Frequent pattern mining: current status and future directions

Frequent pattern mining has been a focused theme in data mining research for over a decade. Abundant literature has been dedicated to this research and tremendous progress has been made, ranging from efficient and scalable algorithms for frequent itemset mining in transaction databases to numerous research frontiers, such as sequential pattern mining, structured pattern mining, correlation mining, associative classification, and frequent pattern-based clustering, as well as their broad applications. In this article, we provide a brief overview of the current status of frequent pattern mining and discuss a few promising research directions. We believe that frequent pattern mining research has substantially broadened the scope of data analysis and will have deep impact on data mining methodologies and applications in the long run. However, there are still some challenging research issues that need to be solved before frequent pattern mining can claim a cornerstone approach in data mining applications. The work was supported in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation NSF IIS-05-13678/06-42771 and NSF BDI-05-15813. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies.     

Remote-sensing assessment of glacier fluctuations in the Hindu Raj,Pakistan

Space-based assessments of glaciers across the Himalayas indicate that there is a spatial variation in glacier fluctuations due to variations in local topography, regional climate, and ice-flow dynamics. Unfortunately, limited information is available on glacier fluctuations in northern Pakistan. In this work, we quantify the glacier terminus variations in the Hindu Raj region of Pakistan, where we used Landsat and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) time-series data for 1972, 1989, 1999, and 2007. Eighty-five mountain glaciers of various sizes, orientations, and altitudes were sampled. Our results show that most of the glaciers (70.6%) retreated over the last four decades, although some glaciers advanced (17.6%) or exhibited no detectable change in terminus position (11.8%). Larger glaciers with lower terminus altitudes exhibited greater retreat distances than smaller high-altitude glaciers. Long-term climate data analysis reveals that the recession of glaciers appears to be associated with the rising of summer temperatures in the Hindu Raj. Our results support a spatial trend of an increase in shrinking glaciers towards the western portion of northern Pakistan, with a greater frequency of advancing glaciers towards the east.     

Proteomic analysis of multiple myeloma: current status and future perspectives

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant plasma cell neoplasm that accounts for slightly more than 10% of all hematologic cancers and remains incurable. The major challenge remains the identification of better diagnosis and prognostic biomarkers. The advent of proteomic technologies creates new opportunities and challenges for those seeking to gain greater understanding of MM. Although there is a limited number of proteomic studies to date in MM, those performed highlight the potential impact of these technologies in our understanding of MM pathogenesis and the identification of novel therapeutic targets. In this review, we introduce the proteomic technologies available for the study of MM, summarize results of the published proteomic studies on MM, and discuss the novel developments and applications for the analysis of protein PTM in MM. The application of proteomic technologies will be valuable to better understand the pathogenesis of MM and may in the future open novel avenues in the treatment of MM.     

Advanced environments for parallel and distributed applications: a view of current status

In this paper we provide a view of the design and development activity concerning advanced environments for parallel and distributed computing. We start from assessing the main issues driving this research track, in the areas of hardware and software technology and of applications. Then, we identify some key concepts, that can be considered as common guidelines and goals in the development of modern advanced environments, and we come up with a “classification” of these environments into two main classes: programming environments and problems solving environments. Both classes are widely discussed, in light of the key concepts previously outlined, and several examples are provided, in order to give a picture of the current status and trends.     

Software accessibility standards and guidelines: progress, current status, and future developments

This article reviews progress in the development of standards and guidelines for software accessibility, including those developed within international and US standards bodies. Key factors driving efforts to identify and define effective design guidelines for software accessibility include demographic trends and the graying population, new legislation and the increasing pervasiveness of information technology and devices. An overview of the US Software Accessibility draft standard, including accessibility-focused design guidance for Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, is provided. A variety of resources providing design guidance for improved accessibility are identified, and expected developments in formal standards for software accessibility are discussed.     

Global Positioning Systems: an analysis of applications,current development and future implementations

The commercial sector is constantly looking for new ways to become more efficient and effective in their business. Researchers are always busy looking for the new technology that will create a boom in the industry. Around for a few years, Global Positioning Systems (GPS) may be the next technology that will push companies into higher productivity. We are seeing these systems become more prevalent with the passing of time. Companies are adopting this technology and merging it with their current infrastructures to improve their efficiency and create better customer service. This technology has the potential to change the way that all companies do business. As more and more companies adopt GPS to create a competitive advantage, it will become a standard for the rest to follow.     

