The Gray Fossil Site in northeastern Tennessee preserves materials from a 5-million-year-old ecosystem, including wood from nearby trees. When excavated, the wood is saturated due to a modern local high water table. Moisture in the wood prevents further dendroecological research, which would provide important, annual-scale climate information from tree rings visible in the wood. In order to analyze climate-sensitive wood variables, wood samples must be dried with minimal cracking prior to further research. To test the best method for drying wood samples, a variety of methods were studied. Cotton string, wrapped firmly around a sample, and a sandbox, comprised of a sample surrounded equally on all sides by sand within a five gallon container, were both be used to test the effects of minimizing expansion and contraction during drying. A vacuum oven, a microwave, and a refrigerator were used to monitor the rate at which the wood dries under different temperature conditions, and a control sample was dried in a fume hood as a comparison. An alcohol replacement test provided data on the rate of non-water evaporation. Drying methods were evaluated by measuring the drying speed of each sample and the degree of visible surface cracking. Of the methods tested, wrapping wood samples in cotton string at an even pressure, then allowing the sample to dry in a fume hood is the best practice for drying the wood from the Gray Fossil Site. The string resulted in the least cracking, and one of the shorter drying times without destroying the sample, as the vacuum oven and microwave tests did. This work not only provides a comparison of standard drying methods for saturated fossils of the non-wood varieties, but lays the groundwork for further studies examining the wood, tree rings, and climate at the Gray Fossil Site.

Dagens företag vill ge anställda möjlighet att jobba hemifrån eller på resande fot. En vanlig lösning för att möjliggöra detta är virtual private network (VPN). VPN ger en användare tillgång till interna resurser på företaget från ett externt nät, exempelvis via Internet. Detta gör att användare kan komma åt de interna resurserna på ett säkert sätt. Vilken VPN-teknik är då att föredra för att få en så snabb, säker och pålitlig anslutning som möjligt? Detta examensarbete tar upp olika VPN-tekniker. Vi beskriver vanliga VPN-protokoll som L2TP, IPSec och PPTP. Hur användare autentiseras på ett säkert och smidigt sätt samt metoder att göra sin VPN-anslutning säker. Vi redovisar också den lösning vi har implementerat hos Confidence, för vilka arbetet utfördes. Problemen med att använda de produkter som redan fanns på företaget beskrivs. Förslag på lösningar ges för att lösa dessa problem i framtida arbeten. / Companies of today want to give their employees the opportunity to work from home or while they travel. A common solution to accomplish this is to implement a VPN over top of the existing network. Using VPN gives the employees access to the company’s local area network from outside, via the internet. The VPN provides a secure channel for these employees to connect to the local services attached to the company’s network that they need to reach. Which VPN technology is most suitable to deliver a secure, fast, and reliable connection to theses employees? In this thesis examines we are taking a closer look at different VPN solutions. We describe different VPN-protocols like L2TP, IPSec and PPTP. How to authenticate users in a secure and flexible way and also methods used to make the VPN-connection secure. Lastly we will show the solution we have implemented at the company Confidence, for whom we made the solution. The difficulties in using existing products with the company’s infrastructure are described. Suggestions are offered for future work to address these problems.

Velikost sítě Internet dosáhla takového rozměru, že globálně jednoznačná adresace všech připojených zařízení již není možná při zachování současné architektury TCP/IPv4. Tímto problémem se začalo zabývat již v 90. letech a od té doby bylo představeno několik návrhů nových architektur a síťových protokolů, které mají či měly ambice omezení adresace vyřešit. V současné době, v roce 2016, je jediným globálně nasazovaným řešením problému adresace protokol IPv6. Tento protokol zvětšuje velikosti síťové adresy čímž umožňuje adresovat téměř libovolné množství zařízení, ovšem za cenu nekompatibility se současným protokolem IPv4. Rozdílně se také staví ke způsobu automatické konfigurace koncových zařízení, proměnlivé velikosti síťové hlavičky a omezení nekompatibility řeší různými přechodovými mechanismy. Tato práce diskutuje dopady, které tyto změny mají na oblast monitorování a účtování uživatelů. Zejména změny způsobu konfigurace adresy vyžadují jiný přístup než v současných monitorovacích systémech, které ukládají pouze metadata o síťové komunikace pomocí protokolu NetFlow/IPFIX. Práce je zaměřena primárně na vyřešení problému účtování uživatelů v sítích kde jsou souběžně nasazeny protokoly IPv4 i IPv6, použity tunelovací přechodové mechanismy nebo překlad adres. Část práce je za- měřena na měření globálního vývoje a nasazení protokolu IPv6 mezi koncovými poskytovateli internetového připojení, poskytovateli obsahu a páteřními operátory.

