text:
Childcare outside of school hours is becoming increasingly important for parents. Whether it's early starts or holiday care, we can help.
Breakfast – Children can have breakfast with us and play before being taken to their classrooms to start the day. This runs from 8am to school time.
After School – Our after school sessions run from when school finishes until 6pm. Children are collected from their classroom door and brought to us. They'll have a snack and tea as well as age appropriate play. There's always a family feel to the end of the day and children support each other through play and learning across a wider age range.
Holidays – In the holidays we can look after children aged 5 to 11. From forest school and creative play to science and drama, we provide them with a range of activities to keep them flourishing while their parents work.


text:
Today we have the wonderful Coleen Kwan with us to tell us about her new release When Harriet Came Home from Carina Press. Join us in welcoming her to the MFRW Authors' Blog. Welcome, Coleen!
Tell us about your latest book, including its genre. Does it cross over to other genres? If so, what are they? (Please include the cover so we can post it as well.)
My debut novel, WHEN HARRIET CAME HOME, is a contemporary romance set in Australia. It's a fun, sweet story about an 'ugly duckling' heroine who reluctantly returns to her hometown only to meet her old teenage crush. Here's the blurb:
After ten years of exile, Harriet Brown is back in town. Things have definitely changed, but so has she. Now the confident owner of a catering business, she's no longer the shy, overweight girl everyone—including her hot teenage crush—used to ignore. In fact, she's determined to make peace with Adam Blackstone for her part in exposing his father's secret affairs and corrupt behavior as mayor.
But Adam has changed as well. No longer a pampered, rich pinup boy, he just wants to reestablish his family's good name. He reluctantly agrees to a truce with Harriet, and is surprised by how changed she is. He doesn't want to be drawn to her, but he can't seem to resist her allure.
As Harriet struggles to come to terms with her past, her adolescent infatuation with Adam morphs into something more serious… Will she ever be accepted again? Or will ancient history ruin the chance of a future full of possibilities?
The book is available from Carina Press, Amazon, and other ebookstores.
What can we expect from you in the future?
I've recently sold my first steampunk romance to Carina Press! It comes out next year, but I don't have a publication date yet.
Do you have a favorite comment or question from a reader?
I was lucky enough to receive a great first review from Naughty Cougar Tales. "I could not put this book down, I read until the early hours of the morning, until my eyes refused to stay open. As soon as I woke up the next morning, I did housework then got right back into the book until I finished it. The emotions, secondary cast and most of all Harriett and Adam kept me enthralled until the end."
Do you feel humor is important in fiction and why?
I love a bit of humor in my characters, but humor is very tricky to write as it's so subjective. I'm not very good at writing humor. A judge once wrote on my score sheet, "Your heroine, Tamsyn, reminds me a lot of Stephanie Plum… without the humor." Ouch!
Please tell us about yourself (family, hobbies, education, etc.)
I live in Sydney, Australia with my partner and two children. I graduated from university with a science degree and for many years I worked in IT. About three years ago I quit my job and started writing. I've had a lot of setbacks and rejections, but writing is such fun I couldn't stop. I made my first sale to Carina Press in February of this year, and it's been a steep learning curve from then on, not just in terms of editing, but all the associated marketing and promoting. My favorite hobby is reading! Now that I write, I find I have much less time for reading, which is a great pity.
Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
Are you a member of any author groups - RWA, critique groups, etc.?
I belong to Romance Writers of Australia. They're a great organization. As an unpublished writer, I entered many of their competitions and learned so much from the judges' score sheets. Through them I've also joined online critique groups, face-to-face groups, and attended online conferences.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
I hope I'll still be writing! I'd love to be multi-published, perhaps in several genres, but most importantly I hope I will still enjoy creating stories and characters.
How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?
How long have you been writing - have you always wanted to be a writer?
I dabbled a bit in my early twenties, but starting getting serious about three years ago. Although I've always been an avid reader, I haven't always wanted to be a writer. It's just evolved over the years.
What do you hope readers take with them after reading your work?
I hope readers will be transported away from their everyday lives, at least for a small time. I hope they will become emotionally invested in my characters, even if they hate them or want to strangle them, that's good! The last thing I want is for my readers to be bored.
Where can your readers find you?
Website: http://www.coleenkwan.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ColeenKwan
Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/coleenkwanauthor
Where's your favorite place to hang out online?
My website http://www.coleenkwan.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
This week's recipe is a great snack any time of the day, but it's an even better breakfast on the go! Whole grain granola is easy to make and is good for you. After you've made the granola, store it in a sealed container in the fridge and just scoop some out (like into a sandwich bag; please don't just dump it in your pockets, or you'll be dealing with crumbs until you're 50) for a snack on your way to class. You can add it to plain greek yogurt to sweeten it up a little too!
The basic ingredients:
5 cup(s) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 cup oil (canola or olive)
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
Pick at least three ingredients from this list to spice up your recipe.
1 cup unsweetened coconut chips or flakes
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/3 cup unsalted pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350o. Combine oats, brown sugar, and any other nuts, seeds, or dried fruit in a bowl. Then combine syrup, water and oil in a medium bowl or large measuring cup and pour over the oat mixture; stir until well-combined. Spread the mixture into a large (12-by-15-inch) roasting pan or large rimmed baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
Although this does take a little time to create it is much better for you than store bought granola! To save some money when choosing ingredients, get the generic or store brand varieties of nuts and dried fruit.
This recipe was adapted from "Maple-nut Granola" at http://www.delish.com/recipefinder/maple-nut-granola-recipe-6719 and "Recipe of the day: Crunchy Granola" at http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/recipe-of-the-day-crunchy-granola/.


text:
- What object limits are supported?
- Can my app make calls to versions older than the current version?
- Will new features only be added to the latest API version?
- How often will new features be added?
- Will new features include UI changes?
- New changes to Bulk?
- Will they have their versions?
- Can I pick and choose endpoints? For example, adgroup v1 and campaign v2?
- What version does sandbox run?
- Are there two sandbox versions now?
What object limits are supported?¶
The following table provides details on the object limits supported in the Native Ad Platform API:
|Campaigns per advertiser account
|Ad groups per campaign
|Keywords per advertiser account
|Keywords per ad group
|Ads per ad group
|Negative keywords per advertiser account
|Location targeting objects per advertiser account
|Maximum number of objects passed in API call
|Shared Sets per account
|Negative Keywords per Shared Set
|Shared Sitelinks per account
The total number of campaigns per account for advertisers is 10,000. Once you reach that limit and go beyond it, an error message is returned. There are no restrictions on the number of campaigns you can create daily.
Can my app make calls to versions older than the current version?¶
Yes. If you're in v2, before the End of Life date, you can call the v1 API.
Will new features only be added to the latest API version?¶
Yes. No new features will be added to the v1 API.
How often will new features be added?¶
Typically, on a quarterly basis, if not sooner.
Will new features include UI changes?¶
Yes, if new object types are added or more restrictions implemented.
New changes to Bulk?¶
Yes, calling the v2 bulk APIs will use the v2 bulk schema (i.e., new features, like shared library and shared sitelink and changes in the bidding strategy enforcement for InstallApp, and so on). If you call the v1 bulk APIs, they will use the deprecated v1 bulk schema.
Will they have their versions?¶
No. Bulk will follow the API version.
Can I pick and choose endpoints? For example, adgroup v1 and campaign v2?¶
No. It's not recommended. However, the old version of the API will still be available for one year.
What version does sandbox run?¶
The latest version.
Are there two sandbox versions now?¶
Yes, although it's recommended that you call the v2 version.


