Niche Markets for Fresh Canadian Pork in the Pacific Northwest: A Case Study

Livestock Production/Industries, Marketing,

Smiles Of Silver And Kisses Of Gold

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/3365/thumbnail.jp

Platforms: The First Amendment Misfits

This Essay explains why previous First Amendment precedents that allowed government to require a private entity to host the speech of others have limited applicability to online platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Moreover, the backdrop of an open internet makes platforms sufficiently vulnerable to competition and responsive to “listener” preferences that the dominance of some firms like Facebook and Google is not really a chokepoint: aggressive changes to content curation will lead to user dissatisfaction and defection, whether those changes are made by the government or the companies themselves. As a result, there are no close analogies in First Amendment precedent for internet platforms. We identify the similarities between social media platforms and more traditional venues for speech (like mail, malls, and television) but ultimately conclude there are critical differences that break the analogies. We then compare the role of social media platforms to basic internet service providers to better understand how the line between speech participants and mere conduits should be drawn in an online context. We find that First Amendment caselaw and the reasoning that flows through it would categorize platforms like Twitter and Facebook as speech participants. Next, we consider whether public perception of platforms standing in the role of a “public square” should significantly alter the First Amendment protections afforded to platforms, arguing that it should not. Finally, we argue that online platforms are their own free speech creature that deserve strong protection from government intervention in hosting and curation choices. However, they may be good targets for transparency requirements

Exploiting Action Impact Regularity and Exogenous State Variables for Offline Reinforcement Learning

Offline reinforcement learning -- learning a policy from a batch of data -- is known to be hard for general MDPs. These results motivate the need to look at specific classes of MDPs where offline reinforcement learning might be feasible. In this work, we explore a restricted class of MDPs to obtain guarantees for offline reinforcement learning. The key property, which we call Action Impact Regularity (AIR), is that actions primarily impact a part of the state (an endogenous component) with limited impact on the remaining part of the state (an exogenous component). AIR is a strong assumption, but it nonetheless holds in a number of real-world domains including financial markets. We discuss algorithms that exploits the AIR property, and provide a theoretical analysis for an algorithm based on Fitted-Q Iteration. Finally, we demonstrate that the algorithm outperforms existing offline reinforcement learning algorithms across different data collection policies in simulated and real world environments where the regularity holds

Ultrastructure study of the transgenic REN2 rat aorta – part 2: media, external elastic lamina, and adventitia

BackgroundThe renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) plays an important role in the development and progression of vascular stiffness, hypertension and accelerated atherosclerosis, which are associated with the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition to the intima, RAAS plays an important role in vascular media and adventitial remodeling. Methods Descending thoracic aortas of young male transgenic heterozygous (mRen2) 27 (Ren2) rats were utilized for ultrastructural study. This lean model of hypertension, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress harbors the mouse renin gene and is known to have increased aortic tissue levels of angiotensin II, angiotensin type 1 receptors, and elevated plasma aldosterone levels. ResultsUltrastructural observations substantiate known and novel findings in the tunica media, internal and external elastic lamina, and tunica adventitia, which includes: increased media collagen - proteoglycan matrix expansion, increased secretory and proliferative activity and migration of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) into a newly developing subendothelial neointima, increased VSMC caveolae, mitochondria degeneration, apoptosis; and lipid retention at the elastin lamellar interface. Openings in the external elastic lamina allow pericyte-to-VSMC contacts. The tunica adventitia exhibits stromal pericyte hyperplasia with actively synthetic phenotype and pericyte-pericyte connections. ConclusionWhile these studies only represent a single snapshot in time, they provide an evaluation of early abnormal ultrastructural vascular remodeling in Ren-2 models of the conduit-elastic thoracic aorta

Development and application of an empirical probability distribution for the prediction error of re-entry body maximum dynamic pressure

The relationship between actual and predicted re-entry maximum dynamic pressure is characterized using a probability density function and a cumulative distribution function derived from sounding rocket flight data. This paper explores the properties of this distribution and demonstrates applications of this data with observed sounding rocket re-entry body damage characteristics to assess probabilities of sustaining various levels of heating damage. The results from this paper effectively bridge the gap existing in sounding rocket reentry analysis between the known damage level/flight environment relationships and the predicted flight environment

A benchmarking methodology for the centralized-database computer with expandable and parallel database processors and stores

In this paper a benchmarking methodology for a new kind of database computers is introduced. The emergence in the research community and in the commercial world of this kind of database computer (known as the multiple-backed database computers), were each computer system is configured with two or more identical processors and their associated stores for concurrent execution of transactions and for parallel processing of a centralized database spread over separate stores, is evident. The motivation and characterization of the multiple-backend database computer are first given. The need and lack of a methodology for benchmarking the new computer with a variable number of backends for the same database or with a fixed number of backends for different capacities are also evident. The measures (benchmarks) of the new computer are articulated and established and the design of the methodology for conducting the measurements is then given. Because of the novelty of the database computer architecture, the benchmarking methodology is rather elaborate and somewhat complicated. To aid our understanding of the methodology, a concrete sample is given herein. This sample also illustrates the use of the methodology. Meanwhile, a CAD system which computerizes the benchmarking methodology for systematically assisting the design of test databases and test-transaction mixes, for automatically tallying the design data and workloads, and for completely generating the test databases and test-transaction mixes is being implementedPrepared for: Chief of Naval Research Arlington, VAhttp://archive.org/details/benchmarkingmeth00demu61153N; RRO14-0 8-01 N0001485WR24046NAApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Ion Thruster Development at NASA Lewis Research Center

Recent ion propulsion technology efforts at NASA's Lewis Research Center including development of kW-class xenon ion thrusters, high power xenon and krypton ion thrusters, and power processors are reviewed. Thruster physical characteristics, performance data, life projections, and power processor component technology are summarized. The ion propulsion technology program is structured to address a broad set of mission applications from satellite stationkeeping and repositioning to primary propulsion using solar or nuclear power systems