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COVER STORY: Making it in the city
Now more than ever, opportunity knocks in the inner city for both independent and chain food retailers.By Jenny Summerour
It's a sunny Saturday afternoon, and a steady flow of customers saunter in and out of the local Safeway—a recently remodeled, 50,000-square-foot store with a bank, dry cleaning service, and Starbucks cafe. Among them are a Caucasian 50-something couple selecting fresh produce, steaks, and a fine wine to entertain weekend guests; an Asian college student picking up snacks and a six-pack of beer; and a Hispanic family doing their weekly shopping.
In a smaller independent grocery store called Tropical Foods, a few young African-American professionals select fresh vegetables and herbs for a new recipe they want to try, while an older couple from the Caribbean stock up on large bags of rice and other staples and happily discover several root vegetables from their homeland.
Both stores are operating successfully in what demographers are calling "gateway cities," densely populated urban areas—Washington, D.C. and Boston in these examples—where new immigrants are coming to live. Joining them are young professionals and even baby boomers who want to make new lives for themselves. Many of these areas are experiencing steady growth in density and development, and the opportunity exists for competitive food retailers—chains and independents alike—to gain footholds and penetrate a niche that the Wal-Marts of the nation might find difficult to service.
"Urban areas present a financial opportunity for retailers who want to find an underserved market," says Mark Blaxill, s.v.p. at the Boston Consulting Group. Blaxill and other analysts note that chain retailers that have entered the inner city say their urban locations invariably are their most highly trafficked and profitable stores. Yet while the huge gap between major grocery stores and dense urban areas has closed significantly in the last decade, new trends in urban development make the inner city an even more viable market, Blaxill notes.
Downtown is Back is the name of a study released last year by the Fannie Mae Foundation and Brookings Institution that found among a sample of 24 cities, 18 downtowns saw increases in their populations over a 10-year period. While suburbs continued to experience more growth compared to surrounding cities, most downtowns, defined as the city's central business district, were gaining a large share of metropolitan statistical area (MSA) population. "If people continue to move downtown, neighboring areas may experience spillover effects," the study suggests.
By operating in inner cities, retailers not only reach a denser population, they also cater to a much more diverse population that more closely mirrors the future demographic makeup of America. In the most recent Consumer Shopper Study released by the Boston-based Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, an analysis of U.S. Census data shows that the number of Latinos in the total U.S. population will grow to around 17 percent in 2020. The African-American U.S. population is anticipated to grow to 13 percent by 2020. In the inner cities, Latinos already comprise 31 percent of the population, and African-Americans 42 percent.
Even more interesting, while average household income is lower in inner cities than in many other communities, those households on average spend slightly more per month on food products than shoppers in the overall U.S., according to ICIC's findings.
So where are inner-city consumers buying their food? The ICIC study finds that grocery stores are by far the format of choice for meeting the food shopping needs of urban customers. For almost all grocery items surveyed, supermarkets had a 70 percent to 80 percent market share.
Despite a proliferation of drug stores, dollar stores, and other retailers that have added food to the mix, people still go to grocery stores, even small formats with limited offerings. Data from Trade Dimensions, the Wilton, Conn. retail database company, shows that 9 percent of the small grocery format, defined as having sales under $2 million annually, are in selected high-density areas. By comparison, conventional supermarkets do only 3.4 percent of their business in cities, and supercenters are almost nonexistent. Limited assortment and specialty food retailers such as Trader Joe's and Whole Foods operate 3.7 percent of their stores in urban settings.
A recent study conducted by the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health found a disproportionate number of mom-and-pop grocery stores and specialty food stores in poor neighborhoods. Researchers looked at 216 neighborhoods in Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Minnesota, using housing values to estimate economic standing. Wealthier neighborhoods had more than three times as many supermarkets as poor neighborhoods and there were four times as many supermarkets in white areas as in black areas.
This situation leaves a door open for independents to vie with chains in inner cities. "The independents, especially those that work side by side with a chain, can often fill a niche role, where a chain may be filling more of a basic role," says ICIC official Deirdre Coyle.
"There are real competitive advantages for doing business in inner cities. But it's not as simple as just putting in a store. A retailer should look at the inner city not in the standard footprint, but with a slightly different lens," advises Coyle. "And as with any store, you have to be responsive to your consumer base."
Unassailed in D.C.
Long a practitioner of urban retailing, No. 2 chain Safeway has maintained a strong presence in the nation's capital for 75 years. "We never abandoned the inner city," says Greg TenEyck, public affairs director at Safeway's Lanham, Md.-based Eastern division. "If you take a look at a map of Washington, D.C., we have stores in every quadrant, in every area of the city."
Safeway operates 16 stores within the District, has invested $12 million in the past three years on remodeling and renovation, and says it is eager to do more remodeling and secure additional space. Its closest competitor—Ahold's Giant—has four stores, and a spokesman says one more is under construction and others are planned.
"Our inner city stores have remained profitable because of density, a lack of competition, and the fact that we operate a good store," says TenEyck.
Safeway has found that a good store in D.C. often means the same thing as a good store in Alexandria. "We've found that consumers are really looking for fresh vegetables and the kind of variety you'd find in a suburban area," says district manager Paul Groshko. "They tell us they would like a store just like what they see when they drive into suburbia. Obviously there's a market, and we're there to help fill the needs."
Safeway typically looks for sites that are around 50,000 square feet, but it has had to remain flexible. "Land restraint restricts us more than anything," says Groshko. "In some cases we just haven't been able to get a deal for a parcel of land that will support a store that works for both our company and the community." Still, the company has managed to build mostly stand-alone stores with standard perimeter departments, such as the one described at the beginning of this story.
Some of Safeway's stores do not have parking lots—a fact that would immediately deter some retailers. "The delivery drivers probably have the hardest job!" jokes Groshko. But he quickly adds that an outstanding distribution team helps make Safeway's success possible. A few of its stores have underground parking garages.
The high volume of walk-in trade is definitely a change from suburban stores, and as a result, inner-city stores take more wear and tear. But city customers expect clean stores as much as suburban shoppers, so remodeling is perhaps even more critical in urban areas, Safeway has learned.
Several years ago, after the chain closed a few under-performing stores in the District, residents of the Petworth neighborhood began to voice concerns that its store on Georgia Avenue would be shut down. "We met with the Advisory Neighborhood Commission and then we went back and asked the community where they shopped," recalls TenEyck. "Many of them told us they were going to the supermarkets in the suburbs. So we told them if they would invest in the store, we would invest in it."
The community agreed to support the store, even promoting it among its neighbors, so Safeway shut it down and did a full remodeling, including a new floor and ceiling. When the project was completed, traffic picked up at the former money-losing store and it turned profitable.
Safeway was recently unsuccessful in its bid to build a 50,000-square-foot store in downtown Washington, but the company says it still is aggressively looking at other sites. Meanwhile, it has $13 million budgeted for remodeling and renovation in the next 18 months.
Taking on the big boys in Beantown
In the heart of Boston, Tropical Foods has served residents in Roxbury—a lower-income, ethnically diverse community—since 1974. Owner Ronn Garry joined the operation in 1981 to help his father-in-law when the business got into financial difficulty and then took over the store in 1988. Tropical Foods now brings in about $12 million a year in sales, not bad for a store with only 8,500 square feet of selling space.
Despite the lack of space, Tropical Foods' produce department features a 20-foot roots section and vegetables from around the world. "The Hispanic shoppers refer to the store as 'El Platanero,' or 'the banana man,'" says Garry.
Tropical Foods is a great example of a mid-tier store serving an ethnically diverse urban clientele, according to Boston Consulting's Blaxill. "It's unlike any store I've been in," he says. "There's a mural on the side of the building with names of different countries. When you walk in, you find a completely unique selection of produce. And they have some serious, major-league bags of rice."
The diversity of the store's staff mirrors its customer base. It has a meat manager from Puerto Rico, a dairy manager from the Dominican Republic, and a front-end manager from Congo.
Tropical fills an ethnic niche in dry grocery, clearly an area that sets the store apart, according to Garry, who says he has more freedom in buying as an independent grocer. "We're able to use what I refer to as 'gypsy vendors,'" he notes. "That may mean getting butter beans one day and not getting them the next. Because we've been here, we've been able to develop relationships and get different products. Going beyond Goya becomes fractional for the big companies' supply chains."
Garry says he's also proud of the fact that he uses many local suppliers, which helps keep business local. "We buy our chicken from Prime Poultry, a Roxbury business only a quarter of a mile away," he says.
