Review of the HP Mini 2140 netbook
Netbook with style.
Following the Mini 2133 and the Mini 701, HP's most recent netbook release has been available for some time now, featuring an updated Intel Atom CPU and a 10.1" LED display in order to fulfill current standards. One hardly finds any innovations compared to the present models, apart from the chassis' design. The reflecting display, designed in an edge-to-edge way, remains and does not let the HP Mini 2140 appear to be "business-like" at all.
The netbook follows its predecessors (Mini 2133 and Compaq Mini 701) in terms of optical aspects, but some changes from the Compaq Mini 701 can be recognized as far as the case's form, especially the tray and the included interfaces, are concerned. The manufacturer fully returned to using the first netbook's (Mini 2133 with 9" display) chassis, apart from the vent's design at the left side's edge.
This also applies to the composition of colors, since the HP Mini 2140 is once again designed completely silvery; moreover, it not only seems to be colored metal-like, for the tray and the display's lid parts made of aluminium are indeed employed, which accordingly enhance the Mini notebook's material impression. The excellent feel is accompanied by a sturdiness just as convincing.
The display remains unyielding to punctual pressure applied to the lid, and torsions are only possible to a minimal extent as well. The same applies to the base unit, which allows for grabbing it anywhere without yielding, let alone possible deformation. The device's working, in contrast, could not fully convince us. Overall, the Mini 2140 made a good impression, but at a closer look, irregular clearances were noticeable, especially at the transitions between the aluminium tray of the case and its cover at the upper side of the base unit. When applying pressure, the clearances' width is even somewhat changeable.
The edge-to-edge design of the display, which has seemingly come into vogue (also employed by Apple for the new Macbook models), brings a decisive disadvantage, apart from the disputatious reflecting display's surface: it is sensitive to pollution. After each touch of the display, which is inevitable when opening the display or adjusting the opening angle, some unpleasant prints remain on the display's surface. If one does not constantly clean it, an unsavory, complete frame around the display builds up over time.
As it is typical for netbooks, the interfaces offered are rather few. For instance, two USB 2.0 ports are offered (whereas one port includes a special separate power supply), one VGA outpout for connecting an external display, a LAN socket, and 3.5mm sockets for connecting headphones respectively a microphone.
While an SD card reader is found in many other mini-notebooks (at times even used for expanding the included mass storage space), the HP Mini 2140 also comes with a 54mm Expresscard slot with the help of which the device can be upgraded with a range of features based on using the Expresscard.
The single ports' location can, in out opinion, by all means be called felicitous; those ports rather used frequently (VGA, LAN, power supply) were placed on the rear side, usually saving the sides from bothersome cables. A port for a docking station would definitely have been nice for a netbook aiming to the business segment, but the HP Mini 2140 can unfortunately not offer that. This of course gives a special significance to the VGA port, since it is the only possibility to extend the internal mini-display by offering a larger desktop in order to use the netbook in a stationary usage efficiently.
It was able to suprise us in a positive manner while tested: it offered an excellent, sharp picture at a maximal resolution of 1920x1200 with good colors, connected to a 24" Dell 2408wfp monitor. Continuously working should therefore not be a problem.
The integrated Marvell Yukon Gigabit Ethernet Controller makes an optimal connection to your wired home or office network possible. The HP Mini 2140 does not leave anything to be desired in terms of a wireless connection, thanks to the included Broadcom 802.11 a/g/n Wireless LAN module. Bluetooth 2.0 (availability subject to configuration) can be counted as an upscale communication feature, interesting especially for wireless data transfer to and from external devices, such as cell phones and PDAs.
Up to this day, wireless broadband internet (UMTS/HSDPA) unfortunately is not available in any configuration of the HP Mini 2140. However, a suspicious opening in the battery's bay may indicate a possible future UMTS-version. Until then, the user can only take a detour via an external UMTS modem, which maybe connected to the notebook either through a USB port or through the integrated ExpressCard slot.
Waiving an optical drive is no suprise, CDs or DVDs can only be read through an external device, as usal for netbooks. These are usually connected to a standard USB port, so one can freely choose such a drive from any manufacturer.
As far as the operating system is concerned, one is spoilt for choice, since HP equips the 2140 with a whole range of systems: the netbook is for instance available with Windows XP Home or Pro, Windows Vista Home Basic or even SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10.
HP offers only 12 months of warranty for the Mini 2140, but the warranty can be extended to 2 or even 3 years, if one buys a corresponding HP Care-Package, at differing prices, depending on duration and type of the service offered (Pick-up and Return, exchange, on site, and so on).
The HP Mini 2140's keyboard has definitely to be seen as suited for business-usage, HP nearly fully utilizes the available vertical space to be able to offer a full-fledged keyboard (this also applies to the keys' size). The letter keys' size of 17x18mm almost corresponds to that of an average-sized 15" notebook. The keys' arrangement does not contain any surprises either and contributes to the comfort of typing on it, as do the two-line Enter key, the enlarged Backspace, Shift, and Numlock keys.
The feeling when typing with the keyboard can be described with a well regulated resistance to pressure with a rather short stroke, and a lightly springing stop. We thought these characteristics to be quite nice during our test and did not have any problems with writing longer texts (e.g., parts of this review) with the device's keyboard. Due to different subjective preferences, differing opinions are of course permissible as well.
A peculiar part of the input devices is the touchpad, with has been designed very slim and drawn-out, in correspondence with the display. Moreover, the touchpad's two keys are not placed below it, as usual, but to the left and right of it.
Therefore, the space needed for the touchpad could be kept as small as possible, leaving more space for the keyboard; this solution is also convincing in practical usage. Merely the touchpad's sensitivity made some problems on the model we tested. On the one side, its reaction to input is very fast and sensitive, but on the other side, the pointer sometimes halted without any apparent reason.
A really useful feature is the touchpad's own on/off button for quickly activating and deactivating it, located above the pad.
The HP Mini 2140's display is rather untypical of a netbook, its format is 16:9, better known from multimedia devices, with a resolution of 1024x576. Compared to the current standard resolution of 1024x600 for netbooks, the HP Mini 2140 lacks 24 pixel in height. This contributes to the difficult situation concerning the vertical number of pixel for netbooks, since scrolling often is necessary, especially while surfing the internet.
The 10.1" "Illumi-Lite" LED display, as HP labeled it, showed good benchmarks during the review. The display convinces with a maximum brightness of 247 cd/m² in the central area; the diminishment of brightness in the outer areas goes down to acceptable 209 cd/m², resulting in a good 84.6% for illumination.
Compared to various competing models, the HP Mini 2140 delivers a very strong picture with saturated colors. This is definitely also due to its reflecting glare-type surface, which gives an image subjectively rich in contrast indoors, but also quickly creates strong reflections in bright ambient light. The maximum contrast was only a mediocre 187:1 with a black value of 1.32 cd/m².
Any hopes for getting a decent picture outdoors thanks to the display's good brightness were quickly shattered when we tested it in the light of the sun. No matter whether used in the shade or with direct insolation, the strong reflections unfortunately prevent working comfortably with the HP Mini 2140 outdoors.
The stability of the viewing angles is also not really a strength of the featured display: one quickly gets a distorted picture when changing the vertical viewing angle from the ideal, perpendicular position; a flatter viewing angle in the horizontal range is hardly possible due to the occuring reflections.
As far as its power reserves are concerned, the HP 2140 is not different from other manufacturer's netbooks. The featured Intel Atom N270 CPU (1.6 GHz) probably is the processor most used for mini notebooks; we can recall that HP used a Via-chip (C7) at 1.2 GHz for the first 9" version, the HP Mini 2133. While Intel was able to almost become the sole supplier for CPUs in netbooks, Via has been able to field a serious competitor with its new nano CPU (used for instance in Samsung's NC20).
However, Intel's Atom N270 Chip is an established and widespread processor designed specifically for a netbook's set of needs. Its power reserves cover both the requirements of the operating system (Win XP, Vista, Linux) and those of basic office applications. These include text processing, simple spreadsheet calculations, but also internet surfing, mail, and contact management. The benchmark results (for 3D Mark and PC Mark) reached show as well that the HP Mini 2140 hardly surpasses its competitors in terms of performance.
The results of PC Mark especially show that netbooks with their Atom CPUs are far away from classic sub-notebooks with special low-current Dual-Core processors or even normal chips in terms of performance. These can also carry out complex calculations in an acceptable amount of time and are thus suited for completely replacing a heavy desktop pc.
The graphics chip used in netbooks and many sub-notebooks is often also responsible for reducing its performance. The Intel GMA 950 Chip, used in the HP Mini 2140 (as well as in a lot of other mini-netbooks), only supports basic features, such as Windows Vista's Aero interface. The integrated graphics chip quickly reaches its performance limit during more sophisticated 3D calculations.
The main memory used is also important for a speedy and smooth performance of office applications; the HP Mini 2140 features 1024 MB DDR2 memory ex factory. A maximum of a single 2GB module can be used for the one available slot, but the module originally installed has to be removed then. The slot is fairly easily acessible by removing the 3 screws in the battery bay holding the keyboard; the harddisk can also be exchanged that way.
Our tested model featured a 160GB Fujitsu harddisk (MHZ2160BH – 5400 U/min), but all usual 2.5" SATA notebook harddisks (SSDs as well) can theoretically be used. The harddisk reached a decent average transfer ratio of about 50 MB/s and a decent access time of 17.4 ms.
|3DMark 2001SE Standard||2957 points|
|3DMark 03 Standard||701 points|
|PCMark 05 Standard||1532 points|
Overall, one can say that the HP Mini 2140's vent is permanently running as a matter of principle, blowing hot air out of the aluminium case. Under a low workload, (i.e. when using office applications or surfing the internet) the vent is working at a pleasantly low level of noise; one notices the device, but the background noise is not perceived as disturbing at all.
Interestingly, the notebook remains pretty quiet even under a constant workload over time, the vent became only slightly faster and louder. The maximal level of noise we could measure was 33.0 dB (A).
32.3 / 32.3 / 32.3 dB(A)
||33 / 33 dB(A)|
min: , med: , max: (15 cm distance)
The aluminium chassis distributes the developing heat about evenly, strong punctual heating can thus be avoided. The top side of the base unit (mainly the keyboard) heats up just a bit, to about 34.4 °C. The temperature reached at the bottom side is somewhat higher, but stays within an acceptable range, with a maximum value of 40.2 °C.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 34.4 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 33.1 °C / 92 F, ranging from 21.6 to 53.2 °C for the class Netbook.
(±) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 40.2 °C / 104 F, compared to the average of 36.6 °C / 98 F
(+) The palmrests and touchpad are reaching skin temperature as a maximum (34.4 °C / 93.9 F) and are therefore not hot.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 29.3 °C / 84.7 F (-5.1 °C / -9.2 F).
The two loudspeakers, located below the display, sound unsurprisingly very thin and without bass, but their sound is alright overall for a netbook. The maximum volume is also quite alright, and the socket for headphones (stereo) delivers a clear and full sound.
The HP Mini 2140 mostly features a 3-cell battery in the standard edition, which is inserted into its bay at the rear side of the netbook; it does not overlap the case. Our tested model was equipped that way, thus the battery life mentioned here applies to the 3-cell version. Alternatively, a 6-cell battery is available, but it overlaps the bottom side and places the notebook in a slanting position. To see what this looks like, take a look at our test of the predecessor, the HP Mini 2133. The 6-cell battery has a capacity of 55 Wh. and can store twice the amount of energy of the smaller 3-cell version, which likely means a duplication of the battery life.
Our model, featuring the standard battery (28 Wh), reached a good value of 257 minutes during the BatteryEaters Reader's test (representing the maximum battery life) at the highest possible power saving options (min. brightness, energy saving profile, WLAN and BT switched off). The BatteryEater Classic test can be seen as a worst-case scenario, testing the battery life under heavy workload at maximum performance and brightness of the display, with WLAN and BT switched on. About 108 minutes are realistic here.
When using WLAN in a practical way (with maximal display brightness, Windows' energy saving profile, and activated WLAN), the HP Mini 2140 reached at least a sound 196 minutes. If this should not be enough, one can about double the battery life through buying the 6-call battery for about 100 Euros.
|Off / Standby||0 / 0.5 Watt|
|Idle|| 9 / 11.6 / 12.6 Watt|
17.2 / 19.8 Watt|
HP actually did everything right with the current Mini 2140. The netbook was equipped with a massive aluminium chassis, which helps the device reaching an excellent stability, and also provides a great feel. Together with the felicituous design (aside from minor flaws in the built), one can hardly say anything against the case.
The keyboard is especially important for a netbook aiming to be placed in the business segment, and the HP Mini 2140's turns out to be really large, which is an advantage over a lot of competing mini-notebooks. The touchpad definitely needs getting used to, but it is an intelligent solution anyway.
We are then, once more, at the display, featuring a reflecting surface. Please correct me if I should be wrong: a netbook is, first and foremost, designed for mobile usage. This means that one will be confronted with disadvantageous situations in terms of ambient light quite often, e.g. on the train or other means of public transportation, or maybe just sitting on a bench in the park. It should be clear that a glare display comes off far less well than an equally bright display with a matt surface, due to the ocurring reflections.
As far as performance is concerned, the HP Mini 2140 does not really surpass its various competitors, since they all feature the same core components anyway. One should thus not expect too much from these mobile companions, but they are of course sufficient for basic office applications. The HP Mini 2140 can also score with its low noise emissions during the use of office applications.
The optionally available 6-cell battery is interesting for mobile use, investing in this might possibly pay off (since a duplication of batterylife can be expected), should the battery life of about 3 hours under a low workload not be enough.
All in all, HP offers a felicitious netbook, which not only looks nice, but can also convince with its usage, should one be able to accept the glare display.


