The Semantic Web is the vision of the future Web. Its aim is to enable machines to process Web documents in a way that makes it possible for the computer software to "understand" the meaning of the document contents. Each document on the Semantic Web is to be enriched with meta-data that express the semantics of its contents. Many infrastructures, technologies and standards have been developed and have proven their theoretical use for the Semantic Web, yet very few applications have been created. Most of the current Semantic Web applications were developed for research purposes. This project investigates the major factors restricting the wide spread of Semantic Web applications. We identify the two most important requirements for a successful implementation as the automatic production of the semantically annotated document, and the creation and maintenance of semantic based knowledge base. This research proposes a framework for Semantic Web implementation based on context-oriented controlled automatic Annotation; for short, we called the framework the Semantic Web Implementation Framework (SWIF) and the system that implements this framework the Semantic Web Implementation System (SWIS). The proposed architecture provides for a Semantic Web implementation of stand-alone websites that automatically annotates Web pages before being uploaded to the Intranet or Internet, and maintains persistent storage of Resource Description Framework (RDF) data for both the domain memory, denoted by Control Knowledge, and the meta-data of the Web site's pages. We believe that the presented implementation of the major parts of SWIS introduce a competitive system with current state of art Annotation tools and knowledge management systems; this is because it handles input documents in the ii context in which they are created in addition to the automatic learning and verification of knowledge using only the available computerized corporate databases. In this work, we introduce the concept of Control Knowledge (CK) that represents the application's domain memory and use it to verify the extracted knowledge. Learning is based on the number of occurrences of the same piece of information in different documents. We introduce the concept of Verifiability in the context of Annotation by comparing the extracted text's meaning with the information in the CK and the use of the proposed database table Verifiability_Tab. We use the linguistic concept Thematic Role in investigating and identifying the correct meaning of words in text documents, this helps correct relation extraction. The verb lexicon used contains the argument structure of each verb together with the thematic structure of the arguments. We also introduce a new method to chunk conjoined statements and identify the missing subject of the produced clauses. We use the semantic class of verbs that relates a list of verbs to a single property in the ontology, which helps in disambiguating the verb in the input text to enable better information extraction and Annotation. Consequently we propose the following definition for the annotated document or what is sometimes called the 'Intelligent Document' 'The Intelligent Document is the document that clearly expresses its syntax and semantics for human use and software automation'. This work introduces a promising improvement to the quality of the automatically generated annotated document and the quality of the automatically extracted information in the knowledge base. Our approach in the area of using Semantic Web iii technology opens new opportunities for diverse areas of applications. E-Learning applications can be greatly improved and become more effective.

For my thesis I have chosen the topic Marketing strategy of tourism business. I have chosen the travel agency Firotour as a tourism company. The target of my thesis was to elaborate the marketing study of a tourism business as a base for strategic marketing. Conducted interviews with employees of the travel agency were held to get to know the operation of Firotour. Further a questionnaire for questionnaire investigation was created.

