WSC-07: Evolving the Web Services Challenge

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an evolving architectural paradigm where businesses can expose their capabilities as modular, network-accessible software services. By decomposing capabilities into modular services, organizations can share their offerings at multiple levels of granularity while also creating unique access points for their peer organizations. The true impact of SOA will be realized when 3rd party organizations can obtain a variety of services, on-demand, and create higher-order composite business processes. The Web Services Challenge (WSC) is a forum where academic and industry researchers can share experiences of developing tools that automate the integration of web services. In the third year (i.e. WSC-07) of the Web Services Challenge, software platforms will address several new composition challenges. Requests and results will be transmitted within SOAP messages. In addition, semantic representations will be both represented in the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) and in the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Finally, composite processes will have both sequential and concurrent branches

Possible climate change impacts on water resources availability in a large semi-arid catchment in Northeast Brazil.

The semiarid region of Northeast Brazil is characterized by water scarcity, vulnerability of natural resources, and pronounced climatic variability. An integrated model has been developed to simulate this complex situation with an emphasis on a large-scale representation of hydrological processes and on the sensitivity to climate change. Regional climate change scenarios were obtained by empirical downscaling with large-scale climate information from different GCMs which differ strongly in their projections for future precipitation. The results show that due to these differences, it is still impossible to give quantitative values of the water availability in a forecast sense, i.e. to assign probabilities to the simulated results. However, it becomes clear that efficient and ecologically sound water management is a key question for further development. The results show that, independent of the climate change, agriculture is more vulnerable to drought impacts in the case of rainfed compared to irrigated farming. However, the capacity of irrigation and water infrastructure to enhance resilience with respect to climatic fluctuations is significantly constrained in the case of a negative precipitation trend

In search of charismatic leaders or: You get what you ask for

The Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study is currently the most comprehensive research endeavor that set out to answer - amongst others - whether or not charismatic/value-based leadership is universally seen to contribute to effective leadership. The results have been appearing in various journals and books supporting this assumption and conveying the image that charismatic leaders are worldwide successful. Given the study's scope and exemplary status we suspect that the aforementioned result will receive the status of a 'given fact' if the study is not critically reviewed. The paper strives to fulfill this call by taking a 'closer look' at the conception of charisma in today's charismatic leadership theories as well as the GLOBE study, its results and interpretation. We argue that the items that are universally endorsed are not primarily pertaining to charisma but rather represent common, positive connoted leadership attributes. Moreover, the paper proposes an alternative to the research approach adopted by GLOBE, i.e. we present a qualitative leadership study and its result and will discuss whether or not charismatic leadership can be found in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Our conclusion suggests that the answer to this question is dependent upon the adopted research approach. The paper closes by outlining implications and encouraging critical reviews of established research results

Amphiphilic Perylene-Calix[4]arene hybrids:synthesis and tunable self-assembly

The first highly water-soluble perylene–calix[4]­arene hybrid with the calixarene scaffold acting as a structure-determining central platform is presented. In this tetrahedrally shaped amphiphilic architecture the hydrophilic and hydrophobic subunits are oriented at the opposite side of the calixarene platform. The hydrophobic part contains the two perylene diimide moieties, which enable strong π–π interactions in self-assembly processes. Two hydrophilic Newkome-type dendrons provide sufficient water solubility at slightly basic conditions. The tetrahedrally shaped amphiphile displays an unprecedented aggregation behavior down to concentrations as low as 10^–7 mol L^–1. The intriguing self-assembly process of the compound in water as well as under changed polarity conditions, achieved by addition of THF, could be monitored by the complemented use of cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM), UV–vis spectroscopy, and fluorescence spectroscopy. Molecular-dynamics and molecular modeling simulations helped in understanding the interplay of supramolecular and optical behavior

A NEUROSECURITY PERSPECTIVE ON THE FORMATION OF INFORMATION SECURITY AWARENESS – PROPOSING A MULTI-METHOD APPROACH

In today’s digital age, in which all kinds of information can be accessed electronically at all times, organizations are under continuous pressure of keeping their information systems (IS) secure. To protect IS and information assets from insider threats, information security awareness (ISA) has been established as a crucial factor in influencing employees’ behaviour that is supportive or disruptive of IS security. But yet to date, there is still a lack of in-depth and structured understanding of the factors influencing ISA. In this research-in-progress paper, we conduct a literature review to categorize determinants of ISA into four levels of origin (individual, organizational, social-environmental, and application-specific) and identify topics that are promising for future research. We then present our planned study as an example to pursue our recommendations. In the IS security context of phishing, we aim to uncover the extent to which non-IS professionals are able to develop an eye for technical aspects of IS security and pay higher visual attention to security and fraud indicators of web browsers and e-mails after being subject to different organizational awareness-raising activities. Among a survey and literature analysis, the multi-method approach uses the objective data collection instrument of eye tracking. We expect to contribute into the nascent area of neurosecurity research by offering new insights on the effectiveness of organizational means to increase employees’ ISA

When Colleagues Fail: Examining the Role of Information Security Awareness on Extra-Role Security Behaviors

Although prior information security research predominantly focuses on organizational in-role security behaviors (e.g., information security policy (ISP) compliance), the role of extra-role security behaviors – secure actions unspecified in ISPs but beneficial to organizations – has not seen nearly as much attention. At the same time, employees’ awareness manifests itself as prerequisite for security behavior but without research having really understood all of its potential impacts. Therefore this study ex-amines the role of information security awareness (ISA) in enhancing extra-role security behaviors in addition to in-role security behaviors. In particular, we propose that general ISA enhances promotive extra-role security behaviors (i.e., helping and voice) and ISP awareness fosters prohibitive extra-role security behaviors (i.e., stewardship and whistle-blowing). Data was collected from a field study, where employees responded to incoming emails from co-workers and supervisors asking for password sharing, unsafe data sharing via private emails, as well as the use of private cloud services and unau-thorized software. Our findings show that general ISA and ISP awareness are indeed driving both in-role and extra-role security behaviors. We discuss our implications for theory and practice, and con-clude with interesting avenues for further research

