Blockchain-enhanced Roots-of-Trust

Establishing a root-of-trust is a key early step in establishing trust throughout the lifecycle of a device, notably by attesting the running software. A key technique is to use hardware security in the form of specialised modules or hardware functions such as TPMs. However, even if a device supports such features, other steps exist that can compromise the overall trust model between devices being manufactured until decommissioning. In this paper, we discuss how blockchains, and smart contracts in particular, can be used to harden the overall security management both in the case of existing hardware enhanced security or when only software attestation is possible

Towards an Accountable Web of Personal Information: the Web-of-Receipts

Consent is a corner stone in any Privacy practice or public policy. Much beyond a simple "accept" button, we show in this paper that obtaining and demonstrating valid Consent can be a complex matter since it is a multifaceted problem. This is important for both Organisations and Users. As shown in recent cases, not only cannot an individual prove what they accepted at any point in time, but also organisations are struggling with proving such consent was obtained leading to inefficiencies and non-compliance. To a large extent, this problem has not obtained sufficient visibility and research effort. In this paper, we review the current state of Consent and tie it to a problem of Accountability. We argue for a different approach to how the Web of Personal Information operates: the need of an accountable Web in the form of Personal Data Receipts which are able to protect both individuals and organisation. We call this evolution the Web-of-Receipts: online actions, from registration to real-time usage, is preceded by valid consent and is auditable (for Users) and demonstrable (for Organisations) at any moment by using secure protocols and locally stored artefacts such as Receipts. The key contribution of this paper is to elaborate on this unique perspective, present proof-of-concept results and lay out a research agenda

Effectiveness of a career intervention program for career exploration

A exploração vocacional pode constituir um importante facilitador da organização subjetiva da experiência de estágio e do consequente ajustamento e satisfação com esta atividade. Por esta razão, levamos a cabo uma intervenção vocacional, na modalidade programa, que teve como principal objetivo incrementar a atividade exploratória vocacional de um grupo de alunos estagiários do ensino secundário. Para avaliar o impacto do referido programa nas diferentes dimensões da exploração vocacional, recorreu-se a um desenho quasi-experimental, pré-teste/pósteste, com grupos não equivalentes. Globalmente, os resultados parecem-nos relevantes, uma vez que a intervenção vocacional teve um impacto positivo e signifi cativo nas duas principais dimensões da exploração vocacional: o self e o meio.For students attending vocational education courses, career exploration might be considered an important facilitator of the subjective organization of their training experience. For this reason, we implemented a career intervention program, aiming at improving the vocational exploratory activities by a group of high school students. In order to evaluate the impact of that program on the different dimensions of career exploration, a study with a quasiexperimental (pre-test/post-test) design was conducted, with non equivalent groups. Overall, the results seem relevant, since the career intervention had a positive and signifi cant impact relating the two major dimensions of career exploration: environment exploration and self exploration

The quality of the training experience: predictor variables of career exploration

Many young people attending secondary education will do an apprenticeship by the end of their training, which will come as a new context of learning. The quality of this new context can have differentiated impacts on student’s lives and on their vocational development. For many students, it can be their first formal and structured contact with the workplace – experiencing a reality that, until then, has always been mediated by other sources and agents of information. Authors like Ducat (1980), Brooks et al. (1995) and Super (1963) evoke the value of work experience as the most realistic way of vocational exploration. However, the efficiency of work experiences is extremely variable (Ainley, P., 1990; Smith & Harris, 2000) and seems to depend significantly on factors like supervision, feedback, autonomy, learning opportunities and peer support. Several studies suggest that the quality of the work experience and the exploratory behavior associated to this have a considerable influence on the vocational development (e.g. Brooks et al.,1995; Carless & Prodan, 2003; Loughlin & Barling, 1998; Mortimer, 2003; Vondracek, 1997). The present study seeks to highlight which qualities of the apprenticeship are predictors of career exploration in a group of students attending the 12th grade

