ISYS1000 (V.1) Introduction to Business Information Systems Trimester 3A, 2024 Syllabus In this unit, the focus is on understanding the significance of Business Information Systems (BIS) and Business Information Technology (BIT) in promoting global, responsible, innovative, and technology-driven success in organisations. The unit offers an overview of the different types of information systems and technology, and how they support and enhance business processes through the appropriate use of technology. It also introduces the activities and tools used to develop, maintain, and operate effective BIS. By the end of this unit, students will have a foundational understanding of how BIS and BIT can contribute to organisational success in a global, responsible, innovative, and technology-driven manner. Introduction This unit will help you to: Understand how Information Systems (IS) play a crucial role in driving business operations, facilitating efficient processes, and fostering informed decision-making across organisational functions. Recognise the strategic alignment between business processes, competitive advantage, and the support provided by IS, leading to enhanced operational efficiency and differentiation in the marketplace. Gain proficiency in data and information management practices, particularly in utilising databases and other systems to organise, store, and analyse data effectively within organisational contexts. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the ethical, social, and legal considerations associated with IS usage, emphasising ethical decision-making, privacy protection, and compliance with intellectual property laws. Appreciate the strategic value of telecommunications networks and technologies in bolstering global business operations and facilitating seamless e-business communication and collaboration. Learn how IS can optimise business operations, refine strategic planning processes, and maintain competitiveness by enabling efficient customer and supply chain management, leveraging e-commerce platforms, and supporting informed decision-making through analytics. Unit Learning Outcomes All graduates of Curtin University achieve a set of six Graduate Capabilities during their course of study. These inform. an employer that , through your studies, you have acquired discipline knowledge and a range of other skills and capabilities which employer would value in a professional setting. Each unit in your course addresses the Graduate Capalibilites through a clearly identified set of learning outcomes. They form. a vital part in the process referred to as assurance of learning. The learning outcomes notify you of what you are expected to know, understand or be able to do in order to be successful in this unit. Each assessment for this unit is carefully designed to test your knowledge of one or more of the unit learning outcomes. On successfully completing all of the assessments you will have achieved all of these learning outcomes. Your course has been deisgned so that on graduating you will have achieved all of Curtin's Graduate Capabilities through the assurance of learning process in each unit. Learning Activities The learning activities in this unit are structured to be flexible and adaptive, supporting the learning of all students. To get the most out of our sessions, it’s crucial to complete the activities in the Learning Modules section on Blackboard before coming to class. This preparation will ensure you’re well-prepared to actively participate in our planned activities. Here’s how the activities are organised: Preparation Activities 1. Independent Learning: Prior to class, engage in self-directed learning activities, including reading assigned materials and watching suggested videos for the week. These resources are carefully selected to introduce new concepts and prepare you for in-class activities. 2. Comprehension Checks: Participate in comprehension check activities after completing your readings and videos. These are designed to test your understanding of the material and prepare you for deeper exploration during classroom sessions. In-Class Activities 1. Application of Concepts: Classroom time is dedicated to applying what you’ve learned in a practical and collaborative setting. This approach allows you to tackle complex problems, engage in active learning exercises, and participate in discussions with a strong grasp of the subject matter. 2. Interactive Sessions: In-class sessions involve analysing and discussing case studies related to the week’s topics. You will work in groups to solve real-world problems, conduct research, and present your solutions. This hands-on approach enhances your critical thinking and collaborative skills. Post-Class Activities 1. Reflection and Extension: After class, engage in activities that require you to reflect on what you have learned and apply this knowledge further. This may include simulation exercises and case studies that allow you to explore topics in greater depth.
MG5565 International Management Coursework Brief 2024/25 Assessment Title: MG5565 International Management Distribution Date: 2 October 2024 Submission Deadline: 1/12/2024 Feedback by: 20 working days after the submission the deadline Contribution to overall module assessment: 100% Indicative student time working on assessment: Hours Word or Page Limit (if applicable): Words: 3000 words (+/- 10 10%) excluding references Assessment Type (individual or group): Individual essay Main Objective of the assessment In this assignment, you need to demonstrate an in-depth understanding of the international strategy of the company as well as the theories covered in the lectures. You are expected to use relevant materials from a range of sources, including textbooks, journal articles, conference proceedings etc. when formulating your assignment. Description of the Assessment: There are several factors that are considered carefully for a good international managers and efficient leader (Volio et al. 2009). However, to understand the international management strategies, it is essential to know the global market scenario and current trends. In international business setting, it is crucial for the organisations to appoint international managers who have the ability to manage and leadership on a global basis. For this coursework, choose a real-life company which has internationalized (operated in more than two countries), for example McDonald’s, and collect secondary data about the company to answer the following three questions: Question 1. Critically discuss whether the chosen company is an international business (Please provide evidence to support your argument). Question 2. Critically draw on theories learned from this module and collect secondary data of the chosen company, to discuss one of the following international strategies: • Cultural difference management • CSR • Entry mode choices • Balancing the tension between globalization and localization Question 3. Based on your analysis in Question 2, recommend future international strategies to the selected company and illustrate why? Marking Scheme: Please enter here the marking scheme relevant for the coursework and provide an illustration of each assessment criterion achieved at each indicative mark band for UG/PG levels. PG mark bands and grade point bands [Senate Regulation 3] are: Indicative Mark Band Degree class equivalent Grade Point 90 and above A* 17 80-89 A+ 16 73-79 A 15 70-72 A- 14 68-69 B+ 13 63-67 B 12 60-62 B- 11 58-59 C+ 10 53-57 C 9 50-52 C- 8 48-49 D+ 7 43-47 D 6 40-42 D- 5 38-39 E+ 4 33-37 E 3 30-32 E- 2 29 and below F 1
ITS66404 Software Engineering ITS60604 Principles of Software Engineering ASSIGNMENT HAND OUT DATE: Week of 30th September 2024 HAND IN DATE: Week of 17th November 2024 GROUP PROJECT: 30% Instructions to students: • The assignment should be attempted in groups of 5 students. • Complete this cover sheet and attach it to your assignment - this should be your first page. • Your presentation date will be conducted at a different date. 1.0 Learning Outcomes MLO3 Demonstrate subject specific skills with respect to apply modelling techniques and notations in the group project coursework. TGC3 - Communication Skills • Communication Skills refer to the ability to create and deliver messages effectively, expressively and sensitively inappropriate contexts and specific to the discipline. • Deliver content with consideration of audience, purpose, and context surrounding the task, both orally and in written form. as well as any other appropriate forms OBJECTIVES This assignment has been designed for students to: • Determine requirements for a software system. • Demonstrate subject specific skills with respect to applying modelling techniques and notations in the group-project coursework. • Apply theory and foundations of software engineering. • Apply some key aspects of a software engineering process. • Create and finalise models for analysis of a software system. • Apply some key aspects of project management. • Create testcases based on use case specification 2.0 Project Scenario and Requirements In this project, students are required to create a SOFTWARE IDEATION PROJECT PROPOSAL. Students are first to explore existing software systems or applications that address one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The objective is to identify limitations or inefficiencies in the current system and propose an enhanced software application that can improve its effectiveness and impact. Students are advised to explore Malaysia SDG Summit 2024 for a clear and descriptive understanding of the various SDG’s. 3.0 Project Requirements 1. Create Groupings: Each group is to have Maximum if 5 members. Document the grouping list in the link given below. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bh4- XnWbvWkIRLOt17ZPvukvAW43HgeIgTQIsVOa_Gs/edit?usp=sharing 2. SDG Selection: Each team must select one of the 17 SDGs, which include areas such as: • No Poverty (SDG 1) • Good Health and Well-Being (SDG 3) • Quality Education (SDG 4) • Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7) • Climate Action (SDG 13) 3. Existing System/Software Identification: Students must research and identify a system or software application currently being used to address their chosen SDG. This can include: • Government or NGO applications (e.g., poverty relief platforms). • Public or private sector software solutions (e.g., energy management systems). • Mobile or web applications with social impact (e.g., education platforms in underserved areas). 4. Problem Analysis: After selecting the system, teams must conduct a thorough analysis of its current functionality. Identify key problems, challenges, and limitations, such as: • Inefficiency in resource management. • Poor user interface design. • Limited scalability or accessibility issues. • Data management challenges. 5. Proposed System/Software Application: Teams are required to design and propose an improved version of the system. The new system should address the identified problems and improve upon: • Functionality: Improved features and usability. • Scalability: Adaptability to larger userbases or geographies. • Efficiency: Better performance, reduced costs, or more sustainable resource use. • User Experience: Enhanced UI/UX, accessibility, and inclusivity. • Integration of Emerging Technologies: Utilize AI, blockchain, IoT, or other relevant tech to enhance impact. 