An efficient and secure approach for a cloud collaborative editing

The demand for cloud-based collaborative editing service is rising along with the tremendously increased popularity in cloud computing. In the cloud-based collaborative editing environment, the data are stored in the cloud and able to be accessed from everywhere through every compatible device with the Internet. The information is shared with every accredited user in a group. In other words, multiple authorized users of the group are able to work on the same document and edit the document collaboratively and synchronously online. Meanwhile, during the whole collaborative editing process, the encryption technique is eventually applied to protect and secure the data. The encryption for the collaborative editing, however, could require much time to operate. To elevate the efficiency of the encryption, this study first analyzes the text editing in the collaborative service and presents a framework of the Red–Black tree, named as rbTree-Doc. The rbTree-Doc can reduce the amount of data to be encrypted. Although the trade-off for creating the Red–Black tree introduces extra cost, the experimental results of using rbTree-Doc in text editing operations, such as insertion and removal, show improved efficiency compared with other whole-document encryption strategy. Using rbTree-Doc, the efficiency is improved by 31.04% compared to that 3DES encryption is applied and by 23.94% compared to that AES encryption is applied.     

Computer support for learning in collaborative contexts: prompted hypothesis testing in physics

An enormous amount of work has been carried out into the ways in which computers can support collaboration in the service of learning. Less attention has been paid to computer support for learning when collaboration is non-problematic, yet this is arguably of equal significance. Recognizing this, the present paper reports software which was developed to help collaborating pupils test hypotheses, an activity thought by many to be relevant to conceptual learning. The software addressed hypotheses relating to: (a) the factors which influence the pressure of water; and (b) the factors which influence the formation of shadows. It required collaborating pupils to formulate hypotheses about such factors, decide which factors must be manipulated to check correctness, formulate predictions about outcomes prior to testing, observe the results of tests, and draw conclusions across test series. Pupils were asked to input their decisions at key points as they used the software, and they received prompts to the extent that their decisions were inappropriate. The prompts became increasingly explicit as inappropriate decisions persisted. The paper describes the use of the software by 9–14-year-old pupils, comparing their activity with that of similarly aged pupils who worked with otherwise equivalent software which lacked any prompts. Evidence is presented for the value of prompting, with implications not simply for the use of hypothesis testing as an instructional strategy but also for the design of computer-based support for other complex and co-ordinated activities.     

一种AFDX交换机的高效检测方法

航空电子全双工交换以太网(AFDX)是为航电信息系统之间进行数据通信而专门制定的协议标准,具有确定性、双余度和可靠性等优点,已成功应用于新一代航电网络。分析了ARINC 664 Part7中交换机章节及对应的通信架构等关键技术特点,提出一种高效率适合AFDX交换机的通信测试方法。通过测试与验证,证明该方法对通信功能的测试正确且效率较高。     

An expressive framework and efficient algorithms for the analysis of collaborative tagging

The rise of Web 2.0 is signaled by sites such as Flickr, del.icio.us, and YouTube, and social tagging is essential to their success. A typical tagging action involves three components, user, item (e.g., photos in Flickr), and tags (i.e., words or phrases). Analyzing how tags are assigned by certain users to certain items has important implications in helping users search for desired information. In this paper, we develop a dual mining framework to explore tagging behavior. This framework is centered around two opposing measures, similarity and diversity, applied to one or more tagging components, and therefore enables a wide range of analysis scenarios such as characterizing similar users tagging diverse items with similar tags or diverse users tagging similar items with diverse tags. By adopting different concrete measures for similarity and diversity in the framework, we show that a wide range of concrete analysis problems can be defined and they are NP-Complete in general. We design four sets of efficient algorithms for solving many of those problems and demonstrate, through comprehensive experiments over real data, that our algorithms significantly out-perform the exact brute-force approach without compromising analysis result quality.     

