The Advanced Framework for Evaluating Remote Agents (AFERA): A Framework for Digital Forensic Practitioners

Digital forensics experts need a dependable method for evaluating evidence-gathering tools. Limited research and resources challenge this process and the lack of multi-endpoint data validation hinders reliability in distributed digital forensics. A framework was designed to evaluate distributed agent-based forensic tools while enabling practitioners to self-evaluate and demonstrate evidence reliability as required by the courts. Grounded in Design Science, the framework features guidelines, data, criteria, and checklists. Expert review enhances its quality and practicality

Have the Major U.S. Air Carriers Finally Turned the Corner? A Financial Condition Assessment

Rare prior to the deregulation of the airline industry, air carrier bankruptcies became rather endemic in the period 1982-2005. Since 1982, over 175 airlines have filed under the bankruptcy codes. This number includes eight of the carriers that were formerly referred to as “trunk carriers,” now known as “Majors.” Major carriers are defined as those with annual revenues exceeding $1.0 billion. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the recent performance of these carriers using a statistical model specifically designed to predict the likelihood of financial stress for airlines. The paper will also update past research in this important industry to demonstrate the very precarious nature of profitability. The major reasons for the improvement of the industry’s profitability will be briefly discussed. The analysis will show that the current financial condition of the industry has improved significantly due to increased concentration and the market domination of some carriers, very low fuel costs facing the carriers, and the record low interest rates resulting from the Federal Reserve’s easy monetary policy. the industry may still be fragile or vulnerable to changes in these input factors

Storytime Can Be Social Justice Time

Library storytimes are resources through which children can learn literacy skills, but they also have the potential for even greater impact. Families also use storytimes to gain valuable social interactions. Libraries currently offer storytimes in response to community needs and values, and looking at storytime through a social justice lens gives library staff an opportunity to share and model valuable lessons in acceptance, inclusion, kindness, and empathy. Resources exist to help storytime providers re-evaluate their storytimes and make incremental changes that can reap big benefits for attendees

Operating, Financial and Total Leverage and the Effects on U.S. Carrier Returns, 1990-2003

The U.S. airline industry has always been highly cyclical and somewhat fixed cost driven. The carriers are thus high in what financial analysts refer to as operating leverage. In addition, the majority of the airlines have followed aggressive debt strategies; that is, they have chosen to use large amounts of long-term debt finance to purchase assets. This results in a high degree of financial leverage. In the past, the resulting combined leverage has created severe financial problems for many in the industry. This paper will examine these different levels of leverage using elasticity measures borrowed from economic theory. The purpose is to examine the effects of this leverage during the years in which the carriers saw unprecedented growth and a return to profitability. It will also compare and contrast several carriers (such as Southwest) which have avoided the "boom and bust" cycle of this industry as well as the effects of 9/11. The sample will consist of the major U.S airlines and several of the group referred to as "nationals.

An Update on Airline Financial Condition and Insolvency Prospects Using the Altman Z" Score Model

Stricken by the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and by increases in fuel prices, a key cost which has spiked upward as the price of oil has risen to more than $130 per barrel, the airlines find themselves, once again, in fragile financial shape. The purpose of this article is to measure the financial condition of the industry, given this situation, using a popular financial stress model, the Altman Model

Evidence: A Guide for the Uncertain

Assume that it is your evidence that determines what opinions you should have. I argue that since you should take peer disagreement seriously, evidence must have two features. (1) It must sometimes warrant being modest: uncertain what your evidence warrants, and (thus) uncertain whether you’re rational. (2) But it must always warrant being guided: disposed to treat your evidence as a guide. Surprisingly, it is very difficult to vindicate both (1) and (2). But diagnosing why this is so leads to a proposal—Trust—that is weak enough to allow modesty but strong enough to yield many guiding features. In fact, I claim that Trust is the Goldilocks principle—for it is necessary and sufficient to vindicate the claim that you should always prefer to use free evidence. Upshot: Trust lays the foundations for a theory of disagreement and, more generally, an epistemology that permits self-doubt—a modest epistemology

Imprints of Short Distance Physics On Inflationary Cosmology

We analyze the impact of certain modifications to short distance physics on the inflationary perturbation spectrum. For the specific case of power-law inflation, we find distinctive -- and possibly observable -- effects on the spectrum of density perturbations.Comment: Revtex 4, 3 eps figs, 4 page

Football: a counterpoint to the procession of pain on the Western Front, 1914-1918?

In this article, three artworks of the First World War containing images of recreational football are analysed. These three images, In the Wings of the Theatre of War, Artillery Men at Football and Gassed, span the war from its beginning to its conclusion and are discussed in relationship to the development of recreational football in the front-line area, the evolving policies of censorship and propaganda and in consideration of the national mood in Britain. The paper shows how football went from being a spontaneous and improvised pastime in the early stages of the war to a well organized entertainment by war’s end. The images demonstrate how the war was portrayed as a temporary affair by a confident nation in 1914 to a more resigned acceptance of a semi-permanent event to be endured by 1918; however, all three artworks show that the sporting spirit, and hence the fighting spirit, of the British soldier was intact

The Roles of Tidal Evolution and Evaporative Mass Loss in the Origin of CoRoT-7 b

CoRoT-7 b is the first confirmed rocky exoplanet, but, with an orbital semi-major axis of 0.0172 AU, its origins may be unlike any rocky planet in our solar system. In this study, we consider the roles of tidal evolution and evaporative mass loss in CoRoT-7 b's history, which together have modified the planet's mass and orbit. If CoRoT-7 b has always been a rocky body, evaporation may have driven off almost half its original mass, but the mass loss may depend sensitively on the extent of tidal decay of its orbit. As tides caused CoRoT-7 b's orbit to decay, they brought the planet closer to its host star, thereby enhancing the mass loss rate. Such a large mass loss also suggests the possibility that CoRoT-7 b began as a gas giant planet and had its original atmosphere completely evaporated. In this case, we find that CoRoT-7 b's original mass probably didn't exceed 200 Earth masses (about 2/3 of a Jupiter mass). Tides raised on the host star by the planet may have significantly reduced the orbital semi-major axis, perhaps causing the planet to migrate through mean-motion resonances with the other planet in the system, CoRoT-7 c. The coupling between tidal evolution and mass loss may be important not only for CoRoT-7 b but also for other close-in exoplanets, and future studies of mass loss and orbital evolution may provide insight into the origin and fate of close-in planets, both rocky and gaseous.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRAS on 2010 May