15234568
Demonstrating Dynamic Configuration and Execution of Web Processes
Web processes are next generation workflows on the web, created using Web services. In this paper we demonstrate the METEOR-S Configuration and Execution Environment (MCEE) system. It will illustrate the capabilities of the system to a) Discover partners b) Optimize partner selection using constraint analysis, c) Perform interaction protocol and data mediation. A graphical execution monitor to monitor the various phases of execution will be used to demonstrate various aspects of the system.
15950590
Model instantiation for query driven simulation in active KDL
The focus of this paper is on how Active KDL can be used to provide a very powerful simulation support environment. Active KDL (Knowledge/Data Language) is an object-oriented database programming language, which provides access to integrated model, knowledge, and data bases. Simulation inputs and outputs can be stored by Active KDL since it supports complex objects. More importantly, Active KDL also allows users to specify rules to capture heuristic knowledge and methods to specify procedural behavior. Finally, Active KDL provides a simple mechanism for specifying concurrent execution, namely tasks embedded in active objects. These facilities provide a powerful mechanism for building simulation models out of pre-existing model components. These capabilities provide a tight coupling between a SIMODULA-like simulation system and a knowledge/database system, supporting query driven simulation, where model instantiation is used for information generation.
7800547
Design of an Object-Oriented Database for Reverse Genetics
We present the design of an object-oriented database system for reverse genetics applications. Such a database will encapsulate not only the data in the genetic and physical maps, but also the methods used to create the maps as well as methods to link them to other databases, such as GenBank, PIR, and MedLine. The purpose of this database is to provide the fungal genetics community with an electronic tool for identifying the biochemical function of any DNA fragment in the database--electronic reverse genetics. Such a tool for reverse genetics will enable researchers to identify the biochemical functions associated with genes encoding proteins in fungal development pathways, purine metabolism, the heat shock response, and molecular chromosome mechanics and evolution. Our initial goal is to apply the database for the genome mapping of the filamentous fungi, Aspergillus nidulans and Neurospora crassa, at the University of Georgia and the University of Leeds in England.
16289956
Scenario management in Web-based simulation
Internet communications in general and the World-Wide Web specifically are revolutionizing the computer industry. Today, the Web is full of important documents and clever applets. Java applets and servlets are beginning to appear that provide useful and even mission critical applications. From the perspective of simulation, a future Web will be full of simulation models and large amounts of simulation-generated data. Many of the models will include two or three dimensional animation as well as virtual reality. Others will allow human interaction with simulation models to control or influence their execution no matter where the user is located in the world. Analysis of data from Web-based simulations involves greater degrees of freedom than traditional simulations. The number of simulation models available and the amount of simulation data are likely to be much greater. In order to assure the quality of data, the execution of models under a variety of scenarios should be well managed. Since the user community will also be larger, quality assurance should be delegated to agents responsible for defining scenarios and executing models. A major element of simulation analysis is the analysis of output data, which manages the execution of simulation models, in order to obtain statistical data of acceptable quality. Such data may be used to predict the performance of a single system, or to compare the performance of two or more alternative system designs using a single or multiple performance measures.
2346213
Healthcare Enterprise Process Development and Integration
Healthcare enterprises involve complex processes that span diverse groups and organisations. These processes involve clinical and administrative tasks, large volumes of data, and large numbers of patients and personnel. The tasks can be performed either by humans or by automated systems. In the latter case, the tasks are supported by a variety of software applications and information systems which are very often heterogeneous, autonomous, and distributed. The development of systems to manage and automate these processes has increasingly played an important role in improving the efficiency of healthcare enterprises. In this paper we look at four healthcare and medical applications that involve investigative, clinical, and administrative functions. Based on these applications, we derive the requirements for developing enterprise applications that involve the coordination of a variety of tasks performed by humans, information systems, and legacy applications.
