Monitoring morphisms to support sustainable interoperability of enterprise systems

Dissertation to obtain the Master degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer ScienceNowadays, organizations are required to be part of a global collaborative world. Sometimes this is the only way they can access new and wider markets, reaching new opportunities, skills and sharing assets, e.g. tools, lessons learnt. However, due to the different sources of enterprise models and semantics, organizations are experiencing difficulties in exchanging vital information via electronic and in a seamlessly way. To solve this issue, most of them try to attain interoperability by establishing peer-to-peer mappings with different business partners, or in optimized networks using neutral data standards to regulate communications. Moreover, the systems are more and more dynamic, changing frequently to answer new customer’s requirements, causing new interoperability problems and a reduction of efficiency. This dissertation proposes a multi-agent system to monitor existing enterprise systems, by being capable of detecting morphism changes. With this, network harmonization breakings are timely detected, and possible solutions are suggested to regain the interoperable status, thus enhancing robustness for reaching sustainability of business networks

Semantic adaptability for the systems interoperability

In the current global and competitive business context, it is essential that enterprises adapt their knowledge resources in order to smoothly interact and collaborate with others. However, due to the existent multiculturalism of people and enterprises, there are different representation views of business processes or products, even inside a same domain. Consequently, one of the main problems found in the interoperability between enterprise systems and applications is related to semantics. The integration and sharing of enterprises knowledge to build a common lexicon, plays an important role to the semantic adaptability of the information systems. The author proposes a framework to support the development of systems to manage dynamic semantic adaptability resolution. It allows different organisations to participate in a common knowledge base building, letting at the same time maintain their own views of the domain, without compromising the integration between them. Thus, systems are able to be aware of new knowledge, and have the capacity to learn from it and to manage its semantic interoperability in a dynamic and adaptable way. The author endorses the vision that in the near future, the semantic adaptability skills of the enterprise systems will be the booster to enterprises collaboration and the appearance of new business opportunities

Supporting Tools for Automated Generation and Visual Editing of Relational-to-Ontology Mappings

