Evaluation on Scientific Papers

Novel Nano-organisms from Australian Sandstone



Philippa J.R. Uwins, Richard I. Webb, and Anthony P.Taylor
Centre for Microscopy and Microanalysis, The University of Queensland , St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4072
Department of Microbiology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia 4072

Summary:

Nanobes have cellular structures that are strikingly similar in morphology to Actinomycetes and fungi (spores, filaments, and fruiting bodies) with the exception that they are up to 10 times smaller in diameter. Nanobes show a positive reaction to three DNA stains which strongly suggests that nanobes contain DNA.

This paper describes various organic features that were observed as unusual growths on sandstone samples and other substrates. This paper also documents their morphology, elemental composition, and structural detail. Sandstone samples with observed in situ nanobe growths were used in the study. Scanning electron microscopy, Transmission elctron microscopy, Energy dipersive X-ray spectroscopy, and DAPI, Acridine Orange , and Feulgen staining for DNA were the methods used in the study.

As a result of the study, there were many properties of the nano-organisms that support their thesis that nanobes are biological structures based on the methods they have performed. The authors of the paper presented seven properties of nanobes which were results of the different methods and analyses done on the samples that will show that nanobes or nano-organisms are biological structures.

Evaluation:

There were terms in this paper that were a bit hard to understand. But, as to the organization of the contents of the study, the paper shows a clear purpose of their study which was to examine that nanobes are biological structures although the standard format for the research paper, as we have discussed in class, cannot be noticed in this paper. The methods that were used in testing their samples were presented in a way that it can be understandable by readers. After showing the techniques performed on the said samples, they also presented a brief discussion which showed their analyses on the samples. They ended the paper with a conclusion that supported their thesis. Nice thing about their conclusion is that the authors also presented the other side which was if nanobes not being biological structures. Based on their conclusion, they had properly obtained evidences on the existence of the nanobes or nano-organisms as biological structures.

Where There's Smoke, There's Mirrors: The Truth about Trojan Horses on the Internet


Sarah Gordon, David M. Chess
IBM TJ Watson Research Center
Yorktown Heights, NY

Summary:

Trojan horses are programs purposefully damage a user's system upon their invocation. They almost always shoot to disable hard disks, although they can, in rare cases, destroy other equipment too. This paper examined the prevalence, technical structure and impact of non-viral malicious code ("Trojan horses") on the Internet, and its relevance to the corporate and home user.

Throughout computing history, we can find references to Trojan horses. In the late 1980's, FidoNet bulletin boards were popular places for computer users to gather and engage in various forms of communication. Files were also available for download. As users downloaded programs, they sometimes came across programs that claimed to do one thing, but which actually did another. Someone came up with the idea that it might be a good idea to document the existence of these programs and warn users. Out of this need and idea, The Dirty Dozen was born. The Dirty Dozen is a list that was established to provide warnings about the most common Trojans and bombs. The list included the filename, description of what they program is supposed to do, followed by what the program actually does. Many Trojan horses appeared which were also examined by the different anti-virus firms. Determining if a program was really a Trojan horse was a big problem.

Using user simulations and first-hand reports provided by real users focusing on the type and scope of actual Trojan threats encountered on the Internet were done in course of the study. The status of hostile active content, including Java and ActiveX, on the Internet, its impact in the real world and strategies for minimizing the risk of damage from Trojan horses on the Internet were also presented. These preventive measures presented were drawn from the results of the simulations and the reports coming from the real users were also used in the conclusion.


Evaluation:

This paper was a bit long to read since it really discussed the history of Trojan horses. But that was helpful in the sense that it introduced beforehand what really a Trojan horse was. As to the format of the paper, I think the standard format of a research paper is unnoticeable although it had the introduction and conclusion. I think the history presented was the related literature. As what I have noticed while reading the paper, if you’ll not read the whole content of the paper, you will not know what were the methods used and where in the paper can you actually see those things. Unlike the previous paper I have read, you can easily recognize the organization of the information presented. Some parts of the paper were also not that clear. I think it’s because of the different titles the author put which, if a reader will not actually read and understand that part of the paper, the reader will not know the relevance or the connection of the title to the content. But, as to the information presented, I think the study was helpful for victims of the Trojan horses as well as its future victims.

An Environment for Controlled Worm Replication and Analysis
or: Internet-inna-Box


Ian Whalley
Bill Arnold, David Chess, John Morar, Alla Segal, Morton Swimmer
IBM TJ Watson Research Center, PO Box 704, Yorktown Heights, NY 10598, USA

Summary:

A worm is a program that distributes multiple copies of itself within a system or across a distributed system. In order to understand the requirements of a worm replication system, the author presented a brief history of worms and its properties.

So-called 'worms' have been a feature of the malware landscape since the beginning, and yet have been largely ignored by anti-virus companies until comparatively recently. However, the near-complete connectivity of computers in today's western world, coupled with the largely Win32-centric base of installed operating systems make the rise of worms inevitable.

The author described techniques and mechanisms for constructing and utilizing an environment enabling the automatic examination of worms and network-aware viruses. The paper is not intended to be a discussion of the Immune System concept. Instead, the intent is to describe an approach that has been applied to the problem with some measure of success.

The approach involves building a virtual SOHO network, which is in turn connected to a virtual Internet. Both the virtual LAN and WAN are populated with virtual machines. The suspected worm is introduced into this environment, and executed therein. The whole system is closely monitored as execution progresses in the isolated environment, and data is amassed describing what the suspected worm did as it executed. This data is then processed by the system in an attempt to automatically determine whether or not the suspect programming is performing actions indicative of a worm or internet-aware malware. In this paper, an outline of a functional prototype of a worm replication system was also presented.


Evaluation:

I think, if I’ not mistaken, this paper is a good example of a technical research. This paper introduced a way of controlling worm replication on networks. Although the author admitted that the development of this study is not either at, or nearly at, I think this paper is really a good start for people to develop one like this. I was not bored reading this paper although it was long enough. The author presented different things in relation to the study but everything was done concisely. The manner of the discussion in each section was direct to the point. As to the format of the paper, I think the standard format I’ve known was still not noticeable just like the other papers I’ve read. Considering the organization of data in the paper, everything was clear because every section of the paper was properly presented. Everything was concise but still understandable for me. To sum up, the sections of the paper was concisely arranged but in a way that it can easily be understood by readers.

Comments and Suggestions on the New Enrollment System

This first semester of the academic year 2009-2010 was started with the implementation of the new enrollment system of the university. For me, the implementation of the new system was successful although there were some problems that occurred in the flow of the enrollment process. Although the previous enrollment system and the new one, from my observation, was the same in terms of the steps that should be taken in order to be officially enrolled. Although there was a bit difference, the flow was somewhat the same from the previous system the university used. The filling up of the Pre Registration Form or the PRF after having been advised by our respective advisers was still there. I think the difference that can easily be observed was the printed Certificate of Registration (COR). In the previous enrollment I had, there were four copies of the Certificate of Registration that was given to me. The two copies are for the Cashier’s Office, one copy for the Registrar’s Office and the other one as my copy of the COR. But, in the new enrollment system only two copies were given to students by the encoder in the respective colleges, one Treasurer’s Copy and another was the Auditor’s Copy. After I had paid the necessary payments, I had to go to the Registrar’s Office and from there, a Student’s Copy of the Certificate of Registration was given to me. The process was faster compared to the previous one especially with the help of the new printers that were used during that enrollment period.

Evaluating the new enrollment system that was implemented this semester lets first start at the initial step that should be taken first by students. Before students can have there Certificate of Registration, they should be first evaluated by their adviser. From here, students are given Pre Registration Forms for them to be filled up with the subjects they wanted to enroll in the said semester. After filling it up, students go back to their adviser to sign the Pre Registration Form. Then from there, students go to there respective encoder for their subjects to be encoded and for them to get two copies of the printed Certificate of Registration. Waiting for your turn in the line to get to your adviser and filling up the Pre Registration Form itself took a lot of time especially when you wanted to enroll many subjects because you have to write everything on that form one by one. The adviser also has to transfer the grades of the students from their passbooks to the files of the adviser which is on Microsoft Excel. In this step alone, a lot of time is needed. From this, I think there should also be a system on the advising side where the adviser will just search for the name of that student then the system will automatically display all the possible subjects that he or she is allowed to enroll. The student will have the option of enrolling all the subjects or not. He adviser will no longer manually transfer the grades from passbooks to Excel documents. The grades from the registrar will be linked to the advising system so that it will not take too much time. After the adviser has validated the said subjects he will now forward it to the encoding officer who will hand the printed Certificate of Registration to the students. How about the signature of the adviser on the Pre Registration Form? I think it should also be part of the system where it will automatically send information to the other linking system that this student had already been validated. The Cashier’s Office and the Registrar’s Office area, I think, was a bit organized compared to the previous one although there were long lines of students waiting for their turn.

