The survey on Near Field Communication

PubMed ID: 26057043Near Field Communication (NFC) is an emerging short-range wireless communication technology that offers great and varied promise in services such as payment, ticketing, gaming, crowd sourcing, voting, navigation, and many others. NFC technology enables the integration of services from a wide range of applications into one single smartphone. NFC technology has emerged recently, and consequently not much academic data are available yet, although the number of academic research studies carried out in the past two years has already surpassed the total number of the prior works combined. This paper presents the concept of NFC technology in a holistic approach from different perspectives, including hardware improvement and optimization, communication essentials and standards, applications, secure elements, privacy and security, usability analysis, and ecosystem and business issues. Further research opportunities in terms of the academic and business points of view are also explored and discussed at the end of each section. This comprehensive survey will be a valuable guide for researchers and academicians, as well as for business in the NFC technology and ecosystem.Publisher's Versio

HISTORY URBANISM RESILIENCE VOLUME 02:

The 17th conference (2016, Delft) of the International Planning History Society (IPHS) and its proceedings place presentations from different continents and on varied topics side by side, providing insight into state-of-the art research in the field of planning history and offering a glimpse of new approaches, themes, papers and books to come. VOLUME 02: The Urban Fabri

La contextualisation en entreprise (mettre en avant utilisateurs et développeurs)

Les applications contextuelles doivent gérer un flux contenu de contexte selon une logique approprié. Les travaux de recherche en contextualisation se limitent à proposer des plateformes de développement proposant des mécanismes d adaptation prédéfinie. Cette thèse se propose d étende l état de l art en proposant des nouveaux concepts formant la fondation pour la création d application contextuelles en adoptant des principes de l ingénierie logicielle et une décomposition fonctionnelle. Aussi, cela permet l intégration de comportements contextualisés à des applications non initialement conçus pour cela. La thèse propose une autre manière centrée-contexte permettant de séparer la représentation du contexte de son interprétation, offrant encore plus de flexibilité à la gestion de contexte. Les propositions sont analysées aux lumières d étude de cas et de simulations. Le résultat de la thèse est l introduction de nouvelle approche de création d applications contextuelles qui met en avant le développeur mais aussi l utilisateurContext-aware applications must manage a continuous stream of context according to dedicated business logic. Research was limited on proposing frameworks and platforms that have predefined behavior toward applications. This thesis attempts to extend background works by proposing new concepts serving as foundation for a flexible approach for building context-aware applications. The thesis examines the state of the art of context-aware computing, then adopts well-established software design principles and a functional decomposition for designing a reference model for context management enabling seamless integration of context-awareness into applications. Also, the thesis studies the use of context in common applications and proposes a context-centric modeling approach which allows the creation of a graph-based representation where entities are connected to each other through links representing context. Furthermore, the context graph decouples the presentation and the semantics of context, leaving each application to manage the appropriate semantic for their context data. Case studies are conducted for the evaluation of the proposed system in terms of its support for the creation of applications enhanced with context-awareness. A simulation study is performed to analyze the performance properties of the proposed system. The result of this thesis is the introduction of a novel approach for supporting the creation of context-aware applications that supports the integration of context-awareness to existing applications. It empowers developers as well as users to participate in the creation process, thereby reducing usability issuesEVRY-INT (912282302) / SudocSudocFranceF

μGIM - Microgrid intelligent management system based on a multi-agent approach and the active participation of end-users

