text:
|Publication number
|Publication type
|Application number
|Publication date
|Sep 14, 2010
|Filing date
|Feb 24, 2010
|Priority date
|Aug 16, 2004
|Fee status
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|Publication number
|Eran Steinberg, Yury Prilutsky, Peter Corcoran, Petronel Bigioi
|Original Assignee
|Fotonation Vision Limited
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|BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan
|Patent Citations (4), Referenced by (29), Classifications (28), Legal Events (5)
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet
This application is a continuation (CON) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/421,027, filed May 30, 2006, which is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/217,788, filed Aug. 30, 2005, which is a CIP of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/919,226, filed Aug. 16, 2004, which is related to U.S. applications Nos. 10/635,918, filed Aug. 5, 2003 and 10/773,092, filed Feb. 4, 2004. Each of these applications is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an image classification method and system, and to a segmentation method, and in particular to a tool for classifying images as being indoor or outdoor images, and a tool for determining regions indicative of foreground and background, based on exposure analysis of captured and reference images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Image segmentation involves digital image processing wherein an image is broken down into regions based on some predefined criteria. These criteria may be contextual, numerical, shape, size, and/or color-related, gradient-related and more. It is desired to have a technique for determining the foreground and background of digital images for numerous image processing operations. Such operations may include image enhancement, color correction, and/or object based image analysis. In the specific case of processing inside of an acquisition device, it is desired to perform such segmentation expeditiously, while utilizing suitable computations of relatively low complexity, for example, for performing calculations in-camera or in handset phones equipped with image acquisition capabilities.
A digital image acquisition system having no photographic film is provided. The system includes an apparatus for capturing digital images, a flash unit, and analysis and classification tools. The flash unit provides illumination during image capture. The analysis tool compares at least a portion of a captured image and a reference image of nominally the same scene. One of the captured and reference images is taken with flash and the other is taken without flash. The analysis tool provides a measure of the difference in illumination between the captured image and the reference image. The classification tool compares the measure with a threshold and categorizes the scene as outdoor or indoor based on the measure.
An exposure equalizer may be included for substantially equalizing an overall level of exposure of at least a portion of the captured and reference images prior to analysis by the analysis tool. The classification tool may be responsive to the measure exceeding a high threshold to classify an image as indoor, and responsive to the measure not exceeding a low threshold to classify an image as outdoor. The high and low thresholds may be the same or different. A segmentation tool may also be included for determining regions indicative of foreground and/or background within at least one portion of the captured image. The determining may be effected as a function of a comparison of the captured image and the same or a different reference image of nominally the same scene, or both.
While available ambient light such as sunlight is in general more spatially uniform in nature than strobe lighting, especially for point-and-shoot cameras (as opposed to studio settings with multiple strobe units) that originates from or close to the camera. Due to the fact that the strobe energy is inverse to the square of the distance, the closer the object is, the stronger the light on the object will be. The overall light distribution will vary between the two images, because one shot or subset of shots will be illuminated only with available ambient light while another will be illuminated with direct flash light.
A background/foreground segmented image can be used in numerous digital image processing algorithms such as algorithms to enhance the separation of the subject, which is usually in the foreground, from the background. This technique may be used to enhance depth of field, to enhance or eliminate the background altogether, or to extract objects such as faces or people from an image.
By reducing the area which is subjected to an image processing analysis, processing time is reduced substantially for many real-time algorithms. This is particularly advantageous for algorithms implemented within a digital image acquisition device where it is desired to apply image processing as part of the main image acquisition chain. Thus, the click-to-click time of a digital camera is improved. In certain embodiments it may advantageously allow multiple image processing techniques to be employed where previously only a single technique was applied. It can also serve to reduce occurrences of false positives for certain image processing algorithms where these are more likely to occur in either the background or foreground regions of an image.
The invention may be applied to embedded devices with limited computation capability. It can be used also to improve productivity, in particular where large amounts of images are to be processed, such as for security based facial detection, large volume printing systems or desktop analysis of a collection of images. The invention may be applied to still image capture devices, as well as for video or continuous capture devices with stroboscopic capability.
Preferred embodiments will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The processor 120, in response to a user input at 122, such as half pressing a shutter button (pre-capture mode 32), initiates and controls the digital photographic process. Ambient light exposure is determined using light sensor 40 in order to automatically determine if a flash is to be used. The distance to the subject is determined using focusing means 50 which also focuses the image on image capture component 60. If a flash is to be used, processor 120 causes the flash 70 to generate a photographic flash in substantial coincidence with the recording of the image by image capture component 60 upon full depression of the shutter button.
The image capture component 60 digitally records the image in color. The image capture component 60 is known to those familiar with the art and may include a CCD (charge coupled device) or CMOS to facilitate digital recording. The flash may be selectively generated either in response to the light sensor 40 or a manual input 72 from the user of the camera. The image I(x,y) recorded by image capture component 60 is stored in image store component 80 which may comprise computer memory such a dynamic random access memory or a non-volatile memory. The camera is equipped with a display 100, such as an LCD, for preview and post-view of images.
In the case of preview images P(x,y), which are generated in the pre-capture mode 32 with the shutter button half-pressed, the display 100 can assist the user in composing the image, as well as being used to determine focusing and exposure. A temporary storage space 82 is used to store one or plurality of the preview images and can be part of the image store means 80 or a separate component. The preview image is usually generated by the image capture component 60. Parameters of the preview image may be recorded for later use when equating the ambient conditions with the final image. Alternatively, the parameters may be determined to match those of the consequently captured, full resolution image. For speed and memory efficiency reasons, preview images may be generated by subsampling a raw captured image using software 124 which can be part of a general processor 120 or dedicated hardware or combination thereof, before displaying or storing the preview image. The sub sampling may be for horizontal, vertical or a combination of the two. Depending on the settings of this hardware subsystem, the pre-acquisition image processing may satisfy some predetermined test criteria prior to storing a preview image. Such test criteria may be chronological—such as to constantly replace the previous saved preview image with a new captured preview image every 0.5 seconds during the pre-capture mode 32, until the final full resolution image I(x,y) is captured by full depression of the shutter button. More sophisticated criteria may involve analysis of the of the preview image content, for example, testing the image for changes, or the detection of faces in the image before deciding whether the new preview image should replace a previously saved image. Other criteria may be based on image analysis such as the sharpness, detection of eyes or metadata analysis such as the exposure condition, whether a flash is going to happen, and/or the distance to the subjects.
If test criteria are not met, the camera continues by capturing the next preview image without saving the current one. The process continues until the final full resolution image I(x,y) is acquired and saved by fully depressing the shutter button.
Where multiple preview images can be saved, a new preview image will be placed on a chronological First In First Out (FIFO) stack, until the user takes the final picture. The reason for storing multiple preview images is that the last image, or any single image, may not be the best reference image for comparison with the final full resolution image in. By storing multiple images, a better reference image can be achieved, and a closer alignment between the preview and the final captured image can be achieved in an alignment stage discussed further in relation to
In an alternative embodiment, the multiple images may be a combination of preview images, which are images captured prior to the main full resolution image and postview images, which are image or images captured after said main image. In one embodiment, multiple preview images may assist in creating a single higher quality reference image; either higher resolution or by taking different portions of different regions from the multiple images.
A segmentation filter 90 analyzes the stored image I(x,y) for foreground and background characteristics before forwarding the image along with its foreground/background segmentation information 99 for further processing or display. The filter 90 can be integral to the camera 20 or part of an external processing device 10 such as a desktop computer, a hand held device, a cell phone handset or a server. In this embodiment, the segmentation filter 90 receives the captured image I(x,y) from the full resolution image storage 80 as well as one or a plurality of preview images P(x,y) from the temporary storage 82.
The image I(x,y) as captured, segmented and/or further processed may be either displayed on image display 100, saved on a persistent storage 112 which can be internal or a removable storage such as CF card, SD card, USB dongle, or the like, or downloaded to another device, such as a personal computer, server or printer via image output component 110 which can be tethered or wireless. The segmentation data may also be stored 99 either in the image header, as a separate file, or forwarded to another function which uses this information for image manipulation.
In embodiments where the segmentation filter 90 is implemented in an external application in a separate device 10, such as a desktop computer, the final captured image I(x,y) stored in block 80 along with a representation of the preview image as temporarily stored in 82, may be stored prior to modification on the storage device 112, or transferred together via the image output component 110 onto the external device 10, later to be processed by the segmentation filter 90. The preview image or multiple images, also referred to as sprite-images, may be pre-processed prior to storage, to improve compression rate, remove redundant data between images, align or color compress data.
As explained above, the reference image and the final image may have different resolutions. The preview image 520 is normally, but not necessarily, of lower resolution than the full resolution image 510, typically being generated by clocking out a subset of the image sensor cells of the image capture component 60 or by averaging the raw sensor data.
The discrepancy in resolution may lead to differences in content, or pixel values, even though no data was changed in the subject image. In particular, edge regions when down-sampled and then up-sampled may have a blurring or an averaging effect on the pixels. Thus direct comparison of different resolution images, even when aligned, may lead to false contouring.
Therefore, the two images need to be matched in pixel resolution, 530. In the present context "pixel resolution" is meant to refer to the size of the image in terms of the number of pixels constituting the image concerned. Such a process may be done by either up-sampling the preview image, 534, down-sampling the acquired image, 532, or a combination thereof. Those familiar in the art will be aware of several techniques that may be used for such sampling methods. The result of step 530 is a pair of images I′(x,y) and P′(x,y) corresponding to the original images I(x,y) and P(x,y), or relevant regions thereof, with matching pixel resolution.
Where the foreground/background segmentation is done solely for the purpose of improving the detection of redeye artifacts, faces or other image features, the pixel matching as described above can be limited to those regions in the images containing or suspected to contain eyes, faces or other features, as the case may be, which can be determined by image processing techniques. In such a case the subsequent processing steps now to be described may be performed individually on each such region rather than on the images as a whole, and references to the "image" or "images" are to be interpreted accordingly.
The system and method of the preferred embodiment involves the segmentation of the image I(x,y) using exposure discrepancies between I′(x,y) and P′(x,y). It may also be advantageous to apply motion compensation 591 to one or both of the images I′(x,y) and P′(x,y). This can be achieved using two (or more) preview images 526, 527 to create a motion map 580 as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/985,657 and its corresponding PCT Application, which are hereby incorporated by reference, as well as other techniques for motion compensation that may be understood by those skilled in the art. In embodiments which incorporate motion compensation, the acquisition parameters for the main image I(x,y) will typically be used to determine if motion compensation is to be applied. Additionally, a user setting may be provided to enable or disable motion compensation. Alternatively, motion compensation may be applied, on a pixel by pixel basis, as part of alignment described below.
