An infrastructure for context-dependent RDF data replication on mobile devices

Der im Rahmen dieser Arbeit vorgestellte Ansatz beschreibt die Erstellung einer technischen Infrastruktur, die selektiv RDF-Daten in Abhängigkeit der Informationsbedürfnisse und den unterschiedlichen Kontexten mobiler Nutzer auf ein mobiles Endgerät repliziert und diese somit in intelligenter Art und Weise unterstützt. Eine Zusammenführung kontextspezifischer Konzepte und semantischer Technologien stellt einen wesentlichen Bestandteil zur Verbesserung der mobilen Informationssuche dar und erhöht gleichzeitig die Präzision mobiler Informationsgewinnungsprozesse. Trotz des vorhandenen Potentials einer proaktiven, kontextabhängigen Replizierung von RDF-Daten, gestaltet sich die Verarbeitung auf mobilen Endgeräten schwierig. Die Gründe dafür liegen in den technischen und netzwerkspezifischen Beschränkungen, in der fehlenden Verarbeitungs- und Verwaltungsfunktionalität von ontologiebasierten Beschreibungsverfahren sowie in der Unzulänglichkeit bestehender Replikationsansätze, sich an verändernde Informationsbedürfnisse sowie an unterschiedliche technische, umgebungsspezifische und infrastrukturbezogene Eigenheiten anzupassen. Verstärkt wird diese Problematik durch das Fehlen ausdrucksstarker Beschreibungsverfahren zur Repräsentation kontextspezifischer Daten. Existierende Ansätze leiden dementsprechend unter der Verwendung proprietärer Datenformate, dem Einsatz serverabhängiger Applikationsinfrastrukturen sowie dem Unvermögen, kontextspezifische Daten auszutauschen. Dies äußert sich in Studien, welche die Berücksichtigung der Informationsbedürfnisse mobiler Nutzer als unzureichend einstuft und einen Großteil der benötigten Informationen als kontextrelevant auszeichnet. Obgleich Fortschritte bei der Adaption von semantischen Technologien und Beschreibungsverfahren zur kontextabhängigen Verarbeitung zu erkennen sind, bleibt eine auf semantische Technologien basierende, proaktive Replizierung von RDF-Daten auf mobile Endgeräte ein offenes Forschungsfeld. Die vorliegende Arbeit diskutiert Möglichkeiten zur Erweiterung der mobilen, kontextspezifischen Datenverarbeitung durch semantische Technologien und beinhaltet eine vergleichende Studie zur Leistungsfähigkeit aktueller mobiler RDF-Frameworks. Kernpunkt ist die formale Beschreibung eines abstrakten Modells zur effizienten Akquise, Repräsentation, Verwaltung und Verarbeitung von Kontextinformationen unter Berücksichtigung der technischen Gegebenheiten mobiler Informationssysteme. Ergänzt wird es durch die formale Spezifikation eines nebenläufigen, transaktionsbasierten Verarbeitungsmodells, welches Vollständigkeits- und Konsistenzbedingungen auf Daten- und Prozessebene berücksichtigt. Der praktische Nutzen des vorliegenden Ansatzes wird anhand typischer Informationsbedürfnisse eines Wissensarbeiters demonstriert. Der Ansatz reduziert Abhängigkeiten zu externen Systemen und ermöglicht Nutzern, unabhängig von zeitlichen, örtlichen und netzwerkspezifischen Gegebenheiten, auf die für sie relevanten Daten zuzugreifen und diese zu verarbeiten. Durch die lokale Verarbeitung kontextbezogener Daten wird sowohl die Privatssphäre des Nutzers gewahrt als auch sicherheitsrelevanten Aspekten Rechnung getragen.This work describes an infrastructure for the selective RDF data replication to mobile devices while considering current and future information needs of mobile users and the different contexts they are operating in. It presents a novel approach in synthesizing context-aware computing concepts with semantic technologies and distributed transaction management concepts for intelligently assisting mobile users while enhancing mobile information seeking behavior and increasing the precision of mobile information retrieval processes. Despite the huge potential of a proactive, context-dependent replication of RDF data, such data can not be efficiently processed on mobile devices due to (i) technical limitations and network-related constraints, (ii) missing processing and management capabilities of ontology-based description frameworks, (iii) the inability of traditional data replication strategies to adapt to changing user information needs and to consider technical, environmental, and infrastructural restrictions of mobile operating systems, and (iv) the dynamic and emergent nature of context, which requires flexible and extensible description frameworks that allow for elaborating on the semantics of contextual constellations as well as on the relationships that exist between them. As a consequence, existing approaches suffer from the deployment of proprietary data formats, server-dependent application infrastructures, and the inability to share and exchange contextual information across system borders. Moreover, results of recently conducted studies reveal that mobile users find their information needs inadequately addressed, where a large share can be attributed as context or context-relevant. Although progress has been made in applying semantic technologies, concepts, and languages to the domain of context-aware computing, a synthesis of those fields for the proactive provision of RDF data replicas on mobile devices remains an open research issue. This work discusses possible fields where context-aware computing can be enhanced using technologies, languages, and concepts from the Semantic Web and contains a comparative study about the performance of current mobile RDF frameworks in replication-specific tasks. The main contribution of this thesis is a formal description of an abstract model that allows for an efficient acquisition, representation, management, and processing of contextual information while taking into account the peculiarities and operating environments of mobile information systems. It is complemented by a formal specification of a concurrently operating transaction-based processing model that considers completeness and consistency requirements on data and process level. We demonstrate the practicability of the presented approach trough a prototypical implementation of context and data providers that satisfy typical information needs of a mobile knowledge worker. As a consequence, dependencies to external systems are reduced and users are equipped with relevant information that adheres to their information needs anywhere and at any time, independent of any network-related constraints. Since context-relevant data are processed directly on a mobile device, security and privacy issues are preserved

