Distinct Rules Research Articles

The implications of property as self-government

Recent scholarship has argued that many of the distinctive features of Indigenous land tenure in common law countries can be explained by a single basic idea: under these regimes, property in land serves the unusual function of delineating the territorial authority of self-governing political communities. Among the recurring features that can be explained by this self-government function are special restraints on the alienation of land interests, distinctive co-ownership rules favouring collective governance, special group governance powers linked to land ownership, the relaxation of the numerus clausus principle, and special immunities from outside interference. This article attempts to assess the implications of this approach for understanding Indigenous land tenure. The author argues that there are important theoretical implications to this approach, both for understanding the relationship between property and sovereignty as legal concepts and for understanding the values reflected in a property system. In this area of law, property and sovereignty appear to operate as conceptual poles along a spectrum rather than as essentially distinct concepts. Moreover, the comparison with specialized systems of Indigenous land tenure can tell us something about the values reflected in the common law property systems that apply outside of Indigenous communities. Among other things, this approach shows the ways in which common law property systems normally work to discourage cultural enclaves. In addition to its theoretical implications, this approach to understanding Indigenous land tenure also has potential implications for land tenure reform. The theory helps bring into focus the unique trade-offs associated with institutional design in this area of law. It also allows for the identification of anomalous doctrinal features that cannot be explained by this theory. The article concludes with some insights relevant to statutory reform and the judicial development of the common law of Aboriginal title.

MORPHOLOGICAL INTERFERENCE ON STUDENT�S WRITING

The aim of this research is to find out the types of morphological interference on students' English writing. Through qualitative research method applying a design of the case study, twenty of university students were chosen. Data were collected from written tests and classified based on the Politzer and Ramires (1973) on theory of Linguistic Category. The results revealed that, whilst it is inevitable that the English morphology features governed by the distinctive rules and systems have been the potential target for interference taking place, Bahasa Indonesia, which stands as the official language, becomes the source of transfer. From six types of morphological interference based on Polizter and Ramirez� (1973), in this study the writer only found three of them. These types encompass of the morphological properties from the use of article, plural marker and simple past tense. Furthermore, there are 40 morphological mistakes in total, in which four mistakes represent the intralingual transfer and 36 data describe the interference. In terms of the mistakes made as a result mostly from the interference transfer. This study makes a significant contribution to the teaching and learning process of linguistic interference.Keywords: linguistic interference; morphology; students� writing.

Ooid Cortical Stratigraphy Reveals Common Histories of Individual Co‐occurring Sedimentary Grains

AbstractOoids are a common type of carbonate sand grain that form through a combination of constructive and destructive mechanisms: growth via precipitation and diminution via physical abrasion. Because growth and abrasion obey distinct morphometric rules, we developed an approach to quantitatively constrain the history of growth and abrasion of individual ooid grains using the record of evolving particle shape preserved by their cortical layers. We designed a model to simulate >106 possible growth‐abrasion histories for each pair of cortical layer bounding surfaces in an individual ooid. Estimates for the durations of growth and abrasion of each cortical layer were obtained by identifying the simulated history that best fit the observed particle shape. We applied this approach to thin sections of “modern” lacustrine ooids collected from several locations in the Great Salt Lake (GSL), UT, to assess the spatial and temporal variability of environmental conditions from the perspective of individual grains within a single deposit. We found that GSL ooids do not all share the same histories: Clustering ooid histories by a Fréchet distance metric revealed commonalities between grains found together locally within a deposit but distinct differences between subpopulations shared among localities across the GSL. These results support the tacit view that carbonate sedimentary grains found together in the environment do reflect a common history of sediment transport. This general approach to invert ooid cortical stratigraphy can be applied to characterize environmental variability over <1,000 year timescales in both marine and lacustrine ooid grainstones of any geologic age.

Between Ordinary and Extraordinary: A Deweyan Approach to Ordinary, Aesthetic, and Cultic Experience

AbstractThe relation between the everyday and the religious cult has traditionally been regarded as one of opposition, like the profane and the sacred. Since such a conception comes with a high price—rendering the cult esoteric and the everyday bereft of religious significance—this article proposes a more complex dynamic between the two. Drawing on Dewey’s idea of aesthetic experience as an intensification of ordinary experience, the article argues that a similar structure should be applied to the cult, or, more specifically, cultic play. In cultic play, there is admittedly discontinuity from ordinary life, owing to play’s distinct settings and rules. Nevertheless, such discontinuity reveals a deeper continuity, in which ordinary experience becomes present in new, sacred ways. In a dialectical manner, cultic play draws on ordinary experience, discloses and intensifies it through the context of play, and thus points forward to possibilities for inhabiting the everyday in richer ways.

