Vitit Kantabutra
WORK IN DATABASES: A NEW TYPE OF DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Web site for more documentation on ILE: http://progeny.isu.edu/~vkantabu/ILE/
Patent Application Online
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0319564.html
Link to NSF CDI grant information:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0941371&WT.z_pims_id=503163
When we study complex systems in any field, we often want to store and process information about entities of various sorts and their interrelationships. The best existing ways to do that at the present time are (1) Relational Databases, (2) Object-Oriented Databases, including variations like Object-Relational Databases, and (3) XML. None of these is really satisfactory for complex systems. Relational Databases have a high level of built-in data redundancy that invites errors and inconsistencies. These redundancies can make the design of a good database schema difficult, and can even make the simple act of data entry very annoying. OO databases and the like only directly support simple relationships and can be hard to use, accounting for their lack of popularity. XML imposes an hierarchy on the entities, and only allows limited breakaway from the hierarchy. Additionally, pointers indicating the non-hierarchical relationships are represented as text rather as true pointers.
I am developing a new kind of database management system called Intentionally-Linked Entities, or ILE. In ILE, relationships among entities will be represented directly as true links among them. Thus general graphs (as in Graph Theory), and in fact more (to be explained below), can be represented naturally. The data model will be similar to the Entity/Relationship data model, which was never implemented very well in the past due to the lack of good programming tools. (The most valiant attempt in the past was the flopped Network Databases.) However, at the present time sufficient tools and programming languages have been developed so that complex linked data structures are now in more widespread use. Such complex linked data structures are used in operating system kernels, for example. Interestingly enough, they have not been used in the database field except in index structures. The main idea behind the ILE database system is simply to use modern linked data structures in the main arena of database storage to the fullest extent possible.
What was meant above by saying that we can represent more than just general graphs in ILE? In a graph, an edge represents a binary relationship, that is, a relationship between two nodes, where the nodes commonly represent entities. In ILE, relationships with arities greater than two are possible, and in fact are convenient to create and naturally represented. Thus ILE data structures are more powerful than general graphs. In fact, in ILE, we can also store a new kind of attribute that pertain not to entities in a static way, but that pertain to the entities as they enter a specific relationship. These extra capabilites of ILE are important in the application of ILE to complex networks such as the ones to be referred to in the last paragraph. (Sorry for the forward reference. I'll correct this when I have more time.)
There is another important property of ILE relationships that is important for the representation of complex systems. Each role in a relationship can have more than one (actually zero or more) entities! Here is how this property can be useful. Consider a relationship called "transaction," referring to a commercial transaction in the Spanish mercantile network we are studying. There are two roles in the transaction, the server (also called "agent") role and the client role. Each role, however, can have more than 1 person serving in it. In fact, there are situations where there may be 0 clients. This is where, for example, there was a notarized document created for some agent(s) but where there was no client involved.
The situation in the previous paragraph is where ILE has a clear advantage over Relational and other kinds of database systems. Suppose that in a transaction relationship there are 2 servers and 5 clients. A Relational system would need 10 rows to represent this, inviting redundancy and spelling errors. ILE represents this as only 1 relationship.
I am working with Dr. J. B. "Jack" Owens of our university's History Dept. in a project in which we will use ILE to store and process information on 16th century mercantile networks in Spain.
Web site for more documentation on ILE: http://progeny.isu.edu/~vkantabu/ILE/
WORK IN VLSI DESIGN: U.S. PATENT AVAILABLE FOR LICENSING.
Dr. Vitit Kantabutra also had several innovations in the area of VLSI Design/Computer Engineering, with a concentration on highly efficient computer arithmetic circuits.
Follow this link for information on a U.S. patent currently available for licensing:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%
Supervisors: S. Rao Kosaraju
Phone: 001-208-251-4368
Address: College of Engineering: Electrical Engineering
Idaho State University
Box 8060
Pocatello, Idaho 83209
U.S.A.
Web site for more documentation on ILE: http://progeny.isu.edu/~vkantabu/ILE/
Patent Application Online
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2009/0319564.html
Link to NSF CDI grant information:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0941371&WT.z_pims_id=503163
When we study complex systems in any field, we often want to store and process information about entities of various sorts and their interrelationships. The best existing ways to do that at the present time are (1) Relational Databases, (2) Object-Oriented Databases, including variations like Object-Relational Databases, and (3) XML. None of these is really satisfactory for complex systems. Relational Databases have a high level of built-in data redundancy that invites errors and inconsistencies. These redundancies can make the design of a good database schema difficult, and can even make the simple act of data entry very annoying. OO databases and the like only directly support simple relationships and can be hard to use, accounting for their lack of popularity. XML imposes an hierarchy on the entities, and only allows limited breakaway from the hierarchy. Additionally, pointers indicating the non-hierarchical relationships are represented as text rather as true pointers.
