text:
Enter your Email address:
Wolters Kluwer Health may email you for journal alerts and information, but is committed
to maintaining your privacy and will not share your personal information without
your express consent. For more information, please refer to our Privacy Policy.
Yao, Li*; Friel, James K*; Suh, Miyoung*; Diehl-Jones, William L†
*Department of Human Nutritional Sciences, Canada
†Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Received 5 December, 2008
Accepted 18 April, 2009
Address correspondence and reprint requests to William Diehl-Jones, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences and Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R2M 1X9, Canada (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com).
This work was supported by Advanced Food and Material Network (AFMNet) grants to J.K.F. and W.L.D.-J., by a small research grant from the Manitoba Institute of Child Health, and through an operating grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Council (NSERC) (J.K.F.). Equipment was purchased through a Canada Foundation for Innovation New Opportunities Grant to W.L.D.-J.
The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Objectives: There is good evidence to suggest that human breast milk has antioxidant properties. Our primary goal was to investigate the antioxidant properties of human milk in a combined in vitro digestion/cell culture model that more closely replicates conditions in the gastrointestinal system of the preterm infant.
Materials and Methods: An in vitro digestion model was developed that incorporates both gastric and intestinal phases, based on reported luminal pH, digestive enzyme levels, and transit times observed in preterm infants. To mimic the human intestinal mucosa, 2 cell lines—Caco-2BBE and HT29-MTX—were cocultured on Matrigel, an artificial basement membrane substrate. Intracellular oxidative stress was measured with 2 broadly selective oxidant-sensitive dyes, and oxidative DNA damage was assessed by means of single-cell gel electrophoresis.
Results: Enterocyte differentiation and mucin secretion were observed by 14 seeding of cultures. Direct exposure to digested milk resulted in a loss of transepithelial electrical resistance; however, exogenous mucin mitigated this loss. Data suggested that both milk and digested milk alleviated oxidative stress in the coculture, and both reduced hydrogen peroxide–induced oxidative DNA damage, as demonstrated by the comet assay.
Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that breast milk reduces oxidative stress in a cell culture model representative of the intestinal mucosa, and also confirmed the suitability of this combined in vitro digestion/cell culture system for investigating the physiologic effects of enteral nutrients such as breast milk, under conditions similar to those existing in the gastrointestinal system of the preterm infant.
Premature infants (PIs), whose gestation is <37 weeks, are vulnerable to diseases linked to oxidative stress, which is essentially an imbalance between intracellular pro- and antioxidants. In this context, oxidative stress can be accrued from several sources (1–5). For example, supplemental oxygen therapy is usually administered to these infants because of their immature respiratory systems, resulting in exposure to higher oxygen partial pressures (6). Such a transition from the relatively hypoxic uterine environment to a hyperoxic external environment results in the excessive production of damaging molecules such as superoxide and hydroxyl radicals, as well as reactive oxygen species (ROS) (7). Coupled with the immature antioxidant defense systems of PIs, free radical and ROS overproduction can induce redox imbalances, which have been linked to a variety of morbidities associated with preterm birth, including necrotizing enterocolitis, chronic lung disease, periventricular leukomalacia, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and retinopathy of prematurity (1,3–5).
Breast milk (BM) is widely regarded as the best food for preterm infants. In addition to providing nutritional, gastrointestinal, immunological, and developmental benefits, there is good evidence that BM has antioxidant properties (8). Antioxidant enzymes, including superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, and catalase (CAT), in BM are believed to assist the destruction of H2O2 and other ROS (9,10). Furthermore, scavengers of free radicals, including α-tocopherol, cysteine, and ascorbic acid are also present in human BM, and at concentrations considerably higher than in cow's milk (11).
To date, several investigators have tested antioxidant properties of BM. Friel et al (12) compared the antioxidant protection of BM with that conferred by infant formulae. In their study, physiologic oxidative stress was induced in BM and infant formulas by hypoxanthine/xanthine oxidase, and ascorbate free-radical electron spin resonance intensity, a marker for the degree of ongoing free-radical oxidative stress, was monitored. Their results showed that BM was more effective than infant formula in reducing ascorbate radical production.
In a study conducted by Shoji et al (9), cultured IEC-6 cells were preincubated with milk with 100-fold dilutions of defatted BM, bovine milk, or 3 artificial formulae for 24 hours, followed by a 30-minute 0.5-mmol/L hydrogen peroxide treatment to induce oxidative stress. Results showed that BM treatment maintained the highest cell survival rate (50%) compared with no pretreatment (27%), bovine milk treatment (6%), or artificial formula treatment (13%–16%) of cells. These researchers concluded that BM acts as an antioxidant in the gastrointestinal tract of infants.
The basis for the present study is 2-fold: first, the luminal surface of the intestinal mucosa is considerably more complex than previously modeled. A mucin layer covers the apical surface of enterocytes and forms a microenvironment that modulates nutrient, fluid, and electrolyte balance. Second, BM that comes into contact with cells of the intestinal tract is considerably altered from its native state, having been subjected to acid hydrolysis and enzymatic digestion. Whether this highly chemically modified matrix retains antioxidant properties has not been established. Therefore, to test the antioxidant properties of BM on enterocytes under conditions more reflective of the in vivo state, we developed a combined in vitro digestion and enterocyte coculture model, the former was developed specifically to mimic parameters in the preterm infant gastrointestinal system. Based on direct and indirect endpoints of oxidative stress, our data indicate that digested BM confers antioxidant protection in enterocytes. Furthermore, we suggest that this model may be more suitable for assessing other nutrient/mucosal interactions.
BM samples were collected from 21 mothers of PIs (born between 29 and 37 weeks of gestation) during the second week of lactation. Consent and ethical approval according to the University of Manitoba Human Research Ethics Board were obtained from women who participated in the study. BM samples were collected from mothers by using a breast pump or hand expression, transported on ice to the laboratory, frozen immediately, and stored at −80°C until analysis. To minimize individual variance, BM was pooled before any analysis.
An in vitro digestion model mimicking gastric and intestinal phases of digestion in the preterm infant was modified from that used by Etcheverry et al (13). Briefly, in the gastric phase, 1.73 mL of 140 mmol/L NaCl and 5 mmol/L KCl solution was added to 3.27 mL of BM to mimic the in vivo dilution of ingested BM by digestive fluids (13). After adding 0.25 mL of pepsin (Sigma, St Louis, MO) (0.2 g pepsin dissolved in 5 mL of 0.1 N HCl), BM samples were adjusted to pH 4.0 by addition of HCl and placed in a 37°C shaking incubator for 30 minutes. BM samples were then adjusted to pH 6.0 by addition of NaHCO3 and incubated for an additional 30 minutes.
In the intestinal phase, 1.25 mL of pancreatin/bile (Sigma, St Louis, MO) solution (0.05 g of pancreatin and 0.3 g of bile extract dissolved in 25 mL of 0.1 mol/L NaHCO3) and 17.2 mU of lactase (Sigma, St Louis, MO) were added to BM samples. BM samples were next adjusted to pH 7.0 by 1 mol/L NaHCO3 and to a final volume of 10 mL by 140 mmol/L NaCl and 5 mmol/L KCl solution. After gentle agitation in a 37°C incubator for 2 hours, intestinal phase end products were stored in a −20°C freezer until further analysis.
Porcine gastric mucin, 250 mg, (Sigma, St Louis, MO) was dissolved in 10 mL of a saline solution (pH 7, 140 mmol/L NaCl and 5 mmol/L KCl). To chelate extra iron, 0.5 g Chelex 100 (Fisher Biosciences, Ottawa, Canada) was added to the mucin solution and stirred until all of the components were dissolved. The mucin/Chelex admixture was filtered twice through glass fiber in Pasteur pipettes, then aliquoted and stored at −20°C. In all of the experiments involving mucin treatments, cocultures were first pretreated with mucin.
To model the human intestinal mucosa, Caco-2BBE (ATCC, Rockville, MD) cells and HT29-MTX (clone E12) cells (a gift from Drs Thomas Kissel, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany and Per Artursson, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden) were cocultured at a ratio of 7:3 in plates precoated with 1% Matrigel Matrix (BD Biosciences, Bedford, MA). This ratio was selected because it approximates the relative proportion of enterocytes to goblet cells in the small intestine (14). Each well was plated with a total of approximately 5 × 106 cells/mL; this relatively high density precluded changes in the original ratio of Caco-2BBE:HT-29MTX cells because the latter have a much faster doubling time. To confirm this assertion, the numbers of periodic acid-Schiff–positive (PAS+) and PAS-negative (PAS−) cells were counted in 5 representative-phase contrast micrographs taken of cocultures 21 days postseeding; the average (± standard deviation) number of PAS−:PAS+ cells in these fields was 113.2 ± 5.8:51.8 ± 4.3 The rationale behind using a coculture rather than a monoculture is that in vivo, the intestinal epithelium comprises mucin-secreting cells that are functionally similar to HT-29MTX cells, as well as absorptive/secretory cells morphologically and functionally similar to Caco-2 cells. Although both cell lines are in a secretory state, HT-29MTX cells constitutively express several mucin-gene products, and our initial expectation was that this source of endogenously secreted mucin would be sufficient to protect the enterocyte monolayer from bile salts and digestive enzymes. Our rationale for using a 7:3 ratio of Caco-2BBE:HT-29MTX is that this is within a physiologically realistic range used by other researchers (see Discussion), and it provided a continuous mucin layer as assessed by whole-mount alcian blue staining. We further reasoned that a 7:3 ratio would likely confer greater protection from digestive enzymes than lower seeding ratios. Furthermore, we compared the transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) of cultures seeded at 9:1, 7:3, and 1:1 Caco-2BE:HT-29 MTX ratios at 21 days postseeding, without mucin these values were 317 ± 3.6, 285.7 ± 6.3, and 243.94 Ω/cm2, respectively. These values are significantly different from each other (n = 3; P < 0.05). Furthermore, initial tests with cocultures seeded at a 9:1 ratio and exposed to digested BM yielded extremely low adhesion rates. Taken together, we determined that the 7:3 seeding ratio would give the best combination of mucin production, barrier function, and adhesion.
Culture medium was prepared by supplementing 500 mL Dulbecco Modified Eagle Medium (Gibco, St Burlington, Canada) with 5 mL of 100 U/mL penicillin, 100 μg/mL of streptomycin solution, 10 mL of 2 mmol/L L-glutamine solution, 5 mL of 1 mmol/L sodium pyruvate solution, 5 mL of 10 μg/mL human transferring solution, and 60 mL of 10% fetal bovine serum. Fresh culture medium was routinely changed every 2 days.
To verify that cocultures expressed expected characteristics similar to the in vitro state, cell morphology and mucin secretion were examined. To assess the stability of the coculture model during in vitro tests, BM cell viability, cell adhesion, and barrier integrity were measured before and after exposure to BM, with and without pretreatment with exogenous porcine mucin.
To examine the physical effects of digested BM on cell morphology either with or without exogenous mucin, cocultures on Transwell polycarbonate filters (4-μm pore size) (Corning, Wilkes Barre, PA) were fixed in Karnovsky fixative (3% glutaraldehyde, 2% paraformaldehyde) and imbedded in epon-araldite (30% epon [v/v] 0.8% araldite [v/v]) (EM Sciences, Ithaca, NY); 2% sodium dodecyl succinic anhydride (Fisher Scientific, Ottawa, Canada); N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (Fisher Scientific) and sectioned on a microtome (LKB, Kars, Canada). Epon-araldite sections were stained with 1% toluidine blue and mounted under oil for microscopic examination. To determine whether cocultures expressed mucins, the cocultures were grown on Transwell membranes, fixed in 2% formaldehyde, imbedded in JB-4 methacrylate, sectioned (10-μm thick), and stained in PAS reagent.
For cell adhesion measurement, cocultures were grown in 96 black-well plates until after confluence (day 21); to determine the effectiveness of exogenous mucin in promoting cell adhesion, specific cocultures were pretreated with mucin at the concentrations described above. After incubation with digested BM, cocultures were incubated with 10 μmol/L calcein AM (Invitrogen, Eugene, OR) for 30 minutes. Calcein AM is a nonfluorescent dye that easily permeates intact live cells and is hydrolyzed into calcein by intracellular esterases (15). De-esterified calcein is cell impermeant and emits strong fluorescence after being excited at 485 nmol/L. The intensity of calcein was measured on a Fluoroskan Ascent fluorometer using appropriate excitation and emission filters (Thermo Labsystems, Helsinki, Finland).
Cell viability was measured by the live/dead assay method in which calcein AM is an indicator of live cells and ethidium bromide (EtBr) (Fisher Scientific) intercalates with DNA in dead cells (16). Cell viability was expressed as the ratio of emission intensity of calcein to that of EtBr.
Cell barrier integrity was measured by TEER using an REMS autosampler (WPI, Sarasota, Fl). Cocultures were grown on Transwell inserts (4-μm pore size) in 24-well plates until confluence. After 30-minute BM incubation, 0.5 mL of fresh culture medium was added to each apical chamber, and 1.5 mL of fresh culture medium added to each basolateral chamber, taking care to avoid disrupting cell monolayers. TEER values were then measured and compared with untreated controls incubated in cell culture medium.
ROS-quenching properties of BM were measured by 2 relatively nonselective ROS probes, 5-(and-6)-chloromethyl-2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate acetyl ester (CM-H2DCFDA) (Invitrogen) and dihydrorhodamine 123 (DHR) (Invitrogen). CM- H2DCFDA is a cell-permeant fluorochrome that is hydrolyzed by intracellular esterases to form CM-H2DCF, which is retained intracellularly and is oxidized by peroxyl and hydroxyl radicals. Fluorescence intensity is proportional to the level of oxidation, permitting quantification of intracellular ROS (17). DHR is similarly a fluorochrome that is oxidized by superoxide, hydroxyl radicals, and hydrogen peroxide and is thus a complementary indicator of intracellular oxidative status (18,19).
