Different Levels Of Threat Research Articles

The effects of fear appeals on reactance in climate change communication

Addressing the existential threat posed by climate change requires urgent actions, both on an individual level and on a policy level. In the present research, we applied an emotion-based persuasion appeal model to climate change mitigation to test the effect of climate mitigation appeals formulated with different levels of threat (high vs. low) and appealing to different types of climate change solutions (individual vs. policy) in eliciting psychological reactance, motivating support for climate change mitigation, and influencing willingness to discuss the issue with others. Through an online between-subjects experiment, we found that appealing to individuals (as opposed to policy) increased individuals' perceived threat to freedom, and psychological reactance. Our threat manipulation increased levels of fear, but the interaction between level of threat and type of appeal was not statistically significant on any of our dependent variables. Results are discussed in light of the active debate regarding the effectiveness of fear appeals in the climate change communication context.

StratDef: Strategic defense against adversarial attacks in ML-based malware detection

Over the years, most research towards defenses against adversarial attacks on machine learning models has been in the image recognition domain. The ML-based malware detection domain has received less attention despite its importance. Moreover, most work exploring these defenses has focused on several methods but with no strategy when applying them. In this paper, we introduce StratDef, which is a strategic defense system based on a moving target defense approach. We overcome challenges related to the systematic construction, selection, and strategic use of models to maximize adversarial robustness. StratDef dynamically and strategically chooses the best models to increase the uncertainty for the attacker while minimizing critical aspects in the adversarial ML domain, like attack transferability. We provide the first comprehensive evaluation of defenses against adversarial attacks on machine learning for malware detection, where our threat model explores different levels of threat, attacker knowledge, capabilities, and attack intensities. We show that StratDef performs better than other defenses even when facing the peak adversarial threat. We also show that, of the existing defenses, only a few adversarially-trained models provide substantially better protection than just using vanilla models but are still outperformed by StratDef.

Aptamer-modified metal organic frameworks for measurement of food contaminants: a review.

The measurement of food contaminants faces a great challenge owing to the increasing demand for safe food, increasing consumption of fast food, and rapidly changing patterns of human consumption. As different types of contaminants in food products can pose different levels of threat to human health, it is desirable to develop specific and rapid methods for their identification and quantification. During the past few years, metal-organic framework (MOF)-based materials have been extensively explored in the development of food safety sensors. MOFs are porous crystalline materials with tunable composition, dynamic porosity, and facile surface functionalization. The construction of high-performance biosensors for a range of applications (e.g., food safety, environmental monitoring, and biochemical diagnostics) can thus be promoted through the synergistic combination of MOFs with aptamers. Accordingly, this review article delineates recent innovations achieved for the aptamer-functionalized MOFs toward the detection of food contaminants. First, we describe the basic concepts involved in the detection of food contaminants in terms of the advantages and disadvantages of the commonly used analytical methods (e.g., DNA-based methods (PCR/real-time PCR/multiplex PCR/digital PCR) and protein-based methods (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay/immunochromatography assay/immunosensor/mass spectrometry). Afterward, the progress in aptamer-functionalized MOF biosensors is discussed with respect to the sensing mechanisms (e.g., the role of MOFs as signal probes and carriers for loading signal probes) along with their performance evaluation (e.g., in terms of sensitivity). We finally discuss challenges and opportunities associated with the development of aptamer-functionalized MOFs for the measurement of food contaminants.

Ballistic Response of a Glass Fiber Composite for Two Levels of Threat.

