26419 research outputs found
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A Scalable Cybersecurity Model for Academic Makerspaces
No full textAcademic makerspaces have become integral hubs of innovation on university campuses, providing students with access to industrial-grade operational technology (OT) such as 3D printers and CNC machines. However, the security posture for these spaces has overwhelmingly focused on physical safety, creating a significant cybersecurity gap. This oversight leaves networked OT vulnerable to cyberattacks, which threaten student intellectual property, expensive equipment, and the integrity of the broader institutional network. This research addresses this critical vulnerability by developing and implementing a secure and scalable cybersecurity model at the Old Dominion University Computer Science Makerspace, founded on two core principles: robust network segmentation and granular software-based access control. Network segmentation is achieved using Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) to isolate the makerspace from the main campus network and to further segment critical OT from student-use IT equipment. Concurrently, a Zero Trust model is enforced through a custom-built, software-based reservation system that replaces vulnerable physical access tokens by requiring users to authenticate with official university credentials, including two-factor authentication, for just-in-time proxied access to specific equipment. By integrating these technical controls with established industry standards like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, endpoint hardening, and user cybersecurity training, this model provides a holistic, repeatable blueprint for institutions nationwide to protect their valuable assets from the modern threat landscape
The Influence of the Residency Interview Format on Future Interviewing Models and Use of Preference Signals
No full textBackground and Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically altered the format of residency recruitment, leading to the widespread adoption of virtual interviews, followed by the adoption of preference signaling. This study examines how the structure of the 2023-2024 interview season influenced family medicine residency program directors\u27 intentions for future interview formats and their preferences regarding the number of preference signals.
Methods: A Council of Academic Family Medicine Educational Research Alliance survey, including demographic questions, was distributed to all family medicine residency program directors in the United States in spring 2024. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, cross-tabulations, χ² tests, and multivariable logistic regression.
Results: The overall response rate to the question set was 43.7% (308/705). The majority of programs used a fully virtual interview structure in 2023-2024; programs with 100% virtual interviewing were significantly more likely to plan to maintain this model for future interviewing (P=.000) and to favor the current allotment of five preference signals (P=.005). Program director gender, ethnicity, or program type did not significantly influence the intention to maintain a virtual interview format.
Conclusions: The structure of the 2023-2024 interview season was significantly consistent with program directors\u27 plans for future recruitment practices
Anthropocene Genetic Diversity Loss in the Marine Tropics
No full textGenetic diversity is a crucial component of biodiversity, and as such, its maintenance and preservation is of high conservation concern. Tropical environments are undergoing intense rates of environmental change, and these changes may be driving large declines in genetic diversity. However, data on genetic diversity are highly skewed towards temperate regions. The degree to which diversity loss has occurred in tropical species, particularly marine species, remains an open and important question. Here, we directly compare genomic data from modern and museum collections of two commercially-harvested nearshore marine fishes (Equulites laterofenestra and Gazza minuta) gathered from a single location in the Philippines, spanning a century of intense environmental change. These data reveal a marked loss in genetic diversity and evidence for multiple orders of magnitude reductions in effective population size (Ne) in both species, indicating substantial genomic erosion. Such a decline highlights the long-lasting genomic consequences of anthropogenic activity and sheds light on an, until-now, invisible loss of diversity from the most biodiverse ocean region.Significance Statement Recent reports have shown that genetic diversity in marine fishes has declined either slightly or not at all during the Anthropocene. However, almost all studies investigating marine genetic diversity loss have been from temperate latitudes, whereas tropical marine environments experience some of the most intense human impacts. Here, we directly compare genomic data from modern and historical specimens of two commercially-harvested fishes from the Philippines. We show that marine species in the tropics have already lost substantial genetic diversity and may have undergone severe bottlenecks over the past century. These results shine a light on the previously invisible loss of genetic diversity in the most biodiverse region of the ocean, and they emphasize the evolutionary consequences of the Anthropocene
