bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Assistive technologies for traumatic brain injury
Authors: Gnanayutham Paul
Published: June 2007

This paper discusses an investigation carried out on choosing the appropriate brain-body interface for a group of non-verbal severely brain injured participants to aid communication and recreation. Although extensive research has been carried out in the last few years with invasive and non-invasive brain-body interfaces for the traumatic brain injured community, not enough has filtered through to be used as an everyday tool for communications.
A college course in cryptography and computer security
Authors: Highland Harold Joseph
Published: June 2007

Back in 1978, when I was chairman of the Data Processing Department at SUNY/Farmingdale, which is located in the heart of the electronics and aerospace area on Long Island, I created a course in computer security. Since the intensive program's objective was programming efficiency [36 credits in computing and knowledge of at least two programming languages were required for a two-year degree], I decided to include several aspects of cryptography. Doing this helped to create student interest and also it provided an opportunity for mystudents to do some special programming.
The need for including data security topics in the college business curriculum
Authors: Forcht Karen A.
Published: June 2007

The past decade has indeed witnessed the rapid development and proliferation of computers in organizations of all sizes and types. Increasingly, it has been recognized that computing systems can be compromised, resulting in various forms of damage and loss to organizations. The issue of data security becomes even more paramount and complex as our present office environment becomes increasingly automated. Managers will have to be versatile and innovative in "juggling" the demands of technology, information and people. The threats to security become even more numerous as systems increase in complexity.
A historical prospective of computer related fraud
Authors: Richards Thomas C.
Published: June 2007

Two sets of data on computer-related crime provide an interesting view of this type of fraud. One set of data appears in a study prepared for Lawrence Livermore Laboratories (18) during 1979 and lists characteristics of 461 cases collected by Stanford Research Institute between 1958 and 1978. Another report prepared by the Stanford Research Institute in 1973 gives the characteristics of 148 computer-related crime cases between 1958 and 1973. This investigation presents an analysis of these 551 cases. Duplicate cases reported in both studies have been eliminated.
Applying structured tools and techniques to the development of software for a small computer system
Authors: Farrell Michael W. , Myers Jerry R.
Published: June 2007

Structured tools and techniques were applied to the software design process of an information system for a local health care agency. The design process was based upon a hierarchical decomposition of user requirements into detail system specifications. The tools and techniques included data flow diagrams, pseudo code, a data model based upon the relational approach, and a data dictionary. Together, the design process and the tools and techniques represented an approach to bridge the gap between readily available small computer hardware and an information system that is totally integrated into the organization.
Artemis—an operating system for OSI microcomputers
Authors: Solntseff N.
Published: June 2007

The file system and structure of a single-user operating system is described. The system is designed to run in a laboratory setting on a small microcomputer connected to a network with both private and network disk storage.
Research on rural communication and the microcomputer controlled modem and telephone
Authors: Gammill Robert C.
Published: June 2007

Rural areas have a high variance in quality of life attributes. Despite positive attributes such as quiet, clean air, woods, lakes, slower pace and other amenities, there are numerous negative attributes stemming from isolation, such as limited numbers of stimulating jobs, reduced access to educational, cultural and entertainment opportunities, reduced peer interaction, and other positive attributes of urban life. Modern communications media, such as telephone, mail, newspapers, magazines, radio and television, have helped, but there is still a lack of rapid, inexpensive, convenient, non-interruptive two-way communication facilities for rural use. Computer controlled telephones promise to remedy this situation in the near future. Microcomputer controlled data communication over telephone lines should produce a major improvement in quality of life in rural areas. This paper describes how this may come about, examines technical and economic problems in the way, and describes research being carried out at North Dakota State University to solve these problems. The work is part of a project called RAIN (Rural Agricultural Information Network) sponsored jointly by the North Dakota State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension. The research centers on the development of adaptive software that allows a computer running UNIX (Thompson 1974 and Crowley 1978) to login on another computer and run programs there, as if the UNIX system were an ordinary time-sharing user. This capability allows the UNIX system to communicate with computers that are unprepared to communicate with it! In a rural environment where most computers will be owned by individuals, such capabilities are likely to be critical. In the course of the work it has become clear that some of the problems stem from the inadequacies of present data communications equipment, especially telephone interfaces and modems. These are outlined. A conceptual design is sketched for a highly adaptive computer controlled modem that would speed progress in rural data communication. The potential applications and value of such a modem are presented.
A high-level functional query language for a small relational system
Authors: Warner Hoyt D. , Odle David
Published: June 2007

