RANDOM SAMPLING ALGORITHMS FOR LANDMARK WINDOWS OVER DATA STREAMS

Zhang Longbo, Li Zhanhuai,Yu Min, Wang Yong and Jiang Yun

In many applications including sensor networks, telecommunications data management, network monitoring and financial applications, data arrives in a stream. There are growing interests in algorithms over data streams recently. This paper introduces the problem of sampling from landmark windows of recent data items from data streams and presents a random sampling algorithm for this problem. The presented algorithm, which is called SMS Algorithm, is a stratified multistage sampling algorithm for landmark window. It takes different sampling fraction in different strata of landmark window, and works even when the number of data items in the landmark window varies dramatically over time. The theoretic analysis and experiments show that the algorithm is effective and efficient for continuous data streams processing.

A PROTOTYPE FOR TRANSLATING XSLT INTO XQUERY

Ralf Bettentrupp, Sven Groppe, Jinghua Groppe, Stefan Böttcher and Le Gruenwald

XSLT and XQuery are the languages developed by the W3C for transforming and querying XML data. XSLT and XQuery have the same expressive power and can be indeed translated into each other. In this paper, we show how to translate XSLT stylesheets into equivalent XQuery expressions. We especially investigate how to simulate the match test of XSLT templates by two different approaches which use reverse patterns or match node sets. We then present a performance analysis that compares the execution times of the translation, XSLT stylesheets and their equivalent XQuery expressions using various current XSLT processors and XQuery evaluators.

INVESTIGATING THE IMPROVEMENT SPACE OF SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATIONS

Joseph Trienekens, Rob Kusters, Frans van Veen, Dirk Kriek, Daniel Maton and Paul Siemons

Actual results of software process improvement projects happen to be quite dissapointing in practice. Although many software development organisations have adopted improvement models such as CMMI, it appears to be difficult to improve software development processes in the right way, e.g. tuned to the actual needs of the organisation and taking into account the environment (e.g. the market) of an organisation. This paper presents a new approach to determine the direction of improvement for an organisation. This approach is based on literature research as well as an empirical investigation among eleven software development organisations in The Netherlands. The results of the research show that software development organisations can be classified and can be positioned on the basis of their internal and external entropy, c.q. the level of (dis)order in the business system and its environment. Based on a possible imbalance between the internal and external entropy, directions for software process improvement can be determined. As such the new approach can complement and improve the application of current software process improvement methodologies, e.g. CMMI

PERHAPS A RECIPE FOR CHANGE? - WILL E-VOTING HAVE THE DESIRED EFFECT?

Mark Liptrott

This work is a progress report and briefly describes the main findings from the literature review of the research into electronic voting as it identifies factors which affect the decision-making processes of the English local authorities which are offered the opportunity to trial electronic voting. The analysis is based on Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory framework. A key result found that in a voluntary situation where there is one overarching organization trying to introduce an innovation to an agency organization, Rogers diffusion of innovations theory framework requires modification.

SPLITTING FACTS USING WEIGHTS

Liga Grundmane and Laila Niedrite

The typical data warehouse report is dynamic representation of some objects behavior or changes of objects’ properties. If this behavior is changing, it is difficult to make such reports in an easy way. It is possible to use fact splitting to make this task simpler and more comprehensible for users. In the presented paper two solutions of splitting facts by using weights are described. One of the possible solutions is to make the proportional weighting accordingly to splitted record set size. It is possible to take into account the length of the fact validity time period and the validity time for each splitted fact record.

IMPLEMENTING A HIGH LEVEL PUB/SUB LAYER FOR ENTERPRISE INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Mario Antollini, Mariano Cilia and Alejandro Buchmann

Enterprise application interactions based on events has been receiving increasing attention. It is based on the exchange of small pieces of data (called events) typically using the publish/subscribe interaction paradigm. Most pub/sub notification services assume a homogeneous namespace and do not support the interaction among heterogeneous event producers and consumers. In this paper we briefly describe the concept-based approach as a high-level dissemination mechanism for distributed and heterogeneous event-based applications. We focus on the design and implementation issues of such a mechanism and show how it can be integrated on research prototypes or products and platforms.

CREATING AND MANIPULATING CONTROL FLOW GRAPHS WITH MULTILEVEL GROUPING AND CODE COVERAGE

Anastasis A. Sofokleous, Andreas S. Andreou and Gianna Ioakim

Various researchers and practitioners have proposed the use of control flow graphs for investigating software engineering aspects, such as testing, slicing, program analysis and debugging. However, the relevant software applications support only low level languages (e.g. C, C++) and most, if not all, of the research papers do not provide any details about the implementation of the control flow graph, leaving it to the reader to imagine either that the author is using third party software for creating the graph, or that the graph is constructed manually (by hand). The same holds for code coverage tools as well. In this paper, we extend our previous work on a dedicated program analysis architecture and we describe a tool for automatic production of the control flow graph that offers advanced capabilities, such as vertices grouping, code coverage based on a given set of inputs and enhanced user interaction.

COMBINING BUSINESS ACTIVITY MONITORING WITH THE DATA WAREHOUSE FOR EVENT-CONTEXT CORRELATION - EXAMINING THE PRACTICAL APPLICABILITY OF THIS BAM APPROACH

Gabriel Cavalheiro, Ajantha Dahanayake and Richard Welke

Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) is a term introduced by the Gartner Group to define systems that serve to provide real-time access to critical business performance indicators to improve speed and effectiveness of business operations. Despite the emphasis of BAM on the provision of low latency views on enterprise performance, literature on BAM also indicates the technical feasibility of a BAM approach, which adds context from historical information stored in a data warehouse to real-time events detected by BAM system so as to help enterprises improving understanding of current monitoring scenarios. However, at this point, there is a lack of studies that discuss the use of this approach to tackle real-world business problems. To improve practical understanding of the potential applicability of this BAM approach, this paper will present a synthesis of existing research on BAM and data warehouse to provide an objective basis for proposing feasible business scenarios for applying the combination of both technologies. This study reveals that the noted BAM approach empowers operational managers to respond in a more precise manner to the occurrence of events by enabling a better understanding of the nature of the detected event.

