As the IoMT rapidly expands, severe security risks shadow its profound benefits inpatient monitoring and data management. These devices, integral to critical care like pace-maker shocks and insulin dosing, often sacrifice robust security for functionality due totheir limited capabilities. This critical vulnerability exposes them to exploits that couldhave fatal consequences. This thesis addresses these urgent security gaps by exploring in-novative protection strategies through systematic reviews and simulated penetration testingon a mimicked IoMT environment. Our findings expose pronounced deficiencies withinexisting security frameworks, focusing on Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi threats, especially theinadequate mechanisms to secure Bluetooth LE connections, commonly used in IoMTdevices and DOS attacks targeted directly to the IoMT devices. In response, two novelsecurity algorithms were designed to enhance the resilience of IoMT systems against cy-ber threats. This algorithm integrates dynamic whitelisting and blacklisting, MAC addressverification, UDID verification, and NFC-based device authentication to curtail unautho-rized access and uphold data integrity. The adopted strategy not only addresses specificsecurity loopholes identified during penetration testing but also establishes a frameworkcapable of adapting to evolving threats. Through this research, we aim to contribute to theongoing discourse on IoMT security, underscoring the critical need for continuous adapta-tion of security measures to protect against emerging vulnerabilities in the rapidly evolvinglandscape of IoT devices. This work aspires to lay the groundwork for future research anddevelopment in IoMT security strategies, fostering a deeper understanding and implemen-tation of adequate security measures within medical technology.

Along with rapid development of sensing and communication technology, Internet of Things (IoTs) has enabled a tremendous number of applications in health care, agriculture, and industry. As the fundamental element, the wireless sensing node, such as radio tags need to be operating under micro power level for energy autonomy. The evolution of electronics towards highly energy-efficient systems requires joint efforts in developing innovative architectures and circuit techniques. In this dissertation, we explore ultra-low power circuits and systems for micropower wireless sensing in the context of IoTs, with a special focus on radio interfaces and sensor interfaces. The system architecture of UHF/UWB asymmetric radio is introduced firstly. The active UWB radio is employed for the tag-to-reader communication while the conventional UHF radio is used to power up and inventory the tag. On the tag side, an ultra-low power, high pulse swing, and power scalable UWB transmitter is studied. On the reader side, an asymmetric UHF/UWB reader is designed. Secondly, to eliminate power-hungry frequency synthesis circuitry, an energy-efficient UWB transmitter with wireless clock harvesting is presented. The transmitter is powered by an UHF signal wirelessly and respond UWB pulses by locking-gating-amplifying the sub-harmonic of the UHF signal. 21% locking range can be achieved to prevent PVT variations with -15 dBm injected power. Finally, radio-sensing interface co-design is explored. Taking the advantage of RC readout circuit and UWB pulse generator, the sensing information is directly extracted and transmitted in the time domain, exploiting high time-domain resolution UWB pulses. It eliminates the need of ADC of the sensor interface, meanwhile, reduces the number of bits to be transmitted for energy saving. The measurement results show that the proposed system exhibits 7.7 bits ENOB with an average relative error of 0.42%. / <p>QC 20160412</p>