Motion compensation may be employed prior to the generation of a foreground/background map, e.g., where it is desired to eliminate a global motion of the image. However in certain embodiments it may be advantageous to perform a secondary motion compensation operation during the creation of the foreground/background map. This secondary motion compensation is not intended to eliminate a global motion of the image, but rather to compensate for small localized motions that may occur within the image. A good example is that of the leaves of a tree or bush which are fluttering in the wind while an image is being acquired. Such local motions can cause variations in luminance which should be compensated for after the initial foreground/background map is created 596 and segmented 597. Afterwards, a localized motion compensation may be employed to eliminate regions which exhibited localized motion or to subject such regions to more detailed analysis. This is illustrated in
Although nominally of the same scene, the preview image and the finally acquired full resolution image may differ spatially due to the temporal lag between capturing the two images. The alignment may be global, due to camera movement or local due to object movement, or a combination of the two. Therefore, the two images are advantageously aligned 540 in accordance with a preferred embodiment. Essentially, alignment involves transforming at least portions of one of the images, and in this embodiment the preview image P′(x,y), to obtain maximum correlation between the images based on measurable characteristics such as color, texture, edge analysis. U.S. Pat. No. 6,295,367 is hereby incorporated by reference as disclosing techniques for achieving alignment. The technique may align images that are initially misaligned due to object and camera movement. U.S. Pat. No. 5,933,546 is also hereby incorporated by reference. Multi-resolution data may be used for pattern matching. Alignment is also discussed further in relation to
The images are then equalized for exposure and possibly in color space 550. Equalisation attempts to bring the preview image and the flash full resolution image to the same overall level of exposure. The equalization can be achieved in different manners. The goal is to ensure that both images, preview and final have the same ambient conditions or a simulation of them. Specifically, the preview image is preferably conveyed having the same overall exposure as the flash image. In most cases, when using flash, even in a fill-flash mode, the final image will use a lower ambient exposure, to prevent over exposure due to the flash. In other words, the overall ambient exposure of the flash image is lower. In other words, the exposure on the foreground should remain constant after adding the flash light, and thus there is a need use a smaller aperture or shorter shutter speed. The equalization may be done analytically by matching the histograms of the images. Alternatively if the overall ambient exposure, which is depicted as function of aperture, shutter speed, and sensitivity (or gain) can be calculated and if the exposure is different, the pixel value can be modified, up to clipping conditions, based on the ratio between the two. Note that the exposure might not be equal in all channels and may also include a stage of color correction which compensates for different exposures for the various color channels. An example of this is when the ambient light is warm, such as incandescent, while the final image using flash is closer to daylight in terms of the overall color temperature.
In an alternative method, when the final ambient exposure is known, the preview image used as reference can be acquired with the same equivalent exposure. This can serve to eliminate the equalization stage. Note that in such case, the preview image may not be optimal to ambient conditions, but it is equalized with the final flash image.
As can be seen from
In the simplest case, the function g() is a constant, in general greater than 1, mapping exposure levels in a preview image P′(x,y) to produce an altered image P″(x,y) having the same overall exposure level as the flash version image I′(x,y). (Alternatively, the image I′(x,y) could be mapped to I″(x,y).) In the simplest implementation of this case, both images I′(x,y) and P′(x,y) are converted to greyscale and the mean luminance for each image is computed. The luminance values of one of the images are then adjusted so that the mean luminance values of the altered image P″(x,y) and the image I′(x,y) match.
However, the function g( ) can be dependent on the original exposure level of a pixel P′(x,y), for example, to prevent color saturation or loss of contrast. The function may also be dependent on a pixel's (x,y) location within an image, perhaps tending to adjust more centrally located pixels more than peripheral pixels.
Nonetheless, it will be seen from
In preferred embodiments, during equalisation, one or more thresholds VH, VL and possibly block size n are determined for later use in determining the background and foreground areas of the image I′(x,y). The threshold process is based on finding the optimal threshold values in a bimodal distribution and with the benefit of a reference unimodal non-flash image. Suitable techniques are described in the literature and are known to one familiar in the art of numerical classification. Nonetheless, as an example, the upper threshold level VH could be taken as the cross-over luminance value of the upper bimodal peak and the unimodal distribution, whereas the lower threshold VL could be taken as the cross-over of the lower bimodal peak and the unimodal distribution. It will be appreciated that the distribution of pixel exposure levels may not in practice be smooth and there may be several cross-over points in raw image data, and so some smoothing of the luminance distribution may need to be performed before determining such cross-over points and so the thresholds.
After the thresholds VH, VL are determined, the image is processed via a segmenting tool, 590, to designate pixels or regions as background or foreground. In one embodiment, pixels whose values change less than a threshold amount, say VH-VL (or some other empirically determined value) between flash I′(x,y) and non-flash versions P″(x,y) of the image represent pixels in areas of a flash-image forming a boundary between background and foreground objects. When such individual pixels are linked, then segments of the image I′(x,y) substantially enclosed by linked boundary pixels and having pixel values on average brighter than in the corresponding segment of the non-flash image P″(x,y) are designated as foreground, whereas segments of the image substantially enclosed by boundary pixels and having pixel values on average darker than in the corresponding segment of the non-flash image are designated as background.
In a second embodiment, foreground pixels in a flash image are initially determined at step 596 as those with exposure levels greater than the upper exposure threshold value VH and background pixels in a flash image are those with exposure levels less than the lower exposure threshold value VL.
In a still further embodiment of step 596, thresholds are not employed and initial segmentation is achieved simply by subtracting the local exposure values for each image on a pixel by pixel or block by block (each block comprising n�n pixels) basis to create a difference map. Typically, foreground pixels will have a higher (brighter) value and background pixels will have a lower value.
In each of the cases above, the segmentation tool 590 has preferably traversed each of the preview image P and the flash image I and examined a difference in exposure levels for corresponding areas of the images, either pixel-by-pixel or block-by-block. For flash images taken indoors, dark regions get darker and bright regions (typically foreground) get brighter. However, for images of outdoor scenes, the foreground generally gets marginally brighter, and the background is mostly unchanged.
If during the analysis performed by the segmentation tool 590, using the luminance values of the preview P and flash images I, the degree of darkening of the background regions and brightening of foreground regions exceeds a threshold, an image can be classified as indoor. If the relative brightening and darkening do not exceed the same or a different threshold, the image can be classified as outdoor. It can be seen that this classification can be advantageously added to image meta-data for use in further processing.
Across an image, brightening of the foreground will tend to cancel darkening of the background especially when overall luminance levels have been equalized between images. In a preferred embodiment, a change in luminance may be measured as a Euclidean distance between preview and flash images. The measurement is preferably made as follows:
This absolute luminance difference value tends to be well above a threshold value for indoor images and well below that threshold for outdoor images. In simple terms, the foreground tends to be less bright and the background less dark in outdoor images, thus the variance in local luminance between non-flash and flash images is much lower. In variants of this implementation separate higher and lower thresholds can be used. Thus, if the difference is below the lower threshold, an image is classified as outdoor and if the difference is above an upper threshold, an image is classified as indoor.
In further variations of the above implementation, the classification can be performed on regions of the image which have been designated as foreground and/or background only. Thus, if the overall luminance of foreground regions increased by more than a threshold, an image could be classified as indoor; and/or if the overall luminance of background regions decreased by more than a threshold, an image could be classified as indoor. Alternatively, if the overall luminance of respective foreground and/or background regions changed by less than a threshold, the image could be classified as outdoor.
Where an image of a scene is classified as outdoor, then a non-flash based scheme for foreground/background separation can be employed, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Application No. 60/773,714, filed Feb. 14, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference, and U.S. application Ser. No. 11/319,766, filed Dec. 27, 2005, and U.S. application Ser. No. 60/776,338, filed Feb. 24, 2006, are also hereby incorporated by reference.
An optional motion estimation process 580 may be performed. Consecutive or otherwise temporally displaced preview images Pn-1(x, y) and Pn (x, y) may be loaded at 526 and 527 in
At 540, images are optionally aligned. This provides still enhanced matching of the preview image P and the flash image I loaded at 520 and 510, respectively. For example, one or both images, or portions thereof, may be translated and/or rotated so that one or more features of the two images are aligned. Matching using 530 and/or 540 improves the quality and accuracy of comparison of features over a technique that might be used in an alternative embodiment wherein the images are not matched.
The method of
Indoor/outdoor classification at 570 preferably involves calculating luminance histograms of the matched images P and I at 572. Then, a global luminance difference is calculated between the images P and I at 574. A sum of local absolute luminance differences is taken at 575 with the global luminance difference being used as reference value for this summation. Thresholding is performed at 576, wherein the differences determined at 575 are deemed either to meet one or more thresholds or not. When the thresholding is completed, classification is performed occurs at 578 such as described above. For example, when the differences determined at 575 are deemed to be above an indoor threshold at 576, then an indoor classification may be assigned at 578, whereas when the differences determined at 575 are deemed at 576 to be below the same threshold or a specific outdoor threshold that is lower than the indoor threshold, then an outdoor classification may be assigned at 578. The results of this classification may be stored and used within the camera for subsequent post-processing, sorting and image management operations.
A technique by which a block by block averaging can be advantageously achieved in a state-of-art digital camera is to employ a hardware subsampler 124 where available. This can very quickly generate a subsampled 1/n version of both images where each pixel of each image represents an average over an N�N block in the original image.
In certain embodiments, after an initial matching of size between preview and main image, further subsampling may be implemented prior to subtracting the local exposure values for each image on a pixel by pixel basis. After an initial foreground/background map is determined using the smallest pair of matched images, this map may be refined by applying the results to the next largest pair of subsampled images, each pixel now corresponding to an N�N block of pixels in the larger pair of images.
A refinement of said initial map may be achieved by performing a full pixel-by-pixel analysis, of the larger pair of matched images, only on the border regions of the initial foreground/background map. It will be appreciated that where a hardware subsampler is available that generating multiple sets of matched subsampled images is relatively inexpensive in terms of computing resources. In certain embodiments performing a series of such refinements on successively larger pairs of matched subsampled images can advantageously eliminate the need for alignment and registration of the images. The advantages of this technique must be balanced against the requirement to temporarily store a series of pairs of matched subsampled images of successively decreasing size.
Each of the processes involving threshold comparisons may also take into account neighbouring pixel operations where the threshold value or comparison is dependent on the surrounding pixel values to eliminate noise artifacts and slight shifts between the preview and the final image.
Nonetheless, it will be seen that the determination of background/foreground membership is not achieved with complete accuracy using a single pass pixel-based or block-based analysis alone. As an example, consider a person with a striped shirt. It may be that the corrected luminance of the dark stripes actually indicates they are background pixels even though they are in close proximity to a large collection of foreground pixels.
