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Helgeson VS, Cohen S, Schulz R, Yasko J. Education and Peer Discussion Group Interventions and Adjustment to Breast Cancer. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1999;56(4):340-347. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.56.4.340
© 2017
We report a clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of education-based and peer discussion–based group interventions on adjustment to breast cancer.
Women with stage I, II, or III breast cancer (n=312) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 group conditions: control, education, peer discussion, or education plus peer discussion (combination). Seven groups (each comprising 8-12 women) were conducted in each of the 4 conditions (28 groups total). Adjustment was measured before the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and 6 months after the intervention.
Consistently positive effects on adjustment were seen in the education groups both immediately following and 6 months after the intervention. There were no benefits of participation in peer discussion groups, and some indications of adverse effects on adjustment at both follow-up examinations. The effects could be explained by changes in self-esteem, body image, and intrusive thoughts about the illness.
Education-based group interventions facilitated the initial adjustment of women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer. There was no evidence of benefits from peer discussion group interventions.
EVIDENCE EXISTS that psychotherapeutic group interventions conducted by professional therapists facilitate adjustment to disease among people with cancer.1,2 However, the costs associated with formal psychotherapy groups preclude communities from using them. Instead, community support groups borrow some of the cognitive and behavioral principles of psychotherapy, often focusing on providing emotional support through peer discussion and informational support through education. Education-based group interventions seem to produce more consistent, positive effects on adjustment than peer discussion group interventions.3 However, most interventions include components of both education and peer discussion, making it difficult to determine which is responsible for positive effects on adjustment.4,5
We compared the effects of education-based and peer discussion–based group interventions among women with stage I, II, and III breast cancer. An educational intervention was developed to provide patients with informational support, which we expected would enhance their sense of control over the illness and reduce feelings of uncertainty and confusion associated with the illness. A peer discussion group intervention was developed to provide patients with emotional support, which we expected would enhance self-image and promote positive downward comparisons (ie, feeling lucky in comparison with others who were worse off), both of which have been shown to enhance self-esteem.6 Both interventions were expected to reduce intrusive thoughts about the illness.
We recruited a sample of 312 women and randomly assigned them to 1 of 4 group categories: control, education, peer discussion, or education plus peer discussion (combination). Seven groups in each of the 4 conditions were conducted.
Previous research suggests that women with breast cancer want emotional and informational support. Thus, we expected combination groups to be the best adjusted. We predicted that both education-based and peer discussion interventions would enhance adjustment to disease, but did not predict that one would be more effective than the other.
Women who had stage I or II breast cancer, were being treated with surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy, and lived within a 1-hour radius of Pittsburgh, Pa, were eligible for the study. We contacted 445 patients from more than 40 medical oncologists' offices, and 364 (82%) agreed to participate. Of those, 312 agreed to randomization and provided informed consent. Thus, our effective recruitment rate was 70%.
The age of the participants ranged from 27 to 75 years (mean, 48.25 years; SD, 9.64 years). Although physicians' offices were supposed to refer women with stage I and II disease only, our examination of medical records using the National Cancer Institute criteria for staging revealed that 25% had stage I disease, 69% had stage II disease, and 6% had stage III disease. Most women underwent lumpectomies (68%) rather than mastectomies (32%), which is consistent with the norms for the Pittsburgh area. Other demographic information is given in Table 1.
Group meetings were held in 1 of 3 sites in the Pittsburgh area. When 10 to 12 women had been recruited for a site, we randomized the group to 1 of 4 conditions (control, peer discussion, education, or combination). Women were not told the condition to which they would be assigned during recruitment or during the baseline (time 1 [t1]) interview conducted prior to the intervention. Equal numbers of groups from each condition were conducted at each of the 3 sites. There were 28 groups consisting of 7 control groups (n=77), 7 education groups (n=79), 7 peer discussion groups (n=74), and 7 combination groups (n=82).
Groups met weekly for 8 consecutive weeks. The peer discussion and education groups met for 60 and 45 minutes, respectively. The combination group included 45 minutes of education followed by 60 minutes of peer discussion. The time 2 (t2) interview, conducted by telephone and mailed questionnaire, took place 1 to 2 weeks after the intervention ended. Time 3 (t3) data were collected from a mailed questionnaire sent 6 months after the intervention.
An oncology nurse and an oncology social worker, both with masters degrees, with experience conducting support groups for people with cancer acted as facilitators. They attended a 1-day workshop where the content of the education and peer discussion interventions was reviewed and guidelines for conducting the groups were provided. Each facilitator led all 3 of the interventions to eliminate the possibility that the results were affected by difference in facilitator. Audiotapes of sessions were monitored to ensure that the goals (described in each group intervention section) were being met.
Patients in the control group did not attend any group meetings.
The education intervention aimed to provide information about breast cancer and how to manage the disease and adverse effects of treatment. The theme was finding ways to enhance patient control of the illness. The information was provided either by a facilitator or by an expert in the field. In the 8 sessions, the following topics were covered: statement of the theme of control and an overview of breast cancer (presented by the facilitators), adverse effects of chemotherapy (nurse), nutrition (dietitian), exercise (physical therapist), body image (image consultant), communication (facilitators), future health care issues (physician), and relationships/sexuality (facilitators). Patients were taught a brief relaxation procedure at the third meeting and were given a relaxation audiotape. Subsequent meetings ended with relaxation.
Information was disseminated in lecture format. Facilitators discouraged discussion among the women. At the end of the 8 weeks, 1 facilitator called each patient once per month for 3 months to reinforce the principles of the group and to answer patients' questions.
Facilitators were instructed to encourage patients to help each other, as the "helper-therapy" principle is said to be a key principle of peer discussion groups.7- 10 Facilitators were told to promote feelings of acceptance and to encourage the expression of feelings (positive and negative) and confrontation of problems,9- 11 but were to avoid letting groups deteriorate into complaining sessions. Facilitators were instructed to take a positive approach to the group by encouraging members to learn something from the experience. Facilitators could not provide unsolicited information to the group, but could respond to patients' questions and correct misinformation.
Groups were structured to encourage discussion among patients. Workbooks were provided each week, wherein patients could record problems or thoughts related to their illness daily. Facilitators began each meeting by asking patients if they had any thoughts to share with the group. With patients' consent, a list of group members' names and telephone numbers was exchanged at the last meeting. At the end of the 8 weeks, 3 additional monthly meetings were held.
The combined intervention was a sequential combination, beginning with education and ending with peer discussion. At the end of the 8 weeks, 3 additional combined treatment meetings were held.
We used the Medical Outcomes Study, short form, 36 items (MOS SF-36) 12 to measure health-related quality of life. This instrument has excellent reliability and validity and has been used successfully to evaluate functional status in more than 20,000 depressed, chronically ill, and healthy patients.13 It contains 8 multi-item scales: general health perceptions, physical functioning, role limitations due to physical problems, bodily pain, general mental health, vitality, role limitations due to emotional problems, and social functioning. Factor weights have been derived for the 8 scales, so that a mental health component score (MCS) and a physical health component score (PCS) can be created.14 In our study, principal components analysis, followed by varimax rotation of the 36 items, revealed 8 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1. Items loaded on their respective 8 scales. Cronbach α for the scales were high (range, .81-.91).
We also administered the Positive and Negative Affect scale.15 The reliability of the 10-item positive affect scale was good (coefficient α=.86), as was the reliability of the negative affect scale (coefficient α=.87).
We assessed several proposed pathways by which interventions might influence adjustment. Internal consistencies are given in parentheses. We expected both interventions to reduce intrusive and avoidance thoughts about the illness, which were measured with the Impact of Event Scale16 (coefficient α =.88 and .83, respectively). We expected the peer discussion intervention to enhance self-image and to increase positive social comparisons. We used the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale17 to measure global self-esteem (coefficient α=.83) and developed a body image scale based on the Cancer Rehabilitation Evaluation System18 (coefficient α=.89). We adapted a previous social comparison instrument19,20 for parents of children with disabilities to persons with cancer.
We were particularly interested in positive downward comparisons (ie, feeling lucky when seeing someone who is worse off; coefficient α=.58) and negative downward comparisons (ie, feeling fearful when seeing someone who is worse off; coefficient α=.57). The low α levels for the latter 2 scales are partly owing to the fact that the scales comprise only 3 items.
We expected the educational intervention to enhance personal control and to reduce uncertainty about the illness. We measured perceived personal control21- 24 (coefficient α=.70), vicarious control21- 24 (ie, other control; coefficient α=.70), and illness uncertainty25 (coefficient α=.71). We developed a 10-item measure of negative interactions with network members, based on research on failed support attempts26,27 (coefficient α=.85), and a face-valid index that reflected how often patients discussed their illness with network members (coefficient α=.82).
All of the instruments were administered at t1, t2, and t3, except the social comparison and social interaction questions (t1 and t2 only) and the Impact of Event Scale (t2 and t3 only).
We determined whether random assignment was effective with respect to t1 adjustment as well as medical variables (disease stage, surgery, family history of breast cancer, presence of other health problems), demographic variables (age, education, income, marital status, religion, employment status), and use of other supportive services with analyses of variance when outcome variables were continuous and χ2 analyses when outcome variables were categorical. Education and peer discussion were between-group factors. In comparisons that only involved the 3 intervention conditions, we used 1-way analysis of variance with intervention as the between-group factor. Individuals were used as the unit of analysis for t1 variables because women had not been assigned to a group.
