Implementation of Quantum Key Distribution with Composable Security Against Coherent Attacks using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen Entanglement

Secret communication over public channels is one of the central pillars of a modern information society. Using quantum key distribution (QKD) this is achieved without relying on the hardness of mathematical problems which might be compromised by improved algorithms or by future quantum computers. State-of-the-art QKD requires composable security against coherent attacks for a finite number of samples. Here, we present the first implementation of QKD satisfying this requirement and additionally achieving security which is independent of any possible flaws in the implementation of the receiver. By distributing strongly Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen entangled continuous variable (CV) light in a table-top arrangement, we generated secret keys using a highly efficient error reconciliation algorithm. Since CV encoding is compatible with conventional optical communication technology, we consider our work to be a major promotion for commercialized QKD providing composable security against the most general channel attacks.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Information Practices in Contemporary Cosmopolitan Civil Society

What is the nature of information?  What is its role in Contemporary Cosmopolitan Civil Society? What is the basis for the widespread current belief that we live in an ‘information society’? The present article will examine these questions through an examination of the historical origins of established ‘scientized’ views of information in the philosophy of the Enlightenment. It describes how postmodern and poststructuralist critique of such positivist approaches led to profound paradigmatic and methodological shifts in the social and information studies fields in recent decades. It consider how the emergence of social constructivist approaches to information research drawing on discourse analysis, practice theory and ethnographic theories and methodologies has led to a have led researchers to a radically different understanding of central concepts such as: the influence of emergent information and communication technologies on contemporary society; the relationship between knowledge and power, the nature of expertise and authoritative information; a re-thinking of community and consensus; a re-interpretation of notions of space and place in information dissemination, sharing and use and a reconsideration of the role of the researcher. The article illustrates this changing research landscape through reference to the work of scholars in the Cosmopolitan Civil Societies Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney, published in the Centre’s journal

Las iniciativas para el acceso abierto a la información científica en el contexto de la Web Semántica

Access to information sources on Science and Technology is the corner stone in the generation processes of new scientific knowledge, and key factor in the development of the society of the 21st century. The elimination of economic and copyright barriers that supposes the restriction of the access to information by the main editorial groups of scientific diffusion, constitutes a challenge for the scientific international community. The present work gathers the importance of the open Access initiatives to the scientific and academic information as change agent. It is analyzed the structure and functioning of the information repositories, as well as the creation of the OAI-PMH protocol as provider of the interoperability between the different repositories, in the context of the Semantic Web

Demographic aspects of the development of human capital in Russia and its regions

In the present paper, the contemporary demographic situation that has developed in Russia – which can be described in terms of a demographic crisis – is analysed. One of its most salient characteristics consists in the negative qualitative changes that are occurring in the population, many of them due to the consequences of modern information technology. The negative qualitative changes in the population, which essentially began during the second half of the 1980s and have increased in present-day Russia, prevent the development of human capital in the country. This being the case, the authors give their own interpretation of the concept of “human capital”. The purpose of the work is to justify the primacy of the demographic factor in the formation and development of human capital. Migration in the form of a brain drain also has a negative impact on the development of human capital in Russia and its regions. Confirmation of the above-mentioned thesis is provided in a human development index, calculated for the country as a whole and for its regions. In the work, the methods of demographic analysis, the demographic indicators and indexes, which can be used to analyse the qualitative characteristics of the population, are used. The authors arrive at the conclusion that it is impossible at the present stage to develop human capital without first solving the demographic problems. This is especially true for some regions of Russia. A greater awareness of this will contribute to a more efficient management of demographic processes, which will, in turn, guarantee the positive development of human capital, strengthening and developing the Russian economy and society as a whole

Competences for collaboration and knowledge sharing in digital society - a case study with an erasmus intensive programme

