Internet e-ethics in confrontation with an activists' agenda: Yahoo! on trial

A prolonged confrontation between Yahoo! Inc. and French anti-racism activists who ask for the removal of Nazi items from auction sites as well as restricted access to neo-Nazis sites is analyzed. We present the case and its development up to the decision of Yahoo! Inc. to remove the items from yahoo.com following a French court’s verdict against the firm. Using a business ethics approach, we distinguish the legal, technical, philosophical and managerial issues involved in the case and their management by Yahoo! We conclude on the difficulty of governing relations with society from corporate and legal affairs departments at the headquarters level, and on the clash of two visions over the regulation of social freedom.E-business, e-ethics, auctions, legal compliance, internet regulation, freedom of expression, media crisis

Gas micro-well track imaging detectors for gamma-ray astronomy

We describe our program to develop gas micro-well detectors (MWDs) as three-dimensional charged particle trackers for use in advanced gamma-ray telescope concepts. A micro-well detector consists of an array of individual micro-patterned gas proportional counters opposite a planar drift electrode. The well anodes and cathodes may be connected in X and Y strips, respectively, to provide two-dimensional imaging. When combined with transient digitizer electronics, which record the time signature of the charge collected in the wells of each strip, full three-dimensional reconstruction of charged-particle tracks in large gas volumes is possible. Such detectors hold great promise for advanced Compton telescope (ACT) and advanced pair telescope (APT) concepts due to the very precise measurement of charged particle momenta that is possible (Compton recoil electrons and electron-positron pairs, respectively). We present preliminary lab results, including detector fabrication, prototype electronics, and initial detector testing. We also discuss applications to the ACT and APT mission concepts, based on GEANT3 and GEANT4 simulations

A statnet Tutorial

The statnet suite of R packages contains a wide range of functionality for the statistical analysis of social networks, including the implementation of exponential-family random graph (ERG) models. In this paper we illustrate some of the functionality of statnet through a tutorial analysis of a friendship network of 1,461 adolescents.

ergm: A Package to Fit, Simulate and Diagnose Exponential-Family Models for Networks

We describe some of the capabilities of the ergm package and the statistical theory underlying it. This package contains tools for accomplishing three important, and inter-related, tasks involving exponential-family random graph models (ERGMs): estimation, simulation, and goodness of fit. More precisely, ergm has the capability of approximating a maximum likelihood estimator for an ERGM given a network data set; simulating new network data sets from a fitted ERGM using Markov chain Monte Carlo; and assessing how well a fitted ERGM does at capturing characteristics of a particular network data set.

Digital imaging techniques in otolith data capture, analysis and interpretation

Otoliths or ear-stones are hard, calcium carbonate structures located within the inner ear of bony fishes. Counts of rings and measurements of seasonal growth increments from otoliths are important metrics for assessment and management of fish stocks, and the preparation and microscopic analysis of otoliths forms an essential part of the routine work undertaken by fisheries scientists worldwide. Otolith analysis is a skilled task requiring accuracy and precision, but it is laborious, time-consuming to perform, and represents a significant cost to fisheries management. In the last 2 decades, several attempts to apply ‘computer vision’ (systems that perform high-level tasks and exhibit intelligent behaviour) in otolith analysis have been reported. Although considerable progress has been made and several prototype systems developed, laboratories have been reluctant to adopt image-based computer-assisted age and growth estimation (CAAGE) systems. This paper surveys applications of CAAGE, focusing on their utility for automated ageing using images of otolith macrostructure. A cost-benefit analysis of CAAGE of cod, plaice and anchovy shows that computer vision performs relatively poorly compared with morphometric techniques. However, there is evidence that information from visual features can boost the performance of morphometric CAAGE, and further work is needed to develop effective frameworks for this integrated approach. The cost benefit of these systems might be attractive to smaller laboratories that are already using age-length keys derived from otolith morphometrics for management of smaller artisanal fisheries