Droplet: A New Denial-of-Service Attack on Low Power Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper we present a new kind of Denial-of-Service attack against the PHY layer of low power wireless sensor networks. Overcoming the very limited range of jamming-based attacks, this attack can penetrate deep into a target network with high power efficiency. We term this the Droplet attack, as it attains enormous disruption by dropping small, payload-less frame headers to its victim's radio receiver, depriving the latter of bandwidth and sleep time. We demonstrate the Droplet attack's high damage rate to full duty-cycle receivers, and further show that a high frequency version of Droplet can even force nodes running on very low duty-cycle MAC protocols to drop most of their packets

Making Evildoers Pay: Resource-Competitive Broadcast in Sensor Networks

Consider a time-slotted, single-hop, wireless sensor network (WSN) consisting of n correct devices and and t=f*n Byzantine devices where f>=0 is any constant; that is, the Byzantine devices may outnumber the correct ones. There exists a trusted sender Alice who wishes to deliver a message m over a single channel to the correct devices. There also exists a malicious user Carol who controls the t Byzantine devices and uses them to disrupt the communication channel. For a constant k>=2, the correct and Byzantine devices each possess a meager energy budget of O(n^{1/k}), Alice and Carol each possess a limited budget of \tilde{O}(n^{1/k}), and sending or listening in a slot incurs unit cost. This general setup captures the inherent challenges of guaranteeing communication despite scarce resources and attacks on the network. Given this Alice versus Carol scenario, we ask: Is communication of m feasible and, if so, at what cost? We develop a protocol which, for an arbitrarily small constant \epsilon>0, ensures that at least (1-\epsilon)n correct devices receive m with high probability. Furthermore, if Carol's devices expend T energy jamming the channel, then Alice and the correct devices each spend only \tilde{O}(T^{1/(k+1)}). In other words, delaying the transmission of m forces a jammer to rapidly deplete its energy supply and, consequently, cease attacks on the network

Systemic materialism

I present a condensed exposé of systemic materialism, a synthesis of materialism and systemism originally proposed by Mario Bunge. Matter is identified with mutability of propertied particulars, and a concrete or material system is defined as an object with composition, structure, mechanism, and environment. I review different aspects of this ontology, and discuss some of its implications for epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics. I also try to identify some problems of this view and offer some ways to overcome the difficulties. I conclude that systemic materialism is a promising philosophical project still in the making

Imagination and Science in Romanticism

How did the idea of the imagination impact Romantic literature and science?2018 Winner, Jean-Pierre Barricelli Book Prize, The International Conference on RomanticismRichard C. Sha argues that scientific understandings of the imagination indelibly shaped literary Romanticism. Challenging the idea that the imagination found a home only on the side of the literary, as a mental vehicle for transcending the worldly materials of the sciences, Sha shows how imagination helped to operationalize both scientific and literary discovery. Essentially, the imagination forced writers to consider the difference between what was possible and impossible while thinking about how that difference could be known. Sha examines how the imagination functioned within physics and chemistry in Percy Bysshe Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, neurology in Blake's Vala, or The Four Zoas, physiology in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria, and obstetrics and embryology in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He also demonstrates how the imagination was called upon to do aesthetic and scientific work using primary examples taken from the work of scientists and philosophers Davy, Dalton, Faraday, Priestley, Kant, Mary Somerville, Oersted, Marcet, Smellie, Swedenborg, Blumenbach, Buffon, Erasmus Darwin, and Von Baer, among others. Sha concludes that both fields benefited from thinking about how imagination could cooperate with reason—but that this partnership was impossible unless imagination's penchant for fantasy could be contained

The Biometric Evolution of Sound and Space

Auditoria in the late 20th and 21st centuries have evolved into a series of spatial conventions that are an established and accepted norm. The relationship between space and music now exists in a decoupled condition, and music is no longer reliant on volumetric and material conditions to define its form (Glantz 2000). This thesis looks at a series of novel approaches to investigate how the links between music and space can be reconnected though evolutionary computation, parametric modelling, virtual acoustics and biometric sensing. The thesis describes in detail the experiments undertaken in developing methodologies in linking music, space and the body. The thesis will show how it is possible to develop new form finding and musical generation tools that allow new room shapes and acoustic measures to inform how new acoustic and musical forms can be developed unconsciously and objectively by a listener, in response to sound and site

Race, Gender, “Redlining,” and the Discriminatory Access to Loans, Credit, and Insurance: An Historical and Empirical Analysis of Consumers Who Sued Lenders and Insurers in Federal and State Courts, 1950-1995

