BIOMedical search engine framework: lightweight and customized implementation of domain-specific biomedical search engines

The Smart Drug Search is publicly accessible at http://sing.ei.uvigo.es/sds/. The BIOMedical Search Engine Framework is freely available for non-commercial use at https://github.com/agjacome/biomsef

Portal-foro para el aprendizaje de lenguas hispano-japonesas

El trabajo descrito en esta memoria es el resultado de un proyecto de colaboración universitaria entre la Universidad Autónoma de Bellaterra, la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y la Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus de Japón, cuya finalidad es la de ayudar a estudiantes de lenguas japonesa y española en horas extra escolares a mejorar y practicar sus conocimientos elementales de las lenguas de estudio mediante el empleo de tecnologías Web. Se describe aquí la plataforma seleccionada para el desarrollo de un foro conversacional y otras utilidades que ayudará y reforzará a los estudiantes los conocimientos del idioma japonés suministrados en horarios de clase.

PERSONAL(ONTO) : Personalizing the Learning Process in Virtual Environments by means of Adaptive Formative Itineraries based on Reusable Learning Objects and Ontologies TIN2006-15107-C02

Personalization in e-learning allows the adaptation of contents, learning strategiesand educational resources to the competencies, previous knowledge or preferences of the student. This project takes a multidisciplinary perspective for devising standards-based personalization capabilities into virtual e-learning environments, focusing on the conceptof adaptive learning itinerary, using reusable learning objects as the basis of the system and using ontologies and semantic web technologies.

Disseminació, integració i visualització de dades biològiques

La recent revolució en les tècniques de generació de dades genòmiques ha portat a una situació de creixement exponencial de la quantitat de dades generades i fa més necessari que mai el treball en la optimització de la gestió i maneig d'aquesta informació. En aquest treball s'han atacat tres vessants del problema: la disseminació de la informació, la integració de dades de diverses fonts i finalment la seva visualització. Basant-nos en el Sistema d'Anotacions Distribuides, DAS, hem creat un aplicatiu per a la creació automatitzada de noves fonts de dades en format estandaritzat i accessible programàticament a partir de fitxers de dades simples. Aquest progrtamari, easyDAS, està en funcionament a l'Institut Europeu de Bioinformàtica. Aquest sistema facilita i encoratja la compartició i disseminació de dades genòmiques en formats usables. jsDAS és una llibreria client de DAS que permet incorporar dades DAS en qualsevol aplicatiu web de manera senzilla i ràpida. Aprofitant els avantatges que ofereix DAS és capaç d'integrar dades de múltiples fonts de manera coherent i robusta. GenExp és el prototip de navegador genòmic basat en web altament interactiu i que facilita l'exploració dels genomes en temps real. És capaç d'integrar dades de quansevol font DAS i crear-ne una representació en client usant els últims avenços en tecnologies web.

A semantic model of selective dissemination of information for digital libraries

In this paper we present the theoretical and methodologicalfoundations for the development of a multi-agentSelective Dissemination of Information (SDI) servicemodel that applies Semantic Web technologies for specializeddigital libraries. These technologies make possibleachieving more efficient information management,improving agent–user communication processes, andfacilitating accurate access to relevant resources. Othertools used are fuzzy linguistic modelling techniques(which make possible easing the interaction betweenusers and system) and natural language processing(NLP) techniques for semiautomatic thesaurus generation.Also, RSS feeds are used as “current awareness bulletins”to generate personalized bibliographic alerts.

Hacia la arquitectura de la información 3.0: pasado, presente y futuro

La arquitectura de la información (IA), aunque presente en cierta manera desde hace más de 50 años, ha tomado especial relevancia con la llegada de la Web y el aumento de la cantidad de información a nuestro alcance. La disciplina cuenta ya con unos pilares claros, que se fundamentan en los contenidos gestionados pero sobre todo en los usuarios, sin olvidar su contexto. También se identifica una serie de componentes a combinar a la hora de elaborar una IA y una metodología básica. Pero la cantidad de información a nuestro alcance no para de crecer, así que se continúa innovando en nuevas formas de organización, buscadores más eficaces o tecnologías de web semántica que permiten a los ordenadores encargarse de la parte menos creativa de enfrentarse a esa avalancha de información.

