ag

Introduction to WSO2 Message Broker


Introduction to WSO2 Message Broker

Introduction
WSO2 Message Broker (MB) is a new Open Source project and product from WSO2 that provides messaging functionality within the WSO2 Carbon platform and to other clients in various languages. It works either standalone or in conjunction with products and components such as the WSO2 ESB and WSO2 Complex Event Processing Server.

MB is based on the Apache Qpid/Java project (http://qpid.apache.org). From Apache Qpid, MB gets core support for the AMQP protocol and JMS API. On top of that WSO2 has added support for Amazon SQS APIs and WS-Eventing support.

Understanding how the MB broker fits into Enterprise Architecture
The Message Broker provides three main capabilities into an overall Enterprise Architecture:
·               A queueing/persistent message facility
·               An event distribution (pub/sub) model
·               An intermediary where multiple systems can connect irrespective of the direction of messages.

To give some concrete examples of these benefits, here are some scenarios:
1)   In the WSO2 ESB, a common pattern is to persist the message from an incoming HTTP request into a persistent message queue, and then process onbound from there. MB can provide the persistent queue.
2)   The WSO2 ESB already has an event distribution model and eventing support, but the QPid-based broker provides higher performance as well as supporting the JMS API.
3)   For example, you may wish to send messages from outside a firewall to a server inside. You could connect an ESB or Service Host within the firewall to a Message Broker running outside the firewall (for example on Amazon EC2). This model is used by the WSO2 Cloud Services Gateway.

Where does AMQP fit?

AMQP (www.amqp.org) is an open protocol for messaging. Whilst the AMQP protocol is still under development, it has released three stable releases (0-8, 0-9-1, and 0-10), with a 1.0 due during 2011. There are a number of implementations of the AMQP standard in production, including Apache Qpid (both Java and C++ versions), RabbitMQ, OpenAMQ and others.

WSO2 has been a member of the AMQP working group for several years, and we strongly support AMQP as the way to introduce interoperability and greater openness into the messaging space.

The Qpid broker supports a variety of clients on top of the AMQP protocol. The most useful of these for Carbon is the Java JMS 1.1 API, which provides a portable API as well as the main interface with the WSO2 ESB. In addition there are C# and other APIs. WSO2 MB also extends these with WS-Eventing and Amazon SQS APIs for interoperability using HTTP, REST and SOAP.

Installing the WSO2 MB

You can download the WSO2 MB Beta from:

Once you have downloaded and unzipped, simply switch to the install directory

            cd wso2mb-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT
            binwso2server.bat  [ON WINDOWS]
            bin/wso2server.sh [ON LINUX/MACOSX]

Let’s refer to the install directory as from now on.

You should see the server startup:
[2011-03-16 14:00:12,471]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.server.Main} -  Initializing system...
[2011-03-16 14:00:12,840]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.server.TomcatCarbonWebappDeployer} -  Deployed Carbon webapp: StandardEngine[Tomcat].StandardHost[defaulthost].StandardContext[/]
[2011-03-16 14:00:14,147]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.atomikos.TransactionFactory} -  Starting Atomikos Transaction Manager 3.7.0
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,952]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Starting WSO2 Carbon...
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,983]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Operating System : Mac OS X 10.6.6, x86_64
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,984]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Java Home        : /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk/Contents/Home
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,984]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Java Version     : 1.6.0_24
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,985]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Java VM          : Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM 19.1-b02-334,Apple Inc.
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,985]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Carbon Home      : /Users/paul/wso2/wso2mb-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,985]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  Java Temp Dir    : /Users/paul/wso2/wso2mb-1.0.0-SNAPSHOT/tmp
[2011-03-16 14:00:19,986]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.CarbonCoreActivator} -  User             : paul, en-US, Europe/London
2011-03-16 14:00:12,471]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.server.Main} -  Initializing system...

some logs deleted

[2011-03-16 14:00:41,691]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.transports.http.HttpsTransportListener} -  HTTPS port       : 9443
[2011-03-16 14:00:41,691]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.transports.http.HttpTransportListener} -  HTTP port        : 9763
[2011-03-16 14:00:42,422]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.ui.internal.CarbonUIServiceComponent} -  Mgt Console URL  : https://192.168.1.100:9443/carbon/
[2011-03-16 14:00:42,499]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.StartupFinalizerServiceComponent} -  Started Transport Listener Manager
[2011-03-16 14:00:42,500]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.StartupFinalizerServiceComponent} -  Server           :  WSO2 MB -1.0.0-SNAPSHOT
[2011-03-16 14:00:42,506]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.core.internal.StartupFinalizerServiceComponent} -  WSO2 Carbon started in 27 sec
2011-03-16 14:00:12,471]  INFO {org.wso2.carbon.server.Main} -  Initializing system...

WSO2 Message Broker is installable in more ways for production systems. Typically it is either registered as a Linux Daemon or as a Windows Service – but for now we will stick with the command-line version for simplicity.

