Context-Aware Information Retrieval for Enhanced Situation Awareness

In the coalition forces, users are increasingly challenged with the issues of information overload and correlation of information from heterogeneous sources. Users might need different pieces of information, ranging from information about a single building, to the resolution strategy of a global conflict. Sometimes, the time, location and past history of information access can also shape the information needs of users. Information systems need to help users pull together data from disparate sources according to their expressed needs (as represented by system queries), as well as less specific criteria. Information consumers have varying roles, tasks/missions, goals and agendas, knowledge and background, and personal preferences. These factors can be used to shape both the execution of user queries and the form in which retrieved information is packaged. However, full automation of this daunting information aggregation and customization task is not possible with existing approaches. In this paper we present an infrastructure for context-aware information retrieval to enhance situation awareness. The infrastructure provides each user with a customized, mission-oriented system that gives access to the right information from heterogeneous sources in the context of a particular task, plan and/or mission. The approach lays on five intertwined fundamental concepts, namely Workflow, Context, Ontology, Profile and Information Aggregation. The exploitation of this knowledge, using appropriate domain ontologies, will make it feasible to provide contextual assistance in various ways to the work performed according to a user’s taskrelevant information requirements. This paper formalizes these concepts and their interrelationships

Integrating data warehouses with web data : a survey

This paper surveys the most relevant research on combining Data Warehouse (DW) and Web data. It studies the XML technologies that are currently being used to integrate, store, query, and retrieve Web data and their application to DWs. The paper reviews different DW distributed architectures and the use of XML languages as an integration tool in these systems. It also introduces the problem of dealing with semistructured data in a DW. It studies Web data repositories, the design of multidimensional databases for XML data sources, and the XML extensions of OnLine Analytical Processing techniques. The paper addresses the application of information retrieval technology in a DW to exploit text-rich document collections. The authors hope that the paper will help to discover the main limitations and opportunities that offer the combination of the DW and the Web fields, as well as to identify open research line

The Web as a Resource for Question Answering: Perspectives and Challenges

The vast amounts of information readily available on the World Wide Web can be effectively used for question answering in two fundamentally different ways. In the federated approach, techniques for handling semistructured data are applied to access Web sources as if they were databases, allowing large classes of common questions to be answered uniformly. In the distributed approach, largescale text-processing techniques are used to extract answers directly from unstructured Web documents. Because the Web is orders of magnitude larger than any human-collected corpus, question answering systems can capitalize on its unparalleled-levels of data redundancy. Analysis of real-world user questions reveals that the federated and distributed approaches complement each other nicely, suggesting a hybrid approach in future question answering systems

Nanoinformatics: developing new computing applications for nanomedicine

Nanoinformatics has recently emerged to address the need of computing applications at the nano level. In this regard, the authors have participated in various initiatives to identify its concepts, foundations and challenges. While nanomaterials open up the possibility for developing new devices in many industrial and scientific areas, they also offer breakthrough perspectives for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases. In this paper, we analyze the different aspects of nanoinformatics and suggest five research topics to help catalyze new research and development in the area, particularly focused on nanomedicine. We also encompass the use of informatics to further the biological and clinical applications of basic research in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the related concept of an extended ?nanotype? to coalesce information related to nanoparticles. We suggest how nanoinformatics could accelerate developments in nanomedicine, similarly to what happened with the Human Genome and other -omics projects, on issues like exchanging modeling and simulation methods and tools, linking toxicity information to clinical and personal databases or developing new approaches for scientific ontologies, among many others

Ranking for Web Data Search Using On-The-Fly Data Integration

Ranking - the algorithmic decision on how relevant an information artifact is for a given information need and the sorting of artifacts by their concluded relevancy - is an integral part of every search engine. In this book we investigate how structured Web data can be leveraged for ranking with the goal to improve the effectiveness of search. We propose new solutions for ranking using on-the-fly data integration and experimentally analyze and evaluate them against the latest baselines

The United States Marine Corps Data Collaboration Requirements: Retrieving and Integrating Data From Multiple Databases

The goal of this research is to develop an information sharing and database integration model and suggest a framework to fully satisfy the United States Marine Corps collaboration requirements as well as its information sharing and database integration needs. This research is exploratory; it focuses on only one initiative: the IT-21 initiative. The IT-21 initiative dictates The Technology for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, 2000-2035: Becoming a 21st Century Force. The IT-21 initiative states that Navy and Marine Corps information infrastructure will be based largely on commercial systems and services, and the Department of the Navy must ensure that these systems are seamlessly integrated and that information transported over the infrastructure is protected and secure. The Delphi Technique, a qualitative method approach, was used to develop a Holistic Model and to suggest a framework for information sharing and database integration. Data was primarily collected from mid-level to senior information officers, with a focus on Chief Information Officers. In addition, an extensive literature review was conducted to gain insight about known similarities and differences in Strategic Information Management, information sharing strategies, and database integration strategies. It is hoped that the Armed Forces and the Department of Defense will benefit from future development of the information sharing and database integration Holistic Model

BlogForever D3.2: Interoperability Prospects

This report evaluates the interoperability prospects of the BlogForever platform. Therefore, existing interoperability models are reviewed, a Delphi study to identify crucial aspects for the interoperability of web archives and digital libraries is conducted, technical interoperability standards and protocols are reviewed regarding their relevance for BlogForever, a simple approach to consider interoperability in specific usage scenarios is proposed, and a tangible approach to develop a succession plan that would allow a reliable transfer of content from the current digital archive to other digital repositories is presented