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PloS One 2024The security crowd-testing regulatory mechanism is a vital means to promote collaborative vulnerability disclosure. However, existing regulatory mechanisms have not...
The security crowd-testing regulatory mechanism is a vital means to promote collaborative vulnerability disclosure. However, existing regulatory mechanisms have not considered multi-agent responsibility boundaries and stakeholders' conflicts of interest, leading to their dysfunction. Distinguishing from previous research on the motivations and constraints of ethical hacks' vulnerability disclosure behaviors from a legal perspective, this paper constructs an evolutionary game model of SRCs, security researchers, and the government from a managerial perspective to propose regulatory mechanisms promoting tripartite collaborative vulnerability disclosure. The results show that the higher the initial willingness of the three parties to choose the collaborative strategy, the faster the system evolves into a stable state. Regarding the government's incentive mechanism, establishing reward and punishment mechanisms based on effective thresholds is essential. However, it is worth noting that the government has an incentive to adopt such mechanisms only if it receives sufficient regulatory benefits. To further facilitate collaborative disclosure, Security Response Centers (SRC) should establish incentive mechanisms including punishment and trust mechanisms. Additionally, publicity and training mechanisms for security researchers should be introduced to reduce their revenue from illegal participation, which promotes the healthy development of security crowd-testing. These findings contribute to improving SRCs' service quality, guiding security researchers' legal participation, enhancing the government's regulatory effectiveness, and ultimately establishing a multi-party collaborative vulnerability disclosure system.
Topics: Humans; Game Theory; Disclosure; Cooperative Behavior; Security Measures; Punishment
PubMed: 38905256
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0304467 -
Frontiers in Neuroscience 2024Reward-seeking behavior is frequently associated with risk of punishment. There are two types of punishment: positive punishment, which is defined as addition of an...
Reward-seeking behavior is frequently associated with risk of punishment. There are two types of punishment: positive punishment, which is defined as addition of an aversive stimulus, and negative punishment, involves the omission of a rewarding outcome. Although the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is important in avoiding punishment, whether it is important for avoiding both positive and negative punishment and how it contributes to such avoidance are not clear. In this study, we trained male mice to perform decision-making tasks under the risks of positive (air-puff stimulus) and negative (reward omission) punishment, and modeled their behavior with reinforcement learning. Following the training, we pharmacologically inhibited the mPFC. We found that pharmacological inactivation of mPFC enhanced the reward-seeking choice under the risk of positive, but not negative, punishment. In reinforcement learning models, this behavioral change was well-explained as an increase in sensitivity to reward, rather than a decrease in the strength of aversion to punishment. Our results suggest that mPFC suppresses reward-seeking behavior by reducing sensitivity to reward under the risk of positive punishment.
PubMed: 38903603
DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1412509 -
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Jun 2024Yaws, caused by Treponema pallidum ssp. pertenue, remains a significant public health concern in tropical regions of West Africa and the South Pacific, primarily...
Yaws, caused by Treponema pallidum ssp. pertenue, remains a significant public health concern in tropical regions of West Africa and the South Pacific, primarily affecting children in remote areas with limited access to hygiene and sanitation. In this study, conducted in three endemic countries of West Africa where yaws remains a significant public health concern (Ghana, Cameroon, and Côte d'Ivoire), we aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to yaws among community members, community health workers (CHWs), and traditional healers. The study revealed variations in the perception of causes of yaws among community members: the majority or participants in Ghana attributed yaws to germs (60.2%); in Cameroon the most reported form of transmission was contact with or drinking infected water sources (44.6%); and in Côte d'Ivoire both of these answers were also the most prevalent (60.3% germs and 93.% water sources). A substantial proportion of participants in Côte d'Ivoire also associated yaws with witchcraft and divine punishment (44.8%). Only a small proportion of individuals in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire correctly identified contact with an infected person as a form of transmission (11.9% and 20.7%, respectively) and less than half in Cameroon (42.6%), although more than 98% of all participants reported avoidance behaviours towards yaws infected people due to fear of getting infected. Most participants expressed a preference for seeking care at hospitals (49.2%, 60.6%, 86.2%) or health care professionals including doctors and nurses (58.5%, 41,5% and 17.2%) if they were diagnosed with yaws, although a quarter of participants in Côte d'Ivoire also sought support from traditional healers. The CHWs interviewed were generally well-trained on yaws causes and treatment options, although they often reported low availability of treatment and diagnostic tests for yaws. Our findings underscore the need for community education, awareness campaigns, ongoing CHW training, and improved access to yaws treatment and diagnostic resources. The data also suggest that collaboration with traditional healers, who usually hold a highly esteemed position in the society, such as giving training on yaws causes and transmission or exchanging knowledge on treatment options, could be beneficial in certain regions, particularly in Côte d'Ivoire.
