Economics-driven approach for self-securing assets in cloud

This thesis proposes the engineering of an elastic self-adaptive security solution for the Cloud that considers assets as independent entities, with a need for customised, ad-hoc security. The solution exploits agent-based, market-inspired methodologies and learning approaches for managing the changing security requirements of assets by considering the shared and on-demand nature of services and resources while catering for monetary and computational constraints. The usage of auction procedures allows the proposed framework to deal with the scale of the problem and the trade-offs that can arise between users and Cloud service provider(s). Whereas, the usage of a learning technique enables our framework to operate in a proactive, automated fashion and to arrive on more efficient bidding plans, informed by historical data. A variant of the proposed framework, grounded on a simulated university application environment, was developed to evaluate the applicability and effectiveness of this solution. As the proposed solution is grounded on market methods, this thesis is also concerned with asserting the dependability of market mechanisms. We follow an experimentally driven approach to demonstrate the deficiency of existing market-oriented solutions in facing common market-specific security threats and provide candidate, lightweight defensive mechanisms for securing them against these attacks

Public procurement auctions in Brazil

This thesis provides an empirical analysis of data generated by ComprasNet, the online procurement bidding platform developed and used by the Brazilian federal government. ComprasNet is a large bidding platform used since 2001 by more than 2200 public purchasing units who list around one million lots each year. Over 70,000 unique bidders have participated in these auctions. In 2010, 46 percent of all procurement for the federal government was conducted through ComprasNet, totaling R$ 27 billion, or 0.7 percent of Brazil’s GDP. In short, these auctions represent a large share of federal tenders and a substantial amount is contracted through them each year. Chapter 1 provides an overview of ComprasNet. After reviewing the literature on various topics which this dissertation contributes to, I describe the institutional background surrounding ComprasNet. I then present the baseline data used throughout the remainder of this dissertation. Chapter 2 addresses one important aspect of designing an online ascending auction, namely how to end the auction. ComprasNet varied its ending rules over time, providing an unique opportunity to test theories of bidder behaviour, as well as assessing the impact of ending rules on auction outcomes. Chapter 3 analyses a two-stage auction format which ComprasNet uses. Two-stage designs have long been proposed by the theoretical literature, but there are virtually no empirical works apart from experimental studies. Finally, chapter 4 analyses a bid preference programme targeted at small and micro enterprises (SMEs). The programme consists of setting aside eligible lots for SMEs. We first use eligibility rules as a source of exogenous variation in the treatment assignment to estimate the effects of the programme on auction outcomes. We then set up an open auction model with endogenous entry and asymmetric bidders and estimate the model’s primitives. In particular, we estimate entry costs, which we interpret as red tape costs

Counteracting shill bidding in online English auction

COUNTERACTING SHILL BIDDING IN ONLINE ENGLISH AUCION Increasing popularity of online auctions and the associated frauds have drawn the attention of many researchers. It is found that most of the auction sites prefer English auction to other auction mechanisms. The ease of adopting multiple fake identities over the Internet nourishes shill bidding by fraudulent sellers in English auction. In this paper we derive an equilibrium bidding strategy to counteract shill bidding in online English auction. We develop an algorithm based on this strategy. An eBay like auction environment is simulated. Experiments are conducted in this environment to evaluate this strategy. Five more popular bidding strategies are compared with the proposed strategy. In the experiment, the bidders are randomly assigned a bidding strategy. All the bidders draw their valuation from the uniform distribution. The bidders compete to buy a product in the presence of a shill. The average expected utility of the agents with proposed strategy is found to be the highest when the auction continues for a longer duration

18th-20th Century British Literature

Openly licensed anthology focused on the theme of 18th-20th Century British Literature. Contains Persuasion by Jane Austen; Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë; Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon; Middlemarch by George Eliot; A Passage to India by E.M. Forster; Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy; Pamela by Samuel Richardson; Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

British Literature of the 18th-20th Cenutry

Openly licensed anthology focused on the theme of British Literature from the 18th-20th centuries. Includes: Persuasion by Jane Austen, Lady Audley’s Secret by M.E. Braddon, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Middlemarch by George Eliot, A Passage to India by E.M. Forrester, Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, The History of Mary Prince, a West Indian Slave by Mary Prince, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson

Makeover nation: the United States of reinvention

(print) vii, 209 p. : ill. ; 23 cmThe psy-function : making over minds -- Ritalin : making over youth -- Metrosexuality : making over menItem embargoed for five year

The labouring miner in Cornwall c. 1740-1870 : a study in social history

This study is concerned with the working and community life of the labouring miner in Cornwall from the seventeen-forties, to the collapse of the copper industry in the late eighteen-sixties. These were the years when copper wining dominated the county's economy. Production began to overhaul that of tin in the 1740's and reached its peak in the quinquennium 1855-60. The rapid rise of this great industry, with the advances in technology and industrial organization which it entailed, makes its story the story of the Industrial Revolution in Cornwall. This study is concerned with the social history of that period of transformation. The first section is a statistical and historical introduction, providing data on the growth of the industry, the size and nature of its labour force, population, and the organization of the industry. Section 2 is concerned with the miner at work. The working conditions in the mines are described, as is the extent and nature of child labour. The system of wage payment is examined in detail as are the changes in hours of work and the rhythm of labour consequent upon the increasing capitalisation of the industry. A third section is concerned with the material conditions of the miner's life; his standards of housing and diet, and considers the family as an economic unit. Section 4 is concerned with popular disturbances and the collective action patterns of the Cornish crowd. The miners were notorious for the frequency and determination with which they used direct action to secure collectively desired ends. Food rioting was the most frequent of such direct action forms, and the incidence, character and effectiveness of the food riot are considered in detail. Other forms of crowd action are then examined. Section 5 is concerned with community life in the mining villages. After a placement of the mining community in its geographical and social setting, attention is turned to Methodism. Methodism's introduction to the county practically co-incided with the beginning of the period under consideration. Thereafter its rise was rapid and its influence considerable. Its growth is outlined, the character of village Methodism analysed and the phenomenon of recurrent revivalism examined. Particular aspects of community life are then considered in turn, viz. patterns of recreation, education, and smuggling and wrecking, the last being examples of forms of behaviour which were in conflict both with the law, and with the prevailing moral teaching of Methodism. A final section is concerned with the impact of trade-unionism and political radicalism on the miners. It is a concluding examination in which the lack of social, industrial, and political militancy among the miners is examined in the light of the industrial and social organisation of the region, the strength and influence of Methodism and the effect of the tribute system. The period was one of transformation, this final section looks at the problem of why the absence of forms of conflict usually associated with a period of rapid industrialisation was so marked