This paper presents a heartwave based authentication method that utilizes an ensemble of Deep Belief Networks (DBNs) under different parameters to increase the reliability of feature extraction. The multi-view outputs are further embed into a single view before inputting into a stacked DBN for classification. The result of the proposed novel architecture achieved a classification rate of 98.3% with 30% training data. Importantly, it is able to perform user classification using heartwave signals acquired under intense physical exercise where heartrate ranges from 50bpm to as high as 180bpm. Under extreme physical duress, the heartwave from individual experiences extreme morphological variations which render conventional classification approaches non-applicable.

Treaties and custom are generally regarded as the major sources of international law. They derive their validity more or less directly from the consent of those subjects of the law which also possess the institutional authority to make law. The perceived limitations of the consensual nature of these two sources have resulted in doctrinal controversy concerning, inter alia, the existence of sources of international law which are not essentially consensual. This is the rationale for the inclusion of general principles of law recognised by civilised nations alongside treaties and customary international law in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice, as one of the sources of international law to which the Court may refer. Similarly, the phenomenon of ‘soft’ international law is, by and large, a response to the failure to generate the full measure of State consent required for attributing full legal status to the ‘soft’ norms in question, often in relation to developing fields of international concern. It is often said that these non-consensual sources have an inferior status when compared with the consensual ones. The purpose of this paper is to consider critically the basis and the form of the differentiation between these two apparently non-consensual phenomena (i.e., ‘general principles’ and ‘soft’ law) on the one hand, and the paradigmatic (because consensual) types of international law (i.e., treaties and custom) on the other.

No abstract

Testing for IgM antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in Scottish patients with suspected Lyme borreliosis was introduced in 2018 to supplement the IgG testing already in situ. Results from 2018 to 2020 were assessed alongside available clinical data to evaluate the utility of IgM testing in serum. An estimated false positive rate of 25.5% was observed with IgM immunoblot vs 80.1% for IgM chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA). IgM testing can aid earlier diagnoses if used within a selective two-tier testing protocol: only patients with acute onset of symptoms should be tested for IgM CLIA but confirmation by immunoblot and consideration of clinical picture is necessary.

No abstract