Towards a Universal Data Provenance Framework Using Dynamic Instrumentation

The advantage of collecting data provenance information has driven research on how to extend or modify applications and systems in order to provide it, or the creation of architectures that are built from the ground up with provenance capabilities. In this paper we propose a universal data provenance framework, using dynamic instrumentation, which gathers data provenance information for real-world applications without any code modifications. Our framework simplifies the task of finding the right points to instrument, which can be cumbersome in large and complex systems. We have built a proof-of-concept implementation of the framework on top of DTrace. Moreover, we evaluated its functionality by using it for three different scenarios: file-system operations, database transactions and web browser HTTP requests. Based on our experiences we believe that it is possible to provide data provenance, transparently, to any layer of the software stack

Leveraging Detrital Zircon Geochemistry to Study Deep Arc Processes: REE-Rich Magmas Mobilized by Jurassic Rifting of the Sierra Nevada Arc

Anomalous trace element compositions of Middle to Late Jurassic detrital zircon separated from Sierra Nevada forearc and intra-arc strata reveal processes of differentiation occurring within the deep arc lithosphere. REE-Sc-Nb-Ti-Hf-U-Th covariations define three populations of atypically REE-rich grains that we interpret as crystallizing from (1) differentiates produced by olivine+clinopyroxene+plagioclase+garnet±ilmenite fractionation; (2) mixing between mafic arc magmas and partial melts of Proterozoic Mojave province crust; and (3) compositionally transient, low Gd/Yb magmas generated by hornblende resorption during decompression. We interpret a fourth population of Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous zircons having REE contents similar to “typical” arc zircon but with atypically high Gd/Yb ratios as having crystallized from partial melts of recycled arc crust and from deep-arc differentiates that evolved down-temperature through hornblende saturation. We hypothesize that latest Jurassic extension ripped open the arc, facilitating upward migration and eruption of geochemically anomalous zircon-bearing magmas. The anomalous compositions relative to “typical” arc zircon imply that these zircons and their host magmas rarely reach the upper arc crust, where eruption and/or erosion would release their zircon cargo to the clastic system. Focusing on the trace element compositions of zircons of syn-extensional age represents a productive new strategy for learning about deep magmatic reservoirs and early differentiation pathways within the thick lithosphere of continental margin arcs

Digital provenance - models, systems, and applications

Data provenance refers to the history of creation and manipulation of a data object and is being widely used in various application domains including scientific experiments, grid computing, file and storage system, streaming data etc. However, existing provenance systems operate at a single layer of abstraction (workflow/process/OS) at which they record and store provenance whereas the provenance captured from different layers provide the highest benefit when integrated through a unified provenance framework. To build such a framework, a comprehensive provenance model able to represent the provenance of data objects with various semantics and granularity is the first step. In this thesis, we propose a such a comprehensive provenance model and present an abstract schema of the model. ^ We further explore the secure provenance solutions for distributed systems, namely streaming data, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and virtualized environments. We design a customizable file provenance system with an application to the provenance infrastructure for virtualized environments. The system supports automatic collection and management of file provenance metadata, characterized by our provenance model. Based on the proposed provenance framework, we devise a mechanism for detecting data exfiltration attack in a file system. We then move to the direction of secure provenance communication in streaming environment and propose two secure provenance schemes focusing on WSNs. The basic provenance scheme is extended in order to detect packet dropping adversaries on the data flow path over a period of time. We also consider the issue of attack recovery and present an extensive incident response and prevention system specifically designed for WSNs

Digital provenance - models, systems, and applications

Data provenance refers to the history of creation and manipulation of a data object and is being widely used in various application domains including scientific experiments, grid computing, file and storage system, streaming data etc. However, existing provenance systems operate at a single layer of abstraction (workflow/process/OS) at which they record and store provenance whereas the provenance captured from different layers provide the highest benefit when integrated through a unified provenance framework. To build such a framework, a comprehensive provenance model able to represent the provenance of data objects with various semantics and granularity is the first step. In this thesis, we propose a such a comprehensive provenance model and present an abstract schema of the model. ^ We further explore the secure provenance solutions for distributed systems, namely streaming data, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and virtualized environments. We design a customizable file provenance system with an application to the provenance infrastructure for virtualized environments. The system supports automatic collection and management of file provenance metadata, characterized by our provenance model. Based on the proposed provenance framework, we devise a mechanism for detecting data exfiltration attack in a file system. We then move to the direction of secure provenance communication in streaming environment and propose two secure provenance schemes focusing on WSNs. The basic provenance scheme is extended in order to detect packet dropping adversaries on the data flow path over a period of time. We also consider the issue of attack recovery and present an extensive incident response and prevention system specifically designed for WSNs

Investigating the Bottlenose Dolphins in the Swan Canning Riverpark using two research methods: A comparison between citizen science and professional science

