1673600
Inferring Data Transformation Rules to Integrate Semantic Web Services
OWL-S allows selecting, composing and invoking Web Services at different levels of abstraction: selection uses high level abstract descriptions, invocation uses low level grounding ones, while composition needs to consider both high and low level descriptions. In our setting, two Web Services are to be composed so that output from the upstream one is used to create input for the downstream one. These Web Services may have different data models but are related to each other through high and low level descriptions. 
 
Correspondences must be found between components of the upstream data type and the downstream ones. Low level data transformation functions may be required (e.g. unit conversions, data type conversions). The components may be arranged in different XML tree structures. Thus, multiple data transformations are necessary: reshaping the message tree, matching leaves by corresponding types, translating through ontologies, and calling conversion functions. Our prototype compiles these transformations into a set of data transformation rules, using our tableau-based ALC Description Logic reasoner to reason over the given OWL-S and WSDL descriptions, as well as the related ontologies. A resolution-based inference mechanism for running these rules is embedded in an inference queue that conducts data from the upstream to the downstream service, running the rules to perform the data transformation in the process.
15677254
Inference Queues for Communicating and Monitoring Declarative Information between Web Services
We introduce the inference queue as a mechanism for communicating and transforming data in Web services choreography. The insert operation provides definite clauses to the inference queue, and the remove operation generates output that is sound, complete, fair, and irredundant. Both operations are thread safe and responsive. The inference queue can form part of a highly configurable data transformation system. Rules can also monitor for events of interest based on the occurrence of certain conditions. Our suggestion of system wide monitoring of communication is complementary to existing Web services proposals.
1744079
Object-based analog VLSI vision circuits
Describes two analog VLSI chips that perform object-based computations. The first chip computes length of various contours in an image and the second chip performs figure-ground separation of a scene.<<ETX>>
7952210
Semi-automatic transformation from formal specifications to programs
As model-based formal methods (e.g. VDM, Z) are becoming popular for the development of safety-critical and complex systems in industry, automatic transformation from formal specifications to programs is an ideal and efficient approach to software production. However, it is impossible in general for this transformation to be fully automatic, because the language of first order logic used for specification is not decidable. This paper uses VDM (Vienna Development Method) as an example to investigate this difficulty, and proposes an approach to address the problem. Rules for automatically transforming abstract level VDM specifications are described and further transformation at a detailed level is discussed. Finally, further work towards the construction of a rule-based software system to support the transformation from VDM specifications to programs in general is addressed.
1275297
Bridging Physical and Virtual Worlds: Complex Event Processing for RFID Data Streams
Advances of sensor and RFID technology provide significant new power for humans to sense, understand and manage the world. RFID provides fast data collection with precise identification of objects with unique IDs without line of sight, thus it can be used for identifying, locating, tracking and monitoring physical objects. Despite these benefits, RFID poses many challenges for data processing and management: i) RFID observations contain duplicates, which have to be filtered; ii) RFID observations have implicit meanings, which have to be transformed and aggregated into semantic data represented in their data models; and iii) RFID data are temporal, streaming, and in high volume, and have to be processed on the fly. Thus, a general RFID data processing framework is needed to automate the transformation of physical RFID observations into the virtual counterparts in the virtual world linked to business applications. In this paper, we take an event-oriented approach to process RFID data, by devising RFID application logic into complex events. We then formalize the specification and semantics of RFID events and rules. We demonstrate that traditional ECA event engine cannot be used to support highly temporally constrained RFID events, and develop an RFID event detection engine that can effectively process complex RFID events. The declarative event-based approach greatly simplifies the work of RFID data processing, and significantly reduces the cost of RFID data integration.
1845062
Adaptive Retina with Center-Surround Receptive Field
Both vertebrate and invertebrate retinas are highly efficient in extracting contrast independent of the background intensity over five or more decades. This efficiency has been rendered possible by the adaptation of the DC operating point to the background intensity while maintaining high gain transient responses. The center-surround properties of the retina allows the system to extract information at the edges in the image. This silicon retina models the adaptation properties of the receptors and the antagonistic center-surround properties of the laminar cells of the invertebrate retina and the outer-plexiform layer of the vertebrate retina. We also illustrate the spatio-temporal responses of the silicon retina on moving bars. The chip has 59×64 pixels on a 6.9×6.8mm2 die and it is fabricated in 2 µm n-well technology.
16252718
QoSPL: A QoS-Driven Software Product Line Engineering Framework for Distributed Real-time and Embedded Systems
The current synergy of Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) and Software Product Line Engineering (SPLE) requires evolution to facilitate Distributed Realtime and Embedded (DRE) system construction. Such evolution is driven by inherent Quality of Service (QoS) characteristics in DRE systems. This paper introduces a QoSdriven SPLE framework (QoSPL) as an analysis and design paradigm for constructing a set of DRE systems as a product line. Leveraging separation of concerns, DRE systems are analyzed and designed by a collection of QoS systemic paths, each of which individually determines how well the service performs along the path and as a whole represents a behavioral view of software architecture. The paradigm reduces construction workload from the problems of tangled functional and QoS requirements and abundant infeasible design alternatives, and offers a less subjective QoS evaluation. The adopted formalisms also facilitate high-confidence DRE product line construction.