The amount of data being collected is increasing astronomically. Hence questions about privacy and data security are becoming more important than ever. A fast-changing culture is also reflected in the demands and requirements placed on software systems. Products and services need to evolve with the demands and feedback from customers to stay relevant on the market. Working methods and technologies have been refined to afford updating software continuously. However, rapidly changing software cause concern for the quality and level of security in the release. This thesis is a comprehensive literature study, reviewing the challenges of ensuring secure practises for continuously evolving software. The problem solved by the thesis is lack of an overall picture of the security concerns during continuous evolution. The findings are summarised in a checklist of areas of concern for security when maintaining and updating systems with continuous practises in cloud environments. This study shows that ensuring security, while delivering continuous releases, is a daunting task. It requires close collaboration between teams handling different aspects of software. This, in turn, entails a widening of competences to include knowledge about the work of other departments. It is concluded that personnel with this wide range of skill will be hard to acquire. / I en tid då mängden data som samlas in om individer ökar i ohindrad takt, blir frågor om integritet och informationssäkerhet viktigare än någonsin. Kraven på snabb utveckling och förändring präglar även metoderna för mjukvaruutveckling. Produkter och tjänster måste konstant anpassas efter kundernas önskemål för att förbli relevant på marknaden. Arbetssätt och teknologier har utvecklats över tid för att möjliggöra mjukvara som uppdateras kontinuerligt. Konstant föränderlig mjukvara leder dock till oro för kvalitén och säkerheten av uppdateringarna. Den här uppsatsen är en litteraturstudie som undersöker utmaningarna att säkerställa säkerhet för mjukvara som uppdateras kontinuerligt. Problemet som löses genom studien är den saknade helhetsbilden av säkerhetsproblem vid kontinuerligt föränderlig mjukvara. Resultatet sammanfattas i en checklista för områden som väcker oro för säkerheten vid arbetssätt som tillåter kontinuerliga uppdateringar i moln-miljöer. Studien visar att leverera säkra lösningar kontinuerligt är en svår uppgift. Det kräver nära samarbete mellan team som sköter olika delar av mjukvaruutveckling. Detta fordrar vida kompetenser som inkluderar förståelse av varandras arbete. Att finna personal med tillräckligt vida kompetenser uppskattas vara problematiskt.

Due to the changing scope of data management towards the management of heterogeneous and distributed systems and applications, integration processes gain in importance. This is particularly true for those processes used as abstractions of workflow-based integration tasks; these are widely applied in practice. In such scenarios, a typical IT infrastructure comprises multiple integration systems with overlapping functionalities. The major problems in this area are high development effort, low portability and inefficiency. Therefore, in this paper, we introduce the vision of invisible deployment that addresses the virtualization of multiple, heterogeneous, physical integration systems into a single logical integration system. This vision comprises several challenging issues in the fields of deployment aspects as well as runtime aspects. Here, we describe those challenges, discuss possible solutions and present a detailed system architecture for that approach. As a result, the development effort can be reduced and the portability as well as the performance can be improved significantly.

