Decommutator patchboard verifier

A system for automatically verifying the connections between terminals of a patchboard is described. The system includes a back plane having a plurality of plugs corresponding to the pins of the patchboard. A number of decoders are connected to the plugs of the back plane so that a signal can be sequentially applied to each plug of the back plane under control of a stepping register and a control circuit. A plurality of data selectors are also connected to the plugs of the back plane and under control of a second external register. This control circuit sequentially makes connections between an output circuit and the plugs of the back plane so as to patch the signal applied to a respective plug through a patch connection to the output circuit. The precise locations of the patches on the patchboard can be identified and compared with previously stored information in a memory unit

Transforming 21st Century Education

T he National Judicial College (NJC) gathered the foremost judicial education experts to discuss how the judicial education field can best educate U.S. trial court judges at every stage in their careers. Some judges enter the judicial profession with no specialized education or training about the judicial role. Yet, society asks these professionals to make often life-changing decisions during their first days on the job. During the 2.5-day Transforming 21st Century Judicial Education symposium held at NJC in Reno, Nevada, the experts provided suggestions, engaged in debates, and offered resources. During the symposium, the participants agreed that a number of paradoxes exist. For instance, core competencies have been established for court administrators and judicial educators, but no U.S. entity has ever drafted core competencies for judges. As a result, most U.S. judicial education efforts aren’t based upon any type of guiding curricula. Rather, most state judicial education organizations use committees of judges, who are not professional educators, to select the educational topics for their annual conferences

Resistivity as Dynamic Behavior in Low Density Polyethylene

Bridging the gap between theoretical calculations and experimental data has been the focus of much of the research into the electrical behavior of insulating polymers. Low density polyethylene is the standard test material used in both experimental work and numerical calculations. Resistivity measurements provide more than an absolute value for technical use; they also provide insight into the nature of active charge carriers and trapping behavior within LDPE

Low Temperature Measurements of Resistivity in Low-Density Polythylene

Measurements of resistivity of low density polyethylene (LDPE) have been made using the standard constant voltage method to determine the temperature dependence of resistivity. Where electrons are assumed to serve as the primary charge carriers, their mobility is believed to be dependent on their probability of hopping between trapping sites treated as potential wells. We consider our measurements of this relatively simple polymeric material using temperaturedependant models of conduction mechanisms developed for amorphous solids and semiconductors

LOW TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENTS OF RESISTIVITY IN LOW-DENSITY POLYETHYLENE

Measurements of resistivity of low density polyethylene (LDPE) have been made using the standard constant voltage method to determine the temperature dependence of resistivity. Where electrons are assumed to serve as the primary charge carriers, their mobility is believed to be dependent on their probability of hopping between trapping sites treated as potential wells. We consider our measurements of this relatively simple polymeric material using temperature-dependant models of conduction mechanisms developed for amorphous solids and semi-conductors

Secondary acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a distinct clinical entity with prognostic significance.

The effect of prior malignancy on the risk of developing, and prognosis of, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is unknown. This observational study utilized the California Cancer Registry to estimate the risk of developing ALL after a prior malignancy using standardized incidence ratios (SIRs, 95% confidence intervals). ALL occurring after a malignancy with an SIR>1 (increased-risk (IR) malignancies) was considered secondary ALL (s-ALL). Adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs, 95% confidence intervals) compared the effect of s-ALL with de novo ALL on overall survival. A total of 14 481 patients with ALL were identified (1988-2012) and 382 (3%) had a known prior malignancy. Any prior malignancy predisposed patients to developing ALL: SIR 1.62 (1.45-1.79). Hematologic malignancies (SIR 5.57, 4.38-6.98) and IR-solid tumors (SIR 2.11, 1.73-2.54) increased the risk of developing ALL. s-ALL increased the risk of death compared with de novo ALL (aHR 1.38 (1.16-1.63)) and this effect was more pronounced among younger patients (age<40 years: aHR 4.80 (3.15-7.30); age⩾40 years: aHR 1.40 (1.16-1.69)) (interaction P<0.001). This population-based study demonstrates that s-ALL is a distinct entity that occurs after specific malignancies and carries a poor prognosis compared with de novo ALL, particularly among patients <40 years of age

Common Sense without a Common Language?

A variety of commentators have explored the similarities between pragmatism and Thomas Reid’s Philosophy of Common Sense. Peirce himself claims his version of pragmatism either (loosely) is, or entails, a Critical Common-sensism, a blend of what is best in Kant and Reid. In this paper I argue for a neglected aspect of the relation between Peirce and Reid, and of each to common sense: linguistics. First, I summarize Peirce’s account of what distinguishes his common-sensism from Reid’s. Second, I argue for the importance of appeals to linguistic universals by Reid as both a source for identifying common sense beliefs, and a basis for justifying them. While Peirce is occasionally tempted by such appeals, overall he is critical of appeals to language, especially as most Western philosophers have been familiar with a small set of (Indo-)European languages; say, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, and Latin. This leads to the third section, which concerns Peirce’s familiarity with major nineteenth century linguists, and his contention that the ‘peculiarity’ of Western European languages has impeded the development of logic and philosophy. In particular, I look at unpublished manuscripts where Peirce summarizes his own study of non-European languages, ranging from Arabic, to Ngarrindjeri, to Xhosa. Peirce was only an amateur linguist, and also aware of the challenges of doing cross-cultural linguistics through comparative grammar; e.g., the temptation to force unfamiliar languages onto the “Procrustean Bed of Aryan grammar” (CP 2.211). Nonetheless, this study left him suspicious of any claims of linguistic universals, and supported his anti-psychologism. That is, not only should logic and philosophy not be based upon psychology (at least as a special science), they should also be independent of linguistics. However, Peirce also advances something like the so-called Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that language determines, or at least conditions, thought. The question now becomes what is the nature of a philosophy of common sense, even a critical one, without a common language, or possibly no commonalities across languages