Accordingly it is advantageous to incorporate additional analysis and so, following the creation of an initial foreground map, even if this has been performed on a n�n block rather than pixel basis, the foreground pixels/blocks are segmented and labelled 597. This step helps to eliminate artifacts such as a striped shirt and those due to image noise or statistical outliers in the foreground map. It is also advantageous to eliminate small segments.
Thus a final map (mask) of foreground pixels is created 594. This may now be upsized to match the size of the main acquired image, 599-1, and can be advantageously employed for further image processing of the main image, 501. For example, although not shown, the system may include a face detector or redeye filter, and in such a case 501 can include techniques for applying these selectively to the foreground region defined by the mask, thus reducing the execution time for such algorithms by excluding the analysis of background segments. Alternatively, where the system includes a component for identifying redeye candidate regions 501, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/976,336 is hereby incorporated by reference. This component can implement a redeye falsing analysis by increasing or decreasing the probability of a redeye candidate region being an actual redeye region according to whether the candidate appears in the foreground or background of the captured image.
As was already mentioned, in a preferred embodiment it may be advantageous to initially employ aggressive downsampling of the images 510, 520. This may eliminate the need for the alignment step 540 and, if the present invention is applied recursively and selectively on a regional basis, a full-sized foreground mask can be achieved without a great increase in computation time.
Referring back now to
After the step 590, an additional step 517 determines if the comparison size (the image size used to generate the latest iteration of the foreground map) is equal to the size of the main flash image I(x,y). If not then the foreground map is upsized to the next comparison size 599-2—in this case 256�192 pixels. Each pixel in the original map is now enlarged into a 4�4 pixel block. The regions forming the boundary between foreground and background segments—they were pixels at the lower map resolution—of this enlarged map are next determined 570 and the downsampled images of this comparison size (256�192) are loaded 531. In this case, the technique may be applied to the entire image or a portion of the entire image at the higher resolution as regions within foreground segments are determined to definitely be foreground regions. In this embodiment, it is only the boundary regions between background and foreground that are analyzed. The same analysis that was applied to the main image are now applied to these regions. They may be aligned 540, before being equalizing 551, and the segmentation tool 590 is applied to each 16�16 region. The results are merged with the existing foreground map 515.
If the foreground map is now of the same size as the main flash image 517 then it can be directly applied to the main image 501. Alternatively, if it is still smaller then it is upsampled to the next image comparison size 599-2 and a further recursion through the algorithm is performed.
The segmented data is stored, 598 as a segmentation mask as in
However, simple translation operation assumes shift invariance which may not suffice in the aligning of the image. Even in the case of camera movement, such movement may include a Affine transformation that includes rotation, and shear as well as translation. Therefore, there may be a need for X-Y shearing, which is a symmetrical shift of the object's points in the direction of the axis to correct for perspective changes; X-Y tapering where the object is pinched by shifting its coordinates towards the axis, the greater the magnitude of the coordinate the further the shift; or rotation around an arbitrary point.
In general, the alignment process may involve an Affine transformation, defined as a special class of projective transformations that do not move any objects from the affine space
If it is determined through a correlation process that a global transformation suffices, as determined in block 542=YES, one of the images, and for simplicity the preview image, will undergo an Affine transformation, 544, to align itself with the final full resolution image. Mathematically, this transformation can be depicted as:
where A is a linear transformation and q is a translation.
However, in some cases a global transformation may not work well, in particular for cases where the subject matter moved, as could happen when photographing animated objects. In such case, in particular in images with multiple human subjects, and when the subjects move in independent fashion, the process of alignment 540 may be broken down, 546, to numerous local regions each with its own affine transformation. In the case of the use of the present technique for redeye detection and correction, it is preferred to align the eyes between the images. Therefore, according to this alternative, one or multiple local alignments may be performed, 548, for regions in the vicinity surrounding the eyes, such as faces.
Only after the images are aligned are the exposure value between the images equalised as in
The preferred embodiments described above may be modified by adding or changing operations, steps and/or components in many ways to produce advantageous alternative embodiments. For example, the reference image can be a post-view image rather than a preview image, i.e. an image taken without flash immediately after the flash picture is taken.
Alternatively, the reference image could be the flash image and the full resolution captured image the non-flash image. An example of this is when the camera is set up in a special mode (similar to a portrait scene selection mode), so that the preview image is the one with the flash while the final image may be with no flash. In this case, the roles of the images reverse in terms of calculating the difference between the images. Additionally, the reference image may be either a preview image or a post-view image.
The preferred embodiments described herein may involve expanded digital acquisition technology that inherently involves digital cameras, but that may be integrated with other devices such as cell-phones equipped with an acquisition component or toy cameras. The digital camera or other image acquisition device of the preferred embodiment has the capability to record not only image data, but also additional data referred to as meta-data. The file header of an image file, such as JPEG, TIFF, JPEG-2000, etc., may include capture information including the preview image, a set of preview images or a single image that is processed to provide a compressed version of selected reference images, for processing and segmentation at a later post processing stage, which may be performed in the acquisition device or in a separate device such as a personal computer.
In these embodiments, in the comparison stages, the pixel values may be compared for lightness. Alternatively or additionally, these can be compared with other values such as color. An example of chromatic comparison is warm coloring such as yellow tint that may indicate incandescent light or blue tint that may indicate shade regions in sunlit environment, or other colors indicative of change between ambient lighting and the flash lighting. The comparison may be absolute or relative. In the absolute case the absolute value of the difference is recorded regardless to which of the images has the larger pixel value. In the relative case, not only the difference but also the direction is maintained. The two techniques may also assist in establishing the registration between the two images. In the case the subject slightly moves, for example horizontally, the relative difference may indicate a reversal of the values on the left side of the object and the right side of the object.
In certain embodiments it may also prove advantageous to employ a "ratio map" rather than a "difference map". In such embodiments a ratio between the pixel luminance values of the two images (flash and non-flash) is determined. This technique can provide better results in certain cases and may be employed either as an alternative to a simple subtraction, or in certain embodiments it may be advantageous to combine output regions derived from both techniques using, logical or statistical techniques or a combination thereof, to generate a final foreground/background map.
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above herein, which may be amended or modified without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims, and structural and functional equivalents thereof. In addition, United States published patent application no. 2003/0103159 to Nonaka, Osamu, entitled "Evaluating the effect of a strobe light in a camera" is hereby incorporated by reference as disclosing an in-camera image processing method for correcting shadow regions in a flash image.
In methods that may be performed according to preferred embodiments herein and that may have been described above and/or claimed below, the operations have been described in selected typographical sequences. However, the sequences have been selected and so ordered for typographical convenience and are not intended to imply any particular order for performing the operations.
In addition, all references cited above herein, in addition to the background and summary of the invention sections, are hereby incorporated by reference into the detailed description of the preferred embodiments as disclosing alternative embodiments and components.
|Cited Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|Aug 30, 2005
|Oct 20, 2009
|Fotonation Vision Limited
|Foreground/background segmentation in digital images with differential exposure calculations
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|Mar 16, 2010
|Fotonation Vision Limited
|Indoor/outdoor classification in digital images
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|Fotonation Vision Limited
|Perfecting the effect of flash within an image acquisition devices using face detection
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|Fotonation Vision Limited
|Perfecting the effect of flash within an image acquisition devices using face detection
|Citing Patent
|Filing date
|Publication date
|May 2, 2011
|May 1, 2012
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Foreground/background segmentation in digital images
|Mar 26, 2009
|May 8, 2012
|Texas Instruments Incorporated
|Digital image segmentation using flash
|Apr 21, 2010
|Dec 18, 2012
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Method and component for image recognition
|Sep 15, 2011
|Jul 23, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Registration of distorted images
|Sep 15, 2011
|Jul 23, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Registration of differently scaled images
|Feb 27, 2008
|Aug 6, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Illumination detection using classifier chains
|Feb 3, 2011
|Aug 13, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Autofocus method
|Feb 15, 2011
|Nov 19, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Fast rotation estimation of objects in sequences of acquired digital images
|Feb 15, 2011
|Nov 19, 2013
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Object detection from image profiles within sequences of acquired digital images
|Nov 11, 2010
|Feb 11, 2014
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Rapid auto-focus using classifier chains, MEMS and/or multiple object focusing
|Nov 11, 2010
|Feb 25, 2014
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Rapid auto-focus using classifier chains, MEMS and/or multiple object focusing
|Dec 2, 2010
|Apr 8, 2014
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Object detection and rendering for wide field of view (WFOV) image acquisition systems
|Feb 15, 2011
|Apr 22, 2014
|Digital Optics Corporation Europe Limited
|Image rotation from local motion estimates
|Apr 2, 2011
|May 13, 2014
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Face and other object tracking in off-center peripheral regions for nonlinear lens geometries
|Feb 6, 2014
|Aug 5, 2014
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Rapid auto-focus using classifier chains, MEMS and multiple object focusing
|Mar 31, 2011
|Oct 14, 2014
|Fotonation Limited
|Scene enhancements in off-center peripheral regions for nonlinear lens geometries
|Dec 2, 2010
|Oct 28, 2014
|Fotonation Limited
|Object detection and rendering for wide field of view (WFOV) image acquisition systems
|Apr 11, 2011
|Nov 25, 2014
|Fotonation Limited
|Superresolution enhancment of peripheral regions in nonlinear lens geometries
|Mar 31, 2011
|Feb 3, 2015
|Fotonation Limited
|Scene enhancements in off-center peripheral regions for nonlinear lens geometries
|Dec 2, 2010
|Mar 3, 2015
|Fotonation Limited
|Continuous autofocus based on face detection and tracking
|Apr 2, 2011
|Mar 17, 2015
|Fotonation Limited
|Face and other object detection and tracking in off-center peripheral regions for nonlinear lens geometries
|Oct 26, 2011
|Mar 31, 2015
|Fotonation Limited
|Face or other object detection including template matching
|Oct 29, 2013
|Aug 2, 2016
|Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
|Device and method for estimating head pose
|Mar 30, 2015
|May 2, 2017
|Fotonation Limited
|Face or other object detection including template matching
|Mar 26, 2009
|Sep 30, 2010
|Texas Instruments Incorporated
|Digital Image Segmentation Using Flash
|May 2, 2011
|Nov 3, 2011
|Tessera Technologies Ireland Limited
|Foreground/Background Segmentation in Digital Images
|Oct 29, 2013
|May 1, 2014
|Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
|Device and method for estimating head pose
|Apr 6, 2012
|Oct 24, 2012
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Display device with image capture and analysis module
|Sep 28, 2011
|Apr 5, 2012
|DigitalOptics Corporation Europe Limited
|Continuous autofocus based on face detection and tracking
|U.S. Classification
|International Classification
|Cooperative Classification
|European Classification
|Feb 24, 2010
Owner name: FOTONATION VISION LIMITED,IRELAND
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Owner name: FOTONATION VISION LIMITED, IRELAND
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|Dec 31, 2010
Owner name: TESSERA TECHNOLOGIES IRELAND LIMITED, IRELAND
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:FOTONATION VISION LIMITED;REEL/FRAME:025567/0216
Effective date: 20101001
|Dec 5, 2011
Owner name: DIGITALOPTICS CORPORATION EUROPE LIMITED, IRELAND
Free format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:TESSERA TECHNOLOGIES IRELAND LIMITED;REEL/FRAME:027326/0593
Effective date: 20110713
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|Dec 3, 2014
Owner name: FOTONATION LIMITED, IRELAND
Free format text: CHANGE OF NAME;ASSIGNOR:DIGITALOPTICS CORPORATION EUROPE LIMITED;REEL/FRAME:034524/0330
Effective date: 20140609


