text:
We don't often venture to the Glebe, but we are always dazzled and impressed when we do. Last week, we headed to a new hot spot that serves a unique mix of raw and cooked seafood including scallops, mussels, oysters and fish, and southern inspired dishes, such as fried chicken, ribs, pork chops, ribeye and burgers. Rosie's is the absolute perfect spot to satisfy the tummies of seafood and meat lovers alike.
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|Blackened Catfish - $24
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Hours: Sunday 11:00am-10:00; Monday Closed; Tuesday -Wednesday 11:30-11:00pm; Thursday - Friday 11:30am-Midnight; Saturday 11:00am-Midnight
Cost: Appetizers $5-$18; Main dishes $20-$40
Rosie's Southern Kitchen and Raw Bar. 895 Bank St. Ottawa, ON.


text:
On May 14, 2018, the first day of the X International Forum ATOMEXPO 2018, the plenary session "Global Partnership – Joint Success" will be held.
The session moderator will be Charles Hednry, former minister of energy of UK (2010-2012), President of the Council of the Russian-British Chamber of Commerce and a Honorary Member of the British Institute of Energy Economics. The expected speakers are Alexey Likhachev, Director General of ROSATOM; William Magwood IV, Director-General of the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD/NEA); Mikhail Chudakov, Deputy Director General of the IAEA; Lyubov Glebova, a Member of the Council of Federation of Russia; Vladimir Semashko, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus; Mohammed Shaker, Minister of Energy of Egypt; Necati Yamaç, Deputy Undersecretary of Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Turkey; and Hortensia Jimenez Rivera, General Executive Director, Bolivian Nuclear Energy Agency.
The event will be held as an exchange of opinions. Planned discussion topics are how close the "global partnership", which is announced by today Forum's name, now has become over the past 10 years and what are the trends and events in the world nuclear sector development would become the basis for structuring this global partnership? The discussion will cover problems of ecology, appearance of new nuclear power growth centers on the planet, and formats of nuclear partnership. The discussion participants are expected to touch upon problems of development of new high-technology technologies and safety issues. Special attention will be paid to trends of nuclear power developments for the next 10 years.
The Panel Session will be held on May 14 from 16:00 until 17:30 in the Plenary Hall of the Main Media Center.
For reference:
The International Forum ATOMEXPO has been held since 2009 initiated by ROSATOM. Over the past years, about 38,000 people from 83 countries have taken part in events of the forum. 987 companies have demonstrated their exhibitions. 1116 experts have been speakers at round-table sessions. At nine forums over 300 contracts and international cooperation agreements have been signed. ATOMEXPO 2018 will be held in Sochi on May 14-16, 2018. Its Operator is Atomexpo LLC. For more information about the Forum program, terms and conditions of media accreditation please go to the event website.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
How To Finish Hardwood Floor - Loft Floor Panels.
How To Finish Hardwood Floor
- Wood flooring is any product manufactured from timber that is designed for use as flooring, either structural or aesthetic. Bamboo flooring is often considered a wood floor, although it is made from a grass (bamboo) rather than a timber.
- (Hardwood Floors) Engineered, pre-finished, click and laminate.
- Practical advice on a particular subject; that gives advice or instruction on a particular topic
- A how-to or a how to is an informal, often short, description of how to accomplish some specific task. A how-to is usually meant to help non-experts, may leave out details that are only important to experts, and may also be greatly simplified from an overall discussion of the topic.
- Providing detailed and practical advice
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Mouse's perspective
I'm trying to type this w Connor in one arm... and he isn't staying still very much. lol
This is what I've been up to for the past 2 months....
Man he's really fussing now. I'll finish this description later. lol Life with a baby... :D
Now that mommy is feeding Connor I have both hands to finish this. :)
We bought a new place out in the burbs and we move on Dec 3rd. I've been packing away a lot of our stuff into boxes. It's really amazing to see all the junk we've accumulated. We're going to sell a lot of it, but we're not even sure if anyone wants it.
Seriously, would anyone want a textbook about Computation, Complexity, and Algorithms?
Aside from this moving business, there's Connor to take care of, and the next Nicaragua mission trip I'm organizing for next March. Whatever free time I have left I generally like spending it with May watching TV or playing the Xbox.
Photography has been something that has taken the backseat in the past 2 months.
Hope y'all been well! I'll try my best to catch up with all of ya!
Theoretically finished
After repeated delays in shipping for the West Elm pintuck duvet cover in clay, my indecisive, tightwad nature got the best of me and I cancelled the order in favor of making my own. I did a lot of googling looking for images and directions, but in the end, I made up my own method to get the look I wanted.
Not the loveliest picture ever (though lovely in person!), but it's not really done either and somehow working on it is more fun than taking pictures of working on it. This is about what it'll look like when it is finished, only instead of being spread out on a hardwood floor, it'll be all cushy and pretty on my bed. I'll take a picture of that, too.
The plan is for it to be a flat same-color sheet on the back side. I'm also going to do ribbon ties for the four corners and probably for the closure as well.
Materials needed:
Two flat sheets of appropriate size
Fabric pencil or chalk or some sort of marking implement that'll wash out.
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tag : how to finish hardwood floor polishing pads yellow birch flooring


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About Terrence Nash
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Custom Search
> West Monroe
West Monroe, Louisiana Ghost Sightings
West Monroe PAGE 1
I don't know about any ghosts
near there, but that's true about the girl's body being dumped there. She was my...
My friend and I went to the ho
use on the hill.. We took our cameras and started snapping away. We got a lot of...
So a couple nights back my mot
her, my friend Blake, and I went to the old Abortion Clinic. When we pulled up t...
Okay, so being bored me my boy
friend and his brother went to the hilltop house tonight. It's down a dirt road ...
I'm getting a crew to go to th
e Hilltop house and if you want to join email me at nananabatman1988@gmail. Com ...
Okay so I went to the old abor
tion clinic in west Monroe back in 2010 I believe. I was with a group of about t...
Me and my friend had been play
ing with his rc boat that morning it had worked fine but when we went back after...
Me and my friend went in the h
illtop house while 2 of my friends sat in the car. I am usally scared of a lot a...
Me and a lot of my buddies had
been hearing about this place so we all got together and went to it tonight.. Y...
Ok we went to the hilltop hous
e tonite and at first we were OK and didn't hear or see anything! Right when we ...
Me and a couple of my friends
went to hilltop house this summer and guess what? Nothing happened.. We even too...
Somewhere around 1985-1988 a m
an murdered a seventeen year old girl (west Monroe student) and dumped her body ...
Me and my big brother went to
the hill top house on Halloween and it was really cool - lights flickered books ...
Pink Street. A 2 story house w
ith 13 steps to the second floor. I shared a birthday with my mother on November...
One day at west ridge midle sc
hool I was at football practice and I saw a shadow on the grass behind me. I sai...
Hey me and my friends went to
the hilltop house and walked all around it and not a damn thing happened. It is ...
One night about three years ag
o. Me and a bunch of my friends wanted to go to the hiltop house. We parked are ...
On hwy. 80 right before you ge
t to the cheniere shack restaurant on top of a hill is the old hilltop house abo...
A male ghost can be seen stand
ing beside a bridge on new Natchitoches Rd. In west Monroe at around 11:00 pm. S...
UFO sightings from West Monroe
I don't really know what to ma
ke of the lights we all saw last night. Eight bright lights moving across the sky in a neat row sometimes changing speed...
Submit a ghost sighting for West Monroe, Louisiana:
If this is a comment on an existing sighting please use the link named ''comment on this'' at the end of that sighting.
Your Name:
Write or Paste Input here:
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Monroe, Louisiana
Winnsboro, Louisiana
Heflin, Louisiana
Marksville, Louisiana
copyright © ghostsofamerica.com


text:
Richland Walmart Shoplifter Leads Police Car Chase… Back Home
A man accused of shoplifting in Walmart ran after taking items and led police on a chase to his house according to news reports. The man was arrested at his West Richland home on the 6200 block on Meyers street. When the man had left the Walmart parking lot he was spotted by an officer that tried to pull him over. The man drove fast trying to elude the officer and they gave up the chase but arrested him later at his house.
The man was booked into Benton County jail on charges of eluding, theft, driving with a suspended license, a felony warrant out of Franklin County, and pure stupidity.


