Hi, I'm Jason Tower. I'm the country director for the Burma program at the United States Institute of Peace We've received quite a few questions on the impacts of the pandemic in Burma and on conflict in Burma as well as How it will impact the economy in the country? USIP's Burma program is presently trying to address some of these challenges as it continues its work during these difficult times And I wanted to take a few minutes to answer a couple of these questions that have come through First is what public health measures are in place in country? Burma has a very weak public health system and it was very poorly prepared to address COVID-19 The country began to confirm cases pretty late compared to a lot of its neighbors Only in late March did it start to confirm cases of COVID-19 Less than 200 cases have been confirmed to date But it's important to keep in mind that capacity to do testing is very low and also generally in the country People don't necessarily go to the hospital or clinic when they're sick. So outside of Yangon at the moment It's almost impossible to get a test. There's only one testing facility in the whole country outside of Yangon so far The country has also taken a bunch of other measures to try to check the spread of the virus These include closing down the airports to international travel restricting local travel Shutting down a lot of businesses and manufacturing. They've recently also instituted fines for not wearing masks outside And then on the positive side the country's also I think Made some new investments in its health care system Putting quite a lot of of new money into upgrading its hospitals so that they're better able to serve the public through the the pandemic Second question is Burma has the longest standing civil war in Asia. What challenges and opportunities has COVID-19 brought to efforts to address conflict? Unfortunately tensions have continued throughout this period and Really even spiked under COVID-19 The situation really Illustrates just how little progress has been made through the country's formal peace process Which tries to bring the many different ethnic armed groups together to Work out what the future of the country would would look like Unfortunately, the peace process has failed to address a lot of the underlying causes of conflict particularly economic causes as well as Thinking on what a federal structure looks like when it comes to very contentious issues around security The Burma army or Tatmadaw Has been involved in a lot of the health response Unfortunately in a lot of the ethnic areas, this has not been very constructive as it's actively prevented EaO's ethnic armed organizations from giving needed supplies to People in their constituencies people in the areas of territory that they control They've also threatened some civilian Civilians telling them not to take assistance Including masks from some of the ethnic armed organizations A lot of tensions have emerged also around the control over the country's borders So particularly in the Thai and China border areas where you now have a lot of migrants coming back in From Thailand and China where economies have also been shut down and employment is no longer available There's been a lot of fighting over who actually controls those border gates So again, you're seeing tensions really spill over around COVID-19 in quite a few parts of the country It's important to recognize that the UN has called for a global ceasefire during COVID-19 Many of the ethnic armed groups have responded positively to this The Myanmar army has also now put out its own Message of ceasefire. However, it has Left out that one of the key armed groups from that ceasefire It's Labeling this particular group the arachn army a terrorist organization and it's continued to escalate hostilities in Rakhine state with fighting now spreading Further and further across that that state to the south This is I think generated a lot of concerns because now Civilians are faced with a very difficult dilemma of either fleeing conflict and leaving their homes You know risking spread of the virus or staying in their homes and then risking the chances of you know conflict Harming them in their communities So it's really getting to be kind of a dire situation in in Rakhine state I think there are Some positive things that are are going on with respect to to conflict as well There's been a lot of civil society groups and others who've been calling for ceasefire and rallying for everyone to come together and to try to jointly address the pandemic as happened around a Horrible natural disaster when a hurricane Nargis at the country in 2008 and you saw really everyone kind of come together To address some of those those difficulties at the time So there's a chance also that the pandemic could provide a little bit more space to address these issues But at the moment challenges around violent conflict and the ceasefire Issue are still very much acute Third question is Burma is in the midst of an election year and elections are said to be particularly competitive this year How will COVID-19 impact elections in our election year dynamics impacting response? There's roughly a hundred political parties that are going to compete for the elections in 2020, which will likely take place in November COVID-19 Does stand to have impacts on elections and in fact, it's already slowing down significantly elections preparations Compared with 2015 the country's pretty far behind the curve in terms of it not having Started the process of hiring the auxiliary police force that will Provide security and holding stations around the country There's also going to be I think a lot of new challenges trying to manage elections under a pandemic South Korea recently showed that this could be done very successfully By managing an election with an amazing turnout during the COVID-19 period In Burma one of the big challenges though is going to be a lack of budget for for the elections Holding stations have very minimal budgets They're not currently able to provide social distancing measures or to provide the necessary supplies That would be needed in order to ensure a sanitary environment for elections So those are all issues that really have to be sorted out Another thing that's happening at the moment is you're starting to see a lot of donors come into the country to bring in supplies to assist the response to COVID-19 unfortunately, this is Resulting in bigger and bigger coordination issues between different ministries Coordination had already been difficult because of the fact that the military controls significant parts of government including police Whereas the civilian elected government controls other parts and the responses have been very hard to coordinate between military and government As well as between military government and ethnic armed groups Donors particularly from China have come in and they basically thrown aid at every ministry including many military Departments and departments under the military This has caused a further tensions and it's raised concerns in the part of a lot of civil society groups Because they're worried that a lot of these investors are targeting the stakeholders who have decision-making authority over projects investment projects that they're either Currently operating or which they're bringing into the country and which maybe have been stalled or have other issues that they're looking to have resolved So there's a lot of concerns about a lack of transparency of aid of conflict of interests And even of investors may be using this aid as a tool to try to meet some of the objectives that they're trying to Achieve when it comes to some of their investments So I think one area where real really a lot of work needs to be done is around strengthening coordination trying to address the Potential impacts that could come in from all of this uncoordinated aid and really getting all of the government agencies and military on the same page When it comes to a joint response I think I'll wrap up here. I'd like to thank everyone for watching Thanks for all the questions and if you're interested in learning more Don't forget to check out our website for additional resources on COVID-19 and conflict. Thank you


a better understanding of the intestinal epithelial barriers regulatory mechanisms and its role in maintaining health and disease could lead to new therapies for various conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and others. Restoring barrier function with drugs or probiotics could help ameliorate many health problems caused by loss of integrity due to genetics, gut microbes, autoimmunity, diet, or other factors. This article was authored by Chaitanya Chellicott, J Wangim, and Sun Ho Riu.


Hi everyone! Welcome back to our final video about how do things move across the membrane and it's gonna be about bulk transport. Earlier we've seen passive and active transports, which are great if you want to move one or two molecules at a time. But for very large cargo, the cell needs to use what's called bulk transport, and it comes in two flavor, endocytosis and exocytosis. Endocytosis is the process of taking large things in, and to do so, the cell will kind of fuse with its cargo. In other words, the cell membrane wraps around a large molecule to internalize or engulf it. As a result, it will create what is called a vesicle or a vacuole. There are three different forms of endocytosis. One is called phagocytosis, where the prefix phago means to eat. So phagocytosis is literally about cell eating. The second one is called pinocytosis, where the prefix pino comes from the Greek to drink. So pinocytosis is literally about cell drinking fluids with all the solutes that it contains. And thirdly, we have receptor mediated endocytosis. And that's when the cell can be very picky about what's coming in. And to do so, a little receptor at the cell surface will bind to a specific cargo before engulfing it. Okay, endocytosis is pretty cool, and allow the cell to take in liquids or large solid cargo, and sometimes the cell can even be picky about the content of the cargo. But that's not the only type of bulk transport a cell can perform. In fact, the reverse direction is also possible, and it is called exocytosis, where exo means exit or external. In exocytosis, the vesicle, instead of moving towards the inside, is moving towards the outside of the cell, until it fuses with the membrane and releases its content on the outside. Exocytosis is particularly important to get rid of cell waste. It's a bit like when you go to the bathroom. But it also allows the cell to export valuable, material, freshly made. And that's a bit like when Australia would export TimTam or Vettemite to another country. With that, we are finished with our overview of bulk transport, as well as transport in general, including passive and active. I hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for watching.