Vulnerabilidade das finanças municípais às catástrofes naturais

As catástrofes naturais podem causar grandes impactos nas finanças municipais e também em seus instrumentos de planejamento, os orçamentos públicos. Essa pesquisa objetiva verificar a aderência dos gestores municipais aos preceitos legais trazidos pela Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, em especial ao Anexo de Riscos Fiscais constante da Lei de Diretrizes Orçamentárias. Pretende-se com isso atestar se há vulnerabilidade fiscal devido à má gestão de recursos públicos e de planejamento orçamentário frente às calamidades públicas. Buscou-se analisar os desastres naturais mais recorrentes por região, por consequência desses também se analisou os municípios com maior quantitativo de registros de Situação de Emergência ou Estado de Calamidade Pública por Estado e por último verificou-se a efetividade do planejamento municipal pelos anexos de riscos fiscais divulgados. Os dados referentes aos desastres naturais e registros de estado emergencial pelos municípios foram obtidos através do sítio do Ministério da Integração Nacional, enquanto os Anexos de Riscos Fiscais foram obtidos pelos sítios oficiais e ramificações das prefeituras municipais de cada município estudado nesse trabalho. Os resultados obtidos evidenciam, para os municípios estudados, baixíssima aderência à boa gestão prevista legalmente e consequentemente grande vulnerabilidade fiscal frente aos desastres naturais. A partir dos resultados obtidos percebeu-se a dualidade dos municípios que mais demandam recursos para combater situações de calamidade serem também aqueles pouco rigorosos com o planejamento de suas finanças frente a esses riscos.Natural disasters can have major impacts on municipal finances and also on their planning instruments, the public budget. This research aims at verifying the adhesion of municipal managers to the legal precepts brought by the Lei de Responsabilidade Fiscal, especially to the Anexo de Riscos Fiscais contained in the Lei de Diretrizes Orçamnetárias. It is intended to verify if there is fiscal vulnerability due to poor management of public resources and budget planning in the face of public calamities. It was sought to analyze the most recurrent natural disasters by region, as a consequence of these it was also analyzed the counties with the greatest number of records of Emergency Situation or State of Public Calamity by State and finally it was verified the effectiveness of the municipal planning by the Anexo de Riscos Fiscais disclosed. Data on natural disasters and emergency status records by municipalities were obtained through the website of the Ministério da Integração Nacional, while the Anexos de Riscos Fiscais were obtained from the official sites and branches of the prefecture of each county studied in this work. The results show, for the counties studied, very low adhesion to good foreseen legal management and consequently great fiscal vulnerability to natural disasters. From the results obtained, a duality was shown by the counties that most demand resources to combat calamity situations for also being the ones less rigorous with the planning of their finances against these risks

Fine-Grained Access Control for Microservices

Microservices-based applications are considered to be a promising paradigm for building large-scale digital systems due to its flexibility, scalability, and agility of development. To achieve the adoption of digital services, applica-tions holding personal data must be secure while giving end-users as much control as possible. On the other hand, for software developers, adoption of a security solution for microservices requires it to be easily adaptable to the application context and requirements while fully exploiting reusability of se-curity components. This paper proposes a solution that targets key security challenges of microservice-based applications. Our approach relies on a co-ordination of security components, and offers a fine-grained access control in order to minimise the risks of token theft, session manipulation, and a ma-licious insider; it also renders the system resilient against confused deputy at-tacks. This solution is based on a combination of OAuth 2 and XACML open standards, and achieved through reusable security components integrat-ed with microservices

Casting A356+SiCp with ultrasonically treated melts: effect reinforcement and processing in the microstructure

Low mass fractions (0.05 wt%) of SiC micro sized particles have been added to an A356 melt and dispersed by ultrasonic vibration to study their impact on the microstructural morphology of cast samples. It is shown that the ultrasonic melt treatment at 680°C can promote a homogenizeddistribution of the reinforcement while also degassing the melt and induces a moderate grain refinement. Even though SiC may act as a nucleant, its use did not induce a significant grain refinement relatively to ultrasonically treated unreinforced melts. Adding SiC microparticles, however, seems to enhance Eutectic Si modification, although it contributes to its slight coarsening at the expense of Mg2Si.publishe

Introdução à teoria espectral de grafos

O objetivo principal desta dissertação é fazer uma introdução à teoria espectral de grafos. Abordaremos algumas propriedades dos grafos, nomeadamente o polinómio característico, os valores e vetores próprios de matrizes associadas aos grafos. Nesta dissertação iremos dar mais relevância à matriz de adjacência e à matriz laplaciana, fazendo uma análise de alguns tipos especí…cos de grafos e dos respetivos espectros. Iremos estudar o conceito de energia de um grafo e de medidas de centralidade associadas aos grafos e aos seus conceitos inerentes. Serão apresentadas duas aplicações no decorrer da dissertação, uma referente à Química e ao carbono quaternário, com o objetivo de descobrir se o carbono quaternário existe ou não na molécula em estudo e, outra referente às medidas de centralidade em que será feito a análise do jogo de futebol “Portugal vs França” a contar para a …nal do Europeu de 2016, com o intuito de descobrir as performances dos jogadores.The main purpose of this dissertation is to make an introduction to the spectral graph theory. We will study some properties of graphs, namely the characteristic polynomial, the eigenvalues and the eigenvectors speci…c to matrices associated with graphs. In this dissertation, we will give more importance to the adjacency matrix and to the Laplacian matrix and we will do an analysis of some speci…c types of graphs and their respective spectra. We will study the energy of a graph and the measures of centrality associated to graphs and their inherent concepts. Two practical applications will be presented throughout the dissertation, one related to chemistry and quaternary carbon, in order to …nd out whether or not the quaternary carbon exists in the molecule under study, and another one related to the centrality measures in which the analysis of the football match “Portugal versus France”, that de…ned the European Champion of 2016 will be done, with the objective of sorting out the performances of the players on the …eld

