Assurance for Change Management With COBIT 2019 and CMMC Maturity Frameworks

As technology plays an ever-increasing role in carrying out structured tasks in today's society, people are given more time to focus their attention on higher levels of service and personal development. However, technology is in a constant state of change and assurance services are needed to help ensure that technology changes are accomplished properly. The Institute of Internal Auditors has identified 10 steps that can be used to effectively implement changes in technology. This process and its accompanying internal controls can be assessed through an internal audit function that considers issues of both functionality and security. In addition, continuous improvement of the change management process for technology can be evaluated though capability/maturity models to see if organizations are achieving higher levels of accomplishment over time. Such models include the COBIT 2019-supported capability maturity model integration (CMMI) model and the cybersecurity maturity model certification (CMMC) framework used by defense industrial base organizations.

Remembering Pokémania: Memory, Cognitive Assemblages, and Augmented Reality

Introduced in July 2016, Pokémon GO is widely considered the killer app for contemporary augmented reality. Popular attention to the game has waned in recent years, but Pokémon GO remains enormously successful in terms of both player base and revenue generation. Whether individuals experienced the game for a short time or remain dedicated hardcore players, Pokémon GO exists as memories of time and place, imbuing familiar sites and routes with new meaning and temporal connection. Attending to these complex interrelationships of place, space, mobility, humans, technologies, infrastructures, environments, and memory, we situate Pokémon GO as what Hayles (2016) calls a cognitive assemblage—sociotechnical systems of interconnectivity in which cognition is an exteriorized process occurring across multiple levels, sites, and boundaries. In turn, we conceptualize cognition (and specifically memory) not as confined within a delimited hominid body, but instead operating through contextual relations, at multiple sites, and in a constant state of becoming. By reflecting on our own experiences as part of the distributed memory of Pokémon GO, we situate memory as momentary convergence of signals made possible by infrastructures, inscribed on servers and silicon, and made part of algorithmic suggestion and learning AI. Additionally, our own memories and experiences serve to highlight the experiential complexity of cognitive assemblages in relation to structures of feeling, as well as new temporal and spatial relations.

Liminality as an Autopoietic Process within Spatial Identity

Spatial identity surpasses geographical boundaries of a certain space, and denotes not only physical characteristics of space, but its meaning to people that use it, as well as their intercommunication, which produces new social and spatial meaning. Unless there is an abrupt change in social structure or formal/functional transformation of (un)built environment, we perceive spatial identity as something almost permanent. However, it is in a constant state of change, existing in a present state that relies on our past experiences and contains projections of our future, maintained through constant background processes of disorganization and concomitant organization – in other words, identity is in the state of (perpetual) liminality. Liminality is the product, as well as the initiator of autopoietic processes within identity, which leads to the main premise of this article – (spatial) identity is an autopoietic system. This is analyzed through three chosen aspects of place attachment: ritual, memory and architecture.

Singular solutions of the BBM equation: analytical and numerical study

We show that the Benjamin–Bona–Mahony (BBM) equation admits stable travelling wave solutions representing a sharp transition from a constant state to a periodic wave train. The constant state is determined by the parameters of the periodic wave train: the wave length, amplitude and phase velocity, and satisfies both the generalized Rankine–Hugoniot conditions for the exact BBM equation and for its wave averaged counterpart. Such stable shock-like travelling structures exist if the phase velocity of the periodic wave train is not less than the solution wave averaged. To validate the accuracy of the numerical method, we derive the (singular) solitary limit of the Whitham system for the BBM equation and compare the corresponding numerical and analytical solutions. We find good agreement between analytical results and numerical solutions.

New Psychoactive Substances Constant State of Flux: NBOMe Brazilian Case

The new psychoactive substances (NPS) market is in a constant state of flux, with new substances being synthesized regularly and marketed in many ways and forms. These substances often emerge quickly, just as they disappear, evidencing a clear attempt to circumvent the control trafficking enforcement agencies and the international community. Among the wide variety of NPS, the NBOMe series attracted attention from medical and legal authorities due to the high number of cases of intoxication, followed or not by death in several countries around the world, including Brazil. So, this brief communication aimed to evaluate the number of NBOMe Brazilian Federal Police (BFP) over the past eight years, and highlight the NPS constant state of flux, evidencing by the Brazilian NBOMe case. This is a retrospective study based on information from forensic analysis reports from seizures of BFP. The NBOMe seizures generated 4 forensic analysis requests in 2012, 21 in 2013, 45 in 2014, 61 in 2015, 80 in 2016, 22 in 2017, 19 in 2018 and 2 in 2019, totaling 254 forensic analysis reports analyzed. This NPS emerged quickly in Brazil from the year 2012, and tented to disappear in recent years, from the perspective of the BPF forensic analysis reports, evidencing the NPS constant state of flux, represented here by the Brazilian NBOMe case.

