The Efficacy of Transformer-based Adversarial Attacks in Security Domains

Today, the security of many domains rely on the use of Machine Learning to detect threats, identify vulnerabilities, and safeguard systems from attacks. Recently, transformer architectures have improved the state-of-the-art performance on a wide range of tasks such as malware detection and network intrusion detection. But, before abandoning current approaches to transformers, it is crucial to understand their properties and implications on cybersecurity applications. In this paper, we evaluate the robustness of transformers to adversarial samples for system defenders (i.e., resiliency to adversarial perturbations generated on different types of architectures) and their adversarial strength for system attackers (i.e., transferability of adversarial samples generated by transformers to other target models). To that effect, we first fine-tune a set of pre-trained transformer, Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), and hybrid (an ensemble of transformer and CNN) models to solve different downstream image-based tasks. Then, we use an attack algorithm to craft 19,367 adversarial examples on each model for each task. The transferability of these adversarial examples is measured by evaluating each set on other models to determine which models offer more adversarial strength, and consequently, more robustness against these attacks. We find that the adversarial examples crafted on transformers offer the highest transferability rate (i.e., 25.7% higher than the average) onto other models. Similarly, adversarial examples crafted on other models have the lowest rate of transferability (i.e., 56.7% lower than the average) onto transformers. Our work emphasizes the importance of studying transformer architectures for attacking and defending models in security domains, and suggests using them as the primary architecture in transfer attack settings.Comment: Accepted to IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), AI for Cyber Workshop, 202

Athletic Performance and Potential Performance-Inhibiting Factors

Collegiate athletes have complicated requirements to maximize performance. These requirements vary for each athlete depending on their unique needs; likewise, there may be several performance-inhibiting factors. PURPOSE: To assess various potential performance-inhibiting factors on Divison-1 athletes’ perception of recovery and performance. METHODS: A small sample of endurance athletes [N=16, Male=13, Age=19.44 ± 1.50, Wt (kg)=70.77 ± 8.29, LBM (kg)=63.76 ± 10.72] were recruited to complete the following tests: body composition (InBody), inflammatory symptoms screening questionnaire, perceived recovery status scale, and the sports performance satisfaction questionnaire. Correlations and linear regression models were used to elucidate any predictive relationship between InBody metrics (BMI, PBF, LBM, SMI) and primary performance outcomes – including inflammatory symptom scores, perceived recovery, and performance questionnaires. RESULTS: Various correlations between InBody metrics and primary outcomes were found, albeit weak and inconsistent in their predictive ability. BMI (22.18 ± 1.55) was highly related to inflammatory symptom scores (8.93 ± 6.23; r=.784, p2=.614, p2=.277, p=.044) and trending towards significance with percent body fat (r=-.475, p=.073) and lean body mass (r=.506, p=.054). None of the metrics measured were significantly related to perceived recovery. CONCLUSION: The limited findings and weak correlations are likely attributed to the small sample size. These findings suggest skeletal muscle index is key to physical performance even for endurance athletes. However, the inconsistent relationship between inflammatory symptoms, perception of performance, and body composition metrics (SMI, PBF, LBM) necessities further examination of additional physical factors that may impede performance. Further research will be conducted to gain an n-size of 60 athletes. Additionally, these athletes will be followed for 10 weeks with varying post-practice protein supplementation to assess changes over time in symptomology, recovery, and perceived performance

EIPSIM: Modeling Secure IP Address Allocation at Cloud Scale

Public clouds provide impressive capability through resource sharing. However, recent works have shown that the reuse of IP addresses can allow adversaries to exploit the latent configurations left by previous tenants. In this work, we perform a comprehensive analysis of the effect of cloud IP address allocation on exploitation of latent configuration. We first develop a statistical model of cloud tenant behavior and latent configuration based on literature and deployed systems. Through these, we analyze IP allocation policies under existing and novel threat models. Our resulting framework, EIPSim, simulates our models in representative public cloud scenarios, evaluating adversarial objectives against pool policies. In response to our stronger proposed threat model, we also propose IP scan segmentation, an IP allocation policy that protects the IP pool against adversarial scanning even when an adversary is not limited by number of cloud tenants. Our evaluation shows that IP scan segmentation reduces latent configuration exploitability by 97.1% compared to policies proposed in literature and 99.8% compared to those currently deployed by cloud providers. Finally, we evaluate our statistical assumptions by analyzing real allocation and configuration data, showing that results generalize to deployed cloud workloads. In this way, we show that principled analysis of cloud IP address allocation can lead to substantial security gains for tenants and their users

