Nikolay A. SkvortsovInstitute for Informatics Problems

Russian Academy of Sciencesnskv@ipi.ac.ru

http://synthesis.ipi.ac.ru/

RCDL’2008 Dubna

Application of upper ontologyfor information model mapping

Information model mapping

Major approach Functions of construct mapping for particular models

Commutative mapping Based on specification refinement relation

Model Unifier tool Scalability for many heterogeneous models Source models are mapped to the canonical model Search for similar constructs of source and canonical

models Required extensions of canonical model core are registered Verification of refinement between source and canonical

model with extensions

Reference schemas of information models

Specifies significant model constructsAbstract specification, independent on syntaxCreated from abstract syntax of model and

checked by expertIncludes

simple types enumerations abstract data types associations (attributes of abstract data types)

Reference schema of OWL (spec)

{ Ontology; in: type;

name: string;

directives: {set; type_of_element:

Directive}

},

{ Directive; in: type},

{ Axiom; in: type;

supertype: Directive

},

{ ClassAxiom; in: type;

supertype: Axiom;

name: string;

descriptions: {set; type_of_element:

Description}

},

{ Description; in: type},

{ SubclassOf; in: type;

supertype: Description;

reference: Description

},

{ ObjectPropertyAxiom; in: type;

supertype: Axiom;

name: string;

inverseOf: ObjectPropertyAxiom;

kind: {set; type_of_element:

ObjectPropertyKind};

super: {set; type_of_element:

SuperProperty};

_domain: {set; type_of_element:

ObjectPropertyDomain};

_range: {set; type_of_element:

ObjectPropertyRange}

},

{ ObjectPropertyKind; in: enum;

enum_list: {Functional;

InverseFunctional;

Simmetric;

Transitive}

}

Reference schema of Synthesis (spec)

{ Module; in: type;

name: string;

_class_spec: {set; type_of_element:

Class-Declaration};

_type: {set; type_of_element:

Type-Specification}

},

{ Type-Specification; in: type;

_supertype: {set; type_of_element:

Type-Specification}

},

{ Abstract-Type; in: type;

supertype: Type-Specification;

name: string;

attributes: {set; type_of_element:

Abstract-Type}

},

{ Class-Declaration; in: type;

name: string;

_superclass: {set; type_of_element:

Class-Declaration}

},

{ Attribute-Specification; in: type;

name: string;

attribute-type: Type-Specification;

metaslot: Attribute-Metaslot

},

{ Association-Metaclass; in: type;

supertype: Class-Declaration;

_inverse: Association-Metaclass;

_domain: Class-Declaration;

_range: Class-Declaration;

_association_type: Association-Type

}

Upper ontology of modeling constructs

Same constructs usually used in a class of models structural functional object behavioral ontological

Upper ontology specifies common principles used in a class of models

Most constructs are represented as combinations of simple ones or concretization of one of them

The ontology of structural models

R. Hull, R. King. Semantic Database Modeling: Survey, Applications, and Research Issues. ACM Computing Surveys, Vol. 19, 1987

Types Abstract types Printable (string, number, image) Constructed (aggregation, grouping)

Attributes (of types, metaattribute) Argument number Domain, range Cardinality Invertible, optional, multivalued, key

Is-a Hierarchy (of types, of attributes) Subset, specialization

The ontology of structural models (spec)

{ AbstractType; in: concept;

supertype: AtomicType

},

{ ConstructedType; in: concept;

supertype: _Type

},

{ Aggregation; in: concept;

supertype: ConstructedType;

components: {set; type_of_element:

_Type};

arity: integer;

inv: {in: predicate, invariant;

{ predicative:

{all p/Aggregation

(card(p.components = p.arity)}}}

},

{ Grouping; in: concept;

supertype: ConstructedType;

activeDomain: _Type;

element: _Type

},

{ Attribute; in: concept;

supertype: Construct;

argumentNumber: integer;

_domain: {set; type_of_element: _Type};

_range: {set; type_of_element: _Type};

_inverse: Attribute;

minCardinality: integer;

maxCardinality: integer;

minInverseCardinality: integer;

maxInverseCardinality: integer;

isOptional: boolean;

isMultivalued: boolean;

isKey: boolean

},

{ OneArgumentAttribute; in: concept;

supertype: Attribute;

oneArgInv: {in: predicate, invariant;

{ predicative:

{all p/OneArgumentAttribute

(p.argumentNumber = 1)}}}

}

Annotation of reference schemas

What does the construct mean in the prospect of the ontology?

Annotation of constructs in reference schema in terms of upper ontology

Constructs are instances of ontological concepts or of subtypes (expressions) of ontological concepts

Reference schema specifications doesn’t depend on ontological or annotating specifications

Annotation of reference schemas (spec)

{ Module;

in: type, AggregationOfTwoGroups;

name: string;

_type: {set; type_of_element:

Type-Specification};

_class_spec: {set; type_of_element:

Class-Declaration}

}

{ AggregationOfTwoGroups;

in: concept;

supertype: Aggregation;

arityInvariant: {

in: predicate, invariant;

{predicative:

{all p/AggregationOfTwoGroups

(p.arity = 2 & all r/_Type

(in(r, p.components)

->r/Grouping))

}}

}

}

Reference schema integration (1)

V – source schema, U – target schemaPurpose: model mapping MU(V)O – upper ontologyuU, vV, <u,c>AU, <v,d>AV – annotations,

c and d are concepts or subtypes of concepts of O.

<u,v> – ontologically relevant pair, iff c⊑d

V U

AV AU

O

⊑

MU(V)

Reference schema integration (2)

The task in terms of ontology (abstract from reference schemas): find all c from AU which are subtypes of a d from AV

c subtype of d (c⊑d) iff supertypes of c in O are subtypes of supertypes of d types of attributes of c are subtypes of attributes of d full invariant of c stronger than full invariant of d

V U

AV AU

O

⊑

MU(V)

Reference schema integration (spec)

{ MetaclassAssociationConcept;

in: concept;

sypertype: oneArgumentAttribute;

_domain: AbstractType;

_range: AbstractType;

_inverse: OneArgumentAttribute;

}

{ AttributeConcept;

in: concept;

sypertype: oneArgumentAttribute;

_domain: AbstractType;

_range: _Type;

_inverse: none;

}

Application of the approach

A step in any task requiring model mappingImplementation for ontology in OWL DL

Subsumption verification in Pellet

Upper ontologies for different classes of models Workflow patterns (by W. van der Aalst) for process models DOLCE for linguistic and ontological models

Model Unifier Search for relevant constructs in the canonical model core Search for relevant constructs in registered extensions

(canonical model extension reuse)

Nikolay A. SkvortsovInstitute for Informatics Problems

Russian Academy of Sciencesnskv@ipi.ac.ru

http://synthesis.ipi.ac.ru/

RCDL’2008 Dubna

Application of upper ontologyfor information model mapping