Implications of artificial intelligence in action - a Jamaican perspective

Creative expression, and authorship of creative works, has long been associated with humans. Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms generally associated with routine tasks, are now being used in the creative industries. While human effort is still necessary to perfect creative works done by technology, ongoing algorithmic improvements and adaptations have further advanced the creative capabilities of AI technology. If humans are unable to decipher whether a painting, a piece of music or a literary work was created by humans or an algorithm then it potentially opens a Pandora’s Box. What therefore are the legal implications in the creative space when an algorithm passes the Turing test, i.e. when a human is unable to tell whether an output (artistic work) was generated by a human or a machine? In July 2021, workshops were held in Jamaica with stakeholders from the creative industries, the technology industry and legal practitioners to determine their knowledge of capabilities of AI in the creative industries and their perspectives on the possible legal implications of a creator not being human. This paper considers the legal significance of the presumption that, creativity and authorship, tenets on which intellectual property (IP) protection is generally premised, emanate from a person. Arguably, the dialectic is not whether AI has supplanted human creativity, or the difficulty with being able to distinguish a work created by a human or autonomously by AI. The polemic posed is, what, if any, legislative or regulatory accommodation is needed to address acknowledgment or non-acknowledgment of AI as an author. Further, to what extent, if any, should creative works autonomously produced by AI be deemed protected IP assets. This paper brings into focus analysis of data gleaned from Jamaican stakeholders that suggests there is justification for heightened economic reward for AI owners and creative output bade solely by AI, even if AI is not ascribed the legal title of “author” or “inventor” and the attendant rights and responsibilities of ownership

Is there a Consensus in the Management of Distal Radial Fractures?

This unique postal survey was setup to assess the agreement on treatment options in displaced distal radius fractures and whether or not there existed a consensus amongst the surgeons contacted. With this in view we contacted 244 surgeons and 166 completed answers were received

NMMA: A nuclear-physics and multi-messenger astrophysics framework to analyze binary neutron star mergers

The multi-messenger detection of the gravitational-wave signal GW170817, the corresponding kilonova AT2017gfo and the short gamma-ray burst GRB170817A, as well as the observed afterglow has delivered a scientific breakthrough. For an accurate interpretation of all these different messengers, one requires robust theoretical models that describe the emitted gravitational-wave, the electromagnetic emission, and dense matter reliably. In addition, one needs efficient and accurate computational tools to ensure a correct cross-correlation between the models and the observational data. For this purpose, we have developed the NMMA (Nuclear-physics and Multi-Messenger Astrophysics) framework. The code allows incorporation of nuclear-physics constraints at low densities as well as X-ray and radio observations of isolated neutron stars. It also enables us to classify electromagnetic observations, e.g., to distinguish between supernovae and kilonovae. In previous works, the NMMA code has allowed us to constrain the equation of state of supranuclear dense matter, to measure the Hubble constant, and to compare dense-matter physics probed in neutron-star mergers and in heavy-ion collisions. The extension of the NMMA code presented here is the first attempt of analysing the gravitational-wave signal, the kilonovae, and the GRB afterglow simultaneously, which reduces the uncertainty of our constraints. Incorporating all available information, we estimate the radius of a 1.4 solar mass neutron star to be $R=11.98^{+0.35}_{-0.40}$ km

Characterization of Aerosol Deposited Cesium Lead Tribromide Perovskite Films on Interdigited ITO Electrodes

Aerosol deposition (AD) is a promising additive manufacturing method to fabricate low-cost, scalable films at room temperature, but has not been considered for semiconductor processing, so far. The successful preparation of cesium lead tribromide (CsPbBr) perovskite films on interdigitated indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes by means of AD is reported here. The – µm thick layers are dense and have good adhesion to the substrate. The orthorhombic Pnma crystal structure of the precursor powder was retained during the deposition process with no signs of defect formation. The formation of electronic defects by photoluminescence spectroscopy is investigated and found slightly increased carrier recombination from defect sites for AD films compared to the powder. A nonuniform defect distribution across the layer, presumably induced by the impact of the semiconducting grains on the hard substrate surface, is revealed. The opto-electronic properties of AD processed semiconducting films is further tested by electrical measurements and confirmed good semiconducting properties and high responsivity for the films. These results demonstrate that AD processing of metal halide perovskites is possible for opto-electronic device manufacturing on D surfaces. It is believed that this work paves the way for the fabrication of previously unimaginable opto-electronic devices by additive manufacturing