A GUI FOR DATA MART SCHEMA ALTERATION

Nouha Bouaziz, Faiez Gargouri and Jamel Feki

This paper is interested in the graphical manipulation of data mart schemes described in XML and issued from a generation module of multidimensional models. This manipulation is performed through a set of operations we have defined. These operations consist in adding, deleting and renaming the multidimensional elements.

ELIMINATION OF TIME DEPENDENCE OF INFORMATION VALIDITY BY APPLICATION OF RFID TECHNOLOGY

Vladimir Modrak and Viaceslav Moskvic

Following article deals with certain aspects of data acquisition for MRP, ERP and MES type of information systems from a shop floor level. Problems of time dependence of data validity are discussed and method of their elimination by application of radio frequency identification technology (RFID) is suggested.

WEB KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZE ENTERPRISES - WEBTOUR: A CASE STUDY FROM THE TOURISM SECTOR

María M. Abad-Grau, Francisco Araque, Rosana Montes, M. Visitación Hurtado and Miguel J. Hornos

The current enterprise world has become global and complex. Knowledge management is a key to have a competitive advantage as it allows detecting in advance customer trends and market evolution. While knowledge management systems are usually unaffordable for small or even medium-size enterprises, a tool to be shared between them is a more realistic solution. The system, based on client/server architecture with a web interface, is able to provide top Information Technology (IT) solutions for a low cost so that small and medium business can also use these systems to acquire competitive advantage. We have developed a solution for a IT enterprise providing an on-line reservation system for tourist small lodgings and travel agencies. It consists of a Data Warehouse (DW) and a Decision Support System (DSS) which is currently being offered as a value-added service for providers and customers.

FORMAL VERIFICATION OF AN ACCESS CONCURRENCY CONTROL ALGORITHM FOR TRANSACTION TIME RELATIONS

Achraf Makni, Rafik Bouaziz and Faïez Gargouri

We propose in this paper to formally check the access concurrency control algorithm proposed in (Bouaziz, 2005). This algorithm is based on the optimistic approach and guarantee strong consistency for the transaction time relations. The specification of our model under PROMELA language allowed us to ensure the feasibility of the validation. We then could, using the SPIN model checkers, avoid errors of type blocking and check safety properties specified by temporal logic formulas.

PARALLEL QUERY PROCESSING USING WARP EDGED BUSHY TREES IN MULTIMEDIA DATABASES

Lt.S.Santhosh Baboo, P.Subashini and K.S.Easwarakumar

The paper focuses on parallelization of queries execution on a shared memory parallel database system. In this paper, a new data structures, named Warp edged Bushy trees, is proposed for facilitating compile time optimization. The warp edged bushy tree is a modified version of bushy trees [1], which provides better response time than bushy trees, during query processing

DESIGNING IMAGING SOLUTIONS FOR AN ORGANIZATION

Prasad N. Sivalanka

In a business climate where organizations are looking for ways to cut costs and increase Productivity, document imaging systems are providing the most dramatic impact. Efficient management of that paper is crucial to the success of any organization business community where 90% of corporate information resides in paper documents. A process driven document management system is necessary that converts paper documents into electronic documents for easy filing, retrieval and storage. This paper addresses the above issue which was implemented at one of our large financial clients.

SCALABLE UPDATE PROPAGATION IN PARTIALLY REPLICATED, DISCONNECTED CLIENT SERVER DATABASES

Liton Chakraborty, Ajit singh and Kshirasagar Naik

Modern databases allow mobile clients, that subscribe to replicated data, to process the replica forgoing continuous connectivity, and to receive the updates while connected to the server. Based on the overlap in client interest pattern, the server can do update processing for manageable number of data-groups instead of per-client basis, and hence decouple the update processing cost from the client population. In this paper, we propose an efficient update propagation method that can be applied to a relational database system irrespective of its inherent data organization. We present computationally efficient algorithms for group design and maintenance based on a heuristic function. We provide experimental results that demonstrate that our approach achieves a significant increase in overall scalability over the client-centric approach.

DATA MANAGEMENT SYSTEM EVALUATION FOR MOBILE MESSAGING SERVICES

David CC Ong, Rytis Sileika, Souheil Khaddaj and Radouane Oudrhiri

A mobile messaging revolution for the mobile phone industry started with the introduction of the Short Messaging Service (SMS), which is limited to 160 characters of conventional text. This revolution has become more significant with the additional improvements in mobile devices. They have become relatively powerful with extra resources such as additional memory capacity and innovative features such as colour screen, photo camera, etc. Now Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) takes full advantage of these capabilities by providing longer messages with embedded sound, image and video streaming. This service presents a new challenge to mobile platform architects particularly in the data management area where the size of each MMS message could be up to 100,000 bytes long. This combined with a high volume of requests managed by these platforms which may well exceeded 250,000 requests per second, means that the need to evaluate competing data management systems has becoming essential. This paper presents an evaluation of SMS and MMS platforms using different data management systems and recommends the best data management strategies for these platforms.

COMBINING THE DATA WAREHOUSE AND OPERATIONAL DATA STORE

Ahmed Sharaf Eldin Ahmed, Yasser Ali Alhabibi and Abdel Badeeh M. Salem

Many of small business organizations tend to combine the operational data stores (ODS) and data warehousing (DW) in one structure in order to save the expenses of building two separate structures for each of them. The purpose of this paper is investigating the expected obstacles that may affect organizations that try to combine the ODS and DW in one structure. Both the analytical and comparative analysis are used to investigate the obstacles and drawbacks that have been faced in combining the ODS and DW in one structure.

