Risk and Business Goal Based Security Requirement and Countermeasure Prioritization

Companies are under pressure to be in control of their assets but at the same time they must operate as efficiently as possible. This means that they aim to implement “good-enough security” but need to be able to justify their security investment plans. Currently companies achieve this by means of checklist-based security assessments, but these methods are a way to achieve consensus without being able to provide justifications of countermeasures in terms of business goals. But such justifications are needed to operate securely and effectively in networked businesses. In this paper, we first compare a Risk-Based Requirements Prioritization method (RiskREP) with some requirements engineering and risk assessment methods based on their requirements elicitation and prioritization properties. RiskREP extends misuse case-based requirements engineering methods with IT architecture-based risk assessment and countermeasure definition and prioritization. Then, we present how RiskREP prioritizes countermeasures by linking business goals to countermeasure specification. Prioritizing countermeasures based on business goals is especially important to provide the stakeholders with structured arguments for choosing a set of countermeasures to implement. We illustrate RiskREP and how it prioritizes the countermeasures it elicits by an application to an action case

UV-Induced Structural Changes of Model DNA Helices Probed by Optical Spectroscopy

International audienceChemical alterations of DNA, if not repaired, may lead to carcinogenic mutations. Structural modifications of the helix around the lesion enable its recognition by repair enzymes. We have used absorption spectroscopy and mass spectrometry to detect structural changes provoked by cyclobutane thymine dimers, the major lesion induced by UV radiation. We found that formation of a cyclobutane dimer in the model duplex (dA)20 · (dT)20 destroys base stacking on the adenine strand. The physical background of this novel approach is the existence of charge-transfer states among neighboring bases, whose contribution to the hypochromism of the helix disappears following destacking

Developing a Comprehensive Pesticide Health Effects Tracking System for an Urban Setting: New York City’s Approach

In recent years, there have been substantial investments and improvements in federal and state surveillance systems to track the health effects from pesticide exposure. These surveillance systems help to identify risk factors for occupational exposure to pesticides, patterns in poisonings, clusters of disease, and populations at risk of exposure from pesticide use. Data from pesticide use registries and recent epidemiologic evidence pointing to health risks from urban residential pesticide use make a strong case for understanding better the sale, application, and use of pesticides in cities. In this article, we describe plans for the development of a pesticide tracking system for New York City that will help to elucidate where and why pesticides are used, potential risks to varied populations, and the health consequences of their use. The results of an inventory of data sources are presented along with a description of their relevance to pesticide tracking. We also discuss practical, logistical, and methodologic difficulties of linking multiple secondary data sources with different levels of person, place, and time descriptors

Adiabatic creation of coherent superposition states via multiple intermediate states

We consider an adiabatic population transfer process that resembles the well established stimulated Raman adiabatic passage (STIRAP). In our system, the states have nonzero angular momentums $J$, therefore, the coupling laser fields induce transitions among the magnetic sublevels of the states. In particular, we discuss the possibility of creating coherent superposition states in a system with coupling pattern $J=0\Leftrightarrow J=1$ and $J=1\Leftrightarrow J=2$. Initially, the system is in the J=0 state. We show that by two delayed, overlapping laser pulses it is possible to create any final superposition state of the magnetic sublevels $|2,-2>$, $|2,0>$, $|2,+2>$. Moreover, we find that the relative phases of the applied pulses influence not only the phases of the final superposition state but the probability amplitudes as well. We show that if we fix the shape and the time-delay between the pulses, the final state space can be entirely covered by varying the polarizations and relative phases of the two pulses. Performing numerical simulations we find that our transfer process is nearly adiabatic for the whole parameter set.Comment: 7 pages, 10 figure

Competitive stochastic noises in coherently driven two-level atoms and quantum interference

A system of coherently-driven two-level atoms is analyzed in presence of two independent stochastic perturbations: one due to collisions and a second one due to phase fluctuations of the driving field. The behaviour of the quantum interference induced by the collisional noise is considered in detail. The quantum-trajectory method is utilized to reveal the phase correlations between the dressed states involved in the interfering transition channels. It is shown that the quantum interference induced by the collisional noise is remarkably robust against phase noise. This effect is due to the fact that the phase noise, similarly to collisions, stabilizes the phase-difference between the dressed states.Comment: accepted for publication in J. Opt.

The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope

The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) is one of three focal plane instruments in the Spitzer Space Telescope. IRAC is a four-channel camera that obtains simultaneous broad-band images at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 microns. Two nearly adjacent 5.2x5.2 arcmin fields of view in the focal plane are viewed by the four channels in pairs (3.6 and 5.8 microns; 4.5 and 8 microns). All four detector arrays in the camera are 256x256 pixels in size, with the two shorter wavelength channels using InSb and the two longer wavelength channels using Si:As IBC detectors. IRAC is a powerful survey instrument because of its high sensitivity, large field of view, and four-color imaging. This paper summarizes the in-flight scientific, technical, and operational performance of IRAC.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in the ApJS. A higher resolution version is at http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/irac/publication

Characterization of the gene encoding human sarcolipin (SLN), a proteolipid associated with SERCA1: Absence of structural mutations in five patients with brody disease