text:
In his first year with the Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the 63-year-old Mike Keenan coached his team to the KHL championship Wednesday. Metallurg beat Lev Prague 7-4 in Game 7 of the Gagarin Cup.
Keenan became the first coach to win both the Stanley Cup and the Gagarin Cup.
He led the New York Rangersto the 1993-94 Stanley Cup and has more than 600 wins during a 25-year career with eight teams. He last coached in the NHL with the Calgary Flames from 2007 to 2009. Keenan signed a two-year contract with Metallurg in May 2013.

subset: commoncrawl


text: GE Capital Retail Bank today announced a definitive, multi-year agreement with Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX), an energy manufacturing and logistics company, to provide private label credit card programs for consumer and commercial customers nationwide. GE Capital Retail Finance, which provides consumer financing solutions to merchants to help grow their customer sales, will manage the Phillips 66 relationship and service the account. The new Phillips 66 credit card program and promotions launch August 1, 2013, and include a private label credit card for consumers and a branded business revolving charge card for commercial customers. The branded consumer credit card program, which includes the Phillips 66 ® Personal Card, Conoco ® Personal Card and 76 ® Personal Card, will provide consumer cardholders with benefits and convenience, as well as the opportunity to earn rewards for qualifying fuel purchases made at any of the 8,000 independently owned Phillips 66, Conoco, 76 and Phillips 66 General Aviation locations nationwide. The Phillips 66, Conoco and 76 business revolving charge program is nationally accepted and provides advanced account management, enabling commercial cardholders to track fuel expenses, auto repairs, vehicle washes, and convenience store purchases. "We're pleased to work with GE Capital's strong and experienced team to bring our customers the convenience of a dedicated credit card to use for all of their purchases at our branded locations," said Andy Viens, president of Global Marketing at Phillips 66. GE Capital's Retail Finance business works with oil and gas retailers to provide financial solutions to their end customers that help build business. As part of the agreement, GE Capital Retail Bank will acquire the existing card program assets from Citibank. Financial terms were not disclosed. "We are excited to build this relationship with Phillips 66 and look forward to working with the 8,000+ branded locations in their network to provide valuable financing solutions for their customers," said Margaret Keane, CEO and president of GE Capital Retail Finance. "The transaction, which closed June 28, 2013, will grow GE Capital's significant presence in the oil and gas segment, with a respected provider of fuel products for over a century."


text:
Adele Briscoe Looscan Collection
Lewis Birdsall Harris Papers, Manuscript Collection: MC066
Creator Sketch
Lewis Birdsall Harris was born in Waterloo, New York, on July 1, 1816, the third child of John R. Harris and Jane Birdsall. When his mother left New York for Texas in 1833, he remained at the home of his grandparents until the spring of 1836. Although he arrived in Texas on April 21st, he quickly joined the Texian Army. Harris later held government positions as a clerk for both Andrew Briscoe and DeWitt Clinton Harris and served in the military including participating in the Somervell Expedition. In 1849 Harris joined the rush for California. He eventually settled in Sacramento, where he served as county clerk.
Lewis B. Harris was a prolific correspondent and wrote frequently to his relations in New York and Texas. He maintained a journal from 1836 to 1842 describing his journey from New York to Texas and his life in Texas. Harris married Jane E. Wilcox in 1846. In 1854, he married Amanda C. Dell, and had two children: Lewis B. Harris, Jr. and Gordon B. Harris. Lewis B. Harris died in San Diego, California, on June 12, 1893.
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Scope and Content Note
Financial documents, correspondence, and legal papers briefly record the life of Lewis Birdsall Harris. Statements of account (4) and tax receipts (2) document Harris' financial transactions. Of interest are 3 records concerning the rental and eventual purchase of Mary, a 24 year old black woman, by Henry F. Fisher in 1849, the year Harris left Texas for California. Correspondence includes 2 letters received by Harris, one from his nephew J. S. Birdsall in Oregon in 1871 asking for financial assistance. Three letters written by Harris from California in 1851 are addressed to "friends" - probably his Texas relatives. Legal documents include 2 records signed by Harris as county clerk in Harrisburg County and a deed to lots in Harrisburg sold to Harris by Johnson Hunter.
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Restrictions on Access
Terms Governing Use
Open for research by appointment.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the San Jacinto Museum of History. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Library Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Jacinto Museum of History as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.
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Archivist's Note
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Administrative Information
[Identification of Item], Lewis Birdsall Harris Papers, MC066, San Jacinto Museum of History, Houston, Texas.
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Hill, Jr., Houston Public Library, Annie Hume, 1939-1940.
Processing Information
Processed by Sandra Eileen Yates, 2002.
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text:
Design Thinking Workshops
First Person Impact
Saturday, June 1, 2013 from 11:30 AM to 2:45 PM (PDT)
Who's Going
San Francisco, California
London, United Kingdom
Florence, Italy
Event Details
Experience the power and joy of the revolutionary process of innovation known as Design Thinking and help find solutions to one of Palo Alto's most pressing civic problems…in just 75 minutes.
Our free workshop, Watch+Design For Civic Impact, brought to you by SAP and First Person Impact, is a fast-paced, hands-on introduction to Design Thinking that will get your creative juices flowing.
The workshop starts with a sustainability-related design challenge and covers four interactive design steps (frame, imagine, make, test). Each step is illustrated and explained by short clips from a PBS documentary film, Extreme By Design, about Stanford d.school students who use the same Design Thinking skills to create low-cost products for the world's poor. As a workshop participant, you will come away with a physical prototype you yourself have made and with a renewed sense that you really can change the world around you.
After the workshops, join KQED for a sneak preview of Extreme By Design in its entirety (57 minutes) in an adjacent screening room at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m.
An additional Design Thinking Workshop will be offered on a walk-in basis at Idea Hackathon #3 on Sustainability from 4:00 - 5:15 p.m. at 542 High St.
- SAP, a workshop sponsor with operations located in Palo Alto, is a global leader in enterprise software and software-related services worldwide.
- First Person Impact is a Palo Alto-based firm dedicated to discovering, developing and delivering local civic leaders who connect and create scalable systemic change for the common good. FPI produces Leadership Palo Alto, a civic leadership acceleration program and First Person, a video interview series featuring trailblazers in Palo Alto and Silicon Valley, plus special events that catalyze creative civic engagement.
- Hawkview Pictures, a film production company based in Portola Valley, developed the film-driven Watch+Design Workshop with its partners at the Stanford d.school. Visit us online, and on Facebook and Twitter. For more information on the origins of the workshop, see this recent d.school blogpost.
- WorkSpring, a workshop sponsor with facilities in Palo Alto, provides purpose-built space for corporate co-working, group sessions, extended projects, and social events.
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, this workshop is available to you at no cost. However, space is limited so pre-registration for one of the 2 sessions is recommended. Best suited for adults and mature teens.
When & Where
660 High St
Palo Alto,
Saturday, June 1, 2013 from 11:30 AM to 2:45 PM (PDT)
Add to my calendar