<p>  </p> <p>The following study is a research thesis on the subject matter of Social Engineering (SE) or Social Engineering Information Security Incidents (SEISI). The research evaluates the common features that can be used to cover a social engineering scenario from the perspectives of all stakeholders, at the individual and organizational level in terms of social engineering Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP). The research utilizes extensive secondary literary sources for understanding the topic of Social Engineering, highlights the issue of inconsistencies in the existing frameworks on social engineering and, addresses the research gap of availability of reliable dataset on past social engineering incidents by information gathered on the common themes of data reported on these. The study annotates salient features which have been identified in several studies in the past to develop a comprehensive dataset of various social engineering attacks which could be used by both computational and social scientists. The resulting codebook or the features of a social engineering are coded and defined based on Pretext Design Maps as well as industry standards and frameworks like MITRE ATT&CK, MITRE CVE, NIST, etc.  Lastly, Psychological Theories of Persuasion like Dr. Cialdini’s principles of persuasion, Elaboration Likelihood Model, and Scherer’s Typology of Affective Emotional States guides the psychological TTPs of social engineering evaluated in this study. </p>

Tesis por compendio / [ES] La información y los sistemas que la tratan son un activo a proteger para personas, organizaciones e incluso países enteros. Nuestra dependencia en las tecnologías de la información es cada día mayor, por lo que su seguridad es clave para nuestro bienestar. Los beneficios que estas tecnologías nos proporcionan son incuestionables, pero su uso también introduce riesgos que ligados a nuestra creciente dependencia de las mismas es necesario mitigar. Los actores hostiles avanzados se categorizan principalmente en grupos criminales que buscan un beneficio económico y en países cuyo objetivo es obtener superioridad en ámbitos estratégicos como el comercial o el militar. Estos actores explotan las tecnologías, y en particular el ciberespacio, para lograr sus objetivos. La presente tesis doctoral realiza aportaciones significativas a la caracterización de los actores hostiles avanzados y a la detección de sus actividades. El análisis de sus características es básico no sólo para conocer a estos actores y sus operaciones, sino para facilitar el despliegue de contramedidas que incrementen nuestra seguridad. La detección de dichas operaciones es el primer paso necesario para neutralizarlas, y por tanto para minimizar su impacto. En el ámbito de la caracterización, este trabajo profundiza en el análisis de las tácticas y técnicas de los actores. Dicho análisis siempre es necesario para una correcta detección de las actividades hostiles en el ciberespacio, pero en el caso de los actores avanzados, desde grupos criminales hasta estados, es obligatorio: sus actividades son sigilosas, ya que el éxito de las mismas se basa, en la mayor parte de casos, en no ser detectados por la víctima. En el ámbito de la detección, este trabajo identifica y justifica los requisitos clave para poder establecer una capacidad adecuada frente a los actores hostiles avanzados. Adicionalmente, proporciona las tácticas que deben ser implementadas en los Centros de Operaciones de Seguridad para optimizar sus capacidades de detección y respuesta. Debemos destacar que estas tácticas, estructuradas en forma de kill-chain, permiten no sólo dicha optimización, sino también una aproximación homogénea y estructurada común para todos los centros defensivos. En mi opinión, una de las bases de mi trabajo debe ser la aplicabilidad de los resultados. Por este motivo, el análisis de tácticas y técnicas de los actores de la amenaza está alineado con el principal marco de trabajo público para dicho análisis, MITRE ATT&CK. Los resultados y propuestas de esta investigación pueden ser directamente incluidos en dicho marco, mejorando así la caracterización de los actores hostiles y de sus actividades en el ciberespacio. Adicionalmente, las propuestas para mejorar la detección de dichas actividades son de aplicación directa tanto en los Centros de Operaciones de Seguridad actuales como en las tecnologías de detección más comunes en la industria. De esta forma, este trabajo mejora de forma significativa las capacidades de análisis y detección actuales, y por tanto mejora a su vez la neutralización de operaciones hostiles. Estas capacidades incrementan la seguridad global de todo tipo de organizaciones y, en definitiva, de nuestra sociedad. / [CA] La informació i els sistemas que la tracten són un actiu a protegir per a persones, organitzacions i fins i tot països sencers. La nostra dependència en les tecnologies de la informació es cada dia major, i per aixó la nostra seguretat és clau per al nostre benestar. Els beneficis que aquestes tecnologies ens proporcionen són inqüestionables, però el seu ús també introdueix riscos que, lligats a la nostra creixent dependència de les mateixes és necessari mitigar. Els actors hostils avançats es categoritzen principalment en grups criminals que busquen un benefici econòmic i en països el objectiu dels quals és obtindre superioritat en àmbits estratègics, com ara el comercial o el militar. Aquests actors exploten les tecnologies, i en particular el ciberespai, per a aconseguir els seus objectius. La