Thesis (M. Div.)--St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, 2008. / Abstract. Description based on microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Storage services form the core of modern Internet-based services spanning commercial, entertainment, and social-networking sectors. High availability is crucial for these services as even an hour of unavailability can cost them millions of dollars in lost revenue. Unfortunately, it is difficult to build highly available storage services that provide useful correctness properties. Both benign (system crashes, power out- ages etc.) and Byzantine faults (memory or disk corruption, software or configuration errors etc.) plague the availability of these services. Furthermore, the goal of high availability conflicts with our desire to provide good performance and strong correctness guarantees. For example, the Consistency, Availability, and Partition- resilience (CAP) theorem states that a storage service that must be available despite network partitions cannot enforce strong consistency. Similarly, the tradeoff between latency and durability dictates that a low-latency service cannot ensure durability in the presence of data-center wide failures. This dissertation explores the theoretical and practical limits of storage services that can be safe and live despite the presence of benign and Byzantine faults. On the practical front, we use cloud storage as a deployment model to build Depot, a highly available storage service that addresses the above challenges. Depot minimizes the trust clients have to put in the third party storage provider. As a result, Depot clients can continue functioning despite benign or Byzantine faults of the cloud servers. Yet, Depot provides stronger availability, durability, and consistency properties than those provided by many of the existing cloud deployments, without incurring prohibitive performance cost. For example, in contrast to Amazon S3’s eventual consistency, Depot provides a variation of causal consistency on each volume, while tolerating Byzantine faults. On the theoretical front, we explore the consistency-availability tradeoffs. Tradeoffs between consistency and availability have proved useful for designers in deciding how much to strengthen consistency if high availability is desired or how much to compromise availability if strong consistency is essential. We explore the limits of such tradeoffs by attempting to answer the question: What are the semantics that can be implemented without compromising availability? In this work, we investigate this question for both fail-stop and Byzantine failure models. An immediate benefit of answering this question is that we can compare and contrast the consistency provided by Depot with that achievable by an optimal implementation. More crucially, this result complements the CAP theorem. While, the CAP theorem defines a set of properties that cannot be achieved, this work identifies the limits of properties that can be achieved. / text

Experiences with computer systems indicate an inconvenient truth: computers fail and they fail in interesting ways. Although using redundancy to protect against fail-stop failures is common practice, non-fail-stop computer and network failures occur for a variety of reasons including power outage, disk or memory corruption, NIC malfunction, user error, operating system and application bugs or misconfiguration, and many others. The impact of these failures can be dramatic, ranging from service unavailability to stranding airplane passengers on the runway to companies closing. While high-stakes embedded systems have embraced Byzantine fault tolerant techniques, general purpose computing continues to rely on techniques that are fundamentally crash tolerant. In a general purpose environment, the current best practices response to non-fail-stop failures can charitably be described as pragmatic: identify a root cause and add checksums to prevent that error from happening again in the future. Pragmatic responses have proven effective for patching holes and protecting against faults once they have occurred; unfortunately