2,714 research outputs found
Tractable Optimization Problems through Hypergraph-Based Structural Restrictions
Several variants of the Constraint Satisfaction Problem have been proposed
and investigated in the literature for modelling those scenarios where
solutions are associated with some given costs. Within these frameworks
computing an optimal solution is an NP-hard problem in general; yet, when
restricted over classes of instances whose constraint interactions can be
modelled via (nearly-)acyclic graphs, this problem is known to be solvable in
polynomial time. In this paper, larger classes of tractable instances are
singled out, by discussing solution approaches based on exploiting hypergraph
acyclicity and, more generally, structural decomposition methods, such as
(hyper)tree decompositions
The complexity of acyclic conjunctive queries revisited
In this paper, we consider first-order logic over unary functions and study
the complexity of the evaluation problem for conjunctive queries described by
such kind of formulas. A natural notion of query acyclicity for this language
is introduced and we study the complexity of a large number of variants or
generalizations of acyclic query problems in that context (Boolean or not
Boolean, with or without inequalities, comparisons, etc...). Our main results
show that all those problems are \textit{fixed-parameter linear} i.e. they can
be evaluated in time where is the
size of the query , the database size, is
the size of the output and is some function whose value depends on the
specific variant of the query problem (in some cases, is the identity
function). Our results have two kinds of consequences. First, they can be
easily translated in the relational (i.e., classical) setting. Previously known
bounds for some query problems are improved and new tractable cases are then
exhibited. Among others, as an immediate corollary, we improve a result of
\~\cite{PapadimitriouY-99} by showing that any (relational) acyclic conjunctive
query with inequalities can be evaluated in time
. A second consequence of our method is
that it provides a very natural descriptive approach to the complexity of
well-known algorithmic problems. A number of examples (such as acyclic subgraph
problems, multidimensional matching, etc...) are considered for which new
insights of their complexity are given.Comment: 30 page
Four Lessons in Versatility or How Query Languages Adapt to the Web
Exposing not only human-centered information, but machine-processable data on the Web is one of the commonalities of recent Web trends. It has enabled a new kind of applications and businesses where the data is used in ways not foreseen by the data providers. Yet this exposition has fractured the Web into islands of data, each in different Web formats: Some providers choose XML, others RDF, again others JSON or OWL, for their data, even in similar domains. This fracturing stifles innovation as application builders have to cope not only with one Web stack (e.g., XML technology) but with several ones, each of considerable complexity. With Xcerpt we have developed a rule- and pattern based query language that aims to give shield application builders from much of this complexity: In a single query language XML and RDF data can be accessed, processed, combined, and re-published. Though the need for combined access to XML and RDF data has been recognized in previous work (including the W3C’s GRDDL), our approach differs in four main aspects: (1) We provide a single language (rather than two separate or embedded languages), thus minimizing the conceptual overhead of dealing with disparate data formats. (2) Both the declarative (logic-based) and the operational semantics are unified in that they apply for querying XML and RDF in the same way. (3) We show that the resulting query language can be implemented reusing traditional database technology, if desirable. Nevertheless, we also give a unified evaluation approach based on interval labelings of graphs that is at least as fast as existing approaches for tree-shaped XML data, yet provides linear time and space querying also for many RDF graphs. We believe that Web query languages are the right tool for declarative data access in Web applications and that Xcerpt is a significant step towards a more convenient, yet highly efficient data access in a “Web of Data”
Why is the snowflake schema a good data warehouse design?
Database design for data warehouses is based on the notion of the snowflake schema and its important special case, the star schema. The snowflake schema represents a dimensional model which is composed of a central fact table and a set of constituent dimension tables which can be further broken up into subdimension tables. We formalise the concept of a snowflake schema in terms of an acyclic database schema whose join tree satisfies certain structural properties. We then define a normal form for snowflake schemas which captures its intuitive meaning with respect to a set of functional and inclusion dependencies. We show that snowflake schemas in this normal form are independent as well as separable when the relation schemas are pairwise incomparable. This implies that relations in the data warehouse can be updated independently of each other as long as referential integrity is maintained. In addition, we show that a data warehouse in snowflake normal form can be queried by joining the relation over the fact table with the relations over its dimension and subdimension tables. We also examine an information-theoretic interpretation of the snowflake schema and show that the redundancy of the primary key of the fact table is zero
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