Data quality,sensitive data and joint controllership as examples of grey areas in the existing data protection framework for the Internet of Things

‘The technology used to provide connectivity from anytime, any place and for anyone. Now anything can be added to the list.’¹¹ITU Internet reports 2005: ‘The Internet of Things’ <http://www.itu.int/dms_pub/itus/opb/pol/S-POL-IR.IT-2005-SUM-PDF-E.pdf> 2, accessed 27 April 2015.View all notes In the Internet of Things (‘IoT’), the amount of individuals’ data collected and processed is increasing substantially as data are being collected from various sources. Most communications between smart devices occur automatically, potentially without the user being aware of it. Many questions arise around the vulnerability of the devices in the IoT, often deployed outside a traditional IT structure and lacking sufficient built-in security. The IoT demands consideration and research into how to best balance the opportunities that the IoT affords against legal risks it imposes on data protection. Considerable questions about how our currently existing EU framework for protection of personal data applies in IoT are being raised. The data protection legislation needs to move from theory to practice and in order to achieve this; the legal framework may need additional mechanisms.     

Engineering commitment-based business protocols with the 2CL methodology

Enterprises must respect a number of regulations, with multilevel nature and which change along time. They must not only adapt their business interactions to the regulations and their changes but also evaluate the risks of violation of the new rules and to account for responsibilities. This work proposes a methodological framework for modeling and engineering business protocols, which gives primary position to the notions of commitment and responsibility, and supports the analysis of risks of violation when a new regulation is issued. We build on 2CL commitment-based protocols and introduce 2CL Methodology, a software engineering methodology for such protocols, which includes guidelines for specifying 2CL business protocols, for specialising them, and for composing a new 2CL protocol based on a set of given 2CL protocols. We developed a set of integrated software tools for the design and the analysis of 2CL protocols, with the aim of concretely supporting, on the one hand, designers in the task of identifying exposure to risks of violation, and, on the other hand, the management in the task of reasoning about accountability and of decision making. The proposal is evaluated by using a real-world case study from the banking sector.     

Secure activity resource coordination: empirical evidence of enhanced security awareness in designing secure business processes

Systems development methodologies incorporate security requirements as an afterthought in the non-functional requirements of systems. The lack of appropriate access control on information exchange among business activities can leave organizations vulnerable to information assurance threats. The gap between systems development and systems security leads to software development efforts that lack an understanding of security risks. We address the research question: how can we incorporate security as a functional requirement in the analysis and modeling of business processes? This study extends the Semantic approach to Secure Collaborative Inter-Organizational eBusiness Processes in D'Aubeterre et al. (2008). In this study, we develop the secure activity resource coordination (SARC) artifact for a real-world business process. We show how SARC can be used to create business process models characterized by the secure exchange of information within and across organizational boundaries. We present an empirical evaluation of the SARC artifact against the Enriched-Use Case (Siponen et al., 2006) and standard UML-Activity Diagram to demonstrate the utility of the proposed design method.     

The nature and components of perceived behavioural control as an element of theory of planned behaviour

Ajzen (1991 Ajzen, I., 1991. The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211. doi: 10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]. The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50 (2), 179–211) suggested three constructs that determine the user's intention: attitude, subject norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC). Recently, some psychologists have argued that PBC is poorly understood. This study attempted to investigate the nature and components of PBC in research adapting theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to predict the intentions of bank customers with regard to adoption of Internet banking. The findings show some difficulty in discriminating between the presumed internal and external determinants of PBC. This study identifies two determinants: (1) self-efficacy (SE) and (2) facilitating conditions. The latter is broken into three facilitation factors: (1) resources, (2) technology and (3) government support (GS). Interestingly, SE, if considered as an internal factor, exhibits a significance effect on PBC in the presence of the three external factors. This shows that the external factors have a significance effect on PBC when entered for regression analysis without SE. These are valuable findings which show that both components of one's belief in one's level of control (internal factors: SE; external factors: resources, technology and GS) are important. However, which factors have the greatest effect on PBC might be related to the type of innovation or to other factors.     

