An ontology for software component matching

The Web is likely to be a central platform for software development in the future. We investigate how Semantic Web technologies, in particular ontologies, can be utilised to support software component development in a Web environment. We use description logics, which underlie Semantic Web ontology languages such as DAML+OIL, to develop an ontology for matching requested and provided components. A link between modal logic and description logics will prove invaluable for the provision of reasoning support for component and service behaviour

An ontology for software component matching

Matching is a central activity in the discovery and assembly of reusable software components. We investigate how ontology technologies can be utilised to support software component development. We use description logics, which underlie Semantic Web ontology languages such as OWL, to develop an ontology for matching requested and provided components. A link between modal logic and description logics will prove invaluable for the provision of reasoning support for component behaviour

What's Right With a Syntactic Approach to Theories and Models?

Syntactic approaches in the philosophy of science, which are based on formalizations in predicate logic, are often considered in principle inferior to semantic approaches, which are based on formalizations with the help of structures. To compare the two kinds of approach, I identify some ambiguities in common semantic accounts and explicate the concept of a structure in a way that avoids hidden references to a specific vocabulary. From there, I argue that contrary to common opinion (i) unintended models do not pose a significant problem for syntactic approaches to scientific theories, (ii) syntactic approaches can be at least as language independent as semantic ones, and (iii) in syntactic approaches, scientific theories can be as well connected to the world as in semantic ones. Based on these results, I argue that syntactic and semantic approaches fare equally well when it comes to (iv) ease of application, (iv) accommodating the use of models in the sciences, and (vi) capturing the theory-observation relation

Ordering, Indexing, and Searching Semantic Data: A Terminology Aware Index Structure

Indexing data for efficient search capabilities is a core problem in many domains of computer science. As applications centered around semantic data sources become more common, the need for more sophisticated indexing and querying capabilities arises. In particular, the need to search for specific information in the presence of a terminology or ontology (i.e. a set of logic based rules that describe concepts and their relations) becomes of particular importance, as the information a user seeks may exists as an entailment of the explicit data by means of the terminology. This variant on traditional indexing and search problems forms the foundation of a range of possible technologies for semantic data. In this work, we propose an ordering language for specifying partial orders over semantic data items modeled as descriptions in a description logic. We then show how these orderings can be used as the basis of a search tree index for processing \emph{concept searches} in the presence of a terminology. We study in detail the properties of the orderings and the associated index structure, and also explore a relationship between ordering descriptions called \emph{order refinement}. A sound and complete procedure for deciding refinement is given. We also empirically evaluate a prototype implementation of our index structure, validating its potential efficacy in semantic query problems