DEVELOPING AWARENESS OF COMPUTER ETHICS

The most important factor in effective computer security is people -- their attitudes, actions, and sense of right and wrong. This workshop will explore the ethical problems and issues raised in the computing environment. Topics to be discussed include misuse of computers, concepts of privacy, codes of conduct for computer professionals, disputed rights to products, defining ethical, moral, and legal parameters, and what security practitioners should do about ethics. Audience opinions will be wetcome as they will aid in developing ethical standards for the information systems profession

Efficacy and Safety of Three Antiretroviral Regimens for Initial Treatment of HIV-1: A Randomized Clinical Trial in Diverse Multinational Settings

Background:Antiretroviral regimens with simplified dosing and better safety are needed to maximize the efficiency of antiretroviral delivery in resource-limited settings. We investigated the efficacy and safety of antiretroviral regimens with once-daily compared to twice-daily dosing in diverse areas of the world.Methods and Findings:1,571 HIV-1-infected persons (47% women) from nine countries in four continents were assigned with equal probability to open-label antiretroviral therapy with efavirenz plus lamivudine-zidovudine (EFV+3TC-ZDV), atazanavir plus didanosine-EC plus emtricitabine (ATV+DDI+FTC), or efavirenz plus emtricitabine-tenofovir-disoproxil fumarate (DF) (EFV+FTC-TDF). ATV+DDI+FTC and EFV+FTC-TDF were hypothesized to be non-inferior to EFV+3TC-ZDV if the upper one-sided 95% confidence bound for the hazard ratio (HR) was ≤1.35 when 30% of participants had treatment failure.An independent monitoring board recommended stopping study follow-up prior to accumulation of 472 treatment failures. Comparing EFV+FTC-TDF to EFV+3TC-ZDV, during a median 184 wk of follow-up there were 95 treatment failures (18%) among 526 participants versus 98 failures among 519 participants (19%; HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.72-1.27; p = 0.74). Safety endpoints occurred in 243 (46%) participants assigned to EFV+FTC-TDF versus 313 (60%) assigned to EFV+3TC-ZDV (HR 0.64, CI 0.54-0.76; p<0.001) and there was a significant interaction between sex and regimen safety (HR 0.50, CI 0.39-0.64 for women; HR 0.79, CI 0.62-1.00 for men; p = 0.01). Comparing ATV+DDI+FTC to EFV+3TC-ZDV, during a median follow-up of 81 wk there were 108 failures (21%) among 526 participants assigned to ATV+DDI+FTC and 76 (15%) among 519 participants assigned to EFV+3TC-ZDV (HR 1.51, CI 1.12-2.04; p = 0.007).Conclusion: EFV+FTC-TDF had similar high efficacy compared to EFV+3TC-ZDV in this trial population, recruited in diverse multinational settings. Superior safety, especially in HIV-1-infected women, and once-daily dosing of EFV+FTC-TDF are advantageous for use of this regimen for initial treatment of HIV-1 infection in resource-limited countries. ATV+DDI+FTC had inferior efficacy and is not recommended as an initial antiretroviral regimen.Trial Registration:http://www.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00084136

Whistleblowing: an ethical dilemma

Because most organizations depend on computer systems that electronically store important data to perform crucial business functions, the integrity of these information systems is paramount. Securing company systems, however, is not always an easy task. More sophisticated systems often provide widespread access to computer resources and increased user knowledge, which may lead to added difficulties in maintaining security. This paper explores whistleblowing employees' exposing illegal or unethical computer practices taking place in the organization as a method of computer security and the support for whistleblowing found in codes of ethical conduct formulated by professional societies

WHISTLEBLOWING: AN ETHICAL DILEMMA

Because most organizations depend on computer systems that electronically store important data to perform crucial business functions, the integrity of these information systems is paramount. Securing company systems, however, is not always an easy task. More sophisticated systems often provide widespread access to computer resources and increased user knowledge, which may lead to added difficulties in maintaining security. This paper explores whistleblowing-employees &apos; exposing illegal or unethical computer practices taking place in the organization~as a method of computer security and the support for whistleblowing found in codes of ethical conduct formulated by professional societies

Depolarization effects in ellipsometric measurements of thick layers

Ellipsometry is a powerful technique for the determination of complex refractive indices n=n+ik of thin absorbing films deposited on a substrate. If the films are deposited onto an opaque substrate, the calculation methods are well-known. However, sometimes it is advantageous for some other reason to deposit the films onto a transparent substrate. In this case, the light reflected from the back surface of the substrate must also be taken into account. If the thickness of the substrate is much larger than the coherence length of the light, there is no correlation between the phases of the light beams reflected from the boundaries of the thin film and the beam reflected from the back surface of the substrate. It is therefore not possible to calculate the absolute phase of the total reflectance of the system, i.e. the film plus substrate. However, for the determination of the ellipsometric coefficients, the relative phase must be known. In this publication, a method of calculating the ellipsometric coefficients of such a system is presented. Rather than calculate the absolute phase, this method is based on the calculation of reflected intensities for arbitrary angles of polarization taking into account the relative phase shift at each boundary. Comparisons between measurements of ellipsometric coefficients of well-known materials and the calculations based on this method show excellent agreement