Sensitivity, safety, and the law: A reply to Pardo

ABSTRACTIn a recent paper, Michael Pardo argues that the epistemic property that is legally relevant is the one called Safety, rather than Sensitivity. In the process, he argues against our Sensitivity-related account of statistical evidence. Here we revisit these issues, partly in order to respond to Pardo, and partly in order to make general claims about legal epistemology. We clarify our account, we show how it adequately deals with counterexamples and other worries, we raise suspicions about Safety's value here, and we revisit our general skepticism about the role that epistemological considerations should play in determining legal policy

What do you mean “This isn’t the question”?

This is a contribution to the symposium on Tim Scanlon’s Being Realistic about Reasons. We have two aims here: First, we ask for more details about Scanlon’s meta-metaphysical view, showing problems with salient clarifications. And second, we raise independent objections to the view – to its explanatory productivity, its distinctness, and the argumentative support it enjoys

A study of the readability of University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service publications and leaflets for boys taking vocational agriculture in high school

Departments of Vocational Agriculture in Tennessee are organized under a plan whereby each individual teacher sets up his program of instruction based in part on the Supervised Farming Programs of the boys that he teaches, and the farm enterprises found in the community. In forming the program the teacher would also consider the needs of the community, the interests of the individuals receiving instruction and possible improvements needed in the existing farm programs in the community. This plan makes a variety of programs necessary because the agricultural situation is different in each community. Variation of agricultural programs in different communities may be due to soil conditions, custom of the farmers, tools that are available on the farms, markets, climate, topography, knowledge that the farmers possess, and other factors. Because this wide difference in teaching programs exists, the source of teaching materials is one of the major problems of the Teacher of Vocational Agriculture. Because of the difference that exists in the programs, a text book as such is out of the question. Sources of information in general use are; Commercial books and publications used as reference material, farm magazines. Agricultural Education Publications, United States Department of Agriculture Farmers Bulletins, and other Federal Government Publications, Extension Service Material from adjoining states, University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service Publications and Leaflets, and University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins and Circulars. University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service Publications and Leaflets are written to carry information to the farmers of the State. University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletins and Circulars are written for research people trained agricultural personnel. Information from both is based on findings from various experiments and studies carried on by the Experiment Stations under the supervision of the University of Tennessee. The Extension Service Publications and Leaflets are written for use by farmers. They are based on Tennessee findings, written for our climate weather conditions and adapted to the general conditions of our State. Because of these reasons these publications are one of the principle sources of information being used in the teaching of Vocational Agriculture. Reading is one of the more important learning procedures. Its importance comes from the facts that there is a wide variety of written material that is available and because it is a method of self-education.To the Teacher of Vocational Agriculture it is of considerable importance in his program because he frequently has boys working on individual problems. The success of this learning process is entirely dependent on the ability of the boy to understand the available written material on the subject. Explanations of passages are possible but are necessarily limited to the lack of time of the teacher and the likelihood that the boy will not ask for help. To be able to understand what he reads a boy must have the ability to read. Next he must have material that is understandable for a person of his reading ability. This second factor has prompted this study

Comparison of maldi-tof ms and 16s rrna sequencing for identification of a collection of clinical isolates of nonntuberculous mycobacteria in Kenya and describing their antimicrobial susceptibilities

