text:
Are you F C Ramaekers?Claim your profile
Publications (508)1843.27 Total impact
- SourceAvailable from: Tom Sieprath
Article: Sustained accumulation of prelamin a and depletion of lamin A/C both cause oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction but induce different cell fates[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The cell nucleus is structurally and functionally organized by lamins, intermediate filament proteins that form the nuclear lamina. Point mutations in genes that encode a specific subset of lamins, the A-type lamins, cause a spectrum of diseases termed laminopathies. Recent evidence points to a role for A-type lamins in intracellular redox homeostasis. To determine whether lamin A/C depletion and prelamin A accumulation differentially induce oxidative stress, we have performed a quantitative microscopy-based analysis of reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels and mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψμ) in human fibroblasts subjected to sustained siRNA-mediated knockdown of LMNA and ZMPSTE24, respectively. We measured a highly significant increase in basal ROS levels and an even more prominent rise of induced ROS levels in lamin A/C depleted cells, eventually resulting in Δψμ hyperpolarization and apoptosis. Depletion of ZMPSTE24 on the other hand, triggered a senescence pathway that was associated with moderately increased ROS levels and a transient Δψμ depolarization. Both knockdowns were accompanied by an upregulation of several ROS detoxifying enzymes. Taken together, our data suggest that both persistent prelamin A accumulation and lamin A/C depletion elevate ROS levels, but to a different extent and with different effects on cell fate. This may contribute to the variety of disease phenotypes witnessed in laminopathies.Nucleus (Austin, Texas) 05/2015; DOI:10.1080/19491034.2015.1050568 · 3.15 Impact Factor
Article: Viral load, gene expression and mapping of viral integration sites in HPV16-associated HNSCC cell lines Departments of 1 Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: HPV-related HNSCC generally have a better prognosis than HPV-negative HNSCC. However, a subgroup of HPV-positive tumors with poor prognosis has been recognized, particularly related to smoking, EGFR overexpression and chromosomal instability. Viral integration into the host genome might contribute to carcinogenesis, as is shown for cervical carcinomas. Therefore, all HPV16-positive HNSCC cell lines currently available have been carefully analysed for viral and host genome parameters. The viral integration status, viral load, viral gene expression and the presence of aneusomies was evaluated in the cell lines UD-SCC-2, UM-SCC-047, UM-SCC-104, UPCI:SCC090, UPCI:SCC152, UPCI:SCC154 and 93VU147T. HPV integration was examined using FISH, APOT-PCR and DIPS-PCR. Viral load and the expression of the viral genes E2, E6 and E7 were determined via quantitative PCR. All cell lines showed integration-specific staining patterns and signals indicating transcriptional activity using FISH. APOT- and DIPS-PCR identified integration-derived fusion products in six cell lines, and only episomal products for UM-SCC-104. Despite the observed differences in viral load and the number of viral integration sites, this did not relate to the identified viral oncogene expression. Furthermore, cell lines exhibited EGFR expression, and aneusomy (except UPCI:SCC154). In conclusion, all HPV16-positive HNSCC cell lines showed integrated and/or episomal viral DNA that is transcriptionally active, although viral oncogene expression was independent of viral copy number and the number of viral integration sites. Because these cell lines also contain EGFR expression and aneusomy, which are parameters of poor prognosis, they should be considered suitable model systems for the development of new antiviral therapies.International Journal of Cancer 10/2014; DOI:10.1002/ijc.29112 · 5.01 Impact Factor
Article: Human papillomavirus typing by single tube multiplex amplification in real time (SMART): The PapillomaFinder® SMART 20 assay[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: High-risk (hr) human papillomavirus (HPV) infections play a causal role in the development of cervical cancer. The detection of hrHPV is, therefore, advocated in cervical cancer screening programs.Objectives The aim of this study was to determine the performance of a novel HPV typing assay, PapillomaFinder® SMART 20. This is a one-tube-per-sample method, to be performed on standard real-time PCR platforms, using melting curve analysis to distinguish targets. The assay detects all 14 hrHPV types, of which 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 52, 56 and 58 individually. HrHPV types 51, 59, 66 and 68 are detected in an hrHPV pool, and low-risk (lr) HPV types 6, 11, 40, 42, 43 and 44 in an lrHPV pool.Study designThe method was tested on HPV plasmid models, WHO and QCMD proficiency panels and a series of clinical cytological samples (n = 45), the latter in comparison with a clinically validated real-time quantitative PCR.ResultsType-specificity of the test was 100% using plasmids, the WHO and QCMD panels. Sensitivity for hrHPV in single infections was 100% using the WHO and QCMD panels and cytological samples, with an analytical sensitivity of 10–25 copies per reaction for all HPV types tested. Of the 34 HPV types present in the 8 multiple infections in the WHO panel, 30 were detected. In all cytological samples at least one hrHPV type was found, in concordance with the clinically validated method. Only when the viral load of the dominant HPV types in multiple infections greatly exceeded that of the other types in the infection, those other types were not always detected.Conclusions PapillomaFinder® SMART 20 is a rapid, easy to perform, single tube HPV typing assay. The assay detects the 14 hrHPV types, and the 6 most important lrHPV types with a high sensitivity and type-specificity.Journal of Clinical Virology 10/2014; 61(4). DOI:10.1016/j.jcv.2014.10.005 · 3.47 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Pulmonary carcinoids are neuroendocrine tumors histopathologically subclassified into typical (TC; no necrosis, <2 mitoses per 2 mm) and atypical (AC; necrosis or 2 to 10 mitoses per 2 mm). The reproducibility of lung carcinoid classification, however, has not been extensively studied and may be hampered by the presence of pyknotic apoptosis mimicking mitotic figures. Furthermore, prediction of prognosis based on histopathology varies, especially for ACs. We examined the presence of interobserver variation between 5 experienced pulmonary pathologists who reviewed 123 originally diagnosed pulmonary carcinoid cases. The tumors were subsequently redistributed over 3 groups: unanimously classified cases, consensus cases (4/5 pathologists rendered identical diagnosis), and disagreement cases (divergent diagnosis by ≥2 assessors). κ-values were calculated, and results were correlated with clinical follow-up and molecular data. When focusing on the 114/123 cases unanimously classified as pulmonary carcinoids, the interobserver agreement was only fair (κ=0.32). Of these 114 cases, 55% were unanimously classified, 25% reached consensus classification, and for 19% there was no consensus. ACs were significantly more often in the latter category (P=0.00038). The designation of TCs and ACs by ≥3 assessors was not associated with prognosis (P=0.11). However, when disagreement cases were allocated on the basis of Ki-67 proliferative index (<5%; ≥5%) or nuclear orthopedia homeobox immunostaining (+; -), correlation with prognosis improved significantly (P=0.00040 and 0.0024, respectively). In conclusion, there is a considerable interobserver variation in the histopathologic classification of lung carcinoids, in particular concerning ACs. Additional immunomarkers such as Ki-67 or orthopedia homeobox may improve classification and prediction of prognosis.American Journal of Surgical Pathology 07/2014; DOI:10.1097/PAS.0000000000000300 · 4.59 Impact Factor
Article: P16 INK4A immunostaining is a strong indicator for high-risk-HPV-associated oropharyngeal carcinomas and dysplasias, but is unreliable to predict low-risk-HPV-infection in head and neck papillomas and laryngeal dysplasias[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a risk factor for the development of benign and malignant mucosal head and neck lesions. P16(INK4A) is often used as a surrogate marker for HPV-infection, although there is still controversy with respect its reliability. Our aim was to determine if p16(INK4A) overexpression can accurately predict both high-risk and low-risk-HPV-presence in (pre)malignant and benign head and neck lesions. P16(INK4A) immunohistochemistry was performed on paraffin-embedded tissue sections of 162 oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OPSCC), 14 tonsillar and 23 laryngeal dysplasias, and 20 tonsillar and 27 laryngeal papillomas. PCR, enzyme-immunoassay and FISH analysis were used to assess HPV-presence and type. Of the 162 OPSCC and 14 tonsillar dysplasias, 51 (31%) and 10 (71%) were HPV16-positive, respectively. All tonsillar papillomas were HPV-negative and 4 laryngeal dysplasias and 26 laryngeal papillomas were positive for HPV6 or -11. P16(INK4A) immunohistochemistry revealed a strong nuclear and cytoplasmic staining in 50 out of 51 HPV16-positive and 5 out of 111 HPV-negative OPSCC (p<0.0001) and in all HPV16-positive tonsillar dysplasias, whereas highly variable staining patterns were detected in the papillomas and laryngeal dysplasias, irrespective of the HPV-status. In addition, the latter lesions generally showed a higher nuclear than cytoplasmic p16(INK4A) immunostaining intensity. In conclusion, our data show that strong nuclear and cytoplasmic p16(INK4A) overexpression is a reliable surrogate indicator for HPV16 in OPSCC and (adjacent) dysplasias. For HPV6 or -11-positive and HPV-negative benign and premalignant lesions of the tonsil and larynx, however, p16(INK4A) immunostaining is highly variable and cannot be recommended to predict HPV-presence. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.International Journal of Cancer 05/2014; 134(9). DOI:10.1002/ijc.28534 · 5.01 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: The histopathology of premalignant laryngeal lesions does not provide reliable information on the risk of malignant transformation, hence we examined new molecular markers which can easily be implemented in clinical practice.Dual-target fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) for chromosome 1 and 7 centromeres was performed on tissue sections of laryngeal premalignancies in 69 patients. Chromosome instability was indicated by numerical imbalances and/or polysomy for chromosomes 1 and 7. Additionally, immunostainings for p53, Cyclin D1 and (p)FADD expression were evaluated. Malignant progression was recorded. Eighteen patients with carcinoma in situ (CIS) were treated after diagnosis and excluded from follow-up.Chromosome instability was strongly associated with a high risk of malignant transformation, especially in lower grade lesions (hyperplasia, mild and moderate dysplasia; odds ratio = 8.4, p = 0.004). Patients with lesions containing chromosome instability showed a significantly worse 5-year progression-free survival than those with premalignancies without chromosome instability (p = 0.002). Neither histopathology nor the protein markers predicted progression in univariate analysis, although histopathological diagnosis, p53 and FADD contributed positively to chromosome instability in multivariate analysis.Chromosome instability is associated with malignant progression of laryngeal premalignancies, especially in lower grade lesions. These results may contribute to better risk counselling, provided that they can be validated in a larger patient set.Pathology 03/2014; DOI:10.1097/PAT.0000000000000068 · 2.62 Impact Factor
