62 research outputs found

    LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volum

    DNA Computing: Modelling in Formal Languages and Combinatorics on Words, and Complexity Estimation

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    DNA computing, an essential area of unconventional computing research, encodes problems using DNA molecules and solves them using biological processes. This thesis contributes to the theoretical research in DNA computing by modelling biological processes as computations and by studying formal language and combinatorics on words concepts motivated by DNA processes. It also contributes to the experimental research in DNA computing by a scaling comparison between DNA computing and other models of computation. First, for theoretical DNA computing research, we propose a new word operation inspired by a DNA wet lab protocol called cross-pairing polymerase chain reaction (XPCR). We define and study a word operation called word blending that models and generalizes an unexpected outcome of XPCR. The input words are uwx and ywv that share a non-empty overlap w, and the output is the word uwv. Closure properties of the Chomsky families of languages under this operation and its iterated version, the existence of a solution to equations involving this operation, and its state complexity are studied. To follow the XPCR experimental requirement closely, a new word operation called conjugate word blending is defined, where the subwords x and y are required to be identical. Closure properties of the Chomsky families of languages under this operation and the XPCR experiments that motivate and implement it are presented. Second, we generalize the sequence of Fibonacci words inspired by biological concepts on DNA. The sequence of Fibonacci words is an infinite sequence of words obtained from two initial letters f(1) = a and f(2)= b, by the recursive definition f(n+2) = f(n+1)*f(n), for all positive integers n, where * denotes word concatenation. After we propose a unified terminology for different types of Fibonacci words and corresponding results in the extensive literature on the topic, we define and explore involutive Fibonacci words motivated by ideas stemming from theoretical studies of DNA computing. The relationship between different involutive Fibonacci words and their borderedness and primitivity are studied. Third, we analyze the practicability of DNA computing experiments since DNA computing and other unconventional computing methods that solve computationally challenging problems often have the limitation that the space of potential solutions grows exponentially with their sizes. For such problems, DNA computing algorithms may achieve a linear time complexity with an exponential space complexity as a trade-off. Using the subset sum problem as the benchmark problem, we present a scaling comparison of the DNA computing (DNA-C) approach with the network biocomputing (NB-C) and the electronic computing (E-C) approaches, where the volume, computing time, and energy required, relative to the input size, are compared. Our analysis shows that E-C uses a tiny volume compared to that required by DNA-C and NB-C, at the cost of the E-C computing time being outperformed first by DNA-C and then by NB-C. In addition, NB-C appears to be more energy efficient than DNA-C for some input sets, and E-C is always an order of magnitude less energy efficient than DNA-C

    Letters from the War of Ecosystems – An Analysis of Independent Software Vendors in Mobile Application Marketplaces

