How Secure is Your System? Examining the Influence of Technical, Managerial, and Educational Controls on Users’ Secure Behavior

IT security policies play an important role in outlining employees’ secure behavior that supports organizations’ strategic and competitive goals. However, history is full of examples of employees engaging in behaviors contrary to their organization’s security policy often resulting in undesirable outcomes. This research-in-progress presents a dual-processing model explaining and predicting secure behavior while interacting with strategic information systems. The model posits that the number of security layers (technical controls), the manifestation of managerial attitudes of compliance (managerial controls), and training (educational controls) influence secure behavior directly and also indirectly through system satisfaction. We will test our model in an experiment utilizing a realistic corporate environment that captures user’s security-policy compliance. We suspect to find that managerial controls and educational controls will positively influence secure behavior while technical controls will negatively influence secure behavior directly and also indirectly through system satisfaction

Human sensitivity to gearshift loads

This paper describes an investigation of the ability of humans to distinguish different levels of gearlever load. A test rig with a forward-backward moving gearshift lever was constructed using the typical interior dimensions of European B segment automobiles. The rig used a system of weights and pulleys to provide a load which could be varied in steps of 1%. Four reference loads were chosen which were considered representative of automotive gearshift operation: 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and 5.0 kg. Twenty subjects took part in the study. Using a variation on the psychophysical method of limits, the subjects were asked to respond whether a test load was heavier or lighter than a reference load. The Weber Fraction was found to decrease monotonically from a value of 0.036 for the 0.5 kg reference load to a value of 0.029 at the 5.0 kg reference load. The average value across all reference loads was 0.032. Measurements of the gearshift force made by means of a knob containing a load cell suggested that the variation in the measured Weber Fraction might be attributable to the time behaviour of the force exchanged between the human subject and the control surface

STRATHcube : The design of a student CubeSat using concurrent engineering methods

With the role of concurrent engineering (CE) becoming more important to the success of companies, it is vital that engineering students are able to understand and apply this concept. In this regard, the University of Strathclyde regularly offers its students opportunities to learn about this process through practical-based CE workshops. The results from a student-based CE study of a CubeSat are therefore outlined, including the effectiveness of the session as a learning experience for students. Through collaboration and teamwork, the student team produced a feasible design concept which achieved most of the prespecified objectives. Additionally, it was determined that the learning outcomes of the study were widely met, despite it taking place virtually due to COVID-19

Nature is a rich source of medicine - if we can protect it

First paragraph: The Pacific yew tree is a fairly small and slow growing conifer native to the Pacific Northwest. The Gila monster is a lizard with striking orange and black markings from the drylands of the Southwestern US and Mexico. Two very different organisms, but with a fascinating connection. They've both given us drugs that have saved and improved the lives of millions of people. Paclitaxel, originally isolated in 1971 from the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, is so important for treating various cancers that it is one of the World Health Organisation’s "Essential Medicines". This compound has been studied in more than 3,000 clinical trials. It's safe and effective and it generates sales of around US$80-100m per year.https://theconversation.com/nature-is-a-rich-source-of-medicine-if-we-can-protect-it-10747

Viewers base estimates of face matching accuracy on their own familiarity: Explaining the photo-ID paradox

Matching two different images of a face is a very easy task for familiar viewers, but much harder for unfamiliar viewers. Despite this, use of photo-ID is widespread, and people appear not to know how unreliable it is. We present a series of experiments investigating bias both when performing a matching task and when predicting other people’s performance. Participants saw pairs of faces and were asked to make a same/different judgement, after which they were asked to predict how well other people, unfamiliar with these faces, would perform. In four experiments we show different groups of participants familiar and unfamiliar faces, manipulating this in different ways: celebrities in experiments 1 to 3 and personally familiar faces in experiment 4. The results consistently show that people match images of familiar faces more accurately than unfamiliar faces. However, people also reliably predict that the faces they themselves know will be more accurately matched by different viewers. This bias is discussed in the context of current theoretical debates about face recognition, and we suggest that it may underlie the continued use of photo-ID, despite the availability of evidence about its unreliability

