Security policy compliance: User acceptance perspective

Information security policy compliance is one of the key concerns that face organizations today. Although, technical and procedural security measures help improve information security, there is an increased need to accommodate human, social and organizational factors. While employees are considered the weakest link in information security domain, they also are assets that organizations need to leverage effectively. Employees\u27 compliance with Information Security Policies (ISPs) is critical to the success of an information security program. The purpose of this research is to develop a measurement tool that provides better measures for predicting and explaining employees\u27 compliance with ISPs by examining the role of information security awareness in enhancing employees\u27 compliance with ISPs. The study is the first to address compliance intention from a users\u27 perspective. Overall, analysis results indicate strong support for the proposed instrument and represent an early confirmation for the validation of the underlying theoretical model

Dynamic Overlap Concentration Scale of Active Colloids

By introducing the notion of a dynamic overlap concentration scale, we identify universal and previously unreported features of the mechanical properties of active colloids. These features are codified by recognizing that the characteristic length scale of an active particle's trajectory, the run-length, introduces a new concentration scale ϕ∗. Large-scale simulations of repulsive active Brownian particles (ABPs) confirm that this new run-length dependent concentration, which is the trajectory-space analogue of the overlap concentration in polymer solutions, delineates distinct concentration regimes in which interparticle collisions alter particle trajectories. Using ϕ∗ and concentration scales associated with colloidal jamming, the mechanical equation-of-state for ABPs can be collapsed onto a set of principal curves that contain a number of previously overlooked features. The inclusion of these features qualitatively alters previous predictions of the behavior for active colloids as we demonstrate by computing the spinodal for a suspension of purely-repulsive ABPs. Our findings suggest that dynamic overlap concentration scales should be of great utility in unraveling the behavior of active and driven systems

Critical factors influencing the effectiveness of research teams among academicians

Work team is one of the common methods of doing research nowadays. The concept of work teams is seen as a special application of groups in business, industry, government, as well as education and healthcare settings, which lies at the foundation of the modern organization. This method allows team members to save their energy, time and resources. There are a lot of models and theories discussed on the work team. However, little attention has been given to developing a model of research work team in academic setting. Looking into the academician career, there are some aspects which are different from those who work in industrial setting, particularly in terms of their needs, job load, resources and outcomes. This paper focuses on the factors needed for an effective research work team in the academic setting. Using semi-structured interviews, the author asked the following question, “Based on your experiences, what are the important factors needed for a research team to function effectively?” Three main themes emerged during the interviews, and these were leadership, team members and support. The discussion considers the experiences of the respondents when involving themselves in a research team. Further discussion shows how this issue can assist academicians to work better in a team and to get more satisfaction in the future

Swimming to Stability: Structural and Dynamical Control via Active Doping

External fields can decidedly alter the free energy landscape of soft materials and can be exploited as a powerful tool for the assembly of targeted nanostructures and colloidal materials. Here, we use computer simulations to demonstrate that nonequilibrium internal fields or forces -- forces that are generated by driven components within a system -- in the form of active particles can precisely modulate the dynamical free energy landscape of a model soft material, a colloidal gel. Embedding a small fraction of active particles within a gel can provide a unique pathway for the dynamically frustrated network to circumvent the kinetic barriers associated with reaching a lower free energy state through thermal fluctuations alone. Moreover, by carefully tuning the active particle properties (the propulsive swim force and persistence length) in comparison to those of the gel, the active particles may induce depletion-like forces between the constituent particles of the gel despite there being no geometric size asymmetry between the particles. These resulting forces can rapidly push the system toward disparate regions of phase space. Intriguingly, the state of the material can be altered by tuning macroscopic transport properties such as the solvent viscosity. Our findings highlight the potential wide-ranging structural and kinetic control facilitated by varying the dynamical properties of a remarkably small fraction of driven particles embedded in a host material.Comment: ACS Nan

Information Security Policy Compliance: An Empirical Study of Ethical Ideology

Information security policy compliance (ISP) is one of the key concerns that face organizations today. Although technical and procedural measures help improve information security, there is an increased need to accommodate human, social and organizational factors. Despite the plethora of studies that attempt to identify the factors that motivate compliance behavior or discourage abuse and misuse behaviors, there is a lack of studies that investigate the role of ethical ideology per se in explaining compliance behavior. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role of ethics in explaining Information Security Policy (ISP) compliance. In that regard, a model that integrates behavioral and ethical theoretical perspectives is developed and tested. Overall, analyses indicate strong support for the validation of the proposed theoretical model

Mechanical Theory of Nonequilibrium Coexistence and Motility-Induced Phase Separation

Nonequilibrium phase transitions are routinely observed in both natural and synthetic systems. The ubiquity of these transitions highlights the conspicuous absence of a general theory of phase coexistence that is broadly applicable to both nonequilibrium and equilibrium systems. Here, we present a general mechanical theory for phase separation rooted in ideas explored nearly a half-century ago in the study of inhomogeneous fluids. The core idea is that the mechanical forces within the interface separating two coexisting phases uniquely determine coexistence criteria, regardless of whether a system is in equilibrium or not. We demonstrate the power and utility of this theory by applying it to active Brownian particles, predicting a quantitative phase diagram for motility-induced phase separation in both two and three dimensions. This formulation additionally allows for the prediction of novel interfacial phenomena, such as an increasing interface width while moving deeper into the two-phase region, a uniquely nonequilibrium effect confirmed by computer simulations. The self-consistent determination of bulk phase behavior and interfacial phenomena offered by this mechanical perspective provide a concrete path forward towards a general theory for nonequilibrium phase transitions.Comment: 9 page main text + 7 page SI. Comments welcome

Queens of the Night, the Owls of Iraq and Syria - Species, Current Distribution, and Conservation Status

The owls in the Arabian culture are a symbol of a bad omen and the embodiment of evil spirits that are roaming in deserts and abandoned places at night to impersonate the wandering nomads. In other stories, for centuries, the Bedouins in the deserts of Iraq and Syria are considered owls as the flying spirits of dead warriors who seek revenge when they hoot or as a sign of destruction. For decades, owls with their fierce and protruding eyes resembled satanic birds; therefore, they are persecuted to be used in sorcery whenever and wherever possible. The old beliefs and traditional knowledge of the Iraqi-Syrian local communities are still an “unsolved” critical issue that interferes with owls’ conservation efforts in the Middle East. There are 10 owl species occurring in Iraq and Syria; yet, their updated status and zoogeographical extent are still not fully explored. In this chapter, an annotated checklist of owls in Iraq and Syria, their historical and current distribution, and conservation status are provided