37,068 research outputs found
Integrity constraints in deductive databases
A deductive database is a logic program that generalises the concept of a relational database. Integrity constraints are properties that the data of a database are required to satisfy and in the context of logic programming, they are expressed as closed formulae. It is desirable to check the integrity of a database at the end of each transaction which changes the database. The simplest approach to checking integrity in a database involves the evaluation of each constraint whenever the database is updated. However, such an approach is too inefficient, especially for large databases, and does not make use of the fact that the database satisfies the constraints prior to the update.
A method, called the path finding method, is proposed for checking integrity in definite deductive databases by considering constraints as closed first order formulae. A comparative evaluation is made among previously described methods and the proposed one. Closed general formulae is used to express aggregate constraints and Lloyd et al. 's simplification method is generalised to cope with these constraints.
A new definition of constraint satisfiability is introduced in the case of indefinite deductive databases and the path finding method is generalised to check integrity in the presence of static constraints only. To evaluate a constraint in an indefinite deductive database to take full advantage of the query evaluation mechanism underlying the database, a query evaluator is proposed which is based on a definition of semantics, called negation as possible failure, for inferring negative information from an indefinite deductive database.
Transitional constraints are expressed using action relations and it is shown that transitional constraints can be handled in definite deductive databases in the same way as static constraints if the underlying database is suitably extended. The concept of irnplicit update is introduced and the path finding method is extended to compute facts which are present in action relations. The extended method is capable of checking integrity in definite deductive databases in the presence of transitional constraints.
Combining different generalisations of the path finding method to check integrity in deductive databases in the presence of arbitrary constraints is discussed. An extension of the data manipulation language of SQL is proposed to express a wider range of integrity constraints. This class of constraints can be maintained in a database with the tools provided in this thesis
Introducing Dynamic Behavior in Amalgamated Knowledge Bases
The problem of integrating knowledge from multiple and heterogeneous sources
is a fundamental issue in current information systems. In order to cope with
this problem, the concept of mediator has been introduced as a software
component providing intermediate services, linking data resources and
application programs, and making transparent the heterogeneity of the
underlying systems. In designing a mediator architecture, we believe that an
important aspect is the definition of a formal framework by which one is able
to model integration according to a declarative style. To this purpose, the use
of a logical approach seems very promising. Another important aspect is the
ability to model both static integration aspects, concerning query execution,
and dynamic ones, concerning data updates and their propagation among the
various data sources. Unfortunately, as far as we know, no formal proposals for
logically modeling mediator architectures both from a static and dynamic point
of view have already been developed. In this paper, we extend the framework for
amalgamated knowledge bases, presented by Subrahmanian, to deal with dynamic
aspects. The language we propose is based on the Active U-Datalog language, and
extends it with annotated logic and amalgamation concepts. We model the sources
of information and the mediator (also called supervisor) as Active U-Datalog
deductive databases, thus modeling queries, transactions, and active rules,
interpreted according to the PARK semantics. By using active rules, the system
can efficiently perform update propagation among different databases. The
result is a logical environment, integrating active and deductive rules, to
perform queries and update propagation in an heterogeneous mediated framework.Comment: Other Keywords: Deductive databases; Heterogeneous databases; Active
rules; Update
A Review of integrity constraint maintenance and view updating techniques
Two interrelated problems may arise when updating a database. On one
hand, when an update is applied to the database, integrity constraints
may become violated. In such case, the integrity constraint maintenance
approach tries to obtain additional updates to keep integrity
constraints satisfied. On the other hand, when updates of derived or
view facts are requested, a view updating mechanism must be applied to
translate the update request into correct updates of the underlying base
facts.
This survey reviews the research performed on integrity constraint
maintenance and view updating. It is proposed a general framework to
classify and to compare methods that tackle integrity constraint
maintenance and/or view updating. Then, we analyze some of these methods
in more detail to identify their actual contribution and the main
limitations they may present.Postprint (published version
The DLV System for Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
This paper presents the DLV system, which is widely considered the
state-of-the-art implementation of disjunctive logic programming, and addresses
several aspects. As for problem solving, we provide a formal definition of its
kernel language, function-free disjunctive logic programs (also known as
disjunctive datalog), extended by weak constraints, which are a powerful tool
to express optimization problems. We then illustrate the usage of DLV as a tool
for knowledge representation and reasoning, describing a new declarative
programming methodology which allows one to encode complex problems (up to
-complete problems) in a declarative fashion. On the foundational
side, we provide a detailed analysis of the computational complexity of the
language of DLV, and by deriving new complexity results we chart a complete
picture of the complexity of this language and important fragments thereof.
Furthermore, we illustrate the general architecture of the DLV system which
has been influenced by these results. As for applications, we overview
application front-ends which have been developed on top of DLV to solve
specific knowledge representation tasks, and we briefly describe the main
international projects investigating the potential of the system for industrial
exploitation. Finally, we report about thorough experimentation and
benchmarking, which has been carried out to assess the efficiency of the
system. The experimental results confirm the solidity of DLV and highlight its
potential for emerging application areas like knowledge management and
information integration.Comment: 56 pages, 9 figures, 6 table
Structuring the process of integrity maintenance (extended version)
Two different approaches have been traditionally considered for dealing with the process of integrity constraints
enforcement: integrity checking and integrity maintenance. However, while previous research in the first approach has
mainly addressed efficiency issues, research in the second approach has been mainly concentrated in being able to
generate all possible repairs that falsify an integrity constraint violation. In this paper we address efficiency issues during
the process of integrity maintenance. In this sense, we propose a technique which improves efficiency of existing methods
by defining the order in which maintenance of integrity constraints should be performed. Moreover, we use also this
technique for being able to handle in an integrated way the integrity constraintsPostprint (published version
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