Social factors moderate the impacts of natural hazards, which means that households are affected differently when exposed to the same hazard. This differential impact of hazards can be explained by the concept of social vulnerability, which is commonly assessed to inform disaster preparedness and response action. Most of these assessments, however, focus their analyses on large administrative units and, consequently, neglect the heterogeneity of households within these units. This thesis leverages data from Malawi’s social registry (the UBR) to construct a Household Social Vulnerability Index for Nsanje – one of the most disaster-prone districts in Malawi. In Nsanje, geocoded socio-economic data was collected using a census-sweep approach with the goal of registering 100% of the district’s residents. From this dataset, indicators are deductively selected and analyzed using Principal Component Analysis to produce a social vulnerability score for each household. These index scores are mapped at a spatial resolution of 0,01°. By repurposing a social registry to inform a new set of actors, including humanitarian and disaster risk management practitioners, the thesis highlights the considerable scope for collaboration within the realm of data and information by actors and policy fields that traditionally largely have operated in isolation from one another.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Geography / Bimal K. Paul / Given the recent recognition that not only physical processes, but social, political and economic aspects of hazards determine vulnerability and impact of an event, the next logical step would seem to be the development of classification systems that address those factors. Classifications for natural disasters, such as the Fujita Scale for tornadoes and the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, focus on the physical properties of the event, not the impact on a community. Pre-event vulnerability to a natural hazard is determined by many factors, such as age, race, income and gender, as well as infrastructure such as density of the built environment and health of the industrial base. The behavior of residents in the community, construction quality of shelters and warning system effectiveness also affect vulnerability. If pre-event vulnerability is to be determined by such factors, post-event impact should, at least in part, be as well. The goal of this research was to develop the Tornado Impact-Community Vulnerability Index (TICV) that utilizes variables such as the number of persons killed, economic impacts and social vulnerability to describe to the level of impact a tornado event has on community. As tornadoes that strike unpopulated areas are often difficult to classify, even in the traditional sense, the TICV will take into consideration only events that strike communities with defined political boundaries, or “places” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. By assigning a rating to the impact, this index will allow the severity of the storm to be understood in terms of its effect on a specific community and hence its impact, rather than an physically-based rating that gives only a broad, general indication of its physical strength.

I denna uppsats behandlas hur klassningssällskapens regelverk kan bidra till ett örlogsfartygs överlevnad vid vapenverkan. Syftet är att undersöka om regelverken kan användas för att implementera stryktålighet genom sina notationer och krav på redundans, separation och skydd mot splitter. Arbetet inleds genom kunskapsuppbyggnad av teorier som behandlar örlogsfartygs överlevnad, vilka sedermera bildar arbetets teoriram. Sedan sker en analys av regelverken samt en fiktiv operativ miljö skapas för att ta fram taktiska uppgifter samt hot, vilka sedan omvandlas till verkansdelar och kritiska system. Därefter skapas modellerna som tillsammans med verkansdelarna används i simuleringen som genomförs i simuleringsverktyget Semiautomatsikt fartygs verktyg för AVAL. Simuleringarna mäter utslagssannolikheter av olika funktioner ombord vid påverkan från de framtagna verkansdelarna. Syftet är att undersöka om koncepten, vilka baseras på regelverken bidrar till mer stryktåliga plattformar. Resultatet från simuleringarna pekar på att regelverkskoncepten generellt har en lägre utslagssannolikhet vilket visar sig tydligast vid verkansdelar som genererar splitter. Arbetet kommer därmed fram till att klassningssällskapens regelverk utifrån de givna förutsättningarna kan användas för att skapa en viss nivå av stryktålighet. / This thesis deals with how the classification society’s rules may contribute to the survivability of warships when exposed to hostile fire. The aim is to examine whether the regulations can be used to reduce the vulnerability of naval ships through their notations and requirements for redundancy, separation and fragmentation protection. The first part of this thesis involves gathering information regarding relevant theory which covers the survivability of warships, which in turn forms the theoretical framework. Subsequently an analysis of the classification rules is conducted and a fictional operational environment is created in order to develop tactical tasks and threats, which are then converted into weapons effects and critical components. The models are created and together with the weapons used in the simulation program, Semi-automatic ship tool AVAL. The simulations measure the kill probabilities of different functions onboard when different weapons are used on the models. The results indicate that classification models generally have a lower kill probability, especially from weapons that generates splinters. The conclusion is that the classification society’s rules and regulations can be used to implement measures to decrease the vulnerability of naval ships.

