A User Identity Management System for Cybercrime Control

The rapid growth in the number of online services has lead to an increasing number of different identities managed by each user that makes people feel overloaded and suffer from password fatigue. This poses a serious problem and makes people unable to control and protect their digital identities against identity theft. As organizations grow and adds services such as ecommerce and global remote access of services, controlling who is accessing what kind of information is also becoming a difficult task. This research therefore, presents the development of a user identity management system for cybercrime control. The four stages of an identity management life cycle were developed using some mathematical tools. A two-factor authentication technique was used in developing the system, the traditional username and password was also included with biometric features for robustness. A simulation was run on the model for users ranging from 10 to 1000 using life wild dataset, and accuracy was found to be 98.01%

The Biogeography of Plant Domestication

Ranging between 11,000 and 4,000 years ago, several independent origins of agriculture appeared, though scholars disagree on exactly how many. This period, known as the “Neolithic Revolution” or the “Origins of Agriculture,” marks the initial emergence of food production economies. Archaeologists and biologists have worked alongside one another, often using a biogeographical approach, to investigate the origins of useful species, their range expansion, and genetic evolution through analyzing remains found at excavation sites around the world. Plant communities influence patterns in human behaviors and by understanding trends in biogeography we can begin to answer questions such as: Why did plant domestication occur where and when it did? Or, what sorts of evolution and dispersal of domesticates occurred? Understanding patterns of plant domestication is important in understanding distribution patterns in today’s society because it marks the beginning of the most significant developments in human history. Factors such as warmer climates, emergence of seasonality, and physical geography shaped the differences in threatened food security at the turn of the Pleistocene- Holocene. Hunter-gatherer societies turned to crop domestication in order to control their food supplies in a variety of ways. Regional differences in physical geography, soil fertility and local climate variations explain the emergence of different origins around the globe. This paper is a broad review of current and past literature that has shaped our understanding of plant domestication. The research I focus on attempts to answer the question of why agriculture emerged where and when it did, and how plant domesticates subsequently evolved and dispersed. I will discuss the significance of this type of research, review some methodologies, explore incongruities in the field with regard to conceptualizations, outline the biogeography of the independent origins of agriculture, and finally the discuss the human ecology of agricultural societies

News Media Framing of Gay Teen Suicide and Bullying

This study examined patterns of framing in newspaper articles that mention gay teen suicide, gay bullying, and the It Gets Better campaign. A content analysis of randomly selected newspaper articles from 2009-2011 was performed. After presenting the frequency of content themes, emergent patterns are discussed. The most consistent theme--an evasive frame-- occurred with regard to homophobia, heterosexism, and meaningful solutions to anti-gay bullying. The day-to-day discrimination that LGBTQ people face was rarely addressed; instead, hot-button political topics such as same-sex marriage and Don\u27t Ask, Don\u27t Tell were presented as signs of social progress. This research shows the importance of media framing, particularly the news media, in stories that report on gay bullying, suicide, and homophobia

The Effects of Instagram User Weight and Health Orientation on Perceptions of Food Posts

Past research has shown that social factors, such as social facilitation, influence what and how much people eat (Zajonc, 1965). One key factor seems to be others’ weights; people have a tendency to dissociate themselves with obese eaters (Barthomeuf, Rousset, & Droit-Volet, 2012; McFerran, Dahl, Fitzsimons, & Morales, 2010). A pilot study was completed to assess how people viewed food photos posted to Instagram, as well as their social media habits. These findings were used in the design of the present study; the purpose of the present study is to determine whether social factors involved in eating, like others’ weight, apply in online settings. This study investigated whether food posts by people of different health orientations (“health journey” vs. no health journey) and weights (control vs. normal weight vs. overweight/obese) were viewed differently in terms of healthiness of the featured food, as well as how likely one was to eat it. It was hypothesized that photos posted by an overweight/obese individual would be rated as less healthy and as having a lower likelihood of being eaten than foods posted by normal weight individuals. It was also hypothesized that photos posted by an overweight/obese person on a health journey would be rated more favorably than an overweight/obese person who was not on a health journey. Ratings of the perceived healthiness and likelihood of eating the foods in the photos were analyzed using 2 (health orientation) X 3 (weight) MANCOVAs. Results showed a significant main effect of health orientation and a significant health orientation X weight interaction for ratings of healthiness. Follow-up tests showed significant interactions for four food photos. Tests of simple effects suggest that there may be underlying biases against overweight/obese people influencing perceptions of food health, though these findings were relatively inconsistent. Further research is needed to fully understand this relationship

Conquering the chimaera: an insight into the need to redefine the complex form of child abuse, Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston UniversityMunchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) is a term given to a situation which presents criteria for both Pediatric Condition Falsification (PCF) and factitious disorder by proxy (FDP). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV text revision (DSM-IV-TR), in child abuse cases where FDP is a result of PCF, then the nomenclature, MSBP, can be used interchangeably to describe such an event. Currently, in a situation that is diagnosed as Factitious Disorder by Proxy, the perpetrator of such an event is diagnosed as having Factitious Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (FD-NOS). An obvious issue stemming from this is the confusion over what should be diagnosed and remedied, i.e., the situation, the perpetrator, and/or the victim. Due to the convoluted and often controversial definition of such an event, as well as the criteria for diagnosis, it is proposed here that a new definition be adopted to explain this form of child abuse. With this novel definition, the symptoms of this psychological disorder of the perpetrator are observed in the victim. Under this new definition, the psychiatric term "Factitious Disorder by Proxy" would be used as a mental diagnosis of the caregiver, wherein the symptoms manifest in that of the victim. Additionally, an addendum to the type of symptoms exhibited in the child is proposed to include that of the exacerbation of symptoms in children with valid pre-existing conditions. An extensive literature review was performed to support the proposal for changing the criteria and diagnosis of FDP in the DSM. The implications of this change would greatly benefit not only the psychiatric, medical, and legal realm, but the forensic community as well

Trial of a Peer-to-Peer, Play-based Intervention to Improve Pragmatic Language in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Taking a systematic approach to intervention development and evaluation, this thesis evaluated a peer-mediated, play-based pragmatic language intervention for children with autism. The intervention demonstrated a significant, moderate effect on pragmatic language for children with autism. Peer’s pragmatic language also improved significantly. Effects were greatest for children with autism with high social anxiety and use of context scores, but low nonverbal communication and expressive vocabulary scores at baseline. Parents deemed the intervention appropriate for families