8 research outputs found
Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences for January to June 2011 - November 11, 2010
If you attend the same conferences each year, you donât need to scan this list. This list is your opportunity to âpush the envelopeâ by trying something new. There are hundreds of professional development events that may give you a different perspective or help you learn a new skill. Rather than attend the same event you always do, scan this list and investigate conferences, symposiums, or workshops you have never attended. The list below covers selected events focused primarily on the use of technology in educational settings and on teaching, learning, and educational administration. Only listings until June 2011 are complete as dates, locations, or URLs are not available for a number of events held after June 2011. A Word 2003 format is used to enable people who do not have access to Word 2007 or higher version and those with limited or high-cost Internet access to find a conference that is congruent with their interests or obtain conference proceedings. (If you are seeking a more interactive listing, refer to online conference sites.) Consider using the âFindâ tool under Microsoft Wordâs âEditâ tab or similar tab in OpenOffice to locate the name of a particular conference, association, city, or country. If you enter the country âUnited Kingdomâ in the âFindâ tool, all conferences that occur in the United Kingdom will be highlighted. Then, âcut and pasteâ a list of suitable events for yourself and your colleagues. Please note that events, dates, titles, and locations may change; thus, CHECK the specific conference website. Note also that some events will be cancelled at a later date. All Internet addresses were verified at the time of publication. No liability is assumed for any errors that may have been introduced inadvertently during the assembly of this conference list. If possible, please do not remove the contact information when you re-distribute the list as that is how I receive updates and corrections. If you publish the list on the web, please note its source
Service Discovery from Uniform Resource Locators of Monitored Web Applications
KĂ€esolev magistritöö kĂ€sitleb veebiserveri sissetulevate HTTP pĂ€ringute URL-ide analĂŒĂŒsimist veebiteenuste tuvastamise eesmĂ€rgiga.\n\rProbleem on aktuaalne veebirakenduste monitooringutööriistade seisukohalt, kuna sissetulevad HTTP pĂ€ringud on vaja omavahel loogiliselt grupeerida selleks, et edasihinnata ning jĂ€lgida teenuse vasteaega.\n\rUurimistöö keskendub Java veebirakendustele ning analĂŒĂŒsib URLide andmehulka, mis on saadudud monitoorimistarkvarast Plumbr.\n\rKui monitooritav veebirakendus on realiseeritud mĂ”ne Plumbri jaoks tuntud veebiraamistiku abil (nĂ€iteks Spring), siis on vĂ”imalik seda rakendust instrumenteerida selliselt, et teenuse nimi on ĂŒheselt mÀÀratletav. Kui aga tegemist on Plumbri jaoks tundmatu veebiraamistikuga, siis ainuke sissetuleva pĂ€ringu kirjeldus on selle pĂ€ringu URL.\n\rKui URLis sisalduvad dĂŒnaamilised parameetrid, siis sama teenust kasutavad pĂ€ringud on erinevad ja neid ei ole vĂ”imalik ainult URLi pĂ”hiselt grupeerida.\n\rKĂ€esolev magistritöö pakub vĂ€lja URLi analĂŒĂŒsil baseeruva grupeerimise lahenduse. Lahendus tĂŒkeldab URLi, eraldab sealt sĂ”nede ahelad, mida seejĂ€rel analĂŒĂŒsib kasutades loomuliku keele töötlemise ning graafitransformeerimise tehnikaid.\n\rPakutav teenuste tuvastuse lahendus on teostatud kasutades Java ja Groovy programmeerimiskeeli, hinnatud andmehulgal mis koosneb ĂŒle 400 000 URList ning on integreeritud Plumbr monitooringutarkvarasse.This thesis addresses the problem of analyzing Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) of incoming Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) requests in a Web application server in order to discover the services provided by the applications hosted by the application server, and to group these applications according to the services they provide. The thesis investigates this problem in the context of the Plumbr Java performance monitoring tool. When the hosted applications are implemented using a known web framework (e.g. Spring), the service name and associated data, such as URL parameters, can be extracted directly from the controller. However, this controller-based service discovery approach, which is currently implemented in Plumbr, is not applicable when the hosted applications use unknown framework. This research addresses the problem in this latter more general setting.\n\rThe thesis proposes a pure URL-based approach, where the observed URLs are parsed, leading to sequences of tokens, which are then analyzed using natural language processing techniques and graph transformations. The proposed service discovery technique has been implemented in Groovy and Java, integrated into the Plumbr tool and evaluated on data extracted from production server covering over 400K URLs
The CHORCH Approach: How to Model B2Bi Choreographies for Orchestration Execution
The establishment and implementation of cross-organizational business processes is an implication of today's market pressure for efficiency gains.
