Functional dependencies for XML : axiomatisation and normal form in the presence of frequencies and identifiers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Sciences in Information Sciences at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

XML has gained popularity as a markup language for publishing and exchanging data on the web. Nowadays, there are also ongoing interests in using XML for representing and actually storing data. In particular, much effort has been directed towards turning XML into a real data model by improving the semantics that can be expressed about XML documents. Various works have addressed how to define different classes of integrity constraints and the development of a normalisation theory for XML. One area which received little to no attention from the research community up to five years ago is the study of functional dependencies in the context of XML [37]. Since then, there has been increasingly more research investigating functional dependencies in XML. Nevertheless, a comprehensive dependency theory and normalisation theory for XML have yet to emerge. Functional dependencies are an integral part of database theory in the relational data model (RDM). In particular, functional dependencies have been vital in the investigation of how to design "good" relational database schemas which avoid or minimise problems relating to data redundancy and data inconsistency. Since the same problems can be shown to exist in poorly designed XML schemas 1 , there is a need to investigate how these problems can be eliminated in the context of XML. We believe that the study of an analogy to relational functional dependencies in the context of XML is equally significant towards designing "good" XML schemas. [FROM INTRODUCTION

Libraries and Information Systems Need XML/RDF... but Do They Know It?

This article presents an approach to the uses of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and Semantic Web technologies in the field of information services, focusing mainly on the creation and management of digital libraries compared to traditional libraries, while paying special attention to the concept and application of metadata, and RDF based integration

A Survey on Retrieval of Mathematical Knowledge

We present a short survey of the literature on indexing and retrieval of mathematical knowledge, with pointers to 72 papers and tentative taxonomies of both retrieval problems and recurring techniques.Comment: CICM 2015, 20 page

Improving the Representation and Conversion of Mathematical Formulae by Considering their Textual Context

Mathematical formulae represent complex semantic information in a concise form. Especially in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, mathematical formulae are crucial to communicate information, e.g., in scientific papers, and to perform computations using computer algebra systems. Enabling computers to access the information encoded in mathematical formulae requires machine-readable formats that can represent both the presentation and content, i.e., the semantics, of formulae. Exchanging such information between systems additionally requires conversion methods for mathematical representation formats. We analyze how the semantic enrichment of formulae improves the format conversion process and show that considering the textual context of formulae reduces the error rate of such conversions. Our main contributions are: (1) providing an openly available benchmark dataset for the mathematical format conversion task consisting of a newly created test collection, an extensive, manually curated gold standard and task-specific evaluation metrics; (2) performing a quantitative evaluation of state-of-the-art tools for mathematical format conversions; (3) presenting a new approach that considers the textual context of formulae to reduce the error rate for mathematical format conversions. Our benchmark dataset facilitates future research on mathematical format conversions as well as research on many problems in mathematical information retrieval. Because we annotated and linked all components of formulae, e.g., identifiers, operators and other entities, to Wikidata entries, the gold standard can, for instance, be used to train methods for formula concept discovery and recognition. Such methods can then be applied to improve mathematical information retrieval systems, e.g., for semantic formula search, recommendation of mathematical content, or detection of mathematical plagiarism.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Ontologies on the semantic web

As an informational technology, the World Wide Web has enjoyed spectacular success. In just ten years it has transformed the way information is produced, stored, and shared in arenas as diverse as shopping, family photo albums, and high-level academic research. The “Semantic Web” was touted by its developers as equally revolutionary but has not yet achieved anything like the Web’s exponential uptake. This 17 000 word survey article explores why this might be so, from a perspective that bridges both philosophy and IT

Ontology technology for the development and deployment of learning technology systems - a survey

The World-Wide Web is undergoing dramatic changes at the moment. The Semantic Web is an initiative to bring meaning to the Web. The Semantic Web is based on ontology technology – a knowledge representation framework – at its core. We illustrate the importance of this evolutionary development. We survey five scenarios demonstrating different forms of applications of ontology technologies in the development and deployment of learning technology systems. Ontology technologies are highly useful to organise, personalise, and publish learning content and to discover, generate, and compose learning objects

Automatic generation of audio content for open learning resources

This paper describes how digital talking books (DTBs) with embedded functionality for learners can be generated from content structured according to the OU OpenLearn schema. It includes examples showing how a software transformation developed from open source components can be used to remix OpenLearn content, and discusses issues concerning the generation of synthesised speech for educational purposes. Factors which may affect the quality of a learner's experience with open educational audio resources are identified, and in conclusion plans for testing the effect of these factors are outlined

Reasoning & Querying – State of the Art

Various query languages for Web and Semantic Web data, both for practical use and as an area of research in the scientific community, have emerged in recent years. At the same time, the broad adoption of the internet where keyword search is used in many applications, e.g. search engines, has familiarized casual users with using keyword queries to retrieve information on the internet. Unlike this easy-to-use querying, traditional query languages require knowledge of the language itself as well as of the data to be queried. Keyword-based query languages for XML and RDF bridge the gap between the two, aiming at enabling simple querying of semi-structured data, which is relevant e.g. in the context of the emerging Semantic Web. This article presents an overview of the field of keyword querying for XML and RDF

Strategies for Parallel Markup

Cross-referenced parallel markup for mathematics allows the combination of both presentation and content representations while associating the components of each. Interesting applications are enabled by such an arrangement, such as interaction with parts of the presentation to manipulate and querying the corresponding content, and enhanced search indexing. Although the idea of such markup is hardly new, effective techniques for creating and manipulating it are more difficult than it appears. Since the structures and tokens in the two formats often do not correspond one-to-one, decisions and heuristics must be developed to determine in which way each component refers to and is referred to by components of the other representation. Conversion between fine and coarse grained parallel markup complicates ID assignments. In this paper, we will describe the techniques developed for \LaTeXML, a \TeX/\LaTeX to XML converter, to create cross-referenced parallel MathML. While we do not yet consider \LaTeXML's content MathML to be useful, the current effort is a step towards that continuing goal