Ontologies and knowledge representation in terminology: Present and future perspectives

Saha S., Li W.D., Usman Z., Shah N.

It is critical to capture and share product manufacturability knowledge along with manufacturing operations and their sequences to enhance the competitiveness of manufacturing enterprises. The developed approaches have proven to be expensive and time-consuming. In this paper, a new core manufacturing ontology is developed to model manufacturing operations, sequence knowledge and make it easily shareable. The ontological approach involves identification and definition of a core set of concepts with relations to develop the hierarchical structures of manufacturing models. The ontological model is then formalised through the Web Ontology Language, while formal axioms and rules are written in the Semantic Web Rule Language. The model was validated in an industrial environment via collaboration with one of the largest aero engine manufacturing companies. The generic nature of the proposed model renders that it is capable of capturing manufacturing operations and their sequences into proper categorisation. The multifaceted capability of the ontological model can greatly facilitate manufacturing engineers in decision-making for new product manufacturing planning.

DiMuccio-Failla P.V., Giacomini L.

Abstract This article is intended as the first of a series of papers designing an electronic linguistic resource made up of three modules: (1) a phrase-based active dictionary thought of as a first attempt to implement John Sinclair’s vision of the “ultimate dictionary”; (2) a grammar / construction describing not only the morphologic and syntactic rules of a language but also its systematic (semantic) alternations and the derivations generating new meaningful constructions from old ones; (3) a phrase thesaurus / phraseological conceptual ontology taking WordNet into the modern “age of phraseology”. After introducing the theoretical framework of our project, we present the microstructure of our Phrase-based Active Dictionary (PAD) model and describe it in a general theory of lexicography.

Faber P.

Ramis Ferrer B., Mohammed W.M., Ahmad M., Iarovyi S., Zhang J., Harrison R., Martinez Lastra J.L.

The literature on the modeling and management of data generated through the lifecycle of a manufacturing system is split into two main paradigms: product lifecycle management (PLM) and product, process, resource (PPR) modeling. These paradigms are complementary, and the latter could be considered a more neutral version of the former. There are two main technologies associated with these paradigms: ontologies and databases. Database technology is widespread in industry and is well established. Ontologies remain largely a plaything of the academic community which, despite numerous projects and publications, have seen limited implementations in industrial manufacturing applications. The main objective of this paper is to provide a comparison between ontologies and databases, offering both qualitative and quantitative analyses in the context of PLM and PPR. To achieve this, the article presents (1) a literature review within the context of manufacturing systems that use databases and ontologies, identifying their respective strengths and weaknesses, and (2) an implementation in a real industrial scenario that demonstrates how different modeling approaches can be used for the same purpose. This experiment is used to enable discussion and comparative analysis of both modeling strategies.

San Martín A., Cabezas-García M., Buendía-Castro M., Sánchez-Cárdenas B., León-Araúz P., Reimerink A., Faber P.

EcoLexicon es una base de conocimiento terminológica multilingüe sobre ciencias medioambientales desarrollada desde 2003 por el grupo de investigación LexiCon de la Universidad de Granada (España) y constituye la aplicación práctica de la teoría de la terminología basada en marcos. El presente artículo describe el funcionamiento de EcoLexicon y presenta sus últimos avances, que incluyen un nuevo corpus y una gramática semántica de word sketches en inglés, una reforma del módulo fraseológico, un enfoque flexible a las definiciones terminológicas y la representación conceptual mediante imágenes.

Moltmann F.

DiMuccio-Failla P.V., Giacomini L.

In this paper, we propose a strategy for sense disambiguation through phraseology in the modelling of a learner’s dictionary. The theoretical basis is that, as corpus evidence shows, clusters of similar senses of a verb can be identified by their common collocates. This paper is part of a study for the design of an Italian advanced learner’s dictionary. The present goal is to portray the meaning profile of verbs by explicitly marking the conceptual and phraseological differences between their senses through a multilevel structure of meaning disambiguators that logically guide the user towards the needed data. The top level is constituted by ontological disambiguators, the middle level by common collocates, and the bottom level by normal patterns of usage. We are currently investigating the feasibility and usefulness of implementing John Sinclair’s vision of ‘the ultimate dictionary’, based on his conception of lexical units. The lexicographic project is in its design stage and is intended as a platform for cooperation between the Zanichelli publishing house and a network of international universities and research institutes.

Moltmann F.

Natural language ontology is a branch of both metaphysics and linguistic semantics. Its aim is to uncover the ontological categories, notions, and structures that are implicit in the use of natural language, that is, the ontology that a speaker accepts when using a language. Natural language ontology is part of “descriptive metaphysics,” to use Strawson’s term, or “naive metaphysics,” to use Fine’s term, that is, the metaphysics of appearances as opposed to foundational metaphysics, whose interest is in what there really is. What sorts of entities natural language involves is closely linked to compositional semantics, namely what the contribution of occurrences of expressions in a sentence is taken to be. Most importantly, entities play a role as semantic values of referential terms, but also as implicit arguments of predicates and as parameters of evaluation. Natural language appears to involve a particularly rich ontology of abstract, minor, derivative, and merely intentional objects, an ontology many philosophers are not willing to accept. At the same time, a serious investigation of the linguistic facts often reveals that natural language does not in fact involve the sort of ontology that philosophers had assumed it does. Natural language ontology is concerned not only with the categories of entities that natural language commits itself to, but also with various metaphysical notions, for example the relation of part-whole, causation, material constitution, notions of existence, plurality and unity, and the mass-count distinction. An important question regarding natural language ontology is what linguistic data it should take into account. Looking at the sorts of data that researchers who practice natural language ontology have in fact taken into account makes clear that it is only presuppositions, not assertions, that reflect the ontology implicit in natural language. The ontology of language may be distinctive in that it may in part be driven specifically by language or the use of it in a discourse. Examples are pleonastic entities, discourse referents conceived of as entities of a sort, and an information-based notion of part structure involved in the semantics of plurals and mass nouns. Finally, there is the question of the universality of the ontology of natural language. Certainly, the same sort of reasoning should apply to consider it universal, in a suitable sense, as has been applied for the case of (generative) syntax.

