Representing human expertise by the OWL web ontology language to support knowledge engineering in decision support systems

Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) often base their knowledge and advice on human expertise. Knowledge representation needs to be in a format that can be easily understood by human users as well as supporting ongoing knowledge engineering, including evolution and consistency of knowledge. This paper reports on the development of an ontology specification for managing knowledge engineering in a CDSS for assessing and managing risks associated with mental-health problems. The Galatean Risk and Safety Tool, GRiST, represents mental-health expertise in the form of a psychological model of classification. The hierarchical structure was directly represented in the machine using an XML document. Functionality of the model and knowledge management were controlled using attributes in the XML nodes, with an accompanying paper manual for specifying how end-user tools should behave when interfacing with the XML. This paper explains the advantages of using the web-ontology language, OWL, as the specification, details some of the issues and problems encountered in translating the psychological model to OWL, and shows how OWL benefits knowledge engineering. The conclusions are that OWL can have an important role in managing complex knowledge domains for systems based on human expertise without impeding the end-users' understanding of the knowledge base. The generic classification model underpinning GRiST makes it applicable to many decision domains and the accompanying OWL specification facilitates its implementation.

Adicionando temporalidade à linguagem OWL 2 : um estudo a partir da linguagem tOWL e sua decibilidade

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Departamento de Ciência da Computação, Programa de Pós-Graducação em Informática, 2016.

Context Mediation in the Semantic Web: Handling OWL Ontology and Data Disparity through Context Interchange

The COntext INterchange (COIN) strategy is an approach to solving the problem of interoperability of semantically heterogeneous data sources through context mediation. COIN has used its own notation and syntax for representing ontologies. More recently, the OWL Web Ontology Language is becoming established as the W3C recommended ontology language. We propose the use of the COIN strategy to solve context disparity and ontology interoperability problems in the emerging Semantic Web – both at the ontology level and at the data level. In conjunction with this, we propose a version of the COIN ontology model that uses OWL and the emerging rules interchange language, RuleML.

Towards digital facility modelling for Sydney Opera House using IFC and semantic web technology

The challenges of maintaining a building such as the Sydney Opera House are immense and are dependent upon a vast array of information. The value of information can be enhanced by its currency, accessibility and the ability to correlate data sets (integration of information sources). A building information model correlated to various information sources related to the facility is used as definition for a digital facility model. Such a digital facility model would give transparent and an integrated access to an array of datasets and obviously would support Facility Management processes. In order to construct such a digital facility model, two state-of-the-art Information and Communication technologies are considered: an internationally standardized building information model called the Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) and a variety of advanced communication and integration technologies often referred to as the Semantic Web such as the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). This paper reports on some technical aspects for developing a digital facility model focusing on Sydney Opera House. The proposed digital facility model enables IFC data to participate in an ontology driven, service-oriented software environment. A proof-of-concept prototype has been developed demonstrating the usability of IFC information to collaborate with Sydney Opera House’s specific data sources using semantic web ontologies.

Extending Web Modeling Language to exploit stigmergy : intentionally recording unintentional trails

Software development and Web site development techniques have evolved significantly over the past 20 years. The relatively young Web Application development area has borrowed heavily from traditional software development methodologies primarily due to the similarities in areas of data persistence and User Interface (UI) design. Recent developments in this area propose a new Web Modeling Language (WebML) to facilitate the nuances specific to Web development. WebML is one of a number of implementations designed to enable modeling of web site interaction flows while being extendable to accommodate new features in Web site development into the future. Our research aims to extend WebML with a focus on stigmergy which is a biological term originally used to describe coordination between insects. We see design features in existing Web sites that mimic stigmergic mechanisms as part of the UI. We believe that we can synthesize and embed stigmergy in Web 2.0 sites. This paper focuses on the sub-topic of site UI design and stigmergic mechanism designs required to achieve this.

