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Summer outbreaks of the dinoflagellate Alexandrium taylorii Balech are recurrent events in nearshore waters of Sicily (Italy)—a central region in the Mediterranean Sea—producing dense yellowish-green patches. Beyond the local phenomenon, the problem covers a broader geographic scale, involving also other European localities, mostly in Spain. Biological, environmental, and molecular data are reported here from a semi-closed bay of Sicily (Vulcano Island, Tyrrhenian Sea, 2000-2003), showing in summer the recurrence of high-biomass blooms and events of water discolouration. Without underestimating the setbacks to the tourism industry, the ecological impact of A. taylorii blooms may be important considering the high levels of biomass produced (West Bay, Vulcano: up to a magnitude order of 107 cells l−1, 50-180 µg-Chla l−1, June 2002 and 2003) and coincident conditions of oxygen supersaturation of the waters (130-170%). Trophic trends in the Tyrrhenian site indicate high amounts of nutrients linked to the increased anthropogenic activity in summer, although recently there has been an apparent shift of the marked eutrophic conditions towards a slighter eutrophy. Genetic data on isolates of A. taylorii from the Mediterranean Sea are also discussed. Molecular analyses implied the sequencing of target rDNA regions (5.8S rDNA and ITS regions) of several isolates from different Mediterranean localities, as well as the application of species-specific PCR assays for rapid species identification in preserved field samples. The confirmation of the specific identity provided new insights into the biogeography of this species and further evidence of the occurrence of A. taylorii in a number of Mediterranean localities, both in the western side (the Catalan coast of Spain) and the eastern area (Greece). Analyses of the molecular diversity of geographically distinct isolates of A. taylorii from Italy, Spain, and Greece based on the 5.8S rDNAITS region sequences showed a high level of similarity, indicating the existence of an unique Mediterranean population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a comprehensive approach to ontology evaluation and validation, which have become a crucial problem for the development of semantic technologies. Existing evaluation methods are integrated into one sigle framework by means of a formal model. This model consists, firstly, of a meta-ontology called O2, that characterises ontologies as semiotic objects. Based on O2 and an analysis of existing methodologies, we identify three main types of measures for evaluation: structural measures, that are typical of ontologies represented as graphs; functional measures, that are related to the intended use of an ontology and of its components; and usability-profiling measures, that depend on the level of annotation of the considered ontology. The meta-ontology is then complemented with an ontology of ontology validation called oQual, which provides the means to devise the best set of criteria for choosing an ontology over others in the context of a given project. Finally, we provide a small example of how to apply oQual-derived criteria to a validation case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the status of research on detection and prevention of financial fraud undertaken as part of the IST European Commission funded FF POIROT (Financial Fraud Prevention Oriented Information Resources using Ontology Technology) project, and in particular the interplay of, and tension between, modelling factual and legal aspects of a case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and international trade have transformed the delivery of transnational legal services worldwide. Law firms face market competition through a variety of strategies, ranging from expansion in size, specialization of services, international alliances or creation of networks. Transnational legal networks (TLN) have emerged as one of those alternatives, but they face a number of organizational challenges: cross-referral of cases, knowledge management strategies, exchange of information, etc. The Netcase project aims at addressing those major challenges by proposing an intelligent system of automatic case forwarding within TLN. Netcase is able to analyze incoming cases and assign them to the most appropriate law firms and lawyers. The selection is based on law firm specialties, availability of resources, and lawyers' skills. The model results in a central market where lawyers and law firms are skill producers, law firms are also skill containers, and legal cases are goods that need skills to be solved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we describe the use of legal ontologies as a basis to improve IT support for professional judges. In the ontology, we emphasize the importance of professional knowledge and experience as an important pillar for constructing the ontology. We describe an intelligent FAQ system for junior judges that intensively uses the ontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legal web information retrieval systems need the capability to reason with the knowledge modeled by legal ontologies. Using this knowledge it is possible to represent and to make inferences about the semantic content of legal documents. In this paper a methodology for applying NLP techniques to automatically create a legal ontology is proposed. The ontology is defined in the OWL semantic web language and it is used in a logic programming