25659803
BIRN-M: a semantic mediator for solving real-world neuroscience problems
A goal of the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (birn) project is to develop a multi-institution information management system for Neurosciences to gain a deeper understanding of several neurological disorders. Each institution specializes in a different subdiscipline and produces a database of its experimental or computationally derived data; a mediator module performs semantic integration over the databases to enable neuroscientists to perform analyses that could not be done from any single institution’s data. The overall system architecture of the birn system is that of a wrapper-mediator system. The information sources are various relational sources including Oracle 9i having userdefined packages, Oracle 8i with the Spatial Data Cartridge, and databases made available over the web. Sources also include computational resources that need to be “run” to produce data. A source can be either accessed directly by the mediator, or through a middleware called the Storage Resource Broker (SRB) to shield the mediator from keeping low-level information like data location and user authentication information, and from large object handling. Wrappers handle source registration, schema mapping, and translation from the mediator’s logic queries to the corresponding sql or web request. birn-m also admits knowledge sources, which host ontologies and domain-specific general knowledge in the form of logic rules. birn-m maintains a registry with semantic schemas from all sources, integrated views defined in a GAV fashion, and source query capabilities as binding patterns and special predicates or functions admissible by it. The registry also records the types of data a client can handle, and has an API for interactive custom-built clients.
28954888
Modeling shape and topology of 3D images of biological specimens
This paper presents an efficient way of representing the geometry and topology of 3D images of biological specimens derived from electron microscopy. A vector quantization algorithm is used in order to select a reduced set of interior points that best approximates the probability density function of the original volumetric data. Object's geometry and topology are obtained from the point set by the use of the alpha shapes theory.
2635468
A System for Managing Alternate Models in Model-Based Mediation
In [1,3], we have described the problem of model-based mediation (MBM) as an extension of the global-as-view paradigm of information integration. The need for this extension arises in many application domains where the information sources to be integrated not only differ in their export formats, data models, and query capabilities, but have widely different schema with very little overlap in attributes. In scientific applications, the information sources come from different subdisciplines, and despite their poorly overlapping schema, can be integrated because they capture different aspects of the same scientific objects or phenomena, and can be conceptually integrated due to scientific reasons. In the MBM paradigm, a “mediation engineer” consults with domain experts to explicitly model the “glue knowledge” using a set of facts and rules at the mediator. Integrated views are defined in MBM on top of the exported schemas from the information sources together with the glue knowledge source that ties them together. We have successfully applied the MBM technique to develop the KIND mediator or Neuroscience information sources [1]-[4]. To accomplish this, sources in the MBM framework export their conceptual models (CMs), consisting of the logical schema, domain constraints, and object contexts, i.e., formulas that relate their conceptual schema with the global domain knowledge maintained at the mediator. Thus model-based mediation has a hybrid approach to information integration - on the one hand at the mediator integrated views are defined over source CMs and the Knowledge Map using a global-as-view approach; on the other hand, object-contexts of the source are defined as local-as-view.
9743987
Complex Visual Activity Recognition Using a Temporally Ordered Database
We propose using a temporally ordered database for complex visual activity recognition. We use a temporal precedence relation together with the assumption of fixed bounded temporal uncertainty of occurrence time of an atomic activity and comparatively large temporal extent of the complex activity. Under these conditions we identify the temporal structure of complex activities as a semiorder and design a database that has semiorder as its data model. A query algebra is then defined for this data model.
8323337
Modeling Functional Data Sources as Relations
In this paper we present a model of functional access to data that, we argue, is suitable for modeling a class of data repositories characterized by functional access, such as web sites. We discuss the problem of modeling such data sources as a set of relations, of determining whether a given query expressed on these relations can be translated into a combination of functions defined by the data sources, and of finding an optimal plan to do so.
14666453
An Interpolated Volume Data Model
Publisher Summary This chapter explores the basic functionality of the volume data model. It considers examples from biology and volumes of measurement from quantum physics. The data model is similar in the two cases, but the operations that are commonly used are quite different. In the second case, for instance, one is often interested in conditions on the behavior of local differential operators, such as zero-flow surfaces, while in the biological case one has a mix of value conditions and geometric condition. With these two application fields, this chapter highlights the generality and flexibility of the model. The system is based on a commercial database, augmented with specialized functions to manipulate the volume data model. The chapter demonstrates various operations specifying queries both using a graphical user interface and entering them directly in structured query language (SQL) augmented with the volume algebra operations.
