text:
- Research
- Open Access
A graph-theoretic approach for classification and structure prediction of transmembrane β-barrel proteins
- Van Du T Tran1Email author,
- Philippe Chassignet1,
- Saad Sheikh1 and
- Jean-Marc Steyaert1
© Tran et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012
- Published: 12 April 2012
Transmembrane β-barrel proteins are a special class of transmembrane proteins which play several key roles in human body and diseases. Due to experimental difficulties, the number of transmembrane β-barrel proteins with known structures is very small. Over the years, a number of learning-based methods have been introduced for recognition and structure prediction of transmembrane β-barrel proteins. Most of these methods emphasize on homology search rather than any biological or chemical basis.
We present a novel graph-theoretic model for classification and structure prediction of transmembrane β-barrel proteins. This model folds proteins based on energy minimization rather than a homology search, avoiding any assumption on availability of training dataset. The ab initio model presented in this paper is the first method to allow for permutations in the structure of transmembrane proteins and provides more structural information than any known algorithm. The model is also able to recognize β-barrels by assessing the pseudo free energy. We assess the structure prediction on 41 proteins gathered from existing databases on experimentally validated transmembrane β-barrel proteins. We show that our approach is quite accurate with over 90% F-score on strands and over 74% F-score on residues. The results are comparable to other algorithms suggesting that our pseudo-energy model is close to the actual physical model. We test our classification approach and show that it is able to reject α-helical bundles with 100% accuracy and β-barrel lipocalins with 97% accuracy.
We show that it is possible to design models for classification and structure prediction for transmembrane β-barrel proteins which do not depend essentially on training sets but on combinatorial properties of the structures to be proved. These models are fairly accurate, robust and can be run very efficiently on PC-like computers. Such models are useful for the genome screening.
- Protein Data Bank
- Shear Number
- Identity Permutation
- Relative Shear
- Dynamic Programming Scheme
Transmembrane proteins play several key roles in the human body including inter-cell communication, transportation of nutrients, and ion transport. They also play key roles in human diseases like depression, hypertension, cancer, thus are targeted by a majority of pharmaceuticals being manufactured today. The transmembrane proteins are divided into two main types according to their conformation: α-helical bundles and β-barrels (TMB). The TMB proteins, which are much less abundant than helical bundles, are found in the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria, mitochondria and chloroplasts. They perform diverse functions such as porins, passive or active transporters, enzymes, defensive or structural proteins [1]. Thus, the structure of TMB proteins is very important for both biological and medical sciences.
These proteins, which span the membrane entirely, make up 20 - 30% of identified proteins in most whole genomes. However, due to difficulties in determination of their structures, solved TMB structures constitute only a meagre 2% of the RCSB Protein Data Bank (PDB) [2–5]. This is mainly due to experimental difficulties and complexity of the TMB structure [6]. Consequently, various learning-based techniques have been developed for discriminating TMB proteins from globular and transmembrane α-helical proteins [6–8], and for predicting TMB secondary structures [7–12]. We first discuss these methods and their potential shortcomings in detail, and then proceed with describing our approach.
Ou et al. [10] proposed a method based on radial basis function networks to predict the number of β-strands and membrane spanning regions in β-barrel outer membrane proteins. Randall et al. [9] tried to predict the TMB secondary structure with 1D recursive neural network using alignment profiles. Gromiha et al. [7, 8] used the amino acid compositions of both globular and outer membrane proteins (OMPs) to discriminate OMPs and developed a feed forward neural network-based method to predict the transmembrane segments. Bagos et al. [11] produced a consensus prediction from different methods based on hidden Markov models, neural networks and support vector machines [8, 13–19]. Tractability has been an issue for some of these approaches. In order to overcome this limitation, Waldispühl et al. [12] used a structural model and pairwise interstrand residue statistical potentials derived from globular proteins to predict the supersecondary structure of TMB proteins. Freeman et al. [6] have introduced a statistical approach for recognition of TMB proteins based on known physicochemical properties.
Most of these rely on the learning assumptions in the underlying models as well as the sampling of proteins in their training set. However, the number of TMB proteins known today is tiny. Thus, it is arguable whether these approaches can work well for recognizing and folding TMB proteins which are not homologous to those currently known. It is also important to note that none of these methods allow for permutations in protein structures. The TMB structures are not merely a series of β-strands where each is bonded to the preceding and succeeding ones in the primary sequence, but they may contain Greek key or Jelly roll motifs as well, for instance, the C-terminal domain of the PapC usher [PDB:3L48]. This level of structure may be described as a permutation on the order of the bonded strands.
In this paper, we present a novel ab initio model for classification and structure prediction of TMB proteins based on minimizing free energy in a graph-theoretic framework. It is able to deal with permuted TMB structures. The prediction accuracy is evaluated on known TMB proteins available in popular protein databases [20], and compared with existing software [9, 10, 12, 21]. Our approach also performs well in structure prediction and the results are comparable to those of the existing algorithms. Ours is the first model that actually gives an insight into the physicochemical model rather than merely classifying or predicting TMB proteins. The results show that our approach is also good at discriminating TMB proteins.
Results and discussion
Comparison of prediction accuracy on PDBTM40
81.2 ± 6.1*
79.3 ± 7.9
84.2 ± 11.2
0.76 ± 0.1
0.61 ± 0.14
90.1 ± 15.0
94.2 ± 12.5
0.93 ± 0.12
0.85 ± 0.26
79.2 ± 5.4
78.4 ± 6.3
80.4 ± 9.9
0.74 ± 0.1
0.57 ± 0.12
91.4 ± 12.0
91.4 ± 11.3
0.92 ± 0.11
0.83 ± 0.22
The TMBETAPRED-RBF web-server predicted non-TMB for 24 over 41 proteins of PDBTM40, or 58.5%. The structures for correctly identified proteins were completely accurate. This might be because they were included in the training set.
Evaluation of shear numbers
Influence of the filtering threshold
Comparison of prediction accuracy on ECOLI40 with different thresholds
80.9 ± 4.8*
80.4 ± 5.2
82.7 ± 8.4
0.77 ± 0.04
0.61 ± 0.08
94.8 ± 5.7
93.3 ± 5.9
0.94 ± 0.05
0.88 ± 0.1
79.7 ± 6.0
78.5 ± 5.1
82.4 ± 8.6
0.76 ± 0.05
0.58 ± 0.11
96.1 ± 4.8
95.4 ± 5.3
0.96 ± 0.05
0.91 ± 0.09
77.7 ± 5.6
75.6 ± 6.5
81.1 ± 8.6
0.74 ± 0.05
0.55 ± 0.11
91.7 ± 9.2
94.9 ± 6.5
0.94 ± 0.07
0.87 ± 0.07
Evaluation on mutated sequences
Permuted structures
For [PDB:3L48], the C-terminal domain of the PapC usher in E. coli, the observed structure topology containing a Greek key motif corresponds to the permutation σ = (1, 4, 3, 2, 5, 6, 7) and is predicted with an accuracy (Q2) of 70.2% at ρ = 0.2.
100% of the non-redundant set of 177 α-helical transmembrane proteins of length from 140 to 800 residues in PDBTM are rejected, whereas 31 out of 32 non-redundant lipocalins taken from PDB are predicted as non-TMB (the dataset is available at [24]). Though lipocalins are also β-barrels which reverse the TMB pattern with a hydrophobic core, the environmental effects on both sides of the barrel are still different. Our pseudo-energy model yields unfavorably on such structures and discriminates considerably better than the learning-based methods like Freeman-Wimley [6], TMBpro [9], PRED-TMBB [18] and TMBETAPRED-RBF [10], but also of transFold [12].
We have presented a new pseudo-energy minimization method for the classification and prediction of transmembrane protein super-secondary structure based on a variety of potential structures. Our approach takes into account many physicochemical constraints and minimizes the free energy. It also accounts for permuted structures, thus giving more complete information on the folded structure. Our method is quite accurate with more than 90% sensitivity and F-score, over 80% M.C.C. score on strands; and over 74% accuracy and F-score on residues. The results are comparable to those given by TMBpro and TMBETAPRED-RBF, which are both learning based methods. Moreover, our results are more consistent and have a significantly less variation across different TMB proteins. This is especially interesting given that our algorithm is based mainly on pseudo-energy minimizations, and the probabilistic model only plays a very small role. While the model presented here is only for TMB proteins, it can be easily extended to accommodate α-helical bundles. We did not use a more sophisticated statistical model for classifying β-barrel strands because that would risk overfitting and reliance on the training dataset. It is also interesting to note that our approach performs very well for identification of TMB proteins, rejecting all the α-helical bundles. The Freeman and Wimley [6] approach is more accurate on some datasets. However, it risks overfitting and does not predict the structure. Therefore, our approach provides the best overall classification results amongst the methods that try to predict structures. Our model does learn the probabilistic model from training dataset, but it is mainly to screen out obvious non-TMB strands. Therefore, there are no concerns about the size of the training data or overfitting.
Even though the results presented in this paper are comparable to other methods, the methodology presented here is novel and gives insight into the actual physicochemical constraints and energy. Moreover, our approach should be able to predict TMB proteins which are significantly different from known proteins. Finally, our approach provides more information than the current approaches by providing the permutations of the strands.
Future work
We are working on energy models for TM α-helical bundles and β-barrels with broken strands, as well as globular β-barrels like lipocalins or membrane targeting proteins (C2 domain) where permuted structures are usually found. Nevertheless, similar to the other methods, we only propose single-domain protein structures.
We are also currently working on refinements in structural constraints and hydrophobicity, which may help to improve the accuracy of our predicted structure. Finally, it will be interesting to investigate more sophisticated statistical models for the initial screening, both to improve the results and understand how effective a mixed approach can be.
We now present the methods developed for classification and structure prediction of TMB proteins (a preliminary version of this work appeared as a short paper in [25, 26]). TMB proteins are hard to identify, however, it is relatively easy to identify a majority of other proteins which are not TMB. We use physicochemical properties and a simple probabilistic model based on a sliding window for filtering amino acid segments that are obviously not involved in any β-barrel structures as a membrane spanning β-strand. Proteins that are considered to be putative TMB proteins by this initial phase are then further analyzed. Next, we try to fold the given protein, treating it as a TMB protein, using the pseudo-energy minimization model. If the protein cannot be folded into β-barrels according to the energy minimization framework, the protein is rejected and classified as a non-TMB protein.
Before presenting the simple model that we used for filtering the transmembrane β-strands, we discuss some physicochemical constraints that a protein must obey to be a TMB protein. We enforce these constraints in both the filtering and folding steps of our algorithm.
Geometric framework for β-barrels
For a regular β -barrel [27–29], the backbone geometry is entirely determined by n, the number of strands composing the barrel, and by S, the shear number, which is defined below.
Definition 1 Shear number of a β-barrel In a regular β-barrel, the shear number S is unambiguously defined as the ordinal distance between an amino acid A and an amino acid B that is located on the same strand as A and linked to A through a path of hydrogen bonds. B is the projection of the "copy" of A after one turn on the first strand of the barrel.
Angle θ, in association with a given membrane thickness, is involved in the energetic rules and restricts the membrane spanning β-strand length. Then, n and S have to be fixed as parameters.
Definition 2 Relative shear number Given a shear number S, the relative shears between adjacent strands remain as n - 1 degrees of freedom. As a convention, we consider the relative shears on the extracellular side of the barrel. So, ∀i > 1, s i , the relative shear of strand i + 1 with respect to strand i (strand n + 1 being identified with 1), is measured on strand i as the ordinal distance between the undermost amino acid of strand i and the one that is directly bound to the undermost amino acid of strand i + 1.
We define the shear number, by extension, for the case of a β-sheet (i.e. an open β-barrel) to make our algorithms capable of dealing with the structure of β-sheets.
where s i is the relative shear of strand i + 1 with regard to strand i.
Each β-strand is directed with respect to the sequence order from N-terminal to C-terminal. A strand is said to be upward if it is oriented from the extracellular environment to the periplasmic space, i.e. the N-terminal of the strand is located on the extracellular side and its C-terminal is on the periplasmic side. Inversely, the strand is said to be downward. The upward/downward orientation of the strand, relatively to the barrel axis, defines another degree of freedom.
Finally, considering a β-strand as a ribbon where the amino acids direct their side-chains alternatively on both sides, toward the barrel interior (channel) or toward the surrounding lipid (membrane), we will distinguish two ways of facing, neglecting small swivel adjustments. A strand is said to be odd inward if the odd indexed amino acids face to the channel and odd outward if those face to the membrane. We have one more degree of freedom.
The segment is then considered as a candidate for conformation τ if
The non-redundant training set PDBTM40 of 41 TMB proteins is used to learn this probabilistic model. Due to the small size of the training set, we apply the filter with a relatively low threshold at to avoid overfitting. This ensures that on average, each block r is accepted in conformation τ if the propensity for τ to be in τ (i.e. f τ ,r /f τ , ·) is at most 1.5 times less than the propensity to be in . Only substrings that pass these very stringent criteria are considered to be putative strands.
Now we present a graph-theoretic energy minimization model for recognizing and folding TMB proteins.
Definition of the graph structure
for the lexicographic order, and this ensures the DAG structure.
The set E also contains edges of the form (⊤, v) that define the subset of starting vertices - the leading substrings satisfying specific constraints. Similarly, E contains edges of the form (v, ⊥) that define the subset of ending vertices, with a satisfactory trailing substring. Again, the length constraints applied to the substrings associated to edges imply that | E |, the number of edges, is or .
Figure 9 gives a small example of such a graph (to simplify, only one orientation has been considered). An edge like (v1, v2) is forbidden, since the two corresponding substrings overlap. Edges like (v2, v3) or (v2, v6) are also forbidden, since the inserted substrings are respectively too short for a turn or too long for a loop.
Energy attributes
The attributes that complete the definition of the graph G are pseudo-energy functions defined as follows:
represents the intrinsic energy of the given strand in the given orientation. This term is the sum of both the internal energy of the substructure, i.e. the interactions between its own amino acids, and the interaction energy with the environment (e.g. membrane and channel) apart from the rest of the considered protein.
Note that
represents the interaction energy of the pair (v, w) when the two corresponding strands are placed side by side along the barrel, with respect to the respective orientation parameters associated to the vertices and accordingly to the relative shear s. The energy will take into account the number of contacts and different side-chain interactions such as the packing of hydrophobic cores and bonding abilities. Then, is the interaction energy of the pair (v, w) for an optimal relative shear. It is further assumed that is defined over a superset of E, since we will consider the case where two adjacent strands are not consecutive along the sequence.We also introduce the particular values:
An associated function sadj is defined such that:
which is a relative shear that leads to the optimal interaction energy.
An arising question is why the orientation degrees of freedom are described as a multiplicity of nodes but the relative shear degrees of freedom are considered when calculating the terms. A first answer comes from the fact that wrong orientations are rather absolute and will result in pruning the sets E and V while the shear parameters are not so discriminative. The main reason is that we will consider "floating" parts in which adjacencies are already set, while a relative shear between any two parts is not yet known. In such a situation, attaching the relative shears to node pairs allows a significant factorization.
∀(v, w) ∈ E,∀t∈{1, 2, . . . , n - 1} and ∀ s - a relative shear, is related to the intrinsic energy of the turn/loop between the strands v and w (consecutive along the sequence) when they are placed at a distance t along the barrel with a relative shear s. The distance t = 1 corresponds to the case where the strands are placed consecutively on the barrel, while an integer value t > 1 will correspond to the case where t - 1 other strands are interleaf.
To simplify, we will also use or for denoting the intrinsic energy of the outer fragment attached respectively to a starting or an ending vertex v. As such a fragment has a free side, the position parameters may be dropped.
Then, in the usual case of two β-strands that fold as a hairpin, the related energy is considered to be . It is supposed a relative flexibility for turns and loops, so, when a fold is feasible, is weak compared to and the relative placement of the two β-strands is enforced to be close to sadj. Nevertheless, will result in a strong penalty in the case of an unfeasible turn or loop, for example a loop with a majority of hydrophobic residues.
Protein folding problem
such that
Solving as the longest path problem
Since the graph is a DAG, the longest path problem is solved with a well known dynamic programming scheme [34] of complexity in space and in time, that is also for both, from the structural constraints that relate , and N. The objective is the computation of and the optimal structure is then reconstructed by a usual traceback post-processing. Note that, for each path, we only have to consider its last vertex, so, we have to track single index states.
The goal is to calculate Thus the scheme is of complexity in space and in time, that is also for both, from the structural constraints. This may produce paths of any length and the constraint of n strands is applied as a cut in the recurrence.
In a more general case, we consider permutations to deal with the fact that the arrangements of the strands along the barrel do not necessarily follow their order along the sequence. This usually occurs with Greek key motifs or more rarely with Jelly roll motifs. Hence, the protein folding problem becomes finding the longest path in a graph with respect to a given permutation σ, i.e. the vertices of , seen on a circle as in Figure 10 are permuted according to σ.
Let σ be a circular permutation of {1, 2, . . . , n}. When 1, 2, . . . , n are numbering the positions along the barrel, values σ (1), σ (2), . . . , σ(n) will give the respective ranks of the strands in the sequence order. A position of reference along the barrel is fixed by setting σ(1) = 1. Figure 10 shows a first example of a structure with a Greek key motif, which is described by the permutation σ = (1, 2, 3, 6, 5, 4).
The dynamic programming scheme now consists in building a barrel, by adding a next strand, taken in sequence with respect to the graph edges, but that is inserted at the position defined by the given permutation. Useful values are the ranks (in the sequence order) of the two strands between which a given one will be inserted. For instance, with the current example, the 5th strand will be inserted between the 2nd and the 4th strands.
Let now k denote the level of construction (1 ≤ k ≤ n), that is the number of strands already placed.
With the current example, we get (see Figure 11):
left1 = 6 left2 = 1 left3 = 4 right1 = 2 right2 = 5 right3 = 6
left4 = 5 left5 = 2 left6 = 3 right4 = 3 right5 = 4 right6 = 1
An important piece of information to store for the dynamic programming scheme is the set of "active" indices, i.e. ranks of the strands (in the sequence order) that are not definitively bonded on both sides, along the barrel, and also not linked along the sequence and thus have to be kept as degrees of freedom. So, in the current example (see Figure 12), we have to keep in memory as many solutions (to subproblems) as valid instances of the 2nd and 4th strands, until an optimal choice for these is recorded as a solution for each instance of the 5th strand. At that time, any instance as the 5th strand is kept as a candidate for a link with the 6th, by a turn or loop, while the different instances as the 3rd and 1st are kept for proceeding to an insertion in between.
where the case n - 1 is intended for the adjacency that will close the barrel.
With the current example of Figures 11 and 12, we get:
conf1 = {1} conf2 = {1, 2} conf3 = {1, 2, 3}
conf4 = {1, 2, 3, 4} conf5 = {1, 3, 5} conf6 = {6}
Thus, for this example, the maximal complexity in space, , is reached for the set of solutions to the subproblem with 4 strands. Then looping over this set, for computing the set of solutions to the subproblem with 5 strands, will also cost in time, since the choice for the 5th strand is bounded by the structural constraints embedded as edges in the graph. It is a difference with most of the dynamic programming schemes where the complexity in time is expressed with an additional factor compared the complexity in space. As an other example, in the case of Figure 10, we obtain the complexity in both time and space, which is similar to the case where σ is an identity permutation.
Now we have to decide at which minimal level k each term or is determined and can be integrated in the dynamic programming scheme. For the terms, it is simply asserted that the previous or the next strand along the barrel is already placed when left k < k or right k < k, respectively.
For the terms, the problem is to wait until the relative shear between the two ends of a turn or loop is solved by the interleaf adjacencies. So, in the given example, the energy of the loop between the 2nd and 3rd strands can only be evaluated when the 5th strand has been laid and the optimal relative shear is known.
then let denote the equivalence relation defined by the transitive closure of and let
Thus, i ∈ A k means that the ith and (i + 1)st strands are geometrically linked by adjacencies when the kth substructure is laid and we can compute by composition an optimal relative shear .
We will now focus on the set δ A k = A k - A k - 1, ∀ k > 1.
Definition 11 Let denote the set of all tuples of | conf k | vertices such that there is at least one path (of k edges) starting from ⊤ and passing through these vertices in order.
For any instance z ∈ T k of such a tuple and, ∀i ∈ conf k , let z[i] denote the ith vertex of a corresponding path.
This notation (not to be confused with z i, the ith component of tuple z) is not ambiguous since, from definition, the vertex z[i] is in common to any path associated to z. Particularly, z[k] is the last vertex of any path associated to z.
Note that, from proposition 7, ∀y ∈ T k - 1, if left k <k then the vertex y[left k ] is defined (and the same is worth for right k ). We can check that each term is finally counted exactly once in the sum, at the level corresponding to the position of its further vertex in the sequence order. The optimum is found at k = n and h = S.
Corollary 13 The complexities are in space and time.
Hence, max k ||conf k || ≤ 1 + (2n - 2) / 3. For a permutation that only differs from the identity permutation by disjoint Greek key motifs [35], i.e. where , i j + 2, i j + 1, i j + 4 or , i j + 4, i j + 3, i j + 2, it is easy to prove that max k ||conf k || ≤ 4 by a discrete analysis on different configurations. The complexities are thus at most for such a permutation.
In short, it is possible to compute the optimum in running time for structures corresponding to the identity permutation and from (for instance, example of Figure 10) to (for instance, example of Figure 11) for structures containing disjoint Greek key motifs, where N is the input sequence length. These computation costs might be further improved by a tree decomposition-based algorithm that we are currently working on.
Implementation details
The number of strands n and the shear number S determine the geometry of the barrel, particularly the membrane spanning part of the segments, and are thus involved in the computation of energy terms. If known, the algorithm can enforce these value and fold the protein accordingly. The values for n, which are usually even, are governed by the consideration on the length of the sequence, the thickness of membrane and the length of turns or loops and vary between 8 and 22 [1]. The values for S, are even and included between n and 2n [28, 29]. The problem is then solved by the constrain dynamic programming with the constraints of given n and S. A small number of couples (n, S) have to be explored and our algorithm is fast enough for that.
Side-chain interactions between contiguous residues along a segment on the same side and interactions with the environment of channel or bilayer define the intrinsic energy of the corresponding vertex. The pairing energy of two adjacent segments in the barrel is computed by optimizing the relative positions between constituent amino acids. These energies involve hydrogen bonds in main chains, electrostatic interactions between side-chains, hydrophobic effect as well as environmental effect. More specifically, the extracellular and intracellular environments with distinct hydrophobicity indices can have significantly different hydrophobic effects. In addition, the membrane thickness gives constraints on segment size and helps identify the interactions inside or outside the membrane region. We use here by default a parameter of 3 nm for the membrane thickness, thus 8 residues thick [36, 37]. The features on size, polarity [38], and flexibility [39] of turns and loops are also taken into consideration, i.e. turns and loops satisfy threshold constraints on their polarity and flexibility indices and their length. Their energies are approximated by hydrophobicity [31].
We use the Dunbrack backbone-dependent rotamer library [40] and the partial charges from GROMOS force field [41] to compute pairwise interaction energies. The hydrophobic interaction between two side-chains u, v is assessed by the amount of contacts between non-polar groups, calculated by taking the average on all rotamer pairs of the two side-chains e uv =<e uv|rotamers >. Each side-chain plays a role of a group of partial charges in the electrostatic interaction. The main-chain hydrogen bond is measured by the electrostatic potential energy between peptide CO and NH groups.
The probabilistic model and the constraints on hydrophobicity help discard the unlikely membrane spanning β-strands. A threshold on overall energy can also be involved to enhance the discrimination. We studied the per-strand energy value for a variety of TMB proteins including the training dataset and other TMB proteins. Even though this value is always higher than 0.9 for these proteins, we chose 0.85 as a threshold to avoid overfitting. Note that this does not affect the prediction results, and is only used for classification.
Experimental setup
We compare our folding prediction accuracy to TMBpro [9] and TMBETAPRED-RBF [10]. We compare our classification results to Freeman et al. [6], TMBETAPRED-RBF [10], PRED-TMBB [18] and transFold [12]. TMBpro and TMBETAPRED-RBF results are executed from their web-server.
We used TMB proteins from the PDBTM database [20] to train and test our approaches.
Folding: We used CD-HIT [42] to constrain the redundancy in proteins. A threshold of 40% similarity was applied to reduce the dataset, resulting in 49 sequences (PDBTM40). We retain only the monomeric barrels, i.e. the sequences that form a unique complete barrel. Thus, PDBTM40 contains 41 sequences [PDB: 1OH2_Q, 3A2R_X, 3AEH_A, 3BRZ_A, 3CSL_A, 2R4P_A, 3DWO_X, 2FGQ_X, 3EFM_A, 3EMN_X, 2ERV_A, 2IWW_A, 2F1T_A, 1FEP_A, 3FHH_A, 3FID_A, 1ILZ_A, 1BY3_A, 2GSK_A, 1BH3_A, 2HDF_A, 2J1N_A, 2IAH_A, 3JTY_A, 1BXW_A, 2VDF_A, 1PNZ_A, 3GP6_A, 1AF6_A, 3NJT_A, 2O4V_A, 2ODJ_A, 1QJ8_A, 1P4T_A, 2POR_ , 1TLW_A, 1UXF_A, 1UYN_X, 2WJQ_A, 2X4M_A, 1XKW_A]. It is important to note that both TMBPro and our method use the entire dataset to train. While this may result in overfitting for a learning-based approach, the effect on our approach should be very small.
Classification: We used a set of 177 α-helical transmembrane proteins of length from 140 to 800 residues, at 40% redundancy reduction, from PDBTM and 32 non-redundant lipocalins taken from PDB.
The authors would like to thank all the INRIA AMIB Team members, especially Mireille Régnier, Yann Ponty, Julie Bernauer and Balaji Raman.
This article has been published as part of BMC Genomics Volume 13 Supplement 2, 2012: Selected articles from the First IEEE International Conference on Computational Advances in Bio and medical Sciences (ICCABS 2011): Genomics. The full contents of the supplement are available online at http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcgenomics/supplements/13/S2.
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This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