the initial damage has already been done, and it is difficult to say if the patches made to address previous faults will protect against future failures. We posit that an end-to-end solution based on Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) state machine replication is an efficient and deployable alternative to current ad hoc approaches favored in general purpose computing. The replicated state machine approach ensures that multiple copies of the same deterministic application execute requests in the same order and provides end-to-end assurance that independent transient failures will not lead to unavailability or incorrect responses. An efficient and effective end-to-end solution covers faults that have already been observed as well as failures that have not yet occurred, and it provides structural confidence that developers won't have to track down yet another failure caused by some unpredicted memory, disk, or network behavior. While the promise of end-to-end failure protection is intriguing, significant technical and practical challenges currently prevent adoption in general purpose computing environments. On the technical side, it is important that end-to-end solutions maintain the performance characteristics of deployed systems: if end-to-end solutions dramatically increase computing requirements, dramatically reduce throughput, or dramatically increase latency during normal operation then end-to-end techniques are a non-starter. On the practical side, it is important that end-to-end approaches be both comprehensible and easy to incorporate: if the cost of end-to-end solutions is rewriting an application or trusting intricate and arcane protocols, then end-to-end solutions will not be adopted. In this thesis we show that BFT state machine replication can and be used in deployed systems. Reaching this goal requires us to address both the technical and practical challenges previously mentioned. We revisiting disparate research results from the last decade and tweak, refine, and revise the core ideas to fit together into a coherent whole. Addressing the practical concerns requires us to simplify the process of incorporating BFT techniques into legacy applications. / text

Ēriks Ešenvalds is an early twenty-first century composer who has been commissioned to write works for some of the most noteworthy ensembles in the world. Having written over 100 compositions to date, 72 of which are choral pieces, Ešenvalds is quickly becoming one of the most prolific and significant composers of his time. He currently works as a full-time composer out of Riga, Latvia. Ešenvalds’s choral works are primarily unaccompanied, while some include brass band, saxophone quartet, percussion, or orchestral accompaniment. Textures vary from three to twelve voice parts. His oratorio Passion and Resurrection (2005), written for soprano solo, SATB quartet, SATB chorus, SS soli, and strings, is an amalgamation of compositional techniques drawn from all eras of music history. This project identifies characteristics of Roman Catholic and Byzantine chant that are imitated throughout Passion and Resurrection. A succinct history of both styles is presented along with a detailing of Ešenvalds’s compositional technique and an overview of his oratorio. Aspects of form, melody, text, rhythm, harmony, and texture present in each movement are also discussed. This study provides conductors with insight into the chant-like aspects of Ešenvalds’s work and any influences on performance. Listings of notable Passion settings and Ešenvalds’s choral output are also included.