This paper presents the behavior of composite panels based on glass fiber unidirectional fabrics and a bi-component epoxy resin under ballistic impacts that characterize two threat levels: FB2 and FB3, according to EN 1523:2004. The tested panels had characteristics kept in narrow ranges: thickness 18.26 ± 0.22 mm, mass ratio fabrics/panel 0.788 ± 0.015, surface density 27.51 ± 0.26 kg/m2. After testing the panels, the failure mechanisms of the panel were evidenced by scanning electron microscopy and photographs. Here the authors present a finite-element model at meso scale that was used for evaluating if the composite, initially tested at level FB2 (9 mm FMJ, v0 = 375 m/s), could withstand the higher level of impact, FB3 (projectile type 0.357 Magnum and impact velocity of v0 = 433 m/s). Simulation was performed in Explicit Dynamics (Ansys), keeping the same target but changing the projectile for the two different levels of threat. The results of the simulation were encouraging for making tests at level FB3, indicating the importance of alternating actual tests with simulations in order to achieve better protection with reduced surface weight. The simulation illustrated differences in impact duration and number of layers broken on the panel for each level. Validation of the model was based on the number of broken layers and the dimension of the delamination zone between the last two layers. Scanning electron microscopy was used for identifying failure mechanisms at the micro and meso scale. We found that damage to the composite was intensively dependent on impact velocity, this being quantitatively evaluated using the number of layers broken, the effect of delamination on separating layers and the deformation of the last layer.

Prolonged proximity to humans ensures better performance of semi-captive Asian elephants at discriminating between human individuals by voice

To avoid risks, organisms must recognize threatening heterospecies from non-threatening onesviaacoustic cues from a distance. With land-use change, humans have encroached considerably into natural areas. Therefore, it is beneficial to animals to use acoustic cues to discriminate between different levels of threats posed by humans. Our study aims at testing this discriminatory ability in Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), animals that have been for long history subjected to human interaction. We tested whether eighteen semi-captive elephants could discriminate between voices of their own mahouts (i.e., who take care of the elephants exclusively) and of other mahouts (unfamiliar individuals). The results showed that elephants responded successfully to the commands from their own mahouts, with an average response rate as high as 78.8%. The more years the mahouts had been as their caretakers, the more the elephant showed active responses toward the commands. Female elephants responded to the commands more frequently and faster than males. Also younger elephants responded more frequently and faster than older elephants. We argue that Asian elephants can discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar humans by acoustic cues alone. Proximity with humans may be a factor, as fundamental as domestication, for animals to develop heterospecies discriminatory ability.

The network nature of language endangerment hotspots

Language endangerment is one of the most urgent issues of the twenty-first century. Languages are disappearing at unprecedented rates, with dire consequences that affect speaker communities, scientific community and humanity. There is impetus for understanding the nature of language endangerment, and we investigate where language endangerment occurs by performing network analysis on 3423 languages at various levels of risk. Macro-level analysis shows evidence of positive assortative mixing of endangerment statuses—critically endangered languages are surrounded by similarly endangered languages, indicating the prevalence of linguistic hotspots throughout the world. Meso-level analysis using community detection returned 13 communities experiencing different levels of threat. Micro-level analysis of closeness centrality shows that more geographically isolated languages tend to be more critically endangered. Even after accounting for the statistical contributions of linguistic diversity, the structural properties of the spatial network were still significantly associated with endangerment outcomes. Findings support that the notion of hotspots is useful when accounting for language endangerment but go beyond that to establish that quantifying spatial structure is crucial. Language preservation in these hotspots and understanding why endangered languages pattern the way they do in their environments becomes more vital than ever.

Effects of oxytocin administration on fear-potentiated acoustic startle in co-occurring PTSD and alcohol use disorder: A randomized clinical trial

Co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) is common and particularly associated with elevation of hyperarousal compared to PTSD alone. Treatment options are limited. Oxytocin regulates physiological stress response. Intranasal oxytocin administration has demonstrated potential in reducing symptoms of both PTSD and AUD. This study addresses a gap in the literature by investigating effects of intranasal oxytocin on startle reactivity, an important potential marker of both PTSD and AUD symptomatology. This is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, within- and between-participant, crossover, dose-ranging study examining the effects of a single administration of oxytocin 20 IU versus 40 IU versus placebo on psychophysiological responses to a common laboratory fear-potentiated acoustic startle paradigm in participants with PTSD-AUD (n = 47) and controls (n = 37) under three different levels of threat. Contrary to our hypothesis, for the PTSD-AUD group, oxytocin 20 IU had no effect on startle reactivity, while oxytocin 40 IU increased measures of startle reactivity. Additionally, for PTSD-AUD only, ambiguous versus low threat was associated with an elevated skin conductance response. For controls only, oxytocin 20 IU versus placebo was associated with reduced startle reactivity.