In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a high-level query language FQUERY which applies the concepts of the functional data model to the retrieval of information from relational databases created on a small PDP-11 system by the RISS relational system described in [Me]. We describe the query language and the functional data model and discuss the benefits they provide for the casual user in expressing queries in a conceptually natural manner.
SPSL/SPSA a minicomputer database system for structured systems analysis and design
Authors: Sorenson P. G. , Tremblay J. P. , Friesen A. W.
Published: June 2007

The field of computer-aided systems analysis and design is still very young and therefore, as yet, there are few automated aids in existence. Progress, however, is now being made in computer-aided techniques to be used in the development of information systems. Most of the limited number of automated aids available require large computer systems for their operations. This paper describes a computer-aided systems analysis and documentation system which has been implemented on a PDP-11/40 computer running under the UNIX operating system. In particular, the database design and implementation considerations with in a small minicomputer environment of the SPSL/SPSA system are presented. Also the experiences gained in the use of this system are reported. Finally, several extensions to the existing SPSL/SPSA system currently under development are described.
MESSIDOR system
Authors: Moulinoux Catherine , Faure Jean-Claude , Litwin Witold
Published: June 2007

MESSIDOR is an interactive information retrieval system. It differs from current systems in that it allows the simultaneous search of several bibliographic databases. The databases may be on different sites and may use different query languages (MISTRAL, QUEST,...). These local languages are invisible to the users of MESSIDOR. They are all translated to a single language. We describe MESSIDOR's goals, system architecture, user language and some details of the implementation. The system is implemented on a MICRAL 80-30 microcomputer.
PEIRCE
Authors: Solomon Martin K. , Kirshen Carl D.
Published: June 2007

PEIRCE is an interactive relational database management system intended for mini and microcomputers, with an extensible command facility, QUERY, based on Codd's relational algebra and supporting a clerk oriented interface.

PEIRCE contains three major independent on-line modules: DBA, QUERY, and CSU.

DBA provides the data definition and data dictionary facilities and is discussed in Section 2.

QUERY provides both a relational algebra data manipulation language and a clerk oriented interface. QUERY is also discussed in Section 2.

Command sequences are discussed in Section 3.

We discuss the virtual file facilities of PEIRCE (which include the updating of virtual files) in Section 4.

The underlying storage structure, namely entry order sequence with secondary indexes, was chosen primarily with simplicity of recovery in mind and is discussed in section 5.

In Section 6 we discuss the control commands IF and FOR, which help to conveniently avoid having a host language facility.

We conclude in Section 7 by describing further work planned on PEIRCE.
Design and implementation of a portable database system for small computers
Authors: Weck G. , Wiesner B.
Published: June 2007

This paper describes the design and implementation of PEDMS. Part B describes design objectives, resulting system architecture and interfaces to user and database administrator. Part C concentrates on the implementation of PEDMS, discussing the difficulties imposed by the environment, and the ways of circumventing these difficulties.
The impact of aging on access to technology
Authors: Czaja Sara J.
Published: June 2007

Two major demographic trends underscore the importance of considering adaptation to technology by older adults: the aging of the population and rapid dissemination of technological innovations. In the past decade, developments in computer and information technologies have occurred at an unprecedented rate and technology has become an integral component of work, education, communication and entertainment. Technology is also increasingly used within the health care arena for service delivery, in-home monitoring, interactive communication (e.g., between patient and physician), transfer of health information and peer support. For example, in 2003, 76 % of Americans reported that they used the Internet and 65% have Internet access at home (UCLA Internet Report -- "Surveying the Digital Future", 2003). Use of automatic teller machines, interactive telephone-based menu systems, cellular telephones, and VCRs is also quite common. Furthermore, telephones, television, home security systems and other communication devices are becoming more integrated with computer network resources providing faster and more powerful interactive services. In essence in order to function independently and successfully interact with the environment, people of all ages need to interact with some form of technology.
HCI for people with cognitive disabilities
Authors: Lewis Clayton
Published: June 2007

The self-advocacy movement (Dybwad & Bersani, 1996) grew out of resistance to oppressive practices of institutionalization (and worse) for people with cognitive disabilities. Moving beyond the worst abuses, people with cognitive disabilities seek as full participation in society as possible.
Cognitive impairments, information technology systems and the workplace
Authors: Bodine Cathy
Published: June 2007

