599285
Differential evaluation of continual queries
We define continual queries as a useful tool for monitoring of updated information. Continual queries are standing queries that monitor the source data and notify the users whenever new data matches the query. In addition to periodic refresh, continual queries include Epsilon Transaction concepts to allow users to specify query refresh based on the magnitude of updates. To support efficient processing of continual queries, we propose a differential re-evaluation algorithm (DRA), which exploits the structure and information contained in both the query expressions and the database update operations. The DRA design can be seen as a synthesis of previous research on differential files, incremental view maintenance, and active databases.
9143242
Update Monitoring: The CQ Project
In rapidly growing open environments such as the Internet, users experience information starvation in the midst of data overload, due to difficulties similar to finding the needle in a haystack. Update monitoring is a promising area of research where we bring the right information to the user at the right time, instead of forcing the user through manual browsing or repeated submission of queries. As an example of update monitoring research, we outline our work in the Continual Queries (CQ) project, including its basic concepts, software architecture, and current implementation status.
33902172
An Object-Centered Approach for Manipulating Hierarchically Complex Objects
We present an object-centered approach for manipulating hierarchically complex objects, which covers an extended object model and an object-centered query algebra. Extensions of the object model are mainly based on a separation of structural and semantic elements in modeling complex objects, including a general distinction between aggregation reference and association reference, an introduction of type inheritance into aggregation hierarchies and a support for combination of aggregation inheritance with subtype inheritance. Based on the extensions, we develop a query algebra as an integral part of the model. Unlike most of existing algebra-based query languages, our object algebra takes complex object collectively as a unit of high level queries and allows complex objects to be accessed at all levels of aggregation hierarchies without having resort to any kind of path expressions. Features of aggregation hierarchies, such as acyclicity and aggregation inheritance, have played important roles in such a development. We have also formally described the output type of each operator in order for dynamic classification of query results in the IsA type/class lattice. Although the design is based on the chosen object-oriented model, other object-oriented databases are possible. We feel that the proposal largely covers the query requirements for complex objects, and meanwhile provides users with an opportunity to remain within the framework of the model of complex objects while querying database. As a consequence, the flexibility and adaptability of the object-oriented model against schema changes are increased.
13069643
The Role of Polymorphic Reuse Mechanisms in Schema Evolution in an Object-Oriented Database
A seamless approach to the incremental design and reuse of object oriented methods and query specifications is presented. We argue for avoiding or minimizing the effort required for manually reprogramming methods and queries due to schema modifications, and demonstrate how the role of polymorphic reuse mechanisms is exploited for enhancing the adaptiveness of database programs against schema evolution in an object oriented database. The salient features of our approach are the use of propagation patterns and a mechanism for propagation pattern refinement. Propagation patterns are employed as an interesting specification formalism for modeling operational requirements. They encourage the reuse of operational specifications against the structural modification of an object oriented schema. Propagation pattern refinement is suited for the specification of reusable operational modules. It promotes the reusability of propagation patterns toward the operational requirement changes. This approach has a formal basis and emphasizes structural derivation of specifications. The main innovations are in raising the level of abstraction for behavioral schema design, and for making possible the derivation of operational semantics from structural specifications. As a result, both the modularity and reusability of object oriented schemas are increased.
12589406
VISTA: Validating and Refining Clusters Via Visualization
Clustering is an important technique for understanding of large multidimensional datasets. Most of clustering research to date has been focused on developing automatic clustering algorithms and cluster validation methods. The automatic algorithms are known to work well in dealing with clusters of regular shapes, for example, compact spherical shapes, but may incur higher error rates when dealing with arbitrarily shaped clusters. Although some efforts have been devoted to addressing the problem of skewed datasets, the problem of handling clusters with irregular shapes is still in its infancy, especially in terms of dimensionality of the datasets and the precision of the clustering results considered. Not surprisingly, the statistical indices works ineffective in validating clusters of irregular shapes, too. In this paper, we address the problem of clustering and validating arbitrarily shaped clusters with a visual framework (VISTA). The main idea of the VISTA approach is to capitalize on the power of visualization and interactive feedbacks to encourage domain experts to participate in the clustering revision and clustering validation process. The VISTA system has two unique features. First, it implements a linear and reliable visualization model to interactively visualize multi-dimensional datasets in a 2D star-coordinate space. Second, it provides a rich set of user-friendly interactive rendering operations, allowing users to validate and refine the cluster structure based on their visual experience as well as their domain knowledge.
