CONTEST

Abstract: This paper summarizes the first international challenge on steganalysis called BOSS (an acronym for Break Our Steganographic System). We explain the motivations behind the organization of the contest, its rules together with reasons for them, and the steganographic algorithm developed for the contest. Since the image databases created for the contest significantly influenced the development of the contest, they are described in a great detail. Paper also presents detailed analysis of results submitted to the challenge. One of the main difficulty the participants had to deal with was the discrepancy between training and testing source of images - the so-called cover-source mismatch, which forced the participants to design steganalyzers robust w.r.t. a specific source of images. We also point to other practical issues related to designing steganographic systems and give several suggestions for future contests in steganalysis.

Abstract: Precisely because we are so immersed in it, competition can easily escape our notice. A fish does not reflect on the nature of water, Walker Percy once remarked, "he cannot imagine its absence, so he cannot consider its presence."' Even those who think and write for a living have paid surprisingly little attention to the subject. In the last fifty years, for example, no one has written a book that explores the very idea of competition and the way it plays itself out in all the varied arenas of human life. I do not mean a lament about what has happened to sports today or a recipe for being a winner in business or a statistical operation performed on abstractions that issue from experimental games. These roll off the presses regularly. I mean a took at what it really means to try to beat other people, a careful investigation of this arrangement that requires some people to fail in order that others can succeed.

Abstract: 1. A Nation Awakening. 2. Reasonable Expectations. 3. Legacies. 4. The Institutional and Regulatory Contest. 5. Teachers of Teachers. 6. Becoming a Teacher. 7. Programs for Teachers. 8. An Agenda for Change. 9. Renewal at Northern State University: A Fable. Appendix A: Technical Reports. Appendix B: Commissioned Papers. Appendix C: Occasional Papers. Appendix D: The Center for Educational Renewal.

Abstract: The Internationalization of Palace Wars offers concrete information about the transnational processes that shape our world. It shows how the content of exported ideals is shaped by domestic struggles for power and influence.