Dante in Relation to the Sports and Pastimes of His Age

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Studies on enzyme action III : The influence of the products of change on the rate of change conditioned by sucroclastic enzymes

In the previous paper, it has been shown that, in order to explain the action of sucroclastic enzymes, it is necessary to assume not only that the enzyme combines with the hydrolyte but that it is also more or less affected by— and presumably combines with— the product of change. At present there is but little information available bearing on this latter contention. The experiments to be described have been made with the object of ascertaining by direct observation whether and to what extent the action of a given enzyme is affected by one or more of the products formed under its influence.Material perteneciente a la Biblioteca del Departamento de Física de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata digitalizado en SEDICI.Biblioteca del Departamento de Físic

Dying Like Men, Falling Like Princes: Reflections on the War on Terror

The attacks of September 11, 2001 brought home the point that even a mighty nation like ours is vulnerable to injury, and that even a goliath can sometimes be dealt a serious blow by a much smaller opponent. Faced with a world in which individuals can wield incredible destructive power and in which economic weakness can cause an empire to collapse despite its military might, what types of policies and laws should we adopt to confront these realities? In particular, what types of laws and policies should we adopt to deal with the threat of terrorism? This article proceeds on the premises that we should adopt laws and policies that reduce rather than exacerbate the threat of terrorism and that we should avoid profligate spending policies that dissipate our nation\u27s economic strength. Part II considers the attacks of September 11, 2001 and the government\u27s response thereto. Part III introduces various legal definitions of terrorism. Particular consideration is given to the definitions provided in the Arkansas Anti-Terrorism Act of 2003 (the Anti-Terrorism Act ) and the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (the PATRIOT Act). Part IV criticizes certain aspects of these definitions. Part V provides a summary outline with editorial comment of some of the dramatic changes in law and policy that have been made at the national level in response to the threat of terrorism. Part VI examines the nature of the problem and proposes alternative approaches for addressing the threat of terrorism. Part VII concludes the article

Studies on enzyme action V : Hydrolysis of isomeric glucosides and galactosides by acids and enzymes

As already pointed out, in studying the hydrolysis of sugars under the influence of enzymes, it is difficult to institute just comparisons, as not only, as a rule, is a different enzyme required for each sugar, but we have no means at present of determining the amount of enzyme used; and sooner or later, it will be necessary to accumulate data correlating one or more analytical factors (nitrogen percentage, etc.) with hydrolytic activity. The difficulty spoken of is enhanced by the fact that, usually, several enzymes occur together—so that no ordinary analytical process can suffice for the determination of the amount of a particular enzyme present in a solution.Material perteneciente a la Biblioteca del Departamento de Física de la Universidad Nacional de La Plata digitalizado en SEDICI.Biblioteca del Departamento de Físic

Medical students' comfort levels with performing the basic head and neck examination in practice: follow-up during the core clerkship year.

ObjectiveFollowing our preliminary study on junior medical students' comfort levels in performing the head and neck physical examination (H&NPE) before and after a department-led teaching session, we assessed the longitudinal effect of this session on students during the core clinical clerkship year, in which these skills were performed on real patients.DesignAnonymous cross-sectional survey study as a follow-up to previous intervention.MethodsOverall, 101 and 90 second-year medical students participated in an H&NPE teaching session 1 year before the current survey administration in 2 consecutive years. The same cohorts of students, as third years, were asked to rate their comfort levels (0-5-point Likert scale) in performing the H&NPE and the importance of otolaryngology rotations in medical school and primary care residency training.ResultsOf the 101 and 90 students, 53 and 46 medical students completed the follow-up survey in each respective year. For both classes, compared with before the teaching session, students reported an average comfort level of 2.8 (somewhat to moderately comfortable) in performing the complete H&NPE (p < 0.0001) during the core clinical clerkship year. Similar changes were observed for the individual ear, nose, mouth, and neck components of the examination (all p's < 0.0002). Students at follow-up reported statistically similar comfort levels when compared with immediately after the teaching session for the ear, oral cavity, and neck examinations.ConclusionThe initial teaching session persistently improved medical students' comfort levels in performing the H&NPE, with some attrition in comfort levels with performing the nasal examination and complete H&NPE. An otolaryngologist-directed, practical educational intervention may permanently reinforce the acquisition of complex skills such as the H&NPE

Discrimination of Individual Tigers (\u3cem\u3ePanthera tigris\u3c/em\u3e) from Long Distance Roars

This paper investigates the extent of tiger (Panthera tigris) vocal individuality through both qualitative and quantitative approaches using long distance roars from six individual tigers at Omaha\u27s Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, NE. The framework for comparison across individuals includes statistical and discriminant function analysis across whole vocalization measures and statistical pattern classification using a hidden Markov model (HMM) with frame-based spectral features comprised of Greenwood frequency cepstral coefficients. Individual discrimination accuracy is evaluated as a function of spectral model complexity, represented by the number of mixtures in the underlying Gaussian mixture model (GMM), and temporal model complexity, represented by the number of sequential states in the HMM. Results indicate that the temporal pattern of the vocalization is the most significant factor in accurate discrimination. Overall baseline discrimination accuracy for this data set is about 70% using high level features without complex spectral or temporal models. Accuracy increases to about 80% when more complex spectral models (multiple mixture GMMs) are incorporated, and increases to a final accuracy of 90% when more detailed temporal models (10-state HMMs) are used. Classification accuracy is stable across a relatively wide range of configurations in terms of spectral and temporal model resolution