Byggindustrin har hamnat på efterkälken i arbetet med att integrera produktutvecklingsprocesser. Ett traditionellt arbetssätt har resulterat i svårigheter att hantera kundkrav i en komplex industrid är många olika aktörer är inblandade. Kundernas krav blir ofta dåligt kommunicerade vilket resulterar i förseningar och ekonomiska förluster i projekt. Studien syftar till att undersöka och utvärdera olika metoder för att identifiera och översätta kundkrav till tekniska lösningar i byggindustrin. Dessutom är syftet att testa och utvärdera en metod från tillverkningsindustrin på byggindustrins produktutvecklingsprocess. För att uppfylla syftet gjordes en kartläggning över vilka metoder organisationer använder för att översätta kundkrav till tekniska lösningar, samt en utvärdering av dessa i ljuset av fördelar och nackdelar. För att testa metoder från tillverkningsindustrin användes metoderna Quality Function Deployment och Pugh’s matris. För att besvara de vetenskapliga frågeställningarna byggdes en teoretisk referensram kring ämnet. Därefter genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer på två olika organisationer och en workshop på en av organisationerna. Den teoretiska bakgrunden presenterar olika perspektiv på vem kunden är i byggprocessen och olika vetenskapliga metoder som används för att översätta kundkrav till tekniska lösningar. De sex respondenterna som hördes i intervjuerna och workshopen arbetar inom organisationer som verkar i byggindustrin. Resultatet visade på att organisationerna inte använder någon vetenskapligt förankrad metod utan förlitar sig på traditionellt beprövade metoder. De båda organisationerna arbetar på olika sätt då den ena arbetar kontinuerligt mot en och samma beställare och den andra har olika beställare för varje projekt. Den gemensamma positiva aspekten med deras nuvarande metoder är att arbetet går snabbt. Den gemensamma svårigheten är i kommunikationen för att förhindra möjliga ändringar av krav under projektets gång. De testade metoderna Quality Function Deployment och Pugh’s matris visade sig vara svåra att använda i en av organisationernas arbetsprocess. Studien visar på att det finns ett behov för företagen att arbeta vidare med utvecklingen av deras metoder, där delar av befintliga produktutvecklingsprocesser kan integreras. I ett större perspektiv finns det ett behov i byggindustrin av fler studier inom det här ämnet med tester av andra metoder. / The construction industry is limited in its progress to incorporate product development processes in their line of work. Due to a traditional way of working, difficulties in managing customer requirements have increased. The construction industry is complex with many different clients and variables, where customer requirements are often poorly communicated, thus resulting in delays and projects exceeding budget expectations. This degree project aims to investigate and evaluate methods to identify and translate customer requirements into technical solutions in the construction industry. In addition, the purpose is to test and evaluate methods from the manufacturing industry in the construction industry's product development process. To fulfill the purpose, different methods used in organizations to translate customer requirements to technical solutions were mapped and evaluated after their advantages and disadvantages. Quality Function Deployment and Pugh’s matrix were used to test a method from the production industry in one of the organization's processes. To answer the research questions, a theoretical framework was formed and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Also, to test a method from the production industry, a workshop was concluded at one of the organizations. Two organizations and six respondents were included in the study, where all respondents work within organizations that operate in the construction industry. The theoretical framework demonstrates several perspectives of who the customers are in the construction industry as well as different scientifically proven methods to identify and translate customer requirements into technical solutions. Instead of using scientifically established methods, the results exposed that the organizations rely on traditional proven methods. The two organizations work in different ways, as one continuously works with one customer and the other has different clients for every project. The shared positive aspect with the organization's methods is the swiftness, and the negative is the communication between different counterparties that prevent modification of requirements during the project. The tested methods, Quality Function Deployment och Pugh’s matrix proved to be difficult to use in one of the organization's processes. This project reveals a need for the organizations to develop their methods where parts of the existing product development processes can be integrated. Further on, there is a demand for more studies and tests of methods within the construction industry.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering / Balasubramaniam Natarajan / For any automated surveillance operation to be successful, it is critical to have sensing resources strategically positioned to observe, interpret, react and maybe even predict events.In many practical scenarios, it is also expected that different zones within a surveillance area may have different probability of event detection (or false alarm) requirements. The operational objective in such surveillance systems is to optimize resources (number of sensors and the associated cost) and their deployment while guaranteeing a certain assured level of detection/false alarm performance. In this dissertation, we study two major challenges related to sensor deployment in distributed sensor networks (DSNs) for detection applications. The first problem we study is the sensor deployment problem in which we ask the following question: Given a finite number of sensors (with a known sensing profile), how can we deploy these sensors such that we best meet the detection and false alarm requirements in a DSN employing a specific information fusion rule? Even though sensor deployment has garnered significant interest in the past, a unified, analytical framework to model and study sensor deployment is lacking. Additionally, the algorithms proposed in literature are typically heuristic in nature and are limited to (1) simplistic DSN fusion architectures, and (2) DSNs with uniform detection/false alarm requirements. In this dissertation, we propose a novel treatment of the sensor deployment problem using concepts from optimal control theory. Specifically, the deployment problem is formulated as a linear quadratic regulator (LQR) problem which provides a rigorous and analytical framework to study the deployment problem. We develop new sensor deployment algorithms that are applicable to a wide range of DSN architectures employing different fusion rules such as (1) logical OR fusion; (2) value fusion; (3) majority decision fusion, and (4) optimal decision fusion. In all these cases, we demonstrate that our proposed control theoretic deployment approach is able to significantly outperform previously proposed algorithms. The second problem considered in this dissertation is the “self healing” problem in which we ask the following question: After the failure of a number of sensors, how can one reconfigure the DSN such that the performance degradation due to sensor loss is minimized? Prior efforts in tackling the self healing problem typically rely on assumptions that don’t accurately capture the behavior of practical sensors/networks and focus on minimizing performance degradation at a local area of the network instead of considering overall performance of the DSN. In this work, we propose two self healing strategies the first approach relies on adjusting decision thresholds at the fusion center. The second approach involves sensor redeployment based on our control theoretic deployment framework. Simulation results illustrate that the proposed algorithms are effective in alleviating the performance degradation due to sensor loss.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Family Studies and Human Services / Briana S. Goff / The purpose of the current study is to understand the lived experiences of military couples regarding the effects of war-related trauma and deployment on couple functioning. An interpretive phenomenological perspective was utilized during data analysis. This type of phenomenological perspective suggests that human phenomena can only be understood in a situated context (Packer & Addison, 1989). This is to suggest that a person’s emotions, behaviors, and experiences cannot be separated from the context in which they occur. For the purpose of this study, the “context” under consideration was the Army culture and customs in which each of the participant couples was embedded. The Couple Adaptation to Traumatic Stress Model (CATS; Nelson Goff & Smith, 2005) offers a constructive step forward in systemically understanding and treating the impediments created by war-related trauma and deployment. The current study utilized the core terms included in the CATS Model (Nelson Goff & Smith, 2005) as sensitizing concepts to guide the qualitative analysis process. This includes the CATS Model couple functioning variables of attachment, satisfaction, stability, adaptability, support/nurturance, power, intimacy, communication, conflict, and roles. Using qualitative interviews from 90 participants (n = 45 couples), five themes were identified as salient, including communication, conflict management, roles, support/nurturance, and post-traumatic growth. Participants were divided into subgroups (n = 15 couples, 30 total participants) according to their scores on the Purdue Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale – Revised (PPTSD-R; Lauterbach & Vrana, 1996) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; Spanier, 1976). This subsample was selected to examine differences in themes among couples with high and low levels of marital satisfaction, as well as those with high and low levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. Many similarities were found among the couples with high marital satisfaction and those with low levels of post-traumatic symptoms. Likewise, similarities were also discovered among the couples with lowest levels of marital satisfaction and those with highest levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms. From the current study, there is clear evidence in support of the CATS Model elements of communication, conflict, roles, support/nurturance, and satisfaction. A new contribution to the CATS Model can be made from the current study, which is the inclusion of post-traumatic growth.

