Unary and n-ary inclusion dependency discovery in relational databases

Foreign keys form one of the most fundamental constraints for relational databases. Since they are not always defined in existing databases, the discovery of foreign keys turns out to be an important and challenging task. The underlying problem is known to be the inclusion dependency (IND) inference problem. In this paper, data-mining algorithms are devised for IND inference in a given database. We propose a two-step approach. In the first step, unary INDs are discovered thanks to a new preprocessing stage which leads to a new algorithm and to an efficient implementation. In the second step, n-ary IND inference is achieved. This step fits in the framework of levelwise algorithms used in many data-mining algorithms. Since real-world databases can suffer from some data inconsistencies, approximate INDs, i.e. INDs which almost hold, are considered. We show how they can be safely integrated into our unary and n-ary discovery algorithms. An implementation of these algorithms has been achieved and tested against both synthetic and real-life databases. Up to our knowledge, no other algorithm does exist to solve this data-mining problem.     

Verifying feature models using OWL

Feature models are widely used in domain engineering to capture common and variant features among systems in a particular domain. However, the lack of a formal semantics and reasoning support of feature models has hindered the development of this area. Industrial experiences also show that methods and tools that can support feature model analysis are badly appreciated. Such reasoning tool should be fully automated and efficient. At the same time, the reasoning tool should scale up well since it may need to handle hundreds or even thousands of features a that modern software systems may have. This paper presents an approach to modeling and verifying feature diagrams using Semantic Web OWL ontologies. We use OWL DL ontologies to precisely capture the inter-relationships among the features in a feature diagram. OWL reasoning engines such as FaCT++ are deployed to check for the inconsistencies of feature configurations fully automatically. Furthermore, a general OWL debugger has been developed to tackle the disadvantage of lacking debugging aids for the current OWL reasoner and to complement our verification approach. We also developed a CASE tool to facilitate visual development, interchange and reasoning of feature diagrams in the Semantic Web environment.     

MEMS based storage architecture for relational databases

Due to recent advances in semiconductor manufacturing, the gap between main memory and disks is constantly increasing. This leads to a significant performance bottleneck for Relational Database Management Systems. Recent advances in nanotechnology have led to the invention of MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) based storage technology to replace disks. In this paper, we exploit the physical characteristics of MEMS-based storage devices to develop a placement scheme for relational data that enables retrieval in both row-wise and column-wise manner. We develop algorithms for different relational operations based on this data layout. Our experimental results and analysis demonstrate that this data layout not only improves I/O utilization, but results in better cache performance for a variety of different relational operations. This research is supported by the NSF grants under IIS-0220152 CNF-0423336, and EIA 00-80134     

Translating the Foundational Model of Anatomy into OWL

The Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) represents the result of manual and disciplined modeling of the structural organization of the human body. It is a tremendous resource in bioinformatics that facilitates sharing of information among applications that use anatomy knowledge. The FMA was developed in Protégé and the Protégé frames language is the canonical representation language for the FMA. We present a translation of the original Protégé frame representation of the FMA into OWL. Our effort is complementary to the earlier efforts to represent FMA in OWL and is focused on two main goals: (1) representing only the information that is explicitly present in the frames representation of the FMA or that can be directly inferred from the semantics of Protégé frames; (2) representing all the information that is present in the frames representation of the FMA, thus producing an OWL representation for the complete FMA. Our complete representation of the FMA in OWL consists of two components: an OWL DL component that contains the FMA constructs that are compatible with OWL DL; and an OWL Full component that imports the OWL DL component and adds the FMA constructs that OWL DL does not allow.     

Consistency checking and querying in probabilistic databases under integrity constraints

We address the issue of incorporating a particular yet expressive form of integrity constraints (namely, denial constraints) into probabilistic databases. To this aim, we move away from the common way of giving semantics to probabilistic databases, which relies on considering a unique interpretation of the data, and address two fundamental problems: consistency checking and query evaluation. The former consists in verifying whether there is an interpretation which conforms to both the marginal probabilities of the tuples and the integrity constraints. The latter is the problem of answering queries under a “cautious” paradigm, taking into account all interpretations of the data in accordance with the constraints. In this setting, we investigate the complexity of the above-mentioned problems, and identify several tractable cases of practical relevance.     

