@phdthesis{Off2011, author = {Off, Thomas}, title = {Durchg{\"a}ngige Verfolgbarkeit im Vorfeld der Softwareentwicklung von E-Government-Anwendungen : ein ontologiebasierter und modellgetriebener Ansatz am Beispiel von B{\"u}rgerdiensten}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-57478}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Die {\"o}ffentliche Verwaltung setzt seit mehreren Jahren E-Government-Anwendungssysteme ein, um ihre Verwaltungsprozesse intensiver mit moderner Informationstechnik zu unterst{\"u}tzen. Da die {\"o}ffentliche Verwaltung in ihrem Handeln in besonderem Maße an Recht und Gesetz gebunden ist verst{\"a}rkt und verbreitet sich der Zusammenhang zwischen den Gesetzen und Rechtsvorschriften einerseits und der zur Aufgabenunterst{\"u}tzung eingesetzten Informationstechnik andererseits. Aus Sicht der Softwaretechnik handelt es sich bei diesem Zusammenhang um eine spezielle Form der Verfolgbarkeit von Anforderungen (engl. Traceability), die so genannte Verfolgbarkeit im Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation (Pre-Requirements Specification Traceability, kurz Pre-RS Traceability), da sie Aspekte betrifft, die relevant sind, bevor die Anforderungen in eine Spezifikation eingeflossen sind (Urspr{\"u}nge von Anforderungen). Der Ansatz dieser Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag zur Verfolgbarkeit im Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation von E-Government-Anwendungssystemen. Er kombiniert dazu aktuelle Entwicklungen und Standards (insbesondere des World Wide Web Consortium und der Object Management Group) aus den Bereichen Verfolgbarkeit von Anforderungen, Semantic Web, Ontologiesprachen und modellgetriebener Softwareentwicklung. Der L{\"o}sungsansatz umfasst eine spezielle Ontologie des Verwaltungshandeln, die mit den Techniken, Methoden und Werkzeugen des Semantic Web eingesetzt wird, um in Texten von Rechtsvorschriften relevante Urspr{\"u}nge von Anforderungen durch Annotationen mit einer definierten Semantik zu versehen. Darauf aufbauend wird das Ontology Definition Metamodel (ODM) verwendet, um die Annotationen als spezielle Individuen einer Ontologie auf Elemente der Unified Modeling Language (UML) abzubilden. Dadurch entsteht ein neuer Modelltyp Pre-Requirements Model (PRM), der das Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation formalisiert. Modelle diesen Typs k{\"o}nnen auch verwendet werden, um Aspekte zu formalisieren die sich nicht oder nicht vollst{\"a}ndig aus dem Text der Rechtsvorschrift ergeben. Weiterhin bietet das Modell die M{\"o}glichkeit zum Anschluss an die modellgetriebene Softwareentwicklung. In der Arbeit wird deshalb eine Erweiterung der Model Driven Architecture (MDA) vorgeschlagen. Zus{\"a}tzlich zu den etablierten Modelltypen Computation Independent Model (CIM), Platform Independent Model (PIM) und Platform Specific Model (PSM) k{\"o}nnte der Einsatz des PRM Vorteile f{\"u}r die Verfolgbarkeit bringen. Wird die MDA mit dem PRM auf das Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation ausgeweitet, kann eine Transformation des PRM in ein CIM als initiale Anforderungsspezifikation erfolgen, indem der MOF Query View Transformation Standard (QVT) eingesetzt wird. Als Teil des QVT-Standards ist die Aufzeichnung von Verfolgbarkeitsinformationen bei Modelltransformationen verbindlich. Um die semantische L{\"u}cke zwischen PRM und CIM zu {\"u}berbr{\"u}cken, erfolgt analog zum Einsatz des Plattformmodells (PM) in der PIM nach PSM Transformation der Einsatz spezieller Hilfsmodelle. Es kommen daf{\"u}r die im Projekt "E-LoGo" an der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam entwickelten Referenzmodelle zum Einsatz. Durch die Aufzeichnung der Abbildung annotierter Textelemente auf Elemente im PRM und der Transformation der Elemente des PRM in Elemente des CIM kann durchg{\"a}ngige Verfolgbarkeit im Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation erreicht werden. Der Ansatz basiert auf einer so genannten Verfolgbarkeitsdokumentation in Form verlinkter Hypertextdokumente, die mittels XSL-Stylesheet erzeugt wurden und eine Verbindung zur graphischen Darstellung des Diagramms (z. B. Anwendungsfall-, Klassendiagramm der UML) haben. Der Ansatz unterst{\"u}tzt die horizontale Verfolgbarkeit zwischen Elementen unterschiedlicher Modelle vorw{\"a}rts- und r{\"u}ckw{\"a}rtsgerichtet umfassend. Er bietet außerdem vertikale Verfolgbarkeit, die Elemente des gleichen Modells und verschiedener Modellversionen in Beziehung setzt. {\"U}ber den offensichtlichen Nutzen einer durchg{\"a}ngigen Verfolgbarkeit im Vorfeld der Anforderungsspezifikation (z. B. Analyse der Auswirkungen einer Gesetzes{\"a}nderung, Ber{\"u}cksichtigung des vollst{\"a}ndigen Kontextes einer Anforderung bei ihrer Priorisierung) hinausgehend, bietet diese Arbeit eine erste Ansatzm{\"o}glichkeit f{\"u}r eine Feedback-Schleife im Prozess der Gesetzgebung. Stehen beispielsweise mehrere gleichwertige Gestaltungsoptionen eines Gesetzes zur Auswahl, k{\"o}nnen die Auswirkungen jeder Option analysiert und der Aufwand ihrer Umsetzung in E-Government-Anwendungen als Auswahlkriterium ber{\"u}cksichtigt werden. Die am 16. M{\"a}rz 2011 in Kraft getretene {\"A}nderung des NKRG schreibt eine solche Analyse des so genannten „Erf{\"u}llungsaufwands" f{\"u}r Teilbereiche des Verwaltungshandelns bereits heute verbindlich vor. F{\"u}r diese Analyse kann die vorliegende Arbeit einen Ansatz bieten, um zu fundierten Aussagen {\"u}ber den {\"A}nderungsaufwand eingesetzter E-Government-Anwendungssysteme zu kommen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Gebser2011, author = {Gebser, Martin}, title = {Proof theory and algorithms for answer set programming}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-55425}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Answer Set Programming (ASP) is an emerging paradigm for declarative programming, in which a computational problem is specified by a logic program such that particular models, called answer sets, match solutions. ASP faces a growing range of applications, demanding for high-performance tools able to solve complex problems. ASP integrates ideas from a variety of neighboring fields. In particular, automated techniques to search for answer sets are inspired by Boolean Satisfiability (SAT) solving approaches. While the latter have firm proof-theoretic foundations, ASP lacks formal frameworks for characterizing and comparing solving methods. Furthermore, sophisticated search patterns of modern SAT solvers, successfully applied in areas like, e.g., model checking and verification, are not yet established in ASP solving. We address these deficiencies by, for one, providing proof-theoretic frameworks that allow for characterizing, comparing, and analyzing approaches to answer set computation. For another, we devise modern ASP solving algorithms that integrate and extend state-of-the-art techniques for Boolean constraint solving. We thus contribute to the understanding of existing ASP solving approaches and their interconnections as well as to their enhancement by incorporating sophisticated search patterns. The central idea of our approach is to identify atomic as well as composite constituents of a propositional logic program with Boolean variables. This enables us to describe fundamental inference steps, and to selectively combine them in proof-theoretic characterizations of various ASP solving methods. In particular, we show that different concepts of case analyses applied by existing ASP solvers implicate mutual exponential separations regarding their best-case complexities. We also develop a generic proof-theoretic framework amenable to language extensions, and we point out that exponential separations can likewise be obtained due to case analyses on them. We further exploit fundamental inference steps to derive Boolean constraints characterizing answer sets. They enable the conception of ASP solving algorithms including search patterns of modern SAT solvers, while also allowing for direct technology transfers between the areas of ASP and SAT solving. Beyond the search for one answer set of a logic program, we address the enumeration of answer sets and their projections to a subvocabulary, respectively. The algorithms we develop enable repetition-free enumeration in polynomial space without being intrusive, i.e., they do not necessitate any modifications of computations before an answer set is found. Our approach to ASP solving is implemented in clasp, a state-of-the-art Boolean constraint solver that has successfully participated in recent solver competitions. Although we do here not address the implementation techniques of clasp or all of its features, we present the principles of its success in the context of ASP solving.