text:
NCLT Seminar Series 2009/2010The NCLT seminar series usually takes place on Wednesdays from 4-5 pm in Room L2.21 (School of Computing).
The schedule of presenters will be added below as they are confirmed. Please contact Mohammed Attia if you have any queries about the NCLT 2009/2010 Seminar Series.
Mitigating Problems in Analogy-based EBMT with SMT and vice versa: a Case Study with Named Entity Transliteration of relevance to MTSandipan Dandapat
Some years ago, a number of papers reported an experimental implementation of an Example Based Machine Translation (EBMT) system using Proportional Analogy. This approach, a type of analogical learning, was attractive because of its simplicity; and the paper reported considerable success with the method. In this paper, we describe our attempt to use this approach for tackling English–Hindi Named Entity (NE) Transliteration and English - Chinese Translation, as a case study relevant to MT and especially since many statistical MT systems have difficulty handling unknown NEs. We have implemented an EBMT system using proportional analogy. We have found that the analogy-based system on its own has low precision but a high recall due to the fact that a large number of names are untransliterated with the approach. However, mitigating problems in analogy-based EBMT with SMT and vice-versa have shown considerable improvement over the individual approach.
Translation Quality-Oriented Parameter Estimation for DOT and PB-SMSergio Penkale, CNGL, DCU
The current state-of-the-art approach to Machine Translation scores translations using probabilities not necessarily related to the expected quality of its output translations. In addition, it has limitations which could be alleviated by the use of syntax-based models such as the Data-Oriented Translation (DOT) model. However, until recently, DOT has suffered from lack of training resources, and as a consequence it is currently immature and underperforms when compared to a Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT) system. In this work we introduce a training mechanism which takes translation quality into account and which improves the translation quality of Machine Translation systems in general, and of PB-SMT and DOT in particular. We also propose to bridge the gap between our syntax-based DOT model and state-of-the-art PB-SMT systems by reformulating DOT as a conditional model, which will allow additional features such as language model probabilities to be incorporated into the scoring model.
Source-Side Contextual Modelling in state-of-the-art Statistical Models of Machine TranslationRejwanul Haque, CNGL, DCU
The Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT) model has recently begun to include source context modeling, under the assumption that the proper lexical choice of the translation for an ambiguous word can be determined from the context in which it appears. Various types of lexical and syntactic features have been explored as effective source context in PB-SMT. In this work, we introduce lexical syntactic descriptions in the form of supertags as source-side context features. We also show that position-independent syntactic dependency relations can be modeled as useful source context to improve lexical selection. These features enable us to exploit source-similarity in addition to target-similarity, as modelled by the language model. A series of experiments have been carried out by employing source-context features in the state-of-the-art PB-SMT model on different language pairs with varying training data sizes. However, automatic evaluation has revealed that improvements are not linear with respect to training data sizes.
Investigating Parser Performance on Discussion Forum PostsJennifer Foster, NCLT, DCU
Parsing techniques have recently become efficient enough for parsers to be used as part of a pipeline in a variety of tasks. Another recent development is the rise of user-generated content in the form of blogs, wikis and discussion forums. Thus, it is both interesting and necessary to investigate the performance of NLP tools trained on edited text when applied to unedited Web 2.0 text. McClosky et al. (2006) report a Parseval f-score decrease of 5% when a WSJ-trained parser is applied to Brown corpus sentences. In this talk I describe what happens when we move even further from the WSJ by investigating the performance of the Berkeley parser (Petrov et al., 2006) on user-generated content. Gold standard phrase structure trees for the posts on two threads of the BBC Sport 606 Football discussion forum forum are created. The sentences in one thread, the development set, are then parsed with the Berkeley parser under three conditions: 1) when it performs its own tokenisation, 2) when it is provided with gold tokens and 3) when misspellings in the input have been corrected. A qualitative evaluation is then carried out on parser output under the third condition. Based on this evaluation, some "low-hanging fruit" are identified and an attempt it is made to handle these either by transforming the input sentence or by transforming the WSJ training material. The success of these transformations is evaluated on the development and test sets, with encouraging results.
Handling Unknown Words in Statistical Latent-Variable Parsing Models for Arabic, English and FrenchLamia Tounsi, NCLT, DCU
In this talk we explore the problem of rare and unknown words in parsing for three languages that exhibit different levels of morphological expressiveness: Arabic, French and English. We first compare the extent of the unknown word problem across our three datasets. We present parsing results for our three languages when unknown words are handled by a very simple technique in which rare words in the training data are mapped to one UNKNOWN token and no morphological information is exploited. We then compare this to a more language-aware approach in which morphological clues or signatures are used to assign POS tags to unknown and rare words. For English and French, we use existing signature lists but for Arabic we define our own, We integrate information about Arabic affixes and morphotactics into our PCFG-LA parser and obtain state-of-the-art accuracy. Finally, we show how these morphological clues can be learnt automatically from a POS-tagged corpus.
Introduction to Information Retrieval of Spoken DocumentsMaria Eskevich, CNGL, DCU
This talk will give an introduction to the principles, methods and problems of the information retrieval of spoken documents and generally the interaction between IR and Speech Recognition systems.
The Impact of Source-Side Syntactic Reordering on Hierarchical Phrase-based SMTJinhua Du, CNGL, DCU
Syntactic reordering has been demonstrated to be helpful and effective for handling different word orders between source and target languages in SMT. However, in terms of hierarchial PB-SMT (HPB), does the syntactic reordering still has a significant impact on its performance? This paper introduces a reordering approach which explores the DE grammatical structure in Chinese. We employ the Stanford DE classifier to recognise the DE structures in both training and test sentences of Chinese, and then perform word reordering to make the Chinese sentences better match the word order of English. The annotated and reordered training data and test data are applied to a re-implemented HPB system and the impact of the DE construction is examined. The experiments are conducted on the NIST 2008 evaluation data and experimental results show that the BLEU and METEOR scores are significantly improved by 1.83/8.91 and 1.17/2.73 absolute/ relative points respectively.
Challenges of Arabic-English Statistical Machine TranslationHala Maghout, CNGL, DCU
English and Arabic have different syntax and morphology which poses many challenges for statistical machine translation (SMT) between Arabic and English. In this talk, we will try to address one of those challenges which is the morphological richness of Arabic in comparison with English. Arabic rich morphology increases the number of different word forms in the Arabic corpus and this causes data sparsity problem for SMT systems. In this talk, I will present an approach to alleviate data sparsity problem by the separation some of Arabic prefixes (proclitics) from Arabic words for Arabic to English and English to Arabic Phrase-Based and Hierarchical Phrase-Based SMT. Then I will present the experimental results of this approach and discuss its effect on translation quality.
Automatic acquisition of didactic resources: generating test-based questionsMontse Maritxalar
With the aim of facilitating the automatic acquisition of didactic resources NLP techniques can be used. The detection of learning material in pedagogical books and the generation of new didactic material is a matter of research in NLP and ICALL areas. Specifically, the automatic generation of questions about domain contents or language learning are acquiring special importance in the last years. In this seminar I will give some general ideas about the automatic generation of Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ) and I will focus on the challenge of generating incorrect options in a MCQ, i.e. distractors. I will also present some results of an evaluation carried out with learners to measure the quality of the automatically generated distractors.
Kevin Knight's "Bayesian Inference with Tears"Yanjun Ma, CNGL, DCU.
In 1999, Kevin Knight wrote a tutorial "A Statistical MT Tutorial Workbook". Ten years later (last year), he wrote another one, i.e. "Bayesian Inference with Tears", where he explained fundamental terminology and core techniques involved in Bayesian inference using real-world applications with minimal mathematical derivations. In this talk, the speaker will give a brief introduction of this tutorial and share his reflection on this type of methods.
Learning and Parsing with PCFG-LAsJoseph Le Roux, CNGL, DCU.
Probabilistic Context Free Grammars with Latent Annotations (PCFG-LAs) are an extension of PCFGs where grammar symbols are augmented with annotations that describe specific ditributional properties. This formalism is used in state-of-the-art phrase structure parsers like the Berkeley Parser and the LORG Parser developed at DCU. In this talk, I will present the inference methods and the specific parsing algorithms used with PCFG-LAs. Then, I will introduce the issues raised by unknown words in phrase structure grammars and how they are dealt with in the LORG Parser.
Lattice Score Based Data Cleaning For Phrase-Based Statistical Machine TranslationJie Jiang, CNGL, DCU.
Statistical machine translation relies heavily on parallel corpora to train its models for translation tasks. While more and more bilingual corpora are readily available, the quality of the sentence pairs should be taken into consideration. Some work has already been done on the decoding-based data cleaning, which implies decoding procedure to be performed on each sentence pair in training corpus. However, it is not efficient enough for large corpora. By taking account into the word alignments extracted in the training phase, we present a novel lattice score-based data cleaning method. We use word alignments to create anchor pairs and source-side lattices, and then we expand target-side phrase networks to search for approximated decoding results, which are finally fed into BLEU score threshold-filter for the data cleaning purpose. In this seminar, we will give details of this method on data-cleaning, and also propose some other potential usages of this method for discussion.
Automatic Matching of Atomic Grammatical Features in LFG Using a Parallel CorpusAnton Bryl, NCLT, DCU.
A Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG) f-structure is a labelled directed acyclic graph (DAG) providing an abstract dependency representation for a sentence. F-structures contain grammatical functions (labelled bilexical dependencies corresponding to the arc of the DAG, such as OBJ or SUBJ), and grammatical features (atom-valued attributes) which describe properties (sub-parts) of the f-structure such as tense, number, or adjunct type. Automatic identification of correspondences between the grammatical features used in LFG grammars for different languages is of some practical interest both for machine translation and grammar design. We present a method for automatically recognising correspondences between atomic features of LFG grammars for different languages.
Lexical Resource Acquisition for Constructing an LMF-Compatible Lexicon of Modern Standard ArabicMohammed Attia, NCLT, DCU.
We describe the design and implementation of large-scale data processing techniques for the automatic acquisition of lexical resources for Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) from annotated and un-annotated corpora and demonstrate their usefulness for creating a wide-coverage, general-domain lexicon. Modern lexicographic principles (Atkins and Rundell, 2008) emphasise that the corpus is the only viable evidence that a lexical entry still exists in a speech community. Unlike most available Arabic lexicons which are based on previous historical (and dated) dictionaries, our lexicon starts off with corpora of contemporary texts. The lexicon is encoded in Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) which is a metamodel that provides a standardized framework for the construction of electronic lexical resources. The aim of Automatic Lexical Resource Acquisition is Constructing a Lexicon of Modern Standard Arabic that is Compatible with the LMF specifications.