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text:
- Research Article
- Open Access
A Comparative Survey of Adaptive Codec Solutions for VoIP over Multirate WLANs: A Capacity versus Quality Performance Trade-Off
- A. Sfairopoulou1Email author,
- B. Bellalta1,
- C. Macian1 and
- M. Oliver1
© A. Sfairopoulou et al. 2011
- Received: 1 December 2010
- Accepted: 17 February 2011
- Published: 13 March 2011
In multi-rate WLANs, users can suffer transmission rate changes due to the link adaptation mechanism. This results in a variable capacity channel, which is very hostile for VoIP and can cause serious quality of service (QoS) degradation in all active calls. Various codec adaptation mechanisms have been proposed as a solution to this, as well as to solve congestion problems on WLAN environments. Here, these solutions are presented, categorized according to the adaptation policy and scenario they implement, and evaluated at call-level in terms of the resulting blocking and dropping probabilities, as well as the perceived voice quality. To define a common performance metric, a new index named VGoS-factor is presented, which, by combining these capacity and quality indicators, can provide an overall view of the capacity versus quality trade-off of the proposed mechanisms and consequently help in choosing the adequate policy for each scenario.
- Mobile Node
- Traffic Load
- Call Admission Control
- Handoff Call
- Call Admission Control Algorithm
1. Introduction
VoIP over WLANs has become a hot research topic during the past years due to the widespread deployment and ease-of-use of both technologies. Nevertheless, specially the commercial deployment of VoIP over WLANs cannot be achieved unless most of the VoIP quality of service issues are solved efficiently. The 802.11 standard [1], as most of the IP networks and their underlying technologies, was not created having voice in mind and therefore severely limits the successful deployment of VoIP. Voice transmission over the wireless link under variable channel conditions can easily suffer from an increased packet error and loss ratio, with direct effect on its performance and quality. In spite of all the research efforts in this area, there are still unsolved issues concerning VoIP calls, mainly caused by the specific wireless network characteristics. One of the most problematic among them is the multirate transmission.
Multirate transmission is one of the key features of the IEEE 802.11 PHY/MAC layer which allows each mobile node to select its physical layer parameters (modulation and channel coding) to optimize the bit transmission over the noise/fading-prone channel. These unexpected rate changes occur on the mobile nodes due to a reaction of the link adaptation (LA) algorithm of the 802.11 specification to a number of different circumstances, such as user movement, obstacle interference, and so forth. Heusse et al. [2] identified an anomaly caused by the LA mechanisms, mainly originating at the 802.11 "fair" channel access mechanism. They observed that the rate change of one of the nodes of the cell causes a general degradation on the transmission rate of all the other nodes. In other words, these unexpected rate changes have an impact on the transmissions of all active nodes and produce a general degradation of the network performance and a very hostile environment for VoIP. The reason behind this is that by reducing its transmission rate, a node demands more cell resources (channel occupancy time) in order to transmit the same amount of data. This increased demand can lead the system to a congested state (caused by less resources available to the system than the ones required) with a direct impact on all active calls.
Various studies [3–5] have demonstrated that the actual capacity of an 802.11 cell in terms of simultaneously active calls is surprisingly low taking into consideration the high data rates that the different standards of this technology can offer. Due to this limited voice capacity, a careful planning of the number of calls accepted, and under which conditions these will be accepted, is mandatory in order to maximize the cell capacity and distribute efficiently the network resources among them. This is where call admission control (CAC) methods enter, trying to determine the available cell capacity at each instant and accept or reject new calls accordingly [6]. However, this task's complexity increases further when that capacity becomes variable due the multirate transmission effect. The CAC algorithms alone are not able to deal with this situation, since it affects calls already admitted to the network.
Additionally, although a number of enhancements to the IEEE 802.11 were proposed, like the well-known EDCA mechanism for traffic differentiation, these alone cannot adequately address the multirate performance anomaly when it affects traffic flows of the same traffic class, which is the case studied here. In this pure VoIP scenario, all packets arriving to the MAC layer have the same priority and use the same access category queue. Even if it was possible to schedule each traffic flow independently, similar to the mechanism proposed by Garroppo et al. in [7], this would result in the starvation of some calls (e.g., those which are causing the congestion) until they are dropped by the users, as the amount of offered traffic is higher than the resources available. Nevertheless, EDCA is a required piece in the overall system in presence of heterogeneous traffic scenarios, where for example the VoIP calls suffer starvation due to the presence of elastic traffic such as from TCP flows. In this case, a properly designed tuning algorithm using the EDCA parameters have to be used to isolate the VoIP calls from the TCP flows. It would still be required, however, a different mechanism to solve the multirate performance anomaly of the VoIP calls.
Having this in mind, a different solution should be used to avoid unnecessary call dropping, such as reducing the traffic load of the WLAN to acceptable values. In a VoIP scenario, this could be done by changing the voice codecs of one or several calls to new ones with lower overall bandwidth requirements. Various such codec adaptation mechanisms have been proposed in the literature [8–10], including the authors' own work [11, 12]. These proposals are reviewed briefly in the next section. Their concrete implementation issues are not extensively discussed here since the comparison focuses on the different "strategies" they use, which we categorize under the name of decision policies, presented in Section 3. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to study how the various codec adaptation solutions can perform under different usage scenarios and following one of the possible decision policies for the adaptation procedure.
At the same time, various call admission control mechanisms are commonly used in WLANs to control the access to the limited resources. These mechanisms only accept/reject new incoming calls based on the available bandwidth at the moment the request is done [6, 13]. They are unable to react to the sudden transmission rate changes occurring while an accepted call is active and to the variations on the total capacity that this rate change implies.
In order to facilitate the comparison between the solutions, a new voice GoS (grade of service) metric, the VGoS-factor, is proposed (Section 4), which can unify quality and capacity metrics for VoIP flows in a WLAN and can guide the decision on when, how, and where to apply codec adaptation solutions. A performance analysis of the different codec adaptation solutions is provided in Section 6, focusing on the trade-offs given by the different policies in the overall performance of the proposal. The obtained results and conclusions are valid for the generic scenario considered in this paper, although the conclusions are general and are easily adaptable to other scenarios and/or technologies which suffer from the multirate anomaly. Finally, the main conclusions and open issues are discussed in Section 7.
2. Codec Adaptation Solutions
Adapting the parameters of VoIP flows (like codec or packetization interval used) has been considered before and similar works can be found in the literature. An example is the work presented in [8], where McGovern et al. evaluate whether a rate change generates congestion or not and then propose a codec change for the node that suffered the rate change. To choose the new codec, they use a metric called channel occupancy time, which represents a fraction of the channel time per unit time required by a full-duplex VoIP call for a given codec and rate. Only the node that suffered the rate change is adapted, which in some cases is not sufficient as we will see later in our evaluation. The work presented by Chen et al. [9] uses the same basic idea (adjusting codec and packetization interval) in order to solve capacity problems mainly occurring due to the handoff procedure. By lowering the quality of some of the calls in the network, it can adjust the distribution of resources among existing calls and permit others to enter. In fact this is an example of how a codec adaptation algorithm can work together with a call admission control technique in order to provide a more efficient use of the network resources. In [15], Garg and Kappes propose to reserve some of the network capacity so as to be able to absorb a data rate change for some of the connections. Clearly this implementation can be very wasteful of network resources, especially if the reservation is such so as to deal with rate drops from 11 Mbps to 1 Mbps. A simpler solution would be to drop the problematic call as proposed by McGovern et al. in a different paper [10]. Although this way the problem is solved very fast, dropping the call has a negative effect on the user's opinion of the network's QoS.
In Trad et al. [16], when the channel is detected congested (based on Real-Time Control Protocol (RTCP) packet loss and delay feedback information) a central element performs the adaptation of codecs using common transcoding methods for all calls entering the wireless cell (incoming flows only). The main assumption is that the AP is acting as a bottleneck and thus, a solution is needed on the border gateway at the entrance of the network. Their proposal is dealing with network congestion rather than the multirate anomaly. Kawata and Yamada [17] also propose double transcoding performed at the AP, both for incoming and outgoing calls, in order to adapt to the new capacity varied by the multirate mechanism and thus achieve the same effect as a codec change, but without actually renegotiating a codec with the other end of the call. Both of these proposals are based in transcoding which can be very expensive in terms of processing power needs. Additionally, there are not any real codec changes since the AP transcodes the VoIP calls. For this reason, they will not be further considered in the performance comparison of the different solutions.