21.3 million Americans have some form of cognitive disability and a large majority of these individuals are working age adults (Braddock, 2005). Cognitive impairment, often labeled as a "hidden disability" is loosely defined as a disability that affect's an individuals awareness; memory; and ability to learn, process information, communicate and make decisions. "Cognition" refers to "understanding," the ability to comprehend what one sees and hears, and to infer information from social cues and body language. Persons with cognitive impairments have difficulty learning new things, expressing themselves through spoken or written language, and making generalizations from one situation to another (Davis, 2000).
"Engineering accessible design"
Authors: Harper Simon , Yesilada Yeliz , Goble Carole
Published: June 2007

Previous engineering approaches seem to have precluded the engineering of accessible systems. This is plainly unsatisfactory. Designers, authors, and technologist are at present playing 'catch-up' with a continually moving target in an attempt to retrofit systems. Infact engineering accessible interfaces is as important as their functionality's and should be an indivisible part of the development. We should be engineering accessibility as part of the development and not as afterthought or because government restrictions and civil law requires us to. Our workshop brought together a cross section of the Web design and engineering communities; to report on developments, discuss the issues, and suggest cross-pollinated solutions.Conventional workshops on accessibility tended to be single disciplinary in nature. However, we were concerned that a single disciplinary approach prevents the cross-pollination of ideas, needs, and technologies from other related but separate fields. The workshop was therefore, decidedly cross disciplinary in nature and brought together users, accessibility experts, graphic designers, and technologists from academia and industry to discuss how accessibility could be supported. We also encouraged the participation of users and other interested parties as an additional balance to the discussion. Views often bridged academia, commerce, and industry and arguments encompassed a range of beliefs across the design-accessibility spectrum. Our aim was to focus on accessibility by encouraging participation from many disciplines; represented in the following discussion and paper abstracts.
The Xcode machine
Authors: Tisato Francesco , Zicari Roberto
Published: June 2007

This paper defines the abstract machine architecture of a node of a distributed system. The abstract machine is close to the physical architecture of existing real systems, so that the set of abstract primitives can be easily mapped onto the instruction set of any physical machine.The abstract machine is defined via its " machine language" X-code. The X-code primitives have been designed to support the typical problems which arise in distributed systems and embedded applications.The work described in this paper is part of a larger project (C-net) sponsored by CNR - the Italian Research Council - with the goal of providing tools and methodologies for designing distributed systems composed of heterogeneous physical nodes.
The role of simulation in the development of task-oriented computer architectures
Authors: Bisiani R.
Published: June 2007

With the recent improvements in the technology of inlegrated circuits there has been increasing interest in task-oriented computer architectures. At Carnegie-Mellon University we have built a multi-microprocessor architecture tailored to the execution of the Harpy speech understanding system (Harpy Machine). While doing this, we have been confronted with the non-trivial problem of developing software for a lask-oriented multiprocessor. This paper is concerned with one approach to the problem of software development: the use of an ad-hoc simulator as a cheap software development tool (as opposed to the typical use of a simulator as a design evaluation tool). The experience made with the simulator in the development of the software for the Harpy Machine is also discussed.
Data base management system environments present and future
Authors: Slonim J. , Unger E. A. , Fisher P. S.
Published: June 2007

A data base management system must have the characteristics of a public utility. It has to be able to support shared, concurrent access while enforcing the integrity and security constraints specified by its users; have enough capacity to serve the needs of its users: and be reliable, cost-effective, and responsive [BAUM, HSIAO, STELLORN].
Using cascading style sheets to accommodate websites for individuals with low vision
Authors: Dick Wayne E.
Published: June 2007

The Web Community tolerates bad markup for visual effect even when the practice excludes partially sighted users. This paper describes a two-phase process to recondition websites: deconstruction and building a new skin. It uses cascading style sheets. Deconstruction replaces developer styles with good defaults for partially sighted users. Building a new skin customizes the site for individual preferences. It adjusts font size, font family, color configuration, line height, word spacing and letter spacing. Its styles for lists and tables aid navigation. The process works best on sites that conform to W3C standards. Even marginal sites can be transformed so that the new interface is pleasant so long as the site developer does not misuse markup too aggressively.
A method for enhancing digital information displayed to computer users with visual refractive errors via spatial and spectral based processing
Authors: Alonso Miguel
Published: June 2007

The ability to interact effectively with computers through typical graphic user interfaces (GUIs) is greatly affected by any refractive errors present in an individual's visual system. These errors can be mathematically modeled (as the wavefront aberration function) and a system for overcoming these aberrations is proposed which has the potential to increase the effective human-computer interaction for these individuals. This paper introduces a dissertation research plan that seeks to:1. further develop techniques realizing software pre-compensation2. test this method using human subjects with each subject's unique wavefront aberration.
Clique
Authors: Parente Peter
Published: June 2007

