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Aims & scopeData & Knowledge Engineering (DKE) serves designers, managers, and users of database systems, expert systems, and knowledge-based systems. The major aim of thejournal is to identify, investigate, and analyze the underlying principles in the design and effective use of these systems.The DKE journal will be devoted to cross- fertilization of ideas and to stimulating interactions between workers in the database, knowledge engineering, and expert system areas. To achieve this aim, the journal will collect and disseminate original research results, technical advances, and news items on data engineering, knowledgeengineering, or the intersection of these two fields.The DKE journal welcomes original research papers in the areas of design, implementation, and applications of data/knowledge-based systems. The journal will emphasizethe following topics:1. Representation and manipulation of data or knowledge: Conceptual data models, knowledge representation techniques, Data/knowledge manipulation languages

and techniques.2. Architecture of database, expert, or knowledge-based systems: New architectures for database/knowledge base/expert systems, design and implementation

techniques, languages and user interfaces, distributed architectures.3. Construction of data/knowledge bases: Data/knowledge base design methodologies and tools, data/knowledge acquisition methods, integrity/security/

maintenance issues.4. Applications, case studies, and management issues: Data administration issues, knowledge engineering practice, office and engineering applications.5. Tools for specifying and developing Data and Knowledge Bases using tools based on Linguistics.6. Communication aspects involved in implementing, designing and using KBSs in Cyberspace.

Publication information: Data & Knowledge Engineering (ISSN 0169-023X). For 2013, volumes 83C–88C (6 issues) are scheduled for publication. Subscription prices are available upon request from the Publisher or from the Elsevier Customer Service Department nearest you or from this journal’s website (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/datak).Further information is available on this journal and other Elsevier products through Elsevier’s website (http://www.elsevier.com). Subscriptions are accepted on a prepaid basis only and are entered on a calendar year basis. Issues are sent by standard mail (surface within Europe, air delivery outside Europe). Priority rates are available upon request. Claims for missing issues should be made within six months of the date of dispatch.

The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).

Published 6 times a year 0169-023X/05 Printed in the Netherlands

DATA & KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERINGEditor-in-chiefPETER P. CHEN, Computer Science Department, Louisiana State University, 298 Coates Hall, Baton Rouge, LA 70803, USA

Editorial boardJ. AKOKA, Chaire d’Informatique d’Enterprise, Paris, FranceP.M.G. APERS, University of Twente, Enschede, The NetherlandsH. ARISAWA, Yokohama National University, Yokohama, JapanP. ATZENI, Università Roma Tre, Rome, ItalyE. BERTINO, Università di Genova, ItalyW. CHU, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USAS.M. DEEN, University of Keele, Staffordshire, UKE. EHUD GUDES, Ben Gurion University, Ber Sheva, IsraelD.W. EMBLEY, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USAG. GARDARIN, Université de Versailles SQ, Versailles, FranceA. JOSHI, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USAV. KUMAR, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, USAT.W. LING, National University of Singapore, SingaporeJ. LIU, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USAP.C. LOCKEMANN, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, GermanyR. LOPEZ DE MANTARAS, CSIC (Spanish Scientific Research Council), Bellaterra, SpainH.C. MAYR, Universität Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt, Austria R.A. MEERSMAN, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, BelgiumJ.J.C. MEYER, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, The NetherlandsM. MOHANIA, IBM India Research Laboratory, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, IndiaS.B. NAVATHE, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USAE.J. NEUHOLD, Gesellschaft für Mathematik und Datenverarbeitung, IPSI, Darmstadt, GermanyP. NG, University of Nebraska, Omaha, NE, USAS. NISHIO, Osaka University, Osaka, JapanA. OLIVÉ, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, SpainM.S. OLIVIER, Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg, South AfricaM.E. ORLOWSKA, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Qld., AustraliaJ. PAREDAENS, University of Antwerp, WISINF Dept., BelgiumH.A. PROPER, CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg, and Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Nijmegen, NetherlandsS. RAM, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USAC. ROLLAND, Université de Paris 1, Paris, FranceP. SCHEUERMAN, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USAF.A. SCHREIBER, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, ItalyA. SØLVBERG, Norges Tekniske Högskole, Trondheim, NorwayI.-Y. SONG, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USAS. SPACCAPIETRA, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, SwitzerlandV.C. STOREY, Georgia University, Atlanta, Georgia, USAR. STUDER, Universität Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, GermanyB. THALHEIM, Christian Albrechts University, Kiel, GermanyT.C. TING, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USAJ. TREUR, Free University, Amsterdam, The NetherlandsV.K. VAISHNAVI, Georgia State University, USAH.J. VAN DEN HERIK, Universiteit Maastricht, Maastricht, The NetherlandsH. WEIGAND, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The NetherlandsTH. WETTER, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, GermanyD.Y.Y. YUN, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, USAL. ZADEH, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA