Laws Texture Research Articles

Automated oral cancer identification using histopathological images: A hybrid feature extraction paradigm

Oral cancer (OC) is the sixth most common cancer in the world. In India it is the most common malignant neoplasm. Histopathological images have widely been used in the differential diagnosis of normal, oral precancerous (oral sub-mucous fibrosis (OSF)) and cancer lesions. However, this technique is limited by subjective interpretations and less accurate diagnosis. The objective of this work is to improve the classification accuracy based on textural features in the development of a computer assisted screening of OSF. The approach introduced here is to grade the histopathological tissue sections into normal, OSF without Dysplasia (OSFWD) and OSF with Dysplasia (OSFD), which would help the oral onco-pathologists to screen the subjects rapidly. The biopsy sections are stained with H&E. The optical density of the pixels in the light microscopic images is recorded and represented as matrix quantized as integers from 0 to 255 for each fundamental color (Red, Green, Blue), resulting in a M × N × 3 matrix of integers. Depending on either normal or OSF condition, the image has various granular structures which are self similar patterns at different scales termed “texture”. We have extracted these textural changes using Higher Order Spectra (HOS), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), and Laws Texture Energy (LTE) from the histopathological images (normal, OSFWD and OSFD). These feature vectors were fed to five different classifiers: Decision Tree (DT), Sugeno Fuzzy, Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN), Radial Basis Probabilistic Neural Network (RBPNN) to select the best classifier. Our results show that combination of texture and HOS features coupled with Fuzzy classifier resulted in 95.7% accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of 94.5% and 98.8% respectively. Finally, we have proposed a novel integrated index called Oral Malignancy Index (OMI) using the HOS, LBP, LTE features, to diagnose benign or malignant tissues using just one number. We hope that this OMI can help the clinicians in making a faster and more objective detection of benign/malignant oral lesions.

On Open Texture of Law

This paper, prepared for the University of Frankfurt Symposium on Defeasibility in Epistemology, Ethics, law and Logic, addresses the claim of H.L.A. Hart and others that law is open-textured. It is in the nature of law, they say, that it necessarily possesses an open texture going beyond the open texture of the language in which legal rules are written. But when we examine the question of open texture in light of Hart’s claim that the open texture of law entails the necessary defeasibility of legal rules, we discover that Hart and his followers are mistaken. Both the alleged open texture of law qua law (as opposed to the open texture occasioned by the open texture of the language used by law) and the defeasibility of legal rules are contingent features of certain legal rules in certain legal regimes, but neither are necessary components of the nature of law or the nature of rules.

On the Open Texture of Law

This paper, prepared for the University of Frankfurt Symposium on Defeasibility in Epistemology, Ethics, law and Logic, addresses the claim of H.L.A. Hart and others that law is open-textured. It is in the nature of law, they say, that it necessarily possesses an open texture going beyond the open texture of the language in which legal rules are written. But when we examine the question of open texture in light of Hart’s claim that the open texture of law entails the necessary defeasibility of legal rules, we discover that Hart and his followers are mistaken. Both the alleged open texture of law qua law (as opposed to the open texture occasioned by the open texture of the language used by law) and the defeasibility of legal rules are contingent features of certain legal rules in certain legal regimes, but neither are necessary components of the nature of law or the nature of rules.

Normatividade semântica e a objetividade da argumentação jurídica

With regard to its importance, Jurgen Habermas compared Robert Brandom’s Making It Explicit with A Theory of Justice. This paper investigates the significance of Brandom’s philosophy of meaning to legal interpretation. The focus of attention is whether the meaning of a norm can constrain legal interpretation. The questions of the determinacy and the objectivity of law are at issue. Both debates are dealt with by arguments from the philosophy of meaning. Because of the open texture of law and because of the vagueness of language, which is one of the burdens of judgment, judges have discretion in the application of law. The topic here is, whether and to what extent the meaning of the norm can serve to reduce this discretion. Both the legitimacy and the objectivity of judicial decisions depend on this. Key words: semantic normativity, objectivity, legal argumentation, norm, meaning.