Interoperability results for Semantic Web technologies using OWL as the interchange language

Using Semantic Web technologies in complex scenarios requires that such technologies correctly interoperate by interchanging ontologies using the RDF(S) and OWL languages. This interoperability is not straightforward because of the high heterogeneity in Semantic Web technologies and, while the number of such technologies grows, affordable mechanisms for evaluating Semantic Web technology interoperability are needed to comprehend the current and future interoperability of Semantic Web technologies.This paper presents the OWL Interoperability Benchmarking, an international benchmarking activity that involved the evaluation of the interoperability of different Semantic Web technologies using OWL as the interchange language. It describes the evaluation resources used in this benchmarking activity, the OWL Lite Import Benchmark Suite and the IBSE tool, and presents how to use them for evaluating the OWL interoperability of Semantic Web technologies. Moreover, the paper offers an overview of the OWL interoperability results of the eight tools participating in the benchmarking: one ontology-based annotation tool (GATE), three ontology frameworks (Jena, KAON2, and SWI-Prolog), and four ontology development tools (Protégé Frames, Protégé OWL, SemTalk, and WebODE).     

基于关系数据库的OWL本体构建方法的研究

利用已有的数据资源以自动或半自动方式构建本体是实现语义Web的任务之一.在分析了现有研究成果及不足的基础上,给出了一个比较系统的基于关系数据库的OWL本体构建方法.介绍了如何从关系模式中识别实体、联系、继承关系、聚类关系及基数约束等语义,完成了从关系数据库语义到本体相应部分的转换,通过原型系统的实现验证了该方法的有效性.     

A novel keyword search paradigm in relational databases: Object summaries

This paper introduces a novel keyword search paradigm in relational databases, where the result of a search is an Object Summary (OS). An OS summarizes all data held about a particular Data Subject (DS) in a database. More precisely, it is a tree with a tuple containing the keyword(s) as a root and neighboring tuples as children. In contrast to traditional relational keyword search, an OS comprises a more complete and therefore semantically meaningful set of information about the enquired DS.The proposed paradigm introduces the concept of Affinity in order to automatically generate OSs. More precisely, it investigates and quantifies the Affinity of relations (i.e. Affinity) and their attributes (i.e. Attribute Affinity) in order to decide which tuples and attributes to include in the OS. Experimental evaluation on the TPC-H and Northwind databases verifies the searching quality of the proposed paradigm on both large and small databases; precision, recall, f-score, CPU and space measures are presented.     

From keywords to relational database content: A semantic mapping method

Keyword-based query specification to extract data from structured databases has attracted considerable attention from various researchers, and many interesting proposals may be found in the scientific literature. However, many of these studies focus on finding a set of interconnected tuples containing all or some of the query keywords. The architecture introduced by this paper covers from the selection of databases on the Web to ranked relevant results. The approach also includes important aspects such as the proximity between keywords, query segmentation, and the use of aggregate functions, among others. The empirical evaluation analyzes the relevance of results and proves competitive as regards related studies.     

XML数据库和关系数据库之比较

XML已经成为数据表示和交换的数据格式标准。随着大量XML文档的出现,应用数据库技术实现对XML数据的管理引起了越来越多研究者的兴趣。作为研究XML数据库技术的一个开始点,通过与关系数据库比较,可以深刻理解XML数据库与关系数据库的异同,进而为解决XML数据库所面临的问题,如为数据冗余控制、并发访问控制等提供必要的基础。两种数据库的比较是从数据模型、查询路径、完整性约束和规范化5个方面进行的,由于数据模型是数据库的基石,二者的数据模型从构造机制、名字的惟一性、空值、实体标识、实体问关系、文档顺序、数据结构的规则性、递归、数据自描述性等9个方面进行了详细讨论。     

The complexity and approximation of fixing numerical attributes in databases under integrity constraints

Consistent query answering is the problem of characterizing and computing the semantically correct answers to queries from a database that may not satisfy certain integrity constraints. Consistent answers are characterized as those answers that are invariant under all minimally repaired versions of the original database. We study the problem of repairing databases with respect to denial constraints by fixing integer numerical values taken by attributes. We introduce a quantitative definition of database repair, and investigate the complexity of several decision and optimization problems. Among them, Database Repair Problem (DRP): deciding the existence of repairs within a given distance to the original instance, and CQA: deciding consistency of answers to simple and aggregate conjunctive queries under different semantics. We provide sharp complexity bounds, identifying relevant tractable and intractable cases. We also develop approximation algorithms for the latter. Among other results, we establish: (a) The -hardness of CQA. (b) That DRP is MAXSNP-hard, but has a good approximation. (c) The intractability of CQA for aggregate queries for one database atom denials (plus built-ins), and also that it has a good approximation.     