This dissertation focuses on the forensic validation of computer evidence. It is a burgeoning field, by necessity, and there have been significant advances in the detection and gathering of evidence related to electronic crimes. What makes the computer forensics field similar to other forensic fields is that considerable emphasis is placed on the validity of the digital evidence. It is not just the methods used to collect the evidence that is a concern. What is also a problem is that perpetrators of digital crimes may be engaged in what is called anti-forensics. Digital forensic evidence techniques are deliberately thwarted and corrupted by those under investigation. In traditional forensics the link between evidence and perpetrator's actions is often straightforward: a fingerprint on an object indicates that someone has touched the object. Anti-forensic activity would be the equivalent of having the ability to change the nature of the fingerprint before, or during the investigation, thus making the forensic evidence collected invalid or less reliable. This thesis reviews the existing security models and digital forensics, paying particular attention to anti-forensic activity that affects the validity of data collected in the form of digital evidence. This thesis will build on the current models in this field and suggest a tentative first step model to manage and detect possibility of anti-forensic activity. The model is concerned with stopping anti-forensic activity, and thus is not a forensic model in the normal sense, it is what will be called a “meta-forensic” model. A meta-forensic approach is an approach intended to stop attempts to invalidate digital forensic evidence. This thesis proposes a formal procedure and guides forensic examiners to look at evidence in a meta-forensic way.

Most philosophical work on ethical questions concerning disability and impairment, human vulnerability and the cycles of life is found within feminist care ethics and the philosophy of disability. When it comes to eudaimonist virtue ethics, a discussion of such truths about our human condition usually falls within an account of external goods. Alasdair Macintyre's work is the most notable exception. In his book, Dependent Rational Animals, Macintyre argues that the cultivation of the virtues of acknowledged dependence is necessary for living a eudaimon life. Rather than focus, as Macintyre and some care ethicists do, on our often contingent dependence, I argue that it is a right orientation toward our interdependence which allows us to live with the vulnerabilities inherent in the human condition and live well. To that end, I put forward a hitherto unspecified virtue which I call Proper Interconnection and argue for its necessary role in sustaining human flourishing in an interdependent world. I establish that Proper Interconnection is a legitimate virtue in its own right by demonstrating that it meets the conditions which Rosalind Hursthouse in "Environmental Virtue Ethics," and Macintyre in After Virtue specify must be met in order for a trait to qualify as a virtue. In accordance with Hursthouse's conditions, I show that Proper Interconnection is a deep-seated disposition of character comprised of four cognitive and emotional components: recognition, compassion, acceptance and shared responsibility. Proper Interconnection is integral to the acquisition of practical wisdom, can be inculcated in children and plausibly fits within an account of human nature. Turning to Macintyre's conditions, I provide several examples from anthropology which I argue suggest that Proper Interconnection is both central to and helps sustain particular practices and traditions—such as the practice of hospitality and traditions of kinship. Macintyre argues that, just as the virtues help sustain practices and traditions, they also enable us to flourish by sustaining the integrity of our character and, by extension, our life narratives. We are both the authors of our lives and inextricably interconnected with those whose life narratives intertwine with our own. As our individual flourishing cannot exist apart from the flourishing of the whole, we cannot live an integrated life narrative by engaging in just any form of interconnection. We need to cultivate the virtue of Proper Interconnection, as we search and strive for both our own good and the good of humankind.

