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Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies, knowledge model, knowledge base

To: "[ontolog-forum] " <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "Obrst, Leo J." <lobrst@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2012 23:25:58 +0000
Message-id: <FDFBC56B2482EE48850DB651ADF7FEB01E7774BB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Rich,

 

Yes, you can index ontological expressions contextually, logically, in a number of ways, e.g., using IKL or labelled deduction/hybrid logic. See the following papers:

 

Andersen, Bill; Fabian Neuhaus. 2009.  An Ontological Approach to Information Access Control and Provenance. Proceedings of the 2009 International Conference on Ontologies for the Intelligence Community (OIC-2009, now STIDS). Fairfax, VA, USA, October 21-22, 2009, Paulo Costa, Kathryn Laskey, Leo Obrst, eds. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Volume 555. http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-555/.

 

Neuhaus, Fabian; Bill Andersen. 2011. Speech Acts and Tokens for Access Control and Provenance Tracking, pp. 44-51.  Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Semantic Technologies for Intelligence, Defense, and Security (STIDS-2011), Fairfax, VA, USA, November 16-17, 2011, Paulo C. G. Costa, Kathryn B. Laskey, eds. CEUR Workshop Proceedings, Volume 808.  http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-808/.

 

Obrst, L, D. Nichols. 2005. Context and Ontologies: Contextual Indexing of Ontological Expressions. AAAI 2005 Workshop on Context and Ontologies, poster, AAAI 2005, July 9-13, Pittsburgh, PA. http://www.mitre.org/work/tech_papers/tech_papers_05/05_0903/index.html.

 

Gabbay, Dov. 1996. Labelled Deductive Systems; Principles and Applications. Vol 1: Introduction. Oxford University Press.

 

Blackburn, Patrick. 1999. Internalizing Labelled Deduction. In Proceedings of Hylo’99, First International Workshop on Hybrid Logics. July 13th, 1999, Saarbrücken, Germany. Published in Journal of Logic and Computation, 2000 10(1):137-168.

 

 

Natural language applications:

 

Gabbay, Dov; Ruth Kempson. 1992. Natural-language content: a truth-theoretic perspective. In Proceedings of the 8th Amsterdam Formal Semantics Colloquium. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam.

 

Kempson, Ruth. 1996. Semantics, Pragmatics, and Natural-Language Interpretation. In the Handbook of Contemporary Semantic Theory. Shalom Lappin, ed., pp. 561-598. Blackwell.

 

Moortgat, Michael. 1999. Labelled Deduction in the Composition of Form and Meaning. In Logic, Language and Reasoning. Essays in Honor of Dov Gabbay. U. Reyle and H.J. Ohlbach, eds. Kluwer, 1999.

 

Thanks,

Leo

 

 

From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rich Cooper
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 4:52 PM
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies, knowledge model, knowledge base

 

Previous discussions described the variability of contexts. The reason it is important to store rules as well as facts in the database is that such architecture makes it very easy to store a table of context IDs and relate them to which rules and facts apply to each context ID.  Searching for contexts becomes very manageable with that method. 

 

To process a given context ID, retrieve all the rules and facts into a single graph (locked in fast memory) and then perform Q&A searches (also locked in memory) as needed to process part or all of the specified context.  The memory can be released when that context is no longer applicable.  Also, numerous contexts which are related can also be modeled in a graph, and searched, leading to recursive processes that are much easier to manage than without such capabilities. 

 

-Rich

 

Sincerely,

Rich Cooper

EnglishLogicKernel.com

Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com

9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2


From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rich Cooper
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 10:46 AM
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies, knowledge model, knowledge base

 

Dear John,

 

You wrote:

RC

> Actually, rules can be stored in relational DBs also, not just facts.

 

You can store anything in any DB, if you treat it as an uninterpreted "blob" (Binary Large Object).  The critical distinction is how and whether those rules are used in reasoning.

 

While BLOBs are widely used to store unstructured quantitative data such as EKG signals, documents, and such other byte arrays in a DB cell, that isn’t what I was referring to.  BLOBs are useful when the data can be inserted, queried or deleted in one hunk without further semantic interpretation by the DBMS.  Applications interpret each BLOB based on what the programmer “knows” the BLOB implements. 

 

Consider a parsed rule which parse produces a graph of the syntax of the rule.  Think of the way algebraic parsers operate.  The parse output consists of triples: one operator and two objects that participate in the operation of that triple.  Allocate one node in the graph for each of the three elements, with the operator at the top node and two arcs leaving said top node toward the two objects.  Store the graph in two tables called Nodes and Arcs. 

