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Multicontamination of soils by various organic and inorganic pollutants is considered as an obstacle for the development of hyperaccumulator plants and phytoextraction of metals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in combination with trace elements on the antioxidant response and phytoextraction efficiency of two populations of the hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens from either a metalliferous (Ganges) or a nonmetalliferous (Chavignée) site. Plants were grown for 17 days in soil containing moderate concentrations of trace elements and under the effect of phenanthrene (PHE), a PAH stress model. In general, exposure to PHE resulted in a reduction of growth parameters, together with the upregulation of antioxidant enzymes and compounds and limitations in nutrient uptake and heavy metal extraction in N. caerulescens. Variations were observed in the extent of enzymatic activities and the amount of metals extracted between the two populations studied. Plants from Chavignée exhibited a slightly more tolerant response to PHE stress than those from Ganges. The presence of PHE in the soil proved highly toxic to N. caerulescens, resulting in low numbers of survivors. Nevertheless, the differences observed between the two populations with regard to growth, metal extraction, and antioxidant defense responses suggest that the difference in defense capacity may ensure different tolerance. This difference may be linked to adaptations acquired by each population according to the soil type from which it originates. However, these results need to be confirmed by further experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The immune system of honeybees includes multiple pathways that may be affected by pesticide exposure decreasing the immune competencies of bees and increasing their susceptibility to diseases like the fungal Nosema spp. infection, which is detected in collapsed colonies. Methods: To better understand the effect of the co-presence of multiple pesticides that interact with bees like imidacloprid and amitraz, we evaluated the expression of immune-related genes in honeybee hemocytes. Results: Imidacloprid, amitraz, and the immune activator, zymosan A, mainly affect the gene expression in the Toll pathway. Discussion: Imidacloprid, amitraz, and zymosan A have a synergistic or an antagonistic relationship on gene expression depending on the level of immune signaling. The presence of multiple risk factors like pesticides and pathogens requires the assessment of their complex interaction, which has differential effects on the innate immunity of honeybees as seen in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The immune system of honeybees includes multiple pathways that may be affected by pesticide exposure decreasing the immune competencies of bees and increasing their susceptibility to diseases like the fungal Nosema spp. infection, which is detected in collapsed colonies. Methods: To better understand the effect of the co-presence of multiple pesticides that interact with bees like imidacloprid and amitraz, we evaluated the expression of immune-related genes in honeybee hemocytes. Results: Imidacloprid, amitraz, and the immune activator, zymosan A, mainly affect the gene expression in the Toll pathway. Discussion: Imidacloprid, amitraz, and zymosan A have a synergistic or an antagonistic relationship on gene expression depending on the level of immune signaling. The presence of multiple risk factors like pesticides and pathogens requires the assessment of their complex interaction, which has differential effects on the innate immunity of honeybees as seen in this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many traditional forms of advertising are losing ground to alternative media. Such a trend represents opportunities for the promotional products medium. However, the effectiveness of promotional products in comparison to other advertising alternatives has not been widely empirically tested. This experiment examines responses to advertising media by employing two sets of seven randomly assigned conditions at two major U.S. universities. The findings revealed statistically significant effective improvements in contrast to television advertising when promotional products were used in credibility perceptions, attitudes towards the advertisement and the product, and behavioural intents such as purchasing intent and referral intent. Additionally, positive effects were observed when promotional products were used in conjunction with television and print advertising compared with television and print advertising alone. Future directions for research are recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Pesticide exposure is a risk factor affecting insect immune response and may participate in honeybee colony deaths. Changes in the immune response may hinder insects more susceptible to diseases and increase the risk of pathogen infection and pest resistance. We found that imidacloprid and amitraz alter the oxidative response of insect hemocytes at different concentrations of the immune stimulator, zymosan A. There is a differential effect of imidacloprid and amitraz on hemocytes of insects from different orders and their effect on oxidative response in insects persists beyond the point of early contact with zymosan A. Invertebrates have a diverse immune system that responds differently to stressors such as pesticides and pathogens, which leads to different degrees of susceptibility. Honeybees are facing a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder which is attributed to several factors including pesticides and pathogens. We applied an in vitro approach to assess the response of immune-activated hemocytes from Apis mellifera, Drosophila melanogaster and Mamestra brassicae after exposure