Prof. Ashay Dharwadker - My Students Database

Member ID: 28

Hartajinder Bindra

Profile: I am a Sophomore pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems at AIT, affiliated to Tarleton State University, Texas . My main interests in Computer Science are in the areas of Artificial intelligence and building web based applications. My skills include windows programming using c++ and MFC, designing databases using MySQL and Oracle with web based PHP programming. I love listening to music and adventure sports fascinate me.

Prof. Ashay Dharwadker's Courses (2):

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Information Systems Fall 2003 View
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Database Systems Fall 2003 View
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Projects (1)

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Project ID: 43
Course: Database Systems
Topic: The Teacher's Organizer

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Description: Rachit Bhatia and I are devoloping The Teacher's Organizer, which consists of an attendance sheet, reminder & a schedule. We have developed the basic model or structure of our database which consists of 8 tables, 4 for the Information Systems class and 4 for the database systems class.

**Information_systems_class**
StudentID(UID)	Name	e-mail	DateofBirth
1	Hartajinder Bindra	akshaybindra@hotmail.com	10/09/1983
..	..	..	..
...	...	...	...

**ISAttendance**
StudentID(UID)	Month1	Month2	Month3	Month4
1	15	13	11	16
...	...	...	...	..

**ISTotal_classes**
ID	Month	Total_no_of_class
1	Month1	16
2	Month2	15

**ISMarks**
StudentID(UID)	30%mark(Quizes)	Minor1	Minor2	Majors
1	30	15	15	40
...	...	...	...	...

**Database_systems_class**
StudentID(UID)	Name	e-mail	DateofBirth
1	Hartajinder Bindra	akshaybindra@hotmail.com	10/09/1983
..	..	..	..
...	...	...	...

**DSAttendance**
StudentID(UID)	Month1	Month2	Month3	Month4
1	15	13	11	16
...	...	...	...	..

**DSTotal_Classes**
ID	Month	Total_no_of_class
1	Month1	16
2	Month2	15

**DSMarks**
StudentID(UID)	30%mark(Quizes)	Minor1	Minor2	Majors
1	30	15	15	40
...	...	...	...	...

We would be linking this database with a MFC Application.The application would include various tools that will be very handy for a teacher.It would basically be an organizer with various tools,e.g. Calender(scheduler),grade calculator,attendance sheet.....

Seminars (3)

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Seminar ID: 18
Course: Database Systems
Topic: Oracle

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Description: The seminar consisted of two parts. The first part started with an introduction to "Oracle as a company."Then I showed the advancements of Oracle through the passage of time and how it became the Oracle we know today.I talked about its product features which makes it the world's leading supplier of software for information management and the world's second largest independent software company. The second part was given by my partner Rachit Bhatia in which he showed us how to make a simple table using Oracle.He also tried to differentiate between SQL Server 2001 and Oracle 9i.

Information taken from www.oracle.com

Seminar ID: 19
Course: Database Systems
Topic: Cascading Style Sheets

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Description: Rachit Bhatia and I presented a seminar on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). These are few of the dimensions on this topic that we had covered during the seminar.

What do they do?
Cascading Style Sheets are a way to separate the presentation from the structure of a web site. By applying a CSS style you have the ability to keep the structure of your document lean and fast , while controlling the appearance of the content. Cascading Style Sheets are the next stage in web design, after you have a good grasp of HTML.

Benefits of CSS
CSS allows you to update or modify the appearance of your website by changing just one single file! With CSS, you can : oSimplify site maintenance and retain consistent look and feel throughout the site oLightweight designs. Style sheets most often decrease the content size compared to images or Flash oRichness. CSS provides webmasters with a rich set of rendering effects, thus increasing the richness of the Web as a medium of expression

A rule consists of two parts - selector and decleration
Selector - the part before the left curly brace The selector is the link between the HTML document and the style. It specifies what elements are affected by the declaration.

Declaration - the part within the curly braces The declaration is that part of the rule that sets forth what the effect will be. If the selector is h1 and the declaration is "color: green." Hence all h1 elements will be turned green.

Multiple Style declerations

Multiple style declarations for a single selector are separated by a semicolon: selector { property1: value1; property2: value2; }
H1 { font-size: x-large; color: red } H2 { font-size: large; color: blue }

Setting styles for Hyperlinks
Styles can be assigned to the A element to display links, visited links and active links differently. Here is an example of the styles. ... a:link { color: red } a:active { color: blue; font-size: 125% } a:visited { color: green; font-size: 85% }

Hor to add a style to your site?
There are three major ways that you can add a style to your site. These are :: inline - in the body of the code- this overrides all other styles. Head - added to the head of the page, easy to find and modify Separate page - For website where the same style is used over many pages.

Span and Div - how to actually place your style on the web.
Using a style to cover individual words. (3) For this use the SPAN selector. In the body just bracket the words with and
Use a style to cover blocks of text. (4) For this use the DIV selector. In the body just bracket the text with

and

Then we showed with various examples to

Set the background color
Set an image as the background
How to repeat a background image vertically
How to repeat a background image horizontally
How to place the background image
A fixed background image (this image will not scroll with the rest of the page)
All the background properties in one declaration
Set the color of the text
Specify the space between characters
Align the text
Decorate the text
Indent text
Set the font of a text
Set the size of the font
Set the style of the font
Set the variant of the font
Set the boldness of the font

Demerits of CSS
Cascading Style Sheets have still not come into widespread use, but misuse of CSS has already begun. Style sheets, when used properly, can be an effective tool for providing a unique and attractive presentation . However, as soon as a page's message becomes dependent on the style sheet, the page has become a failure on the Web. One common hack that has appeared in various places is that of the "drop shadow." This is created by using negative margins, and involves a large amount of dependence on the style sheet. When the style sheet is removed, either at the user's discretion or by using a browser that does not support CSS, the page is often unusable.Thus style sheet designers should make sure that their web page is not totally dependent on CSS.

Seminar ID: 42
Course: Database Systems
Topic: Database Security

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Description: Rachit Bhatia and I presented a seminar on Database Security in which we covered the following areas:
Introduction Database Security refers to the protection of data against unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction.
Or more or less it means making sure that the user is allowed to do any thing that they desire to do with the database.
Basically database security can be broken down into the following key points of interest.
Server Security
Database Connections
Table Access Control <
Restricting Database Access

Server Security
Server security is the process of limiting actual access to the database server itself . "what if your database server is supplying information to dynamic web pages?", we should say, "Your database back end should never be on the same machine as your web server, not just for security, but for performance!" If your database server is supplying information to a web server then it should be configure to allow connections only from that web server.

Trusted IP address
Every server, should be configured to only allow trusted IP addresses. If it's a back end for a web server., then only that web server's address should be allowed to access that database server. If the database server is supplying information to a homegrown application that is running on the internal network, then it should only answer to addresses from within the internal network.

General considerations
There are numerous aspects of security problems: Legal,social and ethical aspects.
Physical controls.
Policy questions.
Operational problems.
Operating system support.
Issues that are specific concern for the database itself.

Approaches to Data Security There are two broad approaches to data security for modern DBMSs.They are known as discretionary and mandatory control, respectively.
In both the cases , the data object that needs to be protected can range all the way from an entire database on one hand to a specific component within a specific tuple on the other hand.
Regardless of the approaches, all decisions as to which users are allowed to perform which operations on which objects are policy decisions.

Discretionary Access Control Authorities : Till what point a user is allowed and to what extent.
It has four components:
Name. The authority will be registered in the catalog under this name.
Privileges, like RETREIVE and DELETE.
The Relvar to which the authorities applies.
User Ids who are granted the privileges.

General syntax AUTHORITY < authority name >
GRANT < privilege commalist >
ON < relvar name >
TO < user ID commalist >
The privileges are RETRIEVE [( attribute name commalist)]
INSERT [( attribute name commalist)]
UPDATE [( attribute name commalist)]
DELETE and ALL.

Audit Trails An audit trail is essentially a special file or database in which the system automatically keeps track of all operations performed by users on the regular data. A typical audit trail might contain the following information :
Request (source text)
Terminal from which the operation was invoked & its user
Date and time of the operation
Relvar, tuples, attributes affected
Old values & new values.

Mandatory Access COntrol
Mandatory controls are applicable to databases in which the data has rather static and rigid classification structure.eg certain military or government environments. The basic idea is that each object has a classification level (e.g. top secret,secret, confidential etc .), and each user has a clearance level. The following simple rules are adopted :
User i can retrieve object j only if the clearance level of i is => j.
User i can update object j only if the clearance level of i is = to the classification level of j.

