Representing supply chain events on the Web of data

The Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPCIS) is an EPCglobal standard, that aims to bridge the gap between the physical world of RFID1 tagged artifacts, and information systems that enable their tracking and tracing via the Electronic Product Code (EPC). Central to the EPCIS data model are "events" that describe specific occurrences in the supply chain. EPCIS events, recorded and registered against EPC tagged artifacts, encapsulate the "what", "when", "where" and "why" of these artifacts as they flow through the supply chain. In this paper we propose an ontological model for representing EPCIS events on the Web of data. Our model provides a scalable approach for the representation, integration and sharing of EPCIS events as linked data via RESTful interfaces, thereby facilitating interoperability, collaboration and exchange of EPC related data across enterprises on a Web scale.

PDNAsite:identification of DNA-binding site from protein sequence by incorporating spatial and sequence context

Protein-DNA interactions are involved in many fundamental biological processes essential for cellular function. Most of the existing computational approaches employed only the sequence context of the target residue for its prediction. In the present study, for each target residue, we applied both the spatial context and the sequence context to construct the feature space. Subsequently, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) was applied to remove the redundancies in the feature space. Finally, a predictor (PDNAsite) was developed through the integration of the support vector machines (SVM) classifier and ensemble learning. Results on the PDNA-62 and the PDNA-224 datasets demonstrate that features extracted from spatial context provide more information than those from sequence context and the combination of them gives more performance gain. An analysis of the number of binding sites in the spatial context of the target site indicates that the interactions between binding sites next to each other are important for protein-DNA recognition and their binding ability. The comparison between our proposed PDNAsite method and the existing methods indicate that PDNAsite outperforms most of the existing methods and is a useful tool for DNA-binding site identification. A web-server of our predictor (http://hlt.hitsz.edu.cn:8080/PDNAsite/) is made available for free public accessible to the biological research community.

Narrative comprehension: Semantic and syntactic summary production

The purpose of this research was to examine from a syntactic and narrative structure perspective two narrative summary types: a summary with a length constraint and an unconstrained summary. In addition, this research served to develop a multidimensional theory of narrative comprehension.^ College freshmen read two short stories written by written by Sake and were asked to write a constrained summary for one text and an unconstrained summary for the other text. Following this the subjects completed a metacognitive questionnaire. The summaries were analyzed to examine transitivity features and narrative structure features. The metacognitive questionnaires were examined to extract information about plot structure, differences between one and two episode stories, and to gain insight into the strategies used by subjects in producing both summary types.^ A Paired t-test conducted on the data found that there was a significant transitivity feature mean difference between a constrained summary and an unconstrained summary indicating that the number of transitivity features produced from each summary type were task dependent.^ Chi-square tests conducted on the data found that there were proportional differences in usage between plot features and thematic abstract units in an unconstrained summary and a constrained summary indicating that plot features and thematic abstract units produced from each summary type were task dependent.^ Qualitative analyses indicated that setting, goal, and resolution are typical within plot organization, there are summary production differences between one and two episode narratives, and subjects do not seem to be aware of summary production strategies.^ The results of this research have implications for comprehension and writing instruction. ^

Semantic wrapping for heterogeneous database management

Query processing is a commonly performed procedure and a vital and integral part of information processing. It is therefore important and necessary for information processing applications to continuously improve the accessibility of data sources as well as the ability to perform queries on those data sources. ^ It is well known that the relational database model and the Structured Query Language (SQL) are currently the most popular tools to implement and query databases. However, a certain level of expertise is needed to use SQL and to access relational databases. This study presents a semantic modeling approach that enables the average user to access and query existing relational databases without the concern of the database's structure or technicalities. This method includes an algorithm to represent relational database schemas in a more semantically rich way. The result of which is a semantic view of the relational database. The user performs queries using an adapted version of SQL, namely Semantic SQL. This method substantially reduces the size and complexity of queries. Additionally, it shortens the database application development cycle and improves maintenance and reliability by reducing the size of application programs. Furthermore, a Semantic Wrapper tool illustrating the semantic wrapping method is presented. ^ I further extend the use of this semantic wrapping method to heterogeneous database management. Relational, object-oriented databases and the Internet data sources are considered to be part of the heterogeneous database environment. Semantic schemas resulting from the algorithm presented in the method were employed to describe the structure of these data sources in a uniform way. Semantic SQL was utilized to query various data sources. As a result, this method provides users with the ability to access and perform queries on heterogeneous database systems in a more innate way. ^

