Identification and resolution of conflicts during ontological integration using rules

Abstract: Integration of ontologies of information sources and consumers is an important phase in achieving web‐based interoperability. The present work describes an approach for identifying certain semantic conflicts while integrating ontologies of heterogeneous information sources. This paper is focused on the identification of homonymy and synonymy between elements in ontologies. In the present work the concepts of homonymy and synonymy are synonymous to naming conflicts and entity identifier conflicts, respectively, and partial synonymy is synonymous to schema isomorphism conflicts. The concept of the mask of interoperability is introduced for the identification of synonymy. The mask of interoperability is expressed in a declarative way as a set of rules, which can then be used for resolution of conflicts during integration of ontologies. As proof of concept, ontologies are implemented using the XML‐based ontology language Ontology Web Language (OWL), and the rules are implemented using the emerging rule language Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL). This representation in OWL and SWRL allows the ontology to be executable, flexibly extendable and platform‐independent. The OWL facts and SWRL rules are used by the Jess and Bossam reasoning engine to identify semantic homonymy and synonymy.     

A semantic approach to a framework for business domain software systems

In enterprise firms, enormous amounts of electronic documents are generated by business analysts and other business domain application users. Applications that use these documents are often driven by business logic that is hard-coded together with application logic. One approach to the separation of business logic from applications is to create and maintain business and information extraction rules in an external, user-friendly format. The drawback of such an externalization is that the business rules, usually, do not have machine interpretable semantics. This situation often leads to misinterpretation of domain analysis documents, which can inhibit the productivity of computer-assisted analytical work and the effectiveness of business solutions. This paper proposes an ontology and rule-based framework for the development of business domain applications, which includes semantic processing of externalized business rules and to some extent externalization of application logic. The creation of external information extraction rules by the business analyst is a cumbersome and time consuming task. In order to overcome this problem, the framework also includes a rule learning system to semi-automate the generation of information extraction rules from source documents with the help of manual annotations. The main idea behind the work presented in this paper is to re-engineer very large enterprise information systems to adapt to Semantic Web computing techniques. The work presented in this paper is inspired by an industrial project.     

Microwave absorption properties of CoGd substituted ZnFe2O4 ferrites synthesized by co-precipitation technique

A series of co-precipitated Zn_1?xCo_xGd_yFe_2?yO₄ spinel ferrites (x = 0.0–0.5, y = 0.00–0.10) sintered at 1000 °C were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), vibrating sample magnetometery (VSM) and microwave cavity perturbation (MCP). XRD patterns and FTIR spectra reveal formation of the spinel phase along with few traces of GdFeO₃ second phase. The lattice constant decreases with an increasing amount of CoGd ions due to the segregation of Gd³⁺on the grain boundaries and due to replacement of lager Zn²⁺ ions with smaller Co²⁺ ions. SEM shows grain size to decrease with the increase of CoGd contents due to grain growth inhibition by the second phase. VSM results show remanence and saturation magnetization to exhibit an increasing trend due to Co substitution on octahedral sites and presence of a second phase. The coercivity increases with the increase of CoGd contents due to anisotropic nature of Co. MCP shows the complex magnetic permeability to increase with CoGd concentration while the complex permittivity decreases.     

Experimental Evaluation of Food-Grade Semi-Refined Carrageenan Toxicity

The safety of food additives E407 and E407a has raised concerns in the scientific community. Thus, this study aims to assess the local and systemic toxic effects of the common food additive E407a in rats orally exposed to it for two weeks. Complex evaluations of the effects of semi-refined carrageenan (E407a) on rats upon oral exposure were performed. Local effects of E407a on the intestine were analyzed using routine histological stains and CD68 immunostaining. Furthermore, circulating levels of inflammatory markers were assessed. A fluorescent probe O1O (2- (2′-OH-phenyl)-5-phenyl-1,3-oxazole) was used for evaluating the state of leukocyte cell membranes. Cell death modes of leukocytes were analyzed by flow cytometry using Annexin V and 7-aminoactinomycin D staining. Oral administration of the common food additive E407a was found to be associated with altered small and large intestinal morphology, infiltration of the lamina propria in the small intestine with macrophages (CD68⁺ cells), high systemic levels of inflammation markers, and changes in the lipid order of the phospholipid bilayer in the cell membranes of leukocytes, alongside the activation of their apoptosis. Our findings suggest that oral exposure to E407a through rats results in the development of intestinal inflammation.     

