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Propositional representations of biomedical knowledge are a critical component of most aspects of semantic mining in biomedicine. However, the proper set of propositions has yet to be determined. Recently, the PASBio project proposed a set of propositions and argument structures for biomedical verbs. This initial set of representations presents an opportunity for evaluating the suitability of predicate-argument structures as a scheme for representing verbal semantics in the biomedical domain. Here, we quantitatively evaluate several dimensions of the initial PASBio propositional structure repository.
We propose a number of metrics and heuristics related to arity, role labelling, argument realization, and corpus coverage for evaluating large-scale predicate-argument structure proposals. We evaluate the metrics and heuristics by applying them to PASBio 1.0.
PASBio demonstrates the suitability of predicate-argument structures for representing aspects of the semantics of biomedical verbs. Metrics related to theta-criterion violations and to the distribution of arguments are able to detect flaws in semantic representations, given a set of predicate-argument structures and a relatively small corpus annotated with them.
Semantic representation in biomedicine: the current state of the art
Most tasks related to semantic mining in biomedicine, from manual annotation of experimental data to information extraction from free text, depend critically on a target semantic representation of the domain. Unfortunately, no generally accepted standard for such a representation yet exists. This problem is a microcosm of the larger problem that bedevils general semantic processing: the fact that biomedicine forms a sublanguage of general English ([1], [2], [3], [4] and [5]) may reduce the scale of the problem, but it does not change the type of the problem. Simply put, what is an optimal (or even adequate) set of propositions for representing the semantics of biomedical verbs?
Although related to the question of a proper ontology for representing biomedical knowledge, the propositional representation question addresses the set of relationships that link fundamental ontological elements into the assertions that are the essence of biomedical discourse. Propositional representations are usually associated with verbs (e.g. "inhibits"), although nominalized forms of these propositions (e.g. "inhibition") clearly play an important (and possibly dominant – see Friedman et al. [4] and Tateisi et al. [6]) role in biomedical texts. Propositional representation schemes specify the particular types of relationships (that is, the propositions), along with the number and type of related entities (that is, the arguments of the proposition). The representation may also specify allowable modifiers of propositions (e.g. temporal or spatial localizations). These are "content theories," specifying not only the form of a proper representation, but specific predicates, arguments and restrictions necessary and sufficient to capture meaning in biomedicine.
Large-scale projects to develop propositional representation schemes (e.g. FrameNet [7]) and to create gold-standard proposition-labelled text corpora (e.g. PropBank [8]) have had salutary effects on the ability of computational systems to do semantic mining in general English (as well as in other natural languages, including Chinese and Korean). Biomedical concepts and language are different enough from "newswire" domains that existing propositional representations are inadequate for capturing biomedical knowledge.
Recently, the PASBio project [9] released a set of propositional representations for a small set of biomedically relevant verbs. PASBio is similar in method to FrameNet, and in goals to PropBank. The utility of the initial representational scheme is seen in its application to LSAT, a system that extracted more than 4,000 complex propositions about alternative splicing of mammalian genes from more than 14,000 PubMed abstracts [10]. Furthermore, the project's methodology has recently been successfully extended to clinical texts [11]. Although the PASBio project is not unique, most prior work (e.g. Tateisi et al. (2004)[6]) is now moribund, highlighting the potential difficulties of work in this area. A second molecular-biology-oriented proposition bank, BioProp [12], is described below in Section 6.2 entitled PASBio versus BioProp.
Evaluation of semantic representations
These successful applications make this the appropriate time to raise the question of whether the PASBio method and its specific representational scheme are optimal (or even adequate) for the general problem of representation of molecular biology concepts. The initial release of PASBio explicitly recognizes its incompleteness, so the critical questions are about whether it is structured properly, has appropriate content, and how much additional work would be required to make it appropriately broad. Our approach to addressing these questions is modelled on Baker and Ruppenhofer's comparison of FrameNet [13] and the Levin verb classes, as well as on Baker et al. [14].
A proposed representational scheme can be evaluated in many ways, but quantitative measures that reflect specific desired characteristics of any scheme are particularly attractive. Although the mapping to the desirable characteristics may be partial, their quantitative nature obviates potential concerns about theoretical biases. We therefore provide quantitative data on the following: the distribution of arity of argument sets, distribution of thematic role types versus individual thematic roles in the argument sets, violations of the θ-criterion, coverage of the verbs in two biomedical corpora, and distribution of arguments in the example data.
The richness of a representation can be quantified by exploring the arity of its argument sets. When they address propositions at all, most previous biomedical information extraction systems have targeted binary relations. As Rzhetsky et al. [15], McDonald et al. [16], and others have pointed out, many biomedical relations are in fact of greater than binary arity. A representational system that points us towards greater than binary relations has the potential to stimulate a qualitative advance in biomedical information extraction.
There is a potential mapping between propositional representations and frame-based representations (in the sense of Minsky [17], e.g. such as could be well-handled by the Protégé frame system). However, the distribution of thematic roles (or "slot" types in a frame representation) can be either drawn from a narrow list of generic thematic role types (e.g. Agent, Theme, and Goal), or from individual thematic roles – specialized roles particular to a few (or a single) frames (e.g. the translation product, translation source, and translation location of the biomedical verb translate – see [18], p. 550). In addition to providing information relevant to the design of an efficient formal representation scheme (frame in the Minskian sense), it also has implications for the types of data that need to be gathered in order to specify the correct roles and their relationships to texts (i.e., frames in the sense of FrameNet [7] op cit.). There is generally thought to be only a small set of thematic role types, some subset of which characterizes the arguments of every verb. They reflect deep semantic relations, such as causation and volition. There is little agreement on either the labels or the numbers of thematic role types. In contrast, the number of individual thematic roles is unbounded, and there are few similarities in them across verbs. They reflect only shallow semantic relations, and their labels are essentially arbitrary. Thematic role types capture many linguistic generalizations, but it is difficult to get agreement on their actual use in representations. Individual thematic roles miss many linguistic generalizations, but it is easier to get agreement on them in representations (and perhaps in annotation), and they do capture some semantic generalizations. (Note also that it is possible to mix them in representations, e.g. using the thematic role type of agent for one argument of a verb, and individual thematic roles for the others). Furthermore, thematic roles could themselves be productively represented within a hierarchy, in the style of the OBO Relation Hierarchy [19]. For example, individual thematic roles can be represented as leaf nodes, thematic role types as top-level superclasses, and intervening nodes expressing intermediate levels of abstraction.
Given representations with particular arities and role choices, we would like quantitative measures of whether or not they are correct. We approached this by looking at the applications of the PASBio predicate-argument structures (PASs) to the example sentences that are distributed with the representations themselves. We examined these for violations of the θ-criterion, and for distributional characteristics of the arguments.
As stated by Dowty [18], following work by Chomsky, the θ-criterion (or similar principles such as the Argument Realization Principle in non-GB frameworks, e.g. Goldberg (2005)[20]) includes the claim that "the same θ-role is not assigned to two NP arguments of the same predicate" ([20] p. 549). Work in non-GB frameworks such as Fillmore [21] makes similar assumptions. In particular, the θ-criterion should hold in cases where individual thematic roles are used in representations rather than thematic role types (op. cit., p. 550). So, quantifying the number of times that the PASBio representations led to θ-criterion violations in their example sentences (see Table 4) is a quantifiable and non-subjective way of assessing the fit of the representations to at least a small sample (equal to the number of illustrative sentences in PASBio) of molecular biology texts. Note that the NomBank project uses a similar heuristic to detect annotation errors – they examine annotator output for multiple instances of the same argument role [22].
We also experimented with using distributional characteristics of arguments as a heuristic for detecting invalid PAS representations. We manually examined all PASBio verb representations for arguments that were in complementary distribution with each other in the example sentences, i.e. situations where some argument Argi never appears with Argj. Where complementary distribution exists, one might suspect that either the two arguments should be combined, or the predicate should be split in two, with one predicate taking Argi and the other taking Argj.
The arity, role choice, θ-criterion violation and argument distribution evaluations are informative with respect to how "good" PASBio's argument structures are for semantic representation in biomedicine. The corpus coverage evaluations are relevant to the question of the amount of work yet to be done if the PASBio approach is to be adopted for biomedical text in general: assessment of the proportion of verbs in biomedical texts that are covered by PASBio offers an indication of how well the representational approach will scale to realistic problems.
PASBio in context
The remainder of this paper is devoted to quantitative analysis of PASBio; here, brief qualitative comparisons to related resources are given.
PASBio versus NLM's Semantic Network representation
The US National Library of Medicine also provides a general representation of biomedical verb semantics: the NLM Semantic Network [23]. Since the NLM Semantic Network has not been used to annotate a corpus as PASBio has, it is not currently possible to make the same quantitative comparisons with the Semantic Network.
The Semantic Network groups verbs via a troponomy-like relation, labelled isa. For example, treats isa affects, affects isa functionally-related-to, and functionally-related-to isa associated-with. Verbs have binary argument sets, defined in terms of semantic classes. Practical application of the Semantic Network depends, of course, not just on recognizing the relevant verbs, but on the ability to recognize and map to a wide variety of semantic classes of arguments. For a system that actually does so, see [24].
