The Relationship Between Autistic Traits, Autistic Camouflaging, and Adults’ Representations of Abstract and Social Concepts

Concrete concepts (e.g., BUTTON) can be experienced directly by the senses, whereas abstract concepts (e.g., FRIENDSHIP) cannot. Additionally, the mind may represent abstract concepts using more introspective, social, and emotional information than concrete concepts. Social difficulties are one defining feature of autism, and autistic individuals may use social camouflaging to hide these difficulties, but the precise nature of social processing in autism is not known. This study aims to explore possible links between autistic traits, autistic camouflaging, and mental representations of concepts. Participants gave open-ended definitions for concepts varying in concreteness and social content via an online survey. Responses were coded for social information and interactions between people. Preliminary evidence suggests that social and interactive content of concepts may depend more on levels of autistic camouflaging than levels of autistic traits

Safety goals in vehicle security analyses

Ensuring safety is the most important objective of security in the automotive domain. However, security analyses often lack systematic input from functional safety. We provide a method for integrating safety goals identified in the Hazard Analysis and Risk Assessment (HARA) from functional safety in a well-established Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment (TARA) for security. Our method treats safety goals as additional security goals and analyzes them in the same way as the other security goals identified by the TARA. By this means, violations of safety goals by a malicious attack are evaluated with respect to their feasibility in terms of attack potential according to Common Criteria. Furthermore, we propose a metric to quantify the security risk with safety impact based on the severity and controllability values from the Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL) ratings done by safety experts in the HARA. We apply our proposal to an Automated Emergency Braking system to demonstrate how it increases the completeness and accuracy of security analyses with respect to vehicle/system safety based on expert safety ratings

The Challenge of being safe and secure

On the one hand, the increasing complexity and connectivity due to the evolution of driver assist functions up to autonomously driving vehicles and their additional connection to external networks is a challenge for safety and security. Generally, we assume that a secure environment is a precondition for safety. On the other hand, the implementation of security measures could lead to violations of safety and introduced safety measures may also have an additional security impact. A close cooperation between the domains safety and security is mandatory for developing safe and secure systems and can be supported by wellestablished analysis techniques. Therefore, we propose suitable process interfaces between both domains, as well as appropriate methods and related work products for cooperation. In our publication, we demonstrate how to systematically reuse the safety analyses outputs in the security domain in a five-step approach and how to analyze the impact of security measures in the safety context. With our approach the completeness, correctness, and consistency of safety and security analyses will be improved

A supplier’s perspective on threat analysis and risk assessment according to ISO/SAE 21434

Since its recent publication in August 2021, the new international standard $\it ISO/SAE 21434$ Road vehicles – Cybersecurity engineering has become the leading standard for security engineering in automotive domains. It defines comprehensive requirements for analysis, processes, and management of security-related tasks in designing, developing, producing, and maintaining vehicles. Within the first few months of applying the standard as a tier 1 supplier, we have been able to gain relevant experience in our daily work. In this paper, we present some of these insights concerning the application of the standard to threat analysis and risk assessment, especially from a supplier’s point of view. We discuss limitations of the standard with respect to impact and risk estimation for threats, realistic and consistent attack feasibility rating of attacks, and technical communication interfaces with our customers. Further, we present our ideas on how these limitations can be overcome by supplying specific interpretations of the standard and the extending examples in its annex

