in
the universe. For an homogeneous universe the comoving distance
does not change with time, so the velocity of expansion can be
given by $v_h = x {da}/{dt}$, so-called {\it Hubble velocity}. For
the real universe, the density is not homogenous and due to the
large structures and voids the density of matter deviates from the
background density of universe. One of the consequences of this
deviation is that there is no more a solid comoving coordinate
system and it changes by time as the structures grow. So the
velocity of cosmic fluid gets one more term of $v_{pec}= a
{dx}/{dt}$, so-called peculiar velocity, due to the variation of
comoving distance with time.

 We take a comoving observer freely follows the expansion of the
universe. For this observer the global velocity of the cosmic
fluid around him/here is zero. However due to none-zero
temperature of the cosmic fluid, the observer will measure
non-zero velocity due to the thermal motion of cosmic fluid, we
call this velocity as {\it thermal peculiar velocity}. We should
bear in mind that thermal peculiar velocity is different from that
appear due to the perturbation in the gravitational potential of
the large scale structures.
The dynamics of the (thermal motion of) particles in the
Friedman-Robertson-Walker ({\it FRW}) universe with the metric of
$ds^2 = dt^2 - a^2dx^2$ is given by the geodesic equation as:
\begin{equation}
{\ddot x^{\mu}} + \Gamma^{\mu}_{\nu \lambda} {\dot x}^{\nu}{\dot x}^{\lambda} = 0,
\label{geodesic}
\end{equation}
where derivation is taken with respect to the comoving time of the
particles, $\tau$ and $\Gamma^{\mu}_{\nu \lambda}$ is the
Christoffel symbol in the ({\it FRW}) metric.
$\Gamma^{i}_{i0}=1/a\times{da/dt}$ is the only non-zero spatial
component of the Christoffel symbol in this metric and by
substituting it in (\ref{geodesic}), the equation of motion of the
particles in the comoving frame obtain as:
\begin{equation}
{\ddot x^{i}}+ \frac{2}{a}\frac{da}{dt}\times \frac{dt}{d\tau} \dot x^i = 0
\end{equation}
The solution of this equation implies: ${dx}/{d \tau}\propto
a^{-2}$. Using the chain rule to express this result in terms of differentiation
with respect to t-component results:
\begin{equation}
\frac{dx}{dt}\frac{dt}{d\tau} \propto a^{-2}.
\label{pec}
\end{equation}
Now we use the definition of peculiar velocity $v_{pec} =
adx/{dt}$ and substitute $dt/{d \tau} = (1-v_{pec}^2)^{-1/2}$ in
equation (\ref{pec}) which yields:
 \begin{equation}
\frac{v_{pec}}{\sqrt{1-v_{pec}^2}}\propto \frac{1}{a}.
\label{pp}
\end{equation}
By multiplying both sides of the equation (\ref{pp}) to the rest
mass of a particle, the momentum of thermal motion of particles obtain as:
\begin{equation}
p = {m_0}v_{pec}/{\sqrt{1-v_{pec}^2}}\propto \frac{1}{a}.
\end{equation}
This equation shows that the momentum of (non)-relativistic
particles relaxes as $1/a$ during the expansion of the universe.
We see that for a static universe, momentum would remain constant.
Decreasing the momentum of the particles during the expansion of
the universe causes the energy of the ultra-relativistic
particles, $E = pc$ to fall as $1/a$. In the case of
non-relativistic particles where $E\propto p^2$, the energy will
fall with a faster rate of $1/a^2$. Using the distribution
function of particles for the (non)-relativistic particles, the
temperature of cosmic fluid scales with the mean energy of the
particles as $T\simeq E$ \cite{pad02}. Now according to the
dependence of the energy of the particles to the scale factor we
can come to conclude that the relativistic particles will cool
with the rate of 1/a while the non-relativistic particles will
cool with a faster rate of
$1/a^2$.\\

Summarizing this letter, we assigned the dispersion velocity of
the particles of the cosmic fluid to the peculiar velocity in a
comoving reference frame and obtained the dependence of the
momentum of particles to the scale factor both for the
(non)-relativistic fluids. According to the dependence of
temperature to the energy of the particles, the temperature of
relativistic fluids such as photons will fall as $T\propto 1/a$.
For the non-relativistic fluids such as dust and cold dark matter,
temperature relaxes with a faster rate of $T\propto 1/a^2$. This
approach showed that the cooling of the cosmic fluid can not be
explained with the classical concepts from the thermodynamics and
cooling directly results from the expansion of universe which
makes the thermal peculiar velocity of particles reduce during the
stretch of the scales.

