Annual Review 2011 > Division of Information Systems

Database Systems Laboratory

Subhash Bhalla

Professor

Yutaka Watanobe

Assistant Professor

Wanming Chu

Assistant Lecturer

Junya Terazono

Assistant Lecturer

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 12-14 December. The proceedings have been published for the 7th workshop on “Databases in Networked Information System (DNIS)” by Springer-Verlag in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science series (LNCS) in Volume 7108. 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 in Healthcare and related activities 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 Database Systems for information extraction. Many research efforts are being made to make suitable ObjectRelational 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 :

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.

Healthcare Studies

The goal of this research is to study the Standardized Electronic Health Records (EHRs) databases. It is a temporal computational system with the ability to process large volume of information. Such system will prove useful in various areas of information technology such as online healthcare agencies. The modeling considers the complementary points of view:

  1. EHRs data mining approach to address the epidemic studies,

  2. An approach that involves the user in the modeling process.

  3. 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 new easy-to-use search and also new query language interfaces.

Refereed Journal Papers

[bhalla-01:2011]

S. Sachdeva, D. Yaginuma, W. Chu, and S. Bhalla. AQBE - QBE Style Queries for Archetyped Data. IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, E95-D(3):861-871, March 2012.

Large-scale adoption of electronic healthcare applications requires semantic interoperability. The new proposals propose an advanced (multi-level) DBMS architecture for repository services for health records of patients. These also require query interfaces at multiple levels and at the level of semi-skilled users. In this regard, a high-level user interface for querying the new form of standardized Electronic Health Records system has been examined in this study. It proposes a step-by-step graphical query interface to allow semi-skilled users to write queries. Its aim is to decrease user effort and communication ambiguities, and increase user friendliness.

[bhalla-02:2011]

S. Sachdeva, A. Madaan, and S. Bhalla. Discovery of Patterns to Improve Usability of Electronic Health Record Systems. IPSJ Journal, 20(1):327-339, January 2012.

Recent research has focused on the development of open standards for life-time long health record archives for individual patients. This facilitates the extensive use of data mining and querying techniques for the analysis. These efforts can increase the depth and the extent of the utilization of patient data. For example, association analysis can be used to identify common features among disparate patients to check whether diagnoses or procedures are effective. Pattern discovery techniques can also be used to create the census reports and generate a meaningful visualization of summary data at hospitals. For handling the large volume of data, there is a need to focus on improving the usability. The current study proposes a model for the development of EHR support systems. It aims to capture the health worker's needs in a scientific way, on a continuous basis. The proposal has been evaluated for the accuracy of knowledge discovery to improve the usability.

[terazono-01:2011]

J. Terazono. Progress of Lunar and Planetary Remote Sensing. Journal of the Remote Sensing Society of Japan, 31(2):275-278, 2011.

This paper summarizes past activities of remote sensing in lunar and planetary exploration and puts its future in perspective.

[w-chu-01:2011]

Yamin Li, Shietung Peng, and Wanming Chu. Parallel Prefix Computation and Sorting on a Recursive Dual-Net. Journal of Information Processing Systems, 7(2):271-286, 2011.

In this paper, we proposed efficient algorithms for parallel prefix computation and sorting on a recursive dual-net. The recursive dual-net RDNk(B) for k > 0 has (2n0)2k=2 nodes and d0 + k links per node, where n0 and d0 are the number of nodes and the node-degree of the base-network B, respectively. Assume that each node holds one data item, the communication and computation time complexities of the algorithm for parallel prefix computation on RDNk(B); k > 0; are 2k+1 2k+1 ? 2 + 2kTcomm(0) and 2k+1 ? 2 + 2kTcomp(0), respectively, where Tcomm(0) and 2 + 2kTcomm(0) and 2k+1 2k+1 ? 2 + 2kTcomm(0) and 2k+1 ? 2 + 2kTcomp(0), respectively, where Tcomm(0) and 2 + 2kTcomp(0), respectively, where Tcomm(0) and Tcomp(0) are the communication and computation time complexities of the algorithm for parallel prefix computation on the base-network B, respectively. The algorithm for parallel sorting on RDNk(B) is restricted on B = Qm where Qm is an m-cube. Assume that each node holds a single data item, the sorting algorithm runs in O((m2k)2) computation steps and O((km2k)2) communication steps, respectively.