present tesi doctoral realitza aportacions significatives a la caracterització dels actors hostils avançats i a la detecció de les seves activitats. L'anàlisi de les seves característiques és bàsic no solament per a conéixer a aquests actors i les seves operacions, sinó per a facilitar el desplegament de contramesures que incrementen la nostra seguretat. La detección de aquestes operacions és el primer pas necessari per a netralitzar-les, i per tant, per a minimitzar el seu impacte. En l'àmbit de la caracterització, aquest treball aprofundeix en l'anàlisi de lestàctiques i tècniques dels actors. Aquesta anàlisi sempre és necessària per a una correcta detecció de les activitats hostils en el ciberespai, però en el cas dels actors avançats, des de grups criminals fins a estats, és obligatòria: les seves activitats són sigiloses, ja que l'éxit de les mateixes es basa, en la major part de casos, en no ser detectats per la víctima. En l'àmbit de la detecció, aquest treball identifica i justifica els requisits clau per a poder establir una capacitat adequada front als actors hostils avançats. Adicionalment, proporciona les tàctiques que han de ser implementades en els Centres d'Operacions de Seguretat per a optimitzar les seves capacitats de detecció i resposta. Hem de destacar que aquestes tàctiques, estructurades en forma de kill-chain, permiteixen no només aquesta optimització, sinò tambié una aproximació homogènia i estructurada comú per a tots els centres defensius. En la meva opinio, una de les bases del meu treball ha de ser l'aplicabilitat dels resultats. Per això, l'anàlisi de táctiques i tècniques dels actors de l'amenaça està alineada amb el principal marc públic de treball per a aquesta anàlisi, MITRE ATT&CK. Els resultats i propostes d'aquesta investigació poden ser directament inclosos en aquest marc, millorant així la caracterització dels actors hostils i les seves activitats en el ciberespai. Addicionalment, les propostes per a millorar la detecció d'aquestes activitats són d'aplicació directa tant als Centres d'Operacions de Seguretat actuals com en les tecnologies de detecció més comuns de la industria. D'aquesta forma, aquest treball millora de forma significativa les capacitats d'anàlisi i detecció actuals, i per tant millora alhora la neutralització d'operacions hostils. Aquestes capacitats incrementen la seguretat global de tot tipus d'organitzacions i, en definitiva, de la nostra societat. / [EN] Information and its related technologies are a critical asset to protect for people, organizations and even whole countries. Our dependency on information technologies increases every day, so their security is a key issue for our wellness. The benefits that information technologies provide are questionless, but their usage also presents risks that, linked to our growing dependency on technologies, we must mitigate. Advanced threat actors are mainly categorized in criminal gangs, with an economic goal, and countries, whose goal is to gain superiority in strategic affairs such as commercial or military ones. These actors exploit technologies, particularly cyberspace, to achieve their goals. This PhD Thesis significantly contributes to advanced threat actors' categorization and to the detection of their hostile activities. The analysis of their features is a must not only to know better these actors and their operations, but also to ease the deployment of countermeasures that increase our security. The detection of these operations is a mandatory first step to neutralize them, so to minimize their impact. Regarding characterization, this work delves into the analysis of advanced threat actors' tactics and techniques. This analysis is always required for an accurate detection of hostile activities in cyberspace, but in the particular case of advances threat actors, from criminal gangs to nation-states, it is mandatory: their activities are stealthy, as their success in most cases relies on not being detected by the target. Regarding detection, this work identifies and justifies the key requirements to establish an accurate response capability to face advanced threat actors. In addition, this work defines the tactics to be deployed in Security Operations Centers to optimize their detection and response capabilities. It is important to highlight that these tactics, with a kill-chain arrangement, allow not only this optimization, but particularly a homogeneous and structured approach, common to all defensive centers. In my opinion, one of the main bases of my work must be the applicability of its results. For this reason, the analysis of threat actors' tactics and techniques is aligned with the main public framework for this analysis, MITRE ATT&CK. The results and proposals from this research can be directly included in this framework, improving the threat actors' characterization, as well as their cyberspace activities' one. In addition, the proposals to improve these activities' detection are directly applicable both in current Security Operations Centers and in common industry technologies. In this way, I consider that this work significantly improves current analysis and detection capabilities, and at the same time it improves hostile operations' neutralization. These capabilities increase global security for all kind of organizations and, definitely, for our whole society. / Villalón Huerta, A. (2023). Modeling of Advanced Threat Actors: Characterization, Categorization and Detection [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/193855 / Compendio