In this context, Business-To-Business integration (B2Bi) focuses on the information integration aspects of business processes.
A core task of B2Bi is providing adequate models that capture the message exchanges between integration partners.
Following the terminology used in the SOA domain, such models will be called choreographies in the context of this work.
Despite the enormous economic importance of B2Bi, existing choreography languages fall short of fulfilling all relevant
requirements of B2Bi scenarios.
Dedicated B2Bi choreography standards allow for inconsistent outcomes of basic interactions and
do not provide unambiguous semantics for advanced interaction models.
In contrast to this, more formal or technical choreography languages may provide unambiguous modeling semantics,
but do not offer B2Bi domain concepts or an adequate level of abstraction.
Defining valid and complete B2Bi choreography models becomes a challenging task in the face of these shortcomings.
At the same time, invalid or underspecified choreography definitions are particularly costly considering the organizational
setting of B2Bi scenarios.
Models are not only needed to bridge the typical gap between business and IT,
but also as negotiation means among the business users of the integration partners on the one hand
and among the IT experts of the integration partners on the other.
Misunderstandings between any two negotiation partners potentially affect the agreements between all other negotiation partners.
The CHORCH approach offers tailored support for B2Bi by combining the strengths of both dedicated B2Bi standards and formal rigor.
As choreography specification format, the ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (ebBP) standard is used.
ebBP provides dedicated B2Bi domain concepts such as so-called BusinessTransactions (BTs) that abstractly specify the exchange of a request business document
and an optional response business document.
In addition, ebBP provides a format for specifying the sequence of BT executions for capturing complex interaction scenarios.
CHORCH improves the offering of ebBP in several ways.
Firstly, the execution model of BTs which allows for inconsistent outcomes among the integration partners
is redefined such that only consistent outcomes are possible.
Secondly, two binary choreography styles are defined as B2Bi implementation contract format in order to streamline implementation projects.
Both choreography styles are formalized and provided with a formal execution semantics for ensuring unambiguity.
In addition, validity criteria are defined that ensure implementability using BPEL-based orchestrations.
Thirdly, the analysis of the synchronization dependencies of complex B2Bi scenarios is supported
by means of a multi-party choreography style combined with an analysis framework.
This choreography style also is formalized and standard state machine semantics are reused in order to ensure unambiguity.
Moreover, validity criteria are defined that allow for analyzing corresponding models for typical multi-party choreography issues.
Altogether, CHORCH provides choreography styles that are B2Bi adequate, simple, unambiguous, and implementable.
The choreography styles are B2Bi adequate in providing B2Bi domain concepts, in abstracting from low-level implementation details
and in covering the majority of real-world B2Bi scenarios.
Simplicity is fostered by using state machines as underlying specification paradigm.
This allows for thinking in the states of a B2Bi scenario and for simple control flow structures.
Unambiguity is provided by formal execution semantics whereas implementability (for the binary choreography styles) is ensured by providing
mapping rules to BPEL-based implementations.
The validation of CHORCH's choreography styles is performed in a twofold way.
Firstly, the implementation of the binary choreography styles based on Web Services and BPEL technology is demonstrated
which proves implementability using relatively low-cost technologies.
