Enrico Ronchetti

Versatile structural disambiguation for semantic-aware applications

In this paper, we propose a versatile disambiguation approach which can be used to make explicit the meaning of structure based information such as XML schemas, XML document structures, web directories, and ontologies. It can be of support to the semantic-awareness of a wide range of applications, from schema matching and query rewriting to peer data management systems, from XML data clustering to ontology-based automatic annotation of web pages and query expansion. The effectiveness of the achieved results has been experimentally proved and is founded both on a flexible exploitation of the structure context, whose extraction can be tailored on the specific application needs, and of the information provided by commonly available thesauri such as WordNet.

Supporting temporal slicing in XML databases

Nowadays XML is universally accepted as the standard for structural data representation; XML databases, providing structural querying support, are thus becoming more and more popular. However, XML data changes over time and the task of providing efficient support to queries which also involve temporal aspects goes through the tricky task of time-slicing the input data. In this paper we take up the challenge of providing a native and efficient solution in constructing an XML query processor supporting temporal slicing, thus dealing with non-conventional application requirements while continuing to guarantee good performance in traditional scenarios. Our contributions include a novel temporal indexing scheme relying on relational approaches and a technology supporting the time-slice operator.

Semantic web techniques for personalization of egovernment services

In this paper, we present the results of an ongoing research involving the design and implementation of systems supporting personalized access to multi-version resources in an eGovernment scenario. Personalization is supported by means of Semantic Web techniques and is based on an ontology-based profiling of users (citizens). Resources we consider are collections of norm documents in XML format but can also be generic Web pages and portals or eGovernment services. We introduce a reference infrastructure, describe the organization and present performance figures of a prototype system we have developed.

Personalized access to multi-version norm texts in an egovernment scenario

In this paper, we present some results of an ongoing research involving the design and implementation, in an eGovernment scenario, of a multi-version repository of norm texts supporting efficient and personalized access. In particular we defined a multi-version XML data model supporting both temporal versioning –essential in normative systems– and semantic versioning. Semantic versioning is based on the applicability of different norm parts to different classes of citizens and allows users to retrieve personalized norm versions only containing provisions which are applicable to their personal case. We describe the organization and present preliminary performance figures of a prototype system we developed.

STRIDER: a versatile system for structural disambiguation

We present STRIDER, a versatile system for the disambiguation of structure-based information like XML schemas, structures of XML documents and web directories. The system performs high-quality fully-automated disambiguation by exploiting a novel and versatile structural disambiguation approach.

Native Temporal Slicing Support for XML Databases

XML databases, providing structural querying support, are becoming more and more popular. As we know, XML data may change over time and providing an efficient support to queries which also involve temporal aspects is still an open issue. In this paper we present our native Temporal XML Query Processor, which exploits an ad-hoc temporal in- dexing scheme relying on relational approaches and a technology supporting temporal slicing. As we show through an ex- tensive experimental evaluation, our solution achieves good efficiency results, outperforming stratum-based solutions when dealing with time-related application requirements while continuing to guarantee good performance in traditional scenarios.