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EBEX is a NASA-funded balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the polarization of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). Observations will be made using 1432 transition edge sensor (TES) bolometric detectors read out with frequency multiplexed SQuIDs. EBEX will observe in three frequency bands centered at 150, 250, and 410 GHz, with 768, 384, and 280 detectors in each band, respectively. This broad frequency coverage is designed to provide valuable information about polarized foreground signals from dust. The polarized sky signals will be modulated with an achromatic half wave plate (AHWP) rotating on a superconducting magnetic bearing (SMB) and analyzed with a fixed wire grid polarizer. EBEX will observe a patch covering ~1% of the sky with 8' resolution, allowing for observation of the angular power spectrum from \ell = 20 to 1000. This will allow EBEX to search for both the primordial B-mode signal predicted by inflation and the anticipated lensing B-mode signal. Calculations to predict EBEX constraints on r using expected noise levels show that, for a likelihood centered around zero and with negligible foregrounds, 99% of the area falls below r = 0.035. This value increases by a factor of 1.6 after a process of foreground subtraction. This estimate does not include systematic uncertainties. An engineering flight was launched in June, 2009, from Ft. Sumner, NM, and the long duration science flight in Antarctica is planned for 2011. These proceedings describe the EBEX instrument and the North American engineering flight. 12 pages, 9 figures, Conference proceedings for SPIE Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy V (2010)

Abstract included in text.

Peer reviewed

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. This article performs a study on correlation between pairs of variables in dependence on the problem dimensionality. Two tests, based on Pearson and Spearman coefficients, have been designed and used in this work. In total, $86$ test problems ranging between 10 and 1000 variables have been studied. If the most commonly used experimental conditions are used, the correlation between pairs of variables appears, from the perspective of the search algorithm, to consistently decrease. This effect is not due to the fact that the dimensionality modifies the nature of the problem but is a consequence of the experimental conditions: the computational feasibility of the experiments imposes an extremely shallow search in case of high dimensions. An exponential increase of budget and population with the dimensionality is still practically impossible. Nonetheless, since real-world application may require that large scale problems are tackled despite of the limited budget, an algorithm can quickly improve upon initial guesses if it integrates the knowledge that an apparent weak correlation between pairs of variables occurs, regardless the nature of the problem.

Milk’s fluidity and ostensible purity belie a complex array of industrial and regulatory processes, and a thick web of social and cultural associations, and provokes a language for emotion and thinking.From the milk of human breasts to industrialized cow’s milk, milk combines with social operations and is invented anew, malleable under the pressures of law, fashion, science and economy. Fantasies of milk’s powers recur, from the medieval lactating Virgin Mary to the contemporary promise of raised I.Q. through formula or enhanced milk. On account of its opaque properties and evocative associations, milk enjoys a particular relationship to photographic representation. This relationship is extended through CGI imaging, which finds novel ways to represent the drama inherent in milk, a play off between self-forming agency and capture of a supply for siphoning into profitable ends. Milk acts as a spectrometer that can reveal to us the defining characteristics of an epoch.

We present a survey of toolkits employed in research workshop approaches within TIPS (Trust, Identity, Privacy and Security) domains. Our survey was developed within wider design research to develop digital service prototypes that support people in evaluating whether to trust that an online actor’s identity is not recently faked, and that a service they are registering personal information with is legitimate; and a subsequent project involving a tool that invites people to reflect on the cumulative risks of sharing apparently harmless personal information online. The radically multidisciplinary nature of both these TIPS projects has determined that we create a research space to promote exchange to, as design researchers, better understand the ‘opaque’ immediate and longer term implications of our proposed services and invite cross-disciplinary discussion towards interdisciplinary understandings. This paper is intended as an at-a-glance resource for researchers from a range of disciplinary backgrounds working on TIPS research to inform on various different material engagements, with research stakeholders, through creative workshop approaches. Our survey focused on the literature from Design (especially Participatory Design or PD, and Codesign), Human Computer Interaction (HCI) and cyber related security research. It comprises 30 papers or toolkit examples organised across: review papers; example toolkits; case studies reporting relevant toolkit use; applied toolkits for learning/knowledge exchange; research toolkits focused on demonstrating a methodological-conceptual approach (some problematising emergent or near-future technologies); and two papers that straddled the latter two categories, focusing on future practical application. We begin with an overview of our rationale and method before presenting each group of texts in a table alongside a summary discussion. We go on to discuss the various material components, affordances and terminology of the toolkits along with core concerns often left out of the reporting of research; before going on to recognise toolkits not so much as things that diagnose and fix things, but as a loose collection of readily available material and wider resources, used in particular participatory approaches, which together help account for techno-relational differences and contingencies in TIPS-related fields.

The International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3) was formed by the International Federation for Information processing (IFIP) in 2007 to fulfill the objective of creating a global ICT profession. This start of this programme were first presented at WCC 2008 in Milan and since then major advances have taken place – both in the collective understanding of the endeavour and also measured by actual achievements. This paper will contextualise the progress of IP3 by examining: why an ICT profession is needed and why it should be on a global basis; and the progress made by IP3 in establishing a global ICT profession.

Background Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is an inherited disorder that can cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). People who smoke are more seriously affected and have a greater risk of dying from the disease. Therefore, the primary treatment is to help people give up smoking. There are now also preparations available that contain alpha-1 antitrypsin, but it is uncertain what their clinical effect is. Objectives To review the benefits and harms of augmentation therapy with intravenous alpha-1 antitrypsin in patients with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and lung disease. Search methods We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov to 25 March 2016. Selection criteria We included randomised trials of augmentation therapy with alpha-1 antitrypsin compared with placebo or no treatment. Data collection and analysis The two review authors independently selected trials, extracted outcome data and assessed the risk of bias. Main results We included three trials (283 participants in the analyses) that ran for two to three years. All participants were ex- or never-smokers and had genetic variants that carried a high risk of developing COPD. Only one trial reported mortality data (one person of 93 died in the treatment group and three of 87 died in the placebo group). There was no information on harms in the oldest trial. Another trial reported serious adverse events in 10 participants in the treatment group and 18 participants in the placebo group. In the most recent trial, serious adverse events occurred in 28 participants in each group. None of the trials reported mean number of lung infections or hospital admissions. In the two trials that reported exacerbations, there were more exacerbations in the treatment group than in the placebo group, but the results of both trials included the possibility of no difference. Quality of life was similar in the two groups. Forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) deteriorated more in participants in the treatment group than in the placebo group but the confidence interval (CI) included no difference (standardised mean difference -0.19, 95% CI -0.42 to 0.05; P = 0.12). For carbon monoxide diffusion, the difference was -0.11 mmol/minute/kPa (95% CI -0.35 to 0.12; P = 0.34). Lung density measured by computer tomography (CT) scan deteriorated significantly less in the treatment group than in the placebo group (mean difference (MD) 0.86 g/L, 95% CI 0.31 to 1.42; P = 0.002). Several secondary outcomes were unreported in the largest and most recent trial whose authors had numerous financial conflicts of interest. Authors' conclusions This review update added one new study and 143 new participants, but the conclusions remain unchanged. Due to sparse data, we could not arrive at a conclusion about the impact of augmentation therapy on mortality, exacerbations, lung infections, hospital admission and quality of life, and there was uncertainty about possible harms. Therefore, it is our opinion that augmentation therapy with alpha-1 antitrypsin cannot be recommended.