Resilience of the Internet of Things (IoT) from an Information Assurance (IA) Perspective

Internet infrastructure developments and the rise of the IoT Socio-Technical Systems (STS) have frequently generated more unsecure protocols to facilitate the rapid intercommunication between the plethoras of IoT devices. Whereas, current development of the IoT has been mainly focused on enabling and effectively meeting the functionality requirement of digital-enabled enterprises we have seen scant regard to their IA architecture, marginalizing system resilience with blatant afterthoughts to cyber defence. Whilst interconnected IoT devices do facilitate and expand information sharing; they further increase of risk exposure and potential loss of trust to their Socio-Technical Systems. A change in the IoT paradigm is needed to enable a security-first mind-set; if the trusted sharing of information built upon dependable resilient growth of IoT is to be established and maintained. We argue that Information Assurance is paramount to the success of IoT, specifically its resilience and dependability to continue its safe support for our digital economy

Malaria, Intestinal Parasitic Infection, Anemia, and Malnourishment in Rural Cameroonian Villages with an Assessment of Early Interventions

Malaria, water-borne diarrheal diseases, and geohelminth infections, combined with severe malnutrition ravage entire villages throughout subSaharan Africa. The Bawa Health Initiative (BHI) is a 501c(3) non-profit organization with the goal of implementing a comprehensive public health program in an attempt to address these problems in a series of rural villages located in the West Province of Cameroon, Africa. Interventions include the provision of permethrin-treated bed nets to reduce the transmission of malaria, the installation of biosand water filters to reduce the prevalence of water-borne diseases, and a geohelminth control program utilizing mass treatment with albendazole. This study details the results of surveys conducted to monitor the success of the interventions. Since implementation of interventions, the number of clinical cases of malaria, diarrheal disease and typhoid has decreased, the prevalence of water-borne protozoan parasites has decreased, the prevalence and intensities of geohelminth infections has significantly decreased, and the prevalence of anemia has significantly decreased. When viewed in its entirety, these data show that the comprehensive approach to public health challenges in these villages initiated by BHI has been extremely successful. However, much work remains to be done. The primary purpose of this paper is to further inform academicians, students, and the general public about the continuing problems associated with these diseases and to describe and assess the effectiveness of some current interventions being used to combat them

On the direct indecomposability of infinite irreducible Coxeter groups and the Isomorphism Problem of Coxeter groups

In this paper we prove, without the finite rank assumption, that any irreducible Coxeter group of infinite order is directly indecomposable as an abstract group. The key ingredient of the proof is that we can determine, for an irreducible Coxeter group, the centralizers of the normal subgroups that are generated by involutions. As a consequence, we show that the problem of deciding whether two general Coxeter groups are isomorphic, as abstract groups, is reduced to the case of irreducible Coxeter groups, without assuming the finiteness of the number of the irreducible components or their ranks. We also give a description of the automorphism group of a general Coxeter group in terms of those of its irreducible components.Comment: 30 page

Children's construction task performance and spatial ability: controlling task complexity and predicting mathematics performance.

This paper presents a methodology to control construction task complexity and examined the relationships between construction performance and spatial and mathematical abilities in children. The study included three groups of children (N = 96); ages 7-8, 10-11, and 13-14 years. Each group constructed seven pre-specified objects. The study replicated and extended previous findings that indicated that the extent of component symmetry and variety, and the number of components for each object and available for selection, significantly predicted construction task difficulty. Results showed that this methodology is a valid and reliable technique for assessing and predicting construction play task difficulty. Furthermore, construction play performance predicted mathematical attainment independently of spatial ability

All Coronal Loops are the Same: Evidence to the Contrary

The 1998 April 20 spectral line data from the Coronal Diagnostics Spectrometer (CDS) on the {\it Solar and Heliospheric Observatory} (\SOHO) shows a coronal loop on the solar limb. Our original analysis of these data showed that the plasma was multi-thermal, both along the length of the loop and along the line of sight. However, more recent results by other authors indicate that background subtraction might change these conclusions, so we consider the effect of background subtraction on our analysis. We show Emission Measure (EM) Loci plots of three representative pixels: loop apex, upper leg, and lower leg. Comparisons of the original and background-subtracted intensities show that the EM Loci are more tightly clustered after background subtraction, but that the plasma is still not well represented by an isothermal model. Our results taken together with those of other authors indicate that a variety of temperature structures may be present within loops.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter

Exploring the psychological rewards of a familiar semirural landscape: connecting to local nature through a mindful approach

This study analyses a 53,000 word diary of a year engaging with nature through over 200 trips to a semi-rural landscape. Thematic analysis revealed two themes; the transition from observer to nature connectedness and the ways in which the natural environment was experienced once a connection was made. These themes are discussed in relation to theories that seek to explain the positive effect of nature and nature connectedness. The findings are important as they suggest that repeated engagement with local semi-rural countryside can lead to a mindful approach and psychological rewards that do not require travel into the wilderness. The work informs further research into outcomes and processes of nature based interventions such as: trip frequency, duration and diary keeping

Evidence for Proportionate Partition Between the Magnetic Field and Hot Gas in Turbulent Cassiopeia A

We present a deep X-ray observation of the young Galactic supernova remnant Cas A, acquired with the ROSAT High Resolution Imager. This high dynamic range (232 ks) image reveals low-surface-brightness X-ray structure, which appears qualitatively similar to corresponding radio features. We consider the correlation between the X-ray and radio morphologies and its physical implications. After correcting for the inhomogeneous absorption across the remnant, we performed a point by point (4" resolution) surface brightness comparison between the X-ray and radio images. We find a strong (r = 0.75) log-log correlation, implying an overall relationship of $\log(\Sigma_{_{\rm X-ray}}) \propto (2.21\pm0.05) \times \log(\Sigma_{_{\rm radio}})$. This is consistent with proportionate partition (and possibly equipartition) between the local magnetic field and the hot gas --- implying that Cas A's plasma is fully turbulent and continuously amplifying the magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages with embedded bitmapped figures, Accepted by ApJ Letters 5/1/9

The U(5)-O(6) transition in the Interacting Boson Model and the E(5) critical point symmetry

The relation of the recently proposed E(5) critical point symmetry with the interacting boson model is investigated. The large-N limit of the interacting boson model at the critical point in the transition from U(5) to O(6) is obtained by solving the Richardson equations. It is shown explicitly that this algebraic calculation leads to the same results as the solution of the Bohr differential equation with a $\beta^4$ potential.Comment: Accepted in PR

Assembly and use of new task rules in fronto-parietal cortex

Severe capacity limits, closely associated with fluid intelligence, arise in learning and use of new task rules. We used fMRI to investigate these limits in a series of multirule tasks involving different stimuli, rules, and response keys. Data were analyzed both during presentation of instructions and during later task execution. Between tasks, we manipulated the number of rules specified in task instructions, and within tasks, we manipulated the number of rules operative in each trial block. Replicating previous results, rule failures were strongly predicted by fluid intelligence and increased with the number of operative rules. In fMRI data, analyses of the instruction period showed that the bilateral inferior frontal sulcus, intraparietal sulcus, and presupplementary motor area were phasically active with presentation of each new rule. In a broader range of frontal and parietal regions, baseline activity gradually increased as successive rules were instructed. During task performance, we observed contrasting fronto-parietal patterns of sustained (block-related) and transient (trial-related) activity. Block, but not trial, activity showed effects of task complexity. We suggest that, as a new task is learned, a fronto-parietal representation of relevant rules and facts is assembled for future control of behavior. Capacity limits in learning and executing new rules, and their association with fluid intelligence, may be mediated by this load-sensitive fronto-parietal network