An efficient hybrid multicast transport protocol for collaborative virtual environment with networked haptic

In recent years, we have witnessed a growing interest in the synchronous collaboration based class of applications. Several techniques for collaborative virtual environments (CVE), haptic, audio and visual environments (C-HAVE) have been designed. However, several challenging issues remain to be resolved before CVE and C-HAVE become a common place. In this paper, we focus on applications that are based on closely coupled and highly synchronized haptic tasks that require a high-level of coordination among the participants. Four main protocols have been designed to resolve the synchronization issues in such environments: the synchronous collaboration transport protocol, the selective reliable transmission protocol, the reliable multicast transport protocol and the scalable reliable multicast. While these four protocols have shown good performance for CVE and C-HAVE class of applications, none of these protocols has been able to meet all of the basic CVE requirements, i.e., scalability, reliability, synchronization, and minimum delay. In this paper, we present a hybrid protocol that is able to satisfy all of the CVE and C-HAVE requirements and discuss its implementation and results in two tele-surgery applications. This work is partially supported by Grants from Canada Research Chair Program, NSERC, OIT/Ontario Distinguished Researcher Award, Early Research Award and ORNEC Research Grant.     

Evaluation and comparison of two efficient probabilistic primality testing algorithms

We analyse two recent probabilistic primality testing algorithms; the first one is derived from Miller [6] in a formulation given by Rabin [7], and the second one is from Solovay and Strassen [9]. Both decide whether or not an odd number n is prime in time O(m, lognM(n)) with an error probability less than α^m, for some $\text{0≤a<}\text{1}\text{2}$. Our comparison shows that the first algorithm is always more efficient than the second, both in probabilistic and algorithmic terms.     

How collaborative technology supports cognitive processes in collaborative process modeling: A capabilities-gains-outcome model

We examine which capabilities technologies provide to support collaborative process modeling. We develop a model that explains how technology capabilities impact cognitive group processes, and how they lead to improved modeling outcomes and positive technology beliefs. We test this model through a free simulation experiment of collaborative process modelers structured around a set of modeling tasks. With our study, we provide an understanding of the process of collaborative process modeling, and detail implications for research and guidelines for the practical design of collaborative process modeling.     

An ontology-based collaborative business service selection: contributing to automatic building of collaborative business process

With worldwide inter-enterprise collaboration and interoperability background, automatic collaborative business process deduction is a crucial researching subject. We have designed a methodology of deducing collaborative process by only collecting collaborative objectives and partners’ business services. The two key problems are (i) selecting corresponding business services for a set of collaborative objectives and (ii) ordering business services with serializations and parallelization. This paper aims to present a solution of business service selection and the following business process extraction. In order to solve the problem, we have defined a collaborative ontology, which contains numerous instances of business services and processes from the MIT process handbook. The collaborative ontology contains essential concepts in collaborative situations and process-deducing rules and algorithms. We provide a brief illustration of implementation within a SaaS toolkit called Mediator Modeling 2ool.     

TeleInViVo: Towards collaborative volume visualization environments

Converging technologies in the areas of telecommunications, volume visualization, and computer hardware and peripherals have made possible in recent years the development of new tools for collaboration that extend the reach of health care professionals and other consumers of volumetric data around the world. We describe a recent development at the Center for Research in Computer Graphics in Providence, RI, that makes a significant contribution to this area. TeleInViVo^™ is an application that supports collaborative volumetric data visualization and exploration. It is an extension and partial reworking of InViVo^™, a volume visualization application developed at the Fraunhofer IGD, in Darmstadt, Germany. InViVo, which is largely focused around the medical community and with an emphasis on diagnostic ultrasound, has been augmented with new modes of interaction, an intuitive collaboration mechanism, and an architectural modification to support future developments in this area.     

