Search results

Sewing is one of the most commonly used manufacturing processes in the world. Millions of parts are sewn every day ranging from cloths, shoes, furniture, to automobile seat covers. However, it is also one of the least understood processes. In fact, according to literature survey, few know how to calculate the sewing force or the fabric deformation during the sewing. This paper presents our research on using finite element model (FEM) to study the sewing process. The model is developed using ANSYS software system. In the model, the fabric is approximated by a number of perpendicular beam elements with elastic and plastic capabilities. On the other hand, the needle is modeled by a simple elastic beam. The contact between the two parts is modeled by contact elements. The variations of the needle geometry and the fabric material properties as well as the sewing conditions are also included in the model. The model can simulate the needle piercing through a material, and calculates the sewing forces as well as the fabric deformation forming a hole. It has been verified experimentally and can be used to study the effects of the key sewing parameters such as the fabric material properties and the needle geometry.

The interoperability of cloud data between web applications and mobile devices has vastly improved over recent years. The popularity of social media, smartphones and cloud-based web services have contributed to the level of integration that can be achieved between applications. This paper investigates the potential security issues of OAuth, an authorisation framework for granting third-party applications revocable access to user data. OAuth has rapidly become an interim de facto standard for protecting access to web API data. Vendors have implemented OAuth before the open standard was officially published. To evaluate whether the OAuth 2.0 specification is truly ready for industry application, an entire OAuth client server environment was developed and validated against the speciation threat model. The research also included the analysis of the security features of several popular OAuth integrated websites and comparing those to the threat model. High-impacting exploits leading to account hijacking were identified with a number of major online publications. It is hypothesised that the OAuth 2.0 specification can be a secure authorisation mechanism when implemented correctly.

To analyse the security of OAuth implementations in industry a list of the 50 most popular websites in Ireland was retrieved from the statistical website Alexa (Noureddine and Bashroush, 2011). Each site was analysed to identify if it utilised OAuth. Out of the 50 sites, 21 were identified with OAuth support. Each vulnerability in the threat model was then tested against each OAuth-enabled site. To test the robustness of the OAuth framework, an entire OAuth environment was required. The proposed solution would compose of three parts: a client application, an authorisation server and a resource server. The client application needed to consume OAuth-enabled services. The authorisation server had to manage access to the resource server. The resource server had to expose data from the database based on the authorisation the user would be given from the authorisation server. It was decided that the client application would consume emails from Google’s Gmail API. The authorisation and resource server were modelled around a basic task-tracking web application. The client application would also consume task data from the developed resource server. The client application would also support Single Sign On for Google and Facebook, as well as a developed identity provider “MyTasks”. The authorisation server delegated authorisation to the client application and stored cryptography information for each access grant. The resource server validated the supplied access token via public cryptography and returned the requested data.

Two sites out of the 21 were found to be susceptible to some form of attack, meaning that 10.5 per cent were vulnerable. In total, 18 per cent of the world’s 50 most popular sites were in the list of 21 OAuth-enabled sites. The OAuth 2.0 specification is still very much in its infancy, but when implemented correctly, it can provide a relatively secure and interoperable authentication delegation mechanism. The IETF are currently addressing issues and expansions in their working drafts. Once a strict level of conformity is achieved between vendors and vulnerabilities are mitigated, it is likely that the framework will change the way we access data on the web and other devices.

OAuth is flexible, in that it offers extensions to support varying situations and existing technologies. A disadvantage of this flexibility is that new extensions typically bring new security exploits. Members of the IETF OAuth Working Group are constantly refining the draft specifications and are identifying new threats to the expanding functionality. OAuth provides a flexible authentication mechanism to protect and delegate access to APIs. It solves the password re-use across multiple accounts problem and stops the user from having to disclose their credentials to third parties. Filtering access to information by scope and giving the user the option to revoke access at any point gives the user control of their data. OAuth does raise security concerns, such as defying phishing education, but there are always going to be security issues with any authentication technology. Although several high impacting vulnerabilities were identified in industry, the developed solution proves the predicted hypothesis that a secure OAuth environment can be built when implemented correctly. Developers must conform to the defined specification and are responsible for validating their implementation against the given threat model. OAuth is an evolving authorisation framework. It is still in its infancy, and much work needs to be done in the specification to achieve stricter validation and vendor conformity. Vendor implementations need to become better aligned in order to provider a rich and truly interoperable authorisation mechanism. Once these issues are resolved, OAuth will be on track for becoming the definitive authentication standard on the web.

