@phdthesis{Zoerner2021, author = {Zoerner, Dietmar}, title = {F{\"o}rderung von Aufmerksamkeit und Motivationserhalt durch digitale spielbasierte Lernsysteme mit spezifischer Eignung bei Autismus}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-52372}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-523725}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvi, 324}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Institutionelle Bildung ist f{\"u}r autistische Lernende mit vielgestaltigen und spezifischen Hindernissen verbunden. Dies gilt insbesondere im Zusammenhang mit Inklusion, deren Relevanz nicht zuletzt durch das {\"U}bereinkommen der Vereinten Nationen {\"u}ber die Rechte von Menschen mit Behinderung gegeben ist. Diese Arbeit diskutiert zahlreiche lernrelevante Besonderheiten im Kontext von Autismus und zeigt Diskrepanzen zu den nicht immer ausreichend angemessenen institutionellen Lehrkonzepten. Eine zentrale These ist hierbei, dass die ungew{\"o}hnlich intensive Aufmerksamkeit von Autist*innen f{\"u}r ihre Spezialinteressen daf{\"u}r genutzt werden kann, das Lernen mit fremdgestellten Inhalten zu erleichtern. Darauf aufbauend werden L{\"o}sungsans{\"a}tze diskutiert, welche in einem neuartigen Konzept f{\"u}r ein digitales mehrger{\"a}tebasiertes Lernspiel resultieren. Eine wesentliche Herausforderung bei der Konzeption spielbasierten Lernens besteht in der ad{\"a}quaten Einbindung von Lerninhalten in einen fesselnden narrativen Kontext. Am Beispiel von {\"U}bungen zur emotionalen Deutung von Mimik, welche f{\"u}r das Lernen von sozioemotionalen Kompetenzen besonders im Rahmen von Therapiekonzepten bei Autismus Verwendung finden, wird eine angemessene Narration vorgestellt, welche die st{\"o}rungsarme Einbindung dieser sehr speziellen Lerninhalte erm{\"o}glicht. Die Effekte der einzelnen Konzeptionselemente werden anhand eines prototypisch entwickelten Lernspiels untersucht. Darauf aufbauend zeigt eine quantitative Studie die gute Akzeptanz und Nutzerfreundlichkeit des Spiels und belegte vor allem die Verst{\"a}ndlichkeit der Narration und der Spielelemente. Ein weiterer Schwerpunkt liegt in der minimalinvasiven Untersuchung m{\"o}glicher St{\"o}rungen des Spielerlebnisses durch den Wechsel zwischen verschiedenen Endger{\"a}ten, f{\"u}r die ein innovatives Messverfahren entwickelt wurde. Im Ergebnis beleuchtet diese Arbeit die Bedeutung und die Grenzen von spielbasierten Ans{\"a}tzen f{\"u}r autistische Lernende. Ein großer Teil der vorgestellten Konzepte l{\"a}sst sich auf andersartige Lernszenarien {\"u}bertragen. Das daf{\"u}r entwickelte technische Framework zur Realisierung narrativer Lernpfade ist ebenfalls darauf vorbereitet, f{\"u}r weitere Lernszenarien, gerade auch im institutionellen Kontext, Verwendung zu finden.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Ziehe2005, author = {Ziehe, Andreas}, title = {Blind source separation based on joint diagonalization of matrices with applications in biomedical signal processing}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-5694}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {This thesis is concerned with the solution of the blind source separation problem (BSS). The BSS problem occurs frequently in various scientific and technical applications. In essence, it consists in separating meaningful underlying components out of a mixture of a multitude of superimposed signals. In the recent research literature there are two related approaches to the BSS problem: The first is known as Independent Component Analysis (ICA), where the goal is to transform the data such that the components become as independent as possible. The second is based on the notion of diagonality of certain characteristic matrices derived from the data. Here the goal is to transform the matrices such that they become as diagonal as possible. In this thesis we study the latter method of approximate joint diagonalization (AJD) to achieve a solution of the BSS problem. After an introduction to the general setting, the thesis provides an overview on particular choices for the set of target matrices that can be used for BSS by joint diagonalization. As the main contribution of the thesis, new algorithms for approximate joint diagonalization of several matrices with non-orthogonal transformations are developed. These newly developed algorithms will be tested on synthetic benchmark datasets and compared to other previous diagonalization algorithms. Applications of the BSS methods to biomedical signal processing are discussed and exemplified with real-life data sets of multi-channel biomagnetic recordings.}, subject = {Signaltrennung}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wist2011, author = {Wist, Dominic}, title = {Attacking complexity in logic synthesis of asynchronous circuits}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-59706}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Most of the microelectronic circuits fabricated today are synchronous, i.e. they are driven by one or several clock signals. Synchronous circuit design faces several fundamental challenges such as high-speed clock distribution, integration of multiple cores operating at different clock rates, reduction of power consumption and dealing with voltage, temperature, manufacturing and runtime variations. Asynchronous or clockless design plays a key role in alleviating these challenges, however the design and test of asynchronous circuits is much more difficult in comparison to their synchronous counterparts. A driving force for a widespread use of asynchronous technology is the availability of mature EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools which provide an entire automated design flow starting from an HDL (Hardware Description Language) specification yielding the final circuit layout. Even though there was much progress in developing such EDA tools for asynchronous circuit design during the last two decades, the maturity level as well as the acceptance of them is still not comparable with tools for synchronous circuit design. In particular, logic synthesis (which implies the application of Boolean minimisation techniques) for the entire system's control path can significantly improve the efficiency of the resulting asynchronous implementation, e.g. in terms of chip area and performance. However, logic synthesis, in particular for asynchronous circuits, suffers from complexity problems. Signal Transitions Graphs (STGs) are labelled Petri nets which are a widely used to specify the interface behaviour of speed independent (SI) circuits - a robust subclass of asynchronous circuits. STG decomposition is a promising approach to tackle complexity problems like state space explosion in logic synthesis of SI circuits. The (structural) decomposition of STGs is guided by a partition of the output signals and generates a usually much smaller