k-Regret Minimizing Set: Efficient Algorithms and Hardness

We study the k-regret minimizing query (k-RMS), which is a useful operator for supporting multi-criteria decision-making. Given two integers k and r, a k-RMS returns r tuples from the database which minimize the k-regret ratio, defined as one minus the worst ratio between the k-th maximum utility score among all tuples in the database and the maximum utility score of the r tuples returned. A solution set contains only r tuples, enjoying the benefits of both top-k queries and skyline queries. Proposed in 2012, the query has been studied extensively in recent years. In this paper, we advance the theory and the practice of k-RMS in the following aspects. First, we develop efficient algorithms for k-RMS (and its decision version) when the dimensionality is 2. The running time of our algorithms outperforms those of previous ones. Second, we show that k-RMS is NP-hard even when the dimensionality is 3. This provides a complete characterization of the complexity of k-RMS, and answers an open question in previous studies. In addition, we present approximation algorithms for the problem when the dimensionality is 3 or larger

A systematic literature review of skyline query processing over data stream

Recently, skyline query processing over data stream has gained a lot of attention especially from the database community owing to its own unique challenges. Skyline queries aims at pruning a search space of a potential large multi-dimensional set of objects by keeping only those objects that are not worse than any other. Although an abundance of skyline query processing techniques have been proposed, there is a lack of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) on current research works pertinent to skyline query processing over data stream. In regard to this, this paper provides a comparative study on the state-of-the-art approaches over the period between 2000 and 2022 with the main aim to help readers understand the key issues which are essential to consider in relation to processing skyline queries over streaming data. Seven digital databases were reviewed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) procedures. After applying both the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 23 primary papers were further examined. The results show that the identified skyline approaches are driven by the need to expedite the skyline query processing mainly due to the fact that data streams are time varying (time sensitive), continuous, real time, volatile, and unrepeatable. Although, these skyline approaches are tailored made for data stream with a common aim, their solutions vary to suit with the various aspects being considered, which include the type of skyline query, type of streaming data, type of sliding window, query processing technique, indexing technique as well as the data stream environment employed. In this paper, a comprehensive taxonomy is developed along with the key aspects of each reported approach, while several open issues and challenges related to the topic being reviewed are highlighted as recommendation for future research direction

マルチレベル並列化とアプリケーション指向データレイアウトを用いるハードウェアアクセラレータの設計と実装

学位の種別: 課程博士審査委員会委員 : （主査）東京大学教授 稲葉 雅幸, 東京大学教授 須田 礼仁, 東京大学教授 五十嵐 健夫, 東京大学教授 山西 健司, 東京大学准教授 稲葉 真理, 東京大学講師 中山 英樹University of Tokyo(東京大学

Habitat Selection of Female Desert Bighorn Sheep: Tradeoffs Associated with Reproduction

