The semantic database model as a basis for an automated database design tool

Bibliography: p.257-80.The automatic database design system is a design aid for network database creation. It obtains a requirements specification from a user and generates a prototype database. This database is compatible with the Data Definition Language of DMS 1100, the database system on the Univac 1108 at the University of Cape Town. The user interface has been constructed in such a way that a computer-naive user can submit a description of his organisation to the system. Thus it constitutes a powerful database design tool, which should greatly alleviate the designer's tasks of communicating with users, and of creating an initial database definition. The requirements are formulated using the semantic database model, and semantic information in this model is incorporated into the database as integrity constraints. A relation scheme is also generated from the specification. As a result of this research, insight has been gained into the advantages and shortcomings of the semantic database model, and some principles for 'good' data models and database design methodologies have emerged

Data bases and data base systems related to NASA's aerospace program. A bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 1778 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system, 1975 through 1980

Database Queries in Java

In conventional programming languages like Java, the interface for accessing databases is often inelegant. Typically, an entire separate database query language must be embedded inside a conventional programming language for programmers to access the full power and speed of a database. Programmers, though, prefer working entirely from within their conventional programming languages, both for general-purpose computation and for database access. This thesis explores how database operations can be expressed using the existing syntax of conventional programming languages. Programmers are able to write all their code –both general purpose code and database access code– in a single language. To run these database operations efficiently though, algorithms are needed for finding these database operations and optimizing them. This thesis focuses on techniques that can be easily adopted because they do not require changes to existing compilers. Three systems have been developed: Queryll, JReq, and HadoopToSQL. Each system examines the problem from the context of functional-style code, imperative-style code, and MapReduce-style code respectively

Investigation of techniques for inventorying forested regions. Volume 2: Forestry information system requirements and joint use of remotely sensed and ancillary data

The author has identified the following significant results. Effects of terrain topography in mountainous forested regions on LANDSAT signals and classifier training were found to be significant. The aspect of sloping terrain relative to the sun's azimuth was the major cause of variability. A relative insolation factor could be defined which, in a single variable, represents the joint effects of slope and aspect and solar geometry on irradiance. Forest canopy reflectances were bound, both through simulation, and empirically, to have nondiffuse reflectance characteristics. Training procedures could be improved by stratifying in the space of ancillary variables and training in each stratum. Application of the Tasselled-Cap transformation for LANDSAT data acquired over forested terrain could provide a viable technique for data compression and convenient physical interpretations

Research in network data management and resource sharing : preliminary experimental system design report / CAC No. 170

The basic design of an experimental distributed data management system is presented. The system is based upon the relational model. (Author)

Role-based Data Management

Database systems build an integral component of today’s software systems and as such they are the central point for storing and sharing a software system’s data while ensuring global data consistency at the same time. Introducing the primitives of roles and their accompanied metatype distinction in modeling and programming languages, results in a novel paradigm of designing, extending, and programming modern software systems. In detail, roles as modeling concept enable a separation of concerns within an entity. Along with its rigid core, an entity may acquire various roles in different contexts during its lifetime and thus, adapts its behavior and structure dynamically during runtime. Unfortunately, database systems, as important component and global consistency provider of such systems, do not keep pace with this trend. The absence of a metatype distinction, in terms of an entity’s separation of concerns, in the database system results in various problems for the software system in general, for the application developers, and finally for the database system itself. In case of relational database systems, these problems are concentrated under the term role-relational impedance mismatch. In particular, the whole software system is designed by using different semantics on various layers. In case of role-based software systems in combination with relational database systems this gap in semantics between applications and the database system increases dramatically. Consequently, the database system cannot directly represent the richer semantics of roles as well as the accompanied consistency constraints. These constraints have to be ensured by the applications and the database system loses its single point of truth characteristic in the software system. As the applications are in charge of guaranteeing global consistency, their development requires more effort in data management. Moreover, the software system’s data management is distributed over several layers, which results in an unstructured software system architecture. To overcome the role-relational impedance mismatch and bring the database system back in its rightful position as single point of truth in a software system, this thesis introduces the novel and tripartite RSQL approach. It combines a novel database model that represents the metatype distinction as first class citizen in a database system, an adapted query language on the database model’s basis, and finally a proper result representation. Precisely, RSQL’s logical database model introduces Dynamic Data Types, to directly represent the separation of concerns within an entity type on the schema level. On the instance level, the database model defines the notion of a Dynamic Tuple that combines an entity with the notion of roles and thus, allows for dynamic structure adaptations during runtime without changing an entity’s overall type. These definitions build the main data structures on which the database system operates. Moreover, formal operators connecting the query language statements with the database model data structures, complete the database model. The query language, as external database system interface, features an individual data definition, data manipulation, and data query language. Their statements directly represent the metatype distinction to address Dynamic Data Types and Dynamic Tuples, respectively. As a consequence of the novel data structures, the query processing of Dynamic Tuples is completely redesigned. As last piece for a complete database integration of a role-based notion and its accompanied metatype distinction, we specify the RSQL Result Net as result representation. It provides a novel result structure and features functionalities to navigate through query results. Finally, we evaluate all three RSQL components in comparison to a relational database system. This assessment clearly demonstrates the benefits of the roles concept’s full database integration

Quality of Service and Optimization in Data Integration Systems

This work presents techniques for the construction of a global data integrations system. Similar to distributed databases this system allows declarative queries in order to express user-specific information needs. Scalability towards global data integration systems and openness were major design goals for the architecture and techniques developed in this work. It is shown how service composition, extensibility and quality of service can be supported in an open system of providers for data, functionality for query processing operations, and computing power.Diese Arbeit präsentiert Techniken für den Aufbau eines globalen Datenintegrationssystems. Analog zu verteilten Datenbanken unterstützt dieses System deklarative Anfragen, mit denen Benutzer die gesuchte Information beschreiben können. Die Skalierbarkeit in einem globalen Kontext und die Offenheit waren hauptsächliche Entwicklungsziele der Architektur und der Techniken, die in dieser Arbeit entstanden sind. Es wird gezeigt wie Dienstekomposition, Erweiterbarkeit und Dienstgüte in einem offenen System von Anbietern für Daten, Anfrageverarbeitungsfunktionalität und Rechenleistung unterstützt werden können

Data bases and data base systems related to NASA's Aerospace Program: A bibliography with indexes

This bibliography lists 641 reports, articles, and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system during the period January 1, 1981 through June 30, 1982. The directory was compiled to assist in the location of numerical and factual data bases and data base handling and management systems