Associative random access machines and data-parallel multiway binary-search join

Rapid advances in semiconductor technology have made it possible to build massively parallel processors. In addition, optical 3D storage and optical interconnections open a new opportunity due to inherent massive parallelism and non-interference of light beams. The approaches used in current parallel database research cannot take advantage of massive parallelism which can be provided by the emerging technologies, due to speedup and scaleup limitations. In this paper, we present a computational paradigm for database machines which takes advantage of the opening opportunity for massive parallelism and discuss the validity and feasibility of the paradigm. The approach we take is based on associative computing and fine grained data parallelism which allow unlimited speedup and scaleup. Additionally, an asymptotically fast data-parallel join algorithm, which can efficiently deal with the joins in which multiple relations share a common join field, is presented. The algorithm is based on parallel sorting and parallel binary search, and performs a multiway join in O(Σs + Σlogr) where i is the cost of sorting an intermediate relation and r is the size of an input relation. The cost .T of sorting is kept minimum by the algorithm

Using the Amazon Metric to Construct an Image Database based on what people do, not what they say.

© Copyright 2008 IEEECurrent image database metadata schemas require users to adopt a specific text-based vocabulary. Textbased metadata is good for searching but not for browsing. Existing image-based search facilities, on the other hand, are highly specialised and so suffer similar problems. Wexelblat’s semantic dimensional spatial visualisation schemas go some way towards addressing this problem by making both searching and browsing more accessible to the user in a single interface. But the question of how and what initial metadata to enter a database remains. Different people see different things in an image and will organise a collection in equally diverse ways. However, we can find some similarity across groups of users regardless of their reasoning. For example, a search on Amozon.com returns other products also, based on an averaging of how users navigate the database. In this paper we report on applying this concept to a set of images for which we have visualised them using traditional methods and the Amazon.com method. We report on the findings of this comparative investigation in a case study setting involving a group of randomly selected participants. We conclude with the recommendation that in combination, the traditional and averaging methods would provide an enhancement to current database visualisation, searching, and browsing facilities.Wyeld, T.G. and Colomb, R.M

UML-based DEMO profiles as metaconcepts for interlocking institutional worlds

An information system supporting an organisation is based on concepts from the organisation's institutional world. An institutional world consists of a collection of "speech acts" and "institutional facts". For a group of information systems to interoperate, the organizations responsible for these systems must first agree on what the words mean in the interoperation. This agreement is called an ontology. The ontology is generally defined as an explicit "specification" of a "conceptualization". One of the major uses of ontology is to support interoperation of information systems. Many institutions whose systems are to interoperate are not fully autonomous; they do sometimes cooperate with each other, so that their "institutional worlds" will interlock therefore "interlocking ontologies". Modeling interlocking institutional worlds (IWs) requires a dedicated representation system that gives a formal model which is the "specification of institutional facts" as well as the "specification of speech acts". The ontology is the specification of institutional facts. However, we do not have a system that can give a formal model for the speech acts. Therefore, this paper adopts a synthesis approach to propose the UML extension for modeling speech acts in the context of interlocking institutional worlds. DEMO is one of the most popular Language Action Paradigms (LAP)-based methodologies based on speech act theory so is close to the concept of IWs. The UML is a standard modelling language in the world of information system development and currently there is a growing interest in its adoption as a language for conceptual modeling and business process representation. Taking advantage of the fact that UML is an OMG standard and its use is growing quickly, this paper proposes UML-based DEMO profiles purposely for modelling IWs

Use of an automatic content analysis tool: A technique for seeing both local and global scope

This paper examines what can be learned about bodies of literature using a concept mapping tool, Leximancer. Statistical content analysis and concept mapping were used to analyse bodies of literature from different domains in three case studies. In the first case study, concept maps were generated and analysed for two closely related document sets—a thesis on language games and the background literature for the thesis. The aim for the case study was to show how concept maps might be used to analyse related document collections for coverage. The two maps overlapped on the concept of “language”; however, there was a stronger focus in the thesis on “simulations” and “agents.” Other concepts were not as strong in the thesis map as expected. The study showed how concept maps can help to establish the coverage of the background literature in a thesis. In the second case study, three sets of documents from the domain of conceptual and spatial navigation were collected, each discussing a separate topic: navigational strategies, the brain's role in navigation, and concept mapping. The aim was to explore emergent patterns in a set of related concept maps that may not be apparent from reading the literature alone. Separate concept maps were generated for each topic and also for the combined set of literature. It was expected that each of the topics would be situated in different parts of the combined map, with the concept of “navigation” central to the map. Instead, the concept of “spatial” was centrally situated and the areas of the map for the brain and for navigational strategies overlaid the same region. The unexpected structure provided a new perspective on the coverage of the documents. In the third and final case study, a set of documents on sponges—a domain unfamiliar to the reader—was collected from the Internet and then analysed with a concept map. The aim of this case study was to present how a concept map could aid in quickly understanding a new, technically intensive domain. Using the concept map to identify significant concepts and the Internet to look for their definitions, a basic understanding of key terms in the domain was obtained relatively quickly. It was concluded that using concept maps is effective for identifying trends within documents and document collections, for performing differential analysis on documents, and as an aid for rapidly gaining an understanding in a new domain by exploring the local detail within the global scope of the textual corpus