Tuncay Ercan

Bio: Tuncay Ercan is an academic researcher from Yaşar University. The author has contributed to research in topic(s): Cloud computing & Wireless sensor network. The author has an hindex of 7, co-authored 40 publication(s) receiving 707 citation(s). Previous affiliations of Tuncay Ercan include Siemens.

Effective use of cloud computing in educational institutions

Abstract: Cloud computing is becoming an adoptable technology for many of the organizations with its dynamic scalability and usage of virtualized resources as a service through the Internet. It will likely have a significant impact on the educational environment in the future. Cloud computing is an excellent alternative for educational institutions which are especially under budget shortage in order to operate their information systems effectively without spending any more capital for the computers and network devices. Universities take advantage of available cloud-based applications offered by service providers and enable their own users/students to perform business and academic tasks. In this paper, we will review what the cloud computing infrastructure will provide in the educational arena, especially in the universities where the use of computers are more intensive and what can be done to increase the benefits of common applications for students and teachers.

Automatic segmentation, counting, size determination and classification of white blood cells

Abstract: The counts, the so-called differential counts, and sizes of different types of white blood cells provide invaluable information to evaluate a wide range of important hematic pathologies from infections to leukemia. Today, the diagnosis of diseases can still be achieved mainly by manual techniques. However, this traditional method is very tedious and time-consuming. The accuracy of it depends on the operator’s expertise. There are laser based cytometers used in laboratories. These advanced devices are costly and requires accurate hardware calibration. They also use actual blood samples. Thus there is always a need for a cost effective and robust automated system. The proposed system in this paper automatically counts the white blood cells, determine their sizes accurately and classifies them into five types such as basophil, lymphocyte, neutrophil, monocyte and eosinophil. The aim of the system is to help for diagnosing diseases. In our work, a new and completely automatic counting, segmentation and classification process is developed. The outputs of the system are the number of white blood cells, their sizes and types.

A Layered Security Approach for Cloud Computing Infrastructure

Abstract: This paper introduces a practical security model based on key security considerations by looking at a number of infrastructure aspects of Cloud Computing such as SaaS, Utility, Web, Platform and Managed Services, Service commerce platforms and Internet Integration which was introduced with a concise literature review. The purpose of this paper is to offer a macro level solution for identified common infrastructure security requirements. This model with a number of emerged patterns can be applied to infrastructure aspect of Cloud Computing as a proposed shared security approach in system development life cycle focusing on the plan-built-run scope.

The use of internet resources by university students during their course projects elicitation: a case study

Abstract: Although technology is a very important, useful and indispensable part of the life, effective and appropriate usage of it still needs to be improved in education. This study presents the way university students gather their course project requirements during the project elicitation phase, how they access the Internet and other resources, and their trends in the literature review using the Internet. Furthermore, the diversity of Internet resources which are used for homework and course projects studies, and the reliability and accessibility of these resources have also been investigated and assessed. In addition, the results obtained from the study have been discussed and evaluated, the academic resources accessibility and usability in universities have been assessed and their importance discussed. The internet resources have been divided into sub categories according to their accessibility and reliability. Finally, the effects of reliable and limited accessible internet resources and unreliable and unlimited internet resources on university students’ out-of-class works and projects have been presented and discussed.

White Blood Cells Classifications by SURF Image Matching, PCA and Dendrogram

Abstract: Determination and classification of white blood cells are very important for diagnosing many diseases. The number of white blood cells and morphological changes or blasts of them provide valuable information for the positive results of the diseases such as Acute Lymphocytic Leucomia (ALL). Recognition and classification of white cells as basophils, lymphocytes, neutrophils, monocytes and eosinophils also give additional information for the diagnosis of many diseases. We are developing an automatic process for counting, size determination and classification of white blood cells. In this paper, we give the results of the classification process for which we experienced a study with hundreds of images of white blood cells. This process will help to diagnose especially ALL disease in a fast and automatic way. Three methods are used for classification of five types of white blood cells. The first one is a new algorithm utilizing image matching for classification that is called the Speed-Up Robust Feature detector (SURF). The second one is the PCA that gives the advantage of dimension reduction. The third is the classification tree called dendrogram following the PCA. Satisfactory results are obtained by two techniques.

