Junctions podcast

This report outlines the development process for Junctions, an original, mini-drama podcast that explores racial bias in the context of everyday interaction. The report consists of three sections – The Podcast, Pilot Episode, and Future Episodes – each of which speaks to a different aspect of the program’s framework. It also includes nearly all of the planning documents I created during pre-production, production, and post-production.Radio-Television-Fil

Controlling evaporation loss from water storages

[Executive Summary]: Evaporation losses from on-farm storage can potentially be large, particularly in irrigation areas in northern New South Wales and Queensland where up to 40% of storage volume can be lost each year to evaporation. Reducing evaporation from a water storage would allow additional crop production, water trading or water for the environment. While theoretical research into evaporation from storages has previously been undertaken there has been little evaluation of current evaporation mitigation technologies (EMTs) on commercial sized water storages. This project was initiated by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines (NRM) with the express aim of addressing this gap in our knowledge. The report addressed i) assessment of the effectiveness of different EMT’s in reducing evaporation from commercial storages across a range of climate regions, ii) assessment of the practical and technical limitations of different evaporation control products, and iii) comparison of the economics of different EMT’s on water storages used for irrigation

Understanding the vulnerabilities in Wi-Fi and the impact on its use in CCTV systems

Modern surveillance devices are increasingly being taken off private networks and placed onto networks connected via gateway to the Internet or into Wi-Fi based local area wireless networks (LAWN). The devices are also increasingly using IPv4 and IPv6 network stacks and some form of embedded processing or compute built in. Additionally, some specialist devices are using assistive technologies such as GPS or A-GPS. This paper explored the issues with use of the technologies in a networked environment, both wireless and internetworked. Analysis of these systems shows that the use of IP based CCTV systems carries greater risk than traditional CCTV systems, primarily due to the exposure to IP based vulnerabilities. Furthermore, Wi-Fi based IP CCTV systems are additionally susceptible to remote, physical denial of service attacks due to the broadcast nature of wireless communication systems. Interception of traffic is possible with IP based systems, and again, Wi-Fi IP based CCTV systems are more susceptible due to protocol vulnerabilities and lack of processing power. The paper concludes that more research is needed in this area to identify and classify generic vulnerabilities that these systems are vulnerable to, and to present a framework which can be used to mitigate the risk of adopting these systems

Understanding the Vulnerabilities in Wi-Fi and the Impact on its Use in CCTV Systems

Modern surveillance devices are increasingly being taken off private networks and placed onto networks connected via gateway to the Internet or into Wi-Fi based local area wireless networks (LAWN). The devices are also increasingly using IPv4 and IPv6 network stacks and some form of embedded processing or compute built in. Additionally, some specialist devices are using assistive technologies such as GPS or A-GPS. This paper explored the issues with use of the technologies in a networked environment, both wireless and internetworked. Analysis of these systems shows that the use of IP based CCTV systems carries greater risk than traditional CCTV systems, primarily due to the exposure to IP based vulnerabilities. Furthermore, Wi-Fi based IP CCTV systems are additionally susceptible to remote, physical denial of service attacks due to the broadcast nature of wireless communication systems. Interception of traffic is possible with IP based systems, and again, Wi-Fi IP based CCTV systems are more susceptible due to protocol vulnerabilities and lack of processing power. The paper concludes that more research is needed in this area to identify and classify generic vulnerabilities that these systems are vulnerable to, and to present a framework which can be used to mitigate the risk of adopting these systems