Huvudsyftet med föreliggande studie är att belysa soldaters upplevelser av stress under utlandstjänst, samt stress i övergången utlandstjänst till hemkomst med fokus på fysisk aktivitet och träningsvanor. Vidare var det av intresse att studera soldaters upplevelse av hjälp/stöd. Studien genomfördes via ett kvalitativt tillvägagångssätt utifrån två semistrukturerade intervjuguider och två olika intervjutillfällen. Samtliga åtta deltagare var män mellan 2553 år gamla med erfarenheter från olika typer av förband samt från olika missioner. Utlandstjänstgöringarna utfördes i länder som Afghanistan, Bosnien och Kosovo. Upplevd stress under mission beskrevs som rastlöshet vid ledig tid på campen eller en oro inför uppdrag. Under uppdrag kunde deltagarna uppleva kumulativ stress i ovissheten att något kan hända dem eller kollegorna. Deltagarna gav uttryck för liknande symptom vid hemkomst kopplat till stress då rastlöshet under ledigheten hemma beskrev som utmanade. Fysisk aktivitet visade sig ha en stressreducerande effekt vid rastlöshet och oro under utlandstjänst samt i övergången utlandstjänst till hemkomst. Dessa fynd kopplas till en diskussionsdel utifrån föreskrivna referensramar, samt även förslag till framtida forskning och implikationer. / The main purpose of the present study is to illustrate soldiers experinces of stress during deployment and in the transition from deployment to homecoming with focus on physical activity, stress and exercise habits. Further on, it was of interest to study the soldiers experience of help/support. The study was conducted using a qualitative approach from two semistructured interviewguides and two interview occasions. The soldiers age were between 2553 years. The soldiers in this study came from various types of units as well as various deployments that took place in countries such as Afghanistan, Kosovo and BosniaHercegovina. Stress during deployment was described as perceived restlessness during freetime on the camp. During operations could the participants exeperience cumulative stress wich could be shown as anxiety becausee of the uncertainty that something could happend to them or their colleagues in the unit. The participants expressed similar symptoms at the homecoming related to stress as restlessness during the holiday and anxiety. Physical activity was found to have a stressreducing effect during deployment and in transition deployment to homecoming. Results of the study were associated with prescribed theoretical frames of reference in the discussion. Finally suggestions for future research and implications are provided.

