Superdatabases for Composition of Heterogeneous Databases

Superdatabases are designed to compose and extend databases. In particular, superdatabases allow consistent update across heterogeneous databases. The key idea of superdatabase is hierarchical composition of element databases. For global crash recovery, each element database must provide local recovery plus some kind of agreement protocol, such as two-phase commit. For global concurrency control, each element database must have local synchronization with an explicit serial order, such as two-phase locking, timestamps, or optimistic methods. Given element databases satisfying the above requirements, the superdatabase can certify the serializability of global transactions through a concatenation of local serial order. Combined with previous work on heterogeneous databases, including unified query languages and view integration, now we can build heterogeneous databases which are consistent, adaptable, and extensible by construction

Smoke and Silver: Money, Credit, and the Failure of Economic Diversification in the Seventeenth Century Virgina

Historians have long been perplexed by Virginia\u27s dependency on tobacco in the seventeenth century. Despite continual efforts by both the Virginia and British governments, the small planters in the colony continued to overproduce tobacco, seemingly to their own detriment. This thesis argues that the failures of economic diversification are best understood when the advantages of tobacco are broken down into natural, artificial, and monetary factors. Tobacco enjoyed many natural advantages of alternative crops, and these advantages were buttressed by artificial advantages created by legislation that either directly or indirectly incentivized tobacco production. The most prominent of these are the legal tender laws for tobacco which, due to the compulsory acceptance stipulation and fixed exchange rates, created a distorted credit system in the economy that made tobacco production benefit small planters at the expense of the large planters

A Systematic Review of the Soteria Paradigm for the Treatment of People Diagnosed With Schizophrenia

Background: The “Soteria paradigm” attempts to support people diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders using a minimal medication approach. Interest in this approach is growing in the United Kingdom, several European countries, North America, and Australasia. Aims: To summarize the findings from all controlled trials that have assessed the efficacy of the Soteria paradigm for the treatment of people diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Methods: A systematic search strategy was used to identify controlled studies (randomized, pseudorandomized, and nonrandomized) employing the Soteria paradigm to treat adults and adolescents meeting the criteria for schizophrenia spectrum disorders according to International Classification of Diseases and Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders criteria. Results: We identified 3 controlled trials involving a total of 223 participants diagnosed with first- or second-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders. There were few major significant differences between the experimental and control groups in any of the trials across a range of outcome measures at 2-year follow-up, though there were some benefits in specific areas. Conclusions: The studies included in this review suggest that the Soteria paradigm yields equal, and in certain specific areas, better results in the treatment of people diagnosed with first- or second-episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders (achieving this with considerably lower use of medication) when compared with conventional, medication-based approaches. Further research is urgently required to evaluate this approach more rigorously because it may offer an alternative treatment for people diagnosed with schizophrenia spectrum disorders

Uranium and Its Legal Implications in Montana

Uranium and Its Legal Implications in Montan

Cerebellar Purkinje Cell Loss in Developing Lurcher Mice Influences Respiratory Compensatory Responses to Acute Hypercapnia and Hypoxia

Impaired responsivity to hypercapnia or hypoxia is commonly considered a mechanism of failure in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). We used a model of developmental cerebellar Purkinje cell loss to determine if such loss influenced compensatory ventilatory responses to hypercapnic and hypoxic challenges. Twenty-four Lurcher mutant mice and wildtype controls were sequentially exposed to 2% increases in CO2 (0%-8%) or 2% reductions in O2 (21%-13%) for four-minutes, with return to room air between each exposure. Whole-body plethysmography was used to continuously monitor tidal volume and breath frequency. Tidal volume increases to CO2 elevation were reduced in Mutants, and slower to recover. Increased breathing rates to hypercapnia were also lower in Mutants, and were unable to be maintained in recovery, except for very high (8%) CO2 levels. Less pronounced ventilatory responses emerged to hypoxia. Since cerebellar neuropathology appears in SIDS victims, developmental cerebellar neuropathology may contribute to SIDS vulnerability

Correspondence - 1949, November 19 - T. W. Calton

Correspondence from T. W. Calton to Fay Webb Gardner regarding the reburial of James Milton Webb.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/fay-webb-gardner-concord-baptist-church/1005/thumbnail.jp