Moreover, the analysis algorithms for the multi-party choreography styles are validated using a Java-based prototype.
Secondly, an abstract visualization of the choreography styles based on BPMN is provided that abstracts from
the technicalities of the ebBP standard.
This proves the amenability of CHORCH to development methods that start out with visual models.
CHORCH defines how to use BPMN choreographies for the purpose of B2Bi choreography modeling
and translates the formal rules for choreography validity into simple composition rules that
demonstrate valid ways of connecting the respective modeling constructs.
In summary, CHORCH allows integration partners to start out with a high-level visual model of their interactions in BPMN
that identifies the types and sequences of the BusinessTransactions to be used.
For multi-party choreographies, a framework for analyzing synchronization dependencies then is available.
For binary choreographies, an ebBP refinement can be derived that fills in the technical parameters that are needed for deriving the implementation.
Finally, Web Services and BPEL based implementations can be generated.
Thus, CHORCH allows for stepwise closing the semantic gap between the information perspective of business process models
and the corresponding implementations.
It is noteworthy that CHORCH uses international standards throughout all relevant layers, i.e., BPMN, ebBP, Web Services and BPEL,
which helps in bridging the heterogeneous IT landscapes of B2Bi partners.
In addition, the adoption of core CHORCH deliverables as international standards of the RosettaNet community
give testament to the practical relevance and promise dissemination throughout the B2Bi community.BetriebsĂŒbergreifende GeschĂ€ftsprozessintegration ist eine logische Konsequenz allgegenwĂ€rtigen Wettbewerbsdrucks.
In diesem Kontext fokussiert Business-To-Business integration (B2Bi) auf die
Informationsaustausche zwischen Unternehmen.
Eine B2Bi-Kernanforderung ist die Bereitstellung adÀquater Modelle zur Spezifikation der Nachrichtenaustausche zwischen Integrationspartnern.
Diese werden im Rahmen dieser Arbeit in Anlehnung an Service-orientierte Architekturen (SOA)-Terminologie Choreographien genannt.
Bestehende Choreographiesprachen decken die Anforderungen an B2Bi-Choreographien nicht vollstÀndig ab.
Dedizierte B2Bi-Choreographiestandards definieren inkonsistente Austauschprozeduren fĂŒr grundlegende Interaktionen
und nur unvollstĂ€ndige Semantiken fĂŒr fortgeschrittene Interaktionen.
Formale oder Technik-getriebene Choreographiesprachen bieten die benötigte PrÀzision,
lassen aber DomÀnenkonzepte vermissen oder operieren auf einer niedrigen Abstraktionsebene.
Angesichts solcher MÀngel wird die Spezifikation valider und vollstÀndiger B2Bi-Choreographien zu einer echten Herausforderung.
Gleichzeitig sind mangelhafte Choreographiemodelle gerade im B2Bi-Bereich besonders problematisch,
da diese nicht nur zwischen Fach- und IT-Abteilung, sondern auch ĂŒber Unternehmensgrenzen hinweg eingesetzt werden.
Der CHORCH-Ansatz schafft an dieser Stelle mittels maĂgeschneiderter Choreographien Abhilfe,
welche die Vorteile von B2Bi-Choreographien und von formalen AnsÀtzen kombinieren.
Als Ausgangspunkt wird das ebXML Business Process Specification Schema (ebBP) verwendet,
das als B2Bi-Choreographiestandard DomÀnenkonzepte wie zum Beispiel
sogenannte BusinessTransactions (BTs) bietet.
Eine BT ist der Basisbaustein von B2Bi-Choreographien und spezifiziert
den Austausch eines GeschÀftsdokuments sowie eines optionalen Antwortdokuments.
DarĂŒber hinaus bietet ebBP ein Format zur Spezifikation von BT-Kompositionen zur UnterstĂŒtzung komplexer Interaktionen.
CHORCH erweitert ebBP wie folgt.