In the Semantic Network approach to representing verb semantics, arguments are binary, and are limited to specific semantic classes in the Semantic Network ontology. In contrast, PASBio arguments are not limited with respect to arity, and there are only broad restrictions on argument instantiations. Table 1 shows the arguments of transcribe.
Table 1. Arguments of transcribe in PASBio 1.0.
PASBio versus BioProp
Recent papers by Tsai et al [12] and Chou et al [25]. reported on the construction of BioProp, a proposition bank built on top of the 500 syntactically parsed abstracts currently available in the GENIA corpus. The project involved annotating the arguments of 30 frequent biomedical verbs, using PropBank PASs to the greatest extent possible, and defining new PASs for verbs that are not present in PropBank at all. BioProp adheres to the PropBank distinction between adjuncts and core arguments. Like PASBio, and unlike the Semantic Network, the arity of BioProp PASs is unrestricted. Since neither the actual set of BioProp PASs nor the annotated corpus itself have been made publicly available, it was not possible to make the same quantitative assessments of the BioProp PASs as we did for PASBio.
Results and Discussion
Table 2 shows the distribution of PASBio predicates across binary, ternary, and larger arities. 65% (22/34) of the PASBio predicates have greater than binary arity.
Table 2. Arity of PASBio predicates. The column headed 2 lists all predicates with two arguments, the column headed 5 lists all predicates with five arguments, etc.
Only a single predicate uses thematic role types in its argument representation. Block has an agent and a theme as its arguments. For all other predicates, they may have an agent, but all other arguments are individual thematic roles.
Overlap with verbs in the corpora
Table 3 shows the percentages of verb tokens in the corpora that are covered by the verbs in PASBio. (When a PASBio verb represents multiple predicates, there is no way to determine from the annotations of the corpora which predicate(s) are represented, so we back off to the verbs themselves.) Overlap with the verbs in the corpora was not large, ranging from a low of 4.9% for BioIE-Oncology to a high of 12.1% for BioIE-CYP450.
Table 3. Overlap between PASBio and the corpora. For each corpus, we give the percentage of verb tokens that could be accounted for by the PASBio verbs. The Verb tokens column gives the number of tokens covered by PASBio/the total number of verb tokens in the corpus. The Verb types column gives the number of types covered by PASBio/the total number of verb types in the corpus. See the text for why the numerator in the latter is not always 29.
Type-level overlap is of course quite small: 28/871 for BioIE (one verb, splice, does not occur at all in BioIE); 24/649 for BioIE-CYP450 (delete, disrupt, proliferate, skip and splice do not appear in BioIE-CYP450); 26/601 for BioIE-Oncology (eliminate, splice, and translate do not appear in BioIE-Oncology); and 28/1077 for GENIA (skip does not appear in GENIA). (These numbers actually underestimate type-level coverage somewhat. Our type counts are based on stems, rather than lemmas, so e.g. bind and bound count as two types, rather than one; since the numerators are so swamped by the denominators, we did not make this correction.)
Violations of the θ-criterion
We only found a single verb whose example sentences violated the θ-criterion. Table 4 gives the representation of the predicate express. 01 in PASBio 1.0, along with the specific examples (three out of fifteen) that violate the criterion. (We discuss alternative analyses of this data at some length in the Results of the evaluation section.)
Table 4. Representation of express in PASBio 1.0. The first three lines give the argument structure. The last three lines give the three examples that violate the θ-criterion: underlined phrases are mapped to Arg3.
Argument distributions in example sentences
Examining the examples for inhibit. 01, we noted that Arg1 (entity being inhibited) and Arg2 (process being inhibited) never coöccurred. (They appear to coöccur in two examples in Rev. 1.0, but these turned out to be annotation errors.) On the basis of this observation, the PASBio project will be combining these into a single argument in the next release. In the case of the examples for truncate, we noticed that Arg1 and Arg2 never coöccurred (again, once a single annotation error was corrected). This led to a decision by the PASBio project to split truncate into two predicates in the next release. The examples for splice.01 contain multiple pairs of non-coöccurring arguments, but none of them obviously indicated erroneous representations.
Results of the evaluation
The PASBio project compares itself at some length to both FrameNet and PropBank, and describes itself explicitly as an attempt at building a PropBank-like resource. However, to some extent the current revision combines the worst attributes of both FrameNet and PropBank. Like FrameNet, its "corpus" data consists of only a small number of illustrative sentences. (In contrast, PropBank commits to tagging every instance of every (verbal) predicator.) Like PropBank (and unlike the Semantic Network), its representations are purely lexical, with no higher level of organization.
This characterization is in some sense unfair to both PASBio and PropBank, since both projects hope to eventually incorporate FrameNet-compatible representations; it is doubly unfair to PASBio, which hopes to add a considerably more comprehensive set of examples. However, this characterization does support the value of adding such work to PASBio, and by implication the value of funding such work.
65% of the PASBio predicates have greater than binary arity. Our θ-criterion violation and distributional analyses suggest that on the whole, these greater-than-binary arities are appropriate. As Rzhetsky et al. [15] and others have pointed out, most biomedical information extraction systems have limited themselves to relations of binary arity, but many biomedical relations are of greater than binary arity. The predominance of greater-than-binary relations in PASBio suggests that its representations have the potential to stimulate a qualitative advance in biomedical information extraction.
The role-labelling choices in PASBio are encouraging, as well. Their individual thematic roles facilitate mapping from predicates to higher-level frames, and should facilitate rapid corpus annotation, as well. Addition of thematic role types to the individual thematic roles may aid in leveraging syntactic information, but the current choice is sensible. We return to the issue of roles below.
Wattarujeekrit et al. pointed out that only 6 of 29 PASBio verbs had the same sense and same structure as the corresponding PropBank verbs (p. 12). This finding underscores the necessity of investing in the construction of NLP resources that are tailored to the biomedical domain. (The extent to which this requires de novo construction, versus lexical tuning (see e.g.[25]) of preëxisting resources, is a question worth serious investigation; the PASBio and BioProp projects both are relevant sources of data for answering it.) We compared the set of PASBio verbs with the set of verbs indexed in VerbNet 2.0. This resource expands on the original set of verbs in Levin [26]. (Note that this comparison involves verbs, not predicates – e.g., the predicates translate.01, .02, and .03 are collapsed here into a single "verb.") We accepted any homograph as a match; since some of the verbs are truly polysemous, this yields an overestimate of the representation of PASBio verbs in VerbNet. On this measure, 79% of PASBio verbs (23/29) have homographs in VerbNet. Levin classes lay some of the groundwork for understanding how syntactic form is related to propositional meaning, so this is an encouraging finding, suggesting that some of that groundwork may be done. A more fine-grained assessment of the extent to which those homographs represent the same verb meanings as PASBio, and more importantly, the same meanings as the common verbs in the corpora – e.g., express almost certainly does not – remains for future work.
A major goal of this paper was to find metrics that would let us gauge the quality of the representations and their suitability for representing actual textual data that would be both quantifiable, and not prone to (our own) theoretical biases and assumptions. The screening for θ-criterion violations and for arguments in complementary distribution are our suggestions for such metrics. The low incidence of θ-criterion violations is suggestive of good-quality representations. We found θ-criterion violations only for a single verb (see Table 4). There are actually a number of alternative ways of looking at this data. For example, if one assumes a dependency parse, rather than the Penn-Treebank-style parse that we did assume, then in all three of the θ-criterion violations shown in Table 4, the cell surface mentions at the end of all three sentences would be dependent on the cell mentions at the beginning of each sentence. This would remove all three θ-criterion violations – a nice result for PASBio's representations, but one which would certainly call the probative value of the θ-criterion violation metric into question. Alternatively, one might use the first and third examples to suggest an alternative representation in which there is an Arg0 that is the agent of expression, in which case the cell surface mentions could be treated either as Arg3s or as ARG-LOCs without causing a θ-criterion violation. However, in a larger set of examples, it becomes clear that it is difficult on semantic grounds to justify the assignment of cells to an agentive role for this verb. A third approach would be to preserve the distinction between adjuncts and core arguments, rather than treating all arguments as core arguments – there would then be no θ-criterion violations here, since presumably most of the problematic constituents would be labelled as adjunctive ARGM-LOCs and by virtue of their adjunctive status would be under no theoretical limits as to number of instances. However, this would ignore one of the crucial claims of the PASBio project (and a finding from our own work with domain experts), which is precisely that with the exception of negative elements in text, knowledge representation in this domain requires that we not make a distinction between adjuncts and core arguments. Note also that blurring the distinction between arguments and adjuncts was one of the motivations for using the higher-numbered arguments in PropBank [8]. Our analysis here need assume only a relatively non-controversial syntactic analysis of the examples, a semantically appropriate analysis of agency for this verb, and the non-applicability of the core/adjunct argument distinction for this domain, so we note again the utility of a similar heuristic in the NomBank project (op cit) and continue to propose the utility of the θ-criterion for evaluating PAS proposals. We note also that there is a useful reason for maintaining the argument/adjunct distinction: adjuncts are equally centrally important to many different events, and from a machine learning perspective, it is desirable to be able to count them as "the same" over the entire data set. However, from an applications perspective, it seems more desirable to maintain biological integrity in the knowledge representation than to surrender it in exchange for a higher performance number on a machine learning task. Recent work by Merlo and Ferrer [31] points out well-argued distributional and theoretical reasons for maintaining the argument/adjunct distinction, distinct from the strictly utilitarian reasons that we argue against.
