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It is undeniable, and certainly an understatement, to observe that these are challenging times for participants in financial markets and the economy, and for policymakers as well. Beginning about 18 months ago, financial markets were rocked by a series of shocks which ultimately had global implications and whose repercussions are being felt to this day. Policymakers, many of whom have deep confidence in the self-equilibrating nature of a market economy, have responded aggressively and, in some instances, with unprecedented action. It is not only too early to tally results, but it also remains unclear if further steps will be required to restore stability; however, I am guardedly optimistic that many pieces are now in place to rebuild liquidity and to contribute to improvement in business activity.
The heart of my remarks this afternoon will be a discussion of economic policies suitable to the challenges that continue to confront the economy and financial system. But before getting into the policies themselves, it is necessary to devote some time to a description of both current conditions and near-term prospects, so that we start from the same base. We may, of course, disagree about the outlook, the risks, or the recommendations, but we should try to be clear about where the disagreement truly lies. And I will remind you that, as always, I am speaking only for myself and not for others in the Federal Reserve.
Current Conditions and the Outlook
I will initially turn to the state of the economy and the credit markets and prospects for the next two to three years. Conditions in credit markets have improved over the past two months, although in general appreciable strains persist. On the positive side, term funding is more readily available than at the height of the crisis, and risk premia have diminished through much of the financial sector. On the other hand, markets for many securitized products remain closed, and significant doubts persist about asset values and the solvency of some large institutions. Much has been made recently about banks' unwillingness to lend to creditworthy borrowers and a so-called credit crunch; in my view, there is likely more here than meets the eye.
There is little doubt that many creditworthy customers are today being financed by their banks as they normally have been. There is also little question that some borrowers with satisfactory or better credit histories are finding it more expensive, if not impossible, to obtain financing. There are at least a couple of factors at work, abstracting from any fundamental deterioration in the condition of the borrower. Commercial banks have long been thought of, and indeed have functioned as, the backup source of liquidity for many other financial institutions and markets. Banks continue to play this role, but it has become more challenging today to do so because some lenders find themselves capital-constrained as a result of recent losses and/or sizable, unanticipated additions to their balance sheets of formerly off-balance-sheet instruments. Perhaps more importantly, the so-called "shadow banking system" grew rapidly relative to the traditional banking sector over the past two decades or so. And now the demands on the banks from these nonbank financial institutions are that much greater, making it difficult for banks to respond adequately to all customers.
Overall, it seems to me that these credit strains are real and pervasive, and that these conditions are likely to weigh on economic activity for some time. As it is, the economy is in the midst of a serious recession that seems likely to persist for at least another two quarters. Most sectors of the economy are contracting, and it is difficult, as it always is, to identify with confidence the engine, or engines, of expansion that will propel the recovery in activity.
Still, there is reason to think that improvement is not too far off. Interest rates are low and financial conditions are improving, albeit unevenly. A major fiscal stimulus package is in the offing, which seems likely to add to aggregate demand in a timely way unless consumers and businesses turn exceedingly cautious. Moreover, adjustments which typically occur in a contraction ultimately help to lay the foundation for renewed growth. For example, as business continues to reduce output and employment, at some point aggregate supply falls below even the diminished level of demand, leading to increases in hours worked, net new hiring, and a general pickup in activity.
Once under way, the pace of the expansion is likely to be subdued for a time. There is historical precedent for this, since the recovery of the early 1990s was initially quite modest, as was the recovery earlier this decade. More importantly, in view of the state of the credit markets and of the housing sector, it seems a fair bet that it will take time for momentum to build. But with the passage of time—as we get into the middle of 2010 and beyond—I would expect to see a resumption of healthy growth.
What of the outlook for inflation? Not too many months ago, there was considerable concern about prospects for inflation, fueled in large measure by the run-up in energy and other commodity prices. These concerns have subsided with the dramatic fall in the price of energy, replaced, as it were, by two competing issues, namely: (1) concern for future inflation, stemming from the Federal Reserve's provision of huge amounts of liquidity in response to the financial crises; (2) deflation, resulting presumably from the prospect of a downturn in global economic activity.
Neither concern can be dismissed out of hand but, if economic growth resumes in the United States as I expect, the threat of deflation should diminish commensurately. As for liquidity provision and inflation, it is important to recall that the relation between growth in the money supply and the path of prices holds in the long run, over periods of at least five and more likely 10 years. Thus, there is ample time to withdraw excess liquidity as appropriate, and in this regard the Federal Reserve remains firmly committed to long-run price stability.
Macroeconomic Policies
I previously noted that a sizable fiscal stimulus package is in prospect and seems likely to provide impetus to aggregate demand. As far as monetary policy is concerned, the Federal Reserve has already reduced short-term interest rates to historically low levels and has established a variety of programs to directly provide liquidity, in volume, to an enhanced range of institutions and markets. We have indicated our willingness to use these, and other nontraditional policy tools such as purchases of mortgage-backed securities, to help support credit markets and economic activity. Indeed, the Federal Reserve's balance sheet, which as recently as mid-September 2008 (about four months ago) stood at about $1 trillion, is now close to $2.2 trillion. The U.S. Treasury and FDIC have also stepped in to initiate or increase guarantees of financial firms' liabilities, and the Treasury has provided capital to banks as well. Many policymakers abroad have engaged in similarly aggressive actions.
All of this leads to the conclusion that macroeconomic policies—both those in place and those under consideration—are directed forcefully to reestablishing conditions for sustainable economic growth. It may take time, but I expect these policies, together with the underlying flexibility and resilience of the economy, to succeed.
Financial Policies
There should be little doubt that, in the wake of the financial crisis we have experienced, there will be considerable focus on remediation of policies governing the financial services industry in the months ahead. This emphasis is fully appropriate, and it is critical that we get what I will for convenience call "banking policies" right. On this occasion, I would like to explicitly comment on two components of such policies.
It seems likely that, going forward, there will be increased emphasis on tight regulation of financial institutions and their activities. Clearly, there will be a meaningful role for traditional supervision and regulation in the future. Observers have rightly noted that the financial sector suffers from various market failures around issues of information and misaligned incentives, and supervision and regulation can help address those concerns. At the same time, we have to be careful to avoid two potentially serious pitfalls: (1) excessive reliance on supervision and regulation, essentially asking more than can be delivered; (2) excessive regulation, resulting in an inefficient financial sector with negative consequences for economic performance.
This latter point is, I think, relatively easy to see. If the rules, although well intentioned, are too onerous, the resulting financial system may be very safe, but simultaneously it may be unnecessarily costly for households and businesses to obtain funding for worthwhile projects. This is not a desirable outcome. To drive this point home, let me quote Ken Rogoff, a distinguished economist at Harvard who has considerable public policy experience as well: "If we rebuild a very statist and inefficient financial sector—as I fear we will—it's hard to imagine that growth won't suffer for years."
The first concern, about the risk of excessive reliance on supervision and regulation, is more subtle but no less important. Additional regulations and resources devoted to enforcing them are not likely, by themselves, to effectively address the incentive issues in banking and the potential for serious systemic risk. Reasons for this conclusion include the inevitable lag between supervisors' identification of a problem and its ultimate correction, the incentives of management to find ways around regulation, and the time inconsistency problem which frequently makes forbearance look attractive.
If supervision and regulation, by itself, is unlikely to be sufficient, what is preferable? The response to this question brings us to the second type of banking policies I alluded to earlier, and also brings us to the substance of a book I co-authored (with Ron Feldman) in 2004, titled Too Big To Fail: The Hazards of Bank Bailouts.The book is about 200 pages in length, and you will be relieved to learn that I do not intend to cover it in detail this afternoon. But the book makes several points critical to future banking policies that I want to call to your attention. Equally importantly, I think that if policymakers had focused on our recommendations, we would have been better prepared to address the problems that have arisen over the last 18 months.
As its title suggests, the book argues that too-big-to-fail (or too-interconnected-to-fail) protection of uninsured creditors of systemically important financial institutions distorts incentives and leads to underpricing of risk and therefore excessive risk-taking. This risk-taking in turn sets the stage for turmoil in financial markets and disruption in the economy. With the expansion of the safety net and increased protection provided during the current crisis, the TBTF problem has, without question, been exacerbated, albeit for good reason.
But this development makes it all the more critical that future banking policies address TBTF. It is our conviction that policymakers intervene to protect uninsured creditors of large institutions because of deep concern about the fallout, or spillovers, for other firms, financial markets, and the real economy when such an organization gets into difficulty. The key to addressing TBTF, then, is to reduce the potential size and scope of the spillovers, so that policymakers can be confident that intervention is unnecessary.
We have written and spoken extensively about our most recent proposal— called systemic focused supervision (SFS)—to accomplish this, so let me cover just the main points today. In general, SFS attempts to focus supervision and regulation efforts on reduction of spillovers, and it consists of three pillars: early identification, enhanced prompt corrective action (PCA), and stability-related communication.
Early identification. This is a process to identify and to respond, where appropriate, to the material exposures among large financial institutions and between these institutions and capital markets. This process is closely related to the scenario planning recommendation discussed at length in the book. The goals of the exercise are (1) to give policymakers a sense of which events are not likely to severely impair a large financial institution, thus permitting policymakers to avoid providing support, and (2) to identify those exposures that might bring down the firm, and thus are deserving of closer policy scrutiny and, most importantly, an effective and timely response.
Enhanced prompt corrective action. PCA works by requiring supervisors to take specified actions against a bank as its capital falls below specified triggers. Closing banks while they still have positive capital, or at most a small loss, can reduce spillovers in a fairly direct way. If a bank's failure does not impose large losses, by definition it cannot directly threaten the viability of other depository institutions that have exposure to it. Thus, the PCA regime offers an important tool to manage systemic risk. However, this regime currently uses triggers that do not adequately account for future losses and give too much discretion to bank management. We would augment the triggers with more forward-looking data outside the control of bank management to address these concerns.
Communication. The first two pillars of SFS seek to increase market discipline by reducing the motivation policymakers have for protecting creditors. But creditors will not know about efforts to limit spillovers, and therefore will not change their expectations of support, absent explicit communication by policymakers about these efforts.
Let me reiterate just a few points, in wrapping up these remarks. First, many financial markets remain strained, and credit issues are likely to weigh on the economy for some time. In part as a consequence, the recession is likely to persist through mid-year and the initial stage of the recovery seems likely to be subdued. Nevertheless, in view of the policies already in place here and abroad and those slated for enactment soon, a resumption of growth should not be too far off, especially given the economy's fundamental resilience. Before long, attention will appropriately turn to banking issues and policies. Getting these right is both critical and challenging. I have cautioned about placing an excessive burden on traditional bank supervision and regulation, although clearly such policies have a valuable role to play. More constructively, I suggest prompt emphasis on SFS as a means of addressing TBTF and as a contribution to aggregate financial stability going forward.