Because we had a complete factorial design (education × peer discussion), we conducted 2 (education [no, yes]) × 2 (peer discussion [no, yes]) analyses of covariance on t2 and t3 adjustment indices (MCS, PCS, positive affect, negative affect), controlling for the respective t1 variable. An α level of .05 was used for all tests. We analyzed the data fitting random regression models28 using a split-plot analysis of variance and linear mixed effects software (S-Plus 4; MathSoft, Seattle, Wash).29 The individual woman was the unit of analysis. This analytic procedure takes into account the variability due to the woman's individual characteristics and the variability due to being a member of a particular group.28 We analyzed the individual MOS SF-36 scales and summarized their results, but do not present the data in this article. These data are available from the authors on request.
We conducted all analyses using 3 methods. First, we included all participants who were randomly assigned to a group condition. Second, we excluded women who never attended the group meetings. Third, we included women who attended at least 4 meetings. The pattern of results remained the same across the 3 analyses, often showing an increasing effect of the intervention, since those who did not attend meetings or attended only a few times were excluded. We report results using all participants, the most conservative test of our hypothesis.
We examined the psychosocial pathways by which interventions influenced adjustment by linear regression analysis.30 First, we present the regression equation that shows the intervention effect, including the regression coefficient, the F statistic for the coefficient, and the R2 for the equation. Second, we present the regression equation that contains the potential mediating variable along with the intervention effect. We then compare the magnitude and significance of the regression coefficient for the intervention effect from the first equation to the second equation as well as the significance of the potential mediator.30 Mediating variables were computed as residualized change scores (ie, predicting the t2 or t3 mediator from its respective t1 measure). A variable operates as a mediator to the extent that its inclusion in the equation reduces the effect of the intervention on adjustment.
Intervention condition was not associated with medical variables, demographic variables, or use of other support services (all P>.10). There was a single intervention effect on one t1 outcome, t1 negative effect, and it was an interaction between peer discussion and education, F1,308=8.14, P<.01. Higher initial negative affect was observed in education-only (mean, 2.17; SD, 0.80) and peer discussion–only groups (mean, 2.17; SD, 0.86) than in combination (mean, 1.98; SD, 0.81) and control (mean, 1.84; SD, 0.70) groups. Thus, we conducted all analyses on t2 and t3 adjustment by controlling for the respective t1 measure.
There were no condition differences in meeting attendance (mean, 5.03; SD, 2.67; mode, 7). The primary reason for not attending was adverse effects of chemotherapy—two thirds of the women were undergoing chemotherapy during the intervention.
We determined whether patients in the education groups acquired more information than patients in the other groups by administering a quiz at t1 and t2 that reflected knowledge of breast cancer and its treatment and how to cope with adverse effects of treatment. Patients in the education groups had higher quiz scores (mean, 9.82; SD, 2.54) than those in the other groups (mean, 9.03; SD, 2.33; F1,296=15.77; P<.001).
We determined whether bonds were formed in peer discussion groups (peer discussion and combination) relative to the education group by asking women how close they thought the group was and how close they felt to the group on a scale from 1 (not at all close) to 5 (extremely close). We averaged responses to the 2 questions. There was a greater feeling of closeness in the peer discussion group (mean, 3.86; SD, 1.03) and combination group (mean, 3.89; SD, 1.09) than in the education group (mean, 3.61; SD, 1.24), but the difference was not statistically significant. Six months after the the intervention groups stopped meeting (t3), women in the peer discussion group were more likely to continue to meet with other women from their group (42%) than women in the education (16%) or combination (13%) groups, χ22=14.51, P<.001.
After the group meetings ended, we asked women to rate their satisfaction with the group (1, completely dissatisfied; 7, completely satisfied) and whether they found the group to be a worthwhile experience (1, not at all worthwhile; 7, extremely worthwhile). There were no response differences across the 3 interventions. Mean (SD) responses to the 2 questions were 5.96 (1.53) and 6.08 (1.53), respectively.
Education conditions had marginally higher MCS and significantly higher PCS scores—which indicates better functioning—than no education conditions. There were no effects of education or peer discussion on positive or negative affect. F values, adjusted means, and SEs are given in Table 2.
Analyses of the 8 individual MOS SF-36 scales revealed significant positive effects of education groups on vitality, social functioning, physical functioning, and role limitations due to physical health, and marginal effects on general health. Peer discussion groups had negative effects on vitality and physical functioning.
As given in Table 3, education groups showed better functioning on all 4 outcome measures, significantly so for PCS and positive affect. Peer discussion groups had a slightly higher negative affect than groups without peer discussion.
Univariate analyses of the 8 MOS SF-36 scales showed significant positive effects of education for social functioning, physical functioning, and role limitations due to physical health, and marginal effects on mental health, vitality, and role limitations due to emotional health. Peer discussion had a significantly adverse effect on vitality and a marginally adverse effect on social functioning.
First, we examined the extent to which hypothesized mediating variables were influenced by the intervention (Table 4). Then, we examined the extent to which mediators accounted for intervention effects (Table 5).
As presented in Table 4, patients assigned to education groups had higher self-esteem, better body image, less uncertainty about their illness, and were more likely to discuss the illness with family and friends than patients who were not assigned to education groups.
As presented in Table 5, the education effect on t2 PCS (given in equation 1) became nonsignificant when either residualized self-esteem or residualized body image was entered into the second equation. In both cases, the mediator was significant. Neither illness discussion nor uncertainty substantially altered the education effect. The education effect on t2 MCS was most reduced when residualized self-esteem or residualized illness discussion was included in the equation.
As given in Table 4, peer discussion conditions showed more negative interactions with network members and more negative downward comparisons than no peer discussion conditions. Peer discussion did not affect the overall t2 adjustment indices, so mediation was not tested.
As presented in the lower half of Table 4, patients in education groups had greater personal control, less vicarious control, and fewer intrusive thoughts about the illness compared with patients who were not in education groups. As given in Table 5, the only mediator that reduced the size of the education effect on t3 adjustment indices was reduced intrusive thoughts.
As presented in the lower panel of Table 4, patients in peer discussion groups had greater intrusive and avoidant thoughts compared with patients not in peer discussion groups. Peer discussion did not have significant effects on the overall t3 adjustment indices, so mediation was not tested.
This is the largest randomized group intervention conducted with people who have cancer. Across an array of mental and physical functioning indices, educational groups showed benefits for women with early-stage breast cancer. These effects were maintained for 6 months, and even held in conservative analyses where the variability of the individual group of women was taken into consideration in the analysis.
Education interventions increased psychological and physical functioning largely by enhancing self-esteem, instilling a positive body image, and reducing disturbing intrusive thoughts about the illness. The psychological mechanisms that underlie the positive effects of education were somewhat surprising, as these were the mechanisms thought to underlie effective peer discussion groups. The receipt of information about one's illness and possible ways to cope with it may make women feel better about themselves in general and about their bodies in particular. The information may have directly increased self-image or altered health behaviors, which then boosted self-esteem.
Providing information to women about their disease and its consequences also may have helped them make sense of the experience, which then reduced intrusive thoughts about the disease. Education groups also increased illness discussions with network members, which may have contributed to the decrease in intrusive thoughts about the illness.
The education intervention we evaluated is easily transferable to the community. Most effects are modest, but the magnitude of education effects on several scales of the MOS SF-36 is large. The effect of the educational intervention on physical functioning at t2 and social functioning at t3 is greater than the reported difference between individuals with current major depression vs subthreshold depression.31 The effects on social functioning are equivalent to the effect of remission from major depression.
There are several limitations to these findings. First, it is possible that the benefits of the educational group were owing to the group context rather than the information provided. Future research needs to distinguish effects of information from effects of group interaction. Second, because the sample consisted of highly educated people, the education intervention may have been more valued than average.
Through the 6-month follow-up, no evidence was found for positive effects of peer discussion and some hints of adverse effects on vitality and negative affect. Unexpectedly, peer discussion groups increased womens' negative downward comparisons shortly after the intervention. Downward comparisons are not always positive (ie, feeling lucky). Bringing people together who face a common problem may have the unintended effect of increasing their anxiety about their condition (ie, feeling fearful and anxious when seeing someone who is worse off). That negative downward comparisons were problematic is surprising because participants were in the early stages of disease and no one had a recurrence during the 8 weeks in which the groups met. However, women could compare on other dimensions, such as varying adverse effects of chemotherapy and number of cancerous lymph nodes.
It also is disturbing that women assigned to peer discussion groups reported more negative interactions with network members compared with other women. Attending support groups may alter perceptions of existing support or disrupt relations with family and friends.
We do not conclude that women with breast cancer do not benefit from emotional support. Such a conclusion would contradict a vast literature.3 However, peers may not be the most helpful source of emotional support to women with early-stage breast cancer. Efforts could instead be placed on strengthening existing social networks rather than creating new ones. It also is possible that peer discussion groups are only effective when led by professional therapists and when groups are psychotherapeutic in nature. Spiegel et al11 found benefits of a year-long intervention, described as group psychotherapy rather than facilitated peer discussion, among women with metastatic breast cancer. The intervention by Spiegel et al11 is obviously more costly than the interventions we designed. Because our facilitated peer discussion group more closely resembles community support groups, practitioners should at least be aware of the problems that may arise when conducting such groups.
Accepted for publication August 7, 1998.
This research was funded by grant R01CA61303 from the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md (Dr Helgeson). Dr Cohen's participation was supported by Senior Scientist Award MH00721 from the National Institutes of Health.
Presented in part at the annual meeting of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, San Francisco, Calif, March 18, 1997.
We thank David Spiegel, MD, and the 3 anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous draft of the manuscript. We also thank the facilitators and speakers who conducted the groups and the more than 40 physicians who referred patients to the study. We also thank Pamela Blair, BA; Laura Bogart, PhD; Karen Pealer, BA; and Pamela Snyder, MA, for their invaluable assistance with this research, and Brian Junker, PhD; Joel Greenhouse, PhD; and Alix Gitelman, MS, for their statistical support.
Reprints: Vicki S. Helgeson, PhD, Psychology Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.