Securitizing Kinmen: China’s Gray Zone Strategy and the Evolution of the Kinmen Model
No full textThis paper examines the evolving dynamics of cross-strait relations through the lens of securitization theory, focusing on China’s strategic deployment of what it calls the Kinmen Model and its implications for regional security. While existing discourse predominantly concentrates on a potential full-scale invasion of Taiwan, this study shifts attention to the strategic significance of the outlying islands and the nuanced employment of securitization to exert indirect control. Utilizing Vuori’s (2008) framework for analyzing securitization in non-democratic contexts, this research conducts a discourse analysis of nineteen Chinese language media sources to dissect the speech acts employed by Chinese media and their intended political functions. The study identifies a critical gap in the literature regarding a “Fifth Period” of Kinmen’s history, characterized by a transition from border infiltration to a more aggressive securitization strategy, contributing to a deeper understanding of China’s gray zone tactics and the securitization of territorial claims
A Comparison of Allergen Sensitization Profiles in Patients with Chronic Rhinosinusitis with and Without Nasal Polyposis
No full textChronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) and allergic rhinitis (AR) are common comorbid sinonasal conditions. CRS is classically divided into two distinct phenotypes: CRS with nasal polyposis (CRSwNP) and CRS without nasal polyposis (CRSsNP). The purpose of this retrospective observational study is to determine whether aeroallergen sensitization profiles in patients with comorbid CRS and AR can distinguish between CRSwNP and CRSsNP. A total of 241 patients diagnosed with comorbid CRS and AR who underwent skin prick testing or in vitro allergy testing in a single tertiary rhinology practice were included for evaluation. The rates of allergen-specific sensitizations in CRSwNP patients were compared with those in CRSsNP patients. Of the allergens tested in the routine panels, Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (OR = 1.82, p = 0.03), Alternaria (OR = 2.55, p \u3c 0.01), and animal dander (OR = 1.48 for cat and OR = 3.01 for dog, p \u3c 0.01) were predictive of CRSwNP. Sensitization to any grass allergen was also predictive of CRSwNP (OR = 2.09, p \u3c 0.01). Multiple perennial aeroallergens showed strong associations with CRSwNP; however, broad sensitization to perennial allergens as a whole group was not significantly predictive of CRSwNP (OR = 1.83, p = 0.22)
AccessMenu: Enhancing Usability of Online Restaurant Menus for Screen Reader Users
No full textOnline food ordering has become commonplace due to its convenience. The wide variety of culinary choices, combined with fast and economical door-delivery services, encourages more people to order food online. To facilitate this process, food vendors, including restaurants, often provide full menus on their websites, typically in visual formats such as images or PDFs. While this is convenient for sighted users, blind and visually impaired (BVI) individuals face significant challenges accessing these visual menus with their screen reader assistive technology. An interview study with 12 BVI screen reader users revealed that present assistive tools do not adequately satisfy the needs of these users, with issues ranging from text-ordering errors, to inaccurate inferences (e.g., incorrectly categorizing a Caesar salad with anchovies as vegetarian), to misinterpretation of symbols and legends. Moreover, the users expressed a need for a screen reader-tailored interface to access the information in menus. To address these access barriers and users’ needs, we present AccessMenu, a browser extension that automatically detects visual menus in restaurant websites, uses multi-modal large language models to extract and analyze the menu content, and re-renders it in a conveniently navigable HTML format accessible with screen readers. AccessMenu also enables BVI users to issue natural language queries, allowing them to efficiently distill specific information from the menus. In a user evaluation with 10 blind participants, AccessMenu significantly outperformed a state-of-the-art solution in usability and task workload, by providing convenient menu navigation and query-based menu filtering capabilities
Topographic Forcing of Submesoscale Instability in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