\section*{References}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Our 61st season of Little League in Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores.
Last season was one for the ages, when our 12-year-old tournament team was the first Michigan squad to make the Little League World Series since 1998. It was our second appearance. Our 1979 team advanced to Williamsport too.
We've added Girl's Softball. Our goal is to form divisions across age groups which mirror our baseball divisions. Ages 6-16. Teams will play locally and against teams from other District 6 leagues.
• All registered players will receive a commemorative Grosse Pointe Woods-Shores/Williamsport baseball cap.
• We've made exciting changes in our minor leagues to make the experience more competitive and fun.
• Our coaching committee has developed standards and best practices for each level of play. We will be hosting a coaching clinic before the season. Coaches are encouraged to attend. Look for more information soon.
• This season we've formed a parent association which will help lead our concession and fundraising efforts.
Do us a favor and forward this email to anyone you may know who is interested in baseball or softball.
Please come out and be a part of another exciting season.
All registered players and parents must complete the concussion awareness form. Please download the form here: Concussion Awareness Form. Bring this form with you to tryouts or your first team meeting.
We are seeking coaches for the 2014 season. If you're interested in coaching at any level, please contact me at: dborland@mirealsource.com. You can also register as a coach through our online registration process.
Baseball players ages 9-12, who are not rostered on a major league team, must attend at least one tryout session. Tryout sessions will take place at Grosse Pointe North High School Gymnasium. Check our web site for more information.
Girls Softball players ages 9-12 must attend at least one tryout session. Check our web site for more information.
Our league is a 100% volunteer organization. We are always looking for help. Volunteer if you can.


"Is an instant messenger next for Google? Some say that Google has been planning this move for quite some time. In their Desktop search Google included the protocol handler: google_im://. Google gives the reasonable explanation that it is there for searches of you instant messenger conversations, and it is not there for some future IM software."
With the help of Bonjour, iChat AV lets you see which people are available for chatting or video conferencing on your local network, and automatically removes them when they leave.


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Learn & practice the Accusative case in Ukrainian in context during the next 5 episodes of the Ukrainian Lesson Podcast. Start with understanding and mastering all the Accusative endings of the nouns and adjectives. Also, learn about asking advice!
discover what Ukrainian patronymic (по-батькові) is and when it is used.
Grammar chart: All the endings and examples of the Accusative case in Ukrainian on one page!


Discussion in 'iPhone' started by kring, Dec 28, 2011.
I've been looking to find an AirPlay speaker for use with my apple products. I've found out that NO 3rd Party AirPlay speakers work with the iPhone 4S. which leads me to beleive that the iPhone 4S is defective or has changed something in the way it uses AirPlay that causes it to not work with 3rd party speakers. these 3rd party speakers do with with ALL other apple devices.
"We are aware there is an issue with using AirPlay on the iPhone 4S with AirPlay-enabled speakers, including the iHome iW1. Apple engineering is aware of this issue and working on providing a remedy."
"We are aware of a playback issue with the iPhone 4S and AirPlay enabled speakers. We are currently looking into resolving this issue together with Apple. We will communicate immediately when a solution is available. Alternatively please use other products to enjoy AirPlay streaming."
"iPhone 4S owners may experience problems when streaming audio to Zeppelin Air. Bowers & Wilkins and technology partners are working with Apple to resolve this issue. We will let you know when a solution is available."
Its a problem with the 4S' firmware. It has been resolved with the latest 5.1 beta.


