Enhancements to Secure Bootstrapping of Smart Appliances

In recent times, there has been a proliferation of smart IoT devices that make our everyday life more convenient, both at home and at work environment. Most of these smart devices are connected to cloud-based online services, and they typically reuse the existing Wi-Fi network infrastructure for Internet connectivity. Hence, it is of paramount importance to ensure that these devices establish a robust security association with the Wi-Fi networks and cloud-based servers. The initial process by which a device establishes a robust security association with the network and servers is known as secure bootstrapping. The bootstrapping process results in the derivation of security keys and other connection parameters required by the security associations. Since the smart IoT devices often possess minimal user-interface, there is a need for bootstrapping methods with which the users can effortlessly connect their smart IoT devices to the networks and services. Nimble out-of-band authentication for Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP-NOOB) is one such secure bootstrapping method. It is a new EAP authentication method for IEEE 802.1X/EAP authentication framework. The protocol does not assume or require any pre-configured authentication credentials such as symmetric keys or certificates. In lieu, the authentication credentials along with the user’s ownership of the device are established during the bootstrapping process. The primary goal of this thesis is to study and implement the draft specification of the EAP-NOOB protocol in order to evaluate the working of EAP-NOOB in real-world scenarios. During our implementation and testing of the initial prototype for EAP-NOOB, we discovered several issues in the protocol. In this thesis, we propose a suitable solution for each of the problems identified and also, verify the solutions through implementation and testing. The main results of this thesis work are various enhancements and clarifications to the EAP-NOOB protocol specification. The results consequently aid the standardisation of the protocol at IETF. We also design and implement several additional features for EAP-NOOB to enhance the user experience

Role of city policy and regulation in a building industry market transformation

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 96-99).With a growing awareness of the need for a widespread reduction in the use of natural resources, including energy and water, buildings have been identified as a key component of America's, and the world's, drain on these finite resources. However, changing building practices that have been the norm for more than a century has proven to be a difficult task, with many challenges and interests to be accounted for. Implementing green building policies has not yet become a standard practice in most U.S. cities. This study looks at various policy approaches and outcomes that aim to address the impediments to a market transformation towards greener building. Among the cities that boast a significant amount of green buildings certified by a third-party rating system, many different factors and dynamics, with varying participation and responses from the public, private and non-profit sectors have resulted in different outcomes with respect to green building in that particular city. This study looks at the green building policy and implementation landscape in four cities: Boston, Boulder, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. Each of these case studies offers a robust look at how green building policies were created, both the process and the implementation, and the building industry's response to these policies and programs. In addition, it looks at other players and circumstances that contributed to the dynamics that surfaced in that city. Primarily, the goal of this study is to glean lessons from these four cities, to draw some general conclusions about what elements effective green building policy incorporates and the process and implementation strategies that resulted in success in practice. The conclusions also identify the supporting factors that play an indispensable role in a successful outcome. Ideally this study may offer some general guidance for cities that are considering how best to approach this particular challenge and aid in structuring a green building policy that will produce concrete results. The general findings of this study are that effective green building policy should facilitate a market transformation in the building industry towards greener development through mechanisms that address both the supply and demand of green building products and services. Successful policies were designed to stimulate market potential so the practice of greener building would ultimately be profitable to developers, building professionals and valued by consumers. The obstacles to green building becoming a norm in the building industry can be initially overcome by thoughtful, tailored policy and can be ultimately sustained by pure market forces.by Shiva R. Prakash.M.C.P

Two-Hop Routing with Traffic-Differentiation for QoS Guarantee in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a Traffic-Differentiated Two-Hop Routing protocol for Quality of Service (QoS) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). It targets WSN applications having different types of data traffic with several priorities. The protocol achieves to increase Packet Reception Ratio (PRR) and reduce end-to-end delay while considering multi-queue priority policy, two-hop neighborhood information, link reliability and power efficiency. The protocol is modular and utilizes effective methods for estimating the link metrics. Numerical results show that the proposed protocol is a feasible solution to addresses QoS service differenti- ation for traffic with different priorities.Comment: 13 page

Gated recurrent unit decision model for device argumentation in ambient assisted living

