Modelling and managing temporal data and its application to Scottish dental information systems.

Scottish dental remuneration and clinical data are time-varying information; to process such data requires database management systems which support the evolution of entities. Conventional databases tend to allow users to operate only upon the latest data state and lack the capability to record and process the time-varying aspect of the real world. To give databases the ability of processing time-varying data involves effort in almost every aspect of database technology, from the data model to its implementation. The basic objective of this research has been to find ways of improving the overall efficiency of databases for handling temporal data. For this purpose, a database model, named the TDM model, has been developed, which includes temporal semantics, data structures and operations for manipulating temporal data. It is characterised by supporting the histories of both entities and databases. Facilities are provided for modelling current and temporal data. The Dental Data System (DDS) is a temporal database prototype, which supports most of the features of the TDM model. This prototype serves as an experimental platform for both demonstration and measurement performance. It demonstrates the way of modifying relational DBMSs to support temporal data. It also provides a platform for performance measurement. The results of temporal database benchmarks have shown that the performances of using conventional data access methods to access temporal data decline when the number of updates increases. New index methods are introduced to speed up temporal data access. These new methods were implemented and evaluated. Furthermore, the approaches for assessing indexing methods, namely target-running, analytical and simulation are examined.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Robert Gordon University

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Lü, Jiang

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• K. Brown and W.B. Samson

• Termporal databases
• Dental Data System (DDS)
• Time-varying data
• Relational DBMS modification
• Database evolution
• Scottish dentists

Language dc:language

en

Identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807465
https://doi.org/10.48526/rgu-wt-2807465

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:rgu-repository.worktribe.com:2807465