The application of workflows to digital heritage systems

Digital heritage systems usually handle a rich and varied mix of digital objects, accompanied by complex and intersecting workflows and processes. However, they usually lack effective workflow management within their components as evident in the lack of integrated solutions that include workflow components. There are a number of reasons for this limitation in workflow management utilization including some technical challenges, the unique nature of each digital resource and the challenges imposed by the environments and infrastructure in which such systems operate. This thesis investigates the concept of utilizing Workflow Management Systems (WfMS) within Digital Library Systems, and more specifically in online Digital Heritage Resources. The research work conducted involved the design and development of a novel experimental WfMS to test the viability of effective workflow management on the complex processes that exist in digital library and heritage resources. This rarely studied area of interest is covered by analyzing evolving workflow management technologies and paradigms. The different operational and technological aspects of these systems are evaluated while focusing on the areas that traditional systems often fail to address. A digital heritage resource was created to test a novel concept called DISPLAYS (Digital Library Services for Playing with Antiquity and Shared Heritage), which provides digital heritage content: creation, archival, exposition, presentation and interaction services for digital heritage collections. Based on DISPLAYS, a specific digital heritage resource was created to validate its concept and, more importantly, to act as a test bed to validate workflow management for digital heritage resources. This DISPLAYS type system implementation was called the Reanimating Cultural Heritage resource, for which three core components are the archival, retrieval and presentation components. To validate workflow management and its concepts, another limited version of these reanimating cultural heritage components was implemented within a workflow management host to test if the workflow technology is a viable choice for managing control and dataflow within a digital heritage system: this was successfully proved

Coordination Of Hierarchical Command And Control Services

The purpose of this program is to show emerging information technologies can significantly improve key areas of tactical operations, resulting in the conversion of software developed under the ATO to existing battlefield systems. One such key area is Information Dissemination and Management (ID&M). The key software that will be developed under the ID&M portion requires a collection of agent-based software services that will collaborate during tactical mission planning and execution

Integrating multiple clusters for compute-intensive applications

Multicluster grids provide one promising solution to satisfying the growing computational demands of compute-intensive applications. However, it is challenging to seamlessly integrate all participating clusters in different domains into a single virtual computational platform. In order to fully utilize the capabilities of multicluster grids, computer scientists need to deal with the issue of joining together participating autonomic systems practically and efficiently to execute grid-enabled applications. Driven by several compute-intensive applications, this theses develops a multicluster grid management toolkit called Pelecanus to bridge the gap between user\u27s needs and the system\u27s heterogeneity. Application scientists will be able to conduct very large-scale execution across multiclusters with transparent QoS assurance. A novel model called DA-TC (Dynamic Assignment with Task Containers) is developed and is integrated into Pelecanus. This model uses the concept of a task container that allows one to decouple resource allocation from resource binding. It employs static load balancing for task container distribution and dynamic load balancing for task assignment. The slowest resources become useful rather than be bottlenecks in this manner. A cluster abstraction is implemented, which not only provides various cluster information for the DA-TC execution model, but also can be used as a standalone toolkit to monitor and evaluate the clusters\u27 functionality and performance. The performance of the proposed DA-TC model is evaluated both theoretically and experimentally. Results demonstrate the importance of reducing queuing time in decreasing the total turnaround time for an application. Experiments were conducted to understand the performance of various aspects of the DA-TC model. Experiments showed that our model could significantly reduce turnaround time and increase resource utilization for our targeted application scenarios. Four applications are implemented as case studies to determine the applicability of the DA-TC model. In each case the turnaround time is greatly reduced, which demonstrates that the DA-TC model is efficient for assisting application scientists in conducting their research. In addition, virtual resources were integrated into the DA-TC model for application execution. Experiments show that the execution model proposed in this thesis can work seamlessly with multiple hybrid grid/cloud resources to achieve reduced turnaround time

A theory and model for the evolution of software services

Software services are subject to constant change and variation. To control service development, a service developer needs to know why a change was made, what are its implications and whether the change is complete. Typically, service clients do not perceive the upgraded service immediately. As a consequence, service-based applications may fail on the service client side due to changes carried out during a provider service upgrade. In order to manage changes in a meaningful and effective manner service clients must therefore be considered when service changes are introduced at the service provider's side. Otherwise such changes will most certainly result in severe application disruption. Eliminating spurious results and inconsistencies that may occur due to uncontrolled changes is therefore a necessary condition for the ability of services to evolve gracefully, ensure service stability, and handle variability in their behavior. Towards this goal, this work presents a model and a theoretical framework for the compatible evolution of services based on well-founded theories and techniques from a number of disparate fields.

