The goal of the Multispecies Ovary Tissue Histology Electronic Repository (MOTHER) project is to establish a collection of nonhuman ovary histology images for multiple species as a resource for researchers and educators. An important component of sharing scientific data is the inclusion of the contextual metadata that describes the data. MOTHER extends the Ecological Metadata Language (EML) for documenting research data, leveraging its data provenance and usage license with the inclusion of metadata for ovary histology images. The design of the MOTHER metadata includes information on the donor animal, including reproductive cycle status, the slide and its preparation. MOTHER also extends the ezEML tool, called ezEML+MOTHER, for the specification of the metadata. The design of the MOTHER database (MOTHER-DB) captures the metadata about the histology images, providing a searchable resource for discovering relevant images. MOTHER also defines a curation process for the ingestion of a collection of images and its metadata, verifying the validity of the metadata before its inclusion in the MOTHER collection. A Web search provides the ability to identify relevant images based on various characteristics in the metadata itself, such as genus and species, using filters.

As researchers develop computational models of neural systems with increasing sophistication and scale, it is often the case that fully de novo model development is impractical and inefficient. Thus arises a critical need to quickly find, evaluate, re-use, and build upon models and model components developed by other researchers. We introduce the NeuroML Database (NeuroML-DB.org), which has been developed to address this need and to complement other model sharing resources. NeuroML-DB stores over 1,500 previously published models of ion channels, cells, and networks that have been translated to the modular NeuroML model description language. The database also provides reciprocal links to other neuroscience model databases (ModelDB, Open Source Brain) as well as access to the original model publications (PubMed). These links along with Neuroscience Information Framework (NIF) search functionality provide deep integration with other neuroscience community modeling resources and greatly facilitate the task of finding suitable models for reuse. Serving as an intermediate language, NeuroML and its tooling ecosystem enable efficient translation of models to other popular simulator formats. The modular nature also enables efficient analysis of a large number of models and inspection of their properties. Search capabilities of the database, together with web-based, programmable online interfaces, allow the community of researchers to rapidly assess stored model electrophysiology, morphology, and computational complexity properties. We use these capabilities to perform a database-scale analysis of neuron and ion channel models and describe a novel tetrahedral structure formed by cell model clusters in the space of model properties and features. This analysis provides further information about model similarity to enrich database search.

The goal of the presented pedagogical tool is to engage all disciplines in learning how to understand their data and the relationships among the data, and subsequently representing those data in a relational database. The tool provides a visual introduction to important concepts in database design using Entity Relationship Diagrams as the primary visual design model, relating these same concepts to other models, such as UML diagrams and the crow's feet notation used in MySQL Workbench. Once the conceptual design is realized, the tool visually presents a methodology for mapping the various data concepts to a collection of relations. Relational databases are ubiquitous and conceptually simple for all majors to understand based on the analogy of a spreadsheet with named columns. A unique feature of this tool is a built-in formative self-assessment feature, called a checkpoint, to engage learners in reflecting on what they have learned. The checkpoint provides 20 questions, multiple-choice and true/false, over a given conceptual design to test the student's understanding of the design features and mapping to relations. Another novel capability of this tool is its ability for instructors to customize the example to their discipline, supporting the introduction of database topics within the context of the domain to which it is being applied. There are already customizations of the tool available in several disciplines, broadening the accessibility of data design to many majors. Experience has shown that the tool supports visual learners in all majors, including computer science.

NeuroML is an extensible markup language for describing complex mathematical models of neurons and neuronal networks. NeuroML is unique in its modular, multi-scale structure -- not only can entire NeuroML models be exchanged, but subcomponents of these models that correspond to neuroscience objects, like channels or synapses, also can be shared and reimplemented in a different model. This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an ontology-assisted search for NeuroML models. Specifically, the paper describes the design of the system, including the database that stores the modular NeuroML models and the architecture of the Web-based search (neuroml-db.org). The implementation takes advantage of the nested structure of NeuroML models and the NeuroLex ontology for neuroscience to provide additional semantic information to enhance the search. In addition to NeuroLex terms that may exist in model metadata, this initial implementation takes advantage of several semantic relationships provided by the NeuroLex ontology: Is_part_of, Located_in, and Neurotransmitter. An evaluation of the system illustrates its effectiveness both for functionality and performance, covering various types of searches broken down by keyword searches over the database and ontology searches using the semantic relationships.

