Growing Up Toxic: Chemical Exposures and Increases in Developmental Disease

Explains how exposure to toxic chemicals can harm health and impair development, causing premature birth, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders, asthma and allergies, and/or other problems. Suggests policy reforms

Machine-assisted Cyber Threat Analysis using Conceptual Knowledge Discovery

Over the last years, computer networks have evolved into highly dynamic and interconnected environments, involving multiple heterogeneous devices and providing a myriad of services on top of them. This complex landscape has made it extremely difficult for security administrators to keep accurate and be effective in protecting their systems against cyber threats. In this paper, we describe our vision and scientific posture on how artificial intelligence techniques and a smart use of security knowledge may assist system administrators in better defending their networks. To that end, we put forward a research roadmap involving three complimentary axes, namely, (I) the use of FCA-based mechanisms for managing configuration vulnerabilities, (II) the exploitation of knowledge representation techniques for automated security reasoning, and (III) the design of a cyber threat intelligence mechanism as a CKDD process. Then, we describe a machine-assisted process for cyber threat analysis which provides a holistic perspective of how these three research axes are integrated together

Fighting terror with law? Some other genealogies of pre-emption

Within criminology and criminal law the reception of post-9/11 counter-terrorist law has generally been critical, if not hostile. The undeniable proliferation of preventive statutes has been regarded as incompatible with conventional liberal norms and as dangerously innovative in its embrace of new strategies of control. But is such law innovative, and does it threaten to leach into other areas of criminal law, as some have feared? Exploring three governmental innovations – mental health law, habitual criminal controls, and civilian internment in war-time – that developed as expressions of the liberal state’s desire to ensure the safety of its citizens in times of peace and war, the authors argue that a more historically grounded understanding of the governmental and geopolitical contexts of security provides a surer foundation on which to construct the frameworks of interpretation of contemporary counter-terrorism law

Community preferences for digital futures: regional perspectives

The purpose of the study was to understand community preferences for digital futures in the Southern Downs Region in Queensland, Australia. This study examined the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the digital future in the regional context. The methodology applied in this study included three focus group discussions (FGDs) along with a structured questionnaire survey for the participants. Some key suggestions which evolved from the FGDs are that digital services need to be cost-effective and people from low socio-economic backgrounds may require specific supportive measures. A consensus emerged that the provision of this vital digital education needs to be at low or subsidised cost at remote areas. It is therefore important to have a comprehensive understanding of community needs, demands and barriers to adoption to come up with a digital economy strategy for the future. While the FGDs provide an avenue for basic understanding of the broad range of issues at the community level, further micro-level analyses that shed light on the adoption and effects of digital technology on households and businesses are clearly warranted

Online advertising: analysis of privacy threats and protection approaches

Online advertising, the pillar of the “free” content on the Web, has revolutionized the marketing business in recent years by creating a myriad of new opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers. The current advertising model builds upon an intricate infrastructure composed of a variety of intermediary entities and technologies whose main aim is to deliver personalized ads. For this purpose, a wealth of user data is collected, aggregated, processed and traded behind the scenes at an unprecedented rate. Despite the enormous value of online advertising, however, the intrusiveness and ubiquity of these practices prompt serious privacy concerns. This article surveys the online advertising infrastructure and its supporting technologies, and presents a thorough overview of the underlying privacy risks and the solutions that may mitigate them. We first analyze the threats and potential privacy attackers in this scenario of online advertising. In particular, we examine the main components of the advertising infrastructure in terms of tracking capabilities, data collection, aggregation level and privacy risk, and overview the tracking and data-sharing technologies employed by these components. Then, we conduct a comprehensive survey of the most relevant privacy mechanisms, and classify and compare them on the basis of their privacy guarantees and impact on the Web.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft