Domain-specific Systems Research Articles

Guest Editors' Introduction: Special Section on Peer-to-Peer-Based Data Management

EER-TO-PEER (P2P) computing has attracted much attention from both the academic community and industry. This is fueled by the successful deployment and adoption of many domain specific P2P systems. For example, Freenet and Gnutella enable users to share any digital files (e.g., music files, video, images), Napster allows sharing of (mp3) music files, ICQ facilitates exchanges of personal messages, SETI@home makes computing cycles of participants available, and LOCKSS pools storage resources to archive document collections. In P2P systems, autonomous peers (computers) are treated as equals, i.e., perform the same functions. They can join and leave the system at any time. These peers pool together their resources (data, storage, computing cycles) to enable new capabilities greater than the sum of the parts. Data can be exchanged between peers directly and underutilized resources can be tapped. The potential of such a highly distributed and decentralized system is tremendous. Interestingly, existing P2P systems lack data management capabilities that are typically found in DBMS. Although research in distributed (and heterogenous) databases has been pursued for many years, the database community has not been as aggressive in enhancing P2P systems with data management capabilities. We would add that the current P2P paradigm offers challenges beyond what has been previously done in the distributed database context. To list a few, the system may scale to over thousands or tens of thousands of peers which existing techniques cannot adequately handle, the dynamism of the system raises issues of information quality (e.g., completeness, consistency) that have not been previously considered, and the trustworthiness of the participating peers poses security threats not seen before. This special section aims to bring together current research activities that address some of these problems. The section contains six papers covering topics on data integration, search, consistency, trust, and identity. We hope this section will whet the appetite of our community to pursue this exciting field further. In a peer-based data management system, it is practically impossible to construct a global schema that mediates semantic differences of shared data across a large number of autonomous peers. The first paper, “The Piazza Peer Data Management System” by Alon Y. Halevy, Zazhary G. Ives, Jayant Madhavan, Peter Mork, Dan Suciu, and Igor Tatarinov, proposes a solution to facilitate ad hoc, decentralized sharing and administration of data, and defining of semantic relationships. Every peer can contribute new data and relate the data to existing concepts and schemas and define new schemas for other peers to use as frame of reference for their queries. The paper also discusses query answering and optimization algorithms.

The encyclopedia of life project: Grid software and deployment

The ongoing global effort of genome sequencing is making large scale comparative proteomic analysis an intriguing task. The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL; http://eol.sdsc.edu) project aims to provide current functional and structural annotations for all available proteomes, a computational challenge never seen before in biology. Using an integrative genome annotation pipeline (iGAP), we have produced 3D models and functional annotations for more than 100 proteomes thus far. This process is greatly facilitated by grid compute resources, and especially by the development of grid application execution environment. AppLeS (Application-Level Scheduling) Parameter Sweep Template (APST) has been adopted by the EOL project as a mediator to grid middleware. APST has made the annotation process much more efficient, highly automated and scalable. Currently we are building a domain-specific bioinformatics workflow management system (BWMS) on top of APST, which further streamlines grid deployment of life science applications. With these developments in mind, we discuss some common problems and expectations of grid computing for high throughput proteomics.

SEMANTIC DEMENTIA WITH CATEGORY SPECIFICITY:ACOMPARATIVE CASE-SERIES STUDY

Patients with semantic dementia, the temporal variant of frontotemporal dementia, are relevant to both the neuroanatomical and neuropsychological debates in the category-specific literature. These patients present with a selective and progressive semantic deficit consequent on circumscribed atrophy of the inferolateral polar temporal lobes bilaterally, including the inferotemporal gyrus. In this study, a patient KH with a significant advantage for artefacts over living things was compared to five other semantic dementia patients with commensurate levels of semantic impairment. KH demonstrated a consistent category difference in favour of artefacts across all the expressive and receptive semantic tests. This difference was reliable even when familiarity, frequency, and other potential confounding factors were controlled. While KH demonstrated an association between poor knowledge of sensory attributes and a consistently greater impairment on living things than artefacts, the other patients did not. As observed in a number of previous studies, all five of the patients, contrasted to KH, exhibited an advantage for functional/associative over sensory attributes but without demonstrating the category-specific deficit that the sensory-functional theory (and the locus of their atrophy) might predict. The results of this and other studies are discussed in relation to four accounts of category specificity: the sensory-functional theory, domain-specific knowledge systems, intercorrelated features, and individual differences.

