A Tree-based Hierarchy Data Storage Framework in a Pervasive Space

Context data is important information for catching the behaviors of applications in a pervasive space. To effectively store huge amount of data, tree-like layered storage architecture is proposed, where the leaf nodes collect data from sensing devices. In order to integrate data from mobile devices, the related leaf nodes that get data from the same device should upload and store the data to the host node. This paper presents a deep study of the data storage problem and proposes a global algorithm GHS and an online algorithm DHS to dynamically select the host node, which reduces the communication cost significantly. This paper also gives the theoretical and experimental analysis of these algorithms, which shows both GHS and DHS are correct and effective

Riley v. California and the Stickiness Principle

In Fourth Amendment decisions, different concepts, facts and assumptions about reality are often tethered together by vocabulary and fact, creating a ‘Stickiness Principle.’ In particular, form and function historically were considered indistinguishable, not as separate factors. For example, “containers” carried things, “watches” told time, and “phones” were used to make voice calls. Advancing technology, though, began to fracture this identity and the broader Stickiness Principle. In June 2014, Riley v. California and its companion case, United States v. Wurie, offered the Supreme Court an opportunity to begin untethering form and function and dismantling the Stickiness Principle. Riley presented the question of whether cell phone searches incident to a lawful arrest were constitutional. The Court, which had clung to pre-digital concepts such as physical trespass well into the twenty-first century, appeared ready to explore how technology is reshaping historically understood conceptions of privacy. From a broader perspective, the case offers an initial step in reconciling pre-digital rules based on outdated spatial conceptions of physical things with the changing realities of a technology driven world

The Data Traffic and Data Warehouses Store Managing and Controlling

The new technology provides a number of problems, such as protection and security, better switch between towers and networks, the accelerating rate of technology improvements. The research aimed to fully addressed the data traffic managing and controlling; in the service companies. The paper answer the question, how networks communication firms manage and control data warehouses, scalable data warehouse, and processing data traffic, also the majority of the data traffic online, which requires massive bandwidth. The researcher recommend that corporate networks should have control standards and characteristics stand out in data warehouses, and the corporate network should fully care of the efficient traffic data management in order to reduce the data traffics problem and security issues. Keywords: Data traffic, data warehouses, data management, privacy, security issues

White Paper on Emergency Communications

Prepared by the Space & Advanced Communications Research Institute (SACRI) George Washington University January 5, 2006 Note: This White Paper draws a number of sources including presentations at the National Conference on Emergency Communications (NCEC) held at the George Washington University on December 12-13, 2005. This conference featured some thirty different speakers selected from the federal as well as state and local governments, a wide range of industry spokespeople, several professional societies, relief organizations and NGOs, universities, and other interested parties. There were thirty different sponsors. These presentations, the attendees at this conference and the many sponsors of this event are included on the web page www.emergencycomconference.org The sponsors are also listed in the Appendices attached to this report. This White Paper also includes elements drawn from relevant web sites and many other documents prepared by concerned academic, standards and industry organizations who have offered information and recommendations about emergency communications as well as warning and recovery efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Pakistan Earthquake and the Asian Tsunami. Although this White Paper has been extensively coordinated with many individuals including speakers at the NCEC and its sponsors the views expressed in this document are solely those of the team at George Washington University that prepared this report

Courting Disaster: An Analysis of Federal Government Twitter Usage during Hurricane Sandy Resulting in a Suggested Model for Future Disaster Response

