Databases, particularly when storing heterogeneous, sparse semistructured data, tend to provide i... more Databases, particularly when storing heterogeneous, sparse semistructured data, tend to provide incomplete information and information which is difficult to categorize. This paper first considers how to classify entity instances as members of entity classes organized in a lattice-like generalization/specialization hierarchy. Then, it describes how the frame representation employed for instances and classes, as well as the closeness criterion involved in the classification method, favors the practical use of similarity and analogy, where similarity refers to instances within the same class, and analogy involves different classes. Finally, the paper argues that similarity and analogy facilitate querying semi-structured data.
As the volumes of digital resources grow exponentially, users face the threat of information over... more As the volumes of digital resources grow exponentially, users face the threat of information overload. Almost everything we see, read, hear, write and measure is collected and made available via computational information systems ). The problem is not so much finding information, but rather, developing computational solutions that help manage digital data in a meaningful way. In this paper we tackle this problem from the user's perspective. We explore Semantic Desktop applications, which combine ontologies, taxonomies, and metadata in general to enhance information management and help reduce the difficulty of locating data stored in personal computers. We argue that such applications would benefit if endowed with the ability to autonomously harvest provenance metadata and index content accordingly and propose a generic provenance model for this purpose.
Metaphor is not merely a rhetorical device, characteristic of language alone, but rather a fundam... more Metaphor is not merely a rhetorical device, characteristic of language alone, but rather a fundamental feature of the human conceptual system. A metaphor is understood by finding an analogy mapping between two domains. This paper argues that analogy mappings facilitate conceptual modeling by allowing the designer to reinterpret fragments of familiar conceptual models in other contexts. The contributions of the paper are expressed within the tradition of the Entity-Relation model.
Schema matching is a fundamental issue in many database applications, such as query mediation and... more Schema matching is a fundamental issue in many database applications, such as query mediation and data warehousing. It becomes a challenge when different vocabularies are used to refer to the same real-world concepts. In this context, a convenient approach, sometimes called extensional, instance-based or semantic, is to detect how the same real world objects are represented in different databases and to use the information thus obtained to match the schemas. This paper describes an instance-based schema matching technique for an OWL dialect. The technique is based on similarity functions and is backed up by experimental results with real data downloaded from data sources found on the Web.
A catalogue holds information about a set of objects, typically classified using terms taken from... more A catalogue holds information about a set of objects, typically classified using terms taken from a given thesaurus, and described with the help of a set of attributes. Matching a pair of catalogues means to find a relationship between the terms of their thesauri and a relationship between their attributes. This paper first introduces a matching approach, based on the notion of similarity, that applies to both thesauri and attribute matching. It then describes matchings based on mutual information and introduces variations that explore certain heuristics. Finally, it discusses experimental results that evaluate the precision of the matchings and that measure the influence of the heuristics.
The success of the autonomic computing vision [KephartO3] relies in its capacity of correlating h... more The success of the autonomic computing vision [KephartO3] relies in its capacity of correlating heterogeneous resources such as databases, switches, routers, server systems, load balancers, Web servers and/or application servers are just a few possibilities of resources that coexist in a data center today. These resources are provided by multiple vendors, and consequently implement different manageability interfaces. This multiplicity of resources also requires an ecosystem of multiple different management applications, delivered by a number of different management application vendors. Many of these vendors are now re-engineering their management infrastructure to become more autonomic and achieve the inherent value associated to a more independent management solution. Unfortunately many of the existing autonomic capabilities today are point solutions that are not easily integrated in a multi-vendor environment, nor emphasize the necessary collaboration. A true multi-vendor autonomic solution would enable the sharing and reuse of management information between heterogeneous management applications. In this paper we argue in favor of formalizing resource representations in a way that allows for automatic negotiation and integration of heterogeneous resources. We propose the use of formal ontology as a conceptual model in which to represent IT resources and present CATO, an ontology integration engine developed to provide semantic interoperability among resources in a heterogeneous environment
A plot is a partially ordered set of events. Plot analysis is a relevant source of knowledge abou... more A plot is a partially ordered set of events. Plot analysis is a relevant source of knowledge about the agents’ behavior when accessing data stored in the database. It relies on logical logs which register the actions of individual agents. This paper proposes techniques to analyze and reuse plots based on the concepts of similarity and analogy, borrowed from cognitive science and linguistics. The concept of similarity is applied to organize plots as a library, and to explore the reuse of plots in the same domain. By contrast, the concept of analogy helps reuse plots across different domains. The techniques proposed in this paper find applications in areas such as computer games and emergency response information systems, as well as some traditional business applications.
This paper proposes an approach and a mediator architecture for adaptively matching export schema... more This paper proposes an approach and a mediator architecture for adaptively matching export schemas of database Web services. Differently from traditional mediator approaches, the mediated schema is constructed from the mappings adaptively elicited from user query responses. That is, query results are postprocessed to identify reliable mappings and to build the mediated schema on the fly. The approach is illustrated with two case studies from rather different application domains.
