A semantic interoperability approach to health‐care data: Resolving data‐level conflicts

The integration of data from various electronic health record (EHR) systems presents a critical conflict in the sharing and exchanging of patient information across a diverse group of health‐oriented organizations. Patient health records in each system are annotated with ontologies utilizing different health‐care standards, creating ontology conflicts both at the schema and data levels. In this study, we introduce the concept of semantic ontology mapping for the facilitation and interoperability of heterogeneous EHR systems. This approach proposes a means of detecting and resolving the data‐level conflicts that generally exist in the ontology mapping process. We have extended the semantic bridge ontology in support of ontology mapping at the data level and generated the required mapping rules to reconcile data from different ontological sources into a canonical format. As a result, linked‐patient data are generated and made available in a semantic query engine to facilitate user queries of patient data across heterogeneous EHR systems.     

Detection and resolution of semantic inconsistency and redundancy in an automatic ontology merging system

In recent years, researchers have been developing algorithms for the automatic mapping and merging of ontologies to meet the demands of interoperability between heterogeneous and distributed information systems. But, still state-of-the-art ontology mapping and merging systems is semi-automatic that reduces the burden of manual creation and maintenance of mappings, and need human intervention for their validation. The contribution presented in this paper makes human intervention one step more down by automatically identifying semantic inconsistencies in the early stages of ontology merging. We are detecting semantic heterogeneities that occur due to conflicts among the set of Generalized Concept Inclusions, Property Subsumption Criteria, and Constraint Satisfaction Mechanism in local heterogeneous ontologies, which become obstacles for the generation of semantically consistent global merged ontology. We present several algorithms to detect such semantic inconsistencies based on subsumption analysis of concepts and properties in local ontologies from the list of initial mappings. We provide ontological patterns for resolving these inconsistencies automatically. This results global merged ontology free from ??circulatory error in class/property hierarchy??, ??common class between disjoint classes/properties??, ??redundancy of subclass/subproperty of relations?? and other types of ??semantic inconsistency?? errors. Experiments on the real ontologies show that our algorithms save time and cost of traversing local ontologies, improve system??s performance by producing only consistent accurate mappings, and reduce the users?? dependability for ensuring the satisfiability of merged ontology.     

An Ontology-Based Approach for Semantic Conflict Resolution in Database Integration

An important task in database integration is to resolve data conflicts, on both schema-level and semantic-level. Especially difficult the latter is. Some existing ontology-based approaches have been criticized for their lack of domain generality and semantic richness. With the aim to overcome these limitations, this paper introduces a systematic approach for detecting and resolving various semantic conflicts in heterogeneous databases, which includes two important parts： a semantic conflict representation model based on our classification framework of semantic conflicts, and a methodology for detecting and resolving semantic conflicts based on this model. The system has been developed, experimental evaluations on which indicate that this approach can resolve much of the semantic conflicts effectively, and keep independent of domains and integration patterns.     

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.     

Semi-automated schema integration with SASMINT

The emergence of increasing number of collaborating organizations has made clear the need for supporting interoperability infrastructures, enabling sharing and exchange of data among organizations. Schema matching and schema integration are the crucial components of the interoperability infrastructures, and their semi-automation to interrelate or integrate heterogeneous and autonomous databases in collaborative networks is desired. The Semi-Automatic Schema Matching and INTegration (SASMINT) System introduced in this paper identifies and resolves several important syntactic, semantic, and structural conflicts among schemas of relational databases to find their likely matches automatically. Furthermore, after getting the user validation on the matched results, it proposes an integrated schema. SASMINT uses a combination of a variety of metrics and algorithms from the Natural Language Processing and Graph Theory domains for its schema matching. For the schema integration, it utilizes a number of derivation rules defined in the scope of the research work explained in this paper. Furthermore, a derivation language called SASMINT Derivation Markup Language (SDML) is defined for capturing and formulating both the results of matching and the integration that can be further used, for example for federated query processing from independent databases. In summary, the paper focuses on addressing: (1) conflicts among schemas that make automatic schema matching and integration difficult, (2) the main components of the SASMINT approach and system, (3) in-depth exploration of SDML, (4) heuristic rules designed and implemented as part of the schema integration component of the SASMINT system, and (5) experimental evaluation of SASMINT.     

基于本体的XML语义集成和查询的研究

XML因其结构上的灵活性和易扩展性已经成为Web上异构数据转换和传输的标准,但是含有不同模式的XML数据源之间却很难进行相互操作,这给XML数据检索带来了更大的不便.先提出一种从XML模式到OWL本体的映射算法,然后借助共享全局本体和同义词典实现多个映射后的本体在语义上的集成从而解决XML结构异构的问题,最后提出一种利用语义集成进行XML语义查询的框架并初步实现.     

An ontology-based analysis of the industry foundation class schema for building information model exchanges

Robust knowledge sharing frameworks between different stakeholders in a building project is of high priority. Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) provides a rich schema for interoperability through object-based transactions. However, IFC lacks semantic clarity in mapping entities and relationships, resulting in multiple definitions to map the same information between different federated models. The objective of this research is to examine IFC from a perspective of an ontological framework, which can make the IFC definitions more formal, consistent and unambiguous. Different methods of ontological approaches to engineering knowledge are reviewed. Various issues such as the need for a logical framework, the current semantic approaches in the AEC/FM industry, and advantages of building an ontology structure are addressed. A comparative study of the ontology and segments of the existing IFC schema definition are performed. This exercise reveals the ambiguous nature of current IFC definitions and proposes reforms such that data exchanges would be more semantically robust. An ontology would structure the overall interoperability of BIM tools by providing a formal and consistent taxonomy and classification structure for extending IFC and for defining subsets as model view definitions (MVD).     

基于规则的关系数据库到本体的转换方法

提出了一种新的全自动的关系数据库到本体的转换方法,通过分析关系模式的主键、属性、引用关系、完整性约束和部分数据来创建本体,尽量保持了关系数据库的信息,并在构建的过程中对信息进行初步的集成和分类.系统实践证明,该方法可自动进行关系模式和数据到本体的等价转换,而且完成了对关系数据库中部分语义信息的辅助挖掘.     

基于领域本体和关系模型的XML语义集成方法研究

由于缺乏足够的语义信息,不同模式的XML数据之间很难进行互操作。针对油气井工程中的XML数据集成需求,借助领域全局本体,提出一种模式无关的XML语义集成方法。该方法首先在XML Path路径与领域本体之间进行语义映射,屏蔽其模式差异;然后,按照模型映射方法将XML存储为关系数据;最后通过查询重写将SPARQL转换为SQL语句,实现语义查询。该方法对XML模式进行语义标注,利用关系数据库存储与查询XML数据,能有效处理领域XML数据的语义集成。     

A philosophy‐driven entity classification and enrichment for ontology mapping

Abstract: Ontologies are intended to facilitate semantic interoperability among distributed and intelligent information systems. Because of the distributed nature of the World Wide Web, Web ontologies have been developing in multiple forms of heterogeneity. For interoperating among information systems through heterogeneous ontologies, ontology mapping is a prerequisite process to generate alignment between two ontologies. In order to improve alignment accuracy, our approach is to clarify and enrich the semantics of ontological entities before mapping. For this purpose, we present a semi‐automatic framework of entity classification and enrichment by applying three philosophical notions: identity condition, existential rigidity, and external dependency. Our objective is to supply a set of philosophy‐driven anchors into ontologies for their mapping process by using a sortal taxonomy as a background knowledge model.     

Methodology and intermediate layer for the automatic creation of ontology instances stored in relational databases

In this paper, we introduce our solution for mapping local ontologies to relational and object‐oriented representations. This solution is part of the GeoNis framework for the interoperability of geo‐information systems applications in a local community environment. The GeoNis framework is based on a hybrid ontology approach for data integration. Therefore, a very important subject in our research on semantic data integration is the creation of mapping between a spatial information source and its local ontology. We developed the OWL2RDB mapping language to create an intermediate layer between a relational database and the OWL ontology. This intermediate layer contains rules (expressed in the OWL2RDB language) for mapping between the structural elements of a relational database and the concepts of OWL ontologies. We also present a system that uses the OWL2RDB intermediate layer to create classes that can handle ontology instances stored in relational databases. We have developed a prototype for a tool that uses this proposed approach for the automatic generation of translator/wrapper components in the GeoNis interoperability environment. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

基于关系数据库的本体构建方法研究

本体可以很好地解决异构数据库集成中语义异构问题。由关系数据库模式转换到本体结构是信息集成的基础技术之一。该文提出了一种基于关系数据库的本体建模方法,并对构建过程中丢失的外键所包含的语义信息进行恢复,使得数据库的语义表达更为完整。     

Approaches for semantic interoperability between domain ontologies

Abstract: Domain ontologies and knowledge-based systems have become very important in the agent and semantic web communities. As their use has increased, providing means of resolving semantic differences has also become very important. In this paper we survey the approaches that have been proposed for providing interoperability among domain ontologies. We also discuss some key issues that still need to be addressed if we are to move from semi-automated to fully automated approaches to providing consensus among heterogeneous ontologies.     

形式概念分析在本体构建中的应用

随着信息共享和数据交换的范围不断扩大,语义数据集成成为数据库技术研究中的热点。本体作为共享概念的形式化说明,用于表达数据源的语义、识别和建立概念间的语义关联、达成语义一致,提供了语义异构问题的解决途径。传统的关系数据库由于具备技术成熟、应用广泛、数据管理能力强、数据安全程度高等特点,依然是数据存储的主要手段。然而,关系数据只表达了"属性/值"二元关系,不具备语义描述的能力,如何在关系数据中直接抽取数据的语义,构建本体,提炼丰富的语义信息,弥补关系数据表的缺陷,是一个重要的研究方向。文中探讨了运用形式概念分析的技术,结合数据库模式及其数据,构建本体的方法。在研究本体构建的基本方法基础上,论述了形式概念分析方法,并结合给定的数据库模式及其数据信息,演示了运用形式概念分析的方法构建本体的过程。     