text: The Foursquare blog has an interesting post about some of the math they use to evaluate and verify the massive amount of user-generated data that enters their database. They need to figure out the likelihood that any given datapoint accurately represents reality, so they've worked out a complicated formula that will minimize abuse. Quoting: 'By choosing the points based on a user's accuracy, we can intelligently accrue certainty about a proposed update and stop the voting process as soon as the math guarantees the required certainty. … The parameters are automatically trained and can adapt to changes in the behavior of the userbase. No more long meetings debating how many points to grant to a narrow use case. So far, we've taken a very user-centric view of p-sub-k (this is the accuracy of user k). But we can go well beyond that. For example, p-sub-k could be "the accuracy of user k's vote given that they have been to the venue three times before and work nearby." These clauses can be arbitrarily complicated and estimated from a (logistic) regression of the honeypot performance. The point is that these changes will be based on data and not subjective judgments of how many "points" a user or situation should get.

subset: commoncrawl


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What is this project?
It is a project to install 1,310 feet of new concrete sidewalk on the south side of Deane Street from Porter Road to Sang Avenue.
Why is it important?
This new segment will provide a connection between existing sidewalks, area apartments and transit bus stops.
What is the current status?
This project is upcoming.
How is this project being funded?
Funding for this project comes from the Street Fund. The Street Fund is financed through two sources:
1) Turn-back revenues from the State of Arkansas. The State collects motor fuel taxes, which are returned to the City on a per-capita basis.
2) Turn-back monies received from the County Road Millage Tax. The City receives 80% of the road millage levied by the Quorum Court on real and personal property located within the city.


text:
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• 100% Vegan
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• Robust and flexible rubber outsole with steel shank
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text:
Workman or Britton will start series finale vs. A's
SEATTLE -- Brandon Workman or Drake Britton will start Sunday's series finale against the A's, said Red Sox manager John Farrell.
"It would probably come from one of those [two], and as we get through these next couple of days, we'll have a better read on that," Farrell said.
Reliever Steven Wright was also in the mix, but the knuckleballer was removed from contention when he pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings on Thursday to pick up the win in relief of the struggling Ryan Dempster.
No matter who starts, there will be little, if any, Major League experience on the mound against Oakland's potent lineup. Workman has made one relief appearance for the Red Sox, having been groomed as a starter in Boston's farm system.
Workman made his Major League debut Wednesday, allowing three runs on four hits in two innings. After giving up a home run to the first batter he faced, the right-hander settled in to strike out four.
Britton is currently scheduled to start Sunday for Triple-A Pawtucket. The 24-year old has made one Triple-A start since being promoted from Double-A Portland, lasting 5 1/3 innings while allowing five runs on 10 hits.
The hole in Boston's rotation was formed when No. 4 prospect Allen Webster was sent down Wednesday after surrendering seven runs in just 2 1/3 innings against Seattle on Tuesday. Farrell said that he wanted Webster to improve his fastball consistency in Triple-A.


