How to Safely Close a Discussion

In the secure communication problem, we focus on safe termination. In applications such as electronic transactions, we want each party to be ensured that both sides agree on the same state: success or failure. This problem is equivalent to the well known coordinated attack problem. Solutions exist. They however concentrate on the probability of disagreement, and attack incentives have been overlooked so far. Furthermore, they focus on a notion of round and are not optimal in terms of communication complexity. To solve the safe termination problem, we revisit the Keep-in-Touch protocol that we introduced in 2003. Considering the communication complexity, the probability of unsafe termination, and the attack incentive, we prove that the Keep-in-Touch protocol is optimal

Kinematics of the outer accretion disk in cataclysmic variables

Abstract. This Masters thesis focuses on studying the kinematics of the outer accretion disk in cataclysmic variables. Cataclysmic variables are a type of interacting binary stars featuring a white dwarf and a main sequence star. Accretion disks in cataclysmic variables are born, when a secondary star still in main sequence overfills its Roche lobe and starts leaking gas towards the primary star (the white dwarf). The extent of the accretion disk has been a cause for discussion; methods measuring it from the hot spot, the place where accretion stream hits the disk, characteristically lead to smaller radii than measuring the radius from outer disk velocities. However, disk size estimates from the outer disk velocities heavily depend on the velocity field. The aim here is to check how close the outer accretion disk is to Keplerian velocities and simple three-body orbits. To do this, they are compared to simulated accretion disks using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. Same comparisons are then done against observational data using Doppler tomography. Our study finds that the Keplerian velocity at the tidal truncation limit can safely be used as a lower limit for orbit-averaged disk. Furthermore, last non-intersecting three-body orbit seems to trace the disk edge quite well, and it can be used as an estimate for accretion disk size

Child–parent interaction in relation to road safety education : Part 2 – main report

• Children and young people are particularly vulnerable road users. • Child pedestrian injury rates are poor compared with the rest of Europe. • The factors that impact on children’s road safety and their capability in traffic are numerous, multi-faceted and complex. • • The systematic review conducted by Cattan et al. (2008) as the initial phase of this study shows that: • parents see themselves as being responsible for developing their children’s road safety awareness and skills; • holding hands is the most common road-crossing interaction between parents and children; • adults rarely make use of road-crossing events to give oral instructions; • few parents and children are consistent in their road-crossing behaviour; • roadside training by volunteer parents for groups of children can lead to significant improvements in children’s road safety behaviour; • belief in fate seems to influence the likelihood of parents using restraints, such as seat belts or car seats, with their children; and • parents’ understanding of the child’s perspective in carrying out road safety tasks and their motivation to actively involve their child in making decisions at the roadside can be improved through training. • Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1986) suggests that the modelling role of parents can make a significant contribution to children’s learning about road use and their development of traffic competence whether or not parents are aware of this. • The main aim of this study was to explore the way parents influence children and young people aged 0–16 years to be safer road users. • This study included children and young people aged 5–16 and parents of children aged 0–16 years old

Knowledge and the Objection to Religious Belief from Cognitive Science

A large chorus of voices has grown around the claim that theistic belief is epistemically suspect since, as some cognitive scientists have hypothesized, such beliefs are a byproduct of cognitive mechanisms which evolved for rather different adaptive purposes. This paper begins with an overview of the pertinent cognitive science followed by a short discussion of some relevant epistemic concepts. Working from within a largely Williamsonian framework, we then present two different ways in which this research can be formulated into an argument against theistic belief. We argue that neither version work

A community approach to road safety education using practical training methods : the Drumchapel project

Research shows that practical training methods, in which children receive guided experience of solving traffic problems in realistic traffic situations, are amongst the most effective in improving children's pedestrian competence. However, practical training is both time consuming and labour intensive, making it difficult to capitalise on the strengths of the method. The report describes a solution to this problem by adopting a community participation approach in which local volunteers carried out all roadside training, working in co-operation with schools and project staff. The project took place in an area of Glasgow known for its exceptionally high child pedestrian accident rate

Building Safe Families Through Educating on Adverse Childhood Experiences

Master's Project (M.Ed.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2018There is a strong correlation between families that work with child welfare agencies and the prevalence of maltreatment during childhood. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been linked to poor health outcomes but are much more negatively correlated when 3 or more ACEs have been experienced during a childhood (Hunt, Slack & Berger, 2017; Crouch, Strompolis, Bennett, Morse, & Radcliff, 2017). Teaching parents about the impacts of ACEs and how they may more safely parent, can reduce the recidivism of future maltreatment in at-risk families who work with child welfare agencies. Education can give parents the power and motivation to make better decisions for themselves and for their families