A framework for computational fluid dynamic analyses of patient-specific stented coronary arteries from optical coherence tomography images

The clinical challenge of percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) is highly dependent on the recognition of the coronary anatomy of each individual. The classic imaging modality used for PCI is angiography, but advanced imaging techniques that are routinely performed during PCI, like optical coherence tomography (OCT), may provide detailed knowledge of the pre-intervention vessel anatomy as well as the post-procedural assessment of the specific stent-to-vessel interactions. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an emerging investigational tool in the setting of optimization of PCI results. In this study, an OCT-based reconstruction method was developed for the execution of CFD simulations of patient-specific coronary artery models which include the actual geometry of the implanted stent. The method was applied to a rigid phantom resembling a stented segment of the left anterior descending coronary artery. The segmentation algorithm was validated against manual segmentation. A strong correlation was found between automatic and manual segmentation of lumen in terms of area values. Similarity indices resulted >96% for the lumen segmentation and >77% for the stent strut segmentation. The 3D reconstruction achieved for the stented phantom was also assessed with the geometry provided by X-ray computed micro tomography scan, used as ground truth, and showed the incidence of distortion from catheter-based imaging techniques. The 3D reconstruction was successfully used to perform CFD analyses, demonstrating a great potential for patient-specific investigations. In conclusion, OCT may represent a reliable source for patient-specific CFD analyses which may be optimized using dedicated automatic segmentation algorithms

The height of the pubic tubercle as an indicator of parturition

Parity status is a supplemental element of the biological profile in forensic anthropology. The pelvis is thought to exhibit alterations to the bone from pregnancy. Two features of the pelvis have been studied for signs of parturition or past pregnancy. The features have been studied with varying results. They include the pubic bone (Bergfelder and Herrmann, 1980, Cox and Scott, 1992) and the preauricular sulcus (Houghton, 1974, Dee, 1981). Maass and Friedling (2014) also looked at the interosseous groove and the iliac tuberosity. This study was modeled on Snodgrass and Galloway (2003) that investigated whether or not parity status can be determined by analyzing several areas of the pubic bone for different traits. Snodgrass and Galloway assessed the dorsal surface of the pubic bone for pitting and measured the height of the pubic tubercle. They also rearticulated the pelves of each subject and measured the arcuate angle. For the current study, a sample of 75 females from the William M. Bass Skeletal Collection at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was examined. The height of the pubic tubercle and its distance from the symphyseal face was measured bilaterally for each individual. Also, the dorsal surface of each pubic bone was visually assessed for the presence or absence of pitting. Data analysis was then conducted comparing each of these features with parity status. BMI was also calculated for each individual and compared with the three features listed above. There were no correlations found between height of the pubic tubercle, distance of the pubic tubercle, dorsal pitting and parity status. The lack of a correlation between any of the features and parity status make them unusable in forensic applications

Generally Speaking, Context Matters: Making the Case for a Change from Universal to Particular ISP Research

The objective of our paper is to conceptually and empirically challenge the idea of general information security policy (ISP) compliance. Conceptually, we argue that general ISP compliance is an ill-defined concept that has minimal theoretical usefulness because the policy-directed security actions vary considerably from threat to threat in terms of time, difficulty, diligence, knowledge, and effort. Yet, our senior IS scholars’ basket of journals has a strong preference to publish models in which the authors speculate that their findings are generalizable across all (or many) threats and controls contained in an organization’s ISP document. In our paper, we argue that compliance with each of the mandatory threat-specific security actions may require different (as opposed to similar) explanatory models, which makes constructing a universal model of ISP compliance problematic. Therefore, we argue that future ISP compliance literature will be more valuable if it focuses on the mechanisms, treatments, and behavioral antecedents associated with the required actions around specific threats instead of attempting to build a model that purportedly covers all (or many) threat-specific security actions (or intentions thereof). To support this claim empirically, we conducted two studies comparing general compliance intentions (i.e., undefined security action) and threat-specific compliance intentions. In both studies, our data show that compliance intentions vary significantly across general compliance measures and multiple threat-specific security measures or scenarios. Our results indicate that it is problematic to generalize about the behavioral antecedents from general compliance intentions to threat-specific security compliance intentions, from one threat-specific security action to other threat-specific security actions, and from one threat-specific security action to general compliance intentions

Close the Intention-Behavior Gap via Attitudes: Case Study of the Volitional Adoption of a Two-Factor Authentication Service

