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Several governmental organizations all over the world aim for algorithmic accountability of artificial intelligence systems. However, there are few specific proposals on how exactly to achieve it. This article provides an extensive overview of possible transparency and inspectability mechanisms that contribute to accountability for the technical components of an algorithmic decision-making system. Following the different phases of a generic software development process, we identify and discuss several such mechanisms. For each of them, we give an estimate of the cost with respect to time and money that might be associated with that measure.

GEM foils are known to collect charged particles on the polyimide part in its holes during the amplification process. This is accompanied by a change of the effective gain. The effect is commonly known as the \"charge-up effect\". In order to study this effect, two complementary approaches were chosen. On the one hand, the effect is studied in an iterative simulation that is based on a finite element calculation of the electrostatic environment and Garfield++ which microscopically tracks charged particles. On the other hand, a dedicated test-detector was setup with a single GEM as an amplification stage. In this study, a special focus lies on the different GEM geometries, i.e. the difference between double-conical and single-conical GEMs. A quantitative comparison between simulated and measured values will be given. It can be concluded that the typical time-constant of the gain increase is in the order of 1 × 106 initial electrons per hole. For the specific case of a single-conical GEM, it can be shown that the orientation (tapered side pointing upwards or downwards) determines whether the gain increases or decreases.

Gaseous detectors based on large-size GEM-foils are planned to be used for a variety of upgrades and new experiments using high-rate and high-intensity particle beams. An excellent quality control of GEM-foils is a mandatory prerequisite to select the best foils for the assembly of a GEM detector. The high voltage stability of the foils is here of uppermost importance. In particular discharges that occur at the same position need to be detected. A spark detection system has been developed to automatically detect and record the time and position of sparks. The system is based on a commercial web camera installed in a housing for the tests and a custom-made, LabVIEW-based software for control and operation. An automatic Spark-Detection System for GEM foils was designed, built and characterized. It is able to detect and record discharges in large-size GEM foils during the quality control procedure. The spark detection e ciency was estimated to be higher than 97 %, the position resolution was determined to be approximately 0.5 mm. With this system, the characterization of GEM foils can be standardized to a much greater degree than before.

OBJECTIVES To describe the neuropathological features in skin biopsies from patients with diabetic truncal neuropathy. METHODS Three patients with diabetic truncal neuropathy underwent skin biopsies from both symptomatic and asymptomatic regions of the chest and trunk. After local anaesthesia, biopsies were performed using a 3 mm diameter punch device (Acupunch). Intraepidermal nerve fibres (IENFs), the most distal processes of small myelinated and unmyelinated nerve fibres, were identified after staining with PGP 9.5 as previously described. RESULTS Diabetes was diagnosed at the time of the neurological presentation in two, and one was a known diabetic patient. All three had associated sensory-motor polyneuropathy. In all, skin biopsies showed a marked reduction of both epidermal and dermal nerve fibres in the symptomatic dermatomes, compared with skin from asymptomatic truncal areas. In one patient, a follow up skin biopsy when symptoms had improved showed a return of IENFs. CONCLUSIONS In diabetic truncal neuropathy, skin biopsies from symptomatic regions show a loss of IENFs. After clinical recovery, there is a return of the IENF population, suggesting that improvement occurs by nerve regeneration. These findings suggest that sensory nerve fibre injury in diabetic truncal neuropathy is distal to or within the sensory ganglia. Skin biopsy provides a possible tool for understanding the pathophysiology of the disease.