Recording of bipolar multichannel ECGs by a smartwatch

$\it Aims:$ Feasibility study of accurate three lead ECG recording (Einthoven I, II and III) using an Apple Watch Series 4. $\it Methods:$ In 50 healthy subjects (18 male; age: 40 $\pm$ 12 years) without known cardiac disorders, a 12-lead ECG and three bipolar ECGs, corresponding to Einthoven leads I, II and III were recorded using an Apple Watch Series 4. Einthoven I was recorded with the watch on the left wrist and the right index finger on the crown, Einthoven II with the watch on the left lower abdomen and the right index finger on the crown, Einthoven III with the watch on the left lower abdomen and the left index finger on the crown. Four experienced cardiologists were independently asked to assign the watch ECGs to Einthoven leads from 12-lead ECG for each subject. $\it Results:$ All watch ECGs showed an adequate signal quality with 134 ECGs of good (89%) and 16 of moderate signal quality (11%). Ninety-one percent of all watch ECGs were assigned correctly to corresponding leads from 12-lead ECG. Thirty-nine subjects (78%) were assigned correctly by all cardiologists. All assignment errors occurred in patients with similar morphologies and amplitudes in at least two of the three recorded leads. Erroneous assignment of all watch ECGs to leads from standard ECG occurred in no patient. $\it Conclusion:$ Recording of Einthoven leads I-III by a smartwatch is accurate and highly comparable to standard ECG. This might contribute to an earlier detection of cardiac disorders, which are associated with repolarization abnormalities or arrhythmias

Single-lead ECG recordings including Einthoven and Wilson leads by a Smartwatch

Background: Smartwatches that are able to record a bipolar ECG and Einthoven leads were recently described. Nevertheless, for detection of ischemia or other cardiac diseases more leads are required, especially Wilson's chest leads. Objectives: Feasibility study of six single-lead smartwatch (Apple Watch Series 4) ECG recordings including Einthoven (I, II, III) and Wilson-like pseudo-unipolar chest leads (Wr, Wm, Wl). Methods: In 50 healthy subjects (16 males; age: 36 $\pm$ 11 years, mean $\pm$ SD) without known cardiac disorders, a standard 12-lead ECG and a six single-lead ECG using an Apple Watch Series 4 were performed under resting conditions. Recording of Einthoven I was performed with the watch on the left wrist and the right index finger on the crown, Einthoven II was recorded with the watch on the left lower abdomen and the right index finger on the crown, Einthoven III was recorded with the watch on the left lower abdomen and the left index finger on the crown. Wilson-like chest leads were recorded corresponding to the locations of V1 (Wr), V4 (Wm) and V6 (Wl) in the standard 12-lead ECG. Wr was recorded in the fourth intercostal space right parasternal, Wm was recorded in the fifth intercostal space on the midclavicular line, and Wl was recorded in the fifth intercostal space in left midaxillary line. For all Wilson-like chest lead recordings, the smartwatch was placed on the described three locations on the chest, the right index finger was placed on the crown and the left hand encompassed the right wrist. Both hands and forearms also had contact to the chest. Three experienced cardiologists were independently asked to allocate three bipolar limb smartwatch ECGs to Einthoven I–III leads, and three smartwatch Wilson-like chest ECGs (Wr, Wm, Wl) to V1, V4 and V6 in the standard 12-lead ECG for each subject. Results: All 300 smartwatch ECGs showed a signal quality useable for diagnostics with 281 ECGs of good signal quality (143 limb lead ECGs (95%), 138 chest lead ECGs (92%). Nineteen ECGs had a moderate signal quality (7 limb lead ECGs (5%), 12 chest lead ECGs (8%)). One-hundred percent of all Einthoven and 92% of all Wilson-like smartwatch ECGs were allocated correctly to corresponding leads from 12-lead ECG. Forty-six subjects (92%) were assigned correctly by all cardiologists. Allocation errors were due to similar morphologies and amplitudes in at least two of the three recorded Wilson-like leads. Despite recording with a bipolar smartwatch device, morphology of all six leads was identical to standard 12-lead ECG. In two patients with acute anterior myocardial infarction, all three cardiologists recognized the ST-elevations in Wilson-like leads and assumed an occluded left anterior descending coronary artery correctly. Conclusion: Consecutive recording of six single-lead ECGs including Einthoven and Wilson-like leads by a smartwatch is feasible with good ECG signal quality. Thus, this simulated six-lead smartwatch ECG may be useable for the detection of cardiac diseases necessitating more than one ECG lead like myocardial ischemia or more complex cardia arrhythmias