Once the server is running you can access the management console. Point your browser at:
            https://localhost:9443

Initially you will see a browser screen warning you about the certificates. Please tell your browser to continue (For a production server you would normally install a proper SSL/TLS certificate, but for initial install we generate a self-signed certificate that you need to agree to use).

Once you have accepted the certificate, you should see a screen like:


You can login using the default user/password which is admin/admin.

Once you login you should see the following screen:


Before we examine the admin console, lets first create a simple JMS client that will communicate with the server via AMQP on TCP/IP.

Getting Started with JMS
The Java Message Service (JMS) specification - http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index-jsp-142945.html - is a specification for talking to message brokers. It is unfortunately poorly named: the word “service” implies this is an implementation, but JMS does not define an actual messaging service, instead just the API which is used to access JMS providers. “Java Messaging API” would more accurately express what JMS is. The result is that there are a variety of JMS providers, and they often have quite different approaches to their core model.

The WSO2 Message Broker is based on the Apache Qpid project (http://qpid.apache.org) and is a compliant implementation of the JMS specification, as well as various levels of the AMQP specification (0-8, 0-9-1, 0-10). 

To write completely standard portable JMS code, you need to use a JNDI provider to gain access to the JMS connection, queues, etc. In this example we will use a Qpid JNDI provider backed by a simple set of properties. This makes the overall system simple and highly portable.

Here is a sample JMS application that can be used to test access to the Message Broker.  You can find this code here:



First are some required imports.

import javax.jms.*;
import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import java.util.Properties;

Next is a simple “main” class definition:

public class JMSExample {

public static void main(String[] args) {
       JMSExample producer = new JMSExample();
       producer.runTest();
}

      
private void runTest() {

Since this is just an example, we will place the complete logic in a try/catch block.

try {

Normally the JNDI is configured by a properties file, but you can also do it from an in-memory set of properties. To see a similar setup with a properties file, take a look at the ESB example below.  Here is a properties object to store the properties:

Properties properties = new Properties();

In order to bootstrap the JNDI entries for the connection factory and queue, we set name/value pairs into the simple properties object:                   

properties.put("connectionfactory.cf",
       "amqp://admin:admin@carbon/carbon?brokerlist='tcp://localhost:5672'");

The property name “connectionfactory.cf” denotes that we are creating an object of type ConnectionFactory with name “cf”. The value is a URL that is used to bootstrap the ConnectionFactory: this URL points to the AMQP broker. The syntax is broken up as follows:
       amqp://               Indicates this is an AMQP URL
       admin:admin@  This is the username/password
       carbon/carbon The client ID and virtual host
       ?                     separator for options
       brokerlist=’tcp://localhost:5672’          A list of broker URLs to use

For more information on this URL syntax please see:

The virtual host name is part of the definition in:
/repository/conf/qpid/etc/virtualhosts.xml

This file also defines aspects such as the maximum number of messages in a queue and the queue depth (maximum size in bytes of the queue).

Now we need to create a JNDI entry for the queue we are going to talk to:

properties.put("destination.samplequeue", "samplequeue; {create:always}");

The property name “destination.samplequeue” indicates creating a destination with a JNDI name of “samplequeue”. The property value “samplequeue; {create:always}” indicates a queue named “samplequeue” with an attribute which tells the broker to create the queue if it doesn’t exist.

These properties are specific to the particular JNDI implementation we are using, which is the Qpid “PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory”. So now we need to configure JNDI to use this implementation:
                     
                     
properties.put("java.naming.factory.initial", "org.apache.qpid.jndi.PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory");

Now we can do our JNDI lookups:

Context context = new InitialContext(properties);

ConnectionFactory connectionFactory =
(ConnectionFactory) context.lookup("cf");

Having “found” a JMS Connection Factory in the JNDI, we can now create a connection to the broker:

Connection connection = connectionFactory.createConnection();
connection.start();

And now we can create a JMS Session:

Session session = connection.createSession(false,
                                    Session.AUTO_ACKNOWLEDGE);

One more lookup from JNDI will lookup our queue:

Destination destination = (Destination) context
                                    .lookup("samplequeue");


Now we can create a Producer, and send a message:
                     
MessageProducer producer = session.createProducer(destination);
TextMessage outMessage = session.createTextMessage();
outMessage.setText("Hello World!");
producer.send(outMessage);

Of course, in real life you would most likely NOT now retrieve that same message from the same application, but for this example we will now retrieve the message:                      
MessageConsumer consumer = session.createConsumer(destination);
Message inMessage = consumer.receive();
System.out.println(((TextMessage)inMessage).getText());

And close up the connection and the initial context:
                     
connection.close();
context.close();
} catch (Exception exp) {
       exp.printStackTrace();
}

To try out this client you need the correct client JARs.