Semantic distributed database management with applications to the Internet dissemination of environmental data

The research presented in this dissertation is comprised of several parts which jointly attain the goal of Semantic Distributed Database Management with Applications to Internet Dissemination of Environmental Data. ^ Part of the research into more effective and efficient data management has been pursued through enhancements to the Semantic Binary Object-Oriented database (Sem-ODB) such as more effective load balancing techniques for the database engine, and the use of Sem-ODB as a tool for integrating structured and unstructured heterogeneous data sources. Another part of the research in data management has pursued methods for optimizing queries in distributed databases through the intelligent use of network bandwidth; this has applications in networks that provide varying levels of Quality of Service or throughput. ^ The application of the Semantic Binary database model as a tool for relational database modeling has also been pursued. This has resulted in database applications that are used by researchers at the Everglades National Park to store environmental data and to remotely-sensed imagery. ^ The areas of research described above have contributed to the creation TerraFly, which provides for the dissemination of geospatial data via the Internet. TerraFly research presented herein ranges from the development of TerraFly's back-end database and interfaces, through the features that are presented to the public (such as the ability to provide autopilot scripts and on-demand data about a point), to applications of TerraFly in the areas of hazard mitigation, recreation, and aviation. ^

Design principles of semantic binary database management systems

The Semantic Binary Data Model (SBM) is a viable alternative to the now-dominant relational data model. SBM would be especially advantageous for applications dealing with complex interrelated networks of objects provided that a robust efficient implementation can be achieved. This dissertation presents an implementation design method for SBM, algorithms, and their analytical and empirical evaluation. Our method allows building a robust and flexible database engine with a wider applicability range and improved performance. ^ Extensions to SBM are introduced and an implementation of these extensions is proposed that allows the database engine to efficiently support applications with a predefined set of queries. A New Record data structure is proposed. Trade-offs of employing Fact, Record and Bitmap Data structures for storing information in a semantic database are analyzed. ^ A clustering ID distribution algorithm and an efficient algorithm for object ID encoding are proposed. Mapping to an XML data model is analyzed and a new XML-based XSDL language facilitating interoperability of the system is defined. Solutions to issues associated with making the database engine multi-platform are presented. An improvement to the atomic update algorithm suitable for certain scenarios of database recovery is proposed. ^ Specific guidelines are devised for implementing a robust and well-performing database engine based on the extended Semantic Data Model. ^

Algorithms for efficient transaction management and consistent queries in client -server semantic object-oriented parallel databases

Large read-only or read-write transactions with a large read set and a small write set constitute an important class of transactions used in such applications as data mining, data warehousing, statistical applications, and report generators. Such transactions are best supported with optimistic concurrency, because locking of large amounts of data for extended periods of time is not an acceptable solution. The abort rate in regular optimistic concurrency algorithms increases exponentially with the size of the transaction. The algorithm proposed in this dissertation solves this problem by using a new transaction scheduling technique that allows a large transaction to commit safely with significantly greater probability that can exceed several orders of magnitude versus regular optimistic concurrency algorithms. A performance simulation study and a formal proof of serializability and external consistency of the proposed algorithm are also presented.^ This dissertation also proposes a new query optimization technique (lazy queries). Lazy Queries is an adaptive query execution scheme which optimizes itself as the query runs. Lazy queries can be used to find an intersection of sub-queries in a very efficient way, which does not require full execution of large sub-queries nor does it require any statistical knowledge about the data.^ An efficient optimistic concurrency control algorithm used in a massively parallel B-tree with variable-length keys is introduced. B-trees with variable-length keys can be effectively used in a variety of database types. In particular, we show how such a B-tree was used in our implementation of a semantic object-oriented DBMS. The concurrency control algorithm uses semantically safe optimistic virtual "locks" that achieve very fine granularity in conflict detection. This algorithm ensures serializability and external consistency by using logical clocks and backward validation of transactional queries. A formal proof of correctness of the proposed algorithm is also presented. ^

