Geopolitics 2.0

An entirely new form of virtual weaponry is transforming the dynamics of geopolitics. The threat of cyber warfare is not new. The Internet was a product of the Cold War built in the 1960s by US military scientists to protect American communications infrastructure against a Soviet nuclear strike. Nearly a half century later, those threats remain. Today, however, cyber weapons are not only in hands of enemy and rogue states, but are being exploited by isolated individuals ranging from bored teenagers to wild-eyed terrorists. Today the impact of Web 2.0 goes beyond political mobilisation inside countries and digital diplomacy between states. It now includes virtual weaponry that has brought an entirely new form of warfare which is transforming the dynamics of geopolitics. We call this new global reality Geopolitics 2.0, which is –broadly speaking– characterised by three significant shifts: (1) states to individuals; (2) real-world to virtual mobilisation and power; and (3) old media to new media. Forced to react to the impact of these three Geopolitics 2.0 shifts, states are alternatively censoring or deploying Web platforms to achieve their goals and assert their influence –and in some cases, they are doing both–

Rehabilitation of hand in subacute tetraplegic patients based on brain computer interface and functional electrical stimulation: a randomised pilot study

Objective. To compare neurological and functional outcomes between two groups of hospitalised patients with subacute tetraplegia. Approach. Seven patients received 20 sessions of brain computer interface (BCI) controlled functional electrical stimulation (FES) while five patients received the same number of sessions of passive FES for both hands. The neurological assessment measures were event related desynchronization (ERD) during movement attempt, Somatosensory evoked potential (SSEP) of the ulnar and median nerve; assessment of hand function involved the range of motion (ROM) of wrist and manual muscle test. Main results. Patients in both groups initially had intense ERD during movement attempt that was not restricted to the sensory-motor cortex. Following the treatment, ERD cortical activity restored towards the activity in able-bodied people in BCI-FES group only, remaining wide-spread in FES group. Likewise, SSEP returned in 3 patients in BCI-FES group, having no changes in FES group. The ROM of the wrist improved in both groups. Muscle strength significantly improved for both hands in BCI-FES group. For FES group, a significant improvement was noticed for right hand flexor muscles only. Significance. Combined BCI-FES therapy results in better neurological recovery and better improvement of muscle strength than FES alone. For spinal cord injured patients, BCI-FES should be considered as a therapeutic tool rather than solely a long-term assistive device for the restoration of a lost function

Syntheses Employing Acetylenic Precursors

A. Synthesis of Histamine. The allergenic agent histamine (4-2'-aminoethylglyoxaline) was prepared from but-2-yne-1:4-diol by a six-stage synthesis in high overall yield (41%) B. Structure of Carpaine. A key degradation product of the alkaloid carpaine had been previously formulated as 9-hydroxy-9-methltridecoic acid. This acid was synthesised by an unequivocal route and was found to possess physical and chemical properties radically different from those of the degradation product. This evidence confirms recent work that the structure of carpaine has been erroneously formulated. C. Synthetic Studies of Baikiain. (1:2:3:6-Tetrahydorpyridene-2-carboxylic acid. The amino acids 1:5-diamino-1-carboxypent-3(cis)-ene and 1-amino-1-carboxypent-3(cis)-en-5-ol were synthesised from but-2-yne-1:4-diol. It was expected that these amino acids would undergo ready ring closure, to produce baikiain, by elimination of ammonia and water respectively. All attempts at ring closure on the two amino acids, however, gave unchanged starting material or caused decomposition. D. Synthesis of 2-Deoxy-D,L-ribose. Starting from the commercially available but-2-yne-1:4-diol synthetic routes to this important sugar were extensively investigated. The best route was found to be via pentane-3:4:5-triol, hydorlyses of which with mild alkali gave syrupy 2-deoxy-D,L-ribose

