Science Article Summary - 12

Science Article Summary - 12

Feds Announce New Actions to Battle Asian Carp

[1] E. Stokstad, “Feds Announce New Actions to Battle Asian Carp”, Science Insider, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://blogs.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/02/feds-announce-n.html. [Accessed Feb. 10, 2010].

The Obama administration is finally starting to acknowledge the Asian Carp problem in the Mississippi River and Great Lakes as they are calling for a rapid change which entails 78.5 million dollars being set forth to fight the carp.  For many years the Asian Carp have been slowly spreading up the Mississippi River, and now the state of Michigan is calling for a change before it is too late.  If the carp are left to go freely, the fish will eventually overrun the Great Lakes, potentially crashing the 7 billion dollar sportfishing industry in that area.  Michigan tried to solve the problem on its own by suing the state of Illinois in efforts to make them close the locks spanning the Mississippi, but the state denied saying it would cause more harm than good.  Since then the Supreme Court has declined any response to the issue, and the resolution was left up to the White House to decide.

More recently the Asian Carp DNA has been found in some of the Great Lakes, but researchers are predicting that the population is not yet large enough to be sustainable with reproduction, thus meaning that there is still a chance to evade the situation.  In order to stop this onslaught of the Asian Carp, the government plans to build an electric barrier which would stop the movement of carp and allot the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to expand the monitoring of the fish along the Mississippi river.  The state of Michigan still doesn't like this option, and calls it a "half-measure" that wouldn't be needed if they would just close the locks.

Science Article Summary - 11

Science Article Summary - 11

Fastest Wings on Earth Show Extremes of Sexual Selection

[1] B. Keim, “Fastest Wings on Earth Show Extremes of Sexual Selection,” Wired Science,  Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/wing-resonance/. [Accessed: Feb. 10, 2010].

Researches observing the club-winged manakin bird have said that they have found the world's best example of sexual selection.  Instead of dynamically adapting their wings to flight, their wings have instead been adapted to create a mating sound that attracts the opposite sex.  Found in the western Andes mountains, this bird is able to place their wings over their back in order to create a high frequency sound due to their irregularities found in their wings.  The main irregularities found in their wings is that the feathers have seven district ridges and they have a single feather with an abnormally thick tip.  In order to make the noise, the bird places its wings behind its back and shakes their wings over 107 times per second, which to put that in perspective, is more than the hummingbird.  Each shake of the feathers allows the thick feather tip to grind into the ridges of the other feather, creating the same effect as putting a spoon over wooden slats.  In order to back up the frequency of 1,500 vibrations per second, the male has been suited with relatively thick breast muscles that dampen the effect of the extreme vibrations.  Overall the study is not only to reveal the adaptations that birds take on, but it shows how the sexual selection process outweighs all other needs, creating a bird with decreased wing functions.

Refined Research Problem Statement

(*) Introduce the issue to be studied.


As issues of security are starting to get greater and greater, the general public is really starting to see a gradual shift in the methods of security.  One of the main methods that we are shifting our paradigm to is Biometrics, the way we uniquely identify humans based on physical or behavioral traits.  It seems like this issue would be just as foolproof as the normal password and PIN security method, but in reality it has just as many vulnerabilities and pitfalls.

(*) Introduce to background of the research area. 


Now that the massive shift to biometrics is taking place, many people are finding that the biometric data given to these security machines can be compromised against peoples liking.  Not only are there ways for attackers to gain access and to duplicate some of your biometric data, the companies or agencies that actually choose to implement the security methods can use your own biometric data against you.  Some biometric methods are capable of telling your sex, skin color, race, and even sometimes your thoughts.  This opens up the capabilities for the company, or even someone else with the capabilities, to use that data against your will.

(*) State the key issue, the overall research problem, specific research question/s.  There may be 1-3 separate questions connected to research problem area. Should be formulated in a very clear language in a form of a question.  


Although Biometrics seems fine to most people outside of the Computer Science field, many people are finding plenty of issues with the new methods which biometrics entails.  The largest issue with the biometric method would be the privacy concerns found with the use of gathered biometric data.


