Parsing an extension to CODASYL FORTRAN DML

The FORTRAN data manipulation language specified by CODASYL requires that parameters be identified by keywords and appear in a prescribed order. These restrictions can largely be removed. A method of parsing the resultant data manipulation language using database structures is described.     

Conceptual design of object-oriented database schemas using the binary-relationship model

We describe an algorithmic method for transforming a binary-relationship (BR) conceptual schema to an object-oriented (OO) database schema. The BR schema is a semantically rich diagram that represents the reality being modeled in terms of objects, relationships and constraints. It is easy to understand and serves as a communication tool between users and designers. Therefore it can be created in the early stages of system development, and later on be transformed into a specific OO database schema. The transformation method employs a multi-stage algorithm, which first identifies the essential objects in the BR schema, together with their relationships and constraints. These are then mapped to object classes, attributes, and constraints, maintaining the semantics and all types of constraints present in the conceptual schema.     

Combining knowledge with many-valued logics

We compare EER and OO data models from the point of view of design quality. Quality is measured in terms of (a) correctness of the conceptual schemas being designed, (b) time to complete the design task, and (c) designers' preferences of the models. Result of an experimental comparison of the two models reveal that the EER model surpasses the OO model for designing unary and ternary relationships, it takes less time to design EER schemas, and the EER model is preferred by designers. We conclude that even if the objective is to implement an OO database schema, the recommended procedure is to: (1) create an EER conceptual scheme, (2) map it to an OO schema, and augment the target schema with behavioral constructs that are unique to the OO approach.     

Development of an information model for composites design data

Material properties data, particularly those of advanced composite materials such as fiber-reinforced plastics, provides a very complex domain which is difficult to computerize. As a foundational activity supporting the development of material property databases, we have examined and modeled the data contained within this large, diverse, and intricate domain. Our primary objective was to gain a better understanding of the data involved in this system and their transformation and use. We examined the life cycle of a fiber-reinforced composite material, from a raw material to a manufactured product, focusing on the various applications which require and/or supply materials data and the types of materials data which must be included. A high-level information model was created to illustrate the overall picture of composite materials data which emerged from this analysis. This model provides a global view of the data encompassed in the domain of composite materials, and forms the basis of a formal conceptual model from which databases may be developed.     

Enhancing information systems management with natural language processing techniques

Natural language and databases are core components of information systems. They are related to each other because they share the same purpose: the conceptualization aspects of the real world in order to deal with them in some way. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques may substantially enhance most phases of the information system lifecycle, starting with requirements analysis, specification and validation, and going up to conflict resolution, result processing and presentation. Furthermore, natural language based query languages and user interfaces facilitate the access to information for anyone and allow for new paradigms in the usage of computerized services. This paper investigates the use of NLP techniques in the design phase of information systems. Then, it reports on data base querying and information retrieval enhanced with NLP.     

Maintaining knowledge with a formal model

Knowledge base maintenance is managed by constructing a formal model. In this model the representation of each chunk of knowledge encapsulates the knowledge in a set of declarative rules, each of which in turn encapsulates the knowledge in a set of imperative programs. In this model an “item” is the unit of knowledge representation. Items are at a higher level of abstraction than rules. Understanding what has to be done to maintain the integrity of an item leads to a specification of the modifications to the set of programs that implement it. An analysis of the maintenance of the formal model is achieved by introducing maintenance links. Analysis of the maintenance links shows that they are of four different types. The density of the maintenance links is reduced by transforming that set into an equivalent set. In this way the knowledge base maintenance problem is analysed and simplified. A side benefit of knowledge items as a formalism is that they contain knowledge constraints that protect the knowledge from unforeseen modification.     

Answering queries using materialized views with minimum size

In this paper, we study the following problem. Given a database and a set of queries, we want to find a set of views that can compute the answers to the queries, such that the amount of space, in bytes, required to store the viewset is minimum on the given database. (We also handle problem instances where the input has a set of database instances, as described by an oracle that returns the sizes of view relations for given view definitions.) This problem is important for applications such as distributed databases, data warehousing, and data integration. We explore the decidability and complexity of the problem for workloads of conjunctive queries. We show that results differ significantly depending on whether the workload queries have self-joins. Further, for queries without self-joins we describe a very compact search space of views, which contains all views in at least one optimal viewset. We present techniques for finding a minimum-size viewset for a single query without self-joins by using the shape of the query and its constraints, and validate the approach by extensive experiments. Part of this article was published elsewhere [Chirkova, R., Li, C.: Materializing views with minimal size to answer queries. PODS (2003)]. In addition to the prior materials, this article contains new theoretical results, as well as new results on how to efficiently implement the proposed techniques (Sects. 5 and 5.4)     

