The Securities and Exchange Commission today voted to adopt rule amendments to implement certain provisions of the Small Business Credit Availability Act and the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act relating to business…

The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge collaborative efforts of McKesson Corporation, Owens & Minor, Inc., Cardinal Health, Inc., Medline Industries, Inc., and Henry Schein, Inc. (together “Medical Supplies Distributors”) to expedite and increase manufacturing, sourcing, and distribution of personal-protective equipment (“PPE”) and coronavirus-treatment-related medication. These collaborative efforts are part of an emergency response developed and led by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to address supply needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will not challenge collaborative efforts of AmerisourceBergen Corporation (AmerisourceBergen) to identify global supply opportunities, ensure product quality, and facilitate product distribution of medications and other healthcare supplies to treat COVID-19 patients.

Cengage Learning Holdings II Inc. and McGraw-Hill Education Inc. mutually agreed to abandon their plans to merge after the Department of Justice informed the companies it had serious concerns that the proposed transaction, as structured, would harm competition.

Some members of Congress say the new Ebola infection in New York City is exposing flaws in the system and raising new concerns.

Will Marble writes: I’m a Ph.D. student in political science at Stanford. Along with colleagues from the Stanford medical school, law school, and elsewhere, we recently completed a white paper evaluating the evidence for and tradeoffs involved with shelter-in-place policies. To our knowledge, our paper contains the widest review of the relevant covid-19 research. It […]

Development of a regional lichen gradient model from community data is a powerful tool to derive lichen indexes of response to environmental factors for large-scale and long-term monitoring of forest ecosystems. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service includes lichens in its national inventory of forests of the United States, to help monitor the status of forested ecosystems.

This is a state-of-the-science synthesis of the effects of forest harvest activities on peak flows and channel morphology in the Pacific Northwest, with a specific focus on western Oregon and Washington. We develop a database of relevant studies reporting peak flow data across rain-, transient-, and snow-dominated hydrologic zones, and provide a quantitative comparison of changes in peak flow across both a range of flows and forest practices. Increases in peak flows generally diminish with decreasing intensity of percentage of watershed harvested and lengthening recurrence intervals of flow. Watersheds located in the rain dominated zone appear to be less sensitive to peak flow changes than those in the transient snow zone; insufficient data limit interpretations for the snow zone. Where present, peak flow effects on channel morphology should be confined to stream reaches where channel gradients are less than approximately 0.02 and streambeds are composed of gravel and finer material. We provide guidance as to how managers might evaluate the potential risk of peak flow increases based on factors such as presence of roads, watershed drainage efficiency, and specific management treatments employed. The magnitude of effects of forest harvest on peak flows in the Pacific Northwest, as represented by the data reported here, are relatively minor in comparison to other anthropogenic changes to streams and watersheds.

GLOBAL MEDIA Partner HAROLD AUSTIN shares, "I wanted to bring attention to a blog that we just posted on our website, entitled 'Radio’s response to the CV crisis,' which … more

HUBBARD RADIO Classic Rock WDRV (97.1 THE DRIVE)/CHICAGO's morning guys SHERMAN & TINGLE partnered with the AMERICAN NURSES FOUNDATION to present “Healthcare Heroes," a … more

Vice President Mike Pence owes Iowans more than a photo-op when he visits Des Moines today, according to Joe Biden’s campaign. “Iowans are seeing up close the most consequential failure...

Vice President Mike Pence owes Iowans more than a photo-op when he visits Des Moines today, according to Joe Biden’s campaign.

“Iowans are seeing up close the most consequential failure of government in modern American history,” said Kate Bedingfeld, spokeswoman for the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

“With nearly 300,000 Iowans filing for unemployment, rural hospitals on life support, Latino communities disproportionately suffering and workers on the job without sufficient protection, Mike Pence owes Iowans more than a photo-op — he owes them answers,” she said.

Pence, head of the White House coronavirus task force, is scheduled to meet with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, all Republicans, as well as with faith, farm and food production leaders.

Pence will talk to faith leaders about how they are using federal and state guidelines to open their houses of worship in a safe and responsible manner.