Animals select habitat types that enhance their ability to survive, reproduce, and therefore enhance reproductive fitness. Selection for specific habitat types often varies within populations based on season, habitat availability, sex, age, reproductive status, and other characteristics. Therefore, we expect habitat selection to be changing throughout the lifetime of an individual to meet the metabolic and nutritional constraints of specific periods. For instance, reproductive status, especially provisioning dependent young, is commonly linked to changes in behavior of female ungulates that results in variation in resource selection around parturition. Around parturition, female ungulates are commonly linked to tradeoffs between maternal nutritional condition and survival of offspring. These tradeoffs are hypothesized to take place because they allow females to increase their reproductive fitness by enhancing the likelihood that their offspring survives to recruitment. Understanding these shifts in habitat selection are essential to proper management and the conservation of ungulates.I was interested in documenting the variation in habitat selection of female bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) around parturition, in addition to characterizing composition and quality of diets of females based on time of year and the provisioning status of individuals. This period is critical to female ungulates because their choice of habitat components also influences survival of their offspring and ultimately, the female’s reproductive fitness. I used 2 populations of desert bighorn sheep in west-central Nevada, to study how ungulates adjust habitat selection around parturition. I investigated habitat selection of female desert bighorn sheep from the beginning of their third trimester until weaning of offspring. Furthermore, I investigated how females selected parturition sites and neonates selected bed sites immediately following birth. To accomplish this goal, I captured adult and neonatal bighorn sheep and equipped individuals with very high frequency (VHF) and global positioning system (GPS) radio-collars from 2016 to 2018. Additionally, I collected fecal samples from female bighorn sheep throughout the year and within the parturition season, based on pregnancy and provisioning status of individuals. I also used unmanned aerial vehicles and publicly available remote sensing data to characterize birth sites of parturient females and bed sites of female-offspring pairs. I found that females adjusted habitat selection, based on provisioning status, by trading off maternal nutritional condition for survival of offspring. Prior to parturition, females selected areas with higher forage availability, however, following parturition, females adjusted selection to areas with habitat features that are commonly associated with increased survival of young (i.e., steep slopes, rugged terrain, and more open habitats). Furthermore, as neonates aged, females adjusted habitat selection back to pre-parturition selection levels, where females would be able to fulfill nutritional needs and offspring were less vulnerable to predation. These apparent tradeoffs were also supported by my analyses of diet composition and quality. Females that were not provisioning offspring tended to have higher percentages of nitrogen in fecal pellets indicating that they were consuming higher quality diets than those females that were provisioning offspring. Diet quality of females also varied throughout the year, where spring and summer months had higher fecal nitrogen content than winter months. Additionally, females adjusted diet composition based on provisioning status and season. I found that female bighorn sheep differed in selection strategies for birth and bed sites at each study area. Overall, females tended to select parturition sites at broad scales with steep slopes, high visibility, and close to ridgelines. Microhabitat selection for birth sites was similar to broad scale selection, other than females selected for low downslope visibility and for less steep slopes. Finally, parent-offspring pairs selected bed sites with higher amounts of concealment cover than birth sites

