First-principles computational study of defect clustering in solid solutions of ThO2_{2} with trivalent oxides

The energetics of mixing and defect ordering in solid solutions of fluorite-structured ThO$_{2}$ with oxides of trivalent cations (Sc, In, Y, Nd, La) are investigated by electronic density-functional-theory (DFT). Through DFT calculations of structures enumerated by lattice-algebra techniques, we identify the lowest-energy patterns for defect clustering for four separate dopant concentrations. The most stable structures are characterized by a repulsive interaction between nearest-neighbor vacancies on the oxygen sublattice. The enthalpies of formation with respect to constituent oxides are positive for all dopants considered, and show a tendency to decrease in magnitude as the size and electronegativity of the trivalent dopant decrease. Due to the small positive formation enthalpies and low oxygen-vacancy binding energy with La dopants, La$_{2}$O$_{3}$-ThO$_{2}$ solid solutions are predicted to have relatively high ionic conductivities relative to those for the other aliovalent dopants considered. Our results are compared with those for the more widely studied ZrO$_{2}$ and CeO$_{2}$ fluorite-structured solid solutions with trivalent cations.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

The seasonal migratory behavior of sympatric anadromous Arctic charr and brown trout

The papers of this thesis are not available in Munin: 1. Jensen, J. L. A. & Rikardsen, A. H.: 'Do northern riverine anadromous Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta overwinter in estuarine and marine waters?', Journal of Fish Biology (2008), vol. 73(7):1810-1818, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2008.02042.x 2. Jensen, J. L. A. & Rikardsen, A. H.: 'Archival tags reveal that Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta can use estuarine and marine waters during winter', Journal of Fish Biology (2012), vol. 81(2):735-749, available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2012.03343.x 3. Jensen, J. L. A., Rikardsen, A. H. & Davidsen, J. G.: 'Seasonal migrations and marine area use of sympatric Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta from rivers without access to lakes' (manuscript) 4. Jensen, J. L. A., Rikardsen, A. H., Thorstad, E. B., Suhr, A. H., Davidsen, J. G. & Primicerio, R.: 'Fjord temperatures shape the marine area use of Arctic charr Salvelinus alpinus and brown trout Salmo trutta' (manuscript)This thesis used acoustic and archival telemetry to study fish migrations within and between freshwater and marine habitats. The main novel finding from this thesis work is that both Arctic charr and brown trout originating from rivers without access to lakes can be found in marine waters also during winter. The physical properties of the freshwater habitat may be the main factor controlling in which habitat fish reside during the winter. The fish that left the river during winter were mainly recorded in the estuary, but also in the sea up to 20 km away from the river outlet. There was large individual variation in migratory behavior, and individual fish were documented to reside in pure marine waters for periods lasting from a few hours to several months. The summer migratory behavior study of Arctic charr and brown trout showed that the species segregated in horizontal area use, where Arctic charr preferred colder coastal areas than brown trout. If the migratory behavior is controlled by temperature, it may be strongly influenced in a potential global climate warming scenario. The thesis also showed that migratory fish may have spread the Atlantic salmon parasite Gyrodactylus salaris between watercourses, and that the harvest rates may be proportionally much higher for Arctic charr than brown trout

Combating Phishing Attacks: A Knowledge Management Approach

This paper explores how an organization can utilize its employees to combat phishing attacks collectively through coordinating their activities to create a human firewall. We utilize knowledge management research on knowledge sharing to guide the design of an experiment that explores a central reporting and dissemination platform for phishing attacks. The 2x2 experiment tests the effects of public attribution (to the first person reporting a phishing message) and validation (by the security team) of phishing messages on reporting motivation and accuracy. Results demonstrate that knowledge management techniques are transferable to organizational security and that knowledge management can benefit from insights gained from combating phishing. Specifically, we highlight the need to both publicly acknowledge the contribution to a knowledge management system and provide validation of the contribution. As we saw in our experiment, doing only one or the other does not improve outcomes for correct phishing reports (hits)

