A Process Framework for Managing Cybersecurity Risks in Projects

This paper builds on the need for earlier and earlier consideration of cybersecurity risks in the information systems life cycle by focusing on how cybersecurity threats apply to project execution, and whether the project manager should become more cyber-aware. Recent high-profile cases and decisions by the United States Department of Defense (US DoD) support early identification and analysis of cyber security risks. While the authors found no current academic research linking cybersecurity risks and project management, they did find a link between cybersecurity and information technology supply chain management. The paper makes the case for early cybersecurity risk management, and suggests that project managers broaden their awareness of cybersecurity risks. Future directions in the examination of early cybersecurity risks in projects are explored

Three Meta-Phases of a Project

This paper proposes three high-level project meta-phases to enhance the understanding of how projects are created and their long-term impacts after completion. It extends the traditional view of the projects to include activities which occur before the initiation of the project and after the closeout phase. These meta-phases are project conception, project execution, and deliverable use. These meta-phases are described and explained in terms of their usefulness for project management research

Using Project Management Knowledge and Practice to Address Digital Forensic Investigation Challenges

The management of digital forensics investigations represents a unique challenge. The field is relatively new, and combines the technical challenges of Information Systems with the legal challenges of forensics investigations. The challenges for the Digital Forensics Investigators and the organizations they support are many. This research effort examines the characteristics and challenges of Digital Forensics Investigations and compares them with the features and knowledge areas of project management. The goal was to determine if project management knowledge, as defined in a common body of knowledge, would be helpful in addressing digital forensics investigation challenges identified in the literature. The results indicate that there are parallels between the two areas

TOWARDS A CONSENSUS DEFINITION OF FULL-STACK DEVELOPMENT

Full-stack development is a new concept systems development. Full-stack developers have broad knowledge across all aspects of a given technology stack. They have the ability to rapidly transform a concept into a functional solution. Their big-picture visibility allows them to anticipate problems early-on and steer projects around them. Many organizations actively recruit full-stack developers. Many programmers are styling themselves as full-stack developers. However, there is some disagreement regarding the meaning of full-stack development. The disagreement primarily concerns the developer’s expected breadth and depth of stack knowledge. The purpose of this research is to develop a consensus definition of full-stack development. A content analysis of articles which discuss full-stack development is performed. The results are synthesized to form a conceptual definition which clarifies the role of full-stack developers. This definition alleviates confusion and provides clarity. The results have implications for research and practice

Using Experts for Improving Project Cybersecurity Risk Scenarios

This study implemented an expert panel to assess the content validity of hypothetical scenarios to be used in a survey of cybersecurity risk across project meta-phases. Six out of 10 experts solicited completed the expert panel exercise. Results indicate that although experts often disagreed with each other and on the expected mapping of scenario to project meta-phase, the experts generally found risk present in the scenarios and across all three project meta-phases, as hypothesized

Tropical metacommunities along elevational gradients: effects of forest type and other environmental factors.

Elevational gradients provide a natural experiment for assessing the extent to which the structure of animal metacommunities is molded by biotic and abiotic characteristics that change gradually, or is molded by aspects of plant community composition and physiognomy that change in a more discrete fashion. We used a metacommunity framework to integrate species-specific responses to environmental gradients as an approach to detect emergent patterns at the mesoscale in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Elements of metacommunity structure (coherence, species turnover and range boundary clumping) formed the basis for distinguishing among random, checkerboard, Gleasonian, Clementsian, evenly spaced and nested patterns. Paired elevational transects (300-1000 m a.s.l.) were sampled at 50 m intervals to decouple underlying environmental mechanisms: a mixed forest transect reflected changes in abiotic and biotic conditions, including forest type (i.e. tabonuco, palo colorado and elfin forests), whereas another transect reflected changes in environmental conditions but not forest type, as its constituent plots were located within palm forest. Based on distributional data (presence versus absence of species), the mixed forest transect exhibited Clementsian structure, whereas the palm forest transect exhibited quasi-Gleasonian structure. In contrast, the distribution of modes in species abundance was random with respect to the latent environmental gradient in the mixed forest transect and clumped with respect to the latent environmental gradient in the palm forest transect. Such contrasts suggest that the environmental factors affecting abundance differed in form or type from those affecting distributional boundaries. Variation among elevational strata with respect to the first axis of correspondence from reciprocal averaging was highly correlated with elevation along each transect, even though axis scores were not correlated between mixed forest and palm forest transects. This suggests that the identity of the environmental characteristics, or the form of response by the fauna to those characteristics, differed between the two elevational transects. Despite the proximity of the transects, the patchy configuration of palm forest, and the pervasive distribution of the dominant palm species, the relative importance of abiotic variables and habitat in structuring gastropod metacommunities differed between transects, which is remarkable and attests to the sensitivity of metacommunity structure to environmental variation

Tropical metacommunities along elevational gradients: effects of forest type and other environmental factors.