I am developing a new kind of database management system called Intentionally-Linked Entities, or ILE. In ILE, relationships among entities will be represented directly as true links among them. Thus general graphs (as in Graph Theory), and in fact more (to be explained below), can be represented naturally. The data model will be similar to the Entity/Relationship data model, which was never implemented very well in the past due to the lack of good programming tools. (The most valiant attempt in the past was the flopped Network Databases.) However, at the present time sufficient tools and programming languages have been developed so that complex linked data structures are now in more widespread use. Such complex linked data structures are used in operating system kernels, for example. Interestingly enough, they have not been used in the database field except in index structures. The main idea behind the ILE database system is simply to use modern linked data structures in the main arena of database storage to the fullest extent possible.
What was meant above by saying that we can represent more than just general graphs in ILE? In a graph, an edge represents a binary relationship, that is, a relationship between two nodes, where the nodes commonly represent entities. In ILE, relationships with arities greater than two are possible, and in fact are convenient to create and naturally represented. Thus ILE data structures are more powerful than general graphs. In fact, in ILE, we can also store a new kind of attribute that pertain not to entities in a static way, but that pertain to the entities as they enter a specific relationship. These extra capabilites of ILE are important in the application of ILE to complex networks such as the ones to be referred to in the last paragraph. (Sorry for the forward reference. I'll correct this when I have more time.)
There is another important property of ILE relationships that is important for the representation of complex systems. Each role in a relationship can have more than one (actually zero or more) entities! Here is how this property can be useful. Consider a relationship called "transaction," referring to a commercial transaction in the Spanish mercantile network we are studying. There are two roles in the transaction, the server (also called "agent") role and the client role. Each role, however, can have more than 1 person serving in it. In fact, there are situations where there may be 0 clients. This is where, for example, there was a notarized document created for some agent(s) but where there was no client involved.
The situation in the previous paragraph is where ILE has a clear advantage over Relational and other kinds of database systems. Suppose that in a transaction relationship there are 2 servers and 5 clients. A Relational system would need 10 rows to represent this, inviting redundancy and spelling errors. ILE represents this as only 1 relationship.
I am working with Dr. J. B. "Jack" Owens of our university's History Dept. in a project in which we will use ILE to store and process information on 16th century mercantile networks in Spain.
Web site for more documentation on ILE: http://progeny.isu.edu/~vkantabu/ILE/
WORK IN VLSI DESIGN: U.S. PATENT AVAILABLE FOR LICENSING.
Dr. Vitit Kantabutra also had several innovations in the area of VLSI Design/Computer Engineering, with a concentration on highly efficient computer arithmetic circuits.
Follow this link for information on a U.S. patent currently available for licensing:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%
Supervisors: S. Rao Kosaraju
Phone: 001-208-251-4368
Address: College of Engineering: Electrical Engineering
Idaho State University
Box 8060
Pocatello, Idaho 83209
U.S.A.
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Papers by Vitit Kantabutra
between entities is represented by means of creating a new table containing those entities to represent the fact that they are related. This paper suggests in detail how to
implement a database system in which the relationships
between entities are represented by pointers instead of
new tables containing copies of the entities. Thus the
rough idea behind this new type of Database system,
called Intentionally-Linked Entities (ILE), is the same as
the idea behind Network Databases. However, the ILE
has a very different internal structure from that of
Network Databases and is much more modern and
practical.
Paper for the session “Social Network Analysis and Multi-Relational Databases on Comparative Studies in China and Europe”; 18th World Economic History Congress, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, July 29-August 3, 2018 [Tues., 31 July, Session A, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm, Room 5: Samberg Conference Center, MIT]
redundancy and fragmentation, two major problems in Relational and other database systems. These advantages of ILE are realized by using relationship objects and pointers to implement all of the relationships among data entities in a native fashion using dynamically-allocated linked data structures. ILE can be considered to be a modern and extended implementation of the E/R data model. ILE also facilitates storage of things that are more faithful to the historical records, such as gazetteer entries of places with imprecisely known or unknown locations. This is difficult in Relational database systems but is a routine task using ILE because ILE is implemented using modern memory allocation techniques. We use the China Historical GIS (CHGIS) and other databases to illustrate the advantages of ILE. This is accomplished by modeling these databases in ILE and comparing them to the existing Relational implementations.
Computational thinking has enabled many new scientific discoveries through the development of new algorithms, simulation models, visualization, and novel approaches to summarize the patterns and structure of complex systems. In contrast to the natural sciences, the historical social sciences (anthropology/archaeology, economics, geography, history, and sociology) pose additional challenges because data are often qualitative, vague, inconclusive, and highly uncertain. Existing computational methods reach their limits quickly with data for the historical social sciences. The authors are developing geographically-integrated history methods to overcome these limits by addressing the importance of "place" to integrate data as the foundation of knowledge creation about how humans, events, and environments were connected to form historical narratives within and across places. Narratives are considered one of the unique and effective forms of knowledge and communication. Narratives enhance the understanding of causality by relating it to time and place and of the exceptional, such as the emergence of new forms, and they illuminate the factors producing innovation and entrepreneurship. Dynamics GIS (geographic information systems) and related information and visualization technologies will provide the backbone for understanding geographically integrated complex systems within which social networks developed historically.
between entities is represented by means of creating a new table containing those entities to represent the fact that they are related. This paper suggests in detail how to
implement a database system in which the relationships
between entities are represented by pointers instead of
new tables containing copies of the entities. Thus the
rough idea behind this new type of Database system,
called Intentionally-Linked Entities (ILE), is the same as
the idea behind Network Databases. However, the ILE
has a very different internal structure from that of
Network Databases and is much more modern and
practical.