Inner-city customers are often not looking for the same products they find in the suburbs, as Garry sees it. "People in the inner city have limited incomes. You can't charge higher pricing. We tried selling porterhouse steak once at $3.99 a pound, and nobody wanted it." The store reaches out to the community in various ways, often by getting involved in its many ethnic festivals throughout the year, Garry says. One highlight is a Caribbean carnival held every August, when Tropical sponsors various musicians that play atop a flatbed truck as dancers in colorful costumes parade the streets.
These days, however, Garry spends much of his time looking for ways to expand and build another store. "If we just want to be a bodega for the rest of our lives, we don't need to bother. We've got to compete with the big boys," he says.
That can be difficult when national chains can more easily afford high rents and can hang with under-performing stores, worries Garry. Then again, Garry and Tropical Foods have roots in Roxbury—20 feet of them, in fact—that the big guys may find hard to duplicate.
Associate editor Jenny Summerour can be reached at [email protected].


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Not long ago, people ate lots of ordinary burgers. These burgers were perfectly acceptable. They were inexpensive, satisfied the appetite, and tasted much better than many of the other foods that people were eating. Plenty of burger places were opened and they served billions and billions.
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1915 Wright Model K -- This was a seaplane, manufactured for the United States Navy. The Model K was Wright Company's first tractor airplane with the propellers facing forward. It was also the first Wright aircraft to use ailerons. And it was the last to use the distinctive Wright "bent-end" propellers, designed nearly ten years previously.
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Dan Stevens to Star Beside Emma Watson in 'Beauty and the Beast'
by Ethan Anderton
March 4, 2015
Source: THR
Hot on the heels of news that The Hobbit franchise star Luke Evans had taken the villainous role of Gaston in Disney's live-action retelling of Beauty and the Beast, we finally have the man who will take the other titular role opposite Emma Watson as Belle. THR reports Dan Stevens, star of The Guest and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, has taken the role of the Prince cursed to be a beast in the film that will be directed by Dreamgirls helmer Bill Condon. So far the entire cast is British, but it remains to be seen if they will use their native accents or put on American accents like the characters had in the animated version.
For those who may not be familiar, Beauty and the Beast tells the story of a bright, chipper young woman who takes her father's place as a prisoner in a monstrous being's castle after he's caught trespassing on his property, only to fall in love with the creature, who turns out to be a prince under a curse. Stevens is a great choice for the role, especially if you're familiar with his work on "Downton Abbey." This is the latest in Disney's new line of live-action reinterpretations of their classic fairytales that began with Maleficent last year and continues with Cinderella this month. For my money, Beauty and the Beast has the potential to be the best, especially with a cast like this, but we'll find out eventually.
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History- Jacques was found at the end of Meadow Lake stuck between two fence poles. He was very emaciated and dehydrated.. Thankfully some people who live out there found him and saved him from dying a slow painful death.. He has now been with us for a while and is doing great.. He is very playful and outgoing.. He has just grown into such a handsome boy-- he is absolutely beautiful..
Temperament-Â Super sweet and very happy.. Loves to be cuddled and held.. Very gentle..
Energy Level- Medium level energy.. Very playful and sweet..
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Jacques is just a doll.. I love this cute baby so much -- he is absolutely stunning.. He is just so sweet and loving he will make a great addition to any family. He is a beautiful mink chocolate-black color with white - he is just gorgeous!!!
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Contact this Rescue Group about **JACQUES- Shy at first but so perfect! again.


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Well, as you fellow New Englanders know summer is small/mushy and my 5'11 raynor is not cutting it. I am looking for something with more volume, built for the mush. I would love a quad fin setup but am fine with anything that rips small waves.
I am 6' and 165lbs.. I am willing to meet up throughout New England.
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Depression has been associated with impaired recollection of episodic details in tests of recognition memory that use verbal material. In two experiments, the remember/know procedure was employed to investigate the effects of dysphoric mood on recognition memory for pictorial materials that may not be subject to the same processing limitations found for verbal materials in depression. In Experiment 1, where the recognition test took place two weeks after encoding, subclinically depressed participants reported fewer know judgements which were likely to be at least partly due to a remember-to-know shift. Although pictures were accompanied by negative or neutral captions at encoding, no effect of captions on recognition memory was observed. In Experiment 2, where the recognition test occurred soon after viewing the pictures, subclinically depressed participants reported fewer remember judgements. All participants reported more remember judgements for pictures of emotionally negative content than pictures of neutral content. Together, these findings demonstrate that recognition memory for pictorial stimuli is compromised in dysphoric individuals in a way that is consistent with a recollection deficit for episodic detail and also reminiscent of that previously reported for verbal materials. These findings contribute to our developing understanding of how mood and memory interact.
Depression is associated with impaired memory function. Previous findings have indicated that dysphoric mood specifically impairs recognition memory accompanied by the recollection of the encoding context in which material is first seen, and not recognition memory that is based in familiarity (Drakeford et al., 2010; Hertel & Milan, 1994; Jermann, Van der Linden, Adam, Ceschi, & Perroud, 2005; MacQueen et al., 2003; MacQueen, Galway, Hay, Young, & Joffe, 2002; Ramponi, Barnard, & Nimmo-Smith, 2004; see also Lemogne et al., 2006; Raes et al., 2006). Studies such as these have narrowed down the memory impairment associated with depression to the recollection component of recognition memory. This finding is of great significance as therapeutic interventions could exploit the spare, more automatic, capacity of familiarity-based recognition. Nevertheless, the recollection deficit remains poorly understood and replication has not been universal (see, Jermann, Van Der Linden, Laurençon, & Schmitt, 2009). In the current research, we investigated the effects of subclinical depression on the familiarity and recollection components of recognition memory for pictorial material as this allowed us to explore the important role that visual cognition plays in depressive ideation.
Visual processing, compared to verbal processing, is differentially influenced by depression, thus memory for pictorial material may differ substantially from memory for verbal material. For example, Baker and Jessup (1980) argue that verbal processing is more characteristic of depressive ideation than visual processing; when dysphoric participants were directed to process information visually (with mental images), rather than verbally, visual processing was rated as more euphoric than verbal processing. Bywaters, Andrade, and Turpin (2004) reported a positive correlation between sad mood and vivid imagery when recalling pictures, suggesting that visual processing was less susceptible than verbal processing to disruption in depression. The processing of images is likely to make use of resources that do not completely overlap with those required for verbal ideation as proposed in different models of working memory (Baddeley, 2007; Barnard, 1999). Image processing may thus distract from, rather than prompt, classic abstract depressogenic themes such as "failure." On the basis of these kinds of evidence, it has been suggested (see, Holmes, Arntz, & Smucker, 2007) that mental imagery could be used in cognitive behaviour therapy in order to alleviate negative emotional symptoms. Yet, basic knowledge of the effects of sad mood on recognition memory for pictorial material remains sparse.
Pictures are informationally richer than words: whereas the word "telephone" covers a multitude of physical forms, a picture of a phone depicts a specific model of phone with some clearly delineated attributes and hence offers greater potential for recollection. In fact, memory for pictures is usually better than memory for words — the picture superiority effect. Dewhurst and Conway (1994) argued that pictures give rise more readily to an enriched automatic recollective experience because the encoding experience can be richer both perceptually and semantically. Dewhurst and Conway (1994) and Rajaram (1996) have demonstrated that in recognition memory, the picture superiority effect is confined to the recollection component by using the remember/know procedure (Gardiner, 1988; Tulving, 1985). After recognising a picture or a word as seen before, participants were asked to indicate whether they could recollect the encoding context, in which case they assigned a "remember" judgement, or whether they simply knew that they had come across the item before but could not recollect the context in which the item was first seen, (i.e. the item was familiar) in which case they assigned a "know" judgement. More remember judgements were reported for pictures than for words, whereas an equal or larger number of know judgements were reported for words relative to pictures. It has also been shown that different brain regions are involved in the recollection of pictures and words (Kensinger & Schacter, 2006; Woodruff, Johnson, Uncapher, & Rugg, 2005).
There is increasing evidence that the memory difficulties experienced in depression are better characterised as an impairment of recollection and not familiarity (Drakeford et al., 2010; Hertel & Milan, 1994; Jermann et al., 2005; MacQueen et al., 2002, 2003; Ramponi et al., 2004). Depressed individuals when recognising items presented previously, have little difficulty with realising that the item was seen before, but they have considerable difficulty remembering the item spatial or temporal context. More specifically, with the remember/know procedure, it was found that recognition responses assigned with remember judgements were reliably fewer in depressed (Drakeford et al., 2010) and subclinically depressed participants (Ramponi et al., 2004) than in controls, whereas the number of recognition responses assigned with know judgements did not differ reliably. The first goal of the present investigation was to determine whether the same pattern of impaired recollection and intact familiarity would be observed for pictorial stimuli. Given the arguments just exposed that dysphoric mood affects verbal, but not visual, processing, it was possible that spared visual processing capacity could offset any recollection deficit.
