Communicating emotions in expressive avatars

Avatars have become a fundamental part of collaborative virtual environments. They are the visual embodiment of the user and are designed to address key issues in the interaction process between the user and the CVE. Giving avatars expressive abilities has been considered essential in computer-human reaction. Having an avatar, which has the ability to express facial expressions, as a part of the computer interface increases human performance. Researches have provided strong evidence that emotions can be effectively portrayed visually in avatars to represent human users in collaborative virtual environments. These include manipulation of facial expressions as they are efficient carriers of emotions. However, avatars have still only limited variations in their emotional expressions to become believable entities

Cracking Down On Cybercrime Global Response: The Cybercrime Convention

Computers and the Internet have brought innumerable benefits to society. They have revolutionized the way people work, play, and communicate. In spite of the benefits the Internet has introduced to the global community, it is also fraught with risks associated with undesirable elements keen to misuse its usage. Computers and the Internet present new ways to engage in old crimes, such as fraud and piracy. They also have made it possible for criminals to perpetrate new harmful acts, like data access and interference. However, national legislations and regional agreements are not sufficient to address the global nature of cybercrime. Therefore, in order to prosecute cybercrime as well as other types of crime, a common framework must be created that can punish these crimes irrespective of where they are committed. The International Cybercrime Convention has recently come into force focusing on an international solution to combat cybercrime. This paper analyses the implications of the new Cybercrime Convention on organisations and private individuals, and whether the requirements of the Convention balance the need for a criminal crackdown with the equally critical need to maintain basic freedoms

War Against Spam: A Comparative Analysis Of The US And The European Legal Approach

Unsolicited commercial mail (also known as spam and junk mail) can inconvenience tens of millions of Internet users and impose huge costs on Internet Service Providers. Realizing the need to boost competitiveness and consumer confidence, the European Union (EU) and the United States have instituted various legal frameworks and policies to regulate unsolicited commercial mail. The EU has adopted an opt-in approach to spam mail, which means e-marketers need to seek the permission of consumers before they send out commercial emails, while the US CAN SPAM Act takes an opt-out approach. The EU\u27s opt-in regime is viewed as offering greater safeguards against spam mail. Despite the EU Directive and the US federal law, the barrage of junk e-mail continues to grow. This paper discusses the issue of spam mail and makes a comparative analysis of the two legal approaches and their implications on the industry and private citizens

Safe Harbor Agreement—Boon or Bane?

U.S. businesses that handle personal information about individuals living in European Union countries should be aware that, as a general rule, it is unlawful for them to transfer that data out of the European Union to the United States. Exceptions to this general prohibition apply in specified circumstances, that is, where there is consent to the transfer or where there is some assurance that U.S. businesses will comply with the transfers requirements of EU privacy laws when handling that information. These restrictions apply to U.S. businesses that have employees or customers in EU countries, as well as U.S. businesses that operate Web sites in the United States that collect information from individuals accessing their sites from the European Union. In 2000, the United States and the European Union entered into a “Safe Harbor Agreement” in order to improve U.S. businesses’ compliance with EU privacy laws while minimizing the risk to U.S. businesses of enforcement actions brought against them by EU regulators for privacy law violations. U.S. businesses that decide to participate in the Safe Harbor are subject only to enforcement actions by U.S. regulators if they fail to comply with Safe Harbor requirements. Another compliance strategy open to U.S. businesses is to include standard privacy terms in contracts for transactions involving the transfer of personal information about EU individuals to the United States that provide privacy guarantees and explicitly subject the business to the jurisdiction of EU privacy regulators. In October 2004, the EU Commission released a report that reiterates the EU commitment to working with the United States within the framework of the Safe Harbor, notwithstanding the apparent lack of success of either the Safe Harbor or the contract terms compliance strategies

