Data exchange is the problem of taking data structured under a source schema and creating an instance of a target schema that reflects the source data as accurately as possible. In this paper, we address foundational and algorithmic issues related to the semantics of data exchange and to query answering in the context of data exchange. These issues arise because, given a source instance, there may be many target instances that satisfy the constraints of the data exchange problem. We give an algebraic specification that selects, among all solutions to the data exchange problem, a special class of solutions that we call universal. A universal solution has no more and no less data than required for data exchange and it represents the entire space of possible solutions. We then identify fairly general, and practical, conditions that guarantee the existence of a universal solution and yield algorithms to compute a canonical universal solution efficiently. We adopt the notion of "certain answers" in indefinite databases for the semantics for query answering in data exchange. We investigate the computational complexity of computing the certain answers in this context and also study the problem of computing the certain answers of target queries by simply evaluating them on a canonical universal solution.

We present a novel framework for mapping between any combination of XML and relational schemas, in which a high-level, userspecified mapping is translated into semantically meaningful queries that transform source data into the target representation. Our approach works in two phases. In the first phase, the high-level mapping, expressed as a set of inter-schema correspondences, is converted into a set of mappings that capture the design choices made in the source and target schemas (including their hierarchical organization as well as their nested referential constraints).

Visual query systems (VQSs) are query systems for databases that use visual representations to depict the domain of interest and express related requests. VQSs can be seen as an evolution of query languages adopted into database management systems; they are designed to improve the effectiveness of the human-computer communication. Thus, their most important features are those that determine the nature of the human-computer dialogue. In order to survey and compare existing VQSs used for querying traditional databases, we first introduce a classification based on such features, namely the adopted visual representations and the interaction strategies. We then identify several user types and match the VQS classes against them, in order to understand which kind of system may be suitable for each kind of user. We also report usability experiments which support our claims. Finally, some of the most important open problems in the VQS area are described. 1.

An equational language to specify object-oriented conceptual models is defined. Objects are considered to be characterized by a unique object identifier and have static and dynamic structure. Examples of static structure are classification, aggregation, generalization and grouping, examples of dynamic structure are events, processes, local (intra-object) and global (inter-object) and communication. The language, called CMSL, has a declarative (algebraic) semantics, which is divided into two. The part of CMSL that can be used to specify static structures has an initial algebra semantics, in which the data elements are object versions. The part dealing with process has a larger algebra as semantics; in this paper we use an algebra of graphs modulo bisimulation equivalence. About both models can be reasoned using standard equational logic. Apart from the combination of static and dynamic features of objects in an algebraic framework, and the joint specification of this in an equational la...

The design of webbases, database systems for supporting Webbased applications, is currently an active area of research. In this paper, we propose a 3-layer architecture for designing and implementing webbases for querying dynamic Web content (i.e., data that can only be extracted by filling out multiple forms). The lowest layer, virtual physical layer, provides navigation independence by shielding the user from the complexities associated with retrieving data from raw Web sources. Next, the traditional logical layer supports site independence. The top layer is analogous to the external schema layer in traditional databases. Within this architectural framework we address two problems unique to webbases — retrieving dynamic Web content in the virtual physical layer and querying of the external schema by the end user. The layered architecture makes it possible to automate data extraction to a much greater degree than in existing proposals. Wrappers for the virtual physical schema can be created semiautomatically, by asking the webbase designer to navigate through the sites of interest — we call this approach mapping by example. Thus, the webbase designer need not have expertise in the language that maps the physical schema to the raw Web (this should be contrasted to other approaches, which require expertise in various Web-enabled flavors of SQL). For the external schema layer, we propose a semantic extension of the universal relation interface. This interface provides powerful, yet reasonably simple, ad hoc querying capabilities for the end user compared to the currently prevailing “canned” form-based interfaces on the one hand or complex Web-enabling extensions of SQL on the other. Finally, we discuss the implementation of the proposed architecture.

Database schema design is seen as to decide on formats for time-varying instances, on rules for supporting inferences and on semantic constraints. Schema design aims at both faithful formalization of the application and optimization at design time. It is guided by four heuristics: Separation of Aspects, Separation of Specializations, Inferential Completeness and Unique Flavor. A theory of schema design is to investigate these heuristics and to provide insight into how syntactic properties of schemas are related to worthwhile semantic properties, how desirable syntactic properties can be decided or achieved algorithmically, and how the syntactic properties determine costs of storage, queries and updates. Some well-known achievements of design theory for relational databases are reviewed: normal forms, view support, deciding implications of semantic constraints, acyclicity, design algorithms removing forbidden substructures.

Abstract. One of the most important reasoning tasks on queries is checking containment, i.e., verifying whether one query yields necessarily a subset of the result of another one. Query containment, is crucial in several contexts, such as query optimization, query reformulation, knowledge-base verification, information integration, integrity checking, and cooperative answering. Containment is undecidable in general for Datalog, the fundamental language for expressing recursive queries. On the other hand, it is known that containment between monadic Datalog queries and between Datalog queries and unions of conjunctive queries are decidable. It is also known that containment between unions of conjunctive two-way regular path queries (UC2RPQs), which are queries used in the context of semistructured data models containing a limited form of recursion in the form of transitive closure, is decidable. In this paper we combine the automata-theoretic techniques at the base of these two decidability results to show that containment of Datalog in UC2RPQs is decidable in 2EXPTIME. 1

This paper presents a set of algorithms for efficiently evaluating join queries over static data tables in sensor networks. We describe and evaluate three algorithms that take advantage of distributed join techniques. Our algorithms are capable of running in limited amounts of RAM, can distribute the storage burden over groups of nodes, and are tolerant to dropped packets and node failures. REED is thus suitable for a wide range of event-detection applications that traditional sensor network database and data collection systems cannot be used to implement. 1.

this paper we define the semantics of nested relations, which may contain null values, in terms of integrity constraints, called null extended data dependencies, which extend functional dependencies and join dependencies encountered in flat relational database theory. We formalise incomplete information in nested relations by allowing only one unmarked generic null value,

Currently database researchers are investigating new data models in order to remedy the deficiences of the flat relational model when applied to non-business applications. Herein we concentrate on a recent graph-based data model called the hypernode model. The single underlying data structure of this model is the hypernode which is a digraph with a unique defining label. We present in detail the three components of the model, namely its data structure, the hypernode, its query and update language, called HNQL, and its provision for enforcing integrity constraints. We first demonstrate that the said data model is a natural candidate for formalising hypertext. We then compare it with other graph-based data models and with set-based data models. We also investigate the expressive power of HNQL. Finally, using the hypernode model as a paradigm for graph-based data modelling, we show how to bridge the gap between graph-based and set-based data models, and at what computational cost this can...