There are known benchmarks for the performance evaluation of relational and XML databases. However, there is an increasing demand for database applications that require access to heterogeneous loosely-coupled distributed data sources . This paper presents a hybrid benchmark based on TPC-H where the data sources are heterogeneous. Specifically, the paper describes the design of the relational and XML data sources as well as the query redesign in the LINQ query language , which supports queries over heterogeneous data sources. The results of a performance evaluation of the hybrid benchmark over various database products is included for untyped and typed XML with and without clearing the database cache .

Given the ever-growing importance of data across all disciplines, there is a need to enhance the fluency and comfort with data technology for a diversity of majors, not just technical ones. Which topics should be included in a data fluency course for all majors? A non-exhaustive list of possible topics includes spreadsheets, relations and relational databases, querying, conceptual design, bar graphs, charts, other data visualization, XML, and "Big Data." Join the discussion to brainstorm a data experience for students with diverse majors.

An important recent technological development in computer science is the availability of highly distributed and scalable systems to process Big Data, i.e., datasets with high volume, velocity and variety. Given the extensive and effective use of systems incorporating Big Data in many application scenarios, these systems have become a key component in the broad landscape of database systems. This fact creates the need to integrate the study of Big Data Management Systems as part of the computing curricula. This paper presents well-structured guidelines to perform this integration by describing the important types of Big Data systems and demonstrating how each type of system can be integrated into the curriculum. A key contribution of this paper is the description of an array of course resources, e.g., virtual machines, sample projects, and in-class exercises, and how these resources support the learning outcomes and enable a hands-on experience with Big Data technologies.

LINQ is a declarative language that provides a uniform paradigm for querying relations, objects, and XML. LINQ has from-where-select clauses, similar to SQL, but the clause order is based on its underlying formalism of functional programming. This workshop introduces LINQ from a database perspective with hands-on exercises over relational and XML data using a lightweight IDE for formative feedback. Participants will learn LINQ by experiencing sample exercises for incorporating LINQ into the database curriculum. The intended audience includes anyone with the knowledge of SQL who wants to learn LINQ. After learning LINQ to query relational data, participants will be introduced to XML and how LINQ can also be used to return, query, and transform XML data. Laptop recommended.

Data and information facilitate the creation of knowledge" is Big Idea III in the Computer Science Principles effort. The June issue of ACM Inroads spotlighted some of the pilot offerings of CS Principles, which included spreadsheets, database structure, and XML as coverage of this big idea. The implementation of the CS Principles framework is quite flexible, as illustrated by these pilots. An article in the subsequent September ACM Inroads specifically mentioned the importance of big data and "Data Science." What concepts do you think should be included as part of data and information? The goal of this Birds-of-a-Feather session is to bring database educators together with those interested in teaching CS Principles to brainstorm this big idea.

Databases play a major role across many disciplines for the storage and retrieval of information. Many database educators are establishing collaborations with colleagues representing a diverse spectrum of interests, for both research and pedagogical purposes. Further, the range of cooperating disciplines is expanding, as evidenced by the emergence of new fields such as computational journalism, as well as by the proliferation of discipline-specific dialects of XML. The goal of this Birds-of-a-Feather session is to bring database educators together to share their experiences on interdisciplinary collaborations in an open dialogue that is fostered by this format.

The Language INtegrated Query (LINQ) language is a declarative query language integrated within an object-oriented programming language that provides a unified paradigm for querying relations, objects, and XML (ROX). This paper describes a suite of exercises, from cooperative in-class activities to larger-scale graded assignments, for incorporating LINQ into the database curriculum. These exercises support various student learning outcomes and illustrate the applicability of LINQ by querying the same database enterprise across the ROX data models.

This research presents a benchmark for the evaluation of active rules within a distributed component integration environment. The benchmark is based on the OBJECTIVE active database benchmark. Our work was specifically performed in the context of the Integration Rules (IRules) project that uses active rules for the integration of distributed software components, which are based on the Enterprise JavaBeans component model. In addition to mapping the test rules of the OBJECTIVE benchmark to the integration rules of the IRules system, we have extended the OBJECTIVE benchmark to test additional features of a component-based active rule system, such as the event detection time, the rule execution time related to the invocation of methods on components, asynchronous coupling modes, and the rule processor execution time under a heavy event load. Although the research presents specific performance evaluation results for the IRules project, the approach more generally demonstrates the manner in which an existing rule processing benchmark for a centralized environment can be adapted and extended for use in a rule-based approach to distributed component integration.

The relationship between XML and database management systems has become an important topic for coverage at the undergraduate level. This paper presents an approach to teaching the use of XML through the study of data exchange. After a brief review of XML, the paper provides a tutorial on the different features that are provided in major relational database products for the import and export of XML, providing a discussion of how these features can be used as implementation exercises for students. In addition to addressing the use of XML for data exchange in relational systems, the paper also provides an overview of several teaching tools that are also used in the study of XML for object-oriented data and also for the exchange of object-oriented and object-relational data.