component STG for each partition member, i.e. a component STG with a much smaller state space than the initial specification. However, decomposition can result in component STGs that in isolation have so-called irreducible CSC conflicts (i.e. these components are not SI synthesisable anymore) even if the specification has none of them. A new approach is presented to avoid such conflicts by introducing internal communication between the components. So far, STG decompositions are guided by the finest output partitions, i.e. one output per component. However, this might not yield optimal circuit implementations. Efficient heuristics are presented to determine coarser partitions leading to improved circuits in terms of chip area. For the new algorithms correctness proofs are given and their implementations are incorporated into the decomposition tool DESIJ. The presented techniques are successfully applied to some benchmarks - including 'real-life' specifications arising in the context of control resynthesis - which delivered promising results.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weise2021, author = {Weise, Matthias}, title = {Auswahl von Selektions- und Manipulationstechniken f{\"u}r Virtual Reality-Anwendungen}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-53458}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-534586}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {iii, 218}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Die stetige Weiterentwicklung von VR-Systemen bietet neue M{\"o}glichkeiten der Interaktion mit virtuellen Objekten im dreidimensionalen Raum, stellt Entwickelnde von VRAnwendungen aber auch vor neue Herausforderungen. Selektions- und Manipulationstechniken m{\"u}ssen unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung des Anwendungsszenarios, der Zielgruppe und der zur Verf{\"u}gung stehenden Ein- und Ausgabeger{\"a}te ausgew{\"a}hlt werden. Diese Arbeit leistet einen Beitrag dazu, die Auswahl von passenden Interaktionstechniken zu unterst{\"u}tzen. Hierf{\"u}r wurde eine repr{\"a}sentative Menge von Selektions- und Manipulationstechniken untersucht und, unter Ber{\"u}cksichtigung existierender Klassifikationssysteme, eine Taxonomie entwickelt, die die Analyse der Techniken hinsichtlich interaktionsrelevanter Eigenschaften erm{\"o}glicht. Auf Basis dieser Taxonomie wurden Techniken ausgew{\"a}hlt, die in einer explorativen Studie verglichen wurden, um R{\"u}ckschl{\"u}sse auf die Dimensionen der Taxonomie zu ziehen und neue Indizien f{\"u}r Vor- und Nachteile der Techniken in spezifischen Anwendungsszenarien zu generieren. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit m{\"u}nden in eine Webanwendung, die Entwickelnde von VR-Anwendungen gezielt dabei unterst{\"u}tzt, passende Selektions- und Manipulationstechniken f{\"u}r ein Anwendungsszenario auszuw{\"a}hlen, indem Techniken auf Basis der Taxonomie gefiltert und unter Verwendung der Resultate aus der Studie sortiert werden k{\"o}nnen.}, language = {de} } @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{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{Videla2014, author = {Videla, Santiago}, title = {Reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks with answer set programming}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-71890}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Deciphering the functioning of biological networks is one of the central tasks in systems biology. In particular, signal transduction networks are crucial for the understanding of the cellular response to external and internal perturbations. Importantly, in order to cope with the complexity of these networks, mathematical and computational modeling is required. We propose a computational modeling framework in order to achieve more robust discoveries in the context of logical signaling networks. More precisely, we focus on modeling the response of logical signaling networks by means of automated reasoning using Answer Set Programming (ASP). ASP provides a declarative language for modeling various knowledge representation and reasoning problems. Moreover, available ASP solvers provide several reasoning modes for assessing the multitude of answer sets. Therefore, leveraging its rich modeling language and its highly efficient solving capacities, we use ASP to address three challenging problems in the context of logical signaling networks: learning of (Boolean) logical networks, experimental design, and identification of intervention strategies. Overall, the contribution of this thesis is three-fold. Firstly, we introduce a mathematical framework for characterizing and reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks. Secondly, we contribute to a growing list of successful applications of ASP in systems biology. Thirdly, we present a software providing a complete pipeline for automated reasoning on the response of logical signaling networks.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Trapp2013, author = {Trapp, Matthias}, title = {Interactive rendering techniques for focus+context visualization of 3D geovirtual environments}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-66824}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This thesis introduces a collection of new real-time rendering techniques and applications for focus+context visualization of interactive 3D geovirtual environments such as virtual 3D city and landscape models. These environments are generally characterized by a large number of objects and are of high complexity with respect to geometry and textures. For these reasons, their interactive 3D rendering represents a major challenge. Their 3D depiction implies a number of weaknesses such as occlusions, cluttered image contents, and partial screen-space usage. To overcome these limitations and, thus, to facilitate the effective communication of geo-information, principles of focus+context visualization can be used for the design of real-time 3D rendering techniques for 3D geovirtual environments (see Figure). In general, detailed views of a 3D geovirtual environment are combined seamlessly with abstracted views of the context within a single image. To perform the real-time image synthesis required for interactive visualization, dedicated parallel processors (GPUs) for rasterization of computer graphics primitives are used. For this purpose, the design and implementation of appropriate data structures and rendering pipelines are necessary. The contribution of this work comprises the following five real-time rendering methods: • The rendering technique for 3D generalization lenses enables the combination of different 3D city geometries (e.g., generalized versions of a 3D city model) in a single image in real time. The method is based on a generalized and fragment-precise clipping approach, which uses a compressible, raster-based data structure. It