text:
McObject's extremeDB In-Memory Database System (IMDS) has been upgraded to version 4.5. The upgrade introduces an integration option with third-party message router hardware to accelerate communication functions. Aimed for high-availability deployments, the new version also features a new Java API as well as an improved SQL interface and more scalable versions of popular database indexes.
Although extremeDB already includes a Java Native Interface (JNI) with all editions, extremeDB 4.5 now adds a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) driver for developing applications and accessing databases in Java. The driver supports JDBC version 4, level 4 and is included with eXtremeSQL (extremeDB's SQL ODBC interface). McObject points out that JDBC can deliver higher efficiency than native APIs for certain operations, such as complex queries and mass updates/deletes.
extremeDB targets mission-critical applications in the high performance computing sector by integrating the database system's High Availability (HA) edition with Solace Systems' Solace Message Router appliance. The integration enables the Solace device to serve as the communication channel in an extremeDB-HA deployment.
With Solace Systems' hardware-based messaging middleware as the "wire" between master and replica database nodes, the Solace router's guaranteed message delivery feature enables extremeDB-HA to use a streamlined HA protocol and to eliminate one part of the messaging process (namely the "message acknowledgement" step). According to McObject, the result is less network traffic with reduced latency and a significantly faster transaction rate.
"The new extremeDB 4.5 bundles major improvements with many new features and refinements of existing capabilities. JDBC enjoys wide familiarity among enterprise developers and the new driver meets a growing need as extremeDB's use expands beyond its embedded systems origins," said Steve Graves, McObject CEO and cofounder. "The extremeDB High Availability - Solace Message Router integration emerged from a successful McObject consulting project, and has applicability in low latency/high frequency trading, network infrastructure, and other uses where mission-critical infrastructure applications demand both fault-tolerance and low-latency."
The new edition also has better R-tree and hash indexes. Previously, developers sized hash indexes when defining a database. An overly small size estimate could lead to performance-reducing collisions. extremeDB 4.5 introduces a dynamic hash index that grows as data is added, for greater speed and scalability. extremeDB's implementation of the R-tree index — used in mapping/geospatial applications — is also said to be faster and now includes the MCO_NEIGHBORHOOD search type, which facilitates a search for index entries within a given radius of a point, to simplify searches.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Suddenly, the Spanish government is swirling in a massive corruption scandal.
Late last week, the Spanish newspaper El Pais published documents, which purport to show that the party of ruling PM Mariano Rajoy has been taking illegal donations for years.
Opposition politicians are calling on Rajoy to resign, a move that would bring unwanted political instability to one of the Euro's most vulnerable nations.
Rajoy is remaining defiant, and yesterday he held an emergency televised address to rebuke the claims.
However, this image of reporters covering Rajoy via monitor is being used to make him look like a coward.
The internet is having a field day.
Via @daraconn2, here's a fake image of Rajoy having a press conference with Angela Merkel
And via Juan de Lorescha, here's Rajoy getting the adulation of his party.
And here's a crude comparison of Obama and Rajoy.
For Obama it says: Here's A President Appearing.
For Rajoy, it says: Here's A F*&(ing Disgrace.
Spain's IBEX fell 1.6% on Friday amid this growing issue, more banking sector losses, and the end of a short-selling ban.
Watch this space on Monday.


