Quantifying Relevance of Mobile Digital Evidence as They Relate to Case Types: A Survey and a Guide for Best Practices

In this work, a survey was conducted to help quantify the relevance of nineteen types of evidence (such as SMS) to seven types of digital investigations associated with mobile devices (MD) (such as child pornography). 97 % of the respondents agreed that every type of digital evidence has a different level of relevance to further or solve a particular investigation. From 55 serious participants, a data set of 5,772 responses regarding the relevance of nineteen types of digital evidence for all the seven types of digital investigations was obtained. The results showed that (i) SMS belongs to the most relevant type of digital evidence for all the seven types of investigations, (ii) MMS belongs to the most relevant type of digital evidence for all the types of digital investigations except espionage and eavesdropping where it is the second most relevant type of digital evidence, (iii) Phonebook and Contacts is the most relevant type of digital evidence for all types of digital investigations except child pornography, (iv) Audio Calls is the most relevant type of digital evidence for all types of digital investigations except credit card fraud and child pornography and (v) Standalone Files are the least relevant type of digital evidence for most of the digital investigations. The size of the response data set was fairly reasonable to analyze and then define; by generalization, relevance based best practices for mobile device forensics, which can supplement any forensics process model, including digital triage. For the reliability of these best practices, the impact of responses from the participants with more than five years of experience was analyzed by using one hundred and thirty three (133) instances of One-Way ANOVA tests. The results of this research can help investigators concentrate on the relevant types of digital evidence when investigating a specific case, consequently saving time and effort

Testing Framework for Mobile Device Forensics Tools

The proliferation of mobile communication and computing devices, in particular smart mobile phones, is almost paralleled with the increasing number of mobile device forensics tools in the market. Each mobile forensics tool vendor, on one hand claims to have a tool that is best in terms of performance, while on the other hand each tool vendor seems to be using different standards for testing their tools and thereby defining what support means differently. To overcome this problem, a testing framework based on a series of tests ranging from basic forensics tasks such as file system reconstruction up to more complex ones countering antiforensic techniques is proposed. The framework, which is an extension of an existing effort done in 2010, prescribes a method to clearly circumscribe the term support into precise levels. It also gives an idea of the standard to be developed and accepted by the forensic community that will make it easier for forensics investigators to quickly select the most appropriate tool for a particular mobile device

An experimental study on axial behaviour of recycled plastic aggregate concrete columns

Plastic production and the resultant plastic waste is increasingly challenging due to population growth and urbanization. This study focuses on plastic reuse as an aggregate in concrete to explore the recycling avenue in the construction industry. In addition, the work focused on the mechanical properties of eco-friendly concrete that uses plastic waste as a partial substitution for coarse aggregate. From this method the negative impact of plastic waste on the environment not only reduced, but it also helps avoid exploitation of natural resources for natural aggregate production. Several past works have explored the use of plastic as an aggregate in concrete; however, most works were focussed on the material level behavior. In this study, compressive behaviour of reinforced concrete columns consisting of recycled plastic aggregate concrete and exposed to axial loads is investigated. This paper provides the axial loading test results of 5 columns consisting of Recycled Plastic Aggregate Concrete (RPAC). The replacement rate in the M40 grade concrete is kept at 12%. Compressive performance of RPAC columns such as strain, failure mode, reinforcement along longitudinal direction and ties spacing are analysed. The results clearly show the potential of recycled plastic aggregates for use in columns with structural performance equivalent to that of conventional aggregate concrete

Investigating the Syntactic Features in the Novel My Feudal Lord by Tehmina Durrani

The study entitled “Investigating the Syntactic Features in the Novel My Feudal Lord” aims at describing syntactic devices used in the novel “My Feudal Lord”. This study was conducted using a textual analysis method. This research is based on a mixed research method as it involves qualitative collection of data and then the data is analyzed quantitatively to find out the dominant feature among all syntactic features. For this purpose, the researcher has used the software SPSS to perform descriptive statistics tests on syntactic features. The theoretical framework for this research is I.R. Galperin’s book “Stylistics”. Part five “Syntactical Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices” (Galperin, 1977) of this book is taken as a model for this research. For this purpose, the researcher has selected nine samples of 10 pages each from the pdf file of the book “My Feudal Lord” available on the internet. The novel “My Feudal Lord” used eight types of syntactic features i.e. inversion, parallelism, aposiopesis, ellipsis, repetition, asyndeton, polysyndeton, and rhetorical question. These features performed some major functions in the novel. The syntactical devices most frequently used by the writers of the novel “My Feudal Lord” is a parallelism with a mean value of 29.33 and inversion (13.22) and the least frequently used devices are asyndeton (0.78) and aposiopesis (0.33). By using parallelism, the novelist draws the reader’s attention to focus on the content of the novel.  Keywords: Stylistics, Syntax, Mixed Research&nbsp

