Multifocal: a strategic bidirectional transformation language for XML schemas

Lenses are one of the most popular approaches to define bidirectional transformations between data models. However, writing a lens transformation typically implies describing the concrete steps that convert values in a source schema to values in a target schema. In contrast, many XML-based languages allow writing structure-shy programs that manipulate only specific parts of XML documents without having to specify the behavior for the remaining structure. In this paper, we propose a structure-shy bidirectional two-level transformation language for XML Schemas, that describes generic type-level transformations over schema representations coupled with value-level bidirectional lenses for document migration. When applying these two-level programs to particular schemas, we employ an existing algebraic rewrite system to optimize the automatically-generated lens transformations, and compile them into Haskell bidirectional executables. We discuss particular examples involving the generic evolution of recursive XML Schemas, and compare their performance gains over non-optimized definitions.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologi

Methods for Semantic Interoperability in AutomationML-based Engineering

Industrial engineering is an interdisciplinary activity that involves human experts from various technical backgrounds working with different engineering tools. In the era of digitization, the engineering process generates a vast amount of data. To store and exchange such data, dedicated international standards are developed, including the XML-based data format AutomationML (AML). While AML provides a harmonized syntax among engineering tools, the semantics of engineering data remains highly heterogeneous. More specifically, the AML models of the same domain or entity can vary dramatically among different tools that give rise to the so-called semantic interoperability problem. In practice, manual implementation is often required for the correct data interpretation, which is usually limited in reusability. Efforts have been made for tackling the semantic interoperability problem. One mainstream research direction has been focused on the semantic lifting of engineering data using Semantic Web technologies. However, current results in this field lack the study of building complex domain knowledge that requires a profound understanding of the domain and sufficient skills in ontology building. This thesis contributes to this research field in two aspects. First, machine learning algorithms are developed for deriving complex ontological concepts from engineering data. The induced concepts encode the relations between primitive ones and bridge the semantic gap between engineering tools. Second, to involve domain experts more tightly into the process of ontology building, this thesis proposes the AML concept model (ACM) for representing ontological concepts in a native AML syntax, i.e., providing an AML-frontend for the formal ontological semantics. ACM supports the bidirectional information flow between the user and the learner, based on which the interactive machine learning framework AMLLEARNER is developed. Another rapidly growing research field devotes to develop methods and systems for facilitating data access and exchange based on database theories and techniques. In particular, the so-called Query By Example (QBE) allows the user to construct queries using data examples. This thesis adopts the idea of QBE in AML-based engineering by introducing the AML Query Template (AQT). The design of AQT has been focused on a native AML syntax, which allows constructing queries with conventional AML tools. This thesis studies the theoretical foundation of AQT and presents algorithms for the automated generation of query programs. Comprehensive requirement analysis shows that the proposed approach can solve the problem of semantic interoperability in AutomationML-based engineering to a great extent

Health Care System Based on Semantic Web and XML Technologies

The purpose and the goal of the paper is using a semantic web and XML (the Extensible Markup Language) technologies for managing medical information during a diagnostic process is studied. Following a steady international move towards optimization of health care delivery, the latest development in information technology has drawn the health care industry decision makers’ attention. The introduction of proper information technology innovations within the health care processes should provide the necessary optimization. In this manner can be proposed an approach to manage medical data during the whole diagnostic process using the semantic Web and XML technologies. The purpose of the Semantic Web is to bring structure to the content of Web pages allowing software agents to carry out intelligent tasks for the user. This opens a new set of opportunities that can be utilized to improve health care management on a personal and health care provider level. The aim of this paper in progress is to identify the needs and match them to the services possible with the Semantic Web. In this paper, presented an ontology-based framework that successfully combines both Semantic Web and XML technologies to enable the integrated access to biological data sources. The main goal is the seamless integration and application of these technologies in such a way that their deficiencies are over come and their utility maximized. Keywords: Health Care, Semantic Web, Ontology, XM

Bidirectionalization for Free with Runtime Recording: Or, a Light-Weight Approach to the View-Update Problem

A bidirectional transformation is a pair of mappings between source and view data objects, one in each direction. When the view is modified, the source is updated accordingly with respect to some laws. Over the years, a lot of effort has been made to offer better language support for programming such transformations. In particular, a technique known as bidirectionalization is able to analyze and transform unidirectional programs written in general purpose languages, and "bidirectionalize" them. Among others, a technique termed as semantic bidirectionalization proposed by Voigtländer stands out in term of user-friendliness. The unidirectional program can be written using arbitrary language constructs, as long as the function is polymorphic and the language constructs respect parametricity. The free theorems that follow from the polymorphic type of the program allow a kind of forensic examination of the transformation, determining its effect without examining its implementation. This is convenient, in the sense that the programmer is not restricted to using a particular syntax; but it does require the transformation to be polymorphic. In this paper, we lift this polymorphism requirement to improve the applicability of semantic bidirectionalization. Concretely, we provide a type class PackM γ α μ, which intuitively reads "a concrete datatype γ is abstracted to a type α, and the 'observations' made by a transformation on values of type γ are recorded by a monad μ". With PackM, we turn monomorphic transformations into polymorphic ones, that are ready to be bidirectionalized. We demonstrate our technique with a case study of standard XML queries, which were considered beyond semantic bidirectionalization because of their monomorphic nature

Specification of the delivery alignment format

euzenat2005hThis deliverable focusses on the definition of a delivery alignment format for tools producing alignments (mapping tools). It considers the many formats that are currently available for expressing alignments and evaluate them with regard to criteria that such formats would satisfy. It then proposes some improvements in order to produce a format satisfying more needs

SPARQL++ for mapping between RDF vocabularies

Abstract. Lightweight ontologies in the form of RDF vocabularies such as SIOC, FOAF, vCard, etc. are increasingly being used and exported by “serious ” applications recently. Such vocabularies, together with query languages like SPARQL also allow to syndicate resulting RDF data from arbitrary Web sources and open the path to finally bringing the Semantic Web to operation mode. Considering, however, that many of the promoted lightweight ontologies overlap, the lack of suitable standards to describe these overlaps in a declarative fashion becomes evident. In this paper we argue that one does not necessarily need to delve into the huge body of research on ontology mapping for a solution, but SPARQL itself might — with extensions such as external functions and aggregates — serve as a basis for declaratively describing ontology mappings. We provide the semantic foundations and a path towards implementation for such a mapping language by means of a translation to Datalog with external predicates

Bidirectional spreadsheet formulas

Bidirectional transformations have potential applications in a vast number of computer science domains. Spreadsheets, on the other hand, are widely used for developing business applications, but their formulas are unidirectional, in the sense that their result can not be edited and propagated back to their input cells. In this paper, we interpret such formulas as a well-known class of bidirectional transformations that go by the name of lenses. Being aimed at users that are not proficient with programming languages, we devote particular attention to the seamless embedding of the proposed bidirectional mechanism with the typical workflow of spreadsheet environments, allowing users to have a fine control and understanding of the behavior of the derived backward transformations