The Death Knell For the Death Penalty and the Significance of Global Realism to its Abolition from Glossip v. Gross to Brumfield v. Cain

Objectives For the last decade a host of different projects have been launched to allow persons who are concerned about their hearing status to quickly and at a low cost test their hearing ability. Most often, this is carried out without collecting complementary information that could be correlated with hearing impairment. In this two-part study we first, present the development and validation of a novel Internet-based hearing test, and second, report on the associations between this test and phonological representation, quality of life and self-reported hearing difficulties. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting An opportunity sample of participants was recruited at the Stockholm central station for the first study. All parts of the second study were conducted via the Internet, with testing and self-report forms adapted for online use. Participants The first part of the study was carried out in direct contact with the participants, and participants from the second study were recruited by means of advertisements in newspapers and on webpages. The only exclusion criterion was that participants had to be over 18 years old. Most participants were between 60 and 69 years old. There were almost an equal number of men and women (total n=316). Outcome measures 48 participants failed the Internet-based hearing screening test. The group failing the test reported more problems on the Amsterdam Inventory of Auditory Disability. In addition, they were found to have diminished phonological representational skills. However, no difference in quality of life was found. Conclusions Almost one in five participants was in need of contacting their local hearing clinic. This group had more complaints regarding tinnitus and hyperacusis, rated their own hearing as worse than those who passed, and had a poorer capability of generating accurate phonological representations. This study suggests that it is feasible to screen for hearing status online, and obtain valid data

Cosmological Two-stream Instability

Two-stream instability requires, essentially, two things to operate: a relative flow between two fluids and some type of interaction between them. In this letter we provide the first demonstration that this mechanism may be active in a cosmological context. Building on a recently developed formalism for cosmological models with two, interpenetrating fluids with a relative flow between them, we show that two-stream instability may be triggered during the transition from one fluid domination to the other. We also demonstrate that the cosmological expansion eventually shuts down the instability by driving to zero the relativeflow and the coupling between the two fluids.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures. Final version that is publishe

The Enabling of School Participants' Access to Negotiation of Meaning: A Way of Improving Intercultural Understanding

RoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League is an international artificial intelligence (AI) competition in which computer programs compete in soccer. This report will present the work of analyzing the successful teamWrightEagle, and the isolation of the key strategic and behavioral aspects that make them successful. It will also present the work of creating a new team in which the aspects exctracted from WrightEagle has been implemented, but in a much simpler way. It was found that good passing play, good stamina preservation and the ability to stay spread out wereWrightEagle’s key strategic and behavioral aspects. While these aspects has been implemented in the created team, the lack of good core functionality proved to be a moreRoboCup 2D Soccer Simulation League är en internationell tävling i artificiell intelligens (AI), där datorprogram tävlar i fotboll. Den här rapporten kommer presentera arbetet i att analysera det framgångsrika laget WrightEagle, och att hitta de aspekter vad gäller strategi och betéende som gör dem så framgångsrika. Den kommer också att presentera skapandet av ett nytt lag som implementerar de funna aspekterna från WrightEagle, men på ett mycket enklare sätt. Bra passningsspel, bra uthållighetsbevarande, och deras förmåga att hålla sig utspridda var de funna aspekterna från WrightEagle vad gäller strategi och betéende. De här aspekterna har blivit implementerade i det skapade laget, men bristen av bra basfunktionalitet visade sig väga mycket tyngre och det resulterande laget preseterar dåligt

The community work programme : potentials and problems

Abstract: This article provides a detailed and critically reflective ‘insider’ account of the origins and development of a Community Work Programme as a public employment programme intervention. The article explores the significant potential of such a Community Work Programme to reduce unemployment and improve socio-economic livelihoods for programme participants, and its potential to model public/private alignment across sectors that complements what can be accomplished within the budgetary constraints of the central government alone. It also describes the challenges of programme implementation as a social policy intervention, arising in part from the difficulties of scaling up successful pilots to create a nationwide programme. The article demonstrates real achievements but also the difficulties of engagement with the state by non-profit organisations, and the difficulties of forging sustainable partnerships between communities and government around shared

Physiological function of the maltose operon regulator, MalR, in Lactococcus lactis