Deep Syntactic Transfer-Based SMTYvette Graham, NCLT, DCU.
Transfer-Based SMT is composed of three parts, (i) parsing to deep syntactic structure, (ii) transfer from source language (SL) deep structure to target language (TL) deep structure and (iii) generation of TL sentence. In this talk, I describe a Transfer-Based SMT system that's trained on parsed bilingual corpora. For training, similar to Phrase-Based SMT we extract phrasal correspondences by firstly establishing a word alignment between pairs of sentences before extracting all phrases consistent with this alignment. In our case, the word alignment is carried out between nodes in dependency structures and phrases are in the form of pairs of dependency snippets with variables allowed at leaf level. The system includes a statistical beam-search decoder that uses a log-linear model to combine feature scores for ranking hypothesis TL structures. In the talk, I will describe experiment results for the system trained on Europarl and Newswire text and give some example translations.
Dependency Relations as Source Context in Phrase-Based SMTRejwanul Haque, CNGL, DCU.
The Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translation (PB-SMT) model has recently begun to include source context modeling, under the assumption that the proper lexical choice of an ambiguous word can be determined from the context in which it appears. Various types of lexical and syntactic features such as words, parts-of-speech, and supertags have been explored as effective source context in SMT. In this paper, we show that position-independent syntactic dependency relations of the head of a source phrase can be modeled as useful source context to improve target phrase selection and thereby improve overall performance of PB-SMT. On a Dutch\u2014English translation task, by combining dependency relations and syntactic contextual features (part-of-speech), we achieved a 1.0 BLEU (Papineni et al., 2002) point improvement (3.1% relative) over the baseline.
Capturing lexical variation in MT evaluation using automatically built sense-cluster inventoriesYifan He, CNGL, DCU.
The strict character of most of the existing Machine Translation (MT) evaluation metrics does not permit them to capture lexical variation in translation. However, a central issue in MT evaluation is the high correlation that the metrics should have with human judgments of translation quality. In order to achieve a higher correlation, the identification of sense correspondences between the compared translations becomes really important. Given that most metrics are looking for exact correspondences, the evaluation results are often misleading concerning translation quality. Apart from that, existing metrics do not permit one tomake a conclusive estimation of the impact of Word Sense Disambiguation techniques into MT systems. In this paper, we show how information acquired by an unsupervised semantic analysis method can be used to render MT evaluation more sensitive to lexical semantics. The sense inventories built by this data-driven method are incorporated into METEOR: they replace WordNet for evaluation in English and render METEOR\u2019s synonymy module operable in French. The evaluation results demonstrate that the use of these inventories gives rise to an increase in the number of matches and the correlation with human judgments of translation quality, compared to precision-based metrics.
A Three-pass System Combination Framework by Combining Multiple Hypothesis Alignment MethodsJinhua Du, CNGL, DCU.
So far, many effective hypothesis alignment metrics have been proposed and applied to the system combination, such as TER, HMM, ITER and IHMM. In addition, the Minimum Bayes-risk (MBR) decoding and the confusion network (CN) have become the state-of-the-art techniques in system combination. In my presentation, I will talk about a three-pass system combination strategy that can combine hypothesis alignment results derived from different alignment metrics to generate a better translation. Firstly the different alignment metrics are carried out to align the backbone and hypotheses, and the individual CN is built corresponding to each alignment results; then we construct a super network by merging the multiple metricbased CN and generate a consensus output. Finally a modified consensus network MBR (ConMBR) approach is employed to search a best translation. Our proposed strategy outperforms the best single CN as well as the best single system in our experiments on NIST Chinese-to-English test set.
Semantic analysis for NLP-based applicationsJohannes Leveling, CNGL, DCU.
The presentation introduces MultiNet, a paradigm for meaning representation based on semantic networks, its tools and resources (e.g. syntacto-semantic parser computational lexicon). Four applications based on MultiNet are discussed: the NLI-Z39.50, a natural language interface for information providers on the internet targetting bibliographic databases; IRSAW, an open-domain question answering system integrating multiple streams of candidate answers produced by methods ranging from deep semantic analysis to pattern matching; DeLite, a readability checking tool for web pages, which computes a global readability score and identifies text passages which are difficult to read; and GIRSA-WP, a geographic information retrieval system for Wikipedia articles, combining approaches from question answering and information retrieval. All of these applications illustrate that complex natural language processing benefits from semantic processing.
Low-Resource Machine Translation Using MaTrEx: The DCU Machine Translation System for IWSLT 2009 Tsuyoshi Okita, CNGL, DCU.
We give a description of our MT system for IWSLT 2009. Two techniques are deployed in order to improve the translation quality in a low-resource scenario. The first technique is to use multiple segmentations in MT training and to utilise word lattices in decoding stage. The second technique is used to select the optimal training data that can be used to build MT systems. In this year's participation, we use three different prototype SMT systems, and the output from each system are combined using standard system combination method. Our system is the top system for Chinese-English CHALLENGE task in terms of Bleu score.
Extending the DCU-250 Arabic Dependency bank Gold Standard Hanna Bechara, NCLT, DCU
DCU has developed and used an Arabic LFG gold standard based (El-Raheb et al., 2006) on the Penn Arabic Treebank (Maamouri and Bies, 2004) for evaluation. This resource consists of 250 annotated sentences. In order to cover a larger set of grammatical phenomena and provide a more comprehensive reference, we decided to extend the existing dependency bank from 250 to 500 sentences. The process consists of 3 steps as follows: i) the random selection of 250 new sentences from the Penn Arabic Treebank, ii) the application of the Arabic Annotation Algorithm to automatically annotate the new 250 trees with abstract LFG functional information (Tounsi et al., 2009) and iii) the combination of old and new sets for a full evaluation. A number of inconsistencies have been identified and handled both automatically and manually. This investigation involves determining the case for nouns for ambiguous morphological instances, dealing with improperly marked traces, and extending the annotation scheme to cover specific cases for appositions, adjectives types and adverbs. We conducted a qualitative evaluation of the annotation, measuring inter-annotator agreement (S, Pi and Kappa) for 50 sentences and achieved a score of 0.98.
Template based EBMT Sudip Naskar, CNGL-DCU
Example-based machine translation (EBMT) is essentially translation by analogy. It takes a stance somewhere between RBMT and SMT. EBMT systems differ widely in the way they store the examples. In this talk I will give an overview of EBMT and the core tasks involved: matching, alignment and recombination. I will briefly discuss about different approaches to EBMT: run-time approach to EBMT, template-based EBMT, and tree-based EBMT. Then I will talk about generalized templates and Template based EBMT in detail.
Web 2.0, Language Resources and standards to automatically build a multilingual Named Entity LexiconAntonio Toral, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale - CNR (Pisa, Italy) and Universitat d'Alacant (Spain)
In this talk I will tackle the knowledge acquisition bottleneck problem in the field of Computational Linguistics. This issue will be introduced and studied from a general point of view, with the aim of identifying key elements that could lead us a step forward. In this respect, I will argue in favour of highlighting Language Resources (LRs), Web 2.0 sources and representation standards. Subsequently, I will move to the specific by applying these guidelines to a case of study: the acquisition of Named Entities (NEs). I will present an automatic procedure to build a multilingual lexicon of NEs and to connect it to other LRs and ontologies. The different phases of this methodology and the techniques involved (e.g. text similarity) will be evaluated and, furthermore, I'll show the utility of the knowledge gathered by applying it to a real-world Question Answering scenario.
Transfer-Based SMT is composed of three parts, i) parsing to deep linguistic structure, ii) transfer from source language (SL) linguistic structure to target language (TL) linguistic structure and iii) generation of TL sentence. Each of the three steps uses a statistical model to select the best or n-best output. In this talk, I describe a Transfer-Based SMT system that uses the LFG Fstructure as the intermediate representation for transfer and is trained fully automatically on LFG-parsed bilingual corpora. For training, similar to Phrase-Based SMT we extract phrasal correspondences by firstly establishing a word alignment between pairs of sentences before extracting all phrases consistent with this alignment. In our case, the word alignment is between nodes in dependency structures as opposed to surface form sentences. In addition, the structure of phrases extracted are pairs of dependency snippets with variables allowed at leaf level to map missing arguments to the correct position in the TL. The system includes a statistical beam-search decoder that uses a log-linear model to combine feature scores for ranking hypothesis TL structures. In the talk, I will present preliminary experiment results for the system trained on Europarl and Newswire text for a restricted sentence length 5-15 words and tested on held-out data.
DCU employs systems that can automatically annotate Penn-II style trees and generate deep syntactic analyses based on Lexical Functional Grammar. This talk starts with a very brief overview of the existing automatic annotation algorithms developed at DCU. The remaining of the talk focuses on the English Annotation Algorithm, in particular, enriching and restructuring its output so that the resulting syntactic analyses also contain deep semantic representations.
Lexical Association Measures and Collocation ExtractionPavel Pecina, Charles University, Prague.
We present an extensive empirical evaluation of collocation extraction methods based on lexical association measures and their combination. The experiments are performed on a set of collocation candidates extracted from the Prague Dependency Treebank with manual morphosyntactic annotation. The collocation candidates were manually labeled as collocational or non-collocational. The evaluation is based on measuring the quality of ranking the candidates according to their chance to form collocations. Performance of the methods is compared by precision-recall curves and mean average precision scores. Further, we study the possibility of combining lexical association measures and present empirical results of several combination methods that significantly improved the state-of-the art in this task. We also propose a model reduction algorithm significantly reducing the number of combined measures without a statistically significant difference in performance.
The Ups and Downs of Preposition Error DetectionJoel Tetreault, Educational Testing Service, Princeton
The long-term goal of our work is to develop a system which detects errors in grammar and usage so that appropriate feedback can be given to non-native English writers, a large and growing segment of the world's population. Estimates are that in China alone as many as 300 million people are currently studying English as a second language (ESL). In particular, usage errors involving prepositions are among the most common types seen in the writing of non-native English speakers. For example, Izumi et al., (2003) reported error rates for English prepositions that were as high as 10% in a Japanese learner corpus. Since prepositions are such a nettlesome problem ESL writers, developing an NLP application that can reliably detect these types of errors will provide an invaluable learning resource to ESL students. To address this problem, we use a maximum entropy classifier combined with rule-based filters to detect preposition errors in a corpus of student essays with a precision of 84%. In this talk, I will discuss the system as well as issues in developing and evaluating NLP grammatical error detection applications.
|Last update: 1st October 2010


