MSc Database Systems- Research Topics 2007

2007-03-20

David George

Research Focus

• Data and Information Integration

• Semantic Web - XML/RDF (W3C)

• Ontology (OWL) - focusing on Geographic Applications

Semantic Web

• A project aimed to make web pages machine understandable.

“An extension of the current Web, … information given well-defined meaning, …enabling computers and people to work in co-operation”

(Berners-Lee et al, 2001)

• A universal medium for information exchange; where Ontologies (formal taxonomies) provide meaning or semantics.

Ontologies in Computing

• “An Ontology is a formal, explicit specification of a

shared conceptualization” (Gruber, 1993 & Borst, 1997).

• Define the vocabulary of a “Domain”

concepts and their attributes relationships between concepts constraints on those relationships

Semantic Web

DE BRUIJN, J. (2003) Using Ontologies - Enabling Knowledge Sharing and Reuse on the Semantic Web [online]. DERI – Digital Enterprise Research Institute. Available from: http://www.deri.ie/publications/techpapers/documents/DERI-TR-2003-10-29.pdf. [Accessed 5 March 2007].

A Bibliographic Ontology

Biblio-Thing

Document

Book

Periodical-Publication

Journal

Magazine

Newspaper

Thesis

Doctoral-Thesis

Master-Thesis

Agent

PersonAuthor Organisation

Publisher University

A useful source for ontologies: http://protege.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ProtegeOntologiesLibraryhttp://protege.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ProtegeOntologiesLibrary

Transportation Tourism

Ontology: “Geo-Layers”

GeographicOntology:

Land-based Transport

Ontology Design: Best Practice

Ontology elements can be described as:

RailwayBridge ≡ (hasForm ∃ Structure) ⊓ (hasRole ∃ RailTransportRole)

– Primitives: self-standing entities (objects/forms) e.g. Structure, Bridge, Process, System

– Relations: “concept-linking” properties e.g. X hasRole Y

– Roles: functions e.g. RailTransportRole

and– Definables: where we define dependent concepts by

combining Primitives, Relations, and Roles e.g:

Transportation World: Mappings

servesLocation servesLocation

hasFacility

hasFacility

hasFacility

hasRole

hasRole

hasRole

accessedBy

accessedByhasFacility

hasFacility

TransportationConcept

Is-a

Is-a

Is-aIs-a

Is-a

servesLocation servesLocation

hasFacility

hasFacility

hasFacility

hasRole

hasRole

hasRole

accessedBy

accessedByhasFacility

hasFacility

TransportationConcept

Is-a

Is-a

Is-aIs-a

Is-a

Land-based Transport

Transportation World: Domain

M67M6

A6

Transportation World: Layers

M67M6

A6

Railway World: Conceptualisation

ContainerTerminal

hasRole LoadingPointUnloadingPoint

accessedVia

FreightLineRailwayJunction

servedBy FreightOperator

Railway World: Specification

Railway World: Development

Rail Transportation

RailTransportSystem

RailFreightSystem

RailPassengerSystem RailTransportRole

RailPassengerTranspRole

RailFreightTranspRole

RailTransportComponent

RailPassengerRoute

RailStation RailFreightTerminal

RailFreightRoute

endsAt

startsFrom

hasRailRole

hasRailComponent

hasRailRole

RoadTransportSystem

Road Transportation

A-RoadSystem

MotorwaySystem

RoadTransportRole

HighSpeedRouteRole

OrbitalRole

RoadTransportComponent

MotorwayJunc

Motorway

hasRoadRolehasRoadComponent

startsFrom

endsAt

HighSpeedNetwork

hasRoadRole

Population Groups

PopulationGroupComponent

CityTown

PopulationGroupRole

County

RegionalAdminRole

DormitoryTownRole

hasCommunityRole

hasCommunityRole

locatedIn

locatedIn

Land-Transportation

RailTransportSystem

RailFreightSystem

RailPassengerSystem

RailTransportRole

RailPassengerTranspRole

RailFreightTranspRole

RailTransportComponent

RailPassengerRoute

RailStation

RailFreightTerminal

RailFreightRoute

RoadTransportSystem

A-RoadSystem

MotorwaySystem

RoadTransportRole

HighSpeedRouteRole

OrbitalRole

RoadTransportComponent

MotorwayJunc

Motorway

HighSpeedNetwork

PopulationGroupComponent

City

Town

PopulationGroupRole

County

RegionalAdminRole

DormitoryTownRole

hasCommuterFacility

hasFreightOperation

passesThrough

hasCompetion

hasTransportInfrastructure

accessedVia

integratedWith

Foundation Ontology Mapping

ProcessObject

AbstractPhysical

RailwayPunctuality

Entity

TransportSystem

Motion

Transportation

Translocation

RailPassengerTransportation

Region

GeographicArea

LandArea

City

SelfConnectedObject

CorpuscularObject

Artifact

Device

TransportationDevice

Number

Quantity

RailTransportSystem

RailFreightSystem

RailPassengerSystem

RailTransportRole

RailPassengerTranspRole

RailFreightTranspRole

RailTransportComponent

RailPassengerRoute

RailStation

RailFreightTerminal

RailFreightRoute

RoadTransportSystem

A-RoadSystem

MotorwaySystem

RoadTransportRole

HighSpeedRouteRole

OrbitalRole

RoadTransportComponent

MotorwayJunc

Motorway

HighSpeedNetwork

PopulationGroupComponent

City

Town

PopulationGroupRole

County

RegionalAdminRole

DormitoryTownRole

Ontology: Railway Transportation

Ontology: Railway Transportation

Ontology: Railway Transportation

Geo-Layers Research

• Any questions?

RDF Example

Object, Attribute, Value triple:

Often stated as:Predicate (subject, object)

Semantic (Shadow) Web

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