to imidacloprid and amitraz. Hemocytes were exposed to the pesticides in single and co-exposures using zymosan A for immune activation. We measured the effect of these exposures on cell viability, nitric oxide (NO) production from 15 to 120 min and on extracellular hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production after 3 h to assess potential alterations in the oxidative response. Our results indicate that NO and H2O2 production is more altered in honeybee hemocytes compared to D. melanogaster and M. brassicae cell lines. There is also a differential production at different time points after pesticide exposure between these insect species as contrasting effects were evident with the oxidative responses in hemocytes. The results imply that imidacloprid and amitraz act differently on the immune response among insect orders and may render honeybee colonies more susceptible to infection and pests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a probabilistic image encryption scheme that improves on existing deterministic schemes by using a chaining mode of chaotic maps in a permutation-masking process. Despite its simplicity, the permutation phase destroys any correlation between adjacent pixel values in a meaningful image. The masking phase, however, modifies the pixel values of the image at hand using pseudorandom numbers with some other initiated random numbers so that any slight change in the plain image spreads throughout the corresponding cipher image. These random numbers ensure the generation of distinct cipher images for the same plain image encryption, even if it is encrypted multiple times with the same key, thereby adding some security features. Simulations show that the proposed scheme is robust to common statistical and security threats. Furthermore, the scheme is shown to be competitive with existing image encryption schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill, also known as the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill, is considered the largest marine accident in the history of the industry. The 2010 incident in the Gulf of Mexico resulted in the killing of 11 crew members, posing serious health risks to thousands of people and creating massive damages to wildlife habitats and fishing and tourism industries. This case study investigates how British Petroleum dealt with the crisis that left lasting serious negative impacts on its brand and reputation. The investigation reveals that BP used a wide range of public relations activities to rebuild its reputation, but the company was not well prepared to handle such a disaster. The authors report that BP also originally made grave mistakes in: (1) trying to spin its way of the crisis rather than tackling the challenges head on and (2) focusing heavily on advertising during the clean-up operation. The authors conclude that BP's corporate brand continues to lag behind that of competitors such as Shell and Exxon, but that a change in company leadership has undertaken a more ethical communication strategy that is showing signs of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new family of 4-dimensional chaotic cat maps. This family is then used in the design of a novel block-based image encryption scheme. This scheme is composed of two independent phases, a robust light shuffling phase and a masking phase which operate on imageblocks. It utilizes measures of central tendency to mix blocks of the image at hand to enhance security against a number of cryptanalytic attacks. The mixing is designed so that while encryption is highly sensitive to the secret key and the input image, decryption is robust against noise and cropping of the cipher-image. Empirical results show high performance of the suggested scheme and its robustness againstwell-known cryptanalytic attacks. Furthermore, comparisons with existing image encryption methods are presented which demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Im Zuge der Produktionsdigitalisierung werden mehr Daten aufgenommen und ausgewertet. Neue Roboter besitzen eine integrierte Drehmomentsensorik. Diese erfasst nicht nur interne Roboterdaten, sondern auch externe Einflüsse. Diese Daten können zur Inbetriebnahme von Prozessen oder zur Aussage der Qualität verwendet werden. Um den Roboter als Messgerät einzubinden, bedarf es einer Untersuchung der Genauigkeit der integrierten Drehmomentsensoren. Zur Untersuchung wurde eine Vorgehensweise entwickelt, welche zwei vorhandene Methoden aus unterschiedlichen Disziplinen miteinander kombiniert. Zum einen wird die Methode DMAIC aus dem Qualitätsmanagement zur Strukturierung der Untersuchung und zum anderen wird der Eignungsnachweis von Prüfprozessen zur inhaltlichen Ermittlung von Wissen verwendet. Durch einen Versuchsaufbau mit Gewichtskräften am Endeffektor des Roboters werden die systematische und zufällige Messabweichung der Drehmomentsensoren im Roboter bestimmt. Ziel dieses Papers ist die Analyse des Einsatzes eines Roboters mit integrierten Drehmomentsensoren als Messmittel im Montageprozess. Als ein Anwendungsfall wird die Erfassung der dynamischen Parameter eines Roboterwerkzeuges beschrieben. Gleichzeitig wurde eine neue Methodik zur Parametererfassung entwickelt, die im Vergleich zur Standardvorgehensweise deutliches Verbesserungspotenzial hinsichtlich der Genauigkeit aufweist. In the course of production digitization, more data is recorded and evaluated. New robots have integrated torque sensors. The latter records internal robot data and external influences. These data can be used for the commissioning processes or for quality control. Therefore, processes become more transparent and quantifiable. In order to integrate the robot as a measuring device, it is necessary to examine the suitability of the investigation procedure. A novel approach was developed for the investigation, which combines