Enhancing Security and Transparency of User Data Systems with Blockchain Technology

As blockchain is increasingly gaining popularity, interest in corporate use is also gaining traction. One area blockchain has seen an increased amount of use are systems involving management of sensitive information, such as user data systems. In this thesis commissioned by a stakeholder, blockchain is implemented in user data system as a proof-of-concept prototype aiming to prove that the implementation can enhance data security and transparency in user data systems. The first half of the this will build a theoretical framework. First, fundamental theory of blockchain is examined, which includes an overview of blockchain’s architecture and its security features. This includes architecture and functionality on general level, consensus methodology, and other security algorithms such as hashes. Second, already existing blockchain solutions that could benefit in designing the proof-of-concept prototype are explored, which included a patient data system, and an Internet-of-Things system. Patient data system’s case provided a solution of implementing blockchain as a separate component in the patient information system, while Internet-of-Things’ solution provided insight of storing functional data in the blockchain, while keeping the actual raw data in a separate database with a restricted access. These solutions formed an adequate foundation; however, the solutions couldn’t be applied as-is, which lead to the need of applying and designing a new solution. The latter half of reports the implementation process of blockchain. First, the research method used in this thesis, constructive research approach, is demonstrated - constructive research approach aims to create a practical solution for a real-life problem. The prototype’s primary requirement is that it should be able to record a log of activity in the user data system, telling who did what and to whom, and without revealing any confidential information. The prototype is implemented in a test environment using a separate database for storing the actual user data, and blockchain for storing data about activity happening in the user data system. The prototype’s validity was tested using software testing methods, more specifically integration testing and user acceptance testing. The research will benefit the stakeholder with a working example showing a potential way of implementing a blockchain solution in a commercial software. The research aims to prove that with the implemented blockchain solution can adequately help monitoring actions committed by users, enforcing honest usage, and helping spot malicious activity, and this way improving transparency and security. The research has also value in scientific community with its practical approach demonstrating how could a blockchain system be implemented in sensitive user data systems, and what are its potential benefits in security. The next step for the study is evaluating the actual value of the implementation in the commercial software, or proof-of-value research.Lohkoketjujen kasvaessa suosiota myös kiinnostus yrityskäyttöä kohtaan on ollut kasvussa. Yksi osa-alue missä lohkoketjujen käyttö on nähnyt kasvua ovat luottamuksellista tietoa käsittelevät järjestelmät, kuten käyttäjätietojärjestelmät. Tässä sidosryhmän toimeksiantamassa tutkielmassa implementoidaan lohkoketju käyttäjätietojärjestelmään osana konseptitodistusprototyyppiä (proof-of-concept), joka pyrkii todistamaan lohkoketjun kykyä tietoturvan ja läpinäkyvyyden kehittämisessä käyttäjätietojärjestelmissä. Tutkielman ensimmäinen puolisko luo teoreettisen viitekehyksen. Ensimmäisenä tutustutaan lohkoketjujen perusteisiin, johon kuuluu sen arkkitehtuurin sekä tietoturvaominaisuuksien tarkastelua. Tämä sisältää yleisen tason katsauksen toiminnallisuudesta, yhteisymmärrysmetodologiasta sekä muista tietoturva-algoritmeista, kuten tiivisteistä (hash). Tämän jälkeen syvennytään olemassa oleviin lohkoketjuratkaisuihin, jotka voisivat hyödyntää konseptitodistusprototyypin suunnittelemisessa. Tarkasteltavina toimivat esimerkit potilastietojärjestelmästä sekä esineiden internetistä. Potilastietojärjestelmän tapauksessa perusteltiin lohkoketjun implementoimista erillisenä komponenttina, kun taas esineiden internetin tapauksessa esitettiin toiminnallisen datan säilyttämistä lohkoketjussa, kun taas raakadata säilytetään erillisessä tietokannassa rajatulla pääsyllä. Nämä esimerkit loivat hyvän pohjan, mutta eivät ole sovellettavissa prototyyppiin sellaisinaan. Tutkielman toinen puolisko selostaa prototyypin kehitysprosessia. Aluksi esitellään käytetty tutkimusmenetelmä, eli konstruktiivinen tutkimusmenetelmä, jonka ominaispiirteenä on luoda käytännön ratkaisu oikean elämän ongelmaan. Prototyypin ensisijaisena vaatimuksena on pystyä kirjata aktiviteettilokeja käyttäjätietojärjestelmässä, kertoen kuka teki mitäkin ja kenelle, kuitenkaan paljastamatta luottamuksellista tietoa. Prototyyppi implementoitiin testiympäristöön käyttäen erillistä tietokantaa itse käyttäjätietojen tallentamiseen, kun taas lohkoketjua käytettiin käyttäjätietojärjestelmän aktiviteettilokien tallentamiseen. Prototyypin toimivuus varmistettiin ohjelmistotestausmetodeilla, tarkemmin ottaen integraatiotestauksella ja hyväksymistestauksella. Tehty tutkimus tulee hyödyttämään sidosryhmää toimivalla prototyypillä esittelemällä potentiaalisen tavan lisätä lohkoketjutoteutus kaupalliseen ohjelmistoon. Tutkielma pyrkii todistamaan lohkoketjutotetuksen tuomaa hyötyä käyttäjien tekemien muutosten tarkkailussa, täten kannustaen rehelliseen käyttöön ja samoin auttaa tunnistamaan haitallisen toiminnan, joka kaiken kaikkiaan johtaa kehittyneeseen tietoturvallisuuteen ja läpinäkyvyyteen. Tutkielmalla on myös tieteellistä arvoa esitellen käyttäjätietojärjestelmien tietoturvan kehittämistä lohkoketjutoteutusta hyödyntäen. Jatkotutkimusmahdollisuutena on arvioida toteutuksen varsinainen tuomalisäarvo kaupallisessa ohjelmistossa

