Sensor web geoprocessing on the grid

Recent standardisation initiatives in the fields of grid computing and geospatial sensor middleware provide an exciting opportunity for the composition of large scale geospatial monitoring and prediction systems from existing components. Sensor middleware standards are paving the way for the emerging sensor web which is envisioned to make millions of geospatial sensors and their data publicly accessible by providing discovery, task and query functionality over the internet. In a similar fashion, concurrent development is taking place in the field of grid computing whereby the virtualisation of computational and data storage resources using middleware abstraction provides a framework to share computing resources. Sensor web and grid computing share a common vision of world-wide connectivity and in their current form they are both realised using web services as the underlying technological framework. The integration of sensor web and grid computing middleware using open standards is expected to facilitate interoperability and scalability in near real-time geoprocessing systems. The aim of this thesis is to develop an appropriate conceptual and practical framework in which open standards in grid computing, sensor web and geospatial web services can be combined as a technological basis for the monitoring and prediction of geospatial phenomena in the earth systems domain, to facilitate real-time decision support. The primary topic of interest is how real-time sensor data can be processed on a grid computing architecture. This is addressed by creating a simple typology of real-time geoprocessing operations with respect to grid computing architectures. A geoprocessing system exemplar of each geoprocessing operation in the typology is implemented using contemporary tools and techniques which provides a basis from which to validate the standards frameworks and highlight issues of scalability and interoperability. It was found that it is possible to combine standardised web services from each of these aforementioned domains despite issues of interoperability resulting from differences in web service style and security between specifications. A novel integration method for the continuous processing of a sensor observation stream is suggested in which a perpetual processing job is submitted as a single continuous compute job. Although this method was found to be successful two key challenges remain; a mechanism for consistently scheduling real-time jobs within an acceptable time-frame must be devised and the tradeoff between efficient grid resource utilisation and processing latency must be balanced. The lack of actual implementations of distributed geoprocessing systems built using sensor web and grid computing has hindered the development of standards, tools and frameworks in this area. This work provides a contribution to the small number of existing implementations in this field by identifying potential workflow bottlenecks in such systems and gaps in the existing specifications. Furthermore it sets out a typology of real-time geoprocessing operations that are anticipated to facilitate the development of real-time geoprocessing software.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) : School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Newcastle UniversityGBUnited Kingdo

The Ghost in the Machine: Traditional Archival Practice in the Design of Digital Repositories for Long-Term Preservation

This research paper explores the ways in which traditional paper-based archival principles and practices, based on the requirements of a knowledge system built on physical forms (papyrus, parchment, paper), are being applied to the development of repositories designed explicitly for the long-term preservation of digital materials. Though debate remains active, the archival community has gradually coalesced around a set of high-level principles and practices generally agreed as representative of the core values of archival activity: the sanctity of evidence; the preservation imperative; the primacy of the record; respect des fonds, original order and provenance; and hierarchy in records and their collective description. These traditional archival principles and practices are defined, then translated into digital repository architecture designs through an analysis of the Open Archival Information Systems reference model (OAIS). Areas of active research on this subject are examined in a set of case studies