Η Νάξος παρουσιάζει την ιδιαιτερότητα της διατήρησης μεγάλου αριθμού βυζαντινών ναών, πολλοί από τους οποίους χρονολογούνται στην πρώτη χιλιετία και, επομένως, προσφέρεται για τη μελέτη της εξέλιξης από την παλαιοχριστιανική στη μεσοβυζαντινή αρχιτεκτονική. Μετά από συνοπτική αναφορά στην μέχρι σήμερα έρευνα, την ιστορία και την τοπογραφία του νησιού, εξετάζονται συνολικά εξήντα πέντε μνημεία, με έμφαση σε όσα χρονολογούνται από το τέλος της παλαιοχριστιανικής περιόδου (μέσα 7ου αι.) έως την εποχή κατά την οποία αποκρυσταλλώθηκαν τα χαρακτηριστικά της μεσοβυζαντινής αρχιτεκτονικής (μέσα 11ου αι.). Στα τριάντα τέσσερα αυτά μνημεία αφιερώνεται ειδικό λήμμα, με περιγραφή, ανάλυση της οικοδομικής ιστορίας και βιβλιογραφία, το οποίο συνοδεύεται από σχέδια σε ενιαία κλίμακα 1:100, τις περισσότερες φορές πρωτότυπα. Η τεκμηρίωση των υπολοίπων μνημείων γίνεται συνοπτικότερα. Στη συνέχεια, γίνεται σύνθεση των παρατηρήσεων ως προς την τυπολογία, την κατασκευή, τις μορφές και τη χρονολόγηση των μνημείων, ούτως ώστε να διατυπωθούν τα τελικά συμπεράσματα, που αφορούν στην εξέλιξη της βυζαντινής ναοδομίας στο νησί, την ένταξη του φαινομένου στο πλαίσιο της βυζαντινής αρχιτεκτονικής και στην ιστορική του ερμηνεία. Τα συμπεράσματα της εργασίας συνοψίζονται στα ακόλουθα: 1. Μέχρι τα μέσα του 9ου αιώνος, η ναξιακή ναοδομία παρακολουθεί τη γενικότερη πορεία της αρχιτεκτονικής, αλλά καθορίζεται σε μεγάλο βαθμό από τις περιορισμένες οικονομικές και τεχνικές δυνατότητες που επιφέρει η ιστορική συγκυρία. Μετά από ένα κενό, που ταυτίζεται με την περίοδο της Αραβοκρατίας στην Κρήτη, αρχίζει μία περίοδος ανάκαμψης, που, ως τα μέσα του 11ου αιώνος, προσδιορίζεται από το παρελθόν, με ελάχιστα νέα στοιχεία. Μετά από τα μέσα του 11ου αιώνος, τα στοιχεία αυτά επικρατούν, ώστε να διαμορφωθεί ένα νέο ύφος, με χαρακτήρα λαϊκό και καταγωγή από την τοπική παράδοση, η οποία έχει ως αφετηρία την αρχιτεκτονική της όψιμης παλαιοχριστιανικής περιόδου. Οι επιδράσεις από την επίσημη αρχιτεκτονική του Βυζαντίου περιορίζονται σε ελάχιστα μνημεία. 2. Η ναξιακή ναοδομία δεν αποτελεί φαινόμενο τοπικό, αλλά μέρος μιας ευρύτερης ενότητας, τα γνωρίσματά της οποίας δεν οφείλονται σε συνειδητές κοινές μορφολογικές και αισθητικές επιλογές αλλά έχουν προκύψει από τη μετάπλαση των χαρακτηριστικών της παλαιοχριστιανικής αρχιτεκτονικής, στο πλαίσιο μιας μακρόχρονης εξελικτικής διαδικασίας. 3. Καθοριστικοί παράγοντες για την εξέλιξη της ναοδομίας στη Νάξο είναι: α) Η εμφάνιση της αραβικής απειλής στο δεύτερο μισό του 7ου αιώνος, β) Η κάμψη της επιθετικότητας των Αράβων στα μέσα του 8ου αιώνος και η σχετική ανάκαμψη του Βυζαντίου στο Αιγαίο, κατά την περίοδο που εν πολλοίς συμπίπτει με την Εικονομαχία, κατά τη διάρκεια της οποίας κτίζεται μεγάλος αριθμός ναών, γ) Η κατάληψη της Κρήτης από τους Άραβες, που συνεπάγεται μία περίοδο μεγάλης ανασφάλειας στο Αιγαίο και πιθανό έλεγχο ορισμένων νησιών. Ένα από αυτά ήταν και η Νάξος, η οποία μαρτυρείται πως ήταν υποτελής σε αυτούς κατά το έτος 904, δ) Η ανακατάληψη της Κρήτης από την Αυτοκρατορία και η αποκατάσταση της ειρήνης στο Αιγαίο, ε) Η πολιτική των Κομνηνών για τα νησιά του Αιγαίου. / Among the numerous churches preserved on the island of Naxos, a considerable number dates back to the first millennium. Therefore, Naxos offers an ideal opportunity for studying the evolution from Early-Christian to Middle-Byzantine architecture. After a brief account of the relevant bibliography as well as the history and topography of the island, sixty-five churches are examined, with emphasis to those which date from the end of the Early-Christian period (mid 7th century) to the time by which Middle-Byzantine architecture had acquired its main characteristics (mid 11th century). For each of these thirty-four churches there is a special entry, which includes a description, an account of its building history and bibliographical references. Each entry is followed by drawings on a scale of 1:100, in most cases original. The documentation of the remaining churches is less detailed. The comparative study of remarks on typology, construction, architectural forms and chronology, leads to the final conclusions on the evolution of church architecture, its integration to the general context of Byzantine architecture and its historical interpretation. The general conclusions sum up as follows: 1. Until the mid 9th century, church architecture in Naxos follows the current architectural advances, but is to a great extent defined by the economic and technical decline caused by historic circumstances. After a gap in construction, which coincides with the period of the Arab occupation of Crete, a period of prosperity follows, when church architecture, until the mid 11th century, is defined by the past and very few new characteristics are introduced. After the second half of the 11th century, these new elements prevail, and, thus, a new architectural style is created. The new style is informal in character and derives from local tradition, which, in turn, traces its origins back to the architecture of the post-Justinian era. The formal architecture of Byzantium has a very limited impact, which is apparent only in rare cases. 