bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Anti-NMDA-R encephalitis: Follow-up of 24 months
Authors: Soares Emilia Maria Veloso , Kauark Roberta Borges Gomes , Rocha Maria Sheila Guimarães , Brucki Sonia Maria Dozzi
Published: May 2016

ABSTRACT Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (anti-NMDA-R) encephalitis is the second-most-common cause of autoimmune encephalitis, based on epidemiological studies. It has been predominantly described in young females, with prominent psychiatric symptoms, memory loss, decrease in level of consciousness, epilepsy, and central hypoventilation. The condition is commonly associated with mature ovarian teratomas. We describe a video report with a classic presentation of anti-NMDA-R encephalitis in a young patient with no identifiable tumor. Anti-NMDA encephalitis is a recognizable and treatable illness. The prognosis of patients depends on early diagnosis, implementation of appropriate immunomodulatory therapy and, in paraneoplastic cases, complete tumor removal. Clinicians should be wary of this condition, especially when assessing patients with recent onset of psychiatric symptoms unresponsive to antipsychotic treatment.
Spatio-temporal variability in hydro-chemical characteristics of coastal waters of Salimpur, Chittagong along the Bay of Bengal
Authors: Talukder Avijit , Mallick Debbrota , Hasin Tasnuba , Anka Ishrat Zahan , Hasan Md Mehedi
Published: May 2016

Diverse seasonal characteristics of hydro-chemical parameters in the coastal zone are significantly related to aquaculture development. In this paper, general water quality condition derived from laboratory analysis from the coastal waters of Salimpur, Chittagong is presented. Samples were collected from onshore and offshore site of two adjacent coastal locations named as North Salimpur (experimental location) and South Kattoli (control) during a monsoon and a dry season spanning 2013-14. The spatio-temporal variability of studied parameters were found as air temperature 26.5-32.5 ˚C, water temperature 23-33 °C, pH 7.1-7.9, DO 4.29-7.11 mg/L, BOD 1.10-3.25 mg/L, salinity 1.6-21 ppt, EC 3.40-35.68 mS/cm, TDS 2.02-21.99 g/L, TSS 0.62-2.76 g/L, transparency 4.5-14 cm, precipitation 64-1992 mm, NO2-N 1.94-2.58 µg/L, PO4-P 0.45-1.84 µg/L, SiO3-Si 130.46-956.31 µg/L during investigation period. Average values of physicochemical parameters were found to be in compliance with standard guidelines. The ship breaking activities near experimental location possess negative impacts on local geomorphology, freshwater inputs, precipitation and aquatic environment as well. Moreover, wind driven forces, tidal action, wave characteristics and changes in monsoon pattern regulate the coastal processes. This research suggests the importance of regular monitoring to assess present status of water quality and future prospect of aquaculture in the Chittagong coastal zone.
ESTRESSE DOS PROFESSORES DE ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL EM ESCOLAS PÚBLICAS: UMA REVISÃO DE LITERATURA
Authors: Do Vale Paula Cristina Santos , Aguillera Fernanda
Published: May 2016

Discutindo a importância da psicologia escolar como área a que cabe a promoção da saúde nas relações de trabalho na escola, este artigo é uma revisão narrativa de literatura cujo objetivo foi investigar o espaço de tal proposta em publicações científicas nesse campo do conhecimento. Voltou se, especialmente, a problemas relacionados ao afastamento de professores, bem como a indicativos de ações técnicas do psicólogo junto a este público, visando a promoção da saúde ocupacional e a prevenção do adoecimento na escola. Identifica-se que o Estresse e a Síndrome de Burnout são os principais motivos de afastamento do trabalho dessa categoria, segundo a literatura. Daí percebe-se a demanda de ações no sentido de promover melhores condições de trabalho e a saúde mental junto aos professores. No entanto, pouco se registra sobre as práticas do psicólogo escolar em favor da promoção de saúde junto a essa categoria, embora algumas ações simples e de baixo custo sejam sugeridas. Uma compilação das mesmas é apresentada ao final do estudo, podendo servir de base para propostas práticas na prevenção de estresse ocupacional no contexto escolar.
CUIDADO EM SAÚDE: CONSIDERAÇÕES A PARTIR DA GESTALT-TERAPIA
Authors: Lopes Gisele Vieira Dourado Oliveira
Published: May 2016

O objeto do trabalho em saúde, o ser humano, não pode ser plenamente capturado, por isso os processos de intervenção devem operar com tecnologias voltadas para as relações, os encontros de subjetividades, para além dos saberes tecnológicos estruturados. Neste trabalho, serão apresentadas considerações das teorias que fundamentam a Gestalt-Terapia sobre as tecnologias de cuidado em saúde, em especial, na produção de Projetos Terapêuticos Singulares. Para isto, realizou-se uma pesquisa bibliográfica, de caráter exploratório. Considera-se fundamental a mudança na visão de homem/objeto de cuidado e nas relações de cuidado, bem como a organização dos processos de trabalho e de gestão dos serviços de saúde que facilitem os encontros da equipe e desta com os usuários.
EDITORIAL - A PSICOLOGIA E SUA MULTIPLICIDADE
Authors: Castelar Marilda , Ramos Daltro Mônica
Published: May 2016