Hello and welcome to a video a little bit different to pretty much everything else on the channel It's about time. I think that I told you about my dog Basil He's appeared in a few videos over the years What have you done?  I've just lift you up man. Alright you going back on. I know. I know.  He was a character. I had Basil for 16 years when Yesterday on the 1st of March 2021 He was put down, but the stories he left behind I think I want to share with you guys because he's he's been in videos I always see comments asking how Basil is and I wanted to make a video that just kind of put it all out there Maybe you didn't know who Basil was but by the end of this video I'm hoping to give you a more fuller picture of what kind of dog Basil was. Seeing as I'm a youtuber, we're gonna make a video on it obviously I guess we need to start even before Basil was born When I was a kid my grandparents had a beagle called Ben Memory I have of Ben was that I would I would always lie on the floor I was a little toddler and I would put my legs out in like a V shape I'd just be lying on the floor and Ben would always come in and he would just sit in between my legs I don't know so nice about it. They was just like you just there and Ben didn't live too much longer after I Really cognitively knew who he was, but because of Ben I wanted a beagle I think that that was the main reason because of Ben Ben was the reason that Basil was brought into existence And in 2004 when I was 12 years old in a little place in Northumberland up north called Twizzle where Basil known as the Antichrist was born I badgered my parents like so much to get a dog to the point where I either wanted a dog or I wanted a Stagia which is a type of bony fish that can grow up to like 12 foot long And I draw plans to like dig up my parents garden So I could put a pool like a pond in But I was so determined it was gonna be one of the other and whether my parents regret it or not I'm sure they don't regret it. It points in the life I'm sure they did we we went all the way up to Twizzle. So the three boys There was one that had like a big white stripe down his face One that had a little thin stripe down his face and one that was just like solid black And by the time that we decided which one we wanted Which was the one with the big white stripe that ran down its face It was already taken so we were left with two one of them would end up being Basil The breeders really wanted us to take the the strong colored one the black one because as it would get older That the colors would be stronger in it And you know with a with a beagle it's got a lighter colors It would fade and and we went up again and we got to we went in the house And they got to play around on the floor. It was something I think about Not the one with the strong colors the one with this little thin stripe on its on its head And this one ended up being Basil He was never fussed about playing with his brother, but he would hold his own it was almost like get off So we ended up taking Basil home. I think that day I'm really not too sure and and that's when it started. Well, you know, I'd said to my parents. Oh, yeah I'll walk him. I'll take I'll look after him and everything else sleep in my room You know, I assume my parents knew that that was probably not gonna be the case They'd already they'd already planned to take care of this dog into walking all the time first evening I should say I just vividly remember it We were sat at the table eating and we'd had a crate and everything You know to do crate training for him and he was he was in the kitchen We were in the dining room and we're eating dinner and we put him in his crates like okay We're gonna be eating he'll he'll be of what separate, you know, and he's just started barking barking barking And I remember thinking to myself. Oh, no Oh No, what am I cut myself into it's never gonna be the same again I remember those words going through my head and later that night bunk bed and I would sleep on the bottom bunk Just to comfort and be with them But you know after after a couple of minutes or 10 20 minutes, whatever He would get up and he wouldn't be settled and he would you know Winge and wine, you know, he's a puppy's way from home, but I was a kid and you know, I didn't really I was like Oh go to bed man So he wasn't settling my room and we moved him into into the bathroom and he was just not Settling he was barking barking and we were told that what we should do is just let him bark because then he'll realize that Oh if he barks nothing's gonna happen, so he'll stop doing it. However, we were living in a hatched house So we couldn't just let him bark because then the neighbors wouldn't get me sleep So I just remember opening my door and seeing my mom walk across. He was in her dressing gown She rolled up newspaper Not to hit him, but just to whack the crate and be like But Fossum was so he couldn't understand that we wouldn't understand him And when mum was telling the show he was like, no I want to be asked so he Just like the craze he'd stop barking louder this cycle repeated for maybe an hour or two hours And then eventually we moved him into the conservatory now whether it was he realized that oh if I keep barking I'm gonna be put further and further away, or maybe he likes kind of being a little bit outside, or we didn't hear him That was where he would sleep for The foreseeable future was just he would go to bed in his in his crate in the conservatory Beagle stink. Oh my god, they stink throughout his entire life He would go through different phases of stinking and smelly-ness There's your outrageous over there. Oh, yeah, you're gonna get showroom. He's found some poop on the floor come here Oh But his most pungent was when he was a puppy it was Horrible like quickly realized that anything that is new would not stay new for long anything that wasn't chewed wouldn't be chewed for long He would chew tables chairs We were told at one point with this big wooden teak chair like a beach chair sort of and he would chew The one of the the bits of wood that was sticking out of it We're told oh what we should do is put vinegar on on the on the chair, but that just made him like it even more One thing that was a blessing and a curse in a way was that he was incredibly food Motivated so we would take him to puppy classes with little bits of cheese or hot dog and a clicker and everything We try to socialize them with other dogs We got him to you know know all the dogs But he was always focused on that hot dog or The bit of cheese and he would do all the tricks. He was incredibly talent intelligent. He poor bar Well, we never taught him speak. We didn't need to teach him speak He was a good dog like that. He learned everything quick and He was a stubborn bugger though in the shower when he was getting washed There's just something about being in there. He was like, oh, I guess I'm just here. I've got a way and that kind of From his first shower To baths when he was you know a lot older just sort of stayed with them He would just be in there and be like, oh, okay I'll do that and then after you know after you'd have his mad half hour You'd expect to get a treat and stuff. He'd bark at everything until he got a little bit of food I think what when he said about Basel was that Basel wasn't that kind of dog The when you first meet him he would run up to you and he would he would be happy to see you if you were a stranger In fact, there's a lot of people that on walks and stuff who would see him and see how cute he was be like I'm gonna stroke him and then as soon as you go new be like, whoa, who are you? I don't know you so earning earning Basel's love It wasn't easy He was very picky. It wasn't just you know, he would give it freely He was as happy go lucky dog that would you know love everybody he met you at a tennis ball through it He would you know no, but even food sometimes if you gave him food you take the food But he'd still wouldn't like you be like, oh, I like the food But I don't know who you are I I could tell you stories. I could tell you so many stories, but I'll spare you a Lot of them and tell you a few a few good ones one time when we went off to the beach We would want to take him off the lead But every time we did something would happen something would go wrong and it got to the point where every time we would go To the beach, I'd be like, no, please don't take him off the lead Don't do it one time we did and there was some rocks kind of submerged but not really like the waves were breaking on these rocks They were very slippy and for whatever reason he just decided to get in his head He's just gonna go on to those rocks to the very edge No, he just bolted who's far away from us and there were seagulls you could hear him the distance like He wouldn't come back That's the thing like he would only come back when he wanted he would often check in he would come back to Be like I'm back.  We had to go Another time he found a dead seal massive seal and I'm where this thing came from and it wasn't until like it Wasn't leaving this thing alone. We got closer. We found himself rubbing himself on it another time He ate a dead fish swallowed that all the way down He waited until we got home and then threw it up in the conservatory this rotten face When he was you know about four or five years old that for whatever reason he decided to eat Crap on his walks.   Don't worry. He just eats crap It didn't really make too much of a difference We we ended up not putting the muzzle on him too much because it was just spoiling his walks you could tell he wasn't very happy he didn't want it on and In some case it wouldn't even stop him.  That was his way of showing affection. It wasn't much. He wasn't an overtly open Kind of affectionate dog. That was his way That was his way of saying that he trusted you and he liked you no matter who knew Basil University friends school friends They would always ask how Basil was expecting some Horror story one of the craziest escapades and I think This could be called Basil's great adventure one time when I was in high school. I had some friends over at lunch It went to my place. I don't know what we did there, but I'd let Basil out of his crate I think I just kind of left him in the house. I'd went back to school. Yes I'd locked the door and everything however a garage door which is fixed long long ago You could just push open from the inside But one side left at some point Basil had managed to scratch open the door into the garage Got into the garage and pushed open the door Onto the street. So he'd he ran down the street ran to the local co-op He was running up and down the aisles in this store pulling off loaves of bread in like a manic panic Because he knew he was like he didn't know where he was but he knew he wanted food So he was just going round grabbing anything he could school kids kids from my school who were on their break Or whatever coaxing him with chips from the chippy they said they tried to like catch him But he was just he was not he would didn't want to be caught He was running away from everybody for whatever reason is something clicked in him And he just knew where he was and he bolted back up You know there was two roads in front of this co-op That he could have been ran over each time when he ran there and when he and never he just knew where he was Ran back across the roads up the street and into the house again Wait, I know where I am. I'll go home.  He went just bolted all the way back Oh, and again one thing we found out very early on is not only did Basil stink, but he was allowed Oh You had the sound for when he wanted you to scratch him more Even just lying down He made everything into this comical Cacophony of sounds I don't think anybody except for me ever heard him howl because you think he was a hound he would he could often howl You you'd go up to go and he would do it Oh No, and I just woke up to this this sound While recording that at some point he he actually heard me like make noise So he just completely stopped and his little head would poke at me like oh, you're here And even though he was bought for me wanting a dog.  