BACKGROUND: Maltose metabolism is initiated by an ATP-dependent permease system in Lactococcus lactis. The subsequent degradation of intracellular maltose is performed by the concerted action of P(i)-dependent maltose phosphorylase and β-phosphoglucomutase. In some Gram-positive bacteria, maltose metabolism is regulated by a maltose operon regulator (MalR), belonging to the LacI-GalR family of transcriptional regulators. A gene presumed to encode MalR has been found directly downstream the maltose phosphorylase-encoding gene, malP in L. lactis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physiological role of the MalR protein in maltose metabolism in L. lactis. RESULTS: A L. lactis ssp. lactis mutant, TMB5004, deficient in the putative MalR protein, was physiologically characterised. The mutant was not able to ferment maltose, while its capability to grow on glucose as well as trehalose was not affected. The activity of maltose phosphorylase and β-phosphoglucomutase was not affected in the mutant. However, the specific maltose uptake rate in the wild type was, at its lowest, five times higher than in the mutant. This difference in maltose uptake increased as the maltose concentration in the assay was increased. CONCLUSION: According to amino acid sequence similarities, the presumed MalR is a member of the LacI-GalR family of transcriptional regulators. Due to the suggested activating effect on maltose transport and absence of effect on the activities of maltose phosphorylase and β-phosphoglucomutase, MalR of L. lactis is considered rather as an activator than a repressor

Civil Society? : NGOism at Work

Målsättning Att utreda skillnader i tillgänglighet till insulinpump mellan olika patientgrupper samt vad som orsakar ett byte till insulinpump. Metod Data från 7224 individer med typ 1 diabetes vid tio olika vårdenheter analyserades för att utreda effekterna av njurfunktion, kön, långtidsblodsocker, insulindos, diabetesduration samt ålder. Jämförelsen mellan patientgrupper utfördes med logistisk regression som en tvärsnittsstudie och Cox-regression för att utreda vad som föregått ett byte till pump. Resultat Genom logistisk regression erhölls en bild av hur skillnader mellan patienter som använder insulinpump och patienter som inte gör det ser ut i dagsläget. Cox-regressionen tar med ett tidsperspektiv och ger på så sätt svar på vad som föregått ett byte till insulinpump. Dessa analyser gav liknande resultat gällande variabler konstanta över tiden. Kvinnor använder pump i större utsträckning än män och andelen pumpanvändare skiljer sig åt vid olika vårdenheter. I dagsläget visar sig hög ålder sänka sannolikheten att använda insulinpump, vilket bekräftas vid den tidsberoende studien som visade hur sannolikheten att byta till pump är avsevärt lägre vid hög ålder. Långtidsblodsockret har också tydlig effekt på sannolikheten att gå över till pump där ett högt långtidsblodsocker medför hög sannolikhet att byta till insulinpump. Slutsatser I dagsläget finns det skillnader i andelen insulinpumpanvändare mellan olika patientgrupper och skillnader finns även i de olika gruppernas benägenhet att byta från andra insulinbehandlingar till insulinpump. Beroende av patienters njurfunktion, kön, långtidsblodsocker, insulindos, diabetesduration och ålder har dessa olika sannolikheter att byta till insulinpump

The interaction between metabolic rate, habitat choice, and resource use in a polymorphic freshwater species

Resource polymorphism is common across taxa and can result in alternate ecotypes with specific morphologies, feeding modes, and behaviors that increase performance in a specific habitat. This can result in high intraspecific variation in the expression of specific traits and the extent to which these traits are correlated within a single population. Although metabolic rate influences resource acquisition and the overall pace of life of individuals it is not clear how metabolic rate interacts with the larger suite of traits to ultimately determine individual fitness. We examined the relationship between metabolic rates and the major differences (habitat use, morphology, and resource use) between littoral and pelagic ecotypes of European perch (Perca fluviatilis) from a single lake in Central Sweden. Standard metabolic rate (SMR) was significantly higher in pelagic perch but did not correlate with resource use or morphology. Maximum metabolic rate (MMR) was not correlated with any of our explanatory variables or with SMR. Aerobic scope (AS) showed the same pattern as SMR, differing across habitats, but contrary to expectations, was lower in pelagic perch. This study helps to establish a framework for future experiments further exploring the drivers of intraspecific differences in metabolism. In addition, since metabolic rates scale with temperature and determine predator energy requirements, our observed differences in SMR across habitats will help determine ecotype-specific vulnerabilities to climate change and differences in top-down predation pressure across habitats

Machine Translation Tools - Tools of the Translator’s Trade

In this article three of the more common types of translation tools are presented, discussed and critically evaluated. The types of translation tools dealt with in this article are: Fully Automated Machine Translation (or FAMT), Human Aided Machine Translation (or HAMT) and Machine Aided Human Translation (or MAHT). The strengths and weaknesses of the different types of tools are discussed and evaluated by means of a number of examples. The article aims at two things: at presenting a sort of state of the art of what is commonly referred to as “machine translation” as well as at providing the reader with a sound basis for considering what translation tool (if any) is the most appropriate in order to meet his or her specific translation needs.(Translated by Thomas Buch Andersson