Information Integration

Applications may need to integrate information from a variety of distributed, heterogeneous data sources. In order to perform semantic integration of such information, it is necessary to form one or more integrated schemas expressed in some common data model (CDM). Conflicts may exist between the various data sources, and the integration process needs to remove them by performing appropriate transformations.

We have developed a framework for schema and data transformation & integration which can be applied to a variety of CDMs and integration methodologies. In our framework, data modelling languages are specified in terms of a hypergraph-based meta-model. A key feature of our framework is that the transformations are reversible and can be used to automatically translate data, queries and updates between different schemas. This feature also makes the approach of particular relevance in P2P data integration settings.

Our integration approach, which we term both-as-view (BAV), can be used to derive global-as-view (GAV), local-as-view (LAV) and indeed global-local-as-view (GLAV) integration rules.

We have developed a toolkit supporting the BAV transformation/integration approach as part of the AutoMed project. The AutoMed toolkit has been used for biological data integration in the BIOMAP and ISPIDER projects, medical data integration in the ASSIST project, and e-learning systems interoperability in the MyPlan project

Our current research includes developing techniques for the automatic generation of BAV schema transformations (i.e. mappings); techniques for query and update processing using BAV mappings in P2P data integration settings; and interoperation of AutoMed with web and grid middleware to support e-learning and e-science applications.

Funded Projects

Publications

Flexible data integration and ontology-based data access to medical records, , L.Zamboulis, A.Poulovassilis, G.Roussos, Proc. BIBE'08, Athens, pp 1-6

Ontology-Assisted data transformation and integration, , L.Zamboulis, A.Poulovassilis, J.Wang, Proc. ODBIS'08, Auckland, pp 29-36

Combining Data Integration and IE Techniques to support Partially Structured Data, , D.Williams, A.Poulovassilis, Proc. NLDB'08, London, pp 175-186

Bioinformatics service reconciliation by heterogeneous schema transformation, , L.Zamboulis, N.Martin, A.Poulovassilis, Proc. DILS'07, Philadelphia, pp 89-104

P2P query reformulation over Both-As-View data transformation rules, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. Workshop on Databases, Information Systems and Peer-toPeer Computing (DBISP2P'06), at VLDB'06, Korea, September 2006.

Data access and integration in the ISPIDER proteomics Grid, L.Zamboulis et al., Proc. DILS'06, Hinxton, pp 3-18.

Information sharing for the semantic web - a schema transformation approach, L.Zamboulis and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. DISWEB'06, CAiSE'06 Workshop Proceedings, pp 275-289.

Cluster based integration of heterogeneous biological databases using the AutoMed toolkit, M.Maibaum et al., Proc. DILS'05, pp 191-207.

Using schema transformation pathways for data lineage tracing, H.Fan and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. BNCOD'05, pp 133-144.

Using schema transformation pathways for incremental view maintenance, H.Fan, Proc DaWaK'05, pp 126-135.

Schema Evolution in Data Warehousing Environments - a schema transformation-based approach, H.Fan and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. ER'04, Shanghai, November 2004, pp 639-653.

Using AutoMed for XML Data Transformation and Integration, L.Zamboulis and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. 3rd Int. Workshop on Data Integration over the Web (DIWeb'04), Riga, June 2004.

Generating and Optimising Views from Both As View Data Integration Rules, E.Jasper, N.Tong, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. 6th Baltic Conference on Database and Information Systems (DBIS'04), Riga, June 2004.

The ESTEST Approach to Combining Unstructured Text and Structured Data, D.Williams and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. Web Semantics Workshop at DEXA'04.

Using AutoMed Metadata in Data Warehousing Environments, H.Fan and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. Int. Workshop on Data Warehousing and OLAP (DOLAP'03), New Orleans, November 2003.

Combining Data Integration with Natural Language Technology for the Semantic Web, D.Williams and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. Workshop on Human Language Technology for the Semantic Web and Web Services, at ISWC'03, Florida, October 2003 (full-length paper).

Defining Peer-to-Peer Data Integration using Both as View Rules, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. Workshop on Databases, Information Systems and Peer-toPeer Computing (DBISP2P'03), at VLDB'03, Berlin, September 2003.

View generation and optimisation in the AutoMed Data Integration Framework, E.Jasper, N.Tong, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. CAiSE Forum at CAiSE'03, Austria, June 2003, pp 29-32, Univ. of Maribor Press (full-length paper).

Data Integration by Bi-Directional Schema Transformation Rules, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. ICDE'03, Bangalore, March 2003, pp 227-238

Tracing Data Lineage Using Schema Transformation Pathways, H.Fan and A.Poulovassilis, In "Knowledge Transformation for the Semantic Web", IOS Press, 2003. Eds B.Omelayenko and M.Klein.

Schema Evolution in Heterogeneous Database Architectures, A Schema Transformation Approach, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. CAiSE'02, Toronto, May 2002, LNCS 2348, pp 484-499.

A Semantic Approach to Integrating XML and Structured Data Sources, P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. CAiSE'01, Interlaken, June 2001. Springer-Verlag LNCS 2068, pp 330-345.

A Semantic Approach to Integrating XML and Structured Data Sources (long version), P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Technical Report 30/11/00, Birkbeck College and Imperial College.

Automatic migration and wrapping of database applications - a schema transformation approach. P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. ER'99, LNCS 1728, pp 96-113.

A Uniform Approach to Inter-Model Transformations. P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis, Proc. CAiSE'99, Heidelberg, June 199. Springer-Verlag LNCS 1626, pp 333-348.

Optimising Self-Adaptive Networks by Evolving Rule Agents. E.Nonas and A.Poulovassilis, Proc. Evolutionary Image Analysis, Signal Processing and Telecommunications (EvoIASP'99 and EuroEcTel'99), Goteborg, May 1999. Springer-Verlag LNCS 1596, pp 203-214.

A General Formal Framework for Schema Transformation . A.Poulovassilis and P.McBrien. Data & Knowledge Engineering, 28(1), pp 47-71, 1998

Formalisation of Semantic Schema Integration . P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Information Systems, 23(5), pp 307-334, 1998

Optimisation of Active Rule Agents using a Genetic Algorithm approach. E.Nonas and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. DEXA '98, Vienna, August 1998. LNCS 1460, pp 332-341.

A method for integrating deductive databases. L.Xu and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. 15th British National Conference on Databases (BNCOD-15), London, July 1997. Springer-Verlag LNCS 1271, pp 215-231.

A formal framework for ER schema transformation. P.McBrien and A.Poulovassilis. Proc. ER'97 Conference, Los Angeles, November 1997. Springer-Verlag LNCS 1331, pp 408-421.