Spirits in a Material World: Intelligent Agents as Intermediaries in Electronic Commerce

The article provides an in-depth analysis of the contract issues peculiar to automated electronic commerce. The aim of the study is to provide a critical evaluation of the various solutions that might be adopted by a legislature seeking to cure formal defects in agreements that are negotiated and entered into by software programs, independent of human review. The author begins with an examination of the current state of the technology that automates electronic commerce, offering some speculation as to its future development. He then outlines the barriers to automated electronic commerce inherent in traditional contract doctrine. He argues against the proposal to cure doctrinal difficulties by deeming electronic devices to be legal persons and investigates the merit of the legislative approaches adopted by UNCITRAL, the National Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws (U.S.), and the Uniform Law Conference of Canada. He ends by advocating an alternative approach, based on the law of agency

Pre-Natal Fictions and Post-Partum Actions

The author examines the theory of liability for pre-natal injuries adopted by Canadian courts. This theory has recently been adopted by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal in an unprecedented decision that allows an infant to sue its own mother for alleged negligent conduct that occurred prior to the child\u27s birth. The author argues that, despite contrary claims, the present theory of liability relies on the judicial use of a legal fiction. He maintains that this fiction has been stretched beyond its theoretical limits and concludes that courts are no longer justified in adopting the present theory of liability in cases where a child sues its own mother. He ends by suggesting that courts must undertake a deeper analysis of the issues relevant to a determination of the properscope of recovery for pre-natal injuries

Virtual Playgrounds and Buddybots: A Data-Minefield for Tweens

This article examines the online places where tweens play, chat, and hang out. We argue that the vision behind these places is defined by commercial imperatives that seek to embed surveillance deeper and deeper into children’s playgrounds and social interactions. Online marketers do more than implant branded products into a child’s play; they collect the minute details of a child’s life so they can build a ‘‘relationship’’ of ‘‘trust’’ between the child and brand. Although marketing to children is not new, a networked environment magnifies the effect on a child’s identity because it opens up a child’s private online spaces to the eye of the marketer in unprecedented ways. Online marketers accordingly invade the child’s privacy in a profound sense, by artificially manipulating the child’s social environment and communications in order to facilitate a business agenda. We start by examining five of the Web sites that have been identified by tweens as ‘‘favorites’’. Each site contains examples of marketing practices that are typical of virtual playgrounds, and which turn kids’ online play into a continuous feedback loop for market research. After looking at the places where tweens play, we turn to one of the places where tweens talk. We examine how the principles of human-computer interaction have been used in an instant messaging environment to create virtual ‘‘people’’ that interact with kids, for all intents and purposes, like a real person. By logging the interactions, these BuddyBot programs are able to ‘‘learn’’ about the child and create the illusion of friendship between it and the child. This perfects the relationship between the child and the brand by introducing a virtual person into the equation, a person who is able to give the child ideas about what clothes to wear, what movies to see, what products to buy. Finally, we provide a brief overview of American and Canadian legislation dealing with children’s online privacy, and assess whether or not current laws have been able to protect children’s privacy in the online environment. We also examine the ways in which electronic commerce legislation has addressed the role of virtual agents, and assess how well fair information practices can protect kids from the invasive nature of child-bot relationships

The control of interferon-inducible gene expression

AbstractThe αβ interferons (IFNs) transiently induce genes through an IFN-stimulable DNA response element (ISRE). IFN-cell surface receptor interaction triggers the cytoplasmic activation of the complex primary transcription factor E, which on translocation and interaction with the ISRE initiates transcription. Whether E is activated directly through the receptor(s) or through a more classical second message pathway(s) and the roles of additional factors in the αβ and γ IFN responses remain to be established. Meanwhile analysis of mutants has revealed complexity and overlap in the α,β and γ IFN response pathways and the products of at least two viruses have been shown to inhibit IFN-inducible gene expression

Fractional boundary value problems: Analysis and numerical methods

This is the author's PDF of an article published in Fractional calculus and applied analysis 2011. The original publication is available at www.springerlink.comThis journal article discusses nonlinear boundary value problems.Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologi

Magneto-optical Kerr Effect Studies of Square Artificial Spin Ice

We report a magneto-optical Kerr effect study of the collective magnetic response of artificial square spin ice, a lithographically-defined array of single-domain ferromagnetic islands. We find that the anisotropic inter-island interactions lead to a non-monotonic angular dependence of the array coercive field. Comparisons with micromagnetic simulations indicate that the two perpendicular sublattices exhibit distinct responses to island edge roughness, which clearly influence the magnetization reversal process. Furthermore, such comparisons demonstrate that disorder associated with roughness in the island edges plays a hitherto unrecognized but essential role in the collective behavior of these systems.Comment: Physical Review B, Rapid Communications (in press