6. Technical Considerations: The proposed system should demonstrate a solid understanding of software engineering principles and include: • Appropriate software development methodologies (Agile, Waterfall, etc.). • A clear system architecture and design pattern adopting all relevant UML design diagrams. • Justification for technology stack choices (e.g., backend and frontend technologies). • Data handling and security considerations. 4.0 Deliverables 1. Proposed system requirements type: Functional Requirements - core system functionalities needed to full-fill the system’s objectives. E.g., user authentication, data processing, reporting features. Non-Functional Requirements - system qualities such as performance, security, usability, and scalability that must be maintained. Tasks: Identify functional and non-functional requirements using requirements elicitation techniques (e.g., interviews, surveys). 2. Define the Scope of the Proposed System:- • People involved in system processes. • Individuals controlling the data. • The volume of data processed. • Costs and consequences of system failure. What is covered: Clearly explain the system boundaries, processes, and stakeholders involved. What is not covered: Specify functionalities or scenarios outside the system’sscope. 3. UML USE CASE DIAGRAMS:- Deliverables: • Draw TWO (2) or more UML Use Case Diagrams for your proposed system. • Ensure each use case models interactions between users and the system. • Complete use case descriptions and use case specifications for MAIN use cases (2 Use Cases). Use the template provided for use case descriptions and specifications. 4. UML CLASS DIAGRAMS:- Deliverables: • Draw THREE (3) UML Class Diagrams. • Each diagram should have 5-10 classes representing the information to be stored by the system. 5. UML OBJECT DIAGRAMS:- Deliverables: • Draw THREE (3) UML Object Diagrams. • Model four non-trivial situations in your system to visualize object interactions and states. 6. User Interface mock-ups Deliverables: • Create 3-5 major user interaction design layouts/pages • Explanation of the interface design 7. Test Plan Deliverables: • Create THREE (3) testcases per use case (follow use case specification). Use the template provided for testing. 8. UML SEQUENCE DIAGRAM Deliverables: • At least ONE (1) sequence diagrams expected for any use case covering the happy path and one of the alternative pathways. 9. UML ACTIVITY DIAGRAM Deliverables: • At least ONE (1) activity diagram. 10. UML STATE CHART DIAGRAM Deliverables: • Draw at least TWO (2) state chart diagram. 11. Discuss your design rationale consisting of • Strengths and weakness of the final design-including any known issues with the design as it is. Minimum 3 paragraphs. • Alternative design ideas that were considered (classes, structures, patterns, etc…) and why they were eventually rejected?. Minimum 3 paragraphs. • Evaluation of the proposed ideas, the feasibility study. 12. A group analysis to be completed at the end of the project, consisting :- • A brief discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the project team and how/if these were managed effectively. Minimum 2 paragraphs. • An evaluation of lessons learnt about teamwork – what would you do differently (and the same) give the opportunity. Minimum 2 paragraphs. 13. Prototype (or mock-ups of the user interface) or Prototype Video (Less than 4 minute video): • Develop a prototype (alpha version is required, but preferably beta version) of the proposed system and include a brief description of the major functionalities and key benefits. • It should be submitted in video format and your presentation should show some level of interactions. 14. Presentation (F2F). Max 25-minute: • To conduct a technical and value proposition pitching with expected impact in line with purpose learning and to show prototype IMPORTANT NOTE: • Presentation is conducted to propose the new system and teamwork. It may include Introduction, Background, Ideas & Rationale, Lessons learned and Prototype.
ELEC 9732 Final Exam Instructions 1 due in Moodle, Monday Nov. 25, 4pm, 2 Signed School Cover Sheet attached 3 TYPED only - not handwritten. 4 Follow the course homework guide. 5 Computer output: no discussion ⇒ no marks. 6 Analytical results: no working ⇒ no marks. 7 ♦ icon ⇒ you can use Matlab; else not. 8 Consult only lectures & books−Slotine,Khalil; No Discussion except with instructor 9 No use of Large Language Models Q1 (17) Optimal Control & NCF . The following system is a simplified model of a chem-ical reaction where x is a deviation of a resultant concentration from an operating point and the con-trol signal u is a deviation of a reagent concentration from an operating point. x˙ = ax2 + bu. Also a > 0, b > 0. Consider optimal control of this system with the cost function L(x, u) = x 2 + Ru2 (a) Find the steady state optimal control law (b) Find the closed loop system. (c) Investigate the closed loop stability. (d) Also carry out a NCF design. And then calculate the steady state value function Vc(z) = lim T→∞ Z 0 T L(x(t), u(t))dt with x(0) = z. (e) ♦Compare the value functions of the optimal control versus the NCF control; both analyti-cally and in plots (you may set a = b = R = 1 for this part of the question). Q2 (16) Recursive Lyapunov Design . Consider the NL system x˙ 1 = x2 + a 3 + (x1 − a) 3 x˙ 2 = x1 + u where a is a known constant. (a) Design a RLD based control law and prove closed loop stability. (b) Find the steady state response of the closed loop system to a unit step change in the reference signal. Q3 (17) Gain Scheduling . A simplified model of low frequency ship motion is τ (v)θ ¨+ (1 + |θ ˙ |)θ ˙ = b(v)u where θ is the heading angle of the ship; τ (v) is a time constant; b(v) is the open loop gain; u is the control signal which is the rudder angle; |θ ˙ | is a fluid resistance term. And
EE5815 - Topics in Security Technology Assignment 3 Electronic submission only on Canvas Submission guidelines: - Please prepare your assignment in “PDF” format. - For observe the departmental rules for late submission (i.e. 10% deduction per day). - 10 points for each question. Security Management 1) Assume that you area manager responsible for the security of e-Banking systems in a bank. You heard that HongKong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had a guideline called the “Supervision of E-banking” a) Google for the document, and give the URL showing where the above HKMA guideline fore-Banking can be found. b) Read the HKMA guideline. Briefly describe at least three major technology-related controls relevant to e-banking that you need to consider in youre-Banking infrastructure. [Hint: you only need to give a brief description (that is, a few lines) summarizing the main points. Please don’t simply copy pages of paragraphs from the HKMA document without understanding. ] c) Your HK e-Banking system is using a Cisco firewall to protect the Internet perimeter and your IT colleagues are familiar with this firewall. Now, to strengthen the security, it is proposed to purchase for another firewall to set up another tier of internal firewall. Your IT colleagues proposed to purchase the same Cisco firewall and use itas an internal firewall. Would you approve this proposal? Why? d) Goto the bank’s website of your account, is this website secure? Why? Identify the digital certificate from the website, and collect the following information: 1) Issue to, 2) Issue by, 3) Validity Period, and 4) Fingerprints. e) Please collect the information in d) with the help of CityUGPT. Please notify the differences and analyze them Public Key Systems 2) In the RSA cryptosystem, it is possible that M = C, that is the plaintext and the ciphertext are identical. For modulus N = 667, and encryption exponent e = 3, how many messages M would encrypt to itself? Please do not consider M = 0 or 1 in this question. Technical Tools 3) Network packet sniffing. a) Install Wireshark to your machine. Please show evidence (e.g. screen dump) that you have downloaded and installed this package into your personal computer. b) Describe the purpose of this program. How do you start capturing the packets, and how do you use filters for just TCP packets? c) Start capturing the packets. While packet collection is still running, attempt to access to your email. Describe: How you access to your email (e.g. using webmail, or pop3, etc) Can your username and password be seen during the sniffing process? During the sniffing process, can you observe other network protocols in addition to the protocol that you used for email access? If so, name two such protocols and briefly explain why they exist. d) Compare the operations in b), c) and the operations you have done in the team-based learning class. Briefly describe the similarities and differences. 4) Install a mobile banking app to your iOS or Android device (if you don’t have these devices, do this exercise with a web browser connecting to an e-banking site). a) Name the app or web environment you will use in this exercise. b) Google for “web debugging proxy”. Pick one of such tools (e.g. “Fiddler Web Debugger”, “Burp Suite”, etc) and attempt to use it as a proxy to capture the list of URLs visited by your chosen mobile banking app. Go to the login name, and arbitrary input values to attempt to login (You don’t really need to login with a valid username / password; a failed login is good enough. But please only try it once) Show the list of URLs that will be involved in the login process. Are all requests to the bank protected by SSL? c) Display the digital certificate of the BOCHK website, and elaborate what kind of encryption standards are being used in this certificate. Sage Questions 5) ECC Question,please show your code and results in your answers. a.) Define an elliptic curve over the finite field with suitable parameters where p should be a 11-bit prime. b.) Encrypt the message M="2024EE5815" using ECC with the NIST's secp521 elliptic and decrypt back the plaintext. 6) RSA Question, please show your code and results in your answers. a.) The RSA key ‘n’ is 4819. What are the factors (pand q) of ‘n’? b.) Using (a),when e = 7, what are the corresponding public and the private keys? c.) The RSA encrypted message ‘C’ is received by both Alice and Bob whose private and public keys are ‘da, (ea, na)’ and ‘db, (eb, nb)’ respectively. If the original message before the encryption is ‘M’,who is the intended recipient of the message? [M=190, C=1912, (ea, na)=(31, 5293), da=2491, (eb, nb)=(31, 4891), db=3679]. Please show your detailed process of computing. Hands-on Practice Question 7) In this exercise, you need to create a free account on Google Cloud Product and learn one tutorial on https://cloud.google.com/docs/tutorials to use Google Cloud to use function and products to realize some design on the website. The followings are some instructions for this lab session. Requirements: a) Please notify which tutorial you read and what you have learned in Google Cloud,or b) (10 points) You can also learn other products of cloud products. Please also introduce the content as shown in a). c) (Bonus: 10 points) You can finish one tutorial with the help of guidance and generate certain outputs. Please show your results and introduce what you have learned in this process.