 

For parameterized function calls such as f(x,y), the parse produces arcs which are labeled with the parameterization term.  For example, consider the simple equation:

 

f(x,y) = x + y

 

which can be drawn in graph form as:

Whereas a BLOB could also be used, the above representation lets the programmer store the triples in Nodes and Arcs rows where they can be more easily programmed to traverse the graph. 

 

I use a different <Node, Arc> design for the triple graph from that I use for the search forest.  Searching the graph constructs the forest, and leads to the AND/OR structuring I’ve mentioned many times in past posts.  The solution subtree is the embedded tree with max value, min cost, or whatever criterion is used for choosing the preferred solution subtree. 

 

-Rich

 

Sincerely,

Rich Cooper

EnglishLogicKernel.com

Rich AT EnglishLogicKernel DOT com

9 4 9 \ 5 2 5 - 5 7 1 2

 

-----Original Message-----
From: ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ontolog-forum-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John F Sowa
Sent: Friday, August 10, 2012 9:11 AM
To: '[ontolog-forum] '
Subject: Re: [ontolog-forum] Ontologies, knowledge model, knowledge base

 

Doug and Rich,

 

In general, I agree that Cyc has a good metalevel terminology and

methodology for knowledge engineering.  But I would cite the warning

by Alan Perlis:  You can't translate informal language to formal

language by any formal algorithm.  There are many "judgment calls"

that cannot be stated in hard-and-fast rules.

 

DF

> At Cycorp... We considered an ontology to define terms, properties

> of terms, and theories about the terms, while a knowledge base was

> like a database, using terms defined and provided rules in the ontology

> to describe information about individuals in some domain of concern.

 

I agree that's a good distinction.  But the dividing line between what

should be in the definitions and what should be in the "background

knowledge" is often fuzzy.

 

Many people let their tools make the distinction:  if it can be

stated in OWL, it's ontology; anything else goes in the knowledge

base or database.  But that distinction is unreliable.

 

For example, Plato cited a definition of Human as 'animal with speech'

or 'featherless biped'.  Either one could be represented in OWL,

but the first is preferred because it is *essential*, but the other

is *accidental*.  However, many people -- Quine is a prime example --

maintain that there are no clear criteria for making that distinction.

 

DF

> Vocabulary microtheories, Theory microtheories, and Data microtheories.

 

That's also a good distinction.  But there are many vocabulary terms

that are also technical terms in some theory.  For example, the words

'force', 'energy', and 'mass' are common vocabulary terms that became

technical terms in physics.

 

When you have multiple microtheories that use the same technical terms,

you also run into issues about using values defined in different ways

in different microtheories.  That can become critical for a large

engineering project that uses different microtheories to specify

different kinds of components.

 

DF

> This term [knowledge model] was not used at Cycorp while i was there.

 

I agree that it's rare, and I would avoid it.

 

RC

> Actually, rules can be stored in relational DBs also, not just facts.

 

You can store anything in any DB, if you treat it as an uninterpreted

"blob" (Binary Large Object).  The critical distinction is how and

whether those rules are used in reasoning.

 

In SQL, there are three kinds of "knowledge" that can be used to

supplement the database:  *views*, which are backward-chaining rules;

*constraints*, which block illegal updates; and *triggers*, which

are forward-chaining rules that invoke operations during updates.

 

If you use those features extensively, they would make SQL into

a kind of deductive database that could be called a knowledge base.

This is an issue that many DB and AI people have been discussing

since the 1970s -- that includes Ted Codd, who was not happy with

the quirks and limitations of the SQL design and implementation.

 

RC

> In your tutorial, on slide 9, you state:

> 

>  We need better tools, interfaces, and methodologies:

>    ● Experts in any field spend years to become experts.

>    ● They don’t have time to learn complex tools and notations.

>    ● The ideal amount of training time is ZERO.

>    ● Subject-matter experts should do productive work on day 1.

> 

> The gist of that bullet list is that people should all learn one

> ontology language/toolset/methodology.

 

No, definitely not!  What I was trying to say is that future systems

should support *everybody's* favorite ontology and notation.  When

I said "zero training time", I meant that nobody should be required

to learn a notation or a vocabulary that is different from whatever

terms, diagrams, and notations they prefer for their daily work.

 

> The knowledge that SMEs develop is strictly in the application domain,

> and almost never in any theoretical area other than the usual minor

> amount of math, physics, chemistry or other more generalized knowledge.

 

I agree with that principle.  My only disagreement is in the claim

that applications don't involve theory.  I use the word 'theoretical'

for *every* kind of "book learning'.  That includes all knowledge

that is represented in words or symbols of any kind.

 

John

 

 

 

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