Updates on sorting of fully homomorphic encrypted data

In this paper, we show implementation results of various algorithms that sort data encrypted with Fully Homomorphic Encryption scheme based on Integers. We analyze the complexities of sorting algorithms over encrypted data by considering Bubble Sort, Insertion Sort, Bitonic Sort and Odd-Even Merge sort. Our complexity analysis together with implementation results show that Odd-Even Merge Sort has better performance than the other sorting techniques. We observe that complexity of sorting in homomorphic domain will always have worst case complexity independent of the nature of input. In addition, we show that combining different sorting algorithms to sort encrypted data does not give any performance gain when compared to the application of sorting algorithms individually.

Context change archetypes : understanding the impact of context change on business processes

The emergence of Enterprise Resource Planning systems and Business Process Management have led to improvements in the design, implementation, and overall management of business processes. However, the typical focus of these initiatives has been on internal business operations, assuming a defined and stable context in which the processes are designed to operate. Yet, a lack of context-awareness for external change leads to processes and supporting information systems that are unable to react appropriately and timely enough to change. To increase the alignment of processes with environmental change, we propose a conceptual framework that facilitates the identification of context change. Based on a secondary data analysis of published case studies about process adaptation, we exemplify the framework and identify four general archetypes of context-awareness. The framework, in combination with the learning from the case analysis, provides a first understanding of what, where, how, and when processes are subjected to change.

Enablers and barriers to the organizational adoption of sustainable business practices

Individuals, organizations, and governments are increasingly becoming aware of the necessity of sustainability in living, organizing, performing, and managing work. In this context, “green IS” has become an established colloquial term, acknowledging that information technology, corporate information systems, and the surrounding practices are both a contributor to the sustainability challenge and a potential enabler for green and sustainable practices. To date, however, there are few reported studies on the role of information systems for the challenge, and solution, of sustainability. This paper presents results from a case study of a world-wide operating IT software solution provider that is engaged in the development and adoption of sustainable practices. Our study suggests that the adoption of sustainable practices comes along with a number of particularities. We found information technology to be a key enabler of transparency about the progress of sustainability operations. We further found personal, motivator factors as well as organizational factors such as business inclusion, strategy definition, and a dialectic top-management and bottom-up support, to play a role in enabling a company to manage their sustainability. We describe a set of conjectures forthcoming from our case analysis, and detail some implications for further research in this area.

Factors affecting entry-level Internet technology adoption by small business in Australia : evidence from three cases

The adoption of Internet technologies by the small business sector (SMEs)The adoption of Internet technologies by the small business sector is important to their on-going survival. Yet, given the opportunities and benefits that Internet technologies can provide it has been shown that Australian small businesses are relatively slow in adopting them. This paper develops a model from recent literature on the facilitators and inhibitors to the adoption of Internet technologies by small business. Cross-case analysis of findings from three case studies are presented. Findings indicate that perceived lack of business benefit, mistrust of the IT industry and lack of understanding of Internet technologies are major inhibitors to Internet adoption by small business.

Meniscal repair in the elite athlete : results of 45 repairs with a minimum 5-year follow-up

Background The preservation of meniscal tissue is important to protect joint surfaces. Purpose We have an aggressive approach to meniscal repair, including repairing tears other than those classically suited to repair. Here we present the medium- to long-term outcome of meniscal repair (inside-out) in elite athletes. Study Design Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods Forty-two elite athletes underwent 45 meniscal repairs. All repairs were performed using an arthroscopically assisted inside-out technique. Eighty-three percent of these athletes had ACL reconstruction at the same time. Patients returned a completed questionnaire (including Lysholm and International Knee Documentation Committee [IKDC] scores). Mean follow-up was 8.5 years. Failure was defined by patients developing symptoms of joint line pain and/or locking or swelling requiring repeat arthroscopy and partial meniscectomy. Results The average Lysholm and subjective IKDC scores were 89.6 and 85.4, respectively. Eighty-one percent of patients returned to their main sport and most to a similar level at a mean time of 10.4 months after repair, reflecting the high level of ACL reconstruction in this group. We identified 11 definite failures, 10 medial and 1 lateral meniscus, that required excision; this represents a 24% failure rate. We identified 1 further patient who had possible failed repairs, giving a worst-case failure rate of 26.7% at a mean of 42 months after surgery. However, 7 of these failures were associated with a further injury. Therefore, the atraumatic failure rate was 11%. Age and size and location of the tears were not associated with a higher failure rate. Medial meniscal repairs were significantly more likely to fail than lateral meniscal repairs, with a failure rate of 36.4% and 5.6%, respectively (P < .05). Conclusion Meniscal repair and healing are possible, and most elite athletes can return to their preinjury level of activity.

