Operational specification for FCA using Z

We present an outline of a process by which operational software requirements specifications can be written for Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). The Z notation is used to specify the FCA model and the formal operations on it. We posit a novel approach whereby key features of Z and FCA can be integrated and put to work in contemporary software development, thus promoting operational specification as a useful application of conceptual structures.</p

Managing healthcare workflows in a multi-agent system environment

Whilst Multi-Agent System (MAS) architectures appear to offer a more flexible model for designers and developers of complex, collaborative information systems, implementing real-world business processes that can be delegated to autonomous agents is still a relatively difficult task. Although a range of agent tools and toolkits exist, there still remains the need to move the creation of models nearer to code generation, in order that the development path be more rigorous and repeatable. In particular, it is essential that complex organisational process workflows are captured and expressed in a way that MAS can successfully interpret. Using a complex social care system as an exemplar, we describe a technique whereby a business process is captured, expressed, verified and specified in a suitable format for a healthcare MAS.</p

Standard CGIF interoperability in Amine

The adoption of standard CGIF by CG tools will enable interoperability between them to be achieved, and in turn lead to the interoperability between CG tools and other tools. The integration of ISO Common Logic’s standard CGIF notation in the Amine platform is presented. It also describes the first steps towards full interoperability between the Amine CG tool (through its Synergy component) and CharGer, a representative CG tool that supports similar interoperability and for process (or ‘active’) knowledge as well as declarative knowledge. N-adic relations are addressed as well as semantic compatibility across the two tools. The work remarks on the successes achieved, highlighting certain issues along the way, and offering a real impetus to achieve interoperability.</p

The transaction pattern through automating TrAM

Transaction Agent Modelling (TrAM) has demonstrated how the early requirements of complex enterprise systems can be captured and described in a lucid yet rigorous way. Using Geerts and McCarthy’s REA (Resource-Events-Agents) model as its basis, the TrAM process manages to capture the ‘qualitative’ dimensions of business transactions and business processes. A key part of the process is automated model-checking, which CG has revealed to be beneficial in this regard. It enables models to retain the high-level business concepts yet providing a formal structure at that high-level that is lacking in Use Cases. Using a conceptual catalogue informed by transactions, we illustrate the automation of a transaction pattern from which further specialisations impart a tested specification for system implementation, which we envisage as a multi-agent system in order to reflect the dynamic world of business activity. It would furthermore be able to interoperate across business domains as they would share the generalised TM as a pattern.</p

A commentary on standardization in the Semantic Web, Common Logic and MultiAgent Systems

Given the ubiquity of the Web, the Semantic Web (SW) offers MultiAgent Systems (MAS) a most wide-ranging platform by which they could intercommunicate. It can be argued however that MAS require levels of logic that the current Semantic Web has yet to provide. As ISO Common Logic (CL) ISO/IEC IS 24707:2007 provides a firstorder logic capability for MAS in an interoperable way, it seems natural to investigate how CL may itself integrate with the SW thus providing a more expressive means by which MAS can interoperate effectively across the SW. A commentary is accordingly presented on how this may be achieved. Whilst it notes that certain limitations remain to be addressed, the commentary proposes that standardising the SW with CL provides the vehicle by which MAS can achieve their potential.</p

An introduction to Conceptual Graphs

This paper provides a lucid introduction to Conceptual Graphs (CG), a powerful knowledge representation and inference environment that exhibits the familiar object-oriented features of contemporary enterprise and web applications. An illustrative business case study is used to convey how CG adds value to data, including inference for new knowledge. It enables newcomers to conceptual structures to engage with this exciting field and to realise "Conceptual Structures: Knowledge Architectures for Smart Applications", the theme of the 15(th) Annual International Conference on Conceptual Structures (ICCS 2007, www.iccs2007.info)

Enhancing layered enterprise architecture development through conceptual structures

Enterprise Architecture (EA) enables organisations to align their information technology with their business needs. Layered EA Development (LEAD) enhances EA by using meta-models made up of layered meta-objects, interconnected by semantic relations. Organisations can use these meta-models to benefit from a novel, ontology-based, object-oriented way of EA thinking and working. Furthermore, the meta-models are directed graphs that can be read linearly from a Top Down View (TDV) or a Bottom Up View (BUV) perspective. Conceptual Structures through CG-FCA (where CG refers to Conceptual Graph and FCA to Formal Concept Analysis) is thus used to traverse the TDV and BUV directions using the LEAD Industry 4.0 meta-model as an illustration. The motivation for CG-FCA is stated. It is discovered that CG-FCA: (a) identifies any unwanted cycles in the ‘top-down’ or ‘bottom-up’ directions, and (b) conveniently arranges the many pathways by which the meta-models can be traversed and understood in a Formal Concept Lattice. Through the LEAD meta-model exemplar, the wider appeal of CG-FCA and directed graphs are also identified

A practical exploration of ontology interoperability

ISO Common Logic (CL, ISO/IEC 24707:2007) offers the Semantic Web (SW) a new and powerful dimension in achieving the effective discovery, automation, integration, and reuse across applications, data and knowledge. The paper shows how it is possible to explore such interoperability through small scale exemplar projects. As Conceptual Graphs (CG) is a key technology in CL, we focused on the Amine CG software and for the SW we focused on the Protégé OWL software, exploring the possible mappings between ontologies captured in OWL and in Amine. Through this practical exercise the dimensions and extent of the desired interoperability could be demonstrated. This small but significant experiment provided a practical insight into how CG Tools can actually interoperate towards achieving the wider goal of Ontology interoperability between CL and the SW.</p

Genetic structuring in farmed and wild Gilthead seabream and European seabass in the Mediterranean Sea: implementations for detection of escapees

Microsatellite markers were used to investigate the genetic structure of the two most important cultured fish in the Mediterranean Sea, the gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), from two (one wild and one farmed) populations in Western Mediterranean (Spain) and from two (one wild and one farmed) populations Eastern Mediterranean (Greece). All populations were in Hardy-Weinberg disequilibrium. Interestingly, wild and farmed populations for both species from Greece were genetically differentiated and could be distinguished from each other. We used Bayesian methods for cluster analysis of farmed and wild populations. Our analysis has implications for the identification of escapees from fish farms to the wild.This study was financed by the European Union 7th Research Framework Project “Prevent Escape” (no. 226885; www.preventescape.eu)