620324
Relational Nested Optional Join for Efficient Semantic Web Query Processing
Increasing amount of RDF data on the Web drives the need for its efficient and effective management. In this light, numerous researchers have proposed to use RDBMSs to store and query RDF annotations using the SQL and SPARQL query languages. The first few attempts at SPARQL-to-SQL translation revealed non-trivial challenges related to correctness and efficiency of such translation in the presence of nested optional graph patterns. In this paper, we propose to extend relational databases with a novel relational operator, nested optional join (NOJ), that is more efficient than left outer join in processing nested optional graph patterns. We design three efficient algorithms to implement the new operator in relational databases: (1) nested-loops NOJ algorithm, NL-NOJ, (2) sort-merge NOJ algorithm, SM-NOJ, and (3) simple hash NOJ algorithm, SH-NOJ. Based on a real life RDF dataset, we demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithms by comparing them with the corresponding left outer join implementations.
14239575
Semantics based verification and synthesis of BPEL4WS abstract processes
We introduce a logic model to formally specify the semantics of workflows and their composite tasks described as BPEL4WS abstract processes. Based on the model, we present a set of inference rules to deduce the strongest postcondition and weakest precondition of a workflow and demonstrate that automatic workflow verification is possible due to the restrictions on data manipulation in an abstract process. We then sketch an algorithm that automatically synthesizes a workflow given its specification and a task library.
18131628
Automatic workflow verification and generation
Correctness is an important aspect of workflow management systems. However, most of the workflow literature focuses only on the modeling aspects and assumes that a workflow is correct if during the execution it respects the control and data dependency specified by the workflow designer. To address the correctness question properly we propose a new workflow model based on Hoare semantics that allows to: (1) automatically check if the desired outcome of a workflow can be produced by its actual implementation, (2) automatically synthesize a workflow implementation from the workflow specification and a given task library.In particular we: (1) formalize the semantics of workflows and tasks with pre-and postconditions, (2) for each control construct we provide a set of sound inference rules formalizing its semantics. While most of our workflow constructs are standard, two of them are new: the universal and the existential constructs. We then describe algorithms for automatically checking the correctness of workflows and for automatic workflow generation.
7682350
Incremental genetic K-means algorithm and its application in gene expression data analysis
BackgroundIn recent years, clustering algorithms have been effectively applied in molecular biology for gene expression data analysis. With the help of clustering algorithms such as K-means, hierarchical clustering, SOM, etc, genes are partitioned into groups based on the similarity between their expression profiles. In this way, functionally related genes are identified. As the amount of laboratory data in molecular biology grows exponentially each year due to advanced technologies such as Microarray, new efficient and effective methods for clustering must be developed to process this growing amount of biological data.ResultsIn this paper, we propose a new clustering algorithm, Incremental Genetic K-means Algorithm (IGKA). IGKA is an extension to our previously proposed clustering algorithm, the Fast Genetic K-means Algorithm (FGKA). IGKA outperforms FGKA when the mutation probability is small. The main idea of IGKA is to calculate the objective value Total Within-Cluster Variation (TWCV) and to cluster centroids incrementally whenever the mutation probability is small. IGKA inherits the salient feature of FGKA of always converging to the global optimum. C program is freely available at http://database.cs.wayne.edu/proj/FGKA/index.htm.ConclusionsOur experiments indicate that, while the IGKA algorithm has a convergence pattern similar to FGKA, it has a better time performance when the mutation probability decreases to some point. Finally, we used IGKA to cluster a yeast dataset and found that it increased the enrichment of genes of similar function within the cluster.
6486168
A Dataflow-Oriented Atomicity and Provenance System for Pipelined Scientific Workflows
Scientific workflows have gained great momentum in recent years due to their critical roles in e-Science and cyberinfrastructure applications. However, some tasks of a scientific workflow might fail during execution. A domain scientist might require a region of a scientific workflow to be "atomic". Data provenance, which determines the source data that are used to produce a data item, is also essential to scientific workflows. In this paper, we propose: (i) an architecture for scientific workflow management systems that supports both provenance and atomicity; (ii) a dataflow-oriented atomicity model that supports the notions of commit and abort; and (iii) a dataflow-oriented provenance model that, in addition to supporting existing provenance graphs and queries, also supports queries related to atomicity and failure.