Overall Security Classification Scheme
An overall security classification scheme is given according to the level of security provided by different approaches.
The four classes
1.Minimal
2.Discretionary
3.Mandatory
4.Verified
which are written in increasing order.

Research Notes (5)

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Research Note ID: 45
Course: Information Systems
Topic: Binary Numbers and Logic circuits

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Description: THE BINARY NUMBER SYSTEM
All digital computers are basically collections of switches. Each switch has two possible positions: open, "0", or off; and closed, "1", or on. The two positions form the basis of the binary (or two-valued: 0, 1) number system. Otherwise, the computer uses numbers as we do in the familiar decimal system.
Binary Numbers
Any number can be represented in binary as well as in decimal form. For example, the number 1,985 expressed in binary form is 11111000001. As is the case with decimal numbers, we can interpret a binary number as the sum of a series of powers of the base number.
Numbers can be used to represent nonnumerical quantities, such as letters of the alphabet and punctuation marks. A standard code is often used to assign specific patterns of binary numbers to printable characters.

Logic Circuits
Binary numbers can also be used to represent the results of logical operations. For example, if 1 represents TRUE and 0 represents FALSE, we can represent all logical functions (except "maybe") by sequences of binary numbers. We can then arrange the circuits of a computer to make logical tests on statements given to the machine. These logic circuits enable the CPU (central processor unit) to react to an incoming instruction or piece of data.
For example, an important feature of the computer (and of the human mind) is the ability to decide between two alternatives. Suppose the computer must decide who in a group of people are at least 21 years of age. The computer examines the item of data labelled "age" for each member of the group. Each time it examines the age, a logic circuit in the CPU compares the binary number for the age with the binary number for 21. If the age number is equal to or greater than 21, the circuit produces a 1, for TRUE. If the age number is less than 21, the circuit produces a 0.
The type of circuit used for logical comparisons is called a gate because the circuit acts to pass on 1's, like a gate in a fence, only for the logical conditions for which it is set. There are two basic kinds of gate: AND and OR, representing the two basic kinds of logical decision to be made. In the simplest form, each gate has two inputs and one output. An AND gate produces a 1 at its output only if both of its inputs are also 1. An OR gate produces a 1 at its output if either or both of its inputs are 1's. A third kind of gate, called an XOR gate (exclusive OR), produces a 1 at its output only if one input but not the other is a 1. In other words, an AND gate produces 0's unless both inputs are 1's; an OR gate produces 0's only if both inputs are 0; an XOR gate demands one of each.
To see how this works, suppose a computer is in charge of baking a roast in a microwave oven. The owner of the oven programs it to stop cooking the roast when either the preset time has elapsed or the thermometer in the roast reads 140°F. The logic gate used by the computer in the oven for this task is an OR gate. At the start of the cooking process, neither the timer output nor the thermometer output satisfies the conditions set in the oven (timer output greater than or equal to 30 minutes, thermometer output greater than or equal to 140). Therefore, the OR gate will produce a 0 at its output, since both inputs are 0. At some point one or both of the conditions will be met and the OR gate will produce a 1, thereby shutting down the oven.
Now suppose the chef, knowing it is possible to get a thermometer reading that is too high if the thermometer is touching the bone in the roast, sets the oven to stop cooking when the thermometer has at least reached a certain point and the proper cooking time has elapsed. The difference between this and the previous situation is that an AND gate is used in the microwave computer: the gate produces the required 1 only when both the temperature has reached 140°F. and the roast has cooked for 30 minutes. All the complex logical operations of much more sophisticated computers can be reduced to combinations of logic-gate operations much like those described.

Research Note ID: 46
Course: Information Systems
Topic: Types of information Systems

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Description: TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
There are three main types of information systems: data base management systems, bibliographic reference retrieval systems, and question-answering systems.
Data Base Management Systems.
Data base management deals with the processing of simple files of the type normally used in business. Each file contains records of a kind, for example, employee records or records of items in inventory control. In turn, each record stores certain information; for example, an employee may be identified by name, address, job classification, and salary category. A data management file can thus be represented by a table in which the rows identify individual records and the columns contain data from those records. Data base management then consists in relating tables to records for specific purposes. For example, data base management systems can determine how many employees 35 years old or older fall into certain job categories.
Bibliographic Reference Retrieval Systems.
These systems normally deal with text, such as titles and abstracts of books and articles, and retrieve citations to items of specific subject area stored in a library file. For example, a user might request all bibliographic references dealing with "the design of modern information retrieval systems." To identify particular citations, the content of the items on file must first be specified. Hence content analysis, or indexing, plays an important role in reference retrieval systems. Also, since bibliographic files may contain up to millions of items, rapid access to individual items is indispensable. Efficient methods for searching the files are therefore important. In many cases, queries and answers are expressed in English or any other natural language rather than in machine (computer) language.
Question-answering Systems.
These systems furnish direct answers to queries, which are often submitted in a natural language. Question-answering systems combine features of both data base management and bibliographic retrieval systems. Since factual queries are answered directly, a question-answering system needs linguistic know-how, detailed information about particular fields, and a fund of general knowledge. For this reason, such systems are used only in special circumstances and in certain subject areas.

STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL PROCESSES
In principle, a request for information could be compared with the file contents and the best match made. In practice, however, the content of both the query and of the items of stored information must first be more clearly identified. Thus, in data base management, the content of each record is rated according to a scale of values; in reference retrieval, a document is represented by a set of terms, each of which carries a value (weight) depending on its importance in each document.
An information storage and retrieval process consists of certain indexing, filing, query formulation, and search and retrieval operations carried out on stored records to answer a request for information.
Indexing. Indexing is generally done by hand. An index may contain most of the terms found in a natural language or may be restricted to certain special terms. A dictionary of special terms will also identify terms of greater scope than a given term, as well as narrower terms, synonymous terms, and so on. From 6 to about 20 terms are assigned to a document. Manual indexing is an art, and consistency between individual indexers is not to be expected.
Various automatic indexing techniques have been developed. In the simplest of these, each word in a document excerpt is used for indexing purposes except such words as and, of, or, and but. More sophisticated systems choose and weigh index terms according to the frequency of occurrence of certain words or word phrases in individual documents; the higher the frequency of occurrence of a given word the greater the weight assigned to it. Words that appear frequently throughout the collection are not good index terms since they cannot be relied upon to retrieve certain stored items in preference to certain others. In automatic indexing up to 100 terms may represent document content for an item.

Query Formulation. Queries must use terms likely to match the index terms assigned to a relevant document. Query formulations are often complex. Thus, the query "A and B" means that documents containing both term A and term B are to be retrieved; "A or B" asks for documents containing either term A or term B. In conventional retrieval systems, only documents whose terms exactly match those of the query are retrieved. In more advanced systems, query formulations are automatically constructed from formulations supplied by the user in a natural language. These formulations are then used to identify documents on the basis of similarity of terms.

Research Note ID: 47
Course: Information Systems
Topic: Turing

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Description: TURING, ALAN MATHISON
TURING, ALAN MATHISON (1912-1954), British mathematician, logician, and pioneer computer scientist. Turing made a significant advance in the fields of symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics by introducing the notion of an abstract machine (now called the "Turing machine") that would seek to prove propositions in a mechanical way. The Turing machine turned out to be a blueprint for the modern digital computer, revealing both its nature and logical limitations fully a decade before any such machine was constructed. For the rest of his life, Turing continued to study the relationship between the abstract world of mathematics and the mechanical world of engineering, between formal logic and computing machines that could embody that logic. He brought together in his work the disparate elements that now form the basis of computer science: symbolic logic, numerical analysis, electrical engineering, and a mechanical philosophy of the human mind. Born in London on June 23, 1912, Turing received a typical upper-middle-class education. He attended Sherborne School and then Cambridge University, where his mathematical abilities were soon appreciated. He was elected a Fellow of King's College in 1935. In 1937 he published his most important paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem," in which he used his Turing machines to show that there could be no formal, purely mechanical procedure for deciding whether a given proposition was derivable from a set of mathematical axioms. Along with Kurt Gödel, Turing dealt a final blow to the hope of David Hilbert and his followers that all mathematics could be expressed as a set of axioms and derived theorems. Because the Turing ma chine was an abstract computing machine, Turing had also shown that there was a class of logical problems that no digital computer could ever solve. During World War II, Turing worked for the British code-breaking organization at Bletchley Park. He helped to design an electromechanical device for deciphering the settings of the German Enigma code machine, and for some time he had the prime responsibility for the naval Enigma division, which monitored communications to and from the U-boat patrols in the Atlantic. After the war he designed an ambitious computer to be called ACE, the Automatic Computing Engine, at the National Physical Laboratory. When work on this machine slowed for bureaucratic reasons, he accepted a Readership at the University at Manchester, where he made use of a smaller computer, the Mark I, that was already functioning. In the late 1940's he also began work on the mathematical description of biological growth and development. Turing believed that the computer could be programmed to imitate and thereby explain human intelligence, and expressed his belief in various talks and interviews and in the paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence," published in Mind in 1950. This paper was a seminal work in the field of computer science, now known as artificial intelligence. In 1952 Turing, a homosexual, was arrested, convicted, and sentenced to hormone injections that were supposed to "cure" him. On June 7, 1954, in a depression perhaps induced by the chemicals administered to him, he poisoned himself with cyanide at his home near Manchester.

