Database Systems Laboratory

Sabhash Bhalla Associate Professor	Nadia L. Berthouze Assistant Professor

Introduction Many new large applications use database systems as a basic part for web data resources. Last year the laboratory published the proceedings of 4th workshop on "Databases in Networked Information System (DNIS)" with international participation. The delivered lecture and manuscripts have been utilized to develop the state-of-the-art lectures on current research problems. These created a focused view on new research problems. many current aspects of web related research activity were discussed at the workshop. In addition to complexity in features such as multiple attributed data, many new types of raw data are emerging that need to be captured by DBMSs for information extraction. Many research efforts are being made to make suitable Object-Relational architectures for spatial databases. Most of the advances in techniques concentrate on capturing more meaning within data. A number of researchers are actively developing improved data management strategies using XML data. This provides a challenging area for study. The domains of activity include : Mobile computing and databases for electronic commerce; Large Network Management Database Management Systems, for information exchange through XML; and Multi-media Synchronization applications Data Mining and Data Warehousing applications The Database Systems Laboratory has research activity concentrating on data modeling as well as transaction processing activity. Data Modeling for Spatial Objects Information Processing Systems of future will be a combination of integrated components. There will be components for intelligent problem solving, or decision making, components for specialized data processing and components for shared information management. The applications will utilize a shared base of information. Some examples are - business automation, industrial automation, computer-aided design and manufacture, and cartography. Work-flow and Web Services Traditional approaches to transaction management introduce elements of unpredictable delays during transaction processing. Thus, making these not suitable for adoption in new application environments. The techniques for time-critical transactions are applicable to Mobile databases and multimedia databases. Digital Library Studies The goal of this research is to study the feasibility to endow a computational system with the ability to process information. As an experimental platform the laboratory is building a web retrieval system that enables users to retrieve multimedia information carrying a given subjective (Kansei) content. Such system will prove useful in various areas of information technology such as online shopping, advertising industry, entertainment, design, wearable computers. The modeling issues are reformulated from the complementary points of view: a multimedia data mining approach to address the mapping between impression (or Kansei) words and multimedia impressions, An approach that involves the user in the modeling process. Prototype systems to access dynamic contents through web based information systems are in progress. These emulate mobile e-commerce activity in banking and Geographic Information Systems, for test and studies.

Refereed Journal Papers

[bhalla-01:2005]	A. R. Shapiee and S. Bhalla. Query-by-object Interface for Information Requirement Elicitation in M-commerce. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 20(2):135-160, 2005.
	Information Requirement Elicitation (IRE) is essential in wireless Web service to elicit information requirements through interactive choice prompts. The article presents a design of a high-level user interface for IRE, in the context of banking database queries by a mobile web user. The prototype is based on the notion of a Query-By-Object approach of building a query using multiple user-level steps.
[bhalla-02:2005]	M. Hasegawa, S. Bhalla, and L.T. Yang. Elimination of Nondeterministic Delays in a Real-time Database System. Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, ICESS05:135-160, 2005.
	In a real-time database system, the conventional method of transaction method can not be used. In these methods, the deadlock detection is based on (a) use of delay to cause and watch deadlocks, (b) high overheads of periodic checking (c) Non-deterministic nature of the delays, and lastly, (d) difficulties to scaleup the existing solutions (centralized). The proposal is based on enhanced local processing and peer-to-peer (P2P) communication for distributed transaction process. The earlier procedures incorporate additional steps for handling waitfor states and deadlocks.
[bhalla-03:2005]	S. Bhalla and M. Hasegawa. Parallelizing Serializable Transactions within Distributed Real-time Database Systems. Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, 3824:203-213, 2005.
	A real-time database system supports a mix of transactions. These include the real-time transactions that require completion by a given deadline. At the support side, existing concurrency control procedures introduce delays due to nonavailability of data resources. The present study makes an effort to introduce a higher level of parallelism for execution of real-time transactions. It considers simple extensions within a transaction processing system. These permit a real-time transaction to avoid delays due to ordinary transactions.
[bhalla-04:2005]	S. Bhalla and M. Hasegawa. Synchronization and Recovery in an Embedded Database System for Read-only Transactions. Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, 3823:509-518, 2005.
	Transactions within an embedded database management system face many restrictions. These can not afford unlimited delays or participate in multiple retry attempts for execution. The proposed embedded concurrency control (ECC) techniques provide support on three counts, namely - to enhance concurrency, to overcome problems due to heterogeneity, and to allocate priority to transactions that originate from critical host.