text:
St Albans MP Anne Main has orchestrated a Houses of Parliament debate on "absurd" stamp duty land tax which she claims is preventing city residents from moving home.
The debate will take place in Westminster Hall on Thursday, September 4.
Ms Main gathered support from MPs Dominic Raab, John Redwood, and Steven Pound to make representations to the Backbench Business Committee that decides which matters should be debated in Parliament.
The MP said she was "extremely happy to secure a debate on a matter which disproportionately affects my constituents in an area with high average house prices."
She continued: "This matter has resonance not only in St Albans, but throughout the country as more and more people are being dragged into paying an absurd amount to the exchequer just to move home.
"We are now able to consider stamp duty in the House where MPs will be able to speak freely on the impact the tax is having on the housing market, and particularly how it affects Members' constituents.
"From my point of view, St Albans has some of the highest house prices in the country, and residents are writing to me with their concerns about the expense of simply moving to a more appropriately-sized home.
"Stamp duty is acting as a barrier for people to move, and distorts the housing market, so it is fantastic news that MPs will be able to have their say on the tax.
"Hopefully we can bring this issue to the fore, and look at ways in which the tax may be levied in a fairer way and that doesn't hinder people looking to get on the housing ladder."


text: The name of the stage is derived from the town of Apt in Vaucluse département in southeastern France, for which the surrounding area serves as the classic type district for rocks of this age. In Britain the Aptian Stage is represented by part of the Lower Greensand formation. Elsewhere in northern Europe it consists of portions of the thick Hils clay, while in the United States it includes the Dakota Sandstone. The ammonite genus Prodeshayesites is used as an index fossil to mark the base of the Aptian Stage in Britain, Germany, and France. The Aptian has been divided into several shorter spans of time called biozones, some of which are characterized by calcareous nannofossils of Nannoconus bucheri and N. wassalli. The planktonic foraminiferans Globigerinelloides algerianus and G. blowi are also considered index fossils for rocks of this stage.


text:
Australia has suffered a massive Rugby World Cup blow after prop Benn Robinson was ruled out for the rest of the year with a knee injury.
Four new faces in Wallabies team to play Samoa
The 26-year-old damaged his knee at Wallabies training yesterday, with scans today revealing he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament.
Robinson will undergo surgery in the coming days, meaning he will miss the upcoming Tri Nations and the World Cup, kicking off in New Zealand on September 9.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans conceded the injury was a significant blow to Australia's prospects.
"It's disappointing news for Benn, disappointing news for the rest of the squad and for Australian rugby as a whole," Deans said in a statement.
"No one likes to see injuries like this.
"The seemingly-innocuous circumstances in which it occurred only adds to the frustration, but injuries have always been a part of the game.
"When the door closes for one player, it opens for another and I'm sure the other front rowers we have will step up to fill the void Benn leaves."
Robinson had been due to feature in his 43rd Test in Sunday's clash with Samoa in Sydney but his injury may see either Western Force prop Pek Cowan or NSW Waratahs veteran Al Baxter to come into the 22-man squad.
The pair trained with the team today, with Deans to decide on a replacement in the coming days.
Robinson's injury also opens the door for Queensland Reds loose-head Ben Daley to challenge starting props Benn Alexander and Sekope Kepu for the Wallabies No.1 jersey in the Tri Nations.


text:
Invite Assembly: Part 4
The postage you choose can add the final finishing touch to your envelopes. It's like the perfect bow on a well-wrapped gift. Just like with the addressing, the postage can really help form a great impression and create a little excitement for your guests. When your invitation arrives in someone's mailbox, you want them to think "Oh! What's this? How lovely!" rather than thinking it might be another bill.
Stamps are little pieces of commissioned artwork and with so many beautiful options available, it shouldn't be too difficult to pick a pretty design. You can either look for stamps that will work with the color palette of your wedding or you can search for stamps with a similar theme or aesthetic. Here are a few examples:
A variety of stamps in pink and grey coordinate with this grey and white invitation.
invitation shown: Ameera
– – –
A mix of vintage stamps featuring birds and trees works well for a rustic wedding.
invitation shown: Love Logo #12
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These 'Tropical Flowers' stamps are perfect for a destination wedding. (These are actually a favorite of mine because I used them on my own invitations back in 2001!)
invitation shown: Love Logo #24
– – –
A few of our recent customers have had military weddings – these 'presidential' stamps would be appropriate.
invitation shown: Love Logo #1
– – –
A simple, modern stamp for a modern wedding.
invitation shown: Gwen
– – –
The first place to start your search is, of course the post office. Ask to see all of the current stamps and determine if any have the look you're going for. If there's nothing at the post office that strikes your fancy, the next best place will be your local Stamp & Coin shop. Stamp & Coin shops can be a veritable treasure trove. I have spent literally HOURS at my local shop pouring over all the delightful little goodies. I don't know the first thing about stamp collecting but I can certainly appreciate beautiful things – who knew these dusty little shops could be so inspiring! Anyway, I digress…
The great thing about the Stamp & Coin shop is that you can find lovely vintage stamps as well as designs that are more recent but no longer available at the post office. There are, however, a few things to consider:
First, if you plan to use the stamps, you will need to buy them in mint condition. The mint condition value tends to be a bit higher than the face value of the stamp – especially for the really vintage designs. For example, you might pay 20 cents for a 15 cent stamp.
Secondly, the older the stamp, the smaller it's value will be. For example, some stamps from the 1950's are only valued at 3 or 4 cents each. Be sure to look for stamps with higher values (15 cents or greater) since your postage will need to add up to 44 cents (or more, depending on the weight of your invitations).
Of course, you will need to consider your budget in all this. Vintage stamps are a bit more expensive and depending on how many invitations you need to send, the cost can add up. For me personally, the small additional cost is well worth it but it all depends on what's most important to you. It is, at least, something to consider.
Anyone out there planning to hunt for pretty postage for your invitations?


