Grid-based semantic integration of heterogeneous data resources: Implementation on a HealthGrid

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University.The semantic integration of geographically distributed and heterogeneous data resources still remains a key challenge in Grid infrastructures. Today's mainstream Grid technologies hold the promise to meet this challenge in a systematic manner, making data applications more scalable and manageable. The thesis conducts a thorough investigation of the problem, the state of the art, and the related technologies, and proposes an Architecture for Semantic Integration of Data Sources (ASIDS) addressing the semantic heterogeneity issue. It defines a simple mechanism for the interoperability of heterogeneous data sources in order to extract or discover information regardless of their different semantics. The constituent technologies of this architecture include Globus Toolkit (GT4) and OGSA-DAI (Open Grid Service Architecture Data Integration and Access) alongside other web services technologies such as XML (Extensive Markup Language). To show this, the ASIDS architecture was implemented and tested in a realistic setting by building an exemplar application prototype on a HealthGrid (pilot implementation). The study followed an empirical research methodology and was informed by extensive literature surveys and a critical analysis of the relevant technologies and their synergies. The two literature reviews, together with the analysis of the technology background, have provided a good overview of the current Grid and HealthGrid landscape, produced some valuable taxonomies, explored new paths by integrating technologies, and more importantly illuminated the problem and guided the research process towards a promising solution. Yet the primary contribution of this research is an approach that uses contemporary Grid technologies for integrating heterogeneous data resources that have semantically different. data fields (attributes). It has been practically demonstrated (using a prototype HealthGrid) that discovery in semantically integrated distributed data sources can be feasible by using mainstream Grid technologies, which have been shown to have some Significant advantages over non-Grid based approaches

Grid-based semantic integration of heterogeneous data resources : implementation on a HealthGrid

The semantic integration of geographically distributed and heterogeneous data resources still remains a key challenge in Grid infrastructures. Today's mainstream Grid technologies hold the promise to meet this challenge in a systematic manner, making data applications more scalable and manageable. The thesis conducts a thorough investigation of the problem, the state of the art, and the related technologies, and proposes an Architecture for Semantic Integration of Data Sources (ASIDS) addressing the semantic heterogeneity issue. It defines a simple mechanism for the interoperability of heterogeneous data sources in order to extract or discover information regardless of their different semantics. The constituent technologies of this architecture include Globus Toolkit (GT4) and OGSA-DAI (Open Grid Service Architecture Data Integration and Access) alongside other web services technologies such as XML (Extensive Markup Language). To show this, the ASIDS architecture was implemented and tested in a realistic setting by building an exemplar application prototype on a HealthGrid (pilot implementation). The study followed an empirical research methodology and was informed by extensive literature surveys and a critical analysis of the relevant technologies and their synergies. The two literature reviews, together with the analysis of the technology background, have provided a good overview of the current Grid and HealthGrid landscape, produced some valuable taxonomies, explored new paths by integrating technologies, and more importantly illuminated the problem and guided the research process towards a promising solution. Yet the primary contribution of this research is an approach that uses contemporary Grid technologies for integrating heterogeneous data resources that have semantically different. data fields (attributes). It has been practically demonstrated (using a prototype HealthGrid) that discovery in semantically integrated distributed data sources can be feasible by using mainstream Grid technologies, which have been shown to have some Significant advantages over non-Grid based approaches.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Exploiting Linked Data in Financial Engineering

Part 3: Finance and Service ScienceInternational audienceIn this paper, we report on a recent initiative that exploiting Linked Data for financial data integration. Financial data present high heterogeneity. Linked Data helps to reveal the true data semantics and “hidden” connection, upon which meaningful mappings can be constructed. The work reported in this paper has been well-accepted at several public events and conferences, including the 26th XBRL conference, involving the realisation of the XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) prototype called HIKAKU, which means “comparison” in Japanese. It demonstrates our approach to exploit the power of Linked Data in enhancing flexibility for data integration in the financial domain

