An exploratory study of the lived experience of being an intelligence analyst

Since the World Trade Centre terror attacks of 2001 the intelligence domain has grown rapidly. In keeping with this growth has been a significant increase of scholarly interest in the domain. The intelligence literature is dominated by research into the failures of the discipline, organisational structure and the politics of intelligence. The intelligence analyst is a critical component of the intelligence domain yet is remarkably absent from the intelligence literature. This research seeks to address that imbalance by examining the lived experience of the analyst operating in the law enforcement intelligence domain. To this end, interpretive phenomenology was employed to understand the meanings attributed to analysts’ subjective experiences in order to identify enablers and barriers that impact their crucial function in law enforcement. A purposive sample of eight analysts participated in in‐depth, semi structured interviews. Transcripts were subjected in interpretive phenomenological analysis, which revealed two superordinate themes: Self and Work/Home Divide. These referred to internal and external factors that impacted upon participants’ functioning, some of which may have a negative impact on psychological wellbeing while others are relevant to efficient functioning within the workplace. Two subthemes being communication and internal conflict are discussed in depth

An Exploratory Study of the Lived Experience of Being an Intelligence Analyst

Since the World Trade Centre terror attacks of 2001 the intelligence domain has grown rapidly. In keeping with this growth has been a significant increase of scholarly interest in the domain. The intelligence literature is dominated by research into the failures of the discipline, organisational structure and the politics of intelligence. The intelligence analyst is a critical component of the intelligence domain yet is remarkably absent from the intelligence literature. This research seeks to address that imbalance by examining the lived experience of the analyst operating in the law enforcement intelligence domain. To this end, interpretive phenomenology was employed to understand the meanings attributed to analysts’ subjective experiences in order to identify enablers and barriers that impact their crucial function in law enforcement. A purposive sample of eight analysts participated in in‐depth, semi structured interviews. Transcripts were subjected in interpretive phenomenological analysis, which revealed two superordinate themes: Self and Work/Home Divide. These referred to internal and external factors that impacted upon participants’ functioning, some of which may have a negative impact on psychological wellbeing while others are relevant to efficient functioning within the workplace. Two subthemes being communication and internal conflict are discussed in depth

Public Trust and Political Legitimacy: Conflict of Interests and the Role of the Parliament\u27s Speaker in Israel and Europe

In its six sections, this Article examines the role of Speakers, the nexus between their many duties and powers, possible points of conflict among their different duties, as well as the connection between their official duties and personal interests. This Article takes the role of the Speaker of the Israeli Parliament as its organizing principle. Sections Two and Three discuss the constitutional underpinnings of conflicts of interest and the way in which these apply to Members of the Knesset. Section Four takes the Israeli Speaker as a test case and explores in greater details the many flaws and conflicts inherent in the present definition of the Speaker\u27s role. Finally, Chapter Five comparatively examines the interplay between the Speaker of the Parliament, the principle of conflict of interests, and other official duties of the Speaker in the context of European jurisdictions

Balancing photosynthetic electron flow is critical for cyanobacterial acclimation to nitrogen limitation

AbstractNitrogen limitation forces photosynthetic organisms to reallocate available nitrogen to essential functions. At the same time, it increases the probability of photo-damage by limiting the rate of energy-demanding metabolic processes, downstream of the photosynthetic apparatus. Non-diazotrophic cyanobacteria cope with this situation by decreasing the size of their phycobilisome antenna and by modifying their photosynthetic apparatus. These changes can serve two purposes: to provide extra amino-acids and to decrease excitation pressure. We examined the effects of nitrogen limitation on the form and function of the photosynthetic apparatus. Our aim was to study which of the two demands serve as the driving force for the remodeling of the photosynthetic apparatus, under different growth conditions. We found that a drastic reduction in light intensity allowed cells to maintain a more functional photosynthetic apparatus: the phycobilisome antenna was bigger, the activity of both photosystems was higher and the levels of photosystem (PS) proteins were higher. Pre-acclimating cells to Mn limitation, under which the activity of both PSI and PSII is diminished, results in a very similar response. The rate of PSII photoinhibition, in nitrogen limited cells, was found to be directly related to the activity of the photosynthetic apparatus. These data indicate that, under our experimental conditions, photo-damage avoidance was the more prominent determinant during the acclimation process. The combinations of limiting factors tested here is by no means artificial. Similar scenarios can take place under environmental conditions and should be taken into account when estimating nutrient limitations in nature

Early postoperative serum S100β levels predict ongoing brain damage after meningioma surgery: a prospective observational study

