Towards Intelligent Databases

This article is a presentation of the objectives and techniques of deductive databases. The deductive approach to databases aims at extending with intensional definitions other database paradigms that describe applications extensionaUy. We first show how constructive specifications can be expressed with deduction rules, and how normative conditions can be defined using integrity constraints. We outline the principles of bottom-up and top-down query answering procedures and present the techniques used for integrity checking. We then argue that it is often desirable to manage with a database system not only database applications, but also specifications of system components. We present such meta-level specifications and discuss their advantages over conventional approaches

Inductive Logic Programming in Databases: from Datalog to DL+log

In this paper we address an issue that has been brought to the attention of the database community with the advent of the Semantic Web, i.e. the issue of how ontologies (and semantics conveyed by them) can help solving typical database problems, through a better understanding of KR aspects related to databases. In particular, we investigate this issue from the ILP perspective by considering two database problems, (i) the definition of views and (ii) the definition of constraints, for a database whose schema is represented also by means of an ontology. Both can be reformulated as ILP problems and can benefit from the expressive and deductive power of the KR framework DL+log. We illustrate the application scenarios by means of examples. Keywords: Inductive Logic Programming, Relational Databases, Ontologies, Description Logics, Hybrid Knowledge Representation and Reasoning Systems. Note: To appear in Theory and Practice of Logic Programming (TPLP).Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables

Knowledge Representation Concepts for Automated SLA Management

Outsourcing of complex IT infrastructure to IT service providers has increased substantially during the past years. IT service providers must be able to fulfil their service-quality commitments based upon predefined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with the service customer. They need to manage, execute and maintain thousands of SLAs for different customers and different types of services, which needs new levels of flexibility and automation not available with the current technology. The complexity of contractual logic in SLAs requires new forms of knowledge representation to automatically draw inferences and execute contractual agreements. A logic-based approach provides several advantages including automated rule chaining allowing for compact knowledge representation as well as flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing business requirements. We suggest adequate logical formalisms for representation and enforcement of SLA rules and describe a proof-of-concept implementation. The article describes selected formalisms of the ContractLog KR and their adequacy for automated SLA management and presents results of experiments to demonstrate flexibility and scalability of the approach.Comment: Paschke, A. and Bichler, M.: Knowledge Representation Concepts for Automated SLA Management, Int. Journal of Decision Support Systems (DSS), submitted 19th March 200

Context interchange : new features and formalisms for the intelligent integration of information

Cover title.Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-24).Supported in part by the National Financial Services Research Center (IFSRC), the PROductivity From Information Technology (PROFIT) project at MIT, ARPA, and UASF/Rome Laboratory. F30602-93-C-0160Cheng Hian Goh ... [et al.]

An Approach to Conceptual Schema Evolution

In this work we will analyse conceptual foundations of user centric content management. Content management often involves integration of content that was created from different points of view. Current modeling techniques and especially current systems lack of a sufficient support of handling these situations. Although schema integration is undecideable in general, we will introduce a conceptual model together with a modeling and maintenance methodology that simplifies content integration in many practical situations. We will define a conceptual model based on the Higher-Order Entity Relationship Model that combines advantages of schema oriented modeling techniques like ER modeling with element driven paradims like approaches for semistructured data management. This model is ready to support contextual reasoning based on local model semantics. For the special case of schema evolution based on schema versioning we will derive the compatibility relation between local models by tracking dependencies of schema revisions. Additionally, we will discuss implementational facets, such as storage aspects for structurally flexible content or generation of adaptive user interfaces based on a conceptual interaction model