CS621 Seminar on:

Intelligent Database Systems

By:
-Dhaval Bonde (MTech1-08305910)
-Prasad Gawde (MTech2-07305908)

Under the Guidance of Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya.
Outline :
Introduction
Current types of Databases
Features of Ideal Intelligent DB
Evolutionary approach
Expert System
Case Study : Petrographer
Comparison: Traditional DB and IDB
Conclusion
References



Introduction:
Going beyond Relational Concepts

Database means a repository of data.
It is not just tables and relationships.
May contain documents and articles.
Introduction:
Information Anxiety
Categories
Information-
Management
Library
DB
No results
Information
Library
DB
Huge List
Of
Documents
Case 1:
David

This example is inspired from D. Sleight, Intelligent Databases: Easing Access to
Information, Michigan State University, Spring 1993.
Introduction:
Information
Library
DB
5153 results
Library
DB
Anxiety
3996 results
- Information AND
Anxiety
- Information ADJ
Anxiety
Synonyms for Information Anxiety ?
This example is inspired from D. Sleight, Intelligent Databases: Easing Access to
Information, Michigan State University, Spring 1993.
Introduction:
Case 2:
Information Anxiety
Library
DB
Leah
Information
+
Anxiety
+
Information Anxiety
Information
Anxiety
Some
appropriate
items
+
Synonyms for
Information
Anxiety
Synonyms
not useful
?
Justify
Selections
100 common imp words in example
doc, and ranked them in order of
occurrence
Compared those words with all
docs in DB
Displayed those with high no. of
matches
Rules, words,
weightings
This example is inspired from D. Sleight, Intelligent Databases: Easing Access to
Information, Michigan State University, Spring 1993.
Introduction:
Identifies negative
examples (rules, weights)
Increases weightings of
phrases that define
Information Anxiety
Search Again
Relevant
Results!
Database stores the history of her search
This example is inspired from D. Sleight, Intelligent Databases: Easing Access to
Information, Michigan State University, Spring 1993.
Current Types of Databases:
Full Text Databases:
Character string search
Will return no documents if the exact string does not match.
Many variations have to be tried.
Current Types of Databases:
Indexed Keywords:
Each item identified by keywords.
Keywords are assigned by the author or database manager.
Exact keyword should be known by the user to get correct
documents.
May involve lot of guessing.
Current Types of Databases:
Hypertext Links:
Links between non-hierarchical but related types of
information.
Nebulous searches easier.
Links followed may or may not match the users thoughts.
Eg. user may click the name of a person mentioned in economics
article to know his contribution to economics but may end up
getting the persons biography instead!
So what is an Intelligent Database?


An intelligent database is a full-text database that employs Artificial
Intelligence (AI), interacting with users to ensure that returned items
(hits) contain the most relevant information possible.
John Hopkins Institute online glossary / Whatis.com
Features of an Ideal Intelligent DB
Feedback
Eg of what the user is searching for and what he is NOT.
Interface
Windows showing previous searches.
Help
Guiding the user to formulate queries.
Selecting search terms
Alternate search terms from an online thesaurus.
Displaying results of a search
Relevance of each hit, query words highlighted.
Traditional DB , Intelligent System &
IDBs :
Evolutionary" approach:
The amalgamation or extension of existing technologies into hybrid forms.
There are 3 possible configurations of DB-AI integration:

Extending existing AI system (Loose coupling)
DB system and AI system are segregated with an additional component used for relaying the
information between the two.
These expert systems automatically formulate the queries and move data between the databases.
Transformation processing cost due to segregation of DB and KB.
These AI extensions are application specific.



Evolutionary" approach:
Extending existing DBMSs (Tight coupling)
Deductive databases is the best example of tight coupling.
A deductive database system is a database system which can make deductions
(i.e. conclude additional facts) based on rules and facts stored in the (deductive)
database.
i.e. it can define relations extensionally (as facts) as well as intentionally (as
rules.) in the database.
Ex: Consider an extensional relation parent represented as parent(X,Y) where
X has parent Y. Then we can define relations intentionally as,
rule 1: ancestor(X,Y) :- parent(X,Y)
rule 2: ancestor(X,Y) :- parent(X,Z), ancestor(Z,Y).
Here rule 1 says , if X is a parent of Y then X is also an ancestor of Y and
rule 2 says that, if X is a parent of Z and Z is an ancestor of Y then X is
an ancestor of Y.

Evolutionary" approach:
Here relation ancestor is defined by rules which says every parent is an
ancestor and parent of an ancestor is also an ancestor.
Deductive databases are an extension of relational databases which support more
complex data modeling. They are more expressive than relational databases but
less expressive than logic programming systems.

The strict approach:
The system is built from scratch using total integration of DB technologies and
AI technologies.
Very complex and time consuming

Knowledge Graphs:
Knowledge graphs belong to the category of semantic networks.
One essential difference between knowledge graphs and semantic networks is the
explicit choice of only a few types of relations.
For example, it uses relations such as,
CAU : cause-effect relation (eg: unstable market positions cause polarization)
AKO : is a kind of (eg: a married man is a kind of man)
PAR : is part of (eg: having relations with high status is a part of social capital)
Inverse relations are also allowed, such as,
CBY : is caused by
HAP : has as part
HAK : has a kind
In principle, the composition of a knowledge graph is including concept (tokens and
types) and relationship (binary and multivariate relation). Types are labeled points
representing generic concepts and token represents an arbitrary instantiations of types.
As an example, Pluto is a token and dog is a type.



Knowledge Graphs: Example
The figure shows a knowledge graph with CAU relation and different concepts in
rectangular boxes.