The second goal was to study the modulatory effect of the emotional content of memoranda on the recollection deficit. Emotional salience is known to have a very strong effect on memory for events (for reviews, see Buchanan, 2007; Hamann, 2001; Kensinger, 2004; LaBar & Cabeza, 2006). As life experiences worth remembering must be discriminated from experiences that can be forgotten without cost, emotional salience is a clear candidate for marking out particular experiences for privileged mnemonic access. The memory enhancing effect of emotion has been observed across a number of paradigms and for different events or stimulus types. There is also substantial evidence that emotional stimuli are better recollected than neutral ones (Dewhurst & Parry, 2000; Kensinger & Corkin, 2003) and that this holds for pictorial stimuli as well (Comblain, D'Argembeau, Van der Linden, & Aldenhoff, 2004; Dahl, Johansson, & Allwood, 2006; Dolcos, LaBar, & Cabeza, 2005; Ochsner, 2000; Sharot, Delgado, & Phelps, 2004; Sharot & Yonelinas, 2008; but see Aupee, 2007) and also that the emotional context in which to-be remembered items are appraised influences memory. Pre-experimentally neutral objects or words that are embedded in emotional pictures are better recalled than those embedded in neutral pictures (Erk et al., 2003) and show different neural activation patterns at retrieval (Smith, Henson, Rugg, & Dolan, 2005). Similar effects have been reported for the retrieval of neutral words (Maratos, Dolan, Morris, Henson, & Rugg, 2001) and pictures (Cahill & McGaugh, 1995) when the emotional context is determined by accompanying prose.
In depression, the memory enhancement effect for negative emotional material is even more pronounced. Depression has been linked with an abnormal appraisal of emotional stimuli (for a review see Leppanen, 2006) that contributes to the onset and maintenance of depression. This distorted emotional information processing is reflected in enhanced memory for negative emotional material, i.e. material congruent with sad mood (Blaney, 1986; Elliott, Rubinsztein, Sahakian, & Dolan, 2002; Murphy et al., 1999). Cognitively, this effect is thought to be mediated by increased allocation of processing resources to negative material as more elaborate associations are generated to information consistent with an individual's current concerns (see Blaney, 1986; Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997). Neuroimaging investigations suggest that the abnormal amygdala activation typically associated with sad mood (for a review see Drevets, 2003) may mediate the memory enhancement of negative material (Moritz, Gläscher, & Brassen, 2005).
The memory enhancing effect for negative material in depressed individuals has been observed for faces that vary in emotional expression (Gilboa-Schechtman, Erhard-Weiss, & Jeczemien, 2002; Ridout, Astell, Reid, Glen, & O'Carroll, 2003; Ridout, Noreen, & Johal, 2009) and Jermann, Van der Linden, and D'Argembeau (2008) observed that this recognition memory enhancement was captured specifically by the recollection component, as is the case for words (Jermann et al., 2009; Lewis, Critchley, Smith, & Dolan, 2005). Whether pictures of scenes that have negative emotional connotations are also better retained by participants experiencing dysphoric mood, potentially offsetting the general recollection impairment remains unclear (for example see Jermann et al., 2009). This question was addressed in the current research by comparing dysphoric and control participants on recognition memory for pictures varying on an emotional dimension. In the present investigation, we tested, first, whether subclinically depressed participants demonstrated impaired recollection and intact familiarity for pictures, and second, whether emotion can modulate picture memory.
Experiment 1 evaluated the effect of mood on recollection for neutral pictures that did not convey inherent affective information. It was possible that a recollection deficit parallel to that found for verbal material (Drakeford et al., 2010; Ramponi et al., 2004) would be observed, although any deficit could be offset by a relative preserved visual processing capacity.
The remember/know procedure was employed to explore which component of picture recognition, if any, is affected by dysphoric mood. Contrary to previous protocol for verbal materials, we followed the precedent set by Ochsner (2000) for pictorial materials so that ceiling effect could be avoided and did not test memory immediately, but after a two-week delay. With this significant delay between study and test, a recollection deficit can also be expected to be evident as a reduction in the number of know judgements. Recognition responses that are initially assigned a remember judgement are later on experienced with a know-type awareness because of the loss of episodic detail, i.e. a "remember-to-know" shift occurs (Conway, Gardiner, Perfect, Anderson, & Cohen, 1997; Dudukovic & Knowlton, 2006; Herbert & Burt, 2003, 2004; Knowlton & Squire, 1995). If at shorter delays depressed participants initially report fewer 'remember' judgements, at longer delays when the episodic details are lost and remembering becomes knowing, they would be expected to report fewer 'know' judgements. Consequently, at long intervals the recollection deficit associated with dysphoric mood can be expected to be reflected in know judgements.
We also explored whether biasing the processing of pictures with an emotional or neutral interpretation affected memory. Picture processing was biased with the use of picture captions that participants were asked to read and evaluate when viewing the picture (Teasdale et al., 1999). For example, an image of a staircase could be paired with the caption 'where Johnny had a bad fall' (negative context), whereas the same image of a staircase could be paired with the caption 'where the telephone was usually kept' (neutral context). This procedure has the considerable advantage that basic picture processing is common to the neutral and negative conditions: the same image could be biased across participants with either a neutral or negative caption. An enhancement of picture memory embedded in negative captions was expected due to the memory enhancing effect of emotion.
Participants were recruited from the volunteer panel of the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Mood was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a 21-item self-report measure of depression (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961). The recommended cut-off point for mild depression in the BDI is 9/10 (Kendall, Hollon, Beck, Hammen, & Ingram, 1987). Fourteen subclinically depressed participants with a BDI score of 10 or above and 14 control participants with a BDI score of 9 or below participated; the two groups were matched for age and IQ (Scale 2, Form A of the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test, Cattell & Cattell, 1973). Table 1 summarises the profiles of the 2 groups.
Eighty pictures were selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS: Lang, Bradley, & Cuthberg, 1997) and other sources where necessary. All pictures were of neutral valence and medium levels of arousal. Using 9-point scales, pilot ratings resulted in an average valence of 5.19 (SD = 0.76) and average arousal of 4.58 (SD = 0.66). The pictures were divided into 4 lists of 20 pictures (A, B, C, and D) that were matched for image content, valence and arousal.
At encoding, pictures from two of the four matched lists were presented in a random order. Negative captions were paired with the pictures in one list, and neutral captions were paired with the pictures in the other. Using the example above, the image of a staircase in one list was paired with a negative caption, whereas a similar but not identical image of a staircase in second list was paired with a neutral caption. All captions were matched for numbers of words. Using 9-point scales, pilot ratings resulted in an average valence of 2.56 (SD = 0.63) and average arousal of 6.44 (SD = 0.84) for the negative captions and in an average valence of 4.97 (SD = 0.48) and average arousal of 3.16 (SD = 0.75) for the neutral captions. At test, the pictures from the remaining two unviewed lists were used as foils. Thus, eighty pictures from the four lists (two viewed lists and two unviewed lists) were presented in a random order. Encoding and test list assignment was randomly determined.
To ensure that attention was paid to the meaning given to the picture by the caption at encoding, participants were required to make an incompatibility judgment, indicating whether the caption was incompatible with the picture it was paired with. An additional 10 neutral filler pictures with incompatible captions (e.g., a picture of some cows in a field would be paired with the incompatible caption: "She washed up after the evening meal") were interspersed throughout the 40 encoding pictures. Ten filler pictures/caption pairs were also placed at both the beginning and end of the encoding list as buffers; for two of these, the captions were incompatible.
Each participant was tested individually. In the encoding phase, neutral pictures were presented one at a time with either a negative or neutral caption presented below each image. Participants indicated when they considered the image-caption pair to be incompatible by pressing the space bar. They were not told that their memory for the pictures would be tested later. The image-caption pair appeared on the screen for 6000 ms with an inter-stimulus interval of 1500 ms. Participants were required to respond within this time frame.
The test phase took place approximately two weeks later (14.7 days +/− 2.4 days). Before presentation of the picture sequence, participants were told that some of the pictures were from the image set presented during the encoding phase two weeks earlier, whereas others were new ones. For each image, participants were asked to indicate whether they recognised the image as one of those presented in the encoding phase. They were given extensive instructions (see Gardiner, Ramponi, & Richardson-Klavehn, 1998) on how to make remember and know judgments following a positive recognition. Participants were instructed to give a remember or know judgment only when they were certain that they recognised the image as one of those belonging to the image set presented at encoding. They were strongly discouraged from guessing: if they were uncertain that an image was an 'old' one, they were instructed to say that the image was new. Participants indicated their response by pressing labelled keys on the computer keyboard. Prior to presentation of the test pictures, participants' accuracy in assigning remember and know judgments was assessed with viewed and not-viewed filler pictures in a short practice session in which they explained their reason for a given recognition judgment and the experimenter verified that this response was appropriate.
