Mastering Violence

The employment of appropriate force can protect against violence, control it, contain it, even dominate it. The issue is how much force to apply. But no true operating modality has yet been worked out

Evaluation of Discriminating Fire Sensors in Two Underground Coal Mines

Fire detection in underground coal mines using carbon monoxide (CO) based monitoring systems has been very effective in many mines. Many systems have been able to detect fires in early stages of development at very low CO levels. However in mines which use extensive diesel haulage and support vehicles, the systems have been less sensitive to early detection due to diesel exhaust contaminants elevating baseline CO levels. A new technology has been tested in two underground coal mines which is designed to discriminate between the CO produced by diesel engines and CO from a fire by correcting the CO concentration based on the nitric oxide (NO) concentration. This paper discusses the results of studies completed by MSHA at two of these underground coal mines. The technology employs a complex mathematical computation which is continually accomplished to improve fire detection capabilities for dieselized underground coal mines. Findings have shown the technology to be effective in significantly reducing levels for alarms while avoiding a Chicken Little complacency for nuisance alarms. This technology could be used for fire detection in any underground mines which utilize diesel equipment and carbon monoxide based fire detection systems

Setting Farmers Free: Righting the Unintended Anomaly of UCC Section 9-312(2)

status: publishe

Potential Pitfalls in High-Tech Copyright Litigation, 25 J. Marshall J. Computer & Info. L. 513 (2008)

Alleging software and data-base infringement is probably the most common offensive strategy currently seen in high-tech copyright litigation. In the context of a hypothetical factual setting, this article explores three potential pitfalls attendant to such a strategy, and suggests ways to minimize those risks

Methane Ignitions on Roof Bolters in Underground Coal Mines

Although not as frequent in nature as ignitions on continuous miner or longwall faces, ignitions of methane on roof bolters have caused serious injuries to underground coal miners. After reviewing the accident reports for all roof bolter ignitions from 1981 to 1998, a summary of the forty-one accidents has been developed. Of interest in the database is the ignition source, method of face ventilation, local velocity, methane liberation, size of the methane body ignited, and the duration of the flame. Three example ignitions are included

293: Transcatheter closure of ASD in infancy with the Amplatzer septal occluder

Many devices are available for atrial septal defect (ASD) usually in adults and children. We report here one center experience in transcatheter closure of ASD in infancy, using the Amplatzer septal occluder. From January 2003 to March 2010, 10 males and 5 female, mean age 10.9±6.4 months, with weight 6.7±2.5kg underwent transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect. The patients had significant left-to-right shunting (n=12), right-to-left shunting with hypoxemia (n=3). For the left-to-right shunting, the ASD was closed for pulmonary hypertension (n=10), for recurrent chest infection and bronchiolitis (n=5). The ASD was associated with other congenital heart defect (n=5), prematurity and bronchopulmonary dysplasia (n=6), foetopathy (n=1) and encephalopathy (n=1).The ASD was evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography (TEE) before the procedure. Percutaneous closure was realized with TEE for all patients. They received intravenous heparin. For 4 patients implantation was performed after a balloon test occlusion (mean 11±3.4mm diameter). The ASO device size was 10.4±3.9mm. The fluoroscopy time was 7.9±3.9 minutes and the time of the procedure 55.6±21.8 minutes. No per procedural complications were observed for all but for two (one anomalous device deployment and one insufficient rim). These two patients were subsequently surgically repaired. Patients left the hospital with a low dose of aspirin for 6 months.During follow-up, four patients had a minimal residual shunt on TEE performed up to one year after the implantation. No later cardiac complication was observed.To conclude, transcatheter closure of atrial septal defect in infant with the ASO is feasible and a possible alternative to surgical closure. In addition, ASD occlusion improves the respiratory status and reduces the level of pulmonary hypertension. Additional long-term results and a large study are both necessary to establish the future of this populatio

Stimulus-Informed Generalized Canonical Correlation Analysis of Stimulus-Following Brain Responses

In brain-computer interface or neuroscience applications, generalized canonical correlation analysis (GCCA) is often used to extract correlated signal components in the neural activity of different subjects attending to the same stimulus. This allows quantifying the so-called inter-subject correlation or boosting the signal-to-noise ratio of the stimulus-following brain responses with respect to other (non-)neural activity. GCCA is, however, stimulus-unaware: it does not take the stimulus information into account and does therefore not cope well with lower amounts of data or smaller groups of subjects. We propose a novel stimulus-informed GCCA algorithm based on the MAXVAR-GCCA framework. We show the superiority of the proposed stimulus-informed GCCA method based on the inter-subject correlation between electroencephalography responses of a group of subjects listening to the same speech stimulus, especially for lower amounts of data or smaller groups of subjects

A two-step lyssavirus real-time polymerase chain reaction using degenerate primers with superior sensitivity to the fluorescent antigen test

A generic two-step lyssavirus real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), based on a nested PCR strategy, was validated for the detection of different lyssavirus species. Primers with 17 to 30% of degenerate bases were used in both consecutive steps. The assay could accurately detect RABV, LBV, MOKV, DUVV, EBLV-1, EBLV-2, and ABLV. In silico sequence alignment showed a functional match with the remaining lyssavirus species. The diagnostic specificity was 100% and the sensitivity proved to be superior to that of the fluorescent antigen test. The limit of detection was <= 1 50% tissue culture infectious dose. The related vesicular stomatitis virus was not recognized, confirming the selectivity for lyssaviruses. The assay was applied to follow the evolution of rabies virus infection in the brain of mice from 0 to 10 days after intranasal inoculation. The obtained RNA curve corresponded well with the curves obtained by a one-step monospecific RABV-qRT-PCR, the fluorescent antigen test, and virus titration. Despite the presence of degenerate bases, the assay proved to be highly sensitive, specific, and reproducible