enables the combination of detailed views in the focus area with the representation of abstracted variants in the context area. • The rendering technique for the interactive visualization of dynamic raster data in 3D geovirtual environments facilitates the rendering of 2D surface lenses. It enables a flexible combination of different raster layers (e.g., aerial images or videos) using projective texturing for decoupling image and geometry data. Thus, various overlapping and nested 2D surface lenses of different contents can be visualized interactively. • The interactive rendering technique for image-based deformation of 3D geovirtual environments enables the real-time image synthesis of non-planar projections, such as cylindrical and spherical projections, as well as multi-focal 3D fisheye-lenses and the combination of planar and non-planar projections. • The rendering technique for view-dependent multi-perspective views of 3D geovirtual environments, based on the application of global deformations to the 3D scene geometry, can be used for synthesizing interactive panorama maps to combine detailed views close to the camera (focus) with abstract views in the background (context). This approach reduces occlusions, increases the usage the available screen space, and reduces the overload of image contents. • The object-based and image-based rendering techniques for highlighting objects and focus areas inside and outside the view frustum facilitate preattentive perception. The concepts and implementations of interactive image synthesis for focus+context visualization and their selected applications enable a more effective communication of spatial information, and provide building blocks for design and development of new applications and systems in the field of 3D geovirtual environments.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Thiele2011, author = {Thiele, Sven}, title = {Modeling biological systems with Answer Set Programming}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-59383}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Biology has made great progress in identifying and measuring the building blocks of life. The availability of high-throughput methods in molecular biology has dramatically accelerated the growth of biological knowledge for various organisms. The advancements in genomic, proteomic and metabolomic technologies allow for constructing complex models of biological systems. An increasing number of biological repositories is available on the web, incorporating thousands of biochemical reactions and genetic regulations. Systems Biology is a recent research trend in life science, which fosters a systemic view on biology. In Systems Biology one is interested in integrating the knowledge from all these different sources into models that capture the interaction of these entities. By studying these models one wants to understand the emerging properties of the whole system, such as robustness. However, both measurements as well as biological networks are prone to considerable incompleteness, heterogeneity and mutual inconsistency, which makes it highly non-trivial to draw biologically meaningful conclusions in an automated way. Therefore, we want to promote Answer Set Programming (ASP) as a tool for discrete modeling in Systems Biology. ASP is a declarative problem solving paradigm, in which a problem is encoded as a logic program such that its answer sets represent solutions to the problem. ASP has intrinsic features to cope with incompleteness, offers a rich modeling language and highly efficient solving technology. We present ASP solutions, for the analysis of genetic regulatory networks, determining consistency with observed measurements and identifying minimal causes for inconsistency. We extend this approach for computing minimal repairs on model and data that restore consistency. This method allows for predicting unobserved data even in case of inconsistency. Further, we present an ASP approach to metabolic network expansion. This approach exploits the easy characterization of reachability in ASP and its various reasoning methods, to explore the biosynthetic capabilities of metabolic reaction networks and generate hypotheses for extending the network. Finally, we present the BioASP library, a Python library which encapsulates our ASP solutions into the imperative programming paradigm. The library allows for an easy integration of ASP solution into system rich environments, as they exist in Systems Biology.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Smirnov2011, author = {Smirnov, Sergey}, title = {Business process model abstraction}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-60258}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2011}, abstract = {Business process models are used within a range of organizational initiatives, where every stakeholder has a unique perspective on a process and demands the respective model. As a consequence, multiple process models capturing the very same business process coexist. Keeping such models in sync is a challenge within an ever changing business environment: once a process is changed, all its models have to be updated. Due to a large number of models and their complex relations, model maintenance becomes error-prone and expensive. Against this background, business process model abstraction emerged as an operation reducing the number of stored process models and facilitating model management. Business process model abstraction is an operation preserving essential process properties and leaving out insignificant details in order to retain information relevant for a particular purpose. Process model abstraction has been addressed by several researchers. The focus of their studies has been on particular use cases and model transformations supporting these use cases. This thesis systematically approaches the problem of business process model abstraction shaping the outcome into a framework. We investigate the current industry demand in abstraction summarizing it in a catalog of business process model abstraction use cases. The thesis focuses on one prominent use case where the user demands a model with coarse-grained activities and overall process ordering constraints. We develop model transformations that support this use case starting with the transformations based on process model structure analysis. Further, abstraction methods considering the semantics of process model elements are investigated. First, we suggest how semantically related activities can be discovered in process models-a barely researched challenge. The thesis validates the designed abstraction methods against sets of industrial process models and discusses the method implementation aspects. Second, we develop a novel model transformation, which combined with the related activity discovery allows flexible non-hierarchical abstraction. In this way this thesis advocates novel model transformations that facilitate business process model management and provides the foundations for innovative tool support.