Expliciting semantic relations between ontologies in large ontology repositories

and other research outputs Expliciting semantic relations between ontologies in large ontology repositorie

A platform for semantic web studies

The Semantic Web can be seen as a large, heterogeneous network of ontologies and semantic documents. Characterizing these ontologies, the way they relate and the way they are organized can help in better understanding how knowledge is produced and published online. It also provides new ways to explore and exploit this large collection of ontologies. In this paper, we present the foundation of a research platform for characterizing the Semantic Web, relying on the collection of ontologies and the functionalities provided by the Watson Semantic Web search engine. We more specifically focus on formalizing and monitoring relationships between ontologies online, considering a variety of different relations (similarity, versioning, agreement, modularity) and how they can help us obtaining meaningful overviews of the current state of the Semantic Web

Quantum interference phenomena in the Casimir effect

We propose a definitive test of whether plates involved in Casimir experiments should be modeled with ballistic or diffusive electrons--a prominent controversy highlighted by a number of conflicting experiments. The unambiguous test we propose is a measurement of the Casimir force between a disordered quasi-2D metallic plate and a three-dimensional metallic system at low temperatures, in which disorder-induced weak localization effects modify the well-known Drude result in an experimentally tunable way. We calculate the weak localization correction to the Casimir force as a function of magnetic field and temperature and demonstrate that the quantum interference suppression of the Casimir force is a strong, observable effect. The coexistence of weak localization suppression in electronic transport and Casimir pressure would lend credence to the Drude theory of the Casimir effect, while the lack of such correlation would indicate a fundamental problem with the existing theory. We also study mesoscopic disorder fluctuations in the Casimir effect and estimate the width of the distribution of Casmir energies due to disorder fluctuations.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

SPARQL Query Recommendations by Example

In this demo paper, a SPARQL Query Recommendation Tool (called SQUIRE) based on query reformulation is presented. Based on three steps, Generalization, Specialization and Evaluation, SQUIRE implements the logic of reformulating a SPARQL query that is satisfiable w.r.t a source RDF dataset, into others that are satisfiable w.r.t a target RDF dataset. In contrast with existing approaches, SQUIRE aims at rec- ommending queries whose reformulations: i) reflect as much as possible the same intended meaning, structure, type of results and result size as the original query and ii) do not require to have a mapping between the two datasets. Based on a set of criteria to measure the similarity between the initial query and the recommended ones, SQUIRE demonstrates the feasibility of the underlying query reformulation process, ranks appropriately the recommended queries, and offers a valuable support for query recommendations over an unknown and unmapped target RDF dataset, not only assisting the user in learning the data model and content of an RDF dataset, but also supporting its use without requiring the user to have intrinsic knowledge of the data

Non-analytic behavior of the Casimir force across a Lifshitz transition in a spin-orbit coupled material

We propose the Casimir effect as a general method to observe Lifshitz transitions in electron systems. The concept is demonstrated with a planar spin-orbit coupled semiconductor in a magnetic field. We calculate the Casimir force between two such semiconductors and between the semiconductor and a metal as a function of the Zeeman splitting in the semiconductor. The Zeeman field causes a Fermi pocket in the semiconductor to form or collapse by tuning the system through a topological Lifshitz transition. We find that the Casimir force experiences a kink at the transition point and noticeably different behaviors on either side of the transition. The simplest experimental realization of the proposed effect would involve a metal-coated sphere suspended from a micro-cantilever above a thin layer of InSb (or another semiconductor with large $g$-factor). Numerical estimates are provided and indicate that the effect is well within experimental reach.Comment: 5 pages + 6 page supplement; 5 figure

DOOR: towards a formalization of ontology relations

In this paper, we describe our ongoing effort in describing and formalizing semantic relations that link ontolo- gies with each others on the Semantic Web in order to create an ontology, DOOR, to represent, manipulate and reason upon these relations. DOOR is a Descriptive Ontology of Ontology Relations which intends to define relations such as inclusion, versioning, similarity and agreement using ontological primitives as well as rules. Here, we provide a detailed description of the methodology used to design the DOOR ontology, as well as an overview of its content. We also describe how DOOR is used in a complete framework (called KANNEL) for detecting and managing semantic relations between ontologies in large ontology repositories. Applied in the context of a large collection of automatically crawled ontologies, DOOR and KANNEL provide a starting point for analyzing the underlying structure of the network of ontologies that is the Semantic Web

Immaginazione, schematismo e prestazione estetica. Linee di ricerca in Italia tra filosofia e neuroscienze

The article offers a first survey on the studies concerning imagination in an aesthetic and cognitive perspective in Italy in the last two decades. From the aesthetic point of view, the research is focused in particular on reconsidering the imaginative function of organizing the sensible matter of perception, thus making it available to the subject’s experience – it is the process Kant called “schematism”. The recent aesthetic studies in Italy make new forms of schematism emerge, from the “free schematism” (Garroni), inspired by Kant’s aesthetic judgment, to the “interactive schematism” (Montani), which accounts for the interactions both the environ and the new technologies, up to the overlapping between schematism and “attention styles” of the mind (Desideri). Though influenced by the Kantian heritage, the Italian philosophy was able to confront with various traditions, from the English-speaking philosophy, especially that inspired by Wittgenstein (Borutti), to the German and French Phenomenology (Carbone, Franzini), up to the recent anthropological trends, resulting from different lines of thought: Pragmatism, Neo-Kantism, visual studies, biology and so on (Matteucci, Pinotti, Tedesco). The new field of research called Neuroaesthetics, emerging at the intersection of psychological aesthetics, neuroscience and human evolution, has been recently discussed and developed in Italy, especially regarding the implications of the discovery of mirroring mechanisms and embodied simulation for empathetic responses to images in general, and to works of visual art in particular (Gallese)