To support the generation of database schemas of information systems, a five-step design process ... more To support the generation of database schemas of information systems, a five-step design process is proposed that explores the notions of generic and blended spaces and favours the reuse of predefined schemas. The use of generic and blended spaces is essential to achieve the passage from the source space into the target space in such a way that differences and conflicts can be detected and, whenever possible, conciliated.
We have explored the use of formal ontology and alignment techniques as a general approach to med... more We have explored the use of formal ontology and alignment techniques as a general approach to mediate and reconcile different representations. This approach proved to be very effective when fueled by ontologies rich in detail, (properties, restrictions, attributes and axioms that hold among classes), but performs poorly when available representations are incomplete or lacking, which is often the case in real life settings. In this paper we propose an enhancement to the original approach, based on a, instance-based matching technique.
With the evolution of the Web evolving towards the Semantic Web, where the information should be ... more With the evolution of the Web evolving towards the Semantic Web, where the information should be presented in a meaningful way for both humans and machines, arises the need for semantic interoperability. By interoperability we understand the use of meaningful representation mechanisms that allow for information exchange among agents. There is a consensus that ontologies will be this representation model. The information exchange process depends on our ability to engage two or more ontologies in conversation. In this paper the focus is on the compatibility of different ontologies. We propose a strategy for automatic alignment of ontologies, implemented by an ontology taxonomic alignment component -the CATO component.
Ontologies are becoming increasingly common in the World Wide Web as the building block for a fut... more Ontologies are becoming increasingly common in the World Wide Web as the building block for a future Semantic Web. In this Web, ontologies will be responsible for making the semantics of pages and applications explicit, thus allowing electronic agents to process and integrate resources automatically. The ability to integrate different ontologies meaningfully is thus critical to assure coordinated action in multi agent systems. In this paper, we propose a strategy and tool, CATO, that allow for totally automatic ontology alignment for the Semantic Web.
The Autonomic Semantic Desktop: helping users cope with information system complexity
In this paper we present the architecture for the autonomic semantic desktop, an self managing ap... more In this paper we present the architecture for the autonomic semantic desktop, an self managing application designed to hide system complexity and alleviate users from burdening and time consuming management tasks. The proposed architecture is founded in the basic principles of autonomic systems, i.e. ,the set of self* attributes. We introduce a semantic layer to the architecture, to allow machines to process and exchange information without requiring human mediation. The underlying conceptual model used in this layer is ontology, currently the lingua franca in application on the semantic Web
In this article we show the results of an extensive research on scenario evolution. We investigat... more In this article we show the results of an extensive research on scenario evolution. We investigated twelve case studies spanning over 200 scenarios that contained over 800 episodes. The research aimed at capturing data on scenario evolution in order to confirm previous results and to elicitate the requirements for a scenario evolution support environment. Our findings are organised in a three tier framework, that deals with scenario evolution in the process, product and instance levels.
In order to secure interoperability and allow autonomous agent interaction, software for the web ... more In order to secure interoperability and allow autonomous agent interaction, software for the web will be required to provide machine processable ontologies. Traditional deliverables of the software development process are the code, technical documentation, to support development and maintenance and use documentation, to provide user support. In the case of web applications, ontologies will also be part of the deliverables.
Cresce a necessidade do uso de ontologias em aplicações Web devido ao fato da maioria das informa... more Cresce a necessidade do uso de ontologias em aplicações Web devido ao fato da maioria das informações publicadas estar em linguagem natural e, portanto, serem processadas apenas por humanos. Tais informações compõem o universo de informação da aplicação (UdI) que no processo de desenvolvimento de software é elicitado, modelado e analisado pela comunidade de engenharia de requisitos. Acreditamos que com o apoio de técnicas e métodos desenvolvidos e em utilização por esta comunidade podemos apoiar o processo de geração de ontologias por não especialistas. Neste trabalho apresentamos uma ferramenta que fornece apoio semi-automático à geração de ontologias tendo como base o Léxico Ampliado da Linguagem ( LAL). * Pesquisador financiado pela FAPERJ.
Neste artigo discutimos aspectos relacionados à evolução de especificações baseadas em cenários. ... more Neste artigo discutimos aspectos relacionados à evolução de especificações baseadas em cenários. Apresentamos resultados de estudos realizados nesta área, traduzidos em um conjunto de operações. A partir destes resultados tecemos comentários sobre o apoio automatizado a especificações baseadas em cenários.
The "semantic Web" community poses a new nonfunctional requirement for Web applications. In order... more The "semantic Web" community poses a new nonfunctional requirement for Web applications. In order to secure interoperability and allow autonomous agent interaction, software for the Web will be required to provide machine processable ontologies. We understand that the responsibility, not only for making explicit this requirement, but also to implement the ontology, belongs to requirements engineers. As such, we see the ontology of a Web application as a sub-product of the requirements engineering activity. In this tutorial we survey the basic principles behind ontologies as they are being implemented and used by the semantic Web community today. Those include ontology languages, tools and construction methods. We focus on a process for ontology construction centered on the concept of application languages. This concept is rooted on a representation scheme called the language extended lexicon (LEL). We demonstrate our approach with examples in which we implement machine processable ontologies in the DAML+OIL language. We finalize with a discussion of today's research issues in ontology engineering, including ontology evolution, integration and validation.
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Papers by karin breitman