The DoD Law of War Manual and its Critics: Some Observations

The U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) new Law of War Manual has generated serious debate about its treatment of a variety of issues including human shields, the status of journalists, cyber operations, the precautions to be taken prior to attacks and even the role of honor in war. Although this article does not purport to be a comprehensive response to every critique of the Manual and, indeed, cites opportunities for its improvement, it nevertheless concludes that on balance the Manual provides an excellent, comprehensive and much-needed statement of DoD’s view of the lex lata of the law of war

Behavioural and neuroanatomical correlates of auditory speech analysis in primary progressive aphasias

Background Non-verbal auditory impairment is increasingly recognised in the primary progressive aphasias (PPAs) but its relationship to speech processing and brain substrates has not been defined. Here we addressed these issues in patients representing the non-fluent variant (nfvPPA) and semantic variant (svPPA) syndromes of PPA. Methods We studied 19 patients with PPA in relation to 19 healthy older individuals. We manipulated three key auditory parameters—temporal regularity, phonemic spectral structure and prosodic predictability (an index of fundamental information content, or entropy)—in sequences of spoken syllables. The ability of participants to process these parameters was assessed using two-alternative, forced-choice tasks and neuroanatomical associations of task performance were assessed using voxel-based morphometry of patients’ brain magnetic resonance images. Results Relative to healthy controls, both the nfvPPA and svPPA groups had impaired processing of phonemic spectral structure and signal predictability while the nfvPPA group additionally had impaired processing of temporal regularity in speech signals. Task performance correlated with standard disease severity and neurolinguistic measures. Across the patient cohort, performance on the temporal regularity task was associated with grey matter in the left supplementary motor area and right caudate, performance on the phoneme processing task was associated with grey matter in the left supramarginal gyrus, and performance on the prosodic predictability task was associated with grey matter in the right putamen. Conclusions Our findings suggest that PPA syndromes may be underpinned by more generic deficits of auditory signal analysis, with a distributed cortico-subcortical neuraoanatomical substrate extending beyond the canonical language network. This has implications for syndrome classification and biomarker development

Effects of hospital facilities on patient outcomes after cancer surgery: an international, prospective, observational study

Background Early death after cancer surgery is higher in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared with in high-income countries, yet the impact of facility characteristics on early postoperative outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to examine the association between hospital infrastructure, resource availability, and processes on early outcomes after cancer surgery worldwide.Methods A multimethods analysis was performed as part of the GlobalSurg 3 study-a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study of patients who had surgery for breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer. The primary outcomes were 30-day mortality and 30-day major complication rates. Potentially beneficial hospital facilities were identified by variable selection to select those associated with 30-day mortality. Adjusted outcomes were determined using generalised estimating equations to account for patient characteristics and country-income group, with population stratification by hospital.Findings Between April 1, 2018, and April 23, 2019, facility-level data were collected for 9685 patients across 238 hospitals in 66 countries (91 hospitals in 20 high-income countries; 57 hospitals in 19 upper-middle-income countries; and 90 hospitals in 27 low-income to lower-middle-income countries). The availability of five hospital facilities was inversely associated with mortality: ultrasound, CT scanner, critical care unit, opioid analgesia, and oncologist. After adjustment for case-mix and country income group, hospitals with three or fewer of these facilities (62 hospitals, 1294 patients) had higher mortality compared with those with four or five (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 3.85 [95% CI 2.58-5.75]; p<0.0001), with excess mortality predominantly explained by a limited capacity to rescue following the development of major complications (63.0% vs 82.7%; OR 0.35 [0.23-0.53]; p<0.0001). Across LMICs, improvements in hospital facilities would prevent one to three deaths for every 100 patients undergoing surgery for cancer.Interpretation Hospitals with higher levels of infrastructure and resources have better outcomes after cancer surgery, independent of country income. Without urgent strengthening of hospital infrastructure and resources, the reductions in cancer-associated mortality associated with improved access will not be realised

Functional neuroanatomy of speech signal decoding in primary progressive aphasias

This work was supported by the Alzheimer’s Society (AS-PG-16-007), the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre (CBRC 161), the UCL Leonard Wolfson Experimental Neurology Centre (PR/ ylr/18575), and the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/ K006711/1). Individual authors were supported by the Medical Research Council (PhD Studentship to CJDH; MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship to JDR), the Wolfson Foundation (Clinical Research Fellowship to CRM), the National Brain AppealeFrontotemporal Dementia Research Fund (CNC), Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARTSRF2010-3 to SJC), and the Wellcome Trust (091673/Z/10/Z to JDW)

