The advent of a new lexicographical portuguese project

UID/LIN/03213/2013MORDigital is a newly funded Portuguese lexicographic project that aims to produce high-quality and searchable digital versions of the first three editions (1789; 1813; 1823) of the Diccionario da Lingua Portugueza by António de Morais Silva, preserving and making accessible this important work of European heritage. This paper will describe the current state of the art, the project, its objectives and the methodology proposed, the latter of which is based on a rigorous linguistic analysis and will also include steps necessary for the ontologisation of knowledge contained in and relating to the text. A section will be dedicated to the various investigation domains of the project description. The output of the project will be made available via a dedicated platform.publishersversionpublishe

Approaches towards a Lexical Web: the role of Interoperability

After highlighting some of the major dimensions that are relevant for Language Resources (LR) and contribute to their infrastructural role, I underline some priority areas of concern today with respect to implementing an open Language Infrastructure, and specifically what we could call a ?Lexical Web?. My objective is to show that it is imperative to define an underlying global strategy behind the set of initiatives which are/can be launched in Europe and world-wide, and that it is necessary an allembracing vision and a cooperation among different communities to achieve more coherent and useful results. I end up mentioning two new European initiatives that in this direction and promise to be influential in shaping the future of the LR area

Knowledge modelling for integrating semantic web services in e-government applications

Service integration and domain interoperability are the basic requirements in the development of current service-oriented e-Government applications. Semantic Web and, in particular, Semantic Web Service (SWS) technology aim to address these issues. However, the integration between e-Government applications and SWS is not an easy task. We argue that a more complex semantic layer needs to be modeled. The aim of our work is to provide an ontological framework that maps such a semantic layer. In this paper, we describe our approach for creating a project-independent and reusable model, and provide a case study that demonstrates its applicability

MORDigital: The Advent of a New Lexicographical Portuguese Project

International audienceMORDigital is a newly funded Portuguese lexicographical project that aims to produce highquality and searchable digital versions of the first three editions (1789; 1813; 1823) of the Diccionario da Lingua Portugueza by António de Morais Silva, preserving and making accessible this important work of European heritage. This paper will describe the current state of the art, the project, its objectives and the methodology proposed, the latter of which is based on a rigorous linguistic analysis and will also include steps necessary for the ontologisation of knowledge contained in and relating to the text. A section will be dedicated to the various investigation domains of the project description. The output of the project will be made available via a dedicated platform

Early aspects: aspect-oriented requirements engineering and architecture design

This paper reports on the third Early Aspects: Aspect-Oriented Requirements Engineering and Architecture Design Workshop, which has been held in Lancaster, UK, on March 21, 2004. The workshop included a presentation session and working sessions in which the particular topics on early aspects were discussed. The primary goal of the workshop was to focus on challenges to defining methodical software development processes for aspects from early on in the software life cycle and explore the potential of proposed methods and techniques to scale up to industrial applications

Transformation of TOSCA to natural language texts

Cloud computing changes the way businesses plan, use and manage their IT systems and resources. Different cloud providers offer distinctive interfaces for the deployment and management of applications in their respective cloud environments. The organization OASIS addresses these circumstances with the Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA). This standard offers a language to express applications as directed graphs and their management behavior in a standardized and vendor-independent manner. In numerous roles in the development, a textual description of the application, its entities and their relationships, for instance to serve as textual documentation, is of use. The TOSCA standard places no restriction on the complexity of a topology graph. Therefore, a textual representation of the graph can also get arbitrarily large and complex. Additionally, every change has to be reflected in the documentation accordingly. Consequently, an automated approach to the generation of such textual representations is preferable. This work describes a concept for the automated generation of textual descriptions of TOSCA topology graphs. This is accomplished by combining typical tasks from natural language generation with domain-specific information in order to generate appropriate textual descriptions. The concept is implemented in a prototype and validated in a use-case scenario.Cloud Computing verändert die Planung, den Einsatz und das Management von informationstechnologischen Systemen in Unternehmen. Verschiedene Anbieter von Cloudservices bieten unterschiedliche Schnittstellen, um Deployment und Management von Applikationen in ihrer angebotenen Cloudumgebung zu ermöglichen. Die Organisation OASIS adressiert diesen Sachverhalt mit der Topology and Orchestration Specification for Cloud Applications (TOSCA). Dieser Standard bietet eine Sprache, um Applikationen als gerichteten Topologiegraphen und ihr Managementverhalten standardisiert und anbieterunabhängig zu beschreiben. In den unterschiedlichen Rollen der Entwicklung ist oftmals eine textuelle Beschreibung der Applikation, ihrer Komponenten und deren Beziehungen untereinander, beispielsweise zu Dokumentationszwecken, wünschenswert. Da der TOSCA Standard keine Restriktionen bezüglich der Komplexität eines Topologiegraphen setzt, kann auch eine textuelle Repräsentation eines solchen Graphen beliebig komplex werden. Zudem muss jede Änderung entsprechend in der textuellen Dokumentation angepasst werden. Daher ist ein automatisiertes Verfahren zu Generierung solcher textueller Beschreibungen erstrebenswert. Diese Arbeit beschreibt ein Konzept zur automatisierten Generierung textueller Repräsentationen von TOSCA Topologiegraphen. Dazu werden Aufgaben und typische Merkmale aus dem Bereich der natürlichsprachlichen Generierung mit domänenspezifischen Informationen angereichert, um natürlichsprachliche Beschreibungen zu generieren. Das Konzept wird prototypisch implementiert und in einem Beispielszenario validiert

