The Ubiquity of Database Dependencies

Database dependencies are integrity constraints, typically expressed
in a fragment of first-order logic, that the data at hand are supposed to obey.
From the mid 1970’s to the late 1980’s, the study of database dependencies
occupied a central place in database theory, but then interest in this area
faded away. In the past decade, however, database dependencies have made a
striking comeback by finding new uses and applications in the specification of
critical data interoperability tasks and by also surfacing in rather unexpected
places outside databases. This talk will first trace some of the early history 
of database dependencies and then survey more recent developments.