Cortical brain abnormalities in 4474 individuals with schizophrenia and 5098 control subjects via the enhancing neuro Imaging genetics through meta analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium

BACKGROUND: The profile of cortical neuroanatomical abnormalities in schizophrenia is not fully understood, despite hundreds of published structural brain imaging studies. This study presents the first meta-analysis of cortical thickness and surface area abnormalities in schizophrenia conducted by the ENIGMA (Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Schizophrenia Working Group. METHODS: The study included data from 4474 individuals with schizophrenia (mean age, 32.3 years; range, 11-78 years; 66% male) and 5098 healthy volunteers (mean age, 32.8 years; range, 10-87 years; 53% male) assessed with standardized methods at 39 centers worldwide. RESULTS: Compared with healthy volunteers, individuals with schizophrenia have widespread thinner cortex (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.530/-0.516) and smaller surface area (left/right hemisphere: Cohen's d = -0.251/-0.254), with the largest effect sizes for both in frontal and temporal lobe regions. Regional group differences in cortical thickness remained significant when statistically controlling for global cortical thickness, suggesting regional specificity. In contrast, effects for cortical surface area appear global. Case-control, negative, cortical thickness effect sizes were two to three times larger in individuals receiving antipsychotic medication relative to unmedicated individuals. Negative correlations between age and bilateral temporal pole thickness were stronger in individuals with schizophrenia than in healthy volunteers. Regional cortical thickness showed significant negative correlations with normalized medication dose, symptom severity, and duration of illness and positive correlations with age at onset. CONCLUSIONS: The findings indicate that the ENIGMA meta-analysis approach can achieve robust findings in clinical neuroscience studies; also, medication effects should be taken into account in future genetic association studies of cortical thickness in schizophrenia

The Genetics of Endophenotypes of Neurofunction to Understand Schizophrenia (GENUS) consortium: A collaborative cognitive and neuroimaging genetics project

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia has a large genetic component, and the pathways from genes to illness manifestation are beginning to be identified. The Genetics of Endophenotypes of Neurofunction to Understand Schizophrenia (GENUS) Consortium aims to clarify the role of genetic variation in brain abnormalities underlying schizophrenia. This article describes the GENUS Consortium sample collection. METHODS: We identified existing samples collected for schizophrenia studies consisting of patients, controls, and/or individuals at familial high-risk (FHR) for schizophrenia. Samples had single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array data or genomic DNA, clinical and demographic data, and neuropsychological and/or brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. Data were subjected to quality control procedures at a central site. RESULTS: Sixteen research groups contributed data from 5199 psychosis patients, 4877 controls, and 725 FHR individuals. All participants have relevant demographic data and all patients have relevant clinical data. The sex ratio is 56.5% male and 43.5% female. Significant differences exist between diagnostic groups for premorbid and current IQ (both p10,000 participants. The breadth of data across clinical, genetic, neuropsychological, and MRI modalities provides an important opportunity for elucidating the genetic basis of neural processes underlying schizophrenia

Security Policy Enforcement at the File System Level in the Windows NT Operating System Family

This paper describes the implementation of an enforcement module for file system security implemented as part of a security architecture for distributed systems which enforces a centrally administered security policy under the Windows NT operating system platform. The mechanism provides mandatory access control, encryption, and auditing on an individual file basis across distributed systems while being fully transparent to both users and application programs and functioning regardless of the type of file system or its attachment mechanism

Molehunt: Near-line semantic activity tracing

This paper discusses threats posed by low granularity in access to confidential (classified) data typically found at lower protection levels, namely direct access beyond need to know and the correlation of materials yielding more sensitive aggregate data by both insider threats and malware, an area of particular concern for intelligence analysis. It is argued that while active security controls at both the procedural and technical level are currently not pragmatically feasible, near-line semantic monitoring particularly at the file system but also at the network level can provide capabilities to detect anomalous and also directed malicious activity. A mechanism for implementing the tracing and monitoring mechanism on an COTS operating system is described

Sicherheit von Praxis-Systemen

Mit dem Aufkommen der "Personal Computer" vor zwanzig Jahren hat sich ein wandel vollzogen. Wartung, Pflege und Betriebsverantwortung liegen nicht mehr in den Händen von Rechenzentren. In der Mehrheit der kleinen und mittleren Unternehmen ist der Nutzer mittlerweile vollständig auf sich gestellt. Dies birgt vor und Nachteile hinsichtlich Produktivität, Verfügbarkeit und Systemsicherheit

A capability-based transparent cryptographic file system

Data on the file system in mobile internetworked working environments are exposed data to a number of threats ranging from physical theft of storage devices to industrial espionage and intelligence activities. This paper describes a fully transparent, capability-based file system security mechanism for use in heterogeneous computing environments with emphasis on the implementation on the Microsoft Windows NT/XP family of operating systems. This mechanism can provide confidentiality and integrity protection for on- and off-line use through modular cryptographic means and is interoperable between several operating system platforms

Sensitivity labels and invisible identification markings in human-readable output

This paper presents a mechanism for embedding both immediately readable and steganographically hidden information in human-readable output, particularly in hard copy format. The mechanism is embedded within a domain inaccessible to unprivileged users in the operating system's Trusted Computing Base. A realization is presented which permits the embedding of such markings in arbitrary printing systems under the Microsoft Windows NT family of operating systems

Quantitative analysis of efficient antispam techniques

While dynamic content-based filtering mechanisms for the identification of unsolicited commercial email (UCE, or more commonly \spam") have proven to be effective, these techniques require considerable computational resources. It is therefore highly desirable to reduce the number of emails that must be subjected to a content-based analysis. In this paper, a number of efficient techniques based on lower protocol level properties are analyzed using a large real-world data set. We show that combinations of several network-based filters can provide a computationally efficient pre-filtering mechanism at acceptable false-positive rates