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2010 All-Big West First Team
Fraijo appeared in 38 games for Northridge and made 21 starts in the circle ... finished the year 12-12 with a 4.97 ERA, 10 complete games and one save ... added 49 strikeouts and 47 walks in team-high 148 innings of work ... finished among league leaders in wins and innings pitched ... won two games in Matadors' series victory over Cal Poly ... also posted victories over Portland State, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis, UNLV, Ohio and Southern Miss ... picked up a save with one inning of relief work against Western Michigan on Feb. 12 ... went 4-6 with a 4.20 ERA and 19 K's in 55 innings of work during the league schedule ... had a season-high seven strikeouts against North Dakota in game one of a doubleheader on Mar. 15 ... ends junior season with 37-24 career record and 3.48 career ERA in 420 innings ... concludes junior year ranked seventh in school history with 100 career appearances in the circle, making 57 starts ... 420 career innings pitched ranks 10th in school history.
Fraijo appeared in 37 games and made 25 starts in the circle for the Matadors ... named to the All-Big West First Team ... finished year 18-8 with a 2.69 ERA, 14 complete games, three shutouts, one save and 102 K's in 182 innings of work ... led Big West with 18 wins and ranked among Big West Top 10 in ERA, strikeouts and opponent-batting average (.252) ... tossed a two-hit shutout over nationally ranked Oklahoma, striking out a career-high nine Sooners in the 1-0 victory on Mar. 17 ... tossed two road shutouts, blanking Cal State Bakersfield on Mar. 20 and at Cal Poly on May 1 ... named Big West Pitcher of the Week on Mar. 29 after she picked up both wins against Utah, tossing 13.1 innings and allowing only two earned runs and six hits in a doubleheader sweep ... finished 10-3 with 2.17 ERA, eight complete games and 39 strikeouts in 90.1 innings of work against Big West opponents ... won all three games for CSUN in sweep at Pacific on April 17-18 ... at the plate, cranked first career home run in CSUN's victory over Mississippi State on Mar. 14.
Primarily a pitcher, Fraijo appeared in 25 games and made 11 starts in the circle during freshman season ... finished year with 7-4 mark with 2.64 ERA and 1 save ... led Matadors with .227 batting-average-against ... added 51 strikeouts in 90 innings of work on the season ... finished 3-3 with 2.88 ERA and .247 batting-average-against in 10 appearances, five starts, against league foes ... picked up first career win with two-hit, complete-game shutout against Wisconsin on Mar. 1 ... struck out season-high six batters on two occasions ... named Big West Pitcher of the Week on Apr. 27 after going 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in series sweep over UC Riverside ... ranked among Big West top 10 in batting-average-against and saves ... As a hitter, Fraijo batted .186 for the season with eight hits, two runs scored and six RBIs ... added two walks and a stolen base to season totals ... had season-high two hits against Rutgers on Mar. 6 ... drove in season-high two runs against Samford on Feb. 21.
Northview High School
Fraijo was a three sport starter in Softball, basketball and volleyball for the Vikings ... earned All-league honors for volleyball and softball in the Valle Vista League as well as the 2008 Tribune Athlete of the Year award ... member of the first softball team in school history to earn the Valle Vista League championship title in "2006-2008" coached by Jeff Butler ... graduated in 2008.
Born on March 9, 1990 ... daughter of Paula and the late Fred Fraijo ... has three brothers, Joshua, Jacob and Shane and one sister, Crystal ... favorites include the Los Angeles Dodgers, actor Will Ferrel and spaghetti ... says the best thing about being an athlete is performing in front of a crowd ... can't imagine going a week without laughing ... lists her sister as her greatest hero and her family as the one thing that always makes her smile... majoring in Kinesiology.


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Report: Steelers – Redskins had trade planned
According to reports, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Washington Redskins had a 1st round trade planned. The Steelers were interested in trading to the #16 pick fr0m pick #31. It is not yet known who the Steelers were targeting but the trade fell through when their targeted player was no longer available.
Per Jim Wexell of Steel City Insider, Dan Snyder, appearing on Sirius Radio this past week, said that Washington and Pittsburgh had a deal in place for the No. 16 overall pick, but "the player was gone."
Earlier in the first round Dan Snyder and the Redskins traded from the #10 pick to the #16 pick to allow for the Jacksonville Jaguars to draft Blain Gabbert. With that being said, it's likely the Steelers targeted player was drafted between picks #11 and #15. The most likely pick was the #15 pick when the Miami Dolphins drafted Mike Pouncey from the Florida Gators. However, it could have been JJ Watt.
It was well documented before the draft that the Steelers were interested in drafting Maurkice Pouncey's twin brother Mike. What were the trade details? And would the Steelers draft up that high for a guard? Those questions are still unknown. There is more details to follow on this story…
Discuss this topic and more at the Planet Steelers Forum

subset: commoncrawl


text:
31 March, 2011
Tygana Update
There's my brave little guy.
Tygana has been doing quite well with his Sub-Q's. We also got in his drinkwell 360 and it has definitely helped him to drink more, the first night I saw him stop at it at least twice and drink for literally 4 minutes.
So I think we have his fluids all set and ready. He has been having some stomach acid problems so he is on Pepcid AC.
Our big problem now is his appetite.
Poor little guy has barely been eating for days now, I've been keeping the vet up to date on this and today we were prescribed an appetite stimulant. Since taking it he's eaten some fancy feast not much but it's a start to me!
I ordered a baby scale so I can monitor his weight better.
Here's hoping he gains a nice appetite!
8 comments:
- Eric and Flynn said...
We are glad he is getting on well with his sub Q's. We hope the appetite stimulants work. We are sending more purrs to feel better.
- March 31, 2011 at 6:59 PM
- Amy and The House of Cats said...
Oh we are so so sad to read about Tygana being so sick! We have been away for a few weeks and just are purring and praying so hard for him to get better! We have missed you while you were gone and now we have been gone and oh, well we just adore Tyganna (and Pepper too) so much! We hope his appetite gets better - we know that the stimulants can take a little while to kick in so hopefully they will start to work. We are sending lots and lots of purrs and prayers!
- March 31, 2011 at 7:08 PM
- The Island Cats said...
We're happy that Tygana is doing better. We hope he starts eating more. Our mom had a cat before us that had CRF and it was always a challenge getting him to eat enough.
- March 31, 2011 at 9:02 PM
- d'Artagnan Rumblepurr said...
Oh no.. Tygana, please have noms. I'm purring for you my friend.
Tell your human to try petting you firmly while you're at the food dish. It worked with Inigo.
- April 1, 2011 at 4:49 AM
- Kea said...
Purrs for Tygana from all of us!
Mom Kim here: I haven't dealt with CRF yet, but of course Annie was ill with multiple problems...We want our babies to get better so badly, and of course we want them to have quality of life too. It can be a balancing act in that regard, and sometimes hard to do what's for our babies' Highest Good, not ours.
Here's hoping the appetite stimulant kick starts his appetite and between that and the fluids, he has good quality of life for a long time yet!
- April 1, 2011 at 7:26 AM
- ABBY said...
Purrs or Tygana
>^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^< >^..^<
Abby Ping Jinx Boo Gracie
- April 1, 2011 at 7:25 PM
- Fin said...
Feel better sweetie!!
- April 2, 2011 at 12:00 AM
- Danielle said...
It sounds like his other problems are getting better, but we really hope Tygana gets his appetite back!
- April 5, 2011 at 3:42 PM


