Data Capitalism, Digital Health, and Marxism

Abstract When immersed in a capitalist society individuals often fail to see the ways in which they are exploited, and when these discussions do come into discourse they are often geared toward workplace labor. Less commonly do we consider the ways in which these problems arise in conjunction with free labor, mainly performed in digital spaces. While less often considered or discussed, the exploitation occurring in the digital world is real and has substantial consequences, particularly when the digital spaces involve sensitive information and data. This paper aims to address how data capitalism functions in three different digital health spaces: online patient forums and support groups, mental health apps, and direct-to-consumer DNA sequencing companies. In order to show how patients are persuaded to join and contribute to these digital spaces there will be an investigation of the rhetorical strategies utilized in marketing tactics. We will consider the economic functioning of data capitalism through a basic Marxist perspective, which criticized the capitalist mode of production and exploitation of workers, or in this case the creators of data

The Effects of Moral Identity on Moral Emotion and Antisocial Behavior in Sport

Given the prevalence and significance of antisocial behavior in sport, researchers have begun to explore the role that self conscious moral emotions play in reducing such behavior. In this research, we examined whether moral identity inhibits antisocial behaviour and whether these effects are mediated by anticipated guilt. Using a cross-sectional design, Study 1 showed that moral identity was negatively related to antisocial behavior. Study 2 found that the negative association between moral identity and antisocial behavior was mediated by anticipated feelings of guilt. Using an experimental design, Study 3 showed that priming moral identity reduced antisocial behavior, and this effect was mediated by moral judgment, and in turn, anticipated guilt. The present findings suggest that athletes with a robust internalized moral self-schema are less likely to engage in antisocial behavior because of the intense feelings of guilt they are likely to experience when they engage in such behavior

Descreening of Color Halftone Images in the Frequency Domain

Scanning a halftone image introduces halftone artifacts, known as Moiré patterns, which significantly degrade the image quality. Printers that use amplitude modulation (AM) screening for halftone printing position dots in a periodic pattern. Therefore, frequencies relating halftoning are easily identifiable in the frequency domain. This paper proposes a method for descreening scanned color halftone images using a custom band reject filter designed to isolate and remove only the frequencies related to halftoning while leaving image edges sharp without image segmentation or edge detection. To enable hardware acceleration, the image is processed in small overlapped windows. The windows are filtered individually in the frequency domain, then pieced back together in a method that does not show blocking artifacts

Spitzer Observations of Transient, Extended Dust in Two Elliptical Galaxies: New Evidence of Recent Feedback Energy Release in Galactic Cores

Spitzer observations of extended dust in two optically normal elliptical galaxies provide a new confirmation of buoyant feedback outflow in the hot gas atmospheres around these galaxies. AGN feedback energy is required to prevent wholesale cooling and star formation in these group-centered galaxies. In NGC 5044 we observe interstellar (presumably PAH) emission at 8 microns out to about 5 kpc. Both NGC 5044 and 4636 have extended 70 microns emission from cold dust exceeding that expected from stellar mass loss. The sputtering lifetime of this extended dust in the ~1keV interstellar gas, ~10^7 yrs, establishes the time when the dust first entered the hot gas. Evidently the extended dust originated in dusty disks or clouds, commonly observed in elliptical galaxy cores, that were disrupted, heated and buoyantly transported outward. The surviving central dust in NGC 5044 and 4636 has been disrupted into many small filaments. It is remarkable that the asymmetrically extended 8 micron emission in NGC 5044 is spatially coincident with Halpha+[NII] emission from warm gas. A calculation shows that dust-assisted cooling in buoyant hot gas moving out from the galactic core can cool within a few kpc in about ~10^7 yrs, explaining the optical line emission observed. The X-ray images of both galaxies are disturbed. All timescales for transient activity - restoration of equilibrium and buoyant transport in the hot gas, dynamics of surviving dust fragments, and dust sputtering - are consistent with a central release of feedback energy in both galaxies about 10^7 yrs ago.Comment: 13 pages. Accepted by ApJ; minor typos correcte

Quantificação não destrutiva do contéudo de clorofilas em folhas de milho através de método colorimétrico.

Este trabalho foi conduzido visando avaliar a viabilidade da utilização de um colorímetro, como alternativa ao medidor de clorofila para a quantificação não destrutiva de clorofilas em folhas de milho.Suplemento. Trabalho apresentado no 52. Congresso Brasileiro de Olericultura, Salvador, 2012

Behaviour and stability of thermodilution signals in a closed extracorporeal circuit: a bench study.

Thermodilution is the gold standard for cardiac output measurement in critically ill patients. Its application in extracorporeal therapy is limited, as a portion of the thermal indicator is drawn into the extracorporeal circuit. The behaviour of thermodilution signals in extracorporeal circuits is unknown. We investigated thermodilution curves within a closed-circuit and assessed the impact of injection volume, flow and distance on the behaviour of the thermodilution signals and catheter constants. We injected 3, 5, 7 and 10 ml of thermal indicator into a heated closed circuit. Thermistors at distances of 40, 60, 80, and 100 cm from the injection port recorded the thermodilution signals (at flow settings of 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 L/min). Area under the curve (AUC), rise time, exponential decay and catheter constants were analysed. Linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the impact of circuit flow, distance and injection volume. Catheter positioning did not influence AUC (78 injections). Catheter constants were independent of flow, injection volume or distance to the injection port. The distance to the injection port increased peak temperature and rise time and decreased exponential time constant significantly. The distance to the injection port did not influence catheter constants, but the properties of the thermodilution signal itself. This may influence measurements that depend on the exponential decay of the thermodilution signal such as right ventricular ejection fraction

AGN feedback and gas mixing in the core of NGC 4636

Chandra observations of NGC 4636 show disturbances in the galaxy X-ray halo, including arm-like high surface brightness features (tentatively identified as AGN driven shocks) and a possible cavity on the west side of the galaxy core. We present Chandra and XMM spectral maps of NGC 4636 which confirm the presence of the cavity and show it to be bounded by the arm features. The maps also reveal a ~15 kpc wide plume of low temperature, high abundance gas extending 25-30 kpc to the southwest of the galaxy. The cavity appears to be embedded in this plume, and we interpret the structure as being entrained gas drawn out of the galaxy core during previous episodes of AGN activity. The end of the plume is marked by a well defined edge, with significant falls in surface brightness, temperature and abundance, indicating a boundary between galaxy and group/cluster gas. This may be evidence that as well as preventing gas cooling through direct heating, AGN outbursts can produce significant gas mixing, disturbing the temperature structure of the halo and transporting metals out from the galaxy into the surrounding intra-group medium.Comment: 4 Pages, 2 colour figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters. Version with high quality images at http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~ejos/files/N4636_hires.pd

Empathy Inhibits Aggression in Competition: The Role of Provocation, Emotion, and Gender.

Although the empathy-aggression relationship has been well documented, research has yet to establish whether emotions mediate and gender moderates this relationship in athletes, under conditions of low and high provocation. In this experiment, we assigned team-sport athletes to either a high (n = 40) or a low (n = 40) empathy group, and asked them to compete in a reaction-time task against a (fictitious) opponent, under conditions of low and high provocation. Empathy reduced aggression (i.e., intensity of electrical shock administered to the opponent) at low provocation in men, and at both low and high provocation in women. Guilt mediated the effect of empathy on aggression at low provocation in men; anger did not mediate any effects of empathy on aggression. Our findings indicate that the inhibitory effect of empathy on aggression and the mediating role of guilt are moderated by provocation and gender