Fault tolerant and highly available entitlement server

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 20, 2013).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Thesis advisor: Dr. Gordon K. SpringerIncludes bibliographical references.M. S. University of Missouri--Columbia 2011."July 2011"The current project is based, in part, on the use of Shibboleth to provide restricted access to resources via the web. These services and the incorporation of a separate Entitlement Server provide fine-grained access to protected resources. This project incorporates multiple Entitlement Servers to provide a robust authorization environment that can continue to operate in the event of server or network failures in the trusted environment. The design proposed in this project decentralizes the authorization process by running multiple entitlement server applications in the network. The project outlines a procedure of interaction between a service provider and the group of entitlement servers for performing the authorization of users. Multiple entitlement servers in the network help in achieving a fault tolerant and highly available authorization process. The authorization process can proceed when at least one entitlement server is present in the logical group. Each of the entitlement servers present in the group maintains enough information about the users to make detailed authorization decisions. An information synchronization methodology is utilized such that each of the entitlement servers has consistent data. The scalable architecture of the authorization process allows the addition of an additional entitlement server to the group on the fly. The design also considers the security risk factors so that any communication message between two entities is encrypted to avoid disclosure of the messages

Gendered Social Fabric and Identity Crisis in Mahesh Dattani's Tara

The history of Indian English Drama demonstrates the presence of individual talents and sporadic theatrical activity. The roots of the theatre in Indian Society are certainly very old and deep. Although plays about women have existed since the origin of drama yet feminist drama emerged as a theatrical genre in the sixties bringing the burning issues of gender discrimination as well as the tortures inflicted on the female. Tara is the tragedy of a feisty girl who falls a prey to the gender disparity prevalent in the Indian society and thereafter proves her mettle in the world of male supremacy. Tara is an ideal character of Mahesh Dattani which has been widely applauded by the audience and the readers alike. Dattani has tried to depict the feminine side which always has to come to terms with the society that favours only male viewpoint in a male-dominated world. The playwright is concerned not only with the issue of gender discrimination in Indian society but also with the contribution of the female to the injustice towards women. Throughout the play, Dattani shows his audience the difference between sex and gender indicating that women don't have their own status and identity in the society. The play effectively belies all the propagandas of equality between male and female

Visualization and analysis of sensor data for detecting microclimate cold air pools

Cold air pools are spatiotemporal phenomena that occur when cold air from higher elevations roll down the slope to accumulate in lower elevations. Behaviors like this lead to microclimate anomalies such as the city of Corvallis (Oregon) experiencing persistent cold weather even on a sunny day. We analyze multivariate temperature time-series data and associated covariates from about 160 sensors from the HJ Andrews Research Forest (Oregon) through visualization and modeling to study this phenomenon. We develop detectors to localize cold air pools in both time and space, and carry out simulation studies to assess their performance under different microclimatic and sensor-performance conditions.Keywords: Polynomial regression, Cold Air Pools, Piecewise Linear Regression, Machine Learnin

Evaluation of antihypertensive efficacy of Losartan + Hydrochlorthiazide versus Telmisartan + Hydrochlorthiazide in patients with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension: a randomized controlled trial

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common contributor of morbidity and mortality in underdeveloped and developing countries including the South Asian countries (including India and Pakistan). Amongst the cluster group of CVDs, Hypertension (HTN) represents the most common cardiovascular risk factor. The aim of this trial was to evaluate of antihypertensive efficacy and effect on biochemical parameters of Losartan + Hydrochlorthiazide versus Telmisartan + Hydrochlorthiazide in patients with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension with a randomized controlled trial.Methods: This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial of Losartan + Hydrochlorthiazide versus Telmisartan + Hydrochlorthiazide in patients with stage 1 or stage 2 hypertension. The primary endpoint on treatment was analysis of antihypertensive efficacy of these drug combinations. The variables were compared at different time points- baseline, 3 and 6 months.Results: In the present study, 76 patients were enrolled with 38 patients each allocated to each treatment groups. The effect of Losartan 50mg + Hydrochlorthiazide 12.5mg OD was found to be significant on SBP and DBP in both supine as well as sitting position than Telmisartan 80mg + Hydrochlorthiazide 12.5mg OD group at 3 and 6 months.Conclusions: The results on anti- hypertensive efficacy was far better in Losartan 50mg + Hydrochlorthiazide 12.5mg OD group than Telmisartan 80mg + Hydrochlorthiazide 12.5mg OD group

The effects of particle size, fermentation and roasting of cocoa nibs on supercritical fluid extraction of cocoa butter

The effects of particle size, fermentation, roasting time and roasting temperature of cocoa nibs on cocoa butter extraction using supercritical fluid technology were studied. The effect of particle size was studied using cocoa liquor (D = 0.074 mm), ground cocoa nib (D = 0.25–0.50 mm and 1.0–1.2 mm) and whole cocoa nibs at 35 MPa, 60 °C and flow rate of 2 ml/min using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2). The effect of degree of fermentation was studied using unfermented, partly fermented and fermented cocoa, whereas the effect of roasting using roasted and unroasted cocoa nibs. Fermentation and roasting studies were conducted under the same operation conditions as particle size study using SC-CO2 but with ethanol (25% w/w) as cosolvent. Cocoa butter extracted from the three studies was analyzed for total fat content (%), triglycerides and fatty acid methyl ester. The results showed that the extraction yield was significantly increased by a reduction in particle size. The highest yield was also obtained using unfermented cocoa, roasted for 35 min and at 150 °C. Generally, cocoa butter had similar triglycerides and fatty acid methyl ester composition at 5, 10 and 15 h extraction time. Glycerol-1,3-dipalmitate-2-oleate (POP), glycerol-1-palmitate-2-oleate-3-stearate (POS), and glycerol-1,3-distearate-2-oleate (SOS) account for most of the triglycerides, with POS (42.52–46.44%) being the major component. Palmitic, stearic and oleic were the main fatty acids in the extracted cocoa butter, with stearic acid being the highest component (33.70–40.22%)

Mapping of Quantitative Trait Loci for Grain Iron and Zinc Concentration in Diploid A Genome Wheat

Micronutrients, especially iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn), are deficient in the diets of people in underdeveloped countries. Biofortification of food crops is the best approach for alleviating the micronutrient deficiencies. Identification of germplasm with high grain Fe and Zn and understanding the genetic basis of their accumulation are the prerequisites for manipulation of these micronutrients. Some wild relatives of wheat were found to have higher grain Fe and Zn concentrations compared with the cultivated bread wheat germplasm. One accession of Triticum boeoticum (pau5088) that had relatively higher grain Fe and Zn was crossed with Triticum monococcum (pau14087), and a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population generated from this cross was grown at 2 locations over 2 years. The grains of the RIL population were evaluated for Fe and Zn concentration using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The grain Fe and Zn concentrations in the RIL population ranged from 17.8 to 69.7 and 19.9 to 64.2 mg/kg, respectively. A linkage map available for the population was used for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain Fe and Zn accumulation. The QTL analysis led to identification of 2 QTL for grain Fe on chromosomes 2A and 7A and 1 QTL for grain Zn on chromosome 7A. The grain Fe QTL were mapped in marker interval Xwmc382-Xbarc124 and Xgwm473-Xbarc29, respectively, each explaining 12.6% and 11.7% of the total phenotypic variation and were designated as QFe.pau-2A and QFe.pau-7A. The QTL for grain Zn, which mapped in marker interval Xcfd31-Xcfa2049, was designated as QZn.pau-7A and explained 18.8% of the total phenotypic variatio