Clinical and service implications of a cognitive analytic therapy model of psychosis

Cognitive analytic therapy (CAT) is an integrative, interpersonal model of therapy predicated on a radically social concept of self, developed over recent years in the UK by Anthony Ryle. A CAT-based model of psychotic disorder has been developed much more recently based on encouraging early experience in this area. The model describes and accounts for many psychotic experiences and symptoms in terms of distorted, amplified or muddled enactments of normal or ‘neurotic’ reciprocal role procedures (RRPs) and of damage at a meta-procedural level to the structures of the self. Reciprocal role procedures are understood in CAT to represent the outcome of the process of internalization of early, sign-mediated, interpersonal experience and to constitute the basis for all mental activity, normal or otherwise. Enactments of maladaptive RRPs generated by early interpersonal stress are seen in this model to constitute a form of ‘internal expressed emotion’. Joint description of these RRPs and their enactments (both internally and externally) and their subsequent revision is central to the practice of CAT during which they are mapped out through written and diagrammatic reformulations. This model may usefully complement and extend existing approaches, notably recent CBT-based interventions, particularly with ‘difficult’ patients, and generate meaningful and helpful understandings of these disorders for both patients and their treating teams. We suggest that use of a coherent and robust model such as CAT could have important clinical and service implications in terms of developing and researching models of these disorders as well as for the training of multidisciplinary teams in their effective treatment

Vestiges of the proto-Caribbean seaway: origin of the San Souci Volcanic Group, Trinidad

Outcrops of volcanic–hypabyssal rocks in Trinidad document the opening of the proto-Caribbean seaway during Jurassic–Cretaceous break-up of the Americas. The San Souci Group on the northern coast of Trinidad comprises the San Souci Volcanic Formation (SSVF) and passive margin sediments of the ~ 130–125 Ma Toco Formation. The Group was trapped at the leading edge of the Pacific-derived Caribbean Plate during the Cretaceous–Palaeogene, colliding with the para-autochthonous margin of Trinidad during the Oligocene–Miocene. In-situ U–Pb ion probe dating of micro-zircons from a mafic volcanic breccia reveal the SSVF crystallised at 135.0 ± 7.3 Ma. The age of the SSVF is within error of the age of the Toco Formation. Assuming a conformable contact, geodynamic models indicate a likely origin for the SSVF on the passive margin close to the northern tip of South America. Immobile element and Nd–Hf radiogenic isotope signatures of the mafic rocks indicate the SSVF was formed by ≪10% partial melting of a heterogeneous spinel peridotite source with no subduction or continental lithospheric mantle component. Felsic breccias within the SSVF are more enriched in incompatible elements, with isotope signatures that are less radiogenic than the mafic rocks of the SSVF. The felsic rocks may be derived from re-melting of mafic crust. Although geochemical comparisons are drawn here with proto-Caribbean igneous outcrops in Venezuela and elsewhere in the Caribbean more work is needed to elucidate the development of the proto-Caribbean seaway and its rifted margins. In particular, ion probe dating of micro-zircons may yield valuable insights into magmatism and metamorphism in the Caribbean, and in altered basaltic terranes more generally

The First Substellar Subdwarf? Discovery of a Metal-poor L Dwarf with Halo Kinematics

We present the discovery of the first L-type subdwarf, 2MASS J05325346+8246465. This object exhibits enhanced collision-induced H$_2$ absorption, resulting in blue NIR colors ($J-K_s = 0.26{\pm}0.16$). In addition, strong hydride bands in the red optical and NIR, weak TiO absorption, and an optical/J-band spectral morphology similar to the L7 DENIS 0205$-$1159AB imply a cool, metal-deficient atmosphere. We find that 2MASS 0532+8246 has both a high proper motion, $\mu$ = 2\farcs60\pm0\farcs15 yr$^{-1}$, and a substantial radial velocity, $v_{rad} = -195{\pm}11$ km s$^{-1}$, and its probable proximity to the Sun (d = 10--30 pc) is consistent with halo membership. Comparison to subsolar-metallicity evolutionary models strongly suggests that 2MASS 0532+8246 is substellar, with a mass of 0.077 $\lesssim$ M $\lesssim$ 0.085 M_{\sun} for ages 10--15 Gyr and metallicities $Z = 0.1-0.01$ Z_{\sun}. The discovery of this object clearly indicates that star formation occurred below the Hydrogen burning mass limit at early times, consistent with prior results indicating a flat or slightly rising mass function for the lowest-mass stellar subdwarfs. Furthermore, 2MASS 0532+8246 serves as a prototype for a new spectral class of subdwarfs, additional examples of which could be found in NIR proper motion surveys.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, accepted to Ap