Prim Drift, CopyBots, and Folk Preservation: Three Copyright Parables about Art in the Digital Age

This paper employs a series of case studies from the domains of digital arts and creative/experimental new media to elicit tensions and contradictions in the current state of copyright and intellectual property law. I pay particular attention to the role of the "pirate" as preservationist--rather than taint or corrupt, historically we know that piracy has helped guarantee the survival of important works of literature and art. Throughout, I insist that the humanist is not a dabbler or interloper in these matters; humanistic knowledge, particularly semiotics (the study of sign systems) has the potential to lend consistency and coherence to case law that is currently shot through with loopholes, contradictions, and dead ends. To that end, I also outline the potential of a center devoted to intellectual property law and humanities advocacy

Conjugacy of one-dimensional one-sided cellular automata is undecidable

Two cellular automata are strongly conjugate if there exists a shift-commuting conjugacy between them. We prove that the following two sets of pairs $(F,G)$ of one-dimensional one-sided cellular automata over a full shift are recursively inseparable: (i) pairs where $F$ has strictly larger topological entropy than $G$, and (ii) pairs that are strongly conjugate and have zero topological entropy. Because there is no factor map from a lower entropy system to a higher entropy one, and there is no embedding of a higher entropy system into a lower entropy system, we also get as corollaries that the following decision problems are undecidable: Given two one-dimensional one-sided cellular automata $F$ and $G$ over a full shift: Are $F$ and $G$ conjugate? Is $F$ a factor of $G$? Is $F$ a subsystem of $G$? All of these are undecidable in both strong and weak variants (whether the homomorphism is required to commute with the shift or not, respectively). It also immediately follows that these results hold for one-dimensional two-sided cellular automata.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, accepted for SOFSEM 201

Lakshmi Planum: A distinctive highland volcanic province

Lakshmi Planum, a broad smooth plain located in western Ishtar Terra and containing two large oval depressions (Colette and Sacajawea), has been interpreted as a highland plain of volcanic origin. Lakshmi is situated 3 to 5 km above the mean planetary radius and is surrounded on all sides by bands of mountains interpreted to be of compressional tectonic origin. Four primary characteristics distinguish Lakshmi from other volcanic regions known on the planet, such as Beta Regio: (1) high altitude, (2) plateau-like nature, (3) the presence of very large, low volcanic constructs with distinctive central calderas, and (4) its compressional tectonic surroundings. Building on the previous work of Pronin, the objective is to establish the detailed nature of the volcanic deposits on Lakshmi, interpret eruption styles and conditions, sketch out an eruption history, and determine the relationship between volcanism and the tectonic environment of the region

Curvatons in the minimally supersymmetric standard model

Curvaton is an effectively massless field whose energy density during inflation is negligible but which later becomes dominant. This is a novel mechanism to generate the scale invariant perturbations. I discuss the possibility that the curvaton could be found among the fields of the minimally supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), which contains a number of flat directions along which the renormalizable potential vanishes. The requirements of late domination and the absence of damping of the perturbations pick out essentially a unique candidate for the MSSM curvaton. One must also require that inflation takes place in a hidden sector. If the inflaton energy density can be radiated into extra dimensions, many constraints can be relaxed, and the simplest flat direction consisting of the Higgses H_u and H_d would provide a working example of an MSSM curvaton.Comment: 16 pages, 1 Figur

Electrical stimulation with non-implanted devices for stress urinary incontinence in women

The authors would like to thank Luke Vale, Imran Omar, Sheila Wallace and Suzanne MacDonald at the Cochrane Incontinence Group for their support. We would also like to thank Mette Frahm Olsen, Gavin Stewart, Miriam Brazelli, Anna Sierawska, and Beatriz Gualeo for help with translations.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Invariance: a Theoretical Approach for Coding Sets of Words Modulo Literal (Anti)Morphisms

Let $A$ be a finite or countable alphabet and let $\theta$ be literal (anti)morphism onto $A^*$ (by definition, such a correspondence is determinated by a permutation of the alphabet). This paper deals with sets which are invariant under $\theta$ ($\theta$-invariant for short).We establish an extension of the famous defect theorem. Moreover, we prove that for the so-called thin $\theta$-invariant codes, maximality and completeness are two equivalent notions. We prove that a similar property holds in the framework of some special families of $\theta$-invariant codes such as prefix (bifix) codes, codes with a finite deciphering delay, uniformly synchronized codes and circular codes. For a special class of involutive antimorphisms, we prove that any regular $\theta$-invariant code may be embedded into a complete one.Comment: To appear in Acts of WORDS 201