MGMT 189: Operations Management Sample Midterm Exam Note: This sample midterm exam is designed for practice only and for demonstrating the format for the actual midterm exam. The actual midterm exam may contain more questions and may cover topics that are not tested in this sample midterm exam. Instructions 1. This examination is open book and open notes. 2. Calculators are allowed but no Internet (except for your access to the course website for the exam) or no discussion with anyone else in any format within 24 hours when the exam is scheduled. 3. The examination consists of six questions. 4. Students have 120 minutes to complete this exam. 5. Write all your answers and the detailed calculation process in the space provided below each question. 6. In your calculation, if you need to make assumptions of your own, please state them clearly and make a brief justification. Note that the assumptions you make cannot be contradictory to the given problem setup. Question 1 The management at BuyRite grocery stores wishes to estimate the amount of time that customers are spending, on average, in its stores and in a checkout line. The most obvious approach for determining this information is to simply record when a customer enters and exits the store. However, it is difficult to track the entering and exiting times of specific customers. We will look at the problem using an alternative approach. Over the past two weeks, the following data have been collected at BuyRite’s newest store during busy hours (this BuyRite is rather large and typically has 7 open checkout lines). For simplicity, let us assume that the overall capacity at checkout lines is higher than the arrival rate of customers into the store. Average rate of customers entering store = 305 customers/hour Average number of customers in store = 146 customers Percentage of customers who do not make a purchase = 5% Average number of customers in the checkout lines = 24 customers As their consultant, you have been asked by BuyRite’s management to address the following questions: (a) How much time on average does a customer spend in the store? (b) How much time on average does a customer spend waiting? Question 2 The following two sub questions (a) and (b) are independent from each other. (a) The student recreation center at a large Midwestern university has a computerized stationary bicycle. During peak periods, students arrive to use that bicycle at the average rate of three per hour, Poisson distributed. Each person rides for an average of fifteen minutes, but riding times are exponentially distributed. Please answer the following questions: (1) How many students would you expect to see waiting for the bicycle, assuming all who arrive wait? (2) What percentage of time is the bicycle being used? (3) What is the probability that no one is using the bicycle? (4) What is the average time a student will spend waiting? (b) A direct-sale store takes both internet and phone orders. Internet orders come in every 15 minutes and phone orders arrive at a rate of 5 orders/hour. Regardless of the type of the orders, the packed merchandise (one order) is put on the truck and ready to be shipped in 7 hours. On average how many orders are in the store? How many of them are internet orders? Question 3 A donut store is open 8 hours a day and sells two types of donuts – blueberry cake donut and chocolate frosted donut. On average the demand is 80 donuts per day for EACH type. The store has only one machine which makes both types, and once it starts, it produces one donut every 2 minutes for either type. The production alternates between the two types, i.e., a batch of one type is followed by a batch of the other. The setup time is 20 minutes for either type. Assume the same batch size all the time for both types. Question 4 Bottleneck is Department B Utilization of Department E = 480/800 = 60% Question 5 In year 2021, your company had COGS of $15,000, inventory of $7,000, sales of $32,000, accounts receivable of $5,000, and accounts payable of $3,000. From these figures, figure out how quickly your company turned the investment on goods/services into cash receipts in 2021. Question 6 Katie’s Card Shop sells calendars with different Colonial pictures shown for each month. The once-a-year order for each year’s calendar arrives in September. From past experience, the September to March demand for the calendars can be approximated by a normal distribution with mean 300 and standard deviation 50. The calendars cost $2.50 each, and Katie sells them for $4 each. (a) If Katie throws out all unsold calendars at the end of March (i.e., salvage value is zero), how many calendars should be ordered? (b) If Katie reduces the calendar price to $1 at the end of March and can sell all leftover calendars at this price, how many calendars should be ordered?
ECO339H 2024/25 Take Home Assignment Due: Saturday December 14, 2024 (11:00pm online) In this assessment you have the opportunity to investigate the impact of the minimum wage on employment in Canada. Your objective is to compose a short paper (2000 words maximum) describing your analysis. Your paper should also include a maximum 4 figures plus tables (you can allocate within this total as you wish. E.g., 3 figures and 1 table, or 2 figures and 2 tables, etc.). Finally, your paper should also include a list of references for any papers you cite, and in an appendix the STATA code you wrote to conduct your analysis (properly commented). The figure(s), table(s), references and appendix do not count towards the 2000 word maximum. You are being equipped with the data lfs0119rr.dta, which are in STATA format. At least some of the variables in this data set should be useful to your analysis. You may add variables to the data set if you wish (it is not required). If you do, please properly report the source of the data you are adding. The empirical frameworks we have discussed in class should be helpful (e.g., Difference-in-differences including its regression form, Instrumental variables etc.). The textbook, the papers we will review in class, and the additional papers referenced below should give you an idea of how to set up your empirical analysis. Paper Format The papers we have reviewed over the term provide good suggestions of how to format your paper. Many papers have the following sections: 1. Introduction 2. Past Research 3. Empirical Framework 4. Results 5. Conclusions Because you only have 2000 words total your sections will need to be concise. Questions to Answer Here are some questions that you should try to answer in your paper a) Given the data provided, what types of workers work for low wages, including the minimum wage? b) Using the empirical framework you have chosen, does your analysis suggest that increases in the minimum wage increase or decrease employment? c) How do your results compare to those in other research papers in terms of the size of the estimated effect and its sign? Best Practices There are also some best practices you should follow. They include 1. If you include a figure or table in your paper, be sure to discuss in the text. 2. Precisely define and briefly justify each of the variables you include in your analysis. 3. Present the equation you are estimating, and/or precisely describe the comparisons you are making. Most word processing programs have an equation editor (e.g., see “ Insert” “ Equation” in MS-Word) which should be useful for this propose. 4. All figures and tables should have “Notes” and/or a Legend which describes their content. Review the different academic papers we have reviewed in the course to see how your tables and figures should look. 5. It’s often very effective if you can present your key empirical finding(s) graphically. Recall the tutorials investigating the impact of the Quebec Childcare Plan on mothers’ labour supply. The graphs you constructed effectively told the same story that the regression analysis revealed. Finally, your objective should be to describe your analysis in sufficient detail that if another researcher was equipped with your data, they could replicate your analysis. Some Background Reading. The relevant readings in the text are pages 207-216 (also see pages 200-204 as background). One of the key researchers investigating the impact of minimum wages in Canada is Michele Campolieti who is here at the University of Toronto. A list of his publications can be found here: https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/16438-michele-campolieti/publications See for example his paper Campolieti M, Gunderson M, Riddell C (2006) “ Minimum wage impacts from a prespecified research design: Canada 1981-1997”, Industrial Relations 45(2):195-216 For the US, David Card is a key researcher on the minimum wage and we will review some of his research in class. Other important researchers are Arindrajit Dube https://arindube.com/published-articles-and-book-chapters/ Dube’s research uses empirical frameworks which are difficult to replicate in Canadian data (e.g., comparisons across state borders), nevertheless he is a leading proponent of the argument that minimum wages do not have significant negative employment effects. See, for example, Sylvia Allegretto, Arindrajit Dube, Michael Reich and Ben Zipperer (2017) “Credible Research Designs for Minimum Wage Studies: A Response to Neumark, Salas and Wascher” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 2017 (Vol. 70, Issue 3). for his take on the proper specification of a employment/minimum wage regression models. A leading proponent on the other side of the debate is David Neumark https://sites.socsci.uci.edu/~dneumark/research.html See, for example, “ Employment Effects of Minimum Wages” David Neumark (IZA World of Labor) for an overview of the debate (and his strong conclusions!) and Neumark, David, 2019, “The Econometrics and Economics of the Employment Effects of Minimum Wages: Getting from Known Unknowns to Known Knowns,” German Economic Review, 293-329 for a discussion of the various empirical frameworks researchers use to investigate the employment effects of the minimum wage.
