Commit-Time Requirements for an Ontology Server

An ontology is recognized as the solution for the integration of information systems. The environment of interoperation may involve many players who have agreed to commit to the ontology in order to maintain their system of speech acts and institutional facts in conformance with the coordinated system. When this interoperating community is established, it can generate a large number of institutional facts due to different range of players who can request different facets of information. In this light, however, how those players commit to ontology is still unclear. This paper discusses what sort of requirements that we need to assist how the players commit to the ontology. The approach of this paper is theoretical which is based on the literature of the concepts of speech acts and institutional facts and a case study of the Olympic games. As a result, we have defined several important commit-time requirements to explain situations of players committing to ontology in the context of ontology-based interoperation of information systems

Process Modelling: The Deontic Way

Current enterprise systems rely heavily on the modelling and enactment of business processes. One of the key criteria for a business process is to represent not just the behaviours of the participants but also how the contractual relationships among them evolve over the course of an interaction. In this paper we provide a framework in which one can define policies/business rules using deontic assignments to represent the contractual relationships. To achieve this end we use a combination of deontic/normative concepts like proclamation, directed obligation and direct action to account for a deontic theory of commitment which in turn can be used to model business processes in their organisational settings. In this way we view a business process as a social interaction process for the purpose of doing business. Further, we show how to extend the i* framework, a well known organisational modelling technique, so as to accommodate our notion of deontic dependency

Intercultural New Media Studies: The Next Frontier in intercultural Communication

New media (ICT\u27s) are transforming communication across cultures. Despite this revolution in cross cultural contact, communication researchers have largely ignored the impact of new media on intercultural communication. This groundbreaking article defines the parameters of a new field of inquiry called Intercultural New Media Studies (INMS), which explores the intersection between ICT\u27s and intercultural communication. Composed of two research areas—(1) new media and intercultural communication theory and (2) culture and new media—INMS investigates new digital theories of intercultural contact as well as refines and expands twentieth-century intercultural communication theories, examining their salience in a digital world. INMS promises to increase our understanding of intercultural communication in a new media age and is the next frontier in intercultural communication

ISO--LWS observations of the two nearby spiral galaxies: NGC6946 and NGC1313

(Abridged) We present the analysis of the main FIR fine structure lines emission in NGC1313 and NGC6946. We calculate that a component probably associated with the diffuse disks contributes <~40% in N6946 and ~30 % in N1313 to the total [CII] emission. The main PDR physical parameters responsible for the neutral atomic gas emission in N1313 and N6946 do not significantly differ from what Malhotra etal (2001) found by modelling the integrated emission of a sample of 60 normal galaxies,although there are evidences for a beam averaged contribution of a less active component inside NGC6946 higher than its contribution in the integrated emission of normal galaxies. CO and [CII] in N6946 are well correlated with a mean [CII]/CO ratio similar to that of the normal galaxies sample. In N1313 the [CII]/CO seems to systematically increase from the North to the south, along the S-shaped spiral arm, indicating much more inhomogeneous conditions than in N6946. HI and [CII] in N6946 are completely de-correlated, probably because they arise from different gas components. In N1313 we successfully detect two distinct gas components: a cirrus-like component where HI and [CII] are weakly correlated as observed in our Galaxy, and a component associated with dense PDRs completely de-correlated from HI as observed in N6946.Finally, we find that the HI residing in dense PDRs and presumably recently photo-dissociated, constitutes a few % of the total HI. In turn, this dense gas component produces most of the [CII] emission emitted by the atomic neutral medium.Comment: Latex, 100 pages, 11 Figures, 11 Tables. Accepted for publication in A

Overexpression of Myocilin in the Drosophila Eye Activates the Unfolded Protein Response: Implications for Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the world's second leading cause of bilateral blindness with progressive loss of vision due to retinal ganglion cell death. Myocilin has been associated with congenital glaucoma and 2-4% of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) cases, but the pathogenic mechanisms remain largely unknown. Among several hypotheses, activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) has emerged as a possible disease mechanism.We used a transgenic Drosophila model to analyze whole-genome transcriptional profiles in flies that express human wild-type or mutant MYOC in their eyes. The transgenic flies display ocular fluid discharge, reflecting ocular hypertension, and a progressive decline in their behavioral responses to light. Transcriptional analysis shows that genes associated with the UPR, ubiquitination, and proteolysis, as well as metabolism of reactive oxygen species and photoreceptor activity undergo altered transcriptional regulation. Following up on the results from these transcriptional analyses, we used immunoblots to demonstrate the formation of MYOC aggregates and showed that the formation of such aggregates leads to induction of the UPR, as evident from activation of the fluorescent UPR marker, xbp1-EGFP. CONCLUSIONS / SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that aggregation of MYOC in the endoplasmic reticulum activates the UPR, an evolutionarily conserved stress pathway that culminates in apoptosis. We infer from the Drosophila model that MYOC-associated ocular hypertension in the human eye may result from aggregation of MYOC and induction of the UPR in trabecular meshwork cells. This process could occur at a late age with wild-type MYOC, but might be accelerated by MYOC mutants to account for juvenile onset glaucoma

Property composition and other constructs to support identity in OWL

This paper presents proposals for augmenting OWL Full with constructs necessary for supporting identity, an essential facility for ontologies governing interoperating information systems. These constructs include declaration that a property is one-to-one, a representation of the image of a property, and composition of properties. Using definitions from Category theory, property composition allows definition of Cartesian product without requiring that an individual have any internal structure. Category theory-style definitions and reasoning work entirely with properties, therefore are not affected by the open world semantics of OWL. The definitions permit representation of n-ary relations, association classes, parameterised families of properties and indexed families of classes

How computerised agents see the world

Agents, which are more or less autonomous programs performing tasks on behalf of users, act by exchange of messages. The content of messages is regulated by agreements called ontologies among the interoperating parties. In order for interoperation involving complex objects to be successful, there are several meta-ontological requirements, notably the ability to identify the object in the appropriate context and the ability to tell which are its parts. These issues of identity and unity are central to the OntoClean meta-ontology and method. This paper shows how they apply to a typical e-commerce application under multiple levels of refinement of more abstract objects into their parts. The point is made that a community of agents must operate in a world which is at least moderated, not a fully open world

A comparison of ontology servers

Recently, an ontology is increasingly becoming an essential tool for solving problems in many research areas. The ontology is a complex information object. It is used in practice and can contain millions of concepts in complex relationship. When we want to manage complex information objects, we generally turn to information systems technology. There are many tens of millions of information systems in use around the world doing many things ranging from helping a business manage its billing to keeping track of the design and parts inventory of large aircraft. An information system intended to manage ontology is called an ontology server. The ontology server technology is at the time of writing quite immature. Therefore, in this paper, we necessarily try to remain somewhat speculative in nature by reviewing several ontology servers in mainstream literatures. As a result, we point out some important opportunities that would trigger several research questions related to the server technology

How Computerised Agents See the World

Work performed partly while visiting LADSEB-CNR; Corso Stati Uniti, 4; Padova, Italia, Agents, which are more or less autonomous programs performing tasks on behalf of users, act by exchange of messages. The content of messages is regulated by agreements called ontologies among the interoperating parties. In order for interoperation involving complex objects to be successful, there are several meta-ontological requirements, notably the ability to identify the object in the appropriate context and the ability to tell which are its parts. These issues of identity and unity are central to the OntoClean meta-ontology and method. This paper shows how they apply to a typical e-commerce application under multiple levels of refinement of more abstract objects into their parts. In particular, it shows that identity and unity are sometimes represented lexically rather than logically, and how a state view of the interoperation follows naturally from its structural specification.