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Banking in Switzerland
Banking in Switzerland is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), which derives its authority from a series of federal statutes. The country's tradition of bank secrecy, which dates to the Middle Ages, was first codified in the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks, colloquially known as the Banking Law of 1934.[1] The regime of bank secrecy that Swiss banks are famous for came under pressure in the wake of the UBS tax evasion scandal and the 1934 banking law was amended in 2009 to limit tax evasion by non-Swiss bank clients.
In 2015, banks represented 53.3% of the total value added of the Swiss financial sector, totalling CHF 32 billion representing 5.12% of the country's GDP.[2] UBS and Credit Suisse, the two largest banks in Switzerland, were ranked globally at #27 and #29 among banks, with assets of approximately US$941 billion and US$909 billion, respectively.[3]
As of 11 October 2008, the banking industry in Switzerland has an average leverage ratio (assets/net worth) of 29 to 1, while the industry's short-term liabilities are equal to 260 percent of the Swiss GDP or 1,273 percent of the Swiss national debt.[4]
Swiss mercenaries brought home funds from their contracts that helped Swiss banks begin.[5] Banking began in the eighteenth century by way of the riches of merchants. Wegelin & Co., established in 1741, was the oldest bank in Switzerland[6][7][8] until it restructured into a new legal entity in 2013.[9] Hentsch & Cie and Lombard Odier were both founded in 1796 in Geneva as private banks, and The Pictet Group was established in 1805 as a merchant bank.[10][11][12][13][14] Hentsch & Cie was a founding member of the Swiss National bank during 1852.[15]
The Swiss banks in Geneva and Zurich have served as safe havens for the wealth of dictators and despots, mobsters and arms dealers, corrupt officials, and tax cheats of all kinds.[16]
Switzerland is a prosperous nation with a per capita gross domestic product higher than that of most Western European nations. In addition, the value of the Swiss franc (CHF) has been relatively stable compared with that of other currencies.[17] In 2009, the financial sector comprised 11.6% of Switzerland's GDP and employed approximately 195,000 people (136,000 of whom work in the banking sector); this represents about 5.6% of the total Swiss workforce. Furthermore, Swiss banks employ an estimated 103,000 people abroad.[18]
Swiss neutrality and national sovereignty, long recognized by foreign nations, have fostered a stable environment in which the banking sector was able to develop and thrive. Switzerland has maintained neutrality through both World Wars, is not a member of the European Union, and was not a member of the United Nations until 2002.[19][20]
Currently an estimated one-third of all worldwide funds held outside their country of origin (sometimes called "offshore" funds) are kept in Switzerland. In 2001, Swiss banks managed US$2.6 trillion. The following year they handled US$400 billion less which has been attributed to both a bear market and stricter regulations on Swiss banking.[21] By 2007 this figure has risen to roughly US$2.7 trillion, a record.[22]
The Bank of International Settlements, an organization that facilitates cooperation among the world's central banks, is headquartered in the city of Basel. Founded in 1930, the BIS chose to locate in Switzerland because of the country's neutrality, which was important to an organization founded by countries that had been on both sides of World War I.[23]
The Foreign Banks in Switzerland Association reported that from the start of 2012 to the end of May 2013, the number of foreign-owned private banks operating in Switzerland declined from 145 to 129 due to the roll-back of bank secrecy regulations. Over the preceding five years, the foreign banks' assets under management declined by 25% to CHF870.7 billion Swiss francs ($921 billion) due to their clients paying taxes or withdrawing their money. Foreign banks in Switzerland saw their pretax margin decline from 38 basis points in 2007 to 20 basis points in 2012.[24]
Law and regulation
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is a public law institution that supervises most banking-related activities as well as securities markets and investment funds.[25] Regulatory authority is derived from the Swiss Financial Market Supervision Act (FINMASA) and Article 98 of the Swiss Federal Constitution.
The office of the Swiss Banking Ombudsman, founded in 1993, is sponsored by the Swiss Banking Ombudsman Foundation, which was established by the Swiss Bankers Association. The ombudsman's services, which are offered free of charge, include mediation and assistance to persons searching for dormant assets. The ombudsman handles about 1,500 complaints raised against banks yearly.[26]
On the 27th of May 2015, Switzerland signed an agreement with the EU that will align Swiss bank practices with those of EU countries, and in effect will end the special secrecy that EU-resident clients of Swiss banks had enjoyed in the past. Under the agreement, both Switzerland and EU countries will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other's residents from 2018.[27]
In 1934, the Swiss Federal Assembly passed the Federal Act on Banks and Savings Banks (colloquially known as the Banking Law of 1934), which mainly concerned administrative matters such as bank supervision. A still widely accepted canard is that the secrecy provisions of the 1934 bill were motivated by attempts by Nazi Germany to investigate the assets of Jews and "enemies of the state" held in Switzerland.[28] This is not, however, the case.[29] Firstly, Swiss banking secrecy was not introduced in 1934, but rather reinforced; secondly, Swiss ruling circles performed the 1934 reinforcement without humanitarian motives in mind.[30]
Electronic payments
Swiss banks, as well as the post office (which handles some financial transactions) use an electronic payments system known as Swiss Interbank Clearing (SIC). The system is supervised by the Swiss National Bank and is operated via a joint venture.[31] SIC handled over 250 million transactions in 2005, with a turnover value of 41 trillion Swiss francs.[32]
Major banks
As of 2008, there are 327 authorized banks and securities dealers in Switzerland,[33] ranging from the "Two Big Banks" down to small banks serving the needs of a single community or a few special clients.
UBS and Credit Suisse are respectively the largest and second largest Swiss banks and account for over 50% of all deposits in Switzerland; each has extensive branch networks throughout the country and most international centres.
Due to their size and complexity, UBS and Credit Suisse are subject to an extra degree of supervision from the Federal Banking Commission.[34]
UBS came into existence in June 1998, when Union Bank of Switzerland, founded in 1862, and Swiss Bank Corporation, founded in 1872, merged. Headquartered in Zurich and Basel, it is Switzerland's largest bank. It maintains seven main offices around the world (four in the United States and one each in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong) and branches on five continents.
Credit Suisse
Credit Suisse is the second-largest Swiss bank. Based in Zurich, it was founded in 1856; its market capitalization (as of 2007) is US$95.2 billion, and the company has about 40,000 employees. Credit Suisse Group offers private banking, investment banking and asset management services. It acquired The First Boston Corporation in 1988 and merged with the Winterthur insurance company in 1997; the latter was sold to AXA in 2006.[35] The asset management services were sold to Aberdeen Asset Management in 2008 during the Financial crisis of 2007–2010.
Other banks
Central Bank
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) serves as the country's central bank. Founded by the Federal Act on the Swiss National Bank (16 January 1906), it began conducting business on 20 June 1907. Its shares are publicly traded, and are held by the cantons, cantonal banks, and individual investors; the federal government does not hold any shares.[36] Although a central bank often has regulatory authority over the country's banking system, the SNB does not; regulation is solely the role of the Federal Banking Commission.[37]
Private banks
The term private bank refers to a bank that offers private banking services and in its legal form is a partnership. The first private banks were created in St. Gallen in the mid-18th century and in Geneva in the late 18th century as partnerships, and some are still in the hands of the original families such as Hottinger and Mirabaud. In Switzerland, such private banks are called private bankers (a protected term) to distinguish them from the other private banks which are typically shared corporations. Historically in Switzerland a minimum of CHF1 million was required to open an account, however, over the last years many private banks have lowered their entry hurdles to CHF250,000 for private investors.
Cantonal banks
There are, as of 2006, 24 cantonal banks; these banks are state-guaranteed semi-governmental organizations controlled by one of Switzerland's 26 cantons that engage in all banking businesses.[38] The largest cantonal bank, the Zurich Cantonal Bank, had a 2005 net income of CHF810 million.[39]
Raiffeisen banks
Raiffeisen "assumes the role of central bank" in providing treasury services, and is the third largest group consisting of 328 banks in 2011, 390 in 2012 with 1,155 branches.[40][41] During February 2012, P. Vincenz was chief executive.[42] During January, an announcement was made that the non-U.S. businesses of Wegelin & Co, the oldest Swiss bank, would be bought by the Raiffeisen group. The group has 3 million plus clients within Switzerland.[7][8]
- Migros Bank
- Coop Bank
Banking privacy
The Banking Law of 1934 made it a criminal act for a Swiss bank to reveal the name of an account holder. Swiss bank secrecy protects the privacy of bank clients; the protections afforded under Swiss law are similar to confidentiality protections between doctors and patients or lawyers and their clients. The Swiss government views the right to privacy as a fundamental principle that should be protected by all democratic countries. While privacy is protected, in practice all bank accounts are linked to an identified individual. Moreover, the bank secrecy is not absolute: a prosecutor or judge may issue a "lifting order" in order to grant law enforcement access to information relevant to a criminal investigation.[43]
On the 27th of May 2015, Switzerland signed an agreement with the EU that will align Swiss bank practices with those of EU countries, and in effect will end the special secrecy that EU-resident clients of Swiss banks had enjoyed in the past.[27] Under the agreement, both Switzerland and EU countries will automatically exchange information on the financial accounts of each other's residents from 2018.