Background: the increased incidence of psychosis in African‐Caribbeans in the UK compared to the white British population has been frequently reported. The cause for this is unclear; social factors are said to account for this increase and one factor that is often cited is discrimination.Aims and method: we have looked at two groups of psychotic patients, blacks of Caribbean origin and white British, and present a qualitative comparison of the individual's experience of unfair treatment and its perceived cause.Results: the African‐Caribbean patients did not describe more perceived discrimination than their white counterparts but were more likely to claim that their distress was due to racial discrimination perpetrated by the psychiatric services and society in general. The white patients were more likely to attribute perceived discrimination to their mental illness.Conclusion: this mismatch of explanatory models between black patients and their doctors may account for some inequalities in their treatment, their relative non‐engagement and adverse outcome.Declaration of interest: none.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a qualitative study of software engineers' perception of dress code, career, organizations, and of managers.

The software engineers interviewed work in three European and two US companies. The research is based on ethnographic data, gathered in two longitudinal studies during the period 2001‐2006. The methods used in the study include open‐ended unstructured interviews, participant observation, collection of stories, and shadowing.

It was found that the majority of software engineers denounce formal dress‐codes. The notion of career was defined by them mostly in terms of occupational development. They perceived their own managers as very incompetent. Their view on corporations was also univocally negative. The findings confirm that software engineers form a very distinctive occupation, defining itself in opposition to the organization. However, their distinctiveness may be perceived not only as a manifestation of independence but also contrarily, as simply fulfilling the organizational role they are assigned by management.

The study contributes to the organizational literature by responding to the call for more research on high‐tech workplace practices, and on non‐managerial occupational roles.

THE IFLA Conference—or to be more precise—the 34th Session of the General Council of IFLA—met at Frankfurt am Main from the 18th to the 24th of August, 1968. Note the dates, for they include the 21st of August, the day when the delegates heard, as did the rest of the world, of the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Until then the Conference had been proceeding happily, and with the smoothness inborn of German organisation. During and after that date, a blight was cast over the proceedings, and although the Conference carried out its formal and informal programmes as planned, concentrations were disturbed as delegates sometimes gathered round transistor radios, their thoughts on Eastern Europe.

British information specialists and librarians in business information are recession‐proof, according to a new survey from TFPL. From a field of 600 professionals queried, TFPL found that 78% had had pay rises over the past year. Salaries and fringe benefits rose a whopping 18% on average over the eighteen months between April 1989 to October 1991. The majority had increases between 5–9% — however, a lucky few (17.5%) enjoyed rises of 10–25%. Given the economic climate, the proportion of survey participants who had recently received salary increases (78%) and the generosity of these increases seems to indicate that organisations are valuing their information specialists now more than ever, says TFPL.

Until the Loma Prieta earthquake of 17 October 1989, also known as the “World Series earthquake” or the “San Francisco earthquake,” many of us may have considered earthquakes a remote danger. But instantaneous television transmission from the interrupted World Series game and frightening images of the collapsed Cypress Viaduct and the burning Marina district transformed this incident from a distant disaster into a phenomenon that touched us all. The Loma Prieta earthquake was followed in December 1990 by the inaccurate but widely publicized New Madrid earthquake prediction. Despite its inaccuracy, this prediction alerted the public to the fact that the largest earthquake ever to have occurred in the United States occurred not in California or Alaska, but in Missouri, and that a large earthquake could occur there again. Americans are discovering that few places are immune to the possibility of an earthquake.

Performance programs, games, rituals and story telling are looked at as part of the performance of organization. Some leaders in these methods are gifted performers, and they are able to pass on the plots of these themes to succeeding generations of employees.