Semantics-supported cooperative learning for enhanced awareness

Awareness is required for supporting all forms of cooperation. In Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), awareness can be used for enhancing collaborative opportunities across physical distances and in computer-mediated environments. Shared Knowledge Awareness (SKA) intends to increase the perception about the shared knowledge, students have in a collaborative learning scenario and also concerns the understanding that this group has about it. However, it is very difficult to produce accurate awareness indicators based on informal message exchange among the participants. Therefore, we propose a semantic system for cooperation that makes use of formal methods for knowledge representation based on semantic web technologies. From these semantics-enhanced repository and messages, it could be easier to compute more accurate awareness.

Software process improvement using an electronic process guide

Kasvava kiinnostus ohjelmistojen laatua kohtaan on herättänyt ohjelmistoprosesseihin ja niiden kehittämiseen kohdistuvaa huomiota viime vuosina. Ohjelmistoyritykset ympäri maailmaa ovat ottaneet käyttöön ohjelmistoprosessin kehittämismalleja, kuten CMM ja SPICE, pyrkiessään kohti parempilaatuisia ohjelmistotuotteita. Samalla on huomattu, että tehokas prosessien parantaminen ja suorittaminen tarvitsee tuekseen kuvauksen prosessista, jotta prosessin perusteellinen ymmärtäminen ja kommunikointi olisi mahdollista. Ohjelmistoprosesseja voidaan kuvata monilla eri tavoilla. Prosessiopas on prosessin esitysmuoto, jonka päätarkoituksena on helpottaa prosessin ymmärtämistä ja kommunikointia. Elektroninen prosessiopas on Web-teknologiaa hyödyntävä prosessiopas. Tässä työssä luodaan kehitysympäristö elektronisille prosessioppaille, joiden tarkoituksena on tukea ohjelmistoprosessin kehittämistä ja suorittamista. Ympäristö mahdollistaa ohjelmistoprosessinmallintamisen sekä yksilöllisten oppaiden luomisen ja muokkaamisen. Kehitysympäristöä käytetään mallintamaan tietoliikenneohjelmistoja valmistavan yrityksen ohjelmistoprosessia sekä luomaan elektronisia prosessioppaita tukemaan prosessin kehitystä ja suorittamista. Lopuksi pohditaan prosessioppaiden tarjoamaa tukea sekä mahdollisuuksia kohdeyrityksessä.

Työnkulkukoneen soveltuvuus sähköisen huutokauppajärjestelmän toteutuksessa

Sähköiset huutokaupat ovat virtuaalisia markkinapaikkoja, jotka sijaitsevat jossain päin internetiä. Sähköistä huutokauppaa käydään yritysten välillä (B2B), yritysten ja kuluttajien välillä (B2C) sekä kuluttajien kesken (C2C). Tässä työssä sähköisellä huutokaupalla tarkoitetaan ensin mainittua, yritysten keskinäistä kaupankäyntiä. Työn tarkoituksena on tutkia työnkulkukoneen soveltuvuutta sähköisen huutokauppajärjestelmän moottorina. Työssä perehdytään avoimen lähdekoodin ActiveBPEL-koneeseen, ja tutkimus tapahtuu suunnittelemalla, mallintamalla ja testaamalla liiketoimintaprosessi, joka rekisteröi ostajan ja myyjän tiedot järjestelmään. Toteutettava prosessi on yksi osa sähköistä huutokauppaa, mutta saman periaatteen mukaisesti olisi mahdollista toteuttaa myös kokonainen huutokauppa. Tässä työssä tarkastellaan sähköistä huutokauppaa, joka perustuu web-palveluihin, ja jolla on selvä koordinaattori. Koordinaattori ohjaa toisia mukana olevia web-palveluja ja niiden ajettavia operaatioita. Korkean tason mallit kuvataan BPMN-notaation avulla, itse prosessi toteutetaan BPEL-kielellä. Prosessin mallinnuksessa ja simuloinnissa käytetään apuna ActiveBPEL Designer -ohjelmaa. Työn tavoitteena on paitsi toteuttaa osa huutokaupasta, myös antaa lukijalle käsitys siitä liiketoimintaympäristöstä, johon huutokauppa kuuluu, sekä valottaa huutokaupan taustalla olevia teknologioita. Erityisesti web-palvelut ja niihin liittyvät käsitteet tulevat lukijalle tutuiksi.

