Mediated schemas lie at the center of the well recognized data integration architecture. Classical data integration systems rely on a mediated schema created by human experts through an intensive design process. Automatic generation of mediated schemas is still a goal to be achieved. We generate mediated schemas by merging multiple source schemas interrelated by tuple-generating dependencies (tgds). Schema merging is the process to consolidate multiple schemas into a unified view. The task becomes particularly challenging when the schemas are highly heterogeneous and autonomous. Existing approaches fall short in various aspects, such as restricted expressiveness of input mappings, lacking data level interpretation, the output mapping is not in a logical language (or not given at all), and being confined to binary merging. We present here a novel system which is able to perform native n-ary schema merging using P2P style tgds as input. Suited in the scenario of generating mediated schemas for data integration, the system opts for a minimal schema signature retaining all certain answers of conjunctive queries. Logical output mappings are generated to support the mediated schemas, which enable query answering and, in some cases, query rewriting.

With the information explosion on the Internet, finding precise answers efficiently is a prevalent requirement by many users. Today, search engines answer keyword queries with a ranked list of documents. Users might not be always willing to read the top ranked documents in order to satisfy their information need. It would save lots of time and efforts if the the answer to a query can be provided directly, instead of a link to a document which might contain the answer. To realize this functionality, users must be able to define their information needs precisely, e.g., by using structured queries, and, on the other hand, the system must be able to extract information from unstructured text documents to answer these queries. To this end, we introduce a system which supports structured queries over unstructured text documents, aiming at finding structured answers to the users' information need. Our goal is to extract answers from unstructured natural text, by applying various efficient techniques that allow fast query processing over text documents from the web or other heterogeneous sources. A key feature of our approach is that it does not require any upfront integration efforts such as the definition of a common data model or ontology.

Schema merging is the process of consolidating multiple schemas into a unified view. The task becomes particularly challenging when the schemas are highly heterogeneous and autonomous. Classical data integration systems rely on a mediated schema created by human experts through an intensive design process.

Health and mobility of elderly people is gaining importance in aging societies. New communication-based methods to provide health services with personal health care devices are considered promising elements of first-class medical care services for everybody. To achieve this vision, several technological issues have to be solved: (i) body sensors to monitor vital functions have to be developed; (ii) these sensors should be integrated into textile structures to guarantee ease of use and patient acceptance; (iii)the collected sensor data has to be analyzed to detect emergency situations and to reduce the data volume; (iv) relevant data has to be integrated with other information systems in the work environment of medical experts. These challenges are addressed within the HealthNet project at RWTH Aachen University. The goal of the project is to develop a framework in which health professional scan remotely monitor and diagnose mobile patients. The described demonstration presents our results of the first three issues mentioned above while focusing on the employed data mining and management techniques.