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Seuring2000, author = {Seuring, Markus}, title = {Output space compaction for testing and concurrent checking}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-0000165}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2000}, abstract = {In der Dissertation werden neue Entwurfsmethoden f{\"u}r Kompaktoren f{\"u}r die Ausg{\"a}nge von digitalen Schaltungen beschrieben, die die Anzahl der zu testenden Ausg{\"a}nge drastisch verkleinern und dabei die Testbarkeit der Schaltungen nur wenig oder gar nicht verschlechtern. Der erste Teil der Arbeit behandelt f{\"u}r kombinatorische Schaltungen Methoden, die die Struktur der Schaltungen beim Entwurf der Kompaktoren ber{\"u}cksichtigen. Verschiedene Algorithmen zur Analyse von Schaltungsstrukturen werden zum ersten Mal vorgestellt und untersucht. Die Komplexit{\"a}t der vorgestellten Verfahren zur Erzeugung von Kompaktoren ist linear bez{\"u}glich der Anzahl der Gatter in der Schaltung und ist damit auf sehr große Schaltungen anwendbar. Im zweiten Teil wird erstmals ein solches Verfahren f{\"u}r sequentielle Schaltkreise beschrieben. Dieses Verfahren baut im wesentlichen auf das erste auf. Der dritte Teil beschreibt eine Entwurfsmethode, die keine Informationen {\"u}ber die interne Struktur der Schaltung oder {\"u}ber das zugrundeliegende Fehlermodell ben{\"o}tigt. Der Entwurf basiert alleine auf einem vorgegebenen Satz von Testvektoren und die dazugeh{\"o}renden Testantworten der fehlerfreien Schaltung. Ein nach diesem Verfahren erzeugter Kompaktor maskiert keinen der Fehler, die durch das Testen mit den vorgegebenen Vektoren an den Ausg{\"a}ngen der Schaltung beobachtbar sind.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Semmo2016, author = {Semmo, Amir}, title = {Design and implementation of non-photorealistic rendering techniques for 3D geospatial data}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-99525}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XVI, 155}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Geospatial data has become a natural part of a growing number of information systems and services in the economy, society, and people's personal lives. In particular, virtual 3D city and landscape models constitute valuable information sources within a wide variety of applications such as urban planning, navigation, tourist information, and disaster management. Today, these models are often visualized in detail to provide realistic imagery. However, a photorealistic rendering does not automatically lead to high image quality, with respect to an effective information transfer, which requires important or prioritized information to be interactively highlighted in a context-dependent manner. Approaches in non-photorealistic renderings particularly consider a user's task and camera perspective when attempting optimal expression, recognition, and communication of important or prioritized information. However, the design and implementation of non-photorealistic rendering techniques for 3D geospatial data pose a number of challenges, especially when inherently complex geometry, appearance, and thematic data must be processed interactively. Hence, a promising technical foundation is established by the programmable and parallel computing architecture of graphics processing units. This thesis proposes non-photorealistic rendering techniques that enable both the computation and selection of the abstraction level of 3D geospatial model contents according to user interaction and dynamically changing thematic information. To achieve this goal, the techniques integrate with hardware-accelerated rendering pipelines using shader technologies of graphics processing units for real-time image synthesis. The techniques employ principles of artistic rendering, cartographic generalization, and 3D semiotics—unlike photorealistic rendering—to synthesize illustrative renditions of geospatial feature type entities such as water surfaces, buildings, and infrastructure networks. In addition, this thesis contributes a generic system that enables to integrate different graphic styles—photorealistic and non-photorealistic—and provide their seamless transition according to user tasks, camera view, and image resolution. Evaluations of the proposed techniques have demonstrated their significance to the field of geospatial information visualization including topics such as spatial perception, cognition, and mapping. In addition, the applications in illustrative and focus+context visualization have reflected their potential impact on optimizing the information transfer regarding factors such as cognitive load, integration of non-realistic information, visualization of uncertainty, and visualization on small displays.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Seibel2012, author = {Seibel, Andreas}, title = {Traceability and model management with executable and dynamic hierarchical megamodels}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64222}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2012}, abstract = {Nowadays, model-driven engineering (MDE) promises to ease software development by decreasing the inherent complexity of classical software development. In order to deliver on this promise, MDE increases the level of abstraction and automation, through a consideration of domain-specific models (DSMs) and model operations (e.g. model transformations or code generations). DSMs conform to domain-specific modeling languages (DSMLs), which increase the level of abstraction, and model operations are first-class entities of software development because they increase the level of automation. Nevertheless, MDE has to deal with at least two new dimensions of complexity, which are basically caused by the increased linguistic and technological heterogeneity. The first dimension of complexity is setting up an MDE environment, an activity comprised of the implementation or selection of DSMLs and model operations. Setting up an MDE environment is both time-consuming and error-prone because of the implementation or adaptation of model operations. The second dimension of complexity is concerned with applying MDE for actual software development. Applying MDE is challenging because a collection of DSMs, which conform to potentially heterogeneous DSMLs, are required to completely specify a complex software system. A single DSML can only be used to describe a specific aspect of a software system at a certain level of abstraction and from a certain perspective. Additionally, DSMs are usually not independent but instead have inherent interdependencies, reflecting (partial) similar aspects of a software system at different levels of