I mean she would have of course, but she'd clean it up My mom would hate that. Of course I complain. I don't want to do it Try the best to make that house smell like normal I remember I would have a German tutor when I was in high school before she would come over We would just get the Febrize out and just desperately spray The room so it didn't stink like dog and every time she would come over she'd be like that smells really nice in here Bazaar was a smart dog To the point where he would push out chairs jump on the chair and then jump on the table We would if ever like let's say there was a normal table, you know All the food was there people were sat there eating if one person got up to go to the toilet or go You know get some more food from somewhere else you would know for a fact Basil would jump up in two seconds You know you'd see that and he would just kind of like pour to get whatever was within harm's reach and Flip it onto the floor our counters Unfortunately our kitchen counters were just at the right height that Basil could jump up and sort of reach on There was plenty of times where things were just you know Forgotten accidentally left just too close to the edge Normally you would just have to push everything back from the counter to the wall So he wouldn't be able to reach in you'd wait until you were gone until he thought he would be in with a chance that he could Get it and eat it without you know and you could see you like move over different ways and try in the Try and get stuff you wouldn't bark or anything because he knew if he barked you'd come back So he deliberately be sneaky and not tell you about it He would hide under tables if you know if you were eating you'd hide on the table and bark And then if ever you would grab him you know to to tell him off or to pull him or get him out from under the table Or he did the best exorcist impression. It was brilliant.   I met Whitney and Whitney loved him.  She was she was younger when she had dogs So she never had a dog when you know, she could actually take care of a dog and look after one Basil loved her. They loved each other really. There was there was a relationship that those two had that was similar to the relationship Basil had with my mom which was trust. Basil wasn't loyal Really, I can't say he was loyal because if anybody had food he'd be gone He would do this thing where he would sit next to you all of a sudden He would just throw himself back and he would just be like on his back as if he was like sitting And he would just be putting his weight against you and he would very rarely do that with me But he would do it all the time with Whitney mine and his relationship was an odd one I think he always saw me as this little brother that need to be kept in check You know whenever to be like, oh, you were are you gonna do anything stupid today a girl of me? Can I trust you today? I knew in his his his own way the same way I I had for him But we loved each other. He led a good life. He went on a lot of walks Anywhere where we could take him we would take him. He had beds all around the house for a long time He now he didn't sleep in a crate. He would he would just put himself to bed You'd put the blanket over him better. Well, you'd say that if you were up after you put him to bed And he heard you would you believe gay bark? Of course, he's bought you do bark at anything Unfortunately, he did get an ear infection and he went completely deaf.  I'll not bark anymore But it was on his turn. It wasn't that anything we did couldn't be bothered anymore and Whitney always loved to fuss over on she she bought this banana costume this banana split cost and You know what he was completely fine with it. He didn't care He just went out on one Halloween or maybe two Halloween's in a row He would wear that that banana costume and give everybody a laugh who who saw him in it And he honestly didn't he didn't try to get it off or anything I don't know what it was. I may be maybe it was because Whitney put it on him He just put up with it, you know, he was a dog that barked and Whenever it came to food. Oh, he couldn't he couldn't handle it. He was a very well-natured dog He was he never attacked any other dog. He never bit any Anyone but one thing that he did in his life in his 16 years He met a lot of family dogs when he was on the scene There was only one other dog in the family at the time of his death. There was five six new dogs There would always come a point where they would meet Basil and Open to that point the puppies because they were made and they were normally puppies had never barked never barked But they loved Basil Basil never liked dogs or he was never fussed when these puppies these family dogs It was almost like a ritual, you know, they would come to see him and it didn't matter what dog It was there would come a point when it would find Basil really interesting Maybe it was the infection in his ears that smelled nice, but they would always go for his face They really like getting into his face and Basil was just couldn't be bothered.  Stop it and at some point They would bark back. I Don't know what it was about him But he would he would give them their voice You know these these dogs that were completely silent. He gave Roo The Chihuahua who you've seen in the dog Roo-Wah-Wah He gave him his voice It was like if he could pass something on and it was something that Basil was known for It was his barking for a year or two years Basil had started to slow down, you know Dogs do this people do this. He would still go out for his walks, but a lot slower He had a little bit of arthritis. Yeah, he went blind in one eye. So he was deaf He was blind in one eye, but he could still smell and that's that that was the main thing that defined him Was his smelling he'd stopped eating poo or I don't think he'd stopped eating poo He just couldn't see it anymore. So walks became a lot nicer He would be like it's it you'd sniff it like it's here somewhere I don't know where it is and you'd pull them. So I think in the end. He just kind of stopped and you'd eat anything That's the thing it didn't matter what it was He loved to eat and I always said that when he stops eating. That's that's when you know It's coming to an end, you know, I remember I made a video when I was younger Called be beagles don't chew and it was him coming back home from a walk You'd hear him like race in the house like he either you know There's nails clacking on the one floor just because he couldn't move as fast as he wanted to get to the back into the kitchen eat that and There's nothing was left.  He was never a good boy It was a well-natured dog but When you would see Basil you would know that there was more going on with him He wasn't a dog that was he wanted to please you, you know, he was I'll bring that back for the owner Oh, yeah, they'll like that. I'll be a good boy. He would look at you and You could tell there was something going on in that head There was a thought a thought process behind everything when he told me that one time in a lot of time He would just sit next to Whitney and she she would ask him for Paul and he would look at it and be like, you know, I have any food You could tell he was like you don't have anything he would sometimes give it to her It was almost like a pity thing. He'd be like Like you never do enthusiastically you just be like Feel sorry for you. I'll keep you knew exactly what you meant.   He just loved eating so much there.  You just have to get Basil Just let him go when you're straight it clear it up. He should pay for this And about a few days ago He completely stopped eating We didn't know why this was just He just stopped eating and that that was when something was up My mom took him to the vets Checked his heart. His heart was strong. That's what the vet would always say You'd know he sometimes you'd see dog owners come in and the dog would be on the last legs But the owner would be like no, he's gonna he's gonna live till he's 20 yards, you know, and the vet would be like Yeah He wouldn't say it but he wouldn't know the dog wouldn't have long He would say that every time he'd see Basil he was strong reason why he was probably not eating was because he had an infection So he jabbed him with three injections and off Basil went but he Stopped eating for about two or three days still the main reason that he went back to the vets was that he'd stopped drinking But I was never it was some weird He would he would lose his balance when he would look at the water and I don't know what it was about it In his old age, he would like sway or his back legs would go, you know And we had like tiled floors in in the in the kitchen He just wouldn't be able to keep his balance like if he was on age go And he would just go until he would hit a wall or somebody would somebody would help him when he stopped drinking That that was that was bad and on on the morning of the 1st of March 2021 I was I was woken up by Whitney And she was just in a state probably wouldn't want me to tell you that If she was crying she was upset and as soon as I saw her There was only one reason that Whitney would get this upset and that it was something to do with basil And I knew that if she was that upset The basil was Either gone or he was about about there and she told me that my mom had taken him to the vets That morning the vet had smelt his breath and he said that he was sorry that he'd missed it the first time But there's a distinct Smell on his breath that indicates kidney failure and there's nothing there's nothing that you can do My mom said that the vet was ready to do it then then in there in the morning, but you know because because of lockdown Um, we hadn't seen basil in a while. We we went over and we we spent The whole day with basil we tried our best, you know how to get him to drink water putting water next to his mouth And even when he was panting one time, I put water in his mouth on his tongue But there wasn't even like a a slurp or anything. It wasn't like a a gulp or you know, he brought his tongue back I think he just he knew he was he was ready to go and he knew it He knew it was time. We stayed there in the front room with him the jaw muscles that You know when I was a kid I remember having a rope pull and I would be spinning around in the garden and him moving him up and down in the air As he clung on Those those jaw muscles were gone.  He had like his final walk With his tail. I don't know what his tail was doing But it was it was helicoptering and spinning and but we we we spent the whole day and in fact At some point it felt like a normal day It you know, we were just sat in the front room. I was doing something.  My mom was on a phone or watching TV and Whitney was looking at a magazine or Whatever And he was just there in his basket sleeping And it just felt normal. It didn't feel like in a couple of hours.  I was sat with my back against the sofa And I put him in between my legs and he was just just sat there This big paws. He was a little dog but he had his big paws He was just such a big fatty I brought him into that house 16 years ago when everyone was out outside the house and Getting into the car getting ready to Take him to the vets. I was like microbiome. He was just flopped out in his bed It's so His head was hanging out of it. I don't know how much he could He could see or definitely couldn't hear But the the eye that could see was the one that was sticking up And I leaned over and I said thank you said you don't deserve it and I picked him up in his bed I took him out that house when I brought him in he was small and full of energy And when I took him out He was old and spent all that energy has been given And we were told the only one person could go in with them quarantine and covet and all that I wanted it to be my mom My mom was the one that I'd really taken care of him once I'd moved out and even when I was there when I live with them, you know, the as a kid I'd say, you know, I take care of them and walk him You know brushes teeth all this stuff, you know a few weeks in I wasn't doing that anymore where my mom did my mom was always at my dad helped out as well a lot But it was my mom my mom was the one that would clear up any mess Any diary or the conservatory should be there clearing it up You know probably almost throwing up herself, but she'd be there clearing it up And I I remember just opening that boot. It was like time slowed down That boot opened so slow. Let's remember the license plate And then it revealed him in his bed exactly the same As he was one, you know, I saw him at home and he was Half hanging out the bed. Sorry.  I probably wouldn't sense of that because that's That's one thing we would say to him all the time every time you deliberately Do things that were bad because he knew he knew he was being bad But he didn't care he did not care as long as he got food He would do it It was one time he um He was in the the back of the conservatory and he was barking to go out So my mum knowing or had biscuits or whatever in the front room went through to let him out And as she went through he went past her to get into the front room He deliberately lured her away So he could get the sandwich or the biscuit or whatever was in the front I said to my dad like he doesn't deserve all these tears.  