A lightweight and secure multilayer authentication scheme for wireless body area networks in healthcare system

Wireless body area networks (WBANs) have lately been combined with different healthcare equipment to monitor patients' health status and communicate information with their healthcare practitioners. Since healthcare data often contain personal and sensitive information, it is important that healthcare systems have a secure way for users to log in and access resources and services. The lack of security and presence of anonymous communication in WBANs can cause their operational failure. There are other systems in this area, but they are vulnerable to offline identity guessing attacks, impersonation attacks in sensor nodes, and spoofing attacks in hub node. Therefore, this study provides a secure approach that overcomes these issues while maintaining comparable efficiency in wireless sensor nodes and mobile phones. To conduct the proof of security, the proposed scheme uses the Scyther tool for formal analysis and the Canetti–Krawczyk (CK) model for informal analysis. Furthermore, the suggested technique outperforms the existing symmetric and asymmetric encryption-based schemes

Dafen Village, Shenzhen, China (1989-2010)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 394-418).Since 1989, Dafen village in Shenzhen, China, has supplied millions of hand-painted oil-on-canvas paintings each year to global consumer markets. Accused of copying Western masterpieces, and spurred by the Chinese party-state's creative industry policies, Dafen village's eight thousand painters have been striving to become original artists. Simultaneously, conceptualist artists from outside Dafen village have engaged with the creative alienation of Dafen painters, by purchasing their labor in works of appropriation art. This study examines the discourses of creativity, originality, and appropriation that frame Dafen's painting production, and sets them against an ethnography of flexible work in the South Chinese painting trade. It explores the myriad ways in which Dafen village lends itself to intellectual and aesthetic explorations of the separation of painting labor from conceptual labor, as enacted in both modernist and postmodernist framings of artistic authorship. The study begins by charting the historical categorization of Chinese "export painting" and the emergence of the "painting factory" as a cultural imaginary of Sino-Western trade. It then examines the political stakes of "creativity" as constructed in Dafen television propaganda made by the national and local party-state. Then, turning to a single Vincent van Gogh-specialty workshop and the transnational wholesale and retail of van Gogh trade paintings, it theorizes the relationship of "craft" to modernist authorship and signature style. Finally, it scrutinizes cosmopolitan conceptual artists' and designers' collaborations with Dafen painters, exploring the ethical and aesthetic terms of universal creativity raised by the Dafen "readymade." Establishing continuities between Dafen production and the making of "high" art while challenging their putative antinomies, this study shows how the ideology of individual creativity undergirds the cultural industry policies of the local party-state, the consumer demand for authentic craft, and the appropriation of labor in contemporary art.by Winnie Won Yin Wong.Ph.D

Writing in the crossroads : examining first-year composition and creative writing.

The trend in writing curriculum has been to diversify and separate courses. This dissertation looks at one set of divided curricula--creative writing and composition--in order to examine the ways in which writing pedagogy has been affected by this parceling out of writing objectives into separate niches of the English department. I argue that there should be a way for different curricula and disciplines to share information between them and to bridge arbitrary gaps created by misguided binaries. My dissertation examines some of the problematic generalities propagated within the English department and interrogates the limits of such generalities. Using what scholars have termed grounded theory, I closely examine the assumptions underlying the construction of historical texts, scholarship on pedagogy, and some predominant textbooks used in composition and creative writing and make arguments about the effects of these implicit assumptions on writing curricula. Chapter one studies the more widely read and influential histories of composition and creative writing in order to call attention to the ideologies which imbue the histories and establish how these unstated assumptions have molded the English department we see today. Chapter two looks at scholarship about pedagogy in both fields in order to parse the binary of assumptions about the students in and the stated and unstated goals of these courses. Additionally, chapter two takes up the issue of teacher education, questioning why composition insists its instructors need schooling while a proven track record of publication is enough to qualify as a creative writing instructor. Chapter three studies popular textbooks used for composition and creative writing courses and argues that the texts are a direct reflection of the assumptions underlying what should be taught in each discipline. Chapter four examines the peer review/workshop and uses this practice as a case study of one pedagogical technique which has been integrated into both curricula. Chapter five presents conclusions which can be made from this close reading of scholarship and texts used for and about composition and creative writing and makes recommendations for more integrated pedagogies

