Peer-to-Peer Secure Updates for Heterogeneous Edge Devices

We consider the problem of securely distributing software updates to large scale clusters of heterogeneous edge compute nodes. Such nodes are needed to support the Internet of Things and low-latency edge compute scenarios, but are difficult to manage and update because they exist at the edge of the network behind NATs and firewalls that limit connectivity, or because they are mobile and have intermittent network access. We present a prototype secure update architecture for these devices that uses the combination of peer-to-peer protocols and automated NAT traversal techniques. This demonstrates that edge devices can be managed in an environment subject to partial or intermittent network connectivity, where there is not necessarily direct access from a management node to the devices being updated

Patterns of care and treatment outcomes of patients with astroblastoma: A National Cancer Database analysis

AIM: To evaluate the use of chemotherapy and radiation, and their outcomes for patients with astroblastoma. PATIENTS & METHODS: This is a retrospective review of patients extracted from the National Cancer Database. We investigated overall survival (OS) using Kaplan-Meier curves. Cox proportional hazards models were used to correlate OS with risk variables and treatments. RESULTS: OS at 5 years was 79.5%. Patients with high-grade tumors were more likely to receive chemotherapy and radiation. Patients with high-grade astroblastoma who did not receive adjuvant radiation had poor survival. CONCLUSION: Patients with astroblastoma should be treated with curative intent. Radiation is likely beneficial in high-grade astroblastoma. The exact role of radiation and chemotherapy following surgical resection warrant further investigation

In Search of Culturally Sustaining Music Pedagogy: Adolescent Music Students’ Perceptions of Singing and Music Teaching

The diversity present within K-12 classrooms in the United States presents teachers with students from many backgrounds and musical traditions. Traditional undergraduate music education programs which prioritize the Western canon provide little opportunity for students to address diversity, both in pedagogy and in content. Prospective music teachers in the choral or general music areas experience vocal education that focuses primarily on the classical bel canto vocal technique. This education fails to prepare teachers to teach students from diverse backgrounds and musical traditions. Because music plays an important role in adolescents’ identity formation, teachers who are unprepared to recognize and teach diverse vocal styles may unknowingly alienate or silence their students. The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of how two groups of music students, in early adolescence, and from a diverse urban public school, perceive the singing and the music teaching in their general music classrooms. By discovering their perspectives, I hoped to shed light on the ways in which music teaching influenced their musical, vocal, and cultural identities, particularly during the malleable time of adolescence. Over the course of three months, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 14 students and two teachers as well as twice-weekly classroom observations. Three research questions informed the data collection process: (1) How do students in a diverse urban public school describe their own singing and musical background? (2) How do they describe the vocal (and music) teaching in their general music class? (3) How do they describe an effective or ideal music teacher? The interview data and field notes from the observations were coded, organized, and analyzed into the following categories: (1) Music and Self Expression; (2) Music and Family; (3) Culturally Congruent and Incongruent Teaching; (4) Student Vocal Profiles; (5) If They Could Teach the Music Class, How Would They Teach? The overarching conclusion from this study is that the congruence or incongruence of a teacher’s musical epistemology — “the norms, logic, values, and way of knowing” music (Domínguez, 2017, p. 233) — along with the musical epistemologies of her students was the primary factor for student exclusion or empowerment in the classroom

KNOWING THE NATURAL WORLD: THE CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT EVOLUTION IN AND OUT OF THE CLASSROOM

Evolution is a central underlying concept to a significant number of discourses in civilized society, but the complexity of understanding basic tenets of this important theory is just now coming to light. Knowledge about evolution is constructed from both formal and free-choice opportunities, like television. Nature programs are commonly considered educational by definition, but research indicates the narratives often promote creationist ideas about this important process in biology. I explored how nature programs influenced knowledge construction about evolutionary theory using a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches. Because misconceptions about evolution are common, I examined how students` conceptual ecologies changed in response to information presented in an example of a particularly poor nature film narrative. Students` held a diversity of misconceptions, proximate conceptions, and evolutionary conceptions simultaneously, and many of their responses were direct reflections of the nature program. As a result, I incorporated the same nature program into an experiment designed to examine the effects of narrative and imagery on evolution understanding. After completing an extensive pre-assessment that addressed attitudes and beliefs about science knowledge, students viewed one of four versions of the nature program that varied in the quality of science and imagery presented. The effect of watching different versions was only vaguely apparent in students with a moderate understanding of evolution. The relationship was much more complex among students with a poor understanding of evolution but suggested a negative effect that was more influenced by public discourses about this controversial subject than conceptual understanding. The relationships warranted examining learning from the perspective of the consumers of these programs. I surveyed audience beliefs about the educational value of nature programs and found that an overwhelming majority believed the programs were educational and designed to teach about nature. The results were particularly alarming because beliefs about the educational value may strongly impact learning outcomes. An informal survey of nature programs aired during a sweeps month indicated that poor presentation of science, and specifically evolutionary theory, was indeed the norm. Indeed, nature programs may be contributing to the deconstruction of knowledge about evolution both in and out of the classroom

Application Profile Development for Consortial Digital Libraries: An OhioLINK Case Study

In 2002, OhioLINK’s consortia of libraries recognized the need to restructure and standardize the metadata used in the OhioLINK Digital Media Center as a step in the development of a general purpose digital object re-pository. The authors explore the concept of digital object repositories and mechanisms used to develop complex data structures in a cooperative environment, report the findings and recommendations of the OhioLINK Data-base Management and Standards Committee (DMSC) Metadata Task Force, and identify lessons learned, ad-dressing data structures as well as data content standards. A significant result of the work was the creation of the OhioLINK Digital Media Center (DMC) Metadata Application Profile and the implementation of a core set of metadata elements and Dublin Core Metadata Element Set mappings for use in OhioLINK digital projects. The profile and core set of metatadata elements are described