Virtual HSM: Building a Hardware-backed Dependable Cryptographic Store

Cloud computing is being used by almost everyone, from regular consumer to IT specialists, as it is a way to have high availability, geo-replication, and resource elasticity with pay-as-you-go charging models. Another benefit is the minimal management effort and maintenance expenses for its users. However, security is still pointed out as the main reason hindering the full adoption of cloud services. Consumers lose ownership of their data as soon as it goes to the cloud; therefore, they have to rely on cloud provider’s security assumptions and Service Level Agreements regarding privacy and integrity guarantees for their data. Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) are dedicated cryptographic processors, typically used in secure cloud applications, that are designed specifically for the protection of cryptographic keys in all steps of their life cycles. They are physical devices with tamperproof resistance, but rather expensive. There have been some attempts to virtualize HSMs. Virtual solutions can reduce its costs but without much success as performance is incomparable and security guarantees are hard to achieve in software implementations. In this dissertation, we aim at developing a virtualized HSM supported by modern attestation-based trusted hardware in commodity CPUs to ensure privacy and reliability, which are the main requirements of an HSM. High availability will also be achieved through techniques such as cloud-of-clouds replication on top of those nodes. Therefore virtual HSMs, on the cloud, backed with trusted hardware, seem increasingly promising as security, attestation, and high availability will be guaranteed by our solution, and it would be much cheaper and as reliable as having physical HSMs

Etiologia da peri-implantite

A doença peri-implantar é um processo inflamatório nos tecidos à volta do(s) implante(s), que se pode dividir em duas fases. Inicia-se, sempre, por uma mucosite peri-implantar, que se não for tratada, pode evoluir para peri-implantite. Neste trabalho, visa-se compreender a etiologia da peri-implantite para que seja possível efetuar um diagnóstico correto e tomar decisões clínicas acertadas. Fatores de risco e a prevalência, também serão analisados. Para tal, efetuou-se pesquisa bibliográfica na base de dados eletrónica PubMed. A pesquisa foi restrita aos idiomas: Português, Inglês e Espanhol e apenas estudos realizados em humanos foram considerados. A etiologia da peri-implantite é multifatorial, bastante complexa e controversa. A presença de placa bacteriana é a principal causa das doenças peri-implantares. Outros fatores são considerados de risco mas não são, por si só, causadores de peri-implantite. Mais estudos são necessários para aprofundar este tema e haver maior consenso entre os autores.Peri-implant disease is an inflammatory process that occurs in the tissues around the implant(s). This process can be divided into two stages: the first is the peri-implant mucositis, which, if untreated, progresses to the second stage: peri-implantitis. This study aims to understand the etiology of peri-implantitis in order to perform a better diagnosis and following correct clinical decisions. Risk factos and prevalence will also be analyzed. For this purpose, it was made a bibliographic search in the PubMed database. The research was done in the languages of: Portuguese, English and Spanish. Only human studies were considered. The etiology of peri-implantitis is multifactorial, complex and controversial. The presence of plaque is the main cause of peri-implant diseases, although there are other factos that are associated with increased risk. Further studies are needed to better understand this subject and to seek consensus among authors

Reducing execution time in faaS cloud platforms

Dissertion to obtain the Master’s degree in Informatics and Computers EngineeringO aumento de popularidade do processamento e execução de código na Cloud levou ao despertar do interesse pela Functions Framework da Google, sendo o objetivo principal identificar pontos de possível melhoria na plataforma e a sua adaptação de forma a responder à necessidade identificada, tal como a obtenção e análise de resultados com o objetivo de validar a progressão realizada. Como necessidade da Functions Framework da Google Cloud Platform verificou-se que seria possível uma adaptação de forma a promover a utilização de serviços de cache, possibilitando assim o aproveitamente de processamentos prévios das funções para acelerar a resposta a pedidos futuros. Desta forma, foram implementados 3 mecanismos de caching distintos, In-Process, Out-of-Process e Network, respondendo cada um deles a diferentes necessidades e trazendo vantagens distintas entre si. Para a extração e análise de resultados foi utilizado o Apache JMeter, sendo esta uma aplicação open source para a realização de testes de carga e medidas de performance do sistema desenvolvido. O teste envolve a execução de uma função de geração de thumbnails a partir de uma imagem, estando a função em execução na framework. Para este caso uma das métricas definidas e analisadas será o número de pedidos atendidos por segundo até atingir o ponto de saturação. Finalmente, e a partir dos resultados foi possível verificar uma melhoria significativa dos tempos de resposta aos pedidos recorrendo aos mecanismos de caching. Para o caso de estudo, foi também possível compreender as diferenças no processamento de imagens com dimensão pequena, média e grande na ordem dos Kbs aos poucos Mbs.The increase in popularity of code processing and execution in the Cloud led to the awakening of interest in Google’s Functions Framework, with the main objective being to identify possible improvement points in the platform and its adaptation in order to respond to the identified need, also obtaining and analysing the results in order to validate the progress made. As a need for the Google Cloud Platform Functions Framework, it was found that an adaptation would be possible in order to promote the use of cache services, thus making it possible to take advantage of previous processing of the functions to accelerate the response to future requests. In this way, 3 different caching mechanisms were implemented, In-Process, Out-of-Process and Network, each responding to different needs and bringing different advantages. For the extraction and analysis of results, Apache JMeter was used, which is an open source application for implementing load tests and performance measures of the developed system. The test involves executing a function to generate thumbnails from an image, with the function running in the framework. For this case, one of the metrics defined and analyzed will be the number of requests served per second until reaching the saturation point. Finally, and based on the results, it was possible to verify a significant improvement in the response times to requests using caching mechanisms. For the case study, it was also possible to understand the differences in the processing of images with small, medium and large dimensions in the order of Kbs to a few Mbs.N/