text:
It was 1905 in Imperial Russia, and the warnings were everywhere. There
was upheaval in the Duma, and ominous grumbling among the citizenry.
The war with Japan was going badly, and rumours of impending pogroms
were rife. Since "the crowned peasant", Alexander III,
had inherited the Russian throne from his assassinated father, Alexander
II, his autocratic, reactionary policies found vulnerable victims in
the Jews of the Pale.
My maternal grandfather Shimon
was born in 1881, the very year that Alexander III's fanatical
rule of brutality began. Centrally organized riots erupted throughout
the Russian Empire, and in the shtetls, Jews recoiled and hid in terror
as their homes were despoiled, and their families were beaten and killed.
The only response from government was to accuse the Jewish community
of bringing a just punishment on themselves – commissions were
appointed to investigate Jewish exploitation!!
the wake of this outrage, Jews were subject to impossible restrictions,
laws, and taxation. They were forbidden to own land and many were expelled
from their properties without compensation. The only relief from a
merciless police force, was for Jewish communities to pay out exorbitant
bribes in order to avert the harsh consequences of atrocious laws.
Whereas university education had been possible under the former tzar,
Jews were now limited to a 10% quota of students in Pale institutions.
Jewish emigration became a flood in these difficult years as thousands
sought reprieve from pogroms, renewed military demands, and the overwhelming
financial burden of Jewish life in Alexander's Empire. Zionism,
as a political movement, swelled as a possible promise of
redemption. The ascension of Nicholas II in 1894
only made unbearable conditions degenerate still more.
The final straw
for Shimon's father Pesach, was the defeat of the Russian Navy
in the Tsushima Straits in 1905, for instead of accepting their defeat,
the military was demanding more Jewish conscripts than before. Revolutionary
terrorism had broken out in all corners of the land in the wake of
the dissolution of the Duma by Nicholas, and the Government responded
with a political court-martial that sentenced over one-thousand people to death;
many of them Jews, many of them innocent.
If he could
do nothing else, Pesach could save his unmarried son. With his married
brother Yehuda's passport in his pocket, Shimon was surreptitiously
hustled over the border from Cherkassy, Ukraine to Czernowitz, Austria-
When I was sixteen, my grandmother left
me a precious legacy – the letters that were written, at that
unstable period, from my great-grandfather to his son Shimon. My great-grandfather
was a religious man. His words express the indomitable faith and strong
will he retained despite the upheaval of the "world" around
Even with Shimon's flight, my great-grandfather never foresaw
that this was to be the beginning of a permanent separation. His first
letter was penned emotionally, as the remaining family gathered in Cherkassy
for Rosh Hashonah October 5, 1905, the Fast of Gedaliah:
"My dear son,I'm writing
to you on the Thursday before Rosh Hashonah. At the moment, I have
nothing to write; there is no news whatever – only a wish for
a good year with good blessings. We should all have a "Gmar Chasimah
Tova" and a good blessed year among all of Israel. My
dear son, I'm telling you a thousand times that right now you
must have patience with all your might in order to decide for yourself
that must stay over there in Czernowitz close to the border for a while.
That is, even if it means the whole winter. Also, maybe if Hashem will
so decree, it doesn't matter even if you stay there for good
as an Austrian, a Bukoviner. It is a thousand times better than becoming
an American or Palestinian. … you'll be close to home
with one foot on this side and one foot on the other side, and we can
often talk things over … And if you will keep your word about
what you told me when you said good-bye, with hot tears running down
your cheek, "Tata, I will always remain your son, always!" Also,
remember, my son, these true and dear words. I always remember them
and speak of them to all the children I will always remind them of
this. My dear son, enjoy your freedom. Be happy and thank Hashem every
minute and every second. You should know that you now have no responsibilities
whatsoever, only the dear and sacred responsibility and yoke to Hashem
and the dear and friendly responsibility to your dear parents and Derech
Israel. All this is only in your hands and heart. Remember to hold
them dear. You shouldn't, Hashem forbid, lose them. Do not forget
that you are the only guard, and no one will
watch or keep it for you. Only your father will remind you from time
to time in a letter… Have a Gmar Chasimah
Tova. Your mother and the children send regards. Father,
In a subsequent letter, written in January, 1906, Pesach wrote:
"Thanks to Hashem (His Holy Name) for our small measure ("bissel")
of good health, for not abandoning us, for His help in enabling us
to meet our expenses during these bitter times of troubles ("tzores")
all over the world. Nowadays, it is a miracle if a man has his piece
of bread, Hashem be thanked and nothing more should be asked of Him
at this time."
For the most part, personal details about the "tzores" were
never revealed, but at one point in their correspondence, Pesach admits
that things are "almost" bad enough to tempt him to leave
as well. He never did.
As the political situation
became more complicated, Shimon remained with a family in Czernowitz,
enduring both the teasing about his broken German and the snubs because of the
condescension with which Russian Jew were looked down upon by their
German counterparts.
At home in Cherkassy, Pesach was now forced into
the decision to send his married daughter and her three children to
Canada to join her husband. Shimon would accompany them on the journey.
Pesach worked furiously to obtain the necessary documents: birth certificates
attested to by the government rabbi and Governor's passports. His
son-in-law in Canada paid for the boat tickets, which were sent by
the "Paris Committee" to the "Russian Committee" in
St. Petersburg. From there, they were sent to the agent in Cherkassy.
Pesach spent long hours working on the "marche-route" that
the family would take on their way to the ship. He
conjectured that "the connection [would] be made via Libava,
in Russia, by small boat, and in Hamburg or Antwerp (it was to be in
Antwerp, as it turned out) there [would] be a transfer to a large boat,
an English or American one." Shimon would have to meet the family
by traveling by train, and they would accompany him to his point of
It wasn't to be that "simple". It
was March of 1907, and Shimon was still in Czernowitz. Pesach wrote:
whole delay has occurred because the Governor's passport has
not arrived from Kiev. It was paid for three months ago, but it is
still not here. Today, a letter arrived from the chief agent, and he
tells us that the passport will arrive any day now. We shall leave
as soon as it is received. I shall write you immediately."
was not the only unpredictable delay. Shimon had met Leah in a refugee
camp with others who had escaped the 1905 Odessa pogrom. He was irrevocably
in love, and now refused to leave without her. On her part, she refused
to marry him unless he promised to take her mother along on the voyage.
Father and son shared the same stubborn streak, and Shimon was adamant.
Leah and Shimon were married on June 13, 1907 in a quiet ceremony,
while Pesach anxiously awaited news from him, not knowing the
marriage had taken place.
afterwards, Pesach yielded, with no other alternative, and two more
tickets were purchased. The "marche-route" had
to be revised. A letter dated June 28, 1907 reads:
"… we
shall be leaving on Tuesday, before Shabbos Nachamu … I only
received my permit this Friday – the provincial one… My
present plan is that you and Leah should go to Brod, where you will
rent a dwelling for two weeks, and try to earn something to pay for
the food. We shall be going direct to Brod via Radomysl. We shall pick
up the boat tickets in Brod, and proceed to Antwerp via Vienna. Sew up
all your things when traveling from Chernovitz to Brod. Be ready
with everything. Let me know how much you need, and I shall send it
to you …." More delay: "I have
just received the Governor's passport, together with the one
issued to Mother. Everything is ready now, but we would not want to
travel before Tishah B'Av, during the Nine Days. We shall leave
for sure without delay, on Sunday, after Shabbos Nachamu. Children,
have your portraits taken; inexpensive ones at this time. Be well and
the letters, I learned that they stayed at Anshell's Inn on the
main street of Brody. It was there that the family last saw each other,
heard each other's voices for the last time, last hugged each
other. It was this way for many Jewish families then. The portraits
they exchanged were all they had to help them remember beloved faces
they would never see again. Among my grandparents' papers, there
is a business card for the Hotel Basel on Van Wesenbekestrasse, 16,
in Antwerpen, Belgien, from which they continued on their long passage.
I found the manifest of the SS Montreal, which left from Antwerp on
the 29th of August, 1907, and arrived in Quebec, Canada
on the 9th of September, 1907 at 6:15pm.
*A "marche-route" is literally "army's path",
but can also mean a travel plan or itinerary.


