Towards Big data Governance in Cybersecurity

Big data refers to large complex structured or unstructured data sets. Big data technologies enable organisations to generate, collect, manage, analyse, and visualise big data sets, and provide insights to inform diagnosis, prediction, or other decision-making tasks. One of the critical concerns in handling big data is the adoption of appropriate big data governance frame- works to: 1) curate big data in a required manner to support quality data access for effective machine learning, and 2) ensure the framework regulates the storage and processing of the data from providers and users in a trustworthy way within the related regulatory frame- works (both legally and ethically). This paper proposes a framework of big data governance that guides organisations to make better data-informed business decisions within the related regularity framework, with close attention paid to data security, privacy and accessibility. In order to demonstrate this process, the work also presents an example implementation of the framework based on the case study of big data governance in cyber- security. This framework has the potential to guide the management of big data in different organisations for information sharing and cooperative decision-making

Software service adaptation based on interface localisation

The aim of Web services is the provision of software services to a range of different users in different locations. Service localisation in this context can facilitate the internationalisation and localisation of services by allowing their adaption to different locales. The authors investigate three dimensions: (i) lingual localisation by providing service-level language translation techniques to adopt services to different languages, (ii) regulatory localisation by providing standards-based mappings to achieve regulatory compliance with regionally varying laws, standards and regulations, and (iii) social localisation by taking into account preferences and customs for individuals and the groups or communities in which they participate. The objective is to support and implement an explicit modelling of aspects that are relevant to localisation and runtime support consisting of tools and middleware services to automating the deployment based on models of locales, driven by the two localisation dimensions. The authors focus here on an ontology-based conceptual information model that integrates locale specification into service architectures in a coherent way

A holistic power systems asset engineering and decision management framework for railway asset managers.

Defining, designing and implementing an asset management system capable of effectively managing assets throughout their life in terms of engineering, financial, digital and stakeholder needs is challenging. Furthermore, governance frameworks of the past have traditionally resulted in 'silo' type asset interventions without considering the total sustainability of system outcomes. In this paper the writers set out a governance framework definition suitable for managing the complex adaptive needs of engineering, financial, digital and stakeholder requirements. In addition, it will set out the components of a framework that can manage complex assemblage of assets by using bottom up aggregation of 'asset realities' and the 'business' or outcomes needs based on stakeholder, socio-economic, technical and or business strategy requirements

Technology-Enhanced Learning Environments and Adaptive Learning Systems – Development of Functionality Taxonomies

Especially against the background of the current coronavirus crisis, technology-enhanced learning environments (TELEs) increasingly characterize teaching at universities. For the successful use and integration of TELEs, it is important to understand the functionalities of the technologies used. Based on the state of the art and following [1], we develop two taxonomies. The first taxonomy depicts eleven functionalities with different dimensions relevant for successfully designing TELEs. Sound knowledge of the functionalities supports research on adaptive learning within TELEs and the implementation of student-centered learning opportunities, which is structured in a second functionality taxonomy for adaptive learning systems (ALSs). We contribute to current research on TELEs and ALSs by providing a structured overview of functionalities and suggestions for further research with our research opportunities

Digital Cadastres Facilitating Land Information Management

A nation’s natural resources form the basis of economic growth in most developing nations. Raw materials required for the manufacturing industry which drives the economy are extracted from the land resource. This renders good governance of land crucial in any country as it is also the basis of sustainable development. However, to achieve betterment in managing land, there is need for accurate, reliable and up to date information about land. Such proper land management policies however remain a challenge to most governments in African nations. Problems with land information differ case by case, but among the most common are the facts that land information is usually not coordinated or it is inadequate. In some cases, land information is available but largely inaccessible. The objective of this paper is to bring out the role of a digital cadastre towards improved land management and land administration. The paper discusses modernization of cadastral systems in municipalities through technological reforms as a facet to improved land governance and at the same time improving access to cadastral information which is public information

Water property rights in investor-state contracts on extractive activities, affects water governance: An empirical assessment of 80 contracts in Africa and Asia

