Intentionality and Agency in Security

Weiser [13] said that the best software is that which just blends in and disap- pears. Security software has been at odds with this principle as it attempts to attract user attention whenever possible—it has been largely designed to be visible to the user and ask them to take action. For example, anti-virus software proudly notifies the user how many viruses it has stopped while websites dis- play padlocks and security seals. Users are disrupted in their work by security notifications, asked to read warnings and decide whether they want to heed or ignore them.ERC 30722

Allogeneic Umbilical Cord-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells as a Potential Source for Cartilage and Bone Regeneration: An in Vitro Study

Umbilical cord (UC) may represent an attractive cell source for allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) therapy. The aim of this in vitro study is to investigate the chondrogenic and osteogenic potential of UC-MSCs grown onto tridimensional scaffolds, to identify a possible clinical relevance for an allogeneic use in cartilage and bone reconstructive surgery. Chondrogenic differentiation on scaffolds was confirmed at 4 weeks by the expression of sox-9 and type II collagen; low oxygen tension improved the expression of these chondrogenic markers. A similar trend was observed in pellet culture in terms of matrix (proteoglycan) production. Osteogenic differentiation on bone-graft-substitute was also confirmed after 30 days of culture by the expression of osteocalcin and RunX-2. Cells grown in the hypertrophic medium showed at 5 weeks safranin o-positive stain and an increased CbFa1 expression, confirming the ability of these cells to undergo hypertrophy. These results suggest that the UC-MSCs isolated from minced umbilical cords may represent a valuable allogeneic cell population, which might have a potential for orthopaedic tissue engineering such as the on-demand cell delivery using chondrogenic, osteogenic, and endochondral scaffold. This study may have a clinical relevance as a future hypothetical option for allogeneic single-stage cartilage repair and bone regeneration

Geoepidemiology of American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) in the South of Rondônia, Brazilian Amazon

American Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (ACL) is one of the parasites with specific characteristics in several regions of Brazil. In recent years, there have been variations in the increase in the number of cases of this disease in different regions of the country. In the state of Rondônia, ACL is considered one of the endemic diseases. Objective: This study described epidemiological aspects of ACL in a subspace of Rondônia, Western Amazon, in the period between 2012 and 2013. Method: This is a retrospective epidemiological study developed in 02 municipalities located in the south of Rondônia according to with model developed by Paraguassu-Chaves [3] comprising the municipalities of Vilhena and Chupinguaia. Results: The study revealed that 370 human cases of ACL were reported in the study period. The male gender predominated with (89.5%) of the total cases, the age range (20 to 39) years (36.6%) prevailed, low schooling (80%) had a maximum of complete elementary education (62.5%). The greatest number of cases came from the urban zone (66.9%), resulting from the adaptation of sandflies to the periurbanization of cities in the Amazon, as predicted by Paraguassu-Chaves [3]. Some of these variables presented significant differences when compared to production and distribution in the State of Rondônia. Prevalence of autochthonous cases was 81.7%. Regarding the clinical aspects, the cutaneous lesion (CL) predominated with 90.8% of the new cases. As expected, the cases confirmed by confirmation criteria indicate 89.5% clinical-laboratory confirmation in the studied subspace and 94% in the State of Rondônia. Of the cases confirmed by evolution of the case prevailed to cure with 77.5% and 12.5% ignored or recorded in the blank. The dropout still stands out negatively with 8.4%. Conclusion: The ACL presents a public health problem due to its high endemicity. It was identified some important epidemiological variables for the study in the Brazilian Amazon and that can condition and / or determine areas associated with possible risks of infection by the parasites

Deploying authentication in the wild: Towards greater ecological validity in security usability studies

Abstract Pico is a token-based login method that claims to be simultaneously more usable and more secure than passwords. It does not ask users to remember any secrets, nor to type one-time passwords. We evaluate Pico’s claim with two deployments and user studies, one on a web-based service and another within an organization. Our main aim is to collect actionable intelligence on how to improve the usability and deployability of Pico. In our first study we team up with an established website, Gyazo, to offer this alternative login mechanism to users intent on performing a real task of image sharing. From the lessons of this first study, we retarget Pico’s focus from replacing web passwords to replacing desktop login passwords; and thus in our second study we engage with a government organization, Innovate UK, to offer employees the ability to lock and unlock their computer automatically based on proximity. We focus particularly on the ecological validity of the trials and we thereby gain valuable insights into the viability of Pico, not only through the actual responses from the participants but also through the many practical challenges we had to face and overcome. Reflecting on the bigger picture, from our experience we believe the security usability community would greatly benefit from pushing towards greater ecological validity in published work, despite the considerable difficulties and costs involved.This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) [StG 307224, Pico, to FMS] and the extended visits of Gyazo inventor and CTO Masui to Cambridge were supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/M019055/1, Future authentication systems, to FMS]

Pico in the Wild: Replacing Passwords, One Site at a Time

Passwords are a burden on the user, especially nowadays with an increasing number of accounts and a proliferation of different devices. Pico is a token-based login method that does not ask users to remember any secrets, nor require keyboard entry of one-time passwords. We wish to evaluate its claim of being simultaneously more usable and more secure than passwords, whilst testing its support for frictionless deployment to web-based services. Our main aim is to collect actionable intelligence on how to improve it. In our study, we teamed up with an Alexa Top 500 website, Gyazo, to offer this alternative login mechanism to users intent on performing a real task of image sharing. We focused on the ecological validity of the trial, and gained knowledge both through the challenges of the trial and the results generated. Users appreciated the ability to avoid password entry but the overall benefit was mitigated by the existing measures put in place by Gyazo to minimise the number of times users are presented with a password entry box. Our main finding is that providing enough benefit requires a solution that applies across sites, rather than focusing on authentication for a single site in isolation.We would also like to thank the European Research Council (ERC) for funding this research through grant StG 307224 (Pico) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through grant EP/M019055/1