Toward a framework for cloud security

While the emergence of cloud computing has made it possible to rent information technology infrastructures on demand, it has also created new security challenges. The primary security concern is trusting data (or resources in general) on another organization’s system. This document seeks to examine the current state of security in cloud computing and presents a set of challenges to address the security needs of clouds. The end result is a framework to help the design and implementation of effective cloud security infrastructures.

A technology to expose a cluster as a service in a cloud

Clouds refer to computational resources (in particular, clusters) that are accessible as scalable, on demand, pay-as- you-go services provided in the Internet. However, clouds are in their infancy and lack a high level abstraction. Specifically, there is no effective discovery and selection service for clusters and offer little to no ease of use for clients. Here we show a technology that exposes clusters as Web services in the form of a Cluster as a Service for publishing via WSDL, discovering, selecting and using clusters.

A SOA-driven business intelligence architecture

A business intelligence architecture comprises of different unique components to collect, transform, analyze and present the structured and unstructured raw data in simple formats to assist decision makers in making timely decisions. The introduction of service-oriented architecture (SOA) enables reusable services which are accessible over a network on demand. However, there is still a lack of academic literatures on the business intelligence architecture with service-oriented concept. Based upon various references on BI architectures from major vendors, a novel BI architecture that is built on service-oriented concept is presented and described in this paper. The proposed service-oriented architecture enables enterprises to deploy a more agile, flexible, cheaper, reusable, reliable and responsive BI applications in supporting decision making process.

Toward higher level abstractions for cloud computing

The general idea of cloud computing is offering computational resources as scalable, on demand services accessible over the internet. However, this new realisation of on demand computing is hindered by the amount of user involvement. Currently, high level abstractions in cloud computing only exist in the form of services. In particular, there is no effective means to publish, discover and finally use required services in clouds. In response, we propose a user level abstraction on top of already available cloud abstraction layers, present its concept using the resources via web services (RVWS) framework and demonstrate its feasibility by simplifying the exposure and use of clusters, a commonly used resource in cloud computing.

Trust ticket deployment : a notion of a data owner's trust in cloud computing

While cloud computing (CC) is a scalable model of shared infrastructure and on-demand computing, it lacks a transparent trust and security mechanism. A data owner (DO) loses control over the data outsourced to a machine in the cloud controlled and operated by a cloud service provider (CSP). This machine is at a location unknown to a data owner. This loss of control over data is further intensified with the lack of managing users' access to the data from practical cloud computing perspectives. In this paper, we introduce a new mechanism of ensuring trust and security in Software as a Service (SaaS) CC. Trust Ticket, with the supporting protocols, is our mechanism that helps a data owner in establishing a link between a CSP and a registered user. In our mechanism, a user first gets registered with a DO before receiving a Trust Ticket and a secret key from that DO. Each Trust Ticket is unique and encrypted. On completing the registration of each user, the DO apprises the CSP of the Trust Ticket. Trust Ticket and secret key are respectively for the registered user's getting accepted to the CSP and having a view of the data owner's data upon a successful verification by the CSP. We have done our experiment in Java network programming by creating an emulated cloud computing framework under the VMware ESXi 4.1 hyper visor based platform. Using the framework, we have evaluated our algorithmic protocol for Trust Ticket. We have also compared our work with prior work. Overall performance of our work is better. We argue that our proposed algorithmic protocol for Trust Ticket deployment establishes a data owner's trust. This trust is established through a data owner's control over data and a registered user, because a registered user is linked with a CSP by a data owner through Trust Ticket.

A cooperative cache architecture in support of caching multimedia objects in MANETs

This paper presents a cooperative caching architecture suitable for continuous media (CM) proxy caching in MANET environments. The proposed scheme introduces an application manager component, which is interposed between traditional Internet CM applications and the network layer. The application manager transparently performs data location and service migration of active CM streaming sessions so as to exploit nearby data sources based on the dynamic topology of a MANET. We propose two data location schemes - Cache-State - a link-state based scheme and Reactive - an on-demand scheme. Since service migration can occur frequently, the application manager uses soft-state signaling techniques to communicate between remote application managers by translating hard-state application signaling, such as Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) into soft-state messages. The proposed schemes are evaluated through simulation studies using the NS simulator. Simulation studies show that both Cache-State and Reactive schemes demonstrate significant QoS improvements and reduced bandwidth consumption.

Distributed query processing for mobile surveillance

Addressing core issues in mobile surveillance, we present an architecture for querying and retrieving distributed, semi-permanent multi-modal data through challenged networks with limited connectivity. The system provides a rich set of queries for spatio-temporal querying in a surveillance context, and uses the network availability to provide best quality of service. It incrementally and adaptively refines the query, using data already retrieved that exists on static platforms and on-demand data that it requests from mobile platforms. We demonstrate the system using a real surveillance system on a mobile 20 bus transport network coupled with static bus depot infrastructure. In addition, we show the robustness of the system in handling different conditions in the underlying infrastructure by running simulations on a real, but historic dataset collected in an offline manner.

IaaS clouds vs. clusters for HPC: a performance study

The increasing amount of data collected in the fields of physics and bio-informatics allows researchers to build realistic, and therefore accurate, models/simulations and gain a deeper understanding of complex systems. This analysis is often at the cost of greatly increased processing requirements. Cloud computing, which provides on demand resources, can offset increased analysis requirements. While beneficial to researchers, adaption of clouds has been slow due to network and performance uncertainties. We compare the performance of cloud computers to clusters to make clear the advantages and limitations of clouds. Focus has been put on understanding how virtualization and the underlying network effects performance of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications. Collected results indicate that performance comparable to high performance clusters is achievable on cloud computers depending on the type of application run.