This paper illustrates the manner in which UML can be used to study mappings to different types of database systems. After introducing UML through a comparison to the EER model, UML diagrams are used to teach different approaches for mapping conceptual designs to the relational model. As we cover object-oriented and object-relational database systems, different features of UML are used over the same enterprise example to help students understand mapping alternatives for each model. Students are required to compare and contrast the mappings in each model as part of the learning process. For object-oriented and object-relational database systems, we address mappings to the ODMG and SQL99 standards in addition to specific commercial implementations.

Delta abstractions are introduced as a mechanism for managing database states during the execution of active database rules. Delta abstractions build upon the use of object deltas, capturing changes to individual objects through a system-supported, collapsible type structure. The object delta structure is implemented using object-oriented concepts such as encapsulation and inheritance so that all database objects inherit the ability to transparently create and manage delta values. Delta abstractions provide an additional layer to the database programmer for organizing object deltas according to different language components that induce database changes, such as methods and active rules. As with object deltas, delta abstractions are transparently created and maintained by the active database system. We define different types of delta abstractions as views of object deltas and illustrate how the services of delta abstractions can be used to inspect the state of active rule execution. An active rule analysis and debugging tool has been implemented to demonstrate the use of object deltas and delta abstractions for dynamic analysis of active rules at runtime.

This paper describes the design and functionality of courseware developed to demonstrate the JDBC API. The courseware is used in an advanced undergraduate database course that emphasizes the use of Web access to database systems. The JDBC courseware is written using Java Servlets and Java Server Pages, allowing the user to view the metadata associated with a database, to view and browse the information in a database according to the database metadata, and to query and/or manipulate data using SQL statements. The advantage of the courseware is that it demonstrates the main functionality of the JDBC API in an application-independent manner. The courseware can access any ODBC-compliant database, emphasizing the generality of the JDBC API and helping students understand how JDBC can be used to query the metadata of the database as well as the database contents.

This paper describes the design and functionality of a graphical user interface (GUI) written in Java Swing that is used to support instructional activities associated with teaching object-oriented database (OODB) concepts. The GUI supports the manipulation of objects in an OODB, assuming the implementation of a specified interface for interacting with an OODB. By using the interface, students can focus on object-oriented design and programming concepts associated with OODB concepts rather than the development of a user interface. Since the GUI uses the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for defining the database schema and data import/export, the use of the GUI provides the added benefit of demonstrating the manner in which XML interacts with database technology.

This paper describes the development of a second database course for undergraduates, preparing students for the advanced database concepts they will experience in industry. Assuming an introductory course on relational database systems as a prerequisite, the topics addressed in the course include object-oriented data modeling, object-oriented database systems, object-relational database systems, Web access to databases, and professionalism and ethics. We present our experience with teaching the course, elaborating on the topics and assignments. We also present feedback from students and industry partners as well as our own assessment of future course refinements.

Active database technology uses active rules, called Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules, as an integral feature of application development. Active rules specify an event that the database monitors, a declarative condition to evaluate when the event occurs, and an action to execute when the condition is true. This paper motivates the use of active rules to develop a software application that is the result of integrating black-box software components. This approach focuses on integrating black-box JavaBeans/sup TM/ components, which generate Property Change Events when the values of its properties are modified. The changes in property values are known as deltas in the database community. DeltaBeans are introduced as a mechanism to monitor the changes or deltas to the properties of a black-box JavaBeans/sup TM/ component. This paper illustrates DeltaBeans in a simple application example and motivates the use of deltas to trigger active rules that specify application integration.

RDBI is an educational tool that provides students with the capability to test their understanding of the formal relational query languages (relational algebra, domain relational calculus and tuple relational calculus) and the industry standard query language SQL.Although RDBI is an integral part of the database management courses at a number of universities, it is unavailable to those universities that do not have a license for the software product in which RDBI is implemented.WinRDBI, a version of RDBI for Windows, removes this limitation by increasing the availability of the educational tool to a standard Windows platform.Another advantage of WinRDBI is its graphical user interface, providing the student with a more intuitive interface than the command line interface of RDBI.This paper describes the architecture and user interface of WinRDBI.The features of WinRDBI are also illustrated using nontrivial examples from a popular database text.Although formal relational query languages do not provide inherent support for aggregation, these examples illustrate how to write queries in the formal languages to support (a limited form of) counting and minimum/maximum queries.