Semantics-based approach for generating partial views from linked life-cycle highway project data

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop methods that can assist data integration and extraction from heterogeneous sources generated throughout the life-cycle of a highway project. In the era of computerized technologies, project data is largely available in digital format. Due to the fragmented nature of the civil infrastructure sector, digital data are created and managed separately by different project actors in proprietary data warehouses. The differences in the data structure and semantics greatly hinder the exchange and fully reuse of digital project data. In order to address those issues, this dissertation carries out the following three individual studies. The first study aims to develop a framework for interconnecting heterogeneous life cycle project data into an unified and linked data space. This is an ontology-based framework that consists of two phases: (1) translating proprietary datasets into homogeneous RDF data graphs; and (2) connecting separate data networks to each other. Three domain ontologies for design, construction, and asset condition survey phases are developed to support data transformation. A merged ontology that integrates the domain ontologies is constructed to provide guidance on how to connect data nodes from domain graphs. The second study is to deal with the terminology inconsistency between data sources. An automated method is developed that employs Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning techniques to support constructing a domain specific lexicon from design manuals. The method utilizes pattern rules to extract technical terms from texts and learns their representation vectors using a neural network based word embedding approach. The study also includes the development of an integrated method of minimal-supervised machine learning, clustering analysis, and word vectors, for computing the term semantics and classifying the relations between terms in the target lexicon. In the last study, a data retrieval technique for extracting subsets of an XML civil data schema is designed and tested. The algorithm takes a keyword input of the end user and returns a ranked list of the most relevant XML branches. This study utilizes a lexicon of the highway domain generated from the second study to analyze the semantics of the end user keywords. A context-based similarity measure is introduced to evaluate the relevance between a certain branch in the source schema and the user query. The methods and algorithms resulting from this research were tested using case studies and empirical experiments. The results indicate that the study successfully address the heterogeneity in the structure and terminology of data and enable a fast extraction of sub-models of data. The study is expected to enhance the efficiency in reusing digital data generated throughout the project life-cycle, and contribute to the success in transitioning from paper-based to digital project delivery for civil infrastructure projects