A proposta da presente edição continua sendo valorizar a psicologia em seus múltiplos objetos, saberes, teorias e práticas. E contribuir para o desenvolvimento de uma ciência e uma profissão que possa perceber a constituição dos sujeitos a partir de suas relações, que assume cada vez mais a responsabilidade de trabalhar pela promoção da saúde e autonomia dos sujeitos, respeitando suas diversas formas de ser e estar no mundo. A profissão de psicologia lida com a subjetividade, o que significa dizer que trabalha com os fenômenos psicológicos, aqueles que permitem pensar e sentir e perceber o mundo em suas diversas dimensões, para interferir e transformar a realidade. Nesse sentido torna-se fundamental acompanhar, participar, informar e incentivar o movimento de transformação pelo qual passa a Psicologia no Brasil a partir de sua produção de conhecimento.
Comparative evaluation of hormonal-metabolic status of endometrial cancer patient´s over the past five decades
Authors: Baltrukova Alexandra N , Berlev Igor V , Berstein Lew M
Published: May 2016

Comparative analysis of changes in hormonal-metabolic status of patients with endometrial cancer seen in the Research Institute of Oncology named after N.N. Petrov for over 50 years is presented. Over the past half century there was a gradual evolution of some indicators characterizing patients with endometrial cancer: increased age at the time of diagnosis from 57,43 ± 0,91 years in 1965-1967 to 60,66 ± 0,73 years 2012-2015 and changes in the anthropometric characteristics (in addition to increasing growth, increased body weight, circumference of waist and hip, the proportion of women with high body mass index). Also, increased manifestations of disorders of lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, including triglyceride levels, blood glucose and insulinemia were revealed. Reflecting the dynamics of processes occurring with the female population in general, the revealed changes, at the same time, represent an important component of conditions conducive to the increase in the incidence of endometrial cancer.
Post-mortem Magnetic Resonance Imaging as an Additional Tool of the Neuropathological Examination of Neurodegenerative and Cerebrovascular Diseases
Authors: De Reuck Jacques L ,   Université Lille 2, INSERM U1171, Lille, France
Published: May 2016

Neuropathological examination of post-mortem brains of patients with dementia due to neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular changes remains important, as the family wants to be sure about the clinical diagnosis and the risk of a hereditary disease. 7.0-tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be applied as an additional tool to examine post-mortem brains of patients with neurodegenerative and cerebrovasular diseases. It allows examination of serial coronal sections of a cerebral hemisphere and horizontal sections of brainstem and cerebellum and comparison with the neuropathological lesions. Post-mortem MRI can show the degree and the distribution of the cerebral atrophy. Additional small cerebrovascular lesions can be quantified. The degree of iron load, not due to microbleeds, can be evaluated in different basal ganglia and brainstem structures. Three to six serial sections of a cerebral hemisphere and one section of brainstem and cerebellum allow the evaluation of the most important brain changes and to select the small samples to be used for histological diagnostic purposes. These correlation studies are extremely important for the future, when more 7.0-tesla MRI machines will be available forin vivoclinical-radiological diagnosis. This article is a review of post-mortem MRI data in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative and vascular dementias.
Implementation Of Multi Experts Multi Criteria Decision Making For Rehabilitation And Reconstruction Action After A Disaster
Authors: Wibowo Almais Agung Teguh , Sarosa Moechammad , Muslim Muhammad Aziz
Published: May 2016

Abstract— This article is aimed to propose a method which used Non-Numeric assessment that is Multi Experts Multi Criteria Decision Making (MEMCDM) in order to construct supporting decision system in composing rehabilitation and reconstruction action after disaster. Because in all this time “Perencanaan dan Pengendalian Penanganan Bencana (P3B)” surveyor team does not have clear standard criteria to execute the compiling rehabilitation and reconstruction action after disaster. Method Multi Experts Multi Criteria Decision Making (MEMCDM) step is to determine the alternative, assessment scale, criteria, criteria quality, criteria quality negation, criteria aggregation, and the qualification expert score. In the stage of expert qualification score for primary and secondary data is different. In secondary data, the qualification score is based on the usage of expert amount. Meanwhile, for secondary data, the expert qualification score is based on the criteria amount which is chosen by the user. Training data that has been processed using method Multi Experts Multi Criteria Decision Making (MEMCDM) can form a pattern system to assess damage and losses after natural disasters. There for it could facilitate a team of surveyors in assessing the damage and losses after natural disasters.
Skill Acquisition and Retention Following Simulation-Based Training in Pavlik Harness Application
Authors: Moktar Joel , Bradley Catharine S. , Maxwell Alexandra , Wedge John H. , Kelley Simon P. , Murnaghan M. Lucas
Published: May 2016

