Same-sex adoptive families’ journey through education: a multi-perspective interpretative phenomenological analysis study

This thesis consists of three separate parts: a review of the relevant research and literature relating to the subject of the study, an empirical paper and a reflective account from the researcher. The literature review examines historical context on same sex parenting and specifically discusses research relating to adopted young people in same sex families and their experiences in education including factors influencing those experiences. The empirical paper consists of an exploratory qualitative study carried out with a small sample of adopted young people and adoptive gay or lesbian parents in same sex families within the East of England. The study used online semi-structured interviews to elicit the experiences of the two groups about their educational journey so far as well as their experiences of educational support received. Finally, the reflective chapter provides the personal reflections of the researcher about this study from the initial conception of the subject area and research questions to the completion of the analysis and write-up of the paper. Further implications on the researcher professional development and for the profession of educational psychology and research are also explored

SDN-Based Resilient Smart Grid: The SDN-microSENSE Architecture

The technological leap of smart technologies and the Internet of Things has advanced the conventional model of the electrical power and energy systems into a new digital era, widely known as the Smart Grid. The advent of Smart Grids provides multiple benefits, such as self-monitoring, self-healing and pervasive control. However, it also raises crucial cybersecurity and privacy concerns that can lead to devastating consequences, including cascading effects with other critical infrastructures or even fatal accidents. This paper introduces a novel architecture, which will increase the Smart Grid resiliency, taking full advantage of the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology. The proposed architecture called SDN-microSENSE architecture consists of three main tiers: (a) Risk assessment, (b) intrusion detection and correlation and (c) self-healing. The first tier is responsible for evaluating dynamically the risk level of each Smart Grid asset. The second tier undertakes to detect and correlate security events and, finally, the last tier mitigates the potential threats, ensuring in parallel the normal operation of the Smart Grid. It is noteworthy that all tiers of the SDN-microSENSE architecture interact with the SDN controller either for detecting or mitigating intrusions. Keywords: anomaly detection; blockchain; cybersecurity; energy management; honeypots; intrusion detection; islanding; privacy; Smart Grid; Software Defined Networkin

SDN-Based Resilient Smart Grid: The SDN-microSENSE Architecture

The technological leap of smart technologies and the Internet of Things has advanced the conventional model of the electrical power and energy systems into a new digital era, widely known as the Smart Grid. The advent of Smart Grids provides multiple benefits, such as self-monitoring, self-healing and pervasive control. However, it also raises crucial cybersecurity and privacy concerns that can lead to devastating consequences, including cascading effects with other critical infrastructures or even fatal accidents. This paper introduces a novel architecture, which will increase the Smart Grid resiliency, taking full advantage of the Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technology. The proposed architecture called SDN-microSENSE architecture consists of three main tiers: (a) Risk assessment, (b) intrusion detection and correlation and (c) self-healing. The first tier is responsible for evaluating dynamically the risk level of each Smart Grid asset. The second tier undertakes to detect and correlate security events and, finally, the last tier mitigates the potential threats, ensuring in parallel the normal operation of the Smart Grid. It is noteworthy that all tiers of the SDN-microSENSE architecture interact with the SDN controller either for detecting or mitigating intrusions