Other proposals based on varying the scheduling algorithms in the PHY/MAC protocol itself can be found, like [18]. We are not further considering these solutions since they can be more difficult to implement and to provide the necessary backward compatibility with the already deployed equipment, as they require modifications at the standard operation of 802.11.
In [19], Tebbani and Haddadou try to guarantee the QoS of high priority calls against the low priority ones (where priority is determined by the SLAs agreement that users establish with providers) by "down-switching" codec and packetization interval of one or more low priority calls based on a set of information (call and user ID, call codec, session duration, packet loss and end-to-end delay, etc.). Their focus is not on the multirate effects but on the congestion provoked by the existence of additional VoIP sessions on the cell, and the algorithm focuses on adapting existing low priority calls in favor of the high priority ones.
To alleviate the QoS degradation of VoIP calls due to the multirate anomaly, a voice codec adaptation (VCA) solution has been presented by Sfairopoulou et al. [11, 12], based on cross-layer feedback from RTCP packets and the PHY/MAC layer. The feedback consists of the voice QoS information that can be obtained from the periodic RTCP packets, as well as the announcements of rate changes arriving from the MAC layer. These parameters are constantly monitored in real-time for each call and can trigger a recovery mechanism to adapt the voice codec that is being used, to one that fits better the new channel conditions and can lower the congestion levels of the cell. The codec change can affect just the call that has changed its transmission rate (slow call) or some of the other active calls as well, in case the first change is not enough. All the codec changes are performed without interrupting the call and thus avoiding any call dropping. Note that the VCA solution can be implemented entirely at the application layer, without requiring any modifications at the MAC and PHY layers of the IEEE 802.11 standard.
This work has been used as a basis for the work presented in [20], by Tüysüz and Mantar. The authors focus on a combination of codec change and packetization interval change (frame size) based again on MAC information on rate changes and RTCP feedback for quality problems. The main difference lies in classifying packet losses on the ones due to congestion or due to error prone channel; in case of congestion due to the multirate anomaly, using codec change on the call that changed rate and incrementing the frame size of others can be helpful, while in case of error-prone channel, using bigger frame size will cause more packet losses so it should be avoided.
By combining the VCA algorithm with a CAC in [21], Sfairopoulou et al. in an extension of their previous work address the limited capacity issue while at the same time controlling the multirate effects. This combined CAC/VCA solution would allow, for example, an incoming call to be admitted in an otherwise saturated network, by accepting to use an "unfairly" low-rate codec for its transmission rate or by reducing the VoIP codec of other active calls, in order to optimize overall resource usage and capacity. A set of guidelines on how to tune the CAC/VCA solution are also presented in [21].
A categorization of the most relevant of the presented solutions according to the decision policy and usage scenario is provided next, in Section 3. We will not consider further the solutions that use transcoding and resource reservation, as the focus is on codec adaptation procedures.
3. Policy-Based Codec Selection and Usage Scenarios in WLAN Hotspots
Every codec adaptation algorithm can be considered to follow a decision policy, which dictates the usage of voice codecs and the manner that the adaptation is performed, or in other words, if and how many calls should change codec, depending on the criterion to be maximized. For example, if the main objective is to obtain the maximum average MOS (mean opinion score) value (E[MOS]) a valid policy would be "always use the G.711 VoIP codec, independently of the considered rate, for it gives the best voice quality". There is a clear trade-off between the different criteria, especially between the achieved quality and the quantity of accepted calls. The analysis of this trade-off becomes a difficult task when a larger number of metrics are taken into account, which has motivated the use of a new combined metric, the VGoS, that will be introduced and described in the next section.
One of the additional basic parameters to consider is the usage scenario of these policies. In this study, we consider three different usage scenarios where adaptation can be applied: only in the case of rate changes, only at the entrance of new calls, or on both previous cases (rate changes and new calls). The first usage scenario is oriented on solving the multirate effect and decreasing the dropping ratio, maintaining an acceptable QoS of the ongoing calls. The second scenario is focused on maximizing the capacity of the cell by decreasing the blocking ratio and accepting more calls, by lowering their codec. Finally, the third scenario is a combination of the other two.
- (i)
Nonadaptive Policies. Under a fixed-codec policy, each call maintains the initial codec throughout its duration. No codec adaptation is performed and when any congestion occurs a simple drop/block solution is applied. Using this policy, calls can start with any codec from the set of supported codecs . In the general case, this policy produces the maximum number of call drops in a multirate environment, since no adaptation is performed. The work of McGovern et al. [10] can be considered a concrete implementation of this policy (i.e., no codec adaptation is considered, thus directly drop the call that changes rate when this change causes congestion) and will be used as such for comparison in Section 6.
- (ii)
Single-Adaptive Policies. In this category, the only calls that change their codec are the ones that actually created the capacity variation state. This includes both new calls trying to enter and finding the cell capacity already fully used, as well as nodes that change to a lower data rate in the middle of a call causing a decrease on the total cell capacity. These policies can be considered the fairest ones, since the only call affected by a codec change is the one that created the problem. The idea is to admit/not drop a call if it agrees to enter/continue using a codec lower than the one requested ( ), if it is supported by the mobile node. This policy allows each VoIP call to proceed with a worse voice quality but reducing its blocking and dropping probability, as it is able to check if lower rate codecs would be better suited to the network conditions and new capacity. Considering the special case where this policy is applied only as a remedy for rate changes, many similarities with the work of McGovern et al. in [8] can be found, where the authors propose a solution based on codec adaptation of only the affected call in the case of a rate change.
- (iii)
Multiadaptive Policies. Using these policies, in order to allocate space for new calls or to solve the channel congestion caused by rate changes, any number of calls can be requested to change their current codec to a lower one ( ), if it is supported by the STA. The new call (or the one that suffered the rate change) will be the first to enter the adaptation procedure as in the single-adaptive policy in order to achieve some fairness; however other calls can be also requested to change their codec as well, until the congestion is solved. It is a more complex solution compared with the non- and single-adaptive policies but also the one that gives best results in terms of dropping and blocking rate. There are different criteria that can be used to select which calls have to suffer a VoIP codec degradation, like the priority of the call, its duration, the codec used, and so forth. All of this criteria can create different subcases of the multiadaptive policies. For the sake of simplicity only one possibility is presented here: choose the next call for adaptation randomly from all the active calls on the cell. If this call cannot switch to a lower codec (or if its change is not enough to free the necessary capacity), the algorithm will choose a new one (or an additional one, since more than one call can change codecs). This process is repeated until the congestion is solved or until no successful combination of codecs can be found after all active calls have been checked. Since the CAC/VCA module keeps complete information about the cell and the active calls in it, it iteratively performs the calculations stated above, as well as computing the resulting cell state, prior to actually triggering the codec changes. Hence, if no feasible solution is found, the problematic call will be dropped or blocked, without affecting the others. The work of Chen et al. [9] can be considered a concrete implementation of this policy acting only at the entrance of new calls (scenario "on new") since any number of calls can change their codec for new ones (handoff calls in their study) to enter. Furthermore, the VCA algorithm of Sfairopoulou et al. [11] is also an implementation of this multiadaptive policy but for the case of rate changes (scenario "on rate") since it focuses on the effects of the multirate anomaly. The same applies for the proposal of Tüysüz and Mantar [20], with the addition of packet size adaptation as well. Finally, the combination of codec adaptation with a CAC algorithm (Sfairopoulou et al. [21]) can be considered as an implementation of the multiadaptive policy for the "on both" scenario, since it intends to minimize the call dropping due to the multirate effect while maximizing the admitted calls at the cell. The performance of all these solutions will be extensively analyzed in Section 6.
Comparison of codec-based solutions to multirate anomaly.