CONVERTING TIME SERIES DATA FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

Li Peng

Most enterprises have an autonomous and heterogeneous information system. The same data may be diversely represented in different information systems. The core of solutions for integrating heterogeneous data sources is data conversion. One of the major issues of data conversion is how to convert data that contains temporal information. In this paper I propose a method to effectively convert time-series data appearing in enterprises. The concept of calendar is integrated into the proposed method. The method is based on a generalized representing form for data. The converting operations and processes are defined and presented.

ALGORITHMS FOR INTEGRATING TEMPORAL PROPERTIES OF DATA IN DATA WAREHOUSING

Francisco Araque, Alberto Salgueroa, Cecilia Delgadob, Eladio Garvíb and José Samosb

One of the most complex issues of the integration and transformation interface is the case where there are multiple sources for a single data element in the enterprise data warehouse. While there are many facets to the large number of variables that are needed in the integration phase, what we are interested in is the temporal problem. It is necessary to solve problems such as what happens when data from data source A is available but data from data source B is not. This paper presents our work into data integration in the Data Warehouse on the basis of the temporal properties of the data sources. Depending on the extraction method and data source, we can determine whether it will be possible to incorporate the data into the Data Warehouse. We shall also examine the temporal features of the data extraction methods and propose algorithms for data integration depending on the temporal characteristics of the data sources and on the data extraction method.

ANALYSIS-SENSITIVE CONVERSION OF ADMINISTRATIVE DATA INTO STATISTICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Mirko Cesarini, Mariagrazia Fugini and Mario Mezzanzanica

In this paper we present a methodological approach to develop a Statistical Information System (SIS), out of data coming from administrative archives of the Public Administrations. Such archives are a rich source of information, but an attempt to use them as sources for statistical analysis reveals errors and incompatibilities among each other that do not permit their usage as a statistical and decision support basis. These errors and incompatibilities are usually undetected during administrative use, since they do not affect their day-by-day use in the Public Administrations, however they need to be fixed before performing any further aggregate analysis. The proposed methodological approach encompasses the basic aspects involved in building a SIS out of administrative data, such as design of an integration model for different and heterogeneous data sources, improvement of the overall data quality, removal of errors that might impact on the correctness of statistical analysis, design of a data warehouse for statistical analysis, and design of a multidimensional database to develop indicators for decision support. We present a case study, the AMeRIcA Project, where the methodological approach has been applied starting from administrative data of a Municipality and of a Province in Northern Italy.

SYNCHRONIZATION AND MULTIPLE GROUP SERVER SUPPORT FOR KEPLER

K. Maly, M Zubair, H. Siripuram and S. Zunjarwad

In the last decade literally thousands of digital libraries have emerged but one of the biggest obstacles for dissemination of information to a user community is that many digital libraries use different, proprietary technologies that inhibit interoperability. Kepler framework addresses interoperability and gives publication control to individual publishers. In Kepler, OAI-PMH is used to support "personal data providers" or "archivelets".". In our vision, individual publishers can be integrated with an institutional repository like Dspace by means of a Kepler Group Digital Library (GDL). The GDL aggregates metadata and full text from archivelets and can act as an OAI-compliant data provider for institutional repositories. The basic Kepler architecture and it working have been reported in earlier papers. In this paper we discuss the three main features that we have recently added to the Kepler framework: mobility support for users to switch transparently between traditional archivelets to on-server archivelets, the ability of users to work with multiple GDLs, and flexibility to individual publishers to build an OAI-PMH compliant repository without getting attached to a GDL.

A MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH TO THE REPRESENTATION OF THE SPATIO-TEMPORAL MULTI-GRANULARITY

Concepción M. Gascueña, Dolores Cuadra and Paloma Martínez

Many efforts have been devoted to the treatment of spatial data in databases both in traditional database systems and decision support systems or On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologies in datawarehouses (DW). Nevertheless, many open questions concerning this kind of data still remain. The work presented in this paper is focused on dealing with the spatial and temporal granularity within a logical multidimensional model. The spatial data representation through a multidimensional model clarifies the understanding of the data analysis subject and it allows discovering special behavior hardly detected without it. We propose an extension of the Snowflake model to gather the spatial data and to show our proposal to represent the spatial evolution through the time in an easy and intuitive way. We represented the temporal and spatial multi-granularity with different levels in the hierarchies of dimensions, and we present a typology of hierarchies to include more semantics in the Snowflake scheme.

A DISCRETE PARTICLE SWARM ALGORITHM FOR OLAP DATA CUBE SELECTION

Jorge Loureiro and Orlando Belo

Multidimensional analysis supported by Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) systems demands for many aggregation functions over enormous data volumes. In order to achieve query answering times compatible with the OLAP systems’ users, and allowing all the business analytical views required, OLAP data is organized as a multidimensional model, known as data cube. The materialization of all the data cubes required for decision makers would allow fast and consistent answering times to OLAP queries. However, this also imply intolerable costs, concerning to storage space and time, even when a data warehouse had a medium size and dimensionality - this will be critical on refreshing operations. On the other hand, given a query profile, only a part of all subcubes are really interesting. Thus, cube selection must be made aiming to minimize query (and maintenance) costs, keeping as an constraint the materializing space. That is a complex problem: its solution is NP-hard. Many algorithms and several heuristics, especially of greedy nature and evolutionary approaches, have been used to provide an approximate solution. To this problem, a new algorithm is proposed in this paper: particle swarm optimization (PSO). According to our experimental results, the solution achieved by the PSO algorithm showed a speed of execution, convergence capacity and consistence that allow electing it to use in data warehouse systems of medium dimensionalities.

A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING ENTERPRISE RESOURCES PLANNING (ERP) SYSTEMS SUCCESS:AN EXAMINATION OF ITS ASPECT FOCUSING ON CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES

Princely Ifinedo

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are diffusing globally. It is important for adopting firms to assess the success of their software. However, in general, studies have shown that often firms investing heavily in information systems (IS) sometimes do not assess the success of their systems for a variety of reasons including a lack of knowledge about what to assess. Similarly, research in the area of IS success evaluations is varied, offering little succour to practitioners. Specifically, ERP systems success assessment in the literature is just beginning to surface. This paper discussing our effort regarding extending an existing ERP systems success model. Essentially, two new relevant success factors or dimensions not included in the previous model were incorporated and tested empirically. We used structural equation modeling for our study. The findings of the study are discussed and implications for both practice and research are highlighted.