Regulating Copyrights in Cyberspace

The explosive growth of the Internet has created critical new challenges to national and international intellectual property policies. Intellectual Property protection has become the most important issue in Cyberspace. When technological advances has outpaced the law, several problems arise which require an approach suitable to the digital age. Several international conventions have been enacted with principal objective of bringing world law into the digital world. The TRIPS Agreement and the WIPO Copyright Treaty were adapted, which require Member States to give protection to digital content providers against copyright infringements. However, as with the Berne Convention, TRIPS and WIPO do little to reduce substantial disharmonies in the substantive content of national copyright laws. The digital age has seen three controversial views on intellectual properties emerge. There are people who believe that intellectual property should be unprotected and unrestricted. On the opposing view, Intellectual Property Right (IPR) owners feel that the national governments need to pass and enforce laws to protect intellectual property. They claim that violation of intellectual property is inhibiting them from investing and making information more available in cyberspace.Others contend that traditional copyright law is able to deal effectively with digital copyright issues in cyberspace. At the same time, there is a need to maintain a balance between the rights of authors and the larger public interest. The core issue is how to protect copyrighted materials while at the same time serving the public’s right for privacy, information access and dissemination

E-Contract Formation: U.S. and EU Perspectives

The United States (“U.S.”) and the European Union (“EU”) offer contrasting approaches to contract formation in Cyberspace. Two foci can be identified with EU law: (1) consumer protection and (2) market harmonisation. The American approach, however, is characterized by self-regulation and economic rationale. This Article examines and compares the EU and U.S. regulatory approaches to electronic contracting

Kierkegaard and the Search for Self-Knowledge

In the first part of this essay (Sections I and II), I argue that Kierkegaard's work helps us to articulate and defend two basic requirements on searching for knowledge of one's own judgements: first, that searching for knowledge whether one judges that P requires trying to make a judgement whether P; and second that, in an important range of cases, searching for knowledge of one's own judgements requires attending to how one's acts of judging are performed. In the second part of the essay (Sections III and IV), I consider two prima facie problems regarding this conception of searching for knowledge of one's own judgements. The first problem concerns how in general one can coherently try to meet both these requirements at once; the second, how in particular one can try to attend to one's own acts of judging. I show how Kierkegaard's work is alive to both these problems, and helps us to see how they can be resolved. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Rapid point-of-care testing for COVID-19: quality of supportive information for lateral flow serology assays

Objective There is a lack of evidence addressing several important human factors questions pertaining to the quality of supportive information provided by commercial manufacturers that can affect the adoption and use of lateral flow serology assays in practice. We aimed to: (1) identify and assess the quality of information that commercial manufacturers provided for their point-of-care tests (POCTs) and (2) examine the implications of these findings on real-world settings. Design We used a content analysis methodology in two stages to systematically, code and analyse textual data from documents of commercial manufacturers. A deductive approach was applied using a coding guide based on the validated Point-of-Care Key Evidence Tool (POCKET) multidimensional checklist. An inductive approach was used to identify new patterns or themes generated from our textual analysis. Setting Publicly available supportive information documents by commercial manufacturers for lateral flow serology, were identified and gathered from online searches. Participants Supportive information documents retrieved from online searches over 3 months (March 2020 to June 2020). Results A total of 79 POCTs were identified that met the study inclusion criteria. Using the POCKET coding guide, we found that the quality of information varied significantly between the manufacturers and was often lacking in detail. Our inductive approach further examined these topics and found that several statements were vague and that significant variations in the level of details existed between manufacturers. Conclusions This study revealed significant concerns surrounding the supportive information reported by manufacturers for lateral flow serology assays. Information transparency was poor and human factor issues were not properly addressed to mitigate the risk of improper device use, although it should be noted that the results of our study are limited by the data that manufactures were prepared to disclose. Overall, commercial manufacturers should improve the quality and value of information presented in their supporting documentation

Applications of health information exchange information to public health practice

Increased information availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness through health information exchange (HIE) can support public health practice. The potential benefits to disease monitoring, disaster response, and other public health activities served as an important justification for the US’ investments in HIE. After several years of HIE implementation and funding, we sought to determine if any of the anticipated benefits of exchange participation were accruing to state and local public health practitioners participating in five different exchanges. Using qualitative interviews and template analyses, we identified public health efforts and activities that were improved by participation in HIE. HIE supported public health activities consistent with expectations in the literature. However, no single department realized all the potential benefits of HIE identified. These findings suggest ways to improve HIE usage in public health