China's Use of Cyber Warfare: Espionage Meets Strategic Deterrence

This article presents three reasons for states to use cyber warfare and shows that cyberspace is—and will continue to be—a decisive element in China's strategy to ascend in the international system. The three reasons are: deterrence through infiltration of critical infrastructure; military technological espionage to gain military knowledge; and industrial espionage to gain economic advantage. China has a greater interest in using cyberspace offensively than other actors, such as the United States, since it has more to gain from spying on and deterring the United States than the other way around. The article also documents China's progress in cyber warfare and shows how it works as an extension of its traditional strategic thinking and the current debate within the country. Several examples of cyber attacks traceable to China are also presented. This includes cyber intrusions on a nuclear arms laboratory, attacks on defense ministries (including the Joint Strike Fighter and an airbase) and the U.S. electric grid, as well as the current Google affair, which has proved to be a small part of a broader attack that also targeted the U.S. Government. There are, however, certain constraints that qualify the image of China as an aggressive actor in cyberspace. Some believe that China itself is the victim of just as many attacks from other states. Furthermore, certain actors in the United States and the West have an interest in overestimating China's capabilities in cyberspace in order to maintain their budgets

Fibrocellular Contraction of a Lamellar Posterior Corneal Graft

Purpose: To report a case of progressive fibrotic contraction of the posterior lamellar graft after initially successful Descemet’s stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK). Methods: Retrospective report of clinical data and histopathological analysis of excised corneal tissue. Results: A 63-year-old woman underwent uncomplicated DSAEK in her left eye due to endothelial dystrophy. During the first months after surgery, her visual acuity was 0.3, and a semilunar contraction gradually appeared at the edge of the graft. Over the following months, the fibrotic changes progressed and visual acuity decreased, with no improvement after uncomplicated cataract surgery. A successful penetrating keratoplasty was performed, and the excised corneal button with an attached posterior lamellar graft was histologically examined. The affected part of the graft consisted of a thickened fibrocellular tissue positive for glycosaminoglycans and smooth muscle actin. Conclusions: The present case demonstrates asymmetric fibrotic contraction of a DSAEK graft

Andrespråksdidaktisk praksis og læreroppfatninger om andrespråksinnlæring

Masteroppgave grunnskolelærerutdanning trinn 1-7 NO502 - Universitetet i Agder 2018This thesis is written within the field of Norwegian as a second language. The main focus is on the teacher as a factor in second language acquisition. The thesis question is as follows: What characterizes teachers’ language didactic practice and their perceptions about second language acquisition? The informant group in the survey consists of four teachers, from one school for children recently arrived from foreign countries (reception school) and two regular schools respectively, in one of the Agder counties. The teachers work at year 5-7 and have different amounts of experience working with students with Norwegian as a second language. The project is based on a method combination of observation and interview. The observation consists of three separate lessons, with the aim to get an impression of the teachers’ second language didactical practice. The interviews consist of conversations with the four teachers, where the objective is to examine the teachers’ perceptions about second language acquisition. The teachers in the project work out of different subject curriculums. While the teachers from the reception school only use the “Curriculum for Basic Norwegian for language minorities” (GNO), the teachers at the regular schools use both GNO and the regular subject curriculum in Norwegian (NO). As a prerequisite, the two different subject curriculums will be compared with focus on what they value in second language acquisition, especially in regards to perspective. This is done to see whether if the teachers have a different basis for their teaching practice and if their perceptions about second language acquisition could have been colored by the respective subject curriculums. Through the thesis research, it is clear that a social and cognitive perspective on teaching heavily influences the subject curriculums (GNO and NO), where the focus in GNO lies with words and concept acquisition, while the focus in NO is to adequately communicate with each other. This can, to a certain extent, give the teachers different basis for practice and perception. The teachers’ language didactic practice is influenced by a social and cognitive teaching perspective, but also more individual approaches. The observations focus on concepts. The teachers’ perceptions can be recognized by a social and cognitive perspective on teaching. However, a part of it can also be seen as generative, and an even smaller part behavioristic. The teachers are concerned with the language components’ content and use in language acquisition and believe that oral skills are crucial for later life. The teachers believe that experience from the classroom and perceptions have equal influence, and they have their own understanding of how important of a role the teacher has in second language acquisition, ranging from very crucial to less crucial

Pre-activation negativity (PrAN) : A neural index of predictive strength of phonological cues

We propose that a recently discovered event-related potential (ERP) component—the pre-activation negativity (PrAN)—indexes the predictive strength of phonological cues, including segments, word tones, and sentence-level tones. Specifically, we argue that PrAN is a reflection of the brain’s anticipation of upcoming speech (segments, morphemes, words, and syntactic structures). Findings from a long series of neurolinguistic studies indicate that the effect can be divided into two time windows with different possible brain sources. Between 136 and 200 ms from stimulus onset, it indexes activity mainly in the primary and secondary auditory cortices, reflecting disinhibition of neurons sensitive to the expected acoustic signal, as indicated by the brain regions’ response to predictive certainty rather than sound salience. After ~200 ms, PrAN is related to activity in Broca’s area, possibly reflecting inhibition of irrelevant segments, morphemes, words, and syntactic structures

Understanding the role of performance targets in transport policy

The measurement of performance in the public sector has become increasingly important in recent years and it is now commonplace for transport organisations, and local and national governments, to publish performance goals for service supply and quality. Such commitments, when time referenced, are known as targets. This paper explain how changes in management style, consumer rights legislation, contractual obligations and other factors have combined to make management-by targets increasingly common in the public sector. The advantages and disadvantages of management-by-targets are illustrated through discussion of the processes and experience of setting transport targets in UK national transport policy. We conclude that while some of the targets have had a significant impact on policy makers, managers and their agents, the effects have not always been as intended

Toric Intraocular Lenses in the Correction of Astigmatism During Cataract Surgery A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

TopicWe performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the benefit and harms associated with implantation of toric intraocular lenses (IOLs) during cataract surgery. Outcomes were postoperative uncorrected distance visual acuity (UCDVA) and distance spectacle independence. Harms were evaluated as surgical complications and residual astigmatism.Clinical RelevancePostoperative astigmatism is an important cause of suboptimal UCDVA and need for distance spectacles. Toric IOLs may correct for preexisting corneal astigmatism at the time of surgery.MethodsWe performed a systematic literature search in the Embase, PubMed, and CENTRAL databases within the Cochrane Library. We included randomized clinical trials (RCTs) if they compared toric with non-toric IOL implantation (± relaxing incision) in patients with regular corneal astigmatism and age-related cataracts. We assessed the risk of bias using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. We assessed the quality of evidence across studies using the GRADE profiler software (available at: www.gradeworkinggroup.org).ResultsWe included 13 RCTs with 707 eyes randomized to toric IOLs and 706 eyes randomized to non-toric IOLs; 225 eyes had a relaxing incision. We found high-quality evidence that UCDVA was better in the toric IOL group (logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution [logMAR] mean difference, −0.07; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.10 to −0.04) and provided greater spectacle independence (risk ratio [RR], 0.51; 95% CI, 0.36–0.71) and moderate quality evidence that toric IOL implantation was not associated with an increased risk of complications (RR, 1.73; 95% CI, 0.60–5.04). Residual astigmatism was lower in the toric IOL group than in the non-toric IOL plus relaxing incision group (mean difference, 0.37 diopter [D]; 95% CI, −0.55 to −0.19).ConclusionsWe found that toric IOLs provided better UCDVA, greater spectacle independence, and lower amounts of residual astigmatism than non-toric IOLs even when relaxing incisions were used