text:
Winter Driving School #4
Motorsport Club of Ottawa
Registration closed February 8, 2017 11:59 PM on February 8, 2017 11:59 PM EST Registration ends February 8, 2017 11:59 PM on February 8, 2017 11:59 PM EST Registration opens January 1, 2017 12:00 AM on January 1, 2017 12:00 AM EST Registration runs from January 1, 2017 12:00 AM to February 8, 2017 11:59 PM
Winter Driving School <Number>
The Motorsport Club of Ottawa offers a superb opportunity to learn the basics of winter driving techniques. Students learn in their own car, van or pickup truck through a combination of in-car instruction and exercises during a full day at our closed course, purpose built Winter Driving facility at Capital City Speedway. Each skill is explained first in the classroom and then the students take to our slippery track with an in-car instructor to practice that skill. Then it's back to the classroom to learn the next skill. The day alternates between the classroom and the track until all the winter driving skills have been covered. The skills are taught in a logical, progressive order so that students build ability and confidence. The course provides lots of track time to practice the skills you learn. As with last year, the school includes a catered lunch.
An Opportunity...
- To learn car control in snowy and icy conditions
- To gain confidence in winter driving conditions
- To learn effective skid control, stopping and collision avoidance techniques
The school is held based on demand (course requires at least 16 students), and is dependant on track and weather conditions provided by Mother Nature. Courses are held in January and February of each winter. The school is open to everyone who holds a valid driver's license at any level (for instance G1, G2 or G in Ontario) or an International Driver's License.
Course Outline:
The school is a full day school. Students are expected to arrive around 8:00 am, as the school starts at 8:30 sharp. Coffee is available in the morning. The school runs all day, and is usually completed by 4:00 pm. A one hour lunch break is held at close to 12:00 noon. All students and volunteers receive a catered lunch. The school costs $295 + HST; Students, Seniors and MCO Members $275 + HST and includes lunch.
A typical schedule of events for the day may look like the following, but is subject to change without notice:
08:00 - 08:30 Registration & forms
08:30 - 08:45 Introductions
08:45 - 09:05 Theory session
09:15 - 09:25 Instructor familiarization
09:25 - 09:55 Braking practice
09:55 - 11:05 Slalom
11:05 - 12:05 Skid Control
12:05- 13:05 Lunch
13:05 - 14:00 Cornering
14:00 - 15:10 Collision avoidance
15:00 - 16:05 Practice your skills
16:05 - 16:30 Debriefing and Graduation
If you are having trouble registering please send an e-mail to email@example.com. Include a brief description of the problem and a phone number where you can be reached.


