Classification of US Supreme Court Cases using BERT-Based Techniques

Models based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT) produce state of the art (SOTA) results on many natural language processing (NLP) tasks such as named entity recognition (NER), part-of-speech (POS) tagging etc. An interesting phenomenon occurs when classifying long documents such as those from the US supreme court where BERT-based models can be considered difficult to use on a first-pass or out-of-the-box basis. In this paper, we experiment with several BERT-based classification techniques for US supreme court decisions or supreme court database (SCDB) and compare them with the previous SOTA results. We then compare our results specifically with SOTA models for long documents. We compare our results for two classification tasks: (1) a broad classification task with 15 categories and (2) a fine-grained classification task with 279 categories. Our best result produces an accuracy of 80\% on the 15 broad categories and 60\% on the fine-grained 279 categories which marks an improvement of 8\% and 28\% respectively from previously reported SOTA results

On a Pioneering Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Model

"Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Model" is a seminal work that continues to form the basis for modern modeling efforts, especially models concerning the membrane and its behavior at the continuum level. The paper is complete with experimental data, modeling equations, model validation, and optimization scenarios. While the treatment of the underlying phenomena is limited to isothermal, single-phase conditions, and one-dimensional flow, it represents the key interactions within the membrane at the center of the PEFC. It focuses on analyzing the water balance within the cell and clearly demonstrates the complex interactions of water diffusion and electro-osmotic flux. Cell-level and system-level water balance are key to the development of efficient PEFCs going forward, particularly as researchers address the need to simplify humidification and recycle configurations while increasing the operating temperature of the stack to minimize radiator requirements

Understanding sports hernia (athletic pubalgia) - The anatomic and pathophysiologic basis for abdominal and groin pain in athletes

Recent publicity and some scientific reports suggest increasing success in treating an entity called “sports hernia” - more accurately named athletic pubalgia. The primary purpose of this article is to portray what we believe to be the key concept for understanding this wide variety of abdominal and groin injuries that afflict high performance athletes. These injuries have been plaguing athletes for a long time, and past treatments, based on concepts of occult hernia or simple strains, have generally failed. The former concepts do not take into account the likely mechanisms of injury or various patterns of pain that these athletes exhibit. The authors believe that the concept of a pubic joint or pubic dynamic complex is fundamental to understanding the anatomy and pertinent pathophysiology in these patients. Many injuries can now be treated successfully. Some of the injuries require surgery and others do not. In most cases, decisions regarding treatment and timing for return to full play require proper identification of the problems and consideration of a wide variety of medical, social, and business factors

Effect of creep and shrinkage on the behavior of reinforced concrete members

Two titles published in one volume. "Creep of concrete: influencing factors and prediction" by Adam M Neville and Bernard L. Meyers and "Effect of creep and shrinkage on the behavior of reinforced concrete members" by Adrian Pauw and Bernard L. Meyers."Reprinted from Symposium on Creep of Concrete ; Publication SP-9, The American Concrete Institute.

A Capstone Project on Robust Dynamic Positioning and Data Acquisition Systems

The United States Coast Guard is responsible for enforcing Dynamic Positioning System (DPS) standards in the maritime industry. It is important for the members of the U. S. Coast Guard to understand how these systems work. Students have gained a much greater understanding of how DPS platforms work and what might be required to maintain them by building one from scratch. Aside from this, the project has served as a great opportunity to work on a one year term project that may resemble engineering or acquisitions projects that might be encountered in the students’ future careers. The overall goal of the Robust Dynamic Positioning and Data Acquisition System project was to prototype a dynamic positioning system similar to the ones on buoy tenders in the fleet. The primary goal was to maintain a desired heading and position within a certain range. The secondary goals included robust capabilities (the ability to continue functioning despite motor failures) and data acquisition (to analyze system performance post-testing). Students built a vessel from scratch out of a salvage drum and an inner tube for buoyancy. The internal construction consists of three tiers containing batteries at the lowest level, an onboard computer at the second level, and control hardware at the top level (micro controllers, H-bridges, and fuse boxes). Students successfully used a light detection and ranging (LIDAR) device to determine the relative position to two stationary poles. They were able to communicate with the onboard computer via either a wired connection or a remote desktop connection through an ad-hoc wireless network. All programming for this project was done in MATLAB®. Students have completed all project milestones through the application of past courses they have taken in computer control systems, network communication, and digital signal processing at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy. The first challenge of this project was to focus on constructing the vessel and installing the control hardware. One of the obstacles for the students was establishing communication between the various pieces of software, hardware, and the power distribution system. The LIDAR sensor determined the vessel’s relative position and heading to two stationary poles. Using the position and heading resolution algorithms, students conducted a set of system identification tests in an indoor tank to determine how the system reacts to various thrusts from the motors. This allowed students to collect “Open-Loop” system data. Using the data acquisition system, students were able to identify the system and calculate coefficients for the controller and implement a “Closed- Loop” control system. Students successfully implemented a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller that satisfies all design requirements including robust functionality. Currently, all milestones for the project have been accomplished and plans for continuation of the project are underway

Calcium-dependent translocation of sorcin to membranes: functional relevance in contractile tissue

AbstractSorcin, a 22 kDa calcium binding protein present in abundance in cardiac tissue and in multi-drug resistant cells and previously described as a soluble protein, is now shown to undergo a calcium-dependent translocation process from the cytosol to cellular membranes in both systems. The translocation process takes place also in E. coli BL21 cells that express recombinant sorcin, r-sorcin, and can be exploited in the purification of the protein. Calcium binding to purified r-sorcin occurs at micromolar concentrations of the metal and is accompanied by a conformational change that renders the protein soluble in the non-ionic detergent Triton X-114. This finding suggests that lipids are the target of sorcin on cellular membranes. The possible significance of the calcium-dependent translocation of sorcin in the specialized functions of sorcin-expressing cells is discussed