Information balance between newspapers and social networks

[EN] Competing newspapers, tend to publish the same information in a given time frame. However, each editor tends to aggregate and present the news according to certain criteria such as editorial policies, filtering strategies, readers base, etc. Thus, the proper choice and filtering of information makes one newspaper different from the other and, the proper management of such criteria, may deem the success or failure of a newspaper. From the editor’s perspective, the news selection process is a trade-off between informativeness and attractiveness, as determined by the readership. Moreover, is it possible that cultural and political inputs from social media may impact the news selection process? Political news on social networks represent nowadays a valuable informative asset that gives the possibility to correlate newspaper information with public request expressed on social networks. We believe that it is possible to develop a theory to mitigate the newspaper’s cultural identity with the public information needs collected on social media. In our work, we show how to measure the society's request for information through the analysis of public reaction to certain articles on social networks, in particular we present how studying the hashtags and articles shared can be conveyed to understand social dynamics in nowadays discussion.Mazzeo Rinaldi, F.; Russo, A.; Giuffrida, G. (2020). Information balance between newspapers and social networks. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/CARMA2020.2020.11635OCS23123

Secure cloud micro services using Intel SGX

The micro service paradigm targets the implementation of large and scalable systems while enabling fine-grained service-level main- tainability. Due to their scalability, such architectures are frequently used in cloud environments, which are often subject to privacy and trust issues hindering the deployment of services dealing with sensitive data. In this paper we investigate the integration of trusted execution based on Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX) into micro service applications. We present our Vert.x Vault, that supports SGX-based trusted execution in Eclipse Vert.x, a renowned tool-kit for writing reactive micro service applications. With our approach, secure micro services can run alongside regular ones, inter-connected via the Vert.x event bus to build large Vert.x applications that can contain multiple trusted components. Maintaining a full-edged Java Virtual Machine (JVM) inside an SGX enclave is impractical due to its complexity, less secure because of a large Trusted Code Base (TCB), and would suffer from performance penalties due to a high memory footprint. However, as Vert.x is written in Java, for a lean TCB this requires integration of native enclave C/C++ code into Vert.x, for which we propose the usage of Java Native Interface (JNI). Our Vert.x Vault provides the benefits of micro service architectures together with trusted execution to support privacy and data confidentiality for sensitive applications in the cloud at scale. In our evaluation we show the feasibility of our approach, buying a significantly increased level of security for a low performance overhead of only ≈ 8:7%

Enhancing Random Forest Classification with NLP in DAMEH: A system for DAta Management in EHealth Domain

The use of pervasive IoT devices in Smart Cities, have increased the Volume of data produced in many and many field. Interesting and very useful applications grow up in number in E-health domain, where smart devices are used in order to manage huge amount of data, in highly distributed environments, in order to provide smart services able to collect data to fill medical records of patients. The problem here is to gather data, to produce records and to analyze medical records depending on their contents. Since data gathering involve very different devices (not only wearable medical sensors, but also environmental smart devices, like weather, pollution and other sensors) it is very difficult to classify data depending their contents, in order to enable better management of patients. Data from smart devices couple with medical records written in natural language: we describe here an architecture that is able to determine best features for classification, depending on existent medical records. The architecture is based on pre-filtering phase based on Natural Language Processing, that is able to enhance Machine learning classification based on Random Forests. We carried on experiments on about 5000 medical records from real (anonymized) case studies from various health-care organizations in Italy. We show accuracy of the presented approach in terms of Accuracy-Rejection curves

An Approach for Securing Cloud-Based Wide Area Monitoring of Smart Grid Systems

Computing power and flexibility provided by cloud technologies represent an opportunity for Smart Grid applications, in general, and for Wide Area Monitoring Systems, in particular. Even though the cloud model is considered efficient for Smart Grids, it has stringent constraints in terms of security and reliability. An attack to the integrity or confidentiality of data may have a devastating impact for the system itself and for the surrounding environment. The main security risk is represented by malicious insiders, i.e., malevolent employees having privileged access to the hosting machines. In this paper, we evaluate a powerful hardening approach that could be leveraged to protect synchrophasor data processed at cloud level. In particular, we propose the use of homomorphic encryption to address risks related to malicious insiders. Our goal is to estimate the feasibility of such a security solution by verifying the compliance with frame rate requirements typical of synchrophasor standards