Biofunctionalization of 3D nylon 6,6 scaffolds using a two-step surface modification

Nylon is a relatively inert polymer. The ability to easily functionalize nylon with biomolecules will improve the utilization of nylon in biological systems. A potential use of the biofunctionalized nylon scaffolds is in devices for cell therapeutics that can specifically select cells present in small numbers, such as hematopoietic stem cells. This study developed a versatile and simple two-step technique combining oxygen plasma treatment with wet silanization to graft biomolecules onto nylon 6,6 3D porous scaffolds. Scaffolds that were exposed to oxygen plasma exhibited up to 13-fold increase in silane attachment ((3-mercaptopropyl)trimethoxysilane/(3-aminopropyl)trimethoxysilane) compared to untreated scaffolds. To address the limitation of nondestructive characterization of the surface chemistry of 3D scaffolds, fluorescent CdSe/ZnS nanoparticles were used as a reporting tool for -NH(2) functionalized surfaces. Scaffolds that were covalently bound with neutravidin protein remained stable in phosphate buffered saline up to four months. Functionality of the neutravidin-grafted scaffolds was demonstrated by the specific binding of CD4 cells to the scaffold via CD4-specific antibody. Ultimately, these neutravidin-functionalized 3D nylon scaffolds could be easily customized on demand utilizing a plethora of biotinylated biomolecules (antibodies, enzymes and proteins) to select for specific cell of interest. This technique can be extended to other applications, including the enhancement of cell-scaffold interactions.

Web 2.0 : an argument against convergence

Web 2.0 has been a dominant concept in recent discussion and development of Internet applications, businesses and uses. Dating from 2004, the term Web 2.0 is variously understood as new forms of website development and delivery technology, changing uses of the Internet to emphasise sociability over consumption, new understandings of the possible financial exploitation of the web, and more broadly, a new way of thinking about the Internet as a whole. However, Web 2.0 is, conceptually, both more and less than these various understandings and we can only grasp why it has become such a key term in contemporary usage by appreciating two key discursive foundations for this term. Firstly, much Web 2.0 thinking is a re-expression of long-held ideas about the Internet and the web. Secondly, at the particular time when Web 2.0 was made popular, net technology policy makers and financial analysts were primarily enthused by the possibilities of broadband networks for improved and more profitable versions of the well-established businesses of telephony and audio-visual entertainment, and had to some extent consigned novel, web-based services to a lesser role, following the dot.com crash. Thus, as I argue in this paper, Web 2.0 can be understood as a key intervention, from within the dot.com / new media business sector, recovering from the crash, that re-asserts the equal legitimacy of the use of networked computing, over high-speed lines, for computing-oriented activities, and not just video on demand and voice over IP. In short, in the first years of this century, discussions about the future of the Internet had become dominated by arguments for increased broadband access, substantially concerned with providing more traditional video and voice services in new ways. The World Wide Web was seen as relatively unimportant for this purpose, even though it was part of the so-called 'triple play' of voice and data services. At this time, first in the hands of Tim O'Reilly and then from others who took up his position, Web 2.0 became a catchy simple term under which to mount a campaign for the renaissance of the World Wide Web as a quite distinct, yet equally important, form of media and communications. So, Web 2.0 provides evidence that, while there is a convergence of all forms of media and communications towards similar data traffic over the Internet, there remain diverging views over the nature, control and use of the Internet, views that express the degree to which corporate players imagine themselves to be 'media', 'telephony' or 'computing' in primary orientation.

iTeach we learn via mobile apps : "a case study in a business course"

Mobile smart phones and Mobile applications (apps) can be seen as an added opportunity for education and for teachers in particular, this can be true if educational institutions are willing to enable this type of delivery mechanism. With the recent development of app technologies in today’s society and the shift towards mobile technologies (devices and applications), it seems hard to imagine better devices and tools that can grant students easy and on demand access to learning content. These smart devices and technologies are multitasking and can offer variety of educational apps that teachers and students are able to integrate into their daily learning activities and can carry with them anywhere. In this paper mobile apps and their integration in education are discussed, a case study on the use of three mobile apps (e-Lecture-Producer, Dropbox and QR Code) in an educational setting in a Business e-commerce course is described. Results and outcomes are discussed based on the results from the case study.

Stressors, Recovery Processes, and Manifestations of Training Distress in Dance

Abstract
Dancers are expected to maintain consistently high levels of performance capability and to perform on demand. To meet these expectations, they subject their bodies to long hours of intensive physical training. Such training regimens are often combined with tight rehearsal and performance schedules, which over time, can lead to persistent fatigue, psychological distress, performance decrements, and injury. A similar process has been observed as a consequence of high-intensity training in many different sports, and considerable sport-related research has been devoted to identifying the antecedents, the symptoms that are experienced, and the most cost-effective ways of monitoring symptom development. This paper presents a general heuristic framework for understanding this “training distress process” and discusses the framework with specific reference to dance.

Digital systems for open access to formal and informal learning

 Today, Digital Systems and Services for Technology Supported Learning and Education are recognized as the key drivers to transform the way that individuals, groups and organizations “learn” and the way to “assess learning” in 21st Century. These transformations influence: Objectives - moving from acquiring new “knowledge” to developing new and relevant “competences”; Methods – moving from “classroom” based teaching to “context-aware” personalized learning; and Assessment – moving from “life-long” degrees and certifications to “on-demand” and “in-context” accreditation of qualifications. Within this context, promoting Open Access to Formal and Informal Learning, is currently a key issue in the public discourse and the global dialogue on Education, including Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Flipped School Classrooms.