Martial arts and combat sports in physical education and sport sciences degrees - a comparative study of Brazil, France, Portugal, and Spain

This paper examines the Martial Arts and Combat Sports (MA&CS) pedagogy in the Physical Education and Sports Science (PESS) degrees offered in Brazil, France, Spain, and Portugal. Document analysis was used to observe the study plans of the universities. In the European countries, we tried to analyze every university with a PESS degree while in Brazil we examined at least one public university per state. The existence of MA&CS, the name of the subjects, the combat sport emphasized and the type (required or elective) were the main variables observed. An overview of each country appears in the accompanying tables. These tables show the percentage of universities that have MA&CS in their curriculum, as well as the disciplines and if courses are required or elective. French universities presented MA&CS in all the analyzed degrees, but Judo, “General Approach” (a term we define below), and Boxing/French Boxing were the styles most frequently offered. Most Spanish universities offered MA&CS in PESS degree and in these programs Judo has supremacy over other practices. Less than half of the Portuguese universities offered MA&CS, and the ones who did usually offered either Judo or a “General Approach.” In Brazil there was a high incidence of MA&CS in the PESS degrees, and the “General Approach,” known as “Luta,” was typical. The Brazilian MA&CS of Capoeira is also popular in Brazilian universities. It is possible to state with confidence that MA&CS are frequently included in PESS degrees in these four countries. It is also possible to confidently conclude that Judo is the most influential sport in these countries’ PESS programs. However, further studies are required to determine if what the course catalogues describe accurately describes what is being taught by the professors

Comunicação científica: das restrições ao acesso livre

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Sharing some lessons learned from the RepositóriUM

The global movement for Open Access that emerged in the beginning of this century was fundamental to expand the channels of dissemination of scientific production of higher educational institutions. The Institutional Repositories (IR) were one of those channels. The Universidade do Minho, Portugal was the first worldwide community of Portuguese language and one of the first in Europe to translate and implement an IR, the RepositóriUM, in 2003. This study aims to examine the initiatives developed during the implementation phase of RepositóriUM and discuss its possible application in other contexts. It also fits in a broader context associated with the implementation project of the institutional repository of the Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. The methods used to meet the initial step of this study consisted of a documentary survey of normative and bibliographic documents of the RepositóriUM and their content analysis, and analysis of the data collected automatically by the support software. After six years of implementation of the RepositóriUM, the data presented are positive both in terms of growth in the number of archives and communities, and in consultations and downloads translating into an increase visibility for both the institution and for its researchers. From the analysis we also considered that some measures associated with the process of implementation of the RepositóriUM can be successfully adopted by other institutions.Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)Universidade do Minho. Centro de investigação em Educação (CIEd

Processo de trabalho e planejamento na estratégia saúde da família

Este livro faz parte dos materiais didáticos dos cursos de especialização para trabalhadores vinculados à Atenção Básica ofertados pela UFPE. O objetivo é refletir sobre os conceitos e as teorias pertinentes aos processos de trabalho na prática das Unidades de Saúde da Família (USF), estabelecendo o intercâmbio social nos territórios de adscrição das equipes de saúde, sob o manto da Política de Humanização do SUS. Também é explorado o Planejamento Estratégico Situacional (PES) como estratégia para consolidação da dinâmica dos processos de trabalho, como ferramenta indispensável na otimização dos recursos, no exercício da convivência e no fortalecimento dos vínculos na Estratégia Saúde da Família