Ethical Responsibilities for Companies That Process Personal Data.

It has become increasingly difficult for individuals to exercise meaningful control over the personal data they disclose to companies or to understand and track the ways in which that data is exchanged and used. These developments have led to an emerging consensus that existing privacy and data protection laws offer individuals insufficient protections against harms stemming from current data practices. However, an effective and ethically justified way forward remains elusive. To inform policy in this area, we propose the Ethical Data Practices framework. The framework outlines six principles relevant to the collection and use of personal data-minimizing harm, fairly distributing benefits and burdens, respecting autonomy, transparency, accountability, and inclusion-and translates these principles into action-guiding practical imperatives for companies that process personal data. In addition to informing policy, the practical imperatives can be voluntarily adopted by companies to promote ethical data practices.

Carbon isotope fractionation studies of bacterial strain Rhodococcus rhodochrous MTCC 291.

Carbon isotope fractionation associated with the aerobic consumption of propane (C3) were determined using Rhodococcus rhodochrous MTCC 291 bacterial strain to estimate the amount of hydrocarbon oxidized using GC, fractionation of delta13C carbon isotopes of propane and CO2 using GC-C-IRMS and growth of bacteria by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer. The initial delta13C isotopic value of propane was -34 per thousand and after incubation the changes of the isotopic values have been determined on 6th, 10th, 14th, and 17th days. The propane isotopic fractionation value was found to be maximum of -38.0 per thousand with an average value of -36.5 per thousand and a standard deviation of -1.22 per thousand. The initial delta13C isotopic value of CO2 was -19.601 per thousand. The CO2 isotopic fractionation value was found to be maximum of -29.153 per thousand with an average value of -26.859 per thousand and a standard deviation of -28.338 per thousand. The consumption of propane gas was estimated using Gas Chromatograph. The initial concentration of propane in control was found to be 53 ppm. On incubation, the consumption of the propane gas was observed to be of 26 ppm. The carbon isotope fractionation presented here may be applied to estimate the extent of C1-C4 oxidation in natural gas samples, and should prove useful in further studying the microbial oxidation of these compounds in the natural environment.

Data scientist: the sexiest job of the 21st century.

Back in the 1990s, computer engineer and Wall Street "quant" were the hot occupations in business. Today data scientists are the hires firms are competing to make. As companies wrestle with unprecedented volumes and types of information, demand for these experts has raced well ahead of supply. Indeed, Greylock Partners, the VC firm that backed Facebook and LinkedIn, is so worried about the shortage of data scientists that it has a recruiting team dedicated to channeling them to the businesses in its portfolio. Data scientists are the key to realizing the opportunities presented by big data. They bring structure to it, find compelling patterns in it, and advise executives on the implications for products, processes, and decisions. They find the story buried in the data and communicate it. And they don't just deliver reports: They get at the questions at the heart of problems and devise creative approaches to them. One data scientist who was studying a fraud problem, for example, realized it was analogous to a type of DNA sequencing problem. Bringing those disparate worlds together, he crafted a solution that dramatically reduced fraud losses. In this article, Harvard Business School's Davenport and Greylock's Patil take a deep dive on what organizations need to know about data scientists: where to look for them, how to attract and develop them, and how to spot a great one.

Characterization of light gaseous hydrocarbons of the surface soils of Krishna-Godavari basin, India.