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1783, from atmosphere + -ic. In a sense of "creating a mood or mental environment" it is from 1908. Atmospherics "disturbances in wireless communication" is from 1905.


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As reported by my colleague, Nathaniel Downes here at Addicting Info, the Senate passed a filibuster reform bill last Thursday receiving mixed reviews by both conservatives and progressives alike. According to The Heritage Foundation:
Reid envisions a Senate that procedurally mirrors the House of Representatives, not the Senatorial saucer where legislation is poured from the House to cool, as the Founders intended.
How is it that the Heritage Foundation knows the intentions of our Founders, especially since the word filibuster does not even appear in our Constitution? Answer: They couldn't know, and they don't! In fact, the filibuster remained nothing more than a theoretical notion until 1830, when it was first introduced into the legislative body.


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Approximately 30 students at North Elementary have been running, stretching, playing a skill game or two and listening to a short talk on nutrition two mornings per week since early January with the goal of being more fit and doing better academically.
Physical education instructors Kelly Dorr and Josie Zytkovicz lead a group of students in grades three through five in the program Build Our Kids' Success, or BOKS.
The BOKS routine runs 30-40 minutes Tuesdays and Thursday mornings. Each session emphasizes a physical skill, such as, on March 13, "walking lunges," where students walked in such a way as to stretch and strengthen the legs. The participants also formed into small groups and ran up and down the gym while tossing a ball between group members.
A BOKS website states that "exercise is the single most powerful tool that we have to optimize the function of our brains." It also states that the BOKS before-school physical activity program is designed to "jump-start kids' brains and prepare them for a day of learning."
North Elementary paraprofessional Sara Clemons said, "We're seeing huge improvements" in kids being more ready for learning after exercising before school. Exercise releases endorphins in the brain, resulting in students being less easily agitated, Clemons added.
The kids also enjoy the BOKS activities, Dorr said.
Zytkovicz had a picture of two brain scans that illustrated the brain having more activity after the exercise than before. BOKS literature cites studies in Georgia, Illinois and California showing that students who exercised significantly improved their intelligence test scores and core subjects at school, compared to their inactive counterparts.
Reebok awarded a $1,000 BOKS grant to North Elementary for this school year, with half of that given up front and the rest to come after the 12-week BOKS activity ends. Dorr said the money received up front was used to buy BOKS T-shirts for the participants and the last half of the grant will be used to restart the BOKS activity next school year.


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Wade Boggs went to bat and defended himself over comments made by former Boston Red Sox teammate Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd.
Boyd, who has been promoting his autobiography due out in June, accused Boggs of being a bigot and using the "n-word" every day.
OIL CAN BOYD: Calls Boggs a bigot
Boggs, who was very emotional during the interview, vehemently objected Boyd's accusation.
"Absolutely, positively, 100 million%, I am not a racist, I am not a bigot," Boggs said on WEEI's Dennis & Callahan's radio show. "You have a delusional drug addict who let not only his family down, but his team, the city of Boston, Red Sox Nation when it counted most. Now he wants the good people of Boston to go out and spend money on this garbage to support his habit. I find that extremely amusing."
His wife Debbie and father, who Boyd said was the source of the racism, joined the conversation to defend Boggs.
"I have never heard either one of them use the word that starts with an 'N' in public or even in private," said Debbie Boggs. "They never used that word. We have relatives that are African American in our immediate family. They are so hurt."
Boyd, 52, were teammeates for eight seasons (1982 to 1989).
Last week, Boyd acknowledged during a radio interview he smoked marijuana every day and being high while talking to the hosts.
Daily Pitch is a baseball fan's destination for breaking news, emerging trends and enlightening banter. With a veteran group of reporters positioned in three time zones, we provide a balanced, comprehensive glimpse at our national pastime, with a nod to both the passion and complexities that make the sport irresistible to many. More about our reporters


