waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
design issues and an architecture for a heterogenous multidatabase system  many sophisticated computer applications could be significantly simplified if they are built on top of a general-purpose distributed database management system. in spite of much research on distributed database management systems there are only a few homogenous distributed database system architectures, that have reached the development stage. the situation with heterogeneous multidatabase systems, which connect a number of possibly incompatible pre- existing database systems, is even less satisfactory. to understand the complexity of designing a heterogeneous multidatabase system, we have presented some issues that have been a topic of research in this area. we propose a heterogeneous multidatabase system architecture which solves some of the inherent problems of heterogeneity such as reliability, semantic integrity, and protection. the heterogeneous multidatabase system environment that has been considered involves a connection of pre-existing database systems, with a possibility of adding new database systems at any time during system lifetime.  sushil v. pillai ramanatham gudipati leszek lilien
playback: a method for evaluating the usability of software and its documentation  a methodology is described for obtaining objective measures of product usability. the playback program developed at the ibm human factors center in san jose collects performance data of the user interface without impact upon the user or the system being evaluated. while a user is working with the system, keyboard activity is timed and recorded by a second computer. this log of stored activity is later played back through the host system for analysis. an observer watching television monitors enters time- stamped codes and comments concerning the users employment of system publications. the advantages of this approach are: (1) data-collection programs are external to the product being evaluated, (2) no modifications of the playback program are required for testing different software applications, (3) the data-collection process does not intrude on the user's thoughts or activities, (4) problem determination is performed at an accelerated rate during playback analysis, and (5) all data collection is performed on line.  alan s. neal roger m. simons
an approximate search engine for structural databases  when a person interested in a topic enters a keyword into a web search engine, the response is nearly instantaneous (and sometimes overwhelming). the impressive speed is due to clever inverted index structures, caching, and a domain-independent knowledge of strings. our project seeks to construct algorithms, data structures, and software that approach the speed of keyword- based search engines for queries on structural databases.  a structural database is one whose data objects include trees, graphs, or a set of interrelated labeled points in two, three, or higher dimensional space. examples include databases holding (i) protein secondary and tertiary structure, (ii) phylogenetic trees, (iii) neuroanatomical networks, (iv) parse trees, (v) molecular diagrams, and (vi) xml documents. comparison queries on such databases require solving variants of the graph isomorphism or subisomorphism problems (for which all known algorithms are exponential), so we have explored a large heuristic space.  jason t. l. wang xiong wang dennis shasha bruce a. shapiro kaizhong zhang qicheng ma zasha weinberg
integrating relational databases with support for updates  most work on database integration has considered only support for data retrieval, not support for updates, and often the use of a special semantically rich data model has been required. in this paper we present an approach to database integration which supports updates and which uses only the standard relational data model. many of the ideas used in this approach are applicable to database integration in the context of other data models as well.  m. samy gamal-eldin g. thomas r. elmasri
associating types with domains of relational data bases  in the db field, there are two interpretations (or perceptions or schools of thought) concerning the relational model:  (a) one interpretation considers that the relational model contribution to the db field essentially consists in the presentation of a clear and simple notion of (flat) file, and that many users will be very satisfied to describe their data structures as tables;  (b) another interpretation considers the relational model as a (reasonable) support for a (weak) entity relationship model.  michel lacroix alain pirotte
representing extended entity-relationship structures in relational databases: a modular approach  a common approach to database design is to describe the structures and constraints of the database application in terms of a semantic data model, and then represent the resulting schema using the data model of a commercial database management system. often, in practice, extended entity-relationship (eer) schemas are translated into equivalent relational schemas. this translation involves different aspects: representing the eer schema using relational constructs, assigning names to relational attributes, normalization, and merging relations. considering these aspects together, as is usually done in the design methodologies proposed in the literature, is confusing and leads to inaccurate results. we propose to treat separately these aspects and split the translation into four stages (modules) corresponding to the four aspects mentioned above. we define criteria for both evaluating the correctness of and characterizing the relationship between alternative relational representations of eer schemas.  victor m. markowitz arie shoshani
