scholarly journals Evaluating security measures of a layered system

Author(s):  
Sanaz Hafezian Razavi

Most distributed systems that we use in our daily lives have layered architecture since such architectures allow separation of processing between multiple processes in different layers thereby reducing the complexity of the system. Unauthorized control over such systems can have potentially serious consequences ranging from huge monetary loss to even loss of human life. Hence considerable research attention is being given towards building tools and techniques for quantitative modeling and evaluation of security properties. This thesis proposes a high-level stochastic model to estimate security of a layered system. It discusses evaluation of availability and integrity as two major security properties of a three-layered architecture consisting of Client, Web-server and Database. Using Mobius software, this study models the change in vulnerability of a layer owing to an intrusion in another layer. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact on the security of the upper layers due to an intruded lower layer. While maintaining a system availability of 97.73%, this study indicates that increasing the system host attack rate in the Database layer from 10 to 20 will reduce system availability to 97.55%. Similar modification made to a Web-server layer will contribute to 97.04% availability. This set of results imply that increasing attack rate in Web Server layer has a more severe impact on system availability, while the same modification in Database layer will less severely influence system availability. Similar results have been gathered when measuring integrity of the system under identical set of modification. At system integrity of 96.88%, increasing host attack rate in Database layer has resulted in achieving integrity of 96.68%, similar experiment for Web server layer resulted in system integrity of 96.57%.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanaz Hafezian Razavi

Most distributed systems that we use in our daily lives have layered architecture since such architectures allow separation of processing between multiple processes in different layers thereby reducing the complexity of the system. Unauthorized control over such systems can have potentially serious consequences ranging from huge monetary loss to even loss of human life. Hence considerable research attention is being given towards building tools and techniques for quantitative modeling and evaluation of security properties. This thesis proposes a high-level stochastic model to estimate security of a layered system. It discusses evaluation of availability and integrity as two major security properties of a three-layered architecture consisting of Client, Web-server and Database. Using Mobius software, this study models the change in vulnerability of a layer owing to an intrusion in another layer. Furthermore, it analyzes the impact on the security of the upper layers due to an intruded lower layer. While maintaining a system availability of 97.73%, this study indicates that increasing the system host attack rate in the Database layer from 10 to 20 will reduce system availability to 97.55%. Similar modification made to a Web-server layer will contribute to 97.04% availability. This set of results imply that increasing attack rate in Web Server layer has a more severe impact on system availability, while the same modification in Database layer will less severely influence system availability. Similar results have been gathered when measuring integrity of the system under identical set of modification. At system integrity of 96.88%, increasing host attack rate in Database layer has resulted in achieving integrity of 96.68%, similar experiment for Web server layer resulted in system integrity of 96.57%.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Orlando Durán ◽  
Javier Aguilar ◽  
Andrea Capaldo ◽  
Adolfo Arata

Resilience is an intrinsic characteristic of systems. Through it, the capacity of a system to react to the existence of disruptive events is expressed. A series of metrics to represent systems’ resilience have been proposed, however, only one indicator relates the availability of the system to this characteristic. With such a metric, it is possible to relate the topological aspects of a system and the resources available in order to be able to promptly respond to the loss of performance as a result of unexpected events. This work proposes the adaptation and application of such a resilience index to assess the influence of different maintenance strategies and topologies in fleets’ resilience. In addition, an application study considering an actual mining fleet is provided. A set of critical assets was identified and represented using reliability block diagrams. Monte Carlo simulation experiments were conducted and the system availability data were extracted. Resilience indexes were obtained in order to carry out the definition of the best maintenance policies in critical equipment and the assessment of the impact of modifying system redundancies. The main results of this work lead to the overall conclusion that redundancy is an important system attribute in order to improve resiliency along time.


Genes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 855
Author(s):  
Mikołaj Kokociński ◽  
Dariusz Dziga ◽  
Adam Antosiak ◽  
Janne Soininen

Bacterioplankton community composition has become the center of research attention in recent years. Bacteria associated with toxic cyanobacteria blooms have attracted considerable interest. However, little is known about the environmental factors driving the bacteria community, including the impact of invasive cyanobacteria. Therefore, our aim has been to determine the relationships between heterotrophic bacteria and phytoplankton community composition across 24 Polish lakes with different contributions of cyanobacteria including the invasive species Raphidiopsis raciborskii. This analysis revealed that cyanobacteria were present in 16 lakes, while R. raciborskii occurred in 14 lakes. Our results show that bacteria communities differed between lakes dominated by cyanobacteria and lakes with minor contributions of cyanobacteria but did not differ between lakes with R. raciborskii and other lakes. Physical factors, including water and Secchi depth, were the major drivers of bacteria and phytoplankton community composition. However, in lakes dominated by cyanobacteria, bacterial community composition was also influenced by biotic factors such as the amount of R. raciborskii, chlorophyll-a and total phytoplankton biomass. Thus, our study provides novel evidence on the influence of environmental factors and R. raciborskii on lake bacteria communities.


