Information Assurance Technology Forecast 2008

A virtual roundtable (featuring panelists Steven Bellovin, Terry Benzel, Bob Blakely, Dorothy Denning, Whitfield Diffie, Jeremy Epstein, and Paulo Verissimo) discussing the next 15 years in computer security.     

A study of the lethal and sublethal toxicity of polyphase P-100, an antisapstain fungicide containing 3-iodo-2-propynyl butyl carbamate (IPBC), on fish and aquatic invertebrates

Since pneumotachograph masks are commonly used in studies of speech breathing, the purpose of this study was to measure the differences in respiratory volumetric and frequency measures during speech under two conditions: with and without a circumferentially vented pneumotachograph mask coupled to the face. Thus we sought to identify whether changes in breathing patterns occur with the use of a specific face mask, because these patterns are accepted as representative of normal speech breathing. Subjects were 10 normal-speaking women, each of whom produced a syllable train and a connected speech task, both at comfortable intensity levels. Respiratory measures were made using linearized magnetometers during speech production. The measurements included lung volume, rib cage volume, and abdominal volume at utterance initiation and termination, volume excursions during the utterance, and the number of breath groups during the speech task. There were no significant differences between the mask-on and mask-off conditions in volumetric and frequency measures. A significant task difference for abdominal initiation was found. It was concluded that the use of a circumferentially vented pneumotachograph mask does not alter the reliability of respiratory volume and frequency measures for studies of voice.     

Contrast‐enhanced wide‐angle high‐speed polarization modulator for active‐retarder 3‐D displays

Abstract— A contrast‐enhanced wide‐angle high‐speed polarization modulator for active‐retarder 3‐D displays is proposed. By using a double liquid‐crystal‐cell structure together with a dedicated driving scheme and an external quarter‐wave retarder, a high‐performance modulator can be realized, resulting in minimized brightness loss and low cross‐talk levels in fast‐refresh time‐multiplexed 3‐D displays.     

Comparative study of the molecular species of chloropropanediol diesters and triacylglycerols in milk fat

In an effort to establish the origin of the fatty acid esters of 3-chloropropanediol, which recently have been isolated in small amounts from goat milk, we compared the molecular species composition of the chlorohydrin diesters and of goat milk triacylglycerols. The chloropropanediol diesters were found to be composed of molecular species containing C₁₀−C₁₈ fatty acids and corresponded closely in carbon number to those calculated for the long chain sn-1,2-diacyl-glycerol moieties of goat milk triacylglycerols. The molecular species of goat milk total triacylglycerols contained C₄−C₁₈ fatty acids. It is suggested that triacylglycerols and chloropropanediol diesters are derived from the same pool of long chain fatty acids. A molecular distillate of bovine milk fat did not contain chloropropanediol diesters, while the available samples of human milk fat were shown to contain alkyldiacylglycerols as the major components of a neutral lipid fraction corresponding in polarity to the chloropropanediol diesters.     

Testing Forecast Accuracy of Foreign Exchange Rates: Predictions from Feed Forward and Various Recurrent Neural Network Architectures

In this research, we work with data of futures contracts on foreign exchange rates for British pound (BP), Canadian dollar (CD), and Japanese yen (JY) that are traded at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) against US dollars. We model relationships between exchange rates in these currencies using linear models, feed forward artificial neural networks (ANN), and three versions of recurrent neural networks (RNN1, RNN2 and RNN3) for predicting exchange rates in these currencies against the US dollar. Our results on forecast evaluations based on AGS test the tests of forecast equivalence between any two competing models among the entire models employed for each of the series show that ANN and the three versions of RNN models offer superior forecasts for predicting BP, CD and JY exchange rates although the forecast evaluations based on MGN test are in sharp contrast. On the other hand forecast based on SIGN test shows that ANN and all the versions of RNN models offer superior forecasts for BP and CD in exception of JY exchange rates. The results for forecast evaluation for all the models for each of the series based on summary measures of forecast evaluations show that RNN3 model appears to offer the most accurate predictions of BP and RNN1 for JP exchange rates. However, none of the RNN models appear to be statistically superior to the benchmark (i.e., linear model) for predicting CD exchange rates.      

Delay- and Disruption-Tolerant Networking

Delay- and disruption-tolerant networking (DTN) grew out of attempts to develop an Interplanetary Internet but has evolved into an active area of networking research, with applications in space networking, military tactical networking, and networking for various challenged communities. The DTN Research Group provides an open forum in which DTN researchers and developers can collaborate to further develop this experimental technology.