In the beta release you will find:
/jms-client-lib/geronimo-jms_1.1_spec-1.1.0.wso2v1.jar
/jms-client-lib/qpid-client-0.9.wso2v2.jar

You also need to reference
/lib/log4j-1.2.13.jar





Once you have those in your classpath you can run the program. You should see some simple output:

log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.apache.qpid.jndi.PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
Hello World!

If you got that far, congratulations!

In the next section we are going to look at using the ESB with the Message Broker.

There are two approaches for this:
1) If you are using the existing WSO2 ESB 3.0.1 or similar, you can deploy the MB client libraries and communicate using the network.

2) As of the next WSO2 ESB release (3.1.0) it will include the Qpid/MB features as part of the release and you can utilize the Message Broker/JMS runtime locally in the same JVM.

WSO2 MB and WSO2 ESB together
In this first instance we are going to get the WSO2 ESB and MB to work together.
Assuming that you already have the MB installed and running, you will first need to install the ESB and change the ports of the admin console so that they don’t clash. You can download WSO2 ESB 3.0.1 from:
            http://wso2.org/downloads/esb

The install procedure is similar: unzip the ESB, but don’t start it up yet. Let’s name (for this guide) the directory where you installed the ESB as .

First let’s edit the ports on which the ESB listens. (Alternatively you could do the same to the MB instead).

Edit the epositoryconfmgt-transports.xml

This file defines which ports the management console runs (HTTP and HTTPS).

Please change:

<transport name="http" class="org.wso2.carbon.server.transports.http.HttpTransport">
        <parameter name="port">9763</parameter>

to read:
<transport name="http" class="org.wso2.carbon.server.transports.http.HttpTransport">
        <parameter name="port">9764</parameter>

Similarly change the HTTPS port to be 9444.

Now the next step is to ensure that the ESB has the right drivers to talk to the MB. Copy the following JARs into the epositorycomponentslib directory:
/jms-client-lib/geronimo-jms_1.1_spec-1.1.0.wso2v1.jar
/jms-client-lib/qpid-client-0.9.wso2v2.jar


We also need to configure the JMS transport correctly. To do this we edit the axis2.xml file:
  epositoryconfaxis2.xml

This file has the JMS transport commented out. It also needs the settings updated to use the Qpid libraries. Change the file so that the JMS receiver and sender sections look like this:
  
       <transportReceiver name="jms" class="org.apache.axis2.transport.jms.JMSListener">
        <parameter name="myTopicConnectionFactory" locked="false">
         <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.qpid.jndi.PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory</parameter>
         <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">resources/jndi.properties</parameter>
         <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">TopicConnectionFactory</parameter>
<parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">topic</parameter>
        </parameter>


        <parameter name="myQueueConnectionFactory" locked="false">
         <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.qpid.jndi.PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory</parameter>
         <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">resources/jndi.properties</parameter>
         <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">QueueConnectionFactory</parameter>
<parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">queue</parameter>
        </parameter>


        <parameter name="default" locked="false">
         <parameter name="java.naming.factory.initial" locked="false">org.apache.qpid.jndi.PropertiesFileInitialContextFactory</parameter>
         <parameter name="java.naming.provider.url" locked="false">resources/jndi.properties</parameter>
         <parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryJNDIName" locked="false">QueueConnectionFactory</parameter>
<parameter name="transport.jms.ConnectionFactoryType" locked="false">queue</parameter>
        </parameter>
    </transportReceiver>
You can find my copy of the edited axis2.xml here:

If you have looked through the JMS config you will notice it references a JNDI resource: resources/jndi.properties.

This is used to do the same thing the hard-coded properties we used above do – configure the local JNDI that the JMS client inside the ESB will use. In a future release of the ESB we expect to automatically configure this JNDI, but in the meantime, we can simply create a file in the /resources directory.




ag

Languages

Inspired by #FirstSevenLanguages here is a complete list (apart from the one's I've forgotten).

BASIC (ZX80/ZX81/TRS80/BBC/HP/Atari ST)
Z80 / 6502 / 8086 Asm
REXX
APL
PL/1

C++ 
C#
COBOL
FORTH
LISP / Scheme
Lotus 123 script
Batch/Shell scripts (DOS, OS/2, Bash)
Visual Basic 
Pascal / Delphi
SAS Language
SQL
Haskell
CAML Light
Oberon
Perl
Java
JavaScript
Python 
PHP
BPEL
BPMN
Synapse ESB Language

(edited to include the last three which I'd forgotten)




ag

Marc Fesneau : « Que chacun cesse d’avoir en ligne de mire son agenda personnel en vue de 2027 »

INTERVIEW. Pour le patron du groupe MoDem a l'Assemblee, il faut d'urgence sortir du bal des ego qui mine le << socle commun >> de Barnier et << etre utile aux Francais >>.




ag

Sondage : Barnier au coude-à-coude avec Le Pen

La nouvelle enquete Cluster17 pour << Le Point >> installe le Premier ministre dans le top 5 des personnalites politiques preferees des Francais. Gabriel Attal et Gerald Darmanin chutent.