two existing methods from different disciplines. On the one hand, the DMAIC method from quality management is used to structure the investigation and on the other hand, the test process suitability is used for the substantial determination of knowledge. In order to determine the systematic and random measurement error of the robot, results are identified by a test setup. The aim of this paper is to analyse the use of a robot with integrated torque sensors as a measuring device in the assembly process. As an application of a robot with measuring ability, the identification of the dynamic parameters of a robot tool is described. For this purpose, a new innovative methodology was developed, which shows clear improvement potential in comparison to the conventional method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A (k, n)-threshold secret image sharing scheme is any method of distributing a secret image amongst n participants in such a way that any k participants are able to use their shares collectively to reconstruct the secret image, while fewer than k shares do not reveal any information about the secret image. In this work, we propose a lossless linear algebraic (k, n)-threshold secret image sharing scheme. The scheme associates a vector vi to the ith participant in the vector space Fk2α , where the vectors vi satisfy some admissibility conditions. The ith share is simply a linear combination of the vectors vi with coefficients from the secret image. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme compared to standard statistical attacks on secret image sharing schemes. Furthermore, the proposed scheme has a high level of security, errorresilient capability, and the size of each share is 1/k the size of the secret image. In comparison with existing work, the scheme is shown to be very competitive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adverting standardization has been widely discussed since 1990s. Recently, this discussion has been extended to mobile advertising. When it comes to adopt a standardization or localization strategy, it is important that marketers understand how mobile advertising is perceived in different markets. This study examines the impacts of four perceived values of mobile advertising on young Australian and Chinese consumers' acceptance of mobile advertising. The findings suggest that perceived functional value have the most positive effect on mobile advertising acceptance, followed by credibility and interactivity value. Further analyses reveal that culture moderates the relationships between perceived values and advertising acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Cloud computing and its service models, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS), have changed the way that computing resources are allocated to Information and Communications Technology enterprises and users. Although multiple cloud providers support dynamic service provisioning, it is necessary to facilitate the management of the cloud infrastructure and applications in order to allow the continuous refinement of cloud models. Therefore, issues are raised regarding the cloud orchestration, including the flexible portability and interoperability of cloud applications among multiple cloud providers. Having said that, there is a need for a standardized design and management of the cloud use cases (during the creation of scenarios, application's deployment, and patching) to ensure efficient applications' migration between different providers. This paper proposes an artifact, GITS, a generic input template for CloudSim and other cloud simulators. GITS can be provided by PaaS offering to manage the creation, monitoring, administration, and patching of infrastructure and applications in the cloud. GITS defines the cloud schema that can be used with conforming cloud models and independent cloud providers; thus, portability and interoperability can be enabled in PaaS cloud models. GITS focuses on the architecture‐based modeling for cloud infrastructure and application not only in terms of computational resources but also in terms of high availability properties associated with infrastructure and applications. The main objective of the GITS template is to provide the cloud user with a modular, simple, readable, and reusable model that still supports the essential components and provide them with the ability to control the applications' execution, deployment, and other management needs in addition to the allocation environment. This paper describes GITS usage, specifically as an input template for CloudSim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the interconnected globe where service delivery is the success measure, cloud high availability (HA) is an indispensable area for enterprises. An HA-aware cloud system provides different approaches to handle the outages. This includes geo-redundancy, failover schemes, and HA-aware placement solutions. However, using real-cloud platforms to model HA-aware approaches is hindered by the configuration settings. To this end, simulation tools, such as CloudSim, can be used to evaluate HA solutions and a cloud resiliency against failures. CloudSim allows implementing of scheduling policies, but it does not support HA properties. This paper provides availability-aware CloudSim extension (ACE). ACE extends CloudSim with a graphical and textual modeling to ensure simplicity and reusability of cloud scenarios. ACE has added HA-aware modeling (HA metrics and failure/redundancy/interdependency models) and HA-aware scheduling (HA-aware placements, failover, repair, and load balancing policies) into CloudSim. With ACE, the creation of cloud scenarios is facilitated, and multiple HA-aware deployment solutions can be evaluated under different stochastic and deterministic events. ACE can assess the impact of different redundancy/failure