Run-time risk management in adaptive ICT systems

We will present results of the SERSCIS project related to risk management and mitigation strategies in adaptive multi-stakeholder ICT systems. The SERSCIS approach involves using semantic threat models to support automated design-time threat identification and mitigation analysis. The focus of this paper is the use of these models at run-time for automated threat detection and diagnosis. This is based on a combination of semantic reasoning and Bayesian inference applied to run-time system monitoring data. The resulting dynamic risk management approach is compared to a conventional ISO 27000 type approach, and validation test results presented from an Airport Collaborative Decision Making (A-CDM) scenario involving data exchange between multiple airport service providers

Image annotation with Photocopain

Photo annotation is a resource-intensive task, yet is increasingly essential as image archives and personal photo collections grow in size. There is an inherent conflict in the process of describing and archiving personal experiences, because casual users are generally unwilling to expend large amounts of effort on creating the annotations which are required to organise their collections so that they can make best use of them. This paper describes the Photocopain system, a semi-automatic image annotation system which combines information about the context in which a photograph was captured with information from other readily available sources in order to generate outline annotations for that photograph that the user may further extend or amend

A comparative study of Navier-Stokes codes for high-speed flows

A comparative study was made with four different codes for solving the compressible Navier-Stokes equations using three different test problems. The first of these cases was hypersonic flow through the P8 inlet, which represents inlet configurations typical of a hypersonic airbreathing vehicle. The free-stream Mach number in this case was 7.4. This 2-D inlet was designed to provide an internal compression ratio of 8. Initial calculations were made using two state-of-the-art finite-volume upwind codes, CFL3D and USA-PG2, as well as NASCRIN, a code which uses the unsplit finite-difference technique of MacCormack. All of these codes used the same algebraic eddy-viscosity turbulence model. In the experiment, the cowl lip was slightly blunted; however, for the computations, a sharp cowl leading edge was used to simplify the construction of the grid. The second test problem was the supersonic (Mach 3.0) flow in a three-dimensional corner formed by the intersection of two wedges with equal wedge angles of 9.48 degrees. The flow in such a corner is representative of the flow in the corners of a scramjet inlet. Calculations were made for both laminar and turbulent flow and compared with experimental data. The three-dimensional versions of the three codes used for the inlet study (CFL3D, USA-PG3, and SCRAMIN, respectively) were used for this case. For the laminar corner flow, a fourth code, LAURA, which also uses recently-developed upwind technology, was also utilized. The final test case is the two-dimensional hypersonic flow over a compression ramp. The flow is laminar with a free-stream Mach number of 14.1. In the experiment, the ramp angle was varied to change the strength of the ramp shock and the extent of the viscous-inviscid interaction. Calculations were made for the 24-degree ramp configuration which produces a large separated-flow region that extends upstream of the corner

ANSWER: A Semantic Approach to Film Direction

In this paper we present ANSWER, an innovative approach to film direction. Here we describe a methodology to semantically model the film domain in a way which is coherent with the director’s intent during film production. To achieve this, we are developing a system architecture which will provide the director with the necessary tools and services to author a scene description through intuitive gesture based graphical user interfaces, which will in turn populate the underlying model with a rich set of semantic descriptions. These semantic descriptions will be used to render the scene graphically through animated previsualizations. A director using the ANSWER methodology will be able to understand and assert certain film making decisions before film production begin

SERSCIS-Ont: A Formal Metrics Model for Adaptive Service Oriented Frameworks

In the Future Internet, programs will run on a dynamically changing collection of services, entailing the consumption of a more complex set of resources including financial resources. The von Neumann model offers no useful abstractions for such resources, even with refinements to address parallel and distributed computing devices. In this paper we detail the specification for a post-von Neumann model of metrics where program performance and resource consumption can be quantified and encoding of the behaviour of processes that use these resources is possible. Our approach takes a balanced view between service provider and service consumer requirements, supporting service management and protection as well as non-functional specifications for service discovery and composition