[ES] Los sistemas de potencia y energía están cambiando su paradigma tradicional, de sistemas centralizados a sistemas descentralizados. La aparición de redes inteligentes permite la integración de recursos energéticos descentralizados y promueve la gestión inclusiva que involucra a los usuarios finales, impulsada por la gestión del lado de la demanda, la energía transactiva y la respuesta a la demanda. Garantizar la escalabilidad y la estabilidad del servicio proporcionado por la red, en este nuevo paradigma de redes inteligentes, es más difícil porque no hay una única sala de operaciones centralizada donde se tomen todas las decisiones. Para implementar con éxito redes inteligentes, es necesario combinar esfuerzos entre la ingeniería eléctrica y la ingeniería informática. La ingeniería eléctrica debe garantizar el correcto funcionamiento físico de las redes inteligentes y de sus componentes, estableciendo las bases para un adecuado monitoreo, control, gestión, y métodos de operación. La ingeniería informática desempeña un papel importante al proporcionar los modelos y herramientas computacionales adecuados para administrar y operar la red inteligente y sus partes constituyentes, representando adecuadamente a todos los diferentes actores involucrados. Estos modelos deben considerar los objetivos individuales y comunes de los actores que proporcionan las bases para garantizar interacciones competitivas y cooperativas capaces de satisfacer a los actores individuales, así como cumplir con los requisitos comunes con respecto a la sostenibilidad técnica, ambiental y económica del Sistema. La naturaleza distribuida de las redes inteligentes permite, incentiva y beneficia enormemente la participación activa de los usuarios finales, desde actores grandes hasta actores más pequeños, como los consumidores residenciales. Uno de los principales problemas en la planificación y operación de redes eléctricas es la variación de la demanda de energía, que a menudo se duplica más que durante las horas pico en comparación con la demanda fuera de pico. Tradicionalmente, esta variación dio como resultado la construcción de plantas de generación de energía y grandes inversiones en líneas de red y subestaciones. El uso masivo de fuentes de energía renovables implica mayor volatilidad en lo relativo a la generación, lo que hace que sea más difícil equilibrar el consumo y la generación. La participación de los actores de la red inteligente, habilitada por la energía transactiva y la respuesta a la demanda, puede proporcionar flexibilidad en desde el punto de vista de la demanda, facilitando la operación del sistema y haciendo frente a la creciente participación de las energías renovables. En el ámbito de las redes inteligentes, es posible construir y operar redes más pequeñas, llamadas microrredes. Esas son redes geográficamente limitadas con gestión y operación local. Pueden verse como áreas geográficas restringidas para las cuales la red eléctrica generalmente opera físicamente conectada a la red principal, pero también puede operar en modo isla, lo que proporciona independencia de la red principal. Esta investigación de doctorado, realizada bajo el Programa de Doctorado en Ingeniería Informática de la Universidad de Salamanca, aborda el estudio y el análisis de la gestión de microrredes, considerando la participación activa de los usuarios finales y la gestión energética de lascarga eléctrica y los recursos energéticos de los usuarios finales. En este trabajo de investigación se ha analizado el uso de conceptos de ingeniería informática, particularmente del campo de la inteligencia artificial, para apoyar la gestión de las microrredes, proponiendo un sistema de gestión inteligente de microrredes (μGIM) basado en un enfoque de múltiples agentes y en la participación activa de usuarios. Esta solución se compone de tres sistemas que combinan hardware y software: el emulador de virtual a realidad (V2R), el enchufe inteligente de conciencia ambiental de Internet de las cosas (EnAPlug), y la computadora de placa única para energía basada en el agente (S4E) para permitir la gestión del lado de la demanda y la energía transactiva. Estos sistemas fueron concebidos, desarrollados y probados para permitir la validación de metodologías de gestión de microrredes, es decir, para la participación de los usuarios finales y para la optimización inteligente de los recursos. Este documento presenta todos los principales modelos y resultados obtenidos durante esta investigación de doctorado, con respecto a análisis de vanguardia, concepción de sistemas, desarrollo de sistemas, resultados de experimentación y descubrimientos principales. Los sistemas se han evaluado en escenarios reales, desde laboratorios hasta sitios piloto. En total, se han publicado veinte artículos científicos, de los cuales nueve se han hecho en revistas especializadas. Esta investigación de doctorado realizó contribuciones a dos proyectos H2020 (DOMINOES y DREAM-GO), dos proyectos ITEA (M2MGrids y SPEAR), tres proyectos portugueses (SIMOCE, NetEffiCity y AVIGAE) y un proyecto con financiación en cascada H2020 (Eco-Rural -IoT)

Terrorism and counter-terrorism: impact of ambiguous and disputed definitions on fundamental human rights