Processing Rank-Aware Queries in Schema-Based P2P Systems

Effiziente Anfragebearbeitung in Datenintegrationssystemen sowie in P2P-Systemen ist bereits seit einigen Jahren ein Aspekt aktueller Forschung. Konventionelle Datenintegrationssysteme bestehen aus mehreren Datenquellen mit ggf. unterschiedlichen Schemata, sind hierarchisch aufgebaut und besitzen eine zentrale Komponente: den Mediator, der ein globales Schema verwaltet. Anfragen an das System werden auf diesem globalen Schema formuliert und vom Mediator bearbeitet, indem relevante Daten von den Datenquellen transparent für den Benutzer angefragt werden. Aufbauend auf diesen Systemen entstanden schließlich Peer-Daten-Management-Systeme (PDMSs) bzw. schemabasierte P2P-Systeme. An einem PDMS teilnehmende Knoten (Peers) können einerseits als Mediatoren agieren andererseits jedoch ebenso als Datenquellen. Darüber hinaus sind diese Peers autonom und können das Netzwerk jederzeit verlassen bzw. betreten. Die potentiell riesige Datenmenge, die in einem derartigen Netzwerk verfügbar ist, führt zudem in der Regel zu sehr großen Anfrageergebnissen, die nur schwer zu bewältigen sind. Daher ist das Bestimmen einer vollständigen Ergebnismenge in vielen Fällen äußerst aufwändig oder sogar unmöglich. In diesen Fällen bietet sich die Anwendung von Top-N- und Skyline-Operatoren, ggf. in Verbindung mit Approximationstechniken, an, da diese Operatoren lediglich diejenigen Datensätze als Ergebnis ausgeben, die aufgrund nutzerdefinierter Ranking-Funktionen am relevantesten für den Benutzer sind. Da durch die Anwendung dieser Operatoren zumeist nur ein kleiner Teil des Ergebnisses tatsächlich dem Benutzer ausgegeben wird, muss nicht zwangsläufig die vollständige Ergebnismenge berechnet werden sondern nur der Teil, der tatsächlich relevant für das Endergebnis ist. Die Frage ist nun, wie man derartige Anfragen durch die Ausnutzung dieser Erkenntnis effizient in PDMSs bearbeiten kann. Die Beantwortung dieser Frage ist das Hauptanliegen dieser Dissertation. Zur Lösung dieser Problemstellung stellen wir effiziente Anfragebearbeitungsstrategien in PDMSs vor, die die charakteristischen Eigenschaften ranking-basierter Operatoren sowie Approximationstechniken ausnutzen. Peers werden dabei sowohl auf Schema- als auch auf Datenebene hinsichtlich der Relevanz ihrer Daten geprüft und dementsprechend in die Anfragebearbeitung einbezogen oder ausgeschlossen. Durch die Heterogenität der Peers werden Techniken zum Umschreiben einer Anfrage von einem Schema in ein anderes nötig. Da existierende Techniken zum Umschreiben von Anfragen zumeist nur konjunktive Anfragen betrachten, stellen wir eine Erweiterung dieser Techniken vor, die Anfragen mit ranking-basierten Anfrageoperatoren berücksichtigt. Da PDMSs dynamische Systeme sind und teilnehmende Peers jederzeit ihre Daten ändern können, betrachten wir in dieser Dissertation nicht nur wie Routing-Indexe verwendet werden, um die Relevanz eines Peers auf Datenebene zu bestimmen, sondern auch wie sie gepflegt werden können. Schließlich stellen wir SmurfPDMS (SiMUlating enviRonment For Peer Data Management Systems) vor, ein System, welches im Rahmen dieser Dissertation entwickelt wurde und alle vorgestellten Techniken implementiert.In recent years, there has been considerable research with respect to query processing in data integration and P2P systems. Conventional data integration systems consist of multiple sources with possibly different schemas, adhere to a hierarchical structure, and have a central component (mediator) that manages a global schema. Queries are formulated against this global schema and the mediator processes them by retrieving relevant data from the sources transparently to the user. Arising from these systems, eventually Peer Data Management Systems (PDMSs), or schema-based P2P systems respectively, have attracted attention. Peers participating in a PDMS can act both as a mediator and as a data source, are autonomous, and might leave or join the network at will. Due to these reasons peers often hold incomplete or erroneous data sets and mappings. The possibly huge amount of data available in such a network often results in large query result sets that are hard to manage. Due to these reasons, retrieving the complete result set is in most cases difficult or even impossible. Applying rank-aware query operators such as top-N and skyline, possibly in conjunction with approximation techniques, is a remedy to these problems as these operators select only those result records that are most relevant to the user. Being aware that in most cases only a small fraction of the complete result set is actually output to the user, retrieving the complete set before evaluating such operators is obviously inefficient. Therefore, the questions we want to answer in this dissertation are how to compute such queries in PDMSs and how to do that efficiently. We propose strategies for efficient query processing in PDMSs that exploit the characteristics of rank-aware queries and optionally apply approximation techniques. A peer's relevance is determined on two levels: on schema-level and on data-level. According to its relevance a peer is either considered for query processing or not. Because of heterogeneity queries need to be rewritten, enabling cooperation between peers that use different schemas. As existing query rewriting techniques mostly consider conjunctive queries only, we present an extension that allows for rewriting queries involving rank-aware query operators. As PDMSs are dynamic systems and peers might update their local data, this dissertation addresses not only the problem of considering such structures within a query processing strategy but also the problem of keeping them up-to-date. Finally, we provide a system-level evaluation by presenting SmurfPDMS (SiMUlating enviRonment For Peer Data Management Systems) -- a system created in the context of this dissertation implementing all presented techniques

Policy representation and reasoning with preferences and reactivity

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