For both fluorescence assays, cocultures were grown in 96 black-well (clear bottom) plates until confluence (approximately 14 days). Except for the control group, cells in each microplate well were loaded with 10 μmol/L of either CM-H2DCFDA or DHR for 30 minutes. Probes were then aspirated and cocultures were incubated with different BM treatments (see Results) and oxidatively challenged by addition of 1 mmol/L fresh hydrogen peroxide. After aspiration of treatment solutions and wash with phosphate-buffered saline, fluorescence intensities were measured with a Fluoroskan Ascent fluorometer (485 nM excitation/527 nM emission) after 30 minutes at 37°C.
We also measured oxidative DNA damage using the comet assay. Briefly, after BM treatments, live cells were imbedded in low-melting-point agar (38°C), which was then plated on specially coated glass microscope slides (Trevigen Inc, Gaithersburg, MD). After agarose discs solidified, cells were disrupted in lysis buffer (73.05 NaCl, 14.61 g EDTA, 0.6 g Tris, and 5 mL Triton dissolved in 500 mL of distilled water) and DNA denatured in alkaline solution (6 g NaOH pellets and 29.2 g EDTA dissolved in 500 mL of distilled water) (20). Under an electric field, heterogeneously fragmented DNA (as induced by oxidative damage) migrates electrophoretically toward the cathode, forming elongated smears of smaller DNA fragments, or a "comet-like tail." DNA was visualized by SYBR Gold (Trevigen Inc) and observed with a Leitz transmitted fluorescence microscope equipped with a 16× neofluar lens and the appropriate filters (Zeiss, Germany). The degree of DNA damage was determined by tail moment, which is a function of comet tail length and fluorescence intensity of DNA in the comet tail (21). Images were captured with a Retiga Q-imaging digital camera and analyzed by CASP software (courtesy of Andrzej Wojcik, University of Wroclaw, Institute of Theoretical Physics, Poland). Culture medium treatment was used as the control group and 20 cells were randomly selected for tail moment measurement in each treatment.
In the present study, loss of cell viability, cell adhesion, and barrier integrity were observed after a 30-minute incubation in digested BM. It seems reasonable to suggest that this was due to either the activity of digestive enzymes or bile-salt toxicity. Rather than further dilute or fractionate digested BM, or use BM dialysate, as has been done in previous studies, we chose to mitigate the effects of digested BM by addition of additional exogenous mucin to the apical surface of cocultures. Given the complex 3-dimensional architecture of the intestinal mucosal in vivo and the protection afforded by villar trapping of mucin, this approach was judged to be the most appropriate for the purpose of assaying native BM. Mucin was prepared according to the methods used by Jin et al. Briefly, 250 mg of porcine mucin (Sigma) was dissolved in 10 mL pH 7.4 phosphate-buffered saline. After addition of 0.5 g Chelex 100 chelating resin (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA), the mucin solution was filtered twice through pipettes clogged by glass fiber to remove ions existing in mucin. In experimental conditions involving the use of exogenous mucin, cultures were pretreated with mucin (25 mg/mL) before treatments.
For each assay, 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Tukey post-hoc test to describe the relation between means was used, and P < 0.05 was regarded as statistically significant.
Light microscopy revealed confluent cells closely apposed to each other and attached to the polycarbonate filter (Fig. 1A). Cells with distinctively differentiated morphologies were evident: Some cells clearly expressed brush borders; others had numerous inclusions resembling mucin granules. Results of PAS staining showed that mucus secretion, beginning at day 12 postseeding, reached a maximum by day 21 (Fig. 1B).
Both cell viability and cell adhesion assays suggested that digested BM treatment led to significant cell death and cell detachment compared with nondigested BM treatment. Data from the TEER assay indicated that the monolayer barrier integrity was compromised by incubation for 30 minutes in digested BM (data not shown). We reasoned that cell integrity was likely disrupted by still-active digestive enzymes added during the in vitro digestion process.
To overcome the adverse effects of in vitro digested BM, exogenous mucin was added to cocultures before experiments. Digestive enzymes added directly to cell cultures resulted in a significant loss in cell viability, as did digested BM without earlier treatment with mucin; however, there were no significant differences in live:dead ratios between cultures pretreated with mucin and in vitro digested BM treated and the culture medium–treated group after 30-minute exposure (Fig. 2). Similarly, compared with baseline values, exogenous mucin prevented any significant changes in cell adhesion after 30-minute exposure to digested BM (Fig. 3). As demonstrated in Figure 4, a 30-minute incubation in digested BM reduced cell barrier integrity despite mucin addition, and TEER values were recovered within 3 hours postexposure. In contrast, cell barrier integrity did not recover in cultures without exogenous mucin.
To determine the effects of treatments on cell morphology, cells were fixed and processed as described above. Longitudinal thick (2 μmol/L) sections of cells revealed that after 3 hours recovery, cell integrity in cocultures not supplemented with exogenous mucin was visibly altered. Microvillar loss, cellular vacuolisation, and complete disruption of patches of monolayer were evident (Fig. 5A). In contrast, microscopic cell structure and microvilli were well preserved after a 30-minute incubation with in vitro digested BM treatment if cells were pretreated with exogenous mucin (Fig. 5B). Taken together, these data suggest that exogenous mucin conferred a protection that enabled cocultures to remain structurally intact after a 30-minute exposure to digested BM.
Effects of BM samples on reducing oxidative stress in the coculture model were measured by CM-H2DCFDA assay, DHR assay, and comet assay. BM samples were diluted by a factor of approximately 3 during the in vitro digestion process. To account for this dilution, nondigested BM samples were diluted 1:3 times for comparison of antioxidant properties with in vitro digested BM.
In the CM-H2DCFDA assay, cocultures were incubated with different treatments before 30-minute exposure to oxidative stress induced by 1 mmol/L hydrogen peroxide. Figure 6 illustrates the effects of these treatments on intracellular ROS. Nondigested BM, 1:3-diluted nondigested BM, and 10 U/mL CAT (Sigma) exhibited equal potential in reducing intracellular oxidative stress compared with the culture medium–treated group. Similar results were obtained using the DHR assay (Fig. 7).
Oxidative DNA damage induced by 500 μmol/L hydrogen peroxide yielded higher numbers of "cometized" cells and elevated comet tail moments. Representative fluorescence micrographs of intact and damaged DNA after whole-cell electrophoresis are presented in Figure 8A. In the absence of frank DNA damage, no significant electrophoretic migration is detectable. DNA damage as measured by comet tail moment is depicted in Figure 8B. Nondigested BM and CAT significantly minimized tail moment compared with the positive control (H2O2 treatment). No statistically significant differences were seen between 1:3 diluted nondigested BM and digested BM with respect to mitigation of DNA damage. All of the BM treatments resulted in DNA tail moments that were significantly lower than the medium + peroxide treatment.
To better understand the protective effects of human BM on the intestinal epithelium, we combined both in vitro digestion and a Caco-2BBE/HT29-MTX coculture in a novel model. Caco-2BBE include cells that express a brush border, tight junctions, and an apical/basolateral polarization. HT29-MTX cells secrete several mucin products (22,23), and our intention was to develop a heterogeneous culture able to form a barrier with complex absorptive and secretory characteristics. In addition, mucin secreted by HT29-MTX cells serve to create an apical microenvironment similar to that found in vivo (14). Finally, the Matrigel substrate contains collagen, laminins, and fibronectin normally found in basement membranes, facilitating cell attachment, multiplication, and differentiation (24).
To develop an accurate representation of digestive processes in the gastrointestinal tract of PI, a thorough literature review was used to inform optimal luminal pH and enzyme levels, as well as transit time in preterm infants. Normally, gastric digestion occurs for approximately 1 hour and intestinal incubation for 2 hours, based on the study by Bode et al (25), and gastric pH was adjusted to 4.0 in the first 30-minute incubation and raised to 6.0 in the second 30-minute incubation to simulate the gradual gastric pH change of PIs during BM feeding (26). Furthermore, in the intestinal phase, exogenous lactose was added to compensate the insufficient lactose secretion by the cell culture model.
In vitro digestion was used by Jovani et al (27) and Etcheverry et al (13) to hydrolyze infant formulae or BM. These researchers used specific digestive enzyme concentrations, incubation times, and variations in intestinal pH, although the basis for some of these is unclear. We believe that our in vitro digestion protocol differs from that of the other investigators in that it is specifically based on empiric measurements of all of the above parameters. One key difference of note is that pH values used during the gastric digestion phase in our protocol are considerably higher than those used in other studies, which usually conform to adult pH values.
Our results indicated that mucin addition enabled cocultures to maintain their characteristics after incubation for 30 minutes with digested BM. Compared with previous studies, in which digestive enzymes were heated or dialyzed, addition of exogenous mucin in the present study is more consistent with physiological conditions, providing a similar microenvironment to that found in vivo (28,29). Although we had initially hoped that HT-29MTX cells alone would provide adequate mucin protection from digestive enzymes, we speculate that compared with the more complex, folded arrangement of mucosal villi in the intestine likely helps to better retain secreted mucin. In our flat, planar coculture model, the exogenous mucin proved necessary to maintain barrier integrity. On one hand, the mechanism(s) underlying the toxicity of digested milk can be ascribed to still-active proteolytic enzymes. On the other hand, it is equally plausible that the bile salts added during the in vitro digestion process are toxic, as has been noted by Lowes and Simmons (30), who determined that the human enterocyte cell lines Caco-2 and T-84 are sensitive to unconjugated bile acids such as cholic acid. Whatever the source(s) of the insult, further improvements to this model, such as the use of 3-dimensional, folded growth substrates, may eliminate the need for additional mucin. The mechanism(s) by which mucin confers protection against digestive enzymes is unclear; what is well known is the importance of mucin in maintaining an adluminal microenvironment requisite for mucosal protection, solute and fluid transport, and pH balance.
It is important to note that Mahler et al (31) have recently used Caco-2/HT-29 MTX cocultures with exogenous porcine mucin to study the effects of in vitro digested foods on iron transport, using both 9:1 and 7:3 seeding ratios, and also report that exogenous mucin has a protective effect against digestive enzymes. Our model differs in that we have developed a process specifically designed to reflect the in vivo digestive processes in the preterm infant, and we have also used a different Caco-2 subclone as well as an artificial basement membrane matrix.
Aycicek et al (10) probed total antioxidant capacity and total peroxides of plasma. Their results showed that breast-feeding enhanced plasma antioxidant capacity and lowered plasma total peroxide compared with formula feeding. In another study by Shoji et al (32), infants were classified into different groups based on types of feeding. Urinary 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), 1 of the biomarkers of oxidative DNA damage, was measured and data suggested urinary 8-OHdG excretion of the breast-fed group was significantly lower in comparison to that of the formula-fed group. The researchers concluded that BM acts as an antioxidant during infancy.
Data from the present study indicated that in vitro digested milk reduced oxidative stress in the coculture cell model. This finding is consistent with results of the previous studies, confirming the notion that BM reduces oxidative stress in a physiological system. The combination of the coculture, exogenous mucin, and digested BM can be argued to be a good approximation of both the physiological microenvironment of intestinal mucosa and the substrate to which it is exposed in vivo. However, based on the data presented herein, we cannot discern the actual mechanisms underlying the protective effects of BM; nor is it possible to determine whether the antioxidant activity was conferred in the extracellular matrix or in the intracellular environment. Work is in progress in our laboratory to determine the specific component(s) in digested BM that protect(s) against oxidative stress, and whether this protection is a consequence of biochemical scavenging of free radicals and/or upregulation of antioxidant enzymes via genomic effects. We anticipate that this model will constitute a useful tool in both studies of the effects of enteral nutrition in vitro as well as for pharmacological and bioavailability studies.
We thank Mr Allistair Carrothers for technical assistance.
This article has been cited 1 time(s).
enterocytes; human breast milk; oxidative stress
© 2010 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.
Colleague's E-mail is Invalid
Your Name: (optional)
Your Email:
Colleague's Email:
Separate multiple e-mails with a (;).
Thought you might appreciate this item(s) I saw at Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.
Send a copy to your email
Your message has been successfully sent to your colleague.
Some error has occurred while processing your request. Please try after some time.
An Existing Folder
A New Folder
Folder Name:
The item(s) has been successfully added to "".
Login with your LWW Journals username and password.
Username or Email:
Forgot Password?
Enter and submit the email address you registered with. An email with instructions to reset your password will be sent to that address.
Link to reset your password has been sent to specified email address.
What does "Remember me" mean?
By checking this box, you'll stay logged in until you logout. You'll get easier access to your articles, collections,
media, and all your other content, even if you close your browser or shut down your
To protect your most sensitive data and activities (like changing your password),
we'll ask you to re-enter your password when you access these services.
What if I'm on a computer that I share with others?
If you're using a public computer or you share this computer with others, we recommend
that you uncheck the "Remember me" box.
Save my selection
Article Level Metrics
Keyword Highlighting
Highlight selected keywords in the article text.
Search for Similar Articles
You may search for similar articles that contain these same keywords or you may
modify the keyword list to augment your search.


