Unknown Regulations in Ladino from Salonika (ca. 1740): Ethos, Ideal, Reality

El texto completo de este trabajo, en lengua hebrea, está en las páginas h5-h41 al final del fascículo.In the mid-1930s, Viennese bookseller David Fränkel described a booklet containing regulations in Ladino. Its whereabouts were unknown until it recently appeared in a public auction in Jerusalem. Though Fränkel attributed it to Istanbul, his description leaves no room for doubt that this is the same text, but internal evidence points to Salonika. The four-page booklet is unsigned and undated; one can only conjecture that it was printed in the mid-1740s upon the initiative of the rabbinical and communal leadership in Salonika. It contains two groups of regulations: the first, 24 in number, is arranged according to the months, generally with some connection between the content of the regulation and the month in which it was promulgated; the second contains 18 diverse halakhic directives. In addition to its rarity, the booklet is most instructive about several matters: (a) The religious-cultural character of the community, far from the one desired by the rabbis and from the ideal image of a traditional society that punctiliously observes religious commandments - both depicted by historians as well as by those who wrote about their native community after it was exterminated by the nazis. The text relates to many transgressions of the religious law, whether intentionally or accidentally; members do not know the basics of Judaism and do not understand the prayers or passages read from the Torah. There is much information on the practices connected to the Sabbath and holidays and to lifecycle. (b) The Ladino spoken in Salonika in the mid-eighteenth century is in a transitional stage, showing traces characteristic of earlier periods as well as innovations. Many Hebrew words are interspersed in the text, a fact that raises the question about knowledge of Hebrew. (c) The use and the importance and meaning of printing as mass communication. The following is a summary of the 24 regulations. Some are previously unknown, while others are more or less familiar. Reference is made in the article to similar earlier or contemporary regulations (such as in Orḥot Yosher). The objective of most of the regulations was to prevent ostentatious consumption and waste of money, moral failings, tension with non-Jews or their complaints about indecent behavior of Jewish women, disregard of religious commandments, as well as to eliminate improper practices, particularly those related to prayers and the Sabbath

Measurement as Absorption of Feynman Trajectories: Collapse of the Wave Function Can be Avoided

We define a measuring device (detector) of the coordinate of quantum particle as an absorbing wall that cuts off the particle's wave function. The wave function in the presence of such detector vanishes on the detector. The trace the absorbed particles leave on the detector is identifies as the absorption current density on the detector. This density is calculated from the solution of Schr\"odinger's equation with a reflecting boundary at the detector. This current density is not the usual Schr\"odinger current density. We define the probability distribution of the time of arrival to a detector in terms of the absorption current density. We define coordinate measurement by an absorbing wall in terms of 4 postulates. We postulate, among others, that a quantum particle has a trajectory. In the resulting theory the quantum mechanical collapse of the wave function is replaced with the usual collapse of the probability distribution after observation. Two examples are presented, that of the slit experiment and the slit experiment with absorbing boundaries to measure time of arrival. A calculation is given of the two dimensional probability density function of a free particle from the measurement of the absorption current on two planes.Comment: 20 pages, latex, no figure

Postural control and central motor pathway involvement in type 2 diabetes mellitus: Dynamic posturographic and electrophysiologic studies

Background: Postural instability causes limitations in daily activities of diabetic patients. There is paucity of data regarding central motor pathway involvement in these patients and its relation to postural control.Aim: To evaluate postural control and centralmotor pathway involvement in type 2 diabetic patients. Subjects and methods: The study included 30 type 2 diabetic patients and 15 healthy, age and sexmatched control subjects. Both groups were subjected to physical and full neurological examination, in addition to electrophysiological study including peripheral conduction study and MEPs recorded fromthe feetmuscles.Total neuropathy scorewas calculated. In addition, dynamic posturographic tests were performed including sensory organization test and MCT.Results: Most of the dynamic posturographic parameters were significantly impaired in diabetic patient group. There were significant abnormalities inmost of the parameters of the peripheral conduction study of the patients compared to the controls.According to theTotal neuropathy score, 20 patients had peripheral neuropathy. In addition, there was significant prolongation of the leftCMCT, decreased leftMEP amplitude and increasedMEP resting motor threshold on both sides in the patients compared to the control group. Dynamic posturographic parameters showed correlation with most of the parameters of the peripheral conduction study and few of the MEP parameters. Logistic regression analysis showed peripheral neuropathy as the main factor implicated in postural instability in these patients. However, significant correlation was found between MEP amplitude and MCT composite score in patients without peripheral neuropathy.Conclusion: Although type 2 diabetic patients had prolonged CMCT, decreased amplitude and increased resting motor threshold of the MEP response, peripheral neuropathy was the main factor implicated in postural instability. However, the central motor pathway changes documented could be implicated as a possible cause.Keywords: Diabetic postural control; Central motor pathways; Diabetic neuropathy; Central motor conduction time; Motor evoked potentia

