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Extensible Markup Language (XML)‐based data integration systems (DIS) aim to support global updates. Data consistency among data sources is not yet enforced at the integration level or enforced in an ad hoc manner which leads to redundant checking of consistency or unrepairable mistakes. This paper aims to provide XQuery trigger service to enforce data integrity and data consistency in the DIS at the integration level.

Data consistency is enforced among data sources through providing XQuery trigger service for the XML‐DIS. An XQuery trigger model is defined and shown how to use this model to define different integrity constraints and triggers at the integration level. The paper proposes the architecture of the XQuery trigger service and shows how to enforce data consistency in the DIS. Important components including event detection, condition evaluation and action firing are discussed. Necessary algorithms including how to produce ChangeRecord, how to find activated triggers, how to process LET and FOR clauses and how to create data objects from XML fragment are proposed. Trigger termination and failure handling are also discussed.

XQuery trigger can express miscellaneous data integrity constraints and triggers in the DIS and is highly abstract, refined and easy to understand. XQuery trigger service provides an easy‐to‐maintain method of the data consistency rules and a uniform, nonredundant and centralized enforcement of data consistency.

An XQuery trigger model with namespace annotations, which can define constraints and triggers among different data sources. An XQuery trigger service architecture for the XML‐DIS, which can enforce data consistency at the integration level. For DIS administrators, who want to enforce data consistency when permitting updates at the integration level.

Over the past few years, business‐to‐business (B2B) e‐commerce has grown exponentially. To conduct B2B e‐commerce, companies need a common language. HTML is not suited for this task, because it defines only the information’s format instead of its meaning. XML has been shown to not only be the most natural evolution of Web technologies to support modern applications such as e‐commerce, but also be the preferred means of making legacy data available to users via the Internet. Since XML is still in its infancy, early versions of XML do not include the fundamental feature of specifying and enforcing integrity constraints, which is critical to making XML a viable and long‐term approach for representing data over the Web. In other words, XML provides little support to make sure the data being represented satisfy the business rules specified. Reviews the trends in B2B e‐commerce and discusses the critical needs to support constraints and the integrity of data, which are very important to the success of B2B e‐commerce. Also presents the next generation of XML technology for representing constraints. Concludes with a summary of the impact of the new XML on B2B e‐commerce and its future challenges.

The 1998 International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) document “Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records” (FRBR) has inspired a family of models that view bibliographic resources in terms of multiple entities differentiated with regard to meaning, expression, and physicality. The purpose of this paper is to compare how three FRBR and FRBR-like models have been expressed as Semantic Web vocabularies based on Resource Description Framework (RDF). The paper focusses on IFLA’s own vocabulary for FRBR; RDF vocabularies for Resource Description and Access (RDA), an emergent FRBR-based standard for library cataloging; and BIBFRAME, an emergent FRBR-like, native-RDF standard for bibliographic data.

Simple test records using the RDF vocabularies were analyzed using software that supports inferencing.

In some cases, what the data actually means appears to differ from what the vocabulary developers presumably intended to mean. Data based on the FRBR vocabulary appears particularly difficult to integrate with data based on different models.

Some of the RDF vocabularies reviewed in the paper could usefully be simplified, enabling libraries to integrate their data more easily into the wider information ecosystem on the Web. Requirements for data consistency and quality control could be met by emergent standards of the World Wide Web Consortium for validating RDF data according to integrity constraints.

There are few such comparisons of the RDF expressions of these models, which are widely assumed to represent the future of library cataloging.

The purpose of this paper is to develop data quality (DQ) assessment model based on content analysis and metadata analysis.

A literature review of DQ assessment models has been conducted. A study of DQ key performances (KPIs) has been done. Finally, the proposed model has been developed and applied in a case study.

The results of this study shows that the metadata data have important information about DQ in a database and can be used to assess DQ to provide decision support for decision makers.

There is a lot of DQ assessment in the literature; however, metadata are not considered in these models. The model developed in this study is based on metadata in addition to the content analysis, to find a quantitative DQ assessment.

This paper presents a systematic XML Schema design approach which conceptually captures semantics of the problem domain at conceptual level and represents such semantics in XML Schema at schema level. At the conceptual level, objects, their inter‐relationships and constraints are semantically powered by object‐oriented models. At the schema level, these conceptual semantics are comprehensively represented in textbased representation of XML Schema using various schema components and design styles, each of which offers different quality characteristics. Two primary design styles in use are nesting and linking. The nesting design styles are developed based on the choice of schema components and their definition/declaration scopes (global vs. local), whereas the linking design styles use referencing facilities provided by XML Schema and other XML technologies such as XLink and XPointer. With an in‐depth analysis of outstanding problems of existing approaches, the proposed design approach is motivated to help improve the quality and robustness of the XML documents in large‐scale XML‐based applications.