models, and other performance policies to extract HA-aware lessons. In this paper, ACE is assessed on a cloud application to evaluate different redundancy/failure models and provide availability analysis of the HA-aware placement solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phytoextraction represents an innovative approach in the management of nickel (Ni) rich soils whether natural (ultramafic) or anthropogenic (contaminated sites). However, its success depends both on the production of a high plant biomass and the ability of plants to accumulate metals. The application of nitrogen (N) fertilizer can improve the biological and chemical soil fertility and thus agricultural yields. Moreover, soil microorganisms play a key role by influencing nutrient flows, which are the main limiting factors of plant growth in degraded soils. In this work, we investigated the effects of two levels of both Ni and mineral N soil applications on the microbial activities and Ni phytoextraction efficiency by Alyssum murale growing in a pot experiment during 5 months. Plant growth, nutrients and Ni uptake, soil microbial populations and their enzymatic activities involved in the biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon and sulfur (urease, alkaline phosphatase, β-glucosidase and arylsulfatase, respectively) were determined. The results showed that plant dry mass was unsurprisingly not affected when the soil Ni concentration was increased. However, it led to an increase of the amount of Ni extracted per pot. A negative effect of Ni addition was observed on both total bacteria and urease activity, without any effect on other enzymes. On the contrary, N fertilizer played a significant positive role by promoting both plant growth and Ni phytoextraction, partly as a result of the stimulation and flourishing of bacterial populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A secret image sharing scheme is any method of distributing shares of a secret image amongst a set of peers, such that the secret may be revealed only with participation of all members of a qualified set of peers. Following Shamir’s (t, n)-threshold scheme, we propose a novel lossy/lossless secret image sharing scheme, that improves existing schemes in terms of security and performance. As opposed to the usual convention of representing a digital image by a collection of 8-bit integer values, we consider 8b-bit values where b is a positive integer. This approach accommodates a larger finite field, which in turn produces a less intrusive secret image sharing scheme. Extensive empirical results are presented to demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a novel ( t, n)-threshold secret image sharing scheme based on Shamir's polynomial interpolation paradigm. The proposed scheme is a derivative of Thien and Lin's (Computers & Graphics 26(5):765-770, [13]) and some of its variants by ensuring less intrusive changes in the secret image. This is achieved by cyclically shifting the bits of the secret image, thus allowing a modification in the least significant bit to have a large effect on the values used in computation of shadow images. Statistical tests and simulations are presented to show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed scheme, in particular good randomness of shadow images, little correlation between adjacent pixels, and high entropy. Competence of the proposed scheme is further demonstrated by means of comparison with existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phosphate fertilizers represent a major source of trace metal contaminants in agricultural soils. To predict the inputs and the fate of trace metals in soils of the eastern Mediterranean region, a speciation study was conducted using a total of 44 phosphate fertilizers commercialized in the area. The contents in major anions and potentially toxic metals (Zn, Pb, Cd, and Cu) were determined using atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). The nature of mineral phases in the fertilizer was characterized using X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry. The results show that sulfates are the main Cd-bearing phases when present in the P-fertilizer. The contents in Zn and Pb were linearly related, whereas the levels of Sb, Ag, Pd, Nb, Mo, and P2O5 were strongly correlated to each other. The annual average inputs of Zn, Cu, Pb, and Cd were calculated to be 922, 124, 26, and 6 g/ha per year, respectively. Even though such inputs comply with the maximal metals concentrations authorized in temperate countries, an accumulation of those metals in the typical arid and alkaline soils of the eastern Mediterranean countries is expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at drunk-driving test system of traditional single-point automobile which has neglected the influence of flow of in-car airflow on test precision and accuracy, this paper puts forwards in-car drunkdriving measurement and control method that is based on fusion technology of multi-sensors by exploration. Based on information fusion algorithm of D-S proof theory design, main hardware system and working mode of drunk-driving measurement and control system has been designed; scheme design of automobile drunk-driving test and control system that is based on multi-sensor test has been completed. When system model of cubature Kalman smoothing is instable or abnormal, smoothing divergency will occur. In order to solve this problem, fusion algorithm of self-adaptive cubature Kalman smoothing is put forwarded. Noise system statistical estimator has been designed to carry out on-line real-time estimation about statistical characteristics of noise; smoothing process shall be modified by adopting modified function when measurement is abnormal, so that precision of smoothing estimation and suppression ability for smoothing divergency are both improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-modal associations refer to non-arbitrary associations of features across sensory modalities. Such associations have been observed between many different sensory features. One association that has rarely been studied so far is between touch and color. In this study, participants were asked to match tactile and haptic adjectives to color samples shown individually on a screen. They could select one to 11 tactile and haptic terms, presented in 11 pairs of opposed adjectives. The results showed a regular pattern in the way tactile and haptic terms were matched to color. Our results further revealed that the colors to which tactile and haptic terms were matched did not fall within the boundaries of color lexical categories, suggesting that the associations were not based on lexicon -- despite the frequent occurrence of linguistic expressions such as 'soft pink', not all colors called 'pink' were matched to 'soft'. In contrast with one recent study, the distribution of tactile and haptic terms across the Munsell array suggests that along with brightness and chroma, hue was also relevant to participants' responses. Specifically in the case of hue, several opposed adjectives were relatively well matched to opposed colors, along the orthogonal Yellow/Blue and Red/Green axes, which are suggested to structure the space of hue experience. Possible accounts of these results are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea of employing chaotic maps in building encryption schemes has attracted the attention of many researchers since the late 1980s. In 1998, M.S. Baptista proposed an elegant encryption scheme based on a one-dimensional chaotic map. Many variants of this scheme have been proposed. Baptista's scheme and some of its variants have been subjected to cryptanalytic attacks such as the one-time pad attack and the entropy attack. We propose a variant of Baptista's encryption scheme based on two coupled one-dimensional chaotic maps, which also employs mixing, that is, every character in the ciphertext depends on all preceding plaintext characters. Our proposed scheme overcomes the aforementioned attacks. Empirical results show that this idea improves the performance of the scheme. Baptista's approach generates a ciphertext, which is generally larger than the plaintext, but the distribution of the ciphertext symbols allows compression. Simulation results verify that our proposed scheme accommodates better compression rates than the original scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This study aims to explore advertising strategies by US corporations selling consumer services overseas. Attention is extended to determining the type of standardized advertising (pattern vs prototype) that US headquarters tend to use in international campaigns, identifying major obstacles that impede advertising standardization and examining linkages between the use of creative approaches (standardized vs localized) and firms ' length of business and sales volume. Design/methodology/approach – Using a descriptive approach and rigorous sample, the authors surveyed international advertising managers of US firms selling consumer services. A 57 per cent response rate provided the basis for testing two research questions and two hypotheses. Findings – US firm headquarters tend to lean more toward the use of prototype standardization than pattern standardization. The major impediments of standardized campaigns are perceived to be cultural differences, alternatives in consumer lifestyles, language diversity, variations in worldwide market infrastructure and government regulations. Research limitations/implications – While demonstrating correlations in some areas, the authors offer some suggestions for future investigation of this important topic. By focusing on services marketing, the study does contribute to the extant discussion concerning advertising standardization/localization from the context of US-based services businesses marketing internationally. Practical implications – The outcomes indicate that established business firms and firms with large sales volumes, compared to younger business firms and firms with small sales volumes, are more likely to use the standardized advertising approach than the localized approach. Originality/value – The paper offers new insights into the standardized/localized debate where advertising researchers have tended to overlook the significance of service businesses in the international context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-modal associations refer to non-arbitrary associations of features across sensory modalities. Such associations have been observed between many different sensory features. One association that has rarely been studied so far is between touch and color. In this study, participants were asked to match tactile and haptic adjectives to color samples shown individually on a screen. They could select one to 11 tactile and haptic terms, presented in 11 pairs of opposed adjectives. The results showed a regular pattern in the way tactile and haptic terms were matched to color. Our results further revealed that the colors to which tactile and haptic terms were matched did not fall within the boundaries of color lexical categories, suggesting that the associations were not based on lexicon -- despite the frequent occurrence of linguistic expressions such as 'soft pink', not all colors called 'pink' were matched to 'soft'. In contrast with one recent study, the distribution of tactile and haptic terms across the Munsell array suggests that along with brightness and chroma, hue was also relevant to participants' responses. Specifically in the case of hue, several opposed adjectives were relatively well matched to opposed colors, along the orthogonal Yellow/Blue and Red/Green axes, which are suggested