text:
In Memoriam: Nicholas Kripal, Sculptor and Pew Fellow
nicholas-kripal
Nicholas Kripal. Photo courtesy of Tyler School of Art.
We are deeply saddened by the news that Nicholas Kripal, 1999 Pew Fellow, passed away on September 30, 2016. A ceramic sculptor, known for creating site-specific installations that emphasized the architectural iconography of sacred spaces, he is also remembered as a teacher and mentor.
Kripal served as ceramics program head and chair of the crafts department at Tyler School of Art, where he was also professor of art for over three decades. In 2004, he co-founded Crane Arts with artist Richard Hricko.
In a tribute on Artblog, Hester Stinnett, professor and interim dean of Tyler School of Art, described Kripal as "an inspiring teacher, generous colleague, and dynamic leader." Read the full piece on Artblog.>>
Kripal is a recipient of three Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowships, a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, as well as artist residencies at La Napoule Art Foundation, France, and the Watershed Center for Contemporary Ceramics, Maine. His installations have been exhibited internationally, including in Uno, Rome, Italy; Museo Casa Principala, Vera Cruz, Mexico; Kristus Kirche, Cologne, Germany; The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, New York; Glasgow Cathedral, Scotland; and, in collaboration with sculptor Jeffrey Mongrain, at Corpus Christ Church, Baltimore, MD; and St. Patrick's Church, Indianapolis, IN.
Kripal received a MFA from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and a MS in education and a BFA from the University of Nebraska, Kearney.
Tyler School of Art has created a scholarship in Kripal's honor. Arrangements for a memorial celebration are forthcoming.
Click here to read Kripal's obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer>>
Nicholas Kripal
Temple Contemporary
Fellows Friday News: Jenny Sabin Receives Women in Architecture Award, Benjamin Volta Unveils New Mural, Remembering Nicholas Kripal
Helen Molesworth and Paul Schimmel
Two highly respected curators, Helen Molesworth and Paul Schimmel, describe how they see the relationship between curating and historiography.
the-curator-and-the-historian-helen-molesworth-and-paul-schimmel
Alien She: Women Who ROCK Karaoke
Local concert promoter, writer, and DJ Sara Sherr will host two nights of "Women Who ROCK" Karaoke at Teri's Bar in Philadelphia.
alien-she-quot-women-who-rock-quot-karaoke-with-sara-sherr
Pearl Street Block Party
Asian Arts Initiative hosts a Pearl Street Block Party to celebrate the rich cultural diversity and artistic community in Philadelphia's Chinatown North neighborhood.
pearl-street-block-party
Annie Wilson
Investigating what she describes as "public vulnerability and intimacy," Wilson's performance work intertwines experimental dance, humor, feminist practice, and audience interaction.
annie-wilson
Temple Contemporary's Funeral for a Home in the News
This Center-funded project, which will celebrate the life of a single Philadelphia-area row home before it's razed in May, is featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
temple-contemporary-039-s-funeral-for-a-home-in-the-news
Unsettling the Score: Experiments in Notation, Part I
Historical musicologist David Gutkin explores various forms of musical notation and the variable re-performances they can encourage.
unsettling-the-score-experiments-in-notation-part-i
Temple Contemporary's Symphony for a Broken Orchestra Makes Headlines in The New York Times, The Guardian, and More