Central neuropathic pain in paraplegia alters movement related potentials

Objectives: Spinal Cord Injured (SCI) persons with and without Central Neuropathic Pain (CNP) show different oscillatory brain activities during imagination of movement. This study investigates whether they also show differences in movement related cortical potentials (MRCP). Methods: SCI paraplegic patients with no CNP (n = 8), with CNP in their lower limbs (n = 8), and healthy control subjects (n = 10) took part in the study. EEG clustering involved independent component analysis, equivalent current dipole fitting, and Measure Projection to define cortical domains that have functional modularity during the motor imagery task. Results: Three domains were identified: limbic system, sensory-motor cortex and visual cortex. The MRCP difference between the groups of SCI with and without CNP was reflected in a domain located in the limbic system, while the difference between SCI patients and control subjects was in the sensorimotor domain. Differences in MRCP morphology between patients and healthy controls were visible for both paralysed and non paralysed limbs. Conclusion: SCI but not CNP affects the movement preparation, and both SCI and CNP affect sensory processes. Significance: Rehabilitation strategies of SCI patients based on MRCP should take into account the presence of CNP

Reversed cortical over-activity during movement imagination following neurofeedback treatment for central neuropathic pain

Objective: One of the brain signatures of the central neuropathic pain (CNP) is the theta band over-activity of wider cortical structures, during imagination of movement. The objective of the study was to investigate whether this over-activity is reversible following the neurofeedback treatment of CNP. Methods: Five paraplegic patients with pain in their legs underwent from twenty to forty neurofeedback sessions that significantly reduced their pain. In order to assess their dynamic cortical activity they were asked to imagine movements of all limbs a week before the first and a week after the last neurofeedback session. Using time–frequency analysis we compared EEG activity during imagination of movement before and after the therapy and further compared it with EEG signals of ten paraplegic patients with no pain and a control group of ten able-bodied people. Results: Neurofeedback treatment resulted in reduced CNP and a wide spread reduction of cortical activity during imagination of movement. The reduction was significant in the alpha and beta band but was largest in the theta band. As a result cortical activity became similar to the activity of other two groups with no pain. Conclusions: Reduction of CNP is accompanied by reduced cortical over-activity during movement imagination. Significance: Understanding causes and consequences mechanism through which CNP affects cortical activity

Jet Charge and Machine Learning

Modern machine learning techniques, such as convolutional, recurrent and recursive neural networks, have shown promise for jet substructure at the Large Hadron Collider. For example, they have demonstrated effectiveness at boosted top or W boson identification or for quark/gluon discrimination. We explore these methods for the purpose of classifying jets according to their electric charge. We find that both neural networks that incorporate distance within the jet as an input and boosted decision trees including radial distance information can provide significant improvement in jet charge extraction over current methods. Specifically, convolutional, recurrent, and recursive networks can provide the largest improvement over traditional methods, in part by effectively utilizing distance within the jet or clustering history. The advantages of using a fixed-size input representation (as with the CNN) or a small input representation (as with the RNN) suggest that both convolutional and recurrent networks will be essential to the future of modern machine learning at colliders.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figures, 1 table; Updated to JHEP versio

Photometry of Irregular Satellites of Uranus and Neptune

We present BVR photometric colors of six Uranian and two Neptunian irregular satellites, collected using the Magellan Observatory (Las Campanas, Chile) and the Keck Observatory, (Manua Kea, Hawaii). The colors range from neutral to light red, and like the Jovian and the Saturnian irregulars (Grav et al. 2003) there is an apparent lack of the extremely red objects found among the Centaurs and Kuiper belt objects. The Uranian irregulars can be divided into three possible dynamical families, but the colors collected show that two of these dynamical families, the Caliban and Sycorax-clusters, have heterogeneous colors. Of the third possible family, the 168-degree cluster containing two objects with similar average inclinations but quite different average semi-major axis, only one object (U XXI Trinculo) was observed. The heterogeneous colors and the large dispersion of the average orbital elements leads us to doubt that they are collisional families. We favor single captures as a more likely scenario. The two neptunians observed (N II Nereid and S/2002 N1) both have very similar neutral, sun-like colors. Together with the high collisional probability between these two objects over the age of the solar system (Nesvorny et al. 2003, Holman et al. 2004), this suggests that S/2002 N1 be a fragment of Nereid, broken loose during a collision or cratering event with an undetermined impactor.Comment: 13 pages (including 3 figures and 2 tables). Submitted to ApJ Letter