Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Davis and San Diego State University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web. (Restricted to UC campuses)

Vad är det som gör att en miljon människor lägger tid på att streama datorspel? Live streaming har funnits sedan 1920-talet, då i form av musik i hissar. På 1990-talet började hemdatorer utvecklas hårdvarumässigt tillräckligt för att kunna streama film och ljud. Med en kvalitativ enkät publicerad på nätet undersöker vi i den här uppsatsen varför en miljon personer idag väljer att streama när de spelar dator eller tv spel. Resultat vi kommer fram till är ett antal kategorier med olika motiveringar till varför en person väljer att dela med sig av sina spelupplevelser till andra.

Cloud computing has grown in prevalence from recent years due to its concept of computing as a service, thereby, allowing users to offload the infrastructure management costs and tasks to a cloud provider. Cloud providers leverage server virtualization technology for efficient resource utilization, faster provisioning times, reduced energy consumption, etc. Cloud computing inherits a key feature of server virtualization which is the live migration of virtual machines (VMs). This technique allows transferring of a VM from one host to another with minimal service interruption. However, live migration is a complex process and with a cloud management software used by cloud providers for management, there could be a significant influence on the migration process. This thesis work aims to investigate the complex process of live migration performed by the hypervisor as well as the additional steps involved when a cloud management software or platform is present and form a timeline of these collection of steps or phases. The work also aims to investigate the performance of these phases, in terms of time, when migrating VMs with different sizes and workloads. For this thesis, the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor and the OpenStack cloud software have been considered. The methodology employed is experimental and quantitative. The essence of this work is investigation by network passive measurements. To elaborate, this thesis work performs migrations on physical test-beds and uses measurements to investigate and evaluate the migration process performed by the KVM hypervisor as well as the OpenStack platform deployed on KVM hypervisors. Experiments are designed and conducted based on the objectives to be met. The results of the work primarily include the timeline of the migration phases of both the KVM hypervisor and the OpenStack platform. Results also include the time taken by each migration phase as well as the total migration time and the VM downtime. The results indicate that the total migration time, downtime and few of the phases increase with increase in CPU load and VM size. However, some of the phases do not portray any such trend. It has also been observed that the transfer stage alone does not contribute and influence the total time but every phase of the process has significant influence on the migration process. The conclusions from this work is that although a cloud management software aids in managing the infrastructure, it has notable impact on the migration process carried out by the hypervisor. Moreover, the migration phases and their proportions not only depend on the VM but on the physical environment as well. This thesis work focuses solely on the time factor of each phase. Further evaluation of each phase with respect to its resource utilization can provide better insight into probable optimization opportunities.

The Live-in Caregiver Program is a temporary foreign worker program that allows workers to come to Canada in order to labour as private caregivers for children, the elderly, and disabled individuals. This program allows caregivers to apply for permanent residency after the successful completion of 24 months of full time work. There are a number of scholars, advocacy groups, former caregivers, and other parties that have raised concerns about certain regulations of this program. For example, caregivers under this program have an employer-specific work permit, must live in the homes of the employers, and have no external monitoring of their work environments. Subsequently, the Live-in Caregiver Program has been seen as problematic because of the high number of abusive labour situations. This thesis is dedicated to an analysis of how the Canadian news print media represents the Live-in Caregiver Program. Although there has been much research done on migrant care work within Canada, and around the world, there are few studies on how the news media construct arguments that describe these transnational labour flows. The main topics that guided the research questions for this thesis were: temporary foreign worker programs; citizenship status; globalized, gendered, and racial stereotypes; the live-in regulation; employer specific work permits, and power relations in the labour relationship. This research was not geared to proving or disproving the main findings of key migrant domestic worker literature, rather it was focused on how these conclusions are interpreted, transferred and argued within a publically accessible format, Canadian news print media. This analysis revealed how journalists within Canadian news media construct important cultural narratives to persuade audiences to either reject the LCP as exploitative and problematic, or embrace it as economically beneficial. / Graduate

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Power industries in transmission and distribution level are obligated to maintain and replace their electrical equipment. Maintaining the quality and continuity of supply is their priority to avoid customers' complaints and financial penalisation. Live-line working as one of the most important methods of maintenance has been used since the 1900s where the new methods in 1960s made the live-line workers enabled to work on the higher voltage levels up to 800kV. Various industries adopt different techniques to calculate the minimum approach distance (MAD) during the live-line work. A suitable method reduces the risk to live-line workers and provides adequate safety distances between the live parts and linesmen. Therefore, setting an appropriate safety distance between the linesmen and live parts ensures the safety of the workers and minimise the risk of flashover. In this thesis, different methods of calculation of the minimum approach distance are described, and results from overvoltage simulations are used as an input to the methodology outlined in IEC 61472. Also, this thesis highlights and investigates the impact of a range of factors within 400kV transmission line on the minimum approach distance (MAD). Factors examined include the time to crest of the overvoltage (wave shape), the fault type, the probability of occurrence of each type of fault, fault level and the type of overhead line and towers. Furthermore, the minimum approach distances and also associated risk due to each factor and scenario have been calculated. The calculated risk in this thesis presents the risk of failure of a gap against the switching overvoltages due to the simulation of sources of overvoltage. A new set of estimated equations is developed to consider the influence of wave shape in the calculation of the minimum approach distance (MAD). This thesis does not propose a method to replace the international standards, but it could be used in many situations including where utility companies wish to develop a complete understanding of the risk associated with live-line working. Calculation of the minimum approach distance (MAD) within the National Grid UK is based on the methodology described in the IEC 61472, whereas EDF Energy uses the IEEE method to calculate the minimum approach distance. The choice of a smaller / larger minimum approach distance (MAD) using different methods will have an impact on the risk associated with live-line working. Previous works intend to investigate the magnitude of switching overvoltages on one part of a network and calculate the appropriate minimum approach distance for the work in that section. This work is based on the examination of the switching overvoltages under the worst case scenarios. As a result, the simulated overvoltages in this work are higher than expected overvoltages in National Grid network. Also as in practice, the magnitude of switching overvoltages in National Grid network is controlled by different protections equipment therefore, the simulated results and the calculated minimum approach distances in this work are very conservative.

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B. abortus is an intracellular facultative bacterial pathogen which causes abortion in cattle and undulant fever in humans. Cattle vaccines such as B. abortus strains 19 and RB51 are live vaccine strains which protect approximately 75% of the vaccinated animals. No effective vaccines are available for the prevention of brucellosis in humans. We are developing vaccinia virus recombinants expressing various B. abortus proteins to prevent brucellosis in susceptible mammalian species. In this work the B. abortus groEL gene encoding the antigenic heat shock protein GroEL was subcloned into vaccinia virus via homologous recombination. Expression of the GroEL protein in vaccinia infected cells in-vivo was confirmed by immunoblotting. Groups of 5 female BALB/C mice were injected with the vaccinia recombinant or appropriate positive and negative control vaccines. Mice were bled and their humoral immune responses assessed. In addition, mice were challenged with virulent B. abortus strain 2308 and protection measured by the rate of splenic clearance of live Brucella. In spite of demonstrating specific GroEL antibodies in recombinant vaccinia injected mice, no significant level of protection was demonstrable. Preliminary lymphocyte transformation assays were carried out to establish if a cell mediated immune response to GroEL was induced in the vaccinated animals. / Master of Science