Deductive databases for computing certain and consistent answers from mediated data integration systems

We address the problem of retrieving certain and consistent answers to queries posed to a mediated data integration system under the local-as-view paradigm with open sources and conjunctive and disjunctive view definitions. For obtaining certain answers a query program is run under the cautious stable model semantics on top of a normal deductive database with choice operator that specifies the class of minimal legal instances of the integration system. This methodology works for all monotone Datalog queries. To compute answers to queries that are consistent with respect to given global integrity constraints, the specification of minimal legal instances is combined with another disjunctive deductive database that specifies the repairs of those legal instances. This allows to retrieve the answers to any Datalog^¬ query that are consistent with respect to global universal and referential integrity constraints.     

A comprehensive semantic framework for data integration systems

A data integration system provides the user with a unified view, called global schema, of the data residing at different sources. Users issue their queries against the global schema, and the system computes answers to queries by suitably accessing the sources, through the mapping, i.e., the specification of the relationship between the global schema and the sources. Since sources are in general autonomous subsystems, the information provided by the data at the sources and the mapping is likely not to be consistent with the knowledge expressed by the global schema. Therefore, the question arises of how to interpret user queries in such a situation, i.e., in the presence of data contradicting the global schema and the mapping. In this paper, we provide an in-depth analysis of the problem of dealing with inconsistencies in data integration systems. In this respect, we highlight the central role played by the mapping, and propose a general “mapping-centered” semantics that allows for computing significant answers to user queries even in the presence of inconsistent information. Based on such a semantic analysis, we define a general formal framework for data integration. Then, we argue that our semantic approach formalizes a very reasonable way of handling inconsistency in such systems, since practically all the existing proposals in the literature can be reconstructed in our framework. This allows for comparing and evaluating the different existing proposals.     

Logic-based XML data integration: a semi-materializing approach

We first describe the approach to XML data integration in the XPathLog/LoPiX project that uses a warehouse strategy. We show that the DOM model and the XML Query Data Model are not suitable for this task since the integrated database is not necessarily a tree, but a set of overlapping (original and integrated) trees. The problem is solved by using a node-labeled graph-based data model, called XTreeGraph, for the internal XML database that represents multiple, overlapping XML trees, or tree views.In the second part, we return to the standard XML data model—by still keeping the overlapping tree idea by “simulating” it: The data is internally represented by XML where the “overlayed” resulting tree is represented by XLink elements that refer to the original sources. By using a logical, transparent data model for XLinks as investigated in [May, in: 11th WWW Conference, 2002], all queries behave as stated against the XTreeGraph. The use of links for partial materialization also turns the approach from a warehouse approach into a mixed approach that combines the advantages of the warehouse approach and of the virtual approach. The approach is again illustrated by using XPathLog as data integration language.     

NEUROMYTHOLOGY: BRAINS AND STORIES

Abstract. I sketch a synthetic integration of several levels of explanation in addressing how myths, narratives, and stories engage human beings, produce their sense of identity and self‐understanding, and shape their intellectual, emotional, and embodied lives. Ultimately it is our engagement with the metanarratives of religious imagination by which we address a set of existentially necessary but ontologically unanswerable metaphysical questions that form the basis of religious belief. I show how a multileveled understanding of evolutionary biology, history, neuroscience, psychology, narrative, and mythology may form a coherent picture of the human spirit. Neuropsychological functions involved in constructing and responding to the narratives by which we form our identities and build meaningful lives include memory, attention, emotional marking, and temporal sequencing. It is the neural substrate, the emotional shaping, and the narrative structuring of higher cognitive function that provide the sine qua non for the construction of meaning, relationship, morality, and purpose that extend beyond our personal boundaries, both spatial and temporal. This includes a neural affect system shaped by our developmental dependency, the dynamic narratives of self formed in the development of identity and reconstructed over the life span, drawing on culturally available mythic and storied forms. Narrative constitutes our movement in moral space and may have the potential both for healing and for disruption for us as individuals and as a species, providing a contingent solution to the alienation and fragmentation of personhood, relationship, and community.     