A Belgian Transect: Field Broadcast in the expanded field of ecology

Abstract

This article sets out the notion of a Field Broadcast from the dual perspective of Rebecca Birch, one of the developers of a bespoke version of Flash Media Live Encoder and Bram Thomas Arnold, an artist who uses a case study from Sideways Festival, Belgium, 2012. Field Broadcast enables an artist to be in a field, suitably equipped, and stream live footage to an audience. It is an experiment in place, site and the notion of a field. It is a new method of making work in the space between site-specific performance and the digital realm: a way of working that enables artists to generate new artworks within the non-place of the Internet. Birch introduces the technology from a number of perspectives before it is fleshed out with evidence and experience from a live project that took place in Belgium in 2012. Sideways was a festival that traversed Belgium over four weeks and 400?km, with artists walking and generating work en route. The possibilities offered by Field Broadcast are explored in relation to the expanded field of ecology amidst Bourriaud's The Radicant (2009), Guatarri's The Three Ecologies (2005) and Morton's Ecology Without Nature (2007 Morton, Timothy. 2007. Ecology Without Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. [Google Scholar]).     

Channel choice and the digital divide in e-government: the case of Egypt

This paper examines channel choice and the digital divide in Egyptian electronic government or e-government. Citizens have access to a variety of service delivery channels when they initiate contact with their government, ranging from e-government to more traditional channels such as the phone and in-person visits to a government office. This paper examines the extent of use of both contact channels for citizens and the impact of the digital divide on channel use. A public opinion survey of Egyptian citizens was analyzed, and the results showed that there was a digital divide in the use of e-government by citizens. The digital divide also extended to other contact channels such as the phone and when citizens used multiple contact channels for public service delivery. The results of this study imply that for the development of e-government, especially in the context of a developing country such as Egypt, policy-makers need to understand that e-government is one of many channels that citizens can use when they initiate contact with their government. The results of this study should encourage policy-makers to recognize the importance of public service delivery in a multichannel environment. Shirin Madon is the accepting Associate Editor for this article. View all notes     

Work-Domain Experts as Evaluators: Usability Inspection of Domain-Specific Work-Support Systems

Work on how consumers evaluate electronic service quality is both topical and important due to the well-accepted criticality of electronic channels in selling products and services. However, most of the relevant research on electronic research quality is preoccupied with the website Internet context and most of the studies are single-country studies, inhibiting conclusions of generalizibility. Theoretically rooted in the Nordic Model of perceived service quality, this exploratory study uses an e-service quality scale to measure mobile Internet service quality in different national settings. Consistent with the available e-service quality literature, results indicate that e-service quality is a second-order factor, with three reflective first-order dimensions: efficiency, outcome, and customer care. Most important, cross-validation investigations using samples drawn from Korean, Hong Kong, and Japanese mobile Internet user populations, support the factorial structure invariance of the construct. Following Cheung and Reynolds's (2002) Cheung, G. W. and Rensvold, R. B. 2002. Evaluating goodness-of-fit indexes for testing measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modeling, 9: 233–255. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] suggestions, factor means differences between the three countries contributing to the scarce cross-national electronic service quality literature are tentatively examined. These initial empirical findings imply that although consumers in different countries use the same dimensions to evaluate mobile Internet services, importance weightings assigned on these dimension are probably not the same.     

Quantum one-way permutation over the finite field of two elements

In quantum cryptography, a one-way permutation is a bounded unitary operator \(U:\mathcal {H} \rightarrow \mathcal {H}\) on a Hilbert space \(\mathcal {H}\) that is easy to compute on every input, but hard to invert given the image of a random input. Levin (Probl Inf Transm 39(1):92–103, 2003) has conjectured that the unitary transformation \(g(a,x)=(a,f(x)+ax)\), where f is any length-preserving function and \(a,x \in \hbox {GF}_{{2}^{\Vert x\Vert }}\), is an information-theoretically secure operator within a polynomial factor. Here, we show that Levin’s one-way permutation is provably secure because its output values are four maximally entangled two-qubit states, and whose probability of factoring them approaches zero faster than the multiplicative inverse of any positive polynomial poly(x) over the Boolean ring of all subsets of x. Our results demonstrate through well-known theorems that existence of classical one-way functions implies existence of a universal quantum one-way permutation that cannot be inverted in subexponential time in the worst case.     