Sarcolipin (SLN) is a low-molecular-weight protein that copurifies with the fast-twitch skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA1). Genomic DNA and cDNA encoding human sarcolipin (SLN) were isolated and characterized and the SLN gene was mapped to chromosome 11q22-q23. Human, rabbit, and mouse cDNAs encode a protein of 31 amino acids. Homology of SLN with phospholamban (PLN) suggests that the first 7 hydrophilic amino acids are cytoplasmic, the next 19 hydrophobic amino acids form a single transmembrane helix, and the last 5 hydrophilic amino acids are lumenal. The cytoplasmic and transmembrane sequences are not well conserved among the three species, but the lumenal sequence is highly conserved. Like SERCA1, SLN is highly expressed in rabbit fast-twitch skeletal muscle, but it is expressed to a lower extent in slow-twitch muscle and to an even lower extent in cardiac muscle, where SERCA2a and PLN are highly expressed. It is expressed in only trace amounts in pancreas and prostate. SLN and PLN genes resemble each other in having two small exons, with their entire coding sequences lying in exon 2 and a large intron separating the two segments. Brody disease is an inherited disorder of skeletal muscle function, characterized by exercise-induced impairment of muscle relaxation. Mutations in the ATP2A1 gene encoding SERCA1 have been associated with the autosomal recessive inheritance of Brody disease in three families, but not with autosomal dominant inheritance of the disease. A search for mutations in the SLN gene in five Brody families, four of which were not linked to ATP2A1, did not reveal any alterations in coding, splice junction or promoter sequences. The homozygous deletion of C438 in the coding sequence of ATP2A1 in Brody disease family 3, leading to a frameshift and truncation following Pro147 in SERCA1, is the fourth ATP2A1 mutation to be associated with autosomal recessive Brody disease

Science and society in education

This booklet is for teachers who want to expand their teaching approaches to include socio-scientific issues which enrich and give meaning to core scientific principles. It is meant to enhance young people’s curiosity about the social and scientific world and raise important questions about issues which affect their lives. We call this approach Socio-Scientific Inquiry-Based Learning, or ‘SSIBL’ for short. Chapters 1 and 2 present an introduction to the theoretical background of SSIBL. In chapter 3, SSIBL will be approached from a classroom perspective, providing a simplified version of the framework and showing teaching examples

Muscle Fiber Viability, a Novel Method for the Fast Detection of Ischemic Muscle Injury in Rats

Acute lower extremity ischemia is a limb- and life-threatening clinical problem. Rapid detection of the degree of injury is crucial, however at present there are no exact diagnostic tests available to achieve this purpose. Our goal was to examine a novel technique - which has the potential to accurately assess the degree of ischemic muscle injury within a short period of time - in a clinically relevant rodent model. Male Wistar rats were exposed to 4, 6, 8 and 9 hours of bilateral lower limb ischemia induced by the occlusion of the infrarenal aorta. Additional animals underwent 8 and 9 hours of ischemia followed by 2 hours of reperfusion to examine the effects of revascularization. Muscle samples were collected from the left anterior tibial muscle for viability assessment. The degree of muscle damage (muscle fiber viability) was assessed by morphometric evaluation of NADH-tetrazolium reductase reaction on frozen sections. Right hind limbs were perfusion-fixed with paraformaldehyde and glutaraldehyde for light and electron microscopic examinations. Muscle fiber viability decreased progressively over the time of ischemia, with significant differences found between the consecutive times. High correlation was detected between the length of ischemia and the values of muscle fiber viability. After reperfusion, viability showed significant reduction in the 8-hour-ischemia and 2-hour-reperfusion group compared to the 8-hour-ischemia-only group, and decreased further after 9 hours of ischemia and 2 hours of reperfusion. Light- and electron microscopic findings correlated strongly with the values of muscle fiber viability: lesser viability values represented higher degree of ultrastructural injury while similar viability results corresponded to similar morphological injury. Muscle fiber viability was capable of accurately determining the degree of muscle injury in our rat model. Our method might therefore be useful in clinical settings in the diagnostics of acute ischemic muscle injury

Age- and Gender-Related Changes in Contractile Properties of Non-Atrophied EDL Muscle

Background: In humans, ageing causes skeletal muscles to become atrophied, weak, and easily fatigued. In rodent studies, ageing has been associated with significant muscle atrophy and changes in the contractile properties of the muscles. However, it is not entirely clear whether these changes in contractile properties can occur before there is significant atrophy, and whether males and females are affected differently. Methods and Results: We investigated various contractile properties of whole isolated fast-twitch EDL muscles from adult (2–6 months-old) and aged (12–22 months-old) male and female mice. Atrophy was not present in the aged mice. Compared with adult mice, EDL muscles of aged mice had significantly lower specific force, longer tetanus relaxation times, and lower fatiguability. In the properties of absolute force and muscle relaxation times, females were affected by ageing to a greater extent than males. Additionally, EDL muscles from a separate group of male mice were subjected to eccentric contractions of 15 % strain, and larger force deficits were found in aged than in adult mice. Conclusion: Our findings provide further insight into the muscle atrophy, weakness and fatiguability experienced by the elderly. We have shown that even in the absence of muscle atrophy, there are definite alterations in the physiological properties of whole fast-twitch muscle from ageing mice, and for some of these properties the alterations are mor