Exploring the linkages between spiritual wellness and ethics in international education: a phenomenological study

Despite increasing interest in the notion of spiritual wellness, there has been a lack of qualitative research conducted to date in connection with the relationship between spiritual wellness and ethical considerations. This is especially the case in the context of international education. Such research would help to shed valuable new light on the feelings and perceptions of the relevant individuals, particularly the senior-level and junior-level managers charged with ensuring the efficient and effective delivery of the relevant educational offers. The purpose of this qualitative study concerned developing an inductive and comprehensive understanding of the lived experiences of international college managers based in the UK (Oxford and the wider Oxfordshire area). This was with respect to the variegated nature of the relationship between spiritual wellness and ethical considerations in international education, the phenomenon under consideration. Phenomenological analysis revealed ten essential themes, namely noble and timeless values, respect and awareness, compassion and empathy, cultivated metacognition, readiness to challenge and transcend, reciprocity, plurality, solidarity, sustainability and subsidiarity. Inter alia, it was found that both senior and junior managers in international colleges in Oxford and the wider Oxfordshire area perceive the various issues potentially linking spiritual wellness and ethical considerations in an imaginative fashion, being able to draw links but not necessarily with ease. One clear implication arising from the findings was that if the relevant establishments focused more on adhering to robust codes of ethics, this is likely to have a positive effect on the level of spiritual wellness within the same organisations. Another clear implication stemming from the findings is that the issue of spiritual wellness vis-à-vis ethical considerations, viewed at from a phenomenological perspective, is clearly a structural problem.

Modeling robust and efficient coding in the mouse primary visual cortex using computational perturbations

Investigating how visual inputs are encoded in visual cortex is important for elucidating the roles of cell populations in circuit computations. We here use a recently developed, large-scale model of mouse primary visual cortex (V1) and perturb both single neurons as well as functional- and cell-type defined population of neurons to mimic equivalent optogenetic perturbations. First, perturbations were performed to study the functional roles of layer 2/3 excitatory neurons in inter-laminar interactions. We observed activity changes consistent with the canonical cortical model (Douglas and Martin 1991). Second, single neuron perturbations in layer 2/3 revealed a center-surround inhibition-dominated effect, consistent with recent experiments. Finally, perturbations of multiple excitatory layer 2/3 neurons during visual stimuli of varying contrasts indicated that the V1 model has both efficient and robust coding features. The circuit transitions from predominantly broad like-to-like inhibition at high contrasts to predominantly specific like-to-like excitation at low contrasts. These in silico results demonstrate how the circuit can shift from redundancy reduction to robust codes as a function of stimulus contrast.

A geothermal aquifer in the dilation zones on the southern margin of the Dublin Basin

SUMMARY We present modelling of the geophysical data from the Newcastle area, west of Dublin, Ireland within the framework of the IRETHERM project. IRETHERM's overarching objective was to facilitate a more thorough strategic understanding of Ireland's geothermal energy potential through integrated modelling of new and existing geophysical, geochemical and geological data. The Newcastle area, one of the target localities, is situated at the southern margin of the Dublin Basin, close to the largest conurbation on the island of Ireland in the City of Dublin and surrounds. As part of IRETHERM, magnetotelluric (MT) soundings were carried out in the highly urbanized Dublin suburb in 2011 and 2012, and a description of MT data acquisition, processing methods, multidimensional geoelectrical models and porosity modelling with other geophysical data are presented. The MT time-series were heavily noise-contaminated and distorted due to electromagnetic noise from nearby industry and Dublin City tram/railway systems. Time-series processing was performed using several modern robust codes to obtain reasonably reliable and interpretable MT impedance and geomagnetic transfer function ‘tipper’ estimates at most of the survey locations. The most ‘quiet’ 3-hr subsets of data during the night time, when the DC ‘LUAS’ tram system was not operating, were used in multisite and multivariate processing. The final 2-D models underwent examination using a stability technique, and the final two 2-D profiles, with reliability estimations expressed through conductance and resistivity, were derived. In the final stage of this study, 3-D modelling of all MT data in the Newcastle area was also undertaken. Comparison of the MT models and their interpretation with existing seismic profiles in the area reveals that the Blackrock–Newcastle Fault (BNF) zone is visible in the models as a conductive feature down to depths of 4 km. The investigated area below Newcastle can be divided into two domains of different depths, formed as depth zones. The first zone, from the surface down to 1–2 km, is dominated by NE–SW oriented conductors connected with shallow faults or folds probably filled with less saline waters. The conductors are also crossing the surface trace of the BNF. The second depth domain can be identified from depths of 2–4 km, where structures are oriented along the BNF and the observed conductivity is lower. The deeper conductive layers are interpreted as geothermal-fluid-bearing rocks. Porosity and permeability estimations from the lithological borehole logs indicate the geothermal potential of the bedrock, to deliver warm water to the surface. The fluid permeability estimation, based on Archie's law for porous structures and synthetic studies of fractured zones, suggests a permeability in the range 100 mD–100 D in the study area, which is prospective for geothermal energy exploitation.

A comment on information leakage from robust code-based checkers detecting fault attacks on cryptographic primitives

Cryptographic hardware primitives must be protected against fault-injection attacks. Security-oriented error-detecting codes provide (probabilistic) guarantees for detection of maliciously injected faults even under assumption of a sophisticated attacker with access to powerful equipment.In this paper, we revisit the earlier finding that error-detection infrastructure may increase the undesired information leakage. We formalize the information leakage from the checker response by means of mutual information. We apply our analysis to the best security-oriented robust codes known today. We prove that the probability of an undetected attack is exponentially smaller than the entropy loss due to information leak from the checker. This means that an attack will be detected far before the attacker will gain significant information. Given a bound for acceptable information leakage (e.g., 0.5 bits of a 128-bit secret key), our analysis allows the designer to easily choose the number of redundant bits required to stay below that bound. The obtained results extend our knowledge about the relationship between detection capabilities of codes and information leakage due to them.