Web Service Trust: Towards A Dynamic Assessment Framework

Trust in software services is a key prerequisite for the success and wide adoption of services-oriented computing (SOC) in an open Internet world. However, trust is poorly assessed by existing methods and technologies, especially in dynamically composed and deployed SOC systems. In this paper, we discuss current methods for assessing trust in service-oriented computing and identify gaps of current platforms, in particular with regards to runtime trust assessment. To address these gaps, we propose a model of runtime trust assessment of software services and introduce a framework for realizing the model. A key characteristic of our approach is the support that it offers for customizable assessment of trust based on evidence collected during the operation of software services and its ability to combine this evidence with subjective assessments coming from service clients

Generating a contract checker for an SLA language

SLAng is a language for expressing Service LevelAgreements (SLAs) under development as part of the Europeanproject TAPAS. It is defined using a meta-model, an instance ofthe Meta-Object Facility (MOF) model, in which the relationshipbetween the syntax of the language and its domain of applicationis explicitly represented, and the violation semantics ofthe language defined using Object Constraint Language (OCL)constraints. The concrete syntax of the language is the XMLMeta-data Interchange (XMI) mapping of the syntactic part ofthe meta-model. In this paper we describe how the Java MetadataInterface (JMI) mapping can be applied to the meta-modelof the language to generate interfaces and classes to create andquery SLAs and relevant service monitoring data in memory;and how an OCL interpreter can be applied to check violationconstraints over this data, resulting in the implementation of acontract checker that is highly likely to respect the semantics ofthe language

Model Based Development of Quality-Aware Software Services

Modelling languages and development frameworks give support for functional and structural description of software architectures. But quality-aware applications require languages which allow expressing QoS as a first-class concept during architecture design and service composition, and to extend existing tools and infrastructures adding support for modelling, evaluating, managing and monitoring QoS aspects. In addition to its functional behaviour and internal structure, the developer of each service must consider the fulfilment of its quality requirements. If the service is flexible, the output quality depends both on input quality and available resources (e.g., amounts of CPU execution time and memory). From the software engineering point of view, modelling of quality-aware requirements and architectures require modelling support for the description of quality concepts, support for the analysis of quality properties (e.g. model checking and consistencies of quality constraints, assembly of quality), tool support for the transition from quality requirements to quality-aware architectures, and from quality-aware architecture to service run-time infrastructures. Quality management in run-time service infrastructures must give support for handling quality concepts dynamically. QoS-aware modeling frameworks and QoS-aware runtime management infrastructures require a common evolution to get their integration

Combining behavioural types with security analysis

Today's software systems are highly distributed and interconnected, and they increasingly rely on communication to achieve their goals; due to their societal importance, security and trustworthiness are crucial aspects for the correctness of these systems. Behavioural types, which extend data types by describing also the structured behaviour of programs, are a widely studied approach to the enforcement of correctness properties in communicating systems. This paper offers a unified overview of proposals based on behavioural types which are aimed at the analysis of security properties

Service-oriented middleware for managing inter-enterprise collaborations

Peer reviewe

The ITALK project : A developmental robotics approach to the study of individual, social, and linguistic learning

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Frank Broz et al, “The ITALK Project: A Developmental Robotics Approach to the Study of Individual, Social, and Linguistic Learning”, Topics in Cognitive Science, Vol 6(3): 534-544, June 2014, which has been published in final form at doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/tops.12099 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." Copyright © 2014 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.This article presents results from a multidisciplinary research project on the integration and transfer of language knowledge into robots as an empirical paradigm for the study of language development in both humans and humanoid robots. Within the framework of human linguistic and cognitive development, we focus on how three central types of learning interact and co-develop: individual learning about one's own embodiment and the environment, social learning (learning from others), and learning of linguistic capability. Our primary concern is how these capabilities can scaffold each other's development in a continuous feedback cycle as their interactions yield increasingly sophisticated competencies in the agent's capacity to interact with others and manipulate its world. Experimental results are summarized in relation to milestones in human linguistic and cognitive development and show that the mutual scaffolding of social learning, individual learning, and linguistic capabilities creates the context, conditions, and requisites for learning in each domain. Challenges and insights identified as a result of this research program are discussed with regard to possible and actual contributions to cognitive science and language ontogeny. In conclusion, directions for future work are suggested that continue to develop this approach toward an integrated framework for understanding these mutually scaffolding processes as a basis for language development in humans and robots.Peer reviewe

Contemporary Representations of the Female Body: Consumerism and the Normative Discourse of Beauty

In the context of the perpetual reproduction of consumerism in contemporary western societies, the varied and often contradictory principles of third wave feminism have been misunderstood or redefined by the dominant economic discourse of the markets. The lack of homogeneity in the theoretical debates of the third wave feminism seems to be a vulnerable point in the appropriation of its emancipatory ideals by the post-modern consumerist narratives. The beauty norm, particularly, brings the most problematic questions forth in the contemporary feminist dialogues. In this paper I will examine the validity of the concept of empowerment through practices of the body, practices that constitute the socially legitimized identity of women in a consumerist western society. My thesis is that the beauty norm is constructed as a socio-political instrument in order to preserve the old, patriarchal regulation of women’s bodies. Due to the power of invisibility of the new mechanisms of social control and subjection, the consumerist discourse offers the most effective political tool for gender inequality and a complex discussion about free will and emancipation in third wave feminism debates. This delicate theoretical issues question not only the existent social order, but the very political purposes of contemporary feminism

Runtime verification of parametric properties using SMEDL

Parametric properties are typical properties to be checked in runtime verification (RV). As a common technique for parametric monitoring, trace slicing divides an execution trace into a set of sub traces which are checked against non-parametric base properties. An efficient trace slicing algorithm is implemented in MOP. Another RV technique, QEA further allows for nested use of universal and existential quantification over parameters. In this paper, we present a methodology for parametric monitoring using the RV framework SMEDL. Trace slicing algorithm in MOP can be expressed by execution of a set of SMEDL monitors. Moreover, the semantics of nested quantifiers is encoded by a hierarchy of monitors for aggregating verdicts of sub traces. Through case studies, we demonstrate that SMEDL provides a natural way to monitor parametric properties with more potentials for flexible deployment and optimizations