An Analysis of Rogue AV Campaigns

Rogue antivirus software has recently received extensive attention, justified by the diffusion and efficacy of its propagation. We present a longitudinal analysis of the rogue antivirus threat ecosystem, focusing on the structure and dynamics of this threat and its economics. To that end, we compiled and mined a large dataset of characteristics of rogue antivirus domains and of the servers that host them. The contributions of this paper are threefold. Firstly, we offer the first, to our knowledge, broad analysis of the infrastructure underpinning the distribution of rogue security software by tracking 6,500 malicious domains. Secondly, we show how to apply attack attribution methodologies to correlate campaigns likely to be associated to the same individuals or groups. By using these techniques, we identify 127 rogue security software campaigns comprising 4,549 domains. Finally, we contextualize our findings by comparing them to a different threat ecosystem, that of browser exploits. We underline the profound difference in the structure of the two threats, and we investigate the root causes of this difference by analyzing the economic balance of the rogue antivirus ecosystem. We track 372,096 victims over a period of 2 months and we take advantage of this information to retrieve monetization insights. While applied to a specific threat type, the methodology and the lessons learned from this work are of general applicability to develop a better understanding of the threat economies

M-theory Supertubes with Three and Four Charges

Using the covariant M5-brane action, we construct configurations corresponding to supertubes with three and four charges. We derive the BPS equations and study the full structure of the solutions. In particular, we find new solutions involving arbitrariness in field strengths.Comment: 24 pages, references added and typos correcte

Pine sawdust biochar as a potential amendment for establishing trees in Appalachian mine spoils

Early growth and survival of tree seedlings is often poor on reclaimed coal surface mines in Appalachia. Biochar produced in bioenergy generation has potential for use as an amendment to improve seedling performance. Mine soil was collected from a recently reclaimed coal surface mine in Wise County, Virginia and mixed with loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) sawdust biochar, simulating application rates of 2.3, 11.2 and 22.5 Mg ha-1. Unplanted leaching columns and 4 L tree planting pots were filled with these biochar-soil mixtures, plus controls of pure mine soil and pure biochar. For the tree planting pots, additional pots were created where the biochar was applied as a topdressing at the same application rates as in the mixtures. One-year-old seedlings of both American sycamore (Platanus occidentalis L.) and black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) were planted. Unplanted leaching columns were leached with collected rainwater for six months to simulate weathering. Trees were grown for one growing season. Black locust had higher average above-ground dry woody biomass (24.4 g) than American sycamore (17.0 g), and also higher below-ground biomass (61.0 g compared to 30.2 g). The pure biochar produced greater average below-ground biomass (99.9 g) than the pure mine soil (46.9 g). All of the biochar treatments produced greater average above-ground woody biomass (19.1 g – 33.4 g) than the pure mine soil (10.9 g). After weathering, biochar provided less available soil phosphorus, calcium and iron than the mine soil itself while increasing soil carbon and organic matter. High (22.5 Mg ha-1) biochar applications increased soil volumetric water holding capacity to 18.6% compared to 13.4% for pure mine soil. Naturally-occurring herbaceous biomass in the pots was negatively correlated with above-ground woody biomass at r = -0.483. Topdressing and full incorporation of biochar were not significantly different in their effects on biomass. Results suggest that pine biochar either broadcast at 2.3 - 22.5 Mg ha‑1, or mixed in planting holes with backfill soil, will promote faster above-ground growth and larger root systems in seedlings in mine soils. Further studies should test these methods in the field over multiple years and further refine recommendations of the rate of biochar to use and how best to apply it. New systems are being developed in Appalachia to produce biofuels and biochar from local biomass and to recycle biochar into the land base to enhance future biomass productivity. Applying 4 L of biochar mixed with the backfill of newly-planted trees is the top recommended practice for tree performance

On the Non-invasive Measurement of the Intrinsic Quantum Hall Effect

With a model calculation, we demonstrate that a non-invasive measurement of intrinsic quantum Hall effect defined by the local chemical potential in a ballistic quantum wire can be achieved with the aid of a pair of voltage leads which are separated by potential barriers from the wire. B\"uttiker's formula is used to determine the chemical potential being measured and is shown to reduce exactly to the local chemical potential in the limit of strong potential confinement in the voltage leads. Conditions for quantisation of Hall resistance and measuring local chemical potential are given.Comment: 16 pages LaTex, 2 post-script figures available on reques