a scheme-driven natural language query translator  an approach to natural language query translation is presented that is driven mainly by the semantics contained in an extended database scheme. this approach has the advantage of ease of implementation and thus portability since the scheme can easily be extended to interface with the translation system's natural language understanding modules. the required extensions consist of adding domain specific routines to recognize and classify literals and a lexicon to recognize context keywords. the results from these recognizers are then presented to a domain independent translator for further analysis. a prototype system has been implemented and some initial experimentation has been done. observations about the effectiveness of the translator and its efficiency are reported.  david w. embley roy e. kimbrell
the task gallery: a 3d window manager  the task gallery is a window manager that uses interactive 3d graphics to provide direct support for task management and document comparison, lacking from many systems implementing the desktop metaphor. user tasks appear as artwork hung on the walls of a virtual art gallery, with the selected task on a stage. multiple documents can be selected and displayed side-by-side using 3d space to provide uniform and intuitive scaling. the task gallery hosts any windows application, using a novel _redirection mechanism_ that routes input and output between the 3d environment and unmodified 2d windows applications. user studies suggest that the task gallery helps with task management, is enjoyable to use, and that the 3d metaphor evokes spatial memory and cognition.  george robertson maarten van dantzich daniel robbins mary czerwinski ken hinckley kirsten risden david thiel vadim gorokhovsky
reconciling top-down and bottom-up design approaches in rmm the proliferation of intranets and extranets as well as the vast expansion of the world wide web (www) and electronic commerce indicate the need for a structured hypermedia design methodology that will guide the design, development, and maintenance of large multimedia and hypermedia information systems and collaborative systems. the relationship management methodology (rmm) is a well-known hypermedia design methodology. in this paper we provide an extension to it that enhances the design process. we present an iterative process of application design that incorporates the design of the entire application as well as its components. the process includes the design of an application diagram in a top-down fashion, the design of the components or building blocks using the construct of an m-slice, and the regeneration of the application diagram in a bottom-up fashion. an iterative comparison and refinement of the two versions of the application diagram ensure a better final application. tomás isakowitz arnold kamis marios koufaris
data access (tutorial session)  with an explosion of data on the web, consistent data access to diverse data sources has become a challenging task. in this tutorial will present topics of interest to database researchers and developers building: interoperable middle-ware, gateways, distributed heterogeneous query processors, federated databases, data source wrappers, mediators, and dbms extensions.  all of these require access to diverse information through common data access abstractions, powerful apis, and common data exchange formats. with the emergence of the web, database applications are being run over the intranet and the extranet. this tutorial presents an overview of existing and emerging data access technologies. we will concentrate on some of the technical challenges that have to be addressed to enable uniform data access across various platforms and some of the issues that went into the design of these data access strategies.  jose a. blakeley anand deshpande
an experimental framework for email categorization and management  many problems are difficult to adequately explore until a prototype exists in order to elicit user feedback. one such problem is a system that automatically categorizes and manages email. due to a myriad of user interface issues, a prototype is necessary to determine what techniques and technologies are effective in the email domain. this paper describes the implementation of an add-in for microsoft outlook 2000 tm that intends to address two problems with email: 1) help manage the inbox by automatically classifying email based on user folders, and 2) to aid in search and retrieval by providing a list of email relevant to the selected item. this add-in represents a first step in an experimental system for the study of other issues related to information management. the system has been set up to allow experimentation with other classification algorithms and the source code is available online in an effort to promote further experimentation.  kenricj mock