17323833
Verification of scheduling in the presence of loops using uninterpreted symbolic simulation
We propose a novel procedure based on uninterpreted symbolic simulation for checking the scheduling step in high-level synthesis. The primary task in scheduling is the assignment of time steps or, equivalently, states to operations. Various transformations like operation reordering and loop unrolling may be performed in the process to meet the optimization criteria. The contribution of our proposal lied in its ability to efficiently handle loops and a wide range of loop transformations performed during scheduling. Our algorithm is based on loop invariant extraction using a combination of uninterpreted symbolic simulation and induction techniques. In spite of its wide scope, our procedure is relatively complete and practical. This work is a part of our effort to provide a suite of techniques for verifying the various steps involved in the high-level synthesis process. It is being implemented in an in-house verification system for checking equivalence of designs generated from high-level specifications through successive refinements. We present case studies to demonstrate the applicability of our approach. These case studies consist of examples where equivalence cannot be established using conventional FSM-based methods. By providing a viable automated equivalence checking technique for such examples, we improve on the state of the art.
209133
Computing planar intertwines
The proof of Wagner's conjecture by N. Robertson and P. Seymour gives a finite description of any family of graphs which is closed under the minor ordering, called the obstructions of the family. Since the intersection and the union of two minor closed graph families are again a minor closed graph family, an interesting question is that of computing the obstructions of the new family given the obstructions for the original two families. It is easy to compute the obstructions of the intersection, but, until very recently, it was an open problem to compute the obstructions of the union. It is shown that if the original families are planar, then the obstructions of the union are no larger than n to the O(n/sup 2/) power, where n is the size of the largest obstruction of the original family.<<ETX>>
11198288
Why the Information Explosion Can Be Bad for Data Mining, and How Data Fusion Provides a Way Out
One may claim that the exponential growth in the amount of data provides great opportunities for data mining. Reality can be different though. In many real world applications, the number of sources over which this information is fragmented grows at an even faster rate, resulting in barriers to widespread application of data mining and missed business opportunities. Let us illustrate this paradox with a motivating example from database marketing. In marketing, direct forms of communication are becoming increasingly popular. Instead of broadcasting a single message to all customers through traditional mass media such as television and print, the most promising potential customers receive personalized offers through the most appropriate channels. So it becomes more important to gather information about media consumption, attitudes, product propensity etc. at an individual level. Basic, company specific customer information resides in customer databases, but market survey data depicting a richer view of the customer are only available for a small sample or a disjoint set of reference customers. Collecting all this information for the whole customer database in a single source survey would certainly be valuable but is usually a very expensive proposition. The common alternative within business to
43248661
Online Transcoding of Web Pages for Mobile Devices
Accessing Internet from mobile devices such as PDAs and cell phones is becoming widespread. Since these devices do not have the same rendering capabilities as desktop computers, it is necessary for web contents to be transcoded for proper presentation on these types of devices. In this paper we propose an architecture for online transcoding of web documents. In the proposed system, a proxy fetches web pages on the client’s behalf, categorizes the contents into predefined domain-specific categories, and dynamically generates a hierarchical summary view of the relevant topics of the page based on domain specific knowledge. This hierarchical summary of information is then transmitted to the client. The architecture uses domain specific knowledge, but allows easy adaptation to different domains by plugging in rule sets specific to the domain. The system does not expect any adjustment in the existing WWW contents. Results for one test domain, News, are shown. The results indicate that the system can produce high precision transcoded pages online using domain specific knowledge with very little performance penalty.
22674996
Estimating Link Characteristics of Internet Paths With FPathchar
RESEARCH PROJECTS Understanding the design tradeoffs of cooperative streaming multicast: Cooperative end-system multicast (CEM) is emerging as a promi sing paradigm for video distribution since the bandwidth overhead of dissemi nating content is shared among the participants themselves. Prior research in CEMs h as focused either on the design of new protocols or on comparisons of complete sys tems. However, the inherent tradeoffs between different CEM designs, particu larly under a wide range of operating conditions, are not well understood. In this wo rk [1], we empirically and systematically evaluate CEM design choices. We synthes ize our results into a model that captures the inherent tradeoffs in CEMs, which i n particular, conjectures that no CEM design can simultaneously achieve low over head, low lag, and high streaming quality.