Transparent access to relational, autonomous and distributed databases using semantic web and service oriented technologies

With the constant grow of enterprises and the need to share information across departments and business areas becomes more critical, companies are turning to integration to provide a method for interconnecting heterogeneous, distributed and autonomous systems. Whether the sales application needs to interface with the inventory application, the procurement application connect to an auction site, it seems that any application can be made better by integrating it with other applications. Integration between applications can face several troublesome due the fact that applications may not have been designed and implemented having integration in mind. Regarding to integration issues, two tier software systems, composed by the database tier and by the “front-end” tier (interface), have shown some limitations. As a solution to overcome the two tier limitations, three tier systems were proposed in the literature. Thus, by adding a middle-tier (referred as middleware) between the database tier and the “front-end” tier (or simply referred application), three main benefits emerge. The first benefit is related with the fact that the division of software systems in three tiers enables increased integration capabilities with other systems. The second benefit is related with the fact that any modifications to the individual tiers may be carried out without necessarily affecting the other tiers and integrated systems and the third benefit, consequence of the others, is related with less maintenance tasks in software system and in all integrated systems. Concerning software development in three tiers, this dissertation focus on two emerging technologies, Semantic Web and Service Oriented Architecture, combined with middleware. These two technologies blended with middleware, which resulted in the development of Swoat framework (Service and Semantic Web Oriented ArchiTecture), lead to the following four synergic advantages: (1) allow the creation of loosely-coupled systems, decoupling the database from “front-end” tiers, therefore reducing maintenance; (2) the database schema is transparent to “front-end” tiers which are aware of the information model (or domain model) that describes what data is accessible; (3) integration with other heterogeneous systems is allowed by providing services provided by the middleware; (4) the service request by the “frontend” tier focus on ‘what’ data and not on ‘where’ and ‘how’ related issues, reducing this way the application development time by developers.

A Personal Agent Architecture for Task Automation in the Web of Data. Bringing intelligence to everyday tasks

Internet está evolucionando hacia la conocida como Live Web. En esta nueva etapa en la evolución de Internet, se pone al servicio de los usuarios multitud de streams de datos sociales. Gracias a estas fuentes de datos, los usuarios han pasado de navegar por páginas web estáticas a interacturar con aplicaciones que ofrecen contenido personalizado, basada en sus preferencias. Cada usuario interactúa a diario con multiples aplicaciones que ofrecen notificaciones y alertas, en este sentido cada usuario es una fuente de eventos, y a menudo los usuarios se sienten desbordados y no son capaces de procesar toda esa información a la carta. Para lidiar con esta sobresaturación, han aparecido múltiples herramientas que automatizan las tareas más habituales, desde gestores de bandeja de entrada, gestores de alertas en redes sociales, a complejos CRMs o smart-home hubs. La contrapartida es que aunque ofrecen una solución a problemas comunes, no pueden adaptarse a las necesidades de cada usuario ofreciendo una solucion personalizada. Los Servicios de Automatización de Tareas (TAS de sus siglas en inglés) entraron en escena a partir de 2012 para dar solución a esta liminación. Dada su semejanza, estos servicios también son considerados como un nuevo enfoque en la tecnología de mash-ups pero centra en el usuarios. Los usuarios de estas plataformas tienen la capacidad de interconectar servicios, sensores y otros aparatos con connexión a internet diseñando las automatizaciones que se ajustan a sus necesidades. La propuesta ha sido ámpliamante aceptada por los usuarios. Este hecho ha propiciado multitud de plataformas que ofrecen servicios TAS entren en escena. Al ser un nuevo campo de investigación, esta tesis presenta las principales características de los TAS, describe sus componentes, e identifica las dimensiones fundamentales que los defines y permiten su clasificación. En este trabajo se acuña el termino Servicio de Automatización de Tareas (TAS) dando una descripción formal para estos servicios y sus componentes (llamados canales), y proporciona una arquitectura de referencia. De igual forma, existe una falta de herramientas para describir servicios de automatización, y las reglas de automatización. A este respecto, esta tesis propone un modelo común que se concreta en la ontología EWE (Evented WEb Ontology). Este modelo permite com parar y equiparar canales y automatizaciones de distintos TASs, constituyendo un aporte considerable paraa la portabilidad de automatizaciones de usuarios entre plataformas. De igual manera, dado el carácter semántico del modelo, permite incluir en las automatizaciones elementos de fuentes externas sobre los que razonar, como es el caso de Linked Open Data. Utilizando este modelo, se ha generado un dataset de canales y automatizaciones, con los datos obtenidos de algunos de los TAS existentes en el mercado. Como último paso hacia el lograr un modelo común para describir TAS, se ha desarrollado un algoritmo para aprender ontologías de forma automática a partir de los datos del dataset. De esta forma, se favorece el descubrimiento de nuevos canales, y se reduce el coste de mantenimiento del modelo, el cual se actualiza de forma semi-automática. En conclusión, las principales contribuciones de esta tesis son: i) describir el estado del arte en automatización de tareas y acuñar el término Servicio de Automatización de Tareas, ii) desarrollar una ontología para el modelado de los componentes de TASs y automatizaciones, iii) poblar un dataset de datos de canales y automatizaciones, usado para desarrollar un algoritmo de aprendizaje automatico de ontologías, y iv) diseñar una arquitectura de agentes para la asistencia a usuarios en la creación de automatizaciones. ABSTRACT The new stage in the evolution of the Web (the Live Web or Evented Web) puts lots of social data-streams at the service of users, who no longer browse static web pages but interact with applications that present them contextual and relevant experiences. Given that each user is a potential source of events, a typical user often gets overwhelmed. To deal with that huge amount of data, multiple automation tools have emerged, covering from simple social media managers or notification aggregators to complex CRMs or smart-home Hub/Apps. As a downside, they cannot tailor to the needs of every single user. As a natural response to this downside, Task Automation Services broke in the Internet. They may be seen as a new model of mash-up technology for combining social streams, services and connected devices from an end-user perspective: end-users are empowered to connect those stream however they want, designing the automations they need. The numbers of those platforms that appeared early on shot up, and as a consequence the amount of platforms following this approach is growing fast. Being a novel field, this thesis aims to shed light on it, presenting and exemplifying the main characteristics of Task Automation Services, describing their components, and identifying several dimensions to classify them. This thesis coins the term Task Automation Services (TAS) by providing a formal definition of them, their components (called channels), as well a TAS reference architecture. There is also a lack of tools for describing automation services and automations rules. In this regard, this thesis proposes a theoretical common model of TAS and formalizes it as the EWE ontology This model enables to compare channels and automations from different TASs, which has a high impact in interoperability; and enhances automations providing a mechanism to reason over external sources such as Linked Open Data. Based on this model, a dataset of components of TAS was built, harvesting data from the web sites of actual TASs. Going a step further towards this common model, an algorithm for categorizing them was designed, enabling their discovery across different TAS. Thus, the main contributions of the thesis are: i) surveying the state of the art on task automation and coining the term Task Automation Service; ii) providing a semantic common model for describing TAS components and automations; iii) populating a categorized dataset of TAS components, used to learn ontologies of particular domains from the TAS perspective; and iv) designing an agent architecture for assisting users in setting up automations, that is aware of their context and acts in consequence.