Swiss law distinguishes between tax evasion (non-reporting of income) and tax fraud (active deception). International legal assistance used to be granted only with respect to tax fraud. Under pressure from the OECD and the G20, the Swiss government decided in March 2009 to abolish the distinction between tax evasion and tax fraud in dealings with foreign clients. Switzerland adheres to the international OECD standards with regard to administrative assistance in tax matters (decision to take over the OECD Model Tax Convention, in particular Article 26).[44]
For Swiss taxpayers the distinction remains in place. Although not considered a crime and hence not prosecuted in a penal court, tax evasion is a serious offence under Swiss tax law and hefty financial penalties apply. In domestic prosecutions, banking secrecy may be lifted by court order in cases of tax fraud or particularly severe cases of tax evasion.[45]
European Union
Pressure on Switzerland has been applied by several states and international organizations attempting to alter the Swiss privacy policy. The European Union, whose member countries geographically surround Switzerland, has complained about member states' nationals using Swiss banks to avoid taxation in their home countries. The EU has long sought a harmonized tax regime among its member states, although many Swiss banking officials (and, according to some polls, the public) are resisting any such changes.[1]
However, Switzerland did not want to be seen as an obstacle to closer tax cooperation among EU-member states and decided to support the international efforts to adequately tax cross-border investment income. The retention tax agreed with the European Union (EU) in the taxation of savings income agreement is a suitable and efficient means of doing so. The EU is committed to eliminating existing loopholes in the system of taxation of savings income. Switzerland has expressed to the EU its willingness in principle to correspondingly adjust the taxation of savings income. Here it should be noted that Switzerland has adopted the OECD standard on administrative assistance and that the Federal Council rejects the automatic exchange of information.[47] Since July 1, 2005, Switzerland has charged a withholding tax on all interest earned in the personal Swiss accounts of European Union residents.
Switzerland is not a member of the European Union but, since December 2008,[48] is a part of the Schengen agreement.
United States
Swiss bank accounts cannot be opened without the holder signing a legal document asserting that they have no outstanding financial obligations to the IRS.
In January 2003, the United States Department of Treasury announced a new information-sharing agreement under the already extant U.S.-Swiss Income Tax Convention;[49] the agreement was intended to facilitate more effective tax information exchange between the two countries.[50] However, Swiss policy has continued to come under international criticism, and in March 2009 Switzerland agreed to renegotiate more effective tax cooperation with the United States and other countries.[51]
In 2013, the Swiss Parliament approved a law that allows Swiss banks to cooperate with United States tax authorities as specified in the FATCA.[52]
Numbered bank accounts
Some bank accounts are afforded an extra degree of privacy. Information concerning such accounts, known as numbered accounts, is restricted to senior bank officers, rather than being accessible to all the employees of a bank. However, the information required to open such an account is no different from that of an ordinary account; completely anonymous accounts are not allowed by law. Should a criminal investigation take place, law enforcement has access to information related to a numbered account in the same way it has access to information about any other account.[53]
Money laundering
There are several measures in place to counter money laundering. The Money Laundering Act sets forth requirements of account holders' identification, and requires reporting of any suspicious transactions to the Money Laundering Reporting Office.[54]
According to the CIA World Factbook, Switzerland is "a major international financial center vulnerable to the layering and integration stages of money laundering; despite significant legislation and reporting requirements, secrecy rules persist and nonresidents are permitted to conduct business through offshore entities and various intermediaries..."[55] However, Switzerland's cooperation in transnational financial issues has been praised by several major U.S. officials. A Federal Bureau of Investigation anti-terrorism official noted that Switzerland was one of several countries to participate in joint task forces targeting financing of Al-Qaeda terrorist cells; a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury praised Swiss cooperation and the country's assistance in the finding and freezing of terrorist and Iraqi assets.[56]
Bradley Birkenfeld whistleblowing case
Swiss bank secrecy was dealt a severe setback by the revelations made by ex-UBS banker Bradley Birkenfeld, who blew the whistle on UBS providing Americans with vehicles to hide up US$20 billion in assets to avoid taxes.[57][58][59] Birkenfeld's revelations to the U.S. government concerning UBS's practices led to a massive fraud investigation against the Swiss bank UBS.[60][61][62] In response, UBS announced that it would cease providing cross-border private banking services to US-domiciled clients through its non-US regulated units as of July 2008.[63]
In November 2008, a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Birkenfeld's former boss, Raoul Weil, as the result of the investigation of UBS' U.S. cross-border business.[64] Weil served as the chief executive officer of UBS's Global Wealth Management & Business Banking unit and was a member of UBS' Group Executive Board. UBS would eventually cut ties to Weil in May 2009 and he would continue to face charges after UBS had settled its criminal case with the U.S. government.[65]
As a result of the information Birkenfeld gave U.S. authorities, the Department of Justice announced it had reached a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with UBS that resulted in a $780 million fine and the release of previously privileged information on American tax evaders.[66][67] Weil, whose employment with UBS was terminated by UBS after he was indicted by the U.S. Justice Department, subsequently was hired as a consultant by the Swiss private bank Reuss Private Group in 2010, rising to become the firm's CEO in early 2013. He was arrested on an international warrant while visiting Italy in October 2013 and was extradited to the United States to face charges stemming from Birkenfeld's revelations.[68]
On 11 September 2012, the U.S. IRS Whistleblower Office paid Birkenfeld a $104 million award for acting as a corporate whistleblower.[69] The Swiss media credit Birkenfeld's act with affecting a sea change in Swiss banking. After Birkenfeld's award, the Swiss newspaper Blick claimed, "Birkenfeld was a blessing for the Swiss financial industry," in that his revelations helped accelerate the industry's transition away from its reliance on "dirty" money by dooming the bank secrecy laws that enabled tax evasion.[70]
Birkenfeld has compared the Swiss banking industry with gangsters. "In essence, bank secrecy is analogous to criminal racketeering — and the Swiss government, along with every Swiss private banker, is a co-conspirator.[71]"
Allegations of black money
Swiss Banks are alleged to stash black money (money not reported to the government for tax purposes);[72][73] Editor-in-chief for WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, noted that, as per documents of bank accounts by a former banker and whistleblower Rudolf Elmer, the "names in the documents came from 'US, Britain, Germany, Austria and Asia' – from all over".[72][74]
Swiss banks and World War II
Several inquiries have been made into the conduct of Swiss banks during the Nazi Germany period (1933–1945), especially regarding funds deposited by or allegedly stolen from victims of the Holocaust. The campaign causing the highest outlays (US$1.25 billion in 1999) on the part of the Swiss banking industry as of 2009 was the World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks launched by Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, in concert with US Senator Alfonse d'Amato of New York.[75]
The audit run by the Volcker Commission which resulted from this lawsuit cost CHF300 million and gave its final report in December 1999. It determined that the 1999 book value of all dormant accounts possibly belonging to victims of Nazi persecution that were unclaimed, closed by the Nazis, or closed by unknown persons was CHF95 million. Of this total, CHF24 million were "probably" related to victims of Nazi persecution.[76] In addition the commission found "no proof of systematic destruction of records of victim accounts, organized discrimination against the accounts of victims of Nazi persecution, or concerted efforts to divert the funds of victims of Nazi persecution to improper purposes." It also "confirmed evidence of questionable and deceitful actions by some individual banks in the handling of accounts of victims".[76]
In response to the lawsuit, the Swiss government commissioned an independent panel of international scholars known as the Bergier Commission to study the relationship between Switzerland and the Nazi regime. It reached similar conclusions about the banks' conduct in its final report,[77] and found that trade with Nazi Germany did not significantly prolong the war.[77]
International competition
With recent changes in the Swiss bank secrecy regime the assets held by foreign persons in Swiss bank accounts declined according to data by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) by 28.1% between January 2008 and November 2009, increasing again in 2012 and hitting all-time high in 2014. Other states, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, have attracted depositors seeking privacy and protection. Having taken steps to make its banks more attractive, Singapore strengthened penalties for violators of bank secrecy (and now imposes steeper fines and longer jail sentences for offenders), and modified its laws on trusts and inheritance. Nevertheless, this new model is being currently challenged by the OECD. Singapore is also now the location of Credit Suisse's international banking headquarters.[78] Despite these changes, however, Switzerland still ranks at the top of the Tax Justice Network's "Financial Secrecy Index" as of 2013.[79]
Notes and references
- 1 2 Gumbel, Peter (2002-09-08). "Silence Is Golden". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "The Economic Significance of the Swiss Financial Centre". Swiss Banking. Retrieved 4 September 2013.
- ↑ "Top Banks Tracker: The World's Top Banks by Country". BankersAccuity. Retrieved 25 November 2016.
- ↑ Norris, Floyd (2008-10-11). "The World's Banks Could Prove Too Big to Fail – or to Rescue". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-03-31.