PubMed: 38900827
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012224 -
BioRxiv : the Preprint Server For... Jun 2024Social phobia is highly detrimental for social behavior, mental health, and productivity. Despite much previous research, the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms...
Social phobia is highly detrimental for social behavior, mental health, and productivity. Despite much previous research, the behavioral and neurobiological mechanisms associated with the development of social phobia remain elusive. To investigate these issues, the present study implemented a mouse model of social threat conditioning in which mice received electric shock punishment upon interactions with unfamiliar conspecifics. This resulted in immediate reductions in social behavior and robust increases in defensive mechanisms such as avoidance, freezing, darting, and ambivalent stretched posture. Furthermore, social deficits lasted for prolonged periods and were independent of contextual settings, sex variables, or particular identity of the social stimuli. Shedding new light into the neurobiological factors contributing to this phenomenon, we found that optogenetic silencing of the prelimbic (PL), but not the infralimbic (IL), subregion of the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) during training led to subsequent forgetting and development of lasting social phobia. Similarly, pharmacological inhibition of NMDARs in PL also impaired the development of social phobia. These findings are consistent with the notion that social-related trauma is a prominent risk factor for the development of social phobia, and that this phenomenon engages learning-related mechanisms within the prelimbic prefrontal cortex to promote prolonged representations of social threat.
PubMed: 38895224
DOI: 10.1101/2024.06.04.597446 -
Science and Engineering Ethics Jun 2024Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been recognised as a challenge to responsibility. Much of this discourse has been framed around robots, such as autonomous weapons...
Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been recognised as a challenge to responsibility. Much of this discourse has been framed around robots, such as autonomous weapons or self-driving cars, where we arguably lack control over a machine's behaviour and therefore struggle to identify an agent that can be held accountable. However, most of today's AI is based on machine-learning technology that does not act on its own, but rather serves as a decision-support tool, automatically analysing data to help human agents make better decisions. I argue that decision-support tools pose a challenge to responsibility that goes beyond the familiar problem of finding someone to blame or punish for the behaviour of agent-like systems. Namely, they pose a problem for what we might call "decision ownership": they make it difficult to identify human agents to whom we can attribute value-judgements that are reflected in decisions. Drawing on recent philosophical literature on responsibility and its various facets, I argue that this is primarily a problem of attributability rather than of accountability. This particular responsibility problem comes in different forms and degrees, most obviously when an AI provides direct recommendations for actions, but also, less obviously, when it provides mere descriptive information on the basis of which a decision is made.
Topics: Humans; Artificial Intelligence; Decision Making; Social Responsibility; Decision Support Techniques; Judgment; Machine Learning; Ownership; Robotics
PubMed: 38888795
DOI: 10.1007/s11948-024-00485-1 -
Biological Psychiatry Global Open... Jul 2024Clinical anxiety is a generalized state characterized by feelings of apprehensive expectation and is distinct from momentary responses such as fear or stress. In...
BACKGROUND
Clinical anxiety is a generalized state characterized by feelings of apprehensive expectation and is distinct from momentary responses such as fear or stress. In contrast, most laboratory tests of anxiety focus on acute responses to momentary stressors.
METHODS
Apprehensive expectation was induced by subjecting mice (for 18 days) to manipulations in which a running response (experiment 1) or a conditioned stimulus (experiment 2) were unpredictably paired with reward (food) or punishment (footshock). Before this treatment, the mice were tested in an open field and light/dark box to assess momentary responses that are asserted to reflect state anxiety. After treatment, the mice were assessed for state anxiety in an elevated plus maze, social interaction test, startle response test, intrusive object burying test, and stress-induced corticosterone elevations. In experiment 3, we treated mice similarly to experiment 1, but after mixed-valence training, some mice received either no additional training, additional mixed-valence training, or were shifted to consistent (predictable) reinforcement with food.
RESULTS
We consistently observed an increase in anxiety-like behaviors after the experience with mixed-valence unpredictable reinforcement. This generalized anxiety persisted for at least 4 weeks after the mixed-valence training and could be reversed if the mixed-valence training was followed by predictable reinforcement with food.
CONCLUSIONS
Results indicate that experience with unpredictable reward/punishment can induce a chronic state analogous to generalized anxiety that can be mitigated by exposure to stable, predictable conditions. This learned apprehension protocol provides a conceptually valid model for the study of the etiology and treatment of anxiety in laboratory animals.
PubMed: 38883866
DOI: 10.1016/j.bpsgos.2024.100318 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2024One of the cognitive abilities most affected by substance abuse is decision-making. Behavioral tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) provide a means to measure the...