XML storage and retrieval using the semantic binary object -oriented database system (SEM-ODB)

Over the past five years, XML has been embraced by both the research and industrial community due to its promising prospects as a new data representation and exchange format on the Internet. The widespread popularity of XML creates an increasing need to store XML data in persistent storage systems and to enable sophisticated XML queries over the data. The currently available approaches to addressing the XML storage and retrieval issue have the limitations of either being not mature enough (e.g. native approaches) or causing inflexibility, a lot of fragmentation and excessive join operations (e.g. non-native approaches such as the relational database approach). ^ In this dissertation, I studied the issue of storing and retrieving XML data using the Semantic Binary Object-Oriented Database System (Sem-ODB) to leverage the advanced Sem-ODB technology with the emerging XML data model. First, a meta-schema based approach was implemented to address the data model mismatch issue that is inherent in the non-native approaches. The meta-schema based approach captures the meta-data of both Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Sem-ODB Semantic Schemas, thus enables a dynamic and flexible mapping scheme. Second, a formal framework was presented to ensure precise and concise mappings. In this framework, both schemas and the conversions between them are formally defined and described. Third, after major features of an XML query language, XQuery, were analyzed, a high-level XQuery to Semantic SQL (Sem-SQL) query translation scheme was described. This translation scheme takes advantage of the navigation-oriented query paradigm of the Sem-SQL, thus avoids the excessive join problem of relational approaches. Finally, the modeling capability of the Semantic Binary Object-Oriented Data Model (Sem-ODM) was explored from the perspective of conceptually modeling an XML Schema using a Semantic Schema. ^ It was revealed that the advanced features of the Sem-ODB, such as multi-valued attributes, surrogates, the navigation-oriented query paradigm, among others, are indeed beneficial in coping with the XML storage and retrieval issue using a non-XML approach. Furthermore, extensions to the Sem-ODB to make it work more effectively with XML data were also proposed. ^

A scalable multimedia content processing framework with application to TV shopping

The advent of smart TVs has reshaped the TV-consumer interaction by combining TVs with mobile-like applications and access to the Internet. However, consumers are still unable to seamlessly interact with the contents being streamed. An example of such limitation is TV shopping, in which a consumer makes a purchase of a product or item displayed in the current TV show. Currently, consumers can only stop the current show and attempt to find a similar item in the Web or an actual store. It would be more convenient if the consumer could interact with the TV to purchase interesting items. ^ Towards the realization of TV shopping, this dissertation proposes a scalable multimedia content processing framework. Two main challenges in TV shopping are addressed: the efficient detection of products in the content stream, and the retrieval of similar products given a consumer-selected product. The proposed framework consists of three components. The first component performs computational and temporal aware multimedia abstraction to select a reduced number of frames that summarize the important information in the video stream. By both reducing the number of frames and taking into account the computational cost of the subsequent detection phase, this component component allows the efficient detection of products in the stream. The second component realizes the detection phase. It executes scalable product detection using multi-cue optimization. Additional information cues are formulated into an optimization problem that allows the detection of complex products, i.e., those that do not have a rigid form and can appear in various poses. After the second component identifies products in the video stream, the consumer can select an interesting one for which similar ones must be located in a product database. To this end, the third component of the framework consists of an efficient, multi-dimensional, tree-based indexing method for multimedia databases. The proposed index mechanism serves as the backbone of the search. Moreover, it is able to efficiently bridge the semantic gap and perception subjectivity issues during the retrieval process to provide more relevant results.^

Semantic geographic information system

This thesis research describes the design and implementation of a Semantic Geographic Information System (GIS) and the creation of its spatial database. The database schema is designed and created, and all textual and spatial data are loaded into the database with the help of the Semantic DBMS's Binary Database Interface currently being developed at the FIU's High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC). A friendly graphical user interface is created together with the other main system's areas: displaying process, data animation, and data retrieval. All these components are tightly integrated to form a novel and practical semantic GIS that has facilitated the interpretation, manipulation, analysis, and display of spatial data like: Ocean Temperature, Ozone(TOMS), and simulated SeaWiFS data. At the same time, this system has played a major role in the testing process of the HPDRC's high performance and efficient parallel Semantic DBMS.