abstraction or from different perspectives. A subset of these dependencies are applications of various model operations, which are necessary to keep the degree of automation high. This becomes even worse when addressing the first dimension of complexity. Due to continuous changes, all kinds of dependencies, including the applications of model operations, must also be managed continuously. This comprises maintaining the existence of these dependencies and the appropriate (re-)application of model operations. The contribution of this thesis is an approach that combines traceability and model management to address the aforementioned challenges of configuring and applying MDE for software development. The approach is considered as a traceability approach because it supports capturing and automatically maintaining dependencies between DSMs. The approach is considered as a model management approach because it supports managing the automated (re-)application of heterogeneous model operations. In addition, the approach is considered as a comprehensive model management. Since the decomposition of model operations is encouraged to alleviate the first dimension of complexity, the subsequent composition of model operations is required to counteract their fragmentation. A significant portion of this thesis concerns itself with providing a method for the specification of decoupled yet still highly cohesive complex compositions of heterogeneous model operations. The approach supports two different kinds of compositions - data-flow compositions and context compositions. Data-flow composition is used to define a network of heterogeneous model operations coupled by sharing input and output DSMs alone. Context composition is related to a concept used in declarative model transformation approaches to compose individual model transformation rules (units) at any level of detail. In this thesis, context composition provides the ability to use a collection of dependencies as context for the composition of other dependencies, including model operations. In addition, the actual implementation of model operations, which are going to be composed, do not need to implement any composition concerns. The approach is realized by means of a formalism called an executable and dynamic hierarchical megamodel, based on the original idea of megamodels. This formalism supports specifying compositions of dependencies (traceability and model operations). On top of this formalism, traceability is realized by means of a localization concept, and model management by means of an execution concept.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schumacher2017, author = {Schumacher, Kinga}, title = {Hybride semantische Suche - eine Kombination aus Fakten- und Dokumentretrieval}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-405973}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 187}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Das Thema der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die semantische Suche im Kontext heutiger Informationsmanagementsysteme. Zu diesen Systemen z{\"a}hlen Intranets, Web 3.0-Anwendungen sowie viele Webportale, die Informationen in heterogenen Formaten und Strukturen beinhalten. Auf diesen befinden sich einerseits Daten in strukturierter Form und andererseits Dokumente, die inhaltlich mit diesen Daten in Beziehung stehen. Diese Dokumente sind jedoch in der Regel nur teilweise strukturiert oder vollst{\"a}ndig unstrukturiert. So beschreiben beispielsweise Reiseportale durch strukturierte Daten den Zeitraum, das Reiseziel, den Preis einer Reise und geben in unstrukturierter Form weitere Informationen, wie Beschreibungen zum Hotel, Zielort, Ausflugsziele an. Der Fokus heutiger semantischer Suchmaschinen liegt auf dem Finden von Wissen entweder in strukturierter Form, auch Faktensuche genannt, oder in semi- bzw. unstrukturierter Form, was {\"u}blicherweise als semantische Dokumentensuche bezeichnet wird. Einige wenige Suchmaschinen versuchen die L{\"u}cke zwischen diesen beiden Ans{\"a}tzen zu schließen. Diese durchsuchen zwar gleichzeitig strukturierte sowie unstrukturierte Daten, werten diese jedoch entweder weitgehend voneinander unabh{\"a}ngig aus oder schr{\"a}nken die Suchm{\"o}glichkeiten stark ein, indem sie beispielsweise nur bestimmte Fragemuster unterst{\"u}tzen. Hierdurch werden die im System verf{\"u}gbaren Informationen nicht ausgesch{\"o}pft und gleichzeitig unterbunden, dass Zusammenh{\"a}nge zwischen einzelnen Inhalten der jeweiligen Informationssysteme und sich erg{\"a}nzende Informationen den Benutzer erreichen.
 Um diese L{\"u}cke zu schließen, wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit ein neuer hybrider semantischer Suchansatz entwickelt und untersucht, der strukturierte und semi- bzw. unstrukturierte Inhalte w{\"a}hrend des gesamten Suchprozesses kombiniert. Durch diesen Ansatz werden nicht nur sowohl Fakten als auch Dokumente gefunden, es werden auch Zusammenh{\"a}nge, die zwischen den unterschiedlich strukturierten Daten bestehen, in jeder Phase der Suche genutzt und fließen in die Suchergebnisse mit ein. Liegt die Antwort zu einer Suchanfrage nicht vollst{\"a}ndig strukturiert, in Form von Fakten, oder unstrukturiert, in Form von Dokumenten vor, so liefert dieser Ansatz eine Kombination der beiden. Die Ber{\"u}cksichtigung von unterschiedlich Inhalten w{\"a}hrend des gesamten Suchprozesses stellt jedoch besondere Herausforderungen an die Suchmaschine. Diese muss in der Lage sein, Fakten und Dokumente in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit voneinander zu durchsuchen, sie zu kombinieren sowie die unterschiedlich strukturierten Ergebnisse in eine geeignete Rangordnung zu bringen. Weiterhin darf die Komplexit{\"a}t der Daten nicht an die Endnutzer weitergereicht werden. Die Darstellung der Inhalte muss vielmehr sowohl bei der Anfragestellung als auch bei der Darbietung der Ergebnisse verst{\"a}ndlich und leicht interpretierbar sein. Die zentrale Fragestellung der Arbeit ist, ob ein hybrider Ansatz auf einer vorgegebenen Datenbasis die Suchanfragen besser beantworten kann als die semantische Dokumentensuche und die Faktensuche f{\"u}r sich genommen, bzw. als eine Suche die diese Ans{\"a}tze im Rahmen des Suchprozesses nicht kombiniert. Die durchgef{\"u}hrten Evaluierungen aus System- und aus Benutzersicht zeigen, dass die im Rahmen der Arbeit entwickelte hybride semantische Suchl{\"o}sung durch die Kombination von strukturierten und unstrukturierten Inhalten im Suchprozess bessere Antworten liefert als die oben genannten Verfahren und somit Vorteile gegen{\"u}ber bisherigen Ans{\"a}tzen bietet. Eine Befragung von Benutzern macht deutlich, dass die hybride semantische Suche als verst{\"a}ndlich empfunden und f{\"u}r heterogen strukturierte Datenmengen bevorzugt wird.