synthesizing auditory icons  auditory icons add valuable functionality to computer interfaces, particularly when they are parameterized to convey dimensional information. they are difficult to create and manipulate, however, because they usually rely on digital sampling techniques. this paper suggests that new synthesis algorithms, controlled along dimensions of events rather than those of the sounds themselves, may solve this problem. several algorithms, developed from research on auditory event perception, are described in enough detail here to permit their implementation. they produce a variety of impact, bouncing, breaking, scraping, and machine sounds. by controlling them with attributes of relevant computer events, a wide range of parameterized auditory icons may be created.  william w. gaver
human factors testing in the design of xerox's 8010 "star" office workstation  integral to the design process of the xerox 8010 "star" workstation was constant concern for the user interface. the design was driven by principles of human cognition. prototyping of ideas, paper-and-pencil analyses, and human-factors experiments with potential users all aided in making design decisions. three of the human- factors experiments are described in this paper: a selection schemes test determined the number of buttons on the mouse pointing device and the meanings of these buttons for doing text selection. an icon test showed us the significant parameters in the shapes of objects on the display screen. a graphics test evaluated the user interface for making line drawings, and resulted in a redesign of that interface.  william l. bewley teresa l. roberts david schroit william l. verplank
to take arms against a sea of email  the rapid growth of the internet means there is more email traffic now than ever before, and there will be still more in years to come. there was a time when only hard-core hackers had to deal with significant amounts of email. as email becomes a standard medium of communication, and more and more nonprogrammers join mailing lists, an increasing number of people find themselves receiving large amounts of email and must cope with it.  andrew arensburger azriel rosenfeld
envision: a user-centered database of computer science literature  project envision is an early nsf-funded digital library effort to develop a multimedia collection of computer science literature with full-text searching and full-content retrieval capabilities. envision was launched in 1991 in accordance with the acm publications board's plans for encouraging research studies to develop an electronic archive for computer science.  lenwood s. heath deborah hix lucy t. nowell william c. wake guillermo a. averboch eric labow scott a. guyer dennis j. brueni robert k. france kaushai dalal edward a. fox
the functional data model and the data languages daplex  daplex is a database language which incorporates:  a formulation of data in terms of entities;  a functional representation for both actual and virtual data relationships;  a rich collection of language constructs for expressing entity selection criteria;  a notion of subtype/supertype relationships among entity types.  this paper presents and motivates the daplex language and the underlying data model on which it is based.  david w. shipman
mediating the views of databases and database users  the natural- language/deduction group at sri international has undertaken several large projects integrating knowledge representation, the modeling and use of distributed conventional databases, logical deduction, and natural- language processing. one of the largest projects, ladder [2], involved accessing data distributed over a computer network by using queries expressed in english. work with ladder (and several similar systems) has revealed that:  (1) users wish to talk about data in terms of the enterprise in which the data are to be used. users do not confine their questions to concepts and terminology covered by the database per se.  (2) users are seldom satisfied with access only to the data in a database. they need to know the kind of data available (i.e., they want to ask questions about the db schema), and they expect systems to include information that can be computed from "common knowledge" and information stored explicitly in the database (e.g., if a database records where two ships are, users expect the system to know the distance between them).  (3) users are not satisfied with access to an existing database. they want to tell the system new facts. some of these are not suitable for storage in conventional databases (e.g., statements involving quantification), and some involve counter factuals (e.g., "suppose the ship were 100 miles south of its current location...").  (4) given natural- language access to a dbms, users expect to interact in natural language with other types of software, too. moreover, they expect the various underlying software packages to understand one another's results (e.g., user: "who is the commander of the ship?" system: "admiral brown." user: "send him a copy of smith's memo." the mailer is expected to understand the output from the database).  gary g. hendrix
what should be modelled?  balzer: this discussion is intended to set the stage for further discussions by soliciting ai, db and pl views of "what should be modelled?" and the nature of models.  [this discussion suffered two problems. first, it was the initial attempt at the workshop by people in different areas to communicate on the same subject. second, the issue of "what should be modelled?" was frequently confused with "how should it be modelled?" to aid the reader in understanding the issues that were confused, comments by deutseh, hayes, levesque, rich and sibley have been extracted and placed at the beginning, ed.]
