XQOWL: An Extension of XQuery for OWL Querying and Reasoning

One of the main aims of the so-called Web of Data is to be able to handle heterogeneous resources where data can be expressed in either XML or RDF. The design of programming languages able to handle both XML and RDF data is a key target in this context. In this paper we present a framework called XQOWL that makes possible to handle XML and RDF/OWL data with XQuery. XQOWL can be considered as an extension of the XQuery language that connects XQuery with SPARQL and OWL reasoners. XQOWL embeds SPARQL queries (via Jena SPARQL engine) in XQuery and enables to make calls to OWL reasoners (HermiT, Pellet and FaCT++) from XQuery. It permits to combine queries against XML and RDF/OWL resources as well as to reason with RDF/OWL data. Therefore input data can be either XML or RDF/OWL and output data can be formatted in XML (also using RDF/OWL XML serialization).Comment: In Proceedings PROLE 2014, arXiv:1501.0169

A Survey on Service Composition Middleware in Pervasive Environments

The development of pervasive computing has put the light on a challenging problem: how to dynamically compose services in heterogeneous and highly changing environments? We propose a survey that defines the service composition as a sequence of four steps: the translation, the generation, the evaluation, and finally the execution. With this powerful and simple model we describe the major service composition middleware. Then, a classification of these service composition middleware according to pervasive requirements - interoperability, discoverability, adaptability, context awareness, QoS management, security, spontaneous management, and autonomous management - is given. The classification highlights what has been done and what remains to do to develop the service composition in pervasive environments

The use of ontologies for effective knowledge modelling and information retrieval

© 2017 The dramatic increase in the use of knowledge discovery applications requires end users to write complex database search requests to retrieve information. Such users are not only expected to grasp the structural complexity of complex databases but also the semantic relationships between data stored in databases. In order to overcome such difficulties, researchers have been focusing on knowledge representation and interactive query generation through ontologies, with particular emphasis on improving the interface between data and search requests in order to bring the result sets closer to users research requirements. This paper discusses ontology-based information retrieval approaches and techniques by taking into consideration the aspects of ontology modelling, processing and the translation of ontological knowledge into database search requests. It also extensively compares the existing ontology-to-database transformation and mapping approaches in terms of loss of data and semantics, structural mapping and domain knowledge applicability. The research outcomes, recommendations and future challenges presented in this paper can bridge the gap between ontology and relational models to generate precise search requests using ontologies. Moreover, the comparison presented between various ontology-based information retrieval, database-to-ontology transformations and ontology-to-database mappings approaches provides a reference for enhancing the searching capabilities of massively loaded information management systems

Anti-Pattern Specification and Correction Recommendations for Semantic Cloud Services

Given the economic and technological advantages \ they offer, cloud services are increasing being offered by \ several cloud providers. However, the lack of standardized \ descriptions of cloud services hinders their discovery. \ In an effort to standardize cloud service descriptions, \ several works propose to use ontologies. Nevertheless, \ the adoption of any of the proposed ontologies \ calls for an evaluation to show its efficiency in cloud \ service discovery. Indeed, the existing cloud providers \ describe, their similar offered services in different ways. \ Thus, various existing works aim at standardizing the \ representation of cloud computing services by proposing \ ontologies. However, since the existing proposals \ were not evaluated, they might be less adopted and considered. \ Indeed, the ontology evaluation has a direct impact \ on its understandability and reusability. In this paper, \ we propose an evaluation approach to validate our \ proposed Cloud Service Ontology (CSO), to guarantee \ an adequate cloud service discovery. To this end, this \ paper has a three-fold contribution. First, we specify a \ set of patterns and anti-patterns in order to evaluate our \ CSO. Second, we define an anti-pattern detection algorithm \ based on SPARQL queries which provides a set of \ correction recommendations to help ontologists revise \ their ontology. Finally, tests were conducted in relation \ to: (i) the algorithm efficiency and (ii) anti-pattern detection \ of design anomalies as well as taxonomic and \ domain errors within CSO

