Achieving Reconciliation between Privacy Preservation and Auditability in Zero-trust Cloud Storage using Intel SGX

Cloud storage allows for saving files at an off-site location that is accessible through the public internet. However, cloud storage suffers from a lack of trust since employees have physical and electronic access to almost all of the data, and zero-trust security is thus essential. This paper proposes an SGX-based file hosting scheme that gives full consideration to both privacy preservation and auditability to address the aforementioned concerns. We designed a secure key exchange protocol consisting of two phases: a key generation phase and a key verification phase. Theoretical analysis and experiments indicate that the protocol can resist man in-the-middle attacks, which has been unattainable in previous studies. The experimental results show that our scheme takes little time regardless of file size and achieves solid performance in handling concurrent requests; furthermore, it is innocuous for clients, and the memory usage is acceptable.

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ACTIVE-HASH-TABLE BASED PUBLIC AUDITING FOR SECURE CLOUD STORAGE

Innovare Journal of Engineering & Technology ◽

10.22159/ijet.2019.v7i3.19914 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

BALAKRISHNAN K ◽

VIDHYA R

Keyword(s):

Cloud Storage ◽

Privacy Preservation ◽

Computational Cost ◽

Hash Table ◽

Cloud Services ◽

Third Party ◽

Communication Overhead ◽

Public Auditing ◽

The Public ◽

Secure Cloud Storage

Public auditing scheme for secure cloud storage based on dynamic hash table, which is a new two-dimensional data structure located at a third-party auditor (TPA) to record the data property information for dynamic auditing. Differing form the existing works, the proposed scheme migrates the authorized information from the cloud services provider to the TPA and thereby significantly reduces the computational cost and communication overhead. Our scheme can also achieve higher updating efficiency than the state of the art schemes. In addition, we extend our scheme to support privacy preservation by combining the homomorphic authenticator based on the public key with the random masking generated by the TPA and achieve batch auditing by employing the aggregate BLS signature technique. We formally prove the security of the proposed scheme and evaluate the auditing performance by detailed experiments and comparisons with the existing ones. The results demonstrate that the proposed scheme can effectively achieve secure auditing for cloud storage and outperform the previous schemes’ in computation complexity, storage costs, and communication overhead.

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ON EVALUATION OF THE ROLE OF THERMAL AND WIND FACTORS FOR A PHYSICAL MODEL OF THE WORLD OCEAN GENERAL CIRCULATION SYSTEM

Journal of Oceanological Research ◽

10.29006/1564-2291.jor-2019.47(3).7 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 47 (3) ◽

pp. 80-91

Author(s):

V. G. Neiman

Keyword(s):

Physical Model ◽

Ocean Circulation ◽

General Circulation ◽

World Ocean ◽

Circulation System ◽

The Public ◽

The World ◽

Almost All ◽

Conceptual Foundations

The main content of the work consists of certain systematization and addition of longexisting, but eventually deformed and partly lost qualitative ideas about the role of thermal and wind factors that determine the physical mechanism of the World Ocean’s General Circulation System (OGCS). It is noted that the conceptual foundations of the theory of the OGCS in one form or another are contained in the works of many well-known hydrophysicists of the last century, but the aggregate, logically coherent description of the key factors determining the physical model of the OGCS in the public literature is not so easy to find. An attempt is made to clarify and concretize some general ideas about the two key blocks that form the basis of an adequate physical model of the system of oceanic water masses motion in a climatic scale. Attention is drawn to the fact that when analyzing the OGCS it is necessary to take into account not only immediate but also indirect effects of thermal and wind factors on the ocean surface. In conclusion, it is noted that, in the end, by the uneven flow of heat to the surface of the ocean can be explained the nature of both external and almost all internal factors, in one way or another contributing to the excitation of the general, or climatic, ocean circulation.