Elevational gradients provide a natural experiment for assessing the extent to which the structure of animal metacommunities is molded by biotic and abiotic characteristics that change gradually, or is molded by aspects of plant community composition and physiognomy that change in a more discrete fashion. We used a metacommunity framework to integrate species-specifi c responses to environmental gradients as an approach to detect emergent patterns at the mesoscale in the Luquillo Mountains of Puerto Rico. Elements of metacommunity structure (coherence, species turnover and range boundary clumping) formed the basis for distinguishing among random, checkerboard, Gleasonian, Clementsian, evenly spaced and nested patterns. Paired elevational transects (300 -1000 m a.s.l.) were sampled at 50 m intervals to decouple underlying environmental mechanisms: a mixed forest transect refl ected changes in abiotic and biotic conditions, including forest type (i.e. tabonuco, palo colorado and elfi n forests), whereas another transect refl ected changes in environmental conditions but not forest type, as its constituent plots were located within palm forest. Based on distributional data (presence versus absence of species), the mixed forest transect exhibited Clementsian structure, whereas the palm forest transect exhibited quasi-Gleasonian structure. In contrast, the distribution of modes in species abundance was random with respect to the latent environmental gradient in the mixed forest transect and clumped with respect to the latent environmental gradient in the palm forest transect. Such contrasts suggest that the environmental factors aff ecting abundance diff ered in form or type from those aff ecting distributional boundaries. Variation among elevational strata with respect to the fi rst axis of correspondence from reciprocal averaging was highly correlated with elevation along each transect, even though axis scores were not correlated between mixed forest and palm forest transects. Th is suggests that the identity of the environmental characteristics, or the form of response by the fauna to those characteristics, diff ered between the two elevational transects. Despite the proximity of the transects, the patchy confi guration of palm forest, and the pervasive distribution of the dominant palm species, the relative importance of abiotic variables and habitat in structuring gastropod metacommunities diff ered between transects, which is remarkable and attests to the sensitivity of metacommunity structure to environmental variation

An OBSL1-Cul7Fbxw8 Ubiquitin Ligase Signaling Mechanism Regulates Golgi Morphology and Dendrite Patterning

The elaboration of dendrites in neurons requires secretory trafficking through the Golgi apparatus, but the mechanisms that govern Golgi function in neuronal morphogenesis in the brain have remained largely unexplored. Here, we report that the E3 ubiquitin ligase Cul7Fbxw8 localizes to the Golgi complex in mammalian brain neurons. Inhibition of Cul7Fbxw8 by independent approaches including Fbxw8 knockdown reveals that Cul7Fbxw8 is selectively required for the growth and elaboration of dendrites but not axons in primary neurons and in the developing rat cerebellum in vivo. Inhibition of Cul7Fbxw8 also dramatically impairs the morphology of the Golgi complex, leading to deficient secretory trafficking in neurons. Using an immunoprecipitation/mass spectrometry screening approach, we also uncover the cytoskeletal adaptor protein OBSL1 as a critical regulator of Cul7Fbxw8 in Golgi morphogenesis and dendrite elaboration. OBSL1 forms a physical complex with the scaffold protein Cul7 and thereby localizes Cul7 at the Golgi apparatus. Accordingly, OBSL1 is required for the morphogenesis of the Golgi apparatus and the elaboration of dendrites. Finally, we identify the Golgi protein Grasp65 as a novel and physiologically relevant substrate of Cul7Fbxw8 in the control of Golgi and dendrite morphogenesis in neurons. Collectively, these findings define a novel OBSL1-regulated Cul7Fbxw8 ubiquitin signaling mechanism that orchestrates the morphogenesis of the Golgi apparatus and patterning of dendrites, with fundamental implications for our understanding of brain development

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015

The Influence of New Surveillance Data on Predictive Species Distribution Modeling of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus in the United States

The recent emergence or reemergence of various vector-borne diseases makes the knowledge of disease vectors’ presence and distribution of paramount concern for protecting national human and animal health. While several studies have modeled Aedes aegypti or Aedes albopictus distributions in the past five years, studies at a large scale can miss the complexities that contribute to a species’ distribution. Many localities in the United States have lacked or had sporadic surveillance conducted for these two species. To address these gaps in the current knowledge of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus distributions in the United States, surveillance was focused on areas in Texas at the margins of their known ranges and in localities that had little or no surveillance conducted in the past. This information was used with a global database of occurrence records to create a predictive model of these two species’ distributions in the United States. Additionally, the surveillance data from Texas was used to determine the influence of new data from the margins of a species’ known range on predicted species’ suitability maps. This information is critical in determining where to focus resources for the future and continued surveillance for these two species of medical concern