MIS 420 Business Information Retrieval and Database Management

Course syllabus for MIS 420A Business Information Retrieval and Database Management Course description: Introduction to the management of database systems. Management problem solving will be related to the output of databases to include the development of business strategies, competitive analysis, internal analysis of cost, and other selected business subjects. Commercial software will be reviewed for performance and advantage. This course will cut across functional management lines and show a relationship between the external and internal environment and the business firm. The course is designed as an introduction to the design, operation and performance evaluation of databases. The role of databases as an integral part of management information systems, decision support systems, and expert systems is emphasized. Major part of the course is devoted to Relational Data Models; a basic introduction of the hierarchical and network models is included as part of the course. Topics covered include : Database Architecture, Conceptual and Physical Design of Databases, Database Environment, Database Administration, Database Security, Object-oriented Data Languages, Knowledge-Based systems, etc

A Comparative Analysis To Validate The Benefits Of Formal Versus Informal Software Model Transformation

In object -oriented development the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is the ISO/IEC standard for modeling language and is supported by major corporations. In relational database development, entity-relationship models have traditionally been use for modeling such systems. Transforming from one notation to another notation is of great importance in developmental environments where this is required. There are several techniques for transforming UML models to object-relational database systems. Prior assessment has been carried out on transforming UML class diagram models to object-oriented relational databases, which yield significant results. One approach to transformation may involve the use of formal (mathematical) techniques, while other approaches may rely on informal techniques to accomplish the transformation. The use of a formal technique to transform may incorporate graph-theory on UML class diagram. An informal technique may be utilized in transforming UML extension mechanisms, to represent object-relational concepts. A prior research effort examined the benefits of two such approaches in transforming UML class diagram models into object-relational database representation. That work, sought to determine the benefits of one approach (formal technique) versus the benefits of the other approach (informal technique), by way of comparative analysis. The researchers drew inferences from the comparative analysis as to the suitability of one approach versus the other on classes of problem domains. The results of such work have to be validated in order for it to become acceptable and its implication applied in software development decision making. In this work there will be an attempt to apply a similar xiv comparative analysis on a model from a different application domain (Kalman Filter Program Representation), from that which was used in the first study an (Airline Flight Reservation System). The goal of this research is to provide validation of the usefulness of this type of comparative analysis

National freight transport planning: towards a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS)

This thesis provides a `proof-of-concept' prototype and a design architecture for a Object Oriented (00) database towards the development of a Decision Support System (DSS) for the national freight transport planning problem. Both governments and industry require a Strategic Planning Extranet Decision Support System (SPEDSS) for their effective management of the national Freight Transport Networks (FTN). This thesis addresses the three key problems for the development of a SPEDSS to facilitate national strategic freight planning: 1) scope and scale of data available and required; 2) scope and scale of existing models; and 3) construction of the software. The research approach taken embodies systems thinking and includes the use of: Object Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D) for problem encapsulation and database design; artificial neural network (and proposed rule extraction) for knowledge acquisition of the United States FTN data set; and an iterative Object Oriented (00) software design for the development of a `proof-of-concept' prototype. The research findings demonstrate that an 00 approach along with the use of 00 methodologies and technologies coupled with artificial neural networks (ANNs) offers a robust and flexible methodology for the analysis of the FTN problem domain and the design architecture of an Extranet based SPEDSS. The objectives of this research were to: 1) identify and analyse current problems and proposed solutions facing industry and governments in strategic transportation planning; 2) determine the functional requirements of an FTN SPEDSS; 3) perform a feasibility analysis for building a FTN SPEDSS `proof-of-concept' prototype and (00) database design; 4) develop a methodology for a national `internet-enabled' SPEDSS model and database; 5) construct a `proof-of-concept' prototype for a SPEDSS encapsulating identified user requirements; 6) develop a methodology to resolve the issue of the scale of data and data knowledge acquisition which would act as the `intelligence' within a SPDSS; 7) implement the data methodology using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) towards the validation of it; and 8) make recommendations for national freight transportation strategic planning and further research required to fulfil the needs of governments and industry. This thesis includes: an 00 database design for encapsulation of the FTN; an `internet-enabled' Dynamic Modelling Methodology (DMM) for the virtual modelling of the FTNs; a Unified Modelling Language (UML) `proof-of-concept' prototype; and conclusions and recommendations for further collaborative research are identified

UML Class Diagram or Entity Relationship Diagram : An Object Relational Impedance Mismatch

