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This is an example of a HTML caption with a link. Sign Up for Our Free Newsletter Business Benefits Of Commercial Landscaping

If you own a business or manage a commercial space, you understand the importance of appearances to your customers as well as employees. The state of a business can be reflected clearly in the maintenance of the property as well as the care and time put into the landscape design. Here we look at [...]

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Landscaping services go much further than simple lawn mowing, leaf clean-up, and tree & shrub maintenance. Everything from large excavation of foundation, sewer systems, retaining walls, and pathways (just to name a few) utilize large equipment and require a real plan and blueprint prior to breaking ground. Here well look at the most important [...]

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Whether you need a complete redesign of your current home/commercial landscape, simple updates, or help in choosing the right landscape theme, don't hesitate to contact our knowledgeable team for help in making the right choice and a free project estimate.

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Feb. 27, 2015, 4 a.m.

A RARE moment of heated debate in the Corangamite Shire chamber has ended with a controversial street tree policy being adopted.

A RARE moment of heated debate in the Corangamite Shire chamber has ended with a controversial street tree policy being adopted.

Councillors were asked to adopt the Urban Street Tree Asset Management Plan, which sets out a framework to address issues around species selection, tree removal, protection and maintenance in towns around the shire.

The elm tree avenue in Camperdowns Manifold Street and the towns botanic gardens and the arboretum are exempt from the policy.

There were 10 submissions to the policy, with most saying it was flawed, too cumbersome and difficult to understand and lacked expert advice by qualified arborists.

An initial eight-week consultation period late last year failed to attract any submissions. A second consultation period in February this year had greater success.

Cr Ruth Gstrein moved an alternative motion to defer the decision until a later date so the policy could be reviewed, saying the council needed to listen to the community.

I think this document needs to be fine tuned. I think we can get a much better outcome if we looked at it again, Cr Gstrein said.

We owe it to the community to get it right the first time, rather than keep going back and reviewing.

Excerpt from:
Seeds of discontent as shire adopts tree policy

More than 1,600 new trees could be planted each year in Durham, in hopes of offsetting the loss of hundreds of elderly willow oaks.

At the request of City Council member Steve Schewel, the Durham Environmental Affairs Board recently released its tree report, which calls for the annual planting of 1,680 trees over the next two decades to offset an annual removal of 750 decaying ones. This new plan would add 500 trees in for every 300 out.

A large portion of Durham's shady expanse is composed of willow oaks that were planted in the 1930s and '40s, when public officials maintained close ties to the Duke Forest. But most of the oaks are approaching the end of their 80 to 100 year lifespan, and must be cut down. That could force the city to revise its previous tree policies.

Durham has historically replaced trees at the request of homeowners. Residents split the cost of their new tree with the city and agree to water it. It's a sensible system, but one that benefits more affluent and organized neighborhoods, and penalizes others, particularly low-income areas and those with high percentages of renters.

Alex Johnson, Durham's Urban Forestry Manager, says that he receives the most calls from residents of Trinity Park and Watts-Hillandale. Of 255 replacement requests filed in 2014, more than a third were on either North Duke, North Gregson or Green Street.

"If you take a walk around these communities, you'll notice a lot of smaller, younger trees. If you take one in Northeast Durham, Park Avenue or Hyde Park, you'll see nothing but old, dying trees," Johnson says. "Following a service on-demand model keeps me within my means but it doesn't serve an underserved community."

The tree report frames the willow oak die-off as an opportunity to create a more equitable system. An Urban Forestry Master Plan would use air quality and population data to identify the Durham neighborhoods that would most benefit from a new canopy.

But trees provide more than just shade: they've been linked to significant social, economic and health benefits as well. An average mature tree intercepts 10,000 gallons of polluted storm water and 48 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Over its lifetime, a tree emits enough oxygen to support two people. It increases residential property values, draws customers into shopping areas and lowers crime rates, according to the tree report.

Local groups like Keep Durham Beautiful and Duke Park Neighborhood Association have assisted in nearly 90 percent of the city's recent tree plantings.