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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
One of the most important parts of an autonomous robot is to establish the path by which it should navigate in order to successfully achieve its goals. In the case of
In agricultural robotics, as in other mobile robotic systems, one of the most important parts is the navigation module. This part of the system is in charge of determining the optimal path the robot must follow in order to successfully perform a task (
Reviewing the bibliography, it can be seen that most navigation systems presented up to now are using general sensors like laser or sonar for path planning [
In this paper, a new sensory system based on a
The advantage of this proposed sensory system is that the classifier (ensemble of neural networks) is flexible and provides good generalization ability [
In order to generate a classifier with high performance, an ensemble of neural networks has been generated. An ensemble is a set composed by plural neural networks which are applied to solve the same classification problem. They have been considered for this application because it has been demonstrated that an ensemble composed by some uncorrelated networks (the individual networks do not commit the same errors) provides better generalization ability than a single network [
In this paper, the proposed navigation system is used to test that the information provided by the sensory system (composed by a single camera and a basic ensemble) is useful and accurate. The output of the sensory system is a
This paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, the classification tasks performed in the sensory system will be described. This part involves the capture of the real scenario and all the steps carried out to perform its classification. In Section 3, the whole process to detect the path that the robot should follow with the information provided by the sensory system will be shown. This section involves all the steps done to calculate the final trajectory. The experimental setup and some results are shown in Section 4.
The vision system considered for the application introduced in this paper is based on a color camera with
Moreover, the lighting conditions are different in the three images because the first one was taken in summer and the other two images were taken in winter with one hour gap between them.
Furthermore, the texture of the elements is different in each image. The soil in
For these reasons, an accurate vision system is required for its use in the robotic system. Two different cameras with the same resolution were tested, a
Although better images are obtained with this kind of camera, the problem related to lighting conditions is not avoided. According to some suggestions done in the literature [
The camera used for our sensory sensor is a
The network architecture used in the experiments performed in this paper is the
This kind of networks can approximate any function with a specified precision according to [
For the input layer, the input values,
A learning process, also called training, has to be applied to establish the appropriate values of the connection weights. The first step sets random values to these weights. Then an iterative training algorithm is applied in order to adjust the weights and make them to converge to an "optimal" status. Usually, these training algorithms are based on gradient descend.
The whole process of training a
MF Network Training{
|Set initial weights randomly
| Select pattern
| Adjust the trainable parameters with
| Calculate
| Save epoch weights and calculated
|Select epoch with lowest
To perform the experiments, the original datasets have been divided into three different subsets. The first set is the training set,
The process of designing an ensemble of neural networks consists of two main steps. In the first step, the development of the ensemble, the networks are trained according to the specifications of the ensemble method. The second step, the determination of the suitable combiner, focuses on selecting the most accurate combiner for the generated ensemble.
As has been previously described, the learning process of an artificial neural network is based on minimizing a target function (
Once the initial configuration is randomly set, the network can be trained as a single network. With this ensemble method, known as
Simple Ensemble {
| Generate a random seed value:
| Original Network Training {
|Save Ensemble Configuration
Then, the output of the networks are averaged in order to get the final output of the whole system. This way to combine an ensemble is known as
A neural network, and any classifier, requires a set of inputs which are processed in order to obtain a final prediction. Selecting the most appropriate inputs is an important step because a neural network can provide better performance if they define well the classification problem. For terrain classification in orange groves, the features suggested in [
The features used as inputs in the ensemble are calculated as follows. Firstly, the two-level
In this way, a pattern (element of the captured image) is represented by a 26-dimensional vector which is processed by each network of the ensemble in order to provide its classification.
The proposed sensory system provides an "artificial" image which represents the elements of the captured image. The classification is done block by block so the resolution of this image is lower than the original capture. An example of this "classification image" is shown in
In the classification image [
Depending on the application, the sensory system will provide a
The sensory system which provides the classification image has been introduced in the second section of the paper. Moreover, two representations of the classification image has also been show.
For this application, path planning, the gray scale representation has been selected for classification images because some specific image processing algorithms that have been applied requires this kind of images. Furthermore, the four gray colors shown in Filtering the classification image. Detection of border between classes. Establishing the center of the path line. Determining the path by which the robot should navigate.
Filtering the classification image.
Detection of border between classes.
Establishing the center of the path line.
Determining the path by which the robot should navigate.
Although the classification obtained with the sensory system is accurate, some errors and noisy predictions are located in the boundaries between objects (classes). For this reason, a filtering stage has been introduced.
First of all, all the isolated blocks are removed. The class associated to a block is reassigned if it is not surrounded by another block of the same class. With this procedure some errors (and noise) located near the borders between classes are removed from the classification image.
Then, an erode/dilate filter is used to remove small wrong areas. With this procedure, some errors which were not removed with the previous filter are now eliminated from the classification image. Moreover, the filter to eliminate all the isolated blocks can be applied again after the erode/dilate processing. An example of the classification image before and after the filtering is shown in
These filters have been selected because they are fast, an important feature in real time systems, and they successfully clean classification image by the sensory system. This filtering stage is "specific" in the procedure used to determine the desired path. For this reason, it was not introduced in the sensory system. After filtering the classification image, it is ready to be processed and extract the path.
With the filtered classification image, the path can be determined by detecting the main lines between the land and each orange tree row.
For this detection, an edge detector is used to obtain the blocks which correspond with the borders between two different classes in the filtered classification image. After some experiments, "canny" was chosen as edge detector.
Then, the
Finally, the borders of the grove are represented by the section of these lines located "under" their intersection, (
Once the two representative lines are extracted, borders between land and the two orange tree rows, the path is calculated. Concretely, the center of the path corresponds to the pixels located between these two lines. It means that the distance of the left border to the center of the path is the same as the distance from the right border to the same center for each point of the vertical axis.
With the calculated center of the path and the information provided by other sources (
In the image shown in
The area of interest and an example of subarea (concretely the third subarea) are shown in
Then, the two border lines have been calculated using the information provided only in the corresponding subarea. When the two border lines are calculated, the center of the path can be extracted as done with the general borders.
At first sight it can be noticed that they are different with the general borders shown in
Once the representative lines (borders and centers of the path) are calculated for all the subareas, a better representation of the complete borders and center of the path are obtained. In
In this last stage of the path planning, the desired path by which the robot should navigate is established. In this case, the trajectory is calculated from the bottom center of the image (where the robot is placed) to the center of the path and then continuing moving centered.
A Bézier curve can be calculated using the bottom center of the image and the intersection between the main two border lines using two intermediate control points. However, this approach does not take benefit from the optimization performed in subsection 3.4.
To use the optimization performed, a Bézier curve of 6
With these seven control points, the trajectory of the robot will be approximated using
To perform this first study a simple ensemble of
26 10 4
The parameters of
0.1 0.05 1500
Finally, nine networks have been trained with the previous parameters in order to generate the ensemble. This value, 9 networks, has been chosen because
In the experiments carried out in this paper, the block size have been set to 8 × 8 after testing some different sizes (4 × 4, 8 × 8, 16 × 12, and 16 × 16). With this block size the performance of the ensemble is good enough (as shown with the example classification image) and the resolution of the classification image is not low.
Furthermore, the resolution of the classification image, where a pixel corresponds to the classification of the corresponding image block, should have been 80 × 60 for VGA captures and 8 × 8 blocks (640/8 = 80 and 480/8 = 60). In this case, the distance between blocks corresponds to the block size and there is not any overlap between blocks. However, the resolution of the classification images provided by the introduced sensory system is 159 × 119, almost doubled in each axis. To increase the resolution, the distance between blocks have been reduced by 50% and overlapping between two connected image blocks is allowed.
The generated ensembles have been tested with some captures in order to test the sensory system in path planning. First of all, the training curve of two networks of the generated ensemble are depicted in
In these four figures, it can be seen that the path (drawn with light blue) is properly calculated. On the one hand,
In this paper, a new sensory system based in a
With the classification image, some representative lines are extracted with the Hough transform and the center of the path is established with them. This procedure is applied to the whole image and in five representative subareas of the capture. With these lines, calculated in general and for the five subareas, the final trajectory is set with a Bézier curve of 6th degree.
The results shown in this paper are promising. The desired path is properly calculated in different lighting conditions. The desired path is calculated with the classification provided by
Finally, some further work will be focused on optimizing the classification system. Although the performance of
This paper describes research carried out at the
Image captured at an orange grove placed in Castellón (Spain).
Multilayer feedforward Network.
Classification image in color and gray scale representations.
Classification image before and after filtering.
Borders (boundaries lines) between classes of the classification image.
Hough transform of the classification image.
Detected border lines plot over the capture.
Example image with the representative lines (borders and path).
Example image with the representative borders with the area of interest and an example of subarea. The images are artificially generated from
Example representative borders lines for the third subarea.
Example image with the representative borders for all the subareas.
Visualization of the seven control points used for establishing the trajectory.
Example of the calculated trajectory.
Training curve of two networks (MSE
Some results and the calculated trajectories.


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CHICAGO (AP) — Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is telling abortion rights advocates that Republicans want to roll back women's health gains 50 years.
Sebelius spoke Wednesday at a NARAL Pro-Choice America luncheon in Chicago. She says Republicans are not only working to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, they also want to take away benefits in Medicare, cut back Medicaid and eliminate health services provided by Planned Parenthood.
She says the national health law increases access to birth control, which she calls the single biggest step to reducing the number of abortions.
Sebelius says women have suffered discrimination by insurance companies that considered Viagra an essential medication but birth control a lifestyle choice. She says the Obama administration supports making family planning an essential benefit that insurers must cover.


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She had a rough year in 2007, but Chanelle Hayes is kicking off 2008 with a Caribbean vacation and a vow to find a man.
And she definitely has the right bait to find a boyfriend - Hayes strutted around the beach in a light blue strapless two-piece bathing suit, showing off her sexy form.
It's hard to believe, but having a $20 million house isn't enough for Victoria Beckham. The British babe, along with her soccer stud husband David Beckham is already in talks to move to a more bodacious pad.
They've only been here for a few weeks, but Posh is feeling a bit outdone by the rest of Hollywood's royalty. The modest house that Katie Holmes helped her pick prior to their move isn't enough of a status symbol for the Spice Girl.