A NEW APPROACH TO IMPLEMENT EXTENDED TRANSACTION MODELS IN J2EE

Xiaoning Ding, Xiangfeng Guo, Beihong Jin and Tao Huang

Extended transaction model (ETM) is a powerful mechanism to ensure the consistency and reliability of complicated enterprise applications. However, there is few implementation of ETM in J2EE. The existing research is deficient in supporting range and requires some special database supporting. This paper explores the obstacle which prevents J2EE from supporting ETMs, and argues it is because of the limitation of J2EE XAResource interface and underlying databases. To overcome the obstacle, we propose a new approach, which processes concurrency control inside J2EE application server instead of in database. Furthermore, we implement TX/E service in JBoss to validate the approach, which is an enhanced J2EE transaction service supporting extended transaction models. Compared to existing work, TX/E supports user-defined transaction models and does not require any special database supporting.

DATABASES AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION USING CALOPUS : A CASE STUDY

Prabin Kumar Patro, Pat Allen, Muthu Ramachandran, Robert Morgan-Vane and Stuart Bolton

Effective, accurate and timely data integration is fundamental to the successful operation of today’s organizations. The success of every new business initiative relies heavily on data integration between existing heterogeneous applications and databases. For this reason, when companies look to improve productivity, reduce overall costs, or streamline business processes, data integration should be at the heart of their plans. Integration improves exposure and, by extension, the value and quality of information to facilitate workflow and reduce business risk. It is an important element of the way that the organization’s business process operates. Data integration technology is the key to pulling organization data together and delivering an information infrastructure that will meet strategic business intelligence initiatives. This information infrastructure consists of data warehouses, interface definitions and operational data stores. Data integration should include capabilities such as data warehousing, metadata integration, ongoing updates and reduced maintenance, access to a wider variety of data sources, and design and debugging options. In this paper we will discuss about data integration and a case study on Database Integration at Leeds Metropolitan University using the Calopus system.

SUPPORTING E-PLACEMENT: ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE ITALIAN WORKFARE PROJECT

Mariagrazia Fugini, Piercarlo Maggiolini and Krysnaia Nanini

This paper presents the basic developments and architectural issues of an Italian “Borsa Continua Nazionale del Lavoro” (BCNL), an eGovernment project aimed at developing a Portal for Services to Employment. It consists in a network of nodes structured at three main levels: the National level, managed by the Ministry of Welfare; the Regional level, in which Regions are grouped in local federations in order to interoperate, and the Provincial level, again structured as a federation of local domains. These federations are the structural tool able to support both proactive and reactive policies directed to enhance job-placement. The paper describes each level and the cooperation occurring both in the various domains and among levels. Advantages and drawbacks of this architecture are discussed. Finally, the paper describes the basic issues related to security and privacy in the environment, in particular presenting cooperative federated authentication.

CURRENT TRENDS IN DATA WAREHOUSING METHODS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Vera Ivanova

Data Warehousing (DW) methods and technologies are in a new stage of their evolution and of their amalgamation with the enterprise businesses, they serve. The main goals of this work are to identify, review and analyze the latest trends in DW. A systematic approach is followed to recognize, define and analyze the most important trends. The approach is based on the trends’ corresponding role and value in the business processes and intelligence (BI). For this purpose we start with updated definitions of DW and BI and then consider the generalized Architecture of today’s DW. We then “drill down” to analyze the DW problems and trends in their solving for data quality provisions, regulatory compliance, infrastructure consolidation, and standardization, corporate performance optimization and metadata management. This in-depth logical analyzing approach results in comprehensible conclusions to be considered on the important early phases of DW projects, as it is well known that early project decisions carry impacts for the whole DW system life span.

EFFICIENT MECHANISM FOR HANDLING MATERIALIZED XML VIEWS

Jessica Zheng, Anthony Lo, Tansel Özyer and Reda Alhajj

Materialized views provide an effective and effective mechanism to improve query performance. The necessity to keep consistency between materialized views and the underlying data raises the problem of when and how to update views efficiently. This paper addresses the issue of deferred incremental update on materialized XML view. The proposed approach mainly extends our previous work on materialized object-oriented views. The overlap between XML and the object-oriented paradigm has been the main driving motivation to conduct the study described in this paper. We modified and adapted the later approach to meet XML requirements.

A FORMAL TOOL THAT INTEGRATES RELATIONAL DATABASE SCHEMES AND PRESERVES THE ORIGINAL INFORMATION

A. Mora and M. Enciso

In this work we face on with the main problem of the database design process in a collaborative environment: the users provide different models representing a part of the global model and we must integrate these database sub-shemes to render a unified database. The problems arise when the users' specifications do not match propertly or, in the worst case, they represent contradictory information. In the literature, the different approaches use a selected canonical language to translate all the sub-shemes and to carried out the integration process. It seems to be widely accepted to select the Entity/Relational (E/R) model as canonical language. Nevertheless it was not conceived as a formal language and its use produces several troubles: it is not easy to identify equivalent specifications, the information are represented in several levels (attributes, table, constraints, etc) that must be integrate as a whole, etc. All these problems are presented because the E/R was conceived to be a high level specification language and not to design automated integration methods based on it. In this work we propose an automated method to integrate relational database sub-schemes based on a formal language. The extraction, integration and generation tasks are carried out efficiently using the SLfd, logic (Substitution Logic for functional dependencies). We have selected this logic because it is appropriated to management the functional dependencies in a automatic way. Logic is present in all the stages of our proposed architecture: analysis, design, model transformation, integration, data preservation, etc. The integration tool interacts automatically with the DBMS (we use Oracle 9i), uses the logic in a transparent mode to deduce the unified view and provides a web-interface to facilitate user participation. The collaborative tool infers the information system knowledge from local Oracle schemes and renders an integrated Oracle database scheme. The integration process uses the information of the {\em Structural functional dependencies (FDs)} (FDs inferred from all the database subschemes) and the {\em Environment FDs} (FDs provided by the designers) and it renders a unique database model fulfilling all the FDs. The tool carries out an integration of the schemes and an integration of the data itself, providing a new database with a common structure and containing all the information provided in the original subschemes.

