ALDF v. Otter: What does it mean for other State’s “Ag-gag” Laws?

Across the nation, states have enacted “Ag-gag” laws that criminalize various types of investigations into animal cruelty and worker abuses in the chain of animal agriculture. This article divides the types of “ag-gag” statutes into four waves with varying degrees of protection for farmers and corporations engaged in animal agriculture. Next, this article analyzes Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Otter, in which an Idaho judge struck down an “ag-gag” statute, and applies its holding to the various waves of “ag-gag” statutes

Behavioral Model Anomaly Detection in Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)

Over 90% of all goods in the world, at some point in their life, are on a vessel at sea. Currently, the maritime industry relies on the Automatic Identification System (AIS) for collision avoidance and vessel tracking. AIS is an unencrypted, unauthenticated protocol that is vulnerable to various types of cyber attacks allowing malicious actors to alter the location of vessels. With the advent of the Ocean of Things (OoT), vessels are sharing more information than vessel location alone at sea. Increasingly, more information is becoming critical for safe and efficient operation at sea. This method is a novel approach of applying machine learning to build vessel behavior models that exploits such information. These models will allow vessels to detect anomalous communication from vessels nearby. This will enable vessels to determine the quality of the message shared between each other and, more critically, identify malicious actors

FORECASTING CRITICAL AIRCRAFT LAUNCH AND RECOVERY EQUIPMENT (ALRE) COMPONENTS' DEMAND

Demand signals across the Navy’s NIMITZ Class Carrier (CVN) Aircraft Launch and Recovery Equipment (ALRE) market-basket are highly erratic and do not fit neatly into the traditional demand-based sparing construct. This causes the Naval Supply Systems Command Weapons Systems Support (NAVSUP WSS) planning efforts to continually lag behind requirements, with material often arriving late-to-need. This project attempts to develop a comprehensive and more reliable ALRE material requirement forecast model. To accomplish this effectively, a comprehensive list of historical CVN ALRE demand data were analyzed in order to identify any correlation between ALRE demand and a ship’s operating phase status, and to identify whether that correlation directly drives ALRE demand. The analysis begins by collecting historical CVN ALRE demand data and identifying the improvements for the current forecasting model. After a complete analysis of the current forecasting model, we utilized multiple linear regression and evaluated various forecasting methods as the best available methods for developing/discovering an optimized and robust forecasting method. In conclusion, the extremely low demand quantities of critical ALRE components continue to make forecasting extremely unreliable, but we believe NAVSUP can improve the accuracy of ALRE demand forecast by adapting a flexible forecasting system.NAVSUPhttp://archive.org/details/forecastingcriti1094561212Lieutenant Commander, United States NavyLieutenant, United States NavyLieutenant Commander, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Characterization of Hypertension Risk Factors at the Committee on Temporary Shelter

Introduction: The health of homeless populations is at risk due to a high prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension (HTN) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The interaction of housing and socioeconomic status with the risk factors for HTN and CVD remains unclear. Prevention of HTN through a healthy diet, exercise, adequate sleep, and avoidance of tobacco has been well described, but financial limitations and competing priorities for shelter and food make blood pressure (BP) control difficult for this population. By characterizing the risk factors and awareness of hypertension within the homeless population at the Committee on Temporary Shelter Daystation (COTS) in Burlington, Vermont, we may be able to identify promising avenues for therapeutic intervention.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1226/thumbnail.jp

Content Uniformity of Over-the-Counter Melatonin

Dietary supplements are loosely regulated in comparison to over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Numerous tests for safety and efficacy are required before drugs can be marketed. However, the Food and Drug Administration does not require thorough examination of supplements before they are sold. Dietary supplements generally adhere to the phrase, “safe, until proven unsafe,” with safety determined solely through post-market adverse event reports. Substandard regulation of supplement manufacturing leads to warranted doubt about the safety and efficacy of dietary supplements. Within the dietary supplement market there are regulatory bodies, such as the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), that provide optional verification services to manufacturers. If utilized, these regulatory bodies ensure that manufacturers meet specific standards in regard to Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), purity of ingredients, and overall integrity of their product. Numerous studies have revealed a history of inaccuracies in supplement product labeling. Researchers conducting these studies consistently conclude that there is a need for stricter regulation and finer application of cGMP within supplement manufacturing companies. One of the most popular dietary supplements on the market, melatonin, has been the focus in a number of studies evaluating supplement product content integrity. Melatonin is commonly used to treat insomnia and to cure symptoms of jet lag. According to past research, these melatonin products often contain an amount of active ingredient that significantly differs from respective product labeling. Most research regarding melatonin product integrity has occurred outside of the past ten years, leaving the need for newer research. Melatonin 3 mg will be purchased from six different manufacturers with three manufacturers possessing USP verification. Within each manufacturer, melatonin 3 mg from five separate lot numbers will be purchased. Ten tablets from each bottle (totaling 300 tablets) will be analyzed using a high-pressure liquid chromatography machine in order to determine actual melatonin content in each tablet. Data will be recorded and compared to determine accuracy of product labeling and batch-to-batch content uniformity. Data from USP-verified melatonin will be compared with non-verified products in order to determine if regulatory body verification is effective at improving content uniformity