Age-Related Differences in Experiences With Social Distancing at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Computational and Content Analytic Investigation of Natural Language From a Social Media Survey.

BackgroundAs COVID-19 poses different levels of threat to people of different ages, health communication regarding prevention measures such as social distancing and isolation may be strengthened by understanding the unique experiences of various age groups.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine how people of different ages (1) experienced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and (2) their respective rates and reasons for compliance or noncompliance with social distancing and isolation health guidance.MethodsWe fielded a survey on social media early in the pandemic to examine the emotional impact of COVID-19 and individuals’ rates and reasons for noncompliance with public health guidance, using computational and content analytic methods of linguistic analysis.ResultsA total of 17,287 participants were surveyed. The majority (n=13,183, 76.3%) were from the United States. Younger (18-31 years), middle-aged (32-44 years and 45-64 years), and older (≥65 years) individuals significantly varied in how they described the impact of COVID-19 on their lives, including their emotional experience, self-focused attention, and topical concerns. Younger individuals were more emotionally negative and self-focused, while middle-aged people were other-focused and concerned with family. The oldest and most at-risk group was most concerned with health-related terms but were lower in anxiety (use of fewer anxiety-related terms) and higher in the use of emotionally positive terms than the other less at-risk age groups. While all groups discussed topics such as acquiring essential supplies, they differentially experienced the impact of school closures and limited social interactions. We also found relatively high rates of noncompliance with COVID-19 prevention measures, such as social distancing and self-isolation, with younger people being more likely to be noncompliant than older people (P<.001). Among the 43.1% (n=7456) of respondents who did not fully comply with health orders, people differed substantially in the reasons they gave for noncompliance. The most common reason for noncompliance was not being able to afford to miss work (n=4273, 57.3%). While work obligations proved challenging for participants across ages, younger people struggled more to find adequate space to self-isolate and manage their mental and physical health; middle-aged people had more concerns regarding childcare; and older people perceived themselves as being able to take sufficient precautions.ConclusionsAnalysis of natural language can provide insight into rapidly developing public health challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, uncovering individual differences in emotional experiences and health-related behaviors. In this case, our analyses revealed significant differences between different age groups in feelings about and responses to public health orders aimed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. To improve public compliance with health orders as the pandemic continues, health communication strategies could be made more effective by being tailored to these age-related differences.

Threat perception: Fear and the retrorubal field

A new study has found that neurons within a structure of the rat midbrain known as the retrorubral field show diverse responses to stimuli that signal different levels of threat, as well as a separate pattern of diverse responses to differentially predicted aversive outcomes.

Modeling Attack Resistant PUFs Based on Adversarial Attack Against Machine Learning

The Physical Unclonable Function (PUF) has been proposed for the identification and authentication of devices and cryptographic key generation. A strong PUF provides an extremely large number of device-specific challenge-response pairs (CRP) which can be used for authentication. Unfortunately, the CRP mechanism is vulnerable to modeling attack, which uses machine learning (ML) algorithms to predict PUF responses. Many methods have been developed to strengthen strong PUFs; however, recent studies show that they are still vulnerable under refined ML algorithms with enhanced computing power. In this article, we propose to defend PUFs against modeling attacks from a different perspective. By modifying the CRP mechanism, a PUF can provide contradictory data such that an accurate prediction model of the PUF under attack cannot be built. Three different levels of threats are analyzed, and experimental results show that the proposed method provides an effective countermeasure against ML based modeling attacks. The proposed protection mechanism is validated using FPGA, and the results show that the performance of PUFs is also improved with the help of the proposed protection mechanism. In addition, the proposed method is compatible with hardware strengthening schemes to provide even better protection for PUFs.