Consent Receipts For a Usable And Auditable Web of Personal Data

Consenting on the Web, in the context of online privacy and data protection, is universally accepted as a difficult problem, mainly because of its cross-disciplinarity. For example, any approach to online Consenting needs to meet usability, legal, regulatory, technical, and business requirements. To date, effort has been predominantly focused on meeting compliance with regulations and automation, and less on the true re-empowerment of users with respect to their personal data. One approach that has not seen sufficient research is the use of ’Consent Receipts’, which offer a new paradigm of recording interactions concerning consent and using them as proofs in future actions, similar to familiar use of a common shopping receipt. In addition to being a record, receipts encourage accountability in how technology handles consent and is beneficial for all involved stakeholders. For organisations, it assists with legal requirements for demonstration of valid consent, while for users it provides transparency and accountability by being a proof to be used against malpractices related to consent. Receipts also have uses in addition to those related to consent, such as for authorising the holder in exercising related rights. This paper analyses the requirements, uses, and benefits offered by Consent Receipts with an extensive and broad literature review. Since receipts are a novel concept, we identify properties and requirements, and then new mechanisms necessary for the Web to support receipts. We then demonstrate feasibility of receipts through proof-of-concepts in three common real-world use-cases: (a) acceptance of a privacy policy and its subsequent changes; (b) choices expressed via consent dialogues or cookie banners; and (c) verbal interactions with Amazon Alexa

Relatório de estágio

Com este relatório pretendo evidenciar a evolução potenciada pelos estágios e dar a conhecer o percurso efetuado. Os estágios realizados visaram especificamente o desenvolvimento de competências para assistência de Enfermagem avançada ao doente adulto e idoso com doença grave, especialmente dirigido para a assistência ao doente em estado crítico. O trabalho em estágio pelas atividades desenvolvidas para a concretização dos objetivos traçados permitiu o desenvolvimento das capacidades de reflexão e análise crítica nas experiências de aprendizagem e de competências na área de especialidade. O estágio, efetuado no Serviço de Urgência, em que as intervenções de Enfermagem representam um desafio, foi uma atividade interdisciplinar e abrangente impondo conhecimentos, saberes e competências a vários níveis. O acompanhamento de várias situações urgentes e emergentes, permitiram-me mobilizar conhecimentos na área de cuidados ao doente crítico. O estágio efetuado na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Polivalentes, revelou-se enriquecedor a nível profissional e sobretudo pessoal, ao nível da humanização da relação doente/profissional de saúde. No módulo opcional de Enfermagem Peri-Operatória obtive creditação, pelas competências obtidas ao longo da minha experiência nesta área. O desenvolvimento das funções do enfermeiro especialista em Enfermagem Médico-Cirúrgica permitiu-me validar, alargar e cimentar conhecimentos teóricos e adquirir maiores competências na área da Enfermagem Peri-Operatória. Ao longo deste trabalho foi realçada a capacidade de identificar situações problema, de refletir e de debater as várias situações vivenciadas tendo em vista o desenvolvimento de competências.With this report I intend to show the evolution enhanced by internships and make known the way done. The stages undertaken aimed specifically the development of competencies for advanced nursing care to adult and elderly patients with severe disease, especially directed to assist the patient in critical condition. Work on stage for activities to achieve the objectives outlined allowed the development of capacities for reflection and critical analysis in the learning experiences and skills in specialty area. The stage, made in Urgency Service, where nursing interventions is a challenge, was a comprehensive and interdisciplinary activity requiring skills, knowledge and skills at various levels. The monitoring of several urgent and emergent situations, allowed me to mobilize knowledge in critical patient care. The stage made in Intensive Care Unit Polyvalent, proved to be rewarding on a professional level and above personal level about the humanization of patient / health professional. Optional module in Peri-Operative Nursing got accreditation, the skills gained through my experience in this area. The development of the functions of the nurse specialist in Medical-Surgical Nursing has allowed me to validate, extend and strengthen their theoretical knowledge and acquire more skills in Peri-Operative Nursing. Throughout this work was highlighted the ability to identify problem situations, to reflect and discuss the various situations experienced in order to develop skill