From the time I heard that the university will develop their new enrollment system, I thought that the flow of the enrollment process will be changed. But that did not happen. Yes, considering the time of the development of the system you cannot really expect that big change. Long lines of students in the faculty room where the adviser was, encoding section, Cashier’s office, Registrar’s office and in the university library are still present on those days. Well for me, as a student of this university, I think every student in this university wish on saving money. Other students might not have enough money. I mean their money is just enough for the local fees and a partial payment for their tuition fees but because they still have to finish the whole enrollment process for about two days. Their local fees, tuition fees plus the expenses for those days they spent in that enrollment process, considering the food and the transportation, that was a big amount already. I think the new enrollment system did not address this problem yet. For me, they should also have to make an improvement on the enrollment system for it to be faster so that the students of the university will benefit more from it and the university as well. It might be that the linking of all the systems on the different offices of the university will be a good solution to faster processing in the enrollment period. Maybe in the future we can just have the whole enrollment one day every year level. This will also help the faculty and staff of the university utilize there time in other things they need to do so at the opening of the class on that semester, everything is well prepared and organized preventing problems to occur. I know problems would still occur but at least a little adjustment will answer to that. I think it will be easy for the developers of the newly implemented enrollment system considering their skills, knowledge and experience towards the field of system development.

From what I have noticed, not all systems in the university are linked together or connected from this system to the other systems. I think this should also be considered. For me, if every system in the university to the other systems, staff and faculty will have access to the information on the other system which will let the processing faster. This will be more efficient. Example, if the Institute of Computing staff needs to verify or search for that certain file, the staff does not need to go to the office where the file may be most probably at. The staff can access directly the files she needed thus enabling her to process or to do more things. By this the university can save time when talking on the accessing of files from one system to another or from one office to another.
I’ve heard from my classmates on our discussion in Systems Analysis and Design II that “what if the enrollment system will be put online?”. Well I think that was a good idea. From your computer, it will just be one click away and you will be officially enrolled after that. Wow! Enrollment in a click? That is pretty much amazing! From the students’ computer screens, they will just click on the forms on that page which are necessary for the verification of the enrollment. From there, if the student wishes to submit the form, he or she will just click on the submit button and then, data will be passed on to the different offices of the university like the cahier’s office, registrar’s office, the university library, and the college where the student belongs. Verification from the office which will be in charged for this task, let’s say the registrar’s office, will automatically be sent to the student if there will be no problems on the processing of his enrollment. From there, maybe the student will be given a registration number which will identify his slot in the online enrollment process. Let us look at the brighter side of the picture. If students of the university will just face his or her computer or if the student does not have a computer, he or she might just have to go to a near internet cafe, and click on some items there that should be filled up, well, I think this will really help students lessen their expenses comparing it to the money they will spend if they will go to the university. Talking about the payment of the local fees, tuition fees and other fees, students will somehow just indicate an account number, or the option on how he or she will pay it. But how about those pertinent documents that should be submitted to the different offices of the university before you will be accepted as officially enrolled? Well with this, I think there is no other way than to have those long lines of students again. But at least for now, because submission of documents will be scheduled by college, there will be no big crowds of students in the registrar’s area. How about the security of the data? Will the process be reliable? Can the server of the university handle all these things? On the security, what if someone will do some illegal actions just to be enrolled, then that should also be considered in the development of the system if ever. The system should have a good verification feature so that the university will not be on risk.

A lot of ”what ifs” are now bumping on my mind. What if the enrollment process of the University of Southeastern Philippines will be via Text? Sounds interesting for unlimited texting addicts. Well same thing goes with the online enrollment system. First, they have to be a registered texter as most texting applications do. Then from there, the student will received the list of instructions including the things he need to type before sending the text message. After completing everything, if there will be no problems that occurred, a notification message will be sent to the student. He or she will not be officially enrolled unless the student can submit all the necessary documents in directed office. A message should also be sent to his or her email in case the student will unfortunately erase the notification text message. Students still have to submit there documents in the university at the start of the class. This will be pretty good for those students who do not have a computer of their own. They just need a cellphone with load to be enrolled. How about for those unlimited calls addict? Will Enrollment on a Call be possible? I think so. Everything is possible right now because of technology that is present nowadays. If this is possible, maybe the university can hire part time call agents to cater all the enrollment calls or maybe they can utilize the skills of the students of the university. The student who wants to be enrolled will just call the enrollment hotlines. The call agents will facilitate the registration. After that, since there will be no other way that we can send him a notification message, it will be sent on his or her email account. Once again, he will be asked to submit the necessary documents as soon as the classes starts.