Text in Afrikaans / In this thesis, the place and role of incorporeal things in the new South African law of things are examined. In the Roman law and Germanic customary law not only physical but also incorporeal objects, including rights, were regarded as things. In the early South African law of property (the period until 1950) a wide interpretation was given to the concept "thing". Consequently, things were said to denote either corporeal or incorporeal objects, as was the position in Roman and Roman-Dutch law. The recognition of incorporeal things suffered a setback during the fifties with the reception of the theories of the Pandectists in the South African law of things. The reception of the Pandectists theories can in all probability be attributed to writers such as WA Joubert and CG Van der Merwe. These writers gives preference to a narrow thing concept which only includes corporeal things and can be related to a certain interpretation of the doctrine of private law (subjective) rights which they adhere to. Incorporeal things are merely considered as exceptions. However, this narrow interpretation of things, are not generally accepted as correct. Several academics and the South African legal practice acknowledge a wider and more pragmatic concept of things which includes incorporeal things. Even before South Africa's new constitutional dispensation, pressure were exercised to extend the private law concept of things, despite the resistance of Joubert and Van der Merwe against the acknowledgement of incorporeal things. Creative legislation were introduced in 1971 which extended the concept of things by creating new land use rights. Within the context of the protection of land rights, a functional division of ownership is required in order to overcome the conflict between individual rights and public interests. The fragmentation of land rights provide the greatest possible number of people with the widest possible chance of access to land, and where necessary ad hoc legislation should be introduced to provide suitable security of tenure. Needs and problems regarding land reform were also addressed through legislation by recognizing different rights in land. By doing so, further pressure was placed on the narrow thing concept. Against this background, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 108 of 1996 started a new era for the South African private law. It is within this context that the relationship between private and public law comes to the fore. The Constitution offers the possibility of a wide interpretation of the public law concept of things. Our courts has already confirmed that the constitutional meaning of property is wider than the private law concept of property and that constitutional property is not limited to corporeal things. The application of the new constitutional dispensation on specific areas such as new property, labour related rights and intellectual property must be considered in light of the fact that the thing concept differs in the private law and public law. These constitutional developments can only sometimes be seen as an extension of the narrow thing concept. The implication is that incorporeal objects and rights can therefore be accommodated either within the existing private law paradigm, or within the wider constitutional paradigm. It is also argued that in certain circumstances ad hoc legislation should be introduced to provide the required security and protection. An analysis of the literature indicates that this is the preferable approach, rather than the dogmatic view that incorporeal things, in the form of other rights, are not considered as things. The new public law thing concept will have no influence on the further development of the private law in certain cases, but in combination with the existing theoretical and practical pressures to adopt a wider thing concept, the narrow private law approach could be given the final death-blow. / In hierdie verhandeling word die plek en rol van onstoflike sake binne die nuwe Suid-Afrikaanse sakereg ondersoek. In die Romeinse reg en Germaanse gemenereg is nie net stoflike nie maar ook onstoflike objekte, insluitende regte, as sake beskou. In die vroee Suid-Afrikaanse eiendomsreg (die tydperk tot 1950) is daar 'n wye interpretasie aan die begrip "saak" geheg. Daar is gevolglik verklaar dat sowel stoflike as onstoflike objekte sake is, soortgelyk aan die posisie in die Romeinse en Romeinse-Hollandse reg. Die erkenning van onstoflike sake het 'n terugslag beleef gedurende die vyftiger jare met die resepsie van die Pandektiste se teoriee in die Suid-Afrikaanse sakereg. Die resepsie van die Pandektisme kan waarskynlik toegeskryf word aan skrywers soos WA Joubert en CG Van der Merwe. Hierdie skrywers verkies 'n enger omskrywing van die saakbegrip wat slegs stoflike sake insluit, in navolging van 'n bepaalde interpretasie van die leerstuk van subjektiewe regte. Onstoflike sake word bloot as uitsonderings verklaar. Hierdie eng interpretasie wat aan die saakbegrip geheg word, word egter nie algemeen as korrek aanvaar nie. Verskeie akademici en die Suid-Afrikaanse regspraktyk erken 'n wyer en meer pragmatiese saakbegrip wat onstoflike sake insluit. Desondanks Joubert en Van der Merwe se weerstand teen die erkenning van onstoflike sake, is daar reeds voor Suid-Afrika se nuwe konstitusionele bedeling druk uitgeoefen om die privaatregtelike saakbegrip uit te brei. Kreatiewe wetgewing het in 1971 die lig gesien wat die privaatregtelik saakbegrip uitgebrei het deur die skepping van nuwe grondgebruiksregte. In die konteks van die beskerming van grondregte word 'n funksionele verdeling van eiendomsreg vereis ten einde die konflik tussen individuele regte en die openbare belang te oorkom. Die fragmentasie van grondregte bied aan die grootste moontlike aantal mense die wydste moontlike geleentheid om toegang tot grand te verkry. Behoeftes en probleme ten aansien van grondhervorming is oak by wyse van wetgewing aangespreek deur die erkenning van verskillende regte in grand. Sodoende is verdere druk op die eng saakbegrip geplaas. Teen hierdie agtergrond het die Grondwet van die Republiek van Suid-Afrika 108 van 1996 'n nuwe era in die Suid-Afrikaanse privaatregtelike sakereg ingelui. Binne hierdie konteks staan die verhouding tussen die privaat- en publiekregtelike saakbegrip op die voorgrond. Die Grondwet skep die moontlikheid om 'n wyer interpretasie aan die publiekregtelike saakbegrip te heg. Ons howe het reeds bevestig dat die konstitusionele betekenis van eiendom wyer is as die privaatregtelike eiendomskonsep en dat eiendom as 'n konstitusionele reg nie beperk word tot stoflike sake nie. Die nuwe konstitusionele bedeling se toepassing op spesifieke velde soos new property, arbeidsverwante regte en intellektuele goedereregte moet beoordeel word met inagneming van die feit dat die saakbegrip in die privaat- en publiekreg van mekaar verskil. Hierdie konstitusionele ontwikkelings kan soms as uitbreidings van die eng saakbegrip gesien word en soms nie. Die implikasie hiervan is dat onstoflike sake en regte of binne die bestaande privaatregparadigma of binne 'n wyer konstitusionele paradigma verklaar kan word. Daarword ook geargumenteer dat ad hoc wetgewing in sekere gevalle uitgevaardig moet word ten einde die nodige sekerheid en beskerming te verleen. 'n Analise van die literatuur dui daarop dat hierdie 'n lofwaardige benadering is, wat verkies moet word bo die dogmatiese siening dat onstoflike sake, in die gedaante van ander regte, nie as sake beskou kan word nie. In sommige gevalle sal die nuwe publiekregtelike saakbegrip geen invloed op die verdere ontwikkeling van die privaatreg uitoefen nie, maar in kombinasie met die reeds bestaande teoretiese en praktiese druk om 'n wyer saakbegrip te aanvaar kan dit die eng privaatregtelike benadering 'n finale nekslag toedien. / Private Law / LL.D.

