waashk/acm huggingface dataset:
devise (demo abstract): integrated querying and visual exploration of large datasets  devise is a data exploration system that allows users to easily develop, browse, and share visual presentations of large tabular datasets (possibly containing or referencing multimedia objects) from several sources. the devise framework, implemented in a tool that has been already successfully applied to a variety of real applications by a number of user groups, makes several contributions. in particular, it combines support for extended relational queries with powerful data visualization features. datasets much larger than available main memory can be handled---devise is currently being used to visualize datasets well in excess of 100mb---and data can be interactively examined at several levels of detail: all the way from meta-data summarizing the entire dataset, to large subsets of the actual data, to individual data records. combining querying (in general, data processing) with visualizations gives us a very versatile tool, and presents several novel challenges.  our emphasis is on developing an intuitive yet powerful set of querying and visualization primitives that can be easily combined to develop a rich set of visual presentations that integrate data from a wide range of application domains. in this demo, we will present a number of examples of the use of the devise tool for visualizing and interactively exploring very large datasets, and report on our experience in applying it to several real applications.  m. livny r. ramakrishnan k. beyer g. chen d. donjerkovic s. lawande j. myllymaki k. wenger
personalized spiders for web search and analysis  searching for useful information on the world wide web has become incr easingly difficult. while internet search engines have been helping people to search on the web, low recall rate and outdated indexes have become more and more problematic as the web grows. in addition, search tools usually present to the user only a list of search results, failing to provide further personalized analysis which could help users identify useful information and comprehend these results. to alleviate these problems, we propose a client- based architecture that incorporates noun phrasing and self-organizing map techniques. two systems, namely ci spider and meta spider, have been built based on this architecture. user evaluation studies have been conducted and the findings suggest that the proposed architecture can effectively facilitate web search and analysis.  michael chau daniel zeng hinchun chen
tuple sequences and lexicographic indexes  the concept of a tuple sequence is introduced in order to investigate structure connected with relational model implementation. analogs are presented for the relational operations of projection, join, and selection, and the decomposition problem for tuple sequences is considered. the lexicographical ordering of tuple sequences is studied via the notion of (lexicographic) index. a sound and complete set of inference rules for indexes is exhibited, and two algorithmic questions related to indexes examined. finally, indexes and functional dependencies in combination are studied.  serge abiteboul seymour ginsburg
the dynamic homefinder: evaluating dynamic queries in a real-estate information exploration system  we designed, implemented, and evaluated a new concept for visualizing and searching databases utilizing direct manipulation called dynamic queries. dynamic queries allow users to formulate queries by adjusting graphical widgets, such as sliders, and see the results immediately. by providing a graphical visualization of the database and search results, users can find trends and exceptions easily. user testing was done with eighteen undergraduate students who performed significantly faster using a dynamic queries interface compared to both a natural language system and paper printouts. the interfaces were used to explore a real-estate database and find homes meeting specific search criteria.  christopher williamson ben shneiderman
accessing hyperdocuments through interactive dynamic maps  we propose a new navigation paradigm based on a spatial metaphor to help users access and navigate within large sets of documents. this metaphor is implemented by a computer artifact called an interactive dynamic map (idm). an idm plays a role similar to the role of a real map with respect to physical space. two types of idms are computed from the documents: topic idms represent the semantic contents of a set of documents while document idms visualize a subset of documents such as those resulting from a query. idms can be used for navigating, browsing, and querying. they can be made active, they can be customized and they can be shared among users. the article presents the shadocs document retrieval system and describes the role, use and generation of idms in shadocs.  mountaz zizi michel beaudouin-lafon
gesturecam: a video communication system for sympathetic remote collaboration  an approach supporting spatial workspace collaboration via a video- mediated communication system is described. based on experimental results, the following were determined to be the system requirements to support spatial workspace collaboration: independency of a field of view, predictability, confidence in transmission and sympathy toward the system. additionally, a newly developed camera system, the gesturecam system, is introduced. a camera is mounted on an actuator with three degrees of freedom. it is controlled by master-slave method or by a touch-sensitive crt. also, a laser pointer is mounted to assist with remote pointing. preliminary experiments were conducted and the results are described herein.  hideaki kuzuoka toshio kosuge masatomo tanaka