text:
Hundreds of studies have shown that D affects various illnesses, but most of the links are associations, not proven cause and effect. "We need more research to determine if there's a real connection," McManus says. Some answers should emerge in the next few years. The newly launched VITAL study at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital will follow 20,000 people to see whether vitamin D, fish oil or both reduce the risk of developing cancer, heart disease and stroke. In the meantime, here's an overview of what we now know.
Bone health Older people who took D and calcium had a decreased risk of fractures and bone loss in a review by the University of Ottawa Evidence-Based Practice Center. The Ottawa EPC also found that menopausal women who were getting up to 800 IU per day with calcium experienced small increases in bone mineral density of the spine, total body, femoral neck and hip.
Colon cancer In May, Italian researchers reported that people with higher blood levels of D had a lower risk of colorectal cancer but not breast cancer.
Immune system Massachusetts General Hospital researchers looked at data from nearly 20,000 people and found that those with the lowest levels of D had the highest risk of upper-respiratory infections.
Heart disease risk factors According to the Michigan Bone Health and Metabolism Study, D may help keep blood pressure low, and other research has shown that it may reduce diabetes risk.
Mental health D may protect you from depression, but promising preliminary studies need to be confirmed with randomized, controlled trials. "We know there are D receptors in the brain, but research in this area is just beginning," Norman says.
Originally published in the September 2010 issue of More.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Every year unions take great pains to remind people why unions were (once) so great. They attempt to make people believe that unions are still necessary and great now. Unfortunately for union bosses, there is more truth out there now. They can hide from it but they can only run for so long. The fact is that unions do nothing but hurt the economy, taxpayers, consumers and the overall country now, including union members.
Less that 7% of private sector workers are unionized. Why? Workers are protected by a slew of federal, state and local laws. Businesses have realized that offering better pay and benefits will attract better workers, so they offer them. Workers don't need to be unionized to negotiate their own salaries.
What has changed about unions? Since John F. Kennedy decided to allow public sector unions to organize in 1962(for purely political reasons), we have seen the unionization of millions of federal, state and local workers. Around 37% of all public sector employees are union members. What does this mean for governments and taxpayers? It means higher taxes, bigger government, a less productive workforce and an unsustainable liability of pensions and health care payments far into the future.
- The states with the highest overall taxes are all forced union states with high numbers of public sector employees.
- The states in the worst debt troubles are all forced union states with high numbers of public sector employees.
- Per Capita the states that receive the most in federal aid are also forced union states.
George Meany (former President of the AFL-CIO) and FDR were accurate when they agreed that public sector employees could not collectively bargain with elected officials. What has happened as a result? Unions pay big money to elect politicians (majority of money goes to Democrats) and then those politicians in turn pay back the unions by pushing for bigger government, higher salaries and bigger pensions. The tax payer ends up paying the price while have zero say in the collective bargaining negotiations. In Massachusetts an unskilled toll collector on the Massachusetts Turnpike made almost $100,000 in on year. His base salary is $60,000 not including his cushy benefits package . This is egregious and shows exactly how unions and Democrats work with each other in a symbiotic relationship that leeches off the tax payers.
What can be done about it? Get rid of public sector unions. They were never necessary. They have only aided in increasing the debt of local, state and federal governments. The people who pay the price are the private sector taxpayers who don't get the same cushy salaries and benefits. In the private sector, you can't continue to ring up debt and decide to raise prices on consumers because eventually consumers will stop buying your product(even private sector unions get this). In the public sector, unions feel there is a never ending stream of money because politicians can simply raise taxes and for Democrats, this is a way of life.
Until the taxpayers demand accountability, transparency and the end of public sector unions, they will continue to be squeezed of everything possible until there is nothing left to give. Union bosses don't care as long as they are still getting their dues. It's not about the taxpayer; a job well done; or the workers. Union bosses only care about money and power. Democrats comply. Taxpayers pay the price.