Internet of things (IoT) generates massive amount of heterogeneous data, which should be efficiently utilized to support services in different domains. Specifically, data need to be supplied to services by understanding the needs of services and by understanding the environment changes, so that necessary data can be provided efficiently but without overfeeding. However, it is still very difficult for IoT to fulfill such data supply with only the existing supports of communication, network, and infrastructure; while the most essential issues are still unaddressed, namely the heterogeneity issue, the recourse coordination issue, and the environments’ dynamicity issue. Thus, this necessitates to specifically study on those issues and to propose a method to utilize the massive amount of heterogeneous data to support services in different domains. This dissertation presents a novel method, called the data-centric network of things (DNT), which handles heterogeneity, coordinates resources, and understands the changing IoT entity relations in dynamic environments to supply data in support of services. As results, various services based on IoT (e.g., smart cities, smart transport, smart healthcare, smart homes, etc.) are supported by receiving enough necessary data without overfeeding. The contributions of the DNT to IoT and big data research are: firstly the DNT enables IoT to perceive data, resources, and the relations among IoT entities in dynamic environments. This perceptibility enhances IoT to handle the heterogeneity in different levels. Secondly, the DNT coordinates IoT edge resources to process and disseminate data based on the perceived results. This releases the big data pressure caused by centralized analytics to certain degrees. Thirdly, the DNT manages entity relations for data supply by handling the environment dynamicity. Finally, the DNT supply necessary data to satisfy different service needs, by avoiding either data-hungry or data-overfed status.