text:
8 Strategies for Multi-Generational Financial Planning
May 4, 2015 | Your Finances
You have many needs and goals for your hard-earned money, and it can be stretched thin if you're financially supporting several generations of loved ones. Yet millions of Americans are doing just that, and at the same time many are delaying retirement and working to recover lost value in property, investments and net worth. Record numbers of grandparents are raising young children, young adults are living with their parents into their 30s, and middle-aged people are supporting both their living parents and dependent or adult children.1 How can you cope?
In the Family Balancing Act, Keep an Eye on Your Goals
Whatever your situation, a strong financial plan helps you juggle challenges and stay on track for your long-term goals. If you are living with or supporting several generations of family members, the most important thing you can do—for all of you—is to create a plan that focuses first on your own future. Just as you should put on your own oxygen mask before helping others on an airplane, having a strong financial plan in place puts you in a better position to help loved ones when they need it most.
Here are some strategies to consider when you are trying to meet the needs of multiple generations:
1. Account for Longevity. The average American is living longer; a man who is 65 today has a 50 percent chance of living until age 87, and a 65-year-old woman has a 50 percent chance of living until age 90.2 Knowing that retirement could last 30 years or more for you and the elders you care for, you must consistently save for your own future as you help others manage their income and expenses. Plan for the risks that you and loved ones could face in retirement, including inflation, taxes, market fluctuations, healthcare costs and the potential need to pay for long-term care.
2. Document the Details. Ask all family members to assemble and document their personal and financial information so others can manage their affairs in case of an emergency. This includes updating beneficiary designations on financial accounts and insurance policies, keeping records of online accounts and passwords, having a current will and powers of attorney on file, and outlining specific health care wishes in a living will. People with minor children should name a guardian and financial arrangements for the children in case of the parents' death.
3. Have Courageous Conversations. It's not always easy to offer emotional support and manage the demands of multiple generations, personalities, living arrangements and family schedules. Sometimes it seems easier in the moment to avoid a conversation about something that concerns you than deal with a difficult topic or someone's reaction. However, this normally leads to more difficulty later. When conflict arises, address it quickly and directly, showing you are willing to communicate, listen and keep an open mind. The positives can far outweigh the negatives when you keep the lines of communication open and focus on what is best for everyone.
4. Inspire Self-Reliance. Encourage family members of all ages to take as much ownership of their personal finances, decisions and consequences as they can. This prepares younger people to live independently and encourages adults to handle their responsibilities rather than relying on other family members to do so. Creating an individual financial plan is a valuable exercise for all ages. Whether you are just starting out or living in retirement, it's good to periodically examine your current obligations, decide on goals and priorities, confirm a realistic budget and ensure you have an emergency fund for contingencies. Younger people benefit from committing to a savings habit, and elders want to be clear on their strategy to use their retirement assets. A financial professional can help in this process.
5. Use Technology. A multitude of tools are available to help families keep in touch, stay healthy and safe, and manage various activities. Explore and deploy technology where it can help you the most, whether with online banking, health care tracking, free conference calling or Skype for long-distance family meetings, or TheMintGrad.org to empower young adults to carve a path toward financial independence.
6. Manage Legal and Financial Risks. Understand the legal and financial implications of family decisions, and avoid undue risk where possible. Buy appropriate insurance to protect your property from damage or personal injury and to replace income lost in the event of disability or death. Keep your own goals top of mind, and be careful about co-signing for others' financial obligations unless you are prepared to pay in full if they default. Also, be aware of laws that could impact your family—such as the strict income and asset limitations involved in qualifying for Medicaid and the filial responsibility laws in many states that can hold adult children responsible for expenses incurred by their elderly parents.
7. Protect the Future. Those who want to provide for family members' future needs after they are gone may want to consider establishing a trust. Trusts can be designed to suit a family's specific goals, including distributing assets or life insurance proceeds to surviving spouses and heirs in multiple generations. The trust can specify the timing and parameters for distribution while protecting funds from divorce, creditors, estate taxes and mismanagement. A financial professional can connect you with resources and help you decide if a trust is right for you.
8. Tap Community Resources. Some say "it takes a village to raise a child," and the same applies to managing aging family members' needs. When you need help beyond what family members can provide, local community and state agencies can offer valuable advice and expertise on a range of topics. Hospital social workers, health plan nurses and the local Council on Aging can point you to medical care options, senior living facilities and special services. The AARP website and www.medicare.gov can help demystify the financial realities of Medicare, Social Security and other critical financial issues.
If you're living in one of the more than 4.3 million households with multiple generations—or are managing the demands of children, extended family and elders all at the same time—you don't have to do it alone. A financial professional can help you set your own course and put your family members on the right financial track now and into the future.
1Pew Research Center, Social and Demographic Research, 2013; At Grandmother's House We Stay; A Rising Share of Young Adults Live in Their Parents' Home; The Sandwich Generation
2Annuity 2000 table with mortality enhancements determined by using projection scale G2.
Get Answers to Your Financial Questions
It can be difficult to see how your whole financial picture fits together. We can help.


text: ECW on Sci Fi Results - 1/8/08 - Wilkes-Barre, PA (Punk vs. Chavo...) Reported by Adam Martin of WrestleView.com On Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 3:17 AM EST Retaining goldBy Kara A. Medalis January 8, 2008Results courtesy of WWE.comWilkes-Barre, Pa. – The duo of Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore had been on a roll lately against WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison, but their luck ended during tonight's 15 Minutes of Fame Match. The Miz & Morrison tied Yang & Moore with one decision each in 15 minutes; therefore the Champions retain their Tag Team Titles. Coming within a split second of the gold, Wang & Moore displayed their greatest effort, but it wasn't enough to unseat The Miz & Morrison.An injured Colin Delaney bravely stepped into the ECW ring for the third time, and told Tazz he's hurt so badly he probably shouldn't have ventured out of bed. After two brutal matches against Shelton Benjamin and Big Daddy V, it's no surprise the third time was not a charm against Mark Henry, either. The World's Strongest Man demolished Colin, but will the newcomer be back for more?/*where in the Land of the Extreme, former best friends Kelly Kelly and Layla mixed it up, old school style on ECW this week. The two beauties got down and dirty in a Diva Dance Off, hosted by Lena Yada, who made her ECW debut. Layla and Kelly strutted their stuff for the crowd, but just when our fans were about to cheer for a winner, Lena entered herself into the Diva Dance Off. Layla and Kelly looked on in shock as Lena declared herself the winner.Finally, our fans got another look at Kofi Kingston. The Jamaican Superstar has promised he's bringing trouble to paradise.Headlining ECW on Sci Fi, Chavo Guerrero got his second chance to earn an ECW Title match this week. Once again, the tenacious CM Punk came out on top when Guerrero was disqualified.Matches:* WWE Tag Team Champions The Miz & John Morrison def. Jimmy Wang Yang & Shannon Moore * Mark Henry def. Colin Delaney * Kelly Kelly vs. Layla (Diva Dance Off, no contest) * ECW Champion CM Punk def. Chavo Guerrero (DQ)


text:
This week we received a lot of fabulous vegetable recipes as part of the Julia Child JC100 Celebration. Let's kick things off with a simple recipe that makes a great side dish to any dinner: Asparagus Au Naturel topped with a creamy Hollandaise Sauce.
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Tourist Directory > Attractions
The Screening Room, The Arts House
Address:1 Old Parliament Lane, The Arts House, Singapore 179429
Getting there:By Bus: North Bridge Road (Opposite Funan Centre or Outside MITA Building): 32, 51, 61, 63, 80, 103, 124, 145, 166, 174, 195, 197, 603, 851, 961
Collyer Quay (At, or Opposite Clifford Pier; Fullerton Square; Opposite Singapore Cricket Club or outside Victoria Concert Hall): 10, 70, 75, 100, 107,130, 131, 162, 167, 196, 605, 607, 608
By MRT: From Raffles Place Station, take exit H and walk across Cavenagh Bridge. From City Hall Station, take exit B (in front of capitol building), turn left, walk towards Funan Centre and turn left again upon reaching the present Parliament house.
From Clark Quay Station, take exit E, cross the road in front, then turn left, upon reaching the Singapore River, turn right and walk towards the Victoria Memorial Clock Tower.
Contact:(+65) 6332 6900
Operating Hours:Monday to Saturday: 10am - 8pm.
Description: Tucked within the Arts House, the Screening Room is an intimate 75-seat film theatre. Once a space for administrative duties in the Old Parliament House, the space has now been transformed into a cinema for screening independent films.
It presents a mix of domestic and international films, and hosts talks and regular workshops. The old flip-up chairs housed in the heritage building gives the Screening Room a quaint, old-school feel.
Established to provide support for independent filmmakers, the Screening Room gives budding auteurs a platform to organise film premieres and festivals. Some of the notable events that have been held here include the sell-out runs of Tan Pin Pin's landmark documentary Singapore GaGa in 2005, the 2009 Italian Film Festival and the annual Singapore Sun Festival.
Check out The Screening Room's calendar and mailing list to find out what new titles are showing and the latest events on-site.
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text:
There was a story today in the New York Times ("Farmers Cope with Roundup-Resistant Weeds") about glyphosate-resistant weeds, or as the headline states – Roundup-resistant weeds. (Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup. Its success has made the two interchangeable similar to the case of facial tissue and the brand name Kleenex).
This is the second story in recent weeks about "superweeds," as the mainstream media has sensationally dubbed the weed resistance issue.
Overall the NYT story talks about the positive contributions of biotechnology on weed control—increase in no-till, the switch from alternative herbicides to Roundup, reduced soil erosion, less herbicides/fertilizer runoff into waterways, and an easier management system for farmers – but also warns that farmers are having to resort to some of the old ways of killing weeds because of weed resistance.
These articles seem a bit late to the game since we've been dealing with glyphosate-resistant weeds for 10 years now. The first resistant weed –horseweed – was discovered in Delaware in 2000. But, I guess the mainstream media has decided weed resistance is now in vogue.
A few notes about resistance:
- After four decades of use, there are 18 weeds that have become resistant (10 in the U.S.) Glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide, and still controls more than 300 different types of weeds. Not a bad track record.
- Weed resistance is not unique to glyphosate and is a potential issue with any herbicide. Herbicide-resistant weeds have been around since the 1950s. For an exhaustive list of different herbicides and their resistant weeds, check out the International Survey of Herbicide-Resistant Weeds. The survey also includes dates when the resistance was identified as well as location by country and state/region.
- Overuse of a glyphosate is often stated as one of the key reasons behind resistance. In actuality, it's over reliance, which is different. Over reliance on a single herbicide increases the selection pressure.* As does growing a single crop with no rotation (ex. corn over and over again on the same field).
- Underuse of the herbicide can also be a contributing factor. If farmers reduce application rates to save money, that also increases the selection pressure. It's similar to what happens when your doctor tells you to take the prescribed antibiotics for 10 days, and you only do it for 5. You're increasing the risk for your body to become resistant to the antibiotic.
- And finally, what the heck is a superweed? Seriously, this term gets thrown around a lot, primarily in non-agriculture venues. I imagine pigweed standing tall with a red cape, refusing to die. Glyphosate may no longer be able to kill these weeds, but that by itself doesn't make them "superweeds." There was a time when glyphosate wasn't around, and guess what? These weeds existed.
We know resistant weeds are a concern for our customers. Over the past 10 years, we've worked with farmers, weed scientists and public institutions to monitor and research the issue and to provide recommendations on managing resistant weeds as well as prevention for further resistance. These best management practices have evolved over time as we have learned more.
Today, those practices include proper application rates, the use of other herbicides as necessary, rotation of crops and tillage. We work to broadly encourage those practices among farmers via communications on our product labels, in our technology use guides, print literature, and via professional websites to growers, retailers and farm consultants.
*What is selection pressure? Well, imagine that you have a whole population of pigweed in a field. Some of those pigweeds can naturally resist the effects of a particular herbicide. You spray the herbicide, and if you leave these weeds alive in the field, they can come back the next year and are harder to control.
For more information on weed resistance, check out these links:
WeedTool.com – (includes fairly comprehensive list of resources: university weed science departments, industry organization learning modules,
Herbicide Resistance Action Committee
Weed Resistance and Benefits of Diversified Weed Management Programs (Monsanto)
For the Record – Science – Weed Resistance (Monsanto)
Weed Resistance Risk Assessment (Monsanto)