NatB regulates Rb mutant cell death and tumor growth by modulating EGFR/MAPK signaling through the N-end rule pathways.

Inactivation of the Rb tumor suppressor causes context-dependent increases in cell proliferation or cell death. In a genetic screen for factors that promoted Rb mutant cell death in Drosophila, we identified Psid, a regulatory subunit of N-terminal acetyltransferase B (NatB). We showed that NatB subunits were required for elevated EGFR/MAPK signaling and Rb mutant cell survival. We showed that NatB regulates the posttranscriptional levels of the highly conserved pathway components Grb2/Drk, MAPK, and PP2AC but not that of the less conserved Sprouty. Interestingly, NatB increased the levels of positive pathway components Grb2/Drk and MAPK while decreased the levels of negative pathway component PP2AC, which were mediated by the distinct N-end rule branch E3 ubiquitin ligases Ubr4 and Cnot4, respectively. These results suggest a novel mechanism by which NatB and N-end rule pathways modulate EGFR/MAPK signaling by inversely regulating the levels of multiple conserved positive and negative pathway components. As inactivation of Psid blocked EGFR signaling-dependent tumor growth, this study raises the possibility that NatB is potentially a novel therapeutic target for cancers dependent on deregulated EGFR/Ras signaling.

SpongeBugs: Automatically generating fix suggestions in response to static code analysis warnings

Static code analysis tools such as FindBugs and SonarQube are widely used on open-source and industrial projects to detect a variety of issues that may negatively affect the quality of software. Despite these tools’ popularity and high level of automation, several empirical studies report that developers normally fix only a small fraction (typically, less than 10% (Marcilio et al., 2019) of the reported issues—so-called “warnings”. If these analysis tools could also automatically provide suggestions on how to fix the issues that trigger some of the warnings, their feedback would become more actionable and more directly useful to developers.In this work, we investigate whether it is feasible to automatically generate fix suggestions for common warnings issued by static code analysis tools, and to what extent developers are willing to accept such suggestions into the codebases they are maintaining. To this end, we implemented SpongeBugs, a Java program transformation technique that fixes 11 distinct rules checked by two well-known static code analysis tools (SonarQube and SpotBugs). Fix suggestions are generated automatically based on templates, which are instantiated in a way that removes the source of the warnings; templates for some rules are even capable of producing multi-line patches. Based on the suggestions provided by SpongeBugs, we submitted 38 pull requests, including 946 fixes generated automatically by our technique for various open-source Java projects, including Eclipse UI – a core component of the Eclipse IDE – and both SonarQube and SpotBugs. Project maintainers accepted 87% of our fix suggestions (97% of them without any modifications). We further evaluated the applicability of our technique on software written by students and on a curated collection of bugs. All results indicate that our approach to generating fix suggestions is feasible, flexible, and can help increase the applicability of static code analysis tools.

Universal Gray Finite Elements for Heat Transfer Analysis in the Presence of Uncertainties

Abstract A new finite element method is presented for the analysis of uncertain heat transfer problems using universal gray number theory. The universal gray number representation involves normalization of the uncertain parameters based on their lower and upper bound values with its own distinctive rules of arithmetic operations which makes this method distinctive from conventional interval analysis approaches. This work introduces the concept of fuzzy finite element-based heat transfer analysis using universal gray number theory, that compared to the interval-based fuzzy analysis, would yield significantly improved and more accurate results. Heat transfer problems, including a one-dimensional tapered fin, a two-dimensional hollow rectangle representing a thin slice of a chimney of a thermal power plant, and a three-dimensional (axisymmetric) solid body with different boundary conditions, were considered for the uncertainty analysis. It is shown that, in each case, the interval values of the response parameters given by the universal gray number theory are consistent with the ranges of the input parameters, compared to those given by the interval analysis. It is also revealed that universal gray number theory is more inclusive and less computationally intensive compared to the interval analysis.