Symphony for a Broken Orchestra has received extensive national and local media coverage, including reviews and interviews in The New York Times, NPR, and The Atlantic, among others.
temple-contemporary-s-symphony-for-a-broken-orchestra-makes-headlines-in-the-new-york-times-the-guardian-and-more
Joy Bivins
Joy Bivins is director of curatorial affairs at the Chicago History Museum.
joy-bivins
O Monsters at Capital Fringe Festival
New Paradise Laboratories' O Monsters, the companion piece to their Center-supported project Hello Blackout!, travels to the 2018 Capital Fringe Festival in Washington D.C.
o-monsters-at-capital-fringe-festival
An Introduction to Restaging & Reconstruction
As interest in contemporary performance art grows, reconstruction and restaging have become critical methods in understanding the almost-lost moments of seminal early performances.
an-introduction-to-restaging-amp-amp-reconstruction
The Philadelphia Matter - 1972/2020 Live Screening
the-philadelphia-matter-1972-2020-live-screening
Fellows Friday: Q&A with Poet Yolanda Wisher
Poet and Pew Fellow Yolanda Wisher on creating "poetics of use," the inspiration she draws from her ancestry, and more.
fellows-friday-q-amp-amp-a-with-poet-yolanda-wisher
Questions of Practice: Musician & Curator Argeo Ascani on Experimentation
Argeo Ascani, Curator for Music at EMPAC, Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, talks about approaching artistic risk as a curator.
questions-of-practice-musician-amp-amp-curator-argeo-ascani-on-experimentation
Brent Hayes Edwards
Brent Hayes Edwards is Peng Family professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, and a 2015 Guggenheim Fellow.
brent-hayes-edwards
Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge Neighborhood Convening
The Center-funded Playgrounds for Useful Knowledge project, a collaboration between Mural Arts and Cohabitation Strategies, culminates in a convening exploring questions of cooperation, civic engagement, and gentrification.
playgrounds-for-useful-knowledge-neighborhood-convening
Ain Gordon and the Visiting Artist Program
In 2011, the award-winning writer, director, and actor became the Center's first visiting artist. His residency functioned as a creative exchange between a working artist and the Center's staff, constituents, and communities.
ain-gordon-and-the-visiting-artist-program
Black History Celebrated in New Documentary, Graphic Novel, and Other Grantee Works
In recognition of Black History Month, read about some of these imaginative projects and how you can experience them for yourself.
black-history-celebrated-in-new-documentary-graphic-novel-and-other-grantee-works
The Women's Mobile Museum with Zanele Muholi
South African photographer Zanele Muholi creates a mobile exhibition space and engages with 10 Philadelphia women in telling their own stories through self-portraits and portraits of women in the participants' lives.
the-women-039-s-mobile-museum-with-zanele-muholi
Winifred Lutz
Winifred Lutz is an installation artist and a 1992 Pew Fellow.
winifred-lutz
Fellows Friday News: Two Fellows Receive United States Artists Fellowships, Ryan Trecartin's W Magazine Cover, Caroline Lathan-Stiefel's Exhibition
W Magazine commissions visual artist Ryan Trecartin to create cover art for its 10th anniversary art issue, visual artist Caroline Lathan-Stiefel opens a new solo exhibition at the Leonard Pearlstein Gallery, and more.
fellows-friday-news-two-fellows-receive-united-states-artists-fellowships-ryan-trecartin-039-s-w-magazine-cover-caroline-lathan-stiefel-039-s-exhibition


