Securing Workflows Using Microservices and Metagraphs

Companies such as Netflix increasingly use the cloud to deploy their business processes. Those processes often involve partnerships with other companies, and can be modeled as workflows where the owner of the data at risk interacts with contractors to realize a sequence of tasks on the data to be secured. In this paper, we first show how those workflows can be deployed and enforced while preventing data exposure. Second, this paper provides a global framework to enable the verification of workflow policies. Following the principles of zero-trust, we develop an infrastructure using the isolation provided by a microservice architecture to enforce owner policy. We implement a workflow with our infrastructure in a publicly available proof of concept. This work allows us to verify that the specified policy is correctly enforced by testing the deployment for policy violations, and find the overhead cost of authorization to be reasonable for the benefits. In addition, this paper presents a way to verify policies using a suite of tools transforming and checking policies as metagraphs. It is evident from the results that our verification method is very efficient regarding the size of the policies. Overall, this infrastructure and the mechanisms that verify the policy is correctly enforced, and then correctly implemented, help us deploy workflows in the cloud securely.

Analysis of Overhead Costs Management in Companies

The development of overhead costs management is becoming more and more important as the percentage of overhead costs is rising. The last 15 years have demonstrated the awakening of advanced methods and tools aimed at understanding the utilization of overheads better. The paper investigates the current state of overhead costs management using a sample of 20 companies in Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia. A qualitative approach was applied in a multi-case study, which unveiled the significance of overhead cost management with the increasing trend of importance. The effort reflects current innovations using digitalization of processes. The findings show that (1) the majority of the companies indicated that digitalization heavily impacts overhead costs; (2) all expressed their dissatisfaction with the tools currently used; and (3) the majority cited that usability and speed are the predominant factors. The analysis and the subsequent synthesis delivered three theses: (1) perception that digital competence enables overhead costs management; (2) belief that competencies are insufficient; and (3) there are prerequisites for success in overhead costs management. The paper examines the situation in seven industries represented in the sectors of manufacturing and transportation/storage for the time period from 2008 to 2017. The paper concludes with several recommendations for academia, businesses, and future research. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Charitable Organizations’ Cost Disclosure Mitigates Overhead Aversion

Charities face common problems in which donors tend to avoid charities with high overhead rates. This overhead aversion phenomenon forces charities to suppress their overhead spending, which impedes them from performing as best as they can. Substantial research has attempted to mitigate overhead aversion by eliminating the need to cover overhead expenses by donors. The present work takes a different approach and presents a method to reduce overhead aversion and to improve the attitude toward the charity by providing donors with details of the overhead costs. Study 1 demonstrates that disclosing the overhead cost improves donors’ attitude toward the charity. Moreover, the effect is mediated by the donor’s attitude toward the overhead. Study 2 shows that presenting cost information is more effective than the methods proposed by the existing literature (e.g., presenting a message that addresses the importance of overhead). The research contributes to the literature by demonstrating how to communicate with donors to increase their evaluations of the charity.

The Nonprofit Starvation Cycle: Does Overhead Spending Really Impact Program Outcomes?

The nonprofit starvation cycle raises a fundamental question about the impact of overhead spending on nonprofit program outcomes and organizational effectiveness. We test this relationship using data on the U.S. nonprofit arts and cultural subsector from 2008 to 2018. Contrary to the conventional wisdom that lower overhead is better, the results of different model specifications consistently show an optimal level of overhead captured by an inverted U-shaped relationship between the overhead cost ratio and program outcomes. Increased spending on overhead can improve program outcomes up to the optimal point. Beyond this point, further spending on overhead can yield negative returns. The study contributes to correcting the unrealistic expectations surrounding overhead costs and argues for investing more in building sustainable nonprofit capacity. We discuss the implications of our findings for nonprofit charity monitors, donors, scholars, and other stakeholders concerned about nonprofit accountability and effectiveness.

A High-Reliability Redundancy Scheme for Design of Radiation-Tolerant Half-Duty Limited DC-DC Converters

Redundancy techniques are commonly used to design radiation- and fault-tolerant circuits for space applications, to ensure high reliability. However, higher reliability often comes at a cost of increased usage of hardware resources. Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) ensures full single fault masking, with a >200% power and area overhead cost. TMR/Simplex ensures full single fault masking with a slightly more complicated circuitry, inefficient use of resource and a >200% power and area overhead cost, but with higher reliability than that of TMR. In this work, a high-reliability Spatial and Time Redundancy (TR) hybrid technique, which does not abandon a working module and is applicable for radiation hardening of half-duty limited DC-DC converters, is proposed and applied to the design of a radiation-tolerant digital controller for a Dual-Switch Forward Converter. The technique has the potential of double fault masking with a <2% increase in resource overhead cost compared to TMR. Moreover, for a Simplex module failure rate, λ, of 5%, the Reliability Improvement Factor (RIF) over the Simplex system is 20.8 and 500 for the proposed technique’s two- and three-module implementations, respectively, compared to a RIF over the Simplex system of only 7.25 for TMR and 14.3 for the regular TMR/Simplex scheme.