Land ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 596
Author(s):  
Shinichi Kitano

Abandoned farmland is particularly problematic in developed countries where agriculture has a comparative disadvantage in terms of effective use of land resources invested over time. While many studies have estimated the causes of these problems, few have discussed in detail the impact of data characteristics and accuracy on the estimation results. In this study, issues related to the underlying data and the estimation of the determinants of farmland abandonment were examined. Most previous studies on farmland abandonment in Japan have used census data as the basis of their analyses. However, census data are recorded subjectively by farmers. To address this, surveys of abandoned farmland are being conducted by a third party, and the results are compiled into a geographic information system (GIS) database. Two types of datasets (subjective census data and objective GIS data) were examined for their estimation performance. Although the two sets of data are correlated, there are considerable differences between them. Subjective variables are compatible with subjective data, and objective variables are compatible with objective data (meaning that parameters are easily identified). Original data for analysis, such as policy variables, are compatible with objective data. In policy evaluation research, attention should be paid to objective data collection.


Antioxidants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 714
Author(s):  
Luciana Baroni ◽  
Anna Rita Sarni ◽  
Cristina Zuliani

Oxidative stress can compromise central nervous system integrity, thereby affecting cognitive ability. Consumption of plant foods rich in antioxidants could thereby protect cognition. We systematically reviewed the literature exploring the effects of antioxidant-rich plant foods on cognition. Thirty-one studies were included: 21 intervention, 4 cross-sectional (one with a cohort in prospective observation as well), and 6 prospective studies. Subjects belonged to various age classes (young, adult, and elderly). Some subjects examined were healthy, some had mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and some others were demented. Despite the different plant foods and the cognitive assessments used, the results can be summarized as follows: 7 studies reported a significant improvement in all cognitive domains examined; 19 found significant improvements only in some cognitive areas, or only for some food subsets; and 5 showed no significant improvement or no effectiveness. The impact of dietary plant antioxidants on cognition appears promising: most of the examined studies showed associations with significant beneficial effects on cognitive functions—in some cases global or only in some specific domains. There was typically an acute, preventive, or therapeutic effect in young, adult, and elderly people, whether they were healthy, demented, or affected by MCI. Their effects, however, are not attributable only to anti-oxidation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-401 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Christian ◽  
Jonathan Bush

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the Great Recession on small- to medium-sized municipalities within the states of Georgia and Florida using a newly developed set of quantitative indices. Design/methodology/approach An examination of the methods and strategies utilized by individual cities to maintain public service levels despite distressed revenues is performed. From the data, performance measures are developed and used to evaluate the efficacy of the various strategies used by the cities. Outcomes of Georgia municipalities were compared to similarly sized Florida municipalities to study how underlying differences in tax structures and economies might have affected those outcomes. Findings Georgia and Florida municipalities relied on very different strategies for surviving the recession and its aftermath. Enterprise activities were critically important in both states with transfers to or from governmental activities rationalized in various ways. While Georgia is generally anti-property tax, more than half the Georgia municipalities relied on property tax increases to survive. Municipalities were unable to count on increased intergovernmental revenues during the recession. Finally, even with a tourist activity advantage, Florida municipalities fared only marginally better during and just after the recession, and fared worse four to six years post-recession. Practical implications The measures developed in this study provide a new, customizable methodology for the evaluation of financial condition that does not require in-depth comparisons to peers. Social implications Small- and medium-sized cities, and especially those in rural areas, are worthy of targeted research to better understand their unique problems. Originality/value This research is novel in utilizing a fiscal condition methodology that can be applied to a single municipality and does not require comparisons to peers for validity. However, it represents a very intuitive and customizable tool for making comparisons between municipalities of any size when such comparisons are desired. Additionally, the focus of this study is on small- to medium-sized municipalities which generally do not receive as much research attention as larger cities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geeta Rana ◽  
Renu Rastogi ◽  
Pooja Garg