COMP229 – Web Application Development Assignment 2Online Market Application – Node.js, Express REST APIs & MongoDBDue Week #10 (……………………….) @ midnightValue 10%Dress Store – Node.js, Express REST APIs & MongoDBMaximum Mark: 100 Overview: Create the Node.js Express exports REST APIs that interacts with MongoDB Database using Mongoose ODM for an Online Market application (Note: The Front-end of the application is not included in this Assignment). Instructions :The Online Market Application:1. Using MongoDB database, create:(25 Marks):a. A database by name Marketplace – You can use the existing database created in-class already if specified by your instructor.b. Create the following collections with their respective property. (5 Marks: Functionality).I. productname: stringdescription: stringprice: numberquantity: numbercategory: string II. categoriesname: string the categories of products to be included are Men, Women, teens. – OR categories specified by your instructor c. Obtain your connection string ( url or uri)d. Provide the screen snapshot of your MongoDB database showing the above steps from 1a – c. 2. Using Visual studio code as the IDE: (25 Marks)a. create a node.js App for the Marketplace by setting up the Express web server. Ensure to install all the necessary modules: express, mongoose, cors e.t.c.b. Run the app and provide a screen snapshot of it running in the browser as follows: 3. After creating the Express web server next: (30 Marks)a. Add the configuration for the MongoDB database.b. Create the product model with Mongoose.c. Write the controller.d. Define the routes for handling all CRUD operations. Below is an overview of the REST APIs that will be exported: 4. a) Test the REST APIs using Postman, Thunder client or any tool you are familiar with. e.t.c.b) Provide the screen snapshot of the test. (5 Marks) 5. a) Develop ejs file, and implement the Action: get all products in the webpage(15 Marks) SUBMITTING YOUR WORKYour submission should include:1. A zip archive of your Marketplace Project files2. A link to GitHub3. A word doc. Showing the snapshotsThis assignment is weighted 10% of your totalmark for this course. Late submissions:10%deducted for each day late.
DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTANCY MASTER OF ACCOUNTANCY ACT502 Business and Company Law 2024-25 Take-home Assignment Sheet Individual take-home assignment (25% of total marks); each question carries equal marks. All questions must be answered. Due on 26 Oct 2024, Week 8. Late submission will not be marked. 1. Offer and Acceptance Natalie is a law professor and Michael is a second handbook dealer. On October 9, Natalie sent a letter to Michael with whom she has been negotiating a contract to sell all of her law textbooks for HK$35,000. The letter stated that “Unless I hear from you by return mail on or before October 16, the offer will lapse. ” Unfortunately, Natalie’s letter was insufficiently stamped and did not arrive Michael’s office in Sheung Wan until October 16 at 9 a.m. Michael replied immediately accepting the offer and posted a letter on October 16 at 12 noon. On October 14, Shirley, a law student, came to the knowledge of the negotiation (via Natalie’s teaching assistant) and sent a WhatsApp message (i.e.: a popular online chat platform) to Natalie expressing her interest to buy the textbooks for HK$28,000. Without hearing anything from Natalie, Shirley telephoned Natalie the next day, October 15 to raise the offer price to HK$29,000 which Natalie immediately accepted. On October 16, Natalie sent an email to Michael’s secretary (Fanny) telling her that the offer of October 9 was withdrawn. This email was received by Fanny’s computer at 11:00 a.m. on October 16 but was not opened and read by Fanny until the next day. Discuss the contractual rights of Natalie, Michael and Shirley. (50 marks) 2. Exemption Clause of Liability and Sale of Goods Ordinance Fion Centre Ltd is a small store in Tuen Mun selling electronic appliances, including microwave ovens and containers. Ada, Fion Centre’s store manager and Lambert is an old acquaintance. Lambert has received HK$2,000 subsidy from the HK Government on food and beverage, and was eager to buy a new microwave oven to start his own bakery business online. Lambert’s elderly fatherhas just retired. Ada suggested Lambert to spend all of his subsidy to purchase two microwave ovens. One is the latest model of Life is Good for his bakery business and the other oven, a brand called Simply for his father. Ada promised that both microwave ovens are of superior quality with respective warranties (i.e.: new Life is Good for 24 months and Simply for 6 months) and that the Simply model is an all-in-one oven capable of reheating all frozen food. Lambert agreed to buy both ovens and Ada issued a receipt in the name ofFion Centre. At the back of the receipt, Fion Centre disclaimed all liabilities that “Fion Centre Ltd shall not be responsible for any defects in product sold, which caused by human errors or other unforeseeable issues happened under warranty period howsoever”. When Lambert’s father used the Simply microwave oven for the 3rd time, it could not reheat the frozen meal properly. When he tried to open the oven door, it exploded and hurt his face badly. Lambert has to spend HK$2,500 to buy another microwave of quality and HK$20,000 for his father’s medical expense. Lambert wishes to claim from Fion Centre to compensate for his losses but Ada denied its liability based on the exemption clause written on the receipt. Advise Lambert of his legal rights (including his father’s) under Contract Law and the Sale of Goods Ordinance. (50 marks) Notes: (i) You need to make attempt to ALL questions. Submit via Turnitin before the deadline. (ii) Each answer should be no less than 400 words (max.1500). (iii) State the legal principles applicable to each issue, including relevant case law and legislation. (iv) Analyse the facts and make assumptions if necessary. (v) You may argue against certain established law and principles as long as sufficient reasoning is given to support your point of view.