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lorenz2011, author = {Lorenz, Haik}, title = {Texturierung und Visualisierung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-53879}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Im Mittelpunkt dieser Arbeit stehen virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle, die Objekte, Ph{\"a}nomene und Prozesse in urbanen R{\"a}umen in digitaler Form repr{\"a}sentieren. Sie haben sich zu einem Kernthema von Geoinformationssystemen entwickelt und bilden einen zentralen Bestandteil geovirtueller 3D-Welten. Virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle finden nicht nur Verwendung als Mittel f{\"u}r Experten in Bereichen wie Stadtplanung, Funknetzplanung, oder L{\"a}rmanalyse, sondern auch f{\"u}r allgemeine Nutzer, die realit{\"a}tsnah dargestellte virtuelle St{\"a}dte in Bereichen wie B{\"u}rgerbeteiligung, Tourismus oder Unterhaltung nutzen und z. B. in Anwendungen wie GoogleEarth eine r{\"a}umliche Umgebung intuitiv erkunden und durch eigene 3D-Modelle oder zus{\"a}tzliche Informationen erweitern. Die Erzeugung und Darstellung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle besteht aus einer Vielzahl von Prozessschritten, von denen in der vorliegenden Arbeit zwei n{\"a}her betrachtet werden: Texturierung und Visualisierung. Im Bereich der Texturierung werden Konzepte und Verfahren zur automatischen Ableitung von Fototexturen aus georeferenzierten Schr{\"a}gluftbildern sowie zur Speicherung oberfl{\"a}chengebundener Daten in virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodellen entwickelt. Im Bereich der Visualisierung werden Konzepte und Verfahren f{\"u}r die multiperspektivische Darstellung sowie f{\"u}r die hochqualitative Darstellung nichtlinearer Projektionen virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle in interaktiven Systemen vorgestellt. Die automatische Ableitung von Fototexturen aus georeferenzierten Schr{\"a}gluftbildern erm{\"o}glicht die Veredelung vorliegender virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle. Schr{\"a}gluftbilder bieten sich zur Texturierung an, da sie einen Großteil der Oberfl{\"a}chen einer Stadt, insbesondere Geb{\"a}udefassaden, mit hoher Redundanz erfassen. Das Verfahren extrahiert aus dem verf{\"u}gbaren Bildmaterial alle Ansichten einer Oberfl{\"a}che und f{\"u}gt diese pixelpr{\"a}zise zu einer Textur zusammen. Durch Anwendung auf alle Oberfl{\"a}chen wird das virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodell fl{\"a}chendeckend texturiert. Der beschriebene Ansatz wurde am Beispiel des offiziellen Berliner 3D-Stadtmodells sowie der in GoogleEarth integrierten Innenstadt von M{\"u}nchen erprobt. Die Speicherung oberfl{\"a}chengebundener Daten, zu denen auch Texturen z{\"a}hlen, wurde im Kontext von CityGML, einem international standardisierten Datenmodell und Austauschformat f{\"u}r virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle, untersucht. Es wird ein Datenmodell auf Basis computergrafischer Konzepte entworfen und in den CityGML-Standard integriert. Dieses Datenmodell richtet sich dabei an praktischen Anwendungsf{\"a}llen aus und l{\"a}sst sich dom{\"a}nen{\"u}bergreifend verwenden. Die interaktive multiperspektivische Darstellung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle erg{\"a}nzt die gewohnte perspektivische Darstellung nahtlos um eine zweite Perspektive mit dem Ziel, den Informationsgehalt der Darstellung zu erh{\"o}hen. Diese Art der Darstellung ist durch die Panoramakarten von H. C. Berann inspiriert; Hauptproblem ist die {\"U}bertragung des multiperspektivischen Prinzips auf ein interaktives System. Die Arbeit stellt eine technische Umsetzung dieser Darstellung f{\"u}r 3D-Grafikhardware vor und demonstriert die Erweiterung von Vogel- und Fußg{\"a}ngerperspektive. Die hochqualitative Darstellung nichtlinearer Projektionen beschreibt deren Umsetzung auf 3D-Grafikhardware, wobei neben der Bildwiederholrate die Bildqualit{\"a}t das wesentliche Entwicklungskriterium ist. Insbesondere erlauben die beiden vorgestellten Verfahren, dynamische Geometrieverfeinerung und st{\"u}ckweise perspektivische Projektionen, die uneingeschr{\"a}nkte Nutzung aller hardwareseitig verf{\"u}gbaren, qualit{\"a}tssteigernden Funktionen wie z.~B. Bildraumgradienten oder anisotroper Texturfilterung. Beide Verfahren sind generisch und unterst{\"u}tzen verschiedene Projektionstypen. Sie erm{\"o}glichen die anpassungsfreie Verwendung g{\"a}ngiger computergrafischer Effekte wie Stilisierungsverfahren oder prozeduraler Texturen f{\"u}r nichtlineare Projektionen bei optimaler Bildqualit{\"a}t. Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt wesentliche Technologien f{\"u}r die Verarbeitung virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle: Zum einen lassen sich mit den Ergebnissen der Arbeit Texturen f{\"u}r virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodelle automatisiert herstellen und als eigenst{\"a}ndige Attribute in das virtuelle 3D-Stadtmodell einf{\"u}gen. Somit tr{\"a}gt diese Arbeit dazu bei, die Herstellung und Fortf{\"u}hrung texturierter virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle zu verbessern. Zum anderen zeigt die Arbeit Varianten und technische L{\"o}sungen f{\"u}r neuartige Projektionstypen f{\"u}r virtueller 3D-Stadtmodelle in interaktiven Visualisierungen. Solche nichtlinearen Projektionen stellen Schl{\"u}sselbausteine dar, um neuartige Benutzungsschnittstellen f{\"u}r und Interaktionsformen mit virtuellen 3D-Stadtmodellen zu erm{\"o}glichen, insbesondere f{\"u}r mobile Ger{\"a}te und immersive Umgebungen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Kluth2011, author = {Kluth, Stephan}, title = {Quantitative modeling and analysis with FMC-QE}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-52987}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The modeling and evaluation calculus FMC-QE, the Fundamental Modeling Concepts for Quanti-tative Evaluation [1], extends the Fundamental Modeling Concepts (FMC) for performance modeling and prediction. In this new methodology, the hierarchical service requests are in the main focus, because they are the origin of every service provisioning process. Similar to physics, these service requests are a tuple of value and unit, which enables hierarchical service request transformations at the hierarchical borders and therefore the hierarchical modeling. Through reducing the model complexity of the models by decomposing the system in different hierarchical views, the distinction between operational and control states and the calculation of the performance values on the assumption of the steady state, FMC-QE has a scalable applica-bility on complex systems. According to FMC, the system is modeled in a 3-dimensional hierarchical representation space, where system performance parameters are described in three arbitrarily fine-grained hierarchi-cal bipartite diagrams. The hierarchical service request structures are modeled in Entity Relationship Diagrams. The static server structures, divided into logical and real servers, are de-scribed as Block Diagrams. The dynamic behavior and the control structures are specified as Petri Nets, more precisely Colored Time Augmented Petri Nets. From the structures and pa-rameters of the performance model, a hierarchical set of equations is derived. The calculation of the performance values is done on the assumption of stationary processes and is based on fundamental laws of the performance analysis: Little's Law and the Forced Traffic Flow Law. Little's Law is used within the different hierarchical levels (horizontal) and the Forced Traffic Flow Law is the key to the dependencies among the hierarchical levels (vertical). This calculation is suitable for complex models and allows a fast (re-)calculation of different performance scenarios in order to support development and configuration decisions. Within the Research Group Zorn at the Hasso Plattner Institute, the work is embedded in a broader research in the development of FMC-QE. While this work is concentrated on the theoretical background, description and definition of the methodology as well as the extension and validation of the applicability, other topics are in the development of an FMC-QE modeling and evaluation tool and the usage of FMC-QE in the design of an adaptive transport layer in order to fulfill Quality of Service and Service Level Agreements in volatile service based environments. This thesis contains a state-of-the-art, the description of FMC-QE as well as extensions of FMC-QE in representative general models and case studies. In the state-of-the-art part of the thesis in chapter 2, an overview on existing Queueing Theory and Time Augmented Petri Net models and other quantitative modeling and evaluation languages and methodologies is given. Also other hierarchical quantitative modeling frameworks will be considered. The description of FMC-QE in chapter 3 consists of a summary of the foundations of FMC-QE, basic definitions, the graphical notations, the FMC-QE Calculus and the modeling of open queueing networks as an introductory example. The extensions of FMC-QE in chapter 4 consist of the integration of the summation method in order to support the handling of closed networks and the modeling of multiclass and semaphore scenarios. Furthermore, FMC-QE is compared to other performance modeling and evaluation approaches. In the case study part in chapter 5, proof-of-concept examples, like the modeling of a service based search portal, a service based SAP NetWeaver application and the Axis2 Web service framework will be provided. Finally, conclusions are given by a summary of contributions and an outlook on future work in chapter 6. [1] Werner Zorn. FMC-QE - A New Approach in Quantitative Modeling. In Hamid R. Arabnia, editor, Procee-dings of the International Conference on Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Methods (MSV 2007) within WorldComp '07, pages 280 - 287, Las Vegas, NV, USA, June 2007. CSREA Press. ISBN 1-60132-029-9.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brauer2010, author = {Brauer, Falk}, title = {Extraktion und Identifikation von Entit{\"a}ten in Textdaten im Umfeld der Enterprise Search}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51409}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Die automatische Informationsextraktion (IE) aus unstrukturierten Texten erm{\"o}glicht v{\"o}llig neue Wege, auf relevante Informationen zuzugreifen und deren Inhalte zu analysieren, die weit {\"u}ber bisherige Verfahren zur Stichwort-basierten Dokumentsuche hinausgehen. Die Entwicklung von Programmen zur Extraktion von maschinenlesbaren Daten aus Texten erfordert jedoch nach wie vor die Entwicklung von dom{\"a}nenspezifischen Extraktionsprogrammen. Insbesondere im Bereich der Enterprise Search (der Informationssuche im Unternehmensumfeld), in dem eine große Menge von heterogenen Dokumenttypen existiert, ist es oft notwendig ad-hoc Programm-module zur Extraktion von gesch{\"a}ftsrelevanten Entit{\"a}ten zu entwickeln, die mit generischen Modulen in monolithischen IE-Systemen kombiniert werden. Dieser Umstand ist insbesondere kritisch, da potentiell f{\"u}r jeden einzelnen Anwendungsfall ein von Grund auf neues IE-System entwickelt werden muss. Die vorliegende Dissertation untersucht die effiziente Entwicklung und Ausf{\"u}hrung von IE-Systemen im Kontext der Enterprise Search und effektive Methoden zur Ausnutzung bekannter strukturierter Daten im Unternehmenskontext f{\"u}r die Extraktion und Identifikation von gesch{\"a}ftsrelevanten Entit{\"a}ten in Doku-menten. Grundlage der Arbeit ist eine neuartige Plattform zur Komposition von IE-Systemen auf Basis der Beschreibung des Datenflusses zwischen generischen und anwendungsspezifischen IE-Modulen. Die Plattform unterst{\"u}tzt insbesondere die Entwicklung und Wiederverwendung von generischen IE-Modulen und zeichnet sich durch eine h{\"o}here Flexibilit{\"a}t und Ausdrucksm{\"a}chtigkeit im Vergleich zu vorherigen Methoden aus. Ein in der Dissertation entwickeltes Verfahren zur Dokumentverarbeitung interpretiert den Daten-austausch zwischen IE-Modulen als Datenstr{\"o}me und erm{\"o}glicht damit eine weitgehende Parallelisierung von einzelnen Modulen. Die autonome Ausf{\"u}hrung der Module f{\"u}hrt zu einer wesentlichen Beschleu-nigung der Verarbeitung von Einzeldokumenten und verbesserten Antwortzeiten, z. B. f{\"u}r Extraktions-dienste. Bisherige Ans{\"a}tze untersuchen lediglich die Steigerung des durchschnittlichen Dokumenten-durchsatzes durch verteilte Ausf{\"u}hrung von Instanzen eines IE-Systems. Die Informationsextraktion im Kontext der Enterprise Search unterscheidet sich z. B. von der Extraktion aus dem World Wide Web dadurch, dass in der Regel strukturierte Referenzdaten z. B. in Form von Unternehmensdatenbanken oder Terminologien zur Verf{\"u}gung stehen, die oft auch die Beziehungen von Entit{\"a}ten beschreiben. Entit{\"a}ten im Unternehmensumfeld haben weiterhin bestimmte Charakteristiken: Eine Klasse von relevanten Entit{\"a}ten folgt bestimmten Bildungsvorschriften, die nicht immer bekannt sind, auf die aber mit Hilfe von bekannten Beispielentit{\"a}ten geschlossen werden kann, so dass unbekannte Entit{\"a}ten extrahiert werden k{\"o}nnen. Die Bezeichner der anderen Klasse von Entit{\"a}ten haben eher umschreibenden Charakter. Die korrespondierenden Umschreibungen in Texten k{\"o}nnen variieren, wodurch eine Identifikation derartiger Entit{\"a}ten oft erschwert wird. Zur effizienteren Entwicklung von IE-Systemen wird in der Dissertation ein Verfahren untersucht, das alleine anhand von Beispielentit{\"a}ten effektive Regul{\"a}re Ausdr{\"u}cke zur Extraktion von unbekannten Entit{\"a}ten erlernt und damit den manuellen Aufwand in derartigen Anwendungsf{\"a}llen minimiert. Verschiedene Generalisierungs- und Spezialisierungsheuristiken erkennen Muster auf verschiedenen Abstraktionsebenen und schaffen dadurch einen Ausgleich zwischen Genauigkeit und Vollst{\"a}ndigkeit bei der Extraktion. Bekannte Regellernverfahren im Bereich der Informationsextraktion unterst{\"u}tzen die beschriebenen Problemstellungen nicht, sondern ben{\"o}tigen einen (annotierten) Dokumentenkorpus. Eine Methode zur Identifikation von Entit{\"a}ten, die durch Graph-strukturierte Referenzdaten vordefiniert sind, wird als dritter Schwerpunkt untersucht. Es werden Verfahren konzipiert, welche {\"u}ber einen exakten Zeichenkettenvergleich zwischen Text und Referenzdatensatz hinausgehen und Teil{\"u}bereinstimmungen und Beziehungen zwischen Entit{\"a}ten zur Identifikation und Disambiguierung heranziehen. Das in der Arbeit vorgestellte Verfahren ist bisherigen Ans{\"a}tzen hinsichtlich der Genauigkeit und Vollst{\"a}ndigkeit bei der Identifikation {\"u}berlegen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Blum2010, author = {Blum, Niklas}, title = {Formalization of a converged internet and telecommunications service environment}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51146}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {The programmable network envisioned in the 1990s within standardization and research for the Intelligent Network is currently coming into reality using IPbased Next Generation Networks (NGN) and applying Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) principles for service creation, execution, and hosting. SOA is the foundation for both next-generation telecommunications and middleware architectures, which are rapidly converging on top of commodity transport services. Services such as triple/quadruple play, multimedia messaging, and presence are enabled by the emerging service-oriented IPMultimedia Subsystem (IMS), and allow telecommunications service providers to maintain, if not improve, their position in the marketplace. SOA becomes the de facto standard in next-generation middleware systems as the system model of choice to interconnect service consumers and providers