Enabling Secure Database as a Service using Fully Homomorphic Encryption: Challenges and Opportunities

The database community, at least for the last decade, has been grappling with querying encrypted data, which would enable secure database as a service solutions. A recent breakthrough in the cryptographic community (in 2009) related to fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) showed that arbitrary computation on encrypted data is possible. Successful adoption of FHE for query processing is, however, still a distant dream, and numerous challenges have to be addressed. One challenge is how to perform algebraic query processing of encrypted data, where we produce encrypted intermediate results and operations on encrypted data can be composed. In this paper, we describe our solution for algebraic query processing of encrypted data, and also outline several other challenges that need to be addressed, while also describing the lessons that can be learnt from a decade of work by the database community in querying encrypted data

Book review: borrowing together: microfinance and cultivating social ties by Becky Yang Hsu

In Borrowing Together: Microfinance and Cultivating Social Ties, Becky Yang Hsu draws upon two microfinance projects in rural China in order to explore the social relations and cultural dimensions underpinning microfinance schemes. Drawing upon an innovative methodological approach, this book offers valuable challenge to the individualism often placed at the heart of microfinance models with implications for practical policy, writes Kinnari Bhatt

Open data business models for media industry - Finnish case study

Governments and private companies have begun to make vast amounts of data resources available to the public without usage restrictions, in the form of open data. For example, Finnish governmental bureaus have made legal documents, statistics, geographical data, traffic data, and environmental data freely available for public use. These new data sources have enabled innovative services in several areas, and create a lucrative opportunity for media companies. Open data can enrich media content, for example, with live data streams, advanced visualizations, and context and location dependent information. This thesis identifies opportunities open data provides for media companies by conducting an extensive field study of the Finnish open data landscape. First, 15 companies pioneering in open data use are analysed to determine their offering, revenue model and resources, and the general value network in which they operate. These findings are then considered from the media company perspective in order to identify opportunities that open data provides for them. The open data industry in Finland is still in its early stages, but some commercial success can already be identified. This study grouped the examined companies into five profiles in an open data value network: (1) data analysers, (2) data extractors and transformers, (3) user experience providers, (4) commercial data publishers, and (5) support services and consultancy. These five profiles are grounded on both; the empirical findings of this study as well as the theoretical frameworks established by preceding academic papers. For media companies this research found three opportunity avenues; (1) use open data as a source in data journalism, (2) gather article ideas and content from the visual and numerical data analyses conducted by third-party analysers, or (3) achieve costs savings by publishing private data and using crowds to analyse it or creating user interfaces on top of it

The Netflix Obsession

This paper investigates how long it would take an individual to watch all newly added movies and documentaries to the UK Netflix in 2017, whilst maintaining normal daily activities which include eating, sleeping and drinking. For the purposes of this investigation it was assumed the individual had no other commitments apart from watching Netflix. It was calculated that an individual would require 236.5 days to watch all newly added movies and documentaries in 2017

Teacher’s role in early identification of developmental delays

Rama*, two and a half-years-old, is the second of three siblings. Her parents cultivate vegetables on a farm on the outskirts of Bengaluru. A neighbourhood alternative school enrolled her and her elder sister in school. Her parents had begun to realize that there was some kind of hearing loss Rama was experiencing. However, their hope to see her develop as all other children led them to believe that she was one of those who would develop oral language a little later than usual. Rama’s family represents a culture where there is little or no conversation among adults and children. Conversations, if at all, are more functional in nature

