Efficient identity-based key encapsulation to multiple parties

We introduce the concept of identity based key encapsulation to multiple parties (mID-KEM), and define a security model for it. This concept is the identity based analogue of public key KEM to multiple parties. We also analyse possible mID-KEM constructions, and propose an efficient scheme based on bilinear pairings. We prove our scheme secure in the random oracle model under the Gap Bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumption.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia - SFRH/BPD/20528/2004

Capability Coordination in Modular Organization: Voluntary FS/OSS Production and the Case of Debian GNU/Linux

The paper analyzes voluntary Free Software/Open Source Software (FS/OSS) organization of work. The empirical setting considered is the Debian GNU/Linux operating system. The paper finds that the production process is hierarchical notwithstanding the modular (nearly decomposable) architecture of software and of voluntary FS/OSS organization. But voluntary FS/OSS project organization is not hierarchical for the same reasons suggested by the most familiar theories of economic organization: hierarchy is justified for coordination of continuous change, rather than for the direction of static production. Hierarchy is ultimately the overhead attached to the benefits engendered by modular organization.Modularity, hierarchy, capabilities, coordination costs, software.

The role of concurrency in an evolutionary view of programming abstractions

In this paper we examine how concurrency has been embodied in mainstream programming languages. In particular, we rely on the evolutionary talking borrowed from biology to discuss major historical landmarks and crucial concepts that shaped the development of programming languages. We examine the general development process, occasionally deepening into some language, trying to uncover evolutionary lineages related to specific programming traits. We mainly focus on concurrency, discussing the different abstraction levels involved in present-day concurrent programming and emphasizing the fact that they correspond to different levels of explanation. We then comment on the role of theoretical research on the quest for suitable programming abstractions, recalling the importance of changing the working framework and the way of looking every so often. This paper is not meant to be a survey of modern mainstream programming languages: it would be very incomplete in that sense. It aims instead at pointing out a number of remarks and connect them under an evolutionary perspective, in order to grasp a unifying, but not simplistic, view of the programming languages development process

Isogeny-based post-quantum key exchange protocols

The goal of this project is to understand and analyze the supersingular isogeny Diffie Hellman (SIDH), a post-quantum key exchange protocol which security lies on the isogeny-finding problem between supersingular elliptic curves. In order to do so, we first introduce the reader to cryptography focusing on key agreement protocols and motivate the rise of post-quantum cryptography as a necessity with the existence of the model of quantum computation. We review some of the known attacks on the SIDH and finally study some algorithmic aspects to understand how the protocol can be implemented

Solid Lipid Nanoparticles: A Potential Approach for Dermal Drug Delivery

Solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) have attracted increasing attention during recent years. Due to their unique size dependent properties, lipid nanoparticles offer possibilities to develop new therapeutics. The ability to incorporate drugs into nanoparticles offers a new prototype in drug delivery thus realizing the dual goal of both controlled release and site-specific drug delivery. Drug delivery to the skin is widely used for local and systemic delivery and has potential to be improved by application of nanoparticulate formulations. If investigated appropriately, solid lipid nanoparticles may open new opportunities in therapy of complex diseases which is difficult to treat

Are the Exceptions Really the Rule? Questioning the Application of 'Electoral-Professional' Type Models of Party Organization in East Central Europe

Much writing on party organisational development in post-communist East Central Europe has argued that, with the partial exception of successor parties to former regime parties, political parties in the region will be state-centred, low-membership organisations dominated by political elites, which loosely approximate to the ‘cartel’ and ‘electoral-professional’ models of party identified by some scholars in Western Europe. This pattern of development in East Central Europe is seen as reflecting the specific opportunity structures of post-communist societies, which both shape politicians’ organisational strategies and determine available resources for party building. Using a detailed re-examination of the Czech case, this paper questions the applicability of such models. It argues that their use is problematic not simply because of inherent difficulties of model fitting, but because they underestimate the path dependent character of party organisational development in the region and, especially the extent to which viable parties appear to have drawn on organisational resources accumulated under the old regime and during transition. The combination of path dependency and post-communist opportunity structures, it is argued, tends to create hybrid party organisations, which are removed from ‘electoral professional’ type parties in a number of ways. The paper concludes by suggesting possible avenues for rethinking party organisational development in the region