Opting Out: Procedural Fair Use

This article explores the advantages of opt-out plans, and identifies a critical shortcoming in Copyright’s doctrine of Fair Use. The discussion is fueled by a current controversy: In December of 2004, Google, Inc. announced its plan to digitally scan thousands of copyrighted books as part of a massive new digital indexing service. Hedging against possible litigation, Google provided a free and easy opt-out procedure for authors who didn’t want their books scanned. Despite this measure, two major authors’ groups have sued Google, claiming the opt-out plan imposes an unfair burden. This article explores the fairness of established opt-outs in contract law, privacy law, and class action rules. Further, the discussion explores how Copyright already places similar burdens upon authors. Ultimately, these lessons are applied to the Google Book Search problem, and an important new Fair Use consideration is identified

Did Neoliberalizing West African Forests Produce a New Niche for Ebola?

A recent study introduced a vaccine that controls Ebola Makona, the Zaire ebolavirus variant that has infected 28,000 people in West Africa. We propose that even such successful advances are insufficient for many emergent diseases. We review work hypothesizing that Makona, phenotypically similar to much smaller outbreaks, emerged out of shifts in land use brought about by neoliberal economics. The epidemiological consequences demand a new science that explicitly addresses the foundational processes underlying multispecies health, including the deep-time histories, cultural infrastructure, and global economic geographies driving disease emergence. The approach, for instance, reverses the standard public health practice of segregating emergency responses and the structural context from which outbreaks originate. In Ebola's case, regional neoliberalism may affix the stochastic "friction" of ecological relationships imposed by the forest across populations, which, when above a threshold, keeps the virus from lining up transmission above replacement. Export-led logging, mining, and intensive agriculture may depress such functional noise, permitting novel spillovers larger forces of infection. Mature outbreaks, meanwhile, can continue to circulate even in the face of efficient vaccines. More research on these integral explanations is required, but the narrow albeit welcome success of the vaccine may be used to limit support of such a program.SCOPUS: re.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

La regolamentazione dello short selling: effetti sul mercato azionario italiano (Short selling ban: effects on the Italian stock market)

On September 2008, Consob banned the short-selling of financial stocks in the Italian equity market. We analyse the effect of these bans on liquidity, returns, volatility and market efficiency comparing a sample of 23 financial stocks with a control group. The analysis shows a reduction in liquidity for the banned stocks and no significant differences in returns, volatility and market efficiency between the two groups, testifying the inability of restrictions to achieve the purpose for which they were introduced

Physics and application of photon number resolving detectors based on superconducting parallel nanowires

The Parallel Nanowire Detector (PND) is a photon number resolving (PNR) detector which uses spatial multiplexing on a subwavelength scale to provide a single electrical output proportional to the photon number. The basic structure of the PND is the parallel connection of several NbN superconducting nanowires (100 nm-wide, few nm-thick), folded in a meander pattern. PNDs were fabricated on 3-4 nm thick NbN films grown on MgO (TS=400C) substrates by reactive magnetron sputtering in an Ar/N2 gas mixture. The device performance was characterized in terms of speed and sensitivity. PNDs showed a counting rate of 80 MHz and a pulse duration as low as 660ps full width at half maximum (FWHM). Building the histograms of the photoresponse peak, no multiplication noise buildup is observable. Electrical and optical equivalent models of the device were developed in order to study its working principle, define design guidelines, and develop an algorithm to estimate the photon number statistics of an unknown light. In particular, the modeling provides novel insight of the physical limit to the detection efficiency and to the reset time of these detectors. The PND significantly outperforms existing PNR detectors in terms of simplicity, sensitivity, speed, and multiplication noise

