Kaleidoscopic data-related enforcement in the digital age

The interplay between competition, consumer and data protection law, when applied to data collection and processing practices, may lead to situations where several competent authorities can, independently, carry out enforcement actions against the same practice, or where an authority competent to carry out enforcement in one area of law can borrow the concepts of another area to advance its own goals. The authors call this “kaleidoscopic enforcement”. Kaleidoscopic enforcement may undermine existing coordination mechanisms within specific areas, and may lead to both the incoherent enforcement of EU rules applicable to data, and to sub-optimal enforcement. An EU level binding inter-disciplinary coordination mechanism between competition, consumer and data protection authorities is needed. Now the Commission has announced ambitious plans to enhance the coherent application of EU law in several areas, it is the perfect time to work towards creating such an enforcement mechanism

Charge ordering and interlayer phase coherence in quantum Hall superlattices

The possibility of the existence of states with a spontaneous interlayer phase coherence in multilayer electron systems in a high perpendicular to the layers magnetic field is investigated. It is shown that phase coherence can be established in such systems only within individual pairs of adjacent layers, while such coherence does not exist between layers of different pairs. The conditions for stability of the state with interlayer phase coherence against transition to a charge-ordered state are determined. It is shown that in the system with the number of layers N\leq 10 these conditions are satisfied at any value of the interlayer distance d. For N>10 there are two intervals of stability: at sufficiently large and at sufficiently small d. For N\to \infty the stability interval in the region of small d vanishesComment: 10 page

PHOTOTUNABLE SELECTIVE REFLECTION OF CHOLESTERIC LIQUID CRYSTALS

The dependence of the helical pitch of a cholesteric liquid crystal based on a composite photosensitive chiral dopant (cChD) on the intensity of light irradiation was studied. The transmission spectra and the selective reflection spectra of cholesteric liquid crystal cells were measured. The concentration of the cChD additive is calculated, so that the peak of selective reflection and its rearrangement occurs in the visible range of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum (380-780 nm). The possibility of photo-control by shifting the peak of the selective reflection of the cChD additive was studied, when exposed to LEDs with wavelengths of 365 nm and 450 nm, while reducing or increasing the intensity, a change in the spiral pitch was observed. Depending on the light intensity, part of the molecules of the chiral additive containing the azo group underwent isomerization, i.e. molecules in the trans-form passed to the cis-form, which led to a spectral shift of the selective reflection peak. If a small intensity of the 365 nm LED was applied, then some of the molecules were forced to transition from the trans- to the cis-form, and then, when illuminated with a 450 nm LED, from the cisto the trans-form. After reversible rearrangement, the properties of cholesteric liquid crystal changes due to interaction with light, because under the influence of light, the equilibrium ratio of the trans- and cis-isomers of the molecules of the substance changed, which macroscopically changed the torsion force of the chiral additive. Using two LEDs of 365 nm and 450 nm with different emission spectra, a reversible control of the cChD selective reflection peak in the visible range was obtained. The maximum displacement occurred at approximately 145 nm.The dependence of the helical pitch of a cholesteric liquid crystal based on a composite photosensitive chiral dopant (cChD) on the intensity of light irradiation was studied. The transmission spectra and the selective reflection spectra of cholesteric liquid crystal cells were measured. The concentration of the cChD additive is calculated, so that the peak of selective reflection and its rearrangement occurs in the visible range of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum (380-780 nm). The possibility of photo-control by shifting the peak of the selective reflection of the cChD additive was studied, when exposed to LEDs with wavelengths of 365 nm and 450 nm, while reducing or increasing the intensity, a change in the spiral pitch was observed. Depending on the light intensity, part of the molecules of the chiral additive containing the azo group underwent isomerization, i.e. molecules in the trans-form passed to the cis-form, which led to a spectral shift of the selective reflection peak. If a small intensity of the 365 nm LED was applied, then some of the molecules were forced to transition from the trans- to the cis-form, and then, when illuminated with a 450 nm LED, from the cisto the trans-form. After reversible rearrangement, the properties of cholesteric liquid crystal changes due to interaction with light, because under the influence of light, the equilibrium ratio of the trans- and cis-isomers of the molecules of the substance changed, which macroscopically changed the torsion force of the chiral additive. Using two LEDs of 365 nm and 450 nm with different emission spectra, a reversible control of the cChD selective reflection peak in the visible range was obtained. The maximum displacement occurred at approximately 145 nm

Wavelet Methods in Steganography

This paper is devoted to graphic information protection by means of computer steganography using wavelet techniques. The methods of the image processing using digital watermarking are classified. Some research of the structure of the digital image is investigated. In the first solution the steganographic system, which usesa discrete wavelet transform for embedding of grayscale watermark into wavelet coefficients of grayscale container is mоdeled and realized. Stego image is achieved by the inverse discrete wavelet transform. Binarization using halftoning algorithm is considered as a kind of powerful attack to stego image. After binarization attack the extracted watermark was found to have acceptable visual quality. The degradation ofthe embedded digital watermark after binarization is estimated using human visual system. Corresponding conclusions on steganographic system stability are drawn. In the second solution we propose the steganographic scheme which uses the proposed wavelet basis images

Model for reconstruction of γ-background during liquid atmospheric precipitation

With regard to reconstructing the gamma background dose rate, existing models are either empirical with limited applicability or have many unknown input parameters, which complicates their application in practice. Due to this, there is a need to search for a new approach and build a convenient, easily applicable and universal model. The paper proposes a mathematical model for reconstructing the temporal evolution of the ambient equivalent γ-radiation dose rate during rain episodes, depending on the density of radon flux from the soil surface, as well as the duration and intensity of rain. The efficiency of the model is confirmed by the high coefficient of determination (R 2 = 0.81–0.99) between the measured and reconstructed ambient equivalent dose rate during periods of rain, the simulation of which was performed using Wolfram Mathematica. An algorithm was developed for restoring the dynamics of the ambient equivalent γ-radiation dose rate during rainfall. Based on the results obtained, assumptions were made where the washout of radionuclides originates. The influence of the radionuclides ratio on the increase in the total γ-radiation dose rate was investigate