Hierarchical Role-Based Access Control with Homomorphic Encryption for Database as a Service

Database as a service provides services for accessing and managing customers data which provides ease of access, and the cost is less for these services. There is a possibility that the DBaaS service provider may not be trusted, and data may be stored on untrusted server. The access control mechanism can restrict users from unauthorized access, but in cloud environment access control policies are more flexible. However, an attacker can gather sensitive information for a malicious purpose by abusing the privileges as another user and so database security is compromised. The other problems associated with the DBaaS are to manage role hierarchy and secure session management for query transaction in the database. In this paper, a role-based access control for the multitenant database with role hierarchy is proposed. The query is granted with least access privileges, and a session key is used for session management. The proposed work protects data from privilege escalation and SQL injection. It uses the partial homomorphic encryption (Paillier Encryption) for the encrypting the sensitive data. If a query is to perform any operation on sensitive data, then extra permissions are required for accessing sensitive data. Data confidentiality and integrity are achieved using the role-based access control with partial homomorphic encryption.Comment: 11 Pages,4 figures, Proceedings of International Conference on ICT for Sustainable Developmen

The Periphery as a Complex Adaptive Assemblage: Local Government and Enhanced Communication to Challenge Peripheralising Narratives

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from University of British Columbia, Okanagan via the DOI in this record.Despite much time and attention by academia and policy to bring about cohesion between core and peripheral regions, we still have large disparities of wealth and outcomes between them. Recent literature suggests that part of the problem lies in the ways that core regions represent peripheries in discourse and practice (Author. Forthcoming; Willett 2016; Lang et al 2015), meaning that peripheries need to find better ways to challenge negative core representations of place. This paper argues that a critical ontological perspective based on Deleuze and Guattari’s (2004) affective assemblages can help to understand this phenomenon better. The paper uses this framework to explore the periphery as a complex adaptive organism – or a periphery-assemblage. Local government is identified as an important structure within the periphery-assemblage, potentially enhancing and facilitating better adaptation to changing environment. Using this perspective and a radical research methodology that uses creative techniques to uncover the meanings underlying performed responses, the study takes a case study of local government in Cornwall in the South West of the UK. The research was conducted between May – June 2016. The paper claims that one way for peripheries to challenge core representations more effectively would be for enhanced communications within local government, which can better channel and develop information flows within peripheral regions

Tuning of Passivity-Based Controllers for Mechanical Systems

This article describes several approaches for tuning the parameters of a class of passivity-based controllers for standard nonlinear mechanical systems. In particular, we are interested in tuning controllers that preserve the mechanical system structure in the closed loop. To this end, first, we provide tuning rules for stabilization, i.e., the rate of convergence (exponential stability) and stability margin (input-to-state stability). Then, we provide guidelines to remove the overshoot. In addition, we propose a methodology to tune the gyroscopic-related parameters. We also provide remarks on the damping phenomenon to facilitate the practical implementation of our approaches. We conclude this article with experimental results obtained from applying our tuning rules to a fully actuated and an underactuated mechanical system

Macroscopic authentication of Chinese materia medica (CMM): A UK market study of seeds and fruits

This small-scale macroscopic and quantitative authentication study, the first of its kind in the UK and elsewhere, assesses the identity and purity (excluding pesticides and heavy metals) of a selection of Chinese materia medica (CMM) seeds and fruits on the UK market. 25 fruit and seed CMM were chosen based on their inclusion in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2010, referred hereafter as ‘official species’), maximum dimension of 10 mm, and regular use in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practice in the UK according to UK practitioners. In 2012 samples were obtained from six TCM wholesale traders and eight retail dispensaries in southeast England. Macroscopic identity and purity testing was undertaken drawing on expertise at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and its collection of vouchered CMM reference drugs, herbarium specimens and published identification texts. Of the 25 CMM requested from suppliers, 23 were obtained, represented by 211 samples. 191 samples were identified as being sourced from the correct drug; 20 were identified as sourced from unofficial species. Of the 191 correct samples, 5 displayed major contamination by other plant material, stones, earth, etc. (defined as > 5% of sample volume), and 12 had minor contamination (2–5%). 95% of samples derived from medicinally cultivated plants were sourced from an official species, 5% were contaminated; in contrast, 78% of wild-sourced CMM samples were sourced from an official species, and 14% showed contamination. These results aim to guide the further development of good practice in TCM herbal drug quality control, for which suggestions are provided

