Web observations: analysing Web data through automated data extraction

In this thesis, a generic architecture for Web observations is introduced. Beginning with fundamental data aspects and technologies for building Web observations, requirements and architectural designs are outlined. Because Web observations are basic tools to collect information from any Web resource, legal perspectives are discussed in order to give an understanding of recent regulations, e.g. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The general idea of Web observatories, its concepts, and experiments are presented to identify the best solution for Web data collections and based thereon, visualisation from any kind of Web resource. With the help of several Web observation scenarios, data sets were collected, analysed and eventually published in a machine-readable or visual form for users to be interpreted. The main research goal was to create a Web observation based on an architecture that is able to collect information from any given Web resource to make sense of a broad amount of yet untapped information sources. To find this generally applicable architectural structure, several research projects with different designs have been conducted. Eventually, the container based building block architecture emerged from these initial designs as the most flexible architectural structure. Thanks to these considerations and architectural designs, a flexible and easily adaptable architecture was created that is able to collect data from all kinds of Web resources. Thanks to such broad Web data collections, users can get a more comprehensible understanding and insight of real-life problems, the efficiency and profitability of services as well as gaining valuable information on the changes of a Web resource

The no-wait job shop with regular objective: a method based on optimal job insertion

The no-wait job shop problem (NWJS-R) considered here is a version of the job shop scheduling problem where, for any two operations of a job, a fixed time lag between their starting times is prescribed. Also, sequence-dependent set-up times between consecutive operations on a machine can be present. The problem consists in finding a schedule that minimizes a general regular objective function. We study the so-called optimal job insertion problem in the NWJS-R and prove that this problem is solvable in polynomial time by a very efficient algorithm, generalizing a result we obtained in the case of a makespan objective. We then propose a large neighborhood local search method for the NWJS-R based on the optimal job insertion algorithm and present extensive numerical results that compare favorably with current benchmarks when available

A new neighborhood and tabu search for the blocking job shop

The Blocking Job Shop is a version of the job shop scheduling problem with no intermediate buffers, where a job has to wait on a machine until being processed on the next machine. We study a generalization of this problem which takes into account transfer operations between machines and sequence-dependent setup times. After formulating the problem in a generalized disjunctive graph, we develop a neighborhood for local search. In contrast to the classical job shop, there is no easy mechanism for generating feasible neighbor solutions. We establish two structural properties of the underlying disjunctive graph, the concept of closures and a key result on short cycles, which enable us to construct feasible neighbors by exchanging critical arcs together with some other arcs. Based on this neighborhood, we devise a tabu search algorithm and report on extensive computational experience, showing that our solutions improve most of the benchmark results found in the literature

The flexible blocking job shop with transfer and set-up times

The Flexible Blocking Job Shop (FBJS) considered here is a job shop scheduling problem characterized by the availability of alternative machines for each operation and the absence of buffers. The latter implies that a job, after completing an operation, has to remain on the machine until its next operation starts. Additional features are sequence-dependent transfer and set-up times, the first for passing a job from a machine to the next, the second for change-over on a machine from an operation to the next. The objective is to assign machines and schedule the operations in order to minimize the makespan. We give a problem formulation in a disjunctive graph and develop a heuristic local search approach. A feasible neighborhood is constructed, where typically a critical operation is moved (keeping or changing its machine) together with some other operations whose moves are "implied”. For this purpose, we develop the theoretical framework of job insertion with local flexibility, based on earlier work of Gröflin and Klinkert on insertion. A tabu search that consistently generates feasible neighbor solutions is then proposed and tested on a larger test set. Numerical results support the validity of our approach and establish first benchmarks for the FBJ

Facilitating the Reactive Web - A Condition Action System using Node.js

The orchestration of the Web is a big issue for Web users all around the world. Web users have a high interest in services, which are able to personalise and customise the Web. However, for Web reactivity there exists only a few limited solutions that allow the aggregation of Web resources. This paper takes a look at existing event- based methods that build upon Event-Condition-Action (ECA) Rules and Complex Event Processing (CEP). Moreover, this paper illustrates the architecture of a fully functioning Condition Action System prototype for the creation of reactivity in between Web resources. In a proof of concept, we could detect and determine the change interval of electronic newspaper headlines. With the proposed system, we are able to orchestrate Web resources e.g. Detecting Web Changes. The orchestration of the Web is a big issue for Web users all around the world. Web users have a high interestin services, which are able to personalise and customise the Web. However, for Web reactivity there exists onlya few limited solutions that allow the aggregation of Web resources. This paper takes a look at existing event-based methods that build upon Event-Condition-Action (ECA) Rules and Complex Event Processing (CEP).Moreover, this paper illustrates the architecture of a fully functioning Condition Action System prototype forthe creation of reactivity in between Web resources. In a proof of concept, we could detect and determine thechange interval of electronic newspaper headlines. With the proposed system, we are able to orchestrate Webresources e.g. Detecting Web Changes

Optimal job insertion in the no-wait job shop

The no-wait job shop (NWJS) considered here is a version of the job shop scheduling problem where, for any two operations of a job, a fixed time lag between their starting times is given. Also, sequence-dependent set-up times between consecutive operations on a machine can be present. The NWJS problem consists in finding a schedule that minimizes the makespan. We address here the so-called optimal job insertion problem (OJI) in the NWJS. While the OJI is NP-hard in the classical job shop, it was shown by Gröflin & Klinkert to be solvable in polynomial time in the NWJS. We present a highly efficient algorithm with running time $\mathcal {O}(n^{2}\cdot\max\{n,m\})$ for this problem. The algorithm is based on a compact formulation of the NWJS problem and a characterization of all feasible insertions as the stable sets (of prescribed cardinality) in a derived comparability graph. As an application of our algorithm, we propose a heuristic for the NWJS problem based on optimal job insertion and present numerical results that compare favorably with current benchmark

Flavonoids from Ericameria nauseosa inhibiting PI3K/AKT pathway in human melanoma cells.

The PI3K/AKT and MAPK/ERK pathways are frequently mutated in metastatic melanoma. In a screen of over 2500 plant extracts, the dichloromethane extract of Ericameria nauseosa significantly inhibited oncogenic activity of AKT in MM121224 human melanoma cells. This extract was analyzed by analytical HPLC, and the column effluent was fractionated and tested for activity to generate the so-called HPLC-based activity profile. Compounds eluting within active time-windows of the chromatogram were subsequently isolated in a larger scale to afford 11 flavones (1-11), four flavanones (12-15), two diterpenes (16, 17), and a seco-caryophyllene (18). All isolated compounds were tested for activity, whereby only flavonoids were found active. Of these, flavones were shown to be more active than the flavanones. The most potent flavone was compound 9, that was displaying an IC50 of 14.7 ± 1.4 µM on AKT activity in MM121224 cells. The terpenoids (16-18) were found to be inactive in the assay. Both diterpenes, a grindelic acid derivative (16) and an ent-neo-clerodane (17) were identified as new natural products. Their absolute configuration was established by ECD. Compound 17 is the first description of a clerodane type diterpene in the genus Ericameria