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Hala Alwagdani
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Country: Saudi Arabia
Major: Geology
Salam, my name is Hala and I am a Geology major from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
I came to the University of Arizona first in the year 2011 as a freshman where the sole reason that I picked the school was because it had one of the best Geoscience programs in the US and because I had many friends who are attending the school.
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Our special coverage of the closest race for years
Explore the personal stories of Syrian refugees in Lebanon
19 Jul 2013 18:36 GMT | Europe, Italy, Morocco
An Italian court has found three of Silvio Berlusconi's associates guilty of procuring prostitutes for racy parties held at the former Italian prime minister's villas.
Failed showbusiness agent Lele Mora and television host Emilio Fede were sentenced to seven years each in jail, while showgirl-turned-politician Nicole Minetti was given five years behind bars.
They carried out a sort of exam of the capacities of the young women and then injected them into the circuit of soirees
Antonio Sangermano, prosecutor
The Milan court on Friday banned Moro and Fede for life from holding public office and working with minors, while Minetti was given a five-year ban on holding public office.
All three were ordered to pay court costs.
Among the girls allegedly recruited by the trio for parties at billionaire Berlusconi's villas was Moroccan-born Karima El-Mahroug, a then 17-year-old exotic dancer nicknamed "Ruby the Heart Stealer".
Berlusconi was sentenced in a separate trial in June to seven years in jail for paying for sex with Ruby and abusing his power to hide the liaison though the punishment was suspended on appeal.
In his summing up speech in May, prosecutor Pietro Forno said the three had arranged "orgies" at Berlusconi's mansion and cited the tycoon's ex-wife Veronica Lario, who accused her then husband of consorting with "young virgins".
His colleague Antonio Sangermano said the three were like "tasters of fine wine" and had obtained financial advantages from Berlusconi because "they know all the secrets" of those nights.
"They carried out a sort of exam of the capacities of the young women and then injected them into the circuit of soirees," Sangermano said. Minetti was also an active participant and "performed sexual acts for money," he said.
All three denied the charges, insisting that while they may have invited girls to the premier's Milan villas, it was to attend nothing more than elegant dinner parties, as Berlusconi had said before.
Friday's verdict adds to Berlusconi's legal woes and complicates matters for Prime Minister Enrico Letta's fragile left-right coalition, whose survival depends on Berlusconi's centre-right People of Freedom (PDL) party.
Source: Agencies
Woman at centre of "bunga bunga" sex trial gives sensational account of how guests partied at villa of Italy's ex-PM.
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The following calls were among those handled by the Oakley police Nov. 19-25, according to information provided by the Police Department.
Nov. 19
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-- Nan Hargis
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'Modern Family' actress Sarah Hyland grew up across the street from buildings that burned and collapsed in accident caused by gas and plumbing work.


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Page 1
RESEARCH Open Access
A Quick Test of cognitive speed is sensitive in
detecting early treatment response in
Alzheimer's disease
Sebastian Palmqvist1,2*, Lennart Minthon1,2, Carina Wattmo1,2, Elisabet Londos1,2, Oskar Hansson1,2*
Introduction: There is a great need for quick tests that identify treatment response in Alzheimer's disease (AD) to
determine who benefits from the treatment. In this study, A Quick Test of cognitive speed (AQT) was compared
with the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) in the evaluation of treatment outcome in AD.
Methods: 75 patients with mild to moderate AD at a memory clinic were assessed with AQT and the MMSE at a
pretreatment visit, at baseline and after 8 weeks of treatment with cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) initiated at
baseline. Changes in the mean test scores before and after treatment were compared, as well as the number of
treatment responders detected by each test, according to a reliable change index (RCI).
Results: After 8 weeks of treatment, the AQT improvement, expressed as a percentage, was significantly greater
than that of the MMSE (P = 0.026). According to the RCI, the cut-offs to define a responder were ≥16 seconds
improvement on AQT and ≥3 points on the MMSE after 8 weeks. With these cut-offs, both tests falsely classified
≤5% as responders during the pretreatment period. After 8 weeks of treatment, AQT detected significantly more
responders than the MMSE (34% compared with 17%; P = 0.024). After 6 months of treatment, the 8-week AQT
responders still showed a significantly better treatment response than the AQT nonresponders (22.3 seconds in
mean difference; P < 0.001).
Conclusions: AQT detects twice as many treatment responders as the MMSE. It seems that AQT can, already after
8 weeks, identify the AD patients who will continue to benefit from ChEI treatment.
An estimated population of more than 29 million people
worldwide suffered from dementia in 2005 at a cost of US
$315 billion [1]. Of all dementia cases, approximately 60%
to 70% have Alzheimer's disease (AD) [2,3]. The treatment
of AD consists mainly of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI),
which improve behavior, activities of daily living, and cog-
nitive functions in AD patients [4]. However, not every
patient benefits from this treatment. To enhance the drug
efficacy and its cost benefits in AD populations, the pub-
lished guidelines on drug therapy emphasize the impor-
tance of identifying those who have responded positively
to the treatment [5-7]. Because of the vast number of
patients with AD, the evaluation will predominantly have
to be conducted in primary care centers, and a simple and
quick evaluation test is therefore desirable. The test should
also be reliable and sensitive to the specific cognitive
changes caused by the treatment.
A possible candidate for this kind of test is A Quick
Test of cognitive speed (AQT), which is a well-validated,
sensitive screening tool for cognitive impairment and AD
[8] (Figure 1). The AQT takes 3 to 5 minutes to adminis-
ter, has no ceiling or floor effect, and is independent of
gender, education, and culture [9,10]. Previous studies
have shown that the AQT activates temporoparietal cor-
tical areas, which are the major brain regions affected in
AD [11]. Moreover, one of the main functions measured
by the AQT is attention [12], which is the cognitive func-
tion that often improves the most from ChEI treatment
in AD [13,14]. This makes the AQT a promising test for
detecting treatment response in AD. The most common
test for evaluating ChEI treatment is the Mini-Mental
* Correspondence: email@example.com; email@example.com
1Clinical Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences Malmö,
Lund University, S-205 02 Malmö, Sweden
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
© 2010 Palmqvist et al.; licensee 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
Page 2
State Examination (MMSE) [15]. It is also the recom-
mended cognitive test for the evaluation of treatment
with ChEI, according to the National Institute for Health
and Clinical Excellence (NICE) [5]. This makes MMSE a
suitable reference test to compare with the AQT.
An optimal cognitive evaluation test of treatment
response will, at a given cut-off, classify very few patients
as treatment responders when no treatment is given and
as many as possible when treatment is given. To define
the cut-off for treatment response, one must consider
factors such as cognitive fluctuation of the patients, low
test reliability, training effect, and so on. These factors
cause changes in test score that are not caused by the
treatment and therefore must be accounted for. The
most common way of doing that is by establishing a reli-
able change index (RCI) [16]. RCI is a statistical analysis
for detecting individually significant change, and it has
been used in more than 500 medical studies.
The aim of this study was to
1. Compare the changes of AQT and the MMSE
before and after ChEI treatment in AD patients.
2. Compare the ability of AQT and the MMSE to
detect treatment responders according to cut-offs calcu-
lated by RCI analyzes.
