USBcat - Towards an Intrusion Surveillance Toolset

This paper identifies an intrusion surveillance framework which provides an analyst with the ability to investigate and monitor cyber-attacks in a covert manner. Where cyber-attacks are perpetrated for the purposes of espionage the ability to understand an adversary's techniques and objectives are an important element in network and computer security. With the appropriate toolset, security investigators would be permitted to perform both live and stealthy counter-intelligence operations by observing the behaviour and communications of the intruder. Subsequently a more complete picture of the attacker's identity, objectives, capabilities, and infiltration could be formulated than is possible with present technologies. This research focused on developing an extensible framework to permit the covert investigation of malware. Additionally, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) Mass Storage Device (MSD) based covert channel was designed to enable remote command and control of the framework. The work was validated through the design, implementation and testing of a toolset.Comment: In Proceedings AIDP 2014, arXiv:1410.322

Overpumping Leads to California Groundwater Arsenic Threat

Water resources are being challenged to meet domestic, agricultural, and industrial needs. To complement finite surface water supplies that are being stressed by changes in precipitation and increased demand, groundwater is increasingly being used. Sustaining groundwater use requires considering both water quantity and quality. A unique challenge for groundwater use, as compared with surface water, is the presence of naturally occurring contaminants within aquifer sediments, which can enter the water supply. Here we find that recent groundwater pumping, observed through land subsidence, results in an increase in aquifer arsenic concentrations in the San Joaquin Valley of California. By comparison, historic groundwater pumping shows no link to current groundwater arsenic concentrations. Our results support the premise that arsenic can reside within pore water of clay strata within aquifers and is released due to overpumping. We provide a quantitative model for using subsidence as an indicator of arsenic concentrations correlated with groundwater pumping

The effect of changing player numbers on the physiological responses and time-motion characteristics of a soccer-specific training drill

Soccer-specific training (SST) drills are used to develop physiological adaptations, technical and tactical skills, and provide coaches with greater control of external training load. Despite widespread use, there has been little analysis of SST drills. This study quantified the effect of manipulating player numbers on the physiological demands of an SST drill. Fourteen players completed nine trials (3 × 8, 10, 12 players) of a 4-min SST drill modelled on soccer time-motion data. Physiological intensity measures (heart rate, blood lactate concentration [BLa-], rating of perceived exertion [RPE]) and GPS time-motion data (movement distances and velocities) were collected for each drill. A repeated measures analysis of variance determined significant (p < 0.05) between-drill differences. Results showed variables such as total running distance (TD), mean percentage of maximum heart rate, RPE, and [BLa-] were greater for the 8-player SST drill. The 10-player drill also had a 22% greater TD and 21% higher average speed compared to the 12-player drill, which tended to have a lower activity profile. The 8-player SST drill could be used to develop aerobic capacity and repeat-sprint ability (RSA) because of a higher activity profile. The 10- and 12-player drills would be suited for RSA and sprint acceleration enhancement

Non-invasive Optical End-to-End Test of a Large TMA Telescope (JWST) from the Intermediate Focus

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) requires testing of the full optical system in a cryogenic vacuum environment before launch. Challenges with the telescope architecture and the test environment lead to placing removable optical test sources at the Cassegrain intermediate focus of the Telescope. The Science Instrument suite will be used to align the telescope and to verify the wavefront error. The Science Instruments capture test images that are analyzed using focus diverse phase retrieval. The wavefront sensing algorithms have the large dynamic range required to measure the relatively small wavefronts of interest in the presence of the large aberrations resulting from the off-axis source locations at the intermediate focus. These inherent aberrations of the off-axis design are removed analytically from the measured data. The test design and in-situ wavefront sensing process enables a number of tests to verify the alignment and optical quality of the system

From 'House of Caves' to nexus of central England: Nottingham, c. AD 650-1250 - Future Research Directions’

Nottingham, as one of the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw, a key strategic pre-Conquest borough, and the most important royal governmental hub in central England by the time of the Angevin kings, from Henry II to John (1154–1216), is a city with a fascinating story to tell. However, the study of its origins and early development has been somewhat neglected. A major contributory factor is that key archaeological excavations undertaken in the city between 1969 and 1980 remain unpublished, while since 1980, the outcomes of development-led excavation have not provided sufficient opportunities to investigate key areas on an equal scale. In the last few years, preliminary evaluation of material from the unpublished excavations under the aegis of the Origins of Nottingham project and an increase in archaeological investigation has again started to highlight the wealth of potential insight to be gained from the archaeological deposits preserved beneath Nottingham’s streets. Exploring and interpreting these remains are crucial if we are tostart to understand Nottingham’s growth and significance as a major urban settlement in medieval central England between the seventh and thirteenth centuries

Children's Attributions of Beliefs to Humans and God: Cross-Cultural Evidence

Revision of paper presented to the annual meeting of The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Columbus, OH, October, 2001The capacity to attribute beliefs to others in order to understand action is one of the mainstays of human cognition. Yet it is debatable whether children attribute beliefs in the same way to all agents. In this paper, we present the results of a false-belief task concerning humans and God run with a sample of Maya children aged 4 to 7, and place them in the context of several psychological theories of cognitive development. Children were found to attribute beliefs in different ways to humans and God. The evidence also speaks to the debate concerning the universality and uniformity of the development of folk-psychological reasoning