Intelligent query answering by knowledge discovery techniques

Knowledge discovery facilitates querying database knowledge and intelligent query answering in database systems. We investigate the application of discovered knowledge, concept hierarchies, and knowledge discovery tools for intelligent query answering in database systems. A knowledge-rich data model is constructed to incorporate discovered knowledge and knowledge discovery tools. Queries are classified into data queries and knowledge queries. Both types of queries can be answered directly by simple retrieval or intelligently by analyzing the intent of query and providing generalized, neighborhood or associated information using stored or discovered knowledge. Techniques have been developed for intelligent query answering using discovered knowledge and/or knowledge discovery tools, which includes generalization, data summarization, concept clustering, rule discovery, query rewriting, deduction, lazy evaluation, application of multiple-layered databases, etc. Our study shows that knowledge discovery substantially broadens the spectrum of intelligent query answering and may have deep implications on query answering in data- and knowledge-base systems     

On the finite controllability of conjunctive query answering in databases under open-world assumption

In this paper we study queries over relational databases with integrity constraints (ICs). The main problem we analyze is OWA query answering, i.e., query answering over a database with ICs under open-world assumption. The kinds of ICs that we consider are inclusion dependencies and functional dependencies, in particular key dependencies; the query languages we consider are conjunctive queries and unions of conjunctive queries. We present results about the decidability of OWA query answering under ICs. In particular, we study OWA query answering both over finite databases and over unrestricted databases, and identify the cases in which such a problem is finitely controllable, i.e., when OWA query answering over finite databases coincides with OWA query answering over unrestricted databases. Moreover, we are able to easily turn the above results into new results about implication of ICs and query containment under ICs, due to the deep relationship between OWA query answering and these two classical problems in database theory. In particular, we close two long-standing open problems in query containment, since we prove finite controllability of containment of conjunctive queries both under arbitrary inclusion dependencies and under key and foreign key dependencies. The results of our investigation are very relevant in many research areas which have recently dealt with databases under an incomplete information assumption: e.g., data integration, data exchange, view-based information access, ontology-based information systems, and peer data management systems.     

Sliding-window top-k queries on uncertain streams

Recently, due to the imprecise nature of the data generated from a variety of streaming applications, such as sensor networks, query processing on uncertain data streams has become an important problem. However, all the existing works on uncertain data streams study unbounded streams. In this paper, we take the first step towards the important and challenging problem of answering sliding-window queries on uncertain data streams, with a focus on one of the most important types of queries—top-k queries. It is nontrivial to find an efficient solution for answering sliding-window top-k queries on uncertain data streams, because challenges not only stem from the strict space and time requirements of processing both arriving and expiring tuples in high-speed streams, but also rise from the exponential blowup in the number of possible worlds induced by the uncertain data model. In this paper, we design a unified framework for processing sliding-window top-k queries on uncertain streams. We show that all the existing top-k definitions in the literature can be plugged into our framework, resulting in several succinct synopses that use space much smaller than the window size, while they are also highly efficient in terms of processing time. We also extend our framework to answering multiple top-k queries. In addition to the theoretical space and time bounds that we prove for these synopses, we present a thorough experimental report to verify their practical efficiency on both synthetic and real data.     

An inductive database system based on virtual mining views

Inductive databases integrate database querying with database mining. In this article, we present an inductive database system that does not rely on a new data mining query language, but on plain SQL. We propose an intuitive and elegant framework based on virtual mining views, which are relational tables that virtually contain the complete output of data mining algorithms executed over a given data table. We show that several types of patterns and models that are implicitly present in the data, such as itemsets, association rules, and decision trees, can be represented and queried with SQL using a unifying framework. As a proof of concept, we illustrate a complete data mining scenario with SQL queries over the mining views, which is executed in our system.     

Voronoi-based reverse nearest neighbor query processing on spatial networks

The use of Voronoi diagram has traditionally been applied to computational geometry and multimedia problems. In this paper, we will show how Voronoi diagram can be applied to spatial query processing, and in particular to Reverse Nearest Neighbor (RNN) queries. Spatial and geographical query processing, in general, and RNN in particular, are becoming more important, as online maps are now widely available. In this paper, using the concept of Voronoi diagram, we classify RNN into four types depending on whether the query point and the interest objects are the generator points of the Voronoi Polygon or not. Our approach is based on manipulating Network Voronoi Diagram properties and applying a progressive incremental network expansion for finding the polygon inner network distances required to solve RNN queries. Our experimentation results show that our approaches have good response times in answering RNN queries.     

