A Data Transformation System for Biological Data Sources

Scientific data of importance to biologists in the Human Genome Project resides not only in conventional databases, but in structured files maintained in a number of different formats (e.g. ASN.1 and ACE) as well a.s sequence analysis packages (e.g. BLAST and FASTA). These formats and packages contain a number of data types not found in conventional databases, such as lists and variants, and may be deeply nested. We present in this paper techniques for querying and transforming such data, and illustrate their use in a prototype system developed in conjunction with the Human Genome Center for Chromosome 22. We also describe optimizations performed by the system, a crucial issue for bulk data

Slisp: A Flexible Software Toolkit for Hybrid, Embedded and Distributed Applications

We describe Slisp (pronounced ‘Ess-Lisp’), a hybrid Lisp–C programming toolkit for the development of scriptable and distributed applications. Computationally expensive operations implemented as separate C-coded modules are selectively compiled into a small Xlisp interpreter, then called as Lisp functions in a Lisp-coded program. The resulting hybrid program may run in several modes: as a stand-alone executable, embedded in a different C program, as a networked server accessed from another Slisp client, or as a networked server accessed from a C-coded client. Five years of experience with Slisp, as well experience with other scripting languages such as Tcl and Perl, are summarized. These experiences suggest that Slisp will be most useful for mid-sized applications in which the kinds of scripting and embeddability features provided by Tcl and Perl can be extended in an efficient manner to larger applications, while maintaining a well-defined standard (Common Lisp) for these extensions. In addition, the generality of Lisp makes Lisp a good candidate for an application-level communication language in distributed environments

Managing Metadata in Data Warehouses: Pitfalls and Possibilities

This paper motivates a comprehensive academic study of metadata and the roles that metadata plays in organizational information systems. While the benefits of metadata and challenges in implementing metadata solutions are widely addressed in practitioner publications, explicit discussion of metadata in academic literature is rare. Metadata, when discussed, is perceived primarily as a technology solution. Integrated management of metadata and its business value are not well addressed. This paper discusses both the benefits offered by and the challenges associated with integrating metadata. It also describes solutions for addressing some of these challenges. The inherent complexity of an integrated metadata repository is demonstrated by reviewing the metadata functionality required in a data warehouse: a decision support environment where its importance is acknowledged. Comparing this required functionality with metadata management functionalities offered by data warehousing software products identifies crucial gaps. Based on these analyses, topics for further research on metadata are proposed

Loan pricing model : design and implementation

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1996.Includes bibliographical references (leaf 40).by Ashish Sharma.M.Eng

Analyzing high energy physics data using database computing: Preliminary report

A proof of concept system is described for analyzing high energy physics (HEP) data using data base computing. The system is designed to scale up to the size required for HEP experiments at the Superconducting SuperCollider (SSC) lab. These experiments will require collecting and analyzing approximately 10 to 100 million 'events' per year during proton colliding beam collisions. Each 'event' consists of a set of vectors with a total length of approx. one megabyte. This represents an increase of approx. 2 to 3 orders of magnitude in the amount of data accumulated by present HEP experiments. The system is called the HEPDBC System (High Energy Physics Database Computing System). At present, the Mark 0 HEPDBC System is completed, and can produce analysis of HEP experimental data approx. an order of magnitude faster than current production software on data sets of approx. 1 GB. The Mark 1 HEPDBC System is currently undergoing testing and is designed to analyze data sets 10 to 100 times larger

Comparative analysis on adaptive features for RFID middleware

Middleware is software that connects between hardware and application layer. Traditional middleware is limited in its ability to support adaptation while adaptive middleware enables modifying its behavior to conform to new situation. RFID applications grow widely and are used in many purposes such as supply chain management and ubiquitous computing enabled by pervasive, low cost sensing and identification. Implementing adaptive characteristic in RFID middleware will increase the capability of adaptation to specific environment such as different reader/tag, different application, and different platform. Adaptive middleware enables modifying the behavior of a distributed application after the application is developed in response to some changes in functional requirements or operating conditions. An extensive study has been carried out, and comparative analysis has been done on identifying the standard features that reflect the functionalities of RFID middleware and adaptive features that represent the non-functionalities of RFID middleware address to overcome the specific problems of application systems. This paper discusses the outcome of this study and adaptive middleware architecture for RFID applications is proposed that supports multi readers and multi applications

KAPTUR: technical analysis report

Led by the Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) and funded by the JISC Managing Research Data programme (2011-13) KAPTUR will discover, create and pilot a sectoral model of best practice in the management of research data in the visual arts in collaboration with four institutional partners: Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths, University of London; University for the Creative Arts; and University of the Arts London. This report is framed around the research question: which technical system is most suitable for managing visual arts research data? The first stage involved a literature review including information gathered through attendance at meetings and events, and Internet research, as well as information on projects from the previous round of JISCMRD funding (2009-11). During February and March 2012, the Technical Manager carried out interviews with the four KAPTUR Project Officers and also met with IT staff at each institution. This led to the creation of a user requirement document (Appendix A), which was then circulated to the project team for additional comments and feedback. The Technical Manager selected 17 systems to compare with the user requirement document (Appendix B). Five of the systems had similar scores so these were short-listed. The Technical Manager created an online form into which the Project Officers entered priority scores for each of the user requirements in order to calculate a more accurate score for each of the five short-listed systems (Appendix C) and this resulted in the choice of EPrints as the software for the KAPTUR project