Most of the theories used in the behavioral security literature explain the variance in intentions to act securely. Yet, individuals often fail to act on their intentions. This disconnect is referred to as the intention-behavior gap. Most theories propose a single structural path between intentions and actual behaviors with the expectation that individuals will act on their intentions. The purpose of our paper is to investigate this intention-behavior gap in the context of the volitional adoption of information security technologies. To do so, we conducted a two-phased qualitative study of the adoption of a two-factor authentication (2FA) service. In our bottom-up investigation, we discovered emergent themes related to the four functional areas of attitudes (i.e., functional attitude theory). Our paper contributes to the behavioral security literature by suggesting that individuals must change their negative attitudes related to different functional areas to start to reduce the intention-behavior gap

Positively Fearful: Activating the Individual’s HERO Within to Explain Volitional Security Technology Adoption

Regardless of what security professionals do to motivate personal users to adopt security technologies volitionally, the end result seems to be the same—low adoption rates. To increase these rates, we propose activating their positive psychological capital (PsyCap), which consists of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism (i.e., their “HERO within”). We propose that greater PsyCap toward a security technology is associated with greater adoption rates (and intentions thereof) because positivity increases motivation. We further posit that PsyCap both moderates and is moderated by other constructs. We suggest that personal users’ conditioned fear from the security threat moderates the effect of PsyCap on adoption intentions because some fear is necessary to activate their positive PsyCap to form their behavioral intentions to adopt security technologies. We further hypothesize that PsyCap moderates the effect of adoption intentions on actual adoption rates because activating an individual’s HERO within encourages individuals to exert the effort necessary to translate their intentions into actual adoption. Finally, we theorize that enhancing fear appeal messages with appeals to an individual’s HERO has a greater effect on volitional adoption rates relative to messages without these PsyCap-related appeals. To support our hypotheses, we conducted two experiments using the volitional adoption of a password manager application and a two-factor authentication (2FA) service. We found differential support for our hypotheses across the two security technologies, which suggests technology characteristics might mitigate the impact of PsyCap on volitional adoption decisions

So Much Promise, So Little Use: What is Stopping Home End-Users from Using Password Manager Applications?

In this paper, we investigate the voluntary use of password management applications in order to address a decades-old and ubiquitous information security problem related to poor password management. In our exploratory analysis, we investigate two related issues: (1) why home end-users chose not to use password management applications and (2) why high behavioral intentions to use password management applications did not always lead to actual usage for certain users. We found that issues related to the technology such as lack of trust or memory limitations, individual issues such as perceived costs and benefits, and a lack of concern about the threat (threat apathy) were the primary inhibitors of lack of use. For those that had high intentions to use a password management application but failed to actually use the software, we found that a variety of individual issues such as lack of immediacy and having insufficient time were the primary inhibitors leading to this breakdown

Close the Intention-Behavior Gap via Attitudes: Case Study of the Volitional Adoption of a Two-Factor Authentication Service

Most of the theories used in the behavioral security literature explain the variance in intentions to act securely. Yet, individuals often fail to act on their intentions. This disconnect is referred to as the intention-behavior gap. Most theories propose a single structural path between intentions and actual behaviors with the expectation that individuals will act on their intentions. The purpose of our paper is to investigate this intention-behavior gap in the context of the volitional adoption of information security technologies. To do so, we conducted a two-phased qualitative study of the adoption of a two-factor authentication (2FA) service. In our bottom-up investigation, we discovered emergent themes related to the four functional areas of attitudes (i.e., functional attitude theory). Our paper contributes to the behavioral security literature by suggesting that individuals must change their negative attitudes related to different functional areas to start to reduce the intention-behavior gap

Leveraging Situational Judgment Tests to Measure Behavioral Information Security

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are a multidimensional measurement method commonly used in the context of employment decisions and widely researched in the field of industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology. However, the use of SJTs in the field of information system (IS) security is limited. Applying SJT research from the field of I-O psychology to IS security research, particularly research with behavioral components, could prove beneficial. SJT items typically present participants with realistic hypothetical work/job-related situations and potential response items. The use of SJTs in IS security research could provide researchers with a new measurement tool for a wide range of research goals

Evaluating the Core and Full Protection Motivation Theory Nomologies for the Voluntary Adoption of Password Manager Applications

The protection motivation theory (PMT) is widely used in behavioral information security research, with multiple instantiations of the theoretical model applied in the literature. The purpose of this study is to perform a theoretical (conceptual) replication of both the core and full (PMT) nomologies in the context of voluntary password manager application use for individual home end-users. In our study, the full PMT model explained more variance than the core PMT model, but the relationships between multiple behavioral antecedents differed between the core and full PMT models, possibly due to differences in model complexity. Our findings suggest that researchers should justify the version of the PMT that they choose to use based on their research objectives with the understanding that the same variables may be significant in one version of the PMT but not significant in another version of the PMT