I am studying the advancement of biometrics with respect to the privacy of the individuals who use the system because I want to find out how the entities that implement these systems can use the biometric data against the user in order to help the user understand how their privacy is being violated and what new things can be done to fix the problem.


(*) Statement of relevance to the field. Define your audience of experts.


Since the advancement of biometrics is continuing, the key issues found within this topic will only grow worse.  By acknowledging the issues, the Computer Science field will be able to better serve the general public instead of merely pleasing everyone in the technology field.  By solving this problems now instead of later, we will be able to truly find a better method of security, be it in biometrics or not, and in the end solving this problem of privacy within the biometrics field will revolution both security and technology.  


The audience of experts for this topic would be biometric, security, and human-computer interaction experts.  Almost every topic in Computer Science correlates to biometrics in some form or fashion, so almost any scholarly being in the Computer Science field would find this problem and solution interesting.

(*) Introduce your proposed methods of study, in brief, if you can at this time.


A general proposal of my study methods would be primarily based on others research since I am unable to design my own biometric systems.  It would be best to decipher scholarly articles to search for methods that would be relevant to the privacy and advancement of biometrics.  If methods of this type can be merged into a singular method, the effect may be strong enough to fix the problem.

(*) Introduce limitations of the study, if you can at this time.


Although it will be easy to find sources regarding the topics that are already designed and being implemented, the limitation begins at the design of new systems.  I have had a wealth of experience in my college career, but it isn't at the point that I can go out and design a new biometric system to solve this problem.

(*) Note scholarly publications (1-3 publications, by title) where you might be able to publish the resulting paper you would write.


Security & Privacy Magazine, IEEE 
Journal of the ACM
Computer Law and Security Review

Bibliography

[1] A. Squicciarini and E. Bertino, "Privacy Preserving Multi-Factor Authentication with Biometrics,"Identity, 2006, pp. 63-71.


[2] A.M. Froomkin, "The Death of Privacy?," Stanford Law Review, vol. 52, 2000, pp. 1461-1543.


[3] D. Bala, "Biometrics and information security," Kennesaw, Georgia: ACM, 2008, pp. 64-66.


[4] J. Woodward, "Biometrics: privacy's foe or privacy's friend?," Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. 85, 1997, pp. 1480-1492.


[5] S. Prabhakar, S. Pankanti, and A. Jain, "Biometric recognition: security and privacy concerns,"Security & Privacy, IEEE, vol. 1, 2003, pp. 33-42.


[6] S. Cimato, M. Gamassi, V. Piuri, R. Sassi, and F. Scotti, "Privacy-Aware Biometrics: Design and Implementation of a Multimodal Verification System," 2008, pp. 130-139.

#4 Refine Your Research Topic/Question/Problem (freewrite, 10 minutes)

1. How can we utilise and advance biometrics while still insuring personal privacy of citizens?

First I would like to start with refining my research problem.  I really wanted to stick with something that deals with the privacy part of biometrics.  For example, I am fairly curious as to what companies or other agencies actually do with the biometric data. One refined question could be:

I am studying the advancement of biometrics with respect to the privacy of the individuals who use the system because I want to find out how the entities that implement these systems can use the biometric data against the user in order to help the user understand how their privacy is being violated and what new things can be done to fix the problem.

Possible answers would be the subject that I have heard of in class (but not researched) which is called cancelable biometrics.  We all know that our own biometric data cannot be changed because we cannot just change our fingerprints, but with this new method the security system would implement some sort of hashing or manipulation algorithm which would safeguard the user from even having to lose their biometric data in the first place.  As for the issues of their privacy being used against them, the companies that create these security systems should also do algorithms which hide important data from the company.  This would then safeguard the user from racism or other privacy-eluding acts that would allow the company to figure out the users color, race, gender, and in some highly technological security systems, their thoughts.

Another issue that I would like to get into would be the issue regarding the national DNA database for newborns.  Although this doesn't seem like biometrics, under the shell it is being used as an uniquely identifiable source, which categorizes it as biometrics.