- ↑ McPhee, John (1983-10-31). "La Place de la Concorde Suisse-I". The New Yorker. p. 50. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
- ↑ Bob Van Voris. "Wegelin & Co. Must Forfeit $16 Million, U.S. Judge Rules". Bloomberg.com.
- 1 2 "US tax scandal brings down Wegelin". SWI Swissinfo.ch.
- 1 2 http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120127-706462.html
- ↑ Neate, Ruper (4 January 2013), "Oldest Swiss bank Wegelin to close after admitting aiding US tax evasion", The Guardian
- ↑ Pohl, Manfred (1994). European Association for Banking History - Handbook on the History of European Banks. Youssef Cassis - Banks and Banking in Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN 1852789190. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ↑ "Wealth and Asset Manager - Private Banking - Swiss Private Bank - Pictet". pictet.com.
- ↑ Cassis, Youssef; Collier, J. (23 November 2006). Capitals of Capital: A History of International Financial Centres, 1780-2005. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521845351. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ↑ "Hentsch bank Geneva - Google Search". google.co.uk.
- ↑ "Lombard Odier - Lombard Odier is an independent family business specializing in private and institutional asset management and estate planning.". lombardodier.com.
- ↑ Kenyon-Rouvinez, D. (2002). Sharing Wisdom, Building Values: Letters from Family Business Owners to Their Successors. Family Enterprise Publisher. ISBN 1891652087. Retrieved 2012-07-11.
- ↑ "Banking: A Crack In The Swiss Vault". 60 Minutes. CBS. December 30, 2009. Archived from the original on May 27, 2014.
- ↑ "The World Factbook – Switzerland – Economy". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on 5 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "The Economic Significance of the Swiss Financial Centre" (PDF). November 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 17, 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
- ↑ "The World Factbook – Switzerland – Introduction". Central Intelligence Agency. 2006-06-13. Archived from the original on 29 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-02.
- ↑ "Country profile: Switzerland". BBC News. 2006-03-26. Archived from the original on 14 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ Cohn, Laura & Fairlamb, David (2003-10-27). "Swiss Banks: Paradise Lost". Bk. Archived from the original on 17 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ Thomasson, Emma (20 March 2012). "Analysis: Swiss banks still draw rich despite secrecy blows". Reuters. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ↑ "Origins: Why Basel?". Bank of International Settlements. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ Kirchfeld, Aaron and Elena Logutenkova (30 June 2013). "Private Banks Leave Switzerland as End of Secrecy Hurts". Bloomberg. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
- ↑ "About FINMA". Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
- ↑ "Swiss Banking Ombudsman". Swiss Banking Ombudsman. Archived from the original on 20 July 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- 1 2 "Fighting tax evasion: EU and Switzerland sign historic tax transparency agreement". Archived from the original on 7 September 2015.
- ↑ Mueller 1969, pp. 361–2.
- ↑ Guex 2000, p. 239.
- ↑ Guex 2000, p. 240.
- ↑ "Electronic payments in Switzerland". Swiss National Bank. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "SIC Statistics". Swiss Interbank Clearing. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "Figures on Switzerland as a location for financial services". Federal Department of Finance. 2009-12-31. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ↑ "Supervision of large banking groups". Swiss Federal Banking Commission. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ "Company Profile" (PDF). Credit Suisse. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ "The National Bank as a joint-stock company". Swiss National Bank. Archived from the original on August 8, 2002. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "Players". Swiss Bankers Association. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ "Bank groups". Swiss Bankers Association. Archived from the original on 17 June 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ "ZKB Company Profile 2005" (PDF). Zürich Cantonal Bank. Retrieved 2006-06-17.
- ↑ http://www.swissbanking.org/en/bankengruppen.htm
- ↑ http://www.unico.nl/?id=464
- ↑ "Raiffeisen bank breaks ranks over tax dispute". SWI Swissinfo.ch.
- ↑ "Swiss Bank Secrecy" (PDF). Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 24, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "Switzerland to adopt OECD standard on administrative assistance in fiscal matters". Federal Department of Finance. Retrieved 2010-05-20.
- ↑ Locher, Peter; Blumenstein, Ernst (2002). System des schweizerischen Steuerrechts (in German) (6th. ed.). Zürich: Schulthess. p. 476. ISBN 3-7255-4342-9.
- ↑ "Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF)". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF).
- ↑ "taxation of saving income". Federal Department of Finance. Archived from the original on 27 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-05-10.
- ↑ "Switzerland To Open Bank Secrets to Russia". Pravda.ru. 2009-10-02. Retrieved 2009-09-21.
- ↑ "Treasury Announces Mutual Agreement with Switzerland Regarding Tax Information Exchange". U.S. Dept. of Treasury (KD-3795). 2003-01-24. Archived from the original on 11 June 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-20.
- ↑ "U.S., Switzerland Agree to Facilitate Exchange of Tax Information". The United States Mission to the European Union. 2003-01-24. Archived from the original on July 17, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-18.
- ↑ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/25/AR2009032501661.html
- ↑ Chantal Britt (9 September 2013). "Swiss parliament clears US FATCA deal". swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2013-10-21.
- ↑ "Swiss Banking Secrecy" (PDF). Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2006-05-24. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "Effective Legislation for Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism" (PDF). Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 28, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "World Factbook – Switzerland – Transnational Issues". Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "U.S. Testimonials on Swiss Leadership in Combating Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism" (PDF). Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 26, 2006. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ Coder, Jeremiah (September 2012). "IRS PAYS BIRKENFELD $ 104 MILLION WHISTLEBLOWER AWARD. (Section 7623 -- Expenses of Detecting Frauds)". Tax Notes Today. 2012 TNT 177-1 (177).
- ↑ Sheppard, Lee A. (September 12, 2012). "NEWS ANALYSIS: SWISS BANKING DEROBED: INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF BIRKENFELD". Tax Notes Today. 2012 TNT 177-2 (2012 TNT 177-2).
- ↑ Williams, Lindsey M.; et al. "Urgent Request for Independent Review UBS Whistleblower Case Bradley Charles Birkenfeld" (PDF). Project on Government Oversight. Retrieved 29 August 2013.
- ↑ Browning, Lynnley (10 November 2008). "Indictments Said to Be Possible in UBS Inquiry". New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ Hilzenrath, David S. (10 November 2008). "U.S. Given A Look at Swiss Bank Accounts". Washington Post. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ "UBS to Pay a Total of $0.98B to Settle SEC and DOJ Charges". LawUpdates.com. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ "Statement on Indictment of UBS Executive". BusinessWire. Retrieved November 12, 2008.
- ↑ "UBS suffers offshore blow as US indicts wealth management head". Financial Times. Retrieved November 13, 2008.
- ↑ "UBS Cuts Ties To Suspended Ex-Private Banking Head". The Wall Street Journal. May 1, 2009. Archived from the original on May 5, 2009. Retrieved May 7, 2009.
- ↑ Baxter, Brian. "UBS to Pay $780 Million Fine in Tax Case Settlement". American Lawyer. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ "UBS Enters into Deferred Prosecution Agreement: Bank Admits to Helping U.S. Taxpayers Hide Accounts from IRS; Agrees to Identify Customers & Pay $780 Million". U.S. Department of Justice. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ Jucca, Lisa and Valentina Accardo (16 December 2013). "Swiss banker in eye of U.S. tax evasion storm to face court". Reuters. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
- ↑ Laura Saunders & Robin Sidel (September 11, 2012). "Whistleblower Gets $104 Million". The Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ Bradley, Simon (12 September 2012). "Birkenfeld reward may tempt other bankers". International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation Russian ENG. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
- ↑ Birkenfeld, Bradley (Spring 2010). "Inside the Cartel". World Policy Journal. 27 (1): 1012. doi:10.1162/wopj.2010.27.1.10. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
- 1 2 "Black money: Indian names in Swiss bank data list, says Assange". indianexpress.com.
- ↑ "'Swiss black money can take India to the top'". Rediff. 31 March 2009.
- ↑ "Former Banker Gives Data on Taxes to WikiLeaks". The New York Times. 2011-01-18.
- ↑ Finkelstein, Norman. The Holocaust Industry. Verso, New York, Second paperback edition 2003, p. 90c.f.
- 1 2 "Report on Dormant Accounts of Victims of Nazi Persecution in Swiss Banks - Annex 4; and Part I paragraph 41" (PDf).
- 1 2 "The Bergier Commission Final Report". pp. 442 and 518.
- ↑ Taylor, Edward & Prystay, Cris (2006-02-06). "Singapore tax policy attracts Swiss account money". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2006-06-16.
- ↑ "Financial Secrecy Index - 2013 Results". Tax Justice Network. Archived from the original on 2014-04-09. Retrieved 2014-02-25.
- Guex, Sébastien (2000). "The Origins of the Swiss Banking Secrecy Law and Its Repercussions for Swiss Federal Policy". Business History Review. 74 (2): 237–266. JSTOR 3116693.
- Mueller, Kurt (1969). "The Swiss Banking Secret: From a Legal View". International and Comparative Law Quarterly. 18 (2): 360–377. JSTOR 757529.
See also
- Black money
- Offshore bank
- Societe Internationale v. Rogers
- Swiss Bankers Association
- Swiss franc
- Swiss Leaks
- World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss Banks
- List of banks in Switzerland
- List of Swiss financial market legislation
External links
- The Swiss banking law, as amended, from KPMG
- Offshore Banking, Directory resource, from OTH
- The Swiss Financial Center, from swissworld.org
- swissbanking.org
- Swiss Private Banking News
- "Échange automatique, secret bancaire : la réponse de l'ASB" (audio). A l'écoute : "Forum" (in French). Radio suisse romande. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013. Regarding World Economic Forum#Davos Man, January 2013, interview of Patrick Odier, President of the Swiss Bankers Association, Association suisse des banquiers (ABS).


