Feasible database querying using a visual end-user approach

This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCHI symposium on Engineering interactive computing systems, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1822018.1822047Querying databases is a common daily task carried out by a great deal of end-users who do not have specific skills in SQL language. Today, most of the database interaction is achieved by means of query interfaces provided by the database environment. However, most of these interfaces suffer from expressive limitations, since they are mostly based on metaphors that drastically restrict the expressiveness of the SQL language that is generated and executed in the background. In this paper, we present a visual interaction language and tool focused on easily querying databases by end-users. We make no assumption on the level of the user's experience with query languages, as our visual metaphor is intended for querying databases by unskilled end-users and also leveraging the restriction on the expressiveness of the queries created by them. We also report on some late braking results obtained by an experiment carried out with real users.The work reported in this paper is being partially supported by the founded projects TIN2008-02081/TIN and S2009/TIC-1650

Facilitating the interaction with data warehouse schemas through a visual web-based approach

In most respects, there are implicit drawbacks concerning representation and interaction with data in relational-database applications. On the one hand, there is a lack of expressiveness and ease of use in the user interfaces that handle such data. On the other hand, there is an implicit need for interactive end-user visual tools to query data and avoid dependency on programming languages. The main aim of this work is to study the problem of database interaction and usability, comparing existing solutions and providing a new approach that overcomes existing problems. We propose a web-based tool that manipulates Data Warehouse schemas by using a visual language to represent the database structure and providing several visualization techniques that facilitate the interaction and creation of queries involving different levels of complexity. We based our research on an End-User Development approach that has been evaluated to obtain some initial usability indicators

Pleba\'nski-Demia\'nski-like solutions in metric-affine gravity

We consider a (non--Riemannian) metric--affine gravity theory, in particular its nonmetricity--torsion sector ``isomorphic'' to the Einstein--Maxwell theory. We map certain Einstein--Maxwell electrovacuum solutions to it, namely the Pleba\'nski--Demia\'nski class of Petrov type D metrics.Comment: 12 pages of a LaTeX-fil

Mineralogía de la fracción arcilla de suelos y sedimentos de la Cuenca de Maceda

[Resumen] Se estudia la mineralogía de la fracción arcilla de los sedimentos terciarios y cuaternarios que rellenan la depresión de Maceda,así como de las rocas que constituyen el marco y sus productos de alteración. Las rocas que rodean la cuenca están sometidas actual mente a un proceso de alteración de tipo hidrólisis ácida (caolinita, gibbsita y oxihidróxidos de hierro son los productos de alteración más significativos) Los sedimentos terciarios presentan en su fracción arcilla un filosilicato 1:1 dioctaédrico(haloisítico o caolinítico) como mineral más ahlndante, micas, micas degradadas, goethita y, ocasionalmente, hematita,observándose la presencia de vermiculitas de baja carga en las capas mas profundas. Los depósitos más recientes contienen abundante filo silicato 1:1 dioctaédrico de bajo grado de orden y gibbsita, micas degradadas en cantidades variables y goethita.[Abstract] The igneous and metamorphic rocks that surround the Maceda depressian are subjected to a weathering of acidic hydrolysis type (kaol inite, gibbsite and Fe-oxihydroxides are the more repl'esenta"LJ.ve weathering products). The tertiary sediments have as principal component a 1:1 diocthaedral phyllosilicate (halloysite or kaolini te) associated wi th micas, degradated micas, goethita-:occasionally hematite and in the deepest layers, low charge vermiculites • - The newest deposits have disordered 1:1 diocthaedral phyllosilicate and gibbsite, changing proportions of degradated micas and goethit

Independent Component Analysis to Detect Clustered Microcalcification Breast Cancers

The presence of clustered microcalcifications is one of the earliest signs in breast cancer detection. Although there exist many studies broaching this problem, most of them are nonreproducible due to the use of proprietary image datasets. We use a known subset of the currently largest publicly available mammography database, the Digital Database for Screening Mammography (DDSM), to develop a computer-aided detection system that outperforms the current reproducible studies on the same mammogram set. This proposal is mainly based on the use of extracted image features obtained by independent component analysis, but we also study the inclusion of the patient's age as a nonimage feature which requires no human expertise. Our system achieves an average of 2.55 false positives per image at a sensitivity of 81.8% and 4.45 at a sensitivity of 91.8% in diagnosing the BCRP_CALC_1 subset of DDSM