Materials and methods
The AD patients were enrolled from a part of the Swed-
ish Alzheimer's Treatment Study (SATS) located in the
town of Malmö, Sweden [17]. SATS is a prospective,
open-label study in routine clinical settings, which have
collected patients who have been referred to the Memory
Clinic at Malmö University Hospital and have met the
criteria for AD according to NINCDS-ADRDA [18]. In
addition to a clinical examination by physicians specializ-
ing in dementia disorders, the patients were examined
with brain computed tomography, routine blood samples,
and cerebrospinal fluid analysis. After the baseline visit,
treatment with rivastigmine, donepezil, or galantamine
was initiated. The patients were followed up in a struc-
tured program with assessments at baseline, 8 weeks,
6 months, and semiannually thereafter. For patients to be
enrolled from SATS to this study, they had to have
MMSE and AQT color-form (AQT-CF) scores from a
visit at a predefined time period of 1 to 6 months before
baseline, the baseline visit, and the visit at 8 weeks after
baseline. The MMSE and AQT scores had to be from the
same occasions. Only patients with an MMSE score of
13 points or more and an AQT-CF score of 190 seconds
or less at baseline were included because test changes are
difficult to assess in patients with very poor test perfor-
mance, because of low reliability [19]. The cut-offs were
predefined and not based on the current study popula-
tion, which otherwise could introduce selection bias. The
inclusion criteria generated a study population of 75 AD
patients. They had been followed at the clinic over a
mean ± standard deviation (SD) period of 32 ± 19
months and had been reviewed by the study doctors S.P.
and O.H. from a longitudinal perspective in regard to
diagnosis accuracy. All patients lived at home and had a
mean age of 77 ± 6.7 years. Seventy-one percent were
women. Sixty-five percent were treated with galantamine,
18% with rivastigmine, and 17% with donepezil. The
mean doses of the drugs during the 8 weeks of treatment
were 9.9 mg, 3.7 mg, and 5.4 mg, respectively.
A written informed consent was obtained from all
patients and proxies. The study was approved by the
ethics committee of Lund University, Sweden, and was
carried out in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration.
MMSE and AQT
Specialized dementia nurses administered both tests
according to standardized guidelines to maximize
interrater reliability. The attention part of the MMSE
Figure 1 A sample of AQT. Each original test plate contains 40 figures. The patient is instructed to quickly name the color of each figure on the
first test plate (AQT-C), the form on the second plate (AQT-F), and the color and form on the third plate (AQT-CF) [8]. Only AQT-CF results were
analyzed in this study.
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 2 of 8
Page 3
was scored by the serial subtraction of 7 from 100 [20].
The backward spelling was used if the patient could
not perform simple arithmetic exercises [21].
AQT measures attention and cognitive speed, has
shown high test-retest reliability (r = 0.91 to 0.95), and
exhibits no habituation or learning in repeated trials
over 10 minutes [22]. AQT-CF has been validated
against WAIS-III P IQ (r = -0.61; P < 0.01), MMSE (r =
-0.72; P < 0.01) and ADAS-cog (r = 0.63; P < 0.01; cor-
relation made after 6 months of ChEI treatment in AD)
[12,23]. It has shown no significant correlation with the
Trail Making Test (TMT), verbal association fluency
(FAS), or Rey Complex Figure Test (RCFT) [12]. The
test scores constitute the number of seconds it takes for
a patient to complete each test plate (Figure 1). The test
was performed in Swedish, which has produced the
same results as a test performed in English [10]. Only
AQT-CF was analyzed in this study because it is the
most validated and sensitive part of AQT and contains
the cognitive measures that are mostly associated with
Assessing test changes: Reliable Change Index
RCI provides a confidence interval (CI), which repre-
sents the predicted changes that would occur if a
patient's test score does not change significantly from
one assessment to another. The most commonly used
CI is 90% [24-27], which was also used in this study.
With this CI, about 5% in a stable control group will
show a test improvement (according to a cut-off value
based on the RCI), even when no intervention or real
change has occurred. The RCI is calculated from a con-
trol group by considering the test-retest reliability, SD,
and a systematic bias of the score change between the
first and second test occasion (for example, training
effect or disease progression) [24]. The formulae that
describe this can be found in Additional file 1. Instead
of calculating the RCI based on changes in a healthy
control group, the RCI was calculated from the changes
of the AD patients during the untreated period. The
MMSE and AQT changes from before baseline to base-
line were thus used to calculate an interval of "normal"
test changes when no treatment was given (that is, the
RCI). Test changes during the treatment period greater
than the RCI were considered to be due to treatment
effect. By using the same population as controls (the
period from before baseline to baseline) and as cases
(the period from baseline to postbaseline), one elimi-
nates many confounding factors such as test-score varia-
bility (which is more pronounced in AD than in healthy
controls), age, disease progression, gender, and so on.
Because of the clinical nature of this study, the test
interval before treatment varied from 1 to 6 months,
with a mean ± SD interval of 3.7 ± 1.2 months. Because
of the progressive nature of AD, a longer prebaseline
test interval would likely show a greater deterioration.
Therefore, an approximated score at 8 weeks before
baseline was calculated for each patient. The 8 weeks
prebaseline score was calculated in the following way:
8 × (baseline score - prebaseline score)/Number of
weeks between the prebaseline and baseline visit. These
approximated scores were then used to calculate the
test changes during 8 weeks before treatment (baseline
score - 8 weeks prebaseline score), which provided a
single test-retest interval to be compared with the
changes after 8 weeks of treatment.
For patients with a test interval of 1 to 3 months
before baseline, the mean 8 weeks prebaseline MMSE
score was 22.7 ± 3.3 points, and the mean 8 weeks pre-
baseline AQT-CF score was 97.3 ± 22.8 seconds. Those
with an interval of 4 to 6 months before baseline had a
mean 8 weeks prebaseline MMSE score of 23.1 ± 3.1
points and a mean prebaseline AQT-CF score of 99.4 ±
21.4 seconds. No significant differences were found
between the groups regarding the calculated 8 weeks
prebaseline MMSE and AQT scores (P > 0.50). Conse-
quently, the fact that AQT and the MMSE were admi-
nistered at different intervals before treatment did not
seem to have any impact on the calculated 8 weeks pre-
baseline scores. Previous RCI studies have also used a
varied interval between test occasions, but without cor-
recting for this (calculating a single test-retest interval)
or testing the homogeneity of the group [24,26,27]. We
believe our method provides a more valid RCI result
because the calculations are based on the same interval
(8 weeks without treatment) to which it is going to be
applied (8 weeks with treatment).
Statistical analysis
The RCI was calculated as described in previous studies
(see Additional file 1) [27]. Variables that followed a
normal distribution were analyzed with parametric
statistics, and significantly skewed variables, with non-
parametric statistics. The MMSE and AQT changes
were assessed with the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed
ranks test. The test changes expressed as percentages
were analyzed with the paired t test. The McNemar test
was used when comparing the number of MMSE and
AQT responders. Linear relations were examined by
using Pearson correlation. The statistical analyses were
performed by using Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) software (version 17.0; SPSS Inc.,
Chicago, IL).
Changes in test scores
The MMSE and AQT scores are shown in Table 1. It is
important to note that a negative AQT change and a
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 3 of 8
Page 4
positive MMSE change stand for improvement. During
the 8-week pre-baseline period when the patients had
not yet received any treatment, mean AQT deteriorated
significantly by 2.6 seconds (P < 0.05), whereas the
mean MMSE deteriorated nonsignificantly by -0.29
points (P = 0.09). After 8 weeks of treatment, the mean
AQT score improved by -9.7 seconds compared with
baseline (P < 0.0001), and the mean MMSE score
improved 0.6 points (P < 0.05; Table 1).
To compare the test changes of MMSE and AQT in a
statistical manner, the score changes of each patient
must be expressed as a percentage of the previous score
because the tests consist of different scales (Figure 2).