Suggestions for future directions
In the work reported here, the PASs were evaluated using the annotated data that is provided with them by the PASBio project. This was a deliberate methodological choice – it allowed us to evaluate the metrics proposed in this paper using annotations that were not produced by us, and also allowed us to investigate the adequacy of small data sets for detection of representational flaws. However, as one reviewer pointed out, a fuller evaluation of this specific set of representations would require using the proposed PAS to annotate a sample of biological texts that were not used to develop the representations. We are currently pursuing such a project, in the course of which we are evaluating not only the PASBio representations, but also those provided by the BioProp, PropBank, and other resources.
The predicate-specific problems that we uncovered by looking at θ-criterion violations and complementary distributions of arguments reflect a fundamental representational issue that is not frequently addressed (and occasionally misunderstood) in the literature on biomedical information extraction. This is the contrast between the different goals and different scopes of representations for information extraction, and representations of the semantics of verbs.
The best-known model for representations for information extraction is that of the MUCs. These representations were frame-based, and large-large enough that it was unlikely that the slot-fillers would all be arguments of a single verb.
Shallow representations of the semantics of verbs require a model of what arguments the verb can take. An argument is a syntactic constituent (e.g. noun phrase) to which a role label (e.g. Arg0, Arg1, Arg-LOC) is assigned. These representations are smaller than MUC-type frames, since they are by definition restricted to a single verb. When the PASBio data represents the length of a transcript as an argument of express, it is failing to distinguish between the predicate-argument structure of the verb express and the slots of an expression frame. We argue in the introduction that frame-like representations are desirable for biomedical information extraction, but it is important to maintain this distinction between verb-level and more abstract representations: it gives us access to a well-understood and constrained formalism, provides a handle on role-labelling-like formulations of the semantic analysis task, and facilitates the annotation of corpora, without losing the expressive power of event-based representations.
With only 29 verbs (representing 34 predicates) in the current revision, our data on overlap with the corpora suggests (not surprisingly) that the current revision is far too small. However, a relatively small number of additions would increase coverage enormously. Version 1.0 of PASBio used a model of the domain, rather than frequency, to motivate verb choices. For the second version, switching to frequency data seems called for. Lessons learned from the PropBank project also suggest migrating from the FrameNet-like set of isolated sentences in the current revision to a fully-developed, treebanked corpus. PASBIO 1.0 represents 29 verbs chosen for their use in the description of gene expression and related events; Table 5 gives the percentage of coverage, and counts of tokens, in the corpora that could be covered by choosing instead the 29 most frequent verbs (with some filtering of non-biomedical verbs).
Table 5. Verb tokens covered by the 29 most frequent verbs in each corpus. These counts reflect filtering some non-biomedical verbs, such as be. Compare these data to those in Table 3.
As Wattarujeekrit et al. point out, there is a natural role for ontologies in constraining the arguments for biomedical PAS. The Semantic Network uses the UMLS in this way; the Gene Ontology and other OBO projects seem likely candidates for PASBio, but no current biomedical verb representation project has moved in this direction yet. As of yet, PASBio has not followed up on this insight; we suggest that this is the next big step for PASBio or similar projects. Lu et al. (unpublished data) reports on a pilot data annotation and information extraction project whose results are compatible with the hypothesis that using ontologies to constrain the slot-fillers of complex, PASBio-like high-arity predicate-argument structures is possible for two tasks: annotation of natural-language texts in restricted domains, and production of information extraction systems. Lu et al. produced a completely ontology-driven corpus and relation extraction system. The ontology was specially built for this project, but it was constrained to be a subset of third-party ontologies and other data sources: the Gene Ontology provided the elements of a cellular component ontology and of an ontology of protein transport events, and the Entrez Gene database was used as the source for all protein annotations. These data sources provided the ontology with reference to which the corpus was annotated, and also provided the reference knowledge model to which their information extraction system mapped its outputs. The event ontology was then enhanced with linguistic patterns based on a PASBio-like representation of predicate-argument structure. They achieved high inter-annotator agreement rates on the annotation task and competitive performance on the information extraction task, demonstrating that ontology-constrained PAS are practical both as a model for corpus annotation and as the organizing principle of biomedical information extraction systems.
The current version of PASBio takes definitions from WordNet. In view of the demonstrable problems in mapping to WordNet senses [14] and the high overlap between PASBio and VerbNet 2.0, we suggest a change to VerbNet. This would also move PASBio towards its desired frame-like organizational structure.
Our findings support the hypothesis that predicate-argument structures, as illustrated by the PASBio project, are a viable formalism for building shallow semantic representations of biomedical verbs. They leave unrepresented many important aspects of verbal semantics – aspect, manner, causation, to mention just a few – but they provide an important handle on the problem, and one that is salutary both for the corpus construction efforts and for the approaches to NLP that have allowed for rapid progress in General English domains.
Our results also demonstrate that given a set of predicate-argument structures and a data set annotated with respect to that set of PASs, the θ-criterion violation and complementary distribution metrics were both effective at finding flaws in the proposed set of representations. The amount of annotated data that would be optimally efficient for uncovering such flaws has not been investigated here, but the data presented here indicates that a rather small amount of data – as few as ten annotated sentences – is sufficient to uncover at least some representational issues.
We used releases 1.0 of PASBio, 0.9 of the BioIE corpus [27], 3.0p of the GENIA corpus [28], and 2.0 of VerbNet [29]. The BioIE corpus has two separate subsections, one dealing with CYP450 and the other with oncology. We refer to the entire corpus as BioIE, to the CYP450 section as BioIE-CYP450, and to the oncology section as BioIE-Oncology.
Determining verb frequencies
We extracted all verb tokens from both corpora by using egrep to search for tokens whose tags matched the pattern VB.? in the BioIE. mrg files and the GENIA GENIAcorpus3.02.pos.txt file. (This is a potential source of a small amount of noise in the BioIE data, since not all POS tags are curated in that data. Fifty tokens from the BioIE data, including numerals, punctuation marks, and single letters, were clearly mis-tagged as verbs. We excluded them from the analysis.) We then collapsed inflected forms of verbs by applying the Porter stemming algorithm [30], using a publicly available implementation from the Tartarus web site.
Violations of the θ-criterion
To detect violations of the θ-criterion, we manually looked for example sentences that contained one or more semantic arguments with more than one syntactic constituent. To avoid theory-specific differences in syntactic parse structures for complex NPs, we only counted clearly discontinuous constituents.
Argument distributions in example sentences
We manually examined all PASBio verb representations for arguments that were in complementary distribution with each other in the example sentences, i.e. situations where some argument Argi never appears with Argj.
This work was supported by NIH grant R01-LM008111 from the National Library of Medicine to Lawrence Hunter. It benefitted from discussions with Nigel Collier, Parantu Shah, and Tuangthong Wattarujeekrit of the PASBio project; with Alexander Morgan and Martin Krallinger of BioCreative; with David Dowty of the Ohio State University; with Martha Palmer of the PropBank project; and with members of the NLP Reading Group at the Center for Computational Pharmacology, especially Helen L. Johnson and Michael Bada. We especially appreciate the insightful comments of the anonymous SMBM and BMC Bioinformatics reviewers.
This article has been published as part of BMC Bioinformatics Volume 7, Supplement 3, 2006: Second International Symposium on Semantic Mining in Biomedicine. The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/7?issue=S3.
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Chou WC, Richard : English verb classes and alternations: a preliminary investigation. University of Chicago Press; 1993.
Kulick S, Bies A, Liberman M, Mandel M, McDonald R, Palmer M, Schein A, Ungar L: Integrated annotation for biomedical information extraction. In Proc BioLINK. Association for Computational Linguistics; 2004:61-68.
Kim JD, Ohta T, Tateisi Y, Tsujii J: GENIA corpus – a semantically annotated corpus for bio-textmining.
Bioinformatics 2003, 19(Suppl 1):180-182. Publisher Full Text
Kipper-Schuler K: VerbNet: A broad-coverage, comprehensive verb lexicon. PhD thesis. University of Pennsylvania dissertation; 2005.
Porter MF: An algorithm for suffix stripping.
Merlo P, Ferrer EE: The notion of argument in prepositional phrase attachment.
Computational Linguistics 32(3):341-378. Publisher Full Text


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Stay inspired and get fresh updates
Giant skull made from kitchen stuff via BBG.
Related Topics
I saw this, or one very similar, on the Grand Canal in Venice when I went there over the summer. It is pretty sweet.
Let me guess… Making a statement Man's wastefullness crisis; environment; recycling; RAISING AWARENESS!!!!; And that bit of rough patch on your elbow.
I might be wrong on that last one.
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All hotels in Los Angeles, California, United States of America
1 room, 2 adults
1904 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA, 90006, United States of America, .