Homm-sw Networks-of-stories to value tangible and intangible heritage in museums

Social inclusion, lifelong learning and the regeneration of competence networks are key processes which foster innovation. Museums may play an important role in these processes and ICT can strongly support the effectiveness of the interventions required. Among them, digital tools used to tell stories are becoming increasingly popular. Narratives in new dimensions enable the formation of personal and community identities, and the construction of meanings [1] [2 ]. Hommsw supports multimedia narratives which enhance tangible and intangible heritage in education and cultural mediation, as well as in tourism. Developed by Officina Emilia (Italy) and Crafts Museum (India), the application is online at www.homm-museums-software.org. So far, it implements the engine for creating and managing the activity ‘networks-of-stories’, to create a nonlinear and open multimedia narration. [3],[4] In the last decade, digital storytelling has spread rapidly due to the growth and possibilities offered by new ICT devices [5] [6]. Together with crowd sourcing it can enrich the understanding of tangible and intangible heritage. Digital storytelling still faces some critical challenges: creation of content on tangible and intangible heritage, classification and re-use of existing documents and clips, cooperative and coordinated production of new content. Moreover, for effective exploratory paths and a more analytical approach to browsing material, contents must be set in the overall perspective of the narrations, to ensure narration is coherent. Finally, validation and dissemination of related outcomes must respect scientific standards. Homm-sw has tools that: support educators, also in contrasting learning difficulties, in developing inclusive and collaborative educational practices; support curators; facilitate crowd sourcing; create a personal web repository of contents and connections; share contents to be published, if approved by the administrator; create a network of contents and applications, at different levels for different users and specific needs. Homm-sw extends the museum experience. Before the visit: users can have a general look at museum contents and note, in their online personal desktop, what they are interested in. During the visit: users can retrieve their notes and add what is available on the museum’s exhibits and augmented reality, hands-on activities and multimedia contents, living laboratories, demonstration programs. Homm-sw in the onsite-mode allows only notes and memos, to fully enjoy what the museum uniquely offers. After the visit: users access their online workspace to retrieve and explore their notes, and any other content, as much as they wish. Beyond those common to other ICT tools in use in museums, Homm-sw has two key innovative functions. First, recording and retrieval of users' activities: during the visit in a museum, the visitor accessing her account may browse and take notes in her personal workspace and then retrieve and explore them, and many more, as much as she likes after the visit. Second, narratives presented through a set of related clips (videos, albums, texts) are easily seen in the conceptual map proposed by the curators. Homm-sw can be shared with non-profit organizations which intend to develop new features and share the upgrade with previous users and with new users, on the same conditions. Other engines will be implemented according to the demands of users, together with multi-channel and multilingual extension. As a tool for digital storytelling, integration with other software applications is welcome

High performance NbN nanowire superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on MgO substrates

We demonstrate high-performance nanowire superconducting single photon detectors (SSPDs) on ultrathin NbN films grown at a temperature compatible with monolithic integration. NbN films ranging from 150nm to 3nm in thickness were deposited by dc magnetron sputtering on MgO substrates at 400C. The superconducting properties of NbN films were optimized studying the effects of deposition parameters on film properties. SSPDs were fabricated on high quality NbN films of different thickness (7 to 3nm) deposited under optimal conditions. Electrical and optical characterizations were performed on the SSPDs. The highest QE value measured at 4.2K is 20% at 1300nm

Aspirin Use in Patients Undergoing Preoperative Evaluation for Minor Surgery

We found that 505 patients were treated with aspirin (16.8%), 312 men (61.8%) and 193 women (38.2%) (P < .05). In the group of patients treated with aspirin we found that 379 subjects—254 men (67%) and 125 women (33%)—were treated with aspirin according to guidelines for prevention of cardiovascular disease. In addition, 32 patients (all men) were treated with aspirin outside of guideline indications. Seven hundred ninety-eight patients (26.6%) that needed aspirin or antiplatelet therapy due to their cardiovascular risk were not treated, despite having no contraindication or allergy, and 126 patients discontinued aspirin despite appropriate indication

Anthocyanins: a comprehensive review of their chemical properties and health effects on cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases

Anthocyanins are a class of water-soluble flavonoids widely present in fruits and vegetables. Dietary sources of anthocyanins include red and purple berries, grapes, apples, plums, cabbage, or foods containing high levels of natural colorants. Cyanidin, delphinidin, malvidin, peonidin, petunidin, and pelargonidin are the six common anthocyanidins. Following consumption, anthocyanin, absorption occurs along the gastrointestinal tract, the distal lower bowel being the place where most of the absorption and metabolism occurs. In the intestine, anthocyanins first undergo extensive microbial catabolism followed by absorption and human phase II metabolism. This produces hybrid microbial–human metabolites which are absorbed and subsequently increase the bioavailability of anthocyanins. Health benefits of anthocyanins have been widely described, especially in the prevention of diseases associated with oxidative stress, such as cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, recent evidence suggests that health-promoting effects attributed to anthocyanins may also be related to modulation of gut microbiota. In this paper we attempt to provide a comprehensive view of the state-of-the-art literature on anthocyanins, summarizing recent findings on their chemistry, biosynthesis, nutritional value and on their effects on human health