Towards cross media document annotation

The research work presented in this thesis focuses on manual and semi automatic methods for achieving semantic (single and cross media) document annotation. By adding "semantics" we mean explicitly specifying a meaning for the content being annotated and introducing a structure to the document based upon a shared common set of concepts and their relationships which conceptualize the domain in which is of interest. The motivation for this research work has been derived after observing the pitfalls in current practices for document lifecycle management and then drafting the requirements for the need to annotate (both in single and across media) documents. Firstly we identify the need for semantic document enrichment within the use cases where we applied our research. This is after observing the problems encountered by knowledge workers while following current work practises for document creation, storage and retrieval i.e. the document lifecycle. The research work carried out during the course of the thesis tries to address these pitfalls by introducing semantic annotation as a means to enrich the document during its lifecycle. Semantic enrichment of documents enables computer programs to comprehend the meaning of the content being annotated. This is possible due to the emergence of the next generation of the web called the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web the web acts as a universal medium for exchange of data. The standards and technologies developed as part of the Semantic Web research enable us to create linked data from structure sources with an underlying semantic meaning associated to them. In this thesis we introduce Semantic Annotation from a Semantic Web perspective i.e. using the core set of standards and technologies for enabling the Semantic Web. Then we identify the need for semantically annotating documents across media. Web documents consist of resources collated from various media (images, text etc) which complement each other in the given context. Annotating documents in single media does not take the context of these collated resources into account. For example in a web page the textual material could be used to complement the image which is being shown. At this stage of the research we will define what cross media annotation means, what its requirements are and how it will address the pitfalls in the practices followed in the use cases for managing a documents lifecycle. Further we will detail the enhancements cross media annotation provides over annotation in single media. After the definition stage we dwell into the technical requirements for creating a cross media annotation framework, how the complexity of the annotation process could be eased through the use of semi automated and socio collaborative approaches. Next we show how we have addressed the requirements identified during the definition stage and present the results achieved after a detailed user and statistical evaluation of the cross media framework (AKTive Media) which we have developed. The primary research questions we address in thesis deal with defining what cross media annotation is, what the requirements for cross media annotation (CM) are, identifying the technical requirements for creating a CM framework , specifying how the process of C;M annotation can be supported and the annotation complexity reduced. The dissemination and exploitation efforts to end users and the impact our research has made also presented in detail during the course of this thesis. Finally we describe how our research in knowledge acquisition using cross media annotation strategies has evolved into a new prototype for acquiring knowledge with the help of automated web forms which help knowledge workers in normal data entry operations while implicitly populating semantic knowledge bases without explicit effort from the user. This forms based system has been deployed into the use cases and also formed the basis for the formation of a spin out start up company.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Cross-Media document annotation and enrichment

Annotation of documents is a complex and labour intensive task. So far, research has focused on supporting the annotation of documents in single media, e.g. texts or images. Much less attention has been paid to the issue of annotating documents across media, especially useful for web documents that usually contain both text and images. In this paper we describe AKTiveMedia, a tool which supports human-centric annotation of documents across media. It offers a number of features to support different types of annotations, from ontology-based ones to free comments. We discuss what we believe are the main requirements for annotating Web documents, from support of annotator communities, to the reduction of the annotation burden, to the support of document lifecycle and how they have been implemented inside AKTiveMedia. The tool has applications in annotation of web pages, personal memories and knowledge management

SERSCIS: Semantic Modelling of Dynamic, Multi-Stakeholder Systems

This paper describes a novel approach to semantic system and security modelling developed in the SERSCIS project. The approach is designed to address dynamic multistakeholder systems that are composed from services at run-time. This presents several challenges for security risk modelling and management that are not well addressed by previous work. The biggest challenge is the fact that at design-time one only knows the structure but not the composition of the system, forcing an abstract modelling approach to be used. The SERSCIS approach deals with this by defining a set of OWL classes describing generic system assets, threats and security controls and the relationships between them. This dependability model captures security expertise concerning the types of threats that can arise in general and the controls that can be used to address them. An abstract system model can then be created using OWL subclasses, to capture the types of assets and their relationships in a specific system, but still without specifying how many assets, where they are deployed or what security controls they have. The resulting models can be used as inputs to run-time semantic monitoring tools, where the knowledge encoded in the abstract system model is used to automatically determine system threat activity and system vulnerabilities. The approach was validated in an Airport Collaborative Decision-Making scenario