The increasing elderly population worldwide is facing a variety of social, physical, and cognitive issues, such as walking problems, falls, and difficulties in performing daily activities. To support elderly people, continuous monitoring and supervision are needed. Due to the busy modern lifestyle of caretakers, taking care of elderly people is difficult. As a result, many elderly people prefer to live independently at home without any assistance. To help such people, an ambient assisted living (AAL) environment is provided that monitors and evaluates the daily activities of elderly individuals. An AAL environment has heterogeneous devices that interact, and exchange information of the activities performed by the users. The devices can be involve in an argumentation about the occurrence of an activity thus leading to generate conflicts. To address this issue, the paper proposes a gated recurrent unit (GRU) learning techniques to facilitate decision-making for device argumentation during activity occurrences. The proposed model is used to initially classify user activities and each sensor value status. Then a novel method is used to identify argumentation among devices for activity occurrences in the classified user activities. Later, the GRU decision making model is used to resolve the argumentation and to identify the target activity that occurred. The result of the proposed model is compared with other existing techniques. The proposed model outperformed the other existing methods with an accuracy of 85.45%, precision of 72.32%, recall of 65.83%, and F1-Score of 60.22%

Peer Support on A College Campus at An Indian University

Young adults experience an increased risk of developing mental health problems as they transition from school life to university life. This is also the period of life where the peer group plays a significant role in their decisions. We describe this process of co-creating a peer support (PS) program in a residential university setting in India. The collaborative design process is described from a baseline felt need assessment to selecting and training student peer support volunteers (PSVs). The ongoing implementation and design of the program were informed by design thinking by the university staff and PSVs.The survey conducted among the first-year students of a University in South India revealed that the students were predominantly focused on difficulties in social interactions, lack of adequate mental health services, and issues related to help-seeking. This guided the content and skill development of the PSVs. The PSVs used reflective learning as the program was being implemented to identify the lacunae in the training and implementation of the PS program. They were able to provide constructive feedback and implement the changes.The PS program is an example of a low-intensity intervention that provides contextual support to students in an academic setting. This program also highlights task-sharing that is more acceptable to the youth and, therefore, more sustainable. A co-design and iterative process will give the youth-focused program a greater reach, reduce stigma, and improve help-seeking for mental health issues. This also helps create appropriate referrals for a higher level of care. This program description does not include a formal evaluation of the impact of the same, which could guide future work. Keywords: Peer Support, Academic settings, Stigma reduction, Youth Empowerment DOI: 10.7176/JEP/14-23-06 Publication date:August 31st 202

An unconventional impression method using implant mount: an alternative to open- and closed-tray impression technique

Background: Various impression techniques have been proposed for making implant prostheses. Impressions are made at implant level – closed and open tray impressions, as well as abutment level impressions. Closed and open tray copings are used to make the impressions. The limitations associated with the implant impression copings, including expensive ones, pose a significant challenge in limited mouth-opening cases, and customization of copings is not feasible. Aim: This study aimed to compare the dimensional accuracy of four impression methods, open-tray, closed-tray, disposable mount as coping and splinted mount as coping. Materials and methods: An ideal maxillary edentulous acrylic model was used with windows created at the canine and molar regions. Four analogues were implanted in the canine and molar areas to represent implants. The analogues were parallel to one other and were orientated at 0 degrees using the surveyor\u27s assistance. Four groups were made: closed-tray, open-tray, implant mount as coping and splinted mount as coping. The custom trays were fabricated, accordingly. The implant-level impressions were made in all the groups using polyether impression material. The impressions were fitted with their respective impression copings with the analogues. The impressions were poured using die stone type-IV, and the casts were made. The resulting casts were 3D scanned, and a virtual model (.stl File) was created. Each .stl file was subjected to Geomagic software to evaluate the three-dimensional accuracy of conventional implant copings and implant mount as copings. Results: The Open-tray and the closed-tray groups exhibited the mean dimensional accuracy of 0.011±0.0016 µm and 0.018±0.0012 µm, respectively. The mount as coping and splinted mount displayed a mean dimensional accuracy of 0.017±0.0008 µm and 0.013±0.0020µm, respectively. Conclusions: This pilot study concludes that the implant mount can be used as implant impression coping and an alternative to the conventional impression coping