Database Systems Laboratory

Sabhash Bhalla Associate Professor	Yutaka Watanobe Assistant Lecturer	Wanming Chu Assistant Lecturer	Junya Terazono Assistant Lecturerq
Kishore R. Sakharkar Visiting Researcher

Information systems in transportation, health-care and public utility services depend on large scale data management systems. Research activity in Database Systems is focused on broadening their range of applicability. It is also focused on improving the performance of domain specific applications. Large applications for Services use database systems as a basic part for web data resources. This year the laboratory organized an International workshop with many invited distinguished researchers during 29-31 March. The proceedings have been published for the 6th workshop on ”Databases in Networked Information System (DNIS) Eby Springer-Verllag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (LNCS) in Volume 5999. The delivered lecture and manuscripts are being utilized to develop the stateof- 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 Business Intelligence and data. This provides a challenging area for study. The domains of activity include : developing new user interfaces and query languages for skilled and semi-skilled users in health-care; developing infrastructures for computing facilities as a service (cloud services) for cloud computing; supporting mobile computing applications, and designing new data models and asynchronous computation models for transaction and services. 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. Query Language with reference to user skills 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. The test prototypes have been evolved based on research on query-by-object and spatial Query-by-example techniques.

Refereed Journal Papers

[bhalla-01:2009]	M. Hasegawa, S. Bhalla, and L. Yang. Performance Considerations of Embedded Computations in Distributed Databases. Journal of Embedded Computing, 3(4):173 E92, 2009.
	In many applications using database systems, the conventional method of transaction processing can not be used. This is on account of lack of integration and existance of centralized solutions. Such situations exist within heterogeneous systems, mobile database transactions and time-critical applications requiring admission on priority for a select group of transactions.  EFor example, in conventional methods, the deadlock detection is based on use of delay to cause and watch deadlocks. It generates many difficulties, such as, (a) high overheads of periodic checking (b) Non-deterministic nature of the delays, and (c) difficulties to scaleup the centralized solutions. The existing proposal lacks in local processing for distributed transactions. The proposed technique uses normal message communication among peers. The proposal leads to enhanced role for resource sites. The proposal introduces asynchronous operations in transaction processing. As a result the detection processes do not wait for occurrences of time-outs delays. In most cases the technique eliminates the possibility of occurrence of waiting delays
[w-chu-01:2009]	Yamin Li, Shietung Peng, and Wanming Chu. A New Presentation of Metacube for Algorithmic Design and Case Studies: Parallel Prefix Computation and Parallel Sorting. Journal of Chinese Institute of Engineer, 32:939 E50, 2009.
	A versatile family of interconnection networks alternative to hypercubes, called Metacubes, has been proposed for building extremely large scale multiprocessor systems with a small number of links per node. A Metacube MC(k;m) connects 22km+k nodes with only k+m links per node. Metacube can be used to build parallel computing systems of very large scale with a small number of links per node. In this paper, we propose a new presentation of Metacube for algorithmic design. Based on the new presentation, we give efficient algorithms for parallel prefix computation and parallel sorting on Metacubes, respectively. The algorithm for prefix computation runs in 2km(k+1)+k communication steps and 2k+1m+2k computation steps on MC(k;m). The sort algorithm runs in O(2km+ k)2 computation steps and O(2km(2k + 1) + k)2 communication steps on MC(k;m).

Refereed Proceeding Papers

Records (EHRs) is important because patients have become mobile, treatment and health care providers have increased, and also, have become more specialized. The paper analyses the role of semantic interoperability in healthcare. The system modeling approach has been analyzed with a view of supporting system-to-system and user-system interactions. In addition, query interfaces have been considered at varying levels of user and system activities



