Life Sciences Commons^™

Semantics-Based Information Brokering: A Step Towards Realizing The Infocosm, Vipul Kashyap, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The rapid advances in computer and communication technologies, and their merger, is leading to a global information market place. It will consist of federations of very large number of information systems that will cooperate to varying extents to support the users' information needs. We propose an architecture which may facilitate meeting these needs. It consists of three main components: information providers, information brokers and information consumers. We also propose an approach to information brokering. We discuss two of it's tasks: information resource discovery, which identities relevant information sources for a given query, and query processing, which involves the generation of …

Specifying And Enforcing Intertask Dependencies, Paul Attie, Munindar Singh, Amit P. Sheth, Marek Rusinkiewicz

Kno.e.sis Publications

Extensions of the traditional atomic transaction model are needed to support the development of multi-system applications or workflows that access heterogeneous databases and legacy application systems. Most extended transaction models use conditions involving events or dependencies between transactions. Intertask dependencies can serve as a uniform framework for defining extended transaction models. In this paper we introduce event attributes needed to determine whether a dependency is enforceable and to properly schedule events in extended transaction models. Using these attributes and a formalization of a dependency into the temporal logic CTL, we can automatically synthesize an automaton that captures the computations that …

A Framework For Controlling Cooperative Agents, Kuo-Chu Lee, William H. Mansfield, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Presents an overview of the ITX (Interacting Transaction) system, which supports complex interactions among cooperating agents in the presence of user interventions that change application objectives and system failures. The system's components and its unique fixed-point criterion for feedback control of iterative interactions are described. An example of a simplified multimedia teleconferencing application is discussed to illustrate the features of the ITX system.

Estimation Of The Incidence Of A Rare Genetic Disease Through A Two-Tier Mutation Survey, R Chakraborty, M R Srinivasan, S Raskin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Recent attempts to detect mutations involving single base changes or small deletions that are specific to genetic diseases provide an opportunity to develop a two-tier mutation-screening program through which incidence of rare genetic disorders and gene carriers may be precisely estimated. A two-tier survey consists of mutation screening in a sample of patients with specific genetic disorders and in a second sample of newborns from the same population in which mutation frequency is evaluated. We provide the statistical basis for evaluating the incidence of affected and gene carriers in such two-tier mutation-screening surveys, from which the precision of the estimates …

Can An Anesthesia Machine Flush Valve Provide For Effective Jet Ventilation?, S D Gaughan, J L Benumof, G T Ozaki

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Transtracheal jet ventilation (TTJV) using a percutaneously inserted intravenous (IV) catheter for the patient who cannot be ventilated or tracheally intubated or, using a jet stylet for changing endotracheal tubes (ETT) in patients for whom subsequent ventilation and/or tracheal reintubation may be difficult, are extremely valuable therapeutic options. The jet ventilation system must have a sufficiently high pressure-oxygen source to drive oxygen through noncompliant tubing and through relatively small IV catheters and/or jet stylets in order to achieve adequate ventilation and oxygenation. There is no evidence that using the common gas outlet of an anesthesia machine by activating the flush …

So Far (Schematically) Yet So Near (Semantically), Amit P. Sheth, Vipul Kashyap

Kno.e.sis Publications

In a multidatabase system, schematic conflicts between two objects are usually of interest only when the objects have some semantic affinity. In this paper we try to reconcile the two perspectives. We first define the concept of semantic proximity and provide a semantic taxonomy. We then enumerate and classify the schematic and data conflicts. We discuss possible semantic similarities between two objects that have various types of schematic and data conflicts. Issues of uncertain information and inconsistent information are also addressed.

On Transactional Workflows, Amit P. Sheth, Marek Rusinkiewicz

Kno.e.sis Publications

The basic transaction model has evolved over time to incorporate more complex transactions structures and to take the advantage of semantics of higher-level operations that cannot be seen at the level of page reads and writes. Well known examples of such extended transaction models include nested and multi-level transactions. A number of relaxed transaction models have been defined in the last several years that permit a controlled relaxation of the transaction isolation and atomicity to better match the requirements of various database applications. Correctness criteria other than global serializability have also been proposed. Several examples of extended/relaxed transaction models are …

Abduction In Annotated Logic Programming, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

