ODIN: Obfuscation-based privacy-preserving consensus algorithm for Decentralized Information fusion in smart device Networks

The large spread of sensors and smart devices in urban infrastructures are motivating research in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) to develop new services and improve citizens’ quality of life. Sensors and smart devices generate large amounts of measurement data from sensing the environment, which is used to enable services such as control of power consumption or traffic density. To deal with such a large amount of information and provide accurate measurements, service providers can adopt information fusion, which given the decentralized nature of urban deployments can be performed by means of consensus algorithms. These algorithms allow distributed agents to (iteratively) compute linear functions on the exchanged data, and take decisions based on the outcome, without the need for the support of a central entity. However, the use of consensus algorithms raises several security concerns, especially when private or security critical information is involved in the computation. In this article we propose ODIN, a novel algorithm allowing information fusion over encrypted data. ODIN is a privacy-preserving extension of the popular consensus gossip algorithm, which prevents distributed agents from having direct access to the data while they iteratively reach consensus; agents cannot access even the final consensus value but can only retrieve partial information (e.g., a binary decision). ODIN uses efficient additive obfuscation and proxy re-encryption during the update steps and garbled circuits to make final decisions on the obfuscated consensus. We discuss the security of our proposal and show its practicability and efficiency on real-world resource-constrained devices, developing a prototype implementation for Raspberry Pi devices

ODIN: Obfuscation-based privacy-preserving consensus algorithm for Decentralized Information fusion in smart device Networks

The large spread of sensors and smart devices in urban infrastructures are motivating research in the area of the Internet of Things (IoT) to develop new services and improve citizens’ quality of life. Sensors and smart devices generate large amounts of measurement data from sensing the environment, which is used to enable services such as control of power consumption or traffic density. To deal with such a large amount of information and provide accurate measurements, service providers can adopt information fusion, which given the decentralized nature of urban deployments can be performed by means of consensus algorithms. These algorithms allow distributed agents to (iteratively) compute linear functions on the exchanged data, and take decisions based on the outcome, without the need for the support of a central entity. However, the use of consensus algorithms raises several security concerns, especially when private or security critical information is involved in the computation. In this article we propose ODIN, a novel algorithm allowing information fusion over encrypted data. ODIN is a privacy-preserving extension of the popular consensus gossip algorithm, which prevents distributed agents from having direct access to the data while they iteratively reach consensus; agents cannot access even the final consensus value but can only retrieve partial information (e.g., a binary decision). ODIN uses efficient additive obfuscation and proxy re-encryption during the update steps and garbled circuits to make final decisions on the obfuscated consensus. We discuss the security of our proposal and show its practicability and efficiency on real-world resource-constrained devices, developing a prototype implementation for Raspberry Pi devices

Proceedings of the ACEWATER2 Scientific Workshop Accra (Ghana) 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2016

The African Centers of Excellence on Water (ACEWATER2) project, in its second phase (2016/19), promoted by the African Ministers of Water and financed by DG DEVCO, aims at supporting the establishment of Human Capacity Development Programme of the AMCOW (African Ministers’ Council on Water) in the Water Sector, strengthens institutional networking and improving research support to policy making by scaling up the approach of the pilot phase (phase I). The main activities of the project consist in: • Strengthening of two existing NEPAD water Centers of Excellence networks in West and Southern Africa; • Expanding the NEPAD water Centres of Excellence network to Central and Eastern Africa; • Strengthening institutional networking and improving research support to policy making in the water sector; • Supporting the implementation of the African Water Ministers’ declaration urging AUC and NEPAD Centers of Excellence to develop a “Human Capacity Development Programme for junior professional and technician level capacity challenges in the water sector”; • Developing an Atlas on Regional Water Cooperation. The project geographical scope covers three major regions: Southern Africa (7 countries), Western Africa (4 countries) and Eastern/Central Africa. The project is implemented by DG JRC (overall project management and scientific cluster) with UNESCO (human capacity development cluster). Within this project, a Workshop has been organized in Accra (Ghana) from October 31st to November 3rd, specifically devoted to the sharing among CoEs of scientific interests, competences and methods towards the effective planning of (scientific) activities, achievement and delivery of scientific tools and products to support (science-based) decision making processes. By means of scientific as well as technical presentations, round tables and participative sessions, the participants (35 people representing more than 30 Institutions among Universities, Research Centres, River Basin Authorities, Regional Economic Communities and key stakeholders on water issues, further to European research Institutions as CIRAD and CREAF) shared valuable experiences and competences, including case studies, around key thematic pillars, such as: Climate Issues (Session 1), African Water-Energy-Food nexus (Session 2), Groundwater (Session 3) and Water Governance&Diplomacy (Session 4). Workshop Proceedings gather all relevant contributions in the form of (extended) abstracts and short papers, providing a general overview of key relevant issues and partners scientific interests, turning to be a valuable resource for effective planning of next project steps.JRC.D.2-Water and Marine Resource