Result Merging for Structured Queries on the Deep Web with Active Relevance Weight Estimation

Data integration systems on the Deep Web offer a transparent means to query multiple data sources at once. Result merging– the generation of an overall ranked list of results from different sources in response to a query– is a key component of a data integration system. In this work we present a result merging model, called Active Relevance Weight Estimation model. Different from the existing techniques for result merging, we estimate the relevance of a data source in answering a query at query time. The relevances for a set of data sources are expressed with a (normalized) weighting scheme: the larger the weight for a data source the more relevant the source is in answering a query. We estimate the weights of a data source in each subset of the data sources involved in a training query. Because an online query may not exactly match any training query, we devise methods to obtain a subset of training queries that are related to the online query. We estimate the relevance weights of the online query from the weights of this subset of training queries. Our experiments show that our method outperforms the leading merging algorithms with comparable response time.     

Ranked Query Processing in Uncertain Databases

Recently, many new applications, such as sensor data monitoring and mobile device tracking, raise up the issue of uncertain data management. Compared to "certain” data, the data in the uncertain database are not exact points, which, instead, often reside within a region. In this paper, we study the ranked queries over uncertain data. In fact, ranked queries have been studied extensively in traditional database literature due to their popularity in many applications, such as decision making, recommendation raising, and data mining tasks. Many proposals have been made in order to improve the efficiency in answering ranked queries. However, the existing approaches are all based on the assumption that the underlying data are exact (or certain). Due to the intrinsic differences between uncertain and certain data, these methods are designed only for ranked queries in certain databases and cannot be applied to uncertain case directly. Motivated by this, we propose novel solutions to speed up the probabilistic ranked query (PRank) with monotonic preference functions over the uncertain database. Specifically, we introduce two effective pruning methods, spatial and probabilistic pruning, to help reduce the PRank search space. A special case of PRank with linear preference functions is also studied. Then, we seamlessly integrate these pruning heuristics into the PRank query procedure. Furthermore, we propose and tackle the PRank query processing over the join of two distinct uncertain databases. Extensive experiments have demonstrated the efficiency and effectiveness of our proposed approaches in answering PRank queries, in terms of both wall clock time and the number of candidates to be refined.     

MiniCon: A scalable algorithm for answering queries using views

The problem of answering queries using views is to find efficient methods of answering a query using a set of previously materialized views over the database, rather than accessing the database relations. The problem has received significant attention because of its relevance to a wide variety of data management problems, such as data integration, query optimization, and the maintenance of physical data independence. To date, the performance of proposed algorithms has received very little attention, and in particular, their scale up in the presence of a large number of views is unknown. We first analyze two previous algorithms, the bucket algorithm and the inverse-rules, and show their deficiencies. We then describe the MiniCon, a novel algorithm for finding the maximally-contained rewriting of a conjunctive query using a set of conjunctive views. We present the first experimental study of algorithms for answering queries using views. The study shows that the MiniCon scales up well and significantly outperforms the previous algorithms. We describe an extension of the MiniCon to handle comparison predicates, and show its performance experimentally. Finally, we describe how the MiniCon can be extended to the context of query optimization. Received: 15 October 2000 / Accepted: 15 April 2001 Published online: 28 June 2001     

View-based query processing: On the relationship between rewriting,answering and losslessness

As a result of the extensive research in view-based query processing, three notions have been identified as fundamental, namely rewriting, answering, and losslessness. Answering amounts to computing the tuples satisfying the query in all databases consistent with the views. Rewriting consists in first reformulating the query in terms of the views and then evaluating the rewriting over the view extensions. Losslessness holds if we can answer the query by solely relying on the content of the views. While the mutual relationship between these three notions is easy to identify in the case of conjunctive queries, the terrain of notions gets considerably more complicated going beyond such a query class. In this paper, we revisit the notions of answering, rewriting, and losslessness and clarify their relationship in the setting of semistructured databases, and in particular for the basic query class in this setting, i.e., two-way regular path queries. Our first result is a clean explanation of the relationship between answering and rewriting, in which we characterize rewriting as a “linear approximation” of query answering. We show that applying this linear approximation to the constraint-satisfaction framework yields an elegant automata-theoretic approach to query rewriting. As for losslessness, we show that there are indeed two distinct interpretations for this notion, namely with respect to answering, and with respect to rewriting. We also show that the constraint-theoretic approach and the automata-theoretic approach can be combined to give algorithmic characterization of the various facets of losslessness. Finally, we deal with the problem of coping with loss, by considering mechanisms aimed at explaining lossiness to the user.     