“Our bitterest enemies...” An Examination of Thebes’ Role in Athenian Tragedy

<p>This thesis concerns itself with the depiction of mythical Thebes in extant Greek tragedy, and how this relates to the tragedians’ view of Athens itself. Throughout the Classical Period, Thebes was one of Athens’ biggest enemy poleis, and this complex relationship is often mirrored in the dramas that feature Thebes and Thebans in principal roles. For the purposes of this thesis, I am limiting my scope to dramas that deal with the “Seven Against Thebes” mythic cycle and, to pare the topic down even further, I am only examining those tragedies that feature either Eteocles, Polynices, or both. Chapter one deals with Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, where I argue that Thebes is not only presented as a positive force, but actually comes to be identified as a stand-in for Athens. The Thebes of Aeschylus’ play shares many common factors with Athens of the early fifth-century B.C. Chapter two is about Euripides’ Phoenician Women. The main argument here is that Euripides uses his Theban characters as mouthpieces for his own ideas on political rhetoric, particularly political issues that are of importance to contemporary Athens. Additionally, Phoenician Women’s fragmented, episodic plot and its large cast of characters contribute to an image of Thebes as a disorganised, chaotic polis, and one that is the antithesis of Athens. At the same time, its emphasis on the feminine complicates this picture somewhat; although this contributes to the “anti-Athens” image, whether or not this is a positive thing is unclear. My third and final chapter concerns Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus and the lack of consistency in its depiction of Theban characters. Polynices and Creon are characterised negatively, but Oedipus and especially Antigone and Ismene appear in a much more positive light. Furthermore, Theseus appears in the OC as a representative of Athens so, fundamentally, the OC is about the relationship between the two poleis, and an exhortation for Thebes to strive to be more like Athens. My conclusion is that tragedy’s treatment of Thebes is malleable and that there is not necessarily one standard way of depicting mythical Theban characters. At the same time, I also conclude that, no matter how Thebes is represented, there is always an underlying tension regarding how Thebes relates to Athens; the two cities are in a constant state of comparison and contrast.</p>

“Our bitterest enemies...” An Examination of Thebes’ Role in Athenian Tragedy

<p>This thesis concerns itself with the depiction of mythical Thebes in extant Greek tragedy, and how this relates to the tragedians’ view of Athens itself. Throughout the Classical Period, Thebes was one of Athens’ biggest enemy poleis, and this complex relationship is often mirrored in the dramas that feature Thebes and Thebans in principal roles. For the purposes of this thesis, I am limiting my scope to dramas that deal with the “Seven Against Thebes” mythic cycle and, to pare the topic down even further, I am only examining those tragedies that feature either Eteocles, Polynices, or both. Chapter one deals with Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, where I argue that Thebes is not only presented as a positive force, but actually comes to be identified as a stand-in for Athens. The Thebes of Aeschylus’ play shares many common factors with Athens of the early fifth-century B.C. Chapter two is about Euripides’ Phoenician Women. The main argument here is that Euripides uses his Theban characters as mouthpieces for his own ideas on political rhetoric, particularly political issues that are of importance to contemporary Athens. Additionally, Phoenician Women’s fragmented, episodic plot and its large cast of characters contribute to an image of Thebes as a disorganised, chaotic polis, and one that is the antithesis of Athens. At the same time, its emphasis on the feminine complicates this picture somewhat; although this contributes to the “anti-Athens” image, whether or not this is a positive thing is unclear. My third and final chapter concerns Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus and the lack of consistency in its depiction of Theban characters. Polynices and Creon are characterised negatively, but Oedipus and especially Antigone and Ismene appear in a much more positive light. Furthermore, Theseus appears in the OC as a representative of Athens so, fundamentally, the OC is about the relationship between the two poleis, and an exhortation for Thebes to strive to be more like Athens. My conclusion is that tragedy’s treatment of Thebes is malleable and that there is not necessarily one standard way of depicting mythical Theban characters. At the same time, I also conclude that, no matter how Thebes is represented, there is always an underlying tension regarding how Thebes relates to Athens; the two cities are in a constant state of comparison and contrast.</p>

