The Case for Linking World Law Data

The present paper advocates for the creation of a federated, hybrid database in the cloud, integrating law data from all available public sources in one single open access system - adding, in the process, relevant meta-data to the indexed documents, including the identification of social and semantic entities and the relationships between them, using linked open data techniques and standards such as RDF. Examples of potential benefits and applications of this approach are also provided, including, among others, experiences from of our previous research, in which data integration, graph databases and social and semantic networks analysis were used to identify power relations, litigation dynamics and cross-references patterns both intra and inter-institutionally, covering most of the World international economic courts.

Net Neutrality and other challenges for the future of the Internet. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Internet, Law & Politics. Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, 11-12 July, 2011

Peer-reviewed

Characterization of Reward Functions in Networks with Costs

In this paper we study network structures in which the possibilities for cooperation are restricted and can not be described by a cooperative game. The benefits of a group of players depend on how these players are internally connected. One way to represent this type of situations is the so-called reward function, which represents the profits obtainable by the total coalition if links can be used to coordinate agents' actions. The starting point of this paper is the work of Vilaseca et al. where they characterized the reward function. We concentrate on those situations where there exist costs for establishing communication links. Given a reward function and a costs function, our aim is to analyze under what conditions it is possible to associate a cooperative game to it. We characterize the reward function in networks structures with costs for establishing links by means of two conditions, component permanence and component additivity. Finally, an economic application is developed to illustrate the main theoretical result.

Computational and Energy Costs of Cryptographic Algorithms on Handheld Devices

Networks are evolving toward a ubiquitous model in which heterogeneousdevices are interconnected. Cryptographic algorithms are required for developing securitysolutions that protect network activity. However, the computational and energy limitationsof network devices jeopardize the actual implementation of such mechanisms. In thispaper, we perform a wide analysis on the expenses of launching symmetric and asymmetriccryptographic algorithms, hash chain functions, elliptic curves cryptography and pairingbased cryptography on personal agendas, and compare them with the costs of basic operatingsystem functions. Results show that although cryptographic power costs are high and suchoperations shall be restricted in time, they are not the main limiting factor of the autonomyof a device.

Contracting with free software communities

Industry and large Agencies needs ¿agile¿ programming resources, to reinforce their own development staff and take advantage of innovative approaches produced by ¿fresh minds¿ all over the world. At the same time they may be reluctant to engage in classical software development call for tenders and contracts. Such contracts are often ¿trusted¿ by large ICT firms, which will deliver according to their own rigid frameworks (often based on alliances with proprietary software vendors), may propose comfortable quality assurances, but will cover their (real) risks and liability with high contingency costs and will charge for any change request in case the original specifications have not fixed all possible issues. Introducing FLOSS in business implies a new contracting philosophy, based on incentives rather than penalties and liability. Based on 2011 experience with a large Space Agency, Patrice-Emmanuel Schmitz pictures the needed legal instruments for a novel approach.

Asymptotic equivalence between the unconditional maximum likelihood and the square-law nonlinearity symbol timing estimation

This paper provides a systematic approach to theproblem of nondata aided symbol-timing estimation for linearmodulations. The study is performed under the unconditionalmaximum likelihood framework where the carrier-frequencyerror is included as a nuisance parameter in the mathematicalderivation. The second-order moments of the received signal arefound to be the sufficient statistics for the problem at hand and theyallow the provision of a robust performance in the presence of acarrier-frequency error uncertainty. We particularly focus on theexploitation of the cyclostationary property of linear modulations.This enables us to derive simple and closed-form symbol-timingestimators which are found to be based on the well-known squaretiming recovery method by Oerder and Meyr. Finally, we generalizethe OM method to the case of linear modulations withoffset formats. In this case, the square-law nonlinearity is foundto provide not only the symbol-timing but also the carrier-phaseerror.

Population genomics of eusocial insects: the costs of a vertebrate-like effective population size

The evolution of reproductive division of labour and social life in social insects has lead to the emergence of several life-history traits and adaptations typical of larger organisms: social insect colonies can reach masses of several kilograms, they start reproducing only when they are several years old, and can live for decades. These features and the monopolization of reproduction by only one or few individuals in a colony should affect molecular evolution by reducing the effective population size. We tested this prediction by analysing genome-wide patterns of coding sequence polymorphism and divergence in eusocial vs. noneusocial insects based on newly generated RNA-seq data. We report very low amounts of genetic polymorphism and an elevated ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous changes - a marker of the effective population size - in four distinct species of eusocial insects, which were more similar to vertebrates than to solitary insects regarding molecular evolutionary processes. Moreover, the ratio of nonsynonymous to synonymous substitutions was positively correlated with the level of social complexity across ant species. These results are fully consistent with the hypothesis of a reduced effective population size and an increased genetic load in eusocial insects, indicating that the evolution of social life has important consequences at both the genomic and population levels.