ag

Cotentin : un nouveau canot de sauvetage en mer bloqué à quai par la réglementation

La station de sauvetage de Goury-La Hague a recu un nouveau canot ultramoderne. Mais il est bloque a quai, car trop polluant, selon les regles environnementales internationales.




ag

Document Retrieval Using SIFT Image Features

This paper describes a new approach to document classification based on visual features alone. Text-based retrieval systems perform poorly on noisy text. We have conducted series of experiments using cosine distance as our similarity measure, selecting varying numbers local interest points per page, and varying numbers of nearest neighbour points in the similarity calculations. We have found that a distance-based measure of similarity outperforms a rank-based measure except when there are few interest points. We show that using visual features substantially outperforms textbased approaches for noisy text, giving average precision in the range 0.4-0.43 in several experiments retrieving scientific papers.




ag

The Use of Latent Semantic Indexing to Mitigate OCR Effects of Related Document Images

Due to both the widespread and multipurpose use of document images and the current availability of a high number of document images repositories, robust information retrieval mechanisms and systems have been increasingly demanded. This paper presents an approach to support the automatic generation of relationships among document images by exploiting Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR). We developed the LinkDI (Linking of Document Images) service, which extracts and indexes document images content, computes its latent semantics, and defines relationships among images as hyperlinks. LinkDI was experimented with document images repositories, and its performance was evaluated by comparing the quality of the relationships created among textual documents as well as among their respective document images. Considering those same document images, we ran further experiments in order to compare the performance of LinkDI when it exploits or not the LSI technique. Experimental results showed that LSI can mitigate the effects of usual OCR misrecognition, which reinforces the feasibility of LinkDI relating OCR output with high degradation.




ag

Color Image Restoration Using Neural Network Model

Neural network learning approach for color image restoration has been discussed in this paper and one of the possible solutions for restoring images has been presented. Here neural network weights are considered as regularization parameter values instead of explicitly specifying them. The weights are modified during the training through the supply of training set data. The desired response of the network is in the form of estimated value of the current pixel. This estimated value is used to modify the network weights such that the restored value produced by the network for a pixel is as close as to this desired response. One of the advantages of the proposed approach is that, once the neural network is trained, images can be restored without having prior information about the model of noise/blurring with which the image is corrupted.




ag

Developing a Mobile Collaborative Tool for Business Continuity Management

We describe the design of a mobile collaborative tool that helps teams managing critical computing infrastructures in organizations, a task that is usually designated Business Continuity Management. The design process started with a requirements definition phase based on interviews with professional teams. The elicited requirements highlight four main concerns: collaboration support, knowledge management, team performance, and situation awareness. Based on these concerns, we developed a data model and tool supporting the collaborative update of Situation Matrixes. The matrixes aim to provide an integrated view of the operational and contextual conditions that frame critical events and inform the operators' responses to events. The paper provides results from our preliminary experiments with Situation Matrixes.




ag

Managing Mechanisms for Collaborative New-Product Development in the Ceramic Tile Design Chain

This paper focuses on improving the management of New-Product Development (NPD) processes within the particular context of a cluster of enterprises that cooperate through a network of intra- and inter-firm relations. Ceramic tile design chains have certain singularities that condition the NPD process, such as the lack of a strong hierarchy, fashion pressure or the existence of different origins for NPD projects. We have studied these particular circumstances in order to tailor Product Life-cycle Management (PLM) tools and some other management mechanisms to fit suitable sectoral reference models. Special emphasis will be placed on PLM templates for structuring and standardizing projects, and also on the roles involved in the process.




ag

Pragmatic Knowledge Services

Knowledge, innovations and their implementation in effective practices are essential for development in all fields of societal action, e.g. policy, business, health, education, and everyday life. However, managing the interrelations between knowledge, innovation and practice is complicated. Facilitation by suitable knowledge services is needed. This paper explores the theory of converging knowledge, innovation, and practice, discusses some advances in information systems development, and identifies general requirements for pragmatic knowledge services. A trialogical approach to knowledge creation and learning is adopted as a viable theoretical basis. Also three examples of novel knowledge services Opasnet, Innovillage, and Knowledge Practices Environment (KPE), are presented. Eventually, it is concluded that pragmatic knowledge services, as hybrid systems of information technology and its users, are not only means for creation of practical knowledge, but vehicles of a cultural change from individualistic perceptions of knowledge work towards mediated collaboration.




ag

Leveraging Web 2.0 in New Product Development: Lessons Learned from a Cross-company Study

The paper explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies to support product development efforts in a global, virtual and cross-functional setting. It analyses the dichotomy between the prevailing hierarchical structure of CAD/PLM/PDM systems and the principles of the Social Web under the light of the emerging product development trends. Further it introduces the concept of Engineering 2.0, intended as a more bottom up and lightweight knowledge sharing approach to support early stage design decisions within virtual and cross-functional product development teams. The lessons learned collected from a cross-company study highlight how to further developblogs, wikis, forums and tags for the benefit of new product development teams, highlighting opportunities, challenges and no-go areas.