Background:

Simulation-based learning is increasingly prevalent in many surgical training programs, as medical education moves toward competency-based curricula. In orthopaedic surgery, developmental dysplasia of the hip is a commonly treated condition, where the standard of care for patients less than six months of age is an orthotic device such as the Pavlik harness. However, despite widespread use of the Pavlik harness and the potential complications that may arise from inappropriate application, we know of no previously described formal training curriculum for Pavlik harness application.

Methods:

We developed a video and model-based simulation learning module for Pavlik harness application. Two novice groups (residents and allied health professionals) were exposed to the module and, at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and retention testing, were evaluated on their ability to apply a Pavlik harness to the model. Evaluations were completed using a previously validated Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) and a global rating scale (GRS) specific to Pavlik harness application. A control group that did not undergo the module was also evaluated at two time points to determine if exposure to the Pavlik harness alone would affect skill acquisition. All groups were compared with a group of clinical experts, whose scores were used as a competency benchmark. Statistical analysis of skill acquisition and retention was conducted using t tests and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results:

Exposure to the learning module improved resident and allied health professionals’ competency in applying a Pavlik harness (p < 0.05) to the level of the expert clinicians, and this level of competency was retained one month after exposure to the module. Control subjects who were not exposed to the module did not improve, nor did they achieve competency.

Conclusions:

The simulation-based learning module was shown to be an effective tool for teaching the application of a Pavlik harness, and learners demonstrated retainable skills post-intervention. This learning module can form the cornerstone of formal teaching of Pavlik harness application for developmental dysplasia of the hip.
Bringing Personas to Life: User Experience Design through Interactive Coupled Open Innovation
Authors: Coorevits Lynn , Schuurman Dimitri , Oelbrandt Kathy , Logghe Sara
Published: May 2016

A frequently used technique to enable user involvement during the course of a software design project is the development of personas. Modeling personas helps developers to establish a stronger user focus and act as a constant reminder for whom one is and is not designing. Within this paper we propose coupled interactive open innovation through iterative user involvement, such as in a Living Lab approach, as a way to improve the effectiveness of personas and scenarios. Interactive coupled open innovation addresses user needs and creates new opportunities by using a trial-error learning process. This increases efficiency, augments stakeholders’ collaboration and facilitates co-creation. By involving real users who mirror the constructed personas in subsequent development steps, traditional persona development is enriched. This iterative process elicits new understandings and meanings of domain specific and market knowledge by positioning the development project in a ‘real-life’ context. The input of each step in the process translates towards and provides the technical team with potential input to develop iterations of the design. In this paper we provide a framework, based on interactive coupled open innovation, for persona development that will allow an optimized user experience by bringing personas and their scenarios to life in the design project.
Amoxicillin photodegradation by nanocrystalline TiO2
Authors: Radosavljevic K , Golubovic A.V. , Radisic M.M. , Mladenovic A.R. , Mijin D.Z. , Petrovic S.D.
Published: May 2016

Nanocrystalline TiO2, synthesized by sol-gel route and characterized by XRPD, BET and SEM measurements, was applied in the photocatalytic degradation of amoxicillin, using an Osram Ultra-Vitalux? lamp as the light source. Amoxicillin is a semi-synthetic penicillin type antibiotic active against a wide range of grampositive and a limited range of gram-negative organisms. The continuous release of antibiotics and their persistence in the environment may result in serious irreversible effects on aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Heterogeneous catalysis, which uses catalysts like TiO2, is a promising route for the degradation of organic pollutants including antibiotics. The effects of initial concentration of catalyst, initial salt concentration (NaCl and Na2SO4), ethanol and pH on the photocatalytic degradation of amoxicillin were studied. The mineralization of amoxicillin was analyzed by ion chromatography as well as by total organic analysis. The catalytic properties of nanocrystalline TiO2 were compared to Evonik P25 catalyst.
Inversée vous avez dit inversée ?
Authors: Hussler Caroline , Burger-Helmchen Thierry
Published: May 2016

Cet article interroge la singularité et la portée du concept d’innovation inversée. Les auteurs tentent de clarifier la littérature foisonnante sur ce thème en développant un cadre analytique novateur. L’originalité consiste à questionner la ou les dimensions qui se trouvent précisément inversées. Une relecture du concept (à l’aulne de la littérature sur l’innovation de rupture) leur permet finalement de faire émerger deux idéaux types d’innovation inversée, chacun d’entre eux soulevant des enjeux managériaux particuliers.
Milacres of San Vicente Ferrer
Authors: Wilk Urszula
Published: May 2016