Ликоугрожающие речевые акты в академической среде (разностатусная коммуникация)

The paper aims to describe productive models of face-threatening speech acts in split-level academic communication. The authors analyse speech acts with different levels of threats to a speaker’s positive face: invitation, request (with different degrees of imposition) and proposal. Special attention is paid to analysing the speech act “advice” functioning in institutional communication. Scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that the researchers analyse the use of face-threatening speech acts in split-level academic communication within the framework of the discursive approach. The research findings are as follows: the basic pragmatic characteristics of speech acts under study are identified.

Lost and found: Frogs in a biodiversity hotspot rediscovered with environmental DNA.

Declines and extinctions are increasing globally and challenge conservationists to keep pace with biodiversity monitoring. Organisms leave DNA traces in the environment, e.g., in soil, water, and air. These DNA traces are referred to as environmental DNA (eDNA). The analysis of eDNA is a highly sensitive method with the potential to rapidly assess local diversity and the status of threatened species. We searched for DNA traces of 30 target amphibian species of conservation concern, at different levels of threat, using an environmental DNA metabarcoding approach, together with an extensive sequence reference database to analyse water samples from six montane sites in the Atlantic Coastal Forest and adjacent Cerrado grasslands of Brazil. We successfully detected DNA traces of four declined species (Hylodes ornatus, Hylodes regius, Crossodactylus timbuhy, and Vitreorana eurygnatha); two locally disappeared (Phasmahyla exilis and Phasmahyla guttata); and one species that has not been seen since 1968 (putatively assigned to Megaelosia bocainensis). We confirm the presence of species undetected by traditional methods, underscoring the efficacy of eDNA metabarcoding for biodiversity monitoring at low population densities, especially in megadiverse tropical sites. Our results support the potential application of eDNA in conservation biology, to evaluate persistence and distribution of threatened species in surveyed habitats or sites, and improve accuracy of red lists, especially for species undetected over long periods.

Fine‐tuned responses to chemical landscapes: crayfish use predator odors to assess threats based on relative size ratios

AbstractThe threat‐sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis suggests that prey animals should minimize the costs of antipredator behaviors by only responding to predators that pose a potentially lethal threat. Thus, prey must use risk assessment strategies to determine which predators present a great enough threat to merit a response. A rich literature demonstrates that chemical signals can communicate information about predator identity, diet, and size. However, the relationship between predator size and prey size has been largely overlooked. What remains unknown is how prey respond to odors from predators along a continuum of relative size. Here, we tested the responses of crayfish (prey) to odor cues from two species of predatory fish along a gradient of relative size relationships. Crayfish and fish were paired according to crayfish carapace width and the fish’s gape width to represent different relative size pairings. Foraging and shelter use video assays were used to evaluate changes in crayfish behavior under the different levels of threat presented. The analysis revealed significant increases in macrophyte consumption, foraging effort, and overall activity among crayfish that were small relative to their predators, independent of the absolute size of fish or crayfish size. Crayfish that were small relative to predator size showed significantly less shelter use than crayfish that were large relative to predator gape size. The results demonstrate that the crayfish are assessing threat based on their size relative to the predator gape size solely using chemical signals. As a result of this assessment, crayfish are changing their resource use to potentially grow larger to limit future predatory threats. Overall, this research supports the threat‐sensitive predator avoidance hypothesis and provides an opportunity to refine the landscape of fear concept to accommodate more detailed risk assessments by prey.

