Online Permutation Routing in Partitioned Optical Passive Star Networks

This paper establishes the state of the art in both deterministic and randomized online permutation routing in the POPS network. Indeed, we show that any permutation can be routed online on a POPS network either with $O(\frac{d}{g}\log g)$ deterministic slots, or, with high probability, with $5c\lceil d/g\rceil+o(d/g)+O(\log\log g)$ randomized slots, where constant $c=\exp (1+e^{-1})\approx 3.927$. When $d=\Theta(g)$, that we claim to be the "interesting" case, the randomized algorithm is exponentially faster than any other algorithm in the literature, both deterministic and randomized ones. This is true in practice as well. Indeed, experiments show that it outperforms its rivals even starting from as small a network as a POPS(2,2), and the gap grows exponentially with the size of the network. We can also show that, under proper hypothesis, no deterministic algorithm can asymptotically match its performance

Routing Permutations in Partitioned Optical Passive Star Networks

It is shown that a POPS network with g groups and d processors per group can efficiently route any permutation among the n=dg processors. The number of slots used is optimal in the worst case, and is at most the double of the optimum for all permutations p such that p(i)i for all i.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Pump and Dumps in the Bitcoin Era: Real Time Detection of Cryptocurrency Market Manipulations

In the last years, cryptocurrencies are increasingly popular. Even people who are not experts have started to invest in these securities and nowadays cryptocurrency exchanges process transactions for over 100 billion US dollars per month. However, many cryptocurrencies have low liquidity and therefore they are highly prone to market manipulation schemes. In this paper, we perform an in-depth analysis of pump and dump schemes organized by communities over the Internet. We observe how these communities are organized and how they carry out the fraud. Then, we report on two case studies related to pump and dump groups. Lastly, we introduce an approach to detect the fraud in real time that outperforms the current state of the art, so to help investors stay out of the market when a pump and dump scheme is in action.Comment: Accepted for publication at The 29th International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2020

Studying biological science does not lead to adoption of a healthy lifestyle

Aims: The lifestyle and physical activity (PA) habits of young people play a key role in the prevention of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases at older ages. The current generation of biological science students at university holds promise for better future medicine and medical technology. However, their physical fitness and lifestyle are often ignored. Methods: Lifestyle, PAs and common risk factors for cardiovascular disease before, and at, university were collected from 408 students using self-completed, anonymous surveys between the academic years of 2017 and 2019 from the School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading. Statistical analysis was performed using SAS® 9.4 software. Results: Among the 408 participants, 134 were male and 274 were female with a mean (SD) age of 19.6 (2.24). Approximately 19% of participants consumed alcohol beyond the safe limit of <14 units/week (112 g/week). Among them, 65% were males. Before university, 47% of students failed to meet the UK National Physical Activity Guidelines (NPAG) which increased to 56% during university with males exhibiting a steeper incline. Compared to their lifestyles before university, more students had insufficient sleep and displayed greater sedentariness during university. Moreover, 16% of students declared no engagement in PA which was greater than the value of 12% before university. Fitness perceptions worsened by 11% during university particularly for females. Statistical analysis revealed that gender, BMI and fitness perceptions were significantly correlated with PA levels. The most prevalent explanation for inadequacy in meeting NPAG was insufficient time. Conclusion: Compared to their pre-university lifestyles, biological science students at university are more likely to adopt unhealthier behaviours with less time for exercise and prolonged sedentary behaviours, which increases the risk for cardiovascular diseases. It is important to raise awareness of their fitness perceptions and to encourage health-promoting programmes at university

Firmware enhancements for BYOD-aware network security

In today’s connected world, users migrate within a complex set of networks, including, but not limited to, 3G and 4G (LTE) services provided by mobile operators, Wi-Fi hotspots in private and public places, as well as wireless and/or wired LAN access in business and home environments. Following the widely expanding Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach, many public and educational institutions have begun to encourage customers and students to use their own devices at all times. While this may be cost-effective in terms of decreased investments in hardware and consequently lower maintenance fees on a long-term basis, it may also involve some security risks. In particular, many users are often connected to more than one network and/or communication service provider at the same time, for example to a 3G/4G mobile network and to a Wi-Fi. In a BYOD setting, an infected device or a rogue one can turn into an unwanted gateway, causing a security breach by leaking information across networks. Aiming at investigating in greater detail the implications of BYOD on network security in private and business settings we are building a framework for experiments with mobile routers both in home and business networks. This is a continuation of our earlier work on communications and services with enhanced security for network appliances

Using Hover to Compromise the Confidentiality of User Input on Android

We show that the new hover (floating touch) technology, available in a number of today's smartphone models, can be abused by any Android application running with a common SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW permission to record all touchscreen input into other applications. Leveraging this attack, a malicious application running on the system is therefore able to profile user's behavior, capture sensitive input such as passwords and PINs as well as record all user's social interactions. To evaluate our attack we implemented Hoover, a proof-of-concept malicious application that runs in the system background and records all input to foreground applications. We evaluated Hoover with 40 users, across two different Android devices and two input methods, stylus and finger. In the case of touchscreen input by finger, Hoover estimated the positions of users' clicks within an error of 100 pixels and keyboard input with an accuracy of 79%. Hoover captured users' input by stylus even more accurately, estimating users' clicks within 2 pixels and keyboard input with an accuracy of 98%. We discuss ways of mitigating this attack and show that this cannot be done by simply restricting access to permissions or imposing additional cognitive load on the users since this would significantly constrain the intended use of the hover technology.Comment: 11 page

Sistemi di telerilevamento per la caratterizzazione dei conglomerati bituminosi e delle pavimentazioni stradali

Il presente progetto di ricerca propone un approccio multidisciplinare per lo studio dei conglomerati bituminosi e del loro grado di deterioramento. Tale studio unisce indagini classiche di laboratorio a tecniche di misura radiometriche nel campo del visibile ed dell’infrarosso. Le proprietà ottiche dei materiali indagati, quali gli inerti usati per la costituzione dei conglomerati bituminosi, sono state analizzate effettuando misure ottiche mediante l’utilizzo di diverse piattaforme sensoristiche. L’analisi radiometrica ha consentito di individuare indici in grado di correlare i dati ottici alle diverse tipologie di conglomerati bituminosi. L’applicazione di tali indici ad immagini satellitari ad alta risoluzione ha permesso quindi di determinare lo stato di vetustà di ampie porzioni di reticolo stradale. Le attività di ricerca sono state suddivise in 3 Step fondamentali i quali raggruppano rispettivamente attività di laboratorio, attività di campo e analisi di immagini telerilevate