Factors Affecting the Rate of Breast Cancer; Role of Heavy Metals

Breast cancer is caused by uncontrolled growth of breast cells. It is more common in women as compared tothat in men. The breast cancer may be interlinked with the drinking of alcohol, smoking, sex, hormonal therapy, obesity,family history and age. Various epidemiologic studies suggest the role of metals e.g., nickel (Ni), zinc (Zn), arsenic(As),selenium (Se)and cadmium (Cd)as potential risk factors in breast cancer. Humans are exposed to these metals bymeans of drinking water, food and air. The oxidative theory suspects that the complexes formed from these metals invivo, near the location of DNA, catalyze the redox reactions which results in oxidation of DNA. The metals like arsenic(As), chromium (Cr), aluminum (Al), cadmium (Cd) and chromium (Cr)which exist in trace amount are considered ascarcinogens for organisms by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer). The carcinogenicity of these metalsmainly depends upon their chemical structure and oxidation states

AI4People: Ethical Guidelines for the Automotive Sector – Fundamental Requirements and Practical Recommendations

This paper presents the work of the AI4People-Automotive Committee established to advise more concretely on specific ethical issues that arise from autonomous vehicles (AVs). Practical recommendations for the automotive sector are provided across the topic areas: human agency and oversight, technical robustness and safety, privacy and data governance, transparency, diversity, non-discrimination and fairness, societal and environmental wellbeing, as well as accountability. By doing so, this paper distinguishes between policy recommendations that aim to assist policymakers in setting acceptable standards and industry recommendations that formulate guidelines for companies across their value chain. In the future, the automotive sector may rely on these recommendations to determine relevant next steps and to ensure that AVs comply with ethical principles.publishedVersio

Simulation in manufacturing and business: A review

Copyright @ 2009 Elsevier B.V.This paper reports the results of a review of simulation applications published within peer-reviewed literature between 1997 and 2006 to provide an up-to-date picture of the role of simulation techniques within manufacturing and business. The review is characterised by three factors: wide coverage, broad scope of the simulation techniques, and a focus on real-world applications. A structured methodology was followed to narrow down the search from around 20,000 papers to 281. Results include interesting trends and patterns. For instance, although discrete event simulation is the most popular technique, it has lower stakeholder engagement than other techniques, such as system dynamics or gaming. This is highly correlated with modelling lead time and purpose. Considering application areas, modelling is mostly used in scheduling. Finally, this review shows an increasing interest in hybrid modelling as an approach to cope with complex enterprise-wide systems

Modelling and simulation techniques for supporting healthcare decision making : a selection framework

The development of this workbook has been led by a team of researchers from five UK universities with a grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). They are investigating the use of modelling and simulation in healthcare as part of the RIGHT (Research Into Global Healthcare Tools) project. The workbook was developed following an extensive review of literature on the application of modelling and simulation in healthcare and other safety- critical industries, supplemented by the team’s extensive expertise of modelling and simulation in healthcare. In order to produce this summary guide, thousands of articles were categorised according to the techniques used, when they were used, and with what resources.peer-reviewe

Linked Data for Financial Reporting

Abstract. Recently, uncertainty has dominated global financial markets. Companies are struggling with their balance sheets while merges and acquisitions (M&A) happens on a more frequent basis. This calls for highly accurate corporate performance data, which serve as the ground truth for M&A decisions. Conventional financial reporting approach has drawn criticism from both investors and analysts, attribute to the inherent complexity, lack of timeliness, and inadequacy of scope. In this paper, we try to address these shortcomings with a Linked Data approach. We showcase a system for enriching corporate financial reporting with other types of proprietary and public data, the latter are part of the Linked Open Data cloud or harvested from social media sites. Our motivation is to 1) source in a variety of data so as to portray a comprehensive image of a company and 2) render tedious financial figures through an intuitive and comparative perspective. We introduce the architecture of the Linked Financial Data for Reporting framework (LFDr) and outline the details of its implementation. We also propose methodologies for the evaluation of the whole framework.