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- Methodology article
- Open Access
ParticleCall: A particle filter for base calling in next-generation sequencing systems
- Xiaohu Shen1 and
- Haris Vikalo1Email author
© Shen and Vikalo; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
- Received: 14 March 2012
- Accepted: 9 July 2012
- Published: 9 July 2012
Next-generation sequencing systems are capable of rapid and cost-effective DNA sequencing, thus enabling routine sequencing tasks and taking us one step closer to personalized medicine. Accuracy and lengths of their reads, however, are yet to surpass those provided by the conventional Sanger sequencing method. This motivates the search for computationally efficient algorithms capable of reliable and accurate detection of the order of nucleotides in short DNA fragments from the acquired data.
In this paper, we consider Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platform which relies on reversible terminator chemistry and describe the acquired signal by reformulating its mathematical model as a Hidden Markov Model. Relying on this model and sequential Monte Carlo methods, we develop a parameter estimation and base calling scheme called ParticleCall. ParticleCall is tested on a data set obtained by sequencing phiX174 bacteriophage using Illumina's Genome Analyzer II. The results show that the developed base calling scheme is significantly more computationally efficient than the best performing unsupervised method currently available, while achieving the same accuracy.
The proposed ParticleCall provides more accurate calls than the Illumina's base calling algorithm, Bustard. At the same time, ParticleCall is significantly more computationally efficient than other recent schemes with similar performance, rendering it more feasible for high-throughput sequencing data analysis. Improvement of base calling accuracy will have immediate beneficial effects on the performance of downstream applications such as SNP and genotype calling.
ParticleCall is freely available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/particlecall.
- Hide Markov Model
- Particle Filter
- Hide Markov Model Model
- Parameter Estimation Scheme
- MCEM Algorithm
The advancements of next-generation sequencing technologies have enabled inexpensive and rapid generation of vast amounts of sequencing data [1–3]. At the same time, high-throughput sequencing technologies present us with the challenge of processing and analyzing large data sets that they provide. A fundamental computational challenge encountered in next-generation sequencing systems is the one of determining the order of nucleotides from the acquired measurements, the task typically referred to as base calling. The accuracy of base calling is of essential importance for various downstream applications including sequence assembly, SNP calling, and genotype calling [4]. Moreover, improving base calling accuracy may enable achieving desired performance of downstream applications with smaller sequencing coverage, which translates to a reduction in the sequencing cost.
A widely used sequencing-by-synthesis platform, commercialized by Illumina, relies on reversible terminator chemistry. Illumina's sequencing platforms are supported by a commercial base-calling algorithm called Bustard. While Bustard is computationally very efficient, its base-calling error rates can be significantly improved by various computationally more demanding schemes [5]. Such schemes include work presented in [6–9]. Among the proposed methods, the BayesCall algorithm [8] has been shown to significantly outperform Bustard in terms of the achievable base calling error rates. By relying on a full parametric model of the acquired signal, BayesCall builds a Bayesian inference framework capable of providing valuable probabilistic information that can be used in downstream applications. However, its performance gains come at high computational costs. A modified version of the BaseCall algorithm named naiveBayesCall [9] performs base calling in a much more efficient way, but its accuracy deteriorates (albeit remains better than Bustard's). Both BayesCall and naiveBayesCall rely on expectation-maximization (EM) framework that employs a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling strategy to estimate the parameters of the statistical model describing the signal acquisition process. This parameter estimation step turns out to be very time-consuming, limiting practical feasibility of the proposed schemes. Highly accurate and practically feasible parameter estimation and base-calling remain a challenge that needs to be addressed.
In this paper, we propose a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) representation of the signal acquired by Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platforms and develop a particle filtering (i.e., sequential Monte Carlo) base-calling scheme that we refer to as ParticleCall. When relying on the BayesCall's Markov Chain Monte Carlo implementation of the EM algorithm (MCEM) to estimate system parameters, ParticleCall achieves the same error rate performance as BayesCall while reducing the time needed for base calling by a factor of 3. To improve the speed of parameter estimation, we develop a particle filter implementation of the EM algorithm (PFEM). PFEM significantly reduces parameter estimation time while leading to a very minor deterioration of the accuracy of base calling. Finally, we demonstrate that ParticleCall has the best discrimination ability among all of the considered base calling schemes.
In this section, we first review the data acquisition process and the basic mathematical model of the Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platform. Then we introduce a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) representation of the acquired signals. Relying on the HMM model and particle filtering (i.e., sequential Monte Carlo) techniques, we develop a novel base calling and parameter estimation scheme and discuss some important practical aspects of the proposed method.
Illumina sequencing platform
A sequencing task on the Illumina's platform is preceded by the preparation of a library of single-stranded short templates created by performing random fragmentation of the target DNA sample. Each single-stranded fragment in the library is placed on a glass surface (i.e., the flow cell [10]) and subjected to bridge amplification in order to create a cluster of identical copies of DNA templates [11]. The flow cell contains eight lanes where each lane is divided into a hundred of nonoverlapping tiles. The order of nucleotides in a DNA template is identified by synthesizing its complementary strand while relying on reversible terminator chemistry [3]. Ideally, in every sequencing cycle, a single fluorescently labeled nucleotide is incorporated into the complementary strand on each copy of the template in a cluster. The incorporated nucleotide is a Watson-Crick complement of the first unpaired base of the template. In reversible terminator chemistry, four distinct fluorescent tags are used to label the four bases, and are detected by CCD imaging technology. The acquired images are processed in order to obtain intensity signals indicating the type of nucleotide incorporated in each cycle. These raw signal intensities are then analyzed by a base-calling algorithm to infer the order of nucleotides in each of the templates.
Quality of the acquired raw signals is adversely affected by the imperfections in the underlying sequencing-by-synthesis and signal acquisition processes. The imperfections are manifested as various sources of uncertainties. For instance, a small fraction of the strands being synthesized may fail to incorporate a base, or they may incorporate multiple bases in a single test cycle. These effects are referred to as phasing and pre-phasing, respectively, and they result in an incoherent addition of the signals generated by the synthesis of the complementary strands on the copies of the template. Other sources of uncertainty are due to cross-talk and delay effects in the optical detection process, the residual effects that are readily observed between subsequent test cycles, signal decay, and measurement noise.
Overview of the mathematical model
To describe the signal acquired by the Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platform, a parametric model was proposed in [8]. Basic components of the model are overviewed below.
A length-L DNA template sequence is represented by a 4×L matrix S, where the i th column of S, s i , is considered to be a randomly generated unit vector with a single non-zero entry indicating the type of the i th base in the sequence. We follow the convention where the first component of the vector s i corresponds to the base A, the second to C, the third to G, and the fourth to T and denote them as e A , e C , e G , e T . The goal of base-calling is to infer unknown S from the signals obtained by optically detecting nucleotides incorporated during the sequencing-by-synthesis process.
where K t denotes the 4×4 crosstalk matrix describing overlap of the emission spectra of the four fluorescent tags, and are independent, identically distributed (i.i.d.) 4×1 Gaussian random vectors with zero mean and a common 4×4 covariance matrix Σ t .
where ∥·∥2 denotes the l2-norm of its argument, and where y0=0, λ0=1.
Hidden Markov Model of DNA base-calling
In this section, we reformulate the statistical description of the signal acquired by the Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platform as a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) [12]. HMMs comprise a family of probabilistic graphical models which describe a series of observations by a "hidden" stochastic process and are generally suitable for representing time series data. Sequencing data obtained from the Illumina's platform is a set of time-series intensities y1:L, motivating the HMM representation. HMMs provide a convenient framework for state and parameter estimation, which we exploit to develop a particle filter base-calling scheme in the next section.
Since , it is clear that depends on λ t and . Therefore, we define the state of the HMM to be the combination of λ t and – the per-cluster density at cycle t and the collection of (l + r + 1) bases around (and including) the base in position t, respectively.
where u(·)∼U({ e A , e C , e G , e T }). Hereby, all the components of the HMM are specified.
ParticleCall base-calling algorithm
The goal of base calling is to determine the order of nucleotides in a template from the acquired signal y1:t. This can be rephrased as the problem of inferring the most likely sequence of states of the HMM in (7)-(8) from the observed sequence (clearly, s1:L follows directly from ). We assume that the parameters Λ={p,q,d1:L,α1:L,σ1:L,K1:L,Σ1:L} are common for all clusters within a tile, and that they are provided by a parameter estimation step discussed in the following section. In this section, we introduce a novel base calling algorithm ParticleCall which relies on particle filtering techniques to sequentially infer and, therefore, recover the matrix S.
Our algorithm relies on a sequential importance sampling/resampling (SISR) particle filter scheme [14] to calculate . Different choices and approximation methods of proposal densities are considered in [15–17]. We directly use the transition (8) as the proposal density. This sequential importance sampling suffers from degeneracy and the variance of the importance weights will increase over time. To address the degeneracy problem, a resampling step is introduced in order to eliminate samples which have small normalized importance weights. Common resampling methods include multinomial resampling [14], residual resampling [18] and systematic resampling [19, 20]. We measure degeneracy of the algorithm using the effective sample size Keff and, for the sake of simplicity, employ multinomial resampling strategy. If we denote the number of particles by N p and associated weights by w, then and resampling step is used when Keff is below a fixed threshold N threshold . N threshold of size O( N p ) is typically sufficient [14]. In our implementation, we set N threshold = N p /2.
We omit further details for brevity and formalize the ParticleCall algorithm below.
Algorithm 1
- 1.
1.1 Initialize particles:for i=1→ N p do
Sample each column of the submatrix from U({ e A , e C , e G , e T }); Sample from a Gaussian distribution with mean 1, and the variance calculated using Bustard's estimates of λin the first 10 test cycles.end for
- 2.
Run iteration t(t≥2):
2.1 Sampling:for i=1→ N p do
Sample according to (8).end for
2.3 Normalize the weights. Calculate the posteriori probability of s t and obtain the estimate .
2.4 Resampling:ifthen
Draw N p samples from with probabilities proportional to . Assign equal weight to each particle, .end if
Since in the HMM states are discrete with a finite alphabet, and the transitions of and λ t are independent according to (8), it is possible to Rao-Blackwellize the ParticleCall algorithm. Rao-Blackwellization is used to marginalize part of the states in the particle filter, hence reducing the number of needed particles N p [16]. We marginalize the discrete states and reduce the hidden process to λ t , while relying on the particle filter to calculate p(λ1:t|).
Since , where is a sample from p(λ1:t−1|), we can state the Rao-Blackwellized ParticleCall algorithm as below.
Algorithm 2
Rao-Blackwellized ParticleCall algorithma
1. Initialization:
1.1 Initialize particles:for i=1→ N p do
Sample from a Gaussian distribution with mean 1, and the variance calculated using Bustard's estimates of λin the first 10 test cycles.end for
1.2 Compute and normalize weights for each particle according to .
1.3 Calculate the discrete distribution for each i.
2. Run iteration t(t≥2):
2.1 Sampling:for i=1→ N p do
Sample .end for
2.2 Update the importance weight and normalize the weights.
2.3 Resample if Keff≤ N threshold
2.4 Update for i=1→ N p do
Update using and .end for
where is the observation density, due to the independence of the state transitions, and due to the Markov property and the independence of the state transitions.
Parameter estimation
To determine the set of parameters Λneeded to run the proposed ParticleCall base calling algorithm, one could rely on the MCMC implementation of the EM algorithm (MCEM) proposed in [8]. In section Results and discussion, we demonstrate the performance of the ParticleCall algorithm that relies on the MCEM parameter estimation scheme. Note, however, that the MCMC sampling strategy employed by MCEM requires a lengthy burn-in period and a very large sample size to perform the expectation step. Therefore, the MCEM parameter estimation scheme is computationally rather intensive and requires significant computational resources if it is to be used for processing large sequencing data sets. As an alternative, we develop an EM parameter estimation scheme which relies on the proposed HMM and uses samples generated by a particle filter to evaluate the expectation of the likelihood function. We refer to this algorithm as the particle filter EM (PFEM). The speed and accuracy of the proposed scheme is practically sound for use in next generation sequencing platforms.
Assumptions on parameters
Recall that the set of parameters needed to run ParticleCall is Λ={p qd1:Lα1:Lσ1:LK1:LΣ1:L}. The phasing and prephasing parameters p and q are assumed to be the same for each sequencing lane and are estimated using the same procedure as Bustard (see, e.g., [8]). The remaining parameters are assumed to be cycle-dependent and need to be estimated for each tile. The cycle-dependency assumption on the parameters can lead to a substantial improvement in the base-calling accuracy [5]. In order to avoid over-fitting, we assume that parameters remain constant within a short window of cycles and then change to a different set of values. To track the changes in the parameters, we first divide the total read length L into several non-overlapping windows and then perform our parameter estimation window-by-window. To further reduce the number of parameters and improve the estimation efficiency, we assume that the parameters d1:L and σ1:L are uniformly distributed over an interval and incorporate them into the hidden states of the HMM model. Therefore, only the mean and variance of these parameters, i.e., d mean , d var , σ mean , and σ var need to be estimated. Computational results demonstrate that these two assumptions does not affect the accuracy of base-calling.
Particle filter EM algorithm
Replacing (2) by (10) leads to a simplified model that allows for straightforward base calling and inference of the parameters by means of linear regression. We use these values to obtain the estimates of d mean , d var , σ mean , and σ var , and to initialize the remaining parameters α, K, Σ, in the particle filter EM parameter estimation procedure.
where the expectation is taken with respect to . We rely on an SISR particle filtering scheme to generate equally weighted sample trajectories from . Based on (7) and (8), we calculate for these samples and compute their average to approximate the expectation in (12). The maximization (11) is performed by solving equations obtained after taking gradients of over the parameters and setting them to 0. In our experiment, the PFEM parameter estimation scheme performs 30 EM iterations and uses 600 samples from the particle filter for each window.
Results and discussion
Performance of ParticleCall
Comparison of ParticleCall with different N p
N p
error rate
base-calling time (min)
ParticleCall (via MCEM)
ParticleCall (via PFEM)
Rao-Blackwellized ParticleCall (via MCEM)
ParticleCall parameter estimation
parameter estimation
Window length w
base-calling error rate
time (min)
Performance comparison of different algorithms
Comparison of error rates and speed
parameter estimation
error rate
time (min)
time (min)
2 (total)
35 (total)
(via MCEM)
(via PFEM)
Quality scores
Effects of improved base-calling accuracy on de novo sequence assembly
de novo assembly results
via MCEM
via PFEM
In this paper we presented ParticleCall, a particle filtering algorithm for base calling in the Illumina's sequencing-by-synthesis platform. The algorithm is developed by relying on an HMM representation of the sequencing process. Experimental results demonstrate that the ParticleCall base calling algorithm is more accurate than Bustard, Rolexa, and naiveBayesCall. It is as accurate as BayesCall while being significantly faster. Quality score analysis of the reads indicates that ParticleCall has better discrimination ability than BayesCall, naiveBayesCall and Bustard. Moreover, a novel particle filter EM (PFEM) parameter estimation scheme, much faster than the existing Monte Carlo implementation of the EM algorithm, was proposed. When relying on the PFEM scheme, ParticleCall has near-optimal performance while needing much shorter total parameter estimation and base calling time.
Author's contributions
Algorithms and experiments were designed by Xiaohu Shen (XS) and Haris Vikalo (HV). Algorithm code was implemented and tested by XS. The manuscript was written by XS and HV. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
This work was funded by the National Institute of Health under grant 1R21HG006171-01.
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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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Warning! This site contains sexually explicit, adult material and is for adults only! By entering this site, you certify that you are 18 years or older and, if required in the locality where you view this site, 21 years or older, th at you have voluntarily come to this site in order to view sexually explicit material.
All models are at least 18 years of age at the time of shootings:
18 USC 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statements


