Instant download Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications (SETIT’18), Vol.1 Med Salim Bouhlel pdf all chapter

Download as pdf or txt
Download as pdf or txt
You are on page 1of 55

Download the Full Version of textbook for Fast Typing at textbookfull.

com

Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on


Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of
Information and Telecommunications (SETIT’18),
Vol.1 Med Salim Bouhlel
https://textbookfull.com/product/proceedings-of-the-8th-
international-conference-on-sciences-of-electronics-
technologies-of-information-and-telecommunications-
setit18-vol-1-med-salim-bouhlel/

OR CLICK BUTTON

DOWNLOAD NOW

Download More textbook Instantly Today - Get Yours Now at textbookfull.com


Recommended digital products (PDF, EPUB, MOBI) that
you can download immediately if you are interested.

International Youth Conference on Electronics,


Telecommunications and Information Technologies:
Proceedings of the YETI 2020, St. Petersburg, Russia Elena
Velichko
https://textbookfull.com/product/international-youth-conference-on-
electronics-telecommunications-and-information-technologies-
proceedings-of-the-yeti-2020-st-petersburg-russia-elena-velichko/
textboxfull.com

Biota Grow 2C gather 2C cook Loucas

https://textbookfull.com/product/biota-grow-2c-gather-2c-cook-loucas/

textboxfull.com

Information and Decision Sciences, Proceedings of the 6th


International Conference on FICTA Suresh Chandra Satapathy

https://textbookfull.com/product/information-and-decision-sciences-
proceedings-of-the-6th-international-conference-on-ficta-suresh-
chandra-satapathy/
textboxfull.com

Information Sciences and Systems 2014 Proceedings of the


29th International Symposium on Computer and Information
Sciences 1st Edition Tadeusz Czachórski
https://textbookfull.com/product/information-sciences-and-
systems-2014-proceedings-of-the-29th-international-symposium-on-
computer-and-information-sciences-1st-edition-tadeusz-czachorski/
textboxfull.com
Advances in Information and Communication Networks:
Proceedings of the 2018 Future of Information and
Communication Conference (FICC), Vol. 1 Kohei Arai
https://textbookfull.com/product/advances-in-information-and-
communication-networks-proceedings-of-the-2018-future-of-information-
and-communication-conference-ficc-vol-1-kohei-arai/
textboxfull.com

Proceedings of the Third International Scientific


Conference “Intelligent Information Technologies for
Industry” (IITI’18): Volume 1 Ajith Abraham
https://textbookfull.com/product/proceedings-of-the-third-
international-scientific-conference-intelligent-information-
technologies-for-industry-iiti18-volume-1-ajith-abraham/
textboxfull.com

Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on


Electrical and Information Technologies for Rail
Transportation Transportation 1st Edition Yong Qin
https://textbookfull.com/product/proceedings-of-
the-2015-international-conference-on-electrical-and-information-
technologies-for-rail-transportation-transportation-1st-edition-yong-
qin/
textboxfull.com

Communications, Signal Processing, and Systems:


Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on
Communications, Signal Processing, and Systems Vol 1 Wei
Wang
https://textbookfull.com/product/communications-signal-processing-and-
systems-proceedings-of-the-12th-international-conference-on-
communications-signal-processing-and-systems-vol-1-wei-wang/
textboxfull.com

Unifying Electrical Engineering and Electronics


Engineering Proceedings of the 2012 International
Conference on Electrical and Electronics Engineering 1st
Edition Yusheng Quan
https://textbookfull.com/product/unifying-electrical-engineering-and-
electronics-engineering-proceedings-of-the-2012-international-
conference-on-electrical-and-electronics-engineering-1st-edition-
yusheng-quan/
textboxfull.com
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies 146

Med Salim Bouhlel


Stefano Rovetta Editors

Proceedings of the 8th International


Conference on Sciences of Electronics,
Technologies of Information and
Telecommunications (SETIT’18), Vol.1
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

Volume 146

Series Editors
Robert J. Howlett, Bournemouth University and KES International,
Shoreham-by-sea, UK

Lakhmi C. Jain, Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology,


Centre for Artificial Intelligence, University of Technology Sydney,
Broadway, NSW, Australia
The Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies book series encompasses the
topics of knowledge, intelligence, innovation and sustainability. The aim of the
series is to make available a platform for the publication of books on all aspects of
single and multi-disciplinary research on these themes in order to make the latest
results available in a readily-accessible form. Volumes on interdisciplinary research
combining two or more of these areas is particularly sought.
The series covers systems and paradigms that employ knowledge and intelligence
in a broad sense. Its scope is systems having embedded knowledge and intelligence,
which may be applied to the solution of world problems in industry, the environment
and the community. It also focusses on the knowledge-transfer methodologies and
innovation strategies employed to make this happen effectively. The combination of
intelligent systems tools and a broad range of applications introduces a need for a
synergy of disciplines from science, technology, business and the humanities. The
series will include conference proceedings, edited collections, monographs, hand-
books, reference books, and other relevant types of book in areas of science and
technology where smart systems and technologies can offer innovative solutions.
High quality content is an essential feature for all book proposals accepted for the
series. It is expected that editors of all accepted volumes will ensure that
contributions are subjected to an appropriate level of reviewing process and adhere
to KES quality principles.

** Indexing: The books of this series are submitted to ISI Proceedings,


EI-Compendex, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Springerlink **

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8767


Med Salim Bouhlel Stefano Rovetta

Editors

Proceedings of the 8th


International Conference
on Sciences of Electronics,
Technologies of Information
and Telecommunications
(SETIT’18), Vol.1

123
Editors
Med Salim Bouhlel Stefano Rovetta
SETIT Lab DIBRIS - University of Genoa
University of Sfax Genoa, Genova, Italy
Sfax, Tunisia

ISSN 2190-3018 ISSN 2190-3026 (electronic)


Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies
ISBN 978-3-030-21004-5 ISBN 978-3-030-21005-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21005-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained
herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard
to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

This book collects selected and revised papers that were presented at the interna-
tional conference SETIT 2018, The Conference on the Sciences of Electronics,
Technologies of Information and Telecommunications, covering all topics in the
fields of information and communication technologies and related sciences.
The conference was held jointly in Genoa–Italy, Hammamet–Tunisia, from
December 18 to 20, 2018. The aim of this conference series, a major international
event, is to bring together researchers and developers from both academia and
industry to report on the latest scientific and theoretical advances in their respective
areas, fostering a cross-disciplinary dissemination that would be otherwise made
difficult by the extreme specialization of each field. This is a recent trend that
characterizes very successful events and publications, and encourages scholars and
professionals to overcome disciplinary barriers.
In today’s information-centered world, the relevance of hardware, software,
telecommunications cannot be overestimated; even fields traditionally involved
only marginally, like factory automation and production engineering, are currently
discovering the value of data and information, with such trends as the Industry 4.0
or the exponential growth of machine learning and AI, and with all the consequent
technological developments that are needed to support them.
Both theoretical advances and interesting applications were submitted to the
conference, as it gave special emphasis to interdisciplinary works at the intersection
of two or more of the covered areas. The papers that are included in this collection
have been selected after their presentation at the conference and were carefully
revised. But, in addition to this scientific production per se, the event had also
another important role, providing an occasion for exchanging experiences and for
introducing many young scientists in their training phase to an international sci-
entific community, giving them opportunities for networking and professional
growth.

v
vi Preface

We are therefore grateful to the contributors of this collection, and to all par-
ticipants, for their cooperation, interest, enthusiasm, and lively interactions, that
helped making the conference not only a scientifically stimulating event, but also a
memorable experience.

March 2019 Med Salim Bouhlel


Stefano Rovetta
Contents

Information Processing
Meaning Negotiation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Dalila Djoher Graba, Nabil Keskes, and Djamel Amar Bensaber
Framework for Managing the New General Data Protection
Regulation Related Claims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Sarah Bouslama, Safa Bhar Layeb, and Jouhaina Chaouachi
Automatic Processing of Oral Arabic Complex Disfluencies . . . . . . . . . . 24
Labiadh Majda, Bahou Younès, and Mohamed Hédi Maâloul
A Fuzzy Querying Using Cooperative Answers
and Proximity Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Aicha Aggoune
The Role of Named Entities in Linking News Articles
During Preservation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Muzammil Khan, Arif Ur Rahman, Muhammad Ullah, and Rashid Naseem
Development of Supplier Selection Model Using Fuzzy DEMATEL
Approach in a Sustainable Development Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Oussama El Mariouli and Abdellah Abouabdellah
Software Effort Estimation Using an Optimal Trees Ensemble:
An Empirical Comparative Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Abdelali Zakrani, Ali Idri, and Mustapha Hain
Automatic Classification and Analysis of Multiple-Criteria
Decision Making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Ahmed Derbel and Younes Boujelbene
An Incremental Extraction and Visualization of Ontology Instance
Summaries with Memo Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Fatma Ghorbel, Elisabeth Métais, Fayçal Hamdi, and Nebrasse Ellouze

vii
viii Contents

Choosing the Right Storage Solution for the Corpus Management


System (Analytical Overview and Experiments) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Damir Mukhamedshin, Dzhavdet Suleymanov, and Olga Nevzorova
Requirements Imprecision of Data Warehouse Design Fuzzy
Ontology-Based Approach - Fuzzy Connector Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Abdelmadjid Larbi and Mimoun Malki
Quantitative Prediction of Toxicity of Substituted Phenols
Using Deep Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Latifa Douali
Exploring ISBSG R12 Dataset Using Multi-data Analytics . . . . . . . . . . 131
Ghazi Alkhatib, Khalid Al-Sarayrah, and Alain Abram
A New Biomedical Text Summarization Method Based on Sentence
Clustering and Frequent Itemsets Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Oussama Rouane, Hacene Belhadef, and Mustapha Bouakkaz

