Ensuring patients privacy in a cryptographic-based-electronic health records using bio-cryptography

Several recent works have proposed and implemented cryptography as a means to preserve privacy and security of patients health data. Nevertheless, the weakest point of electronic health record (EHR) systems that relied on these cryptographic schemes is key management. Thus, this paper presents the development of privacy and security system for cryptography-based-EHR by taking advantage of the uniqueness of fingerprint and iris characteristic features to secure cryptographic keys in a bio-cryptography framework. The results of the system evaluation showed significant improvements in terms of time efficiency of this approach to cryptographic-based-EHR. Both the fuzzy vault and fuzzy commitment demonstrated false acceptance rate (FAR) of 0%, which reduces the likelihood of imposters gaining successful access to the keys protecting patients protected health information. This result also justifies the feasibility of implementing fuzzy key binding scheme in real applications, especially fuzzy vault which demonstrated a better performance during key reconstruction

Data Management in Microservices: State of the Practice, Challenges, and Research Directions

We are recently witnessing an increased adoption of microservice architectures by the industry for achieving scalability by functional decomposition, fault-tolerance by deployment of small and independent services, and polyglot persistence by the adoption of different database technologies specific to the needs of each service. Despite the accelerating industrial adoption and the extensive research on microservices, there is a lack of thorough investigation on the state of the practice and the major challenges faced by practitioners with regard to data management. To bridge this gap, this paper presents a detailed investigation of data management in microservices. Our exploratory study is based on the following methodology: we conducted a systematic literature review of articles reporting the adoption of microservices in industry, where more than 300 articles were filtered down to 11 representative studies; we analyzed a set of 9 popular open-source microservice-based applications, selected out of more than 20 open-source projects; furthermore, to strengthen our evidence, we conducted an online survey that we then used to cross-validate the findings of the previous steps with the perceptions and experiences of over 120 practitioners and researchers. Through this process, we were able to categorize the state of practice and reveal several principled challenges that cannot be solved by software engineering practices, but rather need system-level support to alleviate the burden of practitioners. Based on the observations we also identified a series of research directions to achieve this goal. Fundamentally, novel database systems and data management tools that support isolation for microservices, which include fault isolation, performance isolation, data ownership, and independent schema evolution across microservices must be built to address the needs of this growing architectural style

IT infrastructure & microservices authentication

Mestrado IPB-ESTGBIOma - Integrated solutions in BIOeconomy for the Mobilization of the Agrifood chain project is structured in 6 PPS (Products, Processes, and Services) out of which, a part of PPS2 is covered in this work. This work resulted in the second deliverable of PPS2 which is defined as PPS2.A1.E2 - IT infrastructure design and graphical interface conceptual design. BIOma project is in the early stage and this deliverable is a design task of the project. For defining the system architecture, requirements, UML diagrams, physical architecture, and logical architecture have been proposed. The system architecture is based on microservices due to its advantages like scalability and maintainability for bigger projects like BIOma where several sensors are used for big data analysis. Special attention has been devoted to the research and study for the authentication and authorization of users and devices in a microservices architecture. The proposed authentication solution is a result of research made for microservices authentication where it was concluded that using a separate microservice for user authentication is the best solution. FIWARE is an open-source initiative defining a universal set of standards for context data management that facilitates the development of Smart solutions for different domains like Smart Cities, Smart Industry, Smart Agrifood, and Smart Energy. FIWARE’s PEP (Policy Enforcement Point) proxy solution has been proposed in this work for the better management of user’s identities, and client-side certificates have been proposed for authentication of IoT (Internet of Things) devices. The communication between microservices is done through AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol), and between IoT devices and microservices is done through MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) protocol

Construction Management Initial Construction Preparation

The process of planning and managing a construction project is of the utmost importance to ensure the success of the project. This allows the managers of the project to monitor the compliance of deadlines and budget, to try and mitigate or reduce any possible deviations that might occur due to unforeseen circumstances. Although there are already solutions in the market, which were the target of a market study, many are still lacking key functionalities, or could be improved. This is what motivated this project, and as such this project will focus on developing a solution with state-of-the-art technologies that focuses on providing its users the best user experience possible, while also providing all the tools necessary to plan and manage a construction project. The contents of this document follow a logical sequence. Starting with an introduction to the problem, its objectives and the approach used. Following, is an analysis where the problem is contextualized, and a market study is also performed with the goal of identifying and detailing the opportunity. Next, in this document is included the process of analyzing the business to identify all the requirements for the solution as well as a discussion of possible design alternatives for the implementation of the solution and the chosen approach. Lastly, the implementation of the designed solution is detailed and evaluated to assess whether the main objective was achieved. By the end of this project, the system was implemented and evaluated, and scored high regarding its quality, had a good user acceptance, even without all the requirements present. This outcome was the result of a continuous iterative process and transparency with the stakeholdersO processo de planeamento e gestão de um projeto de uma construção é de extrema importância para garantir o sucesso do projeto. Isto permite que os gestores do projeto acompanhem o cumprimento de prazos e orçamento, para tentar mitigar ou reduzir eventuais desvios que possam ocorrer devido a circunstâncias imprevistas. Apesar de já existirem soluções no mercado, que foram alvo de um estudo de mercado, muitas ainda carecem de funcionalidades chave, ou podem ser melhoradas. Foi isto que motivou este projeto, e como tal este projeto irá focar-se no desenvolvimento de uma solução com tecnologias de ponta que foca em proporcionar aos seus utilizadores a melhor experiência de utilizador possível e, ao mesmo tempo, disponibilizar todas as ferramentas necessárias para planear e gerir um projeto de construção. O conteúdo deste documento segue uma sequência lógica. Começando com uma introdução ao problema, seus objetivos e a abordagem utilizada. A seguir, é feita uma análise onde o problema é contextualizado, e também é realizado um estudo de mercado com o objetivo de identificar e detalhar a oportunidade. Em seguida, neste documento está incluído o processo de análise do negócio para identificar todos os requisitos para a solução, bem como uma discussão de possíveis alternativas de design para a implementação da solução e a abordagem escolhida de entre as alternativas. Por fim, a implementação da solução desenhada é detalhada e, por fim, a solução desenvolvida é avaliada para quantificar sua qualidade. No final deste projeto, a solução desenhada foi desenvolvida e avaliada, e pontuou bastante alto quanto à sua qualidade, teve uma boa aceitação dos utilizadores, mesmo sem todos os requisitos presentes. A solução desenvolvida é intuitiva e fácil de usar e , mesmo com alguns dos requisitos em falta, motiva os utilizadores a trocar as ferramentas atuais, tendo assim atingido o objetivo que se propôs alcançar. Este resultado foi fruto de um processo iterativo contínuo e da transparência total com as partes interessada