2. Church architecture in Naxos is not a local phenomenon, but forms part of a wider context, whose common features do not derive from conscious morphological and aesthetic choices, but have resulted from the long evolutionary process Early-Christian architecture underwent. 3. The evolution of church architecture in Naxos is defined by: a) The emergence of the menace of the Arabs in the second half of the 7th century, b) The attenuation of the Arab aggression in the mid-8th century and the relative rise of the Byzantine Empire in the Aegean, during a period which mostly coincides with Iconoclasm, when a large number of churches is built on the island, c) The conquest of Crete by the Arabs and, possibly, their control of some islands, which provokes a period of great insecurity in the Aegean. One of them is Naxos, which in the year 904 is mentioned to be subject to taxation to the Arabs, d) The re-conquest of Crete by the Empire and the re-establishment of peace in the Aegean, e) The policy of the Komnenoi for the Aegean islands.

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W.J.T. Mitchell has famously noted that we are in the midst of a “pictorial turn,” and images are playing an increasingly important role in digital and multimodal communication. My dissertation addresses the question of how meaning is made when texts and images are united in multimodal arguments. Visual rhetoricians have often attempted to understand text-image arguments by privileging one medium over the other, either using text-based rhetorical principles or developing new image-based theories. I argue that the relationship between the two media is more dynamic, and can be better understood by applying The New Rhetoric’s concept of dissociation, which Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca developed to demonstrate how the interaction of differently valued concepts can construct new meaning. My dissertation expands the range of dissociation by applying it specifically to visual contexts and using it to critique visual arguments in a series of historical moments when political, religious, and economic factors cause one form of media to be valued over the other: Byzantine Iconoclasm, the late medieval period, the 1950’s advertising boom, and the modern digital age. In each of these periods, I argue that dissociation reveals how the privileged medium can shape an entire multimodal argument. I conclude with a discussion of dissociative multimodal pedagogy, applying dissociation to the multimodal composition classroom.

This paper seeks to continue the research started by scholars such as W. Liebeschuetz and P. Bell in order to challenge the traditional argument put forth by Al. Cameron, namely that the circus factions did not have a political role in society. The objective of this study is to examine the political importance of the circus factions from the reign of Anastasius (491-518) to Heraclius (610-641). Furthermore, it explores the political motivations behind the factions’ violent behaviour, the evidence for their involvement in the military, and their role in accession ceremonies. The methodology includes establishing a typology for sixth century riots, an examination of the hippodrome and its role as a medium between people and emperor, tracing the shift in the focus of imperial ideology, and a re-evaluation of the primary sources, with a focus on the literary and epigraphic evidence, to determine if there was a political aspect to the factions. The study concludes that Cameron did undervalue the factions’ political importance and outlines the conditions that were influential in their rise in importance.