Mind, Self, and Personality: Dynamic Interactions From Late Childhood to Early Adulthood

This paper aims to integrate research on mind, personality, and self-development using a general model which hypothesizes that mind and personality are organized in 3 levels. The first level includes environment-oriented, domain-specific systems that specialize in the representation of and interaction with particular types of relationships in the environment in both the cognitive and the social realms. The second level comprises self-oriented monitoring and representation processes that build maps of the environment-oriented systems. Self and identity derive from the interaction between these 2 levels, which is subject to the constraints and the system's processing capacity at the successive ages. These constraints may be taken as the third level of the self. Efficiency in overcoming these constraints is determined by the self-oriented processes, generating feelings and self-representations of self-worth. These feelings are idiosyncratic, and function as a personal constant, which is applied on self-evaluation and self-representations. This constant is rescaled and differentiated with development. Thus, we have simultaneously both modular and transmodular constructs in the mind and the self, which change with relative independence of each other under the constraints of the general processing capabilities and the personal constant. A series of studies are presented to support this model, and its implications for life-span theories of development are discussed.

An integrated network management solution for multi-technology domain networks

In today's network, several transport technologies have to be managed to work in close conjunction. Until recently, service providers needed separate, single-vendor solutions or interfaces to manage these different technology areas. This letter proposes an integrated transport network management solution of domain-specific and inter-domain network management systems. Both are based on the same generic, component-based management system that features vendor-independent interfaces and dramatically reduces development efforts.

Cross-task portability of a broadcast news speech recognition system

This paper reports on experiments of porting the ITC-irst Italian broadcast news recognition system to two spontaneous dialogue domains. Porting was investigated by applying state-of-the-art adaptation methods on acoustic and language models, and by evaluating the trade-off between performance and required amount of task specific annotated data. The use of different levels of supervision for acoustic model adaptation was also studied. By employing 2 h of manually annotated speech, word error rates of 26.0% and 28.4% were achieved by the adapted systems. These results are to be compared with the performance of two domain specific baseline systems, 22.6% and 21.2%, respectively, which were developed on much more training data. Finally, a robust method is presented that allows to tune the insertion of spontaneous speech phenomena by the speech decoder.

Roots of social sensibility and neural function

We are social animals, with evolved mechanisms to discern the beliefs and desires of others. This social reason is linked to the concept of intentionality, the ability to attribute beliefs and desires to others. In this book Jay Schulkin explores social reason from philosophical, psychological, and cognitive neuroscientific perspectives. He argues for a pragmatist approach, in which the role of experience -- that is, interaction with others -- is central to any consideration of action in the social world. Unlike some philosophers of mind, Jay Schulkin considers social reason to be a real feature of the information processing system in the brain, in addition to a useful cognitive tool in predicting behavior. Throughout the book, he incorporates neurobiological evidence for a domain-specific system for social cognition. Topics covered include the centrality of intentional attribution to social cognition, the rise of cognitive science in the twentieth century, the functional argument for the role of experience, intentional understanding in nonhuman primates, theory of mind and natural kinds in children, autism as a disorder of theory of mind, and the integration of emotions into theory of mind.

Bridging the Gap Between Neuroimaging and Neuropsychology: Using Working Memory as a Case-Study

Neuropsychology and neuroimaging both provide information about the relationship between brain structure and function, and thus attempt to understand if the neural basis of cognition should benefit from converging results obtained across the two methods. However, serious attempts to integrate the two methodologies face several challenges, such as differences in basic paradigm designs. To illustrate these points, this article will review neuropsychological and neuroimaging research in the area of working memory. Points of discussion will include discrepancies between neuropsychological and neuroimaging evidence for domain-specific rehearsal systems, the role of left inferior parietal cortex in phonological storage, and the contributions of Brocas area and the cerebellum to articulatory rehearsal. Methodological factors and assumptions that may account for these discrepancies, and the steps that could be taken to overcome them, will be evaluated. The overall objective of this “case study” is to encourage neuroimagers and neuropsychologists to evaluate seriously the results obtained in both methodologies when formulating interpretations of their data and when designing new studies.

Are Working Memory Deficits in Readers with Learning Disabilities Hard to Change?

This study investigated whether changes in the working memory (WM) performance of readers with learning disabilities (LD) is related to a general or domain-specific system. The study compared readers with LD, chronologically age-matched (CA-M), and reading level-matched (RL-M) children's WM performance for phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information under initial (no probes or cues), gain (cues that bring performance to an asymptotic level), and maintenance (asymptotic conditions without cues) conditions. The main findings indicated that (a) CA-M children were superior in performance to readers with LD across initial, gain, and maintenance conditions, (b) readers with LD showed less change (as reflected in effect size scores, slopes for the quadratic curve) on both visual-spatial and verbal (phonological and semantic) WM tasks across gain and maintenance conditions than the CA-matched children, and (c) the performance of readers with LD was superior to the RL-M children's performance on initial conditions, but inferior on gain and maintenance conditions. Taken together, the results suggest that a general system moderated the changes in retrieval of phonological, visual-spatial, and semantic information in readers with LD.