Software is still being produced and used that is vulnerable to exploitation. As well as being in devices in the homes of many people around the world, programs with these vulnerabilities are maintaining life-critical systems such as power-stations, aircraft and medical devices and are managing the creation and distribution of billions of pounds every year. These systems are actively being exploited by governments, criminals and opportunists and have led to loss of life and a loss of wealth. This dependence on software that is vulnerable to exploitation has led to a society with tangible concerns over cyber-crime, cyber-terrorism and cyber-warfare. As well as attempts to eliminate these vulnerabilities, techniques have been developed to mitigate their effects; these prophylactic techniques do not eliminate the vulnerabilities but make them harder to exploit. As software exploitation is an ever evolving battle between the attackers and the defenders, identifying methods to bypass these mitigations has become a new battlefield in this struggle and the techniques that are used to do this require vulnerabilities of their own. As many of the mitigation techniques are dependent upon secrecy of one form or another, vulnerabilities which allow an attacker to view those secrets are now of importance to attackers and defenders. Leaking of the contents of computer memory has always been considered a vulnerability, but until recently it has not typically been considered a serious one. As this can be used to bypass key mitigation techniques, these vulnerabilities are now considered critical to preventing whole classes of software exploitation. This thesis is about detecting these types of leaks and the information they disclose. It discusses the importance of these disclosures, both currently and in the future. It then introduces the first published technique to be able to reliably identify specific classes of these leaks, particularly address disclosures and canary-disclosures. The technique is tested against a series of applications, across multiple operating systems, using both artificial examples and software that is critical, commonplace and complex.

Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) is a childhood form of motor neuron disease that causes a progressive paralysis that, in its most severe form, results in death before two years of age. There is currently no cure or treatment for SMA. SMA is caused by a reduction in levels of Survival Motor Neuron (SMN) protein, which results in the degeneration of lower motor neurons. This degeneration is first observed at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ), where pre-synaptic nerve terminals belonging to the motor neuron become dysfunctional and degenerate during the early stages of disease. Several previous studies have shown that the some populations of motor neurons appear to have a resistance to SMA pathology, while other neighbouring populations are vulnerable. In this study, we attempted to elucidate the cause of this vulnerability spectrum. Initially, we characterised the relative vulnerability of ten different motor unit pools in an established mouse model of severe SMA and attempted to correlate these vulnerabilities with quantified aspects of motor unit morphology. From this study, no significant correlation could be found with any aspect of motor unit morphology examined, suggesting that morphological parameters of motor neurons do no influence their relative susceptibility. We then attempted to identify changes in basal gene expression between protected and vulnerable pools of motor units using microarray analysis. Motor unit pools were labelled using a retrograde tracer injected into muscles that had previously been identified as having highly vulnerable or resistant motor units. Labelled motor neuron cell bodies were then isolated from the spinal cord using laser capture micro-dissection and RNA was extracted for microarray analysis. From this study, we identified several molecular pathways and individual genes whose expression levels compared the gene expression profiles of vulnerable and resistant motor units. Thus, molecular differences between motor neuron pools likely underlie their relative vulnerability to degeneration in SMA. Lastly, we attempted to identify a novel peptide that could be used to label synapses, including neuromuscular junctions, in vivo. This would allow us to non-invasively visualise degenerating NMJs and other synapses in human patients without the need for a biopsy. Such a tool would be extremely valuable in assessing the effectiveness of drug trials, both in human patients and animal models, and may also contribute to earlier diagnosis of motor neuron disorders. To identify a potentially suitable peptide, we used a phage display library and panned for peptides that specifically bound to the outer surface of synapses using synaptosome preparations. From this panning we successfully enriched two peptides, the sequences of which were used to manufacture fluorescently tagged peptides.

