Scientifically Defensible and Measurable Anti-Phishing Training

Problem: How can the effectiveness of a phishing attack be quantified and/or measured? Applications: This project will provide a resource for Idaho National Labs to quantitavely evaluate the effectiveness of their security awareness program in regards to phishing attacks. In turn, it will aid them in hardening the human element of security at the research facility. Approach: Our approach is to construct a fully functional phishing system where we can craft phishing emails, send emails, and place links that point to our web application. We hope to use this system to conduct an anonymous and non-malicious experiment. This data will assist in the design and implementation of the algorithm that will evaluate the relative effectiveness of a phishing email. Interim Results: At this point in time we have have started the experimental approval process and developed a functioning phishing system to use in our experiment. We have created the framework in which to construct our algorithm. Anticipated Results: Next Semester we plan to have a fully functioning phishing email evaluation algorithm. In addition are trying to run a live phishing study at VCU and if it is approved, itwill provide valuable data on the accuracy of our algorithm.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/capstone/1027/thumbnail.jp

Objective determination of the extratropical transition of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere

Extratropical transition (ET) has eluded objective identification since the realisation of its existence in the 1970s. Recent advances in numerical, computational models have provided data of higher resolution than previously available. In conjunction with this, an objective characterisation of the structure of a storm has now become widely accepted in the literature. Here we present a method of combining these two advances to provide an objective method for defining ET. The approach involves applying K-means clustering to isolate different life-cycle stages of cyclones and then analysing the progression through these stages. This methodology is then tested by applying it to five recent years from the European Centre of Medium-Range Weather Forecasting operational analyses. It is found that this method is able to determine the general characteristics for ET in the Northern Hemisphere. Between 2008 and 2012, 54% (±7, 32 of 59) of Northern Hemisphere tropical storms are estimated to undergo ET. There is great variability across basins and time of year. To fully capture all the instances of ET is necessary to introduce and characterise multiple pathways through transition. Only one of the three transition types needed has been previously well-studied. A brief description of the alternate types of transitions is given, along with illustrative storms, to assist with further stud

More than skin deep

Regular readers of the Australian Journal of Physiotherapy will have noticed a number of cosmetic changes made to the journal since it received its last major facelift at the beginning of 1999. Most of these changes have been designed to make the journal a more attractive “read”. But the real changes go more than skin deep. The Editorial Board has been implementing structural changes to the way that the journal is produced and disseminated, with the aim of ensuring that scientifically credible and clinically important information is delivered to as wide an audience as possible

An exploration of the pedagogies employed to integrate knowledge in work-integrated learning

This article describes a three‐sector, national research project that investigated the integration aspect of work‐integrated learning (WIL). The context for this study is three sectors of New Zealand higher education: business and management, sport, and science and engineering, and a cohort of higher educational institutions that offer WIL/cooperative education in variety of ways. The aims of this study were to investigate the pedagogical approaches in WIL programs that are currently used by WIL practitioners in terms of learning, and the integration of academic‐workplace learning. The research constituted a series of collective case studies, and there were two main data sources — interviews with three stakeholder groups (namely employers, students, and co‐op practitioners), and analyses of relevant documentation (e.g., course/paper outlines, assignments on reflective practice, portfolio of learning, etc.). The research findings suggest that there is no consistent mechanism by which placement coordinators, off‐campus supervisors, or mentors seek to employ or develop pedagogies to foster learning and the integration of knowledge. Learning, it seems, occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation with off‐campus learning occurring as a result of students working alongside professionals in their area via an apprenticeship model of learning. There is no evidence of explicit attempts to integrate on‐ and off‐campus learning, although all parties felt this would and should occur. However, integration is implicitly or indirectly fostered by a variety of means such as the use of reflective journals

Enabling retention: processes and strategies for improving student retention in university-based enabling programs: final report 2013

This project was funded by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council Ltd and, latterly, the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching, to investigate the nature and causes of student attrition in enabling programs and, in particular, to determine any similarities and differences in these processes in undergraduate programs, and to recommend measures to enhance student retention. The project was undertaken by academics from five Australian universities prominent in the delivery of enabling programs: The University of Newcastle (lead institution), the University of Southern Queensland, the University of South Australia, the University of New England and Edith Cowan University. These programs represent a cross-section of Australian university-based enabling programs

Interpreting nowhere dense graph classes as a classical notion of model theory

A class of graphs is nowhere dense if for every integer r there is a finite upper bound on the size of complete graphs that occur as r-minors. We observe that this recent tameness notion from (algorithmic) graph theory is essentially the earlier stability theoretic notion of superflatness. For subgraph-closed classes of graphs we prove equivalence to stability and to not having the independence property. Expressed in terms of PAC learning, the concept classes definable in first-order logic in a subgraph-closed graph class have bounded sample complexity, if and only if the class is nowhere dense

The Mini-Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination: a new assessment tool for dementia.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: We developed and validated the Mini-Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (M-ACE) in dementia patients. Comparisons were also made with the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). METHOD: The M-ACE was developed using Mokken scaling analysis in 117 dementia patients [behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD), n = 25; primary progressive aphasia (PPA), n = 49; Alzheimer's disease (AD), n = 34; corticobasal syndrome (CBS), n = 9] and validated in an independent sample of 164 dementia patients (bvFTD, n = 23; PPA, n = 82; AD, n = 38; CBS, n = 21) and 78 controls, who also completed the MMSE. RESULTS: The M-ACE consists of 5 items with a maximum score of 30. Two cut-offs were identified: (1) ≤25/30 has both high sensitivity and specificity, and (2) ≤21/30 is almost certainly a score to have come from a dementia patient regardless of the clinical setting. The M-ACE is more sensitive than the MMSE and is less likely to have ceiling effects. CONCLUSION: The M-ACE is a brief and sensitive cognitive screening tool for dementia. Two cut-offs (25 or 21) are recommended.This work was supported by funding to Forefront, a collaborative research group dedicated to the study of frontotemporal dementia and motor neurone disease, by the National Health and Medical Research council (NHMRC) of Australia program grant (1037746) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Cognition and Its Disorders Memory Node (CE110001021). S.H. is supported by the Graham Linford Fellowship from the Motor Neurone Disease Research Institute of Australia. S.M. is supported by Alzheimer Scotland (PhD Studentship). F.L. is supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award (PhD Scholarship). K.D. is supported by NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. S.A. is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford. C.R.B. is supported by a Clinician Scientist Fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MR/K010395/1). J.B.R. is supported by the Wellcome Trust (088324), Medical Research Council, McDonnell Foundation and the NIHR (Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia). E.M. is supported by the NHMRC Early Career Fellowship (1016399) and Alzheimer Association USA. J.R.H. is supported by an ARC Federation Fellowship (FF0776229).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Karger via http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/00036604