Designing ePortfolios for music postgraduate study : a practice-led inquiry

In this research I have examined how ePortfolios can be designed for Music postgraduate study through a practice led research enquiry. This process involved designing two Web 2.0 ePortfolio systems for a group of five post graduate music research students. The design process revolved around the application of an iterative methodology called Software Develop as Research (SoDaR) that seeks to simultaneously develop design and pedagogy. The approach to designing these ePortfolio systems applied four theoretical protocols to examine the use of digitised artefacts in ePortfolio systems to enable a dynamic and inclusive dialogue around representations of the students work. The research and design process involved an analysis of existing software and literature with a focus upon identifying the affordances of available Web 2.0 software and the applications of these ideas within 21st Century life. The five post graduate music students each posed different needs in relation to the management of digitised artefacts and the communication of their work amongst peers, supervisors and public display. An ePortfolio was developed for each of them that was flexible enough to address their needs within the university setting. However in this first SoDaR iteration data gathering phase I identified aspects of the university context that presented a negative case that impacted upon the design and usage of the ePortfolios and prevented uptake. Whilst the portfolio itself functioned effectively, the university policies and technical requirements prevented serious use. The negative case analysis of the case study found revealed that Access and Control and Implementation, Technical and Policy Constraints protocols where limiting user uptake. From the semistructured interviews carried out as part of this study participant feedback revealed that whilst the participants did not use the ePortfolio system I designed, each student was employing Web 2.0 social networking and storage processes in their lives and research. In the subsequent iterations I then designed a more ‘ideal’ system that could be applied outside of the University context that draws upon the employment of these resources. In conclusion I suggest recommendations about ePortfolio design that considers what the applications of the theoretical protocols reveal about creative arts settings. The transferability of these recommendations are of course dependent upon the reapplication of the theoretical protocols in a new context. To address the mobility of ePortfolio design between Institutions and wider settings I have also designed a prototype for a business card sized USB portal for the artists’ ePortfolio. This research project is not a static one; it stands as an evolving design for a Web 2.0 ePortfolio that seeks to refer to users needs, institutional and professional contexts and the development of software that can be incorporated within the design. What it potentially provides to creative artist is an opportunity to have a dialogue about art with artefacts of the artist products and processes in that discussion.

Exposure of pipe insulation to high temperatures from domestic pumped storage (split) solar water heating systems in Australia and New Zealand

Pipe insulation between the collector and storage tank on pumped storage (commonly called split), solar water heaters can be subject to high temperatures, with a maximum equal to the collector stagnation temperature. The frequency of occurrence of these temperatures is dependent on many factors including climate, hot water demand, system size and efficiency. This paper outlines the findings of a computer modelling study to quantify the frequency of occurrence of pipe temperatures of 80 degrees Celsius or greater at the outlet of the collectors for these systems. This study will help insulation suppliers determine the suitability of their materials for this application. The TRNSYS program was used to model the performance of a common size of domestic split solar system, using both flat plate and evacuated tube, selective surface collectors. Each system was modelled at a representative city in each of the 6 climate zones for Australia and New Zealand, according to AS/NZS4234 - Heat Water Systems - Calculation of energy consumption, and the ORER RECs calculation method. TRNSYS was used to predict the frequency of occurrence of the temperatures that the pipe insulation would be exposed to over an average year, for hot water consumption patterns specified in AS/NZS4234, and for worst case conditions in each of the climate zones. The results show; * For selectively surfaced, flat plate collectors in the hottest location (Alice Sprints) with a medium size hot water demand according to AS/NZS2434, the annual frequency of occurrence of temperatures at and above 80 degrees Celsius was 33 hours. The frequency of temperatures at and above 140 degrees Celsius was insignificant. * For evacuated tube collectors in the hottest location (Alice Springs), the annual frequency of temperatures at and above 80 degrees Celsius was 50 hours. Temperatures at and above 140 degrees Celsius were significant and were estimated to occur for more than 21 hours per year in this climate zone. Even in Melbourne, temperatures at and above 80 degrees can occur for 12 hours per year and at and above 140 degrees for 5 hours per year. * The worst case identified was for evacuated tube collectors in Alice Springs, with mostly afternoon loads in January. Under these conditions, the frequency of temperatures at and above 80 degrees Celsius was 10 hours for this month only. Temperatures at and above 140 degrees Celsius were predicted to occur for 5 hours in January.