The aim of this study is to bring the feast of San Vicente Ferrer in
the city of Valencia closer to our knowledge. This festivity serves as
a good example of how literature created by local folk writers is
transformed into a street performance. At the same time it is one of
the best examples of contemporary popular religiosity in this region
of Spain. On the day of the celebration, actors perform short plays
on the streets of the city. The shows are based on the life of the
patron of the city and are written by local authors. The feast has a
long history – the oldest altar was set in la calle del Mar in the mid-fifteenth
century – and the celebrations continue into the twenty-first
century with well-organised associations. These entities are an element
of the utmost importance for the neighbourhood. They both
preserve traditional Valencian customs and this region’s own language,
and have an important role in shaping social relationships
within the community.
Kinetic study of the adsorption of dyes onto activated carbon
Authors: Eris Setareh , Bashiri Hadis
Published: May 2016

Four batch systems were applied to study the adsorption by activated carbon of methylene blue, methyl orange, crystal violet and rhodamine B from aqueous solution. The kinetics of the adsorption systems were evaluated by pseudo first-order and modified pseudo first-order models. The kinetics of dye adsorption on activated carbon have been studied at close to equilibrium conditions. From empirical kinetic data, it was shown that application of the pseudo first-order and modified pseudo first-order equations for modelling over the entire span of adsorption time causes large error near the initial time of adsorption. Comparison between the pseudo first-order and the modified pseudo first-order models has been provided. It was shown that adsorption of the system dyes/activated carbon proceeded in two steps; an initial step governed by the intra-particle diffusion model, which is followed by pseudo first-order models or modified pseudo first-order models.
Writing the Environmental History of the World’s Largest State: Four Decades of Scholarship on Russia and the USSR
Authors: Bonhomme Brian
Published: May 2016

This article surveys and analyzes long-term and recent trends in English-language scholarship on the environmental history of Russia and the USSR. This literature, following certain precursors, began to take shape in the early 1970s and was influenced partly by the rise of popular environmentalism in the West and also by the exigencies and context of the Cold War. Gorbachev-era liberal reforms and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union conditioned a new wave of writings beginning in the late 1980s that sought to nuance and complicate Cold War-era narratives. This second wave of historiography highlighted the existence of divergent and positive trends – including successful experiments with nature preserves in the early Soviet period. It also effectively challenged earlier notions of the Soviet Union as a monolithic state/culture with a relatively simple environmental history that could be inferred in part from an examination of Marxist-Leninist ideology. Post-Soviet scholarship (which can be considered a third wave) is more heterogeneous than either of its predecessors but overall continues the trend of replacing broad narratives and fondly-held assumptions with knowledge gained from detailed investigations, painstaking archival-based reconstructions, and – frequently – regional and local rather than national focuses. Although much interesting work continues to emerge, the field remains heavily skewed towards the Late-Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet periods, which seems an important shortcoming. Similarly, there is an abiding (if understandable) preoccupation with the role of political culture and systems, at the expense of alternative approaches, many of which have proven fruitful in the study of other geographical areas.
Forest and Grassland: Recent Trends in Russian Environmental History
Authors: Dills Randall
Published: May 2016

More and more historians are turning their attention to Russia’s environment. New research on the territories forest and grasslands demonstrate the ways this scholarship challenges traditional narratives of Russian history, that often sees it as unique or exceptional, and shows how the Russian experience has global significance for environmental history. As environmental history progresses from its roots in local and regional American stories to the global and comparative scale, scholars of Russian environmental history are uniquely positioned to shape debates about nature, culture, and identity. Historians of Africa, Asia, and the Americas and transnational subjects such as the forest will find common points of understanding in stories of a Russia that sought to forcibly transform nature and alternatively, sought to mitigate anxiety about environmental degradation through a range of scientific and culturally distinct solutions. A new group of scholars trained as environmental historians promise to contribute to a revision of Russian historiography and assure a central position in global conversations about nature and the human place within it. Finally, the author urges scholars to assess the pre-Revolutionary era in more depth and calls for an integration of urban and environmental methods in Russian environmental historiography.
From the Periphery to the Center: North American Environmental History
Authors: Isenberg Andrew C.
Published: May 2016

North American environmental history was on the edges of the historical profession for most of the twentieth century. The concerns of its practitioners found little purchase within mainstream North American history. Instead, in part because of the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the field, environmental historians found their closest allies in departments of geography, ecology, or anthropology. Starting in the late 1960s, in departments of American studies that brought together Americanists from different disciplinary perspectives, environmental history began to emerge by synthesizing a materialist approach that emphasized environmental agency in the form of diseases and natural catastrophes and a cultural approach that considered the changing apprehensions of nature in human thought. In recent years, North American environmental historians increasingly have applied the insights of environmental history to the central events of mainstream North American history.
Moving Beyond the Nation State? Reflections on European Environmental History
Authors: Kalb Martin
Published: May 2016