Since the h-index has been invented, it is the most frequently discussed bibliometric value and one of the most commonly used metrics to quantify a researcher’s scientific output. The more it is increasingly gaining popularity to use the metric as an indication of the quality of a job applicant or an employee the more important it is to assure its correctitude. Many platforms offer the h-index of a scientist as a service, sometimes without the explicit knowledge of the respective person. In this article we show that looking up the h-index for a researcher on the five most commonly used platforms, namely AMiner, Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Scopus and Web of Science, results in a variance that is in many cases as large as the average value. This is due to the varying definitions of what a scientific article is, the underlying data basis, and different qualities of the entity recognition problem. To perform our study, we crawled the h-index of the worlds top researchers according to two different rankings, all the Nobel Prize laureates except Literature and Peace, and the teaching staff of the computer science department of the TU Kaiserslautern Germany with whom we additionally computed their h-index manually. Thus we showed that the individual h-indices differ to an alarming extent between the platforms. We observed that researchers with an extraordinary high h-index and researchers with an index appropriate to the scientific career path and the respective scientific field are affected alike by these problems.

•The tcsH gene in Clostridium sordellii is characterized.•The tcsH gene sequence was used to develop a PCR procedure to detect tcsH+ strains.•51 strains were evaluated; 3 strains were tcsH+, and confirmed by ELISA with a Mab.•National and International Reference antitoxins do not neutralize TcsH.•US regulations do not require veterinary vaccines to induce anti-TcsH antibodies. Clostridium sordellii is a Gram positive anaerobic bacterium that causes multiple disease syndromes in both humans and animals. As with many clostridial pathogens, toxins contribute to the virulence of C. sordellii. Two large toxins have been identified: a lethal toxin (TcsL) and a hemorrhagic toxin (TcsH) which are similar in structure and function to Clostridium difficile toxin B (TcdB) and toxin A (TcdA), respectively. While TcdA, TcdB, and TcsL have been extensively studied, relatively little is known about TcsH. This study elucidated the TcsH gene sequence using whole genome sequencing, compared the genotype with toxin expression of 52 C. sordellii strains, and examined the role of TcsH in batch release potency tests required for veterinary vaccines licensed in the United States and other testing utilizing WHO standard antitoxin. Data from this study will assist in future research to clarify the TcsH contribution to the pathogenesis of C. sordellii infections and may aid in the development of improved vaccines.

Today, skin biopsies can play an important role in the diagnosis of peripheral nerve disorders and have yielded another diagnostic tool for the neurologist. One of the commonly reported neuropathologic abnormalities observed in skin biopsies is a reduction of epidermal nerve density. Analyzing the changes in the morphology and density of epidermal nerves is of immense diagnostic and prognostic value in peripheral neuropathies. These changes also provide an assessment of disease progression and of tissue responses to regenerative treatments. Combined with immunohistochemical studies, newly evolved skin biopsy and epidermal count techniques have the potential to provide significant information about the pathogenesis of many peripheral nervous system diseases. They have great potential for impacts on both research and clinical approaches to treatment. Evolution of a standardized and validated counting methodology and significant advances in procuring skin biopsies have opened up a wide spectrum of applications that make the technology easy to apply in practice. The application of this technology may lead to early detection of many common peripheral nerve diseases and an enhanced understanding of disease onset and progression. In this article we review the state of current research and clinical practice in the use of skin biopsies and epidermal nerve densities.

To assess the accuracy of different MR sequences for the detection of articular cartilage abnormalities in rheumatoid arthritis. Ten metacarpophalangeal joints and 10 metatarsophalangeal joints (specimens from arthritis patients undergoing ablative joint surgery) were examined with a fat-suppressed (FS) 3D FLASH, a FS 3D FISP, a FS 2D fast spin-echo T2-weighted, and a 2D FS spin-echo T1-weighted sequence. Each cartilage lesion and each cortical lesion was graded from 0 to 4 (modified Outerbridge staging system). Subsequently, the results of each sequence were compared with the macroscopic findings and statistically tested against each other. The study shows that 3D gradient-echo sequences with fat suppression were best for imaging and grading of cartilage lesions in arthritis of the small joints of the hands and feet. Using 3D techniques, all grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 lesions of cartilage or cortical bone were detected. FS 3D gradient-echo techniques were best for the detection and grading of hyaline cartilage and subchondral bone lesions in rheumatoid arthritis. MRI has a great potential as an objective method of evaluating cartilage damage and bone erosions in rheumatoid arthritis.