Male care status influences the risk-taking decisions in a glassfrog

Parental care increases offspring survival, but may impose costs by decreasing adult survival or mating opportunities. Because individuals have limited resources, time allocation and risk decisions are expected to vary according to the care status and threat faced by parents. Herein, we evaluated the sources of mortality of clutches of the glassfrog Hyalinobatrachium cappellei and the importance of paternal care for offspring survival. We also compared time allocation patterns and antipredator behavior between attending and non-attending males. Using naturalistic observations and field experiments with different dummy predators, we hypothesized that (1) offspring survival would be positively correlated with paternal care; (2) attending males would spend most of the time caring for the embryos, while non-attending males would spend more time foraging and calling; (3) attending males would prioritize their own survival when facing a high risk of predation, even with negative impacts on offspring survival. Main sources of embryo mortality included predation and dehydration, and offspring survivorship was almost totally dependent on paternal care. Although non-attending males spent more time calling and foraging, attending males also called and were able to attract females and increase their mating success. However, contrary to our prediction, we found that attending males were more risk-tolerant, increasing not only offspring survival but also their mortality risk. Our findings highlight the importance of the predation risk level on parents’ decisions and that the reproductive status may play a significant role in determining antipredator behavior and mating success in glassfrog males. In species with parental care, parents face a trade-off between investment in current offspring survival and chances of future reproduction. Hence, it is expected that natural selection will favor parents that attend offspring without incurring in higher risk of predation. We investigated time allocation patterns and behavioral responses to different levels of threat in a glassfrog with paternal care. Using field observations and predation experiments, we found that attending and non-attending males of Hyalinobatrachium cappellei behaved differently depending on their care status and level of threat. Males were more likely to tolerate high risks only when they were caring for clutches. We also found that the commitment of males to continue caring resulted in higher offspring survival. Parental care behavior increased not only larvae hatching success, but also matting success of attending males, suggesting that paternal care might be under sexual selection.

Evaluation of Australian Tsunami Warning Thresholds Using Inundation Modelling

Tsunami warnings issued by the Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre (JATWC) are derived from a database (T2) consisting of more than two thousand pre-computed tsunami scenarios. Following any potentially tsunamigenic earthquake, warnings are issued for individual coastal zones with three different levels of threat: Land Threat, Marine Threat or No Threat. The decision is based on the 95th percentile (P95) of the maximum wave amplitudes (over time) of the relevant T2 scenario within each coastal zone. Threshold values for P95 have previously been derived through analysis of observed impacts for recent events. Given that historical records are available for only a short time period and no observations exist for which a Land Threat would have been issued for Australia, it has been difficult to determine the appropriate threshold for a Land Threat. Several recent tsunami hazard assessment studies have used inundation models nested within T2 scenarios. These modelling results are used to evaluate the threshold values for JATWC tsunami warnings and provide guidance on a possible further warning tier???Major Land Threat. The optimal Land Threat threshold for P95 is found to be 48.5 cm, however, it is not recommended that any changes are made from the existing operational threshold of 55 cm. The optimal threshold for P95 a Major Land Threat is found to be 150.5 cm.

Lower levels of human disturbance correspond with longer-term persistence of Endangered Green Peafowl Pavo muticus populations

SummaryGalliformes are one of the most threatened groups of birds in South-East Asia, with 27% of the species threatened with extinction. Long term population viability and extinction probability studies, at different levels of threat and management, are lacking due to weak life history data. This study aimed to define the long-term viability and extinction risk of two populations of the endangered Green Peafowl Pavo muticus, facing different threat and protection levels, using Bayesian Population Viability Analysis (BPVA), which requires less data than traditional methods. The results showed an increasing trend in the Green Peafowl population in HuaiKhaKhaeng Wildlife Sanctuary (western Thailand), with a high protection level and low disturbance and high probability of assuring persistence for the next 100 years. By contrast, the population in YokDon National Park (south-central Vietnam), with a high habitat disturbance level and significant hunting pressure, is predicted to decline and has a high probability (99%) of extinction by 2097. Also, the BPVA showed minimum viable population (MVP) estimates of 250 and 450 calling males for the HuaiKhaKhaeng and YokDon populations respectively, assuring high probabilities of long-term persistence if the minimum numbers of males are available. The population size of 219 calling males at YokDon during the 2013 survey is lower than the MVP threshold of 450 calling males, which suggests the species has a low probability of long-term persistence in the area. Despite limited life history and population data, BPVA predicted the future of this population under site-specific conditions, and the results could be used to promote better management and population restoration.

