A bilinear pairing based secure data aggregation scheme for WSNs

End to end secure data aggregation scheme for wireless sensor networks that are based on public key cryptography generally use elliptic curves. However elliptic curve based protocols require messages to be mapped to elliptic curves before performing any operations and finally reverse mapped to retrieve the message back. No mapping function, however, which is both homomorphic and has an efficient reverse mapping function is currently known. The mapping functions used in many previous protocols require brute forcing to reverse map the message from a point on the elliptic curve. This solution may be feasible on a base station with unlimited energy and processing power but it means that decrypting becomes very inefficient on ordinary sensors. We propose a secure data aggregation algorithm based on bilinear pairing that avoids this problem and makes decrypting data feasible on ordinary sensors

Protesting theories about immigrant workers : economic change and Sans-Papiers activism in France

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-141).A wave of protests by undocumented immigrants has swept through France over the past three years, and has pushed the issue of immigration and the changing role of migrant workers in the economy to the fore of the political stage. These protests have brought to light how shifts in the French industrial structure have impacted the way that undocumented immigrants navigate the labor market. In this paper, I use these protests as a window onto how the status of undocumented immigrants in the labor market has changed as French firms and state policy makers have adopted "flexibility" as their new mantra. However, I also draw on them to illustrate the role that undocumented immigrants, through conspicuous and politically poignant appeals for their rights, have played in shaping their labor market position. Finally, my theoretical project in describing this wave of activism is to suggest some of the places where immigration models and industrial relations theory have become brittle and outdated. The paper concludes with the implications that this study raises for policy design.by Natasha N. Iskander.M.C.P

Sustainable Smart Cities and Smart Villages Research

ca. 200 words; this text will present the book in all promotional forms (e.g. flyers). Please describe the book in straightforward and consumer-friendly terms. [There is ever more research on smart cities and new interdisciplinary approaches proposed on the study of smart cities. At the same time, problems pertinent to communities inhabiting rural areas are being addressed, as part of discussions in contigious fields of research, be it environmental studies, sociology, or agriculture. Even if rural areas and countryside communities have previously been a subject of concern for robust policy frameworks, such as the European Union’s Cohesion Policy and Common Agricultural Policy Arguably, the concept of ‘the village’ has been largely absent in the debate. As a result, when advances in sophisticated information and communication technology (ICT) led to the emergence of a rich body of research on smart cities, the application and usability of ICT in the context of a village has remained underdiscussed in the literature. Against this backdrop, this volume delivers on four objectives. It delineates the conceptual boundaries of the concept of ‘smart village’. It highlights in which ways ‘smart village’ is distinct from ‘smart city’. It examines in which ways smart cities research can enrich smart villages research. It sheds light on the smart village research agenda as it unfolds in European and global contexts.

From Rhetoric To Response: Climate Change, Conflict, And Development In Karamoja, Uganda

This dissertation addresses the broad question: How do the discourses of climate change and conflict travel across time and space to become policy, programming, and ultimately a development initiative that exist on the ground? To answer this question, I broke the research into three separate papers. The first examines how the US policy community approaches, understands and seeks to address the discourses of climatesecurity. The second examines the ways in which climate change affects conflict outcomes in Karamoja, Uganda. And the third, using the efforts of Mercy Corps in Karamoja as a case study, examines the realities and opportunities in addressing climate-conflict from a development perspective. Clear across all components of this research, and linking the three manuscripts, is the salience of scale in climate-conflict, the paradox of how the ‘threat multiplier’ discourse both oversimplifies and blurs the legibility of the relationship between climate change and conflict, and the need to further deconstruct climate-conflict in the context of particular places. The central contribution of this dissertation as a whole is to elucidate the challenges facing institutions who have the mandate of addressing climateconflict and wider climate-security connections. While the lessons of this project have academic implications, the evident challenges facing practitioners in conceptualizing and addressing the link between climate change and conflict, should serve as an argument for the policy and implementation community to critically examine how their efforts are affected by the discourses and scales of climate-conflict and climate-security

BEYOND ALL LIMITS : Procedings on International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design : 11-12, 13 May 2022

