Trust and Privacy Permissions for an Ambient World

Ambient intelligence (AmI) and ubiquitous computing allow us to consider a future where computation is embedded into our daily social lives. This vision raises its own important questions and augments the need to understand how people will trust such systems and at the same time achieve and maintain privacy. As a result, we have recently conducted a wide reaching study of people’s attitudes to potential AmI scenarios with a view to eliciting their privacy concerns. This chapter describes recent research related to privacy and trust with regard to ambient technology. The method used in the study is described and findings discussed

Security enhancement with foreground trust, comfort, and ten commandments for real people

Security as an enabling paradigm has not succeeded half as well as we might have hoped. Systems are broken or breakable, and users (people) have something of a lack of faith, understanding, or patience with security measures that exist. Whilst secure systems and solutions are the backbone of a working interconnected system of systems, they are not people-oriented, and they are oftentimes arcane enough to have an air of ‘security theatre’ about them. We can also assume that they will continue to grow in both complexity and application if we continue as we are in our arms race. To answer what we perceive to be a problem here, we are working on the integration of socio-psychological notions of trust into computational systems where it makes sense (both human- and system-facing). This work includes the development of our Device Comfort paradigm and architecture, wherein mobile devices and nodes in infrastructures have a embedded notion of comfort that they can use to reason about their use, behaviour, and users. This notion, contextually integrated with the environment the device is in, aids in decision making with regard to, for instance, information flow, security posture, and user-oriented advice. Most importantly, the notion embeds trust reasoning and communication into the device, with which the user can be aided to un- derstand situation, risk, and actions by device, infrastructure, and themselves - which we call Foreground Trust, after Dwyer. We conjecture that comfort and foreground trust both enhance security for devices and increase the under- standing of security for the user, through use of human-comprehensible and anthropomorphic concepts. In this paper, we discuss some security problems, address the misnomer of trusted computing, and present an overview of com- fort and foreground trust. Finally, we briely present our ten commandments for trust-reasoning models such as those contained within Device Comfort, in the hope that they are of some use in security also

Formalising trust as a computational concept

Trust is a judgement of unquestionable utility - as humans we use it every day of our lives. However, trust has suffered from an imperfect understanding, a plethora of definitions, and informal use in the literature and in everyday life. It is common to say "I trust you, " but what does that mean? This thesis provides a clarification of trust. We present a formalism for trust which provides us with a tool for precise discussion. The formalism is implementable: it can be embedded in an artificial agent, enabling the agent to make trust-based decisions. Its applicability in the domain of Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) is raised. The thesis presents a testbed populated by simple trusting agents which substantiates the utility of the formalism. The formalism provides a step in the direction of a proper understanding and definition of human trust. A contribution of the thesis is its detailed exploration of the possibilities of future work in the area

Thermal Comfort and Air Quality Control in UK Student Accommodation: Understanding the interactions between heating and ventilation systems, occupant experience, and indoor environmental conditions

The UK must radically curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, whilst simultaneously adapting its infrastructure to cope with a warming climate. A vital area in which both of these issues must be addressed concurrently is in buildings. One building type that has seen rapid development in the UK is purpose built student accommodation (PBSA). However, some critical knowledge gaps exist regarding the operational performance of PBSA. Plugging these gaps will help practitioners understand how to deliver PBSA that are both lower energy in operation and more comfortable. A case study research design was used to investigate the in-use performance of two recently built PBSA developments by monitoring indoor environmental quality, radiator use, and window opening, alongside conducting surveys and semi-structured interviews with the building’s residents. The aim of the study was to investigate whether occupants could adequately control the indoor conditions, and also what effect their actions had on the internal environment and heating demand. The results showed that the occupants were generally satisfied with the thermal conditions in the heating season. However, thermal control was typically achieved by opening windows regularly, often for long periods, and frequently whilst the heating was on. Five behavioural causes of consistent winter window opening were identified. These were to prevent overheating, inadequate ventilation, poor understanding of the controls, lack of responsiveness of the heating system, and lack of financial implications. Heat losses via window opening were modelled and estimated to be as high as 44% of the total heat losses in certain rooms. In contrast, during summer, the majority of occupants could not control the thermal environment in their rooms. Overheating was widespread, severe and often prolonged. The surveys and interviews revealed that the vast majority of occupants were too hot. For many participants this was a major issue affecting their comfort, well-being and even academic performance. The study showed that design shortcomings, rather than occupant behaviour were primarily responsible for the conditions. Important lessons for the future design of PBSA are identified