La numération de position : où en sont les connaissances d'élèves québécois?

RÉSUMÉ

La numération a fait l'objet d'études importantes, notamment au Québec, durant les années 1980–2000. Les études ont révélé sa complexité ainsi que les difficultés que posent à la fois son enseignement et son apprentissage. La présente étude s'inscrit dans le prolongement d'une suite d'études didactiques sur ces difficultés. Plus précisément, elle investigue les connaissances d'élèves québécois de 3^e année primaire sur la numération de position et les compare à celles d'une recherche phare menée par Bednarz et Dufour-Janvier dont les résultats ont fait l'objet de plusieurs publications (1982 Bednarz, N. et Dufour-Janvier, B. (1982). The understanding of numeration in primary school. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 13, 33–57. [Google Scholar], 1984a Bednarz, N. et Dufour-Janvier, B. (1984a). La numération: les difficultés suscitées par son apprentissage ; une stratégie didactique cherchant à favoriser une meilleure compréhension. Grand N, 33, 5–31. [Google Scholar], 1984b Bednarz, N. et Dufour-Janvier, B. (1984b). La numération: une stratégie didactique cherchant à favoriser une meilleure compréhension. Grand N, 34, 1–17. [Google Scholar], 1988 Bednarz, N. et Dufour-Janvier, B. (1988). A constructivist approach to numeration in primary school: Results of a three year intervention with the same group of children. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 19, 299–331. [Google Scholar]). Les résultats de notre étude montrent que si 30 ans ont passé depuis la recherche de Bednarz et Dufour-Janvier, peu de changements sont observés dans les conduites mathématiques des élèves en numération. Quelques hypothèses, relatives à la fois aux contraintes d'enseignement et aux difficultés spécifiques d'appropriation de la numération sont, au terme de l'article, formulées pour expliquer ces résultats.     

An Empirical Evaluation of the System Usability Scale

This article presents nearly 10 year's worth of System Usability Scale (SUS) data collected on numerous products in all phases of the development lifecycle. The SUS, developed by Brooke (1996) Brooke, J. 1996. “SUS: A “quick and dirty” usability scale”. In Usability evaluation in industry, Edited by: Jordan, P. W., Thomas, B. A. Weerdmeester and McClelland, I. L. 189–194. London: Taylor & Francis.  [Google Scholar], reflected a strong need in the usability community for a tool that could quickly and easily collect a user's subjective rating of a product's usability. The data in this study indicate that the SUS fulfills that need. Results from the analysis of this large number of SUS scores show that the SUS is a highly robust and versatile tool for usability professionals. The article presents these results and discusses their implications, describes nontraditional uses of the SUS, explains a proposed modification to the SUS to provide an adjective rating that correlates with a given score, and provides details of what constitutes an acceptable SUS score.     

An adaptive economic simulation model

The use of Genetic Algorithms (GA's) in Economic Simulation Models has been introduced by Holland (Holland, 1988) and justified by pointing out the similarities between Economics, Game Theory, Control Theory and Evolutionary Genetics ^{1 1} “It is traditional in economics to carry out this characterization by attaching a utility to the various states of the environment. The role of utility in economics is quite similar to the role of payoffin game theory, the error function in control theory, fitness in evolutionary genetics, and so on.” (Holland, 1988, p. 120). Unfortunately, such a justification is not sufficient in the long run, as similarities between different terms do not necessarily justify the transformation of methods and mechanisms from one domain to the other. The justification problem might be regarded as aggravated by the fact that some researchers - among others (Paul, 1993); (Boehme, 1993) - have been using Genetic Algorithms in a straightforward manner within Economic Simulations whereas Holland's original use of GA's is restricted to rule-generation within Classifier Systems. What therefore is required is the introduction of a justification based on economic theory as a base for such simulations.     