The invariant-comb approach and its relation to the balancedness of multipartite entangled states

The invariant-comb approach is a method to construct entanglement measures for multipartite systems of qubits. The essential step is the construction of an antilinear operator that we call {\em comb} in reference to the {\em hairy-ball theorem}. An appealing feature of this approach is that for qubits (or spins 1/2) the combs are automatically invariant under SL(2,\CC), which implies that the obtained invariants are entanglement monotones by construction. By asking which property of a state determines whether or not it is detected by a polynomial SL(2,\CC) invariant we find that it is the presence of a {\em balanced part} that persists under local unitary transformations. We present a detailed analysis for the maximally entangled states detected by such polynomial invariants, which leads to the concept of {\em irreducibly balanced} states. The latter indicates a tight connection with SLOCC classifications of qubit entanglement. \\ Combs may also help to define measures for multipartite entanglement of higher-dimensional subsystems. However, for higher spins there are many independent combs such that it is non-trivial to find an invariant one. By restricting the allowed local operations to rotations of the coordinate system (i.e. again to the SL(2,\CC)) we manage to define a unique extension of the concurrence to general half-integer spin with an analytic convex-roof expression for mixed states.Comment: 17 pages, revtex4. Substantially extended manuscript (e.g. proofs have been added); title and abstract modified

Моделирование особенностей движения геохода с ножевым исполнительным органом

Objective. To evaluate depressive symptoms regarding their association with the acute outcome in first-episode schizophrenia comparing risperidone and haloperidol. Method. A total of 274 patients were analysed within a double-blind randomized controlled trial and treated with risperidone or haloperidol. The patients were grouped according to their baseline HAMD-21 total score in a "depressed" (HAMD-21 >= 16) or "non-depressed" (HAMD-21 < 16) patient subgroup. PANSS, HAMD-21, GAF, SOFAS and AIMS ratings were performed. Early response was defined as an initial 20% reduction of the PANSS total score from admission to week 2, response as an at least 50% reduction of the PANSS total score from admission to discharge and remission according to the consensus criteria. Results. A total of 124 patients were classified as depressive at baseline with 22 patients still being depressive at discharge. The depressed and non-depressed patients did not significantly differ regarding the treatment with risperidone and haloperidol (P = 0.2270). The depressive patients suffered from significantly more suicidal tendencies (P = 0.0165), had significantly less insight into their illness (P = 0.0152) and featured significantly worse functioning (P = 0.0066). Patients with depressive symptoms achieved remission significantly less often than non-depressed patients. Conclusion. The importance of a specific and adequate treatment of depressive symptoms is highlighted

Secreted Klotho and FGF23 in chronic kidney disease Stage 1 to 5: a sequence suggested from a cross-sectional study

Background Klotho and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23) are key regulators of mineral metabolism in renal insufficiency. FGF23 levels have been shown to increase early in chronic kidney disease (CKD); however, the corresponding soluble Klotho levels at the different CKD stages are not known. Methods Soluble Klotho, FGF23, parathyroid hormone (PTH), 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D3 (1,25D) and other parameters of mineral metabolism were measured in an observational cross-sectional study in 87 patients. Locally weighted scatter plot smoothing function of these parameters were plotted versus estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) to illustrate the pattern of the relationship. Linear and non-linear regression analyses were performed to estimate changes in mineral metabolism parameters per 1mL/min/1.73 m2 decline. Results In CKD 1-5, Klotho and 1,25D linearly decreased, whereas both FGF23 and PTH showed a baseline at early CKD stages and then a curvilinear increase. Crude mean Klotho level declined by 4.8 pg/mL (95% CI 3.5-6.2 pg/mL, P < 0.0001) and 1,25D levels by 0.30 ng/L (95% CI 0.18-0.41 ng/L, P < 0.0001) as GFR declined by 1 mL/min/1.73 m2. After adjustment for age, gender, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels and concomitant medications (calcium, supplemental vitamin D and calcitriol), we estimated that the mean Klotho change was 3.2 pg/mL (95% CI 1.2-5.2 pg/mL, P = 0.0019) for each 1 mL/min/1.73 m2 GFR change. FGF23 departed from the baseline at an eGFR of 47 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI 39-56 mL/min/1.73 m2), whereas PTH departed at an eGFR of 34 mL/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI 19-50 mL/min/1.73 m2). Conclusions Soluble Klotho and 1,25D levels decrease and FGF23 levels increase at early CKD stages, whereas PTH levels increase at more advanced CKD stage

Hidden Biases of End-to-End Driving Models

End-to-end driving systems have recently made rapid progress, in particular on CARLA. Independent of their major contribution, they introduce changes to minor system components. Consequently, the source of improvements is unclear. We identify two biases that recur in nearly all state-of-the-art methods and are critical for the observed progress on CARLA: (1) lateral recovery via a strong inductive bias towards target point following, and (2) longitudinal averaging of multimodal waypoint predictions for slowing down. We investigate the drawbacks of these biases and identify principled alternatives. By incorporating our insights, we develop TF++, a simple end-to-end method that ranks first on the Longest6 and LAV benchmarks, gaining 11 driving score over the best prior work on Longest6.Comment: Accepted at ICCV 2023. Camera ready versio