Computer Science
An Implementation of InfluxDB for Monitoring and Analytics
in Distributed IoT Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Maurizio Giacobbe, Chakib Chaouch, Marco Scarpa,
and Antonio Puliafito
Publish a Jason Agent BDI Capacity as Web Service REST
and SOAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Hantanirina Felixie Rafalimanana, Jean Luc Razafindramintsa,
Alain Josué Ratovondrahona, Thomas Mahatody, and Victor Manantsoa
FPGA Implementation of a Quantum Cryptography Algorithm . . . . . . 172
Jaouadi Ikram and Machhout Mohsen
Health Recommender Systems: A Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
Hafsa Lattar, Aïcha Ben Salem, Henda Hajjami Ben Ghézala,
and Faouzi Boufares
Distributed Architecture of an Intrusion Detection System
Based on Cloud Computing and Big Data Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Rim Ben Fekih and Farah Jemili
An Affective Tutoring System for Massive Open Online Courses . . . . . . 202
Mohamed Soltani, Hafed Zarzour, Mohamed Chaouki Babahenini,
and Chaouki Chemam
Rationality Measurement for Jadex-Based Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Toufik Marir, Hadjer Mallek, Sihem Oubadi, and Abd El Heq Silem
Contents ix

A Continuous Optimization Scheme Based on an Enhanced


Differential Evolution and a Trust Region Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Hichem Talbi and Amer Draa
Strided Convolution Instead of Max Pooling for Memory Efficiency
of Convolutional Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
Riadh Ayachi, Mouna Afif, Yahia Said, and Mohamed Atri
Ear Recognition Based on Improved Features Representations . . . . . . . 244
Hakim Doghmane, Hocine Bourouba, Kamel Messaoudi,
and El Bey Bournene
Some Topological Indices of Polar Grid Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Atmani Abderrahmane, Elmarraki Mohamed, and Essalih Mohamed
Deep Elman Neural Network for Greenhouse Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Latifa Belhaj Salah and Fathi Fourati

Image and Video


High Efficiency Multiplierless DCT Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Yassine Hachaïchi, Sonia Mami, Younes Lahbib, and Sabrine Rjab
Signature of Electronic Documents Based on the Recognition
of Minutiae Fingerprints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Souhaïl Smaoui and Mustapha Sakka
Person Re-Identification Using Pose-Driven Body Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 303
Salwa Baabou, Behzad Mirmahboub, François Bremond,
Mohamed Amine Farah, and Abdennaceur Kachouri
High Securing Cryptography System for Digital Image Transmission . . . 311
Mohamed Gafsi, Sondes Ajili, Mohamed Ali Hajjaji, Jihene Malek,
and Abdellatif Mtibaa
A Novel DWTTH Approach for Denoising X-Ray Images Acquired
Using Flat Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Olfa Marrakchi Charfi, Naouel Guezmir, Jérôme Mbainaibeye,
and Mokhtar Mars
Recent Advances in Fire Detection and Monitoring Systems:
A Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Rafik Ghali, Marwa Jmal, Wided Souidene Mseddi, and Rabah Attia
Superpixel Based Segmentation of Historical Document Images
Using a Multiscale Texture Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Emna Soyed, Ramzi Chaieb, and Karim Kalti
x Contents

Palm Vein Biometric Authentication Using Convolutional


Neural Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Samer Chantaf, Alaa Hilal, and Rola Elsaleh
Indoor Image Recognition and Classification via Deep
Convolutional Neural Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Mouna Afif, Riadh Ayachi, Yahia Said, Edwige Pissaloux,
and Mohamed Atri
Automatic USCT Image Processing Segmentation
for Osteoporosis Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Marwa Fradi, Wajih Elhadj Youssef, Ghaith Bouallegue,
Mohsen Machhout, and Philippe Lasaygues
An Efficient Approach to Face and Smile Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Alhussain Akoum, Rabih Makkouk, and Rafic Hage chehade

Human-Machine Interaction
The Role of Virtual Reality in the Training for Carotid Artery
Stenting: The Perspective of Trainees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
Daniela Mazzaccaro, Bilel Derbel, Rim Miri, and Giovanni Nano
Bio-Inspired EOG Generation from Video Camera: Application
to Driver’s Awareness Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400
Yamina Yahia Lahssene, Mokhtar Keche, and Abdelaziz Ouamri
A Memory Training for Alzheimer’s Patients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Fatma Ghorbel, Elisabeth Métais, Fayçal Hamdi, and Nebrasse Ellouze
Visual Exploration and Analysis of Bank Performance
Using Self Organizing Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Mouna Kessentini and Esther Jeffers
A Pattern Methodology to Specify Usable Design and Security
in Websites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 435
Taheni Filali and Med Salim Bouhlel
Multi-agents Planner for Assistance in Conducting Energy
Sharing Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 449
Bilal Bou Saleh, Ghazi Bou Saleh, Mohammad Hajjar,
Abdellah El Moudni, and Oussama Barakat
Morocco’s Readiness to Industry 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463
Sarah El Hamdi, Mustapha Oudani, and Abdellah Abouabdellah
Anti-screenshot Keyboard for Web-Based Application
Using Cloaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Hanaa Mohsin and Hala Bahjat
Contents xi

Fall Prevention Exergame Using Occupational Therapy


Based on Kinect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479
Amina Ben Haj Khaled, Ali Khalfallah, and Med Salim Bouhlel
An Assistance Tool to Design Interoperable Components
for Co-simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494
Yassine Motie, Alexandre Nketsa, and Philippe Truillet
Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505
Information Processing
Meaning Negotiation

Dalila Djoher Graba(B) , Nabil Keskes, and Djamel Amar Bensaber

LabRi-SBA Lab., Ecole Supérieure en Informatique (ESI-SBA),


Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria
{d.graba,n.keskes,d.amarbensaber}@esi-sba.dz

Abstract. Nowadays, the web is becoming highly used technology, in


our community. This technology allows us to work in collaboration and
to share knowledge. The pragmatic web represents the most recent exten-
sion of the web (semantic web); which facilitates the exploitation and the
interpretation of the data by the machine. This web is based on three
important components, the context, the community, and the meaning
negotiation. The Meaning negotiation is the most important component
of the pragmatic web on which we will fix our attention. It plays an
important role in the exchanges and resolves conflicts in people cooper-
ation activities. The knowledge (context) of each part in the community
of users is heterogeneous; this will make the meaning negotiation compli-
cated. This paper realizes a meaning negotiation scenario based on the
ontologies merging into the geopolitical domain. This will reduce and
simplifies the process, and improves the semantics of data.

Keywords: Meaning negotiation · Ontology · Pragmatic web ·


Contextual ontology · Domain ontology

1 Introduction

Nowadays, the world is undergoing a radical change; everything has become dig-
ital. In the 21st century, the web becomes a pillar technology of all information
sharing in our universal culture. This technology allows us to work in collabora-
tion and to share knowledge in a given domain. It provides an unlimited amount
of information in a different field: scientific research, commerce, etc.
At the beginning of 2010, the semantic web appears to provide a more efficient
use of information by collecting the knowledge repositories with meaningful and
structure contents. However, the more the Semantic Web becomes widely usable
by humans, the more social interaction becomes difficult activities to achieve.
The human factor in the Semantic Web is a largely unresolved problem. However,
the pragmatic web appeared to solve the limits of the semantic web and increase
human collaboration.
In the pragmatic web, the meaning negotiation presents the process where
the agents will agree on the meaning of a set of terms while using the semantic
aspect (ontology). The problem of meaning negotiation is at the intersection of
two domains the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Knowledge Representation (KR).
c Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. S. Bouhlel and S. Rovetta (Eds.): SETIT 2018, SIST 146, pp. 3–13, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21005-2_1
4 D. D. Graba et al.

However, there are different ways to represent knowledge (logic, ontology, etc.),
hence the problem of heterogeneity. So, in order to have a powerful meaning nego-
tiation, it is necessary to present the knowledge in a clear and unambiguous way.
The model in [1] is a basic example of meaning negotiation, but the realization
of this process is very complex. This model was adopted by the authors [2] where
they merge the contextual ontology with the domain ontology in a case study,
to improve meaning negotiation and to simplify the process of [1]. For this, we
cannot say that the hypothesis of [2] is valid for other domain ontologies. Our
work is to realize a meaning negotiation scenario based on the model of [1],
because of the advantages that we can draw from it (the improvement of the
collaboration between the individuals in the context, the improvement of the
semantics, etc.). The idea is to use the contribution in [2], in order to simplify
and reduce the scenario of [1] in the geopolitical domain.
The next four sections are organized as follows. Section 2 presents some defini-
tion of basic terms. Section 3 presents related work in the domain and synthesizes
them with a comparative table. Finally, Sect. 4 briefly introduces our work and
gives an example. The last section summarizes the paper and outlining directions
for future research.

2 Background

2.1 The Pragmatic Web


This recent web is a new version of the semantic web. According to [3] the Prag-
matic Web describes how and why people exploit information using a set of
tools, practices, and theories. It deals not only with the meaning of information,
but with the social interaction that brings. The pragmatic web encourages the
emergence of communities of interest and practice that develop their own con-
sensus knowledge to normalize their representation [4]. It is about how making
web technology to serve people to collaborate in their disorder, real world and
the evolution of the domains of interaction [5].
To conclude, the pragmatic web is the extension of the semantic web, which
allow a community to negotiate in order to develop their common knowledge.

