The insider on the outside: a novel system for the detection of information leakers in social networks

Confidential information is all too easily leaked by naive users posting comments. In this paper we introduce DUIL, a system for Detecting Unintentional Information Leakers. The value of DUIL is in its ability to detect those responsible for information leakage that occurs through comments posted on news articles in a public environment, when those articles have withheld material non-public information. DUIL is comprised of several artefacts, each designed to analyse a different aspect of this challenge: the information, the user(s) who posted the information, and the user(s) who may be involved in the dissemination of information. We present a design science analysis of DUIL as an information system artefact comprised of social, information, and technology artefacts. We demonstrate the performance of DUIL on real data crawled from several Facebook news pages spanning two years of news articles

Hospitality in necessitudine : hospices, hostels and hospitals

In the continuing series reflecting on hospitality Mario Conti, Kevin O'Gorman and David McAlpine explore an aspect of hospitality often overlooked - the constantly evolving religious practice of providing hospitality to those in most need. They present an overview of the evolution of hospitality for the needy and consider how throughout history, even when religion is under attack, there has always been recognition of the importance of charitable hospitality: hospitality in necessitudine

Measurements of total scattering spectra from bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis)

Marine sportfishing in southern California is a huge industry with annual revenues totaling many billions of dollars. However, the stocks of lingcod and six rockfish species have been declared overfished by the Pacific Fisheries Management Council. As part of a multifaceted fisheries management plan, marine conservation areas, covering many million square nautical miles, have been mandated. To monitor the recovery of the rockfish stocks in these areas, scientists are faced with the following challenges: 1) multiple species of rockfish exist in these areas; 2) the species reside near or on the bottom at depths of 80 to 300 m; and 3) they are low in numerical density. To meet these challenges, multifrequency echosounders, multibeam sonar, and cameras mounted on remotely operated vehicles are frequently used (Reynolds et al., 2001). The accuracy and precision of these echosounder results are largely dependent upon the accuracy of the species classification and target strength estimation (MacLennan and Simmonds, 1992)

Are routine investigations in acute paediatric admissions justified?

Aim: To assess the appropriateness of investigations and their impact on management of acute paediatric admissions. Method: All investigations performed within the first six hours in all consecutive paediatric admissions (n=138) over a 6 week period, in a teaching general hospital, were recorded retrospectively and the results were analysed for normality/ abnormality and effect on patient management. Results: Out of a total of 480 emergency investigations performed on 89 patients, the complete blood count, electrolytes and chest X-rays were the three investigations most likely to be deranged and influenced management in 5% (n=3), 25% (n=8) and 46% (n=6) of subjects with an abnormal result, respectively. Impact on management was more evident on analysing a subgroup admitted with mild gastroenteritis, in whom serum electrolytes were abnormal in 50% (n=19), and 42% (n=8) of these needed a change in their management. Conclusion: Rationalising the number of investigations in acute paediatric admissions would result in less discomfort to children and in a significant cost benefit.peer-reviewe

Elevated numbers of PD-L1 expressing B cells are associated with the development of AIDS-NHL.

The risk for non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is markedly increased in persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and remains elevated in those on anti-retroviral therapy (cART). Both the loss of immunoregulation of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infected cells, as well as chronic B-cell activation, are believed to contribute to the genesis of AIDS-related NHL (AIDS-NHL). However, the mechanisms that lead to AIDS-NHL have not been completely defined. A subset of B cells that is characterized by the secretion of IL10, as well as the expression of the programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1/CD274), was recently described. These PD-L1+ B cells can exert regulatory function, including the dampening of T-cell activation, by interacting with the program cell death protein (PD1) on target cells. The role of PD-L1+ B cells in the development of AIDS-NHL has not been explored. We assessed B cell PD-L1 expression on B cells preceding AIDS-NHL diagnosis in a nested case-control study of HIV+ subjects who went on to develop AIDS-NHL, as well as HIV+ subjects who did not, using multi-color flow cytometry. Archival frozen viable PBMC were obtained from the UCLA Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study (MACS). It was seen that the number of CD19+CD24++CD38++and CD19+PD-L1+cells was significantly elevated in cases 1-4 years prior to AIDS-NHL diagnosis, compared to controls, raising the possibility that these cells may play a role in the etiology of AIDS-NHL. Interestingly, most PD-L1+ expression on CD19+ cells was seen on CD19+CD24++CD38++ cells. In addition, we showed that HIV can directly induce PD-L1 expression on B cells through interaction of virion-associated CD40L with CD40 on B cells

Transatlantic Issues: Report from Scotland

Several bioethical topics received a great deal of news coverage here in Scotland in 2009. Three important issues with transatlantic connections are the swine flu outbreak, which was handled very differently in Scotland, England, and America; the U.S. debate over healthcare reform, which drew the British National Health Service (NHS) into the controversy; and the release to Libya of the Lockerbie bomber, which at first glance might not seem particularly bioethical, but which actually hinged on the very public discussion of the prisoner’s medical records. On a national level, there have been attempts in both Scotland and England to change the law on assisted suicide, where success looks more likely than ever. This paper discusses each of these issues and hopefully will raise awareness of how these issues were dealt with in the United Kingdom and its component countries

Methodological Issues in Multistage Genome-Wide Association Studies

Because of the high cost of commercial genotyping chip technologies, many investigations have used a two-stage design for genome-wide association studies, using part of the sample for an initial discovery of ``promising'' SNPs at a less stringent significance level and the remainder in a joint analysis of just these SNPs using custom genotyping. Typical cost savings of about 50% are possible with this design to obtain comparable levels of overall type I error and power by using about half the sample for stage I and carrying about 0.1% of SNPs forward to the second stage, the optimal design depending primarily upon the ratio of costs per genotype for stages I and II. However, with the rapidly declining costs of the commercial panels, the generally low observed ORs of current studies, and many studies aiming to test multiple hypotheses and multiple endpoints, many investigators are abandoning the two-stage design in favor of simply genotyping all available subjects using a standard high-density panel. Concern is sometimes raised about the absence of a ``replication'' panel in this approach, as required by some high-profile journals, but it must be appreciated that the two-stage design is not a discovery/replication design but simply a more efficient design for discovery using a joint analysis of the data from both stages. Once a subset of highly-significant associations has been discovered, a truly independent ``exact replication'' study is needed in a similar population of the same promising SNPs using similar methods.Comment: Published in at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/09-STS288 the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org