The RAppArmor Package: Enforcing Security Policies in R Using Dynamic Sandboxing on Linux

The increasing availability of cloud computing and scientific super computers brings great potential for making R accessible through public or shared resources. This allows us to efficiently run code requiring lots of cycles and memory, or embed R functionality into, e.g., systems and web services. However some important security concerns need to be addressed before this can be put in production. The prime use case in the design of R has always been a single statistician running R on the local machine through the interactive console. Therefore the execution environment of R is entirely unrestricted, which could result in malicious behavior or excessive use of hardware resources in a shared environment. Properly securing an R process turns out to be a complex problem. We describe various approaches and illustrate potential issues using some of our personal experiences in hosting public web services. Finally we introduce the RAppArmor package: a Linux based reference implementation for dynamic sandboxing in R on the level of the operating system

Towards ServMark, an Architecture for Testing Grid Services

Technical University of Delft - Technical Report ServMark-2006-002, July 2006Grid computing provides a natural way to aggregate resources from different administrative domains for building large scale distributed environments. The Web Services paradigm proposes a way by which virtual services can be seamlessly integrated into global-scale solutions to complex problems. While the usage of Grid technology ranges from academia and research to business world and production, two issues must be considered: that the promised functionality can be accurately quantified and that the performance can be evaluated based on well defined means. Without adequate functionality demonstrators, systems cannot be tuned or adequately configured, and Web services cannot be stressed adequately in production environment. Without performance evaluation systems, the system design and procurement processes are limp, and the performance of Web Services in production cannot be assessed. In this paper, we present ServMark, a carefully researched tool for Grid performance evaluation. While we acknowledge that a lot of ground must be covered to fulfill the requirements of a system for testing Grid environments, and Web (and Grid) Services, we believe that ServMark addresses the minimal set of critical issues

Bringing the semantic web to the office desktop

Many Semantic Web applications address the needs of human readers of the Web (e.g. searching, annotating), but these technologies can also address the needs of human writers of the Web. The WiCK project has explored the application of knowledge bases and services to the Office desktop, in order to assist document production, culminating in the WiCKOffice environment. This aim of this demonstration is to showcase the most recent offshoot of the WiCKOffice development, WiCKLite: a lightweight component for connecting knowledge services to document templates in order to deliver targeted assistance to end users

The AliEn system, status and perspectives

AliEn is a production environment that implements several components of the Grid paradigm needed to simulate, reconstruct and analyse HEP data in a distributed way. The system is built around Open Source components, uses the Web Services model and standard network protocols to implement the computing platform that is currently being used to produce and analyse Monte Carlo data at over 30 sites on four continents. The aim of this paper is to present the current AliEn architecture and outline its future developments in the light of emerging standards.Comment: Talk from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 10 pages, Word, 10 figures. PSN MOAT00

Enhancing Mobility: Integrating New Services into Your Library’s Mobile Platform to Increase Traffic

Kimbel Library launched its mobile environment and ran it in full production for several months yet usage patterns were quite low and flat. The library only saw a substantial increase in usage when new, value-added services were integrated into this platform. Upon implementing and integrating discovery services, chat and SMS capabilities, and computer availability maps into our mobile environment the library witnessed and continues to see a steady and significant increase in usage. These services, any issues encountered in their integration, and solutions to resolve these issues are identified, and usage trends and overall increases in mobile platform usage are revealed. Web vs. native app usage trends, devices used, and other metrics and statistical information will be assessed. This article will also explore possible future enhancements to our mobile services, such as geolocation and location-based services for enhancing library instruction, tutorials, library tours, and the possible development of an augmented reality environment for bridging the gap between physical and online resources and services