This thesis explores the disfranchisement of free men of color in 1835 North Carolina through the lens of antebellum citizenship and within the context of the racial turmoil of the 1830s. Citizenship and the evolution of southern racial ideology converged in the 1835 North Carolina Constitutional Convention. On the one hand, free men of color voted, a right permitted in North Carolina for all taxpaying men regardless of race and one of the most crucial components of citizenship in the early republic and Jacksonian periods. But on the other hand, some North Carolina white slaveholders saw free people of color as instigators of slave uprisings and a threat to their social order and economic system. As convention delegates debated disfranchisement, they drew on their notions of citizenship and their fear of people of color, and a majority ultimately decided that free nonwhites did not deserve a voice in the political arena. My explanation of why delegates disfranchised free men of color is twofold. First, members of the convention supported disfranchisement because of the perceived connection between free people of color and slave violence. Disfranchisement also came about because the majority of delegates determined that political citizenship was reserved exclusively for white men, and the elimination of nonwhite suffrage in North Carolina was one of the most explicit representations of the ongoing transition of citizenship based on class to a citizenship based on race in the antebellum United States. / Master of Arts

A growing use for serverless computing is large parallel data processing applications that take advantage of its on-demand scalability. Because individual serverless compute nodes, which are called functions, run in isolated containers, a major challenge with this paradigm is transferring temporary computation data between functions. Previous works have performed inter-function communication using object storage, which is slow, or in-memory databases, which are expensive. We evaluate the use of direct network connections between functions to overcome these limitations. Although function containers block incoming connections, we are able to bypass this restriction using standard NAT traversal techniques. By using an external server, we implement TCP hole punching to establish direct TCP connections between functions. In addition, we develop a communications framework to manage NAT traversal and data flow for applications using direct network connections. We evaluate this framework with a reduce-by-key application compared to an equivalent version that uses object storage for communication. For a job with 100+ functions, our TCP implementation runs 4.7 times faster at almost half the cost. / Master of Science / Serverless computing is a branch of cloud computing where users can remotely run small programs, called "functions," and pay only based on how long they run. A growing use for serverless computing is running large data processing applications that use many of these serverless functions at once, taking advantage of the fact that serverless programs can be started quickly and on-demand. Because serverless functions run on isolated networks from each other and can only make outbound connections to the public internet, a major challenge with this paradigm is transferring temporary computation data between functions. Previous works have used separate types of cloud storage services in combination with serverless computing to allow functions to exchange data. However, hard-drive--based storage is slow and memory-based storage is expensive. We evaluate the use of direct network connections between functions to overcome these limitations. Although functions cannot receive incoming network connections, we are able to bypass this restriction by using a standard networking technique called Network Address Translation (NAT) traversal. We use an external server as an initial relay to setup a network connection between two functions such that once the connection is established, the functions can communicate directly with each other without using the server anymore. In addition, we develop a communications framework to manage NAT traversal and data flow for applications using direct network connections. We evaluate this framework with an application for combining matching data entries and compare it to an equivalent version that uses storage based on hard drives for communication. For a job with over 100 functions, our implementation using direct network connections runs 4.7 times faster at almost half the cost.

