Blowtooth: a provocative pervasive game for smuggling virtual drugs through real airport security

In this paper we describe a pervasive game, Blowtooth, in which players use their mobile phones to hide virtual drugs on nearby airline passengers in real airport check-in queues. After passing through airport security, the player must find and recover their drugs from the innocent bystanders, without them ever realizing they were involved in the game. The game explores the nature of pervasive game playing in environments that are not, generally, regarded as playful or “fun”. This paper describes the game’s design and implementation as well as an evaluation conducted with participants in real airports. It explores the players’ reactions to the game through questionnaire responses and in-game activity. The technologies used in Blowtooth are, intentionally, simple in order for the enjoyment of the game to be reliant more on the physical environment rather than the enabling technologies. We conclude that situating pervasive games in unexpected and challenging environments, such as international airports, may provide interesting and unique gaming experiences for players. In addition, we argue that pervasive games benefit most from using the specific features and nature of interesting real-world environments rather than focusing on the enabling technologies

Side channel attacks on smart home systems: A short overview

This paper provides an overview on side-channel attacks with emphasis on vulnerabilities in the smart home. Smart homes are enabled by the latest developments in sensors, communication technologies, internet protocols, and cloud services. The goal of a smart home is to have smart household devices collaborate without involvement of residents to deliver the variety of services needed for a higher quality of life. However, security and privacy challenges of smart homes have to be overcome in order to fully realize the smart home. Side channel attacks assume data is always leaking, and leakage of data from a smart home reveals sensitive information. This paper starts by reviewing side-channel attack categories, then it gives an overview on recent attack studies on different layers of a smart home and their malicious goals

A probability based hybrid energy-efficient privacy preserving scheme to encounter with wireless traffic snooping in smart home

Application of pervasive computing devices in smart homes are rising sharply and due to this matter, demands for efficient privacy protection are increasing urgently. Possibility of interference in wireless networks is proved by previous work. Adversaries can discover contextual information because of traffic monitoring and classifying transmitters based on their radio fingerprints while data packets are encrypted or content is not important for attackers. To conceal communication patterns various approaches have been investigated. They are mainly based on injection of dummy packets into the network traffic and adding delay to transmission time. In this paper, we introduce a hybrid energy-efficient privacy preserving scheme for generating and sending dummy packets through a decision-making algorithm which works based on probability to maximize confusion of attacker in clarifying the real pattern of network traffi

Magnetic Table Interface and Magnetic Foods

This poster paper discuss the concept of magnetic table interface and magnetic foods. This interface introduces new human-food interactions such as modifying weight, levitation, movement, and dynamic textures for our daily used food and utensils using a strong magnetic field formed by an array of Bitter electromagnets. To make foods and cutleries interactive, we add edible magnetic material on the food such as iron and iron oxides, and make cutleries with magnetic materials. We expect that this system will alter our food consumption behaviours and make the whole experience much more interactive and enjoyable

Magnetic table for levitating food for entertainment

In this paper, we discuss our work towards a new dining platform that uses magnetic levitating food and magnetic utensils in an initial prototype device. The ultimate goal of the project is a complete table with dynamic levitating food, but the current implementation is a set of levitating magnets that can be encased in food hovering over static locations. We investigated different weights and shapes of 3-D printed objects to mimic food and found that the levitating magnets are strong enough to support lightweight food. This magnetic levitating table can produce a playful and entertaining dining experience by moving and rotating to stay in place. The key novelties of this paper are the integration of food with a magnetic levitating table for playful interactions and novel dining experiences

Tumour immune microenvironment biomarkers predicting cytotoxic chemotherapy efficacy in colorectal cancer

The role of the local tumour and stromal immune landscape is increasingly recognised to be important in cancer development, progression and response to therapy. The composition, function, spatial orientation and gene expression profile of the infiltrate of the innate and adaptive immune system at the tumour and surrounding tissue has an established prognostic role in colorectal cancer (CRC). Multiple studies have confirmed that a tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) reflective of a type 1 adaptive immune response is associated with improved prognosis. There have been significant efforts to evolve these observations into validated, histopathology-based prognostic biomarkers, such as the Immunoscore. However, the clinical need lies much more in the development of predictive, not prognostic, biomarkers which have the potential to improve patient outcomes. This is particularly pertinent to help guide cytotoxic chemotherapy use in CRC, which remains the standard of care. Cytotoxic chemotherapy has recognised immunomodulatory activity distinct from its antimitotic effects, including mechanisms such as immunogenic cell death (ICD) and induction/inhibition of key immune players. Response to chemotherapy may differ with regard to molecular subtype of CRC, which are strongly associated with immune phenotypes. Thus, immune markers are potentially useful, though under-reported, predictive biomarkers. In this review, we discuss the impact of the TIME on response to cytotoxic chemotherapy in CRC, with a focus on baseline immune markers, and associated genomic and transcriptomic signatures