The large‐scale freshwater cycle of the Arctic

This paper synthesizes our understanding of the Arctic\u27s large‐scale freshwater cycle. It combines terrestrial and oceanic observations with insights gained from the ERA‐40 reanalysis and land surface and ice‐ocean models. Annual mean freshwater input to the Arctic Ocean is dominated by river discharge (38%), inflow through Bering Strait (30%), and net precipitation (24%). Total freshwater export from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic is dominated by transports through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (35%) and via Fram Strait as liquid (26%) and sea ice (25%). All terms are computed relative to a reference salinity of 34.8. Compared to earlier estimates, our budget features larger import of freshwater through Bering Strait and larger liquid phase export through Fram Strait. While there is no reason to expect a steady state, error analysis indicates that the difference between annual mean oceanic inflows and outflows (∼8% of the total inflow) is indistinguishable from zero. Freshwater in the Arctic Ocean has a mean residence time of about a decade. This is understood in that annual freshwater input, while large (∼8500 km3), is an order of magnitude smaller than oceanic freshwater storage of ∼84,000 km3. Freshwater in the atmosphere, as water vapor, has a residence time of about a week. Seasonality in Arctic Ocean freshwater storage is nevertheless highly uncertain, reflecting both sparse hydrographic data and insufficient information on sea ice volume. Uncertainties mask seasonal storage changes forced by freshwater fluxes. Of flux terms with sufficient data for analysis, Fram Strait ice outflow shows the largest interannual variability

Why penetration testing is a limited use choice for sound cyber security practice

Penetration testing of networks is a process that is overused when demonstrating or evaluating the cyber security posture of an organisation. Most penetration testing is not aligned with the actual intent of the testing, but rather is driven by a management directive of wanting to be seen to be addressing the issue of cyber security. The use of penetration testing is commonly a reaction to an adverse audit outcome or as a result of being penetrated in the first place. Penetration testing used in this fashion delivers little or no value to the organisation being tested for a number of reasons. First, a test is only as good as the tools, the tester and the methodology being applied. Second, the results are largely temporal. That is, the test will likely only find known vulnerabilities that exist at one specific point in time and not larger longitudinal flaws with the cyber security of an organisation, one such flaw commonly being governance. Finally, in many cases, one has to question what the point is in breaking the already broken. Penetration testing has its place when used judiciously and as part of an overall review and audit of cyber security. It can be an invaluable tool to assess the ability of a system to survive a sustained attack if properly scoped and deployed. However, it is our assessment and judgement that this rarely occurs

Out of plane loading of drag embedment anchors for floating renewable energy technologies

Drag embedment anchors are a technology that has developed through many years’ experience. However, as demand increases for anchoring of clean energy technologies offshore, so the requirements of modern drag embedment anchors have evolved. A more resilient infrastructure requires improved understanding of how an anchor will perform in abnormal loading conditions, such as when a load is applied out of plane to the direction in which it was installed. This work presents data from a set of tests carried out on the University of Dundee geotechnical centrifuge in order to understand how a typical 12t Bruce GP drag embedment anchor performs in sandy soil. Initial tests in loose and medium-dense soil conditions identify the ultimate holding capacity (UHC) of the anchor. Subsequent tests were then conducted in which the anchors were dragged to 60% of the UHC, to mimic current installation practice, before being loaded to failure at angles of 20, 30 and 45°, inclined to the in-line direction. Measurements of the out-of-plane holding capacity were compared to the in-line loading conditions and demonstrated that holding capacities under side-loading angles up to 20° were similar to the straight pull capacity

Detecting heat stress in dairy cattle using neck-mounted activity collars

Collar based activity sensors are in common use as a means of detecting oestrus to optimise farm fertility and hence productivity. More recently the same acceleration-derived signals have been processed to detect the time spent ruminating and eating which together give an insight into animal welfare. Here the use of neck-mounted accelerometers to provide a quantifiable measure of the time period that an individual animal exhibits signs of heat stress is reported. Heat stress has a significant impact on both animal welfare and productivity. Cattle studied during elevated temperatures were found to exhibit signs of exaggerated breathing motions, an indicator of heat stress, for 8 hours on average per day. This exceeds the time that cattle spend feeding and is similar to daily rumination times which could impact on both animal welfare and production. No similar cases were recorded on the cooler conditions of a Scottish winter. The approach offers a cost effective measure of heat stress and a potential tool to quantify its impact more generally