Discovery Agent : An Interactive Approach for the Discovery of Inclusion Dependencies

Author

Dhaval B. Patel, Montclair State University

Date of Award

1-2006

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School

College of Science and Mathematics

Department/Program

Computer Science

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Andreas Koeller

Committee Member

Katherine Herbert

Committee Member

John Jenq

Abstract

The information integration problem is a hard yet important problem in the field of databases. The goal of information integration is to provide unified views on diverse data among several resources. This subject has been studied for a long time. The integration can be performed using several ways. Schema integration using inclusion dependency constraints is one of them. The problem of discovering inclusion dependencies among input relations is NP-complete in terms of the number of attributes.

Two significant algorithms address this problem: FIND₂ by Andreas Koeller and Zigzag by Fabien De Marchi. Both algorithms discover inclusion dependencies among input relations on small scale databases having relatively few attributes. Because of the data discrepancy, they do not scale well with higher numbers of attributes.

We propose an approach of incorporating human intelligence into the algorithmic discovery of inclusion dependencies. To use human intelligence, we design an agent called the discovery agent, to provide a communication bridge between an algorithm and a user. The discovery agent demonstrates the progress of the discovery process and provides sufficient user controls to govern the discovery process into the right direction. In this thesis, we present a prototype of the discovery agent based upon the FIND₂ algorithm, which utilizes most of the phase-wise behavior of the algorithm and demonstrate how human observer and algorithm work together to achieve higher performance and better output accuracy.

The goal of the discovery agent is to make the discovery process truly interactive between system and user as well as to produce the desired and accurate result. The discovery agent can deliver an applicable and feasible approximation of an NP-complete problem with the help of suitable algorithm and appropriate human expertise.

File Format

PDF

Recommended Citation

Patel, Dhaval B., "Discovery Agent : An Interactive Approach for the Discovery of Inclusion Dependencies" (2006). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 1230.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/1230