text:
Home NEWS Twitter now lets everyone limit replies to their tweets
Twitter now lets everyone limit replies to their tweets
techcrunch August 11, 2020 comments off
Twitter may describe itself as the town square, but that doesn't mean you have to talk to everyone walking past your seat at the cafe. Today, to increase the amount of "meaningful conversations" that take place on Twitter, and to help people weed out abuse and spam in their replies, the company announced that it is rolling out a new feature where users can limit who replies to their Tweets.
After a brief run in beta, the feature is rolling out globally starting today to users of the iOS and Android apps, as well as twitter.com, Suzanne Xie noted in a blog post announcing the feature. TweetDeck is not yet supported, Twitter tells me.
A small globe icon will start to appear at the bottom of your tweet, and if you do nothing, everyone will still be able to reply — this is the default option. Or, you can tap it and limit replies just to those who follow you; or just to those who you tag in the tweet itself.
And, if you pick the third of these and tag no one, it's also a way to broadcast a tweet or a thread of tweets with no replies at all. (This all applies to "open" accounts; those that have locked who can view their tweets are limited by default; and it doesn't seem to replace the option to hide replies, which Twitter launched last year. We asked and Twitter declined to make any update or statement on the "hide replies" functionality.)
Those who can't reply will get a greyed-out icon, but they can still view, retweet, retweet with comment and "like" the tweets.
The basic idea behind limiting replies is more control. Specifically, setting parameters around those who can reply can help the original poster curtail abusive or trolling replies, or to limit replies to keep the conversation on track. Both can be especially critical in a number of use cases common on Twitter. Those tweeting about a sensitive issue or a political topic are classic scenarios that bring out trolls. And those trying to broadcast a conversation with a specific group (or indeed in a monologue) with the intention of making that conversation publicly viewable can now do it without interruption.
"Sometimes people are more comfortable talking about what's happening when they can choose who can reply," Xie wrote. "We've seen people use these settings to have conversations that weren't really possible before. Starting today, everyone will be able to use these settings so unwanted replies don't get in the way of meaningful conversations."
Xie said that beta test feedback has been positive. Those using the feature said they felt more comfortable and protected from spam and abuse, and the feature is getting used: It found that those who have submitted abuse reports and had access to the new limit reply tool were three times more likely to use the settings.
It seems that limiting replies is more of a complement to, not a replacement for, muting and blocking: 60% of those using the limit replies feature weren't already muting and blocking other users. Xie doesn't mention how it is used alongside another spam-controlling feature Twitter launched last year, hiding replies.
People who are limited from replying directly can still retweet with a comment, and thus still inject whatever they want to say. But Xie noted that "these settings prevented an average of three potentially abusive replies while only adding one potentially abusive retweet with comment," adding that there was no uptick in unwanted direct messages, either.
The feature getting announced today has been a while in the making, both from a product and even longer from an idealogical point of view.
The concept for limiting replies was first announced back at January at CES, when Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter's VP of Product said that the primary motivation [for the feature] was control. "We want to build on the theme of authors getting more control and we've thought … that there are many analogs of how people have communications in life," he said at the time.
The feature then formally started to roll out in a limited test in May, and the version that is getting turned on today looks just like that. (In fact, the screen shots are exactly the same, except with a more recent date on the tweets.)
But the bigger thinking behind the new feature stretches back earlier than this year.
Twitter has long (as in years now) been working on creating better ways to channel its open-ended social platform to keep it from getting exploited and abused.
The issue stems from the platform's basic DNA: Twitter was built around the idea of anyone being able to reply to anyone else, regardless of whether two users follow each other, or whether someone wants to hear a certain response. The issue, some argue, is that Twitter has dragged its feet because the open-ended aspect is actually in Twitter's best business interest, since it encourages more engagement and use. (For a recent example of that argument pertaining specifically to cancel culture conversations, see here.)
Admittedly, it can be one of the more empowering feelings you can have on this big internet of ours, to be able to reply to someone on Twitter when you have an opinion on something, or just a question. Never mind that the reply may never come, or come from an army of trolls. And indeed, that open-ended aspect hasn't always played out as a positive every time.
People, some of whom might be vulnerable or going through difficult situations, can be singled out for negative responses by other users, leading some of them to leave Twitter altogether, sometimes in very high-profile incidents. At a time when social media has become ever more influential and is being criticized by many asking whether it is fair enough, responsible enough and responsive enough in relation to the (incendiary and other) content that bounces around its playing fields, it has been a bad look for Twitter, and it's been trying for years now to fix it.
I'm guessing that some will decry the move to limit replies as a curtailing of free speech and free expression, that it might give a stronger voice to those who are actually using Twitter to disseminate abusive information themselves, by potentially limiting how people can respond.
There are a couple of counter arguments, though. One is that people can still see and retweet what someone says, one way of responding. A retweet with comment can still be pretty powerful: Sometimes these tweets can go viral and be seen even more than the original tweets themselves.
Xie noted that people will be able to see when replies have been limited, and that Twitter is working on ways of making that more obvious. That might well include pointing people to further information elsewhere. And the new timeline containing "Retweets with Comments" launched in May gets four times more visits on Tweets using these settings, Xie said.
There have, in fact, been a number of tweaks to reduce the amount of noise on the platform: Last year Twitter turned on the ability to hide replies, and over the years Twitter has improved the process for reporting harassment (including a number of updates and tests around harmful language), blocking people (although it seems this has some people contesting it) and muting people.
And it's worth pointing out that Twitter has been making a lot of efforts to better detect and help users report original tweets that are abusive, discriminatory, contain fake news and the rest.
That might be the most important point here. This is a net positive for the platform, but still just one step in a long journey to work on improving the climate on Twitter overall.
Social TC Twitter
About the Author: techcrunch
TechCrunch an American online publisher focusing on the tech industry. The company specifically reports on the business related to tech, technology news, analysis of emerging trends in tech, and profiling of new tech businesses and products.