语义Web服务匹配与发现技术研究

在开放的互联网环境中，面向服务的计算（Service-Oriented Computing, SOC）和面向服务的体系架构（Service-Oriented Architecture, SOA）使得信息资源和软件系统的主要形态发生了巨大变化，并引领着互联网计算技术和软件系统新的发展方向。服务是SOC和SOA的核心思想，服务的平台独立、高可重用和松散耦合等特性使之成为复杂分布式应用可行的解决方案。Web服务的出现和发展为实施与部署SOC和SOA提供了最佳支撑技术。目前web服务发现机制在服务描述的全面性和服务匹配方法的有效性方面存在不足之处，难以保证服务发现的性能。特别是在服务数量剧增的情况下，用户亟需一种自动快速而准确的服务发现机制。语义web技术不仅为web的表示内容提供了一种语义标识方法，推动了web内容的自动化和智能化搜索，也为web服务的描述提供了增加语义层次内容的有效方法，两者的结合形成了一个新的研究领域——语义web服务。该领域通过借鉴语义web的相关技术来增加web服务的语义描述，进而为web服务的发现、组合、调用和监控等环节提供语义层次的支持，增强web服务的自动化和智能化水平。 本文的研究目的就是利用语义web的思想，基于SOC和SOA的理念以及现有的web服务发现机制对web服务信息进行语义描述、组织，探索语义web服务匹配与发现的关键问题，提出有效的解决方案。本文的研究工作和贡献主要在以下四个方面： 1. 针对语义近似度的度量和计算问题基于OWL（Web Ontology Language）提出了一个语义近似度计算SSM模型，该模型中所有概念及概念之间的关系、所有的概念属性及属性之间的关系都被抽象定义并建模，根据概念、属性及其语义关系模型，构建了基于概念关系的拓扑近似度计算函数和属性近似度计算函数，从而进一步构建语义近似度计算函数。该语义近似度计算函数以代表OWL本体概念上下级关系和等价关系的树状结构为基础，利用概念间的拓扑关系和属性关系进行语义近似度的度量和计算。语义近似度函数的返回值为一个介于0与1之间的数值，代表函数的两个输入概念之间的语义近似度值。 2. 提出了一个基于概念语义近似度的以OWL-S为顶层本体的web服务语义匹配PSM模型。该模型将服务的匹配项分为服务能力、服务质量、服务名称和服务参数四个部分。基于该模型，提出了相应的PSM服务匹配算法。PSM算法能够对服务内部的服务流程及流程的组合进行与服务请求的语义匹配，并且避免了服务流程中互斥接口参数参与匹配。而且PSM匹配算法实现了服务接口的单射匹配，进一步提高服务发现的性能。在服务质量匹配计算上，提出了服务质量匹配模型PSM-QoS，为服务的QoS匹配建立了计算基础。PSM算法使用语义近似度计算函数度量和计算服务属性概念的语义近似度值，从而能够返回细粒度的服务匹配度值。 3. 在语义服务匹配PSM模型的基础上提出一种语义web服务发现架构系统PSM-SD模型。该模型将OWL-S语义元素引入UDDI服务描述，从而在UDDI中保存语义信息。通过PSM算法提高web服务匹配性能，并通过数据映射机制保证模型对于当前的服务发现标准UDDI基础架构的兼容以及UDDI标准操作接口的透明性。模型使用本体概念的索引机制提高服务发现的效率。在建立和维护索引的过程或服务的匹配过程中，模型使用近似概念搜寻算法进一步提高本体概念搜寻和服务匹配的效率。 4. 设计并开发了基于语义web服务发现架构模型的原型系统。该系统将语义近似度计算模型、语义web服务匹配模型和语义web服务发现架构模型进行软件实现。本文在该原型系统平台上对语义web服务发现的方法进行了实验，验证了方法的有效性。

Normdaten im Semantic Web - Konzept für eine Ontologie der Personennamendatei (PND)

Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, ein Konzept für eine Darstellung der Personennamendatei(PND) in den Sprachen Resource Description Framework (RDF), Resource DescriptionFramework Schema Language (RDFS) und Web Ontology Language (OWL) zu entwickeln. Der Prämisse des Semantic Web folgend, Daten sowohl in menschenverständlicher als auch in maschinell verarbeitbarer Form darzustellen und abzulegen, wird eine Struktur für Personendaten geschaffen. Dabei wird von der bestehenden Daten- und Struktursituation im Pica-Format ausgegangen. Die Erweiterbarkeit und Anpassbarkeit des Modells im Hinblick auf zukünftige, im Moment gegebenenfalls noch nicht absehbare Anwendungen und Strukurveränderungen, muss aber darüber hinaus gewährleistet sein. Die Modellierung orientiert sich an bestehenden Standards wie Dublin Core, Friend Of A Friend (FOAF), Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR), Functional Requirements for Authority Data (FRAD) und Resource Description and Access (RDA).

