The number of new applications in need of database support is exploding and there is an increasing need to link and access database systems supporting these new applications via computer networks. End-users and non-computer experts are becoming heavily involved in the set-up, management and use of database systems and this book provides the important database design methodologies and implementation technology which should be available for them as well as for computer experts.

With this book, the promise of the Semantic Web -- in which machines can find, share, and combine data on the Web -- is not just a technical possibility, but a practical reality Programming the Semantic Web demonstrates several ways to implement semantic web applications, using current and emerging standards and technologies. You'll learn how to incorporate existing data sources into semantically aware applications and publish rich semantic data. Each chapter walks you through a single piece of semantic technology and explains how you can use it to solve real problems. Whether you're writing a simple mashup or maintaining a high-performance enterprise solution,Programming the Semantic Web provides a standard, flexible approach for integrating and future-proofing systems and data. This book will help you: Learn how the Semantic Web allows new and unexpected uses of data to emerge Understand how semantic technologies promote data portability with a simple, abstract model for knowledge representation Become familiar with semantic standards, such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL) Make use of semantic programming techniques to both enrich and simplify current web applications

This book covers the broad field of database design from the perspective of semantic modeling. Aimed at present and future designers of database applications, software engineers, systems analysts and programmers, it aims to offer a unified study of semantic, relational, network and hierarchical databases as seen through the semantic modeling approach. The book provides a stuctured top-down methodology of database design in all the models and presents the principal types of database languages.

The Semantic Web, which is intended to establish a machine-understandable Web, is currently changing from being an emerging trend to a technology used in complex real-world applications. A number of standards and techniques have been developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), e.g., the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which provides a general method for conceptual descriptions for Web resources, and SPARQL, an RDF querying language. Recent examples of large RDF data with billions of facts include the UniProt comprehensive catalog of protein sequence, function and annotation data, the RDF data extracted from Wikipedia, and Princeton University’s WordNet. Clearly, querying performance has become a key issue for Semantic Web applications. In his book, Groppe details various aspects of high-performance Semantic Web data management and query processing. His presentation fills the gap between Semantic Web and database books, which either fail to take into account the performance issues of large-scale data management or fail to exploit the special properties of Semantic Web data models and queries. After a general introduction to the relevant Semantic Web standards, he presents specialized indexing and sorting algorithms, adapted approaches for logical and physical query optimization, optimization possibilities when using the parallel database technologies of today’s multicore processors, and visual and embedded query languages. Groppe primarily targets researchers, students, and developers of large-scale Semantic Web applications. On the complementary book webpage readers will find additional material, such as an online demonstration of a query engine, and exercises, and their solutions, that challenge their comprehension of the topics presented.

What value does semantic data modeling offer? As an information architect or data science professional, let’s say you have an abundance of the right data and the technology to extract business gold—but you still fail. The reason? Bad data semantics. In this practical and comprehensive field guide, author Panos Alexopoulos takes you on an eye-opening journey through semantic data modeling as applied in the real world. You’ll learn how to master this craft to increase the usability and value of your data and applications. You’ll also explore the pitfalls to avoid and dilemmas to overcome for building high-quality and valuable semantic representations of data. Understand the fundamental concepts, phenomena, and processes related to semantic data modeling Examine the quirks and challenges of semantic data modeling and learn how to effectively leverage the available frameworks and tools Avoid mistakes and bad practices that can undermine your efforts to create good data models Learn about model development dilemmas, including representation, expressiveness and content, development, and governance Organize and execute semantic data initiatives in your organization, tackling technical, strategic, and organizational challenges

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications, DEXA 2008, held in Turin, Italy, in September 2008. The 74 revised full papers presented together with 1 invited paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 208 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on data privacy; temporal, spatial and high dimensional databases; semantic Web and ontologies; query processing; Web and information retrieval; mobile data and information; data and information streams; data mining algorithms; multimedia databases; data mining systems, data warehousing, OLAP; data and information semantics; XML databases; applications of database, information, and decision support systems; and schema, process and knowledge modelling and evolution.

Conceptually, a database consists of objects and relationships. Object Relationship Notation (ORN) is a simple notation that more precisely defines relationships by combining UML multiplicities with uniquely defined referential actions. This book shows how ORN can be used in UML class diagrams and database definition languages (DDLs) to better model and implement relationships and thus more productively develop database applications. For the database developer, it presents many examples of relationships modeled using ORN-extended class diagrams and shows how these relationships are easily mapped to an ORN-extended SQL or Object DDL. For the DBMS developer, it presents the specifications and algorithms needed to implement ORN in a relational and object DBMS. This book also describes tools that can be downloaded or accessed via the Web. These tools allow databases to be modeled using ORN and implemented using automatic code generation that adds ORN support to Microsoft SQL Server and Progress Object Store. Object Relationship Notation (ORN) for Database Applications: Enhancing the Modeling and Implementation of Associations is written for research scientists, research libraries, professionals, and advanced-level students in computer science.