Convergence of Physical and Logical Security: A Pre-implementation Checklist

Physical and logical security within an organization have traditionally been implemented and administered as separate standalone entities. A growing number of companies are integrating these two systems to provide greater security along with lower cost and time requirements for administration. The following paper provides an overview of security convergence, including standards and initiatives driving this movement. A pre-implementation checklist is then provided as a template for those who wish to prepare themselves for a convergence project

Magnetic Domain Patterns Depending on the Sweeping Rate of Magnetic Fields

The domain patterns in a thin ferromagnetic film are investigated in both experiments and numerical simulations. Magnetic domain patterns under a zero field are usually observed after an external magnetic field is removed. It is demonstrated that the characteristics of the domain patterns depend on the decreasing rate of the external field, although it can also depend on other factors. Our numerical simulations and experiments show the following properties of domain patterns: a sea-island structure appears when the field decreases rapidly from the saturating field to the zero field, while a labyrinth structure is observed for a slowly decreasing field. The mechanism of the dependence on the field sweeping rate is discussed in terms of the concepts of crystallization.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Kinetic roughening of surfaces: Derivation, solution and application of linear growth equations

We present a comprehensive analysis of a linear growth model, which combines the characteristic features of the Edwards--Wilkinson and noisy Mullins equations. This model can be derived from microscopics and it describes the relaxation and growth of surfaces under conditions where the nonlinearities can be neglected. We calculate in detail the surface width and various correlation functions characterizing the model. In particular, we study the crossover scaling of these functions between the two limits described by the combined equation. Also, we study the effect of colored and conserved noise on the growth exponents, and the effect of different initial conditions. The contribution of a rough substrate to the surface width is shown to decay universally as $w_i(0) (\xi_s/\xi(t))^{d/2}$, where $\xi(t) \sim t^{1/z}$ is the time--dependent correlation length associated with the growth process, $w_i(0)$ is the initial roughness and $\xi_s$ the correlation length of the substrate roughness, and $d$ is the surface dimensionality. As a second application, we compute the large distance asymptotics of the height correlation function and show that it differs qualitatively from the functional forms commonly used in the intepretation of scattering experiments.Comment: 28 pages with 4 PostScript figures, uses titlepage.sty; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Kinetic Ising model in an oscillating field: Finite-size scaling at the dynamic phase transition

We study hysteresis for a two-dimensional, spin-1/2, nearest-neighbor, kinetic Ising ferromagnet in an oscillating field, using Monte Carlo simulations. The period-averaged magnetization is the order parameter for a proposed dynamic phase transition (DPT). To quantify the nature of this transition, we present the first finite-size scaling study of the DPT for this model. Evidence of a diverging correlation length is given, and we provide estimates of the transition frequency and the critical indices $\beta$, $\gamma$ and $\nu$.Comment: Accepted by Physical Review Letters. 9 page

Hysteresis and the dynamic phase transition in thin ferromagnetic films

Hysteresis and the non-equilibrium dynamic phase transition in thin magnetic films subject to an oscillatory external field have been studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The model under investigation is a classical Heisenberg spin system with a bilinear exchange anisotropy in a planar thin film geometry with competing surface fields. The film exhibits a non-equilibrium phase transition between dynamically ordered and dynamically disordered phases characterized by a critical temperature Tcd, whose location of is determined by the amplitude H0 and frequency w of the applied oscillatory field. In the presence of competing surface fields the critical temperature of the ferromagnetic-paramagnetic transition for the film is suppressed from the bulk system value, Tc, to the interface localization-delocalization temperature Tci. The simulations show that in general Tcd < Tci for the model film. The profile of the time-dependent layer magnetization across the film shows that the dynamically ordered and dynamically disordered phases coexist within the film for T < Tcd. In the presence of competing surface fields, the dynamically ordered phase is localized at one surface of the film.Comment: PDF file, 21 pages including 8 figure pages; added references,typos added; to be published in PR

Monte Carlo Simulation of Magnetization Reversal in Fe Sesquilayers on W(110)

Iron sesquilayers grown at room temperature on W(110) exhibit a pronounced coercivity maximum near a coverage of 1.5 atomic monolayers. On lattices which faithfully reproduce the morphology of the real films, a kinetic Ising model is utilized to simulate the domain-wall motion. Simulations reveal that the dynamics is dominated by the second-layer islands, which act as pinning centers. The simulated dependencies of the coercivity on the film coverage, as well as on the temperature and the frequency of the applied field, are very similar to those measured in experiments. Unlike previous micromagnetic models, the presented approach provides insight into the dynamics of the domain-wall motion and clearly reveals the role of thermal fluctuations.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys. Rev. B. References to related works added. 7 pages, 5 figures, RevTex, mpeg simulations available at http://www.scri.fsu.edu/~rikvol

Tiny abortive initiation transcripts exert antitermination activity on an RNA hairpin-dependent intrinsic terminator

