Author archives

Microsoft releases beta of Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit for deep learning advances

“Microsoft has released an updated version of Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, a system for deep learning that is used to speed advances in areas such as speech and image recognition and search relevance on CPUs and NVIDIA® GPUs. The toolkit, previously known as CNTK, was initially developed by computer scientists at Microsoft who wanted a tool to …

Subjects: AI, Education, Knowledge Management

Paper – Learning to Protect Communications with Adversarial Neural Cryptography

Learning to Protect Communications with Adversarial Neural Cryptography, Martın Abadi and David G. Andersen – Google Brain. 21 October 2016. “We ask whether neural networks can learn to use secret keys to protect information from other neural networks. Specifically, we focus on ensuring confidentiality properties in a multiagent system, and we specify those properties in …

Subjects: AI, Cybersecurity, Knowledge Management

Examining high prescription drug spending for people with employer sponsored health insurance

“A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that average annual out-of-pocket prescription drug spending for workers and family members decreased from a recent high of $167 in 2009 to $144 in 2014. Most of the decline in out-of-pocket spending occurred between 2009 and 2012 and is likely due to generic substitution for popular drugs that …

Subjects: Economy, Health Care

Selected Characteristics of the Citizen Voting-Age Population

“The U.S. Census Bureau released today selected characteristics of the citizen voting-age population from the 2015 American Community Survey for all U.S. states and congressional districts. These characteristics include selected age groups, sex, race, Hispanic origin, educational attainment, poverty status and household income.”

Subjects: Economy, Education, Government Documents, Poverty

FCC Adopts Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules

“WASHINGTON, October 27, 2016 – The Federal Communications Commission today adopted rules that require broadband Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to protect the privacy of their customers. The rules ensure broadband customers have meaningful choice, greater transparency and strong security protections for their personal information collected by ISPs. The rules implement the privacy requirements of Section …

Subjects: Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

Opioid Addiction: Laws, Regulations, and Other Factors Can Affect Treatment Access

Opioid Addiction: Laws, Regulations, and Other Factors Can Affect Medication-Assisted Treatment Access, GAO-16-833: Published: Sep 27, 2016. Publicly Released: Oct 27, 2016. “Overdoses of opioids such as heroin caused more than 28,000 deaths in the U.S. in 2014. Medication-assisted treatment (which combines medication with behavioral therapy) can reduce opioid addiction. We looked at factors that …

Subjects: Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research, Medicine

The Global Gender Gap Report 2016

“The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum in 2006 as a framework for capturing the magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking their progress over time. The Index benchmarks national gender gaps on economic, education, health and political criteria, and provides country rankings that allow for effective comparisons across regions …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Health Care

Secrecy News reports portions of CIA Records Search Tool will be posted for public access

FAS – Secrecy News – Steven Aftergood: “The Central Intelligence Agency said this week that it will post its database of declassified CIA documents online, making them broadly accessible to all interested users. The database, known as CREST (for CIA Records Search Tool), contains more than 11 million pages of historical Agency records that have …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Libraries

GPO honored for its design services for federal agencies

“The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) wins six 2016 American Graphic Design Awards from Graphic Design USA magazine. GPO’s Creative Services Department offers Federal Agencies a variety of design services: publication design, branding and identity, exhibit graphics, video, multimedia, photography, and security design.  For more than fifty years, Graphic Design USA has recognized the design …

Subjects: E-Government, Government Documents