Towards a Mobile Learning Environment using Reference Architectures

Mobile learning environments have emerged as a way to support the m-learning initiatives, providing benefits to learners, teachers and tutors. However, despite their relevance, the development of mobile learning environments present problems and challenges that must be investigated, especially with respect to the definition and adoption of architectural patterns. Motivated by this scenario, in this paper we discuss the development of a mobile learning environment, called ICMC MLE, following the precepts of a specific reference architecture for mobile learning. ICMC MLE was also evaluated through an experiment; the results showed a high level of satisfaction and convenience in relation to the use of ICMC MLE in real learning scenarios

RecuperApp : aplicación móvil para el seguimiento en la rehabilitación cardíaca de pacientes del Hospital San Ignacio

La falla cardíaca es una enfermedad de considerable impacto en la población, por tanto, la rehabilitación de sus pacientes es una actividad de importancia para hospitales que usualmente deben dedicar personal a la rehabilitación de dichos pacientes, esto con debilidades identifica-das en términos del seguimiento del tratamiento por parte de los pacientes, así como de la disponibilidad de información actualizada respecto de su progreso para los profesionales. Este trabajo avanza en el uso de aplicaciones móviles para telemedicina, particularmente para el (auto-)seguimiento con el fin de proveer una herramienta que pueda ayudar tanto a pacientes como profesionales monitorizar el tratamiento y el progreso del paciente. Un prototipo, Recu-perApp, ha sido desarrollado y validado con la clínica de falla cardíaca de un hospital universitario.Heart failure is a disease with a considerable impact on the population, therefore the rehabili-tation of these patients is an activity that concerns hospitals, often with numerous staff dedi-cated to their rehabilitation and with identified weaknesses in terms of the patients’ following proper treatment or professionals having updated information as to their progress. This work advances on the use of mobile apps for telemedicine, particularly for (self-)monitoring with the aim of providing a tool that can help both patients and professionals keep track of the treatment and the patient progress. A prototype, RecuperApp, has been developed and validated with the heart failure clinic of a university hospital.Magíster en Ingeniería de Sistemas y ComputaciónMaestrí

Toward Establishing a Catalog of Security Architecture Weaknesses

The architecture design of a software system plays a crucial role in addressing security requirements early in the development lifecycle through forming design solutions that prevent or mitigate attacks in a system. Consequently, flaws in the software architecture can impact various security concerns in the system, thereby introducing severe breaches that could be exploited by attackers. In this context, this thesis presents the new concept of Common Architectural Weakness Enumeration (CAWE), a catalog that identifies and categorizes common types of vulnerabilities rooted in the software architecture design and provides mitigation techniques to address each of them. Through this catalog, we aim to promote the awareness of architectural flaws and stimulate security design thinking to developers, architects and software engineers. This work also investigates the reported vulnerabilities from four real and complex software systems to verify the existence and implications of architecture weaknesses. From this investigation, we noted that a variety of breaches are indeed rooted in the software design (at least 35% in the investigated systems), providing evidence that architectural weaknesses frequently occurs in complex systems, resulting in medium to high severe vulnerabilities. Therefore, a catalog of such type of weaknesses can be useful for adopting proactive approaches to avoid design vulnerabilities

A fragmentising interface to a large corpus of digitized text: (Post)humanism and non-consumptive reading via features

While the idea of distant reading does not rule out the possibility of close reading of the individual components of the corpus of digitized text that is being distant-read, this ceases to be the case when parts of the corpus are, for reasons relating to intellectual property, not accessible for consumption through downloading followed by close reading. Copyright restrictions on material in collections of digitized text such as the HathiTrust Digital Library (HTDL) necessitates providing facilities for non-consumptive reading, one of the approaches to which consists of providing users with features from the text in the form of small fragments of text, instead of the text itself. We argue that, contrary to expectation, the fragmentary quality of the features generated by the reading interface does not necessarily imply that the mode of reading enabled and mediated by these features points in an anti-humanist direction. We pose the fragmentariness of the features as paradigmatic of the fragmentation with which digital techniques tend, more generally, to trouble the humanities. We then generalize our argument to put our work on feature-based non-consumptive reading in dialogue with contemporary debates that are currently taking place in philosophy and in cultural theory and criticism about posthumanism and agency. While the locus of agency in such a non-consumptive practice of reading does not coincide with the customary figure of the singular human subject as reader, it is possible to accommodate this fragmentising practice within the terms of an ampler notion of agency imagined as dispersed across an entire technosocial ensemble. When grasped in this way, such a practice of reading may be considered posthumanist but not necessarily antihumanist.Ope

