The Official Student Newspaper of UAS

UAS' 13th Annual Oratory Competition -- Philosophical Traditions: Bad Faith -- "Insolent Detergent" AKA "Insurgent" -- Summer Break: Home Again -- Calendar & Comic

MonetDB/XQuery - Consistent & Efficient Updates on the Pre/Post Plane

Relational XQuery processors aim at leveraging mature relational DBMS query processing technology to provide scalability and efficiency. To achieve this goal, various storage schemes have been proposed to encode the tree structure of XML documents in flat relational tables. Basically, two classes can be identified: (1) encodings using fixed-length surrogates, like the preorder ranks in the pre/post encoding [5] or the equivalent pre/size/level encoding [8], and (2) encodings using variable-length surrogates, like, e.g., ORDPATH [9] or P-PBiTree [12]. Recent research [1] showed a clear advantage of the former for efficient evaluation of XPath location steps, exploiting techniques like cheap node order tests, positional lookup, and node skipping in staircase join [7]. However, once updates are involved, variable-length surrogates are often considered the better choice, mainly as a straightforward implementation of structural XML updates using fixed-length surrogates faces two performance bottlenecks: (i) high physical cost (the preorder ranks of all nodes following the update position must be modified—on average 50% of the document), and (ii) low transaction concurrency (updating the size of all ancestor nodes causes lock contention on the document root)

AsterixDB: A Scalable, Open Source BDMS

AsterixDB is a new, full-function BDMS (Big Data Management System) with a feature set that distinguishes it from other platforms in today's open source Big Data ecosystem. Its features make it well-suited to applications like web data warehousing, social data storage and analysis, and other use cases related to Big Data. AsterixDB has a flexible NoSQL style data model; a query language that supports a wide range of queries; a scalable runtime; partitioned, LSM-based data storage and indexing (including B+-tree, R-tree, and text indexes); support for external as well as natively stored data; a rich set of built-in types; support for fuzzy, spatial, and temporal types and queries; a built-in notion of data feeds for ingestion of data; and transaction support akin to that of a NoSQL store. Development of AsterixDB began in 2009 and led to a mid-2013 initial open source release. This paper is the first complete description of the resulting open source AsterixDB system. Covered herein are the system's data model, its query language, and its software architecture. Also included are a summary of the current status of the project and a first glimpse into how AsterixDB performs when compared to alternative technologies, including a parallel relational DBMS, a popular NoSQL store, and a popular Hadoop-based SQL data analytics platform, for things that both technologies can do. Also included is a brief description of some initial trials that the system has undergone and the lessons learned (and plans laid) based on those early "customer" engagements

Generalizing Anxiety

As she began reading the list of symptoms, I was making mental check marks next to the ones that applied to me. Fear of interacting with strangers- check. Fear that others will notice that you look anxious- check. Avoiding doing things or talking to people out of fear of embarrassment- check. Fear of situations in which you may be judged- check. Anxiety that disrupts your daily routine, work or school activities- check, check, check. [excerpt

Muir String Quartet, February 6, 2018

This is the concert program of the Muir String Quartet performance on Tuesday, February 6, 2018 at 8:00 p.m., at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Avenue. Works performed were Flute Quartet in D major, K. 285 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, String Quartet No. 1, "Night Fields" by Joan Tower, and String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Digitization for Boston University Concert Programs was supported by the Boston University Humanities Library Endowed Fund

Stereotypy w ukraińskim społeczeństwie w stosunku do osób wewnętrznie przemieszczonych z Donbasu

Stereotypes have always existed in Ukrainian society. The main reason for their occurrence as a rule, was the differences in the historical development of certain regions. With the influence of time, some stereotypes disappeared, but others appeared in their place. The war in the Donbass, has led to the emergence of new stereotypes, which began to firmly take root in the minds of people. Basically, these stereotypes relate to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Donbass and have a negative connotation. The main disseminators of stereotypes are public figures, community activists and the media. The purpose of the article is to analyze the most widespread stereotypes in some regions of Ukraine not covered by the conflict and to find out the reasons for their occurrence.W ukraińskim społeczeństwie zawsze istniały stereotypy. Główną przyczyną ich występowania były z reguły różnice w rozwoju historycznym niektórych regionów. Pod wpływem czasu niektóre stereotypy zniknęły, ale inne pojawiły się w ich miejscu. Wojna w Donbasie doprowadziła do pojawienia się nowych stereotypów, które zaczęły mocno zakorzeniać się w świadomości społecznej. Zasadniczo te stereotypy odnoszą się do osób wewnętrznie przesiedlonych (IDP) z Donbasu i mają negatywną konotację. Głównymi dostarczycielami stereotypów są osoby publiczne, działacze społeczni i media. Celem artykułu jest analiza najbardziej rozpowszechnionych stereotypów w niektórych regionach Ukrainy nieobjętych konfliktem oraz poznanie przyczyn ich wystąpienia

Needing a new programme : why is union membership so low among software workers?

In terms of employee characteristics, software workers represent a particularly fascinating and important group of workers to explore in terms of their behaviour towards unions. They represent an expanding cohort of so-called knowledge workers in the UK and other countries, many possessing considerable latent power through their proximity to and involvement with electronic means of production and accumulation. An early study of technical workers' unionism by Smith (1987) provides evidence that computer personnel possess at least some of Batstone et al's (1978) four potential sources of industrial power, namely: skill scarcity, strategic position, immediate impact on production, and potential to create uncertainty (Smith 1987: 104). Other writers, however, have hinted that software workers are no less immune to management pressures to routinise and Taylorise their work than are any other group of skilled workers (Kraft and Dubnoff 1986; Beirne et al 1998). Software workers also enjoy familiarity with information technology, an increasingly effective tool in organising union membership both in the USA (Fiorito et al 2002) and the UK (Diamond and Freeman 2002)

Anniversary Greetings From the Friends of ACL

For our special 50th anniversary issue,we decided to replace our usual News & Views section with greetings from friends of ACL. We contacted companies who have been involved in our vender exhibits, previous keynote speakers and pre-conference presenters, organizations that ACL and our member libraries have relationships with, past-presidents and the wonderful members of ACL. Many have graciously responded and shared their well wishes and memories of the Association. I hope that you are as touched as I have been as you read these greetings