within and between enterprises. We leverage previous research activities in overlay networking technologies along with recent advances in network abstraction, service exposure, and service creation to develop a paradigm for a service environment providing converged Internet and Telecommunications services that we call Service Broker. Such a Service Broker provides mechanisms to combine and mediate between different service paradigms from the two domains Internet/WWW and telecommunications. Furthermore, it enables the composition of services across these domains and is capable of defining and applying temporal constraints during creation and execution time. By adding network-awareness into the service fabric, such a Service Broker may also act as a next generation network-to-service element allowing the composition of crossdomain and cross-layer network and service resources. The contribution of this research is threefold: first, we analyze and classify principles and technologies from Information Technologies (IT) and telecommunications to identify and discuss issues allowing cross-domain composition in a converging service layer. Second, we discuss service composition methods allowing the creation of converged services on an abstract level; in particular, we present a formalized method for model-checking of such compositions. Finally, we propose a Service Broker architecture converging Internet and Telecom services. This environment enables cross-domain feature interaction in services through formalized obligation policies acting as constraints during service discovery, creation, and execution time.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wang2011, author = {Wang, Long}, title = {X-tracking the usage interest on web sites}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-51077}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {The exponential expanding of the numbers of web sites and Internet users makes WWW the most important global information resource. From information publishing and electronic commerce to entertainment and social networking, the Web allows an inexpensive and efficient access to the services provided by individuals and institutions. The basic units for distributing these services are the web sites scattered throughout the world. However, the extreme fragility of web services and content, the high competence between similar services supplied by different sites, and the wide geographic distributions of the web users drive the urgent requirement from the web managers to track and understand the usage interest of their web customers. This thesis, "X-tracking the Usage Interest on Web Sites", aims to fulfill this requirement. "X" stands two meanings: one is that the usage interest differs from various web sites, and the other is that usage interest is depicted from multi aspects: internal and external, structural and conceptual, objective and subjective. "Tracking" shows that our concentration is on locating and measuring the differences and changes among usage patterns. This thesis presents the methodologies on discovering usage interest on three kinds of web sites: the public information portal site, e-learning site that provides kinds of streaming lectures and social site that supplies the public discussions on IT issues. On different sites, we concentrate on different issues related with mining usage interest. The educational information portal sites were the first implementation scenarios on discovering usage patterns and optimizing the organization of web services. In such cases, the usage patterns are modeled as frequent page sets, navigation paths, navigation structures or graphs. However, a necessary requirement is to rebuild the individual behaviors from usage history. We give a systematic study on how to rebuild individual behaviors. Besides, this thesis shows a new strategy on building content clusters based on pair browsing retrieved from usage logs. The difference between such clusters and the original web structure displays the distance between the destinations from usage side and the expectations from design side. Moreover, we study the problem on tracking the changes of usage patterns in their life cycles. The changes are described from internal side integrating conceptual and structure features, and from external side for the physical features; and described from local side measuring the difference between two time spans, and global side showing the change tendency along the life cycle. A platform, Web-Cares, is developed to discover the usage interest, to measure the difference between usage interest and site expectation and to track the changes of usage patterns. E-learning site provides the teaching materials such as slides, recorded lecture videos and exercise sheets. We focus on discovering the learning interest on streaming lectures, such as real medias, mp4 and flash clips. Compared to the information portal site, the usage on streaming lectures encapsulates the variables such as viewing time and actions during learning processes. The learning interest is discovered in the form of answering 6 questions, which covers finding the relations between pieces of lectures and the preference among different forms of lectures. We prefer on detecting the changes of learning interest on the same course from different semesters. The differences on the content and structure between two courses leverage the changes on the learning interest. We give an algorithm on measuring the difference on learning interest integrated with similarity comparison between courses. A search engine, TASK-Moniminer, is created to help the teacher query the learning interest on their streaming lectures on tele-TASK site. Social site acts as an online community attracting web users to discuss the common topics and share their interesting information. Compared to the public information portal site and e-learning web site, the rich interactions among users and web content bring the wider range of content quality, on the other hand, provide more possibilities to express and model usage interest. We propose a framework on finding and recommending high reputation articles in a social site. We observed that the reputation is classified into global and local categories; the quality of the articles having high reputation is related with the content features. Based on these observations, our framework is implemented firstly by finding the articles having global or local reputation, and secondly clustering articles based on their content relations, and then the articles are selected and recommended from each cluster based on their reputation ranks.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Awad2010, author = {Awad, Ahmed Mahmoud Hany Aly}, title = {A compliance management framework for business process models}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-49222}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Companies develop process models to explicitly describe their business operations. In the same time, business operations, business processes, must adhere to various types of compliance requirements. Regulations, e.g., Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002, internal policies, best practices are just a few sources of compliance requirements. In some cases, non-adherence to compliance requirements makes the organization subject to legal punishment. In other cases, non-adherence to compliance leads to loss of competitive advantage and thus loss of market share. Unlike the classical domain-independent behavioral correctness of business processes, compliance requirements are domain-specific. Moreover, compliance requirements change over time. New requirements might appear due to change in laws and adoption of new policies. Compliance requirements are offered or enforced by different entities that have different objectives behind these requirements. Finally, compliance requirements might affect different aspects of business processes, e.g., control flow and data flow. As a result, it is infeasible to hard-code compliance checks in tools. Rather, a repeatable process of modeling compliance rules and checking them against business processes automatically is needed. This thesis provides a formal