Several techniques are used for the exploration of hydrocarbons, of which; the geochemical techniques involving the microbiological technique use the principle of detecting the light hydrocarbon seepage activities for indication of sub-surface petroleum accumulations. Asurvey was carried out to characterize the light gaseous hydrocarbons seeping in oil and gas fields of Krishna-Godavari basin ofAndhra Pradesh. Aset of 50 sub-soil samples were collected at depths of about 3 m for geochemical analyses and 1m for microbiological analysis. The microbial prospecting studies showed the presence of high bacterial population for methane 2.5 x 10(2) to 6.0 x 10(6) cfu g(-1), propane 1x10(2) to 8.0 x 10(6) cfu g(-1) in soil samples. The adsorbed soil gas analysis showed the presence of moderate to low concentrations of methane (26 to 139 ppb), ethane (0 to 17 ppb), propane (0 to 8 ppb), butane (0 to 5 ppb) and pentane (0 to 2 ppb) in the soil samples of the study area. Carbon isotope analysis for methane ('13C1) ranging from -36.6 to -22.7 per hundred Pee Dee Belemnite (PDB) suggests these gases are of thermogenic origin. Geo-microbial prospecting method coupled with adsorbed soil gas and carbon isotope ratio analysis have thus shown good correlation with existing oil/gas fields of Krishna-Godavari basin.

Amorphous nickel tungstate films prepared by SILAR method for electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction.

Development of electrocatalyst using facile way from non-noble metal compounds with high efficiency for effective water electrolysis is highly demanding for production of hydrogen energy. Nickel based electrocatalysts were currently developed for electrochemical water oxidation in alkaline pH. Herein, amorphous nickel tungstate (NiWO4) was synthesized using the facile successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction method. The films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The electrochemical analysis showed 315 mV of overpotential at 100 mA cm-2 with lowest Tafel slope of 32 mV dec-1 for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) making films of NiWO4 compatible towards electrocatalysis of water in alkaline media. The chronopotentiometry measurements at 100 mA cm-2 over 24 h showed 97% retention of OER activity. The electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) of NW120 film was 25.5 cm-2.

Effect of hydrocarbons and other parameters on hydrocarbon-utilizing Pichia angusta MTCC-225.

Pichia angusta MTCC-225, a catalase-positive yeast that utilizes methanol and lighter hydrocarbons, is the subject of this investigation. An orthogonal experimental design L16 was used to investigate the effects of methanol, a gas mixture, zero air, temperature, agitation, and salts solution on hydrocarbon utilizing P. angusta. QUALITEK-4 Software was used for automatic design and analysis of the experimental results. Among the various parameters tested, agitation contributed the highest influence (56.5%). Zero air, methanol concentration, and gas mixture showed a moderate influence on the growth of P. angusta. Methanol concentration and gas mixture showed a 10.91 and 10.12% influence, respectively, on yeast growth. Zero air played an important role, with a 15.19% influence on the utilization of hydrocarbon.

Local low dimensionality of atmospheric dynamics.

A statistic, the BV (bred vector) dimension, is introduced to measure the effective local finite-time dimensionality of a spatiotemporally chaotic system. It is shown that the Earth's atmosphere often has low BV dimension, and the implications for improving weather forecasting are discussed.

Papillon-lefevre Syndrome.

Five cases of Papillon-Lefevre syndrome occurring in 2 families were seen to have variable clinical features. Two of these cases treated with etretinate showed a good response.

A comparative clinical study of sisomicin cream versus mupirocin ointment in pyodermas.

This study was designed to compare the efficacy and safety of sisomicin cream (0.1%) or mupirocin ointment (2%) in the treatment of primary or secondary pyodermas requiring topical antibiotic therapy alone. In the evaluable patients (n=290), impetigo was the commonest clinical condition reported. Staphylococcus aureus was the commonest pathogen isolated from the lesions. Both sisomicin and mupirocin treatments produced a steady improvement in the scores of erythema, oedema, vesiculation, pustulation, crusting and scaling but the improvement produced by sisomicin was quicker and more pronounced. The percentage of patients with complete clearing of all lesions was also higher with sisomicin than with mupirocin on days 4, 8 and 14. Patients subjectively rated the sisomicin formulation as excellent in 75% of cases as against 59% with mupirocin. Sisomicin and mupirocin are effective and safe in the management of pyodermas; however sisomicin therapy resulted in faster and greater relief of signs and symptoms.