Increasing the Efficiency of Rule-Based Expert Systems Applied on Heterogeneous Data Sources

Nowadays, the proliferation of heterogeneous data sources provided by different research and innovation projects and initiatives is proliferating more and more and presents huge opportunities. These developments create an increase in the number of different data sources, which could be involved in the process of decisionmaking for a specific purpose, but this huge heterogeneity makes this task difficult. Traditionally, the expert systems try to integrate all information into a main database, but, sometimes, this information is not easily available, or its integration with other databases is very problematic. In this case, it is essential to establish procedures that make a metadata distributed integration for them. This process provides a “mapping” of available information, but it is only at logic level. Thus, on a physical level, the data is still distributed into several resources. In this sense, this chapter proposes a distributed rule engine extension (DREE) based on edge computing that makes an integration of metadata provided by different heterogeneous data sources, applying then a mathematical decomposition over the antecedent of rules. The use of the proposed rule engine increases the efficiency and the capability of rule-based expert systems, providing the possibility of applying these rules over distributed and heterogeneous data sources, increasing the size of data sets that could be involved in the decision-making process

Query processing of geometric objects with free form boundarie sin spatial databases

The increasing demand for the use of database systems as an integrating factor in CAD/CAM applications has necessitated the development of database systems with appropriate modelling and retrieval capabilities. One essential problem is the treatment of geometric data which has led to the development of spatial databases. Unfortunately, most proposals only deal with simple geometric objects like multidimensional points and rectangles. On the other hand, there has been a rapid development in the field of representing geometric objects with free form curves or surfaces, initiated by engineering applications such as mechanical engineering, aviation or astronautics. Therefore, we propose a concept for the realization of spatial retrieval operations on geometric objects with free form boundaries, such as B-spline or Bezier curves, which can easily be integrated in a database management system. The key concept is the encapsulation of geometric operations in a so-called query processor. First, this enables the definition of an interface allowing the integration into the data model and the definition of the query language of a database system for complex objects. Second, the approach allows the use of an arbitrary representation of the geometric objects. After a short description of the query processor, we propose some representations for free form objects determined by B-spline or Bezier curves. The goal of efficient query processing in a database environment is achieved using a combination of decomposition techniques and spatial access methods. Finally, we present some experimental results indicating that the performance of decomposition techniques is clearly superior to traditional query processing strategies for geometric objects with free form boundaries

Measuring the Knowledge-Based Economy of China in terms of Synergy among Technological, Organizational, and Geographic Attributes of Firms

Using the possible synergy among geographic, size, and technological distributions of firms in the Orbis database, we find the greatest reduction of uncertainty at the level of the 31 provinces of China, and an additional 18.0% at the national level. Some of the coastal provinces stand out as expected, but the metropolitan areas of Beijing and Shanghai are (with Tianjan and Chonqing) most pronounced at the next-lower administrative level of (339) prefectures, since these four metropoles are administratively defined at both levels. Focusing on high- and medium-tech manufacturing, a shift toward Beijing and Shanghai is indicated, and the synergy is on average enhanced (as expected; but not for all provinces). Unfortunately, the Orbis data is incomplete since it was collected for commercial and not for administrative or governmental purposes. However, we show a methodology that can be used by others who may have access to higher-quality statistical data for the measurement.Comment: accepted for publication in Scientometrics (October, 2013

A Survey of Languages for Specifying Dynamics: A Knowledge Engineering Perspective

A number of formal specification languages for knowledge-based systems has been developed. Characteristics for knowledge-based systems are a complex knowledge base and an inference engine which uses this knowledge to solve a given problem. Specification languages for knowledge-based systems have to cover both aspects. They have to provide the means to specify a complex and large amount of knowledge and they have to provide the means to specify the dynamic reasoning behavior of a knowledge-based system. We focus on the second aspect. For this purpose, we survey existing approaches for specifying dynamic behavior in related areas of research. In fact, we have taken approaches for the specification of information systems (Language for Conceptual Modeling and TROLL), approaches for the specification of database updates and logic programming (Transaction Logic and Dynamic Database Logic) and the generic specification framework of abstract state machine

Creating Responsive Information Systems with the Help of SSADM

In this paper, a program for a research is outlined. Firstly, the concept of responsive information systems is defined and then the notion of the capacity planning and software performance engineering is clarified. Secondly, the purpose of the proposed methodology of capacity planning, the interface to information systems analysis and development methodologies (SSADM), the advantage of knowledge-based approach is discussed. The interfaces to CASE tools more precisely to data dictionaries or repositories (IRDS) are examined in the context of a certain systems analysis and design methodology (e.g. SSADM)

Query Rewriting and Optimization for Ontological Databases

Ontological queries are evaluated against a knowledge base consisting of an extensional database and an ontology (i.e., a set of logical assertions and constraints which derive new intensional knowledge from the extensional database), rather than directly on the extensional database. The evaluation and optimization of such queries is an intriguing new problem for database research. In this paper, we discuss two important aspects of this problem: query rewriting and query optimization. Query rewriting consists of the compilation of an ontological query into an equivalent first-order query against the underlying extensional database. We present a novel query rewriting algorithm for rather general types of ontological constraints which is well-suited for practical implementations. In particular, we show how a conjunctive query against a knowledge base, expressed using linear and sticky existential rules, that is, members of the recently introduced Datalog+/- family of ontology languages, can be compiled into a union of conjunctive queries (UCQ) against the underlying database. Ontological query optimization, in this context, attempts to improve this rewriting process so to produce possibly small and cost-effective UCQ rewritings for an input query.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1312.5914 by other author