Nikolay A. Skvortsov

1
Application of upper ontologyfor information
model mapping

• Nikolay A. Skvortsov
• Institute for Informatics Problems
• Russian Academy of Sciences
• nskv_at_ipi.ac.ru
• http//synthesis.ipi.ac.ru/
• RCDL2008 Dubna

2
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

3
Reference schemas of information models

• Specifies significant model constructs
• Abstract specification, independent on syntax
• Created from abstract syntax of model and checked
  by expert
• Includes
• simple types
• enumerations
• abstract data types
• associations (attributes of abstract data types)

4
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

5
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

6
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

7
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

8
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

• 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

9
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 doesnt depend on
  ontological or annotating specifications

10
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)
• -gtr/Grouping))

11
Reference schema integration (1)

• V source schema, U target schema
• Purpose model mapping MU(V)
• O upper ontology
• u?U, v?V, ltu,cgt?AU, ltv,dgt?AV annotations,c and
  d are concepts or subtypes of concepts of O.
• ltu,vgt ontologically relevant pair, iff c?d

12
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

13
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

14
Application of the approach

• A step in any task requiring model mapping
• Implementation 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)

15
Application of upper ontologyfor information
model mapping

• Nikolay A. Skvortsov
• Institute for Informatics Problems
• Russian Academy of Sciences
• nskv_at_ipi.ac.ru
• http//synthesis.ipi.ac.ru/
• RCDL2008 Dubna