Article: Comprehensive Analysis of HPV16 Integration in OSCC Reveals No Significant Impact of Physical Status on Viral Oncogene and Virally Disrupted Human Gene Expression[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 is an independent risk factor for the development of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). However, it is unclear whether viral integration is an essential hallmark in the carcinogenic process of OSCC and whether HPV integration correlates with the level of viral gene transcription and influences the expression of disrupted host genes. We analyzed 75 patients with OSCC. HPV16-positivity was proven by p16(INK4A) immunohistochemistry, PCR and FISH. Viral integration was examined using DIPS- as well as APOT-PCR. Viral E2, E6 and E7 gene expression levels were quantified by quantitative reverse transcriptase (RT-q)PCR. Expression levels of 7 human genes disrupted by the virus were extracted from mRNA expression profiling data of 32 OSCCs. Viral copy numbers were assessed by qPCR in 73 tumors. We identified 37 HPV16-human fusion products indicating viral integration in 29 (39%) OSCC. In the remaining tumors (61%) only episome-derived PCR products were detected. When comparing OSCC with or without an integration-derived fusion product, we did not find significant differences in the mean RNA expression of viral genes E2, E6 and E7 or the viral copy numbers per cell, nor did the RNA expression of the HPV-disrupted genes differ from either group of OSCC. In conclusion, our data do not support the hypothesis that integration affects the levels of viral and/or HPV-disrupted human gene transcripts. Thus constitutive, rather than a high level, of expression of oncogene transcripts appears to be required in HPV-related OSCC.PLoS ONE 02/2014; 9(2):e88718. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0088718 · 3.53 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Not long after the discovery of lamin proteins, it became clear that not all lamin subtypes are ubiquitously expressed in cells and tissues. Especially, A-type lamins showed an inverse correlation with proliferation and were thus initially called statins. Here we compare the findings of both A- and B-type lamin expression in various normal tissues and their neoplastic counterparts. Based on immunocytochemistry it becomes clear that lamin expression patterns are much more complicated than initially assumed: while normally proliferative cells are devoid of A-type lamin expression, many neoplastic tissues do show prominent A-type lamin expression. Conversely, cells that do not proliferate can be devoid of lamin expression. Yet, within the different types of tissues and tumors, lamins can be used to distinguish between tumor subtypes. The link between the appearance of A-type lamins in differentiation and the appearance of A-type lamins in a tumor likely relates the proliferative capacity of the tumor to its differentiation state.While lamins are targets for degradation in the apoptotic process, and accordingly are often used as markers for apoptosis, intriguing studies on an active role of lamins in the initiation or the prevention of apoptosis have been published recently and give rise to a renewed interest in the role of lamins in cancer.Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 01/2014; 773:27-48. DOI:10.1007/978-1-4899-8032-8_2 · 2.01 Impact Factor
Article: MEN1 Gene Mutation and Reduced Expression Are Associated With Poor Prognosis in Pulmonary Carcinoids[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Context:MEN1 gene alterations have been implicated in lung carcinoids, but their effect on gene expression and disease outcome are unknown.Objective:To analyse MEN1 gene and expression anomalies in lung neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) and their correlations with clinicopathologic data and disease outcome.Design:We examined 74 lung NENs including 58 carcinoids and 16 high-grade neuroendocrine carcinomas (HGNECs) for MEN1 mutations (n=70) and allelic losses (n=69), promoter hypermethylation (n=65), and mRNA (n=74) expression. Results were correlated with disease outcome.Results:MEN1 mutations were found in 7/55 (13%) carcinoids and in 1 HGNEC, mostly associated with loss of the second allele. MEN1 decreased expression levels correlated with the presence of mutations (P=0.0060) and was also lower in HGNECs than carcinoids (P=0.0024). MEN1 methylation was not associated with mRNA expression levels. Patients with carcinoids harbouring MEN1 mutation and loss had shorter overall survival (P=0.039 and P=0.035, respectively), and low MEN1 mRNA levels correlated with distant metastasis (P=0.00010) and shorter survival (P=0.0071). In multivariate analysis, stage and MEN1 allelic loss were independent predictors of prognosis.Conclusion:Thirteen percent of pulmonary carcinoids harbour MEN1 mutation, associated with reduced mRNA expression and poor prognosis. Also in mutation-negative tumours, low MEN1 gene expression correlates with an adverse disease outcome. Hypermethylation was excluded as the underlying mechanism.The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 11/2013; 99(2). DOI:10.1210/jc.2013-2782 · 6.31 Impact Factor
Article: Human papillomavirus multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification assay for the assessment of viral load, integration, and gain of telomerase-related genes in cervical malignancies[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: We evaluated the reliability of a novel multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assay in detecting integration of human papillomavirus (HPV) based on the viral E2/E6 copy number ratio in formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded cervical lesions. The MLPA results were compared with those of amplification of papillomavirus oncogene transcripts for RNA, detection of integrated papillomavirus sequences for DNA, and HPV fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). DNA was isolated from 41 formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded HPV-positive cervical lesions (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 3 lesions, squamous cell carcinomas, and adenocarcinomas) for MLPA analysis. From 13 matching frozen samples, DNA and RNA were isolated for the detection of integrated papillomavirus sequences and/or the amplification of papillomavirus oncogene transcripts, respectively. Integrated HPV16, HPV18, or both were identified. The MLPA assay detected viral integration in 12 of these 13 cases, and episomal copies also were detected in 7 cases. In 20 of the 24 cases with exclusive viral integration or episomal viral copies as detected by FISH, MLPA confirmed the physical status of the virus. In the cases classified as mixed by FISH, the presence of excess episomal copies complicated the recognition of viral integration by MLPA. Furthermore, the feasibility of detecting gain of the telomerase genes with the HPV MLPA assay was evaluated. The MLPA confirmed the FISH data in 12 of 13 cases in which the status of copy number gain for telomerase RNA component was known. In conclusion, the HPV MLPA assay can be performed on routinely processed cervical lesions for the detection of viral load and HPV integration.Human pathology 08/2013; 44(11). DOI:10.1016/j.humpath.2013.04.026 · 2.81 Impact Factor
Article: OP006: HPV16-E2/E4, -E6 AND -E7 genes and HPV-disrupted human genes show large variation in expression levels in OSCC independent of the viral physical status[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Purpose Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 is an independent risk factor for the development of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). However, it is unclear whether viral integration is an essential hallmark in the carcinogenic process of OSCC and whether HPV integration correlates to the level of viral gene transcription and influences the expression of disrupted genes. Material and methods HPV16 integration sites were assessed in 75 patients with HPV16-DNA- and p16INK4A-positive OSCC using Detection of Integrated Papillomavirus Sequences (DIPS)- as well as Amplification of Papillomavirus Oncogene Transcripts (APOT)-PCR. Quantitative RT-PCR assays were carried out to determine the viral E2/E4, E6 and E7 gene expression levels. Expression levels of 7 human genes disrupted by the virus were extracted from mRNA expression profiling data of 32 OSCC. Nuclear localization of HPV16 was visualized using Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) in 59 OSCC, and corresponding viral copy numbers were assessed by quantitative RT-PCR in 61 tumors. Results We identified 37 HPV16-human fusion products indicating viral integration in 29 (39%) OSCC. In the remaining tumors (61%) only episome-derived PCR products were detected. When comparing OSCC with or without an integration-derived fusion product, we neither found significant differences in the mean expression of the viral genes E2/E4, E6 and E7, the nuclear FISH staining patters nor the viral copy numbers per cell. The expression of the HPV-invaded genes also did not significantly differ when comparing the expression in the affected tumor with the expression of that gene in either group of OSCC. Conclusions In conclusion, our data do not support the hypothesis that integration affects the levels of viral and/or HPV-disrupted human gene transcripts. Thus constitutive, rather than a high level, of expression of oncogene transcripts appears to be required in HPV-related OSCC.Cancer Research 08/2013; 49(8 Supplement):S6. DOI:10.1016/j.oraloncology.2013.03.014 · 9.28 Impact Factor
Article: An exploration of pathways involved in lung carcinoid progression using gene expression profiling.[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Pulmonary carcinoids comprise a well-differentiated subset of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) usually associated with a favorable prognosis, but mechanisms underlying disease progression are poorly understood. In an explorative approach to identify pathways associated with progression, we compared gene expression profiles of tumors from 5 patients with a favorable and 5 with a poor disease outcome. Differentially expressed genes were validated using quantitative RT-PCR on 65 carcinoid tumors, in combination with survival analysis. One of the identified pathways was further examined using immunohistochemistry.As compared to other chromosomal locations, a significantly higher number of genes downregulated in carcinoids with a poor prognosis were located at chromosome 11q (P=0.00017), a region known to be frequently lost in carcinoids. In addition, a number of upregulated genes were found involved in the mitotic spindle checkpoint, the chromosomal passenger complex (CPC), mitotic kinase CDC2 activity, and the BRCA-Fanconi Anemia pathway. At the individual gene level, BIRC5 (survivin), BUB1, CD44, IL20RA, KLK12 and OTP were independent predictors of patient outcome. For survivin the number of positive nuclei was also related to poor prognosis within the group of carcinoids. Aurora B kinase and survivin, major components of the CPC, were particularly upregulated in high-grade carcinomas, and may therefore comprise therapeutic targets for these tumors.To our knowledge, this is the first expression profiling study focusing specifically on pulmonary carcinoids and progression. We have identified novel pathways underlying malignant progression and validated several genes as being strong prognostic indicators, some of which could serve as putative therapeutic targets.Carcinogenesis 08/2013; DOI:10.1093/carcin/bgt271 · 5.27 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Current screening methods for uterine cervical cancer such as Papanicolaou smears and/or high risk human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV) detection have a high negative predictive value but a low positive predictive value for the presence of high grade cervical lesions. Therefore, new parameters are needed to reduce the rate of unnecessary referrals for colposcopy. The predictive value of the HPV multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) assay, which can assess simultaneously HPV16/18 viral load and viral integration, was evaluated. The assay was applied to 170 cervical cytological samples, and the results were correlated with the matching histological follow-up. The GP5+/6+ assay and qPCR were used as a control for HR-HPV typing. The MLPA assay classified a higher percentage of cases as high-risk (high-viral load and/or viral integration) with higher grades of dysplasia. There was a high correlation between the HPV MLPA assay and qPCR for viral load and HPV genotyping, and between the MLPA assay and the GP5+/6+ assay for HPV genotyping. The sensitivity and specificity of the HPV MLPA assay for the detection of high-grade lesions were 44% and 93%, respectively. This study demonstrates that the HPV MLPA assay can reliably detect HPV 16/18, viral load, and viral integration in cytological samples. Also, high-risk classification correlated well with the presence of high-grade dysplasia. However, for the implementation of the MLPA assay into clinical practice, additional HR-HPV types need to be included to increase the sensitivity of the assay, and thereby increase its negative predictive value. J. Med. Virol. 85:1386-1393, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.Journal of Medical Virology 08/2013; 85(8):1386-93. DOI:10.1002/jmv.23629 · 2.22 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of death from malignancy worldwide. In particular small cell lung cancers, which comprise about 15-20% of all lung cancers, are extremely aggressive and cure rates are extremely low. Therefore, new treatment modalities are needed and detection at an early stage of disease, as well as adequate monitoring of treatment response is essential in order to improve outcome. In this respect, the use of non-invasive tools for screening and monitoring has gained increasing interest and the clinical applicability of reliable, tumor-related substances that can be detected as tumor markers in easily accessible body fluids is subject of intense investigation. Some of these indicators, such as high LDH levels in serum as a reflection of the disease, have been in use for a long time as a general tumor marker. To allow for improved monitoring of the efficacy of new therapeutic modalities and for accurate subtyping, there is a strong need for specific and sensitive markers that are more directly related to the biology and behavior of small cell lung cancer. In this review the current status of these potential markers, like CEA, NSE, ProGRP, CK-BB, SCC, CgA, NCAM and several cytokeratins will be critically analyzed with respect to their performance in blood based assays. Based on known cleavage sites for cytoplasmic and extracellular proteases, a prediction of stable fragments can be obtained and used for optimal test design. Furthermore, insight into the synthesis of specific splice variants and neo-epitopes resulting from protein modification and cleavage, offers further opportunities for improvement of tumor assays. Finally, we discuss the possibility that detection of SCLC related autoantibodies in paraneoplastic disease can be used as a very early indicator of SCLC.Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 06/2013; DOI:10.1016/j.bbcan.2013.06.002 · 4.66 Impact Factor
