Ethics of e-voting: an essay on requirements and values in Internet elections

In this paper, we investigate ethical issues involved in the development and implementation of Internet voting technology. From a phenomenological perspective, we describe how voting via the Internet mediates the relation between people and democracy. In this relation, trust plays a major role. The dynamics of trust in the relation between people and their world forms the basis for our analysis of the ethical issues involved. First, we consider established principles of voting, confirming the identity of our democracy, which function as expectations in current experiments with online voting in the Netherlands. We investigate whether and how Internet voting can meet these expectations and thereby earn trust, based on the experiments in the Netherlands. We identify major challenges, and provide a basis for ethical and political discussion on these issues, especially the changed relation between public and private. If we decide that we want to vote via the Internet, more practical matters come into play in the implementation of the technology. The choices involved here are discussed in relation to the mediating role of concrete voting technologies in the relation between citizen and state

Serum levels of DDT and liver function of malaria control personnel

The levels of DOT and metabolites in serum of 23 applicators involved in malaria control operations in Natal were determined using gas chromatography with electron capture detection. The me'!n levels (ug/l, ppb) were 61,7 DDT, 129,3 DDE, 11,0 DDD and 202,0 ∑DDT. Percentage DDT was 33,4%. These levels were higher than for an age matched sample of the general population in KwaZulu, who are protected by DDT against malaria. Percentage DDT correlated negatively with age (P < 0,05) for the applicators, suggesting a change in pharmacodynamics with age. Mean serum albumin, alkaline phosphatase, aspartate transferase and -γ-glutamyhransferase (GGT) levels did not differ significantly from an age-matched control group, but the mean GGT value for the applicators was higher than the' maximum of the laboratory normal range. Although not clinically significant, the alanine transferase was significantly higher in the applicators than in the control group. These higher levels suggest a possible risk to the health of the sprayers, but uncertainties remain

Experimental and Clinical Studies on Invasive Pulmonary Aspergillosis: pathophysiology, diagnosis and management

__Abstract__ Aspergillus is a saprofytic fungus that grows in humid environments on decaying organic matter. Its ability to adapt to a wide variability of conditions accounts for its worldwide distribution. Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a disease characterised by invasion of normal tissue by Aspergillus organisms, resulting in significant tissue damage and necrosis. Most commonly, IA develops in patients with impaired host defence. Factors that predispose patients to develop IA include prolonged granulocytopenia, the development of graft-versus-host disease, immunosuppressive therapy, the use of adrenal corticosteroids, and the prolonged reduction of host defences associated with diseases such as chronic granulomatous disease. The most common route of infection is the inhalation of fungal spores, and therefore the majority of IA patients (± 90%) develop an invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA). Other manifestations of the disease include IA of the paranasal sinuses, skin, wounds and eyes. There are several factors that make IPA a challenging fungal infection to manage: • IPA is currently a major direct or contributory cause of death in severely immunocompromised patients such as haemato-oncological patients receiving chemotherapy, and its incidence has shown a significant increase in the past few decades. • IPA is difficult to diagnose, especially in the early stages of the disease. • The treatment of IPA is suboptimal, with reported response rates below 55% in leukaemia- and bone marrow transplant patients

Galois theory and Lubin-Tate cochains on classifying spaces

We consider brave new cochain extensions F(BG +,R) → F(EG +,R), where R is either a Lubin-Tate spectrum E n or the related 2-periodic Morava K-theory K n , and G is a finite group. When R is an Eilenberg-Mac Lane spectrum, in some good cases such an extension is a G-Galois extension in the sense of John Rognes, but not always faithful. We prove that for E n and K n these extensions are always faithful in the K n local category. However, for a cyclic p-group C p r, the cochain extension F(BC p r +,E n ) → F(EC p r +, E n ) is not a Galois extension because it ramifies. As a consequence, it follows that the E n -theory Eilenberg-Moore spectral sequence for G and BG does not always converge to its expected target

Análisis no destructivo de obras de arte con espectroscopia Raman

Peer Reviewe

Generalized Conformal Quantum Mechanics of D0-brane

We study the generalized conformal quantum mechanics of the probe D0-brane in the near horizon background of the bound state of source D0-branes. We elaborate on the relationship of such model to the M theory in the light cone frame.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, revised version with added references to appear in Phys. Rev.

The Octonionic Membrane

We generalize the supermembrane solution of D=11 supergravity by permitting the 4-form $G$ to be either self-dual or anti-self-dual in the eight dimensions transverse to the membrane. After analyzing the supergravity field equations directly, and also discussing necessary conditions for unbroken supersymmetry, we focus on two specific, related solutions. The self-dual solution is not asymptotically flat. The anti-self-dual solution is asymptotically flat, has finite mass per unit area and saturates the same mass=charge Bogomolnyi bound as the usual supermembrane. Nevertheless, neither solution preserves any supersymmetry. Both solutions involve the octonionic structure constants but, perhaps surprisingly, they are unrelated to the octonionic instanton 2-form $F$, for which $TrF \wedge F$ is neither self-dual nor anti-self-dual.Comment: 17 pages, Latex; enhanced discussion on supersymmetry, some references adde

Open Heterotic Strings

We classify potential cosmic strings according to the topological charge measurable outside the string core. We conjecture that in string theory it is this charge that governs the stability of long strings. This would imply that the SO(32) heterotic string can have endpoints, but not the E_8 x E_8 heterotic string. We give various arguments in support of this conclusion.Comment: 15 pages. v.2: typos, references correcte