to structure the space of hue experience. Possible accounts of these results are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the present study was to explore cross-modal associations between color and tactile sensation while using haptically rendered virtual stimuli with substance properties of roughness/smoothness, hardness/softness, heaviness/lightness, elasticity/inelasticity, and adhesiveness/nonadhesiveness. The stimuli with the indicated properties were rendered with the aid of SensAble PHANTOM OMNI® haptic device. The experimental setup required the participants to use exploratory procedures typical to real object interaction, and select a color from the HSV color space that matched the experienced sensation. The findings of our investigation reveal systematic mapping between color characteristics and intensity of the haptic stimuli. Qualitatively different haptic sensations, however, produced relatively similar patterns of cross-modal associations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly available systems are fault tolerant systems with no single point of failure. Thus the failure of a system component does not imply the outage of the service (i.e. the functionality) provided by the component. This is achieved by deploying redundant components that resume the service provisioning in case of failure. These redundant components may collaborate in assuring the availability of their service according to different redundancy models. In this paper we analyze these redundancy models under different assumptions, and compare their effectiveness with respect to availability in the context of a standardized middleware for service high availability and under some specific setups to derive configuration guidelines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT This paper presents a robust blind frequency domain watermarking scheme based on chaotic maps. The proposed scheme embeds a black and white watermark logo in the midband components of a host image according to a discrete wavelet transform. Each watermark bit is embedded into a small submatrix of selected second level subbands of an image resulting from iterated applications of a two-dimensional discrete wavelet transform. This scheme embeds two copies of the watermark using two different methods, in two different subbands of the image. At the cost of embedding capacity, this results in improving the security and robustness of the watermarking scheme. Experimental results demonstrate that the suggested scheme provides imperceptibility and robustness against image processing attacks such as JPEG compression, low-pass filtering, median filtering, Gaussian noise, scaling, rotating, cropping, histogram equalization, and gamma correction. Experimental results also show superior robustness of the suggested scheme over existing algorithms with a similar approach. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A secret sharing scheme allocates to each participant a share of a secret in such a way that authorized subsets of participants can reconstruct the secret, while shares of unauthorized subsets of participants provide no useful information about the secret. For positive integers r , s , t , n with r ⩽ s ⩽ t ⩽ n , an (r , s , t , n) –threshold essential secret sharing scheme is an algorithm that decomposes a secret S into n shares, s of which are essential, in a way that authorized subsets are precisely those with at least t members, at least r of whom are essential. This work proposes a lossless linear algebraic (r , s , t , n) –threshold essential secret image sharing scheme that decomposes the secret, S, into equally-sized shares, each of size 1 / t the size of S. For each block, B, of S, the scheme assigns to the n participants distinct signature vectors v 1 , v 2 , ... , v n in the vector space F 2 α t , where α is a suitable positive integer, typically between 2 and 5, inclusive. These signature vectors must adhere to some admissibility conditions in order to satisfy the secret sharing threshold properties. The decomposition of B into n shares is obtained by partitioning B into t vectors, then computing the share y j of the jth participant ( 1 ≤ j ≤ n ), as a linear combination of these parts with coefficients from the signature v j . The presented simulations showcase the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme against standard statistical and security attacks. They further demonstrate its superiority with respect to existing schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose three secret-key cryptosystems based on the theory of continued fractions for possible use in cryptographic applications. We present and analyze a sequence of rational numbers, whose randomness properties are demonstrated using well-know statistical packages. Accordingly, we propose a cryptosystem that acts on a group of characters at a time. Then, a binary keystream generator, generating keystreams with good randomness properties, is suggested for possible use in stream cipher applications. Finally, we propose a cryptosystem related to the well-known Baptista's cryptosystem that is based on a chaotic logistic map. However, our cryptosystem is based on the theory of continued fractions, and is shown to exhibit better properties and decrypts information much faster than Baptista's cryptosystem. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a class of chaotic clock-controlled cipher systems based on two exact chaotic maps, where each map is capable of generating exact chaotic time series of the logistic map. This class is designed in such a way that one map controls the iterations of the second map. The suggested technique results in generating orbits possessing long cycle length and high level of security from the two periodic exact maps. In the first part of this paper, two keystream generators based on two exact chaotic logistic maps are suggested for use in cryptographic applications. The necessary conditions to generate orbits with guaranteed long enough cycle length are established. Furthermore, the generated keystreams are demonstrated to possess excellent randomness properties. In the second part, we suggest a clock-controlled encryption scheme related to Baptista's scheme and based on two exact chaotic logistic maps. This technique results in increasing the size of the key space, and hence may increase the security level against some existing cryptanalytic attacks. Furthermore, it leads to reducing the size of the ciphertext file and propably increasing the encryption speed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islam is now the second largest religion and continues to grow rapidly, with about 1.61 billion Muslims worldwide. However, many misconceptions about this religion and its followers still persist in the United States due to media portrayals, cultural and language barriers, and lack of understanding of true Islam. Critics argue that the oversimplification of Islam's principles has contributed to an ethnocentric bias among citizens. This study analyses the content of three elite newspapers: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. The main purpose is to determine (1) whether American newspapers depicted Muslims more negatively after September 11, 2001, and (2) whether they significantly differed in their portrayal of Muslims a year before September 11 and a year after the terrorist attack. The study drew a stratified random sample of ten Sunday issues of each newspaper (e.g., five issues prior to September 11 and five issues after the tragic event) and analysed the editorial content of each selected issue. The findings revealed that all three newspapers portrayed Muslims more negatively after September 11, but that they did not significantly differ in their portrayal of Islam. Each newspaper had allotted more unfavourable terms than favourable and neutral terms combined for both periods. The dominant negative terms labelled Muslims as terrorists, extremists, fundamentalists, radicals, and fanatics. This study calls for future research to analyse the portrayal of Muslims in friendly as well as unfriendly countries to the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a modification of the controlled chaotic Henon system suggested in [Li et al., 2004]. The dynamics of the proposed and existing 2-D systems are analyzed and new chaotic attractors are found in them. We show that these systems exhibit chaotic behavior for a wide range of control parameters. We also construct a chaotic modulation scheme with feedback based on a single controlled chaotic Henon system for use in cryptographic applications. The efficiency of this communication scheme is analyzed and is shown to provide a high level of security, resulting from the proper use of controllers. Furthermore, we propose a technique for generating random-like binary digits from the suggested controlled chaotic Henon systems. Unlike binary digits generated by chaotic Henon systems which usually do not possess random-like properties, the digits generated here are shown (numerically using the NIST statistical test suite) to possess excellent random-like properties. Furthermore, the generated bit sequences are demonstrated to have a large period, which may have useful applications in cryptography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes the construction of a new chaotic pseudorandom bit generator, which forms the main building block of a chaotic stream cipher. The design of the algorithm is based on a single chaotic map whose numerical orbit indirectly contributes towards the generation of the keystream. The latter is produced from the numerical orbit by applying a technique that searches for iterates in specific intervals [a,b], for some real numbers a and b, and outputs 0 or 1 based on the iterate preceding the targeted iterate. The generator suggested here is built up from a quadratic map. We analyze the cycle length of the keystreams and investigate the resistance of the generator to well-known cryptanalytic attacks. Furthermore, the statistic characteristics of the keystreams are examined numerically using the NIST statistical test suite. The numerical and theoretical results demonstrate that the proposed technique results in generating keystreams possessing very good cryptographic properties and high level of security against existing cryptanalytic attacks. Empirical results show that the search technique leads to the generation of keystreams possessing good randomness properties when applied to any chaotic map whose orbits have good randomness properties such as the quadratic map, tent map and sawtooth map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new technique for generating random-looking binary digits based on an irregularly decimated chaotic map. We present a class of irregularly decimated chaos-based keystream generators, related to the shrinking generator, for the generation of binary sequences. Each generator consists of two subsystems: a control subsystem and a generating subsystem, where each subsystem is based on a single chaotic map. This chaotic map is presented as a 1-D piecewise chaotic map related to the chaotic logistic map. We conduct an analysis of the dynamical behavior of the proposed map to integrate it as a component in the proposed generators subsystems. The output bits of these keystream generators are produced by applying a threshold function to convert the floating-point iterates of the irregularly decimated map into a binary form. The generated keystream bits are demonstrated to exhibit high level of security, long period length, high linear complexity measure and random-like properties at given certain parameter values. Standard statistical tests on the proposed