10,892 research outputs found
Marine baseline and monitoring strategies for Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS)
The QICS controlled release experiment demonstrates that leaks of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas can be detected by monitoring acoustic, geochemical and biological parameters within a given marine system. However the natural complexity and variability of marine system responses to (artificial) leakage strongly suggests that there are no absolute indicators of leakage or impact that can unequivocally and universally be used for all potential future storage sites. We suggest a multivariate, hierarchical approach to monitoring, escalating from anomaly detection to attribution, quantification and then impact assessment, as required. Given the spatial heterogeneity of many marine ecosystems it is essential that environmental monitoring programmes are supported by a temporally (tidal, seasonal and annual) and spatially resolved baseline of data from which changes can be accurately identified. In this paper we outline and discuss the options for monitoring methodologies and identify the components of an appropriate baseline survey
Aerospace medicine and biology. A continuing bibliography with indexes, supplement 195
This bibliography lists 148 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in June 1979
POWER-SUPPLaY: Leaking Data from Air-Gapped Systems by Turning the Power-Supplies Into Speakers
It is known that attackers can exfiltrate data from air-gapped computers
through their speakers via sonic and ultrasonic waves. To eliminate the threat
of such acoustic covert channels in sensitive systems, audio hardware can be
disabled and the use of loudspeakers can be strictly forbidden. Such audio-less
systems are considered to be \textit{audio-gapped}, and hence immune to
acoustic covert channels.
In this paper, we introduce a technique that enable attackers leak data
acoustically from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems. Our developed malware
can exploit the computer power supply unit (PSU) to play sounds and use it as
an out-of-band, secondary speaker with limited capabilities. The malicious code
manipulates the internal \textit{switching frequency} of the power supply and
hence controls the sound waveforms generated from its capacitors and
transformers. Our technique enables producing audio tones in a frequency band
of 0-24khz and playing audio streams (e.g., WAV) from a computer power supply
without the need for audio hardware or speakers. Binary data (files,
keylogging, encryption keys, etc.) can be modulated over the acoustic signals
and sent to a nearby receiver (e.g., smartphone). We show that our technique
works with various types of systems: PC workstations and servers, as well as
embedded systems and IoT devices that have no audio hardware at all. We provide
technical background and discuss implementation details such as signal
generation and data modulation. We show that the POWER-SUPPLaY code can operate
from an ordinary user-mode process and doesn't need any hardware access or
special privileges. Our evaluation shows that using POWER-SUPPLaY, sensitive
data can be exfiltrated from air-gapped and audio-gapped systems from a
distance of five meters away at a maximal bit rates of 50 bit/sec
ENVIE Co-ordination action on indoor air quality and health effects; WP3 Final report â Characterisation of spaces and source
Human exposure to environmental pollutants occurs via various pathways. For many
pollutants, especially the volatile ones, air exposure is the dominant pathway.
Exposure via air occurs both outdoors and indoors, with diverse types of indoor
spaces playing a role, e.g., home, workplace, and passenger cabins of means of
transportation. In average people spend over 90% of their time indoors, that
percentage being particularly high for some specific groups as new-born,
elderly, disabled or sick people. The global exposure to air contaminants is
therefore drastically determined by indoor conditions. It is now well
established that indoor air pollution contributes significantly to the global
burden of disease of the population. For a majority of indoor air contaminants,
particularly in the presence of common indoor sources, however, indoor
concentrations usually exceed outdoor concentrations, for some pollutants even
with an indoor/outdoor ratio of 10 or 20. Emissions are identified, accordingly
to the EnVIE approach and grouped into four categories: building materials and
related sources, including dampness and moulds; ventilation, natural and
mechanical, including, or not, heating, cooling and humidification/
dehumidification; consumer products, furnishing, cleaning and household
products; and occupant activities. Emission of chemical substances from
construction materials and products in buildings to the indoor air have been
reported and reviewed for a wide range of substances, including those formed
during secondary reactions, causing complaints of irritation and odour. During
the last two decades there has been increasing advances in construction
technology that have caused a much greater use of synthetic building materials.
Whilst these improvements have led to more comfortable buildings, they also
provide indoor environments with contaminants in higher concentrations than are
found outside. Wood and cork are now frequently used as a building product for
floor coverings, because the material is often regarded as ânaturalâ and
âhealthyâ. However, industrial products, even based on natural raw materials,
may contain a number of artificial ingredients and the chemical emissions will
strongly depend on the type of additives and the manufacturing process. Modern
interior paints are usually based on a polymeric binder. In order to fulfil
requirements on e.g., durability, paint contains various functional chemicals.