2.2 Meaning Negotiation


The meaning negotiation is a learning process that receives a set of textual or
verbal discourse from a community sharing the same interest. Each object in
the learning process can be characterized by rules, comments, news, features,
or a collaborative design and development of a team’s products [6]. In another
word, the authors in [7] define the meaning negotiation as a process where a
communication medium is used allowing agents to agree from a set of different
preferred object. The Fig. 1 shows that the meaning negotiation process in the
pragmatic web can be extended by the use of the semantic layer, where the
meaning of the concept is selected.
Meaning Negotiation 5

Fig. 1. The Meaning Negotiation process in the pragmatic web.

The Classification of Automatic Negotiation. The most powerful mech-


anism for dealing with the conflicts between agents is automated negotiation.
We classified the automated negotiation into four different classes: heuristic-
based, argumentation-based approaches, the game theoretical and auction-based
approaches.

– Game-theoretical approaches are a branch of economics that analyze strategic


interactions between self-interested agents. In this class, the negotiation pro-
cess is defined as a game between the participants to determine the optimal
strategy.
– Auction-based approaches are defined as a structured negotiation mechanism
by which an economic agent puts several agents in competition. This class is
a specific class of the Game theoretic approaches.
– Heuristic-based approaches are known as approximative methods used for the
resolution of optimization problems [8]. It represents empiric rules that solve
the problem quickly and find an approximate solution.
– Argument-based approaches aim to exchange the additional information over
or above proposal. This information (argument) can make a different form
to explain explicitly the opinion of the agent and to identify the area of
negotiation space.

2.3 Context

The context represents an important component in the meaning negotiation.


It characterizes the situation of the individual community member in order to
return the most relevant information during the meaning negotiation process.
More concretely, the context is defined as the set of external parameters to
the application environment [9]. To conclude, the context is the environment
that surrounds and contains the entity. This entity (concepts set) is considered
relevant to the interaction between users in meaning negotiation.

Contextual Ontology. In the 21st century, ontologies have been proposed as


models to structure the information in the Knowledge Representation (KR). It
represents a practical solution for communication and interoperability between
information [10]. Contextualization allows the partitioning of ontology according
6 D. D. Graba et al.

to their context in a different domain. Contextual ontologies are an explicit


specification of a contextual conceptualization [11]. In other words, Contextual
ontologies vary according to the context in which a concept is characterized by
a set of properties.

3 Related Work
This section is divided according to context representation: logic, ontology, cog-
nitive, and hybrid models.

3.1 Ontology Context Model


hese approaches use ontologies to model the context. The First Approach [12] pre-
sented an algorithm for automated meaning negotiation. It allows the semantic
interoperability between the local ontology and the heterogeneous ontology for
different autonomous communities. The authors used the semantic dictionary in
order to disambiguate the meaning and eliminate the irrelevant concepts in the
context. They focused on the merge of concept label, leaving aside their relations.
In 2005 De Moore [1] established a pragmatic model to place ontology in
context and operationalize the pragmatics of the Web. The author elaborates
a meaning negotiation scenario between a cat mat seller (MatMaker) and an
association of cat lovers (CLAW). This scenario presents the basic model of
the meaning negotiation that we will take into consideration in our work. It
is very difficult to find a good granularity of context at the pragmatic level
with domain ontology. Then, De Moore in [13] improved the ambiguities of
communication in the meaning negotiation between communities based on the
DOGMA framework to be able to achieve the agreement. The negotiation process
becomes very complex when the community of practice is large in the step of
interaction with the ontology engineering layer.
The authors in [14] implemented 3 protocols for the negotiation ontology in
the Internet News system. These protocols implement a normal communication,
an ontology alignment and a transition between these ontologies. The authors
in [15] have developed a formal framework that provides a negotiation strategy.
This framework compares between a whole contexts of two Backgrounds domain
theories. This process can be very long if the similarities distance SD still highly
evolved and the orphans still existed.
Finally, the paper [16] integrated negotiation ontology in a multiagent com-
munication. This system implements algorithms that compute the translation
between ontologies. For successful communication, it allows agents to share and
to communicate factual and terminological knowledge in the same domain.

3.2 Logical Context Model


The logical system is one of the bases of the meaning negotiation protocols on
the Web, and the mappings between the logical systems are the key to develop
these protocols. Farrugia in [17] used protocols based on a logical system. These
Meaning Negotiation 7

protocols allow agents to interoperate on the Web. In order to agree, each agent
takes into consideration the logical system of the other. The approach [18] pre-
sented a general model of multiagent systems, where agents discuss a point of
view in order to agree on a common angle. The knowledge of the agent is repre-
sented by two sets, a fixed (stub) and a flexible (flex) that can move to a more
descriptive or specific state. This system evolved the complexity of negotiation
processes mostly in the scenarios of several actors.

3.3 Cognitive Model


These models use different algorithms and technique in learning tasks by consid-
ering examples. The artificial neural networks are designed based on biological
networks. These parallel computer networks can learn, store and recall informa-
tion [19]. From these networks, we can find the self-organization map or so-called
SOM. The authors in [20] verified that agents were able to build a common
emerged lexicon by the use of the self-organization map (SOM). A vector that
contains the subject characteristics is sent to the agents. The agents looked in
the neighborhood of BMU (Best Matching Unit) for words that match the sub-
ject. To describe if the word has successfully expressed meaning in a previous
step, an incremental value for word-node peers is assigned to each agent. The
use of multiple SOM for each domain will become more complexes.

3.4 Hybrid Model


The authors in [2] implemented the conceptual model of meaning negotiation [1]
based on the presentation of the multi-agent model [18], to improve and optimizes
the process of meaning negotiation. They presented a case study, in which they
merge a part of the semantic ontology with the individual context ontology.
This study presents only a result in a single domain; this cannot be validated by
single domain ontology. It is very difficult to find a matching between ontologies,
especially in the case where the ontologies are too large.

3.5 Synthesis
The different approaches of the meaning negotiation in the pragmatic web are
classified and compared in Table 1. We compare the different approaches by using
five criteria (model of context, negotiation class, technical, Strengths, Weakness).
The ontological representation is more widely used than the logic one that will
allow us to use the ontological representation to define our own way. It also
summarizes the different technical and algorithm used, such as the self-organizing
map that is based on the neuron network, similarity measurements, multi-agent
system, etc. The class of negotiation argument basis is compatible with the
logical contextual model.
This paper is in the line of different works in this field, more particularly
articulates on the work of [1,2] which represents the basic model of the mean-
ing negotiation in order to minimize the problems mentioned previously in this
document.
8 D. D. Graba et al.

Table 1. Comparative table between the different approaches

Ap Model of Negotiation Weakness Strengths Technical


Context classes
[17] Logic Argument The approach did -Use different or Logical system
basis not deal with the common languages
context of agents to represent the
agents
conceptualizations
- Merge between the
logical systems of
the agents
[12] Ontology Argument The merge does not Eliminate irrelevant The matrix of
basis deal with the labels concepts in a matching,
for the relations, context WordNet
but only the label of
concepts
Disambiguate the
meaning
[1] Ontology Auction The difficulty to -Processes complex Web service,
find a good context Pragmatic
granularity at the Pattern
pragmatic level
-Decrease ambiguity
of semantic data
-Improve
collaboration
between individuals
[13] Ontology Auction -The negotiation -Improve lexicon based,
process becomes collaboration and server
very complex when communication commitment
the community of processes
practice is large
-The ontology -Reduce ambiguities
engineering process of communication
is very complex
-achieve the
agreement
[15] Ontology Argument The process can be -Use several background
basis very long if the similarity metrics domain theory,
semantic distance Similarity
still very height or measure
the domain theories
are very large
-Apply revision of
some propositional
substitutions
[20] The self- Game The approach does A common emerged SOM,
organization theoretic not deal with the lexicon was built Observation
map (SOM) case of using during the game
multiple maps for simulations
each domain
(continued)
Meaning Negotiation 9

Table 1. (continued)

Ap Model of Negotiation Weakness Strengths Technical


Context classes
[14] Ontology Argument The protocols will - The Description
basis become complex if communication Logic, Common
multiple agents without loss of vocabulary
interact information
- The soundness of
information
[18] Logic Argument The process for A multi-agent A model
basis multi-party system consistent Eggs/Yolk,
scenarios is very and adequate multi-agent
complex system
[16] Ontology Argument It allows agents to Multi-agent
basis exchange factual system
and terminological
knowledge
[2] Hybrid model Auction The difficulty to -Improve the Web service,
(logic and find a dependency process of meaning Pragmatic
ontology) between ontologies negotiation Pattern
-Optimize the
meaning negotiation
process

4 Introduction to Our Work

The approach [2] is developed to achieve a merging between the individual con-
text ontology and the domain ontology. Our work is to test the proposal of the
model [2] by the use of the geopolitics domain ontologies for the example.
We implemented the process of meaning negotiation [1,2] in the multi-agent
system in the geopolitics domain. For this, we used the language Java J2EE and
the Jade framework that simplifies the implementation of a multi-agent system.
To merge between ontologies, we tried to implement a simple method. This
method uses two similarities, the syntactic and semantic similarity. (1) The first
similarity compares two strings of characters using Cosine similarity. (2) The
second similarity uses the semantic dictionary Power-Thesaurus to link between
the concepts. In the semantic dictionary, we find the synonym of the concept
in ontology 1 by using the user vote. After that, we tried to find the syntactic
similarities between the returned result from the dictionary and the ontology 2
by using Cosine distance. If the two previous conditions are verified, we merge
the concepts. In the Power Thesaurus dictionary, the user can add new concept
synonyms. For the relevance of these concept synonyms, each synonym will be
rated by the user votes.

