text:
- Research
- Open Access
Sparse representation approaches for the classification of high-dimensional biological data
- Yifeng Li1Email author and
- Alioune Ngom1
© Li and Ngom; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013
- Published: 23 October 2013
High-throughput genomic and proteomic data have important applications in medicine including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of diseases, and molecular biology, for example pathway identification. Many of such applications can be formulated to classification and dimension reduction problems in machine learning. There are computationally challenging issues with regards to accurately classifying such data, and which due to dimensionality, noise and redundancy, to name a few. The principle of sparse representation has been applied to analyzing high-dimensional biological data within the frameworks of clustering, classification, and dimension reduction approaches. However, the existing sparse representation methods are inefficient. The kernel extensions are not well addressed either. Moreover, the sparse representation techniques have not been comprehensively studied yet in bioinformatics.
In this paper, a Bayesian treatment is presented on sparse representations. Various sparse coding and dictionary learning models are discussed. We propose fast parallel active-set optimization algorithm for each model. Kernel versions are devised based on their dimension-free property. These models are applied for classifying high-dimensional biological data.
In our experiment, we compared our models with other methods on both accuracy and computing time. It is shown that our models can achieve satisfactory accuracy, and their performance are very efficient.
- Sparse Representation
- Sparse Code
- Training Instance
- Dictionary Learning
- Sparse Coefficient
The studies in biology and medicine have been revolutionarily changed since the invents of many high-throughput sensory techniques. Using these techniques, the molecular phenomenons can be probed with a high resolution. In the virtue of such techniques, we are able to conduct systematic genome-wide analysis. In the last decade, many important results have been achieved by analyzing the high-throughput data, such as microarray gene expression profiles, gene copy numbers profiles, proteomic mass spectrometry data, next-generation sequences, and so on.
On one hand, biologists are enjoining the richness of their data; one another hand, bioinformaticians are being challenged by the issues of the high-dimensional data. Many of the analysis can be formulated into machine learning tasks. First of all, we have to face to the cures of high dimensionality which means that many machine learning models can be overfitted and therefore have poor capability of generalization. Second, if the learning of a model is sensitive to the dimensionality, the learning procedure could be extremely slow. Third, many of the data are very noise, therefore the robustness of a model is necessary. Forth, the high-throughput data exhibit a large variability and redundancy, which make the mining of useful knowledge difficult. Moreover, the observed data usually do not tell us the key points of the story. We need to discover and interpret the latent factors which drive the observed data.
Many of such analysis are classification problem from the machine learning viewpoint. Therefore in this paper, we focus our study on the classification techniques for high-dimensional biological data. The machine learning techniques addressing the challenges above can be categorized into two classes. The first one aims to directly classify the high-dimensional data while keeping the good capability of generalization and efficiency in optimization. The most popular method in this class is the regularized basis-expended linear model. One example is the state-of-the-art support vector machine (SVM) [1]. SVM can be kernelized and its result is theoretically sound. Combining different regularization terms and various loss functions, we can have many variants of such linear models [2]. In addition to classification, some of the models can be applied to regression and feature (biomarker) identification. However, most of the learned linear models are not interpretable, while interpretability is usually the requirement of biological data analysis. Moreover, linear models can not be extended naturally to multi-class data, while in bioinformatics a class may be composed of many subtypes.
Another technique of tackling with the challenges is dimension reduction which includes feature extraction and feature selection. Principal component analysis (PCA) [3] is the oldest feature extraction method and is widely used in processing high-dimensional biological data. The basis vectors produced by PCA are orthogonal, however many patterns in bioinformatics are not orthogonal at all. The classic factor analysis (FA) [4] also has orthogonal constraints on the basis vectors, however its Bayesian treatment does not necessarily produce orthogonal basis vectors. Bayesian factor analysis will be introduced in the next section.
Sparse representation (SR) [5] is a parsimonious principle that a sample can be approximated by a sparse linear combination of basis vectors. Non-orthogonal basis vectors can be learned by SR, and the basis vectors may be allowed to be redundant. SR highlights the parsimony in representation learning [6]. This simple principle has many strengthes that encourage us to explore its usefulness in bioinformatics. First, it is very robust to redundancy, because it only select few among all of the basis vectors. Second, it is very robust to noise [7]. Furthermore, its basis vectors are non-orthogonal, and sometimes are interpretable due to its sparseness [8]. There are two techniques in SR. First, given a basis matrix, learning the sparse coefficient of a new sample is called sparse coding. Second, given training data, learning the basis vector is called dictionary learning. As dictionary learning is, in essence, a sparse matrix factorization technique, non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) [9] can be viewed a specific case of SR. For understanding sparse representation better, we will give the formal mathematical formulation from a Bayesian perspective in the next section.
- 1.
We give a Bayesian treatment on the sparse representation, which is very helpful to understand and design sparse representation models.
- 2.
Kernel sparse coding techniques are proposed for direct classification of high-dimensional biological data.
- 3.
Fast parallel active-set algorithms are devised for sparse coding.
- 4.
An efficient generic framework of kernel dictionary learning for feature extraction is proposed.
- 5.
We reveal that the optimization and decision making in sparse representation is dimension-free.
We organize the rest of this paper as follow. We first introduce factor analysis and sparse representation from a Bayesian aspect. Classification method based on sparse coding is then introduced and the active-set methods are proposed for the optimization. Their kernel extensions are given as well. Then various dictionary learning models are given. After that, a generic optimization framework is devised to optimize these models. In the same section, dictionary-learning-based classification and its kernel extension are proposed as well. Then we describe our computational experiments on two high-dimensional data sets. Finally, conclusions and future works are drawn.
Related work from a Bayesian viewpoint
Both (sparse) factor analysis and sparse representation models can be used as dimension reduction techniques. Due to their intuitive similarity, it is necessary to give their definitions for comparison. In this section, we briefly survey the sparse factor analysis and sparse representation in a Bayesian viewpoint. The introduction of sparse representation is helpful to understand the content of the subsequent sections. Hereafter, we use the following notations unless otherwise stated. Suppose the training data is (m is the number of features and n is the number of training instances (samples or observations)), the class information is in the n-dimensional vector c. Suppose p new instances are in .
Sparse Bayesian (latent) factor analysis
- 1.
The knowledge regarding the model parameters from experts and previous investigations can be incorporated through the prior.
- 2.
The values of parameters are refined using the current training observations.
- 1.
The error term is normally distributed with mean 0 and covariance Φ: ε~ N (0, Φ). Φ is diagonal on average.
- 2.
The factor score vector is also normally distributed with mean 0 and identity covariance R= I: x~ N (0, R); and the factor loading vector is normally distributed: a i ~ N (0, Δ) where Δ is diagonal. Alternatively, the factor loading vectors can be normally distributed with mean 0 and identity covariance Δ = I; and the factor score vector is normally distributed with mean 0 and diagonal covariance R. The benefit of identity covariance either on x or A is that arbitrary scale interchange between A and x due to scale invariance can be avoided.
- 3.
x is independent of ε.
where tr(M) is the trace of square matrix M.
The model parameters are usually estimated via Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques.
where π ij is the probability of a nonzero a ij and δ0(·) is the Dirac delta function at 0. Meanwhile, A is constrained using the lower triangular method. Bayesian factor regression model (BFRM) is the combination of Bayesian factor analysis and Bayesian regression [13]. It has been applied in oncogenic pathway studies [4] as a variable selection method.
Sparse representation
- 1.
The error term is Gaussian distributed with mean zero and isotropic covariance, that is ε~ N (0, Φ) where Φ = ϕ I where ϕ is a positive scalar.
- 2.
The dictionary atoms is usually Gaussian distributed, that is ai ~ N (0, Δ) where Δ = I. The coefficient vector should follows a sparsity-inducing distribution.
- 3.
x is independent of ε.
Through comparing the concepts of Bayesian factor analysis and Bayesian sparse representation, we can find that the main difference between them is that the former applies a sparsity-inducing distribution over the factor loading matrix, while the later uses a sparsity-inducing distribution on the factor score vector.
where . Hereafter we call Equation (10) l1-least squares (l1 LS) sparse coding model. It is known as the l1-regularized regression model in regularization theory. It coincides with the well-known LASSO model [15], which in fact is a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimation.
where α = f and . Equation (16) is known as a dictionary learning model based on l1-regularized least squares.
In the literature, the kernel extension of sparse representation is realized in two ways. The first way is to use empirical kernel in sparse coding as in [16], where dictionary learning is not considered. The second way is the one proposed in [17], where dictionary learning is involved. However, the dictionary atoms are represented and updated explicitly. This could be intractable, as the number of dimensions of dictionary atoms in the feature space is very high even infinite. In the later sections, we give our kernel extensions of sparse coding and dictionary learning, respectively, where any kernel functions can be used and the dictionary is updated efficiently.
Sparse coding methods
Since, the l1LS sparse coding (Equation (10)) is a two-sided symmetric model, thus a coefficient can be zero, positive, or negative [18]. In Bioinformatics, l1LS sparse coding has been applied for the classification of microarray gene expression data in [11]. The main idea is in the following. First, training instances are collected in a dictionary. Then, a new instance is regressed by l1LS sparse coding. Thus its corresponding sparse coefficient vector is obtained. Next, the regression residual of this instance to each class is computed, and finally this instance is assigned to the class with the minimum residual.
The maximum value of K can be k, the number of dictionary atoms. In this case, K is in fact the number of all non-zeros in x. Alternatively, the nearest subspace (NS) rule, proposed in [19], can be used to interpret the sparse coding. NS rule takes the advantage of the discrimination of property in the sparse coefficients. It assigns the class with the minimum regression residual to b. Mathematically, it is expressed as j = min1≤i≤Cr i (b) where r i (b) is the regression residual corresponding to the i-th class and is computed as , where δ i (x) is defined analogically as in Equation (21).
Algorithm 1 Sparse-coding-based classification
Input: A m×n : n training instances, c: class labels, B m×p : p new instances
- 1.
Normalize each instance to have unit l2-norm.
- 2.
Learn the sparse coefficient matrix X, of the new instances by solving Equation (10), (17), or (19).
- 3.
Use a sparse interpreter to predict the class labels of new instances, e.g. the NN, K-NN, or NS rule.
Active-set algorithm for l1 LS
where I is an identity matrix. Obviously, the Hessian in this problem is positive semi-definite as we always suppose H is positive semi-definite in this paper.
A general active-set algorithm for constrained QP is provided in [20], where the main idea is that a working set is updated iteratively until it meets the true active set. In each iteration, a new solution xt to the QP constrained only by the current working set is obtained. If the update step pt = xt - xt- 1is zero, then Lagrangian multipliers of the current active inequalities are computed. If all these multipliers corresponding to the working set are non-negative, then the algorithm terminates with an optimal solution. Otherwise, an active inequality is dropped from the current working set. If the update step pt is nonzero, then an update length α is computed using the inequality of the current passive set. The new solution is updated as x t = xt- 1+ α p t . If α < 1, then a blocking inequality is added to the working set.
To solve our specific problem efficiently in Equation (24), we have to modify the general method, because i) our constraint is sparse, for the i-th constraint, we have x i - u i ≤ 0 (if i ≤ k) or -x i - u i ≤ 0 (if i > k); and ii) when u i is not constrained in the current working set, the QP constrained by the working set is unbounded, therefore it is not necessary to solve this problem to obtain p t . In the later situation, pt is unbounded. This could cause some issues in numerical computation. Solving the unbounded problem is time-consuming if the algorithm is unaware of the unbounded issue. If p t contains positive or negative ∞, then the algorithm may crash.
We propose the revised active-set algorithm in Algorithm 2 for l1LS sparse coding. To address the potential issues above, we have the following four modifications. First, we require that the working set is complete. That is all the variables in u must be constrained when computing the current update step. (And therefore all variables in x are also constrained due to the specific structure of the constraints in our problem.) For example, if k = 3, a working set {1, 2, 6} is complete as all variables, x1, x2, x3, u1, u2, u3, are constrained, while {1, 2, 4} is not complete, as u3 (and x3) is not constrained. Second, the update step of the variables that are constrained once in the working set are computed by solving the equality constrained QP. The variables constrained twice are directly set to zeros. In the example above, suppose the current working set is {1, 2, 4, 6}, then x2, x3, u2, u3 are computed by the constrained QP, while x1 and u1 are zeros. This is because the only value satisfying the constraint -u1 = x1 = u1 is x1 = u1 = 0. Third, in this example, we do not need to solve the equality constrained QP with four variables. In fact we only need two variables by setting u2 = -x2 and u3 = x3. Forth, once a constraint is dropped from the working set and it becomes incomplete, other inequalities must be immediately added to it until it is complete. In the initialization of Algorithm 2, we can alternatively initialize x by 0's. This is much efficient than x= (H)-1(- g) for large-scale sparse coding and very sparse problems.
Active-set algorithm for NNLS and l 1 NNLS
Algorithm 2 Active-set l 1 QP algorithm