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GENEALOGY-DNA-L ArchivesArchiver > GENEALOGY-DNA > 2003-11 > 1068051849
From: (Raymond Whritenour)
Subject: [DNA] Roanoke Setllers?
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 12:04:09 -0500 (EST)
I hate to be always negative, but there are no known descendants of the
Roanoke colony. We don't even know if there were any survivors.
The so-called "Lumbee Indians" of North Carolina claim Roanoke colony
survivors among their ancestors; but "George" is not a surname among
An 8% NA MLE from DNAPrint is way too low to assume you have any NA
ancestry, at all. Only good old-fashioned standard genealogical
research will be capable of answering your questions, in my opinion.
Ray Whritenour
This thread:
|[DNA] Roanoke Setllers? by (Raymond Whritenour)


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Chamber's Independence Day Festival 'a great day'
The Fayette Chamber of Commerce held its 18th annual Independence Day Festival featuring Chevron presents: Fireworks Over Fayette on June 30.
The festival was held on the grounds of the Uniontown Mall and accommodated several thousand visitors between 3 p.m. and dusk. Those in attendance braved the heat to enjoy some delicious food, live entertainment and a number of family-friendly activities.
Local branches of the Lions Club and the United Veterans Association were in attendance, showing their support and raising community awareness.
Several local radio stations also attended the festival.
At the WMBS booth, on-air personality Mike Sackley and station intern Tori Adams gave patrons the chance to spin a wheel and win a number of prizes. Many walked away with mini frisbees, buy-local discount cards, Seven Springs Resort passes, and Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium tickets.
Froggy and Pickle Radio were present, with Froggy himself strolling the crowd and taking photos with all in attendance. On-air personalities Pete Moss and Danger Frog spent a large part of the day playing cornhole with festival-goers.
"We love coming out to support this wonderful event each year," said Pete Moss. "My favorite thing about it is probably all the barbecued food."
"What I love most about coming to the Independence Day Festival here is being able to enjoy the beautiful view all around me," said Danger Frog. "My family and I love the Laurel Mountains, including Ohiopyle and the Stone House Restaurant. We spend as much time in this area as we can."
Although the festival featured many adult activities, including free clinical breast exams, children's entertainment was not in short supply. In between snacking on cotton candy and snow cones, kids of all ages enjoyed face painting by Canvas Creations and a number of inflatable bounce-house obstacle courses.
Tonya Bohatch and Rose Ziglear brought their children, as well as their Girl Scout troop, to the festival. At their Girl Scouts of America booth, children made paper lanterns and other crafts.
"It was important for us to be here today to raise awareness for local troops in the area and spread the message of what we do," said Ziglear. "This entire event promotes what we're about, which is getting out in the community and helping each other."
At the heart of the festival, three live performances entertained festival-goers for the duration of the day. The Neon Swing X-perience kicked things off with a one-of-a-kind show that blended several genres of music.
Local performers Metro had guests singing along to an assortment of hits that spanned three decades, from Journey to Lady Gaga.
Festival headliner Steve Smith brought his band to town for what he called a "rockin', kickin' country show." They delivered just that, as Steve played a banjo he hand-made from the wood on his father's farm.
The West Virginia native started playing music and singing at the age of 12, but he finally put together his perfect band five years ago. Since then, the Steve Smith band has been performing as much as possible at different venues, but Fayette County is one of their favorite locations.
"This is my second home," Smith said. "I never thought I'd meet people who are as good and friendly as the ones from my hometown, until I came here."
The Independence Day Festival marked one show on a long list of upcoming performances for the band, including their "Coming Home to Where it All Started" show in Gandyville, W. Va. on July 5.
Smith said his supporters and some Jackson Farms ice cream are what made him want to participate in the festival.
"We've got a lot of great fans and friends here in Fayette County," said Smith. "For a while, I didn't want to cross the Mason-Dixon Line, but I'm glad I did."
Smith and his band of country rockers entertained the crowd until dusk, when Keystone Fireworks began a colorful display of pyrotechnics that drew spectators from across several counties to the Uniontown area.
"The event is a chance for businesses to give back to the community that supports them all year long," said Fayette Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Muriel Nuttall. "We had a great turnout, and I hope even more people will attend next year. If they couldn't make it this year, they really missed out on a great day."
Kaylie Harper is a contributiong writer for Trib Total Media.


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3 Min Read
AGADIR, Morocco (Reuters) - The Group of 20 leading economies must do more to strengthen international supervision of the financial sector, International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Monday.
G20 leaders are due to meet in South Korea on November 11-12 for a summit which is expected to focus on tackling imbalances in the world economy and reducing the risk of a currency war.
Speaking at a conference on human development in the Moroccan city of Agadir, Strauss-Kahn said the financial sector -- blamed by many for triggering the global economic downturn -- also remained a preoccupation.
"The G20 heads of state who met in London, Pittsburgh, Toronto and shortly in South Korea, said strongly and loudly for the population of the world to hear them, they will fix it (the financial sector)," Strauss-Kahn said.
"The reality is unfortunately more complex than this. The most difficult part in the field of regulation has been done."
"But more and more has to be done in the area of international supervision. You can have the best regulation in the world but if its implementation is not supervised, it will not be of any use," he said.
In a question-and-answer session at the conference about development in Africa, the IMF chief said the world needed to guard against a new form of colonialism as emerging powers increase their influence on the continent.
He did not single out any countries, but some rights campaigners and opposition movements in Africa have accused China of exploiting African resources. Beijing says it brings investment and aid to areas ignored by other countries.
"If we don't pay enough attention, it will be like we ended one century-and-a-half of unequal trade, and we will enter another era of unequal trade, this time spearheaded by emerging countries," Strauss-Kahn said.
"We have to guard against another form of colonialism taking root by other superpowers who have the wind in their sails in Africa, who are, I don't want to use the word colonialism, but who are setting up a form of dominance."
These emerging powers were pursuing their objectives in Africa "using interference with national policy in these countries, using the size of their state compared to the smaller ones in Africa." Strauss-Kahn said.
Reporting by Lamine Ghanmi; Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Stephen Nisbet


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An Amherst teen is raising money volunteer in Malawi starting in late August.
AMHERST – At a time when most high school graduates are thinking of college or university, Amherst's Rachel Szpakowski is getting ready to go to the other side of the world to volunteer at a wildlife sanctuary.
Szpakowski successfully applied several months ago to join African Impact, which will sent her to the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre in the capital of Malawi. The centre is the country's only wildlife and monkey sanctuary and one of Africa's last truly urban wildernesses.
The centre performs wild animal rescue, rehabilitation and acts as an education facility with extensive community outreach.
"Jenna Ackles went on a trip with African Impact to Zimbabwe. We I started talking about going on Facebook, she messaged me from Zimbabwe and told me I should apply," Szpakowksi said. "When I heard I was going to Malawi I was so excited because it's going to be a life-changing experience."
Szpakowski leaves in late August and could be back in October. She's applying for an internship that could keep here there until February.
In preparation, she is getting her vaccinations up to date and reading as much as she can on the program and the country she's going. Malawi, located in southeastern Africa, is among the world's poorest nations. Its economy is based on agriculture, mostly in tobacco, sugar and tea.
"I'd never heard of the country until I found out I was going there. I've been doing a lot of research about it since," she said.
Although a poor nation, she said, the friendliness of its people have given it the nickname as the Warm Heart of Africa.
She's also trying to raise the $5,000 it's going to cost to go. To date she has had some support from the Amherst Lions Club and she is reaching out to other groups, organizations and individuals for help.
Created in 2004, African Impact first worked on a lion rehabilitation project in Zimbabwe and has grown from a small family-run organization to a multi-award winning social enterprise in 11 African nations including South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Namibia, Madagascar and Uganda.
The goal of the organization is to maximize the power of volunteering both for the volunteers and the communities and conservation efforts. The group's webpage says it's not just about hands-on help and skills that volunteers bring, but it's also about what an amazing continent, its people and its wildlife can give volunteers in return.
Anyone willing to help her can contact her at firstname.lastname@example.com or 694-6020. One of the things she is doing to raise money is collecting bottles. Anyone with bottles to donate can contact her.
Twitter: @ADNdarrell


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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The trial of the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death opens with a bit of star power and the one thing the King of Pop enjoyed throughout his life — a worldwide audience.
Prosecutors plan to call the superstar's friend and choreographer, Kenny Ortega, as their first witness in the case, which enters a crucial final act Tuesday with opening statements and the start of testimony.
Authorities contend Dr. Conrad Murray, who is charged with involuntary manslaughter, administered a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol along with other sedatives, and lacked the proper lifesaving equipment to revive Jackson in June 2009.
The defense says Murray was Jackson's friend, a capable protector of the singer's health, prepared to travel with him to Europe, and is still mourning the death.