text:
The Embedded Face Client component is a combination of the Embedded Face Extractor and Embedded Face BSS components. It is intended for the systems that need to support all functionality of the mentioned components on the same device. Using this licenses allows integrators to optimize component license costs as well as reduce license management.
One license for the Embedded Face Client component are included with VeriLook Embedded 1.2 SDK and MegaMatcher Embedded 1.2 SDK. More licenses for this component can be purchased any time by VeriLook Embedded 1.2 SDK customers and MegaMatcher Embedded 1.2 SDK customers.
Please scroll down to see the list of any available accessories and
related products.


text:
The Reader's Digest Association identifies apples as fruits to include in your diet because of their nutritional benefits 4. Apples are good sources of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. Coffee is brewed from ground coffee beans and is a major contributor of a stimulant called caffeine. Caffeine can have both positive and negative effects on your diet. Consult with a doctor about your consumption of apples and coffee in your diet plan.
Function of Antioxidants
In "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth," Dr. Jonny Bowden claims apples contain a variety of phytochemicals that have powerful antioxidant power 1. Quercetin, catechin, phloridzin and chlorogenic acids are types of phytochemicals found in the fruit. These act as antioxidants by fighting off the damaging effects of oxidation and free radicals. The antioxidants help protect against diseases caused by free radicals such as:
- cardiovascular disease
- lung cancer
- prostate cancer
- skin cancer
- premature aging
- Bowden says
Benefits of Pectin
Pectin is a type of soluble fiber found mostly in the skins of apples. According to the Reader's Digest Association, soluble fiber can lower bad cholesterol and help regulate blood sugar levels 4. The high-fiber content also helps promote regularity, prevents constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive problems. Try a variety of apples in your diet such as:
- Golden Delicious
- Red Delicious
- Empire
- Jonathon
- Granny Smith
- McIntosh
- Rome Beauty
- York
Function of Potassium
Apples are an excellent source of minerals such as potassium. According to the "Nutrition Almanac," potassium is one of the most essential minerals for optimal health. Potassium is needed for many body functions such as muscle contraction, nerve transmission and enzymatic reaction. It is used to convert blood sugar into glycogen so that it can be stored and synthesized in the liver and muscles. Potassium acts with sodium in regulating water balance within the body as well.
Effects of Coffee
In "The Detox Diet," Dr. Elson M. Haas says that the caffeine in coffee acts as a central nervous system stimulant. The amount of caffeine in one cup of coffee will produce a temporary increase in mental clarity. It also increases energy levels while simultaneously reducing drowsiness. Caffeine in coffee can improve muscular-coordinated activity such as typing or writing. According to Haas, it increases your basal metabolic rate which burns more calories. Caffeine is also acts as a mild diuretic and laxative.
Considerations for Caffeine
Acting as a central nervous stimulant, coffee can raise your blood pressure and heart rate. Caffeine in coffee may lower blood sugar but this can lead to hunger or cravings for sweets. After the initial adrenal stimulation, blood sugars rise again. Coffee does not offer any nutrients to your diet. In "The Raw Food Detox Diet," Natalie Rose says that the diuretic effect of caffeine leads to urinary loss of many nutrients that often do not get replaced 2. Symptoms of coffee or caffeine abuse include:
- irritability
- insomnia
- headache
- dizziness
- increased heart rate
- elevated blood pressure
- nutritional deficiencies
- "The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth"; Jonny Bowden, Ph.D.,C.N.S.; 2007
- "The Raw Food Detox Diet"; Natalia Rose; 2007
- "The Detox Diet: A How-To & When-To Guide for Cleansing the Body";Elson M. Haas;2004
- "Foods That Harm Foods That Heal"; The Reader's Digest Association;1997
- "Nutrition Almanac"; John D. Kirschmann; 2007
- Jupiterimages/Creatas/Getty Images


text:
U.S. Department of Transportation
Federal Highway Administration
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC 20590
Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology
Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations
Public Roads
This magazine is an archived publication and may contain dated technical, contact, and link information.
|Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-13-003 Date: March/April 2013
Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-13-003
Issue No: Vol. 76 No. 5
Date: March/April 2013
Along the Road is the place to look for information about current and upcoming activities, developments, trends, and items of general interest to the highway community. This information comes from U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) sources unless otherwise indicated. Your suggestions and input are welcome. Let's meet along the road.
Researchers at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) are developing a device to field-test for bridge scour. The study is underway in the J. Sterling Jones Hydraulics Research Laboratory at FHWA's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, VA. The goal of the project is to address the need for more reliable, accurate, and practical methodologies to estimate the potential for soil erosion around bridge foundations.
Scour, the erosion of bridge foundations by water, is the most common cause of bridge failure in the United States and contributes significantly to construction and maintenance costs. Because of time and cost constraints, most methodologies to predict scour do not account for the wide range of naturally occurring soils and their resistance to erosion and scour.
Researchers envision the field device to be a closed recirculation and filtering system that will operate in both wet and dry conditions while minimizing environmental impacts. Once completed, the device will be used for foundation analysis and design in a manner similar to soil borings, with testing conducted at proposed foundation locations across the channel and flood plain area at sites of new or replacement bridges.
|Researchers are developing the device shown here to test for scour at bridge sites. The prototype consists of an outer pipe column with an inserted cutting head, which erodes the soil material inside the outer column, replicating the effects of natural scour.
In testing, the researchers found that a lab-scale device consisting of an outer circular pipe column with a concentric cutting head centered within the column has performed well. Following lab testing, a prototype will be produced for field calibration. If results are favorable, the researchers expect that the device can be used to test the scour potential of a wide range of soils types to depths of 65.5 feet (20 meters).
For more information, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/research/resources/bridge_scour_test.cfm or www.pooledfund.org/Details/Study/438.
As it rehabilitates its aging roadways, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is saving time and money by combining methods of pavement recycling. The agency rebuilt a 3.7-mile (6-kilometer), two-lane section of southbound I–81 near Staunton, VA, by recycling existing road material and using it in the new pavement structure. The I–81 project marked the first time cold in-place recycling, cold mobile-plant recycling, and full-depth reclamation were used together on an interstate project in the United States, although other States have used the techniques separately. The $10.16 million project took about 8 months to complete. VDOT estimates that using conventional pavement construction would have cost about three times as much and taken about 2 years.
|Here, on I–81 in Virginia, workers prepare the underlying base material for a rehabilitation project that used full-depth reclamation. The process involves removing the existing asphalt pavement, pulverizing and then stabilizing it with an additive, and reapplying the material to the roadway.
The project increased safety for drivers and road workers because it reduced work zone congestion. VDOT also used a novel traffic management plan: While one lane on I–81 was under construction, large trucks traveled on the other lane and cars were detoured onto U.S. 11, away from the construction. Onroad, Web-based, and other communications tools alerted motorists about the construction and detour.
VDOT won the 2012 Recycling Award in the cold in-place category from the Asphalt Recycling & Reclaiming Association and Roads & Bridges magazine. Winners were selected based on the amount of recycled pavement materials used, cost savings, and project challenges.
The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities recently approved a highway specification permitting the use of recycled, crushed glass in gravel used to strengthen subsurface layers of highway and airport pavements. The specification, initiated by the transportation department and the nonprofit Alaskans for Litter Prevention and Recycling, identifies a process for repurposing glass from household waste as a durable and long-lasting construction material.
Types of glass products allowed for recycling under the specification include food and beverage containers, some dishes, and glass from building windows. The recycling process turns the glass into a product that looks like shiny, pea-sized gravel and feels smooth like worn beach glass. The transportation department will use the recycled glass only in the base layers. Using crushed glass will decrease the amount of this material going into landfills, while reducing the transportation department's need for rock and gravel used to strengthen roads. The department expects to see a cost savings by using the locally processed and stockpiled recycled glass over the traditional aggregate that must be transported via rail. Cost and quality data will be collected as projects incorporate the glass.
Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) recently began deploying intelligent transportation systems to counter congestion in the San Mateo metropolitan area. The $35 million San Mateo Smart Corridor project, scheduled to be completed by fall 2013, will apply the latest traffic management technology along 20 miles (32 kilometers) of El Camino Real from San Bruno to Menlo Park and on local streets in San Mateo County.
A planned fiber-optic communication system will connect to Caltrans' Transportation Management Center in Oakland and 10 cities in San Mateo County. Electronic message signs will guide motorists through detours during freeway incidents, sensors will provide information about the volume of traffic at specific locations, and closed-circuit television cameras will enable road managers to monitor traffic flow and determine the most effective ways to reroute motorists during major congestion.
|Workers prepare to install colorful fiber-optic cable on El Camino Real in San Mateo County, CA.
One of the major benefits is that the project will link more than 250 State and local traffic signals. With this network, road managers can adjust signal timing remotely to better control traffic flow during incidents, eliminating the need to drive to individual signals to make adjustments. The project also will improve communication and coordination among emergency responders, local agencies, and Caltrans because they will all have access to the same information.
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and ASTM International (formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials) recently signed an agreement on standards that solidifies coordination between the two organizations in the areas of highway construction, safety, maintenance, and sustainability.
AASHTO's then Executive Director John Horsley and ASTM President James A. Thomas signed the agreement, which now serves as the basis for cooperation on the development and publication of voluntary standards for highway construction in the United States and around the world.
AASHTO's transportation experts have contributed to more than 125 volumes of standards and guidelines related to the design, construction, maintenance, operation, and administration of highways, bridges, and other transportation facilities. Likewise, ASTM's technical committees have developed more than 1,000 standards that address the needs of road construction and transportation. The agreement will help the organizations avoid duplication of efforts, streamline processes, and respond to industry needs efficiently and collaboratively, saving time and resources.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released updated 2011 data on highway traffic fatalities. Analysts report that highway deaths fell to 32,367 in 2011, the lowest level since 1949 and a 1.9 percent decrease from the previous year. The 2011 data show that the downward trend in fatalities in recent years continues, and overall fatalities since 2005 have decreased 26 percent.
Although Americans drove fewer miles in 2011 than in 2010, the nearly 2 percent drop in roadway deaths outpaced the corresponding 1.2 percent decrease in vehicle miles traveled. In addition, information in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System shows that 2011 also saw the lowest fatality rate ever recorded, with 1.10 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2011, down from 1.11 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 2010.
Deaths involving drunk drivers dropped 2.5 percent in 2011, but the number of people killed in crashes involving distraction rose by 1.9 percent from 2010 to 2011. NHTSA officials note that this apparent increase may be attributed in part to growing awareness and reporting of distraction as a contributing factor.
For more information or to download the report, visit www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811701.pdf.
The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) released the results of a comprehensive national study of bike-sharing programs. The report, Bike Sharing in the United States: State of the Practice and Guide to Implementation, provides guidance on how to plan, implement, and measure the success of bike-share programs in communities of all sizes.
The guide can serve as a resource for a broad audience, including transportation planning professionals and public officials considering implementing a bike-share program. The study focused on a range of municipal programs that local jurisdictions have funded, managed, administered, and permitted.
Based on an analysis of 12 existing and planned programs across the country, the guide explores the evolution and expansion of bike sharing in the United States. Further, it defines success factors, describes a step-by-step approach to implementing a program, documents costs, examines different models for funding, and describes metrics for monitoring and evaluating success.
For more information and to download the guide, visit www.bicyclinginfo.org/bikeshare.
New videos on FHWA's Highways for LIFE Web site feature projects funded through the Technology Partnerships program. The goal of Highways for LIFE is to advance longer lasting highway infrastructure using innovations to increase safety and efficiency. The Technology Partnerships program helps industry develop promising prototypes into market-ready products that can improve highway quality, enhance safety, or reduce congestion.
|A video on FHWA's Highways for LIFE Web site demonstrates use of the bridge bent system for seismic regions. Here, workers are setting the cap beam.
The six videos run about 3 to 5 minutes each and provide overviews and demonstrations of various technologies and processes. Examples of the videos include "Bridge Bent System for Seismic Regions," "Full Depth UHPC [Ultra-High Performance Concrete] Waffle Bridge Deck Panels," "Automated Pavement Marker Placement System," and "Aggregate Image Measurement System (AIMS2)."
For more information and to view the videos, visit www.fhwa.dot.gov/hfl/commtool.cfm.