No full textSubpolar frontal zones are characterized by energetic storms, intense seasonal cycles, and close connectivity with surrounding continental shelf topography. At the same time, predicting the ocean state depends on appropriate partition of resolved and parameterized dynamics, the latter of which requires understanding the dynamical processes generating diffusivity throughout the water column. While submesoscale frontal instabilities are shown to produce turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and mixing in the surface boundary layer (SBL) of the global ocean, their development in complex dynamical regimes (e.g., elevated preexisting turbulence, large ageostrophic shear, or in proximity to topographic boundaries) is less understood. This study investigates the development of submesoscale instabilities, i.e. symmetric instability (SI) and centrifugal instability (CI), near topographic boundaries using a hindcast model of the Drake Passage and Scotia Sea region. The model suggests subsurface SI and CI are widespread along the northern continental margins of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) due to topographic shearing of the anticyclonic side of Polar Front jets. Forced instabilities may facilitate persistent mixing along Namuncurá - Burwood Bank, as well as in other southern (northern) hemisphere currents with low potential vorticity and a seamount or sloping topography on the left- (right-) downstream side
Cellphone Separation Modulates the Effects of Working Memory Load on Ex-Gaussian Parameters of Choice Reaction Time
No full textCognitive effects of cellphone dependency among young adults have garnered increasing research attention. While cellphones have been identified as a distractor in daily tasks, related psychological processes remain unclear. As a potential mechanism underlying those effects of cellphones, excessive working memory (WM) load has not yet been well examined. Our study investigated the effects of the mental representation of cellphone separation on WM. Seventy-five participants (M(age) = 21.3 years; 55 females, 20 males) were assigned into three groups: the cued separation, natural separation, or control group, and completed a block of choice reaction time (CRT) task, and a dual-task block: the CRT and a concurrent WM task. CRT performance was analyzed using the ex-Gaussian model, providing the parameters μ and τ to reflect lower-order processing and top-down control, respectively. Results showed that WM load reduced cognitive performance, with the cued separation group exhibiting the largest performance impairments, and ex-Gaussian μ and τ were sensitive to WM load and cellphone separation. Our findings suggest that the mental representation of cellphone separation, especially when cued, depletes cognitive resources, and impairs executive functions, which highlight the need for strategies to mitigate the cognitive costs of cellphone dependency, particularly in high-stakes applied contexts
The Grim Reaper Argument is an Argument for No One
No full textAccording to a prominent philosophical argument for the beginning of time – the Grim Reaper Argument (GRA) – had it been possible for the past to be infinite, then a provably impossible scenario could have been constructed. Such a scenario is not possible, so, the GRA concludes, the past cannot be infinite. Here, we show that the GRA includes one premise acceptable only for Humeans and another premise acceptable only for anti-Humeans. Since, plausibly, everyone is either a Humean or an anti-Humean, the GRA is an argument for no one. Additionally, we argue that there may not be a way to successfully reformulate the GRA with premises acceptable to either Humeans or anti-Humeans
Cellax Nanoparticles: Taxane Nanoformulations for Solid Tumor Targeting
No full textNanoparticles (NPs), specifically polymer-modified NPs, have illustrated unique therapeutic advantages compared to bulk materials. Cellax NPs have provided a promising approach to cancer therapy by improving drug delivery, targeting the tumor microenvironment, and potentially overcoming drug resistance, all while reducing overall toxicity compared to traditional taxane treatment. By the flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) method, docetaxel and cabazitaxel have been formulated with polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified-acetylated carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) polymer to increase biocompatibility, bioavailability, specific targeting, and modulate the tumor microenvironment. However, there are some challenges and clinical limitations related to this formulation, encompassing optimum targeted delivery to tumors, overcoming biological barriers, such as the blood-brain barrier (BBB), and maintaining stability in vivo, which should be addressed in future studies. Treatment outcomes of some solid tumors, involving prostate, breast, pancreatic, melanoma, lung cancers, and hepatocellular carcinoma by Cellax NPs have been discussed in this mini-review article based on recent investigations