"Volunteers are one of the main reasons Durham is able to plant so many trees with such a small budget," says EAB chair Elizabeth Chan. "I expect that they'll play a huge role in future replanting."

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Durham needs 1,600 new trees a year

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L.A.-based Two Sheds all began with a dare in 2005, whenJohnny Gutenberger wanted his wife to write songs that might match the beauty of her voice. Ten years, one album, a break here, a side project there, and a few rotating members all over later, the band of Johnny and Caitlin Gutenberger, Josh Barnhart, Phil Krohnengold, and Tess Shapiro are prepping the release of their second album, Assembling, out May 26 on Crossbill Records.

In advance, EW is premiering You Get To Me, a wonderfully smokey, slightly bluesy track off the collection. It doesnt take much more than a few bars to see why Johnny originally dared Caitlin. The track and upcoming tour dates are below.

Upcoming Tour Dates:

Feb. 24 Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite Feb. 25 San Francisco, CA @ Noise Pop (The Chapel)

March 27 Boise, ID @ Treefort (Neurolux) March 28 Tacoma, WA @ TBA March 29 Portland, OR @ Valentines

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Two Sheds premiere 'You Get To Me'exclusive

TIME U.S. LGBT Report Sheds New Light on Lives of Homeless Gay Youth Christoph HetzmannsederGetty Images Youth in New York share experiences selling their bodies in order to survive in new Urban Institute report

A new report paints a grim picture of homeless youths selling their bodies in order to survive on the streets.

In partnership with the New York-based Streetwise and Safe, the Urban Institute interviewed 283 youths who had engaged in sex work or so-called survival sex with people of the same gender, mostly while homeless, for its latest study.

The research built on several studies on homeless youth, including a survey out of New York that found that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender youth were seven times more likely to have traded sex for food or a place to stay.

Meredith Dank, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute and lead author of the study, said she realized during earlier research on sex work that there was not enough good information about why LGBT youths made these decisions, so the study focused on letting them tell their own stories.

I realized at that point that there was so much that we didnt know about this population, she tells TIME. And if we were really going to be able to serve the needs of these young people we needed to know exactly what their experiences were and the large breadth of their experiences.

Many of the stories detailed in the report are telling; and a great deal of those who engaged in the work didnt identify as gaybut they found themselves selling their bodies to people of the same sex in order to survive.

One 20-year-old straight male described his experience: He asked me like do you really need the money? At that moment I thought I did. I felt I did and . . . like it was just like he grabbed me by like my waist and he just started doing it. And it was like . . . and I just like, try to close my eyes. Just try to think about something else.

Another 19-year-old gay Latino said he felt he had no choice: If you have no food in your stomach, if you have no transportation, but you have a man in your face willing to give you money for a half hour. You put your pride to the side, you throw everything out the window and you forget who you are and you forget what youre doing and you learn to be someone else.

The exact number of homeless youth is hard to pin down. In 2014, the Department of Education reported that 1.3 million school children are homeless. The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that a total of 578,424 people were homeless on a given night in 2014about 10% were between the ages of 18 and 24. According to some estimates, as many as 40% of homeless youths are LGBT.

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Report Sheds New Light on Lives of Homeless Gay Youth

A three-character code brings relief to patients with psoriasis and sheds light on complex immunoregulation processes: IL-4, an abbreviation for the endogenous signaling molecule Interleukin 4. The substance's ability to inhibit inflammation is well known, but its mechanism of action was not fully understood. Scientists from the Technische Universitt Mnchen (TUM) and the University of Tbingen have now shown in an animal model and in a study on patients exactly how IL-4 helps against psoriasis at the molecular level and the important role it plays in our immune system.

Inflammation is a defense strategy of the body against invaders. Increased amounts of blood and fluid flow into the infected areas, and the release of signaling molecules summon immune cells to the site of infection to effectively neutralize the pathogens. However, poorly coordinated or misdirected immune reactions can trigger inflammation even in the absence of external agents, thus causing undue tissue damage. This is the case in psoriasis and other autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The body's own signaling molecule as a therapy candidate

"Together with colleagues from Tbingen, we were able to show in earlier studies that the signaling molecule IL-4 is a promising candidate for the treatment of psoriasis," explains Prof. Tilo Biedermann, who holds the chair for Dermatology and Allergology and is Director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Dermatology and Allergology. "However, before IL-4 can be used as a standardized medication, we have to understand the exact mechanism of action -- and we've now succeeded in doing just that."