Refereed Proceeding Papers

[bhalla-05:2005]	S. Bhalla and M. Hasegawa. Implementing Grid Intelligence for Storage Management Using Asynchronous Operations. In UtilityGrids 2006, editor, International Conference on Communication Systems Software and Middleware, New York, 2006. IEEE, IEEE Computer society.
	Grid storage provides a model for managing storage systems that are distributed across multiple systems and networks. These make efficient use of available storage capacity without requiring a large centralized switching system. Within the grid systems Storage is organized as a single virtual pool as a result of virtualization. Multiple copies of data may exist across nodes in the grid. In order to improve availability in the face of component failures, asynchronous operations are proposed that permit the grid system to operate with a high level of availability.
[bhalla-06:2005]	S. Bhalla. Independent Dependency Tracking in a Mobile Adhoc Computing Environment. In SOFTWIM 2006, editor, International Conference on Communication Systems Software and Middleware, New York, 2006. IEEE, IEEE Computer society.
	Applications requiring long duration mobile computing activity depend on consistent global state. Existing procedures for estimation of consistent global states (within distributed systems) add message overheads and delays. We propose independent dependency tracking by tracking total cumulative dependence. It is able to prevent cascading of rollback of dependent states.
[bhalla-07:2005]	S. Bhalla, M. Hasegawa, and Enrique L. de Lara. Query-byObject Interface for Ubiquitous Access to a Hospital Information System. In International Workshop on E-health and 2nd International Conference on Ubiquitous Healthcare 2005, 2006.
	Most information systems depend on a Database Management System (DBMS) to organize information. Access to such an information system is based on use of a database query language on the part of the user. This poses a skill level problem for medical staff at a hospital. As a result medical staff tend to depend on the database specialists, and programmers for access to information. To eliminate the complexities of a query language and to make a ubiquitous access a web based information access system has been proposed for the end users. The test prototype is based on the notion of query-by-object. It allows a logical step-wise approach to access information resources. The proposed system allows a medical personnel pose queries at the same level as a trained database query language programmer.
[bhalla-08:2005]	S. Bhalla. Combining Commonsense Knowledge With GIS for Contextual Information Retrieval. In 8th International Conference on Humans and Computers 2005, August 2005.
	Current web-based Geographical Information Systems (GIS) rely on the notion of layers to allow users to select the types of objects, that they want to visualize on a map. This approach either slows the process or hides all the objects in the same layer. This makes it difficult for the user to locate only a subset. We propose a user interface agent. It uses commonsense knowledge with millions of facts about everyday world.
[bhalla-09:2005]	M. Hasegawa, S. Bhalla, N. Hashimoto, T.and Berthouze, and T. Izumita. Query-by-Object Interface for a Web-Based Geographic Information Systems. In 8th International Conference on Humans and Computers 2005, August 2005.
	A geographic information system is often used to find objects of users' interest. It presents the users with an interface. Typically, a user interface presents a language for communication. In order to find a path to locate an object, the users must adopt a step-wise navigation approach for easy access by web users. We propose a prototype of a high level interface based on simplified relational algebra. A prototype system has been proposed. It is based on the notion of a Query-By-Object (QBO) approach. By using the system, a web user can access the available geographic information with a high ease.
[bhalla-10:2005]	abd R. Shapiee, S. Bhalla, and T. Hashimoto. Query-by-object Interface for Information Requirement Elicitation in M-commerce. In Proceedings of 7th IEEE International Conference on E-commerce (CEC 2005), New York, 2005. IEEE, IEEE Computer society.
