Foundationalism of Social Constructionism: A Critical Review

This paper presents the critical review of two research papers related to social construction of gender and sexuality. It is argued that social constructionist approaches and their theorization of gender is untenable and contradictory with its relation to biological foundationalism. Introduction of gender as analytical category is quite problematic in theory and practice. Gender category complicates the theory rather than clarifying it. Straightforward definition of gender will not solve the theoretical problems as well as practical implications. Social constructionist approach presumes reality as constructed but this construction does not occur in vacuum. Every construction is based on some concrete foundation. Without foundation, construction becomes impossible. Social constructionist approach to reality neglects this very fact. It criticizes foundationalism but then itself is entangled in it

An Evasion Attack against ML-based Phishing URL Detectors

Background: Over the year, Machine Learning Phishing URL classification (MLPU) systems have gained tremendous popularity to detect phishing URLs proactively. Despite this vogue, the security vulnerabilities of MLPUs remain mostly unknown. Aim: To address this concern, we conduct a study to understand the test time security vulnerabilities of the state-of-the-art MLPU systems, aiming at providing guidelines for the future development of these systems. Method: In this paper, we propose an evasion attack framework against MLPU systems. To achieve this, we first develop an algorithm to generate adversarial phishing URLs. We then reproduce 41 MLPU systems and record their baseline performance. Finally, we simulate an evasion attack to evaluate these MLPU systems against our generated adversarial URLs. Results: In comparison to previous works, our attack is: (i) effective as it evades all the models with an average success rate of 66% and 85% for famous (such as Netflix, Google) and less popular phishing targets (e.g., Wish, JBHIFI, Officeworks) respectively; (ii) realistic as it requires only 23ms to produce a new adversarial URL variant that is available for registration with a median cost of only $11.99/year. We also found that popular online services such as Google SafeBrowsing and VirusTotal are unable to detect these URLs. (iii) We find that Adversarial training (successful defence against evasion attack) does not significantly improve the robustness of these systems as it decreases the success rate of our attack by only 6% on average for all the models. (iv) Further, we identify the security vulnerabilities of the considered MLPU systems. Our findings lead to promising directions for future research. Conclusion: Our study not only illustrate vulnerabilities in MLPU systems but also highlights implications for future study towards assessing and improving these systems.Comment: Draft for ACM TOP

Physiological and growth responses of grapevine rootstocks (Vitis spp.) to organic and synthetic mulch application in arid ecology under the effect of climate change

Agricultural applications in food production have great significance in alleviating the adverse influences of environmental stressors on grapevines. In this context, mulch applications are known as environment-friendly sustainable implementations for efficiently benefiting from limited water sources. Moreover, mulches have many other beneficial effects such as quality assurance, yield improvement, ripening modulation, soil amelioration, erosion prevention and weed control. Therefore the present investigations were performed in an arid ecological condition to reveal the effects of easily available organic mulch (straw) and synthetic mulch (plastic ground covering) on physiology and growth features of worldwide popular grapevine rootstocks (41 B, 99 R 44-53 M and Rupestris du Lot). Saplings of each rootstock variety were transplanted to experimental vineyard at the end of the winter season with the spacing of 1.5 x 3.0 m within and between the rows. Mulch applications were carried out at the transplanting date. Mulch applications provided significant water retention with the higher effect of organic mulch in the soil. Stomatal conductance, leaf temperature and chlorophyll content were generally increased due to mulching. They also significantly improved the leaf and shoot growth of the rootstocks in many cases. Finally, both two mulch applications could be recommended as modern techniques in viticulture to prevent the agricultural water loss and support the plant growth. However, the organic mulch could be employed for organic and/or sustainable grape production or areas where the straw is easily available as residues of animal production