INTRODUCTION: Elevated serum levels of S100β, an astrocyte-derived protein, correlate with unfavourable neurological outcomes following cardiac surgery, neurotrauma, and resuscitation. This study evaluated whether pre-/postoperative serum S100β levels correlate with unfavourable clinical and radiological findings in patients undergoing elective meningioma resection. METHODS: In 52 consecutive patients admitted for meningioma surgery, serum S100β levels were determined upon admission and immediately, 24 hours, and 48 hours after surgery. All patients underwent complete pre- and postoperative neurological examination and mini-mental state examination. Radiological evaluation included preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and postoperative computed tomography. Tumour volume, brain edema, and bleeding volume were calculated using BrainSCAN™ software. RESULTS: Preoperative S100β levels did not correlate with the tumour characteristics demonstrated by preoperative MRI (for example, tumour volume, edema volume, ventricular asymmetry, and/or midline shift). Preoperative serum S100β levels (0.065 ± 0.040 μg/l) were significantly lower than the levels measured immediately (0.138 ± 0.081 μg/l), 24 hours (0.142 ± 0.084 μg/l), and 48 hours (0.155 ± 0.119 μg/l) postoperatively (p < 0.0001). Significantly greater postcraniotomy S100β levels were observed with prolonged surgery (p = 0.039), deterioration in the mini-mental state examination (p = 0.005, 0.011, and 0.036 for pre versus immediate, 24 hours, and 48 hours postsurgery, respectively), and with postoperative brain computed tomography evidence of brain injury; bleeding was associated with higher serum S100β levels at 24 and 48 hours after surgery (p = 0.046, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.095 to -0.001 and p = 0.034, 95% CI -0.142 to -0.006, respectively) as was the presence of midline shift (p = 0.005, 95% CI -0.136 to -0.025 and p = 0.006, 95% CI -0.186 to -0.032, respectively). Edema was associated with higher serum S100β levels immediately (p = 0.022, 95% CI -0.092 to -0.007) and at 48 hours after surgery (p = 0.017, 95% CI -0.142 to -0.026). The degree of elevation in S100β levels at 24 and 48 hours after surgery also correlated with the severity of midline shift and edema. CONCLUSION: In patients with meningioma, serum S100β levels perform poorly as an indicator of tumour characteristics but may suggest ongoing postcraniotomy injury. Serum S100β levels may serve as a potentially useful early marker of postcraniotomy brain damage in patients undergoing elective meningioma resection

Deep Bribe: Predicting the Rise of Bribery in Blockchain Mining with Deep RL

Blockchain security relies on incentives to ensure participants, called miners, cooperate and behave as the protocol dictates. Such protocols have a security threshold – a miner whose relative computational power is larger than the threshold can deviate to improve her revenue. Moreover, blockchain participants can behave in a petty compliant manner: usually follow the protocol, but deviate to increase revenue when deviation cannot be distinguished externally from the prescribed behavior. The effect of petty compliant miners on the security threshold of blockchains is not well understood. Due to the complexity of the analysis, it remained an open question since Carlsten et al. identified it in 2016. In this work, we use deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) to analyze how a rational miner performs selfish mining by deviating from the protocol to maximize revenue when petty compliant miners are present. We find that a selfish miner can exploit petty compliant miners to increase her revenue by bribing them. Our method reveals that the security threshold is lower when petty compliant miners are present. In particular, with parameters estimated from the Bitcoin blockchain, we find the threshold drops from the known value of 25% to only 21% (or 19%) when 50% (or 75%) of the other miners are petty compliant. Hence, our deep RL analysis puts the open question to rest; the presence of petty compliant miners exacerbates a blockchain’s vulnerability to selfish mining and is a major security threat

The Effect of Cone Opsin Mutations on Retinal Structure and the Integrity of the Photoreceptor Mosaic

Purpose. To evaluate retinal structure and photoreceptor mosaic integrity in subjects with OPN1LW and OPN1MW mutations. Methods. Eleven subjects were recruited, eight of whom have been previously described. Cone and rod density was measured using images of the photoreceptor mosaic obtained from an adaptive optics scanning light ophthalmoscope (AOSLO). Total retinal thickness, inner retinal thickness, and outer nuclear layer plus Henle fiber layer (ONL+HFL) thickness were measured using cross-sectional spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) images. Molecular genetic analyses were performed to characterize the OPN1LW/OPN1MW gene array. Results. While disruptions in retinal lamination and cone mosaic structure were observed in all subjects, genotype-specific differences were also observed. For example, subjects with “L/M interchange” mutations resulting from intermixing of ancestral OPN1LW and OPN1MW genes had significant residual cone structure in the parafovea (∼25% of normal), despite widespread retinal disruption that included a large foveal lesion and thinning of the parafoveal inner retina. These subjects also reported a later-onset, progressive loss of visual function. In contrast, subjects with the C203R missense mutation presented with congenital blue cone monochromacy, with retinal lamination defects being restricted to the ONL+HFL and the degree of residual cone structure (8% of normal) being consistent with that expected for the S-cone submosaic. Conclusions. The photoreceptor phenotype associated with OPN1LW and OPN1MW mutations is highly variable. These findings have implications for the potential restoration of visual function in subjects with opsin mutations. Our study highlights the importance of high-resolution phenotyping to characterize cellular structure in inherited retinal disease; such information will be critical for selecting patients most likely to respond to therapeutic intervention and for establishing a baseline for evaluating treatment efficacy

