A Meta-Model for Real-Time Fraud Detection in ERP Systems

Fraud is a worldwide issue affecting almost every organization once in a time. Recent studies have shown that fraudulent behavior impacts up to 5 % of a companies annual revenue. Information systems (IS) have become an integral part of every modern organization. They contain the data foundation of the entire company and thereby supporting business processes and day-to-day transactions. Although an IS usually contains control mechanisms to prevent different kinds of fraud, these mechanisms look insufficient, considering the role of IS in many fraud cases. Since many cases from different companies have shown the need for an appropriate countermeasure, we want to develop an application that efficiently detects fraud and fraudulent behavior. Therefore, we conducted a structured literature review and a qualitative survey to apply the design science research (DSR) methodology and derive requirements for a fraud detection system (FDS). As a result, we present a meta-model for a FDS for enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. We also provide application requirements, principles, and features that define areas for further research

The subjective knee value is a valid single-item survey to assess knee function in common knee disorders

Introduction: The patient's perspective plays a key role in judging the effect of knee disorders on physical function. We have introduced the Subjective Knee Value (SKV) to simplify the evaluation of individual's knee function by providing one simple question. The purpose of this prospective study was to validate the SKV with accepted multiple-item knee surveys across patients with orthopaedic knee disorders. Materials and methods: Between January through March 2020, consecutive patients (n = 160; mean age 51 +/- 18 years, range from 18 to 85 years, 54% women) attending the outpatient clinic for knee complaints caused by osteoarthritis (n = 69), meniscal lesion (n = 45), tear of the anterior cruciate ligament (n = 23) and focal chondral defect (n = 23) were invited to complete a knee-specific survey including the SKV along with the Knee Injury Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) and the International Knee Documentation Committee subjective knee form (IKDC-S). The Pearson correlation coefficient was used to evaluate external validity between the SKV and each patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) separately. Furthermore, patient's compliance was assessed by comparing responding rates. Results: Overall, the SKV highly correlated with both the KOOS (R = 0.758, p < 0.05) and the IKDC-S (R = 0.802, p < 0.05). This was also demonstrated across all investigated diagnosis- and demographic-specific (gender, age) subgroups (range 0.509-0.936). No relevant floor/ceiling effects were noticed. The responding rate for the SKV (96%) was significantly higher when compared with those for the KOOS (81%) and the IKDC-S (83%) (p < 0.05). Conclusion: At baseline, the SKV exhibits acceptable validity across all investigated knee-specific PROMs in a broad patient population with a wide array of knee disorders. The simplified survey format without compromising the precision to evaluate individual's knee function justifies implementation in daily clinical practice. Level of evidence II, cohort study (diagnosis)

Significant increase in quantity and quality of knee arthroplasty related research in KSSTA over the past 15 years

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate both publication and authorship characteristics in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy journal (KSSTA) regarding knee arthroplasty over the past 15 years. Methods: PubMed was searched for articles published in KSSTA between January 1, 2006, and December 31st, 2020, utilising the search term 'knee arthroplasty'. 1288 articles met the inclusion criteria. The articles were evaluated using the following criteria: type of article, type of study, main topic and special topic, use of patient-reported outcome scores, number of references and citations, level of evidence (LOE), number of authors, gender of the first author and continent of origin. Three time intervals were compared: 2006-2010, 2011-2015 and 2016-2020. Results: Between 2016 and 2020, publications peaked at 670 articles (52%) compared with 465 (36%) published between 2011 and 2016 and 153 articles (12%) between 2006 and 2010. While percentage of reviews (2006-2010: 0% vs. 2011-2015: 5% vs. 2016-2020: 5%) and meta-analyses (1% vs. 6% vs. 5%) increased, fewer case reports were published (13% vs. 3% vs. 1%) (p < 0.001). Interest in navigation and computer-assisted surgery decreased, whereas interest in perioperative management, robotic and individualized surgery increased over time (p < 0.001). There was an increasing number of references [26 (2-73) vs. 30 (2-158) vs. 31 (1-143), p < 0.001] while number of citations decreased [30 (0-188) vs. 22 (0-264) vs. 6 (0-106), p < 0.001]. LOE showed no significant changes (p = 0.439). The number of authors increased between each time interval (p < 0.001), while the percentage of female authors was comparable between first and last interval (p = 0.252). Europe published significantly fewer articles over time (56% vs. 47% vs. 52%), whereas the number of articles from Asia increased (35% vs. 45% vs. 37%, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Increasing interest in the field of knee arthroplasty-related surgery arose within the last 15 years in KSSTA. The investigated topics showed a significant trend towards the latest techniques at each time interval. With rising number of authors, the part of female first authors also increased-but not significantly. Furthermore, publishing characteristics showed an increasing number of publications from Asia and a slightly decreasing number in Europe

Security Implications of Consortium Blockchains: The Case of Ethereum Networks

By definition, blockchain platforms offer secure and reliable data exchange between stakeholders without a trusted third party. Private and consortium blockchains implement access restrictions, so that sensitive data is kept from the public. However, due to its distributed structure, only one node with faulty configuration can leak all blockchain data. For our study, we scanned the Internet for misconfigured private Ethereum nodes. Overall, we found 1421 nodes belonging to 621 blockchains that are not one of the large Ethereum-based networks. For our analysis, we chose a diverse sample of networks. Then, we analyzed in-depth 4 different networks with 10 to 20 nodes enabling 800 to over 34 million transactions. We used the exposed remote procedure call interface of nodes to extract the complete transaction history and to gain insights into the actors’ behaviors those networks. We used graph visualization tools to picture the networks transactions and to identify stakeholders and activities. Additionally, we decompiled and reverse engineered smart contracts on the networks to infer the purpose of smart contracts, the network, and its participants’ roles. With our research, we show how to reveal confidential information from blockchains, which should not be exposed to the public and could potentially include identities, contract data as well as legal data. Thereby, we illustrate the legal and social implications of data leakage by this distributed and supposedly secure technology. In summary, we show that the large attack surface of private or consortium blockchains poses a threat to the security of those networks. The nodes used in this study were not configured according to the Ethereum guidelines and exposed information directly to the Internet. However, even correctly configured nodes provide an excellent target for attackers as they allow them to gain information about a whole network while only breaching one weak point. Lastly, our study discusses whether (private) blockchain networks can reach a consensus without sharing all data between nodes and what data distribution strategies defend best against weak links in the chain

An Industry-Agnostic Approach for the Prediction of Return Shipments

Return shipments are a major problem in E-commerce not only economically for the companies selling the products, but also for the environment. We introduce a universally applicable Decision Support System (DSS) for the prediction of product returns. Most of the prediction algorithms used in the research were developed on datasets with high return rates and are product feature centric. However, these algorithms work best for fast-moving products with many features that can be found in the fashion industry. We tackle these challenges by using Design Science Research (DSR) to develop a prediction mechanism based on the current shopping cart of a customer. Using a dataset from a German technical wholesale company, we validate and demonstrate our approach. Thus, we identify consumption patterns within fulfillment datasets containing a low product return rate at sufficient accuracy. This allows supplying a broader industry with prediction algorithms that have low return rates

Significant increase in quantity and quality of knee arthroplasty related research in KSSTA over the past 15 years

Purpose!#!This study aimed to evaluate both publication and authorship characteristics in Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy journal (KSSTA) regarding knee arthroplasty over the past 15 years.!##!Methods!#!PubMed was searched for articles published in KSSTA between January 1, 2006, and December 31st, 2020, utilising the search term 'knee arthroplasty'. 1288 articles met the inclusion criteria. The articles were evaluated using the following criteria: type of article, type of study, main topic and special topic, use of patient-reported outcome scores, number of references and citations, level of evidence (LOE), number of authors, gender of the first author and continent of origin. Three time intervals were compared: 2006-2010, 2011-2015 and 2016-2020.!##!Results!#!Between 2016 and 2020, publications peaked at 670 articles (52%) compared with 465 (36%) published between 2011 and 2016 and 153 articles (12%) between 2006 and 2010. While percentage of reviews (2006-2010: 0% vs. 2011-2015: 5% vs. 2016-2020: 5%) and meta-analyses (1% vs. 6% vs. 5%) increased, fewer case reports were published (13% vs. 3% vs. 1%) (p &amp;lt; 0.001). Interest in navigation and computer-assisted surgery decreased, whereas interest in perioperative management, robotic and individualized surgery increased over time (p &amp;lt; 0.001). There was an increasing number of references [26 (2-73) vs. 30 (2-158) vs. 31 (1-143), p &amp;lt; 0.001] while number of citations decreased [30 (0-188) vs. 22 (0-264) vs. 6 (0-106), p &amp;lt; 0.001]. LOE showed no significant changes (p = 0.439). The number of authors increased between each time interval (p &amp;lt; 0.001), while the percentage of female authors was comparable between first and last interval (p = 0.252). Europe published significantly fewer articles over time (56% vs. 47% vs. 52%), whereas the number of articles from Asia increased (35% vs. 45% vs. 37%, p = 0.005).!##!Conclusion!#!Increasing interest in the field of knee arthroplasty-related surgery arose within the last 15 years in KSSTA. The investigated topics showed a significant trend towards the latest techniques at each time interval. With rising number of authors, the part of female first authors also increased-but not significantly. Furthermore, publishing characteristics showed an increasing number of publications from Asia and a slightly decreasing number in Europe.!##!Level of evidence!#!IV

The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter

The BepiColombo Laser Altimeter (BELA) is the first European laser altimeter constructed for interplanetary flight. BELA uses a 50 mJ pulsed Nd:YAG laser operating at 10 Hz with a 20 cm aperture receiver to perform the ranging. The instrument also uses a digital approach for range detection and pulse analysis. The ranging accuracy is expected to be better than 2 metres and ∼20 cm in optimum conditions. With the given, only slightly elliptical, orbit, BELA should return a consistent data set for the most if not all of the planet. The instrument is required to function in an extreme environment with the thermal issues being particularly demanding. Novel solutions have been taken to resolve these issues. BELA is described in detail and its predicted performance outlined on the basis of pre-flight testing