Digital Preservation Services : State of the Art Analysis

Research report funded by the DC-NET project.An overview of the state of the art in service provision for digital preservation and curation. Its focus is on the areas where bridging the gaps is needed between e-Infrastructures and efficient and forward-looking digital preservation services. Based on a desktop study and a rapid analysis of some 190 currently available tools and services for digital preservation, the deliverable provides a high-level view on the range of instruments currently on offer to support various functions within a preservation system.European Commission, FP7peer-reviewe

A new digital image correlation software for displacements field measurement in structural applications

Recently, there has been a growing interest in studying non-contact techniques for strain and displacement measurement. Within photogrammetry, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) has received particular attention thanks to the recent advances in the field of low-cost, high resolution digital cameras, computer power and memory storage. DIC is indeed an optical technique able to measure full field displacements and strain by comparing digital images of the surface of a material sample at different stages of deformation and thus can play a major role in structural monitoring applications. For all these reasons, a free and open source 2D DIC software, named py2DIC, was developed at the Geodesy and Geomatics Division of DICEA, University of Rome "La Sapienza". Completely written in python, the software is based on the template matching method and computes the displacement and strain fields. The potentialities of Py2DIC were evaluated by processing the images captured during a tensile test performed in the Lab of Structural Engineering, where three different Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer samples were subjected to a controlled tension by means of a universal testing machine. The results, compared with the values independently measured by several strain gauges fixed on the samples, demonstrate the possibility to successfully characterize the deformation mechanism of the investigated material. Py2DIC is indeed able to highlight displacements at few microns level, in reasonable agreement with the reference, both in terms of displacements (again, at few microns in the average) and Poisson's module

Consider the Source: The Value of Source Code to Digital Preservation Strategies

One of the major challenges in the digital preservation field is the difficulty of ensuring long-term access to digital objects, especially in cases when the software that was used to create an object is no longer current. Software source code has a human-readable, documentary structure that makes it an overlooked aspect of digital preservation strategies, in addition to a valuable component for the records of modern computing history. The author surveys several approaches to software preservation and finds that, by supporting open source initiatives, digital libraries can improve their ability to preserve access to their collections for future generations

Improving Knowledge Retrieval in Digital Libraries Applying Intelligent Techniques

Nowadays an enormous quantity of heterogeneous and distributed information is stored in the digital University. Exploring online collections to find knowledge relevant to a user’s interests is a challenging work. The artificial intelligence and Semantic Web provide a common framework that allows knowledge to be shared and reused in an efficient way. In this work we propose a comprehensive approach for discovering E-learning objects in large digital collections based on analysis of recorded semantic metadata in those objects and the application of expert system technologies. We have used Case Based-Reasoning methodology to develop a prototype for supporting efficient retrieval knowledge from online repositories. We suggest a conceptual architecture for a semantic search engine. OntoUS is a collaborative effort that proposes a new form of interaction between users and digital libraries, where the latter are adapted to users and their surroundings

Comparing consortial repositories: a model-driven analysis

This study aims to provide a comparative assessment of different repository consortia as a reference to inform future work in the area. A review of the literature was used to identify repository consortia, and their features were compared. Three models of consortial repositories were derived from this comparison, based on their structure and aims. The consortial models were based around either: creating a shared repository for the members, developing a repository software platform or creating a metadata harvesting service to aggregate content. Using case studies of each type of repository consortium, each model was assessed in terms of its particular strengths and weaknesses. These strengths were then compared across the models to enable those considering a consortial repository project to assess which model, or combination of models, would best address their needs and to aid in project planning

Developing a national database on Librarianship and Information Science. The case of E-VIVA, the Hellenic fulltext database

The paper presents the Hellenic fulltext database on Librarianship and Information Science E-VIVA (Ellinike Vivliothikonomike Vase), developed by the Library of the University of Cyprus. The objectives of E-VIVA is to identify, gather, organize, digitize and promote the research, conducted in Greece and Cyprus in the scientific fields of Archival, Library and Infor-mation Sciences. Data are provided concerning the cov-erage, the content, the format and the environment of the database as well as the steps that have been fol-lowed for the development. The legal framework related with the copyright issues that are raised is also dis-cussed. Furthermore a comparison is attempted be-tween E-VIVA, eLIS, LISA and LISTA. Finally the next plans of the Library of the University of Cyprus for the project are presented

On the Feasibility of Malware Authorship Attribution

There are many occasions in which the security community is interested to discover the authorship of malware binaries, either for digital forensics analysis of malware corpora or for thwarting live threats of malware invasion. Such a discovery of authorship might be possible due to stylistic features inherent to software codes written by human programmers. Existing studies of authorship attribution of general purpose software mainly focus on source code, which is typically based on the style of programs and environment. However, those features critically depend on the availability of the program source code, which is usually not the case when dealing with malware binaries. Such program binaries often do not retain many semantic or stylistic features due to the compilation process. Therefore, authorship attribution in the domain of malware binaries based on features and styles that will survive the compilation process is challenging. This paper provides the state of the art in this literature. Further, we analyze the features involved in those techniques. By using a case study, we identify features that can survive the compilation process. Finally, we analyze existing works on binary authorship attribution and study their applicability to real malware binaries.Comment: FPS 201