[Italiano]: Il volume raccoglie gli atti della seconda edizione del convegno “BEYOND ALL LIMITS. International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design”, tenutosi nei giorni 11 e 12 maggio 2022, presso il Complesso del Belvedere di San Leucio, sede di Officina Vanvitelli. Il convegno è stato promosso e organizzato dal Dipartimento di Architettura e Disegno Industriale dell'Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, in partnership con la Faculty of Architecture della Çankaya University di Ankara e la Faculty of Engineering della University of Strathclyde di Glasgow. L’obiettivo principale di questo convegno scientifico e multidisciplinare, che ha interessato i campi dell'architettura, della pianificazione e del design, è stato quello di affrontare il tema della sostenibilità all’interno dell'attuale dibattito internazionale scaturito dal New European Bauhaus (NEB)./[English]: This volume collects the Proceedings of the second edition of the conference “BEYOND ALL LIMITS. International Conference on Sustainability in Architecture, Planning, and Design”, held on May 11 and 12, 2022, at the San Leucio Belvedere Complex, home of Officina Vanvitelli. The conference was sponsored and organized by the Department of Architecture and Industrial Design of the University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture of Çankaya University in Ankara and the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The main objective of this scientific and multidisciplinary conference, which covered the fields of architecture, planning and design, was to address the issue of sustainability within the current international debate that has arisen from the New European Bauhaus (NEB)

Toward a Responsible Design Science Research Ecosystem for the Digital Age: A Critical Pragmatist Perspective

This dissertation is motivated by the need to find ways to responsibly navigate the complex landscape of the digital age, in which rapid advances in information technology (IT), particularly in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), present both unprecedented opportunities and potentially catastrophic risks to society. The starting point is the assumption that we need to focus on Responsible Innovation (RI) in order to reap the benefits of accelerating IT innovation while avoiding the most dangerous risks. The main goal of this dissertation is to initiate and support the development of a responsible design science research (DSR) ecosystem to align DSR with the imperatives of RI. To this end, it advocates a paradigm shift for Information Systems (IS) research and proposes responsible DSR as a ”supermethodology” to address the grand challenges of the digital age in a responsible and productive manner. This dissertation achieves this goal through three interrelated inquiries: 1. Ethical Foundations of IS Research: A comprehensive overview of ethics and its relationship to IS research, based on a panel discussion and literature review, highlights ethical considerations for responsible IS research in the digital age. This sets the stage for a conscious engagement with RI in IS research and DSR. 2. Conceptual Framework for Responsible DSR: The central part of the dissertation develops a multi-grounded theory supported by interviews with various members of the IS community and academic literature. The result is a holistic framework for responsible DSR that addresses fundamental paradigmatic challenges: ontological, epistemological, axiological, and methodological. The framework serves as an open and integrative conceptual foundation for a responsible DSR ecosystem. 3. Applied Responsible DSR Project: The dissertation concludes with a concrete responsible DSR project that not only contributes to addressing a relevant societal problem, but also serves as an example of what responsible DSR can look like in practice. Scenario development and system dynamic simulation experiments are used to examine the impact of digitalization on the resilience of the U.S. food sector in the face of catastrophic electricity loss. The study stimulates a critical discourse on the interplay between digital transformation and social resilience and provides insights for the responsible embedding of digital technologies. Taken together, these studies form the basis for a responsible DSR ecosystem. However, this dissertation recognizes the participatory and emergent nature of such development efforts and can therefore only serve as a starting point. Continued discourse and deliberate action are needed to advance responsible DSR and contribute to the flourishing of our societies in the digital age

The Perfection of Government: Childrearing, Freedom, and Temptation in the Nineteenth-Century North

Thesis advisor: David QuigleyChiefly an effort in cultural, intellectual, and political history, this dissertation is concerned primarily with the American North between the 1830s and the 1860s. The study explores the critical connections that contemporaries drew between childrearing, the home, and the exercise and preservation of individual liberty in a rapidly changing United States. Before, during, and after the Civil War, Northerners celebrated the autonomy of American youngsters. But they did so with bated breath and furrowed brow. Leaving home—potentially a profound expression of personal autonomy for a young person—generated both encouragement and trepidation. Young people on their own, beyond the threshold of their families’ homes, outside the ambit of mothers and fathers: this appeared to contemporaries an intractable fact of life—and a perilous one. Of singular concern was temptation: a cunning, ruthless, and virulent force to which young people seemed highly, maybe uniquely, susceptible. To Northerners living through the nineteenth century’s tumultuous middle decades, temptation was a pressing problem; not least, it was a pressing political problem, a grave threat to individual liberty. Nineteenth-century Northerners, especially those of a Whiggish cast of mind, generally believed that the maintenance of liberty required that citizens follow the law, and they held parents, above all others, responsible for investing their children with respect for the law. But a freedom dependent on law-following alone, and on the formal power of the state that the law embodies, was not the freedom that all Northerners idealized. Many preferred that freedom be preserved less by officials acting upon individuals than by individuals acting upon themselves. From this perspective, young citizens were to emerge from their parents’ homes equipped not only to follow the law—that is, to be governed—but also to self-govern. This entailed, among other things, preparing young people to confront and overcome temptation, the enemy of self-governance. Drawing upon a wide array of sources, including periodicals, personal correspondence, popular literature, and Christian sermons, The Perfection of Government: Childrearing, Freedom, and Temptation illustrates how contemporaries harnessed the power of childrearing and home life to meet this formidable challenge.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2023.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: History