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{SchulzHanke2023, author = {Schulz-Hanke, Christian}, title = {BCH Codes mit kombinierter Korrektur und Erkennung}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-61794}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-617943}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ii, 191}, year = {2023}, abstract = {BCH Codes mit kombinierter Korrektur und Erkennung In dieser Arbeit wird auf Grundlage des BCH Codes untersucht, wie eine Fehlerkorrektur mit einer Erkennung h{\"o}herer Fehleranzahlen kombiniert werden kann. Mit dem Verfahren der 1-Bit Korrektur mit zus{\"a}tzlicher Erkennung h{\"o}herer Fehler wurde ein Ansatz entwickelt, welcher die Erkennung zus{\"a}tzlicher Fehler durch das parallele L{\"o}sen einfacher Gleichungen der Form s_x = s_1^x durchf{\"u}hrt. Die Anzahl dieser Gleichungen ist linear zu der Anzahl der zu {\"u}berpr{\"u}fenden h{\"o}heren Fehler. In dieser Arbeit wurde zus{\"a}tzlich f{\"u}r bis zu 4-Bit Korrekturen mit zus{\"a}tzlicher Erkennung h{\"o}herer Fehler ein weiterer allgemeiner Ansatz vorgestellt. Dabei werden parallel f{\"u}r alle korrigierbaren Fehleranzahlen spekulative Fehlerkorrekturen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Aus den bestimmten Fehlerstellen werden spekulative Syndromkomponenten erzeugt, durch welche die Fehlerstellen best{\"a}tigt und h{\"o}here erkennbare Fehleranzahlen ausgeschlossen werden k{\"o}nnen. Die vorgestellten Ans{\"a}tze unterscheiden sich von dem in entwickelten Ansatz, bei welchem die Anzahl der Fehlerstellen durch die Berechnung von Determinanten in absteigender Reihenfolge berechnet wird, bis die erste Determinante 0 bildet. Bei dem bekannten Verfahren ist durch die Berechnung der Determinanten eine faktorielle Anzahl an Berechnungen in Relation zu der Anzahl zu {\"u}berpr{\"u}fender Fehler durchzuf{\"u}hren. Im Vergleich zu dem bekannten sequentiellen Verfahrens nach Berlekamp Massey besitzen die Berechnungen im vorgestellten Ansatz simple Gleichungen und k{\"o}nnen parallel durchgef{\"u}hrt werden.Bei dem bekannten Verfahren zur parallelen Korrektur von 4-Bit Fehlern ist eine Gleichung vierten Grades im GF(2^m) zu l{\"o}sen. Dies erfolgt, indem eine Hilfsgleichung dritten Grades und vier Gleichungen zweiten Grades parallel gel{\"o}st werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde gezeigt, dass sich eine Gleichung zweiten Grades einsparen l{\"a}sst, wodurch sich eine Vereinfachung der Hardware bei einer parallelen Realisierung der 4-Bit Korrektur ergibt. Die erzielten Ergebnisse wurden durch umfangreiche Simulationen in Software und Hardwareimplementierungen {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Schrape2023, author = {Schrape, Oliver}, title = {Methodology for standard cell-based design and implementation of reliable and robust hardware systems}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58932}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-589326}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 181}, year = {2023}, abstract = {Reliable and robust data processing is one of the hardest requirements for systems in fields such as medicine, security, automotive, aviation, and space, to prevent critical system failures caused by changes in operating or environmental conditions. In particular, Signal Integrity (SI) effects such as crosstalk may distort the signal information in sensitive mixed-signal designs. A challenge for hardware systems used in the space are radiation effects. Namely, Single Event Effects (SEEs) induced by high-energy particle hits may lead to faulty computation, corrupted configuration settings, undesired system behavior, or even total malfunction. Since these applications require an extra effort in design and implementation, it is beneficial to master the standard cell design process and corresponding design flow methodologies optimized for such challenges. Especially for reliable, low-noise differential signaling logic such as Current Mode Logic (CML), a digital design flow is an orthogonal approach compared to traditional manual design. As a consequence, mandatory preliminary considerations need to be addressed in more detail. First of all, standard cell library concepts with suitable cell extensions for reliable systems and robust space applications have to be elaborated. Resulting design concepts at the cell level should enable the logical synthesis for differential logic design or improve the radiation-hardness. In parallel, the main objectives of the proposed cell architectures are to reduce the occupied area, power, and delay overhead. Second, a special setup for standard cell characterization is additionally required for a proper and accurate logic gate modeling. Last but not least, design methodologies for mandatory design flow stages such as logic synthesis and place and route need to be developed for the respective hardware systems to keep the reliability or the radiation-hardness at an acceptable level. This Thesis proposes and investigates standard cell-based design methodologies and techniques for reliable and robust hardware systems implemented in a conventional semi-conductor technology. The focus of this work is on reliable differential logic design and robust radiation-hardening-by-design circuits. The synergistic connections of the digital design flow stages are systematically addressed for these two types of hardware systems. In more detail, a library for differential logic is extended with single-ended pseudo-gates for intermediate design steps to support the logic synthesis and layout generation with commercial Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools. Special cell layouts are proposed to relax signal routing. A library set for space applications is similarly extended by novel Radiation-Hardening-by-Design (RHBD) Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) cells, enabling a one fault correction. Therein, additional optimized architectures for glitch filter cells, robust scannable and self-correcting flip-flops, and clock-gates are proposed. The circuit concepts and the physical layout representation views of the differential logic gates and the RHBD cells are discussed. However, the quality of results of designs depends implicitly on the accuracy of the standard cell characterization which is examined for both types therefore. The entire design flow is elaborated from the hardware design description to the layout representations. A 2-Phase routing approach together with an intermediate design conversion step is proposed after the initial place and route stage for reliable, pure differential designs, whereas a special constraining for RHBD applications in a standard technology is presented. The digital design flow for differential logic design is successfully demonstrated on a reliable differential bipolar CML application. A balanced routing result of its differential signal pairs is obtained by the proposed 2-Phase-routing