Abstract
This paper deals with the derivation of complex properties relating objects belonging to a set of database schemes and the exploitation of derived properties in query optimization and view maintenance problems. The derivation process has an iterative nature and works by case analysis over database schemes, in a way somehow similar to the way knowledge discovery processes behave on database extensions: for this reason, we call it Intentional Knowledge Discovery. Complex properties have a fuzzy nature and are represented and manipulated using a fuzzy variant of Description Logics. The paper presents detailed descriptions of procedures used to derive complex properties. As far as applications are concerned, the paper illustrates several query optimization cases and a view maintenance algorithm both based on the availability of extracted complex properties.
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