This paper briefly describes how the neural structure of fear conditioning has inspired to develop a computational intelligence model that is referred to as the brain emotional learning-inspired model (BELIM). The model is applied to... more
This paper briefly describes how the neural structure of fear conditioning has inspired to develop a computational intelligence model that is referred to as the brain emotional learning-inspired model (BELIM). The model is applied to predict long step ahead of solar activity and geomagnetic storms.
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We present a negotiation protocol based on contract law to enable agile and reliable e-Science collaboration. It is designed to be compatible with existing models of resource sharing, but focuses on forming and dissolving collaborations... more
We present a negotiation protocol based on contract law to enable agile and reliable e-Science collaboration. It is designed to be compatible with existing models of resource sharing, but focuses on forming and dissolving collaborations in a lightweight and dynamic manner. It allows the collaboration within the resource users to be separated from the interaction with resource providers, arguing that this is more efficient in forming shorter term collaboration. The protocol aims at managing the whole collaboration lifecycle. We describe the formal specification of the protocol, along with its verification via a model checker. The protocol is generic, and can be used for accessing any type of resource provided via any existing e-Science resource provision models (e.g. grids, clouds, and clusters).
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We are developing a novel visualization architecture which is specifically designed to render very large (terabyte scale) datasets. Our method differs from the classic visualization pipeline of Harber and McNabb. In particular we... more
We are developing a novel visualization architecture which is specifically designed to render very large (terabyte scale) datasets. Our method differs from the classic visualization pipeline of Harber and McNabb. In particular we eliminate the need to create geometric objects, for example surfaces composed of polygons, as a stage before rendering. Such objects require specialist HPC servers for their creation and manipulation; our solution eliminates the need for such servers. We replace the geometric objects by structures stored and tagged in a database next to the original dataset; we call these Spatially Registered Data Structures (SRDS). Such structures are linked to a single rendering pipeline through the on-the-fly creation of a Feature Embedded Spatial Volume (FESVo). This solution exploits recently developed capabilities of in-database Massive Parallel Processing (MPP) and parallel data streaming, together with the rapidly developing capabilities of GPUs. We describe an early prototype of an architecture applied to seismic data from the oil and gas industry.
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The Smart Grid intends to provide good power quality, energy cost reduction and improve the reliability of the electricity Grid. Electricity Grids exist across a wide hierarchy of voltages and spatial scales. In this paper we particularly... more
The Smart Grid intends to provide good power quality, energy cost reduction and improve the reliability of the electricity Grid. Electricity Grids exist across a wide hierarchy of voltages and spatial scales. In this paper we particularly investigate the deployment of monitoring systems in the urban environment, specifically in a university campus that is embedded in a city. Monitoring at this level of the Grid is very underdeveloped, since most current Grids are controlled centrally and the response of the neighbourhood area is not generally monitored or actively controlled. We develop a communications architecture that can integrate sensor network applications. We provide both for sensors that directly measure the electricity activity of the network and also sensors that measure the environment (e.g. temperature) since these provide information that can be used to anticipate demand and improve control actions. Energy efficiency is a major design driver for our architecture. Finall...
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Recent hardware and software advances have demonstrated that it is now practicable to run large visual computing tasks over heterogeneous hardware with output on multiple types of display devices. As the complexity of the enabling... more
Recent hardware and software advances have demonstrated that it is now practicable to run large visual computing tasks over heterogeneous hardware with output on multiple types of display devices. As the complexity of the enabling infrastructure increases, then so too do the demands upon the programmer for task integration as well as the demands upon the users of the system. This places importance on system developers to create systems that reduce these demands. Such a goal is an important factor of autonomic computing, aspects of which we have used to influence our work. In this paper we develop a model of adaptive infrastructure for visual systems. We design and implement a simulation engine for visual tasks in order to allow a system to inspect and adapt itself to optimise usage of the underlying infrastructure. We present a formal abstract representation of the visualization pipeline, from which a user interface can be generated automatically, along with concrete pipelines for t...
