Combining Description Logics and object oriented models in an information integration framework

We present an information integration system called SINTAGMA which supports the semantic integration of heterogeneous information sources using a meta data driven approach. The main idea of SINTAGMA is to build a so called Model Warehouse, containing several layers of integrated models connected by mappings. At the bottom of this hierarchy there are the models representing the actual information sources. Higher level models represent virtual databases which can be queried, as the mappings provide a precise description of how to populate these virtual sources using the concrete ones. The implementation of SINTAGMA uses constraints and logic programming, for example, the complex queries are translated into Prolog goals. This paper focuses on a recent development in SINTAGMA allowing the information expert to use Description Logic (DL) based ontologies in the development of high abstraction level conceptual models. Querying these models is performed using the Closed World Assumption as we argue that traditional Open World DL reasoning is less appropriate in the context of database oriented information integration environments

An experiment with ontology mapping using concept similarity

This paper describes a system for automatically mapping between concepts in different ontologies. The motivation for the research stems from the Diogene project, in which the project's own ontology covering the ICT domain is mapped to external ontologies, in order that their associated content can automatically be included in the Diogene system. An approach involving measuring the similarity of concepts is introduced, in which standard Information Retrieval indexing techniques are applied to concept descriptions. A matrix representing the similarity of concepts in two ontologies is generated, and a mapping is performed based on two parameters: the domain coverage of the ontologies, and their levels of granularity. Finally, some initial experimentation is presented which suggests that our approach meets the project's unique set of requirements

Ontology mapping by concept similarity

This paper presents an approach to the problem of mapping ontologies. The motivation for the research stems from the Diogene Project which is developing a web training environment for ICT professionals. The system includes high quality training material from registered content providers, and free web material will also be made available through the project's "Web Discovery" component. This involves using web search engines to locate relevant material, and mapping the ontology at the core of the Diogene system to other ontologies that exist on the Semantic Web. The project's approach to ontology mapping is presented, and an evaluation of this method is described

PowerAqua: fishing the semantic web

The Semantic Web (SW) offers an opportunity to develop novel, sophisticated forms of question answering (QA). Specifically, the availability of distributed semantic markup on a large scale opens the way to QA systems which can make use of such semantic information to provide precise, formally derived answers to questions. At the same time the distributed, heterogeneous, large-scale nature of the semantic information introduces significant challenges. In this paper we describe the design of a QA system, PowerAqua, designed to exploit semantic markup on the web to provide answers to questions posed in natural language. PowerAqua does not assume that the user has any prior information about the semantic resources. The system takes as input a natural language query, translates it into a set of logical queries, which are then answered by consulting and aggregating information derived from multiple heterogeneous semantic sources

Applying an ontology on data integration

The term “Federated Databases” refers to the data integration of distributed, autonomous and heterogeneous databases. However, a federation can also include information systems, not only databases. When integrating data, several issues must be addressed. Here, we focus on the problem of heterogeneity, more specifically on semantic heterogeneity – that is problems related to semantically equivalent concepts or semantically related/unrelated concepts. In order to address this problem, we apply the idea of ontologies as a tool for data integration. In this paper, we explain this concept and we briefly describe a method for constructing an ontology by using a hybrid ontology approach.Eje: Bases de datosRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

An ontology approach to data integration

The term Federated Databases refers to the data integration of distributed, autonomous and heterogeneous databases. However, a federation can also include information systems, not only databases. At integrating data, several issues must be addressed. Here, we focus on the problem of heterogeneity, more specifically on semantic heterogeneity that is, problems rela ted to semantically equivalent concepts or semantically related/unrelated concepts. In order to address this problem, we apply the idea of ontologies as a tool for data integration. In this paper, we explain this concept and we briefly describe a method for constructing an ontology by using a hybrid ontology approach.Facultad de Informátic

Service oriented architecture (SOA) implementation framework for heterogeneous information systems integration

Heterogeneous information systems (IS) creates difficulties to automatically integrate data in different IS environment. These situations have increased operating and maintenance costs as well as wasteful data storage, which is caused by data redundancy. Since the emerging of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the latest trend in IS development, many researchers have proposed various SOA conceptual models and frameworks. The main objective behind these efforts was to provide a guideline for a successful SOA adoption. In Malaysia, higher learning institutions have taken some initiatives to implement SOA-based systems to improve the quality of IS performance. However, most of the existing SOA frameworks available are still lacking of good design to support an integration of heterogeneous IS. In order to fill this gap, this study was conducted to seek for an opportunity to enhance the existing SOA implementation frameworks of heterogeneous IS integration. A consolidation of the existing related frameworks and consensus from experts yield a new SOA framework. A case study approach in a Malaysia public university was applied to test and validate the framework by conducted prototyping experiments with the focus on several student information systems. The evaluation from the users shows that the proposed framework has met SOA criteria like service based, data update in real time and accessibility. This finding has been proven with successful prototype experiments. With the findings and results of this study, an enhancement of SOA implementation framework was fulfilled by focusing on integrating heterogeneous IS. This is a new contribution SOA domain in the context of heterogeneous IS integration in Malaysia public universities

Review implementation of linguistic approach in schema matching

Research related schema matching has been conducted since last decade. Few approach related schema matching has been conducted with various methods such as neuron network, feature selection, constrain based, instance based, linguistic, and so on. Some field used schema matching as basic model such as e-commerce, e-business and data warehousing. Implementation of linguistic approach itself has been used a long time with various problem such as to calculated entity similarity values in two or more schemas. The purpose of this paper was to provide an overview of previous studies related to the implementation of the linguistic approach in the schema matching and finding gap for the development of existing methods. Futhermore, this paper focused on measurement of similarity in linguistic approach in schema matching

Ontology driven integration platform for clinical and translational research

Semantic Web technologies offer a promising framework for integration of disparate biomedical data. In this paper we present the semantic information integration platform under development at the Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences (CCTS) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHSC-H) as part of our Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program. We utilize the Semantic Web technologies not only for integrating, repurposing and classification of multi-source clinical data, but also to construct a distributed environment for information sharing, and collaboration online. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is used to modularize and distribute reusable services in a dynamic and distributed environment. Components of the semantic solution and its overall architecture are described