Stabilization of Physical Systems via Saturated Controllers With Partial State Measurements

This article provides a constructive passivity-based control (PBC) approach to solve the set-point regulation problem for input-affine continuous nonlinear systems while considering bounded inputs. As customary in PBC, the methodology consists of two steps: energy shaping and damping injection. In terms of applicability, the proposed controllers have two advantages concerning other PBC techniques: 1) the energy shaping is carried out without solving partial differential equations and 2) the damping injection is performed without measuring the passive output. As a result, the proposed methodology is suitable to control a broad range of physical systems, e.g., mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical systems, with saturated control signals. We illustrate the applicability of the technique by designing controllers for systems in different physical domains, where we validate the analytical results via simulations and experiments

Why Did Cornwall Vote for Brexit? Assessing the Implications for EU Structural Funding Programmes

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from SAGE Publications via the DOI in this record.In the 2016 referendum on UK EU membership, regions which benefitted from high levels of structural funds voted to leave the EU. This was unexpected given the Europeanisation processes expected of the funds in terms of identity and loyalty. Within this case study of Cornwall, we use qualitative methods to assess why this happened and the implications for future structural funding programmes. We find that the rationale behind the Brexit vote was less about the EU as an institution, but was a reflection of the deep levels of uncertainty, insecurity, and frustration that people felt about governance decisions, scarce resources, and the future for themselves and their children. This created a situation where people looked to the nation state for support and security, and were fearful of post-national forms of identification and governance. Consequently, EU support is imagined as being organised by ‘elites’, for elites, rather than benefitting local communities. We suggest breaking down some of the barriers that have arisen through a participatory approach to development decision-making, greater flexibility to regional priorities, and forms of funding that individuals might apply to – such as a skills pot to facilitate easier access to further education and training.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC

Allosteric activation of Hsp70 reduces mutant huntingtin levels, the clustering of N-terminal fragments, and their nuclear accumulation

AIMS: Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by a mutant huntingtin protein that misfolds, yields toxic N-terminal fragments, aggregates, and disrupts proteostasis. The Hsp70 chaperone is a potential therapeutic target as it prevents proteotoxicity by favouring protein folding, disaggregation, or degradation. We tested the hypothesis that allosteric Hsp70 activation with a pharmacological mimetic of the Hsp70 co-chaperone Hip, YM-1, could modulate huntingtin proteostasis. MAIN METHODS: We used HD cell models expressing either N-terminal or full-length huntingtin. Using single-cell analysis we studied huntingtin aggregation in different cellular compartments by fluorescence microscopy. Protein interaction was evaluated by immunoprecipitation, while protein levels were quantified by immunofluorescence and western-blot. KEY FINDINGS: N-terminal huntingtin interacted with Hsp70 and increased its levels. Treatment with YM-1 reduced N-terminal huntingtin clustering and nuclear aggregation. Full-length mutant huntingtin also interacted with Hsp70, and treatment with YM-1 reduced huntingtin levels when combined with Hsp70 induction by heat shock. Mechanistically, YM-1 increases the Hsp70 affinity for substrates, promoting their proteasomal degradation. Consistently, YM-1 reduced the levels of ubiquitinated proteins. Interestingly, YM-1 accumulated in mitochondria, interfered with its Hsp70 isoform involved in protein import, and increased NRF1 levels, a regulator of proteasome genes. We thus suggest that YM-1 may trigger the coordination of mitochondrial and cytosolic proteostasis, enhancing protein degradation. SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings show that the strategy of allosteric Hsp70 activation holds potential for HD. While drug efficacy may be limited to tissues with elevated Hsp70, combined therapies with Hsp70 elevating strategies could harness the full potential of allosteric Hsp70 activators for HD

On vanishing class sizes in finite groups

© 2017 Elsevier Inc. Let G be a finite group. An element g of G is called a vanishing element if there exists an irreducible character χ of G such that χ(g)=0; in this case, we say that the conjugacy class of g is a vanishing conjugacy class. In this paper, we discuss some arithmetical properties concerning the sizes of the vanishing conjugacy classes in a finite group