waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
a novel method for the evaluation of boolean query effectiveness across a wide operational range  traditional methods for the system-oriented evaluation of boolean ir system suffer from validity and reliability problems. laboratory-based research neglects the searcher and studies suboptimal queries. research on operational systems fails to make a distinction between searcher performance and system performance. this approach is neither capable of measuring performance at standard points of operation (e.g. across r0.0-r1.0).  a new laboratory-based evaluation method for boolean ir systems is proposed. it is based on a controlled formulation of inclusive query plans, on an automatic conversion of query plans into elementary queries, and on combining elementary queries into optimal queries at standard points of operation. major results of a large case experiment are reported. the validity, reliability, and efficiency of the method are considered in the light of empirical and analytical test data.  eero sormunen
towards intelligent recognition of multimedia episodes in real-time applications  the ability to automatically capture and index multimedia information for later perusal and review is critical to the success of future multimedia services. in this paper, we describe how to automatically generate indexes of real-time streams without requiring deep content analysis. our techniques involve segmenting continuous audio and video into natural units, and relating these to discrete events from the multimedia application, such as user interactions, control events, and data content. in addition, we describe how to search within multimedia streams using query-based retrieval and visual and auditory retrieval modes. this multimodal retrieval allows for quick browsing and visual comprehension of multimedia streams. finally we show how our techniques apply to the area of multimedia conference recording.  j. gabbe a. ginsberg b. robinson
cache investment: integrating query optimization and distributed data placement  emerging distributed query-processing systems support flexible execution strategies in which each query can be run using a combination of data shipping and query shipping. as in any distributed environment, these systems can obtain tremendous performance and availability benefits by employing dynamic data caching. when flexible execution and dynamic caching are combined, however, a circular dependency arises: caching occurs as a by-product of query operator placement, but query operator placement decisions are based on (cached) data location. the practical impact of this dependency is that query optimization decisions that appear valid on a per-query basis can actually cause suboptimal performance for all queries in the long run.  to address this problem, we developed cache investment \\- a novel approach for integrating query optimization and data placement that looks beyond the performance of a single query. cache investment sometimes intentionally generates a "suboptimal" plan for a particular query in the interest of effecting a better data placement for subsequent queries. cache investment can be integrated into a distributed database system without changing the internals of the query optimizer. in this paper, we propose cache investment mechanisms and policies and analyze their performance. the analysis uses results from both an implementation on the shore storage manager and a detailed simulation model. our results show that cache investment can significantly improve the overall performance of a system and demonstrate the trade-offs among various alternative policies.  donald kossmann michael j. franklin gerhard drasch wig ag
the abstraction-link-view paradigm: using constraints to connect user interfaces to applications  the goal of the rendezvous project is to build interactive systems that are used by multiple users from multiple workstations, simultaneously. this goal caused us to choose an architecture that requires a clean run-time separation of user interfaces from applications. such a separation has long been state goal of uims researchers, but it is difficult to achieve. a key technical reason for the difficulty is that modern direct manipulation interfaces require extensive communication between the user interface and the application to provide semantic feedback. we discuss several communications mechanisms that have been used in the past, and present our approach --- the abstraction- link-view paradigm. links are objects whose sole responsibility is to facilitate communication between the abstraction objects (application) and the view objects (user interfaces). the abstraction-link-view paradigm relies on concurrency and a fast but powerful constraint system.  ralph d. hill
exception-based information flow control in object-oriented systems  we present an approach to control information flow in object-oriented systems. the decision of whether an information flow is permitted or denied depends on both the authorizations specified on the objects and the process by which information is obtained and transmitted. depending on the specific computations, a process accessing sensitive information could still be allowed to release information to users who are not allowed to directly access it. exceptions to the permissions and restrictions stated by the authorizations are specified by means of exceptions associated with methods. two kinds of exceptions are considered: invoke exceptions, applicable during a mehtod execution and reply exceptions applicable to the information returned by a method. information flowing from one object into another or returned to the user is subject to the different exceptions specified for the methods enforcing the transmission. we formally characterize information transmission and flow in a transaction and define the conditions for safe information flow. we define security specifications and characterize safe information flows. we propose an approach to control unsafe flows and present an algorithm to enforce it. we also illustrate an efficient implementation of our controls and present some experimental results evaluating its performance.  elisa bertino sabrina de capitani di vimercati elena ferrari pierangela samarati