Revisiting COVID-19 policies: 10 evidence-based recommendations for where to go from here

Background Strategies to control coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) have often been based on preliminary and limited data and have tended to be slow to evolve as new evidence emerges. Yet knowledge about COVID-19 has grown exponentially, and the expanding rollout of vaccines presents further opportunity to reassess the response to the pandemic more broadly. Main text We review the latest evidence concerning 10 key COVID-19 policy and strategic areas, specifically addressing: 1) the expansion of equitable vaccine distribution, 2) the need to ease restrictions as hospitalization and mortality rates eventually fall, 3) the advantages of emphasizing educational and harm reduction approaches over coercive and punitive measures, 4) the need to encourage outdoor activities, 5) the imperative to reopen schools, 6) the far-reaching and long-term economic and psychosocial consequences of sustained lockdowns, 7) the excessive focus on surface disinfection and other ineffective measures, 8) the importance of reassessing testing policies and practices, 9) the need for increasing access to outpatient therapies and prophylactics, and 10) the necessity to better prepare for future pandemics. Conclusions While remarkably effective vaccines have engendered great hope, some widely held assumptions underlying current policy approaches call for an evidence-based reassessment. COVID-19 will require ongoing mitigation for the foreseeable future as it transforms from a pandemic into an endemic infection, but maintaining a constant state of emergency is not viable. A more realistic public health approach is to adjust current mitigation goals to be more data-driven and to minimize unintended harms associated with unfocused or ineffective control efforts. Based on the latest evidence, we therefore present recommendations for refining 10 key policy areas, and for applying lessons learned from COVID-19 to prevent and prepare for future pandemics.

Creativity in Seventeenth-Century Music

The early modern period witnessed important societal shifts that eventually affected both the employment status of professional musicians and their creative approaches. Throughout the seventeenth century, however, most composition continued to be carried out by musicians employed within the traditional patronage system according to long-established creative principles often unfamiliar to us today. Apprentice composers learned by modeling new pieces on preexisting works by esteemed authority figures and through improvisation techniques, using standard formulae as building blocks. Both this improvisatory foundation and the simple melody-plus-bass style of many genres meant that notation was frequently unnecessary in the initial creative stages—although erasable materials were sometimes used by inexperienced composers and for complex, erudite music—and there was no direct relationship between the creation of a notated source and stages in the compositional process. Creativity was also frequently a collaborative endeavor, involving numerous contributors: the named composer might compose only the core melody and bass, with inner parts either provided by musicians employed to “set” the composition for the required ensemble or filled in by a continuo player. It was also a graduated process, with works often being subjected to successive bouts of reworking by multiple musicians, not only revising and adapting the music to suit new performing contexts but also making changes as a matter of course, in a process of “serial recomposition.” The result was a creative culture in which works were in a constant state of flux, as they were perpetually renewed and reinvigorated by a multilayered creative community.

The evolution of COVID-19 pandemic wave and optimal levels of vaccination to reduce negative effects in society

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to be a pandemic threat with new mutations of the viral agent (SARS-CoV 2) that are generating a constant state of attention in manifold countries. Innovative drugs, such as vaccines can sustain, as far as possible, immunity of people and decrease negative effects in society. The study here, using data of vaccines and confirmed cases of COVID-19 between countries from March to May 2021, clarifies different optimal levels of vaccination associated with the growth of pandemic wave for reducing infected individuals in society. Findings reveal that a vaccination campaign in the initial phase of pandemic wave has a lower optimal level of doses administered per 100 inhabitants, but the growth of pandemic wave moves up the optimal level of vaccines from 58.5 in March to more than 86 doses per 100 people in May 2021. This study suggests that the optimal strategy and response to pandemic crisis is a rapid vaccination rollout, before the takeoff of pandemic wave, for an effective response to reduce numbers of COVID-19 related infected individuals and deaths and negative effects of pandemic crisis on environment and socioeconomic systems.