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Adding uniqueness constraints to description logics

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  • Extending DBMS Features
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Deductive and Object-Oriented Databases (DOOD 1997)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 1341))

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Abstract

After explaining some of the benefits of capturing uniqueness constraints, such as keys and functional dependencies, in any object-centered data model, we consider a number of alternative semantics for concept constructors that could be introduced for this purpose in Description Logics. Most significantly, we show that Classic—the hitherto most expressive DL for which reasoning is tractable, can be extended with a version of constructors capturing functional dependencies (including keys) while still possessing subsumption and consistency checking algorithms that are sound, complete, and run in low-order polynomial time. The results continue to hold even when we introduce cycles in the part-of hierarchy.

This work was supported by NSF contract IRI-9619979 and by grants from NSERC, Government of Ontario ITRC and Nortel Ltd.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Computer Science, Rutgers University, NJ08903, New Brunswick, USA

    Alex Borgida

  2. Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Grant Weddell

Authors
  1. Alex Borgida
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  2. Grant Weddell
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Editor information

François Bry Raghu Ramakrishnan Kotagiri Ramamohanarao

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Borgida, A., Weddell, G. (1997). Adding uniqueness constraints to description logics. In: Bry, F., Ramakrishnan, R., Ramamohanarao, K. (eds) Deductive and Object-Oriented Databases. DOOD 1997. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 1341. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63792-3_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-63792-3_10

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-63792-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-69647-6

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