A abordagem POESIA para a integração de dados e serviços na Web semantica

Orientador: Claudia Bauzer MedeirosTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: POESIA (Processes for Open-Ended Systems for lnformation Analysis), a abordagem proposta neste trabalho, visa a construção de processos complexos envolvendo integração e análise de dados de diversas fontes, particularmente em aplicações científicas. A abordagem é centrada em dois tipos de mecanismos da Web semântica: workflows científicos, para especificar e compor serviços Web; e ontologias de domínio, para viabilizar a interoperabilidade e o gerenciamento semânticos dos dados e processos. As principais contribuições desta tese são: (i) um arcabouço teórico para a descrição, localização e composição de dados e serviços na Web, com regras para verificar a consistência semântica de composições desses recursos; (ii) métodos baseados em ontologias de domínio para auxiliar a integração de dados e estimar a proveniência de dados em processos cooperativos na Web; (iii) implementação e validação parcial das propostas, em urna aplicação real no domínio de planejamento agrícola, analisando os benefícios e as limitações de eficiência e escalabilidade da tecnologia atual da Web semântica, face a grandes volumes de dadosAbstract: POESIA (Processes for Open-Ended Systems for Information Analysis), the approach proposed in this work, supports the construction of complex processes that involve the integration and analysis of data from several sources, particularly in scientific applications. This approach is centered in two types of semantic Web mechanisms: scientific workflows, to specify and compose Web services; and domain ontologies, to enable semantic interoperability and management of data and processes. The main contributions of this thesis are: (i) a theoretical framework to describe, discover and compose data and services on the Web, inc1uding mIes to check the semantic consistency of resource compositions; (ii) ontology-based methods to help data integration and estimate data provenance in cooperative processes on the Web; (iii) partial implementation and validation of the proposal, in a real application for the domain of agricultural planning, analyzing the benefits and scalability problems of the current semantic Web technology, when faced with large volumes of dataDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã

Cyber Security

This open access book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Annual Conference on Cyber Security, CNCERT 2020, held in Beijing, China, in August 2020. The 17 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 58 submissions. The papers are organized according to the following topical sections: access control; cryptography; denial-of-service attacks; hardware security implementation; intrusion/anomaly detection and malware mitigation; social network security and privacy; systems security

An Agent-based Approach for Improving the Performance of Distributed Business Processes in Maritime Port Community

In the recent years, the concept of “port community” has been adopted by the maritime transport industry in order to achieve a higher degree of coordination and cooperation amongst organizations involved in the transfer of goods through the port area. The business processes of the port community supply chain form a complicated process which involves several process steps, multiple actors, and numerous information exchanges. One of the widely used applications of ICT in ports is the Port Community System (PCS) which is implemented in ports in order to reduce paperwork and to facilitate the information flow related to port operations and cargo clearance. However, existing PCSs are limited in functionalities that facilitate the management and coordination of material, financial, and information flows within the port community supply chain. This research programme addresses the use of agent technology to introduce business process management functionalities, which are vital for port communities, aiming to the enhancement of the performance of the port community supply chain. The investigation begins with an examination of the current state in view of the business perspective and the technical perspective. The business perspective focuses on understanding the nature of the port community, its main characteristics, and its problems. Accordingly, a number of requirements are identified as essential amendments to information systems in seaports. On the other hand, the technical perspective focuses on technologies that are convenient for solving problems in business process management within port communities. The research focuses on three technologies; the workflow technology, agent technology, and service orientation. An analysis of information systems across port communities enables an examination of the current PCSs with regard to their coordination and workflow management capabilities. The most important finding of this analysis is that the performance of the business processes, and in particular the performance of the port community supply chain, is not in the scope of the examined PCSs. Accordingly, the Agent-Based Middleware for Port Community Management (ABMPCM) is proposed as an approach for providing essential functionalities that would facilitate collaborative planning and business process management. As a core component of the ABMPCM, the Collaborative Planning Facility (CPF) is described in further details. A CPF prototype has been developed as an agent-based system for the domain of inland transport of containers to demonstrate its practical effectiveness. To evaluate the practical application of the CPF, a simulation environment is introduced in order to facilitate the evaluation process. The research started with the definition of a multi-agent simulation framework for port community supply chain. Then, a prototype has been implemented and employed for the evaluation of the CPF. The results of the simulation experiments demonstrate that our agent-based approach effectively enhances the performance of business process in the port community