The Spanish-speaking escort service La Casa Casa (the Casa) has been offering escorts for a few years now in the area of San Miguel, near the border with Mexico.
In a video posted on YouTube on April 23, the service’s founder, Maria Fernanda Sanchez, says that a man named “Bobby” has always been her dream client.
She tells the camera that she has had to make decisions about the escort services she offers, and in the video, she says that Bobby is a good choice.
She also says that she is in good health and that she can handle any situation he might be in.
The video has been viewed more than 13,000 times.
Sanchez said that she met Bobby while working as an escort for a local man named Javier Martinez.
She said that after they started their escorts business, Martinez was very supportive of the Casa and the escorts.
According to Sanchez, Martinez is also a Catholic, and she said that he helped her get through her baptism.
In the video posted April 23 by La Casas Casa, Sanchez talks about how she met Martinez and his wife, Maria Maria.
She says that after the video was uploaded, Martinez said that the only reason he would want to help her was because he was “happy to help you.”
Martinez is the brother of the mayor of San Juan, Juan Pablo Martinez de Abreu.
Sanchez wrote in the YouTube video that she had a conversation with Martinez and that he agreed to let her go to his home to see if he could help her.
Sanchez did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.
The San Juan Times, a newspaper in Puerto Rico, reported that a woman named Isabel Cruz was also in contact with Martinez about arranging for her to be a “free escort.”
Cruz told the paper that she agreed to go with Martinez because she believed that she could get to know him.
She added that she was unsure if she was going to do the job because she had no experience.
Martinez did not respond to a request for information about whether he had seen the video or whether he would be interested in assisting Cruz.
He told the newspaper that he could not discuss specifics about an escort because he is still trying to get a better understanding of the job.
According a post on the website of the San Juan chapter of the National Catholic Charities Association, Martinez told the organization that he had asked the group to help him find a woman who could be a free escort, but that they could not do it.
A spokesperson for the National Association of Catholic Charites, which represents Catholic organizations in Puerto Rican dioceses, told the AP that Martinez was not the owner of La Casaras Casas.
The spokesperson said that Martinez is not part of the organization.
In an email to The AP, Sanchez wrote that she did not know whether or not she had contacted Martinez.
In her YouTube video, Sanchez said she has “never felt comfortable with any job before.”
In another video posted by the service, Sanchez says that the best thing about being a free escorts is that you get to do what you love and have fun with others.
“We don’t ask for anything,” she said.
“If you want to ask, you can ask.”
The service also says in the post that they offer “free meals and alcohol.”
In the post, Sanchez and Martinez talk about how they can “come from the heart” and that they are “just like you” and the Casas are “an opportunity to help.”
Sanchez told the San Francisco Chronicle that she doesn’t believe that any of the men in the Casar family would have accepted her as a free woman if she had asked.
She did say that the service would be open to women in need, but she did say, “We can’t handle every situation, so we want to offer a good service.”