[yutaka-01:2011]

Yutaka Watanobe, Rentaro Yoshioka, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Cognitive aspects of programming in pictures. Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 6704:11-20, 2011.

Programming in pictures is an approach supported by a special programming environment where pictures and moving pictures are systematically used for direct representation of features of computational algorithms and data structures. Within this approach some ”data space ”is traversed by a ”front of computation ”and necessary operations are performed during this traversal process. There are compound pictures to define algorithmic steps (called Algorithmic CyberFrames) and generic pictures to define the contents of compound pictures. Compound pictures are assembled into special series to represent some predefined algorithmic features. A number of the series is assembled into an Algorithmic CyberFilm. The environment helps to follow a cognitive model where success of users’perception, comprehension and cognition depend on interaction with, at least, a few different but mutually supplementing features of a picture or a set of pictures. In this paper, we survey a number of techniques that are used with programming in pictures to enhance perception and cognition of people working on developing computational application models and corresponding algorithms.

Refereed Proceedings Papers

[bhalla-03:2011]

S. Kikuchi, S. Sachdeva, and S. Bhalla. Applying cloud computing model in PHR architecture. In HCCE 2012, pages 236-237. ACM, March 2012.

In recent years, some practical and commercial Personal Health Records and some related services such as Google Health [1] and Microsoft HealthVault [2] have been launched. On the other hand, Cloud Computing has matured more and become the major streams to realize a more effective operational environment. However so far, there have been few studies in regards to applying Cloud architecture in the PHR explicitly despite generating volume data. In this paper, we review our trial on the general architecture design by applying the Cloud components for supporting healthcare record areas and clarify the required conditions to realize it.

[bhalla-04:2011]

S. Rajam, R. Cortez, A. Vazhenin, and S. Bhalla. Modified MVC-design Patterns for Service Oriented Applications. In SoMeT 2011, pages 108-126. IOS Press, September 2011.

Enterprise Application Integration is an important aspect in order to leverage high reusability and interoperability among disparate applications and services. Pattern based design is an effective way to avoid an expensive process of reinventing, rediscovering as well as revalidating agnostic software artifacts. In this paper, we are proposing a modification of the traditional Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern and exploring other composite patterns for an efficient integration of the applications and services. The key point is that the demarcation of a Functional (View) and an Implementation (Model) task can be achieved deliberately by inducing an Integrator (Controller). The Controller capabilities can be significantly enriched by encapsulating certain Non-Functional activities such as security, reliability, scalability, and routing of request. This enhancement enables the separation of Integration Logic from Functional Logic (Client Application) and Implementation Logic (Service). In our approach, the Controller can be considered as the compound design pattern of the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). To demonstrate how the modified MVC pattern can be used for developing heterogeneous software environment, we are developing an e-Learning Computational Cloud (eLC2) software environment. This paper discusses the peculiarities of the modified MVC design patterns, main components of system architecture as well as how integration of the software components is realized by using the Dependency Injection pattern to achieve higher reusability and interoperability of Service Oriented applications.

[bhalla-05:2011]

S. Sachdeva, D. Yaginuma, W. Chu, and S. Bhalla. Dynamic Generation of Archetype-Based User Interfaces for Queries on Electronic Health Record Databases. In Databases in Networked Information Systems, pages 109-125, Germany, December 2011. Springer Verlag, LNCS Series.

Standardized Electronic Health Records (EHRs) make use of archetypes for representation of data. In combination with terminologies, the archetypes enable powerful possibilities for semantic querying of repository data. Such querying enables longitudinal processing of health data, regardless of the originating system. The semantics of data is better understood by viewing the data in the context of the user interface (UI). The paper demonstrates the feasibility of creating a query interface. It introduces a general purpose database transformation channel. It will shorten the application development process and increase the quality of the software by automatically generating software artifacts that are often made manually (and are prone to errors). It is possible to know the locations of each leaf datum within information conforming to an archetype. The tool helps in the inspection of an archetype in advance, which can yield a set of path fragments. It can be used to query instances which conform to an archetype for intelligent querying.