approach. Moreover, the elaborated standard cell concepts and design methodology for RHBD circuits are applied to the digital part of a 7.5-15.5 MSPS 14-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) and a complex microcontroller architecture. The ADC is implemented in an unhardened standard semiconductor technology and successfully verified by electrical measurements. The overhead of the proposed hardening approach is additionally evaluated by design exploration of the microcontroller application. Furthermore, the first obtained related measurement results of novel RHBD-∆TMR flip-flops show a radiation-tolerance up to a threshold Linear Energy Transfer (LET) of 46.1, 52.0, and 62.5 MeV cm2 mg-1 and savings in silicon area of 25-50 \% for selected TMR standard cell candidates. As a conclusion, the presented design concepts at the cell and library levels, as well as the design flow modifications are adaptable and transferable to other technology nodes. In particular, the design of hybrid solutions with integrated reliable differential logic modules together with robust radiation-tolerant circuit parts is enabled by the standard cell concepts and design methods proposed in this work.}, 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{Schneider2019, author = {Schneider, Jan Niklas}, title = {Computational approaches for emotion research}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-45927}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-459275}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xv, 145}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Emotionen sind ein zentrales Element menschlichen Erlebens und spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Entscheidungsfindung. Diese Dissertation identifiziert drei methodische Probleme der aktuellen Emotionsforschung und zeigt auf, wie diese mittels computergest{\"u}tzter Methoden gel{\"o}st werden k{\"o}nnen. Dieser Ansatz wird in drei Forschungsprojekten demonstriert, die die Entwicklung solcher Methoden sowie deren Anwendung auf konkrete Forschungsfragen beschreiben. Das erste Projekt beschreibt ein Paradigma welches es erm{\"o}glicht, die subjektive und objektive Schwierigkeit der Emotionswahrnehmung zu messen. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus erm{\"o}glicht es die Verwendung einer beliebigen Anzahl von Emotionskategorien im Vergleich zu den {\"u}blichen sechs Kategorien der Basisemotionen. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf eine Zunahme der Schwierigkeiten bei der Wahrnehmung von Emotionen mit zunehmendem Alter der Darsteller hin und liefern Hinweise darauf, dass junge Erwachsene, {\"a}ltere Menschen und M{\"a}nner ihre Schwierigkeit bei der Wahrnehmung von Emotionen untersch{\"a}tzen. Weitere Analysen zeigten eine geringe Relevanz personenbezogener Variablen und deuteten darauf hin, dass die Schwierigkeit der Emotionswahrnehmung vornehmlich durch die Auspr{\"a}gung der Wertigkeit des Ausdrucks bestimmt wird. Das zweite Projekt zeigt am Beispiel von Arousal, einem etablierten, aber vagen Konstrukt der Emotionsforschung, wie Face-Tracking-Daten dazu genutzt werden k{\"o}nnen solche Konstrukte zu sch{\"a}rfen. Es beschreibt, wie aus Face-Tracking-Daten Maße f{\"u}r die Entfernung, Geschwindigkeit und Beschleunigung von Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cken berechnet werden k{\"o}nnen. Das Projekt untersuchte wie diesen Maße mit der Arousal-Wahrnehmung in Menschen mit und ohne Autismus zusammenh{\"a}ngen. Der Abstand zum Neutralgesicht war pr{\"a}diktiv f{\"u}r die Arousal-Bewertungen in beiden Gruppen. Die Ergebnisse deuten auf eine qualitativ {\"a}hnliche Wahrnehmung von Arousal f{\"u}r Menschen mit und ohne Autismus hin. Im dritten Projekt stellen wir die Partial-Least-Squares-Analyse als allgemeine Methode vor, um eine optimale Repr{\"a}sentation zur Verkn{\"u}pfung zweier hochdimensionale Datens{\"a}tze zu finden. Das Projekt demonstriert die Anwendbarkeit dieser Methode in der Emotionsforschung anhand der Frage nach Unterschieden in der Emotionswahrnehmung zwischen M{\"a}nnern und Frauen. Wir konnten zeigen, dass die emotionale Wahrnehmung von Frauen systematisch mehr Varianz der Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke erfasst und dass signifikante Unterschiede in der Art und Weise bestehen, wie Frauen und M{\"a}nner einige Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke wahrnehmen. Diese konnten wir als dynamische Gesichtsausdr{\"u}cke visualisieren. Um die Anwendung der entwickelten Methode f{\"u}r die Forschungsgemeinschaft zu erleichtern, wurde ein Software-Paket f{\"u}r die Statistikumgebung R geschrieben. Zudem wurde eine Website entwickelt (thisemotiondoesnotexist.com), die es Besuchern erlaubt, ein Partial-Least-Squares-Modell von Emotionsbewertungen und Face-Tracking-Daten interaktiv zu erkunden, um die entwickelte Methode zu verbreiten und ihren Nutzen f{\"u}r die Emotionsforschung zu illustrieren.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Scheffler2013, author = {Scheffler, Thomas}, title = {Privacy enforcement with data owner-defined policies}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-67939}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2013}, abstract = {This thesis proposes a privacy protection framework for the controlled distribution and use of personal private data. The framework is based on the idea that privacy policies can be set directly by the data owner and can be automatically enforced against the data user. Data privacy continues to be a very important topic, as our dependency on electronic communication maintains its current growth, and private data is shared between multiple devices, users and locations. The growing amount and the ubiquitous availability of personal private data increases the likelihood of data misuse. Early privacy protection techniques, such as anonymous email and payment systems have focused on data avoidance and anonymous use of services. They did not take into account that data sharing cannot be avoided when people participate in electronic communication scenarios that involve social interactions. This leads to a situation where data is shared widely and uncontrollably and in most cases the data owner has no control over further distribution and use of personal private data. Previous efforts to integrate privacy awareness into data processing workflows have focused on the extension of existing access control frameworks with privacy aware functions or have analysed specific individual problems such as the expressiveness of policy languages. So far, very few implementations of integrated privacy protection mechanisms exist and can be studied to prove their effectiveness for privacy protection. Second level issues that stem from practical application of the implemented mechanisms, such as usability, life-time data management and changes in