Hierarchical entity-relationship diagrams: the model,method of creation and experimental evaluation

A bottom-up method for creating a hierarchy of entity-relationship diagrams (HERD) from a given, flat ER diagram (ERD) is proposed. The hierarchy consists of simple and interrelated diagrams—ER structures—with external relationships to other structures. The HERD-tree diagram, which provides the most general view of the conceptual schema, is located at the top of the hierarchy. The method is based on packaging operations, which group entities and relationships according to certain criteria. These operations are applied in several steps on a given (presumably large-scale) ERD. We describe the new constructs, which are added to the ER model to enable the creation of HERD, and a bottom-up method for creating HERD. We also evaluate HERD from the point of view of user comprehension and preference, based on an experimental comparison to flat ERDs.

Aurora: a new model and architecture for data stream management

This paper describes the basic processing model and architecture of Aurora, a new system to manage data streams for monitoring applications. Monitoring applications differ substantially from conventional business data processing. The fact that a software system must process and react to continual inputs from many sources (e.g., sensors) rather than from human operators requires one to rethink the fundamental architecture of a DBMS for this application area. In this paper, we present Aurora, a new DBMS currently under construction at Brandeis University, Brown University, and M.I.T. We first provide an overview of the basic Aurora model and architecture and then describe in detail a stream-oriented set of operators.Received: 12 September 2002, Accepted: 26 March 2003, Published online: 21 July 2003Edited by Y. Ioannidis     

通用数据库操作模块的设计与实现

在分析常用的ＳＱＬ数据操作语句结构的基础上,介绍了一上通用数据库操作模块的设计与实现。该模块允许用户采填表的直观形式,实现的通用查询,插入,删除和修改,具有功能强大,操作简单等优点。     

A survey of the universal relation model

The theory of the universal relation model is discussed and different approaches for realizing universal relation systems are presented. Especially, various assumptions made in connection with this data model are discussed, revealing directives for designing semantically clear database schemes.     

Primitives for schema updates in an object-oriented database system: a proposal

Updating the schema is an important facility for object-oriented databases. However, updates should not result in inconsistencies either in the schema or in the database. We propose a classification of basic schema updates and define a set of parametrized primitives to perform schema updates which the designer will use to define his/her own update semantics.     

面向空间数据库引擎的扩充数据模型及其操纵语言GSQL

面向空间数据库引擎的扩充数据模型将点、线、面等几何数据类型作为系统的基本数据类型,其操纵语言GSQL在标准SQL语言基础上支持几何数据和属性数据的定义、检索、存储和管理。关系数据库元数据表提供了对象—关系模型转换接口。     

Notes toward a standard object-oriented DDL and DML

Software developers seek a standard object-oriented database management system as a substrate on which to build object-oriented products. Convinced of the real value of object-oriented benefits, independent software vendors seek a platform to minimize development risk. A minimalist position is compared to the object-oriented database programming language position and the latter is shown to to be the cleanest but pragmatic considerations may intervene.     

A modal specification theory for components with data

Modal specification is a well-known formalism used as an abstraction theory for transition systems. Modal specifications are transition systems equipped with two types of transitions: must-transitions that are mandatory to any implementation, and may-transitions that are optional. The duality of transitions allows for developing a unique approach for both logical and structural compositions, and eases the step-wise refinement process for building implementations. We propose Modal Specifications with Data (MSDs), the first modal specification theory with explicit representation of data. Our new theory includes the most commonly seen ingredients of a specification theory; that is parallel composition, conjunction and quotient. As MSDs are by nature potentially infinite-state systems, we propose symbolic representations based on effective predicates. Our theory serves as a new abstraction-based formalism for transition systems with data.     

A data model and a query languagefor multimedia documents databases

A multimedia application involves information that may be in a form of video, images, audio, text and graphics, need to be stored, retrieved and manipulated in large databases. In this paper, we propose an object-oriented database schema that supports multimedia documents and their temporal, spatial and logical structures. We present a document example and show how the schema can adress all the structures described. We also present a multimedia query specification language that can be used to describe a multimedia content portion to be retrieved from the database. The language provides means by which the user can specify the information on the media as well as the temoral and spatial relationships among these media.     