A note on the growth factor in Gaussian elimination for accretive-dissipative matrices

This short note proves that if \(A\) is accretive-dissipative, then the growth factor for such \(A\) in Gaussian elimination is less than \(4\) . If \(A\) is a Higham matrix, i.e., the accretive-dissipative matrix \(A\) is complex symmetric, then the growth factor is less than \(2\sqrt{2}\) . The result obtained improves those of George et al. in [Numer. Linear Algebra Appl. 9, 107–114 (2002)] and is one step closer to the final solution of Higham’s conjecture.     

Diametric and Concentric Spatial Structures Framing Belief Systems

The Primordial Dance: Diametric and Concentric Spaces in the Unconscious World (Downes 2012) highlights specific unconscious spatial structures projected into beliefs as prior frames actively organizing such beliefs. As purportedly dynamic a priori structures, prior to intuition, diametric and concentric spaces of relation in relation are developed from Heidegger's (1927 Heidegger, M. Being and Time, translated by J. MacQuarrie and E. Robinson. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (1927), 1962. [Google Scholar]) phenomenological concerns with a background level of being and from aspects of Lévi-Strauss’ structuralist anthropology, conceptually prior to cognitive schemata. These dynamically interacting concentric and diametric spatial systems are explored, here, in reconstructing key concepts in Gilligan's (1982 Gilligan, C. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982. [Google Scholar]) moral reasoning for neglected spatial aspects of Freud's psychoanalysis and Eastern thought.     

Détection des plantes envahissantes par télédétection : un cas d'étude,l'ambroisie en région Rhône‐Alpes,France

L'ambroisie, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, est une plante annuelle responsable d'allergies respiratoires dues à son pollen. Dans certains secteurs du département du Rhône, jusqu'à 20% de la population a été atteinte d'allergie respiratoire en 2005. Ce problème majeur de santé touche actuellement six des huit départements de la Région Rhône‐Alpes (Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Loire et Rhône). L'un de nos objectifs est de mettre au point une méthode qui permette de cartographier, dans un premier temps à l'échelle d'une commune, puis à terme à l'échelle d'un département l'infestation par l'ambroisie. En se basant sur les méthodes développées par Auda et al. (2002a Auda, Y., Blasco, F., Gastellu, J.‐P., Marty, G. and Dechamp, C. 2002a. Essai préliminaire de détection des champs d'Ambroisie (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) par télédétection spatiale.. Revue française d'allergologie et d'immunologie clinique, 42: 533–538.  [Google Scholar]), nous avons inventorié, à la fin juillet, l'infestation par l'ambroisie dans la commune d'Estrablin (Isère). Pour chaque parcelle inventoriée, le type de culture et l'importance de l'infestation ont été enregistrés dans un Système d'Information Géographique. Les parcelles échantillonnées couvrent 3650 km², soit 30% de la surface de la commune. Ces données serviront à valider une image multispectrale Spot 5 du 16 août 2005. L'interprétation des données terrain souligne l'importance de l'infestation. En effet, 93% des surfaces échantillonnées sont infestées. L'analyse se poursuit par une classification par le maximum de vraisemblance de l'image Spot 5 qui repose sur une thématique croisant le type de culture et l'importance de l'infestation. Le pourcentage de pixels bien classés (45%), la logique des confusions observées et la cohérence visuelle des représentations cartographiques des résultats témoignent de l'efficacité de la méthode de détection des zones infestées. La performance de cette méthode apparaît largement tributaire de la disponibilité d'images de bonne qualité au moment adéquat. Son caractère opérationnel qui est donc étroitement lié à ces contraintes techniques, est discuté en fonction des programmes des Agences Spatiales.