This historiographical essay outlines and discusses major trends within European environmental history. More precisely, it traces recent developments and conversations within various national and regional contexts, hoping to provide a coherent overview. In no way comprehensive and complete given the mere scope of the topic, language barriers, and accessibility of materials, the objective of this essay is to capture recent developments and inclinations within a diverse and very complex scholarship. The importance of nature, wilderness, forests, water, political movements, and numerous other themes are discussed in this context, as the essay focuses on different nation states and regions. It highlights recent discussions and future possibilities regarding collaboration across national borders and contexts, and ultimately argues for more transnational cooperation within the field of environmental history.
Environmental Change, Control and Management in Africa
Authors: Kwashirai Vimbai C.
Published: May 2016

African environments have been studied across many disciplines in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. This study draws on economic and environmental historical approaches to explore the consumption-conservation nexus in the use of African natural resources. It explores environmental changes resulting from a range of interactive factors, including climate, population, disease, vegetation and technology. Ecological issues are important in the synopsis, but this work does not develop a detailed record of Africa’s environmental changes. Instead, it explores the role and impact of the state, whether exploitative or conservationist, from pre-colonial times to the present. The relationship between economic development, nature and conservation is central, given that the main axiom of world conservation strategy is that development depends upon conservation, and lasting development is impossible without conservation.
Climatic Changes in the Carpathian Basin during the Middle Ages. The State of Research
Authors: Vadas András , Rácz Lajos
Published: May 2016

The aim of the paper is to present a summary of the current scholarship on the climate of the Carpathian Basin in the Middle Ages. It draws on the results of three substantially differing branches of science: natural sciences, archaeology and history are all taken into consideration. Based on the most important results of the recent decades different climatic periods can be identified in the scholarship. The paper attempts to summarize the different view of these major climatic periods. Based on present scholarship the milder climate of the Roman Period was followed by a cooler period from the 4th century, attested by both historical and natural-historical sources, and apparently climate had also become drier. The cool period of the Great Migrations concluded in the Carpathian Basin between the end of the 7th and the turn of the 8th-9th centuries. The winters in the first half of the 9th century were probably milder. In the warmer medieval period (called Medieval Climatic Anomaly in recent scholarship) winters had clearly become milder and summers warmer, while the climate was probably still dry. The first cooling signs of the “Little Ice Age” had already become apparent in the 13th century, but the cold and rainy character of the climate could only become dominant in the Carpathian Basin in the early 14th century, which then, albeit with great anomalies, endured until the second half of the 19th century.
Reframing the Land Grab Debate: The Need to Broaden and Deepen the Agenda
Authors: Zoomers Annelies , van Westen Guus
Published: May 2016

This article does not present new evidence about the land rush, but reveals the urgent need of broadening the debate by including a few key issues that are so far neglected. Transnational land acquisitions are a logical outcome of globalisation and neoliberal policies resulting in processes of disembedding land from local societies. Control over land is decreasingly vested in territorially defined communities or societies, and increasingly dictated by global actors and processes, leading to a patchwork of locally disembedded land holdings responding to different translocal network logics. Global actors play an increasingly important role in reserving spaces for global goods, securing food, preserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change in widely dispersed localities. The resulting fragmentation is not conducive for inclusive and sustainable development at the local level. Findings are based on ongoing research on the consequences of transnational land acquisitions in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
An Editorial Flop Revisited: Rethinking the Impact of M. Bookchin’s
Our Synthetic Environment
on its Golden Anniversary
Authors: Pérez Cebada Juan Diego
Published: May 2016

2012 is the golden anniversary of two important books in the history of the American Environmental movement:
Our Synthetic Environment
(OSE), written by Murray Bookchin (under the pseudonym “Lewis Herber”) and Rachel Carsons’ canonical
Silent Spring
, published just a few months later. Both books deal with the complex problem of chemicals in food, and have a clear objective: to achieve a popular audience. But, these books had a very different reception on the part of critics and public. While
Silent Spring
was a genuine bestseller, OSE seemed to fall l into oblivion. For some, even, it was a complete flop. This article however revises the reception of Bookchin’s work and shows that although Bookchin cannot certainly be considered a mass author like Carson, he was an influential thinker in selected North American and European academic circles of his time. The book had its origin in an article entitled 'The Problems of Chemicals in Food' (1952). In the first part of this article, we study this and other related articles that preceded the publication of OSE as well as their impact in the intellectual world. The second section analyzes specific bibliography and documentation from Jonathan Cape Ltd, the English publisher of the book (1963), in order to establish its reception. Jonathan Cape had hired Durrant’s, a well known press cutting firm, to prepare a complete report on references to the book in newspapers and other periodical publications both in the U.K. and the Commonwealth. Durrant´s dossier confirms that the book was favorably appraised in the United States by outstanding figures such as B. Commoner, R. Dubos or W. Vogt. However the documentation shows a better reception of the book in Europe, especially in U.K. and Germany. The final section stresses the contribution of OSE to the Environmental movement and the Green left thought.
A comparative experimental evaluation study of intrusion detection system performance in a gigabit environment
Authors: Iheagwara Charles , Blyth Andrew , Singhal Mukesh
Published: May 2016