Input: Hessian H k×k , vector gk× 1, scalar λ
Output: vector x which is a solution to min
% initialize the algorithm by a feasible solution and complete working set
x = (H)-1(- g); u= | x |;
; % initialize working set
; % initialize inactive(passive) set
while true do
% compute update step
let be the indices of variables constrained once by ;
p2k× 1= 0;
where e i = 1 if , or -1 if ;
if p= 0 then
where A is the constraint matrix in Equation (24)
if then
terminate successfully;
where ;
add other passive constraints to until it is complete;
end if
end if
if p≠ 0 then
[x; u] = [x; u] + α p;
if α < 1 then
; . where i corresponds to α;
end if
end if
end while
where H= ATA, g= - ATb for NNLS, and g= - ATb+ λ for l1NNLS.
Now, we present the active-set algorithm for NNQP. This problem is easier to solve than l1QP as the scale of Hessian of NNQP is half that of l1QP and the constraint is much simpler. Our algorithm is obtained through generalizing the famous active-set algorithm for NNLS by [21]. The complete algorithm is given in Algorithm 3. The warm-start point is initialized by the solution to the unconstrained QP. As in Algorithm 2, x can be alternatively initialized by 0's. The algorithm keeps adding and dropping constraints in the working set until the true active set is found.
Algorithm 3 Active-set NNQP algorithm
Input: Hessian H k×k , vector gk× 1
Output: vector x which is a solution to
x = [(H)-1(- g)]+; % x= [y]+is defined as x i = y i if y i > 0, otherwise x i = 0
; % initialize active set
; % initialize inactive(passive) set
µ= Hx+ g; % the lagrange multiplier
while R¹ Æ and mini ÎR(µ i ) < -e do
% e is a small positive numerical tolerance
j = arg mini ÎR(µ i ); % get the minimal negative multiplier
while min do
; % there is one or several indices correspond to α
x = x + α(t - x);
end while
x = t;
µ = Hx + g;
end while
Parallel active-set algorithms
If we want to classify multiple new instances, the initial idea in [19] and [11] is to optimize the sparse coding one at a time. The interior-point algorithm, proposed in [22], is a fast large-scale sparse coding algorithm, and the proximal algorithm in [23] is a fast first-order method whose advantages have been recently highlighted for non-smooth problems. If we adapt both algorithms to solve our multiple l1QP in Equation (27) and NNQP in Equation (28), it will be difficult to solve the single problems in parallel and share computations. Therefore, the time-complexity of the multiple problems will be the summation of that of the individual problems. However, the multiple problems can be much more efficiently solved by active-set algorithms. We adapt both Algorithms 2 and 3 to solve multiple l1QP and NNQP in a parallel fashion. The individual active-set algorithms can be solved in parallel by sharing the computation of matrix inverses (systems of linear equations in essence). At each iteration, single problems having the same active set have the same systems of linear equations to solve. These systems of linear equations can be solved once only. For a large value p, that is large-scale multiple problems, active-set algorithms have dramatic computational advantage over interior-point [22] and proximal [23] methods unless these methods have a scheme of sharing computations. Additionally, active-set methods are more precise than interior-point methods. Interior-point methods do not allow and must be always greater than due to feasibility. But is naturally possible when the i-th constraint is active. u i = x i = 0 is reasonable and possible. Active-set algorithms do allow this situation.
Kernel extensions
As the optimizations of l1QP and NNQP only require inner products between the instances instead of the original data, our active-set algorithms can be naturally extended to solve the kernel sparse coding problem by replacing inner products with kernel matrices. The NS decision rule used in Algorithm 1 also requires only inner products. And the weighted K-NN rule only needs the sparse coefficient vector and class information. Therefore, the classification approach in Algorithm 1 can be extended to kernel version. For narrative convenience, we also denote the classification approaches using l1LS, NNLS, and l1NNLS sparse coding as l1LS, NNLS, and l1NNLS, respectively. Prefix "K" is used for kernel versions.
Dictionary learning methods
We pursue our dictionary-learning-based approach for biological data, based on the following two motivations. First, since sparse-coding-only approach is a lazy learning, the optimization can be slow for large training set. Therefore, learning a concise dictionary is more efficient for future real-time applications. Second, dictionary learning may capture hidden key factors which correspond to biological pathways, and the classification performance may hence be improved. In the following, we first give the dictionary learning models using Gaussian prior and uniform prior, respectively. Next, we give the classification method based on dictionary learning. We then address the generic optimization framework of dictionary learning. Finally, we show that the kernel versions of our dictionary learning models and the classification approach can be easily obtained.
Dictionary learning models
A generic optimization framework for dictionary learning
We devise block-coordinate-descent-based algorithms for the optimization of the above six models. The main idea is that, in the next step, Y is fixed, and the inner product ATA, rather than A itself, is updated; in the next step, Y is updated while fixing ATA(a sparse coding procedure). The above procedure is repeated until the termination conditions are satisfied.
Algorithm 4 The generic dictionary learning framework
Input: K= DTD, dictionary size k, λ
Output: R= ATA, Y
nitialize Y and R= ATA randomly;
r prev = Inf ; % previous residual
for i = 1 : maxIter do
update Y by solving the active-set based l1LS, NNLS, or l1NNLS sparse coding algorithms;
if Gassian prior over A then
update R= Y‡TDTDY‡;
end if
if uniform prior over A then
update R= Y†TDTDY†;
normalize R by ;
end if
if i == maxIter or i mod l = 0 then
% check every l iterations
r cur = f (A, Y ); % current residual of a dictionary learning model
if r prev - r cur ≤ e or r cur ≤ e then
end if
r prev = r cur ;
end if
end for
where Y† = YT(Y YT)-1. The inner products of R= ATA and ATD are computed similarly as for the Gaussian prior. The normalization of R is straightforward. We have , where ./ and are element-wise operators. Learning the inner product ATA instead of A has the benefits of dimension-free computation and kernelization.
Fixing A, Y can be obtained via our active-set algorithms. Recall that the sparse coding only requires the inner products ATA and ATD. As shown above, we find that updating Y only needs its previous value and the inner product between training instances.
Due to the above derivation, we have the framework of solving our dictionary learning models as illustrated in Algorithm 4.
Classification approach based on dictionary learning
Now, we present the dictionary-learning-based classification approach in Algorithm 5. The dictionary learning in the training step should be consistent with the sparse coding in the prediction step. As discussed in the previous section, the sparse coding in the prediction step needs the inner products ATA, BTB and ATB which actually is Y‡TDTB or Y‡TDTB.
Algorithm 5 Dictionary-learning-based classification
Input: D m×n : n training instances, c the class labels, B m×p : p new instances, k: dictionary size
Output: p: the predicted class labels of the p new instances
{training step:}
1: Normalize each training instance to have unit l2 norm.
2: Learn dictionary inner product ATA and sparse coefficient matrix Y of training instances by Algorithm 4.
3: Train a classifier f (θ) using Y(in the feature space spanned by columns of A).
{prediction step:}
1: Normalize each new instance to have unit l2 norm.
2: Obtain the sparse coefficient matrix X of the new instances by solving Equation (27), or (28).
3: Predict the class labels of X using the classifier f (θ) learned in the training phase.
Kernel extensions
where f (·) is a mapping function. Equations (30), (31), (33), (34), (35) and their sparse coding models can be kernelized analogically. As we have mentioned that the optimizations of the six dictionary learning models, only involves inner products of instances. Thus, we can easily obtain their kernel extensions by replacing the inner products with kernel matrices. Hereafter, if dictionary learning is employed in sparse representation, then prefix "DL" is used before "l1LS", "NNLS", and "l1NNLS". If kernel function other than the linear kernel is used in dictionary learning, then prefix "KDL" is added before them.
Computational experiments
Two high-throughput biological data, including a microarray gene expression data set and a protein mass spectrometry data set, are used to test the performance of our methods. The microarray data set is a collection of gene expression profiles of breast cancer subtypes [24]. This data set includes 158 tumor samples from five subtypes measured on 13582 genes. The mass spectrometry data set is composed of 332 samples from normal class and prostate cancer class [25]. Each sample has 15154 features, that is the mass-to-charge ratios. Our experiments are separated into two parts. The performance of sparse coding for direct classification is first investigated with respect to accuracy and running time. Then our dimension reduction techniques using dictionary learning are tested.
Sparse coding for direct classification
When dictionary learning was not involved, the dictionary was "lazily" composed by all the training instances available. In our experiment, the active-set optimization methods for l1LS, NNLS, and l1NNLS were tested. The weighted K-NN rule and NS rule, mentioned in Algorithm 1, were compared. We set K in the K-NN rule to the number of all training instances, which is an extreme case as opposite to the NN rule. Linear and radial basis function (RBF) kernels were employed. We compared our active-set algorithms with the interior-point [22] method and proximal [23] method for l1LS sparse coding (abbreviated by l1LS-IP and l1LS-PX). Benchmark classifiers, including k-NN and SVM using RBF kernel, were compared. We employed four-fold cross-validation to partition a data set into training sets and test sets. All the classifiers ran on the same training and test splits for fair comparison. We performed 20 runs of cross-validation and recorded the averages and standard deviations. Line or grid search was used to select the parameters of a classifiers.
Dictionary-learning for feature extraction
The performance of various dictionary learning models with linear and RBF kernels were investigated on both Breast and Prostate data sets. The Gaussian-prior based and uniform-prior based dictionary learning models were also compared. Again, our active-set dictionary learning was compared with the interior-point [22] method and proximal method [23]. The semi-NMF based on multiplicative update rules [26] is also included in the competition. As in the previous experiment, four-fold cross-validation was used. All methods ran on the same splits of training and test sets. We performed 20 runs of cross-validation for reliable comparison. After feature extraction by using dictionary learning on the training set, linear SVM classifier was learned on the reduced training set and used to predict the class labels of test instances.
In this study, l1-regularized and non-negative sparse representation models are comprehensively studied for the classification of high-dimensional biological data. We give a Bayesian treatment to the models. We prove that the sparse coding and dictionary learning models are in fact equivalent to MAP estimations. We use different priors on the sparse coefficient vector and the dictionary atoms, which lead to various sparse representation models. We propose parallel active-set algorithms to optimize the sparse coding models, and propose a generic framework for dictionary learning. We reveal that the sparse representation models only use inner products of instances. Using this dimension-free property, we can easily extend these models to kernel versions. With the comparison with existing models for high-dimensional data, it is shown that our techniques are very efficient. Furthermore, our approaches obtained comparable or higher accuracies. In order to promote the research of sparse representation in bioinformatics, the MATLAB implementation of the sparse representation methods discussed in this paper can be downloaded at [27].
Our Bayesian treatment may inspire the readers to try other prior distributions in order to design new sparse representation models. It also helps to discover the similarity and difference between sparse representation and other dimension reduction techniques. Our kernel versions can also be used to classify tensor data where an observation is not a vector but a matrix or tensor [28]. They can also be applied in the biomedical text mining and interaction/relational data where only the similarities between instances are known.
We will apply our technique to other high-throughput data, such as microarray epigenomic data, gene copy number profiles, and sequence data. We will impose both sparse-inducing prior on dictionary atoms and coefficients. Inspired by Bayesian factor analysis, we will investigate the variable selection methods using sparse dictionary. The sparse dictionary analysis would help us to uncover the biological patterns hidden in the high-dimensional biological data. Furthermore, combining Bayesian sparse representation and Bayesian regression leads to Bayesian sparse representation regression model, which is very helpful for designing supervised dictionary learning. Finally we should mention that we are working on a decomposition method for sparse coding which is efficient on large-scale biological data where there are at least thousands of samples.
This article is based on "Fast Sparse Representation Approaches for the Classification of High-Dimensional Biological Data", by Yifeng Li and Alioune Ngom which appeared in Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM), 2012 IEEE International Conference on. © 2012 IEEE [10]. This research has been partially supported by IEEE CIS Walter Karplus Summer Research Grant 2010, Ontario Graduate Scholarship 2011-2013, and The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grants #RGPIN228117-2011.
The publication costs for this article were funded by Dr. Alioune Ngom with his Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Grants #RGPIN228117-2011.
This article has been published as part of BMC Systems Biology Volume 7 Supplement 4, 2013: Selected articles from the IEEE International Conference on Bioinformatics and Biomedicine 2012: Systems Biology. The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcsystbiol/supplements/7/S4.
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- Petricoin EI: Serum proteomic patterns for detection of prostate cancer. J. National Cancer Institute. 2002, 94 (20): 1576-1578. 10.1093/jnci/94.20.1576.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- Ding C, Li T, Jordan MI: Convex and semi-nonnegative matrix factorizations. TPAMI. 2010, 32: 45-55.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
- The sparse representation toolbox in MATLAB. [https://sites.google.com/site/sparsereptool]
- Li Y, Ngom A: Non-negative matrix and tensor factorization based classification of clinical microarray gene expression data. Bioinformatics and Biomedicine (BIBM), 2010 IEEE International Conference on: 18-21 December 2010. 2010, 438-443.View ArticleGoogle Scholar
This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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South Jersey Rowing Club offers a competitive fall racing program while focusing on developing strong technical improvements. The fall season will start on Thursday, September 6th @ 4 PM. The team trains on the Cooper River at the Camden County Boathouse (7050 North Park Drive, Pennsauken, NJ 08109). Below are the details:
***All fall payments must be made to Cooper Training Center. The club will compete as South Jersey Rowing Club this Fall but payment is processed thru Cooper Training Center. Mailing address for the club is Cooper Training Center, PO Box 361, Collingswood, NJ 08108