text: What is the grant application process? We recognise that with some funders, charities can spend a lot of time spent on unsuccessful applications. We are doing all we can to ensure that this is not the case with Transform Foundation. We encourage all organisations to firstly read our Eligibility criteria. Secondly please read the relevant grant information page and FAQs since our grants are not right for everyone. We hold regular free webinars on all of our grant opportunities hosted by our Chief Executive to provide key information for our grants and key terms. We encourage all organisations to attend a webinar before applying. At the end of each Webinar we will conduct a survey to see whether organisations wish to opt in to continue the application (in which case we will email them a link) or to opt out (in which case we will not contact you again about the opportunity). Details on the application process can be found on the How to Apply section of our website and are also summarised on the Facebook Grant and Website Grant pages.


text:
This was reported in may 2014.
BANGKOK Thailands economy shrank more than expected in the first quarter, data showed on Monday, as exports remained weak and months of political unrest threatened to tip the economy into recession.
The state planning agency, which compiles data on gross domestic product, said the economy had contracted a 2.1 percent in the January-to-March quarter, compared with the previous three months. The first quarter recorded a contraction of 0.6 percent from a year earlier.
The agency, the National Economic and Social Development Board, lowered its G.D.P. growth forecast for the year to 1.5 to 2.5 percent, from 3 to 4 percent.
The country has been governed since December by a caretaker administration with limited fiscal powers, and the crisis seems likely to continue as protest groups seek to install an unelected government.
The outlook for the April-to-June quarter and beyond is grim, analysts say.
Chances are, we are going to see another technical recession in the economy, given that the second-quarter G.D.P. number is likely to be rather poor as well, said Gundy Cahyadi, an economist with DBS Bank in Singapore.
The longer the economy is without a functioning government, the more the drag to economic growth, he added.
Consumer confidence is at a 12-year low, tourists are staying away from Bangkok and public spending has been delayed. Many parts of the economy are feeling the pinch, even the property sector, which proved resilient during previous bouts of unrest.
If the political crisis drags on until the end of this year, the overall sector could see a contraction of as much as 10 percent, Rutt Phanijphand, chief executive of the home builder Quality Houses, said last week.
The planning agency revised the figure for fourth-quarter growth to 0.1 percent from the previous three months from 0.6 percent. It left year-on-year growth for the October-December quarter at 0.6 percent.
Thailand, the second-biggest economy in Southeast Asia, is the only one in the region that is contracting. Malaysia reported annual growth of 6.1 percent in the first quarter, while Indonesia, the largest regional economy, this month announced its slowest growth in years, although its annualized growth in the January-March quarter was still 5.2 percent.
Given the lack of a functioning government and the worsening economy, there may be increasing pressure on the central bank to cut its benchmark rate at its June 18 policy meeting. In April, it left the rate unchanged at 2 percent.
The weaker-than-expected G.D.P. data will put the spotlight back on the Bank of Thailand, said Benjamin Shatil, an economist with J. P. Morgan in Singapore. But when domestic activity is being weighed down by falling sentiment amid an uncertain political environment, there is only limited support that monetary policy can provide to the economy.
The political turmoil is also hurting Thailands big auto sector, which accounts for 11 percent of G.D.P. and is the largest in Southeast Asia. Domestic car sales are falling and about 30,000 industry jobs have been lost his year.
Thai Airways last week reported a quarterly loss and expects further losses in the second and third quarters. We have been severely affected by the politics, said its chairman, Prajin Juntong.
Tourism accounts for about 10 percent of G.D.P., and the number of visitors dropped about 5 percent in the January to April from a year earlier.
This month, the Tourism Authority of Thailand cut its forecast for 2014 tourist arrivals to 26.3 million, the lowest number in five years, from 28 million.
Pornthip Hirunkate, vice president of the Tourism Council of Thailand, said political unrest had probably contributed to the loss of about 100 billion baht, or $3 billion, in tourism revenue so far.
More than 60 percent of Thai G.D.P. comes from exports, and some analysts expect these to start to pick up along with a global recovery. So far, the political unrest has been largely contained to Bangkok and has not disrupted ports and factories.
But the state planning agency on Monday cut its projection for export growth this year to 3.7 percent, down from an earlier forecast of 5 to 7 percent.
The unrest has had a minimal impact on shipments, and most exporters are still confident about business, said Nopporn Thepsitthar, chairman of the National Shippers Council. He expects exports to grow 2 to 3 percent in the second quarter, compared with a year earlier.
In the January-to-March quarter, exports fell 0.8 percent from a year earlier and about 0.5 percent from the previous three months, central bank data showed.


text:
Dependable Legal Help
At Harris and Fraser, we provide compassionate and vigorous representation for people involved in some of the most emotional legal areas: divorce, child custody, property division, and other family law matters. We also represent people who have been injured in an accident and need help with the legal aftermath.
To schedule a meeting at our office in Burlingame, California, please call 650-389-9036.
Facing Divorce, Child Custody or Support Determinations?
Our goal is always to defend your spousal and/or parental interests while safeguarding your child's welfare. In addition to providing seasoned counsel to mothers and fathers who wish to assert their custodial rights, we assemble critical facts based on the amount of money each party earns in order to argue for a fair support order.
Path to a Healthy Divorce
Collaborative law, mediation, and mediation consulting are alternative dispute resolution processes that may save you money and time as they reduce the stress and conflict of divorce. The collaborative law approach emphasizes honesty and communication, as well as a desire to do what is best for the families involved. This process aims to eliminate the acrimony in legal proceedings, and resolve matters to each party's satisfaction as quickly and efficiently as possible.


text:
3 BIG Reasons To Check Yourself (And Everyone Else In The House) For Ticks!
They're small, excellent at hiding, and lurking in just about every corner of the country in one form or another—ticks are no joke. These things can hitch a ride on your clothing and make their way to a fleshy spot to bury their head and make a meal out of you. The thing is, even though ticks are often just thought of as a nuisance, they can be a huge worry. If you are an outdoor enthusiast, have pets that travel outdoors and back in the house, or just spend a lot of time hanging out in the backyard, you should get to know a little more about why you should be checking yourself and everyone else for ticks.
Some people are highly allergic to tick saliva.
You find a tick on your body and pluck the thing off like you know you are supposed to, being careful to also remove the head of the tick that may be embedded. However, soon after, a patch of redness starts to develop in a circle around the bite site and your skin feels itchy and may even burn. If you experience this, you could be having an allergic reaction to the tick's saliva. Some people are highly allergic to tick saliva, and the symptoms can get really uncomfortable.
Tick bites can lead to an infection.
If a tick latches onto your skin and you don't catch on for a bit, an infection could easily set up in the area. An infection can even come about after the tick has been removed from its latching spot. Infection from a tick bite can show up as yellowish discharge, fever at the bite site, and even redness and swelling. Once you have removed a tick from your skin, it is important to properly clean the area with rubbing alcohol to kill any bacteria that could be lingering.
Some ticks do carry Lyme disease and can transmit it through their bite.
Perhaps one of the biggest concerns about ticks is the fact that some do carry Lyme disease. Becoming infected with Lyme disease can initially just look like an allergic reaction to the bite, with redness and swelling around the bite spot, but the symptoms can quickly spread and cause you to feel pretty miserable. If you suspect Lyme disease after a tick bite, make sure you seek medical attention right away. If treated early, chronic Lyme disease can be avoided.
If you suspect that you're dealing with a tick problem at your home, contact an exterminator at a company like Ace Walco & Sons Termite & Pest Control for professional assistance.


