Technical Report on Deploying a highly secured OpenStack Cloud Infrastructure using BradStack as a Case Study

Cloud computing has emerged as a popular paradigm and an attractive model for providing a reliable distributed computing model.it is increasing attracting huge attention both in academic research and industrial initiatives. Cloud deployments are paramount for institution and organizations of all scales. The availability of a flexible, free open source cloud platform designed with no propriety software and the ability of its integration with legacy systems and third-party applications are fundamental. Open stack is a free and opensource software released under the terms of Apache license with a fragmented and distributed architecture making it highly flexible. This project was initiated and aimed at designing a secured cloud infrastructure called BradStack, which is built on OpenStack in the Computing Laboratory at the University of Bradford. In this report, we present and discuss the steps required in deploying a secured BradStack Multi-node cloud infrastructure and conducting Penetration testing on OpenStack Services to validate the effectiveness of the security controls on the BradStack platform. This report serves as a practical guideline, focusing on security and practical infrastructure related issues. It also serves as a reference for institutions looking at the possibilities of implementing a secured cloud solution.Comment: 38 pages, 19 figures

Pengaruh Dimensi Service Quality Terhadap Customer Satisfaction Serta Pengaruh Customer Satisfaction Dan Trust Terhadap Customer Loyalty Bca Di Surabaya

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis pengaruh dimensi service quality, yang terdiri dari reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, dan tangibles terhadap customer satisfaction BCA di Surabaya, menganalisis pengaruh customer satisfaction terhadap customer loyalty BCA di Surabaya, serta menganalisis pengaruh trust terhadap customer loyalty BCA di Surabaya. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan menggunakan metode path analysis, yang diolah dengan software LISREL v. 8.70. Penelitian ini menggunakan sampel sebanyak 150 orang yang diambil dari sejumlah nasabah BCA yang ada di Surabaya. Teknik pengambilan sampel yang digunakan adalah non probability sampling dan jenisnya adalah convenience sampling. Skala pengukuran menggunakan skala perbedaan semantik dengan skor 1 s.d 7. Dalam penelitian ini juga dilakukan uji validitas dan uji reliabilitas alat ukur, selanjutnya dilakukan uji asumsi klasik, dan uji overall model fit serta structural model fit. Hasil dari penelitian ini, yaitu: (1) Tidak ada perbedaan antara model yang dikembangkan dengan data penelitian, karena memiliki nilai probabilitas χ² 0,146 > 0,05, bahkan tingkat kesesuaiannya relatif tinggi, yaitu mencapai 98,40% (GFI). (2) Berdasarkan model struktural pertama dapat dibuktikan bahwa dimensi service quality, yang terdiri dari reliability, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, dan tangibles mempunyai pengaruh positif signifikan terhadap customer satisfaction. Kemampuan menjelaskan lima dimensi service quality tersebut secara simultan terhadap customer satisfaction relatif besar, yaitu mencapai 91,60%. (3) Berdasarkan model struktural kedua dapat dibuktikan bahwa customer satisfaction dan trust mempunyai pengaruh positif signifikan terhadap cutomer loyalty. Kemampuan menjelaskan customer satisfaction dan trust secara simultan terhadap customer loyalty juga relatif besar, yaitu mencapai 76,50%

Application of GIS on Environmental Degradation Due to the Offshoots of Highway Development Projects: Central Ethiopian Highlands