4.1 Example

In this section, we give an example of the meaning negotiation in the geopolitical


domain between a cartographer and geopoliticians. The cartographer proposes to
10 D. D. Graba et al.

design a map that contains an external territory named Cocos Island dependents
territory of Australia.

Fig. 2. All the ontologies need.

First, we define all the ontologies: cartographer ontologies, geopolitician


ontologies, domain ontologies, and the broker ontologies (See Fig. 2). Then, we
implement the model of meaning negotiation process in [1]. Figure 3 illustrates
the 16 steps of the scenario before using the merge.

Fig. 3. The meaning negotiation before the merge.

The next step in the work is to merge the domain ontology with the geopoliti-
cian ontology. After merging the ontologies, we tried to re-implement the mean-
ing negotiation process of [1] according to the proposed idea of [2].
Meaning Negotiation 11

Fig. 4. The meaning negotiation after the merge.

We distinguish that the number of steps in the scenario decreases from 16


steps to 12 steps (See Fig. 4). In this section, we conclude that the merging
between ontologies can reduce the meaning negotiation process in the geopolitical
domain.

5 Conclusion
This paper studies and compares the approaches in the field of meaning negoti-
ation; it classifies them according to their contextual representation. It collects
the different definitions of the basic concepts existing in the field and proposes
some new definitions. It also briefly introduces our work and gives an exam-
ple in geopolitics domain. Furthermore, in the future our contribution will be
extended by the use of 30 domain ontologies. We will try to improve and validate
the ontologies merging (domain with contextual ontologies) and generalize the
model [2] for any domain. For this, a benchmark of 30 semantic ontologies will
be used. To validate this proposition, we will use the static test Kolmogorov-
Smirnov.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a new paradigm that provides multiple ser-
vices between objects. These smart objects are interconnected in the internet
network in a simple and transparent way [21]. It will be interesting to use our
approach in the IoT domain.

References
1. De Moor, A.: Patterns for the pragmatic web. In: International Conference on
Conceptual Structures, pp. 1–18. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
12 D. D. Graba et al.

2. Keskes, N., Rahmoun, A.: Meaning negotiation based on merged individual context
ontology and part of semantic web ontology. Int. J. Inf. Commun. Technol. 11(3),
352–368 (2017)
3. Paschke, A.: Pragmatic web 4.0. Towards an active and interactive semantic media
web. W3C Aspect of Semantic Technologies (2013)
4. Singh, M.P.: The pragmatic web: Preliminary thoughts. In: Proceedings of the
NSF-Onto Web-Workshop on Database and Information Systems Research for
Semantic Web and Enterprises, pp. 82–90 (2002)
5. Dimaio, P.: The missing pragmatic link in the semantic web. Bus. Intell. Advisory
Serv. 8(7) (2008)
6. Mustapha, S.S.: CoP sensing framework on web-based environment. In: Web-Based
Support Systems, pp. 333–357. Springer, London (2010)
7. Warglien, M., Gärdenfors, P.: Meaning negotiation. In: Applications of Conceptual
Spaces, pp. 79–94. Springer, Cham (2015)
8. Jmii, H., Meddeb, A., Chebbi, S.: An approach for improving voltage stability by
combination of SVC and TCSC. In: 2016 7th International Conference on Sciences
of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications (SETIT), pp.
134–141. IEEE (2016)
9. Chaari, T., Laforest, F., Flory, A.: Adaptation des applications au contexte en
utilisant les services web. In: Proceedings of the 2nd French-Speaking Conference
on Mobility and Ubiquity Computing, pp. 111–118. ACM (2005)
10. Abioui, H., Idarrou, A., Bouzit, A., et al.: Multi-ontology based semantic anno-
tation review. In: 2016 7th International Conference on Sciences of Electronics,
Technologies of Information and Telecommunications (SETIT), pp. 189–193. IEEE
(2016)
11. Arrar, A.: The role of contextual ontologies in enterprise modeling, world academy
of science, engineering and technology. Int. J. Comput. Electric. Autom. Control
Inf. Eng. 4(9) (2010)
12. Magnini, B., Serafini, L., Speranza, M.: Using NLP techniques for meaning nego-
tiation. In: Proceedings of VIII Convegno AI* IA, Siena, Italy, pp. 11–13 (2002)
13. De Moor, A.: Ontology-guided meaning negotiation in communities of practice. In:
Proceedings of the Workshop on the Design for Large-Scale Digital Communities at
the 2nd International Conference on Communities and Technologies (C&T 2005),
Milano, Italy (2005)
14. Van Diggelen, J., Beun, J., Dignum, F., Van Eijk, R.M., Meyer, J.J.: Ontology
negotiation goals, requirements, and implementation. Int. J. Agent-Oriented Softw.
Eng. 1(1), 63–90 (2007)
15. Ermolayev, V., Keberle, N., Matzke, W.E., Vladimirov, V.: A strategy for auto-
mated meaning negotiation in distributed information retrieval. LNCS, vol. 3729,
p. 201 (2005)
16. Souza, M., Moreira, A., Vieira, R., et al.: Integrating ontology negotiation and
agent communication. In: International Experiences and Directions Workshop on
OWL, pp. 56–68. Springer (2015)
17. Farrugia, J.: Logical systems: Towards protocols for web-based meaning negotia-
tion. In: Meaning Negotiation, Papers from the AAAI Workshop, pp. 56–59 (2002)
18. Burato, E., Cristani Matteo, M., Viganò, L.: Meaning negotiation as inference.
arXiv preprint arXiv: 1101.4356 (2011)
19. Kutucu, H., Hakan, H., Almryad, A.: An application of artificial neural networks
to assessment of the wind energy potential in Libya. In: 2016 7th International
Conference on Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecom-
munications (SETIT), pp. 405–409. IEEE (2016)
Meaning Negotiation 13

20. Lindh-Knuutila, T., Honkela, T., Lagus, K.: Simulating meaning negotiation using
observational language games. In: Symbol Grounding and Beyond, pp. 168–179.
Springer, Heidelberg (2006)
21. Benkerrou, H., Heddad, S., Omar, M.: Credit and honesty-based trust assessment
for hierarchical collaborative IoT systems. In: 2016 7th International Conference
on Sciences of Electronics, Technologies of Information and Telecommunications
(SETIT), pp. 295–299. IEEE (2016)
Framework for Managing the New General
Data Protection Regulation Related Claims

Sarah Bouslama1, Safa Bhar Layeb1(&), and Jouhaina Chaouachi2


1
ENIT, UR-OASIS, University of Tunis El Manar, 1002 Tunis, Tunisia
[email protected]
2
IHEC LR-ECSTRA, University of Carthage, 2016 Carthage, Tunisia

Abstract. The new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into
force on May 2018 compelling services companies and financial institutions to
comply with the new standards of Data Protection. Thus, moving toward pro-
tection and confidentiality is a need and an obligation at the same time. Within
such firms, Information Systems departments seek to develop effective tools for
management, monitoring and supporting decisions that respect the standards and
requirements of the GDPR. In this work, we have designed, developed and
implemented, within a private financial organization, an Information and
Decision Support System (DSS) to manage customer claims related to the
GDPR. Our DSS includes a process of management, following up and reporting
of complaints according to the standards of the new regulation of data
protection.

Keywords: Information system  Claim management  GDPR 


Data Protection  Monitoring  Reporting

1 Introduction

Technological innovations, rise of privacy concerns and economic changes have


tremendously contributed to changing the classical ground rules within the wide range
of service fields. In this context, the relational approach is still considered as a strategic
smart mean to develop a lasting relationship with the customers [1]. This paradigm has
taken a large scale during the last decades and most organizations are providing an
effort to find the best currents to build this relationship. Moreover, one of the major
foundations of the relational approach is the best customer satisfaction. To this end, a
company should ensure its commitment to its customers to achieve their trust and
commitment. Mostly, service companies handle the collection and the use of their
customer’s personal data, whether to manage particular risks or to provide appropriate
commercial offers. Nowadays, the management of personal data is getting complicated
as data is climbing in term of intensity, speed of transfer and accessibility, because of
technological advances linked to the social networks, cloud storage etc. Dealing with
this phenomenon, how to work on the right balance by exploiting data while ensuring
their privacy protection as well as providing to customers the possibility to access their
data and claim in case of attack or withdrawal consent for example? What access could
such firms guarantee? To whom? And what would be the conditions?

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020


M. S. Bouhlel and S. Rovetta (Eds.): SETIT 2018, SIST 146, pp. 14–23, 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21005-2_2
Framework for Managing the New General Data Protection 15

In this context, the new European regulation on data protection personal data,
called the GDPR (General Regulations for Data Protection), appeared on the official
journal of the European Union and entered into force on May 25, 2018 to respond to
these issues and ensure protecting personal data. Meanwhile, Services companies
should comply with the requirements of national legislation protection of personal data.
Tunisia, as many countries around the world, should still be an area of trust and a
destination for the relocation of European investments. This strategic position improves
the employability of young people and foreign currency inflows. This is a boon for
each country that seeks to become a hub for data processing.
The objective of our work is to develop a flexible framework at a lower cost that
ensures automation and improvement of customer claims management concerning the
acquisition of their new rights relating to the GDPR while providing decision-makers
with dashboards enabling them to evaluate these claims in order to effectively interact
in the process of taking customer right’s decisions. This framework was implemented
within a Tunisian private bank. Without loss of Generality, this solution is flexible,
configurable and scalable to provide a level of service in line with the needs of the
GDRP and propose an open solution to future developments in the field of personal
data security.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 introduces the
GDPR. In Sect. 3, we present some related works. Our contribution model is described
in Sect. 4. Section 5 presents the adopted methodology. Section 6 illustrates some
interfaces of the developed framework. Finally, Sect. 7 draws conclusions and provides
avenues for future research.

