Unconditionally secure disjointness tests for private datasets

We present two unconditional secure protocols for private set disjointness tests. In order to provide intuition of our protocols, we give a naive example that applies Sylvester matrices. Unfortunately, this simple construction is insecure as it reveals information about the intersection cardinality. More specifically, it discloses its lower bound. By using the Lagrange interpolation, we provide a protocol for the honest-but-curious case without revealing any additional information. Finally, we describe a protocol that is secure against malicious adversaries. In this protocol, a verification test is applied to detect misbehaving participants. Both protocols require O(1) rounds of communication. Our protocols are more efficient than the previous protocols in terms of communication and computation overhead. Unlike previous protocols whose security relies on computational assumptions, our protocols provide information theoretic security. To our knowledge, our protocols are the first ones that have been designed without a generic secure function evaluation. More important, they are the most efficient protocols for private disjointness tests in the malicious adversary case.

Innovating urban policymaking and planning mechanisms to deliver knowledge-based agendas : a methodological approach

This paper aims to develop a comprehensive approach to innovate urban policymaking and planning to successfully deliver the knowledge-based agenda. The paper, first, examines the concept of knowledge-based urban development, which has become a popular urban development policy and strategy in recent years, through a comprehensive review of the literature. It, then, introduces and discusses a novel methodological approach for effective policymaking and planning mechanism to deliver the knowledge-based agenda of cities. The paper, with the proposed methodology, brings together urban policymaking and planning approaches, and introduces a novel way to assess knowledge-based urban development achievements and potentials of emerging and prosperous knowledge cities. The paper, thus, provides an invaluable instrument to inform local and regional decision and plan making mechanisms to deliver their knowledge-based agendas and help them in moving towards building their sustainable knowledge cities.

National and state-level politics on social media : Twitter, Australian political discussions, and the online commentariat

This paper examines the use of Twitter for long-term discussions around Australian politics, at national and state levels, tracking two hashtags during 2012: #auspol, denoting national political topics, and #wapol, which provides a case study of state politics (representing Western Australia). The long-term data collection provides the opportunity to analyse how the Twitter audience responds to Australian politics: which themes attract the most attention and which accounts act as focal points for these discussions. The paper highlights differences in the coverage of state and national politics. For #auspol, a small number of accounts are responsible for the majority of tweets, with politicians invoked but not directly contributing to the discussion. In contrast, #wapol stimulates a much lower level of tweeting. This example also demonstrates that, in addition to citizen accounts, traditional participants within political debate, such as politicians and journalists, are among the active contributors to state-oriented discussions on Twitter.

Security properties analysis in a TPM-based protocol

Security protocols are designed in order to provide security properties (goals). They achieve their goals using cryptographic primitives such as key agreement or hash functions. Security analysis tools are used in order to verify whether a security protocol achieves its goals or not. The analysed property by specific purpose tools are predefined properties such as secrecy (confidentiality), authentication or non-repudiation. There are security goals that are defined by the user in systems with security requirements. Analysis of these properties is possible with general purpose analysis tools such as coloured petri nets (CPN). This research analyses two security properties that are defined in a protocol that is based on trusted platform module (TPM). The analysed protocol is proposed by Delaune to use TPM capabilities and secrets in order to open only one secret from two submitted secrets to a recipient

ERP stakeholders’ perceptions of data quality and utility

While data quality has been identified as a critical factor associated with enterprise resource planning (ERP) failure, the relationship between ERP stakeholders, the information they require and its relationship to ERP outcomes continues to be poorly understood. Applying stakeholder theory to the problem of ERP performance, we put forward a framework articulating the fundamental differences in the way users differentiate between ERP data quality and utility. We argue that the failure of ERPs to produce significant organisational outcomes can be attributed to conflict between stakeholder groups over whether the data contained within an ERP is of adequate ‘quality’. The framework provides guidance as how to manage data flows between stakeholders, offering insight into each of their specific data requirements. The framework provides support for the idea that stakeholder affiliation dictates the assumptions and core values held by individuals, driving their data needs and their perceptions of data quality and utility.