Erstens, das AusfĂŒhrungsmodell fĂŒr BTs wird neu definiert, um inkonsistente ErgebniszustĂ€nde zu eliminieren.
Zweitens, fĂŒr Entwicklungsprojekte werden zwei binĂ€re Choreographieklassen definiert, die als B2Bi-Implementierungskontrakt dienen sollen.
Die Formalisierung beider Klassen sowie formale operationale Semantiken gewÀhrleisten Eindeutigkeit,
wĂ€hrend ValiditĂ€tskriterien die AusfĂŒhrbarkeit entsprechender Modelle mittels BPEL-basierter Orchestrationen garantieren.
Drittens, zur Analyse der Synchronisationsbeziehungen komplexer B2Bi-Szenarien wird eine Multi-Party-Choreographieklasse nebst Analyseframework definiert.
Wiederum wird fĂŒr diese Klasse eine Formalisierung definiert, die mittels Standard-Zustandsautomatensemantik Eindeutigkeit gewĂ€hrleistet.
Ferner garantieren ValiditÀtskriterien die Anwendbarkeit der definierten Analysealgorithmen.
Insgesamt bieten die Choreographieklassen des CHORCH-Ansatzes ein B2Bi-adÀquates, einfaches, eindeutiges und implementierbares
Modell der Nachrichtenaustausche zwischen B2Bi-Partnern.
B2Bi-AdÀquatheit wird durch Verwendung von B2Bi-DomÀnenkonzepten, Abstraktion von rein technischen Kommunikationsdetails
und Abdeckung der meisten praktisch relevanten B2Bi-Szenarien gewÀhrleistet.
Einfachheit ist ein Ausfluss der Verwendung eines Zustandsmaschinen-basierten Modellierungsparadigmas,
das die Definition des Interaktionsfortschritts in Form von ZustÀnden sowie einfache Kontrollflussstrukturen ermöglicht.
Eindeutigkeit wird durch die Verwendung formaler Semantiken garantiert, wĂ€hrend Implementierbarkeit (fĂŒr die beiden binĂ€ren Choreographieklassen)
durch Angabe von Mapping-Regeln auf BPEL-Orchestrationen sichergestellt wird.
Die Validierung der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen erfolgt in zweierlei Hinsicht.
Erstens, die Implementierbarkeit der binÀren Choreographieklassen mit Hilfe von Web Services und BPEL wird durch die Definition entsprechender
Mappingregeln belegt. Weiterhin wird das Analyseframework der Multi-Party-Choreographieklasse als Java-Prototyp implementiert.
Zweitens, fĂŒr alle Choreographieklassen wird eine abstrakte Visualisierung auf BPMN-Basis definiert, die von diversen technischen Parametern
des ebBP-Formats abstrahiert.
Damit wird die Integrierbarkeit der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen in EntwicklungsansÀtze,
die ein visuelles Modell als Ausgangspunkt vorsehen, belegt.
CHORCH definiert, wie sogenannte BPMN-Choreographien zum Zweck der B2Bi-Choreographiemodellierung zu verwenden sind
und ĂŒbersetzt die ValiditĂ€tskriterien der CHORCH-Choreographieklassen in einfache Modell-Kompositionsregeln.
In seiner Gesamtheit bietet CHORCH somit einen Ansatz, mit Hilfe dessen B2Bi-Partner zunÀchst
die Typen und zulÀssigen Reihenfolgen ihrer GeschÀftsdokumentaustausche auf Basis eines abstrakten visuellen BPMN-Modells identifizieren können.
Im Fall von Multi-Party-Choreographien steht dann ein Framework zur Analyse der Synchronisationsbeziehungen zwischen den Integrationspartnern zur VerfĂŒgung.
Im Fall von binÀren Choreographien können ebBP-Verfeinerungen abgeleitet werden, welche die Modelle um technische Parameter anreichern, die zur Ableitung
einer Implementierung benötigt werden. Diese ebBP-Modelle sind in Web Services- und BPEL-basierte Implementierungen ĂŒbersetzbar.