text:
Today, ASUS announced that it will cease production of Windows RT tablets effective immediately. Jerry Shen said that Windows RT's lack of backward compatibility with Intel processors is the major reason OEMs are no longer able to support Microsoft's RT operating system.
Poor sales numbers also contributed to the factor, with Surface RT tablet purchases plummeting. Shen said that the entire industry considers Windows RT a failure. "It's not only our opinion, the industry sentiment is also that Windows RT has not been successful," said Shen.


text:
Wow. To say that Modern Madness 2012 has been a roller coaster ride would be an understatement.
We began with 64 of the most fabulous modern fabric lines on the market and — round after round, week after week — you voted for your favorites. Many (if not most) of the races were as tight as can be, decided by the slimmest of margins. You've let us know that many of your front-runners were upset earlier than you had expected, and we never knew how the tournament would progress.
From 64, we got down to 32 … then our Sweet 16 … we determined the Elite Eight … and rooted for our favorites in the Final Four. It all led to our epic final battle: the bold and graphic Echo, the debut line by first-time Modern Madness competitor Lotta Jansdotter versus the fresh and retro-sweet Ruby by the mother-daughter team of Bonnie & Camille. 1105 of you voted — the highest turn-out by far in this year's tournament — and we're excited to announce our winner.
By a margin of 57% (631 votes) to 43% (473), congratulations to our 2012 Modern Madness Champion …
by Bonnie & Camille
for Moda Fabrics
Here's Moda's description of Ruby:
Ruby is a small town girl with big dreams, and even bigger style. She works at the town ice cream parlor in her favorite red polka dot dress and can be found doing the jitterbug with her best girlfriends at the Country Diner on the weekends. This cheery line is full of Ruby's favorites, including a smattering of soin red and aqua, retro flowers, vintage prints and pretty little scallops.
Ruby now joins Habitat, our 2011 champion, in the Modern Madness Hall of Fame, and she is a very worthy champion indeed. We'd love to hear your thoughts, both on Ruby's ascent to the top of the heap as well as on Modern Madness overall. We hope you had fun and learned about a lot of new fabrics and designers along the way.
We'd also like to build a readers' gallery of Ruby projects to celebrate its win, so if you've worked with Ruby and have a quilt or other sewn project to share, please add your photos to our Fat Quarterly Flickr group. We can't wait to see them!
Scoring: for those of you keeping score, did anyone predict that Ruby was going to win? If you did, give yourself 32 points!! Add it to your previous total to get your final score. Let us know your final score in the comments below — we'd love to hear how you all did!
And with that, we bring another year of Modern Madness to a close. We truly hope you had as much of a blast as we did. So who's going to be back for Modern Madness 2013??


text:
Today's bible study is 2 Peter 3:8-9: But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: with the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Time is an extremely difficult concept to understand. In the late nineteen-sixties, there was a contest offering $10.000 to anyone who could adequately define the word time. Thousands of people worldwide wrote millions of definitions. The answers undoubtedly ranged from childish and meaningless to scientific and unintelligible to most. Yet, there was no winner. It was found that no human could truly define time.
Here time seems to be the central there of our bible verse and, here, time can be a day or a thousand years. Is seems as vague and indefinable in Second Peter as it is for us. Time – that unidentifiable concept of passage through the universe - that elusive measure that cannot be quantified in terms of God's time or of ours.
In Chapter 3, verses 8 and 9, God's time and human time are addressed. The scoffers ignore the fact that judgment is God's business and will be done in God's time. What humans experience as a long delay can be viewed another way. Paul reminds the reader's that in God's sight a day may be like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day, so calculating the fulfillment of the prophetic promises on the basis of the human calendar should be abandoned.
The character of God is portrayed throughout the bible as patient and long-suffering. God's behavior toward Ninevah in the Book of Jonah is a classic example. Rather than doubting or scoffing, the church should be grateful that what has seemed a delay in the return of Christ and its attendant judgment is in reality an expression of God's patience and grace. With this line of argument, Paul concludes his attempt to silence the false teachers and to rehabilitate the teaching about the second coming of Christ.
Lord, let us not be impatient. Let us know that God will act in his way and in his time, whether it be one day or a thousand years. There is so little that we know O gracious father, and so little that our human minds can comprehend. Help us, O Lord, to wait eagerly, yet not impatiently for your return, knowing that all will happen as foretold in God's time.
References: The People's New Testament Commentary by M. Eugene Boring and Fred B. Craddock and The MacArthur Bible Commentary by John MacArthur.
You might also like to read:
- Broad Brook Bible Study Examiner, Grace Dooley
- Evangelical Examiner, Jake Jones
- Atlanta Christian Living Examiner, Taylor Powell
- Atlanta Bible Study Examiner, Donna Sundblad
- Kentucky Bible Study Examiner, Timothy Edwards
- Bible Verse of the Day
- Daily Bible Guide
- Growing in Christ
- Bible Study Tools Online
- The Jesus Walk Bible Study Series
Follow Sharon on Twitter or friend Sharon on Facebook.
If you enjoyed this article, you can find more at Sharon's Columbia Biblical Studies Examiner homepage.


text:
Feb 9, 2011 12:24 PM
We're swooning over the Tangramarama Rocky Crossbody Purse ($478) by Marc by Marc Jacobs. It's mostly because of that gorgeous, sunny yellow strap detail, which makes it a great spring and summer bag. But we're also pretty fond of the size. It's just right for our essentials and a bottle of water and a book without looking too bulky.
If you've got a product or service that you'd like to promote on Outblush, click here to find out about our advertising opportunities.
Outblush is a blog for girls who love to shop. Our staff digs up the best clothes, home stuff, beauty items, and more. New items are posted every day — bookmark us and check out:


text:
The robot helicopter flies and lands by itself - without the helping hand of a pilot - through its sensors and onboard computers.
12:37, UK, Friday 07 December 2012
The US Army has made history by successfully testing a flight by an automated Black Hawk helicopter.
There were pilots aboard the aircraft which took to the skies over the Diablo Mountain Range in San Jose, California.
But all manoeuvres were carried out autonomously, with the JUH-60A Black Hawk navigating its way through a 23-mile course of hills and valleys.
Dubbed the RASCAL - Rotorcraft Aircrew Systems Concept Airborne Laboratory - the aircraft was equipped with a range of technologies, including computers and sensors, for it to operate on its own.
It was able to sense its surrounding terrain, assess risk, avoid obstacles, process statistics, as well as fly autonomously during the two-hour exercise.
The helicopter maintained an altitude of 200 and 400 feet at an average speed of 40 knots and identified a safe landing spot within a forest clearing.
It also approached and hovered at 60 feet during the final phase of the test-flight, organised by the Army Research, Development and Engineering Command's Aviation and Missile Centre.
"This was the first time terrain-aware autonomy has been achieved on a Black Hawk," said Lieutenant Colonel Carl Ott, chief of the flight projects office at AMRDEC's aero flight dynamics directorate.
By posting a comment you are agreeing to abide by our Terms & Conditions. See our House Rules and FAQs.


text:
4 Factors That Will Make Or Break Your Mobile Content
It's been said again and again that developing a website for desktops is different to developing one for mobile devices. There are several contradictory opinions floating around about whether it is better to develop a separate mobile site, or to just design one website that is flexible enough to suit all screens. While opinion is divided, it seems clear that mobile sites have plenty of restrictions that affect things like load time, images and content.
We're going to look at four essential factors that could make or break your mobile content.
1) Battle for attention
If you thought you only had a few seconds to grab users' attention on conventional websites, be prepared to up your game for mobile sites. People surfing the mobile web have less patience that people on desktops and laptops. They're not prepared to scroll down reams of text to find what they're looking for. You need to give them what they want immediately. That means you need clear headings and clearer, attention-grabbing opening sentences.
It also means that you need to keep your paragraphs short and snappy.
Remember that brevity doesn't equal lack of flow and incoherence. Your content still needs to be properly structured; sentences still need to make grammatical sense; and you still need catchy phrases.
2) Style
Mary C. (onbile.com) says that mobile content should be written in a similar style to press releases; at least it should be based on the basic premise, which is that of the inverted pyramid. The first paragraph is the most important information (who, what, why, where, when). The second paragraph contains important details. The following paragraphs flesh out the details.
3) Calls to action
Calls to action need to be prominent on conventional websites; this we know. The placement of calls to action is even more important on mobile sites. They should be above the fold (bear in mind that the fold is very short on mobile sites) and they have to be very strong.
The lore of SEO content writing applies to mobile sites just as much as it does to conventional sites. You need very strong keywords and well-optimised headings. Writing optimised content for mobile sites is trickier than writing for conventional websites, however, because you have less text within which to place your keywords. This means you have to be very clever with your words and sentences, so that you don't sacrifice quality for the sake of some search engine attention.
The restrictions of mobile sites pose challenges for mobile site developers, but they also have implications for content writers. This means that writing for mobile websites is even more of an art than writing for conventional websites. It also means that good communication between writers and developers is essential to ensure that mobile site structure supports content, and vice versa.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
Sandy Cosser is a website content writer who fully understands the necessity of working closely with web developers to ensure that websites are optimally structured for browsing and conversions.