Article: A combination of two electrophoretical approaches for detailed proteome-based characterization of SCLC subtypes.[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Abstract Context: Small cell lung cancers (SCLC) are heterogeneous and tumours differ in growth characteristics and treatment resistance. Objective: To get insight into the underlying protein profiles responsible for this heterogeneity, two subtypes of SCLC cells mutually differing in chemo resistance properties and growth characteristics are analysed. Materials and methods: Two different electrophoresis approaches in combination with mass spectrometry were used to detect differences between the SCLC cell lines GLC1 and GLC1M13: IEF/SDS-PAGE as well as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB)-SDS-PAGE. Results: Altogether 60 non redundant differentially expressed proteins were found of which 5 were verified by Western Blot analysis. Discussion: Most of these proteins identified are involved in processes of tumour progression. Therefore, these proteins are interesting candidates for further functional analysis. Conclusion: Additional CTAB-SDS page is a complementary method to IEF-SDS page revealing a complete new subset of proteins differentially expressed between GLC1 and GLC1 M13 cells SCLC subtypes.Archives of Physiology and Biochemistry 05/2013; DOI:10.3109/13813455.2013.789529
Article: Chromosome stability in tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma is associated with HPV16 integration and indicates a favorable prognosis[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: Tonsillar squamous cell carcinoma (TSCC) is frequently associated with human papillomavirus (HPV) and chromosome instability. Data from cellular model systems are, however, controversial concerning a relation between HPV and chromosome instability development. Here we studied this association in 77 primary TSCC with known clinical outcome and cell cycle protein expression profiles. Thirty-two tumors (42%) showed HPV16-integration. All 77 cases were analyzed by fluorescence in situ hybridization using chromosome 1- and 7-specific centromere DNA probes to detect chromosome instability, indicated by the presence of chromosome imbalances and/or polyploidization for these chromosomes. In addition, eight HPV-positive dysplasias, seven of which were adjacent to a carcinoma, were analyzed. Disomy for chromosome 1 and 7 was present in 29 out of 77 TSCC (38%), of which 19 were HPV16-positive (p = 0.002). Aneusomy was observed in the remaining 48 TSCC, of which 13 were HPV-positive. Aneusomies correlated significantly with tobacco- and alcohol consumption (p = 0.001 and p = 0.016, respectively) and a higher T-stage (p = 0.018). Both HPV-positivity and chromosome disomy were significantly associated with a favorable disease-free survival (p = 0.001 and p = 0.025, respectively). Particularly in the HPV16-positive group chromosome instability is a very strong indicator for an unfavorable prognosis (p = 0.032). In the dysplasias an identical HPV and chromosome copy number status was identified as in the adjacent tumors. We conclude that HPV-positive TSCC and their precursor lesions are more often genetically stable than HPV-negative lesions and that these tumors are associated with a favorable prognosis. Chromosome instability is an indicator for unfavorable prognosis, particularly in the HPV-positive patient group.International Journal of Cancer 04/2013; 132(8). DOI:10.1002/ijc.27846 · 5.01 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: PURPOSE: Pulmonary carcinoids are well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors showing usually a favorable prognosis. However, there is a risk for late recurrence and/or distant metastasis. Because histological classification in typical and atypical (AC) carcinoids is difficult and its reliability to predict disease outcome varies, we evaluated three genes as potential prognostic markers, i.e., OTP, CD44 and RET. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: These genes were analyzed in 56 frozen carcinoids by quantitative RT-PCR. RET was further studied by methylation and mutation analysis. Immunohistochemistry for CD44 and OTP protein expression was performed on 292 carcinoids. RESULTS: Low mRNA expression levels of CD44 (p=1.8e-5) and OTP (p=0.00054), and high levels of RET (p=0.025), were strongly associated with a low 20-year survival of carcinoid patients. High RET expression was not related to promoter hypomethylation or gene mutations. A direct link between gene expression and protein levels was confirmed for CD44 and OTP, but not for RET. Within all carcinoids as well as ACs, absence of CD44 protein was significantly associated with low 20-year survival (p=0.00014 and p=0.00013, respectively). The absence of nuclear OTP followed by complete loss of expression was also significantly associated with unfavorable disease outcome in all carcinoids (p=5.2-6). Multivariate analyses revealed that age at diagnosis, histopathology, stage and cytoplasmic OTP immunoreactivity were independent predictors of prognosis. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that CD44 and OTP are strong indicators of poor outcome. We therefore argue for implementation of these markers in routine diagnostics in addition to histopathology to improve subclassification of pulmonary carcinoids into prognostically relevant categories.Clinical Cancer Research 02/2013; 19(8). DOI:10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-12-3078 · 8.19 Impact Factor
Dataset: 2009 Verstraeten2009 supp
Article: BCL2 and Keratin 5 Define the Uterine-Cervix-Isthmus Junction, a Transition Between Endocervical and Tubal-Like Epithelium.[Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: A clearcut definition of the transition from the cervix to the lower uterine segment is lacking. We therefore evaluated the location of the anatomic border between the cervix and the uterine corpus. Using both morphometry and immunohistochemisty, we examined the epithelial and stromal cell types in this transition zone. In 26 patients, longitudinal sections from the cervix uteri up to the fundus uteri were paraffin embedded and immunohistochemically stained for BCL2, keratin 5, Ki-67, CD10, and CD34. Examination of the slides resulted in the identification of a junctional zone in the cranial portion of the cervix, which is characterized by a usually abrupt morphologic and immunohistochemical transition from an endocervical-type mucinous epithelium to a ciliated tubal-like epithelium and a slow transition in stromal marker expression patterns. This epithelial transition was characterized by its intense keratin 5 and BCL2 staining with accompanying Ki-67 expression in the tubal-like epithelium, whereas the endocervical epithelium was largely negative for these markers. CD10 expression was usually quite intense directly around endocervical invaginations, but the remaining stroma was negative. Toward the endometrial cavity, expression increased and endometrial stroma displayed full thickness expression for CD10. CD34 showed a reverse pattern to CD10, with moderate expression in the endocervical stroma, which disappeared in the endometrial stoma. The immunohistochemical identification of this transition may allow a more objective determination of the extension of endometrial carcinoma into the cervix in cases that are morphologically problematic. Furthermore, as ciliated tubal-like epithelium is invariably found cranial to the uterine-cervix-isthmus junction, a diagnosis of tubal metaplasia should not be made in this region and tubal-like epithelium is not indicative of a metaplastic process.International journal of gynecological pathology: official journal of the International Society of Gynecological Pathologists 11/2012; DOI:10.1097/PGP.0b013e318253c6f6 · 1.63 Impact Factor
- [Show abstract] [Hide abstract]
ABSTRACT: There is growing evidence that laminopathies, diseases associated with mutations in the LMNA gene, are caused by a combination of mechanical and gene regulatory distortions. Strikingly, there is a large variability in disease symptoms between individual patients carrying an identical LMNA mutation. This is why classical genetic screens for mutations appear to have limited predictive value for disease development. Recently, the widespread occurrence of repetitive nuclear ruptures has been described in fibroblast cultures from various laminopathy patients. Since this phenomenon was strongly correlated with disease severity, the identification of biomarkers that report on these rupture events could have diagnostic relevance. One such candidate marker is the PML nuclear body, a structure that is normally confined to the nuclear interior, but leaks out of the nucleus upon nuclear rupture. Here, we show that a variety of laminopathies shows the presence of these cytoplasmic PML particles (PML CPs), and that the amount of these protein aggregates increases with severity of the disease. In addition, between clinically healthy individuals, carrying LMNA mutations, significant differences can be found. Therefore, we postulate that detection of PML CPs in patient fibroblasts could become a valuable marker for diagnosis of disease development.Histochemie 08/2012; DOI:10.1007/s00418-012-1005-5 · 2.93 Impact Factor
Top Journals
Maastricht Universitair Medisch Centrum
Maestricht, Limburg, Netherlands
- Central Diagnostic Laboratory
Maastricht University
Maestricht, Limburg, Netherlands
- • Department of Genetics and Molecular Cell Biology
- • GROW School for Oncology & Developmental Biology
- • CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases
- • Department of Pathology
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
Rotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands
- Department of Pathology
GGD Rotterdam-RijnmondRotterdam, South Holland, Netherlands
Radboud University Medical Centre (Radboudumc)
Nymegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
- Department of Human Genetics
Radboud University Nijmegen
Nijmegen, Provincie Gelderland, Netherlands
- • Department of Biochemistry
- • Institute of Otorhinolaryngology
- • Department of Pathology
Institute of Molecular BiologyMayence, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany
University of Geneva
Genève, Geneva, Switzerland
- Department of Molecular Biology
Atrium Medisch Centrum Parkstad
Heerlen, Limburg, Netherlands
- Department of Surgery
University Hospital of LausanneLausanne, Vaud, Switzerland
Canisius-Wilhelmina ZiekenhuisNymegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
Ealing, Hammersmith & West London CollegeLondinium, England, United Kingdom
Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and GeneticsDresden, Saxony, Germany
Leiden UniversityLeyden, South Holland, Netherlands
Transnationale Universiteit LimburgBox Elder, South Dakota, United States
Universiteit Utrecht
Utrecht, Provincie Utrecht, Netherlands
- • Division of Veterinary Pathology
- • Division of Pathology
ՊԵՐԻՆԱՏՈԼՈԳԻԱՅԻ, ՄԱՆԿԱԲԱՐՁՈՒԹՅԱՆ ԵՎ ԳԻՆԵԿՈԼՈԳԻԱՅԻ ԻՆՍՏԻՏՈՒՏAyrivan, Yerevan, Armenia
University of Leuven
Louvain, Flemish, Belgium
- • Division of Vascular Surgery
- • Department of Human Genetics
University of Bonn
Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- Anatomisches Institut
Netherlands Cancer Institute
Amsterdamo, North Holland, Netherlands
- • Department of Pathology
- • Division of Molecular Genetics
Bulgarian Academy of SciencesUlpia Serdica, Sofia-Capital, Bulgaria
University Medical Center Utrecht
Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Laboratory of Experimental Cardiology
ITH NijmegenNymegen, Gelderland, Netherlands
French National Centre for Scientific ResearchLutetia Parisorum, Île-de-France, France