ag

On the Construction of Efficiently Navigable Tag Clouds Using Knowledge from Structured Web Content

In this paper we present an approach to improving navigability of a hierarchically structured Web content. The approach is based on an integration of a tagging module and adoption of tag clouds as a navigational aid for such content. The main idea of this approach is to apply tagging for the purpose of a better highlighting of cross-references between information items across the hierarchy. Although in principle tag clouds have the potential to support efficient navigation in tagging systems, recent research identified a number of limitations. In particular, applying tag clouds within pragmatic limits of a typical user interface leads to poor navigational performance as tag clouds are vulnerable to a so-called pagination effect. In this paper, a solution to the pagination problem is discussed, implemented as a part of an Austrian online encyclopedia called Austria-Forum, and analyzed. In addition, a simulation-based evaluation of the new algorithm has been conducted. The first evaluation results are quite promising, as the efficient navigational properties are restored.




ag

Ontology-based Competency Management: the Case Study of the Mihajlo Pupin Institute

Semantic-based technologies have been steadily increasing their relevance in recent years in both the research world and business world. Considering this, the present article discusses the process of design and implementation of a competency management system in information and communication technologies domain utilizing the latest Semantic Web tools and technologies including D2RQ server, TopBraid Composer, OWL 2, SPARQL, SPARQL Rules and common human resources related public vocabularies. In particular, the paper discusses the process of building individual and enterprise competence models in a form of ontology database, as well as different ways of meaningful search and retrieval of expertise data on the Semantic Web. The ontological knowledge base aims at storing the extracted and integrated competences from structured, as well as unstructured sources. By using the illustrative case study of deployment of such a system in the Human Resources sector at the Mihajlo Pupin Institute, this paper shows an example of new approaches to data integration and information management. The proposed approach extends the functionalities of existing enterprise information systems and offers possibilities for development of future Internet services. This allows organizations to express their core competences and talents in a standardized, machine processable and understandable format, and hence, facilitates their integration in the European Research Area and beyond.




ag

An Ontology based Agent Generation for Information Retrieval on Cloud Environment

Retrieving information or discovering knowledge from a well organized data center in general is requested to be familiar with its schema, structure, and architecture, which against the inherent concept and characteristics of cloud environment. An effective approach to retrieve desired information or to extract useful knowledge is an important issue in the emerging information/knowledge cloud. In this paper, we propose an ontology-based agent generation framework for information retrieval in a flexible, transparent, and easy way on cloud environment. While user submitting a flat-text based request for retrieving information on a cloud environment, the request will be automatically deduced by a Reasoning Agent (RA) based on predefined ontology and reasoning rule, and then be translated to a Mobile Information Retrieving Agent Description File (MIRADF) that is formatted in a proposed Mobile Agent Description Language (MADF). A generating agent, named MIRA-GA, is also implemented to generate a MIRA according to the MIRADF. We also design and implement a prototype to integrate these agents and show an interesting example to demonstrate the feasibility of the architecture.




ag

La Russie lance un "nombre record" de drones sur l'Ukraine. Barrage de drones ukrainiens sur Moscou

La Russie lance un "nombre record" de drones sur l'Ukraine. Barrage de drones ukrainiens sur Moscou




ag

Espagne : des problèmes sanitaires dans les zones sinistrées par les inondations

Espagne : des problèmes sanitaires dans les zones sinistrées par les inondations




ag

Coup d'envoi de la saison des carnavals à Cologne en Allemagne

Coup d'envoi de la saison des carnavals à Cologne en Allemagne













ag

Niagara Health offering free parking after delays reported - News Talk 610 CKTB

  1. Niagara Health offering free parking after delays reported  News Talk 610 CKTB
  2. Implementation of new Niagara Health patient info system resulting in long wait times  St. Catharines Standard
  3. Temporary delays impacting registration at emergency departments  Thorold News
  4. Niagara Health Working Through Delays  101.1 More FM
  5. Niagara Health experiencing temporary delays impacting registration and EDs  Niagara Health







ag

Former B.C. premier John Horgan dies aged 65, after third bout of cancer - National Post

  1. Former B.C. premier John Horgan dies aged 65, after third bout of cancer  National Post
  2. Adam Pankratz: John Horgan wasn't your typical NDP premier  National Post
  3. John Horgan: Reluctant leader became B.C.'s most-loved premier  Vancouver Sun
  4. Premier’s statement on the passing of John Horgan  BC Gov News
  5. UBC political scientist remembers former B.C. premier John Horgan’s legacy  CBC.ca





ag

Retour d’expérience sur une campagne de boycott d’entreprises au Maroc

 

Le 20 avril 2018, un appel au boycott a été lancé sur les réseaux sociaux marocains contre trois entreprises leaders dans leurs secteurs d’activités. L’eau minérale de Sidi Ali, le lait de Centrale Danone et les stations de services Afriquia (pétrole) ont été victimes d’une guerre d’information, justifiée selon les internautes par des prix de vente élevés. Les appels au boycott ont été relayés par les internautes Marocains via des groupes et des pages ...




ag

Paris : Imaginons les Places de demain. Et si on s’occupait des rues d’aujourd’hui ?

