Gamification techniques for raising cyber security awareness

Due to the prevalence of online services in modern society, such as internet banking and social media, it is important for users to have an understanding of basic security measures in order to keep themselves safe online. However, users often do not know how to make their online interactions secure, which demonstrates an educational need in this area. Gamification has grown in popularity in recent years and has been used to teach people about a range of subjects. This paper presents an exploratory study investigating the use of gamification techniques to educate average users about password security, with the aim of raising overall security awareness. To explore the impact of such techniques, a role-playing quiz application (RPG) was developed for the Android platform to educate users about password security. Results gained from the work highlightedthat users enjoyed learning via the use of the password application, and felt they benefitted from the inclusion of gamification techniques. Future work seeks to expand the prototype into a full solution, covering a range of security awareness issues

Impacts of fuel consumption taxes on mobility patterns and CO2 emissions using a system dynamic approach

Current transport behaviour leads to increasing congestion of the infrastructure, growing dependence on fossil fuels, increasing energy demand, and growing CO2 emissions. Policies based principally on increasing system speed and in particular car speeds will lead to greater urban sprawl with increases in average trip lengths. Time saved by speed increases are traded for more distance. This trend is not sustainable in the longer term. Transport policies based just on time savings for citizens may not be the basis for our city planning strategy. The same happens with transport cost. With underpriced transport, the market undervalues land use location, which again may lead city to sprawl and could induce greater trip lengths. In this study, the efficiency of a fuel consumption or CO2 tax policy is analysed as a policy to internalise externalities of transport in a fair travel cost. Based on system dynamics theory, an integrated land use and transport model is proposed in order to assess the effects and impacts of such policy in the short, medium and long term. Different scenarios related to clean vehicles are incorporated. This model is applied to three cities Madrid, Vienna and Leeds and compares their results

Women\u2019s human rights when experiencing humanitarian crises and conflicts: the impact of United Nations Security Council Resolutions on women, peace, security, and the CEDAW General Recommendation no. 30.

Violence and insecurity are strictly linked to unequal political, social, and economic power. However, the continuity of violence is obscured by masculinist and patriarchal rules of security within gendered structures, especially inside the division of public/private dimensions and spaces, of production-reproduction activities, and of conflicts of war/peace. Nowadays, there is a general perception of the gendered dimensions of humanitarian emergencies in public policy outcomes and more in general in institutional contexts where the central role of women in security and maintaining peace, at all levels of decision making, both prior to, during, and after the conflict stage, hostilities, and peace-keeping and peace-building stages, as well as in trying to pursue a condition of reconciliation and reconstruction, has been formally recognized at international level. Nevertheless, it is necessary to focus on some problems related to the conceptualization of and legal provision for \u2018gender based security\u2019 and its subsequent effects upon accountability, with particular reference to transitional justice and post-conflict societies. It is important to assess a range of contemporary issues implicated for women and security, such as violence and other forms of harassment in times of post-conflict

Análisis de las tasas sobre emisiones de CO2 en el sector del transporte como medida de alcanzar escenarios sostenibles