Towards a Reference Architecture with Modular Design for Large-scale Genotyping and Phenotyping Data Analysis: A Case Study with Image Data

With the rapid advancement of computing technologies, various scientific research communities have been extensively using cloud-based software tools or applications. Cloud-based applications allow users to access software applications from web browsers while relieving them from the installation of any software applications in their desktop environment. For example, Galaxy, GenAP, and iPlant Colaborative are popular cloud-based systems for scientific workflow analysis in the domain of plant Genotyping and Phenotyping. These systems are being used for conducting research, devising new techniques, and sharing the computer assisted analysis results among collaborators. Researchers need to integrate their new workflows/pipelines, tools or techniques with the base system over time. Moreover, large scale data need to be processed within the time-line for more effective analysis. Recently, Big Data technologies are emerging for facilitating large scale data processing with commodity hardware. Among the above-mentioned systems, GenAp is utilizing the Big Data technologies for specific cases only. The structure of such a cloud-based system is highly variable and complex in nature. Software architects and developers need to consider totally different properties and challenges during the development and maintenance phases compared to the traditional business/service oriented systems. Recent studies report that software engineers and data engineers confront challenges to develop analytic tools for supporting large scale and heterogeneous data analysis. Unfortunately, less focus has been given by the software researchers to devise a well-defined methodology and frameworks for flexible design of a cloud system for the Genotyping and Phenotyping domain. To that end, more effective design methodologies and frameworks are an urgent need for cloud based Genotyping and Phenotyping analysis system development that also supports large scale data processing. In our thesis, we conduct a few studies in order to devise a stable reference architecture and modularity model for the software developers and data engineers in the domain of Genotyping and Phenotyping. In the first study, we analyze the architectural changes of existing candidate systems to find out the stability issues. Then, we extract architectural patterns of the candidate systems and propose a conceptual reference architectural model. Finally, we present a case study on the modularity of computation-intensive tasks as an extension of the data-centric development. We show that the data-centric modularity model is at the core of the flexible development of a Genotyping and Phenotyping analysis system. Our proposed model and case study with thousands of images provide a useful knowledge-base for software researchers, developers, and data engineers for cloud based Genotyping and Phenotyping analysis system development

MMixte: a software architecture for Live Electronics with acoustic instruments : exemplary application cases

MMixte is a middleware based on Max for mixed music with live electronics. It enables programming for a “patcher concerto”, a platform, that is, for the management of live electronics in just a few minutes and with extreme simplicity. Dedicated to average and expert users, MMixte enables true programming of live electronics in very little time while also enabling easy adapting of previously developed modules, depending on the case and its needs. The architecture behind MMixte is based on a variation of so-called “pipeline architecture"; the analysis of the most widely used software architectures in the market and design patterns to program graphic interfaces has led to the conception of ways of organizing communication between various modules, the way they are being used and their graphic appearence. Analysis of other, “state of the art” module collections and other software programs dedicated to mixed music shows the absence of another work on software architecture for mixed music. Application of MMixte to some of my personal works shows demonstrates its flexibility and ease of adaptation. Computer programming for a piece of mixed music requires much that goes beyond just programming of audio signal processing. The present work seeks to provide an example of a solution to such needs

Survey and a Detailed Case Study Using OMG IDL: The Role of IDL in Component Composition

The dream of building large software systems out of well-defined independent components is gradually coming true. Modem software systems are rarely developed entirely from scratch; rather they are constructed using tested and reliable pieces called components. Component Based Software Development (CBSD) still faces some major obstacles. One of these problems is composing the different components that make up a system. Interface Definition Language (lDL) plays a vital role in composing components. IDL is used to describe the contracts (interfaces) between the components of a system. Object Management Group (OMG) is a leader in defining standards for software components. One of the IDL standards is OMG IDL. This thesis reports a study of OMG IDL and the role it plays in component composition. One case study (a library system) was investigated using OMG IDL. The case study is introduced infonnally, then it is analyzed and designed as a component-based system, subsequently an OMG IDL is presented for the case study. The functional and extra functional properties of the system are then discussed. The following lessons and conclusions were learned from the case study. OMG IDL was originally designed to specify the functionality of the components of a system, but its function has been extended to compose the components together as well. Using the OMA standard servIces, CORBAservices helps control the extra-functional properties. The software designer should be knowledgeable about the standard components and services in the component model in order to use them when they are needed and not write them again. In the library system case study, it was not necessary to develop new Naming and Trading services, Transaction services, or Security services, and the OMA standard services were used instead. A good design is essential for a component system to succeed. It is hard to cover all parts of OMG IDL in one case study. Also, there is lack of standardized components in the general library system domain