Exploiting low-rank structure of the user-item rating matrix has been the crux of many recommendation engines. However, existing recommendation engines force raters with heterogeneous behavior profiles to map their intrinsic rating scales to a common rating scale (e.g. 1-5). This non-linear transformation of the rating scale shatters the low-rank structure of the rating matrix, therefore resulting in a poor fit and consequentially, poor recommendations. In this paper, we propose Clustered Monotone Transforms for Rating Factorization (CMTRF), a novel approach to perform regression up to unknown monotonic transforms over unknown population segments. Essentially, for recommendation systems, the technique searches for monotonic transformations of the rating scales resulting in a better fit. This is combined with an underlying matrix factorization regression model that couples the user-wise ratings to exploit shared low dimensional structure. The rating scale transformations can be generated for each user, for a cluster of users, or for all the users at once, forming the basis of three simple and efficient algorithms proposed in this work, all of which alternate between transformation of the rating scales and matrix factorization regression. Despite the non-convexity, CMTRF is theoretically shown to recover a unique solution under mild conditions. Experimental results on 2 synthetic and 7 real-world datasets show that CMTRF outperforms other state-of-the-art baselines.
The paper has been accepted at WSDM 2019 (84/511 submissions ≈ 16% Acceptance Rate).


GSR technology could give an advantage to 'tyrannical' teachers, Ravitch says.
A student's physical reaction to a classroom lesson soon could be used to judge how successful—or unsuccessful—an educator is in keeping students engaged.
Researchers and Clemson University received a nearly $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November to study Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) bracelets, which house sensors that measure a student's physical reaction to learning—such as increased sweating—and uses the data as a way to grade an educator's performance.
Wireless sensors produce readouts showing whether students are alert, anxious, bored, or excited in the classroom, and as Clemson researchers determine the reliability of this experimental technological gauge, many in education are skeptical of the GSR bracelets as a mainstream classroom tool.
The Clemson research will "determine the feasibility and utility of using such devices regularly in schools with students and teachers," according to a Gates Foundation announcement.
The foundation in 2011 also awarded more than $620,000 to the National Center on Time and Learning for evaluation into how GSR bracelets can measure and develop student engagement.
The student reactions recorded on the bracelets' sensors could be added to a host of more traditional teacher evaluation methods such as test grades, administrator observations, and student surveys, wrote Diane Ravitch, a research professor at New York University and former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education.
Education officials and privacy rights groups said any technology designed to measure and record students' emotional and physical reactions would meet stiff opposition from parents and others wary of intrusiveness school technology.


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This post will give the needed understanding to find a roof leak It will likewise tell you the very best way to get your roof fixed. Portions of the roof susceptible to leakage are the joints between the roof and the roof installed structures, such as the chimney. The joint between the roof and a vertical wall; and the joint in between two slopping sections – valleys.
While roof leaks are common in many homes, the standard areas are the skylights, ice dams, wall step flashings, missing shingles, pipes vent flashing, chimneys, fields of shingles, and heater or B-vent flashings. As common areas, many homeowners struggle to find the exact place when it concerns roof repairs.
Leakages can take place anywhere on the roof and for any variety of factors. Serious weather which brings rain, snow, wind and hail are hard on the roofing systems. Some roofing systems leakage because they appear worn out.
In the attic, begin above the ceiling leak and follow the water spots on the deck to the possible source. Look for a ray of sunlight to indicate a nail hole.
Have a good friend hose down the roof while you enjoy the leakage from the within the attic.
When you try to find leak on asphalt shingles, start by searching for worn shingles with dark patches in them. This suggests loss of surface area granules. Look likewise for curled and harmed shingles.
For those in Centreville, on a roof with a valley, clear out all particles collected in the valley. Look for broken or missing flashing material.
A recognizable stain is the mold or wetness around the vents, chimneys, and skylights. These are the intersections in which water connects. After finding the dripping places, it is very important to move perishable items such as electronics, furniture, and other house devices in addition to capturing the leakage in a pail. We have seen the films in which containers lie each foot in the home; do not let this happen to your roof. Determining the stains and locations are the primary steps to saving your home from harmed goods by basic leaks. Your roofing contractor will describe the necessary requirements to guarantee your belongings are safe while examining the condition of the ceiling before repair.
Taking preventive procedures will save you loan in pricey roofing repairs. Consider checking and fixing easy issues if your roofing contractor notices leak from your shingles, cracks in your chimney, or broken down flashings. Fix roof leakages right now. It is not advised that you do the roof repair yourself due to its complexity and the required understanding of its repairs – besides, it is dangerous. Call a qualified and insured roofing contractor who will provide the very best insight of looking after your roof along with discuss the procedures that are used to remove leaks and secure your financial investment.
If you are not afraid of heights and are handy with tools, you can do some momentary roof repairs. A bit of tar, couple of roofing nails, and some flashing can eliminate little bothersome leakages. Some cases such as the one discussed below is a basic, easy-to-do repair you can finish to remove persistent leaks.
Take a little crowbar to remove the shingle in question then layer a thick tip of tar across the area. Nail the shingle pull back then cover the entire shingle in tar. If you can not use the same nail holes, place tar within and on top of the holes to avoid leakage through the deck. Before you are done, location another thin layer of tar on the underside of the shingles simply for safe-keeping. You should see a modification in the area and the leak need to end after the tar is applied effectively.
Roofing repairs can be an expensive investment for any house owner. You can restrict the damage to your house by doing something about it early. If you feel that your house needs an assessment from a roofing expert, put in the time to consult somebody who comprehends the ordeals. A simple telephone call to your regional roofing contractors can land you in the right position to identify future problems. House improvements including changed shingles, flashings, and decks can complicate the process. If you are not a roofing professional, do not attempt to try complicated tasks on your own. Be safe. Let a professional have a look, supply an estimate, and do the job right with quality products. Consider this financial investment a long-term agreement for a happy home.