Challenges of tracking topical discussion networks online

Attempts to map online networks, representing relationships between people and sites, have covered sites including Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. However, the predominant approach of static network visualization, treating months of data as a single case rather than depicting changes over time or between topics, remains a flawed process. As different events and themes provoke varying interactions and conversations, it is proposed that case-by-case analysis would aid studies of online social networks by further examining the dynamics of links and information flows. This study uses hyperlink analysis of a population of French political blogs to compare connections between sites from January to August 2009. Themes discussed in this period were identified for subsequent analysis of topic-oriented networks. By comparing static blogrolls with topical citations within posts, this research addresses challenges and methods in mapping online networks, providing new information on temporal aspects of linking behaviors and information flows within these systems.

The Law of Real Property Mortgages

This book examines the principles and practice of real estate mortgages in an easily accessible text referenced to all the Australian States. It specifically deals with the major theoretical and practical aspects of the land mortgage including vitiating factors in formation, mortgagees powers and duties and mortgagors’ rights both statutory and other, assignment, insurance and discharge. As a successor to Mortgages Law in Australia, this book adopts an exclusive focus on real estate mortgages in Australia and provides a thorough account of the law through analysis of the plethora of court decisions and statutory provisions in this area. Duncan and Dixon analyse the substance of the mortgage transaction from creation through to rights of enforcement. This analysis includes detailed consideration of the rights and obligations of both mortgagors and mortgagees covering topics such as priorities and tacking, insurance, variation and assignment, rights of discharge, entry into possession, foreclosure and power of sale. In addition, the book contains a separate chapter on factors that may affect the validity and enforcement of a mortgage together with separate consideration of a mortgagee’s right to enforce a guarantee provided on behalf of a mortgagor and the rights and liabilities associated with a receivership regime initiated by a mortgagee. Written for the national market, the book is one of the few substantial works on this subject for practitioners throughout Australia. It is a very accessible text which enables readers to decide whether or not they have a problem and provides primary guidance to its solution. The book has been deliberately, heavily referenced to incorporate statutory references from across Australia and contains extensive case analysis in order to satisfy both these objectives.

Rare earth element geochemistry of scleractinian coral skeleton during meteoric diagenesis: A sequence through neomorphism of aragonite to calcite

Rare earth element geochemistry in carbonate rocks is utilized increasingly for studying both modern oceans and palaeoceanography, with additional applications for investigating water–rock interactions in groundwater and carbonate diagenesis. However, the study of rare earth element geochemistry in ancient rocks requires the preservation of their distribution patterns through subsequent diagenesis. The subjects of this study, Pleistocene scleractinian coral skeletons from Windley Key, Florida, have undergone partial to complete neomorphism from aragonite to calcite in a meteoric setting; they allow direct comparison of rare earth element distributions in original coral skeleton and in neomorphic calcite. Neomorphism occurred in a vadose setting along a thin film, with degradation of organic matter playing an initial role in controlling the morphology of the diagenetic front. As expected, minor element concentrations vary significantly between skeletal aragonite and neomorphic calcite, with Sr, Ba and U decreasing in concentration and Mn increasing in concentration in the calcite, suggesting that neomorphism took place in an open system. However, rare earth elements were largely retained during neomorphism, with precipitating cements taking up excess rare earth elements released from dissolved carbonates from higher in the karst system. Preserved rare earth element patterns in the stabilized calcite closely reflect the original rare earth element patterns of the corals and associated reef carbonates. However, minor increases in light rare earth element depletion and negative Ce anomalies may reflect shallow oxidized groundwater processes, whereas decreasing light rare earth element depletion may reflect mixing of rare earth elements from associated microbialites or contamination from insoluble residues. Regardless of these minor disturbances, the results indicate that rare earth elements, unlike many minor elements, behave very conservatively during meteoric diagenesis. As the meteoric transformation of aragonite to calcite is a near worst case scenario for survival of original marine trace element distributions, this study suggests that original rare earth element patterns may commonly be preserved in ancient limestones, thus providing support for the use of ancient marine limestones as proxies for marine rare earth element geochemistry.

