Oois 94

This volume contains the papers presented at the Intemational Conference on Object Oriented Information Systems 00lS'94, held at South Bank University, London, December 19 - 21, 1994. In response to our call for papers, a total 85 papers from 24 different countries were submitted. Each paper was evaluated by at least two Program Committee members and an additional reviewer. Together, we selected 41 papers for presentation at the conference and inclusion in the Proceedings. Also included are the keynote addresses by Peter Gray and Michael Jackson. The other submissions were recommended for presentation in the poster sessions. Peter Gray, our invited speaker, evaluates the problems of object-oriented systems and data independence by looking at how object oriented database applications are failing to perceive its benefits, and instead rely too much on encapsulation. He suggests alternative kinds of object storage to preserve data independence. The second invited speaker, Michael Jackson describes a way of solving problems, by focusing directly on the problems themselves, their components and structures and on the relationships between the problem and the solution method. He discusses a particular view of the role of object-orientation in software development.

OOIS'95 (Object-Oriented Information Systems '95) contains contributions from leading researchers and practitioners working on object oriented technology and its application in information systems design and development. The book has a strong practical focus and contains much technical insight of particular relevance to professionals working in the field. The papers cover two main areas of the field: academic research trends into object oriented concepts and principles, and state of the art applications in industry. Among the specific topics covered are modelling, knowledgebases, software development, interface design, object databases, distributed databases, and emerging object technologies. All those working in the field of information technology will find the book a useful source of reference.

This volume contains the papers presented at the Third International Conference on Object Oriented Information Systems (00lS'96) which was held at South Bank University, London. The keynote addresses, by Professor Colette Roland and Mr Ian Graham, are also included. The acceptance rate for papers was around 47%. The papers for the Industry Day were invited papers. The keynote paper by Professor Roland analyses the challenges in object modelling, particularly the impact of requirements engineering for conceptual modelling. She suggests innovative research perspectives to enhance and extend object oriented approaches in order to deal with the emerging area of requirements engineering. The keynote paper presented by Mr. Graham focuses on the problems and solutions for adopting use cases. In his paper, Graham illustrates the theoretical issues and practical problems of use cases, and highlights them using examples. The papers included in this volume cover different aspects of object modelling, object oriented software development, object databases, and interoperability. In the modelling session, Ram, et al. outline an extended object model to tackle the problems of capturing complex requirements of office information systems. Simons' paper concentrates on core object modelling concepts and presents a mathematical theory of class.

The Sorbonne University is very proud to host this year the oms Conference on Object Oriented Information Systems. There is a growing awareness of the importance of object oriented techniques, methods and tools to support information systems engineering. The term information systems implies that the computer based systems are designed to provide adequate and timely information to human users in organizations. The term engineering implies the application of a rigorous set of problem solving approaches analogous to those found in traditional engineering disciplines. The intent of this conference is to present a selected number of those approaches which favor an object oriented view of systems engineering. oms '98 is the fifth edition of a series of conferences. Starting in 1994 in London, this series evolved from a British audience to a truly European one. The goal is to build a world wide acknowledged forum dedicated to object oriented information systems engineering. This conference is organized with the aim to bring together researchers and practitioners in Information Systems, Databases and Software Engineering who have interests in object oriented information systems. The objective is to advance understanding about how the object technology can empower information systems in organizations, on techniques for designing effective and efficient information systems and methods and development tools for information systems engineering. The conference aims also at discussing the lessons learned from large scale projects using objects. The call for oms was given international audience.

The papers published here highlight the contributions of leading researchers in the field who are working with object-oriented technology, theory and practice. Among the topics to be covered are: object-relational data technology; distributed object computing; patterns and frameworks; concepts and methodologies; multimedia systems; object-0riented metrics; object reuse; object ontologies; business process re-design; knowledge management; object database management systems; and interoperability issues. Areas of significant interest to industry, especially in providing innovative directions for the development of next generation systems, are also covered.

Open Distributed Processing contains the selected proceedings of the Third International Conference on Open Distributed Systems, organized by the International Federation for Information Processing and held in Brisbane, Australia, in February 1995. The book deals with the interconnectivity problems that advanced computer networking raises, providing those working in the area with the most recent research, including security and management issues.

This book summarizes the current knowledge on a cascade of gene regulation levels which operate in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells and which has until recently been poorly understood. While transcriptional control of eukaryotic genes has been extensively researched and the understanding of this process has reached very sophisticated levels, post- transcriptional control has received much less attention. As the contributions in this book demonstrate, not only is post-transcriptional control in eukaryotes better understood, it is now thought to be a major player in gene expression control in a number of key processes, i.e. control of cell proliferation, gametogenesis and early development or cellular homeostasis.