\cleardoublepage
\section*{Acknowledgments}
This thesis, like the OSDI paper on which it is based, is the result
of a collaboration with Austin Clements, Irene Zhang, Sam Madden, and
Barbara Liskov. The work described here would not have been possible
without their contributions. Austin and Irene implemented major parts
of \txcache; I remain amazed by the speed with which they translated
my random ideas into a functional system. More than once, Sam's keen
acumen for databases provided the solution to a problem that appeared
intractable.

My work -- and especially this thesis -- was substantially improved by
working with my advisor, Barbara Liskov. Barbara's principled approach
to research and emphasis on the value of providing the right
abstractions were a strong influence on my research; I hope that
influence shows clearly in this thesis. Barbara's suggestions also
improved the clarity of this work.
I also thank the other members of my thesis committee, Sam Madden and
Frans Kaashoek for their helpful feedback (especially at short
notice!).

It has been a pleasure to work with the other members of the
Programming Methodology Group: Winnie Cheng, James Cowling, Dorothy
Curtis, Evan Jones, Daniel Myers, David Schultz, Liuba Shrira, and Ben
Vandiver. In particular, James Cowling and David Schultz provided
essential support during the writing of this thesis --
both through their positive feedback and encouragement, and by being
willing to discuss even the most esoteric details of transaction
processing and database implementation.

Before I joined PMG, I finished a master's thesis working with David
Karger on peer-to-peer systems. His enthusiasm and insight encouraged
me to continue in systems research.
As part of that project, I worked closely with Frans Kaashoek, Robert
Morris, and various members of the PDOS group. Frans and Robert taught
me many valuable lessons about how to do research and how to write a
paper.

I spent a few summers as an intern at VMware, where I benefited
greatly from working with Carl Waldspurger, Mike Chen, Tal Garfinkel,
E. Lewis, Pratap Subrahmanyam, and others.

I also benefited from recent work with Kevin Grittner on
the implementation of Serializable Snapshot Isolation in
\postgres. That work influenced the invalidation mechanism in
\autoref{cha:invalidations} and the discussion in
\autoref{cha:serializability-appendix}, but more importantly, Kevin
provided valuable insight into the real-world benefits of serializable
isolation.

I thank my family for their support. My parents, Thomas Ports and
Catherine Covey, were a constant source of encouragement.
Most of all, I thank my wife, Irene Zhang. It isn't an exaggeration to
say that this work wouldn't have been possible without her. She has
supported me in many ways: from having helpful discussions about this
work, to reviewing drafts of my writing, to providing 
encouragement when I needed it most.


\clearpage
\section*{Previously Published Material}
This thesis significantly extends and revises work previously
published in the following paper:

\begin{quote}
  Dan R.~K. Ports, Austin~T. Clements, Irene Zhang, Samuel Madden, and Barbara
  Liskov.
\newblock Transactional Consistency and Automatic Management in an Application
  Data Cache.
\newblock In {\em Proceedings of the 9th {USENIX} {S}ymposium on {O}perating
  {S}ystems {D}esign and {I}mplementation ({OSDI} '10)}, Vancouver, BC, Canada,
  October 2010.
\end{quote}

\noindent
Parts of \autoref{cha:serializability-appendix} are adapted from the following
forthcoming publication:
\begin{quote}
  Dan R.~K. Ports and Kevin Grittner.
\newblock Serializable Snapshot Isolation in {PostgreSQL}.
\newblock In {\em Proceedings of the 38th {I}nternational {C}onference on
  {V}ery {L}arge {D}ata {B}ases ({VLDB} '12)}, Istanbul, Turkey,
August 2012. To appear.
%\newblock Industrial, Applications, and Experiences Track. To appear.
\end{quote}

\vfil

\section*{Funding}
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under
ITR grants CNS-$0428107$ and CNS-$0834239$, and by a National Defense
Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship sponsored by the
Office of Naval Research.

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