65 research outputs found
An Attack Graph-Based Probabilistic Security Metric
Abstract. To protect critical resources in today’s networked environments, it is desirable to quantify the likelihood of potential multi-step attacks that combine multiple vulnerabilities. This now becomes feasible due to a model of causal re-lationships between vulnerabilities, namely, attack graph. This paper proposes an attack graph-based probabilistic metric for network security and studies its effi-cient computation. We first define the basic metric and provide an intuitive and meaningful interpretation to the metric. We then study the definition in more com-plex attack graphs with cycles and extend the definition accordingly. We show that computing the metric directly from its definition is not efficient in many cases and propose heuristics to improve the efficiency of such computation.
Effect of Impurities on Pentacene Thin Film Growth for Field-Effect Transistors
Pentacenequinone (PnQ) impurities have been introduced into a pentacene
source material at number densities from 0.001 to 0.474 to quantify the
relative effects of impurity content and grain boundary structure on transport
in pentacene thin-film transistors. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and
electrical measurements of top-contact pentacene thin-film transistors have
been employed to directly correlate initial structure and final film
structures, with the device mobility as a function of added impurity content.
The results reveal a factor four decrease in mobility without significant
changes in film morphology for source PnQ number fractions below ~0.008. For
these low concentrations, the impurity thus directly influences transport,
either as homogeneously distributed defects or by concentration at the
otherwise-unchanged grain boundaries. For larger impurity concentrations, the
continuing strong decrease in mobility is correlated with decreasing grain
size, indicating an impurity-induced increase in the nucleation of grains
during early stages of film growth.Comment: 18 pages, 4 Figures, 1 Tabl
Comparison between harvesting and preserving the spinous process for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis
Shifting boundaries between the normal and the pathological:the case of mild intellectual disability
When disorders fade into normality, how can the threshold between normality and disorder be determined? In considering mild intellectual disability, I argue that economic factors partly determine thresholds. We tend to assume that the relationship between disorder, need and services is such that: first, a cut-off point between the disordered and the normal is determined; second, a needy population is identified; and third, resources are found (or at least should be found) to meet this need. However, the changing definitions of intellectual disability can best be understood if we think of this happening in reverse. That is, first, certain resources are thought obtainable, and then a cut-off point for disorder is selected which supplies an appropriately sized ‘needy population’
Association between age at disease onset of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis and clinical presentation and short-term outcomes
Objectives: ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) can affect all age groups. We aimed to show that differences in disease presentation and 6 month outcome between younger- A nd older-onset patients are still incompletely understood. Methods: We included patients enrolled in the Diagnostic and Classification Criteria for Primary Systemic Vasculitis (DCVAS) study between October 2010 and January 2017 with a diagnosis of AAV. We divided the population according to age at diagnosis: <65 years or ≥65 years. We adjusted associations for the type of AAV and the type of ANCA (anti-MPO, anti-PR3 or negative). Results: A total of 1338 patients with AAV were included: 66% had disease onset at <65 years of age [female 50%; mean age 48.4 years (s.d. 12.6)] and 34% had disease onset at ≥65 years [female 54%; mean age 73.6 years (s.d. 6)]. ANCA (MPO) positivity was more frequent in the older group (48% vs 27%; P = 0.001). Younger patients had higher rates of musculoskeletal, cutaneous and ENT manifestations compared with older patients. Systemic, neurologic,cardiovascular involvement and worsening renal function were more frequent in the older-onset group. Damage accrual, measured with the Vasculitis Damage Index (VDI), was significantly higher in older patients, 12% of whom had a 6 month VDI ≥5, compared with 7% of younger patients (P = 0.01). Older age was an independent risk factor for early death within 6 months from diagnosis [hazard ratio 2.06 (95% CI 1.07, 3.97); P = 0.03]. Conclusion: Within 6 months of diagnosis of AAV, patients >65 years of age display a different pattern of organ involvement and an increased risk of significant damage and mortality compared with younger patients
k-zero day safety: Measuring the security risk of networks against unknown attacks
Abstract. The security risk of a network against unknown zero day attacks has been considered as something unmeasurable since software flaws are less predictable than hardware faults and the process of finding such flaws and developing exploits seems to be chaotic. In this paper, we propose a novel security metric, k-zero day safety, based on the number of unknown zero day vulnerabilities. That is, the metric simply counts how many unknown vulnerabilities would be required for compromising a network asset, regardless of what vulnerabilities those might be. We formally define the metric based on an abstract model of networks and attacks. We then devise algorithms for computing the metric. Finally, we show the metric can quantify many existing practices in hardening a network.
Light-assisted deep-trapping of holes in conjugated polymers
The injection of positive charge carriers (holes) into a single conjugated polymer chain was observed to be light-assisted. This effect may underlie critical, poorly understood organic electronic device phenomena such as the build-up of functional deeply trapped charge layers in polymer light emitting diodes. The charging/discharging dynamics were investigated indirectly by a variety of single molecule electro-optical spectroscopic techniques, including an “image-capture” approach
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