The scientists followed a translational approach in their study -- the laboratory findings were applied to patients without delay. They first used human and mouse cells to unravel the molecular effects of IL-4 on inflammation. To this effect, the scientists discovered that IL-4 inhibits specific immune cells in a natural way: it prevents the cells from synthesizing and releasing two signaling molecules, known as IL-23 and IL-17.

"The discovery is very interesting in that IL-23 activates special T-cells in the body, thus triggering inflammation. Evidently IL-4 is able to effectively block this pathway," says Biedermann. In subsequent experiments with mice, the scientists also found that administration of IL-4 specifically inhibits inflammation of the skin via this mechanism.

IL-4 reduces psoriasis in patients

The scientists also checked the findings from the animal model in a patient study. Twenty-two patients with psoriasis received subcutaneous injections of IL-4 over a period of six weeks. Tilo Biedermann and his colleagues then examined samples from the patients' affected skin areas before and after the treatment.

The results confirmed the previous experiments: Before treatment with IL-4, the study participants had high levels of IL-23 and IL-17 in their inflamed and itchy skin. After successful treatment, the two substances were barely detectable. The result was that inflammation and psoriatic skin changes had disappeared.

"Our study results show that IL-4 very selectively and successfully suppresses inflammation. This therapeutic approach could therefore be very interesting for the treatment of other autoimmune diseases," explains Biedermann. "Moreover, we now have a better understanding of how IL-4 functions as an important 'checkpoint' in the immune system and will be able to better appreciate and exploit its significance in the future."

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Marshaling the body's own weapons against psoriasis

Published: Friday, February 27, 2015 at 6:01 a.m. Last Modified: Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 8:51 p.m.

Statewide, 475 proposed projects totaling $1.2 billion have flowed into the Florida House of Representatives' Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee.

Alachua County's local governments and officials have got in on the action as well.

The largest local request is $12 million that state Rep. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville, is seeking to dredge Bivens Arm, the polluted, muck-filled lake into which a large swath of Gainesville drains, carrying phosphates, nitrates and sediment.

Perry has lived in a home on the shore of Bivens Arm for 28 years. He said it has never been a particularly healthy lake during that time, but he said its health and water levels have continued to decline as algae, high nitrate and low oxygen levels have choked the water body and led to fish kills.

East of Gainesville, Alachua County government has submitted a much smaller request for a study on how to clean up a much larger lake with much greater public access.

The county has put in a $312,400 request for an Orange Creek Basin Restoration Initiative study that would look at potential ways, including dredging, to remove and dispose of the 8 feet of muck on average that coats the bottom of Newnan's Lake.

Alachua County Environmental Protection Department Director Chris Bird said one significant question involved in potentially dredging Newnan's Lake is the presence of several dozen ancient canoes, some dating back 5,000 years, scattered across the lake bed.

Other parts of the county's requested study include looking at ways to stop stormwater runoff from eroding the natural phosphate deposits in Little Hatchet Creek and carrying them downstream to Newnan's Lake.

Six local municipalities Alachua, Archer, Hawthorne, High Springs, Newberry and Waldo have submitted a combined $13.3 million in requests for water and sewer infrastructure projects. Waldo, Hawthorne and Alachua want to upgrade or replace aging water and sewer infrastructure. Archer continues to seek money $3 million in this request to construct a sewer system and wastewater treatment plant. High Springs seeks nearly $2.5 million to expand its sewer system. Newberry seeks $3 million for a sewer plant upgrade and a reclaimed water system for irrigation.

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Among local water requests, Perry seeks $12 million to dredge polluted Bivens Arm

That ancient Roman architecture grew out of the influence of Greek and Etruscan styles is an indication of the closeness of interaction between cultures in the Mediterranean region and how civilizations adopted and evolved from each others influence. The Roman architectural style can be traced to Greek and Etruscan styles, the roots of these forming the basis of a style that would be adapted to reflect the aspirations and self awareness of the emerging Roman consciousness.