Science Article Summary - 10

Science Article Summary - 10

Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs

[1]	C. Zimmer, “Evidence Builds on Color of Dinosaurs,” The New York Times, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/science/05dino.html?ref=science. [Accessed Feb. 6, 2010].

After the thriller "Jurassic Park" most people would think that scientists had a fairly good idea of the color of dinosaurs, but the case is much the opposite.  Up until last week, many paleontologists had no overwhelming evidence for the colors of dinosaurs, but luckily, a group of researchers at Yale have finally been able to identify what dinosaurs actually looked like over 125 million years ago.  Since feathers have pigment-loaded sacs called melanosomes, the researchers were able to work in conjunction with biologist Matthew Shawkey to predict the color of feathers from the melanosomes only.  This discovery by the researchers not only uncovers our curiosities about the characteristics of the ancient creatures, but it also supports that birds are actually descendants from dinosaurs. 

One main find using this process has been the discovery of the Anchiornis's unique color pattern, which just happens to very close to the present day Silver Spangled Hamburgs chickens.  The researchers noted that the Anchiornis, just like the present day chicken breed, used their colors for some visual function.  These functions can range from attracting mates to using their black and white limbs to escape predators, which apparently confuses predators and is more popularly seen in Zebras.

Science Article Summary - 9

Science Article Summary - 9

Altitude Causes Weight Loss Without Exercise

[1] T. Ghose, “Altitude Causes Weight Loss Without Exercise,” Wired Science, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/high-altitude-weight-loss/#more-17539. [Accessed Feb. 6, 2010].

We know that most people in the world are overweight, and just a influx of weight-loss medication hits the general public in commercial form, researchers have finally found a better, more relaxing way to help lose weight.  Instead of exercising to lose the weight, researchers have found that retreats as short as a week in high elevation areas can make you lose the weight and help you to better keep it off.  The good thing about this method is that the overweight people do not have to eat any differently, they can eat as much as they want, the only requirement is that they do it in the higher elevations.  All seems fairly straightforward with this method, but underneath the shell one can also find a plethora of issues with this method.  Not only is it harder for the obese to get up to the high elevation, but once they are there they are more prone to various health problems including altitude sickness, edema, and heart attacks.  The main issue, heart attacks, is said to be a very serious problem as inflammation can be made worse by the stronger attitudinal pressures, so anyone wishing to try this technique should take extreme caution.

Although this technique does work, and seems to work even after they come down from the high elevation, the effect does seem to decrease back to normality after about six months.  Researchers have noted that to make this a fully functional weight loss technique, people would have to try and go up and down the mountain in certain intervals in order to keep the weight loss function and to keep their metabolism at stable levels.

Science Article Summary - 8

Science Article Summary - 8
Google Asks Spy Agency for Help With Inquiry Into Cyberattacks
[1] J. Markoff, “Google Asks Spy Agency for Help With Inquiry Into Cyberattacks,” The New York

Times, Feb. 2010. [Online]. Available: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/05/science/05google.html?ref=science. [Accessed Feb.  6, 2010].

Since the cyberattacks at Google last year, Google has been trying to pinpoint just who exactly those attackers were.  Many other companies were attacked in much the same way that Google was, and many of those companies security analysts have stated that the attacks came from Taiwan.  Google being to arrogant to believe this, notes that they dug deeper into the location of the attackers, and that the exact location resides in China.  Since this release, Google has decided to cease all business operations in China regardless of the attackers actually location.  If ceasing business operations wasn't enough, Google has now decided to team with the National Security Agency, the agency in charge of global electronic surveillance, to try and find out more information about the attackers.  As if the choice of working with the government isn't an oddity on its own for such a technical powerhouse, the choice of agency is also raising questions with many people surrounding the issue.  Instead of working with the Department of Homeland Security, which has the authority for domestic attacks, Google may have decided to work with the N.S.A in order to avoid having its many services regulated as part of the "critical infrastructure" of the United States.  As if this issue isn't enough, the pairing of such a commercial company and federal agency may also have some implications towards the privacy of many of the services that Google offers, only adding to the notion that the government will have full control over our everyday lives.