The role of terrorism in political discourse changed dramatically over the last fifty years, moving from ambiguity to the forefront of public policy and security concern. After the 9/11 attacks, terrorism has earned the news headlines, and has become a global security priority. Governments and the international community have enhanced measures to counter international and transnational terrorism, although there is no universally accepted definition of the term. The lack of an undisputed and legally binding definition of terrorism leaves significant room for free interpretation by policymakers. Governments are given what is essentially a carte blanche to develop programs and counter-terrorism initiatives that may lead, or have already led, to the development of policy that infringes on fundamental human rights. This thesis investigates the connection between terrorism and fundamental human rights. The question that guided this dissertation is the potential consequence of arbitrary and politicallydriven definitions of terrorism over counter-terrorism policy and fundamental human rights. The thesis moves from a historical framing of the concept of terrorism that changes with time. There are many definitions of the term, and there is no common definition with legal value. The current debate on terrorism is linked almost exclusively with non-state actors, which implies that state and terrorism have no linkage, even if there are evidences of these ties. The thesis scrutinizes the instrumentalization of terrorism, starting from an analysis of the concept based on three pillars: historical, theoretical-conceptual and legal (in the light of international law and human rights law). Then an empirical analysis based on these tools through the use of political and legal mechanisms to obtain a political output was conducted. To answer the starting question, the research moved from a historical-documentary analysis, then took into consideration the literature, and focused on how the states use the justification of the fight against international terrorism to restrict fundamental human rights. After the theoretical-conceptual and legal analysis, the research focuses on the legal aspects of the War on Terror and security policies. Large part of the empyrical research is dedicated to scrutinize the case of Turkey after the 2016 coup d'état attempt, to review some rulings of the European Courts, and to examine some prominent 'terrorist' organizations. While this topic presents a serious challenge, it does open much room for possible explorations of new fields of research without necessitating a fixed point of departure – or arrival. The thesis ends suggesting some future research directions.O papel do terrorismo no discurso político mudou drasticamente nos últimos cinquenta anos, passando da ambiguidade para a linha de frente da política pública e das preocupações de segurança. Após os ataques de 11 de setembro, o terrorismo ganhou as manchetes dos jornais e se tornou uma prioridade de segurança global. Os governos e a comunidade internacional aumentaram as medidas para combater o terrorismo internacional e transnacional, embora não haja uma definição universalmente aceita do termo. A falta de uma definição indiscutível e juridicamente vinculativa de terrorismo deixa espaço significativo para a livre interpretação dos decisores políticos. Os governos recebem basicamente o que é uma 'carta branca' para desenvolver programas e iniciativas de combate ao terrorismo que possam levar, ou já conduziram, ao desenvolvimento de políticas que infrinjam os direitos humanos fundamentais. A tese investiga a conexão entre o terrorismo e os direitos humanos fundamentais. A questão que orientou esta dissertação é a conseqüência potencial de definições arbitrárias e politicamente dirigidas do terrorismo sobre a política antiterrorista e os direitos humanos fundamentais. A tese se move a partir de um enquadramento histórico do conceito de terrorismo que muda com o tempo. Existem muitas definições do termo e não há uma com valor legal. O atual debate sobre o terrorismo está ligado quase exclusivamente a atores não estatais, o que implica que o Estado e o terrorismo não têm vínculo, mesmo que haja evidências desta ligação. A tese examina a instrumentalização do terrorismo, a partir de uma análise do conceito baseada em três pilares: histórico, teórico-conceitual e jurídico (à luz do direito internacional e do direito internacional humanitário). Em seguida, è realizada uma análise empírica baseada nessas ferramentas por meio do uso de mecanismos políticos e legais para obter um resultado político. Para responder à questão inicial, a pesquisa partiu de uma análise histórico-documental, depois levou em consideração a literatura e enfocou como os estados usam a justificação da luta contra o terrorismo internacional para restringir os direitos humanos fundamentais. Após a análise teórico-conceitual e jurídica, a pesquisa enfoca os aspectos legais da Guerra ao Terrorismo e das políticas de segurança. Grande parte da pesquisa empírica é dedicada a investigar o caso da Turquia após a tentativa de golpe de Estado de 2016, a rever algumas decisões dos tribunais europeus, e a examinar algumas proeminentes organizações 'terroristas'. Embora este tópico represente um desafio sério, abre muito espaço para possíveis explorações de novos campos de pesquisa sem precisar de um ponto de partida fixo - ou de chegada. A tese termina sugerindo algumas direções futuras de investigação

Communicating Science

Modern science communication has emerged in the twentieth century as a field of study, a body of practice and a profession—and it is a practice with deep historical roots. We have seen the birth of interactive science centres, the first university actions in teaching and conducting research, and a sharp growth in employment of science communicators. This collection charts the emergence of modern science communication across the world. This is the first volume to map investment around the globe in science centres, university courses and research, publications and conferences as well as tell the national stories of science communication. How did it all begin? How has development varied from one country to another? What motivated governments, institutions and people to see science communication as an answer to questions of the social place of science? Communicating Science describes the pathways followed by 39 different countries. All continents and many cultures are represented. For some countries, this is the first time that their science communication story has been told