Software security requirements engineering: State of the art

Software Engineering has established techniques, methods and technology over two decades. However, due to the lack of understanding of software security vulnerabilities, we have not been so successful in applying software engineering principles that have been established for the past at least 25 years, when developing secure software systems. Therefore, software security can not be just added after a system has been built and delivered to customers as seen in today’s software applications. This keynote paper provides concise methods, techniques, and best practice requirements guidelines on software security and also discusses an Integrated-Secure SDLC model (IS-SDLC), which will benefit practitioners, researchers, learners, and educators

Does publication bias inflate the apparent efficacy of psychological treatment for major depressive disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis of US national institutes of health-funded trials

Background The efficacy of antidepressant medication has been shown empirically to be overestimated due to publication bias, but this has only been inferred statistically with regard to psychological treatment for depression. We assessed directly the extent of study publication bias in trials examining the efficacy of psychological treatment for depression. Methods and Findings We identified US National Institutes of Health grants awarded to fund randomized clinical trials comparing psychological treatment to control conditions or other treatments in patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder for the period 1972–2008, and we determined whether those grants led to publications. For studies that were not published, data were requested from investigators and included in the meta-analyses. Thirteen (23.6%) of the 55 funded grants that began trials did not result in publications, and two others never started. Among comparisons to control conditions, adding unpublished studies (Hedges’ g = 0.20; CI95% -0.11~0.51; k = 6) to published studies (g = 0.52; 0.37~0.68; k = 20) reduced the psychotherapy effect size point estimate (g = 0.39; 0.08~0.70) by 25%. Moreover, these findings may overestimate the "true" effect of psychological treatment for depression as outcome reporting bias could not be examined quantitatively. Conclusion The efficacy of psychological interventions for depression has been overestimated in the published literature, just as it has been for pharmacotherapy. Both are efficacious but not to the extent that the published literature would suggest. Funding agencies and journals should archive both original protocols and raw data from treatment trials to allow the detection and correction of outcome reporting bias. Clinicians, guidelines developers, and decision makers should be aware that the published literature overestimates the effects of the predominant treatments for depression

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Study protocol of a randomised controlled pilot trial using a mixed methods approach

Copyright @ 2009 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Two different approaches have been adopted when applying motor imagery (MI) to stroke patients. MI can be conducted either added to conventional physiotherapy or integrated within therapy sessions. The proposed study aims to compare the efficacy of embedded MI to an added MI intervention. Evidence from pilot studies reported in the literature suggests that both approaches can improve performance of a complex motor skill involving whole body movements, however, it remains to be demonstrated, which is the more effective one.Methods/Design: A single blinded, randomised controlled trial (RCT) with a pre-post intervention design will be carried out. The study design includes two experimental groups and a control group (CG). Both experimental groups (EG1, EG2) will receive physical practice of a clinical relevant motor task ('Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again') over a two week intervention period: EG1 with embedded MI training, EG2 with MI training added after physiotherapy. The CG will receive standard physiotherapy intervention and an additional control intervention not related to MI.The primary study outcome is the time difference to perform the task from pre to post-intervention. Secondary outcomes include level of help needed, stages of motor task completion, degree of motor impairment, balance ability, fear of falling measure, motivation score, and motor imagery ability score. Four data collection points are proposed: twice during baseline phase, once following the intervention period, and once after a two week follow up. A nested qualitative part should add an important insight into patients' experience and attitudes towards MI. Semi-structured interviews of six to ten patients, who participate in the RCT, will be conducted to investigate patients' previous experience with MI and their expectations towards the MI intervention in the study. Patients will be interviewed prior and after the intervention period.Discussion: Results will determine whether embedded MI is superior to added MI. Findings of the semi-structured interviews will help to integrate patient's expectations of MI interventions in the design of research studies to improve practical applicability using MI as an adjunct therapy technique

Stringy Stability of Charged Dilaton Black Holes with Flat Event Horizon

Electrically charged black holes with flat event horizon in anti-de Sitter space have received much attention due to various applications in Anti-de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory (AdS/CFT) correspondence, from modeling the behavior of quark-gluon plasma to superconductor. Crucial to the physics on the dual field theory is the fact that when embedded in string theory, black holes in the bulk may become vulnerable to instability caused by brane pair-production. Since dilaton arises naturally in the context of string theory, we study the effect of coupling dilaton to Maxwell field on the stability of flat charged AdS black holes. In particular, we study the stability of Gao-Zhang black holes, which are locally asymptotically anti-de Sitter. We find that for dilaton coupling parameter $\alpha$ > 1, flat black holes are stable against brane pair production, however for 0 < $\alpha$ < 1, the black holes eventually become unstable as the amount of electrical charges is increased. Such instability however, behaves somewhat differently from that of flat Reissner-Nordstr\"om black holes. In addition, we prove that the Seiberg-Witten action of charged dilaton AdS black hole of Gao-Zhang type with flat event horizon (at least in 5-dimension) is always logarithmically divergent at infinity for finite values of $\alpha$, and is finite and positive in the case $\alpha$ tends to infinity . We also comment on the robustness of our result for other charged dilaton black holes that are not of Gao-Zhang type.Comment: Fixed some confusions regarding whether part of the discussions concern electrically charged hole or magnetically charged one. No changes to the result

Measuring and explaining mortality in Dutch hospitals; The Hospital Standardized Mortality Rate between 2003 and 2005