The purpose of the Clique project is to explore a new way of adapting applications with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for use in audio. Existing adaptation methods retain the components and metaphors of visual interfaces in the audio displays they produce. Clique, on the other hand, presents the user with a conversational audio display based on the tasks supported by programs, not their visual representations. The user interacts solely with this audio display while Clique takes charge of inspecting and controlling the underlying programs via their GUIs. In effect, the graphical nature of program interfaces is hidden from the listening user who is free to concentrate on his or her tasks in audio. We hypothesize that audio displays produced in this manner will prove more effective and satisfying for common tasks than current solutions.
Using functional assessment to improve information systems research, design and technology matching
Authors: Price Kathleen J.
Published: June 2007

Information systems researchers and developers require an appropriate means of assessing system user characteristics and capabilities. At this time, no such assessment measures exist. Current measurement tools are designed to assess activities of daily living, but do not transfer well to technology assessment. My dissertation work will focus on the development of a functional assessment (FA) that focuses on the capabilities that are critical for effective interactions with information technologies. This dissertation will focus on physical capabilities, using both questionnaire and computerized solutions to assess a user's relevant functional capabilities. Evaluation and comparison of assessment techniques with correlation to representative computer tasks will finalize the research.
Storytelling with a virtual peer as an intervention for children with autism
Authors: Tartaro Andrea
Published: June 2007

Story Listening Systems (SLS), a model of technology and literacy development, are shown to promote language skills development in children through storytelling with a virtual peer [4]. However, SLS make several assumptions about children:(1) they rely on children's oral storytelling and communication skills;(2) they model social skills to engage children in peer play; and,(3) they enable imaginative play, allowing children to create their own meaningful content using physical artifacts.
The implementation and experiences of a structure-oriented text editor.
Authors: Strömfors O. , Jonesjö L.
Published: June 2007

This paper presents a generalized approach to data editing in interactive systems. We describe the ED3 editor, which is a powerful tool for text editing combining the ability to handle hierarchical structures with screen-oriented text editing facilities. Extensions for handling simple pictures and formatted data records in a uniform way are part of our approach. Examples of ED3 applications are presented.
JANUS
Authors: Chamberlin Donald D. , King James C. , Slutz Donald R. , Todd Stephen J.P. , Wade Bradford W.
Published: June 2007

This paper describes the architecture of a proposed document composition system named JANUS, which is intended to provide support for authors of complex documents containing mixtures of text, line art, and tone art. The JANUS system is highly interactive, providing authors with immediate feedback and direct electronic control over page layouts, using a special two-display workstation. Authors communicate with the system by marking up their documents with high-level descriptive “tags”. A tag definition language is provided whereby new tags may be defined and the format of each tagged object may be controlled.
An annotated bibliography of background material on text manipulation
Authors: Reid Brian K. , Hanson David
Published: June 2007

This is the first ACM conference specifically devoted to text manipulation, but there have been good papers and books on the topic published in the past. To help define the state of the field as of the time of this first conference, we have assembled this small annotated bibliography listing classic or important past work on text manipulation, including material on text editing, document formatting, typography, graphic communication, writing style, string and pattern matching, and other problems of interest to researchers in this field. Ben Schneiderman of the University of Maryland and Chris Fraser of the University of Arizona have provided us with some of the annotations of papers on text editing.

In a bibliography like this one it is impossible to include every relevant paper, or even every important paper. We in general have chosen to include those that have been influential, are widely available, and are also reasonably current. We have additionally included a number of papers and books that supply background knowledge about relevant applications areas that might not be widely known to computer scientists.
Options and alternatives of the small system user
Authors: Kafatou Thalia
Published: June 2007

There are no statistical studies concerning the number of the small systems that take the rough road of computerization, every day, but experience has shown that this number is large, and is becoming larger every day. Computers are in fashion. The question, though, is whether the computer solution is the only solution that the small system user has in his disposal to make his working life easier. Even in the case that the computer road is the solution, still there are alternatives concerning the kind, and size of the computer.
Considerations in processing satellite images
Authors: Danielson Ronald L.
Published: June 2007