Nested calderas of the northern Kawich Range, central Nevada

Five calderas were discovered in the northern Kawich Range, central Nevada. These calderas are filled with intracaldera rhyolite tuffs and caldera collapse breccias. Based on 40Ar/39Ar dating of sanidine and crosscutting relations, the calderas erupted in the following order from oldest to youngest: Clifford Spring (23.67 +/- 0.09 Ma), Tobe Spring (22.77 +/- 0.07 Ma), Cow Canyon (22.78 +/- 0.07 Ma), Bellehelen (22.87 +/- 0.16 Ma), and Warm Springs. Welded tuff lithologies of collapse breccia blocks show that these calderas represent separate events and not a single caldera with piecemeal collapse. Geochemistry shows that the five intracaldera tuffs are chemically similar and therefore cogenetic. The five tuffs are also similar to the Pahranagat Formation and the Pyramid Spring tuff. To explain the eruption of at least seven tuffs of very similar chemistry over a period of 1.06 m.y, a new model for magma production in northern Nye County during the Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up is presented. This model calls for a heat surge producing greater than 50 % partial melting of the lower crust producing rhyolitic melt batches of similar chemistry. Cooling of the crust due to these voluminous eruptions resulted in the suppression of the ignimbrite flare up

Student Recital: Elisabeth Honn, Soprano

Kemp Recital Hall Saturday Evening April 24, 1993 6:00p.m

Improved Distributed Wyner-Ziv Video Coding Based On Reed Solomon Error Correction Scheme And Frame Estimation For Wireless Transmission