Accounting system for activity standard costs formulation in ERP environment

Toiminnanohjausjärjestelmän implementointi ja sen mukanaan tuomat muutokset tuotekustannuslaskentaan asettavat haasteita yritykselle. Metallitoimialalla toimivassa yrityksessä on havaittu samat haasteet implementoitaessa SAP R/3 toiminnanohjausjärjestelmää ja sen tuotekustannuslaskentatoiminnallisuutta. SAP R/3 tuotekustannuslogiikka tarvitsee tietoa järjestelmän ulkopuolelta, minkä huomioimatta jättäminen vaikuttaa suoraan laskentatarkkuuteen. Diplomityössä kehitetään sekä standardoitu prosessi että laskentajärjestelmä, joiden avulla pystytään laskemaan tarvittavat niin toimintokustannukset eri teräspalvelukeskuksen kuormituspisteille kuin kustannustenvyörytysarvot. Lasketut arvot muodostavat tarvittavat tekijät SAP R/3 tuotekustannuslaskennan master dataan. Tavoitteena on edesauttaa läpinäkyvän kustannustiedon muodostumista. Diplomityö pohjautuu ns. vesiputousmalliin (SDLC). Ensin tunnistetaan reunaehdot ympäristöstä, jossa tuotekustannuslaskenta toteutetaan. Tämä asettaa joustamattomia komponentteja kehitettävälle laskentajärjestelmälle. Joustavat komponentit sen sijaan antavat vapautta laskentajärjestelmälle. Yhdistämällä joustamattomat ja joustavat komponentit saavutetaan järjestelmä, jolla voidaan täydentää SAP R/3 tuotekustannuslaskennan puutteellisuutta.

Injury pattern of the Flash-Ball, a less-lethal weapon used for law enforcement: report of two cases and review of the literature.

Less-lethal weapons are used in law enforcement to neutralize combative individuals and to disperse riot crowds. Local police recently used such an impact weapon, the Flash-Ball, in two different situations. This gun fires large rubber bullets with kinetic energies around 200 J. Although it is designed to avoid skin penetration, impacts at such energies may still create major trauma with associated severe injuries to internal organs. This is a report of 2 patients shot with the Flash-Ball who required medical attention. One could be discharged quickly, but the other required hospitalization for heart and lung contusion. Both patients required advanced investigations including computed tomography (CT) scan. The medical literature on injuries induced by less-lethal impact weapons is reviewed. Impacts from the Flash-Ball can cause significant injury to internal organs, even without penetration. Investigations as for other high-energy blunt traumas are called for in these cases.

Extension of Murray's law using a non-Newtonian model of blood flow.

BACKGROUND: So far, none of the existing methods on Murray's law deal with the non-Newtonian behavior of blood flow although the non-Newtonian approach for blood flow modelling looks more accurate. MODELING: In the present paper, Murray's law which is applicable to an arterial bifurcation, is generalized to a non-Newtonian blood flow model (power-law model). When the vessel size reaches the capillary limitation, blood can be modeled using a non-Newtonian constitutive equation. It is assumed two different constraints in addition to the pumping power: the volume constraint or the surface constraint (related to the internal surface of the vessel). For a seek of generality, the relationships are given for an arbitrary number of daughter vessels. It is shown that for a cost function including the volume constraint, classical Murray's law remains valid (i.e. SigmaR(c) = cste with c = 3 is verified and is independent of n, the dimensionless index in the viscosity equation; R being the radius of the vessel). On the contrary, for a cost function including the surface constraint, different values of c may be calculated depending on the value of n. RESULTS: We find that c varies for blood from 2.42 to 3 depending on the constraint and the fluid properties. For the Newtonian model, the surface constraint leads to c = 2.5. The cost function (based on the surface constraint) can be related to entropy generation, by dividing it by the temperature. CONCLUSION: It is demonstrated that the entropy generated in all the daughter vessels is greater than the entropy generated in the parent vessel. Furthermore, it is shown that the difference of entropy generation between the parent and daughter vessels is smaller for a non-Newtonian fluid than for a Newtonian fluid.