Rodeway Inn Convention Center Accommodation & Rooms
Lowest priceZAR 1,875
available on 07/10/2015
Best Price Guarantee
Motel with outdoor pool, near Microsoft Theater
- Free continental breakfast, free Internet, and free parking
Main amenities
- 54 guestrooms
- Outdoor pool
- Limo/town car service
- 24-hour front desk
- Air conditioning
- Daily housekeeping
- Front desk safe
- Conference space
- Multilingual staff
- Free newspapers in the lobby
What's around
- In Downtown Los Angeles
- Microsoft Theater (0.9 mi / 1.5 km)
- Los Angeles Convention Center (1.1 mi / 1.8 km)
- Staples Center (1.2 mi / 1.9 km)
- University of Southern California (2.3 mi / 3.8 km)
The hotel in a somewhat depressed area. A few fast food places within walking distance.…
It was good. The only problem was my laptop could not work in the room its configuration…
TripAdvisor Traveller Rating: 3.5
From 138 reviews
Enter dates to check prices
Hotel Info: .from ZAR 1,875
- Standard Room, 2 Queen Beds, Non Smoking
- Standard 1 Queen
- Standard 2 Double
- Standard Room, 1 Queen Bed, Non Smoking
Recommended hotels
At a glance
Key facts
Hotel size
- This hotel has 54 rooms
- This hotel is arranged over 3 floors
- Check-in time starts at 3 PM
- Check-out time is 11 AM
Required at check in
- Credit card or cash deposit required
- Government-issued photo ID required
Travelling with others
- Pets not allowed
Extra people
- Rollaway beds available, charges may apply*
- Free WiFi in public areas
- Free wired Internet access in rooms
- Free self parking
Nearby Two Star Los Angeles hotels
In the hotel
Food and drink
- Free continental breakfast daily
Things to do
- Outdoor pool
- Golfing nearby
Working away
- Conference space
- 24-hour front desk
- Limo or Town Car service available
- Free newspapers in lobby
- Elevator/lift
- Safe-deposit box at front desk
- In-room accessibility
In the room
Home comforts
- Climate control
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Things to enjoy
- Separate sitting area
Freshen up
- Private bathroom
- Free toiletries
- Hair dryer
Be entertained
- Premium TV channels
Stay connected
- Desk
- Free wired high-speed Internet
- Free local calls
Food and drink
- Refrigerator
- Microwave
- Daily housekeeping
Top Los Angeles hotels
Recently reviewed hotels in Los Angeles
- Hollywood Panorama SuitesFrom
"I really loved the apartment. Felt like home. Clean & safe neighbourhood. The view was awesome"Jul 28, 2015
- Hilton Garden Inn Los Angeles/HollywoodFrom
"Stayed 3 nights. Hotel well situated. Suited all our needs and requirements."Jul 26, 2015
- Hollywood Stars InnFrom
"We chose this hotel based on the price and because it was near to Hollywood Boulevard. We did not expect it to be great and we even selected a smoking room (although we are…"Jul 14, 2015
- Hotel ErwinFrom
"Interesting hotel, a bit rough neighborhood. Far from good restaurants so a car was mostly needed to get a bit. Roof top bar was very good"Jul 11, 2015


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Researchers develop light-treatment device to improve sleep quality in the elderly
Sleep disturbances increase as we age. Some studies report more than half of seniors 65 years of age or older suffer from chronic sleep disturbances. Researchers have long believed that the sleep disturbances common among ...
May 29, 2009 in Medical research
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Photos from around the Tokyo area
Shinobazu Pond
The Shinobazu Pond in Ueno Park - Tokyo, Japan
The Path up to Tsutenkyo at Koishikawa Garden
The path up to the tsutenkyo bridge at the Koishikawa Garden in Tokyo, Japan
Akihbara Electric Town
Akihbara on a busy Friday night
Ochanomizu to Akihabara
A bridge crossing the Kanda River from Ochanomizu to Akihabara in Tokyo, Japan
The Rainbow Bridge
The Rainbow Bridge as viewed from Odaiba, Japan
The Future In Tokyo
A futuristic look from inside the Tokyo International Forum
Supporting The Ship
Large support poles at the Tokyo International Forum
To Somewhere More Interesting
No time to stop for a snack...
Tokyo Sky Tree & Solamachi
The Tokyo Sky Tree and shops in Tokyo, Japan
The Information booth at the Tokyo International Forum
Into The Belly of Roppongi
The elevator down into the shops and restaurants at Roppongi Hills
A Roppongi Hills Christmas
The Christmas lights around Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, Japan
Shibuya in Blue
A busy evening at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, Japan
Tokyo Skytree & Sumida River
The Tokyo Skytree and other buildings along the Sumida River
A Shibuya Minute
Cars pass beneath a pedestrian overpass outside Shibuya Station, Tokyo
The Church In The Middle Of Tokyo
A church that sits adjacent to the Tokyo Tower in Tokyo, Japan
The Towering Tokyo Tower
The Tokyo Tower in January of 2013
The Blue Rocket
The Tokyo Skytree towers above a passing train on a cold Winter's night
Love In Shinjuku
Love Sculpture in Shinjuku, Tokyo
The Tokyo Triune
The setting sun, Mt Fuji, and the Tokyo Tower make an appearance on a January Evening
Upwards Shinbashi
Looking up at the many skyscrapers of Shinbashi, Tokyo
Reflecting on Bluelit Tokyo Bay
The Tokyo Monorail passes over the waters of Tokyo Bay in Tokyo's Minato Ward
The Bridge to the Sky
A bridge crossing the Sumida River, leading to the Tokyo Skytree
Chuo Ohashi and Tokyo Bay
The Chuo Ohashi Bridge crossing from Tsukishima on Tokyo Bay
Ema and the Oak Tree
Wooden ema (votive plaques) encircling a large oak tree at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Japan
Harmony of Lights at the Tokyo Hotaru Festival
Fake hotaru (fireflies) float by in the Sumida River at the 2013 Tokyo Hotaru Festival
Tokyo Views
A view of Tokyo Station and the surrounding area from the Kitte Building
They Skytree Vortex
The Skytree reaches up into another dimension
Giants Among Us
Looking up at the skyscrapers of Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan
A Sea of Umbreallas
A sea of umbrealls cross the street in Shibuya, Tokyo
Electric Ikebukuro
The area around Ikebukuro Station in Tokyo lights up as the night begins
You Can Get There From Here
From Tokyo Station at the heart of Tokyo, you can go all over Japan!
Beginning To Cross
A crowd of people begin to make their way across the road at Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan
Harajuku Lights
Cars pass by Harajuku Station in Tokyo, Japan
Shibuya Rat Alley
A small aquaduct travels between buildings in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Ikebukuro and Tokyo Dusk
Dusk falls over Ikebukuro in Tokyo, Japan
Electric Ueno
An electric evening overlooking Ueno Station and Tokyo
Taxis at Ueno Station
Taxis wait in their queue for customers outside of Ueno Station in Tokyo, Japan
Simply Shimbashi
A view of the Shinbashi area of Tokyo with the Yurikamome line passing by.
Tokyo Opera City Illuminations
The Christmas tree and lights at Tokyo Opera City in Shinjuku.
Kitte Building Christmas Tree
A massive and magnificent live Christmas tree sits in the Kitte Building adjacent to Tokyo Station. The tree came from Gunma Prefecture
Harajuku Station in Autumn
Harajuku Station, one of the 29 stations of Tokyo's Yamanote Line, is a lovely sight during Autumn.
TV Asahi and Roppongi at Christmas
TV Asahi and the Roppongi area at Christmas time in Tokyo, Japan
A Japanese woman on a bike rides in the bike lane at a street crossing in Tokyo, Japan.
Skytree Vortex Monochrome
The Tokyo Skytree reaches into the light of another dimension...


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Job interviews
What to wear to the job interview: 11 foolproof rules for any industryOctober 5, 2015 04:31 pm
Your appearance can make or break your chances. It's so much pressure (gah!). Don't worry, I got your back. Here are 11 tips foolproof tips on dressing for job interview success.
Category: Job interviews, Job Search Strategies, Latest News & Advice
Eight things not to bring to the job interviewOctober 2, 2015 08:48 am
Job interview time! You got your light reading material for the commute, your snack, your coffee, your mom. All set, right? Wrong.
Category: Job interviews, Job Search Strategies
Subtle job interview red flags that employers noticeOctober 1, 2015 10:16 am
Seasoned job interviewers can tell a top performer from a weaker candidate just by listening to the way that they describe their past accomplishments. Here are the hidden cues they notice.
Category: Job interviews
Five ways that a job interview is not at all like a date [Video]September 25, 2015 04:12 pm
Career advisers often suggest that you treat your job interview like a date – and that you 'seduce' your employer. Workopolis respectfully disagrees. A job interview isn't like a date at all. Here's why.
Category: Job interviews, Latest News & Advice
From first impression to follow-up: Hiring manager shares her perspective on every step of a job interviewSeptember 18, 2015 12:22 pm
HR professional who has interviewed hundreds of candidates gives the inside scoop on how most encounters look from the hiring side of the desk.
Category: Job interviews
Warning signs: How to spot a bad company culture right from the interviewSeptember 16, 2015 09:21 am
Working in a toxic environment is not just bad for your career potential, it can also take a huge toll on your mental and even physical health. Here are some signs of a noxious workplace to avoid.
Category: Job interviews, Job Search Strategies
Three stories you must prepare before the job interviewSeptember 15, 2015 04:58 pm
You will be asked behavioural questions in any interview. Prepare these three stories and you can probably answer them all.
Category: Job interviews
What employers are really judging you on in job interviewsSeptember 15, 2015 10:08 am
Wondering what employers really want to see from the top candidates that they interview? It's probably not what you think. Here's how to demonstrate the qualities that get one person chosen over another.