text:
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Great salespeople know that they key to making a sale is building a relationship with someone. When you're looking for a job it's the same thing because you're essentially selling yourself. This is especially true at higher levels because the market is very competitive.
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text: I just notice that the heating vents on the floor are just wide enough between the slots for the budgie foot to go into. Skyler was walking around chasing a ball and he got close to it. I never would of given it a thought if I didn't see the heater vent and him beside each other. They are sharp if you stick your finger in them. So I hate to venture a guess on what it could do to a leg and foot that got trapped in it. Just a heads to anyone this would apply to.


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Release Notes: This release fixes a lot of bugs. It brings back the useful ToolBar in the Favorites Tree to perform some global actions like "Reload All Favorites" or "Mark all Favorites Read". The overall performance was improved, and Thai language support added. The Solaris release uses GTK 2 instead of Motif.
Release Notes: This release features a toolbar that contains most common actions like "Go to next unread news item" or "Mark all read". The new quick search feature allows users to search inside a news feed while typing. The ability to import blogrolls from popular services like Bloglines and the ability to synchronize the list of news feeds were added. There is a popup blocker for the internal browser. The use of Apache's HttpClient now allows users to access news feeds that are protected with Basic or Digest authentication. A lot of usability and interface improvements and a lot of bugfixes were included.
Release Notes: This release has been made due to some late bugfixes and a newer SWT version.
Release Notes: All users should update to this release, since it fixes a lot of bugs. In addition, the version of SWT was updated to the latest milestone 5 of branch 3.1.
Release Notes: Some bugs that were in the release candidate have been fixed. In addition, all translations have been completed and some were corrected.
Release Notes: A lot of changes and countless bugfixes made it into this release. The overall UI was improved and the menu structure updated. The new menus "Edit" and "Favorites" cover common actions like "Reload All Favorites" or "Search in all Favorites". A new button top-right inside the tabfolder allows you to quickly maximize and restore the tabfolder. It's now possible to read a news feed in PDF, RTF, or HTML with a single click. Press Ctrl+1 to generate a PDF and open it, or use Ctrl+3 to generate an HTML page and display it using the internal browser.
Release Notes: The updated SWT version now allows Mozilla 1.7 to be used as the internal browser. Some other browser-related bugs were fixed in the SWT version. The layout of generated PDF/RTF/HTML documents has been improved. For instance, PDF documents now show an outline with titles of all news as chapters. Not only the newstext, but also the publish date, author, and the newsfeed site are now exported to the document. A new dialog to discover newsfeeds on a Web site was implemented.
Release Notes: Loading any number of feeds and aggregations now runs completely in the background, allowing you to open feeds while a loading is running. This not only removes the annoying "Please wait..." dialog, but also improves the performance when loading aggregations. A comparison of time it takes loading the 130 sample favorites resulted in 14.5 seconds for RSSOwl 0.82b and 90.5 seconds for earlier versions. A lot of bugs have been fixed.
Release Notes: This version fixes a problem for Mac users running OS X 10.3.4 having troubles launching RSSOwl.
Release Notes: This release fixes some problems that were reported. Newsfeeds that required authentication did not work with RSSOwl. Some application crashes should also be fixed.


text:
Ranieri: Housing Has Bottomed but Credit Issues Loom
The U.S. housing market has bottomed but a lack of credit and pending regulation have kept both consumers and lenders from increasing activity in a meaningful way, Lewis Ranieri, a widely followed investor and pioneer of the mortgage-backed securities market, said at a conference Monday.
Mr. Ranieri, who runs a variety of mortgage businesses that cover loan servicing, distressed investments and new originations, said his firm is taking advantage of the current market conditions with loan purchases. Loan buyers run the risk that home prices continue to fall, harming returns should the assets be sold.
"Many, myself included, think we are at the bottom," Mr. Ranieri said at a conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association in New York. From the perspective of his firms, "we can't buy loans fast enough," he said.


text:
On 11/18/05, Lee Sharp <leesharp at hal dash pc dot org> wrote:
> >
> What about the issue with remote firmware upgrades on 64 meg machines?
the only person that actually replied back to Manuel with debug info
on the upgrade failures said they had 64 MB, but really had 32 MB. I
don't know of any confirmed upgrade problems due to lack of RAM with
> And
> it seems that low memory machines using traffic shaping were the ones
> locking up recently...
many had a lot more too though. running out of RAM won't make the
machine lock up, it'll make services crash due to no available memory
and no swap. core routing/NATing/firewalling will continue
> When is extra memory "nice" to have and when is it
> critical? And what is a good memory footprint?
1.2's racoon seems to have memory leaks under certain circumstances
for certain people. I've never experienced them, but some have posted
info where it was using up way too much memory. Others seem to have
reported issues with captive portal using only 64 MB. I think all the
memory issues as of late are due to memory leaks, since nothing now is
significantly different than it was in earlier 1.2 betas or 1.1.
64 MB is sufficient for basically any install. I run virtually every
feature, and never exceed 50% RAM use with 64 MB. Quite a few people
ran pre-1.2 versions on 32 MB, just couldn't upgrade, and I know of
several that couldn't use IPsec.
From some off list discussion with Manuel for the sake of the
documentation, he also didn't think there were many, if any
circumstances where the stock image should use more than 64 MB.
Numerous IPsec connections (maybe 15-20+ simultaneous) may eat up
enough that you wouldn't be able to upgrade with 64 MB. Big captive
portal deployments, and big DHCP deployments may take up more (talking
100+ users). I don't recall any other situations where a legit need
(rather than memory leaks with 1.2) required more memory.


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Space-saving design
Heavy-wall one-piece molded construction
Recessed molded-in handles
Molded cover
This one-piece heavy-wall molded tank offers a space-saving design. The Angler Bait Tank comes ready to plumb (plumbing kit not included). Molded-in hold-down lugs make it easy to secure your tank to the deck with an L-bracket kit (not included). Features molded cover and recessed molded-in handles. One-year warranty.
This 24-gallon tank measures 20"dia. x 18"H.


text: OverviewBack to top Naturade - Veg Protein Booster Chocolate Flavor - 15 oz. Item# :76975UPC# :079911025167 Brand:Naturade Size/Form:15 oz. Servings:15 Dosage:0.33 Cup(s) Flavor:Chocolate Flavor Naturade Veg Protein Booster Chocolate Flavor (426 g)Naturade Veg Protein Booster reduces cholesterol. Naturade Veg Protein Booster contains 23g of soy protein per 8 oz. serving. Naturade Veg Protein Booster is an important product for people who exclude meat and dairy from their usual diet. Naturade Veg Protein Booster supplies a unique combination of all-vegetable proteins plus lysine and methionine to match the amino acid profile of animal protein and assure that you get all the essential amino acids your body can't produce on its own. Naturade Veg Protein Booster is fortified with vitamin B-12 and calcium, nutrients commonly missing in the vegetarian diet. This all-natural Naturade Veg Protein Booster product has absolutely no animal, egg or dairy derivatives. 23g Protein1g Carbohydrate1.5g FatOne 8 oz. serving of Naturade Veg Protein Booster supplies 23 grams of soy protein to help you fight America's number 1 killer of both men and women. The Food and Drug Administration has agreed that 25 grams of soy protein daily may reduce the risk of heart disease when used in a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol. Over 40 clinical studies have shown that soy protein helps lower total and LDL cholesterol. Other studies suggest soy protein benefits in easing the transition through menopause and in supporting bone health. Naturade Veg Protein Booster is an easy way to add protein to the foods and drinks you already prepare at home. Naturade Veg Protein Booster is formulated with high-grade soy protein isolate containing naturally occurring isoflavones without the extra fat or strong aftertaste of whole soybeans. Naturade Veg Protein Booster has no carbohydrates or added sugar, so you can create your favorite food dishes and drinks with great taste—and extra protein! About Naturade A Natural Commitment Since 1926. Naturade's commitment to quality is long known and well regarded, not only as a good example in the health industry - but as a standard of excellence that reflects Naturade's sense of dedication to their profession. Naturade's priority and standard of excellence demands effective, nutritional quality controls. This quality control is integrated through every phase of product development and production. Naturade's commitment inspires us to pursue more and more advanced technology to ensure the highest quality possible.Naturade's Working Relationship With NatureNaturade looks to our world for their source of nourishment on every level imaginable. From nature's own medicinal cornucopia of herbs, roots and wildflowers, to important natural enzymes extracted from vegetables and a multitude of other natural sources. For seven decades now, the Naturade company has developed a range of beneficial products that improve health and beauty by restoring the natural balance between nutrients and foodstuffs. Naturade offers a healthier way of life naturally.


