WAIS seminar: The Domain Name System: a magical mystery tour

Wednesday 12th March 2014 Speaker(s): Dr Tim Chown Organiser: Time: 12/03/2014 11:00-11:50 Location: B32/3077 File size: 642 Mb Abstract The WAIS seminar series is designed to be a blend of classic seminars, research discussions, debates and tutorials. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a critical part of the Internet infrastructure. In this talk we begin by explaining the basic model of operation of the DNS, including how domain names are delegated and how a DNS resolver performs a DNS lookup. We then take a tour of DNS-related topics, including caching, poisoning, governance, the increasing misuse of the DNS in DDoS attacks, and the expansion of the DNS namespace to new top level domains and internationalised domain names. We also present the latest work in the IETF on DNS privacy. The talk will be pitched such that no detailed technical knowledge is required. We hope that attendees will gain some familiarity with how the DNS works, some key issues surrounding DNS operation, and how the DNS might touch on various areas of research within WAIS.

La proyección de imagen a partir de Soft Power, mediante Nation Branding y Diplomacia Pública en el caso de Japón, durante el periodo 2002 – 2010

En el actual contexto de globalización y con el comienzo de la era de la información, cada vez más Estados han buscado proyectar una imagen favorable con el objetivo de atraer atención y crear una reputación que permitan cumplir objetivos de política exterior y fomentar el desarrollo económico, logrando de esta manera un posicionamiento en el sistema internacional mediante estrategias novedosas, que incluyen elementos tanto diplomáticos, políticos, económicos, como comerciales y culturales. Para Japón, Nation Branding y la diplomacia pública han sido dos de las principales herramientas para lograr este reposicionamiento internacional, resaltando atractivos como las tradiciones culturales, el turismo, los incentivos para negocios, y trabajando en conjunto entre el gobierno nacional, el sector privado y la sociedad civil para crear relaciones entre el país y gobiernos y sociedades a nivel internacional.

WAIS seminar: Alan Walks Wales: Data and Challenges

Abstract This seminar is a research discussion around a very interesting problem, which may be a good basis for a WAISfest theme. A little over a year ago Professor Alan Dix came to tell us of his plans for a magnificent adventure:to walk all of the way round Wales - 1000 miles 'Alan Walks Wales'. The walk was a personal journey, but also a technological and community one, exploring the needs of the walker and the people along the way. Whilst walking he recorded his thoughts in an audio diary, took lots of photos, wrote a blog and collected data from the tech instruments he was wearing. As a result Alan has extensive quantitative data (bio-sensing and location) and qualitative data (text, images and some audio). There are challenges in analysing individual kinds of data, including merging similar data streams, entity identification, time-series and textual data mining, dealing with provenance, ontologies for paths, and journeys. There are also challenges for author and third-party annotation, linking the data-sets and visualising the merged narrative or facets of it.

Caracterización de la cultura organizacional y lineamientos de intervención para la implementación de procesos de cambio en las organizaciones. Caso empresa sector financiero

El presente Trabajo de Grado busca caracterizar la cultura organizacional de una empresa del sector Financiero en Colombia y realizar orientaciones de acciones para el cambio organizacional de acuerdo con la estrategia de perdurabilidad establecida por la Alta Dirección de dicha empresa. Para este fin, se realiza una cuidadosa revisión y actualización del estado del arte de los conceptos clave ¨Cultura Organizacional¨ y ¨Cambio Organizacional¨. Es de resaltar que para el primero de ellos, se toma como punto de partida el estado del arte sobre Cultura Organizacional realizado por el profesor Carlos Eduardo Méndez Álvarez y cuyo marco temporal abarca desde los orígenes del concepto en el siglo XIX hasta el año 2006. Asimismo, luego de una cuidadosa revisión de los Modelos de Cambio Organizacional existentes y de la realidad de la empresa objeto de estudio, se adopta el Modelo ADKAR que consta de cinco fases: Conciencia del Cambio, Deseo, Conocimiento, Capacidad – Habilidad y Refuerzo. Asimismo, a partir de la construcción de un fundamento teórico sólido y a través de la aplicación de la metodología para describir la Cultura Organizacional en Colombia MEDECO se busca una aproximación a la Cultura Organizacional de la empresa objeto de estudio con el fin de describir e identificar los rasgos predominantes de su cultura organizacional y entregar una propuesta final con los rasgos necesarios que alientan la consecución exitosa de los procesos de cambio.