subset: commoncrawl


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EK Water Blocks
EK-FC780 GTX Lightning - Acetal+Nickel
- EK-FC780 GTX Lightning is a high performance full-cover water block for engineered specifically for MSI design GTX 780 Lightning series graphics cards.
Stock Code: WC-474-EK
Manufacturer: EK Water Blocks
+44 (0)1782 44 44 55
EK-FC780 GTX Lightning - Acetal+NickelEK-FC780 GTX Lightning is a high performance full-cover water block engineered specifically for MSI design GTX 780 Lightning series graphics cards. Please check our Cooling Configurator online compatibility system for detailed compatibility list!
This water block directly cools the GPU, RAM as well as VRM (voltage regulation module) as water flows directly over these critical areas thus allowing the graphics card and it's VRM to remain stable under high overclocks. EK-FC780 GTX Lightning water block also features a very high flow design therefore it can be easily used in liquid cooling systems using weaker water pumps.
Base is made of nickel plated electrolytic copper while the top is made of quality POM Acetal material. The sealing is ensured by quality rubber washers. Screw-in brass standoffs are pre-installed and allow for safe, painless installation procedure. Block is mounted with enclosed M3x4 DIN7985 screws. Original backplate can also be re-used with the use of enclosed M4x6 DIN7985 screws.
G1/4" threaded fittings can be used on both sides of the FC terminal. Flow orientation doesn't matter and is thus not prescribed.
Up to four EK-FC780 GTX Lightning water blocks can be used on a single ATX form factor motherboard by using EK-FC Terminal (DUAL, TRIPLE or QUAD type) system or other means of interconnectivity. Please note that EK-FC Bridge & Link system is not compatible with this water block.
- EK-FC780 GTX Lightning series water block
- mounting mechanism with screw-in brass standoffs
- thermal pads
- thermal grease EK-TIM Ectotherm (1g)
Made in Slovenia - Europe!
- Fittings are not included! Due to immense variety of fittings/barbs available on market and no prescribed standards, we guarantee compatibility only for connectors bought from our web site.
- Water block ports does not align with any other EK-FC water block.
- The original MSI factory provided backplate can be re-used with this water block!
More links for "EK-FC780 GTX Lightning - Acetal+Nickel"
Customer review
Amazing Build Quality + Feel
Recently bought 2 of these for my SLI setup, and they have got to be one of the best quality waterblocks i have purchased for my videocards over the years. The VRAM thermal pads that come with this are precut and extremely easy to put install. Firstly the actual look of these blocks are really nice, they are solid and meety, and have a nice feel of quality behind them! They are really heavy too which helps with temps. After installing them my graphic cards sit at around 30C and my CPU at around 45, these blocks are that good that they are providing extra passive cooling as well!
On a side note: if anyone wants to use their original backplate with this they will need to re-drill the holes on their backplate. Backplate = M2.5 size hole, but requires M3 for EK waterblock screws. This is also mentioned on the install sheet :)
Amazing build quality & feel
Recently purchased 2 of these for my 780's and could not be more happy with these! The build quality and sturdiness of these waterblocks is insane! The pre-cut thermal pads fit perfectly and were such an ease to install. They are nice and heavy which is always a feel for quality to me. they also keep both my 780s at around 30C at idle and upto 50C on full load, 30C idle when my cpu is running at 45, means that these blocks are doing alot of passive cooling as well!!