Mean proportions of picture recognition and of pictures assigned remember and know judgments, with corresponding judgments to unviewed pictures (i.e. false alarms), are shown in Table 2. An alpha level of .05 was used for all statistical tests in this paper.
In a 2 (group: subclinically depressed vs. controls) × 2 (image caption: negative vs. neutral) mixed ANOVA on recognition memory corrected for false alarms (i.e. overall recognition proportions minus overall false alarm proportions, for each participant), there was a significant main effect of group, F (1,26) = 4.87, MSE = .033, p < .05, ηp2 = .16, indicating that subclinically depressed participants recognised fewer pictures than controls; thus dysphoric mood appears to also affect memory for pictorial material. Neither the image caption effect, F (1,26) = .23, MSE = .009, ηp2 = .01, nor the interaction of group with caption, F (1,26) = .04, MSE = .009, ηp2 = .00 was significant. A measure of discriminability (d′; d′ = Z(hits) − Z(false alarm), see Table 3) between the old and new pictures showed exactly the same pattern: d′ measures for the subclinically depressed group were significantly lower than those for the control group, F (1,26) = 7.25, MSE = .356, p < .05, ηp2 = .22 and neither the image caption effect nor the group by caption interaction were significant (all Fs < 1).
A measure of criterion (c) or of the propensity of participants to produce a positive recognition response was also computed (c = (Z(hits) + Z(false alarms)) − 0.5, see Table 3). In the corresponding ANOVA a group effect was observed on this measure, F (1,26) = 18.07, MSE = .126, p < .05, ηp2 = .41. The image caption effect and the interaction were not significant (all Fs < 1). Thus, relative to controls subclinically depressed participants demonstrated a greater propensity, or bias, to report recognising a picture, as reflected in the larger number of false alarms (see Table 2) reported by the subclinically depressed participants t (26) = 4.55, SEM = .040, p < .05.
Remember and know judgments, corrected respectively for remember and know false alarms, were also analysed. In the corresponding 2 (group) × 2 (image caption) mixed ANOVA for the remember judgments, neither the main effects nor the interaction were significant (all Fs < 1). For the know judgments, in the corresponding ANOVA, the group effect approached significance, F (1,26) = 3.32, MSE = .038, p = .08, ηp2 = .11, but neither the effect of image caption nor the interaction was significant (all Fs < 1).
The underlying assumption of the remember/know procedure is that the relationship of recollection and familiarity is a redundant one (Joordens & Merikle, 1993): all items are familiar and a subset of these is recollected. An alternative approach to the separation of recollection and familiarity is based on the assumption that the recollection and familiarity processes are independent, i.e. some items can only be recollected and some items can only be familiar but some items can be both recollected and familiar (Jacoby, Toth, & Yonelinas, 1993). We derived recollection and familiarity estimates (Table 3) from the remember and know judgements within a Dual-Process Signal-Detection Model (Yonelinas, Kroll, Dobbins, Lazzara, & Knight, 1998) based on the assumption of independence. This model specifically takes into account response bias, when there is a difference in the number of false alarms between two groups. The formula used to calculate recollection estimates from remember and know judgements is reported in Yonelinas et al. (1998). In this model, familiarity, unlike recollection, is assumed to reflect a signal-detection process, so familiarity is measured with d′.
For the recollection estimates, our results paralleled those reported for the remember judgments, with no effects of caption, group or their interaction (all Fs < 1). The same analysis on familiarity d′ showed a significant group effect, F (1,26) = 4.81, MSE = .44, p < .05, ηp2 = .16, indicating that relative to controls, subclinically depressed participants are impaired at discriminating old from new pictures on the basis of familiarity. With this measure no other effects were significant (all Fs < 1).
In Experiment 1 the subclinically depressed participants showed an impairment in recognition memory for pictorial material. They were less able to discriminate between older and newer pictures than control participants implying that dysphoric mood can have a considerable effect on the processing of pictures despite these conveying a richer set of information. Thus, there is no evidence that visual processing, in contrast to verbal processing, is differently affected in depression in the extent to which it can support mnemonic processes. The elevated number of false alarms in subclinically depressed participants relative to controls was also notable; subclinically depressed participants had an increased tendency to judge a picture as seen before at the expense of recognition accuracy.
The recognition deficit in this sample of subclinically depressed participants was captured by a reduction in the number of the know judgements. This result can be nevertheless consistent with the recollection deficit found for verbal material (Drakeford et al., 2010; Jermann et al., 2005; Hertel & Milan, 1994; MacQueen et al., 2002, 2003; Ramponi et al., 2004) when considered in the context of the remember-to-know shift (Conway et al., 1997; Dudukovic & Knowlton, 2006; Herbert & Burt, 2003, 2004; Knowlton & Squire, 1995). In the current study recognition memory was not tested immediately as in the previous studies, but two weeks later to avoid ceiling effects, and what would have been fewer remember judgements at short delays become fewer know judgements at longer delays due to episodic details having been lost.
Finally, the processing of neutral pictures appeared unaffected by negative captions designed to bias picture elaboration. A memory enhancement for the pictures associated with negative captions was not observed. In Experiment 2, negative and neutral emotionality was manipulated by varying inherent picture content.
Emotional experience is often described as having two orthogonal dimensions: a valence dimension that characterises the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the experience, and an arousal dimension that characterises how calming or exciting an experience is (Russell, 1980). There is extensive evidence (e.g. Bradley, Greenwald, Petry, & Lang, 1992) that arousal plays a key role in enhancing memory for emotional material. The general finding has been that arousal levels associated with experimental stimuli modulate amygdala activation, which in turn has a role in memory consolidation (see Kensinger, 2004; Kensinger & Corkin, 2004; LaBar & Cabeza, 2006). Recent research in our laboratory (Croucher, 2006; Ewbank, Barnard, Croucher, Ramponi & Calder, 2009; Murphy, Hill, Ramponi, Calder, & Barnard, in press) has studied the "impact" of pictures on an observer; this factor is believed to have a critical role in the enhancement of memory. The term "impact" is used in visual media to describe particularly eye-catching pictures. The degree of affective impact reflects the extent to which a picture personally affects the viewer and how quickly the viewer grasps a picture's content. Distinct stimuli can be appraised impersonally and "propositionally" as having comparable negative emotional content even though they may not give rise to comparable levels of genuinely felt affect (Teasdale & Barnard, 1993). Croucher (2006) found that the degree of affective impact modulated recollection of pictures in a recognition task: negative pictures of high impact were better remembered than negative pictures of low impact, even though these image sets were matched for negative valence and arousal. Murphy et al. (in press) found that high impact negative pictures compared to matched low impact negative and neutral pictures receive priority processing in visual attention, and Ewbank et al. (2009) found increases in amygdala activation when viewing high impact relative to low impact negative pictures and yet no difference when viewing low impact negative pictures relative to neutral ones despite a difference in valence.
The second experiment examined the effect of dysphoric mood on recollection and familiarity for pictures of inherent negative emotional content. Subclinically depressed and control participants reported remember and know judgements after viewing neutral pictures and two sets of pictures that varied in affective impact but were matched on other key dimensions that could influence retention (arousal, valence, distinctiveness, approach/avoidance and visual complexity). In order to achieve a retention interval more comparable to that employed in studies of the influence of mood on recollection and familiarity for words whilst avoiding ceiling effects, we reduced exposure time and made use of an incidental monitoring task that did not require aspects of picture content to be actively processed.
A replication of the memory deficit observed in Experiment 1 in subclinically depressed participants would confirm that dysphoric mood influences memory for pictorial material and verbal material similarly. We predicted that the recollection deficit would be captured by the remember judgements as previously found for verbal material due to the similarly short gap between encoding and test. We expected that the negative pictures of high affective impact would be better remembered than both the low affective impact and neutral pictures.
Participants were other participants recruited from the volunteer panel of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. Twenty subclinically depressed participants with BDI scores of 10 or above were matched for age and IQ with twenty control participants with BDI scores of 9 or below. Table 4 summarises the profiles of the 2 groups.