	Information Requirement Elicitation (IRE) is essential in wireless web service to elicit information requirements through interactive choice prompts. We present a design of a high-level user interface for IRE, in the context of banking database queries by a mobile web user. The prototype is based on the notion of Query-By-Object (QBO) approach of building a query using multiple user-level steps. The test prototype system uses J2ME MIDP for a wireless front end and a J2EE application server and an Object-Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) at the back end. A sample set of queries demonstrate ease of access by the users. Ambiguities in users intentions are eliminated by virtue of a step-by-step procedure.
[bhalla-11:2005]	abd R. Shapiee and S. Bhalla. Spatial QBE - A High-Level Interface for Supporting Spatial Queries. In Proceedings of IEEE/WIC/ACM WI-2005 Conference on Web Intelligence (WI 2005), New York, 2005. IEEE,WIC,ACM, IEEE Computer society.
	In the last few years, many GIS applications have appeared on the Web giving users access t o both spatial and non-spatial (attribute) data. Web access to GIS resources needs to addre ss the possibility of access via handheld devices such as mobile phones, PDAs or pocket com puters. Currently, only a few research studies are available on high-level user interface f or spatial queries on such devices. Thus, an important research problem is to design user-f riendly interfaces for mobile Web GIS. Query-By-Example (QBE) is a user-friendly language developed for a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). Many RDBMSs have included su pport for spatial extensions. In this paper, we make an effort to create extensions for QBE to support spatial queries on mobile devices. It is called Spatial mQBE. We show that Spa tial mQBE is a simple and user-friendly interface. The main strengths of this interface are its simplicity to express a query and its expressive power.
[bhalla-12:2005]	abd R. Shapiee and S. Bhalla. Supporting Web Users for Spatial Data Queries. In 5th International Conference on Information Technology (CIT 05), New York, 2005. Shanghai University, IEEE Computer society.
	Many applications use geographic data, such as land management, urban planning, tourism, ve hicle guidance and navigation, and e-commerce. A related research problem is to define user -friendly interfaces for Web GIS. There is a need for the definition of simple and user-fr iendly interfaces to allow the users to pose ad-hoc queries. Query-By-Example (QBE) is a u ser-friendly language developed for a RDBMS. However, many RDBMS have included support for spatial extensions in SQL. QBE has not been extended in line with these extensions. In thi s paper, we make an effort to create extensions for QBE to support spatial queries and thus calling it Spatial QBE. We show that Spatial QBE is a simple and user-friendly interface for Web users. It can cater to both spatial and common database queries.
[bhalla-13:2005]	abd R. Shapiee, S. Bhalla, and T. Hashimoto. Supporting Web Users for Spatial Data Queries. In 4th International Conference on Mobile Business (ICMB 05), New York, 2005. Special interest group on mobile computing, IEEE Computer society.
	Information Requirement Elicitation (IRE) is essential in wireless web service to elicit in formation requirements through interactive choice prompts. We present a high-level user in terface for an IRE-enabled information system, in the context of database queries by a mobi le web user. The prototype is based on the notion of a Query-By-Object (QBO) approach of b uilding a query using multiple user-level steps. The test prototype system uses the Mobile Information Devices Profile (MIDP) of the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), for a wire less front end, and a Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application server and an Object-Relational Database Management System (ORDBMS) at the back end. A sample set of dyna mic queries demonstrate ease of use by the users.

Unrefereed Papers

[bhalla-14:2005]	S. Bhalla. A Query-By-Object based Interface for querying regional data. IPSJ SIG Technical Reports, 2005-CH-66, 2005.
	The problem of human-computer interaction through a query language has been studied n the context of database queries. The web users are not expected to be skilled at the use of a database query language. In this proposal a new approach based on user level information entities has been proposed.

Chapters in Book

[bhalla-15:2005]

S. Bhalla. Independent Global Snapshots in Large Distributed Systems. New Horizons of Parallel and Distributed Computing. SpringerVerlag, New York, 2005.

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