Thesis (M. Eng.)--University of Louisville, 2004. / Department of Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Vita. "December 2004." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-58).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves D-1-D-9).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1976. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Aug. 30, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.C.I.T.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2006. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on May 25, 2006). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 93-102).

23 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 88-93). Also available via the Internet.

Computer viruses pose a very real threat to this technological age. As our dependence on computers increases so does the incidence of computer virus infection. Like their biological counterparts, complete eradication is virtually impossible. Thus all computer viruses which have been injected into the public domain still exist. This coupled with the fact that new viruses are being discovered every day is resulting in a massive escalation of computer virus incidence. Computer viruses covertly enter the system and systematically take control, corrupt and destroy. New viruses appear each day that circumvent current means of detection, entering the most secure of systems. Anti-Virus software writers find themselves fighting a battle they cannot win: for every hole that is plugged, another leak appears. Presented in this thesis is both method and apparatus for an Anti-Virus System which provides a solution to this serious problem. It prevents the corruption, or destruction of data, by a computer virus or other hostile program, within a computer system. The Anti-Virus System explained in this thesis will guarantee system integrity and virus containment for any given system. Unlike other anti-virus techniques, security can be guaranteed, as at no point can a virus circumvent, or corrupt the action of the Anti-Virus System presented. It requires no hardware modification of the computer or the hard disk, nor software modification of the computer's operating system. Whilst being largely transparent to the user, the System guarantees total protection against the spread of current and future viruses.

Opportunistic Grid Computing involves joining idle computing resources in enterprises into a converged high performance commodity infrastructure. The research described in this dissertation investigates the viability of public resource computing in offering a plethora of possibilities through seamless access to shared compute and storage resources. The research proposes and conceptualizes the Multi-Agent Opportunistic Grid (MAOG) solution in an Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) initiative to address some limitations prevalent in traditional distributed system implementations. Proof-of-concept software components based on JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) validated Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) as an important tool for provisioning of Opportunistic Grid Computing platforms. Exploration of agent technologies within the research context identified two key components which improve access to extended computer capabilities. The first component is a Mobile Agent (MA) compute component in which a group of agents interact to pool shared processor cycles. The compute component integrates dynamic resource identification and allocation strategies by incorporating the Contract Net Protocol (CNP) and rule based reasoning concepts. The second service is a MAS based storage component realized through disk mirroring and Google file-system’s chunking with atomic append storage techniques. This research provides a candidate Opportunistic Grid Computing platform design and implementation through the use of MAS. Experiments conducted validated the design and implementation of the compute and storage services. From results, support for processing user applications; resource identification and allocation; and rule based reasoning validated the MA compute component. A MAS based file-system that implements chunking optimizations was considered to be optimum based on evaluations. The findings from the undertaken experiments also validated the functional adequacy of the implementation, and show the suitability of MAS for provisioning of robust, autonomous, and intelligent platforms. The context of this research, ICT4D, provides a solution to optimizing and increasing the utilization of computing resources that are usually idle in these contexts.