Maize (Zea mays L.) yield and aflatoxin accumulation responses to exogenous glycinebetaine application

Abstract Exogenously applied glycinebetaine (GB) accumulates at high levels in maize (Zea mays L.). Under water deficit and high temperature conditions GB application produces yield benefits. These sub-optimum conditions often result in high levels of aflatoxin accumulation which reduces grain quality. A 3-year (2008, 2009 and 2010) field experiment was conducted to determine the effects of GB on maize yield and aflatoxin accumulation. Weekly and alternate weekly GB application increased plant biomass by 10 and 13%, respectively. Net photosynthesis increased by 6% with GB application; however, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate and electron transport rate were not significantly affected. Grain yield increased by 6 and 13% with GB applied alternate weekly and weekly, respectively, over control plots averaged over years. GB application resulted in a trend of reduced aflatoxin accumulation in inoculated ears compared with non-inoculated controls in 2009 and 2010; however, inherent field and sampling variation did not allow us to conclude statistically any advantage attributable to GB application. We can conclude that GB did not significantly reduce aflatoxin production in the inoculated treatments

POTENTIAL FOR ECO- TOURISM AS A SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO UTILIZE RESOURCES IN UP-COUNTRY TEA ESTA TES IN SRI LANKA

In the context of tea industry in Sri Lanka, ecotourism has been recognized asan economically viable, environmentally friendly, and socially acceptablenon-crop diversification mechanism to increase profits according to AsianDevelopment Bank report, 2000.The purpose of this study was to assess the potential for ecotourism inupcountry tea plantations in Sri Lanka. Six estates, namely: (1) Hellbodda;(2) Kaloogala; (3) Melfort; (4) Rothschild; (5) Sanquhar, and (6) Sogama thatare located in the Pussellawa plantation sub district have been selected as thecases.Collection of data was characterized by: (1) a field survey at each location toidentify the availability of potential resources for ecotourism (e.g. attractions,infrastructure); (2) a community survey with the estate households; (3) aseries of personnel interviews with the estate management, and (4)questionnaire-based surveys with potential local and foreign tourists to thesesites.The information collected through the field, community, and managementsurveys were used to develop an index - "Tourism Potential Index" (TPI),that explain the capacity of each estate to develop ecotourism. The resultsbased on the TPI suggest that the best location for ecotourism was theRothschild followed by Hellbodda, and Sogama. The results also show thatabout 75% of estate community was in favor of implementing an ecotourismproject, and about 84% and 78% of foreign and local tourists, respectively,are willing to visit such a project. The results highlight the necessity ofimplementing sustainable alternative projects to enhance the quality of life ofthe estate community.

Decentralised and Collaborative Auditing of Workflows

Workflows involve actions and decision making at the level of each participant. Trusted generation, collection and storage of evidence is fundamental for these systems to assert accountability in case of disputes. Ensuring the security of audit systems requires reliable protection of evidence in order to cope with its confidentiality, its integrity at generation and storage phases, as well as its availability. Collusion with an audit authority is a threat that can affect all these security aspects, and there is room for improvement in existent approaches that target this problem. This work presents an approach for workflow auditing which targets security challenges of collusion-related threats, covers different trust and confidentiality requirements, and offers flexible levels of scrutiny for reported events. It relies on participants verifying each other's reported audit data, and introduces a secure mechanism to share encrypted audit trails with participants while protecting their confidentiality. We discuss the adequacy of our audit approach to produce reliable evidence despite possible collusion to destroy, tamper with, or hide evidence

Fungal diversity notes 1512-1610: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions on genera and species of fungal taxa

