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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a research model that looks at the direct impact of information technology (IT) capabilities on firm performance and the mediating effects of the information security management system (ISMS) on this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a hypothetico-deductive approach based on quantitative data collected from 136 surveyed professionals in the field of IS, IT and the related security environment. Findings: The results confirm the direct impact of IT capabilities on firm performance and the mediating effects of ISMS on this relationship. Originality/value: The study draws on the resource-based view theory to develop a model that assesses the direct impact of IT capabilities on firm performance and the mediating effects of ISMS on this relationship in Cameroon, a developing country in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights from the article: Digital supply chains are being used to inform new requirements for digital infrastructures and standards and the potential for connecting App and Device-aware consumers with their product-service supply chains ([2]). Yet, very few empirical studies have been conducted to assess the real business value of digitalisation at the firm and supply chain levels, and its impact on BPM. The findings confirm the direct impact of IT capabilities on firm performance and show that ISMS mediates the relationship between IT capabilities and firm performance.

Implementation of security objectives is conditioned by fast access to reliable and up-to-date information about processes occurring within the Safety Management Systems. The amount of information and the speed of changes taking place in the environment makes it necessary to introduce a system of information management and channels of their flow not only within the organization, but also in communication with third parties. Proper management of information resources increases the efficiency and effectiveness of SMS functioning. The article presents the possibility of a formalized description of the flow of external and internal information in a well-functioning Railway Operator Safety Management System. Analogous maps can be identified for infrastructure managers, defining key elements of its functioning.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Science-Based Technologies is the property of National Aviation University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Visionary E-Journal / Vizyoner Dergisi is the property of Suleyman Demirel University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective: The main reason of this study was to generate knowledge and improve understanding amongst practitioners and academics. This paper examines the extent to which SMEs have implemented physical, policy as well as logical controls in place to curb security threats as a preventive control. Analysis: Data was gathered through surveys and to achieve more reliable responses, questionnaires were distributed and collected personally by hand. ISMS provide a systematic approach to manage sensitive data in terms of maintaining its confidentiality, integrity and authentication. Method: This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative tests method or measurement which determines IEC/ISO27001 practices amongst SMEs. ISO/IEC27000 family of standards provides clear guidelines to medium and large organizations on how to keep their information assets secure. Findings: A total of 100 surveys were sent administered by hand across six enterprises which were equally represented by four sectors i.e. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), telecommunications, software and hardware vendors. Respondents were data handlers that had at least five years of working experience. All 100 responses were collected by hand, giving this study a response rate of 100%. Result: Results reveal that 98% of the respondents agreed that ISMS has a significant relationship with recommended industry best practices. Majority of firm ISMS initiatives are on voluntary basis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work combines large area time‐of‐flight secondary ion mass spectrometry imaging with multivariate analysis methods to characterise a cold atmospheric plasma treatment of the surface of an automotive grade polypropylene. Data preprocessing steps are also presented alongside their main challenges. The results enabled the investigation of the spatial distribution of the treatment for different stand‐off distances as well as the effects of plasma plume mixing with atmosphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the growth of IoT (Internet of Things) devices in different industries and markets in recent years and considering the currently insufficient protection for these devices, a security solution safeguarding IoT architectures are highly desirable. An interesting perspective for the development of security solutions is the use of an event management approach, knowing that an event may become an incident when an information asset is affected under certain circumstances. The paper at hand proposes a security solution based on the management of security events within IoT scenarios in order to accurately identify suspicious activities. To this end, different vulnerabilities found in IoT devices are described, as well as unique features that make these devices an appealing target for attacks. Finally, three IoT attack scenarios are presented, describing exploited vulnerabilities, security events generated by the attack, and accurate responses that could be launched to help decreasing the impact of the attack on IoT devices. Our analysis demonstrates that the proposed approach is suitable for protecting the IoT ecosystem, giving an adequate protection level to the IoT devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations deploy