text:
A similarity-based community detection method with multiple prototype representation
Communities are of great importance for understanding graph structures in social networks. Some existing community detection algorithms use a single prototype to represent each group. In real applications, this may not adequately model the different types of communities and hence limits the clustering performance on social networks. To address this problem, a Similarity-based Multi-Prototype (SMP) community detection approach is proposed in this paper. In SMP, vertices in each community carry various weights to describe their degree of representativeness. This mechanism enables each community to be represented by more than one node. The centrality of nodes is used to calculate prototype weights, while similarity is utilized to guide us to partitioning the graph. Experimental results on computer generated and real-world networks clearly show that SMP performs well for detecting communities. Moreover, the method could provide richer information for the inner structure of the detected communities with the help of prototype weights compared with the existing community detection models.
keywords:Multiple prototype, node similarity, community detection, prototype weights
In order to have a better understanding of organizations and functions in real-world networked systems, the community structure in the graph is a primary feature that should be taken into consideration (Fortunato, 2010). As a result, community detection, which can extract specific structures from complex networks, has attracted considerable attention crossing many areas from physics, biology, and economics to sociology (Costa et al., 2011; Girvan and Newman, 2002), where systems are often represented as graphs. Generally, a community in a network is a subgraph whose nodes are densely connected within itself but sparsely connected with the rest of the network (Newman, 2006a; Zhang et al., 2007; Jiang et al., 2013).
Recently, significant progress has been achieved in this research field and several popular algorithms for community detection have been presented. One of the most popular type of classical methods partitions networks by optimizing some criteria. Newman and Girvan (2004) proposed a network modularity measure (usually denoted by ) and several algorithms that try to maximize have been designed (Blondel et al., 2008; Clauset et al., 2004; Duch and Arenas, 2005). But recent researches have found that the modularity based algorithms could not detect communities smaller than a certain size. This problem is famously known as the resolution limit (Fortunato and Barthelemy, 2007). The single optimization criteria, i.e., modularity, may not be adequate to represent the structures in complex networks, thus Amiri et al. (2013) suggested a new community detection process as a multi-objective optimization problem. Another family of approaches considers hierarchical clustering techniques. It merges or splits clusters according to a topological measure of similarity between the nodes and tries to build a hierarchical tree of partitions (Lancichinetti et al., 2009; Huang et al., 2011; Yang et al., 2013; Kim and Wilhelm, 2013; Zhang and Wang, 2015; Kim and Kim, 2015). Also there are some ways, such as spectral methods (Smyth and White, 2005) and signal process method (Hu et al., 2008; Jiang et al., 2013), to map topological relationship of nodes in the graphs into geometrical structures of vectors in -dimensional Euclidean space, where classical clustering methods like classical -Means (CM) (Jiang et al., 2013), Fuzzy -Means (FCM) (Zhang et al., 2007; Hu et al., 2008) or Evidential -Means (ECM) (Zhou et al., 2014) could be evoked. However, there must be some loss of information during the mapping process. Besides, these prototype-based partition methods themselves are sensitive to the initial seeds. For social networks with good community structures, the center of one group is likely to be one person, who plays the leader role in the community. That is to say, one of the members in the group is better to be selected as the seed, rather than the center of all the objects.
To solve these problems, Jiang et al. (2013) proposed an efficient algorithm named -rank which selects the node with the highest centrality value as the prototype. In our previous work, an evidential centrality measure is used to set one “most possible" object in the class to be the prototype (Zhou et al., 2015). We believe that the characteristic on the prototype of each community is important for community detection. However, in some cases the way of using only one node to describe a community may not be sufficient enough. To illustrate the limitation of one-prototype community representation, we use two simple community structures shown in Figure 1. The first community consists of four members while the second has eight. It can be seen that in the left community, it is unreasonable to describe the cluster structure using any one of the four nodes in the group, since no one of the four nodes could be viewed as a more proper representative than the other three. In the right community in Figure 1, two members (marked yellow) out of the eight are equal reasonable to be selected as the representative of the community. This means choosing any one of them may fail to detect the complete set of all the candidate representative nodes. From these examples, we can see that for some networks, in order to capture various aspects of the community structures, we may need more members rather than one to be referred as the prototypes of an individual group.
Motivated by this idea, in this paper, a Similarity-based Multiple Prototype (SMP) community detection approach is proposed. The centrality values are used as the criterion to select multiple prototypes to characterize each community, and the prototype weights are derived to describe the degree of representativeness of the related objects for their own community. Then the similarity between each node and community is defined, and the nodes are partitioned into divided communities according to these similarities. Here, we emphasize some key points different from those earlier studies and the contribution of this work. Firstly, although there are some multi-prototype clustering methods for the classical data sets Liu et al. (2009); Wang et al. (2014), there is little such work for community detection problems. Here a new community representation mechanism using multiple prototypes is proposed. Experimental results on artificial and real-world networks show that multiple prototypes are more powerful than a single center for representing a community, especially for the graphs without clear community structures. Secondly, the concept of prototype weights is presented, which describes the degree of representativeness of a member in its own group. With the help of prototype weights, SMP provides more sufficient description for each individual community. This enables us to gain a deep insight into the internal structure of a community, which we believe is also very important and useful for network analysis. Thirdly, in the proposed community detection approach, different kinds of similarity and centrality measures could be adopted, which makes it more practical and flexible in real applications.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, some basic concepts and the rationale of our method are briefly introduced. In Section 3, the multi-prototype community detection approach is presented in detail. In order to show the effectiveness of our approach, in Section 4 we test our algorithm on different artificial and real-world networks and make comparisons with the existing methods. Finally, we conclude and present some perspectives in Section 5.
2 Preliminary knowledge
In this section some background knowledge related to community detection problems and social networks, including centrality and similarity measures, modularity and some classical existing algorithms, will be presented.
2.1 Node centrality and similarity
Generally speaking, the person who is the center of a community in a social network has the following characteristics: he has relation with most of the members of the group and the relationships are stronger than usual; he may directly contact with other persons who also play an important role in their own communities. Therefore, the centers of the community should be set to the ones not only with high degree and weight strength, but also with neighbors who also have high degree and strength. The degree of node is the number of its connections with other nodes, and the strength describes the levels of these connections. Gao et al. (2013) proposed an evidential centrality measure, named Evidential Semi-local Centrality (ESC), based on the theory of belief functions. In the application of ESC, the degree and strength of each node are first expressed by basic belief assignments (BBA), and then the fused importance is calculated using the combination rule in the theory of belief functions. The higher the ESC value is, the more important the node is. Gao et al. (2013) pointed out that it is more efficient than the existing centrality measures such as Degree Centrality (DC), Betweenness Centrality (BC) and Closeness Centrality (CC). The detail computation process of ESC can be found in (Gao et al., 2013).
The similarity measures the closeness between any pair of nodes in the graph. In (Zhou et al., 2009) several node similarity metrics on basis of local information were described and the performance of different measures applied to community detection was discussed. Here we give a brief description of some measures. Let be an undirected network, where is the set of nodes and is the sets of edges. Let denote the adjacency matrix, where represents that there is an edge between nodes and .
Common neighbors. This measure is based on the idea that more common neighbors the pair shares, more similar they are. Thus the similarity can be simply proportional to the number of their shared neighbors:
where denotes the set of vertices that are adjacent to .
Jaccard Index. This index was proposed by Jaccard over a hundred years ago, and is defined as
Zhou-Lü-Zhang Index. Zhou et al. (2009) also proposed a new similarity metric which is motivated by the resource allocation process:
where is the degree of node .
Pan et al. (2010) pointed out that the similarity measure proposed by Zhou et al. (2009) may bring about inaccurate results for community detection on the networks as the metric can not differentiate the tightness relation between a pair of nodes whether they are connected directly or indirectly. In order to overcome this defect, in his presented new measure the similarity between unconnected pair is simply set to be 0:
A similarity measure considering the global graph structure is put forward by Hu et al. (2008) based on signaling propagation in the network. For a network with nodes, every node is viewed as an excitable system which can send, receive, and record signals. Initially, a node is selected as the source of signal. Then the source node sends a signal to its neighbors and itself first. Afterwards, the nodes with signals can also send signals to their neighbors and themselves. After a certain time steps, the amount distribution of signals over the nodes could be viewed as the influence of the source node on the whole network. Naturally, compared with nodes in other communities, the nodes of the same community have more similar influence on the whole network. Therefore, similarities between nodes could be obtained by calculating the differences between the amount of signals they have received.
Recently, many criteria were proposed for evaluating the partition of a network. A widely used measure called modularity, or function was presented by Newman and Girvan (2004). Let be an undirected network, is the set of nodes, is the set of edges, and is a edge weight matrix with elements . Given a hard partition with groups , where is one if vertex () belongs to the () community, 0 otherwise. Denote the crisp subsets of vertices by , then the modularity can be defined as (Fortunato, 2010):