Legislated demands for better control of natural resources have motivated many state and local resource management agencies to investigate application of satellite image data to their management activities. The University of Santa Clara and NASA-Ames Research Center have been jointly considering the problems faced by such agencies. Advantages and disadvantages of using relatively small systems for the required computer processing activities are briefly discussed in the paper. In addition, summaries are provided of current status on investigations of user interface considerations, steps involved in developing local processing capability, and improvement of software transportability.
JOYCE
Authors: Franta W. R. , Aycock M. E. , Boylan C. , Kvam B. , Levy S. , Stone G.
Published: June 2007

This paper describes the hardware/software design decisions, cost, and development status the JOYCE personal computer. The features of the system are examined in light of scheduled applications such as CAI (a stand alone PLATO system), database management, electronic mail, and other network communication facilities. Plans for continued system development are outlined.Our experiences relating to the acquisition of the components necessary for the realization of JOYCE, including delivery delays, vendor promises, and the gap between vendor product actual operation and documented operational descriptions will be detailed.
Small operating systems for the 1990s
Authors: Solntseff N.
Published: June 2007

In the course of 24 years' association with computers, I have seen the rise and fall of several alternate ways of looking at operating systems.
What will we do with all that bandwidth?
Authors: Maryanski Fred
Published: June 2007

Let's skip the business (except for a few items) and do something technical this time. You have all heard about the recent developments in local network technology that will permit to communicate between machines at rates of 10 Mega bits per second or higher. On first blush, these high speed interconnections might be viewed as THE breakthrough that will allow "true" distributed computing without painful delays. However, more careful consideration of the problem leads to a slight dampening of our fervor. First, we must realize tht a high speed interconnection will not make computers or disks run any faster than they do at the moment. Many small systems are simply not capable of utilizing a 10 Mbit link even if their entire capacity were devoted to reading or writing packets. With more powerful CPU's, it is possible to construct a system that will transfer data between machines at close to the speed of the disks. Several file transfer protocols have been implemented which operate close to disk speed, but which utilize only a small percentage of the communication bandwidth. Once the disk becomes the limiting factor, extra bandwith on the communications link can not improve performance.
Waterloo microSYSTEMS
Authors: Wilkinson Terry
Published: June 2007

As most of our readers know, the University of Waterloo has been involved for many years in the development of computer software. The main emphasis has always been on enhancing the learning environment by developing systems to meet our specific needs.
Optimistic concurrency control and recovery in a multi personal computer system
Authors: Karszt Jakob , Kuss Herbert , Lauson Georg
Published: June 2007

In this paper we present an attractive concurrency control and recovery method to manage the transactions of a multi user Personal Computer system on a shared data base in a star constellation.
Computer security for minis and micros
Authors: Claybrook Anne-Marie G.
Published: June 2007

Mini and micro computers were originally designed mainly for low cost, real time computer applications. Security in these dedicated systems was not a concern. Now that minis and micros are being used in multi-user environments, security is much more a concern. In the commercial arena, security for word processing applications urgently needs to be addressed. Security and integrity are concerns in the communications area where minis and micros are used for both front-ends and network switches. Finally, with the widespread use of small computers in defense applications, data security in terms of the Department of Defense (DoD) national security policy also needs to be addressed.This paper provides some background on computer security to those new to the area and gives a general context for the two architecture papers following this overview.
SP/K (PL/1 Subset) compilers now available for 360/370 and PDP-11
Authors: Holt Richard C. , Wortman David B.
Published: June 2007

The Computer Systems Research Group of the University of Toronto is now distributing their compilers for SP/k. These compilers support a sequence of subsets of PL/1 called SP/1, SP/2, SP/3, ..., SP/8 that have been designed for teaching programming. Generally., programs that run without errors under the SP/k compilers will run with the same results under other PL/1 compilers such as IBM's PL/1 F compiler, IBM's check-out compiler or Cornell University's PL/C compiler. (See the references for specifications of SP/k and discussion of using PL/1 for teaching.)
Minicomputer systems in business
Authors: Lewis T. G.
Published: June 2007

Datapro reports that compact, low-cost business data processing systems will soon be as commonplace in most offices as typewriters and copy machines. They report over 130 current minicomputer systems from 46 vendors in use. These systems are characterized by a price tag of $5,000 to $100,000, main memory from 8K to 64K, 16-bit words, data entry peripherals, and low-cost auxiliary storage.
How large should a computer be?
Authors: Lewis T. G.
Published: June 2007

