Digital Commons Network^™

Classes Of Logic Programs Which Possess Unique Supported Models, Anthony K. Seda, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

Logic programming is concerned with the use of logic as a programming language. The main manifestation of this computing paradigm is in the various versions of Prolog which are now available, in which computation is viewed as deduction from sets of Horn clauses, although there is also growing interest in the related form known as answer set programming, see [10]. The reference [1] contains a good survey of the growth of logic programming over the last twenty-five years both as a stand-alone programming language and as a software component of large information systems. One advantage a logic program P has …

Semantic Web And Information Brokering: Opportunities, Commercialization, And Challenges, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

From the chairs' report published in SIGMOD record: The keynote address entitled 'Semantic Web and Information Brokering: Opportunities, Early Commercializations, and Challenges' was delivered by Amit Sheth (University of Georgia and Taalee Corp). Sheth characterized semantics as the next step in the evolution of the WWW and stressed the importance of semantically organized information for supporting ubiquitous, powerful, accurate and efficient access to this information. Sheth also reviewed proposals for semantic interoperability frameworks such as the DAML(DARPA Agent Mark-Up Language), the Oingo family of tools for defining concepts and extracting knowledge from large databases, as well as several scenarios on …

Exception Handling In Workflow Systems, Zongwei Luo, Amit P. Sheth, Krzysztof J. Kochut, John A. Miller

Kno.e.sis Publications

In this paper, defeasible workflow is proposed as a framework to support exception handling for workflow management. By using the “justified” ECA rules to capture more contexts in workflow modeling, defeasible workflow uses context dependent reasoning to enhance the exception handling capability of workflow management systems. In particular, this limits possible alternative exception handler candidates in dealing with exceptional situations. Furthermore, a case-based reasoning (CBR) mechanism with integrated human involvement is used to improve the exception handling capabilities. This involves collecting cases to capture experiences in handling exceptions, retrieving similar prior exception handling cases, and reusing the exception handling experiences …

Validation And Verification Of Formal Specifications In Object-Oriented Software Engineering, Steven A. Thomson

Theses and Dissertations

The use of formal specifications allows for a software system to be defined with stringent mathematical semantics and syntax via such tools as propositional calculus and set theory. There are many perceived benefits garnered from formal specifications, such as a thorough and in-depth understanding of the domain and system being specified and a reduction in user requirement ambiguity. Probably the greatest benefit of formal specifications, and that which is least capitalized upon, is that mathematical proof procedures can be used to test and prove internal consistency and syntactic correctness in an effort to ensure comprehensive validation and verification (V&V). The …

Pakej Bantuan Pembelajaran Bagi Kanak-Kanak, Rameli Norma

Student Works (2000-2009)

Pakej Bantuan Pembelajaran Bagi Kanak-kanak Tadika(PBPKT) ini adalah merupakan satu alat bantuan yang dibangunkan dengan menggunakan perisian Director 7.0. Ia boleh menjadi alat perantara kepada para guru dan ibubapa untuk mendidik kanak-kanak dalam bentuk yang lebih menarik kerana ianya mempunyai pelbagai daya tarikan seperti bunyi, suara, gambar, animasi, lagu dan video bagi memudahkan kanak-kanak mertlahami apa yang hendak disampaikan. Selain itu juga mereka boleh berinteraksi dengan pakej ini. PBPKT ini mempunyai empat modul utama yang meliputi subjek seperti huruf, nombor, bentuk dan warna, yang mana subjek-subjek ini merupakan silibus bagi peringkat pra-sekolah. Pakej ini juga akan mendekati kanak-kanak secara psikologi. …

Adapting To The Information Age, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper draws attention to the profound changes that human civilization is experiencing as it moves from an industrial environment into an information environment, in which unprecedented emphasis is placed on the knowledge and capabilities of the individual. A clear distinction is drawn between data and information in relationship to computer-based facilities, and the transition of data-processing to the higher levels of information and knowledge representation in quasi intelligent decision-support systems. It is argued that the cultivation of its human capital becomes a foundational requirement for the success of a knowledge-based organization. In such an organization traditional practices of hierarchical, …

Dimensionality Reduction Using Genetic Algorithms, Michael L. Raymer, William F. Punch, Erik D. Goodman, Leslie A. Kuhn, Anil K. Jain

Kno.e.sis Publications

Pattern recognition generally requires that objects be described in terms of a set of measurable features. The selection and quality of the features representing each pattern affect the success of subsequent classification. Feature extraction is the process of deriving new features from original features to reduce the cost of feature measurement, increase classifier efficiency, and allow higher accuracy. Many feature extraction techniques involve linear transformations of the original pattern vectors to new vectors of lower dimensionality. While this is useful for data visualization and classification efficiency, it does not necessarily reduce the number of features to be measured since each …