Architecture de systèmes dans l'environnement MMS

"Manufacturing Message Specification" (MMS) is an OSI application layer protocol that allows remote applications (called clients) to control and supervise various heterogeneous industrial devices (called servers). MMS is becoming widely accepted as the main protocol for open communications between heterogeneous machines in many areas that are not limited to manufacturing. MMS facilitates the cooperation of heterogeneous devices. But, this is done at the cost of a rather complex and under-utilized standard. The aim of this thesis is to propose an architecture of MMS-based systems that simplifies the use of MMS and extends its capabilities to satisfy more closely the needs of user applications. We start with a detailed analysis of MMS events and semaphores. These two aspects of MMS are still misunderstood and often even ignored. We compare MMS semaphores and events to well-known and similar concepts in fields not related to MMS. This approach allows us to clarify the concept of semaphore and event in MMS. It facilitates the understanding we have of these concepts and encourages their use in MMS applications. We do not know of any MMS server that offers all of the services and functionalities described in the MMS standard. We propose a general architecture of such servers that eases the implementation of all MMS services and integrates more specifically the management of events. A server based on such a generic architecture has been implemented. It is composed of several units. Each unit is responsible for the management of a specific group of MMS services. These units are controlled by the Transaction Processor which constitutes the core of the server. The benefits of this architecture rely in the clarity it provides and the decoupling of the various units. This architecture facilitates server modifications as well as the addition of new services. We provide a deeper analysis of MMS events by defining an extension to MMS event detection. This extension satisfies more closely the needs of industrial applications based on MMS. It allows user applications to provide predicate expressions that can lead to an event occurrence. This is something that is not possible in the current MMS standard. This extension is entirely compatible with existing MMS applications since the MMS protocol is not modified and the server behavior is only extended. We also propose another extension to MMS. This last extension allows users to include priorities to MMS service requests and allows servers to execute these requests based on the priority values. More generally, the problem of requests and tasks scheduling in a server is a major issue for industrial applications. However, it is not addressed at all by MMS. Thus, we analyze the capabilities and limitations of MMS in the domain of real-time systems. We show how requests can be given deadlines without modifying the MMS protocol. We make use of MMS modifiers to satisfy a real-time execution of MMS requests and propose solutions to ensure a real-time detection of MMS events. MMS does not seem to provide application developers with the adequate tools to deal with distributed systems requirements. We study the behavior of MMS systems when applications require the cooperation or competition of multiple clients in the presence of multiple servers. In doing so, we always try to reduce the influence our solutions could have on the MMS protocol. We propose MMS-based solutions for classical problems such as rendez-vous between clients, readers/writers and the dining philosophers problem. We also define two algorithms for accessing data distributed to several MMS sites. These algorithms are based on deadlock detection/resolution techniques and make an abundant use of MMS semaphores and events

Proceedings of the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics CLiC-it 2018 : 10-12 December 2018, Torino

On behalf of the Program Committee, a very warm welcome to the Fifth Italian Conference on Computational Linguistics (CLiC-­‐it 2018). This edition of the conference is held in Torino. The conference is locally organised by the University of Torino and hosted into its prestigious main lecture hall “Cavallerizza Reale”. The CLiC-­‐it conference series is an initiative of the Italian Association for Computational Linguistics (AILC) which, after five years of activity, has clearly established itself as the premier national forum for research and development in the fields of Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing, where leading researchers and practitioners from academia and industry meet to share their research results, experiences, and challenges

The Papers of Henry Clay. Volume 10. Candidate, Compromiser, Elder Statesman. January 1, 1844-June 29, 1852

The culminating volume in The Papers of Henry Clay begins in 1844, the year when Clay came within a hair\u27s breadth of achieving his lifelong goal-the presidency of the United States. Volume 10 of Clay\u27s papers, then, more than any other, reveals the Great Compromiser as a major player on the national political stage. Here are both the peak of his career and the inevitable decline. On a tour through the southern states in the spring of 1844, Clay seemed certain of gaining the Whig nomination and the national election, until a series of highly publicized letters opposing the annexation of Texas cost him crucial support in both South and North. In addition to the Texas issue, the bitter election was marked by a revival of charges of a corrupt bargain, the rise of nativism, the influence of abolitionism, and voter fraud. Democrat James K. Polk defeated Clay by a mere 38,000 popular votes, partly because of illegal ballots cast in New York City. Speaking out against the Mexican War, in which his favorite son was a casualty, the Kentuckian announced his willingness to accept the 1848 Whig nomination. But some of his closest political friends, including many Kentucky Whig leaders, believed he was unelectable and successfully supported war hero Zachary Taylor. The disconsolate Clay felt his public career was finally finished. Yet when a crisis erupted over the extension of slavery into the territories acquired from Mexico, he answered the call and returned to the United States Senate. There he introduced a series of resolutions that ultimately passed as the Compromise of 1850, the most famous of his three compromises. Clay\u27s last years were troubled ones personally, yet he remained in the Senate until his death in 1852, continuing to warn against sectional extremism and to stress the importance of the Union-messages that went unheeded as the nation Clay had served so well moved inexorably toward separation and civil war. Publication of this book is being assisted by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. Melba Porter Hay is a specialist in the history of Kentucky and was associate editor of volumes 8 and 9 of The Papers of Henry Clay.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_science_papers/1011/thumbnail.jp