assisting the "virtual" user the development of online assistance for remote users of computer-based systems depends upon the assumptions made about the barriers users face and about the available strategies for addressing them. drawing from the domain of digital libraries and information discovery and retrieval, this commentary speculates about missed opportunities hidden by those assumptions. critical questions about strategies to remove user barriers, to guide users past barriers, and to help educate users to anticipate and independently overcome barriers suggest transitions for online user assistance technologies that could take the form of "confusion recognizers," "assistance avatars," and "pedagogically aware" user interfaces. john ober
how machine delays change user strategies as machine response delays vary, the most important effect on users may be not their annoyance but that they change the way they use an interface. even the very simple task of copytyping three digit numbers gives rise to at least three different user strategies (i.e. procedures). however the effect seems not be a simple function of delay length, contrary to earlier reported work. instead users are probably shifting between strategies more fluidly. paddy o'donnell stephen w. draper
a supplement to sampling-based methods for query size estimation in a database system  sampling-based methods for estimating relation sizes after relational operators such as selections, joins and projections have been intensively studied in recent years. methods of this type can achieve high estimation accuracy and efficiency. since the dominating overhead involved in a sampling- based method is the sampling cost, different variants of sampling methods are proposed so as to minimize the sampling percentage (thus reducing the sampling cost) while maintaining the estimation accuracy in terms of the confidence level and relative error (to be precisely defined later in section 2). in order to determine the minimal sampling percentage, the overall characteristics of the data such as the mean and variance are needed. currently, the representative sampling-based methods in literature are based on the assumption that overall characteristics of data are unavailable, and thus a significant amount of effort is dedicated to estimating these characteristics so as to approach the optimal (minimal) sampling percentage. the estimation for these characteristics incurs cost as well as suffers the estimation error. in this short essay, we point out that the exact values of these characteristics of data can be kept track of in a database system at a negligible overhead. as a result, the minimal sampling percentage while ensuring the specified relative error and confidence level can be precisely determined.  yibei ling wei sun
conceptual analysis of lexical taxonomies: the case of wordnet top-level in this paper we propose an analysis and an upgrade of wordnet's top-level synset taxonomy. we briefly review wordnet and identify its main semantic limitations. some principles from a forthcoming _ontoclean_ methodology are applied to the ontological analysis of wordnet. a revised top- level taxonomy is proposed, which is meant to be more conceptually rigorous, cognitively transparent, and efficiently exploitable in several applications. aldo gangemi nicola guarino alessandro oltramari
synchronizing a database to improve freshness  in this paper we study how to refresh a local copy of an autonomous data source to maintain the copy up-to-date. as the size of the data grows, it becomes more difficult to maintain the copy \ fresh, "making it crucial to synchronize the copy effectively. we define two freshness metrics, change models of the underlying data, and synchronization policies. we analytically study how effective the various policies are. we also experimentally verify our analysis, based on data collected from 270 web sites for more than 4 months, and we show that our new policy improves the \ freshness" very significantly compared to current policies in use.  junghoo cho hector garcia-molina
an efficient and flexible method for archiving a data base  we describe an efficient method for supporting incremental and full archiving of data bases (e.g., individual files). customers archive their data bases quite frequently to minimize the duration of data outage. because of the growing sizes of data bases and the ever increasing need for high availability of data, the efficiency of the archive copy utility is very important. the method presented here minimizes interferences with concurrent transactions by not acquiring any locks on the data being copied. it significantly reduces disk i/os by not keeping on data pages any extra tracking information in connection with archiving. these features make the archive copy operation be more efficient in terms of resource consumption compared to other methods. the method is also flexible in that it optionally supports direct copying of data from disks, bypassing the dbms's buffer pool. this reduces buffer pool pollution and processing overheads, and allows the utility to take advantage of device geometries for efficiently retrieving data. we also describe extensions to the method to accommodate the multisystem shared disks transaction environment. the method tolerates gracefully system failures during the archive copy operation.  c. mohan inderpal narang
optimising web queries using document type definitions  a document type definition (dtd) d defines the structure of elements permitted in any web document valid with respect to d. from a given dtd d we show how to derive a number of simple structural constraints which are implied by d. using a relational abstraction of web databases, we consider a class of conjunctive queries which retrieve elements from web documents stored in a database d. for simplicity, we assume that all documents in d are valid with respect to the same dtdd. the main contribution of the paper is the use of the constraints derived from d to optimise conjunctive queries on d by removing redundant conjuncts. the relational abstraction allows us to show that the constraints derived from a dtd are equivalent to tuple-generating and equality-generating dependencies which hold on d. having done so, we can use the chase algorithm to show equivalence between a query and its reduced form.  peter t. wood