Heterosynaptic Plasticity Determines the Set Point for Cortical Excitatory-Inhibitory Balance

Excitation in neural circuits must be carefully controlled by inhibition to regulate information processing and network excitability. During development, cortical inhibitory and excitatory inputs are initially mismatched but become co-tuned or balanced with experience. However, little is known about how excitatory-inhibitory balance is defined at most synapses or about the mechanisms for establishing or maintaining this balance at specific set points. Here we show how coordinated long-term plasticity calibrates populations of excitatory-inhibitory inputs onto mouse auditory cortical pyramidal neurons. Pairing pre- and postsynaptic activity induced plasticity at paired inputs and different forms of heterosynaptic plasticity at the strongest unpaired synapses, which required minutes of activity and dendritic Ca2+ signaling to be computed. Theoretical analyses demonstrated how the relative rate of heterosynaptic plasticity could normalize and stabilize synaptic strengths to achieve any possible excitatory-inhibitory correlation. Thus, excitatory-inhibitory balance is dynamic and cell specific, determined by distinct plasticity rules across multiple excitatory and inhibitory synapses.

Nonadditive strengthening functions for cold-worked cubic metals: Experiments and constitutive modeling

Strong metals are greatly desired for lightweight and energy-efficient industrial design. The strengthening of metals is traditionally accomplished by the additive contributions of various obstacle families (e.g., solid solutions, particles, and grain boundaries) and dislocation self-interactions that impede dislocation motion. In the present work, unlike a traditional additive understanding, a distinctive nonadditive strengthening mixture rule for obstacles and dislocations were validated based on experimental and modeling analyses in numerous cold-worked steels and aluminum alloys. Concretely, numerous well-annealed body-centered cubic steels and face-centered cubic aluminum alloys were prepared, in which the hierarchical strength levels of solid solutions, grain boundaries, and/or particles were estimated. The above specimens were then cold rolled to various strain levels. Dislocation densities were quantified by utilizing X-ray diffraction line-profile-analysis, and the dislocation density was found to increase faster with an increasing strain level when a high strength was presented in well-annealed specimens. When plotting the yield stresses as a function of the square roots of the dislocation densities in massive distorted samples based on the Taylor hardening law, it is interesting to note that an approximate single linearity was obtained. Individual dislocation strengthening was found to respond to the total strength in the deformed specimens, which indicated that the full nonadditive strengthening mixture rule was employed between the obstacle families and the dislocation contributions. The mechanisms of the observed nonadditive strengthening were also discussed by implementing additional experiments and transmission electron microscopy observations. Then, the modified constitutive models based on both one and two internal parameters’ Knocks-Mecking models were developed respectively, which excellently captured the effects of the various obstacle families on dislocation storage processes. The developed models also rationalized the observed nonadditive strengthening mixture rule.

What Is the Size and Legal Composition of the US Foreign-Born Population?

We assess government estimates of the size and legal composition of the US foreign-born population from 2007 to 2015. We examine annual Census Bureau estimates of the total number of foreign born (by citizenship) and annual Office of Immigration Statistics (OIS) estimates of the counts of the three noncitizen categories — legal permanent residents, legal temporary residents, and the unauthorized. Comparison of the annual Census estimates of the number of noncitizens with the estimates implied by the OIS estimates reveals that the OIS estimates are larger than the Census estimates by 3.4–4.7 million over the period. Besides documenting these discrepancies, we describe the data and methods used to produce the estimates, identify the possible sources of discrepancies, propose and implement an approach for reconciling the estimates, and contrast the reconciled estimates with the original estimates. Finally, we provide a foundation for improving estimates of the size of the four major categories of the foreign born, for example, by suggesting new methods to measure citizenship and to estimate such groups as legal permanent residents who become unauthorized. Because in most countries the four foreign-born subpopulations are constrained by distinctive rules, they each have different impacts on their host countries. Estimates of their size are critical for assessments of immigration policy, as differing constraints on employment and entitlement eligibility across these categories means that having accurate counts of their numbers is essential for assessing their economic and fiscal impacts in any country that hosts immigrants.

Abnormal scaling of excitons in phosphorene quantum dots.

Excitonic states of a many-electron system in phosphorene quantum dots (PQDs) are investigated theoretically by using a configuration interaction approach. For a triangular PQD in various dielectric environments, its exciton is found to obey two distinct scaling rules. When there is a strong screening effect present in the nanodot, the exciton binding energy (Δex) is shown to be around -150 meV as the long-range Coulomb interactions are totally suppressed and it increases to about 100 meV when the effective dielectric constant (εr) decreases to 12.5. Over this range of εr, Δex is found to be well fitted into a quadratic form of εr-1, which scales neither linearly with εr-2 like the case of bulk three-dimensional semiconductors nor linearly with εr-1 like the case previously reported for graphene nanostructures. When εr is reduced below 10.0, however, Δex is shown to exhibit a perfect linear relationship with εr-1, which behaves just like that of a two-dimensional graphene sheet. On the other hand, with the reduced εr, the quasiparticle gap is found to decrease instead of increasing like in most of the semiconductor nanostructures. As a result, it is revealed that the relationship of Δex with the quasi-particle gap deviates largely from the linear one previously reported for graphene and many other two-dimensional materials.

