Context-aware Authorization in Highly Dynamic Environments

Highly dynamic computing environments, like ubiquitous and pervasive computing environments, require frequent adaptation of applications. Context is a key to adapt suiting user needs. On the other hand, standard access control trusts users once they have authenticated, despite the fact that they may reach unauthorized contexts. We analyse how taking into account dynamic information like context in the authorization subsystem can improve security, and how this new access control applies to interaction patterns, like messaging or eventing. We experiment and validate our approach using context as an authorization factor for eventing in Web service for device (like UPnP or DPWS), in smart home security

Aspects of Assembly and Cascaded Aspects of Assembly: Logical and Temporal Properties

Highly dynamic computing environments, like ubiquitous and pervasive computing environments, require frequent adaptation of applications. This has to be done in a timely fashion, and the adaptation process must be as fast as possible and mastered. Moreover the adaptation process has to ensure a consistent result when finished whereas adaptations to be implemented cannot be anticipated at design time. In this paper we present our mechanism for self-adaptation based on the aspect oriented programming paradigm called Aspect of Assembly (AAs). Using AAs: (1) the adaptations process is fast and its duration is mastered; (2) adaptations' entities are independent of each other thanks to the weaver logical merging mechanism; and (3) the high variability of the software infrastructure can be managed using a mono or multi-cycle weaving approach.Comment: 14 pages, published in International Journal of Computer Science, Volume 8, issue 4, Jul 2011, ISSN 1694-081

Smart Geographic object: Toward a new understanding of GIS Technology in Ubiquitous Computing

One of the fundamental aspects of ubiquitous computing is the instrumentation of the real world by smart devices. This instrumentation constitutes an opportunity to rethink the interactions between human beings and their environment on the one hand, and between the components of this environment on the other. In this paper we discuss what this understanding of ubiquitous computing can bring to geographic science and particularly to GIS technology. Our main idea is the instrumentation of the geographic environment through the instrumentation of geographic objects composing it. And then investigate how this instrumentation can meet the current limitations of GIS technology, and offers a new stage of rapprochement between the earth and its abstraction. As result, the current research work proposes a new concept we named Smart Geographic Object SGO. The latter is a convergence point between the smart objects and geographic objects, two concepts appertaining respectively to

Wetting and Adhesion in Alumina-Aluminum Metal-Ceramic Interfaces

In this work, we investigate the thermal and mechanical properties of aluminum metal and alumina (α- Al2O3) ceramics by performing molecular dynamic simulation (MD) using two versions of reactive force fields (ReaxFF) for Al and Al2O3. We also use embedded atom model (EAM) potentials for the aluminum metal simulations. The MD simulations for thermal and mechanical properties are performed for different temperatures ranging from 0 to 1400 K and pressures ranging from 0 to 8 GPa. We also investigate the surface formation energy of solid aluminum and alumina for different temperatures. The surface formation MD simulations serve two purposes: first, to obtain the surface formation energies of aluminum and alumina using the EAM, ReaxFF potentials at different temperatures; and second, to acquire the relaxed alumina surfaces at the temperatures 700 to 1400 K in order to use the final atomic configurations of the wetting simulations as the initial structure of surfaces of alumina substrate. The main result of this work is the investigation of the wetting and interface chemistry of molten aluminum droplets of the α-Alumina (0001) surface through MD simulations by employing the ReaxFF potentials. Wetting and interface chemistry are studied for different temperatures from 700 to 1400 K for four different droplet sizes: 16, 24, 32 and 40 Å diameters. Chemical reactions are observed at all temperatures and sizes in addition to diffusion between droplet and sphere atoms into each other during the wetting process. To define the level of wetting, we characterized contact angles of aluminum droplets on alumina substrates for all temperatures and sizes. We quantified the size and temperatures dependence of contact angle. Chemical reactions might be more effective for the small droplets 16 and 24 Å vs the bigger droplets 32, 40 Å due to the surface volume ratio of droplets

Bioanalytical solutions to characterize human proteome of clinical interest: healthy newborns and their early infections