When just comparing the AQT and MMSE changes after
treatment, AQT indicated a somewhat more pronounced
improvement than did the MMSE (P = 0.06). However, it
is important to account for the individual disease-pro-
gression rate (score change before treatment) because
this affects the degree of change in test scores after treat-
ment. The individual test changes of AQT and MMSE
during the 8 weeks before treatment were thus sub-
tracted from the changes after 8 weeks of treatment. This
meant that if a patient deteriorated 5% in a test score
before treatment and improved 10% after treatment, the
total treatment effect was an improvement of 15%
(assuming that the patient would continue to deteriorate
5% during the 8 weeks after baseline if no treatment had
been given). After correcting for individual disease pro-
gression, AQT improved by 10.8%, and the MMSE
improved by 3.7% (Figure 2) When analyzing these
values, the improvement of AQT was significantly greater
than that of the MMSE (95% CI of the difference: 0.9% to
Treatment responders according to the Reliable Change
The Reliable Change Index (RCI) results are summarized
in Figure 3. The test-retest reliability (Pearson correla-
tion) used in the RCI formula was based on the baseline
and 8-week pre-baseline occasions. The correlation coef-
ficient of AQT was 0.87 (P < 0.001), and for the MMSE,
0.86 (P < 0.001). The 90% CI to state if a significant
change had occurred on an individual basis (the RCI) was
-15.5 to +20.5 seconds for AQT. That is, if a patient
improved more than -15.5 seconds, a significant
improvement had occurred (clinically this meant that
everyone with a -16-second improvement, because only
whole seconds were measured). Patients who improved
Table 1 Mean MMSE and AQT values ± standard deviation
Variable8 weeks before baselinee
n = 75
n = 75
22.7 ± 3.0a
101.5 ± 24.9c*
8 weeks after baseline
n = 75
23.3 ± 3.5b*
91.8 ± 28.4d*
The MMSE, points
AQT Color-Form, seconds
23.0 ± 3.1
98.8 ± 21.6
aP = 0.088 compared with 8 weeks before baseline.bP = 0.047 compared with baseline.cP = 0.045 compared with 8 weeks before baseline.dP < 0.0001
compared with baseline.eCalculated value for all 75 patients according the description in Materials and methods. *Significant change.
Calculated with the Wilcoxon test. MMSE, the Mini-Mental State Examination (0 to 30 points); a higher score indicates better cognition. AQT, A Quick Test of
cognitive speed (measured in seconds); less time indicates better cognition.
Figure 2 Mean values of the score changes expressed as percentages. The lines show the changes from 8 weeks before baseline to
baseline and from baseline to 8 weeks after baseline. Dashed lines represent assumed deterioration without treatment. Error bars represent
standard error of the mean.1Comparison of the AQT and MMSE improvements after treatment when accounting for disease progression
(calculated with paired samples t test).
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 4 of 8
Page 5
significantly were denoted "responders". For the MMSE,
the RCI was -2.99 to +2.41 points (that is, those with at
least a +3-point improvement were responders). After
8 weeks of treatment, AQT detected 26 treatment
responders (34%), whereas the MMSE detected 13 (17%)
treatment responders (Figure 3). As expected according
to the RCI, both test cut-offs falsely classified ≤5%
responders during the pretreatment period (Figure 3). A
"false responder" in this case is a patient who improved
more than the RCI during the period when no treatment
was given. After treatment, ≤5% of all the patients dete-
riorated more than the RCI of AQT and the MMSE,
which also is just as expected.
Unsurprisingly, the AQT-treatment responders
showed greater improvement after 8 weeks of treatment
compared with the nonresponders in mean AQT score
(P < 0.0001). However, a major significant difference in
mean AQT change between the groups was still found
Figure 3 Responders. Percentage responders after 8 weeks without treatment and after 8 weeks with treatment according to cut-offs derived
from RCI. Details on the RCI analysis can be found in Additional file 1. Calculated with the McNemar test.
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 5 of 8
Page 6
after 6 months of treatment. The AD patients who were
classified as treatment responders by AQT after 8 weeks
of treatment showed a mean improvement of -19.3 ±
22.3 seconds on AQT after 6 months of treatment. The
nonresponders, conversely, deteriorated 3.3 ± 13.5 sec-
onds over the 6-month treatment period. Thus, the
AQT responders at the 8-week visit continued clearly to
show a better treatment response at the 6-month visit
compared with the nonresponders (P < 0.0001).
In this study, we evaluated AQT as a test for detecting
early ChEI treatment response in AD and compared it
with the MMSE. After 8 weeks of treatment, AQT had
improved significantly more than the MMSE when
accounting for disease progression (Figure 2). Further,
AQT identified twice as many treatment responders as did
the MMSE (34% compared with 17%; p = 0.02; Figure 3).
The increased number of responders cannot be explained
by low reliability or random changes of AQT scores,
because AQT classified only 5% (false) responders during
the 8-week period before treatment (Figure 3). Finally,
when comparing the AQT responders and nonresponders
from the 8-week visit, the responders still showed a signifi-
cantly better treatment response after 6 months of treat-
ment. This indicates that AQT detects early treatment
responders who seem to continue to benefit from ChEI
Evaluation of treatment
Good clinical practice and cost-benefit considerations
require that all AD patients be evaluated before and after
the initiation of treatment to determine whether the
treatment shall continue [5]. The most common test for
this evaluation in clinical practice is the MMSE, and this
is also the recommended test according to the NICE
guidelines [5]. In clinical trials, the ADAS-cog is the most
commonly used cognitive test [28,29]. It measures a
broader span of cognitive functions, but has the disad-
vantage of taking 45 minutes to administer compared
with 3 to 5 minutes for AQT and 10 to 15 minutes for
the MMSE. Because of the length of the ADAS-cog, it
cannot really be regarded as a brief cognitive test suitable
for clinical practice. ADAS-cog and the MMSE are well
studied for ChEI evaluation of AD, but no previous
studies of AQT were performed in this context. However,
in a recent randomized, placebo-controlled, multinational
study, AQT was used to evaluate the treatment effect of
memantine on dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson
disease dementia [30]. In that study, both AQT and the
global cognitive measure CGIC improved significantly
after 24 weeks of treatment, compared with placebo,
whereas the MMSE failed to improve significantly.
Future evaluation issues
In the future, it is likely that more patients with mild
cognitive impairment (MCI) will be included in thera-
peutic trials and treated in clinical practice. It is then
essential to have a sensitive test with no ceiling effect.
The MMSE and the ADAS-cog have detected in MCI
studies significant cognitive changes [31,32], but they
have also been criticized for their ceiling effects and
inability to detect small cognitive changes [28]. In the
only study in which AQT has been used to evaluate
MCI treatment, AQT improved significantly, whereas
the other cognitive tests failed to do so (WAIS III Digit
Span, WAIS-R NI Spatial Span, Digit Symbol Modalities,
and Rey's Complex Figure Test) [33]. Further, AQT has
no ceiling effect and, in this study, was able to signifi-
cantly detect the subtle disease progress of AD during
the nontreatment period of 8 weeks (Table 1). Although
the results are promising, more studies are needed to
warrant the sensitivity of AQT to cognitive change and
to systematically compare it with the MMSE and the
Another important future issue is that by 2040, it is
predicted that 71% of all dementia patients will be in
developing countries [34]. Therefore, the International
Psychogeriatric Association (IPA) and the Alzheimer's
Association have pointed out the need for a culturally
independent test [7,28]. AQT has so far been validated
in Western, Arabic, and African countries and does not
exhibit any culturally dependent questions or exercises
[8,9,35], whereas the MMSE is affected by ethnicity
Detecting treatment responders
In the present study, we evaluated the treatment response
after 8 weeks. Previously, it was shown that 4 to 8 weeks
of AD treatment results in a significant treatment effect
compared with placebo [38-41]. This supports our evalua-
tion of treatment effects already after 8 weeks. It is also is
in agreement with the guidelines by NICE and the Ameri-
can College of Physicians (ACP) [5,7]. When evaluating
the treatment response, the ACP has suggested that a 3-
point change in the MMSE indicates a clinically significant
change [7]. This is also the same result as the present
study found to indicate a significant change (Figure 3).
Unfortunately, no comparable studies are available regard-
ing individual change on AQT.
This study used a statistical method (RCI) to deter-
mine treatment responders according to the MMSE and
AQT. The clinical relevance of an MMSE improvement
of at least 3 points or an AQT improvement of at least
16 seconds is uncertain. In the entire population, the
clinical relevance of a mean AQT improvement of
10.8% and a mean MMSE improvement of 3.7% is also
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 6 of 8
Page 7
uncertain. It is important to note that these values were
only used to compare the MMSE and AQT as evalua-
tion instruments. To determine a clinically meaningful
AQT or MMSE change, a minimal clinically important
difference (MCID) must be defined. One approach to
determine the MCID for AD could be to measure the
natural history of decline over 12 months or longer in a
large group of patients by using AQT, the MMSE, and a
global rating of the cognitive performance. A definition
of MCID could then be the percentage of change on the
MMSE or AQT that is anchored against the natural his-
tory of global change in AD.
According to the cut-off values, AQT detected signifi-
cantly more responders after 8 weeks of treatment than
did the MMSE (34% compared with 17%; P = 0.026),
while falsely detecting 5% responders when no treat-
ment was given (Figure 3). This indicates that AQT is a
more-sensitive evaluation tool, which is further empha-
sized by the changes on a group level. AQT improved
significantly more after treatment than did the MMSE
when accounting for disease progression (Figure 2). The
more-pronounced sensitivity of AQT compared with the
MMSE might be explained by their different scales and
the different cognitive functions that are measured. Stu-
dies have shown that ChEI mostly improves attention
[13,14], which is one of the main cognitive domains
measured by AQT. It is possible that the treatment
response in our study could have been higher if all ChEI
doses had been increased after 4 weeks of treatment
(the dose was often increased after 8 weeks). This
should, however, not affect the comparison between
AQT and the MMSE.
Intuitively, it seems that patients who exhibit the right
characteristics initially to have a positive treatment
response would continue to benefit from the medica-
tion. This assumption has been debated, and to deter-
mine whether it is true, the reliability and validity of the
evaluation instrument must be high. In our study, we
found that the AD patients who were classified as treat-
ment responders by AQT after 8 weeks of treatment
still performed significantly better on AQT after 6
months, compared with the patients classified as nonre-
sponders after 8 weeks (22.6 seconds in mean difference;
P < 0.0001). This indicates that AQT might be used
after 8 weeks of ChEI treatment to identify those who
will continue to benefit from the treatment.
Two advantages of this study are that the treatment
was evaluated prospectively and that the same population
was used both as controls and as cases. The latter is the
most important factor for reliable RCI results, as most
confounding factors are eliminated. A shortcoming was
that this was not a randomized study with a placebo
group, but instead a study with a control group. The
treatment effect can therefore not with certainty be sepa-
rated from the placebo effect. However, placebo treat-
ment in clinical trials of AD patients has not resulted in
significant improvements of any cognitive tests [38-41].
Furthermore, the lack of a placebo group should not
affect the comparison of the MMSE and AQT.
In conclusion, AQT, a quick test of cognitive speed and
attention, seems to be twice as sensitive as the MMSE
in detecting early treatment response to ChEI in AD
patients. The early responders detected by AQT contin-
ued to benefit from ChEI after 6 months of treatment.
This indicates the potential usefulness of AQT when
evaluating treatment effects in clinical routine, especially
in primary care units. Moreover AQT may be important
when evaluating new treatments in the early stages of
AD, because of its sensitivity and lack of ceiling effect.
Further studies are needed to compare the treatment
response detected by AQT and brief cognitive tests
other than the MMSE.
Additional material
Additional file 1: Reliable Change Index (RCI). Statistical information
on how the RCI was calculated.
ACP: American College of Physicians; AD: Alzheimer's disease; AQT: A Quick
Test of cognitive speed; AQT-C: A Quick Test of cognitive speed-Color
(subtest 1); AQT-CF: A Quick Test of cognitive speed-Color Form (subtest 3);
AQT-F: A Quick Test of cognitive speed-Form (subtest 2); ChEI: cholinesterase
inhibitors; CI: confidence interval; MMSE: the Mini-Mental State Examination;
NICE: National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence; NINCD-ADRDA:
National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke
and the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders Association; r: correlation
coefficient; RCI: Reliable Change Index; SD: standard deviation.
Funding was obtained from Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden.
Author details
1Clinical Memory Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences Malmö,
Lund University, S-205 02 Malmö, Sweden.2Neuropsychiatric Clinic, Skåne
University Hospital Malmö, 205 02 Malmö, Sweden.
Authors' contributions
SP participated in the design of the study, performed the statistical analysis,
and drafted the manuscript. LM and EL participated in the design and
coordination of the study and revised the manuscript. CW revised the
statistical analysis and the manuscript. OH participated in the design of the
study, helped out in the statistical analysis, and revised the manuscript. All
authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Received: 18 February 2010 Accepted: 15 October 2010
Published: 15 October 2010
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 7 of 8
Page 8
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Cite this article as: Palmqvist et al.: A Quick Test of cognitive speed is
sensitive in detecting early treatment response in Alzheimer's disease.
Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010 2:29.
Palmqvist et al. Alzheimer's Research & Therapy 2010, 2:29
Page 8 of 8


text:
The night began with a teenage dare. She followed reluctantly as he led her by the hand to the shadow of the Black Angel.
A full moon gave them less privacy than she would have liked. Her back now against the horizontal concrete slab, she waited for him to lay his body across hers. Her lips prayed for the encounter to be quick because out of the corner of her eye a raven watched them intently from atop a gravestone.
Unlike most cemetery angels, whose heads and wings lift upward toward heaven, this statue's face and wings bent downward over the grave it guarded—as if pointing straight to hell. And while angel sculptures are traditionally a golden bronze or white marble, this one's hue was black. Besides the figure's sinister posture and color, its stony eyes seemed to stare into hers as if issuing a personal condemnation.
Her feeling of doom was so strong, the girl struggled to move away. But he held her down, pushed her dress up to her waist, and there, at the hem of the Black Angel, they sinned.
The writer paused over the keyboard and reread the scene. Then with a smile, added sensory and sensual details about places the boy was hard and the girl was soft, and how their throaty moans were the only sound of life amid the dark tombstones. A final tweak when the female character closed her eyes tight to shut out the angel's glare completed the carnal passage.
© 2011 Julie Kramer
A Novel
Killing Kate
A Novel
Crime-solving means high ratings for Minnesota TV reporter Riley Spartz when she nails the culprit behind Silencing Sam ("Sexy, sinister." —Linda Fairstein). But the stakes rise when Riley must piece together a serial killer's murderous motive for Killing Kate.
Channel 3's news director sends Riley on a dog rescue story sure to win over Minneapolis–St. Paul's viewers. But when the Twin City's latest murder victim is someone from Riley's past, she can't stay away. Kate Warner was her college roommate's sister, and the killer's signature—a chalk outline of a winged angel—links him to a string of homicides across the Midwest. Unearthing his agenda leads Riley to the legendary Black Angel statue in an Iowa cemetery—and may lead to a twisted trap designed just for her by the angel killer himself.
- Pocket Star |
- 448 pages |
- April 2012
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Feb 25, 2013 at 08:17PM EST
It breaks my heart to read that.
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Sponsored Video: Robern bathroom vanity at the 2010 Kitchen and Bath Industry Show Video
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text:
First Town In US To Become 100% Wind Powered 391
from the can't-get-much-greener dept.
We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).
They might be a net generator of power, but they are ultimately using other power sources some of the time.
At $0.11 on average per kWh, the savings is $1.7m annually, plus another $300k from the energy they sell to the power company. That's 45 years to recoup the investment ($90m), not including maintaining the turbines for 45 years (more info here [ecogeek.org])
Still, I think this should be the new standard for sustainable living and development.
And to put 16 gigawatt hours into perspective... the average household in America uses around 11,000 kWh annually. See Official Government Website [doe.gov]
Rock Port, MO needs to add their watts saved [whosavedwatt.com] to the total. It's like they switched out 64,000,000 incandescent bulbs for CFCs!
A really quick Google search turned up this article [cnn.com] which will hopefully put things into a bit of perspective. $2 billion to build a coal plant; while I grant you it'll generate more than 16MWh/year, is still a damn hefty pricetag. How many year (nee: decades) will it take to pay one of those off?
Also, FYI; 40 year mortgage amortizations are becoming very commonplace while some companies are looking towards the prospect of 50 year ams.
As for maintainence costs; how much does it cost to maintain a coal fired plant? How much does it cost to maintain a nuclear plant? How much does it cost to handle the waste product from same? How much ongoing environmental impact is there?
I'm no tree hugger by any stretch, but the fact that a town was able to generate an annual surplus of natural energy with no environmental by-products is a pretty decent little achievement. A small step towards reducing our reliance on fossil fuels.
Ugly is subjective, noisy/vibrating/dangerous are engineering problems that we've long ago overcome with far more than just windmills, and no power worth mentioning? That's also highly subjective and depends on the system. As far as I'm concerned any power at all is better than no power. In the past five years I've spent a total of 1.5 months without electricity due to weather and rural location (last priority). Having a small system that's easy to fix (obviously not for everyone, but it would be for me) is a major plus.Apart from being ugly and noisy and vibrating and dangerous, they also don't provide any power worth mentioning. Some of them even have trouble making back what it took to manufacture them -- and THAT is a feat in the wind industry.
So yes, you could have 100% wind power across the nation, without blackouts.
Sure, if you ignore the effects of transmission loss in the power lines. Imagine what would happen if California was hot and calm, but the east coast was all gale-force winds. Everybody in California turns on their air-conditioners and plugs in their electric cars at the same time, because it's hot and sunny, so they want to drive their electric cars down to the beach.
Will the gales over on the east coast supply enough wind powered electricity to supply all of California without blackouts? I don't think so. That's why sensible people wouldn't make their country 100% wind powered.
All the simple programs have been written.


text:
Spirit of ChristmasHardback
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- Publisher: St Martin's Press
- Format: Hardback | 32 pages
- Dimensions: 249mm x 254mm x 10mm | 386g
- Publication date: 30 September 2009
- Publication City/Country: New York
- Sales rank: 31,759
Product description
Bells jingle, sleds dash through the snow, trees are topped with sparkling stars, and children everywhere dream of candy canes and presents. But the best gift of all--the most magical gift of the season--is when we spend Christmas with those we love. Once again, this New York Times-bestselling author and artist has created a special, beautiful book that families will want to share year after year. (And readers will want to look for the Spirit of Christmas image that Nancy has hidden on every page!)
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Author information
Nancy Tillman is the author and illustrator of the "New York Times" best-selling picture book "On the Night You Were Born" and its companion journal, "The Wonder of You: A Book for Celebrating Baby's First Year." Her other books include "Wherever You Are: My Love Will Find You" and "Tumford the Terrible." A former advertising executive, Tillman now writes and illustrates full-time. She lives in Tualatin, Oregon.
Review quote
Praise for "The Spirit of Christmas" "Tillman ("On the Night You Were Born") expertly swirls together reality and fantasy--the narrator's child delights in the sight of the decorated tree, the lion lies down with the lamb--as is fitting for such a magical night." --"Shelf Awareness""Handsomely illustrated, this Christmas book is bound to be hyped as the perfect seasonal gift. ...Tillman's sentimental sensibility and beautiful artwork ensure that this will become a popular choice at holiday time." --"Booklist""A beautiful and timeless book." --"School Library Journal""As the adult speaker of the story nods off in a comfy red chair, the Spirit of Christmas appears, ready to get the narrator in the holiday spirit. What follows is a buoyant, imagistic tribute to the season, as the Spirit lists joys both and intangible, before offering the reminder: 'Because it took nothing but love to begin it, / it's not really Christmas if love isn't in it.' Tillman's ethereal illustrations are surreal but captivating." --"Publishers Weekly""Bestselling author Tillman offers a dreamlike interpretation of the collective spirit that permeates the holiday." --"Kirkus Reviews""The wonderful colored illustrations convey a sense of joy and peace." --"Children's Literature" Praise for "It's Time to Sleep, My Love: ""As in "On the Night You Were Born," the words directly address a young listener with comforting, fanciful imagery . . . Culminating in a final scene of a sleeping child in a floating bed under a watchful moon, this gentle, tender offering will buoy children with its strong messages of safety and love." --"Booklist""A luxuriant bedtime retreat for children and parents alike." --"Kirkus Reviews" Praise for "On the Night You Were Born" "This is one of those rare baby books that should make both skeptics and sentimentalists of all ages happy." --"Publishers Weekly""A beautiful tribute to the uniqueness of every child." --"Kirkus Reviews," for "On the Night You Were Born""Many parents will welcome this opportunity to tell their children how special and loved they are." --"Booklist," for "On the Night You Were Born "


text:
Is glass Door door shattered due to cold temperature?
My 2 month old tempered glass Patio sliding door, bought from www.crystalwindows.com, was suddenly shattered on 1/22/2013 night. The outdoor temperature was extremely low, about 6-12 degree, indoor was about 68 degree. We stayed late as usual until mid night 1/22/2013, and we didnt hear any abnormal sound. The next day, early morning, we found our Patio glass door was shattered. The glass door had two layers, the outside tempered glass was shattered, but inside was not. we called Crystal Window company, 718-961-7300 ext3206, and they insisted this was broken by an object, not shattered by itself due to the temperature. Anyone had similar situation before? Any expert can tell if our glass door was broken due to the cold temperature, or not? Thank you so much for your help! we really appreciate!!
This post was edited by daveye on Wed, Jan 30, 13 at 20:24
Your glass was not shattered due to the cold. Tempered glass wouldn't even notice temperature difference that you experienced.
Your glass broke from one of three causes:
1) Something impacted the glass.
2) Nickel-sulfide inclusion.
3) Edge damage to the glass during handling before or during door fabrication.
It isn't particularly difficult for an experienced glass professional to be able to determine the cause of your glass breakage by examining the glass break pattern. Sometimes it can even be done looking at pictures; unfortunately your picture just isn't clear enough or detailed enough to be able to discern the break pattern.
Also unfortunately, most instances of spontaneous tempered glass breakage end up being one of those mysteries of the universe that remain forever unsolved.
If you have other pictures that may be more detailed than the one that you posted...?
Tempered glass breaks when a scratch extends through the thin tempering layer.
It then pretty much instantly and completely turns into 'crumbs' as the stress of the tempering process is released.
The tempering layer is VERY thin at edges, making the glass very vulnerable to scratches on the edges of the tempered pane.
Inclusions in the glass can also result in fracture with repeated temperature cycles (a common cause of oven glass breakage).
Tempered glass is used in oven doors, gas fireplaces, stove tops, etc., simply because it is not very susceptible to thermal shock.
Glass is not a particularly good conductor of heat. Thermal breakage in glass is related to stress induced in the glass by the uneven application of heat to the surface of the glass.
If heat is applied to half the face of a sheet of glass and the other half is kept in shadow then the side where the heat is being applied will heat up rapidly while the side where the heat isn't being applied won't be.
What this does is introduce a boundary or terminus between the warmer side and the cooler side (again keeping in mind that "side" is not referring to the front and back of the sheet - it is referring to the side-to-side of the same face).
As the delta T between the warm side and the cold side increases, it causes stress along the boundary. Every one degree F of temperature difference introduces 50psi of stress into the glass.
When dealing with annealed glass you may start to be a little concerned when the delta T reaches 40 degrees or 2000psi differential along that boundary since that would be about the low stress level to potentially crack annealed glass in the right conditions - especially if the glass has any hidden edge damage.
When dealing with tempered glass, and presupposing an undamaged edge, you simply cannot introduce enough temperature differential to break the glass due to thermal stress in any "normal" glass application.
However, a nickel sulfide inclusion is affected by heat/cold cycles (as brickeye mentioned) and an inclusion can definitely cause tempered glass to shatter without warning.
Tempering glass introduces an interior tension layer and an exterior or surface compression layer. The compression layer will be 21% of the thickness of the glass on both sides leaving the center 58% of the total glass thickness under tension.
