400 research outputs found
A quantification mechanism for assessing adherence to information security governance guidelines
Purpose: Boards of Directors and other organisational leaders make decisions about the information security governance systems to implement in their companies. The increasing number of cyber-breaches targeting businesses makes this activity inescapable. Recently, researchers have published comprehensive lists of recommended cyber measures, specifically to inform organisational boards. However, the young cybersecurity industry has still to confirm and refine these guidelines. As a starting point, it would be helpful for organisational leaders to know what other organisations are doing in terms of using these guidelines. In an ideal world, bespoke surveys would be developed to gauge adherence to guidelines, but this is not always feasible. What we often do have is data from existing cybersecurity surveys. The authors argue that such data could be repurposed to quantify adherence to existing information security guidelines, and this paper aims to propose, and test, an original methodology to do so. Design/methodology/approach: The authors propose a quantification mechanism to measure the degree of adherence to a set of published information security governance recommendations and guidelines targeted at organisational leaders. The authors test their quantification mechanism using a data set collected in a survey of 156 Italian companies on information security and privacy. Findings: The evaluation of the proposed mechanism appears to align with findings in the literature, indicating the validity of the present approach. An analysis of how different industries rank in terms of their adherence to the selected set of recommendations and guidelines confirms the usability of our repurposed data set to measure adherence. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, a quantification mechanism as the one proposed in this study has never been proposed, and tested, in the literature. It suggests a way to repurpose survey data to determine the extent to which companies are implementing measures recommended by published cybersecurity guidelines. This way, the proposed mechanism responds to increasing calls for the adoption of research practices that minimise waste of resources and enhance research sustainability
A Decision Aid for COPD patients considering inhaled steroid therapy: development and before and after pilot testing
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Decision aids (DA) are tools designed to help patients make specific and deliberative choices among disease management options. DAs can improve the quality of decision-making and reduce decisional conflict. An area not covered by a DA is the decision of a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) to use inhaled steroids which requires balancing the benefits and downsides of therapy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We developed a DA for COPD patients considering inhaled steroid therapy using the Ottawa Decision Support Framework, the best available evidence for using inhaled steroid in COPD and the expected utility model. The development process involved patients, pulmonologists, DA developers and decision making experts. We pilot tested the DA with 8 COPD patients who completed an evaluation questionnaire, a knowledge scale, and a validated decisional conflict scale.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The DA is a computer-based interactive tool incorporating four different decision making models. In the first part, the DA provides information about COPD as a disease, the different treatment options, and the benefits and downsides of using inhaled steroids. In the second part, it coaches the patient in the decision making process through clarifying values and preferences. Patients evaluated 10 out of 13 items of the DA positively and showed significant improvement on both the knowledge scale (p = 0.008) and the decisional conflict scale (p = 0.008).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have developed a computer-based interactive DA for COPD patients considering inhaled steroids serving as a model for other DAs in COPD, in particular related to inhaled therapies. Future research should assess the DA effectiveness.</p
PHP52 From Regulatory Approval to Subsidised Patient Access in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Comparison of Systems Across Australia, China, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan And Thailand
Effects of noradrenaline on the activation and the stability of brain adenylate cyclase
Magnetic order in orbital models of the iron pnictides
We examine the appearance of the experimentally-observed stripe
spin-density-wave magnetic order in five different orbital models of the iron
pnictide parent compounds. A restricted mean-field ansatz is used to determine
the magnetic phase diagram of each model. Using the random phase approximation,
we then check this phase diagram by evaluating the static spin susceptibility
in the paramagnetic state close to the mean-field phase boundaries. The momenta
for which the susceptibility is peaked indicate in an unbiased way the actual
ordering vector of the nearby mean-field state. The dominant orbitally resolved
contributions to the spin susceptibility are also examined to determine the
origin of the magnetic instability. We find that the observed stripe magnetic
order is possible in four of the models, but it is extremely sensitive to the
degree of the nesting between the electron and hole Fermi pockets. In the more
realistic five-orbital models, this order competes with a strong-coupling
incommensurate state which appears to be controlled by details of the
electronic structure below the Fermi energy. We conclude by discussing the
implications of our work for the origin of the magnetic order in the pnictides.Comment: 19 pages, 19 figures; published version, typos corrected, references
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Interplay of ferromagnetism and triplet superconductivity in a Josephson junction
In this paper we extend our earlier analysis of the novel Josephson effect in
triplet superconductor--ferromagnet--triplet superconductor (TFT) junctions [B.
Kastening \emph{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf{96}}, 047009 (2006)]. In our
more general formulation of the TFT junction we allow for potential scattering
at the barrier and an arbitrary orientation of the ferromagnetic moment.
Several new effects are found upon the inclusion of these extra terms: for
example, we find that a Josephson current can flow even when there is vanishing
phase difference between the superconducting condensates on either side of the
barrier. The critical current for a barrier with magnetization parallel to the
interface is calculated as a function of the junction parameters, and is found
to display strong non-analyticities. Furthermore, the Josephson current
switches first identified in our previous work are found to be robust features
of the junction, while the unconventional temperature-dependence of the current
is very sensitive to the extra terms in the barrier Hamiltonian.Comment: 24 pages, 15 figure
Spin-Rotation Symmetry Breaking in the Superconducting State of CuxBi2Se3
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is an important concept for understanding
physics ranging from the elementary particles to states of matter. For example,
the superconducting state breaks global gauge symmetry, and unconventional
superconductors can break additional symmetries. In particular, spin rotational
symmetry is expected to be broken in spin-triplet superconductors. However,
experimental evidence for such symmetry breaking has not been conclusively
obtained so far in any candidate compounds. Here, by 77Se nuclear magnetic
resonance measurements, we show that spin rotation symmetry is spontaneously
broken in the hexagonal plane of the electron-doped topological insulator
Cu0.3Bi2Se3 below the superconducting transition temperature Tc=3.4 K. Our
results not only establish spin-triplet superconductivity in this compound, but
may also serve to lay a foundation for the research of topological
superconductivity
Origin and control of spin currents in a magnetic triplet Josephson junction
We study the appearance of a Josephson spin current in a model triplet
superconductor junction with a magnetically-active tunnelling barrier. We find
three distinct mechanisms for producing a spin current, and we provide a
detailed discussion of the symmetry properties and the physical origins of
each. By combining these three basic mechanisms, we find that it is possible to
exercise fine control over the spin currents. In particular, we show that
unlike the charge current, the spin currents on either side of the barrier need
not be identical.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTe
Gap symmetry and structure of Fe-based superconductors
The recently discovered Fe-pnictide and chalcogenide superconductors display
low-temperature properties suggesting superconducting gap structures which
appear to vary substantially from family to family, and even within families as
a function of doping or pressure. We propose that this apparent nonuniversality
can actually be understood by considering the predictions of spin fluctuation
theory and accounting for the peculiar electronic structure of these systems,
coupled with the likely 'sign-changing s-wave' (s\pm) symmetry. We review
theoretical aspects, materials properties and experimental evidence relevant to
this suggestion, and discuss which further measurements would be useful to
settle these issues.Comment: 86 pages, revie
Symmetry and Topology in Superconductors - Odd-frequency pairing and edge states -
Superconductivity is a phenomenon where the macroscopic quantum coherence
appears due to the pairing of electrons. This offers a fascinating arena to
study the physics of broken gauge symmetry. However, the important symmetries
in superconductors are not only the gauge invariance. Especially, the symmetry
properties of the pairing, i.e., the parity and spin-singlet/spin-triplet,
determine the physical properties of the superconducting state. Recently it has
been recognized that there is the important third symmetry of the pair
amplitude, i.e., even or odd parity with respect to the frequency. The
conventional uniform superconducting states correspond to the even-frequency
pairing, but the recent finding is that the odd-frequency pair amplitude arises
in the spatially non-uniform situation quite ubiquitously. Especially, this is
the case in the Andreev bound state (ABS) appearing at the surface/interface of
the sample. The other important recent development is on the nontrivial
topological aspects of superconductors. As the band insulators are classified
by topological indices into (i) conventional insulator, (ii) quantum Hall
insulator, and (iii) topological insulator, also are the gapped
superconductors. The influence of the nontrivial topology of the bulk states
appears as the edge or surface of the sample. In the superconductors, this
leads to the formation of zero energy ABS (ZEABS). Therefore, the ABSs of the
superconductors are the place where the symmetry and topology meet each other
which offer the stage of rich physics. In this review, we discuss the physics
of ABS from the viewpoint of the odd-frequency pairing, the topological
bulk-edge correspondence, and the interplay of these two issues. It is
described how the symmetry of the pairing and topological indices determines
the absence/presence of the ZEABS, its energy dispersion, and properties as the
Majorana fermions.Comment: 91 pages, 38 figures, Review article, references adde
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