Many activities are comprised of temporally dependent events that must be executed in a specific chronological order. Supportive software applications must preserve these temporal dependencies. Whenever the processing of this type of an application includes transactions submitted to a database that is shared with other such applications, the transaction concurrency control mechanisms within the database must also preserve the temporal dependencies. A basis for preserving temporal dependencies is established by using (within the applications and databases) real-time timestamps to identify and order events and transactions. The use of optimistic approaches to transaction concurrency control can be undesirable in such situations, as they allow incorrect results for database read operations. Although the incorrectness is detected prior to transaction committal and the corresponding transaction(s) restarted, the impact on the application or entity that submitted the transaction can be too costly. Three transaction concurrency control algorithms are proposed in this dissertation. These algorithms are based on timestamp ordering, and are designed to preserve temporal dependencies existing among data-dependent transactions. The algorithms produce execution schedules that are equivalent to temporally ordered serial schedules, where the temporal order is established by the transactions' start times. The algorithms provide this equivalence while supporting currency to the …

In this dissertation, first, we have proposed and implemented a new perceptually tuned wavelet based, rate scalable, and color image encoding/decoding system based on the human perceptual model. It is based on state-of-the-art research on embedded wavelet image compression technique, Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF) for Human Visual System (HVS) and extends this scheme to handle optimal bit allocation among multiple bands, such as Y, Cb, and Cr. Our experimental image codec shows very exciting results in compression performance and visual quality comparing to the new wavelet based international still image compression standard - JPEG 2000. On the other hand, our codec also shows significant better speed performance and comparable visual quality in comparison to the best codec available in rate scalable color image compression - CSPIHT that is based on Set Partition In Hierarchical Tree (SPIHT) and Karhunen-Loeve Transform (KLT). Secondly, a novel wavelet based interframe compression scheme has been developed and put into practice. It is based on the Flexible Block Wavelet Transform (FBWT) that we have developed. FBWT based interframe compression is very efficient in both compression and speed performance. The compression performance of our video codec is compared with H263+. At the same bit rate, our encoder, …

The recent transformation of consumer graphics (CG) cards into powerful 3D rendering processors is due in large measure to the success of game developers in delivering mass market entertainment software that feature highly immersive and captivating virtual environments. Despite this success, 3D CG application development is becoming increasingly handicapped by the inability of traditional content creation methods to keep up with the demand for content. The term content is used here to refer to any data operated on by application code that is meant for viewing, including 3D models, textures, animation sequences and maps or other data-intensive descriptions of virtual environments. Traditionally, content has been handcrafted by humans. A serious problem facing the interactive graphics software development community is how to increase the rate at which content can be produced to keep up with the increasingly rapid pace at which software for interactive applications can now be developed. Research addressing this problem centers around procedural content creation systems. By moving away from purely human content creation toward systems in which humans play a substantially less time-intensive but no less creative part in the process, procedural content creation opens new doors. From a qualitative standpoint, these types of systems will not …

The Internet and networks in general have become essential tools for disseminating in-formation. Search engines have become the predominant means of finding information on the Web and all other data repositories, including local resources. Domain scientists regularly acquire and analyze images generated by equipment such as microscopes and cameras, resulting in complex image files that need to be managed in a convenient manner. This type of integrated environment has been recently termed a netcentric sci-entific research repository. I developed a number of data manipulation tools that allow researchers to manage their information more effectively in a netcentric environment. The specific contributions are: (1) A unique interface for management of data including files and relational databases. A wrapper for relational databases was developed so that the data can be indexed and searched using traditional search engines. This approach allows data in databases to be searched with the same interface as other data. Fur-thermore, this approach makes it easier for scientists to work with their data if they are not familiar with SQL. (2) A Web services based architecture for integrating analysis op-erations into a repository. This technique allows the system to leverage the large num-ber of existing tools by wrapping them …