Treatment of malignant sinonasal tumours with intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and carbon ion boost (C12)

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most patients with cancers of the nasal cavity or paranasal sinuses are candidates of radiation therapy either due incomplete resection or technical inoperability. Local control in this disease is dose dependent but technically challenging due to close proximity of critical organs and accompanying toxicity. Modern techniques such as IMRT improve toxicity rates while local control remains unchanged. Raster-scanned carbon ion therapy with highly conformal dose distributions may allow higher doses at comparable or reduced side-effects.</p> <p>Methods/design</p> <p>The IMRT-HIT-SNT trial is a prospective, mono-centric, phase II trial evaluating toxicity (primary endpoint: mucositis ≥ CTCAE°III) and efficacy (secondary endpoint: local control, disease-free and overall survival) in the combined treatment with IMRT and carbon ion boost in 30 patients with histologically proven (≥R1-resected or inoperable) adeno-/or squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal cavity or paransal sinuses. Patients receive 24 GyE carbon ions (8 fractions) and IMRT (50 Gy at 2.0 Gy/fraction).</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The primary objective of IMRT-HIT-SNT is to evaluate toxicity and feasibility of the proposed treatment in sinonasal malignancies.</p> <p>Trial Registration</p> <p>Clinical trial identifier <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01220752">NCT 01220752</a></p

Phishing Susceptibility across Industries: The Differential Impact of Influence Techniques

Organizations are increasingly becoming the target of phishing attacks, and victimization is typically accompanied by financial loss, disclosure of private information, and reputational damage. Building on existing persuasion and phishing literature, we argue that shared industry practices, values, and assumptions alter the effectiveness of phishing influence techniques. We tested our hypotheses with a quasi-experiment (n = 10,967) using a secondary dataset containing the results of mock phishing attacks sent to 30 finance and 15 non-finance organizations. Results demonstrated variability in susceptibility to phishing influence techniques due to industry. Consistent with our theorizing, phishing techniques such as liking were more effective among non-finance organizations and social proof, reciprocity, and authority were more effective among finance organizations. These findings address past inconsistencies in empirical phishing research and offer support for a more nuanced perspective concerning phishing susceptibility due to industry characteristics. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

The research use exemption from patent infringement - boon or bane?

Unternehmen und Forschungsinstitute haben durch Ausnahmeregelungen im Patentrecht die Möglichkeit, kostenfrei auf patentrechtlich geschütztes Know-How Dritter zurückzugreifen, ohne eine Klage wegen Patentrechtsverletzung fürchten zu müssen. Die nationalen Gesetze unterschieden sich deutlich nach Art und Umfang der Ausnahmeregelung. Daher stellt sich die Frage, ob und wie sich diese Unterschiede auf die Innovationsneigung von Unternehmen auswirken. Eine Studie des Zentrums für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) zeigt, wie die Patentgesetzgebung mit Ausnahmeregelungen für Forschungszwecke ein ausgewogenes Verhältnis zur Förderung des technologischen Fortschritts finden kann, zur Diffusion neu gewonnener Erkenntnisse beiträgt, gleichzeitig jedoch genügend Anreize für Investitionen in die Generierung neuer Erkenntnisse verbleiben. Zur Untersuchung dieser Fragestellungen modellieren die Wissenschaftler zunächst unterschiedlich stark ausgeprägte Versionen einer Ausnahmeregelung für Forschungszwecke innerhalb eines kumulativ verlaufenden Innovationsprozesses. In einem zweiten Schritt werden die theoretisch abgeleiteten Aussagen anhand empirischer Daten aus einer Online-Umfrage, die in Deutschland und Australien durchgeführt wurde, untermauert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Wirkung von Patentausnahmen wesentlich von derem genauen Zuschnitt abhängt und es daher keinen generellen Aussagen zur Innovations- und Diffusionswirkung von Forschungsausnahmen geben kann