The author investigates techniques to make the logic programming paradigm more expressive for knowledge representation, while simultaneously retaining the computational advantages of efficiency and simplicity. He extends the annotated language of K. Thirunarayan and K. Kifer (1989) in various directions to obtain an enriched representation language. In particular, rule bodies are permitted to be a conjunction of literals, and the rules to be recursive. A class of annotated logic programs called the stratified programs is identified which can be given a unique supported minimal Herbrand model as their meaning. Abductive reasoning is integrated into this annotated logic framework. The notion …

Using Flexible Transactions To Support Multisystem Telecommunication Applications, Mansoor Ansari, Linda Ness, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Service order provisioning is an important telecommunication application that automates the process of providing telephone services in response to the customer requests. It is an example of a multi-system application that requires access to multiple, independently developed application systems and their databases. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a prototype system1 that supports the execution of the Flexible Transactions and its use to develop the service order provisioning application. We argue that such approach may be used to support the development of multi-system, flow-through processing applications in a systematic and organized manner. Its advantages include fast …

Algorithms For Structural Schema Integration, James Geller, Ashish Mehra, Yehoshua Perl, Erich Neuhold, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

Current view and schema integration methodologies are driven by semantic considerations, and allow integration of objects only if that is valid from semantic and structural viewpoints. We had introduced a new integration technique called structural integration. It permits integration of objects that have structural similarities, even if they differ semantically. This technique uses the object-oriented Dual Model which separates the representation of structure and semantics.

In this paper we introduce algorithms for structural integration. We apply these algorithms to integrate two views of a large university database schema which had significant structural similarities but differed semantically.

2: "The Mapping Of Chromosome 16", Norman A. Doggett, Raymond L. Stallings, Carl E. Hildebrand, Robert K. Moyzis

Genomics: Past & Future

Human chromosome 16 is the main focus of the mapping efforts at Los Alamos. The large photomicrograph on these opening pages illustrates the starting point for those mapping efforts, the evaluation of our chromosome-16-specific library of cloned fragments. Among the 23 pairs of human chromosomes, one pair, chromosome 16, is identified by fluorescence in-situ hybridization. Thousands of yellow fluorescent probes derived from the clone library have hybridized to both copies of chromosome 16. The high density and uniform coverage of the fluorescent signals were a strong indication that we could use the library to construct a map of overlapping cloned …

Executing Multidatabase Transactions, Mansoor Ansari, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Linda Ness, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

In a multidatabase environment, the traditional transaction model has been found to be too restrictive. Therefore, several extended transaction models have been proposed in which some of the requirements of transaction, such as isolation or atomicity, are optional. The authors describe one of such extensions, the flexible transaction model and discuss the scheduling of transactions involving multiple autonomous database systems managed by heterogeneous DBMS.

The scheduling algorithm for flexible transactions is implemented using L.0, a logically parallel language which provides a framework for concisely specifying the multidatabase transactions and for scheduling them. The key aspects of a flexible transaction specification, …

Specifying Interdatabase Dependencies In A Multidatabase Environment, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Amit P. Sheth, George Karabatis

Kno.e.sis Publications

The problem of interdatabase dependencies and the effect they have on applications updating interdependent data are addressed. A model that allows specifications of constraints among multiple databases in a declarative fashion is proposed. The separation of the constraints from the application programs facilitates the maintenance of data constraints and allows flexibility in their implementation. It allows investigation of various mechanisms for enforcing the constraints, independently of the application programs. By grouping the constraints together, it is possible to check their completeness and discover possible contradictions among them. The concepts of polytransactions, which use interdatabase dependencies to generate a series of …

Statistical Interpretation Of Dna Typing Data, R Chakraborty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Inclusion Of Data On Relatives For Estimation Of Allele Frequencies, R Chakraborty

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Relationship Between Parsimonious Covering And Boolean Minimization, Venu Dasigi, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan

Kno.e.sis Publications

Minimization of Boolean switching functions is a basic problem in the design of logic circuits. The designer first comes up with a switching function expressed in terms of several binary input variables that satisfies the desired functionality, and then attempts to minimize the function as a sum of products or product of sums. It turns out that a sum of products form of a switching function that has no redundancy is a union of prime implicants of the function.