evaluation and analysis of users' activity organization  our analyses of the activities performed by users of computer systems show complex patterns of interleaved activities. current human - computer interfaces provide little support for the kinds of problems users encounter when attempting to accomplish several different tasks in a single session. in this paper we develop a framework for discussing the characteristics of activities, in terms of activity structures, and provide a number of conceptual guidelines for developing an interface which supports activity coordination. the concept of a workspace is introduced as a unifying construct for reducing the mental workload when switching tasks, and for supporting contextually-driven interpretations of the users' activity structures.  liam bannon allen cypher steven greenspan melissa l. monty
an experimental study of the human/computer interface  an exploratory study was conducted to analyze whether interface and user characteristics affect decision effectiveness and subject behavior in an interactive human/computer problem-solving environment. the dependent variables were performance and the use of the systems options. two of the independent variables examined, experience and cognitive style, were user characteristics; the other three, dialogue, command, and default types, were interface characteristics. results indicate that both user and interface characteristics influence the use of the system options and the request for information in the problem-solving task.  izak benbasat albert s. dexter paul s. masulis
properties and update semantics of consistent views  the problem of translating view updates to database updates is considered. both databases and views are modeled as data abstractions. a data abstraction consists of a set of states and of a set of primitive update operators representing state transition functions. it is shown how complex update programs can be built from primitive update operators and how view update programs are translated into database update programs. special attention is paid to a class of views that we call "consistent." loosely speaking, a consistent view is a view with the following property: if the effect of a view update program on a view state is determined, then the effect of the corresponding database update is unambiguously determined. thus, in order to know how to translate a given view update into a database update, it is sufficient to be aware of a functional specification of such a program. we show that consistent views have a number of interesting properties with respect to the concurrency of (high-level) update transactions. moreover we show that the class of consistent views includes as a subset the class of views that translate updates under maintenance of a constant complement. however, we show that there exist consistent views that do not translate under constant complement. the results of bancilhon and spyratos [6] are generalized in order to capture the update semantics of the entire class of consistent views. in particular we show that the class of consistent views is obtained if we relax the requirement of a constant complement by allowing the complement to decrease according to a suitable partial order.  georg gottlob paolo paolini roberto zicari
why reading was slower from crt displays than from paper  experiments, including our own (gould et al., 1982; 1984; 1986), have shown that people read more slowly from crt displays than from paper. here we summarize results from a few of our fifteen experiments that have led us to conclude that the explanation centers on the image quality of the crt characters. reading speeds equivalent to those on paper were found when the crt displays contained character fonts that resembled those on paper (rather than dot matrix fonts, for example), had a polarity of dark characters on a light background, were anti-aliased (e.g., contained grey level), and were shown on displays with relatively high resolution (e.g., 1000 x 800). each of these variables probably contributes something to the improvement, but the trade-offs have not been determined. other general explanations for the reading speed difference that can be excluded include some inherent defect in crt technology itself or personal variables such as age, experience, or familiarity at reading from crt displays.  john d. gould lizette alfaro rich finn brian haupt angela minuto
interoperability and object identity  data model transparency can be achieved by providing a canonical language format for the definition and seamless manipulation of multiple autonomous information bases. in this paper we assume a canonical data and computational model combining the function and object-oriented paradigms.  we investigate the concept of identity as a property of an object and the various ways this property is supported in existing databases, in relation to the object-oriented canonical data model.  the canonical data model is the tool for combining and integrating preexisting syntactical homogeneous, but semantical heterogeneous data types into generalized unifying data types. we identify requirements for object identity in federated systems, and discuss problems of object identity and semantical object replication arising from this new abstraction level. we argue that a strong notion of identity at the federated level can only be acheived by weakening strict autonomy requirements of the component information bases. finally we discuss various solutions to this problem that differ in their requirements with repect to giving up autonomy.  frank eliassen randi karlsen