Decision policy
Usage scenario
Non adaptive
Single adaptive
Multi adaptive
On new calls
Chen et al. [9]
Tüysüz and Mantar [20]
On rate changes/on congestion
McGovern et al. [10]
McGovern et al. [8]
Sfairopoulou et al. [11]
Tebbani and Haddadou [19]
On new calls + rate changes
Garg and Kappes [15]
Sfairopoulou et al. [21]
4. The VGoS-Factor, a Capacity versus Quality Trade-Off Metric
From the policy analysis we can realize that making a choice over which decision policy is the best in absolute terms is a difficult task, since achieving a high value in all of the system performance metrics under study is quite complicated. Although the usual trade-off between quality and quantity is to be expected here as well, in order to provide some kind of qualification for the set of policies and decide where and how to use codec adaptation depending on the traffic load, a new grade of service (GoS) factor which combines the above metrics is needed. This "quality and quantity" factor, called VGoS-factor, can provide a combination of blocking ( ) and dropping rate ( ) with the average normalized MOS ( ) in the hotspot: the first two serving as quantitative metrics of the system's capacity to accept new calls and finalize correctly the accepted ones, while the third one as a speech quality metric.
Call admission control in cellular networks is designed trying to guarantee both grade of service at call level and quality of service at packet level [23]. Unfortunately there is not one single metric that can combine them both and provide an overall view of the performance of a CAC mechanism and consequently of the cell capacity itself. The VGoS-factor is a system performance metric that tries to respond to this demand by combining both dropping and blocking feedback as GoS parameters at call level with the packet loss and delay/jitter metrics (reflected in general in MOS or equivalent voice QoS metrics like the E-Model [24]) representing the QoS at packet level.
where is the handoff failure probability and the new call blocking probability, while is a weight parameter to represent the penalization for dropping a handoff call relative to blocking a new call.
where and are the blocking and dropping probabilities and is calculated as the distance of the estimated average MOS from the maximum MOS ( ), with . The VGoS metric extends the traditional GoS by multiplying it with the distance of the estimated average MOS from the maximum MOS. The decision to include as a product is due to the following reasons: (1) it is a completely different metric and does not refer to ending a call, as the blocking and dropping probabilities do, and (2) the achieved average MOS is seen as a proportionality (scale) factor to traditional GoS. This is, given two policies with the same blocking and dropping probabilities, the policy with a better E[MOS] will show the best VGoS (that is the lower VGoS, since the goal is to minimize it, similar to the traditional GoS). Additionally, introducing the as a product, we are not changing the relation between the blocking and dropping probabilities, and the becomes simply a scale factor.
Notice that E[MOS] can be computed easily in real time (e.g., using the E-model [24]) from the feedback of the voice packets transmission. The computation requirements of E-model are low [26] and thus it could be easily embedded in the WLAN access point as a part of the considered solution. For the simulation experiments we set as in the initial GoS. As a general rule, we have considered that users have a stronger reaction against call dropping than against lower call quality, and we have adjusted the VGoS factor accordingly.
5. WLAN Scenario for VoIP Calls
Codecs parameters.
Bitrate (B)
Packet size (L)
64 Kbps
32 Kbps
8 Kbps
5.3 Kbps
5.1. A VoIP Upper-Bound Capacity Indicator for Multirate/Multicodec WLANs
In [28], Hole and Tobagi proposed a capacity index as a reference upper bound for the number of maximum accepted calls in a 802.11 cell (using the DCF). They assume that all nodes transmit at the same rate and use the same voice codec.
This capacity indicator is based on some arguably fragile assumptions, such as no collisions and no link errors. However, as shown in [6], the capacity of a WLAN cell is basically limited by the saturation of the AP (it is not able to deliver as many packets as required), resulting in the starvation of the downlink VoIP flows. Surprisingly, the AP becomes rapidly saturated for an unexpected low number of active VoIP calls, mainly due to the high traffic load that this has to deliver (all downlink VoIP flows pass through the AP). Thus, when the AP saturates, there are in fact few competing STAs and the collision probability remains low. On the other hand, as it is also shown in [28], the channel errors have a remarkable impact on the reduction of the cell's capacity. However, since we consider a multirate scenario and thus that a link adaptation mechanism is used, the impact of the channels errors can be minimized: the system will choose a lower PHY rate if the channel is not able to satisfy a minimum packet error ratio at the current rate.
Since our study focuses on a multirate WLAN and nodes can use any codec chosen from a set of available codecs, we have modified this first index to produce a new multirate/multicodec capacity index. We will describe these two indexes here in detail.
(a) Upper bound index of call capacity of an 802.11 network, by Hole and Tobagi.
Component times of and for 11 Mbps data rate.
PLCP preamble & header
192.0 us
MAC Header + FCS
20.4 us
IP/UDP/RTP header
29.1 us
Voice Data
(Voice octets × 8/11) us
PLCP preamble & header
192.0 us
ACK frame
10.2 us
(b) Modified multirate/multicodec capacity index.
where is the number of calls using codec and rate , is the time required to transmit a VoIP packet using codec and rate , is the transmission packet rate for VoIP codec and is the normalized time allocated for VoIP calls. Computing with multiple traffic classes is not an easy task. This is because depends on many nonlinear relations between the number and characteristics of the active traffic flows (e.g., refer to [29] to see how the 802.11 behaves with both elastic and rigid flows). It also depends on the traffic differentiation mechanisms considered (e.g., EDCA) and how these are configured [6]. All these facts are out of the scope of this paper where a pure VoIP scenario is considered, and therefore we consider a constant ρ equal to 1, meaning that all transmission resources are assigned to VoIP traffic.
In order to validate the accuracy of this upgraded multirate/multicodec index (MR/MC), a comparison was performed for a number of different test cases against the results obtained from simulations using NS-2 [30]. In each case, given a fixed number of calls using a codec and transmitting at rate , the maximum number of calls using codec and rate accepted in the cell without causing congestion has been calculated both by the MR/MC index and experimentally by the NS-2. The results give a 100% match between the two. We will use this modified MR/MC index as our voice capacity indicator for the simulation experiments at the flow-level described later.
5.2. Fairness Issues
This paper does not cover the fairness issues of the codec adaption solutions, meaning the case when calls which are not affected directly by the rate change have to lower their VoIP codec and hence, observe a somewhat worse quality in terms of MOS. The fundamental assumption, that this change would allow to maintain the system stability, is not completely valid as there is always the alternative to simply drop or block the call which is causing the instability. Thus, some incentives to the user which accepts to participate on the codec adaptation should be introduced.
6. A Comparative Performance Analysis
In this section, a comparative analysis between the solutions which apply codec adaptation and described in Section 2 is provided (recall Table 1). We consider the combination of decision policies with the three basic scenarios: applying codec adaptation only on rate changes, only on new call arrival, or on both rate changes and new call requests. We are interested in evaluating the call-level metrics, such as blocking and dropping probabilities, which basically require the simulation of the arrival and departure call processes, as well as the random capacity changes and the resultant cell capacity. The resources wasted for signaling and control packets (SIP and RTCP) are not considered. The paper focuses on a conceptual comparison of the different policies which will allow their evaluation independently of these implementation details.
These codec adaptation schemes and policies have been evaluated through a C++ simulator, developed from scratch using the COST simulation toolkit [31]. Roughly, the simulator consists of three blocks: (i) a call generator, responsible for generating the new calls and choosing/assigning the characteristics of each call (STA's processor capacity, VoIP codecs supported, etc.), (ii) a rate change block, which randomly changes the rate of active calls, and (iii) the codec adaptation block which, based on the number of active calls and the current rate and codec of each one, decides the actions to be taken in the case of a rate change or a new call arrival. The WLAN cell capacity is forecasted using the multirate/multicodec (MR/MC) capacity index explained and validated in Section 5.1.
VoIP call requests arrive to the cell with rate following a Poisson process. The call duration follows an exponential distribution with mean equal to seconds, so that the offered traffic load varies from 1 to 20 erlangs. A frequency γ of 1/100 rate changes per second and mobile node is considered unless other values are stated (as in Section 6.3). Using this value, a call which finishes successfully (it is neither blocked nor dropped) suffers in average two rate changes. The new rate is selected from the set of available rates following a uniform distribution, since it has been assumed that all rates have the same probability to be chosen. This is the worst possible case since, usually, changes are between adjacent rates, resulting in a more predictable situation. The consideration of a specific mobility model would produce more real results, leading however to only a particular case from which it would be difficult to extract general conclusions. Our main goal is to compare the different policies in rather ideal conditions, limiting at maximum the variables which impact on their performance and focusing only the sensitivity of the evaluated scheme on the traffic load, the rate change frequency, and the coexistence of participating and nonparticipating nodes in the codec adaptation process. The effect of the mobility models will be considered for further research.