Damit erlaubt CHORCH die schrittweise ĂberbrĂŒckung der semantischen LĂŒcke zwischen der Informationsaustauschperspektive von
GeschÀftsprozessmodellen und den zugehörigen Implementierungen.
Ein beachtenswerter Aspekt des CHORCH-Ansatzes ist die Verwendung einschlÀgiger internationaler Standards auf allen Abstraktionsebenen,
im Einzelnen BPMN, ebBP, Web Services und BPEL. Die Verwendung von Standards trÀgt dem heterogenen Umfeld von B2Bi-Szenarien Rechnung.
ZusÀtzlich wurden Kernergebnisse des CHORCH-Ansatzes als internationale Standards der RosettaNet-B2Bi-Community veröffentlicht.
Dies belegt die praktische Relevanz des Ansatzes und fördert die Verbreitung innerhalb der B2Bi-Community
Recommended from our members
ACTAS: Adaptive Composition and Trading with Agents for Services
Mainly in business domains, the vision of gaining flexible, adaptive service environments is based on the standardization and practical proliferation of (Semantic) Web Services, ontologies, and agents. The standards of Web Services and their Service-oriented Architectures (SOA) became the standard paradigm for software component integration. Dynamic changes and the permanently increasing amount of available e-services of different domains are a challenge of Service Discovery and Composition. Mediation between different approaches and expert knowledge is often necessary for the composition of services of different domains. Semantic enhancements, Autonomic Service Discovery, and the research for more holistic concepts for the classification of e-services are current attempts of overcoming this challenge, in order to reach the ultimate goal of Autonomic SOC
Security Analysis of System Behaviour - From "Security by Design" to "Security at Runtime" -
The Internet today provides the environment for novel applications and
processes which may evolve way beyond pre-planned scope and
purpose. Security analysis is growing in complexity with the increase
in functionality, connectivity, and dynamics of current electronic
business processes. Technical processes within critical
infrastructures also have to cope with these developments. To tackle
the complexity of the security analysis, the application of models is
becoming standard practice. However, model-based support for security
analysis is not only needed in pre-operational phases but also during
process execution, in order to provide situational security awareness
at runtime.
This cumulative thesis provides three major contributions to modelling
methodology.
Firstly, this thesis provides an approach for model-based analysis and
verification of security and safety properties in order to support
fault prevention and fault removal in system design or redesign.
Furthermore, some construction principles for the design of
well-behaved scalable systems are given.
The second topic is the analysis of the exposition of vulnerabilities
in the software components of networked systems to exploitation by
internal or external threats. This kind of fault forecasting allows
the security assessment of alternative system configurations and
security policies. Validation and deployment of security policies
that minimise the attack surface can now improve fault tolerance and
mitigate the impact of successful attacks.
Thirdly, the approach is extended to runtime applicability. An
observing system monitors an event stream from the observed system
with the aim to detect faults - deviations from the specified
behaviour or security compliance violations - at runtime.
Furthermore, knowledge about the expected behaviour given by an
operational model is used to predict faults in the near
future. Building on this, a holistic security management strategy is
proposed. The architecture of the observing system is described and
the applicability of model-based security analysis at runtime is
demonstrated utilising processes from several industrial scenarios.
The results of this cumulative thesis are provided by 19 selected
peer-reviewed papers
A service-oriented technical framework for the development of integrated education management information system
The increasing demand for education, especially tertiary education, has triggered a lot of challenges within the university system, especially in developing nations like Nigeria. These challenges include management and administration of the following: studentsâ enrolment, staff and students profile information, tuition fees payment, course registration, examination, and result processing, among others. The development of various types of Education Management Information Systems (EMIS) to alleviate these challenges has presented a more efficient means of optimising processes in the university systems. Thus, stakeholders within the university system: administrators, lecturers and students interact with the EMIS to ease their respective academic activities.