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PDF Report (275Kb)
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2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey: first results presents summary data collected in Australia's most comprehensive national survey of drug use and related issues. Comparisons with previous surveys are presented, along with population estimates of the numbers of consumers of tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs. Key results on drug-related awareness, knowledge and behaviour are features of this report. This report is the 20th in the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's Drug Statistics Series. Future reports in the series will cover extended analysis of the 2007 results and a comprehensive summary of major drug use statistical collections. This report and others in the series are useful resources for policy-makers, researchers and professionals interested in drug-related issues.
We'd love to know any feedback that you have about the AIHW website, its contents or reports.
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A rare chart pattern known as "three white soldiers" may herald future gains for Exxon Mobil Corp. shares, analysts at Miller Tabak Co said in a note to clients Monday.
The "soldiers" in question are a sign of a likely bullish reversal ahead. In a candlestick chart, they are three consecutive hollow, or "white," candlesticks, one higher than its predecessor, indicating a close that is higher than the open.
If the pattern appears after lows or after a spell of stable prices, it's a sign of strength ahead, the analysts said, quoting a book on candlestick charting techniques.
That's what Exxon did recently, on a weekly basis.
"The bull should be able to take this and run back up to the $90 level, where we will have to evaluate any reaction to overhead supply," the analysts said.
Shares of Exxon started Monday modestly lower but reversed course as the trading day progressed, up 0.6% recently. Exxon stock has gained 1.1% so far this year, compared with 15% for energy stocks on the S&P 500 index.
To help matters, November is traditionally a good month for Exxon stock. For the past 10 years, the stock has averaged a 2.8% gain for the month, the Miller Tabak analysts said.
Exxon shares have risen seven out of the last nine Novembers, including November 2008, when the markets were in the throes of the Great Recession and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was staggering along at about 8,000 points.
Follow Claudia Assis on Twitter @ClaudiaAssisMW
Follow Energy Ticker on Twitter @EnergyTicker


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Marianela Hold On - Single
Genres: Alternative, RockFull-size cover art
Release date: 12.10.2018
Release date: 12.10.2018
1. Hold On (03:54)
Previews of this tracks proivided by Itunes.
Here you can find track previews from release Hold On - Single by artist Marianela. This album was released 12.10.2018 and containing 1 tracks. Listen online Marianela - Hold On - Single previews (30 seconds length) is free and don't require registration. For buy album Marianela - Hold On - Single please follow to music stores. If we have other releases and albums Marianela you can see it on this page. All music content by Marianela is presented for reference only.


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Superintendent Message
Welcome to what promises to be an exciting 2017-18 school year! Our teachers, staff, bus drivers, and administrators are focused on making sure this is the best year so far for each of our students!
Referendum Implementation: Since the community passed the referendum in April 2017, the Board of Education has been meeting with the Design Advisory Committees from both Elizabeth Ide and Lakeview schools. It has been a busy summer to say the least! Although it was not obvious that work was being done this summer, we did accomplish the necessary first steps in the construction process, which included completing a topographical study of all three schools and conducting soil boring samples at Elizabeth Ide. Gathering this information is time consuming and necessary for the architects to accurately plan for the new additions and water retention requirements.
The Board of Education is expected to vote on the design criteria for Elizabeth Ide School on September 12, and then the design criteria for Lakeview later in September or early October. Once the design criteria has been approved by the Board, the architects will complete the bid specs documents in time to go out to bid in February 2018. If things go as planned, work on Lakeview will be completed during the summer of 2018, while the renovations, repairs, and addition to Ide will occur over a two-year time span. Finally, all three schools will be receiving security enhancements, most of which will be in place prior to the 2018-19 school year.
We will continue to provide updates on the referendum implementation in our monthly newsletters. We are also planning a community open house to review the final plans later this fall. Additional details about that event will be shared as soon as they are available.
Thank you for your continued support of the students of District 66!
Tim Arnold, Ph.D.
Grade Level Curriculum Nights
Kindergarten: Tuesday, September 5th 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
First Grade: Wednesday, September 6th 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Second Grade: Thursday, September 7th 6:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grades: Wednesday, August 30th 6:30 - 8:00 p.m.
Sixth Grade: Wednesday, September 13th 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Seventh and Eighth Grades: Thursday, September 14th 6:30 - 9:00 p.m.
- District News -
A note from Principal Rhoads...
Wow! Thank you to our students, teachers, and parents for making the first few days of school at Elizabeth Ide G-R-E-A-T! The students have been learning and reviewing our classroom and school-wide expectations across all settings of the school, which are essential in ensuring a positive learning environment. Instructional teaching and learning has also begun within the classrooms. It's great to see the school come to life with learning in action!
Thank you for everyone's patience and cooperation with arrival and dismissal procedures here at Elizabeth Ide School. Each day allows for expectations and procedures to be demonstrated more consistently. Safety is top priority when our students arrive and depart from our building grounds.
Please be sure you stay connected with the great things that are taking place and coming up at school. Ways for you to stay connected and informed include the following: school webpage, teacher webpage, monthly newsletters, PowerSchool Messenger, and Remind101. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to me (630-783-5200 or email@example.com) and visit our school webpage at http://ide.ccsd66.org/. Thank you!
Our first days together have been amazing as we hosted author Amy Logan for an opening assembly on Friday, August 25, and set "Kindness is Contagious...Pass It On!" as our building-wide theme. What a great message and mission for our students! We will be participating in activities all year long with a focus on being kind. Look for more specifics from your child's teacher in the coming days!
We also hosted our Prairieview Curriculum Night on Wednesday, August 30. Thank you to our families that were able to join us to kickoff our school on such a wonderful note. We hope you found the evening informative and positive!
On the academic front, please continue to encourage your child(ren) to develop positive habits that will help them develop into the very best learners they can be. There is no time like the beginning of school to get organized, practice good study skills, set specific homework completion guidelines, and to give 100% on all schoolwork. It makes all the difference!
"It's a perfect day to be a Prairieview Panther!"
Finally, I take great pride in being a Panther. Many of you have heard our catchphrase, "It's a perfect day to be a Prairieview Panther!" I truly believe this and I hope that, by working together to help each of our learners achieve success, you will believe it, too.
Let's have a fantastic school year together!
A note from Principal Windsor...
Lakeview has had a great start to our school year! Students began their first days of school with their advisory groups as we introduced our school theme for the year - "Show your Spartan Style". The goal of this theme is to create a CLOSER, more CONNECTED and INCLUSIVE classroom, school, and community. Activities will be presented and created throughout the year in advisory groups and classrooms working towards this goal.
Mrs. Horeni and Mrs. Defors have started a Spartan Style Club as an extension of our school-wide activities, which is open to all 6th, 7th, and 8th graders! As with our school goal, the goal of this club is to promote a positive, inclusive, and welcoming Lakeview Jr. High School community.
Beginning in mid-September, Lakeview students will be offered extension and support opportunities for students during our FLEX period in the middle of the day. Activities that are linked to all of our subject areas including athletics, academics, and fine arts will be announced to students as they begin.
Attention: 4th and 5th Grade Parents and Students
It's time to sign up for…
The instrumental music program in District 66 is one of the best in the area. You have the opportunity to have your child be a part of this recognized program beginning this fall. Keep your eyes posted for information regarding instrument try out dates for your child.
Contact us! If you were unable to attend the Beginning Band parent informational meeting on Aug. 29th and would like more information about getting your child started in the band program, please contact Mr. Brian Ohlsen at email@example.com. Fifth grade students who would like to start on a musical instrument should contact Mr. Tom Tedeschi at firstname.lastname@example.com. For more information, go to www.ccsd66band.weebly.com to find out what the band program does in our community.
Welcome New District 66 Staff Members
We are very excited to welcome the following new staff members as they begin their journey with District 66!
Elizabeth Ide:
Karla Sullivan, Paraprofessional
Heather Lopez, Long-term Substitute
Shannon Machacek, Long-term Substitute
Samantha Gari, 5th Grade Teacher
Julie Dudasik, Paraprofessional (BACC)
Cynthia Andino, Paraprofessional
Sabra Barowski, Paraprofessional
Meltem Tasdemir Kose, Paraprofessional
Marissa Mathias, Paraprofessional (Early Childhood)
Jessica Flannery, Long-term Substitute for Ashley Sanchez
Charity Collins, School Library Information Specialist
Dominique Coomer, 8th Grade Science
Jennifer Glowicki, Paraprofessional
Donna Hlavacek, Long-term Substitute for Sarah Focken
Ide, PV, and LV:
Jinsun Baek, School Nurse
Demetra Failla, Part-time School Nurse
Alexandra Nodarse, Bilingual Teacher
Diana Goldstein, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent
Alexander Kochno, Bus Driver
Andrew Pelliccioni, Bus Driver
- District 66 PTO News -
For more information about TEAM 66 click here.