Compensatory Respiratory Effects in Three Mouse Models of Developmental Cerebellar Neuropathology during Exposure to and Recovery from Hypoxic and Hypercapnic Challenges

Sudden unexplained death occurs in multiple populations. Significant evidence suggests fatality was due to cardiorespiratory failure--likely in response to an exogenous stressor which created an immediate hypercapnic (increased carbon dioxide) or hypoxic (decreased oxygen) environment. Research into the mechanism(s) of failure has focused on the brainstem (the classic cardiorespiratory control center) to no avail. Recently, research has probed outside of the brainstem to identify structures that may play a specific modulatory role during stressful conditions such as hypoixia and hypercapnia, for example the cerebellum, which houses a pair of chemosensitive nuclei, the fastigial nuclei (FN). As the Purkinje cells of the cerebellar vermis primarily innervate the FN, and global cerebellar Purkinje cell loss inhibits the abiliity to respond to and recover frommild hypoxic and hypercapnic stressors, the purpose of this study was to examine the respiratory responses of multiple animal models of developmental cerebellar Purkinje cell loss or dysfunction to hypoxic and hypercapnic stressors. It was hypothesized that cerebellar Purkinje cell loss or dysfunction, regardless of extent, would result in a reduced ability to resond to and recover from hypoxic and hypercapnic stressors. Twelve male sibling mutant and wildtype mouse pairs from three strains (Fmr1, Lurcher, and mdx) on three different genetic backgrounds (FVB, B6, and B10 respectively) were exposed to multiple environmental stressors with periods of recovery in normal room air in a whole body plethysmography system. Respiratory minute ventilation (MV) patterns were examined for changes in depth of breathing, breath frequency, and pausing between breaths. Results of multiple mixed analyses of covariance indicated all animals responded accordingly to the hypoxic and hypercapnic stressors by increasing their MV and subsequently decreasing MV when allowed to recover in normal conditions. However, regardless of strain, all mutant animals with cerebellar Purkinje cell loss or dysfunction were slower to respond to stressors and revealed patterns of disordered breathing during recovery. As cerebellar Purkinje cell loss or dysfunction and disordered breathing are common in multiple populations at risk for sudden unexplained death, the precise role of this neuropathology in the fatal event of sudden death victims should be further investigated

Investigation of measures of ill-conditioning

“The object of investigation in this study is that of ill-conditioning in the solution of a system of linear equations. Ill-conditioning arises when the solution is very sensitive to small changes in the coefficients of the unknowns. A study is made in this paper of the various proposed measures of ill-conditioning for the purpose of finding the most practical method or measure for determining whether a system is ill-conditioned. The problem of near-singular or ill-conditioned systems is of great importance in the solution of linear systems because of the extensive use made of them in practical situations. Solution of a system of linear equations with this property frequently finds use in many areas of Applied Science. In applied mathematics, systems of linear equations are used in solving such problems as method of least squares, solution of partial differential equations, ordinary differential equations and many others. Although computation of such a system could be done by double precision, giving increased accuracy at each step, this does not eliminate the problem. The problem of obtaining accurate data may be more important than the actual computation. However, when a system is found to be ill- conditioned, a method of higher precision is often used to improve round-off errors which would invalidate the solution. Nevertheless, it is the identification or means of detecting such a system which needs to be considered before further analysis can be pursued. In small systems the detection of ill-conditioning is fairly obvious by observation; whereas for larger systems, it is hidden from observation in most cases. Thus, an indicative measure is needed to detect such a system. It is the aim of the author in this study to find a suitable measure or method for detecting an ill-conditioned system of equations”--Introduction, pages 1-2

Training African-American Social Workers Through the NUL Fellowship Program

The National Urban League (NUL), under Dr. George Edmund Haynes\u27 leadership made the training and education of African American social workers one of its major functions during the early 1900s. This article provides detailed information about the unique and timely fellowship program which provided funding and opportunities for many African American to study social work at leading schools of social work in the country. The Social Science Department of Fisk University also played a significant role in pioneering African American social work education, and is also briefly discussed