Category: Job interviews
How to demonstrate the most sought-after skill by employers in job interviews [Video]August 31, 2015 01:16 pm
In Canadian online job ads, "Communications" is the single most requested skillset by employers. But that is a broad term. What does it mean, and how can you highlight it in an interview?
Category: Job interviews
[Video] The six lies that employers will most often tell youAugust 27, 2015 03:32 pm
In this video one unscrupulous employer lies to the candidate he is interviewing and then turns to the camera to explain the truth behind the fabrication.
Category: Job interviews, Job Search Strategies


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Presumably there are many Firefox users among the readership – if you have "upgraded " to version 29, oy vey, watch out! Read the rah-rah press release here.
Contrary to the Mozilla blog's marketing snowstorm assertions, the first thing I noticed in the new Firefox was not the "beautiful new design" that purports to "make it easy to focus on Web content." No, what I wondered immediately was, Where the bleep is my status bar? OK, cute, the settings have reverted to "not show status bar" hmmm, nope, that setting is now gone! The UX (user experience) folks, inherently equipped with a superior and refined understanding of what I really need have removed this feature. In the process breaking the ability for many of my plugins and add-ons to show what is going on. Grrrr.
If there is one rule about commonly used user interfaces (UI) it should be "if it works, it don't need fixin'!" – modify according to your region's vernacular. Another one is to test a UI with actual users first, which in this case would have shown that many quite popular add-ons lose utility without the status bar.
Features that are now gone include:
- Add-on bar – someone needs to cook up an add-on that recreates this
- Tabs on the bottom – also relegated to some add-on inventor
- Small buttons – also gonzo and need someone's inventiveness via an add-on
- New toolbar – nope, gone, go find some add-on
Ironically, Mozilla accepts no responsibility for broken add-ons while expecting third-party developers to come up with new add-ons to fix what they just broke.
There are other issues as well. Oddly, the new UI uses up more space at the top so there really isn't any "desktop gain" by removing the status bar (which used to be at the bottom of each window).
Since Mozilla is open-source, are nefarious programmers from Chrome, Opera, and other competing browsers participating in the Mozilla development effort and "helping" them by removing features? I'm saying this only in jest of course, but the new version feels that bad. Maybe memory management is better? We'll see.
In the car world there are examples like the Ford Taurus, which in its third generation (launched in 1996) suffered from a radical (read: awful) redesign that essentially put the previously best-selling car in the U.S. on a steady path to its demise in 2005. A few years later, in 2008, it resurfaced, with a far better design this time.
Stepping away from Firefox and Ford and turning to web-based SaaS solutions, the upgrade challenge is usually handled far better. Upgrades are usually better. Some might be controversial, but as a rule features don't go away! The obvious trend is to provide users with more control and greater flexibility.
Design matters, and so does listening to users. Send me a note if you have any examples of procurement solutions that used to be better, but after upgrades and updates are now a lot less useful.


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LGBTQ Justice Project @ MRNY
User Stats
Profile Images
User Bio
The LGBTQ Justice Project is a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer people primarily from communities of color in Queens (PRYDE) and Brooklyn (GLOBE). Our mission is to empower our communities through organizing and education. Our membership is intergenerational, ranging from age 14-50+. We are one of the few New York City groups founded by, led and constituted by low-income LGBTQ people of color organizing around public policy issues that have impact at the city-wide, state-wide and national level. The LGBTQ Justice Project is a project of Make the Road New York.


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World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Official Midnight Launch EventDecember 7, 2010 1 Comment
As you might have noticed from my coverage of Blizzcon, I'm a huge World of Warcraft fan. That's why it
As you might have noticed from my coverage of Blizzcon, I'm a huge World of Warcraft fan. That's why it
Hoping to find cash under the tree this year? Maybe if you sing Santa's favorite tune, you might get what
It's an exciting time around here at Logitech. It's already November and we've been working on CES behind the scenes
I'm a long time user of the Tumblr micro-blogging service. The site really works to create a community among bloggers,
Today was no ordinary day, by any means. I ended Monday night with a great event, and despite the late
Costumes, candy corn, and cobwebs… Halloween came and went once more! This spooky holiday is a big deal for the
Cotton Candy anyone? That's correct, if you didn't join us at the Logitech Loft NYC Halloween event, you missed out
Who doesn't love the rhythm and heat that is best affiliated with the moves of Latin dance? I for one
My friend Glenn is an awesome baker—whether it's cupcakes, cookies, scones, or just plain icing, he's got a talent for
Every year, I make the epic trek to the Anaheim Convention Center in Southern California for Blizzard Entertainment's much-beloved Blizzcon


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Tyler The Creator
Sponsored By
Watch Tyler, the Creator & Danny Brown Face Off in 'Grand Theft Auto V'It's a battle for video game supremacy.
Pharrell Premieres Unreleased N.E.R.D. Track, Talks Stage Fright With Tyler, The CreatorPharell Williams recently hosted a Beats 1 radio show where he played a previously unreleased N.E.R.D track titled "Locked Away."
Zayn Malik: Interested in Collaborating with Tyler, the Creator"Sounds sick BRO" tweeted the former One Direction singer.
Zayn Malik Sought for Collaboration by Chris Brown, Tyler The CreatorAs former One Direction star Zayn Malik prepares for his new RCA Records solo debut, the singer appears to have no shortage of would-be collaborators.
A$AP Rocky And Tyler, The Creator Announce Fall TourDanny Brown, and Vince Staples will support.
This is Why Tyler Creator is Banned from AustraliaTyler announced today that he has been banned from Australia and has an group called Collective Shout to thank for it.
Tyler, The Creator Fired From Starbucks, Still Hates This Woman: Watch the Video"This lady named Cindy, this new manager, she hated on me. And she fired me and I hope she's watching because I still hate her."
You Won't Find Tyler, the Creator's New Album At TargetAnd that's because he released it unconventionally.
Tyler, the Creator Teaming Up with Kanye West & Lil Wayne on New Album, Out Next WeekUm, surprise? Tyler, the Creator's new album is up for pre-order on iTunes, and it seems it's coming out next week.
Tyler, the Creator Goes Off on Racism & Copycatting, Really Wants to Meet a MooseNo word yet if Tyler found his moose, but we wish him luck.
Tyler, the Creator Releases Chaotic Track 'Diaper': ListenBy the end, he riffs on Drake's "0 to 100."
Tyler, the Creator's Making of 'Wolf' Documentary Leaks OnlineThe exclusive bonus content video has been uploaded to Youtube for Odd Future fans unable to get their hands on the very limited bundle.


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2015 Legislative Update
Access to Capital: The Main Street Alliance of Oregon, Hatch and Representative Tobias Reid worked to create the Community Public Offering, a new tool for Oregon-based businesses to raise up to $250,000 from fellow Oregonians. Made legal through the Oregon Intrastate Offering Exemption rules on January 15, 2015, it offers the chance to raise capital from ALL Oregon residents, regardless of wealth.
Retirement Security: After several events with coalition partners from Save Today, Secure Tomorrow and support from our State Treasurer, HB 2960 was signed by Governor Brown on June 26th. HB 2960 creates the Oregon Retirement Savings Fund Board and directs the board to create a retirement savings plan accessible to all Oregonians.
Economy-Boosting Jobs: Paid Sick Days, SB 454, had a rousing public hearing in April that was attended by more than 300 people. Legislators listened to impassioned testimony until nearly 10pm at night! With broad support from community groups, small business owners and working families from across the state, this bill was also signed by Governor Brown on June 26th.
HB 3025, also signed on June 26th by the Governor, establishes unlawful practice of inquiring into or considering applicant's conviction history on application form or prior to interview or, if no interview is conducted, prior to conditional offer of employment. This bill was supported by our allies at AFL-CIO and The Urban League of Portland.
Although, we worked towards raising the minimum wage this session, our legislatures failed to pass any of the more than a dozen bills that were introduced. However, MSA helped to build strong support in the business community and will be working towards raising the wage to $13.50/hr in 2016.
A Healthier Oregon: After years of fighting against Big Oil, the Oregon Clean Fuels Program, SB 324, was passed and signed into law by Governor Brown on March 12. Our Co-Chair and Co-Owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Jim Houser, had this to say: "Oregon's Clean Fuels Program will provide the regulatory certainty Oregon businesses need to invest, helping our economy and expanding family-wage jobs across the state."
Our communities, families and children are safer now that toxics are out of toys! SB 478 passed and was signed into law this session as well. A big win to help ensure a healthier Oregon!
Thanks for all of your support fighting for Oregon Main Street Businesses and our working families!
Small Businesses Support Single Payer!
Salem, OR
Over 1,500 Oregonians came together on Wednesday, February 11th on the Capitol steps to demonstrate the growing support for Health Care for All Oregon, the single payer/medicare for all movement alive and well (and healthy) in Oregon. Health Care for All Oregon is a coalition of over 100 organizations, including The Main Street Alliance of Oregon, supporting the HCAO mission: "To create a comprehensive, equitable, affordable, publicly funded, high quality, universal health care system serving everyone in Oregon and the United States."
The crowd gathered on the steps of the Oregon Capitol building in Salem. The Rally program included music from Oregon performers such as Norm Sylvester singing The Health Care Blues, the Raging Grannies, Salem's Dr. Atomic, Anne Weiss, and David Rovics, and "Mad As Hell Doctors." The Rally also featured inspiring speakers, including elected officials, Senator Michael Dembrow, Representative Williamson & Smith-Warner, as well as many other community members.