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Die historischen Avantgardebewegungen haben mit dem Angriff auf die Autonomie der Kunst ein Erdbeben erzeugt, das sowohl die zeitgenössische Kunstpraxis als auch die ästhetische Theorie nachhaltig bewegt. Das Vermächtnis der historischen Avantgarden bleibt insofern als the Living Dead bestehen, als die Forderung, politisch wirksame Kunst zu schaffen, seit dem Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts immer wieder begraben und wiederbelebt wird. Auf der Ebene der Theorie pendeln diese Debatten zwischen der Konzeption einer autonomen Kunst einerseits und einer heteronomen Kunst andererseits, wobei Erstere einer philosophischen und Letztere einer soziologischen Kontextualisierung von Kunst entspricht. Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt diese beiden Perspektiven – einmal die ästhetische Theorie von Jacques Rancière und einmal die Gesellschaftstheorie von Niklas Luhmann – nebeneinander und zeigt, wie ein künstlerisches Schaffen – hier Marko Peljhans Projekt Makrolab – zugleich politisch wirksam und politisch unwirksam sein kann. Mit diesem Schritt wird die Diskussion über politische Kunst auf die Diskussion über die Wirksamkeit verschoben. Es wird festgestellt, dass die Frage nach politisch wirksamer Kunst nur im Rahmen einer kulturhistorisch spezifischen Vorstellung von Wirksamkeit möglich ist. Wird diese Vorstellung von Wirksamkeit durch eine andere ersetzt, verliert die Frage nach politischer Kunst ihren Sinn, es erschließt sich jedoch ein neues Verständnis des gesellschaftlichen Wandels, das weit über die Themen der Kunst hinausgeht. / By attacking the autonomy of the arts, the historical avant-gardes caused an upheaval which has resonated in the contemporary artistic practices as well as in art theory to this day. The legacy of the historical avant-gardes remains in the state of the living dead, since the demands to make political art have since the beginning of the 20th century repeatedly been buried and resuscitated. On the level of theory, these debates have been oscillating between the concept of an autonomous sphere of art on the one side and the heteronomous sphere of art on the other, whereas the former corresponds to a philosophical and the latter to a sociological contextualisation of the arts. This text combines both of these perspectives, putting Jacques Rancière’s philosophy of art and Niklas Luhmann’s social theory side by side in order to show how a singular artwork – here Marko Peljhan’s project Makrolab – can be understood as politically efficient and not politically efficient at the same time. With this step the discussion about political art is shifted to a discussion about efficacy and brought to the conclusion that the question of political art is only possible within a frame of a culturally and historically specific conception of efficacy. When this specific conception of efficacy is replaced by another, the question about political art loses its meaning. However, it is exactly at this point that a new understanding of social change opens up, which reaches far beyond the domain of art theory.

Liver disease is now a leading cause of non-AIDS related morbidity and mortality in people living with HIV (PLWH). The present study investigated the interplay between adverse lifestyle factors that are prevalent in PLWH, biological mediators of liver pathogenesis, and a non-invasive measure of liver fibrosis (FIB-4 index) in HIV mono- and HIV/HCV co-infected individuals. The results of this investigation in the Miami Adult Studies of HIV (MASH) cohort show that the odds of liver fibrosis progression significantly increased over two years for HIV mono-infected participants who drank alcohol hazardously (OR 3.038, P=0.048), and had BMI ≥ 28kg/m2 (OR 2.934, P=0.027). Cocaine use reduced the odds of advancing one stage of liver fibrosis (OR 0.228, P=0.038), but an interaction between high BMI and cocaine use slightly raised the odds by 4.8% of liver fibrosis progression (P=0.072). HIV/HCV co-infected participants showed interactions between cocaine use and high BMI with increased FIB-4 stage (OR 4.985, P= 0.034), however no lifestyle factors could independently predict FIB-4 stage in this group. Biological mediators previously associated with liver pathogenesis were associated with higher FIB-4 index over 2 years in a subset of (n=65) HIV mono-infected participants. Plasma measures of oxidative stress (% oxidized glutathione: OR 4.342, P= 0.046), hepatocyte-specific apoptosis (Cytokeratin-18 (CK-18): OR 1.008, P=0.021), and microbial endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide (LPS): OR 1.098, P= 0.097) were associated with having higher odds of progressing at least one stage of FIB-4 over 2 years. The same biological mediators were also associated with liver fibrosis within HIV infected people who also had a harmful lifestyle characteristic. FIB-4 index was significantly associated with % oxidized glutathione in obese subjects (β=0.563, P=0.018), TGF-β1 in cocaine users (β=0.858, P=0.027), and CK-18 in HIV infected individuals without any adverse lifestyle factors (β=0.435, P=0.015). Taken together, the findings of these studies describe interrelationships between HIV disease status, lifestyle, and biological mediators of liver fibrosis. The results show interactions between lifestyle conditions and the mediators of liver fibrosis may account for higher rates of liver disease in HIV infection. Research is warranted to develop personalized therapeutics for PLWH to curb the burden of liver disease.