text:
May 25, 2000
OKLAHOMA CITY - Two members of the UCLA softball team were named as National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-Americans on Wednesday night, second baseman Lyndsey Klein and shortstop Natasha Watley.
Klein, a senior from Roseville, CA, has started all 55 games for the Bruins at second base, and is hitting .373 entering the Women's College World Series (WCWS). She has driven in a team-best 56 runs, while scoring 54 times. Her 13 doubles and nine home runs are both second on the team for the season.
The only true freshman on the NFCA first team, shortstop Natasha Watley became the first Bruin freshman to earn first-team All-America honors since 2000 U.S. Olympian Stacey Nuveman accomplished the feat in 1997. Watley enters the WCWS with a team-leading .434 batting average and 76 hits. In addition, she has broken UCLA's single-season and career stolen base records this season, entering the WCWS with 32 swipes. The previous Bruin records for stolen bases were 25 in a season and 31 in a career, both set in 1999 by U.S. Olympian Christie Ambrosi.
The Bruins, who have a 43-11-1 record, advanced to the WCWS by winning the Los Angeles Regional of the NCAA Tournament, and open WCWS play at 2:30 p.m. Central Time on Thursday against fifth-seeded Alabama.


text:
March 7, 2003
LAS VEGAS, Nevada - After round one of the Toyota Men's Collegiate Golf Championships, Arizona is tied for 11th place with an opening-round score of 3-over-par 291. Junior Chris Nallen leads the way individually as he shot 2-under 70 to stand tied for tenth.
Texas scorched the Southern Highlands Golf Club for a first-round score of 7-under-par 281 to grab the lead with 36 holes remaining. Host squad Nevada-Las Vegas sits one stroke back after it shot 282 (-6) Friday. Georgia's Kevin Kisner holds the individual lead as he posted a 65 (-7). Jason Moon of North Carolina State trails Kisner by one stroke in second place.
Nallen rebounded from a rough start to Friday's round, shooting 4-under-par over the final 14 holes. The junior from Blairstown, N.J., made double bogey and bogey on holes No. 3 and 4, but made six birdies and only one more bogey throughout the remainder of his round. His opening round 70 places him five strokes off the lead.
Ricky Barnes, fresh off a top-20 performance at the PGA Tour's Chrysler Classic of Tucson, shot 1-under-par 71 and is tied for 18th place. Freshman Blaine Peffley carded an opening-round 74 and sits tied for 41st place. Senior Andrew Medley posted a 4-over-par 76 to grab a share of 60th place. Senior Reid Hatley rounded out the Arizona lineup and is in 77th place with a day one score of 9-over 81.
Arizona will look to rebound from its rocky opening round when the tournament continues with 18 more holes Saturday. The Wildcats have won both events they have competed in during the 2003 spring season.
Place School Score 1. Texas 281 (-7) 2. Nevada-Las Vegas 282 (-6) T3. Clemson 284 (-4) T3. Arizona State 284 (-4) 5. North Carolina State 285 (-3) T11. ARIZONA 291 (+3)
Place Golfer, School Score 1. Kevin Kisner, Georgia 65 (-7) 2. Jason Moon, North Carolina State 66 (-6) 3. Rusty Kennedy, Texas 68 (-4) T4. Mitch Carlson, Nevada-Las Vegas 69 (-3) T4. Adam Cranford, Georgia Tech 69 (-3) T4. Brien Davis, Nevada-Las Vegas 69 (-3) T4. Matt Hendrix, Clemson 69 (-3) T4. Adam Rubinson, Texas Christian 69 (-3) T4. D.J. Trahan, Clemson 69 (-3)
Place Arizona Golfer Score T10. Chris Nallen 70 (-2) T18. Ricky Barnes 71 (-1) T41. Blaine Peffley 74 (+2) T60. Andrew Medley 76 (+4) 77. Reid Hatley 81 (+9)


text:
Elisa Franco's lab
Elisa Franco's lab
Living organisms need feedback to process information and implement their responses to external stimuli. In many cases their sensing, computation and actuation mechanisms are embedded in biochemical networks.
Our objective is to understand and formulate feedback design principles in bio-molecular systems. For example, we work on the synthesis of robust biochemical oscillators, controllers and sensors.
We use analytical tools from control theory and synthesize reaction networks in vitro, using nucleic acids and proteins.


text:
Cate Blanchett is in talks to join Disney's live-action Cinderella movie. The Oscar-winning actress is circling the role of the Evil Stepmother in the film, to be directed by Mark Romanek (Never Let Me Go). The titular role has yet to be cast. [TheWrap]
Director Bryan Singer tweeted that Patrick Stewart and Ian…
Someone forgot to tell Hollywood to shut down for the holiday.
The news cycle was in overdrive on Tuesday, providing updates on two of the biggest franchises out there – The Hunger Games and Star Wars.
So puff on your inhalers, movie nerds – this S is about to get R.
Lucasfilm and Disney have secured Toy Story 3's Michael Arndt to write Star Wars: Episode VII, and now they're looking at two more writers to pen the rest of the trilogy.
The Hollywood Reporter claims that Simon Kinberg and Lawrence Kasdan have locked deals to "write and produce Episodes VIII and IX."


text:
When trying to install FreeBSD 8 off a USB Drive (UNetBootin loaded) I receive
BTX Halted
when choosing any of the Boot options.
- Boot FreeBSD [default]
- Boot FreeBSD width ACPI disabled
- Boot FreeBSD in Safe Mode
- Boot FreeBSD in single user mode
- Boot FreeBSD with verbose logging
Here is my system I have 256meg of ram on it, and a Transcend CF 133x 4GB for its drive.
I searched the FreeBSD supported hardware and It says AMD Geode LX is supported..
I have also read a post by someone who suggested:
My solution to the BTX halted was to turn of the BIOS IDE DMA Transfers option in the DeviceOptions menu in the BIOS.
but that also did nothing.
Am I missing something? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
11/24 - I just had luck installed FreeBSD 7.4 .. strange that my hardware is listed as supported in the newer versions yet I cannot load the bootloader... I would still like to be able to use the newest version.


text:
1 of 15
Posted by Glen Barber on 03/27/2014 8:35am PDT tags: photo
BOSTON (AP) — A fire driven by strong winds raced through a brownstone on Wednesday, trapping and killing two firefighters in the basement, where their colleagues could not rescue them. Thirteen other firefighters were injured in the blaze, and several police officers also were taken to hospitals. Some residents had to be rescued from the upper floors of the four-story apartment building, but none was hurt, city officials said.''Today's a sad day for the city of Boston,'' Mayor Marty Walsh said. ''We lost two heroes here today.''


