The most dominant architecture in the contemporary business domain is Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). The large number of the existing service description and discovery systems available today, including the ones proposed in research proposals, reveals an increasing need for adaptive, semantically enriched and context-aware, wide-area service discovery. This need will become more intense in the years to come as the number of available services increases rapidly. The main reason behind the existence of a plethora of such systems is that before these initiatives, the standard in service discovery was taking into account only the syntactic descriptions of the services, causing conflicts when services, with similar syntactic descriptions, needed to be evaluated. The research solutions available today offer efficient and accurate discovery at the syntactic, functional semantic and non-functional semantic level. However, the problem is that there is no general consensus yet regarding service discovery. Research by its very nature, leads to point solutions rather than complete systems. Based on these observations, we propose an adaptive service description and discovery framework for carrier applications, enabling the model-driven specification of services and client profiles, and also, for allowing the dynamic configuration of the services to meet specific quality requirements defined by the clients. The framework was implemented in the context of Model Driven Development, to ensure platform independence at the level of the specification of services. The framework takes the union of the point solutions offered by research proposals in the area of service description and discovery, creates an abstract model, and can compile that model to platform specific code. More specifically, services for carrier applications can be specified in a platform independent way both in terms of service signatures (syntactic properties) and in terms of the functionality and the QoS service characteristics (semantic properties). A model transformation framework allows for the creation of a platform specific model for the description of services in a specific technology platform (e.g., Web services). The framework is extensible to accommodate future extensions. In addition, as a proof of concept, we designed and developed an Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) prototype tool, implementing our proposal.

Indexing data for efficient search capabilities is a core problem in many domains of computer science. As applications centered around semantic data sources become more common, the need for more sophisticated indexing and querying capabilities arises. In particular, the need to search for specific information in the presence of a terminology or ontology (i.e. a set of logic based rules that describe concepts and their relations) becomes of particular importance, as the information a user seeks may exists as an entailment of the explicit data by means of the terminology. This variant on traditional indexing and search problems forms the foundation of a range of possible technologies for semantic data. In this work, we propose an ordering language for specifying partial orders over semantic data items modeled as descriptions in a description logic. We then show how these orderings can be used as the basis of a search tree index for processing \emph{concept searches} in the presence of a terminology. We study in detail the properties of the orderings and the associated index structure, and also explore a relationship between ordering descriptions called \emph{order refinement}. A sound and complete procedure for deciding refinement is given. We also empirically evaluate a prototype implementation of our index structure, validating its potential efficacy in semantic query problems.

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) are a classification of chronic of illnesses in which the immune system mistakes healthy cells for foreign invaders and attacks the body’s own tissues or organs. They are unique in that the diagnosis of one AD makes the individual more susceptible to developing other ADs, and the symptoms of one AD, influence the disease activity of the others. Disease activity may also be influenced by a mind-body connection due to the relationship between stress and the immune system. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence to generate new knowledge and expand our understanding of how individuals diagnosed with multiple ADs are living well. The methodology of interpretive description guided analysis. Five women with their ages ranging from early twenties to late seventies who were diagnosed with two or more ADs participated. The participants’ experiences were illuminated through semi-structured interviews. Four major interconnected themes and 13 sub-themes emerged. They discussed their challenges and successes, their attitudes towards their illnesses, and how they managed living with multiple ADs. The knowledge of the importance of a holistic lens through which to view healthcare provides important insights for those working in physical or mental health settings.

We consider the overlap between reasoning involved in <em>conjunctive query optimization</em> (CQO) and in tableaux-based approaches to reasoning about subsumption in <em>description logics</em> (DLs). In both cases, an underlying graph is created, searched and modified. This process is determined by a given <em>query</em> and <em>database schema</em> in the first case and by a given <em>description</em> and <em>terminology</em> in the second. The opportunities for overlap derive from an abundance of reductions of various schema languages to terminologies for common DL dialects, and from the fact that descriptions can in turn be viewed as queries that compute a single column. <br /><br /> Our main contributions are as follows. We present the design and implementation of a common graph utility that integrates the requirements for both CQO and DL reasoning. We then verify this model by also presenting the design and implementation for two drivers, one that implements a query optimizer for a conjunctive query language extended with descriptions, and one that implements a complete DL reasoner for a feature based DL dialect.

Indexing data for efficient search capabilities is a core problem in many domains of computer science. As applications centered around semantic data sources become more common, the need for more sophisticated indexing and querying capabilities arises. In particular, the need to search for specific information in the presence of a terminology or ontology (i.e. a set of logic based rules that describe concepts and their relations) becomes of particular importance, as the information a user seeks may exists as an entailment of the explicit data by means of the terminology. This variant on traditional indexing and search problems forms the foundation of a range of possible technologies for semantic data. In this work, we propose an ordering language for specifying partial orders over semantic data items modeled as descriptions in a description logic. We then show how these orderings can be used as the basis of a search tree index for processing \emph{concept searches} in the presence of a terminology. We study in detail the properties of the orderings and the associated index structure, and also explore a relationship between ordering descriptions called \emph{order refinement}. A sound and complete procedure for deciding refinement is given. We also empirically evaluate a prototype implementation of our index structure, validating its potential efficacy in semantic query problems.