text:
Guy Who Got Jumped By 3 White Guys (Racially Motivated Fight) Speaks Out!
CTV reports "Mounties on Vancouver Island are investigating what appears to be a racially motivated attack. The street fight, which happened Friday in Courtenay, B.C., was captured on video and posted on the video sharing website YouTube. The video shows a fight between a black man and three white men in a parking lot in which racial epithets are clearly heard several times. "
Please click the "Report" button below if the video on this page is not working properly.
Comments will only be displayed by verified emails. No Spamming or Racism.


text:
Blake interviews
Recently uploaded video clips of a James Blake press conference. The questions were put to James after coming through a tough three set match against wild card player, Sam Querry (Currently ATP #44 23/04/09).
I was lucky enough to be at the press conference and asked him the second question about the mental skills he used after losing the first set 1/6. These clips give a great insight into Blakes mindset and can be a real help for players and coaches alike. Keep calm is the big message.
Visit the interview page


text:
Death Penalty
Every day, people are executed by the state as punishment for a variety of crimes – sometimes for acts that should not be criminalized. In some countries it can be for who you sleep with, in others it is reserved for acts of terror and murder.
Some countries execute people who were under 18 years old when the crime was committed, others use the death penalty against people who suffer mental problems. Before people die they are often imprisoned for years on "death row". Not knowing when their time is up, or whether they will see their families one last time.
The death penalty is cruel, inhuman and degrading. Amnesty opposes the death penalty at all times - regardless of who is accused, the crime, guilt or innocence or method of execution.
We have been working to end executions since 1977, when only 16 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or practice. Today, the number has risen to 140 - nearly two-thirds of countries around the world.
We know that, together, we can end the death penalty everywhere. Hafez Ibrahim was about to be executed in Yemen in 2007 when he sent a mobile text message to Amnesty. It was a message that saved his life. "I owe my life to Amnesty. Now I dedicate that life to campaigning against the death penalty."
The problem
Why the Death Penalty is wrong
Denial of human rights. Sentencing someone to death denies them the right to life – enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Irreversible and mistakes happen. Execution is the ultimate, irrevocable punishment: the risk of executing an innocent person can never be eliminated. Since 1973, for example, 150 US prisoners sent to death row have later been exonerated. Others have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt.
Does not deter crime. Countries who execute commonly cite the death penalty as a way to deter people from committing crime. This claim has been repeatedly discredited, and there is no evidence that the death penalty is any more effective in reducing crime than imprisonment.
The death penalty is a symptom of a culture of violence, not a solution to it.
Often used within skewed justice systems. Some of the countries executing the most people have deeply unfair legal systems. The 'top' three executing countries – China, Iran and Iraq – have issued death sentences after unfair trials. Many death sentences are issued after 'confessions' that have been obtained through torture.
Discriminatory. You are more likely to be sentenced to death if you are poor or belong to a racial, ethnic or religious minority because of discrimination in the justice system. Also, poor and marginalized groups have less access to the legal resources needed to defend themselves.
Used as a political tool. The authorities in some countries, for example Iran and Sudan, use the death penalty to punish political opponents.
Amnesty is calling for
- Countries that still use the death penalty immediately halt all executions.
- Countries that have already stopped executing people, need to take this punishment off their legal books for all crimes, permanently.
- All death sentences should be commuted to prison sentences.
The issue in detail
The death penalty breaches two essential human rights: the right to life and the right to live free from torture. Both rights are protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948.
The following international laws explicitly ban use of the death penalty, except during times of war:
- The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
- Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights
- The Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights to Abolish the Death Penalty.
The European Convention on Human Rights (Protocol No. 13) bans use of the death penalty at all times, even during war.
Although international law says that the death penalty can be used for the most serious crimes, like murder, Amnesty believes that the death penalty is never the answer.
The global view
Death sentences and executions 2015
Execution methods
There are many and varied types of execution used around the world today, including:
• Beheading
• Electrocution
• Hanging
• Lethal injection
• Shooting in the back of the head and by firing squad
Death sentences and executions 2015
2015 saw a dramatic rise in executions – the highest number recorded by Amnesty since 1989.
Read our latest annual review of the death penalty worldwide.
Further reading
- Death sentences and executions (reports from all available years)
- The death penalty - your questions answered
- The death penalty v. human rights: Why abolish the death penalty?
- International standards on the death penalty
- Human rights v. the death penalty: Abolition and restriction in law and practice
- Executions of juveniles since 1990
- The exclusion of child offenders from the death penalty under general international law
- Constitutional prohibitions of the death penalty
- Death penalty: Ratification of international treaties
- Global moratorium on executions now
- Abolitionist and retentionist countries
Key facts
countries had completely abolished the death penalty by the end of 2015
people were executed in 2015 – up 54% on 2014 (excluding China)
of all executions recorded in 2015 took place in just 3 countries


text:
Throughout 2003-2005 I spent a lot of time in Imperial County, CA trying to understand it. Imperial Co is one of the most agriculturally important regions to the USA providing vegetables throughout the winter. It's dreadfully hot in the summer. It's polluted by pesticides and fertilizers. It hosts the southern half of the man-made Salton Sea and one of the best hot springs in the nation. It's towns act as Afghanistan for Hollywood's location scouts.
03.032004ImperialFoodMarket-1, a photo by sleepytako on Flickr.
03.032004ImperialFoodMarket-1, a photo by sleepytako on Flickr.
The region has a great many left over or under maintained commercial buildings that my lens gravitated towards. I loved this font and motif. No clue what use to be on the top. Perhaps a logo for a cola or brand of bread.
P.S. I'm posting this at 6AM PST as I sit, jet-lagged, in a Los Angeles hotel room. It's fun and interesting being back in the USA. Massive amounts of reverse culture shock going on. I'm documenting the trip over on my baby daughter's blog. It's her first trip to the states. Needless to say, she won't remember it, but one day into the trip and she's been having a ton of fun.


text:
ReleasesBack to
Ron Carter
In 1994, producer-tenor saxophonist Bob Belden received the unusual assignment of putting together a variety of all-star groups to revisit tunes associated with the Blue Note legacy. From November 1994 to March 1995 he recorded most of Blue Note's then-current roster, documenting 39 compositions in all. Twelve are on this CD, while many of the others have been released in Japan. Each of the dozen numbers uses a different group and they are generally consistent, if not filled with surprises. Dianne Reeves,Cassandra Wilson, Holly Cole, and Kurt Elling are heard on vocal features (Reeves and Elling fare best), trumpeter Marcus Printup shows off his warm tone on "You've Changed," and, in a performance that brings back the "Bitches Brew" era (and is both the most modern and the most dated of these interpretations), Belden, trumpeter Tim Hagans and three keyboardists explore Andrew Hill's "Siete Ocho." Of the many pianists who are featured on this set (including Geri Allen, Jacky Terrasson, Renee Rosnes, and Eliane Elias), Geoff Keezer's fairly free improvisation on Herbie Nichols' "2300 Skidoo" is the most memorable. Quite unusual is the complete absence of any of the quintet or sextet lineups that were almost a trademark of Blue Note in the '50s and '60s, and the relatively few trumpet and saxophone solos. Sure to be a collector's item, this CD is not essential but it has enough variety to keep the interest of most jazz listeners.