Normatividade semântica e a objetividade da argumentação jurídica

With regard to its importance, Jürgen Habermas compared Robert Brandom’s Making It Explicit with A Theory of Justice. This paper investigates the significance of Brandom’s philosophy of meaning to legal interpretation. The focus of attention is whether the meaning of a norm can constrain legal interpretation. The questions of the determinacy and the objectivity of law are at issue. Both debates are dealt with by arguments from the philosophy of meaning. Because of the open texture of law and because of the vagueness of language, which is one of the burdens of judgment, judges have discretion in the application of law. The topic here is, whether and to what extent the meaning of the norm can serve to reduce this discretion. Both the legitimacy and the objectivity of judicial decisions depend on this. Key words: semantic normativity, objectivity, legal argumentation, norm, meaning.

Causas de indeterminación en el sistema de fuentes del derecho

In this article the focus is on the topic of indeterminacy of the sources of law. Indeterminacy in this domain may be a product of a lack of legislative regulation or open texture of law, this analysis of the causes of indeterminacy regarding the sources of law is applied to the Cuban legal system. Resumen: El tema de las fuentes del derecho sigue siendo de primer orden en la ciencia jurídica contemporánea, por lo cual resulta de gran utilidad para los juristas abordar las problemáticas que se generan en torno al mismo. Las causas de indeterminación de las fuentes del derecho —determinadas en unos casos por la falta de regulación por parte del legislador y en otros por la textura abierta del derecho que regula el sistema de fuentes— en el sistema jurídico, es una de dichas problemáticas. El objetivo: analizar las causas de indeterminación de las fuentes del derecho y su expresión en contextos jurídicos como el cubano.

Equal Standards? On the Dialectics between National Jurisdictions and the International Criminal Court

AbstractThe Rome Statute contains a body of legal standards on elements of the offences, concepts of criminal responsibility and defences of unprecedented detail. Whereas these standards serve the International Criminal Court as normative framework, the principle of complementarity implies that domestic jurisdictions are to take the lead in the adjudication of international crimes.This article addresses the question whether domestic legislators and courts are bound to meticulously apply the international standards, or whether they are left some leeway to apply their own (criminal) law. The article starts with a survey of the actual performance of national jurisdictions. Current international law does not explicitly compel states to copy the international standards; at most one might argue that the codification of international criminal law and the principle of complementarity encourage harmonization.Capitalizing on the concept of 'open texture of law' and the methodology of casuistry, the present author argues that a certain measure of diversity in the interpretation and application of international standards is inevitable and even desirable. However, as a general rule, states have less freedom of interpretation in respect of the elements of crimes than in the application of concepts of responsibility and defences.

The Editorial Board of "The Journal of Law and Religion" Presents This Award to Thomas L. Shaffer for a Lifetime of Important Contributions to the Discipline of Law and Religion

As a lawyer, law teacher, dean, scholar, colleague and friend, you have lived what you have taught, that lawyering is a vocation most faithfully lived in friendship. A prodigious scholar, you have led us as a brilliant pioneer into our past, turning us again toward ethics as a way of life lived in reflection and discomfort, not a decision of the moment, and situating the good lawyer within her community of memory. You have told many of the old tales, making way for a return to story-telling as ethical conversation for law scholars. In your deceptively accessible writings, the daily tasks of the lawyer are honored and challenged within a rich texture of literature, religion and law. Your life of professional service, proceeding from a major law firm to Dean of Notre Dame Law School to clinical teacher, bespeaks the courage and humility with which you explore the religiously committed lawyer's vocation. Your affirming presence as a listening, generous, humorous and insightful friend to those whom you love and those whom you hardly know, has brought strength to the lives of many others. We honor your willingness to speak of God in public places, to help us meditate on the work of the lawyer, and to affirm our halting efforts to live whole lives as faithfully religious and faithfully professional men and women.