A Secure Cloud-Based SCADA Application: the Use Case of a Water Supply Network

Cloud computing paradigm is gaining more and more momentum, to the extent that it is no more confined to its initial application domains, i.e. use by enterprises and businesses willing to lower costs or to increase computing capacity in a flexible manner. In particular, increasing interest is recently being paid to the huge potentials - in terms of benefits for the society at large - that might result from the adoption of cloud computing technology by critical infrastructure (CI) operators. This is of course putting special emphasis on the need for dependable and trustworthy security mechanisms in cloud technology based services, since a critical infrastructure is vital for essential functioning of a country. Incidental or deliberate damages to a CI have serious impacts on the economy, and possibly make essential services unavailable to the communities it serves. In this paper we present the proof-of concept of a cloud-based Water Supply Network Monitoring (WSNM) application, named RiskBuster (RB), that ensures the confidentiality and integrity of SCADA monitoring data collected from dam sensors and stored in the cloud by using the innovative Intel Software Guard eXtension (SGX) technology

The enhancement of excitonic emission crossing Saha equilibrium in trap passivated CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite

Metal-halide semiconductor perovskites have received great attention for the development of stable and efficient light emitting diodes and lasers, since they combine high charge carrier mobility and light emission spectral-purity with low-cost fabrication methods. Nevertheless, the role of excitons, free carries and trap states in perovskite light emission properties is still unclear due to their interdependence. In this paper we selectively manage trapping and light emission mechanisms by a reversible laser-assisted trap-passivation process performed on a CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite layer, coupled to the inner modes of a high-quality micro-cavity, which only affects the radiative recombination. We show that photoluminescence is dominated by exciton radiative decay process and that trap states passivation increases the exciton gemination rate by reducing coulombic scattering of free electrons due to the ionized impurities. This picture provides a more general description than the model based on trap states-free Saha thermodynamic equilibrium between photo-generated species. The interdependence of free carries, trap states and excitons in the light emission properties of CH3NH3PbBr3 perovskite thin films and their relationship to device performance is a subject of debate. Here, the authors investigate the role of non-radiative recombination and demonstrate that the photoluminescence is dominated by exciton radiative decay processes

Tricuspid valve repair and replacement for infective endocarditis

Infective endocarditis represents a challenging and life-threatening clinical condition affecting native and prosthetic heart valves, endocardium, and implanted cardiac devices. Right-sided infective endocarditis account for approximately 5–10% of all infective endocarditis and are often associated with intravenous drug use, intracardiac devices, central venous catheters, and congenital heart disease. The tricuspid valve is involved in 90% of right-side infective endocarditis. The primary treatment of tricuspid valve infective endocarditis is based on long-term intravenous antibiotics. When surgery is required, diferent interventions have been proposed, ranging from valvectomy to various types of valve repair to complete replacement of the valve. Percutaneous removal of vegetations using the AngioVac system has also been proposed in these patients. The aim of this narrative review is to provide an overview of the current surgical options and to discuss the results of the diferent surgical strategies in patients with tricuspid valve infective endocarditi

Liver enlargement predicts obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome in morbidly obese women

Obstructive sleep apnea–hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is frequently present in patients with severe obesity, but its prevalence especially in women is not well defined. OSAHS and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are common conditions, frequently associated in patients with central obesity and metabolic syndrome and are both the result of the accumulation of ectopic fat mass. Identifying predictors of risk of OSAHS may be useful to select the subjects requiring instrumental sleep evaluation. In this cross-sectional study, we have investigated the potential role of hepatic left lobe volume (HLLV) in predicting the presence of OSAHS. OSAHS was quantified by the apnea/hypopnea index (AHI) and oxygen desaturation index in a cardiorespiratory inpatient sleep study of 97 obese women [age: 47 ± 11 years body mass index (BMI): 50 ± 8 kg/m2]. OSAHS was diagnosed when AHI was ≥5. HLLV, subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat were measured by ultrasound. After adjustment for age and BMI, both HLLV and neck circumference (NC) were independent predictors of AHI. OSAHS was found in 72% of patients; HLLV ≥ 370 cm3 was a predictor of OSAHS with a sensitivity of 66%, a specificity of 70%, a positive and negative predictive values of 85 and 44%, respectively (AUC = 0.67, p < 0.005). A multivariate logistic model was used including age, BMI, NC, and HLLV (the only independent predictors of AHI in a multiple linear regression analyses), and a cut off value for the predicted probability of OSAHS equal to 0.7 provided the best diagnostic results (AUC = 0.79, p < 0.005) in terms of sensitivity (76%), specificity (89%), negative and positive predictive values (59 and 95%, respectively). All patients with severe OSAHS were identified by this prediction model. In conclusion, HLLV, an established index of visceral adiposity, represents an anthropometric parameter closely associated with OSAHS in severely obese women