Implementing the Automated Phases of the Partially-Automated Digital Triage Process Model

Digital triage is a pre-digital-forensic phase that sometimes takes place as a way of gathering quick intelligence. Although effort has been undertaken to model the digital forensics process, little has been done to-date to model digital triage. This work discusses the further development of a model that attempts to address digital triage, the Partially-automated Crime Specific Digital Triage Process model. The model itself will be presented along with a description of how its automated functionality was implemented to facilitate model testing

A University-based Forensics Training Center as a Regional Outreach, Education, and Research activity

This paper describes a university-based Forensics Training Center (FTC) established by a Department of Justice grant for the purpose of improving the ability of state and local law enforcement in the Southeastern part of the United States to address the rising incidence of computer based crime. The FTC effort is described along with supporting evidence of its need. The program is not only a service activity, but also contributes to the Mississippi State University (MSU) security program pedagogy, and research effort

A formal method for semantics-based change-merging of software prototypes

This dissertation addresses the need for a formal method to support the merging of changes in independently developed versions of a prototype in a computer-aided rapid prototyping system. The goal is to provide the prototype developer with the ability to combine independently developed enhancements to a prototype, check for consistency, and automatically update all derived versions of a prototype with changes made to the base version. A useful semantics-based method is provided for change-merging that is guaranteed to detect all conflicts. Prototype slicing is used to capture the affected parts of each variation and the preserved part of the base in both variations. We then combine the affected parts with the preserved part using our model, which includes the first use of Brouwerian Algebras to formalize the merging of hard real time constraints. Our Slicing Theorem guarantees that this method produces a prototype that correctly exhibits the significant behavior of each of the input versions, provided the changes do not conflict the method achieves correctness by comparing the slice of the change-merged version with respect to each affected part against the same slice of the appropriate changed version. If the slices are the same, the change-merge is correct, otherwise a diagnostic message results. A preliminary conditional method for change-merging while programs is also provided that is strictly more accurate than previous methods. This dissertation contributes to computer-aided software maintenance by providing a model, algorithm and implementation for an automated change-merging tool for PSDL prototypes. Preliminary testing shows that this tool will enhance the ability of the prototype developer to deliver a prototype in less time by enabling more concurrency in the development effort.http://archive.org/details/aformalmethodfor1094530841NANAU.S. Army (USA) autho

Information Security System Rating and Ranking

The term assurance has been used for decades in trusted system development to express the notion of confidence in the strength of a specific system or system of systems. The unsolved problem that security engineers must struggle with is the adoption of measures or metrics that can reliably depict the assurance associated with a specific hardware and software architecture. This article reports on a recent attempt to focus needs in this area and suggests various categories of information assurance metrics that may be helpful to an organization that is deciding which set is useful for a specific application

Quality of life among adolescents with sickle cell disease: Mediation of pain by internalizing symptoms and parenting stress

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>This study aimed to clarify associations between pain, psychological adjustment, and family functioning with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a sample of adolescents with sickle cell disease (SCD) utilizing teen- and parent-report.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Forty-two adolescents (between the ages of 12 and 18) with SCD and their primary caregivers completed paper-and-pencil measures of pain, teen's psychological adjustment, and HRQOL. In addition, primary caregivers completed a measure of disease-related parenting stress. Medical file review established disease severity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Pearson correlations identified significant inverse associations of pain frequency with physical and psychosocial domains of HRQOL as rated by the teen and primary caregiver. Generally, internalizing symptoms (i.e. anxiety and depression) and disease-related parenting stress were also significantly correlated with lower HRQOL. Examination of possible mediator models via a series of regression analyses confirmed that disease-related parenting stress served as a mediator between pain frequency and physical and psychosocial HRQOL. Less consistent were findings for mediation models involving internalizing symptoms. For these, parent-rated teen depression and teen anxiety served as mediators of the association of pain frequency and HRQOL.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Results are consistent with extant literature that suggests the association of pain and HRQOL and identify concomitant pain variables of internalizing symptoms and family variables as mediators. Efforts to improve HRQOL should aim to address internalizing symptoms associated with pain as well as parenting stress in the context of SCD management.</p

Innovative Interior Designs for Urban Freight Distribution Using Light Rail Systems

High pollution levels and congestion in urban centres are an increasing concern for local councils in the UK. Heavy goods vehicles delivering urban freight to city centres are a leading cause of this problem. This paper discusses the concept of using light rail networks to deliver freight to city centres from surrounding businesses. Specifically various innovative designs are considered for the interior of the metro carriage and developed into visual models using Autodesk Inventor software. A full evaluation of all the designs developed is completed, resulting in a proposed design for consideration. The conclusion reached is that the proposed interior design is viable and coincides with the future metro fleet designs and concepts

Kinase-independent role of cyclin D1 in chromosomal instability and mammary tumorigenesis

Cyclin D1 is an important molecular driver of human breast cancer but better understanding of its oncogenic mechanisms is needed, especially to enhance efforts in targeted therapeutics. Currently, pharmaceutical initiatives to inhibit cyclin D1 are focused on the catalytic component since the transforming capacity is thought to reside in the cyclin D1/CDK activity. We initiated the following study to directly test the oncogenic potential of catalytically inactive cyclin D1 in an in vivo mouse model that is relevant to breast cancer. Herein, transduction of cyclin D1(-/-) mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) with the kinase dead KE mutant of cyclin D1 led to aneuploidy, abnormalities in mitotic spindle formation, autosome amplification, and chromosomal instability (CIN) by gene expression profiling. Acute transgenic expression of either cyclin D1(WT) or cyclin D1(KE) in the mammary gland was sufficient to induce a high CIN score within 7 days. Sustained expression of cyclin D1(KE) induced mammary adenocarcinoma with similar kinetics to that of the wild-type cyclin D1. ChIP-Seq studies demonstrated recruitment of cyclin D1(WT) and cyclin D1(KE) to the genes governing CIN. We conclude that the CDK-activating function of cyclin D1 is not necessary to induce either chromosomal instability or mammary tumorigenesis

GOATOOLS: A Python library for Gene Ontology analyses.

The biological interpretation of gene lists with interesting shared properties, such as up- or down-regulation in a particular experiment, is typically accomplished using gene ontology enrichment analysis tools. Given a list of genes, a gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis may return hundreds of statistically significant GO results in a "flat" list, which can be challenging to summarize. It can also be difficult to keep pace with rapidly expanding biological knowledge, which often results in daily changes to any of the over 47,000 gene ontologies that describe biological knowledge. GOATOOLS, a Python-based library, makes it more efficient to stay current with the latest ontologies and annotations, perform gene ontology enrichment analyses to determine over- and under-represented terms, and organize results for greater clarity and easier interpretation using a novel GOATOOLS GO grouping method. We performed functional analyses on both stochastic simulation data and real data from a published RNA-seq study to compare the enrichment results from GOATOOLS to two other popular tools: DAVID and GOstats. GOATOOLS is freely available through GitHub: https://github.com/tanghaibao/goatools

Examining virtual driving test performance and its relationship to individuals with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders

SIGNIFICANCE: Existing screening tools for HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) are often clinically impractical for detecting milder forms of impairment. The formal diagnosis of HAND requires an assessment of both cognition and impairment in activities of daily living (ADL). To address the critical need for identifying patients who may have disability associated with HAND, we implemented a low-cost screening tool, the Virtual Driving Test (VDT) platform, in a vulnerable cohort of people with HIV (PWH). The VDT presents an opportunity to cost-effectively screen for milder forms of impairment while providing practical guidance for a cognitively demanding ADL. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to: (1) evaluate whether VDT performance variables were associated with a HAND diagnosis and if so; (2) systematically identify a manageable subset of variables for use in a future screening model for HAND. As a secondary objective, we examined the relative associations of identified variables with impairment within the individual domains used to diagnose HAND. METHODS: In a cross-sectional design, 62 PWH were recruited from an established HIV cohort and completed a comprehensive neuropsychological assessment (CNPA), followed by a self-directed VDT. Dichotomized diagnoses of HAND-specific impairment and impairment within each of the seven CNPA domains were ascertained. A systematic variable selection process was used to reduce the large amount of VDT data generated, to a smaller subset of VDT variables, estimated to be associated with HAND. In addition, we examined associations between the identified variables and impairment within each of the CNPA domains. RESULTS: More than half of the participants ( CONCLUSION: We identified a subset of VDT performance variables that are associated with HAND and assess relevant functional abilities among individuals with HAND. Additional research is required to develop and validate a predictive HAND screening model incorporating this subset