2 The General Data Protection Regulation GDPR

The General Data Protection Regulation is the new European regulation on the pro-
tection of data. It came into force on May 25, 2018 and influenced any company that
deals with personal data processing [2]. This regulation is mainly based on three
ambitious objectives:
• Unifying the regulation of data protection,
• Empowering the concerned companies,
• Strengthen people’s rights: right of access, right of forgetting, right of portability,
etc.
Chawki Gaddes, the president of the National Instance of Protection of Personal
Data in Tunisia states recently that “What will change is that the EU will protect itself
more: that is to say that the data processed in Europe might not be transferred else-
where, except to countries with sufficient protection of personal data. Thus, at the cut-
off date, the EU will specify to which country the data transfer is allowed and to which
others it is not. That’s what we are working on now to ensure we are not on this new
blacklist, with which we will only be allowed to cooperate by resorting to complex
procedures,” he explained (www.businessnews.com.tn, February 28, 2018). Accord-
ingly, most countries would be on the European blacklist of the personal data pro-
tection. There are even European member countries that are not yet responding to the
16 S. Bouslama et al.

new deal. With the law currently being adopted, Tunisia is one of the few countries
meet the European criteria in this area that will have a legislation in line with the
European regulation. Indeed, the regulation also allows the right to be forgotten
(erasure of data after a certain time), the dereferencing that forces the search engines to
delete a link at the request of a data subject, the portability of data, etc. It is worthy to
mention that this new regulation affects all companies having data exchanges with the
European Union, such as banks, call centers, insurances institutions, clinics, to quote
just a few. Thus, public or private structures will no longer be able to process European
personal data, if they do not have a Data Protection Officer (DPO), otherwise there is a
fines risk of up to 4% of their previous year turnover. This DPO will be responsible of
treatments mapping that will allow him to know which procedure to follow for each
treatment done internally. Another prerequisite, before handling personal data of a
specific person, the concerned structures should ask him for an explicit, clear, written
and well signified consent.

3 Related Works

Over the last few years, claims management is catching the interest of both practi-
tioners and researchers. Studies conducted on this subject are mainly based on cus-
tomer’s behavior and expectations, their loyalty and satisfaction, also on customer
relationship management and marketing axis in general. As far as the automation of
claims management is concerned, the majority of studies are based on data mining
techniques that are mainly used to collect data about customer complaints in order to
extract some classification rules and then classify each claim into a particular cluster
(e.g. [3]). These techniques allow intervention within the claims process and ultimately
in the decision support process in response to these claims. Many studies were con-
ducted to propose unifying frameworks in several fields (e.g. [4, 5]). In the following,
we will detail major works in this subject matter of claim management systems.
In [6], Chtitia provided an excellent review of processes allowing claims detection
based on past claims, thereby embodies a proactive character. She proposed appropriate
solutions to improve current processes so the experiences return mechanism is integrated
within a process of proactive Management claims. The used approach is the REX
approach based on two sub-processes: exploitation based on past claims, and capital-
ization based on the identification of information, documents, tips or persons useful for
the complaints processing. Furthermore, [7] investigated the automatically processing
claims from beneficiaries of the Families Allowance Cash (FAC) of Rhone, France. They
propose some improvements of the current process and feedback integration within the
claims management process for a proactive management. The mainly used approaches are
data mining tools such as analysis of multiple matches, ascending hierarchical classifi-
cation, latent Dirichlet allocation. Recently, Carneiro et al. [8] explored the detection of
credit fraud by combining manual and automatic classification while comparing different
methods of machine learning. The goals to achieve were the design and implementation of
a fraud detection system and the combination of automatic and manual classifiers. The
authors also used some data mining techniques, namely support sector machines, logistic
regression, and random forests. Finally, Suryotrisongko et al. [9] have developed a public
Framework for Managing the New General Data Protection 17

claim service web application using springboot microservice architecture that was
deployed in a Cloud environment.
We notice that the overwhelming of claims management literature is based on data
mining approaches, while only few works investigate practical perspectives of the
decision-making process. It is also noteworthy that this trend is mostly due to the fact that
most claims management studies were conducted in the field of marketing, communi-
cation and/or legal sciences. Thus, the shortage of specialized tools in complaints man-
agement presents a tremendous limitation for its applicability. Today, professionals
declare an obvious and urgent need for the automation of claims process starting from
their collection until the decisions related to their responses, especially under the new
General Regulations on Data Protection. Actually, there are some tools that support the
entire or a specific part of the claims management process, including commercial, open
source and free software, usually called Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) tools. We mention Microsoft Dynamics CRM and the enterprise resource plan-
ning SAP among the most popular CRM software (e.g. [10]). Despite their performance
and robustness, some professionals still express their interest in leading improvements to
increase their flexibility and ease of use. Moreover, these commercial solutions require
relatively high costs while monitoring of specific types of customer claims that are not
necessarily aligned with the GDPR, namely the right of access, the right of opposition, and
the right of portability. Let’s remind here that the inventory management, planning and
resource management modules in the mentioned solutions could useless compared to the
need of some companies. More precisely, some pro-software provide a complete solution
of business management while customer complaint management is only one module that
should be restructured to ensure its consistent with the GDPR context.

4 Modeling

In order to comply with GDPR standards and to manage customer claims regarding this
new regulation, we propose the following six phases to model the GDPR claim
management process:
1. Dissemination phase: This phase essentially consists of broadcasting to customers’
searchable information regarding the GDPR content. Each customer should be
informed on the privileges provided by this new law about its personal data protection.
In terms of claim management, this step has a basic form regarding customer expe-
rience because it is simply informative. But in the GDPR context, this phase embodies
an essential value within the new law, the different rights and the new topic.
2. Collection Phase: Within this phase, the received complaints are collected. The
collection frequency and the collected claims amount would be justified by the Data
Protection Officer (DPO).
3. Treatment phase: During this phase, the DPO needs the proposed framework to
input the necessary data for each submitted claims.
4. Transfer phase: This phase is dedicated to sending technical reports according to
the appropriate customer rights, as well as litigation to working group managers to
help them making the right decisions.
18 S. Bouslama et al.

5. Study phase: This is an in-depth study phase for requests received from the cus-
tomers. It consists on examining case by case each customer features, namely
economic, professional, family situation etc. as well as his data in the information
system to finally reach a decision on his claim and grant him with the desired right.
6. Response phase: In this last step, the DPO must inform the customer about the taken
decision (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The proposed model for the GDPR claim management process

5 Methodology

5.1 Functional Requirement Analysis


The analysis of functional requirement was conducted by examining the proposed
model and looking at some similar applications and studies related to decision support
systems. The actor requirement obviously constitutes functional requirement. In our
case, the actor is the user of this software and is actually the DPO.
Thus, we derived the following functional requirements:
1. Manage rights requests:
Add right requests,
Add an access right,
Add an opposition right,
Add a portability right,
Add a right of consent withdrawal.
2. Change rights requests:
Modify an access right,
Modify an opposition right,
Modify a portability right,
Modify a right of consent withdrawal.
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
dark brown laminated material, made up very largely of the cuticles
of Lepidodendroid plants.
From such examples we may naturally pass to fossils in which the
plant structure has been converted into carbonaceous matter or
even pure coal. This form of preservation is especially common in
plant-bearing beds at various geological horizons. In other cases,
again, some mineral solution, oxide of iron, talc, and other
substances, has replaced the plant tissues. From the Coal-Measures
of Switzerland Heer has figured numerous specimens of fern fronds
and other plants in which the leaf form has been left on the dark
coloured rock surface as a thin layer of white talcose material[87]. In
the Buntersandstone of the Vosges and other districts the red
imperfectly preserved impressions of plant stems and leaves are
familiar fossils[88]; the carbonaceous substance of the tissues has
been replaced by a brown or red oxide of iron.
INCRUSTATIONS.

Plants frequently occur in the form of incrustations; and in fact


incrustations, which may assume a variety of forms, are the
commonest kind of fossil. The action of incrusting springs, or as they
are often termed petrifying springs, is illustrated at Knaresborough,
in Yorkshire, and many other places where water highly charged with
carbonate of lime readily deposits calcium carbonate on objects
placed in the path of the stream.
The travertine deposited in this manner forms an incrustation on
plant fragments, and if the vegetable substance is subsequently
removed by the action of water or decay, a mould of the embedded
fragment is left in the calcareous matrix. An instructive example of
this form of preservation was described in 1868[89] by Sharpe from an
old gravel pit near Northampton. He found in a section eight feet high
(fig. 10), a mass of incrusted plants of Chara (a) resting on and
overlain by a calcareous paste (c) and (d) made up of the
decomposed material of the overlying rock, and this again resting on
sand. The place where the section occurred was originally the site of
a pool in which Stoneworts grew in abundance. Large blocks of
these incrusted Charas may be seen in the fossil-plant gallery of the
British Museum.

