Defending Against Firmware Cyber Attacks on Safety-Critical Systems

In the past, it was not possible to update the underlying software in many industrial control devices. Engineering teams had to ‘rip and replace’ obsolete components. However, the ability to make firmware updates has provided significant benefits to the companies who use Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), switches, gateways and bridges as well as an array of smart sensor/actuators. These updates include security patches when vulnerabilities are identified in existing devices; they can be distributed by physical media but are increasingly downloaded over Internet connections. These mechanisms pose a growing threat to the cyber security of safety-critical applications, which are illustrated by recent attacks on safety-related infrastructures across the Ukraine. Subsequent sections explain how malware can be distributed within firmware updates. Even when attackers cannot reverse engineer the code necessary to disguise their attack, they can undermine a device by forcing it into a constant upload cycle where the firmware installation never terminates. In this paper, we present means of mitigating the risks of firmware attack on safety-critical systems as part of wider initiatives to secure national critical infrastructures. Technical solutions, including firmware hashing, must be augmented by organizational measures to secure the supply chain within individual plants, across companies and throughout safety-related industries

Graduate views on access to higher education: is it really a case of pulling up the ladder?

Using as a starting point in the recent work of Mountford-Zimdars et al., the authors analyse attitudes towards expanding higher education (HE) opportunities in the UK. The authors propose that the approach of Mountford-Zimdars et al. is flawed not only in its adoption of a multivariate logistic regression but also in its interpretation of results. The authors make a number of adaptations, chief among them being the use of an ordered probit approach and the addition of a time dimension to test for changes in attitudes between 2000 and 2010. The authors find that attitudes towards HE expansion have intensified during the decade 2000–2010, but the authors uncover no evidence that this is due to graduates wanting to ‘pull up the ladder’, as suggested by Mountford-Zimdars et al. The authors argue that evidence of a widespread desire to reduce access to HE can most likely be explained by social congestion theory, internal institutional disaffection and rising tuition fees

Estimating the Social Welfare Effects of New Zealand Apple Imports

This paper provides a demonstration of how a comprehensive economic framework, which takes into account both the gains from trade and the costs of invasive species outbreaks, can inform decision-makers when making quarantine decisions. Using the theoretical framework developed in Cook and Fraser (2008) an empirical estimation is made of the economic welfare consequences for Australia of allowing quarantine-restricted trade in New Zealand apples to take place. The results suggest the returns to Australian society from importing New Zealand apples are likely to be negative. The price differential between the landed product with SPS measures in place and the autarkic price is insufficient to outweigh the increase in expected damage resulting from increased fire blight risk. As a consequence, this empirical analysis suggests the net benefits created by opening up this trade are marginal.International Relations/Trade,

The reconstructed Indonesian warm pool sea surface temperatures from tree rings and corals: Linkages to Asian monsoon drought and El Niño–Southern Oscillation

[ 1] The west Pacific warm pool is the heat engine for the globe's climate system. Its vast moisture and heat exchange profoundly impact conditions in the tropics and higher latitudes. Here, September - November sea surface temperature (SST) variability is reconstructed for the warm pool region (15 degrees S - 5 degrees N, 110 - 160 degrees E) surrounding Indonesia using annually resolved teak ring width and coral delta O-18 records. The reconstruction dates from A. D. 1782 - 1992 and accounts for 52% of the SST variance over the most replicated period. Significant correlations are found with El Nino - Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and monsoon indices at interannual to decadal frequency bands. Negative reconstructed SST anomalies coincide with major volcanic eruptions, while other noteworthy extremes are at times synchronous with Indian and Indonesian monsoon drought, particularly during major warm ENSO episodes. While the reconstruction adds to the sparse network of proxy reconstructions available for the tropical Indo-Pacific, additional proxies are needed to clarify how warm pool dynamics have interacted with global climate in past centuries to millennia.</p

The acute effect of a caffeine containing energy drink on mood state, readiness to invest effort and resistance exercise to failure