Incremental query answering over semantic contextual information

Master'sMASTER OF SCIENC

User-centred and context-aware identity management in mobile ad-hoc networks

The emergent notion of ubiquitous computing makes it possible for mobile devices to communicate and provide services via networks connected in an ad-hoc manner. These have resulted in the proliferation of wireless technologies such as Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANets), which offer attractive solutions for services that need flexible setup as well as dynamic and low cost wireless connectivity. However, the growing trend outlined above also raises serious concerns over Identity Management (IM) due to a dramatic increase in identity theft. The problem is even greater in service-oriented architectures, where partial identities are sprinkled across many services and users have no control over such identities. In this thesis, we review some issues of contextual computing, its implications and usage within pervasive environments. To tackle the above problems, it is essential to allow users to have control over their own identities in MANet environments. So far, the development of such identity control remains a significant challenge for the research community. The main focus of this thesis is on the area of identity management in MANets and emergency situations by using context-awareness and user-centricity together with its security issues and implications. Context- awareness allows us to make use of partial identities as a way of user identity protection and node identification. User-centricity is aimed at putting users in control of their partial identities, policies and rules for privacy protection. These principles help us to propose an innovative, easy-to-use identity management framework for MANets. The framework makes the flow of partial identities explicit; gives users control over such identities based on their respective situations and contexts, and creates a balance between convenience and privacy. The thesis presents our proposed framework, its development and lab results/evaluations, and outlines possible future work to improve the framework