The WEB system.

"Supported in part by Contract AT(11-1)-1018 with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and the Advanced Research Projects Agency."

A Mathematical Apparatus for Domain Ontology Simulation. Logical Relationship Systems

* This paper was made according to the program of fundamental scientific research of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Mathematical simulation and intellectual systems», the project "Theoretical foundation of the intellectual systems based on ontologies for intellectual support of scientific researches".

Design of a knowledge base to teach programming

Programming is a subject that many beginning students find difficult. This paper describes a knowledge base designed for the purpose of analyzing programs written in the PHP web development language. The aim is to use this knowledge base in an Intelligent Tutoring System that will provide effective feedback to students. The main focus of this research is that a programming exercise can have many correct solutions. This paper presents an overview of how the proposed knowledge base can be utilized to accept different solutions to a given exercise

Designing the knowledge base for a PHP tutor

Programming is a subject that many beginning students students find difficult. This paper descibes a knowledge base designed for the purpose of analyzing programs written in the PHP web development language. The aim is to use this knowledge base in an Intelligent Tutoring System. The main emphasis is on accepting alternative solutions to a given problem.

OntoFeed um leitor de Feeds com extensão ontológica.

O problema que justifica o presente estudo refere-se à falta de semântica nos mecanismos de busca na Web. Para este problema, o consórcio W3 vem desenvolvendo tecnologias que visam construir uma Web Semântica. Entre estas tecnologias, estão as ontologias de domínio. Neste sentido, o objetivo geral desta dissertação é discutir as possibilidades de se imprimir semântica às buscas nos agregadores de notícia da Web. O objetivo específico é apresentar uma aplicação que usa uma classificação semi-automática de notícias, reunindo, para tanto, as tecnologias de busca da área de recuperação de informação com as ontologias de domínio. O sistema proposto é uma aplicação para a Web capaz de buscar notícias sobre um domínio específico em portais de informação. Ela utiliza a API do Google Maps V1 para a localização georreferenciada da notícia, sempre que esta informação estiver disponível. Para mostrar a viabilidade da proposta, foi desenvolvido um exemplo apoiado em uma ontologia para o domínio de chuvas e suas consequências. Os resultados obtidos por este novo Feed de base ontológica são alocados em um banco de dados e disponibilizados para consulta via Web. A expectativa é que o Feed proposto seja mais relevante em seus resultados do que um Feed comum. Os resultados obtidos com a união de tecnologias patrocinadas pelo consórcio W3 (XML, RSS e ontologia) e ferramentas de busca em página Web foram satisfatórios para o propósito pretendido. As ontologias mostram-se como ferramentas de usos múltiplos, e seu valor de análise em buscas na Web pode ser ampliado com aplicações computacionais adequadas para cada caso. Como no exemplo apresentado nesta dissertação, à palavra chuva agregaram-se outros conceitos, que estavam presentes nos desdobramentos ocasionados por ela. Isto realçou a ligação do evento chuva com as consequências que ela provoca - ação que só foi possível executar através de um recorte do conhecimento formal envolvido.