Web service control of component-based agile manufacturing systems

Current global business competition has resulted in significant challenges for manufacturing and production sectors focused on shorter product lifecyc1es, more diverse and customized products as well as cost pressures from competitors and customers. To remain competitive, manufacturers, particularly in automotive industry, require the next generation of manufacturing paradigms supporting flexible and reconfigurable production systems that allow quick system changeovers for various types of products. In addition, closer integration of shop floor and business systems is required as indicated by the research efforts in investigating "Agile and Collaborative Manufacturing Systems" in supporting the production unit throughout the manufacturing lifecycles. The integration of a business enterprise with its shop-floor and lifecycle supply partners is currently only achieved through complex proprietary solutions due to differences in technology, particularly between automation and business systems. The situation is further complicated by the diverse types of automation control devices employed. Recently, the emerging technology of Service Oriented Architecture's (SOA's) and Web Services (WS) has been demonstrated and proved successful in linking business applications. The adoption of this Web Services approach at the automation level, that would enable a seamless integration of business enterprise and a shop-floor system, is an active research topic within the automotive domain. If successful, reconfigurable automation systems formed by a network of collaborative autonomous and open control platform in distributed, loosely coupled manufacturing environment can be realized through a unifying platform of WS interfaces for devices communication. The adoption of SOA- Web Services on embedded automation devices can be achieved employing Device Profile for Web Services (DPWS) protocols which encapsulate device control functionality as provided services (e.g. device I/O operation, device state notification, device discovery) and business application interfaces into physical control components of machining automation. This novel approach supports the possibility of integrating pervasive enterprise applications through unifying Web Services interfaces and neutral Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) message communication between control systems and business applications over standard Ethernet-Local Area Networks (LAN's). In addition, the re-configurability of the automation system is enhanced via the utilisation of Web Services throughout an automated control, build, installation, test, maintenance and reuse system lifecycle via device self-discovery provided by the DPWS protocol...cont'd

Программные средства для формирования журналов работ на фонде скважин

The analysis of various arrangements on a well stock of the oil-and-gas production enterprise is carried out. It is shown that the automated schedules management of arrangements on the well stock is an actual task when such arrangements are being carried out. For this task solution has been offered to create information system on basis of service-oriented architecture with use of ELMA BPM development environment. The demanded set of software for arrangements schedules management is created in the form of web-services in this development environment

Service-oriented SCADA and MES supporting petri nets based orchestrated automation systems

The fusion of mechatronics, communication, control and information technologies has allowed the introduction of new automation paradigms into the production environment. The virtualization of the production environment facilitated by the application of the service-oriented architecture paradigm is one of major outcomes of that fusion. On one side, service-oriented automation works based on exposition, subscription and use of automation functions represented by e.g. web services. On the other side, the evolution of traditional industrial systems, particularly in the production area, as a response to architectural and behavioural (functional) viewpoints of the ISA95 enterprise architecture, where a close inter-relation between SCADA, DCS and MES systems facilitate the management and control of the production environment. Automation functions are increasingly performed by the composition and orchestration of services. Among other methods, the application of formal Petri net based orchestration approaches is being industrially established. This paper presents the major characteristics that such a Petri net based orchestration presents when it is developed, implemented and deployed in an industrial environmentThe research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement 258682 (IMC-AESOP: ArchitecturE for Service-Oriented Process - Monitoring and Control) and 224053 (CONET: Cooperating Objects NETwork of excellence)

Strengthening farmers through the camera's eye

One farmer in Australia commits suicide every four days (AAP, 2008; Judd et al., 2006). They have a higher death and morbidity rate than the general population (Courtney, 2006; Fragar & Franklin, 2000) and are over represented in farm injury statistics (Troeth, 2004). Their steady decline in numbers and the reduction of their local peer networks further increases their social and professional isolation along with their geographical isolation. Farmers, the majority of whom in Australia are generally referred to as men, even though 28% are women (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2012), are a group that are difficult to access because of their isolation and reluctance to use health services. Information Communication Technology (ICT), along with climate change and the media is bringing the attention of rural land desecration and its impact on our farmers and production to the fore. This research masters aims to explore: Will farmers in the area previously known as the rural shire of Crows Nest Queensland, access counselling services by social workers, using web cameras via the internet in their own home? The project involved recruiting a sample of farmers in the shire of what was known as Crows Nest (the shire). The technology used was video streaming through web cameras via the internet with laptop computers. The usefulness of video streaming using web cameras with a social worker, in offering counselling services to farmers, was evaluated. The research is primarily qualitative with participants completing a written pre - demonstration questionnaire, and immediately following participating in a live web camera interactive demonstration; concluding with a post - demonstration audio interview questionnaire. The responses and data signifies the potential use of offering counselling services to rurally isolated farmers in the privacy of their own environment (home, paddock, tractor) which is applicable for them to be able to access such services via broadband wireless technology. This can assist overcome the issues of the ‘tyranny of distance’ and other factors such as lack of anonymity, privacy and cost. This research indicates these issues form part of the barriers for farmers in seeking help. This thesis concludes with recommendations for change in ‘farmer well-being’ service provision, by redesigning, developing and implementing an alternative service delivery model which could also address employment and training for those in the health industry who have acquired a disability to be able to work within their own home environment. This model would offer professional counselling services delivered to them by professionally trained social workers with a rural (preferably farming) background, using web cameras via the internet in the privacy of their own home