The relationship between IR and multimedia databases

Modern extensible database systems support multimedia data through ADTs. However, because of the problems with multimedia query formulation, this support is not sufficient.\ud \ud Multimedia querying requires an iterative search process involving many different representations of the objects in the database. The support that is needed is very similar to the processes in information retrieval.\ud \ud Based on this observation, we develop the miRRor architecture for multimedia query processing. We design a layered framework based on information retrieval techniques, to provide a usable query interface to the multimedia database.\ud \ud First, we introduce a concept layer to enable reasoning over low-level concepts in the database.\ud \ud Second, we add an evidential reasoning layer as an intermediate between the user and the concept layer.\ud \ud Third, we add the functionality to process the users' relevance feedback.\ud \ud We then adapt the inference network model from text retrieval to an evidential reasoning model for multimedia query processing.\ud \ud We conclude with an outline for implementation of miRRor on top of the Monet extensible database system

The Mirror MMDBMS architecture

Handling large collections of digitized multimedia data, usually referred to as multimedia digital libraries, is a major challenge for information technology. The Mirror DBMS is a research database system that is developed to better understand the kind of data management that is required in the context of multimedia digital libraries (see also URL http://www.cs.utwente.nl/~arjen/mmdb.html). Its main features are an integrated approach to both content management and (traditional) structured data management, and the implementation of an extensible object-oriented logical data model on a binary relational physical data model. The focus of this work is aimed at design for scalability

Influence of Phosphoramidites in Copper-Catalyzed Conjugate Borylation Reaction

Copper(I) has become the preferred metal to catalyze the β-boration of α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds, and now we demonstrate that easily accessible monodentate chiral ligands, such as phosphoramidites and phosphites, can be convenient alternative ligands to induce asymmetry in the enantioselective version of this reaction, particularly in the β-boration of α,β-unsaturated imines.

Database technology and the management of multimedia data in Mirror

Multimedia digital libraries require an open distributed architecture instead of a monolithic database system. In the Mirror project, we use the Monet extensible database kernel to manage different representations of multimedia objects. To maintain independence between content, meta-data, and the creation of meta-data, we allow distribution of data and operations using CORBA. This open architecture introduces new problems for data access. From an end user’s perspective, the problem is how to search the available representations to fulfill an actual information need; the conceptual gap between human perceptual processes and the meta-data is too large. From a system’s perspective, several representations of the data may semantically overlap or be irrelevant. We address these problems with an iterative query process and active user participation through relevance feedback. A retrieval model based on inference networks assists the user with query formulation. The integration of this model into the database design has two advantages. First, the user can query both the logical and the content structure of multimedia objects. Second, the use of different data models in the logical and the physical database design provides data independence and allows algebraic query optimization. We illustrate query processing with a music retrieval application

Ways of going on:An analysis of skill applied to medical practice

Humans do two types of actions, polimorphic actions and mimeomorphic actions. The ability to carry out polimorphic actions cannot be mastered outside of socialization. Mimeomorphic actions, however, can be learned in other ways; sometimes, they can be learned away from the context of practice. Polimorphic actions cannot be mimicked by machines, but some mimeomorphic actions can. Other mimeomorphic actions are too complex to mechanize. Actions that cannot be mechanized because they are physically complicated should not be confused with actions that cannot be mechanized because socialization is needed to master them. The analysis has implications for recent debates concerning the differences and similarities between humans and machines. The implica tion of the analysis is that much more can be understood about the relationship between humans and machines if the difference is treated as being a consequence of the unique properties of human societies. In this article, the analysis is applied to cardiac catheteriza tion, pacemaker implantation, simulation of bodies, and work in a medical "SkillsLab.

Practical Aspects of Carbon-Carbon Cross-Coupling Reactions Using Heteroarenes

The use of cross-coupling reactions for the preparation of alkylated and arylated heteroaromatic compounds has increased tremendously over the past two decades. This has been driven on the one hand by the increasingly complex structures of new drugs, most of which contain one or more heterocyclic motifs. On the other hand, the development of new catalysts and reaction conditions for these reactions has rendered even the most unreactive of heteroarenes amenable to cross-coupling chemistry. Not only have new bulky electron-donating ligands been created that allow the coupling of aryl chlorides under mild conditions, but also the use of ligand-free palladium, in particular at very low doses, sometimes called homeopathic palladium, has served to bring down the cost of these reactions. More recent and enabling developments are the use of catalysts based on cheap metals such as nickel, copper, and iron. Scale-up issues are availability and cost of starting materials, cost of the catalysts (related to cost of the metal and the ligand, intrinsic activity and stability of the catalyst), solvent choice, and removal of the metal t