Recent years have witnessed the increase in demand for fast, efficient, and high quality communication of multimedia applications through the wireless and wired transmission. This has opened up the research area in distributed video coding (DVC) to flourish. The objectives of this thesis are to evaluate efficiency of implementation of different channel encoding schemes in DVC in protecting the source data in channel impairment environment and also reduce the number of frames transmission from the encoder. Most recently, the low density parity check codes (LDPC) are chosen to be the forward error correction technique to encode the Wyner-Ziv frames in DVC as the LDPC has more superior error correction performance than the turbo codes. However, the LDPC involves complicated encoding and decoding algorithm. In this thesis, the LDPC is replaced with the Reed Solomon (RS) codes to encode the Wyner-Ziv frames. Performance of RS codes in protecting source message is compared with the LDPC codes. As the RS codes involve less complicated encoding and decoding algorithm, the overall system time is reduced and the output is obtained in a shorter time. Based on the experiment results, the proposed model achieves a reduction of about 9.3% to 9.4 % in processing time, depending on the input video sequence, with acceptable quality of output video sequence. The RS codes are known for their capabilities to correct burst errors, which are common in fading channel. The second part of this thesis is the reduction of the number of frames transmission from the encoder. Only certain frames in the group of picture are transmitted from the encoder to reduce the overall transmission time of the system. The frames that are not transmitted shall be estimated at the decoder so that there will be a complete set of the group of picture at the decoder for the output video reconstruction. Based on the experiment results, the proposed model seems more effective and efficient as output video sequence could be obtained in a shorter time. The proposed model achieves a reduction of about 4.0% to 4.7 % in processing time, depending on the input video sequence. Moreover, the estimated output frames of the proposed model are also with acceptable quality as compared to the original input frames

Rules for accounting, October 1, 1911

A new system of agency accounting will take effect October 1st, and the instructions contained in this book applying thereto are for the use of Wells Fargo & Company\u27s employes. In view of the important changes that have been made, it is expected that all employes will thoroughly familiarize themselves with these rules, so errors in billing, reporting, etc., may be obviated and the transaction of the business carried on with expedition

Petrogenesis of the Linked River Mountains Volcanic Section and Wilson Ridge Pluton

The River Mountains (RM) volcanic suite and Wilson Ridge pluton (WRP), in the northern Colorado River extensional corridor of southern Nevada and northwestern Arizona, provide an ideal opportunity to investigate one of the most fundamental questions in igneous petrology: Do volcanic rocks erupt from subjacent plutons and do plutons vent to form volcanic fields? The RM volcanic suite (14.47± 0.26 to 12.66 ± 0.54 Ma; uncertainties are 2sigma) consists of a stack of andesite and rhyolite sills beneath a stratovolcano that primarily erupted dacite with lesser volumes of basalt and rhyolite. This volcanic suite is cored by a multiphase quartz monzonite stock. The WRP (15.18 ± 0.31 to 12.66 ± 0.54 Ma) consists of an early hypabyssal suite, monzodiorite and diorite intrusions, main phase quartz monzonite of the Teakettle Pass suite, and bimodal late stage dikes. Previous mapping linked the now faulted and detached (by 20 km) volcanic and plutonic suites. The current study establishes a more explicit link between the RM volcanic suite and WRP by using new 206Pb/238U zircon ages and a more complete geochemical data set. The major conclusions of this new work are that: 1) the WRP and the RM represent a single cogenetic igneous system and; 2) that multiple types of data (lithologic, geochronologic, and geochemical) must be used to identify cogenetic volcanic and plutonic suites. An important implication of this work is that other volcanic fields and plutons closely related in age and chemistry may represent single systems with shared magmatic histories

Age and Functional Outcomes Post-Neurologic Insult in Patients Attending Inpatient Rehabilitation

Introduction Neurologic insults such as strokes and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) affect over 1 million Americans every year. The lack of current knowledge informing accurate prognoses causes victims and their loved ones distress, and is a focus of much research. The purpose of this study was to determine whether patient age at time of insult could predict change in functional outcomes during inpatient rehabilitation. Methods Subjects were patients of an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) post-stroke or TBI. The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) assessed functional independence and cognitive status at admission and discharge from the IRF. The Montebello Rehabilitation Factor Score (MRFS) incorporated admission and discharge FIM scores to calculate each subject’s change in cognitive and motor functional independence. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analyses were calculated using SPSS v24. Results Data from twenty subjects were included in the study (66.5 ± 18.0 years; n=7 female). The overall regression model was trending towards statistical significance, where lower age predicted cognitive MRFS (F = 3.714, p = 0.070, β = -0.414, R2 = 0.171) and motor MRFS (F = 25.008, p \u3c 0.001 , β = -0.763, R2 = 0.581) at discharge from the IRF. Conclusions Our findings are consistent with previous research demonstrating that neurologic insult at a younger age is correlated with better functional outcomes from that incident. Providers and therapists should use this information in educating patients and their support network about the patient’s possible prognosis