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Role of health simulation centres in the COVID-19 pandemic response in Italy: a national study

BMJ Simulation and Technology Enhanced Learning ◽

10.1136/bmjstel-2020-000813 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. bmjstel-2020-000813

Author(s):

Pier Luigi Ingrassia ◽

Mattia Ferrari ◽

Matteo Paganini ◽

Giulia Mormando

Keyword(s):

Web Search ◽

Structured Interview ◽

National Study ◽

Daily Routine ◽

In Situ Simulation ◽

The Public ◽

Emergent Technologies ◽

Public Health Emergencies ◽

Almost All ◽

Health Simulation

IntroductionThe COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically affected the Italian health systems and drastically impacted healthcare workers’ daily routine and training. Simulation is an efficient tool to provide medical education, especially in the case of incoming public health emergencies. This study investigated the role and activities of Italian simulation centres (SCs) during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsThe population was identified through a web search. The directors of Italian SCs were contacted via email and then enrolled. A structured interview was created, internally validated and administrated by phone to participants.ResultsFollowing the government’s ordinance, 37 (88.37%) SCs had to be closed to the public. Twenty (46.51%) SCs organised in situ simulation while 7 (16.28%) of them organised simulation inside the centre. Twenty-three (53.49%) SCs resorted to telematic modalities to provide training about COVID-19 and 21 (48.84%) of them for other training. Up to date, 13 SCs are still closed to the public.ConclusionsItaly has been severely hit by COVID-19, with differences between the regions. Almost all the SCs were closed, with only a few delivering training. The SCs took advantage of emergent technologies to create new ways to train people safely. Unfortunately, nearly one-fourth of Italian SCs have not reopened yet. The evolution of the COVID-19 epidemic calls for reconsideration about training activities including adequate safety measures implemented for all individuals involved.

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‘Ruined’ lives: Mediated white male victimhood

European Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/1367549420985840 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 60-80

Author(s):

Sarah Banet-Weiser

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Sexual Harassment ◽

Sexual Violence ◽

Public Perception ◽

White Male ◽

The Public ◽

Multi Media ◽

Patriarchal Power ◽

Almost All ◽

False Accusations

When the hashtag #metoo began to circulate in digital and social media, it challenged a familiar interpretation of those who are raped or sexually harassed as victims, positioning women as embodied agents. Yet, almost exactly a year after the #metoo movement shot to visible prominence, a different, though eerily similar, story began to circulate on the same multi-media platforms as #metoo: a story about white male victimhood. Powerful men in positions of privilege (almost always white) began to take up the mantle of victimhood as their own, often claiming to be victims of false accusations of sexual harassment and assault by women. Through the analysis of five public statements by highly visible, powerful men who have been accused of sexual violence, I argue that the discourse of victimhood is appropriated not by those who have historically suffered but by those in positions of patriarchal power. Almost all of the statements contain some sentiment about how the accusation (occasionally acknowledging the actual violence) ‘ruined their life’, and all of the statements analyzed here center the author, the accused white man, as the key subject in peril and the authors position themselves as truth-tellers about the incidents. These statements underscore certain shifts in the public perception of sexual violence; the very success of the #metoo movement in shifting the narrative has meant that men have had to defend themselves more explicitly in public. In order to wrestle back a hegemonic gender stability, these men take on the mantle of victimhood themselves.

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Development and Evaluation of Direct Paddy Seeder in Puddled Field

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su13052745 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (5) ◽

pp. 2745

Author(s):

Manoj Kumar ◽

Ritu Dogra ◽

Mahesh Narang ◽

Manjit Singh ◽

Sushant Mehan

Keyword(s):