In 3mm, or 1/8", or double strength tempered glass the surface compression layer is a tiny bit less than 1/32". If that outer 1/32" of glass thickness is penetrated in any way, be it a puncture, a scratch, whatever, caused by a glass cutter, a glass saw, a water jet stream, a laser beam, no matter, then that glass is going to release that inner tension and it's going to turn into a pile of glass chips.
Basically, if enough force is applied to the glass face so that it exceeds the psi level of the surface compression layer then the glass explodes - period.
When dealing with the edge of a piece of tempered glass it is a pretty good idea to leave it alone because the tension layer is going to approach that edge and if you do anything to the edge that happens to pierce the tension layer then bad things happen.
Having said that, how close the tension layer gets to the edge can vary. It is possible to even shave or polish the edge of a piece of tempered glass (so not recommended!), but doing so (assuming it doesn't break in the process), will leave that edge even more vulnerable than it was before. Fun experiment, but not necessarily a good idea.
WoW, glass falls at about a 6.5 hardness on the Moh's scale. Steel falls down around 4-5 and the ceramic used in a spark plug is around 9 or so.
Anything impacting the face of a tempered glass lite that exerts a force that exceeds the surface compression will result in broken glass. Hardness counts when applying force.
This is the BEST Window Forum that I've found on internet. Thank you so much for all of your professional detailed explanation. we have learned a lot and really appreciate!!
We didn't find any debris around our glass door after it was cracked that morning...
Since we bought this glass 2 months ago, should Glass company pay for this damage or we should pay for it? I just uploaded a closer look of my glass, could anyone tell if it is shattered by itself or by an outside object, based on the crack pattern?
Thank you SO MUCH AGAIN!!!!
This post was edited by daveye on Wed, Jan 30, 13 at 20:34
I agree as well that it's pretty clear that the break occured right in the middle of the bow tie, and it does look like an impact break to me as well.
But an inclusion will produce a very similar pattern as well.
What I was hoping for, if you had the glass that is missing from the door, was to see if there were two pieces that were shaped like hexagons and that were larger than the rest of the remains.
When the glass "splits" at the point of the nickel-sulfide inclusion it produces two hexagon shaped pieces that are very distinctive and are a positive ID of the cause of the break.
I so cannot take any credit for that one!
The information is based on research done by PPG back in the 80's, and maybe much older, but the oldest reference that I have to the research is a report from 1985 called "Glass Breakage" and "A Guide to the Fracture Analysis Procedure".


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Teresa Coffman, University of Mary Washington professor of education, was recently named the 2014 Innovative Educator of the Year by the Virginia Society for Technology and Education. The VSTE created the award as a way to give recognition to teachers who implement and encourage "innovative educational practices –especially those that champion the smart integration of technology." "Dr. Coffman consistently demonstrates her professional commitment to and passion for innovative teaching that is grounded in compelling research," said Mary Gendernalik-Cooper, dean of the College of Education. "She brings these qualities to bear with her students in ways that encourage them to think differently about who they are becoming as educators, and how their uses of technologies will shape transformational learning experiences for their own students." Coffman's areas of expertise and scholarly research include educational theory, pedagogy, technology in instruction, and teacher … [Read more...]
UMW Professor Named Innovative Educator of the Year
Book Donation is Music to UMW's Ears
A definitive book of Russian music has been donated to the University of Mary Washington. The work "The Beauty of Belaieff," which includes over 100 full color plates of first editions of Russian music and individual biographies, is now available in Simpson Library. … [Read more...]
UMW Alumnus Donates Hollywood Memorabilia for Auction
The University of Mary Washington Marketing Club is teaming up with the 2014 Executive-in-Residence, Dan Wolfe, to auction off a number of unique Hollywood memorabilia. … [Read more...]
UMW to Host Jewish Cultural Awareness Events
The University of Mary Washington will host several events as part of the Jewish Cultural Awareness Celebration, sponsored by the James Farmer Multicultural Center. Two highlight events are free and open to the public. The Kristallnacht Commemoration will take place on Monday, Nov. 10 at 6 p.m. On this day 76 years ago, tens of thousands of Jews awoke to find their stores, businesses, homes and synagogues destroyed. Immediately after, more than 30,000 Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps, marking the beginning of the Holocaust. The event, which features talks by Marcel Drimer, a Holocaust survivor, and Porter R. Blakemore, associate professor in the Department of History and American Studies, takes place in Lee Hall, Room 411. Vanessa Ochs, author of "Inventing Jewish Ritual," will give the keynote lecture on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Lee Hall, Room 411. Ochs won the National Jewish Book Award in 2007 and was awarded a Creative Writing Fellowship by the … [Read more...]
UMW Presents Fall Concert, Nov. 7
The University of Mary Washington Concert Band will present its fall concert on Friday, Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in George Washington Hall's Dodd Auditorium. … [Read more...]
UMW Theatre Continues Season with "Sunday in the Park with George"
The University of Mary Washington Theatre will continue its 2014-15 season beginning Nov. 6 with the Tony Award-winning musical "Sunday in the Park with George," featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and based on the book by James Lapine. … [Read more...]
University Jazz Ensemble to Perform Benefit Concert
The University of Mary Washington Jazz Ensemble will perform a charity concert to raise money for UMW music scholarships, as well as for Rappahannock Legal Services, a local nonprofit that works to bring civil legal aid to low-income individuals. The concert will be held on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. in Dodd Auditorium, and tickets cost $5 for students and seniors, $10 for adults. The proceeds are split between the UMW Jazz Ensemble and Rappahannock Legal Services. The students of the UMW Jazz Ensemble will play jazz standards, followed by an informal "jam session," in which any musicians in attendance are invited to join the Jazz Ensemble. President Rick Hurley will be conducting the performance. "It's always great to present some music and educate the students to the different styles of playing," Doug Gately, director of the Jazz Ensemble said. "But probably more important, this event is to help the legal services in the Fredericksburg area for folks who do not have … [Read more...]
UMW Presents Harp Concert
The University of Mary Washington will present "Around the World in 80 Minutes," a music concert featuring harpist Grace Bauson on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. in Pollard Recital Hall. … [Read more...]
UMW Survey Shows Support for McDonnell Prison Term
Sixty percent of Virginians said that former Gov. Bob McDonnell should be sentenced to prison for his role in a corruption scandal, according to a new survey sponsored by the University of Mary Washington's Center for Leadership and Media Studies. … [Read more...]
UMW Survey Reveals Qualms about U.S. Ebola Preparedness
A majority of Virginians believe that the U.S. health system is unprepared to deal with an Ebola disease outbreak in this country, according to a new survey of state residents sponsored by the University of Mary Washington's Center for Leadership and Media Studies. … [Read more...]


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Self-reflecting and getting face-to-face with ourselves. Let's get up close and personal.
"For muddy little girls after my own heart."
"No one should be guilting you into a more indie wedding. But no one should be guilting you out of a WIC one, either. Do what you want!"
"One heirloom dress, sixty years, three weddings."
"How daycare proved to be oddly controversial, and one of the best things we've ever done for our family."
"These clouds look more magical in real life than in photos, and that's saying something. Also, #lazygirl approved."


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I'm an IT professional currently living in Singapore. I also do freelance photography, loves to travel, watersports, bowling, golf, loves to collect figures/toys and i plays online games
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Hey everybody! It's our friend, Silverheart!
When she's not busy playing volleyball, she's tearing it up in Wizard101! Thanks for being such an awesome reader of the blog, Alyssa!
Happy Dueling!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Player Trading Card of the Day--Alyssa Silverheart
Posted by Stingite at 9:44 PM
Labels: Trading Cards
2 comments:
- Silverheart said...
YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! thanks friendly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 10/8/09 04:28
- Tesh said...
Volleyball? Mmm... I need to play more volleyball.