[bhalla-06:2011]

A. Madaan, W. Chu, and S. Bhalla. VisHue: Web Page Segmentation for an Improved Query Interface for MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia. In Databases in Networked Information Systems, pages 89-108, Germany, December 2011. Springer Verlag, LNCS Series.

World Wide Web has become the largest source of information. Consequently web based information retrieval, information extraction; automatic page adaptation and querying deep-web are gaining importance. The need for information retrieval applications is increasing. To address the problems of the ever expanding information over the internet, traditional information retrieval techniques have been applied. Such techniques are sometimes time consuming, and laborious, and the results obtained may be unsatisfactory. This study is an attempt to query web pages like MedlinePlus medical encyclopedia by segmenting the web pages. It summarizes the existing approaches for web page segmentation from the perspective of “ structure realization for improved querying ”on the web. It proposes a new algorithm VisHue for web page segmentation based on visual cues and heuristics and further uses the hierarchical structure generated by it to develop the Query by Segment or Tag (QBT) query interface. This interface is close to the end-user and exploits the relationships among the various content groups within a web page. Such an improved query-interface enables the user to perform in-depth querying. It is a step beyond the page-level search.

[terazono-04:2011]

J. Terazono, R. Nakamura, S. Kodama, N. Yamamoto, H. Demura, N. Hirata, and Y. Ogawa. WISE-CAPS: Lunar and Planetary Data Mapping and Sharing Platform: Current Implementation and Future Prospect. In Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science. ISTS, The Japan Society of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, June 2011.

We are now developing Web-GIS based lunar and planetary exploration data analysis environment, called WISE-CAPS (Web-based Integrated Secure Environment for Collaborative Analysis of Planetary Science). This report summarizes current situation of development and future implementation plans.

[terazono-05:2011]

J. Terazono, N. Wakabayashi, S. Sakamoto, and J. Watanabe. Outreach Activity of Japanese Lunar and Planetary Exploration: The Moon Station Way. In Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science. ISTS, The Japan Society of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, June 2011.

The Moon Station, the most popular website in Japan for lunar and planetary exploration, experienced extensive evolution since its foundation in November 1998. Here we describe the history of the website and addresses the key points for lunar and planetary exploration outreach based on our experience through website creation.

[terazono-06:2011]

T. Suzuki, J. Terazono, and T. Hayashi. Design and Implementation of New Generation Data Format for Lunar and Planetary Exploration. In Proceedings of the 28th International Symposium on Space Technology and Science. ISTS, The Japan Society of Aeronautical and Space Sciences, June 2011.

The data format is one of most important infrastructure for data distribution. We develops newly designed data format for lunar and planetary exploration data. This format, called XPEF, has several merits for both scientific and technological basis, and is user-friendly, easily extensible and understandable.

[terazono-07:2011]

J. Terazono, R. Nakamura, S. Kodama, N. Yamamoto, H. Demura, N. Hirata, and Y. Ogawa. WISE-CAPS: Data Archiving, Browsing and Analyzing Environment for Lunar and Plaentary Data: Current Enhancement and Future Prospect. In Proceedings of the 43rd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference. LPSC 2012, March 2012.

We are now developing Web-GIS based lunar and planetary exploration data analysis environment, called WISE-CAPS (Web-based Integrated Secure Environment for Collaborative Analysis of Planetary Science). This presentation reports current implementation and enhancement, and states future prospect of its evolution.

[w-chu-02:2011]

Yamin Li, Shietung Peng, and Wanming Chu. Set-to-set disjoint-paths routing in recursive dual-net. In Michael Hobbs Wanlei Zhou Yang Xiang, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, editor, Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Algorithms and architectures for parallel processing (ICA3PP-11), pages 54-65, Melbourne, Australia, Oct 2011. Deakin University, Australia, Springer-Verlag.