Study background: non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are members of the genus Mycobacteria that are ubiquitous in the environment. They are increasingly documented to cause multi-drug resistant human and animal infections in immunocompromised as well as immunocompetent hosts and thus, they are a huge burden on public health resources. Diagnosis and treatment of these infections is particularly challenging due to their variable clinical presentation and the lack of easily accessible identification methods. MALDI-TOF MS is a proteomic method that has gained traction in the identification of microbial organisms in clinical practice due to its fast turn-around time, high resolution, and cost-effectiveness but its utility in the identification of NTMs is still an area of ongoing research. Broad objective: this study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of MALDI-TOF MS against 16S rRNA sequencing as the gold standard in the identification of a collection of clinical isolates of NTMs in our laboratories in Nairobi and to describe their antimicrobial susceptibility patterns. Study design and sites: This was a prospective laboratory-based study on clinical isolates that were collected from archived samples at Aga Khan university hospital and National TB reference laboratories, obtained between 2007 and 2021. MALDI-TOF analysis was done at the Kenyatta National hospital laboratory and 16S rRNA and whole genome sequencing at the Basel university Switzerland. Material and Methods: sixty five archived clinical isolates were revived and analyzed using the VITEK®MS platform. Species identification was done by comparing spectra generated against spectra in the Knowledge base v3.2 database. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA genes was done for the isolates as the gold standard for identification. Resistome analysis was done from whole genome sequencing data using the CARD database. Data management: Data were input and analyzed using Microsoft excel/ Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. Results: The study found agreement between MALDI TOF MS and 16S rRNA sequencing at 81.3% for RGM and 80.1% for SGM. Overall, the level of agreement for NTM speciation in this study was at 81%. v MALDI TOF, unlike sequencing, was unable to further classify the NTM isolates up to subspecies level. Chromosomal and mutational resistance genes were found against drugs recommended for first line therapy. Conclusion: This study showed agreement between MALDI TOF MS and 16S rRNA identification for non-tuberculous mycobacteria. The presence of several molecular markers of resistance is a finding of concern that requires further investigatio

A Dynamically Partitionable Compressed Cache

The effective size of an L2 cache can be increased by using a dictionary-based compression scheme. Naive application of this idea performs poorly since the data values in a cache greatly vary in their “compressibility.” The novelty of this paper is a scheme that dynamically partitions the cache into sections of different compressibilities. While compression is often researched in the context of a large stream, in this work it is applied repeatedly on smaller cache-line sized blocks so as to preserve the random access requirement of a cache. When a cache-line is brought into the L2 cache or the cache-line is to be modified, the line is compressed using a dynamic, LZW dictionary. Depending on the compression, it is placed into the relevant partition. The partitioning is dynamic in that the ratio of space allocated to compressed and uncompressed varies depending on the actual performance, Certain SPEC-2000 benchmarks using a compressed L2 cache show an 80reduction in L2 miss-rate when compared to using an uncompressed L2 cache of the same area, taking into account all area overhead associated with the compression circuitry. For other SPEC-2000 benchmarks, the compressed cache performs as well as a traditional cache that is 4.3 times as large as the compressed cache in terms of hit rate, The adaptivity ensures that, in terms of miss rates, the compressed cache never performs worse than a traditional cache.Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA

Organisational structures for implementing travel plans : a review

Organisational structures for implementing travel plans : a revie

Car-free development through UK community travel plans

European residential car-free development projects generally take the form of larger car-free ‘districts’ that provide both lifestyle and mobility incentives to residents, including green space, a safer play environment for children, car clubs and improved public transport provision. In contrast, most car-free housing in the UK thus far has taken the form of small-scale infi ll developments that rely on existing public transport infrastructure and local amenities. This paper reviews the progress of car-free housing in Europe and the UK. The shortcomings of current forms of UK car-free housing are discussed and a methodology is presented for furthering car-free development through community travel plans (CTPs), which are emerging as a progression of workplace travel plans. The paper suggests that the current UK ‘do minimum’ approach offers relatively little incentive to potential residents and is not an effective means of promoting the concept of car-free living. Furthermore, the lack of an integrated approach towards delivering mobility measures is a barrier to developing more extensive car-free neighbourhoods that would be more attractive to residents wishing to reduce their car use. The paper suggests that there is a need to adopt a European model for car-free housing, through the incorporation of area-wide CTPs. The use of CTPs is discussed in relation to reducing car dependency within existing communities and also as a means of facilitating car-free housing

Mass and Magnetic distributions in Self Gravitating Super Alfvenic Turbulence with AMR

In this work, we present the mass and magnetic distributions found in a recent Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) MHD simulation of supersonic, \sa, self gravitating turbulence. Powerlaw tails are found in both volume density and magnetic field probability density functions, with $P(\rho) \propto \rho^{-1.67}$ and $P(B)\propto B^{-2.74}$. A power law is also found between magnetic field strength and density, with $B\propto \rho^{0.48}$, throughout the collapsing gas. The mass distribution of gravitationally bound cores is shown to be in excellent agreement with recent observation of prestellar cores. The mass to flux distribution of cores is also found to be in excellent agreement with recent Zeeman splitting measurements.Comment: 9 pages, 10 figures (3 color). Submitted to the Astrophysical Journa