Data analysis is a demanding task that involves extracting deep insights hidden in data. Many businesses enforce data analysis irrespective of the domain, as it is crucial in minimizing developmental risks. Raw data cannot be used to perform any analysis as poor-quality data leads to erroneous decision-making. This makes data quality assessment a necessary function before data analysis. Data quality is a multi-dimensional factor that affects the analysis in multiple ways. Among all the dimensions, consistency is one of the most critical dimensions to assess. Context of data plays an important role in consistency assessment, as the records are inherently related within a dataset. Existing studies are computationally expensive and do not consider the context of data. In this paper, we propose a comprehensive context-aware data consistency assessment tool that uses machine learning to evaluate the consistency of data. Our model was developed on Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark to support big data, as well as to boost some computationally intensive algorithms.

With the advent of Internet of Things, remote patient monitoring and diagnosis is becoming the more advanced and accessible feature in healthcare industry regardless of age and disorder. With the increase in patient population, remotely prioritizing and diagnosing patients becomes a major problem. Research has been conducted to address this issue. However, many models fail to support the condition of comorbidity. In this paper, we developed a multi-task machine learning model that supports remote patient prioritization based on disease severity. This model not only considers patients diagnosed with a single disease, but also acknowledges comorbidity of a patient to calculate their severity utilizing physiological data. Classifying a comorbid patient based on their disease(s) severity is a challenging task. We achieve this by exploiting the commonalities and differences between the diseases using multi-task machine learning. Based on the correlation between diseases, we classify the patient into appropriate severity level. In addition to this, our model also supports continuous patient monitoring based on their severity levels, which is made possible by implementing in Apache Spark. Apache Spark also serves as a real-time streaming processor suitable for remote patient monitoring and diagnosis.

In this paper we propose a 'moving target' security mechanism for a P2P cloud where files are partitioned and sensitive sections are moved at different times without modifying the routing or finger tables, to reduce the risk of the file being compromised. Two drawbacks with this approach are the problem of determining the locality of the data and load unbalancing. We present a hierarchical P2P cloud system that leads to scalability and efficiency. A 3-step load balancing scheme for hierarchical P2P cloud system to globally balance the network is proposed. Our simulation results show that our algorithm is effective in achieving load balancing in hierarchical peer-to-peer cloud systems.

Cloud computing is an emerging field in computer science. Users are utilizing less of their own existing resources, while increasing usage of cloud resources. With the emergence of new technologies such as mobile devices, these devices are usually under-utilized, and can provide similar functionality to a cloud provided they are properly configured and managed. This paper proposes a Distributed Cloud Architecture to make use of independent resources provided by the devices/users. Resource discovery and allocation is critical in designing an efficient and practical distributed cloud. We propose using multi-valued distributed hash tables for efficient resource discovery. Leveraging the fact that there are many users providing resources such as CPU and memory, we define these resources under one key to easily locate devices with equivalent resources. We then propose a new auction mechanism, using a reserve bid formulated rationally by each user for the optimal allocation of discovered resources. Then we discuss how the Nash Equilibrium is achieved based on user requirements.

Security and efficient routing are two important parameters in sensor networks. In this paper we propose SSBCR (Secured Sector Based Bi-path Clustering and Routing) protocol that takes both these two issues into consideration. It uses a bi-path routing algorithm to decrease the computational overhead as well as energy dissipation in the nodes. A key pre-distribution scheme is proposed such that nodes in the route share keys while those that are not in the route do not share keys with nodes that are in the route. Simulations have been done for both small and large areas, low and high density, on-route and non-route connectivity scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol not only provides security but also maximizes sensor network lifetime and achieves a high probability of connectivity, particularly when the network is large.

We define an ad hoc transportation system as one that has no infrastructure such as roads (and lanes), traffic lights etc. We assume that in such a system the vehicle are autonomic and can guide and direct themselves without a human driver. In this paper we investigate how a safe distance can be maintained between vehicles. A vehicle which has been compromised by an adversary can cause serious chaos and accidents in such a network (a denial of service type of attack). A simple key management scheme is then introduced to ensure secure communications between the components of the system.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) open up wide range of possibilities for new applications such as monitoring and surveillance applications due to their low-cost and easy deployability. However, the limitations in terms of limited CPU processing power, memory, and battery, bring in a great deal of challenge to provide adequate security for on-board data storage and communication. While many works on secure key establishment exist, most of them assume that sensor nodes are either in fixed location or move within a single WSN. As WSN technology develops, there are more applications coming up which require a sensor node to roam across multiple WSNs. This paper presents a roaming protocol that provides security for the on-board sensory data (in terms of data access) while allowing a sensor node to move across multiple WSNs.

Network quality-of-service and network security have been considered as separate entities and research in these areas have largely proceeded independently. However, security impacts overall QoS and it is therefore essential to consider both security and QoS together when designing protocols for ad hoc environments as one impacts the other. In this paper we propose a mechanism for a distributed dynamic management system which aims to maximize QoS and/or security while maintaining a minimum user acceptable level of QoS and/or security even as network resource availability change. In order to achieve this objective, we propose three basic frameworks: a policy based plug-in security framework, multi-layer QoS guided routing and a proportional integral derivative (PID) controller. Simulation results indicate the proposed PID optimized security and QoS algorithm produce similar performance as non-secure QoS routing protocols under various traffic loads.

Many protocols have been proposed separately for ad hoc networks from an energy efficiency or a security perspective. In this paper we propose a novel integrated protocol for improving both energy efficiency and security. The proposed sector-based clustering and routing (SBCR) protocol increases the survivability of the network and also provides better security due to multipath routing. Nodes requiring higher levels of security have more routing options available than nodes with lower levels of security

We define quality of perception (QoP) as representing the user side of the more technical and traditional quality of service. QoP encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with the quality of multimedia presentations, but also his/her ability to analyze, synthesise and assimilate the informational content of multimedia displays. We found that significant reductions in frame rate and color depth does not result in a significant QoP degradation.

In ad hoc routing protocols after a link is broken, a new route is reconstructed during which packets can be dropped, causing significant throughput degradation. We suggest utilizing location information on table-driven protocols to reduce the message overhead, and to provide link prediction to increase packet delivery. The proposed location-triggered routing (LTR) protocol only exchanges routing messages when a node changes its location and impacts at least one network route. This results in a significant reduction in the number of routing messages and further reduces the number of dropped or lost packets, particularly in a network with highly mobile nodes under heavy traffic conditions.

Existing routing algorithms treat quality of service (QoS) parameters and secure routing as completely separate entities requiring separate algorithms. In this paper we propose secure QoS distance vector and secure Bellman-Ford-Moore routing algorithms that meet QoS requirements and satisfy security concerns. Security is achieved by placing filters in the network. The routing algorithms generate routes through these filters to meet the specified QoS requirements. Simulation results indicate that secure QoS distance vector algorithm performs the better of the two algorithms. Moreover, the density of filters and the placement strategy of filters affect the length of the route generated.

In this paper we present the case for using specifically configured protocol stacks geared towards human requirements in the delivery of distributed multimedia. We define Quality of Perception (QoP) as representing the user side of the more technical and traditional Quality of Service (QoS). QoP is a term which encompasses not only a user's satisfaction with the quality of multimedia presentations, but also his/her ability to analyse, synthesise and assimilate the informational content of multimedia displays. The Dynamically Reconfigurable Protocol Stacks (DRoPS) architecture supports low cost reconfiguration of individual protocol mechanisms in an attempt to best maintain QoP in connections where the provided QoS fluctuates unpredictably. Results show that DRoPS can be used to improve on the QoP provided by legacy protocol stacks (TCP/IP, UDP/IP), especially in the case of dynamic and complex sequences.

An approach to the design of user-centred communications protocols is presented. Quality of perception (QoP) is a novel term which includes not only users' enjoyment and satisfaction with a multimedia presentation, but also their ability to assimilate its informational content. We show that a relation of proportionality can be obtained between QoP and low-level quality of service (QoS) parameters if the multimedia presentation content is taken into account. This relation could provide the basis for a preferential QoS parameter management scheme which is also user-oriented.

The widespread and increasing advent of multimedia technologies means that there must be a departure from the viewpoint that users expect a Quality of Service (QoS) which will only satisfy them perceptually.What should be expected of multimedia clips is that the QoS with which they are shown is such that it will enable the users to assimilate and understand the informational content of such clips.In this paper we present experimental resuks Iiiking users' understanding and perception of multimedia ctips with the presentation QoS.Results show that the quality of video clips can be severely degraded without the user having to perceive any significant 10ss of informational content 1.1 Keywords @xS, multimedi~user perception user understanding Permissionlo make digiml or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is gramed withou~fee provided ~hat copies are not made or distnirr!edfor profil or commercial advantage, and that copies bear th~nolice and the full citation on the first page.To copy other-.vis~torepublish, 10posI on servers or 10 redistribute to lists, requires prior specific pmrrrisslonandlor a fee.

This paper uses Petri nets as a representation and analysis framework for automated assembly. It shows how the hierarchical nature of assembly is captured by Petri nets in representing assembly plans and lower level control plans. The tasks in a control plan correspond to assembly robot operations and can be viewed as a lower level representation of tasks at the assembly plan level. Petri nets provide a single unified framework for representing the hierarchical nature of assembly. This paper presents an approach to deriving performance and throughput measures of assembly on the basis of critical path analysis of the Petri net representation of plans.

This paper presents a boundary graph representation to handle geometric information for assembly. Boundary graphs represent the faces or surfaces of an assembly part. We show that assembly operations joining two parts together may be modeled simply as the splicing of two boundary graphs representing the two assembly parts. Subgraphs which become detached during the graph splicing process represent surfaces which become inaccessible as a consequence of an assembly operation. These subgraphs are therefore discarded. An added bonus of this approach is that in some instances the feasibility of an assembly operation can be evaluated very quickly by simply scanning the boundary graph for certain geometrical features such as radii of specific surfaces. The modeling of assembly operations and feasibility testing based on boundary graph models advocated here form the basis of a direct or forward assembly planner.

We model assembly parts as attribute graphs. An algebra to model assembly tasks is presented where a task is modelled as a merging of two attribute graphs to produce a single attribute graph representing the merged or assembled object. Different types of merging operations are defined and the associative properties of these merge operations are of particular interest in the assembly context. The above framework forms an essential component of an assembly planner which generates assembly task sequences.

An appropriate representation scheme for task plans is essential if the tasks in the plan are to be executed by intelligent robotic systems. In this paper the authors show that a Petri net representation scheme to represent assembly plans possesses desirable properties in an assembly context. The relationship between the Petri net representation scheme and other proposed representation schemes are also explored.