A New Fixed-Point Theorem For Logic Programming Semantics, Anthony K. Seda, Pascal Hitzler

Computer Science and Engineering Faculty Publications

We present a new fixed-point theorem akin to the Banach contraction mapping theorem, but in the context of a novel notion of generalized metric space, and show how it can be applied to analyse the denotational semantics of certain logic programs. The theorem is obtained by generalizing a theorem of Priess-Crampe and Ribenboim, which grew out of applications within valuation theory, but is also inspired by a theorem of S.G. Matthews which grew out of applications to conventional programming language semantics. The class of programs to which we apply our theorem was defined previously by us in terms of operators …

Buckets: Smart Objects For Digital Libraries, Michael L. Nelson

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

Discussion of digital libraries (DLs) is often dominated by the merits of various archives, repositories, search engines, search interfaces and database systems. While these technologies are necessary for information management, information content and information retrieval systems should progress on independent paths and each should make limited assumptions about the status or capabilities of the other. Information content is more important than the systems used for its storage and retrieval. Digital information should have the same long-term survivability prospects as traditional hardcopy information and should not be impacted by evolving search engine technologies or vendor vagaries in database management systems.

Digital …

On-Line Bayesian Speaker Adaptation By Using Tree-Structured Transformation And Robust Priors, Shaojun Wang, Yunxin Zhao

Kno.e.sis Publications

This paper presents new results by using our previously proposed on-line Bayesian learning approach for affine transformation parameter estimation in speaker adaptation. The on-line Bayesian learning technique allows updating parameter estimates after each utterance and it can accommodate flexible forms of transformation functions as well as prior probability density functions. We show through experimental results the robustness of heavy tailed priors to mismatch in prior density estimation. We also show that by properly choosing the transformation matrices and depths of hierarchical trees, recognition performance improved significantly.

Scalable Web Server Clustering Technologies, Trevor Schroeder, Steve Goddard, Byrav Ramamurthy

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

The exponential growth of the Internet, coupled with the increasing popularity of dynamically generated content on the World Wide Web, has created the need for more and faster Web servers capable of serving the over 100 million Internet users. Server clustering has emerged as a promising technique to build scalable Web servers. In this article we examine the seminal work, early products, and a sample of contemporary commercial offerings in the field of transparent Web server clustering. We broadly classify transparent server clustering into three categories.

Equity Of Access: Adaptive Technology, Frances Grodzinsky

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

In this age of information technology, it is morally imperative that equal access to information via computer systems be afforded to people with disabilities. This paper addresses the problems that computer technology poses for students with disabilities and discusses what is needed to ensure equity of access, particularly in a university environment.

Sisl: Several Interfaces, Single Logic, Thomas Ball, Christopher P. Colby, Peter Danielsen, Lalita Jategaonkar Jagadeesan, Radhakrishnan Jagadeesan, Konstantin Laufer, Peter Mataga, Kenneth Rehor

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Modern interactive services such as information and e-commerce services are becoming increasingly more flexible in the types of user interfaces they support. These interfaces incorporate automatic speech recognition and natural language understanding, and include graphical user interfaces on the desktop and web-based interfaces using applets and HTML forms. To what extent can the user interface software be decoupled from the service logic software (the code that defines the essential function of a service)? Decoupling of user interface from service logic directly impacts the flexibility of services, or, how easy they are to modify and extend. To explore these issues, we …

Applications Of Agent Architectures To Decision Support In Distributed Simulation And Training Systems, Plamen V. Petrov

Dissertations

This work develops the approach and presents the results of a new model for applying intelligent agents to complex distributed interactive simulation for command and control. In the framework of tactical command, control communications, computers and intelligence (C₄I), software agents provide a novel approach for efficient decision support and distributed interactive mission training. An agent-based architecture for decision support is designed, implemented and is applied in a distributed interactive simulation to significantly enhance the command and control training during simulated exercises. The architecture is based on monitoring, evaluation, and advice agents, which cooperate to provide alternatives to the …

Universal Access In Digital Libraries, Igg Adiwijaya

Theses

Digital libraries are concerned with the creation and management of information sources, the movement of information across global networks and the effective use of this information by a wide range of users. A digital library is a vast collection of obj ects that are of multimedia nature, e.g., text, video, images, and audio. Users wishing to access the digital library objects may possess varying capabilities, preferences, domain expertise, and may use different information appliances. With the phenomenal growth of the Internet, the number of different information appliances will, if not already, increase substantially in the near future. Facilitating access to …

