Checking data possession in networked information systems such as those related to critical infrastructures (power facilities, airports, data vaults, defense systems, etc.) is a matter of crucial importance. Remote data possession checking protocols permit to check that a remote server can access an uncorrupted file in such a way that the verifier does not need to know beforehand the entire file that is being verified. Unfortunately, current protocols only allow a limited number of successive verifications or are impractical from the computational point of view. In this paper, we present a new remote data possession checking protocol such that: 1) it allows an unlimited number of file integrity verifications; 2) its maximum running time can be chosen at set-up time and traded off against storage at the verifier.

LiDAR sensors are widely used in many areas and, in recent years, that includes agricultural tasks. In this work, a self-developed mobile terrestrial laser scanner based on a 2D light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensor was used to scan an intensive olive orchard, and different algorithms were developed to estimate canopy volume. Canopy volume estimations derived from LiDAR sensor readings were compared to conventional estimations used in fruticulture/horticulture research and the results prove that they are equivalent with coefficients of correlation ranging from r = 0.56 to r = 0.82 depending on the algorithms used. Additionally, tools related to analysis of point cloud data from the LiDAR-based system are proposed to extract further geometrical and structural information from tree row crop canopies to be offered to farmers and technical advisors as digital raster maps. Having high spatial resolution information on canopy geometry (i.e., height, width and volume) and on canopy structure (i.e., light penetrability, leafiness and porosity) may result in better orchard management decisions. Easily obtainable, reliable information on canopy geometry and structure may favour the development of decision support systems either for irrigation, fertilization or canopy management, as well as for variable rate application of agricultural inputs in the framework of precision fruticulture/horticulture.

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) allow vehicle-to-vehicle communication and, in particular, vehicle-generated announcements. Provided that the trustworthiness of such announcements can be guaranteed, they can greatly increase the safety of driving. A new system for vehicle-generated announcements is presented that is secure against external and internal attackers attempting to send fake messages. Internal attacks are thwarted by using an endorsement mechanism based on threshold signatures. Our system outperforms previous proposals in message length and computational cost. Three different privacy-preserving variants of the system are also described to ensure that vehicles volunteering to generate and/or endorse trustworthy announcements do not have to sacrifice their privacy.