Työsuhteen päättäminen taloudellisilla, tuotannollisilla tai toiminnan uudelleenjärjestelyistä johtuvilla perusteilla

Työelämässä on työsuhteen päättämisperusteena käytetty yleisimmin taloudellisia, tuotannollisia tai toiminnan uudelleenjärjestelyistä johtuvia perusteita. Näistä kolmesta perusteesta käytetään myös nimitystä kollektiiviperusteet. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, minkälaiset kollektiiviset irtisanomisperusteet katsotaan hyväksyttäviksi. Tutkimus on toteutettu lainopillisena tutkimuksena ja se perustuu oikeustapauksista tehtyihin päätelmiin. Tutkimuksen perusteellavoidaan todeta, että yleisimmin irtisanomisperusteena -käytetään taloudellista ja tuotannollista irtisanomisperustetta yhdessä vaikka niitä voisi käyttää erikseenkin. Taloudellisella perusteella irtisanottaessa syynä on yleensä palkkakustannusten pienentämistarve. Tuotannollisella perusteella irtisanottaessa kyse taas on toimintojen lakkauttamisesta tai yhdistämisestä Toiminnan uudelleenjärjestelyistä johtuva peruste on jäänyt vähemmälle huomiolle, sitä ei esiinny lainkaan oikeustapauksissa. Tämän vuoksi siitä ei voi tuoda esiin mitään yleistä syytä irtisanomiselle.

Database Rights in Safe European Home: The Path to More Rigorous Protection of Information