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The best part of the day!
At the end of the day, what puts a smile on your face?
For me, I love walking in the door and seeing my dogs. No matter how long the day was, or what the weather is like, they are there waiting and excited to see me. How can you not cheer up when two adorable dogs want nothing more than to hang out with you? They greet me at the door, jump up on me, and beg to be taken on walks. They love me unconditionally, and honestly, I couldn't imagine not having a pet anymore.
If you're thinking about getting an animal, check with Safe Sanctuary in Faribault along with are animal shelters. They might have the perfect lazy old dog or young kitten to match up with you!


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A rolling domestic dispute, between a man and woman inside a car, forced a lockout of two schools in Arvada Wednesday as police swarmed the area.
The incident started in Broomfield and the woman inside the car called 911 to report what was going on, and where the car was heading, according to a Broomfield Police Department media release.
Broomfield officers responded about 11 a.m. to the area of West 120th Avenue and Lamar Street looking for the vehicle.
Eventually, it was spotted in Arvada near West 80th Avenue and Simms Street, Broomfield police said.
Police in Arvada asked two Jeffco Public Schools to take security measures Wednesday morning.
Two schools were put on "lock out" about 11:30 a.m., said Lynn Setzer, a school district spokeswoman.
The schools were: Oberon Middle School, 7300 Quail St., Arvada; and Sierra Elementary, 7771 Oak St., Arvada.
The driver, a man, stopped the car near 80th and Simms and ran from it. He was taken into custody a short time later.
Police used dogs to try and find a gun, which the driver allegedly possessed.
The pair in the vehicle were in a "dispute over the ownership of the car," Broomfield police said.
The incident remains under investigation.
About 1:15 p.m., Arvada police reopened 80th Avenue between Simms and Alkire streets.
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, firstname.lastname@example.com or twitter.com/kierannicholson