text:
The only acceptable solution to fighting poverty is to foster confidence and self-sufficiency within the communities that need it most.
For more than 42 years Barefoot College has designed new ways to nurture and support a journey to empowerment, one village at a time, one woman at a time. We believe that light and learning are fundamental to a community's transformation. We train women and girls from communities as solar engineers, innovators and educators, who then return to their communities to bring universal access to these essential forces.
1.3 billion people across the world still struggle every day to have access to light, education, clean water, reliable food production. We work every day to tackle that these problems for the most marginalised, remote and under threat communities around the world.
Barefoot College was built by and exclusively for the poor. Since the inception of our innovative rural college we have worked in partnership with marginalized, exploited and impoverished rural poor who live on less than $1 a day. The program helps lift them over the poverty line with dignity and self-respect.
This is your opportunity to partner with a transformative effort that has already impacted more than 700,000 lives in 72 countries. We need your donation to make a difference - even a $50 donation can bring light and learning to a household.
The communities who are currently most in need of our help in this upcoming year include:
- Forest corridor communities In Madagascar
- The coastal communities in Vanuatua hit by a cyclone earlier in 2015
- Post-conflict Central African Republic
- Post-Genocide Guatemala
- Refugee populations in Jordan
- Rainforest Communities in Suriname
Each of these communities or groups of communities, is under threat from the destruction of either war, global industry, or natural disasters. Their plight gets worse the longer they go without meaningful assistance.
In the next three years, we will improve the lives of another 500,000 people, nearly doubling the number of people we can serve! This exciting chance to make a global impact and spread the Barefoot approach, an urgent crusade that directly aligns with the UN's 2015 Sustainable Development Goals.
As governments across the developing world see the efficacy of our program, we are in a dynamic, urgent process of scaling our effort to new areas that need it most.
Barefoot Regional Vocational Training Centres
Barefoot engineers, architects, water technicians, craftsman, midwives and many more, who have seen their communities transformed teach at these new campuses, spreading the skills they once learned to the next generation of those in need.
This year we've already inaugurated the first of five Barefoot Regional Vocational Training Centres in Zanzibar. The first 12 Solar Engineers have graduated from this new institution, propelling our biggest goal; to extend our reach to as many high-risk communities as possible.
Our goal by 2018 is to become fully global. We are creating new centers in:
- Africa (South Sudan, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Liberia)
- Latin America (Construction begins in Guatemala in 2016)
- Asia (Indonesia, Myanmar and Fiji)
Each new branch allows us to to educate and empower more people!
We need your help to accomplish these projects. The Barefoot Model has been proven to be effective worldwide - many of our early learners have become our greatest teachers, and the communities we have engaged with are thriving.
Every dollar donated to this campaign goes to the work required to continue to create such powerful results around the world. Global poverty is solvable, and food and water can be provided to every person. Make that happen with us, donate now.
We understand that each person reading this has different means, and we are grateful for contributions of every size. Whether you can offer a dollar, or much more, we want you to know how deeply the Barefoot College appreciates your taking action and supporting our work. On behalf of all those who will benefit, We Thank You


text:
Train on My Wayward Son
By Lucia Rossi
Nintendo used Celebrate; it was super effective! It's Pokémon's 20th Anniversary and Nintendo is celebrating with freebies, competitions, limited edition products, and events. When it comes to "Livin' the Lucia life," it's not always just about beauty. As a proud, geeky, gamer I am just as excited as every dedicated Pokefan out there for what Nintendo has in store for this year-long celebration. Here's what's going on so far according to the Pokemon20 website.
The best thing Nintendo is doing is giving away one free legendary Pokémon every month for the entire year. They're calling it, "A Year of Mythical Pokémon Distribution Events!" For the month of February, a level 100 Mew was given away with the ability Synchronize and the move Pound. In order to get any mythical Pokémon from this promotion, you have to go to any participating GameStop and pick up a code. The code can only be used on Pokémon Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, X and Y games, and will expire May 31st 2016. For March 1st-24th, a level 10 Celebi with the ability Natural Cure and moves, Confusion, Recover, Heal Bell, and Safeguard, will be given out. It was also released on February 14th that a new Pokémon, Magearna, will make its debut in the 2016 Pokémon game, Pokémon Sun & Moon.
Another fun addition to the celebration is the Pokémon Photo Both app available only on iTunes. If you love selfies and love Pokémon, this is the app for you. Thanks to The Pokémon Company International, you can take pictures and then personalize them with different captions, themes, or custom designs inspired by the games. It's a free app where you can create your own Poké profile pic. However, it's only rated three stars because of a lot of bug issues. Personally, it kept crashing for me over and over no matter how many times I deleted and re-downloaded it.
If you're looking to purchase a 3DS, the new Pokémon 20th Anniversary Edition Bundle was released on February 27th. It comes with Blastoise and Charizard cover plates for the console, and Pokémon Red & Blue versions pre-installed. It also comes with an exclusive home menu theme but does not come with an AC Adapter. It's sold by GameStop and Best Buy for $199.99. Sadly, they are both currently unavailable for purchase on both websites. It is available on Ebay, but you will be paying at least $100 more than the retail price. However, Ebay is a great place to get all kinds of 20th Anniversary limited Edition products for a decent price. There are also all kinds of Pokémon plushes, apparel, accessories, trading cards, and video games available at the PokémonCenter website.
If you're into the Pokémon trading cards, the Pokémon TCG: Generations expansion was released on February 22nd. It includes over 110 cards, the second Radiant Collection, 16 Pokémon—EX with 4 Mega Evolutions, and a Pokémon TCG online code. The Pokémon TCG game is also available for download on Pokemon.com, so you can play online.
Do you want to be the very best? That no one ever was? Then join the online Pokémon Competition through your Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire on the Pokémon Global Link (PGL) and fight in battle against other Pokémon Trainer Club members. In celebration of 20 years of battles, the Kanto Classic Online Competition have rules based on the original Pokémon Red & Blue games, meaning only using a team of six from the original 149 Pokémon in a single battle with no items allowed! Qualified participants on the online competition get a special Dragonite inspired by one owned by Elite Four Trainer Lance. It comes at level 62, has the ability Inner Focus, and the moves: Agility, Barrier, Slam, and Hyper Beam. To be a qualified participant, you need to earn a ranking by competing in at least three battles. For more information about qualifications, rules and important dates, check out the Pokémon official website under Global Link.
Explore "Two Decades of Pokémon" on the Pokémon20 website which allows you to browse the entire timeline of Pokémon since its birth on February 27th 1996. If you click on 2016 on the time dial, it tells you about all kids of new things to expect this year including: Pokémon's 19th season of their television series, Pokémon TCG: XY—BREAKpoint expansion, Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow being available in the Nintendo eShop, Pokken Tournament for Wii U, Pokémon Go, and the announcement of Pokémon Sun & Moon.
The website also encourages that everyone in the Pokémon community come together in celebration of the 20th Anniversary using the #Pokémon20 on Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. Submissions using the hashtag could win a prize!
Pokémon has come a long way in two decades and will continue to grow and change. As a dedicated fan, I am so glad they're still going strong and that the next generation will get to experience the same love and determination I did when catching them all. Even if there's over 1,000 Pokémon and Nintendo runs out of names for their games by then, on to the next 20!
Categories: Livin' La Vida Lucia


text:
#Cuba #fish #nature
A School of Blue Silversides Swim Through Mangroves in the Coral Reefs off Cuba
Photographers David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes who together specialize in underwater photography, were recently on assignment for National Geographic in Cuba when they captured this amazing school of blue silversides. The thousands of finger-sized fish are swimming through mangroves (small trees that are able to grow in salt water) but the photographer's ingenious perspective makes them appear to swim through the air. The image was one of several selected for National Geographic's Best Photos of 2016.