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My mom asked me to make this special cake for a colleague of hers who attended Pitt Law School and has recently accepted an employment position with the University of Pittsburgh. In my mind champagne is a great way to celebrate any promotion or any occasion- however drinking at work- not such a great idea. Haha! Therefore, my second best option- A champagne flavored frosting!
The crest on the top of the cake was made of fondant and hand painted. This was my favorite part of making the cake And the most time consuming. The gold was airbrushed for depth. This two layer cake had one layer of chocolate fudge and one layer of classic white. Best wishes to Kiley in all her endeavors! I know your co-workers will miss you.


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Formula 1 Simulator
Game Description
This is great and realistic Formula 1 race 3D game with real tracks of the Formula 1 championship. You will race against 3 more race cars and try to be on the first position to qualify for the next race and unlock next track. Use arrow keys to drive and try to stay on the road, going off road will slow you down and then you must drive great to get on the first position.
Carrera rapida=Quick race
Contrarreloj= race against the clock
Empezar a jugar=To begin to play


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Free Shemale Pictures - Club HeShe - Cute MasturbatingEnter Club HeShe >>
See hot and horny chicks with dicks performing the most explicit sex acts!Visit ClubHeShe.com Right Now! GET FULL UNLIMITED ACCESS NOW!
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Inside Club He She is an excellent collection of picture galleries and videos featuring sensual shemale girls. They bring you a nice variety of content types including shemale masturbation, anal sex, blowjobs and cumshots. There are also sets of beautiful chicks with dicks simply posing naked and smiling for you while they play with their cocks. There's a strong selection of movies as well in a number of genres. You can see straight up shemale hardcore sex, solo shemale chicks jerking off, guys getting fucked by shemales and there's even a shemale cartoon site that should have your dick tingling. There are loads of bonus sites too.


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Hi, How Are You?
It has been a while since I've had anything to say in public – the Lincoln quote about being thought a fool and all that – and I am not sure much has changed. I near the end of a third year as an academic law librarian, having learned much, having plenty more to learn. I teach, research, read, and maintain library tools and collections. I go to meetings. I walk around. In my free time, I work on coding skills and try to learn the ways of mindful self-support and self-compassion. I watch sports on television. I do the dishes. I sleep.
I Don't Do Social Media
You won't find me on the social media platforms any more. I miss the genuine connections I built with people and am grateful for the opportunities afforded by them, but the bad outweighed the good, and I tend not to be one for shades of gray, especially when it comes to behavior I feel is not allowing me live the richest life possible. There's plenty that others have said on the topic that I won't repeat, but in short, I have stopped twitting myself. Oh, and I do miss the constant affirmation and sense of belonging. That part is not so fun.
I (Try To) Make Computers Do Things
It's no secret I've been learning to code with Python for the past two or three years or so, in fits and starts. The past several months have seen me rededicate myself, doing a version of what I must imagine Paul Ohm & Jonathan Frankle ask their students at Georgetown to do. I have done parts and wholes of several courses, but am focusing on strengthening my fundamentals. I'm learning more and more about working with files and directory structures across platforms, and about object orientation. I still like Zed, even if he is angry about strings, but Head First Python (2d) has helped me the most. I tried MIT's 6.00.1x, but still cannot do math, which is sort of a problem!
I Support Open Web Technologies
I'm trying to add web skills to the mix, and have been working on [the resources available within Mozilla's web docs platform] (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn). Essentially, this means HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, which is new for me. So many curly braces. And server-side scripting. In the midst of all this, I believe in supporting the open web, so while it ain't perfect, I give some money to The Mozilla Foundation. I like OSS just fine, too, and run Ubuntu at home, though I prefer to send my cash to the Python Software Foundation and the Linux Foundation. And, of course, to developers who make useful tools – pay for what you believe in.
I want to learn more about how to collaborate on library-specific coding projects, too.
I Read, I Rest, I Drink Tea
Mostly mysteries, 19th century novels, and instruction manuals. Mostly on the couch. Mostly PG Tips.
Bye For Now
I'll try to write more often. There's plenty to share. Projects I've been working on, things I've been thinking about, etc., etc. Send me a message – I'm not too hard to find.


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Dave Aronberg (special prosecutor with the attorney general's office) revealed shocking statistics to a gathering at the health professions division of Nova Southeastern University: "Florida peddles 10 times more oxycodone pills than all the other states together."
These statistics come to light as newly appointed Gov. Rick Scott promises to repeal the state law authorizing a prescription drug monitoring database.
Aronberg also noted that "[seven] Floridians die each day from overdosing on oxycodone."
Via The Miami Herald. Read More.
Visit our Resources page to learn more about drug use prevention.


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Our top bar patio boasts the best view of Main Street and the mountains that Park City has to offer. Book this space in the summer and fall to feel the crisp mountain air and watch the leaves change on the mountain. Book this space in the winter to see the true beauty of our city. With heating units and a heated floor you can be sure you'll never slip or shiver. Enjoy your own private bar and view like no other.
*the space is only available for a full buyout event.
Welcome to the original home of The Spur. The Music Bar boasts our largest capacity and the classic atmosphere that has made The Spur the place to be. Perfect for live music, guest speakers, or a place to dance, our Music Bar is guaranteed to meet all of your event needs.


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- Description
Whether you've been riding trails for decades or you're just starting your XC journey, the Rockhopper Comp is here to take your rides to the next level.
It starts with our new A1 Aluminium frame that has optimized tube shapes which save weight while dramatically improving aesthetics. To go along with these clean new lines, the new Rockhopper also has internal cable routing to further clean up the frame. Lastly, our Sport XC 29 geometry adjusts the reach, angles, and standover height to make for an improved fit across the size range. This is sure to keep you ripping and confident while heading both up and down the trail.
This Rockhopper comes with a no-nonsense spec featuring a full Shimano drivetrain, dependable Shimano hydraulic disc brakes, grippy Ground Control tires that add traction over any trail, and an SR Suntour XCM 29 fork with our custom Multi-Circuit damping that eliminates the "pogo" feel commonly associated with coil forks.
- The frame is constructed from lightweight A1 Aluminium in order to provide a compliant, durable platform to support our acclaimed XC Sport 29 Geometry. Combined, you get a bike that's more than efficient on climbs and descends with equal aplomb.
- The SR Suntour XCM fork puts out 80/90/100mm (size-specific) of plush and reactive travel, provided by air-sprung air-sprung suspension that's custom-tuned for lighter riders.
- A Shimano Acera rear derailleur controls the rear shifting with durable aplomb. It shifts along a wide gear range, 11-34t, so you can ride confidently knowing that you'll always have the right gear for the hill at hand.
- Tech Specs
Frame A1 alloy, Sport XC 29 Geometry, zero-stack head tube, internal cable routing, 135x9mm forged dropouts, chainstay-mounted disc brake, replaceable alloy derailleur hanger Fork SR Suntour XCM w/ MCD 29, coil spring, custom Multi-Circuit damping, QR, 80/90/100mm travel (size-specific), 51mm offset Stem Stout 3D-forged alloy, 31.8mm, 6-degree rise Handlebars Stout double-butted alloy, 10mm rise, 10-degree backsweep, 4-degree upsweep, 720mm width, 31.8mm Grips Specialized MTB Grip, lock-on Front Brake Shimano BR-M315, hydraulic disc, resin pads, 180/160mm rotor Rear Brake Shimano BR-M315, hydraulic disc, resin pads, 160mm rotor Front Derailleur Shimano Altus FD-M371, 34.9mm clamp, down-swing Rear Derailleur Shimano Acera, 9-speed Shifters Shimano Acera 3x9 Bottom Bracket Square taper, 73mm, internal bearings Cassette Sunrace, 9-speed, 11-34t Chain KMC X9EPT, 9-speed, anti-corrosion coating w/ reusable Missing Link™ Crankset Stout, forged alloy, 3x9, 44/32/22T Pedals Specialized Dirt Front Wheel Shimano Center Lock, disc, 100x9mm QR, 32h, Stout XC 25 29, alloy, disc only, double-wall, 25mm internal width, 32h Rear Wheel Shimano Center Lock, disc, 135x9mm QR, 32h, Stout XC 25 29, alloy, disc only, double-wall, 25mm internal width, 32h Front Tyre Ground Control Sport, Flak Jacket flat protection, wire bead, 29x2.3" Rear Tyre Ground Control Sport, Flak Jacket flat protection, wire bead, 29x2.1" Saddle Henge Sport, steel rails, 143mm Seatpost Alloy, 12mm offset, 2-bolt clamp, 30.9mm Other SEAT BINDER: Alloy, QR clamp, 34.9mm
- Reviews
Customer ReviewsWrite a Review
Be the first to write a review!
Write a Review
Write a review about the Specialized 2018 Rockhopper Comp Mountain Bike by completing the form below. Please complete all fields marked with an *
- Delivery
This item is available for International delivery. For orders outside the UK, please contact us for a quote. Read more.
UK orders are sent using Royal Mail Tracked 48, Royal Mail Recorded or Royal Mail letter post for small, light orders and Parcelforce for heavier, bulky orders. Please allow approx 2-3 days for delivery after the order has been despatched. Large and heavy items, e.g turbo trainers and work stands, will be sent by Parcelforce (UK Mainland only). Overseas orders are sent using Royal Mail International Signed For service and Royal Mail Airsure service (where permitting). Heavier items e.g. bicycles are sent using Parcelforce Worldwide. Delivery times will vary depending on destination, customs clearance, local postal service etc. Please allow up to 14 working days for delivery. Postage costs include Insurance for the value of the order. Bicycles sent within the UK are sent by Parcelforce 48 Hour Service.


