Trace metals in common marine foods of the Pacific Coast

Trace metal analysis of 23 species of common Pacific Coast marine foods revealed high cadmium values for Bent-nosed clams (Macoma nasuta), Bay mussels (Mytilus edulis), Bay oysters (Osrtrea lurida), Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas), and Littleneck clams (Protothaca staminea). Metals were found to concentrate in the gills, heart, and visceral mass of all 10 species of bivalve mollusks examined. Swordfish (Xiphias gladius) and Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) demonstrated the highest cadmium values for fish flesh

Fair and Unbiased Algorithmic Decision Making: Current State and Future Challenges

Machine learning algorithms are now frequently used in sensitive contexts that substantially affect the course of human lives, such as credit lending or criminal justice. This is driven by the idea that `objective' machines base their decisions solely on facts and remain unaffected by human cognitive biases, discriminatory tendencies or emotions. Yet, there is overwhelming evidence showing that algorithms can inherit or even perpetuate human biases in their decision making when they are based on data that contains biased human decisions. This has led to a call for fairness-aware machine learning. However, fairness is a complex concept which is also reflected in the attempts to formalize fairness for algorithmic decision making. Statistical formalizations of fairness lead to a long list of criteria that are each flawed (or harmful even) in different contexts. Moreover, inherent tradeoffs in these criteria make it impossible to unify them in one general framework. Thus, fairness constraints in algorithms have to be specific to the domains to which the algorithms are applied. In the future, research in algorithmic decision making systems should be aware of data and developer biases and add a focus on transparency to facilitate regular fairness audits.Comment: Background paper to the European Commission's flagship report: "Artificial Intelligence: A European Perspective", https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/artificial-intelligence-european-perspective 25 pages, including cover, figures and reference

Fractal geometry of spin-glass models

Stability and diversity are two key properties that living entities share with spin glasses, where they are manifested through the breaking of the phase space into many valleys or local minima connected by saddle points. The topology of the phase space can be conveniently condensed into a tree structure, akin to the biological phylogenetic trees, whose tips are the local minima and internal nodes are the lowest-energy saddles connecting those minima. For the infinite-range Ising spin glass with p-spin interactions, we show that the average size-frequency distribution of saddles obeys a power law $<\psi(w) > \sim w^{-D}$, where w=w(s) is the number of minima that can be connected through saddle s, and D is the fractal dimension of the phase space

Die Flexibilisierung des Rentenübergangs in Deutschland

Eine Flexibilisierung des Rentenübergangs kann unter Umständen zu einer höheren Beschäftigung und zu weiteren Vorteilen sowohl auf individueller als auch auf Firmenebene führen. Bei der Gestaltung eines graduellen Rentenübergangs für Personen unterhalb der Regelaltersgrenze ist vor allem die Subventionsstruktur entscheidend, da hier negative Beschäftigungseffekte entstehen, wenn Anreize für eine Transition von Vollzeit- zu Teilzeitarbeit geschaffen werden. Für Personen, die noch über die Regelaltersgrenze hinaus weiterarbeiten möchten, ist vor allem die Gestaltung der Sozialabgaben kritisch, da in Deutschland den Arbeitgeberbeiträgen zur Rentenversicherung für Beschäftigte, die bereits eine Rente beziehen, keine zusätzlichen Rentenansprüche gegenüber stehen. Ein Wegfall dieser Ausgaben schafft jedoch Anreize für Arbeitgeber, bevorzugt Altersrentner an Stelle jüngerer Arbeitnehmer zu beschäftigen, um Personalkosten zu sparen. Aus der Erfahrung mit bereits bestehenden Teilentenoptionen und dem Vergleich mit Teilrentenprogrammen anderer Länder lassen sich Richtlinien für eine Neugestaltung des flexiblen Rentenübergangs ableiten

Identité et statut minoritaire dans les traditions légales: Deux exemples (XIIe-XIIIe siècles)

From one end of the Mediterranean to the other, in the Middle Ages, there are religious minorities: Jews and Christians in Muslim countries and significant Jewish communities in Byzantium and Latin Europe, as well as in some Muslim Christian kingdoms. While numerous studies have examined the place of minorities within these societies, this article discusses two examples of a less studied subject: how legal authorities for these minority communities see their social inferiority. Our first example focuses on the perspective of a Muslim mufti on residence of Muslims in Norman Sicily. The second example comes from Pope Gregory IX and his confessor, the canonist Raymond Penyafort, who rule on legal issues posed by Christians living in Tunis in the thirteenth century.D'un bout de la Méditerranée à l'autre, au moyen âge, on trouve des communautés religieuses minoritaires : juifs et chrétiens en pays musulmans et d'importantes communautés juives en Byzance et dans l'Europe latine, ainsi que des musulmans dans certains royaumes chrétiens. Si de nombreuses études ont examiné la place que l'on réservait, dans ces sociétés, aux minoritaires, cet article examine deux exemples d'un aspect bien moins étudié du sujet: comment les juristes des communautés minoritaires voient leur infériorité sociale. Notre premier exemple porte sur le point de vue d'un mufti musulman sur la légalité du séjour des musulmans en Sicile normande. Le deuxième, la vision du pape Grégoire IX et de son confesseur, le canoniste Raymond de Penyafort, sur des problèmes légaux posés par le séjour de chrétiens à Tunis au XIIIe siècle

Los judíos del Rey: conflicto y coexistencia en la Inglaterra de Enrique III (1216-1272)

En un volumen consagrado al tema de los grupos identitarios y las dinámicas de la delimitación de las distintas comunidades, resulta imprescindible dedicar un capítulo a los judíos de Inglaterra. ¿Por qué interesarse en los judíos de Inglaterra? De una parte sobre ellos existe un gran volumen de documentación, haciendo de ellos una de las comunidades mejor documentadas de Europa. También resulta sobresaliente la estrecha relación de la comunidad judía con el poder real. Desde su llegada poco después de 1066 en el periodo de Guillermo el Conquistador, hasta su expulsión por Eduardo I en 1290, los judíos estuvieron asociados al rey, para lo mejor y para lo peor. A pesar de la estrecha relación existente entre los judíos y el rey no solo en Inglaterra, sino en Francia y en los Reinos Ibéricos se debe señalar que el poder real estuvo todo el tiempo en concurrencia con otros poderes - concretamente con sus grandes vasallos- por el control de la comunidad judía y los ingresos que esta producía

Descriptions of larval, prejuvenile, and juvenile finescale menhaden (Brevoortia gunteri) (family Clupeidae), and comparisons to gulf menhaden (B. patronus)

Larval and juvenile development of finescale menhaden (Brevoortia gunteri) is described for the first time by using wild-caught individuals from Nueces Bay, Texas, and is compared with larval and juvenile development of co-occurring gulf menhaden (B. patronus). Meristics, morphometrics, and pigmentation patterns were examined as development proceeded. An illustrated series of finescale menhaden is presented to show changes that occurred during development. For finescale menhaden, transformation to the juvenile stage was completed by 17−19 mm standard length (SL). By contrast, transformation to the juvenile stage for gulf menhaden was not complete until 23−25 mm SL. Characteristics useful for separating larval and juvenile finescale menhaden from gulf menhaden included 1) the presence or absence of pigment at the base of the insertion of the pelvic fins; 2) the standard length at which medial predorsal pigment occurs; 3) differences in the number of dorsal fin ray elements; and, 4) the number of vertebrae