This article is the 14th in the Fungal Diversity Notes series, wherein we report 98 taxa distributed in two phyla, seven classes, 26 orders and 50 families which are described and illustrated. Taxa in this study were collected from Australia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chile, China, Cyprus, Egypt, France, French Guiana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Mexico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. There are 59 new taxa, 39 new hosts and new geographical distributions with one new combination. The 59 new species comprise Angustimassarina kunmingense, Asterina lopi, Asterina brigadeirensis, Bartalinia bidenticola, Bartalinia caryotae, Buellia pruinocalcarea, Coltricia insularis, Colletotrichum flexuosum, Colletotrichum thasutense, Coniochaeta caraganae, Coniothyrium yuccicola, Dematipyriforma aquatic, Dematipyriforma globispora, Dematipyriforma nilotica, Distoseptispora bambusicola, Fulvifomes jawadhuvensis, Fulvifomes malaiyanurensis, Fulvifomes thiruvannamalaiensis, Fusarium purpurea, Gerronema atrovirens, Gerronema flavum, Gerronema keralense, Gerronema kuruvense, Grammothele taiwanensis, Hongkongmyces changchunensis, Hypoxylon inaequale, Kirschsteiniothelia acutisporum, Kirschsteiniothelia crustaceum, Kirschsteiniothelia extensum, Kirschsteiniothelia septemseptatum, Kirschsteiniothelia spatiosum, Lecanora immersocalcarea, Lepiota subthailandica, Lindgomyces guizhouensis, Marthe asmius pallidoaurantiacus, Marasmius tangerinus, Neovaginatispora mangiferae, Pararamichloridium aquisubtropicum, Pestalotiopsis piraubensis, Phacidium chinaum, Phaeoisaria goiasensis, Phaeoseptum thailandicum, Pleurothecium aquisubtropicum, Pseudocercospora vernoniae, Pyrenophora verruculosa, Rhachomyces cruralis, Rhachomyces hyperommae, Rhachomyces magrinii, Rhachomyces platyprosophi, Rhizomarasmius cunninghamietorum, Skeletocutis cangshanensis, Skeletocutis subchrysella, Sporisorium anadelphiae-leptocomae, Tetraploa dashaoensis, Tomentella exiguelata, Tomentella fuscoaraneosa, Tricholomopsis lechatii, Vaginatispora flavispora and Wetmoreana blastidiocalcarea. The new combination is Torula sundara. The 39 new records on hosts and geographical distribution comprise Apiospora guiyangensis, Aplosporella artocarpi, Ascochyta medicaginicola, Astrocystis bambusicola, Athelia rolfsii, Bambusicola bambusae, Bipolaris luttrellii, Botryosphaeria dothidea, Chlorophyllum squamulosum, Colletotrichum aeschynomenes, Colletotrichum pandanicola, Coprinopsis cinerea, Corylicola italica, Curvularia alcornii, Curvularia senegalensis, Diaporthe foeniculina, Diaporthe longicolla, Diaporthe phaseolorum, Diatrypella quercina, Fusarium brachygibbosum, Helicoma aquaticum, Lepiota metulispora, Lepiota pongduadensis, Lepiota subvenenata, Melanconiella meridionalis, Monotosporella erecta, Nodulosphaeria digitalis, Palmiascoma gregariascomum, Periconia byssoides, Periconia cortaderiae, Pleopunctum ellipsoideum, Psilocybe keralensis, Scedosporium apiospermum, Scedosporium dehoogii, Scedosporium marina, Spegazzinia deightonii, Torula fici, Wiesneriomyces laurinus and Xylaria venosula. All these taxa are supported by morphological and multigene phylogenetic analyses. This article allows the researchers to publish fungal collections which are important for future studies. An updated, accurate and timely report of fungus-host and fungus-geography is important. We also provide an updated list of fungal taxa published in the previous fungal diversity notes. In this list, erroneous taxa and synonyms are marked and corrected accordingly

Information accountability for online healthcare social networks

Online social networking has become one of the most popular Internet applications in the modern era. They have given the Internet users, access to information that other Internet based applications are unable to. Although many of the popular online social networking web sites are focused towards entertainment purposes, sharing information can benefit the healthcare industry in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness. But the capability to share personal information; the factor which has made online social networks so popular, is itself a major obstacle when considering information security and privacy aspects. Healthcare can benefit from online social networking if they are implemented such that sensitive patient information can be safeguarded from ill exposure. But in an industry such as healthcare where the availability of information is crucial for better decision making, information must be made available to the appropriate parties when they require it. Hence the traditional mechanisms for information security and privacy protection may not be suitable for healthcare. In this paper we propose a solution to privacy enhancement in online healthcare social networks through the use of an information accountability mechanism

Implementing a new genre of eHealth system in a reticent environment

This tutorial primarily focuses on the social aspects of implementing a novel eHealth systems called Accountable-eHealth (AeH) systems. The main focus of AeH systems is mitigating information privacy concerns whilst facilitating appropriate access to information for users, and is based on the principles of information accountability (IA)

THE IMPACT OF EMPLOYEE UNREST TOWARDS ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY

The employees are ultimately the people responsible for the success of any organization. If employees’ contribution diminishes overtime that is the point where the whole organization begins to collapse since the problems initiating from employee unrest affect motivation, employee turnover, job satisfaction and profits which may heavily impact on productivity of the organization. Therefore, it is worthwhile to study the problem of “The impact of employee unrest on organizational productivity” in a boarder sense. This paper mainly deals with identifying the root causes of employee unrest and also the nature and impact of employee unrest on organizational productivity by identifying and understanding the relationship between the identifi ed independent variables of amount of work load, nature of employee relations and benefits to the employee and the dependent variable of organizational productivity. This study was based on secondary and primary data. Primary data was collected through the methods of representative survey, depth interview, and focus group. For this purpose a structured questionnaire was used as well as interviewer guides with a sample of 500 respondents through the sampling technique of two stage cluster sampling method. Then, the correlation and multiple regression analysis were applied through SPSS to test the validity of formulated hypotheses. The finding showed that there is a strong positive relationship between the independent and dependent variables which indicate a greater impact from employee unrest towards the overall organizational productivity. Keywords: Employee unrest, Organizational productivity, Employee turnover, Motivation For full paper: [email protected]

1st International Workshop on Secure and Privacy-Aware Information Management in eHealth

Information security and privacy in the healthcare domain is a complex and challenging problem for computer scientists, social scientists, law experts and policy makers. Appropriate healthcare provision requires specialized knowledge, is information intensive and much patient information is of a particularly sensitive nature. Electronic health record systems provide opportunities for information sharing which may enhance healthcare services, for both individuals and populations. However, appropriate information management measures are essential for privacy preservation..

Effect of blend composition on physicochemical properties of natural rubber/linear low density polyethylene blend

Blending of polymers can create new materials with a broad spectrum of physicochemical properties and therefore can be used for a wide range of applications. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of blend composition on physicochemical properties of blends, prepared from natural rubber (NR) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE). In this study, a series of blends was formulated varying NR to LLDPE weight ratio, from 100:0 to 20:80, at intervals of 10 w/w% of each. The blends were prepared with and without diallyl malateas as the compatibilizing agent. The blends were prepared using a Brabender Plasticorder by melt mixing at a temperature of 160 ˚C, and at a rotor speed of 60 rpm. Dicumyl peroxide was used as the vulcanizing agent, and vulcanizates were prepared using a hydraulic press operated at a temperature of 150 ˚C.  The morphology of the blends was studied by means of a reflected light microscope. Swelling properties of the blends were studied by equilibrium swelling method for 7 days at room temperature using toluene and xylene as solvents. Physical and chemical properties were determined according to ASTM standards. Tear strength and modulus at 300% elongation of NR/LLDPE blends at every composition were greater than those of NR containing compound prepared without LLDPE. When tensile properties of the blends are concerned, they decreased with increase in LLDPE loading. However, the blends with LLDPE loading from 10 w/w% up to 40 w/w% showed higher tensile properties than those of NR compound. Hardness of the blends increased with increase in LLDPE loading. The reactive blends prepared with the compatibilizer showed improved physical properties compared to simple blends, prepared without the compatibilizer. Solvent resistance increased with increase in LLDPE loading, and further, the resistance was greater for the compatibilized blends at each composition. The lowest solvent resistance showed with NR. The microscopic image of a simple NR/LLDPE blend, at a specific blend composition, illustrated relatively large agglomerants of LLDPE phase and void at the interface. Reactive NR/LLDPE blend at the same composition illustrated small LLDPE agglomerants uniformly distributed with NR phase. Blends with different properties required for different applications could be obtained by varying the blend composition. The enhanced properties of the reactive blends prepared with diallyl malateas suggest its activity as a good compatibilizer for NR/LLDPE blends

eHealth in Australia and elsewhere : a comparison and lessons for the near future

Meticulous planning and preparation do not always guarantee that eHealth programs unfold as predicted. eHealth entails interdependent social interactions which are difficult to predict without past experience or reference to lessons learned. Judicious insight into past case studies and eventualities, therefore, is essential towards building a successful eHealth solution. Australia’s eHealth program is at a crucial stage where appropriate policy considerations and operational changes are in order. In this paper, we present an initial exploration of prominent eHealth initiatives of other countries to identify similarities, differences and to seek lessons towards making Australia’s eHealth initiative a better journey