Ohio Ethics Law Reforms: Tracing the Political and Legal Implications

To provide a comprehensive understanding of ethics reforms, this article will consist of four major sections. First, the article will explore Ohio\u27s Ethics Laws and the agencies responsible for their enforcement prior to 1994. Second, the article will discuss the factors which contributed to calls for reform, as well as early reform efforts. Third, the article will explore and analyze legislative and media responses to the call for ethics reform. Finally, the article will summarize the outcome of the reform process and provide a review of the implications of the reformed Ethics Law

The Relationship Between Ordered Intermetallic Nanoparticle Synthesis And The Bulk Phase Diagram

In this thesis, a surfactant-free synthesis of binary and ternary metal nanoparticles via co-reduction of metal chloride precursors is used to investigate the relationship between the bulk phase diagram and the formation of ordered intermetallic structures. The majority of the synthesized phases are binary materials of the formula Pt-M (M = Sn, Sb, In, Bi), because of their propensity to form single-phase regions with very narrow phase widths, known as "line phases". These line phases are thermodynamically stable according to the bulk phase diagram; however, the relationship between bulk stability and stability in the nanoparticle regime - and the implications for nanoparticle growth and ordering behavior - have not been fully explored. The 1:1 Pt-Sn phase (PtSn) forms ordered intermetallic nanoparticles with small domain sizes (4.3 nm) at room temperature, without any thermal annealing required. Pt3Sn similarly orders at low temperature (200 oC), in contrast to the three Pt-rich line phases, all of which require higher annealing temperatures to form the intermetallic phase. Other Pt-M phases show varying degrees of ordering, but none are observed to have the same low-temperature ordering as the Pt-rich Pt-Sn phases. This behavior is extremely rare, with only one other phase to our knowledge (Pt-Bi) forming the intermetallic without annealing, and only under specific conditions. It is possible to make qualitative statements concerning which phases should easily order and form phase-pure products; however, in order to more quantitatively predict these patterns, a multivariate analysis utilizing many physical properties (e.g., melting point, whether a phase melts congruently or incongruently, crystal structure, etc) was conducted. Using principal components analysis, partial least squares regression, and logistic regression techniques, a model was constructed to determine which properties would be most predictive of phases that were able to be synthesized as pure ordered intermetallics

The Future of Affirmative Action: The Legal Imperative Nationally and the Ohio Experience

This presentation of the legal future of affirmative action will be divided into five sections. The introductory material serves as a general introduction to the issues. The second section will review the origins and evolution of affirmative action. This section will also attempt to provide a definition of this complex concept. The third will provide a detailed analysis of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Bakke represents the Supreme Court\u27s first attempt to resolve the legal complexities of affirmative action. The Court\u27s holdings in Bakke have shaped the debate for over 20 years. The fourth segment of this chapter will review current affirmative action case law. Close attention will be paid to emerging legal distinctions essential to an accurate application of affirmative action principles in the future. Within this section, close attention will be paid to current controversies such as California Proposition 209 (the state constitutional amendment which outlaws the use of affirmative action), Hopwood v. State of Texas (nonminority students who challenged a law school\u27s affirmative action admissions program), and Taxman v. Board of Education of the Township of Piscataway (a teacher\u27s challenge to a school board\u27s affirmative action plan of retaining minority teachers over nonminority teachers in regard to layoff decisions). The last section will explain the Ohio Experience with affirmative action

Unsupervised texture image segmentation by improved neural network ART2

We here propose a segmentation algorithm of texture image for a computer vision system on a space robot. An improved adaptive resonance theory (ART2) for analog input patterns is adapted to classify the image based on a set of texture image features extracted by a fast spatial gray level dependence method (SGLDM). The nonlinear thresholding functions in input layer of the neural network have been constructed by two parts: firstly, to reduce the effects of image noises on the features, a set of sigmoid functions is chosen depending on the types of the feature; secondly, to enhance the contrast of the features, we adopt fuzzy mapping functions. The cluster number in output layer can be increased by an autogrowing mechanism constantly when a new pattern happens. Experimental results and original or segmented pictures are shown, including the comparison between this approach and K-means algorithm. The system written in C language is performed on a SUN-4/330 sparc-station with an image board IT-150 and a CCD camera

cDNA-AFLP analysis of plant and pathogen genes expressed in grapevine infected with Plasmopara viticola

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The oomycete <it>Plasmopara viticola </it>(Berk. and Curt.) Berl. and de Toni causes downy mildew in grapevine (<it>Vitis vinifera </it>L.). This pathogen is strictly biotrophic, thus completely dependent on living host cells for its survival. The molecular basis of compatibility and disease development in this system is poorly understood. We have carried out a large-scale cDNA-AFLP analysis to identify grapevine and <it>P. viticola </it>genes associated with the infection process.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We carried out cDNA-AFLP analysis on artificially infected leaves of the susceptible cultivar Riesling at the oil spot stage, on water-treated leaves and on a sample of pure sporangia as controls. Selective amplifications with 128 primer combinations allowed the visualization of about 7000 transcript-derived fragments (TDFs) in infected leaves, 1196 of which (17%) were differentially expressed. We sequenced 984 fragments, 804 of which were identified as grapevine transcripts after homology searching, while 96 were homologous to sequences in <it>Phytophthora </it>spp. databases and were attributed to <it>P. viticola</it>. There were 82 orphan TDFs. Many grapevine genes spanning almost all functional categories were downregulated during infection, especially genes involved in photosynthesis. Grapevine genes homologous to known resistance genes also tended to be repressed, as were several resistance gene analogs and carbonic anhydrase (recently implicated in pathogen resistance). In contrast, genes encoding cytoskeletal components, enzymes of the phenylpropanoid and beta-oxidation pathways, and pathogenesis related proteins were primarily upregulated during infection. The majority of <it>P. viticola </it>transcripts expressed <it>in planta </it>showed homology to genes of unknown function or to genomic <it>Phytophthora </it>sequences, but genes related to metabolism, energy production, transport and signal transduction were also identified.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study provides the first global catalogue of grapevine and <it>P. viticola </it>genes expressed during infection, together with their functional annotations. This will help to elucidate the molecular basis of the infection process and identify genes and chemicals that could help to inhibit the pathogen.</p

Do dogs and cats passively carry sars-cov-2 on hair and pads?

The epidemiological role of domestic animals in the spread and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to humans has been investigated in recent reports, but some aspects need to be further clarified. To date, only in rare cases have dogs and cats living with COVID-19 patients been found to harbour SARS-CoV-2, with no evidence of pet-to-human transmission. The aim of the present study was to verify whether dogs and cats act as passive mechanical carriers of SARS-CoV-2 when they live in close contact with COVID-19 patients. Cutaneous and interdigital swabs collected from 48 dogs and 15 cats owned by COVID-19 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by qRT-PCR. The time elapsed between owner swab positivity and sample collection from pets ranged from 1 to 72 days, with a median time of 23 days for dogs and 39 days for cats. All samples tested negative, suggesting that pets do not passively carry SARS-CoV-2 on their hair and pads, and thus they likely do not play an important role in the virus transmission to humans. This data may contribute to confirming that the direct contact with the hair and pads of pets does not represent a route for the transmission of SARS-CoV-2