approach to support process design-time compliance checking. Using visual patterns, it is possible to model compliance requirements concerning control flow, data flow and conditional flow rules. Each pattern is mapped into a temporal logic formula. The thesis addresses the problem of consistency checking among various compliance requirements, as they might stem from divergent sources. Also, the thesis contributes to automatically check compliance requirements against process models using model checking. We show that extra domain knowledge, other than expressed in compliance rules, is needed to reach correct decisions. In case of violations, we are able to provide a useful feedback to the user. The feedback is in the form of parts of the process model whose execution causes the violation. In some cases, our approach is capable of providing automated remedy of the violation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ishebabi2010, author = {Ishebabi, Harold}, title = {Architecture synthesis for adaptive multiprocessor systems on chip}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-41316}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2010}, abstract = {This thesis presents methods for automated synthesis of flexible chip multiprocessor systems from parallel programs targeted at FPGAs to exploit both task-level parallelism and architecture customization. Automated synthesis is necessitated by the complexity of the design space. A detailed description of the design space is provided in order to determine which parameters should be modeled to facilitate automated synthesis by optimizing a cost function, the emphasis being placed on inclusive modeling of parameters from application, architectural and physical subspaces, as well as their joint coverage in order to avoid pre-constraining the design space. Given a parallel program and a set of an IP library, the automated synthesis problem is to simultaneously (i) select processors (ii) map and schedule tasks to them, and (iii) select one or several networks for inter-task communications such that design constraints and optimization objectives are met. The research objective in this thesis is to find a suitable model for automated synthesis, and to evaluate methods of using the model for architectural optimizations. Our contributions are a holistic approach for the design of such systems, corresponding models to facilitate automated synthesis, evaluation of optimization methods using state of the art integer linear and answer set programming, as well as the development of synthesis heuristics to solve runtime challenges.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Decker2009, author = {Decker, Gero}, title = {Design and analysis of process choreographies}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-40761}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2009}, abstract = {With the rise of electronic integration between organizations, the need for a precise specification of interaction behavior increases. Information systems, replacing interaction previously carried out by humans via phone, faxes and emails, require a precise specification for handling all possible situations. Such interaction behavior is described in process choreographies. Choreographies enumerate the roles involved, the allowed interactions, the message contents and the behavioral dependencies between interactions. Choreographies serve as interaction contract and are the starting point for adapting existing business processes and systems or for implementing new software components. As a thorough analysis and comparison of choreography modeling languages is missing in the literature, this thesis introduces a requirements framework for choreography languages and uses it for comparing current choreography languages. Language proposals for overcoming the limitations are given for choreography modeling on the conceptual and on the technical level. Using an interconnection modeling style, behavioral dependencies are defined on a per-role basis and different roles are interconnected using message flow. This thesis reveals a number of modeling "anti-patterns" for interconnection modeling, motivating further investigations on choreography languages following the interaction modeling style. Here, interactions are seen as atomic building blocks and the behavioral dependencies between them are defined globally. Two novel language proposals are put forward for this modeling style which have already influenced industrial standardization initiatives. While avoiding many of the pitfalls of interconnection modeling, new anomalies can arise in interaction models. A choreography might not be realizable, i.e. there does not exist a set of interacting roles that collectively realize the specified behavior. This thesis investigates different dimensions of realizability.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bickel2008, author = {Bickel, Steffen}, title = {Learning under differing training and test distributions}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-33331}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2008}, abstract = {One of the main problems in machine learning is to train a predictive model from training data and to make predictions on test data. Most predictive models are constructed under the assumption that the training data is governed by the exact same distribution which the model will later be exposed to. In practice, control over the data collection process is often imperfect. A typical scenario is when labels are collected by questionnaires and one does not have access to the test population. For example, parts of the test population are underrepresented in the survey, out of reach, or do not return the questionnaire. In many applications training data from the test distribution are scarce because they are difficult to obtain or very expensive. Data from auxiliary sources drawn from similar distributions are often cheaply available. This thesis centers around learning under differing training and test distributions and covers several problem settings with different assumptions on the relationship between training and test distributions-including multi-task learning and learning under covariate shift and sample selection bias. Several new models are derived that directly characterize the divergence between training and test distributions, without the intermediate step of estimating training and test distributions separately. The integral part of these models are rescaling weights that match the rescaled or resampled training distribution to the test distribution. Integrated models are studied where only one optimization problem needs to be solved for learning under differing distributions. With a two-step approximation to the integrated models almost any supervised learning algorithm can be adopted to biased training data. In case studies on spam filtering, HIV therapy screening, targeted advertising, and other applications the performance of the new models is compared to state-of-the-art reference methods.