If ever online enrollment, enrollment via text or a call will not be possible, then I think a little improvement on the present enrollment system will do as I have mentioned earlier my suggestions and comments. Thinking that we do not have any other choice but to stick with the system we currently have, here are my points of view. Maybe the university should also invest on facilities for a faster processing not only in the enrollment process but all throughout the systems involved in the university. For example, they will add more computers and printers especially at the registrar’s office and the cashier’s office where long lines of students are mostly noticed. Added staff that will offer services to the students will also be of great help in the faster enrollment process. Added number of printers and encoders will help especially in every colleges of the university where students also have long periods of waiting for their Certificate of Registration.

Considering that all the systems in the university are interconnected to each and every system in the university, well I believe that the clearance should also be made online. Why am I pointing out on this? It is because I saw that the clearance is also one of the initial requirements of the enrollment system. You will not be enrolled unless you are cleared like cleared from any payments. Since the systems are interconnected, it will be easier to know if this student is cleared or not. It will also lessen the burden of students in looking for the person who need to sign their clearance and wait for about how many hours for the papers to be signed. On the part of the in charge who will sign the students’ clearance it will also be a bit hassle for them since lots of papers will be piled up on their desks. Lots of problems also occur on having those papers be signed. Some clearance might be lost causing other students to go back to where they started which is really a waste of time. By having the clearance online, persons who are intended to sign or verify if the student is cleared will just indicate there “CLEARED” or if in case not yet cleared, state the reason why he is not yet cleared and that will only be the time the student will be ask to visit the said office. This will allow students to check on their accounts from time to time whether they are already cleared or not. Since it will be put online, less paper will be used thus reducing the paper consumption of the university or the expenses intended for those clearances. It will also lessen the ink of pens used in signing those clearances. Assuming that the student is already cleared, in the enrollment process where his grades will be evaluated, the adviser will just view the students account on the online clearance to check if the student is cleared or not. The university will also lessen the wastes from these papers. Although many considerations should be taken before developing this system and implementing it in the future, I believe that this will be a great help for the university most especially to students.

The necessary systems of the university can actually be developed, with the supervision or the guidance of instructors, by the students of the university especially to those who are inclined to the fields of systems development. This can be part of the learning process of students particularly to those who are at the Institute of Computing. As a student from the Institute of Computing, it can be part of our on the job training. We will not be looking anymore for any other companies that will allow us to undergo training in their company. This will really be a great learning experience for students like me. If ever the system development will be successful and the system will be implemented in the university, we will not be having a hard time giving up two of the skilled and knowledgeable faculty members of the Institute of computing. Maybe they will just be guiding or facilitating the students involved in the development of the system. For me as a student, if ever I will be given a chance to help in the development of the system that will really help the university as well as the students, it will be my pleasure although it may not seem that easy. It might be made as a group where the class will be divided in two groups concentrating on different systems for the university. If ever it will be successful, then the facilitators and the staff or persons from the office where the developed system is intended will test to make sure that the system functions well and the developers of the system will know some other improvements on some areas of the system. After the deployment of the system, the students will be paid thus giving the students a big help especially with there allowances. I think this will not cost that really big compared to asking the professional ones to make a system for the university although I am also looking for it as a fair job. Students will not be treated as students as it is but as little professionals who wants to compete in the industry. So much for the money that is involved is the learning experience that this will give the students and the benefits it will offer to university and its residents. By this, the students will not just have there training in the university but also they will be able to help increase the quality of service the university offers. Instead of just answering calls in other companies or being asked to make some tea or coffee by their big boss, by this they will be able to experience what it will be on the real world. After the on the job training we had last summer, I realize how important it was to have the said training. By that, we were able to learn things that we might not learn in the university. I think the on the job training for incoming forth year students should not be taken for granted by students because it is the best training students should ever have. Well, I am only referring to the training in line with our course. This will also help them in hunting for jobs. They can put it in their resume that they are one of the developers of the system implemented in the University of Southeastern Philippines which is currently used. Through this achievement, they can have a better opportunity of having good jobs after they graduate. This will also be in line with the mission and goals of the university which is to produce competitive professionals. This opportunity will encourage students to strive harder on developing new systems. I think if ever, business companies will not hesitate on investing and asking the University of Southeastern Philippines students on making a system for them. Students will also have broader insights on developing a system since they are still exposed to developing a real system, not just having it on papers or documents but also to experience looking at a working system that you are one of the developers. I do not know how proud I will be if ever I am one of those students but I am sure I will not forget it for the rest of my life.