Supramolecular Systems Based on Novel Amphiphiles and a Polymer: Aggregation and Selective Solubilization

Supramolecular systems based on novel triazole-containing and pyrimidine-containing amphiphiles bearing OH-groups and a hydrophilic polymer (polyethyleneimine, PEI) were fabricated. Aggregation threshold of individual amphiphile solutions and a surfactant/polymer binary mixture were determined to be equal to 2 and 0.05 mM, respectively, using tensiometry and conductometry techniques. It was found, that PEI addition to surfactant aqueous solutions induces the transition from open to closed association mode accompanying the decrease of mean hydrodynamic diameter of particles (D _H) from 100 nm to D _H ≤ 5 nm. Polymer addition to the system results in the leveling of pH decrease with surfactant concentration and increase of the electrokinetic potential values from 10 mV up to 40 mV. It was established that solubilization capacity of the supramolecular system formed could be increased by transition from surfactant individual solutions to the amphiphile/polymer binary system. The solubilization properties of the system strongly depend on the nature of the hydrophobic guest solubilized and differ by two orders of magnitude for hydrophobic azodye and lipophilic oxime.     

Multi-axial thermo-mechanical analysis of power plant components from 9–12% Cr steels at high temperature

The aim of this paper is to analyze local changes of stress and strain states in a power plant component under a transient thermal environment. A robust constitutive model is developed to describe inelastic behavior of advanced 9–12% Cr heat-resistant steels at high temperature and in a multi-axial stress state. The model includes the constitutive equation for the inelastic strain rate tensor, the evolution equation for a tensor-valued state variable to reflect hardening/recovery processes and two evolution equations for two scalar-valued variables that characterize softening and damage states. The model is calibrated against experimental creep curves and verified for inelastic responses under different isothermal and non-isothermal loading paths. Steam temperature and loading profiles that correspond to an idealized start-up, holding and shut-down sequence of a power plant component are assumed. To estimate the thermal fields, transient heat transfer analysis is performed. The results are applied in the subsequent structural analysis using the developed inelastic constitutive model. The outcome is a multi-axial thermo-mechanical fatigue loop which can be used for damage assessment.     

Higher-order and higher floating-point precision numerical approximations of finite strain elasticity moduli

Two real-domain numerical approximation methods for accurate computation of finite strain elasticity moduli are developed and their accuracy and computational efficiency are investigated, with reference to hyperelastic constitutive models with known analytical solutions. The methods are higher-order and higher floating-point precision numerical approximation, the latter being novel in this context. A general formula for higher-order approximation finite difference schemes is derived and a new procedure is proposed to implement increased floating-point precision. The accuracy of the approximated elasticity moduli is investigated numerically using higher-order approximations in standard double precision and increased quadruple precision. It is found that, as the order of the approximation increases, the elasticity moduli tend toward the analytical solution. Using higher floating-point precision, the approximated elasticity moduli for all orders of approximation are found to be more accurate than the standard double precision evaluation of the analytical moduli. Application of the techniques to a finite element problem shows that the numerically approximated methods obtain convergence equivalent to the analytical method but require greater computational effort. It is concluded that numerical approximation of elasticity moduli is a powerful and effective means of implementing advanced constitutive models in the finite element method without prior derivation of difficult analytical solutions.     

Controlling the Placement of Spherical Nanoparticles in Electrically Driven Polymer Jets and its Application to Li‐Ion Battery Anodes

Employing circumferentially uniform air flow through the sheath layer of the concentric coaxial nozzle, the gas‐assisted electrospinning (GAES) utilizes both high electric field and controlled air flow to produce nanofibers. The ability to tailor the distribution of various nanofillers (1.85–12.92 vol% of spherical SiO₂ and Si nanoparticles) in a polyvinyl alcohol jet is demonstrated by varying airflow rates in GAES. The distribution of nanofillers is measured from transmission electron microscopy and is analyzed using an image processing technique to perform the dispersion area analysis and obtain the most probable separation between nanoparticles using fast Fourier transform (FFT). The analysis in this study indicates an additional 350% improvement in dispersion area with the application of high but controlled airflow, and a 75 percent decrease in separation between nanoparticles from the FFT. The experiments in this study are in good agreement with a coarse‐grained MD simulation prediction for a polymer nanocomposite system subjected to extensional deformation. Lastly, utilizing the sheath layer air flow in production of Li‐battery anode material, a 680 mAh g^?1 improvement is observed in capacity for nanofibers spun via GAES compared to ES at the same Si NP loading, which is associated with better dispersion of the electrochemically active nanoparticles.