Exploring Computing Continuum in IoT Systems: Sensing, Communicating and Processing at the Network Edge

As Internet of Things (IoT), originally comprising of only a few simple sensing devices, reaches 34 billion units by the end of 2020, they cannot be defined as merely monitoring sensors anymore. IoT capabilities have been improved in recent years as relatively large internal computation and storage capacity are becoming a commodity. In the early days of IoT, processing and storage were typically performed in cloud. New IoT architectures are able to perform complex tasks directly on-device, thus enabling the concept of an extended computational continuum. Real-time critical scenarios e.g. autonomous vehicles sensing, area surveying or disaster rescue and recovery require all the actors involved to be coordinated and collaborate without human interaction to a common goal, sharing data and resources, even in intermittent networks covered areas. This poses new problems in distributed systems, resource management, device orchestration,as well as data processing. This work proposes a new orchestration and communication framework, namely CContinuum, designed to manage resources in heterogeneous IoT architectures across multiple application scenarios. This work focuses on two key sustainability macroscenarios: (a) environmental sensing and awareness, and (b) electric mobility support. In the first case a mechanism to measure air quality over a long period of time for different applications at global scale (3 continents 4 countries) is introduced. The system has been developed in-house from the sensor design to the mist-computing operations performed by the nodes. In the second scenario, a technique to transmit large amounts of fine-time granularity battery data from a moving vehicle to a control center is proposed jointly with the ability of allocating tasks on demand within the computing continuum

Towards the internet of smart clothing: a review on IoT wearables and garments for creating intelligent connected e-textiles

[Abstract] Technology has become ubiquitous, it is all around us and is becoming part of us. Togetherwith the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm and enabling technologies (e.g., Augmented Reality (AR), Cyber-Physical Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI), blockchain or edge computing), smart wearables and IoT-based garments can potentially have a lot of influence by harmonizing functionality and the delight created by fashion. Thus, smart clothes look for a balance among fashion, engineering, interaction, user experience, cybersecurity, design and science to reinvent technologies that can anticipate needs and desires. Nowadays, the rapid convergence of textile and electronics is enabling the seamless and massive integration of sensors into textiles and the development of conductive yarn. The potential of smart fabrics, which can communicate with smartphones to process biometric information such as heart rate, temperature, breathing, stress, movement, acceleration, or even hormone levels, promises a new era for retail. This article reviews the main requirements for developing smart IoT-enabled garments and shows smart clothing potential impact on business models in the medium-term. Specifically, a global IoT architecture is proposed, the main types and components of smart IoT wearables and garments are presented, their main requirements are analyzed and some of the most recent smart clothing applications are studied. In this way, this article reviews the past and present of smart garments in order to provide guidelines for the future developers of a network where garments will be connected like other IoT objects: the Internet of Smart Clothing.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2016-045Xunta de Galicia; ED341D R2016/012Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Agencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2013-47141-C4-1-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2016-75067-C4-1-RAgencia Estatal de Investigación de España; TEC2015-69648-RED

Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain

Unmanned Aircraft Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure. The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. This textbook will fully immerse and engage the reader / student in the cyber-security considerations of this rapidly emerging technology that we know as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The first edition topics covered National Airspace (NAS) policy issues, information security (INFOSEC), UAS vulnerabilities in key systems (Sense and Avoid / SCADA), navigation and collision avoidance systems, stealth design, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms; weapons systems security; electronic warfare considerations; data-links, jamming, operational vulnerabilities and still-emerging political scenarios that affect US military / commercial decisions. This second edition discusses state-of-the-art technology issues facing US UAS designers. It focuses on counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) – especially research designed to mitigate and terminate threats by SWARMS. Topics include high-altitude platforms (HAPS) for wireless communications; C-UAS and large scale threats; acoustic countermeasures against SWARMS and building an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) acoustic library; updates to the legal / regulatory landscape; UAS proliferation along the Chinese New Silk Road Sea / Land routes; and ethics in this new age of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1027/thumbnail.jp

Media Infrastructures and the Politics of Digital Time

Digital media everyday inscribe new patterns of time, promising instant communication, synchronous collaboration, intricate time management, and profound new advantages in speed. The essays in this volume reconsider these outward interfaces of convenience by calling attention to their supporting infrastructures, the networks of digital time that exert pressures of conformity and standardization on the temporalities of lived experience and have important ramifications for social relations, stratifications of power, practices of cooperation, and ways of life. Interdisciplinary in method and international in scope, the volume draws together insights from media and communication studies, cultural studies, and science and technology studies while staging an important encounter between two distinct approaches to the temporal patterning of media infrastructures, a North American strain emphasizing the social and cultural experiences of lived time and a European tradition, prominent especially in Germany, focusing on technological time and time-critical processes

Determinants of customer loyalty in Pakistan's Telecom sector: An exmination of differences between stayers and switchers