A FRAMEWORK FOR SEMANTIC RECOVERY STRATEGIES IN CASE OF PROCESS ACTIVITY FAILURES

Stefanie Rinderle, Sarita Bassil and Manfred Reichert

During automated process execution semantic activity failures may frequently occur, e.g., when a vehicle transporting a container has a breakdown. So far there are no applicable solutions to overcome such exceptional situations. Often the only possibility is to cancel and roll back respective process instances what is not always possible and more often not desired. In this paper we contribute towards the system-assisted support of finding forward recovery solutions. Our framework is based on the facility to (automatically) perform dynamic changes of single process instances in order to deal with the exceptional situation. We identify and formalize factors which influence the kind of applicable recovery solutions. Then we show how to derive possible recovery solutions and how to evaluate their quality with respect to different constraints. All statements are illustrated by well-studied cases from different domains.

DEPLOYMENT OF ONTOLOGIES IN BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SYSTEMS

Carsten Felden and Daniel Kilimann

The consideration of integrated structured and unstructured data in management information systems requires a new kind of metadata management. Ontologies constitute a possibility to solve the resulting problems. Process models which describe the development of ontologies and can be utilised in the context of management information systems, are discussed.

ACTIVE MECHANISMS FOR CHECKING PARTICIPATION CONSTRAINTS IN UML

Djamel Berrabah, Charles-François Ducateau and Faouzi Boufarès

Among the multiple efforts devoted to face the problems of database modeling, we find the automation of the database design process using CASE tools. Often, these tools do not take into account all the information that is presented in a conceptual schema. The problem is that the relational elements obtained during these processes do not coincide completely with the conceptual elements, which produces some semantic losses. The idea is to enrich these tools and to improve them in order to solve some problems of modeling. The goal of this work is to propose an efficient approach to generate mechanisms that preserve the participation constraints defined in a conceptual schema during its transformation into a relational schema. These mechanisms are active during the maintenance of databases. If any operation brings about an inconsistent Database (DB) state it will be rejected and the data of the DB will not change.

INCLUSION OF TIME-VARYING MEASURES IN TEMPORAL DATA WAREHOUSES

Elzbieta Malinowski and E. Zimányi

Data Warehouses (DWs) integrate data from different source systems that may have temporal support. However, current DWs only allow to track changes for measures indicating the time when a specific measure value is valid. In this way, applications such as fraud detection cannot be easily implemented since they require to know the time when changes in source systems have occurred. In this work, based on the research related to Temporal Databases, we propose the inclusion of time-varying measures changing the current role of the time dimension. First, we analyze the availability of temporal types in the different source systems integrating a DW. Then, we study different scenarios that show the usefulness of inclusion of different temporal types. Further, since measures can be aggregated before being inserted into DWs, we discuss the issues related to different time granularities between source systems and DWs, and in addition, measure aggregation in the presence of valid time.

CONTINUOUS RANGE QUERY PROCESSING FOR NETWORK CONSTRAINED MOBILE OBJECTS

Dragan Stojanovic, Slobodanka Djordjevic-Kajan, Apostolos N. Papadopoulos and Alexandros Nanopoulos

In contrast to regular queries that are evaluated only once, a continuous query remains active over a period of time and has to be continuously evaluated to provide up to date results. We propose a method for continuous range query processing for different types of queries, characterized by mobility of objects and/or queries which follow paths in an underlying spatial network. The method assumes an available 2D indexing scheme for indexing spatial network data. An appropriately extended R*-tree provides matching of queries and objects according to their locations on the network or their network routes. The method introduces an additional pre-refinement step which generates main memory data structures to support efficient, incremental reevaluation of continuous range queries in periodically performed refinement steps.

INTEGRATION OF DATA SOURCES FOR PLANT GENOMICS

P. Larmande, C. Tranchant-Dubreuil, L. Regnier, I. Mougenot and T. Libourel

The study of the function of genes, or functional genomics, is today one of the most active disciplines in the life sciences and requires effective integration and processing of related information. Today's biologist has access to bioinformatics resources to help him in his experimental research. In genomics, several tens of public data sources can be of interest to him, each source contributing a part of the useful information. The difficulty lies in the integration of this information, often semantically inconsistent or expressing differing viewpoints, and, very often, only available in heterogenous formats. In this context, informatics has a role to play in the design of systems that are flexible and adaptable to significant changes in biological data and formats. It is within this framework that this paper presents the design and implementation of an integrated environment strongly supported by knowledge-representation and problem-solving tools.

USING RELATIONAL DATABASES IN THE ENGINEERING REPOSITORY SYSTEMS

Erki Eessaar

Repository system can be built on top of the database management system (DBMS). DBMSs that use relational data model are usually not considered powerful enough for this purpose. In this paper, we analyze these claims and conclude that they are caused by the shortages of SQL standard and inadequate implementations of the relational model in the current DBMSs. Problems that are presented in the paper make usage of the DBMSs in the repository systems more difficult. This paper also explains that relational system that follows the rules of the Third Manifesto is suitable for creating repository system and presents possible design alternatives.

MISTEL - AN APPROACH TO ACCESS MULTIPLE RESOURCES

Thomas Bopp, Thorsten Hampel, Robert Hinn, Jan Pawlowski and Christian Prpitsch

Digital documents are widely spread around the web in information systems of all kinds. The approach described in this paper is to unify the access to documents and connect applications to share, search and publish documents in a standardised way. The sample implementation uses web services to integrate knowledge management, a learning management system, and a digital library.