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Lacrosse news straight to your inbox.
Tuesday August 6th, 2013 12:52am
Note: This is the third of a three-part series produced by Jason Donville featuring the top high school players in Canada in the Classes of 2012, 2013 and 2014. Today, we feature the Class or 2014 sophomores. Read Donville's take on the Class of 2012 Senior rankings here and the Class of 2013 juniors here.
1. Connor Robinson – Midfield – New Westminster – Uncommitted – Robinson has great touch around the net and is extremely strong on loose balls. He has terrific off-ball instincts and can take face-offs as well and is the most complete player in the class of 2014.
2. Riley Thompson – Attack – Orangeville/Culver Academy – Uncommitted – Thompson's greatest strength is his change of direction which makes him a superb dodger. The rest of his game is also well rounded as he has a terrific shot, knows when to pass and is great on the ride.
3. Jeremy Bosher – Midfield – Kelowna – Uncommitted – While Kelowna is not typically where one would look for great field lacrosse players, everyone who hasever coached this kid loves his game. Bosher has everything from grit to skill and his coaches in both BC and Alberta rave about his upside.
4. Matthew Gilray – Defense – Whitby/Brewster Academy – Uncommitted – Gilray is big and handles the long pole like a short stick. Gilray is also superb on the clears and is emerging as a future defensive star in Canada.
5. Tyson Bomberry – Defense – Six Nations – Uncommitted – Like Gilray, Bomberry has superb stick skills (he sometimes plays attack when he gets tired of knocking people down) and possesses outstanding athleticism. Evidently he's very strong in the classroom as well.
6. Dawson McKenzie - Midfield – Guelph – Uncommitted – Dawson is a large, physically imposing middy and an extremely adept dodger. McKenzie can also shoot well on the run and play tremendous transition defense.
7. Andrew Gresham – Attack – Pitt Meadows – Uncommitted – Gresham is a bit smaller in stature but makes up for it by being a great goal scorer and play maker. Gresham is also strong in the classroom.
8. Marc-Antoine Pion – Defense – Montreal – Uncommitted – Pion plays for College Jean-de-Brebeuf in Montreal, which is the oldest non-native lacrosse program in existence in the world. The coach at McGill (a Princeton grad) describes Pion as having the best potential as a defenseman of any player he has ever coached.
9. Nick Fournier – Goalie – Orangeville – Uncommitted – Fournier was outstanding at 2011 Nationals. Fournier is an excellent technical shot stopper and a great communicator. Coaches love his leadership skills as well.
10. Marcus Davis – Midfield – Victoria – Uncommitted – Davis is a superb lacrosse player who might be even better at football! The kid has great touch around the cage as well as an amazing outside shot and can obviously take a hit….but you have to catch him first.
11. Patrick Shea – Attack – Oakville – Uncommitted
12. Logan Fisher – Defense – Saskatoon – Uncommitted
13. Jordan McKenzie – Defense - New Westminster – Uncommitted
14. Thomas Bianchin – Attack – Burlington – Uncommitted
15. Nate McKenzie – Defense – Guelph/Brewster Academy – Uncommitted
16. Cougar Kirby – Midfield – Kahnawake – Uncommitted
17. Kael Naylor – Midfield – Saskatoon – Uncommitted
18. Nick Preston – Attack – Saanich – Uncommitted
19. Tanner Thomson – LSM – Toronto/St Michaels - Uncommitted
20. Ben Neeb – Goalie – Oakville/Hill Academy – Uncommitted
21. Connor Leies – Attack – Victoria/Claremont - Uncommitted
22. Wyatt Goldales – Midfield – Saskatoon – Uncommitted
23. Riley Palmer – Defense – Whitby - Uncommitted
24. Tristan Rai – Attack – Edmonton – Uncommitted
25. Sam Degroot – Midfield – Port Coquitlam - Uncommitted
26. Louis-Guillaume Lemay – Defense – St Laurent – Uncommitted
27. Jake Kelly – Goalie - Barrie - Uncommitted
28. Cody Graden – Midfield – Edmonton – Uncommitted
29. Chase Malcolm – Midfield – Port Coquitlam – Uncommitted
30. Ty Cordingley – Attack – Brampton - Uncommitted
Rankings are not without controversy – the author of this article gets it. However, in the Canada Rising rankings a tremendous amount of effort has gone into the process of making these rankings as fair and objective as possible. In the preparation of this report, input was sought from leading coaches involved with the provincial U16 and U19 field lacrosse teams throughout Canada. To a lesser extent input has been sought from top Canadian and US prep school coaches and from coaches running elite travel teams in Canada. The support of these coaches has been greatly appreciated while the author of this article accepts all responsibility for any errors of accuracy or omission.
Note: these rankings are independently produced by Jason Donville, and not under the auspices of Inside Lacrosse's Recruiting team research. They attempt to provide an informed take on the current talent in Canada.


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UIT Alert: Informational: Brief Wireless Outage
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Informational: Brief Wireless Outage
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Actions and Root CausesCS-21 was physically rebooted and came back online.
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Event Updates
Controller 21 became unavailable at around 1:29pm due to a known Meru bug. The slave controller took over immediately and CS-21 was physically rebooted and came back online. Loss of service would have been approximately 2-3 minutes when the slave took over and another 2-3 minutes when the controller came back online.
Customers at Susanna Garrison Gymnasium, Science and Engineering Research Center, Melcher Gymnasium, Social Work, Athletic Alumni, Agnes Arnold Auditorium, General Services, UHSL, and SBDC were affected for a short outage.


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Home business:
Work from home: Start Thinking Like An Entrepreneur
A home business should not be a dismal prospect. Love what you are doing and you will never feel like you are at work. As with any business more customers means more income. More detailed resources or mentors can provide data on what kind of home business is generally effective and what is required to start up a business from home. Building a successful work from home is not something to be taken lightly or jumped in to quickly without careful consideration. It's especially discouraging if your work at home is not yet bringing in enough revenue for you.
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Starting out as a home based business offers some special benefits to entrepreneurs. Starting a work at home is the easiest, cheapest way to attain financial independence. For more and more people, home is not only where the family is. It is where the online affiliate business is. A complete study should be made to determine the feasibility of a work from home prior to starting. Your work at business opportunity has advantages to family life whether your children are young or old.
Home business:
You Deserve A Successful Home based business opportunity
More detailed resources or mentors can provide data on what kind of home based business is generally effective and what is utilized to start up a make money from home business. If you're a procrastinator or if you have a low motivational level, a home based business is not for you. Picking the right home based business opportunity is the single most essential alternativity you will make. A work from home is just like any other affiliate home based business except it allows the owner to work at home some or all of the time. Because a successful work at home is usually principally dealing in information, overhead can often be low, with just a few essentials forming the main infrastructure required for operating a business opportunity day to day.
1. The Internet is an equal opportunity home based business opportunity medium.
2. Work at home working with a team is still the best opportunity available to the average person.
3. Anyone can be successful if they learn the basics about marketing online.
Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an internet marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned. There are qualities one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this internet home based business to be able to stand out among the rest. Having the right tools can spell the difference between becoming a major mastery story, or winding up beaten and penniless, as many do. Once you discover your specialty, perseverance, patience, determination comes next.
Small affiliate home based business ideas or home based ideas are limited only by your imagination. When you know what you need, start looking for sources of capital. Starting a home business today is easier than ever, thanks to the Internet. Starting your own work from home has become a novice version of the American Dream. In most cases, starting a home business entails a small investment or start up cost.
Work at home:
A Quick Way To blast off a Work at home
A business opportunity is just like any other online business except it allows the owner to work at home some or all of the time. See it you know how your home business is doing. Whether you end up selling information, services, or hard goods, the one thing to keep in mind when starting a home business is that you must love the subject, product, or service. Picking the right home based business opportunity is the single most important selection you will make. One thing that can help in brainstorming a home business is what kind of things or assets a home business opportunity has at its disposal at any given moment.
1. The company provides the product and you provide the marketing.
2. In most cases you do not have to stock any product yourself.
3. Flexibility and being able to schedule your hours of work is one of the biggest reasons for starting a work at home.
Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. The right attitude is the key to being able to steer ones ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on. A quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent. Having the right tools can spell the difference between becoming a major wealth story, or winding up beaten and penniless, as many do.
Perhaps you should consider starting your online home based business part-time. You can join the 95 percent of those who succeeded online in their first year and the 85 percent who are still in business and doing very well after three years. The internet makes it very, very easy and inexpensive for people to blast off a home business these days. More people who want to kick off a home business are thinking a home based business opportunity is the way to go. A complete study should be made to determine the feasibility of a work from home prior to starting.