6.1. Comparison of Codec Adaptation Strategies
- (1)
Nonadaptive Case (NA). This case presents high blocking and dropping probabilities leading to less active calls, as expected, since no adaptation is possible. At the same, time however, it gives the highest E[MOS] results since, although the number of successful calls is actually smaller, all of them use the highest possible codec through all their duration. Obviously, here the percentage of nodes participating on the adaptation has no influence.
- (2)
Apply Codec Adaptation Only on Arrival of New Calls (MC-new). This case provides a high cell capacity in terms of number of calls, as it is able to adapt the VoIP codec of the active calls in order for more new calls to fit the current available capacity and avoid blocking them (it shows the lowest BP). On the other side, it presents a considerable high dropping probability, only equivalent to or lower than the nonadaptive case seen before. This is due to the fact that by using the solution of MC-new, more calls are admitted in the cell but with low bitrate codecs. Thus, they can support better the rate changes occurring afterwards (they have less capacity demands) than in the NA case where the calls, if admitted in the cell, use higher bitrate codecs. However, since no adaptation is performed on rate changes, the policy presents worst dropping results than the ones acting on the on rate scenario. At the same time, as traffic load increases, the voice quality (E[MOS]) is progressively reduced since almost all new calls are asked to use the low bandwidth codecs in order to be accepted. A lower number of nodes participating in the adaptation process results in an increase of the blocking probability (there are less possibilities for codec adaptation) as seen in Figure 3(b), and also an increase of the dropping probability (Figure 3(d)) since there are now more nodes starting with the highest rate codec and the probability that a rate change will result in a call dropping increases.
- (3)
Apply Codec Adaptation Only during Rate Changes and Use a Standard CAC for New Calls (Nonadaptive CAC, Block Any Call That Cannot Fit In) (SC-rate, MC-rate, MCF-rate). This case provides a high protection for the already accepted calls (very low dropping probability compared to the fixed policy) at the cost of blocking a high number of new call requests. Notice that all three solutions in this category (SC-rate, MC-rate and MCF-rate) have an almost identical performance since in the average case it will be enough for solving the congestion to adapt the codec only of the call who suffered the rate change, equal to the SC-rate. The main difference between them is becoming visible when not all STAs are participating in the adaptation process (Figure 3(d)), where codec adaptation is more effective than frame size adaptation, and both are more effective than the single adaptive case. Notice here that in our simulations we used four possible codecs for the adaptation but only two possible packet sizes. This implies that the adaptation capability of MCF-rate is lower than that of the MC-rate. In the general case this is common, since increasing the packet size too much will lead in higher packetization delay, thus it should be avoided.
- (4)
Apply Codec Adaptation Both on Arrival of New Calls and at Any Rate Change Causing Congestion (MC-rate+new). A trade-off between blocking and dropping probabilities is achieved which leads to the highest cell utilization. However, this case shows the worst E[MOS] values as it allows the highest number of codec adaptations. Notice how the E[MOS] tends to its minimum value, equal to 3.6, as all active calls are finally using the lowest bandwidth codec (G.723.1 with MOS equal to 3.6) when traffic load increases. A lower number of nodes participating in the adaptation process results in an increase of both blocking and dropping probabilities as the adaptation capabilities are reduced and the available ones are mainly wasted at the entrance of new calls. As in all other cases, when the network adaptability is reduced, the average MOS increases (less calls active but with higher codecs).
As we can see from the results in Figure 3, regardless of the percentage of the participating nodes in the adaptation process, there is not one solution that clearly outperforms the others in all metrics. Although some policies minimize blocking/dropping probability, they have a direct impact on the average MOS of the calls, and vice versa. So whether to choose one policy over the other depends highly on the parameter that we want to optimize. The trade-off between capacity (in terms of carried traffic) and quality is evident and not always maximizing the capacity is the main scope of a network, especially when dealing with sensitive VoIP calls. On the other hand, having an average MOS of 3.6 could be perfectly acceptable in terms of quality if this can additionally permit to maximize the number of clients accepted.
6.2. Choosing the Optimal Codec Adaptation Strategy
In average, the three solutions that act on rate changes only (SC-rate, MC-rate and MCF-rate) can give a better overall performance (lower VGoS) under high traffic load when considering all three metrics and when all nodes participate on the adaptation process (Figure 4(a)). On the contrary, MC-rate outperforms clearly the other two and especially compared to the SC-rate (Figure 4(b)). In the case that an STA does not participate in the adaptation procedure, MultiCodec policies can change the codec of another call while SingleCodec cannot. Thus, the multiadaptive option becomes more effective.
In case of the MC-rate+new, an increased number of calls are admitted in the cell using low bitrate codecs. This number of calls is higher than the one obtained by the policies acting on rate changes only, since we apply codec adaptation also at the entrance of new calls (note that this is true regardless of the number of nodes participating on the adaptation process). However, as a consequence, many of the admitted calls are actually dropped afterwards before successfully finishing and especially when the traffic load increases (we waste adaptation capacity at the entrance). This can be depicted at the high VGoS values of the MC-rate+new compared to the "on rate" solutions on high traffic load erlangs with a 100% of nodes participating or even for lower traffic with a 40% of nodes participating.
Summarizing these observations, a cell under low traffic conditions (note that the threshold depends on the number of participating nodes) has the flexibility to permit codec modifications, so as to try to accept more new calls (overall capacity increase) without heavily impacting the dropping and blocking probabilities. Hence the low VGoS values for the MC-rate+new case in low traffic load. However, under heavier load conditions or under low STAs participation, there is less margin for adaptation and so the best solution in order to keep all three metrics in check is to change codec only as a response to rate changes (the "on rate" usage scenario), and to focus on guaranteeing a low dropping probability for the already accepted calls.
6.3. VGoS-Factor versus Rate Change Frequency
As expected, all policies improve their VGoS values when the frequency of rate changes decreases. This is directly noticeable in the performance achieved by the nonadaptive (NA) solution, which is based on dropping the call that causes congestion after a rate change (less rate changes lead to less call dropping). The same observation is valid for the case of MC-new. Remember that MC-new could obtain the best blocking ratio for adapting the codecs of new calls at the entrance. Additionally, it can now also achieve a low dropping ratio when the frequency of rate changes decreases, thus becoming one of the best policies considering all metrics (Figure 5(a)).
Nevertheless, the MC-rate+new shows the best VGoS under any frequency of rate changes. The only case when it is outperformed is for low number of participating STAs (Figure 5(b)) and high frequency of rate changes (time interval between rate changes less than 200 sec). As explained before, with a high number of rate changes, since the MC-rat+new wastes part of its adaptation capabilities to accept new calls, it then suffers from a higher dropping probability compared with the "on rate" usage. This effect is intensified by the less existing possibilities for codec adaptations in the case of 40% of participating nodes.
7. Conclusions
In this paper, we examine how different solutions based on codec adaptation can be used in a multirate WLAN scenario in order to achieve the best capacity versus quality trade-off. Using voice codec adaptation not only to mitigate the multirate effects but to increase the number of accepted calls in the cell, we can obtain a significant capacity increase, especially in the case of low to medium traffic load.
In order to compare the various policies and scenarios, three different metrics are considered, the blocking rate, dropping rate, and MOS. By uniting all three important metrics in one new GoS parameter, the VGoS introduced in this paper, a simple yet effective tool for optimizing the adaptation process, is provided. We show that by using the VGoS, we can get valuable conclusions for the performance of the system, the scenario, and the policy that gives the best trade-off between quality and capacity.
Summarizing the main comparison results, we obtain that the use of adaptive policies is always beneficial. However, when (1) the traffic load is low, (2) the frequency of rate changes is low, and (3) the number of participating calls in the adaptation process is high, codec adaptation should be used in both new calls and rate changes, making "MultiCodec on new and rate" (MC-new+rate) policy the best option for these scenarios. Otherwise, it is better to adapt the voice codecs only at rate changes, thus the "MultiCodec on rate" solutions are the ones performing best.