Spatial inverse query processing

Traditional spatial queries return, for a given query object q, all database objects that satisfy a given predicate, such as epsilon range and k-nearest neighbors. This paper defines and studies inverse spatial queries, which, given a subset of database objects Q and a query predicate, return all objects which, if used as query objects with the predicate, contain Q in their result. We first show a straightforward solution for answering inverse spatial queries for any query predicate. Then, we propose a filter-and-refinement framework that can be used to improve efficiency. We show how to apply this framework on a variety of inverse queries, using appropriate space pruning strategies. In particular, we propose solutions for inverse epsilon range queries, inverse k-nearest neighbor queries, and inverse skyline queries. Furthermore, we show how to relax the definition of inverse queries in order to ensure non-empty result sets. Our experiments show that our framework is significantly more efficient than naive approaches.     

Weighted path queries on semistructured databases

Path queries have been extensively used to query semistructured data, such as the Web and XML documents. In this paper we introduce weighted path queries, an extension of path queries enabling several classes of optimization problems (such as the computation of shortest paths) to be easily expressed. Weighted path queries are based on the notion of weighted regular expression, i.e., a regular expression whose symbols are associated to a weight. We characterize the problem of answering weighted path queries and provide an algorithm for computing their answer. We also show how weighted path queries can be effectively embedded into query languages for XML data to express in a simple and compact form several meaningful research problems.     

模糊描述逻辑知识库查询蕴涵的判定方法

大规模领域本体的快速发展对语义Web领域的数据访问提出了更高的要求,而基本的本体推理服务已不能满足数据密集型应用中处理复杂查询(主要是合取查询)的迫切需要.为此,大量的研究工作集中在本体和描述逻辑知识库合取查询算法的设计实现上,并开发出了很多知识库存储和查询的实用工具.近来模糊本体和模糊描述逻辑的研究,特别是它们在处理语义Web中模糊信息方面,得到了广泛关注.文中重点研究了模糊SH这一族极富表达能力的描述逻辑知识库的合取查询问题,提出了相应的基于推演表的算法,证明了算法对于f-SHOIQ的真子逻辑的可靠性、完备性和可终止性.证明了算法对于f-SHOIQ是可靠的,并分析了导致算法不可终止的原因.对于该问题的数据复杂度,证明了当查询中不存在传递角色时其严格的CONP上限.对于联合复杂度,汪明了算法关于知识库和查询大小的CO3NEXPTIME时间复杂度上限.     

Data Cleaning and Query Answering with Matching Dependencies and Matching Functions

Matching dependencies were recently introduced as declarative rules for data cleaning and entity resolution. Enforcing a matching dependency on a database instance identifies the values of some attributes for two tuples, provided that the values of some other attributes are sufficiently similar. Assuming the existence of matching functions for making two attribute values equal, we formally introduce the process of cleaning an instance using matching dependencies, as a chase-like procedure. We show that matching functions naturally introduce a lattice structure on attribute domains, and a partial order of semantic domination between instances. Using the latter, we define the semantics of clean query answering in terms of certain/possible answers as the greatest lower bound/least upper bound of all possible answers obtained from the clean instances. We show that clean query answering is intractable in general. Then we study queries that behave monotonically w.r.t. semantic domination order, and show that we can provide an under/over approximation for clean answers to monotone queries. Moreover, non-monotone positive queries can be relaxed into monotone queries.     

The partial sequenced route query with traveling rules in road networks

In modern geographic information systems, route search represents an important class of queries. In route search related applications, users may want to define a number of traveling rules (traveling preferences) when they plan their trips. However, these traveling rules are not considered in most existing techniques. In this paper, we propose a novel spatial query type, the multi-rule partial sequenced route (MRPSR) query, which enables efficient trip planning with user defined traveling rules. The MRPSR query provides a unified framework that subsumes the well-known trip planning query (TPQ) and the optimal sequenced route (OSR) query. The difficulty in answering MRPSR queries lies in how to integrate multiple choices of points-of-interest (POI) with traveling rules when searching for satisfying routes. We prove that MRPSR query is NP-hard and then provide three algorithms by mapping traveling rules to an activity on vertex network. Afterwards, we extend all the proposed algorithms to road networks. By utilizing both real and synthetic POI datasets, we investigate the performance of our algorithms. The results of extensive simulations show that our algorithms are able to answer MRPSR queries effectively and efficiently with underlying road networks. Compared to the Light Optimal Route Discoverer (LORD) based brute-force solution, the response time of our algorithms is significantly reduced while the distances of the computed routes are only slightly longer than the shortest route.     