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Jesse McCartney's a Stunt Man Now
Jesse McCartney sure is a trouper.
The singer and "Bleeding Love" songwriter was out in the California desert yesterday, shooting his latest video, and instead of having a stuntman handle the dirty work, he did the danger duties himself, leaping from car to car in an action-adventure frenzy.
Doesn't the 21-year-old know that a guy can get himself hurt that way?
Perhaps the fact that all his leaping eventually landed him on top of a video babe provided he necessary incentive for Jesse to take his life into his own hands.
Though McCartney took a tumble at one point, he didn't sustain any injuries, perhaps because he was jacked up on the sugar-free Red Bull that he quaffed during the shoot.
Hey, sometimes a guy has to take a risk or two in the name of his career. Especially if he has the kind of lofty goals that Jesse does.


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Let's TalkZapaday, Verrijn Stuartlaan 7, Rijswijk, Netherlands.
Email: email@example.com
The annual AIPAC policy conference ((The American Israel Public Affairs Committee), is the largest pro-Israel gathering outside the state of Israel.
AIPAC is the main organization that seeks to strengthen the relationship between Israel and its core ally the U.S.
The conference is the main discussion venue for U.S. Congress delegates and government officials of Israel, to share the countries democratic principles, plural values and economic/military interests.


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Returning Member Login
Mary Ella's Weekly Message
March 14, 2011
Coping with Lung Disease
If you joined FFS Online because your physician has advised you to quit smoking, you're in the right place! It's never too late to quit and you will see some immediate physical benefits, even within the first 12 hours. Check out some other benefits on the American Lung Association website.
Many people decide to quit smoking when they are diagnosed with a lung disease like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. Currently there are about 13 million people in the United States diagnosed with COPD, which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema. But studies of lung function indicate that many struggle with COPD symptoms without getting a proper diagnosis. The number of Americans living with COPD may actually be as high as 24 million.
The signs and symptoms of COPD are:
- Constant coughing, sometimes called "smoker's cough"
- Shortness of breath while doing everyday activities
- Producing a lot of sputum (also called phlegm or mucus)
- Feeling like you can't breathe or take a deep breath
- Wheezing
Getting a diagnosis involves a simple breathing test called Spirometry. If you have some of the symptoms above, ask your physician about getting a Spirometry test. Although there is no cure for COPD, it can be treated to slow the progression of the disease. The earlier COPD is detected and treated, the better it can be controlled in order to minimize the impact on the patient's quality of life. And the very best step you can take to slow the progression of your disease is to quit smoking!
For an overview about symptoms and treatment of COPD, please read this story on the American Lung Association website. For more detailed information and resources, visit the COPD home page on our site. We have some great resources there for lung disease patients and their loved ones. We've also created a new Group in the FFS Online Community that you can join: Living With Chronic Lung Disease. If COPD or another lung disease is impacting your life, take a moment to sign up and help us get the conversation started on the group's message board.
If you have questions about COPD or any lung disease, consider calling our Lung HelpLine to talk with a nurse or respiratory therapist: 1-800-LUNG-USA or 1-800-548-8252. Our HelpLine counselors are available from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday. Overnight and on weekends, you can access recorded information about many lung health topics.
If your Quit Day is coming up soon, remember to clean out your home, vehicle, desk, garage, etc. and throw out all smoking materials. Don't underestimate the power of temptation, or the power of support that is available to you on the Message Boards. Give blogging a try. It's a great way to get out some negative feelings and gain a fresh perspective or to share tips that have helped you along the way.
Now that spring has sprung in many parts of the country, this is a great time to increase your physical activity. It's a perfect opportunity to get busy in the garden or to set a regular time each day for a brisk walk. Changing your lifestyle by increasing physical activity is one of the best ways you can remain smokefree.
Until next time, I'll see you on the Message Boards! :-) Mary Ella
Don't forget: If you're in the Premium program and want help fast on the Message Boards, put "HELP NOW" in the subject line of your post. If you're looking to offer help, watch for those, "HELP NOW" posts and alert your other FFS Online buddies to offer some assistance as well.
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Connect with the American Lung Association nearest you.
Sign Up For eNewsletters
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Contact Us
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with any questions or comments.


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I am Daniel Kinburn, Senior Counsel with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. I speak for the more than 100,000 physician and lay members of PCRM.
On behalf of PCRM and its members, I want to thank the Committee for the critically important work it is doing. Strong decisive action is needed now in order to prevent an outbreak of variant Cruetzfeld-Jakob Disease (vCJD), rather than delaying such action, as the beef industry seems to be suggesting, until Americans start dying.
Last week, the Foreign Animal and Poultry Disease Advisory Subcommittee (the "Subcommittee") appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture made several policy recommendations after concluding that it is highly probable that more American cattle are infected with mad cow disease than the one found in Washington state in December 2003. To the extent these recommendations fall within the domain of the Department of Health and Human Services, we urge you to support several of the recommendations made by the Subcommittee. As some of these recommendations have already been implemented by the FDA in its interim final rules issued on January 26, 2004, we ask that you support making these interim rules final. We also identify other measures that should be taken to adequately safeguard public health.
Cattle Feed.
It is commonly understood that mad cow disease is caused by a deformed protein that spreads when cattle consume feed supplemented with brain and central nervous system tissue from infected animals. Therefore, we urge you to adopt the Subcommittee's recommendation to prohibit any mammalian or poultry meat, bone, or other byproduct from all cattle feed. Because factory-farmed fish are also fed cattle byproducts, we also urge you to recommend that factory-farmed fish and their byproducts be prohibited from cattle feed. In order to effectively prevent the spread of mad cow disease, as well as any cross-contamination of ruminant and non-ruminant animal feed, PCRM also asks you to prohibit the use of any animal (mammal, avian, or aquatic) or its byproducts from the feed of any other herbivorous animal used for human consumption (e.g., pigs, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys).
Specified Risk Material and Downer Cows.
We also urge you to adopt the Subcommittee's suggestion to exclude all Specified Risk Materials (SRM) from both human and animal food, and to ban any material from downed cows from entering the food supply. To the extent these recommendations have been implemented by FDA's interim final rule to ban SRM's and downer or dead cattle material and from FDA-regulated human food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics, we also ask that you recommend making these interim rule provisions into a final rule.
Additionally, this Committee should go beyond the Subcommittee recommendations to ensure the safety and well-being of all Americans. Under the Subcommittee's recommendations, downed pigs, sheep, lamb and other animals (excluding cattle) cannot be fed to cattle, but they can go straight into the human food supply. People should not be eating food deemed too risky to serve to cattle, thus, we urge the Committee to recommend that all downed animals, regardless of species, be banned from FDA-regulated food, medical products, and cosmetics.
Source of origin labeling.
Finally, to provide full information to consumers who wish to take extra precautions to protect themselves from the risk of vCJD, we urge you to support source-of-origin labeling for food, medication, and dietary supplements. As proposed by Representative Nita Lowey in the 2003 Food Ingredient Right to Know Act, HR 467, food manufacturers should be required to identify the source of all food ingredients such as "natural flavors" and additives, which commonly contain spices, flavoring, or coloring derived from meat, poultry, or other animal products. This committee should go one step further and recommend such source-of-origin labeling for all dietary supplements and medications, which also commonly contain bovine or other animal byproducts.
Thank you again for the important work you are doing.


text:
Pacific T-Shirt
Sleeveless t-shirt. Crew neckline.
Model is 175 cm – 5'8'' and wears a size 0.
Tailored with love in Canada
Body: Viscose jersey, 94% viscose, 6% elasthane
Italian origin
Judith & Charles offers worldwide shipping using various methods. click here for more details
We accept returns within 21 days of your receipt for regular price items, 7 days for all SALE items. Click here for more details


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On Saturday, February 12, the committee took a tour of these District
parks and facilities. We'd like to share this tour with you because
it gave us a great overview of the types of parks we could plan
for our area.
We will shortly provide a map to help you take the tour, and a
take-along checklist so you can make notes to help you remember
the features you like.
Tour Map
Tour Checklist
The park tour map is large, please be patient!