Mounting evidence suggests that synaptic connections are early pathological targets in many neurodegenerative diseases, including motor neuron disease. A better understanding of synaptic pathology is therefore likely to be critical in order to develop effective therapeutic strategies. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a common autosomal recessive childhood form of motor neuron disease. Previous studies have highlighted nerve- and muscle-specific events in SMA, including atrophy of muscle fibres and postsynaptic motor endplates, loss of lower motor neuron cell bodies and denervation of neuromuscular junctions caused by loss of pre-synaptic inputs. Here I have undertaken a detailed morphological investigation of neuromuscular synaptic pathology in the Smn-/- ;SMN2 and Smn-/-;SMN2;Δ7 mouse models of SMA. Results imply that synaptic degeneration is an early and significant event in SMA, with progressive denervation and neurofilament accumulation being present at early symptomatic time points. I have identified selectively vulnerable motor units, which appear to conform to a distinct developmental subtype compared to more stable motor units. I have also identified significant postsynaptic atrophy which does no correlate with pre-synaptic denervation, suggesting that there is a requirement for Smn in both muscle and nerve and pathological events can occur in both tissues independently. Rigorous investigation of lower motor neuron development, connectivity and gene expression at pre-symptomatic time points revealed developmental abnormalities do not underlie neuromuscular vulnerability in SMA. Equivalent gene expression analysis at end-stage time points has implicated growth factor signalling and extracellular matrix integrity in SMA pathology. Using an alternative model of early onset neurodegeneration, I provide evidence that the processes regulating morphologically distinct types of synaptic degeneration are also mechanistically distinct. In summary, in this work I highlight the importance and incidence of synaptic pathology in mouse models of spinal muscular atrophy and provide mechanistic insight into the processes regulating neurodegeneration.

This thesis is about so-­‐called consensual exploitative transactions: transactions to which all parties agree voluntarily, and which are beneficial for all parties, but which are still widely considered exploitative, and for that reason legally restricted in many countries. The thesis asks two main questions: 1. What is wrong with consensual exploitation? 2.What implications does the answer to this question have for the legal restriction of consensual transactions that are regarded exploitative in modern liberal societies? In answer to the first research question, the thesis starts by distinguishing and analysing five competing views of the wrong in consensual exploitation that exist in the present-­‐day philosophical debate on exploitation; and rejects all five answers. Next, the thesis offers an alternative answer, which is that the wrong in consensual exploitation can best be understood as a matter of greediness—a failure of the virtue of generosity. The thesis then turns to the second research question: what understanding exploitation as greediness implies for the legal restriction of exploitative transactions. It discusses and rejects the view that law ought only to be used to regulate ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ behaviour, and not to promote virtues or discourage vices, such as generosity and greediness. The thesis argues that legal restrictions on consensual exploitative transactions can be justified as a means to prevent greediness, and to promote a certain other-­‐regardingness, and illustrates this argument with two examples of laws that regulate consensual transactions which are widely regarded exploitative: minimum wage laws and payday loan laws.

Syftet var att ge en bild av vad som framkommer i tidigare forskning om vuxna individer med funktionsvariation och deras utsatthet för sexualbrott. Studien omfattar två frågeställningar: (1) Hur beskrivs funktionsvariation påverka utsattheten för sexualbrott enligt artiklarna? (2) Hur konstrueras sexualbrott i artiklarna? För att besvara syftet gjordes en översiktsstudie med totalt nio kvantitativa och kvalitativa vetenskapliga artiklar och en tematisk analys genomfördes. Resultatet analyserades utifrån ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att en individ med en synlig funktionsvariation beskrevs som en symbol för svaghet. Resultatet visade också att artiklarna konstruerade sexualbrott som ett individualistiskt problem. Resultatet visade även att en individ med funktionsvariation ”samtycker” till sexuellt umgänge på grund av låg självkänsla. Slutsatsen är att mer forskning behövs för att kunna utveckla åtgärder för att förebygga sexualbrott mot individer med funktionsvariation så att de kan känna sig trygga i samhället. / The aim was to present a general view of what is found in earlier research on adults with disabilities and their vulnerability to sexual crimes. The study covers two issues: (1) How do the disability affect vulnerability to sexual crimes according to the articles? (2) How do the articles construct sexual crimes? To answer the aim a scoping review with a total of nine quantitative and qualitative scientific articles were used and a thematic analysis was conducted. The results were analyzed from a social constructionist perspective. The results showed that an individual with a visible disability was described as a symbol of weakness. The results also showed that the articles chose to construct sexual crimes as an individualistic problem. Moreover the results showed that an individual with a disability "consents" to sexual intercourse because of low self-esteem. The conclusion is that more research is needed in order to develop measures to prevent sexual crimes against individuals with disabilities to improve their feeling of security in society.