Homo Datumicus : correcting the market for identity data

Effective digital identity systems offer great economic and civic potential. However, unlocking this potential requires dealing with social, behavioural, and structural challenges to efficient market formation. We propose that a marketplace for identity data can be more efficiently formed with an infrastructure that provides a more adequate representation of individuals online. This paper therefore introduces the ontological concept of Homo Datumicus: individuals as data subjects transformed by HAT Microservers, with the axiomatic computational capabilities to transact with their own data at scale. Adoption of this paradigm would lower the social risks of identity orientation, enable privacy preserving transactions by default and mitigate the risks of power imbalances in digital identity systems and markets

Systematic screening of bryophytes for antitumor agents

References are made to cytotoxic and/or antitumor compounds that have been isolated - ansamitocin P-3 from Claopodium crispifolium (Hook.) Ren. & Card. and Anomodon attenuatus Hueb., or an associated actinomycete, and ohioensins and pallidisetums from Polytrichum spp. Several hundred collections, which have been obtained from temperate regions of North America during 1990 and 1991, are currently being screened in new bioassays; active sesquiterpene lactones have been recently isolated from species of Porella. The methodologies of collecting and screening bryophyte samples are discussed with consideration to costs based on expected number of samples that might be collected in a day, the diversity in the collections as related to phytogeography and vegetation types, and the bryophyte cover that is vanishing in many forest regions of the United States. The difficulties in obtaining large collections for isolation of active agents are also discussed by examplerecollection of Claopodium crispifolium

HIGH-RESOLUTION STABLE ISOTOPE ANALYSIS OF BIOGENIC CARBONATES AS PROXY EVIDENCE FOR HOLOCENE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE: EXAMPLES FROM AUTHIGENIC LAKE CARBONATE AND BIVALVE ISOTOPE PROFILES

Biogenic carbonates are valuable archives of paleoenvironmental information because they record chemical signatures of ambient environmental conditions during their formation. Therefore, long-term records of biogenic carbonates provide long-term records of environmental conditions that can be utilized to develop climate histories for specific regions to explore past climatic change. Traditionally, these studies have been conducted with low temporal resolution owing to analytical or economical restrictions. Although these records provide valuable information surrounding long-term climatic change, they lack the resolution to resolve the short-term climatic oscillations such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and El Niño Southern Oscillation that drive environmental change. This dissertation focuses on using high-resolution stable isotope analysis of biogenic carbonates for paleoenvironmental reconstruction and associated applications. Three studies are presented herein, applying increasing sampling resolution from sub-centennial, to sub-decadal, to sub-seasonal, that illustrate the diversity of paleoenvironmental information gained with each increase in resolution. The first study uses sub-centennial oxygen isotope analysis of authigenic lake carbonate to assess how climate change has affected precipitation patterns in the southern Yukon Territory from the end of the last glacial to the present day. Large changes in atmospheric circulation patterns associated with changes in the strength of the North Pacific High and the Aleutian Low pressure systems lead to variations in the oxygen isotope value of precipitation in the southwest Yukon Territory recorded in the oxygen isotope values of lake carbonate. The degradation of a glacial anticyclone led to a reduction in strength of the Aleutian Low coupled with an increase in the strength of the North Pacific High resulting in an increase in summer precipitation to the southwest Yukon represented by an increase in effective moisture following the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Early Holocene. The second study is a sub-decadal oxygen isotope record of lacustrine carbonate stretching back 8,000 years to quantify the strength and state of the Pacific/North American (PNA) Index through time. This study relies on the relationship between the PNA Index and the oxygen isotope values of precipitation from central Canada (Birks and Edwards, 2009), and the ability of Sturgeon Lake to accurately represent 18O values of precipitation. Results show that the strength of the PNA varied through time. The Early to Mid-Holocene (8,000- 4,200 years BP) is characterized by large fluctuations between PNA+ and PNA– phases; PNA–-like conditions dominate the period after 4,200 years BP; and ~1,800 years BP PNA+-like conditions resume. Changes in the Holocene PNA pattern are shown to be contemporaneous with similar changes in Holocene records of El Niño illustrating the intrinsic relationship between Pacific climate patterns. The final study uses sub-seasonal oxygen isotope records from bivalves derived from an overwash deposit to define the seasonality of the deposit. Data indicate a late spring to early summer timing of deposition that presents an alternative interpretation to the previous late fall tsunami origin hypothesis. In conclusion, this dissertation focused on improving our understanding of how paleoenvironmental information is archived in biogenic carbonates by focusing on the use of high-resolution sampling strategies. Modifying the sampling resolution resulted in an enhanced understanding of how short-term climate oscillations drive climate and illustrates how the type of paleoenvironmental information generated varies with sampling resolution

Tomography of atomic number and density of materials using dual-energy imaging and the Alvarez and Macovski attenuation model