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Main Page
ioquake3 Wiki
Welcome to the ioquake3 wiki - the page to collect and organize all tidbits about this Quake III Arena compatible game engine.
This wiki is primary oriented for users, developers and server administrators.
- ioquake3
- Brief overview of ioquake3. What it is and where it came from.
- Players Guide
- Getting started playing Quake 3: Arena using the ioquake3 engine.
- Sys Admin Guide
- Do you want to set up an ioquake3 server? This is the place.
- Game Development
- If you want to make your own game or mod ioquake3, start here.
- List of common and frequently asked questions.
- ioquake3 in the press
- What the press have said about ioquake3.
- ioquake3 Road Map
- Console Reference
- Academic Articles
Our community
- Getting involved
- Describes various ways you can contribute to the ioquake3 community.
- Forums
- Our ioquake3 forums
- Live Chat
- Chat live with other ioquake3 users, developers, and sysadmins.
- Building launch
- Modular Rendering System
- Mod Compatibility List
- Mod or Standalone?
- Stereo Rendering
- New Logo Ideas
- baseioq3
- Packaging ioquake3
- ioquake3 front-end
- Code 3 Arena
- website improvements tbd
- ioquake3 homepage
Code Overview
ioquake3 is divided into two general parts, the client part and the {{#ifexist:SV_Frame|server|
server}} part, with a networking system that connects the two. The client mainly takes care of user interface. That is, it displays the 3D rendering of the game world and also collects keyboard, mouse, and joystick input events. The {{#ifexist:SV_Frame|server|
server}} is responsible for taking care of everything else: moving the user's position and view based on keyboard/mouse/joystick inputs, detecting collisions, processing bot AI, determining hits and frags, etc.
Program Flow
During startup of a standard game, the top-level flow of control goes like this:
- Depending on whether you're using a unix environment or Windows, program control will start at either
- Windows will first create a console window using {{#ifexist:Sys_CreateConsole|Sys_CreateConsole()|
- Misc. initialization of CD path, install path, and command line buffer.
- Call
Com_Init(), which processes the command line, initializes some internal memory buffers, loads cvars, and initializes the server, the client, and the network channel.
- Call {{#ifexist:Com_Frame|Com_Frame()|
Com_Frame()}} in an infinite loop. Each call to {{#ifexist:Com_Frame|Com_Frame()|
Com_Frame()}} results in one frame of gameplay.
Mediawiki misc information
This is a wiki, you can edit the articles
Consult the User's Guide for more information on using the wiki software.


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Once it happens, will anyone really be surprised?
Greece may have to exit the 17-nation eurozone and the monetary union should plan for it to ensure stability, Pacific Investment Management Co. CEO Mohamed El-Erian told Bloomberg Surveillance, a radio program with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt.
"A Greek exit will be expensive and messy, but it's probably inevitable and therefore we should plan for it," El-Erian said.
PIMCO is the world's largest manager of bond funds.
As the news service notes, Group of Eight leaders on May 19 urged Greece to stay within the euro area as polls in the country showed a close race between parties supporting and opposing the European Union's bailout deal. The country is preparing for June 17 elections, following an inconclusive May 6 ballot.
The economies of the union are being gripped by political confusion as policy makers fail to develop solutions to address Greece's worsening financial crisis, El-Erian said, according to Bloomberg. Investors pricing in both a "policy risk premium" and a "complexity risk premium" are adding to volatility in markets.
"The euro has lost 3.7% against the U.S. dollar this month and almost $4 trillion has been wiped from equity markets amid concern the turmoil in Greece may weigh on other members of the economic union," he said.
Germany, France, Italy and Spain, the union's four biggest economies, need to take the lead in solving the crisis by creating a smaller currency union that is "less imperfect," said El-Erian, a former deputy director of International Monetary Fund.
"For Greece there is no first best," El-Erian said. "They're looking at a series of fifth and sixth bests. They have to focus on which step allows them medium-term viability."


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NEW YORK — The crowd at Madison Square Garden grew louder with every tiny step Malachy took, and he sure took a lot of them just to get halfway around the dog show ring.
That was perfect for this Pekingese. Gave him more time to soak in the cheers and look around the stands at his adoring fans Tuesday night.
Moments later, the Peke whose smushed-in face frames a mop of flyaway fur and whose pace rivals a snail's, became America's top dog by winning best in show at the Westminster Kennel Club.
This little stump of a dog beat out the likes of a Dalmatian, German shepherd, Doberman pinscher, Irish setter, a Kerry blue terrier and wire-haired dachshund. A 4-year-old pompom, Malachy wobbled to his 115th overall best in show title.
"He saved all his energy for the ring today," handler David Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick gave his 11-pound champ a bit of a boost — he carried him onto the green carpet for the final lineup, shortening his long walk. Malachy's pink tongue popped out from his black face, his eyes sparkling like black diamonds.
"No other dog moves like this," Fitzpatrick said. It's true, as a Pekingese is supposed to move with a "slow and dignified" gait.
Malachy chilled out after his win, resting his silver and white coat on a cool pack. He had plenty of time to get ready, having won the toy group Monday night.
"I kept him quiet all day," Fitzpatrick said.
More than 2,000 purebred dogs in 185 breeds and varieties competed in the nation's most prestigious pooch parade. When it came down to a best of seven, Malachy was the last to enter the darkened ring.
Judge Cindy Vogels studied them before making her pick. The No. 2 show dog in the country came close last February after taking the toy group here.
"Super dog, and he had a stupendous night," she said. "There's a lot of dog in a small package."
The champion at Westminster wins a coveted silver bowl, but not a cent. Instead, the honor of this title lasts a lifetime for any owner, and brings a wealth of opportunity in breeding potential.
This was the fourth time a Peke won at Westminster, and the first since 1990. Fitzpatrick, who co-owns Malachy with Iris Love and Sandra Middlebrooks, said the cute pompom was likely headed back to East Berlin, Pa., for a life in retirement.
"He'll probably chase squirrels and he'll be pampered," Fitzpatrick said.
Right before the champion was picked, two PETA members were stopped by security as they tried to reach the center ring, drawing boos from the crowd. A few years ago, two protesters from PETA disrupted the presentation.
Several top choices lost out early as underdogs ruled the breed judging.
A black cocker spaniel called Beckham who was the nation's No. 1 show dog and a wire fox terrier named Eira picked by many to win proved once again it takes more than a great reputation to own this carpet.
It was, however, a really big day for a Tibetan mastiff, and even more so for his owners.
Major won his breed, a nice start for Debbie Parsons and Brad Slayton. A few hours later, the co-owners from the Seattle area made it a special Valentine's Day — they got married in the backstage benching area where hundreds of dogs are housed.
With dogs brushing by, people climbing on crates to get a better view and the total crush of the crowd, it made for a somewhat chaotic scene. Cherilyn Frei, a chaplain and director of family support for Ronald McDonald House in New York and the wife of Westminster television host David Frei, performed the 5-minute ceremony.
The 54-year-old Parsons wore a pale pink Vera Wang gown and the 58-year-old Slayton donned a silver tux, with each sporting accents of Westminster purple. The 120-pound Major stood right between them, giving away the bride, and they kissed him to celebrate.
"This dog brought us together," Slayton said. "Today," he added, choking up, "I bought a Valentine's Day card for my wife, not my girlfriend."
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Varsity Maine
Girls' soccer: Scarborough finishes off South Portland, 2-0
Times Record Sports
Girls soccer: Brunswick edges Falmouth in chilly home finale
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Medicare finalizing coverage policy for coronavirus vaccine
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Tuesday's high school roundup: Fryeburg ends its fall sports season


