7,720 research outputs found
CORRUPTION ON STEROIDS - The Bell Scandal From The Legal Perspective
This white paper focuses on the legal aspects of the 2010 Bell Scandal and the appointment of David Aleshire as the first permanent city attorney since the corruption scandal. This white paper provides a look at the current financial situation in the city of Bell and how the city has tried to move past the scandal
Reusing Data and Metadata to Create New Metadata Through Machine-Learning & Other Programmatic Methods
Recent improvements in natural language processing (NLP) enable metadata to be created programmatically from reused original metadata or even the dataset itself. Transfer-learning applied to NLP has greatly improved performance and reduced training data requirements. In this talk, well compare machine-generated metadata to human-generated metadata and discuss characteristics of metadata and data archives that affect suitability for machine-learning reuse of metadata. Where as human-generated metadata is often populated once, populated from the perspective of data supplier, populated by many individuals with different words for the same thing, and limited in length, machine-generated metadata can be updated any number of times, generated from the perspective of any user, constrained to a standardized set of terms that can be evolved over time, and be any length required. Machine-learning generated metadata offers benefits but also additional needs in terms of version control, process transparency, human-computer interaction, and IT requirements. As a successful example, well discuss how a dataset of abstracts and associated human-tagged keywords from a standardized list of several thousand keywords were used to create a machine-learning model that predicted keyword metadata for open-source code projects on code.nasa.gov. Well also discuss a less successful example from data.nasa.gov to show how data archive architecture and characteristics of initial metadata can be strong controls on how easy it is to leverage programmatic methods to reuse metadata to create additional metadata
A comparison of sex offenders and other types of offenders referred to intellectual disability forensic services
This study compared 131 sex offenders with ID and 346 other types of offenders with ID using case file records. All the females in the study were non sexual offenders. Significantly more sexual offenders were referred from court and criminal justice services while significantly fewer were referred from secondary healthcare. A higher percentage of sex offenders had some form of legal status at time of referral. Greater proportions of non sexual offenders were referred for aggression, damage to property, substance abuse and fire setting while only the sex offenders had an index sex offence. For previous offending, the non sexual offenders had higher rates of aggression, cruelty and neglect of children, property damage and substance abuse while the sexual offenders had higher rates of previous sexual offending. For psychiatric disturbance and adversity in childhood, only ADHD showed a significant difference between groups with the non sexual offenders recording higher rates
Phenotypic plasticity enables considerable acclimation to heat and drought in a cold-adapted boreal forest tree species
Increasing frequencies of severe heat waves and drought are expected to influence the composition and functioning of ecosystems globally. Our ability to predict and mitigate these impacts depends on our understanding of species- and age-specific responses to these stressors. To assess the adaptive capacity of balsam fir to climate change, a cold-adapted boreal tree species, we conducted a climate-controlled greenhouse experiment with four provenances originating from across the species biogeographic range, 12 temperature treatments ensuring a minimum of +11°C warming, and five drought treatment intensities. We found considerable acclimation to temperature and drought treatments across all provenances, with steady gains in biomass under temperatures well-beyond the “worst-case” (RCP 8.5) climate forcing scenario within the species natural range. Acclimation was supported by high phenotypic plasticity in root:shoot ratio (RSR) and photosynthesis, which were greatly increased with warming, but were not affected by drought. Our results suggest that regardless of the observed provenance variation, drought and heat are not limiting factors of the current-year balsam fir seedling growth, instead, these factors may be more impactful on later stages of regeneration or previously stressed individuals, thus highlighting the necessity of incorporating the factors of ontogeny and provenance origin in future research regarding plant and climate interactions
Maintaining network connectivity and performance in robot teams
