Pathfinder: XQuery - The Relational Way

Relational query processors are probably the best understood (as well as the best engineered) query engines available today. Although carefully tuned to process instances of the relational model (tables of tuples), these processors can also provide a foundation for the evaluation of "alien" (non-relational) query languages: if a relational encoding of the alien data model and its associated query language is given, the RDBMS may act like a special-purpose processor for the new language

Structural matching by discrete relaxation

This paper describes a Bayesian framework for performing relational graph matching by discrete relaxation. Our basic aim is to draw on this framework to provide a comparative evaluation of a number of contrasting approaches to relational matching. Broadly speaking there are two main aspects to this study. Firstly we locus on the issue of how relational inexactness may be quantified. We illustrate that several popular relational distance measures can be recovered as specific limiting cases of the Bayesian consistency measure. The second aspect of our comparison concerns the way in which structural inexactness is controlled. We investigate three different realizations ai the matching process which draw on contrasting control models. The main conclusion of our study is that the active process of graph-editing outperforms the alternatives in terms of its ability to effectively control a large population of contaminating clutter

THE RELEVANCE OF MACNEIL'S RELATIONAL NORMS TO UNDERSTAND THE EXIT OF A INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP

Relationship marketing has been gaining an increasing interest in the marketing community for the past ten years. Some authors define relationship building and management as the core of the marketing process (Grönroos, 1994), others view it as a way to build up effective competitive advantages especially when potential for differentiation is weak, such as in services (e.g., Day, 2000). Although the volume of conceptual and empirical researches on relationship marketing is impressive, few attempts have been made to explain the dissolution of a relationship (Dwyer et al., 1987; Stewart, 1998; Tähtinen, 1999). Unfortunately a marketing relationship cannot be defined as an ever-ending love story! The objective of this paper is to test the relevance of a conceptual framework to understand this dissolution process: the relational norms. It has been originally developed by Macneil to understand legal contracts (Macneil, 1980). According to Macneil, there exists a set of transactional as well as relational norms to understand an economic exchange between two partners. The former include nine contractual norms, the latter encompasses four relational norms, namely role integrity, solidarity, flexibility and supra contractual norms. This set of relational norms has been successfully used to explain the effectiveness of marketing relationships (e.g., Paulin, Perrien & Ferguson, 1997). In this research we intended to test if these relational norms can be applied to explain a dissolution process. Thirteen dyads of account managers and managers of businesses in the mid-market were interviewed. These interviews showed the contingency of Macneil's norms. They also demonstrated the major role played by relational norms both in developing and maintaining and in deteriorating and ending a relationship. Based on this qualitative phase, a questionnaire was developed. Doing so, we empirically test the relevance of relational norms in explaining relationship termination on a sample of 98 small businesses.Macneil; relational norms; relationship dissolution

Human Essence: Toward A Relational Reconstruction

This chapter opens with a social constructionist perspective on human essences. As proposed, essences are not given in nature, but constructed within cultural traditions. Thus, the major challenge is not that of “getting it right” about the essence, but generating accounts that may contribute to society. A criterion of reflective pragmatism is proposed in which questions of contribution and critique prevail. In this light the chapter places in critical light the bio-cognitive and neurological explanations of human nature, especially focusing on the ideological and political implications of these orientations. In contrast, discussion opens on relational conceptions of human essence. Several approaches are considered, including symbolic interactionism and object relations theory in psychoanalysis. However, a fully relational account abandons the individual as the fundamental unit of analysis in favor of relational process out of which the very conception of the individual is formed (or not). Several practical implications are treated including the potentials of relational responsibilit

A Relational Approach to Quantum Mechanics, Part I: Formulation

Non-relativistic quantum mechanics is reformulated here based on the idea that relational properties among quantum systems, instead of the independent properties of a quantum system, are the most fundamental elements to construct quantum mechanics. This idea, combining with the emphasis that measurement of a quantum system is a bidirectional interaction process, leads to a new framework to calculate the probability of an outcome when measuring a quantum system. In this framework, the most basic variable is the relational probability amplitude. Probability is calculated as summation of weights from the alternative measurement configurations. The properties of quantum systems, such as superposition and entanglement, are manifested through the rules of counting the alternatives. Wave function and reduced density matrix are derived from the relational probability amplitude matrix. They are found to be secondary mathematical tools that equivalently describe a quantum system without explicitly calling out the reference system. Schr\"{o}dinger Equation is obtained when there is no entanglement in the relational probability amplitude matrix. Feynman Path Integral is used to calculate the relational probability amplitude, and is further generalized to formulate the reduced density matrix. In essence, quantum mechanics is reformulated as a theory that describes physical systems in terms of relational properties.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, article split into 3 parts during refereeing, minor correction. Adding journal reference for part

Relational Algebra for In-Database Process Mining

The execution logs that are used for process mining in practice are often obtained by querying an operational database and storing the result in a flat file. Consequently, the data processing power of the database system cannot be used anymore for this information, leading to constrained flexibility in the definition of mining patterns and limited execution performance in mining large logs. Enabling process mining directly on a database - instead of via intermediate storage in a flat file - therefore provides additional flexibility and efficiency. To help facilitate this ideal of in-database process mining, this paper formally defines a database operator that extracts the 'directly follows' relation from an operational database. This operator can both be used to do in-database process mining and to flexibly evaluate process mining related queries, such as: "which employee most frequently changes the 'amount' attribute of a case from one task to the next". We define the operator using the well-known relational algebra that forms the formal underpinning of relational databases. We formally prove equivalence properties of the operator that are useful for query optimization and present time-complexity properties of the operator. By doing so this paper formally defines the necessary relational algebraic elements of a 'directly follows' operator, which are required for implementation of such an operator in a DBMS