'Service,' part of the PBS veterans initiative Stories of Service, is the story of craft and the military. From the origins of the Army Arts & Crafts Program and the G.I. Bill to contemporary soldiers and veterans, 'Service' documents the power of the handmade to inspire, motivate and heal. Featured artists are Eugene Burks, Jr., Pam DeLuco, Judas Recendez, Ehren Tool and Peter Voulkos.


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Stoves, Ovens & Ranges
Stonework & Brickwork
Electricity & Wiring
Flooring & Carpeting
Yard Design & Layout
Sheds & Outdoor Structures
Ponds & Fountains
Hacks & DIY
Organizing & Decluttering
Safety & Disaster Prep
Beneficial Organisms
Composting & Vermiculture
Hydroponics & Aquaponics
Jason Mackenzie
Jason Mackenzie is the proprietor of Perth Home Cleaners, a reputed and reliable firm that specializes in cleaning carpets and rugs. His proficiency as a service provider is evident from the variety of cleaning methods employed by his firm and their proper application. Prior to starting the business, he realized how important cleaning was and has since loved to contribute in restoring a premise back to its former glory. He takes pride in managing a team of trained staff that not just takes care of customers' requirements but is able to customize as per the need of the hour.
It was his love for cleanliness that prompted Jason to establish this company in 2000 and Perth seemed to be a natural choice owing to its susceptibility to hot dry summers and high humidity for most part of the year. Jason draws his inspiration to clean from the immaculate look that the premise acquires after having been worked at and this has been his driving force ever since the day he started.
Lesser-Known Aspects of Tile and Grout: Spacing, Cleaning and More
By Jason Mackenzie


Preheat oven to 220ºC (425ºF). Place the pumpkin, onion and garlic on a large lightly greased baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, pour over the agave syrup and oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to combine. Roast for 25–30 minutes or until the pumpkin is tender and golden.
Squeeze the garlic from its skin and place in a medium saucepan with the pumpkin, onion, stock and nutmeg. Bring to the boil over medium heat, remove from the heat and blend until smooth. Drizzle with the cream and extra agave syrup, sprinkle with the extra nutmeg and top with the feta to serve. Serves 4–6.


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Trainee Recruitment Consultant - London
Employer: Michael Rothstein Ltd
Reference: Roth
Salary: ú17k basic, ú30k OTE 1st year
Company Background Michael Rothstein Ltd. There are two agencies in the UK û and perhaps the world û who lead the way in a specific area of the IT market. We are one of them. 2005 is proving to be a highly important year in our development and we now require two more ambitious trainees who are looking for an opportunity to be fast tracked in their early career development. Michael Rothstein Ltd values its staff and understands the importance of their professional and personal development - believing training to be the foundation of our future. Training & Development We have an intensive induction program followed by one-to-one on the job tutoring that will give you to a very quick understanding of the industry. You will be driven hard by a successful team. We will leave no stone unturned. You will get the ammunition to achieve a career in recruitment and you will experience success. You will be hungry for more. As one of two successful candidates you will become an integral part of the company's development and play a leading role in its future success. You will be joining a company that is redefining itself to be the undisputed world leader in its field. The Role No two days are the same. As well as dealing with candidates, clients, negotiations, legal issues, tax, employment law you will also be expected to contribute to the overall direction and shape of the company as it moves into an exciting future. What we look for We are ultimately looking for individuals who will not only be successful in sales but also competent in business. You will ideally be educated to æAÆ-level standard but drive, determination and a sound personality with strong common sense are the attributes that will succeed in this industry. If you are convinced that you have what it takes to succeed then contact us and tell us why.
Location: London (inner and outer)
Michael Rothstein Ltd