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Pleo Teardown
Teardowns provide a look inside a device and should not be used as disassembly instructions.
We disassembled this dinosaur on January 14, 2008.
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Step 1 — Pleo Teardown ¶
We received our Pleo this week, and resisted the urge to take him apart-- but only briefly.
We immediately bonded to the little dinosaur. This was the most difficult take apart we've ever done. Disassembling inanimate iPods is one thing, but Pleo was more. Ah, Pleo-- we hardly knew you.
Step 2 ¶
The obvious place to begin disassembling any organism is the belly. Pleo has two screws on each foot.
The battery compartment is in the middle, along with the the USB port and SD slot. There's also a debug port hidden underneath a cover next to the power switch.
Pleo came with a USB cable, but it's not clear what it's intended for. Ugobe's instructions for add-ons like their Holiday behavior require a SD card and reader.
Step 3 ¶
Once we removed the feet, we cut the glue affixing the skin to the legs.
Pleo is quite the sophisticated creature. According to Howstuffworks, he has:
Two 32-bit ARM7 processors
Four 8-bit processors (ARM?) for motor control
Fourteen tiny motors
Step 4 ¶
Removing the skin from the head. Ugobe used glue around each orifice to keep the skin secure, so this is trickiest part.
Pleo may be the most interactive toy ever made. He has:
One color camera
Two microphones
One IR transmitter
One accelerometer
Eight capacitance touch sensors
Step 5 ¶
Removing glue around his eye.
Step 6 ¶
The color camera in his nose. Ugobe may have originally planned facial recognition, but currently Pleo can only use it to "get a feel of his surroundings."
He also sports binaural hearing with a microphone on each side of his head. The microprocessor compares the sounds received from each "ear" and allows him to work out the direction and distance of sound sources.
An infrared interrupter in his mouth lets him know if you have placed something in there. There is also an IR communicator which allows him to talk to other, like-minded dinosaurs.
Step 7 ¶
Removing the skin from his legs and torso. The skin is elastic enough that the entire body section can be removed as one piece.
Step 8 ¶
Stretching the skin around his rear legs.
Pleo's skin is loose over most of his body, but there are stiff plastic frames surrounding the ports and battery bay on his belly.
Step 9 ¶
There is a dab of glue at the tip of the tail. The articulated tail is capable of a surprising variety of movement.
Step 10 ¶
How to skin a dinosaur...
The eight capacitance sensors that allow Pleo to feel are located throughout his body: two on top of his torso, one under his chin, one on top of his head, and one on the outside of each leg.
Step 11 ¶
The torso is in two sections, connected by a large gear and a rotating backplate (which is the black piece on top of the front section).
Step 12 ¶
According to Howstuffworks, there are two ARM7 32-bit processors which control the more complicated actions of Pleo. One processes the sensors around the head, while the other controls I/O, image processing and is "where Pleo's personality and behavior exist."
Here we see the SD card slot.
The board uses one of the four 48-pin Toshiba TMP86FH47AUG 8-bit microcontrollers.
Step 13 ¶
Oh, the humanity! What have we done?
Step 14 ¶
The rear torso houses the ingenious tail mechanism and rear leg drives.
To walk, Pleo has two motors driving each leg. One motor is in the torso, and the other is in the leg beneath the silver foil. Pleo uses eight motors and 36 gears just to walk around!
Step 15 ¶
Pleo's tail is what gives him the most personality. It's hard to understand without seeing him move. When you pick Pleo up by the surprisingly-durable tail, he detects the resistance and direction change and immediately starts squirming and squealing. When you put him back down, he quivers in shock and fear.
The tail is composed of 19 vertebra, 4 wires, 2 motors, 8 gears, 2 force feedback sensors, and a tremendous amount of ingenuity.
Step 16 ¶
Pleo's eyelids open and shut and his eyes move up and down. His mouth also opens, and when he detects something (like food) in his mouth, he clamps down and acts like a dog playing tug-o-war.
There is a speaker in his mouth and microphones on either side of the head.
We only have one Pleo, so we don't know what the IR transmitter is capable of.
The head contains a 32-bit NXP RISC LPC2103F microcontroller.
Step 17 ¶
The ghost of Pleo.
Step 18 ¶
The tail has four wires, and each pair is connected at a gear. One motor can move the tail from side to side and the other moves it up and down. Combining these two movements in varying proportions gives the tail an amazingly flexible range of motion.
Step 19 ¶
Pleo's central nerve center. There are circuit boards on three sides of the battery compartment.
The three boards visible here are soldered together, making removing these PCBs a challenge.
Step 20 ¶
Looking down at the mechanism to move Pleo's neck. The neck works the same way as the tail, but has only six vertebrae.
Step 21 ¶
There are several major circuit boards that process Pleo's sensors and respond with motor control and speech. There are actually five boards in this image. Three of them are soldered together in his front torso.
There are several Fairchild Semiconductor FAN8100N motor controllers scattered throughout the robot.
Here, as well as on the I/O board in the torso, are 48-pin Toshiba TMP86FH47AUG 8-bit microcontrollers with the markings 06502AI41 F1015M04.
Step 22 ¶
What appears to be the main processor is an Atmel AT91SAM7S256 32-bit ARM microprocessor with 256 KB embedded flash.
There is also a National Semiconductor LM2937 500mA positive voltage regulator.
Step 23 ¶
This is the I/O board in the belly with the USB port, SD memory slot and a 48-pin Toshiba TMP86FH47AUG 8-bit microcontroller.
If anyone has any more information about the components inside Pleo, let us know and we'd be happy to post more information here.
Step 24 ¶
This is Pleo. Like every life form, he is tremendously complex. We left most of the gearboxes intact, and we still have dozens of components.
While we didn't break anything, we're not so sure we can put humpty-pleo back together again. We were pretty attached to him, so we may have to get another one.
We have a tremendous amount of respect for the engineering team at Ugobe. We've met them briefly a few times, and they are very eager to push the envelope in human-machine interaction. The cute, friendly exterior of Pleo belies the tremendous complexity required to attain it. Pleo is a surprisingly flexible technology platform, and we're excited to see what third-party programmers can do with it once Ugobe releases their SDK.
We are very excited to see what the creators of Pleo give birth to next!
And no, we're probably not going to sell Pleo parts. Unless we get a lot of requests...


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Broncos coach John Fox says Colts owner's comments a 'cheap shot'
Whatever hard feelings existed between Peyton Manning and Jim Irsay over how Manning's 14-year Colts career ended have long since evaporated. They may not have actually existed in a real sense, if Manning's advice to the owner about the 2012 draft-where Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck was available- is any indication.
"He said, 'You've got to take Andrew,'" Irsay told USA Today Manning told him that winter. "'You have to. You're crazy if you don't.'"
PHOTOS: Rare Manning brother images | NFL's most beloved players
Broncos coach John Fox defended his quarterback on SiriusXM NFL Radio Tuesday, and was not happy with Irsay's comments.
"I saw the comments. And to be honest with you, I thought it was a bit of a cheap shot," Fox said. "To me, in my opinion, they were disappointing and inappropriate.
"Peyton would never say anything. He's too classy to do that. They sounded a little ungrateful and unappreciative to me. For a guy who has set a standard, won a Super Bowl, won four MVP awards ... be thankful of that one Super Bowl ring, because a lot of people don't have one."
Whether it was Manning's idea or not, the Colts did indeed use the first overall pick that April on Luck. Manning returns to Indianapolis Sunday with the team he chose later that summer, the Denver Broncos. Luck is the opposing quarterback, with a 16-8 career regular-season and postseason record after Monday night's loss in San Diego.
"I think it's perfect," Irsay told the paper. "What's happened is what Peyton and I hoped would happen. The desire was for him to get well and get to a team that has a chance to win another Super Bowl before his career ended. And our desire was to be able to transition to Andrew. To be so good so soon is stunning."
MORE: Must-see images
"So soon" is accurate: the Colts went 2-14 while Manning recovered in 2011 from multiple neck surgeries. The team overhauled everything, from players to head coach to front office, once Irsay chose to part ways with Manning and relieve themselves of his $28 million bonus for 2012.
"Circumstances created this decision," Irsay told USA Today. "You have to understand there's no way this occurs if he's in Indy. It's just impossible, where our salary cap was. Having him stay at the type of number that he expected and deserved to earn and all those things."
The Sporting News staff contributed to this report.


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What do you think of the new nickel?
Carol Brown: "The new one is more intimate, but for a nickel, the old one is much better.
Byron Estrada: "The government should be doing something more with their time. Otherwise, I like it."
Greg Campbell: "I like it. It was time for a change."