Modeling Adversarial Physical Movement in a Railway Station

Many real-world attacks on cyber-physical systems involve physical intrusions that directly cause damage or facilitate cyber attacks. Hence, in this work, we investigate the security risk of organizations with respect to different adversarial models of physical movement behavior. We study the case in which an intrusion detection mechanism is in place to alert the system administrator when users deviate from their normal movement behavior. We then analyze how different user behaviors may present themselves as different levels of threats in terms of their normal movement behavior within a given building topology. To quantify the differences in movement behavior, we define a WeightTopo metric that takes into account the building topology in addition to the movement pattern. We demonstrate our approach on a railway system case study and show how certain user roles, when abused by attackers, are especially vulnerable in terms of the physical intrusion detection probability. We also evaluate quantitatively how the similarity between an attacker’s movement behavior and a user’s movement behavior affects the detection probability of the evaluated intrusion detection system. Certain individual users are found to pose a higher threat, implying the need for customized monitoring.

Presence of parents during early rearing affects offspring responses towards predators

Social learning about predation threat during early ontogeny can be beneficial in developing appropriate antipredator behaviours. While such learning can be achieved through direct interactions between offspring and parents, it is unknown whether young animals can also learn appropriate responses towards different heterospecifics posing different levels of threat through inadvertent information obtained from witnessing parental interactions with these heterospecifics. In this study, we split sibling groups of the cooperatively breeding cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher and raised them with or without parents. Both rearing groups repeatedly received visual and olfactory cues from four types of fish (predators, egg predators, herbivores and conspecifics) during a 4-week experience phase. After a ‘neutral phase’ of 4 months under identical conditions and without further fish stimuli, individuals from both rearing conditions were tested for their response towards the same four stimulus species. Unlike those reared with parents, the fish reared without parents spent significantly more time in safety and were more vigilant towards the predator, whereas responses to the other three species did not differ. As during the experience phase parental responses towards the stimulus fish were unexpectedly low and indiscriminate, our results suggest that young N. pulcher reverse their innate fear of predators when observing parents being unresponsive to a threat (‘observational conditioning’). We suggest that learned reduction of fear can be a potent mechanism to prevent responding to false alarms and mitigate potentially harmful effects of chronically elevated predation stress.

Typical Feature Information Extraction of Transmission Corridor Based on UAV Inspection Hyperspectral Image

The difference in growth rates of different types of trees around a transmission corridor leads to different levels of threat to transmission lines. In order to develop a reasonable and efficient maintenance plan for targeted needles, a high-spectral aerial survey of 110kv transmission lines was carried out, and high-threat areas with dense trees were selected for analysis. After using the competitive adaptive re-weighting algorithm (CARS) to select the feature bands, the cluster-support vector machine (C-SVM) algorithm is used to classify the four typical trees around the line with the transmission lines, bare soil, and rivers. The results show that the C-SVM classification can get better classification results, and the accuracy of the classification result reaches about 0.95.

Emerging Mosquito-Borne Threats and the Response from European and Eastern Mediterranean Countries.

Mosquito-borne viruses are the cause of some of the greatest burdens to human health worldwide, particularly in tropical regions where both human populations and mosquito numbers are abundant. Due to a combination of anthropogenic change, including the effects on global climate and wildlife migration there is strong evidence that temperate regions are undergoing repeated introduction of mosquito-borne viruses and the re-emergence of viruses that previously were not detected by surveillance. In Europe, the repeated introductions of West Nile and Usutu viruses have been associated with bird migration from Africa, whereas the autochthonous transmission of chikungunya and dengue viruses has been driven by a combination of invasive mosquitoes and rapid transcontinental travel by infected humans. In addition to an increasing number of humans at risk, livestock and wildlife, are also at risk of infection and disease. This in turn can affect international trade and species diversity, respectively. Addressing these challenges requires a range of responses both at national and international level. Increasing the understanding of mosquito-borne transmission of viruses and the development of rapid detection methods and appropriate therapeutics (vaccines / antivirals) all form part of this response. The aim of this review is to consider the range of mosquito-borne viruses that threaten public health in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, and the national response of a number of countries facing different levels of threat.