14285847
Finding a substrate for federated components on the Web
Recent developments in software component technology have renewed the promise of reusable software. Combining this with the possibilities of sharing simulation results and models using the Internet makes these new developments all the more important, particularly for Web-based simulation. Interoperability standards and data interchange standards (e.g., XML) help facilitate having simulation models interact with other simulation models as well as other information technology components. This paper examines newer component technologies such as Enterprise Java Beans (EJB) and Jini in a search for an ideal substrate for Web-based simulation. Components will need distributed capabilities as well as the ability to flexibly and dynamically join an existing group of interacting components (referred to as a federation).
3039342
Adding Semantics to Web Services Standards
With the increasing growth in popularity of Web services, discovery of relevant Web services becomes a significant challenge. One approach is to develop semantic Web services where by the Web services are annotated based on shared ontologies, and use these annotations for semantics-based discovery of relevant Web services. We discuss one such approach that involves adding semantics to WSDL using DAML+OIL ontologies. Our approach also uses UDDI to store these semantic annotations and search for Web services based on them. We compare our approach with another initiative to add semantics to support Web service discovery, and show how our approach may fit current standards-based industry approach better.
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.
9294328
Performance Modeling of Database Recovery Protocols
The performance modeling described in this paper compares several protocols which ensure that a database can be recovered to a consistent state after a transaction failure or system crash. The contributions of the paper include a collection of simple analytic models, based on Markov processes, for these protocols and some surprising results on the relative performance of the protocols. We consider only two-stage transactions (all reads before writes) and ignore effects of serializing transactions. The most interesting performance result presented is that, for systems obeying the assumptions of this paper, the "pessimistic" policy of holding write locks to commit point is considerably less efficient than the "optimistic" policy which allows reading of uncommitted data, but risks cascading aborts. A multiversion policy introduced in [2] was also studied and found always to be nearly as good as the optimistic policy and sometimes much better.
30146652
Workflow Quality of Service
Workflow management systems (WfMSs) have been used to support various types of business processes for more than a decade now. In ecommerce processes, suppliers and customers define a binding agreement or contract between the two parties, specifying quality of service (QoS) items such as products or services to be delivered, deadlines, quality of products, and cost of service. Management of such QoS directly impacts success of organizations participating in e-commerce. Organizations operating in modern markets require an excellent degree of quality of service management. Products and services must be available to customers with well-defined specifications. A good management of quality leads to the creation of quality products and services, which in turn fulfills customer expectations and achieves customer satisfaction. Therefore, when services or products are created or managed using workflow processes, the underlying WfMS must accept the specification, be able to predict, monitor, and control the QoS rendered to customers. To achieve these objectives the first step is to develop an adequate QoS model for workflow processes and develop methods to compute QoS.
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.
52857539
Computer graphics
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.
8691336
Effectiveness for Embedded Spheres and Balls
Abstract We consider arbitrary dimensional spheres and closed balls embedded in Rn as ⫫01 classes. Such a strong restriction on the topology of a ⫫01 class has computability theoretic repercussions. Algebraic topology plays a crucial role in our exploration of these consequences; the use of homology chains as computational objects allows us to take algorithmic advantage of the topological structure of our ⫫01 classes. We show that a sphere embedded as a ⫫01 class is necessarily located, i.e., the distance to the class is a computable function, or equivalently, the class contains a computably enumerable dense set of computable points. Similarly, a ball embedded as a ⫫01 class has a dense set of computable points, though not necessarily c.e. To prove location for balls, it is sufficient to assume that both it and its boundary sphere are ⫫01. However, the converse fails, even for arcs; using a priority argument, we prove that there is a located arc in R2 without computable endpoints. Finally, the requirement that the embedding map itself be computable is shown to be stronger than the other effectiveness criteria considered. A characterization in terms of computable local contractibility is stated the proof will be the subject of a sequel.
8365397
Input modeling when simple models fail
A simulation model is composed of inputs and logic; the inputs represent the uncertainty or randomness in the system, while the logic determines how the system reacts to the uncertain elements. Simple input models, consisting of independent and identically distributed sequences of random variates from standard probability distributions, are included in every commercial simulation language. Software to fit these distributions to data is also available. In this tutorial we describe input models that are useful when simple models are not.
11647322
Hembase: browser and genome portal for hematology and erythroid biology
Hembase (http://hembase.niddk.nih.gov) is an integrated browser and genome portal designed for web-based examination of the human erythroid transcriptome. To date, Hembase contains 15,752 entries from erythroblast Expressed Sequenced Tags (ESTs) and 380 referenced genes relevant for erythropoiesis. The database is organized to provide a cytogenetic band position, a unique name as well as a concise annotation for each entry. Search queries may be performed by name, keyword or cytogenetic location. Search results are linked to primary sequence data and three major human genome browsers for access to information considered current at the time of each search. Hembase provides interested scientists and clinical hematologists with a genome-based approach toward the study of erythroid biology.