Physical land degradation after road building has been observed in Central Ethiopian highlands through gully erosion. In this research work by using a number of methods such as Field observation, gully measurement, GIS technique, the 1997 and 2006 topomap and socio-economic questionnaires, the impacts of the road on land degradation has been studied. It investigates how highway construction in the Ethiopian Highlands affects the gully erosion risk by quantifying the catchment area before and after road construction, the number of gullies created, and its characteristics in two selected cases: Addis Ababa-Fiche and Addis Ababa-Ambo. Accordingly; since the building of the road, 17 new gullies were created immediately down slope of the studied road segments and 8 other gullies at a radical change in its dimensions. The average catchment area is now 58.28 hectares and 74.52 on the road segments of Fiche and Ambo respectively, which is significantly different (p<0.001) from the average pre-road catchment area of 8.45 and 14.52 hectares (paired average). The total surface area occupied by gullies in the side of Fiche road and in the side of Ambo road transects was about 63,892.6 m2 and 59,214.25 m2 respectively. The volume of soil loss was calculated between 12,530.38 m3 and 71,420 m3 from each road segments. The result of statistical analysis indicates that variation of the gully length contributed 95% of variation in the volume of soil loss. The Gully density (5.7m/ha to 14.06m/ha) implies that the sampled roadside areas were moderately to severely degraded. The damages and associated problems of the gullies, as explained by farmers, include loss of land, dissection of farms, and deposition of sediments on growing crops and in extreme cases putting agricultural fields out of production. Hence roads should be designed in a way that keeps runoff interception, concentration and deviation minimal. Techniques must be used to spread concentrated runoff in space and time and to increase its infiltration instead of directing it straight onto unprotected slopes.Key words: Gully erosion Risk, catchment area, Road design, Ecological destruction

Novel Apparatus for High-Pressure, High-Temperature Growth Of Diamond

There is an urgent need for high-quality fluorescent nanodiamonds for applications in biosensing and quantum information. Existing techniques provide poor diamond quality, making them unsuitable for most applications. The only exception is to etch bulk diamonds by lithography, but this is complex and not scalable to large quantities of nanodiamonds. For bulk diamonds, the most successful growth techniques are chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT). However, for nanodiamonds, CVD is not scalable because it is surface-based. Therefore HPHT is the best option. While many decades of research have led to reliable techniques to grow high-quality bulk diamonds by HPHT, nanodiamonds have only recently been researched. Developing novel nanodiamond growth techniques with large HPHT presses is hampered by the lack of good, real-time diagnostics. Many experiments must be performed, stopped at different times, to get a good profile of the growth process. To overcome this, diamond anvil cells (DACs) have recently been explored. These have the advantage of real-time diagnostics, and can also incorporate laser heating which in turn can access pressures, growth temperatures, and growth times that cannot be achieved in larger, closed presses. The aim of this master’s project was to investigate and improve all aspects of DAC design for future diamond growth, especially with laser heating. This includes novel DAC hardware design, real-time pressure control, different gasket and culet designs, improved loading and unloading techniques, as well as a variety of laser wavelengths and types for both heating and diagnostics

Perancangan Karya Fotografi Fashion Kain Tenun Insana Dari Pulau Timor Nusa Tenggara Timur

Indah, epik, inspiratif, dan kaya akan sejarah budaya, tampaknya tidak cukup bagi Kain Tenun Insanauntuk memperlihatkan dalam desain. Sebagai salah satu aset bangsa, tampilan dari Kain Tenun Insana NusaTenggara Timur dapat di eksplorasikan lebih luas dipadukan dengan kekayaan alam Pulau Timor yang memilikinilai yang sangat tinggi. Perancangan ini berusaha mengeksplorasi antara kain adat dan kekayaan alam yang beradadi Insana Pulau Timor dalam tampilan karya fotografi fashion

