Brian Hanley

EpiFlex is a flexible, easy to use computer model for a single computer, intended to be operated by one user who need not be an expert. Its purpose is to study in-silico the epidemic behavior of a wide variety of diseases, both known and theoretical, by simulating their spread at the level of individuals contracting and infecting others. To understand the system fully, this paper must be read together in conjunction with study of the software and its results. EpiFlex is evaluated using results from modeling influenza A epidemics and comparing them with a variety of field data sources and other types of modeling. EpiFlex is an object-oriented Monte Carlo system, allocating entities to correspond to individuals, disease vectors, diseases, and the locations that hosts may inhabit. EpiFlex defines eight different contact types available for a disease. Contacts occur inside locations within the model. Populations are composed of demographic groups, each of which has a cycle of movement b...

A set of policy prescriptions based on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) have been developed that are independent of the monetary model, which are often presented together, in a context that does not require taxation: guaranteed income, job guarantee and full employment. These are enabled by the ability of a government to deficit spend as needed, as long as government controls its sovereign currency. Here I raise the concern that implementing MMT accounting could cause increases in political power inequality relative to citizens not seen since the medieval era or before. The assumption that spending and tax policy in an MMT system would occur as proponents expect is contradicted by the history of political choices regarding spending and taxation over the past half-century. The record of behaviour by politicians in the nations where foreign aid money “fell from the sky,” thus divorcing national income from the tax base, also contradicts this idea. With removal of the formal requirement fo...

We examine self-experimentation ethics history and practice, related law, use scenarios in universities and industry, and attitudes. We show through analysis of the historical development of medical ethics and regulation, from Hippocrates through Good Clinical Practice that there are no ethical barriers to self-experimentation. When the self-experimenter is a true investigator, there is no other party to be protected from unethical behavior. We discuss the n-of-1 issue in self-experiments, and make suggestions for improving experiment design. We discuss real-world scenarios of self-experimentation: at universities, for independent single-subject investigators, investigator/employees at pharmaceutical firms, and nonscientist self-experimenters. Our survey of ethics committees regarding policy and review for self-experimenting investigators show that approximately one-third of ethics committee respondents had a policy regarding self-experimentation, and one-third did not require ethic...

... The term tetragametic chimerism is often used to describe merging of fraternal twin embryos. ... [26]. Yu N, Kruskall MS, Yunis JJ, Knoll JHM, Uhl L, Alosco S, Ohashi M, Clavijo O, Husain Z, Yunis EJ et al: Disputed Maternity Leading to Identification of Tetragametic Chimerism. ...

Antecedentes: En los últimos años, se ha prestado mucha atención a la propagación de la gripe en todo el mundo. Con el brote continuo humana por virus H5N1 a partir de 2003 y la pandemia del H1N1 en 2009, el foco sobre la gripe y otros virus respiratorios han ido incrementando. Se ha aceptado durante décadas que los viajes aéreos internacionales son un vector importante para la propagación global de la gripe, y fueron observadas diferencias epidemiológicas entre las regiones tropicales y templadas. Por lo tanto quisimos estudiar cómo las condiciones ambientales interiores (localizaciones cerradas) en los trópicos y zonas templadas de invierno contribuyen a la propagación de la gripe en aerosol por los viajeros. Con este fin, un estudio consistente en 632 lecturas de la temperatura (T) frente a la humedad relativa (HR) en 389 diferentes lugares cerrados que los viajeros pueden visitar en 8 países tropicales, se compararon con 102 lecturas en 2 ciudades de Australia, incluyendo transp...

This paper examines the financial feasibility of using space based satellites to shade the earth to control global warming. By using iterative runs of standard global climate models from NASA figures for the amount of incoming solar radiation that must be blocked are estimated. A financial model based on weight of 2 mil aluminized mylar was made. This model showed that at current launch costs, controlling global warming would require expenditures greater than or equal to (on a yearly basis) the national budgets of the USA, Canada, Germany and France combined. Such costs indicate that this robust method of global warming control is not currently feasible if launched from the surface of the earth. However, it raises a very good question of whether a space based control system would be fiscally reasonable if the materials and construction were done with Mars, asteroid, or lunar material. No data is presented, but the author believes that Mars colony based manufacturing is highly likely...

Designed to compete with fiat currencies, bitcoin proposes it is a crypto-currency alternative. Bitcoin makes a number of false claims, including: bitcoin can be a reserve currency for banking; hoarding equals saving, and that we should believe bitcoin can expand by deflation to become a global transactional currency supply. Bitcoin's developers combine technical implementation proficiency with ignorance of currency and banking fundamentals. This has resulted in a failed attempt to change finance. A set of recommendations to change finance are provided in the Afterword: Investment/venture banking for the masses; Venture banking to bring back what investment banks once were; Open-outcry exchange for all CDS contracts; Attempting to develop CDS type contracts on investments in startup and existing enterprises; and Improving the connection between startup tech/ideas, business organization and investment.

Abstract: Flow cytometry based suspended microarray assays are susceptible to error in the assays and instrument. I present the Intraplexing method for compensating for these sources of error, evidence for the major sources of variance, and straightforward models which ...