Linkages among the US energy futures markets

This study investigates the price linkage among the US major energy sources, considering structural breaks in time series, to provide information for diversifying the US energy sources. We find that only a weak linkage sustains among crude oil, gasoline, heating oil, coal, natural gas, uranium and ethanol futures prices. This implies that the US major energy source markets are not integrated as one primary energy market. Our tests also reveal that uranium and ethanol futures prices have very weak linkages with other major energy source prices. This indicates that the US energy market is still at a stage where none of the probable alternative energy source markets are playing the role as substitute or complement markets for the fossil fuel energy markets.

Does an environmental Kuznets curve for waste pollution exist in China?

China is an emerging and leading world economy. The pace of economic change has been tremendously rapid since the beginning of economic reforms. Despite the importance of the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) and environmental problems in China, no previous study has tested the EKC in China because of the difficulty in obtaining data and the need to adjust the data. The focus of this paper is to test the EKC in China using province level data over the period 1992-2003. This study applies non-parametric techniques to estimate the relationship between income and the environmental quality of wastewater, air pollution and solid waste. Copyright © 2009 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Determinants of plant performance dynamics : empirical analysis of the manufacturing sector in Indonesia, 1990-2000

We identify determinants of plant dynamics and find their differences before, during, and after the Asian financial crisis. The results show that the distinction of the crisis is important and the effects of the crisis do not seem to persist after 1998. Furthermore, we reject Gibrat's law as the right functional form to describe plant growth. We are not able to support empirically the theoretical results that smaller and efficient plants tend to grow faster than larger and inefficient plants with the exception of the crisis period. The results reflect that there was a trickle down effect of economic development.

Profiling human resource management practices in innovative firms

It has been argued that different bundles or configurations of human resource practices can improve innovation performance, but there is little empirically-based research that provides details of the practices utilised by different types of innovative firms. This study aimed to identify how different types of firms vary their HR practices to build organisation-specific innovation capabilities. The paper presents findings from a qualitative study of 26 innovative Danish firms categorised as technology-based, knowledge-intensive, or hybrid in their industry orientation. The findings highlight that knowledge-intensive firms have notably different profiles of HRM practices to technology-based firms, suggesting that firms utilise different practices to build innovation capacity depending on the core capabilities required for success in their respective industries. This paper contributes by demonstrating how HR practices differ across types of firms rather than relying on a universal perspective or one best way to design and implement HR practices.

Knowledge integration within innovation process : a technopreneurial perspective

Knowledge Integration (KI) is one of the major aspects driving innovation within an organisation. In this paper, we attempt to develop a better understanding of responses to the challenges of knowledge integration within the innovation process in technology-based firms. Using four technology-based Australian firms, we investigated how knowledge integration may be managed within the context of innovation in technology firms. Previous research highlights the role of four KI tasks that affect the innovation capability within technology-oriented firms, namely team building capability, capturing tacit knowledge, role of Knowledge Management (KM) systems and technological systemic integration. Our findings indicate that in addition to these four tasks, a strategic approach to integrating knowledge for innovation, as well as leadership and management, are essential to achieving effective KI across multiple levels of engagement. Our findings also offer practical insights into how knowledge can be integrated within innovation process, with specific implications for managers.

A methodological exploration to determine transportation disadvantage variables: the partial least square approach

Determining the key variables of transportation disadvantage remains a great challenge as the variables are commonly selected using ad-hoc techniques. In order to identify the variables, this research develops a transportation disadvantage framework by manipulating the capability approach. Developed framework is statistically analysed using partial least square-based software to determine the framework fitness. The statistical analysis identifies mobility and socioeconomic variables that significantly influence transportation disadvantage. The research reveals the key socioeconomic variables for transportation disadvantage in the case of Brisbane, Australia as household structure, presence of dependent family member, vehicle ownership, and driving licence possession.