text:
All Red Jacket Press titles are available through Ingram Book Group, Baker & Taylor, and direct from the publisher through our fulfillment company, Pathway Book Service. To place an order through Pathway Book Service, contact them by fax at
For retailers ordering direct from the publisher through Pathway Book Service, Red Jacket Press offers a 40% discount on mixed orders of $250 or more retail or for five or more copies of a single title.
(Please note: the Limited Edition Lensman Hardcover Slipcase Set is available to retailers at a 30% discount. This item is not available through Ingram, Baker & Taylor, or Pathway Book Service; please contact us directly at the address below for ordering information.)
We accept purchase orders only with previously-established credit.
if you have any questions.
Copyright © 2010 Red Jacket Press, LLC unless otherwise noted. All Rights Reserved.
Red Jacket Press


text:
Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn as inappropriate for kids
This content was COPIED from BrainMass.com - View the original, and get the already-completed solution here!
Censored Book Reflection
· Due on day 7 (Monday) by 11:59 pm Mountain Time
· Research the American Library Association Web site (http://www.ala.org/) or the International Reading Association Web site (http://www.reading.org/General/Default.aspx) to find children's books that have been censored.
· Choose a censored book
· Research why it was censored.
· Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the decision to ban the use of this book in schools and explain the rationale for your viewpoint.
· Suggest how the book might be used in schools, define the grade levels for which you would use the book, and describe how you would introduce and work with it as a classroom teacher.
· Format your paper according to APA
Solution Preview
The list of children's challenged books that I accessed from the Web came from the following Web page address: URL http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2008/may2008/penguin.cfm
To address the components of your assignment's instructions, I have copied and pasted them here, and will address each in turn.
1 Choose a censored book: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
2 Research why it was censored. Racism
3 Discuss whether you agree or disagree with the decision to ban the use of this book in schools and explain the rationale for your viewpoint.
The first issue that I have with the terminology used here is that these books were not "banned," they were challenged. A challenge, from the Web site's own definition, is a formal complaint that the book be removed for various reasons: inappropriate for the age group, explicit sex, offensive language, sexual orientation issues, religious issues, and others. A challenge does not in any way, shape, or form mean that the book was banned. The Bible gets challenged routinely, as does the Koran, the writings of Buddha and Confucius, and other "holy scriptures" by persons not of those particular faiths. The books listed for 2007 mention several that I have read, most notably Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The second issue I have with this listing of banned children's books is that I myself did not consider several of the titles "children's" books. Maya Angelou's, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, may recount the adventures of children, but the mere fact that a book's characters are children does not make it a children's book. William Golding's novel, Lord of the Flies, may be ...
Solution Summary
Discussion of censorship of books, Web site URL listed, and Mark Twain's book "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as a book challenged as inappropriate for children. Analysis and reasons for why this charge is patently untrue - justified with examples from other children's literature.


text:
By castlebbs on Thursday 12 April 2007, 19:26 - Development - Permalink
reStructWeb is a small piece of software written in Python language. I wrote it to manage my personal web site. The most important features that I wished when I decided to write it are :
- To be able to simply modify my website online
- Not to have to write my pages in html or xml
- To create links between the pages very easily (like Wiki )
- To integrate templates and css to separate the presentation from the contents
- To be multi-lingual
- To be powerful and light for my poor computer ( SiteAbout ).
I took as a starting point the the Wiki system to update my Web site. The pages are created in text format using thereStructuredText format.
reStructWeb is based on the following tools:
At present reStructWeb makes hardly more than 300 lines of code. Largest of work (the management of the reStructuredText format) is made by Docutils.
reStructWeb was tested on the following environments :
- Red Hat 9
- Red Hat 8.0
- Debian Sarge
- Python 2.2.2, 2.2.3, 2.3.3
- apache 2.0.40
- docutils snapshot téléchargé le 2 mai 2004
The program should work on any system supporting Python 2.2 (or more) and docutils
Principle and performances
The system used is very powerful. The majority of time, the pages are sent to the navigator directly by Apache (static pages). Two cases of figures will lead Apache to return the request on reStructWeb script:
- The URL required does not exist
- The URL required contains parameters
reStructWeb script will ask you to create a page in case it don't exist or will ask you for the modification of an existing page. It generates thereafter html pages in the various languages and Apache will be able to send them in a traditional way.
Apache requires a small configuration to redirect the requests towards reStructWeb. You can however configure to use reStructWeb in a traditional way like a cgi, for example:
With Apache settings
Without Apache setting
reStructWeb is a small script which I wrote for my needs only. It was not thought and not designed at all for a system having to be managed by several people. There is no management of users, no modifications history and the safety options are non-existent : The permission of modification of the site is based on a single password, the magicWord: -)
Do not let anonymous users modify the contents of your website. reStructWeb is not a Wiki. An badly-attentive user can divert the use of the reStructuredText to try to compromise the system. Example :
.. include:: /etc/passwd
It is thus possible to include the contents in the page of any file on the system (for which the user of apache as the rights for reading).
This said, it is very fast 1 , very light, very simple to implement (a single file and four parameters)
|It is not the reStructWeb script which is fast, but the Apache sending of static pages. What is practically always the case on my site.
- Version 0.2 - magicword is now used when you want to create a link : download
Standalone mode
In this mode, there is no Apache configuration. You only need to to copy the script in the directory cgi-bin.
- Install docutils, Download reStructWeb
- Copy the file rstgen.py in cgi-bin directory
- Modify if you need the parameters in rstgen.py
- Create the reStructWeb working directory
- Change the directory permissions (the user running apache must be able to modify and create files in this directory)
- Copy the templates files in the working directory: default.tmpl.fr, default.tmpl.en
- Test
Apache redirect mode
proceed as for the standalone mode and to configure Apache in the following way :
Script GET /cgi-bin/rstgen.py
Script POST /cgi-bin/rstgen.py
ErrorDocument 404 /cgi-bin/rstgen.py
My configuration
On my computer, the working directory is /home/web/david/pages, rstgen.py is copied in the/home/web/david/cgi-bin directory.
Here is my Apache configuration :
<Directory "/home/web/david/pages">
Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
Script GET /drobert/admin
Script POST /drobert/admin
ErrorDocument 404 /drobert/admin
AddDefaultCharset UTF-8
<Directory "/home/web/david/pages/st">
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews +Includes
AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1
<VirtualHost *>
ServerAdmin email@example.com
DocumentRoot /var/www/ombrepixel.com
ServerName www.ombrepixel.com
ServerAlias ombrepixel.com
ErrorLog logs/www.ombrepixel.com-error_log
CustomLog logs/www.ombrepixel.com-access_log combined
ScriptAlias /drobert/admin /home/web/david/cgi-bin/rstgen.py
Alias /drobert /home/web/david/pages/
The appearance of each page can be completely customized because the system uses templates. It is completely possible to make a really nice website by using reStructWeb (not like this one).
The templates are files with the .tmpl extension located in the working directory. You need a default template for each language your website support, thus,on my site, two files are present on the working directory :
- default.tmpl.fr
- default.tmpl.en
They are the default templates for all the pages, in French and English.
You can create templates specific to each page with the filename page_name.tmpl.en. For example if I want a customized template for the reStructWeb page, you just have to create the files restructweb.tmpl.en and restructweb.tmpl.fr``.
Templates variables
The template file is a pure html file in which a certain number of variables are replaced by dynamic contents. Currently, reStructWeb makes it possible to use the following variables :
|Replaced by
|Title 2 of the page
|Body of the page
|Page source url
|Page edit url
|English version url
|French version url
|Last modified date
|Title is defined in the reStructuredText (name of first section)
Bugs / To make
- I noticed that under IE by making http://www.ombrepixel.com/drobert/restructweb one arrives directly on document RST and not HTML
- Dictionary
- Need to create dynamic language url variable
Other projects
- Ian Bicking reST wiki : http://wiki.webwareforpython.org/thiswiki


text:
Man's Best Friend Can Kill
Man's best friend can be a killer in warm weather.
March 25, 2009 -- Spring is finally here and soon the kids will be out in the warmer weather, running for their lives from the family dog.
That's right, Fido may be man's best friend, but he can also be a bitch, especially during the dog days of summer. A new study out of the State University of New York at Buffalo shows that young children are more likely to be bitten by a dog during the summer than any other time of the year, and the beast is most likely to be the family pet or a pet of a friend.
The study doesn't explain exactly why the summer months are more dangerous, although it suggests it's likely due partly to the fact that kids are outdoors more during the summer, and thus more exposed to dogs. And a very young child may run in jerky, irregular patterns that resemble the flight of prey.
Like Humans, Dogs May Get Huffy in the Heat
It's also likely, according to the study, that dogs, like a lot of humans, can be a bit more grouchy when they are uncomfortably warm.
"Children are particularly vulnerable to severe dog bite injuries on the head and neck, and the injuries can be extensive and a risk to life, especially in young children," Philomena Behar, clinical assistant professor of otolaryngology in the university's school of medicine, said in releasing the study. Behar is the lead author of the study, published in the current issue of the journal Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.
The researchers studied the hospital records of 84 children who suffered dog bites severe enough to be treated at the university's hospital. The injuries occurred from 1999 to 2007, and the average age was 6.19 years. There are a number of gaps in the study because some information, like the breed and gender of the dog, was not always included in the records.
But of the breeds that were identified, "pit bulls were responsible for a notable proportion of the injuries (13 percent,)" the study reports. That's consistent with a number of other studies that cite pit bulls and Rottweilers as the breeds most likely to inflict serious injuries.
But some researchers caution that these breeds are thought by many to be vicious, and thus, more easily identified, tainting the statistics to an unknown degree.
Most Attacks Due to Failures of Adults
Many different breeds account for the 4.5 million Americans who are bitten by dogs each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In one horrifying case, a 6-week-old baby was killed by the family's Pomeranian, of all things.
And the number of fatalities has risen steadily over the years from an average of about 17 per year a couple of decades ago to around 30 per year now. That's despite the fact that the overall number of dogs has remained fairly steady at around 74 million.
Many of the attacks are due to obvious failures on the part of adults -- leaving an infant alone near a dog, failing to train a dog properly, playing aggressively with the dog, and even picking the wrong kind of dog to take home as a pet.
Beware of (Sweaty) Dog
Different breeds have different characteristics, as any dog owner will know, and some are more aggressive than others.
The CDC recommends that potential dog owners talk to a vet, or professional breeder, before picking the animal, and avoid dogs with a history of aggression, especially if children are in the home.
To a large degree, it comes down to common sense, but special precautions may be necessary during the summer. The new study from Buffalo, in detached clinical language, found "a high correlation between increased ambient temperature and incidence of dog bites."
In other words, be wary of sweaty dogs.
The study was limited to children who required surgery because of bites to the head or neck, and most of those injuries were to the cheeks, lips, nose and ears. Some 35 surgical repairs were performed under general anesthesia, and they consisted of closing complex wounds and punctures and attempting to replace flesh that had been ripped from the child.
None of the children died, reflecting one of the few encouraging statistics in this and several other studies. Fatal attacks are still rare, considering the overall number of people attacked each year, but one out of every five people who are bitten require medical attention. In 2006, according to the CDC, 31,000 people required reconstructive surgery.
But... Dogs Are Still Man's Best Friend
Those are alarming statistics, but to be fair, dogs also play an important role in many lives. They ease the suffering of many who would otherwise be left alone, they can be a very helpful and satisfying companion, and yes, they can be a child's best friend.
But the new study contends that even a gentle dog can be provoked to attack, especially if it's territory is threatened, or it is startled by an unexpected move.
And they can really bite. The study notes that a typical dog has a jaw capable of exerting 200 to 400 pounds per square inch. That rises to 1,800 pounds per square inch among pit bulls.
The study continues:
Dogs "may bite repeatedly and shake the victim vigorously, causing more trauma or 'hole and tear' effect." Children, it warns, have few defenses, they probably cannot outrun the dog if they get in trouble, and the head of a child is an easy mark for an angry dog.
So, it doesn't make sense to invite an aggressive dog into the family. Find a nice, gentle animal instead, and keep your eye on him.