17104606
Distributed Query Scheduling Service: An Architecture and Its Implementation
We present the systematic design and development of a distributed query scheduling service (DQS) in the context of DIOM, a distributed and interoperable query mediation system.26 DQS consists of an extensible architecture for distributed query processing, a three-phase optimization algorithm for generating efficient query execution schedules, and a prototype implementation. Functionally, two important execution models of distributed queries, namely moving query to data or moving data to query, are supported and combined into a unified framework, allowing the data sources with limited search and filtering capabilities to be incorporated through wrappers into the distributed query scheduling process. Algorithmically, conventional optimization factors (such as join order) are considered separately from and refined by distributed system factors (such as data distribution, execution location, heterogeneous host capabilities), allowing for stepwise refinement through three optimization phases: Compilation, parallelization, site selection and execution. A subset of DQS algorithms has been implemented in Java to demonstrate the practicality of the architecture and the usefulness of the distributed query scheduling algorithm in optimizing execution schedules for inter-site queries.
8796534
Intelligent OCR Processing
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) has become a highly demanded information transfer technology in recent years. This demand has been driven by the increasing needs for information sharing and office automation, and by the increasing accessibility to largescale, fast, and powerful computer resources. A problem of current OCR technology is that texts produced by the state-of-the-art OCR software contain an unacceptable frequency of errors. This prevents the OCR technology from being efficiently used for vast-volume information transfer or daily office operation applications. To correct these errors in a conventional way requires a significant amount of costly human-machine interaction. In this article, we identify and classify the types and distributions of optical recognition errors. We propose a novel postprocessing strategy, based on machine learning techniques, to correct errors resulted from unrecognized or misrecognized characters during the recognition process. By applying this strategy, the accuracy of recognition can be significantly improved, and the human interaction required can be dramatically reduced. Experimental results indicate that, in a typical environment, about 46% of total errors can be corrected automatically (i.e., without human interference), with an accuracy of 91%.
3249877
Dual Laplacian editing for meshes
Recently, differential information as local intrinsic feature descriptors has been used for mesh editing. Given certain user input as constraints, a deformed mesh is reconstructed by minimizing the changes in the differential information. Since the differential information is encoded in a global coordinate system, it must somehow be transformed to fit the orientations of details in the deformed surface, otherwise distortion will appear. We observe that visually pleasing deformed meshes should preserve both local parameterization and geometry details. We propose to encode these two types of information in the dual mesh domain due to the simplicity of the neighborhood structure of dual mesh vertices. Both sets of information are nondirectional and nonlinearly dependent on the vertex positions. Thus, we present a novel editing framework that iteratively updates both the primal vertex positions and the dual Laplacian coordinates to progressively reduce distortion in parametrization and geometry. Unlike previous related work, our method can produce visually pleasing deformations with simple user interaction, requiring only the handle positions, not local frames at the handles.
38207892
On the Relations Between Arboricity and Independent Number Or Covering Number
In this paper, the following results are obtained: a(G) + β(G) ⩽ p + 1, ⌈p2⌉ ⩽ a(G)β(G), ⌈p2⌉ ⩽ a′(G) + gb′(G) ⩽ pa′(G) + α′(G) ⩽ 2⌈p2⌉ (δ ⩽ 1) and all bounds are sharp, where p = ¦V(G)¦, ⌈x⌉ denotes the smallest integer greater than or equal to x, a(G) is the vertex arboricity, a′(G) is the edge arboricity, α′(G) is the edge covering number, β(G) is the vertex independent number, β′(G) is the edge independent number, and δ is the minimum degree of G.
32876579
Medical image segmentation and retrieval via deformable models
A new method based on deformable shape models for medical image segmentation is described. Experiments for blood cell micrographs have been conducted to verify the accuracy of the shape model-based segmentation and object shape description method. The cell segmentation method does not require user input for initialization. Coherence information between cells is utilized via a globally consistent cost function. The proposed segmentation method can be used in automated analysis for images of stained blood smear and segmentation of other medical structures. A method for shape population-based retrieval is also described. Results of population-based image queries for a database of blood cell micrographs are shown.
7311513
Polygonal Shape Blending with Topological Evolutions
This paper presents a new general approach to blend 2D shapes with different topologies. All possible topological evolutions are classified into three types by attaching three different topological cells. This formalism is resulted from Morse theory on the behavior of the 3D surface around a non-degenerate critical point. Also we incorporate degenerate topological evolutions into our framework which produce more attractive morphing effects. The user controls the morph by specifying the types of topological evolutions as well as the feature correspondences between the source and target shapes. Some techniques are also provided to control the vertex path during the morphing process. The amount of user input required to produce a morph is directly proportional to the amount of control the user wishes to impose on the process. The user may allow the system to automatically generate the morph as well. Our approaches are totally geometric based and are easy and fast enough in fully interactive time. Many experimental results show the applicability and flexibility of our approaches.