a data definition and mapping language for numerical data bases  numerical data bases arise in many scientific applications to keep track of large sparse and dense matrices. unlike the many matrix data storage techniques available for incore manipulation, very large matrices are currently limited to a few compact storage schemes on secondary devices, due to the complex underlying data management facilities. this paper proposes an approach for generalized numerical database management that would promote physical data independence by relieving users from the need for knowledge of the physical data organization on the secondary devices.  our approach is to describe each of the storage techniques for dense and sparse matrices by a physical schema, which encompasses the corresponding access path, the encoding to storage structures, and the file access method. a generalized facility for describing any kind of numerical database and its mapping to storage is provided via nonprocedural stored-data description and mapping languages (sddl and sdml). the languages are processed by a generalized syntax-directed translation scheme (gsdts) to automatically generate fortran conversion programs for creating or translating numerical database from one compact storage scheme to another. the feasibility of the generalized approach with regard to our current implementation is also discussed.  ola-olu a. daini peter scheuermann
extending a database system with procedures  this paper suggests that more powerful database systems (dbms) can be built by supporting database procedures as full-fledged database objects. in particular, allowing fields of a database to be a collection of queries in the query language of the system is shown to allow the natural expression of complex data relationships. moreover, many of the features present in object- oriented systems and semantic data models can be supported by this facility.  in order to implement this construct, extensions to a typical relational query language must be made, and considerable work on the execution engine of the underlying dbms must be accomplished. this paper reports on the extensions for one particular query language and data manager and then gives performance figures for a prototype implementation. even though the performance of the prototype is competitive with that of a conventional system, suggestions for improvement are presented.  michael stonebraker jeff anton eric hanson
optical storage of page images and pictorial data - opportunities and needed advances in information retrieval  we describe two current development projects at the library of congress using high-density optical storage, both of which require more advanced and improved computer-based information retrieval methodologies than existing bibliographic retrieval systems. a much greater emphasis will be placed on the information content of the articles rather than on the broad subject categories in general use for computer retrieval citations to book materials. needed approaches include the linking of selected external reference sources and the extraction of character-encoded index information from the page images by ocr techniques. our position is that extremely high density storage of articles in a single subject area requires a finer resolution in the retrieval system accessing the material. a single side of a 12-inch digital optical disk, for example, can hold 15 years of the journal of the acm.  william r. nugent jessica r. harding
predicate rewriting for translating boolean queries in a heterogeneous information system  searching over heterogeneous information sources is difficult in part because of the nonuniform query languages. our approach is to allow users to compose boolean queries in one rich front-end language. for each user query and target source, we transform the user query into a subsuming query that can be supported by the source but that may return extra documents. the results are then processed by a filter query to yield the correct final results. in this article we introduce the architecture and associated mechanism for query translation. in particular, we discuss techniques for rewriting predicates in boolean queries into native subsuming forms, which is a basis of translating complex queries. in addition, we present experimental results for evaluating the cost of postfiltering. we also discuss the drawbacks of this approach and cases when it may not be effective. we have implemented prototype versions of these mechanisms and demonstrated them on heterogeneous boolean systems.  chen-chuan k. chang hector garcia-molina andreas paepcke
automatic migration of files into relational databases  in order to provide database-like features for files, particularly for searching in web data, one solution is to migrate file data into a relational database. having stored the data, the capabilities of sql can be used for querying, provided, the data has been given some structure. to this end, an adapter must be implemented that converts data from files into the database. this paper proposes a specification-based automation for this procedure: given some descriptive specification of file contents, those file adapters are generated. an adequate specification language provides powerful concepts to describe the contents of files. in contrast to similar work, directory structures are taken into account because they often contain useful semantics.  uwe hohenstein andreas ebert