One of the cognitive abilities most affected by substance abuse is decision-making. Behavioral tasks such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) provide a means to measure the learning process involved in decision-making. To comprehend this process, three hypotheses have emerged: (1) participants prioritize gains over losses, (2) they exhibit insensitivity to losses, and (3) the capacity of operational storage or working memory comes into play. A dynamic model was developed to examine these hypotheses, simulating sensitivity to gains and losses. The Linear Operator model served as the learning rule, wherein net gains depend on the ratio of gains to losses, weighted by the sensitivity to both. The study further proposes a comparison between the performance of simulated agents and that of substance abusers ( = 20) and control adults ( = 20). The findings indicate that as the memory factor increases, along with high sensitivity to losses and low sensitivity to gains, agents prefer advantageous alternatives, particularly those with a lower frequency of punishments. Conversely, when sensitivity to gains increases and the memory factor decreases, agents prefer disadvantageous alternatives, especially those that result in larger losses. Human participants confirmed the agents' performance, particularly when contrasting optimal and sub-optimal outcomes. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of evaluating the parameters of the linear operator model across diverse clinical and community samples.
PubMed: 38882514
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1281082 -
Zdravstveno Varstvo Sep 2024There is a concerning trend of emigration among highly educated individuals in Montenegro. This includes medical professionals who seek better job opportunities abroad....
INTRODUCTION
There is a concerning trend of emigration among highly educated individuals in Montenegro. This includes medical professionals who seek better job opportunities abroad. The aim of the present study was to identify the primary motivational factors driving Montenegrin medical students to pursue a career in medicine, and whether these factors undergo changes over the course of their studies.
METHODS
A cross-sectional study included 210 medical students in Montenegro, 27.62% were males, and 72.38% were females. The mean age of the students was 21.90 years (SD=3.05) (range 19-39). Their academic motivation was analysed using the Academic Motivation Scale, previously validated in various cultural contexts.
RESULTS
The results showed that autonomous motivation levels were higher than controlled motivation levels (p<0.001) among students in Montenegro, which has been previously associated with better learning outcomes. Students with medical doctors among their family members had higher extrinsic motivation related to rewards and punishments (extrinsic motivation with external regulation p=0.018). Amotivation showed a trend of increasing as the students got closer to graduation (p=0.057). Only 8.1% of students planned a career in primary healthcare, and 1% wished to specialize in family medicine.
CONCLUSIONS
This study's findings, which indicate high levels of autonomous motivation among medical students, are of significant importance. They contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the motivation factors among medical students and young healthcare professionals in Montenegro. Moreover, they provide a basis for the implementation of strategic interventions to retain highly skilled medical professionals within the country's workforce, thereby addressing the concerning trend of emigration among this group.
PubMed: 38881636
DOI: 10.2478/sjph-2024-0018 -
Assessment Jun 2024Existing research shows that children's responses to rewards and punishments are essential for understanding attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional...
Existing research shows that children's responses to rewards and punishments are essential for understanding attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and callous-unemotional traits. The present study developed the Contingency Response Rating Scale (CRRS) to fulfill the need for a reliable and valid measure of children's contingency response style that is brief, easy to use in applied settings, and provides additional information to existing clinical measures. We examined the psychometric properties of the CRRS in a sample of 196 children (ages 5-12), most of whom were referred to evaluate attention and behavior problems in an outpatient clinic. Using principal axis factoring, we identified five factors: (a) punishment ineffectiveness, (b) reward ineffectiveness, (c) punishment dysregulation, (d) reward dysregulation, and (e) contingency insensitivity. The subscales based on these factors showed acceptable test-retest and internal consistency reliability, and scale intercorrelations varied from low to moderate. The subscales also captured significant variance not explained by child or parent demographics and were associated with measures of psychopathology and impairment. The results provide preliminary evidence that the CRRS may be a helpful tool for assessing reward and punishment sensitivity in children with attention and behavior problems.
PubMed: 38869172
DOI: 10.1177/10731911241256536 -
Proceedings. Biological Sciences Jun 2024In contemporary society, the effective utilization of public resources remains a subject of significant concern. A common issue arises from defectors seeking to obtain...
In contemporary society, the effective utilization of public resources remains a subject of significant concern. A common issue arises from defectors seeking to obtain an excessive share of these resources for personal gain, potentially leading to resource depletion. To mitigate this tragedy and ensure sustainable development of resources, implementing mechanisms to either reward those who adhere to distribution rules or penalize those who do not, appears advantageous. We introduce two models: a tax-reward model and a tax-punishment model, to address this issue. Our analysis reveals that in the tax-reward model, the evolutionary trajectory of the system is influenced not only by the tax revenue collected but also by the natural growth rate of the resources. Conversely, the tax-punishment model exhibits distinct characteristics when compared with the tax-reward model, notably the potential for bistability. In such scenarios, the selection of initial conditions is critical, as it can determine the system's path. Furthermore, our study identifies instances where the system lacks stable points, exemplified by a limit cycle phenomenon, underscoring the complexity and dynamism inherent in managing public resources using these models.
Topics: Taxes; Reward; Punishment; Humans; Models, Theoretical
PubMed: 38864335
DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2024.0182