AMG5026/AMU4727-MUM S22024 /2 Essay(50%) Value: 50% Word count:2500 (excluding reference list/bibliography,+/-10%). Learning Outcomes:1,2,3 Instructions: For this assessment,you are to write an essay where you apply the theoretical concepts discussed during the semester to analyse a specificcase.The case you select should be related to one of the topics discussed in weeks 6-12(but not the one that your group presentation is on).You can choose one of the following essay questions: 1.Which theories and concepts explain best what is happening in your case?How so? 2.Which aspects of your case are ignored by mainstream theories and concepts?How could a post-/decolonial perspective help to address these blind spots? 3.Which aspects of your caseare ignored by mainstream theories and concepts?How could a gender perspective helpto address these blind spots? 4.Develop your own essay question.If you choose this option,please send methe essay question for approval via email(before 20 September 2024 thelatest). Forthis assessment,you need to cover the areas listed below.Focus on writing a coherent essay,where every section is clearly linked to each other. ·Essay title ·Introduction;including the main thesis that you will discuss and main points you would like to make ·Presentation of theoretical concepts chosen;including how theyrelate to other academicliterature on the topic or competing theoretical concepts ·Case analysis;including relevance of the case for the conceptschosen;background of the case;application of thetheoretical concepts to discuss the case ·Evaluation of the usefulness of the theoretical concepts chosen to make sense of the case(which aspects can be explained with the theoretical concepts chosen?Which aspects are not?) ·Conclusion ·AMG5026 only:Implications for policy &practice or recommendations. Additional instructions ·All copies need to be submitted in soft copy only through the Assessment Submission tab ·Allassessments are automatically checked by Turnitin.Please check the Similarity Analysis provided,and make sure you understand it. ·Keep a copy of your work,in case of lost assignments or disputes over grading. ·Use an easily legible font such as Calibri(ft size 11 or 12),Arial,or Times New Roman. ·Use APA 7th referencing style.This includes in-text citations and a bibliography.Referencing software is allowed. ·With the exception of the final assessment,the grades and feedback will be provided approximately twoto three weeks after assignment submission. ·Check your expression.A well written paper will generally be marked higherthan a poorly written paper. ·Criteria for assessment include a good response to the question,clarity of academic writing,and application of relevant examples and sources.See the marking rubric for more information. Short extensions and special consideration The process for an extension has now changed and you'll now need to submit allextension applications (short extension and special consideration)using the form. on this webpage-Short extensions and special consideration. You can use this webpage to find everything you need to know about accessing support,short extensions and special consideration. AMG5026 AMU4727 Assessment 2-marking rubric pdf6July2024,4:29AM Add submission Submission status Attempt number This is attempt 1(1 attempts allowed). Submission status No submissions have been made yet Grading status Not marked Extension due date Time remaining 1 day 7hours remaining Last modified Submission comments D Comments (Q)
BIO2101 Comprehensive Biology Laboratory Exercise 4: Activation of the b-galactosidase gene in transformed E. coli Pre-lab exercise: 1. What is transformation? 2. What is competent cells? What is the function of CaCl2 in the preparation of competent cells? 3. Please describe what is a-complementation? 4. What is the function of IPTG and X-Gal in exercise 4? Purpose: To transform. E. coli with plasmids containing the b-galactosidase gene I. Introduction: Lactose metabolism in E. coli is controlled by a set of enzymes consisting of b-galactosidase, permease and transacetylase. The structural genes (lac Z, Y and A) encoding these enzymes, as well as the gene (lac I) that codes for a repressor protein and the promoter-operator elements constitute a regulatory unit called the lac operon (see appendix). The coordinated expression of the Z, Y and A genes can be induced by the substrate lactose or its synthetic analog, IPTG (Isopropyl-β-D-thiogalactoside, a lactose analog, see Figure 1 & Figure 2). A chromogenic substrate used in this experiment is X-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indolyl-β-D-galactopyranoside). In a cell line that has a full LacZ gene and produces a functional β-gal, when they are plated on media containing X-Gal the β-gal enzyme will cleave the colorless X-Gal and form. an insoluble bright blue precipitate, which will turn the bacterial colony blue. If the β-gal enzyme is not functional the colony will remain white on the plate. In this experiment, you will study the expression of the b-galactosidase gene in a mutant strain of E. coli, DH5α. β-galactosidase enzyme (or β-gal for short) is a naturally occurring enzyme in E. coli cells to cut lactose molecules into glucose and galactose, so the cells can utilize lactose as food source. In DH5α, part of the lac Z gene coding for the amino terminal of b-galactosidase has been deleted and it does not exhibit any b-galactosidase activity (Lac-) because the enzyme is defective. However, when a plasmid (e.g. pUC19) that carries the lac promoter and the missing part of the Z gene (lac Z’) is introduced into DH5α by chemical transformation, active b-galactosidase is regenerated by a-complementation (see Supplementary Information) and the bacteria becomes Lac+. Transformation is one way to introduce foreign genes into bacteria. When pUC19 is taken up by DH5α, the plasmid becomes part of the extra-chromosomal genetic material and brings new features to the host bacteria. 1) Presence of the lac promoter and the lac Z’ gene will allow gene activation by lactose or IPTG and the expression of the b-galactosidase activity. 2) The product of the ampicillin resistant gene (a b-lactamase that degrades ampicillin) will protect the bacteria in the presence of ampicillin (an antibiotic that kills the bacteria) so that those bacteria carrying the plasmid will survive while those bacteria lacking the plasmid will not (thus, ampicillin selection). 3) The origin of replication in pUC19 will allow the plasmid to duplicate itself during mitosis and the information it carries will be passed onto future generations of DH5α. In the first part of this exercise, you will be provided with pUC19 plasmid to transform. DH5α. The transformed bacteria will be plated onto agar plates containing X-gal (a chromogenic substrate for b-galactosidase), IPTG (an inducer of lac operon) and ampicillin (an antibiotic, for selecting plasmid containing bacteria). Figure 1 Figure 2 Supplementary Information a-Complementation Many of the vectors (plasmids constructed for cloning DNA) in current use (e.g. pUC19) carry a short segment of E. coli DNA that contains the regulatory sequences and the coding information for the first 146 amino acids (the operator-proximal region) of the b-galactosidase gene (lacZ). Embedded in this cloning region is a polycloning site that does not disrupt the reading frame. but results in the harmless interpolation of a small number of amino acids into the amino-terminal fragment of b-galactosidase. Vectors of this type are used in host cells mutated to carry only the carboxy-terminal portion of the enzyme. In such a system (a-complementation), the deletion mutants of the operator-proximal segment of the lacZ gene are complemented by the plasmid that contains an intact operator-proximal region of the lacZ gene. Although neither the host-encoded nor the plasmid encoded fragments of the b-galactosidase are themselves active, they can associate to form. an enzymatically active protein. The bacteria that result from a-complementation are b-galactosidase active (Lac+) and the enzymatic activity can be increased greatly in the presence of an inducer, such as IPTG. The Lac+ bacteria are easily recognized because they form. blue colonies in the presence of the chromogenic substrate X-gal. Insertion of a fragment of foreign DNA into the polycloning site of the plasmid, however, almost invariably results in the production of an amino-terminal fragment that is not capable of a-complementation. Bacteria carrying recombinant plasmids are therefore Lac- and form. white colonies. The development of this simple colour test has greatly simplified the identification of recombinants constructed in plasmid vectors of this type. It is easily possible to screen many thousands of colonies visually and to recognize colonies that carry putative recombinant plasmids. Supplies and Equipment for Experiment Supplies: § pUC19 plasmid, concentration is 50 ng/ml in TE buffer § DH5α competent bacteria § dd H2O § Luria-Bertani (LB) broth media (bacterial media which contain Tryptone 10 g, NaCl 10 g, Yeast Extract 5 g in 1 L H2O) § LB plates with 20 mg/ml X-gal and 50 mg/ml IPTG § LB plates with 100 mg/ml ampicillin, 20 mg/ml X-gal and 50 mg/ml IPTG § PCR Mix § PCR Forward Primer § PCR Reverse Primer Note: LB broth and LB plate, is liquid and solidified media, respectively, for culturing bacteria. Equipment: § Eppendorf refrigerated table-top centrifuge § Sterile plastic centrifuge tubes, 15 ml and 50 ml § Microfuge and sterile 1.5 ml plastic centrifuge tubes § 200ul PCR plastic tubes § Incubator and metal baths set at 37℃ § Metal bathes set at 42℃ § Racks for 1.5 ml tubes § Ice buckets § Pipetman P 20, 200 and 1000 § Coating bar II. Procedure: Transformation of DH5α with pUC19 1. Before the practical session, DH5α cells cultured in LB-broth are grown to mid-log phase and chilled on ice. 2. Place about 40 ml of the bacterial culture in a sterile 50 ml centrifuge tube and spin 4000 r.p.m. (revolution per minute) for 5 minutes at 4oC in an Eppendorf table top centrifuge. 3. Pour out as much as of the supernatant as possible into a waste container provided. Use Pipetman P 1000 to remove the media remained. Do not discard the cell pellet. 4. Add 4 ml of ice-cold sterile 0.1M CaCl2 to the tube. Gently pipet to resuspend the pellet. 5. Incubate the bacterial suspension on ice for 10 minutes. 6. Centrifuge as Step 2 to collect the bacteria. Then Use Pipetman P 1000 to remove the supernatant. 7. Add 0.4 ml of ice-cold sterile 0.1 M CaCl2 to the tube. Gently pipet to resuspend the pellet. Keep the competent bacteria on ice. Note: at this point, the CaCl2-treated bacteria are said to be competent. Note: Step 1 – 7 is done by TA. Following procedures (Step 8 – 13) should be performed on ice for maximal transformation rate. 8. Prepare three 1.5 ml microfuge tubes and have them pre-chilled in ice. Set up the following reactions (a, b, c) and label the tubes accordingly: (a) 30μl DH5α competent bacteria (b) 30μl of 0.1 M CaCl2 + 2.5 ml plasmid solution (c) 30μl DH5α competent bacteria + 2.5 ml plasmid solution Tap the tubes for several times to mix the content. 9. Incubate the tubes for 20 minutes on ice. 10. Place the tubes in water bath at 42℃ for 45 seconds (heat shock induction). 11. Immediately put tubes on ice for at least 2 minutes. 12. Then add 500ul room temperature LB liquid media to each tube. Shake tubes at 225 rpm at 37℃ for at least 45 minutes to recover the bacteria. 13. During the incubation period, prepare PCR replication system in the PCR microtube with plasmid remaining as follows: Template DNA (Plasmid remaining in PCR tube) ≈1μl PCR Mix 10μl Forward Primer, 10 μM each 0.5μl Reverse Primer, 10 μM each 0.5μl ddH2O 8μl Total volume 20μl Transfer PCR tubes from ice to a PCR machine and begin thermocycling: Step Temperature Time Initial denaturation 95°C 2 min 35 cycles 95°C 30 s 60°C 30 s 72°C 10 s Final Extension 72°C 10 min Hold 4°C - Note: TA will collect the samples later and store them until next week. 14. Gently spread the bacterial suspensions after incubation on the pre-made using cell spreader. After drying the plate surface, close the dish and label every plate lid with group number and sample number. a-XI-LB: 50 ml of (a) on LB plate with X-gal and IPTG a-XI-A: 50 ml of (a) on LB plate with ampicillin, X-gal and IPTG b-XI-A: 50 ml of (b) on LB plate with ampicillin, X-gal and IPTG c-XI-A: 50ml of (c) on LB plate with ampicillin, X-gal and IPTG Note: The work of bacterial spreading on LB plates requires aseptic techniques to minimize the air-borne contamination. 15. Place the plates upside down in an incubator at 37℃ overnight. 16. Give tube (c) with transformed bacteria back to TA. Note: Bacteria remained should be given back to TA for sterilization before disposal. The antibiotic-resisting gene might cause genetic pollution in environment due to “plasmid transfer” phenomenon between different bacteria. 17. TA will collect the plates on the subsequent day and store them at 4oC until next week for your observation. 18. One week later, check the results of your sets of transformation. Count the number of colonies in each plate and mark down their color on the experimental datasheet. Experimental Datasheet of Exercise 4 1. Use the following table to report the outcomes of transformations: Plate Inoculants No. of colonies Color of colonies a-XI-LB (a) a-XI-A (a) b-XI-A (b) c-XI-A (c) Key: A = Ampicillin, X = X-gal, I = IPTG 2. Is the plasmid received for transformation “pUC19” or “pUC19 with insert”? Why? 3. Are the outcomes of transformation on every plate the same as your expectation? Try to give possible explaination for every single plate.
