Grounding semantic web services with rules

Semantic web services achieve effects in the world through web services, so the connection to those services - the grounding - is of paramount importance. The established technique is to use XML-based translations between ontologies and the SOAP message formats of the services, but these mappings cannot address the growing number of non-SOAP services, and step outside the ontological world to describe the mapping. We present an approach which draws the service's interface into the ontology: we define ontology objects which represent the whole HTTP message, and use backward-chaining rules to translate between semantic service invocation instances and the HTTP messages passed to and from the service. We present a case study using Amazon's popular Simple Storage Service

Agile elicitation of semantic goals by wiki

Formal goal and service descriptions are the shibboleth of the semantic web services approach, yet the people responsible for creating them are neither machines nor logicians, and rarely even knowledge engineers: the people who need and specify functionality are not those who provide it, and both may be distinct from the semantic annotators. The gap between users' informal conceptualisations of problems and formal descriptions is one which must be effectively bridged for semantic web services to be widely adopted. We show how a simple technique–using a wiki to collect user requirements and mediate a progressive, iterative refinement and formalisation of user goals by domain experts and their knowledge engineer colleagues–can achieve this. Further, we suggest how the process could be extended, so as to itself benefit from semantic technologies

Integrating heterogeneous web service styles with flexible semantic web services groundings

Semantic web services are touted as a means to integrate web services inside and outside the enterprise, but while current semantic web service frameworks— including OWL-S [1], SA-WSDL, and WSMO 1 [2]—assume a homogeneous ecosystem of SOAP services and XML serialisations, growing numbers of real services are implemented using XML-RPC and RESTful interfaces, and non-XML serialisations like JSON. 2 Semantic services platforms based on OWL-S and WSMO use XML mapping languages to translate between an XML serialisation of the ontology data and the on-the-wire messages exchanged with the web service, a process referred to as grounding. This XML mapping approach suffers from two problems: it cannot address the growing number of non-SOAP, non-XML services being deployed on the Web, and it requires the modeller creating the semantic web service descriptions to work with the serialisation of the service ontology and a syntactic mapping language, in addition to the knowledge representation language used for representing the semantic service ontologies and descriptions. Our approach draws the service’s interface into the ontology: we defin

Redistribution Through the Income Tax: The Vertical and Horizontal Effects of Noncompliance and Tax Evasion

This paper uses the unique Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program (TCMP) micro data to study the equity effects of noncompliance. We access four years of TCMP data, 1979,1982,1985, and 1988. The TCMP data allows us to observe income and taxes before and after a tax audit. In order to generate a range of scalar estimates of the redistributive impact of more complete compliance we employ the family of extended Gini and concentration coefficients. We find that the vertical equity effects are very small of negative; however, there is a considerable amount of horizontal inequity generated by noncompliance and in this sense more complete auditing of tax returns could improve the fairness of the tax system

PROPERTY RIGHTS, GRAZING PERMITS, AND RANCHER WELFARE

This study attempts to link factors affecting the demand for Bureau of Land Management grazing to perceived changes in permittee welfare over the 1962-92 period. Annual demand for federal forage is found to be sensitive to active preference, beef cow and breeding ewe inventories, and grazing fees and nonfee allotment utilization costs. No evidence is found to support the notion that the demand for grazing has been affected by changes in property rights associated with the federal grazing permit that are not reflected in higher user costs. The total decrease in welfare generated from the permit that are not reflected in higher user costs. The total decrease in welfare generated from the permit to graze public lands has been about 9% per authorized cattle animal unit month and 65% per authorized sheep animal unit month over the study period.Land Economics/Use,

Experimental Music and Collaboration: Developing Artistry Through Performance Practice

This project locates collaboration and collaborative performance as a potential site for artistic growth. This study analyzes six collaborative projects: composed pieces for electric guitar accompanying a staged performance of collaged texts, an audio-visual installation, the preparation of several short pieces to accompany choreographed dances, a 90-minute soundtrack to a performance mixed live, an ongoing improvisational duo, and a live visuals performance to accompany Sunburned Hand of the Man at Duke University. It traces the growth of my artistry while also providing a method for both doing and writing about collaboration. In addition, it offers a model for understanding collaborative compensation and evaluating collaborative structures. The study begins in 2015 at the beginning of my master’s degree coursework and ends in 2022 with the completion of this dissertation. Each chapter analyzes a unique performance I contributed to and provides a brief overview of the project, discusses my background with my collaborator, reviews any planning work, maps the influences that informed my creative choices, offers a description of my methods, recalls my memories of the performance event, and ends with a reflection on the collaborative process. The conclusion of this study explores collaboration across power dynamics and offers several models for collaborative structures and possibilities for payment and compensation both in academic and in popular and professional contexts