The negatively-valenced pictures were selected from a set of IAPS pictures rated for valence, arousal, distinctiveness, approach/avoidance and visual complexity by Croucher (2006). The impact scale varied from 9 (indicating maximum affective impact) to 0 (indicating minimum affective impact). Sixty negatively-valenced pictures were used, with half of the pictures of high impact (M = 7.13, SD = 0.93) and the other half of low impact (M = 3.67, SD = 0.53). The two sets were matched for valence (M = 2.01, SD = 0.73; t (58) = 1.16, SEM = .187, d = .30), arousal (M = 4.76, SD = 1.17; t (58) = .38, SEM = .304, d = .10), distinctiveness (M = 5.80, SD = 1.19; t (58) = 1.09, SEM = .306, d = .29), approach/avoidance (M = 7.30, SD = 1.03; t(58) = .12 , SEM = .268, d = .03) and visual complexity (M = 4.12, SD = 1.09; t(58) = 1.05, SEM = .282, d = .29). There were also 30 pictures of neutral valence (M = 5.23, SD = 0.64) and arousal (M = 4.79, SD = 0.73): half of the neutral pictures were from the IAPS and the other half were drawn from other sources to allow them to be matched on arousal with the negatively-valenced pictures. The 30 pictures in each of the high impact, low impact and neutral sets were divided into two lists matched for each of the criteria listed above. At encoding, participants were shown one of the lists for each set such that 45 pictures were presented overall. At test, pictures from the second (unviewed) list from each set acted as foils. Encoding list assignment was randomly determined.
In order to ensure attention was directed at the pictures at encoding without requiring detailed attention to picture content, participants were asked to press the spacebar to pictures that appeared upside down. To this end, 15 filler pictures were presented in an inverted orientation. Fifteen filler pictures were also placed at the beginning and end of the testing pictures as buffers and two of these were also presented upside down. Fifteen additional fillers were presented interspersed with the 45 critical pictures to increase the numbers of pictures presented. At study and test pictures were presented in a pseudorandom order so that no more than 2 pictures of the same type were presented in sequence.
Each participant was tested individually. Participants were not told that their memory for the pictures would be tested later and were asked to judge whether an image was presented upside down. A fixation cross appeared for 500 ms and after an additional 500 ms, the image appeared for 1000 ms. Forty-five minutes later participants' recognition for the pictures was tested. The same procedure as Experiment 1 was followed for the recognition decision and remember/know judgments task.
Mean picture recognition scores and the proportions of pictures assigned remember and know judgments, with respective false alarms, are shown in Table 5. Signal detection measures, (d′ and c), and recollection and familiarity estimates are reported in Table 6.
In a 2 (group: subclinically depressed and controls) × 3 (picture-type: high impact, low impact and neutral) repeated-measures ANOVA of recognition scores corrected for false alarms, the effect of picture-type was significant, F(2,76) = 24.215, MSE = .017, p < .001, ηp2 = .39; neither the effect of group nor its interaction with picture-type was significant (all Fs < 1). Planned comparisons showed that participants recognised more high impact than low impact pictures, t(39) = 3.77, SEM = .021, p < .001, d = .60, and more low impact than neutral pictures, t(39) = 3.56, SEM = .035, p < .001, d = .56.
The corresponding ANOVA on d′ (see Table 6) mirrors these results with a main effect of picture-type, F(2,76) = 12.306, MSE = .540, p < .001, ηp2 = .24 , but no main effect of group, F(1,38) = 2.579, MSE = 1.454, ηp2 = .06, or interaction, F(2,76) = .824, MSE = .540, ηp2 = .02. In the corresponding ANOVA on the criterion measures there was a significant effect of picture-type, F(2,76) = 8.358, MSE = .089, p = .001, ηp2 = .18, and a picture-type by group interaction, F(2,76) = 3.356, MSE = .089, p < .05, ηp2 = .08. The interaction indicated that the subclinically depressed participants adopted a more liberal criterion as in Experiment 1, than the controls when recognising the neutral pictures (t(38) = 2.17, SEM = .135, p < .05, d = .80) but not when recognising the high impact (t(38) = .34, SEM = .154, d = .11) or low impact pictures (t(38) = .89, SEM = .150, d = .18).
For the remember judgments corrected for false alarms, the same 2 (group) × 3 (picture-type) ANOVA showed that the group effect was significant, F(1,38) = 4.874, MSE = .080, p < .05, ηp2 = .1, with the subclinically depressed participants remembering fewer pictures than controls. The picture-type effect was also significant, F(2,76) = 32.450, MSE = .017, p < .001, ηp2 = .46, whereas the group by picture-type interaction was not, F(2,76) = .895, MSE = .018, ηp2 = .02. The same results were observed in the corresponding ANOVA for the recollection estimates (reported in Table 6) where a significant group effect, F(1,38) = 4.132, MSE = .087, p = .05, ηp2 = .10, and picture-type effect, F(2,76) = 35.950, MSE = .017, p < .001, ηp2 = .49, were observed, but the interaction was not significant, F(2,76) = .947, MSE = .017, ηp2 = .02. In both groups, the high impact pictures were associated with more remember judgements than the low impact pictures, control: t(19) = 3.61, SEM = .041, p < .05, d = .81; subclinically depressed: t(19) = 2.11, SEM = .041, p < .05, d = .47, and were associated with higher recollection estimates, control: t(19) = 3.79, SEM = .040, p < .05, d = .85; subclinically depressed: t(19) = 2.42, SEM = .039, p < .05, d = .53; in planned comparisons the low impact pictures were associated with more remember judgements than the neutral pictures (Control: t(19) = 6.02, SEM = .044, p < .05, d = .68; subclinically depressed: t(19) = 2.41, SEM = .048, p < .05, d = .54) and with higher recollection estimates (Control: t(19) = 3.39, SEM = .040, p < .05, d = .76; subclinically depressed: t(19) = 2.35, SEM = .049, p < .05, d = .53). The recollection deficit observed in subclinically depressed participants was not attenuated for the negative pictures, as confirmed by the absence of a group by picture-type interaction
For the corrected know judgments, in the corresponding ANOVA we did not find a significant effect of group, F(1,38) = 4.113, MSE = .062, ηp2 = .07, picture type, F(2,76) = 2.119, MSE = .009, ηp2 = .05, or an interaction F(2,76) = .683, MSE = .009, ηp2 = .01). With the familiarity d′ estimates we observed no effect of group, (1,38) = .336, MSE = 1.116, ηp2 = .009, and no significant interaction, F(2,76) = .129, MSE = .300, ηp2 = .003), but in this case the effect of picture type, F(2,76) = 6.157, MSE = .300, p < .05, ηp2 = .14, was significant. The neutral pictures were less familiar than the low impact, t(39) = 3.05, SEM = .124, p < .05, d = .43, and high impact pictures, t(39) = 2.78, SEM = .131, p < .05, d = .48, but the high and low impact pictures did not differ in how familiar they were, t(39) = .134, SEM = .106, d = .02.
While a global difference in recognition memory between the subclinically depressed and control groups was not observed, a deficit was detected specifically in the recollection component. Subclinically depressed participants reported fewer recognition responses accompanied by remember judgements than control participants. These results replicate previous findings for recollection with verbal material (Drakeford et al., 2010; Hertel & Milan, 1994; Jermann et al., 2005; MacQueen et al., 2002; 2003; Ramponi et al., 2004) and extend those findings to pictures. Dysphoric mood particularly affects memory for the episodic details accompanying events, rather than affecting memory for the event per se (Ramponi, Nayagam, & Barnard, 2009; Raes et al., 2006) and we can now conclude, on the basis of this current evidence, that this holds for pictures. Again, as in Experiment 1, the visual processes engaged to encode and retain (particularly context) information presented in pictorial form are clearly affected even in subclinical forms of depression.
Negatively-valenced pictures were better recognised and recollected than neutral pictures with negative pictures of high affective impact being better recollected, replicating Croucher (2006). With the familiarity estimates, but not with the know judgements, we found that for all participants negative pictures (whether of high or low impact) were judged to be more familiar than the neutral ones.
In this study we investigated how dysphoric mood affects recollection and familiarity for pictorial material that varies in emotionality as determined by verbal description or inherent content. We conclude that recognition memory for pictorial material is adversely affected by mood. Visual processing to the extent that it supports the encoding, elaboration and retention of information in pictorial form is also impaired by dysphoric mood.
In relation to recollection and familiarity, our results are largely consistent with the view that recollection of the episodic context is impaired by dysphoric mood, (Drakeford et al., 2010; Hertel & Milan, 1994; Jermann et al., 2005; MacQueen et al., 2002; 2003; Ramponi et al., 2004, but see Jermann et al., 2009). In Experiment 1, recognition memory for the neutral pictures was significantly reduced in subclinically depressed participants compared to controls. This reduction was captured by the familiarity component of recognition memory, when memory is consolidated and a remember-to-know shift has occurred due to contextual details having been lost (Conway et al., 1997; Dudukovic & Knowlton, 2006; Knowlton & Squire, 1995), the original deficit in recollection can subsequently be reflected in recognition memory experienced as knowing. In Experiment 2, where recognition memory was tested soon after pictures were viewed, a marked deficit in recollective experience, but not in familiarity, was observed in the subclinically depressed participants.