Sir M., Bradac Z., Fiedler P.

The goal of this paper is to clarify the differences between ontologies and databases. The article describes, in a step-by-step manner, the parts in which differences occur. However, there are also similarities proving that ontologies and databases are not completely different. Based on these aspects, this paper presents various approaches to transforming a database to ontology. The conclusion summarizes and highlights the most important similarities and differences.

Faber P.

Arp R., Smith B., Spear A.D.

In the era of "big data," science is increasingly information driven, and the potential for computers to store, manage, and integrate massive amounts of data has given rise to such new disciplinary fields as biomedical informatics. Applied ontology offers a strategy for the organization of scientific information in computer-tractable form, drawing on concepts not only from computer and information science but also from linguistics, logic, and philosophy. This book provides an introduction to the field of applied ontology that is of particular relevance to biomedicine, covering theoretical components of ontologies, best practices for ontology design, and examples of biomedical ontologies in use.After defining an ontology as a representation of the types of entities in a given domain, the book distinguishes between different kinds of ontologies and taxonomies, and shows how applied ontology draws on more traditional ideas from metaphysics. It presents the core features of the Basic Formal Ontology (BFO), now used by over one hundred ontology projects around the world, and offers examples of domain ontologies that utilize BFO. The book also describes Web Ontology Language (OWL), a common framework for Semantic Web technologies. Throughout, the book provides concrete recommendations for the design and construction of domain ontologies.

Faber P., León-Araúz P., Reimerink A.

EcoLexicon is a multilingual terminological knowledge base (TKB) on the environment, which provides an internally coherent information system covering a wide range of specialized linguistic and conceptual needs. Our research has mainly focused on conceptual modeling with a view to offering a user-friendly multimodal interface. The dynamic interface of EcoLexicon combines conceptual, linguistic, and graphical information and is primarily hosted in a relational database that has been recently linked to an ontology. One of the main challenges that we have faced in the development of our TKB is the information overload generated by the specialized domain. This is not only due to the wide scope and applicability of environmental concepts, but especially to the fact that multiple dimensions of their meaning definition or conceptual description are not always compatible but rather context-dependent. As a result, concepts with an information overload have been reconceptualized according to two contextual factors: domain membership and semantic role. This reduces the amount of conceptual information accessed by the user, and makes the knowledge representation easier to process.

Kiritsis D., El Kadiri S., Perdikakis A., Milicic A., Alexandrou D., Pardalis K.

In today’s world of fast manufacturing, high quality demands and highly competitive markets, it has become vital for companies to be able to extract knowledge from their operating data, to manage and to reuse this knowledge in efficient and automated manner. Ontology has proven to be one of the most successful methods in fulfilling this demand and to this day, it has been applied in number of scenarios within companies of all scales. The most appealing features of the ontology are well-defined structure of the knowledge organization; being machine understandable enables automatic reasoning and inference and finally, well defined semantics enables easy interoperability and design of the plug-in modules. Still, one key downfall of ontology is that it usually has to be manually designed from the beginning for each new use-case. This requires highly specialized knowledge experts working closely with the domain experts for, sometimes, significant period of time. In this paper we propose LinkedDesign solution for described issues, as an example of design of fundamental ontology which can be easily adjusted and adopted for different production systems, thus eliminating the need for repetition of entire design process for every individual company. We also discuss and point to a new and challenging fields of research emerging from application of ontology into manufacturing companies, mainly concerning rapidly growing amounts of knowledge which are beginning to exceed human ability to process it.

Martinez-Cruz C., Blanco I.J., Vila M.A.

Two main data models are currently used for representing knowledge and information in computer systems. Database models, especially relational databases, have been the leader in last few decades, enabling information to be efficiently stored and queried. On the other hand, ontologies have appeared as an alternative to databases in applications that require a more ‘enriched’ meaning. However, there is controversy regarding the best information modeling technique, as both models present similar characteristics. In this paper, we present a review of how ontologies and databases are related, of what their main differences are and of the mechanisms used to communicate with each other.

García-Díaz J.A., Marín-Pérez M.J., Alcaraz-Mármol G., Almela Á., Miñarro-Giménez J.A., García-Sánchez F.

In recent times, political behavior, from the act of voting to the participation of citizens in politics, has changed significantly. The proliferation and growth of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) has provided new and powerful tools to all stakeholders. In particular, social media allow a two-way communication channel between political parties and the electorate. Under these circumstances, accurate segmentation of electoral markets is essential for the development of campaign messages. To enable personalized one-to-one dialogue, it is necessary to characterize each user. However, this poses two major challenges. On the one hand, the degree of subjectivity in the political domain is difficult to determine because a fact can be considered positive or negative depending on the point of view. On the other hand, political polarization and partisanship, which refers to the fact that citizens are strongly biased in favor of certain political parties while strongly disagreeing with others. The goal of this work is to integrate and validate some of the Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies developed and tested by the participating researchers in previous projects for the deployment and optimization of a commercial software platform for political microtargeting through author and user profiling.