Dual-energy computed tomography and the Alvarez and Macovski [Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] transmitted intensity (AMTI) model were used in this study to estimate the maps of density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) of mineralogical samples. In this method, the attenuation coefficients are represented [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)] in the form of the two most important interactions of X-rays with atoms that is, photoelectric absorption (PE) and Compton scattering (CS). This enables material discrimination as PE and CS are, respectively, dependent on the atomic number (Z) and density (ρ) of materials [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976)]. Dual-energy imaging is able to identify sample materials even if the materials have similar attenuation coefficients at single-energy spectrum. We use the full model rather than applying one of several applied simplified forms [Alvarez and Macovski, Phys. Med. Biol. 21, 733 (1976); Siddiqui et al., SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (Society of Petroleum Engineers, 2004); Derzhi, U.S. patent application 13/527,660 (2012); Heismann et al., J. Appl. Phys. 94, 2073–2079 (2003); Park and Kim, J. Korean Phys. Soc. 59, 2709 (2011); Abudurexiti et al., Radiol. Phys. Technol. 3, 127–135 (2010); and Kaewkhao et al., J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer 109, 1260–1265 (2008)]. This paper describes the tomographic reconstruction of ρ and Z maps of mineralogical samples using the AMTI model. The full model requires precise knowledge of the X-ray energy spectra and calibration of PE and CS constants and exponents of atomic number and energy that were estimated based on fits to simulations and calibration measurements. The estimated ρ and Z images of the samples used in this paper yield average relative errors of 2.62% and 1.19% and maximum relative errors of 2.64% and 7.85%, respectively. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the method accounts for the beam hardening effect in density (ρ) and atomic number (Z) reconstructions to a significant extent.S.J.L., G.R.M., and A.M.K. acknowledge funding through the DigiCore consortium and the support of a linkage grant (LP150101040) from the Australian Research Council and FEI Company

Anomalously small wave tails in higher dimensions

We consider the late-time tails of spherical waves propagating on even-dimensional Minkowski spacetime under the influence of a long range radial potential. We show that in six and higher even dimensions there exist exceptional potentials for which the tail has an anomalously small amplitude and fast decay. Along the way we clarify and amend some confounding arguments and statements in the literature of the subject.Comment: 13 page

Leaves of High Yielding Perennial Ryegrass Contain Less Aggregated Rubisco Than S23

Breeding diploid perennial ryegrass for improved dry matter yield under nitrogen-limiting conditions has reduced the nitrogen (N) concentration of the herbage (Wilkins et al., 2003). Reduced N concentration in the ruminant diet is one potential way to reduce losses of N to the environment by reducing the amount of N that animals excrete. The underlying physiological basis of this increased N-use efficiency in ryegrass was investigated

Leaves of High Yielding Perennial Ryegrass Contain Less Aggregated Rubisco than S23

Breeding diploid perennial ryegrass for improved dry matter yield under nitrogen-limiting conditions has reduced the nitrogen (N) concentration of the herbage (Wilkins et al., 2003). Reduced N concentration in the ruminant diet is one potential way to reduce losses of N to the environment by reducing the amount of N that animals excrete. The underlying physiological basis of this increased N-use efficiency in ryegrass was investigated

Loss-Induced Limits to Phase Measurement Precision with Maximally Entangled States

The presence of loss limits the precision of an approach to phase measurement using maximally entangled states, also referred to as NOON states. A calculation using a simple beam-splitter model of loss shows that, for all nonzero values L of the loss, phase measurement precision degrades with increasing number N of entangled photons for N sufficiently large. For L above a critical value of approximately 0.785, phase measurement precision degrades with increasing N for all values of N. For L near zero, phase measurement precision improves with increasing N down to a limiting precision of approximately 1.018 L radians, attained at N approximately equal to 2.218/L, and degrades as N increases beyond this value. Phase measurement precision with multiple measurements and a fixed total number of photons N_T is also examined. For L above a critical value of approximately 0.586, the ratio of phase measurement precision attainable with NOON states to that attainable by conventional methods using unentangled coherent states degrades with increasing N, the number of entangled photons employed in a single measurement, for all values of N. For L near zero this ratio is optimized by using approximately N=1.279/L entangled photons in each measurement, yielding a precision of approximately 1.340 sqrt(L/N_T) radians.Comment: Additional references include

Smart cable for design of high density metallic cross connect systems

The present invention to provide a smart cable system for high density metallic cross connect systems. In particular, this invention relates to the physical structure of cables and associated hardware needed to form the smart cable system for interconnecting cards in shelves and racks of high density metallic cross connect switching systems. This invention provides the cable installer the ability to connect cables to cards with minimal errors by using visual indicators. The visual indicators guide the cable installer such that he/she can properly install the cables into the appropriate connectors. The present invention also provides a means for detecting when and where the cables are connected within the cross connect system

An Unexpected Diversity of Photoreceptor Classes in the Longfin Squid, Doryteuthis pealeii.

Cephalopods are famous for their ability to change color and pattern rapidly for signaling and camouflage. They have keen eyes and remarkable vision, made possible by photoreceptors in their retinas. External to the eyes, photoreceptors also exist in parolfactory vesicles and some light organs, where they function using a rhodopsin protein that is identical to that expressed in the retina. Furthermore, dermal chromatophore organs contain rhodopsin and other components of phototransduction (including retinochrome, a photoisomerase first found in the retina), suggesting that they are photoreceptive. In this study, we used a modified whole-mount immunohistochemical technique to explore rhodopsin and retinochrome expression in a number of tissues and organs in the longfin squid, Doryteuthis pealeii. We found that fin central muscles, hair cells (epithelial primary sensory neurons), arm axial ganglia, and sucker peduncle nerves all express rhodopsin and retinochrome proteins. Our findings indicate that these animals possess an unexpected diversity of extraocular photoreceptors and suggest that extraocular photoreception using visual opsins and visual phototransduction machinery is far more widespread throughout cephalopod tissues than previously recognized.This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research Basic Research Challenge grant number N00014-10-0989 to T.W.C and R.T.H and a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) David Phillips Fellowship BB/L024667/1 to T.J.W. We gratefully acknowledge support from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research via grants numbered FA9550-09-0346 to R.T.H. and FA9550-12-1-0321 to T.W.C.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from PLoS via http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.013538