text:
An encrypted content transport stream is received by a viewer's device and recorded for subsequent playback. During recording, keys in headers of packets of the stream are stripped and placed in sequence in a table. Also, the table indicates changes in key indicating bits. When it is desired to play the content, start-of-frame indicator bits such as PUSI and/or RAI bits are used to access the table of keys to retrieve the keys necessary to decrypt the transport stream packets sought to be played.
1. A method for playing content embodied in a data stream, at least portions of the content being received in an encrypted form, comprising:
establishing at least one table of keys received in the data stream;
for at least one packet of the data stream, decrypting the packet and playing the packet at least in part by:
accessing the table using a processor to identify at least one key associated with the packet; and
using the key to decrypt the content, wherein the keys are contained in packets in the data stream, and
stripping the keys from packets and placing the keys in the table.
2. The method of
3. The method of
4. The method of
5. The method of
6. The method of
7. The method of
8. A playback device, comprising: at least one content store configured for holding encrypted content, the content including a data stream of content data packets, at least one packet containing at least one key; and at least one processor accessing the store and programmed with logic to: arrange the key in a key table; and link keys in the table with key changes in the data stream, to facilitate subsequent decryption and playback of the content.
9. The device of
10. The device of
11. The device of
12. The device of
13. The device of
14. The device of
15. The device of
16. The device of
17. A system for providing to viewers trick playback of encrypted content, comprising: and at least one content provider transmitting at least one encrypted data stream; at least one viewer device receiving the data stream, stripping encryption keys therefrom, and linking the keys to corresponding packets of the data stream, such that subsequent decryption and trick mode playback is facilitated.
18. The system of
19. The system of
20. The system of
21. The system of
22. The system of
23. A computer program device, comprising: means for establishing at least one table of keys received in a data stream: means for linking the keys to changes in encryption-indicating bits in the data stream; means for, for at least one packet of the data stream, decrypting the packet and playing the packet at least in part by: accessing the table to identify at least one key associated with the packet; and using the at least one key to decrypt the content.
24. The computer program device of
25. The computer program device of
26. The computer program device of
27. The computer program device of
28. A method for playing content embodied in a data stream, at least portions of the content being received in an encrypted form, comprising:
receiving a data stream including content and at least one key, where a key corresponds to at least part of the content in said data stream;
retrieving at least one key from said data stream using a processor;
establishing a table of keys using at least one retrieved key; and playing at least a part of the content from said data stream by:
identifying a key associated with the part of the content by accessing said table of keys, and decrypting the part of the content using the identified key.
This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/262,465, filed Sep. 30, 2002, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,020,287.
The present invention relates generally to encrypted content.
Content such as music, movies, and the like can be provided over cable or satellite for recording and playback by viewers. To protect the rights of content providers, the content may be encrypted. Only authorized viewer devices are given the decryption information (e.g., decryption keys) that is necessary to unlock and play the content.
As an example, an audio-video frame of data (with thirty or so frames making up one second of an audio-video program) might be sent to a viewer device in packets that make up a so-called "transport stream" (TS). Each packet can be, for instance, 188 bytes long, with each packet potentially being encrypted separately from the other packets.
In one current implementation, each packet can include a header portion. In the header portion, an encryption-indicating bit group referred to as a "transport scrambling control" (TSC) group can be included to indicate whether the particular packet is encrypted and if so, whether the "polarity" of the encryption key to be used is even or odd. Essentially, keys can be provided in pairs, with one key being designated "odd" and the other key "even". The keys themselves may be provided in the header of an encrypted packet in an "entitlement control message" (ECM). Also included in the header can be bits that indicate whether the packet contains the start of a frame. In one current non-limiting implementation these bits can be referred to as "payload unit_start_indicator" (PUSI) bits and/or "random_access_indicator" (RAI) bits.
The keys ordinarily are encrypted. To unlock the content, the key for a sequence of packets must first be decrypted and then used to unlock the actual A/V data in the packet which is associated with the key. To facilitate timely decryption, the key that corresponds to a sequence of packets can be provided in an ECM packet that precedes the sequence of packets, so that a key may be authorized, decrypted and ready for use when the packets to which it applies are to be unlocked.
While the above-described content encryption method is effective, the present invention makes the following critical observations. It is sometimes the case that content is downloaded and recorded for later playback by a viewer. It is further the case that the content may be speculatively downloaded, i.e., sent in an encrypted form to a viewer's device for later decryption and playback once the viewer has paid for the content and has received the necessary key decryption information. Still further, the present invention recognizes that it is desirable to provide "trick mode" playback, i.e., to allow a viewer to fast forward through the content, pause, reverse, etc., i.e., to play the transport stream at a rate or in a direction or even in a packet sequence other than envisioned for normal playback mode. The present invention understands that such trick mode playback, particularly in the case of speculatively recorded content, poses complications in coordinating the decryption process discussed above, particularly in knowing what keys are required for the frame being jumped to and in having the keys ready on time to decrypt the content just prior to its being played.
A method for playing content embodied in a transport stream, wherein at least portions of the content are received in an encrypted form, includes establishing at least one table of keys received in the transport stream. For at least one packet of the transport stream, the method includes decrypting the packet and playing the packet at least in part by accessing the table to identify at least one key associated with the packet, and using the key to decrypt the content.
In a preferred non-limiting embodiment, the keys are contained in ECM packets in the transport stream, and the method includes stripping the keys from headers and placing the keys in the table. The keys may be encrypted, such that the keys can be decrypted after the act of accessing the table and prior to using the keys to decrypt the content. In a non-limiting embodiment, each packet is one hundred eighty eight (188) bytes in length. In any case, the table can be accessed based on a start-of-frame indicating bit associated with the packet sought to be decrypted, to facilitate trick mode playback.
With further regard to trick mode playback, as set forth in detail below, the table can include encryption-indicating bits that are received in headers of packets of the transport stream. When a user-initiated trick mode jump from a first video packet to a second video packet is received, it is determined whether the associated TSC bits indicate a change in polarity. If not, the polarity of the encryption-indicating bits following the jumped-to packet is reversed. A computer program device for executing the method is also disclosed.
In another aspect, a playback device includes a content store configured for holding encrypted content. The content includes a transport stream of content data packets, and some packets include keys. A processor accesses the store and is programmed to arrange the key in a key table and to link keys in the table with key changes in the transport stream, to facilitate subsequent decryption and playback of the content.
In still another aspect, a system for providing to viewers trick playback of encrypted content includes a content provider transmitting at least one encrypted transport stream, and at least one viewer device receiving the transport stream, stripping encryption keys therefrom, and linking the keys to corresponding packets of the transport stream, such that subsequent decryption and trick mode playback is facilitated.
The details of the present invention, both as to its structure and operation, can best be understood in reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to like parts, and in which:
The below description discusses a system that can be considered to have two phases, namely, a recording (storage) phase and a playback (retrieval) phase. Recording typically is initiated by the service provider, e.g., on speculation that a customer will want to view the content of the stream. Then, playback later can be initiated by the customer after paying for the content.
Referring initially to
The content is received by a customer computer or device 16. The computer or device 16 may be a home entertainment unit (e.g., a set-top box), a TV, TV system, PC/laptop, radio, or other device. The customer computer or device 16 includes a processor 18 that accesses a logic module 20 to execute the logic disclosed below. Content is stored in a content store 22, such as but not limited to a hard drive, solid state memory, tape drive, CD/DVD, etc. for subsequent playback of the content on an output device 24 as described below. In the preferred embodiment it is assumed that data from the content store 22 must be decrypted and decoded before being sent to an output device 24. The output device 24 can be, without limitation, a TV, a monitor, a speaker, a printer, a large screen display, or other appropriate device.
In a preferred non-limiting embodiment, for illustration it is assumed that the content may have been speculatively stored, i.e., downloaded in an encrypted form before the viewer is provided with an opportunity to pay for the content and receive the necessary key decryption information. Or, the viewer may already possess the necessary information. How the user pays for and otherwise obtains this information is undertaken in accordance with principles that are unrelated to the present invention.
Record Phase:
The header may also contain bits which indicate whether the packet contains the start of a video frame. In a non-limiting implementation these bits can be referred to as "payload_unit_start_indicator" (PUSI) bits and/or "random_access_indicator" (RAI) bits. The keys in the ECM apply to transport stream packets about to received, i.e., keys are provided in advance of the packets in which they are used to decrypt content in accordance with principles known in the art.
At block 28, the keys are stripped from the ECM packets, and at block 30 they are stored in a table as shown in
Also, at block 32 an index is built that essentially notes points in the video portion of the transport stream for the program of relevance where the encryption indicating bits (e.g., TSC bits) have changed, indicating a change in encryption keys. At block 34, since the ECM messages indicate the packets to which they apply (recall that an ECM packet generally contains a key pertaining to a subsequent packet or packets) the keys and TSC bits can be stored in parallel. Stated differently, the keys in the table can be linked to the corresponding TSC bits to which they apply (and, hence, to the transport packets to which they apply). While the data structures are referred to herein as "tables" and "arrays", it is to be understood that other structures can be used in accordance with present principles.
As shown in the exemplary non-limiting data structure of
As shown, the left column of
Playback Phase:
In general, two playback methods may be used. In a first method, the stream is reconstituted by inserting into the stream substitute ECM packets that are built on-the-fly using the appropriate keys in the table. This permits using an unmodified decoder module with embedded decryption downstream to process the content, as though the original ECM packets had never been stripped from the stream in the first place. In the second method, the key data in the above-described table is fed directly to the decryption module, which has been modified appropriately to use direct-feed keys from the table in lieu of looking for ECM packets.
In either case, the appropriate key or keys must first be obtained from the key table. Accordingly, commencing at block 36, the transport stream that was stored in accordance with
Moving to block 38, the sequence number of the packet to be played is used as entering argument to the stored key table to obtain the key pertaining to the packet(s) under test. The keys can be encrypted as mentioned above, in which case they are decrypted and then used to decrypt the content to which they pertain.
For ease of subsequent disclosure, the packets that have been decrypted and played thus far in the logic may be thought of as a current sequence and the packets that are about to be decrypted and played from the stored stream can be thought of as a new sequence. The new sequence could begin anywhere in the content when taking advantage of trick modes.
The above process is repeated to find the proper keys to send to the decrypter to decrypt the content as long as the user does not jump over an ECM key change (as indicated by the table of
It may now be appreciated that the key table permits content to be selected at random from the data store (in, e.g., "trick modes") and directly correlated to the appropriate key. Furthermore, using "method one", keys can be built into ECM packets and then inserted into the new reconstituted stream so that the key is available to an unmodified decryption module of the system in sufficient time to effect decryption.
While the particular METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR KEY INSERTION FOR STORED ENCRYPTED CONTENT as herein shown and described in detail is fully capable of attaining the above-described objects of the invention, it is to be understood that it is the presently preferred embodiment of the present invention and is thus representative of the subject matter which is broadly contemplated by the present invention, that the scope of the present invention fully encompasses other embodiments which may become obvious to those skilled in the art, and that the scope of the present invention is accordingly to be limited by nothing other than the appended claims, in which reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless explicitly so stated, but rather "one or more". All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the above-described preferred embodiment that are known or later come to be known to those of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein by reference and are intended to be encompassed by the present claims. Moreover, it is not necessary for a device or method to address each and every problem sought to be solved by the present invention, for it to be encompassed by the present claims. Furthermore, no element, component, or method step in the present disclosure is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether the element, component, or method step is explicitly recited in the claims. No claim element herein is to be construed under the provisions of 35 U.S.C. �112, sixth paragraph, unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase "means for" or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recited as a "step" instead of an "act".
Patent Citations
Non-Patent Citations
Original Image