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Date Night: Pates et Traditions
Spots for every kind of date.
During a recent dinner we overheard the following conversation: "I've never been to France," said a young lady. "You should go," said her companion. For those of us who can't afford a ticket to the Continent, there's Pates et Traditions, a restaurant in Williamsburg specializing in dishes from the south of France with a north African inflection. The interior is a Gallic riot, overstuffed with books, postcards, and bandanas, most boasting floral patterns or tricolor stripes. You almost expect the French-speaking waitstaff to hand out berets. It's like TGIFriday's for Francophiles.
Our first appetizer, pissaladière ($5), consisted of cubes of bread topped with onions and olives from Nice. The top had gone squishy, the onions as gelatinous as jelly, while the bottom offered an audible crunch. Although the menu calls this dish a "pizza," it better resembled giant croutons.
We preferred the socca ($5) in part for its simplicity: pancakes made from chickpea flour. That's all. Some slightly charred edges contrasted with the moist fluffiness, and some salty bites followed some nonsalty ones. They were savory enough to be satisfying but not so filling as to be satiating.
Speaking of savory, we both ordered two savory crepes as our mains, although Pates et Traditions also has pastas available. Everything we ate paired perfectly with our great mugs of mulled wine ($5), or perhaps we should say that this red wine spiced with cinnamon and served hot made everything much, much nicer.
Both crepes began with a wrap made from organic buckwheat flour, cooked and folded. Inside the shrimp curry ($12) was a rich mess of shrimp, spinach, garlic, Swiss cheese, onions, and cream, the curry a back-of-the-throat afterthought more than an upfront advance. Overall this crepe was soupy and warming, a square package we were happy to receive.
The Orientale ($12) mixed Swiss cheese, Merguez sausage, a marmalade of peppers and tomatoes, and a loosely cooked egg. Here was our pizza! The stretchy crepe acted as an ultra-thin crust, which was topped with cheese and meat and veggies. A better name for this crepe might have been the "Américain," as the mass reminded us so much of what comes on top of a sausage-and-cheese pizza.
Like its younger sibling, Santos Anne, Pates et Traditions has a distinct personality. While that French-Mex restaurant comes off as a Airedale, wiry and restrained, this French one seems more like a labrador, kind of goofy but extremely enthusiastic. Across the dining room, a sign read, "Smiling I make you a friendly person." Above the kitchen hung a heart made from corks. It's a lovable symbol for a lovable place, best for: a date with a quirky paramour.
Pates et Traditions
52 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (map)
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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Choosing Classes
HACC offers multiple course options. Students are responsible for creating their class schedule. Learn about course types and registration requirements.
How do I build my schedule?
- Consider each course's credits. Students receive 3 credits from typical classes. HACC may assign 4 or more credits to courses in certain subject areas. These subject areas include science, math or foreign languages. Physical education courses may only offer 1 or 2 credits.
- Choose full-time or part-time status. Full-time students take 12 credits or more per term. This equates to approximately 4 or more courses. Part-time students take 11 credits or less per term. This equates to less than 4 courses.
- Create your class schedule. Search HACC's class schedule for course options.
What types of courses are there?
Learn about two types of courses:
- Developmental Level Courses - HACC designs developmental level courses for students who need to prepare for college-level work. Developmental courses offer pre-requisites for more advanced college-level courses. These do not count towards graduation requirements. They cannot transfer.
- Foundational Studies Courses - HACC designs foundational studies courses to help students determine career goals. Students benefit from small class sizes. You can apply these credits towards your Associate's degree. They can serve as elective credits.
HACC offers other courses to meet every student's career goals.
How do I register?
Review the Frequently Asked Questions for Registration page before registering. Contact the Registrar's Office with other questions.
Understand the registration schedule and tuition due dates. View more details on the schedule.
Reference the Online HACCWeb Registration guide. You will learn about the online registration steps.
How do I take an online class?
There are steps to prepare for your online course:
- Take an online course tour
- Reference the Desire2Learn (D2L) for Student Orientation and Student Tutorials. You will learn how to use tools within the D2L interface.
- Login to D2L. Select the D2L Student Orientation. It is located under the My Courses area. Find the Student Tutorials on the NavBar under Resources.
Contact the Online Classes Main Office at 717-221-1310. Staff can answer any additional questions.
Can I transfer to another college?
HACC works with many transfer institutions. This ensures that credits efficiently transfer from HACC.
There are two types of transfer options:
- Transfer Agreements—Students with a HACC Associate's degree can join a transfer program at another institution.
- Dual Admission Agreements —HACC partners with a 4-year institution. This is ideal for students pursuing their Bachelor's degree. Students can transfer without losing time or money.
For more information visit Transferring from HACC.