MINIMIZING THE COMPLEXITY OF DISTRIBUTED TRANSACTIONS IN CORPORATE ARCHITECTURES WITH THE USE OF ASYNCHRONOUS REPLICATION

S. Poltronieri, S. de Paula and L. N. Rossi

In architectures of software usual in big corporations, the use of the protocol “two-phase commit” for distributed transactions presents inconveniences such as code complexity, long times of answer for the final user and need of an ambient that allows complete simultaneity. We present here an alternative model, based on asynchronous replication, implemented with success in the University of São Paulo as infrastructure of integration for its corporate systems, which propitiates short transactions in the context of each database and lower time of answer with no need of a complex ambient of high availability.

MERGING, REPAIRING AND QUERYING INCONSISTENT DATABASES WITH FUNCTIONAL AND INCLUSION DEPENDENCIES

Luciano Caroprese, Sergio Greco and Ester Zumpano

In this paper a framework for merging, repairing and querying inconsistent databases is presented. The framework, considers integrity constraints defining primary keys, foreign keys and general functional dependencies. The approach consists of three steps: i) merge of the source databases by means of integration operators or general SQL queries, to reduce the set of tuples coming from the source databases which are inconsistent with respect to the constraints defined by the primary keys, ii) repair of the integrated database by completing and/or cleaning the set of tuples which are inconsistent with respect to the inclusion dependencies (e.g. foreign keys), and iii) compute consistent answers over repaired databases which could be still inconsistent with respect to the functional dependencies. The complexity of merging, repairing and computing consistent answers will be show to be polynomial and a prototype of a system integrating databases and computing queries over possible inconsistent databases will be presented.

USING GAZETTEERS TO ANNOTATE GEOGRAPHIC CATALOG ENTRIES

Daniela F. Brauner, Marco A. Casanova, Karin K. Breitman and Luiz André P. Leme

A gazetteer is a geographical dictionary containing a list of geographic names, together with their geographic locations and other descriptive information. A geographic metadata catalog holds metadata describing geographic information resources, stored in a wide variety of sources, ranging from simple PCs to large public databases. This paper argues that unique characteristics of geographic objects can be explored to address the problem of automating the generation of metadata for geographic information resources. The paper considers federations of gazetteers and geographic metadata catalogs and discusses in detail two problems, namely, how to use gazetteers to automate the description of geographic information resources and how align thesauri used by gazetteers. The paper also argues why such problems are important in the context of the proposed architecture.

DATA WAREHOUSES: AN ONTOLOGY APPROACH

Alexandra Pomares Quimbaya and José Abásolo

Although the dimensional design for data warehouses has been used in a considerable amount of projects, it does have limitations of expressiveness, particularly with respect to what can be said about relations and attributes properties and restrictions. We present a new way to design data warehouses, based on ontologies, that overcomes many of these limitations. In the proposed architecture descriptive ontologies are used to build the data warehouse and taxonomic ontologies are used during data preparation phase. We discuss the expressive power of Ontology approach showing a semantic comparison with dimensional model both applied to a case study.

DATA COMPLIANCE IN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY - INTEROPERABILITY TO ALIGN BUSINESS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Néjib Moalla, Abdelaziz Bouras, Gilles Neubert, Yacine Ouzrout and Nicolas Tricca

The ultimate goal in the pharmaceutical sector is product quality. However this quality can be altered by the use of a number of heterogeneous information systems with different business structures and concepts along the lifecycle of the product. Interoperability is then needed to guarantee a certain correspondence and compliance between different product data. In this paper we focus on a particular compliance problem, between production technical data, represented in an ERP, and the corresponding regulatory directives and specifications, represented by the Marketing Authorizations (MA). The MA detail the process for manufacturing the medicine according to the requirements imposed by health organisations such as Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Committee for Medicinal Products for Human use (CHMP). The proposed approach uses an interoperability framework which is based on a multi-layer separation between the organisational aspects, business trades, and information technologies for each involved entity into the communication between the used systems.

MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCHEMA EVOLUTION - INTEGRATING NEW OLAP REQUIREMENTS

Mohamed Neji, Ahlem Nabli, Jamel Feki and Faiez Gargouri

Multidimensional databases cconstitute an effective support for OLAP processes; in that sense they improve the decision-making in enterprise information systems. These databases evolve with the decision marker requirements and are sensitive to data source changes. In this paper, we are interested in the evolution of the datamart schema due to the raise of new requirements. Our approach determines what functional datamarts will be able to cover a new requirement, if any, and decides on a strategy of integration. This leads either to the alteration of an existing data mart schema or, to the creation of a new schema suitable for the new requirement.

ENABLING ROBUSTNESS IN EXISTING BPEL PROCESSES

Onyeka Ezenwoye and S. Masoud Sadjadi

To promote efficiency and the reuse of software, Web services are being integrated both within enterprises and across enterprises to create higher function services. BPEL is a workflow language that can be used to facilitate this integration. Unfortunately, the autonomous nature of Web services leaves BPEL processes susceptible to the failures of their constituent services. In this paper, we present a systematic approach to making existing BPEL processes more fault tolerant by monitoring the involved Web services at runtime, and by replacing delinquent Web services dynamically. To show the feasibility of our approach, we developed a prototype implementation that generates more robust BPEL processes from existing ones automatically. The use of the prototype is demonstrated using an existing loan approval BPEL process.

BUSINESS PROCESS EMBEDDED INFORMATION SYSTEMS - FOR FLEXIBILITY AND ADAPTABILITY

Marc Rabaey, Eddy Vandijck, Koenraad Vandenborre, Herman Tromp and Martin Timmerman

In this ever faster changing world, organisations are faced with the need to have flexible processes. This is only possible if these processes have full control over their supporting information systems, which we propose to embed into the business processes.

