An Efficient Fault-Tolerant method for Distributed Computation Systems

Fault tolerance is one of the most important features required by many distributed systems. We consider the efficiency issues of constructing distributed computing systems that can tolerate Byzantine faults. The well-recognized technique is to introduce replicated computation and derive the correct results through a voting mechanism. While this technique is applied to each computation request individually, we believe that by considering multiple requests at the same time in a distributed environment, we can greatly improve its efficiency. This is based on the observations that computation requests may be ordered in a different way for computation at different nodes, and the verdict of the correct result for one request may imply the correct result for another request. We propose to exploit a suitable solution to improve the efficiency of the existing technique to avoid unnecessary computation and unnecessary message exchanges among distributed processes

Resilience-Building Technologies: State of Knowledge -- ReSIST NoE Deliverable D12

This document is the first product of work package WP2, "Resilience-building and -scaling technologies", in the programme of jointly executed research (JER) of the ReSIST Network of Excellenc

Privacy in Mobile Agent Systems: Untraceability

Agent based Internet environments are an interesting alternative to existing approaches of building software systems. The enabling feature of agents is that they allow software development based on the abstraction (a "metaphor") of elements of the real world. In other words, they allow building software systems, which work as human societies, in which members share products and services, cooperate or compete with each other. Organisational, behavioural and functional models etc applied into the systems can be copied from the real world. The growing interest in agent technologies in the European Union was expressed through the foundation of the Coordination Action for Agent-Based Computing, funded under the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). The action, called AgentLink III is run by the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme. The long-term goal of AgentLink is to put Europe at the leading edge of international competitiveness in this increasingly important area. According to AgentLink "Roadmap for Agent Based Computing"; agent-based systems are perceived as "one of the most vibrant and important areas of research and development to have emerged in information technology in recent years, underpinning many aspects of broader information society technologies"; However, with the emergence of the new paradigm, came also new challenges. One of them is that agent environments, especially those which allow for mobility of agents, are much more difficult to protect from intruders than conventional systems. Agent environments still lack sufficient and effective solutions to assure their security. The problem which till now has not been addressed sufficiently in agent-based systems is privacy, and particularly the anonymity of agent users. Although anonymity was studied extensively for traditional message-based communication for which during the past twenty five years various techniques have been proposed, for agent systems this problem has never been directly addressed. The research presented in this report aimed at filling this gap. This report summarises results of studies aiming at the identification of threats to privacy in agent-based systems and the methods of their protection.JRC.G.6-Sensors, radar technologies and cybersecurit

Small business innovation research: Program solicitation

This, the seventh annual SBIR solicitation by NASA, describes the program, identifies eligibility requirements, outlines the required proposal format and content, states proposal preparation and submission requirements, describes the proposal evaluation and award selection process, and provides other information to assist those interested in participating in NASA's SBIR program. It also identifies the Technical Topics and Subtopics in which SBIR Phase 1 proposals are solicited in 1989. These Topics and Subtopics cover a broad range of current NASA interests, but do not necessarily include all areas in which NASA plans or currently conducts research. High-risk high pay-off innovations are desired

Supreme Court Opinion Authorship Attribution on a Case-by-Case Basis

This thesis analyzes the authorship of Supreme Court opinions and the theory that Justices on that Court might be delegating portions, if not the majority, of opinion authorship to their clerks. I test the theories that as Justices age they are more likely to delegate, and that delegation has increased across all justices over the past several decades of the Court’s history. I employ a content analysis method known as stylometry to assign authorship attributions on a case by case basis and use those attributions to inform larger trends regarding authorship. I ultimately find that there is little evidence to support the age or time-period theories but that there is significant variation across Justices in attribution, indicating that clerks are likely playing a large and measurable role in opinion drafting

Emerging Issues in Public Policy: The Environment, Water, and the Coast, 1977-1982

This collection, titled The Environment, Water, and the Coast, presents a selection of the Institute\u27s Public Affairs Report on these topics for 1977-1982

Emerging Issues in Public Policy: The Environment, Water, and the Coast, 1977-1982

This collection, titled The Environment, Water, and the Coast, presents a selection of the Institute\u27s Public Affairs Report on these topics for 1977-1982