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14 October 2011 - Comments Off on The case for more product innovation in mobile money and branchless banking
The case for more product innovation in mobile money and branchless banking
This is the first post in a five-part series about product innovation in branchless banking, originally posted on the CGAP Technology blog and co-authored with Mark Pickens and Toru Mino.
The promise of branchless banking is increased access to finance for the poor and new revenues for providers of all stripes. That's not happening yet.
CGAP counted 22 branchless banking services with more than 1 million registered users; we also counted more than 70 others which have not reached that threshold (as of Q1 2011). That's about a 1 in 4 "hit rate". If we look at services which have launched since 2007 (i.e. since M-PESA got everyone excited) and acquired more than 200,000 active users (a better indicator of traction in the market than registrations), success rate drops to 1 in 15. Not so hot.
This might just be the growing pains of firms still figuring out how to operate in this new space at the intersect of several industries (mobile, banking). Some providers have fallen into regulatory ruts, some are finding it hard to build robust agent networks, while still others are struggling to make technology platforms stable (often wrestling with vendors who provided them in the first place). In short, there is a lot of worthwhile work going on laying the rails for branchless banking.
But all this supply-side effort seems to have crowded out the demand-side question of whether consumers actually want the products on offer. Why are we so certain that a liquid wallet with P2P and bill pay functionality is the "killer app"? Partially because people saw it succeed in Kenya (though nowhere else yet). Partially because most telcos don't want to take the lead on more complex financial services, and they've buy CBD products themselves they don't have to. And partially because it seems the question is just not getting asked.
Despite this, the data seems to beg the question: With nearly 100 live branchless banking implementations worldwide but so few gaining traction with consumers, could the product be the problem?
Some higher income clients can be captured by convenience and the cool factor of easier money movement. But the mass market of low-income, unbanked consumers is different. The microfinance sector has known for some time that these consumers have a range of financial service needs which are deeply felt but often poorly met (even by the microfinance industry itself). CGAP has called for more attention to consumer wants and deeper thinking about converting the inactive to active. There are certainly some innovative products out there. These include Mobile Venture Kenya's adaptation to mobile phones of Stuart Rutherford's P9 product, which blurs the lines between credit and savings. We're also intrigued by the airtime-based life insurance with MicroEnsure and Tigo in Ghana.
Unfortunately we don't see enough of this happening. There are three main reasons:
1. Firms are firing on all cylinders just to get a basic offering to market. It can be an all-consuming process. But why kill yourself pushing to launch without devoting adequate thinking to whether your offering will be attractive to clients?
2. Many managers struggle to source meaningful insights about consumers. This is especially true for new products (where traditional focus groups or quick-hit surveys may not surface underlying needs) or for companies moving across sectors (either MNOs into financial services or banks extending their customer base to the bottom of the pyramid). Managers need better tools to understand consumers and convert insights into product ideas.
3. Existing product development processes often make launching new products a high-stakes game for the manager pushing it. New products often aren't really tested until commercial launch, by which time it is costly to make changes. Many firms would benefit from a rapid prototyping process that puts product concepts to the test early and often in the hands of real consumers. Building out new products would be much less risky and expensive.
CGAP's Technology and Business Model Innovation Program is partnering with at least 3 providers to launch Product Labs that demonstrate new ways of understanding clients, testing ideas and designing breakthrough products. This blog series will say more about what the Labs will look like, explain what we've learned about product innovation in other industries, and in the final post have a guest blogger announce the first Product Lab.
- Sarah Fathallah, Toru Mino, Mark Pickens
Published by: admin in Blog


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Block IP addresses
cPanel lets you block IP addresses from accessing your hosting account using the IP Blocker.
- Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
- Click Web Hosting.
- Next to the cPanel account you want to use, click Manage.
- Click cPanel Admin.
- In the Security section, click IP Blocker.
- In the Add an IP to deny field, enter the IP address or range you want to block, and then click Add.


text:
|Institution Type:
|Campus Setting:
|Southwest Mid-size suburb
|Highest Degree Offered:
|Associate's degree
|Level of Institution:
|At least 2 but less than 4 years
this is a real one-on-one college. the atmosphere is friendly. most of the teachers really want you to learn.…
So far, so good. I walked on this campus not knowing where to begin. The lady in the welcome center was most helpful and kind. I am now ready to…
Teachers are willing to work with students for success. The tuition is reasonable. Financial aid is readily available for just about anyone.…
It is a good community college. The professors seem to be very personalble and knowledgeable. The degree plans seem to be well laid out for transferring.…
The majority of students at COM are friendly and respectful of one another. You get to experience a smaller atmosphere. Almost everyone is mindful of one another, and I have…
College of the Mainland, a comprehensive community college, is an accessible, affordable learner-centered institution dedicated to student success serving the mainland area of Galveston County and beyond.
I love this college because it has everything that I need and it's not far from everything.Read More


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I never had Baskin Robbins before now.
During Golden Week they had a 31% off promotion. We were in Naka-Meguro attempting to go to another bagel shop that unfortunately closed selling out all its stock before they were supposed to close.
A little miffed we decided to walk to Shibuya.
We saw Baskin Robbins along the way so to escape the wind we indulged in a double cone. I have to say it was much better than Cold Stone Creamery.
NTT docomo are overexposing a Darth Vader campaign in Tokyo stating "Who is my boss?". I'm not sure what they are implying but if you have DV pointing his finger at you, I think it's pretty easy to believe that he (meaning docomo) is your boss. Maybe they probably want to make you think that you are the boss, but personally I don't think so. All shall be revealed on the 11th of May.
I mentioned quite a while ago about Mo Mo Paradise. They changed their name to Nabezo.
It's still a great deal, about 2,000 yen for 90 minutes of "all-you-can-eat" Shabu Shabu. Good thing they have an English menu (not that you'd need it too much) as well.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Who Is My Boss?
Posted by Jimmy In Japan at 11:59 pm
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Sport for all
The summer sporting bonanza may have given way to rain and dark nights, but let's face it; this is when videogames truly comes into their own. So to help beat off the autumn and winter blues, EyeToy: Play Sports has arrived with its unique brand of camera-driven party game fun, designed to bring the outdoors, indoors. In fact, EyeToy: Play Sports goes the extra mile and provides a colossal batch of 101 mini-games linked to or based around our favourite sporting activities, for up to eight players... in an EyeToy mini-game related style, of course.
Sporty spice
Play Sports is broken into several main sections, depending on how many players are taking part. Each one provides a scenario where your ability at any of the 101 given mini-games determines how successful you are. For example, in Par for the Course, you're placed in a golf setting where your character has to putt the ball under par. If you're good at the numerous party games thrown at you, you'll find your little golfer hitting shots Tiger Woods would envy. But if your performance in the games fails to match up, your golfer will either miss the golf ball or hit it into one of the many hazards that litter the course, costing you a stroke and bringing your par closer to its game over limit.
Another one is Tag in Tag Out. This follows a similar principle but has diversions aimed for more players, tossing you in a wrestling ring where you have to win three mini-games to claim the world championship title. Each game after that is a challenge to defend your crown for as long as you can.
There are other scenarios designed for the upper scale of five to eight participants (usually as many as four at a time), such as Parachute Plunge, where your game ability determines how long you stay in the air, or the wonderful Football Fever, where your battles simulate tackling, shooting and goalkeeping efforts.
Game on
The 101 games are varied and manic, designed to give you a flash of quick addictive gameplay, and making for some intense bursts of fun. Those familiar with previous EyeToy: Play games will be right at home here, as you find yourself blocking pucks from a goal in Hockey Blocky, pumping barbells as fast as you can for Weight Pumper, and waving your arms manically to spin a ball and smash a batter's stumps in Cricket Bowler.
Other favourites include Knock Out Knuckles (where you have to simulate hitting a punch bag in a short amount of time), Surf's Up (racing against other surfers, trying to make sure they wipe out before you), Photo Finish (using your powers of observation and perception to choose the winning horse at a photo finish race) and Racket Restring (your task being to touch the green lights on a tennis racket at the right time to restring it under a tight time limit).
There are plenty more games to try out, such as the fantastic Table Football (a fast game for four people), the crazed Elephant Racing (steering your trunked racer through a desert while smashing your rival into bushes or other animals) and even the mathematically-tinged Substitute Teacher (completing sums based on the numbers on a sports jersey - don't worry, it's actually great fun).
Designed for a social setting, many of these games truly come into their own in multiplayer, where the score-driven targets of the single player mode are replaced by screams of glory or failure as you get placed into different numbered teams and duke it out.
Having a ball
It all adds up to some marvellously entertaining and varied fun, made all the better - as always - if you're blessed with a fair few willing players. You naturally need a lot of energy for EyeToy: Play Sports, but it's worth the effort. Just make sure you have ample space in your living room and put any breakables away. After all, you wouldn't want to be turfed outside in the cold when you're having this much fun inside...
1-4 Players
See it in action