In this dissertation on Nat Nakasa I argue, in Chapter 1, that he is one of South Africa's first literary flaneurs. Walking the city as an urban spectator, part journalist, part sociologist, his modernist writings of the metropolis celebrate Johannesburg and also place him in a broad international context. His `tactics of the habitat', in Foucault's phrase, become subversive ruses, a navigation through the cultural seam of South Africa in the 1960s, and this approach offers an alternative to a reductionist anti-apartheid critique. Chapter 2 analyses the excavation of his memory and subsequent elevation to media icon, with the naming of the SANEF Award for Media Integrity after him. Chapter 3 discusses how his auto/biographical writings and representation of self and other contribute to `making history's silences speak'. Finally in chapter 4, I discuss his elusive identity as part of the Drum generation, an insider/outsider, and his exile and suicide in America. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

In this dissertation on Nat Nakasa I argue, in Chapter 1, that he is one of South Africa's first literary flaneurs. Walking the city as an urban spectator, part journalist, part sociologist, his modernist writings of the metropolis celebrate Johannesburg and also place him in a broad international context. His `tactics of the habitat', in Foucault's phrase, become subversive ruses, a navigation through the cultural seam of South Africa in the 1960s, and this approach offers an alternative to a reductionist anti-apartheid critique. Chapter 2 analyses the excavation of his memory and subsequent elevation to media icon, with the naming of the SANEF Award for Media Integrity after him. Chapter 3 discusses how his auto/biographical writings and representation of self and other contribute to `making history's silences speak'. Finally in chapter 4, I discuss his elusive identity as part of the Drum generation, an insider/outsider, and his exile and suicide in America. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

Cieľom práce je navrhnúť a vytvoriť hlasom ovládaného asistenta(voicebota), ktorý bude ľahko nasaditeľný na webovú stránku. Používateľom tak bude poskytnutý moderný spôsob, ako prirodzene komunikovať cez internetový prehliadač. Hlavný dôraz je kladený na synchronizáciu medzi hlasovým asistentom a obsahom na webovej stránke. Synchronizácia je dosiahnutá obojsmerným prenosom hlasu a textových príkazov medzi klientom a serverom. Na to je použitá technológia WebRTC v kombinácií so signalizačným protokolom SIP. Práca sa zaoberá oblasťami ako VoIP telefonovanie, počítačové siete a strojové učenie(proprietárne rečové technológie od Phonexie). Benefitom nasadenia hlasového asistenta je zníženie nákladov na odchádzajúce hovory pre klientov, odľahčenie agentov na call centrách pri odpovedaní na často kladené otázky a zvýšenie záujmu zákazníkov vďaka použitiu nových technológií.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Internet Protocol version six (IPv6), the next generation Internet Protocol, exists sparsely in today's world. However, as it gains popularity, it will grow into a vital part of the Internet and communications technology in general. Many large organizations, including the Department of Defense, are working toward deploying IPv6 in many varied applications. This thesis focuses on the design and implementation issues that accompany a migration from Internet Protocol version four (IPv4) to IPv6 in the Monterey Security Enhanced Architecture (MYSEA). The research for this thesis consists of two major parts: a functional comparison between the IPv6 and IPv4 designs, and a prototype implementation of MYSEA with IPv6. The current MYSEA prototype relies on a subset of Network Address Translation (NAT) functionality to support the network's operation; and, due to the fact that IPv6 has no native support for NAT, this work also requires the creation of a similar mechanism for IPv6. This thesis provides a preliminary examination of IPv6 in MYSEA, which is a necessary step in determining whether the new protocol will assist with or detract from the enforcement of MYSEA policies. / Ensign, United States Navy

This diploma thesis focuses on the preparation of an operating system, a simulation environment and the creation of two laboratory exercises explaining network technologies. In the theoretical part protocols DHCP, FTP, TFTP, HTTP, and NAT service are described. The practical part focuses on the installation of ns-3 and GNS3 programmes and their utilization and settings on OS Ubuntu 18.10. Moreover, it deals with the preparation of laboratory exercises created in the simulation programmes mentioned above together with tutorials, self-check questions and HTTP server in the Python programming language.