Fig. 10. Section of an old pool filled up with a mass of Chara. (From the
Geol. Mag. vol. v. 1868, p. 563.)
In the Natural History Museum in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris,
one of the table-cases contains what appear to be small models of
flowers in green wax. These are in reality casts in wax of the moulds
or cavities left in a mass of calcareous travertine, on the decay and
disappearance of the encrusted flowers and other plant fragments[90].
This porous calcareous rock occurs near Sézanne in Southern
France, and is of Eocene age[91]. The plants were probably blown on
to the freshly deposited carbonate of lime, or they may have simply
fallen from the tree on to the incrusting matrix; more material was
afterwards deposited and the flowers were completely enclosed.
Eventually the plant substance decayed, and as the matrix hardened
moulds were left of the vegetable fragments. Wax was artificially
forced into these cavities and the surrounding substance removed by
the action of an acid, and thus perfect casts were obtained of Tertiary
flowers.
Darwin has described the preservation of trees in Van Diemen’s
land by means of calcareous substances. In speaking of beds of
blown sand containing branches and roots of trees he says:
“The whole became consolidated by the percolation of calcareous matter; and the
cylindrical cavities left by the decaying of the wood were thus also filled up with a hard
pseudo-stalactitical stone. The weather is now wearing away the softer parts, and in
consequence the hard casts of the roots and branches of the trees project above the
surface, and, in a singularly deceptive manner, resemble the stumps of a dead
thicket[92].”

As a somewhat analogous method of preservation to that in


travertine, the occurrence of plants in amber should be mentioned. In
Eocene times there existed over a region, part of which is now the
North-east German coast, an extensive forest of conifers and other
trees. Some of the conifers were rich in resinous secretions which
were poured out from wounded surfaces or from scars left by falling
branches. As these flowed as a sticky mass over the stem or
collected on the ground, flowers, leaves, and twigs blown by the
wind or falling from the trees, became embedded in the exuded
resin. Evaporation gradually hardened the resinous substance until
the plant fragments became sealed up in a mass of amber, in
precisely the same manner in which objects are artificially preserved
in Canada balsam. In many cases the amber acts as a petrifying
agent, and by penetrating the tissues of a piece of wood it preserves
the minute structural details in wonderful perfection[93]. Dr Thomas in
an account of the amber beds of East Prussia in 1848, refers to the
occurrence of large fossil trees; he writes:
“The continuous changes to which the coast is exposed, often bring to light enormous
trunks of trees, which the common people had long regarded as the trunks of the amber
tree, before the learned declared that they were the stems of palm trees, and in
consequence determined the position of Paradise to be on the coast of East
Prussia[94].”
CASTS OF TREES.

In 1887 an enormous fossil plant was discovered in a sandstone


quarry at Clayton near Bradford[95]. The fossil was in the form of a
sandstone cast of a large and repeatedly branched Stigmaria, and it
is now in the Owens College Museum, where it was placed through
the instrumentality of Prof. Williamson. The plant was found spread
out in its natural position on the surface of an arenaceous shale, and
overlain by a bed of hard sandstone identical with the material of
which the cast is composed. Williamson has thus described the
manner of formation of the fossil:
“It is obvious that the entire base of the tree became encased in a plastic material,
which was firmly moulded upon these roots whilst the latter retained their organisation
sufficiently unaltered to enable them to resist all superincumbent pressure. This external
mould then hardened firmly, and as the organic materials decayed they were floated out
by water which entered the branching cavity; at a still later period the same water was
instrumental in replacing the carbonaceous elements by the sand of which the entire
structure now consists[96].”

Although the branches have not been preserved for their whole
length, they extend a distance of 29 feet 6 inches from right to left,
and 28 feet in the opposite direction.
The fossil represented in fig. 1 (p. 10), from the collection of Dr
John Woodward, affords a good example of a well-defined
impression. The surface of the specimen, of which a cast is
represented in fig. 1, shows very clearly the characteristic leaf-
cushions and leaf-scars of a Lepidodendron. The stem was
embedded in soft sand, and as the latter became hard and set, an
impression was obtained of the external markings of the
Lepidodendron. Decay subsequently removed the substance of the
plant.

Fig. 11. Equisetites columnaris Brongn. From a specimen in the


Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. ⅓ nat. size.
In fig. 11 some upright stems of a fossil Horse-tail (Equisetites
columnaris) from the Lower Oolite rocks near Scarborough, are seen
in a vertical position in sandstone. On the surface of the fossils there
is a thin film of carbonaceous matter, which is all that remains of the
original plant substance; the stems were probably floated into their
present position and embedded vertically in an arenaceous matrix.
The hollow pith-cavity was filled with sand, and as the tissues
decayed they became in part converted into a thin coaly layer. The
vertical position of such stems as those in fig. 11 naturally suggests
their preservation in situ, but in this as in many other cases the erect
manner of occurrence is due to the settling down of the drifted plants
in this particular position.
FOSSIL CASTS.

An example of Stigmaria drawn in fig. 12 further illustrates the


formation of casts[97]. The outer surface with the characteristic
spirally arranged circular depressions, represents the wrinkled bark
of the dried plant; the smaller cylinder, on the left side of the upper
end (fig. 12, 2, p) marks the position of the pith surrounded by the
secondary wood, which has been displaced from its axial position.
The pith decayed first, and the space was filled in with mud;
somewhat later the wood and cortex were partially destroyed, and
the rod of material which had been introduced into the pith-cavity
dropped towards one side of the decaying shell of bark.
Fig. 12. Stigmaria ficoides Brongn. 1. Side view, showing wrinkled
surface and the scars of appendages. 2. End view (upper) showing the
displaced central cylinder; p, pith, x, xylem, r, medullary rays. 3. End
view (lower). From a specimen in the Woodwardian Museum. ½ nat.
size.
As the parenchymatous medullary rays readily decayed, the mud
in the pith extended outwards between the segments of wood which
still remained intact, and so spokes of argillaceous material were
formed which filled the medullary ray cavities. The cortical tissues
were decomposed, and their place taken by more argillaceous
material. At one end of the specimen (fig. 12, 3) we find the wood
has decayed without its place being afterwards filled up with foreign
material. At the opposite end of the specimen, the woody tissue has
been partially preserved by the infiltration of a solution containing
carbonate of lime (fig. 12, 2).
Numerous instances have been recorded from rocks of various
geological ages of casts of stems standing erect and at right angles
to the bedding of the surrounding rock. These vertical trees
occasionally attain a considerable length, and have been formed by
the filling in by sand or mud of a pipe left by the decay of the stem. It
is frequently a matter of some difficulty to decide how far such fossils
are in the position of growth of the tree, or whether they are merely
casts of drifted stems, which happen to have been deposited in an
erect position. The weighting of floating trees by stones held in the
roots, added to the greater density of the root wood, has no doubt
often been the cause of this vertical position. In attempting to
determine if an erect cast is in the original place of growth of the
tree, it is important to bear in mind the great length of time that wood
is able to resist decay, especially under water. The wonderful state of
preservation of old piles found in the bed of a river, and the
preservation of wooden portions of anchors of which the iron has
been completely removed by disintegration, illustrate this power of
resistance. In this connection, the following passage from Lyell’s
travels in America is of interest. In describing the site of an old forest,
he writes[98]:
“Some of the stumps, especially those of the fir tribe, take fifty years to rot away,
though exposed in the air to alternations of rain and sunshine, a fact on which every
geologist will do well to reflect, for it is clear that the trees of a forest submerged
beneath the water, or still more, if entirely excluded from the air, by becoming imbedded
in sediment, may endure for centuries without decay, so that there may have been
ample time for the slow petrifaction of erect fossil trees in the Carboniferous and other
formations, or for the slow accumulation around them of a great succession of strata.”

In another place, in speaking of the trees in the Great Dismal


Swamp, Lyell writes:—“When thrown down, they are soon covered
by water, and keeping wet they never decompose, except the sap
wood, which is less than an inch thick[99].” We see, then, that trees
may have resisted decay for a sufficiently long time to allow of a
considerable deposition of sediment. It is very difficult to make any
computation of the rate of deposition of a particular set of
sedimentary strata, and, therefore, to estimate the length of time
during which the fossil stems must have resisted decay.
PLANTS AND COAL.

The protective qualities of humus acids, apart from the almost


complete absence of Bacteria[100] from the waters of Moor- or Peat-
land, is a factor of great importance in the preservation of plants
against decay for many thousands of years.
From examples of fossil stems or leaves in which the organic
material has been either wholly or in part replaced by coal, we may
pass by a gradual transition to a mass of opaque coal in which no
plant structure can be detected. It is by no means uncommon to
notice on the face of a piece of coal a distinct impression of a plant
stem, and in some cases the coal is obviously made up of a number
of flattened and compressed branches or leaves of which the original
tissues have been thoroughly carbonised. A block of French coal,
represented in fig. 13, consists very largely of laminated bands
composed of the long parallel veined leaves of the genus Cordaites
and of the bark of Lepidodendron, Sigillaria, and other Coal-Measure
genera. The long rhizomes and roots below the coal are preserved
as casts in the underclay.
In examining thin sections of coal, pieces of pitted tracheids or
crushed spores are frequently met with as fragments of plant
structures which have withstood decay more effectually than the bulk
of the vegetable débris from which the coal was formed.
The coaly layer on a fossil leaf is often found to be without any
trace of the plant tissues, but not infrequently such carbonised
leaves, if treated with certain reagents and examined
microscopically, are seen to retain the outlines of the epidermal cells
of the leaf surface. If a piece of the Carbonaceous film detached
from a fossil leaf is left for some days in a small quantity of nitric acid
containing a crystal of chlorate of potash, and, after washing with
water, is transferred to ammonia, transparent film often shows very
clearly the outlines of the epidermal cell and the form of the stomata.
Such treatment has been found useful in many cases as an aid to
determination[101]. Prof. Zeiller informs me that he has found it
particularly satisfactory in the case of cycadean leaves.
Fig. 13. Part of a coal seam largely made up of Cordaites leaves.
Stigmaria and Stigmariopsis shown in the rock (underclay) underlying
the coal. (After Grand’Eury [82] Pl. i. fig. 3.)
FOSSILS IN HALF-RELIEF.

