QOS Monitoring in Middleware

Monitoring the system and services is unavoidable if quality of service (QoS) is to be provided. This paper describes monitoring of middleware components, which express the business logic of e-business applications, and the environment in which they execute. Middleware components have become important because of their prominent role in the EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) and implementation of n-tier web applications. We have developed a framework and a supporting toolkit that enables a QoS specialist/engineer to facilitate monitoring and reporting. Two types of monitored data are collected. The QoS engineer identifies critical activities withing a component so that their delays can be captured. Also collected are data from probing sub-systems forming the environment in which the components execute. We discuss in detail our approach to instrumentation of monitoring probes. Probes habe been successfully instrumented for a number of (sub)systems that form the environment in which the componenets execute, systems that include operating, network, and DB systems

Diagnostic approach for monitoring hydroclimatic conditions related to emergence of West Nile virus in West Virginia

West Nile virus (WNV), mosquito-borne and water-based disease, is increasingly a global threat to public health. Since its appearance in the northeastern United States in 1999, WNV has since been reported in several states in the continental United States. The objective of this study is to highlight role of hydroclimatic processes estimated through satellite sensors in capturing conditions for emergence of the vectors in historically disease free regions. We tested the hypothesis that an increase in surface temperature, in combination with intensification of vegetation, and enhanced precipitation, lead to conditions favorable for vector (mosquito) growth. Analysis of land surface temperature (LST) pattern shows that temperature values \u3e16°C, with heavy precipitation, may lead to abundance of the mosquito population. This hypothesis was tested in West Virginia where a sudden epidemic of WNV infection was reported in 2012. Our results emphasize the value of hydroclimatic processes estimated by satellite remote sensing, as well as continued environmental surveillance of mosquitoes, because when a vector-borne infection like WNV is discovered in contiguous regions, the risk of spread of WNV mosquitoes increase at points where appropriate hydroclimatic processes intersect with the vector niche

Becoming a secondary science teacher : an exploration of key personal, professional & situated experiences & how these shape science teacher identities : a multiple case study

Ed. D. ThesisThis holistic study theorises student teachers (STs’) personal, professional and situated experiences as identity formation and embraces Wenger’s (1998) social theory of learning framework. The study offers fruitful insights into the intricate scenarios that challenge or support STs’ identity development as secondary science teachers. Three ST’s partook, two PGCE ST’s and one GTP ST which formed each case study. They were recruited using a sample of convenience. Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, three questionnaires, diamond ranking and documentary evidence. The methodology of analysis is embedded within an interpretive paradigm. Thematic analysis is used in addition to an integrated analytical framework. This includes aspects of Day and Kington’s (2008) identity model intertwined with Valsiner's (1997) two basic extended zone theory concepts comprised of the Zone of Free Movement (ZFM) and Zone of Promoted Action (ZPA). The three ST’s professional and situated experiences are mapped on to these models to identify factors that exercise the most/least dominance. This revealed the relative stability/instability depicted within each identity dimension including the personal dimension of identity. This provided an overall snapshot of the identity scenario each ST experienced whilst training and highlighted areas of training that required further improvement and development. Study findings confirm that STs’ experiences are uniquely constructed and socially negotiated for each individual. A combination of personal, professional and situated identity scenarios is experienced to varying degrees by all STs’ which either challenge or support identity development. Experiences embedded within the situated dimension (context-dependent) in HEI/DRB and school learning communities (for both GTPs and PGCEs) are found to be most dominant in shaping STs’ identities as science teachers. The quality of emotional/professional support (from NQTs, HEI/DRB personnel and school mentors), training provision and availability of stable teaching environments are all pertinent factors. The various discourses STs’ participate in, the professional relationships they establish and a sense of belonging to learning/teaching communities are also found to be an influential mediating factors. Those who experience conflict(s) in these training areas did not always recognise the value of these tensions in developing their teacher identities. Findings also reveal how those who express confidence with their subject-knowledge, felt ill-equipped with the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) required (e.g. lesson planning) needed to teach their subject matter at a level that pupils could grasp. This signals that greater recognition of the link between PCK and Subject Content knowledge (SCK) is required. This left some STs’ feeling despondent and inadequate as science teachers which impacted on their confidence, well-being and hindered their identity development. Study findings have implications at programme/school level and for policy makers by highlighting key areas of the teacher education curriculum/training provision that may require development and further improvements. Addressing key concern areas may subsequently provide future STs’ with stronger more stable learning/teaching environments where identity development as science teachers could be enhanced. There is a need for teacher educators to encourage STs’ to be mindful of all their experiences (positive or negative) and how experiencing highs and lows is a normal part of becoming a teacher and can prove fruitful in shaping their identities as science teachers