Il Cesare di Arles e il Cesarione di Ierapetra

La possibilité d’identifier César dans le portrait du Rhône se confirme non seulement par la ressemblance physionomique avec le dit « César vert » de Berlin (Altes Museum) sculpté dans le schiste de Hammamat, tout comme Ptolémée X de Vienne (Kunstistorisches Museum), mais aussi avec le visage de la statue en bronze de Césarion. Cette dernière a été enfouie dans le sable sur la plage crétoise d’Hiérapétra en face de l’Égypte, pour sauver de la damnatio memoriae l’image du « roi des rois », après que le jeune fils de Cléopâtre et de César, fut supprimé par Octavien. Sur cette tête en bronze, le prognathisme ptolémaique renvoie à la mère ; par les traits vigoureux du visage, le jeune héritier des Pharaons, d’Alexandre et de César ressemble au portrait du fondateur d’Arelate. La correspondance formelle entre des oeuvres de techniques et de contextes différents : le buste en schiste de tradition égyptienne, la statue alexandrine en bronze, le portrait en marbre de Paros d’un marchand italien à Délos, et le buste d’Arles en marbre anatolien (Dokimeion), soutient la théorie que l’expression objective dans la Rome républicaine était liée au réalisme, pratiqué par les sculpteurs de la fin de l’époque hellénistique dans les pays méditerranéens.The ability to identify Caesar in the bust from the Rhône is due to the physiognomic resemblance not only with the so-called “green Caesar” of Berlin (Altes Museum) carved from Egyptian schist as well as the Ptolemy X of Vienna (Kunstistorisches Museum) but also with the face of the bronze statue of Caesarion (Iraklio, Museum). The latter was concealed in the sand on the beach of Ierapetra (south-east coast of Crete), in order to rescue the image of the “king of the kings” from damnatio memoriae, after the young son of Cleopatra and Caesar was killed by Octavian. In that bronze statue, the Ptolemaic prognathism refers to the queen; by the other strong-defined features, the young heir to the Pharaohs, Alexander and Caesar, resembles the portrait of the founder of Arelate. The formal correspondence between such works of different techniques and contexts – the schist bust in the Egyptian tradition, the Alexandrine bronze statue, the portrait of an Italian merchant at Delos carved from Parian marble, and the Arles bust carved from Anatolian marble (Dokimeion) – supports the theory that the object of expression in Republican Rome was related to the realism practiced by late Hellenistic sculptors in the Mediterranean

Earnings Quality and Market Performance in LATAM Corporations: A Combined Agency and Cognitive Approach to Investors’ Perceptions of Managerial Information

This chapter studies the impact of financial reporting quality on firms’ market performance in a sample of LATAM corporations. We infer that, especially in contexts of high information asymmetry, investors are not able to effectively discern the quality of the information they are provided with and can therefore be misled in their investment decisions by managerial opportunism. Our theoretical framework is built upon a combined agency theory and cognitive approach. We thereby seek to provide a valuable method to better understand how investors could be making suboptimal choices as a consequence of managers’ opportunistic behaviour. Empirically, we use the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model, hypothesizing that a positive relationship should be observed between the opportunistic manipulation of earnings (that is, the misuse of accounting accruals) and the firm’s market performance (that is, the consequential behaviour of investors). Through this ‘pioneering’ methodology, applied to the relatively under-researched LATAM region, we find that: (1) Financial data are identifiably and consistently manipulated through discretionary accruals in these countries. (2) As manipulation increases, markets do tend to appear more attractive to investors. (3) The elasticity of the market reaction to this manipulation is higher in what we term ‘opaque’ countries