The mechanism of action of capsaicin on sensory C-type neurones and their axons in vitro

The mechanism of action of the sensory neurotoxin, capsaicin, on visceral afferent fibres and ganglion cells has been studied using electrophysiological and histological techniques. Extracellular in vitro recording from adult vagus nerves revealed a depolarization and a reduced C-spike amplitude. These probably reflect effects on unmyelinated sensory fibres, since no such action was detected in fibre trunks lacking sensory fibres, such as preganglionic sympathetic nerves and ventral spinal roots. Ion substitution experiments indicated that the capsaicin-induced depolarization is mediated by a mechanism that involves sodium (Na+) calcium (Ca2+) and, to a lesser extent chloride, (Cl-) ions. In vitro intracellular recordings from sensory neurone perikarya, showed that capsaicin depolarizes 70% of the C-type neurones located within the rat nodose ganglion. The capsaicin-induced depolarization was primarily mediated by an increase by an in membrane conductance to Na+ and Ca2+. An additional membrane conductance increase to potassium (K+) was also induced. However, this depended on an influx of calcium via the primary conductance mechanism. Histological experiments using light and electron-microscopic techniques indicated that capsaicin can induce substantial cytotoxic damage to a subpopulation of nodose sensory neurones and vagus nerve unmyelinated fibres. Moreover, the cytotoxic effects could be induced by short applications (< 10 mins) and low concentrations (1-10 μM) of capsaicin. The entry of calcium ions into the cells appeared to play a major role in the cytotoxic process, as the replacement of extracellular calcium with magnesium minimised the cytotoxic damage. The failure of calcium channel-blockers to reduce the calcium-dependent neurotoxic effect indicated that calcium entry through capsaicin-activated channels, rather than voltage-gated calcium channels, initiates the cytotoxicity. It is suggested that capsaicin opens cationic channels and that calcium entry through these channels might not only modify cell excitability but also prime the neurotoxic process which can lead to cell death

Farm-Level Price Formation for Fresh Sweet Cherries

We estimate price formation in the sweet cherry market using an inverse demand system with farm-level price and quantity data from states in the Pacific Northwest and California. Between 0.60 and 0.78 of the variation in annual cherry price is explained by the states’ production, domestic consumption, and exports. Washington and California prices are most responsive to their own quantity. Output flexibilities indicate that Oregon is responsive to a change in quantity supplied to the domestic market. Results also indicate that cherry price is most sensitive to quantity supplied to the export and domestic markets.Demand and Price Analysis,

Social Costs of Herbicide Resistance: The Case of Resistance to Glyphosate

Unlike in the pesticide and antibiotic resistance literature, potential social costs and externalities associated with herbicide resistance have not generally been considered by economists. The economics of managing herbicide resistance in weeds has focused on cost-effective responses by growers to the development of resistance at the individual farm and field level. Economic analyses of optimal herbicide use have focused on optimising farmer returns in the long run. Weeds have been considered less mobile, compared to insects and diseases, suggesting that externalities resulting from resistance spread will be minimal and any consequent social costs low. Glyphosate is the world's most widely used broad-spectrum non-selective herbicide. Declining glyphosate prices, the adoption of no-till and minimum-till systems and the adoption of glyphosate-tolerant crops, have combined to cause a rapid increase in the use of glyphosate, and resistance is now appearing. In this paper we argue that the increasing possibility of widespread glyphosate resistance, exacerbated in some situations by spread through resistance mobility, presents a case where social costs associated with glyphosate resistance need to be considered when assessing optimal use of this herbicide resource at the farm level. Possible social costs associated with the loss of glyphosate efficacy include potential failure of herbicide-resistant crop systems, reduced use of conservation tillage techniques, and potentially more reliance on herbicides with greater environmental and health risks.glyphosate resistance, herbicide resistance, social costs, externalities, resistance mobility, Crop Production/Industries,