Upending Stock Market Structure Using Secure Multi-Party Computation

The stock markets have two primary functions, that of providing liquidity and price discovery. While the market micro-structure was mostly ignored or assumed to function ideally for the purpose of asset pricing, M. O\u27Hara (Journal of Finance, 2003) has established that both liquidity and price discovery affect asset pricing, and in particular asset returns. While the cost of liquidity provision is borne by investors, and is clearly detrimental to asset returns, periodic price discovery has both positive and negative consequences for asset pricing. In this work we propose using cryptography, and in particular multi-party secure computation, to setup a novel stock market structure that, to a large extent, removes the negative consequences of liquidity costs and periodic price discovery. Interestingly, the proposed market structure takes us back to the early days of stock markets, i.e. periodic call markets, but with the not so ``trusted\u27\u27 auctioneer replaced by secure distributed computing where no individual party (or small coalition) gets to know the order book

eGovernment in Execution: Building Organizational Infastructure

This paper presents a sub-framework detailing critical aspects of organizational infrastructure for egovernment. According to an Accenture study performed in early 2001, Canada ranked first as a worldwide leader in e-government practices. However, the results of a survey of municipal e-government web sites in Canada illustrate how the absence of organizational infrastructure for egovernment has resulted in very little diffusion across the country. We speculate that excellence in e-government can only become widespread if formal organizational infrastructure with its accompanying diffusion networks and mechanisms are put in place

Encryption Modes with Almost Free Message Integrity

We define a new mode of operation for block ciphers which in addition to providing confidentiality also ensures message integrity. In contrast, previously for message integrity a separate pass was required to compute a cryptographic message authentication code (MAC). The new mode of operation, called Integrity Aware Parallelizable Mode (IAPM), requires a total of m+1 block cipher evaluations on a plain-text of length m blocks. For comparison, the well known CBC (cipher block chaining) encryption mode requires m block cipher evaluations, and the second pass of computing the CBC-MAC essentially requires additional m+1 block cipher evaluations. As the name suggests, the new mode is also highly parallelizable

Authenticated Encryption Mode IAPM using SHA-3\u27s Public Random Permutation

We study instantiating the random permutation of the block-cipher mode of operation IAPM (Integrity-Aware Parallelizable Mode) with the public random permutation of Keccak, on which the draft standard SHA-3 is built. IAPM and the related mode OCB are single-pass highly parallelizable authenticated-encryption modes, and while they were originally proven secure in the private random permutation model, Kurosawa has shown that they are also secure in the public random permutation model assuming the whitening keys are uniformly chosen with double the usual entropy. In this paper, we show a general composability result that shows that the whitening key can be obtained from the usual entropy source by a key-derivation function which is itself built on Keccak. We stress that this does not follow directly from the usual indifferentiability of key-derivation function constructions from Random Oracles. We also show that a simple and general construction, again employing Keccak, can also be used to make the IAPM scheme key-dependent-message secure. Finally, implementations on modern AMD-64 architecture supporting 128-bit SIMD instructions, and not supporting the native AES instructions, show that IAPM with Keccak runs three times faster than IAPM with AES

Inflation-Tracking Proof-of-Work Crypto-Currencies

We show that Bitcoin and other egalitarian crypto-currencies are unstable as store-of-value as they fail to track inflation of local currencies closely, and the price dynamic is purely driven by speculation. Based on rational expectations equilibrium, we argue that if the coins awarded during mining are increased in proportion to increase in difficulty of the underlying cryptographic puzzle, then the price of the coin is likely to track inflation of local currencies closely over medium to long term. Further, a hyper-geometric tapering, instead of a geometric tapering, of the mining award over time is recommended for bootstrapping interest in the crypto-currency