text:
Monday, February 20, 2012
Putting "Free"dom In Freelance
How was the weekend? Mine was a mixture of lethargy and laziness - in general, pretty darned good. We had his office party on Saturday where I had the chance to really chat up some of his coworkers and their spouses. A really nice time. Yesterday, some errands, a little thinking about doing some painting in the bedroom, but a lot of avoiding it. We did get out to Washington Memorial Chapel in the park for a program on music in the time of George Washington. Nice, but a little to "precious" as he put it with too much theater interspersed with too little music. We crept out in the middle.
This week I have two articles to finish, more marketing to conduct, and I meeting at a client location tomorrow. I also have a play date with Jenn Mattern, and I intend to go no matter what writing emergency arises. I don't mind emergency work, but there are times when it's okay for me to be unavailable.
We touched on it briefly last week. How free are our freelance careers? Sure, we have flexibility in clients, projects, and hours, but are we somehow out of balance? At the beginning of my full-time freelance career, I remember working when the work was there and just puttering about when it wasn't. Those of you who have been doing this a while can guess where that led - eleventh-hour panic when I realized there were no checks coming in and no work lined up for the next month. I had to resort to temp agency work on one occasion. That's when I adopted my "market when you're busy" approach.
However, that scare can lead to an even scarier situation - having more work than you have hours in a week. That's happened to me, but I'm pretty adamant about not working weekends, so only on rare occasion would I put in time on a Saturday and only if the project deadline were ridiculously short. So how do we balance?
That depends on your goals. My goals are free weekends with no computer. I'd much rather be spending time with the husband than with an article interview or an editing job. If you prefer working all evening and keeping your days free, or taking Mondays off, etc., what will you need to get there? No matter what your goals, start here:
Learn to schedule. I nearly typed "learn to juggle" because that's what you have to do to guard that time off. Start with deadlines. Prioritize from there, and make sure that other phases of your projects - like interviews and client calls - are worked into that priority list. For example, when I get an article assignment, I send out the interview requests the same day. I may be working on other things, but it takes just five minutes to answer an interview subject and get the interview on the calendar.
Think like you're out. If you're used to weekends off, it seems to be easier to associate that time with no work. However, if you've decided Mondays and Tuesdays are your days, it's very easy to answer those client emails when you're supposed to be relaxing. Put up an "away" message if you must and definitely let all clients you're working with know you take those days off. It wouldn't hurt to let them know it's because you work on weekends when the interruptions are minimal. It sounds efficient.
Don't chain yourself to the work space. This is one of my biggest problems. I'll sit here from 8 to 5 every day even when I'm not working. If you've done the work, done the marketing, and really have nothing left to do, it's okay to walk away from the computer. Really. You're not a paid employee and no one is watching you and judging. You work hard. Give yourself a break (note to self: heed your own advice).
If you must, block the time off. As much as I don't like the "orderly" nature of it, I do schedule time off, even if it's in just my head. Normally, I keep quiet about my whereabouts, especially on a Friday. It's not uncommon for clients to disappear on Fridays, too. However, if I'm taking off a Tuesday, I'm apt to mention it, but only to those clients I'm working with currently.
Give yourself permission to relax. You are the biggest obstacle to getting free time into your schedule. If you're working too hard, maybe it's time to raise those rates? Still, even at higher prices, your skills are in demand. It's okay to say "My time is already booked that day, but I can get to it the next day."
How do you put the "free"dom back in freelance?
6 comments:
- Paula said...
We all have peak times of day for different activities. I tend to focus best on actual writing in the afternoon, so I try to do interviews and research in the morning. The hour or so in between? Calls. No matter the day, I tend to place most of my business calls within the same 1-2 hour period (unless they're scheduled interviews).
We all have different internal clocks, and sometimes tight deadlines don't give us the leisure to stick to our preferred schedules, but knowing which times of day you tend to excel at certain tasks is sort of like a super power of the self-employed.
- Lori said...
Super point, Paula. I know what times of day I'm pretty much spent, so those are the times I don't try to be creative.
- Cathy Miller said...
I just came off a great weekend as well. My youngest brother was here shooting a documentary. He's an award-winning filmmaker I wish more people knew about because i think he's quite talented. I'm a tad biased. :-)
So, my youngest sister & her husband drove up from southern ID and their son who lives here also came over. It was a nice mini-family gathering (mini since there are 4 more siblings in addition to the two that were here). :-)
I'm like you, Lori-I'm a fanatic about my weekends. Too many lost ones from my 30+ years of corporate life.
But, flexibility is really what it's all about. I've adjusted to accommodate my training for the 3-Day Walk, to help my Mom with various needs and days I simply wasn't feeling it.
Once you recognize it's okay to relax, it's really a good feeling all the way around. :-)
- Lori said...
Sounds like a terrific weekend, Cathy. I hope the visit was refreshing. :) And you just point us to your brother's work - we'll promote him!
- Anne Wayman said...
This weekend I was focused on facilitating an awakening the dreamer symposium (awakeningthedreamer.org for the curious) It went well... I mostly don't work weekends and almost always take Friday afternoon off as well.
Permission to relax... we should start a sign company that says You have permission to relax or something.
- Devon Ellington said...
Flexibility is key. My best writing time is in the morning. On days when I have to leave for yoga or meditation at 7:15, it means getting up at 4:30 or 5 to still get that first 1K in before I leave. Because it won't happen after 10 or 11 AM.
Editing and revisions are best done in the afternoons, so that's when I do that client work, or work with students. Sometimes the student work has to bleed into the evening or over a weekend.
Writing for clients is usually done about mid-morning-- after my first 1K, but before I get caught up in editing, lectures, revisions, etc.
I'm making myself have one day a week where I'm unplugged, and I like it. It's not always the same day.
If there's something I want to do during the day -- and I'VE EARNED THE RIGHT TO WALK AWAY FROM MY DESK because I've kept up with the work and not frittered away the time -- I do it. Go for a walk at a nature sanctuary, listen to a speaker somewhere, whatever. But if I've procrastinated and wasted time, I don't get to do it.
It's a two way street -- I get to have the freedom to construct my day, but I also have to earn that right by staying on top of the workload.


text:
On Saturday, February 1, Spokane-area crime fiction author Frank Zafiro announced on his blog that his new novel "At Their Own Game" is now available from Amazon as a Kindle ebook.
"At Their Own Game" is a crime novel about a small-time criminal named Jake Stankovic who lives in Spokane and his exploits after he runs afoul of both local drug dealers and a police detective determined to bring him to justice. Zafiro describes the book as "a hard boiled mystery."
According to Zafiro, "Jake Stankovic has been flying below the radar for years, dealing safely in stolen property crime with his two-man crew. But times are tough, so he decides to step up to the big money with a drug deal. Everything that can go wrong, does. The deal goes bad, a vengeful detective sets his sights on Jake, one of his crew might be a turncoat, and a woman from a long past affair suddenly reappears. All of this would be complicated enough on it's own, but for Jake, it's even worse.
"The woman is the detective's ex-wife.
"And Jake Stankovic used to be a cop.
"Now Jake must face new problems and old vendettas in an all-in proposition with lives on the line. He has to find a way to get his money back, keep the girl, and beat everyone involved…'At Their Own Game.'"
Based on reading an earlier draft of the novel, the story would appeal strongly to anyone who enjoys a good crime story and especially to fans of the critically acclaimed television series "Breaking Bad." The book features the type of procedural details fans of his popular River City novels and short stories have grown to love, but with more emphasis on a criminal's point of view.
The Kindle edition currently retails for $4.99. A free preview of the first three chapters is available on Zafiro's website for people who would like to get a feel for the tone of the novel before committing to a purchase. Zafiro said on his blog that he plans to release the book soon in paperback and audio editions for people who prefer those formats.


text:
|Thread Tools
|Search this Thread
|Display Modes
D2 refuses to recognize changes in id3 tags
I am using a free program called AudioShell to edit my id3 tags on my music collection. It generally works fine, and most of the time, the changes I make with it are recognized by the D2. But sometimes, apparently randomly, it won't recognize the changes, or it will recognize some and not others, with no apparent order to it.
A couple example problems:
I put about five albums by "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds" on there. They showed as three separate artists, "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds," "Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds," and "Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds." I deleted them off the d2, went in with AudioShell and made them all "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds." I know I made them all exactly the same because I copied and pasted. Then I put them back on...and this time, the same three artists show up, but with different albums under each...as in, it "took" for some of them, but not others! Wtf?!
Same basic thing with "The Pineapple Thief." In this case, some songs on the same album appear as "The Pineapple Thief" and others as "Pineapple Thief"! And this happened to an album that I ripped from the CD, so I KNOW the id3 tags were all made at the same time, with the same program....
And then another album I put on there just straight up never shows up, not under any artist, not under the list of albums and none of the individual tracks are in the track list...
Is this just a result of the id3 editor I'm using not meshing with the d2's interface? Or what the heck else could explain this?
|[Remove Advertisement]
Try either MP3Tag or Media Monkey, you may have better luck. Also, I hope your editing on the comp & not on the D2 itself, as this sometimes doesn't work as planned.
The DarkSide's Feedback
Glossary for Newbies
Mp3 Player Recommendation Guidelines
You better correct the source ... remove from the D2... and reload the music.
I thought I mentioned this in the first post - I did make the changes on the hard drive, deleted the files off the player, and reloaded them....
Edit: OK I definitely mentioned it
Edit 2: I tried MP3Tag - no luck.
Last edited by Jude; 04-15-2009 at 07:18 PM.
Hey Jude (sorry!)
I was having exactly the same problem. I dragged one album onto my laptop and re-edited the tags with MP3Tag to see if it would work. It worked a treat so I dragged ALL the folders over to my laptop and put them all in MP3Tag at the one time thinking I could do it all in one fell swoop. When I put them all back on my player they hadn't changed! I realised that I would have to re-edit the tags one folder or album at a time. Did this, dragged them over to my player and they're all tagged properly now.
Just to make clear... when I say re-edit the tags I was just making some field I didn't need (like Album Artist) blank and then saving. The tags were already edited to my liknig, just not showing up properly on the player. Hope this works! Don't hesitate to ask any more questions.
« Previous Thread | Next Thread »
|Thread Tools
|Search this Thread
|Display Modes
Linear Mode
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:41 AM.


text:
It doesn't have to be an evil prank to celebrate April first. But it helps to celebrate with others, especially if it can be shown on YouTube.
On Tuesday 1st April 2014, eight climbers were treated to a big surprise, a world-first flash mob 134 meters above the Sydney Harbour in a salute to April's Fool's Day.
The unsuspecting climbers began ascending the iconic bridge for what they believed to be a traditional BridgeClimb experience, climbing one of Australia's bridges. When they reached the top they were surrounded from all angles by a 30 person strong flash mob.
The troupe launched into a synchronised routine to songs by Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry and Justice Crew at multiple locations on the Bridge summit. The climbers also decided to join in the dancing.
Once the dance steps concluded, the ensemble dispersed and the eight honouree flash mobbers resumed the journey of 1,332 steps along the impressive steel structure. Back on The Bridge Climb, they enjoyed unobstructed vistas spanning as far east as Bondi and as far west as The Blue Mountains.


text:
Here's a new site for flooring bargain hunters.
The Floor Trader of Lawrence now has a webpage dedicated exclusively to "Steals & Deals". Flooring of all kinds up to 80% OFF, most at BELOW WHOLESALE PRICES! Rolls of carpet and resilient vinyl flooring plus pallets of wood laminate, ceramic and porcelain floor tile are posted. All products on this page are one-of-a-kinds so no reorders are possible but the values are incredible. The best values are priced on a "buy-it-all" basis while some are priced by the carton or square foot. Quantities vary from item to item so measure up your space and see which would work for you.
To access this special webpage, bring up the Lawrence Floor Trader's Website (www.floortraderlawrence.com). On the top menu bar (in gold) you'll see a tab marked "local store". Click on that and choose the "Steals & Deals" tab on the drop-down menu OR just take this direct link. You'll also want to visit the "New Shipments to Lawrence" page for a peek at the latest arrivals in their big warehouse.
New items are posted periodically so check back often.
Happy bargain hunting!