Neural traces of stress: cortisol related sustained enhancement of amygdala-hippocampal functional connectivity

Stressful experiences modulate neuro-circuitry function, and the temporal trajectory of these alterations, elapsing from early disturbances to late recovery, heavily influences resilience and vulnerability to stress. Such effects of stress may depend on processes that are engaged during resting-state, through active recollection of past experiences and anticipation of future events, all known to involve the default mode network (DMN). By inducing social stress and acquiring resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) before stress, immediately following it, and 2 h later, we expanded the time-window for examining the trajectory of the stress response. Throughout the study repeated cortisol samplings and self-reports of stress levels were obtained from 51 healthy young males. Post-stress alterations were investigated by whole brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of two central hubs of the DMN: the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and hippocampus. Results indicate a ’recovery’ pattern of DMN connectivity, in which all alterations, ascribed to the intervening stress, returned to pre-stress levels. The only exception to this pattern was a stress-induced rise in amygdala-hippocampal connectivity, which was sustained for as long as 2 h following stress induction. Furthermore, this sustained enhancement of limbic connectivity was inversely correlated to individual stress-induced cortisol responsiveness (AUCi) and characterized only the group lacking such increased cortisol (i.e., non-responders). Our observations provide evidence of a prolonged post-stress response profile, characterized by both the comprehensive balance of most DMN functional connections and the distinct time and cortisol dependent ascent of intra-limbic connectivity. These novel insights into neuro-endocrine relations are another milestone in the ongoing search for individual markers in stress-related psychopathologies

Comparative omics and feeding manipulations in chicken indicate a shift of the endocrine role of visceral fat towards reproduction.

BACKGROUND: The mammalian adipose tissue plays a central role in energy-balance control, whereas the avian visceral fat hardly expresses leptin, the key adipokine in mammals. Therefore, to assess the endocrine role of adipose tissue in birds, we compared the transcriptome and proteome between two metabolically different types of chickens, broilers and layers, bred towards efficient meat and egg production, respectively. RESULTS: Broilers and layer hens, grown up to sexual maturation under free-feeding conditions, differed 4.0-fold in weight and 1.6-fold in ovarian-follicle counts, yet the relative accumulation of visceral fat was comparable. RNA-seq and mass-spectrometry (MS) analyses of visceral fat revealed differentially expressed genes between broilers and layers, 1106 at the mRNA level (FDR ≤ 0.05), and 203 at the protein level (P ≤ 0.05). In broilers, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis revealed activation of the PTEN-pathway, and in layers increased response to external signals. The expression pattern of genes encoding fat-secreted proteins in broilers and layers was characterized in the RNA-seq and MS data, as well as by qPCR on visceral fat under free feeding and 24 h-feed deprivation. This characterization was expanded using available RNA-seq data of tissues from red junglefowl, and of visceral fat from broilers of different types. These comparisons revealed expression of new adipokines and secreted proteins (LCAT, LECT2, SERPINE2, SFTP1, ZP1, ZP3, APOV1, VTG1 and VTG2) at the mRNA and/or protein levels, with dynamic gene expression patterns in the selected chicken lines (except for ZP1; FDR/P ≤ 0.05) and feed deprivation (NAMPT, SFTPA1 and ZP3) (P ≤ 0.05). In contrast, some of the most prominent adipokines in mammals, leptin, TNF, IFNG, and IL6 were expressed at a low level (FPKM/RPKM< 1) and did not show differential mRNA expression neither between broiler and layer lines nor between fed vs. feed-deprived chickens. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that RNA and protein expression in visceral fat changes with selective breeding, suggesting endocrine roles of visceral fat in the selected phenotypes. In comparison to gene expression in visceral fat of mammals, our findings points to a more direct cross talk of the chicken visceral fat with the reproductive system and lower involvement in the regulation of appetite, inflammation and insulin resistance.The study was supported by the Israel Academy of Sciences grants no. 876/ 14 and 1294/17, and Chief Scientist of the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture 0469/14 (to MFE and ES)