Later, he will go to Hy-Vee’s headquarters in West Des Moines for a roundtable discussion with agriculture and food supply leaders to discuss steps being taken to ensure the food supply remains secure.

Pence has called Iowa a “success story” in its response to the COVID-19, but Bedingfeld said the Trump administration failed to protect Iowa families from the virus that has claimed the lives of 231 Iowans.

“From devastating losses across the state, at meatpacking plants to rural communities, one thing is clear — it’s Iowans and the American people who are paying the price for the Trump administration’s denials and delays in response to this pandemic,” she said.

“Instead of listening to our own intelligence agencies and public health experts, Donald Trump was fed dangerous propaganda from the Chinese Communist Party — and he bought it,” she said. “Iowans deserve better — they deserve Joe Biden.”

For his part, Grassley said he welcomes the discussion with Pence.

“There’s much work to be done, and the pandemic is disrupting all of our communities,” Grassley said. “It’s important to hear directly from those who help feed the nation and the world.”

Ernst also is looking forward to the discussion of how Iowa is working to protect the health and safety of Iowa’s families and communities while reopening the state’s economy.

“We continue to take an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackling this pandemic,” she said. “Together, we will get through this.”

Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com

Dialogue engines that incorporate different types of agents to converse with humans are popular.

However, conversations are dynamic in the sense that a selected response will change the conversation on-the-fly, influencing the subsequent utterances in the conversation, which makes the response selection a challenging problem.

We model the problem of selecting the best response from a set of responses generated by a heterogeneous set of dialogue agents by taking into account the conversational history, and propose a emph{Neural Response Selection} method.

The proposed method is trained to predict a coherent set of responses within a single conversation, considering its own predictions via a curriculum training mechanism.

Our experimental results show that the proposed method can accurately select the most appropriate responses, thereby significantly improving the user experience in dialogue systems.

Methods and arrangements for analyzing and responding to communications data. Telecom data are input, as are social network data. The telecom data and social network data are analyzed, and action tuples representing opportunistic leads are generated based on the analyzed telecom data and social network data.

Apparatus comprising an input connected to receive an input signal, a lookup table comprising a plurality of input entries and first and second output entries for each input entry. The look up table receives the input signal and returns a lower input entry, an upper input entry, the second output entry for the lower input entry, and the first output entry for the upper input entry. A first subtractor subtracts the lower input entry from the input signal to produce a first difference. A second subtractor subtracts the input signal from the upper input entry to produce a second difference. First and second multipliers multiply the first and second differences by the first output entry for the upper input entry and the second output entry for the lower input entry, respectively, to produce first and second products. An adder adds the first and second products to produce an output signal.

This disclosure provides a network security architecture that permits installation of different software security products as virtual machines (VMs). By relying on a standardized data format and communication structure, a general architecture can be created and used to dynamically build and reconfigure interaction between both similar and dissimilar security products. Use of an integration scheme having defined message types and specified query response framework provides for real-time response and easy adaptation for cross-vendor communication. Examples are provided where an intrusion detection system (IDS) can be used to detect network threats based on distributed threat analytics, passing detected threats to other security products (e.g., products with different capabilities from different vendors) to trigger automatic, dynamically configured communication and reaction. A network security provider using this infrastructure can provide hosted or managed boundary security to a diverse set of clients, each on a customized basis.

A dispersed storage network memory includes a pool of storage nodes, where the pool of storage nodes stores a multitude of encoded data files. A storage node obtains and analyzes data access response performance data for each of the storage nodes to produce a modified data access response plan that includes identity of an undesired performing storage node and an alternative data access response for the undesired performing storage node. The storage nodes receive corresponding portions of a data access request for at least a portion of one of the multitude of encoded data files. The undesired performing storage node or another storage node processes one of the corresponding portions of the data access request in accordance with the alternative data access response.

