Selection of EAP-authentication methods in WLANs

IEEE 802.1X is a key part of IEEE802.11i. By employing Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) it supports a variety of upper layer authentication methods each with different benefits and drawbacks. Any one of these authentication methods can be the ideal choice for a specific networking environment. The fact that IEEE 802.11i leaves the selection of the most suitable authentication method to system implementers makes the authentication framework more flexible, but on the other hand leads to the question of how to select the authentication method that suits an organisation’s requirements and specific networking environment. This paper gives an overview of EAP authentication methods and provides a table comparing their properties. It then identifies the crucial factors to be considered when employing EAP authentication methods in WLAN environments. The paper presents algorithms that guide the selection of an EAP-authentication method for a WLAN and demonstrates their application through three examples

Earthworm coelomocyte extracellular traps : structural and functional similarities with neutrophil NETs

ROD UJ /

When neighboring disciplines fail to learn from each other: the case of innovation and project management research

As knowledge production becomes more specialized, studying complex and multi-faceted empirical realities becomes more difficult. This has created a growing need for cross-fertilization and collaboration between research disciplines. According to prior studies, the sharing of concepts, ideas and empirical domains with other disciplines may promote cross-fertilization. We challenge this one-sided view. Based on an analysis of the parallel development of the neighboring disciplines of innovation studies and project management, we show that the sharing of concepts and empirical domains can have ambivalent effects. Under conditions of ideological distancing, shared concepts and domains will be narrowly assimilated − an effect we call ‘encapsulation’ - which creates an illusion of sharing, while promoting further self-containment. By comparison, reflexive meta-theories and cross-disciplinary community-building will enable a form of sharing that promotes cross-fertilization. Our findings inform research on research specialization, cross-fertilization and effectiveness of interdisciplinary collaboration

Pathways: Augmenting interoperability across scholarly repositories

In the emerging eScience environment, repositories of papers, datasets, software, etc., should be the foundation of a global and natively-digital scholarly communications system. The current infrastructure falls far short of this goal. Cross-repository interoperability must be augmented to support the many workflows and value-chains involved in scholarly communication. This will not be achieved through the promotion of single repository architecture or content representation, but instead requires an interoperability framework to connect the many heterogeneous systems that will exist. We present a simple data model and service architecture that augments repository interoperability to enable scholarly value-chains to be implemented. We describe an experiment that demonstrates how the proposed infrastructure can be deployed to implement the workflow involved in the creation of an overlay journal over several different repository systems (Fedora, aDORe, DSpace and arXiv).Comment: 18 pages. Accepted for International Journal on Digital Libraries special issue on Digital Libraries and eScienc

Modelling and simulation framework for reactive transport of organic contaminants in bed-sediments using a pure java object - oriented paradigm

Numerical modelling and simulation of organic contaminant reactive transport in the environment is being increasingly relied upon for a wide range of tasks associated with risk-based decision-making, such as prediction of contaminant profiles, optimisation of remediation methods, and monitoring of changes resulting from an implemented remediation scheme. The lack of integration of multiple mechanistic models to a single modelling framework, however, has prevented the field of reactive transport modelling in bed-sediments from developing a cohesive understanding of contaminant fate and behaviour in the aquatic sediment environment. This paper will investigate the problems involved in the model integration process, discuss modelling and software development approaches, and present preliminary results from use of CORETRANS, a predictive modelling framework that simulates 1-dimensional organic contaminant reaction and transport in bed-sediments

Entrepreneurship as nexus of change: the syncretistic production of the future

This paper deals with the issue of how the future is created and the mechanisms through which it is produced and conceived. Key to this process appears to be social interaction and how it is used to bring about change. Examining the entrepreneurial context by qualitative longitudinal research techniques, the study considers the situations of three entrepreneurs. It demonstrates that the web of relationships in which individuals are engaged provide the opportunity to enact the environment in new ways, thus producing organizations for the future. It further provides empirical evidence for a Heideggerian reading of strategy-as-practice, extending this conceptualization to account for the temporal dimension

Comprehensive Description and Critical Analysis of Object-Oriented Software Development