Main Street Alliance of Oregon Statewide Leadership Circle member & owner of Freilinger Electronics, Jason Freilinger, spoke about the small business support for HCAO and for the universal health care movement. He echoed the feelings of thousands of small business owners from across Oregon, calling for the State to take action to help Oregon small business owners get out of the health insurance business, and back to focused on running their own businesses—that's better for everyone.
The Main Street Alliance of Oregon and small business owners around the state continue to push for further health care reforms. There are important opportunities this Legislative Session that will move our state closer to understand exactly how we can create a universal health care system. Main Street Alliance of Oregon Executive Team member, and President of HCAO, Lee Mercer closed the rally with inspiring words, echoing the theme of the day, "everybody in, nobody out."
The State of Main Street
Small businesses are the job creators in our economy, and in Oregon represent nearly 98% of the employers. Small businesses create jobs and deliver essential goods and services in communities across Oregon and the country; they help to bolster development of local economies. Seen as some of the most trusted messengers in our society, small business owners are a critical link holding our communities together.
As real-life experts on the economy, and the challenges and opportunities of running a business, small business owners have important perspectives on how to shape public policies to support strong local economies. This report focuses on the experiences and views of Oregon small business owners as documented in a rolling survey conducted between June of 2013 and July of 2014. The survey evaluated small business owners' experiences and views on the economy, taxes, access to credit, money in politics, banking, health care, retirement security, workplace benefits and immigration reform.
This report is based on a survey of 443 small business owners throughout Oregon. The majority of these "Main Street" businesses were in rural cities from Hood River to Joseph, from Astoria to Brookings, from Monmouth to Ashland and in the Bend/Redmond area. Business sizes vary from 1-100 employees, with the majority below 25 employees.
Key findings include:
- Oregon small business owners believe increasing consumer demand is what is needed most to create more jobs and get the economy back on track. Most small business owners report that more customers will help them to create more jobs, not lower taxes or fewer regulations.
- Small business owners across Oregon continue to face challenges with access to credit. Respondents reported they have been turned down for loans within the past year, decided to not seek bank loans due to being discouraged, and have had lines of credit called in. This has particularly impacted women business owners and business owners of color.
- Oregon small business owners believe big corporations should pay more taxes, and strongly support closing corporate tax loopholes. The majority of respondents said big corporations are paying less than their fair share of taxes. A strong majority sees closing corporate tax loopholes as an necessary revenue-raising opportunity, before making further budget cuts.
- Small business owners support local banking and public policy encouraging local lending, like partnership banks by a factor of 9 to 1. The vast majority of respondents support cities and counties moving public deposits out of Wall Street banks and depositing them in local community banks and credit unions.
- A plurality of Oregon small business owners surveyed support a statewide sick leave standard for all employers. The business community is divided on a paid time off standard, but supporters see it as a public health issue, and the right thing to do. Support for a state-wide standard was even higher from women business owners.
- An increasing number of small business owners are offering insurance to their employees. There is still need for more information about the health care law, how it works for small businesses, and how to access small business tax credits for offering a health care plan.
- Small business owners in Oregon support further health care reforms to guarantee universal health coverage, beyond the Affordable Care Act. Many are in support of a "single payer" or Medicare for All type of system.
- Small business owners in Oregon call for more retirement saving options for their employees and their families. The majority support the concept of the state creating a pooled retirement savings option for all Oregonians. Women business owners reported an even higher level of support for such a plan.
- An increasingly strong majority of Oregon small businesses support comprehensive immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for immigrants. Respondents see the immigrant workforce as critical to the development, recovery and expansion of our economy.
- Oregon small business owners are concerned about unlimited political spending in elections. Asked if the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision freeing corporations to spend unlimited money in elections was good, bad or had no impact for small businesses, a clear majority of respondents said it was bad for small businesses.
- Oregon small business owners support electoral reforms to limit the influence of money in politics. Many support a constitutional amendment declaring that corporations are not people and money is not speech, as well as other reforms to fund elections with small private donations and public matching funds rather than relying on wealthy donors and corporate money.
Leveling the playing field for small businesses must come in a variety of forms, with a particular attention to capital access for small business owners, especially for women and people of color. We must work together to find ways to support our communities, and the Main Street businesses that serve them. Increasing the ability for small businesses to grow and expand will allow them to create more jobs, and help to get the economy back on track. While access to capital plays a large role in investment in Main Street, increasing the buying power of customers is certainly a necessary piece of the puzzle.
Oregon small business owners are supportive of giving Oregon families a fair shot—real opportunities to succeed and prosper with policies like basic standards for paid sick days as well as safe, secure, and effective retirement savings vehicles for small business owners and their employees. Women small business owners and business owners of color are particularly supportive of these policies. There is a clear call from the small business community that it's time to rethink the "business as usual" agendas promoted by big business groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. We need to move towards understanding the whole picture of how our businesses interact with the communities we serve.
The Main Street Alliance of Oregon hopes lawmakers, the media and other decision makers will look closely at the results of this survey in planning public policy. We encourage them to listen and respond to the truevoices of Main Street.
Main Street Leaders Meet with Congresswoman Bonamici
Main Street Leaders meet with Congresswoman Bonamici – Women and working family issues addressed in new State of Main Street report
Portland, OR – This morning, Main Street Alliance of Oregon leaders, Deborah Field, co-owner of Paperjam Press, and Sara Howe and Christy Cushing, co-owners of Howe Innovative Design, met with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici to release the new survey report, State of Main Street. This report challenges conventional perceptions of small business owners' thoughts on key policy issues. It details responding business owners' views on key issues facing Oregon and the nation.
Oregon small business owners are supportive of giving Oregon working families a fair shot—real opportunities to succeed and prosper with policies like basic standards for paid sick days as well as safe, secure, and effective retirement savings vehicles for small business owners and their employees. Women small business owners and business owners of color are particularly supportive of these policies. There is a clear call from the small business community that it's time to rethink the "business as usual" agendas promoted by Big Business and special interest groups. We need to move towards understanding the whole picture of how our businesses interact with the communities we serve.
"Small businesses are a critical part of Oregon's economy, especially in rural areas. Policies that support small businesses help create economic security and stability for working Oregonians. These policies include access to capital for those who want to start a new business, quality education, stable housing, and affordable health care," Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici said. "When families earn a living wage, can take paid leave, and do not struggle to pay for child care, they are more likely to succeed and thrive. The Main Street Alliance report recognizes that these policies are good for small businesses because they lead to healthier families, a stronger local work force, increased consumer spending, and ultimately a stronger local economy."
"As we continue to recover from this recession, I am committed to helping small businesses remain competitive in today's market," said Congressman Earl Blumenauer. "This report, issued by The Main Street Alliance of Oregon, clearly outlines some of the challenges that remain. While I'm concerned the benefits of our economic recovery aren't being broadly felt, it's encouraging to know Oregon's small businesses feel as strongly as I do about the importance of affordable, quality healthcare, reforming our broken immigration system, and ensuring fair and equitable access to credit."
The Main Street Alliance of Oregon hopes lawmakers, the media and other decision makers will look closely at the results of this survey in planning public policy. We encourage them to listen and respond to the true voices of Main Street.
How Oregon Small Businesses Would Benefit from Universal Publicly Funded Health Care
Small businesses across Oregon know the private health insurance industry does not work for them. Here are elements business owners want in a health care system and how a statewide, publicly funded, universal health care system would meet these needs:
1. Remove business owners from the health care management business.
Universal care relieves employers of all administrative responsibilities. Employers do not need to manage funds, determine benefits, or pay providers.
2. Keep health care costs predictable.
Universal publicly funded health care allows every individual and business owner to know their share of costs as a taxpayer. These costs do not change regardless of health, family size, or employment status.
3. Keep employees, full- and part-time, healthy and productive.
By removing deductibles and co-pays, universal care encourages employees to seek health care early. Employees stay healthier and more productive, reducing sick time costs.
4. Provide employees with competitive health care benefits. Keep productive employees from seeking better benefits at another company.
Universal care means every employee gets the same comprehensive benefits regardless of employer. Entrepreneurs can start a new business and retain health care access for themselves, their families, and new employees. Employers do not need to split full-time positions into multiple part time positions to reduce health care costs.
5. Level the playing field for businesses large and small. Companies won't pay less by reducing or eliminating health care benefits.
All individuals and businesses will pay their fair share for providing universal health care. Oregon companies will have a strong competitive advantage over states with employer based health care and will be better able to compete internationally with countries already providing universal care.
6. Assure health care independent of labor-management negotiations.
Benefits are determined by the single payer agency, not by individual labor-management contracts.
7. Remove the costs of providing care for retired and disabled employees.
A universal health care system provides everyone in Oregon with the same benefits, regardless of age, employment status or disability, relieving businesses of the burden of paying for retiree health plans.
Click here to support universal healthcare in Oregon
Download a sign-on sheet (PDF) with which to recruit other small businesses to this campaign!


text:
CHICAGO — Three honey producers — Adee Honey Farms, Bill Rhodes Honey Company, L.L.C. and Hackenberg Apiaries — have filed a class action complaint alleging Groeb Farms and Honey Solutions knowingly and intentionally purchased, packaged, distributed and falsely labeled honey that was actually of Chinese origin.