Roles, Rules, and Keys: How Different Play Configurations Shape Collaborative Science Inquiry

Taking place within the Science Through Technology-Enhanced Play (STEP) design-based research project, this paper describes how first- and second-grade students use their bodies to imaginatively become microscopic particles inside of a collaborative simulation of state change (e.g., liquid to gas) and within two distinct play spaces: a modeling activity and a game activity. As participants at once bring play to life in the classroom and learn about microscopic particles, they introduce and enact distinct configurations of roles, rules, and keys that shape their moment-to-moment activity and their pathways through science inquiry. Participants’ integration of distinct roles, rules, and keys during stretches of play foster on the one hand cycles of open-ended creation, observation, and destruction, and on the other hand generation of pragmatic strategies for winning assessed through game metrics. Overall, this paper introduces a framework for tracking the collaborative instantiation of roles, rules, and keys, provides preliminary documentation of how these characteristics shape learning, and invites reflection on how to move beyond general claims about games benefiting learning.

Proportional plus derivative state feedback controller design for a class of fuzzy descriptor systems

ABSTRACTThis study focuses on the proportional plus derivative state feedback (PDSF) control problem for continuous-time nonlinear descriptor systems described by Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy models with distinct fuzzy rules appearing in both sides of the considered system. Without using any additional transformations, some new conditions are developed by means of the free-weighting matrix technique and presented in terms of linear matrix inequalities to ensure that the resultant closed-loop system is normal and stable. Explicit expression of the desired PDSF controller is also given. Furthermore, the obtained result is extended to a class of uncertain nonlinear descriptor systems with norm-bounded perturbations. Finally, three examples are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Identification of spin, valley and moiré quasi-angular momentum of interlayer excitons

Moiré superlattices provide a powerful way to engineer the properties of electrons and excitons in two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures1–8. The moiré effect can be especially strong for interlayer excitons, where electrons and holes reside in different layers and can be addressed separately. In particular, it was recently proposed that the moiré superlattice potential not only localizes interlayer exciton states at different superlattice positions, but also hosts an emerging moiré quasi-angular momentum (QAM) that periodically switches the optical selection rules for interlayer excitons at different moiré sites9,10. Here, we report the observation of multiple interlayer exciton states coexisting in a WSe2/WS2 moiré superlattice and unambiguously determine their spin, valley and moiré QAM through novel resonant optical pump–probe spectroscopy and photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy. We demonstrate that interlayer excitons localized at different moiré sites can exhibit opposite optical selection rules due to the spatially varying moiré QAM. Our observation reveals new opportunities to engineer interlayer exciton states and valley physics with moiré superlattices for optoelectronic and valleytronic applications. Stacked 2D materials can host excitons with distinct valley selection rules due to the spatial variation of the moiré pattern. The authors demonstrate this via optical spectroscopy, opening a route for control of optoelectronic devices.

Modelling last-act attempted crime in criminal law

ABSTRACTIn the court of law, a person can be punished for attempting to commit a crime. An open issue in the study of Artificial Intelligence and Law is whether the law of attempts could be formally modelled. There are distinct legal rules for determining attempted crime whereas the last-act rule (also called proximity rule) represents the strictest approach. In this paper, we provide a formal model of the last-act rule using structured argumentation.

In a Temporally Segmented Experience Hippocampal Neurons Represent Temporally Drifting Context But Not Discrete Segments.