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Linckels2008, author = {Linckels, Serge}, title = {An e-librarian service : supporting explorative learning by a description logics based semantic retrieval tool}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-17452}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2008}, abstract = {Although educational content in electronic form is increasing dramatically, its usage in an educational environment is poor, mainly due to the fact that there is too much of (unreliable) redundant, and not relevant information. Finding appropriate answers is a rather difficult task being reliant on the user filtering of the pertinent information from the noise. Turning knowledge bases like the online tele-TASK archive into useful educational resources requires identifying correct, reliable, and "machine-understandable" information, as well as developing simple but efficient search tools with the ability to reason over this information. Our vision is to create an E-Librarian Service, which is able to retrieve multimedia resources from a knowledge base in a more efficient way than by browsing through an index, or by using a simple keyword search. In our E-Librarian Service, the user can enter his question in a very simple and human way; in natural language (NL). Our premise is that more pertinent results would be retrieved if the search engine understood the sense of the user's query. The returned results are then logical consequences of an inference rather than of keyword matchings. Our E-Librarian Service does not return the answer to the user's question, but it retrieves the most pertinent document(s), in which the user finds the answer to his/her question. Among all the documents that have some common information with the user query, our E-Librarian Service identifies the most pertinent match(es), keeping in mind that the user expects an exhaustive answer while preferring a concise answer with only little or no information overhead. Also, our E-Librarian Service always proposes a solution to the user, even if the system concludes that there is no exhaustive answer. Our E-Librarian Service was implemented prototypically in three different educational tools. A first prototype is CHESt (Computer History Expert System); it has a knowledge base with 300 multimedia clips that cover the main events in computer history. A second prototype is MatES (Mathematics Expert System); it has a knowledge base with 115 clips that cover the topic of fractions in mathematics for secondary school w.r.t. the official school programme. All clips were recorded mainly by pupils. The third and most advanced prototype is the "Lecture Butler's E-Librarain Service"; it has a Web service interface to respect a service oriented architecture (SOA), and was developed in the context of the Web-University project at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI). Two major experiments in an educational environment - at the Lyc{\´e}e Technique Esch/Alzette in Luxembourg - were made to test the pertinence and reliability of our E-Librarian Service as a complement to traditional courses. The first experiment (in 2005) was made with CHESt in different classes, and covered a single lesson. The second experiment (in 2006) covered a period of 6 weeks of intensive use of MatES in one class. There was no classical mathematics lesson where the teacher gave explanations, but the students had to learn in an autonomous and exploratory way. They had to ask questions to the E-Librarian Service just the way they would if there was a human teacher.}, subject = {Terminologische Logik}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weigend2007, author = {Weigend, Michael}, title = {Intuitive Modelle der Informatik}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-940793-08-9}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-15787}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {331}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Intuitive Modelle der Informatik sind gedankliche Vorstellungen {\"u}ber informatische Konzepte, die mit subjektiver Gewissheit verbunden sind. Menschen verwenden sie, wenn sie die Arbeitsweise von Computerprogrammen nachvollziehen oder anderen erkl{\"a}ren, die logische Korrektheit eines Programms pr{\"u}fen oder in einem kreativen Prozess selbst Programme entwickeln. Intuitive Modelle k{\"o}nnen auf verschiedene Weise repr{\"a}sentiert und kommuniziert werden, etwa verbal-abstrakt, durch ablauf- oder strukturorientierte Abbildungen und Filme oder konkrete Beispiele. Diskutiert werden in dieser Arbeit grundlegende intuitive Modelle f{\"u}r folgende inhaltliche Aspekte einer Programmausf{\"u}hrung: Allokation von Aktivit{\"a}t bei einer Programmausf{\"u}hrung, Benennung von Entit{\"a}ten, Daten, Funktionen, Verarbeitung, Kontrollstrukturen zur Steuerung von Programml{\"a}ufen, Rekursion, Klassen und Objekte. Mit Hilfe eines Systems von Online-Spielen, der Python Visual Sandbox, werden die psychische Realit{\"a}t verschiedener intuitiver Modelle bei Programmieranf{\"a}ngern nachgewiesen und fehlerhafte Anwendungen (Fehlvorstellungen) identifiziert.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Prohaska2007, author = {Prohaska, Steffen}, title = {Skeleton-based visualization of massive voxel objects with network-like architecture}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-14888}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {This work introduces novel internal and external memory algorithms for computing voxel skeletons of massive voxel objects with complex network-like architecture and for converting these voxel skeletons to piecewise linear geometry, that is triangle meshes and piecewise straight lines. The presented techniques help to tackle the challenge of visualizing and analyzing 3d images of increasing size and complexity, which are becoming more and more important in, for example, biological and medical research. Section 2.3.1 contributes to the theoretical foundations of thinning algorithms with a discussion of homotopic thinning in the grid cell model. The grid cell model explicitly represents a cell complex built of faces, edges, and vertices shared between voxels. A characterization of pairs of cells to be deleted is much simpler than characterizations of simple voxels were before. The grid cell model resolves topologically unclear voxel configurations at junctions and locked voxel configurations causing, for example, interior voxels in sets of non-simple voxels. A general conclusion is that the grid cell model is superior to indecomposable voxels for algorithms that need detailed control of topology. Section 2.3.2 introduces a noise-insensitive measure based on the geodesic distance along the boundary to compute two-dimensional skeletons. The measure is able to retain thin object structures if they are geometrically important while ignoring noise on the object's boundary. This combination of properties is not known of other measures. The measure is also used to guide erosion in a thinning process from the boundary towards lines centered within plate-like structures. Geodesic distance based quantities seem to be well suited to robustly identify one- and two-dimensional skeletons. Chapter 6 applies the method to visualization of bone micro-architecture. Chapter 3 describes a novel geometry generation scheme for representing voxel skeletons, which retracts voxel skeletons to piecewise linear geometry per dual cube. The generated triangle meshes and graphs provide a link to geometry processing and efficient rendering of voxel skeletons. The scheme creates non-closed surfaces with boundaries, which contain fewer triangles than a representation of voxel skeletons using closed surfaces like small cubes or iso-surfaces. A conclusion is that thinking specifically about voxel skeleton configurations instead of generic voxel configurations helps to deal with the topological implications. The geometry generation is one foundation of the applications presented in Chapter 6. Chapter 5 presents a novel external memory algorithm for distance ordered homotopic thinning. The presented method extends known algorithms for computing chamfer distance transformations and thinning to execute I/O-efficiently when input is larger than the available main memory. The applied block-wise decomposition schemes are quite simple. Yet it was necessary to carefully analyze effects of block boundaries to devise globally correct external memory variants of known algorithms. In general, doing so is superior to naive block-wise processing ignoring boundary effects. Chapter 6 applies the algorithms in a novel method based on confocal microscopy for quantitative study of micro-vascular networks in the field of microcirculation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Buchholz2006, author = {Buchholz, Henrik}, title = {Real-time visualization of 3D city models}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-13337}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {An increasing number of applications requires user interfaces that facilitate the handling of large geodata sets. Using virtual 3D city models, complex geospatial information can be communicated visually in an intuitive way. Therefore, real-time visualization of virtual 3D city models represents a key functionality for interactive exploration, presentation, analysis, and manipulation of geospatial