583 research outputs found

    Texas Governor\u27s Race to the Run-Off Election June, 1968 as Seen Through the Script-Files of Television Station K.C.E.N. Temple-Waco, Texas: A Study in Media Fostered Public Attitudes

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    The problem of this study arises out of the controversial nature of the discussion surrounding the social usefulness of the television media as it reflects and sets the tone of basic issues in contemporary American life. The functional nature of the media in the establishing of public policy and the tremendous possibilities it has for shaping the nature and response to contemporary history has elicited the attention of scholars and commentators alike. It shall be the purpose of this study, then, to see what the message conveyed by the media television is. The study will seek to answer the following questions: Does the media of television foster public attitudes? What are the methods and techniques of developing these attitudes? May the media be expected to show bias? What is the significance of such findings on the public utility of media in general? May the media be used as a source of historical documentation? The material scope of this study extends from January 1968 to June 1968. The candidates officially entered the race for the Governorship in January and the race did not end until the run-off election in June; therefore, what they said was selected and reflected by the station during that time through the Script- Files of Station KCEN Television, Temple-Waco, Texas

    U.S. v. Microsoft: Did Consumers Win?

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    U.S. v. Microsoft and the related state suit filed in 1998 appear finally to have concluded. In a unanimous en banc decision issued in late June 2004, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges to the remedies approved by the District Court in November 2002. The wave of follow-on private antitrust suits filed against Microsoft also appears to be subsiding. In this paper we review the remedies imposed in the United States, in terms of both their relationship to the violations found and their impact on consumer welfare. We conclude that the remedies addressed the violations ultimately found by the Court of Appeals (which were a subset of those found by the original district court and an even smaller subset of the violations alleged, both in court and in public discourse) and went beyond them in important ways. Thus, for those who believe that the courts were right in finding that some of Microsoft's actions harmed competition, the constraints placed on its behavior and the active, ongoing oversight by the Court and the plaintiffs provide useful protection against a recurrence of such harm. For those who believe that Microsoft should not have been found liable because of insufficient evidence of harm to consumers, the remedies may be unnecessary, but they avoided the serious potential damage to consumer welfare that was likely to accompany the main alternative proposals. The remedies actually imposed appear to have struck a reasonable balance between protecting consumers against the types of actions found illegal and harming consumers by unnecessarily restricting Microsoft's ability to compete.

    In My View

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    I am pleased that in his review of my book, The Russian Presidency (Naval War College Review, Summer 2001, pp. 165–8), Sergei Khrushchev agreed with me (and we are among a very few in the scholarly community who have agreed on this issue) that presidentialism will serve Russia better than the parliamentary alternative. But elsewhere, Dr. Khrushchev disagrees with me, and I am writing not only to clarify to readers of the Review the nature of that disagreement but also to take issue with places where I believe he has mischaracterized the book

    Nonlinear reduced models for state and parameter estimation

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    State estimation aims at approximately reconstructing the solution uu to a parametrized partial differential equation from mm linear measurements, when the parameter vector yy is unknown. Fast numerical recovery methods have been proposed based on reduced models which are linear spaces of moderate dimension nn which are tailored to approximate the solution manifold M\mathcal{M} where the solution sits. These methods can be viewed as deterministic counterparts to Bayesian estimation approaches, and are proved to be optimal when the prior is expressed by approximability of the solution with respect to the reduced model. However, they are inherently limited by their linear nature, which bounds from below their best possible performance by the Kolmogorov width dm(M)d_m(\mathcal{M}) of the solution manifold. In this paper we propose to break this barrier by using simple nonlinear reduced models that consist of a finite union of linear spaces VkV_k, each having dimension at most mm and leading to different estimators uku_k^*. A model selection mechanism based on minimizing the PDE residual over the parameter space is used to select from this collection the final estimator uu^*. Our analysis shows that uu^* meets optimal recovery benchmarks that are inherent to the solution manifold and not tied to its Kolmogorov width. The residual minimization procedure is computationally simple in the relevant case of affine parameter dependence in the PDE. In addition, it results in an estimator yy^* for the unknown parameter vector. In this setting, we also discuss an alternating minimization (coordinate descent) algorithm for joint state and parameter estimation, that potentially improves the quality of both estimators

    U.S. vs. Microsoft: Did Consumers Win?

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    U.S. v. Microsoft and the related state suit filed in 1998 appear to have concluded. In a unanimous en banc decision issued in late June 2004, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected challenges to the remedies specified in a settlement reached in late 2001 and approved by the District Court in November 2002. The wave of dozens of follow-on private antitrust suits filed against Microsoft also appears to be subsiding, following many settlements and some dismissals. Related issues, however, continue to be the focus of competition agencies outside the United States, including the European Union and Korea. In this paper we review the remedies imposed in the United States, in terms of both their relationship to the violations found and their impact on consumer welfare. We conclude that the remedies addressed the violations ultimately found by the Court of Appeals (which were a subset of those found by the original district court and an even smaller subset of the violations alleged, both in court and in public discourse) and went beyond them in important ways. Thus, for those who believe that the courts were right in finding that some of Microsoft's actions harmed competition, the constraints placed on its behavior and the active, ongoing oversight by the Court and the plaintiffs provide useful protection against a recurrence of such harm. For those who believe that Microsoft should not have been found liable, because of insufficient evidence of harm to consumers, the remedies may be unnecessary, but they avoided the serious potential damage to consumer welfare that was likely to accompany the structural remedy imposed by the original district court and the more extreme restrictions on conduct later proposed by some of the state plaintiffs. The remedies imposed appear to have struck a reasonable balance between protecting consumers against the types of actions found illegal, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, avoiding excessive restrictions that would harm consumers by restricting Microsoft's ability to compete in pro-competitive ways.Technology and Industry