It is sometimes possible to detach the thin lamina representing the


carbonised leaf or other plant fragment from the rock on which it lies
and to mount it whole on a slide. Good examples of plants treated in
this way may be seen in the Edinburgh and British Museums,
especially Sphenopteris fronds from the Carboniferous oil shales of
Scotland. In the excellent collection of fossil plants in Stockholm
there are still finer examples of such specimens, obtained by Dr
Nathorst from some of the Triassic plants of Southern Sweden. In a
few instances the tissues of a plant have been converted into coal in
such a manner as to retain the form of the individual cells, which
appear in section as a black framework in a lighter coloured matrix.
Examples of such carbonised tissues were figured by some of the
older writers, and Solms-Laubach has recently[102] described sections
of Palaeozoic plants preserved in this manner. The section
represented in fig. 70 is that of a Calamite stem (8 × 9·5 cm.) in
which the wood has been converted into carbonaceous material, but
the more delicate tissues have been almost completely destroyed.
The thin and irregular black line a little distance outside the ring of
wood, and forming the limit of the drawing, probably represents the
cuticle. The whole section is embedded in a homogeneous matrix of
calcareous rock, in which the more resistant tissues of the plant have
been left as black patches and faint lines.
Mention should be made of a special form of preservation which
has been described as fossilisation in half-relief. If a stem is
imbedded in sand or mud, the matrix receives an impression of the
plant surface, and if the hollow pith-cavity is filled with the
surrounding sediment, the surface of the medullary cast will exhibit
markings different from those seen on the surface in contact with the
outside of the stem. The space separating the pith-cast from the
mould bearing the impression of the stem surface may remain
empty, or it may be filled with sedimentary material. In half-relief
fossils, on the other hand, we have projecting from the under surface
of a bed a more or less rounded and prominent ridge with certain
surface markings, and fitting into a corresponding groove in the
underlying rock on which the same markings have been impressed.
It is conceivable that such a cast might be obtained if soft plant
fragments were lying on a bed of sand, and were pressed into it by
the weight of superincumbent material. The plant fragment would be
squeezed into a depression, and its substance might eventually be
removed and leave no other trace than the half-relief cast and hollow
mould. A twig lying on sand would by its own weight gradually sink a
little below the surface; if it were then blown away or in some manner
removed, the depression would show the surface features of the
twig. When more sand came to be spread out over the depression, it
would find its way into the pattern of the mould, and so produce a
cast. If at a later period when the sand had hardened, the upper
portion were separated from the lower, from the former there would
project a rounded cast of the hollow mould. The preservation of soft
algae as half-relief casts has been doubted by Nathorst[103] and
others as an unlikely occurrence in nature. They prefer to regard
such ridges on a rock face as the casts of the trails or burrows of
animals. This question of the preservation of the two sides of a
mould showing the same impression of a plant has long been a
difficult problem; it is discussed by Parkinson in his Organic
Remains. In one of the letters (No. xlvi.), he quotes the objection of
a sceptical friend, who refuses to believe such a manner of
preservation possible, “until,” says Parkinson, “I can inform him if, by
involving a guinea in plaster of Paris, I could obtain two impressions
of the king’s head, without any impression of the reverse[104].”
It would occupy too much space to attempt even a brief reference
to the various materials in which impressions of plants have been
preserved. Carbonaceous matter is the most usual substance, and in
some cases it occurs in the form of graphite which on dark grey or
black rocks has the appearance of a plant drawn in lead pencil. The
impressions of plants on the Jurassic (Kimeridgian) slates of
Solenhofen[105] in Bavaria, like those on the Triassic sandstones of
the Vosges, are usually marked out in red iron oxide.
PETRIFIED TREES.

So far we have chiefly considered examples of plants preserved in


various ways by incrustation, that is, by having been enclosed in
some medium which has received an impression of the surface of
the plant in contact with it. By far the most valuable fossil specimens
from a botanical point of view are however those in which the
internal structure has been preserved; that is in which the preserving
medium has not served merely as an encasing envelope or internal
cast, but has penetrated into the body of the plant fragment and
rendered permanent the organization of the tissues. In almost every
Natural History or Geological Museum one meets with specimens of
petrified trees or polished sections of fossil palm stems and other
plants, in which the internal structure has been preserved in siliceous
material, and admits of detailed investigation in thin sections under
the microscope. Silica, calcium carbonate, with usually a certain
amount of carbonate of iron and magnesium carbonate, iron pyrites,
amber, and more rarely calcium fluoride or other substances have
taken the place of the original cell-walls. Of silicified stems, those
from Antigua, Egypt, Central France, Saxony, Brazil, Tasmania[106],
and numerous other places afford good examples. Darwin records
numerous silicified stems in Northern Chili, and the Uspallata Pass.
In the central part of the Andes range, 7000 feet high, he describes
the occurrence of “Snow-white projecting silicified columns.... They
must have grown,” he adds, “in volcanic soil, and were subsequently
submerged below sea-level, and covered with sedimentary beds and
lava-flows[107].” A striking example of the occurrence of numerous
petrified plant stems has been described by Holmes from the Tertiary
forests of the Yellowstone Park. From the face of a cliff on the north
side of Amethyst mountain “rows of upright trunks stand out on the
ledges like the columns of a ruined temple. On the more gentle
slopes farther down, but where it is still too steep to support
vegetation, save a few pines, the petrified trunks fairly cover the
surface, and were at first supposed by us to be the shattered
remains of a recent forest[108].” Marsh[109] and Conwentz[110] have
described silicified trees more than fifty feet in length from a locality
in California where several large forest trees of Tertiary age have
been preserved in volcanic strata. In South Africa on the Drakenberg
hills there occur numerous silicified trunks, occasionally erect and
often lying on the ground, probably of Triassic age[111]. In some
instances the specimens measure several feet in length and
diameter. Some of the coniferous stems seen in Portland, and
occasionally met with reared up against a house side, illustrate the
silicification of plant structure on a large scale. These are of Upper
Jurassic (Purbeck) age. From Grand’Croix in France a silicified stem
of Cordaites of Palaeozoic age has been recorded with a length of
twenty meters. The preservation of plants by siliceous infiltrations
has long been known. One of the earliest descriptions of this form of
petrifaction in the British Isles is that of stems found in Lough Neagh,
Ireland. In his lectures on Natural Philosophy, published at Dublin in
1751, Barton gives several figures of Irish silicified wood, and
records the following occurrence in illustration of the peculiar
properties erroneously attributed to the waters of Lough Neagh.
Describing a certain specimen (No. xxvi), he writes:—
“This is a whetstone, which as Mr Anthony Shane, apothecary, who was born very
near the lake, and is now alive, relates, he made by putting a piece of holly in the water
of the lake near his father’s house, and fixing it so as to withstand the motion of the
water, and marking the place so as to distinguish it, he went to Scotland to pursue his
studies, and seven years after took up a stone instead of holly, the metamorphosis
having been made in that time. This account he gave under his handwriting. The shore
thereabouts is altogether loose sand, and two rivers discharge themselves into the lake
very near that place[112].”

The well-known petrified trees from the neighbourhood of Lough


Neagh are probably of Pliocene age, but their exact source has been
a matter of dispute[113].
PETRIFIED WOOD.
In 1836 Stokes described certain stems in which the tissues had
been partially mineralised. In describing a specimen of beech from a
Roman aqueduct at Eibsen in Lippe Bückeburg], he says:—
“The wood is, for the most part, in the state of very old dry wood, but there are several
insulated portions, in which the place of the wood has been taken by carbonate of lime.
These portions, as seen on the surface of the horizontal section, are irregularly circular,
varying in size, but generally a little less or more than ⅛ inch in diameter, and they run
through the whole thickness of the specimen in separate, perpendicular columns. The
vessels of the wood are distinctly visible in the carbonate of lime, and are more perfect
in their form and size in those portions of the specimen than in that which remains
unchanged[114].”

Fig. 14.
A. Araucarioxylon Withami (L. and H.). Radiating lines of crystallisation in
secondary wood, as seen in transverse section.
B. Lepidodendron sp. Concentric lines of crystallisation, and scalariform
tracheids, as seen in longitudinal section.

This partial petrifaction of the structure in patches is often met with


in fossil stems, and may be seriously misleading to those unfamiliar
with the appearance presented by the crystallisation of silica from
scattered centres in a mass of vegetable tissue. A good example of
this is afforded by the gigantic stems discovered in 1829 in the
Craigleith Quarry near Edinburgh[115]. Of those two large stems found
in the Sandstone rock, the longest, originally 11 meters long and
3·3–3·9 meters in girth, is now set up in the grounds of the British
Museum, and a large polished section (1 m. × 87 cm.) is exhibited in
the Fossil-plant Gallery. The other stem is in the Botanic Garden,
Edinburgh. Transverse sections of the wood of the London specimen
show scattered circular patches (fig. 14 A) in the mineralised wood in
which the tracheids are very clearly preserved; while in the other
portion the preservation is much less perfect. The patch of tissue in
fig. 14 A shows a portion of the wood of the Craigleith tree
[Araucarioxylon Withami (L. and H.)] in which the mineral matter,
consisting of dolomite with a little silica here and there, has
crystallised in such a manner as to produce what is practically a
cone-in-cone structure on a small scale, which has partially
obliterated the structural features. This minute cone-in-cone
structure is not uncommon in petrified tissues; it is precisely similar
in appearance to that described by Cole[116] in certain minerals. The
crystallisation has been set up along lines radiating from different
centres, and the particles of the tissue have been pushed as it were
along these lines.
Fig. 15. Transverse section of the central cylinder of a Carboniferous
Lepidodendroid stem in the collection of Mr Kidston. From Dalmeny,
Scotland. s. Silica filling up the central portion of the pith. p. Remains
of the pith tissue. x1. Primary xylem. x2. Secondary xylem. c. Innermost
cortex.
PRESERVATION OF TISSUES.