He was never a good boy He deliberately chose Did if he made the choice He would know who was wrong, but he would do it anyway. He wasn't a good boy He was that boy Always remember him on the beach Looking back Covered in salt water ready to stink up the car with wet dog and salt And you'd look back at you with his tongue out Be like oh we're going We're going forward Where we're going And that was it That was Basel's story I always felt like I would do something for him when he was gone He was always such a character He wasn't just this happy go lucky dog or he wasn't just a grumpy dog He had so much more going on So much more going on in that head Often like sometimes we would just go in the conservatory just sat on a chair For no reason He was just sat there Looking at a computer for like what are you doing? I wish we could have been in the sun That's why he did it But he was always an independent dog as long as he knew where you were and how to get To you He'd do his own thing I remember holding his head On like the last day And there was a part of me that was like oh he's okay I'll I'll I'll go over and you know I'll I'll keep clipped my warhammer out I just knew inside of me that Don't do that Because This you'll never get this back And I thought I had a good littleness I thought I wasn't gonna cry Like I said he doesn't deserve any of these tears And this has probably been a long video But he lived a long long time Live for 16 years I could make this video five hours long and still not tell half the things that he got up to I think some things I I just want to keep to myself I think that's okay YouTube isn't a place where you share your entire life. I don't think or you shouldn't it's not healthy You guys saw a puzzle pop in a video every now and again And you only saw little bits of them and I would always get questions Where was he? How was he doing? I think you deserve to know For for those of you that really want to know what Basel was like And how he affected me and he was always there High school University relationships, you know moving out parents. He was always there This is the part of the video where I say if you've enjoyed the video leave a like But it doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel right. This isn't a let's play video This isn't a dinosaur video. This is Basel's video This is my video for him If anybody's ever had a dog or a pet I think they know that their dog is special If I was to get another beagle tomorrow that I definitely wouldn't they wouldn't be Basel It was just something special about him. I don't know when I'll Um be back to making regular content. I'm sure it'll be sooner than later. Um, I maybe even tomorrow I might I might decide you know what I did it. I did a video for Basel and That's what I needed to do and it's out my system and I'll uh, I'll be back to normal content for today. Anyway, I'm just gonna spend the day Editing this video and getting this up take a day by day. I think I think that's the only the only way to do it Just like Basel did Living in the moment. So I'll see you guys later Bye


Hello DevCon, welcome to my talk, Rekiteer prototype and control ransomware operations. My name is Dimitri Snashkov. I work at Pertivity on Attack and Penetration Testing Team, where I have a chance to do tooling, offensive research and automation. And today we're going to talk about ransomware. Specifically, we're going to talk about simulating the lifecycle of ransomware, injecting into it, understanding it and emulating the steps that need to happen to properly test it. Our talk is going to be split in two phases. The first phase we're going to talk about the problem, construction of a solution from architectural perspective. And then the second part of the talk is going to be the demo where we dive in how the operation happens, what makes the Rekiteer toolkit tick. Let's start. So ransomware is definitely a technical issue. It's implemented in technology. But what fascinates me about ransomware is just such a good business model. It is just an efficient economic exit activity from cyber attack. Imagine that the bar of entry is low on the technical side and tooling is available. And encryption of the files, locking of the files can happen almost immediately once the dropper actually gets onto the box. So you don't really need, as a ransomware deployer, actually go to the second or third tier in the network, on the customer network. You can actually monetize right there and then. Also, all the features that the cost of deploying ransomware is much smaller than a lot of other cyber offensives. And with advent or actually use of crypto monetization activation path is fast. You can actually say that even the attribution is getting much more fragmented than before. And obviously with such business model, there's no wonder that ransomware has grown about 330% year over year growth. So if that's such a good business model, how do we emulate the testing for it? How do we inject into this? And how do we make sure we can actually trace what's going on, understand its capabilities and react to it? Well, traditionally, obviously, we need to contain, we need to keep on with preventative and detection controls because ransomware is just another variation of offensive on your network. You absolutely need to go across teams for disaster recovery drills. You know, do your incident response triage and one more thing is to add external negotiation with ransomware party as part of your tabletop exercises. But so just like everything else, a lot of times you can detect or prevent things, you can actually minimize mean time between failures. And this is what racketeer tooling is attempting to do is essentially trying to emulate the path and the lifecycle of ransomware and allow the teams to kind of get in the middle of that. And the way you do this is obviously you need to know your assets and data that ransomware may target. And you need to perform simulation and feedback. And that simulation feedback is what we're going to talk about. But before we move on, let's just distill the lifecycle of ransomware to three things literally is the persistence where the dropper actually executes the task on the assets be files or anything else. Then there is an extortion capability, which may or may not happen in sequence. You can have offline negotiation, you can have online kind of IOC's popped in that says, hey, you know, you have T minus 48 hours to pay us or else. And then from the ransomware perspective, there is a D stage or decryption capability that has to happen and potentially clean up, right? If you if you care about leaving the network intact, not causing denial of service. And so the objective of racketeer tooling is to refine that process of injecting into this lifecycle to help teams on whatever side of the story, whether it's the tabletop to support the incident response and triage, whether it's providing optics into TTPs and actually do in a collection of indicators of compromise they can, you know, that the teams can learn from. And, you know, obviously play towards the red team side where the objective is to implement the last mile delivery of ransomware in your objectives through your campaigns. Obviously, you know, for us as testing as testers, we have to abide by SLAs and it's good practice to keep the network intact, not denial, do not perform denial of service on it or cause denial of service. And so this is why we're calling our toolkit control prototype of ransomware, right? It's a controlled run where we have precise targets where you have kind of a balance of stealth and openness so you can both showcase the capability but also open it up to defenders to kind of inspect things. So if it is a ransomware simulation, what technical features does it need to have? Well, as we talked about before, we need to be correct and reliable in locking and unlocking assets because we want to make sure that the customer stays up, stays up. You know, real-time encryption versus offline decryption of assets is very useful because there are circumstances in ransomware campaigns where decryption and encryption happens separately or the agent dies and you should be able to bring the assets back into the unencrypted form as much as you can. Obviously, dormancy and activation, dropping the agent on the network does not mean it's going to get active and start encrypting things, right? We have to manage that. And because of that, we have to have flexibility in communications and specifying targets and all that good stuff. So let's just try to build one. What would be the good agent for our purposes? Well, let's just target Windows because it's the most prevalent kind of target for ransomware historically. Obviously, that can be adapted to Linux or go cross-platform. But in this case, we're going to take a look at encrypting local files on Windows and also encrypting remote files on Windows by going, you know, across the network. For example, you can remote into a different box through that agent and kind of do the encryption of assets there. And obviously we need to have control of execution as we mentioned before. The other technical features that we want to have in this agent is lifetime key management and key generation. It has to happen offline as far as generation because of, you know, both stealth and convenience. If you want to have offline capability to decrypt the assets, you should be able to do that. And then we work through policies. We load policies into the agent. The policies have to be flexible. They need to carry profiles with them as far as how you connect to the box, what user idea you're using, how do you shield credentials, all that good stuff. We mentioned offline asset recovery. And because of that, we actually have an operation on the hub and spoke model where a commander accepts the agent and then manages it there. So, you know, from the construction of those features, what else? We have to have communication emulation how ransomware usually interacts, obviously encryption on transmission layer, but also application level message encryption for the agent. That's become very prevalent and we need to be able to kind of inject into that.  It's your PubSub type of deal where you come in, ask for the task, execute it, upload the results and whatnot. So everything is sort of distributed in this way. What else do we need to do? Well, we mentioned the policy, but it also needs to be hot patching. So we need to be able to encrypt the assets, but we also need to be able to back out from the same policy so we don't lose correlation of the keys. Again, real time or remote, whichever the case may be. If we are testing customers and we are soliciting for credentials, if we need to, for example, impersonate a user to go to a remote box on the network, i.e. literally move to it, we want to make sure we put security on credentials. We don't want clear text creds, so we're doing some encryption on that, credential shielding. And then obviously we need to be flexible in how authentication maps happen. If we are going from one domain to another domain, for non-domain to domain, we should be able to employ various profiles for connectivity on the network itself. So that plays to flexible operations. What else? We also want to have mutual authentication between a C2 or commander, if you will, and the agent so that the agent knows who their C2 is at the time of deployment and creation. And also C2 wants to accept only the agents that it knows about. And so that kind of plays into the delivery options and how agents get triggered. Sometimes you hard-code the policy into the agent to, let's say, get moving on air gap network without C2 interaction where you can have an agent on the network and kind of start encrypting things right away without accepting tasks from C2. Or you can go the old route where you dormant until activated, right? Some notes on stealth versus transparency. One of the problems in ransomware is not knowing what's going on once agents are deployed. So we want to make sure we know at all times what's going on. So we run logs on the agent, but those logs are in memory and we're able to retrieve and kind of introspect, get some optics into what's going on. And then obviously, one of the interesting features or needed features in our testing is to be able to kind of clean up after ourselves, killing the agent, popping up notifications that has been killed, or whatever the case may be, removing the threat from the network on their own. So we've talked a lot about the policy. And so the policy is what ties everything together, right? You