En la reciente comunicación del “Libro Verde, Hacia una nueva cultura de la movilidad urbana” claramente se especifica que las ciudades europeas son todas diferentes, pero sin embargo se enfrentan a retos afines tratando de encontrar soluciones similares para hacer nuestras ciudades más sostenibles (COM (2007) 551). . Esto no es una tarea menor cuando en Europa más del 60% de la población vive en áreas urbanas y son responsables del 85% del PIB (COM (2007) 551, Eurostat). A lo largo de toda Europa el incremento del tráfico rodado es un fenómeno común. Estas circunstancias crean una situación adversa en la que las externalidades creadas (congestiones, polución, estrés, inequidades sociales, etc.) conducen a las ciudades en una espiral de degradación. Al mismo tiempo, el cambio climático es reconocido como un problema. En el Protocolo de Kioto, los estados miembros acordaron compromisos importantes de reducción de su capacidad emisora de los gases de efecto invernadero. Bajo este objetivo, diversas políticas se han llevado a cabo de muy diversa índole, ya sea como respuesta a Directivas Europeas o a iniciativas individuales. La sensibilidad hacia entornos urbanos más “verdes” está creciendo, y el transporte está en la agenda de todos, tanto a nivel nacional como local. El interés por la formulación de políticas de movilidad sostenible está creciendo de manera considerable. Algunas de las políticas quedan englobados bajo el título de políticas de gestión de la demanda (TDM), Políticas como las impositivas sobre el combustible caerían también bajo dentro de este concepto. Si bien las implicaciones de este tipo de políticas parece claro que pueden influir sobre la elección modal, principalmente a corto plazo, la efectividad de la medida crece principalmente a largo plazo en el momento en que existan escenarios de mayor eficiencia tecnológica o se tenga en cuanto su implicación sobre las dinámicas urbanas de localización e interacción entre actividades. La política de implementar impuestos a los combustibles inicialmente no se concibió con fines ambientales, aunque sus consecuencias claramente si lo son. Históricamente, las externalidades han jugado un papel pequeño como motivación para los impuestos a los combustibles Parry and Small (2005)). Sin embargo, en la actualidad esta política puede jugar un papel mucho más relevante en la configuración de las políticas de movilidad sostenible, pese a posibles barreras políticas o electoralistas que pueden existir (Hammar et al. (2004)). El objetivo de esta comunicación es analizar como una política de impuestos sobre la energía en el ámbito del transporte bajo esta perspectiva. Si está asumido que mayores velocidades permiten a las personas recorrer mayores distancias para satisfacer sus necesidades dentro de sus condicionantes de tiempo y coste, y por tanto una dispersión, indirectamente también se asume que el incremento del coste del desplazamiento puede producir un efecto gravitatorio que compacte las ciudades en subcentros de actividades. Para ello se plantearán diferentes escenarios tecnológicos e impositivos a evaluar simulando sus efectos en un modelo de usos del suelo y transporte bajo un entorno de Sistemas Dinámicos,. Se aplicará este modelo a las ciudades de Madrid, Viena y Leeds comparándose los resultados obtenidos y la importancia del efecto regional sobre una misma política de transporte

On multi-path longitudinal spin relaxation in brain tissue

The purpose of this paper is to confirm previous reports that identified magnetization transfer (MT) as an inherent driver of longitudinal relaxation in brain tissue by asserting a substantial difference between the $T_1$ relaxation times of the free and the semi-solid spin pools. Further, we aim to identify an avenue towards the quantification of these relaxation processes on a voxel-by-voxel basis in a clinical imaging setting, i.e. with a nominal resolution of 1mm isotropic and full brain coverage in 12min. To this end, we optimized a hybrid-state pulse sequence for mapping the parameters of an unconstrained MT model. We scanned 4 people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) and 4 healthy controls with this pulse sequence and estimated $T_1^f \approx 1.90$s and $T_1^s \approx 0.327$s for the free and semi-solid spin pool of healthy WM, respectively, confirming previous reports and questioning the commonly used assumptions $T_1^s = T_1^f$ or $T_1^s = 1$s. Further, we estimated a fractional size of the semi-solid spin pool of $m_0^s \approx 0.202$, which is larger than previously assumed. An analysis of $T_1^f$ in normal appearing white matter revealed statistically significant differences between individuals with MS and controls. In conclusion, we confirm that longitudinal spin relaxation in brain tissue is dominated by MT and that the hybrid state facilitates a voxel-wise fit of the unconstrained MT model, which enables the analysis of subtle neurodegeneration