Weakly compact operators and the strong* topology for a Banach space

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Unifying Einstein and Palatini gravities

We consider a novel class of $f(\R)$ gravity theories where the connection is related to the conformally scaled metric $\hat g_{\mu\nu}=C(\R)g_{\mu\nu}$ with a scaling that depends on the scalar curvature $\R$ only. We call them C-theories and show that the Einstein and Palatini gravities can be obtained as special limits. In addition, C-theories include completely new physically distinct gravity theories even when $f(\R)=\R$. With nonlinear $f(\R)$, C-theories interpolate and extrapolate the Einstein and Palatini cases and may avoid some of their conceptual and observational problems. We further show that C-theories have a scalar-tensor formulation, which in some special cases reduces to simple Brans-Dicke-type gravity. If matter fields couple to the connection, the conservation laws in C-theories are modified. The stability of perturbations about flat space is determined by a simple condition on the lagrangian.Comment: 17 pages, no figure

Mellom stedet og nettet : bibliotekpolitikk i en brytningstid En sammenligning av virksomhetsperspektivet i norsk og dansk bibliotekstrategi for det 21. århundre

Biblioteket står på terskelen til en ny tid; det digitale Kunnskapssamfunnet ligger foran oss, med sine nye teknologiske utfordringer, nye kunnskapsmarkeder og ikke minst nye brukermønstre. Etter å ha hatt en tilnærmet monopolstilling i Industrisamfunnet, er biblioteket nå bare en av mange aktører i Kunnskapssamfunnet, og vi må innse at biblioteket trenger Kunnskapssamfunnet mer enn Kunnskapssamfunnet trenger biblioteket. Denne situasjonen krever at bibliotekene forstår hva som skjer – og ikke minst at innsikten omsettes i handling. Men handlingen må være relevant i forhold til de nye rammevilkårene; historien viser oss at ingen bransje eller profesjon er garantert evig liv. På denne bakgrunn har jeg ønsket å gjøre to ting. For det første har jeg villet undersøke hvordan norsk bibliotekstrategi svarer på utfordringene fra det nye samfunnet, og jeg har satt den danske strategien opp som et sammenligningsgrunnlag. Som et ledd i analysen har jeg i tillegg forsøkt å skissere en praktisk tilnærming som bibliotekene kan nyttiggjøre seg i sitt eget endringsarbeid. Denne metoden kaller jeg et virksomhetsperspektiv. Kunnskapssamfunnet bygger på en teknologisk revolusjon hvor mikroprosessor og verdensvev har lagt grunnlaget for helt nye måter å leve, handle og kommunisere på, og hvor nye generasjoner finner helt nye arenaer for læring, innsikt og underholdning. Bibliotekutredningen, Bibliotekreform 2014, tar mål av seg til å være et svar på utfordringene fra dette samfunnet. Min konklusjon er at utredningen ikke når sitt mål, I sammenligningen med den danske strategien, som er offensiv og utadrettet, fremstår Bibliotekreform 2014 som en ren forvaltningsmelding, med fokus på interne strukturer og aktiviteter, heller enn på omverdenens behov. Riktignok er den digitale teknologien et hovedtema, men den blir bare unntaksvis beskrevet som noe mer enn et verktøy, en ny innpakning for gamle strukturer. Teknologiens kraft som premiss for samfunnsutviklingen, og for bibliotekenes rolle i det nye samfunnet, er det ikke lett å få øye på. Den norske utredningen handler ikke om brukerne, men om biblioteket selv, ikke om nye tjenester, men om logistikk og leveransestrukturer, og først og fremst handler den ikke om utvikling, men om legitimering av det eksisterende. Mens den danske strategien er et tydelig og modig svar på eksterne utfordringer fra et samfunn i dyp endring, er den norske strategien et defensivt svar på feltets interne utfordringer. Dette er et nødvendig, men ikke tilstrekkelig grep for å møte morgendagen. Virksomhetsperspektivet jeg har introdusert som metode, er resultat av mange års erfaring fra andre typer servicevirksomhet. Det gir en konkret tilnærming til analyse, utforming og endring av strategier i etterspørselstyrte organisasjoner, og er valgt fordi jeg ser mange og store likhetspunkter mellom bibliotek og andre typer virksomhet. Mitt håp er at dette verktøyet vil bli tatt i bruk, og at det kan gi feltet nødvendig trygghet til å ta de første skritt i endringsprosessen der hvor forandringene må skje: ute i det enkelte bibliotek.Master i bibliotek- og informasjonsvitenska