Intrusion detection systems' (IDS) effectiveness requires balancing characteristics and elements so they fit together in appropriate compromises to create good network security systems. One major gauge for IDS effectiveness is the ability to detect attacks within operational specifications. Gigabit IDS sensors as opposed to Megabit IDS sensors promise dramatic increase in component performance and functional opportunities, possibly leading to dramatically changed system balance and overall performance. The research described here examines the system benefits of using a single Gigabit IDS sensor instead of multiple Megabit sensors for a wide range of defined system attacks, network traffic characteristics, and for their contexts of operational concepts and deployment techniques. The experimental results are analyzed in the context of practical experiences in the operation of these IDS systems. The difference in architectural designs, deployment strategies and operational concepts that characterized their performance in exploiting the strengths of attack systems are discussed.
Inductive verification of smart card protocols
Authors: Bella Giampaolo
Published: May 2016

An existing approach based on induction and theorem proving is tailored to the verification of security protocols that make use of smart cards. Smart cards are modelled operationally, hence only their functionalities, rather than their implementative technicalities, are of interest. The spy can steal certain smart cards, and clone others while learning their stored secrets. In terms of generality, the approach scales up to protocols that assume secure or insecure means between agents and smart cards, as well as to smart cards being PIN-operated or PIN-less. In terms of extensibility, new, application-dependent smart card functionalities can be easily included.

The approach is demonstrated on the key distribution protocol designed by Shoup and Rubin [30], and the assumptions are studied that are necessary on the smart cards for the protocol goals to be met. It is found that, if the data buses of the smart cards are unreliable as to produce outputs in an unspecified order, then the protocol does not confirm to the peers its goals of confidentiality, authentication, and key distribution because of lack of explicitness. A simple fix is introduced and proved.
Multiset rewriting and the complexity of bounded security protocols
Authors: Durgin Nancy , Lincoln Patrick , Mitchell John , Scedrov Andre
Published: May 2016

We formalize the Dolev–Yao model of security protocols, using a notation based on multiset rewriting with existentials. The goals are to provide a simple formal notation for describing security protocols, to formalize the assumptions of the Dolev–Yao model using this notation, and to analyze the complexity of the secrecy problem under various restrictions. We prove that, even for the case where we restrict the size of messages and the depth of message encryption, the secrecy problem is undecidable for the case of an unrestricted number of protocol roles and an unbounded number of new nonces. We also identify several decidable classes, including a DEXP-complete class when the number of nonces is restricted, and an NP-complete class when both the number of nonces and the number of roles is restricted. We point out a remaining open complexity problem, and discuss the implications these results have on the general topic of protocol analysis.
Key management for high bandwidth secure multicast
Authors: Di Pietro Roberto , Mancini Luigi V. , Mei Alessandro
Published: May 2016

This paper brings up a new concern regarding efficient re-keying of large groups with dynamic membership: minimizing the overall time it takes for the key server and the group members to process the re-keying message. Specifically, we concentrate on re-keying algorithms based on the Logical Key Hierarchy (LKH), and minimize the longest sequence of encryptions and decryptions that need to be done in a re-keying operation. We first prove a lower bound on the time required to perform a re-keying operation in this model, then we provide an optimal schedule of re-keying messages matching the above lower bound. In particular, we show that the optimal schedule can be found only when the ariety of the LKH key graph is chosen according to the available communication bandwidth and the users processing power. Our results show that key trees of ariety 3, commonly assumed to be optimal, are not optimal when used in high bandwidth networks, or networks of devices with low computational power like sensor networks.
A theory for comparing the expressive power of access control models
Authors: Tripunitara Mahesh V. , Li Ninghui
Published: May 2016

We present a theory for comparing the expressive power of access control models. The theory is based on simulations that preserve security properties. We perceive access control systems as state-transition systems and present two kinds of simulations, reductions and state-matching reductions. In applying the theory, we highlight four new results and discuss these results in the context of other results that can be inferred or are known. One result indicates that the access matrix scheme due to Harrison, Ruzzo and Ullman is limited in its expressive power when compared with a trust-management scheme, thereby formally establishing a conjecture from the literature. A second result is that a particular RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) scheme, ARBAC97, may be limited in its expressive power, thereby countering claims in the literature that RBAC is more expressive than DAC (Discretionary Access Control). A third result demonstrates that the ability to check for the absence of rights (in addition to the presence of rights) can cause a scheme to be more expressive. A fourth result is that a trust-management scheme is at least as expressive as RBAC with a particular administrative scheme (the URA97 component of ARBAC97).
Analyzing worms and network traffic using compression
Authors: Wehner Stephanie
Published: May 2016

