Attacking human implants: a new generation of cybercrime

Human ICT implants, such as RFID implants, cochlear implants, cardiac pacemakers, Deep Brain Stimulation, bionic limbs connected to the nervous system, and networked cognitive prostheses, are becoming increasingly complex. With ever-growing data processing functionalities in these implants, privacy and security become vital concerns. Electronic attacks on human ICT implants can cause significant harm, both to implant subjects and to their environment. This paper explores the vulnerabilities which human implants pose to crime victimisation in light of recent technological developments, and analyses how the law can deal with emerging challenges of what may well become the next generation of cybercrime: attacks targeted at technology implanted in the human body. After a state-of-the-art description of relevant types of human implants and a discussion how these implants challenge existing perceptions of the human body, we describe how various modes of attacks, such as sniffing, hacking, data interference, and denial of service, can be committed against implants. Subsequently, we analyse how these attacks can be assessed under current substantive and procedural criminal law, drawing on examples from UK and Dutch law. The possibilities and limitations of cybercrime provisions (eg, unlawful access, system interference) and bodily integrity provisions (eg, battery, assault, causing bodily harm) to deal with human-implant attacks are analysed. Based on this assessment, the paper concludes that attacks on human implants are not only a new generation in the evolution of cybercrime, but also raise fundamental questions on how criminal law conceives of attacks. Traditional distinctions between physical and non-physical modes of attack, between human bodies and things, between exterior and interior of the body need to be re-interpreted in light of developments in human implants. As the human body and technology become increasingly intertwined, cybercrime legislation and body-integrity crime legislation will also become intertwined, posing a new puzzle that legislators and practitioners will sooner or later have to solve.

The creation and diffusion of innovation in developing countries: a systematic literature review

In this study, we review the literature on the creation and diffusion of innovation in the private sectors (industry and services) in developing countries. In particular, we collect evidence on what are the barriers to innovation creation and diffusion and the channels of innovation diffusion to and within developing countries. We find that innovation in developing countries is about creation or adoption of new ideas and technologies; but the capacity for innovation is embedded in and constituted by dynamics between geographical, socio-economic, political and legal subsystems. We contextualize the findings from the review in the current theoretical framework of diffusion of innovations, and we emphasize how the institutional context typical of developing countries impacts the diffusion itself.

Implications of innovation for inclusive growth: a study of Medellín, Colombia's metro system and integral urban projects

Medellín, Colombia continues to attract global recognition for its evolution from a crimesaturated and desegregated city to an award-winning paragon of innovation. Two innovations in particular, the Metro System & the Integral Urban Projects, have fostered and contributed to Medellín’s inclusive growth, as indicated by a corresponding increase in both social and economic capital. Through a mixed methodology analysis of these two experiences, including participant observation, in-depth interviews with different industry leaders, and household surveys, this thesis explores the extent to which inclusive innovation has contributed to inclusive growth in Medellín. The surveys were distributed to three sensitive neighborhoods of Medellín and apply a Synthesized Framework for measuring inclusive growth, one that includes five indicators for social capital and five indicators for economic capital, emphasizing the importance of progression in both dimensions. By drawing on concepts of inclusivity surfacing more frequently in business lexicon and the emergence of a newly branded Medellín, the findings of this thesis indicates that the implementation of innovations in association with a unified city vision practiced by the local government, corporate and non-profit sector has contributed to achieving inclusive growth, and has left civilians hungry for more.

Controlled transscleral drug delivery formulations to the eye: establishing new concepts and paradigms in ocular anti-inflammatory therapeutics and antibacterial prophylaxis

Importance of the field: The use of topical agents poses unique and challenging hurdles for drug delivery. Topical steroids effectively control ocular inflammation, but are associated with the well-recognized dilemma of patient compliance. Although administration of topical antimicrobials as prophylaxis is acceptable among ophthalmologists, this common practice has no sound evidence base Developing a new antimicrobial agent or delivery strategy with enhanced penetration by considering the anatomical and physiological constraints exerted by the barriers of the eye is not a commonly perceived strategy. Exploiting the permeability of the sclera, subconjunctival routes may offer a promising alternative for enhanced drug delivery and tissue targeting.Area covered in this review: Ocular drug delivery strategies were reviewed for ocular inflammation and infections clinically adopted for newer class of antimicrobials, which use a multipronged approach to limit risks of endophthalmitis.What the reader will gain: The analysis substantiates a new transscleral drug delivery therapeutic approach for cataract surgery.Take home message: A new anti-inflammatory and anti-infective paradigm that frees the patient from the nuisance of topical therapeutics is introduced, opening a large investigative avenue for future improved therapies.