A Tacticians Guide to Conflict, Vol. 1: Advancing Explanations & Predictions of Intrastate Conflict

Intrastate conflict is an ever-evolving problem – causes, explanation, and predictions are increasingly murky as traditional methods of analysis focus on structural issues as precursors of conflict. Often times these theories do not consider the underlying meso and micro dynamics that can provide vital insights into the phenomena. Tactical decision-makers are left using models that rely on highly aggregated, country level data to create proper courses of actions (COAs) to address or predict conflict. The shortcoming is that conflicts morph quite rapidly and structural variables can struggle capture such dynamic changes. To address this some tacticians are using big data and advances in machine learning techniques to provide highly accuracy predictions of conflict, however these models lack explanatory power. Decision makers need a solution that can provide accurate explanations and predictions at higher frequencies and geographic granularity – essentially theory informed machine learning models. To achieve this, relational data, constructed from event data and social network analysis (SNA) is used to provide more granular and higher frequency data. Using this data and SNA, structural factors of power, parity, and satisfaction specified in Benson & Kugler (1998) and Lemke (2008) are recreated. Initial testing provides evidence that new measures capture results found in theory. Next the theoretical model was expanded using a complex adaptive systems framework to incorporate meso and micro levels of analysis. Outcomes suggest that examination conflict from all three levels of analysis provides higher explanatory power when compared to just a structural approach. Taking insights gleaned from statistical analysis, both the theory and CAS models were used in creating a classification and regression tree as well as random forest model for prediction. Results suggest that a CAS random forest model provides highly accurate temporally frequent, geographically specific predictions of conflict. Further the parsimonious nature of the model and structure of data means that tactical decision makers can make month-to-month predictions of conflict and explain why onset occurred. Further, by leveraging data heterogeneity, predictions can be made province-by-province, extracting different drivers of onset unique to each region. Tactical decision makers can create more nuanced and specific COAs better tailored to specific areas, rather then general policy. This research provides evidence that an extended approach using social network analysis and complex adaptive systems framework can provide a more detailed explanation of conflict as well and provide highly accurate, geographically specific, month-to-month predictions. The goal is to develop a theory informed, enhanced, replicable and area agnostic framework for producing higher accuracy conflict forecasts, explanations of conflict as well as more granular temporal and geographic stability predictions – aiding the move from strategic to tactical decision making

News devices:how digital objects participate in news and research

News work is increasingly taking place in and through a variety of intersecting digital devices, from websites, to search engines, online platforms, apps, bots, web analytics, data analysis and visualisation tools. These devices are also increasingly used as resources in digital research, and their implications are yet to be fully understood. This thesis examines how digital objects participate in news work and research. To this end, I propose an orientation towards the news device as a research topic and approach. The news device approach calls attention to the ways in which practices and relations are co-produced with digital objects involved in news work. It also attends to how such digital devices may afford modes of studying these practices. To make the case for this approach, I examine the participation of three types of devices in three aspects of news work: (1) the role of the network graph in journalistic storytelling, (2) the role of the online platform in journalism coding, and (3) the role of the web tracker in news audience commodification. In all, the thesis contributes to understanding the digital transformations of news in two ways. First, it develops a rich, nuanced, multidisciplinary, collaborative and reflexive approach to news research with digital methods. Secondly, it provides novel insights into how digital devices shape both news processes and relations with the online advertising and marketing industries, commercial online platforms, digital visual culture, and other digital content producers

New Fundamental Technologies in Data Mining

The progress of data mining technology and large public popularity establish a need for a comprehensive text on the subject. The series of books entitled by "Data Mining" address the need by presenting in-depth description of novel mining algorithms and many useful applications. In addition to understanding each section deeply, the two books present useful hints and strategies to solving problems in the following chapters. The contributing authors have highlighted many future research directions that will foster multi-disciplinary collaborations and hence will lead to significant development in the field of data mining

Process Mining Concepts for Discovering User Behavioral Patterns in Instrumented Software

Process Mining is a technique for discovering “in-use” processes from traces emitted to event logs. Researchers have recently explored applying this technique to documenting processes discovered in software applications. However, the requirements for emitting events to support Process Mining against software applications have not been well documented. Furthermore, the linking of end-user intentional behavior to software quality as demonstrated in the discovered processes has not been well articulated. After evaluating the literature, this thesis suggested focusing on user goals and actual, in-use processes as an input to an Agile software development life cycle in order to improve software quality. It also provided suggestions for instrumenting software applications to support Process Mining techniques