11 research outputs found

    Understanding the management of information security controls in practice

    Get PDF
    The ever greater reliance on complex information technology environments together with dynamically changing threat scenarios and increasing compliance requirements make an efficient and effective management of information security controls a key concern for most organizations. Good practice collections such as COBIT and ITIL as well as related standards such as the ones belonging to the ISO/IEC 27000 family provide useful starting points for control management. However, neither good practice collections and standards nor scholarly literature explain how the management of controls actually is performed in organizations or how the current state-of-practice can be improved. A series of interviews with information security professionals from European organizations was conducted in order to better understand how a coherent and comprehensive suite of controls is built and maintained in practice and to help organizations refine related work practices. The interviews focused on the activities of control management as well as on the roles and responsibilities of the individuals and groups involved in those activities. The results of a qualitative content analysis of the gathered data allowed an aggregate description of control management on the basis of a generic control management cycle ranging from the creation of a control design to its implementation and review

    Surgeon experience in glioblastoma surgery of the elderly : a multicenter, retrospective cohort study

    Get PDF
    Purpose To assess the impact of individual surgeon experience on overall survival (OS), extent of resection (EOR) and surgery-related morbidity in elderly patients with glioblastoma (GBM), we performed a retrospective case-by-case analysis. Methods GBM patients aged≥65 years who underwent tumor resection at two academic centers were analyzed. The experience of each neurosurgeon was quantifed in three ways: (1) total number of previously performed glioma surgeries (lifetime experience); (2) number of surgeries performed in the previous fve years (medium-term experience) and (3) in the last two years (short-term experience). Surgeon experience data was correlated with survival (OS) and surrogate parameters for surgical quality (EOR, morbidity). Results 198 GBM patients (median age 73.0 years, median preoperative KPS 80, IDH-wildtype status 96.5%) were included. Median OS was 10.0 months (95% CI 8.0–12.0); median EOR was 89.4%. Surgery-related morbidity afected 19.7% patients. No correlations of lifetime surgeon experience with OS (P=.693), EOR (P=.693), and surgery-related morbidity (P=.435) were identifed. Adjuvant therapy was associated with improved OS (PConclusion Less experienced neurosurgeons achieve similar surgical results and outcome in elderly GBM patients within the setting of academic teaching hospitals. Adjuvant treatment and avoidance of surgery-related morbidity are crucial forgenerating a treatment beneft for this cohort.Peer reviewe

    Analyzing the Impact of new Features on Users’ Communication Activities in Online Social Networks

    Get PDF
    Nowadays, online social networks (OSN) have become popular Internet platforms. While some of them are gathering an increasing number of users (e.g., Facebook), other OSN fail to maintain their user base (e.g., MySpace) and are confronted with a termination of their services. But what makes the difference between successful and less successful OSN? In literature, for instance, network effects, content related aspects and security mechanisms as well as the introduction of new features (e.g., Facebook’s “Places” or Bebo’s “Visitors Map”) are generally considered to be enablers of success for OSN. However, only little research has been done so far to empirically analyze the impact of new features on users’ communication activities and thus indirectly on the success of OSN. For this reason, our research examines whether the introduction of the central feature “Publisher” by Facebook caused a significant increase of users’ communication activities. In order to empirically investigate this question, we use a publicly available dataset of the Facebook New Orleans Network. Moreover, among others, we adapt and use the event study methodology to be able to account for trends in the time series of users’ communication activities. This leads to interesting results that do not support existing statements in literature

    The Role of Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Reverse Cholesterol Transport: A Review

    No full text
    The beneficial effects of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs) on cardiovascular disease have been studied extensively. However, it remains unclear to what extent n-3 PUFAs may impact Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT). RCT describes a mechanism by which excess cholesterol from peripheral tissues is transported to the liver for hepatobiliary excretion, thereby inhibiting foam cell formation and the development of atherosclerosis. The aim of this review is to summarize the literature and to provide an updated overview of the effects of n-3 PUFAs on key players in RCT, including apoliprotein AI (apoA-I), ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1), ABCG1, apoE, scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLr), cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase (CYP7A1) and ABCG5/G8. Based on current knowledge, we conclude that n-3 PUFAs may beneficially affect RCT, mainly by influencing high-density lipoprotein (HDL) remodeling and by promoting hepatobiliary sterol excretion

    IT-Supported Formal Control: How Perceptual (in)Congruence Affects the Convergence of Crowd-Sourced Ideas

    No full text
    IT-supported teams face challenges when converging on crowd-sourced ideas. One reason is that teams have difficulties in establishing shared understanding. Enacting formal control has been suggested as a way how to overcome these challenges as they help to develop shared understanding and focus interactions on the team outcome, i.e. the ideas in a converged list. However, it is unclear if formal control can facilitate perceptual congruence and what effect it has on idea quality, e.g., an idea’s elaborateness. Perceptual congruence is operationalized by examining the agreement between leaders and team members on depth of interaction to build shared understanding. The findings show that teams receiving formal control outperform self-managed teams in terms of depth of interaction and extent of idea development. Moreover, findings indicate that extent of idea development is high at the extreme ends of perceptual congruence. Perceptual incongruence was found to be detrimental for extent of idea development

    The negative adipogenesis regulator Dlk1 is transcriptionally regulated by Ifrd1 (TIS7) and translationally by its orthologue Ifrd2 (SKMc15)

    No full text
    Delta-like homolog 1 (Dlk1), an inhibitor of adipogenesis, controls the cell fate of adipocyte progenitors. Experimental data presented here identify two independent regulatory mechanisms, transcriptional and translational, by which Ifrd1 (TIS7) and its orthologue Ifrd2 (SKMc15) regulate Dlk1 levels. Mice deficient in both Ifrd1 and Ifrd2 (dKO) had severely reduced adipose tissue and were resistant to high-fat diet-induced obesity. Wnt signaling, a negative regulator of adipocyte differentiation, was significantly upregulated in dKO mice. Elevated levels of the Wnt/β-catenin target protein Dlk1 inhibited the expression of adipogenesis regulators Pparg and Cebpa, and fatty acid transporter Cd36. Although both Ifrd1 and Ifrd2 contributed to this phenotype, they utilized two different mechanisms. Ifrd1 acted by controlling Wnt signaling and thereby transcriptional regulation of Dlk1. On the other hand, distinctive experimental evidence showed that Ifrd2 acts as a general translational inhibitor significantly affecting Dlk1 protein levels. Novel mechanisms of Dlk1 regulation in adipocyte differentiation involving Ifrd1 and Ifrd2 are based on experimental data presented here
    corecore