Immunotherapy and Hepatocellular Carcinoma

The management of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has been transformed by the incorporation of immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Compared to traditional chemotherapy, these regimens have markedly improved outcomes in patients with HCC. Additionally, they are generally well-tolerated in patients with impaired hepatic function. This chapter will review the landmark trials which have paved the way for the use of ICIs in the treatment of HCC and summarize current consensus on best practices regarding their use in this setting. It will also discuss other prospective uses of immunotherapy for the treatment of HCC currently being investigated, including further incorporation of both checkpoint inhibitor and non-checkpoint inhibitor agents into treatment strategies. Furthermore, it will summarize the existing safety and efficacy data regarding the use of checkpoint inhibitors in patients who have previously undergone liver transplant

Air Exchange Rate in a Horse Trailer During Road Transport

Horses traveling by road commonly experience heat stress conditions and poor air quality, which may be caused by insufficient ventilation; however, there are few estimates of air exchange in a horse trailer during transport. Air exchange rate was measured at ten locations within a four-horse trailer (internal volume 18.5 m3) using tracer gas decay measurement to assess the adequacy of ventilation. Three vehicle speeds (13, 48, and 97 km h-1) and three window configurations (all windows and roof vents closed, all windows open, all windows open and roof vents open forward) were tested with and without animals present in the trailer. External air temperature ranged from 22.3°C to 28.3°C with an average of 25.3°C, and internal air temperature ranged from 29.9°C to 34.8°C with an average of 31.3°C with animals present. Air exchange rate increased with vehicle speed and open window and vent area. The average air exchange rate over all vehicle speeds and ventilation configurations was 0.52 min-1 with animals present and 0.76 min-1 without animals. Without animals present, the maximum mean exchange rate was 1.42 min-1 at 97 km h-1 at the rear left window with all windows and vents open; the lowest mean exchange rate was 0.12 min-1 at 13 km h-1 with all windows and vents closed at the lower position of the rearmost stall divider. With animals present, the maximum air exchange rate observed was 0.84 min-1 with all windows and vents open and traveling at 97 km h-1. Ventilation in the trailer was not adequate when compared to recommendations for stabled horses for any combination of vehicle speed or ventilation configuration. Increasing open vent area, either by increasing the number and size of roof vents or the size of windows in the sidewall, would be the most cost-effective means of increasing air exchange in a horse trailer

Charge Solitons in 1-D Arrays of Serially Coupled Josephson Junctions

We study a 1-D array of Josephson coupled superconducting grains with kinetic inductance which dominates over the Josephson inductance. In this limit the dynamics of excess Cooper pairs in the array is described in terms of charge solitons, created by polarization of the grains. We analyze the dynamics of these topological excitations, which are dual to the fluxons in a long Josephson junction, using the continuum sine-Gordon model. We find that their classical relativistic motion leads to saturation branches in the I-V characteristic of the array. We then discuss the semi-classical quantization of the charge soliton, and show that it is consistent with the large kinetic inductance of the array. We study the dynamics of a quantum charge soliton in a ring-shaped array biased by an external flux through its center. If the dephasing length of the quantum charge soliton is larger than the circumference of the array, quantum phenomena like persistent current and coherent current oscillations are expected. As the characteristic width of the charge soliton is of the order of 100 microns, it is a macroscopic quantum object. We discuss the dephasing mechanisms which can suppress the quantum behaviour of the charge soliton.Comment: 26 pages, LaTex, 7 Postscript figure

Exotic Non-Supersymmetric Gauge Dynamics from Supersymmetric QCD

We extend Seiberg's qualitative picture of the behavior of supersymmetric QCD to nonsupersymmetric models by adding soft supersymmetry breaking terms. In this way, we recover the standard vacuum of QCD with $N_f$ flavors and $N_c$ colors when $N_f < N_c$. However, for $N_f \geq N_c$, we find new exotic states---new vacua with spontaneously broken baryon number for $N_f = N_c$, and a vacuum state with unbroken chiral symmetry for $N_f > N_c$. These exotic vacua contain massless composite fermions and, in some cases, dynamically generated gauge bosons. In particular Seiberg's electric-magnetic duality seems to persist also in the presence of (small) soft supersymmetry breaking. We argue that certain, specially tailored, lattice simulations may be able to detect the novel phenomena. Most of the exotic behavior does not survive the decoupling limit of large SUSY breaking parameters.Comment: 36 pages, latex + 2 figures (uuencoded ps