Finally, the effect of the adoption of the codec adaptation solution by the STAs is analyzed. We see that limiting the percentage of the STAs that participate in the process can decrease somewhat the effectiveness of the codec adaptation, especially in high traffic load conditions. However, using codec adaptation, and in particular the multiadaptive solutions, still outperforms the standard nonadaptive case, and the expected terminal evolution will only increase the efficiency of these proposals. Further issues of fairness that arise are left for future study.
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text: The traditional narrative about financial success in America is that hard work, steady saving, and a little bit of luck will ensure financial security, a comfortable retirement, and a better future for one's children. But as the 2016 elections demonstrated, large numbers of Americans feel financially insecure and frustrated that the "American Dream" is increasingly out of reach. In the book, Morduch and Schneider explain why this is happening—and what needs to change—based on the results of their groundbreaking study, the U.S. Financial Diaries (USFD). A joint initiative of NYU Wagner's Financial Access Initiative and the Center for Financial Services Innovation, USFD tracked 235 low- and moderate-income households for a full year to collect highly detailed data on how families manage their finances on a day-to-day basis. By tracking everything the families spent, earned, borrowed, saved, and shared in careful detail, Morduch and Schneider uncovered new insights about the financial lives of Americans that traditional studies have missed. In THE FINANCIAL DIARIES, they introduce us to the stories of these families, challenge conventional wisdom about inequality, financial literacy, and how families manage their money, and recommend ways to design financial services policies, programs, and products to better serve American families.


text:
Allie Braswell Named One of Orlando's Most Influential Men
SummaryCentral Florida Leader Named a Finalist for Prestigious Orlando Business Journal Award
Orlando, FL – The Orlando Business Journal selected Allie L. Braswell, Jr. as one of 15 finalists for the 2012 Most Influential Men awards. The finalists were chosen out of 141 nominees.
Currently, Braswell serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Central Florida Urban League (CFUL), an organization dedicated to empowering residents to achieve social and economic success for the betterment of the entire region. The CFUL is part of the National Urban League (NUL), a historic civil rights organization dedicated to economic empowerment in order to elevate the standard of living in historically underserved urban communities.
Braswell created a program that assists Central Floridians in their efforts to return to work, through an "Apprenticeship to Work" model called the Center for Workforce Innovation. Known as CWI, the public/private collaborative provides employability skills and serves as a developmental training center specializing in new economy jobs for Central Floridians in the 21st century throughout the emerging "Super Region."
Braswell's ideas for bridging the employment and skills gap have garnered him national attention. He was invited to speak about CWI at the White House and on CSPAN. Additionally, his program was adopted as part of the NUL's 8-Point Plan.
In addition to his work at the CFUL, Braswell serves as a member of numerous committees and boards, including the Executive Advisory Board for MyRegion.org, the Wells Fargo Community Advisory Board, and the Central Florida Partnership Regional Caucus.
As a military veteran who served 13 years in the Marine Corps, Braswell continues his military service as a U.S. Army Reserve Ambassador, and most recently was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the Center for Minority Veterans by the Honorable Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of Veteran Affairs. His concept for a national repatriation partnership between the NUL and the VA was the subject of an essay in the NUL's State of Black America report.
In addition to his work with veterans, Braswell has also been very vocal about the recent tragedy that took place in Sanford, Fla. — the untimely death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Speaking in solidarity with Martin's family and with Sanford residents, Braswell called for the arrest of shooter George Zimmerman and a full examination of the Sanford Police Department.
As part of his advocacy, Braswell spoke at several rallies with civil rights leaders Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. He was invited to participate as a panelist for WESH-TV 2's program, "Race: A Community Conversation." During the program, Braswell emphasized that equality, understanding and empowerment are keys toward racial harmony.
"I am fortunate to have enjoyed so many opportunities throughout my career, but I believe that my greatest accomplishment is my children," Braswell says. "A strong spiritual connection to God and a rock-solid foundation in faith gives me the fortitude to serve as an unrelenting voice for the underserved."
The Orlando Business Journal will host its Most Influential Men awards on Nov. 8 from 6-9 p.m. at the Sheraton Orlando Downtown. For more info on Braswell or the Central Florida Urban League, visit http://www.cful.org/
About the Central Florida Urban League
The Central Florida Urban League (CFUL), an affiliate of the National Urban League, is a community-based agency whose mission is to assist Central Floridians in achieving social and economic equality for the betterment of the entire region. More than 40,000 residents have benefited from CFUL's empowerment programs. Visit http://www.cful.org/ for more information.
Chatter Buzz Media, LLC
Ashley Cisneros


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ASRY Continues Brisk Repair Pace
With a turnover of more than 50 percent, 2001 proved extremely successful for ASRY — the yard repaired more than 104 vessels — 18 of which were more than 175,000 dwt. Dock occupancy remained high throughout the year with the graving dock achieving
Newport News Delivers Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tenneco's Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va., recently delivered to the United States Navy one of the world's largest warships, the nuclearpowered aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN69). With the Eisenhower, Newport News Shipbuilding
Newport News Lays Keel For First ULCC In $418-Million Contract
Tenneco's Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va., on September 14, laid the keel of the first of three ultra large crude oil carriers (ULCCs), the largest merchant vessels ever to be constructed in this country. The giant ships, to be built in the new Commercial Yard's 1,
Norfolk Shipbuilding And Drydock Corporation Signs Two Multimillion-Dollar Contracts
Norfolk Shipbuilding and Drydock Corporation (Norshipco), Norfolk, Va., has announced two multimillion-dollar projects for the firm's Berkley plant: Norshipco has signed a contract in excess of 15 million dollars with the Brazilian shipyard Ishikawajima do Brasil-Estaleiros S.
M.A.N.-B&W Offers Cost-Saving Systems For Their MC Engines —New Brochures Available
With their line of MC engines well-established in the marine industry, M.A.N.-B&W Diesel A/S is now focusing on the continuing expansion of their engine program and its application possibilities, including the use of turbo compound systems, which
P.T. V e l i o t i s Elected To Board Of Directors At General Dynamics
P. Takis Veliotis, General Dynamics' executive vice president and general manager of its Electric Boat Division, has been elected to the corporation's board of directors. Mr. Veliotis is responsible for the company's Electric Boat Division operations at Groton, Conn, and Quonset Point, R.
Sixth LNG/LPG Meeting Gastech 78 To Be Held Nov. 7-10 In Monte Car
Gastech 78, the sixth LNG/ LPG meeting in the series, will be held from November 7-10, 1978, in the new Spelugues Conference Centre in Monte Carlo, Monaco. The meeting thus returns to Europe, following the outstandingly successful Gastech 76


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Bench Top Ipswich Water Dispensers
Floor standing Ipswich Water Dispensers
WOW, our unique Ipswich Water Dispensers with a build-in 7-stage filtration system. Pour your own tap water in the top chamber of the filtration bottle. The water is filtered and purified by the 7-stage build-in filter cartridge. Now you can enjoy pure filtered water without all the chemicals you normally find in tap water. Prestige Water is the right place for your water cooler and water filtration solutions. Our 7-stage filter cartridge is one of the best available in the market. Please read more about our filtration system:
Ipswich Water Dispensers with filtration
Ipswich Water Dispensers from Prestige Water offers a high quality product. All our water coolers will have a cold water tap for refreshment. Also these is an option for hot water for all your hot water drinks such as tea, coffee, etc. If you do not require hot water, simply switch it off, and the hot water tap becomes room temperature water. You can refill the filtration bottle as often as you like. Never run out of great tasting drinking water again. We recommend to change the filter every 6, 9 or 12 months, all depending on the quantities of water you use. Prestige Water will advise you when your filter is due for changing. When you own one of our Ipswich Water Dispensers, you never will have to buy bottled water again. Why pay every day for your drinking water if you easily can make your own? Also our filter will add some very important minerals back to the water as well. Minerals are good for you and will give a nice taste to the water. So, now you can enjoy unlimited drinking water free from your own tap. Tap Water vs Filtered Water. Do you want to lose some weight? please read here to find out about Cold Water Diet.
We are pleased to bring the Ipswich Water Dispensers in the market at very competitive prices. Find out yourself and click on the link above.


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Romantic Poetry, Sad Poetry, Love Poetry, Urdu Poetry, English Poetry SMS, Funny SMS, Tex Messages | Poetrylar is a latest blog about tech news, Technology News, Gadgets, Software, Social Media, Mobile, Games, Internet News, Mobile Reviews and It News
Monday, February 4, 2013
Eid Mubarak SMS
Eid Mubarak SMS
R U Waiting 4
My Msg?
