How efficient is an integrative approach in archaeological geophysics? Comparative case studies from Neolithic settlements in Thessaly (Central Greece)

The geophysical prospection of Neolithic tells imposes specific challenges due to the preservation and nature of the architectural context and the multiple, usually disturbed, soil strata. Contrary to the usual application of a single method, this paper deals with the advantages of using an integrated geophysical approach through the employment of various methodologies to map the Neolithic cul-tural and environmental landscape of Thessalian tells (magoules) in Central Greece. The success and failure of each method in resolving the various features of the magoules are discussed in detail, and as a whole, they demonstrate the benefits of a manifold geophysical prospection of the sites

Security assessment of the Spanish contactless identity card

The theft of personal information to fake the identity of a person is a common threat normally performed by individual criminals, terrorists, or crime rings to commit fraud or other felonies Recently, the Spanish identity card, which provides enough information to hire online products such as mortgages or loans, was updated to incorporate a near-field communication chip as electronic passports do. This contactless interface brings a new attack vector for criminals, who might take advantage of the radio-frequency identification communication to virtually steal personal information. In this study, the authors consider as case study the recently deployed contactless Spanish identity card assessing its security against identity theft. In particular, they evaluated the security of one of the contactless access protocol as implemented in the contactless Spanish identity card, and found that no defences against online brute-force attacks were incorporated. They then suggest two countermeasures to protect against these attacks. Furthermore, they also analysed the pseudo-random number generator within the card, which passed all the performed tests with good results

Joint environmental policy making and sustainable practices for the cardboard production: case study: Smurfit Kappa

Purpose – This paper presents an analysis of the influence of “Joint Environmental Policy-making” (JEP) in the operation of the company Smurfit Kappa (SK) in The Netherlands, Austria and Denmark (NL&AD). The paper aims to answer the question: to what extend has different levels of jointness and voluntariness of cardboard packaging-chain agreements between federal, governmental and business actors led to different recycling performances within the same company? Design/methodology/approach – JEP's analysis was framed under the model described by Mol, Volkmar and Liefferink by using information from mixed-methods throughout a semi-structured questionnaire for interviews and revision of relevant secondary data. This is a case of cross-national comparison for which origin and implementation level of JEPs were described per country, in accordance with those stages of the cardboard production chain. Findings – Jointness and voluntariness amongst other actors from governmental areas and business ranked high for the Dutch packaging-chain agreements with a visible impact in SK's recycling rates. SK in Austria and in Denmark, in this order, had a lower implementation level of JEPs which could be reflected in a lower recycling performance than in the Dutch SK subsidiaries. The context matters, including both political and social conditions. In particular, the role of householders as a last link in the recycling chain. Based on this, the selected countries share some societal characteristics associated with the environmental public awareness and active social participation. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an analysis of how environmental policy making is affected by the country context within the same company

Binary Biometrics: An Analytic Framework to Estimate the Performance Curves Under Gaussian Assumption

In recent years, the protection of biometric data has gained increased interest from the scientific community. Methods such as the fuzzy commitment scheme, helper-data system, fuzzy extractors, fuzzy vault, and cancelable biometrics have been proposed for protecting biometric data. Most of these methods use cryptographic primitives or error-correcting codes (ECCs) and use a binary representation of the real-valued biometric data. Hence, the difference between two biometric samples is given by the Hamming distance (HD) or bit errors between the binary vectors obtained from the enrollment and verification phases, respectively. If the HD is smaller (larger) than the decision threshold, then the subject is accepted (rejected) as genuine. Because of the use of ECCs, this decision threshold is limited to the maximum error-correcting capacity of the code, consequently limiting the false rejection rate (FRR) and false acceptance rate tradeoff. A method to improve the FRR consists of using multiple biometric samples in either the enrollment or verification phase. The noise is suppressed, hence reducing the number of bit errors and decreasing the HD. In practice, the number of samples is empirically chosen without fully considering its fundamental impact. In this paper, we present a Gaussian analytical framework for estimating the performance of a binary biometric system given the number of samples being used in the enrollment and the verification phase. The error-detection tradeoff curve that combines the false acceptance and false rejection rates is estimated to assess the system performance. The analytic expressions are validated using the Face Recognition Grand Challenge v2 and Fingerprint Verification Competition 2000 biometric databases

Crosslinking of rigid poly(vinyl chloride)

Various formulations for the crosslinking of rigid poly(vinyl chloride) have been investigated including three different thermal stabilisers: a tin maleate; an octyl thio tin stabiliser; and a tribasic lead sulphate. The possibility of using aminosilanes and peroxides as crosslinking agents was considered and the additives used in the formulations were bis(-trimethoxysilylpropyl)amine, a blend of trimethylol propane trimethacrylate and amorphous silica, and 1,1-di-t-butylperoxy-3,3,5-trimethyl cyclohexane incorporating 40% peroxide. It was shown that rigid poly(vinyl chloride) can be crosslinked using both aminosilane and peroxide systems and the optimum level of the aminosilane was found to be 2 phr while significant property improvements were achieved with only 0·5 phr peroxide. The effects of the various thermal stabilisers and crosslinking additives are presented and discussed

Biological activity of glucosinolate derived compounds isolated from seed meal of Brassica crops and evaluated as plant and food protection agents

Glucosinolates are amino acid derived allelochemicals characteristic of plants of the order Capparales. These compounds are present in seeds of agriculturally common Brassica crops in varying quantities depending on the species (ref). The use of the remaining seed cake after oil extraction has traditionally been limited by the concentration of these compounds. However, the extraction of glucosinolates from seed meal is nowadays possible and it further contributes to an increased quality of the seed meal for feed (Sørensen et al., this conference). Glucosinolates are hydrolysed by endogenous enzymes (myrosinases; EC 3.2.1.147) and a number of compounds are produced depending on the parent glucosinolate and the environmental conditions.1 Among these compounds, oxazolidine-2-thiones are known for their antinutritional effects on monogastric animals, whereas isothiocyanates are fungicidal, nematocidal and herbicidal.2,3 The possibility for using glucosinolates as precursors for environmental friendly biocides therefore exists, which could contribute to increase the value of the Brassica seed meal

Photobioreactor Design and Fluid Dynamics

Photobioreactor design is a subject of great relevance for the attainment of a sustained development in modern technology,and has also considerable interest from the basic scientific and technologic point of view.The aim of the present review paper is presenting and comparing some of the recent attempts by the authors of modelling photosynthesis in reactors.A short inspection of the kinetic models proposed for photobioreactor design is done,and some examples of the integration of such kinetic models and bioreactor fluid dynamics in the modelling of photobioreactors are presented

Luxación Posterior de Hombro

Se presentan cuatro casos de luxación posterior de hombro , de etiología trau - mática aguda . Se realiza una reseña de las características anatomopatológicas, del estudio clínico y radiográfico así como del tratamiento que fué conservador en todos los casos, utilizándose sólo en dos casos de reducción inestable fijación con agujas de Kirschner. La valoración de los resultados fué uniformemente buenaTh e author s repor t fou r case s o f posterio r shoulde r dislocatio n o f traumati c etiology , emphasizin g th e followin g aspects: Clinica l an d X-ra y traits, the - rapeuti c procedure s an d follow-u p results. Tw o case s wer e treate d withou t surger y a n d anothe r tw o stabilizatio n wit h Kirschne r wire s wa s used . En d results wer e uniformel y good