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, also alleges the honey was illegally imported from China and the product was heavily adulterated, containing inexpensive sweeteners and sometimes blended with high-fructose corn syrup and other additives despite the fact the importers represented it as pure honey.
The complaint also alleges Groeb Farms and Honey Solutions are harming domestic producers of honey by bringing Chinese honey into the domestic market at below market prices.
"The domestic honey industry, critically important to agriculture, has suffered losses at the hands of these fraudulent shippers for far too long," said James J. Pizzirusso, an attorney with Hausfeld L.L.P. representing the honey producers. "Through this class action, our clients seek to hold these entities responsible for the financial harm they have caused."
1Bakers seek more than bottom-line strength
2Drake's Funny Bones revived by McKee Foods
3Post Holdings to purchase Willamette Egg Farms
4Diamond seeking snack acquisitions
5Gonnella Baking offering employee wellness program
( more )
3Cargill introduces zero-calorie fermented sweetener
4Hearthside Foods cited for safety violations after Ohio accident
5Post Holdings to purchase Willamette Egg Farms
1Drake's Funny Bones revived by McKee Foods
2Boulder Brands moving Udi's to the store bakery
3Two more P.C.A. executives sentenced to prison
4The best for today and beyond
5Slideshow: New products from Hostess, Mondelez, Flowers Foods
to the PRINT edition, or click below for free INSTANT ACCESS to valuable news and insights in the Digital Edition.


text:
UFO appears in China caught on a family video camera. viagra
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text:
Castle Waikiki Grand Hotel
No prices found through our partners. Please contact the business directly or check some of our recommended alternatives.
How has this hotel rated in the past?
- Restaurant
- Swimming pool
- Wireless internet connection in room (free)
- Non-smoking hotel
- Microwave in room
- Air-Conditioning
Historical Traveler Reviews Castle Waikiki Grand Hotel Honolulu
Great prices,great location, great service
This hotel is what the "everyday real family" is looking for. The price was great, the view was great, and the location couldn't be better!!
The zoo/park is across the street, and the ocean is right there to enjoy also!!! There is a fast food resturant in the hotel (great low cost prices), and a convience store is right next to the hotel. It is also right on the bus line, in case a person didn't rent a car. Staying at this hotel means not having to spend all your precious time walking to get to all the places that are eithor in or right next to this hotel, and you don't have to spend all of your vaction money on overpriced hotels that still, when it gets down to it, just gives a family a place to sleep. The rooms were nice and clean, and the staff was went above what was expected, to help us out with questions about the island !! We will stay here again someday!!!
Great value on waikiki
we couldn't have been more happy with our stay... one of the best kept secrets on waikiki... great location, directly across the street from beautiful kapiolani park... our recently remodeled studio unit was comfortable and stylish... but it was the post card perfect view that made it so special... not only the pacific, but a spectacular and unobtructed view of diamond head on the other side of the park.
Queen's Surf... read the reviews before you go...
I stayed at Queen's Surf, Room 714, for two weeks in November 2003. I chose that hotel over others because I was able to get a great view of Diamond Head, the Honolulu Zoo, Kapapilani Park and the beach for much less than other hotels in the area. The room had been recently revamped and was quite large. The bathroom was very nice as well. Surprisingly, they had very nice soaps, shampoos and conditioners in the room every day. We had an opportunity to talk with the front desk staff and the resident manager. Both were very accomodating and helpful. However, that is where my compliments stop. For starters, you need to know that this is the only gay owned and operated hotel on the strip, and as such, you have alternative clientele. I never felt uncomfortable because of it, but it's not everyone's cup of tea. Secondly, the hotel is old and the walls are VERY, VERY thin. My room was adjacent to the elevator shaft and I could hear the elevator all the time and the "ding" every time the door opened. I could also hear my neighbor's alarm clock going off, my neighbor's phone ringing and most of the conversations that went on in the hallway. The weekend road noise was a bit much... but then again, I should have expected it. The hotel is right at the end of the main strip in Honolulu. We could also clearly hear the monkeys in the zoo calling at all hours. I ended taking a sleeping pill and putting a towel at the bottom of my door each night and that helped with the sound issue a lot. The bed wasn't terribly comfortable either, but I am not a fan of hard beds. If you don't mind them, you won't be bothered by this one. There is daily maid service, but we had to leave a note asking her to change the sheets. She didn't always sweep/vacuum the floor either so we had some left over sand on the floor most days. Overall, I would recommed this hotel if you are a person who uses hotels to simply "crash" at the end of the night and you're not picky about the creature comforts. If you have an expectation of what a "nice" hotel should be, stay somewhere else. If you are traveling on business, pick some place else. This really isn't the right hotel for you. If you have questions, please email. I hope this was helpful!
I was very pleased with my stay in Hawaii. For what I payed for a large studio with a beautiful view in Hawaii, in NYCity would have been a small closet. I was very pleased with the prices. The location is great too, walking distance from all kinds of things to do. I felt very comfortable in my room and plan on going back next year.
Great location
Queen's Surf is a nice, small company in a great location. We actually were on our honeymoon and everyone greeted us with a warm welcome and congratulations. They even helped us find a great restaraunt and gave us many tips on where to go. We felt very at home and comfortable. we would recommend to everyone.
Service to the max!
I come twice a year for a week retreat. Since my first stay in the year 2002 Queens Surf has dramatically changed! The hotel management is now at the ground floor front desk of Waikiki Grand which it used to be on the 8th floor. I find that great because they have someone working there almost 24hours a day. The new staff are wonderful and the rooms are always very peaceful. I think the new managers name is Liz she couldn't of made are stay more enjoyable with the daily paper on are door step and even a free mai tai drink at Hulas. This will always be my place for a great vacation treat.
Best Location & Value in the Heart of Waikiki Beach
The Waikiki Grand Hotel has the best location in Waikiki Beach, at the best prices!!! Located at the east end of Waikiki, which is now highly desirable, the rooms overlook Diamond Head, Kapiolani Park, and panoramic views of the beach and ocean beyond. Most of the rooms have been purchased and converted into studio units and are now privately owned. It's like "home away from home" with many more amenities than major hotels, at a fraction of the cost! Great restaurants and great shopping all close by! Great gay bar, "Hula's", located on the 2nd floor. International customer base. Great place for gay men to stay! Beautiful lobby, and many more upgrades currently underway! I highly recommend it to everyone! If you want a great place in the heart of all the action, the Waikiki Grand is it! Super friendly atmosphere and a great place to have the vacation of your dreams...at an affordable price! Aloha!!David Robins
Would not stay again
Queens Surf Vacation Rentals are rooms scattered about the 1960s built Waikiki Grand. The view of Diamond Head from our room could not be bettered, but the room was small, the a/c noisy, the Venetian blinds did not work and the balcony furniture was filthy. We paid USD 90 + tax. which was not good value for money. We would not stay in this accommodation again.
Five star location, 2 star rooms
Perfect location: Kapiolani Park across the street as well as the beach. Our room, however, was tiny but clean. The lanai was a joke as the view was out the back of the hotel looking at other hotels and a trash dumpster. Incredibly noisy and the trash truck came by early every morning it seemed. Rooms on the front side may be better. After a week here we had claustrophobia! Don't expect it to be like the rooms to which you are accustomed on the mainland.
Cheap, great location
I stayed here a couple nights in January 2001- the internet rate was $57.00. The room was somewhat old but functional. the best thing about it was the location. The beach was right across the street with fun restaurants and bars close by. It's hard to beat for the price. The staff were very nice. They apologized for the room and said that section was being renovated.
TripAdvisor Reviews Castle Waikiki Grand Hotel Honolulu
Travel Blogs from Honolulu
Last week
... great restaurant she had been to -so we went. Where we parked on Front Street (the main street) there was a rough looking bar and grill place but behind it was Pacific'o. It was right on the shore and we were there at sunset. The service was superb and the meal lovely- we will come back next time in Maui. We left and went to the magic show Warren and Annabelle's. We were given a key and left in an entrance hall with 4 doors to discover how to get into the place..... They ...
Luau, parasailing and submarine
... for cocktails or beer or wine, but the cocktails were very small.
The pig had been slow cooked in the ground for hours with the only seasoning being sea salt, and it was covered with banana leaves and volcanic rocks. There was a ceremony when the pig was removed from the ground, and then the meat was taken away for carving and serving. The meal was a buffet and there was plenty of food, with seconds available if you could fit them ...
Just One More Day In Paradise
Well, true to form, we were up bright and early today to start our adventure. Actually we wanted to beat the heat for our 10 kilometer (6.2 mile) walk around Honolulu. After breakfast at our hotel we walked around the corner to the bus stop to catch the bus all the way across town. Even with my vast experience with buses, it was a bit daunting since we didn't really know how to get where we ...
Blowing a gale..more like a cyclone
... of over Honolulu. It is known for the 360 degrees panoramic view of the whole city.
At the unit while we called in for lunch there were kite surfers, when the wind caught their kite they must have taken off for about 20 metres in the air. Probably could have been caught in a wind and made it all the way to Australia....
Called in at the shops for one last time just to ...
DAY 5: Shopping at Ala Moana
... drive too close to the right and tree branches would come through and whack you in the face - Ouch.