Cloud computing has updated the appearance of the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, and in addition to lower operation costs provides real-time services and reduces the information service barrier. In order to adapt to the rapidly changing market demand, enterprises are beginning to consider the feasibility of the deployment of cloud computing. The business environment changes so fast that an integrated dynamic framework and intelligent service system to achieve enterprises¡¦ visions, objectives and strategies, and to quick response is needed. Regarding to the three main service types of cloud computing: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), this study proposes an integration model for enterprise administration. Cloud computing packs the functionality of dynamic resource adjustment. From the deployment of organizations to the customer interactions, cloud computing is divided into a public cloud, private cloud and mixed cloud based on its deployment model. As for the private cloud, its information security and efficiency allow enterprises execute their operations smoothly according to the business rules. Thus more and more enterprises are inclined to deploy private clouds. This study uses structure-behavior coalescence architecture description language (SBC-ADL) to accomplish the systems architecture, and provides thorough suggestions of dynamic resources allocation as a reference model for any enterprise which plans to deploy the cloud computing service. For those enterprises that have already implemented cloud computing services, the systems architecture can be referred to better their business management. Describing the relationship between the various systems architecture is helpful in quickly understanding the system operation. Consider reducing misunderstanding and increasing work efficiency and information correctness, SBC-ADL works very well as an effective tool for training and communication within the IT department.

In the age of system-on-chip designs, design complexity of systems increases continuingly. This results in difficulty of design convergence. In design exploration of system architectures, we need to design, specify, and verify system designs effectively. By employing an architecture description language (ADL), we can effectively support specification and verification of system level designs. Existing ADLs have certain de-efficiencies in specification capabilities. We designed and improved specification capabilities in our architecture description language. Specification techniques in our ADL include behavioral description, structural description, regular structure description, built-in architecture feature description, and data integration description. In this thesis research, we focus on supporting verification capability of our ADL. We designed a simulator of the ADL. The simulation mechanisms include language input design, simulation data structure construction, behavioral simulation, structural simulation, regular architecture simulation, built-in architecture feature simulation, and data integration mechanism. With the ADL simulator, we can verify functionality and performance of architecture designs specified in the ADL. Simulation results can thus be used to guide design exploration and help design convergence.

Le présent travail consiste en une description structurale de la phonologie, de la morphologie et de la syntaxe du breton bas-vannetais du pays de Lorient. Notre étude se base sur un corpus d'une quarantaine d'heures d'enregistrements sonores réalisés auprès de 19 bretonnants natifs des communes de Lorient, Caudan, Ploemeur, Quéven ou Guidel. Une partie de ces enregistrements nous a été fournie par Radio Bro-Gwened, l'autre a été réalisée par nous dans le cadre de plusieurs enquêtes de terrain. Ce dialecte n'a fait l'objet d'aucune étude approfondie jusqu'à présent, les seuls renseignements disponibles à leur sujet figurant dans les atlas linguistiques. Dans un premier temps, nous avons étudié la phonologie du dialecte en procédant à l'inventaire de ses phonèmes. Ensuite nous nous sommes penchés sur les alternances phonologiques que sont les mutations initiales. Le breton lorientais possède un système de mutations beaucoup plus complexe et étendu que les autres langues celtiques en général. En morphologie, nous avons observé que les pronoms objets directs présentaient quatre séries différentes selon la forme des verbes auxquels ils étaient reliés, fait typologiquement rare. La morphologie verbale également présente nombre de différences par rapport aux autres dialectes bretons. Enfin nous avons tenté de décrire les faits principaux de la syntaxe du dialecte, en insistant sur le verbe être et sur les structures complexes (complémentation, relativisation). En conclusion, nous avons insisté sur l'urgence des campagnes de collectage linguistique en Basse-Bretagne, eu égard à l'âge de la majorité des bretonnants de naissance, et à l'ampleur de la tâche qui reste à accomplir.

Texte remanié de: Th. doct.--Litt. grecque--Paris 4, 1997. Titre de soutenance : Le catalogue dans l'épopée homérique : enquête sur un mode archaïque d'interlocution. / Textes en français et en grec ancien. Bibliogr. p. 299-317. Index.

Thèse de doctorat--Électronique et communications--Paris--ENST, 2004. / Bibliogr. p. 105-109. Résumé en français et en anglais.