Competent managers are very important assets to any organization as they drive it to success through the challenges of global competition. Managerial effectiveness has gained much research attention in recent years due to its importance to the organization as a whole. The purpose of this study is to test the impact of work values on managerial effectiveness in Indian organizations. To this end, a survey was conducted on a sample of 300 managers working in different organizations in India. The article employs factor analysis, Pearson’s r and step-wise multiple regression analysis to determine the effect of work values on managerial effectiveness. Findings indicate that work values have a positive and significant relationship with managerial effectiveness. The study provides valuable implications for practitioners and researchers by providing a deep understanding of the relationship between work values and managerial effectiveness, and between the dimensions and aspects of the two constructs. Practitioners could use the findings of the study to identify which work values influence managerial effectiveness most and work towards incorporating those values in the organizational culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 220-247
Author(s):  
Sohoon Lee ◽  
Nicola Piper

Temporary contract migration represents the predominant form of legal migration policy in Asia. With its rationale of the filling of jobs and provision of income-generating opportunities, it is linked to the migration–development nexus debate. This paper focuses on the impact of migrants’ agency as development actors within a transnational sphere. The mainstream migration–development nexus debate and policy prescriptions imagine diaspora groups as the ideal conduit for grassroots-driven development initiatives. While ‘diaspora group-led’ initiatives assume long-term, if not permanent, migration, temporary migration creates a dynamic that is fundamentally distinct. Temporality of migration, as mandated by bilateral agreements and promoted by global institutions in Asia, shapes migrant agency and migrants’ development aspirations in essentially different ways, but temporary contract migrants are nevertheless constructed as the ‘agents of development’ at the macro level of politics and policies, while receiving limited research attention. This paper analyses temporality, migrant agency and the migration–development nexus debate in relation to female domestic workers who epitomise the feminisation of migration and constitute the largest number of newly hired migrants in many key source countries in Southeast Asia. This introduces a gender dimension to our discussion of temporary migration in its link to migrants’ developmental agency.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esme Fuller-Thomson ◽  
Kaitlyn E. N. Howden ◽  
Lilia R. Fuller-Thomson ◽  
Senyo Agbeyaka

Factors associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among never-smokers have received little research attention. One potential risk factor for COPD is obesity, which is of particular importance in light of the global obesity epidemic. The objective of this study was to investigate the association between COPD and levels of obesity in a nationally representative sample of non-Hispanic white never-smokers. Data were drawn from the 2012 Center for Disease Control’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Pearson’s chi-square tests and logistic regression analyses were conducted in a large nationally representative sample of non-Hispanic white respondents aged 50 and over (76,004 women; 37,618 men) who reported that they had never smoked. A dose-response relationship was observed for both men and women: the prevalence of COPD increased from 2.5% in men and 3.5% in women who were of a healthy weight (BMI < 25) to 7.6% in men and 13.4% in women who had a BMI of 40 or higher. Even after adjusting for 7 potential confounds (e.g., age, education, and income), the odds of COPD were 3.21 higher for men (95% CI = 2.46, 4.20) and 4.00 higher for women with class III obesity (95% CI = 3.52, 4.55) in comparison with those of healthy weight. Regular screening for COPD is warranted in never-smoking obese patients who are aged 50 and over. Future research is needed to investigate plausible mechanisms for this association, including (1) the role of chronic inflammation associated with obesity and (2) the impact of central obesity on respiratory system mechanics.


2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-35
Author(s):  
Abhinav Gupta ◽  
Upendra Singh

Environmental marketing continues to be a heavily researched area, in part due to a heightened awareness and concern for the environment among consumers. An area that has received considerable research attention is the relationship of various environmental attitudes and intentions with environmental behavioral outcomes. The conventional approach has been to linearly relate environmental attitudes and intentions among themselves and with behavioral outcomes, even though no clear pattern has emerged. The objective of the study is to understand the impact of factors influencing environmentally responsive consumption behavior on purchase intentions and purchase behavior. Data were collected from 514 respondents from Delhi. From the findings of this article, it can be stated that purchase behavior is the direct outcome of purchase intention. Further, purchase intention shows direct significant relationship, with subjective norm, attitude toward the behavior, willingness to pay, environmental consciousness, green self-identity, and perceived behavior control.


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