where , .
The measure has been proved highly effective in practice for community evaluation, although Fortunato and Barthelemy (2007) claim resolution limits of modularity-based division methods. Besides, some other problems of Newman’s modularity have also been found (Chen et al., 2009). To solve these problems, some new modularity measures have been proposed (Scripps et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2009). In this paper, the Max–Min (MM) modularity function proposed by Chen et al. (2009) is utilized as the index to determine the optimal number of communities. MM modularity attempts to maximize the number of edges within groups and minimize the number of unrelated pairs from the user-defined unrelated pair set within groups at the same time:
where is the modularity of the original graph, while is that of the complement graph . Graph is created based on the user-defined criteria which defines whether two disconnected nodes are related or unrelated , i.e., if and . The related pairs can be given by experts, or defined according to the original structure (Chen et al., 2009).
2.3 Some classical methods of community detection
In Section 4 we will compare the proposed algorithm with five existing methods: -rank algorithm (Jiang et al., 2013), Multi-level Modularity Optimization (MMO) algorithm (Blondel et al., 2008), Leading Eigenvector (LE) algorithm (Newman, 2006b), Label Propagation (LP) algorithm (Raghavan et al., 2007), and Information Map (InfoMap) algorithm (Rosvall and Bergstrom, 2008). Thus here we give a short presentation of these five approaches.
MMO is a heuristic method based on modularity optimization, and the algorithm is divided into two phases repeated iteratively. In the beginning of the first phase, the network is thought to have groups each of which consists of only one node. Then for each node , it may be placed into a new community (it must be a community that one of its neighbors belongs to) for which the gain of modularity is maximum. The first phase is not completed until no further improvement of the modularity can be achieved. The second phase consists in building a new network whose nodes are the communities detected in the last phase, and then the first phase can be reapplied on this newly created graph. Blondel et al. (2008) pointed out that MMO outperformed all other known community detection methods in terms of computation time.
Newman (2006b) demonstrated that the modularity can be succinctly expressed as a function of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the modularity matrix and derived a competitive Leading Eigenvector (LE) algorithm for identifying communities. The graph is first divided into two groups according to the signs of the elements of the eigenvector corresponding to the most positive eigenvalue of the modularity matrix, and then can be partitioned into more communities depending on the requirement analogously. It is showed that LE works better than the standard spectral partitioning method as it is unconstrained by the need to find groups of any particular size (Newman, 2006b) .
LP is investigated by Raghavan et al. (2007) and it only uses the network structure and requires neither optimization of a predefined objective function nor prior information about the communities. In this model every node is initialized with a unique label. Afterwards each node adopts the label that most of its neighbors currently have at every step. In this iterative process densely connected groups of nodes form a consensus on a unique label to form communities.
InfoMap uses the probability flow of random walks on a network as a proxy for information flows in the real system, and graph clustering turns then into the coding problem of finding the partition that yields the minimum description length of an infinite random walk (Fortunato, 2010). The network is optimally decomposed into modules by compressing the information needed to describe of the process of information diffusion across the graph (Rosvall and Bergstrom, 2008). The regularities in the community structure and their relationships are reflected by a map.
-rank algorithm is proposed by Jiang et al. (2013), and it uses an alternate iteration strategy like -means. Firstly, the top– nodes with the highest rank centrality is selected as initial seeds. This initialization mechanism could overcome the problem brought by the random initial centers in the application of prototype-based clustering methods like -means. Then the seeds and cluster labels are updated alternately by using an iterative technique. As illustrated before, the way of selecting representative members with each to totally represent one individual community may be insufficient to fully characterize a community. This in turn indicates that multiple nodes should be utilized in order to capture each group in the network more accurately.
3 The multi-prototype community detection approach
We propose here our method. After an introduction of the concept of representative weights (also called prototype weights) in Section 3.1, the whole algorithm will be presented in detail in Section 3.2. The problem of determining the optimum community number and the complexity of the algorithm will be discussed in Section 3.3 and 3.4 respectively.
3.1 The prototype weights
Suppose is a partition of a graph , where is the set of nodes and is the set of edges. The nodes in the graph can be denoted by . The matrix denotes the prototype weights of nodes with respect to all the communities. As analyzed before, the centrality value of a node can be used to express the belief that the node plays the center role in its community. Therefore, the probabilistic weight of node ’s degree of representativeness in cluster can be derived as below:
where is the centrality of node in the subgraph corresponding community . Then, for a given node , the similarity between and community , denoted by , can be obtained as
where is the similarity between nodes and . From Eqs. (7) and (8) we can see that is a weighted sum of the similarity between node and all the nodes in community , and the weights used in the summation depend on the contribution of the nodes to their own community.
3.2 The detection algorithm
The whole SMP algorithm to detect communities in social networks is summarized as Algorithm 1. In fact SMP is a variation of -means, -medoids and -rank. The difference between SMP and the other three clustering algorithms lies in the manner of updating the prototypes. -means uses the average value to represent every class while -medoids and -rank uses one “most possible" object. On the contrary, SMP adopts an effective multi-prototype representation based on the determined prototype weights of each member in the group. Due to the various types of community structures, the way to represent a cluster using multiple prototypes is more reasonable in real applications. Moreover, SMP often needs fewer iterations than -means to make the algorithm convergent.
Remark: As we can see, SMP provides us a crisp (hard) partition of the analyzed network. Also the similarity between node and community could be obtained by Eq. (8). Then the node ’s membership with regard to community can be defined as follows:
This form of membership measure is in line with that got by FCM algorithm, where the membership values assigned to an object are inversely related to the relative distance to the cluster. Similarly here the memberships in Eq. (9) are determined by the relative similarities. One of the problem of fuzzy membership has been reported is that it could not distinguish between “equal evidence" (membership values are large and equal for a number of alternatives) and “ignorance" (all the membership values are equal but very close to zero) (Krishnapuram and Keller, 1993; Pal et al., 2005). If node is equidistant from more than one community, the membership of each cluster will be the same, regardless of the absolute values of the similarity to the communities. Consequently, the fuzzy membership could not be applied to detect noise objects (outliers) which are far but equidistant to some communities (Pal et al., 2005). In SMP, the prototype weights can help us solve this problem, which we will show in detail in Section 4.2.
3.3 Determining the number of communities
In the first step of SMP algorithm, the additional information about the number of communities () should be specified. This is also a fundamental issue in classical CM and FCM clusterings. In fact, to determine the optimal number of clusters is an open problem for prototype-based clustering methods. Most of the methods to solve this problem consist in computing a validity index from several community structures detected with different values of and looking for a minimum or maximum of a given criterion (Hu et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2007; Nepusz et al., 2008). In this paper MM-modularity (Eq. (6)) is used to estimate a proper . The modularity values signify the quality of the detected communities. When the modularity achieves the maximum, we can get the best .
3.4 The complexity of SMP algorithm
The complexity of SMP consists of calculating similarities and centralities of nodes and iterative process. If we use signal similarity and evidential semi-local centrality measures, as we will see in Section 4, the corresponding time complexity if (Hu et al., 2008) and (Gao et al., 2013), where is the number of propagation, is the average degree of vertices in the network, and is the number of nodes. The iterative technique is similar to that in -means. The only difference is the strategy of updating the prototypes. -means computes the average value of all the members in the cluster, while SMP tries to find prototype weights of all the members. As the communities are subgraphs which are much smaller than the original network, the updating prototype weights process of SMP does not cost much. If the number of communities is fixed, the time complexity of -means clustering is , where is the number of iterations. Consequently, the total complexity of SMP is . It is worth noting that SMP often needs fewer iterations.
4 Experimental results
In this section some experiments are performed on both computer-generated graphs and real-world networks whose community structure is known in advance. Apart from -rank (Jiang et al., 2013), we also compare SMP with four other classical methods: Multi-level Modularity Optimization (MMO) algorithm (Blondel et al., 2008), Leading Eigenvector (LE) algorithm (Newman, 2006b), Label Propagation (LP) algorithm (Raghavan et al., 2007), and Information Map algorithm (InfoMap) (Rosvall and Bergstrom, 2008) presented in Section 2.3. The obtained community structures are evaluated with known performance measures, i.e., accuracy and NMI (Normalized Mutual Information). As the benchmarks and the real-world data sets used in this paper are with known community structure, accuracy and NMI measure the similarity between the planted partitions (ground truth) and the results of the algorithms. The NMI of two partitions and of the graph, , can be calculated by
where and denote the numbers of communities in partitions and respectively. The notation denotes the element of matrix , representing the number of nodes in the community of that appear in the community of . The sum over row of matrix is denoted by and that over column by . Both accuracy and NMI measure the proportion of the nodes that have been grouped correctly, and represent the consistence between the found community structure and the presumed one (Fan et al., 2007; Hu et al., 2008). The influence of different similarity and centrality measures in the application of SMP will be discussed in the first experiment. After that we will use the evidential semi-local centrality and signal similarity in the following tests based on the experimental results.
4.1 Computer-generated graphs