Partial Figure of the figure in Popping, R. (2003). Knowledge graphs and Network Text Analysis. Social Science Information 42(1):
91-106.

Expert Systems:


Commonly an expert system would consist of two components:
a knowledge base (a database of facts and rules), and
an inference engine (a program that can apply those rules and facts and come up with an
"expert" solution to the question of a novice.)


Example of an expert system is the Himalayan club which we discussed in the class.


Case Study: Petrographer
By considering the symbolic knowledge representation and inferencing strengths of an
expert systemand the large scale data handling abilities of a relational database (i.e.
storage, management and consultation) Petrographer is developed.

The system offers,
Sophisticated interface to support rock description (interface)
Allows the user to consult large amount of Petrographic data via SQL interface (help)
Provides geological interpretation of described petrographic features according to the knowledge
extracted (display of results)
Feedback
Selecting search term


Petrographer : Knowledge Modelling
The knowledge is elicited from expert in
the form of cases.
Knowledge is modeled at 3 levels of
abstraction; first from actual domain to
knowledge model and from knowledge
model to relational model.
Domain knowledge is represented in
Object Attribute Value (OAV) structure
to preserve most of the semantic
contents.
These objects are mapped to a frame
in symbolic system and also to entities
in E-R model.
Thus, these entities are implemented in
database.
The figure is taken from the paper Querying Petrographic Descriptions in an
Intelligent Database System by Cristina Paludo Santos, URI University.

Petrographer : Knowledge Modelling
Roughly speaking each frame in
knowledge model is mapped to an entity
in E-R model and each attribute is
mapped to a field in E-R model.
The inferential aspect of knowledge is
represented by knowledge graphs.
Knowledge graphs capture association
between petrographic features and
geological interpretations.
Knowledge graphs are also mapped &
stored in relational database as a special
consultation table.
The figure is taken from the paper Querying Petrographic Descriptions in an
Intelligent Database System by Cristina Paludo Santos, URI University.

Petrographer : System Architecture
Modified figure of the figure in the paper Querying Petrographic Descriptions in
an Intelligent Database System by Cristina Paludo Santos, URI University.

Petrographer : System Architecture
The visual interface allows user to
effectively interact with the system.

Users can perform quantitative analysis
as well as visual evaluation through
various interfaces provided by this
module.
Petrographer : System Architecture
The symbolic system is at the heart of
the architecture.
Its functions are shared by 3
subsystems.
Frame module
Inference module
Other subsystems

A frame module keeps the schema
structure of entire domain. It also
maintains the knowledge graphs.
Inference module tries to match several
parts of the case submitted by the user
against the nodes in the knowledge
graph.


Petrographer : System Architecture
It uses forward chaining for inferencing.
The best match is calculated by the
number of user features which match
against the graph and the influence of
those features in associated conclusion.
The set of subsystems support many
aspects of petrographic description task
such as statistics and quantitative
analysis.
Petrographer : System Architecture
It is a standard RDBMS.
The database system stores all
descriptions managed by Petrographer .
It manages complete domain
knowledge.
The symbolic frame system is
connected to RDBMS module by a
standard SQL interface such as ODBC.
Case Study: Petrographer
Similar to the example of Leah discussed in the introduction, Petrographer helps users to
formulate the queries by accepting query expressions (ex: attribute=val instead of any
SQL like query) from them.
Hence it hides the internal schematic descriptions from users.
During the search, if user is not satisfied with the results returned by Petrographer,
he/she can modify the query expressions to get better results and these modified query
expressions can be stored in the database for future reference.
Thus Petrographer learns new facts while searching is being performed and these facts
can be stored in the database for future references.
Case Study: Petrographer

Advantages
Allows users to write query expression instead of an SQL query
Users need not know complete schema of the database
The query expressions generated by the users can be stored in the database for later
use
Disadvantage
large overheads in terms of processing speed in periods of high interaction between
the various sub-systems, most noticeable during the interpretation process where
inferencing is performed.
In multi-user access, the performance degrades.
Traditional Databases Vs IDBs:
Users need to know complete schema
for querying
Users must write SQL queries
Database system does not help in
searching
Lacks semantic value


Stores only facts
Users need not know complete database
schema
Users can simply use query expressions
Provides help to make searching
effective
Semantic information is stored via
Knowledge graphs and other data
structures in the database itself
Stores facts and rules
Traditional DB
Intelligent DB
Conclusion:
Intelligent database is basically an expert system added as a layer on the top of
traditional database. This integration leads to an efficient solution where expert
systems are required to deal with larger databases.
Intelligent databases are more expressive than the traditional databases.
Although IDBs seem to have an edge over traditional databases, we need some
mechanism to reduce their processing overheads.
References:
D. Sleight, Intelligent Databases: Easing Access to Information, Michigan State
University, Spring 1993.
Lee Jorgensen, Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent Databases, akri.org, Jan 2003. [online].
Available: http://www.akri.org/ai/intdata.htm.
Mara Abel et al., PetroGrapher: a solution in intelligent database system for petrographic
analysis, [online]Available:
http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/pos/SemanaAcademica/Semana98/marabel.html
Pamela A. Taylor and Dana L. Wyatt, Database and artificial intelligence integration: a
challenge to academia,, ACM, SIGCSE Bull, 1992.
Cristina Paludo Santos,URI University Querying Petrographic Descriptions in an
Intelligent Database System ICAIS,2002
Popping, R. (2003). Knowledge graphs and Network Text Analysis. Social Science
Information 42(1): 91-106.