Two new species of Zetzellia Oudemans (Acari: Stigmaeidae) that threaten the concept of genera: Disgeneric marriage?

Two new species of Zetzellia Oudemans, Z. agistzellia sp. n. and Z. quasagistemas sp. n., are described from rubber trees of northwestern São Paulo State, Brazil. Females have clear features of Zetzellia, whereas males resemble Agistemus in some characters. Immatures are also described. The discovery of these species raises some problems concerning generic concepts in Stigmaeidae. Since features of different genera are present in the same species, the authors suggest that the scope of those genera should be reviewed. Copyright © 2005 Magnolia Press.

The institutionality of gender in the State: new analytical perspectives

Includes bibliography

Application of the concepts of agro-tourism, agricultural diversification and food and nutrition for the development of Caribbean communities with reference to standards and priority setting

Introduction There is a renewed call for a new approach to development with emphasis on community empowerment or participation, with the belief that more sustainable activities will be undertaken in those communities. Much of that call, however, is coming not from within the communities, but primarily from advocates of change who may have little to do with those communities. What then will the new approach bring apart from a change in who are the decision-makers? And how do we ensure that the change that is called for will, in fact, bring added benefits to the communities themselves? To be sure, there are some successful stories of a community approach to problem solving. However, there are also many more stories of project failures. Serious analytical work, therefore, needs to be done to determine the factors that promote a successful community-based approach; when this approach should be used; and the methodology that should be employed. In an attempt to determine these factors, a brief analysis will be made of some of the governing structures in the subregion and their possible impact on the proposed new approach. Some of the earlier efforts at stakeholder and community approach to projects will also be examined as well as the new development strategy that is prompting the call for this new paradigm. The new paradigm focuses to a large extent on decision-making and community empowerment. With few exceptions, it is short on the promotion of tangible activities that are based on the resource inventory of the communities. This is not surprising, since, as noted before, the advocates of community empowerment may have very little connection with the communities and, in most cases, are unfamiliar with the resource base. Hence, a theoretical case is made, suggesting more style than substance. Another obvious shortcoming of this new paradigm is its continued over- dependence on assistance from the outside to build communities. Externally funded projects, seminars and meetings outside of the communities and foreign technical assistance continue to dominate these projects. While, of course, all communities have basic common needs such as water, health, education and electricity, there is sufficient diversity within communities to allow for tailoring of activities and programmes such that their differences become assets. It is in that context, that agro-tourism activities, standards, agricultural diversification, food and nutrition and priority setting have been chosen as aspects and activities for promoting community development, drawing on the various strengths of communities, rural or urban.

Technology Development and Consumer Acceptance of Innovation in Fruit Production

Precision Agriculture (PA) and the more specific branch of Precision Horticulture are two very promising sectors. They focus on the use of technologies in agriculture to optimize the use of inputs, so to reach a better efficiency, and minimize waste of resources. This important objective motivated many researchers and companies to search new technology solutions. Sometimes the effort proved to be a good seed, but sometimes an unfeasible idea. So that PA, from its birth more or less 25 years ago, is still a “new” management, interesting for the future, but an actual low adoption rate is still reported by experts and researchers. This work aims to give a contribution in finding the causes of this low adoption rate and proposing a methodological solution to this problem. The first step was to examine prior research about Precision Agriculture adoption, by ex ante and ex post approach. It was supposed as important to find connections between these two phases of a purchase experience. In fact, the ex ante studies dealt with potential consumer’s perceptions before a usage experience occurred, therefore before purchasing a technology, while the ex post studies described the drivers which made a farmer become an end-user of PA technology. Then, an example of consumer research is presented. This was an ex ante research focused on pre-prototype technology for fruit production. This kind of research could give precious information about consumer acceptance before reaching an advanced development phase of the technology, and so to have the possibility to change something with the least financial impact. The final step was to develop the pre-prototype technology that was the subject of the consumer acceptance research and test its technical characteristics.