Recursive dual-net (RDN) is a newly proposed interconnection network for massive parallel computers. The RDN is based on recursive dual-construction of a symmetric base network. A k-level dual-construction for k > 0 creates a network containing (2n0)2k/2 nodes with node-degree d0 + k, where n0 and d0 are the number of nodes and the node-degree of the base network, respectively. The RDN is a symmetric graph and can contain huge number of nodes with small node-degree and short diameter. Node-to-set disjoint-paths routing is fundamental and has many applications for fault-tolerant and secure communications in a network. In this paper, we proposed an efficient algorithm for set-to-set disjoint-paths routing in RDN. We show that, given two sets of d0 + k nodes, S and T in RDNk(B), d0 + k disjoint paths, each connecting a node in S to a node in T , can be found in O(lglgN * lgN) time, where N is the number of nodes in RDNk(B). The length of the paths is at most 3(D0/2 + 1)(lgN + 1)/(lgn0 + 1), where D0 and n0 are the diameter and the number of nodes of base-network B, respectively

[yutaka-02:2011]

Yutaka Watanobe, Rentaro Yoshioka, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Programming in pictures: a way toward reliable software. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Software Methodologies, Tools, and Techniques, pages 183-197, 2011.

Programming in pictures is an approach where pictures and moving pictures are used as an algorithmic alphabet to represent algorithms. Super-characters of this alphabet are used to represent algorithmic steps (called Algorithmic CyberFrames) which are assembled into special series to represent algorithmic features. A number of the series is assembled into an Algorithmic CyberFilm. The filmification of methods has been applied to a large variety of algorithms to test expressive features of the pictures for representing computation. In addition, cognitive aspects of programming in pictures and embedded clarity annotations supporting the approach and visual inspections by other people have also been analyzed. In this paper we focus on features of the algorithmic picture language and the filmification modeling environment which can be used for automatic and/or interactive checking of application model correctness. An overview of different sources of information about the same features of the application model is considered and concrete examples of automatic checking are provided.

[yutaka-03:2011]

Yutaka Watanobe, Rentaro Yoshioka, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Programming in Pictures within Filmification Modeling Environment. In Proceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC, pages 267-268, 2011.

"Programming in pictures," or "filmification of methods" is an approach where pictures and moving pictures are used as super-characters for representing features of computational algorithms. A Filmification Modeling environment supporting the approach is based on a set of generic pictures and related editors/browsers allowing the development of compound pictures of algorithmic steps. The compound pictures are assembled into special series representing different views of algorithmic features. These views are employed to split the programming process into special stages and to support understandability of the programs within the framework of visual debugging or external inspection. In this paper, a brief introduction of the approach and the environment are presented to prepare a basis for the demonstration.

[yutaka-04:2011]

Takatoshi Akiyama and Yutaka Watanobe. An advanced search interface for mobile devices. In The Joint International Conference on HumanCentered Computer Environments, pages 230-235, 2012.

An advanced search interface for mobile devices is presented. The search interface employs the query-by-object (QBO) approach which enables end users to obtain information in a database without using SQL. So far, the QBO approach has been employed in a number of applications. The aim of this research is to develop a visual user interface on mobile devices so that the users can more intuitively manipulate the objects for information retrieval. In this paper, the user interface, an algorithm of SQL generation, and the system architecture are presented. A framework to generalize the QBO approach with the interface for dierent databases is also considered.

[yutaka-05:2011]

Yutaka Watanobe, Rentaro Yoshioka, and Nikolay Mirenkov. Programs in pictures: a new form of educational materials. In 3rd International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies, pages 6436-6444, 2011.

"Programming in algorithmic pictures" is an approach where pictures and moving pictures are used as super-characters for representing features of computational algorithms. Within this approach some "multidimensional data spaces" are traversed by 'fronts of computation' and necessary operations are performed during these traversal processes. Generic pictures of the algorithmic super-characters are used to compose compound pictures defining algorithmic steps. The generic and compound pictures are developed and acquired in special libraries (galleries) where supportive pictures of embedded clarity annotations are also included. In this paper, we consider examples of pictures from the above mentioned galleries and present a program in pictures for the sparse matrix-vector multiplications. Through this example we show how the system of pictures can be used for teaching courses on algorithms and on programming in conventional languages.