Retrieving near-surface soil moisture from microwave radiometric observations: current status and future plans

Surface soil moisture is a key variable used to describe water and energy exchanges at the land surface/atmosphere interface. Passive microwave remotely sensed data have great potential for providing estimates of soil moisture with good temporal repetition on a daily basis and on a regional scale (∼10 km). However, the effects of vegetation cover, soil temperature, snow cover, topography, and soil surface roughness also play a significant role in the microwave emission from the surface. Different soil moisture retrieval approaches have been developed to account for the various parameters contributing to the surface microwave emission. Four main types of algorithms can be roughly distinguished depending on the way vegetation and temperature effects are accounted for. These algorithms are based on (i) land cover classification maps, (ii) ancillary remote sensing indexes, and (iii) two-parameter or (iv) three-parameter retrievals (in this case, soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, and effective surface temperature are retrieved simultaneously from the microwave observations). Methods (iii) and (iv) are based on multiconfiguration observations, in terms of frequency, polarization, or view angle. They appear to be very promising as very few ancillary information are required in the retrieval process. This paper reviews these various methods for retrieving surface soil moisture from microwave radiometric systems. The discussion highlights key issues that will have to be addressed in the near future to secure operational use of the proposed retrieval approaches.     

WLAN security: current and future

Wireless LAN deployment improves users' mobility, but it also brings a range of security issues that affect emerging standards and related technologies.     

Industry 4.0 and the current status as well as future prospects on logistics

Industry 4.0, referred to as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”, also known as “smart manufacturing”, “industrial internet” or “integrated industry”, is currently a much-discussed topic that supposedly has the potential to affect entire industries by transforming the way goods are designed, manufactured, delivered and payed. This paper seeks to discuss the opportunities of Industry 4.0 in the context of logistics management, since implications are expected in this field. The authors pursue the goal of shedding light on the young and mostly undiscovered topic of Industry 4.0 in the context of logistics management, thus following a conceptual research approach. At first, a logistics-oriented Industry 4.0 application model as well as the core components of Industry 4.0 are presented. Different logistics scenarios illustrate potential implications in a practice-oriented manner and are discussed with industrial experts. The studies reveal opportunities in terms of decentralisation, self-regulation and efficiency. Moreover, it becomes apparent that the concept of Industry 4.0 still lacks a clear understanding and is not fully established in practice yet. The investigations demonstrate potential Industry 4.0 implications in the context of Just-in-Time/Just-in-Sequence and cross-company Kanban systems in a precise manner. Practitioners could use the described scenarios as a reference to foster their own Industry 4.0 initiatives, with respect to logistics management.     

Software reuse research: status and future

This paper briefly summarizes software reuse research, discusses major research contributions and unsolved problems, provides pointers to key publications, and introduces four papers selected from The Eighth International Conference on Software Reuse (ICSR8).     

Educational programmes for future employability of graduates in SMEs

There are many levels of learning, training, and upskilling within SMEs and these encapsulate varying combinations of formal and informal learning activities. However not all SMEs are proactive in their learning situations and a large proportion of SMEs are in constant ‘crisis management’ mode and therefore need to be encouraged to adopt a learning, training and upskilling environment if they want to survive and prosper. Recent research managed by the Programme for University and Industry Interface at the University of Limerick, Ireland (PUII in Available on line at: http://www.ul.ie/~puii/ (accessed January 21st, 2008)) was charged with identifying key skills and competencies required by individuals in SMEs to ensure their future generation employability. What clearly emerged from this piece of work was the articulation of a range of diverse interventions, which SMEs feel are required to enable them to expand their organizational capacity and the capability of their employees. However, the learning delivery models developed to date for the upskilling of individuals in industry have largely failed to get to the heart of the matter for the SME and are not sufficient to bridge the gap between the needs of the individual in the SME and the needs of the organization. To this end, SME-specific learning delivery models are urgently required to build and create innovative and sustainable learning environments in SMEs, which will simultaneously develop both the individual and the organization. This paper discusses the needs of SMEs in terms of learning and illuminates the need for new innovative programmes which will mark a new step in supporting the delivery on the global priority of educating and upskilling the workforce.     

