Information security and law in Europe: Risks checked?

Information security has emerged as a necessity for organisations in order to ensure the integrity, confidentiality and availability of information. Information security, however, has shifted to the foreground of regulation in the European Union (EU) to address potential risks associated with the widespread use of information technology. Information security can be used to safeguard against risks or additionally facilitate users in meeting specific requirements with regard to pertinent legislation. The set up of a dedicated European Agency on information security (ENISA) also highlights the political significance of information security and the need to strive for greater cooperation across EU Member States as well as internationally. While the EU legal framework on information security is by no means complete, the efforts that have been made to tackle pertaining issues are likely to make a significant impact in the EU and beyond.     

Impact of edible coating with or without anti-microbial agent on microbial growth during osmotic dehydration and refrigerated storage of a model plant material

The use of edible coating has proved a valuable tool in improving the efficiency of osmotic dehydration (OD) of plant material. In this study the impact of edible coating with or without an anti-microbial agent (A–M) on microbial growth was investigated. Potato cylinders (15 × 57 mm — D × L) were used as a model plant material. Calcium alginate (CA) coating was applied with or without incorporation of potassium sorbate (PS), at 0.3% of sample weight (before coating). OD took place for 3 h in stirred jars using sucrose solution at 50 °Brix and 40 °C. Microbial growth (Aerobic Plate Count — APC) was monitored both during OD (3 h) and during refrigerated storage at 5 °C (14 days). During OD, a significant reduction of the initial microbial load (ML) in the control (non-coated) treatment was observed, possibly due to a microbial “wash-out” effect. Both coating treatments resulted in a marginal decrease of initial ML in the OD product, suggesting some kind of protection against this effect. During refrigerated storage, the use of coating resulted in reaching the growth plateau several days earlier, which lead to significant reduction of maximum ML, compared to the control treatment. Besides this benefit, coating with A–M helped extend the lag phase and postpone time to reach maximum load by almost 4 days, compared to the simple coating treatment. These results can support further work on the use of more effective types and concentrations of preferably natural anti-microbials to achieve satisfactory stabilization of osmo-dehydrated/refrigerated products, without a negative impact on their minimal processing profile.

Industrial relevance

Osmotic dehydration is a very potent processing tool that has been studied extensively in terms of mass transfer phenomena. Yet, microbial studies in this area are rather scarce; thus industrial applications are very difficult to proceed, due to lack of microbial stabilization data. This is especially crucial in the case of combined, minimal processing methods, such as osmotic dehydration and refrigeration. This work is using edible coating (which is known to promote dehydration efficiency) to incorporate a common anti-microbial agent, in an effort to establish an effective series of hurdles leading to microbial stabilization of osmo-dehydrated, refrigerated products.     

Conditions Affecting Bromate Formation During Ozonation of Bottled Water

Bromate concentration, ozone lifetime and ozone exposure (CT value) measured in bottled water in full-scale runs, were in good agreement to those measured in laboratory experiments. Ozone lifetime in bottled water was high enough to result in a CT value greater than 5 even for ozone dose as low as 0.1?mgO₃/L, at a water pH of 7.6. Bromate was gradually formed during the ozone lifetime. Bormate formation and ozone exposure were significantly influenced by pH. In full-scale runs, an ozone dose of 0.15?mgO₃/L at pH=7.6 resulted in a CT of 10.3 and a bromate concentration of 13.5?µg/L, while at pH=7.25 the values of CT and BrO₃ ^? were 12.6 and 9.6?µg/L, respectively. By decreasing further the pH to 6.8, an increase of CT value to 15.8 and a reduction of bromate to 5.5?µg BrO₃ ^?/L were observed. In addition, results in full-scale runs showed that ozone exposure and bromate concentrations were linearly related to ozone dose in the working range of 0.1 to 0.25?mgO₃/L.     

The occurrence of mirroring in psychotherapy supervision.

Illustrates, in a case study of a 42-yr-old woman, known factors that facilitate mirroring (e.g., therapeutic blind spots, unconscious identifications, temporary regressions in therapist or supervisor) and describes the previously unrecognized impact of the therapeutic milieu on the occurrence of mirroring. Consideration of the therapeutic milieu allows the identification of situations in which mirroring is most likely to occur and those in which mirroring can be falsely suspected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Citizen Centric Identity Management: Chip Tricks?

Accelerating and harmonizing the diffusion and acceptance of electronic services in Europe in a secure and practical way has become a priority of several initiatives in the past few years and a critical factor for citizen and business information society services. As identification and authentication is a critical element in accessing public services the combination of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and smartcards emerges as the solution of choice for eGovernment in Europe. National governments and private initiatives alike vouch their support for this powerful combination to deliver an essential layer of reliable electronic services and address identity requirements in a broad range of application areas. A recent study suggests that several eGovernment implementations point to the direction of electronic citizen identity management as an up and coming challenge.     

Child and parent reports of childhood anxiety: differences in coping styles

This study compares children anxious only on parent report (PR) with those anxious on self-report (SR) and self- and parent report (SPR) to examine the reasons for the reporting differences. Sixty-five children aged 7-12 years who met criteria for one or more Axis I anxiety disorders (25% with comorbid nonanxiety diagnoses) completed standardized measures of anxiety, depression, and coping style. Parents completed measures of child psychopathology and adult coping style. Assessing clinicians completed the Global Assessment of Functioning. All parents endorsed anxiety in their children. Based on their responses on standardized self-report measures of anxiety, children were classified as endorsing anxiety (SPR group) or not endorsing anxiety (PR group). Multivariate analysis of variance revealed that children in the SPR group endorsed more depression and employed a greater variety of coping strategies than children in the PR group. The two groups did not differ on parent or clinician measures. These findings suggest that reporting differences may be related to differences in coping styles in anxious children. SPR children may over report anxiety symptoms due to feelings of decreased self-worth associated with depressive thinking, whereas PR children may be able to distract themselves from their anxieties. The lack of difference in functioning between the two groups suggests that self-report anxiety questionnaire scores are not necessarily indicative of severity.     

The emerging EU framework on cybersecurity certification

The emerging EU cybersecurity certification framework proposed by the European Commission by means of the Cybersecurity Act seeks to complement the efforts of the EU Member States in the area of certification of products and services. While EU Member States retain full operational capacity in the aftermath of this proposal, a European Cybersecurity Coordination Group undertakes the governance of the certification framework and ENISA assumes a role in the drawing up of certification schemes. The expectation that the EU certification framework build upon is that it will enhance the ability of the EU to compete in the global cyber-security arena and improve security conditions for consumers and businesses in the EU as a whole.     

Adjustable Hyperthermia Response of Self‐Assembled Ferromagnetic Fe‐MgO Core–Shell Nanoparticles by Tuning Dipole–Dipole Interactions

The Fe‐MgO core‐shell morphology is proposed within the single‐domain nanoparticle regime as an enhanced magnetically driven hyperthermia carrier. The combinatory use of metallic iron as a core material together with the increased particle size (37–65 nm) triggers the tuning of dipolar interactions between particles and allows for further enhancement of their collective heating efficiency via concentration control. A theoretical universal estimation of hysteresis losses reveals the role of dipolar interactions on heating efficiency and outlines the strong influence of coupling effects on hyperthermia opening a novel roadmap towards multifunctional heat‐triggered theranostics particles.