Laboratory Testing ◽

Field Evaluation ◽

Row Spacing ◽

Second Phase ◽

Cell Type ◽

Inclined Plate ◽

Seed Damage ◽

Two Phases ◽

Almost All ◽

Different Soils

Manual transplanting, a pre-dominant practice in almost all the paddy growing areas in India, is laborious, burdensome, and has many expenses on raising, settling, and transplanting nursery. The transplanting process’s limitations motivated the replacement of conventional paddy transplanting methods. The study was divided into two phases. The first phase included laboratory testing of three levels of metering mechanisms, namely cell type (M1) with 10 cells grooved around a circular plate having a 13 cm diameter, inclined plate (M2) containing 24 U shaped cells provided on an 18 cm diameter plate, and fluted roller (M3) with 10 flutes on a 5 cm diameter shaft. The testing matrix included a missing index, multiple index, and seed damage with forward speeds (2.5, 3.0, and 3.5 km/h), and pre-germination levels of 24 h soaked (P1), 24 h pre-germinated (P2), and 36 h pre-germinated paddy seeds (P3)). The second phase included selecting the best combination obtained from the laboratory study and developing a new efficient planter for the puddled field. The inclined plate metering mechanism operating at 2.5 km/h for 24 h pre-germinated seeds was reported most efficient from the first phase. Therefore, a self-propelled 8-row planter equipped with an inclined plate metering mechanism having a row-to-row spacing of 22.5 cm was developed, fabricated, and evaluated in the puddled field. The designed planter was assessed on two different soils: sandy loom (ST1) and clay loom (ST2) and at two different hopper fill levels as ½ filled hopper (F1) and ¾ filled hopper (F2). The number of plants per square meter and hill-to-hill spacing was measured. The on-field evaluation revealed that the number of plants per square meter was non-significantly affected by the type of soil but was significantly affected by hopper fill.

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Mining chemical information in Swedish wastewaters for simultaneous assessment of population consumption, treatment efficiency and environmental discharge of illicit drugs

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-021-92915-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Inga Haalck ◽

Paul Löffler ◽

Christine Baduel ◽

Karin Wiberg ◽

Lutz Ahrens ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Illicit Drugs ◽

Emerging Contaminants ◽

Chemical Information ◽

Treatment Efficiency ◽

Daily Consumption ◽

Urban Populations ◽

The Public ◽

Target Drug ◽

Similar Drug ◽

Almost All

AbstractConsumption of illicit drugs poses health risks to the public and environment. Knowledge on their usage helps better implementations of intervention strategies to reduce drug-related harms in the society and also policies to limit their releases as emerging contaminants to recipient environments. This study aimed to investigate from the daily consumption to treatment efficiency and subsequent discharge of illicit drugs by the Swedish urban populations based on simultaneous collection and analysis of influent and effluent wastewater. Two different weekly monitoring campaigns showed similar drug prevalence in Stockholm and Uppsala, with amphetamine as the most popular drug. Almost all target drug residues were still measurable in effluent wastewater. High removal efficiencies (> 94%) were observed for amphetamine, cocaine and benzoylecgonine, whereas ketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), mephedrone and methamphetamine were the least removed substances (< 64%), with the highest discharge observed for MDMA in both catchments (~ 3.0 g/day in Uppsala; ~ 18 g/day in Stockholm). Our study provides new insights into short-term changes in the use and related discharge of illicit drugs by urban populations. Such wastewater monitoring can provide useful information to public health, forensic and environmental authorities in planning future intervention and regulation policies.

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Ranking port state control detention remarks: professional Judgement and spatial overview

European Transport Research Review ◽

10.1186/s12544-021-00480-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Efe Akyurek ◽

Pelin Bolat

Keyword(s):

Analytical Hierarchy Process ◽

Professional Judgment ◽

State Control ◽

The Public ◽

Marine Industry ◽

Almost All ◽

Safety Systems ◽

Regulation Compliance ◽

Hierarchy Process ◽

Port State Control

Abstract Introduction The merchant marine fleet is under inspection by several parties to ensure maritime regulation compliance. International Maritime Organization mainly regulates the industry, and the most effective defender is indeed Port StateControl run by the regional memorandum of understandings. Objective This article aims to analyze all detention remarks of Paris Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) from 2013 to 2019 for EU15 countries (except Luxemburg and Austria) to guide marine industry on detainable Port State Control remarks and country risk profile. Methods The data of the detained vessels taken from the public website of Paris MOU and each report considered as a professional judgment that causes detention. Analytical Hierarchy Process Approach has been utilized to indicate the ranking of basic maritime regulations from the perspective of the Port State Control, and Geographic Information System (GIS) helps us to demonstrate the regional dispersion amongst EU15. Results Through an approach based on Analytical Hierarchy Process and demonstrating the results on GIS has been shown that almost all the country’s top priorities for regulation are Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) and Fire Safety Systems (FSS). Moreover, a comparative demonstration of the detention percentage of each regulation to AHP results demonstrates a better understanding of EU15 countries' detention profile. Conclusion The results of the study can assist Port State Officers, ship crew, ship owners, and managers in presenting the facts of their inspection and able to improve themselves. The spatial analysis is also expected to guide ship owners and managers to focus their vessel’s deficiencies on preventing sub-standardization. Policymakers also utilize these reports to evaluate their inspection practices.

