The Mashup Component Description Language

ABSTRACT Mashups can be seen as the result of software composition applied to the Web. One of the characteristics of mashup development is the heterogeneity of its building components in terms of logical layering (e.g., user interface, application logic, and data), access method (e.g., REST, SOAP), and composition technique (e.g., scraping vs. clipping, synchronous vs. asynchronous interaction, discrete vs. streaming). This poses a challenge towards the design of mashup tools aiming at lowering the barriers of mashup development, as this heterogeneity needs to be abstracted. In this paper, we address this challenge by proposing a new JSONbased domain-specific language for describing heterogeneous mashup components, called the Mashup Component Description Language (MCDL). MCDL lies at the core of a meta-model for mashup component modeling, and can be used for component discovery and classification but also for user-centric mashup development as it decouples the interface of a mashup component from its underlying implementation technologies

Contextual location in the home using Bluetooth Beacons

Location sensing is a key enabling technology for Ubicomp to support contextual interaction. However, the laboratories where calibrated testing of location technologies is done are very different to the domestic situations where “context” is a problematic social construct. This study reports measurements of Bluetooth beacons, informed by laboratory studies, but done in diverse domestic settings. The design of these surveys has been motivated by the natural environment implied in the Bluetooth beacon standards relating to the technical environment of the beacon to the function of spaces within the home. This research method can be considered as a situated, “ethnographic” technical response to the study of physical infrastructure that arises through social processes. The results offer insights for the future design of “seamful” approaches to indoor location sensing, and to the ways that context might be constructed and interpreted in a seamful manner

A comparison between the effects of Portulaca oleracea seeds extract and valsartan on echocardiographic and hemodynamic parameters in rats with levothyroxine-induced thyrotoxicosis

Objective: The aim of the present study was to compare the effects of Portulaca oleracea (Po) seeds extract and those of valsartan on cardiac function in levothyroxine (T4)-treated rats. Materials and Methods: Forty Wistar rats were divided into four groups (n=10): control, levothyroxine (T4), T4 plus valsartan (T4-Val) and T4 plus hydro-alcoholic extract of the P. oleracea seeds (T4-Po). Control group received normal saline. Levothyroxine (100µg/kg/day, i.p.) was administered to three other groups for 4 weeks. Valsartan (8 mg/kg/day, orally) and Po seeds extract (400 mg/kg/day, orally) were administered during the last two weeks of treatment period. At the end of the experiment, echocardiographic and hemodynamic parameters were measured and serum free T4, T3, and T4 were measured. Results: Administration of T4 for 4 weeks significantly increased serum free T4 levels in T4 group but elevations of free T4 levels in T4–Val group were not significant. Free T4 level decreased in T4–Po (

A Quality-based Framework for Leveraging the Process of Mashup Component Selection

Mashups are a new and interesting brand of Web 2.0 applications. They are simply built from available mashup components on the Web providing functionality, and content. The ever-increasing number and diversity of mashup components makes the process of selecting proper components a challenging task. Hence, the present thesis work is directed towards presenting a quality-based framework providing a recommendation-based mechanism to enhance this process

End-user development of mashups using live natural language programming

The emergence of the long-tail in the market of software applications is shifting the role of end-users from mere consumers to becoming developers of applications addressing their unique, personal, and transient needs. On the Web, a popular form of such applications is called mashup, built out of the lightweight composition of Web APIs (reusable software components delivered as a service through the Web). To enable end-users to build mashups, there is a key problem that must be overcome: End-users lack programming knowledge as well as the interest to learn how to master the complex set of Web technologies required to develop mashups. End-User Development (EUD) is an emerging research field dealing with this type of problems. Its main goal is to design tools and techniques facilitating the development of software applications by non- programmers. In this dissertation, we designed and implemented NaturalMash, an EUD system that empowers end-users to develop mashups. NaturalMash adopts a novel hybrid end-user programming technique combining natural language programming with a what-you-see-is-what-you-get interface in a live programming environment. We followed an iterative user-centered design process, in which three formative evaluations drove the incremental design of our system. At the end of the process, we conducted a summative usability evaluation, whose results suggest that the system is highly usable by non-programmers. Also, we proposed a novel benchmarking framework to evaluate mashup tools against each other. Using the framework, we conducted a comparative evaluation of 28 state-of-the-art mashup tools (NaturalMash included) against their expressive power. According to the results, our proposed system has a moderate yet competitive level of expressiveness. All in all, NaturalMash contributes a novel design featuring a unique combination of end-user programming techniques, a suitable metaphor, and the ability to enable an optimal learning experience. Our extensive evaluation results indicate that NaturalMash is located at a sweet spot along the classical trade-off between expressiveness and usability/learnability

Random Stream Cipher

Stream ciphers are counted as an important part of symmetric encryption method. Their basic idea comes from One-Time-Pad cipher using XOR operator on the plain text and the key to generate the cipher. The present work brings a new idea in symmetric encryption method, which inherits stream key generation idea from synchronous stream cipher and uses division instead of xoring. The Usage of division to combine the plain text with stream key gives numerous abilities to this method that the most important one is using random factors to produce the ciphers