A CFD based procedure for airspace integration of small unmanned aircraft within congested areas

Future integration of small unmanned aircraft within an urban airspace requires an a posteriori understanding of the building-induced aerodynamics which could negatively impact on vehicle performance. Moving away from generalised building formations, we model the centre of the city of Glasgow using Star-CCMþ, a commercial CFD package. After establishing a critical turbulent kinetic energy for our vehicle, we analyse the CFD results to determine how best to operate a small unmanned aircraft within this environment. As discovered in a previous study, the spatial distribution of turbulence increases with altitude. It was recommended then that UAVs operate at the minimal allowable altitude within a congested area. As the flow characteristics in an environment are similar, regardless of inlet velocity, we can determine areas within a city which will have consistently low or high values of turbulent kinetic energy. As the distribution of turbulence is dependent on prevailing wind directions, some directions are more favourable than others, even if the wind speed is unchanging. Moving forward we should aim to gather more information about integrated aircraft and how they respond to turbulence in a congested area

The Malware Analysis Body of Knowledge (MABOK)

The ability to forensically analyse malicious software (malware) is becoming an increasingly important discipline in the field of Digital Forensics. This is because malware is becoming stealthier, targeted, profit driven, managed by criminal organizations, harder to detect and much harder to analyse. Malware analysis requires a considerable skill set to delve deep into malware internals when it is designed specifically to detect and hinder such attempts. This paper presents a foundation for a Malware Analysis Body of Knowledge (MABOK) that is required to successfully forensically analyse malware. This body of knowledge has been the result of several years of research into malware dissection

A Threat to Cyber Resilience : A Malware Rebirthing Botnet

This paper presents a threat to cyber resilience in the form of a conceptual model of a malware rebirthing botnet which can be used in a variety of scenarios. It can be used to collect existing malware and rebirth it with new functionality and signatures that will avoid detection by AV software and hinder analysis. The botnet can then use the customized malware to target an organization with an orchestrated attack from the member machines in the botnet for a variety of malicious purposes, including information warfare applications. Alternatively, it can also be used to inject known malware signatures into otherwise non malicious code and traffic to overloading the sensors and processing systems employed by intrusion detection and prevention systems to create a denial of confidence of the sensors and detection systems. This could be used as a force multiplier in asymmetric warfare applications to create confusion and distraction whilst attacks are made on other defensive fronts

Educational leadership : a reflective essay

The role of a leader is invaluable in setting the tone of the environment and the vision for the school. There are so many parts to leadership, that continual learning will be necessary for any successful school leader. A school leader plays many roles including: a reflective practitioner, a change agent, an educational improvement specialist, and a servant leader who remembers the people who make the system work

The economics of renewable energy expansion in rural Sub-Saharan Africa

Accelerating development in Sub-Saharan Africa will require massive expansion of access to electricity -- currently reaching only about one-third of households. This paper explores how essential economic development might be reconciled with the need to keep carbon emissions in check. The authors develop a geographically explicit framework and use spatial modeling and cost estimates from recent engineering studies to determine where stand-alone renewable energy generation is a cost effective alternative to centralized grid supply. The results suggest that decentralized renewable energy will likely play an important role in expanding rural energy access. But it will be the lowest cost option for a minority of households in Africa, even when likely cost reductions over the next 20 years are considered. Decentralized renewables are competitive mostly in remote and rural areas, while grid connected supply dominates denser areas where the majority of households reside. These findings underscore the need to de-carbonize the fuel mix for centralized power generation as it expands in Africa.Energy Production and Transportation,Climate Change Mitigation and Green House Gases,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Power&Energy Conversion,Carbon Policy and Trading

Internal agent states : experiments using the swarm leader concept

In recent years, an understanding of the operating principles and stability of natural swarms has proven to be a useful tool for the design and control of artificial robotic agents. Many robotic systems, whose design or control principals are inspired by behavioural aspects of real biological systems such as leader-follower relationship, have been developed. We introduced an algorithm which successfully enhances the navigation performance of a swarm of robots using the swarm leader concept. This paper presents some applications based on that work using the simulations and experimental implementation using a swarming behaviour test-bed at the University of Strathclyde. Experimental and simulation results match closely in a way that confirms the efficiency of the algorithm as well as its applicability