[bhalla-02:2009]	S. Sachdeva and S. Bhalla. Semantic Interoperability in Healthcare Information for EHR Databases. In Databases in Networked Information Systems, pages 157 E73, Germany, March 2010. LNCS, Sprniger-Verlag.
	Healthcare information is complex, distributed and non-structured in nature. Integration of information is important to retrieve patient history, for knowledge sharing and to formulate queries. Large scale adoption of electronic healthcare applications requires semantic interoperability. Interoperability of Electronic Health
[bhalla-03:2009]	S. Sachdeva and S. Bhalla. Implementing High-level Query Language Interfaces for Archetype-based Electronic Health Records Database. In Conference on Management of Data 2009, India, December 2009. Tata McGraw-Hill for Computer Society of India.
	This work focusses on the development of a graphical interface for querying Electronic Health Records (EHR) data. Such a graphical interface is useful since it would significantly facilitate in satisfying the querying requirements of healthcare consumers. This work concerns an engineering problem due to the EHR data having a multitude of representations and also because such data comes from multiple disparate sources. The paper is presents an important technique due to the high practical applicability of the work. Given the large number of possible representations of the EHR data, practical utilization of the work requires the existence of some standardized representations. Certain patient-related privacy issues arise due to the inherent nature of the medical domain and medical data.
[bhalla-04:2009]	S. Machome and S. Bhalla. Performance Considerations for Legacy Systems Migration Using Web Services. In Human and Computer Conference, December 2009.
	Legacy systems are systems that pose difficulties for modifications and evolution. These difficulties may be due to large size or lack of documentation or the mission critical nature of the application. These systems make up a large part of organizations Information Technology assets. These pose difficulties for organizations trying to take advantages of new innovations. This paper aims at proposing web service based legacy migration techniques.
[terazono-01:2009]	J. Terazono. Implementation of Geographic Search Methods for Lunar Objects. In 6th International Workshop, DNIS 2010, Proceedings. DNIS, Mar. 2010.
	The search system to find surface features on the moon and other planets are essential for assisting research activities by scientists. We present the recent progress on search system using three different approaches based on two major scheme of database search policy, QBE (Query-By-Example) and QBO (Query-By-Object).
[terazono-02:2009]	J. Terazono, R. Nakamura, S. Kodama, N. Yamamoto, H. Demura, N. Hirata, Y. Ogawa, J. Haruyama, M. Ohtake, Y. Matsunaga, T. Suzuki, and T. Hayashi. WISE-CAPS: An Integrated and Secure Web-based Environment for Analysis and browsing of Lunar and Planetary Data. In Proc. The 41st Lunar and Plaentary Science Conference. LPI and NASA, Mar. 2010.
	WISE-CAPS (Web-based Interactive Secure Environment for Collaborative Analysis of Planetary Science) is a Web-GIS environment dedicated for lunar and planetary science research. Purely developed by the University of Aizu, WISE-CAPS offers unique function to collaborate users over the network.
[terazono-03:2009]	J. Terazono, H. Fukuhara, T. Yamada, T. Nihei, K. Suzuki, I. Koseda, R. Fujita, T. Miyazaki, S. Saito, A. Kara, and T. Hayashi. A Sensor Network Using Content-Aware Messaging Network Architecture. In Proc. ICCASSICE 2009. ICCAS-SICE, Aug. 2009.
	In this paper, we discuss the content-aware network based on the Messaging Network concept. All published and received data are processed in proper form in this Messaging Network as users and publishers want.
[terazono-04:2009]	W. Kawamae, N. Hirata, K. Kitazato, N. Asada, H. Demura, Y. Ogawa, C. Honda, and J. Terazono. Development of 3D Web-based Data Archive for Hayabusa Mission. In Proc. The 41st Lunar and Plaentary Science Conference. LPI and NASA, Mar. 2010.
	We developed Web-based data archive model of asteroid Itokawa which has been explored by Hayabusa.
[terazono-05:2009]	S. Morita, N. Asada, H. Demura, N. Hirata, J. Terazono, Y. Ogawa, C. Honda, and K. Kitazato. Approach to Crater Chronology with Fourier Transform of Digital Terrain Model. In Proc. The 41st Lunar and Plaentary Science Conference. LPI and NASA, Mar. 2010.
	Crater counting is the essential technique to determine the age of lunar terrain, however, counting craters need vast amount of labor. We propose a method to use Fourier Transform to apply the crater counting in lunar terrain model.
[terazono-06:2009]	Y. Choi, J. Terazono, K. Kawauchi, K. Itabashi, H. Fukuhara, I. Koseda, R. Fujita, T. Miyazaki, S. Saito, J. Iwase, and T. Hayashi. Networkcentric Mashup for a Sensor Network that Uses a Messaging Network. In Proc. ICCAS-SICE 2009. ICCAS-SICE, Aug. 2009.
	We showed an application example of the Messaging Network in the mashup of sensor output to the web for govermental and public purpose.
[yutaka-01:2009]	Yutaka Watanobe, Rentaro Yoshioka, Shuichiro Tsukumoto, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Filmification of Methods: Convex Hull algorithms. In Proceedings of IEEE TENCON 2009, pages 1 E, 2009.
	Filmification of methods is a promising concept to find new formats for program and data/knowledge representation. It is also to create a basis for specifying and developing a new generation of programming environments, as well as for introducing educational materials of new types. Within this approach various algorithms are analyzed and represented as cyberFilms where special visual constructs, supersymbols and background images are introduced for defining and explaining meaning of the cyberFilm frames. In this paper, the filmification of methods is applied for Convex Hull algorithms. As a result, a few ways for the enhancement of the approach has been obtained. They are based on new types of flashing (highlighting) nodes representing different limitations for activity specifications in corresponding points of spatial structures, and on special background images and formulas supporting the explanation of algorithmic dynamics features.
[yutaka-02:2009]	Yutaka Watanobe, Victor Malyshkin, Rentaro Yoshioka, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Filmification of Methods: Representation of Particle-In-Cell Algorithms. In Victor Malyshkin, editor, 10th International Conference on Parallel Computing Technologies (PaCT-2009), number 5698 in Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS), pages 360 E76. Springer, 2009.
	Filmification of methods is an approach to find new formats for program and data/knowledge representation. It is also to create a basis for specifying and developing a new generation of programming environments. Within this approach various algorithms are analyzed and represented as cyberFilms where special visual super-symbols (icons) are introduced for defining meaning of the cyberFilm frames. In this paper, the filmification of methods is applied for particle-in-cells algorithms. Results demonstrate a promising compactness of the program representation, covering technical details of parallel implementation and an effectiveness of an open set of icons.

