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Unscripted Practices for Uncertain Events:Organizational Problems in Cybersecurity Incident Management
Full text linkScripts can help us understand the designer–user relationship, by offering analysis of designers’ intent in technological objects and examination of users’ behaviors through willingness (and unwillingness) to take on scripts. But how are we to understand these relationships in the context of cybersecurity, in the face of adversaries determined to gain unauthorized access to computer systems by actively subverting scripts? In effect, cybersecurity attacks involve re-scripting of computing systems to gain unauthorized access through unscripted features of these systems. Cybersecurity attacks are always uncertain events: attackers can never be certain when re-scripting will be successful, and defenders can never be certain when or where to expect an attack, as unscripted features are difficult to know until they are exploited. In this paper, I study practices of cybersecurity incident response to examine how cybersecurity engineers respond to the novel attacks they encounter daily. I show how these are fundamentally unscripted practices emerging in response to unstable scripts, structured through the uncertainties inherent in cybersecurity engineering practice. The improvised practices and changing networks of social relations which I trace demonstrate the limits of stable scripts and provide new tools for analyzing unstable scripts
Unscripted Practices for Uncertain Events:Organizational Problems in Cybersecurity Incident Management
Full text linkScripts can help us understand the designer–user relationship, by offering analysis of designers’ intent in technological objects and examination of users’ behaviors through willingness (and unwillingness) to take on scripts. But how are we to understand these relationships in the context of cybersecurity, in the face of adversaries determined to gain unauthorized access to computer systems by actively subverting scripts? In effect, cybersecurity attacks involve re-scripting of computing systems to gain unauthorized access through unscripted features of these systems. Cybersecurity attacks are always uncertain events: attackers can never be certain when re-scripting will be successful, and defenders can never be certain when or where to expect an attack, as unscripted features are difficult to know until they are exploited. In this paper, I study practices of cybersecurity incident response to examine how cybersecurity engineers respond to the novel attacks they encounter daily. I show how these are fundamentally unscripted practices emerging in response to unstable scripts, structured through the uncertainties inherent in cybersecurity engineering practice. The improvised practices and changing networks of social relations which I trace demonstrate the limits of stable scripts and provide new tools for analyzing unstable scripts
Missing Step Count Data? Step Away from the EM Algorithm
No full textIn studies that compare physical activity between groups of individuals, it is common for physical activity to be quantified by step count, which is measured by accelerometers or other wearable devices. Missing step count data often arise in these settings and can lead to bias or imprecision in the estimated effect if handled inappropriately. Replacing each missing value in accelerometer data with a single value using the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm has been advocated in the literature, but it can lead to underestimation of variances and could seriously compromise study conclusions. We compare the performance in terms of bias and variance of two missing data methods, the EM algorithm, and Multiple Imputation (MI), through a simulation study where data is generated from a parametric model to reflect characteristics of a trial on physical activity, and a re-analysis of the 2019 MOVE-IT trial. The EM algorithm leads to an underestimate of the variance of effects of interest, in both the simulation study and the re-analysis of the MOVE-IT trial. Multiple Imputation should be the preferred approach to handling missing data in accelerometer, which provides valid point and variance estimates
The clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a ‘Stepping into Day Treatment’ approach versus Inpatient Treatment as Usual for Anorexia Nervosa in adult specialist eating disorder services (DAISIES trial):A study protocol of a randomised controlled multi-centre open-label parallel group non-inferiority trial
No full text<i>PT</i> symmetry and renormalisation in quantum field theory