Assessing the sustainable food consumption behaviours of generation z across national cultures

La tesi esamina i comportamenti di consumo alimentare sostenibile della Generazione Z, prendendo in considerazione tre diversi Paesi: Ghana, Italia e Canada. Basato su una filosofia critico-realista, lo studio affronta cinque domande di ricerca, cercando approfondimenti sulle motivazioni, sulle influenze tecnologiche, sulle dinamiche culturali, sui valori e sui potenziali cambiamenti verso la sostenibilità relativamente al consumo alimentare sostenibile della Gen Z. Utilizzando un modello circolare della Teoria del Comportamento Pianificato (TPB) che sfida la prospettiva lineare convenzionale, la tesi introduce il concetto di rinforzo. La ricerca è stata condotta utilizzando un metodo misto che prevede diverse metodologie di raccolta dati: un'analisi qualitativa con 30 partecipanti (10 persone per ciascuna nazione) e un sondaggio con 928 intervistati (344 ghanesi, 306 italiani e 278 canadesi). Mentre l'analisi tematica è stata utilizzata per i dati qualitativi, l'analisi quantitativa è stata condotta con il modello di equazioni strutturali. I risultati principali sottolineano l’impatto positivo delle motivazioni salutistiche e degli atteggiamenti ambientali sulle intenzioni di consumo sostenibile. Inoltre, elementi culturali come i tabù alimentari e le preferenze tradizionali esercitano una notevole influenza sui comportamenti. Sebbene la tecnologia faciliti la diffusione delle informazioni, permangono persistenti barriere finanziarie e di accessibilità. Nello studio vengono evidenziate altresì le differenze tra Paesi. L’allineamento tra valori personali e istruzione emerge come fattore cruciale nella promozione della sostenibilità, ma i problemi di accessibilità pongono sfide all’adozione diffusa. In conclusione, lo studio sostiene un approccio socioculturale globale che integri cambiamenti individuali, collettivi e strutturali attraverso interventi flessibili mirati al miglioramento della conoscenza, alla congruenza dei valori, alle modifiche politiche e agli incentivi finanziari. Con l'aiuto di un metodo misto convergente e di un disegno di ricerca interculturale, tale metodo innovativo migliora la nostra comprensione teorica dei complicati elementi che influenzano le scelte alimentari sostenibili della Generazione Z.This dissertation delves into the examination of sustainable food consumption behaviours among Generation Z, spanning three distinct national cultures—Ghana, Italy, and Canada. Grounded in a critical realist philosophy, the study addresses five research questions, seeking insights into the motivations, technological influences, cultural dynamics, values, and potential shifts toward sustainability within Gen Z. Also, employing a circular model of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) that challenges the conventional linear perspective, the thesis introduces the concept of reinforcement. The research methodology involved a concurrent mixed methods approach. Data was collected from 30 participants for qualitative analysis (10 individuals from each country) and a survey encompassing 928 respondents (344 Ghanaians, 306 Italians, and 278 Canadians). The quantitative analysis employed structural equation modelling, while thematic analysis was applied to the qualitative data. Key findings underscore the positive impact of health motivations and environmental attitudes on sustainable consumption intentions. Additionally, cultural elements such as food taboos and traditional preferences exert a notable influence on behaviours. Although technology facilitates information dissemination, persistent financial and accessibility barriers remain. Country differences are also highlighted in the study. The alignment of values and education emerges as pivotal factors in promoting sustainability, yet issues of affordability pose challenges to widespread adoption. In conclusion, the study advocates for a comprehensive sociocultural approach that integrates individual, collective, and structural changes through flexible interventions targeting knowledge enhancement, value congruency, policy modifications, and financial incentives. This innovative approach enhances our theoretical understanding of the intricate drivers influencing Generation Z’s sustainable food choices, contributing to convergent mixed methods and cross-cultural research design

Cross-cultural evidence for the influence of positive self-evaluation on cross-cultural differences in well-being

Poster Session F - Well-Being: abstract F197We propose that cultural norms about realism and hedonism contribute to the cross-cultural differences in well-being over and above differences in objective living conditions. To test this hypothesis, we used samples from China and the United States. Results supported the mediating role of positive evaluative bias in cross-cultural differences in well-being.postprin