Unrefereed Papers

[terazono-07:2009]

Nakamura R. Yamamoto N. Demura H. Hirata N. Ogawa Y. Sobue S. Okumura H. Terazono, J. Lunar and Planetary Informatics System Based on Geographical Information. In Proc. ISPRS Working Group IV/7 Extraterrestrial Mapping, 2009.

Books

[bhalla-05:2009]

Shinji Kikuchi, Shelly Sachdeva, and Subhash Bhalla. Databases in Networked Information Systems, volume 5999 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Germany, March 2010. Large scale information systems in public utility services depend on computing infrastructure. Many research efforts are being made in related areas, such as mobile computing, cloud computing, sensor networks, high-level user interfaces and information accesses by web users. Government agencies in many countries plan to launch facilities in education, health-care and information support as a part of e-government initiative. In this context, Information Interchange Management has become an active research field. A number of new opportunities have evolved in design and modeling based on new computing needs of the users. Database systems play a central role in supporting networked information systems for access and storage management aspects. The sixth international workshop on Databases in Networked Information Systems (DNIS) 2010 was held on March 29-31, 2010 at University of Aizu in Japan.

Grants

[yutaka-03:2009]

Yutaka Watanobe. 2009. JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up

Refereed Proceeding Papers

[terazono-08:2009]	Takumi Tsunokake. Graduation Thesis: Moon Seeker: Search System for a Lunar Geographic Information System with a Query-By-Object Interface, University of Aizu, 2009.
	Thesis Advisor: S. Bhalla
[terazono-09:2009]	Shota Sato. Graduation Thesis: Lunar Search System using Query- By-Example Interface, University of Aizu, 2009.
	Thesis Advisor: S. Bhalla
[terazono-10:2009]	Takuya Sekine. Graduation Thesis: A User Interface For Access To Lunar Features Database, University of Aizu, 2009.
	Thesis Advisor: S. Bhalla
[yutaka-04:2009]	Takuya Watanabe. Graduation Thesis: An Application Server for an Algorithm Library in Visual Programming Languages, University of Aizu, 2010.
	Thesis Advisor: Y. Watanobe
[yutaka-05:2009]	Yuusuke Tominaga. Graduation Thesis: An Advanced Search Interface for an Online Judge System, University of Aizu, 2010.
	Thesis Advisor: Y. Watanobe
[yutaka-06:2009]	Tomokazu Arai. Graduation Thesis: An Application for Finding the Shortest Purchase Routes Using Google Maps, University of Aizu, 2010.
	Thesis Advisor: Y. Watanobe

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