However, these EMIS are designed, developed, and deployed with different application platforms and programming standards, which make it difficult for different EMIS to share information as they act as isolated information island. Thus, there is a challenge of data exchange in integrating different EMIS to achieve cross platform data exchange. Meanwhile, there are such initiatives on standard frameworks for the integration of disparate systems that are found in education institutions like the Education Management Information System Interoperability Framework (EMIF) and the School Interoperability Framework (SIF). However, the complexity in the mechanism for data exchange of these frameworks and the limited focus on the design structure of EMIS that can easily adapt and integrate limit their use in education institutions, especially those in developing countries with limited technical manpower and knowhow.
In the search for a simplified framework that reconsider EMIS as an integrated system that can seamlessly exchange data, this research study involved the investigation, design, demonstration, and evaluation of a service-oriented technical framework for the development of integrated EMIS using the design science research methodology. This study, therefore, contributed to knowledge with the proposition of a technical framework that simplifies and standardizes the development of integrated EMIS that seamlessly exchange data among different functional modules. The technical framework is designed based on the identified layered conceptual components: a) Education Information Structure (EIS) that provides adaptable Central Information System (CIS) for handling the specific information requirements of different education systems with Access Control that provides a layer of security services to check and grant authorization and authentication access; b) Service-Oriented Design layer that handles integration of functional modules to connect with the EIS with service interfaces using Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST API); c) Demonstration Logic layer that recognizes the development platform and the flexibility of the programming logic to scale with new information requirements; d) Data Exchange Mechanism that provides a layer of standard data serialization format using Java Script Object Notation (JSON) to exchange data, through the RESTful API services, among functional modules in the Service-Oriented Design layer and the CIS in the EIS layer; e) Database System layer that handles data storage and requests from services.
Thus, the framework makes key contributions with provision for customisation and multi-tenant cloud approach for adaptability and standardisation of the development of integrated EMIS to fit into different education systems. It was demonstrated on a web-based platform using the Laravel development platform that offer framework for rapid application development. The demonstration considered a case study approach, and the evaluation was based on expert reviews and comparative analysis within the context of the key requirements from the research findings. These requirements are: a) Adaptability that consider the suitability to fit into the specific information requirement of the different education systems; b) Maintainability that underscore the use of simplified common technologies that can be delivered within the knowledge of the EMIS developer; c) Standardization that check for the use of standard technologies and techniques; d) Scalability that consider provision for extension of the CIS and the functional modules to respond to changes in information requirements of the education system; e) Connectivity that benchmark access to shared data sources by the different functional modules of the integrated EMIS; f) Accessibility that benchmark usability of the platform to deliver user expectations on cross-platform data for presentation.
In essence, the technical framework is appropriate for the development of an integrated EMIS that uses simplified technologies and techniques for achieving EMIS integration. While the framework addressed the integrated EMIS development that achieve seamless data exchange and scalability using the service endpoint extensions, the issues of optimizing the framework for enhanced security and performance are open to further research.School of ComputingPh. D. (Computer Science
Obstructions in Security-Aware Business Processes
This Open Access book explores the dilemma-like stalemate between security and regulatory compliance in business processes on the one hand and business continuity and governance on the other. The growing number of regulations, e.g., on information security, data protection, or privacy, implemented in increasingly digitized businesses can have an obstructive effect on the automated execution of business processes. Such security-related obstructions can particularly occur when an access control-based implementation of regulations blocks the execution of business processes. By handling obstructions, security in business processes is supposed to be improved. For this, the book presents a framework that allows the comprehensive analysis, detection, and handling of obstructions in a security-sensitive way. Thereby, methods based on common organizational security policies, process models, and logs are proposed. The Petri net-based modeling and related semantic and language-based research, as well as the analysis of event data and machine learning methods finally lead to the development of algorithms and experiments that can detect and resolve obstructions and are reproducible with the provided software