On the Impact of Information Provided to Employees on their Intention to Disclose Data Collected by Smart Watches to their Employers

Companies are increasingly equipping employees with smart watches to improve employees\u27 performance, health, or safety. Thus employers can collect sensitive employees\u27 data using smart watches, including, e.g., employees\u27 health and emotions. This paper investigates the effects of employers\u27 provided information on the employees\u27 intention to share information like activity, health, and location when equipped with a smart watch, considering the privacy calculus. To this end, we have conducted a scenario-based online survey with 1,214 participants in which they have to imagine being equipped with a smart watch by their employer. The scenario was changed in a post-test by increasing employers\u27 provided information to measure the impact of this change on the participants\u27 decisions. Our results indicate that the more information employers provide, the less the participants are willing to disclose data. Therefore, employees who obtain transparent information tend to weigh risks significantly higher in the associated cost-benefit analysis

Reentrant phase behaviour for systems with competition between phase separation and self-assembly

In patchy particle systems where there is competition between the self-assembly of finite clusters and liquid-vapour phase separation, reentrant phase behaviour is observed, with the system passing from a monomeric vapour phase to a region of liquid-vapour phase coexistence and then to a vapour phase of clusters as the temperature is decreased at constant density. Here, we present a classical statistical mechanical approach to the determination of the complete phase diagram of such a system. We model the system as a van der Waals fluid, but one where the monomers can assemble into monodisperse clusters that have no attractive interactions with any of the other species. The resulting phase diagrams show a clear region of reentrance. However, for the most physically reasonable parameter values of the model, this behaviour is restricted to a certain range of density, with phase separation still persisting at high densities.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure

Path integral bosonization of the 't Hooft determinant: fluctuations and multiple vacua

The 't Hooft six quark flavor mixing interaction (N_f=3) is bosonized by the path integral method. The considered complete Lagrangian is constructed on the basis of the combined 't Hooft and U(3)X U(3) extended chiral four fermion Nambu-Jona-Lasinio interactions. The method of the steepest descents is used to derive the effective mesonic Lagrangian. Additionally to the known lowest order stationary phase (SP) result of Reinhardt and Alkofer we obtain the contribution from the small quantum fluctuations of bosonic configurations around their stationary phase trajectories. It affects the vacuum state of hadrons at low energies: whereas without the inclusion of quantum fluctuations the vacuum is uniquely defined for a fixed set of the model parameters, fluctuations give rise to multivalued solutions of the gap equations, marked at instances by drastic changes in the quark condensates. We derive the new gap equations and analyse them in comparison with known results. We classify the solutions according to the number of extrema they may accomodate. We find up to four solutions in the 0<m_(u,s)<3$ GeV region.Comment: RevTex, 9 pages, 8 figures, slightly modified introduction, one added reference and added acknowledgements, version accepted in Phys. Lett.

High-Resolution Transcriptome Maps Reveal Strain-Specific Regulatory Features of Multiple Campylobacter jejuni Isolates

Campylobacter jejuni is currently the leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis in humans. Comparison of multiple Campylobacter strains revealed a high genetic and phenotypic diversity. However, little is known about differences in transcriptome organization, gene expression, and small RNA (sRNA) repertoires. Here we present the first comparative primary transcriptome analysis based on the differential RNA–seq (dRNA–seq) of four C. jejuni isolates. Our approach includes a novel, generic method for the automated annotation of transcriptional start sites (TSS), which allowed us to provide genome-wide promoter maps in the analyzed strains. These global TSS maps are refined through the integration of a SuperGenome approach that allows for a comparative TSS annotation by mapping RNA–seq data of multiple strains into a common coordinate system derived from a whole-genome alignment. Considering the steadily increasing amount of RNA–seq studies, our automated TSS annotation will not only facilitate transcriptome annotation for a wider range of pro- and eukaryotes but can also be adapted for the analysis among different growth or stress conditions. Our comparative dRNA–seq analysis revealed conservation of most TSS, but also single-nucleotide-polymorphisms (SNP) in promoter regions, which lead to strain-specific transcriptional output. Furthermore, we identified strain-specific sRNA repertoires that could contribute to differential gene regulation among strains. In addition, we identified a novel minimal CRISPR-system in Campylobacter of the type-II CRISPR subtype, which relies on the host factor RNase III and a trans-encoded sRNA for maturation of crRNAs. This minimal system of Campylobacter, which seems active in only some strains, employs a unique maturation pathway, since the crRNAs are transcribed from individual promoters in the upstream repeats and thereby minimize the requirements for the maturation machinery. Overall, our study provides new insights into strain-specific transcriptome organization and sRNAs, and reveals genes that could modulate phenotypic variation among strains despite high conservation at the DNA level

