427 research outputs found
Geometrically Induced Gauge Structure on Manifolds Embedded in a Higher Dimensional Space
We explain in a context different from that of Maraner the formalism for
describing motion of a particle, under the influence of a confining potential,
in a neighbourhood of an n-dimensional curved manifold M^n embedded in a
p-dimensional Euclidean space R^p with p >= n+2. The effective Hamiltonian on
M^n has a (generally non-Abelian) gauge structure determined by geometry of
M^n. Such a gauge term is defined in terms of the vectors normal to M^n, and
its connection is called the N-connection. In order to see the global effect of
this type of connections, the case of M^1 embedded in R^3 is examined, where
the relation of an integral of the gauge potential of the N-connection (i.e.,
the torsion) along a path in M^1 to the Berry's phase is given through Gauss
mapping of the vector tangent to M^1. Through the same mapping in the case of
M^1 embedded in R^p, where the normal and the tangent quantities are exchanged,
the relation of the N-connection to the induced gauge potential on the
(p-1)-dimensional sphere S^{p-1} (p >= 3) found by Ohnuki and Kitakado is
concretely established. Further, this latter which has the monopole-like
structure is also proved to be gauge-equivalent to the spin-connection of
S^{p-1}. Finally, by extending formally the fundamental equations for M^n to
infinite dimensional case, the present formalism is applied to the field theory
that admits a soliton solution. The resultant expression is in some respects
different from that of Gervais and Jevicki.Comment: 52 pages, PHYZZX. To be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys.
Why penetration testing is a limited use choice for sound cyber security practice
Penetration testing of networks is a process that is overused when demonstrating or evaluating the cyber security posture of an organisation. Most penetration testing is not aligned with the actual intent of the testing, but rather is driven by a management directive of wanting to be seen to be addressing the issue of cyber security. The use of penetration testing is commonly a reaction to an adverse audit outcome or as a result of being penetrated in the first place. Penetration testing used in this fashion delivers little or no value to the organisation being tested for a number of reasons. First, a test is only as good as the tools, the tester and the methodology being applied. Second, the results are largely temporal. That is, the test will likely only find known vulnerabilities that exist at one specific point in time and not larger longitudinal flaws with the cyber security of an organisation, one such flaw commonly being governance. Finally, in many cases, one has to question what the point is in breaking the already broken. Penetration testing has its place when used judiciously and as part of an overall review and audit of cyber security. It can be an invaluable tool to assess the ability of a system to survive a sustained attack if properly scoped and deployed. However, it is our assessment and judgement that this rarely occurs
Exchanging demands: Weaknesses in SSL implementations for mobile platforms
The ActiveSync protocol’s implementation on some embedded devices leaves clients vulnerable to unauthorised remote policy enforcement. This paper discusses a proof of concept attack against the implementation of ActiveSync in common Smart phones including Android devices and iOS devices. A two‐phase approach to exploiting the ActiveSync protocol is introduced. Phase 1 details the usage of a man‐in‐the‐middle attack to gain a vantage point over the client device, whilst Phase 2 involves spoofing the server‐side ActiveSync responses to initiate the unauthorised policy enforcement. These vulnerabilities are demonstrated by experiment, highlighting how the system can be exploited to perform a remote factory reset upon an Exchange‐integrated Smart phone
Are team personality and climate related to satisfaction and software quality? Aggregating results from a twice replicated experiment
This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Information and Software Technology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Information and Software Technology, [VOL 57, (2015)] DOI 10.1016/j.infsof.2014.09.002Context
Research into software engineering teams focuses on human and social team factors. Social psychology deals with the study of team formation and has found that personality factors and group processes such as team climate are related to team effectiveness. However, there are only a handful of empirical studies dealing with personality and team climate and their relationship to software development team effectiveness.
Objective
We present aggregate results of a twice replicated quasi-experiment that evaluates the relationships between personality, team climate, product quality and satisfaction in software development teams.
Method
Our experimental study measures the personalities of team members based on the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism) and team climate factors (participative safety, support for innovation, team vision and task orientation) preferences and perceptions. We aggregate the results of the three studies through a meta-analysis of correlations. The study was conducted with students.
Results
The aggregation of results from the baseline experiment and two replications corroborates the following findings. There is a positive relationship between all four climate factors and satisfaction in software development teams. Teams whose members score highest for the agreeableness personality factor have the highest satisfaction levels. The results unveil a significant positive correlation between the extraversion personality factor and software product quality. High participative safety and task orientation climate perceptions are significantly related to quality.
