A Generalized Framework for Ontology-Based Information Retrieval Application to a public-transportation system

In this paper we present a generic framework for ontology-based information retrieval. We focus on the recognition of semantic information extracted from data sources and the mapping of this knowledge into ontology. In order to achieve more scalability, we propose an approach for semantic indexing based on entity retrieval model. In addition, we have used ontology of public transportation domain in order to validate these proposals. Finally, we evaluated our system using ontology mapping and real world data sources. Experiments show that our framework can provide meaningful search results

CREATING A BIOMEDICAL ONTOLOGY INDEXED SEARCH ENGINE TO IMPROVE THE SEMANTIC RELEVANCE OF RETREIVED MEDICAL TEXT

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a controlled vocabulary used by the National Library of Medicine to index medical articles, abstracts, and journals contained within the MEDLINE database. Although MeSH imposes uniformity and consistency in the indexing process, it has been proven that using MeSH indices only result in a small increase in precision over free-text indexing. Moreover, studies have shown that the use of controlled vocabularies in the indexing process is not an effective method to increase semantic relevance in information retrieval. To address the need for semantic relevance, we present an ontology-based information retrieval system for the MEDLINE collection that result in a 37.5% increase in precision when compared to free-text indexing systems. The presented system focuses on the ontology to: provide an alternative to text-representation for medical articles, finding relationships among co-occurring terms in abstracts, and to index terms that appear in text as well as discovered relationships. The presented system is then compared to existing MeSH and Free-Text information retrieval systems. This dissertation provides a proof-of-concept for an online retrieval system capable of providing increased semantic relevance when searching through medical abstracts in MEDLINE

Annotating Software Documentation in Semantic Wikis

The use of software documentation in traditional file-based format has various issues. Storing and annotating the content of software documentation in semantic wiki pages addresses many of these issues and supports knowledge retrieval. This paper reports on the application of semantic annotation and knowledge retrieval using the ArchiMind semantic wiki system. Knowledge in documentation is annotated by indexing text with a lightweight software engineering ontology. The process and the use-cases of this semantic annotation of software documents are described

TREE-D-SEEK: A Framework for Retrieving Three-Dimensional Scenes

In this dissertation, a strategy and framework for retrieving 3D scenes is proposed. The strategy is to retrieve 3D scenes based on a unified approach for indexing content from disparate information sources and information levels. The TREE-D-SEEK framework implements the proposed strategy for retrieving 3D scenes and is capable of indexing content from a variety of corpora at distinct information levels. A semantic annotation model for indexing 3D scenes in the TREE-D-SEEK framework is also proposed. The semantic annotation model is based on an ontology for rapid prototyping of 3D virtual worlds. With ongoing improvements in computer hardware and 3D technology, the cost associated with the acquisition, production and deployment of 3D scenes is decreasing. As a consequence, there is a need for efficient 3D retrieval systems for the increasing number of 3D scenes in corpora. An efficient 3D retrieval system provides several benefits such as enhanced sharing and reuse of 3D scenes and 3D content. Existing 3D retrieval systems are closed systems and provide search solutions based on a predefined set of indexing and matching algorithms Existing 3D search systems and search solutions cannot be customized for specific requirements, type of information source and information level. In this research, TREE-D-SEEK—an open, extensible framework for retrieving 3D scenes—is proposed. The TREE-D-SEEK framework is capable of retrieving 3D scenes based on indexing low level content to high-level semantic metadata. The TREE-D-SEEK framework is discussed from a software architecture perspective. The architecture is based on a common process flow derived from indexing disparate information sources. Several indexing and matching algorithms are implemented. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the usability and performance of the framework. Retrieval performance of the framework is evaluated using benchmarks and manually collected corpora. A generic, semantic annotation model is proposed for indexing a 3D scene. The primary objective of using the semantic annotation model in the TREE-D-SEEK framework is to improve retrieval relevance and to support richer queries within a 3D scene. The semantic annotation model is driven by an ontology. The ontology is derived from a 3D rapid prototyping framework. The TREE-D-SEEK framework supports querying by example, keyword based and semantic annotation based query types for retrieving 3D scenes

An approach for design rationale retrieval using ontology-aided indexing

Design rationale (DR) is an important part of design knowledge. Effective reuse of DR depends on its successful retrieval. In this paper, an approach for structured DR retrieval using ontology-aided indexing is presented. Firstly, an ontology-based semantic model of DR is developed based on the extended IBIS-based DR representation in order to effectively utilise the semantics embedded in DR. Then, an ontology-aided indexing method is proposed to build indexes for DR records to index the semantic concepts and relationships in DR. Furthermore, three kinds of query modes are developed to support flexible querying, among which natural language input query and DR record-based query have much more semantics and thus lead to better retrieval results. Finally, a prototype system is implemented. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed approach

Semantic-driven matchmaking of web services using case-based reasoning

With the rapid proliferation of Web services as the medium of choice to securely publish application services beyond the firewall, the importance of accurate, yet flexible matchmaking of similar services gains importance both for the human user and for dynamic composition engines. In this paper, we present a novel approach that utilizes the case based reasoning methodology for modelling dynamic Web service discovery and matchmaking. Our framework considers Web services execution experiences in the decision making process and is highly adaptable to the service requester constraints. The framework also utilises OWL semantic descriptions extensively for implementing both the components of the CBR engine and the matchmaking profile of the Web services