A vector data access unit includes data access ordering circuitry, for issuing data access requests indicated by elements of earlier and a later vector instructions, one being a write instruction. An element indicating the next data access for each of the instructions is determined. The next data accesses for the earlier and the later instructions may be reordered. The next data access of the earlier instruction is selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is less than or equal to the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. The next data access of the later instruction may be selected if the position of the earlier instruction's next data element is higher than the position of the later instruction's next data element minus a predetermined value. Thus data accesses from earlier and later instructions are partially interleaved.

A messaging response system is disclosed wherein a service providing system provides services to users via messaging communications. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, multiple respondents servicing users through messaging communications may appear to simultaneously use a common “screen name” identifier.

A system for translating user motion into multiple object responses of an on-screen object based on user interaction of an application executing on a computing device is provided. User motion data is received from a capture device from one or more users. The user motion data corresponds to user interaction with an on-screen object presented in the application. The on-screen object corresponds to an object other than an on-screen representation of a user that is displayed by the computing device. The user motion data is automatically translated into multiple object responses of the on-screen object. The multiple object responses of the on-screen object are simultaneously displayed to the users.

The present invention discloses a method of inhibiting an ethylene response in a plant, comprising step of applying to at least one portion of the plant an effective ethylene response-inhibiting amount of a H1-cyclopropene-1-propanoic acid salt (CPAS). A method of prolonging the life of a cut flower, comprising applying to the cut flower an effective life-prolonging amount of CPAS and a method for the production a CPAS, comprising steps of (i) preparing 4-bromo-4-pentenoic acid or derivatives thereof; (ii) producing 1-cyclopropene-1-propanoic acid; and (iii), converting this acid into its water soluble salt, especially its sodium salt are presented. Additionally, a new family of water soluble CPAS inhibitors for ethylene response in a plant is disclosed.

Methods, systems, and computer readable media for monitored application of mechanical force to samples using acoustic energy and mechanical parameter value extraction using mechanical response models can be used for determining mechanical property parameters of a sample. An exemplary method includes applying acoustic energy to a sample to apply a mechanical force to the sample, measuring a response by the sample during the application of the acoustic energy, measuring a recovery response of the sample following cessation of the application of the acoustic energy, and determining a value for at least one additional mechanical property parameter of the sample based on the response measured during application of the acoustic energy and the recovery response measured following cessation of the application of acoustic energy.

The present invention provides a method for enhancing an immune response in a mammal to facilitate the elimination of a chronic pathology. The method involves the removal of immune system inhibitors such as soluble TNF receptor from the circulation of the mammal, thus, enabling a more vigorous immune response to the pathogenic agent. The removal of immune system inhibitors is accomplished by contacting biological fluids of a mammal with one or more binding partner(s) such as TNFα muteins capable of binding to and, thus, depleting the targeted immune system inhibitor(s) from the biological fluids. Particularly useful in the invention is an absorbent matrix composed of an inert, biocompatible substrate joined covalently to a binding partner, such as a TNFα mutein, capable of specifically binding to a targeted immune system inhibitor such as soluble TNF receptor.

A positive response notification to provide information regarding locate and/or marking operations for underground facilities may include time-stamp information to provide proof of a time at which the locate and/or marking operation was completed by a locate technician, and/or place-stamp information to provide proof of a presence of the locate technician at or near a work site. An electronic manifest image and/or a virtual white line image similarly may be included in a positive response notification. In one example, such images may be bundled together based on respective descriptor files (or descriptor metadata) that associates the corresponding images with a locate request ticket for the operation. In another example, a positive response notification may include environmental information regarding one or more environmental conditions present at or near the work site during the locate and/or marking operation.

A brake system and related components including a metering device are configured to regulate a control signal received from a brake control device such that a control valve delays the supply of a level of requested braking pressure for a prescribed amount of time. The metering device can be an inversion valve and orificed check valve in a control circuit adapted to allow relatively unrestricted flow until a threshold pressure is reached, after which pressure the inversion valve closes and the flow is metered through an orifice. This has the effect of allowing rapid brake actuation to a first level, and then slowing further application of the brake until full requested braking is achieved. An electronic control unit can also be configured to regulate a control signal to delay development of the requested brake pressure.