In this paper we would like to explicate some of the relationships of the boolean minimization problem to a formalization of …

The Architecture Of Braid: A System For Bridging Al/Db Systems, Amit P. Sheth, Anthony B. O'Hare

Kno.e.sis Publications

We describe the design of BrAID (a Bridge between Artificial Intelligence and Database Management Systems), an experimental system for the efficient integration of logic based Artificial Intelligence (Al) and database (DB) technologies. Features provided by BrAID include (a) access to conventional DBMSs, (b) support for multiple inferencing strategies, (c) a powerful caching subsystem that manages views and employs subsumption to facilitate the reuse of previously cached data, (d) lazy or eager evaluation of queries submitted by the AI system, and (e) the generation of advice by the AI system to aid in cache management and query execution planning. To discuss …

On Serializability Of Multidatabase Transactions Through Forced Local Conflict, Dimitrios Georgakopoulos, Marek Rusinkiewicz, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

The main difficulty in enforcing global serializability in a multidatabase environment lies in resolving indirect transitive conflicts between multidatabase transactions. Indirect conflicts introduced by local transactions are difficult to resolve because the behavior or even the existence of local transactions is not known to the multidatabase system. To overcome these problems, we propose to incorporate additional data manipulation operations in the subtransactions of each multidatabase transaction. We show that if these operations create direct conflicts between subtransactions at each participating local database system, indirect conflicts can be resolved even if the multidatabase system is not aware of their existence. Based …

Management Of Interdependent Data: Specifying Dependency And Consistency Requirements, Amit P. Sheth, Marek Rusinkiewicz

Kno.e.sis Publications

Multiple databases that serve the needs of various application systems are considered. One of the significant problems in managing these databases is to maintain the related data items consistent to the required degree. This problem is frequently referred to as `redundant data management'. Since the term `redundancy' tends to imply that the data is unwanted or superfluous, the authors use the more general term `management of interdependent data'. Some preliminary ideas in this area are discussed. The problem of managing interdependent data is characterized, and some important types of interdatabase dependency are identified.

Freshwater Fishes Of Shipstern Nature Reserve, Caspar F. A. Bijleveld

Physiology Faculty Research Publications

A survey of fishes in and around Shipstern Nature Reserve in Northern Belize, Central America, was carried out over a period of eight months, from February to September 1990. Its purpose was to establish a preliminary list of the fishes of Shipstern Nature Reserve, including descriptions, distribution and collecting data and additionally to describe some of the habitats in which the fishes were found. This study focuses on fishes considered to be freshwater species. These occurred for the greater part in brackish habitats. Nevertheless, a few fish considered as marine species were caught in the waters of the reserve and …

Fecundity Of Male White-Tailed Deer On Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge, Thomas A. Nelson, Michael W. Johnson

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Male reproductive tracts were collected from 57 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) harvested on Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge during the 1988 and 1989 archery deer seasons. Organ weights and total numbers of spermatozoa present were determined for both testes and epididymides. Among yearling and adult males, the mean weights of testes and epididymides peaked during November and decreased through the end of the collection period in mid-December. Total number of spermatozoa in the tract increased through October, peaked during the last half of November, and decreased through mid- December. No significant difference was found between the mean number of spermatozoa …

Attribute Relationships: An Impediment In Automating Schema Integration, Amit P. Sheth, Sunit K. Gala

Kno.e.sis Publications

Success in schema integration depends on understanding the semantics of schema components (e.g., entity sets, relationship sets, attributes), and the ability to capture and reason about these semantics. An important objective of our work on schema integration is to automate the reasoning as much as possible, and when not possible, depend on the human input and guidance. A key results of comparing the semantics associated with schema objects is that of determining attribute relationship. Once attribute relationships are determined, the task of object class(e.g., entity sets and relationship sets) integration becomes simpler and can e automated to a great extent. …

Fault Tolerance In A Very Large Database System: A Strawman Analysis, Amit P. Sheth

Kno.e.sis Publications

A simple model is used to study the effect of fault-tolerance techniques and system design on system availability. A generic multiprocessor architecture is used that can be configured in different ways to study the effect of system architectures. Important parameters studied are different system architectures and hardware fault-tolerance techniques, mean time to failure of basic components, database size and distribution, interconnect capacity, etc. Quantitative analysis compares the relative effect of different parameter values. Results show that the effect of different parameter values on system availability can be very significant. System architecture, use of hardware fault tolerance (particularly mirroring), and data …

Population Amalgamation And Genetic Variation: Observations On Artificially Agglomerated Tribal Populations Of Central And South America, R Chakraborty, P E Smouse, J V Neel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The interpretation of data on genetic variation with regard to the relative roles of different evolutionary factors that produce and maintain genetic variation depends critically on our assumptions concerning effective population size and the level of migration between neighboring populations. In humans, recent population growth and movements of specific ethnic groups across wide geographic areas mean that any theory based on assumptions of constant population size and absence of substructure is generally untenable. We examine the effects of population subdivision on the pattern of protein genetic variation in a total sample drawn from an artificial agglomerate of 12 tribal populations …

