The Morality of the Common Law

This essay is about the problem of determining the possibility and nature of a connection between morality and law. Its purpose is to indicate, by reference largely to some recent problems of the law of contract and the law of torts, the way in which judges are compelled to look at the nature of the common law system in order to extract some basic principles, from which decisions can be made in different instances. The argument is put forward that such principles are culled from the innate morality of the common law, which itself is a product of society in general and the legal nature of that society in particular. Justice, indeed, is what the judges declare it to be: in making such declarations the judges are governed by what they find to be the fundamental concepts of legal rules — and these concepts are variable

The response of Grandidierella lignorum (Barnard) (Crustacea: Amphipoda) to episodic flooding in three eastern Cape estuaries

The response of the euryhaline amphipod Grandidierella lignorumto changing freshwater inflow was investigated in three estuaries with differing river discharges. In the Kariega and Keiskamma estuaries an increase in the density of G. lignorum was correlated with an increase in river inflow. The sharp reduction in salinity during flooding is suggested as a possible trigger which stimulates G. lignorum to rise into the water column. The position of stations along the Kariega and Keiskamma estuaries, together with seasonal effects, also influenced G. lignorum abundance. In the Great Fish estuary, which has a continuous large freshwater input, changes in the abundance of G. lignorum were not correlated with inflow. Possible reasons for this anomalous situation, as well as the biological implications of becoming part of the zooplankton during flooding, are discussed

Efficient regular path query evaluation using path indexes

We demonstrate the use of localized path indexes in generating efficient execution plans for regular path queries. This study is motivated by both the practicality of this class of queries and by the current dearth of scalable solutions for their evaluation. Our proposed solution leverages widely available relational database technology and is often orders of magnitude faster than currently known approaches. We aim in this hands-on demonstration to both highlight the promise of our approach and to stimulate further discussion and study of engineering solutions for this practical yet challenging class of graph queries

Principles of Guarded Structural Indexing

We present a new structural characterization of the expressive power of the acyclic conjunctive queries in terms of guarded simulations, and give a finite preservation theorem for the guarded simulation invariant fragment of first order logic. We discuss the relevance of these results as a formal basis for constructing so-called guarded structural indexes. Structural indexes were first proposed in the context of semistructured query languages and later successfully applied as an XML indexation mechanism for XPath-like queries on trees and graphs. Guarded structural indexes provide a generalization of structural indexes from graph databases to relational databases

Approximate querying for the Property Graph Language Cypher

Graph databases are well-suited to managing large, complex, dynamically evolving datasets. However, for data that is irregular and heterogeneous, it may be difficult to formulate queries that precisely capture a user's information seeking requirements. This points to the need for approximate query processing capabilities that can automatically make changes to a so as to aid in the incremental discovery of relevant information. In this paper we motivate and explore techniques for providing such capabilities for the Cypher query language. This is the first time that query approximation has been investigated in the context of the property graph data model, which is becoming increasingly prevalent in research and industry

Pressure and Motion of Dry Sand -- Translation of Hagen's Paper from 1852

In a remarkable paper from 1852, Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen measured and explained two fundamental aspects of granular matter: The first effect is the saturation of pressure with depth in a static granular system confined by silo walls -- generally known as the Janssen effect. The second part of his paper describes the dynamics observed during the flow out of the container -- today often called the Beverloo law -- and forms the foundation of the hourglass theory. The following is a translation of the original German paper from 1852.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in Granular Matter, original article (German) can be found under http://www.phy.duke.edu/~msperl/Janssen

SEGMENTASI IRIS MATA DENGAN MENGGUNAKAN TRANSFORMASI HOUGH

Segmentasi iris mata menjadi topik hangat dalam bidang pengenalan iris mata, karena hasil yang kurang bagus dari langkah ini akan merusak atau menurunkan efektifitas sistem pengenalan iris. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan perhatian yang harus dilakukan dalam proses segmentasi jika menginginkan hasil yang akurat, hal ini bergantung pada akurasi dari deteksi pusat pupil mata. Dalam penelitian ini kami mengusulkan metode baru untuk mengenali pusat dari pupil mata yang mana berpusat dengan citra iris mata dengan memanfaatkan operasi 8-tetangga. Parameter ini kemudian digunakan untuk lingkar transformasi hough untuk meningkatkan kecepatan proses segmentasi iris dan keakuratan. Untuk mengabaikan citra kelopak mata dan bulu mata menerapkan operasi deteksi tepi canny. Percobaan ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan 320 citra iris dari dataset standar CASIA, dan hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa metode usulan kami memiliki tingkat akurasi tinggi

Direct medical costs in the preceding, event and subsequent years of first severe hypoglycaemia requiring hospital transfer: A population-based cohort study

Aims To estimate healthcare services use and the direct medical costs accrued by patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) in the year of first severe hypoglycaemia (SH), the years before and after event year. Materials and Methods We analyzed a population‐based, retrospective cohort including all DM adults managed in primary care setting from the Hong Kong Hospital Authority between 2006‐2013. DM patients who had first recorded SH during the observation period were identified, and matched to control group of patients without SH based on the propensity score method. Direct medical costs in the years before, during and after the first SH were determined by summing up the costs of health services utilized within respective year. Results After matching, a total of 22,694 DM patients was identified in first recorded SH group (n=11,347) and non‐SH control group (n=11,347). Patients with first SH on average utilized 7.85 outpatient clinic visits, 1.89 emergency visits and 17.75 nights of hospitalization in the event year. Mean direct medical cost in the event year was US$11,751, more than twofold of that in the preceding year (US$4,846, p<0.001) and subsequent years (US$4,198‐4,700, p<0.001), and 4.5 times of that in two years before the event (US$2,481, p<0.001). Incremental costs of SH versus matched control in the event year and preceding year were US$10,873 (p<0.001) and US$3,974 (p<0.001), respectively. Conclusions SH is associated with excessive hospitalization admission rates and direct medical costs in the event year and, in particular, in the year before as compared to patients without SH

Correction: Exchange Option under Jump-diffusion Dynamics

In this note, we provide the correct formula for the price of the European exchange option given in Cheang, G. H. L., & Chiarella, C. (2011. Exchange options under jump-diffusion dynamics. Applied Mathematical Finance, 18, 245–276) in a bi-dimensional jump diffusion model