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ABSTRACT In Sybil attack, an attacker acquires multiple identities and uses them simultaneously or one by one to attack network operations. Such attacks pose a serious threat to the security of self-organized networks like Mobile Ad hoc... more
ABSTRACT In Sybil attack, an attacker acquires multiple identities and uses them simultaneously or one by one to attack network operations. Such attacks pose a serious threat to the security of self-organized networks like Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) that require unique and unchangeable identity per node for detecting routing misbehavior and reliable computation of node's reputation. Current authentication mechanisms for MANETs are vulnerable to Sybil attack unless they resort to some out of band method like physical contact between nodes for building trust or relying on a Trusted Third Party (TTP) for issuing a unique and unchangeable identity to each node. In this paper we present an authentication mechanism for MANETs that utilizes hardware id of the device of each node for authentication. An authentication agent is developed that verifies the hardware id of the authenticatee node. A comprehensive defense model is employed to protect the authentication agent from various static and dynamic attacks from a potentially malicious authenticatee node. Security of authenticatee node is assured by involving a TTP that signs the authentication agent, verifying that it will perform only intended function and is safe to execute. With this minimal involvement of the TTP, the proposed authentication scheme offers increased resistance to the Sybil attack. The attacker is now required to either thwart agent protection mechanisms or to acquire multiple devices with different hardware ids, in order to gain multiple identities.
Research Interests: Computer Science, Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, Computer Security, Mobile Computing, Authentication, and 13 moreSoftware Agents, Mobile Ad Hoc Network, Computer Network, Ad Hoc Networks, Hardware, Resistance, Software Agent, Self Organization, Authorisation, Network Operations, Wireless Ad Hoc Network, Sybil Attack, and Trusted Third Party
With the increasing demand for dynamic and customised resource provisioning for computational experiments in e-Science, solutions are required to mediate different participants’ varied demands for such resource provision. This paper... more
With the increasing demand for dynamic and customised resource provisioning for computational experiments in e-Science, solutions are required to mediate different participants’ varied demands for such resource provision. This paper presents a novel negotiation protocol based on a new collaboration model. The protocol allows e-Scientists, the manager of an e-Scientist’s collaboration, and resource providers to reach resource provisioning agreements. By considering the manager of an e-Scientist collaboration for negotiation decisions, the protocol enables fine-grained accountable resource provision on a per job basis for e-Scientist collaborations, without binding the e-Scientist collaboration to resource providers. A testbed built with the protocol is also presented, making use of a production e-Science gateway, use cases, and infrastructures. The testbed is experimentally evaluated, via designed scenarios and comparison with existing production tools. It demonstrates that the propo...
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We show that the spatial information in historical sunspot records, in particular the latitude of the spots, can be of great importance in determining the long term behaviour of the solar magnetic cycle. We examine a continuous record of... more
We show that the spatial information in historical sunspot records, in particular the latitude of the spots, can be of great importance in determining the long term behaviour of the solar magnetic cycle. We examine a continuous record of sunspots with full spatial data from 1853-1996 compiled from the records of Carrington, Spörer, the GPR and SOON. Analysis of the latitudinally-weighted observations indicates that there is a previously unremarked oscillation of the solar magnetic equator with a period of approximately 90 years.
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Seismic data obtained from surface observations of the Earth and the Sun has enormous importance in increasing our knowledge of the in- ternal structure of these objects. By making special assumptions (e.g. spherical symmetry) it is... more
Seismic data obtained from surface observations of the Earth and the Sun has enormous importance in increasing our knowledge of the in- ternal structure of these objects. By making special assumptions (e.g. spherical symmetry) it is possible to use analytic tools or relatively sim- ple numerical calculations to analyze the tomographic data. In both cases, however, the real problem is inherently three dimensional and to resolve detailed structure enormous amounts of data are required. We show in this paper how visualization can aid the process of in- terpretation. The spherical geometry of such objects, and the huge variations in physical quantities with depth, present formidable chal-lenges to current visualization systems. We present a major case study using AVS/Express to visualize some of the largest geophysical simula-tions ever created and show how we intend to extend these techniques to astrophysics.
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Visualization is often used to identify features of interest in a dataset. The identification of features cannot be fully automated and the subjective interpretation of the user is involved in the identification of the feature. There can... more
Visualization is often used to identify features of interest in a dataset. The identification of features cannot be fully automated and the subjective interpretation of the user is involved in the identification of the feature. There can be many such interpretations, both from a single user as s/he explores the data, and also in collaborations. Managing all these interpretations is problematic. We propose a novel visualization architecture that addresses this problem. We illustrate our method by examining how geoseismic data is interpreted, since this application presents all of the issues above.