data. This thesis concentrates on the development and implementation of concepts and techniques for real-time city model visualization. It discusses rendering algorithms as well as complementary modeling concepts and interaction techniques. Particularly, the work introduces a new real-time rendering technique to handle city models of high complexity concerning texture size and number of textures. Such models are difficult to handle by current technology, primarily due to two problems: - Limited texture memory: The amount of simultaneously usable texture data is limited by the memory of the graphics hardware. - Limited number of textures: Using several thousand different textures simultaneously causes significant performance problems due to texture switch operations during rendering. The multiresolution texture atlases approach, introduced in this thesis, overcomes both problems. During rendering, it permanently maintains a small set of textures that are sufficient for the current view and the screen resolution available. The efficiency of multiresolution texture atlases is evaluated in performance tests. To summarize, the results demonstrate that the following goals have been achieved: - Real-time rendering becomes possible for 3D scenes whose amount of texture data exceeds the main memory capacity. - Overhead due to texture switches is kept permanently low, so that the number of different textures has no significant effect on the rendering frame rate. Furthermore, this thesis introduces two new approaches for real-time city model visualization that use textures as core visualization elements: - An approach for visualization of thematic information. - An approach for illustrative visualization of 3D city models. Both techniques demonstrate that multiresolution texture atlases provide a basic functionality for the development of new applications and systems in the domain of city model visualization.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jiang2007, author = {Jiang, Chunyan}, title = {Multi-visualization and hybrid segmentation approaches within telemedicine framework}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-12829}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {The innovation of information techniques has changed many aspects of our life. In health care field, we can obtain, manage and communicate high-quality large volumetric image data by computer integrated devices, to support medical care. In this dissertation I propose several promising methods that could assist physicians in processing, observing and communicating the image data. They are included in my three research aspects: telemedicine integration, medical image visualization and image segmentation. And these methods are also demonstrated by the demo software that I developed. One of my research point focuses on medical information storage standard in telemedicine, for example DICOM, which is the predominant standard for the storage and communication of medical images. I propose a novel 3D image data storage method, which was lacking in current DICOM standard. I also created a mechanism to make use of the non-standard or private DICOM files. In this thesis I present several rendering techniques on medical image visualization to offer different display manners, both 2D and 3D, for example, cut through data volume in arbitrary degree, rendering the surface shell of the data, and rendering the semi-transparent volume of the data. A hybrid segmentation approach, designed for semi-automated segmentation of radiological image, such as CT, MRI, etc, is proposed in this thesis to get the organ or interested area from the image. This approach takes advantage of the region-based method and boundary-based methods. Three steps compose the hybrid approach: the first step gets coarse segmentation by fuzzy affinity and generates homogeneity operator; the second step divides the image by Voronoi Diagram and reclassifies the regions by the operator to refine segmentation from the previous step; the third step handles vague boundary by level set model. Topics for future research are mentioned in the end, including new supplement for DICOM standard for segmentation information storage, visualization of multimodal image information, and improvement of the segmentation approach to higher dimension.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Konczak2007, author = {Konczak, Kathrin}, title = {Preferences in answer set programming}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-12058}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2007}, abstract = {Answer Set Programming (ASP) emerged in the late 1990s as a new logic programming paradigm, having its roots in nonmonotonic reasoning, deductive databases, and logic programming with negation as failure. The basic idea of ASP is to represent a computational problem as a logic program whose answer sets correspond to solutions, and then to use an answer set solver for finding answer sets of the program. ASP is particularly suited for solving NP-complete search problems. Among these, we find applications to product configuration, diagnosis, and graph-theoretical problems, e.g. finding Hamiltonian cycles. On different lines of ASP research, many extensions of the basic formalism have been proposed. The most intensively studied one is the modelling of preferences in ASP. They constitute a natural and effective way of selecting preferred solutions among a plethora of solutions for a problem. For example, preferences have been successfully used for timetabling, auctioning, and product configuration. In this thesis, we concentrate on preferences within answer set programming. Among several formalisms and semantics for preference handling in ASP, we concentrate on ordered logic programs with the underlying D-, W-, and B-semantics. In this setting, preferences are defined among rules of a logic program. They select preferred answer sets among (standard) answer sets of the underlying logic program. Up to now, those preferred answer sets have been computed either via a compilation method or by meta-interpretation. Hence, the question comes up, whether and how preferences can be integrated into an existing ASP solver. To solve this question, we develop an operational graph-based framework for the computation of answer sets of logic programs. Then, we integrate preferences into this operational approach. We empirically observe that our integrative approach performs in most cases better than the compilation method or meta-interpretation. Another research issue in ASP are optimization methods that remove redundancies, as also found in database query optimizers. For these purposes, the rather recently suggested notion of strong equivalence for ASP can be used. If a program is strongly equivalent to a subprogram of itself, then one can always use the subprogram instead of the original program, a technique which serves as an effective optimization method. Up to now, strong equivalence has not been considered for logic programs with preferences. In this thesis, we tackle this issue and generalize the notion of strong equivalence to ordered logic programs. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the strong equivalence of two ordered logic programs. Furthermore, we provide program transformations for ordered logic programs and show in how far preferences can be simplified. Finally, we present two new applications for preferences within answer set programming. First, we define new procedures for group decision making, which we apply to the problem of scheduling a group meeting. As a second new application, we reconstruct a linguistic problem appearing in German dialects within ASP. Regarding linguistic studies, there is an ongoing debate about how unique the rule systems of language are in human cognition. The reconstruction of grammatical regularities with tools from computer science has consequences for this debate: if grammars can be modelled this way, then they share core properties with other non-linguistic rule systems.