The Nature of Actin-Family Proteins in Chromatin-Modifying Complexes

Actin is not only one of the most abundant proteins in eukaryotic cells, but also one of the most versatile. In addition to its familiar involvement in enabling contraction and establishing cellular motility and scaffolding in the cytosol, actin has well-documented roles in a variety of processes within the confines of the nucleus, such as transcriptional regulation and DNA repair. Interestingly, monomeric actin as well as actin-related proteins (Arps) are found as stoichiometric subunits of a variety of chromatin remodeling complexes and histone acetyltransferases, raising the question of precisely what roles they serve in these contexts. Actin and Arps are present in unique combinations in chromatin modifiers, helping to establish structural integrity of the complex and enabling a wide range of functions, such as recruiting the complex to nucleosomes to facilitate chromatin remodeling and promoting ATPase activity of the catalytic subunit. Actin and Arps are also thought to help modulate chromatin dynamics and maintain higher-order chromatin structure. Moreover, the presence of actin and Arps in several chromatin modifiers is necessary for promoting genomic integrity and an effective DNA damage response. In this review, we discuss the involvement of actin and Arps in these nuclear complexes that control chromatin remodeling and histone modifications, while also considering avenues for future study to further shed light on their functional importance

Genetic attack on neural cryptography

Different scaling properties for the complexity of bidirectional synchronization and unidirectional learning are essential for the security of neural cryptography. Incrementing the synaptic depth of the networks increases the synchronization time only polynomially, but the success of the geometric attack is reduced exponentially and it clearly fails in the limit of infinite synaptic depth. This method is improved by adding a genetic algorithm, which selects the fittest neural networks. The probability of a successful genetic attack is calculated for different model parameters using numerical simulations. The results show that scaling laws observed in the case of other attacks hold for the improved algorithm, too. The number of networks needed for an effective attack grows exponentially with increasing synaptic depth. In addition, finite-size effects caused by Hebbian and anti-Hebbian learning are analyzed. These learning rules converge to the random walk rule if the synaptic depth is small compared to the square root of the system size.Comment: 8 pages, 12 figures; section 5 amended, typos correcte

iConsent an Electronic Consent Platform with the MS Register

ABSTRACT Objectives The UK MS Register is a large scale observational research platform, capturing data from patients, NHS and carries out linkage with routine data from the SAIL databank. We have 14,000 People with MS (PwMS) submitting Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PRoMS) quarterly and over 3000 patients consenting at NHS Sites around the UK A differentiating factor between Register and previous attempts to capture PRoMS and clinical data was the goal that it be paperless. One area, where paper had to be used, was obtaining informed consent. Clinical participants are consented using a triplicate consent form, one copy for the patient, one for medical notes and one for the Register It’s desirable for patients to be able to electronically consent, providing the following benefits: • Tablet computers already in use to collect PRoMS • Printing costs • Participant expectations • Improved content and user experience: improved feedback, of multimedia elements about informed consent • Increased familiarity with tablets Approach Changing consent methodology is complex, all documentation, processes and changes are reviewed by the ethics committee. A privacy protecting, secure software package (iConsent) was developed by modifying an existing package from Welsh Cancer Bank. The software is server based, running on a Secured MS SQLServer 2014 and developed in .net to iOS/Android tablets The practitioner taking consent explains the process, participants then see the approved documentation and materials. Finally they fill in their email address and name, and are presented with the consent form, the participant uses a stylus to sign. The practitioner then countersigns. Once completed a digitally signed, secure pdf is generated on the server. Links are sent by email to the participant, the Register and unit administrator. The pdf is functionally identical to the paper. Results The South West Central Bristol ethics committee approved the software following guidance on security and documentation design. Staff were trained in system usage. A number of patients were successfully e-consented, Of note was a potential issue with some patients and how MS impacts their ability to sign without resting a hand on the screen. Conclusion Patients who have been e-consented have expressed satisfaction in the ease of use and security of the software. Patients being unable to rest their hands on the screen is being examined. Newer tablets can ignore inputs other than the stylus. The MS Register intends to use the software in additional centres to capture patient consent

The Animalistic Gullet and the Godlike Soul: Reframing Sacrifice in Midrash Leviticus Rabbah

This article proposes an analysis of two homiletic units in the Palestinian Midrash Leviticus Rabbah, which revolve around biblical chapters pertaining to sacrifices. A theme that pervades these units is that of eating as an animalistic activity that often entails moral depravity. In contrast, the act of sacrificing is constructed in these units as one in which one is willing to give up one's own nourishment, and in a sense one's own “soul,” in order to offer it to God. Many of the motifs used to vilify eating in the Midrash can be traced in moralistic Greek, Roman, and early Christian diatribes preaching for moderation in eating or for asceticism; the homilists in Leviticus Rabbah, however, utilize these popular motifs in order to present sacrifice as the spiritual contrary of eating, and thus to give the obsolete practice of sacrifice cultural cachet and compelling meanings

The Escape Problem for Irreversible Systems

The problem of noise-induced escape from a metastable state arises in physics, chemistry, biology, systems engineering, and other areas. The problem is well understood when the underlying dynamics of the system obey detailed balance. When this assumption fails many of the results of classical transition-rate theory no longer apply, and no general method exists for computing the weak-noise asymptotics of fundamental quantities such as the mean escape time. In this paper we present a general technique for analysing the weak-noise limit of a wide range of stochastically perturbed continuous-time nonlinear dynamical systems. We simplify the original problem, which involves solving a partial differential equation, into one in which only ordinary differential equations need be solved. This allows us to resolve some old issues for the case when detailed balance holds. When it does not hold, we show how the formula for the mean escape time asymptotics depends on the dynamics of the system along the most probable escape path. We also present new results on short-time behavior and discuss the possibility of focusing along the escape path.Comment: 24 pages, APS revtex macros (version 2.1) now available from PBB via `get oldrevtex.sty