Employer Liability and Bring Your Own Device: Do Existing Regulations Support Employer Liability for a Compromised Personal Device?

As employers increasingly permit employees to use their personal devices (known as Bring Your Own Device, or “BYOD”) for business purposes, and as the risk of data exposure continues to rise, the question of how, when, and against whom to attach liability remains in flux. This paper will endeavor to explore employer liability as viewed through the lens of hacked or compromised BYOD devices. The research begins by identifying BYOD as a concept along with the risks and benefits incident to the practice. It then discusses current state and federal data protection regulations. It then explores recurring themes in data breach litigation with a particular emphasis on portable device cases. In the remaining parts, the author attempts to discover congruencies in data breach liability and employer liability for portable devices by examining two states with strict data protection regulations that could apply to portable devices regardless of the question of ownership. Lastly, the author identifies the arguments against regulating BYOD devices and suggests that current regulatory frameworks provide ample redress for compromised personal devices used for work purposes. Submitted to the Washington State Office of Privacy and Data Security.https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/techclinic/1007/thumbnail.jp

Axoneme-specific β-tubulin specialization a conserved C-terminal motif specifies the central pair

AbstractAxonemes are ancient organelles that mediate motility of cilia and flagella in animals, plants, and protists. The long evolutionary conservation of axoneme architecture, a cylinder of nine doublet microtubules surrounding a central pair of singlet microtubules, suggests all motile axonemes may share common assembly mechanisms. Consistent with this, α- and β-tubulins utilized in motile axonemes fall among the most conserved tubulin sequences [1, 2], and the β-tubulins contain a sequence motif at the same position in the carboxyl terminus [3]. Axoneme doublet microtubules are initiated from the corresponding triplet microtubules of the basal body [4], but the large macromolecular “central apparatus” that includes the central pair microtubules and associated structures [5] is a specialization unique to motile axonemes. In Drosophila spermatogenesis, basal bodies and axonemes utilize the same α-tubulin but different β-tubulins [6–13]. β1 is utilized for the centriole/basal body, and β2 is utilized for the motile sperm tail axoneme. β2 contains the motile axoneme-specific sequence motif, but β1 does not [3]. Here, we show that the “axoneme motif” specifies the central pair. β1 can provide partial function for axoneme assembly but cannot make the central microtubules [14]. Introducing the axoneme motif into the β1 carboxyl terminus, a two amino acid change, conferred upon β1 the ability to assemble 9 + 2 axonemes. This finding explains the conservation of the axoneme-specific sequence motif through 1.5 billion years of evolution

Buckling-driven delamination of carbon nanotube forests

We report buckling-driven delamination of carbon nanotube (CNT) forests from their growth substrates when subjected to compression. Macroscale compression experiments reveal local delamination at the CNT forest-substrate interface. Results of microscale flat punch indentations indicate that enhanced CNT interlocking at the top surface of the forest accomplished by application of a metal coating causes delamination of the forest from the growth substrate, a phenomenon not observed in indentation of as-grown CNT forests. We postulate that the post-buckling tensile stresses that develop at the base of the CNT forests serve as the driving force for delamination

Effects of morphology on the micro-compression response of carbon nanotube forests

This study reports the mechanical response of distinct carbon nanotube (CNT) morphologies as revealed by flat punch in situ nanoindentation in a scanning electron microscope. We find that the location of incipient deformation varies significantly by changing the CNT growth parameters. The initial buckles formed close to the growth substrate in 70 and 190 µm tall CNT forests grown with low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) and moved to ~100 µm above the growth substrate when the height increased to 280 µm. Change of the recipe from LPCVD to CVD at pressures near atmospheric changed the location of the initial buckling event from the bottom half to the top half of the CNT forest. Plasma pretreatment of the catalyst also resulted in a unique CNT forest morphology in which deformation started by bending and buckling of the CNT tips. We find that the vertical gradients in CNT morphology dictate the location of incipient buckling. These new insights are critical in the design of CNT forests for a variety of applications where mechanical contact is important

Low-Temperature Polymorphic Phase Transition in a Crystalline Tripeptide L-Ala-L-Pro-Gly·H2O Revealed by Adiabatic Calorimetry

We demonstrate application of precise adiabatic vacuum calorimetry to observation of phase transition in the tripeptide l-alanyl-l-prolyl-glycine monohydrate (APG) from 6 to 320 K and report the standard thermodynamic properties of the tripeptide in the entire range. Thus, the heat capacity of APG was measured by adiabatic vacuum calorimetry in the above temperature range. The tripeptide exhibits a reversible first-order solid-to-solid phase transition characterized by strong thermal hysteresis. We report the standard thermodynamic characteristics of this transition and show that differential scanning calorimetry can reliably characterize the observed phase transition with <5 mg of the sample. Additionally, the standard entropy of formation from the elemental substances and the standard entropy of hypothetical reaction of synthesis from the amino acids at 298.15 K were calculated for the studied tripeptide.National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.) (EB-003151)National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.) (EB-001960)National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (U.S.) (EB-002026

Environmental differences between sites control the diet and nutrition of the carnivorous plant Drosera rotundifolia

Background and aims: Carnivorous plants are sensitive to small changes in resource availability, but few previous studies have examined how differences in nutrient and prey availability affect investment in and the benefit of carnivory. We studied the impact of site-level differences in resource availability on ecophysiological traits of carnivory for Drosera rotundifolia L. Methods: We measured prey availability, investment in carnivory (leaf stickiness), prey capture and diet of plants growing in two bogs with differences in N deposition and plant available N: Cors Fochno (0.62 g m−2 yr.−1, 353 μg l−1), Whixall Moss (1.37 g m−2 yr.−1, 1505 μg l−1). The total N amount per plant and the contributions of prey/root N to the plants’ N budget were calculated using a single isotope natural abundance method. Results: Plants at Whixall Moss invested less in carnivory, were less likely to capture prey, and were less reliant on prey-derived N (25.5% compared with 49.4%). Actual prey capture did not differ between sites. Diet composition differed – Cors Fochno plants captured 62% greater proportions of Diptera. Conclusions: Our results show site-level differences in plant diet and nutrition consistent with differences in resource availability. Similarity in actual prey capture may be explained by differences in leaf stickiness and prey abundance

Marine Ecoregion and Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Affect Recruitment and Population Structure of a Salt Marsh Snail

Marine species with planktonic larvae often have high spatial and temporal variation in recruitment that leads to subsequent variation in the ecology of benthic adults. Using a combination of published and unpublished data, we compared the population structure of the salt marsh snail, Littoraria irrorata, between the South Atlantic Bight and the Gulf Coast of the United States to infer geographic differences in recruitment and to test the hypothesis that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill led to widespread recruitment failure of L. irrorata in Louisiana in 2010. Size-frequency distributions in both ecoregions were bimodal, with troughs in the distributions consistent with a transition from sub-adults to adults at ~13 mm in shell length as reported in the literature; however, adult snails reached larger sizes in the Gulf Coast. The ratio of sub-adults to adults was 1.5–2 times greater in the South Atlantic Bight than the Gulf Coast, consistent with higher recruitment rates in the South Atlantic Bight. Higher recruitment rates in the South Atlantic Bight could contribute to higher snail densities and reduced adult growth in this region. The ratio of sub-adults to adults in Louisiana was lower in 2011 than in previous years, and began to recover in 2012–2014, consistent with widespread recruitment failure in 2010, when large expanses of spilled oil were present in coastal waters. Our results reveal an important difference in the ecology of a key salt marsh invertebrate between the two ecoregions, and also suggest that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill may have caused widespread recruitment failure in this species and perhaps others with similar planktonic larval stages