La integració de dades amb formats heterogenis i de diversos dominis mitjançant tecnologies de la web semàntica permet solucionar la seva disparitat estructural i semàntica. L'accés a dades basat en ontologies (OBDA, en anglès) és una solució integral que es basa en l'ús d'ontologies com esquemes mediadors i el mapatge entre les dades i les ontologies per facilitar la consulta de les fonts de dades. No obstant això, una de les principals barreres que pot dificultar més l'adopció de OBDA és la manca d'eines per donar suport a la creació de mapatges entre dades i ontologies. L'objectiu d'aquesta investigació ha estat desenvolupar noves eines que permetin als experts sense coneixements d'ontologies la creació de mapatges entre dades i ontologies. Amb aquesta finalitat, s'han dut a terme dues línies de treball: la generació automàtica de mapatges entre dades relacionals i ontologies i l'edició dels mapatges a través de la seva representació visual. Les eines actualment disponibles per automatitzar la generació de mapatges estan lluny de proporcionar una solució completa, ja que es basen en els esquemes relacionals i amb prou feines tenen en compte els continguts de la font de dades relacional i les característiques de l'ontologia. No obstant això, les dades poden contenir relacions ocultes que poden ajudar a la generació de mapatges. Per superar aquesta limitació, hem desenvolupat AutoMap4OBDA, un sistema que genera automàticament mapatges R2RML a partir de l'anàlisi dels continguts de la font relacional i tenint en compte les característiques de l'ontologia. El sistema fa servir una tècnica d'aprenentatge d'ontologies per inferir jerarquies de classes, selecciona les mètriques de similitud de cadenes en base a les etiquetes de les ontologies i analitza les estructures de grafs per generar els mapatges a partir de l'estructura de l'ontologia. La representació visual per mitjà d'interfícies intuïtives pot ajudar els usuaris sense coneixements tècnics a establir mapatges entre una font relacional i una ontologia. No obstant això, les eines existents per a l'edició visual de mapatges mostren algunes limitacions. En particular, la representació visual de mapatges no contempla les estructures de la font relacional i de l'ontologia de forma conjunta. Per superar aquest inconvenient, hem desenvolupat Map-On, un entorn visual web per a l'edició manual de mapatges. AutoMap4OBDA ha demostrat que supera les prestacions de les solucions existents per a la generació de mapatges. Map-On s'ha aplicat en projectes d'investigació per verificar la seva eficàcia en la gestió de mapatges.La integración de datos con formatos heterogéneos y de diversos dominios mediante tecnologías de la Web Semántica permite solventar su disparidad estructural y semántica. El acceso a datos basado en ontologías (OBDA, en inglés) es una solución integral que se basa en el uso de ontologías como esquemas mediadores y mapeos entre los datos y las ontologías para facilitar la consulta de las fuentes de datos. Sin embargo, una de las principales barreras que puede dificultar más la adopción de OBDA es la falta de herramientas para apoyar la creación de mapeos entre datos y ontologías. El objetivo de esta investigación ha sido desarrollar nuevas herramientas que permitan a expertos sin conocimientos de ontologías la creación de mapeos entre datos y ontologías. Con este fin, se han llevado a cabo dos líneas de trabajo: la generación automática de mapeos entre datos relacionales y ontologías y la edición de los mapeos a través de su representación visual. Las herramientas actualmente disponibles para automatizar la generación de mapeos están lejos de proporcionar una solución completa, ya que se basan en los esquemas relacionales y apenas tienen en cuenta los contenidos de la fuente de datos relacional y las características de la ontología. Sin embargo, los datos pueden contener relaciones ocultas que pueden ayudar a la generación de mapeos. Para superar esta limitación, hemos desarrollado AutoMap4OBDA, un sistema que genera automáticamente mapeos R2RML a partir del análisis de los contenidos de la fuente relacional y teniendo en cuenta las características de la ontología. El sistema emplea una técnica de aprendizaje de ontologías para inferir jerarquías de clases, selecciona las métricas de similitud de cadenas en base a las etiquetas de las ontologías y analiza las estructuras de grafos para generar los mapeos a partir de la estructura de la ontología. La representación visual por medio de interfaces intuitivas puede ayudar a los usuarios sin conocimientos técnicos a establecer mapeos entre una fuente relacional y una ontología. Sin embargo, las herramientas existentes para la edición visual de mapeos muestran algunas limitaciones. En particular, la representación de mapeos no contempla las estructuras de la fuente relacional y de la ontología de forma conjunta. Para superar este inconveniente, hemos desarrollado Map-On, un entorno visual web para la edición manual de mapeos. AutoMap4OBDA ha demostrado que supera las prestaciones de las soluciones existentes para la generación de mapeos. Map-On se ha aplicado en proyectos de investigación para verificar su eficacia en la gestión de mapeos.Integration of data from heterogeneous formats and domains based on Semantic Web technologies enables us to solve their structural and semantic heterogeneity. Ontology-based data access (OBDA) is a comprehensive solution which relies on the use of ontologies as mediator schemas and relational-to-ontology mappings to facilitate data source querying. However, one of the greatest obstacles in the adoption of OBDA is the lack of tools to support the creation of mappings between physically stored data and ontologies. The objective of this research has been to develop new tools that allow non-ontology experts to create relational-to-ontology mappings. For this purpose, two lines of work have been carried out: the automated generation of relational-to-ontology mappings, and visual support for mapping editing. The tools currently available to automate the generation of mappings are far from providing a complete solution, since they rely on relational schemas and barely take into account the contents of the relational data source and features of the ontology. However, the data may contain hidden relationships that can help in the process of mapping generation. To overcome this limitation, we have developed AutoMap4OBDA, a system that automatically generates R2RML mappings from the analysis of the contents of the relational source and takes into account the characteristics of ontology. The system employs an ontology learning technique to infer class hierarchies, selects the string similarity metric based on the labels of ontologies, and analyses the graph structures to generate the mappings from the structure of the ontology. The visual representation through intuitive interfaces can help non-technical users to establish mappings between a relational source and an ontology. However, existing tools for visual editing of mappings show somewhat limitations. In particular, the visual representation of mapping does not embrace the structure of the relational source and the ontology at the same time. To overcome this problem, we have developed Map-On, a visual web environment for the manual editing of mappings. AutoMap4OBDA has been shown to outperform existing solutions in the generation of mappings. Map-On has been applied in research projects to verify its effectiveness in managing mappings

