Page Header Logo
TEI of Athens eJournals
Home > Open Journal Systems

Database design revisited

Nikitas N. Karanikolas, Michael Gr. Vassilakopoulos

Abstract


Information Systems design is affected by the simplicity of the relational model types, though these types do not correspond directly to entities of real applications. In this paper, we present another approach, where the Information System designers would be able to directly represent the real world in a database model, very close to the Entity- Relationship (ER) model. A query and manipulation language that can handle composite data types, close to ER diagrams, is the Conceptual Universal Database Language (CUDL). We demonstrate that a database modelled by ER diagrams can be directly expressed to the CUDL Abstraction Level (CAL), the data model corresponding to CUDL, by a set of rules for direct transformation of ER diagrams to CAL. This set consists of a basic set of five rules, which is extended with an extra rule that deals with specific situations appearing in practical applications. Consequently, the resulting more powerful and composite data can be directly maintained with the CUDL. In this way, the development process consisting in conceptual design (ER), transformation to Logical Relational Schema, usage of SQL for data manipulation/retrieval and the reverse steps to present the results in the conceptual level is simplified by conceptual design (ER), transformation to CAL and the usage of CUDL for direct manipulation/retrieval of real world (conceptual) structures.

Keywords


Information Systems Design, Database

References


Anhøj, J. (2003). Generic Design of Web-Based Clinical Databases. Journal Medical Internet Research, 4.

Atzeni, P., Cappellari, P., Torlone, R., Bernstein, P.A., Gianforme, G. (2008). Model-independent schema translation, The VLDB Journal, 17(6): 1347—1370.

Atzeni, P., Del Nostro, P., Paolozzi, S. (2008). Ontologies And Databases: Going Back And Forth. In: 4th International VLDB Workshop on Ontology-based Techniques for DataBases in Information Systems and Knowledge Systems (ODBIS 2008). Auckland, New Zealand.

Cai. J., Johnson, S., Hripcsak, G. (2000). Generic Data Modeling for Home Telemonitoring of Chronically Ill Patients. In: American Medical Informatics Association - Annual Symposium 2000 (AMIA 2000), pp. 116—120. Los Angeles, CA.

Elmasri, R., Navathe, S.B. (2000). Fundamentals of Database Systems, 3rd Edition. Addison Wesley Publishing Company: Reading, Mass.

Fischer P.C., Van Gucht D. (1985). Determining when a Structure is a Nested Relation. In: 11th Int. Conf. on Very Large DataBases (VLDB 1985), pp. 171-180. Morgan Kaufmann: Stockholm, Sweden.

Johnson S. B., Chatziantoniou D. (1999). Extended SQL for manipulating clinical warehouse data. In: American Medical Informatics Association Symposium (AMIA 1999), pp. 819-823.

Johnson, S.B. (1996). Generic data modeling for clinical repositories. Journal of American Medical Informatics Association, 3 (5): 328-339.

Karanikolas, N.N., Nitsiou, M., Yannakoudakis, E.J., Skourlas, C (2007). CUDL language semantics, liven up the FDB data model. In: 11th East- European Conf. on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS 2007), local proceedings, pp. 1-16. Technical Univ. of Varna: Varna, Bulgaria.

Karanikolas, N.N., Nitsiou, M., Yannakoudakis, E.J. (2008). CUDL Language Semantics: Authority Links. In: 12th East-European Conf. on Advances in Databases and Information Systems (ADBIS 2008), pp.123—139. Tampere Univ. of Technology: Pori, Finland.

Karanikolas, N. N., Nitsiou, M., Yannakoudakis, E. J., Skourlas, C. (2009). CUDL Language Semantics: Updating Data. Journal of Systems and Software, 82(6): 947-962. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2008.12.031

Karanikolas N. and Vassilakopoulos M. (2009). Conceptual Universal Database Language: Moving Up the Database Design levels. In: Proc. Of ADBIS'09, LNCS 5739, Riga, pp. 330—346.

Karanikolas N. and Vassilakopoulos M. (2010). Database Design with Real World Structures. eRA-5. 5th Conference for the contribution of Information Technology to Science, Economy, Society and Education.

Martins, J., Nunes, R., Karjalainen, M., Kemp, G.J.L. (2008). A Functional Data Model Approach to Querying RDF/RDFS Data. In: 25th British National Conference on Databases (BNCOD 2008), pp. 153-164. Cardiff, UK.

Nadkarni P. (2002). An introduction to entity-attribute-value design for generic clinical study data management systems. Presentation in: National GCRC Meeting. Baltimore, MD.

Nadkarni P.M. (2000). Clinical Patient Record Systems Architecture: An Overview. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 46 (3): 199-204.

Pavković, N., Štorga, M., Pavlić, D. (2001). Two Examples of Database Structures in Management of Engineering Data. In: 12th Int. Conf. on Design Tools and Methods in Industrial Engineering, pp. 89-90. ADM-Associazione Nazionale Disegno di Macchine: Bologna.

Schek H.J., Pistor P. (1982). Data Structures for an Integrated Data Base Management and Information Retrieval System. In: 8th Int. Conf. on Very Large DataBases (VLDB 1982), pp. 197-207. Morgan Kaufmann: Mexico City, Mexico

van Keulen, M., Vonk, J., de Vries, A.P., Flokstra, J., Blok, H.E. (2002). Moa: extensibility and efficiency in querying nested data. Technical Report TR-CTIT-02-19. Centre for Telematics and Information Technology, Univ. of Twente, The Netherlands.

Worboys, M.F., Hearnshaw, H.M., Maguire, D.J. (1990). Object-Oriented Data Modelling for Spatial Databases. Int. Journal of Geographical Information Systems, 4(4): 369—383.

Yannakoudakis E.J., Diamantis I.K. (2001). Further improvements of the Framework for Dynamic Evolving of Database environments. In: 5th Hellenic – European Conf. on Computer Mathematics and its Applications (HERCMA 2001), Athens, Greece

Yannakoudakis E.J., Nitsiou M., Skourlas, C., Karanikolas, N.N. (2007). Tarski algebraic operations on the frame database model (FDB). In: 11th Panhellenic Conf. in Informatics (PCI 2007), pp. 207-216. New Technologies Publications: Patras, Greece.

Yannakoudakis E.J., Tsionos C.X., Kapetis C.A. (1999). A new framework for dynamically evolving database environments. Journal of Documentation, 55(2): 144-158.


Full Text: PDF

DOI: 10.18780/jiim.v1i1.3052

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.

The application for presenting electronic journals TEI developed within subproject 2 "electronic publishing service" the Act "Development Services Digital Library of TEI" and financed by the operational program "Digital Convergence", NSRF 2007-2013.