Keyword-aware Optimal Route Search

Identifying a preferable route is an important problem that finds applications in map services. When a user plans a trip within a city, the user may want to find "a most popular route such that it passes by shopping mall, restaurant, and pub, and the travel time to and from his hotel is within 4 hours." However, none of the algorithms in the existing work on route planning can be used to answer such queries. Motivated by this, we define the problem of keyword-aware optimal route query, denoted by KOR, which is to find an optimal route such that it covers a set of user-specified keywords, a specified budget constraint is satisfied, and an objective score of the route is optimal. The problem of answering KOR queries is NP-hard. We devise an approximation algorithm OSScaling with provable approximation bounds. Based on this algorithm, another more efficient approximation algorithm BucketBound is proposed. We also design a greedy approximation algorithm. Results of empirical studies show that all the proposed algorithms are capable of answering KOR queries efficiently, while the BucketBound and Greedy algorithms run faster. The empirical studies also offer insight into the accuracy of the proposed algorithms.Comment: VLDB201

Answering Spatial Multiple-Set Intersection Queries Using 2-3 Cuckoo Hash-Filters

We show how to answer spatial multiple-set intersection queries in O(n(log w)/w + kt) expected time, where n is the total size of the t sets involved in the query, w is the number of bits in a memory word, k is the output size, and c is any fixed constant. This improves the asymptotic performance over previous solutions and is based on an interesting data structure, known as 2-3 cuckoo hash-filters. Our results apply in the word-RAM model (or practical RAM model), which allows for constant-time bit-parallel operations, such as bitwise AND, OR, NOT, and MSB (most-significant 1-bit), as exist in modern CPUs and GPUs. Our solutions apply to any multiple-set intersection queries in spatial data sets that can be reduced to one-dimensional range queries, such as spatial join queries for one-dimensional points or sets of points stored along space-filling curves, which are used in GIS applications.Comment: Full version of paper from 2017 ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information System

Analysing the police patrol routing problem : a review

Police patrol is a complex process. While on patrol, police officers must balance many intersecting responsibilities. Most notably, police must proactively patrol and prevent offenders from committing crimes but must also reactively respond to real-time incidents. Efficient patrol strategies are crucial to manage scarce police resources and minimize emergency response times. The objective of this review paper is to discuss solution methods that can be used to solve the so-called police patrol routing problem (PPRP). The starting point of the review is the existing literature on the dynamic vehicle routing problem (DVRP). A keyword search resulted in 30 articles that focus on the DVRP with a link to police. Although the articles refer to policing, there is no specific focus on the PPRP; hence, there is a knowledge gap. A diversity of approaches is put forward ranging from more convenient solution methods such as a (hybrid) Genetic Algorithm (GA), linear programming and routing policies, to more complex Markov Decision Processes and Online Stochastic Combinatorial Optimization. Given the objectives, characteristics, advantages and limitations, the (hybrid) GA, routing policies and local search seem the most valuable solution methods for solving the PPRP

OpenKnowledge at work: exploring centralized and decentralized information gathering in emergency contexts

Real-world experience teaches us that to manage emergencies, efficient crisis response coordination is crucial; ICT infrastructures are effective in supporting the people involved in such contexts, by supporting effective ways of interaction. They also should provide innovative means of communication and information management. At present, centralized architectures are mostly used for this purpose; however, alternative infrastructures based on the use of distributed information sources, are currently being explored, studied and analyzed. This paper aims at investigating the capability of a novel approach (developed within the European project OpenKnowledge1) to support centralized as well as decentralized architectures for information gathering. For this purpose we developed an agent-based e-Response simulation environment fully integrated with the OpenKnowledge infrastructure and through which existing emergency plans are modelled and simulated. Preliminary results show the OpenKnowledge capability of supporting the two afore-mentioned architectures and, under ideal assumptions, a comparable performance in both cases

Technology Integration around the Geographic Information: A State of the Art

One of the elements that have popularized and facilitated the use of geographical information on a variety of computational applications has been the use of Web maps; this has opened new research challenges on different subjects, from locating places and people, the study of social behavior or the analyzing of the hidden structures of the terms used in a natural language query used for locating a place. However, the use of geographic information under technological features is not new, instead it has been part of a development and technological integration process. This paper presents a state of the art review about the application of geographic information under different approaches: its use on location based services, the collaborative user participation on it, its contextual-awareness, its use in the Semantic Web and the challenges of its use in natural languge queries. Finally, a prototype that integrates most of these areas is presented

Spatial Queries for Indoor Location-based Services

Indoor Location-based Services (LBS) facilitate people in indoor scenarios such as airports, train stations, shopping malls, and office buildings. Indoor spatial queries are the foundation to support indoor LBSs. However, the existing techniques for indoor spatial queries are limited to support more advanced queries that consider semantic information, temporal variations, and crowd influence. This work studies indoor spatial queries for indoor LBSs. Some typical proposals for indoor spatial queries are compared theoretically and experimentally. Then, it studies three advanced indoor spatial queries, a) Indoor Keyword-aware Routing Query. b) Indoor Temporal-variation aware Routing Query. c) Indoor Crowd-aware Routing Query. A series of techniques are proposed to solve these problems.</p

Data sharing in DHT based P2P systems

International audienceThe evolution of peer-to-peer (P2P) systems triggered the building of large scale distributed applications. The main application domain is data sharing across a very large number of highly autonomous participants. Building such data sharing systems is particularly challenging because of the "extreme" characteristics of P2P infrastructures: massive distribution, high churn rate, no global control, potentially untrusted participants... This article focuses on declarative querying support, query optimization and data privacy on a major class of P2P systems, that based on Distributed Hash Table (P2P DHT). The usual approaches and the algorithms used by classic distributed systems and databases forproviding data privacy and querying services are not well suited to P2P DHT systems. A considerable amount of work was required to adapt them for the new challenges such systems present. This paper describes the most important solutions found. It also identies important future research trends in data management in P2P DHT systems

From flooding to finance: NHS ambulance‐assisted evacuations of care home residents in Norfolk and Suffolk, UK

Focusing on the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk (UK), this investigation examines the effect of coastal and fluvial flooding on the use of ambulance service vehicles in the assisted evacuation of care home residents and quantifies the cost of this service to the NHS under flood conditions. This was completed using GIS Network Analyst functions to identify the impacts of flood probability (high: 1 in 30, medium: 1 in 30 to 1 in 100, and low: 1 in 100 to 1 in 1000) and target ambulance response-times (7, 18, 120, and 180 min) on ambulance service area, road network accessibility, the number of vulnerable care homes and their accessibility, the appropriateness of pre-identified evacuation routes, and the drive-time based evacuation cost to the National Health Service (NHS). The results indicate that approximately 68 care homes and 2,320 residents in Norfolk and Suffolk are at risk of inundation, and care home accessibility, in addition to ambulance service area, decreases with shorter ambulance response-times and lower flood probabilities. Additionally, the use of pre-identified evacuation routes, by the ambulance service, promotes efficient navigation between ambulance stations, care homes, and rest centres, but can unfavourably cause network clustering if unmanaged. In association with these routes, an estimated cost of evacuation based on ambulance drivetime was calculated at £34,000–£42,000 depending on flood probability. The importance of this research is highlighted by the current lack of identified flood evacuation and accessibility maps for emergency responder use, and the associated lack of evacuation cost estimations to be used by the government and NHS to budget for aid assistance during these natural disasters. Therefore, the application of this approach at a national level in the flood emergency planning process would be beneficial to promote strategic efficiency and financial preparedness of ambulance services for the purpose of ambulance-assisted flood evacuations