Contested rationality: early regulation of GMO releases in Britain

This thesis analyses the development of safety regulation for the intentional release of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) between 19 89-92, especially in Britain in its European context, and by contrast to the USA. The thesis emphasizes the practical dilemmas of GMO regulation in accommodating uncertainties about public unease and environmental harm. It serves as a case study of safety regulation as a constructed rationality, of national regulatory styles, and of environmental precaution. In anticipating hazards prior to evidence of harm, GMO regulation had a contested 'rational' basis. Regulators encountered disputes in defining the risk problem, in establishing risk-management institutions, and in reducing scientific uncertainty about potential harm. Insofar as GMO regulation had a precautionary content, it undermined the 'rational' stereotype of risk-assessment steps. Both the precautionary potential and its limits derived from the project of overcoming obstacles to a biotechnology market. This meant symbolically normalizing GMOs as benign products, while specifying testable ecological uncertainties rooted in some naturalistic analogy. Technical 'risk' abstracted potential harm from issues of socioagronomic control which underlay the earlier environmental controversy. The thesis argues for recasting theoretical models of safety regulation as a 'technical' or 'procedural' rationality. GMO regulation contained poles of tension which such theoretical models attribute to antagonistic rationalities. Broadly speaking, the regulatory system was managing an internal contradiction between social legitimacy and commercialization. The difficulties of GMO regulation arose from its implicit role in legitimizing biotechnology, by default of any democratic procedure for adjudicating a contentious technoscientific development

A white community's perception of white youth's interracial friendships.

This study explores the feelings that a White community have about their youth befriending Black Africans. The study was conducted in Gauteng with most participants from the northern suburbs of Johannesburg. There were 105 adults that participated in the study – 39 males and 66 females. A questionnaire was used to gather data and consisted of eight scales namely: feelings about White youth having Black friends, affective prejudice, social distance, intergroup anxiety, perceived symbolic threats, levels of ingroup identity, perceptions of out-group homogeneity and levels of contact with Black Africans. Participants indicated positive feelings toward White youth having Black African friends. Items in the symbolic threat scale were explored and they were summated into a scale. A strong positive relationship was found between the perceptions of symbolic threat scale and feelings about youth having Black African friends. In order to determine the impact of the different variables on feelings about White youth having Black African friends, a forward stepwise regression was conducted where two explanatory variables proved to be significant: social distance and perceptions of threats. Social distance was the stronger influential variable on youth having Black African friends. Although not the main aim of the study it was decided to test the contact hypothesis by way of two forward stepwise regression models, the first using social distance as the measure of prejudice and the second using affective prejudice. The variables that proved significance in the first model were intergroup anxiety, having Black African friends, perceptions of outgroup homogeneity, and levels of identification with the White group. And having Black African friends and intergroup anxiety in the second model. A t-test and ANOVAS were conducted to explore the difference in attitudes and feelings as a function of gender, age and socio-economic levels. There was no significant difference with gender and age. There was, however, a significant difference between high and low socio-economic levels regarding perceptions of homogeneity and affective prejudice

A Mixed Methods Analysis of Philippine Labor Export Policies and Impacts on Overseas Filipino Workers

The Philippines’ labor export system is a complex web of policy instruments that have been amended, repealed, and refined over the last four decades. The laws along with the hortatory tools used to promote them have shaped the lives of millions of Filipinos, separating families across oceans. Temporary labor migration, heralded as a duty to county and family, often increases one’s vulnerability to problems of abuse, human trafficking, sexual assault, injury, and illness. This research analyzes bilateral labor agreements (BLA) and migration protection policies to evaluate the effectiveness of policy objectives. Article 1 uses an instrumental variable approach and an original dataset of land-based and sea-based Filipino BLAs and migrant flows into 213 unique areas from 1960 to 2018. I do not find any empirical evidence that these treaties drive migration and recommend further research to investigate other agreement goals. Article 2 uses novel machine learning methods to analyze content automatically from 2,503 media articles across a 25-year span, and finds migrant workers to be positively socially constructed, have low-to-moderate levels of power, endure a multitude of problems, and are offered (sometimes ineffective) solutions. I recommend establishing a public database populated by existing sources to promote accountability, transparency, and data-driven decision making. Article 3 conducts sentiment analysis on 12,351 sentences to explore the Philippines’ COVID-19 response, across four phases, as it relates to Overseas Filipino Workers. The media sentiment on government-led efforts is largely neutral, yet over a quarter of sentences pertaining to repatriation, testing and quarantine, and redeployment were negative while less than ten percent were positive. Migrant workers are positively socially constructed but are experiencing reduced levels of power under these conditions, causing me to recommend increased focus on reintegration efforts and development on the home front to expand employment opportunities characterized by dignity and security