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Are you an emerging artist?
EPL encourages creativity and discovery in its locations. We provide free space for artists to display their work in the community. Exhibit space varies from branch to branch. Please go to the Community Gallery Submission Formopens a new window to apply and view branch details.
Do you have any questions about having your art featured? Visit our FAQ section opens a new windowto see how you can apply and the criteria that are used for selecting exhibits.


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Why take class notes all by your lonesome when you can work with a buddy (or four!)? Gingko is a simple to use outlining tool that works great for everything from outlining that next research paper, to writing your next novel, to working as a team to take those class notes. Take a look at the Gingko intro video here, or go straight to Gingko here.© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved.
One thought on "Great Way to Collaborate on Class Notes"
I'm Tracy Chopek, the college writing intern for Stage of Life. This month we are holding a writing contest about goal setting. High school and college students can share stories about when they have set some type of goal and either succeeded or failed. I saw your blog and wanted to make you aware of our contest in case you are interested in sharing it.
The contest is being sponsored by Lenovo. Stage of Life is an international blogging community with over 400,000 students and teachers passing through our site each school year.
Please let me know if you have any questions or are able to feature it- thanks!
Comments are closed.


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|Jan 28, 2013
Park True Sample TopographyTM Provides the Most Accurate AFM Topography Without Piezo Creep Error
|(Nanowerk News) Park Systems announces True Sample Topography™ describing Park technology that eliminates piezoelectric creep errors, resulting in the extremely accurate profile of a sample surface. True Sample Topography™ features an industry-leading Z-detector with a noise level low enough to use it for the AFM topography signal.
|In conventional AFM scanning, the application of a calibrated voltage causes the expansion and contraction of a piezoelectric actuator, which moves the scanner accordingly. In this approach, the voltage provides the measuring signal to profile the surface topography. Unfortunately, piezoelectric materials have a tendency to produce creep (continue moving in the same direction) and hysteresis effect (retain properties of a previous state) that introduce positioning errors into the signal. Some AFM systems use closed-loop feedback from additional position detectors to adjust the scanner position and compensate for the errors. However, the feedback applies usually to the X and Y (horizontal) directions and not to the Z direction (vertical, height) because of the typical high level of noise in the Z-direction detector. As a result, when the measuring signal is the applied voltage to the Z-scanner, errors known as edge overshoot and trailing edges often occur.
|With True Sample Topography™ Park AFM overcomes the Z-scanner errors with its industry-leading low-noise (0.2 angstrom) Z-position detector. This detector is so accurate that it provides the topography signal for the closed-loop system. It enables extremely accurate height (topography) recording of sample surface features even during high-speed scanning.
|Dr. Sang-il Park, the founder and CEO of Park System notes, Piezo creep is caused by the intrinsic materials property of a piezoelectric actuator that drives the Z scanner. The only way to correct this artifact is to use an independent position sensor that directly measures the topography. In True Sample Topography™, piezo creep error is corrected by independent position sensors, and their noise level is low enough to be a topography signal.
|The Z detector is the key technical advance of the new Park NX product line, which includes the Park NX10, a premium research-grade small sample AFM, and the Park NX20, a high-end large-sample AFM designed for failure analysis and quality assurance applications. The NX technology builds on Parks leadership in AFM data accuracy with features such as True Non-Contact ModeTM and Crosstalk EliminationTM that add up to the most accurate and reliable atomic force microscopes on the market.
|About Park Systems
|Park Systems serves its customers by providing a complete range of AFM solutions including AFM systems, options and software, along with global service and support. Park Systems is the leading nanotechnology solutions partner for nanoscale measurements and systems for both research and industry. The product line of Park Systems reflects its focused strength to help customers achieve the metrology performance that meets the needs and requirements of present and future applications. Since improvements in nanometrology are key to enabling tomorrow's research, analysis, processing and product manufacturing, the innovative technology and market leadership of Park Systems in the field of nanometrology will remain as the core competence and market driving force of its future business. Parks manufacturing and engineering facilities are located in Suwon, South Korea with the US headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Global sales and service offices are located throughout the U.S., Korea, Japan, and Singapore.
|Source: Park Systems (press release, Santa Clara, California, October 26, 2012)
Subscribe to a free copy of one of our daily
Nanowerk Newsletter Email Digests
with a compilation of all of the day's news.
These articles might interest you as well:


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Leather Shoes Adara
Art at your feet! Handpainted boots by Carolina.
Leather boots made by hand, exclusive design, with fringes and handpainted detail. Elegant and trendy shoes. Hand painted ART made by Carolina. Our Boots are handmade by experts handcrafters, caring for every detail. We pick exclusive and unique leathers, hand painetd by Carolina.
100% cowhide /leather.
Interior made of leather.
Leather sole.
Made in Uruguay.
YKK zippers, with Carolina De Cunto Logo.
Color: Black color finish leather. Hand painted ART detail made by Carolina with exclusives flowers.
Sizes are from 35 to 40 - US sizes: 6 to 10 .
Make you reservation, we take 30 days to be ready for the order.
Email to order: email@example.com
Art at your feet! Handpainted boots by Carolina.
Miami Fashion Week!
Art at your feet! Handpainted boots by Carolina.
Art at your feet! Handpainted shoes by Carolina


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If the daily volatility of any underlying issue is ½%, then a 5% move is obviously much more substantial than a 5% move on an underlying that has an average volatility of 3%. A 5% daily move is a very rare occurrence for most indexes or forex markets while not unusual at all for many stocks. However, if we use a multiple applied to average volatility, we get a technique that is very effective at capturing moves of equal significance across any market or time frame. It just makes a lot of intuitive sense. Would you place equal significance on a certain percentage move if trading QQQQ and QLD? I want to be clear, I am not dismissing percentage moves as invalid and they are certainly much easier to implement. My argument is that ATR offers a more complete picture of the significance of a percentage move.
One more example, ATVI had a 5.49% gap up on Friday, unusual but certainly not an incredibly rare event. However, the ATR(10) multiple of that gap was 4.9x due to the extremely tight range that stock had been trading in. That is nearly 3 times as rare and far more significant.
As usual, we will run the test on three separate portfolios to increase our confidence that the results are systemic and all tests will be run from 01/01/1998-12/31/2007.
Our entry criteria will a liquidity condition requiring 10-day average daily volume to be greater than 100,000 shares. In addition, we will look at both volume as a percentage surge over 10-day average daily volume using a >= condition, and an ATR multiple price breakout over the 10-day average ATR in a >= condition. Trades will be entered at open with a market order the day following the entry signal.
Like last week, we will use 3D surface graphs to visualize both volume and ATR multiples simultaneously. We will begin by looking at the EDR results for the three portfolios.
EDR=Expectancy per dollar risked. This is my primary evaluation ratio and has been covered extensively in previous posts. It is calculated by Average Trade/Average Loss. The results are in dollars with .28 representing 28 cents per dollar risk.The "ATR multiple" axis of the graphs represent the ATR multiple change in price, while the "Volume%" axis of the chart represents the volume surge. This is consistent in all tests. The z-axis represents our various evaluation ratios. For clarity, some of the graphs have been rotated so please pay attention to the axis when comparing results across multiple tests, particularity when compared to the previous study.
Let's begin by focusing on the EDR ratio. First, compared to the percentage price action studies from a few weeks ago, ATR breakouts provide us with peak expectancy figures that are 84% higher for our IBD portfolio, 28% higher for our Nasdaq100 portfolio, and 24% higher for our S&P500 portfolio. Furthermore, when compared to the percentage study, the average expectancy across all ATR tests was 43% higher for the IBD portfolio, 21% higher for the Nasdaq100 portfolio and 16% higher for the S&P500 portfolio. From this, we can begin to conclude that ATR does provide us with an effective way of evaluating price movement, perhaps more so than single daily percentage changes in the creation of a breakout trading strategy.
Also, when compared to the previous study, we see a much more implicit increase in expectancy as we move along the ATR-axis of the graphs. While the price action axis of the percentage breakout tests offered little to no expectancy edge on any of the 3 portfolios and a clear disadvantage on the IBD portfolio, leaving most of the work to volume, here we see a clear advantage in 2 of the 3 portfolios and no negative impact on any of them. Very encouraging results.
A word of caution. While I go to great pains to avoid presenting overly curve-fit results, the spike you see along the 4.0 ATR multiple of the IBD portfolio is a clear warning sign. What we look for in these tests are smooth trends as we modify variables and a sudden spike in the results is always a concern. What it means is that particular number on these particular stocks happen to jive well together and while that does not invalidate the results, it means that future test will probably not perform anywhere near those levels. What I would do in a situation like this is use an average of the 3.5x & 4.5x results along that axis as a better indication of what we would more likely experience in real-time. That is exactly what we will do next week when evaluating our entry criteria to use with ATR multiple exits next week.
Below, I will post the EER and DDR results for these tests. I will not comment on them but am making them available for those motivated to dig a little deeper. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
EER=Efficient Expectancy Ratio. This is our EDR/Avg. Days in Winning trades. This number is meant to reveal the most efficient use if capital as it calculates expectancy per dollar risk per day in trade. The results are in dollars with .01 representing 1 cent per dollar risk per day in trade
DDR= Drawdown ratio. This number is calculated by Net Profit/Maximum Drawdown. A higher number is better.


