Smart Grid Applications for a Practical Implementation of IP over Narrowband Power Line Communications

Abstract Currently, Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) systems have equipped the low voltage section with a communication system that is being used mainly for metering purposes, but it can be further employed for additional applications related to the Smart Grid (SG) concept. This paper explores the potential applications beyond metering of the available channel in a Power Line Communication-based AMI system. To that end, IP has been implemented over Narrow Band-Power Line Communication (NB-PLC) in a real microgrid, which includes an AMI system. A thorough review of potential applications for the SG that might be implemented for this representative case is included in order to provide a realistic analysis of the potentiality of NB-PLC beyond smart metering. The results demonstrate that existing AMI systems based on NB-PLC have the capacity to implement additional applications such as remote commands or status signals, which entails an added value for deployed AMI systems.This work has been partially funded by the Basque Government (IT.683-13 and ELKARTEK KK-2017/00071

Web services choreography testing using semantic service description

Web services have become popular due to their ability to integrate with and to interoperate heterogeneous applications. Several web services can be combined into a single application to meet the needs of users. In the course of web services selection, a web candidate service needs to conform to the behaviour of its client, and one way of ensuring this conformity is by testing the interaction between the web service and its user. The existing web services test approaches mainly focus on syntax-based web services description, whilst the semantic-based solutions mostly address composite process flow testing. The aim of this research is to provide an automated testing approach to support service selection during automatic web services composition using Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO). The research work began with understanding and analysing the existing test generation approaches for web services. Second, the weaknesses of the existing approaches were identified and addressed by utilizing the choreography transition rules of WSMO in an effort to generate a Finite State Machine (FSM). The FSM was then used to generate the working test cases. Third, a technique to generate an FSM from Abstract State Machine (ASM) was adapted to be used with WSMO. This thesis finally proposed a new testing model called the Choreography to Finite State Machine (C2FSM) to support the service selection of an automatic web service composition. It proposed new algorithms to automatically generate the test cases from the semantic description (WSMO choreography description). The proposed approach was then evaluated using the Amazon E-Commerce Web Service WSMO description. The quality of the test cases generated using the proposed approach was measured by assessing their mutation adequacy score. A total of 115 mutants were created based on 7 mutant operators. A mutation adequacy score of 0.713 was obtained. The experimental validation demonstrated a significant result in the sense that C2FSM provided an efficient and feasible solution. The result of this research could assist the service consumer agents in verifying the behaviour of the Web service in selecting appropriate services for web service composition

Proceedings of the Weizenbaum Conference 2023: AI, Big Data, Social Media, and People on the Move

The conference focused on topics that arise from artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data deployed on and used by 'people on the move'. We understand the term 'people on the move' in a broad sense: individuals and groups who - by volition or necessity - are changing their lives and/or their structural position in societies. This encompasses the role of automated systems or AI in different forms of geographical and social change, including migration and labour mobility, algorithmic uses of 'location', as well as discourses of and about people on the move

Applications in security and evasions in machine learning : a survey

In recent years, machine learning (ML) has become an important part to yield security and privacy in various applications. ML is used to address serious issues such as real-time attack detection, data leakage vulnerability assessments and many more. ML extensively supports the demanding requirements of the current scenario of security and privacy across a range of areas such as real-time decision-making, big data processing, reduced cycle time for learning, cost-efficiency and error-free processing. Therefore, in this paper, we review the state of the art approaches where ML is applicable more effectively to fulfill current real-world requirements in security. We examine different security applications' perspectives where ML models play an essential role and compare, with different possible dimensions, their accuracy results. By analyzing ML algorithms in security application it provides a blueprint for an interdisciplinary research area. Even with the use of current sophisticated technology and tools, attackers can evade the ML models by committing adversarial attacks. Therefore, requirements rise to assess the vulnerability in the ML models to cope up with the adversarial attacks at the time of development. Accordingly, as a supplement to this point, we also analyze the different types of adversarial attacks on the ML models. To give proper visualization of security properties, we have represented the threat model and defense strategies against adversarial attack methods. Moreover, we illustrate the adversarial attacks based on the attackers' knowledge about the model and addressed the point of the model at which possible attacks may be committed. Finally, we also investigate different types of properties of the adversarial attacks