an algebra for structured office documents  we describe a data model for structured office information objects, which we generically call "documents," and a practically useful algebraic language for the retrieval and manipulation of such objects. documents are viewed as hierarchical structures; their layout (presentation) aspect is to be treated separately. the syntax and semantics of the language are defined precisely in terms of the formal model, an extended relational algebra.  the proposed approach has several new features, some of which are particularly useful for the management of office information. the data model is based on nested sequences of tuples rather than nested relations. therefore, sorting and sequence operations and the explicit handling of duplicates can be described by the model. furthermore, this is the first model based on a many- sorted instead of a one-sorted algebra, which means that atomic data values as well as nested structures are objects of the algebra. as a consequence, arithmetic operations, aggregate functions, and so forth can be treated inside the model and need not be introduced as query language extensions to the model. many-sorted algebra also allows arbitrary algebra expressions (with boolean result) to be admitted as selection or join conditions and the results of arbitrary expressions to be embedded into tuples. in contrast to other formal models, this algebra can be used directly as a rich query language for office documents with precisely defined semantics.  ralf hartmut guting roberto zicari david m. choy
"making place" to make it work: empirical explorations of hci for mobile cscw  this paper addresses issues of user interface design, relating to ease of use, of handheld cscw. in particular, we are concerned with the requirements that arise from situations in which a traditionally designed mobile computer with a small keyboard and screen, may not be easily used. this applies to many mobile use contexts, such as inspection work and engineering in the field. by examining two such settings, we assert that what is usually pointed to as severe shortcomings of mobile computing today, for example: awkward keyboard, small display and unreliable networks, are really implications from a conceptual hci design that emphasise unstructured, unlimited input; a rich, continuous visual feedback channel and marginal use of sound. we introduce motile, a small prototype that demonstrates some alternative ideas about hci for mobile devices. we suggest that identifying complementing user interface paradigms for handheld cscw may enhance our understanding not only of mobile computing or handheld cscw, but the cscw field as a whole.  steinar kristoffersen fredrik ljungberg
a modular and open object-oriented database system  on 30 august 1990, texas instruments incorporated, dallas, tx was awarded a three year contract (contract no. daab07-90-c-b920) to develop a modular and open object-oriented database system. the contract is funded by darpa/isto and is being managed by the u.s. army, cecom, fort monmouth, n.j. the contract is being executed at ti's information technologies laboratory, computer science center, dallas, texas. so far, we have received an outstanding response from interested parties (database research community, oodb application developers, oodb builders) to our contract award announcement. this communication is a collection of most commonly asked questions and answers to them.  satish m. thatte
assumption analysis in compiled logic-based decision support systems (ldsss) (abstract only)  we describe a ldss which extends and improves on prior proposals1. it uses a connection graph to compile programs for handling ordinary queries2, thus eliminating the need for deductive search at query time. it provides for assumption analyses (like "what-if" questions) by allowing changes to the rules (clauses) of the system and tracing the effects of such changes, thereby avoiding the need to recompile the whole system3. it allows certain existentially quantified formulas to participate in the ldss as constraints on answers produced by rules. such a ldss exhibits desirable characteristics of general decision support systems like handling semi-structured problems and being supporting, descriptive, effective, and evolutionary. future work includes interfacing to large statistical packages and dealing with aggregate functions like average.  michael c. chen lawrence j. henschen
word document density and relevance scoring (poster session)  previous work addressing the issue of word distribution in documents has shown the importance of word _repetitiveness_ as an indicator of the word content- bearing characteristics. in this paper we propose a simple method using a measure of the tendency of words to repeat within a document to separate the words with similar document frequencies, but different topic discriminating characteristics. we describe the application of the new measure in query- document relevance scoring. experiments on the trec ad hoc and spoken document retrieval tasks [7] show useful performance improvements.  martin franz j. scott mccarley
exploding the interface: experiences of a cscw network  the development of human computer interaction has been dominated by the interface both as a design concept and as an artefact of computer systems. however, recently researchers have been re-examining the role of the interface in the user's interaction with the computer. this paper further examines the notion of the interface in light of the experiences of the authors in establishing a network to support cooperative work. the authors argue that the concept of the single interface which provides a focus for interaction with a computer system is no longer tenable and that richer conceptions of the inter- relationships between users and computer systems are needed.  john bowers tom rodden