The algorithm is first compared by means of two classes of computer-generated artificial benchmark networks, namely, Girvan and Newman (Girvan and Newman, 2002) (GN) and Lancichinetti et al. (2008) benchmark (LFR) networks. For the former, each network has nodes in total and 32 nodes in each of the four divided communities. The average degree of each vertex is set to 16. For a given node, the average number of links to its fellows in the inner community, denoted by , is varied from 8 to 16. The average number of edges between communities, denoted by , is varied from 8 to 0. The larger is, the more apparent community structure the network has.
It is noteworthy that in the application of SMP algorithm, different similarity and centrality measures could be adopted instead of the signal similarity and evidential semi-local centrality suggested in this paper. When using ESC for calculating the centrality, results by four different similarity metrics, i.e., signal similarity, the simple Jaccard index and the measures proposed by Pan et al. (2010) (denoted by Pan in the figure) and Zhou et al. (2009) (denoted by Zhou in the figure), are shown in Figure 2-a. As can be seen from the figure, the results by signal similarity are better than the other indices in terms of NMI values. Here we could conclude that global similarity measures like signal similarity are more applicable for SMP than local ones. Figure 2-b depicts the behavior of SMP with difference centrality measures but the same (signal) similarity index. It can be seen that ESC and PR are better among the four measures, i.e., ESC, PageRank (PR) (Brin and Page, 1998), Degree Centrality (DC), and Closeness Centrality (CC). Although there is no significant difference between ESC and PR, the performance of ESC is more stable than PR. This paper is not focusing on the comparison of different similarity and centrality measures, thus in the following experiment we only consider the signal similarity and evidential semi-local centrality.
For each , the experiment is repeated 20 times and the mean values of the evaluating measures are reported. The average values of the indices by accuracy and NMI using SMP and the other five algorithms with different values of are displayed in Figure 3-a and Figure 3-b respectively. The results show that in terms of accuracy and NMI, all the methods perform well when is large. However, when is smaller than 10, they have different performances. LP and InfoMap have the worst results as they could not work when . SMP and MMO are best in general among all the methods. Although MMO is superior to SMP when and , the superiority is not obvious. SMP is significantly better than MMO when is small (especially when ). Moreover, with the decreasing of , the performance of SMP does not drop so dramatically as the case in other methods. This demonstrates that using multiple members with various prototype weights is able to characterize the structure of clusters more precisely no matter whether the network has clear community structure or not, which in turn helps to produce a partition of the graph with good quality.
The LFR benchmark network (Lancichinetti et al., 2008) is an artificial network for community detection, which is claimed to process some basic statistical properties found in real networks, such as heterogeneous distributions of degree and community size. The results of different methods in three kinds of LFR networks with 1000, 2000 and 5000 nodes are displayed in Figures 4–6 respectively. The parameter illustrated in -axis in the figures identifies whether the network has clear communities. When is small, the graph has well community structure. In such a case, almost all the methods perform well. But we can see that when is large, the results by SMP have relatively large values of NMI, and the performance of SMP and -rank do not drop dramatically as the case in other methods. SMP slightly outperforms -rank especially when is large, this could be attributed to the multi-prototype representation of communities. Overall, from the two types of benchmarks, SMP fits for the networks no matter whether they have clear community structures or not.
4.2 Real world networks
A. Zachary’s Karate Club. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method applied on real-world networks, we first test on a widely used benchmark in detecting community structures, “Karate Club" (Zachary, 1977), studied by Wayne Zachary. The network consists of 34 nodes and 78 edges representing the friendship among the members of the club. During the development, a dispute arose between the club’s administrator and instructor, which eventually resulted in the club split into two smaller clubs, centered around the administrator and the instructor respectively (see Figure 7-a).
The values of the modularity with different number of communities are displayed in Figure 7-b. The modularity function peaks when . This is in consistent with the fact that the network has two groups. The discovered communities are illustrated in Table 1. The table also shows the prototype weights in each of the found group. As we can see, node 1 makes the most contribution to community 1, while node 34 is most important to community 2. This confirms the center role of the two persons in their own communities. On the contrary, nodes 17 and 25 seem not very important in their group in terms of their prototype weights. We can see that in Figure 7-a, these two nodes locate in the marginal parts. Therefore, the proposed SMP detection approach enables us to have a better understanding of the graph structure with the help of prototype weights.
|Community 1||Community 2|
|Node ID||PW||Node ID||PW|
B. Karate Club network with some added noisy nodes. In this test, two noisy nodes are added to the original Karate Club network (see Figure 8-a). The first one is node 35, which is directly connected with nodes 18 and 27. The other one is 36, which is connected to nodes 1 and 33. It can be seen that node 36 has stronger relationships with both communities than node 35. This is due to the fact that the nodes connected to node 36 play leader roles in their own groups, but node 35 contacts with two marginal nodes which have only “small" or insignificant roles in their own groups. The modularity values varying with different community numbers are depicted in Figure 8-b and the detected results are displayed in Table 2.
From Table 2 we can see that the fuzzy membership values of nodes 35 and 36 are almost the same for both communities (approximatively equal to 0.5). These results could not reflect the difference between ignorance and uncertainty. As node 35 is only related to one outward node of each community, thus we are ignorant about which community it really belongs to, or we say node 35 is an outlier. On the contrary, node 36 connects with the key members (playing an important role in the community) in both communities. Thus there is uncertainty rather than ignorance about which community node 36 is in. In this network, node 36 is a “good" member for both communities, whereas node 35 is a “poor" member. As mentioned before, the inability to distinguish the outliers from the uncertain nodes with equal memberships is caused by the relative similarity used in fuzzy memberships. In SMP, the prototype weights could be utilized to solve this problem and to detect the outliers. As shown in Table 2, the prototype weight of node 35 is the least in the community, but node 36 contributes much more than node 35. Therefore, node 35 has no contribution to both communities (the prototype weight of node 35 for community 1 is 0.0052, and 0 for community 2), and it could be recognized as an outlier. This example further demonstrates the fact that prototype weights indeed enable us to gain a better understanding of the graph structure, especially for detecting outliers in the network.
|Community 1||Community 2|
|Node ID||PW||Node ID||PW|
We also test our method on four other real-world graphs: American football network, Dolphins network, Lesmis network and Political books network111These data sets can be found in http://networkdata.ics.uci.edu/index.php. The values of the two indices, accuracy and NMI, applied to evaluate the performance of different methods are listed in Table 3 and Table 4 respectively222All these real-world graphs are with known community structure, thus the accuracy and NMI are calculated based on the ground truth and the partition got by different algorithms.. It can been seen from the tables, SMP application results in a community structure with highest accuracy level in most cases. In terms of the performance measure NMI, SMP also outperforms the other algorithms. It should be noted that some methods provide partitions with high accuracy but low NMI. This may be caused by the fact that they cluster the nodes into too many small communities. The partition rules of both -rank and SMP are based on node similarity. These two approaches are better than the others in general, and the effectiveness could be attributed to the high performance of vertex similarities. But the reason that SMP works better than -rank in these real-world networks is largely because of the application of multiple prototype representation of communities.
From the above extensive experimental results, we can summarize the compelling properties of SMP as follows:
In the partition process, SMP uses multiple prototypes to represent the communities. This is a useful extension of the existing community detection methods where only one prototype is allowed, especially when the analyzed graph has some complex community structures.
The prototype weights, as a by-product of the detection results, provide us with some valuable information about the community structure from another point of view, and enable us to gain a better understanding of the analyzed graph.
SMP works well even for the graphs without clear community structures. It could avoid the problem of inability to distinguish the outliers from uncertain data for fuzzy membership.
Last but not the least, the experiments on both synthetic and real-world graph data sets demonstrate that the proposed approach is a competitive candidate for community detection tasks compared with other five existing methods.
In this paper, a new type of similarity-based community detection algorithm called SMP is proposed. SMP could find not only communities of each node but also weighted representative members of each group. In real world community detection problems, information on both community labels and internal structure of each of the detected communities are important. One distinctive characteristic of the proposed method is that each community is presented by multiple prototypes, rather than by single one object. The experiments on synthetic networks show the effectiveness of the proposed method and the tests on real-world networks have further pointed out our method preforms better than the existing ones. The results show that the way of using prototype weights to represent a cluster enables SMP to capture the various types of community structures more precisely and completely hence improves the quality of the detected communities. Moreover, more detail information on the discovered clusters may be obtained with the help of prototype weights.
In real applications, the signal similarity measure and ESC centrality utilized in the work could be replaced by any other index. For instance, if we want to apply the method to directed networks, the similarity and centrality measures for directed networks could be adopted. Therefore, we intend to study on the comparison of difference measures and on the application into directed networks in our future research work. Meanwhile, not only centrality but also more other factors should be considered for determining the prototype weights. Hence the way to optimize the prototype weights using the available information as much as possible will also be included in our further study.
The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for all their remarks which helped us to clarify and improve the quality of this paper. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos.61135001, 61403310). The study of the first author in France was supported by the China Scholarship Council.
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domain: literature