This dissertation presents algorithms for achieving communication in the presence of adversarial attacks in large, decentralized, resource-constrained networks. We consider abstract single-hop communication settings where a set of senders 𝙎 wishes to directly communicate with a set of receivers 𝙍. These results are then extended to provide resource-efficient, multi-hop communication in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where energy is critically scarce, and peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, where bandwidth and computational power are limited. Our algorithms are provably correct in the face of attacks by a computationally bounded adversary who seeks to disrupt communication between correct participants. The first major result in this dissertation addresses a general scenario involving single-hop communication in a time-slotted network where a single sender in 𝙎 wishes to transmit a message 𝘮 to a single receiver in 𝙍. The two players share a communication channel; however, there exists an adversary who aims to prevent the transmission of 𝘮 by periodically blocking this channel. There are costs to send, receive or block 𝘮 on the channel, and we ask: How much do the two players need to spend relative to the adversary in order to guarantee transmission of the message? This problem abstracts many types of conflict in information networks, and the associated costs represent an expenditure of network resources. We show that it is significantly more costly for the adversary to block 𝘮 than for the two players to achieve communication. Specifically, if the cost to send, receive and block 𝘮 in a slot are fixed constants, and the adversary spends a total of 𝘉 slots to try to block the message, then both the sender and receiver must be active in only O(𝘉ᵠ⁻¹ + 1) slots in expectation to transmit 𝘮, where φ = (1+ √5)/2 is the golden ratio. Surprisingly, this result holds even if (1) the value of 𝘉 is unknown to either player; (2) the adversary knows the algorithms of both players, but not their random bits; and (3) the adversary is able to launch attacks using total knowledge of past actions of both players. Finally, these results are applied to two concrete problems. First, we consider jamming attacks in WSNs and address the fundamental task of propagating 𝘮 from a single device to all others in a WSN in the presence of faults; this is the problem of reliable broadcast. Second, we examine how our algorithms can mitigate application-level distributed denial-of-service attacks in wired client-server scenarios. The second major result deals with a single-hop communication problem where now 𝙎 consists of multiple senders and there is still a single receiver who wishes to obtain a message 𝘮. However, many of the senders (strictly less than half) can be faulty, failing to send 𝘮 or sending incorrect messages. While the majority of the senders possess 𝘮, rather than listening to all of 𝙎 and majority filtering on the received data, we desire an algorithm that allows the single receiver to decide on 𝘮 in a more efficient manner. To investigate this scenario, we define and devise algorithms for a new data streaming problem called the Bad Santa problem which models the selection dilemma faced by the receiver. With our results for the Bad Santa problem, we consider the problem of energy-efficient reliable broadcast. All previous results on reliable broadcast require devices to spend significant time in the energy-expensive receiving state which is a critical problem in WSNs where devices are typically battery powered. In a popular WSN model, we give a reliable broadcast protocol that achieves optimal fault tolerance (i.e., tolerates the maximum number of faults in this WSN model) and improves over previous results by achieving an expected quadratic decrease in the cost to each device. For the case where the number of faults is within a (1-∊)-factor of the optimal fault tolerance, for any constant ∊>0, we give a reliable broadcast protocol that improves further by achieving an expected (roughly) exponential decrease in the cost to each device. The third and final major result of this dissertation addresses single-hop communication where 𝙎 and 𝙍 both consist of multiple peers that need to communicate in an attack-resistant P2P network. There are several analytical results on P2P networks that can tolerate an adversary who controls a large number of peers and uses them to disrupt network functionality. Unfortunately, in such systems, operations such as data retrieval and message sending incur significant communication costs. Here, we employ cryptographic techniques to define two protocols both of which are more efficient than existing solutions. For a network of 𝘯 peers, our first protocol is deterministic with O(log²𝘯) message complexity and our second protocol is randomized with expected O(log 𝘯) message complexity; both improve over all previous results. The hidden constants and setup costs for our protocols are small and no trusted third party is required. Finally, we present an analysis showing that our protocols are practical for deployment under significant churn and adversarial behaviour.

This thesis reviews the general characteristics of rock-cut churches with an inscribed-cross plan in G&ouml / reme. These churches, namely Chapel 17, St. Barbara, &Ccedil / arikli, Karanlik, Elmali, Chapel 25, Chapel 32, Kili&ccedil / lar, Bezirhane and Yusuf Ko&ccedil / , date from the ninth to the eleventh century of the Middle Byzantine period. Firstly, this study aims to identify the general features of these churches. It also attempts to examine their liturgical planning. While doing so, architectural developments in the insribed-cross churches in Byzantine Istanbul will also be used for comparison, in order to highlight provincial characteristics in the inscribed-cross churches in G&ouml / reme.