Cloud-Trust - A Security Assessment Model for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Clouds

The vulnerability of Cloud Computing Systems (CCSs) to Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) is a significant concern to government and industry. We present a cloud architecture reference model that incorporates a wide range of security controls and best practices, and a cloud security assessment model – Cloud-Trust – that estimates high level security metrics to quantify the degree of confidentiality and integrity offered by a CCS or cloud service provider (CSP). Cloud-Trust is used to assess the security level of four multi-tenant IaaS cloud architectures equipped with alternative cloud security controls and to show the probability of CCS penetration (high value data compromise) is high if a minimal set of security controls are implemented. CCS penetration probability drops substantially if a cloud defense in depth security architecture is adopted that protects virtual machine (VM) images at rest, strengthens CSP and cloud tenant system administrator access controls, and which employs other network security controls to minimize cloud network surveillance and discovery of live VMs

A Survey for Planetary Nebulae in M31 Globular Clusters

We report the results of an [O III] 5007 spectroscopic survey for planetary nebulae (PNe) located within the star clusters of M31. By examining R ~ 5000 spectra taken with the WIYN+Hydra spectrograph, we identify 3 PN candidates in a sample of 274 likely globular clusters, 2 candidates in objects which may be globular clusters, and 5 candidates in a set of 85 younger systems. The possible PNe are all faint, between ~2.5 and ~6.8 mag down the PN luminosity function, and, partly as a consequence of our selection criteria, have high excitation, with [O III] 5007 to H-beta ratios ranging from 2 to ~12. We discuss the individual candidates, their likelihood of cluster membership, and the possibility that they were formed via binary interactions within the clusters. Our data are consistent with the suggestion that PN formation within globular clusters correlates with binary encounter frequency, though, due to the small numbers and large uncertainties in the candidate list, this study does not provide sufficient evidence to confirm the hypothesis.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 54 pages, including 9 figures and 4 table

Are Exotic Herbivores Better Competitors? A Meta-Analysis

Competition plays an important role in structuring the community dynamics of phytophagous insects. As the number and impact of biological invasions increase, it has become increasingly important to determine whether competitive differences exist between native and exotic insects. We conducted a meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that native/exotic status affects the outcome of herbivore competition. Specifically, we used data from 160 published studies to assess plant-mediated competition in phytophagous insects. For each pair of competing herbivores, we determined the native range and coevolutionary history of each herbivore and host plant. Plant-mediated competition occurred frequently, but neither native nor exotic insects were consistently better competitors. Spatial separation reduced competition in native insects but showed little effect on exotics. Temporal separation negatively impacted native insects but did not affect competition in exotics. Insects that coevolved with their host plant were more affected by interspecific competition than herbivores that lacked a coevolutionary history. Insects that have not coevolved with their host plant may be at a competitive advantage if they overcome plant defenses. As native/exotic status does not consistently predict outcomes of competitive interactions, plant–insect coevolutionary history should be considered in studies of competition

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy site metastasis from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: case series and literature review

Objectives To present our experience with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) seeding of percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) sites and to review all reported cases to identify risk factors and develop strategies for complication avoidance. Materials and methods The records of 4 patients with PEG site metastasis from HNSCC were identified from the authors’ institution. Thirty-eight further cases were reviewed following a PubMed search and evaluation of references in pertinent articles. Results Review of 42 cases revealed the average time from PEG to diagnosis of metastatic disease to be 8 months. Average time to death from detection of PEG disease was 5.9 months. One-year survival following PEG metastasis was 35.5% with an overall mortality of 87.1%. Conclusion PEG site metastatic disease portends a poor prognosis. Early detection and aggressive therapy may provide a chance of cure. Changes in PEG technique or in timing of adjunctive therapies are possible avenues in further research to prevent this complication

Human Grooming in Comparative Perspective: People in Six Small-Scale Societies Groom Less But Socialize Just as Much as Expected for a Typical Primate

Objectives—Grooming has important utilitarian and social functions in primates but little is known about grooming and its functional analogues in traditional human societies. We compare human grooming to typical primate patterns to test its hygienic and social functions. Materials and Methods—Bayesian phylogenetic analyses were used to derive expected human grooming time given the potential associations between grooming, group size, body size, terrestriality, and several climatic variables across 69 primate species. This was compared against observed times dedicated to grooming, other hygienic behavior and conversation among the Maya, Pumé, Sanöma, Tsimane’, Yanomamö, and Ye’kwana (mean number of behavioral scans = 23,514). Results—Expected grooming time for humans was 4% (95% Credible Interval = 0.07%–14%), similar to values observed in primates, based largely on terrestriality and phylogenetic signal (mean λ = 0.56). No other covariates strongly associated with grooming across primates. Observed grooming time across societies was 0.8%, lower than 89% of the expected values. However, the observed times dedicated to any hygienic behavior (3.0%) or ‘vocal grooming’, i.e. conversation (7.3%), fell within the expected range. Conclusions—We found (i) that human grooming may be a (recent) phylogenetic outlier when defined narrowly as parasite removal but not defined broadly as personal hygiene, (ii) there was no support for thermoregulatory functions of grooming, and (iii) no support for the ‘vocal grooming’ hypothesis of language having evolved as a less time-consuming means of bonding. Thus, human grooming reflects decreased hygienic needs, but similar social needs compared to primate grooming

The Ethics of Corporate Governance

How should corporate directors determine what is the right decision? For at least the past 30 years the debate has raged as to whether shareholder value should take precedence over corporate social responsibility when crucial decisions arise. Directors face pressure, not least from ethical investors, to do the good thing when they seek to make the right choice. Corporate governance theory has tended to look to agency theory and the need of boards to curb excessive executive power to guide directors' decisions. While useful for those purposes, agency theory provides only limited guidance. Supplementing it with the alternatives - stakeholder theory and stewardship theory - tends to put directors in conflict with their legal obligations to work in the interests of shareholders. This paper seeks to reframe the discussion about corporate governance in terms of the ethical debate between consequential, teleological approaches to ethics and idealist, deontological ones, suggesting that directors are - for good reason - more inclined toward utilitarian judgments like those underpinning shareholder value. But the problems with shareholder value have become so great that a different framework is needed: strategic value, with an emphasis on long-term value creation judged from a decidedly utilitarian standpoint

Question Decomposition Improves the Faithfulness of Model-Generated Reasoning

As large language models (LLMs) perform more difficult tasks, it becomes harder to verify the correctness and safety of their behavior. One approach to help with this issue is to prompt LLMs to externalize their reasoning, e.g., by having them generate step-by-step reasoning as they answer a question (Chain-of-Thought; CoT). The reasoning may enable us to check the process that models use to perform tasks. However, this approach relies on the stated reasoning faithfully reflecting the model's actual reasoning, which is not always the case. To improve over the faithfulness of CoT reasoning, we have models generate reasoning by decomposing questions into subquestions. Decomposition-based methods achieve strong performance on question-answering tasks, sometimes approaching that of CoT while improving the faithfulness of the model's stated reasoning on several recently-proposed metrics. By forcing the model to answer simpler subquestions in separate contexts, we greatly increase the faithfulness of model-generated reasoning over CoT, while still achieving some of the performance gains of CoT. Our results show it is possible to improve the faithfulness of model-generated reasoning; continued improvements may lead to reasoning that enables us to verify the correctness and safety of LLM behavior.Comment: For few-shot examples and prompts, see https://github.com/anthropics/DecompositionFaithfulnessPape