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Evaluating human–coyote encounters in an urban landscape using citizen science

Journal of Urban Ecology ◽

10.1093/jue/juaa032 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

David Drake ◽

Shelli Dubay ◽

Maximilian L Allen

Keyword(s):

Citizen Science ◽

Urban Areas ◽

Urban Landscape ◽

Time Of Day ◽

Human Observer ◽

Public Outreach ◽

The Public ◽

Paved Road ◽

Almost All ◽

Human Wildlife Conflict

Abstract Coyotes are ubiquitous in habitats across North America, including in urban areas. Reviews of human–coyote encounters are limited in scope and analysis and predominantly document encounters that tend to be negative, such as human–wildlife conflict, rather than benign experiences. The objective of our study was to use citizen science reports of human–coyote interactions entered into iNaturalist to better understand the range of first person accounts of human–coyote encounters in Madison, WI. We report 398 citizen science accounts of human–coyote encounters in the Madison area between October 2015 and March 2018. Most human–coyote encounters occurred during coyote breeding season and half of all encounters occurred in moderate development land cover. Estimated level of coyote aggressiveness varied significantly, with 90% of citizen scientists scoring estimated coyote aggression as a 0 and 7% scoring estimated aggression as a 1 on a 0–5 scale (with 0 being calm and 5 being aggressive). Our best performing model explaining the estimated distance between the human observer and a coyote (our proxy for a human–coyote encounter) included the variables distance to nearest paved road, biological season of the year relative to coyote life history, and time of day/night. We demonstrate that human–coyote interactions are regularly more benign than negative, with almost all first-hand reported human–coyote encounters being benign. We encourage public outreach focusing on practices that can foster benign encounters when educating the public to facilitate human–coyote coexistence.

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Recruitment, Dispersal, and Demographic Rescue in Spatially-Structured White-Tailed Ptarmigan Populations

The Condor ◽

10.1093/condor/102.3.503 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 102 (3) ◽

pp. 503-516 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Kathy Martin ◽

Peter B. Stacey ◽

Clait E. Braun

Keyword(s):

General Pattern ◽

Population Connectivity ◽

Site Location ◽

Breeding Sites ◽

Stochastic Conditions ◽

Local Survival ◽

Regular Event ◽

Study Sites ◽

One Year ◽

Almost All

Abstract We studied recruitment and dispersal of White-tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus) breeding in naturally fragmented alpine habitats at four study sites in Colorado from 1987–1998. Almost all recruitment for both sexes, particularly females, was of birds produced outside local populations and also external to nearby studied populations. Populations were more dependent on female recruitment than on male recruitment to sustain them, and patterns of recruitment were not correlated with local survival of adults or production of young the previous year, except at one site for females. Over 95% of recruits were yearlings. Breeding dispersal of adults, an infrequent but regular event, was also important to inter-population connectivity. Our data for multiple populations allowed us to describe movement patterns among populations to assess consistency with conditions required for a rescue system. After widespread reproductive failure in one year, we expected all populations the next year would have low recruitment due to a reduced supply of recruits produced in the region. Recruitment was low, but impact varied among populations. We conducted an over-winter study of radio-marked offspring to determine possible influences of winter site location and relatives on recruitment patterns. Contrary to expectation, offspring remained on or near breeding sites in winter, but were not located near their mothers or siblings. Recruitment location was related to winter site location. White-tailed Ptarmigan exhibit a well developed capacity for external recruitment that allows them to persist in small populations with stochastic conditions for breeding and survival. Extensive external recruitment may be a general pattern for birds.

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