subset: commoncrawl


text:
You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your ReverbNation experience.
Patrick Gray Jr.
Singer Songwriter
North Adams, MA
Tuesday, October 8th, 2013 at 8:00pm
All Ages
Come on over to the Purple Pub to perform or listen while I host Open Mic, every Tuesday night from 8pm to 11pm.
© 2015 eMinor Incorporated
All trademarks are the property of the respective owners. ReverbNation is not affiliated with the trademark owners.
Not listening to anything?
Try one of the ReverbNation Channels


text:
Rich Colour From Littlewoods Europe Helps Beat Winter Blues
Vibrant colours dominate Littlewoods Europe's brand new winter collection, unveiled this week. Hot reds, rich magenta, eye-catching prints are all designed to brighten winter blues with a strong pop of colour.
With more than 100 new styles in women's dresses and brand new women's shoes from brands like Love Label and Holly Willoughby, there's plenty of choice for festive season parties. Dress styles include pencil, shift and tunic, with easy wearing maxi dresses for stylish comfort.
Petite sizes are plentiful, with impeccably cut straight leg, bootcut and skinny trousers, with a range of dresses, jeans and trousers for tall fit, too.
Leggings are a hot look for Winter 2012 and the range includes stud, sequin and high shine. For everyday comfort that looks so good, there are Confident Curves Control Leggings, a snip at just €20.
A spokesperson for Littlewoods Europe said: "Summer was such a washout all over Europe this year so we've interpreted the catwalk's bold, hot colours to bring a bit of sunshine into our winter collection.
"There's plenty of black about, especially in leggings and trousers, which makes the hot colours and bold prints of our tops so much more dramatic and easier to wear. It's an exciting new collection we're sure our customers in Europeare going to love."
About Littlewoods Europe:
Littlewoods Europe launched on 27th August 2009 is aimed at women who want the convenience of home delivery from one of their favourite British on-line retailers. The delivery cost is €5 regardless of size of order. Littlewoods Europe delivers to 25 countries in Europe, including France, Spain, Cyprus and Malta.
The Littlewoods Europe site features over 15,000 product lines, from core categories of clothing, footwear, toys, kidswear & homeware.
Notes to editors:
- Shop Direct Group is the UK's largest online and home shopping retailer with sales of circa £1.7 billion
- The Group has 5 million active customers across the business
- Shop Direct employs around 9,000 people
- Brands include Littlewoods, Littlewoods Europe, VERY.co.uk, Woolworths.co.uk, Littlewoods Ireland, K&Co, ISME.com
- We are the 2nd largest online clothing retailer in the UK
- We are the 4th largest furniture retailer in the UK
- We are the 4th largest sportswear retailer in the UK
- Shop online at http://www.littlewoodseurope.com, Littlewoods.com, Very.co.uk, Woolworths.co.uk
- Shop Direct Group Financial Services offers customers a wide range of credit, insurance and warranty products to customers in the UK.
|Related Links
|Free People to Open New Store at Westfield Santa Anita Mall
June 25, 2015
About Author
- Casting Roundup: Sarah Chalke, Kim Raver Headline New Pilots
- ADVENTURE TIME Headed to the Big Screen?
- Pilot Season Roundup: Colm Feore, Daniel Stern, Dave Annable to Star in New Shows
- James Franco to Star in New Fox Comedy, WHY HIM?
- Christopher Meloni to Star in WGN America's Slave Drama UNDERGROUND
- Check Out Alex Dunphy's Full College Essay from Latest MODERN FAMILY Episode
- Photo Flash: HBO Reveals Key Art for GAME OF THRONES Season 5
- Syfy to Honor Leonard Nimoy with Special Programming This Sunday
- Grammy Winner Kelly Clarkson Exclusively Premieres New Music from New Album on MTV, VH1 & CMT First
- CONSTELLATIONS' Jake Gyllenhaal and Ruth Wilson Set for THEATER TALK This Weekend


text:
48 فرخ 18 شاهين 12 طير 11 قطر 10 طيور 9 حر 8 qatar sultan سلطان 7 المقناص 6 super قرناس bin العسيري binsultan potographer lens potographers lesnafi superlens عمان قنص 5 الكويت falcon القلايل السعودية البحرين الامارات 4 صقر مقناص 3 greenmovement kuwait jm صافي e320 farshad النيه فرشاد w124 السمن farahsa سا canon جير syria غواصة و q8 الطيور قلبي amg حمام هدد black معضاد s55 mercedesbenz تشفيط images عصفور حبارى الهاجري w220 chick بيض getty رزه rzh redstart عش alhajri bird dove qtri الحميراء قطري شبح iran فراخ qtr brabus في
7 شاهين,فرخ 6 المقناص,شاهين شاهين,قطر فرخ,قطر طيور,قطر المقناص,فرخ طير,فرخ 5 المقناص,قطر القلايل,عمان الامارات,عمان شاهين,طير
معضاد 6 القلايــل 5 صافي النيه 3 Micho Photographer sabzphoto [ Sultan Al-Hajri ] سـ ع ـود الانصاري ~ راشد الصيخان ( Instagram : 4BOO7_ ) Rached MILADI -رشاد الميلادي بوغنيم ДĿΚußαisї العقوري [ Libya Photographer ] Majid_Tavakoli Najim J. Almisbah Beautiful flower* Mohammad Reza Rostami ha_sepidnam Faris shehri QTRSOUL ŁǮβŤ Qšђėĕм~ [ I'll be Away ] ehsan nourani hirkany « яίgнт ѕәιәcтίσи »→ بآك Nawaf Ahmed abo-tmaim Q8Dreamer ™QT®√©אA7BK¶MoOoTא©√QT®™..B®B عبدالله المريخي Talal Al-Mtn ad_tommy_ad عساس قطر
Flickr Hive Mind is a data mining tool for the Flickr database of photography. Flickr Hive Mind is a search engine as well as an experiment in the power of Folksonomies. All thumbnail images come directly
from Flickr, none are stored on Flickr Hive Mind. These photos
are bound by the copyright and license of their owners, the thumbnail links take to you to the photos
(as well as their copyright and license details) within Flickr. Because some other search engines (Google, etc.) index parts of
Flickr Hive Mind, you may have been led here from one of them. Welcome to Flickr Hive Mind, almost certainly the best search engine for photography on the web. If you are a Flickr
user and use Flickr Stats you
may have seen people being led to your photos via Flickr Hive Mind (as a Referrer).
Flickr requires that I inform you that Flickr Hive Mind uses the Flickr API, but is neither endorsed nor certified by them.
There are literally hundreds of other web tools built around the Flickr API, see
Flickr Bits for a bunch of examples.
If you are unhappy with your photos' presence on this site, you can (a)
make your photos private for yourself, friends, and family. These settings will be instantly honored by
Flickr Hive Mind and all other API-driven applications. (b) Hide your photos globally from text and tag searches on 3rd party sites that use the Flickr API, via your preference settings on Flickr. See the privacy tab at:
http://flickr.com/account/. To also remove yourself from searches for specific user names, you will need to set your Flickr profile to be hidden from searches. Flickr has finally created a single page with all these settings, this is much easier to do now and is the preferred method - it will shut down all API driven sites.
(c) Finally, you can
Banish Yourself
From Flickr Hive Mind. To banish yourself from Flickr Hive Mind, you must first authenticate to Flickr, which lets Flickr Hive Mind identify who you are. Once logged in, come back to this area
and there will be a link to banish you. If there are any problems email me at nosflickrhivemind ... at ... fiveprime ... dot ... org. (a few people with weird characters in their user names may have had problems)Log In To Flickr Now
Flickr Hive Mind is a data mining tool for the Flickr photography database, allowing search by: tags(keywords); Flickr photography groups; Flickr users, their contacts, and favorites; free text; the Flickr Explore algorithm for interestingness. Flickr Hive Mind can also be an effective tool to identify photography with licenses that allow non-commercial (and sometimes) commercial use. Written by:
Nathan Siemers.
Inspired by (and thanks to) Flickr Leech.
Dedicated to
Anna and her Flickritis.
If you find your login does not work, perhaps your browser has disabled the cookies that I use to track your session. Try telling your browser to accept them.
Flickr Hive Mind stores no
personal information nor photos,
but some general time and IP address information ends up in my apache server logs. For additional details see the privacy policy.
Any revenue generated through advertisement on this site is used only to cover the cost of keeping the site online, beyond that Fiveprime donates to charitable organizations (also, there are no ads on User pages). Flickr Hive Mind is currently consuming about 13.6 terabytes of network bandwidth per year (not including the photos themselves)!