Empleo de materiales secundarios como materia prima de nuevos tipos de cementos

The present paper is a comparative study of some characteristics of new belite cements obtained from two kind of wastes, which were used as secondary raw materials: fly ash (FA), of low CaO content, from coal combustion, and ash from incineration of municipal solid waste (MSWIA). Cements were synthesised in a range of temperature between 700°C and 900°C from MSWIA and FA, which were previously activated by hydrothermal treatment at 200°C The evolution of cemented phases with the heating temperature was followed by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results were compared with those obtained from heating the starting FA and MSWIA without the previous hydrothermal treatment. The degree of hydration was quantitatively evaluated by the combined water content, determined from thermogravimetric analyses, during a period of 28 days or 200 days from mixing depending of hydration kinetics of each cement.Este trabajo es un estudio comparativo de algunas de las características de nuevos cementos belíticos, obtenidos a partir de dos tipos de residuos, como materia prima secundaria: cenizas volantes (CV) de bajo contenido en cal, procedentes de la combustión del carbón y cenizas procedentes de la incineración de residuos sólidos urbanos (CIRSU). Los cementos fueron sintetizados en un rango de temperaturas comprendido entre 700°C y 900°C después de un tratamiento hidrotermal de la CV y CIRSU a 200°C La evolución de las fases cementicias, con la temperatura de calentamiento, fue estudiada por difracción de rayos X (DRX). Los resultados fueron comparados con aquellos obtenidos, directamente, por calentamiento de los residuos, sin un tratamiento hidrotermal previo de los mismos. El grado de hidratación fue cuantitativamente evaluado, por medio del análisis termogravimétrico, a partir del agua combinada de los cementos hidratados durante un período de 28 días o 200 días, dependiendo de la cinética de hidratación de cada cemento

Influence of geological material and about content of heavy metals in superficial horizons of L:1 Coruñ:1 soils

[Resumen] Los contenidos totales de Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Co y Mn en horizontes superficiales de suelos desarrollados sobre diferentes materiales geológicos de la provincia de La Coruña, ponen de manifiesto la importancia del factor litológico respecto a los aportes de origen antrópico. Los suelos sobre rocas ultramáficas y máficas muestran contenidos de Cr, Ni YCu que superan en muchas ocasiones los umbrales considerados de fitotoxicidad por diferentes autores. Le siguen los esquistos ricos en biotita, mientras que sobre granitos y pizarras se obtienen los valores medios más bajos. Los resultados obtenidos permiten realizar una primera aproximación acerca de la «aptitud» de los suelos de cultivo como receptores de lodos residuales..[Abstract] The total contents of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Co and Mn in superficial horizons of soils that are developed on different geological materials of La Coruña region (Spain), reveal the importance of the lithologic factor with respect to the contribution of anthropic. origino The soils on ultramafic and mafic rocks show contents of Cr, Ni and Cu that are many times higher than threshold considered phytotoxic by different authors. These are followed by the schists, rich in biotite, while the lowest average values are obtained on granites and slates. The obtained results allow a first approach about the «attitude» of the cultivable soils as receptore of waste sludge

Plasmon spectroscopy: Theoretical and numerical calculations, and optimization techniques

30 págs.; 22 figs.; 1 tab.; Open Access funded by Creative Commons Atribution Licence 3.0We present an overview of recent advances in plasmonics, mainly concerning theoretical and numerical tools required for the rigorous determination of the spectral properties of complex-shape nanoparticles exhibiting strong localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs). Both quasistatic approaches and full electrodynamic methods are described, providing a thorough comparison of their numerical implementations. Special attention is paid to surface integral equation formulations, giving examples of their performance in complicated nanoparticle shapes of interest for their LSPR spectra. In this regard, complex (single) nanoparticle configurations (nanocrosses and nanorods) yield a hierarchy of multiple-order LSPR s with evidence of a rich symmetric or asymmetric (Fano-like) LSPR line shapes. In addition, means to address the design of complex geometries to retrieve LSPR spectra are commented on, with special interest in biologically inspired algorithms. Thewealth of LSPRbased applications are discussed in two choice examples, single-nanoparticle surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and optical heating, and multifrequency nanoantennas for fluorescence and nonlinear optics.J.A.S.-G. and R.P.-D. acknowledge the Spanish >Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad>, through the Consolider-Ingenio project EMET (CSD2008- 00066) and NANOPLAS+ (FIS2012-31070), for financial support.Peer Reviewe

No Quantum Super-Minisuperspace with Λ≠0\Lambda \ne 0

We show that the quantum super-minisuperspace of N=1 supergravity with $\Lambda \ne 0$ has no non-trivial physical states for class A Bianchi models. Hence, in super quantum cosmology, the vanishing of $\Lambda$ is a condition for the existence of the universe. We argue that this result implies that in full supergravity with $\Lambda$ there are no non-trivial physical states with a finite number of fermionic fields. We use the Jacobson canonical formulation.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, CIEA-94-0

Volume elements of spacetime and a quartet of scalar fields

Starting with a `bare' 4-dimensional differential manifold as a model of spacetime, we discuss the options one has for defining a volume element which can be used for physical theories. We show that one has to prescribe a scalar density \sigma. Whereas conventionally \sqrt{|\det g_{ij}|} is used for that purpose, with g_{ij} as the components of the metric, we point out other possibilities, namely \sigma as a `dilaton' field or as a derived quantity from either a linear connection or a quartet of scalar fields, as suggested by Guendelman and Kaganovich.Comment: 7 pages RevTEX, submitted to Phys. Rev.