Internet worms have become a widespread threat to system and network operations. In order to fight them more efficiently, it is necessary to analyze newly discovered worms and attack patterns. This paper shows how techniques based on Kolmogorov Complexity can help in the analysis of internet worms and network traffic. Using compression, different species of worms can be clustered by type. This allows us to determine whether an unknown worm binary could in fact be a later version of an existing worm in an extremely simple, automated, manner. This may become a useful tool in the initial analysis of malicious binaries. Furthermore, compression can also be useful to distinguish different types of network traffic and can thus help to detect traffic anomalies: Certain anomalies may be detected by looking at the compressibility of a network session alone. We furthermore show how to use compression to detect malicious network sessions that are very similar to known intrusion attempts. This technique could become a useful tool to detect new variations of an attack and thus help to prevent IDS evasion. We provide two new plugins for Snort which demonstrate both approaches.
Compositional information flow security for concurrent programs
Authors: Bossi Annalisa , Piazza Carla , Rossi Sabina
Published: May 2016

We present a general unwinding framework for the definition of information flow security properties of concurrent programs, described in a simple imperative language enriched with parallelism and atomic statement constructors. We study different classes of programs obtained by instantiating the general framework and we prove that they entail the noninterference principle. Accurate proof techniques for the verification of such properties are defined by exploiting the Tarski decidability result for first-order formulae over the reals. Moreover, we illustrate how the unwinding framework can be instantiated in order to deal with intentional information release and we extend our verification techniques to the analysis of security properties of programs admitting downgrading.
Analyzing uncertainty in TG protection graphs with TG/MC
Authors: Conrad James R. , Alves-Foss Jim , Lee Sauchi Stephen
Published: May 2016

We introduce TG/MC, a Monte Carlo approach for evaluating the impact of uncertainty about vulnerabilities upon forecasts of security for a real-world system modeled by a protection graph. A TG/MC model defines a vulnerability as a potential change to an otherwise safe initial protection graph that, if exploited, leads to an unauthorized state, a violation of the system's security policy through the application of TG rules. TG/MC captures uncertainties about vulnerabilities as probability distributions and forecasts the probability of a specific security violation. TG/MC extends beyond the rigid yes/no analysis of safety in a TG protection graph to consider uncertainty in questions of security for real-world systems.
Independence from obfuscation: A semantic framework for diversity
Authors: Pucella Riccardo , Schneider Fred B.
Published: May 2016

A set of replicas is diverse to the extent that they implement the same functionality but differ in their implementation details. Diverse replicas are less likely to succumb to the same attacks, when attacks depend on memory layout and/or other implementation details. Recent work advocates using mechanical means, such as program rewriting, to create such diversity. A correspondence between the specific transformations being employed and the attacks they defend against is often provided, but little has been said about the overall effectiveness of diversity per se in defending against attacks. With this broader goal in mind, this paper gives a precise characterization of attacks, applicable to viewing diversity as a defense, and also shows how mechanically-generated diversity compares to a well-understood defense: type checking.
Hierarchies of keys in secure multicast communications
Authors: Di Pietro Roberto , Mancini Luigi V. , Mei Alessandro
Published: May 2016

This work considers key management for secure multicast in the Logical Key Hierarchy (LKH) model and proposes a methodology to establish the minimal key bit length that guarantees a specified degree of confidentiality for the multicast communications managed within this model. We also introduce the concepts of information lifetime and information dependence to formalize the intuition that keys should be longer, and thus stronger, when used to encrypt “important” information, that is information (including other keys) that need to be kept confidential for a longer period. Then, these concepts are used to build a formal theory that is applied to set the correct bit length of every key in the system in such a way to guarantee the prescribed degree of confidentiality of the multicast messages. Quite surprisingly, we formally show that not all the keys in the LKH hierarchy should have the same length; this observation, besides being of theoretical interest, also leads to substantial savings in terms of memory, computation, and bandwidth. The theory we develop to obtain these results can be useful in other contexts as well.
The impact of information security breaches: Has there been a downward shift in costs?
Authors: Gordon Lawrence A. , Loeb Martin P. , Zhou Lei
Published: May 2016

