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Publications

Publications by CSE

2021

A Survey on Subgraph Counting: Concepts, Algorithms, and Applications to Network Motifs and Graphlets

Authors
Ribeiro, P; Paredes, P; Silva, MEP; Aparicio, D; Silva, F;

Publication
ACM COMPUTING SURVEYS

Abstract
Computing subgraph frequencies is a fundamental task that lies at the core of several network analysis methodologies, such as network motifs and graphlet-based metrics, which have been widely used to categorize and compare networks from multiple domains. Counting subgraphs is, however, computationally very expensive, and there has been a large body of work on efficient algorithms and strategies to make subgraph counting feasible for larger subgraphs and networks. This survey aims precisely to provide a comprehensive overview of the existing methods for subgraph counting. Our main contribution is a general and structured review of existing algorithms, classifying them on a set of key characteristics, highlighting their main similarities and differences. We identify and describe the main conceptual approaches, giving insight on their advantages and limitations, and we provide pointers to existing implementations. We initially focus on exact sequential algorithms, but we also do a thorough survey on approximate methodologies (with a trade-off between accuracy and execution time) and parallel strategies (that need to deal with an unbalanced search space).

2021

Understanding carsharing: A review of managerial practices towards relevant research insights

Authors
Golalikhani, M; Oliveira, BB; Carravilla, MA; Oliveira, JF; Pisinger, D;

Publication
RESEARCH IN TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Abstract
The carsharing market has never been as competitive as it is now, and during the last years, we have been witnessing a boom in the number of carsharing organizations that appear, often accompanied by an also booming number of companies that disappear. Designing a viable carsharing system is challenging and often depends on local conditions as well as on a myriad of operational decisions that need to be supported by suitable decision support systems. Therefore, carsharing is being increasingly studied in the Operations Management (OM) literature. Nevertheless, often due to the limited transparency of this highly competitive sector and the recency of this business, there is still a "gap of understanding" of the scientific community concerning the business practices and contexts, often resulting in over-simplifications and relevant problems being overlooked. In this paper, we aim to close this "gap of understanding" by describing, conceptualizing, and analyzing the reality of 34 business to-consumer carsharing organizations. With the data collected, we propose a detailed description of the current business practices, such as the ones concerning pricing. From this, we highlight relevant "research insights" and structure all collected data organized by different OM topics, enabling knowledge to be further developed in this field.

2021

CODBS: A cascading oblivious search protocol optimized for real-world relational database indexes

Authors
Pontes, R; Portela, B; Barbosa, M; Vilaca, R;

Publication
2021 40TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON RELIABLE DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS (SRDS 2021)

Abstract
Encrypted databases systems and searchable encryption schemes still leak critical information (e.g.: access patterns) and require a choice between privacy and efficiency. We show that using ORAM schemes as a black-box is not a panacea and that optimizations are still possible by improving the data structures. We design an ORAM-based secure database that is built from the ground up: we replicate the typical data structure of a database system using different optimized ORAM constructions and derive a new solution for oblivious searches on databases. Our construction has a lower bandwidth overhead than state-of-the-art ORAM constructions by moving client-side computations to a proxy with an intermediate (rigorously defined) level of trust, instantiated as a server-side isolated execution environment. We formally prove the security of our construction and show that its access patterns depend only on public information. We also provide an implementation compatible with SQL databases (PostgresSQL). Our system is 1.2 times to 4 times faster than state-of-the-art ORAM-based solutions.

2021

CROCUS: An Objective Approach for SDN Controllers Security Assessment

Authors
Silva, C; Sousa, B; Vilela, JP;

Publication
SECURITY AND PRIVACY IN COMMUNICATION NETWORKS, SECURECOMM 2021, PT I

Abstract
Software Defined Networking (SDN) facilitates the orchestration and configuration of network resources in a flexible and scalable form, where policies are managed by controller components that interact with network elements through multiple interfaces. The ubiquitous adoption of SDN leads to the availability of multiple SDN controllers, which have different characteristics in terms of performance and security support. SDN controllers are a common target in network attacks since their compromise leads to the capability of impairing the entire network. Thus, the choice of a SDN controller must be a meticulous process from early phases (design to production). CROCUS, herein proposed, provides a mechanism to enable an objective assessment of the security support of SDN controllers. CROCUS relies on the information provided by the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) and considers security features derived from scenarios with stringent security requirements. Considering a vehicular communication scenario supported by multiple technologies, we narrow the selection of SDN controllers to OpenDayLight and ONOS choices. The results put in evidence that both controllers have security features relevant for demanding scenarios with ONOS excelling in some aspects.

2021

NINJA TURTLES RACE: A REACTION TIME TEST TO STUDY AND ASSESS THE FOCUS OF ATTENTION, MOTOR, AND COGNITIVE SKILLS IN CHILDREN'S LEARNING PROCESSES

Authors
Sousa, D; Coelho, A; Bernardes, G; Correia, N;

Publication
INTED2021 Proceedings

Abstract

2021

Using Expert Crowdsourcing to Annotate Extreme Weather Events

Authors
Paulino, D; Correia, A; Barroso, J; Liberato, M; Paredes, H;

Publication
Trends and Applications in Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2, WorldCIST 2021, Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal, 30 March - 2 April, 2021.

Abstract
The harsh impacts of extreme weather events like cyclones or precipitation extremes are increasingly being felt with hazardous consequences. These extreme events are exceptions to well-known weather patterns and therefore are not forecasted with current automatic computational methods. In this context, the use of human computation to annotate extreme atmospheric phenomena could provide novel insights for computational forecasting algorithms and a step forward in climate change research by enabling the early detection of abnormal weather conditions. However, existing crowd computing solutions have technological limitations and show several gaps when involving expert crowds. This paper presents a research approach to fulfill some of the technological and knowledge gaps for expert crowds’ participation. A case study on expert annotation of extreme atmospheric phenomena is used as a baseline for an innovative architecture able to support expert crowdsourcing. The full stack service-oriented architecture ensures interoperability and provides an end-to-end approach able to fetch weather data from international databases, generating experts’ visualizations (weather maps), annotating data by expert crowds, and delivering annotated data for processing weather forecasts. An implementation of the architecture suggests that it can deliver an effective mechanism for expert crowd work while solving some of the identified issues with extant platforms. Therefore, we conclude that the proposed architecture has the potential to contribute as an effective annotation solution for extreme weather events. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

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