The weak password problem: chaos, criticality, and encrypted p-CAPTCHAs

Vulnerabilities related to weak passwords are a pressing global economic and security issue. We report a novel, simple, and effective approach to address the weak password problem. Building upon chaotic dynamics, criticality at phase transitions, CAPTCHA recognition, and computational round-off errors we design an algorithm that strengthens security of passwords. The core idea of our method is to split a long and secure password into two components. The first component is memorized by the user. The second component is transformed into a CAPTCHA image and then protected using evolution of a two-dimensional dynamical system close to a phase transition, in such a way that standard brute-force attacks become ineffective. We expect our approach to have wide applications for authentication and encryption technologies.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figer

Sex counts: An examination of sexual service advertisements in a UK online directory

Internationally, sex work research, public opinion, policy, laws, and practice are predicated on the assumption that commercial sex is a priori sold by women and bought by men. Scarce attention has been devoted to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning (LGBTQ) sex working as well as women who pay for sex. This is as much an empirical absence as it is a theoretical one, for the ideological claim that women comprise the “vast majority” of sex workers is rarely, if ever, exposed to empirical scrutiny. Focusing on the UK, we address this major gap in evidence in order to challenge the gendered and heterosexist logics that underpin contemporary debates. We do so by presenting large‐scale data gained from the quantitative analysis of 25,511 registered member profiles of an online escort directory. Our findings point to heterogeneity rather than homogeneity in the contemporary sex industry including in terms of gender identity, sexual orientation, and advertised client base. For example, while two‐thirds of advertisements self‐identify as “Female,” one in four are listed as “Male;” less than half list their sexual orientation as “Straight;” and nearly two‐thirds advertise to women clients. Our study thus challenges prevailing heteronormative assumptions about commercial sex, which erase LGBTQ sex workers and other non‐normative identities and practices, and which we argue have important political, practical, and theoretical consequences

Implementation of the Australasian Teletrial Model : lessons from practice

The Australasian Tele-trialModel (ATM) involves the use of telehealth technology to conduct clinical trials at satellite sites. Under the direction of state governments, led byQueenslandHealth (QH) and the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (COSA), a streamlined process for review, authorisation and conduct of the teletrials model has been developed. Some state governments and cancer centres around the country have developed new standard operating procedures (SOPs) to incorporate teletrials into routine practice. Queensland Health has undertaken reforms in governance and contract approval processes to facilitate its implementation in Queensland. Several pharmaceutical companies and trial groups have begun incorporating teletrials into trial protocols to enhance rural and regional access to trials, access to rare cancer trials even within a metropolitan setting and overall rate of recruitment. Several cancer centres around the country have begun embedding this model as part of their strategic and operational plans and several state departments of health have established steering committees to drive state-wide adoption. The National Mutual Acceptance (NMA) is currently coordinating the review and development of a standardised teletrials subcontract with the outcome that the teletrials subcontract will be adopted by Medicines Australia as a standard template to use with their suite of other standard clinical trial agreements. This supplement covers various aspects of the concept of the Australasian Tele-trial Model and its implementation, to share our experiences with those who would like to adopt this model as part of their routine practice and to encourage more uptake across the nation thus placing the patient at the centre of healthcare