Narrativas y experiencias pedagógicas desde la comunalidad y geografías de la infancia Embera Katio

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar la experiencia pedagógica de un grupo de 12 estudiantes de Licenciatura en Educación Infantil pertenecientes a la comunidad indígena Embera Katío. Para lograrlo se realizó un análisis de narrativas sobre la práctica pedagógica y los modos de interpretar, ver y reflexionar el proceso educativo y la función docente. Los resultados muestran una primera reflexión desde el concepto de comunalidad y la apreciación de los saberes ancestrales; la segunda reflexión desde la identidad y las geografías de la infancia. Por último, la transformación de la práctica pedagógica refleja la realidad educativa originada en el territorio, la perspectiva del trabajo colaborativo y la búsqueda de prácticas situadas en un contexto intercultural para la conformación de comunidades de aprendizaje auténticas

Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation for Pertussis: Predictors of Outcome Including Pulmonary Hypertension and Leukodepletion

Objective: The recent increase of pertussis cases worldwide has generated questions regarding the utility of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for children with pertussis. We aimed to evaluate factors associated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation outcome. Design: The study was designed in two parts: a retrospective analysis of the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry to identify factors independently linked to outcome, and an expanded dataset from individual institutions to examine the association of WBC count, pulmonary hypertension, and leukodepletion with survival. Setting: Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry database from 2002 though 2015, and contributions from 19 international centers. Patients: Two hundred infants from the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Registry and expanded data on 73 children. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Of the 200 infants who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for pertussis, only 56 survived (28%). In a multivariable logistic regression analysis, the following variables were independently associated with increased chance of survival: older age (odds ratio, 1.43 [1.03–1.98]; p = 0.034), higher Pao2/Fio2 ratio (odds ratio, 1.10 [1.03–1.17]; p = 0.003), and longer intubation time prior to the initiation of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (odds ratio, 2.10 [1.37–3.22]; p = 0.001). The use of vasoactive medications (odds ratio, 0.33 [0.11–0.99]; p = 0.047), and renal neurologic or infectious complications (odds ratio, 0.21 [0.08–0.56]; p = 0.002) were associated with increased mortality. In the expanded dataset (n =73), leukodepletion was independently associated with increased chance of survival (odds ratio, 3.36 [1.13–11.68]; p = 0.03) while the presence of pulmonary hypertension was adverse (odds ratio, 0.06 [0.01–0.55]; p = 0.01). Conclusions: The survival rate for infants with pertussis who received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support remains poor. Younger age, lower Pao2/Fio2 ratio, vasoactive use, pulmonary hypertension, and a rapidly progressive course were associated with increased mortality. Our results suggest that pre–extracorporeal membrane oxygenation leukodepletion may provide a survival advantage

An interactive web application for the dissemination of human systems immunology data

International audienceBackground: Systems immunology approaches have proven invaluable in translational research settings. The current rate at which large-scale datasets are generated presents unique challenges and opportunities. Mining aggregates of these datasets could accelerate the pace of discovery, but new solutions are needed to integrate the heterogeneous data types with the contextual information that is necessary for interpretation. In addition, enabling tools and technologies facilitating investigators' interaction with large-scale datasets must be developed in order to promote insight and foster knowledge discovery. Methods: State of the art application programming was employed to develop an interactive web application for browsing and visualizing large and complex datasets. A collection of human immune transcriptome datasets were loaded alongside contextual information about the samples. Results: We provide a resource enabling interactive query and navigation of transcriptome datasets relevant to human immunology research. Detailed information about studies and samples are displayed dynamically; if desired the associated data can be downloaded. Custom interactive visualizations of the data can be shared via email or social media. This application can be used to browse context-rich systems-scale data within and across systems immunology studies. This resource is publicly available online at [Gene Expression Browser Landing Page (https://gxb.benaroyaresearch.org/dm3/landing.gsp)]. The source code is also available openly [Gene Expression Browser Source Code (https://github.com/BenaroyaResearch/gxbrowser)]. Conclusions: We have developed a data browsing and visualization application capable of navigating increasingly large and complex datasets generated in the context of immunological studies. This intuitive tool ensures that, whether taken individually or as a whole, such datasets generated at great effort and expense remain interpretable and a ready source of insight for years to come

Analysis of the impact of ISO 14001 in the economic variables of the Spanish ceramic tile industry¿s companies.