A somewhat different crystallisation phenomenon is illustrated by


the extremely fine section of a Lepidodendroid plant shown in fig. 15.
The tissues of the primary and secondary wood (x1 and x2) are well
preserved throughout in silica, but scattered through the siliceous
matrix there occur numerous circular patches, as seen in the figure.
One of these is more clearly shown in fig. 14 B drawn from a
longitudinal section through the secondary wood, x2; it will be noticed
that where the concentric lines of the circular patch occur, the
scalariform thickenings of the tracheids are sharply defined, but
immediately a tracheid is free of the patch these details are lost. It
would appear that in this case silicification was first completed round
definite isolated centres, and the secondary crystallisation in the
matrix partially obliterated some of the more delicate structural
features. The same phenomenon has been observed in oolitic
rocks[117], in which the oolitic grains have resisted secondary
crystallisation and so retained their original structure.
Among the most important examples of silicified plants are those
from a few localities in Central France. In the neighbourhood of
Autun there used to be found in abundance loose nodules of
siliceous rock containing numerous fragments of seeds, twigs, and
leaves of different plants. The rock of which the broken portions are
found on the surface of the ground was formed about the close of
the Carboniferous period.
At the hands of French investigators the microscopic examination
of these fragments of a Palaeozoic vegetation have thrown a flood of
light on the anatomical structure of many extinct types. Sometimes
the silica has penetrated the cavities of the cells and vessels, and
the walls have decayed without their substance being replaced by
mineral material. Sections of tissues preserved in this manner, if
soaked in a coloured solution assume an appearance almost
identical with that of stained sections of recent plants. The spaces
left by the decayed walls act as fine capillaries and suck up the
coloured solution[118].
In the Coal-Measure sandstones of England large pieces of woody
stems are occasionally met with in which the mineralisation has been
incomplete. A brown piece of fossil stem lying in a bed of sandstone
shows on the surface a distinct woody texture, and the lines of wood
elements are clearly visible. The whole is, however, very friable and
falls to pieces if an attempt is made to cut thin sections of it; the
tracheids of the wood easily fall apart owing to the walls being
imperfectly preserved, and the absence of a
connecting framework such as would have
been formed had the membranes been
thoroughly silicified. It is occasionally possible
to obtain from petrified plant stems perfect
casts in silica or other substances of the cavity
of a sclerenchymatous fibre, in which the
mineral has been deposited not only in the
cavity but in the fine pit-canals traversing the
lignified walls. Such a cast is represented in fig.
16, the fine lateral projections are the delicate
casts of the pit canals. Numerous instances of
minute and delicate tissues preserved in silica
are recorded in later chapters. A somewhat
unusual type of silicification is met with in some
of the Gondwana rocks of India, in which
cycadean fronds occur as white porcellaneous
specimens showing a certain amount of
internal structure in a siliceous matrix.
Specimens of such leaves may be seen in the
British Museum.
COAL-BALLS.

In the Coal-Measures of England, especially


in the neighbourhood of Halifax in Yorkshire, Fig. 16. Internal cast
and in South Lancashire, the seams of coal of a
occasionally contain calcareous nodules sclerenchymatous
varying in size from a nut to a man’s head, and cell from the root of
a Cretaceous fern
consisting of about 70% of carbonate of (Rhizodendron
calcium and magnesium, and 30% of oxide of oppoliense Göpp.).
iron, sulphide of iron, &c.[119] The nodules, often After Stenzel (86)
spoken of by English writers as ‘coal-balls,’ Pl. iii. fig. 29. × 240
contain numerous fragments of plants in which and reduced to one-
the minute cellular structure is preserved with half.
remarkable perfection. It should be noted that the term coal-ball is
also applied to rounded or subangular pieces of coal which are
occasionally met with in coal seams, and especially in certain French
coal fields. To avoid confusion it is better to speak of the plant-
containing nodules as calcareous nodules, restricting the term coal-
ball to true coal pebbles. A section of a calcareous nodule, when
seen under the microscope, presents the appearance of a matrix of
a crystalline calcareous substance containing a heterogeneous
mixture of all kinds of plant tissues, usually in the form of broken
pieces and in a confused mass.

Fig. 17. A thin section of a calcareous nodule from the Coal-Measures.


Binney collection, Woodwardian Museum, Cambridge. Very slightly
reduced.
A large section of one of these nodules (12·5 cm. × 8·5 cm.) is
shown in fig. 17. It illustrates the manner of occurrence of various
fragments of different plants in which the structure has been more or
less perfectly preserved. In this particular example we see sections
of Myeloxylon (I), Calamites (II), Fern petioles (Rachiopteris) (III),
Stigmarian appendages (IV), Lepidodendroid leaves (V), Myeloxylon
pinnules (VI), Gymnospermous seeds (VII), Twig of a
Lepidodendron, showing the central xylem cylinder and large leaf-
bases on the outer cortex, (VIII), Sporangia and spores of a strobilus
(IX), Tangential section of a Myeloxylon petiole (X), Rachiopteris sp.
(XI), Rachiopteris sp. (XII), Band of sclerenchymatous tissue (XIII),
Rachiopteris sp. (XIV).
The general appearance of a calcareous plant-nodule suggests a
soft pulpy mass of decaying vegetable débris, through which roots
were able to bore their way, as in a piece of peat or leafy mould.
Overlying this accumulation of soft material there was spread out a
bed of muddy sediment containing numerous calcareous shells,
which supplied the percolating water with the material which was
afterwards deposited in portions of the vegetable débris. According
to this view the calcareous nodules of the coal seams represent local
patches of a widespread mass of débris which were penetrated by a
carbonated solution, and so preserved as samples of a decaying
mass of vegetation, of which by far the greater portion became
eventually converted into coal[120].
FOSSIL NUCLEI.

In such nodules, we find that not only has the framework of the
tissues been preserved, but frequently the remains of cell contents
are clearly seen. In some cases the cells of a tissue may contain in
each cavity a darker coloured spot, which is probably the mineralised
cell nucleus. (Fig. 42, A, 1, p. 214.) The contents of secretory sacs,
such as those containing gum or resin, are frequently found as black
rods filling up the cavity of the cell or canal. The contents of cells in
some cases closely simulate starch grains, and such may have been
actually present in the tissues of a piece of a fossil dicotyledonous
stem described by Thiselton-Dyer from the Lower Eocene Thanet
beds[121], and in the rhizome of a fossil Osmunda recorded by
Carruthers[122]. (Fig. 42, B, p. 214.)
Schultze in 1855[123] recorded the discovery of cellulose by
microchemical tests applied to macerated tissue from Tertiary lignite
and coal. With reference to the possibility of recognising cell
contents in fossil tissue it is interesting to find that Dr Murray of
Scarborough had attempted, and apparently with success, to apply
chemical tests to the tissues of Jurassic leaves. In a letter written to
Hutton in 1833 Murray speaks of his experiments as follows:—
“Reverting to the Oolitic plants, I have again and with better success been
experimenting upon the thin transparent films of leaves, chiefly of Taeniopteris vittata
and Cyclopteris, which from their tenuity offer fine objects for the microscope.... By
many delicate trials I have ascertained the existence still in these leaves of resin and of
tannin.... I am seeking among the filmy leaves of the Fucoides of A. Brongniart for
iodine, but hitherto without success, and indeed can hardly expect it, as probably did
iodine exist in them, it must have long ago entered into new combinations[124].”

Apart from this difficulty, it is not surprising that Dr Murray’s search


for iodine was unsuccessful, considering how little algal nature most
of the so-called Fucoids possess.
Some of the most perfectly preserved tissues as regards the
details of cell contents are those of gymnospermous seeds from
Autun. In sections of one of these seeds which I recently had the
opportunity of examining in Prof. Bertrand’s collection, the
parenchymatous cells contained very distinct nuclei and
protoplasmic contents. In one portion of the tissue in the nucellus of
Sphaerospermum the cell walls had disappeared, but the nuclei
remained in a remarkable state of preservation. The cells shown in
fig. 42 are from the ground tissue of a petiole of Cycadeoidea
gigantea Sew.[125], a magnificent Cycadean stem from Portland
recently added to the British Museum collection; in the cell A, 1, the
nucleus is fairly distinct and in 2 and 4 the contracted cell-contents is
clearly seen. Other interesting examples of fossil nuclei are seen in a
Lyginodendron leaf figured by Williamson and Scott in a recent
Memoir on that genus[126]. Each mesophyll cell contains a single dark
nucleus. The mineralisation of the most delicate tissues and the
preservation of the various forms of cell-contents are now generally
admitted by those at all conversant with the possibilities of plant
petrifaction. If we consider what these facts mean—the microscopic
investigation of not only the finest framework but even the very life-
substance of Palaeozoic plants—we feel that the aeons since the
days when these plants lived have been well-nigh obliterated.
Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade

Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.

Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and


personal growth!

textbookfull.com

You might also like