Field induced assembly of particulate systems

The primary focus of the first part of this dissertation is to study the AC field-driven assembly of monodisperse silica and glass particles on liquid - liquid interface and forming a liquid film of uniform thickness having arrangement of particles on it. This liquid film with arrangement of regular particles can be converted into a solid film by curing top UV curable liquid. Here, electric field is used as a tool to facilitate AC field-driven assembly. The work describes the assembly of different size of regular particles and effective development of solid film. It is also shown that particles of two dissimilar sizes and dielectric properties can be assembled on Air-liquid interface and form assembly of dual particles with ring structure. In this work, two dissimilar particles are trapped between an interface and AC electric field is applied to particle suspensions in a gap between the top and bottom electrodes. In order to exploit the concept of dual particle assembly, mixture of glass particles and plastic latex particles are studied. It is noticeable that the lateral dipolar force leads two particles to either repel or attract. This force of repulsion and attraction between particles depend on their polarizabilities and the intensity of the force. Finally, rapid and effective formation of ring structure of dual particles is shown. The study is also extended for mixture of particles that are less than 10 μm. In all cases, it is observed that smaller particles act as the binder for larger particles and form dual particle ring structure since they have a reverse polarizability. In the third part of this dissertation, AC electric field is used to assemble the particles on the freely suspended single floating droplet on immiscible liquid. Particles on the droplet can be levitated and assembled at the pole or equator due to dielectric properties and conductivity of particles and liquid medium when low frequency is applied. Under high frequency, particles drag towards the pole or equator due to Clausius Mossotti factor of particle and droplet. The high and low frequency are distinguished by crossover frequency. Here, crossover frequency is investigated experimentally and assembly of the different particles at the pole or equator of the droplet is shown. At any initial location of the particle and considering the very low frequency, flow deceases with increase in frequency - this is studied experimentally. A diffusing particle is subjected to a variety of collisions that leads to a random or Brownian motion. Assembly of particles of various sizes with various viscous media are studied in the first and second part. It is experimentally observed that Brownian motion decreases with increase in particle size. The aim of this study is to highlight the visualization of Brownian motion and compute the transmission probability from inner to outer region under the conditions of varying viscosity, particle size and temperature. The obtained results are validated with Stokes-Einstein equation and Fang and Ning’s experimental and theoretical work. It is shown that the transmission probability increases with decrease in viscosity and particle size and increase in temperature

Rollen av språk: Identifisering av faktorer som påvirker implementeringen av internasjonaliseringsstrategier

I dagens globaliserte virksomhetsverden øker organisasjoner stadig sin drift over landegrensene. Dette skaper et behov for en felles kommunikasjonsplattform, noe som ofte fører til at organisasjoner endrer sitt driftsspråk. Formålet med denne oppgaven er å gi innsikt i en slik endringsprosess ved å undersøke problemstillingen: «Hvilke faktorer påvirker implementeringen av en internasjonaliseringsstrategi som innebærer endring av driftsspråket for en organisasjon?» Forskningen retter seg mot små og mellomstore bedrifter (SMB) i Norge, der språket endres fra norsk til engelsk. En teknologiorganisasjon basert i Oslo (referert til som TechO) er brukt som en casestudie. Det er blitt formulert tre forskningsspørsmål for å finne ut om TechO hadde en plan for språkendringen, utforske utfordringene som oppstod, og forstå hvordan endringen har påvirket de ansattes arbeidsliv. Denne studien bruker et eksplorerende design med en abduktiv tilnærming. Det benyttes en kvalitativ metode for datainnsamling, hvor det også er gjennomført semistrukturerte intervjuer med seks informanter. Relevant litteratur om endringsledelse, organisasjonskultur og språk i en organisasjonskontekst er inkludert for å gi en bakgrunn for studien. Empirien diskuteres i lys av det teoretiske rammeverket og inkluderer teori om planlagt endring, implementering, språklig kunnskapskorridor og samarbeid. Funnene tyder på at det kan oppstå utfordringer selv når ansatte er komfortable med å snakke engelsk og har gode språkkunnskaper. Det ble identifisert tre faktorer som kan redusere utfordringene og legge til rette for en språkendring. For det første er det viktig å ha en plan. For det andre bør det utpekes en endringsagent. Og for det tredje er det nødvendig å forstå den iboende motstanden. Kommunikasjon er identifisert som et nøkkelverktøy og er gjennomgående i alle disse tre faktorene. En tydelig definert plan er nødvendig for å redusere usikkerhet og legge til rette for endringen. En dedikert endringsagent vil bidra til å opprettholde fremdrift i endringsprosessen og kommunisere de identifiserte tiltakene. Det er viktig å anerkjenne verdien som ligger i ens morsmål, da dette kan føre til motstand hvis et nytt språk blir påtvunget. Kontinuerlig støtte fra toppledelsen spiller også en viktig rolle i den innledende kommunikasjonen for å skape felles forståelse.Organizations today continue to increase their operations beyond national borders. This indicates the need for a common way to communicate, leading organizations to change their language of operation. The goal of this thesis is to provide insight into this change process by addressing the overall problem formulation: “What factors affect the implementation of an internationalization strategy whereby the language of operation for an organization changes?” This is focused on small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Norway where the language is changing from Norwegian to English. A technology organization based in Oslo, Norway (referred to as TechO), is used as the case study. Three research questions are formulated to determine if TechO had a plan for the language change, explore the challenges that are experienced, and understand how the change has affected employees’ working lives. This study uses an exploratory design with an abductive approach. A qualitative data collection method is used, and semi-structured interviews are held with six informants. Relevant literature on change management, organizational culture, and language in an organization setting is included to provide background for the study. The empirical data is discussed in light of the theoretical framework and includes theory on planned change, implementation, linguistic knowledge corridor, and collaboration. The findings indicate that challenges can arise even in cases where employees are comfortable speaking English and have good language skills. Three factors are identified to mitigate challenges and facilitate a language change. First, have a plan. Second, assign a change agent. Third, understand inherent resistance. In addition, communication is identified as the key tool that permeates these three factors. A well-defined plan is necessary to reduce uncertainty and thus facilitate the change. An assigned change agent will help to maintain momentum for the change and communicate the identified measures. It is important to recognize the value that is rooted in one’s native language, as this can lead to resistance if a new language is forced. Continued support from top leadership plays an important role in the initial communication with the goal of creating a shared understanding