Local Properties Of Query Languages, Guozhu Dong, Leonid Libkin, Limsoon Wong

Kno.e.sis Publications

In this paper we study the expressiveness of local queries. By locality we mean — informally — that in order to check if a tuple belongs to the result of a query, one only has to look at a certain predetermined portion of the input. Examples include all relational calculus queries. We start by proving a general result describing outputs of local queries. This result leads to many easy inexpressibility proofs for local queries. We then consider a closely related property, namely, the bounded degree property. It describes the outputs of local queries on structures that locally look “simple.” Every …

A Study Of Disk Performance Optimization., Richard Scott Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Response time is one of the most important performance measures associated with a typical multi-user system. Response time, in turn, is bounded by the performance of the input/output (I/O) subsystem. Other than the end user and some external peripherals, the slowest component of the I/O subsystem is the disk drive.

One standard strategy for improving I/O subsystem performance uses high-performance hardware like Small Computer Systems Interface (SCSI) drives to improve overall response time. SCSI hardware, unfortunately, is often too expensive to use in low-end multi-user systems. The low-end multi-user systems commonly use inexpensive Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) disk drives to …

Load Sharing In Distributed Multimedia-On-Demand Systems, Y. C. Tay, Hwee Hwa Pang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Service providers have begun to offer multimedia-on-demand services to residential estates by installing isolated, small-scale multimedia servers at individual estates. Such an arrangement allows the service providers to operate without relying on a highspeed, large-capacity metropolitan area network, which is still not available in many countries. Unfortunately, installing isolated servers can incur very high server costs, as each server requires spare bandwidth to cope with fluctuations in user demand. The authors explore the feasibility of linking up several small multimedia servers to a (limited-capacity) network, and allowing servers with idle retrieval bandwidth to help out servers that are temporarily overloaded; …

Cross Media Promotion Of The Internet In Television Commercials, Steven M. Edwards, Carrie La Ferle

Temerlin Advertising Institute Research

Increasing presence of internet addresses across traditional media spurred the current study. Specifically, the study examined the cross media promotion of website addresses in television commercials to determine if and when they were being used, and by whom? For comparison purposes, other formsof direct response channels were also measured. A clearer understanding of the practice of promoting web sites in television commercials was garnered by examining website addresses for their size, length, positioning, frequency, product categoy representation, and other important attributes. The findings provide an initial base from which future growth and style of web site advertising in traditional media …

A Semantic-Based Middleware For Multimedia Collaborative Applications, Agustin Jose Gonzalez

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

The Internet growth and the performance increase of desktop computers have enabled large-scale distributed multimedia applications. They are expected to grow in demand and services and their traffic volume will dominate. Real-time delivery, scalability, heterogeneity are some requirements of these applications that have motivated a revision of the traditional Internet services, the operating systems structures, and the software systems for supporting application development. This work proposes a Java-based lightweight middleware for the development of large-scale multimedia applications. The middleware offers four services for multimedia applications. First, it provides two scalable lightweight protocols for floor control. One follows a centralized model …

Jotmail: A Voicemail Interface That Enables You To See What Was Said, Steve Whittaker, Richard C. Davis, Julia Hirschberg, Urs Muller

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Voicemail is a pervasive, but under-researched tool for workplace communication. Despite potential advantages of voicemail over email, current phone-based voicemail UIs are highly problematic for users. We present a novel, Web-based, voicemail interface, Jotmail. The design was based on data from several studies of voicemail tasks and user strategies. The GUI has two main elements: (a) personal annotations that serve as a visual analogue to underlying speech; (b) automatically derived message header information. We evaluated Jotmail in an 8-week field trial, where people used it as their only means for accessing voicemail. Jotmail was successful in supporting most key voicemail …

The Development Of The 'Ethical' Ict Professional And The Vision Of An Ethical On-Line Society: How Far Have We Come And Where Are We Going?, Frances Grodzinsky

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

It has been a decade since Computer Ethics came into prominence within the field of computer science and engineering, changing not only the profession but the classroom as well. The commercialization and globalization of the World Wide Web has impacted us all, both producers and consumers alike. What was once the province of the few has become the virtual society of the multitudes. Ethical issues concerning security, privacy, information, identity, community and equity of access once contained and localized, have assumed additional complexity in the global environment. Every day, the front pages of our newspapers and magazines report violations of …