Courts have failed to consistently remedy insurers’ and lenders’ discrimination against low-income individuals, women, and minorities. State and federal courts have tried to resolve disputes involving redlining, unequal access to capital, and insurance discrimination. Because of courts’ failures, Congress passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 (“ECOA”) and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (“CRA”) to protect minorities and low income individuals. But the ECOA and CRA have not achieved their stated goals of eradicating either insurance or mortgage redlining. In most states, the responsibility of enforcing federal fair-lending laws and eradicating all sorts of financial redlining is given to states’ insurance superintendents, finance commissioners, and human/civil rights commissioners. These agencies are responsible for enforcing a state’s anti-redlining and equal-access-to-credit laws. But state agencies and commissions--like their federal counterparts--are not effective; they have not been able to prevent or eradicate either insurance or mortgage redlining. Additionally, federal and state judicial proceedings are truly inferior settings for addressing these types of consumers’ complaints. Courts are likely to allow impermissible and prejudicial factors to influence their procedural and substantive rulings. Prejudice could be avoided by state and federal regulators using their political power and acumen to lobby for the creation of courts specialized in eradicating insurance or mortgage redlining

Questionable Summary Judgments, Appearances of Judicial Bias, and Insurance Defense in Texas Declaratory-Judgment Trials: A Proposal and Arguments for Revising Texas Rules of Civil Procedure 166a(a), 166a(b), and 166a(i)

Economic necessity, expanding dockets, and judicial bias and unfairness are reasons for removing summary judgement practice from declaratory judgment trials in Texas. The Texas Supreme Court adopted the summary judgment rule primarily to prevent juries from considering arguably groundless causes, to reduce costs, and to increase the efficient administration of justice. The Texas Supreme Court could prevent summary judgment practice in declaratory judgment cases. Texas\u27s judges have the power to decide questions of fact and law when considering whether to award declaratory relief, negating the perceived need to entertain motions for summary relief. Trial judges must employ those doctrines to interpret insureds\u27 and insurers\u27 duties and rights under liability and indemnity insurance contracts. Courts cavalierly or intentionally apply summary judgment rules automatically and quite inappropriately to achieve an outcome. Judges should consider former Texas Supreme Court justices\u27 arguments about the pitfalls, dangers, and cavalier use of summary judgment practice. And more importantly, the summary judgement practice should be abolished from declaratory judgement trials in Texas

The contentious performances of culture jamming : art, repertoires of contention, and social movement theory

Culture jamming is a form of contentious politics in which activists utilize ironic frames to challenge a dominant set of social relationships and institutions. Despite its contestational nature, scholars rarely apply the insights of social movement theory to explain this curious phenomenon. The main concerns of this project are to provide an empirical analysis of culture jamming organizations and to develop a theoretical approach to explaining repertoire change and tactical choice. The primary thesis mediating these empirical and theoretical concerns is that a close relation exists between the development of twentieth century art in advanced Western democracies and culture jamming. Developing this argument and addressing these concerns entails three basic tasks. First, in view of the failure of the literature to provide a robust concept, I develop a rigorous conceptualization of culture jamming as an oppositional tactic. Second, I present an approach to theory that begins to integrate the macro- and micro-levels of analysis. This task involves both a dialogue between sociologists Charles Tilly and Pierre Bourdieu and their reconciliation with collective action theory, the application of rational choice theory to social movements and protest. Although multi-faceted, this synthesis focuses on collective identities and resources as explanations of the evaluations of tactical alternatives. Third, I improve on previous efforts to study culture jamming empirically by applying the most rigorous methodological techniques available under significant data and sampling constraints. I compare and contrast the data from a sample of twelve culture jamming organizations to generate the most comprehensive empirical portrait of such groups in the literature

The Public Papers of Governor Keen Johnson, 1939-1943

Keen Johnson was governor of Kentucky from 1939 to 1943—years that spanned the end of the Depression and the initial involvement of this country in the Second World War. The account of Johnson’s administration is chronicled here through a collection of his public papers. The material, organized by subject and arranged chronologically within each area, presents a rather clear picture of Governor Johnson’s plans and concerns for Kentucky and of the actions he took as chief executive on behalf of the state. In contrast to contemporary procedures concerning the preservation of governors’ papers in university and state archives, many of the Johnson papers were difficult to locate and, apart from a few complete speech manuscripts, were reconstructed in large part from cards containing outlines and notes for speeches, along with many state and local newspaper accounts of speeches he made and of events in which he participated. Many speeches have been extensively footnoted by the editor to provide the reader with supplementary information. Also included in this volume is a perceptive evaluation of the Johnson administration by H. Clyde Reeves, who served in it as a commissioner of revenue. The appendix offers as complete a listing as was possible to reconstruct of the speeches delivered by Governor Johnson during his term of office. Frederic D. Ogden is former dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and associate vice-president for planning at Eastern Kentucky University. A model for historical researchers faced with the problem of reconstructing the past from incomplete and unorganized source materials. —The Register of the Kentucky Historical Societyhttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_science_papers/1006/thumbnail.jp