A System for Evaluating Performance and Cost of SIMD Array Designs

SIMD arrays are likely to become increasingly important as coprocessors in domain specific systems as architects continue to leverage RAM technology in their design. The problem this work addresses is the efficient evaluation of SIMD arrays with respect to complex applications while accounting for operating frequency and chip area. The underlying issues include the size of the architecture space, the lack of portability of the test programs, and the inherent complexity of simulating up to hundreds of thousands of processing elements. The overall method we use is to combine architecture level and Electronic Design Automation (EDA) level modeling by using an EDA-based tool to calibrate architectural simulations. The resulting system retains much of the high throughput of the architecture level simulator but it also has accuracy similar to that of an early pass EDA synthesis and circuit simulation. The particular problem of computational cost of the architectural level simulation is addressed with a novel approach to trace-based simulation (we call it trace compilation), which we find to be one to two orders of magnitude faster than instruction level simulation while still retaining much of the accuracy of the model. Furthermore, traces must be generated for only a small fraction of the possible parameter combinations. Using trace compilation also addresses program portability by allowing the user to code in a single data parallel language with a single compiler, regardless of the target architecture. We have used our system to evaluate thousands of potential SIMD array designs with respect to real applications and present some sample results.

Semantic video indexing

Providing concept level access to video data requires, video management systems tailored to the domain of the data. Effective indexing and retrieval for high-level access mandates the use of domain knowledge. This paper proposes an approach based on the use of knowledge models to building domain specific video information systems. The key issues in such systems are identified and discussed.

Knowledge-based decision support by CRITIC

A knowledge-based diagnostic model which helps decisionmakers learn about hidden liabilities in their plan scenarios is developed in this paper. It offers critical opinions on plan deficiencies that may otherwise remain undetected. Decisionmakers preserve the freedom to explore solutions and retain the authority of making adjustments. This approach to human–computer interface design contributes to a more advanced domain-specific decision support system.

Making better, quicker, and wiser decisions with a decision facilitating and advising system

In this paper a decision facilitating and advising system (D-FAS), devised to help decisionmakers make quality fire-control preparation decisions in a North Carolina state park, is presented. This domain-specific decision support system provides assistance to decisionmakers that are at different levels of expertise and in various supporting needs. More specifically, as a facilitator, D-FAS increases the decisionmakers' accessibility to sophisticated decision strategies by making them as easy to employ as those simpler but less accurate methods that decisionmakers currently use; as an advisor, D-FAS minimizes uncertainties associated with the availability of expertise by systematically capturing decisionmakers' expertise and making it available to the novice and/or naive decisionmakers. Constructed on the basis of three mathematical techniques—the fuzzy relation, the α-level-set, and fuzzy composition—these capabilities are made feasible by the use of a computerized geographic information system.

Birds of a feather: The DODE and domain-specific software synthesis systems

Software synthesis techniques provide most, but not all, of the functionality in Fischer's DODE. Software synthesis is achievable and is best at the automation of repetitive activities, even when these activities are design. Software synthesis performs analysis and synthesis activities automatically in well-known domains, while in less well-known domains, software synthesis supports simulation activities for human cooperation. Software synthesis techniques support human cooperation by effectively evaluating different options within the design space. Current software synthesis architectures are well on their way towards instantiating Fischer's DODE design process.

The use of mathematical programming with artificial intelligence and expert systems

Researchers have developed artificially intelligent (AI) and expert systems (ES) to assist in the formulation, solution and interpretation of generic mathematical programs (MP). In addition, researchers also have built domain-specific systems either modeled around a mathematical program or which include a mathematical program module. In these systems, the specificity of the domain allows researchers to extend the interpretation or formulation beyond that available from the generic set of assumptions about mathematical programming. Further, researchers have begun to investigate the use of mathematical program formulations of expert systems. The purpose of their research has been to, e.g., understand the complexity of the expert systems and also to examine the feasibility of mathematical programming as an alternative solution methodology for those expert systems. This paper surveys and extends some of that literature that integrates AI/ES and MP, and elicits some of the current research issues of concern.