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10 U.S. Code § 7473 - Employment of aliens
Laws prohibiting payment of compensation to a person who is not a citizen of the United States do not apply to a person whose employment by the Department of the Navy is determined by the Secretary of the Navy to be necessary to obtain for the armed forces the benefits of the special technical or scientific knowledge or experience possessed by that person and not readily obtainable from a citizen.
Historical and Revision Notes
Revised section
Source (U.S. Code)
Source (Statutes at Large)
The word "Laws" is substituted for the words "Statutory provisions" for clarity. The words "armed forces" are substituted for the words "military services of the United States" for uniformity. The words "of the United States" at the end of the section are omitted as surplusage.
LII has no control over and does not endorse any external Internet site that contains links to or references LII.


text: blog postsApple patents page-turning. What's next, the letter i?Nov 22, 2012 12:07 am by Dennis BaronShare on FacebookTweetEmailImagesApple has just patented page turning. On Nov. 13, 2012, the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple patent no. D670,713s for a "display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface." In plain English, that's a page turner®. The simple act of using one's finger to turn the page has been around ever since books began replacing scrolls 1,900 years ago, give or take. Although Apple calls the reading surface a "user interface," we call it a page. We turn the pages of a book with a finger, not an "animated graphic," but it's essentially the same thing. However, in the age of scrolls, we didn't scroll to get from one part of a text to another. The verb to scroll originally meant 'to write in a scroll,' not to roll or unroll the pages while reading a scroll like the Torah. Scrolling in the sense of 'moving through the pages of a document by rolling or unrolling it' goes back not to the ancient world, where scrolls abounded, but only to the 1970s, when books, not scrolls, held most of our words. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first use of scroll as a verb refers to moving the data on a computer screen up and down Fig. 1. from Apple's page-turner patent shows the page of a digital device beginning the turn. Or as Apple puts it, "FIG. 1 is a front view of a display screen or portion thereof with animated graphical user interface showing a first image in the sequence showing our new design." Figs. 2 and 3 show the page at more advanced stages of being turned. But just as books replaced scrolls long ago, today, in the newest stage of the computer revolution, ebooks are replacing books. So once again scrolling is out, and page turning, on Kindles and iPads, is back. Apple decided to seize this moment and take out a patent on page turning. Critics say that by patenting pageturning, Apple privatized an activity that once was in the public domain. "It's just one more way of fencing in the internet," complained a spokesperson for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, speaking anonymously to avoid drawing the attention of Apple's legal department. "The company found a way to charge us for something that we do every day," she added. But to Apple, the animated graphical user interface is simply a way to improve the ebook user experience. "You can't just let people turn a page any old way," the late Steve Jobs told the audience when he introduced the new iPad back in 2010. "Don't you hate it when the page gets crumpled, or worse yet, torn? With pageturner,™ that won't happen any more." Ebooks have replaced print books in the same way that books replaced scrolls, so this digital Torah is read not by scrolling, but by using Apple's patented page-turner®. (Since Torahs are written from right to left, the pages of iTorah™ turn left to right.) Apple is not the only company to assert ownership of a common word or activity. Facebook tried to trademark not just its name, Facebook, but the two words that make up its name, face and book. They weren't the first company to fence in the English language: CompuServe once attempted to trademark email, and Apple tried to trademark pod. The company already owns the i in iBook, iMac, and iTunes, and a source at Apple, who wishes to remain anonymous because he is not a liberty to discuss the situation, says it won't be long before Apple files a trademark application for the first person pronoun, or as Apple calls it, "A personal pronominal inanimate graphical mark or figure of the first person singular nominative, roman minuscule." The goal in doing so? To improve our experience as users of ourselves. And of course to collect a fee each time people refer to themselves. It's likely, however, that Microsoft, with a long track record of capitalizing all stand-alone lower-case uses of i, will challenge Apple's right to the mark. Image of proposed trademark for i from Apple's application to the USPTO. Asked whether they intend to patent other common hand gestures, Apple executives declined to comment. But now that Apple owns turning the page, the next time you read a book, and you're tempted to go on to the next page, remember that even before you lick your fingertip, you'd better get permission from Apple. You may even have to pay Apple a user's fee for improving your e-reading experience.™ Apple executives declined to comment on their plans to patent other common hand gestures. stats1,968 Views 0 Comments additional actions Add CommentShare on FacebookTweetEmail


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This showcase is aimed at Primary SLT and Maths Leads looking to further support their pupils in Maths. Often these targeted pupils are weaker learners or not meeting expectations so this afternoon looks to equip your school with innovative and creative Maths strategies which will support these pupils at school to improve their attainment and confidence.
The event will be hosted by the school, alongside Third Space Learning, and guests are invited to watch a live Third Space Learning 1-to-1 Maths intervention session in action. This will allow you to see the unique 1-to-1 intervention they use to support 9 of their pupils. You will be able to watch each pupil work through a personalised 1-to-1 lesson with their own tutor at their own pace.
What the event includes:
The opportunity to watch a live Third Space Learning 1-to-1 Maths session in action and learn more about how this innovative intervention works.
Current Third Space schools will have the opportunity to share best practice and learn how other schools use and engage with Third Space.
Teas, coffees and refreshments throughout the event.
What others have said about past Third Space events:
"It gave a real insight into how Third Space works and also the benefits to the children. I was really impressed with the tutors responding to pupils' needs immediately and saw the benefit of children talking about their Maths to gain a deeper understanding and increase their Mathematical vocabulary."
-Lucy Ottoway, Deputy Headteacher, Thameside Primary School
Register for this event to find out more about how to improve your school's Maths performance.
Can't attend this Maths Intervention Showcase? We have many others around the UK, please see our Showcase Index Page, or please email firstname.lastname@example.com or call us on 0203 771 0095 to find out more about Third Space Learning.