A Comparative Analysis Of Cockpit Display Development Tools, Matthew J. Gebhardt

Theses and Dissertations

Currently, no standard methodology exists that enables cockpit display engineers to evaluate software tools used in the development of graphical cockpit displays. Furthermore, little research has been accomplished in comparing current software development tools with traditional hand-coded methods, This research effort discusses a framework for analyzing cockpit display software development tools and follows through with a detailed analysis comparing today's hand-coding standard, OpenGL, with two of today's cockpit display software development suites, Virtual Application Prototyping System (VAPS) and Display Editor. The comparison exploits the analysis framework establishing the advantages and disadvantages of the three software development suites. The analysis framework …

Extracting Mission Semantics From Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Telemetry And Flight Plans, Walter T. Berridge

Theses and Dissertations

With the acceptance of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as a primary platform within the Department of Defense (DOD) for gathering intelligence data, the amount of video information being recorded, analyzed, and archived continues to grow. Mechanisms for quickly locating and retrieving video segments of interest amongst the many hours of recorded video are required to accommodate the rapid turnaround expected in today's wartime planning environments. This research demonstrates that text-based data accompanying UAV video yields sufficient information to identify and create data items that can be indexed to provide for rapid identification and retrieval of video segments of interest. Four …

Three-Dimensional Data Visualization Of Electronic Military Intelligence Using The Project Broadsword System, Michael L. Goeringer

Theses and Dissertations

Today's military electronic infrastructure solves many problems while creating others. Using computers, battlefield and global awareness is brought to bear through the near real-time linking of sensor platforms from around the globe. These intelligence networks produce vast amounts of data that must be parsed, interpreted, digested and stored by information gathering systems. As the amount of intelligence data continues to increase, these text-based systems become cumbersome and inadequate. To ensure vital information is not overlooked or discovered too late, other forms of intelligence product management and data navigation need to be investigated. This thesis explores procedures for enhancing the capabilities …

A Distributed Agent Architecture For A Computer Virus Immune System, Paul K. Harmer

Theses and Dissertations

Information superiority is identified as an Air Force core competency and is recognized as a key enabler for the success of future missions. Information protection and information assurance are vital components required for achieving superiority in the Infosphere, but these goals are threatened by the exponential birth rate of new computer viruses. The increased global interconnectivity that is empowering advanced information systems is also increasing the spread of malicious code and current anti-virus solutions are quickly becoming overwhelmed by the burden of capturing and classifying new viral stains. To overcome this problem, a distributed computer virus immune system (CVIS) based …

An Intelligent User Interface To Support Air Force Weather Product Generation And Automated Metrics, Darryl N. Leon

Theses and Dissertations

Air Force pilots require dependable weather reports so they may avoid unsafe flying conditions. In order to better gauge the accuracy of its weather products, Air Force Weather has established the requirement for an Air Force-wide automated weather metrics program. Under the guidelines for this program, forecasts will automatically be compared to observed weather to determine their accuracy. Statistics will be collected in the hopes of determining forecast error trends that can be corrected through education and training. In order for the statistical data produced by such a program to draw reliable conclusions about forecast accuracy, however, the correct format …

Cataloging Expert Systems: Optimism And Frustrated Reality, William Olmstadt

E-JASL: Electronic Journal of Academic and Special Librarianship (1999-2009, Volumes 1-10)

There is little question that computers have profoundly changed how information professionals work. The process of cataloging and classifying library materials was one of the first activities transformed by information technology. The introduction of the MARC format in the 1960s and the creation of national bibliographic utilities in the 1970s had a lasting impact on cataloging. In the 1980s, the affordability of microcomputers made the computer accessible for cataloging, even to small libraries. This trend toward automating library processes with computers parallels a broader societal interest in the use of computers to organize and store information. Following World War II, …

An Agent-Based Netcentric Framework For Multidisciplinary Problem Solving Environments (Mpse), S. Markus, Elias N. Houstis, A. C. Catlin, John R. Rice, P. Tsompanopoulou, D. Gottfried, Ke Su, G. Balakrishnan

Department of Computer Science Technical Reports

No abstract provided.

Branch Transition Rate: A New Metric For Improved Branch Classification Analysis, Michael Haungs, Phil Sallee, Matthew Farrens

Computer Science and Software Engineering

Recent studies have shown significantly improved branch prediction through the use of branch classification. By separating static branches into groups, or classes, with similar dynamic behavior, predictors may be selected that are best suited for each class. Previous methods have classified branches according to taken rate (or bias). We propose a new metric for branch classification: branch transition rate, which is defined as the number of times a branch changes direction between taken and not taken during execution. We show that transition rate is a more appropriate indicator of branch behavior than taken rate for determining predictor performance. When both …