Portable TPM based user Attestation Architecture for Cloud Environments

Cloud computing is causing a major shift in the IT industry. Research indicates that the cloud computing industry segment is substantial and growing enormously. New technologies have been developed, and now there are various ways to virtualize IT systems and to access the needed applications on the Internet, through web based applications. Users, now can access their data any time and at any place with the service provided by the cloud storage. With all these benefits, security is always a concern. Even though the cloud provides accessing the data stored in cloud storage in a flexible and scalable manner, the main challenge it faces is with the security issues. Thus user may think it2019;s not secure since the encryption keys are managed by the software, therefore there is no attestation on the client software integrity. The cloud user who has to deploy in the reliable and secure environment should be confirmed from the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) that it has not been corrupted by the mischievous acts. Thus, the user identification which consists user ID and password can also be easily compromised. Apart from the traditional network security solutions, trusted computing technology is combined into more and more aspects of cloud computing environment to guarantee the integrity of platform and provide attestation mechanism for trustworthy services. Thus, enhancing the confidence of the IaaS provider. A cryptographic protocol adopted by the Trusted Computing Group enables the remote authentication which preserves the privacy of the user based on the trusted platform. Thus we propose a framework which defines Trusted Platform Module (TPM), a trusted computing group which proves the secure data access control in the cloud storage by providing additional security. In this paper, we define the TPMbased key management, remote client attestation and a secure key share protocol across multiple users. Then we consider some of the challenges with the current TPM based att

Investigating Open Issues in Swarm Intelligence for Mitigating Security Threats in MANET

The area of Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) has being a demanded topic of research for more than a decade because of its attractive communication features associated with various issues. This paper primarily discusses on the security issues, which has been still unsolved after abundant research work. The paper basically stresses on the potential features of Swarm Intelligence (SI) and its associated techniques to mitigate the security issues. Majority of the previous researches based on SI has used Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) or Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) extensively. Elaborated discussion on SI with respect to trust management, authentication, and attack models are made with support of some of the recent studies done in same area. The paper finally concludes by discussing the open issues and problem identification of the review

Processing of aluminum-graphite particulate metal matrix composites by advanced shear technology

Copyright @ 2009 ASM International. This paper was published in Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance 18(9) and is made available as an electronic reprint with the permission of ASM International. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplications of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of this paper are prohibited.To extend the possibilities of using aluminum/graphite composites as structural materials, a novel process is developed. The conventional methods often produce agglomerated structures exhibiting lower strength and ductility. To overcome the cohesive force of the agglomerates, a melt conditioned high-pressure die casting (MC-HPDC) process innovatively adapts the well-established, high-shear dispersive mixing action of a twin screw mechanism. The distribution of particles and properties of composites are quantitatively evaluated. The adopted rheo process significantly improved the distribution of the reinforcement in the matrix with a strong interfacial bond between the two. A good combination of improved ultimate tensile strength (UTS) and tensile elongation (e) is obtained compared with composites produced by conventional processes.EPSR

Identification of AFLP markers linked to Fusarium wilt disease in pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]

An experiment was conducted to identify markers linked to Fusarium wilt disease resistance, Parents namely TTB 7 and ICP 8863 were screened using 151 SSRs markers and 16 AFLP primer combinations. Parental screening revealed five SSR primers and 12 AFLP primer combinations polymorphic between parents. Bulk segregant analysis identified five AFLP primer combinations generating seven markers polymorphic between resistant and susceptible bulks while, none of the SSR markers were polymorphic. This indicates that, these markers are putatively linked to wilt disease. Screening of F2 segregating population of cross TTB 7 x ICP 8863 with these putatively linked markers revealed four markers (E-AAT/M-CTG850, ETCG/M-CTT650, E-TCG/M-CTA730 and E-TCG/M-CTT230) which segregated in 3:1 mendelian pattern. Simple linear regression performed on these four markers had identified two markers namely E-TCG/M-CTT650 and E-TCG/M-CTA730 linked to disease

First Observation of CP Violation in B0->D(*)CP h0 Decays by a Combined Time-Dependent Analysis of BaBar and Belle Data