Research Note ID: 48
Course: Information Systems
Topic: Visual Basic and Component Creation

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Description: Why Use Visual Basic for Component Creation?
There are a number of reasons why Visual Basic is an ideal tool for creating many of the server components that we use. VB has grabbed the hearts and minds of millions of people. VBScript is a subset of Visual Basic. VBScript is immediately applicable to development in the VB environment, with a number of useful features not found in its younger sibling.
There are hundreds of custom controls, such as ActiveX Components, that currently are available for use with Visual Basic. More controls seem to be available in the market each day. Most of these components require an interface to use them . VB provides a perfect way to wrap the functionality of these third-party components for use in our Active Server Pages development. In addition to the custom controls available in Visual Basic, we also have access to the Win32 API. We can access any number of functions on the system that are impossible to get to using scripting alone.We can also use any DLL (dynamic-link library) to add additional functionality to the components that we want to create.
Many developers have used Visual Basic for a number of years because of its ease of use and flexibility and the speed with which they can develop applications. If we were to hire a new Active Server Pages developer, it is likely that he or she would have VB skills. If not, those skills are just a class or two away.
Another advantage of developing server components in VB is that there are so many resources available to help us. There are forums on CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy. The Microsoft Web site provides a wealth of information about VB (a knowledge base, news groups), as well as links to other valuable sites. There are hundreds of quality sites out there dedicated to Visual Basic. Thus using Visual Basic for component creation is a very good idea.

Research Note ID: 50
Course: Information Systems
Topic: Artificial Intelligence

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Description: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

The following definitions are given by several experts from different time period:
Minsky, 1968 : "AI is the science of making machines do things that require intelligence if done by men."
Winston, 1984: "Artificial Intelligence is the study of ideas that enable computers to be intelligent."
Schalkoff, 1990: "A field of study that seeks to explain and emulate intelligent behavior in terms of computational processes."
Winston, 1992-----"The study of the computations that make it possible to perceive, reason, and act"

SOME FACTS ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Artificial Intelligence is a combination of computer science, physiology, and philosophy.
The element that the fields of AI have in common is the creation of machines that can "think".
AI really began to intrigue researchers with the invention of the computer in 1943.
Over the next four decades, AI has grown from capable of playing checkers, to systems designed to diagnose disease.
The advancements in the quest for artificial intelligence have, and will continue to affect our jobs, our education, and our lives.

THE TURING TEST
Place both a human and a machine mimicking human responses outside the field of direct observation and use an unbiased interface to interrogate them. If the responses are distinguishable, the machine is not displaying intelligence.Thus a machiene displaying AI should act completely like a human.
Why Artificial Intelligence?
Unlike humans, computers have trouble understanding specific situations, and adapting to new situations. Artificial intelligence aims to improve machine behavior in tackling such complex tasks.
Artificial Intelligence can help us understand human approach to problem solving based on abstract thought, high-level deliberative reasoning and patterning recognition by recreating it, then potentially enabling us to enhance it beyond our current capabilities.

The Future of AI
Some people are concerned that if research in AI is successful, that computers will become too powerful.
So far though, AI products have been welcomed by our society. Current research should soon bring us programs to help us use the power of computers more naturally.
Hopefully, AI will one day help us solve problems we cannot currently solve at all using traditional approaches to science and engineering.
Conclusion
Although computers can clearly behave intelligently in performing certain limited tasks, full intelligence is a very long way off and hard to imagine.
We shouldn't expect that the human race will become extinct and be replaced by robots.
We can expect that classical AI will go on producing more and more sophisticated applications in restricted domains - expert systems, chess programs, Internet agents.

Last updated on Tuesday, 9th December 2003, 04:05:31 PM.

Prof. Ashay Dharwadker