analysis of locking policies in database management systems  quantitative analysis of locking mechanisms and of their impact on the performance of transactionnal systems have yet received relatively little attention. although numerous concurrency mechanisms have been proposed and implemented, there is an obvious lack of experimental as well as analytical studies of their behaviour and their influence on system performance. we present in this paper an analytical framework for the performance analysis of locking mechanisms in transactionnal systems based on hierarchical analytical modelling. three levels of modelling are considered: at level 1, the different stages (lock request, execution, blocking) transactions of through during their life-time are described; the organization and operations of the cpu and i/o resources are analysed at level 2; transaction's behaviour during their lock request phase is analysed at modelling level 3.  this hierarchical approach is applied to the analysis of a physical locking scheme involving a static lock acquisition policy. a simple probabilistic model of the transaction behaviour is used to derived the probability that a new transaction is granted the locks it requests given the number of transactions already active as a function of the granularity of the database. on the other hand, the multiprogramming effect due to the sharing of cpu and i/o resources by transactions is analysed using the standard queueing network approaches and the solution package qnap. in a final step, the results on the blocking probabilities and the multiprogrammin effect are used as input of a global performance model of the transactionnal system. markovian analysis is used to solve this model and to obtain the throughput of the system as a function of the data base granularity and other parameters. the results obtained provide a clear understanding of the various factors which determine the global performance, of their role and improtance. they also raise many new issues which can only be solved by further extensive experimental and analytical studies and show that two particular topics deserve special attention: the modelling of transaction behaviour and the modelling of locking overheads.  d. potier ph. leblanc
yahoo! as an ontology: using yahoo! categories to describe documents  we suggest that one (or a collection) of names of yahoo! (or any other www indexer's) categories can be used to describe the content of a document. such categories offer a standardized and universal way for referring to or describing the nature of real world objects, activities, documents and so on, and may be used (we suggest) to semantically characterize the content of documents. www indices, like yahoo! provide a huge hierarchy of categories (topics) that touch every aspect of human endeavors. such topics can be used as descriptors, similarly to the way librarians use for example, the library of congress cataloging system to annotate and categorize books.  in the course of investigating this idea, we address the problem of automatic categorization of webpages in the yahoo! directory. we use telltale as our classifier; telltale uses n-grams to compute the similarity between documents. we experiment with various types of descriptions for the yahoo! categories and the webpages to be categorized. our findings suggest that the best results occur when using the very brief descriptions of the yahoo! categorized entries; these brief descriptions are provided either by the entries' submitters or by the yahoo! human indexers and accompany most yahoo!-indexed entries.  yannis labrou tim finin
cooperative information systems (tutorial session)(abstract only): a research agenda  goals and content: the tutorial proposes a generic architecture for cooperative information systems which consists of four layers: the system layer which includes legacy systems, a system integration layer, a human cooperation layer, and an organizational layer. for each, the tutorial will review fundamental concepts, promising research directions, and open questions. the concepts will be illustrated with detailed case studies from production and service industries and with results from ongoing research efforts.  matthais jarke john mylopoulos
the effects of positional constancy on searching menus for information  one of the more popular methods today for instructing software designers on how to structure man-display interfaces is with guidelines. numerous design guidelines have been promulgated in the last several years (engel and granda, 1975; ramsey and atwood, 1980; smith, 1980; kennedy, 1974; pew and rollins, 1975) and there is still much current activity in collecting and expanding screen guidelines (smith, 1981; smith & aucella, 1982)  in the past few years an increased number of empirical investigations quantifying directly the behavioral impacts of individual design guidelines have appeared in the literature. issues such as the depth of menu hierarchies (miller, 1981), eye movements during menu viewing (card, 1982; kolers, duchnicky, and ferguson, 1981), or location of screen entry areas (granda, teitelbaum, and dunlap, 1982) have been experimentally studied.  richard c. teitelbaum richard e. granda
relational queries computable in polynomial time (extended abstract)  query languages for relational databases have received considerable attention. in 1972 codd [cod72] showed that two natural mathematical languages for queries-&-mdash;one algebraic and the other a version of first order predicate calculus-&-mdash;had identical powers of expressibility. query languages which are as expressive as codd's relational calculus are sometimes called complete. this term is misleading, however, because many interesting queries are not expressible in -&-ldquo;complete-&-rdquo; languages.  in this paper we show:  theorem 2: the fixpoint hierarchy collapses at the first fixpoint level.  that is, any query expressible with several applications of least fixpoint can already be expressed with one. we also show:  theorem 1: let l be a query language consisting of relational calculus plus the least fixpoint operator. suppose that l contains a relation symbol for a total ordering relation on the domain (e.g. lexicographic ordering). then the queries expressible in l are exactly the queries computable in polynomial time.  theorem 1 was discovered independantly by m. vardi [var82]. it gives a simple syntactic categorization of those queries which can be answered in polynomial time. of course queries requiring polynomial time in the size of the database are usually prohibitatively expensive. we also consider weaker languages for expressing less complex queries.  neil immerman