text:
Immediately behind him came a slightly shorter man, but very heavy and with a head that was bald as a billiard ball.
I gave a performance in a public place in which I did a billiard ball trick.
The human race is epitomised within this circle, not much wider than a billiard ball.
Ever seen Cinquevalli balancing a billiard ball on top of another one?
There was a whir and a click, and both sounds could only have been made by one thing—a billiard ball.
As to its size: Imagine a billiard ball magnified to the size of the earth.
It is about the size of a billiard ball, of a black color, and usually perforated, as if by worms.
I may illustrate this by applying the marking of an old guttie to a billiard ball.
The cat had socked her claws into the old lady's wig, and it came off, leaving her almost as bare as a billiard ball.
What, that old fellow that looks like a billiard ball in a high collar?


text:
Jimmy speaks with his father after nine years. Nucky has heated conversations with both Eli and Margaret regarding the business and the murder of Margaret's husband. Van Alden takes matters to the extreme with Agent Sebso and Angela's plans to flee to Paris are scuppered.moreless
Van Alden's increasingly conflicted emotions start to interfere with his work. Nucky has words with Margaret in regards to her support. Also, Angela is taken aback when seeing Jimmy's violent side.
Margaret tries to help Madame Jeunet with her money troubles by speaking with Nucky. Jimmy is forced to return to Chicago to deal with the D'Alessio brothers and Nucky gets ready for war with a rival factionmoreless
Jimmy finds himself in trouble when a dying witness fingers him for the murders in the woods. Chalky's deal with Nucky hits trouble when his driver is lynched. Margaret gets a job at a boutique.moreless
Nucky is paid a visit by Agent Van Alden who feels a crime is being pinned on a scapegoat and wants some answers, forcing Nucky to close ranks on all his operations. He visits his old mentor, Commodore Louis Kaestner regarding the womens right to vote and later meets with Margaret Shroeder, still recovering from the beating she received from her now deceased husband, who has asked for help with her children.moreless
Benson and Stabler investigate when a server is found in the alley behind a club, where she was raped and shot to death. Multiple suspects and no real leads make it a difficult case to solve and prove, until evidence eventually tells the story. Stabler's bond with the victim's father turns deadly, and ultimately upends the man's trial. Only Alex can right the wrong to get her desired verdict.moreless


text:
The Point Lounge Chairs
Item# 50-3111765 (High Back)
Item# 50-3111765-S (Standard)
Dimensions: 56" Wide x 27" Deep x 59" High (High Back)
Dimensions: 48" Wide x 20" Deep x 48" High (Standard)
Shown In: Viro™ Dark Brown 6mm
Features: Open Weave Styling, Available With or Without Seat Cushion
Neoteric Luxury™ woven furniture is hand-made using the highest quality materials. Rest assured that the furniture may be left outside in even the harshest weather conditions without cracking, peeling or fading. For cushions, Neoteric Luxury™ uses the finest quality flow-through outdoor foam and Sunbrella® outdoor fabrics. A wide variety of color choices are possible. Please refer to the "Materials" section for the entire selection of Viro™ and Rehau® fiber options and standard Sunbrella® fabric choices. Neoteric Luxury™ also offers customization of most items.
Please contact us with any questions:
305.438.2842 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Table Of Contents
New Features in Cisco IOS Release 12.1(5)XV
Product Bulletin, No. 1267
Cisco IOS X-Release 12.1(5)XV
IntroductionThis Product Bulletin describes the content and delivery information concerning Cisco IOS(TM) software release 12.1(5)XV. It should be used in conjunction with Product Bulletin titled, Cisco IOS Software Release 12.1T.12.1(5)XV is a short lived Early Deployment (ED) release parented to 12.1(5)T and supporting Cisco AS5850. This release contains all new features delivered in 12.1 up to 12.1(5)T.
The platform and features delivered with this ED release will be immediately incorporated into Cisco IOS 12.2(1)T and subsequent Cisco IOS 12.2T releases. It is important to note that there are no planned maintenance releases for this ED release. In addition, please note the migration path to the latest T release. Customers should prepare to upgrade using this migration path.
New Features in Cisco IOS Release 12.1(5)XVThe following platform support will be delivered in the initial release of 12.1(5)XV. No new feature content was added to 12.1(5)XV to release this platform, only stabilizing bug fixes were added.
New Platform: Cisco AS5850
The Cisco AS5850 is specifically designed to meet the demands of large service providers such as Post, Telephone, and Telegraphs (PTTs), regional bell operating companies (RBOCs), inter-exchange carriers (IXCs), and large Internet service providers (ISPs). The AS5850 initially supports up to 2688 calls (4 x CT3s) or 88 E1s. The Cisco AS5850 offers high availability features such as hot-swap on all cards, hot spares, redundant hot-swappable power supplies, redundant switch fabrics and redundant routers to ensure 99.999% availability. Its high density, high availability features and Universal Port readiness make it ideal for many network deployment architectures, especially co-location environments and high-density points of presence
Detailed Information
For more detailed information about the platforms and features being delivered in 12.1(5)XV please reference the following documents:
Product Numbers
Table 1 Cisco IOS Release xx.x(x)Xx Feature Sets, Images, and Memory Recommendations
Download InformationCustomers can download Cisco IOS Release 12.1(5)XV software from Cisco Connection Online (CCO) in the Software Image Library.


text:
Location: Location not imported yet.Title: The Role of Feeding Regimens in Regulating Metabolism of Sexually Mature Broiler Breeders Author
|Ekmay, R
|Coon, C
|De Beer, M
|Rosebrough, Robert
|Richards, Mark
|Mcmurtry, John
Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/23/2010
Publication Date: 5/1/2010
Publication URL: http://parking.nal.usda.gov/shortterm/20902_uark_2010.pdf
Citation: Ekmay, R.D., Coon, C.N., De Beer, M., Rosebrough, R.W., Richards, M.P., Mcmurtry, J.P. 2010. The role of feeding regimens in regulating metabolism of sexually mature broiler breeders. Poultry Science. 89(6):1171-1181. Interpretive Summary: Excess fat production by the modern broiler chicken presents a two-fold problem. The consumer has health concerns about the link between cardiovascular disease and dietary fat in meat type chickens. The broiler breeder producer is concerned about the relationship between excess body fat and reproductive inefficiencies during period leading up to the egg-laying period. The latter condition was studied in broiler breeder candidates raised to sexual maturity. Candidates were raised under two regimens: 1) feed allowed every day and 2) feed allowed every other day to restrict total feed intake. Restricting feed, followed by access to feed produced a syndrome similar to that seen in younger birds subjected to fasting-refeeding. Furthermore, this management regimen also caused excess liver fat accumulation and a potential for fatty liver hemorrhagic syndrome and death. Enzyme activity of certain rate limiting pathways reflected noted changes in gene expression and show the potentially significant impact of feeding regimens on gene expression in breeder pullets. In addition, these data should allow broiler breeder producers to design management regimens to maximize the health of breeder candidate hens.
Technical Abstract: A trial was conducted to determine the effects of different rearing feed regimens on plasma hormone and metabolite levels and hepatic lipid metabolism and gene expression on sexually mature broiler breeders. Cobb 500 birds were divided into two groups at 4 weeks of age and fed either everyday (ED) or skip-a-day (SKP). At 168 days of age, all birds were switched over to an ED regimen. At 185 days (26 weeks) of age, 28 ED-reared and 28 SKP-reared sexually mature breeder hens were randomly selected and sacrificed at intervals after feeding. Liver and blood samples were collected and analyzed. The overall means of glycogen and liver fat % did not differ between feeding regimens; however, glycogen, total liver fat, and liver fat % increased upon feeding regardless of treatment. Relative liver weight increased only in SKP birds. The overall mean gene expressions for isocitrate dehydrogenase, aspartate amino transferase, malic enzyme and fatty acid synthase were not significantly different between treatments although ACC was higher in the ED regimen (p=0.0754). Corticosterone and IGF-2 levels were significantly higher (P<0.05) in SKP birds. SKP birds also had concentrations of leptin, glucagon, and T3. The increase in leptin is a reversal of what was reported during the rearing phase and may pertain to a possible reproductive role. No differences were noted between regimens for the genes controlling lipoproteins (apo B, apo VLDL-II, and FABP); however, apo A1 was significantly higher in the ED regimen (p=0.0016). In summary, different feeding regimens alter metabolic responses which carry over into sexual maturity and exhibit metabolic memory.


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Has Demi Lovato 'Lost Respect' for Joe Jonas Over Ashley Greene?
Demi Lovato might have toed the "we're still friends" line pretty heavily following her May breakup with Jonas Brother Joe Jonas, but his relationship with Twilight beauty Ashley Greene is reportedly starting to rankle her.
Lovato, who's currently touring with the Jonas Brothers, tells Hollywood Life that she's just a wee bit dismayed that Jonas has allowed Greene to join him on the tour—and it may have even caused her to lose some respect for her former beau:
"I think there's a certain level of respect that's lost when that happens, but you can't do anything about it other than to just keep going and be glad you have someone in your life that you can think about and spend your time with."
Do you think it was tactless of Joe to bring Ashley along for the tour when Demi is also on the bill, or should he be allowed to let his new romance blossom unhindered by his dating past? Share your thoughts in the comments section.