一种关系模式到OWL DL本体的翻译方法

本体技术是数据可以达到语义层次交换的关键,如何将当前各类数据形成本体知识库表示是一个非常重要的问题。针对这个问题,以一种关系模式到一种语义扩展ER模型的正确性可满足转换算法为基础,提出了一种通过数据库反向工程到OWL DL本体的翻译算法,说明了该算法使得转换是正确性可满足的,并实验实现验证了算法。     

GrOWL: A tool for visualization and editing of OWL ontologies

In an effort to optimize visualization and editing of OWL ontologies we have developed GrOWL—a browser and visual editor for OWL that accurately visualizes the underlying DL semantics of OWL ontologies while avoiding the difficulties of the verbose OWL syntax. In this paper, we discuss GrOWL visualization model and the essential visualization techniques implemented in GrOWL.     

Ultrawrap: SPARQL execution on relational data

The Semantic Web’s promise of web-wide data integration requires the inclusion of legacy relational databases,¹ i.e. the execution of SPARQL queries on RDF representation of the legacy relational data. We explore a hypothesis: existing commercial relational databases already subsume the algorithms and optimizations needed to support effective SPARQL execution on existing relationally stored data. The experiment is embodied in a system, Ultrawrap, that encodes a logical representation of the database as an RDF graph using SQL views and a simple syntactic translation of SPARQL queries to SQL queries on those views. Thus, in the course of executing a SPARQL query, the SQL optimizer uses the SQL views that represent a mapping of relational data to RDF, and optimizes its execution. In contrast, related research is predicated on incorporating optimizing transforms as part of the SPARQL to SQL translation, and/or executing some of the queries outside the underlying SQL environment.Ultrawrap is evaluated using two existing benchmark suites that derive their RDF data from relational data through a Relational Database to RDF (RDB2RDF) Direct Mapping and repeated for each of the three major relational database management systems. Empirical analysis reveals two existing relational query optimizations that, if applied to the SQL produced from a simple syntactic translations of SPARQL queries (with bound predicate arguments) to SQL, consistently yield query execution time that is comparable to that of SQL queries written directly for the relational representation of the data. The analysis further reveals the two optimizations are not uniquely required to achieve a successful wrapper system. The evidence suggests effective wrappers will be those that are designed to complement the optimizer of the target database.     

A knowledge-based system for performing reverse engineering of relational databases

A knowledge-based system, called the Knowledge Extraction System (KES), is presented which performs the process of reverse engineering of relational databases. KES generates an extended entity-relationship (EER) model from a relational database. Within its extraction procedure, domain semantics are obtained by analyzing the data schema and data instances of an existing database, by using heuristics, or asking the user. Relations and attributes are classified into several categories and then converted into the corresponding modelling structures of the EER model. KES demonstrates how knowledge-based system technology can be applied to ease the work of database reverse engineering. It also illustrates that the reverse engineering process can be implemented at a high level of automation. To do so, KES is integrated with the target database management system so that data can be analyzed directly through dynamic SQL queries.     

Expressing inter-link constraints in OWL knowledge bases

Abstract: In this paper the Web Ontology Language (OWL) is examined to instantiate expert system knowledge bases intended for semantic Web applications. In particular, OWL is analyzed for expressing Unified Modeling Language (UML) representations that have been augmented with propositional logic asserted as inter‐link constraints. The motivation is ultimately to provide declarative propositional logic constraints that can be represented in UML and declaratively implemented using OWL and other constructs to realize semantic Web knowledge base repositories and databases to facilitate expert system applications. The results of this paper show that OWL is sufficient for capturing most inter‐link constraints asserted on generalization/specialization instances; however, OWL alone is inadequate for representing some inter‐link constraints asserted on associations. We propose enhancements to OWL via RDF extensions for the reification of associations into classes. These extensions mitigate all concerns that were identified in OWL as part of this study. The result is increased support of declarative constraint representations, which can be expressed in knowledge bases in the context of the semantic Web.