A Graphic Review of the Free Speech Clause

This work acts as a spring board for the study of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. It builds useful graphical representations of complex constitutional theories from the ground up, allowing students to follow both development and the application of these theories

Assessing ‘Green Energy Economy’ policies for transforming the building stock in Shanghai

The 2008–2009 global financial crisis triggered ‘Green Energy Economy’ (GEE) policy packages to stimulate green growth in many countries. China soon became a leader and, supported by its 11th Five-Year Plan (2006–2010), devoted approximately one-third of its US$ 647 billion stimulus package to green energy technologies. Since then, numerous policy instruments have been implemented to encourage ‘Green Buildings’. We take the Chinese city of Shanghai as a case study as it has the largest population, urbanization ratio and GDP in China and evaluate the performance of GEE policies targeted at the multi-household building sector. We use a bottom-up modelling tool to quantitatively estimate alternative baselines and assess different policy scenarios for the period 2010–2050. We measure the performance of policies in relation to energy use, efficiency improvements, CO2 emissions and net direct economic impacts. Our results suggest that current GEE policies are insufficient to stimulate radical change in the building sector. When unambitious policy measures are implemented in isolation, they provide marginal improvements compared to current building codes. The retrofitting of existing buildings is both a significant policy challenge, and offers fertile ground for improvements. Our results show that ambitious, technology-oriented financial incentives for both new and existing buildings, including energy price reform and a CO2 tax offer the right mix of incentives for green building transformation. When the social costs of climate change are taken into account, an integrated policy mix also delivers the highest net economic benefits. We conclude that policies must be more ambitious and include an integrated mix of instruments in order to drive a low-carbon transformation of both new and existing buildings in Shanghai. Finally, the theoretical impacts and potential benefits of GEE policy instruments must not underestimate the challenges associated with their design, implementation and enforcement

Requirements and Output Contracts: Quantity Variations Under the UCC

The aim of this chapter is to review different approaches that have been proposed to compute fabric tensors with emphasis on trabecular bone research. Fabric tensors aim at modeling through tensors both anisotropy and orientation of a material with respect to another one. Fabric tensors are widely used in fields such as trabecular bone research, mechanics of materials and geology. These tensors can be seen as semi-global measurements since they are computed in relatively large neighborhoods, which are assumed quasi-homogeneous. Many methods have been proposed to compute fabric tensors. We propose to classify fabric tensors into two categories: mechanics-based and morphology-based. The former computes fabric tensors from mechanical simulations, while the latter computes them by analyzing the morphology of the materials. In addition to pointing out advantages and drawbacks for each method, current trends and challenges in this field are also summarized

The Role of Local Governments in Governing Sustainable Consumption and Sharing Cities

Municipalities are key actors in their role as planners for sustainable urban development, and also have the responsibility to transform ambitious national and global goals and visions into local practices (McCormick et al., 2013). The role of municipalities in relation to enhancing sustainable consumption patterns has been increasingly highlighted by policy-makers and in research. Creating sustainable societies and shaping their consumption patterns has become an everyday activity for municipalities. This is also the case for the Nordic countries and not least for Sweden, which will be used as an example in this Chapter. The Nordic countries have the ambition of becoming sustainable leaders and enabling sustainable consumption (Mont et al., 2013)

A deformation-based morphometry framework for disentangling Alzheimer's disease from normal aging using learned normal aging templates

Alzheimer's Disease and normal aging are both characterized by brain atrophy. The question of whether AD-related brain atrophy represents accelerated aging or a neurodegeneration process distinct from that in normal aging remains unresolved. Moreover, precisely disentangling AD-related brain atrophy from normal aging in a clinical context is complex. In this study, we propose a deformation-based morphometry framework to estimate normal aging and AD-specific atrophy patterns of subjects from morphological MRI scans. We first leverage deep-learning-based methods to create age-dependent templates of cognitively normal (CN) subjects. These templates model the normal aging atrophy patterns in a CN population. Then, we use the learned diffeomorphic registration to estimate the one-year normal aging pattern at the voxel level. We register the testing image to the 60-year-old CN template in the second step. Finally, normal aging and AD-specific scores are estimated by measuring the alignment of this registration with the one-year normal aging pattern. The methodology was developed and evaluated on the OASIS3 dataset with 1,014 T1-weighted MRI scans. Of these, 326 scans were from CN subjects, and 688 scans were from individuals clinically diagnosed with AD at different stages of clinical severity defined by clinical dementia rating (CDR) scores. The results show that ventricles predominantly follow an accelerated normal aging pattern in subjects with AD. In turn, hippocampi and amygdala regions were affected by both normal aging and AD-specific factors. Interestingly, hippocampi and amygdala regions showed more of an accelerated normal aging pattern for subjects during the early clinical stages of the disease, while the AD-specific score increases in later clinical stages. Our code is freely available at https://github.com/Fjr9516/DBM_with_DL.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Regression models for analyzing radiological visual grading studies – an empirical comparison