Evolution of the Clustering of Photometrically Selected SDSS Galaxies

We measure the angular auto-correlation functions (w) of SDSS galaxies selected to have photometric redshifts 0.1 < z < 0.4 and absolute r-band magnitudes Mr < -21.2. We split these galaxies into five overlapping redshift shells of width 0.1 and measure w in each subsample in order to investigate the evolution of SDSS galaxies. We find that the bias increases substantially with redshift - much more so than one would expect for a passively evolving sample. We use halo-model analysis to determine the best-fit halo-occupation-distribution (HOD) for each subsample, and the best-fit models allow us to interpret the change in bias physically. In order to properly interpret our best-fit HODs, we convert each halo mass to its z = 0 passively evolved bias (bo), enabling a direct comparison of the best-fit HODs at different redshifts. We find that the minimum halo bo required to host a galaxy decreases as the redshift decreases, suggesting that galaxies with Mr < -21.2 are forming in halos at the low-mass end of the HODs over our redshift range. We use the best-fit HODs to determine the change in occupation number divided by the change in mass of halos with constant bo and we find a sharp peak at bo ~ 0.9 - corresponding to an average halo mass of ~ 10^12Msol/h. We thus present the following scenario: the bias of galaxies with Mr < -21.2 decreases as the Universe evolves because these galaxies form in halos of mass ~ 10^12Msol/h (independent of redshift), and the bias of these halos naturally decreases as the Universe evolves.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, matches version accepted for publication in MNRA

The use of 35S and Tnos expression elements in the measurement of genetically engineered plant materials

An online survey was conducted by the International Life Sciences Institute, Food Biotechnology Committee, on the use of qualitative and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter and Agrobacterium tumefaciens Tnos DNA sequence elements for the detection of genetically engineered (GE) crop plant material. Forty-four testing laboratories around the world completed the survey. The results showed the widespread use of such methods, the multiplicity of published and in-house methods, and the variety of reference materials and calibrants in use. There was an interest on the part of respondents in validated quantitative assays relevant to all GE events that contain these two genetic elements. Data are presented by testing two variations each of five published real-time quantitative PCR methods for 35S detection on eight maize reference materials. The results showed that two of the five methods were not suitable for all the eight reference materials, with poor linear regression parameters and multiple PCR amplification products for some of the reference materials. This study demonstrates that not all 35S methods produce satisfactory results, emphasizing the need for method validation

Publish or Perish: Barriers faced by Early Career Academics trying to find an outlet for their voice

Within academia a culture of ‘publish or perish’ can place pressure on lecturers, often resulting in poor research practices, as an emphasis of ‘quantity over quality’ presides (Richards et al., 2021, p.8). As Kelly (2022) argues, this has resulted in a surge in competition, exacerbated by the increasing number of early career academics (ECAs) and early career researchers (ECRs) entering Higher Education (HE). As the arena to disseminate research widens, the opportunities for ECAs to share their ideas should become more accessible. However, this is not always the case. This short piece explores why disseminating research is so important in the context of HE, as well as identifying some of the barriers faced, with a particular focus on those working as ECAs in post-92 universities. The aim in this piece is to empower new academics to contribute to this ever-growing wealth of knowledge, with some practical guidance and words of support

A Multi-Experimental Examination of Analyzing Mouse Cursor Trajectories to Gauge Subject Uncertainty

Providing information online is pervasive in human-computer interactions. While providing information, people may deliberate their responses. However, organizations only receive the end-result of this deliberation and therefore have no contextual information surrounding the response. One type of contextual information includes knowing people’s response uncertainty while providing information. Knowing uncertainty allows organizations to weigh responses, ask follow-up questions, provide assistance, or identify problematic instructions or responses. This paper explores how mouse cursor movements may indicate uncertainty in a human-computer interaction context. Specifically, it hypothesizes how uncertainty on multiple-choice questions influences a mouse-movement statistic called area-under-the-curve (AUC). We report the result of two studies that suggest that AUC is higher when people have moderate uncertainty about an answer than if people have high or low uncertainty. The results suggest a methodology for measuring uncertainty to facilitate multi-method research and to assess data in a pragmatic setting