Lewis Baker scores Gianfranco Zola-esque goal for Chelsea against Arsenal U21s
Some Chelsea fans were performing a double-take this week after seeing Gianfranco Zola's famous goal against Norwich recreated by one of their youngsters.
Lewis Baker's back-heeled flick in Chelsea's 2-1 win over Arsenal U21s was reminiscent of the Italian's goal in the FA Cup in 2002.
VIDEO: Scroll down to see both goals
Set up: Baker receives the ball from Islam Feruz's cross
Flick: The highly-rated Baker makes perfect contact with the ball
Equaliser: The ball flies past Matt Macey in the Arsenal net
Potential: Lewis Baker has been tipped to be the next Frank Lampard at Chelsea
The highly-rated Baker is touted as the next Frank Lampard, and has made one appearance for Chelsea, as a substitute in the FA Cup win over Derby in January.
Islam Feruz made a run down the right flank, before cutting inside and crossing for Baker to finish past Matt Macey in the Arsenal goal to make it 1-1. John Swift grabbed the winner late on.
Zola's goal, from Graeme Le Saux's cross, was the third in a 4-0 win over the Canaries in the fourth round, with Claudio Ranieri's side going on to reach the final, only to be defeated 2-0 by Arsenal in Cardiff.
Fantastic: Zola receives the ball from Le Saux and flicks it past Rob Green in the Norwich goal
Fantastic: Zola celebrates the goal at Stamford Bridge in the 4-0 win
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DIXON — The Webster County softball team opened its season in dominant fashion on Thursday, beating Paducah Tilghman in five innings, 14-3.
The Blue Tornado (0-1) actually scored first with two runs in the top of the first inning, but the Lady Trojans (1-0) responded with four runs in the bottom half to take the lead.
Tilghman scored again in the top of the second to come within one, but this time Webster rallied for seven runs in the bottom half to go up 11-3. The team added three runs over the next two innings to seal the mercy-rule win.
Sophomore Karlie Keeney pitched all five innings for the Lady Trojans, giving up just one earned run on six hits and one walk while striking out six. She also dominated at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a double, a run scored and a whopping six RBIs.
Sophomore Hattie Hartman went 1-2 with a home run, a run scored and three RBIs, while sophomore Rylee Warford finished 1-3 with a double and two runs scored. Freshman Hadlee Carter went 1-4 with two runs scored and an RBI, and sophomore Kayla Yates finished 2-4 with three runs scored.
Webster is next scheduled to face Apollo on Friday on the road at 5:30 p.m.
Baseball GRAVES COUNTY 2, WEBSTER COUNTY 1
MAYFIELD — In a cruel twist of fate, the Webster County baseball team lost Thursday’s game to Graves County the same way it had won last Friday’s game against Ohio County: A seventh-inning walk off.
After the Trojans (1-1)scored first in the first inning and then the Eagles (1-0) responded with a run in the second, the two teams engaged in a pitcher’s duel that went right down to the final inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, with runners on the corners and one out, Graves senior Levi Nesler hit a single down the right field line, scoring sophomore Drew Cooper for the win.
Junior Clayton Buchanan pitched the first three innings of the game for Webster, giving up one unearned run on five hits and a walk while striking out four. Senior Drake Villines took over in the fourth and pitched the rest of the game, giving up one run on three hits and two walks while striking out two.
Buchanan also went 1-3 with the Trojans’ only hit and only run, while sophomore Brendon Thompson finished 0-3 with an RBI.
TRIGG COUNTY 9, MADISONVILLE-NORTH HOPKINS 1
CADIZ — The Madisonville-North Hopkins baseball team fell to Trigg County on Thursday.
The Wildcats (1-0) struck first with three runs in the second, then rallied for six more runs in the third. The Maroons (1-2) managed to put up one run in the fourth, but couldn’t get back in the game.
Senior Drew Webb went 1-3 and scored North’s only run, while senior Preston Browning went 2-3 with a double. Browning also pitched four innings in relief of freshman starter Cole Lawrence, giving up two unearned runs on three hits while striking out four.
The Maroons are next scheduled to host district opponent Dawson Springs for a doubleheader on Friday. The first game is set to start at 5:30 p.m.
PADUCAH TILGHMAN 9,HOPKINS COUNTY CENTRAL 0
PADUCAH — The Hopkins County Central baseball team suffered its third straight loss on Thursday, getting shut out by Paducah Tilghman.
The Blue Tornado (3-0) got their scoring started with two runs in the second, then rallied for seven more runs over the course of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings.
Senior Skyler Hibbs went 1-3 with a double for the Storm (0-3), while senior Caleb Wagoner went 1-2 and freshman Andrew Gilbert finished 1-3 with Central’s only other hit.
The Storm are next scheduled to face Hopkinsville on the road on Friday at 5:30 p.m.
BUTLER COUNTY 10, DAWSON SPRINGS 0 (5 Inn.)
MORGANTOWN — The Dawson Springs baseball team fell to Butler County in five innings on Thursday.
The Bears (2-0) started with five runs in the first inning, then added two more runs in each of the next two innings to go up 9-0. The Panthers (1-1) managed to hold them scoreless in the fourth inning, but Butler added its 10th run in the fifth to seal the mercy rule win.
Bears pitchers Warren Cameron and Justin Elms combined to pitch a five-inning no-hitter against Dawson, allowing just three baserunners on walks.
Sophomore Jacob Guill and junior Devan Baker each went 0-1 with a walk, while junior Tanner Varney finished 0-0 with a walk.
WEBSTER COUNTY 9, UNION COUNTY 0
MORGANFIELD — The Webster County girls’ tennis team swept its opponent for the second straight game, beating Union County on Thursday.
Marissa Austin led things off for Webster (2-0) with a 6-1, 7-5 win in No. 1 Singles, and then Olivia Utley and Natalie Austin won No. 2 and 3 Singles with wins of 8-3 and 8-2, respectively. Abby Corbin got an 8-0 win in No. 4 Singles, and Allie Miesel and Maggie Jones completed the singles sweep with wins of 8-1 and 8-3 in No. 5 and 6 Singles, respectively.
Utley teamed up with Katie Floyd to get a narrow 9-8 (10-8) win in No. 1 Doubles, and then Natalie Austin worked with Krystal Haller to win No. 2 Doubles, 8-1. Anzlea Utley and Viola Fischer completed the sweep with an 8-6 win in No. 3 Doubles.
The Lady Trojans are next scheduled to face rival Henderson County on the road on Monday.
HOPKINS COUNTY CENTRAL 7
LYON COUNTY 2
MORTONS GAP — The Hopkins County Central girls’ tennis team opened its season with a win over Lyon County on Thursday.
Felicity Brasher won No. 1 Singles 6-2, 7-6, but then Lauren Williams lost No. 2 Singles 4-8. But Abby Mitchell and Riley Marsh got things back on track for the Lady Storm (1-0), winning No. 3 and 4 Singles 8-4 and 8-1, respectively. No. 5 and 6 Singles had to be forfeited by the Lady Lyons, as they did not have enough players.
Williams and Ashlyn Slate lost No. 1 Doubles 2-8, but Karigan Osborne and Katie Pyle won No. 2 Doubles 8-6. No. 3 Doubles also had to be forfeited by Lyon due to lack of players.
HOPKINS COUNTY CENTRAL 7
LYON COUNTY 2
MORTONS GAP — Just like the girls’ team, the Hopkins County Central boys’ tennis team started its season with a win over Lyon County on Thursday.
Chase French won No. 1 Singles for Central (1-0) 6-1, 6-2, and although Jarred Crone lost No. 2 Singles 6-8, the rest of the singles matches were all won by the Storm, with victories by Cobie Pyle in No. 3 Singles (8-2), Matt Daves in No. 4 (8-1), Christian Blakeley (8-3) in No. 5 and Romie Fazail in No. 6 (9-7).
Crone and Pyle lost in No. 1 Doubles 4-6, 6-3, 0-1 (5-10), but French and Daves got an 8-1 win in No. 2 Doubles, while Blakeley and Fazail won No. 3 Doubles 9-7.
The Central boys are next scheduled to host Henderson County on Monday.
Both the boys and girls teams will play against Christian County on the road on Thursday.


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Re "Capital steps up Delta battle" (The Public Eye, Aug. 25): Thank god I live in the county. A city that can't afford swimming pools, police officers and firefighters is spending money on public relations, under no-bid contracts to oppose the Delta pipeline project, although it does not affect its interests.
What's next? A public relations expert to convince us on some foreign policy matter?
-- Zane Vorhes, Sacramento

domain: news


Report No. 62
1A.9. Movement in India.-
Similar considerations weighed with the Indian Legislature in enacting the Workmen's Compensation Act in 1923. As pointed out by Dr. Panandikar,1 compensation schemes were not unknown in India. But the worker was always at the mercy of the employer. He could not claim compensation as a matter of right. The compensation was paid only when the employer, out of his kind gesture, granted it. Dr. Hasan2 tells us: "As far back as 1884, workers in Bombay made a demand for compensation in a petition to the Government of India, but nothing came out of it."3
It appears that in 1920, the workers actually agitated, and a number of strikes were organised in the country on this issue.
1. Panandikar's Industrial Labour in India, cited by Vivek Ranjan Bhattacharya Social Security Measures in India, (1970), p. 76.
2. N. Hasan Social Security System of India, (1972), p. 65.
3. Rai Choudhary Social Security in India and Britain, p. 34, cited by Vivek Ranjan Bhattacharya Social Security Measures in India, (1970), p. 76.
1A.9A. Bill of 1922.-
In July 1921, the Government of India addressed the local Governments on the desirability of introducing legislation for the payment of workmen's compensation.1 This was done after a detailed examination of the question by the Government of India. The provisional views of the Government of India were published for general information. The advisability of legislation had been accepted by the great majority of local Governments and of employers' and workers' associations, and the Government of India believed that public opinion generally was in favour of legislation.2
In June 1922, a committee was convened to consider the question. This committee was composed, for the most part, of members of the Imperial legislature. After considering the numerous replies and opinions received by the Government of India, the Committee was unanimously in favour of legislation, and drew up detailed recommendations regarding the lines which, in its opinion, such legislition should follow. The Bill presented in 1922 followed these recommendations5 closely. A number of supplementary provisions were added where necessary, but practically no variations of importance were made.
1. N. Hasan Social Security System of India, (1972), p. 66.
2. Statement of Objects and Reasons annexed to the Bill of 1922 dated 29th August, 1922.


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Accountancy Banking, Finance & Insurance jobs in East Midlands Region
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HR Records Manager Northamptonshire Oakleaf Partnership Midlands are working with a client based in Northamptonshire on obtaining their next HR R
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domain: finance


Three years ago, I said that Operation HOPE was coming to Alabama. At that time my interest was in helping those most impacted by the devastating Alabama tornadoes, led by Fred D. Smith and our HOPE Coalition America division. It took us three years, but we are finally operational in the state. Literally in this instance, representing rainbows after storms.
I was personally hurt by what happened in Alabama following the tornadoes. I new that the federal disaster recovery funds scheduled to flow into the state could have not only helped those impacted by the disaster (to recover and rebuild), I knew that the nearly $1 billion that the federal government was prepared to set aside to help those in the state, could have literally reset the levels of poverty itself in Alabama.
The impact of $1 billion in Alabama might equate to ten times that amount elsewhere. That said, only a small fraction of the intended funding ever made it into the state and into the hands of its residents.
The issue was not fraud or government waste or abuse, but simply a very low level of applicant requests for assistance, in far too many case. Some of this was sadly the result of an abysmally low level of financial IQ, or financial literacy in Alabama. Financial literacy is the civil rights issue of this generation. Particularly, in a place such as Alabama, with such a significant population of low-wealth residents, combined with lower levels of overall educational attainment. This is not a knock on Alabama and its residents, this is a reality — and it must be changed.


Microsoft has bought 65 acres of land in northern San Jose where it plans to build a data center campus, a departure from several prevailing trends in the Silicon Valley data center market.
The center of the country is proving to be the ideal place to add data center capacity. Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon and Microsoft are investing $11 billion in cloud campuses across Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska.
Keeping pace with cloud growth requires creativity and expanding your growth horizon, cloud builders from Google and Microsoft told the recent Infrastructure Masons Summit.
The rise of artificial intelligence, and the GPU computing hardware that often supports it, is reshaping the data center industry’s relationship with power density.
At the Open Compute Summit, Microsoft and NVIDIA unveiled a new hyperscale GPU accelerator for artificial intelligence workloads in the cloud. The HGX-1 harnesses eight NVIDIA Tesla P100 GPUs and high-speed interconnects.
At last week’s Open Compute Summit, Microsoft confirmed that it is test-driving ARM cloud servers from Qualcomm and Cavium in its data centers.
Massive deals by Microsoft drove a 25 percent increase in data center leasing activity from 2015, making 2016 a blockbuster year for wholesale providers, according to a new report, which says 2017 may see a continuation of cloud-driven growth.
Microsoft has introduced a new data center design that replaces its IT-PAC server modules with a traditional data hall. Microsoft has overhauled its approach to cooling, and is now using a fan wall to manage airflow.
Lithium-ion batteries, which power smartphones and laptops, are now being used to keep data centers online. Forsythe Data Center near Chicago is an early adopter of Lithium-ion UPS technology.
Microsoft, Google and Facebook are accelerating their data center expansion in Iowa. The three companies are investing nearly $7 billion in their cloud campuses in the state.


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- My work can be found in REAL: Regarding Arts and Letters, The Jabberwock Review, The Emerson Review, Storyglossia, The MacGuffin, Confrontation, Passages North, SmokeLong Quarterly, elimae, wigleaf, Pank, New Delta Review, and Gargoyle #57, among others. One of my stories has been translated into Farsi by Asadollah Amraee, and many others by Jalil Jafari, two of which have been published in the Iranian journal, Golestaneh Magazine. Currently, I'm an Associate editor for Narrative Magazine. In 2011, I was awarded the Carol Houck Smith Contributor Scholarship for the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Rebellion—New Voices of Fiction
Thomas Jefferson said,
“A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.”
Rebel Press is proud to present an alternative to the safe and familiar names put forth by the major publishers.
This anthology offers fiction that is off the beaten path, by authors who write for art’s sake, for the love of the craft, authors who aren’t afraid to extend the boundaries of the short story.
Please enjoy these fresh new voices.
Join the rebellion.
Matt St. Amand

domain: artistic


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Digital Crate Digging Continues!! check us out, it’s another edition of the Saturday Night Fever.
We’re all up in the house with house music; this is the rebuttal for a non-believer…
Talking all that jazz, when previously O-Dizzle hit you up with demos full of hip hop, funk and jazz? so what are they talking about?
We release this good word similar to Democratic memos in response to the Nunes memos; so what are they talking about?
DJ Spen, Earl Tutu and John Khan Feat. Asia Yarwood mentioned Lies, but that’s from a love perspective..
House music spins; act like you knew son!! so what’s good? all I need is honesty was heard in the chorus / refrain!! respect it!!
Source: THE SONIC ASSAULT!!!…..STEADY BOMBARDMENT!!!!: DJ Spen, Earl Tutu and John Khan Feat. Asia Yarwood – Lies
Digital Crate Digging Continues per Flashback Friday, but back to the future business is conducted!!
We’re all up in the house listening to some house music courtesy of eXogroove with The Soul of House Vol. 52 (Soulful House Mix)! Check out the playlist and the mix!
Kings Of Tomorrow feat. Kandace Springs – Faded (Sandy Rivera Classic Mix)
Diego Auguanno feat Nicole Mitchell – Wanna Be Your (Jamie Lewis Re-Twist)
Aldo Bergamasco feat Karla Brown – Stand Klevakeys feat. Liz Jai – Lifetime
Chanelle – Forever (Angelo Draetta Underground Mix)
Neapolitan Soul feat. Chanelle – Do What We Have to Do (Soulphonix & Reelsoul Remix)
Fabe & Sacchi – Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (Submantra & Dj Umbi Purple Remix)
Alex Millet feat. Deli Rowe – My Stranger In The Night (Original Mix)
Dj Spen, Earl Tutu & John Khan Ft. Asia Yarwood – Lies (Dj Spen & Reelsoul Remix)
Moon Rocket feat. Bel-Ami – Like Wind
Selected & Mixed by eXo

domain: entertainment


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PETALING JAYA: A local council expert has called on Putrajaya to review having a Federal Territories (FT) ministry, saying it is redundant and an inefficient use of taxpayers’ funds as it overlaps the local authorities’ roles and functions.
Lawyer Derek Fernandez said the weak governance which comes with having an FT ministry is clear in the Kuala Lumpur City Plan 2020 (KLCP 2020).
That plan, he said, was gazetted by the new administration with 273 deviations from the draft without public consultation.
“Most of the 273 deviations were never even proposed in the draft in the first place.
“The launch of the draft KL Structure Plan 2040 is now questionable because the credibility of the KLCP 2020 is in doubt,” he told FMT.
Fernandez said the federal territories – Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan – had their own governance structures like local councils, namely Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Perbadanan Putrajaya and Perbadanan Labuan.
“From a good governance and public administration perspective, there is no need to have an FT ministry,” he said, adding that the respective governance structures can operate independently.
“In fact, the existence of this ministry with powers to override and instruct the KL mayor on specific matters actually interferes with the mayor’s ability to carry out his functions properly.”
He said the best way to ensure checks and balances was not having an FT minister that can override the mayor but having a governance structure where no one person had too much power.
“If you look at other local councils, they have one mayor and 24 councillors who make decisions by majority vote to ensure power is not concentrated in one person’s hands.”
But in DBKL’s case, he said, it had no councillors or other persons with voting power, and because of its structure, the mayor actually had to take instructions from the FT minister.
Fernandez said that ideally, the mayor and councillors should be elected to best ensure accountability and transparency in local government decision making.
“But in any case, with most local councils, the state governments as well as the housing and local government ministry provide oversight. DBKL should follow this same structure,” he said, adding that KL MPs could also assist in providing oversight.
“There is also a need for better public participation in the decision making process and access to information which is generally lacking,” he said.