1. Introduction "The one that has compiled ... a database, the collection, securing the validity or presentation of which has required an essential investment, has the sole right to control the content over the whole work or over either a qualitatively or quantitatively substantial part of the work both by means of reproduction and by making them available to the public", Finnish Copyright Act, section 49.1 These are the laconic words that implemented the much-awaited and hotly debated European Community Directive on the legal protection of databases,2 the EDD, into Finnish Copyright legislation in 1998. Now in the year 2005, after more than half a decade of the domestic implementation it is yet uncertain as to the proper meaning and construction of the convoluted qualitative criteria the current legislation employs as a prerequisite for the database protection both in Finland and within the European Union. Further, this opaque Pan-European instrument has the potential of bringing about a number of far-reaching economic and cultural ramifications, which have remained largely uncharted or unobserved. Thus the task of understanding this particular and currently peculiarly European new intellectual property regime is twofold: first, to understand the mechanics and functioning of the EDD and second, to realise the potential and risks inherent in the new legislation in economic, cultural and societal dimensions. 2. Subject-matter of the study: basic issues The first part of the task mentioned above is straightforward: questions such as what is meant by the key concepts triggering the functioning of the EDD such as presentation of independent information, what constitutes an essential investment in acquiring data and when the reproduction of a given database reaches either qualitatively or quantitatively the threshold of substantiality before the right-holder of a database can avail himself of the remedies provided by the statutory framework remain unclear and call for a careful analysis. As for second task, it is already obvious that the practical importance of the legal protection providedby the database right is in the rapid increase. The accelerating transformationof information into digital form is an existing fact, not merely a reflection of a shape of things to come in the future. To take a simple example, the digitisation of a map, traditionally in paper format and protected by copyright, can provide the consumer a markedly easier and faster access to the wanted material and the price can be, depending on the current state of the marketplace, cheaper than that of the traditional form or even free by means of public lending libraries providing access to the information online. This also renders it possible for authors and publishers to make available and sell their products to markedly larger, international markets while the production and distribution costs can be kept at minimum due to the new electronic production, marketing and distributionmechanisms to mention a few. The troublesome side is for authors and publishers the vastly enhanced potential for illegal copying by electronic means, producing numerous virtually identical copies at speed. The fear of illegal copying canlead to stark technical protection that in turn can dampen down the demand for information goods and services and furthermore, efficiently hamper the right of access to the materials available lawfully in electronic form and thus weaken the possibility of access to information, education and the cultural heritage of anation or nations, a condition precedent for a functioning democracy. 3. Particular issues in Digital Economy and Information Networks All what is said above applies a fortiori to the databases. As a result of the ubiquity of the Internet and the pending breakthrough of Mobile Internet, peer-to-peer Networks, Localand Wide Local Area Networks, a rapidly increasing amount of information not protected by traditional copyright, such as various lists, catalogues and tables,3previously protected partially by the old section 49 of the Finnish Copyright act are available free or for consideration in the Internet, and by the same token importantly, numerous databases are collected in order to enable the marketing, tendering and selling products and services in above mentioned networks. Databases and the information embedded therein constitutes a pivotal element in virtually any commercial operation including product and service development, scientific research and education. A poignant but not instantaneously an obvious example of this is a database consisting of physical coordinates of a certain selected group of customers for marketing purposes through cellular phones, laptops and several handheld or vehicle-based devices connected online. These practical needs call for answer to a plethora of questions already outlined above: Has thecollection and securing the validity of this information required an essential input? What qualifies as a quantitatively or qualitatively significant investment? According to the Directive, the database comprises works, information and other independent materials, which are arranged in systematic or methodical way andare individually accessible by electronic or other means. Under what circumstances then, are the materials regarded as arranged in systematic or methodical way? Only when the protected elements of a database are established, the question concerning the scope of protection becomes acute. In digital context, the traditional notions of reproduction and making available to the public of digital materials seem to fit ill or lead into interpretations that are at variance with analogous domain as regards the lawful and illegal uses of information. This may well interfere with or rework the way in which the commercial and other operators have to establish themselves and function in the existing value networks of information products and services. 4. International sphere After the expiry of the implementation period for the European Community Directive on legal protection of databases, the goals of the Directive must have been consolidated into the domestic legislations of the current twenty-five Member States within the European Union. On one hand, these fundamental questions readily imply that the problemsrelated to correct construction of the Directive underlying the domestic legislation transpire the national boundaries. On the other hand, the disputes arisingon account of the implementation and interpretation of the Directive on the European level attract significance domestically. Consequently, the guidelines on correct interpretation of the Directive importing the practical, business-oriented solutions may well have application on European level. This underlines the exigency for a thorough analysis on the implications of the meaning and potential scope of Database protection in Finland and the European Union. This position hasto be contrasted with the larger, international sphere, which in early 2005 does differ markedly from European Union stance, directly having a negative effect on international trade particularly in digital content. A particular case in point is the USA, a database producer primus inter pares, not at least yet having aSui Generis database regime or its kin, while both the political and academic discourse on the matter abounds. 5. The objectives of the study The above mentioned background with its several open issues calls for the detailed study of thefollowing questions: -What is a database-at-law and when is a database protected by intellectual property rights, particularly by the European database regime?What is the international situation? -How is a database protected and what is its relation with other intellectual property regimes, particularly in the Digital context? -The opportunities and threats provided by current protection to creators, users and the society as a whole, including the commercial and cultural implications? -The difficult question on relation of the Database protection and protection of factual information as such. 6. Dsiposition The Study, in purporting to analyse and cast light on the questions above, is divided into three mainparts. The first part has the purpose of introducing the political and rationalbackground and subsequent legislative evolution path of the European database protection, reflected against the international backdrop on the issue. An introduction to databases, originally a vehicle of modern computing and information andcommunication technology, is also incorporated. The second part sets out the chosen and existing two-tier model of the database protection, reviewing both itscopyright and Sui Generis right facets in detail together with the emergent application of the machinery in real-life societal and particularly commercial context. Furthermore, a general outline of copyright, relevant in context of copyright databases is provided. For purposes of further comparison, a chapter on the precursor of Sui Generi, database right, the Nordic catalogue rule also ensues. The third and final part analyses the positive and negative impact of the database protection system and attempts to scrutinize the implications further in the future with some caveats and tentative recommendations, in particular as regards the convoluted issue concerning the IPR protection of information per se, a new tenet in the domain of copyright and related rights.

Minimization of biosynthetic costs in adaptive gene expression responses of yeast to environmental changes

Yeast successfully adapts to an environmental stress by altering physiology and fine-tuning metabolism. This fine-tuning is achieved through regulation of both gene expression and protein activity, and it is shaped by various physiological requirements. Such requirements impose a sustained evolutionary pressure that ultimately selects a specific gene expression profile, generating a suitable adaptive response to each environmental change. Although some of the requirements are stress specific, it is likely that others are common to various situations. We hypothesize that an evolutionary pressure for minimizing biosynthetic costs might have left signatures in the physicochemical properties of proteins whose gene expression is fine-tuned during adaptive responses. To test this hypothesis we analyze existing yeast transcriptomic data for such responses and investigate how several properties of proteins correlate to changes in gene expression. Our results reveal signatures that are consistent with a selective pressure for economy in protein synthesis during adaptive response of yeast to various types of stress. These signatures differentiate two groups of adaptive responses with respect to how cells manage expenditure in protein biosynthesis. In one group, significant trends towards downregulation of large proteins and upregulation of small ones are observed. In the other group we find no such trends. These results are consistent with resource limitation being important in the evolution of the first group of stress responses.