Singlet Oxygen Produced by Photodynamic Action Causes Inactivation of the Mitochondrial Permeability Transition Pore

Abstract We have studied the effects of singlet oxygen produced by photodynamic action on the cyclosporin A-sensitive permeability transition (PT) in isolated rat liver mitochondria. Mitochondria were incubated with 3 μmhematoporphyrin and irradiated at 365 nm with a fluence rate of 25 watts/m2. For short durations of irradiation (60 s) the adenine nucleotide translocase was inactivated, but mitochondria retained their ability to form a proton electrochemical gradient and accumulated Ca2+ and Pi at the same rate as non-irradiated controls. Strikingly, however, the oxidative effects of photodynamic action prevented opening of the PT pore which is normally induced by Ca2+ plus Pi or by treatment with diethyl pyrocarbonate (a histidine reagent) or diamide (a thiol oxidant). We show that the most likely targets for photodynamic action are critical histidines that undergo degradation. Irradiated, hematoporphyrin-loaded mitochondria treated with diethyl pyrocarbonate or diamide still undergo the PT when treated with phenylarsine oxide, which reacts with a critical dithiol involved in pore modulation (Petronilli, V., Costantini, P., Scorrano, L., Colonna, R., Passamonti, S., and Bernardi, P. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269, 16638–16642). These data suggest (i) that the dithiol cysteines are not oxidized by photodynamic action, but rather became inaccessible to oxidants; and (ii) that irradiation of hematoporphyrin-loaded mitochondria does not lead to pore denaturation, but rather to site-selective inactivation of discrete pore functional domains

Web Site and Knowledge Management Platform of EU Water and Energy Initiatives (EUWI - EUEI)

The EU Water and Energy Knowledge Management Platforms, respectively www.euwi.net, www.euei.net , have been developed by the JRC in the framework of an Administrative Arrangement with the DG AIDCO (EuropeAid/ENV/2007/147693/TPS). The EUWI ¿ EUEI core system was designed in a modular way, this web-based information system can easily be up-graded and up-dated at a minor cost. The system was though as re-usable and therefore EUEI ¿ EUWI websites are replications of the same core system that has been customized differently for these two thematic platforms where the interaction between an expert community is requested. In details, the use of this system allows in a general way a specialised community to work in a virtual network. EUWi/EUEI members can share information, data, documents, news, special events, meetings, establish e-conferences in a dynamic manner in order to improve the communication in the thematic community. These platforms also offer more visibility through web dissemination of the activities, results of the EU initiatives and thus facilitate involvement of additional members willing to contribute to these initiatives.JRC.DDG.H.3-Global environement monitorin

Cycling training effects on fat metabolism blood parameters

BACKGROUND: Study the acute and middle term (4 weeks training) effect of cycling training on fat blood hematological parameters, urine, fatigue, and general health in recreational well-trained cyclists. METHODS: Nineteen cyclists underwent five blood sample collections: before and after an incremental maximal ramp test 7 days before day 0 (D-0); before and after 1 hour exhaustion trial test at baseline (D-0); and after 28 days of training (D-28). Age 34.5 years (\ub19.5); weight 74.87 kg (\ub16.6); height 177.3 cm (\ub15.2); BMI 26.3 (\ub14.9); VO2max 53.75 mL/kg/ min (\ub16.01); distance cycled 314.7 km/week (\ub1137.1). RESULTS: Acute effect was strong elevating WBC from 6.27\ub12.34 to 9.01\ub13.63 7103/\ub5L, an increase in LDL and total CHOL, in this respect, existing literature is controversial. No changes in body weight or blood pressure was observed after 1 month of regular training albeit lipid profile significantly improved, as well as GOT. CONCLUSIONS: Effect of a short incremental bout of exercise was to temporary elevated all the blood parameters except MCH and MCHC. A month of intensive training (distance cycled: 314.7\ub1137.1 km/week) significantly improved blood lipids profile with no permanent effect on WBC, blood pressure or body weight, but improved post effort lactate concentration and fatigue perception. Hematuria is confirmed to be a rare occurrence in recreational cyclists. Data can be useful for training monitoring and comparisons with similar groups of athletes, where there is a lack of information in literature and for comparing exercise effects