( '.' )
Shoo Shweeeeet..
Dont Worry.
How Can I
Forget U?
HERE Comes
My Wish.
Eid Mubarak
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Shopping for underwear can be a nightmare of note – especially the whole business of being measured for your correct bra size. Let's face it not everyone is comfortable being felt up in the change room by some lady with a measuring ribbon, and not everyone enjoys the schlep of going to the shops, trying stuff on and then having to stand in a queue to pay for it all. If you prefer to shop for your intimates in the comfort of your own home then you are going to love Triumph's new online store!The brand spanking new online store truly is a thing of beauty for those who would rather not have a woman who isn't their mom see them in their birthday suit, because it gets rid of the whole fitting-room business. Instead you are left to measure yourself, with plenty of guidance in the privacy of your own home, and then left in peace as you browse through the many bra, panty and other lingerie options available to you. The store offers ladies hundreds of sensual, seductive and comfortable and classic bras, bustiers, push-ups, corsets, body suits and panties to choose from. To find your perfect fit just use the Fit Finder (a section that tells you exactly where and what to measure, and then provides the corresponding sizes) on the site and then shop comfortably, knowing that the goodies you receive will be the ideal fit for your body.I also love the fact that shopping online gives you so much more convenience in terms of sizing and colour. There's none of that usual disappointment that the colour and size you want isn't in store. Nope, by using the online store you have access to the Triumph warehouse which means that every size, colour and style in each range of the full Triumph collection is always available to you!The site is also super easy to use and you can filter your search for your perfect bra by size, colour and price as well as collection, style and brand. The site offers everything from crop tops, bras and panties to corsets, body suits and shapewear from Sloggi, Triumph and TriAcation so there's loads to choose from. Plus, shipping is charged from as little as R55 for orders to main areas. And, if you realise that the item you ordered isn't quite what you wanted then you can easily return it within 30 days and get your money back.I used the site to order some super cool Sloggi bras of my own and loved how easy it was to use and how convenient shopping for underwear online truly is. I'm telling you this has changed my life and I hope it will change yours too. Click here to visit the online store and shop up a storm now!Win!One lucky Darling stands the chance to win a R350 Triumph shopping voucher to spend at the online store! To enter simply email your funniest and most embarrassing underwear story along with your name and contact details to firstname.lastname@example.com by 12:00 on Friday 5 December!
By Crystal Espin Visit my Google Plus Profile.
Love the photos on the blog? I use the new Nokia Lumia 1020 smartphone to take photographs at all my reviews. Find out more about the device here.


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Fabricated from a soft navy cotton blend, Nike's Sportswear tech fleece track pants have been design..
48,37€ 81,20€
Chic and sophisticated, the Mango coat from Max Mara exemplifies the label's outerwear expertise. Re..
56,15€ 1.149,72€
Co puts a refined spin on floral print with this crêpe de chine silk dress. The kimono inspired wrap..
62,19€ 1.291,38€
As always, Stella McCartney presents a selection of contemporary fashion and accessories for the mod..
86,38€ 591,70€
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55,28€ 299,74€
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44,92€ 129,57€


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Comte Joseph (France / Cognac)
Veuve Pasquinet (France / Cognac)
Cognac , named after the town of Cognac in France, is a famous variety of brandy. It is produced in the wine-growing region surrounding the town from which it takes its name, in the French Departments of Charente and Charente-Maritime. As an Appellation d'origine contrôlée, in order to bear the name Cognac, the production methods for the distilled brandy must meet specified legal requirements. It must be made from certain grapes It must be distilled twice in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in French oak barrels from Limousin or Tronçais. Most cognacs are aged considerably longer than the minimum legal requirement, because cognac matures in the same way as whiskies and wine when aged in a barrel.
The official quality grades of cognac are the following:
V.S. -very special or superior designates a blend in which the youngest brandy has been stored for at least two years in cask.
V.S.O.P. - very special or superior old pale designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least four years in a cask, but the average wood age is much greater.
XO - extra old designates a blend in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least six years but on average for upwards of 20 years.
In addition the following grades can be mentioned:
Napoleon - is a grade equal to XO in terms of minimum age, but it is generally marketed in-between VSOP and XO in the product range offered by the producers.
Extra - designates a minimum of 6 years of age, this grade is usually older than a Napoleon or an XO.
Vieux - is another grade between the official grades of VSOP and XO.
Hors d'âge - ("beyond age") is a designation which is equal to XO, but in practice the term is used by producers to market a high-quality product beyond the official age scale.
The place where the grapes were grown can also be used to define the cognac, and give a guide to some of the flavor characteristics of the cognac:
Grande Champagne - eaux de vie are long in the mouth and powerful, dominated by floral notes. "Champagne" derives from the Roman "Campania" meaning Plain, but is often explained with similarity in soil with the Champagne area at Reims.
Petite Champagne - eaux de vie have similar characteristics to those from Grande Champagne but are in general shorter on the palate.
Borderies - eaux de vie from the Borderies are the most distinctive, with nutty aromas and flavor, as well as a distinct violet or iris characteristic.
Fins Bois - Heavier and faster aging eaux de vie ideal for establishing the base of some blended cognacs. Fins Bois is rounded and fruity, with oiliness.
Bois Ordinaires - Further out from the four central growth areas are the Bons Bois and the Bois Ordinaires grown regions. With a poorer soil and very much influenced by the maritime climate, this area of 20,000 hectares produces eaux de vie that are less demonstrative and age more quickly.


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When she's not spending time in her fantasy world, Dawna loves football, reading, and pretending she's a top chef in the kitchen. Oh, and fawning over her dogs and husband, sometimes in that order.
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Title: Number Thirteen
Author: Bella Jewel
Expected Release Date: March 17, 2014
Genre: Dark Romance
**AUTHOR NOTE - This is NOT a BDSM Romance**
We're thirteen girls, captive, slave to our master. A master we've never seen. Obedience will become all we know in our shallow existence. It is the only emotion we're permitted to feel. When we're bad, we're punished. When we're good, we're rewarded. Our scars run deep. Yet we survive, because we have to... because HE teaches us to. All of us are special, we feel it with everything we are. He has us for a reason, but it's a reason we don't know. We've never seen his face, but we know that something deeply broken lies beneath the darkness. With every touch, with every punishment, we know it. Then something changed. He showed me who he truly is. Now I want him. I'll go against everything I know to be with him.
A monster.
My monster.
Loving him is a sin, but a sinner I am. I won't stop until I see every part of him. Even the parts he keeps locked deep down inside.
I am Number Thirteen, and this is my story. No one said it was pretty, or right, but it's mine.