Unrefereed Papers

[terazono-02:2011]

Junya Terazono. How Hayabusa became beloved spacecraft (2). Tenmon Kyoiku (Astronomical Education), 24(2):60-67, 2012.

Hayabusa, Japanese asteroid explorer, has become big boom since its return on July 2010. This paper summarizes Hayabusa phoenomena and analyzes its reason. Also, the author, as a member of Hayabusa public relation team, points the importance of public involvement in lunar and planetary exploration.

[terazono-03:2011]

J. Terazono. How Hayabusa became beloved spacecraft (1). Tenmon Kyoiku (Astronomical Education), 23(6):17-26, 2011.

Hayabusa, Japanese asteroid explorer, has become big boom since its return on July 2010. This paper summarizes Hayabusa phoenomena and analyzes its reason. Also, the author, as a member of Hayabusa public relation team, points the importance of public involvement in lunar and planetary exploration.

Books

[bhalla-07:2011]

S. Kikuchi, A. Madaan, S. Sachdeva, and S. Bhalla, editors. Databases in Networked Information Systems, volume 7108 of LNCS Series. SpringerVerlag, s. kikuchi and a. madaan and s. sachdeva and s. bhalla edition, December 2011.

Grants

[yutaka-06:2011]

Yutaka Watanobe Rentaro Yoshioka Haruo Terasaka, Nikolay Mirenkov. 2011.

Japan Nuclear Energy Safety (JNES)

[yutaka-07:2011]

A. P. Vazhenin, N .N. Mirenkov, T. Maeda, J. Brine, and Y. Watanobe. 2011.

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology

Ph.D., Master and Graduation Theses

[bhalla-08:2011]

Shelly Sachdeva. and Information Quality Considerations in Standardized Electronic Health Records Databases. Ph.d. thesis, Graduate School of Computer Science and Engineering, March 2012.

Thesis Adviser: S. Bhalla

[terazono-08:2011]

Mamoru Watanabe. Graduation Thesis: Analysis of Parametric Models for Lift-Time Data. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: J. Terazono

[terazono-09:2011]

Daisuke Tochigi. Fully Web-based Data Management System for Lunar and Planetary GIS. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: J. Terazono

[terazono-10:2011]

Hiroki Nakamura. Space-related Event Information Management System. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: J. Terazono

[terazono-11:2011]

Takehiro Yamada. Tweeting Server: Alerting System of Warnings using Twitter. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: J. Terazono

[terazono-12:2011]

Shigetoshi Matsuda. Tsukiyomi: A Composite Data Search System for Apollo Lunar Photograph. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: J. Terazono

[w-chu-03:2011]

Tatsuro Sugimura. Query Interface for Health Topic Information using XML Document Type Definition(DTD). Graduation Thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, March 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Wanming Chu

[w-chu-04:2011]

Keisuke Sugimoto. Online Attendance System(OAS) Design and Implementation by Automatic Time and IP address Tracking. Graduation Thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, March 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Wanming Chu

[w-chu-05:2011]

Yuya Nagura. Efficient Implementation of Book Management and Recommendation System with MVC and XMLDB. Graduation Thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, March 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Wanming Chu

[w-chu-06:2011]

Kei Taniue. PDF Documentation Management System using Web Search Technology. Graduation Thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, March 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Wanming Chu

[yutaka-08:2011]

Tetsuya Shiota. Units of Measure Analysis and Its Implementation for AIDA. Graduation Thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Yutaka Watanobe

[yutaka-09:2011]

Shigeyuki Hashikawa. Intelligent Recommendation Method for AIDA Programing. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Yutaka Watanobe

[yutaka-10:2011]

Akira Midorikawa. Profiling System for AIDA Programming Environment. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Yutaka Watanobe

[yutaka-11:2011]

Masataka Tokumaru. Aizu IT Arena: an e-learning System for ICTs Engineers. Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Yutaka Watanobe

[yutaka-12:2011]

Takatoshi Akiyama. An Advanced Search Interface for Mobile Devices Graduation thesis, School of Computer Science and Engineering, 2012.

Thesis Adviser: Yutaka Watanobe