CS5285: Information Security for eCommerce Autumn, 2024 Problem Set 2 (Due Date: Nov 29 119:00) Total: 102 points Submit Q1–Q7 electronic copy (via Canvas). Submit Q8 as instructed in the question. No late submissions or any corrections after the deadline will be accepted. Questions: 1. Password File (2-2-2-2 points): (a) In a system, each user has an entry in the system’s password file: (y; s) where y is computed as follows and s is a salt. i. y = H(s;password) ⊕ password ii. y = H(s) ⊕ H(password) iii. y = Es(H(password)) where E is AES algorithm iv. y = MACpassword(s) where MAC is CBC-MAC constructed with AES List which of the methods above for computing y are effectively secured by the salt against precomputed dictionary attack. Assume that s is adequately long and random. 2. TLS (2-8 points): In TLS you can specify different ciphersuites for communication. (a) How many ciphersuites are there in the latest specification TLS 1.3 (b) For the following mode how is a data message encrypted and session keys generated? TLS_AES_128_CCM_SHA256 3. Digital Certificates (2-2-2-2): (a) Find out who issued the certificate for https://mail.google.com and how long the certificate will be valid. (b) Find out or estimate how many certificates (approximately, no need to count them explicitly) your browser contains. (c) What is the significance of a CA certificate being contained in the browser? (d) The identity of the certificate for the question above is a DNS hostname. Certificates can also be used for signing and encrypting email. For a certificate used for email, what identifier would be used as the identity in the certificate? 4. Security Services - Web Security (10 points): We are currently using Zoom (so are a lot of other people). Please provide a short explanation of what“zoombombing” is. Your answer should mention at least two main security services that are failing, as well as the main technical vulnerability that is allowing this to happen. Conclude by providing some mechanisms for mitigating issues for each of the security services you mentioned. 5. Key agreement/IKE (10-5-10 points): (a) Consider the following key exchange protocol which is similar to IKE Phase 1 Aggressive Mode. p is a large prime number and g is a generator of Z . 1. A → B : ga mod p, { “Alice”}Bob , {RA}Bob 2. A ← B : gb mod p, { “Bob”}Alice , {RB}Alice , proofB 3. A → B : proofA where proofA = h(gab mod p, ga mod p, gb mod p, “Alice”) proofB = h(gab mod p, gb mod p, ga mod p, “Bob”) K = h(gab mod p) i) First explain if the protocol authenticates A and B, and achieves secure key agreement (discuss key control and key authentication). {m}X denotes a message m encrypted with public key of x. ii) Modify the protocol so that RA and RB can be eliminated but the protocol can mutu- ally authenticate A and B. In your modification, no additional protocol message, secret keys or signature can be used. (b) Consider the following simplified IKE Phase 1 in Aggressive Mode. A → B : “Alice” , “Bob” , ga mod p A ← B : “Bob” , “Alice” , gb mod p,[ga mod p]B A → B : “Alice” , “Bob” , [gb mod p,ga mod p]A [X]A denotes a signature on message X generated by A. The session key established between A and B is gab mod p. Show that this simplified version is insecure (allows attacker to establish a key with one of the participants while pretending to be the other participant) . Hint: consider that this IPSec system has multiple users. 6. IPSec (10 points): Imagine two branches of a corporate network are connected through the Internet. Specifically, each of the two branches has a router facing the Internet, communicat- ing with the router of the other branch over IPsec (ESP in tunnel mode). The network is setup such that two nodes from the two branches can communicate transpar- ently. Imagine node 10.1.1.5 from branch 1 is sending a packet to node 10.2.1.6 from branch 2. Describe in detail the steps of how the packet travels between the two nodes and how it is encapsulated and decapsulated on the way. 7. Password Files (4-4-4-4 points): Use hashcat to execute a brute-force search to recover the passwords from the three files provided (give some screenshots to prove that you did calculate the answer – no screenshot no mark): file1.txt, file2.txt, file3.txt You can download hashcat here: http://hashcat.net/hashcat/ It is a command line program (no GUI), so you if you would like to run it in Windows you need to do so from the command prompt. The new version of hashcat you need to specify the processor option. You can use the -I option to see compatible processors, then use -D option to specify using CPU (not GPU). Hashcat sometimes likes to provide false negatives but it works in almost all cases. Try it on a different machine (suggest a Windows machine), or with different/no -D option before thinking it does not work. General instructions for using hashcat http://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=hashcat Details on brute force attack here: http://hashcat.net/wiki/doku.php?id=mask_attack#example1 Doing this optimally the search for File1 and File 2 should be not more than few minutes. Information about the password files • File1 and File2 has six 5-character passwords (from the set A-Z,a-z,0-9). MD5 is the hash function used. • File3 is the same but has six 6-character passwords • File1 uses the same salt for all entries (all the salt values are the same, equal to 0 so the stored value is h(0,pwd)) • File2 uses a 8-bit salt (the stored value is h(s,pwd)) • File3 uses a 8-salt for all entries (same format as file2), but the password is now 6 characters long. While hashcat is running you can press [s]tatus and it will show you a progress update. (a) Recover the passwords in file1 and file 2 (b) Recover the passwords in file 3 (c) How much longer should it take to recover file2 compared to file1. Did the result support the theory? (d) How much longer did it take to find the 6 character passwords? 8. PGP eMail (5-5-5 points): In this problem we will ask you to familiarize yourself with PGP and ultimately send an encrypted and signed message using PGP to the tutor (see below for more details). Unless you are already familiar with using PGP, we suggest you use Thunderbird (afree email client) to accomplish this. The setup of this will require the following steps: • Download and install Thunderbird • You should have version 78 (or later) • Thunderbird from 78 has PGP support, no need for plugin You can see information about setting up and sending email here https://support.mozilla. org/en-US/kb/openpgp-thunderbird-howto-and-faq. Once you have successfully setup the required software, please complete the following assignments: (a) Create your own PGP keypair. (b) Import the course public PGP key. You can find the key tsgexercise cert.asc on Canvas. (c) Send an email to email address [email protected], encrypted with the course public key and signed with your newly created key. The subject of the email should include “CS5285 PS2 EncryptedMail XXXXXXXX” where “XXXXXXXX” is your 8-digit stu- dent id. Make sure you include your public key as an attachment in the message. NOTE : The points for tasks (a) and (b) will be awarded when completing task (c), so make sure to complete task (c).
