Applying Algebraic Approaches for Modeling Workflows and their Transformations in Mobile Networks

In emergency scenarios we can obtain a more effective coordination among team members, each of them equipped with hand-held devices, through the use of workflow management software. Team members constitute a Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET), whose topology both influences and is influenced by the workflow. In this paper we propose an algebraic approach for modeling workflow progress as well as its modifications as required by topology transformations. The approach is based on Algebraic Higher-Order Nets and sees both workflows and topologies as tokens, allowing their concurrent modification

Prototype performance evaluation of multimedia service components

This paper deals with a formal approach for decomposition and description of multimedia service components and their performance analysis. Our approach is based on the Temporal Logic of Actions (TLA) specifications. A TLA based specification of multimedia components is transformed into process prototypes described with the SPIMS (SICS Protocol Implementation Measurement System) application language. The multimedia component prototype derived in this way is then evaluated with the SPIMS tool for different QoS parameters. The proposed approach using TLA based specifications, transformations in SPIMS application prototypes, and performance analysis provides the background for an computer based system for test specification and performance analysis which is currently under development. We present and discuss practical test scenarios derived from the proposed method for performance analysis of the Audio-Visual Communication (AVC)component of the Joint-Viewing and Tele-Operation Service (JVTOS). The multimedia test scenarios shown use the TCP/IP and XTP protocols on top of FORE ATM networks

Content And Multimedia Database Management Systems

A database management system is a general-purpose software system that facilitates the processes of defining, constructing, and manipulating databases for various applications. The main characteristic of the ‘database approach’ is that it increases the value of data by its emphasis on data independence. DBMSs, and in particular those based on the relational data model, have been very successful at the management of administrative data in the business domain. This thesis has investigated data management in multimedia digital libraries, and its implications on the design of database management systems. The main problem of multimedia data management is providing access to the stored objects. The content structure of administrative data is easily represented in alphanumeric values. Thus, database technology has primarily focused on handling the objects’ logical structure. In the case of multimedia data, representation of content is far from trivial though, and not supported by current database management systems

Apache Calcite: A Foundational Framework for Optimized Query Processing Over Heterogeneous Data Sources

Apache Calcite is a foundational software framework that provides query processing, optimization, and query language support to many popular open-source data processing systems such as Apache Hive, Apache Storm, Apache Flink, Druid, and MapD. Calcite's architecture consists of a modular and extensible query optimizer with hundreds of built-in optimization rules, a query processor capable of processing a variety of query languages, an adapter architecture designed for extensibility, and support for heterogeneous data models and stores (relational, semi-structured, streaming, and geospatial). This flexible, embeddable, and extensible architecture is what makes Calcite an attractive choice for adoption in big-data frameworks. It is an active project that continues to introduce support for the new types of data sources, query languages, and approaches to query processing and optimization.Comment: SIGMOD'1

Using formal methods to support testing

Formal methods and testing are two important approaches that assist in the development of high quality software. While traditionally these approaches have been seen as rivals, in recent years a new consensus has developed in which they are seen as complementary. This article reviews the state of the art regarding ways in which the presence of a formal specification can be used to assist testing

InfraPhenoGrid: A scientific workflow infrastructure for Plant Phenomics on the Grid

International audiencePlant phenotyping consists in the observation of physical and biochemical traits of plant genotypes in response to environmental conditions. Challenges , in particular in context of climate change and food security, are numerous. High-throughput platforms have been introduced to observe the dynamic growth of a large number of plants in different environmental conditions. Instead of considering a few genotypes at a time (as it is the case when phenomic traits are measured manually), such platforms make it possible to use completely new kinds of approaches. However, the data sets produced by such widely instrumented platforms are huge, constantly augmenting and produced by increasingly complex experiments, reaching a point where distributed computation is mandatory to extract knowledge from data. In this paper, we introduce InfraPhenoGrid, the infrastructure we designed and deploy to efficiently manage data sets produced by the PhenoArch plant phenomics platform in the context of the French Phenome Project. Our solution consists in deploying scientific workflows on a Grid using a middle-ware to pilot workflow executions. Our approach is user-friendly in the sense that despite the intrinsic complexity of the infrastructure, running scientific workflows and understanding results obtained (using provenance information) is kept as simple as possible for end-users

Unsupervised Visual and Textual Information Fusion in Multimedia Retrieval - A Graph-based Point of View

Multimedia collections are more than ever growing in size and diversity. Effective multimedia retrieval systems are thus critical to access these datasets from the end-user perspective and in a scalable way. We are interested in repositories of image/text multimedia objects and we study multimodal information fusion techniques in the context of content based multimedia information retrieval. We focus on graph based methods which have proven to provide state-of-the-art performances. We particularly examine two of such methods : cross-media similarities and random walk based scores. From a theoretical viewpoint, we propose a unifying graph based framework which encompasses the two aforementioned approaches. Our proposal allows us to highlight the core features one should consider when using a graph based technique for the combination of visual and textual information. We compare cross-media and random walk based results using three different real-world datasets. From a practical standpoint, our extended empirical analysis allow us to provide insights and guidelines about the use of graph based methods for multimodal information fusion in content based multimedia information retrieval.Comment: An extended version of the paper: Visual and Textual Information Fusion in Multimedia Retrieval using Semantic Filtering and Graph based Methods, by J. Ah-Pine, G. Csurka and S. Clinchant, submitted to ACM Transactions on Information System

Message sequence charts in the software engineering process

The software development process benefits from the use of Message Sequence Charts (MSC), which is a graphical language for displyaing the interaction behaviour of a system. We describe canonical applications of MSC independent of any software development methodology. We illustrate the use of MSC with a case study: the Meeting Scheduler