The minicomputer invasion is bringing an end to the Renaissance Computer Age. The reasons for this are both technological and economical.Hardware costs have, because of LSI technology, diminished below the cost of complexity making general purpose k-way shared systems uneconomical for large values of k. On the otherhand, software development costs remain high due to complexity. Therefore, software complexity is forcing duplication of integrated hard/soft systems in place of hardware systems running a variety of programs.The hardware shift, as it is called, is also responsible for a shift in the type and number of computer applications. Shifts in applications lead eventually to greater hardware shifts. Viewed from an economic point-of-view the hardware shift is an "acceleration force" whose rate of change determines the size of future computers.
Numerical applications of minicomputers at the national bureau of standards
Authors: Lozier Daniel W.
Published: June 2007

At the National Bureau of Standards, minicomputers are used in a variety of applications requiring the acquisition and processing of physical data. In this paper, a general view of minicomputer use in laboratories at NBS is given. Several specific applications with current and future requirements in numerical processing are discussed. Computation on small computers is typically constrained, more severely than on large computers, by hardware limitations. These can be overcome only by mathematical software that is not required in large computer systems. The validity of computed results depends on this software as well as on the same type of mathematical software that would be used to solve the same problem on a large computer. But mathematical software of known high quality is less readily available for minicomputers. Some possible means of alleviating the software problems of minicomputers, and some steps taken in this direction at NBS, are discussed.
A microprogramming design laboratory
Authors: Vickery Christopher
Published: June 2007

Sophisticated design aids are available to help automate microprogram development both for large, complex computers and for micro-processor-based systems. These aids include procedures for source code verification, object code generation, microprogram simulation, and interactive debugging. For various reasons, such aids are generally not well-developed for microprogrammable minicomputers. This paper describes a microprogramming laboratory developed for the Interdata 85 minicomputer which uses both the minicomputer itself as well as the time-sharing and batch facilities of a large computer center. Experience with the laboratory has shown that the facility for interacting with a microprogram is as important as the availability of complete diagnostic information. The argument is made that design automation aids for microprogramming minicomputers could be produced efficiently from standardized assembly and simulation programs.
Problems of the '80's
Authors: Isaacson Portia
Published: June 2007

The following papers were the working papers of the Personal Computing session participants at The Oregon Report on Computing Conference held 20--22 March 1978 in Portland, Oregon. The papers are also published in the Conference Proceedings available through the IEEE Computer Society.
Position paper on
Authors: Kay Alan , Goldberg Adele , Tesler Larry
Published: June 2007

Neither hardware nor software is right; most everything is yet to be done.
SIGACCESS member profile
Authors: Keates Simeon
Published: June 2007

Member of SIGACCESS since: 2001Member of ACM since: 2000Also member of: SIGCHI
SIGACCESS member profile
Authors: Keates Simeon
Published: June 2007

Member of SIGACCESS since: 2004Member of ACM since: 2004Also member of: SIGCHI
Multi-layer dialog generation for non-visual web access
Authors: Borodin Yevgen
Published: June 2007

People with visual disabilities use screen-readers to browse the Web. The existing screen-readers have limited ways of presenting Web page content. I propose to turn non-visual Web browsing into a multi-layer mixed-initiative dialog-based interaction between users and computers. The suggested layers of dialog navigation are: basic screen-reading, DFS or BFS, and domain-specific. The support of adaptive dialogs is also planned. This research is aimed at improving and accelerating non-visual Web browsing for blind users.
Designing cognitive supports for dementia
Authors: Wherton Joe , Monk Andrew
Published: June 2007

This paper gives an overview of a PhD programme focusing on the design of cognitive prostheses to support people with mild-moderate dementia in the home. The approach taken involves two main phases. The first phase explores the problems that need to be addressed, from the perspective of professional carers, patients, and informal caregivers. The second phase focuses on designing a cognitive support that can assist patients through a specific activity. This paper reports the findings from the first phase (exploring problems of dementia in the home), and describes plans for the subsequent designing phase.
Virtual sign animated pedagogic agents to support computer education for deaf learners
Authors: Saksiri Benjaporn , Ferrell William G. , Ruenwongsa Pintip
Published: June 2007

In Thailand, there is a desperate need to improve the educational opportunities for deaf and hearing-impaired university-aged students. The research described herein is targeted at two aspects of this issue: 1) design and test a virtual sign animated instructional tool for the Thai sign language, and 2) investigate how instructors of university classes can most effectively teach deaf students and assess their performance, particularly by using this tool. Currently, I have completed a thorough review of the literature, constructed a 3-D human model that includes rudimentary facial expressions, and devised a framework to investigate the instructional process.
Graph evolution
Authors: Leskovec Jure , Kleinberg Jon , Faloutsos Christos
Published: June 2007

How do real graphs evolve over time? What are normal growth patterns in social, technological, and information networks? Many studies have discovered patterns instatic graphs, identifying properties in a single snapshot of a large network or in a very small number of snapshots; these include heavy tails for in- and out-degree distributions, communities, small-world phenomena, and others. However, given the lack of information about network evolution over long periods, it has been hard to convert these findings into statements about trends over time.

