Synthesizing Cyber Intrusion Alerts using Generative Adversarial Networks

Cyber attacks infiltrating enterprise computer networks continue to grow in number, severity, and complexity as our reliance on such networks grows. Despite this, proactive cyber security remains an open challenge as cyber alert data is often not available for study. Furthermore, the data that is available is stochastically distributed, imbalanced, lacks homogeneity, and relies on complex interactions with latent aspects of the network structure. Currently, there is no commonly accepted way to model and generate synthetic alert data for further study; there are also no metrics to quantify the fidelity of synthetically generated alerts or identify critical attributes within the data. This work proposes solutions to both the modeling of cyber alerts and how to score the fidelity of such models. Generative Adversarial Networks are employed to generate cyber alert data taken from two collegiate penetration testing competitions. A list of criteria defining desirable attributes for cyber alert data metrics is provided. Several statistical and information-theoretic metrics, such as histogram intersection and conditional entropy, meet these criteria and are used for analysis. Using these metrics, critical relationships of synthetically generated alerts may be identified and compared to data from the ground truth distribution. Finally, through these metrics, we show that adding a mutual information constraint to the model’s generation increases the quality of outputs and successfully captures alerts that occur with low probability

ASSESSING ANTICOAGULATION SAFETY AND EFFICACY IN ANTIPHOSPHOLIPID SYNDROME PATIENTS MONITORED BY FACTOR II ACTIVITY ASSAY

ABSTRACTObjective: To determine if monitoring antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) patients on warfarin by factor II activity assay (FIIAA) would decreasethrombus risk or if elevating international normalized ratio (INR) goal based on FIIAA would increase bleeding risk.Methods: A community hospital retrospective chart review was conducted on anticoagulation clinic APS patients (n=49) over 50 months. Patientswith an APS-associated diagnosis compliant warfarin therapy were included as long as they were at least 18 years of age. Patients were excludedif they were monitored in the clinic for <6 months, became pregnant, or developed cancer during the study period. The primary outcome was todetermine if FIIAA monitoring reduced thrombus risk or increased bleeding risk.Results: No statistical difference in bleeding event, age, comorbidities, or sex was determined between the FIIAA monitored and non-FIIAA monitoredgroup. Thromboembolic events approached statistical significance (p=0.053) in the monitored group. Two of the 3 patients had a subtherapeutic INRand one had additional thrombophilias.Conclusion: Thromboembolic risk was not reduced by FIIAA monitoring in APS patients. INR goal increases based on FIIAA monitoring did notincrease bleeding risk. A larger study may help determine the most appropriate way to monitor APS patients using warfarin.Keywords: Antiphospholipid syndrome, Factor II activity assay, Warfarin, Thrombosis, Anticoagulation and bleeding.Â

Bibliography on heavy vehicle dynamics

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/108243/1/103019.pdfDescription of 103019.pdf : Bibliograph

Science and educational research.

At present the most powerful and influential\ud groups in education see the solution to matters of\ud educational concern as mainly falling within the province\ud of an educational research which is fundamentally\ud scientific.\ud This thesis sets out to examine whether this\ud assumption can be substantiated and, in the possible\ud scenario that it cannot, to look at an alternative form\ud of educational research.\ud It begins with the philosophical arguments which\ud support the view that educational research, where it is\ud empirical, should be mainly scientific and continues by\ud looking at what contemporary educational researchers have\ud said about the nature of educational research. The role\ud philosophy of education might take in this context is\ud also examined. The thesis continues by looking at the\ud prescribed methodology of educational research and\ud examines the philosophical assumptions of such a\ud methodology. It continues by looking at the major\ud assumption of scientific endeavour which is that it is\ud nomological.\ud The conclusions drawn from the aforegoing are\ud that, for various philosophical reasons, the notion that\ud educational research can be founded on scientific method\ud and applied through a process parallel to engineering is\ud fallacious and needs to be reviewed.\ud A review of the philosophical situation with\ud regard to understanding human beings as would be\ud necessary to understanding them in an educational context\ud is undertaken in the fourth chapter. This marks the\ud beginnings of an alternative, non-scientific, framework\ud for educational research. A case is made for the thesis\ud that individual actions are understood properly against a\ud background of information which includes beliefs,\ud intentions and historical circumstances. Consideration is\ud then given as to how this might be put in such a way as\ud to be of practical use in the deliberation of how to\ud tackle educational issues. The final chapter outlines how\ud a possible substantive piece of educational research\ud might look

SLoMo: automated site localization of modifications from ETD/ECD mass spectra

Recently, software has become available to automate localization of phosphorylation sites from CID data and to assign associated confidence scores. We present an algorithm, SLoMo (Site Localization of Modifications), which extends this capability to ETD/ECD mass spectra. Furthermore, SLoMo caters for both high and low resolution data and allows for site-localization of any UniMod post-translational modification. SLoMo accepts input data from a variety of formats (e.g., Sequest, OMSSA). We validate SLoMo with high and low resolution ETD, ECD, and CID data

saltPAD: A New Analytical Tool for Monitoring Salt Iodization in Low Resource Settings

We created a paper test card that measures a common iodizing agent, iodate, in salt. To test the analytical metrics, usability, and robustness of the paper test card when it is used in low resource settings, the South African Medical Research Council and GroundWork performed independent validation studies of the device. The accuracy and precision metrics from both studies were comparable. In the SAMRC study, more than 90% of the test results (n=1704) were correctly classified as corresponding to adequately or inadequately iodized salt. The cards are suitable for market and household surveys to determine whether salt is adequately iodized. Further development of the cards will improve their utility for monitoring salt iodization during production

Large scale localization of protein phosphorylation by use of electron capture dissociation mass spectrometry.

We used on-line electron capture dissociation (ECD) for the large scale identification and localization of sites of phosphorylation. Each FT-ICR ECD event was paired with a linear ion trap collision-induced dissociation (CID) event, allowing a direct comparison of the relative merits of ECD and CID for phosphopeptide identification and site localization. Linear ion trap CID was shown to be most efficient for phosphopeptide identification, whereas FT-ICR ECD was superior for localization of sites of phosphorylation. The combination of confident CID and ECD identification and confident CID and ECD localization is particularly valuable in cases where a phosphopeptide is identified just once within a phosphoproteomics experiment

Connecting

JoAnne Katzmarek—Thoughts Like Flying Grouse Steven L. VanderStaay—I\u27m With You, Huck Irwin Ramirez Leopando—A Moment of Connections Christopher Sweet—The Brightening Glance Howard Wolf—Personal Teachin