CASAM: collaborative human-machine annotation of multimedia

The CASAM multimedia annotation system implements a model of cooperative annotation between a human annotator and automated components. The aim is that they work asynchronously but together. The system focuses upon the areas where automated recognition and reasoning are most effective and the user is able to work in the areas where their unique skills are required. The system’s reasoning is influenced by the annotations provided by the user and, similarly, the user can see the system’s work and modify and, implicitly, direct it. The CASAM system interacts with the user by providing a window onto the current state of annotation, and by generating requests for information which are important for the final annotation or to constrain its reasoning. The user can modify the annotation, respond to requests and also add their own annotations. The objective is that the human annotator’s time is used more effectively and that the result is an annotation that is both of higher quality and produced more quickly. This can be especially important in circumstances where the annotator has a very restricted amount of time in which to annotate the document. In this paper we describe our prototype system. We expand upon the techniques used for automatically analysing the multimedia document, for reasoning over the annotations generated and for the generation of an effective interaction with the end-user. We also present the results of evaluations undertaken with media professionals in order to validate the approach and gain feedback to drive further research.     

Enabling collaborative work: Work in progress

Mobile handheld and wearable computer systems to support fieldworkers (e.g. aircraft mechanics) doing a variety of tasks have been designed and studied by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers since 1991. We developed an initial research agenda and found some important results associated with the design and use of such systems. This article summarises some of the key findings from CMU's research and describes the results from one heuritic usability study about mobile handheld and wearable computer systems. Based on these research results, we put forward a new research agenda addressing important issues still to be resolved.     

CSsCL: the performance of collaborative learning

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - This article discusses the integration of three concepts central to the enterprise of computer-supported collaborative learning:...     

CFMDA: collaborative filtering-based MiRNA-disease association prediction

Multimedia Tools and Applications - MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are increasingly becoming the focus in a number of researches because abundant studies certify miRNAs play vital roles and have critical...     

NeuroNet: collaborative intraoperative guidance and control

Neurophysiological monitoring assesses CNS structure function relationships during surgery. NeuroNet supports remote performance of this task through real time multimodal data processing and multimedia network communication. The system is fully integrated, transparently combining the collection, processing, and presentation of real time data sources, including all physiological monitoring functions, with non real time functions and extensive online database information. Workstations are mounted in instrumentation racks and configured with appropriate electronics to support various data acquisition tasks including electroencephalograms (EEGs), electromyograms (EMGs), and multimodality evoked potentials. Multiple racks can be used in parallel on the same case if the number of variables to be monitored exceeds the capacity of a single tack. The data acquired on these systems is transparently accessible, in real time, across the network for both review and analysis     

CCF: a framework for collaborative computing

The Collaborative Computing Frameworks toolkit enables cooperative computer-based work among collaborators at different sites. The collaborators are typically engaged in scientific endeavors, but CCF offers integrated support for any collaboration that depends heavily on distributed computational transformations and data management     

Advances in collaborative CAD: the-state-of-the art

In collaborative design and distributed manufacturing, the need to co-develop parts by designers at different geographical locations often arises. For designing a promising product, there is always a need for collaboration among the design, marketing, finance and procurement departments, and the top management. Global manufacturing makes it difficult to frequently gather all the departments in a meeting room to discuss, because of geographical constraints. In order to address this issue, recently, a number of software tools and research works have arisen to provide collaborative solutions. In this paper, some important works in Web-based visualization and 3D concise representations, 3D streaming technology and co-design systems and feature-/assembly-based representation are elaborated. Meanwhile, previous works done by a project led by the authors towards this direction are also highlighted.     

Let's browse: a collaborative browsing agent

Web browsing, like most of today's desktop applications, is usually a solitary activity. Other forms of media, such as watching television, are often done by groups of people, such as families or friends. What would it be like to do collaborative Web browsing? Could the computer provide assistance to group browsing by trying to help find mutual interests among the participants? Let's Browse is an experiment in building an agent to assist a group of people in browsing, by suggesting new material likely to be of common interest. It is built as an extension to the single user Web browsing agent Letizia. Let's Browse features automatic detection of the presence of users, automated “channel surfing” browsing, and dynamic display of the user profiles and explanation of recommendations.     

The spiral model of collaborative knowledge improvement: an exploratory study of a networked collaborative classroom

International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning - While there are many studies on students’ collaborative learning at the small group level, pedagogies and strategies for...