Semantic Categorization in Portuguese-English Bilinguals

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-linguistic interactions in the semantic categorization of late Portuguese-English bilinguals. The lexical items used in this study have a wider range of applications in one language and narrower in the other. Three types of categories were examined: classical, homophones, and radials. Late Portuguese-English bilinguals, as well as Portuguese and English monolinguals, were tested. After hearing a word, participants were asked to choose from a set of images, one that could be labelled as such. Analyses showed that when tested in English, participants performed better when it was the wider language. Participants’ performance was lower on classical categories than on homophone and radial categories.

A Cross-Generational Analysis of Spanish-to-English Lexico-Semantic Phenomena in Emerging Miami English

Sociolinguists have documented the substrate influence of various languages on the formation of dialects in numerous ethnic-regional setting throughout the United States. This literature shows that while phonological and grammatical influences from other languages may be instantiated as durable dialect features, lexical phenomena often fade over time as ethnolinguistic communities assimilate with contiguous dialect groups. In preliminary investigations of emerging Miami Latino English, we have observed that lexical forms based on Spanish lexical forms are not only ubiquitous among the speech of the first generation Cuban Americans but also of the second. Examples, observed in field work, casual observation, and studied formally in an experimental context include the following: “get down from the car,” which derives from the Spanish equivalent, bajar del carro instead of “get out of the car”. The translation task administered to thirty-one participants showed a variety lexical phenomena are still maintained at equal or higher frequencies.

Certificação de composições de serviços web semânticos

This thesis presents a certification method for semantic web services compositions which aims to statically ensure its functional correctness. Certification method encompasses two dimensions of verification, termed base and functional dimensions. Base dimension concerns with the verification of application correctness of the semantic web service in the composition, i.e., to ensure that each service invocation given in the composition comply with its respective service definition. The certification of this dimension exploits the semantic compatibility between the invocation arguments and formal parameters of the semantic web service. Functional dimension aims to ensure that the composition satisfies a given specification expressed in the form of preconditions and postconditions. This dimension is formalized by a Hoare logic based calculus. Partial correctness specifications involving compositions of semantic web services can be derived from the deductive system proposed. Our work is also characterized by exploiting the use of a fragment of description logic, i.e., ALC, to express the partial correctness specifications. In order to operationalize the proposed certification method, we developed a supporting environment for defining the semantic web services compositions as well as to conduct the certification process. The certification method were experimentally evaluated by applying it in three different proof concepts. These proof concepts enabled to broadly evaluate the method certification

Cloud query manager: uso de web semântica para evitar o problema de aprisionamento em IaaS

Cloud computing can be defined as a distributed computational model by through resources (hardware, storage, development platforms and communication) are shared, as paid services accessible with minimal management effort and interaction. A great benefit of this model is to enable the use of various providers (e.g a multi-cloud architecture) to compose a set of services in order to obtain an optimal configuration for performance and cost. However, the multi-cloud use is precluded by the problem of cloud lock-in. The cloud lock-in is the dependency between an application and a cloud platform. It is commonly addressed by three strategies: (i) use of intermediate layer that stands to consumers of cloud services and the provider, (ii) use of standardized interfaces to access the cloud, or (iii) use of models with open specifications. This paper outlines an approach to evaluate these strategies. This approach was performed and it was found that despite the advances made by these strategies, none of them actually solves the problem of lock-in cloud. In this sense, this work proposes the use of Semantic Web to avoid cloud lock-in, where RDF models are used to specify the features of a cloud, which are managed by SPARQL queries. In this direction, this work: (i) presents an evaluation model that quantifies the problem of cloud lock-in, (ii) evaluates the cloud lock-in from three multi-cloud solutions and three cloud platforms, (iii) proposes using RDF and SPARQL on management of cloud resources, (iv) presents the cloud Query Manager (CQM), an SPARQL server that implements the proposal, and (v) comparing three multi-cloud solutions in relation to CQM on the response time and the effectiveness in the resolution of cloud lock-in.