Conclusions
First, more efficient software development teams can be formed heeding personality factors like agreeableness and extraversion. Second, the team climate generated in software development teams should be monitored for team member satisfaction. Finally, aspects like people feeling safe giving their opinions or encouraging team members to work hard at their job can have an impact on software quality. Software project managers can take advantage of these factors to promote developer satisfaction and improve the resulting product.This research has been funded by the following projects: Experiment
Replication and Synthesis Technologies in SE (MICINN
TIN2011-23216) and Go Lite (MICINN TIN2011-24139)
First-Principles Electronic Structure of Solid Picene
To explore the electronic structure of the first aromatic superconductor,
potassium-doped solid picene which has been recently discovered by Mitsuhashi
et al with the transition temperatures K, we have obtained a
first-principles electronic structure of solid picene as a first step toward
the elucidation of the mechanism of the superconductivity. The undoped crystal
is found to have four conduction bands, which are characterized in terms of the
maximally localized Wannier orbitals. We have revealed how the band structure
reflects the stacked arrangement of molecular orbitals for both undoped and
doped (Kpicene) cases, where the bands are not rigid. The Fermi surface for
Kpicene is a curious composite of a warped two-dimensional surface and a
three-dimensional one.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Real roots of Random Polynomials: Universality close to accumulation points
We identify the scaling region of a width O(n^{-1}) in the vicinity of the
accumulation points of the real roots of a random Kac-like polynomial
of large degree n. We argue that the density of the real roots in this region
tends to a universal form shared by all polynomials with independent,
identically distributed coefficients c_i, as long as the second moment
\sigma=E(c_i^2) is finite. In particular, we reveal a gradual (in contrast to
the previously reported abrupt) and quite nontrivial suppression of the number
of real roots for coefficients with a nonzero mean value \mu_n = E(c_i) scaled
as \mu_n\sim n^{-1/2}.Comment: Some minor mistakes that crept through into publication have been
removed. 10 pages, 12 eps figures. This version contains all updates, clearer
pictures and some more thorough explanation
The spectral form factor is not self-averaging
The spectral form factor, k(t), is the Fourier transform of the two level
correlation function C(x), which is the averaged probability for finding two
energy levels spaced x mean level spacings apart. The average is over a piece
of the spectrum of width W in the neighborhood of energy E0. An additional
ensemble average is traditionally carried out, as in random matrix theory.
Recently a theoretical calculation of k(t) for a single system, with an energy
average only, found interesting nonuniversal semiclassical effects at times t
approximately unity in units of {Planck's constant) /(mean level spacing). This
is of great interest if k(t) is self-averaging, i.e, if the properties of a
typical member of the ensemble are the same as the ensemble average properties.
We here argue that this is not always the case, and that for many important
systems an ensemble average is essential to see detailed properties of k(t). In
other systems, notably the Riemann zeta function, it is likely possible to see
the properties by an analysis of the spectrum.Comment: 4 pages, RevTex, no figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Lett., permanent
e-mail address, [email protected]
Wigner distributions for non Abelian finite groups of odd order
Wigner distributions for quantum mechanical systems whose configuration space
is a finite group of odd order are defined so that they correctly reproduce the
marginals and have desirable transformation properties under left and right
translations. While for the Abelian case we recover known results, though from
a different perspective, for the non Abelian case, our results appear to be
new.Comment: Latex, 9 pages, text restructured and some new material adde
Spectral correlations in systems undergoing a transition from periodicity to disorder
We study the spectral statistics for extended yet finite quasi 1-d systems
which undergo a transition from periodicity to disorder. In particular we
compute the spectral two-point form factor, and the resulting expression
depends on the degree of disorder. It interpolates smoothly between the two
extreme limits -- the approach to Poissonian statistics in the (weakly)
disordered case, and the universal expressions derived for the periodic case.
The theoretical results agree very well with the spectral statistics obtained
numerically for chains of chaotic billiards and graphs.Comment: 16 pages, Late
Correlations between spectra with different symmetry: any chance to be observed?
A standard assumption in quantum chaology is the absence of correlation
between spectra pertaining to different symmetries. Doubts were raised about
this statement for several reasons, in particular, because in semiclassics
spectra of different symmetry are expressed in terms of the same set of
periodic orbits. We reexamine this question and find absence of correlation in
the universal regime. In the case of continuous symmetry the problem is reduced
to parametric correlation, and we expect correlations to be present up to a
certain time which is essentially classical but larger than the ballistic time
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