We report a measurement of the time-dependent CP asymmetry of B0->D(*)CP h0 decays, where the light neutral hadron h0 is a pi0, eta or omega meson, and the neutral D meson is reconstructed in the CP eigenstates K+ K-, K0S pi0 or K0S omega. The measurement is performed combining the final data samples collected at the Y(4S) resonance by the BaBar and Belle experiments at the asymmetric-energy B factories PEP-II at SLAC and KEKB at KEK, respectively. The data samples contain ( 471 +/- 3 ) x 10^6 BB pairs recorded by the BaBar detector and ( 772 +/- 11 ) x 10^6, BB pairs recorded by the Belle detector. We measure the CP asymmetry parameters -eta_f S = +0.66 +/- 0.10 (stat.) +/- 0.06 (syst.) and C = -0.02 +/- 0.07 (stat.) +/- 0.03 (syst.). These results correspond to the first observation of CP violation in B0->D(*)CP h0 decays. The hypothesis of no mixing-induced CP violation is excluded in these decays at the level of 5.4 standard deviations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Physical Review Letter

Analysis of Combinatorial Regulation: Scaling of Partnerships between Regulators with the Number of Governed Targets

Through combinatorial regulation, regulators partner with each other to control common targets and this allows a small number of regulators to govern many targets. One interesting question is that given this combinatorial regulation, how does the number of regulators scale with the number of targets? Here, we address this question by building and analyzing co-regulation (co-transcription and co-phosphorylation) networks that describe partnerships between regulators controlling common genes. We carry out analyses across five diverse species: Escherichia coli to human. These reveal many properties of partnership networks, such as the absence of a classical power-law degree distribution despite the existence of nodes with many partners. We also find that the number of co-regulatory partnerships follows an exponential saturation curve in relation to the number of targets. (For E. coli and Bacillus subtilis, only the beginning linear part of this curve is evident due to arrangement of genes into operons.) To gain intuition into the saturation process, we relate the biological regulation to more commonplace social contexts where a small number of individuals can form an intricate web of connections on the internet. Indeed, we find that the size of partnership networks saturates even as the complexity of their output increases. We also present a variety of models to account for the saturation phenomenon. In particular, we develop a simple analytical model to show how new partnerships are acquired with an increasing number of target genes; with certain assumptions, it reproduces the observed saturation. Then, we build a more general simulation of network growth and find agreement with a wide range of real networks. Finally, we perform various down-sampling calculations on the observed data to illustrate the robustness of our conclusions

N- and C-Terminal Domains of the Calcium Binding Protein EhCaBP1 of the Parasite Entamoeba histolytica Display Distinct Functions

Entamoeba histolytica, a protozoan parasite, is the causative agent of amoebiasis, and calcium signaling is thought to be involved in amoebic pathogenesis. EhCaBP1, a Ca2+ binding protein of E. histolytica, is essential for parasite growth. High resolution crystal structure of EhCaBP1 suggested an unusual arrangement of the EF-hand domains in the N-terminal part of the structure, while C-terminal part of the protein was not traced. The structure revealed a trimer with amino terminal domains of the three molecules interacting in a head-to-tail manner forming an assembled domain at the interface with EF1 and EF2 motifs of different molecules coming close to each other. In order to understand the specific roles of the two domains of EhCaBP1, the molecule was divided into two halves, and each half was separately expressed. The domains were characterized with respect to their structure, as well as specific functional features, such as ability to activate kinase and bind actin. The domains were also expressed in E. histolytica cells along with green fluorescent protein. The results suggest that the N-terminal domain retains some of the properties, such as localization in phagocytic cups and activation of kinase. Crystal structure of EhCaBP1 with Phenylalanine revealed that the assembled domains, which are similar to Calmodulin N-terminal domain, bind to Phenylalanine revealing the binding mode to the target proteins. The C-terminal domain did not show any of the activities tested. However, over-expression in amebic cells led to a dominant negative phenotype. The results suggest that the two domains of EhCaBP1 are functionally and structurally different from each other. Both the domains are required for structural stability and full range of functional diversity

Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets. Methods Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis. Results A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001). Conclusion We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty