Database Systems Laboratory

Sabhash Bhalla Associate Professor

Introduction Large applications for Services use database systems as a basic part for web data resources. This year the laboratory published the proceedings of 5th workshop on �hDatabases in Networked Information System (DNIS)�h with international participation. The delivered lecture and manuscripts have been utilized to develop the state-of-the-art lectures on current research problems. These created a focused view on new research problems. many current aspects of web related research activity were discussed at the workshop. In addition to complexity in features such as multiple attributed data, many new types of raw data are emerging that need to be captured by DBMSs for information extraction. Many research efforts are being made to make suitable Object-Relational architectures for spatial databases. Most of the advances in techniques concentrate on capturing more meaning within data. A number of researchers are actively developing improved data management strategies using XML data. This provides a challenging area for study. The domains of activity include : Mobile computing and databases for electronic commerce; Large Network Management Database Management Systems, for information exchange through XML; and Multi-media Synchronization applications Data Mining and Data Warehousing applications The Database Systems Laboratory has research activity concentrating on data modeling as well as transaction processing activity. Data Modeling for Spatial Objects Information Processing Systems of future will be a combination of integrated components. There will be components for intelligent problem solving, or decision making, components for specialized data processing and components for shared information management. The applications will utilize a shared base of information. Some examples are - business automation, industrial automation, computer-aided design and manufacture, and cartography. Work-flow and Web Services Traditional approaches to transaction management introduce elements of unpredictable delays during transaction processing. Thus, making these not suitable for adoption in new application environments. The techniques for time-critical transactions are applicable to Mobile databases and multimedia databases. Digital Library Studies The goal of this research is to study the feasibility to endow a computational system with the ability to process information. As an experimental platform the laboratory is building a web retrieval system that enables users to retrieve multimedia information carrying a given subjective (Kansei) content. Such system will prove useful in various areas of information technology such as online shopping, advertising industry, entertainment, design, wearable computers. The modeling issues are reformulated from the complementary points of view: a multimedia data mining approach to address the mapping between impression (or Kansei) words and multimedia impressions, An approach that involves the user in the modeling process. Query Language with reference to user skills Prototype systems to access dynamic contents through web based information systems are in progress. These emulate mobile e-commerce activity in banking and Geographic Information Systems, for test and studies. The test protypes have been evolved based on research on query-by-ojbect and spatial Query-by-example techniques.

Refereed Journal Papers

[bhalla-01:2007]

S. Saeki, S. Bhalla, and M. Hasegawa. Parallel Generation of Base Relation Snapshots for Materialized View Maintenance in Data Warehouse Environment. International Journal of Computational Science and Engineering, 3(2):166-172, April 2007.

Data warehouses are used in many applications that depend on distributed systems. A data warehouse supports information processing by providing a single platform of integrated, historical data for doing analysis. Data warehouses provide the facility for integration in a world of unintegrated application systems. The contents of a data warehouse are evolved in an evolutionary, step-at-a-time fashion. Data warehouse organizes and stores the data needed for informational, analytical processing over a long historical time perspective. This study considers the materialized view and its maintenance. Various implementation and performance evaluation of the differential snapshot algorithms have been compared for evaluation of suitable alternatives.

Refereed Proceeding Papers

[bhalla-02:2007]	M. Hasegawa, S. Bhalla, and T. Izumita. A High-level Query Interface for Web User's Access to Data Resources. In Workshop on Frontiers of Com- puter Science and Technology, pages 98-105, New York, October 2007. IEEE Computer Society.
	Most information systems depend on a Database Management System (DBMS) to organize information. Access to such an information system is based on use of a database query language on the part of the user. This poses user skills and skill levels, as problem. For example, for medical staff at a hospital, users can not spare time to learn a database query language. As a result medical staff tend to depend on specialists, and programmers for access to information. To eliminate the complexities of a query language and to make a ubiquitous access a web based information access system has been proposed for the end users. The test prototype is based on a stepby- step procedure using query-by-object.
[bhalla-03:2007]	M. Hasegawab, S. Bhalla, and T. Izumita. A User Oriented Query Interface for Web-based Geographic Information System. In Workshop on Frontiers of Computer Science and Technology, pages 106-113, New York, October 2007. IEEE Computer Society.
	A geographic information system is often used to nd objects of users' interest. It presents the users with an interface. Typically, a user interface presents a language for communication. In order to nd a path to locate an object, the users must adopt a step-wise navigation approach for easy access by web users. We propose a prototype of a high level interface based on simplified relational algebra. A prototype system has been proposed. It is based on the notion of a Query-By-Object (QBO) approach. By using the system, a web user can access the available geographic information with a high ease.
[bhalla-04:2007]	T. Kuroiwa and S. Bhalla. Aizu-BUS: Need Based Book Recommendation Using web Reviews and Web Services. In Databases in Networked Infor- mation Systems, pages 297-308, Germany, October 2007. Springer-Verlag.
	Recommendation systems provide users with products that they might want. However, current recommender systems such as Amazon.com's book recommender do not take each user's need into consideration. In fact, many times a user does not decide to purchase unknown recommended books promptly. This may be because in most cases, the user checks his/her own needs. For example, he/she may think 'Which book is my favorite author's/publisher's?', 'Which book is good for beginner?' or 'If I purchase the book, are there any benets for me?' One of the ways to resolve such questions is to check customer reviews provided by Amazon.com. Another way is to search the Web to find effective web reviews. Recently information transmissions through Blogs or virtual-community logs have been very active. Many people write book reviews on their Blogs. Therefore, if a recommender system has a facility for collecting and checking web reviews, the recommender system would be able to recommend books that meet individuals' needs.
[bhalla-05:2007]	T. Kuroiwa and S. Bhalla. Dynamic Personalization for Book Recommendation System using Web Services and Virtual Library Enhancements. In Conference on Information Technology (CIT 07), pages 212-217, New York, October 2007. IEEE Computer Society.
	In contrast to recommending new books and to enhance utilization of one's own books, we 1) propose to build a Knowledge Base (KB) by collecting book information using Web Services, 2) develop a Book Utilization System (BUS) that enables users to edit additional book information by using an XML database, 3) use a book search using Web Service. We also create an infrastructure for sharing existing books among users by extracting featured keywords from KB for individuals' preference visualization. Our book search methodology makes it possible to nd and suggest use of available books about 'XML', when a user looks for books about 'XQuery' by searching Web resources using Web Service.

Books

[bhalla-06:2007]

S. Bhalla, editor. Databases in Networked Information Systems, volume 4777 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Springer-Verlag, October 2007.

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