A notable finding from both experiments involves criterion differences between the subclinically depressed and control groups. In Experiment 1, subclinically depressed participants had twice as many false alarms as control participants, showing that subclinically depressed participants adopted a very liberal criterion when deciding whether or not they had seen a neutral picture irrespective of the encoding context. As indicated by the discrimination measure (d′), subclinically depressed participants were less able to discriminate between old and new pictures and, as indicated by the criterion measure (c), they opted for a more inclusive strategy, thus risking more false positive judgements. A similar pattern was obtained in Experiment 2, but only with the pictures conveying neutral content. No reliable differences on criterion measures were obtained with the negative pictures.
It is possible that under considerable uncertainty, created by long retention intervals and/or indistinctive pictures of neutral content, subclinically depressed participants' negative appraisal of their own ability to remember events may contribute to a choice of an over-inclusive strategy. Previous findings reported in the recognition memory literature concerning criteria differences for dysphoric mood have shown very little consistency. Some studies have reported a more liberal criterion for negative words related to dysphoric mood (Deijen, Orlebeke, & Rijsdijk, 1993; Zuroff, Colussy, & Wieglus, 1983), while other studies have reported a more conservative criterion (Corwin, Peselow, Feenan, Rotrosen, & Fieve, 1990; Dunbar & Lishman, 1984) and yet others do not report any criterion shift (Brebion, Smith, & Widlocher, 1997; Channon, Baker, & Robertson, 1993; Watts, Morris, & Macleod, 1987). A number of methodological factors may be responsible for these differences, including differences in task demands, materials and severity of mood. The general conclusion is that, at a minimum, accurate interpretation of results must consider these biases (e.g., Zuroff et al., 1983).
The presence of a marked liberal criterion with neutral pictures at two different delays and for both low (Experiment 1) and high levels of recollection (Experiment 2) appears consistent with differences linked to dysphoric mood in the problem-solving literature (Slife & Weaver, 1992). One difference can be characterised as a pure cognitive deficit (represented by the discrimination measure d′) and the other difference can be characterised as a difference in metacognitive processes involved in strategy selection (as represented by the criterion measure c). This analogy could help to resolve earlier empirical discrepancies. For example, in discussing the theoretical basis for impaired initiative in depressed states, Hertel and Hardin (1990) identified motivational and metacognitive factors as plausible explanatory candidates. This hypothesis of differences in metacognitive processes related to mood when recognising neutral pictures could be further explored by manipulating the "expectancy" of the likelihood that old pictures would appear in the recognition test (see Gardiner, Richardson-Klavehn, & Ramponi, 1997; McCabe & Balota, 2007) and by measuring participants' self-perception of their mnemonic competence. Criterion differences, and by implication their metacognitive origins, have very notable effects on remember and know judgements (Donaldson, 1996; Gardiner, Ramponi, & Richardson-Klavehn, 2002; Parks & Yonelinas, 2007; Postma, 1999; Wixted, 2007) that could substantially alter the view presented thus far on the effect of mood on memory; hence, these warrant systematic future investigation.
While the neutral and negative captions of Experiment 1 did not have an observable effect on the recognition memory for either control or subclinically depressed groups, a mnemonic advantage for negatively valenced pictures was observed in Experiment 2. As anticipated, this effect was particularly marked for the recollection of pictures of high relative to low affective impact that were equal in rated arousal and valence. This result replicates the finding that the emotion effect is captured by the recollection component (Comblain et al., 2004; Croucher, 2006; Dahl et al., 2006; Dolcos et al., 2005; Ochsner, 2000; Ritchey, Dolcos, & Cabeza, 2008; Sharot et al., 2004; Sharot & Yonelinas, 2008).
The recollection deficit observed in subclinically depressed participants was not reduced for the negative pictures, and thus, a mood-congruent-memory effect was not observed. Mood-congruent-memory effects have been observed primarily with self-referent encoding or autobiographical elaboration (Bradley & Mathews, 1983; Lewis et al., 2005; Matt, Vazquez, & Campbell, 1992). Impact ratings reflected the extent to which an image had particular emotional impact and salience to the self, but not to which it was inherently autobiographical. It may be far easier for subclinically depressed individuals to relate words of negative valence, like "regret" or "sorrow", to their personal experience (Kensinger, 2004) than to relate pictures that depict specific events that are happening to someone else. Furthermore, in studies of recognition memory for emotional faces, mood-congruence effects have sometimes been observed (Gilboa-Schechtman et al., 2002; Jermann et al., 2008; Ridout et al., 2003; Ridout, Noreen, et al., 2009) and sometimes not (e.g. Ridout, Dritschel, et al., 2009). Ridout, Dritschel, et al. (2009) found that mood-congruent-memory was absent in participants that were not oriented towards the affective element of the faces at encoding. The task that participants were asked to carry out at encoding in the current experiments simply ensured attention to the pictures. In one case, they reported whether the caption was coherent with the picture and in the other case, whether the picture was inverted. At encoding, participants were not explicitly oriented to appraise the picture's affective component, a factor that may explain why a mood-congruent effect was not observed. Nevertheless, the intrinsically negative pictures were still better recollected, probably indicating that more semantic elaboration had occurred at encoding, but the semantic elaboration for negative pictures was not more extensive in the subclinically depressed group.
Finally, in relation to mood-congruent memory, one caveat of this study is that our results rely on normative valence and arousal ratings of the negative and neutral pictures. Subjective ratings were not collected, so it is possible that mood-congruent effects had occurred but these would only have been apparent if subjective ratings were considered. A second caveat of this study is that the effect of subclinical depression on recognition memory for the negative and neutral pictures was not measured at longer time intervals to test the patterns of the remember-to-know shift. This is also important in view of evidence that the effect of emotion on memory can differ with time (e.g. Sharot & Yonelinas, 2008). Ritchey et al. (2008) provide some evidence that, over a time interval of a week, recollection for emotionally negative pictures increased even though overall recognition memory remained similar. If this is the case, it is possible that remember-to-know shifts may have different time courses for pictures of negative content relative to neutral pictures.
In summary, the current experiments complement and extend prior work with verbal material by showing that dysphoric mood has adverse effects on the recognition of pictures. In Experiment 2 the deficit is confined to the recollection component of recognition memory and the effects observed after a two-week interval in Experiment 2 are consistent with controls remembering more at the outset leading to a greater opportunity than the subclinically depressed participants to report knowing pictures at the longer interval. Along with a core deficit in memory comparable to that observed with verbal material, the presence in subclinical depression of a more liberal criterion with neutral material is consistent with a second, qualitatively distinct difference in metacognition in the subclinically depressed group that was confined to pictures that were unremarkable in their content. Control and subclinically depressed participants showed comparable memory enhancement for negatively valenced pictures.
This work is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (WBSE U.1055.02.003.00001.01).
PubMed Central Canada is a service of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) working in partnership with the National Research Council's national science library in cooperation with the National Center for Biotechnology Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine(NCBI/NLM). It includes content provided to the PubMed Central International archive by participating publishers.


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album '
Dettwork SouthEast
' on Monday 22nd September. An un-released British masterpiece that has reached almost mythical status, and undoubtedly the holy grail of UK hip-hop, the album has been re-mastered and includes a brand new 2014 bonus track, '
Dettwork London Revisited (Dettwork SouthEast Remix)
The revisited version now features
Rodney P
Black The Ripper
each repping their corner of the city over a new
Harry Love
production. BBC Radio 1's Charlie Sloth premiered the track which met with widespread excitement amongst the show's listeners.
Considered an all-time classic of the genre, 'Dettwork SouthEast' (a pun on the rail company Network SouthEast) was ranked at No.3 in the Hip-Hop Connection list of the Top 50 UK hip-hop LPs, even though it never got past an initial test press and small promotional-only (not for sale) run on cassette for journalists in advance of what should have been its official release in 1996. For what later became an album of scarce availability amongst music aficionados, its influence upon the UK hip-hop scene is undoubted. Both singles from the album, '
Real Estate
', and the title track, '
Dettwork SouthEast
', gained widespread recognition upon release, which served to only further fuel the cult-like status the album is now known for; an absolute lost gem.
However, at last 'Dettwork SouthEast' is finally set to be given a full UK release with its original track listing and packaging, including collaborations with
Roots Manuva
Seanie T
plus the aforementioned bonus 2014 track 'Dettwork London Revisited (Dettwork SouthEast Remix)'. The album will be available on CD, 2LP vinyl and digital download.