the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) systems for centralized management of security alerts for securing their multimedia content. The SIEM system not only preserves events data, generated by devices and applications, in the form of logs but also performs real-time analysis of the event data. The SIEM works as the Security Operation Centre (SOC) in an organization, therefore, errors in the SIEM may compromise the security of the organization. In addition to focusing on the architecture, features, and the performance of the SIEM, it is imperative to carry out a formal analysis to verify that the system is impeccable. The ensuing research focuses mainly on the formal verification of the OSTORM a SIEM system. We have used High-Level Petri Nets (HLPN) and Z language to model and analyze the system. Moreover, Satisfiability Modulo Theories Library (SMT-Lib) and Z3 solver are used in this research to prove the correctness of the overall working of the OSTORM system. We demonstrate the correctness of the underlying system based on four security properties, namely: a) event data confidentiality, b) authentication, c) event data integrity, and d) alarm integrity. The results reveal that the OSTORM system functions correctly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the continuous advancements of technology, cyber-criminals accordingly develop sophisticated tactics to exploit vulnerabilities in individual systems, organization networks, and nation-states. Enterprises routinely collect huge amount of securityrelevant data such as log events of people, networks, and software applications for future forensic analysis. Existing traditional security analysis tools fail to work well with large scales of data and usually produces high false alarms especially when the enterprises moves to cloud architecture and collect more data. Moreover, the detection of recent and more sophisticated attacks, like advanced persistent threats (APTs), requires continuous monitoring and analysis of huge security related data, accurately and rapidly. Big Data analytics has been in active use in several fields such as financial transactions, healthcare and industrial applications among others. Recently, it has attracted the attention of information security audience due to its promised ability in correlating security related data and draw insights efficiently at unprecedented scale. In this paper, we analyze the traditional technology/systems and Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) tools and show their shortcomings in dealing with huge data scales and advanced sophisticated threats. We then explore the requirements for Big Data analytics to be successfully adopted in cyber threat intelligence and cyber-security landscape to deal with high data scales and sophisticated threats. Finally, we highlight the challenges resulted from such adoption, and suggest some recommendations to overcome adoption challenges in future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations deploy security information and event management (SIEM) systems for centralized management of security events. The real-time security monitoring capability of the SIEM depends on the correlation process where events data are matched against the security rules. Most SIEM systems use general purpose languages to define security rules. Creating new rules in general purpose languages require excellent programming skills in the proprietary language and intimate knowledge of events. This paper introduces a high-level domain-specific language (HDSL) which simplifies rule creation for the SIEM system. We formally specify the HDSL with extended Backus-Naur form grammar in another tool for language recognition according to the model driven engineering approach. In our implementation framework, the rules defined in the HDSL are converted in the standard event processing language. For evaluation purpose, the converted security rules are tested on the service real-time data security analytics. The results indicate that the rules are converted accurately and generate alarms when specific attacks are detected. For checking correctness of the HDSL, formal verification is carried out using satisfiability modulo theory and Z3 solver. The results are evaluated under diverse attack scenarios, which reveal that HDSL is functioning correctly. The HDSL enhances the SIEM correlation capabilities by providing a tranquil approach for writing the correlation rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large tilt angle (LTA) implantation has been employed in Si manufacturing processes in many applications, such as lightly doped drain and halo implant. The depth profile of boron ions usually consists of only single peak at incident angle of 0° with respect to the perpendicular of the silicon surface. However, an abnormal dual-peak profile was observed at LTA (>40°) with incident energy of 160 keV. By using a Monte Carlo method to simulate the ion implant process, it was found that the projected range of boron ions agrees completely with the formation of the first peak position that is shallower in depth, while the cause for the second peak that corresponds with a depth much deeper in the Si substrate was unknown. During the simulation, it was also found that when the tilt angle was increased, the sputtering yields and Si displacements increased significantly, and this phenomenon indicates that during LTA implantation, Si damage may not be negligible anymore. The Si damage effect that was as due to either low Si density or transient Si displacement in the simulation could have led to partial incident boron ions penetrating much deeper into the Si substrate and thus, caused the emergence of the second peak. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve a safe and systematic treatment of security protocols, organizations release a number of technical briefings describing how to detect and manage security incidents. A critical issue is that this document set may suffer from semantic deficiencies, mainly due to ambiguity or different granularity levels of description and analysis. An approach to face this problem is the use of semantic methodologies in order to provide better Knowledge Externalization from incident protocols management. In this article, we propose a method based on semantic techniques for both, analyzing and specifying (meta)security requirements on protocols used for solving security incidents. This would allow specialist getting better documentation on their intangible knowledge about them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study secure transmission considering the practical scenario in which only outdated knowledge of the legitimate receiver's channel and statistical knowledge of the eavesdropper's channel are available at the transmitter. Conditioned on the limited channel knowledge, we adopt an on–off secure transmission scheme and propose a versatile strategy to determine the codeword transmission rate. We first analyze the outage performance of the system and then provide the design of optimal wiretap code parameters maximizing the secrecy throughput. Compared with the existing solution in the literature, the proposed secure transmission design enlarges the achievable reliability–security region and increases the maximum secrecy throughput. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A primary feature of cloud computing is the provision of a variety of transparent services with efficient resource utilization. However, there are concerns with cloud computing in terms of the user's data privacy and security, especially in evidence collection for forensics analysis, because the tangible resources and hardware are out of reach for users who own the data. This paper presents a framework using security information and event management (SIEM), to address the issue of efficient evidence collection for crime investigation, such as that for cloud forensics, with respect to the cloud service provider. Indeed, evidence could be shared with cloud users when required. SIEM can be considered as a major player in terms of evidence collection in a virtualized environment. The proposed mechanism using SIEM focuses on passive attacks and provides a solution from the cloud administrator or service provider's point of view. The proposed framework can help in performing detailed cloud forensics in terms of efficient evidence building for crime investigations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The underlying principle of a SIEM system is that relevant data about an enterprise's security is produced in multiple locations and being able to look at all the data from a single point of view makes it easier to spot trends and see patterns that are out of the ordinary. Today's security threats are dynamic in nature and exploits are constantly evolving. Attackers grow more organized, precise and persistent and have access to various automated tools that can trigger very sophisticated attacks. As threatsand security events evolve, SIEM vendors and the information securitycommunity must work together to build relevant and actionable businessanalytics into their systems. By continuously improving recommendationsand the controls to support those recommendations, SIEM products canbecome true information security hubs that not only automate audits butalso provide proactive means to protect the organization. SIEMtechnologies for centralization and consolidation of an organization'ssecurity data will continue to be important investments for organizationswanting to accurately respond to threats and ultimately improve their riskand compliance postures. In the field of computer security, security information and event management (SIEM) software products and services combine security information management (SIM) and security event management (SEM). They provide real-time analysis of security alerts generated by network hardware and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isotopologue deficits of up to 200 ‰ below ideal mixing are observed in UO2+ species during SIMS gechronological analyses using the SHRIMP IIe instrument. These are identified by bombarding natural U-bearing minerals with an 18O2-primary beam. The large anomalies are associated with repeat analyses down a single SIMS sputtering crater (Compston et al., 1984), analysis of high-uranium, radiation damaged zircon, and analysis of baddeleyite. Analysis of zircon under routine conditions yield UO2+ isotopologue anomalies generally within a few percent of equilibrium. The conditions under which the isotopologue anomalies are observed are also conditions in which the UOx-based corrections, or calibration, for relative U vs. Pb ionization efficiencies fail. The existence of these isotopologue anomalies suggest that failure of the various UOx species to equilibrate with each other is the reason that none of them will successfully correct the U / Pb ratio. No simple isotopologue-based correction is apparent. However, isotopologue disequilibrium appears to be a more sensitive tool for detecting hi U calibration breakdowns than Raman spectroscopy, which showed sharper peaks for ~ 37 Ma high uranium 20 zircons than for reference zircons OG1 and Temora. U-Th-Sm/He ages were determined for aliquots of reference zircons OG1 (755 ± 71 Ma) and Temora (323 ± 43 Ma), suggesting that the broader Raman lines for the Temora reference zircons may be due to something other than accumulated radiation damage. Isotopologue abundances for UO+ and ThO+ and their energy spectra are consistent with most or all molecular species being 25 the product of atomic recombination when the primary beam impact energy is greater than 5.7 kV. This, in addition with the large UO2+ instrumentally generated isotopologue disequilibria, suggest any attempts to use SIMS to detect naturally occurring isotopologue deviations could be tricky. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary tool of nuclear safeguards authorities for detecting undeclared nuclear activities is environmental sample analysis containing uranium-bearing aerosol particles. SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) has been established as a powerful technique for performing uranium isotope analysis on safeguards samples. Typically, a screening of the sample for locating the particles of interest is followed by micro-beam measurements of individual particles in order to obtain their precise isotopic composition. The uncertainty of these measurements, in particular for the minor isotopes 234U and 236U, is mainly limited by the counting statistics as the total amount of uranium available is very low, usually less than 1 pg. This uncertainty can be reduced when recording several isotopes simultaneously using a multi-collection system. This has been available commercially for many years and has been used for different applications in geosciences on Large Geometry-SIMS (LG-SIMS) instruments. This paper will describe and discuss how isotope measurements of low content uranium materials can be optimized using a multi-ion counting system consisting of five discrete dynode electron multiplier (EM) detectors. The results obtained for uranium isotope ratios are presented for different measurement protocols: static multi-collector, dynamic multi-collector and single collector measurements. Some of the fundamental properties of the detector system that affect the overall measurement uncertainty are discussed. Best practices are also suggested based on the current experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a new strategy for analyzing imaging time-of-flight SIMS data sets affected by detector saturation. Rather than attempt to correct the measured data to remove saturation, we incorporate the detector behavior into the statistical basis of the analysis. This is performed within the framework of maximum a posteriori reconstruction. The proposed approach has several advantages over previous techniques. No approximations are involved other than the assumed model of the detector. The method performs well even when applied to highly saturated and/or single-scan data sets. It is statistically rigorous, correctly treating the underlying statistical distribution of the data. It is also compatible with Bayesian methods for incorporating prior knowledge about sample properties. An efficient iterative scheme for solving the proposed equations is presented for the case of the bilinear model commonly used in analyses of SIMS data. The correctness of the approach and its efficacy are demonstrated on synthetic data sets. The method is found to perform better than a widely-used data-correction method used in combination with alternating-least-squares Multivariate Curve Resolution analysis. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of nanostructure is important to develop the highly controlled nanomaterials. In this study, two kinds of layered titanate nanosheets, which were produced by using hexylamine and laurylamine, respectively, as surfactants were investigated by Gentle Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry Gentle-SIMS (G-SIMS) and g-ogram, which is the latest Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) data analysis method for detecting more intact ions and obtaining the information on original chemical structures of samples precisely from complicated TOF-SIMS spectra. As a result, molecular related ions of the surfactants were detected from each sample, and the structural information of samples was obtained. From both samples, surfactant molecular ions connected with hydrocarbon were detected as more intact ions rather than molecular ions of themselves. It was suggested that hydrophobic domains of their lamellar mesostructure are formed robustly by more than two surfactant molecules connected with each other linearly. After all, important information on the chemical structure of the layered titanate nanosheets, which would be difficult to be found by using typical structural analysis methods such as X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy, were obtained using G-SIMS and g-ogram. Therefore, it was shown that g-ogram and G-SIMS are helpful to evaluate the nanostructured materials. And it was also shown that g-ogram is applicable to organic-inorganic materials which contain long hydrocarbon structures. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a new approach to express SIMS depth profiling on a TOF.SIMS-5 time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The approach is based on the instrument capability to independently perform raster scans of sputter and probe ion beams. The probed area can be much smaller than the diameter of a sputter ion beam, like in the AES depth profiling method. This circumstance alleviates limitations on the sputter beam-raster size relation, which are critical in other types of SIMS, and enables analysis on a curved-bottomed sputter crater. By considerably reducing the raster size, it is possible to increase the depth profiling speed by an order of magnitude without radically degrading the depth resolution. A technique is proposed for successive improvement of depth resolution through profile recovery with account for the developing curvature of the sputtered crater bottom in the probed area. Experimental study of the crater bottom form resulted in implementing a method to include contribution of the instrumental artifacts in a nonstationary depth resolution function within the Hofmann's mixing-roughness-information depth model. The real-structure experiment has shown that the analysis technique combining reduction of a raster size with a successive nonstationary recovery ensures high speed of profiling at ~100 µm/h while maintaining the depth resolution of about 30 nm at a 5 µm depth. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nature and range of threats to security have extremely changed that caused a following reaction which is the transition in the nature of the war as well. Under the changing circumstances of operational environment and in the face of new security environment which is more complex and ambiguous than before, modern armies have started to look for alternatives or for better options to surpass the challenge of transition in the new era. In order to comprehend the security environment better and find out new or alternative ways for solutions, International Conference on Military and Security Studies (ICMSS- 2015) launched in Turkish War Colleges Command, Istanbul on March 10th and 11th. This report is prepared to mention the importance of the military decision making and present the summary of one of the workshops which is "Decision Making and Artificial Intelligence" for the purpose of helping the research in the field of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business security and threat actors continue to play a dangerous cat-and-mouse game with businesses intellectual property, customer data, and business reputations at stake. Businesses need to delve into a new way of doing business security to break out of this game. Businesses are sitting on repositories full of security-relevant data that is not being capitalized upon with the current information security and physical security organizations within businesses. This article poses the introduction of a data scientist role and a new supporting central data correlation technology platform based on big data predictive analytics into business security functions. The goal is to intelligently and autonomously identify, correlate and pinpoint normally innocuous or unnoticed security event attributes to allow security personnel to preemptively remediate physical and information risks before exploitation or loss of intellectual property occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

All computers talk; whether it be your laptop, tablet, mobile phone or smart TV, you may never have heard them speak but they have a voice, says Giacomo F. Mosca FBCS, Senior Director, Technical Operations, Transparent Technology [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today's cloud environments are very heterogeneous. Current security approaches of intrusion detection, prevention, and response in physical environments are sophisticated. However, the growth of virtualization and multi-tenant technologies is creating new targets for intrusion and raises many questions about the implementation of the same protection in cloud environments. As an answer to the clouds' heterogeneity, the heterogeneity of cloud security solutions is presented, which causes market confusion and brings more complexity in the selection process of sound security solutions. As not every enterprise has in-house tools, competences and expertise to secure cloud environments on its own, Security as a Service (SecaaS) solutions are becoming more popular, promising cost-savings and proper real-time threats detection and prevention. In our paper, we outline the current research areas in SecaaS, especially Security Information and Event Management (SIEM). Furthermore, we discuss requirements and concerns related to implementation of SIEM as a service and identify challenges for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Geostandards & Geoanalytical Research is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The technology of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) becomes one of the most important research applications in the area of computer network security. The overall functionality of SIEM systems depends largely on the quality of solutions implemented at the data storage level, which is purposed for the representation of heterogeneous security events, their storage in the data repository, and the extraction of relevant data for analytical modules of SIEM systems. The paper discusses the key issues of design and implementation of a hybrid SIEM data repository, which combines relational and ontological data representations. Based on the analysis of existing SIEM systems and standards, the ontological approach is chosen as a core component of the repository, and an example of the ontological data model for vulnerabilities representation is outlined. The hybrid architecture of the repository is proposed for implementation in SIEM systems. Since the most of works on the repositories of SIEM systems is based on the relational data model, the paper focuses mainly on the ontological part of the hybrid approach. To test the repository we used the data model intended for attack modeling and security evaluation, which includes both ontological and relational dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The components and evolution of subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the North China Craton and the Yangtze Craton is a current topic in the geological study of China and the carbon isotopic composition of diamond is one of the most direct probes into cratonic lithospheric mantle processes. In this paper, in-situ SIMS (Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry) techniques were used to analyze the carbon isotope compositions at different internal growth zones of diamonds from Shandong and Liaoning in the North China Craton and Hunan in the Yangtze Craton. It was found that the carbon isotopic range of diamonds from the North China Craton are rather distinct from those of the Yangtze Craton; the former has a range of −6.0/‰ to −2.0‰ (relative to VPDB) with an average value of −3.0‰ in their core areas, which is consistent with global peridotitic diamonds; the diamonds from the Yangtze Craton, however, have a carbon isotopic range from −8.6‰ to −3.0‰ with an average value of −7.4‰ in their core areas, being more consistent with global eclogitic diamonds. The variations of carbon isotope ratios between different internal growth zones in individual diamonds were different in the three diamond localities studied. There was a clear correlation between changes in carbon isotopic composition and phases of diamond dissolution and new growth, while no correlation was observed between δC and internal inclusions. The variations suggest that the carbon isotopic compositions of mantle fluids were changing during the process of diamond crystallization, and that the heterogeneity of the carbon isotopic composition in mantle carbon reservoirs was a more important factor than carbon isotope fractionation in controlling the carbon isotopic compositions and their variation in diamonds. In addition, the preliminary results of in-situ nitrogen analyses demonstrated that the variation of carbon isotopic compositions between the core and outer growth zones does not correlate with nitrogen abundances, implying either that diamonds crystallized in an open environment or that the carbon isotopic composition and nitrogen contents in mantle fluids were controlled by other, not yet understood factors. The experimental results provide hints that the isotopic composition of carbon and its original sources were different in metasomatic fluids controlling diamond formation in the mantle beneath the North China Craton and the Yangtze Craton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor network (WSN) applications are often deployed under hostile environments. Monitoring sensor nodes carefully, detecting and providing defence against malicious activity in the region is a challenging task. Legitimate sensor nodes may be captured by an adversary to extract important security information regarding shared secrets and cryptographic keys. This type of attack may result in a severe WSN security breach. Using 'tamper-resistant' nodes for securing communication in a WSN cannot be considered as a solution against these attacks as it increases the network cost tremendously. Nevertheless, destroying a legitimate node by erasing its memory and destroying its radio service based on a misjudgement may bring severe damage to the WSN. The authors propose the novel sensor node capture attack detection and defence (SCADD) protocol. SCADD provides a cost-effective solution against the node compromise and capture attacks in WSNs, enhancing the overall WSN security for security-sensitive applications. This protocol consists of two building blocks: node attack detection block and defence advocating measure block. The former provides strategic-based attack detection to eliminate the possibility of misjudgement and the latter uses a self-destruction defence measure against node capture attack, without actually destroying the node's radio service, to avoid a major security breach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS or ion microprobe) remains one of the most powerful tools available to the analytical geochemist. Despite the impressive progress witnessed by other competing laboratory methods over recent years, SIMS remains unsurpassed in its combination of small sampling volumes with low analytical uncertainties. Although the current SIMS analytical design has existed for over three decades, the period 2006–2007 saw significant advances in instrumentation, analytical methodology and, not least, the characterisation of new reference materials upon which all analyses depend. As of the end of 2007 the SIMS geoscience literature was reporting total sampling masses down to the 10 fg range, spatial resolution of better than 100 nm and uncertainties on major element isotope ratio determinations of better than ± 0.2‰ (1 s). This article intends to synthesise the progress made by the geo-SIMS community during this two year period and will also highlight some specific research results that were only possible due to the unique capabilities provided by SIMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Direct solid analysis of bulk and thin coated glasses by pulsed radiofrequency (rf) glow discharge time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GD-TOFMS) is investigated. Modulated low pressure plasma created by pulsed-rf-GD has been coupled to a fast TOFMS in order to obtain complete mass spectra information from the different GD pulse domains (pre-peak, plateau and afterglow). In particular, it was observed that the analytes show the highest atomic ion signals in the afterglow region some hundred microseconds after the maximum of the Ar ion signal. However, it should be highlighted that the analyte ions exhibited their peak maxima at different delay times, depending on the element, after the end of the GD pulse. Such ion signal delays have been measured for different selected isotopes, covering a mass spectrum from light to heavy isotopes at different conditions of pressure and applied power. The results showed that ion signal delays are influenced by both the isotope mass and the pressure of the GD. Furthermore, GD operating conditions (pressure and applied power) were optimised in terms of sensitivity, using a bulk glass certified reference material (NIST 1411). The best analytical performance was observed at low pressure (150–200 Pa) and high applied power (135 W). Moreover, different pulse GD duty cycles (relationship between pulse duration and pulse period) were investigated. An optimum value of 50–65% duty-cycle was selected considering the signal stability and the signal intensity.The previously optimized pulsed-rf-GD-TOFMS system was then evaluated for qualitative in-depth profile analysis of thin coatings deposited onto thick glass substrates. High depth resolution (nm range), comparable to that obtained using rf-GD-OES was achieved. However, the observed depth resolution using the ToF-SIMS system is still superior. In this sense, analytical figures of merit observed in our pulsed-rf-GD-TOFMS demonstrate its great analytical potential for high depth resolution analysis of coated glasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract  Using imaging time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), we investigated the initial and steady-state sliding behavior of a nearly frictionless carbon (NFC) film. Specifically, TOF-SIMS images (both 2-D and 3-D) of these surfaces were constructed to highlight the spatial distributions of ionized and molecular species that were present on as-received and friction-tested NFC surfaces and as a function of depth. As a complementary technique, we used X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to gain further insight into the chemical nature of the sliding surfaces. The NFC films were produced on Si wafers and steel substrates in a gas discharge plasma that consisted of 25 vol.