Mirage 2: A responsive user interface for DSpace

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Déployer le réseau en images : les Googlegrams d'Abu Ghraib

Le web et les images qui y foisonnent font désormais partie de notre quotidien et ils façonnent notre manière de penser le monde. Certaines œuvres d’art permettent, semble-t-il, de réfléchir à la fois sur l’image, les technologies web, les relations qu’elles entretiennent et les enjeux sociopolitiques qui les sous-tendent. C’est dans cette perspective que ce mémoire s’intéresse aux travaux de la série des Googlegrams (2004-2006) de Joan Fontcuberta, particulièrement à deux œuvres qui reprennent les photographies de torture de la prison d’Abu Ghraib devenues iconiques. Ce sont des photomosaïques utilisant ces images comme matrices dans lesquelles viennent s’insérer des milliers de petites images qui ont été trouvées dans le web grâce au moteur de recherche d’images de Google, selon certains mots-clés choisis par l’artiste de façon à faire écho à ces photographies-matrices. Ces œuvres sont ici considérées en tant qu’outils d’études actifs nous permettant de déployer les assemblages d’images et de technologies qu’elles font interagir. Il s’agit de suivre les acteurs et les réseaux qui se superposent et s’entremêlent dans les Googlegrams : d’abord les photographies d’Abu Ghraib et leur iconisation ; ensuite le moteur de recherche et sa relation aux images ; finalement les effets de la photomosaïque. Cette étude s’effectue donc à partir des interactions entre ces différents éléments qui constituent les œuvres afin de réfléchir sur leurs rôles dans le façonnement de la représentation de l’information.

Ontology based Framework for News Extraction in Visual Media

Anticipating the increase in video information in future, archiving of news is an important activity in the visual media industry. When the volume of archives increases, it will be difficult for journalists to find the appropriate content using current search tools. This paper provides the details of the study we conducted about the news extraction systems used in different news channels in Kerala. Semantic web technologies can be used effectively since news archiving share many of the characteristics and problems of WWW. Since visual news archives of different media resources follow different metadata standards, interoperability between the resources is also an issue. World Wide Web Consortium has proposed a draft for an ontology framework for media resource which addresses the intercompatiblity issues. In this paper, the w3c proposed framework and its drawbacks is also discussed

Hybrid Background Subtraction in Video using Bi-level CodeBook Model

Detection of Objects in Video is a highly demanding area of research. The Background Subtraction Algorithms can yield better results in Foreground Object Detection. This work presents a Hybrid CodeBook based Background Subtraction to extract the foreground ROI from the background. Codebooks are used to store compressed information by demanding lesser memory usage and high speedy processing. This Hybrid method which uses Block-Based and Pixel-Based Codebooks provide efficient detection results; the high speed processing capability of block based background subtraction as well as high Precision Rate of pixel based background subtraction are exploited to yield an efficient Background Subtraction System. The Block stage produces a coarse foreground area, which is then refined by the Pixel stage. The system’s performance is evaluated with different block sizes and with different block descriptors like 2D-DCT, FFT etc. The Experimental analysis based on statistical measurements yields precision, recall, similarity and F measure of the hybrid system as 88.74%, 91.09%, 81.66% and 89.90% respectively, and thus proves the efficiency of the novel system.