There is widespread agreement that episodic memory is organized into a timeline of past experiences. Recent work suggests that the hippocampus may parse the flow of experience into discrete episodes separated by event boundaries. A complementary body of work suggests that context changes gradually as experience unfolds. We recorded from hippocampal neurons as male Long-Evans rats performed 6 blocks of an object discrimination task in sets of 15 trials. Each block was separated by removal from the testing chamber for a delay to enable segmentation. The reward contingency reversed from one block to the next to incentivize segmentation. We expected animals to hold two distinct, recurring representations of context to match the two distinct rule contingencies. Instead, we found that overtrained rats began each block neither above nor below chance but by guessing randomly. While many units had clear firing fields selective to the conjunction of objects in places, a significant population also reflected a continuously drifting code both within block and across blocks. Despite clear boundaries between blocks, we saw no neural evidence for event segmentation in this experiment. Rather, the hippocampal ensemble drifted continuously across time. This continuous drift in the neural representation was consistent with the lack of segmentation observed in behavior.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The neuroscience literature yet to reach consensus on how the hippocampus supports the organization of events across time in episodic memory. Initial studies reported stable hippocampal maps segmented by remapping events. However, it remains unclear whether segmentation is an artifact of cue responsivity. Recently, research has shown that the hippocampal code exhibits continuous drift. Drift may represent a continually evolving context; however, it is unclear whether this is an artifact of changing experiences. We recorded dCA1 in rats performing an object discrimination task designed to segment time. Overtrained rats could not anticipate upcoming context switches but used context boundaries to their advantage. Hippocampal ensembles showed neither evidence of alternating between stable contexts nor sensitivity to boundaries, but showed robust temporal drift.

Drosophila melanogaster grooming possesses syntax with distinct rules at different temporal scales

Mathematical modeling of behavioral sequences yields insight into the rules and mechanisms underlying sequence generation. Grooming in Drosophila melanogaster is characterized by repeated execution of distinct, stereotyped actions in variable order. Experiments demonstrate that, following stimulation by an irritant, grooming progresses gradually from an early phase dominated by anterior cleaning to a later phase with increased walking and posterior cleaning. We also observe that, at an intermediate temporal scale, there is a strong relationship between the amount of time spent performing body-directed grooming actions and leg-directed actions. We then develop a series of data-driven Markov models that isolate and identify the behavioral features governing transitions between individual grooming bouts. We identify action order as the primary driver of probabilistic, but non-random, syntax structure, as has previously been identified. Subsequent models incorporate grooming bout duration, which also contributes significantly to sequence structure. Our results show that, surprisingly, the syntactic rules underlying probabilistic grooming transitions possess action duration-dependent structure, suggesting that sensory input-independent mechanisms guide grooming behavior at short time scales. Finally, the inclusion of a simple rule that modifies grooming transition probabilities over time yields a generative model that recapitulates the key features of observed grooming sequences at several time scales. These discoveries suggest that sensory input guides action selection by modulating internally generated dynamics. Additionally, the discovery of these principles governing grooming in D. melanogaster demonstrates the utility of incorporating temporal information when characterizing the syntax of behavioral sequences.

Considerations regarding the qualification of clinical trial sites and investigators in clinical trials with ATMPs

Background & Aim ATMPs are medicinal products based on gene therapy, somatic cell therapy or tissue engineering. Regulation (EU) 1394/2007 has been designed to ensure the free movement of ATMPs within the EU to facilitate their access to the EU market and to foster the competitiveness of European pharmaceutical companies while guaranteeing the highest level of health protection for patients. As ATMPs pose specific challenges to developers, manufacturers, regulators and clinicians in terms of complexity and risk profile, distinct rules have been developed for the manufacture and clinical testing of ATMPs. Article 4 of Regulation 1394/2007 has required the European Commission to establish GCP guidelines specific to ATMPs. The stakeholder consultation performed for this purpose, however, has not addressed the qualification of clinical trial sites and investigators. It remains to be elucidated how clinical trial sites and investigators using ATMPs can give documented evidence of their specific qualification, and how Ethics Committees can draw on expertise needed to assess this special group of innovative medicines. Methods, Results & Conclusion Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-transduced cells highlight the challenges in qualification of trial sites and investigators. With patients in desperate need, clinicians have put growing pressure on regulators and politicians to render these promising therapies more rapidly available, irrespective of existing gaps in infrastructure, clinical expertise and concepts for the coverage of costs. From the standpoint of an Ethics Committee, documented evidence of the qualification of trial sites and investigators using CAR-T cells and similar ATMPs should include - a risk-benefit analysis that addresses the characteristics of the respective ATMP specifically and appropriately, - the capacity to monitor, grade, manage and document the acute toxicity inherent in this approach, - the infrastructure needed to handle these toxicities, - a data registry and repository for adverse events related to the use of ATMPs in humans, - a recognizable network of collaborating centers who exchange knowledge, share training and help each other in this challenging and important field. Ethics committees will depend on independent experts in ATMPs, especially high-risk (and high-demand) products, to provide guidance in assessing clinical centers and investigators as qualified for these special medicines. Consensus statements by professional societies would be highly welcome. ATMPs are medicinal products based on gene therapy, somatic cell therapy or tissue engineering. Regulation (EU) 1394/2007 has been designed to ensure the free movement of ATMPs within the EU to facilitate their access to the EU market and to foster the competitiveness of European pharmaceutical companies while guaranteeing the highest level of health protection for patients. As ATMPs pose specific challenges to developers, manufacturers, regulators and clinicians in terms of complexity and risk profile, distinct rules have been developed for the manufacture and clinical testing of ATMPs. Article 4 of Regulation 1394/2007 has required the European Commission to establish GCP guidelines specific to ATMPs. The stakeholder consultation performed for this purpose, however, has not addressed the qualification of clinical trial sites and investigators. It remains to be elucidated how clinical trial sites and investigators using ATMPs can give documented evidence of their specific qualification, and how Ethics Committees can draw on expertise needed to assess this special group of innovative medicines. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-transduced cells highlight the challenges in qualification of trial sites and investigators. With patients in desperate need, clinicians have put growing pressure on regulators and politicians to render these promising therapies more rapidly available, irrespective of existing gaps in infrastructure, clinical expertise and concepts for the coverage of costs.