Valores del índice cintura/cadera en población escolar de Bogotá, Colombia: Estudio

Objetivo: Determinar los valores del índice cintura/cadera (ICC) en una población escolar de Bogotá, Colombia, pertenecientes al estudio FUPRECOL. Métodos: Estudio descriptivo y transversal, realizado en 3.005 niños y 2.916 adolescentes de entre 9 y 17,9 años de edad, pertenecientes a 24 instituciones educativas oficiales de Bogotá, Colombia. Se tomaron medidas de peso, talla, circunferencia de cintura, circunferencia de cadera. El estado de maduración sexual se recogió por auto-reporte. Se calcularon los percentiles (P3, P10, P25, P50, P75, P90 y P97) según sexo y edad y se realizó una comparación entre los valores del ICC observados con estándares internacionales. Resultados: De la población general (n=5.921), el 57,0% eran mujeres (promedio de edad 12,7 ± 2,3 años). En todas las edades el ICC fue mayor en los varones que en las mujeres, observándose un descenso en la media de los valores obtenidos desde los 9 hasta los 17,9 años. En varones, los valores del ICC mayores del P90 (asociados a riesgo cardiovascular) estuvieron en el rango 0,87 y 0,93 y en las mujeres entre 0,85 y 0,89. Al comparar los resultados de este estudio, por grupos de edad y sexo, con trabajos internacionales de niños y adolescentes de Europa, Suramérica, Asia y África, se observa que los valores del ICC fueron menores en este estudio en ambos sexos, con excepción de los escolares originarios de Grecia y Venezuela. Conclusiones: Se presentan percentiles del ICC según edad y sexo que podrán ser usados de referencia en la evaluación del estado nutricional y en la predicción del riesgo cardiovascular desde edades tempranas en población de Bogotá, Colombia.

Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading

The Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Conference of the British Association for Biological Anthropology and Osteoarchaeology (BABAO) held at the University of Reading in 2007. Contents: 1) A life course perspective of growing up in medieval London: evidence of sub-adult health from St Mary Spital (London) (Rebecca Redfern and Don Walker); 2) Preservation of non-adult long bones from an almshouse cemetery in the United States dating to the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries (Colleen Milligan, Jessica Zotcavage and Norman Sullivan); 3) Childhood oral health: dental palaeopathology of Kellis 2, Dakhleh, Egypt. A preliminary investigation (Stephanie Shukrum and JE Molto); 4) Skeletal manifestation of non-adult scurvy from early medieval Northumbria: the Black Gate cemetery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Diana Mahoney-Swales and Pia Nystrom); 5) Infantile cortical hyperostosis: cases, causes and contradictions (Mary Lewis and Rebecca Gowland); 6) Biological Anthropology Tuberculosis of the hip in the Victorian Britain (Benjamin Clarke and Piers Mitchell); 7) The re-analysis of Iron Age human skeletal material from Winnall Down (Justine Tracey); 8) Can we estimate post-mortem interval from an individual body part? A field study using sus scrofa (Branka Franicevec and Robert Pastor); 9) The expression of asymmetry in hand bones from the medieval cemetery at Écija, Spain (Lisa Cashmore and Sonia Zakrezewski); 10) Returning remains: a curator’s view (Quinton Carroll); 11) Authority and decision making over British human remains: issues and challenges (Piotr Bienkowski and Malcolm Chapman); 12) Ethical dimensions of reburial, retention and repatriation of archaeological human remains: a British perspective (Simon Mays and Martin Smith); 13) The problem of provenace: inaccuracies, changes and misconceptions (Margaret Clegg); 14) Native American human remains in UK collections: implications of NAGPRA to consultation, repatriation, and policy development (Myra J Giesen); 15) Repatriation – a view from the receiving end: New Zealand (Nancy Tayles).

Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM) from a former phosphoric acid processing plant

In recent years there has been an increasing awareness of the radiological impact of non-nuclear industries that extract and/or process ores and minerals containing naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM). These industrial activities may result in significant radioactive contamination of (by-) products, wastes and plant installations. In this study, scale samples were collected from a decommissioned phosphoric acid processing plant. To determine the nature and concentration of NORM retained in pipe-work and associated process plant, four main areas of the site were investigated: (1) the 'Green Acid Plant', where crude acid was concentrated; (2) the green acid storage tanks; (3) the Purified White Acid (PWA) plant, where inorganic impurities were removed; and (4) the solid waste, disposed of on-site as landfill. The scale samples predominantly comprise the following: fluorides (e.g. ralstonite); calcium sulphate (e.g. gypsum); and an assemblage of mixed fluorides and phosphates (e.g. iron fluoride hydrate, calcium phosphate), respectively. The radioactive inventory is dominated by U-238 and its decay chain products, and significant fractionation along the series occurs. Compared to the feedstock ore, elevated concentrations (<= 8.8 Bq/g) of U-238 Were found to be retained in installations where the process stream was rich in fluorides and phosphates. In addition, enriched levels (<= 11 Bq/g) of Ra-226 were found in association with precipitates of calcium sulphate. Water extraction tests indicate that many of the scales and waste contain significantly soluble materials and readily release radioactivity into solution. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Quantifying time scales of pedogenic calcrete formation using U-series disequilibria

Time scales of pedogenic calcrete development are quantified by subsampling carbonate from within a mature (stage V) pedogenic calcrete profile from southeast Spain and dating the material by U-series disequilibria. The location of the earliest and latest cements can be estimated by comparing previous studies of calcrete morphological development with micromorphological analysis of the study profile. Carbonate was sampled and dated from three locations within the profile: (1) below the lower surface of clasts within the hardpan (representing the earliest cement present-207 +/- 11 ka), (2) from the centre of cement filled pores within the hardpan (reflecting the final plugging of the calcrete hardpan-155 +/- 9 ka) and (3) from the laminar calcrete overlying the hardpan (representing the latest cement-112 +/- 15 ka). These results show that the hardpan took between 73 and 31 ka to form, whilst the mature stage V profile took between 121 and 69 ka to form. This is the first time that rates of mature calcrete development have been established by direct radiometric dating of the authigenic carbonate. The technique is appropriate for dating mature calcretes in dryland regions worldwide and offers the opportunity of increasing our understanding of the spatial and temporal variability in rates of pedogenic calcrete development. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

U-series isochron dating of immature and mature calcretes as a basis for constructing Quaternary landform chronologies for the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain

Immature and mature calcretes from an alluvial terrace sequence in the Sorbas basin, southeast Spain, were dated by the U-series isochron technique. The immature horizons consistently produced statistically reliable ages of high precision. The mature horizons typically produced statistically unreliable ages but, because of linear trends in the dataset and low errors associated with each data point, it was still possible to place a best-fit isochron through the dataset to produce an age with low associated uncertainties. It is, however, only possible to prove that these statistically unreliable ages have geochronological significance if multiple isochron ages are produced for a single site, and if these multiple ages are stratigraphically consistent. The geochronological significance of such ages can be further proven if at least one of the multiple ages is statistically reliable. By using this technique to date calcretes that have formed during terrace aggradation and at the terrace surface after terrace abandonment it is possible not only to date the timing of terrace aggradation but also to constrain the age at which the river switched from aggradation to incision. This approach, therefore, constrains the timing of changes in fluvial processes more reliably than any currently used geochronological procedure and is appropriate for dating terrace sequences in dryland regions worldwide, wherever calcrete horizons are present. (c) 2005 University of Washington. All rights reserved.