749339
Using the genetic algorithm to find snake-in-the-box codes
Genetic Algorithms are heuristic search schemes based on a model of Darwinian evolution. Although not guaranteed to find the optimal solution, genetic algorithms have been shown to be effective at finding near optimal and, in some cases, optimal solutions to combinatorially explosive problems. Finding a maximal length snake, a list of vertices satisfying specific constraints, in an n -dimensional hypercube, the "box", is the type of problem that suffers from (serious) combinatorial explosion. That is, as n increases, the size of the solution space that must be searched increases very rapidly. As a consequence, the maximum lengths of snakes have previously only been determined for n ≤ 6. Since their identification in the late 1950’s, snakes (also known as Snake-In-The-Box codes) have received a significant amount of research attention. Snake-In-TheBox codes have a variety of applications in areas such as error-detection in analog-to-digital conversion, electronic combination locking schemes, and disjunctive normal form simplification. Given a certain dimension for a hypercube, the longer the snake or list of codewords, the more useful it is in the application. In this paper, we discuss experiments conducted to find snakes in hypercubes of dimension 7 and 8. To date, we have broken the previous world record for the lower bound in dimension 7 and in dimension 8 using our Genetic Algorithm approach.
20283586
Large-scale simulations of cellular signaling processes
A database of rate constants and related quantities has been assembled by [Nature Biotech. 20 (2002) 370] for intracellular signaling downstream of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). This information was combined with data on metalloprotease activation [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 96 (1999) 6235] to build a model of autocrine signal transduction by cancer cells exposed to ionizing radiation. The model predicts prompt activation of mitogen-activated-protein-kinase (MAPK) pathways in response to a radiation-induced shift in the Ras-GDP ↔ RasGTP equilibrium toward more RasGTP. A secondary MAPK activation is predicted due to metalloprotease activity that releases transforming growth factor α (TGFα), an autocrine ligand of EGFR. Model predictions were compared to data by [Mol. Biol. Cell 10 (1999) 2493] on extracellular regulated kinase (ERK) activation following a 2 Gy exposure of carcinoma cells in vitro. Good agreement was obtained with the magnitude of prompt and secondary ERK activation; however, the experimental secondary response was delayed relative to the prompt peak more than predicted by our model.
1650301
The spreadsheet interface: A basis for end user programming
7380263
Getting more from the data in a multinomial selection problem
We consider the problem of determining which of k simulated systems is most likely to be the best per former based on some objective performance measure. The standard experiment is to generate v in dependent vector observations (replications) across the k- systems. A classical multinomial selection pro cedure, BEM (Bechhofer, Elmaghraby, and Morse), prescribes a minimum number of replications so that the probability of correctly selecting the true best system meets or exceeds a prespecified probability. Assuming that larger is better, BEM selects as best the system having the largest value of the performance measure in more replications than any other. We propose using these same v replications across k systems to form vk pseudoreplications (no longer in dependent) that contain one observation from each system, and again select as best the system having the largest value of the performance measure in more pseudoreplications than any other. We expect that this new procedure, AVC (all vector comparisons), dominates BEM in the sense that AVC will never require more independent replications than DEM to meet a prespecified probability of correct selection. We present analytical and simulation results to show how AVC fares versus BEM for different underly ing distribution families, different numbers of populations and various values of v. We also present results for the closely related problem of estimating the probability that a specific system is the best.
7336432
Decidability and Complexity Results for Timed Automata and Semi-linear Hybrid Automata
We define a new class of hybrid automata for which reachability is decidable--a proper superclass of the initialized rectangular hybrid automata--by taking parallel compositions of simple components. Attempting to generalize, we encounter timed automata with algebraic constants. We show that reachability is undecidable for these algebraic timed automata by simulating two-counter Minsky machines. Modifying the construction to apply to parametric timed automata, we reprove the undecidability of the emptiness problem, and then distinguish the dense and discrete-time cases with a new result. The algorithmic complexity-- both classical and parametric--of one-clock parametric timed automata is also examined. We finish with a table of computability-theoretic complexity results, including that the existence of a Zeno run is Σ11 -complete for semi-linear hybrid automata; it is too complex to be expressed in first-order arithmetic.
3221324
How common random numbers affect multinomial selection
We consider the effect of common random numbers (CRNs) among simulated systems in two different multinomial selection procedures: the classical procedure BEM (Bechhofer, Elmaghraby, and Morse) and procedure AVC (all vector comparisons). CVe examine a simple two population scenario and demonstrate analytically how CRNs affect the probability of correct selection (PCS). In addition, various levels of positive correlation are induced to approximate the effect of using CRNs with complex simulated systems. We present analytical and simulation results to show the effect correlation has on the probability of correct selection (PCS) for each solution procedure. This paper responds to Jim Wilson’s question raised at WSC’96 about how the use of CRNs affects multinomial selection procedures.