Early-onset sepsis (EOS), defined as a septic state manifested in the first three days of life, is one of the major causes of neonatal mortality and surviving infants are at increased risk for developing morbidities. Since the traditional methods for the diagnosis of sepsis (i.e. cultures of blood, urine, cerebrospinal fluid or bronchial fluid specimens) usually take 24 to 48 hours and clinical symptoms frequently manifest themselves in the absence of a positive culture, a faster and more unequivocal test for the differential diagnosis of infection and sepsis is needed. The main aim of the project was the investigation of saliva as a biological fluid reporting on health status of newborns, followed by the development of an innovative and noninvasive diagnostic method to differentiate bacterial from noninfectious causes of inflammation. 2-DE – MALDI-TOF/TOF and 1-DE – LC-(HR)MS/MS untargeted gel-based approaches were exploited for the characterization of the protein composition of whole saliva samples collected from healthy newborns within 48 hours after birth. The two approaches proved to be useful in providing complementary information: 2-DE was focused on the pH range 4 – 7 and most of the identified proteins have MW < 40 kDa, whereas 1-DE – LC-(HR)MS/MS analyses allowed to identify a number of proteins featuring basic pI and/or high molecular weight. As a whole, the gel-based analyses led so far, not surprisingly, to the identification of a number of proteins linked to epidermal tissue functions and, more interestingly, of a number of proteins usually highly expressed and involved in inflammatory processes, including annexin A1, glutathione S-transferase P, heat shock proteins, protein S100-A8 and -A9, probable evidence of a stressed condition especially in the early 24 hours after birth. As soon as enough samples collected from newborns affected by bacterial infection will be available, a comparison will be performed to highlight the overall alteration of physiological protein pattern as well as over- or under-expressed proteins. This will give new inputs to the development of innovative and noninvasive diagnostic methods for the early detection of EOS. In parallel with the identification of a specific target protein (or a pattern of target proteins) through the gel-based discovery approach, targeted analyses were carried out with the aim of developing an analytical method based on liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry to qualitatively and quantitatively assay C-reactive protein, calcitonin and its precursor procalcitonin, acute-phase proteins widely considered plasmatic markers of sepsis, within salivary samples. Different sample preparation conditions were tested for each of the above-mentioned proteins and MALDI-TOF-based peptide mapping was exploited to compare a classical workflow of digestion in aqueous solution with the more recently described digestion in mixed organic-aqueous solution. In both cases, proteotypic peptides were identified and an optimization of the chromatographic and mass spectrometric conditions for their quantification on a Q TRAP instrument operated in MRM mode was performed. The developed methods allowed to detect the proteins of interest in the low μg/ml range. However, preliminary experiments on salivary samples showed the presence of matrix effects that need to be further investigated. Whenever possible, MSE experiments on Synapt G2-S were carried out to evaluate the applicability of a similar platform to high-throughput screening of the proteins of interest and their post-translational modifications within biological samples

The Perceived Country Of Origin Images In Turkey

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of country-of-origin image in quality perceptions of Turkish consumers. Since the research already supports the fact that country-of-origin image reflects a consumer&rsquo;s general perception about the quality of products made in a particular country and the nature of people from that country, the authors aimed to search how consistent the Turkish consumers are in perceiving some products/product groups and the countries those products are associated with. The objective is to assess the matching of perceptions of some country images and the products. Both the product-country and the country-product match information can be used to assess consumers&rsquo; purchase intentions by both marketing practitioners and the state authorities in managing country images. This study examined country-of-origin in terms of the fit between countries and product categories as perceived by a sample of 500 students/professionals in both major universities and numerous business institutions in Turkey. The findings indicated that the respondents were not consistent in associating the names of the products and the names of the countries with each other

Leveraging ambient applications interactions with their environment to improve services selection relevancy

Semantic web technologies are gaining momentum in the WoT (Web of Things) community for its promising ability to manage the increasing semantic heterogeneity between devices (Semantic Web of Things, SWoT). However, most of the approaches rely on ad-hoc and static knowledge models (ontologies) designed for specific domains and applications. While it is a solution for handling the semantic heterogeneity issue, it offers no perspective in term of ontology evolution over time. We study in this poster several approaches allowing: (1) to handle the semantic heterogeneity issue; (2) to capitalize the knowledge contributions throughout the life of the system allowing it to potentially better assist people in their environment over time. One of the approaches is validated on a real use-case

Dynamic knowledge model evolution in SWoT: a way to improve services selection relevancy over time

Semantic web technologies are gaining momentum in the WoT (Web of Things) community for its promising ability to manage the increasing semantic heterogeneity between devices (Semantic Web of Things, SWoT) in ambient environments. However, most of the approaches rely on ad-hoc and static knowledge models (ontologies) designed for specific domains and applications. While it is a solution for handling the semantic heterogeneity issue, it offers no perspective in term of ontology evolution over time. We study in this paper several approaches allowing: (1) to handle the semantic heterogeneity issue; (2) to capitalize the knowledge contributions throughout the life of the system allowing it to potentially better assist people in their environment over time. One of the approaches is validated on two real use-cases