domain: sociology


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A touch of style can transform the humble boot room from an unloved extension into a warm and essential part of the English home. The boot room is a staple feature for country homes across Britain, so why should this well-loved aspect of our homes be overlooked when considering interior design?
The boot room needn’t simply be a practical entry and exit way for messier pursuits. It can and should be stylish too and by considering a few simple design tricks you can clean up this often messy living space to create an extension of your home which is a pleasure to sit in. Honest in use and often compact in size, the boot room should still be treated as part of your country home.
Here, we share our edit of five boot room essentials to furnish your own. Chosen for their balance of style with utility, this edit will make your property a joy to live in, inside and out.
1. Stylish storage
Boot rooms are inevitably well stocked with necessities, from cleaning products to towels for mucky hands and paws, so attractive storage is essential. This log store from Garden Trading is a neat and attractive solution for loose logs to fuel your fire. If your boot room leads directly from the kitchen, consider extending the cabinetry right through. Alternatively, source a sideboard or low dresser to add storage to the space. New pieces can be purchased in sympathetic styles for period homes, or you can opt for quality antiques.
Choosing natural finishes for cabinets and countertops, like wood or stone, will help your boot room to bridge the gap between your home and the outdoors. They’re also often hard wearing, which is essential to a room that will encounter heavy footfall and daily use.
2. Pegged up
Hooks for hats, coats and jackets are another must for your boot room. Cast iron hooks are durable and include a tasteful nod to craftsmanship and country pursuits. They will look equally at home in contemporary and older homes alike. You can opt for a simple, rustic design or a more decorative option such as this hook from Ironmongery World.
3. Boots Off
The eponymous item that gives the boot room its identity, don’t overlook the need to remove your boots easily. Country walks make for muddy boots so purchase an attractive boot jack and position by the door for easy removal when you don’t want to get your hands dirty.
4. Bench Mark
Monk’s benches set the benchmark when it comes to offering practical seating and storage combined. It creates the perfect spot from which to pull on boots, while the seat itself forms an ideal space to stow items. This bench from Nat & Nani has the added benefit of providing a storage solution for coats, hats and jackets. Monk’s benches come in a range of heights and widths but for unusually shaped spaces there are plenty of brands which offer bespoke designs to accommodate more challenging boot room proportions,
Alternatively, look to a cabinet maker or kitchen designer to create a tailor made solution. This smart corner seat and storage design is from Charlie Kingham design. Charlie Kingham likes to utilise every inch of space. In this scheme, he has used otherwise wasted space behind a door to include an integrated coat peg and bench unit, which enables the homeowners to sit and take off their shoes in a contained area.
5. Sure Footed
Humble but helpful, a quality doormat is a boot room essential for almost every home. Working with natural finishes will tone down the roughness of traditional coir doormats, blending it seamlessly into the rest of the interior. Alternatively, there are many decorative galvanised mats or for the proactive gardener the boot scraper designs are perfect for removing excess mud.
To see more storage solutions for the kitchen, click here.
Follow us on Instagram or sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with our various exciting announcements. Our new podcast is out now, celebrating the best of classic English interiors and design, click here to listen.

domain: design


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After finishing the skirts for my 1870’s ballgown, it was time to continue with the bodice.
The pattern I used is the same as for my 1860’s velvet ballgown bodice. It still fitted correctly even with my new corset, so that was easy enough!
The base of the bodice is silk with white cotton interfacing. All pattern pieces were flatlined first, cotton and silk stitched together along the edges.
After flatlining, main construction was pretty straightforward. Simply sew everything together and press open the seams. Two darts are sewn on each side in the front panels. These I left double (didn’t cut them open), because they’re pretty narrow.
The top, bottom & sleeve edges of the bodice are finished with piping. One row for the top and sleeves, two rows for the bottom.
To make the piping, I cut 2,5cm bias strips out of the silk fabric. Placing a cord inside & stitching next to the cord finished the piping.
Applying it was done by stitching it to the right side of the fabric along the edge, the raw edge of the piping facing the edge of the bodice. For the second row, the process was repeated with a second strip closer to the edge. I tried to be careful to stitch as close to the cord as possible, and place the second row of piping as close to the first one as I could.
After stitching, I cut away most of the seam allowance, leaving only the top layer of piping seam allowance. The rest was cut to a couple of mm. The top edge was then folded to the inside twice and stitched down by hand over the seam allowance to make a neat inside finish. The double piping wasn’t perfect, at some places it gaped a little, In those places I made some little stitches to let the rows lie closer together. Especially along the point of the bodice this helped, as that’s the tricky spot due to the strong curve. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with how this turned out as it was a first attempt at double piping.
The inside of the bodice was further finished by stitching down all seam allowances by hand. The typical flatlining construction of Victorian bodices leaves the allowances visible and stitching them down prevents fraying.
After this, boning was put in. I used heavy duty cable ties. They’re a lot cheaper and lighter than steel, and a bodice doesn’t really need the extra strength steel gives when worn over a corset. I made cotton fabric tubes to place the boning in and sewed those down by hand. There are 7 bones in the bodice, center front, on the outter darts, side seams and center back. The bones in the center back were entered slightly differently as this was the edge, so I sewed a cotton strip right sides together to the center back sides and turned this over to the inside catching the bone. I don’t know if this is a period solution, but it worked okay.
Final step to finishing the base of the bodice was sewing the eyelets. The bodice laces in the back and has 12 eyelets on each side, spaced 2cm apart. The first one I sew is always a bit wonky, and they get more even as I go on. Practise makes perfect right?
The last step was trimming the bodice. I originally planned a pleated bertha, but with all the ruching and lace on the skirts I reconsidered. I had just enough of the broad lace to finish the top edge of the bodice in lace. Because I really wanted to let the lace return in the bodice, I chose this option. I had to piece the lace in 2 different places to get enough and had about 1cm left at the end. It’s a bit narrower in the back, mostly because placing it this way was easiest. I do like the effect this gives though. Because the lace only just fits, I also stitched it down on the center front point to avoid it riding up.
I considered putting more trim on the bodice, but I can’t really think of anything that would both look good and retain the ruching/lace theme as seen on the skirts. So I think I’ll keep it like this.
The only thing which might still be added are flowers! My original design features dark red roses along the top skirt and bodice. I still need to pick the exact shade and make these, so that will be the finishing touch!
Very nice! Looking forward to seeing you in it. 😊
I loved seeing the construction details
Thank you! I don’t always remember to take pictures, but I try to, knowing how much I appreciate it in posts by others :).
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⁃ Regular fit
⁃ Super-soft, thick material
⁃ Crossover three-piece hood
⁃ Raglan sleeves
⁃ Woven tab logo to hood
⁃ 100% Polyester
⁃ Model is 6’1” and wears size M
⁃ Label Color: Black
Because your resting deserves a separate wardrobe from your training. The Grade Pullover is made with an incredibly soft fleece material for all-day, everyday ease of wear. Add in versatile, one-tone colorways and a casual silhouette, and this pullover highlights your style to its fullest.
Measure the full circumference of the chest 2.5cm below the underarm.
Measure the full circumference at the narrowest/smallest point of the waist.
Measure the full circumference at the widest/fullest point of the hips.


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Executed to Suppress His Message
Your church cannot share the truth about the Holy Spirit.
This book explains why.
Go Here for More Books
Be sure to read Volume 1, which explains how Christianity evolved
to where it began to suppress our Lord’s teachings.
(questions, comments, and suggestions are appreciated)