Background: For optimizing and evaluating image quality in medical imaging, one can use visual grading experiments, where observers rate some aspect of image quality on an ordinal scale. To analyze the grading data, several regression methods are available, and this study aimed at empirically comparing such techniques, in particular when including random effects in the models, which is appropriate for observers and patients. Methods: Data were taken from a previous study where 6 observers graded or ranked in 40 patients the image quality of four imaging protocols, differing in radiation dose and image reconstruction method. The models tested included linear regression, the proportional odds model for ordinal logistic regression, the partial proportional odds model, the stereotype logistic regression model and rank-order logistic regression (for ranking data). In the first two models, random effects as well as fixed effects could be included; in the remaining three, only fixed effects. Results: In general, the goodness of fit (AIC and McFaddens Pseudo R-2) showed small differences between the models with fixed effects only. For the mixed-effects models, higher AIC and lower Pseudo R-2 was obtained, which may be related to the different number of parameters in these models. The estimated potential for dose reduction by new image reconstruction methods varied only slightly between models. Conclusions: The authors suggest that the most suitable approach may be to use ordinal logistic regression, which can handle ordinal data and random effects appropriately

GWAS of Follicular Lymphoma Reveals Allelic Heterogeneity at 6p21.32 and Suggests Shared Genetic Susceptibility with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) represents a diverse group of hematological malignancies, of which follicular lymphoma (FL) is a prevalent subtype. A previous genome-wide association study has established a marker, rs10484561 in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II region on 6p21.32 associated with increased FL risk. Here, in a three-stage genome-wide association study, starting with a genome-wide scan of 379 FL cases and 791 controls followed by validation in 1,049 cases and 5,790 controls, we identified a second independent FL–associated locus on 6p21.32, rs2647012 (ORcombined = 0.64, Pcombined = 2×10−21) located 962 bp away from rs10484561 (r2<0.1 in controls). After mutual adjustment, the associations at the two SNPs remained genome-wide significant (rs2647012:ORadjusted = 0.70, Padjusted = 4×10−12; rs10484561:ORadjusted = 1.64, Padjusted = 5×10−15). Haplotype and coalescence analyses indicated that rs2647012 arose on an evolutionarily distinct haplotype from that of rs10484561 and tags a novel allele with an opposite (protective) effect on FL risk. Moreover, in a follow-up analysis of the top 6 FL–associated SNPs in 4,449 cases of other NHL subtypes, rs10484561 was associated with risk of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ORcombined = 1.36, Pcombined = 1.4×10−7). Our results reveal the presence of allelic heterogeneity within the HLA class II region influencing FL susceptibility and indicate a possible shared genetic etiology with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These findings suggest that the HLA class II region plays a complex yet important role in NHL

Realism and Functionalism in the Legal Thought of Felix S. Cohen

Purpose: The mean intercept length tensor is the most used technique to estimate microstructure orientation and anisotropy of trabecular bone. This paper proposes an efficient extension of this technique to gray-scale images based on a closed formulation of the mean intercept length tensor and a generalization using different angular convolution kernels. Methods: First, the extended Gaussian image is computed for the binary or gray-scale image. Second, the intercepts are computed for all possible orientations through an angular convolution with the half-cosine function. Finally, the tensor is computed by means of the covariance matrix. The complexity of the method is O(n + m) in contrast with O(nm) of traditional implementations, where n is the number of voxels in the image and m is the number of orientations used in the computations. The method is generalized by applying other angular convolution kernels instead of the half-cosine function. As a result, the anisotropy of the tensor can be controlled while keeping the eigenvectors intact. Results: The proposed extension to gray-scale yields accurate results for reliable computations of the extended Gaussian image and, unlike the traditional methodology, is not affected by artifacts generated by discretizations during the sampling of different orientations. Conclusions: Experiments show that the computations on both binary and gray-scale images are correlated, and that computations in gray-scale are more robust, enabling the use of the mean intercept length tensor to clinical examinations of trabecular bone. The use of kernels based on the von Mises-Fisher distribution is promising as the anisotropy can be adjusted with a parameter in order to improve its power to predict mechanical properties of trabecular bone.funding agencies|Swedish Research Council (VR)|2006-5670|</p