Automatic device and location detection in web services

Verkkosivustot ovat keränneet jo pitkään tietoja käyttäjistä, mutta tiedot ovat usein rajoittuneet vain selaintietoihin. Muutamina viime vuosina on alettu kerätä tietoa varsinkin mobiililaitteista, sillä yhä useammassa niistä on webselain. Päätelaitetietojen avulla on mahdollista esimerkiksi tehdä uudelleenohjaus verkkosivuston mobiiliversioon tai muokata sivuston ulkoasua päätelaitteen koon mukaan. Tämä parantaa verkkosivuston käytettävyyttä ja saavutettavuutta varsinkin mobiililaitteilla. Lisäksi päätelaitetietoja keräämällä saadaan tietoa siitä, millaisilla laitteilla ja mitä verkkosivuja niillä käytetään. Samoin erilaiset paikkatietoa hyödyntävät palvelut ja sovellukset ovat kasvattaneet suosiotaan viime vuosina. Paikannuksen odotetaan lyövän entistä paremmin läpi lähivuosina etenkin mobiililaitteissa, joissa GPS-vastaanottimien määrä on lisääntynyt vähitellen. Paikkatietoa voidaan hyödyntää monilla toimialoilla, kuten sosiaalisissa verkkopalveluissa, mainostamisessa, logistiikassa ja kuljetuksessa sekä yleisesti teollisuudessa. Tämän työn tavoitteena on selvittää, mitä eri vaihtoehtoja on automatisoidulle päätelaitetunnistukselle ja paikkatiedonkeräämiselle. Työ on tehty osana Hypermedialaboratorion Urban Computing Lab eli UCL-hanketta, jonka laboratorioympäristö on taustalla motivoimassa tätä tutkimusta. Tutkimuksessa esitellään ne menetelmät, joiden toiminnallisuudesta ja soveltuvuudesta otettiin selvää osana UCL:n toteutusteknologioiden valintaprosessia. Tutkimuksen tuloksena on selvitetty, mitä päätelaitetietoja ja miten niitä voidaan kerätä automatisoidusti verkkopalveluissa. Samoin se osoittaa, mitä keinoja on saada paikkatieto talteen eri päätelaitteita käytettäessä. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan todeta, että eri teknologioita yhdistellessä on mahdollista kerätä käyttötietoja, kuten päätelaitteen näytön koko, selain, käyttöjärjestelmä ja sijainti. Tällä työllä on luotu pohja automatisoidun käyttötiedonkeruun toteuttamiselle verkkopalveluissa. Toteutuksen ohessa syntyi myös jatkokehitysideoita UCL:ään ja näkemyksiä tulevaisuudesta liittyen mobiiliteknologioihin ja paikannukseen. Niinpä tämän työn tuloksia tulee vertailla uusiin teknologioihin, joita kehitellään jatkuvasti niin päätelaitetunnistuksen kuin paikannuksen osalta. /Kir1

Sustainable and digital strategies for enhancing United Arab Emirates construction industry competiveness

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) construction sector is an important industry and contributes approximately 11% of the GDP. It has been the most significant economic activity outside the oil sector. However, recession, uncertainty, complexity, sustainability, and climate change are among the most important features of the current construction business environment in the UAE. Although many construction firms throughout the world have successfully embedded sustainability, there is little information on how UAE construction organisations are embedding sustainability strategies for competitive advantage. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore how the UAE construction organisations are embedding sustainable strategies to improve their competitive advantage from a social, environmental and economic point of view. The findings are in the main, based on semi-structured interviews with 44 professionals from UAE construction organisations. As part of the analysis of the interviews, content analysis was employed. The unit of analysis adopted for this study is the ‘construction industry’ and the embedded unit is ‘individual employee’. The study recommend that the overall outlook for improved sustainability initiatives efforts from the UAE construction organisations looks quite promising at present. However, the implementation of green Building Information Modelling (BIM) and mobile applications technologies to tackle sustainability issues are relatively low uptake in the UAE construction organisations. Therefore, there is a need to reshape the UAE construction organisations existing digital strategy in order to gain sustainable competitive advantage. The decision makers have to recognise and understand the concept of sustainability from a triple bottom line concept. It is concluded that before organisations embed sustainability initiatives they need to understand and recognise key drivers, which are pushing them towards implementation. The lack of skills for successful deployment of sustainability strategies is one of the most important challenges for the UAE construction sector. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop and deliver a bespoke training program to address, improve and measure the effectiveness of leadership skills for driving change towards sustainability. Most of the technologies included in Industry 4.0 are still at their infancies and for the future would recommend more research to be carried out on these technologies, this will enable the construction industry to understand the benefits that can be gained from these technologies and with the industry being known for resisting change, demonstrating these benefits can be the start of the construction industry embracing the change. Furthermore, it is recommended that future research on mobile applications for sustainability should focus on user readiness aspects, as well as organisation readiness for adoption and usage patterns of mobile devices. A framework for managing sustainability strategies in the UAE construction industry was developed and validated. Findings of this research are limited to the UAE construction industry context only, as such, the level of generalisability outside this context may be very limited.UAE Governmen