Entrapment When the Spoken Word is the Crime

The task of this Article is to assess the competing approaches that circuit courts have taken in defining the predisposition element in entrapment cases. It then attempts to try to reconcile them, not only with Jacobson v. United States, but also with policy concerns underlying the rest of the Supreme Court\u27s entrapment jurisprudence, particularly in light of the increased politicization of federal criminal law through investigations of public officials\u27 conduct by independent counsel. This Article will first frame the central issue, the supplementary mens rea requirement arising in entrapment cases. Part II then will review the common law development of the federal entrapment defense, in the context of an independent counsel investigation of public officials for mens rea crimes, with particular emphasis on the Supreme Court\u27s 1992 decision in Jacobson v. United States. Part III will detail the two essentially divergent views that circuit courts have taken over the meaning of the term “predisposition” in the wake of the Court\u27s decision in Jacobson, including the 1994 opinion by Chief Judge Posner of the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Hollingsworth. The Article will explain that Hollingworth\u27s interpretation of Jacobson that when, “but for” the Government\u27s inducement, the defendant objectively would not have committed the offense in question, is incomplete. Part IV will attempt to reconcile the competing approaches with the Court\u27s previous entrapment decisions in an attempt to ascertain which approach is most consistent with its prior entrapment jurisprudence and which best helps attain the contemporary goal of reducing the “political” component of criminal judicial enforcement. The Article concludes that a more appropriate focus for judicial or jury application of the dispositive “predisposition” test for entrapment is on the objectively historical evidence of the defendant\u27s prior similar acts (justifying the Government\u27s initial decision to target the defendant) and his or her initial responses to government inducement (justifying any continued targeting)

Soft X-ray Excess in the Coma Cluster from a Cosmic Axion Background

We show that the soft X-ray excess in the Coma cluster can be explained by a cosmic background of relativistic axions converting into photons in the cluster magnetic field. We provide a detailed self-contained review of the cluster soft X-ray excess, the proposed astrophysical explanations and the problems they face, and explain how a 0.1-1 keV axion background naturally arises at reheating in many string theory models of the early universe. We study the morphology of the soft excess by numerically propagating axions through stochastic, multi-scale magnetic field models that are consistent with observations of Faraday rotation measures from Coma. By comparing to ROSAT observations of the 0.2-0.4 keV soft excess, we find that the overall excess luminosity is easily reproduced for $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \sim 2 \times 10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$. The resulting morphology is highly sensitive to the magnetic field power spectrum. For Gaussian magnetic field models, the observed soft excess morphology prefers magnetic field spectra with most power in coherence lengths on ${\cal O}(3 {\rm ~kpc})$ scales over those with most power on ${\cal O}(12 {\rm ~kpc})$ scales. Within this scenario, we bound the mean energy of the axion background to $50\, {\rm eV}\lesssim \langle E_a \rangle \lesssim 250\, {\rm eV}$, the axion mass to $m_a \lesssim 10^{-12}\,\hbox{eV}$, and derive a lower bound on the axion-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma\gamma} \gtrsim \sqrt{0.5/\Delta N_{\rm eff}}\, 1.4 \times 10^{-13}$ GeV$^{-1}$.Comment: 43 pages, 11 figure

Development of a State-Wide Velocity Profile in Oklahoma Using Ambient Noise Seismic Tomography

Earthquakes have been a growing concern in the state of Oklahoma in the last several years and as a result, prediction of the ground motion, understanding of subsurface geological structure, and the estimation of accurate earthquake location are of utmost importance. This entails using a high-resolution velocity model with both lateral and vertical variations. The 3D S-wave velocity model in the entire state is determined using ambient noise seismic interferometry and tomography. Passive seismic data was acquired from broadband stations in multiple networks over eight years (2009-2016). We use seismic interferometry to extract wavefields between each possible pair of stations, for all components, and for each year. Then we estimate the dispersion curve of surface waves, such as Rayleigh and Love waves, and apply seismic tomography for building 2D velocity maps at each period. Finally, we convert the velocities into 3D S-wave velocities down to about 20 km depth based on the 1D surface-wave inversion. The velocity model clearly shows slower regions associated with basins of Oklahoma and faster regions associated with shallow basement in the northeast and various uplifts throughout the state