Dr.

Hoang Huu Hanh, SoST DoIT, HUSC

hanh-at-hueuni.edu.vn

IntroductiontoOntologies OntologyEngineering

Section1

OntologyinPhilosophy:
Themetaphysicalstudyofthenatureofbeing andexistence

OntologyinArtificialIntelligence:
asharedandcommonunderstandingofsome domainthatcanbecommunicatedbetween peopleandapplicationsystems (Gruber)

Ontology(languages)fortheSemanticWeb: Weaimata(XMLbased)languagetoformallydescribe concepts,instances,relationsandaxioms,i.e.data+structure inordertoenablemachineprocessablereasoningonand exchangeof data. Knowledgerepresentation,exchange,combination (inferenceofnewknowledge!)

Ontologiesarecontenttheoriesaboutthesortsof objects,propertiesofobjects,andrelations betweenobjectsthatarepossibleinaspecified domainofknowledge.

Ontologyasvocabulary
Ontologyisarepresentationvocabulary,oftenspecializedto somedomainorsubjectmatter.

Ontologyascontenttheory
Themaincontributionofontologyistoidentifyspecific classesofobjectsandrelationsthatexistinsomedomain.

Studer(98): Formal,explicitspecificationofasharedconceptualization

Machine readable Concepts,properties, functions,axioms areexplicitlydefined

Consensual knowledge Abstractmodelof somephenomena intheworld

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Concepts:Classes+classhierarchy Properties:oftenalsocalledRolesorSlots Axioms/Relations:

labeledinstancevaluepairs relationsbetweenclasses(disjoint,covers) inheritance(multiple?defaults?) restrictionsonslots(type,cardinality) Characteristicsofslots(symm.,trans.,) instances

reasoningtasks:

Classification:Whichclassesdoesaninstancebelongto? Subsumption:Doesaclasssubsumeanotherone? Consistencychecking:Isthereacontradictioninmy axioms/instances?

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Ontologicalanalysisclarifiesthestructureof knowledge. Ontologiesenableknowledgesharing.

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Welldesigned
Usefulandprovenmodellingprimitives Intuitivetohumanusers Expressiveenough Efficientandcompletereasoningsupport

Welldefined
clearsyntax readontologies Formalsemantics understand(process)ontologies to facilitatemachineinterpretationofthatsemantics

Compatible
Easymapping to/fromotherontologylanguages Maximumcompatibility withXMLandRDF(S)
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Section2

OntologyEngineering: Definingtermsinthe domainandrelationsamongthem

Definingconceptsinthedomain(classes) Arrangingtheconceptsinahierarchy(subclass superclasshierarchy) Definingwhichattributesandproperties (slots) classescanhaveandconstraintsontheirvalues Definingindividuals andfillinginslotvalues

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Screenshotsinfurtherexamplesarefrom Protg,which:
isagraphicalontologydevelopmenttool supportsarichknowledgemodel isopensourceandfreelyavailable (http://protege.stanford.edu/)

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Whatisthedomainthattheontologywillcover? Forwhatwearegoingtousetheontology? Forwhattypesofquestionstheinformationin theontologyshouldprovideanswers (competencyquestions)?

Answerstothesequestionsmaychangeduringthe lifecycle

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Which wine should I serve with seafood today?

French wines and wine regions

A shared ONTOLOGY of wine and food

California wines and wine regions

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WhichwinecharacteristicsshouldIconsider whenchoosingawine? IsBordeauxaredorwhitewine? DoesCabernetSauvignongowellwithseafood? Whatisthebestchoiceofwineforgrilledmeat? Whichcharacteristicsofawineaffectits appropriatenessforadish? Doesaflavororbodyofaspecificwinechange withvintageyear?

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wine,grape,winery,location,... winecolor,winebody,wineflavor,sugar content,... whitewine,redwine,Bordeauxwine,... food,seafood,fish,meat,vegetables,cheese,...

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Aclassisaconcept inthedomain
aclassofwines aclassofwineries aclassofredwines

Aclassisacollection ofelements(instances ofclasses)withsimilarproperties

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Classesusuallyconstituteataxonomichierarchy (a subclasssuperclass hierarchy) AclasshierarchyisusuallyanISAhierarchy:

aninstanceofasubclassisaninstanceofasuperclass

Ifyouthinkofaclassasaset ofelements,a subclassisasubset

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AppleisasubclassofFruit
Everyappleisafruit

RedwinesisasubclassofWine
Everyredwineisawine

ChiantiwineisasubclassofRedwine
EveryChiantiwineisaredwine

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topdown definethemostgeneralconcepts firstandthenspecializethem bottomup definethemostspecific conceptsandthenorganizetheminmore generalclasses combination definethemoresalient conceptsfirstandthengeneralizeand specializethem

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Classes(andslots)usuallyhave documentation
Describingtheclassinnaturallanguage Listingdomainassumptionsrelevanttotheclass definition Listingsynonyms

Documentingclassesandslotsisas importantasdocumentingcomputercode!
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Slotsinaclassdefinitiondescribeattributes ofinstancesoftheclassandrelationstoother instances Eachwinewillhavecolor,sugarcontent, producer,etc

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Typesofproperties
intrinsicproperties:flavor andcolor ofwine extrinsicproperties:name andprice ofwine parts: ingredients inadish relationstootherobjects:producer ofwine(winery)

Simpleandcomplexproperties
simpleproperties(attributes):containprimitivevalues (strings,numbers) complexproperties:contain(orpointto)otherobjects (e.g.,awineryinstance)
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(inProtg2000)
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Asubclassinheritsalltheslots fromthe superclass