engineering for usability (panel session): lessons from the user derived interface  the focus here is on the lessons learned from the udi project for building usability into the software development process. in the udi project we attempted to engineer a usable system. that process involved:  defining an appropriate metric for measuring usability,  setting explicit levels of usability to be achieved  determining an appropriate methodology for building usability into the system,  delivering a seemingly functional system with an easily changed interface very early in the development cycle, and  recognizing the tentative nature of the initial design.  using the udi project as an example, each of the above principles will be discussed in detail.  dennis wixon john whiteside
the metadatabase project at rensselaer  the metadatabase project is a multi-year research effort at rensselaer polytechnic institute. sponsored by industry (alcoa, dec, ge, cm, ibm and other) through rensselaer's computer integrated manufacturing program, this project seeks to develop novel concepts, methods and techniques for achieving information integration across major functional systems pertaining to computerized manufacturing enterprises. thus, the metadatabase model emcompasses the generic tasks of heterogeneous, distributed, aand autonomous databases administration, but also includes information resources management and integration of concurrent (functional) systems. the model entails (1) an integrated data and knowledge modeling and representation method; (2) an online kernel (the metadatabase) for information modeling and management; (3) metadatabase assisted global query formulation and processing; (4) a concurrent architectural whereby global synergies are achieved through (distributed) metadata management rather than synchronization of (distributed) database processing; and (5) a theory of information requirements for integration. a metadatabase prototype was recently demonstrated to the industrial sponsors. the basic concept of the metadatabase model is discussed in this paper.  cheng hsu
what to do when there's too much information  hypertext systems with small units of text are likely to drown the user with information, in the same way that online catalogs or bibliographic retrieval systems often do. experiments with a catalog of 800,000 book citations have shown two useful ways of dealing with the "too many hits" problem. one is a display of phrases containing the excessively frequent words; another is a display of titles by hierarchical category. the same techniques should apply to other text-based retrieval systems. in general, interactive solutions seem more promising than attempts to do detailed query analysis and get things right the first time.  m. lesk
approximate spatio-temporal retrieval  this paper proposes a framework for the handling of spatio-temporal queries with inexact matches, using the concept of relation similarity. we initially describe a binary string encoding for 1d relations that permits the automatic derivation of similarity measures. we then extend this model to various granularity levels and many dimensions, and show that reasoning on spatio- temporal structure is significantly facilitated in the new framework. finally, we provide algorithms and optimization methods for four types of queries: (i) object retrieval based on some spatio-temporal relations with respect to a reference object, (ii) spatial joins, i.e., retrieval of object pairs that satisfy some input relation, (iii) structural queries, which retrieve configurations matching a particular spatio-temporal structure, and (iv) special cases of motion queries. considering the current large availability of multidimensional data and the increasing need for flexible query-answering mechanisms, our techniques can be used as the core of spatio-temporal query processors.  dimitris papadias nikos mamoulis vasilis delis
answering queries in categorical databases  a compatible categorical data base can be viewed as a single (contingency) table by taking the maximum-entropy extension of the component tables. such a view, here called universal table model, is needed to answer a user who wishes "cross- classified" categorical data, that is, categorical data resulting from the combination of the information contents of two or more base tables. in order to implement a universal table interface we make use of a query- optimization procedure, which is able to generate an appropriate answer both in the case that the asked data are present in the data base and in the case that they are not and, then, have to be estimated  f. m. malvestuto
quasi-cubes: exploiting approximations in multidimensional databases  a data cube is a popular organization for summary data. a cube is simply a multidimensional structure that contains at each point an aggregate value, i.e., the result of applying an aggregate function to an underlying relation. in practical situations, cubes can require a large amount of storage. the typical approach to reducing storage cost is to materialize parts of the cube on demand. unfortunately, this lazy evaluation can be a time- consuming operation.  in this paper, we describe an approximation technique that reduces the storage cost of the cube without incurring the run time cost of lazy evaluation. the idea is to provide an incomplete description of the cube and a method of estimating the missing entries with a certain level of accuracy. the description, of course, should take a fraction of the space of the full cube and the estimation procedure should be faster than computing the data from the underlying relations. since cubes are used to support data analysis and analysts are rarely interested in the precise values of the aggregates (but rather in trends), providing approximate answers is, in most cases, a satisfactory compromise.  alternatively, the technique can be used to implement a multiresolution system in which a tradeoff is established between the execution time of queries and the errors the user is willing to tolerate. by only going to the disk when it is necessary (to reduce the errors), the query can be executed faster. this idea can be extended to produce a system that incrementally increases the accuracy of the answer while the user is looking at it, supporting on-line aggregation.  daniel barbará mark sullivan