和顧客保持長期關係，對於企業經營是有利的，然而，由於資訊科技的進步與物流效率的提升，顧客越來越來越聰明，要尋找並取得替代產品與服務也越來越容易。在這樣的環境前提下，如何使顧客願意與企業維持長期關係而不轉向競爭者，是企業的一大挑戰。在文獻探討中本文發現，其關鍵是在於要能夠持續與顧客互動並了解顧客，並且將這些了解應用於產品設計、流程設計與組織設計。對於顧客的了解，本文定義其為顧客知識，就成為了顧客關係的基石。不過，由於與顧客的接觸點越多，了解顧客的管道就越多，其整合上有一定的難度，而資訊科技與傳統行銷方法都能夠產生對於顧客的了解，再加上產生並應用對於顧客的了解，以塑造顧客在消費與使用產品與服務時能得到高度的滿意，已經企業所有部門的責任，這樣跨部門的作業也不是一件簡單的事，這些議題都是企業在顧客知識管理上所需面對的。 在過往的文獻中所談的顧客知識管理，很多都混淆顧客資訊與知識，較無探討企業如何加工與顧客互動所得到的資訊，因此無法清楚了解企業在顧客知識管理上所作的貢獻為何。本文就以流程觀點，並以目前市場需求飽和且競爭激烈的人壽保險產業中的一家企業：保誠人壽為例，探討企業內的顧客知識流程，並且探討主要的影響因素，以了解企業在顧客知識管理上所作的努力。 而在本文個案的探訪後，本文還嘗試以服務業作業系統的角度，提出一種顧客知識的新分類：前台作業所需的顧客知識、後台作業所需的顧客知識，並且根據個案中保誠人壽的實際做法，修正文獻探討所提出的顧客知識管理架構，並且提出三種顧客知識管理的類型以及提出其管理重點，以作為實務界與後人研究的參考。 / It is beneficial for an enterprise to keep long-term relationship with its customers. However, owing to advances of information technology and the improvement of logistics efficiency, it is not difficult to search and acquire better products and services to substitute for what they are using now. Under these circumstances, it is a challenge for enterprises to retain their customers. How to do this? The answer in literatures is: to gain more customer insights (defined as customer knowledge in this study) through interactions with customers and apply them in product design, process design and organizational structure design. Therefore customer knowledge is the basics of long-term relationships with customers. But still, there are issues. First, an enterprise may have many contact points with its customers. Then, there are traditional ways versus information technology ways to generate customer knowledge. Finally, an enterprise has to think how to address appropriate customer knowledge to right departments and use them to enhance the total experience when interacting with customers. These are all issues an enterprise has to face with when trying to do “Customer Knowledge Management” (CKM). Most of past studies on CKM did not tell the difference between information and knowledge, thus can not clearly define what contributions an enterprise makes when implementing CKM. This study attempts to investigate practices of CKM in an enterprise in life insurance industry, in which the demand is saturated and the competition is fierce, from a process perspective to manifest how customer knowledge is generated and applied, and what main factors are to affect CKM in an enterprise. After investigation of the case, this study proposes a new framework, from the operation system in service industry, to classify customer knowledge into two categories: customer knowledge needed for front-office operations, and customer knowledge needed for back-office operations. In addition, according to practices in this case, this study will revise the CKM process framework proposed right after the literature review, and will raise keys to successful CKM in CKM processes, for the reference for following studies.