public function safe_ucfirst($seperator, $word)
{
# uppercase words split by the seperator (ex. dashes or periods)
$parts = explode($seperator, $word);
foreach ($parts as $word) {
$words[] = $this->is_camel_case($word) ? $word : ucfirst(strtolower($word));
}
return implode($seperator, $words);
}