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We have various documents and guides available, both for users and developers of MistServer. If anything is unclear or you have suggestions for improvements, please contact us.
MistServer user documents
User documents are detailed documents about the usage of MistServer, if you're unsure how to get a feature working or MistServer itself, this is your first stop.
|MistServer Manual
|Contains information about installation, configuration, integration and specifications.
|MistServer quick start guide
|Contains basic information for installing and use of MistServer
|Blogpost: Live streaming with MistServer and OBS Studio
|Contains the basic information for live streaming in combination with OBS Studio.
|Blogpost: Raw H264 from Raspberry Pi camera to MistServer
|Shows how you can set up a Raspberry Pi camera live stream with MistServer.
|Blogpost: An introduction to encoding and pushing with ffmpeg
|Basic information about how to encode and push streams with ffmpeg.
|Blogpost: Recording live streams with MistServer
|How to set up live stream recording using MistServer.
|Blogpost: Fantastic protocols and where to stream them
|Explains how to choose between the most popular protocols (Last updated: June 2017).
|Blogpost: Live streaming with Wirecast and MistServer
|Contains the basic information for live streaming in combination with Wirecast.
MistServer developer documents
Developer documents are detailed documents about the inner workings of MistServer. The developer documents are perfect for those who want to develop or integrate with MistServer.
|MistServer Manual
|Contains information about installation, configuration, integration and specifications.
|MistServer Doxygen
|Code documentation
|MistServer changelog
|Changelog, including upcoming changes.
|Blogpost: Connecting to our API with PHP
|Describes how to set up MistServer using our API through PHP.
|Blogpost: Building an access control system with triggers and PHP
|An example of how you could set up an access control system for MistServer.
|Blogpost: Setting up a transcoder
|An example of how you could set up a transcoder for MistServer.
|Blogpost: Library playback with the STREAM_SOURCE trigger
|An example of how you could set up MistServer with huge media libraries.
|Blogpost: Cleaning up links and combining your media server with your website through a reverse proxy
|An example of how you can set up a reverse proxy with MistServer.
|Blogpost: Setting up advanced analytics through Prometheus and Grafana
|An example of how to set up advanced analytics with MistServer.
|Blogpost: Hardware requirements of MistServer
|Shows you what hardware you need for your intended MistServer useage.
One of the most common questions in streaming media is "what can I expect?". Well with MistServer you have no need to wonder, we can show you. We publish the results of some of our tests the builds go through online. Feel free to go through them and contact us if you have any questions.
|Research Paper Q2 2016
|Load balancing comparison between state of the art and MistServer
|White Paper Q2 2014
|Burst handling is examined per media server
|White Paper Q1 2014
|The performance of MistServer 2.0 shown and why we've started the Research Initiative
|White paper Q3 2013
|The roots of MistServer, our first ideology and starting point
Example of MistServer statistics
Below you can find a simple example of the basic statistics possible with MistServer. If you're interested in the more advanced statistics please ask us.
|Server specs
|8 core Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 @ 2.40 GHz
MistServer legacy legal documents
These are archived copies of our terms and conditions and the dates they were in use. Later licenses came with the terms and conditions as part of the license itself so there is no seperate terms and conditions document for licenses given out after 2016-10-31.
|User License Agreement September 2016
|In use 2016-09-22 till 2016-10-31
|User License Agreement July 2015
|In use 2015-07-13 till 2016-09-21
|User License Agreement June 2013
|In use 2013-06-18 till 2015-07-12


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Product Description
- A 100r Bowel, Liver, Kidneys, Joints, Eyes, Teeth and an overall stronger Immune Systems
- Promotes blood circulation around the body, as result known to reduce varicose veins
- 100% Natural Herbs and Minerals
- NO synthetic VITAMINS or CHEMICALS used. We use the whole plants and minerals unlike most other food supplements.No Fillers, Binders or Other Excipients
- Suitable for Vegans and Vegetarians
Ginger, Fennel Seeds, Justicia Adhatoda, Black Pepper, Pistacia Lentiscus, Black Salt, Cardamon, Curcuma Zedoaria, Trachyspermum Ammi, Pimpinella Anisum, Terminalia Chebula, HPMC Capsules


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In 1860, Abraham Lincoln became president after winning the electoral vote and the Battle of the Bands (as lead singer of the speed metal band The Amplification Proclamation). The south, pissed off that Lincoln was going to free the slaves (he wanted to hire them as groupies), said "Fuck you, buddy!" and decided to form their own country. Also, Jefferson Davis said he only lost because the judges hated Psychobilly.
Lincoln, having none of this, declared war.
The start of the campaign
The North would have won the war early on if it hadn't been for three factors: Tactics, Morale, and Megatron.
The best generals in the American army were all buddies, and decided that Jefferson Davis threw a better party. Thanks to Robert "Bobcat" Lee, Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson and Steve "Stone Cold" Austin, the Southerners were able to win key victories despite the North's better industry and numbers. As well, Jefferson Davis gave his troops free beer and hookers, giving them the morale needed to push on through. Finally, Megatron and the Decepticons took to the field (Optimus Prime and the Autobots being detained on Counter-Earth at the time).
A notable early battle of the American civil war was Union general Mark Twain, whose steammech seventh battallion defeated Goering's Zahnradsturm strategy by cutting off the Nazi's food supply.


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Brackstone Builders - Porches
At Brackstone Builders we take a huge amount of pride in our work and bringing the front of your home back to life with the addition or renovation of a porch gives us the opportunity to create a really special approach to your home. Whether its a modern or older home or a listed building in one of our picturesque Wiltshire villages, Brackstone Builders' commitment to quality will ensure you get the right solution for your home.
Conock, Devizes
Porch Extension Project
This project included constructing a new porch, and extension to the right hand side and a garden room together with the formation of large openings.
We also undertook re-roofing plus refurbishment to the existing cottage.
Steeple Ashton, Trowbridge.
New Oak Door and Frame
We provided and fitted this gothic style oak door and heavy duty frame in a style which was in keeping with the ornate brickwork and masonry surrounding this opening. The character of this charming cottage has been maintained.
Poulshot, Devizes
Farmhouse Porch
This old farmhouse had a tin lean-to porch on the front elevation. We initially raked out and repointed the front elevation in lime mortar. We advised the client that the porch was on the point of collapse and needed action. We agreed and accepted a brief to create a simple, no frills lean-to-porch in keeping with the farmhouse, which we achieved on time and within budget. We also paved the areas surrounding the front in an old English flagstone.
Easterton, Wiltshire
White House, Easterton
The brief was to transform a fairly plain house into something a little more grand.
An oak door and frame were used and a Bath stone Georgian style porch was constructed.
Marston, Wiltshire
New Porch in Marston
A simple cottage style oak and brick porch based in Marston
Worton, Wiltshire
New Porch in Worton
In 2015 we met with the owners of a large modern property to discuss ways of enhancing the front elevation as it had a tiny canopy porch and did not do justice to a property of this calibre. We designed and built a nice oak framed porch which has completely transformed the front entrance.
Easterton, Wiltshire
This was not technically a porch but rather a BBQ canopy as the clients wished to make use of their BBQ all year round. the construction is green oak, with a lean-too plain tiled roof. A structure like this could easily be adapted to a porch.