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    The recent emergence of a new generation of mobile application marketplaces has changed the business in the mobile ecosystems. The marketplaces have gathered over a million applications by hundreds of thousands of application developers and publishers. Thus, software ecosystems&mdash;consisting of developers, consumers and the orchestrator&mdash;have emerged as a part of the mobile ecosystem.&nbsp; This dissertation addresses the new challenges faced by mobile application developers in the new ecosystems through empirical methods. By using the theories of two-sided markets and business ecosystems as the basis, the thesis assesses monetization and value creation in the market as well as the impact of electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) and developer multihoming&mdash; i. e. contributing for more than one platform&mdash;in the ecosystems. The data for the study was collected with web crawling from the three biggest marketplaces: Apple App Store, Google Play and Windows Phone Store.&nbsp; The dissertation consists of six individual articles. The results of the studies show a gap in monetization among the studied applications, while a majority of applications are produced by small or micro-enterprises. The study finds only weak support for the impact of eWOM on the sales of an application in the studied ecosystem. Finally, the study reveals a clear difference in the multi-homing rates between the top application developers and the rest. This has, as discussed in the thesis, an impact on the future market analyses&mdash;it seems that the smart device market can sustain several parallel application marketplaces. - - - - - Muutama vuosi sitten julkistetut uuden sukupolven mobiilisovellusten kauppapaikat ovat muuttaneet mobiiliekosysteemien liiketoimintadynamiikkaa. N&auml;m&auml; uudet markkinapaikat ovat jo onnistuneet houkuttelemaan yli miljoona sovellusta sadoilta tuhansilta ohjelmistokehitt&auml;jilt&auml;. N&auml;m&auml; kehitt&auml;j&auml;t yhdess&auml; markkinapaikan organisoijan sek&auml; loppuk&auml;ytt&auml;jien kanssa ovat muodostaneet ohjelmistoekosysteemin osaksi laajempaa mobiiliekosysteemi&auml;.&nbsp; T&auml;ss&auml; v&auml;it&ouml;skirjassa tarkastellaan mobiilisovellusten kehitt&auml;jien uudenlaisilla kauppapaikoilla kohtaamia haasteita empiiristen tutkimusmenetelmien kautta. V&auml;it&ouml;skirjassa arvioidaan sovellusten monetisaatiota ja arvonluontia sek&auml; verkon asiakasarviointien (engl. electronicWord-of-Mouth, eWOM) ja kehitt&auml;jien moniliittymisen (engl. multi-homing) &mdash; kehitt&auml;j&auml; on sitoutunut useammalle kuin yhdelle ekosysteemille &mdash; vaikutuksia ekosysteemiss&auml;. Ty&ouml;n teoreettinen tausta rakentuu kaksipuolisten markkinapaikkojen ja liiketoimintaekosysteemien p&auml;&auml;lle. Tutkimuksen aineisto on ker&auml;tty kolmelta suurimmalta mobiilisovellusmarkkinapaikalta: Apple App Storesta, Google Playst&auml; ja Windows Phone Storesta.&nbsp; T&auml;m&auml; artikkeliv&auml;it&ouml;skirja koostuu kuudesta itsen&auml;isest&auml; tutkimusk&auml;sikirjoituksesta. Artikkelien tulokset osoittavat puutteita monetisaatiossa tutkittujen sovellusten joukossa. Merkitt&auml;v&auml; osa tarkastelluista sovelluksista on pienten yritysten tai yksitt&auml;isten kehitt&auml;jien julkaisemia. Tutkimuksessa l&ouml;ydettiin vain heikkoa tukea eWOM:in positiiviselle vaikutukselle sovellusten myyntim&auml;&auml;riss&auml;. Ty&ouml;ss&auml; my&ouml;s osoitetaan merkitt&auml;v&auml; ero menestyneimpien sovelluskehitt&auml;jien sek&auml; muiden kehitt&auml;jien moniliittymisk&auml;ytt&auml;ytymisen v&auml;lill&auml;. T&auml;ll&auml; havainnolla on merkityst&auml; tuleville markkina-analyyseille ja sen vaikutuksia on k&auml;sitelty ty&ouml;ss&auml;. Tulokset esimerkiksi viittaavat siihen, ett&auml; markkinat pystyisiv&auml;t yll&auml;pit&auml;m&auml;&auml;n useita kilpailevia kauppapaikkoja.</p

    A note on subgroups of automorphism groups of full shifts

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    We discuss the set of subgroups of the automorphism group of a full shift and submonoids of its endomorphism monoid. We prove closure under direct products in the monoid case and free products in the group case. We also show that the automorphism group of a full shift embeds in that of an uncountable sofic shift. Some undecidability results are obtained as corollaries.</p

    Universal groups of cellular automata

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    We prove that the group of reversible cellular automata (RCA), on any alphabet A, contains a subgroup generated by three involutions which contains an iso-morphic copy of every finitely generated group of RCA on any alphabet B. This result follows from a case study of groups of RCA generated by symbol permutations and par-tial shifts (equivalently, partitioned cellular automata) with respect to a fixed Cartesian product decomposition of the alphabet. For prime alphabets, we show that this group is virtually cyclic, and that for composite alphabets it is non-amenable. For alphabet size four, it is a linear group. For non-prime non-four alphabets, it contains copies of all finitely generated groups of RCA. We also prove this property for the group generated by RCA of biradius one on any full shift with large enough alphabet, and also for some perfect finitely generated groups of RCA

    Automatic Pain Assessment by Learning from Multiple Biopotentials

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    On the Properties and Structure of Bordered Words and Generalizations

