Honeynet games: a game theoretic approach to defending network monitors

A honeynet is a portion of routed but otherwise unused address space that is instrumented for network traffic monitoring. It is an invaluable tool for understanding unwanted Internet traffic and malicious attacks. We formalize the problem of defending honeynets from systematic mapping (a serious threat to their viability) as a simple two-person game. The objective of the Attacker is to identify a honeynet with a minimum number of probes. The objective of the Defender is to maintain a honeynet for as long as possible before moving it to a new location within a larger address space. Using this game theoretic framework, we describe and prove optimal or near-optimal strategies for both the Attacker and the Defender. This is the first mathematically rigorous study of this increasingly important problem on honeynet defense. Our theoretical ideas provide the first formalism of the honeynet monitoring problem, illustrate the viability of network address shuffling, and inform the design of next generation honeynet defense systems.     

Evolutionary Theory and Historical Fertility Change

Probably no issue divides social scientists and natural scientists more demonstrably than their attitudes on the value of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. The present essay suggests the role that Darwinian theory can play in the study of human fertility. After examining the nature of Darwinian theory, the essay considers research carried out on fertility by biologists and anthropologists with methods based on it and possible reformulations of demographic methods and analyses that could benefit fertility research. It ends with suggestions for further research to explore the value of Darwinian approaches to demographic issues.     

Foster care and the educational attainment of Jamaican children

Though informal fostering, the placement of children in the care of relatives or friends, is common in developing countries little research has been performed to ascertain its implications for the welfare of foster children. Previous studies on fostering are generally concerned with the circumstances that result in fostering. We investigate the relationship between foster care and educational opportunities and achievement. The relationship between fostering and a childs educational achievement is crucial because education has a strong influence on the long-term welfare of the individual. Our findings are unique in that we redefine foster care to exclude children living with their biological father. This redefinition results in significantly different findings on the effect of foster care on the educational investment of the household towards foster boys. Under the new definition foster boys are significantly more likely to be educationally disadvantaged.     

Migration and Intergenerational Replacement in Europe

There are long‐standing concerns over low fertility levels in Europe and an increasingly important debate on the extent to which migration can compensate for below‐replacement fertility. To inform this debate, a wide array of indicators have been developed to assess the joint influence of fertility, mortality, and migration on birth replacement and intergenerational replacement. These indicators are based on various models and assumptions and some are particularly data demanding. In this article we propose a simple method to assess how far migration alters the extent of replacement for a birth cohort as it ages. We term the measure the overall replacement ratio (ORR). It is calculated by taking the size of a female birth cohort at selected ages divided by the average size of the cohorts of mothers in the year of birth. We present estimates of the ORR for a range of European countries representing different replacement regimes. We demonstrate that for many countries net migration has become a key factor in their population trends during the last few decades.     

An automatic-democratic approach to weight setting for the new human development index

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of constructing a multi-dimensional index is that of choosing weights for the components. This problem is often bypassed by adopting the ‘agnostic’ option of equal weights, as in the human development index. This is an annual ranking of countries produced by the United Nations Development Programme based on life expectancy, education, and per capita gross national income. These three dimensions are now aggregated multiplicatively. Whatever weights (exponents) are chosen for these dimensions, some nations will feel disadvantaged. To avoid the use of arbitrary weights, we propose for consideration a two-step approach: (1) find the most advantageous set of weights for each nation in turn, and (2) regress the associated optimal scores on the underlying indicators to find a single weight set. This approach has the properties of non-subjectivity, fairness, and convenience. The result is that the highest weight is placed on the life expectancy dimension.     

Pain relief for childbirth: The preferences of pregnant women,midwives and obstetricians

ObjectiveTo compare the personal preferences of pregnant women, midwives and obstetricians regarding a range of physical, psychosocial and pharmacological methods of pain relief for childbirth.MethodSelf-completed questionnaires were posted to a consecutive sample of 400 pregnant women booked-in to a large tertiary referral centre for maternity care in South Australia. A similar questionnaire was distributed to a national sample of 500 obstetricians as well as 425 midwives at: (1) the same hospital as the pregnant women, (2) an outer-metropolitan teaching hospital and (3) a district hospital. Eligible response rates were: pregnant women 31% (n = 123), obstetricians 50% (n = 242) and midwives 49% (n = 210).FindingsOverall, midwives had a greater personal preference for most of the physical pain relief methods and obstetricians a greater personal preference for pharmacological methods than the other groups. Pregnant women's preferences were generally located between the two care provider groups, though somewhat closer to the midwives. All groups had the greatest preference for having a support person for labour with more than 90% of all participants wanting such support. The least preferred method for pregnant women was pethidine/morphine (14%).ConclusionThere are differences in the personal preferences of pregnant women, midwives and obstetricians regarding pain relief for childbirth. It is important that the pain relief methods available in maternity care settings reflect the informed preferences of pregnant women.     

A Holistic Framework for Trust in Online Transactions

This paper systematically reviews previous studies of trust from social, economic and technological perspectives and develops a holistic framework for trust, which can be used to analyse the establishment and maintenance of trust in online transactions, and identify the mechanisms that can be used to increase trust. Trust plays a crucial role in the formation of dependent relationships represented by online transactions, and a holistic treatment of trust is necessary because of the gap that exists between the developments in information systems and our understanding of their social and economic implications, and the impact on the perceived trust of the transacting parties. This review enables us to depict an online transaction through its attributes and context, and systematically map these to identified trust antecedents. The key components and processes of the framework are outlined, and three strands of empirical work are discussed to develop it further. The framework highlights the critical role of institutions in the establishment and maintenance of trust in online transactions, which informs the development of e‐commerce and e‐business platforms and the underpinning information systems, and facilitates the establishment of mechanisms to induce additional institutions to increase trust in online transactions.     

Active parental consent in school-based research: how much is enough and how do we get it?

Active parental consent policies have been blamed for low participation rates and selection bias (i.e., loss of "high-risk" youths) in school-based studies. In this article, the authors describe active consent procedures that produced an overall active consent rate of 79% in a sample of more than 4,500 middle school students attending 29 schools in seven cities across the United States. Consent rates, however, varied considerably both within and between schools. To better understand factors associated with active parental consent rates, the authors examined district-level, school-level, and teacher-specific effects on consent rates.     

Content validity and utility of the Assessment of Work Performance (AWP)

In the area of work rehabilitation, many decisions about future interventions for the client are based on the results of various kinds of assessments. Therefore, it is important that the assessment instruments used are adequate, useful, and reliable. The purpose of this study was to investigate the content validity and utility of the instrument Assessment of Work Performance (AWP) which is used to assess an individual's observable (working) skills during work performance, i.e. how efficient and appropriate a client performs a work activity. A questionnaire was answered by 67 respondents who used the AWP in various work rehabilitation settings in Sweden. The result indicates content validity and utility for the AWP that supports further testing of the instrument.