In view of increasing globalization, the ongoing promotion of foreign direct investment and the lack of comparative literature on how water property rights are changing in the global South, this article asks: How have property rights in water evolved through investor-State contracts on mineral, petroleum and land issues in Africa and Asia? We analyse 80 publicly available contracts—22 minerals, 40 petroleum and 18 land—of 34 African and 19 Asian countries. We find that: (i) in addition to a State's water law, water allocation is also implicitly governed by contracts and international investment treaties; (ii) States de facto privatize water by allocating quasi-property rights through the granting of contracts to foreign international investors; (iii) such waters exploited by virtue of contracts reduce the ability of States to regulate water during the term of the contract especially as investors' water use is protected by bilateral investment treaties and potential compensation claims; and (iv) the need of the State to increasingly adaptively govern water as the impacts of climate change on water become more noticeable will be challenged by the long-term quasi property rights granted by States to investors in such contracts

SensEH: From Simulation to Deployment of Energy Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy autonomy and system lifetime are critical concerns in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), for which energy harvesting (EH) is emerging as a promising solution. Nevertheless,the tools supporting the design of EH-WSN are limited to a few simulators that require developers to re-implement the application with programming languages different from WSN ones. Further, simulators notoriously provide only a rough approximation of the reality of low-power wireless communication. In this paper we present SENSEH, a software framework that allows developers to move back and forth between the power and speed of a simulated approach and the reality and accuracy of in-field experiments. SENSEH relies on COOJA for emulating the actual, deployment-ready code, and provides two modes of operation that allow the reuse of exactly the same code in realworld WSN deployments. We describe the toolchain and software architecture of SENSEH, and demonstrate its practical use and benefits in the context of a case study where we investigate how the lifetime of a WSN used for adaptive lighting in road tunnels can be extended using harvesters based on photovoltaic panels

Hazards in advising autonomy: developing requirements for a hazard modelling methodology incorporating system dynamics

This paper describes the continuation of a research project to identify and develop tools for the identification and management of hazards likely to arise with the quality and reliability of automatic advice - such as in an automated system advisory function, especially where supporting a “Sense & Avoid” capability as embodied within an airborne autonomous system. An earlier literature survey has been used to map detail onto a Use Case model representing an outline certifiable system development process; thereby helping to identify an appropriate research direction within the broad range of potential end-user requirements. From this direction, an approach has emerged to evaluate hypothetical deviations from declared intent within a behavioral modeling framework to be styled upon Owen's STAMP-Based Hazard Analysis (STPA). For this approach an outline exemplar describing an air-proximity hazard arising between two air-vehicles has been developed, and the representation of the control structure and system dynamics describing this model are considered. Arising from this model some consideration is then given towards the expression of a more systematic approach in the construction of such models, leading towards new methods to derive safety requirements for implementation within autonomous air systems

Domino D1.2 - Final Project Results Report

This deliverable summarises the Domino project in terms of objectives, work performed, results obtained, and links with the SESAR programme. It recalls the initial objectives of the project, the study of a methodology to capture architectural changes and their systemic effects. The project defined new metrics able to measure these effects, developed a platform (Mercury) able to simulate changes of architecture and complex network effects, and devised a methodology to systemically study architectural changes, applying it to three examples of mechanisms. This deliverable reports the main findings of the project and shows examples of results obtained with the model. This deliverable explains the links of the project with the rest of the SESAR programme, its maturity and proposes some lines of research for the future

Unified Software Engineering Reuse: A Methodology for Effective Software Reuse

Software is a necessity in the modern world, and that need is continuously growing. As expensive as the creation of all this new software is, the maintenance costs are even greater. One solution to this problem is software reuse, whereby already written software can be applied to new problems after some modification, thus reducing the overall input of new code. The goal in traditional software reuse is to produce a piece of software with enough flexibility to be used at least twice. Unfortunately, there are many difficulties in achieving software reuse using modern programming techniques. Even software built specifically for reuse is severely restricted in its utility for new applications. It is easy for new programs to require entirely new logic or new objects. Because of this, they become quickly outdated, and any labor spent creating reusable software is nullified. The solution is a method to vastly increase the reusability of software by concentrating on the base knowledge and overall goals of software rather than the details on a case-by-case basis. Finding patterns in the problem and solution spaces allows unification into a smaller solution set. Instead of each problem receiving its own solution from marginally reusable components, multiple problems are resolved with the same architecture and object set. As an added benefit, this solution will not only vastly improve software reuse, but it will make feasible systems that can construct software architecture on demand and provide the first steps to fully automated software development