How much comfort can you get from a chocolate bar?

The purpose of this paper was to explore a hypothetical experiment to identify a correlation between the change in blood serotonin levels and mood in an individual after a fixed quantity of chocolate is ingested. Blood levels would be taken 0, 1 and 2 hours and expressed as nano-grams per millilitres (ng/ml) of serotonin. Mood changes would be assessed using the Bond-Lader Visual Analogue Scales

Structure-Function Analysis of Enzymes of the Polyisoprenyl-Phosphate Hexose-1-Phosphate Transferase family

Enzymes of the polyisoprenyl-phosphate hexose-1-phosphate transferase (PHPT) family are integral membrane proteins that initiate the synthesis of glycans by catalyzing the transfer of a hexose-1-phosphate sugar from UDP-hexose to the lipid carrier undecaprenyl phosphate (Und-P). These glycans such as O antigen and exopolysaccharide (EPS) provide bacteria with protection and adaptation to the environment and host immune factors. The role of PHPT proteins in initiation and the absence of any eukaryotic homologues make them an attractive target for novel antimicrobials; however study of these proteins is difficult due to the presence of multiple transmembrane helices. A requirement of the C-terminal domain for catalytic activity has been demonstrated in vitro, but the importance of specific regions and/or residues for the activity of these enzymes was not understood and was investigated in this work. The galactose-1-phosphate transferase WbaP of S. enterica initiates the synthesis of O antigen and was used as a model to study PHPT proteins. In vivo and in vitro functional assays of WbaP allowed us to show that a soluble loop region affects O antigen chain length distribution and the C-terminal domain (WbaPCT) containing one putative transmembrane (TM) domain and tail region is sufficient for transferase activity in vivo. The location of the WbaP tail region was found to be cytoplasmic and to contain highly conserved residues essential for activity. In this work a thioredoxin (TrxA) fusion was used as a tool to improve protein folding, which allowed for the solubilization and purification of WbaPCT. Obtaining a pure WbaPCT sample has allowed for the biochemical characterization of this protein revealing that this region is sufficient to maintain specificity for undecaprenyl phosphate (Und-P). Characterization of two glucose-1-phosphate transferases from Escherichia coli K-12 and Caulobacter crescentus revealed that some members of the PHPT family are able to utilize a second sugar substrate leading to the synthesis of a different glycan. These studies will pave the way to a detailed structural and mechanistic understanding of these proteins