Temperaturmätning på en linjär testrigg gjord för nötning av plastkomponenter

För att verifiera att komponenter håller under en förväntad livslängd kan en Accelererad Livstids Testning (ALT) användas. En av huvudaspekterna som kan förstöra ett ALT-test av plastkomponenter är om kontakttemperaturen överstiger glasövergångstemperaturen. Detta eftersom det förändrar testkomponentens materialegenskaper. För att förhindra att detta inträffar i en ALT byggdes en testrigg medtemperatursensorer för att övervaka kontakttemperaturen. Om kontaktpunkten modifieras med en temperatursensor förändrar det uppbyggnaden av ytan och gör testet ogiltigt. Metoden som används är istället att mäta temperaturen på ytan på testdelen och simulera kontakttemperaturen med en modell baserad på den Finita Elementmetoden. Denna avhandling jämför de två teknikerna Tunn Film RTD och Tunn Termoelement Tråd Typ T i samband med uppbyggnaden av en värmeöverföring FEM-modell. Det undersöktes också vilken teknologi av IR-enpunkts sensor och Tunn Film RTD som har högst prestanda med avseende på fyra kvalitetsparametrar under användning tillsammans med testriggen. Slutsatserna är att Tunn Film RTD och Tunn Termoelement Tråd av Typ T sensorerna båda ger en liknande precision i mätningar för att bygga en användbar FEM-modell. När de används på testriggen presterar Film RTD:n är bättre än IR-sensorn i tre av fyra områden med avseende på de fyra definierade kvalitetsparametrarna. Tunn Film RTD är den rekommenderade teknologin för denna typ av mätning.To verify that components last for an expected lifetime an Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) can be used. One of the main aspects that can ruin an ALT of plastic components is if the contact temperature rises above the glass transition temperature, since this changes the material properties of the tested component. To prevent this from occurring in a ALT, a test rig was built with temperature sensors to monitor this contact temperature. If the contact point is modified with a temperature sensor, this will change the surface and make the test invalid. The method is instead to couple surface temperature measurements with a Finite Element Model (FEM) to estimate the contact temperature. This thesis compares the two techniques Thin Film RTD and Thin Thermocouple Wire Type T in conjunction with the building of a heat transfer Finite Element Method (FEM)-model. It also investigates which technology of Non Contact IR Single Point sensor or Thin Film RTD have the highest performance in use with the test rig with regard to four quality parameters. The conclusions are that RTD and the Thermocouple Type T sensors both provide equal precision in measurement to build a useful FEM model. In application on the test rig, the Thin Film RTD is better than the Infrared (IR)-sensor in three out of four areas when compared in the four defined quality parameters. Thin Film RTD is the recommended technology in this application

Ergonomic fingerings for guitar chordsequences

An algorithm has been developed which generates fingeringsfor guitar chord sequences using a cost minimizing function.The performance of the algorithm was evaluated by two professional guitarists and the results indicate that the approach gives viable solutions. With a few minor improvements the algorithm can be a good way to calculate sets of guitar chord fingerings that suit specific needs concerning playability and ergonomic constraints.En algoritm har utvecklats som genererar fingersättningar för ackordsekvenser på gitarr med hjälp av en kostnadsminimerande funktion. Utvärderingen av algoritmen gjordes av två professionella gitarrister och resultaten indikerar att denna approach ger dugliga resultat. Efter ett par smärre förbättringar kan algoritmen vara ett bra sätt att beräkna fingersättningar som uppfyller specifika krav på spelbarhet och ergonomiska hänsyn

Temperaturmätning på en linjär testrigg gjord för nötning av plastkomponenter

För att verifiera att komponenter håller under en förväntad livslängd kan en Accelererad Livstids Testning (ALT) användas. En av huvudaspekterna som kan förstöra ett ALT-test av plastkomponenter är om kontakttemperaturen överstiger glasövergångstemperaturen. Detta eftersom det förändrar testkomponentens materialegenskaper. För att förhindra att detta inträffar i en ALT byggdes en testrigg medtemperatursensorer för att övervaka kontakttemperaturen. Om kontaktpunkten modifieras med en temperatursensor förändrar det uppbyggnaden av ytan och gör testet ogiltigt. Metoden som används är istället att mäta temperaturen på ytan på testdelen och simulera kontakttemperaturen med en modell baserad på den Finita Elementmetoden. Denna avhandling jämför de två teknikerna Tunn Film RTD och Tunn Termoelement Tråd Typ T i samband med uppbyggnaden av en värmeöverföring FEM-modell. Det undersöktes också vilken teknologi av IR-enpunkts sensor och Tunn Film RTD som har högst prestanda med avseende på fyra kvalitetsparametrar under användning tillsammans med testriggen. Slutsatserna är att Tunn Film RTD och Tunn Termoelement Tråd av Typ T sensorerna båda ger en liknande precision i mätningar för att bygga en användbar FEM-modell. När de används på testriggen presterar Film RTD:n är bättre än IR-sensorn i tre av fyra områden med avseende på de fyra definierade kvalitetsparametrarna. Tunn Film RTD är den rekommenderade teknologin för denna typ av mätning.To verify that components last for an expected lifetime an Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) can be used. One of the main aspects that can ruin an ALT of plastic components is if the contact temperature rises above the glass transition temperature, since this changes the material properties of the tested component. To prevent this from occurring in a ALT, a test rig was built with temperature sensors to monitor this contact temperature. If the contact point is modified with a temperature sensor, this will change the surface and make the test invalid. The method is instead to couple surface temperature measurements with a Finite Element Model (FEM) to estimate the contact temperature. This thesis compares the two techniques Thin Film RTD and Thin Thermocouple Wire Type T in conjunction with the building of a heat transfer Finite Element Method (FEM)-model. It also investigates which technology of Non Contact IR Single Point sensor or Thin Film RTD have the highest performance in use with the test rig with regard to four quality parameters. The conclusions are that RTD and the Thermocouple Type T sensors both provide equal precision in measurement to build a useful FEM model. In application on the test rig, the Thin Film RTD is better than the Infrared (IR)-sensor in three out of four areas when compared in the four defined quality parameters. Thin Film RTD is the recommended technology in this application

Using Convolutional Neural Networks to Recognize Rhythm Stimuli from Electroencephalography Recordings

Abstract Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings of rhythm perception might contain enough information to distinguish different rhythm types/genres or even identify the rhythms themselves. We apply convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to analyze and classify EEG data recorded within a rhythm perception study in Kigali, Rwanda which comprises 12 East African and 12 Western rhythmic stimuli -each presented in a loop for 32 seconds to 13 participants. We investigate the impact of the data representation and the pre-processing steps for this classification tasks and compare different network structures. Using CNNs, we are able to recognize individual rhythms from the EEG with a mean classification accuracy of 24.4% (chance level 4.17%) over all subjects by looking at less than three seconds from a single channel. Aggregating predictions for multiple channels, a mean accuracy of up to 50% can be achieved for individual subjects