Ifawinehasanameandflavor,aredwinealsohasaname andflavor

Ifaclasshasmultiple superclasses,itinherits slotsfromallofthem

Portisbothadessertwineandaredwine.Itinheritssugar content:highfromtheformerandcolor:redfromthe latter
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Propertyconstraints(facets)describeorlimit thesetofpossiblevaluesforaslot
Thenameofawineisastring ThewineproducerisaninstanceofWinery Awineryhasexactlyonelocation

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Slotcardinality thenumberofvaluesaslot has Slotvaluetype thetypeofvaluesaslothas Minimumandmaximum value arangeof valuesforanumericslot Default value thevalueaslothasunless explicitlyspecifiedotherwise

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Minimumcardinality
Minimumcardinality1 meansthattheslotmusthavea value(required) Minimumcardinality0 meansthattheslotvalueis optional

Maximumcardinality
Maximumcardinality1 meansthattheslotcanhaveat mostonevalue(singlevaluedslot) Maximumcardinalitygreaterthan1 meansthattheslot canhavemorethanonevalue(multiplevaluedslot)
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String:astringofcharacters(ChteauLafite) Number:anintegerorafloat(15,4.5) Boolean:atrue/falseflag Enumeratedtype:alistofallowedvalues(high, medium,low) Complextype:aninstanceofanotherclass

Specifytheclasstowhichtheinstancesbelong

TheWineclassisthevaluetypefortheslot producesattheWineryclass
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Domain ofaslot theclass(orclasses)that havetheslot

Moreprecisely:class(orclasses)instancesof whichcanhavetheslot

Range ofaslot theclass(orclasses)to whichslotvaluesbelong

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Asubclassinherits alltheslotsfromthesuperclass Asubclasscanoverride thefacetstonarrowthe listofallowedvalues

Makethecardinalityrangesmaller Replaceaclassintherangewithasubclass
Wine
is-a producer

Winery
is-a

French wine

producer

French winery
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Createaninstanceofaclass
Theclassbecomesadirecttype oftheinstance Anysuperclassofthedirecttypeisatype oftheinstance

Assignslotvaluesfortheinstanceframe
Slotvaluesshouldconformtothefacetconstraints Knowledgeacquisitiontoolsoftencheckthat

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Thethingstoremember:
Thereisnosinglecorrectclasshierarchy Buttherearesomeguidelines

Thequestiontoask:
Iseachinstanceofthesubclassisaninstanceofits superclass?

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Theisarelationshipistransitive:
BisasubclassofA CisasubclassofB CisasubclassofA

Adirectsuperclass ofaclassisitsclosest superclass

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Aclasscanhavemorethan onesuperclass Asubclassinheritsslotsand facetrestrictionsfromall theparents Differentsystemsresolve conflictsdifferently

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Classesaredisjoint iftheycannothavecommoninstances Disjointclassescannothaveanycommonsubclasses either

Port Dessert wine

Wine

Redwine,Whitewine, Roswinearedisjoint DessertwineandRed winearenotdisjoint

Red wine

White wine

Ros wine

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Dangerofmultiple inheritance:cyclesinthe classhierarchy ClassesA,B,andChave equivalentsetsofinstances

Bymanydefinitions,A,B,andC arethusequivalent

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Allthesiblings intheclass hierarchymustbeatthe samelevelofgenerality Comparetosectionand subsectionsinabook

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Ifaclasshasonlyonechild, theremaybeamodeling problem IftheonlyRedBurgundywe haveisCtesdOr,why introducethesubhierarchy? Comparetobulletsina bulletedlist

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Ifaclasshasmore thanadozen children,additional subcategoriesmaybe necessary However,ifnonatural classificationexists, thelonglistmaybe morenatural

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Class

Awineisnotakindof wines Awineisaninstance ofthe classWines

instance-of

Instance

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Classesrepresentconcepts inthedomain,nottheir names Theclassnamecanchange,butitwillstillreferto thesameconcept Synonymnames forthesameconceptarenot differentclasses

Manysystemsallowlistingsynonymsaspartoftheclass definition

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DOMAIN class slot

RANGE allowed values

Whendefiningadomainorrangeforaslot,findthe mostgeneralclass orclasses Considertheflavor slot

Domain:Redwine,Whitewine,Roswine Domain:Wine

Considertheproduces slotforaWinery:
Range:Redwine,Whitewine,Roswine Range:Wine
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Aclassandasuperclass replacewiththe superclass Allsubclassesofaclass replacewiththe superclass Mostsubclassesofa class consider replacingwiththe superclass

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Makerand Producer areinverse slots

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Defaultvalue avaluetheslotgetswhenan instanceiscreated Adefaultvaluecanbechanged Thedefaultvalueisacommon valueforthe slot,butisnotarequiredvalue Forexample,thedefaultvalueforwinebody canbeFULL

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Anontologyshouldnotcontainall the possibleinformationaboutthedomain

Noneedtospecializeorgeneralizemorethanthe applicationrequires Noneedtoincludeallpossiblepropertiesofa class
Onlythemostsalientproperties Onlythepropertiesthattheapplicationsrequire

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Ontologyofwine,food,andtheirpairingsprobably willnotinclude
Bottlesize Labelcolor Myfavoritefoodandwine

Anontologyofbiologicalexperimentswillcontain
Biologicalorganism Experimenter

IstheclassExperimenterasubclassofBiological organism?
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thispresentationisbasedontutorialsandpresentations: D.Lee,F.Harmelen,M.Arumugam,C.Goble,I.Horrocks,N.F.Noy, D.L.McGuinness,J.Broekstra,M.Klein,S.Decker,D.Fensel

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