% methane and 75 vol.% hydrogen using a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) system. They were then subjected to sliding friction and wear experiments in a pin-on-disk machine under 5- and 10-N loads and at sliding velocities of 0.2–0.5 m/s in dry nitrogen. The initial friction coefficients of the NFC films were in the range of 0.05–0.1, but decreased rapidly to values less than 0.01 at steady state. Positive and negative TOF-SIMS spectra and 2- and 3-D images reconstructed from selected masses revealed that the elemental distribution of certain chemical species differs substantially between undisturbed and tribo-tested areas of the NFC films. Specifically, the tribo-tested areas are essentially made up of carbon and hydrogen, while undisturbed or as-received areas are covered by a layer that is rich in oxygen and other species. These findings correlate well with the initial and steady-state friction coefficients of these films and help further explain their superlubricity in inert test environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Overbased detergents are well known in the tribology field as anti-wear additives. In boundary lubrication, they generate a quite thick tribofilm on rubbing surfaces. They were studied by coupling XPS and AES depth profiles with XANES and ToF-SIMS analyses. Under friction, we show by ToF-SIMS analysis that detergent molecules are split into smaller structural units. Moreover, ionic bonds do not resist high pressure and shearing, and sulfur disappears from the contact zone. The overbased calcium carbonate core finally collapses and crystallizes to give a good anti-wear film between rubbing surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaching behavior is the major waste characteristic that is critical for a long-term assessment prior to disposal. The extent of leaching depends on the initial contact of the glass surface with leachant. There is a need to analyze the behavior of glass materials on surfaces altered after the leaching test to prove the leaching mechanism. Based on the results of SIMS, the postleaching penetration depth for sodium and lithium was larger than those of silicon and calcium while hydrogen concentration was gradually decreasing. Such analysis agreed with their grouping into two categories by leaching mechanisms, one by initial wash-off and diffusion control and another by dissolution associated with diffusion. Single and multilayer terraces on the surface of waste glass were found and characterized by SEM. In the XRD results, a crystallized precipitation layer was not detected. Results of a leaching mechanism model and EPMA measurements were also consistent in explaining the leaching behavior of glass materials. For sodium and lithium, diffusion was the dominant leaching mechanism, while dissolution associated with diffusion affects the leaching of silicon and calcium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring appropriate business applications published as Web Services in UDDI registries is a critical issue. Search for such applications should be effective in terms of time and uniformed in terms of interfaces. In this paper, an XML-based advanced UDDI exploring engine, Business Explorer for Web Services (BE4WS), that provides developers with standard interfaces for efficiently searching business and service information in single or multiple UDDI registries is presented. The engine processes the proposed UDDI Search Markup Language (USML) that specifies a search request comprising multiple queries, UDDI sources, search criteria, and aggregation operator. The core component of BE4WS, Advanced UDDI Search Engine (AUSE), aggregates search results from different UDDI registries based on the USML request and built-in intelligent search facilities with the ability to cross-reference multiple categories. An aggregation example using BE4WS is demonstrated to enable easy B2B integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the word processor has evolved functionally from the typewriter, abilities required for operator proficiency in the two areas differ. Because the word processor is a much more complex and powerful tool than that of the typewriter, the job skills required of the word processing (WP) operator have expanded beyond those required of the typist. Typing or keyboarding ability has become only one component of the WP operator job domain. Rather, the understanding of a variety of WP functions is more important in determining WP proficiency. From the examination of WP and typing, it is intuitive that these two abilities should be tested by different methods. However, typing tests are still used by many organizations to select WP operators. Furthermore, the few extant WP tests tend to be: (a) basically typing tests (b) machine and/or software-limited (c) lacking as to published validation data and/or (d) in-house tests. The purpose of the present research was to examine the reliability and validity of a newly developed work-sample test-the Melvin-Sims Word Processing Operator Test. To this end, they have conducted three studies in university and industrial settings. The research approach of this article's authors combined techniques of content, criterion-related and construct validation.