- 10/8/09 10:53
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Recently, I read an article about dogs and cats that are considered "less adoptable" due to their age, breed or traits. This item was written in connection with Petfinder's "Adopt-A-Less-Adoptable-Pet-Week", which is celebrated the last week of September. I was surprised to find out that black cats are still considered less adoptable mainly due to superstition; hard to believe considering it's 2014. My husband and I have shared our home with a black cat for 15 years. Lucky Boy is not only handsome with his dark fur and big green eyes, but he's funny and playful … a complete joy. So it occurred to me that our readers have had similar positive experiences with their supposed "less adoptable" companion animals. By sharing our stories, together we can help increase the adoption rates of less fortunate animals and encourage more families to experience the delight of sharing their lives with pets that may not be considered perfect but have so much love and appreciation to give.More...
What do you think are the most common pet poisonings? Rat poison?
Insecticides? The Pet Poison Hotline publishes a list of most common poisonings
reported in dogs and cats - many of these items are non-toxic to humans but can
be deadly to fur babies. In this month's post, we'll be taking a look at some of the
dangers lurking in your home and how to best to protect your pet kids. More...
It's the height of summer, which means that mountain trails, bucolic meadows
and forested thickets are beckoning your dog to romp and explore. This impulse
may be at odds with concerns about new research on Lyme disease, which may have
you more inclined to restrict your canine companion's activities to the Great
Indoors. Before you put the kibosh on outdoor fun, make sure you know all the
facts about canine Lyme disease.
We love our companion animals. But sometimes their actions are mystifying, if
not altogether baffling. Fortunately, our own Dr. Jane is on-hand to offer some
rationale behind some of the most perplexing pet behaviors. More...
If you've ever noticed a foul odor wafting from your pet's hind end, there's
a chance that anal sacs may be the source of the problem. As any pet parent will
tell you, nothing smells as uniquely terrible as the material emitted from these
glands. More...
Imagine walking down the road. Suddenly, you are confronted by a large, snarling
dog heading directly for you. Try to imagine your level of fear. If you were once
terrorized by a dog earlier in life, multiply that fright by a factor of ten. Your
heart would race, your body would start to shake and your breathing would become
shallow and rapid. These reactions are caused by a surge of hormones, such as adrenaline,
often referred to as the 'fight or flight response'. It's how your body reacts to
a perceived threat, and it's totally normal. More...
Pet parents often ask me, "Why does my dog bow?" The answer is more complicated than you might think, as it often is with our wonderfully complex canine companions. Dog bows serve as building blocks of dog communication and also have a physiological function in the stretching referred to as pandiculation. The reason behind each bow depends on when the dog engages in the behavior. Let's talk about this unique form of stretching first. More...
February is National Pet Dental Month, and a great time to talk to your
veterinarian about the state of your pet's mouth and, if needed, schedule a
dental cleaning.
There is a price to pay for neglecting your companion animal's dental health.
It's a long-term cost that's potentially much higher than the short-term fees
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of poor dental care: excessive tartar, tooth decay, periodontal disease and oral
abscesses. These conditions can be the gateway to other major medical conditions
involving the heart, liver and kidneys. As with humans, such advanced dental
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Heart Health Awareness Month is right around the corner, beginning February
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Most people have a basic understanding of the risks of heart disease in
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My Dear Friends,
If you have read my end of year letters in the past, you know that the
holidays, for me, are a time of joy and reflection. A time to celebrate the
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Tile suggestions please...
I am having a hard time selecting tile for our master bathroom floor, shower and tub backsplash. We went to pick out our granite last week and found a remnant of Delicatus White for our vanity top. I absolutely love it! Now the problem is I am not sure what tile to go with it?
Picture is from phone, sorry for quality.
I need tile for the floor, shower and backsplash around tub. Any suggestions?
Thank you, Abby
Congratulations on getting this far in your renovations, Abby, and nice looking granite too!
Can't advise you on color of tile, but do want to offer a word of caution --- something I wish I'd known before I did all my tile shopping. If at all possible, once you have found the tile you love, BEFORE purchasing, see the run of tile you are buying to confirm the dye lot is consistent with the sample you fell in love with. I had not heard of anyone having problems with this, but boy, we sure did!
I fell in love with the sample floor tile from a very reputable tile shop in my town, but when the order arrived and we opened the boxes, they were absolutely not right. . .it was incredible how "off color" these tiles were. Fortunately, the shop took them back and called around to other warehouses to find a dye lot more consistent with the sample I loved. BUT, when that order arrived, it too was nothing close to the sample!! We were amazed! We had lost a couple of weeks work time with our tile man, had lost confidence in the manufacturing process and the lack of quality control, and were frustrated beyond belief. We threw our hands up and marched right out to our Big Box store and found a tile we could live with, sat down in the aisle and opened boxes until we were satisfied we could purchase everything we needed for the job.
Again, I hadn't heard of anyone having this problem. Maybe we are an anomaly. But, keep your wits about you with the tile selecting and purchasing. Good luck. I know you will be thrilled with the final outcome of your renovation.
Beautiful beautiful. I know this may sound boring but, I would just go with a simple white or light gray tile and let the granite be the star of your room. For a little surprise, I would add a stripe of glass mosaic with a combination of black, white and gray in the design for establishment in the tub area. With a dark vanity and nickel fixtures, it would be amazing. Dal-Tile has some nice solid colors to choose from at a reasonable price. I would keep it very low profile as sometimes, less is more.
That is a stunning piece of granite!!!
Don't know what your other elements will look like, but I think a "black" floor tile would look perfect with that gorgeous stone (add a black vanity, polished or brushed nickel hardware....ooh la la). I put black in quotes because I'm thinking black with some silver or metallic incorporated in it.
FWIW, we used "Glow" tile from Interceramic (distributed by AKDO?) in Cosmos, which is a charcoal-y black. It has a silvery sheen/texture--looks almost like fabric (people who come over always ask us what the floor is, and ask if they can touch it!). I personally think it would look smashing with your granite! :-) They also have lighter colors if dark floors aren't your thing, and I'll bet one of those would also look great with your granite as well.
I'm with Cat, black floor or dark brown, what ever dark color is in that granite. I like the way dark floors ground a room; I'm doing a black slate floor in my remodel for that very reason.
lizb_1772: Thank you! I will make sure and remember that.
lukkiirish: Thank you, it doesn't sound boring at all. I felt like simple might be the best option as well. I am afraid of doing white because my husband is a farmer. He comes in with all kinds of mud and grease on him. I'm scared he will have that white stained in no time. I like the idea of gray and letting the granite be the main focus.
cat_mom: Thank you! I loved it as soon as I saw it. I forgot to mention that our vanity and wainscoting around the tub is all white. I started to switch to black but our bathroom is rather small and I am afraid it may make it too dark. What do you think? What would I do in the shower area?
enduring: I love slate floors. Do you think dark floors are okay in a small bathroom?
Thanks, Abby
Our MB is tiny. Our vanity is black, in addition to the floor tile. The tub, toilet, sinktop, and tub surround and backsplash tile are all white, painted walls are lt blue.
I personally think the black would look very nice with your granite, and give a nice contrast. It could make for a pretty and dramatic looking bathroom.
If you do a search, you can find pics on this forum of our MB (and hall bathroom). I can post some pics later for you if you can't find them.
I am with Cat Mom, I am planning a bathroom makeover right now and am planning a granite similar in color to yours and I am going with a medium to charcol grey on the floor with a little texture look to it. I am looking at Expresso vanities. My tub is white as will be my toilet and my undermount sink.
Beautiful granite!
I'd go with something more white with a black dot for the floor...something less busy than this though I like the border treatment.
The granite looks like it has a lot of pearlescence in it and I'd probably work with that for the backsplash.
Your granite should be the star, so I would pick something fairly simple (unless the space is large).
A darker floor can look great in a small space, and based on your husband's occupation, I would go with a medium to dark grey. One thing to think about is the tile/surface's texture: a "rough" texture might be fine for backsplash; and for flooring, it will provide slip protection, but consider whether it might be more difficult to clean.