Engineering of Diamond Based Sensor for Nano-Scale Magnetic Field Sources

Diamond-based magnetometry utilizes the negatively charged nitrogen-vacancy color center NV. For sensing nano-scale magnetic field sources, the small size of the NV is a great advantage over other magnetometers. However, conventional implantation and growth techniques fail to produce very shallow NVs which can be brought to close proximity of small magnetic field sources. Here, we investigate innovative implantation and growth techniques to address this problem. For bulk diamond, we were able to create a concentrated layer of NVs approximately 2nm for the diamond surface. Direct measurement of magnetic sensitivity for this layer yields a sensitivity of 125nT µm³/²∕√ Hz. For currents running in nano-scale wires on the diamond surface this translates to sensitivities below fA/√ Hz. To produce superior nanodiamond magnetic sensor, we attempt growth of fluorescent nanodiamonds using two methods, High-Pressure-High-Temperature (HPHT), and plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition CVD. We show results for fluorescent nanodiamond grown around 1-adamantylamine seed molecule. We show that the nitrogen in the seed molecule was successfully transformed to NV through electron irradiation at high temperature. Also, we show results of fluorescent nanodiamonds grown using a home built plasma CVD system. Nitrogen was introduced to the diamond by adding trimethylamine to the reactor chamber. Once again, the diamond was not fluorescent until after electron irradiation at high temperature

Therapeutic Efficacy and Effects of Artesunate-Mefloquine and Mefloquine Alone on Malaria-Associated Anemia in Children with Uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Southwest Nigeria

The treatment efficacy and effects of artesunate-mefloquine (AMQ) and mefloquine (MQ) on malariaassociated anemia (MAA) were evaluated in 342 children ≤ 10 years of age with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria randomized to receive either drug/drug combination. All children recovered clinically. Fever clearance times were similar. Parasite clearance was significantly faster with AMQ (mean ± SD = 1.4 ± 0.6 days, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.3–1.5, P < 0.0001), but polymerase chain reaction–corrected cure rates were similar (97% versus 94%). Gametocyte carriage rates and the drug-attributable fall in hematocrit were significantly lower with AMQ (mean ± SD = 4.8 ± 3.8%, 95% CI = 3.6–6.0, P = 0.03), but the rates of resolution of MAA were similar. Both regimens were well tolerated. AMQ clears parasitemia and reduces gametocyte carriage more rapidly and causes lesser fall in hematocrit than MQ, but both regimens are effective treatment of uncomplicated P. falciparum malaria in Nigerian children

Temperature dependence of erythromelalgia mutation L858F in sodium channel Nav1.7

BACKGROUND: The disabling chronic pain syndrome erythromelalgia (also termed erythermalgia) is characterized by attacks of burning pain in the extremities induced by warmth. Pharmacological treatment is often ineffective, but the pain can be alleviated by cooling of the limbs. Inherited erythromelalgia has recently been linked to mutations in the gene SCN9A, which encodes the voltage-gated sodium channel Nav1.7. Nav1.7 is preferentially expressed in most nociceptive DRG neurons and in sympathetic ganglion neurons. It has recently been shown that several disease-causing erythromelalgia mutations alter channel-gating behavior in a manner that increases DRG neuron excitability. RESULTS: Here we tested the effects of temperature on gating properties of wild type Nav1.7 and mutant L858F channels. Whole-cell voltage-clamp measurements on wild type or L858F channels expressed in HEK293 cells revealed that cooling decreases current density, slows deactivation and increases ramp currents for both mutant and wild type channels. However, cooling differentially shifts the midpoint of steady-state activation in a depolarizing direction for L858F but not for wild type channels. CONCLUSION: The cooling-dependent shift of the activation midpoint of L858F to more positive potentials brings the threshold of activation of the mutant channels closer to that of wild type Nav1.7 at lower temperatures, and is likely to contribute to the alleviation of painful symptoms upon cooling in affected limbs in patients with this erythromelalgia mutation

Screening Fluorescent Voltage Indicators with Spontaneously Spiking HEK Cells

Development of improved fluorescent voltage indicators is a key challenge in neuroscience, but progress has been hampered by the low throughput of patch-clamp characterization. We introduce a line of non-fluorescent HEK cells that stably express NaV 1.3 and KIR 2.1 and generate spontaneous electrical action potentials. These cells enable rapid, electrode-free screening of speed and sensitivity of voltage sensitive dyes or fluorescent proteins on a standard fluorescence microscope. We screened a small library of mutants of archaerhodopsin 3 (Arch) in spiking HEK cells and identified two mutants with greater voltage-sensitivity than found in previously published Arch voltage indicators