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of Kidney Transplantation under Urgency Priority Condition

Background: In several countries, patients with end-stage renal disease who are ineligible for dialysis are considered urgency priority (UP) for kidney transplantation (KT) through distinct allocation rules. There are scarce published data on clinical features and outcomes after KT of these patients. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed and compared demographic and clinical pretransplant characteristics and outcomes after KT of all patients transplanted under UP allocation in a single Brazilian transplant center from January 10 to March 16 (n = 74) and 1: 1 patients transplanted under standard allocation in the same period (n = 74). A propensity score (PS) matching analysis was performed to evaluate risk factors for death-censored graft loss. Results: UP KT group presented higher percentage of women (58.1 vs. 33.8%, p = 0.005), higher class I (22.2 ± 32.9 vs. 13.1 ± 25.3%, p = 0.027) and class II panel reactive antibodies (11.5 ± 24 vs. 5.2 ± 19.1%, p = 0.002), higher HLA mismatches (4.9 ± 0.9 vs. 3.7 ± 1.2, p < 0.001), higher percentage of retransplants (27 vs. 4.1%, p < 0.001), and spent longer time on dialysis off the waiting list (WL; 54.5 ± 52.5 vs. 31.2 ± 29.0 months, p = 0.03). After transplantation, UP KT patients presented longer hospital stay (29.3 ± 35.7 vs. 18.5 ± 19.5 days, p = 0.003) and inferior death-censored graft survival at 3 years (82 vs. 95.8%, log rank = 0.016), with 33.3% of graft losses due to vascular thrombosis. In PS-matched multivariable analysis, UP status hazard ratios (HR 4.791, 95% CI 1.052–21.722, p = 0.042) and donor age (HR 1.071, 95% CI 1.003–1.145, p = 0.041) were independent risk factors for death-censored graft loss. Conclusion: Patients transplanted under UP status remained a longer time on dialysis off the WL, suggesting that long-term dialysis led to exhaustion of accesses. After transplantation, outcomes are inferior and UP status was a risk factor for graft loss. These results point to the need for local policies to encourage and monitor the early referral to KT.

Virtual Portraitist

Smart photography carries the promise of quality improvement and functionality extension in making aesthetically appealing pictures. In this article, we focus on self-portrait photographs and introduce new methods that guide a user in how to best pose while taking a selfie. While most of the current solutions use a post processing procedure to beautify a picture, the developed tool enables a novel function of recommending a good look before the photo is captured. Given an input face image, the tool automatically estimates the pose-based aesthetic score, finds the most attractive angle of the face, and suggests how the pose should be adjusted. The recommendation results are determined adaptively to the appearance and initial pose of the input face. We apply a data mining approach to find distinctive, frequent itemsets and association rules from online profile pictures, upon which the aesthetic estimation and pose recommendation methods are developed. A simulated and a real image set are used for experimental evaluation. The results show the proposed aesthetic estimation method can effectively select user-favorable photos. Moreover, the recommendation performance for the vertical adjustment is moderately related to the degree of conformity among the professional photographers’ recommendations. This study echoes the trend of instant photo sharing, in which a user takes a picture and then immediately shares it on a social network without engaging in tedious editing.