javax.xxl: a prototype for a library of query processing algorithms  therefore, index structures can easily be used in queries. a typical example is a join cursor which consumes the outputs of two underlying cursors. most of our work is however not dedicated to the area of relational databases, but mainly refers to spatial and temporal data. for spatial databases, for example, we provide several implementations of spatial join algorithms [3]. the cursor-based processing is however the major advantage of xxl in contrast to approaches like leda [6] and tpie [7]. for more information on xxl see http://www.mathematik.uni- marburg.de/dbs/xxl.  we will demonstrate the latest version of xxl using examples to show its core functionality. we will concentrate on three key aspects of xxl.  usage: we show how easily state-of-the-art spatial join-algorithms can be implemented in xxl using data from different sources.  reuse: we will demonstrate how to support different joins, e.g. spatial and temporal joins, using the same generic algorithm like plug&amp;join; [1].  comparability: we will demonstrate how xxl serves as an ideal testbed to compare query processing algorithms and index structures.  jochen van den bercken jens-peter dittrich bernhard seeger
resolving the tension between integrity and security using a theorem prover  some information in databases and knowledge bases often needs to be protected from disclosure to certain users. traditional solutions involving multi-level mechanisms are threatened by the user's ability to infer higher level information from the semantics of the application. we concentrate on the revelation of secrets through a user running transactions in the presence of database integrity constraints. we develop a method of specifying secrets formally that not only exposes a useful structure and equivalence among secrets but also allows a theorem prover to detect certain security lapses during transaction compilation time.  subhasish mazumdar david stemple tim sheard
polynomial time query processing in temporal deductive databases  we study conditions guaranteeing polynomial time computability of queries in temporal deductive databases. we show that if for a given set of temporal rules, the period of its least models is bounded from the above by a polynomial in the database size, then also the time to process yes-no queries (as well as to compute finite representations of all query answers) can be polynomially bounded. we present a bottom-up query processing algorithm bt that is guaranteed to terminate in polynomial time if the periods are polynomially bounded. polynomial periodicity is our most general criterion, however it can not be directly applied. therefore, we exhibit two weaker criteria, defining inflationary and i-periodic sets of temporal rules. we show that it can be decided whether a set of temporal rules is inflationary. i-periodicity is undecidable (as we show), but it can be closely approximated by a syntactic notion of multi- separability.  jan chomicki
distributed data base management: some thoughts and analyses  the new decade will witness the widespread usage of distributed processing systems. distributed data base management will turn out to be one of the important applications of this relatively new technology. this paper initially presents a brief outline of the nature of research that has been performed so far in this area. next, it discusses some of the important issues (like integrity and security constraints, deadlocks, concurrency control, etc.) and analyses some proposed mechanisms. performance and correctness issues are also addressed. then, a brief sketch of an adaptive architecture for distributed data base management systems is presented. the last section lists some future directions for research in this area.  c. mohan
anatomy of a real e-commerce system  today's e-commerce systems are a complex assembly of databases, web servers, home grown glue code, and networking services for security and scalability. the trend is towards larger pieces of these coming together in bundled offerings from leading software vendors, and the networking/hardware being offered through service delivery companies. in this paper we examine the bundle by looking in detail at ibm's websphere, commerce edition, and its deployment at a major customer site.  anant jhingran
compromising statistical databases responding to queries about means  this paper describes how to compromise a statistical database which only answers queries about arithmetic means for query sets whose cardinality falls in the range [k, n \\- k], for some k > 0, where n ≥ 2k is the number of records in the database. the compromise is shown to be easy and to require only a little preknowledge; knowing the cardinality of just one nonempty query set is usually sufficient.  this means that not only count and sum queries, but also queries for arithmetic means can be extremely dangerous for the security of a statistical database, and that this threat must be taken into account explicitly by protective measures. this seems quite important from a practical standpoint: while arithmetic means were known for some time to be not altogether harmless, the (perhaps surprising) extent of the threat is now shown.  wiebren de jonge
comparative logical and physical modeling in two oodbmss an application developer's perspective is used to compare modeling and storage in two object- oriented database management systems (oodbmss): ode (object database and environment) and objectstore. although both systems are based on the object- oriented language c++, differences exist in their oodbms designs. comparing the differences between these two systems provides insight into other possible designs or combinations of features that could be possible in an oodbms. as part of this discussion, internal translations of oodbms schemas to physical storage are shown. such knowledge enables an application developer to create appropriate logical and physical database designs and provides a basis for understanding oodbms software. features compared in this paper are physical and logical clustering, iterators, sets, joins, inverse pointers, and queries. to facilitate the discussion, a simple geographic information system (gis) schema is presented. nancy k. wiegand teresa m. adams