diff --git a/hyracks-control-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/control/common/application/ApplicationContext.java b/hyracks-control-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/control/common/application/ApplicationContext.java
index e95c4bc..c02c7ad 100644
--- a/hyracks-control-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/control/common/application/ApplicationContext.java
+++ b/hyracks-control-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/control/common/application/ApplicationContext.java
@@ -80,10 +80,10 @@
                 }
             });
             classLoader = new URLClassLoader(urls.toArray(new URL[urls.size()]));
-            deploymentDescriptor = parseDeploymentDescriptor();
         } else {
             classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();
         }
+        deploymentDescriptor = parseDeploymentDescriptor();
     }
 
     public void initialize() throws Exception {
@@ -203,4 +203,4 @@
     public ClassLoader getClassLoader() {
         return classLoader;
     }
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAppender.java b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAppender.java
index d50b702..4ec1b6f 100644
--- a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAppender.java
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/comm/io/FrameTupleAppender.java
@@ -117,6 +117,38 @@
         }
         return false;
     }
+    
+    public boolean appendConcat(IFrameTupleAccessor accessor0, int tIndex0, int[] fieldSlots, byte[] bytes, int offset,
+            int length) {
+        int startOffset0 = accessor0.getTupleStartOffset(tIndex0);
+        int endOffset0 = accessor0.getTupleEndOffset(tIndex0);
+        int length0 = endOffset0 - startOffset0;
+
+        if (tupleDataEndOffset + length0 + fieldSlots.length * 4 + length + 4 + (tupleCount + 1) * 4 <= frameSize) {
+            ByteBuffer src0 = accessor0.getBuffer();
+            int slotsLen0 = accessor0.getFieldSlotsLength();
+            int dataLen0 = length0 - slotsLen0;
+            // Copy slots from accessor0 verbatim
+            System.arraycopy(src0.array(), startOffset0, buffer.array(), tupleDataEndOffset, slotsLen0);
+            // Copy slots from fieldSlots with the following transformation:
+            // newSlotIdx = oldSlotIdx + dataLen0
+            for (int i = 0; i < fieldSlots.length; ++i) {
+                buffer.putInt(tupleDataEndOffset + slotsLen0 + i * 4, (fieldSlots[i] + dataLen0));
+            }
+            // Copy data0
+            System.arraycopy(src0.array(), startOffset0 + slotsLen0, buffer.array(), tupleDataEndOffset + slotsLen0
+                    + fieldSlots.length * 4, dataLen0);
+            // Copy bytes
+            System.arraycopy(bytes, offset, buffer.array(), tupleDataEndOffset + slotsLen0 + fieldSlots.length * 4
+                    + dataLen0, length);
+            tupleDataEndOffset += (length0 + fieldSlots.length * 4 + length);
+            buffer.putInt(FrameHelper.getTupleCountOffset(frameSize) - 4 * (tupleCount + 1), tupleDataEndOffset);
+            ++tupleCount;
+            buffer.putInt(FrameHelper.getTupleCountOffset(frameSize), tupleCount);
+            return true;
+        }
+        return false;
+    }
 
     public boolean appendProjection(IFrameTupleAccessor accessor, int tIndex, int[] fields) {
         int fTargetSlotsLength = fields.length * 4;
diff --git a/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/data/marshalling/BooleanSerializerDeserializer.java b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/data/marshalling/BooleanSerializerDeserializer.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7667d2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/hyracks-dataflow-common/src/main/java/edu/uci/ics/hyracks/dataflow/common/data/marshalling/BooleanSerializerDeserializer.java
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright 2009-2010 by The Regents of the University of California
+ * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+ * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+ * you may obtain a copy of the License from
+ * 
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ * 
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package edu.uci.ics.hyracks.dataflow.common.data.marshalling;
+
+import java.io.DataInput;
+import java.io.DataOutput;
+import java.io.IOException;
+
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.dataflow.value.ISerializerDeserializer;
+import edu.uci.ics.hyracks.api.exceptions.HyracksDataException;
+
+public class BooleanSerializerDeserializer implements ISerializerDeserializer<Boolean> {
+    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
+
+    public static final BooleanSerializerDeserializer INSTANCE = new BooleanSerializerDeserializer();
+
+    private BooleanSerializerDeserializer() {
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public Boolean deserialize(DataInput in) throws HyracksDataException {
+        try {
+            return in.readBoolean();
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new HyracksDataException(e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    @Override
+    public void serialize(Boolean instance, DataOutput out) throws HyracksDataException {
+        try {
+            out.writeBoolean(instance.booleanValue());
+        } catch (IOException e) {
+            throw new HyracksDataException(e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static boolean getBoolean(byte[] bytes, int offset) {
+        return (bytes[offset] != (byte)0) ? true : false;
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file