Advanced Database Systems – Unit 10 – Review Questions

Advanced Database Systems – Unit 10- Enhanced Data Models for Advanced Applications

1. What is an active database? Distinguish between row-level and statement-level active rules.
2. Distinguish between immediate, deferred, and detached consideration of active rule conditions.
3. Distinguish between immediate, deferred, and detached execution of active rule conditions.
4. Discuss issues in consistency and termination in design of a set of active rules.
5. What is a time dimension? How is time represented in temporal databases?
6. Distinguish between valid time, transaction time, and bitemporal relations.
7. Write a short note on spatial databases.
8. Distinguish between spatial databases and regular databases.
9. What is a multimedia database? Explain in brief.
10. Write a short note on mobile databases.
11. Write a short note on Geographic Information Systems.

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Advanced Database Systems – Unit 9 – Review Questions

Advanced Database Systems – Unit 9 – Databases on the Web

1. Distinguish between structured, semistructured, unstructured data.
2. Under what category of data do xml documents fall? Explain self-describing data.
3. Distinguish between the use of tags in XML and HTML.
4. Distinguish between document-centric and data-centric XML documents.
5. Distinguish between elements and attributes in XML.
6. Distinguish between XML schema and XML DTD.
7. Discuss the different approaches to storing xml documents in databases.
8. Write a short note on extraction of xml documents from relational databases.
9. Write a short note on XPath.
10. Write a short note on XQuery.

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Advanced Database Systems – Unit 8 – Review Questions

Advanced Database Systems – Unit 8 – Distributed Databases

1. Discuss the need for and advantages of distributed databases.
2. Distinguish between a DDBMS and a centralized DBMS.
3. Discuss the chief software modules of a DDBMS. How are they related to a client-server architecture?
4. What is a fragment of a relation? Explain fragmentation in the context of DDBMS.
5. What is data replication? Explain in brief.
6. Explain data allocation in a DDBMS. What typical units of data are distributed over sites?
7. Write a short note on horizontal partitioning.
8. Write a short note on vertical partitioning.
9. Discuss the following:
   1. degree of homogeneity of a DDBMS
   2. degree of local autonomy of a DDBMS
   3. federated DDBMS
   4. distribution transparency
   5. fragmentation transparency
   6. replication transparency
   7. multidatabase system
10. Write a short note on the naming problem in distributed databases.
11. What is an equijoin? How can it be executed between two files located at different sites? How is the cost of data transfer computed?
12. Write a short note on semijoin. When is it better to use an equijoin as opposed to a semijoin?
13. Explain query decomposition. Discuss the use of guard conditions and attribute lists of fragments in query decomposition.
14. Distinguish between decomposition of an update request and decomposition of a query.
15. Discuss the differences in concurrency control and recovery in centralized databases and distributed systems.
16. Write a short note on two-phase commit.
17. Distinguish between the primary-site method and the primary-copy method for distributed concurrency control.
18. Discuss the use of votings and elections in distributed databases.
19. Distinguish between two-tier and three-tier client-server architectures and their use in DDBMS.

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Advanced Database Systems – Unit 7 – Review Questions

Advanced Database Systems – Unit 7 – Object-Relational Systems

1. Discuss dereferencing of objects in SQL.
2. Explain a type definition in SQL. How does it differ from a table definition?  Is a table a type?
3. What is the method for encapsulation of operations in SQL?
4. Explain what is meant by a BLOB, CLOB, BFILE, NCLOB in Oracle.
5. Discuss the issues faced in implementing types in Oracle.
6. Write a short note on the Non-First Normal Form. Why is it called a Nested Relational Model?

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Advanced Database Systems – Unit 6 – Review Questions

Advanced Database Systems – Unit 6 – ODMG, ODL

1. Write a short note on the ODMG object model.
2. Distinguish between objects and literals in the ODMG object model.
3. Explain the following built-in interfaces of the ODMG Ojbect Model:
   1. object
   2. collection
   3. iterator
   4. set
   5. list
   6. bag
   7. array
   8. dictionary
4. Write a short note on the built-in structured literals of the ODMG Object Model.
5. What is an atomic class? Explain the attribute and relationship properties of user-defined atomic classes.
6. Discuss “EXTENDS” and interface “:” inheritance.
7. How is persistence specified in the ODMG Object Model in the C++ binding.
8. Explain the following OQL concepts:
   1. database entry points
   2. path expressions
   3. iterator variables
   4. named queries (views)
   5. aggregate functions
   6. grouping
   7. quantifiers
9. Distinguish between a relational database and an object database.
10. Write a short note on EER-to-OO mapping.

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