The efficacy of caffeine ingestion in enhancing aerobic performance is well established. The evidence for caffeine's effects on resistance exercise is mixed and has not fully examined the associated psychological and psychophysiological changes. This study examined acute effects of ingesting a caffeine-containing energy drink on repetitions to failure, rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and readiness to invest physical (RTIPE) and mental (RTIME) effort during resistance exercise to failure. Thirteen resistance trained males took part in this double-blind, randomized cross-over experimental study whereby they ingested a caffeinated (179mg) energy drink or placebo solution 60mins before completing a bout of resistance exercise comprising of bench press, deadlift, prone row and back squat exercise to failure at an intensity of 60% 1 repetition maximum. Experimental conditions were separated by at least 48hours. Participants completed significantly greater repetitions to failure, irrespective of exercise, in the energy drink condition (p = .015). RPE was significantly higher in the placebo condition (p = .02) and was significantly higher during lower body exercises compared to upper body exercises irrespective of substance ingested (p = .0001). RTIME was greater with the energy drink (p = .04), irrespective of time. A significant time X substance interaction (p = .036) for RTIPE indicated that RTIPE increased for both placebo and energy drink conditions pre ingestion to pre exercise, but the magnitude of increase was greater with the energy drink compared to placebo. This resulted in higher RTIPE post exercise for the energy drink condition. These results suggest that acute ingestion of a caffeine containing energy drink can enhance resistance exercise performance to failure and positively enhances psychophysiological factors related to exertion in trained males. Publisher statement: This is a non-final version of an article published in final form in Smith, M. , Cook, K. , James, R.S. and Duncan, M.J. (2012) The acute effect of a caffeine containing energy drink on mood state, readiness to invest effort and resistance exercise to failure. Journal of Strength &amp; Conditioning Research, volume 26 (10): 2858–2865

Prioritising biosecurity investment between protecting agricultural and environmental systems

This paper is motivated by the observation that there is a difference between the time paths of damage valuations for invasions which affect agricultural compared with environmental systems. In particular, unlike agricultural systems, studies have shown that the social valuation of an environmental system is likely to be exponentially positively related to the extent of its deterioration. This paper explores the implications of this difference in determining biosecurity investment priorities. It is concluded that because of this difference an environmental system will often not be prioritised for such protection over an agricultural system even though its ultimate social value exceeds that of the agricultural system

Monsoon drought over Java, Indonesia, during the past two centuries

Monsoon droughts, which often coincide with El Nino warm events, can have profound impacts on the populations of Southeast Asia. Improved understanding and prediction of such events can be aided by high-resolution proxy climate records, but these are scarce for the tropics. Here we reconstruct the boreal autumn (October-November) Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for Java, Indonesia (1787-1988). This reconstruction is based on nine ring-width chronologies derived from living teak trees growing on the islands of Java and Sulawesi, and one coral delta O-18 series from Lombok. The PDSI reconstruction correlates significantly with El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-related sea surface temperatures and other historical and instrumental records of tropical climate, reflecting the strong coupling between the climate of Indonesia and the large scale tropical Indo-Pacific climate system.</p

Towards a computational reading of emergence in experimental game design

In any prolonged creative act, there may be moments when an interesting and/or surprising aspect of the artefact being created, or a related idea, emerges without prior knowledge of the creator. Such emergent properties can be capitalised on to drive the creative process. With the Gamika iOS app, we have made it possible to create novel casual game levels in minutes and hours rather than the usual days and weeks. This has enabled us to undertake and analyse game design sessions with a think aloud methodology, focusing on moments of emergence and how they influenced the level design. This has in turn led us to an initial computational reading of emergence in game design, where we imagine how an automated game designer could recognise and take advantage of unexpected changes in aspects such as aesthetics, gameplay and playing strategies which arise during the creative process

Automated tweaking of levels for casual creation of mobile games

Casual creator software lowers the technical barriers to creative expression. Although casual creation of visual art, music, text and game levels is well established, few casual creators allow users to create entire games: despite many tools that aim to make the process easier, development of a game from start to finish still requires no small amount of technical ability. We are developing an iOS app called Gamika which seeks to change this, mainly through the use of AI and computational creativity techniques to remove some of the technical and creative burden from the user. In this paper we describe an initial step towards this: a Gamika component that takes a level designed by the user, and tweaks its parameters to improve its playability. The AI techniques used are straightforward: rule-based automated playtesting, random search, and decision trees learning. While there is room for improvement, as a proof of concept for this kind of mixed-initiative creation, the system already shows great promise