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This year saw the return of the popular Round Robin of coastal partnership. Please find listed below the presentation of those who came. Round Robin Clyde Marine Planning Partnership Lady Isabel Glasgow Round Robin Exe Estuary Steph Clark Round Robin Morecambe Bay Susannah Bleakley Round Robin NW Coastal Forum Caroline Salthouse Round Robin Severn Estuary… [ Read More ]
The pages within this section contain details of past meetings held by the Coastal Partnerships Network and announce any future meetings and events. Relevant news and job vacancies will also be posted here. You can visit our CPN Newsletter Archive and keep up to date with all matters relating to Coastal Partnerships by subscribing to our e-newsletter.
CPN Annual Forum Formal Presentations
Another successful Annual Forum saw CPN descend on Durham. A field trip to the transformed Durham Heritage Coast showed what coastal practitioners actually do. We then had formal sessions on the national scene and an extended Round Robin session of partnerships sharing what they are doing and planning. Here are the formal presentations for 9th… [ Read More ]
Annual Forum 2016 – Durham 9-10 November
!!FULL PROGRAMME AND BOOKING AVAILABLE NOW!! In this ever changing world Coastal Partnerships provide a key role on our coasts with so much to celebrate and so many challenges to come. Our Annual Forum provides the time to gather, share and learn. This year our Annual Forum will be held in Durham on 9th and 10th November 2016. The… [ Read More ]
Action Plan 2016
Following our Forum in Bristol last November, the Action Plan for 2016 has been refreshed. CPNetwork Action Plan 2016
2015 Annual Coastal Partnerships Forum 17th & 18th November 2015 – Programme and booking available now!
We return to Bristol ten years on from our first Coastal Partnerships Network event. The CPN Annual Forum is the national continuing professional development event for Coastal Partnership Officers and members of their Steering Groups or Boards, partner bodies and others with an interest in coast. It provides up to date information on the latest… [ Read More ]
2014 Annual Forum Presentations
We are pleased to be able to publish all the presentations given at our Forum. A BIG thank you to all for allowing these to be published. 1. Morecambe Bay Partnership – Susannah Bleakley & MBPs ad that appears in local cinemas – a great example of what is possible. 2. Marine Planning Progress & Social… [ Read More ]
Programme avaible, register now – Coastal Partnerships Network Annual Forum 2014: 4th & 5th November, Grange-over-Sands
We are delighted to announce that the Coastal Partnerships Network Annual Forum – the national CPD event for Coastal Partnership Officers, their Board and Steering Group members and the organisations that work in partnership with them – is being on 4th and 5th November in Grange-over-Sands. The conference will feature key policy updates and partnership news… [ Read More ]
An Action Plan for the Coastal Partnerships Network has been produced using the outputs of the workshop sessions which took place at the Annual Forum 2013. The Action Plan – for adoption – covers outward facing activity such as representation and championing coastal partnerships, sharing best practice, and internal business activity such as developing professional… [ Read More ]
Call for papers – ICE Coastal Management 2015
The Institution of Civil Engineers' (ICE) 8th Coastal Management Conference will take place in September 2015, in the Netherlands. Coastal Management 2015 – Changing Coasts, Changing Climate, Changing Minds seeks papers on top international coastal projects that offer practical learning, innovative and integrated solutions, and encourage new ways of understanding and managing our coasts. Occurring every… [ Read More ]
Action Plan 2014 – for adoption
The Action Plan for 2014 was produced following the Annual Form 2013 and is drawn from the results of the workshop sessions which posed a series of questions around what members and other organisations expect the Coastal Partnerships Network to deliver and where CPN can best focus activity to add value. The resulting plan, produced by… [ Read More ]


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I remember the day very vividly. In the middle of my middle school math class, the teacher was told to turn on the radio. The entire class stopped as we heard the announcement. Planes had crashed into the Twin Towers in New York.
My old friend and I were picked up from school. We were told by his parents, "No one is safe." Every television channel was playing the same footage on a loop for the entire day. I was only twelve, and although I had experienced the cold hand of death on a personal level, the sheer concentration of it was all too new for me.
In years prior I had assumed a perfect invulnerability, this was America after all. Things like that didn't happen here. They happened in other places in the world, sure. But not here. Not in our own backyard.


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<2 Days / 1 Night>
CUZ-IT-1 Local package ex-Cusco 2 Days/1 Night
- Day 1
- Flight CUZ/LPB (flight not incl.). Arrival and transfer to Huatajata-Lake Titicaca.
- Hydrofoil Cruise to Urus Iruitos Floating Islands
- "Andean Roots Eco-Village" cross-cultural program
- Kallawaya and Alajpacha night experiences
- Dinner and overnight Inca Utama Hotel & SPA
- Day 2
- Overland journey to La Paz. City Tour & Moon Valley.
- Transfer to the airport for continuing flight
Flight Cusco/La Paz (not incl.). Pick up from the airport in La Paz and overland journey to Huatajata at the shores of Lake Titicaca. Enjoy a navigation on Lake Titicaca, swinging among totora-reed canals to reach the Urus Iruitos Floating Islands & Quewaya Sustainable Project, a rescue of an over 5.000 years old culture and a social project created to assure their survival. Enjoy a breathtaking view of the Royal Range of the Andes. Return to Huatajata. On arrival, visit the Andean Roots Eco Village: The Altiplano Museum; Handicrafts village, the Mud Igloos and the mortuary towers of the Urus Chipayas. Meet the Limachi family, builders of the RA II and Tigris for epic expeditions across the Atlantic Ocean. Enjoy our elegant vicuñas, llamas, alpacas and the mythical Suri. Audiovisual and night experience of "The Mystic World of the Kallawayas", natural healers of Bolivia. They believe that you first have to heal the soul in order to heal your body. Tata Benjo, -our Kallawaya- will bless visitors and answer questions by casting his sacred coca leaves. Enjoy a nocturnal visit to the Native Observatory Alajpacha. Learn from the Aymaras Cosmovision and watch the southern constellations. Overnight at the Inca Utama Hotel & Spa
Overland journey to La Paz for your City Tour. La Paz and its surroundings can transport you to a mysterious past where any corner, any street, is a hidden treasure where adventure begins; a living history which treasures the pre-Hispanic times with all their traditions and magic rites on its streets. The indigenous, colonial and modern areas, Indian Market, Witch Doctor's Market & breathtaking panoramas are all framed by the majestic "Illimani" mountain. Visit the Moon Valley, a clay formation resembling the face of the Moon. Transfer to the Airport of La Paz


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Meet Shannon Thomas: Breakout Speaker at #NoMeanGirls Conference
The spectacular Shannon Thomas will lead the Breakout Session, "When Mean Girls Grow Up and Join the PTA: Healing from Hidden Abuse" at the #NoMeanGirls Conference October 6-8, 2017 in Dallas, Texas. Learn more and register at www.nomeangirls.com.
Shannon Thomas is the owner and lead therapist of Southlake Christian Counseling (SCC) where it is her greatest desire that clients find a place where they can feel comfortable to talk about anything and everything that is going on in their lives. It is very easy to hide our real feelings, even from those closest to us.
Shannon describes her expertise best:
I work with a variety of therapy and life coaching topics. I focus on individual growth and improving interpersonal relationships. Those relationships can be marital, dating, families, friendships or the workplace.
I also specialize in recovery from psychological abuse. I write extensively on the topic and was co-investigator of the research project "Examining Patterns of Psychological Abuse." I have been a content expert guest on radio shows and my second book, Healing from Hidden Abuse: A Journey Through the Stages of Recovery from Psychological Abuse spent time as #1 Hot New Release Self-Help (Abuse) on Amazon.com.
I began working with families in 2000, started in private practice counseling in 2007, and opened Southlake Christian Counseling in 2009. I have a Bachelors degree in Legal Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz and I received my Master of Social Work degree from San Jose State University. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Supervisor for post-graduate interns working towards their LCSW licensure. I am also a Field Instructor within the Master of Social Work program at Texas Christian University (TCU).


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Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen [Pictures]
Feeding those who are less fortunate is the mission of the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen at Ascension Episcopal Church in Westminster, the same as it's been since it began three decades earlier. Taking its name from the biblical event, the Feeding of the 5,000, according to coordinator Nina Price, Loaves and Fishes is considered the first soup kitchen in Westminster. On any given Wednesday the soup kitchen will receive between 95 and 115 people in need of a meal, Price said.
Dylan Slagle/Staff Photos
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Welcome to Medicine Mart Pharmacy!
Located in West Columbia, SC we've been serving the community since 1982. Our pharmacy staff have over 120 years of experience and our friendly staff will treat you like family.
At Medicine Mart, we believe that being a local community pharmacy means providing excellent healthcare services to our patients that are customized to meet their needs.
- Phone: 803-791-7043
- Fax: 803-796-1519
- E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com
Mon-Fri: 9am-6pm | Sat: 9am-1pm | Sun: Closed
Services ‣
Learn about the variety of services we have to offer.
Refill ‣
Simplify your life and refill your prescriptions online.
Location ‣
We are located at 1300 Sunset Blvd, West Columbia, South Carolina 29169


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The American Meat Science Association (AMSA) is seeking applicants to fill the position of Membership Services and Marketing Manager. The AMSA is an individual membership organization of more than 2,100 professional and student meat scientists representing academic, government, meat processing companies and allied industries and association in the United States and internationally. Its members conduct basic and applied research and lead education programs in muscle growth and development, meat quality, food safety, processing technology, consumer product evaluation and market assessments and provide numerous support functions that are relevant to the entire meat and poultry industry.This position is charged with managing member services to ensure their expectations are met or exceeded by providing them extraordinary service. The position will also have the primary responsibility for creating promotional and marketing materials for AMSA including web content, meeting information, and newsletter outreach. KEY TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES Membership
Job Requirements
Other duties as reasonably required.


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A group of Maddrassah pupils from a Dewsbury Moor Mosque have been getting ready to celebrate this year's festival of EID-Ul-Adha by taking part in a special history project.
In the run-up to this year's festivities, children from Faizan-E-Madina Jamia Mosque have been learning about the theme of sacrifice.
As part of their project work titled 'Different Sacrifices' pupils studying at the Pilgrim Estate Mosque and Maddrassah school learned about the sacrifices made by Muslim soldiers from the British-Indian Army during the First World War.
Along with the rest of their class, Mosque pupils Daniyal Ali and Hassan Hussain learned about two Muslim heroes – Private (Sepoy) Khud'adhad Khan (VC) and Private (Neik) Shah Ahmad Khan (VC) – both of whom made the ultimate sacrifice for Britain whilst serving on the front-line.
Sepoy Khud'adhad Khan was the first ever Indian soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross for utmost bravery after he single-handedly held off a much bigger German attack on his machine-gun post during the First Battle Of Ypres in 1914.
Neik Shah Ahmed Khan was another brave Muslim soldier from India whose regiment was stationed in Mesopotamia and in 1916 he also held off an attack.
Both men were invited to Buckingham Palace where King George V gave them their VC medals.
Zamir Ahmed, chairman of the Faizan-E-Madina Jamia Mosque, said: "This project has helped our pupils to learn that they have a shared history as children who have been born in this country. They need to understand the different meanings of sacrifice especially during this time of the year when families are getting ready to celebrate."