A framework for the analysis and evaluation of enterprise models

Bibliography: leaves 264-288.The purpose of this study is the development and validation of a comprehensive framework for the analysis and evaluation of enterprise models. The study starts with an extensive literature review of modelling concepts and an overview of the various reference disciplines concerned with enterprise modelling. This overview is more extensive than usual in order to accommodate readers from different backgrounds. The proposed framework is based on the distinction between the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic model aspects and populated with evaluation criteria drawn from an extensive literature survey. In order to operationalize and empirically validate the framework, an exhaustive survey of enterprise models was conducted. From this survey, an XML database of more than twenty relatively large, publicly available enterprise models was constructed. A strong emphasis was placed on the interdisciplinary nature of this database and models were drawn from ontology research, linguistics, analysis patterns as well as the traditional fields of data modelling, data warehousing and enterprise systems. The resultant database forms the test bed for the detailed framework-based analysis and its public availability should constitute a useful contribution to the modelling research community. The bulk of the research is dedicated to implementing and validating specific analysis techniques to quantify the various model evaluation criteria of the framework. The aim for each of the analysis techniques is that it can, where possible, be automated and generalised to other modelling domains. The syntactic measures and analysis techniques originate largely from the disciplines of systems engineering, graph theory and computer science. Various metrics to measure model hierarchy, architecture and complexity are tested and discussed. It is found that many are not particularly useful or valid for enterprise models. Hence some new measures are proposed to assist with model visualization and an original "model signature" consisting of three key metrics is proposed.Perhaps the most significant contribution ofthe research lies in the development and validation of a significant number of semantic analysis techniques, drawing heavily on current developments in lexicography, linguistics and ontology research. Some novel and interesting techniques are proposed to measure, inter alia, domain coverage, model genericity, quality of documentation, perspicuity and model similarity. Especially model similarity is explored in depth by means of various similarity and clustering algorithms as well as ways to visualize the similarity between models. Finally, a number of pragmatic analyses techniques are applied to the models. These include face validity, degree of use, authority of model author, availability, cost, flexibility, adaptability, model currency, maturity and degree of support. This analysis relies mostly on the searching for and ranking of certain specific information details, often involving a degree of subjective interpretation, although more specific quantitative procedures are suggested for some of the criteria. To aid future researchers, a separate chapter lists some promising analysis techniques that were investigated but found to be problematic from methodological perspective. More interestingly, this chapter also presents a very strong conceptual case on how the proposed framework and the analysis techniques associated vrith its various criteria can be applied to many other information systems research areas. The case is presented on the grounds of the underlying isomorphism between the various research areas and illustrated by suggesting the application of the framework to evaluate web sites, algorithms, software applications, programming languages, system development methodologies and user interfaces

Internet-mediated intercultural English language education in China's higher education institutions

In the information age, the advent of Internet technologies has made it possible to transform language learning and teaching, through online intercultural exploration and exchange. The role of English as an international language in global communication is recognised in China's latest national guidelines for tertiary language curricula, which seek to develop professionals possessing both sound language proficiency and intercultural competence, alongside other goals such as information literacy and learner autonomy. This thesis examines the actual delivery of an intercultural dimension mediated by Internet technologies. To this end, this thesis reports an investigation into the situation of Internet-mediated intercultural English language teaching and learning at China's higher education institutions conducted between 2008 and 2009. Multi-stage and multi-site fieldwork combined a survey approach and a collective case study approach. The researcher being the primary data collection tool, data obtained from questionnaire survey, interview (and informal conversation), observation and document collection instruments have been combined. The survey findings thus not only have breadth, but also provide materials for in-depth studies of sample cases. Four cases, demonstrating a variety of institutional, individual, pedagogical and technological factors, are analysed at greater length to explore whether evidenced Internet-mediated practices might facilitate an intercultural approach to teaching and learning. Comparisons suggest that, despite their differing characteristics and contexts, there are some commonalities in terms of Internet-mediated activities entailing elements of an intercultural approach. These elements are synthesised and mapped out in an original pedagogical framework for Internet-mediated intercultural teaching and learning, with a set of guiding principles. This framework advocates establishing an Internet-mediated intra-class community as the basis for undertaking intercultural language activities, complementing the prevailing telecollaborative model for the development of intercultural communicative competence. This outcome contributes to a fuller understanding of the design of Internet-mediated intercultural language activities

China State Commercial Banks' Non-Performing Loans: Workout and Prevention

PhDThe purpose of this thesis is to examine the very significant problem of State bank nonperforming loan (NPL) in China. NPLs undermine the stability of China's banking system and the efficient operation of its markets. This thesis will make recommendations for developing better workout procedures to deal with existing NPLs and explore the role of banking regulation and supervision in NPL prevention, as well as in avoiding impacts of NPLs on the stability of banking system, drawing on experiences at national, regional and international levels. The accumulation of NPLs in China has been caused by the dominant role of State banks in China's financial markets, policy loans to state owned enterprises (SOEs), unnecessary administrative controls on banks' lending activities, weak internal controls within State banks and inappropriate banking regulation and supervision. All these have seriously ruined the conditions of market discipline in China and resulted not only in large amount of NPL stock, but also the constant creation of new NPLs on State banks' balance sheets. The NPL problem in China is not limited to individual banks. It is a systemic problem closely connected to the SOE problem. The existing bank NPLs cannot be worked out without debt and enterprise restructuring. The balance sheets of banks and firms must be cleaned up by, first, recapitalizing banks to write off and make provision for existing NPLs, and, second, setting up independent asset management companies to purchase and manage bank NPLs. To prevent the increasing accumulation of new NPLs, unnecessary administrative controls on banks must be removed; prudential banking regulation and supervision much be enhanced; appropriate internal control systems must be promoted within banks, especially with regard to the proper risk evaluation systems and internal decision-taking structures. To avoid the damaging impacts of NPL problem on the stability of the banking system, ' an explicit limited deposit insurance system should be introduced; the central bank's lender of last resort facilities must be properly defined; bank insolvency resolution mechanisms must be put in place. In a word, the proper functioning of market discipline must be restored in China.Ministry of Education, the PRC and the K. C. Wong Education Foundation (Hong Kong