No full textQuantum systems governed by non-Hermitian Hamiltonians with \PT symmetry are special in having real energy eigenvalues bounded below and unitary time evolution. We argue that \PT symmetry may also be important and present at the level of Hermitian quantum field theories because of the process of renormalisation. In some quantum field theories renormalisation leads to \PT-symmetric effective Lagrangians. We show how \PT symmetry may allow interpretations that evade ghosts and instabilities present in an interpretation of the theory within a Hermitian framework. From the study of examples \PT-symmetric interpretation is naturally built into a path integralformulation of quantum field theory; there is no requirement to calculateexplicitly the \PT norm that occurs in Hamiltonian quantum theory. We discussexamples where \PT-symmetric field theories emerge from Hermitian fieldtheories due to effects of renormalisation. We also consider the effects ofrenormalisation on field theories that are non-Hermitian but \PT-symmetricfrom the start.<br/
DSM-5 Attenuated Psychosis Syndrome: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence
No full textJames Buchanan on the Nature of Choice: Ontology:Ontology, Artifactual man, and the Constitutional Moment in Political Economy
No full textHistorians of economic thought are paying greater attention to issues of social ontology (that is, to the assumptions that economists make about the nature of social reality). In this paper, we contribute to this burgeoning literature by exploring the hitherto neglected way in which James Buchanan invoked ontological considerations, concerning in particular the nature of human choice, both in criticizing neoclassical economics and also in setting out his own contributions to constitutional political economy. We focus on Buchanan’s account of man as an artifactual being who has the capacity to choose the kind of person he wishes to become, in particular by selecting the kind of preferences he wishes to have and the kinds of rules under which he wishes to live. We discuss how Buchanan’s thinking on this issue was shaped by his mentor Frank Knight and by the work of British economist G.L.S. Shackle. We then explain why Buchanan was at pains explicitly to describe his argument as ontological in nature. Finally, we contend that Buchanan’s approach would have benefited from further ontological elaboration, in two ways: first, because his arguments would have been stronger had he said more about the attributes of the human agent that help to secure their engagement in thinking creatively about themselves and the rules of society (‘the constitutional moment’); and second because his account would benefit from a deeper discussion of the interplay between human agency and social structure, especially with regard to the question of which structures might constrain or facilitate creative choices of the kind by which he set such great store
Association, dissociation, location and dislocation:Subcultural connections and iconic UK brands – the case of Fred Perry
No full textThis article is concerned with the relationship between iconic UK brands and subcultures, which it approaches via a specific focus on Fred Perry. It explores how the brand manages its links to particular, post-war, British subcultures alongside its ‘Englishness’ and/or ‘Britishness’, in what is referred to as a process of association, dissociation, location and dislocation. It suggests that, through this process, the brand’s subcultural connections and Englishness, in particular, are both played up and played down, as a way of establishing ‘authenticity’ in the form of subcultural and locational capital, on the one hand, and managing negative connotations and the brand’s global appeal on the other hand. It argues that one way to address the processes under consideration is to approach things from an Actor Network Theory perspective, conceptualizing brands as actor networks – or as ongoing, contingent and relational processes involving a diverse range of constituents, human and otherwise – and the branding process as an attempt to manage and stabilize the networks involved. This may be difficult to achieve, however, because of such networks’ ongoing and relational qualities, and because, in the case of subcultures, the things which render them valuable in branding terms may also make them unruly and difficult to contain
The Way, the Truth, the Life:St. Bonaventure's Christ Our One Teacher as a faith-based theory of knowledge
No full textThis paper is an exploration of St Bonaventure's sermon Christ Our One Teacher with reference to the contemporary epistemological debate. In particular, I approach this text in the light of Lydia Schumacher's recent work on what she calls faith-based theories of knowledge. These theories, differ from the mainstream epistemic paradigm in that they are grounded in a framework according to which faith and knowledge do not stand opposed; rather, in such theories faith functions as a prerequisite to knowledge. My thesis, is that Bonaventure's positions as expressed in Christ Our One Teacher are an instantiation of such a paradigm. Accordingly, I shall outline the general aspects of the claims which Bonaventure advances in this sermon. Then, I shall move onto a presentation of Schumacher's definition of a faith-based theory of knowledge. Finally, I will analyze and interpret the specific steps of Bonaventure's argument in the light of Schumacher's ideas