Here we study a wide range of real graphs, and we observe some surprising phenomena. First, most of these graphs densify over time with the number of edges growing superlinearly in the number of nodes. Second, the average distance between nodes often shrinks over time in contrast to the conventional wisdom that such distance parameters should increase slowly as a function of the number of nodes (likeO(logn) orO(log(logn)).

Existing graph generation models do not exhibit these types of behavior even at a qualitative level. We provide a new graph generator, based on a forest fire spreading process that has a simple, intuitive justification, requires very few parameters (like the flammability of nodes), and produces graphs exhibiting the full range of properties observed both in prior work and in the present study.

We also notice that the forest fire model exhibits a sharp transition between sparse graphs and graphs that are densifying. Graphs with decreasing distance between the nodes are generated around this transition point.

Last, we analyze the connection between the temporal evolution of the degree distribution and densification of a graph. We find that the two are fundamentally related. We also observe that real networks exhibit this type of relation between densification and the degree distribution.
Clustering aggregation
Authors: Gionis Aristides , Mannila Heikki , Tsaparas Panayiotis
Published: June 2007

We consider the following problem: given a set of clusterings, find a single clustering that agrees as much as possible with the input clusterings. This problem,
clustering aggregation
, appears naturally in various contexts. For example, clustering categorical data is an instance of the clustering aggregation problem; each categorical attribute can be viewed as a clustering of the input rows where rows are grouped together if they take the same value on that attribute. Clustering aggregation can also be used as a metaclustering method to improve the robustness of clustering by combining the output of multiple algorithms. Furthermore, the problem formulation does not require a priori information about the number of clusters; it is naturally determined by the optimization function.

In this article, we give a formal statement of the clustering aggregation problem, and we propose a number of algorithms. Our algorithms make use of the connection between clustering aggregation and the problem of
correlation clustering
. Although the problems we consider are NP-hard, for several of our methods, we provide theoretical guarantees on the quality of the solutions. Our work provides the best deterministic approximation algorithm for the variation of the correlation clustering problem we consider. We also show how sampling can be used to scale the algorithms for large datasets. We give an extensive empirical evaluation demonstrating the usefulness of the problem and of the solutions.
Collective entity resolution in relational data
Authors: Bhattacharya Indrajit , Getoor Lise
Published: June 2007

Many databases contain uncertain and imprecise references to real-world entities. The absence of identifiers for the underlying entities often results in a database which contains multiple references to the same entity. This can lead not only to data redundancy, but also inaccuracies in query processing and knowledge extraction. These problems can be alleviated through the use of
entity resolution
. Entity resolution involves discovering the underlying entities and mapping each database reference to these entities. Traditionally, entities are resolved using pairwise similarity over the attributes of references. However, there is often additional relational information in the data. Specifically, references to different entities may cooccur. In these cases, collective entity resolution, in which entities for cooccurring references are determined jointly rather than independently, can improve entity resolution accuracy. We propose a novel relational clustering algorithm that uses both attribute and relational information for determining the underlying domain entities, and we give an efficient implementation. We investigate the impact that different relational similarity measures have on entity resolution quality. We evaluate our collective entity resolution algorithm on multiple real-world databases. We show that it improves entity resolution performance over both attribute-based baselines and over algorithms that consider relational information but do not resolve entities collectively. In addition, we perform detailed experiments on synthetically generated data to identify data characteristics that favor collective relational resolution over purely attribute-based algorithms.
Influence of exception handling on the support of cooperative office work
Authors: Karbe Bernhard H. , Ramsperger Norbert G.
Published: June 2007

Cooperative work on office tasks can be understood as consisting of steps to be carried out by persons acting in organizational functions. In many cases, neither the number of steps nor the persons involved are known in advance. Often, deviations from predefined cooperation procedures and exception handling become necessary. Moreover, many tasks are completely unformalized. Thus, support of exception handling has become a crucial requirement. ProMlnanD represents office tasks by means of Electronic Circulation Folders which migrate automatically through an office organization transferring arbitrary kinds of documents. A migration specification describes the formalized part of office tasks. The user requirements on cooperation support and their impact on the design of ProMlnanD are presented.
MAFIA—an active mail-filter-agent for an intelligent document processing support
Authors: Lutz Ernst , Kleist-Retzow Hans V. , Hoernig Karl
Published: June 2007

