Toward 2^W beyond Web 2.0

From its inception as a global hypertext system, the Web has evolved into a universal platform for deploying loosely coupled distributed applications. 2^W is a result of the exponentially growing Web building on itself to move from a Web of content to a Web of applications

Gentle Introduction to Larch / Smalltalk Specification Browsers

This paper provides a tutorial introduction to the Larch/Smalltalk specification browsers. The browsers are specification support tools providing a powerful and sophisticated environment for writing and managing Larch/Smalltalk specifications. They are integrated in the Smalltalk-80 programming system. The reader is assumed to have some familiarity with the Smalltalk system and Larch-style specification

Predicting Cyber Events by Leveraging Hacker Sentiment

Recent high-profile cyber attacks exemplify why organizations need better cyber defenses. Cyber threats are hard to accurately predict because attackers usually try to mask their traces. However, they often discuss exploits and techniques on hacking forums. The community behavior of the hackers may provide insights into groups' collective malicious activity. We propose a novel approach to predict cyber events using sentiment analysis. We test our approach using cyber attack data from 2 major business organizations. We consider 3 types of events: malicious software installation, malicious destination visits, and malicious emails that surpassed the target organizations' defenses. We construct predictive signals by applying sentiment analysis on hacker forum posts to better understand hacker behavior. We analyze over 400K posts generated between January 2016 and January 2018 on over 100 hacking forums both on surface and Dark Web. We find that some forums have significantly more predictive power than others. Sentiment-based models that leverage specific forums can outperform state-of-the-art deep learning and time-series models on forecasting cyber attacks weeks ahead of the events

Faculty Beliefs Regarding Online Academic Dishonesty and the Measures Taken to Address Academic Dishonesty in Georgia

Distance education has become a significant element of instruction in higher education. The need to ensure the academic integrity of distance learning courses has increased as online instruction has grown to meet the needs of its distributed body of students. Although academic dishonesty has been a well documented problem for many years, the distance learning environment has not been studied as carefully as instruction in traditional classrooms. Specifically, little research has been conducted to identify what intervention measures are available to faculty to address academic dishonesty in online courses. Additionally, little empirical research has been conducted to study the extent to which faculty use these measures or how effective they believe these measures to be. The purpose of this study was to address this lack of research. Data collection was divided into two phases. In phase I a comprehensive list of intervention measures was collected from 4 sources: faculty focus groups, surveys of distributed faculty and distance learning administrators, and relevant literature. This phase of research produced a list of 50 intervention measures. Phase II collected survey data from 629 college faculty throughout the University System of Georgia. Faculty were asked about their beliefs regarding academic dishonesty in traditional and online classroom environments. Faculty with experience in the online environment were also provided with the list of 50 intervention measures from the first phase of research and asked to indicate which they use and to rate the effectiveness of each. Results showed that faculty experienced with online assessments have a greater concern for cheating than faculty experienced only with traditional, classroom-based assessment. The most used intervention measures included providing clear directions, distributing grades over multiple assignments, educating students about academic dishonesty, and having an explicit honor code. The intervention measures rated as most effective included using proctoring options, avoiding multiple choice questions, and distributing grades over multiple assignments. Of the10 highest used and 10 highest rated, the only measures common between both lists were proctoring exams and distributing grades over multiple assignments. These findings inform distance learning administrators and faculty as to best practices when addressing academic dishonesty

Palaeoecology of Oligo-Miocene macropodoids determined from craniodental and calcaneal data

Analyses of craniodental and calcaneal material of extant macropodoids show that both dietary and locomotor types are statistically distinguishable. Application of the craniodental data to fossil macropodoids from the Oligo-Miocene of South Australia (Lake Eyre Basin) and Queensland (Riversleigh World Heritage Area) shows that these taxa were primarily omnivores or browsers. Specialized folivorous browsers were more prevalent in the Queensland deposits than in those of South Australia, suggesting more mesic conditions in the former. The calcaneal data showed that the Oligo-Miocene taxa clustered with extant generalized hoppers, in contrast to prior speculation that balbarids were quadrupedal rather than bipedal

WEB ACCESSIBILITY IN THE AUSTRIAN HOTEL SECTOR

This contribution aims to provide an analysis of the current state of web accessibility in the tourism industry with the focus on the Austrian hotel sector. The results of the conducted study verify previous research, showing that tourism organizations considerably lack awareness of web accessibility. A three dimensional hotel categorization model on accessibility is introduced to encompass the complexity of accessibility in the hotel sector. This model can be used to evaluate the current state of hotel accessibility and may therefore provide a valuable tool for further benchmarking activities

A model assessment of alternative land-use strategies

Changing climatic conditions and unsustainable land use are major threats to savannas worldwide. Historically, many African savannas were used intensively for livestock grazing, which contributed to widespread patterns of bush encroachment across savanna systems. To reverse bush encroachment, it has been proposed to change the cattle-dominated land use to one dominated by comparatively specialized browsers and usually native herbivores. However, the consequences for ecosystem properties and processes remain largely unclear. We used the ecohydrological, spatially explicit model EcoHyD to assess the impacts of two contrasting, herbivore land-use strategies on a Namibian savanna: grazer- versus browser-dominated herbivore communities. We varied the densities of grazers and browsers and determined the resulting composition and diversity of the plant community, total vegetation cover, soil moisture, and water use by plants. Our results showed that plant types that are less palatable to herbivores were best adapted to grazing or browsing animals in all simulated densities. Also, plant types that had a competitive advantage under limited water availability were among the dominant ones irrespective of land-use scenario. Overall, the results were in line with our expectations: under high grazer densities, we found heavy bush encroachment and the loss of the perennial grass matrix. Importantly, regardless of the density of browsers, grass cover and plant functional diversity were significantly higher in browsing scenarios. Browsing herbivores increased grass cover, and the higher total cover in turn improved water uptake by plants overall. We concluded that, in contrast to grazing-dominated land-use strategies, land-use strategies dominated by browsing herbivores, even at high herbivore densities, sustain diverse vegetation communities with high cover of perennial grasses, resulting in lower erosion risk and bolstering ecosystem services