Background. Indicators of hospital quality, such as hospital standardized mortality ratios (HSMR), have been used increasingly to assess and improve hospital quality. Our aim has been to describe and explain variation in new HSMRs for the Netherlands. Methods. HSMRs were estimated using data from the complete population of discharged patients during 2003 to 2005. We used binary logistic regression to indirectly standardize for differences in case-mix. Out of a total of 101 hospitals 89 hospitals remained in our explanatory analysis. In this analysis we explored the association between HSMRs and determinants that can and cannot be influenced by hospitals. For this analysis we used a two-level hierarchical linear regression model to explain variation in yearly HSMRs. Results. The average HSMR decreased yearly with more than eight

Reduced risk of Barrett’s esophagus in statin users: case–control study and meta-analysis

Background: Use of statins has been associated with a reduced incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma in population-based studies. However there are few studies examining statin use and the development of Barrett’s esophagus. Aim: The purpose of this study was to examine the association between statin use and the presence of Barrett’s esophagus in patients having their first gastroscopy. Methods: We have performed a case–control study comparing statin use between patients with, and without, an incident diagnosis of non-dysplastic Barrett’s esophagus. Male Barrett’s cases (134) were compared to 268 male age-matched controls in each of two control groups (erosive gastro-esophageal reflux and dyspepsia without significant upper gastrointestinal disease). Risk factor and drug exposure were established using standardised interviews. Logistic regression was used to compare statin exposure and correct for confounding factors. We performed a meta-analysis pooling our results with three other case–control studies. Results: Regular statin use was associated with a significantly lower incidence of Barrett’s esophagus compared to the combined control groups [adjusted OR 0.62 (95 % confidence intervals 0.37–0.93)]. This effect was more marked in combined statin plus aspirin users [adjusted OR 0.43 (95 % CI 0.21–0.89)]. The inverse association between statin or statin plus aspirin use and risk of Barrett’s was significantly greater with longer duration of use. Meta-analysis of pooled data (1098 Barrett’s, 2085 controls) showed that statin use was significantly associated with a reduced risk of Barrett’s esophagus [pooled adjusted OR 0.63 (95 % CI 0.51–0.77)]. Conclusions: Statin use is associated with a reduced incidence of a new diagnosis of Barrett’s esophagus

How to obtain lattices from (f,σ,δ)-codes via a generalization of Construction A

We show how cyclic (f,σ,δ)-codes over finite rings canonically induce a Z-lattice in RN by using certain quotients of orders in nonassociative division algebras defined using the skew polynomial f. This construction generalizes the one using certain σ-constacyclic codes by Ducoat and Oggier, which used quotients of orders in non-commutative associative division algebras defined by f, and can be viewed as a generalization of the classical Construction A for lattices from linear codes. It has the potential to be applied to coset coding, in particular to wire-tap coding. Previous results by Ducoat and Oggier are obtained as special cases

Highly efficient and robust cathode materials for low-temperature solid oxide fuel cells: PrBa0.5Sr0.5Co2-xFexO5+delta

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are the cleanest, most efficient, and cost-effective option for direct conversion to electricity of a wide variety of fuels. While significant progress has been made in anode materials with enhanced tolerance to coking and contaminant poisoning, cathodic polarization still contributes considerably to energy loss, more so at lower operating temperatures. Here we report a synergistic effect of co-doping in a cation-ordered double-perovskite material, PrBa 0.5 Sr 0.5 Co 2-x Fe x O 5+??, which has created pore channels that dramatically enhance oxygen ion diffusion and surface oxygen exchange while maintaining excellent compatibility and stability under operating conditions. Test cells based on these cathode materials demonstrate peak power densities ???2.2&acirc;&#65533;...W cm -2 at 600 C, representing an important step toward commercially viable SOFC technologies.open16

f(R) theories

Over the past decade, f(R) theories have been extensively studied as one of the simplest modifications to General Relativity. In this article we review various applications of f(R) theories to cosmology and gravity - such as inflation, dark energy, local gravity constraints, cosmological perturbations, and spherically symmetric solutions in weak and strong gravitational backgrounds. We present a number of ways to distinguish those theories from General Relativity observationally and experimentally. We also discuss the extension to other modified gravity theories such as Brans-Dicke theory and Gauss-Bonnet gravity, and address models that can satisfy both cosmological and local gravity constraints.Comment: 156 pages, 14 figures, Invited review article in Living Reviews in Relativity, Published version, Comments are welcom

Female gamers’ experience of online harassment and social support in online gaming: a qualitative study

Female gaming is a relatively under-researched area, and female gamers often report experiencing harassment whilst playing online. The present study explored female experiences of social support while playing online video games, because of the previous research suggesting that females often experience harassment and negative interactions during game play. Data were collected from an online discussion forum, and comprised posts drawn from 271 female gamers. Thematic analysis of the discussions suggested that a lack of social support and harassment frequently led to female gamers playing alone, playing anonymously, and moving groups regularly. The female gamers reported experiencing anxiety and loneliness due to this lack of social support, and for many, this was mirrored in their experiences of social support outside of gaming. The female gamers frequently accepted the incorporation into their gaming of specific coping strategies to mitigate online harassment, including actively hiding their identity and avoiding all forms of verbal communication with other players. These themes are discussed in relation to relevant research in the area, along with recommendations for future research and consideration of possible explanations for the themes observed