Phishing Training: A Preliminary Look at the Effects of Different Types of Training

In this paper, we present the preliminary results of an experiment conducted to observe the impact of the different training techniques to increase the likelihood of participants identifying and reporting phishing messages. Three different training approaches were used – general video/quiz training, just-in-time training with simulated phishing emails, and a leaderboard, which awarded users points for forwarding correct phishing messages and penalized them for incorrect ones. The experiment emulated a normal working day of an executive assistant of a manager in an organization. Each participant was expected to accomplish work tasks and respond to work-related emails while watching for and reporting phishing messages. We observed that both general training and the presence of a leaderboard decreased the propensity to click on a phishing message, while we found no effect for different types of just-in-time training

The role of spirituality in pain, function, and coping in Individuals with chronic pain

Chronic pain is a multidimensional experience associated with psychosocial (e.g., pain-related beliefs and pain coping responses) and spiritual factors. Spirituality is a universal aspect of the human experience that has been hypothesized to impact pain experience via its effects on pain, physical/psychological function, resilience and pain-related beliefs, and pain coping responses. However, research evaluating the associations between measures of spirituality and measures of pain and function in individuals with chronic pain is limited. This study seeks to address this limitation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pain diagnosis, pain coping, and function in individuals with chronic musculoskeletal pain

Purpose: Research supports a role for coping responses in adjustment to chronic pain. However, it is likely that some coping responses play a larger role in adjustment to pain for some individuals than others. The identification of the factors that moderate the association between coping responses and pain-related outcomes has important clinical implications. This study sought to determine if musculoskeletal pain diagnosis moderates the associations between eight pain-coping responses and both pain and function. Patients and Methods: A non-probabilistic sample of 323 persons with different chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions completed measures of pain intensity, physical function, psychological function, and pain-coping responses. Results: With only one exception, the frequency of use of pain-coping responses was not associated with pain diagnosis. Statistically significant moderation effects of pain diagnosis on the association between coping and pain outcomes were found for two coping responses: 1) support seeking when predicting pain intensity, and 2) resting when predicting both physical and psychological function. Conclusion: The findings indicate that coping responses tend to play a similar role in patients' pain and function across different musculoskeletal pain conditions, with some important exceptions. If the findings are found to replicate in other samples, they would have important implications for determining when psychosocial pain treatments might (and when they might not) need to be adapted for specific diagnostic groups.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - FCTinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Carbon Ion irradiation in the treatment of grossly incomplete or unresectable malignant peripheral nerve sheaths tumors: acute toxicity and preliminary outcome

Background: To report our early experience with carbon ion irradiation in the treatment of gross residual or unresectable malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNST). Methods: We retrospectively analysed 11 patients (pts) with MPNST, who have been treated with carbon ion irradiation (C12) at our institution between 2010 and 2013. All pts had measurable gross disease at the initiation of radiation treatment. Median age was 47 years (29-79). Tumors were mainly located in the pelvic/sacral (5 pts) and sinunasal/orbital region (5 pts). 5 pts presented already in recurrent situation, 3 pts had been previously irradiated, and in 3 pts MPNST were neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) associated. Median cumulative dose was 60 GyE. Treatment was carried out either as a combination of IMRT plus C12 boost (4 pts) or C12 only (7 pts). Results: Median follow-up was 17 months (3-31 months). We observed 3 local progressions, translating into estimated 1- and 2-year local control rates of 65%. One patient developed distant failure, resulting in estimated 1- and 2-year PFS rates of 56%. Two patients have died, therefore the estimated 1- and 2-year OS rates are 75%. Acute radiation related toxicities were generally mild, no grade 3 side effects were observed. Severe late toxicity (grade 3) was scored in 2 patients (trismus, wound healing delays). Conclusion: Carbon ion irradiation yields very promising short term local control and overall survival rates with low morbidity in patients suffering from gross residual or unresectable malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors and should be further investigated in a prospective trial