RELIABLE PERFORMANCE DATA COLLECTION FOR STREAMING MEDIA SERVICES

Beomjoo Seo, Michelle Covell, Mirjana Spasojevic, Sumit Roy, Roger Zimmermann, Leonidas Kontothanassis and Nina Bhatti

The recent proliferation of streamingmedia systems in bothwired andwireless networks challenges the network operators to provide cost-effective streaming solutions that maximize the usage of their infrastructure while maintaining adequate service quality. Some of these goals conflict and motivate the development of precise and accurate models that predict the system states under extremely diverse workloads on-the-fly. However, many earlier studies have derived models and subsequent simulations that are well-suited only for a controlled environment, and hence explain a limited sets of behavioral singularities observed from software component profiles. In this study we propose a more general, procedural methodology that characterizes a single system’s streaming capacity and derives a prediction model that is applicable for any type of workload imposed on the measured system. We describe a systematic performance evaluation methodology for streaming media systems that starts with the reliable collection of performance data, presents a mechanism to calibrate the data for later use during the modeling phase, and finally examines the prediction power and the limitations of the calibrated data itself. We validate our method with two widely used streaming media systems and the results indicate an excellent match of the modelled data with the actual system measurements.

FILTERING UNSATISFIABLE XPATH QUERIES

Jinghua Groppe and Sven Groppe

Empty results of queries are a hint for semantic errors in users’ queries, and erroneous and unoptimized queries can lead to highly inefficient processing of queries. For manual optimization, which is prone to errors, a user needs to be familiar with the schema of the queried data and with implementation details of the used query engine. Thus, automatic optimization techniques have been developed and have been used for decades in database management systems for the deductive and relational world. We focus on the satisfiability problem for the queries formulated in the XML query language XPath. We propose a schemabased approach to check whether or not an XPath query conforms to the constraints given in the schema in order to detect semantic errors, and in order to avoid unnecessary evaluations of unsatisfiable queries. We present experimental results of our prototype, which show the optimization potential of avoiding the evaluation of unsatisfiable queries.

FUZZY XML MODEL FOR REPRESENTING FUZZY RELATIONAL DATABASES IN FUZZY XML FORMAT

Alnaar Jiwani, Yasin Alimohamed, Krista Spence, Tansel Özyer and Reda Alhajj

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is emerging as the dominant data format for data exchange between application systems. Many translation techniques have been devised to publish large amounts of existing conventional relational data in this new format. There also exists a need to be able to represent imprecise data in both relational databases and XML. This paper describes a fuzzy XML schema model for representing a fuzzy relational database in XML format. It outlines a simple translation algorithm to include fuzzy relations and similarity matrices with their associated conventional relation.

INTEGRATED UNIVERSITY INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Thomas Kudrass

In this position paper, we discuss the integration of hetero¬geneous data¬¬bases with the example of a university information system, based on previous experiences in the implementation of some components. The paper argues the new opportunities for universities resulting from database integration. We develop the target architecture for an integrated information system whose principle is the coupling of existing systems and the definition of global views on them. The services defined on those views can be used for high-level information services in the intranet of the university, for internet presentations or for the definition of workflows in the university administration.

THE BENEFITS OF ACCURATE, AND TIMELY DATA IN LEAN PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENTS - RFID IN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

Vijay K. Vemuri

The usefulness of information systems critically depends on the accuracy of the data contained within it. Errors in capturing data into the information systems are particularly vexing since these errors permeate the entire information system(s), affecting every aspect of information use. The direct and indirect consequences of unreliable data did not attract much attention as there were few alternatives to reduce them. Newer technologies, especially Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), are enabling virtual elimination of data entry errors in inventory management. We investigate the effect of accurate data on the performance of supply chains utilizing lean production systems. Our simulation results indicate that time to fulfil a purchase order (cycle time) is significantly reduced by improving the quality of the inventory data. The simulation model we developed will enable us to examine other performance characteristics of a supply chain. We will also investigate the sensitivity of supply chain performance due to changes in the parameters of the model.

DESIGN OF A MEDICAL DATABASE TRANSFORMATION ALGORITHM

Karine Abbas, Christine Verdier and André Flory

The aim of this article is to create a unique medical record structure from the metabase of any medical record in any care place. The work is divided into two parts : the first step consists in creating a reference medical record model based on a graph structure in which the first level is fixed and the other levels are changeable. The second step is to provide transformation algorithms to translate the legacy relational database (RDB) into the reference model to give a unique medical record structure. In this second step is analysed the correlation between the legacy RDB keys and the classification of the keys into four types of relations: base relation, dependent relation, inheritance relation and composite relation.

KEY FACTORS IN LEGACY SYSTEMS MIGRATION - A REAL LIFE CASE

Teta Stamati, Konstantina Stamati and Drakoulis Martakos

Although legacy systems migration as a subject area is often overlooked in favour of areas such as new technology developments and strategic planning of information technology, most migration projects are considered ill-fated initiatives and a rate of over 80% of these projects run over budget, frequently with system functionality falling short of contract. Many practitioners consider that the proposed theoretical migration approaches are myopic and do not take into account a number of key factors that make a migration project a really complex initiative. Our position is that throughout the life cycle of a migration process, there are some critical factors that initially play the role of the “drivers” and afterwards they became the factors that hinder (“hinders”) the migration process. We consider these key factors as Critical Success Factors (CSF) that must be carefully considered. Furthermore, these key factors could be either overt or covert factors. In each case, the migration engineers should consider and analyse them very carefully prior to the initiation of the migration process and a well-defined migration methodological plan should be developed. The work presented is based on a real life initiative putting emphasis on the key success factors revealing at the same time the complexity of a migration process. Emphasis is put on the required management view and planning effort, rather than on the mere technological issues.

ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT AND INNOVATION - IMPACT ON THE RESEARCH AGENDA

Charles Møller

This paper proposes that ERP-implementation lead to a new post-implementation management challenge: Enterprise Systems Management and Innovation. Enterprise Systems Management and Innovation is a new concept that deals with the management of the enterprise system as a resource, and as a potential for transforming the organization by enabling innovative supply chain processes. The argument is rooted in seven case studies, a survey on ERP adoption and a retrospective analysis on the development of ES. This paper discuses the emerging issues and the implications for management. The paper concludes by outlining the impact on the ERP research agenda.