The Ala Moana complex is four storeys of shopping, inside and outside, with a few main department stores, including Macy's. It has about 300 other stores and is full of restaurants serving both Western and Japanese food. Thank goodness they had maps to take away with you, it was too easy to get lost in there! With that many levels and stores, ...


text:
In 2012, messages of 'Hope' and 'Change' have been replaced with new message of moving 'Forward.'
Obama For America campaign has incorporate the word into their main message and has been insisting that the Romney/Ryan ticket will move America backward and not forward. President Barack Obama even spoke about this during the third presidential campaign at Boca Raton, Fla., when he said:
And the one thing that I'm absolutely clear about is that after a decade in which we saw drift, jobs being shipped overseas, nobody championing American workers and American businesses, we've now begun to make some real progress. What we can't do is go back to the same policies that got us into such difficulty in the first place. That's why we have to move forward and not go back.
The campaign has made slight adjustments to their 'Forward' logo, creating ten different logos that represent the various issues that have come up on the campaign trail this election cycle.
Check out the various logos and what they represent in the slideshow below:
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|1
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|2
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|3
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|4
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|5
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|6
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|7
- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|8
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- gallery_thumbnails_photo|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|txpotomac-1944-post-48060-g8147|10


text:
After an awful stay at another hotel the night before, this place was like a dessert oasis! My son and I checked in the evening of 6/2. The young lady at the front desk was very friendly. She arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport at 4:30am for our super early flight and scheduled a wake up call for us, too. When asked, she told me about all of our options for restaurants with in walking distance. She could not have been any nicer. We easily found our room which was at a comfortable temperature when we arrived and smelled clean and fresh. The room didn't just smell clean, it was clean! The bathroom was large and separated from the room by an open closet area where the sink area was. The towels in the bathroom were soft and thick. The beds were very comfortable and our room had a refrigerator and microwave, which were attractively hidden behind cabinetry matching the other furniture. The ceilings were high, which made the room feel bigger. The colors weren't bright and tacky like you see at a lot of budget hotels. The color scheme was lovely. I didn't hear one plane during our stay. Our wake up call and taxi were right on time. All the hotel staff we came in contact with were so nice and accommodating. I travel quite a bit and can say for the room rate, this property is one of the best in its class!
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Truly the best value for money accommodation you can find near Fresno Airport. Our customer service is the best in class. We take pride in offering our customer clean rooms and a quiet comfortable stay and a healthy breakfast in the morning. ... more less
- Reservation Options:
- TripAdvisor is proud to partner with Expedia, Booking.com, Travelocity, Hotels.com, Odigeo, Orbitz, Priceline and Low Cost Holidays so you can book your Piccadilly Inn Express reservations with confidence. We help millions of travelers each month to find the perfect hotel for both vacation and business trips, always with the best discounts and special offers.
- Also Known As:
- Chateau Hotel By Piccadilly


text:
Lessons from a FinTech CEO
For some people, fear and money go hand in hand
Join the NASDAQ Community today and get free, instant access to portfolios, stock ratings, real-time alerts, and more!
Following the market opening Tuesday, the Dow traded up 0.30
percent to 14,495.64 while the NASDAQ gained 0.29 percent to
3,247.08. The S&P also rose, gaining 0.22 percent to
Index Technicals: The Dow looks set to find support at 14,440
and will test its 14,410 support, while encountering resistance
at the 14,522 level.
The S&P 500 seems to be finding support at 1,550, with
overhead resistance at 1,560.
The NASDAQ briefly loses its 3,320 support after a gap down,
before rising up with 3,250 resistance overhead.
Finally, the Russell looks set to find support at 945, while
hitting resistance at the 951 level.
Top Headline Yesterday, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:
) reported that its CEO, John Riccitiello, is stepping down.
EA also warned that its current-quarter earnings will be at
the low end of its earlier issued view. The company has appointed
Larry Probst, former CEO and chairman of the board, as its
executive chairman.
Equities Trading UP AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:
) shot up 5.59 percent to $51.00 after Walgreen (NYSE:
) announced its plans to buy stake in the company.
Shares of NPS Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:
) got a boost, shooting up 17.03 percent to $10.58 after the
company re-gained marketing worldwide rights to teduglutide and
recombinant human parathyroid hormone 1-84..
Lattice Semiconductor (NASDAQ:
) was also up, gaining 8.18 percent to $5.16 after the company
lifted its Q1 revenue forecast.
Equities Trading DOWN DSW (NYSE:
) shares tumbled 9.31 percent to $60.81 after the company issued
weak forecast.
Cardinal Health (NYSE:
) was also down, falling 6.16 percent to $43.29 after
AmerisourceBergen (NYSE:
) signed distribution deal with Walgreen (NYSE:
Shares of Hospitality Properties Trust (NYSE:
) were down 5.33 percent to $25.74 after the company priced a
public offering of 14,000,000 common shares at a price of $25.55
per share.
Commodities In commodity news, oil traded up 0.05 percent to
$93.79, while gold traded down 0.14 percent to $1,602.40.
Silver traded down 0.29 percent Tuesday to $28.79, while
copper fell 0.06 percent to $3.43.
Eurozone European shares were mostly lower for the second
consecutive day as leaders struggle to reach an agreement on the
Cyprus bailout. The Spanish Ibex Index tumbled 0.84 percent and
the Italian FTSE MIB Index fell 0.13 percent. The STOXX Europe
600 Index rose 0.02 percent, London's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.20
percent, French CAC 40 Index dipped 0.58 percent and German DAX
30 index dropped 0.16 percent.
Economics US housing starts climbed 0.8% to 917,000 in
February. However, economists were expecting construction starts
to increase to 913,000 in February.
The ICSC/Goldman Sachs Retail Chain Store Sales Index gained
1.4% in the latest week ended Saturday.
The Johnson Redbook Retail Sales Index rose 2.9% y/y in the
week ended March 16, 2013.
The Treasury is set to auction 4-week bills.
(c) 2013 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment
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text:
Mizis used the forum to outline a four-point Latino Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Alliance Action Plan:
Members of the Alliance who spoke at the forum include: Luisa Echevarria, community relations director, Univision and Telefutura Chicago; Dr. Virginia Quinonez, chair, The Chicago School Department of Clinical Counseling, and representative of the school's Center for Latino Mental Health; Constantina Mizis, president and CEO, Latino Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Alliance; Perla Castro, local community member who will reflect on the challenges of caring for her mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 50; Dr. Aida Giachello, associate professor and director, Midwest Latino Health Research, Training and Policy Center, UIC. Other attendees include Debra G. Wesley-Freeman
|SOURCE Latino Alzheimer's and Memory Disorders Alliance
Copyright©2009 PR Newswire.
All rights reserved


text:
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Troop One of the Labrador, [en]
The Lure of the Labrador Wild
The Story of the Exploring Expedition Conducted by Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., [en] 1906
Ungava Bob
A Winter's Tale, [en] 1907
The Long Labrador Trail, [en] 1907
The Gaunt Gray Wolf
A Tale of Adventure With Ungava Bob, [en] 1913
The Story of Grenfell of the Labrador
A Boy's Life of Wilfred T. Grenfell, [en] 1922
Left on the Labrador
A Tale of Adventure Down North, [en] 1927
See it as donating a moment of your social media time, every little thing helps us improve and stay online.
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text:
Leadership Team
John Pratt - President & CEO
John Pratt brings extensive leadership and management expertise to his role at GT Software, having held numerous executive positions at both large global technology companies and mid-market/emerging technology firms, including MMI, Agilysys, GBE Interactive, Blackstone and Cullen, and notably, IBM. In his nearly 25-year career with IBM, Pratt scaled the management ranks to achieve significant executive positions in Channels, Sales and Distribution, as well as in IBM Global Services, where he was responsible for managing a wide range of businesses from start-ups to complex contractual services and post-M&A integration.
Troy Haworth - Executive Vice President of Global Sales
As Executive Vice President of Global Sales, Troy is responsible for driving sales of GT Software's mainframe integration and data access solutions. Troy joined GT Software in 2013, and brings more than 20 years of direct sales and sales management experience to his role. Prior to joining GT Software, he held sales and sales management posts at Rx Networks, Intellione Technologies, ASAC/Jeppesen, ADC and MSI. Troy holds a B.A. in Communications from Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.
Adam Redd - Chief Technology Officer
As Chief Technology Officer, Adam leads GT Software's development organization in efficiently creating software for all product offerings. Adam also focuses on the strategic direction of GT Software's product portfolio and the creation and execution of the company's product roadmap. Adam joined GT Software in 2014, and previously was VP of Development at Edgenet. He has also held leadership and development positions at Applied Global Technologies and Convergys, and is listed as an inventor on two US patents. Adam holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Wilson Rains - Vice President of Legacy Software Solutions
As Vice President of Legacy Software Solutions, Wilson is responsible for driving sales of GT Software legacy integration and migration solutions to enterprise organizations worldwide. He is also in charge of cultivating and managing partnerships to expand the implementation footprint of GT Software mainframe integration and data access solutions globally. Wilson joined GT Software in 2004, and brings more than 20 years of business development experience to his role. Prior to joining GT Software, he led sales and business development posts at Jacada, ClientSoft and IBM. Wilson holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The Citadel in Charleston, SC.