The personality‐identity interplay in emerging adult women: convergent findings from complementary analyses

The present study examined whether identity development occurs in tandem with personality development in emerging adulthood. Three‐wave longitudinal data on a sample of 351 female college students were used to answer questions about stability and change, direction of effects, and interrelated developmental trajectories. Four identity dimensions (i.e. commitment making, exploration in breadth, identification with commitment, and exploration in depth) and the Big Five were assessed. Identity and personality were found to be meaningfully related at the level of both the time‐specific adjacent measures and the underlying developmental trajectories with various degrees of convergence. Cross‐lagged analyses substantiated reciprocal influences and Latent Growth Curve Modelling substantiated common developmental pathways that partially mirrored the concurrent relations. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

文本阅读中的信息整合研究

文本阅读中的信息整合研究是当前文本阅读研究的热点问题,在这一问题上,虽然当前研究已经达成了一些基本共识,但仍然存在着建构主义理论、最低限度假设和记忆基础文本加工理论这三种理论争议。本文详细介绍了这三种理论争议的主要观点和实验证据,特别是重点分析了三种理论争议的最新发展,在此基础上对未来的研究趋势进行了展望。     

The Pursuit of College in Adulthood: Reclaiming Past Selves or Constructing New?

This study examines the identity processes that are implicated when adults return to college, including the possibility that they may be reclaiming past selves from adolescence or constructing new selves at this particular juncture. In this study, 70 nontraditional-aged community college students were surveyed about their educational pathways, with a focus on their career and educational plans and actions when finishing high school through the current time. In addition, a diverse subset (n = 14) was interviewed. Results suggested four identity processes, two that involved past career selves from adolescence when constructing future pursuits (reclaim past, reject past before constructing new) and two that did not (construct new, expand current). Participants with prior college experience as adolescents were more likely to report well-developed past selves, but they more frequently rejected rather than reclaimed due to lack of perceived feasibility. Future research involving adult identity development is discussed.     

Thinking groups: Rhetorical enactment of collective identity in three Israeli Kibbutzim

The present paper reports a case study about public deliberations in three Israeli kibbutzim regarding a disputed school issue: whether to maintain a traditional in-kibbutz high school despite a heavy financial burden or to close it and send kibbutz youths to a public regional school The results served as a demonstration of a 'thinking group' (i.e. of how the collective aims of a group are achieved by the coordinated rhetorical behaviour of individuals according to the formal rules of the collective deliberations). First, video-recordings of six general assembly meetings in which the issue was discussed was analyzed as to their argumentative content. Second, the extracted arguments were presented to a sample of 342 kibbutz members to capture the distribution of opinions in the population. It is proposed that most kibbutz members were willing to preserve their collective living and saw the closure of their in-kibbutz school as a threat to their traditional collective identity. We observed a distinct form of public rhetoric during the deliberations in the general meetings which provides a podium for the disputed opinions, preserves the kibbutz shared identity representation and avoids social friction.     

Drifting from the mainstream: the religious identity of Australian core Catholic youth

Religious communities have an obvious interest in passing on their beliefs and practices to future generations. Many traditional churches, however, report major difficulties in retaining the interest and involvement of adolescents. This paper seeks to explore some of the beliefs and values of Australian core Catholic youth (14‐ to 15‐years‐old). Fifty‐eight semi‐structured interviews were conducted with adolescents with a pre‐existing connection with parish communities. Most adolescents interviewed expressed either strong or weak familial pattern of church attendance and predicted a likely decrease in their future participation. The experience of older siblings, reported religious beliefs and a lack of supportive social networks either at school or in the wider community will be commented on.     

Navigating Between Cultures: A New Paradigm for Korean American Cultural Identification

The author incorporates empirical methodology and cross-cultural psychology literature to propose a new paradigm for Korean American cultural identification. He explains cultural identification as a cultural process construct that has important bearing on how successfully or unsuccessfully minority persons may function in the U.S. The construct of bicultural orthogonal identification was applied toward the development of a bilingual 4-item Korean American Cultural Identification Scale (KACIA). A random sample of 80 from a larger national pool of 1,141 Korean Americans was used to develop the scale. Findings support the orthogonality of bicultural identifications and good validity and reliability for the KACIA. The author argues for complimentary dualism over conflicting dualism and the orientation of “both/and” over “either/or” as a strategy for doing pastoral practice and theology.Parts of this article appeared elsewhere in different versions and they are modified and used here with permission from the respective publishers (see Lee, 1994, 1995, 2004a).