HIPAA's Effect on Web Site Privacy Policies

Healthcare institutions typically post their privacy practices online as privacy policy documents. We conducted a longitudinal study that examines the effects of HIPAA's enactment on a collection of privacy policy documents for a fixed set of organizations over a four-year period. We present our analysis of 24 healthcare privacy policy documents from nine healthcare Web sites, analyzed using goal mining, a content-analysis method that supports extraction of useful information about institutions' privacy practices from documents. We compare our results to our pre-HIPAA study of these same institutions' online privacy practices and evaluate their evolution in the presence of privacy laws     

A new algorithm for sparse interpolation of multivariate polynomials

To reconstruct a black box multivariate sparse polynomial from its floating point evaluations, the existing algorithms need to know upper bounds for both the number of terms in the polynomial and the partial degree in each of the variables. Here we present a new technique, based on Rutishauser’s qd$qd$-algorithm, in which we overcome both drawbacks.     

Towards a continuous microfluidic rheometer

In a previous paper we presented a way to measure the rheological properties of complex fluids on a microfluidic chip (Guillot et al., Langmuir 22:6438, 2006). The principle of our method is to use parallel flows between two immiscible fluids as a pressure sensor. In fact, in a such flow, both fluids flow side by side and the size occupied by each fluid stream depends only on both flow rates and on both viscosities. We use this property to measure the viscosity of one fluid knowing the viscosity of the other one, both flow rates and the relative size of both streams in a cross-section. We showed that using a less viscous fluid as a reference fluid allows to define a mean shear rate with a low standard deviation in the other fluid. This method allows us to measure the flow curve of a fluid with less than 250 μL of fluid. In this paper we implement this principle in a fully automated set up which controls the flow rate, analyzes the picture and calculates the mean shear rate and the viscosity of the studied fluid. We present results obtained for Newtonian fluids and complex fluids using this set up and we compare our data with cone and plate rheometer measurements. By adding a mixing stage in the fluidic network we show how this set up can be used to characterize in a continuous way the evolution of the rheological properties as a function of the formulation composition. We illustrate this by measuring the rheological curve of four formulations of polyethylene oxide solution with only 1.3 mL of concentrated polyethylene oxide solution. This method could be very useful in screening processes where the viscosity range and the behavior of the fluid to an applied stress must be evaluated.     

Aerodynamic design via control theory

Conclusion The purpose of the last three sections is to demonstrate by representative examples that control theory can be used to formulate computationally feasible procedures for aerodynamic design. The cost of each iteration is of the same order as two flow solutions, since the adjoint equation is of comparable complexity to the flow equation, and the remaining auxiliary equations could be solved quite inexpensively. Provided, therefore, that one can afford the cost of a moderate number of flow solutions, procedures of this type can be used to derive improved designs. The approach is quite general, not limited to particular choices of the coordinate transformation or cost function, which might in fact contain measures of other criteria of performance such as lift and drag. For the sake of simplicity certain complicating factors, such as the need to include a special term in the mapping function to generate a corner at the trailing edge, have been suppressed from the present analysis. Also it remains to explore the numerical implementation of the design procedures proposed in this paper.     

Nucleation and growth of potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals in silica gels

Kinetic studies on nucleation and growth of potassium dihydrogen phosphate crystals in silica gels show that the rate-determining process for the growth of these crystals in silica gels is diffusion. Morphology, microhardness and perfection of gel grown crystals are also reported.     

Fodor and Pylyshyn on connectionism

Fodor and Pylyshyn (1988) have argued that the cognitive architecture is not Connectionist. Their argument takes the following form: (1) the cognitive architecture is Classical; (2) Classicalism and Connectionism are incompatible; (3) therefore the cognitive architecture is not Connectionist. In this essay I argue that Fodor and Pylyshyn's defenses of (1) and (2) are inadequate. Their argument for (1), based on their claim that Classicalism best explains the systematicity of cognitive capacities, is an invalid instance of inference to the best explanation. And their argument for (2) turns out to be question-begging. The upshot is that, while Fodor and Pylyshyn have presented Connectionists with the important empirical challenge of explaining systematicity, they have failed to provide sufficient reason for inferring that the cognitive architecture is Classical and not Connectionist.     