Configurations for simulation of motions or movement in a health training mannequin for teaching purposes are disclosed. A cardiac defibrillation response simulation apparatus is configured to be housed separately from but interfaced with a health training mannequin to induce motion symptomatic response to electrical shock in the mannequin. In one embodiment a system comprises a motion inducer comprising a housing, an interface structure, and an actuator, wherein the interface structure is coupled to the actuator, movable relative to the housing, and configured to interface with a portion of a health training mannequin to induce motion in at least one portion of the health training mannequin. In another embodiment a method comprises interfacing a portion of a health training mannequin with an interface structure, the interface structure being coupled to an actuator and movable relative to a housing coupled to the actuator, the housing not being housed within a portion of the health training mannequin. Various hardware configurations are presented.

A method and system are presented to address quantitative assessment of visual motor response in a subject, where the method comprises the steps of: (1) presenting at least one scene to a subject on a display; (2) modulating the contrast of a predetermined section of the scene; (3) moving the predetermined section relative to the scene with the movement being tracked by the subject via at least one input device; (4) measuring a kinematic parameter of the tracked movement; (5) quantitatively refining the tracked movement; (6) determining the relationship between at least one of the scene and the quantitatively refined tracked movement; (7) adjusting the modulated contrast relative to the quantitatively refined tracked movement; (8) calculating a critical threshold parameter for the subject; and (9) recording a critical threshold parameter onto a tangible computer readable medium.

Techniques for extracting the characteristic response of a non-linear channel are presented. In various implementations of the invention, a channel's characteristic response may be determined by identifying a first input sequence, determining the ones compliment of the first input sequence and then determining the response of the channel to these two input sequences. Subsequently, two input matrices and two response matrices may be generated based upon the two input sequences and their corresponding responses. Given these four matrices, a symmetrical response component may be determined by iteratively solving a system of equations formed from the columns of each matrix. Subsequently, given the symmetric component and these four matrices, an asymmetrical response component may be determined by again iteratively solving the system of equations for the columns of each matrix.

A radio communication device capable of randomizing both inter-cell interference and intra-cell interference. In this device, a spreading section (214) primarily spreads a response signal in a ZAC sequence set by a control unit (209). A spreading section (217) secondarily spreads the primarily spread response signal in a block-wise spreading code sequence set by the control unit (209). The control unit (209) controls the cyclic shift amount of the ZAC sequence used for the primary spreading in the spreading section (214) and the block-wise spreading code sequence used for the secondary spreading in the spreading section (217) according to a set hopping pattern. The hopping pattern set by the control unit (209) is made up of two hierarchies. An LB-based hopping pattern different for each cell is defined in the first hierarchy in order to randomize the inter-cell interference. A hopping pattern different for each mobile station is defined in the second hierarchy in order to randomize the intra-cell interference.

In some embodiments, a method for processing output of at least one microphone of a device (e.g., a headset) to identify at least one touch gesture exerted by a user on the device, including by distinguishing the gesture from input to the microphone other than a touch gesture intended by the user, and by distinguishing between a tap exerted by the user on the device and at least one dynamic gesture exerted by the user on the device, where the output of the at least one microphone is also indicative of ambient sound (e.g., voice utterences). Other embodiments are systems for detecting ambient sound (e.g., voice utterences) and touch gestures, each including a device including at least one microphone and a processor coupled and configured to process output of each microphone to identify at least one touch gesture exerted by a user on the device.

An electrical machine includes a stator having a main armature winding, an exciter field winding, and a transformer primary winding. A rotor is operatively connected to rotate relative to the stator, wherein the rotor includes an exciter armature winding operatively connected to the exciter armature winding for field excitation therebetween, a main field winding operatively connected to the main armature winding for field excitation therebetween, and a transformer secondary winding operatively connected to the transformer primary winding to form a rotating transformer. A generator control unit is operatively connected to the main armature winding, exciter field winding, and transformer primary winding to control the main armature and exciter field windings based on excitation in the primary winding received from the transformer secondary winding.