Water-borne paints usually also contains small amounts of approved biocides.
Polymeric binders with a very low content of residual monomers have been
developed for paint. Besides the release of substances to the indoor air due to
primary emission, damp building materials may give rise to volatile substances
formed during secondary reactions. Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) are
now receiving much more attention than heretofore. The HVAC (Heating,
Ventilation and Air Conditioning) systems as providers, among others, of
services of cleaning and dilution of pollutants in the indoor air are also
recognized as potential pollution sources. Several studies have shown that the
prevalence of SBS symptoms is often higher in air conditioned buildings than in
buildings with natural ventilation. 8 The outdoor air introduced indoors through
either ventilation systems or natural means is also an important and not always
controllable source for the intake of some outdoor pollutants. Outdoor air used
for ventilation may also be source of pollution containing particulate matter,
particulates of biological origin (microorganisms, pollen, etc.) and various
gases like NOx and O building structures which is a driving force for the
airflows which will transport to indoors water vapour and gaseous or particulate
contaminants. Volatile organic compounds are emitted from a wide variety of
household and consumer products with emission rates that are strongly dependent
on the type of application and are distributed over several orders of magnitude.
A number of product classes are identified and information on ingredients and
available data on emissions from individual products are presented. Human
activities and the associated use of products encompass a wide range of indoor
sources involving release of inorganic gases, particles and organic compounds as
a consequence of the activity. For some releases such as with air fresheners the
release is a necessary part of the activity to achieve the intended effect
whereas for others, such as the release of combustion fumes from a gas
appliance, the purpose of the action (in this case generation of heat) is
different from the emission. Combustion processes are an important source of a
range of air pollutants as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide,
particulates and associated inorganic and organic chemicals, organic vapours
e.g. formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and benzene. Sources of these are present in
both ambient and indoor environments. The concentrations present in the ambient
air provide a baseline for the level of pollutant found indoors as this air
enters indoors by processes of infiltration and ventilation. However, the
concentration indoors will be modified by processes of sorption to surfaces and
chemical reaction depending on the chemical and physical properties of the
pollutant and internal surfaces. People themselves are a source of emissions of
chemicals and gases, notably CO range of organic compounds that are referred to
as body odours. The removal of such body odours is a prime objective of
ventilation in order to achieve a satisfactory indoor environment. WP3 aims at
to characterize spaces and sources in order to understand where and how to act
to guarantee good IAQ. From the two strategies for good IAQ, source control and
ventilation, the precautionary principle suggests that first priority shall be
given to source control, avoiding, mitigating or simply managing sources of
emissions. An overview of all policies on IAQ or related to IAQ, existing or in
preparation, directly related to indoor air sources, but also covering outdoor
air and industrial emissions, which could affect indirectly IAQ is made.
Considering the presented it could be concluded that IAQ is yet poorly regulated
at EU level, and in view of that some recommendations are made. The
recommendations on policies have taken into account the existing related to IAQ
policies such as new EU policies on chemicals (REACH; 2006/121/EC), consumer
products (GPSD; 2001/95/EC), construction products (CPD; 89/106/EC) and energy
performance of buildings (EPBD; 2002/91/EC) all refer to IAQ issues - suggesting
that they could, and probably should, contribute to IAQ policy development and
advocate an integrative and comprehensive policy approach centred
Crowd-sensing our Smart Cities: a Platform for Noise Monitoring and Acoustic Urban Planning
Environmental pollution and the corresponding control measurements put in place to tackle it play a significant role in determining the actual quality of life in modern cities. Amongst the several pollutant that have to be faced on a daily basis, urban noise represent one of the most widely known for its already ascertained health-related issues. However, no systematic noise management and control activities are performed in the majority of European cities due to a series of limiting factors (e.g., expensive monitoring equipment, few available technician, scarce awareness of the problem in city managers). The recent advances in the Smart City model, which is being progressively adopted in many cities, nowadays offer multiple possibilities to improve the effectiveness in this area. The Mobile Crowd Sensing paradigm allows collecting data streams from smartphone built-in sensors on large geographical scales at no cost and without involving expert data captors, provided that an adequate IT infrastructure has been implemented to manage properly the gathered measurements. In this paper, we present an improved version of a MCS-based platform, named City Soundscape, which allows exploiting any Android-based device as a portable acoustic monitoring station and that offers city managers an effective and straightforward tool for planning Noise Reduction Interventions (NRIs) within their cities. The platform also now offers a new logical microservices architecture
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