text:
Issues like the Ferguson Protests and the killings of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Jonathan Crawford are becoming more frequent. The killing of black men and women at the hands of the local law enforcement is becoming more and more real and many African Americans are continuing to fear for their lives. One thing that is understood is that no matter how rich or important you are, being black and male can sometimes lead to a death sentence in society. Because of this, many artists are taking the time to speak on the problems in society. This was one popular theme of the many musicians who performed at the Made In America Music Festival in Philadelphia on August 30th and 31st.
J. Cole, who wrote a song for Michael Brown and the Ferguson incident, was one of the first artists who let his exact feelings be known about what happened, especially when most famous black people kept quiet about the incident. He visited the town of Ferguson and rallied with the people to discuss the injustices of what had been happening there, and in many places throughout the United States. During his set at the music festival, he showed a video that was compilation of clips from the March on Washington to the arrest of Eric Garner that led to his death. In his set he urged people to be aware of the issues that blacks have faced and realize how they are still in the fight for freedom and equality.
Kanye West also had something to say about the injustices in the world but not as in depth as J. Cole. During his hour-long set, he discussed how cruel the world can be and how society belittles people of color by treating them poorly. He discussed his hardships of his interracial marriage being ridiculed in the media and telling the crowd that they have to do better. With his performance of "New Slaves" he talks to the crowd about being a slave to culture and society and how it is leading people to be screwed over by the leaders of it. In these times, this message is much needed.
The last artist who spoke on the "sickness" of the world today was Pharrell, who declared that women should be allowed to fix the issues in the world because they have been the only group that haven't had the chance. He told the women that he had faith in them to be the problem solvers and that he supports gender equality. He ended his set with, "Happy", to leave the crowd in a good mood.
With these people speaking out and trying to create peace in their most creative ways, it does leave the question of why more famous people of color are not speaking out. With prominent black stars like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Oprah, Tyler Perry and others of the highest echelon of celebrity keeping their silence about the issues in the world, it leaves many conscious people disappointed as to why the people with the most clout and voice are deciding to stay quiet.
All and all, with the artists who speak out, people's ideas of what is and isn't right in the world will change. Thankfully, there are some who care.
To see the video, click the link: http://youtu.be/saM5osufgVE


text:
filter by Author
filter by Year/Month
filter by Category
"Thank you for being out there. You are a source of joy, help, and hope for me."
~ Anna-Karin, Sweden
0 results
"If the pope is rejected, it follows that not one bishop, but the whole episcopate threatens to fall."
~ Avitus, Bishop of Vienne; writing about A.D. 520.


text:
The $64,000 Question (1956)
September 18, 1956 - An episode of the infamous rigged 1950s game show "The $64,000 Question". When the scandal broke that several very popular quiz shows were "fixed", the ratings of several non-rigged quiz shows (such as "You Bet Your Life" and others) declined as well. This episode is complete with commercials for Revlon Lipstick.
To Download or Embed this video, go to this link.
Back to The $64,000 Question Library
back to Uncle Earl's Classic TV Channel


text:
Ritz-Carlton, Al Bustan Palace Oman
Oman, UAE
About Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Experience an Oman luxury hotel where you can indulge in an array of water sports, savor exquisite cuisine and, just minutes away, discover the rich history and traditions of an Arabian nation. A recent redefining renovation – both inside and out – the Al Bustan Palace is a Ritz-Carlton hotel set on a private beach with acres of lush gardens. Furnishings in this Muscat hotel artistically combine local traditions and art deco creating a unique blend of Arabian culture and art. Noted for its 38-meter high domed atrium lobby, the Al Bustan Palace hotel was originally built to host the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit in 1985. Through the years and through the renovation, this luxury resort has maintained the intricately handcrafted wall covers and original carvings, and has earned the reputation as the "jewel of the Sultanate."
Meticulously designed for comfort and convenience, our 250 Muscat hotel rooms and suites have been uniquely appointed to reflect both local traditions and art deco influences. Each of our luxurious guest rooms and hotel suites in Oman feature magnificent mountain, sea or garden views, plush accommodations, high-speed Internet access and ample work space, making these Muscat suites and hotel rooms perfect for both business and leisure travel alike.
The rooms and suites encompass both contemporary luxury and quality traditional elements with colour palates ranging from warm earth tones, gold with soft cool accents and olive greens. The marriage of functionality and style achieves a design with the most alluring quality.
Offering an array of cuisine, Al Bustan Palace is home to a variety of Oman restaurants and bars just steps from your luxurious resort accommodations.
From the China Mood featuring fresh and authentic Chinese cuisine to the all-day buffet at the Al Khiran Terrace restaurant and the casual seaside Beach Pavilion Restaurant & Bar, our onsite Al Bustan restaurants are sure to please even the most discerning palates.


text:
2005 -- Joined the rowing program after her senior season on the varsity soccer team ... Earned first varsity letter in rowing after competing in the novice eight that placed fifth at the Pac-10 Championships ... Part of the novice eight that captured the Miller Cup (Apr. 16) ... Rowed the three seat in wins against LMU and Stanford (Apr. 23) ... Named to Director's Honor Roll every quarter throughout the year.
UCLA Soccer -- Earned four varsity letters under coach Jillian Ellis ... First-team All-Pac-10 Academic selection her sophomore and junior seasons ... First-team CoSIDA Academic All-American her junior season ... In her sophomore campaign in 2002, she played in all 22 matches, starting 20 ... Finished the season with an 0.56 goals against average, ranking second in the Pac-10 ... In 2003, played in 10 matches, starting nine ... Missed the final 11 matches of her junior season due to a knee injury.
High School -- Earned four varsity letters in soccer for coach Teri Collins ... Regarded as one of the top goalkeepers in the nation out of Long Beach Poly High School ... Former member of the Under-16 U.S. National Soccer Team.
Personal -- Full name is Sarah Ruth Lombardo ... Daughter of Joseph and Joyce ... Has two brothers, Alex and Nick ... Enjoys cooking, candle-making and photography ... Born June 23, 1983 in Long Beach, CA ... Molecular, cellular and developmental biology major.


text:
The 2003-2004-soccer program is in progress at the Sorrentino Recreational Center. Pictured are the Sorrentino kids taking part in the Citiwide Soccer Clinic at Frederick Douglass Playground in Manhattan. With the guidance of Mr. Raymond Desmarets, the center takes pride in teaching the 2003 Queens champions in all of levels of the game. The program's practices days are Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The tournament days and times will be announced. For further information, call Raymond Desmarets at the Sorrentino Center at 718-471-4818.
Copyright 1999 - 2016 Wave Publishing Co. All Rights Reserved


text:
How to Invest After Being Retired
Original post by Lisa Bigelow of Demand Media
When you retire, you're ready to reap the rewards of the investments that you've worked so diligently to grow over the decades. But just because you quit your day job, doesn't mean you're going to stop investing. And because today's retirees are living longer than those of previous generations, maintaining an investment strategy is essential to helping provide a comfortable retirement.
Step 1
Anticipate your life expectancy. When doing so, it's better to over estimate than to under estimate, as you don't want to outlive your funds. Assuming that you retire at age 65, planning for an additional 20 to 30 years is reasonable.
Step 2
Develop a budget that meets your lifestyle's needs. It's critical to decide how much you're able to spend once you're on a fixed income, including pension payments, 401(k) withdrawals and Social Security. Many retirees plan to travel or pursue hobbies; be sure to include extra funds for those activities. Also, you may need extra funds for medical expenses several years down the road.
Step 3
Decide your investment mix to match your anticipated lifestyle. You don't want to run out of money too soon, or spend so little that you can't enjoy your retirement. Retirees' investments should grow faster than what they are withdrawing for the first six to eight years of retirement, then match those withdrawals for the next 10. After this period, you may elect to increase principal withdrawals while focusing less on capital appreciation.
Step 4
Change your investment mix for the first six to eight years. While conventional wisdom suggests that retirees should only invest in guaranteed bonds, that strategy reduces the likelihood that the capital's appreciation will outstrip your withdrawals. As a result, having a small percentage of your investments in equities can be a good strategy. Because equities are riskier than bonds, you must decide how much risk you can live with. Many professional advisers suggest a mix of 80 percent bonds to 20 percent equities.
Step 5
Change your investment mix for the following 10 years. You may want to reduce your equities exposure further at this point because at this point in your retirement, you'll likely want to reduce the risk of your investments. For example, you may want to hold less than 20 percent of your portfolio in stocks, with the rest in guaranteed bonds. Keep in mind that you'll want to make sure your investments are outpacing inflation.
Step 6
Consider speaking to a financial adviser. Many factors determine how you should plan your retirement savings. Whether or not you own your own home, where you live, what your plans are post-retirement and your health needs are just a few. You may also decide that you want to leave a legacy for a charity or for your children. As a result, your personal plans and the amount of risk you're willing to take will play a large role in your decisions.
Tips & Warnings
- A financial adviser can help you organize a long-term investment strategy during your retirement.
Things Needed
- List of income sources, such as investments, pensions and Social Security payments
- Expenses, including a budget for leisure activities and possible increased medical costs
- Cracker Jack Greenback: What Asset Allocation Should I Use in Retirement?;
- Made Man; How to Invest After Retirement; JB Todd
- Economic Times; How to Invest After You Retire; Nupur Anand, Khyati Dharamsi and Preeti Kulkarni; Feb. 7, 2011
About the Author
Lisa Bigelow is a freelance writer and editor. She is a former financial analyst and worked at a college, a media company and an investment bank. She also contributes to Patch. Lisa graduated from the State University of New York, Plattsburgh with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics.
Photo Credits
- Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images