    Drinfeld twists of the open XXZ chain with non-diagonal boundary terms

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    The Drinfeld twists or factorizing F-matrices for the open XXZ spin chain with non-diagonal boundary terms are constructed. It is shown that in the F-basis the two sets of pseudo-particle creation operators simultaneously take completely symmetric and polarization free form. The explicit and completely symmetric expressions of the two sets of Bethe states of the model are obtained.Comment: Latex file, 25 page

    3.14 Rio 2016 and the Birth of Brazilian Transparency

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    Brazil’s modern democracy is but three decades old. With the Brazilian people now taking to the streets in protest at public corruption, the government is enacting new laws and learning to effectively enforce them. The nation is thus feeling the growing pains of an emergent commitment to transparency. In this, the window between Brazil’s hosting of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, it is timely to ask what the spotlight of these two events has revealed about the nation’s anti-corruption measures. How is the government responding to exposed corruption risk? Will the Olympics ultimately make good on their promise to be an agent of positive change? This brief article discusses issues related to Brazil’s federal anti-corruption laws generally, its changing procurement laws and the Olympic contracts and governance organisations

    Analysis of environmental factors influence on endemic cholera risks in sub-Saharan Africa

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    The recurring cholera outbreaks in sub-Saharan Africa are of growing concern, especially considering the potential acceleration in the global trend of larger and more lethal cholera outbreaks due to the impacts of climate change. However, there is a scarcity of evidence-based research addressing the environmental and infrastructure factors that sustain cholera recurrence in Africa. This study adopts a statistical approach to investigate over two decades of endemic cholera outbreaks and their relationship with five environmental factors: water provision, sanitation provision, raising temperatures, increased rainfall and GDP. The analysis covers thirteen of the forty-two countries in the mainland sub-Saharan region, collectively representing one-third of the region's territory and half of its population. This breadth enables the findings to be generalised at a regional level. Results from all analyses consistently associate water provision with cholera reduction. The stratified model links increased water provision with a reduction in cholera risk that ranged from 4.2 % to 84.1 % among eight countries (out of 13 countries) as well as a reduction of such risk that ranged from 9.8 % to 68.9 % when there is increased sanitation provision, which was observed in nine countries (out of 13). These results indicate that the population's limited access to water and sanitation, as well as the rise in temperatures, are critical infrastructure and environmental factors contributing to endemic cholera and the heightened risk of outbreaks across the sub-Saharan region. Therefore, these are key areas for targeted interventions and cross-border collaboration to enhance resilience to outbreaks and lead to the end of endemic cholera in the region. However, it is important to interpret the results of this study with caution; therefore, further investigation is recommended to conduct a more detailed analysis of the impact of infrastructure and environmental factors on reducing cholera risk

    Encapsulated fish oil products available in the UK meet regulatory guidelines with respect to EPA + DHA contents and oxidative status

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    Encapsulated fish oil products continue to be of high interest, particularly concerning labelling claims and oxidative status. Thus, the present study analysed twenty‐three encapsulated fish oil products from the UK for their lipid and fatty acid composition as well as oxidation parameters. Oil contents ranged from 91.4‐118.9% of the manufacturers stated level. Lipid class analyses revealed three different types of oil products consisting of either triacylglycerol (TAG), ethyl ester (EE) or in combination (EE/TAG). Fatty acid profiles varied according to oil form with long‐chain omega‐3 fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), more concentrated in EE compared to TAG‐based oils with TAG/EE oils containing intermediary levels. Twelve products had EPA + DHA contents lower than advertised, although this was reduced to 11 when the actual measured capsule oil content was taken into consideration. All products had peroxide (PV) and anisidine values below those set by pharmacopeias, although four products had a PV above the industry set limit of 5 meq.kg−1. No relationships were found between oxidative parameters and missing EPA + DHA contents, although a significant relationship was observed between PV and days to expiry. In summary, encapsulated fish oil products on the UK market are not oxidized and meet regulatory guidelines with respect to EPA + DHA contents and oxidative status. Practical Applications: The study highlights the importance of quantifying the actual capsule oil content when determining EPA + DHA levels with respect to label claims. Furthermore, it also places results into context regarding regulatory guidelines demonstrating to regulatory bodies and consumers alike that UK fish oil products do meet specification and are not oxidised

    Pneumocephalus after the Treatment of an Inoperable Superior Sulcus Tumor with Chemoradiation

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    Background. Pneumocephalus is a rare phenomenon that can occur as a complication after operations involving the thoracic discs, following thoracotomy for tumor resection, and after an intracranial operation or cranial trauma. This complication frequently occurs when a tumor is located in the costovertebral angle and an operative intervention creates a tear in the dura resulting in a pleural-dural fistula. Case Presentation. We describe the case of a 58-year-old man with an inoperable superior sulcus tumor who developed pneumocephalus after the initiation of chemoradiation secondary to a pleural-dural fistula. Conclusions. Although a rare occurrence, pneumocephalus should be considered when patients with tumors in the superior sulcus treated with radiation develop neurologic symptoms characteristic of increased intracranial pressure
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