generators, as well as other keystream generators, are performed and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dating back to the 1980s, American Express (AMEX) has been a corporate leader in successfully applying cause-related marketing (CRM) to boost membership and credit card usage in troubled markets. During a downturn in the mid-1990s, AMEX and Share Our Strength (SOS), a nonprofit organization tackling the problem of hunger in the United States, formed a strategic alliance to create one of the best known and most highly touted CRM campaigns. AMEX implemented an innovative cause branding (CB) effort to convince its cardholders to “Charge Against Hunger” (CAH) by utilizing their AMEX credit cards more frequently during the holiday season. Over the 4-year life of the program, the issue of hunger in the United States was put somewhat higher on the public agenda as more than US $21 million were raised for SOS projects. This study assesses how AMEX’s public relations efforts contributed to the success of the CAH campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — Despite the increasing volume of scholarly work in international advertising, media selection has received very little attention. This study seeks to address three fundamental issues in media selection for non-domestic markets: the relative importance of cultural factors, the relationships between organization structure, and the relative weight that executives place on cultural and non-cultural factors in their media selection, and the relationships between cultural orientations of advertising executives and their perceptions of specific non-domestic factors of media selection. Design/methodology/approach — A mail survey of executives for US consumer durable manufacturers operating internationally was conducted. The sample involved managers responsible for media selection in 106 firms listed in the Fortune directory of the 500 largest industrial multinational corporations (MNCs). Three waves of the same questionnaire were sent. Of the selected executives, 84 returned the questionnaire, making the response rate 79.25 percent. Findings — The findings reveal that advertising executives of US MNCs place more importance on general environmental factors (type of product, target market, budget size, cost efficiency, reach and frequency, and competition) than on specific non- domestic factors (media availability, language diversity, legal constraints, level of economy, literacy and cultural considerations). Furthermore, managers in centralized decision firms and managers in decentralized decision firms do not differ significantly in their assessment of the relative importance of general and specific non-domestic factors. However, non-culturally oriented managers in contrast to their culturally oriented counterparts place greater importance on media availability when determining and executing media-selection decisions. The surveyed executives also tend to be more involved in establishing objectives and setting budgets than in designing creative strategies and selecting specific media for international advertising campaigns. Originality/value — Although localized and globalized marketing campaigns have steadily increased in the last 20 years, very few studies have examined MNC advertising managers' views about media selection. The research adds new insights to the understanding of this critical-decision process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines how online advertisers are taking advantage of the potential benefits of webpages. It also analyzes the extent of integration between websites and print advertisements in six major U.S. magazines. The findings suggest that marketers are not using all possible benefits of their websites. Furthermore, the study reveals a lack of integration between print and online advertising. Many of the identified weaknesses seem to be influenced by applying traditional advertising strategies to the dynamic web environment, while ignoring the unique features of the medium's interactive nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a public relations/marketing communication plan to reestablish Lebanon as a premier tourism destination. For years, tourism was a major component of Lebanon's economic growth. However, the Lebanese civil war (1975-1991) and Israel's occupation of the security zone in South Lebanon (1978-2000) destroyed the image of a country that was often described as the "Switzer- land of the Middle East." The plan draws on findings of five focus group sessions that examined tourists' perceptions of travel to Lebanon and ways to restore tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promotional products (also known as specialty advertising products) are now an essential part of integrated marketing communication efforts. Their usage as a promotional business medium involves the conceptual packaging and distribution to targeted audiences of useful articles of merchandise imprinted with a sponsor's message. The industry's sales volume now tops $15 billion annually with one of the fastest growth rates among all advertising media. Though the increased application of promotional products has been remarkable, the industry's history has been neglected. This article traces the medium's development from its primitive beginnings on metal buttons to advances that encompass almost every product or service. Along with historical analysis, the article assesses the strengths and limitations of promotional products for today's marketing decision makers. Information clutter, audience segmentation, increased competition for share-of-market, rising costs of mass advertising, and a proven record in solving many communication problems continue to make use of specialty promotional products a viable alternative to mainstream media. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]