A gauche, Barbès. A droite, la nouvelle Place du Panthéon. Aux mêmes heures !
C’est une vaste opération lancée depuis 2015 par la Mairie de Paris. «Donner plus de place à celles et ceux qui ont envie de vivre dans une ville plus pacifiée, avec moins de voitures et moins de stress» selon les mots d'Anne Hidalgo. Sept grandes places parisiennes vont être « réinventées » : ...




ag

La reine Mathilde et la princesse Élisabeth en voyage en Égypte du 14 au 16 mars

(Belga) La reine Mathilde et la princesse Élisabeth effectueront une visite de travail en Égypte du 14 au 16 mars, a indiqué le Palais royal dans un communiqué lundi soir.

"Cette visite marquera l'intérêt historique de la famille royale pour l'Égypte antique et rendra hommage à la reine Élisabeth, dont l'intérêt et la passion sont à l'origine de l'épanouissement de l'égyptologie en Belgique. La Reine et la Princesse visiteront plusieurs sites que la reine Élisabeth a elle-même visités lors de ses voyages en Égypte, notamment le tombeau de Toutankhamon. Au Caire, elles assisteront également au vernissage d'une exposition consacrée à la reine Élisabeth et à l'égyptologie belge", peut-on lire dans le communiqué. La Reine et la Princesse visiteront aussi différents sites archéologiques à Louxor et ses environs, où des institutions et des universités belges effectuent des fouilles. Cette visite de travail commémore par ailleurs plusieurs anniversaires célébrés en 2022 et 2023: le 200e anniversaire du déchiffrement des hiéroglyphes par Jean-François Champollion, les centenaires de la découverte du tombeau de Toutankhamon et de sa visite par la reine Élisabeth, le 125e anniversaire de l'émergence de l'égyptologie belge et le 75e anniversaire de la mort de l'égyptologue belge Jean Capart. (Belga)




ag

Le changement climatique, facteur aggravant du trafic d'êtres humains

(Belga) La multiplication des désastres météorologiques, qui pousse sur les routes des millions de personnes, est aujourd'hui l'une des "causes principales" du trafic d'êtres humains, selon un rapport onusien publié mardi, évoquant également les risques posés par la guerre en Ukraine.

"Le changement climatique accroît la vulnérabilité au trafic", souligne cette étude de l'Office des Nations unies contre la drogue et le crime (ONUDC), basée sur la collecte des données de 141 pays sur la période 2017-2020 et l'analyse de 800 affaires judiciaires. Au fil du temps, "des régions entières vont devenir inhabitables", ce qui "affecte de manière disproportionnée" les communautés pauvres vivant essentiellement de l'agriculture ou de la pêche. Elles se retrouvent "privées de leurs moyens de subsistance et contraintes de fuir leur communauté", devenant une proie facile pour les trafiquants, a expliqué à la presse en amont de la publication Fabrizio Sarrica, auteur principal du texte. Rien qu'en 2021, les catastrophes climatiques ont provoqué le déplacement interne de plus de 23,7 millions de personnes, tandis que de nombreux autres ont dû partir à l'étranger. Le rapport cite des typhons dévastateurs aux Philippines, ou encore le Bangladesh, particulièrement exposé aux cyclones et tempêtes. Dans les deux pays, une hausse des cas de trafic a été constatée, avec par exemple l'organisation de "larges campagnes de recrutement" pour piéger dans le travail forcé les plus démunis. Le Ghana, victime de sécheresses et d'inondations, et la région des Caraïbes, soumise aux ouragans et à la montée du niveau de la mer, sont aussi en première ligne. Autre terrain propice au trafic, les conflits armés. Si l'Afrique est de loin le continent le plus touché, l'instance onusienne pointe une situation potentiellement "dangereuse" en Ukraine, tout en saluant les mesures prises par les pays de l'Union européenne pour accueillir et protéger les millions de réfugiés. (Belga)




ag

Ascendancy of SNS information and age difference on intention to buy eco-friendly offerings: meaningful insights for e-tailers

Through the unparalleled espousal of theory of planned behaviour, this study intends to significantly add to the current knowledge on social networking sites (SNS) in <i>eWOM</i> information and its role in defining intentions to buy green products. In specie, this study seeks to first investigate the part played by <i>attitude towards SNS information</i> in influencing the <i>acceptance of SNS information</i> and then by <i>acceptance of SNS information</i> in effecting the <i>green purchase intention</i>. Besides this, it also aims to analyse the influence exerted by first <i>credibility of SNS information</i> on <i>acceptance of SNS information</i> and then by <i>acceptance of SNS information</i> on <i>green purchase intention</i>. In doing so, it also examines how well the age of the SNS users moderates all these four associations.