No biological function has been identified for tiny RNA transcripts that are abortively and repetitiously released from initiation complexes of RNA polymerase in vitro and in vivo to date. In this study, we show that abortive initiation affects termination in transcription of bacteriophage T7 gene 10. Specifically, abortive transcripts produced from promoter ϕ10 exert trans-acting antitermination activity on terminator Tϕ both in vitro and in vivo. Following abortive initiation cycling of T7 RNA polymerase at ϕ10, short G-rich and oligo(G) RNAs were produced and both specifically sequestered 5- and 6-nt C + U stretch sequences, consequently interfering with terminator hairpin formation. This antitermination activity depended on sequence-specific hybridization of abortive transcripts with the 5′ but not 3′ half of Tϕ RNA. Antitermination was abolished when Tϕ was mutated to lack a C + U stretch, but restored when abortive transcript sequence was additionally modified to complement the mutation in Tϕ, both in vitro and in vivo. Antitermination was enhanced in vivo when the abortive transcript concentration was increased via overproduction of RNA polymerase or ribonuclease deficiency. Accordingly, antitermination activity exerted on Tϕ by abortive transcripts should facilitate expression of Tϕ-downstream promoter-less genes 11 and 12 in T7 infection of Escherichia coli

Stochastic Hysteresis and Resonance in a Kinetic Ising System

We study hysteresis for a two-dimensional, spin-1/2, nearest-neighbor, kinetic Ising ferromagnet in an oscillating field, using Monte Carlo simulations and analytical theory. Attention is focused on small systems and weak field amplitudes at a temperature below $T_{c}$. For these restricted parameters, the magnetization switches through random nucleation of a single droplet of spins aligned with the applied field. We analyze the stochastic hysteresis observed in this parameter regime, using time-dependent nucleation theory and the theory of variable-rate Markov processes. The theory enables us to accurately predict the results of extensive Monte Carlo simulations, without the use of any adjustable parameters. The stochastic response is qualitatively different from what is observed, either in mean-field models or in simulations of larger spatially extended systems. We consider the frequency dependence of the probability density for the hysteresis-loop area and show that its average slowly crosses over to a logarithmic decay with frequency and amplitude for asymptotically low frequencies. Both the average loop area and the residence-time distributions for the magnetization show evidence of stochastic resonance. We also demonstrate a connection between the residence-time distributions and the power spectral densities of the magnetization time series. In addition to their significance for the interpretation of recent experiments in condensed-matter physics, including studies of switching in ferromagnetic and ferroelectric nanoparticles and ultrathin films, our results are relevant to the general theory of periodically driven arrays of coupled, bistable systems with stochastic noise.Comment: 35 pages. Submitted to Phys. Rev. E Minor revisions to the text and updated reference

Dynamic phase transitions in thin ferromagnetic films

Monte Carlo simulations have been used to investigate the dynamic phase behavior of a classical Heisenberg spin system with a bilinear exchange anisotropy in a planar thin film geometry. Studies of the field amplitude, frequency and temperature dependence show dynamic phase transitions in films subject to a pulsed oscillatory external field. Thin films with competing surface fields show separate and distinct dynamic phase transitions for the bulk and surface layers of the film. Between the two transitions, a mixed state with coexisting dynamically ordered and dynamically disordered phases is observed in the film. In contrast, the free film with no surface fields shows a single dynamic phase transition as in a bulk system.Comment: 25 pages including figures in pdf format, to be published in PR

Time-Lapse Imaging of the Dynamics of CNS Glial-Axonal Interactions In Vitro and Ex Vivo

Myelination is an exquisite and dynamic example of heterologous cell-cell interaction, which consists of the concentric wrapping of multiple layers of oligodendrocyte membrane around neuronal axons. Understanding the mechanism by which oligodendrocytes ensheath axons may bring us closer to designing strategies to promote remyelination in demyelinating diseases. The main aim of this study was to follow glial-axonal interactions over time both in vitro and ex vivo to visualize the various stages of myelination.We took two approaches to follow myelination over time: i) time-lapse imaging of mixed CNS myelinating cultures generated from mouse spinal cord to which exogenous GFP-labelled murine cells were added, and ii) ex vivo imaging of the spinal cord of shiverer (Mbp mutant) mice, transplanted with GFP-labelled murine neurospheres. We demonstrate that oligodendrocyte-axonal interactions are dynamic events with continuous retraction and extension of oligodendroglial processes. Using cytoplasmic and membrane-GFP labelled cells to examine different components of the myelin-like sheath, we provide evidence from time-lapse fluorescence microscopy and confocal microscopy that the oligodendrocytes' cytoplasm-filled processes initially spiral around the axon in a corkscrew-like manner. This is followed subsequently by focal expansion of the corkscrew process to form short cuffs, which then extend longitudinally along the axons. We predict from this model that these spiral cuffs must extend over each other first before extending to form internodes of myelin.These experiments show the feasibility of visualizing the dynamics of glial-axonal interaction during myelination over time. Moreover, these approaches complement each other with the in vitro approach allowing visualization of an entire internodal length of myelin and the ex vivo approach validating the in vitro data