The role of perivascular adipose tissue in vascular function: how hyperglycaemia and adiposity affect vascular control

Hyperglycaemia associated with diabetes may have detrimental effects on vascular function. Diabetes may be accompanied by obesity which can potentially compound impaired vascular function by altering the physiological state of adipose tissue. Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT), the exterior covering layer of most blood vessels, is receiving interest as a paracrine modulator of vascular function. Most conventional pharmacological studies dissect off the adherent adipose tissue and so this aspect of vascular control is often neglected. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of hyperglycaemia and PVAT on control of the porcine coronary artery (PCA). In vitro studies were carried out, using PCAs obtained from the abattoir, in organ-bath set ups. Exposure of PCAs to acute hyperglycaemia (22 mM) caused a significant contractile response, which was similar to that caused by the osmotic control (mannitol) and which was attenuated by superoxide dismutase. Superoxide production was detected in the buffer solution incubated with PCAs during hyperglycaemia. These findings suggest that acute hyperglycaemia increased PCA contractility by inducing oxidative stress, which involved superoxide production. Osmotic stress may possibly have contributed to hyperglycaemia-induced vasoconstriction, which needs to be investigated in future work. The relaxant responses of PCAs to the NO donor (SNP) in the presence of PVAT showed significant potentiation, compared to the vessels without PVAT. Inhibition of NOS in PCAs (denuded of endothelium) led to a contractile response, which was significantly greater in the presence of PVAT. The Griess reaction detected the presence of nitrite in buffer solutions incubated with PVAT. Moreover, the expression of eNOS was identified in PVAT using Western blotting. These data indicate that the PVAT of PCAs released the relaxant factor NO. Exposure of cleaned PCAs to PVAT significantly increased the basal tone of the vessels which was significantly attenuated in the presence of a thromboxane A2 (TXA2) receptor antagonist. In addition, PVAT enhanced the contractile responses to 4-AP-induced inhibition of vascular voltage-activated K+ channels (Kv) channels. This enhancement was attenuated following TXA2 receptor inhibition. These findings point to the release of TXA2 from PVAT, which had a contractile effect by augmenting the closure of Kv channels of PCAs. In addition, isometric tension studies showed that the maximal endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation to cumulative bradykinin was significantly inhibited in the presence of exogenous angiotensin II and PVAT. The later effect was ameliorated by inhibition of the angiotensin II, type 1 (AT1) receptor. ELISA showed the presence of angiotensin II in PVAT. However, Western blotting carried out to detect the expression of ACE1 (which converts angiotensin I to angiotensin II) in PVAT showed non-specific bands and was inconclusive. Angiotensin II may have been released from PVAT which interfered with the endothelium-dependent relaxation responses. In conclusion, the present study has shown that hyperglycaemia influenced the function of PCAs by causing a contractile response possibly mediated by induction of oxidative stress. Moreover, PVAT impacted on function of the adjacent vascular smooth muscle plausibly via release of the relaxant factor NO and the contractile factor TXA2. Finally, PVAT-derived angiotensin II may have inhibited the function of endothelium of PCAs in a paracrine manner. Future studies in porcine and human coronary arteries will help to further investigate this area

Protecting Digital Evidence Integrity and Preserving Chain of Custody

Evidence is the key to solve any crime. Evidence integrity needs to be protected in order to make it admissible in the court of law. Digital evidence is more revealing, but it is fragile; it can easily be tampered with or modified. There are different techniques available to protect the integrity of digital evidence. Different automated digital evidence acquisition tools are available in the market. In this paper, we have analyzed two automated tools (EnCase and FTK Imager) that are used for disk imaging. These tools claim to protect the integrity of digital evidence. The techniques used by these tools are analyzed in this paper. Problems with their approaches are discussed and a solution is proposed to address the problems. A prototype of an automated tool is developed with an implementation of the proposed solution