By analyzing evidence of stock returns using a sophisticated market model over a long period and over two distinct and naturally arising sub-periods, this study helps resolve conflicting evidence from previous studies concerning the effect of information security breaches on market returns of firms. This study has three major findings. First, the impact of the broad class of information security breaches on stock market returns of firms is significant. Second, when breaches are classified by their primary effect in terms of (i) confidentiality, (ii) availability or (iii) integrity, attacks associated with breaches of availability are seen to have the greatest negative effect on stock market returns. Third, there has been a significant downward shift in the impact of the security breaches in the sub-period following the 9/11/2001 attacks versus the impact in the pre-9/11 period. Apparently, with increased media reporting of information security breaches without apparent devastating effects on targeted corporations, investors lowered their assessment of the costs of such breaches. Two possible reasons for this downward shift are (1) more effective remediation and disaster recovery and (2) a perceived decrease in the tendency of customers to refrain from doing business with firms experiencing an information security breach.
Security applications of trust in multi-agent systems
Authors: DeAngelis David , Barber K. Suzanne
Published: May 2016

The concept of trust as presented here focuses on the trustworthiness, or reliability, of information and information sources. Decision makers, or agents, can create judgments based on previous experience with other agents and by reputation information received from allied agents. These judgments, or trust assessments, are used to predict the behavior of other agents and analyze the trustworthiness, truthfulness, or quality of information. Research concepts have been developed within the trust community, and they are most commonly applied to multi-agent systems research. This work attempts to show that trust research can be directly applied to security problems. Modern trust concepts enforce soft security which can be applied in addition to conventional security methods to build a more robust secure system. This article examines two trust based techniques and demonstrates their basic effectiveness using empirical experimentation. These techniques are then applied in a case study drawn from a more robust domain concerning confidential message transmission. The benefits of applying trust-based techniques to secure a system are measurable, and the costs associated with such techniques are scalable to even the most resource constrained systems.
SPIDER: A platform for managing SIP-based Spam over Internet Telephony (SPIT)
Authors: Gritzalis Dimitris , Marias Giannis , Rebahi Yacine , Soupionis Yannis , Ehlert Sven
Published: May 2016

The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) has become the first widely adopted protocol for managing IP-based telephony, video, and multimedia sessions. SIP advertises a contact point of an individual to the Web. This contact point, similar to an e-mail address, can be exploited for spam purposes. Spam over Internet Telephony, also called SPIT, in general denotes any bulk unsolicited information sent to any potential calling-end of a VoIP infrastructure. Even though SPIT is a new concept, it is more reasonable to address this problem right now, rather than waiting until the problem prevails. To mitigate SPIT, adequate technical countermeasures are required. The solution space may expand to nontechnical ones, as well. In this paper, we propose the SPIDER (SPam over Internet telephony Detection sERvice) platform, a modular and efficient system for fighting SPIT. SPIDER orchestrates several discrete modules that parse, analyze, process, and classify incoming SIP call requests. We discuss technical design details of the individual modules, that this platform consists of; then, we present how these modules are combined to support accurate decisions for any incoming SIP call being legitimate or not. Furthermore, we include a comprehensive evaluation scenario, which refers to the tests performed on the individual modules and on the integrated platform. Evaluation results indicate that the overall architecture manages to identify SPIT calls with low false ratio by using reasonable processing resources and tolerable decision time.
WebCallerID: Leveraging cellular networks for Web authentication
Authors: Hsu Francis , Chen Hao , Machiraju Sridhar
Published: May 2016

Web authentication that is both secure and usable remains a challenge. Passwords are vulnerable to phishing attacks, while physical tokens face deployment obstacles. We propose to leverage the authentication infrastructure of cellular networks to enhance Web authentication. We design WebCallerID, a Web authentication scheme that uses cell phones as physical tokens and uses cellular networks as trusted identity providers. Since WebCallerID requires no user participation during authentication, it prevents security mistakes by users. WebCallerID also prevents rogue websites from replaying authentication assertions or stealing users' identities. We have implemented a prototype of WebCallerID using the OpenID framework. The prototype shows that WebCallerID seamlessly integrates into OpenID-capable Web authentication while avoiding phishing problems in OpenID and simplifying user participation.
Searchable symmetric encryption: Improved definitions and efficient constructions
Authors: Curtmola Reza , Garay Juan , Kamara Seny , Ostrovsky Rafail
Published: May 2016

Searchable symmetric encryption (SSE) allows a party to outsource the storage of his data to another party in a private manner, while maintaining the ability to selectively search over it. This problem has been the focus of active research and several security definitions and constructions have been proposed. In this paper we begin by reviewing existing notions of security and propose new and stronger security definitions. We then present two constructions that we show secure under our new definitions. Interestingly, in addition to satisfying stronger security guarantees, our constructions are more efficient than all previous constructions.

Further, prior work on SSE only considered the setting where only the owner of the data is capable of submitting search queries. We consider the natural extension where an arbitrary group of parties other than the owner can submit search queries. We formally define SSE in this multi-user setting, and present an efficient construction.