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    Combinatorics on words is a field of mathematics and theoretical computer science that is concerned with sequences of symbols called words, or strings. One class of words that are ubiquitous in combinatorics on words, and theoretical computer science more broadly, are the bordered words. The word w has a border u if u is a non-empty proper prefix and suffix of w. The word w is said to be bordered if it has a border. Otherwise w is said to be unbordered. This thesis is primarily concerned with variations and generalizations of bordered and unbordered words. In Chapter 1 we introduce the field of combinatorics on words and give a brief overview of the literature on borders relevant to this thesis. In Chapter 2 we give necessary definitions, and we present a more in-depth literature review on results on borders relevant to this thesis. In Chapter 3 we complete the characterization due to Harju and Nowotka of binary words with the maximum number of unbordered conjugates. We also show that for every number, up to this maximum, there exists a binary word with that number of unbordered conjugates. In Chapter 4 we give results on pairs of words that almost commute and anti-commute. Two words x and y almost commute if xy and yx differ in exactly two places, and they anti-commute if xy and yx differ in all places. We characterize and count the number of pairs of words that almost and anti-commute. We also characterize and count variations of almost-commuting words. Finally we conclude with some asymptotic results related to the number of almost-commuting pairs of words. In Chapter 5 we count the number of length-n bordered words with a unique border. We also show that the probability that a length-n word has a unique border tends to a constant. In Chapter 6 we present results on factorizations of words related to borders, called block palindromes. A block palindrome is a factorization of a word into blocks that turns into a palindrome if each identical block is replaced by a distinct character. Each block is a border of a central block. We call the number of blocks in a block palindrome the width of the block palindrome. The largest block palindrome of a word is the block palindrome of the word with the maximum width. We count all length-n words that have a width-t largest block palindrome. We also show that the expected width of a largest block palindrome tends to a constant. Finally we conclude with some results on another extremal variation of block palindromes, the smallest block palindrome. In Chapter 7 we present the main results of the thesis. Roughly speaking, a word is said to be closed if it contains a non-empty proper border that occurs exactly twice in the word. A word is said to be privileged if it is of length ≤ 1 or if it contains a non-empty proper privileged border that occurs exactly twice in the word. We give new and improved bounds on the number of length-n closed and privileged words over a k-letter alphabet. In Chapter 8 we work with a generalization of bordered words to pairs of words. The main result of this chapter is a characterization and enumeration result for this generalization of bordered words to multiple dimensions. In Chapter 9 we conclude by summarizing the results of this thesis and presenting avenues for future research

    Security and trust in cloud computing and IoT through applying obfuscation, diversification, and trusted computing technologies