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The results are in and gamers and musicians take heed: if you want a responsive tablet for data intensive gaming or music apps like Garage Band, then your best bet is the iPad. For everyone else, there's Android, but tablets running Google's open-source operating system aren't as finger-friendly as Microsoft's own Surface RT.
That's the word from mobile ad platform company Agawi, which seems to be finding a second career as a benchmarking company. (Note: See update at bottom.)
In September, Agawi unveiled its first benchmarking report that measured how long it took a smartphone to update its display after a touch interaction; Tuesday, the company released a detailed report ranking tablet touchscreen responsiveness, testing the iPad and iPad Mini, Nvidia's Shield, Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 3, and Microsoft's Surface RT.
iPad is the touch champ
Just like its smartphone tests, Apple's iOS took top honors in the tablet TouchMarks showdown. The iPad Mini measured the fastest average touch response time at 75 milliseconds, followed closely by the fourth-generation iPad at 81 milliseconds.
To add a little spice to its tablet match-up, Agawi added the Nvidia Shield to the mix. Even though the handheld gaming machine isn't a tablet, the device does have touch capabilities and comes packed with tablet-like specs, including a quad-core Tegra 4 processor, 2GB RAM, and 16GB onboard storage.
In its tests, Agawi gave high marks to the Shield, ranking it as the most responsive Android-based device with a 92-millisecond response time. The next fastest Android tablet was the latest version of the Kindle Fire HD at 114 milliseconds, followed by the Nexus 7 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 3 (8 inch) at a comparatively pitiful 135 and 168 milliseconds, respectively.
Even though it's a latecomer to the touch tablet craze, Microsoft's years of developing touch technology helped the Surface RT earn a respectable 95 millisecond response time. That's not as quick as Apple's iPad, but was more than enough to destroy the Android-based competition, with the exception of Nvidia's Shield.
Agawi isn't quite sure what gives Apple its superior touch performance, but the company speculates that more responsive devices simply process touches as early as possible in the software stack. Touchscreen optimization may also play a role, and the company says it also has some evidence suggesting that a device's GPU or GPU drivers may add "significant latency" to touch response times.
Whatever the reasons, Agawi advises that anyone with lightweight tablet needs such as reading, watching videos, or browsing the Web will probably be happy virtually any mainstream tablet. Go with what you like, in other words. But if you tend towards data-intensive applications such as gaming or music creation, then you should seriously consider an iPad.
Test everything!
The tests are based on TouchMarks, a benchmarking hardware and software suite designed by Agawi to measure touch response times. During a TouchMarks test, each device is placed in airplane mode, all background apps are closed, and the device screens are put at full brightness, as the test relies on a light sensor to help gauge responsiveness. Each device then gets tested a minimum of 50 times to calculate an average response time.
Agawi has already laid out some future plans for its TouchMarks suite to dig deeper into the world of touch, including a retrospective look at response times from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 5s. That will be followed by a look at responsiveness in games and game engines, and finally a study of response times for streaming apps and games.
If you want to measure touch responsiveness in the comfort of your own home, Agawi has open-sourced the TouchMarks app code, and plans to release full hardware details at some point in the future.
Update 10-9-13 at 3 P.M. E.T.: Agawi sent us the following note after this article published: Agawi is not making a second career as a benchmarking co. We simply do this benchmarking to achieve our main mission: streaming apps form the cloud to mobile devices and making that very very low latency and responsive as possible. So we just share our work as a side benefit.
This story, "Apple rules, Android drools for responsive tablet touchscreens" was originally published by TechHive.