Synthesis of mathematical-modeling software

Sinapse, a knowledge-based, domain-specific system for synthesizing mathematical-modeling software, is discussed. Sinapse generates Fortran-77, Connection Machine Fortran, or C programs from specifications of mathematical equations and numerical methods. The synthesis process is divided into phases of refinement that attempt to duplicate the users' problem-solving processes in the design, implementation, and evolution states of mathematical modeling. These phases, with automated implementation, help modelers increase their productivity because they can write concise specifications and quickly experiment with variations on their models and algorithms by modifying specifications rather than implementations. >

¿Sabe geometría el martín pescador?: Hacia una concepción psicológica del conocimiento humano

The plausibility of cumputationaf.models as well as the structural view that try to describe human congnitive system are discussed in this essay. The goal is to bring up a formulation of the problem of knowledge beyond this two approaches. The context to do that are: 1. The evolutionary theory, 2. The Maturana and Varela's thesis (1990) which maintains that the organism and the physical reality are structurally coupled and 3. The analysis by Crick (1988) about the type of restrictions that both available brain data and the fact that humans are an evolutionary product, must pose into theories of the human cognitive system. First we have got question the computational analogy as a valid framework because its negative to consider the structural restrictions of the physical support of the cognitive system. Second: Maturana and Varela's thesis on that structure restricts and specify cognitive system is reiected. Third, a formulation of the problem of knowledge is presented. The last approach takes into account the structural restictions and, simultaneously, preserves the relevance of the· mental representations. So, this approach express a psychological conception of human knowledge, based upon the capacity of the structure to restrict, but not to specify, models of knowledge. This allows to formulate a response to the next answer: how to study mental functioning? The ma;or argument is that cognitive system is a set of domain-specific systems, that for the psychological mechanisms that cause individual differences.

A Review of Knowledge-Based Systems in Printed Circuit Board Assembly

A knowledge-based system (or an expert system) embodies a domain expert’s knowledge and problemsolving strategy. Domain specific knowledge-based systems formalise the complicated set of informal procedures understood by experts alone and make the expertise available to a wide range of people. Knowledgebased systems have been developed and used in fields as diverse as medicine, mineral exploration, and chemistry. They have been used in various engineering applications and extensively in manufacturing. This paper reviews the application of knowledge-based systems in the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) assembly domain. In keeping with the initial development of knowledgebased systems in the field of manufacturing, most of the current applications of knowledge-based systems in PCB assembly address issues related to process planning. This trend can be attributed to the diversity and short life cycles of electronic products, and shortage of human expertise. A few systems have been developed for PCB design. Developments in the field of electronics packaging and industry predictions lead us to believe that knowledge-based systems will be developed for many more applications within the field.

Tracing the linkages of world views, information handling, and communications vehicles

Too often, advocates of domain-specific belief systems overlook the implications of their beliefs when choosing communications technologies and strategies, although they rarely overlook the importance of content. This essay argues that both environmentalism and sustainable agriculture, as systems of belief, favor certain strategies of generating and distributing information over others; that is, the essay argues that both the content and form of communications imply certain value preferences, hence both are subject to value-relevant choices. An additional purpose of the essay is to set a context for this special edition of Agriculture and Human Values. Collectively the articles in this edition discuss a wide variety of issues, including but not limited to questions connected to information generation, access to information and information technologies, and the value systems conveyed by communications vehicles, including what is conveyed and different discussions of what should be conveyed. This essay looks at the importance of four sets of domain-specific value systems (environmentalism, sustainable agriculture, and the conventionalism counters to both of these) for two different sets of value systems connected to information generation, and further discusses each of these value sets in connection to choosing asymmetrical or symmetrical communications. It is hoped that this discussion of the flow of information, from generation to distribution, will provide a context for reading the edition as a whole.

The architecture and design of a collaborative environment for systems definition

Defining systems requirements and specifications is a collaborative effort among managers, users, and systems developers. The difficulty of systems definition is caused by the human's limited cognitive capabilities, that is compounded by the complexity of group communication and coordination processes. Current system analysis methodologies are first evaluated regarding to the level of support to users. Since systems definition is a knowledge-intensive activity, the knowledge contents and structures employed in systems definition are discussed. For any large-scale system, no one person possesses all the knowledge that is needed, therefore, the authors proposed a collaborative approach to systems definition. The use of a group decision support system (GDSS) for systems definition is first described and limitations of the current GDSS are identified. The architecture and design of a collaborative computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environment, called C-CASE, is then discussed. C-CASE can be used to assist users in defining the requirements of their organization and information systems as well as to analyze the consistency and completeness of the requirements. C-CASE integrates GDSS and CASE such that users can actively participate in the requirements elicitation process. Users can use the metasystem capability of C-CASE to define domain specific systems definition languages, which are adaptable to different systems development settings. An example of using C-CASE in a collaborative environment is given. The implications C-CASE and the authors' ongoing research are also discussed.