The Publishers League

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If you have an entire house to decorate, it can seem like a daunting prospect but you can tackle one room at a time, one element at a time. Start with the basics of lighting, color, flooring then add in key pieces of furniture and soft furnishings before finishing with some great accessories.

It can seem easiest to decide on a theme in the beginning and to stick with that theme as you make your decorating decisions. For example, if you decided at the outset to use a southwest decorating theme you would know which colors to choose for wall paint and to look for a southwestern style rug rather than a contemporary one.

But themes are very limiting and even if you just make a color scheme, you can get tired of it quite quickly (and you may find you whole house out of date before too long).

It may be best to have an eclectic mix of things you love while still sticking to design principles, such as balancing light and dark colors and using colors which work well together. It allows you to be both fashionable and flexible in your choices and you will end up with an interior which uniquely reflects your personality and not a style that you have just because you read about it on the pages of an interior design magazine. If this means mixing an antique chest of drawers with a hot pink rug then so be it.

Do your thinking over some time and allow yourself plenty of time for planning your decorating projects. These things cannot be rushed. You might like to paint your home in a neutral color such as cream while you get your ideas together if you cannot bear the thought of unpainted walls. That way you will not feel rushed into making decorating decisions you might regret.

photo credit: cote

There is currently a variety of A3 printers in the market. Similar to desktop printers, there are a lot of combinations of features for an A3 printer which makes them suitable for different kinds of purposes. There are A3 printers that are designed for printing photo quality outputs. This makes it suitable for printing brochures and presentations. However, there are also A3 printers that are designed to do heavy printing.

For purposes of comparison, let’s take a look at the Xerox Docuprint 3055 and the Epson Stylus Pro 4880 to see if they have what it takes to do heavy printing tasks. Both are A3 printers that are currently available in the market.

Speed
In terms of speed, the Xerox Docuprint 3055 produces 35 pages per minute. That’s a page in under 2 seconds. In short, you could have five 7-page newsletters in 1 minute. However, the Epson Stylus Pro 4880 produces a borderless picture the size of 11” x 14” in 6 minutes. That’s more than 200 times less the printing speed of the Xerox Docuprint 3055.

Capacity
The Xerox Docuprint 3055 has a standard capacity of 700 sheets. It is also extendable up to 2,350 pages. From capacity alone, it is obvious that it is designed to take on heavy duty printing. The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 has a standard tray of 250 sheets. Aside from that, it holds a roll of 17” wide paper as long 132” at most. This is roughly equivalent to an additional of 135 A3 size sheets. This capacity is obviously not designed for mass production of documents.

Print Quality
The Xerox Docuprint 3055 is a monochrome printer and it doesn’t have color-printing features. It is able to print at a resolution 1200 x 1200 dots per inch. Being a laser printer, crisper black is expected from it. While it doesn’t produce great portraits, it is well suited for printing articles on newsletters. The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 however leads in this aspect by providing resolutions as high as 2880 x 1440dpi. This is very suitable when printing posters or portraits.

Connectivity
Both the Xerox Docuprint 3055 and Epson Stylus Pro 4880 allow USB and Ethernet connectivity. This means that both printers are not designed as personal printers only, they are designed to be network printers as well.

The Verdict
The Xerox Docuprint 3055 makes a good printer for heavier printing needs. The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 is good for making high quality colored outputs. This brings us to a conclusion that there are some A3 printers that can take on heavy printing tasks and there are some that cannot. Top printer manufacturers like HP, Canon and Brother have their own line of A3 printers as well.

To answer the question, “Can A3 printers do heavy printing tasks?” The answer is some can and some can’t. If you have a lot of printing needs, enough to call it “heavy”, then look for A3 printer that is designed exactly for that purpose, like the Xerox Docuprint 3055.

Laser liposuction offers benefits that other methods just cannot come close to. While there are smaller procedures that are less invasive and have a significantly reduced risk, they are often too small for the significant results most patients desire. In many cases a surgical liposuction procedure is required and among those, laser liposuction is probably the best option. This is because the laser used to liquefy the fat before the suction occurs, so is much more accurate at targeting the fat cells than traditional liposuction. This increased accuracy means lowered risk of damaging other tissues near the treated area.

Since laser assisted liposuction is an outpatient method, the surgery will normally happen in your surgeon’s own clinic. During laser liposuction, the patient stays conscious throughout the procedure, and will be cleared to leave the clinic when the operation is done. A further benefit is the fact that most patients can return to all their normal daily routine after just one or two days of rest.

Guidelines for someone who may be a good candidate for laser lipolysis surgery are normally identical to the ones with conventional liposculpture. Particularly, the candidate should be no more than 30 pounds over their ideal weight, and should be in general in excellent physical condition. With any type of liposuction, the ideal candidate furthermore will have kept a constant weight for over a year and also has satisfactory skin elasticity around the area to be treated.

Once body fat cells are removed, they will be completely removed. Unlike alternative kinds of weight-loss treatment, laser lipolysis effects are normally life-long. Adults don’t create extra fat cells. When an adult body gains weight, existing fat cells swell. With laser liposuction treatment, the laser melts the fat, and the entire cells are removed from the patient’s body. As soon as the fatty cells are drained by laser fat removal surgery, the patient is forever released from those fat cells.

On of the big growth areas for many brokers who offer algorithmic trading services to their customers these days is in algorithm customization.

The Buy-side is generally a lot more sophisticated than it used to be, so the Sell-side has to cater to that. Accordingly, brokers are now helping clients to customize their strategies and fine-tune the algorithms so that they work exactly how their clients want them to work.