"For the 'Dettwork SouthEast' album to finally get a release now, as it deserved when it was first recorded in 1996, is quite incredible. The reason this has been possible is really due to the fans, who have been the never-ending fuel that have kept the fire blazing and the engines running. It was the genesis of my career and really defined what I've gone on to achieve since then, so for everyone to get behind this project and truly believe in it has been amazing!"
Blak Twang
Pre-order Dettwork Southeast now from Amazon
Blak Twang Biography
Blak Twang (born
Tony Olabode
, England), better known as
Tony Rotton
, is a British rapper who grew up in Deptford, Lewisham, South East London.
Blak Twang is famed for his live performances all around the world and his ability, especially in his earlier recordings, to include various South London word usage and slang as well as locations without sounding too obvious, making him a firm favourite with English hip-hop fans as the original, "Hip-Hop Geezer".
Release Date:
22nd September 2014
Dettwork Southeast Track List:
01. Stand Clear Of The Doors
02. Dettwork SouthEast
03. Fearless
04. Heads & Tales
05. Tai Boxing
06. Crème De La Crop
07. Entrepreneurs (Alongside Drezzo the Brigadier of The Bloodhoundz)
08. Growing Up
09. Paralytic Monkey ft. Fallacy
10. Real Estate
11. B.S. Survivah
12. Echo Chamber (In combo with Roots Manuva and Seanie T)
13. Rhyming is Forever
14. Dettwork London Revisited (Dettwork SouthEast Remix) ft. Jehst, Rodney P, Samson aka Black the Ripper
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text:
Alex Valentine for letting me have some of his fab boggle cards ('four line poems') today when I was in Hay Deli this afternoon.
Happy Christmas everyone, I'll be back in January.
Happy Christmas everyone, I'll be back in January.
Seth: Do Mummies and Daddies stay at the playgroup school?
Me: No, it's different from going to the playgroup there. After Christmas you wil go there on your own, I won't go, it will be like Crocodiles, you'll just go there with your friends.
Seth: We're a bit too small to drive there on our own. You'll have to drive us there, ok?


text:
I'm still here.. let the partscasters begin!
It's been rather quiet on the blog for the last few months. I feel like this year is just whizzing past. I've only got 4 performances left before the season ends! It's also the case that I've rather lost my motivation for blogging of late. To be honest, I'm not sure it's something I necessarily want to keep doing. In fact, I'm thinking of re-jigging the site over the summer to make the blog side a secondary aspect, and leave this as a space for "publishing" my songs.
However, in the meantime, I will start journaling a little project I've had simmering for the last few months, well, two projects, actually.
Back in February I was playing electric guitar at a conference, where I had my Telecaster and my Gretsch, two very different guitars, with different sounds.
I like them both, but am naturally drawn to the feel of the Tele for most styles of playing which I do, but I also really like the Filtertron sound from the Gretsch. So, this led naturally to asking, "what if there were a guitar which combined these, a Tele with Gretch pickups?". Well, there is. It's called a La Cabronita. I kind of fell in love with it from this:
and this:
Of course, the DIY gene kicked in, and I decided I could build a 'partscaster'. I learnt a whole lot via my previous attempt at a partscaster (currently out on extended loan) – more specifically, I learnt a lot of what not to do!
Over the last few months I've been slowly accumulating some quality parts, and in a new series of posts, I'll walk through the process.
Meanwhile, more recently, a friend asked me to swap out the stock pickups on his Squier CV 60s Stratocaster to some '54 Custom Shop pickups. To be honest, I've never really been taken by a strat, probably because I've only ever played really cheap knock-offs. The Squier is nice, and it made me wonder if I shouldn't add one to my stable. I quite liked the stock pickups, and my friend graciously let me keep them. Thus, a second partscaster was borne. This too will be fleshed out in subsequent posts.
So, to follow: the tale of two partscasters!


text:
Pasta Salad--Inspired by Rita
Recipe by Cindy Lynn
I had a big grilling weekend this Memorial Day holiday, which included Rita's Grilled Portabello Mushrooms (Grilled Portabella Mushrooms), a recently newfound 'ingredient' for us. Her recipe mentioned, as one of the alternatives, adding some to pasta salad. Well, I didn't have pasta salad when I grilled them, but I had some mushrooms left over after the main cookout of the weekend since I'd doubled the recipe. I was also short on time, and had limited ingredients--can't wait for the garden to begin producing!--so I pulled this recipe out of my head, the fridge, the freezer and stole from the onions that weren't quite ready in the garden... :-) I was amazed at how well it turned out and it was a major hit with my whole family and future daughter-in-law! I hope you enjoy it too!
Top Review by Kim127
This is a great pasta salad. I usually get in a rut and make the same old macaroni salad (ya know the one with tuna) so now I can add this to my choices, and to have one that is vegetarian friendly. I only used about a teaspoon of horseradish and it gave it a nice little bite, I will try more next time. Cindy Lynn, you did good with this one!
See Discussion:3 Reviews
Ingredients Nutrition
- 2 cups elbow macaroni, uncooked
- 1 cup frozen peas, uncooked (or fresh peas, scalded for 1 to 2 minutes)
- 3⁄4 cup baby carrots
- 2 celery ribs
- 5 -6 spring onions or 5 -6 green onion tops
- 1⁄3-1⁄2 cup salad dressing (or your favorite mayo)
- 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh ground horseradish
- 1 clove fresh garlic, minced
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons Dijon mustard (I use Grey Poupon for this)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- salt and pepper, to taste
- rita grilled portabella mushroom, diced (Grilled Portabella Mushrooms) (optional)
Directions See How It's Made
- Cook macaroni according to package instructions, al dente.
- Drain in colander, then rinse with cold water.
- When macaroni is chilled and well drained, return to pan.
- In foodprocessor, chop celery ribs and carrots (separately if using mini-food processor).
- Gently toss frozen peas with pasta, breaking apart any peas that are frozen together.
- Add chopped celery and carrots and gently toss again.
- In foodprocessor, blend remaining ingredients, excluding the mushrooms.
- Pour over pasta and vegetables, gently folding until coated.
- Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight to allow flavors to meld.
- Note: If using the option of Rita's Grilled Portabello Mushrooms, they can be blended in with the carrot and celery addition, or served as an optional topping or side to be added by each individual.


text:
I ordered some fake tattoos like 2 weeks ago and haven't recieved them yet. The place i ordered them from is in Belgium and i live in Ireland. I emailed the site and they said they sent them out to Ireland so the delivery company in Ireland should have them. The thing is i don't know which delivery company it is that has them.. how do i find this out or what do i do?
Most Helpful Girl
Did you buy them off amazon or some other website? I know some sites let you track your package.00|00|0
Most Helpful Guy
did you get a tracking number from vendor?
you could ask the site who they use for deliveries in Ireland00|00|0


text:
Average Rating: 4.5/5 stars (40 reviews)
95% would recommend it to a friend.
Ok....so I'm kinda new to the card making and embossing technique. I had made some cards and thought I had bought the right materials for the stamping and glitter. My glitter wasn't sticking and it just turned into a HUGE mess. I looked at some posts on here regarding this tool. I ended up buying the Marvy Heat Tool this weekend and fell in love with it! It also helped that I bought the correct glitter or should I say embossing powder...lol! This tool is so easy to use. I wish I would have bought it along time ago. Not only did I use it to emboss but I also used it to remove some paper that I had adhered to a card previously and decided not to use. I just held the heat tool over the corners where the paper had been adhered with adhesive squares. The paper lifted right up with no problem. All I can say is this is one of the best tools I've bought.
Used in this card: Merry Christmas
have had this handy tool for a few years now. love to emboss. make sure to warm it up a bit first before using it on your paper, it'll minimize the chances of scorching the paper.
Used in this image: No one shops like mom ATC
I have used several heat embossing tools and this is one of the best!
The product only worked for a couple of times and then didnt function.
I wrote to scrapbook aout the same but have not got any reply about the exchange
I was new to embossing when I purchased this Marvy Embossing Heat Tool and was worried about how easy it would be to learn how to use and if I would know if it was working when I went to heat up my embossing powders. So, I got out my stamp, ink, powder and gun, stamped my image, sprinkled on my powder, turned on the gun and it was instantly hot when I hovered it over the image and it transformed in seconds! I was so amazed at how I could get the image right the first time and how I just switched on the tool and it was instantly hot and got the job done in the blink of an eye! The stand makes it easy to put on any surface while the Heat Tool cools down and is safe to use in virtually every environment. The gun doesn't get too hot and cools down quickly. Quick and sooo easy to use!