A response form security device is provided for use with a generally planar response form having an answer area bearing answer blanks upon which a respondent makes marks to indicate a plurality of responses. The security device includes a sleeve adapted and constructed to slidably receive and cover the response form. An access window is formed in the sleeve, and permits visual access by the respondent to a number of fewer than all of the answer areas of the response form. The length of the sleeve and the configuration of the answer window are chosen so as to prevent anyone other than the user from seeing a number of marks on the answer area sufficient to observe a repeatable pattern of marks.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium may comprise instructions stored thereon. When executed by at least one processor, the instructions may be configured to cause a backend server to at least receive, from an administrator webserver, an extension, store the extension and an associated timestamp in a repository, the associated timestamp indicating a time at which the extension was received from the administrator webserver, receive a request for the extension from a customer webserver, the request for the extension identifying the extension, and in response to receiving the request for the extension, fetch the extension from the repository, and send the extension to the customer webserver.

Described herein are methods for training a machine learning-based predictor of affective response to stimuli. The methods involve receiving samples comprising temporal windows of token instances to which a user was exposed, and target values representing affective response annotations of the user in response to the temporal windows of token instances. This data is used for the training of the predictor along with values indicative of the number of the token instances in the temporal windows of token instances, which are used to compensate for non-linear effects resulting from saturation of the user.

In general, the subject matter described in this specification can be embodied in methods, systems, and program products for receiving user input that defines a search query, and providing the search query to a server system. Information that a search engine system determined was responsive to the search query is received at a computing device. The computing device is identified as in a first state, and a first output mode for audibly outputting at least a portion of the information is selected. The first output mode is selected from a collection of the first output mode and a second output mode. The second output mode is selected in response to the computing device being in a second state and is for visually outputting at least the portion of the information and not audibly outputting the at least portion of the information. At least the portion of information is audibly output.

Systems and devices incorporating radiation detection, and techniques and materials for improved radiation detection are provided that involve a nano-scintillator exhibiting a linear luminescent emission response to stimulating electromagnetic radiation. The nano-scintillator can include at least one nanocrystal comprising a rare earth element, a lanthanide dopant, and a spectator dopant, wherein the nanocrystal exhibits a linear luminescent emission response to stimulating electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths less than 100 nm. As one example, the nanocrystal is [Y2-xO3; Eux, Liy], where x is 0.05 to 0.1 and y is 0.1 to 0.16, and has an average nanoparticle size of 40 to 70 nm. These nanocrystals can be fabricated through a glycine combustion method.

Noiiz has announced availability of Project-Unity, a sample pack featuring 5,604 loops and samples made by 96 different creators. This HUGE sample pack has been created by the generosity of our creators, partners and community and 100% of proceeds go directly to charity. It’s one of the most inspiring packs we have ever produced. We’ve […]

The post Noiiz launches Project-Unity 10GB sample pack in support of COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund appeared first on rekkerd.org.

Mr. Ajoy Chawla, CEO, Jewellery Division at Titan Company Limited said, "All 328 Tanishq stores remain shut this year and hence it would be unfair to compare numbers with last year. But the overall customer response to tanishq.co.in from key metros and even with tier-2 and tier-3 towns has been extremely encouraging.

THE message from our medical experts leading the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic has been crystal clear in recent days: we have come too far together to drop our guard now.

In this edition of River to River, host Ben Kieffer talks with political analysts Chris Larimer of University of Northern Iowa and Sara Mitchell of University of Iowa about Gov. Kim Reynolds' trip to meet with White House officials about Iowa's response to COVID-19. They also discuss Vice President Mike Pence's upcoming trip to meet with Iowa religious leaders, and get a snapshot of Iowa congressional and senate races heading into the June 2 primary. Guests: Chis Larimer, professor of political science at University of Northern Iowa Sara Mitchell, F. Wendell Miller professor of political science at University of Iowa

Friday on Political Rewind , mayors from across the state discuss how they are handling the coronavirus pandemic. How are municipal leaders responding to Gov. Brian Kemp’s latest move and how do they think their constituency will respond?