have flexible connectivity to C2s. You have profiles on connectivity. You've got authentication maps that match credential triplets to hosts that they go to on a domain or not. You also have flexibility on key generation and whether you're encrypting assets with one key per host or you can have flexibility where you have separate keys for each file or mix thereof. You know, you can have situations where you can kind of tier the priority on file. So if one keys are covered, the other one stays kind of encrypted as well. So this brings us to a demo where we can talk about specifics of deployment and operations of Rekiteer toolkit. And we'll come back to discuss other things later. Let's take a look at the operations of Rekiteer. Here we have four windows. There's a C2. There is a utility box that helps manage encryption and master keys, site IDs, as well as decrypt encrypted files offline. And on top there are two windows that represent simulated attack network. There is a non-domain join machine and there is a domain join machine. And so our task for Rekiteer is to go out and use the agent that gets deployed on the non-domain machine to manage, i.e. encrypt the assets on it and then pivot over to the domain box and do exactly that on the other side. So before we talk about the execution of it, we'll like to take a look at the policy file. So the policy file, as we've discussed, is the one that ties the tasks, communication, encryption keys and authentication profiles for the agent as seen by the operator from the outside. And there are multiple sections to it. There's connectivity section with various profiles and security of communications. There is a REST profile and endpoints that needs to talk to. There are keys such as master key and identifier of the site for the agent. And there are also a series of authentication profiles that take the triplets, username, password and domain, or operate on a local asset. And then there is an array of hosts and files that file connector or the agent is able to operate on mixing and matching host keys with file keys. You can repeat these sections as many times as you would like to. This is very contained operations. And so in order for us to task the agent with execution, first we need to start the agent on the remote box. It starts up and we can see that it's running under PID 1940. Then what we can do, we can activate it. Right now it's an appending state. Let's activate the agent. And what we're going to do is we're going to accept the agent to be a part of our communication, which means that we only accept the agents that are the ones that we know about. Then what we can do is we can authenticate the agent to the C2 and the C2 to the agent by specifying the master key you've created before. And so we can send the master key to the agent at which point it will know that it's talking to the C2 that it knows about and has been kind of paired up with. And then what we can do, we can actually do send the policy, which we've specified before. This policy is going to encrypt the assets across the board. It will take a while for it to respond, usually within the profile that you've specified, 5 to 10 seconds or more. And as you can see, the agent actually operates on the assets locally and then goes out using the authentication profile to the domain and encrypting the assets on the other side. And as you can see, those assets are encrypted as we're going to see in the moment they are locked and the customer is kind of forced to operate under those conditions. And the same thing happens here. But the other thing that we need to be able to do if we're not ready to decrypt offline is we're actually reversing the policy. And the reverse of the policy is just a matter of specifying the operations type, flip a bit on encryption and decryption. And so what we're going to do, we're going to flip that policy back into decryption mode. Same thing, PollExec file, decryption, the same keys that you specified, or you can do one by one, decrypt one file, all the files, none of the files. This should work. And once it's decrypting the file, we will be able to see the content as it was there before. And essentially everything should be back to normal. One other thing that I would like to mention is the execution profile in the memory. So we can get the logs on the logs, which means that it will increase the verbosity of the agent and we can do logs get on it. And we'll be able to see what it's doing there. And obviously, to align with our directives of working with perhaps triage teams, what we can do, we can kick off a tabletop exercising by popping up a notification message on the agent or on the host where the agent resides. That basically says, I am here, why don't you start taking care of what I'm doing here. And we can do this with unhiding console message, which will basically lock the box, show the notification, and then the triage process happens. Obviously, less but not least is that we can agent self terminate to clean up after ourselves. This will destage the agent and the box will be clean with all the assets intact. Or the variation on the theme is when agents are locked and the files are locked and the agent is no longer in memory. So how do you recover your assets as you talk to the ransomware team and ransomware team by using the utilities in the utility box are able to use the keys that they've specified in the policy to decrypt files one by one or all. This is Racketeer Toolkit. Okay, we're back. So what can we do to, what does it tell us? It tells us that we are able to kind of simulate the life cycle of controlled ransomware, right? We are able to maintain SLA and uptime on the network, try to deliver the last mile monetization module for the teams that need it, and kind of plug in into the response process, either to support it or kick it off. And also learn more about the ransomware and how, you know, the deficiencies are and the capacity of it is. For defenders, I think it's safe to say that let's not signature this tool but do pay attention to behaviors because artifacts may be minimal because it's all in memory, right? But TTPs still exist, the lateral movement, the sequential encryption of the files. So all of that is still present. So the bottom line is that IOCs are tied to implementation and the agent has been deliberately weakened to showcase the kind of the injection points and analysis points. And obviously, instrument your environments where you correlate operational performance and security messages. And with that, I want to thank everybody who's listened, looked at the demo, watched the demo rather. Here's the link to open source code for the Reketeer. Thank you very much.


Okay, hi, hello, I'm Lydia and today we're doing a live stream. I thought I could sit and do a video. But why not connect with you guys? Let's wait for some people to join me on dreams. I turned purple, so now I have with anyone been a dream. I keep getting notifications. I haven't used my phone for this. Should we put my phone on challenge? Sorry that my top is so low, but I'm gonna join you. If you hear those cats that start talking in the chat, I can't do a stream alone. So, I've been thinking again about YouTube a lot recently, and why I want my channel to go. And I still want to put that into house. There we are. Let's start this off properly. Hey what's up you guys, welcome back to my channel. If you're new here, hi, hello, hit the subscribe button, and of course I get end of a notification and can't see anything from my phone screen. I was trying to use my laptop for this, but it wouldn't work. So, I'm gonna do that on my phone instead. Can you guys hear me okay? I'm glad you can hear me. As of who I'm doing, I just don't like the heat, so I'm hibernating. I'm hoping it'll go away. Are you enjoying the weather? No. It's too hot. Too hot for me. Because of the lithium, I burn really easily. Anyway, but the lithium makes it worse. I've hardly been outside at all, and I'm red. I'm tired of my darling, I think. What have you got to be used to then? Yeah, not a chance to happen. I'm inside in the way of the wind lines called. It's something like, outside it's so hot, and I live in a coastal town. It's really busy at the beach, yeah. I just do it, I open them, and it's just really hot. I wouldn't even want to try and go in the tube. I was like, don't mess with me, though. I'm a big squish mellow. The pump on me is. I don't. I don't hear you at Mondays or anything like that. Okay, how many squish mellows do I have? I don't know. I've got one, two, three, four, five. Five on the bed. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. I've got 32 squish mellows. Oh no, they're like, 33, 34. 34. Direction. That has to be over there. I couldn't look to them all while I was in hospital. It was so funny trying to go to the mall when I was discharged. It's me and the health care system would carry these squish mellows out. You could fit them in the car. I really want a chipper to touch my eye, but they don't do the only thing you can. And stop the nerve. You can only get the only thing you can do for those of me now. But my chipper died long ago, so I already want one. That's on the sandal. Yes, I already had. When I went in, I had a half sheet of paper and items left with everything in this room, which is quite a lot. I still want two boxes, two on pop and sweets. This is my favorite squish mellow. It sucks that the UK isn't part of the main distribution for squish mellows. But the US have got so many shops that sell them. The UK have them. Claire sold them, but they're quite expensive there. I've got two from Claire's. I just think it'd be better if we had a part of the distribution lying for them. So we're not searching all over the place for them. Two today to cool them down. You need to clean your head there as it doesn't mess over time. She gets baby food. So how's everyone doing? I'm trying to get comfy when it's this hot. It just isn't easy. Does this work? I'm so getting one when I get my pip and payment. I'm broke until then. I'm so getting one. It's too hot. What am I currently on? I don't know. Men's. I'm on Volteoxa team. 20mg. Lithium, 800mg. Hella Peridot, 10mg. Penantopam, 1mg and 10mg. Amitri from the year 20mg. Desigestral, 25mg. It's up to level 5mg. Balsulfate, I don't know the dose. Only I'm home. I live in a mental health care home. I've been out of hospital since the 6th of May. Okay. Part from the heat. Other stuff like Peridot. They're nice. They're really nice. I get on a lot of them. I hope that I get a solid warrior.  I've got some of the standard ones. I think this is music. It sounds like I love a young music. Yeah, it's still hot here. The sound of pop lights. I'm pretending that I'm trying to stream my vibes because I'm literally falling asleep. But I hope you're all okay. Thank you for dreaming me.


After starting the season five two and one the BSU men's hockey team is on a three game slide and the schedule doesn't offer them any favors as third ranked Minnesota State comes to town. Last weekend after playing top ranked St. Cloud State close on Friday the Beavers fell apart on Saturday giving up seven goals in their loss. We played 10 games so far and Saturday was probably the only game right now that when the game was over I was disappointed. I was disappointed because a lot of the issues on Saturday were self-inflicted. I always tell our guys you control how hard you work and how smart you work well we didn't work very smart and when you don't work very smart and you're playing catch-up hockey other parts of your game also falter. It's the type of performance that a team has to learn from then completely forget. We kind of just have to kind of wash out wash that game out out of our brains and kind of just get ready this week. Minnesota State was the preseason WCHA favorites and have lived up to the hype starting the year nine and one. They play a heavy game they play a strong game they're good below the tops of the circles they can you know they can score on the rush. It's a battle of contrasting styles as the Beavers top 10 defense will be tested by the Mavericks second-ranked offense scoring four and a half goals per game. It's the same as every week we're just focusing on the things we do that make us successful and we're gonna try to keep keep doing those things. They're obviously a really skilled and high offense team so we just got to do the best we can to you know play our game and and go from there. We know if we play well we can beat anybody but we know if we obviously play sloppy like we did Saturday night you know we're not gonna win many games. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.