text:
On a hot day, an air conditioner can be a blessing, but you'll run into problems over time with any air conditioner. Whether you use an HVAC system or a window-mounted unit, air conditioners will eventually require maintenance. You can
Things break down. If it isn't the air conditioning system, maybe it's the car, the computer or the dishwasher. The good news is most breakdowns are pretty minor. In other words, it can either be fixed with a quick adjustment
People often take their heating and cooling systems for granted. In a city like Los Angeles where air conditioners are a must, you cannot overlook the importance of keeping your HVAC systems in good shape.
If your air conditioner breaks
Did you know that insulating your home with fiber glass, slag wool or rock wool is a great way to save energy and reducing cooling and heating bills? If you are like most people who want to save money on
It is natural that no one would want the HVAC system to break down, especially during the summers or the winters when the climates are in extreme and cooling or heating is required to keep the temperature pleasant and bearable.
A properly sealed and well designed duct system can help in maintaining a cool temperature inside the house, while also ensuring that there is no heat or cool air loss. It also helps save hundreds of dollars on energy bills
Hot summers call for air conditioning round the clock. It's comfortable this way, but the smile fades away when you see the electricity bill going well beyond your expectations. Is it possible to lower the expenses without making any sacrifices?
Air conditioner helps in cooling the internal environment and keeps it pleasant, providing comprehensive protection from warm temperatures outside. Air conditioners are particularly helpful in regions where the temperatures easily soar over the comfortable temperature, making it difficult to sustain
Unfortunately, it seems as though the last days of summer are gradually waning away, and we are well on our way to the chill of winter once again. With warm weather seemingly so far off into the
During the summers, the air conditioner is one home appliance that one cannot do without. The soaring temperature and humidity can make the environment unbearable and wanting to cool the inside temperature of the home or office is no sin.


text:
SARU Community Cup pools confirmed
Related Posts
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
« Blitzbokke make three changes for Dubai The GLRU announce new signings »
Nov 22 • Club Rugby, General News, South Africa, Varsity & Club • 783 Views • No Comments
THE SARU Community Cup took on a distinctly international flavour on Wednesday night when Springbok captain Jean de Villiers, coach Heyneke Meyer and SARU President Oregan Hoskins made the draw for the newly-launched national club rugby tournament at the team's hotel in London, where they are preparing for their final Test of the year against England.
The Community Cup, which replaces the old National Club Championships, will see 20 of the country's best non-university clubs battle it out across the country over a six-week period, in a World Cup-style tournament that includes five rounds of pool matches at club venues and play-offs to be held annually in George over the Easter long weekend.
The inaugural Community Cup kicks off on Saturday 16 February 2013 with eight first-round match-ups and ends with the final on Easter Monday, 1 April at Outeniqua Park.
"It's fantastic to see club rugby coming back onto the radar and I feel privileged to have been able to draw the names of the first teams to ever play in the Community Cup," said Bok skipper De Villiers, who played club matches for Maties against Tygerberg and Villager in the Western Province Super League as recently as 2006. "Club rugby got left behind by professionalism in the sense that it was put on the back burner for a long time, but now competitions such as the Varsity Cup and Community Cup will hopefully ensure that club players have a proper stage on which to show just how much talent we have in this country which we've only just begun to tap into."
SARU's Games & Policies Committee decided ahead of the draw that the four semi-finalists from the final National Club Championships, held in Rustenburg in September, would be seeded 1st in their respective pools, with the teams they beat in the quarter-finals seeded second. It was therefore left to De Villiers, Meyer and Hoskins on Wednesday to draw the remaining seven automatic qualifiers and five invited wild card teams to complete the pools.
"It's true that professionalism has widened the gap between club and provincial rugby but now we have a vital bridge between the two for both student and so-called 'open' clubs," said Hoskins. "On the one hand, the Community Cup is an elite flagship competition for the best of the best, and it will provide the cream of our club players with a competitive platform and the aspiration factor that has been missing for so long.
"But just as important is that we ensure the Community Cup is also exactly what it says: a chance for entire communities, from Worcester to Welkom and the Bo-Kaap to Brakpan, to go down to their local clubs and rally behind their local heroes, as they take on the best the country has to offer in what will be the biggest matches of their lives."
The Community Cup fixtures will be announced in due course.
Jonsson College Rovers (KZN)
Pretoria Police (Blue Bulls)
Rustenburg Impala (Leopards)
Broubart Old Selbornians (BOR)
GAP Despatch (EP)
Durbanville-Bellville (WP)
Roodepoort (Lions)
Brakpan (Valke)
Villagers Worcester (BOL)
Bloemfontein Police (FS)
Noordelikes (Limpopo)
White River (Mpumalanga)
Sishen (Griquas)
Welkom Rovers (Griffons)
Bloem Crusaders (FS, wild card)
Evergreens (SWD)
SK Walmers (WP, wild card)
African Bombers (EP, wild card)
Raiders (Lions, wild card)
Roses Utd (Boland, wild card)
club rugbyCommunity CuprugbyRugby15SARU
Jun 15 • 408 Views
Jun 1 • 318 Views
May 28 • 184 Views
You must be logged in to post a comment.
« Blitzbokke make three changes for Dubai The GLRU announce new signings »
Jul 8 • 89 Views
Tempo of Under 18 Girls Week set to rise
Jul 8 • 117 Views
Disappointment for EP Academy side
Jul 7 • 341 Views
EP U16s too strong for Falcons
Jul 8 • 89 Views
Jul 8 • 117 Views
Jul 7 • 341 Views
Edward: I do wish I could win this dream price as well has always been a sport...
RugbyViews: Grey College profile link: http://www.schoolrugby.co.za/school.aspx?s=...
RugbyViews: Hi Niel, Thank you. Can you please supply the names and years as well....
Copyright Rugby15.co.za - 2013


text:
For more info contact SRC Kelli Oakley
Thomson-Hood Veterans Center is a 285 bed long term skilled nursing care center in Wilmore, Kentucky. We have an annual Veterans Appreciation Picnic the 2nd Saturday in August every year to honor our lost and current veterans. We have bands and plenty of activities. The Traveling Wall will be coming to the facility along with an escort and this will progress as we get closer but, Doc Russo with the Traveling Wall brought to our attention your fleet of "Schneider Ride of Pride" for events such as ours. We are extremely excited about this year with the upscale event including the 3/5 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and would like to invite you to be a part of the parade and if possible, return on that Saturday for the event. The Wall will be arriving at the facility on the 6th of August for assembly and open to the public on the 7th, 8th and 9th and disassembled on the 10th. We will be able to provide more information closer to the event.
We were fortunate to have a smaller scale replica last year that individuals had built and erected here for the three days and it was visited and reflected upon by our guys and gals the entire time, including our staff. Please let me know if you are available for those dates of the 6th for the parade and the 8th for the picnic. I sincerely thank you for your respect to our military and honor of those who have fought, and continue to fight for the freedoms we have in the USA.
We have been asked by the Daughters of the American Revolution to come & set up flags and help as they have a memorial service to honor a Confederate Soldier. It will be Sunday, October 6th at the Soldier Creek Cemetery, just off hwy 58 in Marshal County. They ask that we be there around 1:30 as it will start at 2 p.m. We plan on setting up flags to mark the entrance and also help get the people parked as space is somewhat limited. We will also set up a flag line as the ceremony is conducted. We will be staging at pockets Shell in Mayfield at 12:45 with kickstands up at 1. This is NOT an official PGR mission, but is one I feel we should attend. Any questions can be sent to me & I will try to answer them for you. Lets have a good turn-out as we honor an American soldier.
Randie Baldree
PGR Senior Ride Captain
Mayfield, KY
September 6-7-8, 2013


text:
Bellaire's National Beta Club members Antony Yun, Lucian Li, Noel Lawrence, and Vedant Chopra participated in the National Convention's Quiz Bowl Competition and Jennifer Wang competed in the Math Division II. Click the headline for details.
Retests for STAAR and TAKS will be offered in July. If you are retesting please report to the library the moring of your test. Please click the headline for the testing schedule.
Juniors and Seniors—did you know that Dual Credit classes are now worth 5 points on the GPA scale? We are offering Dual Credit Web Technologies, Dual Credit Principles of Technology and Dual Credit Digital Media for the upcoming school year. Click the headline for more information
Please click the headline for dates and times for students to check-in for the 2015-2016 school year.
Zoned students and students with approved transfers can make an appointment to register at Bellaire. Click the headline for more information.
If you answered yes, we can't wait to meet you! Please click the headline & we will fill you in on what you need to know to help your transition to Bellaire.
Cardinal Camp is a day-long orientation for incoming 9th-grade students at Bellaire High School. Cardinal Camp will be held on Friday, August 14th. Please click the headline for more information and to register.
Bellaire Math Camp is for incoming 9th-grade students. The camp will be held July 28,29 and 30. Please click the headline for more information and to register.
Please click the link to view summer assignments.
Seniors should be receiving postcards to their home address from Prestige regarding studio pricing and dates for their portrait "appointment times" over the summer. Portraits will also be taken in the Auditorium August 17th-21st. There is no cost to have your senior picture taken for the yearbook. Pictures may be purchased. Click the headline for more information.
Click the headline to get more information about completing your Brag Sheet for your counselor. This is a great project to take care of over the summer!
Community Partners and BHS Families donated $24,000 of goods, services and resources to the 2015-2016 Staff Appreciation Luncheon hosted by the Bellaire PTO. A shout out to Bobbi Nygard and Illene Flora for chairing the event. Please click the headline to see a list of this year's donors!
If you have not turned in your laptop, it needs to be turned in immediately! Laptops should be taken to the main office between 9am-3pm so that Mr. Scarrow or Mr. Nguyen can be called to come and meet you.
Cardinal Camp will be held August 14th. Newly elected club presidents need to register to participate in Club Jamboree during our orientation for freshmen. Click the headline to register.
Four students named the national champions of the 2015 National Personal Finance Challenge.
Please click the headline to view the presentation that was given to 9th grade students by Ms. Manraj.
Bellaire Students placed across the board in UIL competitions. Please click the headline to see results from District UIL Competitions.
Michael Clark, was honored on May 3 with a Lifetime Achievement award at the secondary level through H-E-B's 2015 Excellence in Education Awards.
The information that was presented at the Senior Meeting Wednesday morning can be found by clicking the headline. If you did not pick up your Balfour order swing by Ms. Shoulders office in the library.
19 Bellaire TPP students won Individual Achievement Awards at the Interscholastic League Press Conference. The students were recognized for stories, page design, headlines, graphics and photos. Click the headline to see the awards that students received.
This summer, two educators were awarded fellowships from Funds For Teachers (FFT).
Alisa Hamilton, surprised by the Superintendent Terry Grier, with a $10,000 check to be applied as a scholarship for the college of her choice.
HISD students from the Bellaire high school Madrigal Choir perform at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center.
Eight Central Texas educators, including a teacher at Bellaire HS, have been named finalists for a 2015 Excellence in Education Award, spotlighting them as some of the best educators in Texas.
Para aprender más de lo que ofrecen estas instituciones con programas especiales, en esta ocasión hablaremos de la preparatoria Bellaire la cual cuenta con un programa de idiomas.


text:
Learning Toys
The InnoTab 2 Learning App Tablet is the perfect learning toy for your tech-savvy kid! With expandable memory, rotating camera, video recorder, and hundreds of new games, e-books, videos and music, the InnoTab 2 will provide endless hours of educational fun. Designed for children ages 3-9, the InnoTab 2 offers 17 ready-to-use-apps and 2 free downloads and is waiting for your child's imagination.
VTech, the creator of the Electronic Learning Products (ELP) category and the award-winning InnoTab, V.Reader and MobiGo handheld toys, is a world leader of age-appropriate learning products. Since 1980, VTech has been developing high-quality, innovative educational products that enrich children's development, from birth to preteen, through fun and smart play.
Continue Shopping:VTech Learning Toys


text:
Please look at this screenshot:
I cannot find anywhere under "Colors & Fonts" settings that allows me to change the color of list item background and foreground colors; there is no other KDE application showing black as list background color.
I wish to change the background color to white and foreground color to black, please offer your opinions! Much appreciated!


text:
5959 Shallowford Rd, Chattanooga, TN 37421
Phone: (423) 296-8988
6.6 mi
5485 Highway 41, Jasper, TN 37347
Phone: (423) 942-1517
17.1 mi
600 S Cedar Ave, South Pittsburg, TN 37380
Phone: (423) 837-6617
22.7 mi
Can't find a business you think should be on YellowBot?
If you don't see your business listed on YellowBot, please add your business listing.
YellowBot wants to get your input! If you have a comment, find a bug or think of something neat we should do, let us know by emailing us.
© 2007-2015 Solfo, Inc. – All rights reserved


text:
26 Business Ideas – Take Your Pick!
I don't know about you, but I grew up dreaming of running my own business. One of my sources of inspiration was Entrepreneur Magazine. I'd go over to the bookstore, flip through each monthly issue and get TOTALLY psyched about the possibilities ahead of me. Rieva Lesonsky was Editor of that magazine at that time, and so, [...]Continue Reading


