Interim research assessment 2003-2005 - Computer Science

This report primarily serves as a source of information for the 2007 Interim Research Assessment Committee for Computer Science at the three technical universities in the Netherlands. The report also provides information for others interested in our research activities

Choosing between remote I/O versus staging in distributed environments

Today, scientifi_x000C_c applications and experiments have become increasingly complex and more demanding in terms of their computational and data requirements. The amount of data generated and used has grown at a very rapid rate. As tens or hundreds of terabytes of data for a single application is very common today; petabytes and even exabytes of data will be very common in a few years. One of the major challenges in distributed computing environments is how to access these large datasets remotely over the network. Data staging and remote I/O are the most widely used data access methods for distributed applications. Application developers generally chose one over the other intuitively without making any scienti_x000C_fic comparison specifi_x000C_c to their applications since there is no generic model available that they can use. In this thesis, we develop generic models and set guidelines for the application developers which would help them to choose the most appropriate data access method for their application. We de_x000C_fine the parameters that potentially aff_x000B_ect the end-to-end performance of the distributed applications which need to access remote data. To achieve our goal, we implement a series of synthetic benchmark applications to simulate di_x000B_fferent data access patterns. We run these benchmark applications on diff_x000B_erent distributed computing settings with di_x000B_fferent parameters, such as network bandwidth, server and client capabilities, and data access ratio. We also use di_x000B_fferent remote I/O protocols to show the importance of the protocol in making a decision. We use regression analysis to develop applicable generic models for comparing diff_x000B_erent data access methods, and test our models in a real life application. The main contribution of our thesis is generic models that can be applied to most data-intensive distributed applications to decide the best data access technique for those applications. Our models provide the scientists and application developers an opportunity to choose the best data access method before actually running the application

Semantic web system for differential diagnosis recommendations

There is a growing realization that healthcare is a knowledge-intensive field. The ability to capture and leverage semantics via inference or query processing is crucial for supporting the various required processes in both primary (e.g. disease diagnosis) and long term care (e.g. predictive and preventive diagnosis). Given the wide canvas and the relatively frequent knowledge changes that occur in this area, we need to take advantage of the new trends in Semantic Web technologies. In particular, the power of ontologies allows us to share medical research and provide suitable support to physician's practices. There is also a need to integrate these technologies within the currently used healthcare practices. In particular the use of semantic web technologies is highly demanded within the clinicians' differential diagnosis process and the clinical pathways disease management procedures as well as to aid the predictive/preventative measures used by healthcare professionals

Efficiency in utilizing ICT infrastructure in developing countries: a case study of the Royal Thai Police\u27s attitudes to the adoption of an image retrieval application for eyewitness identification

One of the most important aspects of decision and policy making is the timely access to accurately and relevant information. At present the situation in some developing countries is that communication and exchange of information between the government agencies are still paper-based. It can often take weeks or months for one government agency to obtain the records it requires from another agency. The lack of communication between these agencies often results in duplication of efforts and inefficiencies. This lack of communication also means that agencies often produce more of the irrelevant albeit sophisticated information (such as the Statistics Division) than the essential information that is critical and actually needed by other agency for decision making. (World Bank report, 1998) In order to bring people into information society, to have access to information, it is crucial to have appropriate technology and applications that compatible with both old and new technologies—given that majority can not afford to keep up with new technologies being introduced everyday--as well as quality programming in indigenous languages, To create an information society in developing countries, we must first have knowledge of their past, understand their present. Only then participating in their future can be more probable and possible (Matsepe-Casaburri 1996) The overall aim of this study is to add value to the process of information sharing among the government departments in Thailand. It does this by analyzing the opportunity to integrate existing technology with the data available in existing databases and make it more valuable for future use. A case study of the Department of Local Administration, under the Ministry of Interior, and the Royal Thai Police Department is used to develop an understanding of how the utilization of data to a full extent can be beneficial in the government service. In Thailand, every Thai citizen is required to carry a national identity card. Personal data of each person such as date of birth, height, blood type, religion and occupation, including registered address and individual photograph image, are kept in the Central Registration Database Systems (CRDS). The CRDS is operated by the Department of Local Administration under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior. In order to maximize the benefits from this database, the CRDS is shared by other authorized government agencies. The Royal Thai Police Department is one of the government agencies that also share the information from the CRDS. Frequently, the individual registration database and photographs from CRDS are needed to support crime investigation. This research therefore, investigates how the Thai government could utilize the existing database system to aid in the crime investigation process. It then suggests an effective method of image retrieval to support police officers when searching criminal records from a Central Registration Database Systems. The research begins with an exploratory study of the use and sharing of information amongst the government agencies in developing countries. It examines the use of existing technology and how the Government uses technology to access information. There are two major objectives in this research. The first one addresses how value can be added to the present data in the existing system. The author chooses to focus on the area of crime investigation and evaluate two existing image retrieval methods, in order to determine the most suited one from crime investigation process in Thailand. The second objective is to examine and evaluate the attitudes and perceptions of the Thai police towards acceptance of IT usage in the crime investigation process. The results are then was compared with the literature on barriers to the adoption of IT and some of the more recently developed Technology Acceptance Models, which is also used to explain the findings

Advances in Robotics, Automation and Control

The book presents an excellent overview of the recent developments in the different areas of Robotics, Automation and Control. Through its 24 chapters, this book presents topics related to control and robot design; it also introduces new mathematical tools and techniques devoted to improve the system modeling and control. An important point is the use of rational agents and heuristic techniques to cope with the computational complexity required for controlling complex systems. Through this book, we also find navigation and vision algorithms, automatic handwritten comprehension and speech recognition systems that will be included in the next generation of productive systems developed by man

Context-awareness for adaptive information retrieval systems

Philosophiae Doctor - PhDThis research study investigates optimization of IRS to individual information needs in order of relevance. The research addressed development of algorithms that optimize the ranking of documents retrieved from IRS. In this thesis, we present two aspects of context-awareness in IR. Firstly, the design of context of information. The context of a query determines retrieved information relevance. Thus, executing the same query in diverse contexts often leads to diverse result rankings. Secondly, the relevant context aspects should be incorporated in a way that supports the knowledge domain representing users’ interests. In this thesis, the use of evolutionary algorithms is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of IRS. A context-based information retrieval system is developed whose retrieval effectiveness is evaluated using precision and recall metrics. The results demonstrate how to use attributes from user interaction behaviour to improve the IR effectivenes

Women in Artificial intelligence (AI)

This Special Issue, entitled "Women in Artificial Intelligence" includes 17 papers from leading women scientists. The papers cover a broad scope of research areas within Artificial Intelligence, including machine learning, perception, reasoning or planning, among others. The papers have applications to relevant fields, such as human health, finance, or education. It is worth noting that the Issue includes three papers that deal with different aspects of gender bias in Artificial Intelligence. All the papers have a woman as the first author. We can proudly say that these women are from countries worldwide, such as France, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Australia, Bangladesh, Yemen, Romania, India, Cuba, Bangladesh and Spain. In conclusion, apart from its intrinsic scientific value as a Special Issue, combining interesting research works, this Special Issue intends to increase the invisibility of women in AI, showing where they are, what they do, and how they contribute to developments in Artificial Intelligence from their different places, positions, research branches and application fields. We planned to issue this book on the on Ada Lovelace Day (11/10/2022), a date internationally dedicated to the first computer programmer, a woman who had to fight the gender difficulties of her times, in the XIX century. We also thank the publisher for making this possible, thus allowing for this book to become a part of the international activities dedicated to celebrating the value of women in ICT all over the world. With this book, we want to pay homage to all the women that contributed over the years to the field of AI