A learning-based approach to reactive security

Despite the conventional wisdom that proactive security is superior to reactive security, we show that reactive security can be competitive with proactive security as long as the reactive defender learns from past attacks instead of myopically overreacting to the last attack. Our game-theoretic model follows common practice in the security literature by making worst-case assumptions about the attacker: we grant the attacker complete knowledge of the defender’s strategy and do not require the attacker to act rationally. In this model, we bound the competitive ratio between a reactive defense algorithm (which is inspired by online learning theory) and the best fixed proactive defense. Additionally, we show that, unlike proactive defenses, this reactive strategy is robust to a lack of information about the attacker’s incentives and knowledge.

Shifting : one-inclusion mistake bounds and sample compression

We present new expected risk bounds for binary and multiclass prediction, and resolve several recent conjectures on sample compressibility due to Kuzmin and Warmuth. By exploiting the combinatorial structure of concept class F, Haussler et al. achieved a VC(F)/n bound for the natural one-inclusion prediction strategy. The key step in their proof is a d = VC(F) bound on the graph density of a subgraph of the hypercube—oneinclusion graph. The first main result of this paper is a density bound of n [n−1 <=d-1]/[n <=d] < d, which positively resolves a conjecture of Kuzmin and Warmuth relating to their unlabeled Peeling compression scheme and also leads to an improved one-inclusion mistake bound. The proof uses a new form of VC-invariant shifting and a group-theoretic symmetrization. Our second main result is an algebraic topological property of maximum classes of VC-dimension d as being d contractible simplicial complexes, extending the well-known characterization that d = 1 maximum classes are trees. We negatively resolve a minimum degree conjecture of Kuzmin and Warmuth—the second part to a conjectured proof of correctness for Peeling—that every class has one-inclusion minimum degree at most its VCdimension. Our final main result is a k-class analogue of the d/n mistake bound, replacing the VC-dimension by the Pollard pseudo-dimension and the one-inclusion strategy by its natural hypergraph generalization. This result improves on known PAC-based expected risk bounds by a factor of O(logn) and is shown to be optimal up to an O(logk) factor. The combinatorial technique of shifting takes a central role in understanding the one-inclusion (hyper)graph and is a running theme throughout.

Corrigendum to “Shifting : one-inclusion mistake bounds and sample compression” [J. Comput. System Sci. 75 (1) (2009) 37–59]

H. Simon and B. Szörényi have found an error in the proof of Theorem 52 of “Shifting: One-inclusion mistake bounds and sample compression”, Rubinstein et al. (2009). In this note we provide a corrected proof of a slightly weakened version of this theorem. Our new bound on the density of one-inclusion hypergraphs is again in terms of the capacity of the multilabel concept class. Simon and Szörényi have recently proved an alternate result in Simon and Szörényi (2009).

Introductions to the profession : curricular approach

In 2008, extra-curricular career development programs developed for psychology undergraduates at the Queensland University of Technology were incorporated into the formal curriculum. While a whole of course approach has been adopted, this session will explore the impact of a new introductory unit, Psychology in Professional Contexts, which adopts a constructivist approach to student career exploration. First-year students are introduced to key theories, models, and processes of career development, and the diversity of contexts in which their psychological knowledge can be applied, while developing and highlighting the value of important generic abilities such as critical thinking, team communication, critical reflection, and information literacy. Materials are drawn from the media, guest speakers’ professional profiles, the students’ own experiences, and traditional and emerging areas of psychology. Assessment and learning activities involve case analysis, problem-based learning, and discussion-based classes. The content of these professional development classes is also aligned with that of the core discipline units studied concurrently, to encourage the transfer of career development skills and knowledge across the psychology curriculum. This presentation will focus on 4 years of curriculum development in Psychology in Professional Contexts, and discuss changes initiated in 2011 which incorporate interactive online environments and extend the role of problem-based learning.

Variations on a routine : how selection-adaptation-retention dynamics create variety in organisational routines

The question "what causes variety in organisational routines" is of considerable interest to organisational scholars, and one to which this thesis seeks to answer. To this end an evolutionary theory of change is advanced which holds that the dynamics of selection, adaptation and retention explain the creation of variety in organisational routines. A longitudinal, multi-level, multi-case analysis is undertaken in this thesis, using multiple data collection strategies. In each case, different types of variety were identified, according to a typology, together with how selection, adaptation and retention contribute to variety in a positive or negative sense. Methodologically, the thesis makes a contribution to our understanding of variety, as certain types of variety only become evident when examined by specific types of research design. The research also makes a theoretical contribution by explaining how selection, adaptation and retention individually and collectively contribute to variety in organisational routines. Moreover, showing that routines could be stable, diverse, adaptive and dynamic at the same time; is a significant, and novel, theoretical contribution.