A manufacturing XML schema definition and its application to a data management system on the shop floor

Digitization for sharing knowledge on the shop floor in the machinery industry has been given much attention recently. To help engineers use digitization practically and efficiently, this paper proposes a method based on manufacturing case data that has a direct relation to manufacturing operations. The data are represented in XML schema, as it can be easily applied to Web-based systems on the shop floor. The definitions were made for eight manufacturing methods including machining and welding. The derived definitions consist of four divisions of metadata, work-piece, process and evaluation. Three divisions except for the “process” division are common to the manufacturing methods. The average number of elements for a manufacturing method is about 200. The represented schema is also used to convey knowledge such as operation standards and manufacturing troubleshooting on the shop floor. Using the definitions, a data management system is developed. It is a Web-based Q&A system, in which the engineers specify the manufacturing case data mainly by selecting from the candidates. Then, the system fills in the blank portions and/or shows messages to help complete the case data. The proposed method is evaluated through practical scenarios of arc welding and machining.     

The generic model query language GMQL – Conceptual specification,implementation, and runtime evaluation

The generic model query language GMQL is designed to query collections of conceptual models created in arbitrary graph-based modelling languages. Querying conceptual models means searching for particular model subgraphs that comply with a predefined pattern query. Such a query specifies the structural and semantic properties of the model fragment to be returned. In this paper, we derive requirements for a generic model query language from the literature and formally specify the language’s syntax and semantics. We conduct an analysis of GMQL׳s theoretical and practical runtime performance concluding that it returns query results within satisfactory time. Given its generic nature, GMQL contributes to a broad range of different model analysis scenarios ranging from business process compliance management to model translation and business process weakness detection. As GMQL returns results with acceptable runtime performance, it can be used to query large collections of hundreds or thousands of conceptual models containing not only process models, but also data models or organizational charts. In this paper, we furthermore evaluate GMQL against the backdrop of existing query approaches thereby carving out its advantages and limitations as well as pointing toward future research.     

A frame-based knowledge representation model and its mapping to nested relations

The first part of this paper introduces the basic constructs of a frame representation model and gives a formal definition for them. Subsequently the nested relational model (NF²) is described as an extension of the classical relational model to support relation-valued attributes. In the second part of this paper both models are compared with each other and a mapping of frame representation structures to NF² structures is specified. The structural similarities between frames and NF² relations are made clear and it is shown that their main difference is due to the type polymorphism introduced by the concept hierarchy of the frame model. This causes type collisions to occur in the strictly typed NF² model when frames are directly mapped to NF² structures. Two solutions to this problem are suggested and compared. The paper concludes with a reformulation of query operations of the frame model in terms of NF² algebra operations.     

XML materialized views and schema evolution in VIREX

Web-based databases are gaining increased popularity. This has positively influenced the availability of structured and semi-structured databases for access by a variety of users ranging from professionals to naive users. The number of users accessing online databases will continue to increase if the visual tools connected to web-based databases are flexible and user-friendly enough to meet the expectations of naive users and professionals. Further, XML is accepted as the standard for platform independent data exchange. This motivated for the development of the conversion tools between structured databases and XML. Realizing that such a need has not been well handled by the available tools, including Clio from IBM, we developed VIREX as a visual tool for converting relational databases into XML, and since then has been empowered with further capabilities to manipulate the produced XML schema including the maintenance of materialized views and schema evolution functions. VIREX provides an interactive approach for querying and integrating relational databases to produce XML documents and the corresponding XML schema(s). VIREX supports VRXQuery as a visual naive users-oriented query language that allows users to specify queries and define views directly on the interactive diagram as a sequence of mouse clicks with minimum keyboard input. As the query result, VIREX displays on the screen the XML schema that satisfies the specified characteristics and generates colored (easy to read) XML document(s). The main contribution described in this paper is the novel approach for turning query results into materialized views which are maintained to remain consistent with the underlying database. VIREX supports deferred update of XML views by keeping an ordered summary of the necessary and sufficient information required for the process. Each view has a corresponding marker in the ordered summary to indicate the start of the information to be reflected onto the view when it is accessed. When a view is accessed, its marker moves to the head of the list to mark for the next update. In addition, VIREX supports some basic schema evolution functions include renaming, adding and dropping of elements and attributes, among others. The supported schema evolution functions add flexibility to the view maintenance and materialization process.