Understanding the determinants of cloud computing adoption

Abstract: – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the adoption of cloud computing by firms belonging to the high‐tech industry. The eight factors examined in this study are relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, top management support, firm size, technology readiness, competitive pressure, and trading partner pressure., – A questionnaire‐based survey was used to collect data from 111 firms belonging to the high‐tech industry in Taiwan. Relevant hypotheses were derived and tested by logistic regression analysis., – The findings revealed that relative advantage, top management support, firm size, competitive pressure, and trading partner pressure characteristics have a significant effect on the adoption of cloud computing., – The research was conducted in the high‐tech industry, which may limit the generalisability of the findings., – The findings offer cloud computing service providers with a better understanding of what affects cloud computing adoption characteristics, with relevant insight on current promotions., – The research contributes to the application of new technology cloud computing adoption in the high‐tech industry through the use of a wide range of variables. The findings also help firms consider their information technologies investments when implementing cloud computing.

A survey on gaps, threat remediation challenges and some thoughts for proactive attack detection in cloud computing

Abstract: The long-term potential benefits through reduction of cost of services and improvement of business outcomes make Cloud Computing an attractive proposition these days. To make it more marketable in the wider IT user community one needs to address a variety of information security risks. In this paper, we present an extensive review on cloud computing with the main focus on gaps and security concerns. We identify the top security threats and their existing solutions. We also investigate the challenges/obstacles in implementing threat remediation. To address these issues, we propose a proactive threat detection model by adopting three main goals: (i) detect an attack when it happens, (ii) alert related parties (system admin, data owner) about the attack type and take combating action, and (iii) generate information on the type of attack by analyzing the pattern (even if the cloud provider attempts subreption). To emphasize the importance of monitoring cyber attacks we provide a brief overview of existing literature on cloud computing security. Then we generate some real cyber attacks that can be detected from performance data in a hypervisor and its guest operating systems. We employ modern machine learning techniques as the core of our model and accumulate a large database by considering the top threats. A variety of model performance measurement tools are applied to verify the model attack prediction capability. We observed that the Support Vector Machine technique from statistical machine learning theory is able to identify the top attacks with an accuracy of 97.13%. We have detected the activities using performance data (CPU, disk, network and memory performance) from the hypervisor and its guest operating systems, which can be generated by any cloud customer using built-in or third party software. Thus, one does not have to depend on cloud providers' security logs and data. We believe our line of thoughts comprising a series of experiments will give researchers, cloud providers and their customers a useful guide to proactively protect themselves from known or even unknown security issues that follow the same patterns.

A Descriptive Literature Review and Classification of Cloud Computing Research

Abstract: We present a descriptive literature review and classification scheme for cloud computing research. This includes 205 refereed journal articles published since the inception of cloud computing research. The articles are classified based on a scheme that consists of four main categories: technological issues, business issues, domains and applications, and conceptualising cloud computing. The results show that although current research is still skewed towards technological issues, new research themes regarding social and organisational implications are emerging. This review provides a reference source and classification scheme for IS researchers interested in cloud computing, and to indicate under-researched areas as well as future directions.

Using Cloud Computing in Higher Education: A Strategy to Improve Agility in the Current Financial Crisis

Abstract: In the current financial crisis and being challenged by growing needs, universities are facing problems in providing necessary information technology (IT) support for educational, research and development activities. The objective of this paper is to find alternatives to the use of IT, while leading universities to improve agility and obtain savings. The research methodology consisted in a rigorous analysis of the latest research on Cloud Computing as an alternative to IT provision, management and security. It also took into account the best practices for Cloud Computing usage within universities, plus the authors’ experience in IT and higher education. The article begins with a brief introduction to Cloud Computing in universities, referring to the most important results obtained so far. Further, a starting point for universities to use Cloud Computing is provided, by proposing an adoption strategy. The strategy includes five stages, with emphasis on the evaluation of data and processes/functions/applications from several major universities based on some key criteria, while creating a correspondence between these aspects and the models/services/applications that exist on the Cloud market. The results obtained are encouraging and support the use of Cloud solutions in universities by improving knowledge in this field and providing a practical guide adaptable to the university’s structure. In order to be applicable in practice, the proposed model takes into account the university’s architecture and criteria such as mission, availability and importance of applications and also the data’s mission, sensitivity, confidentiality, integrity and availability.