Internet Privacy Law, Policy, and Practice: State, Federal, and International Perspectives

By the summer of 2000, an estimated 90 million United States citizens used the Internet regularly, at least 69 percent of whom purchased goods and services online. As electronic commerce grew, e-businesses implemented technologies to facilitate the online shopping experience. Such technologies included “cookies,” which are small files a website\u27s host computer places on a visitor\u27s hard drive. Cookies allow a website to “remember” information provided by the visitor—such as her password, email address, credit card number, and mailing address—so she does not have to reenter the data on her next visit. They also allow website operators to track a consumer\u27s purchasing habits, monitor how long she views pages on the site, and learn other information about the consumer while she explores the World Wide Web. In June 2001, experts in online privacy law and policy gathered for a conference hosted by the Technology Law Center at the University of Maine School of Law. The conference included a discussion on federal, state, and European privacy initiatives presented by the following panelists: Bryan Harris, former head of the Intellectual Property Division of the Commission of the European Communities and currently an adjunct professor of European Union Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire; Laura Mazzarella, attorney in the Division of Financial Practices of the Federal Trade Commission\u27s Bureau of Consumer Protection; Mary Ellen Callahan, associate attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Hogan & Hartson LLP, practicing in the areas of antitrust, consumer protection, and litigation; and James Tierney, former Attorney General for the State of Maine and currently a Fellow with the Cyberspace Law Institute. Susan Richey, Professor of Law at Franklin Pierce Law Center, moderated the discussion

Excitation of Single Quasiparticles in a Small Superconducting Al Island Connected to Normal-Metal Leads by Tunnel Junctions

We investigate the dynamics of individual quasiparticle excitations on a small superconducting aluminum island connected to normal metallic leads by tunnel junctions. We find the island to be free of excitations within the measurement resolution. This allows us to show that the residual heating, which typically limits experiments on superconductors, has an ultralow value of less than 0.1 aW. By injecting electrons with a periodic gate voltage, we probe electron-phonon interaction and relaxation down to a single quasiparticle excitation pair, with a measured recombination rate of 16 kHz. Our experiment yields a strong test of BCS theory in aluminum as the results are consistent with it without free parameters.Peer reviewe

Genetic selection for bovine chromosome 18 haplotypes associated with divergent somatic cell score affects postpartum reproductive and metabolic performance

The susceptibility of animals to periparturient diseases has a great effect on the economic efficiency of dairy industries, on the frequency of antibiotic treatment, and on animal welfare. The use of selection for breeding cows with reduced susceptibility to diseases offers a sustainable tool to improve dairy cattle farming. Several studies have focused on the association of distinct bovine chromosome 18 genotypes or haplotypes with performance traits. The aim of this study was to test whether selection of Holstein Friesian heifers via SNP genotyping for alternative paternal chromosome 18 haplotypes associated with favorable (Q) or unfavorable (q) somatic cell scores influences postpartum reproductive and metabolic diseases. Thirty-six heifers (18 Q and 18 q) were monitored from 3 wk before calving until necropsy on d 39 (± 4 d) after calving. Health status and rectal temperature were measured daily, and body condition score and body weight were assessed once per week. Blood samples were drawn twice weekly, and levels of insulin, nonesterified fatty acids, insulin-like growth factor-I, growth hormone, and β-hydroxybutyrate were measured. Comparisons between the groups were performed using Fisher's exact test, chi-squared test, and the GLIMMIX procedure in SAS. Results showed that Q-heifers had reduced incidence of metritis compared with q-heifers and were less likely to develop fever. Serum concentrations of β-hydroxybutyrate were lower and insulin-like growth factor-I plasma concentrations were higher in Q- compared with q-heifers. However, the body condition score and withers height were comparable between haplotypes, but weight loss tended to be lower in Q-heifers compared with q-heifers. No differences between the groups were detected concerning retained fetal membranes, uterine involution, or onset of cyclicity. In conclusion, selection of chromosome 18 haplotypes associated with a reduced somatic cell score resulted in a decreased incidence of postpartum reproductive and metabolic diseases in this study. The presented data add to the existing knowledge aimed at avoiding negative consequences of genetic selection strategies in dairy cattle farming. The underlying causal mechanisms modulated by haplotypes in the targeted genomic region and immune competence necessitate further investigation

Radial basis function modeling of hourly streamflow hydrograph

An artificial neural network is well known as a flexible mathematical tool that has the ability to generalize patterns in imprecise or noisy and ambiguous input and output data sets. The radial basis function (RBF) method is applied to model the relationship between rainfall and runoff for Sungai Bekok Catchment (Johor, Malaysia) and Sungai Ketil catchment (Kedah, Malaysia). The RBF is used to predict the streamflow hydrograph based on storm events. Evaluation on the performance of RBF is demonstrated based on errors (between predicted and actual) and comparison with the results of the Hydrologic Engineering Center hydrologic modeling system model. It is obvious that the RBF method offers an accurate modeling of streamflow hydrograph