Many brokers offer “canned strategies” as standard and then tweak them to suit the needs of individual clients. Some even allow the clients to tweak or tune the strategies themselves.

Of course there is a difference between tuning an algo trading strategy that is already available and building a new one from scratch. But even a “canned” algorithmic trading strategy generally has a number of parameters that can be adjusted by the client from their own desktop.

In this way, algorithmic trading is evolving, particularly with the introduction of FIX ATDL (Algorithmic Trading Definition Language). This technology allows changes to be made to an algorithm, by a client, at parameter level.

This is how some brokers are now differentiating themselves in what is becoming an increasingly crowded market. The brokers who are ahead of the game are those who are able to offer this kind of framework, for customised algorithms, to their clients. The ones who are struggling to keep up are the brokers who are unable to offer this service.

As recently as five years ago, most brokers were only able to offer customized algorithms as “one-offs”, which was expensive from the client perspective. But since the introduction of FIX ATDL, there is now a standard framework in place for delivering algorithms to a client and giving them the flexibility to tweak and fine-tune those algorithms. FIX ATDL provides a solid foundation for rapidly deploying and delivering custom algorithms.

This is a key differentiator for the brokers who have adopted this standard. They can deliver custom algorithms more quickly and more flexibly to their clients, at a much lower cost.

For more information about this topic, listen to the Algorithmic Trading Podcast

Diabetes is one of the most common and fast-rising lifestyle diseases today. Each year, there are more than 82,000 amputations reported. This does not include the unrecorded cases, not to mention those undiagnosed and even unaware that they have the disease. Diabetes can strike anytime on anyone and even the seemingly healthy people do not know that they are already suffering from it.

Diabetes can either be genetic or acquired. It occurs when the body rejects insulin or there is an excessively high level of blood sugar in the body. The immune system is suppressed, disabling white blood cells from attacking infections. This results in several complications like cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney failure, impaired nerves, atherosclerosis or hardening of the arteries walls, high cholesterol level and high blood pressure. But one of the urgent problems resulting from diabetes is amputation. Since there is loss of sensation on the feet, a diabetic patient is unable to determine if he or she has a cut or blister that, no matter how small at first, and when neglected or left untreated, will gradually develop into an infection caused by fungi or bacteria slowly eating up the skin. Because there is poor blood circulation around the feet, further complicated by delayed wound healing, the infection spreads up and in order to stop it from further affecting the other parts of the body, the infected part has to be amputated. This is why people with diabetes should take extra care of their feet.

Men tend to be more prone to foot problems than women. This must be because they are usually more physically active and therefore sweat a lot. Because of this, men’s socks for diabetes are especially designed to protect the feet while making it as comfortable as possible. Diabetic socks are made of hypo-allergenic, micro-fiber, moisture-wicking materials that prevent sweating of the feet. Moisture and sweat are perfect breeding grounds for fungi and bacteria that’s why diabetic people should always keep their feet clean and dry. Unlike regular socks, diabetic socks are seamless to prevent abrasions. They are made of elastic cotton material for a snug fit. Tight-fitting socks cause red lines around the feet which can easily lead to infection. Socks that are too loose on the other hand, slide down and inside the shoes, causing another stress to the sensitive feet. Diabetic men’s socks fit just right to feel both protective and comfortable. Moreover, they have a wider toe area to provide more space to breathe and move in when wearing shoes.

Aside from its functional and therapeutic benefits, diabetic socks also come in different styles, lengths and colors to appear fashionable. And since men are usually involved in sports, diabetic men’s socks are designed to provide protection for each specific activity. He can therefore choose from calf-length socks, crew socks, and quarter socks, among others. These are usually gel-padded socks made from soft and breathable materials to absorb shock and cushion the feet while doing physical activities. Some men’s socks also have colloidal silver particles woven inside the soles to absorb the moisture from excessive sweating.

Having diabetes is not the end of your world. In fact, with proper diet and exercise, regular check-ups and medication, and sufficient knowledge and vigilance of the disease, men, and women alike, can go on with their lives, active and happy with their family and friends.

There are many myths surrounding laser hair removal as well as a lot of interest in it. It sounds so futuristic as if little men in space ships are coming to zap our unwanted hair and kill it. But the truth is a little more mundane. Here are three things that may sway your decision about whether to use the laser hair removal technique to get rid of excess hair.

1. Hair is Not Immediately Killed

One session of laser hair removal does not remove hair and stop it ever growing again. The object of the exercise is to damage the hair follicles so that they lose their ability to produce hair. But the damage must be done at the right time – while the hair is actively growing – and also must be extensive enough to have the desired effect. This means that several treatments will be needed to have an effect on any one area of your body and hair will continue to grow between these sessions until it has suffered enough damage at the right time.

2. It Does Not Work for Everyone

Those with blond, red or gray hair need not apply as laser treatment is ineffective unless hair is dark. (The laser attacks the pigment in the hair.) If your skin is dark things will be tricky too because a standard machine will also target the pigment in skin too and damage it. A particular type of machine is needed for dark skin which may or may not be available in your local laser hair removal clinic. And in any case it is not so effective as treatment on those with fair skin.

3. It Offers Only Permanent Reduction

After spending hundreds (and, more usually, thousands) of dollars you may find that some of your hair still grows back. Laser treatment can only be offered as a method of permanent reduction (rather than removal) in unwanted hair. Having said that, most people who have the treatment are happy enough with the level of removal or reduction that they are ready to go on to treat other areas of their body.