2,373 research outputs found
SAFIUS - A secure and accountable filesystem over untrusted storage
We describe SAFIUS, a secure accountable file system that resides over an
untrusted storage. SAFIUS provides strong security guarantees like
confidentiality, integrity, prevention from rollback attacks, and
accountability. SAFIUS also enables read/write sharing of data and provides the
standard UNIX-like interface for applications. To achieve accountability with
good performance, it uses asynchronous signatures; to reduce the space required
for storing these signatures, a novel signature pruning mechanism is used.
SAFIUS has been implemented on a GNU/Linux based system modifying OpenGFS.
Preliminary performance studies show that SAFIUS has a tolerable overhead for
providing secure storage: while it has an overhead of about 50% of OpenGFS in
data intensive workloads (due to the overhead of performing
encryption/decryption in software), it is comparable (or better in some cases)
to OpenGFS in metadata intensive workloads.Comment: 11pt, 12 pages, 16 figure
Active elastic dimers: self-propulsion and current reversal on a featureless track
We present a Brownian inchworm model of a self-propelled elastic dimer in the
absence of an external potential. Nonequilibrium noise together with a
stretch-dependent damping form the propulsion mechanism. Our model connects
three key nonequilibrium features -- position-velocity correlations, a nonzero
mean internal force, and a drift velocity. Our analytical results, including
striking current reversals, compare very well with numerical simulations. The
model unifies the propulsion mechanisms of DNA helicases, polar rods on a
vibrated surface, crawling keratocytes and Myosin VI. We suggest experimental
realizations and tests of the model.Comment: 4 page
A Foucauldian Theory of American Islamophobia
With the emergence of ISIS andAmerican public furor over allowing Syrian refugees safe haven, Muslim Americans find themselves once again in the cross-hairs of a nation obsessed with searching for answers and someone to blame. I argue that the premise behind American anti-Muslim sentiment is rooted in two of Michel Foucault’s concepts -“biopower” and “pastoral power.” This article is divided in two halves. In the first, I argue that American nationalism is articulated in a unique way, particularly through “pastoral power.” In conjunction with an “imagined” American nationhood (Anderson 1983), it has created a state that is often viewed as secular, but is quite Christian ideologically and structurally. Drawing on Göle (1996), I surmise that the Western “culture of confession,” an extension of pastoral power, is incompatible with Islam – or at least is viewed as such. In the second half, I present my main argument towards a new understanding of Foucault’s (1990) biopower in the context of the sovereign and its ability to designate who is “sacred,” a la Agamben (1998). I suggest that a new evaluation of Agamben (1998) should be undertaken to account for the renewed racialization of and discrimination towards American Muslims
Anti-correlated time lags in the Z source GX 5-1: Possible evidence for a truncated accretion disk
We investigate the nature of the inner accretion disk in the neutron star
source GX 5-1 by making a detailed study of time lags between X-rays of
different energies. Using the cross-correlation analysis, we found
anti-correlated hard and soft time lags of the order of a few tens to a few
hundred seconds and the corresponding intensity states were mostly the
horizontal branch (HB) and upper normal branch (NB). The model independent and
dependent spectral analysis showed that during these time lags the structure of
accretion disk significantly varied. Both eastern and western approaches were
used to unfold the X-ray continuum and systematic changes were observed in soft
and hard spectral components. These changes along with a systematic shift in
the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) made it substantially
evident that the geometry of the accretion disk is truncated. Simultaneous
energy spectral and power density spectral study shows that the production of
the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) are closely related to the
Comptonizing region rather than the disk component in the accretion disk. We
found that as the HBO frequency decreases from the hard apex to upper HB, the
disk temperature increases along with an increase in the coronal temperature
which is in sharp contrast with the changes found in black hole binaries where
the decrease in QPO frequency is accompanied by a decrease in the disk
temperature and a simultaneous increase in the coronal temperature. We discuss
the results in the context of re-condensation of coronal material in the inner
region of the disk.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal Supplement (ApJS
Flux enhancement in the inner region of a geometrically and optically thick accretion disk
The surface flux (and the corresponding observed flux) of a geometrically
thick ``funnel'' shaped disk is computed taking into account the radiation
impinging on the surface from other parts of the disk. It is found that the
ratio of the maximum apparent luminosity to the real luminosity of the disk is
only a factor even when the opening angle of the disk is small
(). Thus, geometrically beamed emission from ``funnel'' shaped
sub-Eddington disks around stellar mass black holes, cannot explain the
Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources detected in nearby galaxies.Comment: accepted for publication in Ap
- …