Baby you can wear my hat If you got something I'm gonna match I can give my damn kicks Some of that thing Spam around with lemon Yes, that's a word What's up? I can drag what he played inside the foodie slicer Yeah, and just tweak it just a tad. You know what I'm saying?


Coffee in hand so we're set nice and pretty ready for the week Okay, let's get going Stretches up. What year is it? We're on the south perimeter headed westbound now, and there was a car behind me that just about Ran into another car.  It's hard to explain it I don't know, but he almost caused a big accident and now up here. I think there was another accident Traffic is all confused and messed up though. Oh, yeah, there was an accident here. What's going on? So I just about witnessed an accident literally a mile behind me and now up here. There's another accident People are too aggressive. They're too much in a hurry need to slow down. I hope everybody's okay here Yikes, they're looking real close at that because they almost caused another one just like it a Mile before that. That's a terrible way to start the week It's not really the start of the week is Tuesday But terrible way to start the day I should say Man if you're watching my video right now, and you're about to head to work Look at the clock. Maybe leave five minutes earlier and just Take her a little easier today do it for me place Do it for all the other the other drivers on the highway just leave a little earlier and You know if you get stuck behind someone going a little slower than you'd like to go Just take a deep breath and back off of their bumper. Don't tailgate and just Remember we're getting there. You'll get there You'll get there trailer behind us. I got ahead to a city called Portage La Prairie It's central South Manitoba. There's a trailer there that needs to be moved to Winnipeg And for the job get back over here to Winnipeg. We're going around the south side of Winnipeg right now Just about witnessed a third accident on the same structure highway within three miles Destruction tractor who decided to be right on the highway They do that in Winnipeg and I'm pretty sure some was telling them to do that because they all do that and it's so frustrating You know, there's a giant paved shoulder here, right giant paved shoulder And they do about 30 mile now, not even 30 mile now, they've got 20 miles an hour And instead of traveling on the shoulder to allow rush hour traffic to at least still be able to move at somewhat of a pace They travel right dead set in the middle of the lane and the traffic obviously didn't see it coming And there's just about a big another big pile up And that's exactly the reason I say these things when these tractors moving at 20 mile an hour on the middle Of a freeway. This is Winnipeg's like one big highway One big highway. It's the trans-Canada highway and you get tractors In the lane doing 20 miles an hour So that was quite the interesting drive into portage this morning So far Okay, bud. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Give give give I'm not gonna stop and impede traffic for you. I'm sorry. I was just gonna say that people are acting better Oh boy So aside from all of these shenanigans on the road, I mean, it's nothing really you can't expect when you're on the highway you just got to look out for Crazy people and you know what it's not fair to call them crazy either. They're just scared a lot of the time or Inexperienced When you're driving on the roads experience goes a long way so whether you're a new driver or just Fearful on the road. It's Sometimes tough to get around I'm sure Not everybody drives for a living like I do. You know, I've I'm getting very close to my million miles Here at this place, but if you include all my personal kilometers and miles as well Oh, I've been driving. Well, I've been driving since I was 16. I'm 33 now What is that? This I can't math 17 years. I've been driving a long time. I'm a trucker. Not a mathematician. What? so I've probably Looked in quite a few more kilometers because in my free time. I Also go driving because that's what I enjoy doing. So even when I'm not working and driving I'm usually you know, I've gone on a few trips to California on my own. I went to Florida on my own went down to Alabama With Brit for our honeymoon there. That was a lot of fun We want to take another trip out soon to Virginia and to Washington State or to that general area see our friends So I get a lot of experience in and I'm not saying I'm perfect But experience goes a long way when driving safely down the road You just sort of know what to expect because you've seen it a thousand times before already You know when someone pulls a crazy move in front in front of you, you're not really surprised by you're like Oh, yeah, I saw that coming. I've seen that a thousand times But I'm Bob tailing again here now. I had to pull a tanker Back to Winnipeg here dropped it off here in the southwest corner now I got a Bob tail across Winnipeg and pick up an empty van trailer like a box trailer and Bring it back to the yard Ricky I have my trailer It's an empty one, I guess they're not gonna load this one I don't know why I just do what I'm told but I'm all hooked up the air is to the trailer I'm just gonna come back here. Make sure there's no air leak. So we're gonna crawl underneath here me and all 105,000 of you Crawling underneath the trailer together. Good thing. We're all able to fit Actually all these airlines look pretty new I could tell there's a new connection over there I don't know if you can see it or not Camera doesn't show everything but Yeah, we got no air leaks airbags are inflated Looks like we're all good Tires are filled with compressed air, which is the best kind of air for inside a tire We're just gonna go through for a walk through the weeds here I guess once again very thankful that I live in Canada in Manitoba where I can walk through grass like this and not Have to worry about poisonous creatures waiting to kill me There's nothing like that up here because it gets so cold they all die Every winter nothing poisonous can live up here. I mean Not much So yeah, there's our trailer She's got tires. She's got rims. She's got walls and a roof She's got lights. She's looking pretty I'm gonna take her back home with me Well, not to my home, but to that trucks home I'm gonna take you home with me. I Don't know why they don't want it here. I'm sorry that they don't want you here. I want you. I Want you I'll take care of you. Hey, it's a little bit full in here. I don't have diesel here with me today So I got all my junk right up here. That's okay Gatorade Absolutely, y'all want some Gatorade? All right, everybody drink up. That's good. That's really good. Did I finish my lunch already? That's disappointing no more snacks Guess I don't need any more snacks. I'm big enough already as it is All right, oh, let's pull this out of here That's a first. Let's make sure it's not gonna fall off That would be embarrassing So far I have never lost a trailer And I want to keep this streak going all breaks released to perfect Wunderbar Let's go this way.  You're literally gonna bust your truck right open They always unload right here in the driveway. You gotta go past real slow These are curtain side trailers We have kind of stoga trailers we call them roll tights, but at the beginning I was calling them I was calling them curtain side, but these are actual curtain side trailers They have a hard top hard front and back And a hard bottom obviously just curtain sides just like that and they slide open and this one's still closed See we don't have any trailers like that And they have hard doors on the back Just like a regular van trailer like that one over there.  Don't go too fast. There's still potholes Still potholes Getting a Harborview. I think Harborview Park. It's a big park out here on the east side of Winnipeg What does that sign say? Barbie parochies. Oh, they're selling parochies there. You don't say Everybody wants some parochies. They're on Springfield Road roads that needs to be Smoothed out a little bit, but it's okay. We're Winnipeggers. We're used to it. It's okay That's why we wear our seatbelts in Winnipeg. So that the potholes Don't throw us right out the window You also it's also a good idea to drive with your windows up. You don't want to fall out What's the message of today's video big Frank? I Don't know I'm tired. Yeah, I know You're retired You don't got to think of these things anymore, right? See this is his little work that he's got on the back of his head It's pretty ugly. It doesn't cause him any pain unless if you Touch it. I'm not too sure what to do, but yeah, but the vet is Not been too concerned about it. It's just a growth and he's such an old guy already that Well, just part of who he is Since I've been on this Monday to Friday gig and commuting into work in the mornings and back home in the Afternoons, I've really noticed especially in the mornings that the people a lot of people on the road are Like children behind the wheel in the morning I don't know if it's because they haven't had their coffee yet Or if they always leave late and they're always in a rush Or if they just don't care Or if they're just grumpy for no reason But I find that at least on my commute from Steinback into You'll the Shane area like down 52 up to 59 every morning Every morning I have someone just riding my tail and I'm not going slow either I'm keeping up with traffic, but there's always those few in there that feel the need to go Faster than everybody they want to be at the front of the pack because they'll make these dangerous passes Just barely enough sometimes you even got to like hit the shoulders that they don't hit the oncoming traffic as they're coming Past you on the Tulane Highway.   They just wanted to be in front of you They're not in any hurry and then there's the people who like just speed down They're like passing 10 cars at a time and weaving in and out of traffic I've witnessed so many almost almost head-on collisions from people like this on my commute on the way into the city It's just and Every day I can say every day I'm not even exaggerating because it would be easier to tell you about a day when I wasn't being tailgated Every day within like three feet of my bumper If it doesn't happen one day, it's amazing because it's so rare when it doesn't happen Everybody in the morning is tailgating speeding trying to there's always those people I shouldn't say everybody, but you know what I mean, and it's so frustrating for me Because they get in front of the traffic. What did you save? 20 seconds, maybe 20 seconds, so you put all of our lives in danger and Your own and sometimes a lot of the times these people got kids in the back seats So they're bringing them to daycare or wherever they're on their way to on the way to school or taking you got kids in The backseat of your car and you're driving like a maniac in your minivan For what 20 seconds to save 20 seconds on your commute.  Never I've never once seen them patrolling highway 59 and I'm hoping that some of them are watching this video right now now. They're actually gonna go out and patrol I'm hoping I can have that positive influence on everyone else's commute as well because the majority of us out there We just want to get to work in a safe manner. We don't want to speed We don't want to be tailgated. We don't want to tailgate you We just want to get to work But there's there's this group of people that are just always ruining it for everybody else And isn't that the story of everything these days? There's always those few people out there that just ruin it for everybody else They've always got an attitude They're always more important than you if you if you dare try to tell them that they're in the wrong They freak out their children. They're grown toddlers.  All right when you leave for work tomorrow Give yourself an extra 10 minutes five minutes 15 minutes.  What's it gonna hurt 15 minutes? Just leave a little bit earlier Don't be in a rush if you find yourself tailgating somebody sometimes You don't realize it.  Hey, who cares? Patience Patience, right? Remember me remember my voice when you feel like you have to get past somebody on the two lanes Just trucker Josh said patience, you know, I left an extra 10 minutes early today. It's okay if I get there 30 seconds later It's not a big deal Maybe together we can sort of change people's behavior and patterns because I don't know if these people don't realize The way they're acting is irresponsible or if they just don't care But let's just make sure that me and you were not those people That's my message. That's my rant. I have nothing else to really say to you today right now I'm sorry the video was a little bit short But uh, this is one of those days a lot of running around a lot of getting stuff done. We'll see you again tomorrow though Diesel you want to go to work tomorrow with me? He might stay at home and just relax. We'll see how he feels in the morning. Have a good one