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The ballot box: if it's not broken, why fix it?
In the leadup to every Australian Federal election, the topic of online voting creeps onto the discussion agenda.
Phil Kernick, CQR Consulting | 01 May | Read more
It's not hard to understand why bot management is critical to maintaining business availability and customer satisfaction – but do you know how to properly deal with bots?
Increasing use of encryption has created new challenges for enterprise security managers. Ever more-sophisticated encryption such as Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS) protects data and may even boost your Google ranking – but it also provides a haven for malicious code that may use encryption to bypass enterprise security controls.
Why nation-state attacks are everyone's problem
With so much change all the time, how can executives best prepare their businesses to meet the security challenges of the coming years? CSO Australia, in conjunction with Mimecast, explored this question in an interactive Webinar that looks at how the threat landscape has evolved – and what we can expect in 2019 and beyond.
An interview with CSO's David Braue and Ian Yip, Chief Technology Officer, McAffee.


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The people of West Texas were forming towns, creating farms and ranches and starting businesses. All that activity needed capital, so a group of men led by C.E. McLean came together to form a new bank. With $12,000 in capital, they opened the doors to The First State bank of Dimmitt—the predecessor to First United Bank.
It didn't take long before the corner of South Broadway and Jones Street became a financial hub. Solid roots in agriculture meant that many of the area's farmers and ranchers came to rely on First State Bank's sound financial advice and available capital. That financial wisdom and broad customer base meant FSB was one of the few banks in the southwest that survived the Great Depression without new capital or reorganization. For decades, the bank grew on the simple philosophy of listening to customers' unique financial needs and serving them with honesty and integrity.
After 75 years of operating the bank, the McLean family sold to B.E. Lloyd of Muleshoe in 1982. In 1985, Ray M. Bain and a small group of investors purchased the bank from Mr. Lloyd, beginning an unprecedented area of growth and success.
Thanks to advances in computer technology, the 1980s brought about significant opportunities to streamline bank operations. First State Bank recognized the need to adapt to the changing lifestyles of our customers and implemented some of these technologies, including the first ATM in 1985. This ability to balance time-tested financial principles with insights into customer needs guides First United today.
In May of 1996, directors Ray M. Bain, Stanley Schaeffer, Shirley L. Garrison and Joe Josselet joined new investors V.H. Harman, Jr., Johnny Trotter, R. Mark Bain, Michael L. Bain and David Schaeffer to purchase the interests of all other shareholders.
Ray M. Bain and the bank's Board of Directors were determined to bring their values of sound financial advice, integrity and excellent customer service to more communities in West Texas. In January of 1989, First State bank acquired Citizen's State bank of Earth and two years later brought The First State Bank of Seagraves into the family. Another acquisition, Shadow Hills National Bank of Lubbock in 1994, confirmed the Board's decision to change our name to First United Bank. This name better reflected the unity of a single family serving several communities.
In April of 1996, First United Bank added a second Lubbock location by opening the Southwest Lubbock Banking Center. By the end of 2000, FUB had acquired The First National Bank of Sudan, with branches in Sudan and Littlefield, and established a new banking center in Seminole. In 2004, FUB moved northward and opened the Center City Banking Center in downtown Amarillo. Soon after, the Colonies Banking Center and Tradewind Banking Center were opened to bring Amarillo's number of locations to three. In late 2005, FUB added a Banking Center in Canyon. In January of 2007, First United Bank acquired The First National Bank of Lamesa. Wichita Falls opened its Banking Center in late 2011 and early 2012 saw the completion of Lubbock's third location, the Southeast Banking Center.


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This Australian kite forum has an active thread on the subject.
http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kite ... wer-strap/
Telekiter wrote:Yesterday I was out testiong my DIY-version of this de-power system. I used 3 steel rings and no pulley. Everything work out fine althought i was out in VERY powered conditions. I was on a Switch Element 13 (first ride) and just wanted to test the UDS-system.
First of, I used 3 m of 6 mm pure dyneema rope. This means that at full power the whole system is just 1,5 m long. From the first ride this seams to be a bit short realy. When I depowered the steelring got so close to the bar that it effectively hindered any movement of the bar. So, experienced learnd is make the system looong and use long leader lines on the back lines accordingly. Further the use of three steel rings makes the system very hard to move under heavy load because of the friction. I´m now switching to at least one pulley at the top just as the zeeko original. Does anyone know if zeeko us a pulley at the chickenloop or just friction via steel ring? Would the system still work as intended if I use pulley at the chickenloop?
I also made setup using a tab with a prussic knot. I mad one red and on blue, for power de-power. Leasson learned is tha you realy need to have them connected (i did not) since when you pull the de-power down the other one moves away up the system and out of reach! OR if pulleys are used only one tab is needed to both pull and push. My system was impossible to push unless I whent downwind to reduce the forces on the system!!!
Mikey wrote:Guys,
Question! Without a hard stopper somewhere wouldn't you risk loosing the bar (i.e. getting pushed out of reach, especially if powered (ring furtherst away from body).
Users browsing this forum: ARK, Bing [Bot] and 13 guests


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650 Brass Easel
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Elegant and decorative easel made of fine polished brass. Holds artwork and signs up to 48 in. tall. Total height is 61 in.
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Founded in 1917 as the Bentley School of Accounting and Finance, Bentley University places vital emphasis on the quality of its faculty as dedicated teacher-scholars/scholars. Academics across all departments are committed to establishing effective teaching and learning relationships with students both inside and outside the classroom, while simultaneously pursuing scholarly research agendas that contribute to knowledge and that support the University's teaching mission.
The symbiotic relationship between teaching and scholarship that informs Bentley's education agenda today dates back to the founder of the institution, Harry C. Bentley, who was known to repeatedly exhort his faculty to "teach like hell from bell to bell" as well as for his commitment to the idea that "honesty and intelligence must be combined to eliminate errors voluntarily or unintelligently made". That dedication to excellence in teaching built on informed thinking and rigorous reflection remains just as strong today.
Academic excellence in the classroom and in research is recognized annually at the University's Commencement ceremonies. The Gregory H. Adamian Award for Teaching Excellence is given by the University President to a faculty member who possesses exceptional mastery of his or her discipline, who challenges students to the fullest degree while displaying exceptional interest and concern for students and their work, and who serves as an inspiration for academic colleagues. The Bentley University Scholar of the Year Award is given by the University Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs to a faculty member with a distinguished record of scholarly achievement in his or her discipline combined with a significant current level of output. Both awards are given on the basis of nominations received and supported by the Bentley Teaching and Scholarly Affairs Committee.
In addition to the Commencement Awards, the University recognizes specific teaching and scholarship achievements every year through its Innovation in Teaching Awards and Publication Awards. These awards are given in recognition of specific discrete contributions that may include such activities as developing an innovative course or pedagogical approach, or the publication of a specific article or scholarly book. These awards are made by the Bentley Teaching and Scholarly Affairs Committee on the basis of nominations received.
Educating students to be effective and creative leaders in a complex global environment is central to Bentley's mission. We are pleased to acknowledge the achievements of the Faculty members listed here. They are exemplars of the talent that enables the University to continue to achieve on its mission for the direct benefit of our students and for the wider benefit of the societies they and we seek to serve.


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