PROLOGUEMy boots crunch in the yellow autumn leaves as I walk towards the schoolyard. I didn't want to come today, but Momma told me I had no choice. She said school is for smart kids, and if I don't go, then how am I ever going to get smart? I could get smart, the man on the television tells me everything I need to know. But she claims that I can't make friends with the man on the television, that the only way to make friends is to go to school. I could have told her that I don't need friends to be successful, but she'd only tell me I'm being silly. So I came to school. I didn't tell her that there are bullies here, or that every day they push me around and shove me into lockers. That would make me sound weak, and now that my dad is working, and my brother is away because he didn't like the school here, I've had to become the man of the house. There's no room for weakness. Momma tells me bullies pick on the kids who are victims. I think she's wrong. I'm not a victim; I'm just a kid. They pick on me because I'm different. I don't look at the girls like they do; I don't try to sneak out to parties. I'm only thirteen. I'm just there to learn, then I go home and I take care of my family, because, I'm the man of the house. Like I said. The shrill sound of the school bell ringing, tells me I'm late. I pick up into a jog, rounding the corner and into the schoolyard. It's a cool winter day, and I have to pinch my coat together to stop it from flapping in the icy breeze. I can see the students piling in the front doors, and I turn my jog into a run. I'm focusing so heavily on the doors, that I don't see them. A strong hand lashes out, catching hold of my sleeve and tugging me into the alleyway that runs down beside my school. I always knew this alley was dangerous. My body is slammed against a hard wooden fence, and I set eyes on my bullies. Four of them. They're all bigger than me, all of them on the football team. They're from a few grades up, and they've just turned sixteen. The leader of the group, Marcel, steps forward first. He scrunches his nose in disgust, as if I've just dragged myself out of a gutter, as if I'm offending him. He leans in close, and I can smell cigarettes on his breath. Smoking is not cool. "You've been trying to avoid me, Will. Did you really think you could hide at home with Mommy, and never have to come out again?" I stare at him, wondering why he chose me to pick on. I didn't even know his name until he flagged me down and shoved my head down a toilet six months ago. I was just a kid, keeping my head down, studying and learning like I should. Now here I am, pressed against a fence, wondering why they decided I was good enough to take extra special effort to attack. I don't bother answering him; it'll only make him worse. My answers won't make a difference. If I answer, I'm wrong. If I don't answer, I'm wrong. "Are you fucking mute, you little cunt?" My body jerks. I hate that word, it's so…vulgar. I let my eyes move to the four other guys standing like protective pack animals around Marcel. I don't know their names; they're not significant enough. The tall boy with orange hair looks nervous, like he knows what's about to happen could put him in a world of trouble - but he's still here, still making the choice to stay. The other two guys are stony faced, and fully aware of their part in this attack. I still don't answer him. If I just let them beat me, it'll go away quicker. "You're a freak, Will, do you know that?" Marcel hisses, leaning in closer. Of course I know that. I wouldn't be pinned against a fence if I didn't know that. Bullies are so dumb. Marcel raises his fist, and brings it down over my face, cracking my nose so hard blood spurts onto his shirt. I don't cry out, because that's what he wants, but the pain radiating through my head is nearly enough to make me beg. Nearly. Marcel takes hold of my shirt, and his grey eyes scan my face. He's panting, as though I've shoved him into an alley and challenged him. Like this is my fault. The world is twisted like that, and it's a lesson I've learned the hard way. "You know," he growls, locking eyes with me. "I heard my girl saying how handsome you were the other day. Do you know how much it sucks to have my girl saying that a freak is handsome? Especially a freak that's only what? Thirteen years old? Your dick would be no bigger than a tube of damned lipstick, yet she thinks you're handsome!" I wouldn't know how much it sucks to have a girl say that, because I don't have a girl. Again, bullies are dumb. "Don't answer me, you little twerp. It doesn't matter. I will make sure by the time you leave this alley; you're not handsome anymore. I won't have my competition being some little weasel that can't even speak." I taste blood filling my mouth, and my nose is pounding so heavily I'm almost sure I can hear my own heart in my head. I don't take my eyes from Marcel. They say look danger right in the eye; it gives you power and strength. I don't feel powerful right now, in fact, I don't really feel anything. Someone like me doesn't fight, I'm the underdog, and underdogs are weak. Everyone knows it. Marcel reaches into his back pocket, and pulls out a pocket knife. The heart that feels like it's in my head begins thumping even harder. I try not to show fear, I try to stand tall and take what he dishes out with strength, but that's not so easy when your attacker is waving around a pocket knife. "She said it was your eyes," he begins, lazily tracing circles on his palm with the blade. "She said they're the most stunning eyes she's ever seen. Like the ocean." I didn't know my eyes were like the ocean. He takes hold of my shirt, yanking me close. "No one is more appealing to my girl, than me." They say bad things happen in slow motion, they're right. I feel Marcel throw me down onto the floor. I feel every movement as my body slammed into the dirt. I feel his body weight coming over me, his knees pinning me down as I squirm. I feel his friend take my arms, pulling them above my head, while another puts a hand over my mouth. With my nose pouring with blood, that makes it difficult to breathe. I feel the knife ripping into my skin as I thrash my head from side to side, and I can feel the blood pouring down the sides of my face. Each time he attempts to stab me, I move and the knife only slices through the skin around my eye. My pained wails fill the alley, but no one comes to help me. No one is around in the one moment of my life that I need them. I know what I'll remember most about that day, and that is the moment he finally manages to drive the knife into my eye. I don't feel pain, not right away. Instead I hear the popping sound, as his blade pierces right through. Then I feel pressure as he twists. It's only when he yanks it out of its socket, that I start to scream. Then the pain is unlike anything I've ever felt. Words cannot begin to explain the horror I feel as darkness begins to invade my body. I know my face is covered in blood, because it drips down to soak my hair. I know I bite his friends hand so hard I nearly take off his finger. I don't know what they're saying, or even acknowledge the moment when they run away. All I know was that I am bleeding to death in an alley, missing an eye. Red fills my vision as the blood begins to cover every part of my face. I know I'm still screaming, even though I can't hear it. All I can hear is an excessive ringing in my ears. I can't even move my hands to cover my eye, in an attempt to protect the empty socket. I can do nothing but lay and scream, witnessing a pain that I'll never witness again in my life, and wondering what I did to deserve it. No one deserves to die. But I do die that day. And in my place, a monster is born.
About the AuthorBella Jewel is an Aussie girl through and through. She spent her life in Western Australia, growing up in many different areas of the state. She now currently lives in Perth with her husband, children and mass amounts of pets. She's crazy, fun, outgoing and friendly. Writing is her passion, she started at the young age of 18 but finally got the courage up to publish, and her first novel Hell's Knights was released in August 2013.
Author Social Media Links
Facebook | Website | Goodreads
Title: Hero
Author: Leighton Del Mia
Release Date: February 27, 2014
Genre: Dark Erotic Romance Standalone
Calvin Parish They call me Hero. I defend. I protect. I ask for nothing in return, and that makes me good. Doesn't it?
That which makes me the ultimate predator also feeds dark impulses I've learned to control—until I bring her too close. For years I've watched her from afar, but what started out as duty has become obsession.
Cataline Ford I work hard. I play by the rules. I'm content. My scars are quiet and invisible, and that keeps me hidden. Doesn't it?
One fateful walk home, I'm taken by someone I didn't know I should fear. Captive and afraid, nobody will tell me why I'm confined to this hauntingly beautiful mansion. I'm given everything; I have nothing. He takes what he needs from me, and for that I hate him. But I might have loved him once.
And just because you're reading this doesn't mean I survive him.
Buy the Book
About the Author
Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Website
Keep Me (A Hero Novella)
"I will disappoint you. I will hurt you. If I could be different, I would. But I don't think I can."Declarations and sacrifices have been made. After three years, a better life is finally on the horizon. But when the past leaves marks that are both painful and permanent, is there ever such a thing as starting over? Can memories be replaced or forgotten—and should they be? Keep Me is a follow-up novella for Hero readers who want a glimpse of life after breakfast. It is only intended to be enjoyed after Hero and is not a standalone. It is entirely optional and not essential to the original plot.


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Let us start learning about the major facts about the company registration in India. There are many frequently asking questions about the company registration for many startup people in each city of our country. The rules and regulations for the selection of appropriate legal form and its registration process is guided by the expert in Corproots.
Six features of company registration in India
Are you a single founder for the company?
Private limited companies are the most commonly registering business forms in India. While discussing about the shareholders in a PVT LTD Company there should be minimum of 2 shareholders in a company. Single founders can add their father, mother or any other relative as the 2nd shareholder as per the rule.
Why most of the startup companies are PVT LTD registered?
Private limited companies are more in our country which helps the shareholders better stability. It can be easily described that people preferring PVT LTD Companies can raise their capital funding at any time. Employee stock options is flexible in such concerns for the effective flexibility in business. Banks can lend loan for the private limited companies if necessary at any time compared to the sole proprietorship based firms.
Do you know the company registration procedures?
- Obtain the Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) to sign online- It is availed within 2 days of time based on the submission of complete documents to our expert
- Get Director Identification Number (DIN) within one day of time
- Choose company name related to your business type should not be similar to the brand name
- When the above steps are completed then the process of drafting Memorandum of association (MOA) and Articles of association (AOA) is carried forward.
- Finally the company incorporation certificate is applied
What can be the maximum number of shareholders in a PVT LTD Company?
There can be minimum of 2 and maximum of 50 shareholders in a private limited company. Whereas the directors can be minimum of 2 and maximum of 15.
Investment in private limited companies and the regulatory requirements
Most of the PVT LTD companies in India do not need to invest any money initially rather than that machineries and other necessities. At the same time the regulatory requirements in this form of companies are lesser compared to public limited firms.