Modeling temporal dimensions of semistructured data

摘要

In this paper we propose a graph-based generic model able to uniformly represent semistructured data and their temporal aspects. In particular, we start from a generic and expressive model proposed in the database literature and consider in a formal and systematic way both valid time and transaction time, together with the set of temporal constraints needed to correctly manage the semantics of the represented time dimension. We then propose operations, which allow the incremental management of the proposed model satisfying the introduced temporal constraints. Moreover, we also deal with the possibility of managing together the two classical time dimensions of valid and transaction times, and formalize the set of constraints needed to correctly handle these temporal aspects together. Some examples taken from a medical scenario will be used to describe the introduced concepts.