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Egypt PM orders probe into deadly balloon crash
LUXOR, Egypt (AFP) - Egypt's prime minister has ordered an investigation following the deaths of up to 19 tourists in a fiery hot-air balloon crash during a sunrise flight over the ancient temple city of Luxor.
The balloon, carrying 20 tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, France, Britain and Hungary, along with the pilot, was flying at 300 metres (1,000 feet) when it caught fire, exploded and plunged to earth, a security official said.
The pilot and one tourist survived by jumping out of the basket at some point before it hit the ground, said an employee of Sky Cruise, which operates the balloon rides. Both were taken to hospital.
A video shot by a passenger on another flight appears to show smoke pouring from the balloon's basket for some time before the balloon itself collapses, leaving the basket full of tourists to freefall to earth.
"This is terrible, just terrible," the employee told AFP by telephone, declining to give her name. "We don't yet know what happened exactly or what went wrong."
Luxor Governor Ezzat Saad imposed an immediate ban on all hot-air balloon flights in the province as Prime Minister Hisham Qandil ordered the investigation.
Security services cordoned off the crash site in Luxor's dense sugar cane fields, as police and residents inspected the charred remains of the balloon.
"There was a terrifying sound when the balloon exploded," one resident, Ahmed, 40, told AFP.
"Bodies engulfed in flames were falling out of the balloon," said Youssef al-Tayyeb, another resident who witnessed the accident.
The balloon had been floating over the west bank of Luxor, one of Egypt's most renowned archaeological sites and home to the famous Valley of the Kings and the grand Temple of Hatshepsut, when it exploded.
There was confusion over the exact death toll and the tourists' nationalities. Different official bodies gave conflicting figures and details.
An Egyptian security official said 19 tourists from Hong Kong, Japan, Britain, France and Hungary had died. The health ministry put the toll at 18 dead.
The French foreign ministry confirmed two of its citizens were among the dead.
Britain's Foreign Office said two British nationals and one British resident had died. Later, it named them as Yvonne Rennie, Joe Bampton and Hungarian-born Suzanna Gyetvai and said another Briton was "in a stable condition" after surviving the plunge.
Nine of those killed were thought to be from from Hong Kong, and four from Japan.
"We believe that there is a high possibility that nine of our customers have died," said Raymond Ng, general manager of travel agency Kuoni, which organised the Hong Kongers' tour.
The five women and four men were aged between 33 and 62, Ng said, adding their relatives were flying to Cairo accompanied by three Kuoni staff.
The nine were among a group of 15 Hong Kongers who had left for Egypt on February 22. Ng said that according to local employees the balloon caught fire about an hour after it had set off, plummeting to the ground two minutes later.
In Japan, tour company JTB said four Japanese tourists involved in the accident were all confirmed dead. The foreign ministry said it was seeking further information.
French hot-air balloon expert Philippe Buron-Pilatre de Rozier said the blast could have been caused by a leak after a spark caused by a lighter or a cigarette.
Another reason could be wear and tear due to poor maintenance, said Buron-Pilatre de Rozier. Hot-air balloons such as the ones used in Egypt are generally 40 metres (130 feet) high and can carry up to 25 passengers, he added.
In 2009, 13 foreign tourists were injured when their balloon hit a phone mast and crashed at Luxor. Sources at the time said the balloon was overcrowded.
Local operators were bracing themselves for a backlash following the crash.
"The accident will have a devastating effect on tourism," said Yasser al-Zambali, who owns the Dream Balloon company in Luxor, one of a handful of firms to organise sunrise flights over the city.
"How can I now convince other tourists to pay a single dollar to ride a balloon now?"
Tuesday's crash comes amid widespread anger over safety standards in Egypt following several deadly transport and construction accidents.


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Having wrinkles adds well, a new wrinkle for young people trying to gauge the emotions seen on older people's faces. A new study suggests that younger people may make more mistakes when judging the emotions of older folks.
To younger adults, age-related changes, such as wrinkles and folds, look like facial expressions, so they may interfere with the perception of emotion in an older face and perhaps convey the wrong message.
In the study, published online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, researchers asked 65 college students to view computer-generated black and white faces. They viewed faces of three men and three women who were young (ages 19 to 21) or old (ages 76 to 83) displaying one of four facial expressions: neutral, happy, sad, or angry.
Participants were asked to rate the emotional expression on the person's face on a scale from 1 for "not at all intense" to 7 for "very intense."
Young people were were most accurate in recognizing an angry expression and least accurate in judging sadness in old faces. They perceived happy faces in older people as showing less overall emotion than a younger person.
The study found that a facial expression, such as pure anger, on an older face is perceived differently -- and less clearly -- than the very same expression displayed on a younger person.
"In the case of the older expresser, the anger is seen as mixed with other emotions," says lead author Dr. Ursula Hess, a professor of psychology at Humboldt-University in Berlin, Germany. "Clearly it makes a difference whether you think someone is just angry or someone is both angry and sad," she adds.
Even when it came to a neutral face, volunteers perceived that there was more emotion in a neutral older face than in a younger one.
Courtesy of Dr. Ursula Hess
Here's an example of the images researchers used in the study.
Researchers suggest that wrinkles do impact the communication of emotion.
"We may make mistakes when judging the emotions of the elderly," says Hess. "This may result in less harmonious interactions."
The age of the observers also likely made a difference in the results. Had the study participants been closer in age to the older faces, they would have had more experience at recognizing older faces to overcome the difficulties posed by a less clear emotional signal, Hess explains.
Although Botox may help smooth out the furrows and lines of an older face, it won't make it any easier for people to gauge your emotions. The cosmetic injections may limit facial expressions, making them harder to read.
So how can an older person make their emotions more visible -- and less obscure -- to other people?
Emotions are usually transmitted via a number of channels, including voice and posture, as well as the face, suggests Hess. And during everyday interactions, expressions are more dynamic than looking at a black-and-white photograph in a lab.
Since there are many different sources of emotion information, "an attentive interaction partner could learn how to properly decode the emotion," says Hess. That's probably why older people are better at decoding other older people's expressions.
- Is 'old person smell' real? Yes, but it's not what you think
- Happy deathday? You're more likely to die on your birthday
- What 25 years of driving a truck can do to your skin


text: hi im new to the board. Im a sophmore in HS and just started learning programming, well sorta ive been working with QBasic..havent got to c or c++ yet..i understand QBasic but dont exactly know how to test the scripts ive been writing. I was on another board so i would put it on there and they tested them for me ..so what im asking is if i dowload a compiler, and enter the script in the program, would it do anything to my PC, or just show me what ive done??? any information would be great...my email is .... thanks alot