UTP, Circus, and Isabelle

We dedicate this paper with great respect and friendship to He Jifeng on the occasion of his 80th birthday. Our research group owes much to him. The authors have over 150 publications on unifying theories of programming (UTP), a research topic Jifeng created with Tony Hoare. Our objective is to recount the history of Circus (a combination of Z, CSP, Dijkstra’s guarded command language, and Morgan’s refinement calculus) and the development of Isabelle/UTP. Our paper is in two parts. (1) We first discuss the activities needed to model systems: we need to formalise data models and their behaviours. We survey our work on these two aspects in the context of Circus. (2) Secondly, we describe our practical implementation of UTP in Isabelle/HOL. Mechanising UTP theories is the basis of novel verification tools. We also discuss ongoing and future work related to (1) and (2). Many colleagues have contributed to these works, and we acknowledge their support

Reforming political party organization in the XXIst century. On the Transformative Effect of Network Parties on Modern Representative Democracy

This thesis contributes to a better understanding of current political parties, critically engaging with their merits through the lens of the Network Society. It draws on five case studies in order to flesh out the nuances of the network party type. I review the genealogy of party types, advancing the existing literature on a broad range of party types, from the mass party to the catch-all party, as well as filling in the gaps related to network party type. Firstly, I argue that the crucial novelties brought on by network parties are explicit in the following characteristics: A vision of expert-citizen democracy and "strong" participation, a desideratum of openness and transparency, an alignment to "disintermediation" and the revision of the concept of representation, and an organizational vision of permeable intra-party democracy. Drawing on the five case studies, I then identify sub-types of network parties: the procedural, the plebiscitary and the municipalist.Esta tesis contribuye comprender mejor los partidos políticos actuales y analiza críticamente sus méritos a través de la óptica de la network society. Se basa en cinco estudios de caso para establecer y definir los matices de cada tipo de network party. Asimismo, revisa la genealogía de los tipos de partidos y avanza en la literatura existente sobre una amplia gama de tipos de partidos, desde los mass parties hasta los catch-all parties, y se completan algunas lagunas relacionadas con los tipos de network parties. En primer lugar, se sostiene que las novedades cruciales que aportan los network parties se hacen explícitas en las siguientes características: una visión de la democracia experto-ciudadano y de la participación "fuerte", un desiderátum de apertura y transparencia, una alineación con la "desintermediación" y la revisión del concepto de representación y una visión organizativa de la democracia intrapartidaria permeable. A partir de los cinco estudios de caso, se identifican, a continuación, varios subtipos de network parties: los procedimentales, los plebiscitarios y los municipalistas.Aquesta tesi contribueix a comprendre més bé els partits polítics actuals i analitza críticament els seus mèrits a través de l'òptica de la network society. Es basa en cinc estudis de cas per establir i definir els matisos de cada tipus de network party. Així mateix, revisa la genealogia dels tipus de partits i avança en la literatura existent sobre una àmplia gamma de tipus de partits, des dels mass-parties fins als catch-all parties, i es completen les mancances relacionades amb els tipus de network parties. En primer lloc, se sosté que les novetats crucials que aporten els network parties es fan explícites en les característiques següents: una visió de la democràcia expert-ciutadà i de la participació "forta", un desideràtum d'obertura i transparència, una alineació amb la "desintermediació" i la revisió del concepte de representació i una visió organitzativa de la democràcia intrapartidària permeable. A partir dels cinc estudis de cas, s'identifiquen, a continuació, diferents subtipus de network parties: els procedimentals, els plebiscitaris i els municipalistes.Societat de la informació i el coneixemen