Automated caching of behavioral patterns for efficient run-time

Run-time monitoring is a powerful approach for dy- namically detecting faults or malicious activity of software systems. However, there are often two obsta- cles to the implementation of this approach in prac- tice: (1) that developing correct and/or faulty be- havioral patterns can be a difficult, labor-intensive process, and (2) that use of such pattern-monitoring must provide rapid turn-around or response time. We present a novel data structure, called extended action graph, and associated algorithms to overcome these drawbacks. At its core, our technique relies on ef- fectively identifying and caching specifications from (correct/faulty) patterns learnt via machine-learning algorithm. We describe the design and implementa- tion of our technique and show its practical applicabil- ity in the domain of security monitoring of sendmail software

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

VECTORS: Video communication through opportunistic relays and scalable video coding

Crowd-sourced video distribution is frequently of interest in the local vicinity. In this paper, we propose a novel design to transfer such content over opportunistic networks with adaptive quality encoding to achieve reasonable delay bounds. The video segments are transmitted between source and destination in a delay tolerant manner using the Nearby Connections Android library. This implementation can be applied to multiple domains, including farm monitoring, wildlife, and environmental tracking, disaster response scenarios, etc. In this work, we present the design of an opportunistic contact based system, and we discuss basic results for the trial runs within our institute.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, and under 3000 words for submission to the SoftwareX journa

Isolated Mobile Malware Observation

The idea behind Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) it that personal mobile devices can be used in the workplace to enhance convenience and flexibility. This development encourages organizations to allow access of personal mobile devices to business information and systems for businesses operation. However, BYOD opens a firm to various security risks such as data contamination and the exposure of user interest to criminal activities. Mobile devices were not designed to handle intense data security and advanced security features are frequently turned off. Using personal mobile devices can also expose a system to various forms of security threats like malware. This research aims to analyze mobile network traffic from suspicious mobile applications and investigate data accessible to malicious applications on mobile devices. The research is further intended to observe the behavior of malware on mobile devices. A network with a wireless communication over a centralized access control point was built. The control access point serves as the centralized location for data monitoring, capturing and analyzing of transmitted data from all the devices connected to it. The research demonstrates a procedure for data capturing for analysis from a data collection point which does not require access to each application and allows for the study of potential infections from the outside of the mobile device

Living in harsh environments: From individuals to social networks

Animals living in harsh environments are regularly faced with high-risk situations. For example, small-bodied, diurnal endotherms are challenged with high starvation risk in winter conditions when frequent storms and limited daylight restrict opportunities to forage freely. Available food may be scarce during these times, imposing additional constraints on survival. Social species living in these challenging conditions may benefit from group membership through learning about resource locations from their close social associates. Using this social information could indeed allow individuals to find food more efficiently than through independent search, perhaps lowering the risk of starvation. Individuals may differ from one another in their foraging abilities and those with poor foraging abilities may have relatively more to gain from social relationships and social information use. This individual variation may thus influence the overall structuring of social associations under harsh environmental conditions. This structuring may also be influenced by the way individuals partition the time they spend with different associates and the more time individuals spend together, the more opportunities they have to learn about one another. The level of information animals have about conspecifics can allow them to make strategic, informed decisions about social and mating partners.My dissertation work uses comparative and experimental approaches to study the interplay of environmental conditions, foraging behavior, social interactions, and reproduction in a social, small-bodied endotherm, the mountain chickadee, Poecile gambeli. These birds are resident montane specialists who rely on retrieving their previously cached food for survival when resources are scarce. Mountain chickadees are socially monogamous and form stable flocks composed of multiple mated pairs during the nonbreeding season. This presents mountain chickadees with opportunities to learn about their flock mates and potentially maximize the benefits of group living by investing differentially in social relationships. The experience they gain with their social mates over the nonbreeding season may also allow chickadees to decide how much to invest in reproduction the following breeding season. However, through my dissertation work, we have found that, while social, mountain chickadees are overall less choosy than expected. They respond directly to environmental conditions, but do not appear to direct their social and reproductive efforts towards the “best” associates. Rather, it seems that mountain chickadees primarily rely on themselves to persevere in challenging environments

Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology 2020 Report to Cooperators

The Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the University of Maine Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology are pleased to summarize the past year’s research accomplishments and activities in this annual report. Together, we have collaborated with scientists from State and Federal agencies, universities, and non-governmental organizations on 37 research projects presented in the pages that follow. These collaborative relationships enable us to pose a variety of research questions in interdisciplinary studies to address the resource management information needs of our research sponsors and to advance science in wildlife and fisheries ecology, management, and conservation. We value these opportunities to work together and look forward to continuing these relationships as well as developing new collaborations in the year ahead