It is now nearly 30 years since Peter Chen’s watershed paper “The Entity-Relationship Model –towards a Unified View of Data”. [1] The entity relationship model and variations and extensions to ithave been taught in colleges and universities for many years. In his original paper Peter Chen looked at converting his new ER model to the then existing data structure diagrams for the Network model. In recent years there has been a tendency to use a Unified Modelling Language (UML) class diagram forconceptual modeling for relational databases, and several popular course text books use UMLnotation to some degree [2] [3]. However Object and Relational technology are based on different paradigms. In the paper we argue that the UML class diagram is more of a logical model (implementation specific). ER Diagrams on theother hand, are at a conceptual level of database design dealing with the main items and their relationships and not with implementation specific detail. UML focuses on OOAD (Object Oriented Analysis and Design) and is navigational and program dependent whereas the relational model is set based and exhibits data independence. The ER model provides a well-established set of mapping rules for mapping to a relational model. In this paper we look specifically at the areas which can cause problems for the novice databasedesigner due to this conceptual mismatch of two different paradigms. Firstly, transferring the mapping of a weak entity from an Entity Relationship model to UML and secondly the representation of structural constraints between objects. We look at the mixture of notations which students mistakenly use when modeling. This is often the result of different notations being used on different courses throughout their degree. Several of the popular text books at the moment use either a variation of ER,UML, or both for teaching database modeling. At the moment if a student picks up a text book they could be faced with either; one of the many ER variations, UML, UML and a variation of ER both covered separately, or UML and ER merged together. We regard this problem as a conceptual impedance mismatch. This problem is documented in [21] who have produced a catalogue of impedance mismatch problems between object-relational and relational paradigms. We regard the problems of using UML class diagrams for relational database design as a conceptual impedance mismatch as the Entity Relationship model does not have the structures in the model to deal with Object Oriented concepts Keywords: EERD, UML Class Diagram, Relational Database Design, Structural Constraints, relational and object database impedance mismatch. The ER model was originally put forward by Chen [1] and subsequently extensions have been added to add further semantics to the original model; mainly the concepts of specialisation, generalisation and aggregation. In this paper we refer to an Entity-Relationship model (ER) as the basic model and an extended or enhanced entity-relationship model (EER) as a model which includes the extra concepts. The ER and EER models are also often used to aid communication between the designer and the user at the requirements analysis stage. In this paper when we use the term “conceptual model” we mean a model that is not implementation specific.ISBN: 978-84-616-3847-5 3594Peer reviewe

Using ontologies to synchronize change in relational database systems

Ontology is a building block of the semantic Web. Ontology building requires a detailed domain analysis, which in turn requires financial resources, intensive domain knowledge and time. Domain models in industry are frequently stored as relational database schemas in relational databases. An ontology base underlying such schemas can represent concepts and relationships that are present in the domain of discourse. However, with ever increasing demand for wider access and domain coverage, public databases are not static and their schemas evolve over time. Ontologies generated according to these databases have to change to reflect the new situation. Once a database schema is changed, these changes in the schema should also be incorporated in any ontology generated from the database. It is not possible to generate a fresh version of the ontology using the new database schema because the ontology itself may have undergone changes that need to be preserved. To tackle this problem, this paper presents a generic framework that will help to generate and synchronize ontologies with existing data sources. In particular we address the translation between ontologies and database schemas, but our proposal is also sufficiently generic to be used to generate and maintain ontologies based on XML and object oriented databases

Database information systems design based on relation and object oriented databases

katedra: MTI; přílohy: 1 CD ROM; rozsah: 57 sDiplomová práce pojednává o procesu návrhu databázových systémů založených na různých databázových modelech. Konkrétně práce popisuje relační databázový model, objektově orientovaný databázový model a model objektově relační. Práce rovněž obsahuje rešeršní část, ve které jsou popsány dostupné objektově orientované databázové systémy, jejich přednosti a nedostatky. Součástí práce je dále studium konkrétních rozdílů v analýze a návrhu databázových informačních systémů založených na relačním a objektovém modelu. Jsou popsány jednotlivé vývojové fáze a jejich úloha v životním cyklu návrhu databázového systému. Podrobně jsou popsány ERD a DFD diagramy a dále jsou pak uvedeny metody objektově orientované analýzy pomocí jazyka UML. Závěrem je uveden a zdokumentován postup pro řešení konkrétního databázového problému, na kterém je demonstrován rozdíl v relačním a objektovém přístupu.The thesis discusses the process of database systems design based on different database models. Specifically describes relational database model, object-oriented database model and object-relational model. The thesis also contains a search section, which describes the available object-oriented database systems, their strengths and weaknesses. The thesis is to further study specific differences in the analysis and design of database information systems based on relational and object model. There are described various developmental stages and their role in the life cycle of database design. Are described in detail the ERD and DFD diagrams and then the methods are object-oriented analysis using UML. The conclusion is given and documented process for a specific database problem, which is demonstrated by the difference in relational and object-oriented approach

An introduction to Graph Data Management

A graph database is a database where the data structures for the schema and/or instances are modeled as a (labeled)(directed) graph or generalizations of it, and where querying is expressed by graph-oriented operations and type constructors. In this article we present the basic notions of graph databases, give an historical overview of its main development, and study the main current systems that implement them

Generic unified modelling process for developing semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models

Models play a vital role in supporting a range of activities in numerous domains. We rely on models to support the design, visualisation, analysis and representation of parts of the world around us, and as such significant research effort has been invested into numerous areas of modelling; including support for model semantics, dynamic states and behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. Whilst these efforts have increased our capabilities and allowed us to create increasingly powerful software-based models, the process of developing models, supporting tools and /or data structures remains difficult, expensive and error-prone. In this paper we define from literature the key factors in assessing a model’s quality and usefulness: semantic richness, support for dynamic states and object behaviour, temporal data storage and visualisation. We also identify a number of shortcomings in both existing modelling standards and model development processes and propose a unified generic process to guide users through the development of semantically rich, dynamic and temporal models

Learning from AI : new trends in database technology

Recently some researchers in the areas of database data modelling and knowledge representations in artificial intelligence have recognized that they share many common goals. In this survey paper we show the relationship between database and artificial intelligence research. We show that there has been a tendency for data models to incorporate more modelling techniques developed for knowledge representations in artificial intelligence as the desire to incorporate more application oriented semantics, user friendliness, and flexibility has increased. Increasing the semantics of the representation is the key to capturing the "reality" of the database environment, increasing user friendliness, and facilitating the support of multiple, possibly conflicting, user views of the information contained in a database