Standards Framework for Intelligent Manufacturing Systems Supply Chain

ISBN 979-953-307-708-5 http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/standards-framework-for-intelligent-manufacturing-systems-supply-chain#referenceThe global market is striving to increase competitiveness among organizations and networks. Nowadays, management of supply chains does not only consider business processes in the traditional value chain, but also processes that penetrate networks of organisations. Indeed, the formation of cooperation and collaboration partnerships between several small organizations can be, in multiple cases, more efficient by comparison with big companies (Rudberg et al., 2002). This way, the research on supply chain management has turned from an intra-enterprise focus towards an inter-enterprise focus with companies looking for enhanced interoperability between computer systems and applications. Supply chain networks are characterized by different structures such as, business processes and technological, organizational, topological, informational, and financial structures. All are interrelated but following their own dynamics. Thus, in order to ensure a high responsiveness level, the supply chain plans must be formed robustly and extremely quickly in relation to all the structures (Gupta & Maranas, 2003). In fact, with regards to supply chain in the advent of globalization, one of the difficulties enterprises are facing is the lack of interoperability of systems and software applications to manage and orchestrate the different structures involved (Jardim-Goncalves et al. 2006; Panetto et al., 2006; Farinha et al., 2007). The increasing need for cooperation and collaboration together with the rapid advances in information and communication technology (ICT) have brought supply chain planning into the forefront of the business practices of most manufacturing and service organizations (Gupta & Maranas, 2003). Moreover, there has been a growing interest and research in e-business solutions to facilitate information sharing between organisations in the supply chain network

XML Matchers: approaches and challenges

Schema Matching, i.e. the process of discovering semantic correspondences between concepts adopted in different data source schemas, has been a key topic in Database and Artificial Intelligence research areas for many years. In the past, it was largely investigated especially for classical database models (e.g., E/R schemas, relational databases, etc.). However, in the latest years, the widespread adoption of XML in the most disparate application fields pushed a growing number of researchers to design XML-specific Schema Matching approaches, called XML Matchers, aiming at finding semantic matchings between concepts defined in DTDs and XSDs. XML Matchers do not just take well-known techniques originally designed for other data models and apply them on DTDs/XSDs, but they exploit specific XML features (e.g., the hierarchical structure of a DTD/XSD) to improve the performance of the Schema Matching process. The design of XML Matchers is currently a well-established research area. The main goal of this paper is to provide a detailed description and classification of XML Matchers. We first describe to what extent the specificities of DTDs/XSDs impact on the Schema Matching task. Then we introduce a template, called XML Matcher Template, that describes the main components of an XML Matcher, their role and behavior. We illustrate how each of these components has been implemented in some popular XML Matchers. We consider our XML Matcher Template as the baseline for objectively comparing approaches that, at first glance, might appear as unrelated. The introduction of this template can be useful in the design of future XML Matchers. Finally, we analyze commercial tools implementing XML Matchers and introduce two challenging issues strictly related to this topic, namely XML source clustering and uncertainty management in XML Matchers.Comment: 34 pages, 8 tables, 7 figure

A abordagem POESIA para a integração de dados e serviços na Web semantica

Orientador: Claudia Bauzer MedeirosTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: POESIA (Processes for Open-Ended Systems for lnformation Analysis), a abordagem proposta neste trabalho, visa a construção de processos complexos envolvendo integração e análise de dados de diversas fontes, particularmente em aplicações científicas. A abordagem é centrada em dois tipos de mecanismos da Web semântica: workflows científicos, para especificar e compor serviços Web; e ontologias de domínio, para viabilizar a interoperabilidade e o gerenciamento semânticos dos dados e processos. As principais contribuições desta tese são: (i) um arcabouço teórico para a descrição, localização e composição de dados e serviços na Web, com regras para verificar a consistência semântica de composições desses recursos; (ii) métodos baseados em ontologias de domínio para auxiliar a integração de dados e estimar a proveniência de dados em processos cooperativos na Web; (iii) implementação e validação parcial das propostas, em urna aplicação real no domínio de planejamento agrícola, analisando os benefícios e as limitações de eficiência e escalabilidade da tecnologia atual da Web semântica, face a grandes volumes de dadosAbstract: POESIA (Processes for Open-Ended Systems for Information Analysis), the approach proposed in this work, supports the construction of complex processes that involve the integration and analysis of data from several sources, particularly in scientific applications. This approach is centered in two types of semantic Web mechanisms: scientific workflows, to specify and compose Web services; and domain ontologies, to enable semantic interoperability and management of data and processes. The main contributions of this thesis are: (i) a theoretical framework to describe, discover and compose data and services on the Web, inc1uding mIes to check the semantic consistency of resource compositions; (ii) ontology-based methods to help data integration and estimate data provenance in cooperative processes on the Web; (iii) partial implementation and validation of the proposal, in a real application for the domain of agricultural planning, analyzing the benefits and scalability problems of the current semantic Web technology, when faced with large volumes of dataDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computaçã