Oh Marvy heat tool, how I love thee. After struggling unsuccessfully to emboss for the first time with Carolee's Creations Hot Boss (which is apparently good for special effects but horribly ineffective for regular embossing), I bought this, used it and breathed a sigh of relief. Embossing is quick and effective with this tool, producing lovely results in record time. You can also use this to dry certain inks on certain materials, for shrinking shrink plastic & to impress patterns onto moldable stylus tips (heat the tip, press a stamp on it). Has a little stand so you can prop this up. Reasonably priced. This is such a great and reliable tool!
Used in this layout: Pike's Peak '05 (left & right sides) - SHCG Paper Ruffles Challenge
hi, yes wonderful tool, i waited for about a yea before i finally used it , i think i wa s afraid to use it on my cards, but did a few last year, and i did a christmas snowflake card in my cards gallery and it turned out really good.
i love it and am going to use it a lot more now that ihave a hook hung up and right by my work table here i can just grab it, i am going to use it on a layout of one of my dd.s so it will be posted this week end.
i have never done a layout with it but well i am now,
anyone who buys this heat tool, will love it i also bought two of my dd's each one for birthdays and they love it!
scrappy grandma
Used in this card: season's greetng
I have owned my Marvy Embossing Heat Tool for years and have never been disappointed in the purchase! The cord never tangles, it gets hot enough to do the job correct the first time, I love the little stand that props it up allowing air to flow around it once I am finished using the tool and more importantly it has given me years of great crafting fun. I would never want to be without mine. It allows the rubber stamper/crafter/scrapper the ability to emboss and quickly and I give it two hands up rather than two thumbs. High five Marvy!
Ok. I've had my embossing heat tool for over a year and never used it until yesterday. I can't believe I waited so long to try this - and I've been scrapping FOREVER!! I never realized that embossing could be this easy. You stamp your image, sprinkle the embossing powder, flip the switch and heat the powder for a few seconds and you're done. I did burn my first couple of practice rounds but got the hang of it quickly. This can bring such versitility to any lo and can be used with stamps, ink, pens, etc. A fabulous find!!
I like the fact that it's as easy as flipping the switch and getting started on your craft-making. I had never used a heat tool before or heat embossed anything for that matter, but I used it and it was so easy. It's also pretty lightweight and the fact that it has a stand for you to place down on your worktable is great! The only thing I did not like about this product is the color. I'm not asking for a pink heat gun or anything, but I wasn't too wild about the color either. Other than that, the product is great.
Used in this image: Wish You Were Here- BFF Love (page 15)
I purchased this heat tool after my Colorizer literally went up in flames. I was going to buy another colorizer but their customer service wanted nothing to do with the fact that one of their products caught on fire. So - after asking around about other heat tools, this is the one that was recommended the most. I have not been disappointed at all with it and I even like it better than my original colorizer. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an easy to use heat tool!
I love stamping so i naturally picked up a heat embossing tool. little did i know, but this tool has shortened the dry time on all my projects. i no longer have to worry if my stickles or paint or heavily inked projects are going to dry in the time left at a crop.
this heat tool is perfect! it's simple, slim, and easy to use. even the most novice embosser can read the instructions included with this tool and come out with beautiful end results.
I wanted to learn how to do embossing so I ordered the Marvy Heat Embosser and some powder. SO glad I did. I was alittle worried about using it at first, but it is so easy to use and I love the results. I have alot of stamps but didn't use them that much. Now that I have the heat embosser, I can't wait to use them. I shopped around and found the Marvy Heat Embosser to be the best price. Can't go wrong buying it.
I just tried embossing for the first time and after reading reviews for different heat tools decided to try the Marvy Embossing Heat Tool.
I absolutely love this tool! It's so easy to use, comfortable in my hand (I have arthritis so that matters a lot!) and heats very quickly. It also melted the embossing powder very quickly so it took no time at all.
I'm definitely going to be doing more embossing!
Used in this card: Graduation Card for My Son
I've had this little guy for years and it works just as good as on day one! It gets HOT and that's a good thing, it IS a heat gun! It looks lanky and cumbersome, but it actually works in your hand quite comfortably.
Use it to melt embossing powder, heat up a heat-activated glue pad, heat-set your ink, or even shrink heat-shrinkable plastic! You'll find tons of uses for it!
The Marvy Embossing Heat Tool is the best heat tool ever!!! It heats up quickly and is really quality. I've tried other brands and I'm so glad I got this one. It's worth paying a little more for sure. When I go to classes etc., I take my heat tool b/c I will not use the ones they have for us in the classroom.
i have never embossed before. i got this after reading all the reviews. it was soooooooooooooo easy to use. just flip the switch it heat up in seconds. i didn't even burn anything. it is a must if ur going to emboss
Just bought my Marvy Heat Embosser last weekend and have used it several times already... just love the effect that it gives and it is incredibly easy to use!!!
Used in this layout: Limited Edition
After attending a workshop and learning to emboss, I decided I needed a heat tool. I researched several brands and then bought this one. I am so glad I did.
Great heat tool. I only wish it had a longer cord but now I have a power extension cord to plug in multiple things its working out well.
I love the tool for embossing. However, I'm still experimenting with a variety of powders and inks for the effect I'm looking for.
The embossing technics change the quality of my work and this heat tool was the main key.
Used in this layout: Jardin Botanique Montreal
I am very please with this tool. I have owned it for yrs and it is still working great.
This is so light & easy to use! long cord makes it easy to manipulate as well!
Used in this layout: fall at the lake
I am just learning how but I think it is going to be very useful.
Fantastic tool. Works fast. Don't have to close to your paper.
Used in this layout: Merry Christmas
Great heat tool...low reasonable price. No regrets here :)
Used in this card: Happy anniversary
The heat tool is very easy to use and heats up nicely.
Excellent tool, very confortable and HEAVY heat. :-))
I love this tool and use it all the time now.
It was a good safe money
love it!
Well I just recieved this tool last week and I have used it twice on some cards I made. I love this and I know I will definitely be using it alot more with some other embossing powders. This will be one of my main tools. Hope it will last as long as everyone on here says that it does. Well I have this tool for about 6 months and it has quit working, dont know why and I am very dissappointed, cause this is not a cheap tool. thank you I used this gun for about 6 months and then it quit on me, dont know why i really didnt use it that much.
I have owned this one for 3 years and have had no problems with it. I use it for several embossing techniques and for drying/setting inks-chalks. it has be reliable and very usefull.
The only thing I would change is the shape. It seems the ones that work well are all this shape and some are shaped like a mini hair dryer neither shape works the best for me.
I want some one to make a gun shapped embosser with a narrow tip, a nice balanced rest and a partially coiled cord near the base. That would be my dream embosser...
Just bought this today... I love it!! It heats up fast and works fast!! It is a little awkward to hold in your hand because it's not very ergonomic, but I still love it and will (I am sure) get used to it!!
Used in this image: Bookmark
Can't believe that I went for so long with out it!!! Easy to use.
I've had two of these so far, and neither one lasted more than 2 days. Both started making a loud buzzing noise out of nowhere. The first I took back and exchanged, the second I thought it must be okay and I kept using it... 5 minutes later it died and will not turn on.
I actually read the instructions, so I know I didn't do any of the specific things they say to avoid, like covering the vents, holding it at an angle that sends heat up to the motor, etc. Two strikes and I am completely done with the Marvy embosser and sorry I wasted the time and money on it.
I must have got the single lemon in what appears to be a great tool. I used it once and, 5 minutes later, I went to use it again and it was dead. I tried unplugging it and letting it cool off. Tried an hour later and it was still dead. Not good for my first experience with embossing.
Great idea - this is a nice, easy to hold appliance. But it blew up on my third use! Don't try buying this if you live outside USA - I wonder if it's because USA electricity is low voltage.
Sooo disappointing!
So... you say you have NEVER heat embossed?! What! I just can't believe it! If you love to stamp you will marvel at the Marvy heat embossing tool!! You want a way to heat up your layouts? Your Cards? Your Crafting? This tool will help you add dimension to all of that and you will marvel at this tool also! So, you ask.. how is it done? You stamp your image onto what ever you are working on.. throw on some embossing powder, shake it off.. flip the switch, heat it up and there you go... hot lo's, hot cards and hot crafting.. yes it is that easy! Just flip the switch on and heat it up! Embossing powders come in all colors, some with sparkle, some with peral.. open up a new avenue to your crafting... I guarante you will not only just marvel at this technique, but at this Marvy Embossing Heat Tool too!!
Used in this layout: Rachel Brianne


text:
- Trending Now: More Trending:
- Svengali syzygy hegemon repugnant white nationalist, white supremacist
Definition of pastoralize
1 : to render pastoral or rural; specifically : to convert to a pastoral economy or social organization his famous proposal to pastoralize the country — Robert Lekachman
2 : to put into a pastoral or into the pastoral form
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