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Scholz2006, author = {Scholz, Matthias}, title = {Approaches to analyse and interpret biological profile data}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7839}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {Advances in biotechnologies rapidly increase the number of molecules of a cell which can be observed simultaneously. This includes expression levels of thousands or ten-thousands of genes as well as concentration levels of metabolites or proteins. Such Profile data, observed at different times or at different experimental conditions (e.g., heat or dry stress), show how the biological experiment is reflected on the molecular level. This information is helpful to understand the molecular behaviour and to identify molecules or combination of molecules that characterise specific biological condition (e.g., disease). This work shows the potentials of component extraction algorithms to identify the major factors which influenced the observed data. This can be the expected experimental factors such as the time or temperature as well as unexpected factors such as technical artefacts or even unknown biological behaviour. Extracting components means to reduce the very high-dimensional data to a small set of new variables termed components. Each component is a combination of all original variables. The classical approach for that purpose is the principal component analysis (PCA). It is shown that, in contrast to PCA which maximises the variance only, modern approaches such as independent component analysis (ICA) are more suitable for analysing molecular data. The condition of independence between components of ICA fits more naturally our assumption of individual (independent) factors which influence the data. This higher potential of ICA is demonstrated by a crossing experiment of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (Thale Cress). The experimental factors could be well identified and, in addition, ICA could even detect a technical artefact. However, in continuously observations such as in time experiments, the data show, in general, a nonlinear distribution. To analyse such nonlinear data, a nonlinear extension of PCA is used. This nonlinear PCA (NLPCA) is based on a neural network algorithm. The algorithm is adapted to be applicable to incomplete molecular data sets. Thus, it provides also the ability to estimate the missing data. The potential of nonlinear PCA to identify nonlinear factors is demonstrated by a cold stress experiment of Arabidopsis thaliana. The results of component analysis can be used to build a molecular network model. Since it includes functional dependencies it is termed functional network. Applied to the cold stress data, it is shown that functional networks are appropriate to visualise biological processes and thereby reveals molecular dynamics.}, subject = {Bioinformatik}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hu2006, author = {Hu, Ji}, title = {A virtual machine architecture for IT-security laboratories}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7818}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {This thesis discusses challenges in IT security education, points out a gap between e-learning and practical education, and presents a work to fill the gap. E-learning is a flexible and personalized alternative to traditional education. Nonetheless, existing e-learning systems for IT security education have difficulties in delivering hands-on experience because of the lack of proximity. Laboratory environments and practical exercises are indispensable instruction tools to IT security education, but security education in conventional computer laboratories poses particular problems such as immobility as well as high creation and maintenance costs. Hence, there is a need to effectively transform security laboratories and practical exercises into e-learning forms. In this thesis, we introduce the Tele-Lab IT-Security architecture that allows students not only to learn IT security principles, but also to gain hands-on security experience by exercises in an online laboratory environment. In this architecture, virtual machines are used to provide safe user work environments instead of real computers. Thus, traditional laboratory environments can be cloned onto the Internet by software, which increases accessibility to laboratory resources and greatly reduces investment and maintenance costs. Under the Tele-Lab IT-Security framework, a set of technical solutions is also proposed to provide effective functionalities, reliability, security, and performance. The virtual machines with appropriate resource allocation, software installation, and system configurations are used to build lightweight security laboratories on a hosting computer. Reliability and availability of laboratory platforms are covered by a virtual machine management framework. This management framework provides necessary monitoring and administration services to detect and recover critical failures of virtual machines at run time. Considering the risk that virtual machines can be misused for compromising production networks, we present a security management solution to prevent the misuse of laboratory resources by security isolation at the system and network levels. This work is an attempt to bridge the gap between e-learning/tele-teaching and practical IT security education. It is not to substitute conventional teaching in laboratories but to add practical features to e-learning. This thesis demonstrates the possibility to implement hands-on security laboratories on the Internet reliably, securely, and economically.}, subject = {Computersicherheit}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Huang2006, author = {Huang, Wanjun}, title = {Temporary binding for dynamic middleware construction and web services composition}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7672}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2006}, abstract = {With increasing number of applications in Internet and mobile environments, distributed software systems are demanded to be more powerful and flexible, especially in terms of dynamism and security. This dissertation describes my work concerning three aspects: dynamic reconfiguration of component software, security control on middleware applications, and web services dynamic composition. Firstly, I proposed a technology named Routing Based Workflow (RBW) to model the execution and management of collaborative components and realize temporary binding for component instances. The temporary binding means component instances are temporarily loaded into a created execution environment to execute their functions, and then are released to their repository after executions. The temporary binding allows to create an idle execution environment for all collaborative components, on which the change operations can be immediately carried out. The changes on execution environment will result in a new collaboration of all involved components, and also greatly simplifies the classical issues arising from dynamic changes, such as consistency preserving etc. To demonstrate the feasibility of RBW, I created a dynamic secure middleware system - the Smart Data Server Version 3.0 (SDS3). In SDS3, an open source implementation of CORBA is adopted and modified as the communication infrastructure, and three secure components managed by RBW, are created to enhance the security on the access of deployed applications. SDS3 offers multi-level security control on its applications from strategy control to application-specific detail control. For the management by RBW, the strategy control of SDS3 applications could be dynamically changed by reorganizing the collaboration of the three secure components. In addition, I created the Dynamic Services Composer (DSC) based on Apache open source projects, Apache Axis and WSIF. In DSC, RBW is employed to model the interaction and collaboration of web services and to enable the dynamic changes on the flow structure of web services. Finally, overall performance tests were made to evaluate the efficiency of the developed RBW and SDS3. The results demonstrated that temporary binding of component instances makes slight impacts on the execution efficiency of components, and the blackout time arising from dynamic changes can be extremely reduced in any applications.}, subject = {Middleware}, language = {en} }