There we are. Hello, everyone. Thank you very much for attending this research questions workshop. My name is Dr. Jules Kazmaier and my co-leader today, Nigel. We've both run workshops on research cycles and developing research questions in the past, so we thought we would join forces and present you a combined effort, hopefully that will make sense to everyone as we move through. And now I'm going to pass it off to Nigel who will walk you through the table of contents and he will start the content of the session. Okay. Hi everybody. So just to preliminary think about what the workshop is and what we think you're going to achieve. This is not trying to replace the relationship you have with your supervisor in discussing what you're studying in refining your research questions. It's just a kind of kickstart of a 10, I suppose. And we're going to introduce ourselves and how we make research questions. We do this slightly differently, so it's been an interesting exercise thinking about that. And we decided we would each present our different methods. I'm then going to go on and talk about the research cycle, some types of questions and some examples. And then we're going to move into a breakout session. In that breakout session, Jules will tell you more about that. We're going to use a tool called the Myro board and we selected up to six of the questions. So we will need to check if you submitted a question and it's on the board. So we know that you're there. So we will run the breakouts that people have sent into us. And then we'll kind of wrap up after that session. So that's the structure of the day. As Jules said earlier, if you have a question as we're going through, then pop it in the Q&A and we'll try and pick it up at an appropriate point. So here we go. Here's me first, I think. So I generally start with a substantive set of interests and most of my research is around housing race and migration. And just thinking about how you start, I suggest you think about first of all, what's the focus of your research? Who your research subjects are and any theoretical or policy frameworks that are applicable to the research you're going to do and then broadly follow the research cycle, which I'll cover in more detail in a little bit of time and over to Jules. That's right. It's me again. I want to give you a very brief walkthrough of my sort of academic experience. I started in linguistics and then I moved to philosophy, psychology and language and then to complex adaptive systems, which was technically at an engineering university. And now I do computational social science with the UK data service. That means I use computationally intensive methods to address new social science research questions that we could never address without the use of computationally intensive methods or to address old science, social science research questions, but in new ways that are enabled by the computationally intensive methods. And I don't have the same research cycle as Nigel will introduce next because my academic experience here, although it's very social science oriented being about linguistics and psychology and philosophy. Because of the computational methods, I'm much more quantitative focused, much more empirical research focused. And so I have an eight step research cycle, the first three of which are relevant to developing research questions, which is identify the problem to solve, explore the problem and formalize the concepts. So you kind of loop through these first three a couple of times. By the time you move on to four, five, six and so on, you probably have a pretty firm research question. So we can talk about the other a little bit more later on. But for now, I have another meant to meet our interaction for everyone. What topics are you working on? It's important to know that there is no correct answer here. You are working on the right things for you, I have to assume. But we are interested to know just broadly just a couple of words, maybe a couple of big themes or a couple of focus words. Like what's in general, what kind of topics are you on? Let's see. Oh, do I have to start? I don't know. Let's enter to start quiz. Okay. This is a new thing. I have set up this meant meter in a strange way that is giving us 30 seconds to enter the answers. For some reason has done this as a competitive quiz instead of just showing the answers. I have no idea what happened. Apologies. But it looks like five people, six events, eight. Good. So you are answering and they will show us the answers presumably when the timer runs out. Again, apologies for this. It would have been nice if it had just showed us the answers collectively as they were entered. Okay. So we've got some good ones here. Loneliness, gender equality, haptic tech, doctoral education, orangutan behavior. That's amazing. Business support policy, education, mental health nursing, sexuality and disability. Great. Some great broad themes. A couple that overlap in a few ways, but it's also a very diverse sort of set. So hopefully we can come together well enough in the breakout room section that we can give new perspective on each other's questions and that's a really beneficial outlet. So moving on to the next section, I will pass it back to Nigel because he's going to go through his research cycle. Okay. So this might be a bit more familiar to some of you, but I suppose I'm a traditional socialist scientist and that what I start with is kind of what we know already. So looking at the literature at the moment, I'm trying to get to grips with housing and racial capitalism. So I'm looking at theoretical concepts, empirical studies, not so much a policy because it's more contributing to a kind of way we think about it. I'm thinking about research questions. So what do we want to know? Where are the gaps? And the cycle goes around to where's the data? What methods am I going to use? How am I going to marginalize the evidence and how am I going to report them? But on each of those subsequent steps, we push back and this would be much more complicated. I was talking about the whole research cycle, but for example, I've got a research question. I go and find the data and it doesn't quite match what I want to find out. So what do I do? Well, I can go back and refine the research question or think about it again, maybe come back and think about different sources of data, maybe moving to primary data collection, as opposed to secondary data. Once I start to look at that data and develop the evidence, again, I might return to the research questions. And similarly with reporting, I might find gaps in what I'm finding. So go back to the research question. So this is quite an iterative process. That's probably why we spend three years doing a PhD or the best part of six months doing a master's dissertation and why those of us working in research will spend quite a lot of time here. I suppose as you get more experienced, the theoretical basis and the empirical studies start to become part of what we know. So this may be the first part shorted down, but the rest of it identify new knowledge and then thinking about how to gather that is continuous. And to talk about methods just a little bit. A lot of people who completed the information were talking about primary data collection. It's worth saying the UK data services is predominantly a space for secondary data, survey data and qualitative data. In terms of methods, probably most of our experience is qualitative, quantitative, though we do have people with qualitative experience and also mixed methods. So personally, I've got experience in mixed methods using a range of different qualitative methods as well as constituted ones. We could move on. And here's a kind of thinking about the process of describing things and then moving into action. And I've used two examples here. The first one is the evidence for equality national survey, which was developed and carried out by the central dynamics of ethnicity based on a number of universities but quite a strong presence in Manchester. And they set out to ask this set of questions. So what would a racial justice society look like? How close is Britain to being a racial justice society and has the COVID-19 pandemic taken Britain further away from racial justice and ethnic inequality. So quite a broad set of questions they produced an ebook which is free or you can buy it if you want to. Covering a whole set of areas of people's lives. So experiences of racism is probably the headline message that wasn't really there in lots of the survey data. So there's quite detailed discussion of people's experiences of racism in Britain in different types of settings. If we move on from there, this is a kind of, sorry, back to the last slide. The way Manchester then as a council decided to take forward their own understanding was to get a better understanding of their community based on a series of activities. But someone using the census to understand the demographics of the population, someone talking, engaging, working with voluntary sector partners, et cetera. And what they wanted to do with that was to take that understanding that they gain to support making better places where people get on better and treat each other with respect and consideration. And that's a kind of part of their desire to commission services that meet the needs of everyone. So if you move on from there. This is a paper I was involved in called slippery discrimination and here we used a range of different methods to think about housing disadvantages faced by migrants and ethnic minorities. I suppose the headline message is in the title slippery discrimination that discrimination operates, not on a rational basis, but on a kind of quite slippery basis. So we did some work to identify the legal policy and market forces that shape housing disadvantage, how they've changed over time, how they're manifested nationally and locally, and how they're responded to locally. And the aim of the paper was to push the housing studies agenda towards more research and policy to engage with local actors and develop ways of overcoming migrant housing disadvantage and child discrimination. So the three methods we use was historical policy analysis, statistical analysis, central micro data and a facilitated workshop with key stakeholders. So if we move on, I'll just give an example of the output that came from trying to understand the migration and legal changes over time. So along the top line, we mapped all of the immigration legislation that has been enacted in the UK up to about 2015, I think, because this article was produced in 2016. We then looked at citizenship. At the bottom we looked at housing changes. Now housing policy changes very often, so we just picked out key points from there. And then in the middle, we modeled net migration over those years and key other pieces of legislation. So the various race relations act, the creation of the Commission for Race Equality and Equality in Human Rights, the commitment to provide adequate housing under the UN covenant on social and economic responsibilities. And then we also included some