Synthesis effects on the magnetic and superconducting properties of RuSr2GdCu2O8

A systematic study on the synthesis of the Ru-1212 compound by preparing a series of samples that were annealed at increasing temperatures and then quenched has been performed. It results that the optimal temperature for the annealing lies around 1060-1065 C; a further temperature increase worsens the phase formation. Structural order is very important and the subsequent grinding and annealing improves it. Even if from the structural point of view the samples appear substantially similar, the physical characterization highlight great differences both in the electrical and magnetic properties related to intrinsic properties of the phase as well as to the connection between the grains as inferred from the resistive and the Curie Weiss behaviour at high temperature as well as in the visibility of ZFC anf FC magnetic signals.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. Proc. Int. Workshop " Ruthenate and rutheno-cuprate materials: theory and experiments", Vietri, October 2001. To be published on LNP Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin, C. Noce, A. Vecchione, M. Cuoco, A. Romano Eds, 200

Role of heavy-meson exchange in pion production near threshold

Recent calculations of $s$-wave pion production have severely underestimated the accurately known $pp\rightarrow pp\pi^0$\ total cross section near threshold. In these calculations, only the single-nucleon axial-charge operator is considered. We have calculated, in addition to the one-body term, the two-body contributions to this reaction that arise from the exchange of mesons. We find that the inclusion of the scalar $\sigma$-meson exchange current (and lesser contributions from other mesons) increases the cross section by about a factor of five, and leads to excellent agreement with the data. The results are neither very sensitive to changes in the distorting potential that generates the $NN$ wave function, nor to different choices for the meson-nucleon form factors. We argue that $pp\rightarrow pp\pi^0$\ data provide direct experimental evidence for meson-exchange contributions to the axial current.Comment: 28 Pages, IU-NTC #93-0

The effects of weather and climate change on dengue

There is much uncertainty about the future impact of climate change on vector-borne diseases. Such uncertainty reflects the difficulties in modelling the complex interactions between disease, climatic and socioeconomic determinants. We used a comprehensive panel dataset from Mexico covering 23 years of province-specific dengue reports across nine climatic regions to estimate the impact of weather on dengue, accounting for the effects of non-climatic factors

Engaging with community researchers for exposure science: lessons learned from a pesticide biomonitoring study

A major challenge in biomonitoring studies with members of the general public is ensuring their continued involvement throughout the necessary length of the research. The paper presents evidence on the use of community researchers, recruited from local study areas, as a mechanism for ensuring effective recruitment and retention of farmer and resident participants for a pesticides biomonitoring study. The evidence presented suggests that community researchers' abilities to build and sustain trusting relationships with participants enhanced the rigour of the study as a result of their on-the-ground responsiveness and flexibility resulting in data collection beyond targets expected

Mapping the beach beneath the street:digital cartography for the playable city

Maps are an important component within many of the playful and gameful experiences designed to turn cities into a playable infrastructures. They take advantage of the fact that the technology used for obtaining accurate spatial information, such as GPS receivers and magnetometers (digital compasses), are now so wide-spread that they are considered as ‘standard’ sensors on mobile phones, which are themselves ubiquitous. Interactive digital maps, therefore, are are widely used by the general public for a variety of purposes. However, despite the rich design history of cartography digital maps typically exhibit a dominant aesthetic that has been de-signed to serve the usability and utility requirements of turn-by-turn urban navigation, which is itself driven by the proliferation of in-car and personal navigation services. The navigation aesthetic is now widespread across almost all spatial applications, even where a be-spoke cartographic product would be better suited. In this chapter we seek to challenge this by exploring novel neo-cartographic ap-proaches to making maps for use within playful and gameful experi-ences designed for the cities. We will examine the potential of de-sign approaches that can producte not only more aesthetically pleasing maps, but also offer the potential for influencing user be-haviour, which can be used to promote emotional engagement and exploration in playable city experiences

The Library of Babel: On the origin of gravitational thermodynamics

We show that heavy pure states of gravity can appear to be mixed states to almost all probes. For AdS_5 Schwarzschild black holes, our arguments are made using the field theory dual to string theory in such spacetimes. Our results follow from applying information theoretic notions to field theory operators capable of describing very heavy states in gravity. For half-BPS states of the theory which are incipient black holes, our account is exact: typical microstates are described in gravity by a spacetime ``foam'', the precise details of which are almost invisible to almost all probes. We show that universal low-energy effective description of a foam of given global charges is via certain singular spacetime geometries. When one of the specified charges is the number of D-branes, the effective singular geometry is the half-BPS ``superstar''. We propose this as the general mechanism by which the effective thermodynamic character of gravity emerges.Comment: LaTeX, 6 eps figures, uses young.sty and wick.sty; Version 2: typos corrected, minor rewordings and clarifications, references adde