dynamic evolutions based on ontologies

With the continuous changes in application requirements of the enterprises, Web resources must be updated, so do the underlying ontologies that are associated with the Web resources. In the situation, it is very challenging for ontological engineers to specify the changes of ontologies, keep their consistencies and achieve semantic query of Web resources based on the evolving ontologies. We propose a construct called Prioritized Knowledge Base (PKB) based on SHOQ(D) description logic, and discuss some properties of PKB.PKB can be used for describing the evolutions and updates of ontologies with conflicting information. Furthermore, we develop some algorithms for checking conflict rules and performing semantic query based on PKB.

Rules

SPIN Jena Rules SWRL - Semantic Web Rule Language

PEWS-RT, um sistema de tempo de execução para a linguagem PEWS

Web services are loosely coupled applications that use XML documents as a way of integrating distinct systems on the internet. Such documents are used by in standards such as SOAP, WSDL and UDDI which establish, respectively, integrated patterns for the representation of messages, description, and publication of services, thus facilitating the interoperability between heterogeneous systems. Often one single service does not meet the users needs, therefore new systems can be designed from the composition of two or more services. This which is the design goal behind the of the Service Oriented Architecture. Parallel to this scenario, we have the PEWS (Predicate Path-Expressions for Web Services) language, which speci es behavioural speci cations of composite web service interfaces.. The development of the PEWS language is divided into two parts: front-end and back-end. From a PEWS program, the front-end performs the lexical analysis, syntactic and semantic compositions and nally generate XML code. The function of the back-end is to execute the composition PEWS. This master's dissertation work aims to: (i) reformulate the proposed architecture for the runtime system of the language, (ii) Implement the back-end for PEWS by using .NET Framework tools to execute PEWS programs using the Windows Work ow Foundation

Kooperativer Fremdsprachenerwerb im Teletandem

Im Wintersemester 2006/07 wurde am Fachbereich Translations-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft der Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz in Germersheim, in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fakultät für Natur- und Geisteswissenschaften der Universität des brasilianischen Bundesstaates São Paulo (Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, UNESP) in Assis, das Pilotprojekt Teletandem initiiert. Ein Teil des Pilotprojektes, die Einführung, Entwicklung und Implementierung der Lehr- und Lernmethode Teletandem als Modul im BA-/MA-Studiengang Portugiesisch am FTSK, ist Grundlage der vorliegenden Dissertation.rnTeletandem (TT) ist eine innovative Methode zum autonomen, kooperativen Fremdsprachenlernen in Tandempaaren über das Internet. Die TT-Paare setzen sich aus einem brasilianischen und einem deutschen Studierenden zusammen, die sich ein- bis zweimal pro Woche im Internet treffen und mittels Webcam und Headset ‚unter vier Augen’ synchron, audiovisuell, mündlich und schriftlich miteinander kommunizieren. Dabei entscheiden sie gemeinsam mit ihrem Partner wann sie sich treffen, über was sie sprechen und wie sie die Teletandemsitzungen didaktisch gestalten. Durch die authentische Kommunikation mit Muttersprachlern erwerben und vertiefen die Teilnehmer zielgerichtet ihre Kenntnisse der fremden Sprache und Kultur.rnIn Teil I dieser Dissertation wird anhand einer Auswahl behavioristischer, kognitivistischer und konstruktivistischer (Lern-)Theorien wissenschaftlich untersucht, wie wir lernen, welche Faktoren unser Lernen positiv beeinflussen und welche Implikationen dies für institutionelles Lernen hat. Die Erkenntnisse werden auf das (Fremdsprachen-)Lernen im TT transferiert und es wird untersucht, inwieweit die Anwendung der Methode die Lernprozesse der Studierenden (und Lehrkräfte) begünstigt. In Teil 2 werden die Geschichte des Lernens im (Tele-)Tandem sowie die theoretische Grundlage und die Prinzipien von TT erläutert und das Pilotprojekt vorgestellt. Des Weiteren werden die im Rahmen des Projektes entwickelten vier Teletandemmodule (Modul Teletandem I, Modul Teletandem II, Intensivkurs Portugiesisch im Teletandem, Modul Fremdsprachenlernen im Teletandem), die von Studierenden des FTSK, des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie (KIT) und der UNESP durchgeführt wurden, dargestellt. Im dritten Teil werden die Ergebnisse der Evaluation der Teletandemkurse vorgestellt und analysiert.rn