A Tool For Integrating Conceptual Schemas And User Views, Amit P. Sheth, James A. Larson, Aloysius Cornelio, Shamkant B. Navathe

Kno.e.sis Publications

An interactive tool has been developed to assist database designers and administrators (DDA) in integrating schemas. It collects the information required for integration from a DDA, performs essential bookkeeping, and integrates schemas according to the semantics provided. The authors present the capabilities of this tool by discussing the integration methodology and the user interface of the tool.

Control Of Insect Pests In Recent Mammal Collections, S. L. Williams, Hugh H. Genoways, D. A. Schlitter

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

A review is made of numerous insecticides to determine their suitability for use in Recent mammal collections. Factors determining their value were based on human safety, ability to protect specimens without adverse effects, and other considerations. The more favorable insecticides to use in mammal collections include Dowfume 75, sulfuryl fluoride. dimethyldiclorovinyl phosphate, paradichlorobenzene, carbon dioxide, and naphthalene. Insecticides that are considered less favor able because of many limitations included aldrin, dieldrin, arsenic, borax, mitin, ethylene oxide, methoxychlor, methyl bromide, and pyrethrum. There are some insecticides that should never be used because of extreme health and/or fire hazards. These include carbon …

An Analysis Of The Effect Of Network Load And Topology On The Performance Of Concurrency Control Algorithm In Distributed Database Systems, Anoop Singhal, Amit P. Sheth, Ming T. Liu

Kno.e.sis Publications

Earlier studies in the performance analysis of concurrency control algorithms in distributed database systems (DDBS) have assumed that the message transmission time between any two nodes of a network is constant. Hence they disregard the effect of communication subnet related parameters such as network traffic, network topology, the capacity of transmission channels and the size of messages transmitted. In this paper an analytical model is used to estimate the delays in transmission channels for a DDBS in a long haul network. The analysis shows that the constant transmission time assumption cannot be justified in many cases and that response time …

Genetics And Epidemiology Of Gallbladder Disease In New World Native Peoples, K M Weiss, R E Ferrell, C L Hanis, P N Styne

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Native peoples of the New World, including Amerindians and admixed Latin Americans such as Mexican-Americans, are highly susceptible to diseases of the gallbladder. These include cholesterol cholelithiasis (gallstones) and its complications, as well as cancer of the gallbladder. Although there is clearly some necessary dietary or other environmental risk factor involved, the pattern of disease prevalence is geographically associated with the distribution of genes of aboriginal Amerindian origin, and levels of risk generally correspond to the degree of Amerindian admixture. This pattern differs from that generally associated with Westernization, which suggests a gene-environment interaction, and that within an admixed population …

In Vitro Incorporation Of Molybdate Into Demolybdoproteins In Escherichia Coli, Randolph H. Scott, George T. Sperl, John A. Demoss

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

When Escherichia coli was grown in the presence of tungstate, inactive forms of two molybdoenzymes, nitrate reductase and formate dehydrogenase, accumulated and were converted to their active forms upon incubation of cell suspensions with molybdate and chloramphenicol. The conversion to the active enzymes did not occur in cell extracts. When incubated with [(99)Mo]molybdate and chloramphenicol, the tungstate-grown cells incorporated (99)Mo into protein components which were released from membranes by procedures used to release nitrate reductase and formate dehydrogenase and which migrated with these activities on polyacrylamide gels. Although neither activity was formed during incubation of the crude extract with molybdate, …

Influence Of Temperature Of Incubation And Type Of Growth Medium On Pigmentation In Serratia Marcescens, Robert P. Williams, Cora L. Gott, S M. Qadri, Randolph H. Scott

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Maximal amounts of prodigiosin were synthesized in either minimal or complete medium after incubation of cultures at 27 C for 7 days. Biosynthesis of prodigiosin began earlier and the range of temperature for formation was greater in complete medium. No prodigiosin was formed in either medium when cultures were incubated at 38 C; however, after a shift to 27 C, pigmentation ensued, provided the period of incubation at 38 C was not longer than 36 hr for minimal medium or 48 hr for complete medium. Washed, nonpigmented cells grown in either medium at 38 C for 72 hr could synthesize …