The new technological phenomenon Internet of Things (IoT) is steadily growing and has become more incorporated into our daily lives. The technology can be found in a variety of applications in today's society and has helped to simplify and streamline tasks and processes. Analysts estimate that the market for IoT could potentially be worth 11 billion dollars by 2025. Large technology corporations are spending a vast amount of money to promote their IoT products, but we are also seeing companies which normally are not associated with IT making an entrance to make their products connected. During the fall of 2016 media reported about a big security breach within the IoT that affected security cameras and forced them to commit denial of service attacks. This event led us to take a closer look at the IoT and the security around the products. The aim of this study is to investigate how developers and security experts working with IoT perceive the current state of security and the possible threats and risks we face when using the technology. For this study we have used a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews. A total of eight interviews were conducted equally divided between developers and security experts. Our results show that a common denominator between the respondents' answers was that the lack of standardization and platforms for IoT-applications is a problem. However, a unified security solution is currently unattainable due to the vast number of platforms present in IoT today. Therefore, the use of a standard or platform does not guarantee security. Also, with the increasing popularity of IoT, products from developers without the proper knowledge is becoming a serious security concern for the IoT.

<p>U doktorskoj disertaciji razmatrana je mogućnost lokalizacije proizvoda primenom tehnologija Interneta stvari. Postavljen je model za lokalizaciju proizvoda koji primenjuje RFID tehnologiju i bežične senzorske mreže. U okviru modela, predložen je i realizovan hibridni metod za lokalizaciju proizvoda koji kombinuje podatke dobijene metodom najbližih suseda i metodom optimizacije rojem čestica, a zatim i hibridni metod za lokalizaciju proizvoda koji kombinuje podatke dobijene u RFID sistemu i u bežičnoj senzorskoj mreži. Mogućnosti primene predloženog modela su eksperimentalno ispitane u simuliranim sistemima i u laboratorijskoj okolini sa industrijskim elementima..</p> / <p>This dissertation discusses the possibilities of product localization based on Internet of things technologies. A model for product localization has been proposed based on RFID technology and wireless sensor networks. Within the model, a hybrid localization method which combines outputs from nearest neighbours method and particle swarm optimization for product localization has been proposed and developed, followed by a hybrid localization method which combines data from RFID system and wireless sensor network. The application possibilities for the proposed model have been experimentally tested in simulated systems and in laboratory conditions with industrial elements.</p>

Aus der Einführung "Durch die Vernetzung von Produkten im Internet der Dinge / Internet of Things (IoT) und die damit einhergehende Verfügbarkeit von Daten, können nicht nur Produkte selbstständig agieren, reagieren und Aktionen auslösen, sondern auch externe Empfänger die von ihnen gelieferten Daten auswerten und für zusätzliche Services nutzen (Eisenhauer 2007, Abramovici et al. 2014). Dies birgt unter Anderem enorme Potentiale bei der Instandhaltung von technischen Anlagen (Wohlgemut 2007). Diese Anlagen oder Produktionsstätten sind in aller Regel komplexe Systeme, die aus einer heterogenen Landschaft von Subsystemen bestehen. Ohne vorhergehende Kenntnisse einer Maschine ist die Analyse oder Überprüfung solcher Systeme schwierig bis unmöglich. Weiterhin stehen die technischen Dokumentationen und Wartungshistorien bei solchen Tätigkeiten häufig nicht vollständig oder nur in Papierform vor Ort zur Verfügung, während der aktuelle Status der Anlage nicht mit den vorhandenen Informationen überlagert werden kann. ..."

The dramatic effects of brain damage can provide some of the most interesting insights into the nature of normal cognitive performance. In recent years a number of neuropsychological studies have reported a particular form of cognitive impairment where patients have problems recognising objects from one category but remain able to recognise those from others. The most frequent ‘category-specific’ pattern is an impairment identifying living things, compared to nonliving things. The reverse pattern of dissociation, i.e., an impairment recognising and naming nonliving things relative to living things, has been reported albeit much less frequently. The objective of the work carried out in this thesis was to investigate the organising principles and anatomical correlates of stored knowledge for categories of living and nonliving things. Three complementary cognitive neuropsychological research techniques were employed to assess how, and where, this knowledge is represented in the brain: (i) studies of normal (neurologically intact) subjects, (ii) case-studies of neurologically impaired patients with selective deficits in object recognition, and (iii) studies of the anatomical correlates of stored knowledge for living and nonliving things on the brain using magnetoencephalography (MEG). The main empirical findings showed that semantic knowledge about living and nonliving things is principally encoded in terms of sensory and functional features, respectively. In two case-study chapters evidence was found supporting the view that category-specific impairments can arise from damage to a pre-semantic system, rather than the assumption often made that the system involved must be semantic. In the MEG study, rather than finding evidence for the involvement of specific brain areas for different object categories, it appeared that, when subjects named and categorised living and nonliving things, a non-differentiated neural system was involved.

The purpose of my thesis is to present possible influence of trendy things to prestige, in the ninth grade of city primary school. The goal of this thesis is to identify the social structure of the students' group, to map the value orientation of the students, to identify their trendy things, and to connect all these findings. The thesis tries to answer the question of the influence of trendy things to the prestige in this students' group, and find out whether in this group of students exists the materialization of prestige. The text is divided into two parts. The theoretical part focuses on pointing out the main aspects of the topic of trendy things, adolescence, materialism and prestige. These topics are analysed in the context of psychology and partly sociology, antropology and education as well. Empirical part, in addition to the description of objectives, methods, research sample and environment, pays particular attention to analysis of its own data of quality-oriented research with the support of several quantitative methods. First, it describes the social hierarchy of students in terms of their degree of influence, popularity and prestige, and identifies their sub-groups. Next I try to find out the prevailing students' value orientation. Then I subscribe the possible negotiation strategies...

Context-aware computing utilizes information about users and/or their environments in order to provide relevant information and services. To date, however, most context-aware applications only take advantage of contexts that can either be produced on the device they are running on, or on external devices that are known beforehand. While there are many application domains where sharing context is useful and/or necessary, creating these applications is currently difficult because there is no easy way for devices to share information without 1) explicitly directing them to do so, or 2) through some form of advanced user coordination (e.g., sharing credentials and/or IP addresses, installing and running the same software). This makes these techniques useful when the need to share context is known a priori, but impractical for the one time, opportunistic encounters which make up the majority of users’ lives. To address this problem, this thesis presents the Group Context Framework (GCF), a software framework that allows devices to form groups and share context with minimal prior coordination. GCF lets devices openly discover and request context from each other. The framework then lets devices intelligently and autonomously forms opportunistic groups and work together without requiring either the application developer or the user to know of these devices beforehand. GCF supports use cases where devices only need to share information once or spontaneously. Additionally, the framework provides standardized mechanisms for applications to collect, store, and share context. This lets devices form groups and work together, even when they are performing logically separate tasks (i.e., running different applications). Through the development of GCF, this thesis identifies the conceptual and software abstractions needed to support opportunistic groups in context-aware applications. As part of our design process, we looked at current contextsharing applications, systems, and frameworks, and developed a conceptual model that identifies the most common conditions that cause users/devices to form a group. We then created a framework that supports grouping across this entire model. Through the creation of four prototype systems, we show how the ability to form opportunistic groups of devices can increase users and devices’ access to timely information and services. Finally, we had 20 developers evaluate GCF, and verified that the framework supports a wide range of existing and novel use cases. Collectively, this thesis demonstrates the utility of opportunistic groups in context-aware computing, and highlights the critical challenges that need to be addressed to make opportunistic context sharing both practical and usable in real-world settings. The contributions of this thesis are: 1. A conceptual model, based on an analysis of prior literature, which describes the conditions under which users and/or devices form and work in groups. 2. An implementation of the Group Context Framework, which highlights the software abstractions and architecture needed to support all of the group types identified in our conceptual model. 3. A demonstration of the value of opportunistic groups in context aware computing, through the creation of four major systems and numerous smaller applications. 4. A validation of GCF’s robustness, through an examination of 65 ideas submitted by 20 developers. 5. An examination of the challenges associated with utilizing opportunistic groups in context-aware applications, based on our own experiences using GCF, as well as from issues raised by developers from academia and industry.