DEVELOPMENT OF SUMMARIES OF CERTAIN PATTERNS IN MULTI-BAND SATELLITE IMAGES

Hema Nair

This paper describes a system that is designed and implemented for interpretation of some patterns in multi-band (RGB) satellite images. Patterns such as land, island, water body, river, fire, urban area settlements in remote-sensed images are extracted and summarised in linguistic terms using fuzzy sets. Some elements of supervised classification are introduced to assist in the development of linguistic summaries. A few LANDSAT images are analysed by the system and the resulting summaries of the image patterns are explained.

UTILIZATION OF CASE-BASED REASONING IN AUDITING - DETERMINING THE AUDIT FEE

Robert Zenzerović

Case-based reasoning represents a method for solving problems and decision making support which is based on the previous business experience. It uses cases from the past to solve new problems. Case can be defined as conceptualized piece of knowledge representing the experience that teaches a lesson fundamental to achieving the goals of the decision maker. Cases usually incorporate input features and output features, where input features represent important attributes of cases that effect decision making (situation part of the case) and output feature which is outcome that depends on the input features (solution part of the case). Case base reasoning functions in a further way: Once, when target case is inputted in the system with its input features system has to retrieve the most similar cases from the case base. After the most similar case is retrieved from the case base it can be used for finding interesting information. The reasoner can then adjust and send a new probe with different features for retrieving of new case, or the system can be designed to make automatic adjustments in solution part of the old case on the base of differences in situation part of the cases, providing the solution for the new case. Many studies tried to explain types and impact of different factors that determine audit fees. Mostly all authors concentrate their research on the impact of following determinants: auditee size, auditee complexity, auditee profitability, ownership control, timing variables, auditor location and auditor size. In paper all mentioned factors are described except auditor size and location since these factors are not significant in Croatian audit service market. All significant audit fee determinants will be appropriately quantified in order to build a case based reasoning model for determining audit fee for smaller and mid sized auditing firms in Croatia but also for the same firms in the other countries too.

BUILDING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE VIA CRM BASED ON DATA WAREHOUSE AND DATA MINING

Jiejun Huang, Wei Cui and Yanbin Yuan

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a new business concept, providing a novel approach for managing the relationships between a corporation and its customers towards maximal profitability and sustainability. Data mining and data warehouse are the useful information technologies, which provide powerful means for extracting and utilizing the business information from historical data resources and runtime data flows. This paper reviews the objectives, functionalities, and development trends of CRM, discusses the architecture, data model and development methodologies of CRM systems based on data warehouse and data mining, then outlines the applications of integrated CRM systems in decision making, including business administration, marketing, customer service, customer management, and credit evaluation. Eventually, it describes some problems and challenges for further research.

VARIOUS PROCESS WIZARD FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS - USING FUZZY PETRI NETS FOR PROCESS DEFINITION

Jaroslav Prochazka, Jaroslav Knybel and Cyril Klimes

The new approach in information system automation is process or workflow management. For unskilled user is important, when the business processes of company are described. Then, according to this description are users led correctly in their work. The business (application) model can be caught in finite state machines and its variations. Petri net can be used for process definition in process wizard. Sometimes unclear state occurs, for its description can be fuzzy logic IF-THEN rules used. We explain what process wizard is, what should contain and outline how it could be implement in IS QI. We also introduce Petri nets with fuzzy approach for process description.

DIAGNOSIS OF DEMENTIA AND ITS PATHOLOGIES USING BAYESIAN BELIEF NETWORKS

Julie Cowie, Lloyd Oteniya and Richard Coles

The use of artificial intelligence techniques in medical decision support systems is becoming more commonplace. By incorporating a method to represent expert knowledge, such systems can aid the user in aspects such as disease diagnosis and treatment planning. This paper reports on the first part of a project addressing the diagnosis of individuals with dementia. We discuss two systems: DemNet and PathNet; developed to aid accurate diagnosis both of the presence of dementia, and the pathology of the disease.

DECISION SUPPORT ON THE MOVE - MOBILE DECISION MAKING FOR TRIAGE MANAGEMENT

Julie Cowie and Paul Godley

This paper describes research investigating ways in which a mobile decision support system might be implemented. Our view is that the mobile decision maker will be better supported if he/she is aware of the Quality of the Data (QoD) used in deriving a decision, and how QoD improves or deteriorates while he/she is on the move. We propose a QoD model that takes into account static and dynamic properties of the mobile decision making environment, uses multicriteria decision analysis to represent the user’s decision model and to derive a single QoD parameter, and investigates the use of powerful graphics to relay information to the user.

FREQUENCY CALIBRATIONS WITH CONVENTIONAL TIME INTERVAL COUNTERS VIA GPS TRACEABILITY

Juan José González de la Rosa, Isidro Lloret, Carlos García Puntonet, Juan Manuel Górriz, Antonio Moreno, Matías Liñán and Victor Pallarés

Calculation of the uncertainty in traceable frequency calibrations is detailed using low cost instruments, par-tially characterized. Contributions to the standard uncertainty have been obtained under the assumption of uniform probability density function of errors. Short term instability has been studied using non-classical statistics. A thorough study of the noise processes characterization is made with simulated data by means of our variance estimators. The experiment is thought for frequencies close to 1 Hz.

SIMULATION MODELLING OF IRON ORE PRODUCTION SYSTEM AND QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Jim E. Everett

Iron ore is railed several hundred kilometres from open-cut mines inland, to port facilities, then processed to lump and fines products, blended and the lump product re-screened ready for shipment, mainly to Asia. Customers use the ore as principal feed in steel production. Increasing demand and price, especially from China, requires expansion of existing mines and planning of new operations. Expansion planning of the operational logistics, maintaining acceptable product quality, has been greatly helped by simulation modelling described in this paper.