Object-orientation and the object model underlie a simple, intuitive, and useful approach to software development that has great potential for significantly improving the software development process. Object-orientation unifies activities, such as analysis and design, that currently largely independent and somehwat incompatible. Despite its simplicity, a sroud of msytery surrounds this approach. The difficult often encountered when learning and understanding object-oriented methods sems partly from the capricious and improper use of object-oriented jargon in conversation and in the literature. This paper explores the foundations of the object model, defines the associated terminology in concrete terms, and gives an overview of various object-oriented methods as they relate to the software lifecycle

Direct social actions and political influence. Social centers at times of crisis in Bologna and Naples

This dissertation investigates how, since the burst of the 2008 crisis, self-managed social centers adopting Direct Social Actions (DSAs) have shaped political influence at the municipal level. A rich bulk of social sciences scholarship has addressed the political and social dimensions of the crisis, discussing, on the one hand, the transformation of the repertoires of collective engagement, and, on the other hand, the outcomes of specific collective mobilizations, such as anti-austerity protests. However, a systematic reflection on how the use of different forms of action relates to movement consequences, and particularly to political outcomes, is overall missing from the literature. This is especially the case for those modes of collective action, such as DSAs, that are contentious in nature, but cannot be ascribed to the categories of demonstrative and of conventional action. Adopting a relational research approach, the dissertation employs the causal explanation method of process-tracing, to retrace the sequences of interlocking dynamics through which the pathways of political influence of social centers have unfolded during the decade. In doing so, it offers a framework for analyzing the political influence of collective actors, encompassing three dimensions of change: institutional attitudes, procedural access, and policy. The empirical analysis focuses on two Italian city cases, Bologna and Naples, and is based, on the one hand, on semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with social centers’ activists, local elected officials, and key informants. On the other hand, gathered sources include a set of local press articles (2005-2019), materials produced by collective actors themselves, press releases, and municipal institutional documents (including policy and administrative acts, transcripts, and reports). The interviews and document analysis have been integrated with fieldnotes from local self-managed spaces and institutional settings. Empirical evidence from the two cases suggests that, during the crisis decade, Direct Social Action has played a relevant role in the pathways of social centers’ influence over institutional politics at the local level, prompting distinct relational dynamics in the interplay between collective actors, their broader environment, society at large, and institutional actors. Contributing to the research on the contentious practices of DSA in the Italian context of the crisis, the dissertation uncovers how the structuring, in the societal fabric, of material, territorial and identity responses can translate into an institutional impact, as collective actors intercept the dynamics of representative political competition. At the same time, evidence highlights the relationship between the ways in which practices are mobilized within arenas of interaction, and their role in fostering the political influence of movement actors. Specifically, the analysis underscores the efficacy of DSAs in contributing to trajectories of high political influence, for collective actors that deploy this form of action within a bridging of their social environment

The Prom Problem: Fair and Privacy-Enhanced Matchmaking with Identity Linked Wishes

In the Prom Problem (TPP), Alice wishes to attend a school dance with Bob and needs a risk-free, privacy preserving way to find out whether Bob shares that same wish. If not, no one should know that she inquired about it, not even Bob. TPP represents a special class of matchmaking challenges, augmenting the properties of privacy-enhanced matchmaking, further requiring fairness and support for identity linked wishes (ILW) – wishes involving specific identities that are only valid if all involved parties have those same wishes. The Horne-Nair (HN) protocol was proposed as a solution to TPP along with a sample pseudo-code embodiment leveraging an untrusted matchmaker. Neither identities nor pseudo-identities are included in any messages or stored in the matchmaker’s database. Privacy relevant data stay within user control. A security analysis and proof-of-concept implementation validated the approach, fairness was quantified, and a feasibility analysis demonstrated practicality in real-world networks and systems, thereby bounding risk prior to incurring the full costs of development. The SecretMatch™ Prom app leverages one embodiment of the patented HN protocol to achieve privacy-enhanced and fair matchmaking with ILW. The endeavor led to practical lessons learned and recommendations for privacy engineering in an era of rapidly evolving privacy legislation. Next steps include design of SecretMatch™ apps for contexts like voting negotiations in legislative bodies and executive recruiting. The roadmap toward a quantum resistant SecretMatch™ began with design of a Hybrid Post-Quantum Horne-Nair (HPQHN) protocol. Future directions include enhancements to HPQHN, a fully Post Quantum HN protocol, and more