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All versus all BLAST sequence comparison is now a standard procedure in the comparative analysis of large numbers of genomes. Several approaches have been developed to speed up general BLAST searches but these are focused towards... more
All versus all BLAST sequence comparison is now a standard procedure in the comparative analysis of large numbers of genomes. Several approaches have been developed to speed up general BLAST searches but these are focused towards searching a limited number of sequences against a large database and thus do not address the computational issues faced when carrying out an all
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The Smart Grid intends to provide good power quality, energy cost reduction and improve the reliability of the electricity distribution Grid. In order to accomplish these goals, technology for monitoring and control should be integrated... more
The Smart Grid intends to provide good power quality, energy cost reduction and improve the reliability of the electricity distribution Grid. In order to accomplish these goals, technology for monitoring and control should be integrated to the communication network. In this research we investigate the monitoring of the neighborhood area network in the distribution network of the power grid. We propose an energy efficient communication architecture integrating various communication technologies such as radio systems for supporting real-time data and predictive real-time system control. In order to do so we analyze the most energy efficient method of collecting and transmitting data. We extend the query processing system for the sensor network to monitor and collect data, and make these data available to the local control unit for finer-grained control.
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We examine experience accrued by those who have been involved with building large-scale Grids intended for production use. By this we mean that the primary task of such Grids is to enable largescale scientific research rather than to act... more
We examine experience accrued by those who have been involved with building large-scale Grids intended for production use. By this we mean that the primary task of such Grids is to enable largescale scientific research rather than to act as a test-bed for research into software development, or more speculative computer science. Severe constraints are brought to bear in the construction of such Grids, since access to such resources is subject to stringent requirements of security and high quality of service. We must also reckon with the fact that the resources on such Grids may not be primarily designed or tailored to Grid use. The Grid middleware cannot control policy on such Grids, it must co-operate with the site policy and resource management systems. We may be dealing with ancillary resources, such as telescopes and experimental facilities, that are not computational, may not possess a full operating system, and may have policy and management requirements that are very different...
In the recent years scientists have identified a number of problems associated with the conventional power grid and tried to tackle them. This has led to the birth of the concept of a Smart Grid. The Smart Grid has three main... more
In the recent years scientists have identified a number of problems associated with the conventional power grid and tried to tackle them. This has led to the birth of the concept of a Smart Grid. The Smart Grid has three main characteristics, which are to some degree antagonistic. These characteristics are: provision of good power quality, energy cost reduction and improvement in the reliability of the grid. The need to ensure that these characteristics can be accomplished together demands design and devolvement of a rich ICT network over the power network. In this research we have developed and implemented an ICT network architecture for the neighbourhood sub-Grid level of the electrical network where monitoring has not previously been deployed. This real project is being implemented on the medium voltage power network of the University of Manchester campus. Since energy efficiency has been identified as one of the major limitations of such networks we have utilized a number of dif...
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Research Interests: Computer Science, Distributed Computing, Grid Computing, Production, Computer Networks, and 15 moreComputer Network, Large Hadron Collider, Multicast, Experimental Evaluation, Tcp, CCGrid, Boolean Satisfiability, Grid Applications, Reliable Multicast, Internet, Intelligent Networks, Ip Multicast, Internet Engineering Task Force, Protocol Independent Multicast, and Production Network
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The Pulsar Virtual Observatory will provide a means for scientists in all fields to access and analyze the large data sets stored in pulsar surveys without specific knowledge about the data or the processing mechanisms. This is achieved... more
The Pulsar Virtual Observatory will provide a means for scientists in all fields to access and analyze the large data sets stored in pulsar surveys without specific knowledge about the data or the processing mechanisms. This is achieved by moving the data and processing tools to a grid resource where the details of the processing are seen by the users
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Abstract Field workforces have to implement day-to-day control decisions to keep the large scale real-world systems (eg Water Distribution Systems) operational. However, existing customized Decision Support Tools (DSTs) for field... more
Abstract Field workforces have to implement day-to-day control decisions to keep the large scale real-world systems (eg Water Distribution Systems) operational. However, existing customized Decision Support Tools (DSTs) for field workforces operate on static and predefined ...