In this paper, we present an experimental study of strategies for maintaining end-to-end communication links for tasks such as surveillance, reconnaissance, and target search and identification, where team connectivity is required for situational awareness. Our main contributions are three fold: (a) We present the construction of a radio signal strength map that can be used to plan multi-robot tasks and also serve as useful perceptual information. We show how a nominal model of an urban environment obtained by aerial surveillance is used to generate strategies for exploration. (b) We present reactive controllers for communication link maintenance; and (c) we consider the differences between monitoring signal strength versus data throughput. Experimental results, obtained using our multi-robot testbed in three representative urban environments, are presented with each of our main contributions
(Phenyl)(3-phenylsulfonyl-1,2-dihydropyrrolo[1,2-a]quinoxalin-1-yl)methanone
In the title molecule, C24H18N2O3S, the 13-atom ring system comprising the quinoxaline and fused five-membered ring exhibits an r.m.s. deviation from coplanarity of 0.039 Å, with a maximum deviation of 0.0710 (10) Å for the PhCO-bearing C atom of the five-membered ring. The 10-membered C8N2 quinoxaline ring system has an r.m.s. deviation from coplanarity of 0.022 Å, with a maximum deviation of 0.0403 (9) Å for the C atom involved in the C=C bond in the five-membered ring. The three atoms of the five-membered ring fused to the quinoxaline ring system show deviations of up to 0.118 (2) Å for the PhCO-bearing C atom. C—N bond distances in the quinoxaline ring system of the title molecule deviate from those in unsubstituted quinoxaline. In particular, the two C—N distances to the N atom involved in the five-membered ring are essentially equal, with values of 1.3786 (17) and 1.3773 (16) Å, unlike the difference of nearly 0.06 Å in quinoxaline
Experiences and barriers to Health-Related Quality of Life following liver transplantation: a qualitative analysis of the perspectives of pediatric patients and their parents
This paper examines health-related quality of life (HRQOL) experiences and barriers facing young people who have received a liver transplant (LT). Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with children and adolescents who have undergone LT and their parents. Findings indicate that LT fosters substantially improved child and adolescent HRQOL; however, young people also experience challenges such as difficulties with medication compliance, self-management of care routines, physical activity restrictions, and undesirable medical procedures. Implications and recommendations for clinical practice and research are discussed
Soil Bacteria and Fungi Respond on Different Spatial Scales to Invasion by the Legume Lespedeza cuneata
The spatial scale on which microbial communities respond to plant invasions may provide important clues as to the nature of potential invader–microbe interactions. Lespedeza cuneata (Dum. Cours.) G. Don is an invasive legume that may benefit from associations with mycorrhizal fungi; however, it has also been suggested that the plant is allelopathic and may alter the soil chemistry of invaded sites through secondary metabolites in its root exudates or litter. Thus, L. cuneata invasion may interact with soil microorganisms on a variety of scales. We investigated L. cuneata-related changes to soil bacterial and fungal communities at two spatial scales using multiple sites from across its invaded N. American range. Using whole-community DNA fingerprinting, we characterized microbial community variation at the scale of entire invaded sites and at the scale of individual plants. Based on permutational multivariate analysis of variance, soil bacterial communities in heavily invaded sites were significantly different from those of uninvaded sites, but bacteria did not show any evidence of responding at very local scales around individual plants. In contrast, soil fungi did not change significantly at the scale of entire sites, but there were significant differences between fungal communities of native versus exotic plants within particular sites. The differential scaling of bacterial and fungal responses indicates that L. cuneata interacts differently with soil bacteria and soil fungi, and these microorganisms may play very different roles in the invasion process of this plant
Scooter Solutions: Side Car Companion for 50cc Motor Scooter
Scooter Solutions is a composite structured chassis designed to be connected to a two-wheeled small engine vehicle for the purpose of transporting cargo and passengers. Manufactured using woven carbon fiber/epoxy panels with an XPS foam core and Aluminum 6063-T5 framing, the structure must be light for user practicality and reducing engine wear while maintaining adequate strength for the passenger load and debris deflection while exposed to the natural environment. This product is unique due to its carbon fiber reinforced foam sandwich panels with a two-part epoxy matrix allowing for a lighter, more durable side car than its contemporaries. The light weighting is achieved via novel carbon composite construction in substitution of the steel and thick fiberglass used by competitors in this market
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