How about a pale grey paint for the vanity?
The tiles in the photo above posted by Annie look like American Olean. They are very reasonably priced, and using a darker grout with them will also hide a lot of dirt. I have heard they wear well, too.
What color is your vanity?
You could go with a black tile with some sparkle in it to give it more life.
I selected white for the vanity but it has not been started and can still be changed. I picked out the granite after the vanity selection and I m starting to worry the white will not look right. The double vanity is across from the tub wainscoting panel.
So I'm not sure if they both need to be white or if it will look okay with them being different colors? Sorry I'm a little overwhelmed with the master bath. I am so scared I will choose something and later regret it or it won't look right.
Wow. That granite is so wonderful! I would love to suggest a white or gray tile for your room! And let that granite be the center of attraction. I would also suggest that you should install a glass enclosure around your shower area to have compartment on your bathroom. In addition it can also help attract the surrounding since it is made up of glass. What a perfect combination as a result! Good luck!
Here is a link that might be useful: Enclosures
I'd do a rich gray, but not a plain old tile. Maybe a wood look, plank style in gray. I think you would have to find just the right one to complement the granite. It wouldn't be busy, but yet it wouldn't say "we played it safe".
Or, if those look too much like barnboard (which some of the gray ones do), then maybe a dark wood-look-plank style.
Beekeeperswife: Thank you for the suggestions. I called our cabinet maker and changed the vanities to black and I am leaning towards just putting the same hardwood that is in the rest of the house in the bathroom. It is a handscraped dark wood and I think it will look good. Do you think it will be okay?
I wouldn't put hardwood in a master bath, just too much water. I've had it in my 1/2 bath before and replaced it twice around the toilet. The area where you step out of the shower would also be an issue. No matter how anal you are about keeping your caulk in good shape, there will still be times you get water seeping down the edges.
Wood is a porous material, porous materials and water eventually lead to mold.


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|Studio album by Jean Michel Jarre
| January 24, 2000
May 25, 2004
|Electronica, dance, breakbeat, downtempo, electro, ambient, world music
|Sony Music
Disques Dreyfus
|Jean Michel Jarre
Joachim Garraud
|Jean Michel Jarre chronology
|Professional ratings
|Review scores
Métamorphoses is an album by Jean Michel Jarre, released on Sony Music in 2000. It was released in the U.S. on Disques Dreyfus in 2004. It is his tenth overall studio album.
This album was, to fans, a surprising break from his previous works, as it makes extensive use of vocal elements, as well as house, techno, trance, dance-pop, breakbeat, and downtempo sounds. The vocal elements are not short, sampled pieces as highlighted in his album Zoolook, but longer, more integral parts of the work, and thus quite surprising for an artist known for his instrumental works. Métamorphoses is also Jarre's first album to contain actual songs with lyrics. Jarre's own voice is heard through a vocoder in many of the songs, but the album contains several other singers as well, mostly female singers. "Rendez-vous à Paris" features Sharon Corr on violin. "Rendez-vous à Paris" and "Bells" are the only largely instrumental tracks on the album; in the former only the track title is repeated in rhythm, the latter does not have intelligible lyrics. Although the album was generally not badly received by critics, and despite the collaborations and a number of single releases ("C'est la vie" and "Tout est bleu"), Jarre did not achieve great mainstream success with this album.
Track listing[edit]
- "Je me souviens" – 4:25
- "C'est la Vie" – 7:11
- "Rendez-vous à Paris" – 4:19
- "Hey Gagarin" – 6:20
- "Millions of Stars" – 5:41
- "Tout est bleu" – 6:01
- "Love Love Love" – 4:26
- "Bells" – 3:49
- "Miss Moon" – 6:08
- "Give Me a Sign" – 3:49
- "Gloria, Lonely Boy" – 5:31
- "Silhouette" – 2:29
- Jean Michel Jarre – vocals, processed vocals, keyboards, synthesizers
- Joachim Garraud – drum programming, sound design, additional keyboards
- Laurie Anderson – vocals on "Je me souviens"
- Natacha Atlas – vocals on "C'est la vie"
- Sharon Corr – violin on "Rendez-vous à Paris"
- Veronique Bossa – vocals on "Give Me a Sign" and "Millions of Stars"
- Dierdre Dubois – vocals on "Miss Moon"
- Lisa Jacobs – vocals on "Millions of Stars"
- Ozlem Cetin – vocals on "Silhouette"
- Raphael Garraud – additional keyboards
- Christopher Papendieck – additional bass keyboards
- Francis Rimbert – additional keyboards
Additional information[edit]
- Themes "Bells", "Je me souviens", "Miss Moon", "Millions of Stars", "Hey Gagarin", "Gloria, Lonely Boy", "C'est la vie", "Tout est bleu" and "Give Me A Sign" were performed live at The Twelve Dreams of the Sun concert, in December 31, 1999, along with classical hits by Jarre.
- It was originally planned that Kraftwerk would collaborate on the album, but this did not happen due to artistic disagreements.[citation needed]
- A 6-track promo version of Métamorphoses exists with an extended version of "Hey Gagarin" (length 8:33).
- A song initially planned for the album named "Crazy Saturday" was omitted from the album. It resurfaced a few months later and was renamed "Metamorphoses" and used in the "Global Tekno" art exhibition, part of the Festival d'Avignon. In 2006 the track finally got released on iTunes as part of Live Printemps de Bourges 2002. Again the track was renamed, this time to "Body Language".
- The lead melody of the song "Je me souviens" re-appears in the title track of Jarre's AERO album, although it is altered slightly.
External links[edit]
- Metamorphoses at Discogs
- Metamorphoses at JarreUK


text:
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Quest Manufacturing Open Frame Rack
Quest Manufacturing Open Frame Rack
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|Product Type: Open rack
|Mounting Type: 12-24 threaded
|Frame Type: Open
|Size (Unit): 9U-20U
|Weight Capacity: 150 Pounds
About the ManufacturerQuest Manufacturing Company produces quality metal enclosures, racks, shelves and accessories for customers worldwide. Quest features a wide array of quality products for the Telecommunications, Data Communications, Broadcast, Security and other related industries. Quest's manufacturing philosophy is one of creative design and high-quality products manufactured under ISO9001 standards.
Quality starts with vast engineering resources, state-of-the-art equipment and exacting quality control procedures. The latest Computer Aided Design software is used to design all facets of the product line illustrated in this web site. Quest utilizes computer-controlled laser cutting and forming equipment in its manufacturing processes assuring precise fit and finish and is completely vertically integrated with machine-shops and proprietary electrostatic paint shop.
Only the highest quality raw materials are used in the manufacture of Quests' metal line of products. 6063-T6 rated aluminum and top quality ANSI-ASTM cold-rolled steel is used in the manufacture of our products. Our enclosures meet EIA-310D, Mil Standard 189-1 and IEC289 standards of design and manufacturing with NEMA 250, 1 & 2 ratings on our floor enclosures.
Quest will provide users with years of quality performance and satisfaction.
Quest Manufacturing Open Frame Rack
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OUR SKU # QMG1060Open Frame Rack is also sometimes listed under the following manufacturer numbers: WR1922-13-02, WR1928-16-02, WR1935-20-02


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Steelers Release John Clay After Reaching Injury Settlement
The Pittsburgh Steelers have reached an injury settlement with running back John Clay and he has been released according to Ed Bouchette on Twitter.
Clay, who was originally signed as an undrafted free agent out of Wisconsin last year, suffered a torn quad a week ago this past Sunday. Clay had been waived injured originally and placed on injured reserve according to reports.
Clay spent the better part of his rookie season on the Steelers practice squad. He was promoted to the 53 man roster late in the season and saw his first action against the St. Louis Rams in week 16. On his first NFL carry, Clay scored a touchdown from 10 yards out.
← Previous Story Steelers Colts Preseason Offensive Participation Chart & Personnel


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