The Dorians and Ionians developed the architecture of classical Greece, hence the Doric and Ionic orders, which are systems of columnar design which formed the most striking feature of that architecture, and were mainly used to create an impressive exterior effect. It was the most important element in the temple architecture of the Greeks, and an almost indispensable adornment of their gateways, public squares, and temple enclosures. Each of the two types had its own special shaft, capital, entablature, mouldings, and ornaments, although considerable variation was allowed in the proportions and minor details. The general type, however, remained substantially unchanged from first to last.

There are three Greek orders in classical architecture, Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian, and two Latin orders, Tuscan and Composite, although the Romans also used the Greek orders with detail changes. The first and simplest of the three Greek orders, the Doric, has a plain bell-shaped capital, and was intended by the ancient Greeks to convey masculine form and dignity, basing its proportion on the average mans foot compared to his height. The Ionic order is characterized by the two large volutes of the capital, and compared to the ruder, masculine Doric, the order was seen as feminine, depicting a mature woman in its design and proportions. The third of the Grecian orders, the Corinthian, is recognized by a bell shaped capital adorned with rows of acanthus leaves transforming into helices and volutes. Compared to the other Greek orders , the Corinthian is a riot of decoration, and reflected the Corinthians, who were wealthy and liked to flaunt their wealth through their surroundings.

The Tuscan order is the simplest and most basic of the five orders, and is similar to Doric but without decoration. This style was developed by the Etruscans, who lived in what is now Tuscany, and in an ancient example of ethnic cleansing the Etruscan civilization was obliterated by the Romans, together with its language, with only Etruscan architecture and their engineering achievements such as the invention of the arch, being adopted by the Romans. It is characterized by its simplicity in comparison with the other orders, leading Ruskin to complain that Tuscan.is no order at all, but a spoiled Doric.

The Composite order was a mixture of Ionian and Corinthian, which literally means to put together. Vitruvius did not recognize the Composite order, but Sebastiano Serlio diffidently proposed its inclusion in 1537 as almost a fifth style, a mixture of the said pure ones, and it has since been universally accepted. Serlio argued that since the Greek columns had represented men (Doric), women (Ionic), and virgins (Corinthian), and since Rome had triumphed over the rest of the known world, it could rightly create its own order as a combination of the classic orders.

The Greek employed strict rules regarding the way their buildings were to be constructed, and allowed only minor variations of the orders to be used in any construction. The main philosophy behind Greek architecture dealt with reflecting the honesty or trueness of forms, as are displayed in life and the natural world. This is evidenced clearly by the Greeks refusal to deviate from traditional forms in construction even when using new construction methods with different materials. The triglyph and metope which were carved into marble or stone construction were intended to imitate the rafter ends and spacings of wooden beams of earlier wooden construction techniques. Rather than developing a different style they chose to repeat the visual representation of traditional buildings in their true form. The ancient Greeks placed great importance on building temples to their gods, and endeavoured to bring a sense of humanity and art to their architectural forms.

Ancient Greek interior decoration may have looked like this.

The Romans were more concerned with developing new technological and engineering techniques rather than creating buildings for any philosophical or solely artistic reasons. By invading and conquering different territories they literally took from other cultures their greatest achievements and adapted them for their own use for the benefit and glory of advancing the Roman empire. Although the Romans, like the Greeks built temples to their gods, the Romans were far more interested in building amphitheatres, aqueducts, bathhouses, and were generally more secular in their mindset. Building impressive monuments, basilicas, palaces, and feats of engineering that would pay homage to the greatness of Rome and its emperor was far more important to the Romans than fawning to the metaphysical or the divine.

Dwellings were constructed in Roman cities and towns to suit the occupation of the owner, to reflect their social status, and to facilitate their trade. The Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius makes this intention clear when he states that the buildings will be arranged with convenience and perfection to suit every purpose. He further states that:

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History of Interior Design in Five Posts Part 1 ...