University of Wollongong

About: University of Wollongong is a education organization based out in Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 15674 authors who have published 46658 publications receiving 1197471 citations. The organization is also known as: UOW & Wollongong University.

Regional brain abnormalities associated with long-term heavy cannabis use.

Abstract: Context Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the developed world. Despite this, there is a paucity of research examining its long-term effect on the human brain. Objective To determine whether long-term heavy cannabis use is associated with gross anatomical abnormalities in 2 cannabinoid receptor–rich regions of the brain, the hippocampus and the amygdala. Design Cross-sectional design using high-resolution (3-T) structural magnetic resonance imaging. Setting Participants were recruited from the general community and underwent imaging at a hospital research facility. Participants Fifteen carefully selected long-term (>10 years) and heavy (>5 joints daily) cannabis-using men (mean age, 39.8 years; mean duration of regular use, 19.7 years) with no history of polydrug abuse or neurologic/mental disorder and 16 matched nonusing control subjects (mean age, 36.4 years). Main Outcome Measures Volumetric measures of the hippocampus and the amygdala combined with measures of cannabis use. Subthreshold psychotic symptoms and verbal learning ability were also measured. Results Cannabis users had bilaterally reduced hippocampal and amygdala volumes ( P = .001), with a relatively (and significantly [ P = .02]) greater magnitude of reduction in the former (12.0% vs 7.1%). Left hemisphere hippocampal volume was inversely associated with cumulative exposure to cannabis during the previous 10 years ( P = .01) and subthreshold positive psychotic symptoms ( P P = .048). Although cannabis users performed significantly worse than controls on verbal learning ( P Conclusions These results provide new evidence of exposure-related structural abnormalities in the hippocampus and amygdala in long-term heavy cannabis users and corroborate similar findings in the animal literature. These findings indicate that heavy daily cannabis use across protracted periods exerts harmful effects on brain tissue and mental health.

Accumulators from bilinear pairings and applications

Abstract: We propose a dynamic accumulator scheme from bilinear pairings and use it to construct an identity-based (ID-based) ring signature scheme with constant-size signatures and to provide membership revocation to group signature schemes, identity escrow schemes and anonymous credential systems. The ID-based ring signature scheme and the group signature scheme have very short signature sizes. The size of our group signatures with membership revocation is only half the size of those in the well-known ACJT00 scheme, which does not provide membership revocation. The schemes do not require trapdoor, so system parameters can be shared by multiple groups belonging to different organizations. All schemes are provably secure in formal models. We generalize the definition of accumulators and provide formal models for ID-based ad-hoc anonymous identification schemes and identity escrow schemes with membership revocation.

Fire in Mediterranean Ecosystems: Ecology, Evolution and Management

Abstract: Part I. Introduction: 1. Mediterranean-type climate (MTC) ecosystems and fire 2. Fire and the fire regime framework 3. Fire related plant traits Part II. Regional Patterns: 4. Fire in the Mediterranean basin 5. Fire in California 6. Fire in Chile 7. Fire in the Cape region of South Africa 8. Fire in southern Australia Part III. Comparative Ecology, Evolution and Management: 9. Fire-adaptive trait evolution 10. Fire and the origins of Mediterranean-type vegetation 11. Plant diversity and fire 12. Alien species and fire 13. Fire management of Mediterranean landscapes 14. Climate, fire and geology in the convergence of Mediterranean-type climate ecosystems References Index.

Urchin-Like CoSe2 as a High-Performance Anode Material for Sodium-Ion Batteries

Abstract: Urchin-like CoSe2 assembled by nanorods has been synthesized via simple solvothermal route and has been first applied as an anode material for sodium-ion batteries (SIBs) with ether-based electrolytes. The CoSe2 delivers excellent sodiation and desodiation properties when using 1 m NaCF3SO3 in diethyleneglycol dimethylether as an electrolyte and cycling between 0.5 and 3.0 V. A high discharge capacity of 0.410 Ah g−1 is obtained at 1 A g−1 after 1800 cycles, corresponding to a capacity retention of 98.6% calculated from the 30th cycle. Even at an ultrahigh rate of 50 A g−1, the capacity still maintains 0.097 Ah g−1. The reaction mechanism of the as-prepared CoSe2 is also investigated. The results demonstrate that at discharged 1.56 V, insertion reaction occurs, while two conversion reactions take place at the second and third plateaus around 0.98 and 0.65 V. During the charge process, Co first reacts with Na2Se to form NaxCoSe2 and then turns back to CoSe2. In addition to Na/CoSe2 half cells, Na3V2(PO4)3/CoSe2 full cell with excessive amount of Na3V2(PO4)3 has been studied. The full cell exhibits a reversible capacity of 0.380 Ah g−1. This work definitely enriches the possibilities for anode materials for SIBs with high performance.