Improving Version-Aware Word Documents

Coakley~\textit{et al.} described how they developed Version Aware Word Documents, which is an enhanced document representation that includes a detailed version history that is self-contained and portable. However, they were not able to adopt the unique-ID-based techniques that have been shown to support efficient merging and differencing algorithms. This thesis describes how it is possible to adapt existing features of MS Word\u27s OOXML representation to provide a system of unique element IDs suitable for those algorithms. This requires taking over Word\u27s Revision Save ID (RSID) system and also defining procedures for specifying ID values for elements that do not support the RSID mechanism. In addition, we provide an updated version of the MS plug-in developed by Coakley~\textit{et al.}. Important limitations remain but appear surmountable

Enhanced Version Control for Unconventional Applications

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is widely used to store, retrieve, and share digital documents. Recently, a form of Version Control System has been applied to the language, resulting in Version-Aware XML allowing for enhanced portability and scalability. While Version Control Systems are able to keep track of changes made to documents, we think that there is untapped potential in the technology. In this dissertation, we present novel ways of using Version Control System to enhance the security and performance of existing applications. We present a framework to maintain integrity in offline XML documents and provide non-repudiation security features that are independent of central certificate repositories. In addition, we use Version Control information to enhance the performance of Automated Policy Enforcement eXchange framework (APEX), an existing document security framework developed by Hewlett-Packard (HP) Labs. Finally, we present an interactive and scalable visualization framework to represent Version-Aware-related data that helps users visualize and understand version control data, delete specific revisions of a document, and access a comprehensive overview of the entire versioning history

A High Fidelity Interface for Documents Merging Tool Using a Language Analysis Oracle

Revision is an important step in the writing process in order to obtain a good written work. It is mostly needed in academia, industry, and government. Usually, it is done by one reviser or more who is not the author of the written piece. The role of revisers is not limited to correcting any spelling or grammar mistakes, but also ensuring the coherence of the writing as well as the words used by the author to express his/her idea correctly to the readers. In addition, revisers help the author to put his/her writing in the appropriate format. One approach to do the revision is individually in a parallel way where each reviser modifies the original document. As a result, the author ends up with multiple versions of his/her work. For this situation, many merging control systems have been developed to enable the user to merge the revised versions with the original document in order to represent the changes that were made in the revised versions in an easily understandable way. Although these merging tools provide the users with much of the relevant information about the changes and who made them, the interfaces of these tools do not allow users to filter the corrections so that the users’ attention can be focused on the most important changes. For example, if there are format changes and grammar corrections, in addition to editing changes that could change the meaning of the author’s original writing, we believe that users would prefer to pay attention to the changes that could change the meaning and then check the format changes, after taking a look at grammar corrections. In this thesis we developed a new merging interface that enables the user to filter the changes, based on their level of importance, to give them special attention. In addition, the interface provides the users with a user-friendly control panel that allows the user to choose among conflicting changes. This will help users produce a correct merged document. A usability study was conducted with ten graduate students from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee to test whether a high fidelity prototype of this interface would help users to better understand the changes that were made in the two revisions as well as choose the best revisions. While the study found both positive and negative qualities in the prototype, most participants valued the change classification feature, suggesting that it is worthy of further research

Differ - elaborazione e rappresentazione di modifiche a documenti strutturati

Scopo di questa dissertazione è presentare una modalità di visualizzazione delle modifiche ad un documento indicativa del livello di priorità e del tipo di edit, sfruttando un raggruppamento di quelle che sono operazioni puramente meccaniche in operazioni di più alto livello, strutturali ed eventualmente semantiche. I principali editor usati e i principali sistemi di versionamento dei documenti offrono delle modalità di visualizzazione delle differenze scarne di significato, rendendo difficile per l’utente l’attribuzione di senso ai cambiamenti evidenziati sul testo. Ho quindi cercato di porre un rimedio al problema fornendo una struttura di edit e alcuni schemi visivi capaci di conferire una intuitiva attribuzione di significato alle modifiche

Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructures

This book contains the manuscripts that were accepted for publication in the MDPI Special Topic "Cyber Security and Critical Infrastructure" after a rigorous peer-review process. Authors from academia, government and industry contributed their innovative solutions, consistent with the interdisciplinary nature of cybersecurity. The book contains 16 articles: an editorial explaining current challenges, innovative solutions, real-world experiences including critical infrastructure, 15 original papers that present state-of-the-art innovative solutions to attacks on critical systems, and a review of cloud, edge computing, and fog's security and privacy issues