Applicability of Temporal Data Models to Query Multilevel Security Databases: A Case Study

In a multilevel security database there are multiple beliefs about a given real world object. The ability of a database model to accommodate multiple beliefs is termed polyinstantiation in the multilevel security literature. In this paper we remark that in an abstract sense polyinstantiation is a priori present in all models for temporal and spatial databases. In particular we investigate the applicability of the parametric model for temporal data to query multilevel security data and, as a case study, compare it to a model for multilevel security given by Winslett, Smith, and Qian

Semantic networks

AbstractA semantic network is a graph of the structure of meaning. This article introduces semantic network systems and their importance in Artificial Intelligence, followed by I. the early background; II. a summary of the basic ideas and issues including link types, frame systems, case relations, link valence, abstraction, inheritance hierarchies and logic extensions; and III. a survey of ‘world-structuring’ systems including ontologies, causal link models, continuous models, relevance, formal dictionaries, semantic primitives and intersecting inference hierarchies. Speed and practical implementation are briefly discussed. The conclusion argues for a synthesis of relational graph theory, graph-grammar theory and order theory based on semantic primitives and multiple intersecting inference hierarchies

Securing Databases from Probabilistic Inference

Databases can leak confidential information when users combine query results with probabilistic data dependencies and prior knowledge. Current research offers mechanisms that either handle a limited class of dependencies or lack tractable enforcement algorithms. We propose a foundation for Database Inference Control based on ProbLog, a probabilistic logic programming language. We leverage this foundation to develop Angerona, a provably secure enforcement mechanism that prevents information leakage in the presence of probabilistic dependencies. We then provide a tractable inference algorithm for a practically relevant fragment of ProbLog. We empirically evaluate Angerona's performance showing that it scales to relevant security-critical problems.Comment: A short version of this paper has been accepted at the 30th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Symposium (CSF 2017

Performance modelling and the representation of large scale distributed system functions

This thesis presents a resource based approach to model generation for performance characterization and correctness checking of large scale telecommunications networks. A notion called the timed automaton is proposed and then developed to encapsulate behaviours of networking equipment, system control policies and non-deterministic user behaviours. The states of pooled network resources and the behaviours of resource consumers are represented as continually varying geometric patterns; these patterns form part of the data operated upon by the timed automata. Such a representation technique allows for great flexibility regarding the level of abstraction that can be chosen in the modelling of telecommunications systems. None the less, the notion of system functions is proposed to serve as a constraining framework for specifying bounded behaviours and features of telecommunications systems. Operational concepts are developed for the timed automata; these concepts are based on limit preserving relations. Relations over system states represent the evolution of system properties observable at various locations within the network under study. The declarative nature of such permutative state relations provides a direct framework for generating highly expressive models suitable for carrying out optimization experiments. The usefulness of the developed procedure is demonstrated by tackling a large scale case study, in particular the problem of congestion avoidance in networks; it is shown that there can be global coupling among local behaviours within a telecommunications network. The uncovering of such a phenomenon through a function oriented simulation is a contribution to the area of network modelling. The direct and faithful way of deriving performance metrics for loss in networks from resource utilization patterns is also a new contribution to the work area

Adaptability Checking in Multi-Level Complex Systems

A hierarchical model for multi-level adaptive systems is built on two basic levels: a lower behavioural level B accounting for the actual behaviour of the system and an upper structural level S describing the adaptation dynamics of the system. The behavioural level is modelled as a state machine and the structural level as a higher-order system whose states have associated logical formulas (constraints) over observables of the behavioural level. S is used to capture the global and stable features of B, by a defining set of allowed behaviours. The adaptation semantics is such that the upper S level imposes constraints on the lower B level, which has to adapt whenever it no longer can satisfy them. In this context, we introduce weak and strong adaptabil- ity, i.e. the ability of a system to adapt for some evolution paths or for all possible evolutions, respectively. We provide a relational characterisation for these two notions and we show that adaptability checking, i.e. deciding if a system is weak or strong adaptable, can be reduced to a CTL model checking problem. We apply the model and the theoretical results to the case study of motion control of autonomous transport vehicles.Comment: 57 page, 10 figures, research papaer, submitte

The Stylometry of Retrospective Model Narrative and the Telegraphic Style of Experience in Nawal El Saadawi’s Walking Though Fire: The Later Years of Nawal El Saadawi (2002)

The framework of stylistics in the esoteric knowledge of Walking Through Fire stands as a model-view-device that categorically focuses on the differentiation concerning the cumulative and formation constant of information representation and the equilibrium contact within the information is presented and performed. The model theory of point of view within engrosses the ideological assessment, spatial and temporal continuum, and psychological operation. The realm of stylometry involves an experiment set for a meticulous language model. Therefore, stylistic analysis impels the domain of structural narratology to frame the properties considered inside the progress of the narrative to propel the models of the theory, the affiliation of distinctive models to each other, and their interaction with structural linguistic and formal language. The traditional narrative and modern narrative background inserted in the narrative interactive design and narrative discourse, become a combinatorial principle and a composite reflective configuration that determine the incontestability clause of stylistic analysis as a method of examining systematically and in aspect the constitution of both literature and language. the realm of intentionality through the techniques of representation, a system of cognition and the content of representation, embodies an associate and illuminates direction, which ultimately upholds a retrievable procedure of analysis