Abstract: "The paper discusses the basic issues involved in interfacing expert systems with database management systems and describes the architecture of a prototype system, KADBASE, that is currently under development. KADBASE is a flexible, knowledge-based interface in which multiple expert systems and multiple databases can communicate as independent, self-descriptive components within an integrated, distributed engineering CAD system. The paper presents a detailed example to demonstrate the use of KADBASE in a typical engineering design application."

Use and development of database and expert systems can be found in all fields of computer science. The aim of this book is to present a large spectrum of already implemented or just being developed database and expert systems. Contributions cover new requirements, concepts for implementations (e.g. languages, models, storage structures), management of meta data, system architectures, and experiences gained by using traditional databases in as many areas of applications as possibble (at least in the fields listed). The aim of the book is to inspire a fruitful dialogue between developement in practice, users of database and expert systems, and scientists working in the field.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications, DEXA'98, held in Vienna, Austria, in August 1998. The 81 revised full papers presented were carefully selected from a total of more than 200 submissions. The papers are organized in sections on active databases, object-oriented systems, data engineering, information retrieval, workflow and cooperative systems, spatial and temporal aspects, document management, spatial databases, adaptation and view updates, genetic algorithms, cooperative and distributed environments, interaction and communication, transcation, advanced applications, temporal aspects, oriented systems, partitioning and fragmentation, database queries, data, data warehouses, knowledge discovery and data mining, knowledge extraction, and knowledge base reduction for comprehension and reuse.

The Database and Expert Systems Applications - DEXA - conferences are dedi cated to providing an international forum for the presentation of applications in the database and expert systems field, for the exchange of ideas and experiences, and for defining requirements for the future systems in these fields. After the very promising DEXA 90 in Vienna, Austria, we hope to have successfully established wjth this year's DEXA 91 a stage where scientists from diverse fields interested in application-oriented research can present and discuss their work. This year there was a total of more than 250 submitted papers from 28 different countries, in all continents. Only 98 of the papers could be accepted. The collection of papers in these proceedings offers a cross-section of the issues facing the area of databases and expert systems, i.e., topics of basic research interest on one hand and questions occurring when developing applications on the other. Major credit for the success of the conference goes to all of our colleagues who submitted papers for consideration and to those who have organized and chaired the panel sessions. Many persons contributed numerous hours to organize this conference. The names of most of them will appear on the following pages. In particular we wish to thank the Organization Committee Chairmen Johann Gordesch, A Min Tjoa, and Roland Wag ner, who also helped establishing the program. Special thanks also go to Gabriella Wagner and Anke Ruckert. Dimitris Karagiannis General Conference Chairman Contents Conference Committee.

Manufacturing Databases and Computer Integrated Systems is the first book to probe the problems and solutions presented by the diversity of databases within the manufacturing industry. The author examines these heterogeneous databases at both the macro (national/international) level and micro (intracompany and intercompany) level. This book is the result of an extensive international research project that involved 87 leading organizations. Manufacturing Databases and Computer Integrated Systems presents the compelling argument for using computers as database integrators, a concept beyond the obvious applications of number crunching and data storage. The book addresses several different areas of manufacturing technology, including product policies in manufacturing, fuzzy controls in plant operations, concurrent engineering, practical applications for expert systems, organizational prerequisites in manufacturing, heterogenous database environments, the benefits of object-oriented databases, and the requirements for virtual database integration. Manufacturing Databases and Computer Integrated Systems also presents case studies, including the TRW solution applied in Operation Desert Storm, Project CRONUS by BBN, the Intelligent Database Assistant (IDA) by GTE, General Motor's DATAPLEX solution, and Project Carnot by the Microelectronics and Computer Development Corporation (MCC). The book is a "must" for computer and database technologists, engineers, and senior management at most companies worldwide.

Content Description #Includes bibliographical references and index.

th DEXA 2001, the 12 International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications was held on September 3–5, 2001, at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. The rapidly growing spectrum of database applications has led to the establishment of more specialized discussion platforms (DaWaK conference, EC Web conference, and DEXA workshop), which were all held in parallel with the DEXA conference in Munich. In your hands are the results of much effort, beginning with the preparation of the submitted papers. The papers then passed through the reviewing process, and the accepted papers were revised to final versions by their authors and arranged with the conference program. All this culminated in the conference itself. A total of 175 papers were submitted to this conference, and I would like to thank all the authors. They are the real base of the conference. The program committee and the supporting reviewers produced altogether 497 referee reports, on average of 2.84 reports per paper, and selected 93 papers for presentation. Comparing the weight or more precisely the number of papers devoted to particular topics at several recent DEXA conferences, an increase can be recognized in the areas of XMS databases, active databases, and multi and hypermedia efforts. The space devoted to the more classical topics such as information retrieval, distribution and Web aspects, and transaction, indexing and query aspects has remained more or less unchanged. Some decrease is visible for object orientation.