Physiological and whole-body correlates of contest behaviour in the hermit crab Pagurus bernhardus

The series of experiments that comprise this thesis used shell fights in the hermit crab Pagurus hernhardus as a model system to address the proximate physiological and whole-organism correlates of contest behaviour. These correlates of fighting ability rangec from the metal ions magnesium (Mg ) and calcium (Ca ), through respiratory pigments and muscular proteins to whole-organism performance capacities and behavioural syndromes. The work presented here thus demonstrates that a suite of physiological and whole organism variables influence contest behaviour in hermit crabs, and that both aerobic and performance capacities are very important in determining agonistic success.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Lazarus Effect: Healing Compromised Devices in the Internet of Small Things

We live in a time when billions of IoT devices are being deployed and increasingly relied upon. This makes ensuring their availability and recoverability in case of a compromise a paramount goal. The large and rapidly growing number of deployed IoT devices make manual recovery impractical, especially if the devices are dispersed over a large area. Thus, there is a need for a reliable and scalable remote recovery mechanism that works even after attackers have taken full control over devices, possibly misusing them or trying to render them useless. To tackle this problem, we present Lazarus, a system that enables the remote recovery of compromised IoT devices. With Lazarus, an IoT administrator can remotely control the code running on IoT devices unconditionally and within a guaranteed time bound. This makes recovery possible even in case of severe corruption of the devices' software stack. We impose only minimal hardware requirements, making Lazarus applicable even for low-end constrained off-the-shelf IoT devices. We isolate Lazarus's minimal recovery trusted computing base from untrusted software both in time and by using a trusted execution environment. The temporal isolation prevents secrets from being leaked through side-channels to untrusted software. Inside the trusted execution environment, we place minimal functionality that constrains untrusted software at runtime. We implement Lazarus on an ARM Cortex-M33-based microcontroller in a full setup with an IoT hub, device provisioning and secure update functionality. Our prototype can recover compromised embedded OSs and bare-metal applications and prevents attackers from bricking devices, for example, through flash wear out. We show this at the example of FreeRTOS, which requires no modifications but only a single additional task. Our evaluation shows negligible runtime performance impact and moderate memory requirements.Comment: In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIA CCS 20

A Dynamic Game on Network Topology for Counterinsurgency Applications

Successful military operations are increasingly reliant upon an advanced understanding of relevant networks and their topologies. The methodologies of network science are uniquely suited to inform senior military commanders; however, there is a lack of research in the application of these methods in a realistic military scenario. This study creates a dynamic game on network topology to provide insight into the effectiveness of offensive targeting strategies determined by various centrality measures given limited states of information and varying network topologies. Improved modeling of complex social behaviors is accomplished through incorporation of a distance-based utility function. Moreover, insights into effective defensive strategies are gained through incorporation of a hybrid model of network regeneration. Model functions and parameters are thoroughly presented, followed by a detailed sensitivity analysis of factors. Two designed experiments fully investigate the significance of factor main effects and two-factor interactions. Results show select targeting criteria utilizing uncorrelated network measures are found to outperform others given varying network topologies and defensive regeneration methods. Furthermore, the attacker state of information is only significant given certain defending network topologies. The costs of direct relationships significantly impact optimal methods of regeneration, whereas restructuring methods are insignificant. Model applications are presented and discussed

Bonobo rights for all: Using a primatological approach to secure gender equity

Western patriarchy sustains male-dominance and perpetuates gender inequity. While there have been great achievements toward gender equity, women are burdened to navigate a society that upholds male success. Equality offers individuals the same opportunities, but often falls short in delivering equal outcomes because of historic and systemic male privileges conserved by patriarchy. Equity, on the other hand, ensures that fair opportunities effect equal outcomes to rectify systemic injustices. To reconstruct women’s role in society, our closest living relatives, patriarchal chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and matriarchal bonobos (Pan paniscus), allow humans to compare the role of females in diverse primate social systems. Female-dominant bonobos utilize female coalitionary power to actively suppresses male dominance. Ultimately, female power allows these “hippie apes” to maintain peace. Using an inter-disciplinary approach of primatology and feminist theory, I argue that female-dominance – as observed in bonobos – promotes relational feminism, whereby women, whose perspectives are shaped by patriarchal oppression, hold significantly more power to foster equitable treatment of people regardless of their gender. Increased rates of sociosexual behavior, female coalitionary support, and affiliative intersexual relationships in matriarchal bonobos should encourage Western people to consider an imperative transformation toward female dominance

A holistic review of cybersecurity and reliability perspectives in smart airports

Advances in the Internet of Things (IoT) and aviation sector have resulted in the emergence of smart airports. Services and systems powered by the IoT enable smart airports to have enhanced robustness, efficiency and control, governed by real-time monitoring and analytics. Smart sensors control the environmental conditions inside the airport, automate passenger-related actions and support airport security. However, these augmentations and automation introduce security threats to network systems of smart airports. Cyber-attackers demonstrated the susceptibility of IoT systems and networks to Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), due to hardware constraints, software flaws or IoT misconfigurations. With the increasing complexity of attacks, it is imperative to safeguard IoT networks of smart airports and ensure reliability of services, as cyber-attacks can have tremendous consequences such as disrupting networks, cancelling travel, or stealing sensitive information. There is a need to adopt and develop new Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled cyber-defence techniques for smart airports, which will address the challenges brought about by the incorporation of IoT systems to the airport business processes, and the constantly evolving nature of contemporary cyber-attacks. In this study, we present a holistic review of existing smart airport applications and services enabled by IoT sensors and systems. Additionally, we investigate several types of cyber defence tools including AI and data mining techniques, and analyse their strengths and weaknesses in the context of smart airports. Furthermore, we provide a classification of smart airport sub-systems based on their purpose and criticality and address cyber threats that can affect the security of smart airport\u27s networks

Feminist Perspectives on Rape

Although the proper definition of rape is itself a matter of some dispute, rape is generally understood to involve sexual penetration of a person by force and/or without that person\u27s consent. Rape is committed overwhelmingly by men and boys, usually against women and girls, and sometimes against other men and boys. (For the most part, this entry will assume male perpetrators and female victims.) Virtually all feminists agree that rape is a grave wrong, one too often ignored, mischaracterized, and legitimized. Feminists differ, however, about how the crime of rape is best understood, and about how rape should be combated both legally and socially