diff --git a/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml b/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
index 17ea6c3..5238068 100644
--- a/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
+++ b/pregelix/pregelix-core/pom.xml
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
 	<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 	<artifactId>pregelix-core</artifactId>
 	<packaging>jar</packaging>
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@
 		<plugins>
 			<plugin>
 				<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
+				<version>2.4</version>
 				<executions>
 					<execution>
 						<id>balancer</id>
@@ -38,11 +40,6 @@
 							</includes>
 						</configuration>
 					</execution>
-				</executions>
-			</plugin>
-			<plugin>
-				<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
-				<executions>
 					<execution>
 						<id>generator</id>
 						<goals>
@@ -64,36 +61,19 @@
 				</executions>
 			</plugin>
 			<plugin>
-				<artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
-				<executions>
-					<execution>
-						<id>patch</id>
-						<goals>
-							<goal>jar</goal>
-						</goals>
-						<phase>package</phase>
-						<configuration>
-							<classifier>patch</classifier>
-							<finalName>a-hadoop</finalName>
-							<includes>
-								<include>**/org/apache/**</include>
-							</includes>
-						</configuration>
-					</execution>
-				</executions>
-			</plugin>
-			<plugin>
 				<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
 				<artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
 				<version>2.0.2</version>
 				<configuration>
-					<source>1.6</source>
-					<target>1.6</target>
+					<source>1.7</source>
+					<target>1.7</target>
+					<fork>true</fork>
 				</configuration>
 			</plugin>
 			<plugin>
 				<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
 				<artifactId>appassembler-maven-plugin</artifactId>
+				<version>1.3</version>
 				<executions>
 					<execution>
 						<configuration>
@@ -166,25 +146,6 @@
 							</resources>
 						</configuration>
 					</execution>
-					<execution>
-						<id>copy-hadoop-patch</id>
-						<!-- here the phase you need -->
-						<phase>package</phase>
-						<goals>
-							<goal>copy-resources</goal>
-						</goals>
-						<configuration>
-							<outputDirectory>target/appassembler/lib</outputDirectory>
-							<resources>
-								<resource>
-									<directory>target</directory>
-									<includes>
-										<include>a-hadoop-patch.jar</include>
-									</includes>
-								</resource>
-							</resources>
-						</configuration>
-					</execution>
 				</executions>
 			</plugin>
 			<plugin>
@@ -193,7 +154,8 @@
 				<version>2.7.2</version>
 				<configuration>
 					<forkMode>pertest</forkMode>
-					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=300m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
+					<argLine>-enableassertions -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=300m
+						-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
 						-Djava.util.logging.config.file=src/test/resources/logging.properties</argLine>
 					<includes>
 						<include>**/*TestSuite.java</include>
@@ -203,6 +165,7 @@
 			</plugin>
 			<plugin>
 				<artifactId>maven-clean-plugin</artifactId>
+				<version>2.5</version>
 				<configuration>
 					<filesets>
 						<fileset>
@@ -282,11 +245,6 @@
 			<groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks</groupId>
 			<artifactId>hyracks-data-std</artifactId>
 			<version>0.2.3-SNAPSHOT</version>
-		</dependency>
-		<dependency>
-			<groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
-			<artifactId>hadoop-core</artifactId>
-			<version>0.20.2</version>
 			<type>jar</type>
 			<scope>compile</scope>
 		</dependency>
@@ -319,13 +277,6 @@
 			<scope>compile</scope>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>
-			<groupId>org.apache.hadoop</groupId>
-			<artifactId>hadoop-test</artifactId>
-			<version>0.20.2</version>
-			<type>jar</type>
-			<scope>compile</scope>
-		</dependency>
-		<dependency>
 			<groupId>com.kenai.nbpwr</groupId>
 			<artifactId>org-apache-commons-io</artifactId>
 			<version>1.3.1-201002241208</version>
@@ -335,7 +286,7 @@
 		<dependency>
 			<groupId>edu.uci.ics.hyracks.examples</groupId>
 			<artifactId>hyracks-integration-tests</artifactId>
-			<version>0.2.1</version>
+			<version>0.2.3-SNAPSHOT</version>
 			<scope>test</scope>
 		</dependency>
 		<dependency>