[ES] Es un hecho constatable el incremento de la adopción de prácticas medioambientales certificadas de manera formal a través de sistemas de gestión medioambiental. De su implantación, que tiene un elevado coste para las empresas, se espera la generación de beneficios, aunque no se ha documentado aún si existe relación entre la implantación de la ISO 14001 y su influencia en la mejora de los indicadores económicos a lo largo del tiempo. En este trabajo se analiza la relación entre la implantación de un sistema de gestión medioambiental, la ISO 14001 y el comportamiento económico en el corto, medio y largo plazo de las empresas del sector cerámico español. Se estudian los indicadores económicos para cada una de las 66 empresas productoras que han implantado la citada norma desde 1996 hasta el año 2009 a través de la comparación con su grupo de control. Los resultados indican que la ISO 14001 no influye en los resultados de las empresas del sector cerámico, ya que no se han encontrado diferencias significativas en los valores de ingresos de explotación ni en el incremento de los ingresos a largo plazo en ninguno de los tres horizontes temporales, corto, medio y largo plazo, obteniendo resultados opuestos a los esperados.[EN] The increased in the adoption of formally environmental certified practices through environmental management systems is a provable fact. Its implementation, which has a high cost for the companies, is expected to generate benefits, although the relation between the implementation of ISO 14001 and its influence on the improvement of economic indicators over time has not been documented. This paper analyzes the relation between the implementation of an environmental management system, the ISO 14001, and economic performance in the short, medium and long term for the companies of the Spanish ceramic tile industry. It explores the economic indicators for each of the 66 manufacturing companies which have implemented the aforementioned standard from 1996 until 2009 through a comparison with a control group. Results show that ISO 14001 does not affect the economic results of the studied companies. We have not found significant differences in the operating income values, neither in the increase in revenues in the long term in any of the three analyzed periods, contrary to the expected results.Los autores desean agradecer al Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad por el apoyo económico recibido a través del proyecto (EC02011-27369), así como a la Universitat Politècnica de València por la financiación a través de su programa de movilidad de profesores y del proyecto PAID06-2011-1879, “Impacto de las prácticas innovadoras en el “performance” medioambiental de la empresa: identificación de factores moderadores”.Peiró Signes, A.; Segarra Oña, MDV.; Mondéjar-Jiménez, J.; Vargas Vargas, M. (2013). ISO 14001 y variables económicas, ¿hay alguna relación?.Análisis de las empresas certificadas del sector cerámico español. Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio. 52(1):15-24. doi:10.3989/cyv.22013S152452

A novel hypervariable variable number tandem repeat in the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3)

The dopamine transporter gene, SLC6A3, has received substantial attention in genetic association studies of various phenotypes. Although some variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) present in SLC6A3 have been tested in genetic association studies, results have not been consistent. VNTRs in SLC6A3 that have not been examined genetically were characterized. The Tandem Repeat Annotation Library was used to characterize the VNTRs of 64 unrelated long-read haplotype-phased SLC6A3 sequences. Sequence similarity of each repeat unit of the five VNTRs is reported, along with the correlations of SNP-SNP, SNP-VNTR, and VNTR-VNTR alleles across the gene. One of these VNTRs is a novel hyper-VNTR (hyVNTR) in intron 8 of SLC6A3, which contains a range of 3.4-133.4 repeat copies and has a consensus sequence length of 38 bp, with 82% G+C content. The 38-base repeat was predicted to form G-quadruplexes in silico and was confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. In addition, this hyVNTR contains multiple putative binding sites for PRDM9, which, in combination with low levels of linkage disequilibrium around the hyVNTR, suggests it might be a recombination hotspot