Ragweed, Ambrosia artemisiifolia, is an annual plant, the pollen of which is responsible for respiratory allergies. In 2005, these allergies affected up to 20% of the population in parts of the department of Rhône. This is a major health problem for six of the eight departments of the Rhône‐Alpes region (Ain, Ardèche, Drôme, Isère, Loire and Rhône). Our objective was to validate a method to map ragweed infestation in a village and then to extend this experiment to a department. Using methods developed by Auda et al. (2002a Auda, Y., Blasco, F., Gastellu, J.‐P., Marty, G. and Dechamp, C. 2002a. Essai préliminaire de détection des champs d'Ambroisie (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) par télédétection spatiale.. Revue française d'allergologie et d'immunologie clinique, 42: 533–538.  [Google Scholar]), we undertook a survey of ragweed infestation at the end of July 2005 in the village of Estrablin (Isère). Plots of land were registered in a Geographical Information System, with indications of crop type and ragweed infestation included in each plot. The sample area covered 3650 km² and constituted 30% of the total area of the village. The data were used to validate a SPOT 5 multispectral satellite image captured on 16 August 2005. Analysis of the ground data confirmed the extent of the ragweed infestation. More than 90% of the sample area was found to be infested. The image processing was based on crossing the crop type with the degree of infestation, using maximum likelihood classification. The accuracy of the method of detection used was demonstrated by the percentage of correctly classified pixels (45%), the reasons for confusion and the clarity of the visual representations. The success of our approach is highly influenced by the availability of high‐quality images. Its feasibility, which is linked therefore to technical constraints, is examined in relation to space agency programmes.     

Arithmetizing Classes Around \textsf{NC} 1 and \textsf{L}

The parallel complexity class $\textsf{NC}$ ¹ has many equivalent models such as polynomial size formulae and bounded width branching programs. Caussinus et al. (J. Comput. Syst. Sci. 57:200–212, 1992) considered arithmetizations of two of these classes, $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹ and $\textsf{\#BWBP}$ . We further this study to include arithmetization of other classes. In particular, we show that counting paths in branching programs over visibly pushdown automata is in $\textsf{FLogDCFL}$ , while counting proof-trees in logarithmic width formulae has the same power as $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹. We also consider polynomial-degree restrictions of $\textsf{SC}$ ⁱ , denoted $\textsf{sSC}$ ⁱ , and show that the Boolean class $\textsf{sSC}$ ¹ is sandwiched between $\textsf{NC}$ ¹ and $\textsf{L}$ , whereas $\textsf{sSC}$ ⁰ equals $\textsf{NC}$ ¹. On the other hand, the arithmetic class $\textsf{\#sSC}$ ⁰ contains $\textsf{\#BWBP}$ and is contained in $\textsf{FL}$ , and $\textsf{\#sSC}$ ¹ contains $\textsf{\#NC}$ ¹ and is in $\textsf{SC}$ ². We also investigate some closure properties of the newly defined arithmetic classes.     

Complexity-Theoretic Hierarchies Induced by Fragments of Gödel’s T

We introduce two hierarchies of unknown ordinal height. The hierarchies are induced by natural fragments of a calculus based on finite types and Gödel’s T, and all the classes in the hierarchies are uniformly defined without referring to explicit bounds. Deterministic complexity classes like logspace, p, pspace, linspace and exp are captured by the hierarchies. Typical subrecursive classes are also captured, e.g. the small relational Grzegorczyk classes ? _* ⁰ , ? _* ¹ and ? _* ² .     

Managing Enterprise Risk in Today's World of Sophisticated Threats: A Framework for Developing Broad-Based,Cost-Effective Information Security Programs

Public and private sector enterprises today are almost completely dependent on their information technology infrastructures to accomplish their critical missions and carry out their corporate business strategies. In order to effectively compete in a fast-paced, highly complex, global economy, organizations are employing new, more powerful information technologies at an unprecedented rate, and in most instances, either ignoring or not fully understanding the increased exposure of their enterprise operations ¹ 1. Enterprise operations include mission, functions, and reputation. and assets due to the aggressive use of that technology.