abstract: ABSTRACT This dissertation examined how seven federal agencies utilized Twitter during a major natural disaster, Hurricane Sandy. Data collected included tweets between October 26-31, 2012 via TweetTracker, as well as federal social media policy doctrines and elite interviews, to discern patterns in the guidance provided to federal public information officers (PIOs). While scholarly research cites successful local and state government efforts utilizing social media to improve response efforts in a two-way communications interaction, no substantive research addresses social media’s role in crisis response capabilities at the federal level. This study contributes to the literature in three ways: it focuses solely on the use of social media by federal agencies in a crisis setting; it illuminates policy directives that often hamper federal crisis communication response efforts; and it suggests a proposed model that channels the flow of social media content for PIOs. This is especially important to the safety of the nation moving forward, since crises have increased. Additionally, Twitter was adopted only recently as an official communications tool in 2013. Prior to 2013, social media was applied informally and inconsistently. The findings of this study reveal a reliance upon a one-way, passive communication approach in social media federal policy directives, as well as vague guidelines in existing crisis communications models. Both dimensions are counter to risk management and crisis communication research, which embrace two-way interactivity with audiences and specific messaging that bolsters community engagement, which are vital to the role of the PIO. The resulting model enables the PIO to provide relevant information to key internal agencies and external audiences in response to a future crisis.Dissertation/ThesisCrisis Tweet Text and DataDoctoral Dissertation Mass Communication 201

Improving the Independence of People with Disabilities by Identifying Assistive Technologies for Their Homes

The goal of this project was to assist the E.W. Tipping Foundation with providing its clients a range of technology options that could improve their quality of life and independence. We interviewed clients, carers, and staff and researched technologies based on common areas of need. Putting together the list of technologies, we found that no one technology suits the needs of all clients. Correspondingly, clients can use the list to select technology options to achieve their individual needs and goals

Risk based framework for critical decision making

Risk analysis is a science of understanding and quantifying the probability of the occurrence(s) of undesirable event(s). Traditionally, risk assessments have been concerned with the management of safety based incidents. Recent attacks on chemical facilities in the Middle East and Northern Africa illustrate the need to broaden the risk management mindset. This body of work proposes quantitative barrier-based methodologies to assist management of broad-based decision-making processes. This research began by exploiting concepts from security-based research accompanied with a barrier-based methodology from safety research through both fault and event trees. This work expands into mapping the trees onto Bayesian Networks to manipulate the conditional probability table of intermediate variables. This manipulation allows for the implementation of various relaxation assumptions. Case studies accompany each proposed approach to illustrate its execution. The goal of this work is to raise awareness of quantitative security based methodologies and to assist in critical decision-making

Big Data for Social Sciences: Measuring patterns of human behavior through large-scale mobile phone data

Through seven publications this dissertation shows how anonymized mobile phone data can contribute to the social good and provide insights into human behaviour on a large scale. The size of the datasets analysed ranges from 500 million to 300 billion phone records, covering millions of people. The key contributions are two-fold: 1. Big Data for Social Good: Through prediction algorithms the results show how mobile phone data can be useful to predict important socio-economic indicators, such as income, illiteracy and poverty in developing countries. Such knowledge can be used to identify where vulnerable groups in society are, reduce economic shocks and is a critical component for monitoring poverty rates over time. Further, the dissertation demonstrates how mobile phone data can be used to better understand human behaviour during large shocks in society, exemplified by an analysis of data from the terror attack in Norway and a natural disaster on the south-coast in Bangladesh. This work leads to an increased understanding of how information spreads, and how millions of people move around. The intention is to identify displaced people faster, cheaper and more accurately than existing survey-based methods. 2. Big Data for efficient marketing: Finally, the dissertation offers an insight into how anonymised mobile phone data can be used to map out large social networks, covering millions of people, to understand how products spread inside these networks. Results show that by including social patterns and machine learning techniques in a large-scale marketing experiment in Asia, the adoption rate is increased by 13 times compared to the approach used by experienced marketers. A data-driven and scientific approach to marketing, through more tailored campaigns, contributes to less irrelevant offers for the customers, and better cost efficiency for the companies.Comment: 166 pages, PHD thesi

Applied Research Exemplars

The Center for Homeland Defense and Security’s unique academic environment brings together mid- and senior-level government officials with world-renowned faculty and experts in the diverse disciplines that comprise homeland security. The CHDS classroom is a place where participants think critically about homeland security issues and work collaboratively to develop strategic solutions. Master’s degree participants research and write course papers along with a final thesis. These original works concentrate on proposing creative policies, strategies and approaches to the public safety challenges facing their agencies and the broader homeland security community