text:
The photographs in this collection were made from June 9 through June 12, 2012, in the house that my family moved into in 1961. My mother has entered her sixth decade living there. The pictures were made using Instagram on an iPhone 4.
Grew up in the S.F. Bay Area, attended UC Berkeley undergrad, grad school in architecture and graphic design, MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Exhibited at SFMOMA, The Walker, Chicago Art Institute, and Des Moines Art Center, among others. Taught college art and photography until mid-'90s, published a regional magazine, worked in PR, web design, and marcom. Still making art and exhibiting and working the marcom day job.
Comentario publicado.
Inicia sesión o crea una cuenta para publicar un comentario.
flora Publicado 11 de diciembre de 2012
an India Publicado 03 de septiembre de 2011
Twenty-Eight Publicado 04 de julio de 2011
symmetry a symmetry Publicado 02 de junio de 2009


text:
Redneck party ideas bring out the hillbilly in all of us. A party theme that allows for the most tacky decorations, cheap processed food and an event full of laughs, jokes and silly fun.
Use the following material for your redneck party invitation:
Toilet Paper
Toilet Paper Rolls
Beer Can
Beer Can Labels
Brown Paper Bags
Old Leftover Holiday Cards
Don't forget to write on the invitation for guests to bring their cousins and use words such as: ain't, ya'll, c'mon, etc.
Though you could have the party inside, a redneck party is best held outdoors if you really want to go all out with the decorating.
Items you can place around the room or yard:
These items are specifically for an outdoor party:
Here are some great sayings that you can add around the party area:
The best kind of music to play for a redneck party would be country or southern rock. Here are a few artists you might want to add:
Your redneck party ideas would not be complete without sending your guests home with one of these fun favors:
Plastic flowers
Fly swatters
Rolls of toilet paper
Whoopie Cushion
Plastic pink flamingoes
Beer mug
Camouflage sunglasses
Duct tape
Kraft Dinner
Toilet Bowl
Beer Can
Dirt Pile with Pickup Trucks
If making a larger cake, you can use beer cans or bottles as pillars to separate your cake layers.
Costume Contest
Ripped shirts and jeans, shirt with the sleeves cut off or rolled up, cut off shorts, white t-shirt stained with mustard and/or bbq sauce, flannel and plaid shorts, overalls, trucker hat. Don't forget the beer belly, blacked out tooth and mullet hairstyle.
Food Contest
Gift Exchange
Try these foods when planning your redneck party ideas:
From Redneck Party Ideas Back To Adult Party Ideas
From Redneck Party Ideas Back To Home Page


text:
Popular Lyrics
Billboard Hot 100
Upcoming Lyrics
Recently Added
Top Lyrics of 2011
Top Lyrics of 2010
Top Lyrics of 2009
More »
Popular Artists
Artists A-Z
Popular Albums
Upcoming Albums
Katy Perry
Lady Gaga
Lil Wayne
Hip Hop/Rap
All Genres »
All News
Daily Roundup
Album Reviews
Song Reviews
Sign InRegister
Artist: Them
Album: The Story Of Them Featuring Van Morrison
Genre: Blues
Call it stormy Monday
Lord, but Tuesday's just as bad
You know they call it stormy Monday
Lord, but Tuesday's just as bad
And Wednesday's are worse
And Thursday's, oh, so sad
The eagle flies on Friday
Lord, and Saturday we go out and play
The eagle flies on Friday
Well, Lord, and Saturday we go out an play
Uh, huh, huh
And Sunday we go to church
And I kneel down and pray
And this is what I say
Look, Lord, have mercy
Lord, have mercy on me
I do, I cry, Lord, have mercy
Lord, have mercy on me, on me, um
You know, I'm tryin', tryin' to find my baby
Won't somebody please send her on home to me?
Oh, Lord
Lyrics powered by www.musiXmatch.com
In my own minds eye it means,when you hit rock bottom.... there is only one way to go.... get.back up in the saddle !
Get the embed code
Them Lyrics provided by SongLyrics.com
Note: When you embed the widget in your site, it will match your site's styles (CSS). This is just a preview!
Preview the embedded widget
Cannot annotate a non-flat selection. Make sure your selection
starts and ends within the same node.
An annotation cannot contain another annotation.


text:
Learn The Art Of Eco Parenting With These Healthy Green Ways
They say if you want to make a big change in the world, the home is a great place to start! Saving nature and natural resources can be initiated by anybody and everybody at any stage of their lives. An eco-friendly spirit can be embraced in the smallest of things like using eco-friendly yoga mats which do not cause disposal problems after wear and tear, especially when it comes to larger aspects of living like parenting.
Eco-friendly parenting is not only a great way to contribute to a greener environment, but is also a healthier lifestyle option for your baby.
Here are 6 great tips which can help you with your quest in eco-friendly parenting:
Diapers are indispensable to parents these days. They are healthy, keep the baby's skin dry and also make sure that your favorite dress never gets drenched with baby poop and pee. But the awful truth about disposable diapers is:
They take anything between 200-400 years to decompose
Almost 27.4 billion single use diapers are sold annually in USA alone
92 % of these diapers end up in a landfill
Cloth diapers could be considered as an option. They might not be effective for an evening around town, but when you are spending time with you baby at home, there is no reason why you cannot snap a cloth diaper on! Most grocery stores these days stock cloth diapers and most of them come with easy to use Velcro straps, reducing the complexity of having to tie them on.
The most ideal solution, however, is a little more expensive than your average disposable diapers, is the eco-friendly diaper. They are available in most grocery stores, perform the same functions as a regular diaper and are easier to dispose as they decompose easily.
Baby Food
Invest in a food processor and try to cook most of your baby food from organic fruits and vegetables at home. Not only will this save you all the money you spend on baby food jars at the supermarket, but it will also ensure that your baby is eating healthy. The baby food jars are difficult to dispose. They do not usually get recycled. Go for recycled containers and see the difference in your life.
The amount of time, resources and material used in churning out baby clothes almost every day is absolutely shocking. It is no news that babies tend to grow out of their clothes very soon. So do toddlers. Your baby has no sense of dressing or an attachment to a particular dress. Get a little broad minded and get used to the idea of dressing your baby in some hand-me-downs. You can always wash and disinfect the clothes before dressing your baby in them. Keep in mind that most parents like you love their babies. Baby clothes, more often than not, have been handled with care. Try passing on your baby's clothes once he/she has grown out of it.
Green Parties and Gatherings
Whether it is a party to welcome your newborn home or to celebrate his or her birthday; keep your theme green. Discourage the use of plastics and encourage the use of disposable or recyclable paper. Save on paper by sending invites instead of formal invitations. Encourage your guests to contribute further to the green theme of your party.
Green Cleaning
Say NO to all the toxic cleaning material accumulated in your house. Your house can be fresh and hygienic for your baby without the use of chemical heavy cleaning agents. Try using eco-friendly products. Homemade solutions like 2:1 ratio of vinegar and water can help you scrub the grime off your shower as effectively as any other cleaning agents. The internet is loaded with helpful, natural ways to keep your house clean and disinfected!
Chris Ronald is the author of this blog post. He believes in living an Eco friendly life and recommends using organic cleaning products through his website that can help you do your bit to save the environment.


text:
There is major news in Rubyland today. MacRuby's team just released their fist beta of version 0.5 (an experimental, still incomplete version of Ruby), which brings JIT, removal of the dreaded GIL (Global Interpreter Lock), native threads, GCD (Grand Central Dispatch) for multicore computing, and a whole new set of features found in the release announcement to the table.
The most important new feature is the presence of a compiler. That's right, thanks to this release, Ruby code can now become highly optimized executable code. How awesome is that? I can sense that you're pumped by this news, so why not head over to MacRuby.com and download the installation file for yourself? After you've done that, the next thing you're going to want to do is run a small test like the following:
$ macrubyc world_domination.rb -o world_domination
Can't locate program `llc'
Oh noes! llc is a tool that ships with the LLVM (upon which MacRuby is built), however it's not included with MacRuby's installer (it will be in the future). But fear not my friends, there is a solution:
$ svn co -r 82747 https://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm-trunk
$ cd llvm-trunk
$ ./configure
$ UNIVERSAL=1 UNIVERSAL_ARCH="i386 x86_64" ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 make -j2
$ sudo env UNIVERSAL=1 UNIVERSAL_ARCH="i386 x86_64" ENABLE_OPTIMIZED=1 make install
If your machine does not have 2 cores, remove the -j2 option from the fourth line or adjust the number accordingly.
The compilation phase may take a couple of centuries, depending on your machine's speed, but it should eventually build the LLVM. 😛 llc will be placed in your PATH, and you'll finally be able to compile Ruby code and obtain an executable to help you carry out your world domination plans.
$ macrubyc world_domination.rb -o world_domination
$ ./world_domination
If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my Newsletter and/or Feed.
Yep… it looks like it's really getting up to become a pretty awesome piece of code.
If/when you have some time, it would be nice to see how the new .5 fairs against the rest in the great ruby shootout.
Worked as expected. Thats pretty incredible! Thanks for the instructions Antonio.
Would love to see you redo some of your earlier benchmarks using the compiled version of macruby 0.5 and see how it fares.
Thats pretty cool. I think there are some restrictions. A simple hello world worked fine. However, a generic tcp server did not.
Hey, I'm running into issue after issue with ./configure.
Right now I'm getting "checking for C compiler default output file name… configure: error: C compiler cannot create executables".
In the error log, it looks like the problem is:
configure:2826: $? = 0
configure:2833: gcc -V >&5
gcc-4.0: argument to `-V' is missing
configure:2836: $? = 1
configure:2859: checking for C compiler default output file name
configure:2886: gcc conftest.c >&5
ld: library not found for -lcrt1.10.5.o
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
configure:2889: $? = 1
Any ideas?
I sincerely welcome and appreciate your comments, whether in agreement or dissenting with my article. However, trolling will not be tolerated. Comments are automatically closed 15 days after the publication of each article.