Children's Databases - Safety and Privacy

This report describes in detail the policy background, the systems that are being built, the problems with them, and the legal situation in the UK. An appendix looks at Europe, and examines in particular detail how France and Germany have dealt with these issues. Our report concludes with three suggested regulatory action strategies for the Commissioner: one minimal strategy in which he tackles only the clear breaches of the law, one moderate strategy in which he seeks to educate departments and agencies and guide them towards best practice, and finally a vigorous option in which he would seek to bring UK data protection practice in these areas more in line with normal practice in Europe, and indeed with our obligations under European law

Is the iPhone an accurate and useful tool for the monitoring of spinal deformity?

The progression of spinal deformity is traditionally monitored by spinal surgeons using the Cobb method on hardcopy radiographs with a protractor and pencil. The rotation of the spine and ribcage (rib hump) in scoliosis is measured with a simple hand-held inclinometer (Scoliometer). The iPhone and other smart phones have the capability to accurately sense inclination, and can therefore be used to measure Cobb angles and rib hump angulation. The purpose of this study was to quantify the performance of the iPhone compared to a standard protractor for measuring Cobb angles and the Scoliometer for measuring rib humps. The study concluded that the iPhone is a clinically equivalent measuring tool to the traditional protractor and Scoliomete

Coulomb tunneling for fusion reactions in dense matter: Path integral Monte Carlo versus mean field

We compare Path Integral Monte Carlo calculations by Militzer and Pollock (Phys. Rev. B 71, 134303, 2005) of Coulomb tunneling in nuclear reactions in dense matter to semiclassical calculations assuming WKB Coulomb barrier penetration through the radial mean-field potential. We find a very good agreement of two approaches at temperatures higher than ~1/5 of the ion plasma temperature. We obtain a simple parameterization of the mean field potential and of the respective reaction rates. We analyze Gamow-peak energies of reacting ions in various reaction regimes and discuss theoretical uncertainties of nuclear reaction rates taking carbon burning in dense stellar matter as an example.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Simulation-based Study of Layered Aluminum Crystal Microstructures Subjected to Shock Loading

AbstractA one-dimensional finite difference method allowing for anisotropic deformation is used in conjunction with a nonlinear thermoelastic-viscoplastic material model to compute the shock response of various microstructural instantiations of pure aluminum at peak stresses exceeding the Hugoniot Elastic Limit (HEL). Single crystals and layered bi-materials consisting of grains with alternating orientations relative to the direction of shock propagation -- specifically [100], [111], or low-symmetry orientations -- are impacted to peak shock stresses on the order of 5GPa. The [111] orientation [111] is observed to be stiffest both plastically and elastically, while the [100] orientation is found to be most compliant. Layered bi-materials that only demonstrate pure longitudinal waves exhibit average shock stresses, entropy production, and internal energy in between values computed for their single crystal constituents. Layered bi-materials that generate both quasi-longitudinal and quasi-transverse waves results in lower peak stresses and higher internal energy than their single crystal constituents. In bi-material systems, stress fluctuations decrease in frequency with increasing layer thickness, and peak stress amplitudes increase with layer thickness. Average dissipation depends on orientation but is relatively insensitive to layer thickness. Results of the computational method may ultimately be used to guide design of metallic systems with microstructures tailored for optimal impact resistance

Issues and Structures for Sharing Medical Knowledge among Decision-Making Systems: The 1989 Arden Homsetead Retreat

Conference PaperBiomedical Informatic

Test Ordering and Medical Decision Making: A Synergistic Relationship

journal articleBiomedical Informatic