Since 2011 the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) community in the Swan Canning Riverpark in Perth, Western Australia has been studied simultaneously through a citizen science project (Dolphin Watch) and a professional science project (the Dolphin Population Assessment Project). The two projects share a common aim – to collect scientific information that supports the conservation of dolphins and their habitat – but use different methodologies. This thesis examined how the two projects approach the study of a wildlife population and evaluated how citizen science and professional science projects can complement each other, leading to better outcomes than if one approach is applied in isolation. Using the example of the Dolphin Watch and Dolphin Population Assessment Project; data over a one-year period was analysed. These projects ecological outcomes were assessed through: (1) quantity of sampling; (2) spatial and temporal distribution of dolphin sightings; and (3) dolphin group dynamics (group size/ sighting size). Additionally, the volunteer’s motivations and level of contribution was discussed in the context of Dolphin Watch. The main goal of this thesis was to investigate the extent of these projects’ ability to produce complementary ecological outcomes. Firstly, Dolphin Watch collected a higher quantity of data than the Dolphin Population Assessment Project. Volunteers recorded a total of 2682.3 hours of sampling effort in contrast to the 64.2 hours recorded by professional scientists. Dolphin Watch volunteers recorded over 15 times more effort hours per zone than the professional scientists (Dolphin Watch = 81.28 hours/ zone; Dolphin Population Assessment Project = 5.35 hours/ zone). The higher quantity of data collected through Dolphin Watch was reflected throughout the study area and included the common monitoring zones (zones 20-31). Data collected through Dolphin Watch was able to indicate the dolphin community in the Swan Canning Riverpark occupied all monitoring zones, which included approximately 58 kilometres of river ways. Dolphins were sighted in both the upstream Swan and Canning rivers and the downstream zones near Fremantle throughout the study period; this indicated that dolphins range throughout the Riverpark year-round. The Dolphin Population Assessment Project supported these findings by identifying the dolphin community exhibited characteristics of a resident population. The two research projects recorded dolphin group dynamics in different ways that meant they were not directly comparable. The differences in data collection originate from the inability to uniformly identify dolphin group sizes using a specific criterion over multiple observers. Therefore, Dolphin Watch volunteers recorded the total number of dolphins within each sighting; whereas the Dolphin Population Assessment Project identified the group size based on the 100-metre chain rule. Finally, this thesis identified examples of distinct differences between a citizen science and professional science project that studied the same dolphin community. This study supported the concept that ‘the type of research question asked will influence a project’s design’. Dolphin Watch and the Dolphin Population Project approached empirical research on the dolphin community differently; where their differences allowed them to complement each other and support each other’s claims

Utopic horizons: cinematic geographies of travel and migration

Theoretically grounded in debates surrounding the production of space and mobility in contemporary cultural discourse, this thesis examines the role of film in these deterritorialised landscapes of theory and practice, in particular the shift from place-based geographies of travel and film to those of 'utopic' displacement. Focussed primarily on examples from contemporary European film, the thesis also considers the broader geo- historical contexts underpinning travel and filmic practices: for example, cinema's nascent links with the democratisation of travel and the construction of a touristic 'mobile virtual gaze' . In so far as these and other examples of 'travel film' can be said to discursively centre the 'voyager-voyeur' in geographies of home and placement, they invoke an 'Ulyssean gaze' of mythic circularity against which the utopic deterritorialisations of migrancy and transnational space are counterposed. It is these utopic horizons of travel - cinematic mobilities that pose dialectical challenges to hegemonic cartographies of place and space which this thesis sets out to explore. Mapping the utopic gaze in early and 'classic' (e)migrant films, I examine the extent to which the frontiers and horizons of utopic travel, predicated in these examples of spatio-temporal distance, could be said to have collapsed in a spatial conflation of presence and absence. In this analysis ellipses in space and time have increasingly displaced the representational spaces of the journey. Looking at a range of examples from contemporary film, I examine the dialectic between a displaced imaginary of utopic hope and the material non-places of transit, refuge and waiting which dominate these cinematic geographies; dialectic which maps affective spaces of stasis and transition. In the deterritorialised landscapes of postmodernity I argue that it is the agential and embodied mobilities of movement-in-itself - psychogeographic, oblique confrontations with hegemonic space - that constitutes the fullest realisation of the utopic. Far from valorising undialectical tropes of the 'open road' or of the rhizomatic, homeless 'nomad', these peripatetic, embodied mobilities are the product of a dialectic of stasis and transition in which the conflict between abstract and lived spaces of mobility is brought to the fore

Cenozoic extension in the River Mountains and Frenchman Mountain, Southern Nevada

The River Mountains are the eroded remnants of a mid-Miocene stratovolcano complex located between Henderson, Nevada and western Lake Mead. This study addresses the tectonic and societal significance of (1) a 13.5-9 Ma initial stage and (2) a late-Pliocene(?)-present stage of extension. Multiple slip histories were recorded on NW-, N-, NE-, and E-striking conjugate fault sets, in addition to numerous orthorhombic faults. Multiple corrugations on the Saddle Island detachment (SID) during 13.5-9 Ma extension are interpreted to have produced localized zones of triaxial strain and orthorhombic faulting. Conjugate faults occurred where the SID was planar. The multiple kinematics suggest that 13.5-9 Ma tectonism in the River Mountains was controlled by transient slip gradients on the Las Vegas Valley shear zone and the Lake Mead fault system. Active faults of the second period of extension may impact present day Las Vegas. An earthquake rupturing the combined 38 km length of the Ithaca Avenue Fault-Frenchman Mountain Fault could produce a MW 6.9 +/- 0.3 earthquake