The Semantic Web: the roles of XML and RDF

XML and RDF are the current standards for establishing semantic interoperability on the Web, but XML addresses only document structure. RDF better facilitates interoperation because it provides a data model that can be extended to address sophisticated ontology representation techniques. We explain the role of ontologies in the architecture of the Semantic Web. We then briefly summarize key elements of XML and RDF, showing why using XML as a tool for semantic interoperability will be ineffective in the long run. We argue that a further representation and inference layer is needed on top of the Web's current layers, and to establish such a layer, we propose a general method for encoding ontology representation languages into RDF/RDF schema. We illustrate the extension method by applying it to Ontology Interchange Language, an ontology representation and inference language     

Aondê: An ontology Web service for interoperability across biodiversity applications

Biodiversity research requires associating data about living beings and their habitats, constructing sophisticated models and correlating all kinds of information. Data handled are inherently heterogeneous, being provided by distinct (and distributed) research groups, which collect these data using different vocabularies, assumptions, methodologies and goals, and under varying spatio-temporal frames. Ontologies are being adopted as one of the means to alleviate these heterogeneity problems, thus helping cooperation among researchers. While ontology toolkits offer a wide range of operations, they are self-contained and cannot be accessed by external applications. Thus, the many proposals for adopting ontologies to enhance interoperability in application development are either based on the use of ontology servers or of ontology frameworks. The latter support many functions, but impose application recoding whenever ontologies change, whereas the first supports ontology evolution, but for a limited set of functions.This paper presents Aondê—a Web service geared towards the biodiversity domain that combines the advantages of frameworks and servers, supporting ontology sharing and management on the Web. By clearly separating storage concerns from semantic issues, the service provides independence between ontology evolution and the applications that need them. The service provides a wide range of basic operations to create, store, manage, analyze and integrate multiple ontologies. These operations can be repeatedly invoked by client applications to construct more complex manipulations. Aondê has been validated for real biodiversity case studies.     

Bridging the gap between product lifecycle management and sustainability in manufacturing through ontology building

Green manufacturing has been a major concern in recent years. As product lifecycle management strategies embrace sustainability within its spectrum of multi-disciplinary efforts, it has become crucial that manufacturing companies have the ability to exchange product and process related data with emphasis on sustainability not only amongst its internal information systems like CAD, CAPP and ERP, but also throughout their supply chain and other stakeholders. Industry demands solutions for interoperability between heterogeneous systems that can account for the necessary semantics in order to establish seamless, unambiguous information sharing of data from a product's cradle to its grave. One of the most promising approaches to overcome these issues is the use of ontologies that serve as interlingua, for translating between local data structures. The present research proposes an ontology that relates sustainability terms to product and process data entities through semantic ties.     

OWL-FC: an upper ontology for semantic modeling of Fuzzy Control

This work introduces an OWL-based upper ontology, called OWL-FC (Ontology Web Language for Fuzzy Control), capable to support a semantic definition of Fuzzy Control. It focuses on the fuzzy rules representation by providing domain independent ontology, supporting interoperability and favoring domain ontologies re-usability. The main contribution is that OWL-FC exploits Fuzzy Logic in OWL to model vagueness and uncertainty of the real world. Moreover, OWL-FC enables automatic discovery and execution of fuzzy controllers, by means of context aware parameter setting: appropriate controllers can be activated, depending on the parameters proactively identified in the work environment. In fact, the semantic modeling of concepts allows the characterization of constraints and restrictions for the identification of the right matches between concepts and individuals. OWL-FC ontology provides a wide, semantic-based interoperability among different domain ontologies, through the specification of fuzzy concepts, independently by the application domain. Then, OWL-FC is coherent to the Semantic Web infrastructure and avoids inconsistencies in the ontology.     

OntoQualitas: A framework for ontology quality assessment in information interchanges between heterogeneous systems

Nowadays, Internet technologies and standards are being systematically used by enterprises as tools to provide an infrastructure to connect people, enterprises, and applications they are using. In such complex networked enterprises, it is increasingly challenging to interchange, share, and manage internal and external digital information. In this context, to achieve interoperability between information systems is a challenging task. In order to solve the interoperability problem at semantic level, several ontology-based approaches have emerged. Although methodologies, methods, techniques, and tools to support the ontology building process were proposed, there are no mature models to measure this process, and the quality of implemented ontologies remains a major concern. This paper presents a framework, OntoQualitas, for evaluating the quality of an ontology whose purpose is the information interchange between different contexts. OntoQualitas includes previous and new measures to evaluate the ontology considering its specific purpose. Additionally, an empirical validation of OntoQualitas is presented.     

基于本体的信息集成技术研究

随着语义网技术的飞速发展,本体起了越来越重要的作用。在信息集成的过程中,本体作为一种工具解决了分布式异构信息源的语义异构问题,实现了信息源语义上的互操作。该文介绍了一种基于混合本体的信息集成方法,通过全局本体和局部本体之间的映射,向用户提供获取数据的统一接口,使用户获得语义上相关的数据。