Research Interests: Computer Science, Distributed Computing, Model Predictive Control, Wireless Sensor Networks, Decision Support Systems, and 10 moreDecision Support Tools, Decision Support, Mobile Device, Sensor Network, Real Time, Control Management, Large Scale, Wireless Sensor Network, Water Distribution System, and Water Distribution
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Access to the computational Grid is restricted to the laptop and desktop environment since Grid client development has been concentrated in this area. This paper presents the design and implementation of a new, lightweight computational... more
Access to the computational Grid is restricted to the laptop and desktop environment since Grid client development has been concentrated in this area. This paper presents the design and implementation of a new, lightweight computational Grid client that provides the same level of functionality and security as its desktop counterparts whilst conforming to the limitations and restrictions of a Personal Digital Assistant environment. A solution has been achieved by taking an architectural perspective of the problem and choosing a tiered, asymmetrical Grid middleware providing an asynchronous messaging model with uniform interface to all resources. The client opens up a new area of Grid computing access: secure and flexible job submission and monitoring to dependable, persistent, powerful and consistent computing services provided by a computational Grid has been freed from static environments into the mobile domain. This has been done without the modification of the underlying Grid mid...
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In this paper we analyse the architecture and technologies for monitoring the Neighbourhood Area Network (NAN) of the Smart Grid. We consider the role of sensor networks in providing information about the environment of the NAN, for... more
In this paper we analyse the architecture and technologies for monitoring the Neighbourhood Area Network (NAN) of the Smart Grid. We consider the role of sensor networks in providing information about the environment of the NAN, for example to monitor temperature and movement of vehicles and people, which can provide useful information about changes in the loading of the NAN. The two main contributions of this research are as follows. Firstly, we develop a software architecture for an ICT network of the Smart Grid which could integrate information from sensors from various levels of the grid. Currently no such architecture has been implemented for collecting data and providing the basis of Decision Support Tools (DSTs) for the NAN level of the grid. Secondly, we have developed a visualisation interface for the human operator of the grid, as the basis for such DSTs, which overlays the information from the sensors and the measurements of the electrical performance of the NAN on a GIS-...
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Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Computational Steering (CS) of numerical simula-tions has been developed over the last three decades. While it has succeeded in some of its chief aims, the uptake and impact of CS has not been as great as anticipated. This paper... more
ABSTRACT Computational Steering (CS) of numerical simula-tions has been developed over the last three decades. While it has succeeded in some of its chief aims, the uptake and impact of CS has not been as great as anticipated. This paper aims to investigate the reasons for this, and from this analysis to provide an enhanced CS framework, taking into account both modern developments in end-user devices and changes in the architecture of very large High Performance Computing (HPC) systems (supercomputers). We also consider the impact on CS of the recent interest in Dynamic Data Driven Application Systems (DDDAS) and Cyber-Physical System (CPS). As the beginning phase of our research, we present a general-purpose framework that provides CS and HPC as Web services to widen their uptake and use. Key advantages of this approach, include the re-usability, modularity, real-time 3D web visualization, and capacitating users to access CS and HPC service on portable devices.
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This paper describes our on-going work on the design and development of a context constrained authorisation architecture to support pervasive grid computing. It discusses security implications when bridging pervasive computing and grid... more
This paper describes our on-going work on the design and development of a context constrained authorisation architecture to support pervasive grid computing. It discusses security implications when bridging pervasive computing and grid computing, and analyses the limitations of current grid authorisation solutions in this pervasive grid environment. We propose some novel grid authorisation enhancements that takes into account not only
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This paper presents a specification for a domain-independent, symmetrical, two-party negotiation protocol to reach binding agreements between services based on the principles of contract law. The protocol is necessary as ex-isting... more
This paper presents a specification for a domain-independent, symmetrical, two-party negotiation protocol to reach binding agreements between services based on the principles of contract law. The protocol is necessary as ex-isting specifications, such as WS-Agreement, lack ...
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An intercontinental network of supercomputers spanning more than 10000 miles and running challenging scientific applications was realized at the Supercomputing’99 (SC’99) conference in Portland, Oregon, USA using PACX-MPI and ATM PVCs. In... more
An intercontinental network of supercomputers spanning more than 10000 miles and running challenging scientific applications was realized at the Supercomputing’99 (SC’99) conference in Portland, Oregon, USA using PACX-MPI and ATM PVCs. In this paper, we describe how we constructed the heterogeneous cluster of supercomputers, the problems we confronted in terms of multi-architecture and the way several applications handled the specific
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Since the discovery by Schwabe in 1843 of the cyclic nature of sunspot activity, there has been a great deal of attention paid to the nature of these cycles. In 1849 Wolf established a measure of sunspot activity, the Wolf number, defined... more
Since the discovery by Schwabe in 1843 of the cyclic nature of sunspot activity, there has been a great deal of attention paid to the nature of these cycles. In 1849 Wolf established a measure of sunspot activity, the Wolf number, defined as W = k(10g + f where g is the number of sunspot groups, f is the total number of spots and k is a factor allowing comparison between different observation series. Based on this measure we have the Zurich series of Wolf numbers which extends back to 1749. Since the counts for W are taken over the whole visible surface of the sun, all information about the spatial distribution of the sunspot activity is lost. Realising the importance of such spatial information, Carrington in 1853 began the recording of the latitudes and longitudes of spots and this eventually resulted in the Greenwich series of photographic recordings of the solar surface which lasted from 1874 to 1976. Maunder introduced the famous Maunder or butterfly diagram (so called because the pattern of the cycles resembles the wings of a butterfly) which shows spot activity as a travelling wave beginning in the higher latitudes and proceeding to the equator.
