A formal framework for independence with respect to transactions in the universal relation model (Q803778)

Informally, a database scheme is ``independent'' if the base relations may be updated individually with no implications for the contents of other relations. This paper proposes a formal and somewhat broader concept of independence in the universal relation model. It is shown that several known results on independence can be restated in the new frame. The problem of handling non-independent database schemes is considered. An original solution is proposed which restricts the set of available transactions. In addition, the semantics of this usuable set of transactions is reformulated. It appears that this idea might lead to important theoretical and practical developments.