4,308 research outputs found
Distributed First Order Logic
Distributed First Order Logic (DFOL) has been introduced more than ten years
ago with the purpose of formalising distributed knowledge-based systems, where
knowledge about heterogeneous domains is scattered into a set of interconnected
modules. DFOL formalises the knowledge contained in each module by means of
first-order theories, and the interconnections between modules by means of
special inference rules called bridge rules. Despite their restricted form in
the original DFOL formulation, bridge rules have influenced several works in
the areas of heterogeneous knowledge integration, modular knowledge
representation, and schema/ontology matching. This, in turn, has fostered
extensions and modifications of the original DFOL that have never been
systematically described and published. This paper tackles the lack of a
comprehensive description of DFOL by providing a systematic account of a
completely revised and extended version of the logic, together with a sound and
complete axiomatisation of a general form of bridge rules based on Natural
Deduction. The resulting DFOL framework is then proposed as a clear formal tool
for the representation of and reasoning about distributed knowledge and bridge
rules
A framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry
This paper presents a framework for developing engineering design ontologies within the aerospace industry. The aim of this approach is to strengthen the modularity and reuse of engineering design ontologies to support knowledge management initiatives within the aerospace industry. Successful development and effective utilisation of engineering ontologies strongly depends on the method/framework used to develop them. Ensuring modularity in ontology design is essential for engineering design activities due to the complexity of knowledge that is required to be brought together to support the product design decision-making process. The proposed approach adopts best practices from previous ontology development methods, but focuses on encouraging modular architectural ontology design. The framework is comprised of three phases namely: (1) Ontology design and development; (2) Ontology validation and (3) Implementation of ontology structure. A qualitative research methodology is employed which is composed of four phases. The first phase defines the capture of knowledge required for the framework development, followed by the ontology framework development, iterative refinement of engineering ontologies and ontology validation through case studies and experts’ opinion. The ontology-based framework is applied in the combustor and casing aerospace engineering domain. The modular ontologies developed as a result of applying the framework and are used in a case study to restructure and improve the accessibility of information on a product design information-sharing platform. Additionally, domain experts within the aerospace industry validated the strengths, benefits and limitations of the framework. Due to the modular nature of the developed ontologies, they were also employed to support other project initiatives within the case study company such as role-based computing (RBC), IT modernisation activity and knowledge management implementation across the sponsoring organisation. The major benefit of this approach is in the reduction of man-hours required for maintaining engineering design ontologies. Furthermore, this approach strengthens reuse of ontology knowledge and encourages modularity in the design and development of engineering ontologies
Modelling the Strategic Alignment of Software Requirements using Goal Graphs
This paper builds on existing Goal Oriented Requirements Engineering (GORE)
research by presenting a methodology with a supporting tool for analysing and
demonstrating the alignment between software requirements and business
objectives. Current GORE methodologies can be used to relate business goals to
software goals through goal abstraction in goal graphs. However, we argue that
unless the extent of goal-goal contribution is quantified with verifiable
metrics and confidence levels, goal graphs are not sufficient for demonstrating
the strategic alignment of software requirements. We introduce our methodology
using an example software project from Rolls-Royce. We conclude that our
methodology can improve requirements by making the relationships to business
problems explicit, thereby disambiguating a requirement's underlying purpose
and value.Comment: v2 minor updates: 1) bitmap images replaced with vector, 2) reworded
related work ref[6] for clarit
On the mathematical and foundational significance of the uncountable
We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of
uncountable mathematics, including the Cousin and Lindel\"of lemma published in
1895 and 1903. Historically, these lemmas were among the first formulations of
open-cover compactness and the Lindel\"of property, respectively. These notions
are of great conceptual importance: the former is commonly viewed as a way of
treating uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost finite', while the
latter allows one to treat uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost
countable'. This reduction of the uncountable to the finite/countable turns out
to have a considerable logical and computational cost: we show that the
aforementioned lemmas, and many related theorems, are extremely hard to prove,
while the associated sub-covers are extremely hard to compute. Indeed, in terms
of the standard scale (based on comprehension axioms), a proof of these lemmas
requires at least the full extent of second-order arithmetic, a system
originating from Hilbert-Bernays' Grundlagen der Mathematik. This observation
has far-reaching implications for the Grundlagen's spiritual successor, the
program of Reverse Mathematics, and the associated G\"odel hierachy. We also
show that the Cousin lemma is essential for the development of the gauge
integral, a generalisation of the Lebesgue and improper Riemann integrals that
also uniquely provides a direct formalisation of Feynman's path integral.Comment: 35 pages with one figure. The content of this version extends the
published version in that Sections 3.3.4 and 3.4 below are new. Small
corrections/additions have also been made to reflect new development
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