patterns of migration that were experienced in Britain over time. It was quite a complex start, but what it gave us was three frames of time. So the first frame was where we had kind of relatively open borders, people could come, say, work and go and so on. We then moved on to external border controls with immigration acts and so on that that curtailed the rights of people to enter the country. And in the last phase, we look, we see internal borders. So if you work in a university, you will see the internal border operating probably somewhere in your building. Every so often I go downstairs and see it and there are cure students waiting to get their visa sign. That's the same is true in health. The same is true in housing, in access to public services and making a bank account. So there are a whole set of internal border controls that make it more and more difficult for people whose legal status changes for whatever reason. Okay, on to the next one. And then the last one I'm going to talk about is thinking about policy. So I don't work with the race equality foundation over time. And what they were interested in was thinking about housing for black and minority ethnic older people. And the first thing we did was forecast. So we looked at the demographic profile of the larger ethnic groups who are likely to contribute to the growth of the population. We identified housing deprivation of those groups by age and explore the factors that contributed to higher levels of housing deprivation experienced by some groups. And looked at the usage of care and residential homes and discuss the geographical concentrations of ethnic groups which are quite different from concentrations of older people. So typically if you look at a map which we'll look at in a minute, when you look at older people generally the move into suburbia or to the coast is quite a common pattern with retirement. So when you look at older ethnic minority groups they tend to be more concentrated in cities, but probably for reasons of kind of family kinship and cultural ties. So here we want to the next one some of the output will. Sorry, I didn't put the end so you won't see it. So other types of research. There's a classic statistical research where we start with empirical evidence. We set a hypothesis and a null hypothesis and we set about proving that using statistical methods. There's more trying to look at causal relationships that tends to use longitudinal data and looks at precursors of particular events or conditions or and so on or potentially looking at treatments and outcomes of those treatments. So what I've shown you is not an exhaustive list. It reflects my experience and looking at the things that people have submitted a lot of you are coming from quite different places. So if we move on to the next one. Got another quiz. Inexplicably it's decided to make these quizzes. I wanted just a free text entry, but this time tell us what methods you're using or planning to use. This doesn't necessarily to be about the same research question, but just what what methods do you use in general or hope to use. All right, so we'll get a count down here. Everyone gets max points. So that's encouraging. So we'll get a count down. Just wanted to say I forgot to mention earlier when I introduced my eight step cycle that if you do empirical or computationally intensive or very quantitative driven research, you might consider the becoming a computational social science workshop that we run twice a year through the UK data service in which the eight step process that I outlined briefly. We go through it in detail. So if that's interesting to you, there is ways to know more. Okay, we've got mixed methods, qualitative methods, interviews, document analysis, instrumental qualitative case studies, arts based methods such as drawing. That's interesting. I don't know that I've ever worked with that one. Sensory, ethnography, interviews, focus group discussions. Looks like there might be one that's off screen for some reason and I can't quite see it. All right, so we've got a few different options here. I can't say that I'm surprised that no one's put computationally intensive methods. It's a growing field, but so far it's fairly small. So moving on, now we're going to talk, this is me for the most part, although please do feel free to chime in if you have something to say Nigel about how to really turn what you have so far into a research question. Because as Nigel has explained so far, most of us start with an idea of what we want to know more about or there's a problem or a pattern we see in the society that we want to explore further. And you do then some literature research or some finding out what other people have done or things like that, maybe get a sense of what data is available, what methods you might want to use, and you start bringing all those together into a research question. But probably that will not be very well structured as a research question. So what you want to do is turn that initial maybe fuzzy kind of research question into something that is clear, focused and concise. These are the three things that I think are requirements for a good research question. So clear means using straightforward grammar, language appropriate for your audience, a sensible question. Focused means that it matches the time, resources and data to which the researcher has access. And concise means it's expressed in the fewest words needed. Now that's fewest words needed, not fewest words possible. I'll go through some more detailed explorations of each of these. So clear. For example, if someone started with an initial research question like how should social networking sites address the harm they cause. I would respond to say this question doesn't specify what type of social networking sites doesn't specify the harm at all or who is harmed. And it does ask your audience to trust that there is harm already, which is a bit ambiguous. It leaves a lot of room for interpretation. It's not the clearest way that this research might go about creating a research question. So I suggest something more specific like what actions should Facebook take to prevent vulnerable users from exposure to extremist propaganda. That is a clearer research question than the original. So we can move on to focused unless you want to say something about clear clarity Nigel. No, it's good. It's clear enough.  While a very interesting question. This is not focused. It's just very, very broad. So what is, you know, it doesn't specify the effect. So what is being measured or how or what even is being studied. What do you define as an innovation doesn't measure doesn't specify the scope. So the space and time boundaries to consider. Are you talking about anti climate change innovations around the world for all of history or just in the UK in the last 20 years. It doesn't mention the details. So what level of observation are we talking about individual units, you know, the heat pumps that I want to install in my house or heat pumps in general, or any kind of greener heating technologies. You know, this is the things to consider about specificity and focus. So a more focused question would be what effect have UK government green grants had on heat pump installations since 2008. Clearly this is more focused. It's the kind of thing you might be able to answer in six months to a year. Whereas the original way that this was phrased, you might struggle to answer that in a career. Concise. This one's a little bit silly. So what measurable difference can be seen in pre and post COVID academic lockdown testing outcomes of human individuals between the ages of 13 and 19 when those individuals are domiciled within the country of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Obviously this is overly academic and the effect of that is it doesn't make it seem more clever or more intellectual. It just makes it hard to follow. So a much more concise version would be what differences can be measured between pre and post COVID student test scores for UK residents 13 to 19. It's the same basic question. It's just in a more concise way. Any comments, Nigel, because otherwise I will just take a poll which people find the hardest. I suppose the one thing to say is this idea is something that's new and original. Yeah. Oh, that's coming up. We've got that next. Okay, I'll say it then. Okay. Okay, it's good. So we find some people are struggling with focus and absolutely that makes a lot of sense. We want to be ambitious. We want to answer big questions. We want to make changes in the world that we're interested in. It's not surprising that a lot of us struggle with focus, but we do have to be realistic about how much we can accomplish in a master's dissertation or a PhD project or a two year postdoc project or something like that. A few people struggle with concise and I understand that as well because there's a lot of academics who like to sound really hoity-toity. I believe it's the technical term for it. They like to sound clever. They like to use big words just for the sake of it, not because it's the right word. So nobody struggles with clear. So I appreciate that. We're all perfectly clear. However, we're wordy and overly ambitious. So here's four more things that I think research questions should have. These I've marked as desirable rather than required and novel. This is the one that Nigel was commenting on there just now. This should address a question or problem that is not yet fully or sufficiently addressed. Now, this could mean you take a well accepted method and a well accepted topic, but apply it to a new population or you maybe slightly change the method and see if you get different answers. Novelty is subjective. Don't feel bad if you're doing something that's very like what someone else has done as long as it is not completely the same or it even could be completely the same if your purpose is to verify the outcome. That's also useful science. This is why this is desirable rather than required. Arguable is just means that you can't answer it with a simple yes, no, a simple repetition of facts. It should be an idea that is interesting and scientifically arguable objective. So you shouldn't rely on good, bad or similar kind of judgment words. So if you want to talk about housing discrimination, for example, you need to say, you know, that people are being overcharged or that people are being put an inferior quality housing stock or these kinds of things that you can measure. The money that people are paying or the damp factors in the house or something like that, rather than just saying good housing, bad housing and appropriate means the question answers match not only the time and your resources for the researcher, but also that the question and the data and the method should all match together.  Likewise, you shouldn't, you know, it shouldn't approach a simple kind of straightforward comparison question with a wide ranging focus group, maybe statistics are the right answer for that. Any comments, Nigel? No, no, I think you picked up the point I was going to make. Yeah. Novelty, it's good to be novel, but it's more important to be appropriate for the research you're doing. So don't don't get hung up on novelty. And of those four that I I've considered desirable rather than essential, maybe you disagree, maybe some of these are absolute must haves for you. And that's fine. So think a little bit about it. Maybe which of these is most important to you? Yeah, see novelty, it's really important to a lot of people. People like their novelty. Arguable, I quite like that one. I think, I think for a good research question, I would agree, I would want to make it arguable. But again, it depends on the research focus, you know, the time you have that's allowable, it might be worth for you to have a very straightforward, simple to answer question that you've answered very well. Less, less love for objective and appropriate. Those are maybe a bit weaselier. Okay. Before we move to breakout, do we have any questions that you want, either myself or Nigel to answer?