framework, EVOLP+ISCO, to allow users to query the semantic content of the documents. ISCO allows an easy and efficient integration of declarative, object-oriented and constraint-based programming techniques with the capability to create connections with external databases. EVOLP is a dynamic logic programming framework allowing the definition of rules for actions and events. An application of the proposed methodology to the legal information retrieval system of the Portuguese Attorney General's Office is described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method to identify ontology components is presented in this article. The method relies on Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques to extract concepts and relations among these concepts. This method is applied in the legal field to build an ontology dedicated to information retrieval. Legal texts on which the method is performed are carefully chosen as describing and conceptualizing the legal domain. We suggest that this method can help legal ontology designers and may be used while building ontologies dedicated to other tasks than information retrieval [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pragmatics concerns itself with discourse as an illocutory act in a dynamic context. Building an ontology means that you describe a state of the world at a certain moment and in a certain form. How is it possible to take into account the dynamic and implicit dimension of legal discourse in the building of an ontology? This article mainly explores the new research area of institutional pragmatics and will conclude with some contradictory perspectives on pragmatics and ontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents how to build an ontology in the legal domain following the ontology development methodology METHONTOLOGY and using the ontology engineering workbench WebODE. Both of them have been widely used to develop ontologies in many other domains. The ontology used to illustrate this paper has been extracted from an existing class taxonomy proposed by Breuker, and adapted to the Spanish legal domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an ontological model of norms. The basic assumption is that a substantial part of a legal system is grounded on the concept of agency. Since a legal system aims at regulating a society, then its goal can be achieved only by affecting the behavior of the members of the society. We assume that a society is made up of agents (which can be individuals, institutions, software programs, etc.), that agents have beliefs, goals and preferences, and that they commit to intentions in order to choose a line of behavior. The role of norms, within a legal system, is to specify how and when the chosen behavior agrees with the basic principles of the legal system. In this article, we show how a model based on plans can be the basis for the ontological representation of norms, linking them to the upper level of a philosophically well-founded ontology (DOLCE); in this way, the model is set in a wider perspective, which opens the way to further developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing development of legal ontologies seems to offer interesting solutions to legal knowledge formalization, which in past experiences lead to a limited exploitation of legal expert systems for practical use. The paper describes how a constructive approach to ontology can provide useful components to create newly designed legal decision support systems either as local or Web-based semantic services. We describe the relation of our research to AI&Law and legal philosophy, the components of our Core Legal Ontology, the JurWordNet semantic lexicon, and some examples of use of legal ontologies for both norm conformity and compatibility. Our legal ontologies are based on DOLCE+, an extension of the DOLCE foundational ontology developed in the WonderWeb and Metokis EU projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reasoning about causation in fact is an essential element of attributing legal responsibility. Therefore, the automation of the attribution of legal responsibility requires a modelling effort aimed at the following: a thorough understanding of the relation between the legal concepts of responsibility and of causation in fact; a thorough understanding of the relation between causation in fact and the common sense concept of causation; and, finally, the specification of an ontology of the concepts that are minimally required for (automatic) common sense reasoning about causation. This article offers a worked out example of the indicated analysis, which comprises: a definition of the legal concept of responsibility; a definition of the legal concept of causation in fact; CausatiOnt, an AI-like ontology of the common sense (causal) concepts that are minimally needed for reasoning about the legal concept of causation in fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we propose a number of basic types and roles of ontologies, and use them as a basis to analyze several legal ontologies in the AI and Law literature. We discuss some dimensions in which to distinguish types of ontologies, for example considering their level of structure. We propose five main roles of ontologies in general: (a) organize and structure information; (b) reasoning and problem solving; (c) se-mantic indexing and search; (d) semantics integration and interoperation; and (e) understanding the domain. We then discuss example of works that have exploited each of these roles