Lab 5 Due: Tuesday 11/15/2024 @ 11:59pm EST The purpose of labs is to practice the concepts that we learn in class. To that end you will be writing java code that uses a game engine called Sepia to develop agents that solve specific problems. In this lab we will be maze solving in a stochastic world using the Value Iteration algorithm. 1. Copy Files Please, copy the files from the downloaded lab directory to your cs440 directory. You can just drag and drop them in your file explorer. • Copy Downloads/lab5/lib/rl-viter-maze.jar to cs440/lib/rl-viter-maze.jar. This file is the custom jarfile that I created for you. • Copy Downloads/lab5/data/labs/rl to cs440/data/labs/rl. This directory contains a game configuration and map files. • Copy Downloads/lab5/src/labs to cs444/src/labs. This directory contains our source code .java files. • Copy Downloads/lab5/viter .srcs to cs440/viter .srcs. This file contains the paths to the .java files we are working with in this lab. Just like last lab, files like these are used to speed up the compilation process by preventing you from listing all source files you want to compile manually. • Copy Downloads/lab5/doc/labs to cs440/doc/labs. This is the documentation generated from rl-viter-maze.jar and will be extremely useful in this assignment. After copying, if you double-click on cs440/doc/labs/rl/maze/index.html, the documentation should open in your browser. 2. Test run If your setup is correct, you should be able to compile and execute the given template code. You should see the Sepia window appear. # Mac, Linux . Run from the cs440 directory . javac -cp " ./lib/*: . " @viter .srcs java -cp " ./lib/*: . " edu .cwru .sepia.Main2 data/labs/rl/maze/Maze .xml # Windows . Run from the cs440 directory . javac -cp " ./lib/*; . " @viter .srcs java -cp " ./lib/*; . " edu .cwru .sepia.Main2 data/labs/rl/maze/Maze .xml Task 1: Value Iteration (50 points) In this task, I want you to implement the value iteration algorithm to calculate the utility values for every state in our tiny world (this is the world example from class). The trouble is that now whenever we select an action (i.e. moving in a cardinal direction), we may not actually end up going in the direction we intended. Please complete the following method: • src .labs .rl .maze .agents .ValueIterationAgent .valueIteration: This method is where you should implement the value iteration algorithm. Remember, the value iteration algorithm is an offline algorithm where the agent has perfect knowledge of the transition model, the re- wards, and the world. Your algorithm should calculate the true utility value for every state (i.e. coordinate) in the world. Please refer to the value iteration algorithm we discussed in class, and keep in mind that when running the bellman equation: we only have to consider transitioning to future states when the current state is nonterminal! This is just a long way of saying that the utility value of every terminal state is the reward you get in that terminal state. Note that there is one change I want you to make from the value iteration algorithm in the lecture slides. In the lecture slides, we repeat until δ < ∈(1 — γ)/γ. In your value iteration algorithm you should repeat until δ ≤ ∈(1 — γ)/γ. Notes • Testing this agent is really easy: I have implemented (and imported the TransitionModel and RewardFunction for you as static classes with static methods. Using the rewards and transition probabilities in the implementation (which match the ones from the lecture), the lecture slides have the true utilities that you should be getting! So, whenever you want to check, print out your utilities and compare them against what they should be in the slides. • You may create whatever helper methods you want in order to accomplish this goal, however I am not sure that you will need to create any in ValueIterationAgent.java. Task 2: Submitting your lab Please submit ValueIteration.java on gradescope (just drag and drop in the file).
GR5242 HW01 Problem 3: Early stopping and basic "deep dream" Fill in your code below ############# YOUR CODE HERE ############# and answers to reflection questions in the text box with Your Answer Here In this exercise, you will explore some basic methods for preventing overfitting (early stopping and dropout) and explore model introspection by a basic version of Alex Mordvintsev's famous "deep dream" experiment. Early stopping and dropout If we train a model which has lots of parameters (like a neural network) on a relatively simple task, and if your training dataset is relatively small, you are at risk of overfitting to the training dataset. Overfitting can lead to worse performance on data that wasn't used during training, such as test datasets or real new datapoints that your model will be applied to in production. One way to avoid overfitting is called " early stopping" : split your training dataset into two pieces, which we'll call the "training" and " validation" splits. Then, train your model on the training split until the loss on the validation split stops going down. At this point, we have some evidence that the model is starting to memorize the training set, since its performance on the validation set is not improving. This method is not foolproof, but it's easy to use and gives one answer to the question " When should I stop training?" which you would have to answer anyway. Another way to avoid overfitting is called "dropout" : during training, neurons are randomly turned off. This makes it harder for the model to memorize specific inputs. The neural network architecture (defined for you) below will make use of this. Deep dream The goal of "deep dream" is to produce an image which produces strong activity in a unit in your neural network. This will help us understand what that unit is doing, since we can see what kinds of data it responds strongly to. We will perform. a very simple version of the original deep dream experiment: find the input image which maximizes the activity of a neuron in a neural network trained to classify the MNIST digits. This will allow us to get some idea of what the network thinks a 0 is, or a 4 is, et cetera. Setup cells In [ ]: # Imports import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt import torch import torch.nn as nn import torch.nn.functional as F import torch.optim as optim from torchvision import datasets, transforms from torch.utils.data import Subset from torch.optim.lr_scheduler import StepLR from torch.utils.data import DataLoader, Dataset torch.__version__ In [ ]: # Load MNIST using torchvision transform=transforms.Compose([ transforms.ToTensor(), transforms.Normalize((0.1307,), (0.3081,)) ]) MNIST_train = datasets.MNIST('../data', train=True, download=True, transform=t MNIST_test = datasets.MNIST('../data', train=False, transform=transform) In [ ]: print('training samples:', len(MNIST_train)) print('testing samples:', len(MNIST_test)) # Access a specific data point (e.g., the 10th data point) index = 10 # Change this to the index you want to access sample_image, label = MNIST_train[index] # Display the label and other information print("MNIST raw data") print(f"Data at index {index}:") print(f"Label: {label}") print(f"Image shape: {sample_image.shape}") Now let's show some example images In [ ]: for i in range(5): # Take example image 0,100,200,300,400 index = i*100 curr_f = MNIST_train[index][0] reshaped_curr_f = curr_f.permute(1, 2, 0) curr_lab = MNIST_train[index][1] plt.title("Label: %d" % curr_lab) plt.imshow(reshaped_curr_f, cmap='gray') plt.pause(0.5) Question 1: Training and validation split Using numpy and pytorch , randomly split the data in to a training and validation split. The training split should include 2/3 of the original data, and the validation split should include the remaining 1/3. (Hint): you can try creating random lists of indices that go into training and validation, then use torch.utils.data.Subset() (imported as Subset ) to split the torchvision dataset. In [ ]: ### QUESTION # Please fill in the following cells by splitting the datasets # `x_train_and_val` and `y_train_and_val`. You must assign name # results using the variable names below. # Create a train/validation split ############# YOUR CODE HERE ############### In [ ]: # Define a simple MLP network in PyTorch class MLP(nn.Module): def __init__(self): super(MLP, self).__init__() self.flatten = nn.Flatten() self.fc1 = nn.Linear(28*28, 256) self.fc2 = nn.Linear(256, 256) self.fc3 = nn.Linear(256, 256) self.fc4 = nn.Linear(256, 10) self.dropout = nn.Dropout(0.2) def forward(self, x): x = self.flatten(x) x = F.relu(self.fc1(x)) x = self.dropout(x) x = F.relu(self.fc2(x)) x = self.dropout(x) x = F.relu(self.fc3(x)) x = self.dropout(x) x = self.fc4(x) return x # Set up loss and optimization model = MLP() criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss() ptimizer = optim.Adam(model.parameters()) train_dataloader = DataLoader(train_data, batch_size=32, shuffle=True) test_dataloader = DataLoader(test_data, batch_size=32, shuffle=True) val_dataloader = DataLoader(val_data, batch_size=32, shuffle=True) Question 2: Early stopping Write a for loop which alternates between training the model on 1 pass through the training split (also known as 1 epoch of training) and checking whether we should stop early by measuring the validation loss and seeing if it is still decreasing. Please fill in the code to perform. the validation step, including logic for early stopping. The code should have similar structure to how you might optimize on training data or evaluate on testing data. Please also print your validation loss at each epoch. In [ ]: ### QUESTION max_n_epochs = 10 prev_epoch_val_loss = np.inf for epoch in range(max_n_epochs): # Set model to training mode model.train() for data, target in train_dataloader: optimizer.zero_grad() utput = model(data) loss = criterion(output, target) loss.backward() optimizer.step() # Set model to evaluation mode for validation model.eval() ########## YOUR CODE HERE ########### As an extra check, we can look at the loss on the test dataset. In [ ]: # Evaluate on the test set model.eval() test_loss = 0 with torch.no_grad(): for data, target in train_dataloader: utput = model(data) test_loss += criterion(output, target).item() test_loss /= len(dataset2) print(f"Test: loss={test_loss:.5f}") Question 3: Test data written answer question Would it have been good practice to use the test dataset instead of the validation split to perform. early stopping above? Why or why not? Your Answer Here No, as we then cannot use the testing dataset for actual evaluation of the model. Ourempirical risk estimate would become biased due to the use of the data in our training loop, even though we did not perform. optimization steps with it. Question 4: Basic "deep dream" (4.a) Implement the basic "deep dream" Our goal in this part of the problem is to find input images which maximally activate the output neuron corresponding to a particular class (for MNIST, that means corresponding to a particular digit). Let's pick the target class 0 . We'll do this the same way we trained our neural net: start from random images, and use stochastic gradient descent on some cost function to improve the images. Below, we have included code for randomly initializing the images, and for using the Adam optimizer to minimize a cost function. You are asked to fill in the cost function so that minimizing the cost function leads to maximizing the value of the " 0" neuron in the output layer when the neural net is given dream_images as input. Make sure to use dream_images in your definition of cost_function . (Hint): What value of the model output might you want to optimize if you want an image that is most likely labeled 0 ? Remember to sum over the batch of data as well, and that you will be minimizing the cost. Remember as well that our optimizer is taking the dream images as parameters, not the model parameters. In [ ]: ### QUESTION # "Deep dream" # Construct random images n_dream_images = 16 dream_images = torch.randn(n_dream_images, 1, 28, 28, requires_grad=True) ptimizer = optim.Adam([dream_images], lr=0.01) ########## YOUR CODE HERE ############ for i in range(1000): cost = cost_function(dream_images) optimizer.zero_grad() cost.backward() optimizer.step() dream_images = dream_images.detach() In [ ]: # Plotting the dream images fig, axes = plt.subplots( ncols=4, nrows=n_dream_images // 4, sharex=True, sharey=True, dpi=100 ) for im, ax in zip(dream_images, axes.flat): ax.imshow(im[0].cpu().numpy(), cmap='gray') ax.axis('off') fig.suptitle(f"Result at iteration {it}") plt.show() plt.close(fig) (4.b) After running the cell above to look at the result, do you have any reactions to what appears? In general, what can this basic version of deep dream tell us about our model?
At the completion of this project, you should be able to: o Implement a hybrid algorithm for solving TSP which combines Genetic Algorithm with a Wisdom of Crowds approach. o Be able to evaluate a novel algorithm for solving an NP-Complete problem.o Read: “Wisdom of the Crowds in Traveling Salesman Problems” by Sheng Kung Michael Yi, Mark Steyvers, Michael D. Lee and Matthew J. Dry. o Modify you GA from Programming Assignment 4 to utilize the Wisdom of Crowds o Test data will be supplied, but also generate your own test cases• Hints o Take a certain percentage (experimentally determine what percentage) of the fittest individuals in the population of solutions (let’s call them experts) to the TSP and combine their solutions to produce a better solution.o Regardless of which approach you take to combine opinions of the experts make sure your final solution visits all nodes and does not visit any node multiple times (except the starting node).o If you detect that the resulting solution does not satisfy requirements of a TSP solution use a greedy algorithm of your choice to get it into the proper form.• Deliverables o Well-commented source code for your project. You can use any language you like, but I reserve the right to ask you to demo performance of your algorithm on a new dataset.o Include a GUI with visual representation of the solutions for this project and incorporate snapshots in your report.o Project report (5-6 pages). • The following should be included in your report: o Describe in detail the algorithm you used to aggregate opinions. Did you have to alter the combined solution to make it a valid TSP solution? o On average how well did the Wisdom of Crowds approach perform compared to the standard unenhanced GA?o Comparison charts for GA vs. (GA & WOC) on same problems in terms of performance, speed, optimality of discovered solutions, etc.o Does the size of the problem make a difference? What is the largest you tested? o Report results of your experiments with multiple graphs, tables and figures. Look at: “A Hybrid Heuristic for the Traveling Salesman Problem” (included with the assignment) for some ideas on how to present results of your experiments.
At the completion of this project, you should be able to: o Implement a genetic algorithm for an intractable problem. o Be able to discuss aspects of the GA that control success in finding good solutions.o A Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is an NP-complete problem. A salesman is given a list of cities and a cost to travel between each pair of cities (or a list of city locations). The salesman must select a starting city and visit each city exactly one time and return to the starting city. His problem is to find the route (also known as a Hamiltonian Cycle) that will have the lowest cost. (See http://www.tsp.gatech.edu for more info)o You will be expected to implement a GA for a TSP dataset with up to 100 cities o Data for each problem will be supplied• Hints o Analyze the results of two different settings for two different parameters. For example you can use two different types of crossover methods and two different mutation rates. In that case, you need to collect four sets of data: o Crossover A Crossover B Mutation 1 Dataset 1A Dataset 1B Mutation 2 Dataset 2A Dataset 2B• For each of the four datasets, you will need to run your code several times to develop performance statistics.• I use the example of two crossovers and two mutations. You can select any modification of GA so long as you can have (at least) 2 options for each modification. For example you could choose two different sizes of populations. You could choose two different selection methods, etc.• Don’t forget, if you run your code a 100 times on a large dataset, you will likely wind up with nearly 100 different solutions.• Deliverable o Well-commented source code for your project. You can use any language you like, but I reserve the right to ask you to demo performance of your algorithm on a new dataset.o Include a GUI with visual (and dynamic) representation of the solutions for this project. o Project report (3-4 pages).o Define your crossover and mutation methods. Or else define which ever two GA elements you chose to investigate. Clearly identify if your methods were your idea or else the source from which you got the idea.o Define your stopping criteria. o Clearly identify your best solution for the solved problem. o Analyze the effectiveness of the two chosen variations in GA. To do this you will likely need to run your code several times and provide the min, max, average and standard deviation of each set.o Briefly discuss how long a typical run took for each of the datasets. o Graphically present your improvement curves. o Critical thinking section Describe the biggest problem that you had in the implementation and analysis of this project. Describe the one thing you would change if you did this project again. Please elaborate on what you learned from using GA. At least one paragraph, please. Give your overall impressions of GA as problem solving technique.
At the completion of this project, you should be able to o Implement a greedy algorithm for solving TSPo A Traveling Salesperson Problem (TSP) is an NP-complete problem. A salesman is given a list of cities and a cost to travel between each pair of cities (or a list of city locations). The salesman must select a starting city and visit each city exactly one time and return to the starting city. His problem is to find the route (also known as a Hamiltonian Cycle) that will have the lowest cost. (See http://www.tsp.gatech.edu for more info)o Solve an instance of a TSP problem by using a variant of the greedy heuristic o Build tour by starting with one vertex, and inserting vertices one by one. o Always insert vertex that is closest to an edge already in tour. o Data for each problem will be supplied in a .tsp file (a plain text file). Figure from: www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/an/an-tsp.ppt Hints o An instance of TSP with < 4 nodes is trivially solvable. Deliverables o Project report (3-4 pages). Describe how you selected initial nodes and generated the list of edges to consider. How did you selected the “next” node to be added. Show the route and the cost of the best tour for each provided dataset as well as order in which nodes have been added to the tour. How does this algorithm compare to other approaches for solving TSP you have tried so far? How quick is this method?o Well-commented source code for your project. You can use any language you like, but I reserve the right to ask you to demo performance of your algorithm on a new dataset.o You have to include a GUI with visual representation of the solutions for this project. Equation of a line (http://webmath.com/equline1.html) Distance from Point to a Line (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Point-LineDistance2-Dimensional.html)
Learning objectives: For this lab we are looking at a special case of TSP in which not all cities are connected and the salesperson only needs to find the best path to a target city not visit all cities. Table 1: Cities connected by a one way path of Euclidian distance (left = from, top = to).
