Competition is a great motivator. The 1988 measurement of the universal gas constant R at NIST [1] was stimulated by an error made at a rival national metrology institute, Great Britain’s National Physical Laboratory (NPL). In 1976, a group at NPL reported a “new” value for the universal gas constant R that had a standard uncertainty of 8.4 ppm (1 ppm = 1 part in 10). The “new” value was 159 pp...

Recent work shows a tendency to use programming languages specific to the social aspects of multi-agent systems, for example in programming norms that agents ought to follow. In this paper, we introduce a simple and elegant normative programming language called NPL and show its operational semantics. We then define a particular class of NPL programs that are suitable for programming Organisatio...

Field trials were established to compare alum-treated poultry litter (ATPL), normal poultry litter (NPL), and triple superphosphate (TSP) as fertilizer sources for corn (Zea mays L.) when applied at rates based on current litter management strategies in Virginia. Trials were established in the Costal Plain and Piedmont physiographic regions near Painter and Orange, VA, respectively. Nitrogen-ba...

Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV), especially HPV16, is cen tral to the development of squamous anogenital cancers and their precur sor lesions, termed "squamous intraepithelial neoplasias." Men who have sex with men, particularly those who are infected with HIV, are at a high risk for anal infection with HPV16 and for low-grade anal neoplasia; however, only a subset of these men develo...

PURPOSE Hereditary prostate cancer is an etiologically heterogeneous disease with six susceptibility loci mapped to date. We aimed to describe a collection of high-risk prostate cancer families and assess linkage to multiple markers at four loci: HPC1 (1q24-25), PCaP (1q42.2-43), HPCX (Xq27-28), and CAPB (1p36). EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Medical record data on 505 affected men in 149 multiply-affec...

A description is given of the UK primary standard graphite calorimeter system. The calorimeter measures absorbed dose to graphite for photon radiations from 60Co to 19 MV x-rays, and is the basis of the NPL therapy-level absorbed dose to water calibration service. Absorbed dose to graphite from the photon calorimeter has been compared with three other standards: an ionization chamber and cavity...