Road transport energy conservation in Costa Rica

Transportation is typically the largest petroleum-using sector in less developed countries and is generally dominated by road transport. Despite this fact, energy planning and conservation assistance have concentrated on other sectors, partly because of a lack of experience with transport-energy conservation in less developed countries. Studies of short-term energy conservation in taxi and bus fleets under actual operating conditions in San Jose, Costa Rica, have shown that efficiency improvements on the order of 10% are obtainable. Training in fuel-efficient driving strategies reduced taxi-fuel use by 14% and bus-fuel use by 3% on the average. Implementation of fuel-efficient maintenance practices reduced bus-fuel consumption by an average of 6%. Radial tires were ineffective and possibly counter-productive in saving fuel. Because of the complex experimental design, the results were not readily perceived by vehicle operators. Future demonstrations should concentrate on showing monetary savings to vehicle operators.     

Separation of strontium from low level radioactive waste solutions using hydrous manganese dioxide composite materials

⁹⁰Sr is one of the major isotopes present in the low level radioactive liquid waste (LLW) generated during operation of nuclear reactors and spent fuel reprocessing plants. A composite ion exchange material consisting of hydrous manganese oxide and poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) was developed for removal of strontium from aqueous radioactive waste. The prepared composite material showed very good strontium adsorption properties in aqueous solutions. Sorption of strontium on the composite material as a function of pH, equilibration time and strontium ion concentrations were studied. The process of sorption of strontium from solution was analysed using different isotherm models like Langmuir, D-R and Freundlich. Four different error functions were employed to find out the most suitable isotherm model to represent the experimental data and it was found that Freundlich model best fits the sorption of strontium on the composite material. Analysis of the data obtained from the sorption kinetics studies showed that the data fitted better to the pseudo-second order kinetic model. Lab scale column performance study of the composite material revealed that the material could be effectively used in column operations to remove strontium from LLW solutions.     

Iron compounds electrodeposited onto a transparent semiconductor: Synthesis and characterisation by UV-vis spectroscopy

Homogeneous thin layers of lepidocrocite, green rust incorporating chloride anions (GRCl-GR1) and green rust incorporating sulphate anions (GRSO₄-GR2) were successfully electrodeposited onto tin dioxide substrate (SnO₂). The UV-vis spectroscopy absorbance, measured just after synthesis, increases linearly with the amount of iron compounds confirming that the electrodeposition is a homogeneous process. From the spectra, the absorption coefficients were determined for the three compounds. The monitoring by UV-vis spectroscopy measurements in real time of the oxidation in the air of the two unstable compounds, GRCl and GRSO₄, shows that the two green rusts have a different behaviour due to their own structure. The presence of an isobestic point in the case of GRSO₄ translates one equilibrium with its oxidised compound. This phenomenon is not observed for GRCl, however, the characteristic variation of the absorbance in the high wavelengths gives information on its oxidation reaction. From simple measurements, fruitful information on green rusts is obtained and this experimental system may be applied to other unstable solid compounds.     

Surfactant‐mediated synthesis of polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) nanoparticles for sustained drug delivery

In this study, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) nanoparticles were synthesised following nanoprecipitation method having different solvents and surfactant (Tween 80) concentrations. In this study, PHB nanoparticles were encapsulated with curcumin and subjected for sustained curcumin delivery. Both the curcumin loaded and unloaded PHB nanoparticles were characterised using FTIR, SEM, and AFM. Sizes of the particles were found to be between 60 and 300 nm. The drug encapsulation efficiency and in vitro drug release of the nanoparticles were analysed. Antibacterial activity and anticancer activity were also evaluated. The LC₅₀ values of most of the nanoparticles were found to be between 10 and 20 µg/100 µl, anticancer activity of curcumin loaded PHB nanoparticles were further confirmed by AO/PI staining and mitochondrial depolarisation assay.Inspec keywords: encapsulation, cancer, scanning electron microscopy, nanoparticles, surfactants, drugs, nanofabrication, antibacterial activity, biomedical materials, drug delivery systems, polymers, nanomedicine, Fourier transform infrared spectra, precipitation (physical chemistry), atomic force microscopy, particle sizeOther keywords: surfactant‐mediated synthesis, polyhydroxybutyrate nanoparticles, sustained drug delivery, surfactant concentrations, PHB nanoparticles, sustained curcumin delivery, drug encapsulation efficiency, anticancer activity, in vitro drug release, nanoprecipitation method, Tween 80, FTIR spectra, SEM, AFM, particle sizes, antibacterial activity, AO‐PI staining, mitochondrial depolarisation assay