1137858
Runtime Security Verification for Itinerary-Driven Mobile Agents
We present a new approach to ensure the secure execution of itinerary-driven mobile agents, in which the specification of the navigational behavior of an agent is separated from the specification of its computational behavior. We empower each host with an access control policy so that the host will deny the access from an agent whose itinerary does not conform to the host's access control policy. A host uses model checking algorithms to check if the itinerary of the agent conforms to its access control policy written in mu-calculus, and if so, grant access permission. In order to address the state explosion problem for model checking itineraries, we propose an approach called model generation code. In this approach, instead of verifying the itinerary itself, a host actually checks the conservative models of a mobile agent. If a conservative model does not satisfy the host's access control policy, the mobile agent will provide refined models for further verification. Our preliminary results show that this is a practical and promising approach to ensure the secure execution of mobile agents
1875526
Design Issues of Prefetching Strategies for Heterogeneous Software DSM
In distributed shared memory (DSM) systems, one of the major overheads is page fault, because it induces remote memory access latencies. Prefetching strategy permits home nodes sending data to remote nodes in advance, in order to reduce page faults and latencies, as also to improve overall performance; however, it causes accumulated waiting phenomenon, waiting synchronization phenomenon, among others. In heterogeneous environments, considering the fact of different ability among computing hosts, it increases idle time and synchronization time. Therefore, the search for alternatives to reduce these overheads is important. In this paper, we propose a method that utilizes concepts of load balancing in prefetching strategy, where the goal is to reduce idle time and synchronization time. Basically, this approach distributes home pages to appropriate computing nodes and adjusts prefetching strategy's policies into heterogeneous environments
611972
Tracking Causal Dependencies in an Active Object-Oriented Database
As active and deductive databases are applied to more complex domains (e.g. engineering design), the need to track the causality of data which has been derived by rules in the database becomes vital. Truth maintenance systems have been used in the area of artificial intelligence to track the causal dependencies of data derived from rules in knowledge-based systems. These same techniques can be applied to active object-oriented databases to provide the users with the means to track the relationships between data and rules. This paper describes the relevant features of a simple truth maintenance systems and puts forth a model of how truth maintenance systems can be integrated with an active object-oriented database, including the definition of new query operators to interpret the causal information for the end user.
11578218
A new model for packet scheduling in multihop wireless networks
The goal of packet scheduling disciplines is to achieve fair and maximum allocation of channel bandwidth. However, these two criteria can potentially be in conflict in a generic-topology multihop wireless network where a single logical channel is shared among multiple contending flows and spatial reuse of the channel bandwidth is possible. In this paper, we propose a new model for packet scheduling that addresses this conflict. The main results of this paper are the following: (a) a two-tier service model that provides a minimum “fair” allocation of the channel bandwidth for each packet flow and additionally maximizes spatial reuse of bandwidth, (b) an ideal centralized packet scheduling algorithm that realizes the above service model, and (c) a practical distributed backoff-based channel contention mechanism that approximates the ideal service within the framework of the CSMA/CA protocol.
17835959
Toward resilient security in wireless sensor networks
Node compromise poses severe security threats in wireless sensor networks. Unfortunately, existing security designs can address only a small, fixed threshold number of compromised nodes; the security protection completely breaks down when the threshold is exceeded. In this paper, we seek to overcome the threshold limitation and achieve resiliency against an increasing number of compromised nodes. To this end, we propose a novel location-based approach in which the secret keys are bound to geographic locations, and each node stores a few keys based on its own location. The location-binding property constrains the scope for which individual keys can be (mis)used, thus limiting the damages caused by a collection of compromised nodes. We illustrate this approach through the problem of report fabrication attacks, in which the compromised nodes forge non-existent events. We evaluate our design through extensive analysis, implementation and simulations, and demonstrate its graceful performance degradation in the presence of an increasing number of compromised nodes.
12858200
Building Robust Learning Systems by Combining Induction and Optimization
Each concept description language and search strategy has an inherent inductive bias, a preference for some hypotheses over others. No single inductive bias performs optimally on all problems. This paper describes a system that couples induction with optimization to carry out an efficient search of large regions of inductive bias space. Experimental results are reported demonstrating the system's capacity to choose optimal biases even for complex and noisy problems.