ag

An effectiveness analysis of enterprise financial risk management for cost control

This paper aims to analyse the effectiveness of cost control oriented enterprise financial risk management. Firstly, it analyses the importance of enterprise financial risk management. Secondly, the position of cost control in enterprise financial risk management was analysed. Cost control can be used to reduce the operating costs of enterprises, improve their profitability, and thus reduce the financial risks they face. Finally, a corporate financial risk management strategy is constructed from several aspects: establishing a sound risk management system, predicting and responding to various risks, optimising fund operation management, strengthening internal control, and enhancing employee risk awareness. The results show that after applying the proposed management strategy, the enterprise performs well in cost control oriented enterprise financial risk management, with a cost accounting accuracy of 95% and an audit system completeness of 90%. It can also help the enterprise develop emergency plans and provide comprehensive risk management strategy coverage.




ag

An intelligent approach to classify and detection of image forgery attack (scaling and cropping) using transfer learning

Image forgery detection techniques refer to the process of detecting manipulated or altered images, which can be used for various purposes, including malicious intent or misinformation. Image forgery detection is a crucial task in digital image forensics, where researchers have developed various techniques to detect image forgery. These techniques can be broadly categorised into active, passive, machine learning-based and hybrid. Active approaches involve embedding digital watermarks or signatures into the image during the creation process, which can later be used to detect any tampering. On the other hand, passive approaches rely on analysing the statistical properties of the image to detect any inconsistencies or irregularities that may indicate forgery. In this paper for the detection of scaling and cropping attack a deep learning method has been proposed using ResNet. The proposed method (Res-Net-Adam-Adam) is able to achieve highest amount of accuracy of 99.14% (0.9914) while detecting fake and real images.




ag

Robust watermarking of medical images using SVM and hybrid DWT-SVD

In the present scenario, the security of medical images is an important aspect in the field of image processing. Support vector machines (SVMs) are a supervised machine learning technique used in image classification. The roots of SVM are from statistical learning theory. It has gained excellent significance because of its robust, accurate, and very effective algorithm, even though it was applied to a small set of training samples. SVM can classify data into binary classification or multiple classifications according to the application's needs. Discrete wavelet transform (DWT) and singular value decomposition (SVD) transform techniques are utilised to enhance the image's security. In this paper, the image is first classified using SVM into ROI and RONI, and thereafter, to enhance the images diagnostic capabilities, the DWT-SVD-based hybrid watermarking technique is utilised to embed the watermark in the RONI region. Overall, our work makes a significant contribution to the field of medical image security by presenting a novel and effective solution. The results are evaluated using both perceptual and imperceptibility testing using PSNR and SSIM parameters. Different attacks were introduced to the watermarked image, which shows the efficacy and robustness of the proposed algorithm.




ag

An image encryption using hybrid grey wolf optimisation and chaotic map

Image encryption is a critical and attractive issue in digital image processing that has gained approval and interest of many researchers in the world. A proposed hybrid encryption method was implemented by using the combination of the Nahrain chaotic map with a well-known optimised algorithm namely the grey wolf optimisation (GWO). It was noted from analysing the results of the experiments conducted on the new hybrid algorithm, that it gave strong resistance against expected statistical invasion as well as brute force. Several statistical analyses were carried out and showed that the average entropy of the encrypted images is near to its ideal information entropy.




ag

Form 10-K filing lags during COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines Form 10-K filing lags of US firms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021. The findings suggest that filing lags relate negatively to firm size, profitability, hiring Big4 auditors, and filing status, but positively to ineffective internal control, ineffective disclosure control, and going concern opinion. Large accelerated and accelerated filers had shorter filing lags, and non-accelerated filers had longer filing lags in 2020-2021 than 2018-2019. Further analysis provides mild evidence that Big4 auditors contributed to the filing lag reduction in 2020-2021, echoing the view that adopting advanced audit technologies allows Big4 auditors to respond better to the external shocks brought by the pandemic.




ag

Springs of digital disruption: mediation of blockchain technology adoption in retail supply chain management

Supply chain management practices are vital for success and survival in today's competitive Indian retail market. The advent of COVID-19 pandemic necessitates a digital disruption in retail supply chain management centred on efficient technology like blockchain in order to enhance supply chain performance. The present research aims to decipher the nature of associations between supply chain management practices, blockchain technology adoption and supply chain performance in retail firms. The research is based on primary survey of specific food and grocery retailers operating on a supermarket format stores in two Indian cities. The findings pointed towards the presence of significant and positive association of all the constructs with each other. Moreover, the mediating role of blockchain technology adoption was also revealed, i.e., it partially mediates the effects of supply chain management practices on supply chain performance.