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Abstract. We describe a computing environment that we call a mini-GRID. This represents a hetereogeneous group of resources for compu-tation, data storage, archival and visualization which can be connected via private or public networks... more
Abstract. We describe a computing environment that we call a mini-GRID. This represents a hetereogeneous group of resources for compu-tation, data storage, archival and visualization which can be connected via private or public networks to other resources (called guest ...
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... Batch System: External Reference Specification, Technical Re-port, NASA",Ames Research Center,1996 [7] S. Zhou," LSF: Load sharing ... W. Gentzsch ," The Eurotools Metacomput-ing Initiative ", 2nd HLRS... more
... Batch System: External Reference Specification, Technical Re-port, NASA",Ames Research Center,1996 [7] S. Zhou," LSF: Load sharing ... W. Gentzsch ," The Eurotools Metacomput-ing Initiative ", 2nd HLRS Metacomputing Workshop, 1999,http://www.hlrs.de/news/ events/1999 ...
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Absolute protection of mobile agents from attacks by malicious hosts is an open research problem. We propose a software based paradigm whereby an agent is protected from various static and dynamic attacks from a malicious host of an... more
Absolute protection of mobile agents from attacks by malicious hosts is an open research problem. We propose a software based paradigm whereby an agent is protected from various static and dynamic attacks from a malicious host of an unknown hardware configuration, ...
Research Interests: Computer Science, Computational Complexity, Static Analysis, Timing Analysis, Virtual Machines, and 10 moreCryptography, Multi Agent Systems, Computational Science and Engineering, Virtual Machine, Mobile Agents, Time Complexity, Emulators, Mobile Agent, Program Diagnostics, and Software-based approach
ABSTRACT The concept that scientists and engineers should be able to monitor and control simulations running on su-percomputers has been discussed and implemented since the late 1980s. The recent explosion in the variety and capabilities... more
ABSTRACT The concept that scientists and engineers should be able to monitor and control simulations running on su-percomputers has been discussed and implemented since the late 1980s. The recent explosion in the variety and capabilities of mobile devices allows this access to be taken to a new level, since the simulations running on supercomputers can be accessed as users are moving around in their normal work activities. This means that they have to be able to connect and disconnect at will from the simulation running on the supercomputer, without disturbing its execution. We present a general framework for such "mobile supercomputing" within the framework of Web services standards. To illustrate the potential of our method, we present a particular application of this framework to provide a rich mobile interface to a lattice-Boltzmann simulation of complex fluids running on an IBM Blue Gene/Q supercomputer.
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Absolute protection of mobile agents from attacks by malicious hosts is an open research problem. We propose a software based paradigm whereby an agent is protected from various static and dynamic attacks from a malicious host of an... more
Absolute protection of mobile agents from attacks by malicious hosts is an open research problem. We propose a software based paradigm whereby an agent is protected from various static and dynamic attacks from a malicious host of an unknown hardware configuration, ...
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In Sybil attack, an attacker acquires multiple identities and uses them simultaneously or one by one to attack various operation of the network. Such attacks pose a serious threat to the security of self-organized networks like mobile... more
In Sybil attack, an attacker acquires multiple identities and uses them simultaneously or one by one to attack various operation of the network. Such attacks pose a serious threat to the security of self-organized networks like mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs) that require unique ...
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In this chapter, we describe the development of methods that operate on the output of the signal of a radio telescope to detect the characteristic signals of pulsars. These signals are much weaker than the noise in the signal at any given... more
In this chapter, we describe the development of methods that operate on the output of the signal of a radio telescope to detect the characteristic signals of pulsars. These signals are much weaker than the noise in the signal at any given wavelength, and therefore algorithms for ...