TOWARD SEMANTIC WEB SERVICES AS MVC APPLICATIONS: FROM OWL-S VIA UML

OWL-S is an application of OWL, the Web Ontology Language, that describes the semantics of Web Services so that their discovery, selection, invocation and composition can be automated. The research literature reports the use of UML diagrams for the automatic generation of Semantic Web Service descriptions in OWL-S. This paper demonstrates a higher level of automation by generating complete complete Web applications from OWL-S descriptions that have themselves been generated from UML. Previously, we proposed an approach for processing OWL-S descriptions in order to produce MVC-based skeletons for Web applications. The OWL-S ontology undergoes a series of transformations in order to generate a Model-View-Controller application implemented by a combination of Java Beans, JSP, and Servlets code, respectively. In this paper, we show in detail the documents produced at each processing step. We highlight the connections between OWL-S specifications and executable code in the various Java dialects and show the Web interfaces that result from this process.

Temporal indicators of language dominance in bilingual children

In the field of bilingualism it is of particular interest to stablish which, if any, of a speaker’s languages is dominant. Earlier research has shown that immigrants who acquire a new language tend to use elements of the timing patterns of the new language in their native language. It is shown here that measurements of timing in the two languages spoken by bilingual children can give information about the relative dominance of the languages for the individual speaker.

Pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching-mapping

The purpose of this presentation is to introduce the research project progress in “the mapping of pedagogical methods in web-based language teaching" by Högskolan Dalarna (Dalarna University). This project will identify the differences in pedagogical methods that are used for online language classes. The pedagogical method defined in this project is what the teachers do to ensure students attain the learning outcomes, for example, planning, designing courses, leading students, knowing students' abilities, implementing activities, etc. So far the members of this project have analyzed the course plans (in the language department at Dalarna University) and categorized the learning outcomes. A questionnaire was constructed based on the learning outcomes and then either sent out remotely to teachers or completed face to face through interviews. The answers provided to the questionnaires enabled the project to identify many differences in how language teachers interact with their students but also, the way of giving feedback, motivating and helping students, types of class activities and materials used. This presentation introduces the progress of the project and identifies the challenges at the language department at Dalarna University. Finally, the advantages and problems of online language proficiency courses will be discussed and suggestions made for future improvement.

Teacher’s leadership in web-based language courses in Dalarna University, Sweden

The purpose of this presentation is to discuss how teacher’s leadership can be used as a teaching method in web based language education. The environments that offer online courses provide a wide field for discussion on the contact between teacher and student. My intention is to contribute to the debate on teacher leadership in online courses. In my earlier studies on leadership, I have explored how some religious leaders affected different social movements in Brazil during the military dictatorship (1964-1985). Pruth (2004) by examining the three kinds of legitimacy described by Max Weber I aimed at seeing and analyzing how religious leaders used different teaching methods to explain their messages to ordinary citizens. Thus my research showed how educational leadership is a way to get people to reach their goals. I became interested in the subject teacher’s leadership whenI participated in a survey of the teaching methods of language courses in Dalarna University which is funded by the NGL Center of Dalarna University. In  this project, we have made interviews with the teachers, undertaken the course plans (in the language department at Dalarna University) and categorized the learning outcomes. A questionnaire was constructed based on the learning outcomes and then either sent out remotely to teachers or completed face to face through interviews. The answers provided to the questionnaires enabled the  project to identify many differences in how language teachers interact with their students but  also, the way of giving feedback, motivating and helping students, types of class activities and materials used. This made me aware of how teachers use their leadership or not in their teaching. My focus is to look at the relationship between teachers and students as an important part of the development and quality of online courses. The teacher's performance on campus is different from online courses. I want to understand how the contact between teachers and students in online courses develop and look at how students can make use of this contact and what influence the teacher's leadership has on the ability for the students to achieve the goals of their course

Pedagogical Methods in Web-Based Language Teaching

This paper presents a research project that is being conducted at Dalarna University in Sweden. The aim is to study the following: 1) The quality of online language education compared with that of campus education, and 2) Advantages and disadvantages of online language education and how the disadvantages might be overcome. The project consists of two parts: pedagogical methods in online language education from the teachers’ point of view and from the students’ point of view. The first part was conducted in 2012 and various characteristics (benefits and difficulties) of online language education were identified. Flexibility and wider opportunities were general benefits, while lack of physical co-presence, difficulty in having lively debates/discussions, and high dropout rates were among the problems. The second part of the project (being conducted in 2014) aims to investigate how students experience online language learning. The goal is to explore alignments and misalignments between teachers’ perspectives and students’ perspectives, and to develop methods to enhance the quality of online education.

The WEB system : part II a formal description of the WEB input language /

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