Paper for the session “Social Network Analysis and Multi-Relational Databases on Comparative Studies in China and Europe”; 18th World Economic History Congress, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, July 29-August 3, 2018 [Tues., 31 July, Session A, 9:00 am – 12:30 pm, Room 5: Samberg Conference Center, MIT]
redundancy and fragmentation, two major problems in Relational and other database systems. These advantages of ILE are realized by using relationship objects and pointers to implement all of the relationships among data entities in a native fashion using dynamically-allocated linked data structures. ILE can be considered to be a modern and extended implementation of the E/R data model. ILE also facilitates storage of things that are more faithful to the historical records, such as gazetteer entries of places with imprecisely known or unknown locations. This is difficult in Relational database systems but is a routine task using ILE because ILE is implemented using modern memory allocation techniques. We use the China Historical GIS (CHGIS) and other databases to illustrate the advantages of ILE. This is accomplished by modeling these databases in ILE and comparing them to the existing Relational implementations.
Computational thinking has enabled many new scientific discoveries through the development of new algorithms, simulation models, visualization, and novel approaches to summarize the patterns and structure of complex systems. In contrast to the natural sciences, the historical social sciences (anthropology/archaeology, economics, geography, history, and sociology) pose additional challenges because data are often qualitative, vague, inconclusive, and highly uncertain. Existing computational methods reach their limits quickly with data for the historical social sciences. The authors are developing geographically-integrated history methods to overcome these limits by addressing the importance of "place" to integrate data as the foundation of knowledge creation about how humans, events, and environments were connected to form historical narratives within and across places. Narratives are considered one of the unique and effective forms of knowledge and communication. Narratives enhance the understanding of causality by relating it to time and place and of the exceptional, such as the emergence of new forms, and they illuminate the factors producing innovation and entrepreneurship. Dynamics GIS (geographic information systems) and related information and visualization technologies will provide the backbone for understanding geographically integrated complex systems within which social networks developed historically.
These scholars have also, however, discovered the limitation of current computer software. The problems range from lack of user friendliness to gross inefficiency and inflexibility of database systems; to the point that important analytical discoveries which should be made are not. We believe that many of these problems occur because these software packages were not created from the basic principles of computer science. Instead, many of them were created to serve limited business purposes, and were co-opted for academic use simply because there were no better alternatives readily available.
We will discuss how to improve software for the humanities and the social sciences by designing everything based upon the principles of Computer Science, using only those existing software libraries and programming languages and paradigms that truly fit our purposes. In particular, we will first explain briefly how our Intentionally-Linked Entities (ILE) DBMS (Kantabutra 2007) can be used in historical and temporal GIS as a replacement for Relational DBMS, thereby increasing efficiency, reducing errors, and making it more convenient to record things that are truer to the historical records.
We will demonstrate how editing shapes in GIS can be done much faster than in conventional GIS by making each shape a graphical object in a framework such as Qt4. We will also present a new software tool we are developing that will allow historians to enter and analyze social network data. Historians typically collect data from numerous documents containing interrelated players, places, and events. In our system, historians will enter all the information in raw text form into a friendly interface that has an IDE-like underlying structure. The system will then analyze this text and, with the historians’ help, create an ILE database from the raw information. The database can then be queried and displayed in various ways.
These scholars have also, however, discovered the limitation of current computer software. The problems range from lack of user friendliness to gross inefficiency and inflexibility of database systems; to the point that important analytical discoveries which should be made are not. We believe that many of these problems occur because these software packages were not created from the basic principles of computer science. Instead, many of them were created to serve limited business purposes, and were co-opted for academic use simply because there were no better alternatives readily available.
We will discuss how to improve software for the humanities and the social sciences by designing everything based upon the principles of Computer Science, using only those existing software libraries and programming languages and paradigms that truly fit our purposes. In particular, we will first explain briefly how our Intentionally-Linked Entities (ILE) DBMS (Kantabutra 2007) can be used in historical and temporal GIS as a replacement for Relational DBMS, thereby increasing efficiency, reducing errors, and making it more convenient to record things that are truer to the historical records.
We will demonstrate how editing shapes in GIS can be done much faster than in conventional GIS by making each shape a graphical object in a framework such as Qt4. We will also present a new software tool we are developing that will allow historians to enter and analyze social network data. Historians typically collect data from numerous documents containing interrelated players, places, and events. In our system, historians will enter all the information in raw text form into a friendly interface that has an IDE-like underlying structure. The system will then analyze this text and, with the historians’ help, create an ILE database from the raw information. The database can then be queried and displayed in various ways.