Manufacturing agility can be defined as the ability to closely align manufacturing enterprise systems to changing business needs to achieve competitive performance. Agility has therefore three fundamental dimensions: organisation, technology and human, in addition to financial aspects. The paper discusses organisation, technological and human aspects of agility with respect to product design, manufacturing system design and innovation management.

Despite the increasing demand for an effective XML document repository, many are still reluctant to store XML documents in their natural tree form. One main reason is the inadequacy of XML query languages to update the tree‐form XML documents. Even though some of the languages have supported minimum update facilities, they do not concern on preserving the documents constraints. The results are updated documents with very low database integrity. In this paper, we propose a methodology to accommodate XML Update without violating the conceptual constraints of the documents. The method takes form as a set of functions that perform checking mechanisms before update operations. In this paper we discuss the conceptual constraints embedded in three different relationship structures: association, aggregation and inheritance relationship. We highlight four constraints related with association relationship (nuber of participants, referential integrity, cardinality, and adhesion), five constraints related with aggregation relationship (cardinality, adhesion, ordering, homogeneity and share‐ability) and two constraints related to inheritance relationship (disjoint and number of super‐class). In addition, a specific constraint, which is collection type of children, will also be discussed. The proposed method can be implemented in different ways, for example in this paper we use XQuery language. Since the XML update requires schema, in this paper we also propose the mapping of the these constraints in the conceptual level to the XML Schema. We use XML Schema for structure validation, even though the algorithm can be used by any schema languages.

The purpose of this paper is to develop basic principles of deterministic structural integrity assessment of a component with a crack- or notch-like defect by including safety factors against fracture and plastic collapse in criteria equations of linear and nonlinear fracture mechanics.

The safety factors against fracture are calculated by demanding that the applied critical stress should not be less than the yield stress of the material for a component with a crack or a notch of the acceptable size. Structural integrity assessment of the engineering components damaged by crack- or notch-like defects is discussed from view point of the failure assessment diagram (FAD). The methodology of the FAD has been employed for the structural integrity analysis and assessment of acceptable sizes of throw-thickness notch in a plate under tension and surface longitudinal notch-like defects in a pressure vessel.

Basic equations have been presented to calculate the safety factor against fracture for critical values of the stress intensity factor, crack tip opening displacement (CTOD), the J-integral and the FAD as well as to estimate an acceptable (safe) region for an engineering component with a crack- or notch-like defect of the acceptable size. It was shown that safety factors against fracture depend on both the safety factor against plastic collapse and employed fracture mechanics criterion. The effect of crack/notch tip constraint is incorporated into criteria equations for the calculation of safety factors against fracture.

The deterministic method of fracture mechanics is recommended for structural integrity assessment of a component with a crack- or notch-like defect by including safety factors against fracture and plastic collapse in criteria equations of linear and nonlinear fracture mechanics.

Tree pattern is at the core of XML queries. The tree patterns in XML queries typically contain redundancies, especially when broad integrity constraints (ICs) are present and considered. Apparently, tree pattern minimization has great significance for efficient XML query processing. Although various minimization schemes/algorithms have been proposed, none of them can exploit broad ICs for thoroughly minimizing the tree patterns in XML queries. The purpose of this research is to develop an innovative minimization scheme and provide a novel implementation algorithm.

Query augmentation/expansion was taken as a necessary first‐step by most prior approaches to acquire XML query pattern minimization under the presence of certain ICs. The adopted augmentation/expansion is also the course for the typical O(n⁴) time‐complexity of the proposed algorithms. This paper presents an innovative approach called allying to effectively circumvent the otherwise necessary augmentation step and to retain the time complexity of the implementation algorithm within the optimal, i.e. O(n²). Meanwhile, the graph simulation concept is adapted and generalized to a three‐tier definition scheme so that broader ICs are incorporated.

The innovative allying minimization approach is identified and an effective implementation algorithm named AlliedMinimize is developed. This algorithm is both runtime optimal – taking O(n²) time – and most powerful in terms of the broadness of constraints it can exploit for XML query pattern minimization. Experimental study confirms the validity of the proposed approach and algorithm.

Though the algorithm AlliedMinimize is so far the most powerful XML query pattern minimization algorithm, it does not incorporate all potential ICs existing in the context of XML. Effectively integrating this innovative minimization scheme into a fully‐fledged XML query optimizer remains to be investigated in the future.

In practice, Allying and AlliedMinimize can be used to achieve a kind of quick optimization for XML queries via fast minimization of the tree patterns involved in XML queries under broad ICs.

This paper presents a novel scheme and an efficient algorithm for XML query pattern minimization under broad ICs.