Mechanistic mathematical modelling of mercaptopurine effects on cell cycle of human acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells

The antimetabolite mercaptopurine (MP) is widely used to treat childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). To study the dynamics of MP on the cell cycle, we incubated human T-cell leukaemia cell lines (Molt-4 sensitive and resistant subline and P12 resistant) with 10 μM MP and measured total cell count, cell cycle distribution, percent viable, percent apoptotic, and percent dead cells serially over 72 h. We developed a mathematical model of the cell cycle dynamics after treatment with MP and used it to show that the Molt-4 sensitive controls had a significantly higher rate of cells entering apoptosis (2.7-fold, P<0.00001) relative to the resistant cell lines. Additionally, when treated with MP, the sensitive cell line showed a significant increase in the rate at which cells enter apoptosis compared to its controls (2.4-fold, P<0.00001). Of note, the resistant cell lines had a higher rate of antimetabolite incorporation into the DNA of viable cells (>1.4-fold, P<0.01). Lastly, in contrast to the other cell lines, the Molt-4 resistant subline continued to cycle, though at a rate slower relative to its control, rather than proceed to apoptosis. This led to a larger S-phase block in the Molt-4 resistant cell line, but not a higher rate of cell death. Gene expression of apoptosis, cell cycle, and repair genes were consistent with mechanistic dynamics described by the model. In summary, the mathematical model provides a quantitative assessment to compare the cell cycle effects of MP in cells with varying degrees of MP resistance

Structure vulnerability and risk analysis of 3-legged offshore structure

Peninsular Malaysia is most affected by the distant Sumatra subduction zone earthquake. Meanwhile, Eastern Malaysia was subjected to major Philippine and Indonesian earthquake. Most of the offshore platform is at Terengganu, Sabah, and Sarawak. More than 65% of the offshore platform structure exceed the range of design between 20-30 years. This research aims to determine the vulnerability and risk analysis for the existing 3-legged offshore platform under earthquake load, study the behaviors of an offshore platform under major or minor earthquake loading, and study the dynamic characteristic of an offshore platform. SAP 2000 is use to analyses and modelling the 3-legged offshore platform. In SAP 2000, the response spectrum, time history, and free vibration will be performed. The mixed load of the platform consists of dead load, imposed load, environment loads, and earthquake load. The position of the offshore platform has referred to American Petroleum Institute (API) standard. The major earthquake under off-shore platform is El-Centro and the minor is Aceh compared to time history. Based on this study, Malaysia can withstand this low seismic activity, overall joint acceleration, velocity and displacement

Mission statement effectiveness: Investigating managers’ sensemaking role

Purpose – This study highlights the instrumental role of the mission statement as a tool used by managers to shape value congruence to achieve enhanced employee performance levels. Design/methodology/approach – A variance-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data obtained from a sample of 123 managers working in private organisations in Malaysia. Findings – The management sensemaking approach is useful in mission statement research. Managers’ involvement in clarifying the mission statement to various firm stakeholders, especially employees, is the strongest predictor of value congruency between employees and the firm, leading to improved levels of employee behavioural performance. Managers can influence value congruency through two processes: (1) guiding and shaping employees’ values and (2) adapting the mission statement’s contents. Research limitations/implications – Future studies can consider the impact of managerial role modelling on employees’ value alignment with the firm in longitudinal studies. Other aspects of alignment offer further research opportunities, for example, HR policy alignment and alignment of marketing and operation strategies with the mission statement. Practical implications – Managers should move beyond treating the mission statement as a management tool. Instead, it is a firm philosophy that reflects managers’ words and deeds and exemplifies their philosophical ideals. Originality/value – Despite three decades of research into the relationship between the mission statement and performance, the results have been mixed. Therefore, this study adopts a sensemaking approach to research the mission-performance relationship underpinned by the resource-based view (RBV) theory