ag

Impacts of social media usage on consumers' engagement in social commerce: the roles of trust and cultural distance

The prevalence of social media transforms e-business into social commerce and facilitates consumers' engagement in cross-cultural social commerce. However, social commerce operations encounter unpredictable challenges in cross-cultural business environment. It is vital to further investigate how contextual elements affect consumers' trust and their engagement when they are exposed to the complexity of cross-cultural business environment. The stimuli-organism-response paradigm is employed to examine how the two dimensions of social media usage influence consumers' engagement in cross-cultural social commerce. The current study surveyed 2,058 samples from 135 countries, and the regression analysis results illustrate the mechanism whereby informational and socialising usage of social media positively influences consumers' engagement in social commerce through consumers' trust toward social commerce websites. Additionally, the associations between two aspects of social media usage and consumers' trust towards social commerce are negatively moderated by cultural distance. Both theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.




ag

Learning the usage intention of robo-advisors in fin-tech services: implications for customer education

Drawing on the MOA framework, this study establishes a research model that explains the usage intention of robo-advisors. In the model, three predictors that consist of technology relative advantage, technology herding, and technology familiarity influence usage intention of robo-advisors directly and indirectly via the partial mediation of trust. At the same time, the effects of the three predictors on trust are hypothetically moderated by learning goal orientation and perceived performance risk respectively. Statistical analyses are provided using the data of working professionals from the insurance industry in Taiwan. Based on its empirical findings, this study discusses important theoretical and practical implications.




ag

Application of integrated image processing technology based on PCNN in online music symbol recognition training

To improve the effectiveness of online training for music education, it was investigated how to improve the pulse-coupled neural network in image processing for spectral image segmentation. The study proposes a two-scale descent method to achieve oblique spectral correction. Subsequently, a convolutional neural network was optimised using a two-channel feature fusion recognition network for music theory notation recognition. The results showed that this image segmentation method had the highest accuracy, close to 98%, and the accuracy of spectral tilt correction was also as high as 98.4%, which provided good image pre-processing results. When combined with the improved convolutional neural network, the average accuracy of music theory symbol recognition was about 97% and the highest score of music majors was improved by 16 points. This shows that the method can effectively improve the teaching effect of online training in music education and has certain practical value.




ag

Multi-agent Q-learning algorithm-based relay and jammer selection for physical layer security improvement

Physical Layer Security (PLS) and relay technology have emerged as viable methods for enhancing the security of wireless networks. Relay technology adoption enhances the extent of coverage and enhances dependability. Moreover, it can improve the PLS. Choosing relay and jammer nodes from the group of intermediate nodes effectively mitigates the presence of powerful eavesdroppers. Current methods for Joint Relay and Jammer Selection (JRJS) address the optimisation problem of achieving near-optimal secrecy. However, most of these techniques are not scalable for large networks due to their computational cost. Secrecy will decrease if eavesdroppers are aware of the relay and jammer intermediary nodes because beamforming can be used to counter the jammer. Consequently, this study introduces a multi-agent Q-learning-based PLS-enhanced secured joint relay and jammer in dual-hop wireless cooperative networks, considering the existence of several eavesdroppers. The performance of the suggested algorithm is evaluated in comparison to the current algorithms for secure node selection. The simulation results verified the superiority of the proposed algorithm.




ag

BEFA: bald eagle firefly algorithm enabled deep recurrent neural network-based food quality prediction using dairy products

Food quality is defined as a collection of properties that differentiate each unit and influences acceptability degree of food by users or consumers. Owing to the nature of food, food quality prediction is highly significant after specific periods of storage or before use by consumers. However, the accuracy is the major problem in the existing methods. Hence, this paper presents a BEFA_DRNN approach for accurate food quality prediction using dairy products. Firstly, input data is fed to data normalisation phase, which is performed by min-max normalisation. Thereafter, normalised data is given to feature fusion phase that is conducted employing DNN with Canberra distance. Then, fused data is subjected to data augmentation stage, which is carried out utilising oversampling technique. Finally, food quality prediction is done wherein milk is graded employing DRNN. The training of DRNN is executed by proposed BEFA that is a combination of BES and FA. Additionally, BEFA_DRNN obtained maximum accuracy, TPR and TNR values of 93.6%, 92.5% and 90.7%.




ag

Logics alignment in agile software design processes

We propose that technological, service-dominant and design logics must interplay for an IT artefact to succeed. Based on data from a project aiming at a B2B platform for manufacturing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Europe, we explore these three logics in an agile software design context. By using an inductive approach, we theorise about what is needed for the alignment of the three logics. We contribute with a novel theoretical lens, the Framework for Adaptive Space. We offer insights into the importance of continuously reflecting on all three logics during the agile software design process to ensure mutual understanding among the agile team and the B2B platform end-users involved.