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Returning hardware to Pangolin
If you are returning your hardware (QM2000, Flashback, etc.) to Pangolin, please follow these important shipping recommendations. (If you don't, then you or the shipper may have to pay for a replacement if the hardware is damaged or lost.)
If you are returning a board-level product, such as QM2000 or Flashback, always put the board in a pink, black or silvered anti-static bag or wrap. Do not use clear plastic bags or wraps; these will generate static which may damage the board. If you don't have anti-static bags, wrap the board in a sheet of aluminum foil.
Ship the product in a box. Do not ship it in a padded bag; this does not provide enough protection.
Cushion the product inside the box. Shippers generally recommend at least two inches (five cm) cushioning on all sides, using foam "peanuts" or bubble wrap. We have seen a number of repairs/returns get damaged from improper packaging. When this happens, very often extra repair charges are levied.
We strongly recommend that you use a well-known shipping company such as FedEx, DHL or UPS, and use their "Large box". FedEx, DHL and UPS have fast-track arrangements with customs agencies.
If the product is tied to a BEYOND or LD2000 system, insure the shipment for $1500 USD or the price you paid for the product. If the product is tied to QuickShow, insure the shipment for $500 USD or the price you paid for the product.
Put your address (business card) and a printout of the return form inside the box. If the outer documents are lost, the shipper can look inside to contact you.
If you are outside the EU, declare the product for "Temporary Export". On the customs and shipping documents, note that the "product is being returned to the authorized service center for repair". This helps avoid unnecessary charges after the repair, when the product re-enters your country.
Where to ship
Company: Pangolin Repair Center, Collimated
Contact person: Francesco van Loon
Country: The Netherlands
City: Bergen op Zoom
Post code: 4625CG
Street: Achillestraat 3A
Phone: +31-652038384
NOTE: If you need to put a name on the shipping documents, address the package to "Francesco van Loon" at Pangolin. Before sending your hardware back to Pangolin for repair, please fill out the following form below. The data will be emailed to Pangolin. This lets us prepare for the product's arrival. After you click the "Submit" button, you'll go to a page that summarizes the information you are e-mailing. Please print two copies of the confirmation page. Keep one copy for your records, and include the other when shipping your product.
Specifying the shipping address
Note that the form does not ask for your shipping address. Please be sure that your return address is on or inside the package, so we know where to return the product!
Hardware Return Form
An asterisk (*) indicates data is required. If you are sending more than one piece of hardware, please fill out one form for each piece.


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Depression in children and teens is not rare. However, because normal behaviors vary from one childhood stage to another, it can be difficult to tell whether a child is just going through a temporary phase or is suffering from depression. Here is a list of symptoms and signs to help identify when a child is suffering from depression.
Symptoms of Depression Common to Children, Adolescents, and Adults
Common symptoms include:
- Depressed mood
- Unexplained anger or irritability
- Increased worrying
- Loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
- Significant change in appetite or body weight
- Early morning awakening
- Changes in sleep patterns, includes too little or too much sleep
- Psychomotor disturbance or delay
- Difficulty concentrating
- Loss of energy
- Feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
- Alcohol or substance abuse
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide
Signs of Depression That May Be Present in Children and Adolescents
- Frequent vague, nonspecific physical complaints such as headaches, muscle aches, stomach aches, or tiredness
- Not wanting to go to school, which can lead to frequent absences and poor performance
- Pretending to be sick
- Outbursts of shouting, complaining, or crying
- Boredom
- Difficulty with relationships, including social isolation or poor communication
- Alcohol or substance abuse
- Clinging to parent
- Extreme sensitivity to rejection or failure
- Reckless behavior
- Fear of death
Note: Not every depressed child will experience every symptom. The severity of symptoms will vary from child to child. Depression can be serious, but it is treatable. If your child is showing any of these signs and symptoms, talk with your child's doctor.
- Reviewer: Michael Woods, MD
- Review Date: 01/2017 -
- Update Date: 01/16/2015 -


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Welcome disc golfer! You can login or create an account.
Questions? Call us: (785) 258-2494
The Lightning Large Lite holds about 18 discs, has a zippered pocket on the back, open pocket on t he front, mesh drink holder and pencil pockets on the sides. Inside divided into 3 compartments by plastic dividers, has one inside pocket with velcro closure. The bottom is reinforced with solid plastic. The top flat can be held open by velcro strap. Has adjustable shoulder strap.


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Share, discuss, and plan ideas for IYC 2011
Want to post your own idea or comment?
To post an idea or add a comment, you need to be part of the IYC network. Please log in or sign up now.
Join the IYC Network
This forum is all about sharing your ideas and plans for celebrating IYC 2011. Ideas are just ideas! They might lead to nothing more or they might bloom into something exciting – up to you! You can just post simple suggestions, you can start a discussion and seek comments, or you can post a request for collaboration with other members of the IYC network. You can also just browse and search the forum to see what others are thinking about and add your comments.
Ready to turn your ideas into action? If so, switch to the Activities section and submit your plan for consideration.
Msc.student Collaboration Stefan Karastojanov | added on Mar 15, 2012 Food texture
|students, secondary schools, scientists, teachers, high schools, professional chemists, researchers, post graduate students
science fair-with Paschim Banga Vigyan Mancha conference at different level Discussion Sisir Bose | added on Jan 22, 2012 To encourage students and general public about chemistry education and awareness through seminar , lectures ppt etc.
Development of an Organic Reagent Collaboration Kkaustubh Kkaustubh | added on Jan 19, 2012 A reagent must be developed to help synthesize and create and interconvert the molecules of varied functional groups in usage with minimum amount of energy and temperature and allowing more speedier reactions.
|professional chemists
Great Science Video Presentation Suggestion Jenifer Robinson | added on Jan 04, 2012 The class is divided into groups of 5. Then each group is given a theme and a subtheme based on which the group will have to give a presentation with the experiment demonstration, explanation, etc with the assistance of a mentor. This is a competition we have designed in our school to celebrate IYC.
|students, teachers
Pilot project called experimental rocketry, is the analysis, design, construction and launch of an experimental rocket fuel solid with a payload in excess of 1000 meters Collaboration Juan carlos Arias cañón | added on Jan 01, 2012 The experimental project called Mission Rocket Pioneers is part of the Space Program Eduacación +14 EEA School conducted by the Colombian Association Astcol Astronautics. It seeks to involve students in the design, analysis, construction, testing and launch of an experimental rocket.
|experiments, exhibition
|students, general public, secondary schools, teachers, scientists, high schools, educators


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"This album was conceived and produced by Armando Pittigliani, one of the biggest music producers in Brazil. He produced the first albums of bossa nova by [artists like] Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão, Os Cariocas and Tamba Trio, was also producer of Baden Powell, Jair Rodrigues, CY Quartet, Jackson do Pandeiro, Agnaldo Timothy, Elis Regina, among many others. [He] played an important role in song festivals, as a juror, collaborator and producer. It was he who had the bright idea to record the likely winning songs before the end of the festival. So, when the winner was announced, the recording was ready. The next day, stores had the disc with the winning songs on the shelves....
This album, recorded in 1971, aims to present some typical Brazilian rhythms, especially those related to samba. The album is entirely instrumental, and the rhythms are shown in a very didactic [way]" (Acervo Origens)
A boss 70s brazilian LP of crisply recorded (studio) batucada. Breaks all day for you beat-diggers out there. Many thanks to my compadre, Bill, who was kind enough to rip this outstanding record for GC. Enjoy!
Escola De Samba Da Cidade – Batucada Nº 3 : The Exciting Rhythm Of The Wild Brazilian Carnival (Philips, 1971)***320kbps mp3
1. Batucada De Apresentação 5:07
2. Partido Alto 4:15
3. Samba Em Vários Andamentos 6:53
1. Apito Na Batucada 3:12
2. Samba De Roda 5:03
3. Improvisos Na Batucada 5:05
4. Ritmo De Macumba 3:55


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Thursday, September 24, 2009
Please Meet My New...
However my parents have felt very sad for me (and rather helpless I guess, being in a different country) and wanted to buy me something to cheer me up a bit. I had no idea they'd been in secret contact with Ross and wanted to buy me a new laptop. I was speechless when I finally was told! :)
It's a Dell Studio 17 with 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive (very much needed LOL!) And it's GREEN!! And I totally love it to bits!! :)) The 17" screen is amazing!! I totally have the best parents in the world - ever :)))
I'm currently spending all the time installing everything and moving my files over. I'm having some fun and games because at the same time I'm moving from Windows XP to Windows Vista. Oh joy! Still... I feel like the end is in sight (or "blurry sight" right now in my case!) soon and I already know that I loooove this machine :)
6 comments:
- Marja said...
congrats on the new toy! great parents :) Hope your eyes feel better soon xx
- 9/24/2009 2:40 pm
- Lissa said...
Congrats on the new toy! Love the color! Hope your eyes feel better soon!=]
- 9/24/2009 6:12 pm
- Sharon B said...
awhhh what lovely parents! so sorry to hear about your eye ops- I suffer with a flat bed cyst in one eye that is wrapped around the nerve so to risky to operate on. It's painful and a pain as constantly waters and blurred so effects my designing........ wish you all the best and lots of good times with your new lap top x Sharon B =)
- 9/24/2009 6:26 pm
- Annski3 said...
How sweet of them! GREAT color choice!!! I love all the creativity and heart you share with us! I'll add you to my prayers. Enjoy your new toy—no, I mean 'tool!' Tee hee!
- 9/25/2009 3:02 am
- Randi said...
Oh you will LOVE this toy! I have one in purple and I do! :)
- 9/25/2009 2:05 pm
- Jessica said...
Anso, I'm sorry to hear about your eye troubles! I'll add you to my prayer list. It's good to hear that you have recovered well enough to see your new laptop! Yay, and you do have the best parents! Enjoy!!!
- 9/27/2009 3:09 pm