<p>This thesis presents data analysis and methodology for two prediction problems. The first problem is forecasting midlife credit ratings from personality information collected during early adulthood. The second problem is analysis of matrix multiplication in cloud computing.</p><p>The goal of the credit forecasting problem is to determine if there is a link between personality assessments of young adults with their propensity to develop credit in middle age. The data we use is from a long term longitudinal study of over 40 years. We do find an association between credit risk and personality in this cohort Such a link has obvious implications for lenders but also can be used to improve social utility via more efficient resource allocation</p><p>We analyze matrix multiplication in the cloud and model I/O and local computation for individual tasks. We established conditions for which the distribution of job completion times can be explicitly obtained. We further generalize these results to cases where analytic derivations are intractable.</p><p>We develop models that emulate the multiplication procedure, allowing job times for different deployment parameter settings to be emulated after only witnessing a subset of tasks, or subsets of tasks for nearby deployment parameter settings. </p><p>The modeling framework developed sheds new light on the problem of determining expected job completion time for sparse matrix multiplication.</p> / Dissertation

When working in software development teams, there are challenges when it comes to always keeping the software stable and reliable. Continuous integration are frequently used to increase the stability and reliability. Extensive research has been performed on the matter of development processes of continuous integration, but there are no consensus on how systems to support continuous integration should be implemented for best results. In this report a continuous integration system is implemented based on best practices and to support the general continuous integration development process, by using Jenkins and other open source tools. The system is adapted to work well with the cross-platform mobile development framework CoffeeMaker developed by VISIARC AB and the general needs of the company. In order to roughly estimate the increased developer productivity and product quality when introducing the system, a questionnaire that discusses the system and working habits was sent out to the developers. The evaluation lead to the conclusion that the productivity would improve by approximately 30-60 minutes per week and developer. It also lead to the conclusion that the quality of their developed applications would most probably increase by introducing such a system.

Soldiers face complex challenges, issues, and decisions when pursuing distance learning while deployed. These challenges are encountered frequently while completing undergraduate and graduate degree programs on active duty overseas. Many learning programs and benefits are available and utilized by military online learners in a war zone. Education programs and benefits, such as, GoArmyEd, and the Post-9/11 GI Bill, have had major impacts on deployed military learners. The dissertation reviews impacts on academic enrollment, utilization of military education benefits, and course completion of soldier-students affected by military deployment. A literature review, survey, and research based on soldiers deployed from 2009-2010 identified several impacts on military learners from the time of the deployment through a two year period following return. Issues include application and utilization of benefits, beginning studies, halting studies, or transitioning from traditional to distance learning programs. In addition, challenges with soldier awareness and use of military education benefits and distance learning programs are presented.

The rate of data growth in many domains is straining our ability to manage and analyze it. Consequently, we see the emergence of computing systems that attempt to efficiently process data-intensive applications or I/O bound applications with large data. Cloud computing offers “infinite” resources on demand, and on a pay-as-you-go basis. As a result, it has gained interest for large-scale data processing. Given this supposedly infinite resource set, we need a provisioning process to determine appropriate resources for data processing or workload execution. We observe that the prevalent data processing architectures do not usually employ provisioning techniques available in a public cloud, and existing provisioning techniques have largely ignored data-intensive applications in public clouds. In this thesis, we take a step towards bridging the gap between existing data processing approaches and the provisioning techniques available in a public cloud, such that the monetary cost of executing data-intensive workloads is minimized. We formulate the problem of provisioning and include constructs to exploit a cloud’s elasticity to include any number of resources to host a multi-tenant database system prior to execution. The provisioning is modeled as a search problem, and we use standard search heuristics to solve it. We propose a novel framework for resource provisioning in a cloud environment. Our framework allows pluggable cost and performance models. We instantiate the framework by developing various search algorithms, cost and performance models to support the search for an effective resource configuration. We consider data-intensive workloads that consist of transactional, analytical or mixed workloads for evaluation, and access multiple database tenants. The workloads are based on standard TPC benchmarks. In addition, the user preferences on response time or throughput are expressed as constraints. Our propositions and their results are validated in a real public cloud, namely the Amazon cloud. The evaluation supports our claim that the framework is an effective tool for provisioning database workloads in a public cloud with minimal dollar cost. / Thesis (Ph.D, Computing) -- Queen's University, 2013-11-30 19:30:39.427