A white police officer fired through the window of a black woman's home early Saturday and killed her after responding to a call that a neighbor placed about an open front door, authorities in Fort Worth, Texas, say. Around 2:25 a.m., officers responded to an "open structure call" made by a neighbor to the police department's nonemergency number. Inside the home, Atatiana Jefferson, 28, and her 8-year-old nephew were playing video games. Body camera footage released by the police shows the officer outside the home, looking into Jefferson's bedroom window and shouting, "Put your hands up! Show me your hands!" before firing a single bullet that killed Jefferson. Kyev Tatum, a pastor and community activist who was on the scene shortly after the shooting, told NPR that the neighbor who called the police was worried about the welfare of Jefferson. He said Jefferson may have had her front door open for a reason. "This was probably one of the first days that we had cool weather in Fort Worth.

For many lucky enough to still have a job, getting dressed and made-up is a vestige of normalcy in a world that feels upended. For others, gray roots, shaggy beards and chipped nails are the last thing to worry about. But what has this unprecedented period behind closed doors revealed about our self-care and priorities? And what will happen to the beauty market when it’s all over? On Second Thought e xplores these questions, which are particularly pertinent now that Gov. Brian Kemp has given the green light for barbershops and hair and nail salons to re-open. The closure of schools, restaurants and hotels has wreaked havoc on the nation’s food culture, from one end of the supply chain to the other. Jon Jackson, founder of Comfort Farms in Milledgeville, joined On Second Thought to share what they’re dealing with, as well as how he got into farming in the first place. We also learn about StagVets , of which he’s executive director, and how it helps veterans dealing with PTSD.

Karen and Bradley discuss RMS' essay on FSF's website, Ubuntu SpyWare: What To Do, and Shuttleworth's Slashdot interview that responds somewhat to RMS' comments.

Show Notes:

Segment 0 (00:36)

• Karen and Bradley discuss RMS' essay on FSF's website, Ubuntu SpyWare: What To Do (08:50)
• Bradley mentioned how Fab discovered (and discussed on Linux Outlaws 280) how a search for “ter” in efforts to find a terminal window in Ubuntu yields [slightly NSFW] gives results for Rachel Ter Horst DVDs. (09:44)
• Bradley mentioned his blog post about Nokia's problems interfacing with Free Software communities. (14:50)
• Bradley and Karen discuss Shuttleworth's Slashdot interview (18:25).
• Bradley and Karen also briefly mentioned Jono Bacon's comments about RMS's essay and Jono's apology. (19:30)
• Bradley mentioned Shuttleworth's comments during his LinuxCon 2011 keynote. (20:14)
• Bradley mentioned Douglas Rushkoff's article, Teach U.S. kids to write computer code (29:30)

Send feedback and comments on the cast to <oggcast@faif.us>. You can keep in touch with Free as in Freedom on our IRC channel, #faif on irc.freenode.net, and by following Conservancy on on Twitter and and FaiF on Twitter.

Free as in Freedom is produced by Dan Lynch of danlynch.org. Theme music written and performed by Mike Tarantino with Charlie Paxson on drums.

The content of this audcast, and the accompanying show notes and music are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 4.0 license (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The allegations suggest personal clashes influenced how the administration responded to the pandemic.

The emergency-spending package is expected to get a council vote on May 12.

Last month’s emergency shutdown of the West Seattle Bridge has prompted Seattle City Council member Alex Pedersen to request an audit of the city’s 124 bridges, he said Thursday. Pedersen, who chairs the council’s Transportation and Utilities Committee, said City Auditor David G. Jones will compile data about maintenance spending and comparisons to peer cities. […]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican-controlled legislatures are increasingly trying to strip Democratic governors of their executive authority to close businesses and schools, a power grab by lawmakers that channels frustration over the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic but could come with long-term consequences for how their states fight disease. The efforts to undermine Democratic […]

The emergency-spending package is expected to get a council vote on May 12.

The communication and collaboration among businesses and local government leaders who don’t always see eye-to-eye has helped smooth the response to the region’s coronavirus crisis.