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Shark: A National League All-Star now on an AL team
The bottom line is that it wouldn't be fair for Jeff Samardzija, traded to the Athletics on Saturday after spending the entire season with the Cubs, to knock a deserving American League pitcher off the AL All-Star roster.
And Samardzija can't pitch for the National League, since Oakland, featuring the best record in the Major Leagues, has a vested interest in seeing the AL win and secure home-field advantage in the World Series.
The bottom line is that it wouldn't be fair for Jeff Samardzija, traded to the Athletics on Saturday after spending the entire season with the Cubs, to knock a deserving American League pitcher off the AL All-Star roster.
And Samardzija can't pitch for the National League, since Oakland, featuring the best record in the Major Leagues, has a vested interest in seeing the AL win and secure home-field advantage in the World Series.
As a result, Samardzija, who had a 2.83 ERA in 17 starts for the Cubs, will be able to attend the Midsummer Classic at Minnesota's Target Field and will represent the NL, but he will not participate in the game. He'll be replaced on the active roster, just as a pitcher who starts the Sunday before the All-Star Game is honored as part of the squad but doesn't play.
"Random happening," Samardzija said. "I don't think anyone knew I was going to be an All-Star before the trade. It just happened to be that way. I won't get to pitch, which is a bummer, but that's all right. I'll just go through the ceremony and then jump over to the AL dugout with an NL jersey on and have fun with the six other guys we have over there."
"I think that the fact that he was recognized for his performance in and of itself speaks to that; good for him," said Cubs manager Rick Renteria.
There have been at least three previous occasions in which a player who made the All-Star team on the basis of a strong first half with one team has been wearing another uniform by the time the Classic was played.
Left-hander Cliff Lee opened the 2010 season with the Mariners and was traded to the Rangers just four days before the best players in baseball squared off at Angel Stadium. Lee pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning for the AL, recording one strikeout.
Reliever Jeff Shaw went from the Reds to the Dodgers three games before the 1998 Classic at Coors Field. He came in to pitch the eighth and gave up one run on consecutive singles to Rafael Palmeiro, Omar Vizquel and Sandy Alomar Jr.
Outfielder Carlos Beltran was with the Royals when the 2004 season started, and he finished fourth among outfielders in AL All-Star balloting. However, he was traded to the Astros as part of a three-team deal on June 24.
So when NL manager Jack McKeon needed to add an outfielder because of an injury to Ken Griffey Jr., he chose Beltran, partly because of how well he had been playing and partly because that year's game was being played at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
At the time, the Commissioner's Office said it was the first time a player had been chosen for one All-Star team and ended up playing on the other side.
Beltran entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fourth. He singled and scored, then stayed in the game in center field, getting one more at-bat before being lifted for a pinch-hitter in the ninth.
In theory, Samardzija could still be added as an injury replacement for the AL.
"You care about putting a whole season together, but this means you got off to a good start, your first few months went well," Samardzija said. "Most importantly, it's respect from your fellow players. That feels good. It means they're noticing what you're doing and they respect it, and that means a lot."
Immediately following the announcement of the AL and NL All-Star rosters on Sunday, fans began voting to select the final player for each league's 34-man roster via the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com Final Vote Sponsored by Experian. Fans can cast their votes from a list of five players from each league until the winners are announced after the voting concludes on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.
The final phase of All-Star Game voting will again have fans help choose the Ted Williams All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award presented by Chevrolet. During the Midsummer Classic, fans will vote exclusively online at MLB.com and via Twitter in the 2014 All-Star Game MLB.com MVP Vote Sponsored by Pepsi, and their collective voice will represent 20 percent of the overall vote that determines the recipient of the Arch Ward Trophy.
MLB.TV Premium subscribers, for the first time, will be able to live stream the All-Star Game via MLB.TV through FOX's participating video providers. Access will be available across more than 400 platforms that support MLB.TV, including the award-winning MLB.com At Bat app. MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage of the All-Star Week festivities.
The 85th All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and RDS, and worldwide by partners in more than 200 countries via MLB International's independent feed. ESPN Radio and ESPN Radio Deportes will provide national radio coverage of the All-Star Game. MLB Network and SiriusXM will also provide comprehensive All-Star Week coverage. For more information, please visit allstargame.com.
Paul Hagen is a reporter for MLB.com.


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Bears coach Marc Trestman rested his hands on his hips and stared straight ahead as the referee announced another penalty against his team in the fourth quarter. The Bears' mistakes took on many forms Sunday, and when enough accumulated to secure a 26-18 loss to the Saints, the euphoria of last month's undefeated start yielded to a reality instilled by their second straight defeat.
There is a chasm between the Bears and the NFL's elite. It was clear Sunday in the early pass protection breakdowns and a lost fumble. Their six penalties and 12-minute time of possession disadvantage also showed it.
The Saints left Chicago as the only undefeated team in the NFC after the Bears did not quite measure up.
"They deserved to win it," Trestman said. "On our side of it, certainly disappointed in the way we started this game offensively, and that starts with me and accountability to get our guys going the right direction."
Sunday's deficiencies differed from those in their previous defeat. Against the Saints, quarterback Jay Cutler protected the ball better than he did against the Lions, and the defense didn't miss as many tackles. But the offense started slowly because of failures to pick up blitzes, and the defense did not force a takeaway for the first time this season.
Perhaps different problems on the checklist signify the Bears still are a work in progress under their new coach. And perhaps they'll eventually reflect and see no shame in losing to the Saints, who feature one of the NFL's best coach-quarterback combinations and an improved defense.
However, the Bears fancy themselves capable of avoiding the miscues that doomed them Sunday, particularly those on offense in the first half. That notion was the source of their frustration after falling to 3-2.
"It's all about us, quite frankly," Trestman said. "And it usually is."
The Bears chased the game all afternoon because of a sloppy start. They gained only two first downs on their first five series, and the Saints built a 13-0 lead.
On the first play from scrimmage, running back Matt Forte dropped a toss to the left. He appeared to take his eyes off the ball before he caught it. Cutler had to fall on it for a loss of 10 yards, and the Bears punted.
Their second drive was worse. The Saints blitzed two safeties from the left edge, something the Bears did not expect. Left tackle Jermon Bushrod blocked down, leaving safety Malcolm Jenkins unblocked on the outside.
Jenkins sacked Cutler from behind and jarred the ball loose. The Saints recovered at the Bears' 6-yard line and converted the turnover into a field goal.
The Saints sacked Cutler once on each of the next two drives to put the Bears in separate third-and-17 situations. They had not deployed such aggressive blitzes in the first four games, Bushrod said. That surprised the Bears because they had not previously seen them on video.
"When you're not familiar with something, you kind of get — not rattled, but it kind of catches you off guard," Bushrod said.
The Bears eventually sorted out how to account for the blitzes. That, and the fact the Saints played to protect their lead, helped the Bears average 8.0 yards per play — their highest single-game average since September 1989. Receiver Alshon Jeffery set a single-game franchise record with 218 receiving yards on 10 catches.
Defensively, the Bears' failure to force a turnover left incomplete the formula on which they relied to win their first three games. Quarterback Drew Brees (29 of 35, 288 yards) threw both of his touchdown passes in the second quarter to give the Saints a lead they never relinquished.
"He's a smart quarterback," Bears cornerback Tim Jennings said. "He didn't force anything. That's why we weren't able to get any takeaways. We wanted them to get into a long drive and give us some more opportunities. He took what the defense gave him."
As the Bears took stock of the loss and their season, there was a widespread sense of urgency.
Their home game against the winless Giants on Thursday night presents a challenge to correct the mistakes quickly. Players welcome the opportunity to bridge the gap between the team they are and the team they want to be.
"We're not playing our best ball yet," Bushrod said. "The positives are that we're 3-2 and we still have a lot more work to do. We can still go a long way."
Twitter @Rich_Campbell


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Night Club Website Templates
We have a collection of 25 designs in this area!
These night club website templates are where it's at! Promoters, event schedulers, marketers, bands, entertainers, if you're in to the club scene, you're at the right place if you're looking for night club website templates. These designs are hot, hip, and sexy all at the same time! The colors are as out of this world as the light shows you've got going on at the club. Promote your next event right, use a proven eye catching design and fill your line, show your patrons why your club is the place to be!
Our Night Club Website templates are premade web designs that can be used as a starting point for an internet website. The majority of these night club templates consist of HTML and static images. Some of these night club templates may use Adobe Flash in the headers, but all of the templates will have a non-Flash version included. The templates are completely customizable and ready for immediate download once purchased.


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I think it sort of stinks to have to drop $8-16 on just a single bulb, but how crazy is it that LED bulbs last for literally 20 years and they use a fraction of the wattage that an incandescent bulb uses?!
I picked up a pretty expensive (almost $16!) Cree bulb that has a new technology that's supposed to help colors read more correctly, which has been my main complaint about LED in the past. I also bought this Ecosmart two-pack as a cheaper comparison that brought the price-per-bulb down to about $8. And I threw in to the test group an incandescent I already owned for good measure, just because I was curious. All of the bulbs were Soft White in tone and 60 watts or equivalent.
I'm sure there are some in-between option too. I just picked up what jumped out to me. (What have you tried and liked?)
Well, here are the results of my extremely technical and super scientific light test results! ;)
I actually really liked the tone of the most expensive LED bulb (surprise, surprise), but really the Ecosmart brand wasn't bad at all. I'd probably use it in bedrooms or for fixtures we use a little less. And actually I've read that it's a good idea to switch over to the more expensive bulbs over time to help spread out the initial expense, but that you should put the new bulbs in your most frequently used fixtures so you can start the energy savings right away.
As a part of the workshop last weekend, Home Depot gave me a $100 gift card to give away today! Maybe you'll want to spend the gift card on a dozen or so new LEDs? :) To enter, leave a comment here on this post. I'd love to hear about what bulbs you're using and loving.
Contest ends next Thursday at midnight. Winner will be emailed. Good luck!
PS Home Depot has lots of great (free!) DIY workshops coming up! To see what your local store has to offer, check out the registration page here!