UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2018/2019
EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN
DATA ANALYTICS
MDA5204 CURRENT ADVANCES IN DATABASES
ORDINARY EXAMINATIONS
DATE: DECEMBER, 2018 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question One & ANY OTHER TWO questions.
QUESTION ONE [20 MARKS]
a) Describe any FOUR requirements for spatial querying. (4 Marks)
b) A spatial database is a database that is optimized to store and query data related to objects in
space. Illustrate how these objects are modeled. (6 Marks)
c) Distinguish between the following sets of terms and give examples: (6 Marks)
i) Location dependent data and location independent data
ii) Snapshot past query and snapshot present query
d) Describe any FOUR applications of spatio-temporal databases (4 Marks)
QUESTION TWO [15 MARKS]
a) Describe the following terms and offer examples of each:
i) Spatial selection (2 Marks)
ii) Spatiotemporal selection query (2 Marks)
iii) Spatial join (2 Marks)
b) Describe THREE kinds of metadata that the data dictionary stores (3 Marks)
c) Explain and illustrate the following concepts: (6 Marks)
i) Image query by keywords
ii) Image query by example
iii) Video query
QUESTION THREE [15 MARKS]
a) Consider the following query meant for a multimedia DBMS:
“Find all image/video objects containing Big Spender wearing a purple suit.”
Express this query as an SMDS-SQL query. (6 Marks)
b) Discuss the capabilities of mobile database systems. (3 Marks)
c) One of the key problems with mobile database systems is data availability for users who are
submitting queries with limited bandwidth. Discuss the possible schemes to address this
problem. (6 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR [15 MARKS]
a) Which requirements make multimedia DBMSs more useful than standard DBMSs?(5 Marks)
b) Discuss any THREE multimedia database architectures. (3 Marks)
c) Discuss in detail the issues encountered by MMDBMS when supporting presentation and
delivery, and suggest how these issues can be solved. (7 Marks)