trustworthiness have received very little attention so far, mainly because they require actual implementations to be studied. Most existing privacy protection schemes silently assume that it is the privilege of the data user to define the contract under which personal private data is released. Such an approach simplifies policy management and policy enforcement for the data user, but leaves the data owner with a binary decision to submit or withhold his or her personal data based on the provided policy. We wanted to empower the data owner to express his or her privacy preferences through privacy policies that follow the so-called Owner-Retained Access Control (ORAC) model. ORAC has been proposed by McCollum, et al. as an alternate access control mechanism that leaves the authority over access decisions by the originator of the data. The data owner is given control over the release policy for his or her personal data, and he or she can set permissions or restrictions according to individually perceived trust values. Such a policy needs to be expressed in a coherent way and must allow the deterministic policy evaluation by different entities. The privacy policy also needs to be communicated from the data owner to the data user, so that it can be enforced. Data and policy are stored together as a Protected Data Object that follows the Sticky Policy paradigm as defined by Mont, et al. and others. We developed a unique policy combination approach that takes usability aspects for the creation and maintenance of policies into consideration. Our privacy policy consists of three parts: A Default Policy provides basic privacy protection if no specific rules have been entered by the data owner. An Owner Policy part allows the customisation of the default policy by the data owner. And a so-called Safety Policy guarantees that the data owner cannot specify disadvantageous policies, which, for example, exclude him or her from further access to the private data. The combined evaluation of these three policy-parts yields the necessary access decision. The automatic enforcement of privacy policies in our protection framework is supported by a reference monitor implementation. We started our work with the development of a client-side protection mechanism that allows the enforcement of data-use restrictions after private data has been released to the data user. The client-side enforcement component for data-use policies is based on a modified Java Security Framework. Privacy policies are translated into corresponding Java permissions that can be automatically enforced by the Java Security Manager. When we later extended our work to implement server-side protection mechanisms, we found several drawbacks for the privacy enforcement through the Java Security Framework. We solved this problem by extending our reference monitor design to use Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) and the Java Reflection API to intercept data accesses in existing applications and provide a way to enforce data owner-defined privacy policies for business applications.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sawade2012, author = {Sawade, Christoph}, title = {Active evaluation of predictive models}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-255-1}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-65583}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 157}, year = {2012}, abstract = {The field of machine learning studies algorithms that infer predictive models from data. Predictive models are applicable for many practical tasks such as spam filtering, face and handwritten digit recognition, and personalized product recommendation. In general, they are used to predict a target label for a given data instance. In order to make an informed decision about the deployment of a predictive model, it is crucial to know the model's approximate performance. To evaluate performance, a set of labeled test instances is required that is drawn from the distribution the model will be exposed to at application time. In many practical scenarios, unlabeled test instances are readily available, but the process of labeling them can be a time- and cost-intensive task and may involve a human expert. This thesis addresses the problem of evaluating a given predictive model accurately with minimal labeling effort. We study an active model evaluation process that selects certain instances of the data according to an instrumental sampling distribution and queries their labels. We derive sampling distributions that minimize estimation error with respect to different performance measures such as error rate, mean squared error, and F-measures. An analysis of the distribution that governs the estimator leads to confidence intervals, which indicate how precise the error estimation is. Labeling costs may vary across different instances depending on certain characteristics of the data. For instance, documents differ in their length, comprehensibility, and technical requirements; these attributes affect the time a human labeler needs to judge relevance or to assign topics. To address this, the sampling distribution is extended to incorporate instance-specific costs. We empirically study conditions under which the active evaluation processes are more accurate than a standard estimate that draws equally many instances from the test distribution. We also address the problem of comparing the risks of two predictive models. The standard approach would be to draw instances according to the test distribution, label the selected instances, and apply statistical tests to identify significant differences. Drawing instances according to an instrumental distribution affects the power of a statistical test. We derive a sampling procedure that maximizes test power when used to select instances, and thereby minimizes the likelihood of choosing the inferior model. Furthermore, we investigate the task of comparing several alternative models; the objective of an evaluation could be to rank the models according to the risk that they incur or to identify the model with lowest risk. An experimental study shows that the active procedure leads to higher test power than the standard test in many application domains. Finally, we study the problem of evaluating the performance of ranking functions, which are used for example for web search. In practice, ranking performance is estimated by applying a given ranking model to a representative set of test queries and manually assessing the relevance of all retrieved items for each query. We apply the concepts of active evaluation and active comparison to ranking functions and derive optimal sampling distributions for the commonly used performance measures Discounted Cumulative Gain and Expected Reciprocal Rank. Experiments on web search engine data illustrate significant reductions in labeling costs.}, language = {en} }