User Profile Management and Selection in Context-Aware Service Platforms for Networks Beyond 3G

In recent years, progress in the area of mobile telecommunications has changed our way of life, in the private as well as the business domain. Mobile and wireless networks have ever increasing bit rates, mobile network operators provide more and more services, and at the same time costs for the usage of mobile services and bit rates are decreasing. However, mobile services today still lack functions that seamlessly integrate into users’ everyday life. That is, service attributes such as context-awareness and personalisation are often either proprietary, limited or not available at all. In order to overcome this deficiency, telecommunications companies are heavily engaged in the research and development of service platforms for networks beyond 3G for the provisioning of innovative mobile services. These service platforms are to support such service attributes. Service platforms are to provide basic service-independent functions such as billing, identity management, context management, user profile management, etc. Instead of developing own solutions, developers of end-user services such as innovative messaging services or location-based services can utilise the platform-side functions for their own purposes. In doing so, the platform-side support for such functions takes away complexity, development time and development costs from service developers. Context-awareness and personalisation are two of the most important aspects of service platforms in telecommunications environments. The combination of context-awareness and personalisation features can also be described as situation-dependent personalisation of services. The support for this feature requires several processing steps. The focus of this doctoral thesis is on the processing step, in which the user’s current context is matched against situation-dependent user preferences to find the matching user preferences for the current user’s situation. However, to achieve this, a user profile management system and corresponding functionality is required. These parts are also covered by this thesis. Altogether, this thesis provides the following contributions: The first part of the contribution is mainly architecture-oriented. First and foremost, we provide a user profile management system that addresses the specific requirements of service platforms in telecommunications environments. In particular, the user profile management system has to deal with situation-specific user preferences and with user information for various services. In order to structure the user information, we also propose a user profile structure and the corresponding user profile ontology as part of an ontology infrastructure in a service platform. The second part of the contribution is the selection mechanism for finding matching situation-dependent user preferences for the personalisation of services. This functionality is provided as a sub-module of the user profile management system. Contrary to existing solutions, our selection mechanism is based on ontology reasoning. This mechanism is evaluated in terms of runtime performance and in terms of supported functionality compared to other approaches. The results of the evaluation show the benefits and the drawbacks of ontology modelling and ontology reasoning in practical applications.

gvSIG Sensores

El protocolo SOS (Sensor Observation Service) es una especificación OGC dentro de la iniciativa Sensor Web Enablement (SWE), que permite acceder a las observaciones y datos de sensores heterogéneos de una manera estándar. En el proyecto gvSIG se ha abierto una línea de investigación entorno a la SWE, existiendo en la actualidad dos prototipos de clientes SOS para gvSIG y gvSIG Mobile. La especificación utilizada para describir las medidas proporcionadas por sensores es Observation & Measurement (O&M) y la descripción de los metadatos de los sensores (localización. ID, fenómenos medidos, procesamiento de los datos, etc) se obtiene a partir del esquema Sensor ML. Se ha implementado el siguiente conjunto de operaciones: GetCapabilities para la descripción del servicio; DescribeSensor para acceder a los metadatos del sensor y el GetObservation para recibir las observaciones. En el caso del prototipo para gvSIG escritorio se puede acceder a los datos procedentes de los distintos grupos de sensores “offerings” añadiéndolos en el mapa como nuevas capas. Los procedimientos o sensores que están incluidos en un “offering” son presentados como elementos de la capa que se pueden cartografiar en el mapa. Se puede acceder a las observaciones (GetObservation) de estos sensores filtrando los datos por intervalo de tiempo y propiedad del fenómeno observado. La información puede ser representada sobre el mapa mediante gráficas para una mejor comprensión con la posibilidad de comparar datos de distintos sensores. En el caso del prototipo para el cliente móvil gvSIG Mobile, se ha utilizado la misma filosofía que para el cliente de escritorio, siendo cada “offering” una nueva capa. Las observaciones de los sensores pueden ser visualizadas en la pantalla del dispositivo móvil y se pueden obtener mapas temáticos,con el objetivo de facilitar la interpretación de los datos