Peer-to-peer:is deviant behavior the norm on P2P file-sharing networks?

P2P file-sharing networks such as Kazaa, eDonkey, and Limewire boast millions of users. Because of scalability concerns and legal issues, such networks are moving away from the semicentralized approach that Napster typifies toward more scalable and anonymous decentralized P2P architectures. Because they lack any central authority, these networks provide a new, interesting context for the expression of human social behavior. However, the activities of P2P community members are sometimes at odds with what real-world authorities consider acceptable. One example is the use of P2P networks to distribute illegal pornography. To gauge the form and extent of P2P-based sharing of illegal pornography, we analyzed pornography-related resource-discovery traffic in the Gnutella P2P network. We found that a small yet significant proportion of Gnutella activity relates to illegal pornography: for example, 1.6 percent of searches and 2.4 percent of responses are for this type of material. But does this imply that such activity is widespread in the file-sharing population? On the contrary, our results show that a small yet particularly active subcommunity of users searches for and distributes illegal pornography, but it isn't a behavioral norm

The western blue groper (Achoerodus gouldii), a protogynous hermaphroditic labrid with exceptional longevity, late maturity, slow growth, and both late maturation and sex change

The western blue groper (Achoerodus gouldii) is shown to be a temperate protogynous hermaphrodite, which spawns between early winter and mid-spring. Because A. gouldii changes body color at about the time of sex change, its color can be used as a proxy for sex for estimating the size and age at sex change and for estimating growth when it is not possible to use gonads for determining the sex of this fish. The following characteristics make A. gouldii highly susceptible to overfishing: 1) exceptional longevity, with a maximum age (70 years) that is by far the greatest yet estimated for a labrid; 2) slow growth for the first 15 years and little subsequent growth by females; and 3) late maturation at a large total length (TL50 = 653 mm) and old age (~17 years) and 4) late sex change at an even greater total length (TL50 = 821 mm) and age (~35 years). The TL50 at maturity and particularly at sex change exceeded the minimum legal total length (500 mm) of A. gouldii and the lengths of many recreationally and commercially caught fish. Many of these characteristics are found in certain deep-water fishes that are likewise considered susceptible to overfishing. Indeed, although fishing effort for A. gouldii in Western Australia is not particularly high, per-recruit analyses indicate that this species is already close to or fully exploited

Interface familiarity restores active advantage in a virtual exploration and reconstruction task in children.

Active exploration is reportedly better than passive observation of spatial displacements in real environments, for the acquisition of relational spatial information, especially by children. However, a previous study using a virtual environment (VE) showed that children in a passive observation condition performed better than actives when asked to reconstruct in reality the environment explored virtually. Active children were unpractised in using the input device, which may have detracted from any active advantage, since input device operation may be regarded as a concurrent task, increasing cognitive load and spatial working memory demands. To examine this possibility, 7-8-year-old children in the present study were given 5 minutes of training with the joystick input device. When compared with passive participants for spatial learning, active participants gave a better performance than passives, placing objects significantly more accurately. The importance of interface training when using VEs for assessment and training was discussed

An exploratory randomised controlled trial comparing the effectiveness of different duration of canine-assisted interventions in higher education students

The aim of this study was to explore whether different durations of canine-assisted intervention (CAI) influenced the beneficial effects of CAI on anxiety, stress, depression, and the well-being of higher education (HE) students. Eighty-eight participants took part in an exploratory randomised control trial (RCT) and were assigned to the 2, 5, and 10-min CAI groups who interacted with a canine, or a control group who watched an unrelated slideshow. Pre- and post-intervention anxiety, stress, depression, and well-being levels were measured. Additionally, the type of interaction between humans and canines was recorded as well as participants’ views of the canines’ neoteny (juvenile features) to explore whether interaction activity and canine features have an impact on the beneficial positive effects of CAI. The results showed no differences in the duration of CAI in reducing anxiety, stress, and depression, meaning a 2-min CAI session was as effective as a 10-min session. The results also found individual intervention activities between humans and canines did not predict a reduction in anxiety, stress, depression, or an increase in general well-being. Additionally, a negative correlation was found between the cuteness of the canine and anxiety, and between the cuddliness of the canine and stress, although these results should be interpreted with caution due to high canine trait scores. Overall, this study used a CAI and control group to explore the differences between a single 2, 5, and 10-min CAI sessions in HE students and demonstrated a 2-min CAI session was as effective as a longer 10-min CAI session in supporting the mental health of HE students, by reducing anxiety, stress, and depression levels in the treatment group

Canine-assisted intervention reduces anxiety and stress in higher education students: a randomized controlled trial

The purpose of this study was to explore benefits of interacting with a canine on anxiety, stress, depression, and wellbeing in Higher Education (HE) students. Sixty participants took part in a randomized controlled trial. Assigned to either the canine-assisted intervention (CAI) or control group, the CAI group interacted with a canine whereas the control group watched an unrelated slideshow. Anxiety, depression, stress, and wellbeing measures were completed pre- and post-intervention and demonstrated there was a significant decrease in anxiety and stress in the CAI group. Due to group differences pre-intervention, findings for depression measures were uninterpretable and there was no significant effect found for general wellbeing. Overall, this study uses a CAI and control group and explores the use of a singular, brief CAI session in HE students demonstrating CAI to be an effective means of supporting mental health by decreasing levels of anxiety and stress in the treatment group

Flexible programmable networking: A reflective, component-based approach

The need for programmability and adaptability in networking systems is becoming increasingly important. More specifically, the challenge is in the ability to add services rapidly, and be able to deploy, configure and reconfigure them as easily as possible. Such demand is creating a considerable shift in the way networks are expected to operate in the future. This is the main aim of programmable networking research community, and in our project we are investigating a component-based approach to the structuring of programmable networking software. Our intention is to apply the notion of components, component frameworks and reflection ubiquitously, thus accommodating all the different elements that comprise a programmable networking system

Estimating the functional form for the density dependence from life history data

Two contrasting approaches to the analysis of population dynamics are currently popular: demographic approaches where the associations between demographic rates and statistics summarizing the population dynamics are identified; and time series approaches where the associations between population dynamics, population density, and environmental covariates are investigated. In this paper, we develop an approach to combine these methods and apply it to detailed data from Soay sheep (Ovis aries). We examine how density dependence and climate contribute to fluctuations in population size via age- and sex-specific demographic rates, and how fluctuations in demographic structure influence population dynamics. Density dependence contributes most, followed by climatic variation, age structure fluctuations and interactions between density and climate. We then simplify the density-dependent, stochastic, age-structured demographic model and derive a new phenomenological time series which captures the dynamics better than previously selected functions. The simple method we develop has potential to provide substantial insight into the relative contributions of population and individual-level processes to the dynamics of populations in stochastic environments