52 research outputs found
The Semantic Web … Sounds Logical!
The Semantic Web will be an enabling technology for the future because as all of life\u27s components continue to progress and evolve, the demand on us as humans will continue to increase. Work will expect more productivity; family will demand more quality time, and even leisure activities will be technologically advanced. With these variables in mind, I believe humans will demand technologies that help to simplify this treacherous lifestyle. As patterns already indicate, one of the driving forces of technological development is efficiency. Developers are consistently looking for ways to make life\u27s demands less strenuous and more streamlined. The benefits of the semantic web are two-fold. Conceptually, it will enable us to be productive at home while at work, and productive at work while at home. The Semantic Web will be a technology that truly changes our lifestyle. The Web has yet to harness its full potential. We have yet to realize that in addition to computers, other machines can actually participate in the decision-making process via the Internet. This will allow virtually all devices the opportunity to be a helpful resource for humans via the Web. It must be taken into consideration that the Semantic Web will not be separate from the World Wide Web, but an extension of it. It will allow information to be given a well-defined meaning, which will allow computers and people to work in cooperation. With this technology, humans will be able to establish connections to machines that are not currently connected to the World Wide Web. For the Semantic Web to function, computers must have access to structured collections of information and sets of inference rules that they can use to conduct automated reasoning (Scientific American: Feature Article: The Semantic Web, 3). Using rules to make inferences, choosing a course of action, and answering questions will add functional logic to the Web. Currently the Semantic Web community is developing this new Web by using Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Resource Description Framework (RDF) and ultimately, Ontologies
Traffic Profiles and Performance Modelling of Heterogeneous Networks
This thesis considers the analysis and study of short and long-term traffic patterns of
heterogeneous networks. A large number of traffic profiles from different locations and
network environments have been determined. The result of the analysis of these patterns
has led to a new parameter, namely the 'application signature'. It was found that these
signatures manifest themselves in various granularities over time, and are usually unique
to an application, permanent virtual circuit (PVC), user or service. The differentiation of
the application signatures into different categories creates a foundation for short and long-term
management of networks. The thesis therefore looks from the micro and macro
perspective on traffic management, covering both aspects.
The long-term traffic patterns have been used to develop a novel methodology for network
planning and design. As the size and complexity of interconnected systems grow steadily,
usually covering different time zones, geographical and political areas, a new
methodology has been developed as part of this thesis. A part of the methodology is a new
overbooking mechanism, which stands in contrast to existing overbooking methods
created by companies like Bell Labs. The new overbooking provides companies with
cheaper network design and higher average throughput. In addition, new requirements like
risk factors have been incorporated into the methodology, which lay historically outside
the design process. A large network service provider has implemented the overbooking
mechanism into their network planning process, enabling practical evaluation.
The other aspect of the thesis looks at short-term traffic patterns, to analyse how
congestion can be controlled. Reoccurring short-term traffic patterns, the application
signatures, have been used for this research to develop the "packet train model" further.
Through this research a new congestion control mechanism was created to investigate how
the application signatures and the "extended packet train model" could be used. To
validate the results, a software simulation has been written that executes the proprietary
congestion mechanism and the new mechanism for comparison. Application signatures for
the TCP/IP protocols have been applied in the simulation and the results are displayed and
discussed in the thesis. The findings show the effects that frame relay congestion control
mechanisms have on TCP/IP, where the re-sending of segments, buffer allocation, delay
and throughput are compared. The results prove that application signatures can be used
effectively to enhance existing congestion control mechanisms.AT&T (UK) Ltd, Englan
The Legal Architecture of Virtual Stories: World Wide Web Sites and the Uniform Commercial Code
“Virtual Stores” on the Web raise a myriad of traditional legal controversies in a new forum: the “battle of the forms” among purchasers and sellers; jurisdictional concerns and conflict-of-law problems; and the enforceability of contracts. This wide-ranging article analyzes law regarding these issues, with particular emphasis on the U.C.C
TechNews digests: Jan - Mar 2010
TechNews is a technology, news and analysis service aimed at anyone in the education sector keen to stay informed about technology developments, trends and issues. TechNews focuses on emerging technologies and other technology news. TechNews service : digests september 2004 till May 2010 Analysis pieces and News combined publish every 2 to 3 month
Designing an ecology of distributed agents
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 1998.Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-92).by Nelson Minar.S.M
People-search : searching for people sharing similar interests from the web
On the Web, there are limited ways of finding people sharing similar interests or background with a given person. The current methods, such as using regular search engines, are either ineffective or time consuming. In this work, a new approach for searching people sharing similar interests from the Web, called People-Search, is presented. Given a person, to find similar people from the Web, there are two major research issues: person representation and matching persons. In this study, a person representation method which uses a person\u27s website to represent this person\u27s interest and background is proposed. The design of matching process takes person representation into consideration to allow the same representation to be used when composing the query, which is also a personal website. Based on this person representation method, the main proposed algorithm integrates textual content and hyperlink information of all the pages belonging to a personal website to represent a person and match persons. Other algorithms, based on different combinations of content, inlink, and outlink information of an entire personal website or only the main page, are also explored and compared to the main proposed algorithm. Two kinds of evaluations were conducted. In the automatic evaluation, precision, recall, F and Kruskal-Goodman F measures were used to compare these algorithms. In the human evaluation, the effectiveness of the main proposed algorithm and two other important ones were evaluated by human subjects. Results from both evaluations show that the People-Search algorithm integrating content and link information of all pages belonging to a personal website outperformed all other algorithms in finding similar people from the Web
An interactive flash application as a supplementary teaching tool in higher education
Educational Flash applications have received the attention of researchers and educators in higher education as a result of the evolution of technology, including high-speed Internet, advanced hardware and software, and the seeking of new learning paradigms from the constructivist\u27s point of view. However, existing educational websites utilizing Flash contain limited interactivity, and few websites have been created which adapt valuable educational theories that sustain and enhance the learning processes that suit the Net generation. The purpose of this study is to examine educational theories which are relevant to current educational contexts and learners and to propose a guideline for developing an educational application. In addition, by providing an educational Flash application, the author discovers potential applications using Flash to enhancing the learning process, based on literature which has been previously discussed. To create the educational Flash application, the author selected the subject, learning grid systems for design students in higher education. The validity of this application is examined by learners\u27 evaluations. The guidelines proposed by the author can be utilized by developers and educators to create instructional applications based on valid educational theories. Also, the Flash application as the prototype for this study is an illustration of a higher education use of Flash
WAQS : a web-based approximate query system
The Web is often viewed as a gigantic database holding vast stores of information and provides ubiquitous accessibility to end-users. Since its inception, the Internet has experienced explosive growth both in the number of users and the amount of content available on it. However, searching for information on the Web has become increasingly difficult. Although query languages have long been part of database management systems, the standard query language being the Structural Query Language is not suitable for the Web content retrieval.
In this dissertation, a new technique for document retrieval on the Web is presented. This technique is designed to allow a detailed retrieval and hence reduce the amount of matches returned by typical search engines. The main objective of this technique is to allow the query to be based on not just keywords but also the location of the keywords within the logical structure of a document. In addition, the technique also provides approximate search capabilities based on the notion of Distance and Variable Length Don\u27t Cares. The proposed techniques have been implemented in a system, called Web-Based Approximate Query System, which contains an SQL-like query language called Web-Based Approximate Query Language.
Web-Based Approximate Query Language has also been integrated with EnviroDaemon, an environmental domain specific search engine. It provides EnviroDaemon with more detailed searching capabilities than just keyword-based search. Implementation details, technical results and future work are presented in this dissertation
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