With the advent of social and collaborative environments, students became more active and participative - they not only have access to contents but also create and share them, becoming proactive. Communication has evolved, and with this evolution came the new media and the possibility of live conferencing, video sharing, social networking, collaborative tools, allowing the student to create, work collaboratively and communicate in a more direct way with their peers and their teachers. Instead of merely searching for information, applications such as bookmarking, feeds, tweeter and pinboards, digital portfolios, etc., along with the possibility of creating your own personal webpage, today’s Web gives students also the chance to create a PLE - A Personal Learning Environment. A PLE “recognizes that learning is continuing and seeks to provide tools to support that learning” (Attwell, 2007). The Individuals are responsible for the management of their own learning environment and for the selection of tools and contexts where learning will take place. Students need to acquire certain skills and competences, specific of a digital and connected society, in order to “effectively benefit from e-government, e-learning and e-health services, and participate actively in the knowledge society as co-creators, and not simply consumers, as highlighted by the European e-skills strategy” (McCormack, 2010). To only possess hard skills (that comes with experience and formal education) may not be enough to get someone a job. Besides e-skills and e-literacy competences, soft and social skills are also required. These can be practiced and enhanced in virtual environments. Digital literacy, and therefore e-skills, are transversal competences needed to every citizen. In this paper we will present the results of a case study carried out with attendees of an Erasmus Intensive Programme, which has promoted the development of digital literacies among participants. The Programme took place during 2013 summer and involved students and teachers (of teacher education and social service fields) from 3 different countries. The classes covered different tools and 12 tutors were involved. The main objectives were to provide students with information and communication technologies (ICT) skills for a digital society, namely: • Identification of students’ competencies in ICT; • Present students with different available collaboration tools by exploring the web 2.0; • Selection of specific tools to create students' personal learning environment (PLE); • Acquire necessary knowledge to master the selected tools; • Work collaboratively with the web 2.0 tools; • Establish methods for instruction and course design based on Web 2.0 (teacher education) with the goal to integrate technology enhanced learning and individual knowledge management in educational processes. At the end attendees were able to: • Master the different tools & services; • Be capable to use and select the most adequate web 2.0 tools & services; • Create and manage their PLE; • Share and to work collaboratively; • Be digitally skilled.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Information: Moving forward with New Media through Experiments in Digital and Video Art.

My art is an experimental exploration of new media using images and sounds, combined with technology to communicate messages both random and intentional. This thesis will document a contemporary method of creating art with computers, which results in disorganized images from the unique point of view of a dyslexic artist. This study will explain how art is randomized information and explain the didactic processes of my art. The concept of the work is to present old media in a new context and show how information is accumulated into a new understanding. Historically, my art builds on the Dadaist movement. Humor, excess, and performance are essential in my art because they connect to the audience. My library of videos comes from a society saturated with images, sound, and an avalanche of information. I have used art to process and create approximately 40,000 pieces that will be used in this work

Awareness regarding plagiarism and fair use of copyrighted work: a survey amongst Doctoral Students of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow

In this information society, the new information occurs within microseconds and is also accessible to the wide range of users. Technology is developing day-by-day, and the ways of accessing information are also getting changed. In this digital world, the information is easily available and because of this, misuse of information is increasing. This creates a threat to the original creative work. Therefore, management of copyright is a new issue. With the existence of several laws and acts, the violation of copyright is still going-on in every field and in different parts of the world. This violation of copyright is a worldwide problem, mainly due to the people are still less aware about Intellectual property Right (IPR) and especially copyright in academic world. Due to wide use of information technology, now it become possible to access the information easily through databases, Internet, electronic resources in various formats. Standing within this state of our society, the investigator selected the present topic and decided to conduct the study on doctoral students. Doctoral students are considered as the generator of new information so it cannot be overemphasized that they should be aware about copyright. This study has been conducted to investigate and explore the awareness of plagiarism and fair use among the doctoral students. The paper deals with the basic concept of copyright, fair use and plagiarism and presented the findings related to awareness of copyright, various issues of copyright, treatment of quotation, level of awareness regarding plagiarism, various anti-plagiarism software, and awareness regarding fair use

Establishing Library Learning Commons in Universities of India: A Case Study of BHU Library System

Traditional libraries have recognition as a physical space, as a physical collection, and as a traditional scribe in the era of industrial society and before. At present, the paradigm shift due to the advent of computer technology, information technology (IT) and information communication technology (ICT) has changed the way of information seeking, reading habits, learning methods, and even social connectivity and interactions of the society. Furthermore, these changes can be seen in the reading habits, information search, learning and teaching methods of students and faculty members engaged in higher education and research works. These transformations in users laid academic libraries to adopt new collections, services, tools and techniques, and more skilled staffs. It has also forced academic libraries to redesign their existing services, resources, and physical spaces with the addition of digital services, digital resources, and virtual spaces. All these tend to transform service delivery models and to reshape the reading areas according to the learning and reading habits of the users, especially digital native and net generation users. The Learning Commons (LC) is one of the new services which came into existence due to these transformations. Library Learning Commons (LLCs) are collaborative learning spaces in libraries for both students and faculties which provide a convenient, comfortable, flexible and more productive environment for learning, reading and research work. The purpose of this article is to provide a perspective on informal library learning commons developed in BHU Library System and to find the feasibilities to acquire new techniques and services to cope with the continuous paradigm shift towards the digital environment