Electrochromic displays: status and future prospects

This paper reviews some of the materials and structures possible for electrochromic displays. Tungstic oxide is seen as the likeliest electrochromic material for practical applications, and the role of the electrolyte and counter-electrode in these displays is given more detailed consideration. Driving methods are discussed and areas in which ECDs must improve to become a commercial possibility are outlined.     

Big Data and virtualization for manufacturing cyber-physical systems: A survey of the current status and future outlook

The recent advances in sensor and communication technologies can provide the foundations for linking the physical manufacturing facility and machine world to the cyber world of Internet applications. The coupled manufacturing cyber-physical system is envisioned to handle the actual operations in the physical world while simultaneously monitor them in the cyber world with the help of advanced data processing and simulation models at both the manufacturing process and system operational levels. Moreover, a sensor-packed manufacturing system in which each process or piece of equipment makes available event and status information, coupled with market research for true advanced Big Data analytics, seem to be the right ingredients for event response selection and operation virtualization. As a drawback, the resulting manufacturing cyber-physical system will be vulnerable to the inevitable cyber-attacks, unfortunately, so common for the software and Internet-based systems. This reality makes cybersecurity penetration within the manufacturing domain a need that goes uncontested across researchers and practitioners. This work provides a review of the current status of virtualization and cloud-based services for manufacturing systems and of the use of Big Data analytics for planning and control of manufacturing operations. Building on already developed cloud business solutions, cloud manufacturing is expected to offer improved enterprise manufacturing and business decision support. Based on the current state-of-the-art cloud manufacturing solutions and Big Data applications, this work also proposes a framework for the development of predictive manufacturing cyber-physical systems that include capabilities for attaching to the Internet of Things, and capabilities for complex event processing and Big Data algorithmic analytics.     

Remote sensing from space: the European Space Agency's achievements and current programmes

Abstract

The European Space Agency (ESA) has made a significant contribution in the field of remote sensing from space, beginning in 1972 in the field of weather forecasting with the development of its preoperational meteorological satellites ‘Meteosat’. The launch on 6 March 1989 of the first operational Meteosai, which will be followed by the launch of two more satellites, will provide continuity of service until the mid 1990s. This will be followed by the second generation Meteosat which will be developed in partnership with EUMETSAT. Following The Hague Ministerial Council of November 1987, the Agency now has endorsement of a long term plan for Earth observation building upon the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) programme: to be followed by a similar climate monitoring satellite which will lead in turn to the era of the Polar Platform.     

Virtual machine monitors: current technology and future trends

Developed more than 30 years ago to address mainframe computing problems, virtual machine monitors have resurfaced on commodity platforms, offering novel solutions to challenges in security, reliability, and administration. Stanford University researchers began to look at the potential of virtual machines to overcome difficulties that hardware and operating system limitations imposed: This time the problems stemmed from massively parallel processing (MPP) machines that were difficult to program and could not run existing operating systems. With virtual machines, researchers found they could make these unwieldy architectures look sufficiently similar to existing platforms to leverage the current operating systems. From this project came the people and ideas that underpinned VMware Inc., the original supplier of VMMs for commodity computing hardware. The implications of having a VMM for commodity platforms intrigued both researchers and entrepreneurs.     

Measuring problem solving in computer environments: current and future states

The first part of this article will review the status of technology and educational reform; the second will treat traditional approaches to problem-solving measurement common today in technological settings; and the third will propose how problem-solving assessment may change and, in particular, the role that authoring strategies may play in measuring problem-solving performance successfully in computer environments. We will suggest four areas that must be considered in which computers would increase the fidelity and validity of measures of complex problem solving: (1) the intentions and skills of assessment designers; (2) the range of performance that counts as problem solving; (3) the ways in which validity evidence can be sought; and (4) the degree to which the measurement produces results that generalize across tasks and contexts.     

The FORUM project: Network conferencing and its future applications

In the course of the FORUM project at the Institute for the Future, 28 experimental computer conferences were conducted on the ARPANET, then analyzed to understand user behavior in this new medium of communication. Examples of actual conferences are presented to illustrate the group potential applications of teleconferencing through computer networks. Guidelines for these applications are derived from the identification of five distinct styles of computer conferencing that are best suited for specific research and management tasks.