Answering reachability queries with ordered label constraints over labeled graphs

Reachability query plays a vital role in many graph analysis tasks. Previous researches proposed many methods to efficiently answer reachability queries between vertex pairs. Since many real graphs are labeled graph, it highly demands Label-Constrained Reachability (LCR) query in which constraint includes a set of labels besides vertex pairs. Recent researches proposed several methods for answering some LCR queries which require appearance of some labels specified in constraints in the path. Besides that constraint may be a label set, query constraint may be ordered labels, namely OLCR (Ordered-Label-Constrained Reachability) queries which retrieve paths matching a sequence of labels. Currently, no solutions are available for OLCR. Here, we propose DHL, a novel bloom filter based indexing technique for answering OLCR queries. DHL can be used to check reachability between vertex pairs. If the answers are not no, then constrained DFS is performed. So, we employ DHL followed by performing constrained DFS to answer OLCR queries. We show that DHL has a bounded false positive rate, and it’s powerful in saving indexing time and space. Extensive experiments on 10 real-life graphs and 12 synthetic graphs demonstrate that DHL achieves about 4.8–22.5 times smaller index space and 4.6–114 times less index construction time than two state-of-art techniques for LCR queries, while achieving comparable query response time. The results also show that our algorithm can answer OLCR queries effectively.     

用于聚集值近似查询的基于密度的树索引结构

如何快速有效地对数据立方体上的聚集查询给出近似的回答,是数据挖掘和数据仓库研究领域中的核心问题之一。现有大多数聚集查询算法在同一个数据立方体上只能支持某种特定的而非多种类型的聚集查询。本文给出了一种新的框架AdenTS,即基于密度的自适应树结构,它可以回答同一数据立方体上的各类聚集查询,也提出了一些近似和启发式技术,改善了查询结果和精度。实验结果表明,这种方法在支持的查询种类和性能上是更好的。     

Progressive evaluation of nested aggregate queries

In many decision-making scenarios, decision makers require rapid feedback to their queries, which typically involve aggregates. The traditional blocking execution model can no longer meet the demands of these users. One promising approach in the literature, called online aggregation, evaluates an aggregation query progressively as follows: as soon as certain data have been evaluated, approximate answers are produced with their respective running confidence intervals; as more data are examined, the answers and their corresponding running confidence intervals are refined. In this paper, we extend this approach to handle nested queries with aggregates (i.e., at least one inner query block is an aggregate query) by providing users with (approximate) answers progressively as the inner aggregation query blocks are evaluated. We address the new issues pose by nested queries. In particular, the answer space begins with a superset of the final answers and is refined as the aggregates from the inner query blocks are refined. For the intermediary answers to be meaningful, they have to be interpreted with the aggregates from the inner queries. We also propose a multi-threaded model in evaluating such queries: each query block is assigned to a thread, and the threads can be evaluated concurrently and independently. The time slice across the threads is nondeterministic in the sense that the user controls the relative rate at which these subqueries are being evaluated. For enumerative nested queries, we propose a priority-based evaluation strategy to present answers that are certainly in the final answer space first, before presenting those whose validity may be affected as the inner query aggregates are refined. We implemented a prototype system using Java and evaluated our system. Results for nested queries with a level and multiple levels of nesting are reported. Our results show the effectiveness of the proposed mechanisms in providing progressive feedback that reduces the initial waiting time of users significantly without sacrificing the quality of the answers. Received April 25, 2000 / Accepted June 27, 2000     

Nearest and reverse nearest neighbor queries for moving objects

With the continued proliferation of wireless communications and advances in positioning technologies, algorithms for efficiently answering queries about large populations of moving objects are gaining interest. This paper proposes algorithms for k nearest and reverse k nearest neighbor queries on the current and anticipated future positions of points moving continuously in the plane. The former type of query returns k objects nearest to a query object for each time point during a time interval, while the latter returns the objects that have a specified query object as one of their k closest neighbors, again for each time point during a time interval. In addition, algorithms for so-called persistent and continuous variants of these queries are provided. The algorithms are based on the indexing of object positions represented as linear functions of time. The results of empirical performance experiments are reported.