A methodology for designing layered ontology structures

Semantic ontologies represent the knowledge from different domains, which is used as a knowledge base by intelligent agents. The creation of ontologies by different developers leads to heterogeneous ontologies, which hampers the interoperability between knowledge-based applications. This interoperability is achieved through global ontologies, which provide a common domain representation. Global ontologies must provide a balance of reusability-usability to minimise the ontology effort in different applications. To achieve this balance, ontology design methodologies focus on designing layered ontologies that classify into abstraction layers the domain knowledge relevant to many applications and the knowledge relevant to specific applications. During the design of the layered ontology structure, the domain knowledge classification is performed from scratch by domain experts and ontology engineers in collaboration with application stakeholders. Hence, the design of reusable and usable ontologies in complex domains takes a significant effort. Software Product Line (SPL) design techniques can be applied to facilitate the domain knowledge classification by analysing the knowledge similarities/differences of existing ontologies. In this context, this thesis aims to define new methodological guidelines to design layered ontology structures that enable to classify the domain knowledge taking as reference existing ontologies, and to apply these guidelines to enable the development of reusable and usable ontologies in complex domains. The MODDALS methodology guides the design of layered ontology structures for reusable and usable ontologies. It brings together SPL engineering techniques and ontology design techniques to enable the classification of the domain knowledge by exploiting the knowledge similarities/differences of existing ontologies. MODDALS eases the design of the layered ontology structure. The MODDALS methodology was evaluated by applying it to design the layered structure of a reusable and usable global ontology for the energy domain. The designed layered structure was taken as reference to develop the ontology. The resulting ontology simplifies the ontology reuse process in different applications. In particular, it reduced the average ontology reuse time by 0.5 and 1.2 person-hours in in two different applications in comparison with a global energy ontology which does not follow a layered structure.Ontologia semantikoak datu domeinu ezberdinen ezagutza irudikatzen dute, agente adimendunek jakintza oinarri bezala erabiltzen dutena. Ontologiak ingeniari desberdinek garatzen dituzte eta heterogeneoak dira, aplikazioen arteko komunikazioa oztopatuz. Komunikazio hau ontologia globalen bidez lortzen da, domeinuaren errepresentazio komun bat ematen baitute. Ontologia globalek berrerabilgarritasunerabilgarritasun oreka eman behar dute aplikazio desberdinetan berrerabiltzeko ahalegina murrizteko. Horretarako, ontologia diseinu metodologiek aplikazio askok erabiltzen duten eta aplikazio zehatzetarako garrantzitsua den ezagutza abstrakzio geruzetan sailkatzea proposatzen dute. Geruza egituraren diseinuan zehar, domeinuko adituek eta ontologiako ingeniariek hutsetik sailkatzen dute jakintza, domeinu konplexuetan ontologia berrerabilgarriak eta erabilgarrien diseinu ahalegina areagotuz. Software produktu lerroak diseinatzeko erabiltzen diren teknikak jakintza sailkatzea erraztu ahal dute, ontologien ezagutza antzekotasunak edo desberdintasunak aztertuz. Testuinguru honetan, honakoa da tesiaren helburua: ezagutza garatutako ontologien arabera sailkatzen duen ontologia berrerabilgarri eta erabilgarrien geruza egitura diseinatzeko metodologia bat garatzea; baita metodologia aplikatu ere, ontologia berrerabilgarri eta erabilgarriak domeinu konplexuetan garatu ahal izateko. MODDALS metodologiak ontologia berrerabilgarri eta erabilgarrien abstrakzio geruzak nola diseinatu azaltzen du. MODDALS-ek software produktu lerro eta ontologia diseinu teknikak aplikatzen ditu ezagutza garatuta dauden ontologien antzekotasunen/desberdintasunen arabera sailkatzeko. Planteamendu honek geruza egitura diseinua errazten du. MODDALS ebaluatu da energia domeinurako ontologia berrerabilgarri eta erabilgarri baten egitura diseinatzeko aplikatuz. Diseinatutako geruza egitura erreferentzia gisa hartu da ontologia gartzeko. Egitura onekin, garatutako ontologia berrerabiltzea errazten du aplikazio desberdinetan. Konkretuki, garatutako ontologiak berrerabilpen denbora 0.5 eta 1.2 pertsona-orduetan murriztu du bi aplikazioetan; geruza egitura jarraitzen ez duen ontologia batekin alderatuz.Las ontologías semánticas representan el conocimiento de diferentes dominios, utilizado como base de conocimiento por agentes inteligentes. Las ontologías son desarrolladas por diferentes ingenieros y son heterogéneas, afectando a la interoperabilidad entre aplicaciones. Esta interoperabilidad se logra mediante ontologías globales que proporcionan una representación común del dominio, las cuales deben proporcionar un balance de reusabilidad-usabilidad para minimizar el esfuerzo de reutilización en diferentes aplicaciones. Para lograr este balance, las metodologías de diseño de ontologías proponen clasificar en capas de abstracción el conocimiento del dominio común a muchas aplicaciones y el que es relevante para aplicaciones específicas. Durante el diseño de la estructura de capas, el conocimiento se clasifica partiendo de cero por expertos del dominio e ingenieros de ontologías. Por lo tanto, el diseño de ontologías reusables y usables en dominios complejos requiere un gran esfuerzo. Las técnicas de diseño de líneas de producto de software pueden facilitar la clasificación del conocimiento analizando las similitudes/diferencias de conocimiento de ontologías existentes. En este contexto, el objetivo de la tesis es crear una metodología de diseño de la estructura de capas para ontologías que permita clasificar el conocimiento tomando como referencia ontologías existentes, y aplicar esta metodología para poder desarrollar ontologías reusables y usables en dominios complejos. La metodología MODDALS explica cómo diseñar estructuras de capas para ontologías reusables y usables. MODDALS adopta técnicas de diseño de líneas de producto en combinación con técnicas de diseño de ontologías para clasificar el conocimiento basándose en las similitudes/diferencias de ontologías existentes. Este enfoque facilita el diseño de la estructura de capas de la ontología. La metodología MODDALS se ha evaluado aplicándola para diseñar la estructura de capas de una ontología global reusable y usable para el dominio de la energía. La estructura de capas diseñada se ha tomado como referencia para desarrollar la ontología. Con esta estructura, la ontología resultante simplifica la reutilización de ontologías en diferentes aplicaciones. En concreto, la ontología redujo el tiempo de reutilización en 0.5 y 1.2 personas-hora en dos aplicaciones respecto a una ontología global que no sigue una estructura por capas

Domain analysis for supporting commercial off-the-shelf components selection

Though new technological trends and paradigms arise for developing complex software systems, systematic reuse continues to be an elusive goal. As a consequence, the need for designing effective strategies for enabling large-scale reuse, whilst overcoming the risks involved in the use of a particular technology, still remains. In this context, the adoption of the Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) technology introduces many challenges that still have not been fully overcome, such as the lack of comprehensive mechanisms to record and manage the required information for supporting COTS components selection. In this paper we present a domain analysis strategy for gathering the information needed to describe COTS market segments in a way that COTS components selection becomes more effective and efficient. Due to the diversity of the information to capture, we propose different dimensions of interest for COTS selection that are covered by different domain models. These models are articulated by means of a single framework based on a widespread software quality standard.Postprint (published version