in the AI and Law literature. Further, we discuss some of the consequences of using ontologies to play each of these roles in terms of the level of structure of the knowledge represented in the ontologies, the kinds of knowledge representation formalisms they use, and the reasoning methods they employ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we present an overview of legal ontological modeling over a period of more than a decade. Most of the research reported concerns results from mid-size (European) projects aimed at the development of legal reasoning and information management tools and systems. In these projects we developed ontologies for several legal or regulation domains. However, the main thread of this article is provided by fundamental research performed by us or under our supervision (e.g. PhD theses by [1], [2], [3]), leading to more abstract legal ‘core' ontologies and legal reasoning architectures. The major insights we have obtained from these experiences can be summarized as follows: Legal sources contain and assume non-legal, common-sense based domain knowledge. Therefore, a legal core ontology should be rooted in highly abstract common sense concepts as a foundational ontology. This notion is worked out in the LRI-Core ontology, presented in this article. What remains as typical legal knowledge to be modelled is normative and legal responsability knowledge. However, in this article we only summarize our work in this area, refering to [4] and to [5] on these issues. As law and legal theory is focussed on questions of justification, legal (core) ontologies, e.g. FOLaw, are epistemological frameworks, describing legal reasoning, rather than legal ontologies, explaining knowledge resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new technologies imply important changes for judges in documentation consulting and other working habits. Presently, the legal codes and many judicial publications are being archived on electronic support and complex text and data bases are built up. How the judges are currently working and which are their difficulties? Would an interactive network help them to resolve the cases they face? These points and other many aspects of their daily activity are better known through the answers of the judges in a survey through questionnaire. Multidimensional exploratory techniques are used to design typologies according to the whole of the answers relative to the documents consulting. The authors use a survey to the young Spanish Judges to build up clusters of judges in accordance to their working habits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article shows how the first generalized developments of legal informatics in the Civil Law systems were coherent with the dominant conception of the Law during the 70s and 80s. Today, that conception of the Law is in crisis, and it is possible to talk about a change in the mentality of jurists as well. Both changes generate new spaces and further opportunities for legal informatics and for legal knowledge management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we introduce the role of Semantic Web technology for the legal domain. We will briefly discuss the current use of Information Technology in the legal domain, followed by an introduction to the Semantic Web. We then will put forward what we see as the particularities of the legal domain that need to be taken into account by technological solutions. Finally, we will explain how the articles in this volume contribute to the application of Semantic Web technology in the legal domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human papillomaviruses (HPV) comprise a genus in the species Papovaviridae, which consist of small, naked icosahedral viruses containing circular dsDNA. HPV types 16 and 18 infect squamous epithelium of the genitalia and may infect as many as 45% of the female population in developed countries (1). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Welcome to the Proceedings of the first IFIP WG 2.12 & WG 12.4 International Workshop on Web Semantics (SWWS'05). This book reflects the issues raised and presented during the SWWS workshop which proves to be an interdisciplinary forum for subject matters involving the theory and practice of web semantics. A special session on Regulatory Ontologies has been organized to allow researcher of different backgrounds (such as Law, Business, Ontologies, artificial intelligence, philosophy, and lexical semantics) to meet and exchange ideas. This first year, a total of 35 papers were submitted to SWWS. Each submission was reviewed by at least two experts. The papers were judged according to their originality, validity, significance to theory and practice, readability and organization, and relevancy to the workshop topics and beyond. This resulted in the selection of 18 papers for presentation at the workshop and publication in this proceedings. We feel that these Proceedings will inspire further research and create an intense following. The Program Committee comprised: Aldo Gangemi, Amit Sheth, Androod Nikvesh, Mihaela Ulieru, Mohand-Said Hacid, Mukesh Mohania, Mustafa Jarrar, Nicola Guarino, Peter Spyns, Pieree Yves Schobbens, Qing Li, Radboud Winkels, Ramasamy Uthurusamy, Richard Benjamins, Rita Temmerman, Robert Meersman, Robert Tolksdorf, Said Tabet, Stefan Decker, Susan Urban, Tharam Dillon, Trevor Bench-Capon, Usuama Fayed, Valentina Tamma, Wil van der Aalst, York Sure, and Zahir Tari. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]