Effect of fiber stacking sequence and orientation on quasi- static indentation properties of sustainable hybrid carbon/ramie fiber epoxy composites

Hybrid polymer composites reinforced with synthetic and natural fibers are gaining more interest in current composite technology in an effort to promote sustainability without sacrificing the performance of synthetic fiber reinforced polymer composites. The goal of this study is to see how the fiber stacking sequence of carbon and ramie fiber, as well as the orientation of ramie fiber, affects the quasi-static indentation behaviour of carbon/ramie fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites. The hybrid composite specimens were made using a hand layup approach followed by a hot pressing process. The quasi-static indentation properties of carbon/ramie fiber reinforcements in epoxy matrix were investigated using a hemispherical indenter at varying indenter displacement rates of 10, 20, and 30 ​mm/min for the stated stacking sequence and orientation. The indentation resistance qualities of carbon/ramie fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites were evaluated in terms of indentation force, hybrid composite specimen energy absorption capability, and hybrid composite specimen damage caused by hemispherical indenter penetration. The results reveal that a carbon/ramie fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composite with 5 ramie fiber layers has better energy absorption capabilities, absorbing 114.926 ​J at a 20 ​mm/min indentation rate. Similarly, the indentation force in hybrid composites increases as the number of carbon/ramie fiber layers increases. These results indicate that carbon/ramie fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites have a great potential towards low velocity impact applications

Open data from the third observing run of LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA and GEO

The global network of gravitational-wave observatories now includes five detectors, namely LIGO Hanford, LIGO Livingston, Virgo, KAGRA, and GEO 600. These detectors collected data during their third observing run, O3, composed of three phases: O3a starting in April of 2019 and lasting six months, O3b starting in November of 2019 and lasting five months, and O3GK starting in April of 2020 and lasting 2 weeks. In this paper we describe these data and various other science products that can be freely accessed through the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center at https://gwosc.org. The main dataset, consisting of the gravitational-wave strain time series that contains the astrophysical signals, is released together with supporting data useful for their analysis and documentation, tutorials, as well as analysis software packages.Comment: 27 pages, 3 figure

Search for Eccentric Black Hole Coalescences during the Third Observing Run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass $M>70$ $M_\odot$) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities $0 < e \leq 0.3$ at $0.33$ Gpc$^{-3}$ yr$^{-1}$ at 90\% confidence level.Comment: 24 pages, 5 figure

Search for subsolar-mass black hole binaries in the second part of Advanced LIGO’s and Advanced Virgo’s third observing run

We describe a search for gravitational waves from compact binaries with at least one component with mass 0.2 M⊙–1.0 M⊙ and mass ratio q ≥ 0.1 in Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo data collected between 1 November 2019, 15:00 UTC and 27 March 2020, 17:00 UTC. No signals were detected. The most significant candidate has a false alarm rate of 0.2yr−1 ⁠. We estimate the sensitivity of our search over the entirety of Advanced LIGO’s and Advanced Virgo’s third observing run, and present the most stringent limits to date on the merger rate of binary black holes with at least one subsolar-mass component. We use the upper limits to constrain two fiducial scenarios that could produce subsolar-mass black holes: primordial black holes (PBH) and a model of dissipative dark matter. The PBH model uses recent prescriptions for the merger rate of PBH binaries that include a rate suppression factor to effectively account for PBH early binary disruptions. If the PBHs are monochromatically distributed, we can exclude a dark matter fraction in PBHs fPBH ≳ 0.6 (at 90% confidence) in the probed subsolar-mass range. However, if we allow for broad PBH mass distributions we are unable to rule out fPBH = 1. For the dissipative model, where the dark matter has chemistry that allows a small fraction to cool and collapse into black holes, we find an upper bound fDBH &lt; 10−5 on the fraction of atomic dark matter collapsed into black holes