Integrating the practical use of a database product into the theoretical curriculum of a database management course is a challenge, The approach described minimizes the amount of class time that is allocated to teaching students the use of a database product, while providing guidance to the students in the use of the tool.Introduction of the database product is accomplished through cooperative learning, where students help each other learn the intricacies of the system.To facilitate this process, the students are provided with a complete database implementation example.Using this example, students gradually advance from a tutorial exercise, to a step-by-step extension of the example, and finally to more difficult extensions.These self-paced assignments provide a solid foundation for the students' knowledge in the implementation of their own cooperative group project. MicrosoftAccess, Version 2.0.

lhis paper describes the use of cooperative group learning concepts in support of an undergraduate database mrtnagement course that emphasizes the theoretical and practical aspects of database application development.'Ihe course project is divided into three main phases, involving requirements analysis and conceptual design, relational database mapping and prototyping, and database system implementation using Microsoft Access.The project deliverables are designed so that students not only develop a database implementation, but also evaluate their design in terms of functional dependencies, normal forms, the lossless join property, and the dependency preservation property, thus establishing the need for sound database design principles.Students are required to actively participate in each phase, with students assuming different roles in each phase to allow them to experience different leadership responsibilities.As part of the grading process, students evaluate their own performance as well as the perfomce of others in the group.This paper describes our experience with the structure and administration of cooperative groups and provides a discussion of the lessons we have learned, including initial observations of the effectiveness of the approach.

Since software engineers spend a large proportion of their time trying to understand computer programs, many tools have been proposed to help them with this task. The construction of such tools raises a series of specification and design issues and requires a careful choice among alternative user interfaces, tool architectures, and knowledge representations. This paper discusses the information needs of software engineers and describes and compares two such tools, the Extensible Dependency Analysis Tool Set (EDATS) and the Inter-Module Code Analysis system (IMCA). A case study is presented showing how each tool would be used to support typical program comprehension tasks. Though the two tools have quite similar objectives, their designs are radically different, leading to interesting contrasts in flexibility and ease of use.

Database performance benchmarks provide an important measure for the comparison of database management systems. This paper provides an introduction to performance benchmarks for centralised databases. The introduction includes benchmarks for transaction processing, such as DebitCredit, TPC-A and TPC-B, and benchmarks for decision support, such as the Wisconsin benchmark and its extension by Bull to a vendor benchmark, known as the Single-User Decision Support benchmark. An important contribution of this paper is a practitioner's perspective of the issues involved in performance measurement.

Abstract A knowledge base system for inter‐module code analysis is presented. Inter‐module code analysis is a technique that a programmer can use to analyse programs written in languages that contain a clustering construct called a module (or package). A module allows a programmer to control the visibility of a component within a program. The knowledge base for inter‐module code analysis is designed using the enhanced entity‐relationship conceptual data model, which is a graphical representation of the data and its relationships. The conceptual design for a code analysis enterprise is mapped into a knowledge base system, which uses a declarative logic‐based language to represent data as both facts and rules. The use of this knowledge base in an inter‐module code analysis application is demonstrated.

Abstract The ET* algorithm is a complete evaluation strategy for Datalog programs, which are logic programs without function symbols. The ET* algorithm uses extension tables and depth‐first iterative deepening to provide the evaluation of pure function‐free logic programs as declarative specifications. Extension tables are a memo facility that the algorithm uses both to cut infinite derivation paths for complete evaluation and to optimise the evaluation of logic programs. The original implementation of the ET* algorithm incorporated extension tables as part of the Prolog database using the built‐in predicates assert and retract. The advantage of implementing the extension table using the Prolog database is the portability of the ET* algorithm. There are several disadvantages, however, with this approach. One disadvantage is the cost associated with the built‐in predicates assert and retract, which are known to be expensive operations in most current Prolog systems. Another disadvantage is the differences across implementations in the semantics that these built‐ins provide for dynamic predicates. This paper presents an efficient implementation of extension tables as a global data structure in Prolog, which includes a set of built‐in primitives for manipulating the extension table. The ET* algorithm is updated to reflect the utilisation of the global extension table data structure. The implementations of the ET* algorithm are compared using time and space performance on a variety of benchmark programs.

Intermodule code analysis is a process by which a programmer can analyze a program consisting of a collection of interconnected modules. A deductive database that records the information needed for intermodule code analysis is presented. The application of a deductive database to this domain utilizes the rule capability for data structuring and facilitates the declarative specification of recursive operations. This deductive database was derived from a conceptual schema, which describes the dependencies that exist in a program. A method for mapping a conceptual schema to a deductive database framework is outlined. An example query is used to show how this database can be used for intermodule code analysis.>