102,432 research outputs found
Towards a Rule Interchange Language for the Web
This articles discusses rule languages that are needed for a a
full deployment of the SemanticWeb. First, it motivates the need for such
languages. Then, it presents ten theses addressing (1) the rule and/or
logic languages needed on the Web, (2) data and data processing, (3)
semantics, and (4) engineering and rendering issues. Finally, it discusses
two options that might be chosen in designing a Rule Interchange Format
for the Web
Picking battles: The impact of trust assumptions on the elaboration of security requirements
This position paper describes work on trust assumptions in the con-text of security requirements. We show how trust assumptions can affect the scope of the analysis, derivation of security requirements, and in some cases how functionality is realized. An example shows how trust assumptions are used by a requirements engineer to help define and limit the scope of analysis and to document the decisions made during the process
Benevolence, integrity and ability: a survey of Italian SMEs and banks
Access to appropriate finance is crucial for the start-up, survival, growth and development of firms. The majority of entrepreneurs, especially in smaller firms, are reliant on the bank system. Previous research examines relationships between firms and banks from a transaction costs economics and/or agency theory point of view. This postulates an opportunistic base to human behaviour. An alternative set of assumptions about human nature encompass altruism and trust. Trust is relevant because it is a way to reduce complexity; it is the 'lubricant' in exchanges; it is crucial in situations of risk or high pressure, and it is among the building blocks of social capital, which have been shown to underpin access to resources for entrepreneurs. Trust is based on an assessment of ability, benevolence and integrity. This paper tests whether there is a relationship between trust and the cost of finance (i.e. interest rates)
Trust me, I'm an entrepreneur! Can trust help SMEs to gain the credit they need?
Research on relationship lending focuses attention on economic factors which influence the relationships between SMEs' owners/managers and banks but no previous work has focused on the role of trust. Trust is expected to reduce transaction costs and agency costs, reduce the perceived credit risk and, thus, influence credit availability. Trustwor-thiness is associated with three attributes of SME owner managers' namely; ability, be-nevolence and integrity. It is hypothesised that lending managers' assessment of the trustworthiness of SME owner managers affects the ability of SMES to gain the credit. Trustworthiness is hypothesised as positively associated with credit access in contrast to lower trustworthiness which is associated with credit constraint. Use of overdraft is con-sidered here as indicator of credit constraint. The data were obtained from a survey of lending managers from banks in North East Italy. Control variables and a vector of trustworthiness factors were collected on a random sample of borrowers, resulting in a sample of 535 firms. Results from regression analysis found evidence that firms enjoy-ing high level of trust are able to access the credit they need and therefore are less credit constrained. Some implications of these results for banks, owner managers and future research are discussed
A Survey on Wireless Sensor Network Security
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have recently attracted a lot of interest in
the research community due their wide range of applications. Due to distributed
nature of these networks and their deployment in remote areas, these networks
are vulnerable to numerous security threats that can adversely affect their
proper functioning. This problem is more critical if the network is deployed
for some mission-critical applications such as in a tactical battlefield.
Random failure of nodes is also very likely in real-life deployment scenarios.
Due to resource constraints in the sensor nodes, traditional security
mechanisms with large overhead of computation and communication are infeasible
in WSNs. Security in sensor networks is, therefore, a particularly challenging
task. This paper discusses the current state of the art in security mechanisms
for WSNs. Various types of attacks are discussed and their countermeasures
presented. A brief discussion on the future direction of research in WSN
security is also included.Comment: 24 pages, 4 figures, 2 table
- …