PACE: Pattern Accurate Computationally Efficient Bootstrapping for Timely Discovery of Cyber-Security Concepts

Public disclosure of important security information, such as knowledge of vulnerabilities or exploits, often occurs in blogs, tweets, mailing lists, and other online sources months before proper classification into structured databases. In order to facilitate timely discovery of such knowledge, we propose a novel semi-supervised learning algorithm, PACE, for identifying and classifying relevant entities in text sources. The main contribution of this paper is an enhancement of the traditional bootstrapping method for entity extraction by employing a time-memory trade-off that simultaneously circumvents a costly corpus search while strengthening pattern nomination, which should increase accuracy. An implementation in the cyber-security domain is discussed as well as challenges to Natural Language Processing imposed by the security domain.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, ieeeTran conference. International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications 201

36Cl analysis of bedrock fault scarps in central Italy and western Turkey

There are two major aims in my thesis. The first is primarily a methodological focus. Cosmgenic istope dating of bedrock normal fault scarps is being increasingly used to determine slip rates on normal faults. These slip rates often form the basis of geodynamic and seismic hazard models, however it has not been determined that it is a consistent method for measuring slip rate. I aim to test whether it is a robust technique for determining slip rate by cosmogenic isotope; investigating the reproducibility of the method at multiple sites along a single fault. This will provide greater confidence in the method. I have chosen to undertake this study in the central Italian Apennines, because there it has the highest concentration of existing 36Cl fault scarp studies, which I can integrate with my studies. To understand how fault networks behave requires information on their slip rates, and by determining slip rates on faults that are next to each other, I may gain insight into how faults are interacting over millennial timescales. Quaternary slip rates on faults in western Turkey are not constrained in many areas, and it is one of the most rapidly extending regions on earth. I aim to determine slip rates on some of these normal faults using cosmogenic isotope dating of limestone fault scarps, and see what information this can provide on how faults are interacting in the region. I have chosen to work in the Mugla-Yatagan basin because no Quaternary slip rates have been determined on the faults which lie close to a major city, and the close proximity of 3 faults may provide insight into how faults interact over km scales. Finally there are also appropriate sample sites on each of the major faults, allowing the 36Cl fault scarp dating method to be used

Violence brief interventions : a rapid review

This research was funded by the Violence Reduction Unit (Police Scotland).Provision of a Violence Brief Intervention (VBI) to young men undergoing treatment for a violent injury may represent a teachable moment for the prevention of future interpersonal violence in Scotland. Prior to intervention design, a rapid review of the research literature was necessary to examine existing programmes. After title and abstract screening, eight distinct VBIs were identified from full texts. Whilst none of the programmes were a perfect match for our intervention goals, they did demonstrate the potential effectiveness of brief interventions for violence prevention at both cognitive and behavioural levels. Key themes of successful interventions included brief motivational interviewing as an effective method of engaging with at-risk participants and encouraging change, the utility of social norms approaches for correcting peer norm misperceptions, the usefulness of working with victims of violence in medical settings (particularly oral and maxillofacial surgeries), the importance of addressing the role of alcohol after violent injury, the advantages of a computer-therapist hybrid model of delivery, and the need for adequate follow-up evaluation as part of a randomised control trial. This information has been used to design a VBI which is currently under evaluation.PostprintPeer reviewe

Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement

Parental engagement has a large and positive impact on children’s learning. This was the single most important finding from a recent and authoritative review of the evidenc

Modelling requirements for the design of active stability control strategies for a high speed bogie

The paper presents the findings of a study on active stability control and simulation for a railway bogie vehicle. For control design a planview partial railway vehicle model is described. This is a simplified model derived from research experience and appropriate modelling, and a frequency domain analysis illustrates the problems associated with system instability. A multi-body dynamics software, SIMPACK1, is used to generate a detailed non-linear full vehicle model for simulation and control assessment. Model order reduction methods, both empirically and analytically based, are used to simplify the linear model generated from SIMPACK for further system analysis and control designs based upon the complex model. Comparisons between the simplified plan-view model and the exported reduced-order model are presented

Model-based fault detection and control design – applied to a pneumatic industrial application

In safety critical applications it is important to detect faults that may compromise system safety and to take appropriate action. This paper discusses research carried-out on the development and validation of a model-based fault detection and isolation (FDI) system for a pneumatically actuated Stewart platform. The FDI scheme is based on combining parity equation and Kalman filter based techniques. The parity and Kalman filter equations are formulated and used to generate residuals that, in turn, are analysed to determine whether faults are present in the system. Details of the design process are given and the experimental results are compared. The results demonstrate that both approaches when combined can successfully detect and isolate and in some cases accommodate faults associated with the sensors, actuators (servo-valves and piping) and the pneumatic system itself

MAGLEV suspensions - a sensor optimisation framework

In this paper, a systematic framework for optimised sensor configurations is implemented via H∞ Loop Shaping Procedure. The optimisation framework, gives the sensor sets that satisfy predefined user criteria and the preset constraints required for the MAGnetic LEVitated suspension performance via evolutionary algorithms. The scheme is assessed via appropriate simulations for its efficacy