Effects of cooperation on information disclosure in mock‐witness interviews

Purpose: Forensic interviewers often face witnesses who are unwilling to cooperate with the investigation. In this experimental study, we examined the extent to which cooperativeness instructions affect information disclosure in a witness investigative interview. Methods: One hundred and thirty-six participants watched a recorded mock-crime and were interviewed twice as mock-witnesses. They were randomly assigned to one of four conditions instructing different levels of cooperativeness: Control (no instructions), Cooperation, No Cooperation, and No Cooperation plus Cooperation. The cooperativeness instructions aimed to influence how participants’ perceived the costs and benefits of cooperation. We predicted that Cooperation and No Cooperation instructions would increase and decrease information disclosure and accuracy, respectively. Results: We found decreased information disclosure and, to a lesser extent, accuracy in the No Cooperation and No Cooperation plus Cooperation conditions. In a second interview, the shift of instructions from No Cooperation to Cooperation led to a limited increase of information disclosure at no cost of accuracy. Cooperativeness instructions partially influenced the communication strategies participants used to disclose or withhold information. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate the detrimental effects of uncooperativeness on information disclosure and, to a lesser extent, the accuracy of witness statements. We discuss the implications of a lack of witness cooperation and the importance of gaining witness cooperation to facilitate information disclosure in investigative interviews

Estimating the sea ice floe size distribution using satellite altimetry: Theory, climatology, and model comparison

In sea-ice-covered areas, the sea ice floe size distribution (FSD) plays an important role in many processes affecting the coupled sea-ice-ocean-atmosphere system. Observations of the FSD are sparse - traditionally taken via a painstaking analysis of ice surface photography - and the seasonal and inter-annual evolution of floe size regionally and globally is largely unknown. Frequently, measured FSDs are assessed using a single number, the scaling exponent of the closest power-law fit to the observed floe size data, although in the absence of adequate datasets there have been limited tests of this "power-law hypothesis". Here we derive and explain a mathematical technique for deriving statistics of the sea ice FSD from polar-orbiting altimeters, satellites with sub-daily return times to polar regions with high along-track resolutions. Applied to the CryoSat-2 radar altimetric record, covering the period from 2010 to 2018, and incorporating 11 million individual floe samples, we produce the first pan-Arctic climatology and seasonal cycle of sea ice floe size statistics. We then perform the first pan-Arctic test of the power-law hypothesis, finding limited support in the range of floe sizes typically analyzed in photographic observational studies. We compare the seasonal variability in observed floe size to fully coupled climate model simulations including a prognostic floe size and thickness distribution and coupled wave model, finding good agreement in regions where modeled ocean surface waves cause sea ice fracture

Passive acoustic bubble sizing in sparged systems

Passive acoustic bubble sizing was investigated in both controlled tests and in a stirred, sparged tank typical of the biotechnology or minerals processing industries. Acoustic techniques have promise for industrial systems where other bubble analysis methods are impractical. Acoustic signals were studied for bubbles precisely formed at higher airflow rates. Acoustic pulses varied with bubble production rate as well as with bubble size. A technique of windowing pulses is proposed. Two alternative versions of this windowing technique were applied to a stirred, sparged tank, giving good agreement. It was shown that, in some cases, it may also be possible to acoustically estimate the spatial distribution of void fraction

Belowground DNA-based techniques: untangling the network of plant root interactions

Contains fulltext : 91591.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)7 p

A common framework for approaches to extreme event attribution

The extent to which a given extreme weather or climate event is attributable to anthropogenic climate change is a question of considerable public interest. From a scientific perspective, the question can be framed in various ways, and the answer depends very much on the framing. One such framing is a risk-based approach, which answers the question probabilistically, in terms of a change in likelihood of a class of event similar to the one in question, and natural variability is treated as noise. A rather different framing is a storyline approach, which examines the role of the various factors contributing to the event as it unfolded, including the anomalous aspects of natural variability, and answers the question deterministically. It is argued that these two apparently irreconcilable approaches can be viewed within a common framework, where the most useful level of conditioning will depend on the question being asked and the uncertainties involved