text:
Tagsamericana Bacchus billy joel boys cars city of angels college dance dance dance date night dollars and sense dream life end of days fighting fire freak out getting old girls grad school green H house I wish jobs LAX magic pebbles memory Nashville new jersey new york occupy Paris Hilton piano poetry pop life promos public transit real estate roses Shakespeare shit Simone de Beauvoir Temperance/Prohibition The Rules uniforms vacations weddings
I want to buy
Future Spa
If I were skating and you were skating and other people were taking a shower in their own golden hair, with pulley systems, and six-pack abs, and splashing in the golden light of the future, if everything were echo deco font and the sphinxlike spaceman bodybuilder were being birthed from the back of a semi, if I had my winged gogo boots and my cut-out cleavage machine and my space punk Victorian collar in blue to match your Folsom Street harness in red, if we were running together under the awnings of tomorrow in the light of the blue planet, dreaming of tiny versions of ourselves who follow the golden jumprope… if all this, if Bally Future Spa were me, would you love me then?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged americana, city of angels, dream life, pinball Leave a comment
Lip gloss
If I'm being honest, I was upset starting last night, because of the silliest of professional slights. Silly, minor. Living this life means feeling invisible or attacked about half the time, and crazy the other half, and sometimes it is my fault. Sometimes I am being, as they say, too sensitive. So I decided to go to the mall.
Sometimes I am treated differently because just a girl not universal feminine unable to be neutral mixed race crazy just another mom. I know what it is to be punished for leaning in—which isn't perceived as leaning in, but as entitled crazy demanding stepping out of line. I know, with absolute certainty, that sometimes, things happen because of race and gender. I also know with absolute certainty that most of the time I will never be quite sure, so I will feel crazy. I know that the meritocratic myth is there, in part, to discipline my responses away from "this is systemic and wrong" and towards "I can do better" or "I can serve you better…" and I know that class often matters more than race and gender but that intersectionally speaking, these things recreate and reinforce each other.
I talk to my students about how being nonwhite and female in this world is complicated but also simple: it will sometimes boil down to feeling invisible and unheard and a little bit crazy. So I tell them, bring it to class and we will analyze it together. That is something we can do. But. Today. I'm unable to analyze my way out of it. I truly believe that my students and I, we mostly help each other. I tire quickly of grading but I almost always love seeing them, and I miss them today, because it is spring break. And I'm unable, just now, to teach myself not to feel crazy. So what do I do? I bring my work and I go to the mall. Why the mall? Because I feel invisible, and frustrated, and I want lip gloss.
At the mall, I know sales people and only sales people will talk to me. I know they will be nice to me. I wear nice shoes and I carry a credit card. So they will be nice to me. In fact, the lovely young woman of color in her black apron at the makeup counter is, at first, somewhat distant. She excuses herself to help a white woman holding a coupon and leaves me stranded near the Urban Decay for five minutes. But I am extra nice to her, in my nice shoes. I listen to her recommendations. I promise to buy the compact she brings me. And in the end, she is lovely. She mixes me a sample of primer and writes down extra information for me. Class privilege and affective labor, at the mall in America, trumps race. And the money spent will make me visible to myself. I may be invisible and without a voice but I can acquire this thing I need. This lip gloss and eye shadow.
Boo hoo you feel sorry for yourself so you went to the mall. Dumb lady.
Sure. I am lucky to have this choice, to buy lip gloss on a bad day. But this is also about the options left open to me, when I feel silenced in the halls of true power. Makeup makes me feel stronger, that is its false promise. But makeup also feels no less optional to me than the pressures of the beauty standard itself.
I wear makeup every day to work. I don't wear it just to drop my kid off at school, or to exercise, or even out to go out to dinner with my husband sometimes. I know he will have me without it. But I have never gotten up in front of a class, for more than ten years now, without makeup. It is part of the way I participate in the physical rhetoric of teaching on a college campus. I am short. And conventionally feminine. And mixed race Asian. I don't feel that I can stand among the towering young men in their cargo shorts and the young women in their yoga pants and their nicer shoes than mine without at least a couple of inches in heels and makeup.
I am automatically awarded less authority, automatically judged on my appearance, too pretty to be serious, too serious to be pretty, laughable if ugly, dismissible if lovely, she's a bitch/ he's tough and there is no way around this bind. A colleague, my age and my build but ethnically white, was leaving her class the other day when an older white male professor said to her, apropos of basically nothing, "You're so young and pretty I just assumed you were an adjunct." He meant this as a compliment.
I dab on vanilla latte crème in the morning and wonder how makeup would be sold and understood if it were men who wore it as a first line of defense against the world. What if it were masculine to have smokey purple eyelids and a sharp black kohl hugging the lash line? Then there would be great, dark, smokey warehouses of makeup. Young men in black slacks and white shirts, perhaps with sleeve garters, would shuffle under mirrors hanging slanted from the ceiling reflecting male pattern baldness and five o'clock shadows from all angles. Men would sweep palettes of color out in front of other men like decks of cards. Bare mineral neutrals, today, sir? Or something more aggressive? A heather dusk? Women would be characterized as unable to understand color and line and not be allowed in. Perhaps they would pour a whiskey with your skin consultation. Clears the pores. Sawdust on the floor and a hushed silence, in the halls of paint and power, except for the clank of the trash cans receiving the used samplers.
I feel lost, and frustrated, so I bought war paint. In a few years, I won't even be able to wear these colors. But you can say I treated myself if you want to. I got a Clinique Black Honey sampler.
Sidewalk Art
A Pandemonium of Parrots
The weather is angry, the heat comes down like a curtain within an hour of sunrise to suffocate the days, these storied Los Angeles days that put your teeth on edge. Los Angeles Is Burning goes through my head. Palm trees like candles in the murder wind. Except there's no wind.
Yesterday, when I went outside to walk H. to school, the tree across the street was heavy with birds that I could not identify yelling at each other. The resonance and the range of their vocal registers had a furious, human quality. When they lifted off the branches, yelling and yelling, they made crosses in the air. Blue, or blue green. They didn't caw, it was not a murder of crows.
In my work life, this is also the season of rejection and abandonment and despair. Murder season all around. The birds seemed to be having a heated and terrible conference discussion.
H. has a picture book about collective nouns for magical beasts. A Dignity of Dragons. A Continent of Kraken. A Resurrection of Phoenix. I tried to think of the word I wanted to describe these birds. This is how I got stuck, in this morning, in this life. The blessing and the curse of my mind is its native tendency to disappear into a search for the right words. H. asked me what I was thinking about.
"A pandemonium of parrots," I told her.
Later, I typed "parrots" and "Los Angeles" into the search box, and saw their picture online. I'm no naturalist, so I was so incredibly pleased that I had identified them correctly. They were described as "feral." Feral parrots. But that seems unfair. Parrots aren't a domesticated species, they haven't had their original angry voices and sizes and colors bred out of them by humans. They got free and are fighting it out, up there, about how to adapt to the haze and the murderous heat. They were born loud and wild. A blessing and a curse.
Posted in 300 words a day Tagged city of angels, dream life, end of days, fighting fire, freak out, I wish 1 Comment
Once upon a time, I sold everything I owned and moved to Brazil. This piece, over at Avidly at the LA Review of Books is mostly about that, and also, about soccer:
No one in Rio understood why I had come. I wasn't married to an oil man. I didn't have a Fulbright. A young woman alone, "freelance writing," training capoeira—to most people, this signaled a pitiable and possibly dangerous solitude, making me a kind of charity case. The sister of a friend of a friend offered to take me to a movie as if she were offering to feed me a bowl of porridge. Before I could even order a pao de quejo at the local deli, I had been asked countless times: No really, who was the man you followed? What are you running from? Once people accepted that I was living in Rio just to live in Rio, then the next question was, so who's your team? They didn't really expect an answer, but these were the poles that defined the map: Love and futbol.
Posted in 300 words a day Tagged boys, futbol, I wish, memory, rio de janeiro Leave a comment
How we know each other
At the end of 2013, I sat with S. while she smoked a cigarette out on the patio at a bar that we like. Two guys came over and bummed a smoke. They asked us how we knew each other. S. said, "Drinking and writing. " This strikes me as the best possible way to know someone. It's not how we met, which would be more like, "friends from college knew other friends from college." But if you were to anatomize our friendship, to look at why and how we got to know each other within a standard big American city network of people from elsewhere, we know each other through drinking and writing.
The two young men looked younger than we are. One of them sounded British, so I asked where they were from, and the other one, the not-British one, said, "Encino." How did they know each other? "Smoking and rock and roll." I asked for band names. Surely this is what young men who identify as as rocknroll and bum smokes in a bar want to be asked. Encino said: "Mini Mansions."
I love this band name. I had never heard of it before, but I immediately effused that I am kind of obsessed in a weird way with real estate. And our British friend, the one sporting a pompadour fade and a leather jacket? He said, "The Arctic Monkeys."
I almost pulled out my phone to prove that Do I Wanna Know? was at the top of my playlist!! I said something about the video. The Arctic Monkey looked confused. When S. and I went to the bathroom, she immediately pulled out her phone to see if he was lying. I had no idea. I listen to their music, had even watched that video, but it's animated and I am no longer the kind of fan who looks up publicity stills, unless I meet the frontman in a bar. He wasn't lying.
My theory is that the confusion on Alex Turner's face was about me, and whether it was a good or a bad thing that I was a fan of his band. S. looked great in black pants and lipstick. But I had hurried out to the bar in an old sweater and a ponytail. My five year-old daughter had made me a necklace out of rubber bands on her Rainbow Loom. I was wearing it. And S. and I were so direct, so unfazed, so over caring what people thought of us. S. reassured them that "Mini Mansions" was also a very good name for a band. Were we flirting? Or being patronizing? I landed right on the cusp — cute girl in a bar? or soccer mom? Unclear.
Sasha Frere-Jones, the New Yorker's music critic, has made it explicit that he equates artistic death with appealing primarily to women like me. You don't get to the top of the streaming charts by thinking of yourself as a band that appeals to moms. The frontman for The Arctic Monkeys looked at me and thought — maybe I have really gotten famous? or maybe this bird is lying? or maybe I should finish this fag and go find someone who won't look at me with such intense curiosity?
I like the whole album, but that song, their biggest hit, is about that time at the end of the night when you want to call your ex, the one you can't stop thinking about but know you shouldn't call. It's about obsession and spilling drinks on my settee and crawling back to you, feelings and cravings that people conventionally shelve in a marketing category separate from soccer moms. We are meant to hold down the edges of a square world that indie rock must define itself against. Yes, it's true, Alex Turner, I also like Katy Perry. But I promise my fandom doesn't have a downside, I carry no glamor that wards off cool. Dark feelings and difficult cravings don't end because you have children. I meet your music where it lives.
I spent this morning reading articles recommended by friends on social media and waiting for my brain to come back online to tackle this new year. It seems that everything is ending. Midlist book publishing and the community of readers. Water. Alternative newsweeklies. Affordable housing. The academy. Cities. Being a cute girl in a bar. The world and all the things I hold dear, facing their imminent demise. But there is still drinking and writing to do. And with endings come beginnings. Hello, 2014.
Posted in 300 words a day Tagged boys, city of angels, girls, pop life, real estate 7 Comments
I was only gone for three days, but coming back into Los Angeles is sometimes hard. On my commute, a piece of cardboard flips up off the road. It hits my windshield and flies towards the shoulder. I fight the reflex to veer. Something else makes the noise of a heartbeat as I drive over it. Another scrap glances off the corner of my car, then re-enters my peripheral vision as something falling out of the sky.
But the thing in the sky isn't cardboard, it's a glider. A tiny plane. Red and titanium silver in the sun. It twirls on its axis on the way down, like the helicopter maple seeds I used to see in northwestern Massachusetts. I think it must be crashing, and then: up up up. It twirls on the way up, too. I can't tell if it's very small, almost a toy, or if its size rearranges the scale of the distance between me and the San Gabriels.
When my plane was coming down into LAX, the city spread out below me, brown and unending and flat. From the air I found it discouraging, hard to get a handle on. On the drive back from the airport, I tried to focus on the moment where the 101 curves around downtown and holds the U.S. bank tower at its center. At dusk when the lights are coming on, your eye can take in that skyline, and you think, OK, here's the city. But it's just a moment on the freeway. No one has that view except for the cars. It's not a real vantage point.
By contrast, in ten minutes driving on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, I saw the curve of the water and low flat whitecaps and the park benches and the luxury apartment buildings looking out at the lake. All vantage points. Chicago may not be as consistently graceful as European cities, but it lets you take it in. A string of lights across a rehabbed industrial brick building. Blocks of townhouses. Trains. Air so cold I could feel adrenaline release into my blood when I walked out into it.
It's so simple. The density of urban details makes you feel like you can see the city. That's all. In Los Angeles the rhythm is thinner, spread out, hazy, and so it sometimes seems unreal and flat. A trick of the light. I have to remind myself. It would be hard to see that glider in Chicago. You need that empty sky. A pinwheel, flashing bursts of light at me as I drive on.
Posted in 300 words a day Tagged cars, chicago, city of angels, LAX, public transit, real estate Leave a comment


text:
Sony Xperia tipo ST21a Smartphone, Red - 3.2" screen, 3.2 MP camera, Android OS - 1264-0773 - Unlocked Phone with US Warranty
$83.79 - $189.95
Seller Information
Learn more about Sony Xperia tipo ST21a Smartphone, Red - 3.2" screen, 3.2 MP camera, Android OS:
Manufacturer: Sony Ericsson
Mfg Part#: 1264-0773
Sku: 236546617
See more in Cell Phones
Product Guides
Smart has never been this simple
Made to get you started
Buy the phone. Open the box. Turn it on. Relax. Simply follow the guide to set up your accounts, such as Google and Facebook, and transfer contacts from your phone.
Made to make life easy
Enjoy the entertainment. Xperia tipo is so easy to use. The latest apps and music are just a click away from your home screen. Running on Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the Xperia tipo makes web browsing quicker and easier too.
Made to control your costs
Worried about data costs? Don't be. With the Xperia tipo's data usage app, you can set the limits you want to use data to surf, chat or game online. It lets you manage your costs, so you never spend more than you want to.
Made to keep in touch – for longer
Chat on the phone. Or have an all-night gossip using Xperia with Facebook. For longer. With the powerful battery you can charge your phone and then use it for around 24 hours without having to charge it again. Long battery life means you'll never miss that important call – or funny status update again.
Made to match your moods
Xperia tipo is a smartphone. It gives you instant access to the web and online content, and a whole host of apps, like email, Google Maps™ and Google Search™. Make your Android smartphone your own with hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from. Put shortcuts on your homescreen for the apps you use the most.
We have what you want to hear
Millions and millions of songs on demand from Music Unlimited. Listen both online and offline with no annoying ads. Enjoy dozens of preset channels and easily sync with your own music collection. Get the most from your music with Music Unlimited.
View all buying options for Sony Xperia tipo ST21a Smartphone, Red - 3.2" screen, 3.2 MP camera, Android OS
45-Day RETURNS
Open Box Item. Original Condition.
Shipping: Usually ships in 1 to 2 business days
Condition: Brand New
About the Seller
Lifetime 4 ratings
Seller Description
We are a mid-sized wholesale business that deals predominantly with electronics and retail items. We currently operate on a number of marketplaces, and are interesting in bringing our success to rakuten.
Marketplace Guarantee ClaimBuyers should receive Marketplace items in the condition that they were listed. We ask buyers to first contact the seller to give them a chance to address any issues. If the seller does not respond or if the issue is not addressed to the customer's satisfaction buyers can rely on our Rakuten.com Marketplace Guarantee Claim which, covers the first $750 of every purchase... read more
Returns Policy
If we shipped and sold your item, then you can return those items to us within forty five (45) days of the ship date. This policy does not apply if a different return policy is stated on the item's listing information.
Shipping Info
We do not currently ship to PO Boxes, APO Boxes, or FPO Boxes. We use a variety of shippers, some of whom do not allow delivery to PO Boxes. To prevent the need to cancel your order after it has been placed, we do not allow orders to ship to any PO Boxes for any orders. Additionally, there are ce...read more
Recent Feedback
BUYER BEWARE!!!! I purchased a computer advertised with 8GB of RAM and received one with 4GB of RAM. It is impossible to contact the vendor. They do not respond. Had to do a chargeback on my credit card for the cost of extra RAM.
ListingID: 423619190
This machine was sold online as NEW. When I received box it had a post it note on the box, which was not manufacturers box. It stated scratch on pad. I have contacted this company 3 times and have heard no response. Obviously not a new machine
ListingID: 373671579
Got what I paid for as promised
ListingID: 378091049