Constructions of cinematic space : spatial practice at the intersection of film and theory

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2005.Includes bibliographical references (p. 143-146).This thesis is an attempt to bring fresh insights to current understandings of cinematic space and the relationship between film, architecture, and the city. That attempt is situated in relation to recent work by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri, Saskia Sassen, and others on the importance of the city in the current global framework, along with the growing body of literature on film, architecture, and urban space. Michel De Certeau's threefold critique of the city, set forth in The practices of Everyday Life, structures a comparative analysis of six primary films, aired as follows, with one air for each of three chapters-Jacques Tati's lay Time and Edward Yang's Yi Yi, Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves and Wang Xiaoshuai's Beijing Bicycle, and Franqois Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!. Along with De Certeau's notions of satial ractice, walking rhetorics, and the pedestrian speech act, the philosophy of Gilles Deleuze-including work from the Cinema texts and A Thousand plateaus-is developed in relation to existent film theory on movement, time, and space.(cont.) The analysis operates as a kind of mediation between an active set of spatial theories-a mediation which uses traditional techniques of film analysis and critical theory to instigate a negotiation around the topic of (cinematic) space. That negotiation implies a common ground on which the film texts and theories are read against and in addition to one another, allowing each to contribute in its own right to the setting u of a series of terms-what I refer to as a "spatial grammar"-proper to both film and theory. The spatial grammar thus comprises a more abstract theoretical lane-a palimpsest on which resides a classic body of work on cinematic space (including Andre Bazin, Stephen Heath, and Kristin Thomson), and on which I layer the work of De Certeau, Deleuze, Fredric Jameson, and others.by Brian R. Jacobson.S.M

Factors influencing China's behaviour in the South China Sea

This research assesses China's likely future behaviour in relation to the South China Sea disputes, critically evaluating two prominent, related topics of discussion among the International Relations scholars since the late 1980s. One of these topics is theoretical: to what extent is the flourishing `liberal peace' argument in International Relations theory valid when applied to China's international behaviour, and towards the South China Sea disputes in particular'? The advocates of the `liberal peace' argument have spent much energy attempting to prove the positive correlation between peace and such factors as democracy and economic interdependence using statistical models. In addition, one faction of the liberal school emphasises the effectiveness of institutions which supposedly impose constraints on a state through international rules and agreements. However, liberals' arguments fail to engage with some critical points. First of all, whether a state goes to war is not a matter of probability but a political decision. Secondly, the costs of sacrificing economic ties and violating internationally-agreed obligations surely affect a decision to go to war. However, if a state perceives that its vital national interests are at risk, such costs will have little influence on decision-making. In addition, liberals' argument ignores the importance of the political framework in which economic interdependence functions. Furthermore, liberals do not pay attention to the facts that institutions are usually established by the initiative of a hegemon and its supporters, and that the rules and norms of institutions generally reflect the distribution of power among their members. This dissertation illustrates the way in which realist thinking (involving consideration of survival, balance of power and relative gain) still forms the foundation for states' behaviour.The other topic relevant in this dissertation is empirical and concerns which of the conflicting opinions about China's future geopolitical orientation is more accurate: that China will become an assertive regional hegemon as her economy develops and her military is modernised, or that she will not obtain even regional hegemonic status for some decades to come due to her lack of economic and military power. The first view generally draws the conclusion that China should somehow be contained, while the second view concludes that other states need to engage China so that the latter can be tied into the international community. A major problem with arguments of this type is that China's likely behaviour tends to be predicted on the basis of research on specific issues. In particular, military factors, such as China's increasing defence budget, its vigorous purchase of advanced weapons particularly from Russia, and the PLA's weight in the government's decision-making, have been overemphasised. Although stronger military capabilities may provide a government with wider foreign policy options, states - including China - usually do not use force just because their military capabilities become stronger. Understanding the nature of states and the factors that drive states' behaviour is necessary in order to avoid extreme conclusions. This dissertation tries to integrate the existing empirical studies and theoretical assumptions in International Relations theory.The reason for focusing on the South China Sea is that this case is important in the sense that the disputes there are not just territorial conflicts involving China and other claimants. The South China Sea disputes involve many factors such as fisheries, energy, and extra-regional powers' strategic and economic interests, besides the overlapping territorial sovereign claims. In addition, economic interdependence between China and regional states has deepened since the 1990s, and the region has international institutions such as APEC and the ARF where economic and security issues, respectively, are I Introduction discussed. The last two factors make this case particularly suitable for the application of IR theory. This dissertation will demonstrate that geopolitical considerations are dominant not only in China's decision-making but also in the ASEAN states' attitudes towards China and the disputes themselves