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You won't be able to dismiss this by usual means (escape or click button), but you can close it programatically based on user choices or actions.
"My fiancée actually picked this design for our save the dates! I wasn't sold on it at first, but it was his favorite, and after we personalized it and made it look exactly how we wanted it to, I started to love it. Once they arrived in the mail, I was so impressed with the quality and how cute they turned out! I'm definitely glad we chose this design, and that we were able to do some things to make it our own. We will absolutely be returning to personalize and purchase formal invitations!"
"This card was above and beyond my expectations. The print, the paper quality, the customer service was superb! We added a personalized photo and saying. It was a little long for the example, but I worked with an amazing customer service representative named McKensie. She was awesome and without her these save the dates would not have been so wonderful and personalized to our wedding."
"This magnet is exactly what we wanted and hoped to get. You get a high quality product for reasonable price. Customer service was prompt and helpful when I had questions. The order came in faster than the estimated delivery date. We are thrilled!"
"I was able to customize the magnet to exactly what I had wanted unlike other sites I had tried. The quality of the magnet and image were outstanding, especially since another vendor said the digital image I submitted was poor in quality and could not be used. The receipients have all said they are beautiful!"
"The quality of the paper and printing was excellent. We also wanted the postcard style, but with nothing on the back, and there was no confusion with them. They did exactly what we asked, and sent us a proof so quickly. Definitely ordering our invitations through them!"


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Bill Gates recently weighed in on if an Xbox spinoff would be a good idea.
In a Fox Business interview, Bill Gates said that he would support an Xbox spinoff if current Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella chose to do it. However, Gates also said he doesn't see a spinoff happening because the gaming division is important to Microsoft's overall strategy.
"As Mr. Gates noted, Microsoft is committed to gaming across multiple platforms with Xbox as the centrepiece of our gaming strategy," a Microsoft spokesman told Digital Spy.
In the same interview, Bill Gates said that he doesn't see Bing, Microsoft's search engine, getting a spinoff either. He argued that the search engine "has been the key to us learning how to do large-scale data centers," and that it's "a pretty fundamental technology for the company."


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The day after she posted the video, the actor Kellen was emulating caught wind of what was making the inbox and Twitter rounds.
This set the model that Michelle Obama is intent on emulating.
At other times, he spoke of emulating the settler movement, of which he was a follower in his youth.
New York has some very interesting energy efficiency and green building programs that we are emulating.
General Murray, like many a soldier in his army, had dreams of emulating Wolfe's glory.
He is boxing his way up the school, emulating his great brother.
Every government is thus involuntarily reduced to the necessity of emulating one another in the increase of their armies.
"I am emulating Florence Nightingale," she returned lightly.
He was indeed accused by his enemies of emulating Charlemagne, of aiming at universal empire.
"That is very beautiful, Mr. Brand," said Gertrude, emulating Felix.
1580s, back-formation from emulation, or else from Latin aemulatus, past participle of aemulari "to rival." Related: Emulated; emulating.


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By Penny Gumbert, special to the News

In 1948, the corner of Upper Wellington and Fennell boasted an educational jewel: Onteora Public School, my first 'home' away from home. Now, nearing 70, I just had to revisit the place on a recent realtor's open house that was offering a rare single-storey condo close to bus stops.

The school buildings are gone, but not my memories. The blackboards have been replaced by plasma TVs, but ghostly writings appear in my mind: Bell Work in coloured chalks. Singing groups: Crows, Robins, Canaries too clearly delineating the talents of pupils. Word lists and health check lists (teeth cleaned? nails clipped, hankie?).

This was Canada in the middle of the 20th century when girls wore dresses to school and everyone went home for lunch. The flag is there, too, in my mind's eye as we tots sang "God Save the Queen" and recited the Lord's Prayer.

The realtor takes me to a businesslike den, but I can't escape my trip down memory lane. Instead I see a small office where I'm trying to shape my mouth around the 'r' sound, tutored by a speech pathologist who asks if I have an English accent. I'm five years old and confused. "Did you come across the water in a big boat?" she asks finally.

Sounds like fun, but I say no. I am wondering what my brother is doing in the building that houses fifth and sixth grades. Can he rescue me? No, with his artistic brilliance he is designing a poster that would win first prize. It depicts a house and a school as people sitting on tiny chairs discussing issues. I copied his idea the next year for the annual home and school poster contest (he'd moved on to George L. Armstrong and wouldn't know!), but fooled no one.

As I inspect the condo's living space, the sounds of children's voices ring out. There was lots of singing back then, harmonizing in two and three parts, regular rote learning of addition and multiplication tables and the occasional whirr of a film projector. Children read whole passages together, they memorized rhyming poetry and always began with "Good Morning, Mr. Tourney," or "Good afternoon, Mr. McLeod."

A true original was Miss Island, my Grade 1 teacher with tight blonde curls who wore costumes to better illustrate lessons. No wonder I became a teacher.

In a bathroom mirror I see the reflection of a prepubescent girl attempting to make a dimple in her chin to emulate the cutest girl in the class (I had a crush on Mr. McLeod and thought he favoured the dimpled one). Cleaning blackboard brushes was a perk, but sorting wire coat hangers was done by everyone on fundraising drives.

Halloween parades and play days brought everyone, and their competitive spirit, outside onto the playground and adjoining field. The present configuration has boarded what was one of the entrances to the playground, while the open field is no more, but this is Onteora Place (so says a permanent plaque), where ghosts will always beckon.

Penny Gumbert is a Mountain resident. If you would like to write in this space, call editor Gord Bowes at 905-664-8800 ext. 335.


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Brandon Michael
Wages of Sin
After Sue Walker (Ashlie Clark) inherits a house in the countryside, she invites her boyfriend, Ron (Brandon Michael), and some college friends for a weekend trip. But when they arrive at the isolated dwelling, the group stumbles into a horrific nightmare. By entering the home, Sue unwittingly releases long-hidden secrets from a childhood trauma -- and the evil presence of a perverse preacher (Billy St. John) from her past.


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CNN Digital has rolled out a 5-part series called Gaming Reality. The series focuses on how virtual gaming infiltrates, impacts and changes our lives in the real world.
Each story in the series profiles an aspect of how gaming impacts our day-to-day lives, presented in a game-like design using video, photo and text. In the first story, CNN's John Sutter and Brandon Ancil visited South Korea, the world's most wired society, to gain an on-the-ground, first-hand understanding what makes a South Korean gaming champion and the sources of gaming addiction.
CNN correspondent John Zarella reports for CNN's networks and platforms from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Friday, Aug. 3 through Wednesday, Aug. 8. CNN.com live tweets the Mars landing, @CNNLightYears, and files in-depth stories on their online science portal, CNN Light Years, at cnn.com/space.NASA's rover Curiosity lands on Mars
Anderson Cooper 360 will broadcast live from Oak Creek, Wisconsin Tuesday night. CNN's coverage across its networks and platforms includes newsgathering with correspondents David Mattingly, Brian Todd, Dan Simon, Poppy Harlow, Randi Kaye and Ted Rowlands. Mallika Kapur contributes from Mumbai, India. CNN.com features the latest stories and reports on the homepage and at This Just In, CNN's breaking news blog. The Belief Blog (cnn.com/belief) is also covering the religious angles of the story.


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Description: From Kaufman, this soft 21 wale (number of cords per inch) corduroy is classic, durable and versatile. It is perfect for creating stylish shirts, skirts, dresses, light weight jackets and children's apparel. Colors include turquoise, kiwi, amethyst and light jade ...
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text: Hi there! I just finished my Freshmen year of college with a GPA of 3.85. I am also a Army ROTC Cadet with what i believe is an extensive Extracurricular profile. I did poorly in high school with a 82.67 GPA out of 100 and SAT score of 1510 and never took the ACT. However as a 19 year old I am Cisco Certified IT Technician (People graduate college to get these), I was an Officer for SkillsUSA, Committee Chair of Model UN where i won two awards for best paper including one being at a UN hosted conference, I played Varsity Volleyball, I did an Internship as a IT technician at Bank of America for an entire summer my junior year of high school, 8 months of internship experience at a non profit where i did some admin work as well. I have some voluntary political campaigning experience. Oh and i was part of the National Technical Honor Society and did IT troubleshooting for my high school and my Principle speaks highly of me. I still go back my high school to do advising and mentoring for our Model UN program. Did i mention i met the Russian Delegation? I am hoping that admissions will look at who i am now with excellent grades and extracurricular rather than my past high school grades. Other than ROTC, everything else i mentioned i did in high school. I hope this proves that i am ambitions and mentally strong. What are my chances? anyone please and thank you!