2945218
On querying geospatial and georeferenced metadata resources in G-Portal
G-Portal is a Web portal system providing a range of digital library services to access geospatial and georeferenced resources on the Web. Among them are the storage and query subsystems that provide a central repository of metadata resources organized under different projects. In G-Portal, all metadata resources are represented in XML (Extensible Markup Language) and they are compliant to some resource schemas defined by their creators. The resource schemas are extended versions of a basic resource schema making it easy to accommodate all kinds of metadata resources while maintaining the portability of resource data. To support queries over the geospatial and georeferenced metadata resources, a XQuery-like query language known as RQL (Resource Query Language) has been designed. We present the RQL language features and provide some experimental findings about the storage design and query evaluation strategies for RQL, queries.
1037934
A visual tool for building logical data models of websites
Information sources over the WWW contain a large amount of data organized according to different interests and values. Thus, it is important that facilities are there to enable users to extract information of interest in a simple and effective manner. To do this, We propose the Wiccap Data Model, an XML data model that maps Web information sources into commonly perceived logical models, so that information can be extracted automatically according to users' interests. To accelerate the creation of data models, we have implemented a visual tool, called the Mapping Wizard, to facilitate and automate the process of producing Wiccap Data Models. Using the tool, the time required to construct a logical data model for a given website is significantly reduced.
17450841
An information concierge for the Web
WWW Information Collection, Collaging and Programming (WICCAP) system is a software system for the generation of logical views of web resources, and the extraction of desired information in the form of a structured document. It is designed to enable people to obtain information of interests in a simple and effective manner as well as to make information from the WWW accessible to applications so as to afford automation, inter-operation and Web-awareness among services. A key factor in making this system useful in practice is that it provides tools to automate and facilitate the process of constructing logical representation of websites, to identify and define information of interest, and to retrieving them. In this paper we present the design of the WICCAP system and its two main components, namely Mapping Wizard and Network Extraction Agent.
7550543
A digital library for geography examination resources
We describe a Web-based application developed above a digital library of geographical resources for Singapore students preparing to take a national examination in geography. The application provides an interactive, non-sequential approach to learning that supplements textbooks.
12742605
An Automated Algorithm for Extracting Website Skeleton
The huge amount of information available on the Web has attracted many research efforts into developing wrappers that extract data from webpages. However, as most of the systems for generating wrappers focus on extracting data at page-level, data extraction at site-level remains a manual or semi-automatic process. In this paper, we study the problem of extracting website skeleton, i.e. extracting the underlying hyperlink structure that is used to organize the content pages in a given website. We propose an automated algorithm, called the Sew algorithm, to discover the skeleton of a website. Given a page, the algorithm examines hyperlinks in groups and identifies the navigation links that point to pages in the next level in the website structure. The entire skeleton is then constructed by recursively fetching pages pointed by the discovered links and analyzing these pages using the same process. Our experiments on real life websites show that the algorithm achieves a high recall with moderate precision.
7602869
Intergenerational Partnerships in the Design of a Digital Library of Geography Examination Resources
This paper describes the engagement of intergenerational partners in the design of a digital library of geographical resources (GeogDL) to help prepare Singapore students for a national examination in geography. GeogDL is built on top of G-Portal, a digital library providing services over geospatial and georeferenced Web content. Scenario-based design and claims analysis were employed as a means of refinement to the initial design of the GeogDL prototype.
17231470
Dynamic scheduling of parallel computations
Structures of parallel programs are usually represented by task graphs in the scheduling literature. Such graphs are sometimes obtained at compile time. In many other cases, however, they can be determined only at run time. In this paper, we consider the scheduling of parallel computations whose task graphs are generated at run time. We analyze the case where the task graph is a random out-tree. When the number of offspring of a task has a geometric distribution whose parameter is decreasing and convex in the level, then the breadth-first policy stochastically minimizes the makespan. If, however, this parameter is increasing and concave, then the depth-first policy stochastically minimizes the makespan.
3730862
Distributed Resource Allocation in Stream Processing Systems
Distributed stream processing architecture has emerged as appealing solution to coping with the analysis of large amount of data from dispersed sources. A fundamental problem in such stream processing systems is how to best utilize the available resources so that the overall system performance is optimized. We consider a distributed stream processing system that consists of a network of cooperating servers, collectively providing processing services for multiple data streams. Each stream is required to complete a series of operations on various servers. We assume all servers have finite computing resources and all communication links have finite available bandwidth. The problem is to find distributed schemes to allocate the limited computing resources as well as the communication bandwidth in the system so as to achieve a maximum concurrent throughput for all output streams. We present a generalized multicommodity flow model for the above problem. We develop a distributed resource allocation algorithm that guarantees the optimality. We also provide detailed analysis on the complexity of the algorithm and demonstrate the performance using numerical experiments.
774892
Single Machine Scheduling Subject To Precedence Delays
Abstract A single-machine scheduling problem with precedence delays is analyzed. A set of n tasks is to be scheduled on the machine in such a way that the makespan is minimized. The executions of the tasks are constrained by precedence delays, i.e., a task can start its execution only after any of its predecessors has completed and the delay between the two tasks has elapsed. In the case of unit execution times and integer lengths of delays, the problem is shown to be NP-hard in the strong sense. In the case of integer execution times and unit length of delays, the problem is polynomial, and an O(n2) optimal algorithm is provided. Both preemptive and non-preemptive cases are considered.
34520117
Print vs. electronic resources: A study of user perceptions, preferences, and use
The arrival and proliferation of electronic resources and digital libraries have a number of significant impacts on the use of print resources and traditional libraries. This study explores the extent to which graduate students in a metropolitan university setting use print and electronic resources. Reading preferences and use of print and electronic resources vary among different disciplines. Graduate students seem to expect a hybrid of print and electronic resources. They desire to meet their information needs through a mix of print and online resources, even though reasons for supplementing another type of resource differ. Circumstances that affect the selection of use between digital libraries and traditional libraries are also discussed.
15783652
Low bit-rate video streaming for face-to-face teleconference
Face-to-face video teleconferencing is very important for real time communication. Current teleconferencing applications use standard video codecs, such as MPEG 1/2/4, for the compression of face video. Either a high bandwidth is required for high quality video transmission, or the transmitted face video is blurred at low bitrates. We present a system for real-time coding of face video at low bit-rate. There are two main contributions. First, we improve the technique of long term memory prediction by selecting frames into the database in an optimal way. A new frame is selected into the database only when it is significantly different from those frames which are already in the database. In this way, the database can cover a wider range of images. Second, we incorporate prior knowledge about faces into the long term memory prediction framework. The prior knowledge includes: (1) facial motions are repetitive such that most of them can be reconstructed from multiple reference frames; (2) different components of the face and the background can tolerate different levels of error because of different perceptual importance. Experiments show that, at similar PSNR, the proposed system works much faster and achieves better visual quality than the standard H.264/JVT codec.