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Modulation of Human Myocardial Metabolism by GLP-1 Dose Response
|The safety and scientific validity of this study is the responsibility of the study sponsor and investigators. Listing a study does not mean it has been evaluated by the U.S. Federal Government. Read our disclaimer for details.
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01607450
Recruitment Status : Completed
First Posted : May 30, 2012
Results First Posted : February 17, 2016
Last Update Posted : February 17, 2016
- Study Details
- Tabular View
- Study Results
- Disclaimer
- How to Read a Study Record
The objective of this proposal is to provide quantitative dose-response data for effects of GLP-1 on myocardial glucose uptake in healthy control subjects and obese type 2 diabetic subjects, in support of the design of later studies evaluating therapeutic applications of GLP-1 to heart disease.
Aim 1: To measure the effects of GLP-1 infusion on myocardial fuel selection in lean healthy humans under fasting (fatty acid-dominant) conditions. Four groups of 10 lean healthy subjects will be studied during infusions of 0 (saline control), 0.5, 1.5, and 4.0 pmol/kg/min GLP-1 (one study per subject). Cardiac metabolism will be measured using PET, using a dual-tracer approach which allows measurement of myocardial glucose uptake (the primary endpoint) along with total oxidation rate and myocardial perfusion (secondary endpoints). In concert with measures of circulating metabolites and regulatory hormones, the investigators will produce the most comprehensive assessment of actions of GLP-1 on myocardial metabolism in humans to date. Effects of each dose will be compared to the saline control, plus the investigators will combine all data and use nonlinear curve-fitting to derive sensitivity (ED50) and maximal responses for GLP-1 effects on myocardial glucose uptake.
Aim 2: To measure the effects of GLP-1 infusion on myocardial fuel selection in obese type 2 diabetic humans under fasting (fatty acid-dominant) conditions Four groups of 10 obese type 2 diabetic subjects will be studied during infusions of 0, 0.5, 1.5, and 4.0 pmol/kg/min GLP-1 as under Aim 1. Analyses will be parallel to those described under Aim 1. Results from Aims 1 and 2 will be combined to allow direct comparison of the dose-response between nondiabetic control and type 2 diabetic subjects.
No literature has been published to inform dose selection in the design of clinical trials of GLP-1 for modulation of heart fuel selection. With our expertise and experience in PET measurement of heart metabolism in diabetes, the investigators are uniquely positioned to fill this gap in knowledge. These studies are a necessary preamble to further evaluation of the potential for GLP-1 based treatments in heart disease.
|Condition or disease
|Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Healthy
|Drug: GLP-1 Low Dose Drug: GLP-1 Mid-Range Dose Drug: GLP-1 High Dose Drug: Saline
|Phase 2 Phase 3
|Study Type :
|Interventional (Clinical Trial)
|Actual Enrollment :
|33 participants
|Intervention Model:
|Parallel Assignment
|Single (Participant)
|Primary Purpose:
|Official Title:
|Modulation of Human Myocardial Metabolism by GLP-1 Dose Response
|Study Start Date :
|May 2010
|Actual Primary Completion Date :
|December 2012
|Actual Study Completion Date :
|December 2012
12 hour saline (control) infusion prior to PET study
Drug: Saline
Normal saline placebo infusion for 12 hours prior to PET study
Other Name: Normal Saline
Experimental: GLP-1 Low dose
GLP-1 Low Dose: 0.5 pmol/kg/min for 12 hours prior to PET study
Drug: GLP-1 Low Dose
0.5mmol/kg/hr GLP-1 for 12 hours prior to PET study
Experimental: GLP-1 Mid-Range Dose
GLP-1 Mid-Range Dose: 1.5 pmol/kg/min for 12 hours prior to PET study
Drug: GLP-1 Mid-Range Dose
1.5mmol/kg/min for 12 hours prior to PET study
Experimental: GLP-1 High Dose
GLP-1 High Dose: 4.0 pmol/kg/min for 12 hours prior to PET study
Drug: GLP-1 High Dose
4.0mmol/kg/min GLP-1 for 12 hours prior to PET study
- Myocardial Glucose Uptake. [ Time Frame: After 12 hours of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) exposure ]Myocardial glucose uptake measured using 18FDG PET, quantified using a 3-compartment model with a lumped constant of 1.0.
- Myocardial Blood Flow [ Time Frame: After 12 hours of GLP-1 exposure ]Myocardial perfusion derived from acetate kinetics
- Myocardial Total Oxidation Rate [ Time Frame: After 12 hours of GLP-1 exposure ]MVO2 derived from acetate kinetics
- Cardiac Index [ Time Frame: After 12 hours of GLP-1 exposure ]Impedance cardiography-derived measurement of cardiac index, assessed following 12 hour exposure to treatment condition concurrent with the PET measurements.
- GLP-1 Concentrations [ Time Frame: After 12 hours of GLP-1 exposure ]Achieved GLP-1 concentrations at the end of the 12 hour treatment exposure
Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study. To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contacts provided below. For general information, Learn About Clinical Studies.
|Ages Eligible for Study:
|18 Years to 60 Years (Adult)
|Sexes Eligible for Study:
|Accepts Healthy Volunteers:
Inclusion Criteria:
- Age 18-60
- Lean subjects will be defined as having a BMI <25 kg/m2, in good general health, taking no regular medications
- Diabetic subjects will be obese (BMI >30 kg/m2 but <40 kg/m2), HbA1c 7.0-10.0%, treated with diet and exercise plus oral agents or injected insulin. All diabetic subjects will be treated with injected insulin for 2 weeks prior to study, to avoid potential confounding effects of other antidiabetic agents.
Exclusion Criteria:
- Chronic illnesses or infections (other than type 2 diabetes)
- Known coronary artery disease or abnormal ECG on screening evaluation
- Blood pressure > 160/100 mmHg on two occasions during screening evaluations. Current use of 3 or fewer blood pressure medications with blood pressure below this cutpoint will be acceptable.
- Total cholesterol > 240 mg/dL. Current use of 2 or fewer lipid lowering agents with cholesterol below this cutpoint will be acceptable.
- Diabetic subjects: Treatment with a GLP-1 agonist or DPP4 inhibitor within the past 6 months
- Known intolerance to injected GLP-1 agonist
- Treatment with PPAR gamma agonists currently or within the past 6 months
- Recognized microvascular complications (retinopathy, nephropathy, neuropathy)
- Unwillingness or inability to use injected insulin for the purposes of this study
- Chronic pain or other physical conditions which limit ability to remain supine for the duration of the study protocol
- History of claustrophobia, musculoskeletal or other factors which would result in an inability to comfortably remain within PET scanner gantry for the duration of the imaging protocol
- Occupational, investigational or other known radiation exposure which, together with the planned radiologic studies, will result in greater than 500 mrem total exposure in a contiguous 12 month period
- For female participants, current pregnancy
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the contact information provided by the sponsor.
Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier (NCT number): NCT01607450
|United States, Indiana
|Indiana Clinical Research Center
|Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, 46202
|Principal Investigator:
|Kieren J Mather, MD
|Indiana University
|Responsible Party:
|Indiana University
|ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier:
|Other Study ID Numbers:
R21HL092799 ( U.S. NIH Grant/Contract )
|First Posted:
|May 30, 2012 Key Record Dates
|Results First Posted:
|February 17, 2016
|Last Update Posted:
|February 17, 2016
|Last Verified:
|January 2016
Type 2 diabetes mellitus
lean healthy control
Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2
Glucose Metabolism Disorders
Metabolic Diseases
Endocrine System Diseases
Glucagon-Like Peptide 1
Hormones, Hormone Substitutes, and Hormone Antagonists
Physiological Effects of Drugs
Gastrointestinal Agents


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The Sunshine Coast is framed by 100 kilometres of pristine coastline dotted with family-friendly, pet-friendly, surf, calm and relaxed beaches. Grab your towel, swimsuit and sunscreen and find your spot on the sand to savour the sun on your skin and salt in your hair.
Make like the locals and choose your patch along the coastline. The tourist favourite, Sunshine Beach, boasts an expansive stretch of white-sand adjacent to Noosa National Park. For somewhere a little less crowded head to Peregian Beach, fringed with white sand dunes and striking blue water.
Mooloolaba is home to the largest trawling fleet in the region and a favourite anchorage for ocean cruisers and leisure boats. Alexandra Headland is a great place to find a perfectly peeling wave if you're keen to go for a surf while you're in town.
Home to a kid-friendly aquatic playground and oceanfront saltwater swimming pools, Kings Beach tops many of the 'best beach' lists due to its gentle currents and protected swimming areas.