Discrimination Of System Research Articles

When Hackers Talk: Managing Information Security Under Variable Attack Rates and Knowledge Dissemination

This paper analyzes interactions between a firm that seeks to discriminate between normal users and hackers that try to penetrate and compromise the firm's information assets. We develop an analytical model in which a variety of factors are balanced to best manage the detection component within information security management. The approach not only considers conventional factors such as detection rate and false-positive rate, but also factors associated with hacker behavior that occur in response to improvements in the detection system made by the firm. Detection can be improved by increasing the system's discrimination ability (i.e., the ability to distinguish between attacks and normal usage) through the application of maintenance effort. The discrimination ability deteriorates over time due to changes in the environment. Also, there is the possibility of sudden shocks that can sharply degrade the discrimination ability. The firm's cost increases as hackers become more knowledgeable by disseminating security knowledge within the hacker population. The problem is solved to reveal the presence of a steady-state solution in which the level of system discrimination ability and maintenance effort are held constant. We find an interesting result where, under certain conditions, hackers do not benefit from disseminating security knowledge among one another. In other situations, we find that hackers benefit because the firm must lower its detection rate in the presence of knowledge dissemination. Other insights into managing detection systems are provided. For example, the presence of security shocks can increase or decrease the optimal discrimination level as compared to the optimal level without shocks.

Pattern recognition with variable discrimination capability by dual non-linear optical correlation

The discrimination capability requirements of pattern recognition systems may vary from one given purpose to another. In this work a recognition system with variable and selective discrimination capability is obtained by applying a dual non-linear correlation (DNC) model to a joint-transform correlator. DNC is obtained by means of two non-linear operators that are applied to both the reference and input channels. A particular DNC is given by the values taken by two real control parameters that determine the non-linear operators. In comparison with conventional filtering methods, an increased and variable discrimination capability is achieved by varying the parameters values. Thus, variable tolerances are introduced in the recognition process. Specifically, tolerances to slight shape variations and intensity variations of the objects (alphabetic characters) are analysed in this work. Ranges for the two control parameters are found in each case in order to achieve either an increase or a relaxation in the system's discrimination capability. The developed application is extended to colour pattern recognition by multichannel correlation. In this case, four further applications with selective discrimination capability are developed: pattern recognition with high discrimination capability for shape variations and some tolerance to colour variations and, vice versa, pattern recognition with high discrimination capability for colour variations and some tolerance to slight shape variations; pattern recognition with high discrimination for both shape and colour, and, finally, a tolerance to slight variations in both shape and colour.

Beta-particle spectroscopy with active gamma-ray discrimination

A spectrometer was developed which was capable of measuring a beta-particle energy distribution while simultaneously (actively) rejecting the system's response to gamma rays. A two-detector configuration was used, where the first detector was a thin, pancake-type, gas-flow counter, positioned in front of the entrance window to a BC-400 plastic scintillator. The gas-flow counter was designed to be insensitive to gamma rays so that it could act as a sensor which would gate the spectrometer to accept only those signals induced by beta-particle interactions in the scintillator. The gamma-ray rejection capability of the spectrometer was a function of gamma-ray energy. The system's discrimination ratio, the number of gamma-ray-induced scintillator pulses which are rejected to those which are recorded, has a value of 279:1 for gamma rays with an energy of 278.3 keV, 43:1 for an energy of 661.6 keV and 9:1 for a gamma-ray energy of 1778.9 keV.

The Crime of Precocious Sexuality: Female Juvenile Delinquency in the Progressive Era

The juvenile justice system's discrimination against poor and minority children has been well documented, but the system's discrimination on the basis of gender has been less widely recognized. Drawing on neglected court records and secondary sources, Steven Schlossman and Stephanie Wallach show how girls bore a disproportionate share of the burden of juvenile justice in the Progressive era. The authors note that during the Progressive era female juvenile delinquents often received more severe punishments than males, even though boys usually were charged with more serious crimes. Schlossman and Wallach conclude that the discriminatory treatment of female delinquents in the early twentieth century resulted from racial prejudice, new theories of adolescence, and Progressive-era movements to purify society.