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    Cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) are very widely spread and commonly used technologies nowadays. The advanced services offered by cloud computing have made it a highly demanded technology. Enterprises and businesses are more and more relying on the cloud to deliver services to their customers. The prevalent use of cloud means that more data is stored outside the organization’s premises, which raises concerns about the security and privacy of the stored and processed data. This highlights the significance of effective security practices to secure the cloud infrastructure. The number of IoT devices is growing rapidly and the technology is being employed in a wide range of sectors including smart healthcare, industry automation, and smart environments. These devices collect and exchange a great deal of information, some of which may contain critical and personal data of the users of the device. Hence, it is highly significant to protect the collected and shared data over the network; notwithstanding, the studies signify that attacks on these devices are increasing, while a high percentage of IoT devices lack proper security measures to protect the devices, the data, and the privacy of the users. In this dissertation, we study the security of cloud computing and IoT and propose software-based security approaches supported by the hardware-based technologies to provide robust measures for enhancing the security of these environments. To achieve this goal, we use obfuscation and diversification as the potential software security techniques. Code obfuscation protects the software from malicious reverse engineering and diversification mitigates the risk of large-scale exploits. We study trusted computing and Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) as the hardware-based security solutions. Trusted Platform Module (TPM) provides security and trust through a hardware root of trust, and assures the integrity of a platform. We also study Intel SGX which is a TEE solution that guarantees the integrity and confidentiality of the code and data loaded onto its protected container, enclave. More precisely, through obfuscation and diversification of the operating systems and APIs of the IoT devices, we secure them at the application level, and by obfuscation and diversification of the communication protocols, we protect the communication of data between them at the network level. For securing the cloud computing, we employ obfuscation and diversification techniques for securing the cloud computing software at the client-side. For an enhanced level of security, we employ hardware-based security solutions, TPM and SGX. These solutions, in addition to security, ensure layered trust in various layers from hardware to the application. As the result of this PhD research, this dissertation addresses a number of security risks targeting IoT and cloud computing through the delivered publications and presents a brief outlook on the future research directions.Pilvilaskenta ja esineiden internet ovat nykyään hyvin tavallisia ja laajasti sovellettuja tekniikkoja. Pilvilaskennan pitkälle kehittyneet palvelut ovat tehneet siitä hyvin kysytyn teknologian. Yritykset enenevässä määrin nojaavat pilviteknologiaan toteuttaessaan palveluita asiakkailleen. Vallitsevassa pilviteknologian soveltamistilanteessa yritykset ulkoistavat tietojensa käsittelyä yrityksen ulkopuolelle, minkä voidaan nähdä nostavan esiin huolia taltioitavan ja käsiteltävän tiedon turvallisuudesta ja yksityisyydestä. Tämä korostaa tehokkaiden turvallisuusratkaisujen merkitystä osana pilvi-infrastruktuurin turvaamista. Esineiden internet -laitteiden lukumäärä on nopeasti kasvanut. Teknologiana sitä sovelletaan laajasti monilla sektoreilla, kuten älykkäässä terveydenhuollossa, teollisuusautomaatiossa ja älytiloissa. Sellaiset laitteet keräävät ja välittävät suuria määriä informaatiota, joka voi sisältää laitteiden käyttäjien kannalta kriittistä ja yksityistä tietoa. Tästä syystä johtuen on erittäin merkityksellistä suojata verkon yli kerättävää ja jaettavaa tietoa. Monet tutkimukset osoittavat esineiden internet -laitteisiin kohdistuvien tietoturvahyökkäysten määrän olevan nousussa, ja samaan aikaan suuri osuus näistä laitteista ei omaa kunnollisia teknisiä ominaisuuksia itse laitteiden tai niiden käyttäjien yksityisen tiedon suojaamiseksi. Tässä väitöskirjassa tutkitaan pilvilaskennan sekä esineiden internetin tietoturvaa ja esitetään ohjelmistopohjaisia tietoturvalähestymistapoja turvautumalla osittain laitteistopohjaisiin teknologioihin. Esitetyt lähestymistavat tarjoavat vankkoja keinoja tietoturvallisuuden kohentamiseksi näissä konteksteissa. Tämän saavuttamiseksi työssä sovelletaan obfuskaatiota ja diversifiointia potentiaalisiana ohjelmistopohjaisina tietoturvatekniikkoina. Suoritettavan koodin obfuskointi suojaa pahantahtoiselta ohjelmiston takaisinmallinnukselta ja diversifiointi torjuu tietoturva-aukkojen laaja-alaisen hyödyntämisen riskiä. Väitöskirjatyössä tutkitaan luotettua laskentaa ja luotettavan laskennan suoritusalustoja laitteistopohjaisina tietoturvaratkaisuina. TPM (Trusted Platform Module) tarjoaa turvallisuutta ja luottamuksellisuutta rakentuen laitteistopohjaiseen luottamukseen. Pyrkimyksenä on taata suoritusalustan eheys. Työssä tutkitaan myös Intel SGX:ää yhtenä luotettavan suorituksen suoritusalustana, joka takaa suoritettavan koodin ja datan eheyden sekä luottamuksellisuuden pohjautuen suojatun säiliön, saarekkeen, tekniseen toteutukseen. Tarkemmin ilmaistuna työssä turvataan käyttöjärjestelmä- ja sovellusrajapintatasojen obfuskaation ja diversifioinnin kautta esineiden internet -laitteiden ohjelmistokerrosta. Soveltamalla samoja tekniikoita protokollakerrokseen, työssä suojataan laitteiden välistä tiedonvaihtoa verkkotasolla. Pilvilaskennan turvaamiseksi työssä sovelletaan obfuskaatio ja diversifiointitekniikoita asiakaspuolen ohjelmistoratkaisuihin. Vankemman tietoturvallisuuden saavuttamiseksi työssä hyödynnetään laitteistopohjaisia TPM- ja SGX-ratkaisuja. Tietoturvallisuuden lisäksi nämä ratkaisut tarjoavat monikerroksisen luottamuksen rakentuen laitteistotasolta ohjelmistokerrokseen asti. Tämän väitöskirjatutkimustyön tuloksena, osajulkaisuiden kautta, vastataan moniin esineiden internet -laitteisiin ja pilvilaskentaan kohdistuviin tietoturvauhkiin. Työssä esitetään myös näkemyksiä jatkotutkimusaiheista
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