BANK PROFITABILITY DETERMINANTS: COMPARING THE UNITED STATES, NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA

This study investigates the determinants of banking sector profitability in South Africa, Nigeria and the United States. The findings reveal that cost efficiency, the size of non-performing loans and overhead cost to total asset ratio are significant determinants of the banking sector profitability. In the comparative analysis, the findings from South Africa show that the cost efficiency ratio, overhead cost to total asset ratio and non-performing loans are significant determinants of the banking sector profitability. In the United States, capital adequacy ratio and the size of non-performing loans are significant determinants of its banking sector profitability. In Nigeria, the overhead cost to total asset ratio and cost efficiency ratio are significant determinants of the banking sector profitability. The descriptive analysis reveal that bank net interest margin and return on asset are higher in Nigeria and lowest in the United States which suggests that the Nigerian banking sector is more profitable than the US banking sector. Return on equity is higher in South Africa and lowest in the United States.

Overhead Cost Assessment of Construction Projects in Erbil Governorate

Overhead or indirect cost considers as an element of the total project costs. The economic strength of any country depends on the activity of their construction industry. Overhead is an idiom refers to the costs required to operate a business, but it could not be directly attributed to any specific business activity, product, or service. And so on, overhead costs do not generate profits directly. Overhead is remainedimportant since it provides major support for the generation of profit-making value. The objective of this study is to explore common methods of measuring the overhead cost of the project in perspective of the contractors, as well as to show important types of overhead costs entire measuring cost. The research method has been conducted is a questionnaire concerning overhead cost in construction projects in Erbil Governorate. The questionnaire consists of two sections include, specify the method used by technical sector or company to measure overhead cost for the project, with choices, (i. Measuring in details ii. Measuring as a percentage, iii. Measuring as a lump sum, iv. Vary from one project to another, v. Other Method), and specify the overhead cost important, with indicating the choices of assessment. Thus; the total of 70 requests has been distributed to the respondents, 54 questioners responded. Excel program used to analyze information obtained through conducting statistical operations. Results showed that most frequent method used was measuring in details, with a percentage (42.6%). And the study shows that the most important overhead cost is material test costs which scored (RII=0.76), because of its great effect on the construction project processes generally and on overhead cost especially.

AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF MONTHLY TURNOVER AND COST STRUCTURE OF RUBBER INDUSTRY IN KERALA

The present paper is an attempt to examine the monthly turnover and the cost structure of Rubber Industry in Kerala. The study of monthly turnover and the cost structure of Rubber Industry in Kerala are very important and much significant for the Rubber industry in Kerala. The researcher prepared a questionnaire keeping in mind all the important aspects related to indigenous rubber and import of rubber. The present study is based on primary data. Primary data was collected from the Rubber industrial units (Sole Proprietor, Firm and Company) from three regions of Kerala i.e., Southern Region, Central Region and Northern Region through a structured questionnaire. Questionnaire was constructed after consulting the experts in the field of Rubber industry. Based on their suggestion, some items were deleted and some items were modified. The responses of the users were, by and large, encouraging. They responded freely in highlighting different aspects of rubber industry. To conclude, there is significant difference in the monthly turnover for different Rubber Industrial Units in Kerala. In other words, we can say that as nature of ownership changes, there is a change in monthly turnover. Likewise, the percentage share of different components of cost namely overhead cost and fixed cost of Rubber Industry in Kerala based on ownership is different and it is found more for sole proprietorship and firm respectively. The percentage share of different components of cost of Rubber Industry in Kerala based on operation is same. KEY WORDS: Monthly turnover, Cost structure, Rubber Industry, Overhead cost, Fixed cost.

Analisis Penerapan Biaya Standar terhadap Pengendalian Biaya Produksi pada PG Poerwodadie

Abstract— Competition in the business world requires companies to be able to manage their production cost effectively and efficiently. One of the method that can be use to controlling production cost is a standard cost. This research aims to analyze the implementation of standard cost on controlling of production cost at PG Poerwodadie. The data collection technique are used by interview, documentation, and data triangulation. Data analysis in this research is done by setting the standard cost and analyzing using the two-way model variance. The results of the research indicate that between the standard cost and actual cost incurred by PG Poerwodadie there is a favorable variance of Rp 2,667,683,61, which consist of raw material cost variance amounting to Rp 2.173.301.277 (favorable), direct labor cost variance amounting to Rp 539.403.640 (unfavourable), and factory overhead cost variance amounting to Rp 1.033.785.975 (favorable). Keywords—: standard cost; production cost; variance analysis.

ANALISIS HARGA POKOK PRODUKSI MENGGUNAKAN METODE FULL COSTING DALAM PENETAPAN HARGA JUAL

ABSTRACT Calculation of the cost of production is an important thing to note, because of the increasing competition between UMKM in producing quality products at quite competitive prices. This purpose of this research is to know how to calculated of the cost of goods manufactured to determine yhe selling price at UMKM Regar Fruit. Full costing method is a methode of dtermining the cost of goods manufactured which calculate all the elements from cost production which consist of materials cost, direct labour, factory overhead cost, both fixed cost and variable cost. The selling price can be obtained from cost of goods manufactured plus expected profit. The data used are primary data and secondary data. Primary data were obtained from the interview process through social media conducted with the ownes of UMKM. Secondary data obtained from UMKM Regar Fruit. The results of the research stated that the calculation of the cost of goods manufactured a difference that affected the selling price.