Abstract: Disclosed are methods for seawater softening for the desalination plants (thermal and membrane) by using the carbon mineralization (CM) technique. Disclosed are several process flow diagrams in which the carbon mineralization is integrated at the upstream and/or downstream of the thermal and membrane desalination processes. By using these methods, the released CO2 from industrial factories, seawater feed minerals solutes shall be removed to improve the performance of the desalination plants. Most importantly, valuable products such as Ca/Mg carbonates and BaSO4, which are being used in building rocks, concrete, cement, paints, plastic, etc., can be produced.

Abstract: An end-to-end group messaging method or apparatus organizes a plurality of local groups of members into local-group (LG) trees and a public-group (PG) tree. Each tree has a plurality of nodes including a root node connecting to a plurality of leaf nodes. Each LG tree corresponds to a local group. Each member of a local group is associated with a leaf node of the corresponding LG tree. Each LG tree is associated with a leaf node of the PG tree. Members of a same local group may establish communication therebetween by using a group key associated with the root node of the LG tree of the local group. Members of all local groups may establish communication therebetween by using a group key associated with the root node of the PG tree.

Abstract: An end-to-end group messaging method or apparatus organizes a plurality of local groups of members into local-group (LG) trees and a public-group (PG) tree. Each tree has a plurality of nodes including a root node connecting to a plurality of leaf nodes. Each LG tree corresponds to a local group. Each member of a local group is associated with a leaf node of the corresponding LG tree. Each LG tree is associated with a leaf node of the PG tree. Members of a same local group may establish communication therebetween by using a group key associated with the root node of the LG tree of the local group. Members of all local groups may establish communication therebetween by using a group key associated with the root node of the PG tree.

Abstract: A method of organizing an end-to-end encrypted online meeting for a group of members including a creator. The method includes: maintaining, by each member in the online meeting including the creator, a group tree from which is derivable a group key required for communication between members in the online meeting; accessing, by the creator, a key package associated with a member of the group; adding to the online meeting, by the creator and based on the key package, the member associated with the key package; updating, by the creator, the group tree maintained by the creator; generating, by the creator and based on the updated group tree, one or more encrypted secret keys required for deriving the group key; and transmitting, by the creator and via a server, the updated group tree and the one or more encrypted secret keys to each other member in the online meeting.

Abstract: The present disclosure provides for methods, apparatus and computer readable media related to screen-capture communication based on invisible watermark. An aspect of the disclosure provides for a method including inserting one or more templates into one or more frames of a video for correcting frame perspective of the one or more frames captured by a device. The method further includes writing a message into the one or more frames of the video and displaying the video. According to a second aspect, a second method is provided. The second method includes capturing one or more frames of a video displayed on a device comprising a hidden message. The method further includes locating one or more templates and correcting frame perspective of the captured frames based on the templates. The method further includes extracting the message from the one or more frames of the video.