Synthesis Lectures on Data Management is edited by Tamer Özsu of the University of Waterloo. The series will publish 50-to 125 page publications on topics pertaining to data management. The scope will largely follow the purview of premier information and computer science conferences, such as ACM SIGMOD, VLDB, ICDE, PODS, ICDT, and ACM KDD. Potential topics include, but not are limited to: query languages, database system architectures, transaction management, data warehousing, XML and databases, data stream systems, wide scale data distribution, multimedia data management, data mining, and related subjects.

This paper introduces U-relations, a succinct and purely relational representation system for uncertain databases. U-relations support attribute-level uncertainty using vertical partitioning. If we consider positive relational algebra extended by an operation for computing possible answers, a query on the logical level can be translated into, and evaluated as, a single relational algebra query on the U-relational representation. The translation scheme essentially preserves the size of the query in terms of number of operations and, in particular, number of joins. Standard techniques employed in off-the-shelf relational database management systems are effective for optimizing and processing queries on U-relations. In our experiments we show that query evaluation on U-relations scales to large amounts of data with high degrees of uncertainty.

The LogicBlox system aims to reduce the complexity of software development for modern applications which enhance and automate decision-making and enable their users to evolve their capabilities via a "self-service" model. Our perspective in this area is informed by over twenty years of experience building dozens of missioncritical enterprise applications that are in use by hundreds of large enterprises across industries such as retail, telecommunications, banking, and government. We designed and built LogicBlox to be the system we wished we had when developing those applications.In this paper, we discuss the design considerations behind the LogicBlox system and give an overview of its implementation, highlighting innovative aspects. These include: LogiQL, a unified and declarative language based on Datalog; the use of purely functional data structures; novel join processing strategies; advanced incremental maintenance and live programming facilities; a novel concurrency control scheme; and built-in support for prescriptive and predictive analytics.

for the HypoCAT study investigators* Hyponatremia in cirrhosis is associated with significant morbidity and mortality and complicates ascites management. Vasopressin receptor antagonists improve serum sodium concentration by increasing renal solute-free water excretion, but their effects on the management of ascites have not been assessed. Our aim was to investigate the effects of satavaptan, a highly selective vasopressin V 2 receptor antagonist, on ascites management and serum sodium in hyponatremic patients with cirrhosis. A total of 110 patients with cirrhosis, ascites, and hyponatremia (serum sodium <130 mmol/L) were included in a multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled study comparing three fixed doses of satavaptan (5 T he development of ascites in cirrhosis is the result of an abnormal regulation of the extracellular fluid volume that causes a positive fluid balance due to a persistently increased renal sodium and water reabsorption. Several lines of evidence indicate that this renal dysfunction is related to impairment in circulatory function characterized by splanchnic arterial vasodilation, secondary to sinusoidal portal hypertension. This causes a reduction in the effective arterial blood volume and a subsequent homeostatic activation of vasoconstrictor and sodium-retaining and water-retaining systems, including the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, the sympathetic nervous system, and vasopressin, which are responsible for sodium and water retention. 1,2 According to this pathogenesis, the pharmacological approach to treatment of ascites has been based on the administration of spironolactone, a drug that antagonizes the effect of aldosterone, which reduces the increased extracellular fluid volume by increasing renal sodium and water excretion. 3 However, a significant proportion of patients with ascites either do not respond to spironolactone or require the administration of high doses of the drug, which increases the risk of From the

Ceftaroline fosamil demonstrated high clinical cure and microbiological response rates in hospitalized patients with CAP of PORT risk class III or IV. Ceftaroline fosamil was well tolerated, with a safety profile similar to that of ceftriaxone and consistent with the cephalosporin class. In this study, ceftaroline fosamil was an effective and well-tolerated treatment option for CAP.