The pros and cons of using SDL for creation of distributed services

In a competitive market for the creation of complex distributed services, time to market, development cost, maintenance and flexibility are key issues. Optimizing the development process is very much a matter of optimizing the technologies used during service creation. This paper reports on the experience gained in the Service Creation projects SCREEN and TOSCA on use of the language SDL for efficient service creation

Experiences modelling and using object-oriented telecommunication service frameworks in SDL

This paper describes experiences in using SDL and its associated tools to create telecommunication services by producing and specialising object-oriented frameworks. The chosen approach recognises the need for the rapid creation of validated telecommunication services. It introduces two stages to service creation. Firstly a software expert produces a service framework, and secondly a telecommunications ‘business consultant' specialises the framework by means of graphical tools to rapidly produce services. Here the focus is given to the underlying technology required. In particular, the advantages and disadvantages of SDL and tools for this purpose are highlighted

Engineering of interworking TINA-based telecommunication services

This paper describes a Service Creation approach being developed in the EU funded ACTS TOSCA (TINA Open Service Creation Architecture) project to rapidly develop validated TINA based multimedia telecommunications services. The approach is based around object-oriented software frameworks in SDL which are specialized towards services by means of graphical paradigm tools. Further, in TOSCA, the need for service interworking across service provider domains via federation has been recognized in order to allow users to join service sessions offered by providers they are not customers of. However, service interworking may cause undesired behavior - the so called service interaction phenomenon. This paper focuses on this issue and the underlying technology of the service creation approach with emphasis on how service federation has been implemented

Students’ Participative Stances and Knowledge Construction in Small Group Collaborative Learning with Mobile Instant Messaging Facilitation

Mobile instant messaging (MIM) has become increasingly popular socially, but its educational impact on collaborative learning is still unclear. This study aims to understand how collaborative learning develops in small group discussions on a MIM platform. We collected interaction records from two groups of graduate students, who voluntarily set up private MIM groups to discuss collaborative projects. The records were analyzed with two set of codes to respectively examine levels of knowledge construction and learner participative stances. A processing mining technique was also applied to visualize how knowledge was built up on different tasks. Results suggested that MIM is probably most helpful with planning tasks and increasing interactivity with the facilitation of the pop-up notification. Informal leaders emerged in the discussions, who actively maintained group dynamics and also expressed ideas. Tasks requiring evaluation and creation might invite more higher-order knowledge co-construction.published_or_final_versio

Cyber Threats Modeling: An Empirical Study

The immediacy of this study is determined by the need to fight back against the modern cyber threats that arise in the process of building a digital economy. The issues of countering various cyber threats in the activities of small and medium enterprises, firms stand to be a serious problem. Its relevance is constantly increasing. This is due to a number of objective reasons, the main of which are the following. Firstly, the globalization of economic processes, which leads to a situation where the technical, software and information component of the Information System (IS) is the same in relation to all countries developed in terms of information. Secondly, a significant change in the landscape of the IS threats themselves. It should be noted that the changes affected both quantitative and qualitative characteristics. Malware, Network Scanning, Man in the Middle, Phishing, DNS Spoofing, Trojan Horses. These are just a few examples of cyber threats carried out against small and mid-sized businesses and government information systems every day. The current condition of the information security system of governmental and commercial structures does not provide efficient resolving of up-to-date cybersecurity problems and creation of confident interaction between the critical infrastructure objects. It should be assumed that there is a need to update the theoretical and methodological base and practical developments that can protect the rights and legitimate interests of the individual, business and the state from modern security threats and increase the level of security of our economy. The article logically combines the study of the modern landscape of cybersecurity threats, the construction of an empirical model of security threats (with the allocation of a monetization block), the demonstration of the results of processing statistical data characterizing the distribution of the frequency of occurrence of specific threats. The paper aims to build an empirical model of cyber threats based on a study of huge number of relevant literature sources and statistical data

Developing and Securing Software for Small Space Systems

The space systems industry is moving towards smaller multi-vendor satellites, known as Small Space. This shift is driven by economic and technological factors that necessitate hardware and software components that are modular, reusable, and secure. This research addresses two problems associated with the development of modular, reusable, and secure space systems: developing software for space systems (the Development Problem) and securing space systems (the Security Problem). These two problems are interrelated and this research addresses them together. The Development Problem encompasses challenges that space systems developers face as they try to address the constraints induced by reduced budgets, design and development lifecycles, maintenance allowances, multi-vendor component integration and testing timelines. In order to satisfy these constraints a single small satellite might incorporate hardware and software components from dozens of organizations with independent workforces and schedules. The Security Problem deals with growing need to ensure that each one of these software or hardware components behaves according to policy or system design as well as the typical cybersecurity concerns that face any information system. This research addresses the Development Problem by exploring the needs and barriers of Small Space to find the best path forward for the space systems industry to catch up with the methodology advancements already being widely used in other software fields. To do this exploration a series of five surveys, referred to as SISDPA, was conducted to assess current attitudes and state of practice among space system developers. This crystallized a need in space system development — modular reusable open networks can help Small Space realize its potential, but there is still need to address certain security threats. This research addresses the Security Problem by augmenting a modular reusable open-network software development framework, called SSM, by adding policy enforcement in the form of authentication, access control, and encryption provisions, to create a new development framework, SSSM. This design and implementation adds security provisions while minimizing the impact on developers using the framework. SSSM is evaluated in terms of developer and system resource burden and shows that SSSM does not significantly increase developer burden and preserves the ease-of-use of SSM

The Localisation of Video Games

The present thesis is a study of the translation of video games with a particular emphasis on the Spanish-English language pair, although other languages are brought into play when they offer a clearer illustration of a particular point in the discussion. On the one hand, it offers a descriptive analysis of the video game industry understood as a global phenomenon in entertainment, with the aim of understanding the norms governing present game development and publishing practices. On the other hand, it discusses particular translation issues that seem to be unique to these entertainment products due to their multichannel and polysemiotic nature, in which verbal and nonverbal signs are intimately interconnected in search of maximum game interactivity. Although this research positions itself within the theoretical framework of Descriptive Translation Studies, it actually goes beyond the mere accounting of current processes to propose changes whenever professional practice seems to be unable to rid itself of old unsatisfactory habits. Of a multidisciplinary nature, the present thesis is greatly informed by various areas of knowledge such as audiovisual translation, software localisation, computer assisted translation and translation memory tools, comparative literature, and video game production and marketing, amongst others. The conclusions are an initial breakthrough in terms of research into this new area, challenging some of the basic tenets current in translation studies thanks to its multidisciplinary approach, and its solid grounding on current game localisation industry practice. The results can be useful in order to boost professional quality and to promote the training of translators in video game localisation in higher education centres.Open Acces

Autonomous Assessment of Satellite Ground Station Health

The objective of the study was to develop the initial capabilities enabling the eventual automation of an antenna gain-to-noise-temperature (G/T) measurement process using a software defined radio. This research investigated how to improve the Mobile Cubesat Command and Control (MC3) network’s ability to remotely monitor a ground station’s health. Previous thesis work was leveraged to collect baseline data and process it using software created by the Space Dynamics Laboratory for the MC3 program. The thesis required hands-on use of the NPS MC3 ground station and other stations on the network. The results of this thesis demonstrate that a software defined radio is capable of collecting and processing radio frequency signals from the sun and cold sky to produce a G/T value with enough fidelity to assess the health of the station’s downlink radio frequency chain. Continued expansion of the collected frequency range by the software defined radio is recommended to provide a broader assessment of the antenna’s sensitivity to weak, space-borne signals.Lieutenant, United States NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Qualitative Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study: The Lived Experiences of School Leaders Who Have Worked Through a Merger

This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of school mergers in New York State. The central research question that guided the study was: What are the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of a school merger? In addition, guiding questions were implemented to understand the phenomenon of school mergers. The guiding questions are: How do school leaders maneuver and manage the organizational structures impacted by the processes of a school merger? What role do school leaders play in the environmental demands influencing the processes of a school merger? Organizational theory guided the study. Organizational theory is the study of how organizations operate and how they impact and are impacted by the environment in which they operate. Utilizing the three principles of organizational theory: organizational structure, culture, and design and change the study describes the lived experiences of school leaders who worked through the processes of school mergers. Study participants were selected through a participant survey screener. The study was conducted through purposeful criterion sampling and data collection methods using individual interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires. The transcendental phenomenological reduction process was used for data analysis. Keywords: merger, organizational theory, school leadershi