text:
5 listed
How many times have you forgotten to use your re-useable bags? Don?t make another bag your clients will forget too. They can't help but use ours. Designed to be ... more »
Filters rainwater to eliminate stormwater pollution.... more »
When choosing your fruit and veg, use a onestringbag to avoid using lots of small plastic or paper bags. Avoid using bags at all if you can! The first onestringbag ... more »
Handmade soy candles.... more »
Bush Lily specialize in unique, eco-friendly giftware and homeware. Our business is based in Sydney and we are a retailer & wholesaler of a very exciting range ... more »
Bags Green – Eco Bag Green Bag – Eco Bags Australia – Eco Bags Products – Eco Hand Bags – Eco-bags – Green Bags – Green Eco Bags – Green Hand Bags – Recycled Eco Bags


text:
Flights from Campo Grande
Find the cheapest flights anywhere with Skyscanner! Search and book for free on hundreds of airlines and thousands of destinations worldwide.
Skyscanner is simple and fast. And it's free to use! Compare low cost flights then book your airline tickets from Campo Grande directly by clicking through to agency and airline sites.
If your travel dates are flexible we can show you the cheapest days in the month to fly. And if you're in the mood for adventure you can search on Skyscanner from your chosen departure airport to everywhere. So the only question left is... where to now?
Browse through our flight offers below, or use the search box to enter your travel dates and let us find the cheapest flights from Campo Grande to wherever you want to go.
Flexible where you fly? Search nearby airports for bigger savings.
Airports near Campo Grande
- Campo Grande
0 km from Campo Grande
- Dourados
196 km from Campo Grande
- Bonito
204 km from Campo Grande
- Ponta Pora
256 km from Campo Grande
- Pedro Juan Caballero
271 km from Campo Grande
- Iguassu Falls
572 km from Campo Grande
Prices shown on this page are estimated lowest prices only. Found in the last 45 days.


text:
Good Morning!
Wow the weekend flew by! I don't feel rested at all. I could use a whole day of napping. Today's nails were somewhat inspired by the new Starbucks Unicorn Frappuccino. I say somewhat because I used a unicorn stamp and did purple nails.
What I Used:
Base: I used my large MoYou London marshmallow stamper to mush the colours together on my nail. Polishes used are Color Club Pussi-Licous, a dark purple with no name & China Glaze Lotus Begin.
Stamping: MoYou London Tumblr Girl collection plate 02 & China Glaze White on White.
Thank you everyone for stopping by! I hope everyone has a great week. I look forward to napping later today!


text:
Well, today is the very last day for the Fall Fashion Challenge. I'm sad it's over, but I have had a great time writing up this week's posts, and seeing everyone else's outfits. Lord willing, though, this will not be my last fashion post. So, all you new readers better stay tuned.
Anyway, here's my outfit for today. The challenge for today was to wear a hat. I actually made this hat this morning, even though I had plenty of other hats to wear. 🙂
The pattern for my hat is based on this pattern. And the fabric is from my Marie Madeline scrap bag (a birthday gift from my sister Charlotte).


text:
The contestants in the Miss Universe competition have been showing off some bizarre dresses
designed to reflect their country's culture.
Thousands of spectators packed the Reforma Avenue in Mexico City to watch the striking, beautiful and in some cases strange costumes, worn by the hopefuls to win the beauty pageant, which will be held in the Mexican capital on May 28.
The loudest cheer was unsurprisingly for Miss Mexico, or Rosa Maria Ojeda, whose dress was decorated with images of Mexican food, including corn on the cob and tropical fruit, alongside symbols of ancient Indian cultures.
Miss USA, or Rachel Smith, showed the United States' love for rock and roll, dressing in an Elvis Presley-style white suit and holding an electric guitar.
A dreadlocked Miss Jamaica, or Zahra Redwood, the first Rastafarian to compete for the beauty prize, went for a reggae theme with a T-shirt of singer Bob Marley.
There was some protests, with one group of women wearing white dresses covered in fake blood trying to draw attention to towns or states in Mexico where women have been raped or killed, in some cases with alleged involvement by police or soldiers.
« Ocean Day | | | Garbage causes stink in Italy »


text:
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Firsman Multivox SQ-01 on eBay
This one's not working, but how cool does that thing look? I've always wanted one of these. I'm sure I'd rarely use it, but it'd be worth having just for the coolness factor.
Labels: Rare Instruments
No comments:
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Here in Lake Worth we have a reputation for service and excellence that lets you know who to rely on. Having heating and AC problems can be a real bother, don't let working with a technician be another one. At Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning we want to be the place you know you can call for all of your air conditioning and heating needs. You can count on our reliable technicians to know to be there for you and to know exactly how to address your needs. There's no question about why our technicians' reputation is hardworking and knowledgeable in Lake Worth.
The Lake Worth seasons are so erratic, there's no telling when you'll find yourself in a bind. No need to look at your furnace in trepidation or start collecting the kindling for your fireplace. Give our local experts a call and we guarantee they'll be able to solve your air conditioning and furnace problems. You can trust our technicians to be efficient, there's a reason we offer a 100% Satisfaction Guarantee*. We'll work with you, let you know your options, and help you come up with a plan of action for any emergency HVAC repair or service.
If you find yourself with an AC issue, you don't have to break out the popsicles and dig out old fans from the basement to stay comfortable. Or if your heating system falters in the dead of winter, no need to start stoking the fireplace. Our technicians have lots of experience, and they're happy to help you sort out any issue you have. Their professionalism are sure to prove to you why we have such an outstanding reputation in Lake Worth.
No matter what your problem, you can rely on Service Experts Heating & Air Conditioning in Lake Worth to create a solution. We know we offer excellent customer service and expertise for everyone that we come into contact with. When you're in trouble, our experts are happy to help. Comfortable living isn't just about having a working heater and AC system, it's also about knowing who you can call when things need repairing.


text:
Amazon.com Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMZN) first day as owner of grocery chain Whole Foods Market was spent cutting prices by as much as 43 percent. The marked-down items were identified with new orange signs reading "Whole Foods + Amazon." The signs displayed the new price, the old price and a promise of "More to come."
The price reductions covered a wide range of products. Organic fuji apples and organic avocados were marked down to $1.99 a pound from $3.49 and $2.79 per pound, respectively. The price of bananas per pound dropped 38 percent to 49 cents from 79 cents. The price of organic rotisserie chicken fell to $9.99 each from $13.99, while the price of salmon filets was down 33 percent. The price of eggs and beef also dropped
In another addition, Amazon is now placing displays for the company's electronics in Whole Foods stores. The Amazon Echo, a voice-activated electronic assistant, was for sale for $99.99. The smaller Echo Dot was advertised for $44.99.
Amazon had made lowering prices a prime focus of its acquisition of the upscale grocery chain. Whole Foods had such an entrenched reputation for high prices that its nickname is Whole Paycheck. The lower prices could encourage some shoppers to change their shopping routine and visit Whole Foods for more products.
Amazon bought for Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, giving a nearly 20 percent premium to Whole Foods shareholders who owned the stock before the announcement. The Internet giant has enjoyed a very strong year in 2017, with shares more than 26 percent higher since the beginning of the year. That is roughly triple the price performance of the rest of the S&P 500 during the same period.
Cutting prices is a sign that Amazon is serious about taking on its biggest rivals in the $800 billion supermarket industry, like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Kroger Co. and Costco Wholesale Corp. Wal-Mart has already invested billions into revamping the produce sections of its U.S stores and lowering prices across the board. Costco's organic items were priced about 30 percent cheaper than the same products at Whole Foods. Germany-based retailers Aldi Stores Ltd. and Lidl, both expanding in the U.S., have made lower prices the focus of their operations.