COMDDAP Davao Expo 2009 Experience

Last July 2-4, the COMDDAP Davao Expo 2009 held an IT event at the Apo View Hotel. The Computer Manufacturers Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or the COMDDAP shared their new products, services, and technology. The event was also attended by some IT professionals and students from different colleges. The registration was held online. At the bottom of the registration form before you can submit the form was something like a confirmation and it went like this, “Just to make sure you're human: 1 + 1 = __ “. From there, I already know that it will really be a great event.
My schedule for the first day was on the Open Source For Business Applications - Spinweb Productions, Inc. It was the last session for that day. I was interested with this topic since in our Elective 1 we have been talking on Free and Open Source Software in the forum. The speaker presented applications that are Open Source Technologies. He gave differentiation on Open Source and Free Software. Although the speaker was on the Open Source side, he also gave some good points on free software. The best thing on that session was at the bottom part where some IT professionals were raising their questions and sharing their insights on the said topic. They were somewhat arguing on the issue of security towards using free and open source software and on Proprietary Software. There was a guy there who stood and gave his insights on with what will he prefer to use in the computerized election this coming May 2010. I think he’s one of the organizers of the said event and I admit, he was really cute not mentioning how clear he was on explaining his side and how good he was in speaking Filipino although he looked like an American. So much for that, on my own opinion, the election is a big event and I think no one would ever put that on big risk since it will determine the future leaders of our country. On the issue of what will they prefer to use, Free and Open Source Software or Proprietary software, it made me realize and weigh things out. If they will be using a Free and Open Source Software for the election, yes, it will truly lower the cost. But, will this lower cost out pass the reliability, efficiency and security of the system? On the other hand, if they will use Proprietary software for the coming election, that would really cost high. The cute guy was right when he said that if they will be investing on Proprietary software from an identified company for that high risk event that would give them a guarantee that there is someone (the company) that they can run to or sue when some errors or problems that would occur on that software. This discussion really left me confused on the issue between Free and Open Software and Proprietary Software. Well, I think it’s a matter of reliability, efficiency, cost, quality and security check on which is better between the two.
The next day, July 3, our first session was ERIC Dealership Management Systems (DMS). Honestly, I was not able to digest the things the speaker was saying at that moment because I cannot relate to the topic and I was a bit sleepy that time. I cannot concentrate on it because I was really excited on the next topic which was the HP Thin clients. I think the speaker on ERIC – DMS was talking about one of the systems they were making. At the first look, it was a system with a simple interface. But as the discussion went on, the functionality of the system was amazing. That simple interface covered the complicated functions of the systems. It has a number of functions essential to the system.

The next topic on that same afternoon was on the HP Thin Clients, I already read articles on this that’s why I was excited. That was the first time that I saw a thin client in front of me. It was really small compared to my system unit. Though it only has small memory capacity, the thin clients also have other advantages. According to the presentation, with the HP thin client computing model, vulnerability to virus attack on the thin client system is significantly less than a standard Windows PC. It consumes less space because of its thin appearance. Different features on the said product and its new models were also presented. Since it is designed to be energy efficient and with environment in mind, saving you money, I think this will also help in the major environmental problem of the world which is the global warming. Many institutions are now adopting this technology. At the end of the presentation, I thought of something. What if the University of Southeastern Philippines will adopt this kind of technology? Will this give a great impact to the university? Well, I think it would take a lot more years. I really had a great time listening to that discussion.

The last topic that afternoon was the Windows Server 2008. The session was more on demonstrations on the installation. The speaker presented different features on Windows Server 2008. Some applications were new to me. I think I’ll understand more on the said demonstration once I can have a face to face interaction with those applications mentioned.

Each presentation was ended with freebies which made the participants enjoy more the event. Outside the conference room were exhibits on different products and services. Some booths were also offering free registration like the sandbox from SMART. We came to see the Danpro Inks at the corner side. They offer services like converting your printer to print using those tubes and selling inks for those type of converted printers. I don’t know how it is called. Although I already heard about this ago, that was the first time that I saw it clearly.

Both the exhibitors and the participants took advantage on this event. The exhibitors gave the participants knowledge from their products and in return, they had a chance to promote their product. The participants as well gave their support to the said event and to the exhibitors there and in return left the venue with new knowledge.

Events like this are really helpful for students like me to be acquainted with new innovations especially on the IT world. I hope more events like this will be held in Davao City so we can join and experience a different kind of learning activity.