Lithium Nitropyrazolates as Potential Red Pyrotechnic Colorants

Strontium-based red pyrotechnic colorants have fallen into disrepute due to the harmful influence of this alkaline earth metal on adolescents. In this context, the energetic character, safety, and combustion to benign nitrogen gas of nitropyrazoles are used for the design of the corresponding lithiated materials, which are investigated as potential replacements in the current work. For this purpose, the lithium salts of 3,4-dinitro-1H-pyrazole, 3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazole, 4-amino-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazole, 3,4,5-trinitro-1H-pyrazole, and 4-hydroxy-3,5-dinitro-1H-pyrazole were extensively characterized by standard analytical methods, low-temperature single-crystal X-ray diffraction, studies of the thermo-chemical behavior, and sensitivity assessments. Our assumption that the high nitrogen contents and the low oxygen balances of these compounds would adjust a cool, reductive flame atmosphere essential for red emissions by lithium was put to the test

The linear chromosome of the plant-pathogenic mycoplasma 'Candidatus Phytoplasma mali'

BACKGROUND: Phytoplasmas are insect-transmitted, uncultivable bacterial plant pathogens that cause diseases in hundreds of economically important plants. They represent a monophyletic group within the class Mollicutes (trivial name mycoplasmas) and are characterized by a small genome with a low GC content, and the lack of a firm cell wall. All mycoplasmas, including strains of 'Candidatus (Ca.) Phytoplasma asteris' and 'Ca. P. australiense', examined so far have circular chromosomes, as is the case for almost all walled bacteria. RESULTS: Our work has shown that 'Ca. Phytoplasma mali', the causative agent of apple proliferation disease, has a linear chromosome. Linear chromosomes were also identified in the closely related provisional species 'Ca. P. pyri' and 'Ca. P. prunorum'. The chromosome of 'Ca. P. mali' strain AT is 601,943 bp in size and has a GC content of 21.4%. The chromosome is further characterized by large terminal inverted repeats and covalently closed hairpin ends. Analysis of the protein-coding genes revealed that glycolysis, the major energy-yielding pathway supposed for 'Ca. P. asteris', is incomplete in 'Ca. P. mali'. Due to the apparent lack of other metabolic pathways present in mycoplasmas, it is proposed that maltose and malate are utilized as carbon and energy sources. However, complete ATP-yielding pathways were not identified. 'Ca. P. mali' also differs from 'Ca. P. asteris' by a smaller genome, a lower GC content, a lower number of paralogous genes, fewer insertions of potential mobile DNA elements, and a strongly reduced number of ABC transporters for amino acids. In contrast, 'Ca. P. mali' has an extended set of genes for homologous recombination, excision repair and SOS response than 'Ca. P. asteris'. CONCLUSION: The small linear chromosome with large terminal inverted repeats and covalently closed hairpin ends, the extremely low GC content and the limited metabolic capabilities reflect unique features of 'Ca. P. mali', not only within phytoplasmas, but all mycoplasmas. It is expected that the genome information obtained here will contribute to a better understanding of the reduced metabolism of phytoplasmas, their fastidious nutrition requirements that prevented axenic cultivation, and the mechanisms involved in pathogenicity

Physical activity in 9–15 year-old pediatric cancer survivors compared to a nationwide sample

Introduction: Sufficient physical activity (PA) has the potential to mitigate late effects of cancer, but objective data of PA levels in adolescents are scarce. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in PA behavior between childhood cancer survivors (CCS) and healthy peers. Methods: PA levels of n = 74 CCS and n = 1304 healthy peers from the MoMo study aged 9–15 years were assessed with validated objective accelerometry and group means were compared. A binary multiple logistic regression was performed to investigate the potential predictors of PA. Results: CCS spent significantly more time sedentary (p < 0.001) and less time in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (p = 0.002) compared to the healthy cohort. Subgroup analysis revealed the largest deviations of PA levels for CCS aged 9–11 years who fulfilled international PA recommendations on significantly fewer days than MoMo (p < 0.01). Health conditions seem to be a predictor concerning the fulfillment of international PA recommendations by the WHO (p = 0.015). Conclusions: Our study identified vulnerable groups which seem to require targeted exercise and health behavior change programs to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary time. The presence of treatment sequelae as a significant predictor of insufficient physical activity underlines the need of multidisciplinary supportive care approaches