GrOWL: A tool for visualization and editing of OWL ontologies

In an effort to optimize visualization and editing of OWL ontologies we have developed GrOWL—a browser and visual editor for OWL that accurately visualizes the underlying DL semantics of OWL ontologies while avoiding the difficulties of the verbose OWL syntax. In this paper, we discuss GrOWL visualization model and the essential visualization techniques implemented in GrOWL.     

一种交互式本体除错方法

在本体设计过程中容易出现逻辑错误,利用现有本体除错工具难以诊断并修正此类错误。针对该问题提出一种新的交互式本体除错方法。通过分析unsatisfiable concept自动生成相关问题,基于用户对问题的回答自动修复错误本体。实验结果表明,该方法能利用少量问题实现修复目的。     

Translating the Foundational Model of Anatomy into OWL

The Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) represents the result of manual and disciplined modeling of the structural organization of the human body. It is a tremendous resource in bioinformatics that facilitates sharing of information among applications that use anatomy knowledge. The FMA was developed in Protégé and the Protégé frames language is the canonical representation language for the FMA. We present a translation of the original Protégé frame representation of the FMA into OWL. Our effort is complementary to the earlier efforts to represent FMA in OWL and is focused on two main goals: (1) representing only the information that is explicitly present in the frames representation of the FMA or that can be directly inferred from the semantics of Protégé frames; (2) representing all the information that is present in the frames representation of the FMA, thus producing an OWL representation for the complete FMA. Our complete representation of the FMA in OWL consists of two components: an OWL DL component that contains the FMA constructs that are compatible with OWL DL; and an OWL Full component that imports the OWL DL component and adds the FMA constructs that OWL DL does not allow.     

基于关系数据库的OWL本体构建方法的研究

利用已有的数据资源以自动或半自动方式构建本体是实现语义Web的任务之一.在分析了现有研究成果及不足的基础上,给出了一个比较系统的基于关系数据库的OWL本体构建方法.介绍了如何从关系模式中识别实体、联系、继承关系、聚类关系及基数约束等语义,完成了从关系数据库语义到本体相应部分的转换,通过原型系统的实现验证了该方法的有效性.     

OWL本体建模中约束公理的应用

本体建模的难点在于概念的定义和概念间关系的描述，OWL中的约束公理正好是解决这个难点问题的强有力方法。约束公理是OWL语言中最核心的部分，通过约束公理可以更完整更明确地定义本体模型，使所建立的本体模型能满足最小本体承诺规则。该文以W3C提供的酒本体为例子，结合工程实践，描述了如何利用OWL的约束公理，完善和准确定义本体中的概念。     

Development of a product configuration system with an ontology-based approach

Product configuration is a crucial means to implement the mass customization paradigm by assembling a set of customizable components to satisfy both customers’ needs and technical constraints. With the aim of enabling efficient and effective development of product configuration systems by reusing configuration knowledge, an ontology-based approach to modeling product configuration knowledge is presented in this paper. The ontology-based product configuration models are hierarchically organized. At the lower level, a configuration meta-model is defined. Based on this meta-model, domain-specific configuration knowledge can be derived by reusing or inheriting the classes or relations in the meta-model. Configuration models are formalized using OWL (Ontology Web Language), an ontology representation language developed by W3C. As a result, configuration models have well-defined semantics due to the logic semantics of OWL, making it possible to automatically detect inconsistencies of configuration knowledge bases. Furthermore, configuration constraints are represented in SWRL, a rule language based on OWL. Finally, actual configuration processes are carried out using JESS, a rule engine for the Java platform, by mapping OWL-based configuration facts and SWRL-based configuration constraints into JESS facts and JESS rules, respectively. The proposed methodology is illustrated with an example for configuring the ranger drilling machine.     

基于本体概念相似度的软件构件检索方法

随着软件重用与产品线技术的日趋成熟,基于产品线采用构件快速地开发出软件产品成为了研究的热点,而高效的构件检索方法是此技术能否实施的关键。因此,使用本体Web语言(OWL)描述构件,并将其转化为本体树进行模糊匹配,然后对失配的构件进行重组,并使用KMP算法对查询本体树的相似概念进行修改,从而检索到更 精确且满足用户需求的构件。最后,给出了构件查询算法,并在此基础上开发了构件库查询系统原型,并与采用刻面和特征的查询方法进行了比较实验,结果证明了此方法的可行性与有效性。     

Enhancing ebXML Registries to Make them OWL Aware

ebXML is a standard from OASIS and UN/CEFACT which specifies an infrastructure to facilitate electronic business. In this paper, we address how ebXML registry semantics support can be further enhanced to make it OWL aware. OWL constructs are represented through ebXML registry information model constructs, and stored procedures are defined in the ebXML registry for processing the OWL semantics. These predefined stored queries provide the necessary means to exploit the enhanced semantics stored in the registry. In this way, an application program does not have to be aware of the details of how this semantics support is achieved in ebXML registry, and does not have to contain additional code to process this semantics.We believe that this approach is quite powerful to associate semantics with registry objects: it becomes possible to retrieve knowledge through queries, the enhancements to the registry are generic and also the registry specification is kept intact. The capabilities provided move the semantics support beyond what is currently available in ebXML registries and it does so by using a standard ontology language.To be able to demonstrate the benefits of the enhancements, we also show how the resulting semantics can be made use of in Web service discovery and composition.Recommended by: Athman Bouguettaya and Boualem BenatallahThis work is supported in part by the European Commission, Project No: IST-1-002104-STP SATINE and the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TÜBÍTAK), Project No: EEEAG 104E013 and is realized as a proposal to OASIS ebXML Semantic Content Management subcommittee which is working on possible semantic extensions to the registry.     

Measuring design complexity of semantic web ontologies

Ontology languages such as OWL are being widely used as the Semantic Web movement gains momentum. With the proliferation of the Semantic Web, more and more large-scale ontologies are being developed in real-world applications to represent and integrate knowledge and data. There is an increasing need for measuring the complexity of these ontologies in order for people to better understand, maintain, reuse and integrate them. In this paper, inspired by the concept of software metrics, we propose a suite of ontology metrics, at both the ontology-level and class-level, to measure the design complexity of ontologies. The proposed metrics are analytically evaluated against Weyuker’s criteria. We have also performed empirical analysis on public domain ontologies to show the characteristics and usefulness of the metrics. We point out possible applications of the proposed metrics to ontology quality control. We believe that the proposed metric suite is useful for managing ontology development projects.