TRIDEnT: Building Decentralized Incentives for Collaborative Security

Sophisticated mass attacks, especially when exploiting zero-day vulnerabilities, have the potential to cause destructive damage to organizations and critical infrastructure. To timely detect and contain such attacks, collaboration among the defenders is critical. By correlating real-time detection information (alerts) from multiple sources (collaborative intrusion detection), defenders can detect attacks and take the appropriate defensive measures in time. However, although the technical tools to facilitate collaboration exist, real-world adoption of such collaborative security mechanisms is still underwhelming. This is largely due to a lack of trust and participation incentives for companies and organizations. This paper proposes TRIDEnT, a novel collaborative platform that aims to enable and incentivize parties to exchange network alert data, thus increasing their overall detection capabilities. TRIDEnT allows parties that may be in a competitive relationship, to selectively advertise, sell and acquire security alerts in the form of (near) real-time peer-to-peer streams. To validate the basic principles behind TRIDEnT, we present an intuitive game-theoretic model of alert sharing, that is of independent interest, and show that collaboration is bound to take place infinitely often. Furthermore, to demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, we instantiate our design in a decentralized manner using Ethereum smart contracts and provide a fully functional prototype.Comment: 28 page

Determining rates of virus production in aquatic systems by the virus reduction approach,

The reduction approach to assess virus production and the prokaryotic mortality by viral lysis stops new infection by reducing total virus abundance (and thus virus–host contacts). This allows for easy enumeration of viruses that originate from lysis of already infected cells due to the decreased abundance of free virus particles. This reoccurrence can be quantified and used to assess production and cell lysis rates. Several modifications of the method are presented and compared. The approaches have great potential for elucidating trends in virus production rates as well as for making generalized estimates of the quantitative effects of viruses on marine microbial communities

A responsitivity-based criterion for accurate calibration of FTIR spectra: theoretical development and bandwidth estimation

An analytical expression for the variance of the radiance measured by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) emission spectrometers exists only in the limit of low noise. Outside this limit, the variance needs to be calculated numerically. In addition, a criterion for low noise is needed to identify properly calibrated radiances and optimize the instrument bandwidth. In this work, the variance and the magnitude of a noise-dependent spectral bias are calculated as a function of the system responsivity (r) and the noise level in its estimate (? r ). The criterion ? r /

Orthoptic Services in the UK and Ireland During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

AimCOVID-19 has widely impacted hospital services. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of COVID-19 on Orthoptists and their clinical practice in the UK, Ireland, and Channel Islands.MethodsWe conducted a prospective survey-based cross-sectional study using an online survey aiming for coverage of orthoptic departments across the UK, Ireland, and Channel Islands. We circulated the online survey through the British and Irish Orthoptic Society that reaches over 95% of UK and Irish orthoptic services, and through social media and orthoptic research networks.ResultsThe survey response rate was 79%. The survey was completed by orthoptic departments, on average 10 days post lockdown. Many orthoptic services were cancelled/paused with remaining services largely reserved for emergency cases and urgent care. A substantial rise in tele-consultations was reported by 94%, which largely consisted of telephone and video calls and which was regarded generally as working well. Barriers to tele-consultations were mainly IT related but with concerns also raised regarding ethical and confidentiality issues. Shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) was reported by one third of departments along with issues relating to conflicting information about the use of PPE.ConclusionsWe have reported information on the changing face of orthoptic clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey has highlighted emerging tele-consultation practice and the importance of centralised profession-specific guidelines

Categorizing zonal productivity on the continental shelf with nutrient-salinity ratios

Highlights Identifying riverine influence on productivity in the northern Gulf of Mexico Use of nutrient/salinity plots to differentiate inputs from two rivers Verifying Rowe-Chapman (2002) hypothesis with in situ data Abstract Coastal ocean productivity is often dependent on riverine sources of nutrients, yet it can be difficult to determine how far the influence of the river extends. The northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) receives freshwater and nutrients discharged mainly from the Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. We used nutrient/salinity relationships to (i) differentiate the nutrient inputs of the two rivers and (ii) determine the potential extent of the zones where productivity is affected by each. We identified three different zones: one close to the coast having a linear nutrient/salinity relationship where physical forcing (river flow) dominates, one offshore with nutrient (N or Si) concentrations \u3c1 μM, and one between them with variable nutrient concentrations largely controlled by consumption by autotrophs. While in the GOM salinity/nutrient relationships varied systematically with distance from the two rivers in winter, this was not seen in summer. Thus, the methodology is not always applicable directly, because the boundaries of the different regions vary with river flow, overall nutrient flux, and grids of stations at the regional spatial scale (15–20 km in the GOM), rather than single sections are needed to determine boundaries

Responsivity-based Criterion For Accurate Calibration Of Ftir Emission Spectra: Theoretical Development And Bandwidth Estimation

An analytical expression for the variance of the radiance measured by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) emission spectrometers exists only in the limit of low noise. Outside this limit, the variance needs to be calculated numerically. In addition, a criterion for low noise is needed to identify properly calibrated radiances and optimize the instrument bandwidth. In this work, the variance and the magnitude of a noise-dependent spectral bias are calculated as a function of the system responsivity (r) and the noise level in its estimate (sigma(r)). The criterion sigma(r)/r \u3c 0.3, applied to downwelling and upwelling FTIR emission spectra, shows that the instrument bandwidth is specified properly for one instrument but needs to be restricted for another

Using degraded music quality to encourage a health improving walking pace : BeatClearWalker

Meeting the target of 8000 steps/day, as recommended by many national governments and health authorities, can provide considerable physical and mental health benefits and is seen as a key target for reducing obesity levels and improving public health. However, to optimize the health benefits, walking should be performed at a “moderate” intensity. While there are numerous mobile fitness applications that monitor distance walked, none directly support walking at this cadence nor has there been any research into live feedback for walking cadence. We present a smartphone fitness application to help users learn how to walk at a moderate cadence and maintain that cadence. We apply real-time audio effects that diminish the audio quality of music when the target walking cadence is not being reached. This provides an immersive and intuitive application that can easily be integrated into everyday life as allows users to walk while listening to their own music and encourages eyes-free interaction. In this paper, we introduce our approach, design, initial lab evaluation and a controlled outdoor study. Results show that using music degradation decreases the number of below-cadence steps, that users felt they worked harder with our player and would use it while exercise walking

Using degraded music quality to encourage a health improving walking pace : BeatClearWalker

Meeting the target of 8000 steps/day, as recommended by many national governments and health authorities, can provide considerable physical and mental health benefits and is seen as a key target for reducing obesity levels and improving public health. However, to optimize the health benefits, walking should be performed at a "moderate" intensity. While there are numerous mobile fitness applications that monitor distance walked, none directly support walking at this cadence nor has there been any research into live feedback for walking cadence. We present a smartphone fitness application to help users learn how to walk at a moderate cadence and maintain that cadence. We apply real-time audio effects that diminish the audio quality of music when the target walking cadence is not being reached. This provides an immersive and intuitive application that can easily be integrated into everyday life as allows users to walk while listening to their own music and encourages eyes-free interaction. In this paper, we introduce our approach, design, initial lab evaluation and a controlled outdoor study. Results show that using music degradation decreases the number of below-cadence steps, that users felt they worked harder with our player and would use it while exercise walking