Customer loyalty has gained foremost attention among the practitioners and the academic researchers because of its proximity to organizational growth, profit and survival. Based on existing literature, this study has highlighted a few critical issues related to the telecommunication sector in Pakistan such as the decline in subscriber growth, decrease in average revenue, and the increasing trend of users switching among the telecom operators. The objective of the present study was to analyze the impact of perceived service quality, price fairness, justice to service and relational bonds on customer loyalty with the mediating role of customer satisfaction and the moderating role of corporate image. This study also investigated the perceptions of stayer- and switcher- users on the determinants of customer loyalty. The framework of the present study was based on the Oliver Four Stage Model, the Expectancy Confirmation Model and the Principles of Reciprocity. Data for the current study was collected from 539 prepaid subscribers based in four major capital cities of Pakistan through questionnaires by adopting the proportionate stratified random sampling. The collected data was analyzed by using SPSS version 23 and the Smart PLS Structure Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings of the study revealed that perceived service quality and customer satisfaction are the main driving forces to customer loyalty. Moreover, customer satisfaction successfully mediates perceived service quality, price fairness, justice to service recovery and relational bonds. However, corporate image does not moderate the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. Meanwhile, perceived service quality and relational bonds to loyalty relationship are important to the stayer- users, while price fairness and justice to service recovery are important to switchers. The present study has also suggested some theoretical and practical contributions

DDoS Capability and Readiness - Evidence from Australian Organisations

A common perception of cyber defence is that it should protect systems and data from malicious attacks, ideally keeping attackers outside of secure perimeters and preventing entry. Much of the effort in traditional cyber security defence is focused on removing gaps in security design and preventing those with legitimate permissions from becoming a gateway or resource for those seeking illegitimate access. By contrast, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks do not use application backdoors or software vulnerabilities to create their impact. They instead utilise legitimate entry points and knowledge of system processes for illegitimate purposes. DDoS seeks to overwhelm system and infrastructure resources so that legitimate requests are prevented from reaching their intended destination. For this thesis, a literature review was performed using sources from two perspectives. Reviews of both industry literature and academic literature were combined to build a balanced view of knowledge of this area. Industry and academic literature revealed that DDoS is outpacing internet growth, with vandalism, criminal and ideological motivations rising to prominence. From a defence perspective, the human factor remains a weak link in cyber security due to proneness for mistakes, oversights and the variance in approach and methods expressed by differing cultures. How cyber security is perceived, approached, and applied can have a critical effect on the overall outcome achieved, even when similar technologies are implemented. In addition, variance in the technical capabilities of those responsible for the implementation may create further gaps and vulnerabilities. While discussing technical challenges and theoretical concepts, existing literature failed to cover the experiences held by the victim organisations, or the thoughts and feelings of their personnel. This thesis addresses these identified gaps through exploratory research, which used a mix of descriptive and qualitative analysis to develop results and conclusions. The websites of 60 Australian organisations were analysed to uncover the level and quality of cyber security information they were willing to share and the methods and processes they used to engage with their audience. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 employees from around half of those websites analysed. These were analysed using NVivo12 qualitative analysis software. The difficulty experienced with attracting willing participants reflected the comfort that organisations showed with sharing cyber security information and experiences. However, themes found within the results show that, while DDoS is considered a valid threat, without encouragement to collaborate and standardise minimum security levels, firms may be missing out on valuable strategies to improve their cyber security postures. Further, this reluctance to share leads organisations to rely on their own internal skill and expertise, thus failing to realise the benefits of established frameworks and increased diversity in the workforce. Along with the size of the participant pool, other limitations included the diversity of participants and the impact of COVID-19 which may have influenced participants' thoughts and reflections. These limitations however, present opportunity for future studies using greater participant numbers or a narrower target focus. Either option would be beneficial to the recommendations of this study which were made from a practical, social, theoretical and policy perspective. On a practical and social level, organisational capabilities suffer due to the lack of information sharing and this extends to the community when similar restrictions prevent collaboration. Sharing of knowledge and experiences while protecting sensitive information is a worthy goal and this is something that can lead to improved defence. However, while improved understanding is one way to reduce the impact of cyber-attacks, the introduction of minimum cyber security standards for products, could reduce the ease at which devices can be used to facilitate attacks, but only if policy and effective governance ensures product compliance with legislation. One positive side to COVID-19's push to remote working, was an increase in digital literacy. As more roles were temporarily removed from their traditional physical workplace, many employees needed to rapidly accelerate their digital competency to continue their employment. To assist this transition, organisations acted to implement technology solutions that eased the ability for these roles to be undertaken remotely and as a consequence, they opened up these roles to a greater pool of available candidates. Many of these roles are no longer limited to the geographical location of potential employees or traditional hours of availability. Many of these roles could be accessed from almost anywhere, at any time, which had a positive effect on organisational capability and digital sustainability

Newman v. Google

3rd amended complain

Understanding Quantum Technologies 2022

Understanding Quantum Technologies 2022 is a creative-commons ebook that provides a unique 360 degrees overview of quantum technologies from science and technology to geopolitical and societal issues. It covers quantum physics history, quantum physics 101, gate-based quantum computing, quantum computing engineering (including quantum error corrections and quantum computing energetics), quantum computing hardware (all qubit types, including quantum annealing and quantum simulation paradigms, history, science, research, implementation and vendors), quantum enabling technologies (cryogenics, control electronics, photonics, components fabs, raw materials), quantum computing algorithms, software development tools and use cases, unconventional computing (potential alternatives to quantum and classical computing), quantum telecommunications and cryptography, quantum sensing, quantum technologies around the world, quantum technologies societal impact and even quantum fake sciences. The main audience are computer science engineers, developers and IT specialists as well as quantum scientists and students who want to acquire a global view of how quantum technologies work, and particularly quantum computing. This version is an extensive update to the 2021 edition published in October 2021.Comment: 1132 pages, 920 figures, Letter forma