The main goal in the design of intelligent information processing systems is to provide automatic support for the processing of the large amount of documents, today's office workers are confronted with. Existing message filtering systems can provide this support only if the messages to be processed are at least semi-structured.The MAFIA System (MAil-FIlter-Agent) overcomes these limitations of existing message filtering systems by providing an automatic document classification component which recognizes the relevant concepts of weakly structured documents automatically and computes a semantic representation of the document. Using this semantic representation the user is able to specify rules for an effective and content-oriented information processing support.
Analytic modeling of multitier Internet applications
Authors: Urgaonkar Bhuvan , Pacifici Giovanni , Shenoy Prashant , Spreitzer Mike , Tantawi Asser
Published: June 2007

Since many Internet applications employ a multitier architecture, in this article, we focus on the problem of analytically modeling the behavior of such applications. We present a model based on a network of queues where the queues represent different tiers of the application. Our model is sufficiently general to capture (i) the behavior of tiers with significantly different performance characteristics and (ii) application idiosyncrasies such as session-based workloads, tier replication, load imbalances across replicas, and caching at intermediate tiers. We validate our model using real multitier applications running on a Linux server cluster. Our experiments indicate that our model faithfully captures the performance of these applications for a number of workloads and configurations. Furthermore, our model successfully handles a comprehensive range of resource utilization---from 0 to near saturation for the CPU---for two separate tiers. For a variety of scenarios, including those with caching at one of the application tiers, the average response times predicted by our model were within the 95% confidence intervals of the observed average response times. Our experiments also demonstrate the utility of the model for dynamic capacity provisioning, performance prediction, bottleneck identification, and session policing. In one scenario, where the request arrival rate increased from less than 1500 to nearly 4200 requests/minute, a dynamic provisioning technique employing our model was able to maintain response time targets by increasing the capacity of two of the tiers by factors of 2 and 3.5, respectively.
Toward a Commodity Enterprise Middleware
Authors: O'Hara John
Published: June 2007

AMQP was born out of my own experience and frustrations in developing front- and back-office processing systems at investment banks. It seemed to me that we were living in integration Groundhog Day - the same problems of connecting systems together would crop up with depressing regularity. Each time the same discussions about which products to use would happen, and each time the architecture of some system would be curtailed to allow for the fact that the chosen middleware was reassuringly expensive. From 1996 through to 2003 I was waiting for the solution to this obvious requirement to materialize as a standard, and thereby become a commodity. But that failed to happen, and I grew tired of waiting.
A Conversation with Michael Stonebraker and Margo Seltzer
Authors: Stanik John
Published: June 2007

Over the past 30 years Michael Stonebraker has left an indelible mark on the database technology world. Stonebraker’s legacy began with Ingres, an early relational database initially developed in the 1970s at UC Berkeley, where he taught for 25 years. The Ingres technology lives on today in both the Ingres Corporation’s commercial products and the open source PostgreSQL software. A prolific entrepreneur, Stonebraker also started successful companies focused on the federated database and stream-processing markets. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1998 and currently is adjunct professor of computer science at MIT. Interviewing Stonebraker is Margo Seltzer, one of the founders of Sleepycat Software, makers of Berkeley DB, a popular embedded database engine now owned by Oracle. Seltzer now spends most of her time teaching and doing research at Harvard, where she is full professor of computer science. She was kind enough to lend us her time and travel down the Charles River to speak with Stonebraker, her former Ph.D. advisor, at MIT’s striking Stata Center.
Review of “Designing with Web Standards (second edition) by Jeffrey Zeldman”, Peachpit Press, 2006, $44.99, ISBN: 0321385551
Authors: Wallace Will
Published: June 2007

Review of “Designing with Web Standards (second edition) by Jeffrey Zeldman”, Peachpit Press, 2006, $44.99, ISBN: 0321385551
Review of “Expert VB 2005 Business Objects (second edition) by Rockford Lhotka”, Apress, 2006, $59.99, ISBN: 1590596315
Authors: Corchuelo Rafael
Published: June 2007

Review of “Expert VB 2005 Business Objects (second edition) by Rockford Lhotka”, Apress, 2006, $59.99, ISBN: 1590596315
Calendar
Authors: Stanik John
Published: June 2007

OSBC (Open Source Business Conference)