The Pullback-Pushout approach to algebraic graph transformation

Some recent algebraic approaches to graph transformation include a pullback construction involving the match, that allows one to specify the cloning of items of the host graph. We pursue further this trend by proposing the Pullback-Pushout (pb-po) Approach, where we combine smoothly the classical modifications to a host graph specified by a rule (a span of graph morphisms) with the cloning of structures specified by another rule. The approach is shown to be a conservative extension of agree (and thus of the sqpo approach), and we show that it can be extended with standard techniques to attributed graphs. We discuss conditions to ensure a form of locality of transformations, and conditions to ensure that the attribution of transformed graphs is total

Reasoning for the description logic ALC with link keys

Data interlinking is a critical task for widening and enhancing linked open data. One way to tackle data interlinking is to use link keys, which generalise keys to the case of two RDF datasets described using different ontologies. Link keys specify pairs of properties to compare for finding same-as links between instances of two classes of two different datasets. Hence, they can be used for finding links. Link keys can also be considered as logical axioms just like keys, ontologies and ontology alignments. We introduce the logic ALC+LK extending the description logic ALC with link keys. It may be used to reason and infer entailed link keys that may be more useful for a particular data interlinking task. We show that link key entailment can be reduced to consistency checking without introducing the negation of link keys. For deciding the consistency of an ALC+LK ontology, we introduce a new tableau-based algorithm. Contrary to the classical ones, the completion rules concerning link keys apply to pairs of individuals not directly related. We show that this algorithm is sound, complete and always terminates

Ontology-Based Data Integration in Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Environments: A Review

Today's industrial production plants are complex mechatronic systems. In the course of the production plant lifecycle, engineers from a variety of disciplines (e.g., mechanics, electronics, automation) need to collaborate in multi-disciplinary settings that are characterized by heterogeneity in terminology, methods, and tools. This collaboration yields a variety of engineering artifacts that need to be linked and integrated, which on the technical level is reflected in the need to integrate heterogeneous data. Semantic Web technologies, in particular ontologybased data integration (OBDI), are promising to tackle this challenge that has attracted strong interest from the engineering research community. This interest has resulted in a growing body of literature that is dispersed across the Semantic Web and Automation System Engineering research communities and has not been systematically reviewed so far. We address this gap with a survey reflecting on OBDI applications in the context of Multi-Disciplinary Engineering Environment (MDEE). To this end, we analyze and compare 23 OBDI applications from both the Semantic Web and the Automation System Engineering research communities. Based on this analysis, we (i) categorize OBDI variants used in MDEE, (ii) identify key problem context characteristics, (iii) compare strengths and limitations of OBDI variants as a function of problem context, and (iv) provide recommendation guidelines for the selection of OBDI variants and technologies for OBDI in MDEE

Collaborating multiple 3PL enterprises for ontology based interoperable transportation planning

Today enterprises have to distribute their final products to far away consumers. It is difficult and not cost effective for these enterprises to manage their own transport vehicles. Thus, they outsource their transportation tasks to third party logistics (3PL) companies. These 3PL companies take transport orders from several clients and try to group them in the vehicles to utilize their resources at maximum. An issue of interoperability arises, when 3PL companies have to process different transport orders arriving from several clients in different formats and terminologies. Secondly, how 3PLS will collaborate with other 3PL companies following different working standards and also for collaboratively delivering transport orders which single 3PL cannot deliver alone due to its limited operational geographic area. Interoperability to achieve collaborative transportation planning is our concern in the context of this paper. Interoperability is a key issue for collaboration, especially in case of heterogeneous environment, when entities trying to collaborate have different ways of functioning and follow certain standards specific to their organizations. So the objective of this paper is to present a distributed and interoperable architecture for planning transportation activities of multiple logistics enterprises aiming at a better use of transport resources and by grouping transport orders of several manufacturers for each effective displacement