New ways of looking at synapses

Current concepts of synaptic fine-structure are derived from electron microscopic studies of tissue fixed by chemical fixation using aldehydes. However, chemical fixation with glutaraldehyde and paraformaldehyde and subsequent dehydration in ethanol result in uncontrolled tissue shrinkage. While electron microscopy allows for the unequivocal identification of synaptic contacts, it cannot be used for real-time analysis of structural changes at synapses. For the latter purpose advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques are to be applied which, however, do not allow for the identification of synaptic contacts. Here, two approaches are described that may overcome, at least in part, some of these drawbacks in the study of synapses. By focusing on a characteristic, easily identifiable synapse, the mossy fiber synapse in the hippocampus, we first describe high-pressure freezing of fresh tissue as a method that may be applied to study subtle changes in synaptic ultrastructure associated with functional synaptic plasticity. Next, we propose to label presynaptic mossy fiber terminals and postsynaptic complex spines on CA3 pyramidal neurons by different fluorescent dyes to allow for the real-time monitoring of these synapses in living tissue over extended periods of time. We expect these approaches to lead to new insights into the structure and function of central synapses.

Experimental models of CNS infections. Contributions to concepts of disease and treatment

Lessons learned from studies of experimental meningitis and brain abscess in animal models of infection represent major, highly significant contributions to our understanding of the pathogenesis and antimicrobial chemotherapy of these infections. For example, studies of experimental meningitis in rabbits demonstrated that the subarachnoid space is deficient in local host defenses, a finding that explains why only bactericidal antibiotic regimens are effective in treating this disease; studies of the efficacy of corticosteroids as adjunctive therapy for meningitis yielded data indicating that both beneficial and detrimental effects on the host are imparted by these compounds. These and a number of other key investigations of experimental meningitis and brain abscess, the results of these investigations, and the clinical significance of these results are presented in this article.

A new way of teaching different subjects in a foreign language in the Building Engineering Degree at the Universidad Politécnica.

The European Union has been promoting linguistic diversity for many years as one of its main educational goals. This is an element that facilitates student mobility and student exchanges between different universities and countries and enriches the education of young undergraduates. In particular, a higher degree of competence in the English language is becoming essential for engineers, architects and researchers in general, as English has become the lingua franca that opens up horizons to internationalisation and the transfer of knowledge in today’s world. Many experts point to the Integrated Approach to Contents and Foreign Languages System as being an option that has certain benefits over the traditional method of teaching a second language that is exclusively based on specific subjects. This system advocates teaching the different subjects in the syllabus in a language other than one’s mother tongue, without prioritising knowledge of the language over the subject. This was the idea that in the 2009/10 academic year gave rise to the Second Language Integration Programme (SLI Programme) at the Escuela Arquitectura Técnica in the Universidad Politécnica Madrid (EUATM-UPM), just at the beginning of the tuition of the new Building Engineering Degree, which had been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) model. This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative for the set of subjects taught during the semester and is coordinated through the Assistant Director Office for Educational Innovation. The SLI Programme has a dual goal; to familiarise students with the specific English terminology of the subject being taught, and at the same time improve their communication skills in English. A total of thirty lecturers are taking part in the teaching of eleven first year subjects and twelve in the second year, with around 120 students who have voluntarily enrolled in a special group in each semester. During the 2010/2011 academic year the degree of acceptance and the results of the SLI Programme have been monitored. Tools have been designed to aid interdisciplinary coordination and to analyse satisfaction, such as coordination records and surveys. The results currently available refer to the first and second year and are divided into specific aspects of the different subjects involved and into general aspects of the ongoing experience.

Sustainable Planning And Land Valuation, New Forms Of Suburban Growth In Areas Of The Spanish Mediterranean Coast

The present study analyzes residential models in coastal areas with large influxes of tourism, the sustainability of their planning and its repercussion on urban values. The project seeks to establish a methodology for territorial valuation through the analysis of externalities that have influenced urban growth and its impact on the formation of residential real estate values. This will make it possible to create a map for qualitative land valuation, resulting from a combination of environmental, landscape, social and productive valuations. This in turn will establish a reference value for each of the areas in question, as well as their spatial interrelations. These values become guidelines for the study of different territorial scenarios, which help improve the sustainable territorial planning process. This is a rating scale for urban planning. The results allow us to establish how the specific characteristics of the coast are valued and how they can be incorporated into sustainable development policies.

Methodologies for Designing and Developing New Concepts in Vertical Transportation

Escalator and moving walkway are multibody systems with a design of more than a century. Developed methodology allows studying and improving any subsystem of both systems. In addition, new concepts can be developed and tested without the necessity and cost of a real construction. CITEF (Railway Technologies Research Centre) has been modelling escalators for more than four years. Several complex and innovative models has been developed to characterize static, kinematic and dynamic escalator behaviour. The high number of mechanical elements that are part of escalators complicate modelling task. In this way, methodologies and tools have been developed in order to automate these task and saving computational and time costs. Developed methodologies have been validated with the results of comparing real measurements and simulated outputs from a dynamic model.