Chlorophyll-a in the rivers of eastern England

Chlorophyll-a concentration variations are described for two major river basins in England, the Humber and the Thames and related to catchment characteristics and nutrient concentrations across a range of rural, agricultural and urban/industrial settings. For all the rivers there are strong seasonal variations, with concentrations peaking in the spring and summer time when biological activity is at its highest. However, there are large variations in the magnitude of the seasonal effects across the rivers. For the spring-summer low-flow periods, average concentrations of chlorophyll-a correlate with soluble reactive phosphor-us (SRP). Chlorophyll-a is also correlated with particulate nitrogen (PN), organic carbon (POC) and suspended sediments. However, the strongest relationships are with catchment area and flow, where two straight line relationships are observed. The results indicate the importance of residence times for determining planktonic growth within the rivers. This is also indicated by the lack of chlorophyll-a response to lowering of SRP concentrations in several of the rivers in the area due to phosphorus stripping of effluents at major sewage treatment works. A key control on chlorophyll-a concentration may be the input of canal and reservoir waters during the growing period: this too relates to issues of residence times. However, there may well be a complex series of factors influencing residence time across the catchments due to features such as inhomogeneous flow within the catchments, a fractal distribution of stream channels that leads to a distribution of residence times and differences in planktonic inoculation sources. Industrial pollution on the Aire and Calder seems to have affected the relationship of chlorophyll-a with PN and POC. The results are discussed in relation to the Water Framework Directive. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Copyright issues on the protection of architectural works and designs

Architects and engineers depend on copyright law to protect their original works. Copyright protection is automatic once a tangible medium of expression in any form of an innovative material, conforming the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, is created. In terms of architectural works, they are protected as literary works (design drawings and plans) and as artistic works (the building or model of the building). The case law on the concept of “originality” however discloses that it may be difficult for certain artistic works of architecture to achieve copyright protection. Although copyright law provides automatic protection to all original architectural plans, the limitation is that it only protects the expression of ideas but not the ideas themselves. The purpose of this research is to explore how effective the UK’s copyright law regime is for protecting the rights and interests of architects in their works. In addition, the United States system of copyright law will be analysed to determine whether it provides more effective protection for architects and engineers with regard to architectural works. The key objective in carrying out this comparison is to compare and contrast the extent to which the two systems protect the rights and interests of architects against copyright infringement. This comparative analysis concludes by considering the possibility of copyright law reform in the UK.

The Dark Monarch: magic and modernity in British art

This major curated exhibition, publication and events builds on Rowlands’ curatorial research. Working in collaboration with co-curators Martin Clark, Artistic Director, Tate St Ives and Michael Bracewell, cultural historian, the exhibition sought to explore new narratives within British art. The innovative curatorial methodology developed from a fiction found in the infamous novel, The Dark Monarch by Sven Berlin, Gallery Press 1962. The research sought specific archival and collection work that allowed thematic strands to emerge that represented influences across generations. The exhibition features two-hundred artworks, from the Tate Collection, archives and other significant British public and private collections. It examines the development of early Modernism, in the UK, as well as the reappearance of esoteric and arcane references in a significant strand of contemporary art practice. Historical works from Samuel Palmer, Graham Sutherland, Henry Moore and Paul Nash are shown alongside contemporary artists including Derek Jarman, Cerith Wyn Evans, Eva Rothschild, Linder and John Russell. The exhibition includes a key work by Damien Hirst ¬ the first time he has been shown at Tate St Ives and a number of contemporary commissions. The Dark Monarch publication extended the discourse of the research critically examining the tension between progressive modernity and romantic knowledge, the book focuses on the way that artworks are encoded with various histories - geological, mythical and magical. Essays examine magic as a counterpoint to modernity’s transparency and rational progress, but also draw out the links modernity has with notions such as fetishism, mana, totem, and the taboo. Often viewed as counter to Modernism, this collection of essays suggest that these products of illusion and delusion in fact belong to modernity. Drawing together 15 different writers commissioned to explore magic as a counterpoint of liberal understanding of modernity, drawing out links that modernity has with notions of fetish, taboo and occult philosophy. Including essays by Marina Warner, Ilsa Colsell, Philip Hoare, Chris Stephens, Jennifer Higgie and Morrissey.