Guaranteeing no interaction between functional dependencies and tree-like inclusion dependencies

Functional dependencies (FDs) and inclusion dependencies (INDs) are the most fundamental integrity constraints that arise in practice in relational databases. A given set of FDs does not interact with a given set of INDs if logical implication of any FD can be determined solely by the given set of FDs, and logical implication of any IND can be determined solely by the given set of INDs. The set of tree-like INDs constitutes a useful subclass of INDs whose implication problem is polynomial time decidable. We exhibit a necessary and sufficient condition for a set of FDs and tree-like INDs not to interact; this condition can be tested in polynomial time

Kemeny's constant and the random surfer

We revisit Kemeny's constant in the context of Web navigation, also known as "surfing." We generalize the constant, derive upper and lower bounds on it, and give it a novel interpretation in terms of the number of links a random surfer will follow to reach his final destination

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

A Stochastic Evolutionary Growth Model for Social Networks

We present a stochastic model for a social network, where new actors may join the network, existing actors may become inactive and, at a later stage, reactivate themselves. Our model captures the evolution of the network, assuming that actors attain new relations or become active according to the preferential attachment rule. We derive the mean-field equations for this stochastic model and show that, asymptotically, the distribution of actors obeys a power-law distribution. In particular, the model applies to social networks such as wireless local area networks, where users connect to access-points, and peer-to-peer networks where users connect to each other. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the validity of our model empirically by analysing a public log containing traces from a wireless network at Dartmouth College over a period of three years. Analysing the data processed according to our model, we demonstrate that the distribution of user accesses is asymptotically a power-law distribution.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur

Actualizing Organizational Core Values: Putting Theory into Practice

The literature on organizational culture and leading by shared values suggests a prescriptive model for use by leaders in actualizing stated organizational core values. Utilizing a qualitative case study approach, this study sought to examine the efficacy of this theoretical model in representing actual efforts by practitioners to embed diversity as a new organizational core value. Leadership actions to embed and actualize diversity as an institutional core value at two private universities were examined and compared. Findings suggest the theoretical model inadequately addresses the critical role of contextual assessment and under represents the dynamic cyclical nature of value embedding and actualization processes, particularly with respect organizations with high stakeholder turnover such as institutions of higher education