29 results on '"Borgo, Stefano"'
Search Results
2. Towards a formal ontology of engineering functions, behaviours, and capabilities.
- Author
-
Compagno, Francesco and Borgo, Stefano
- Subjects
ONTOLOGY ,ENGINEERING models ,FIRST-order logic ,ENGINEERING ,ENGINEERING systems - Abstract
In both applied ontology and engineering, functionality is a well-researched topic, since it is through teleological causal reasoning that domain experts build mental models of engineering systems, giving birth to functions. These mental models are important throughout the whole lifecycle of any product, being used from the design phase up to diagnosis activities. Though a vast amount of work to model functions has already been carried out, the literature has not settled on a shared and well-defined approach due to the variety of concepts involved and the modeling tasks that functional descriptions should satisfy. The work in this paper posits the basis and makes some crucial steps towards a rich ontological description of functions and related concepts, such as behaviour, capability, and capacity. A conceptual analysis of such notions is carried out using the top-level ontology DOLCE as a framework, and the ensuing logical theory is formally described in first-order logic and OWL, showing how ontological concepts can model major aspects of engineering products in applications. In particular, it is shown how functions can be distinguished from the implementation methods to realize them, how one can differentiate between capabilities and capacities of a product, and how these are related to engineering functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. Modeling Manufacturing Resources: An Ontological Approach
- Author
-
Sanfilippo, Emilio M., Benavent, Sergio, Borgo, Stefano, Guarino, Nicola, Troquard, Nicolas, Romero, Fernando, Rosado, Pedro, Solano, Lorenzo, Belkadi, Farouk, Bernard, Alain, Rannenberg, Kai, Editor-in-Chief, Sakarovitch, Jacques, Series Editor, Goedicke, Michael, Series Editor, Tatnall, Arthur, Series Editor, Neuhold, Erich J., Series Editor, Pras, Aiko, Series Editor, Tröltzsch, Fredi, Series Editor, Pries-Heje, Jan, Series Editor, Whitehouse, Diane, Series Editor, Reis, Ricardo, Series Editor, Furnell, Steven, Series Editor, Furbach, Ulrich, Series Editor, Winckler, Marco, Series Editor, Rauterberg, Matthias, Series Editor, Chiabert, Paolo, editor, Bouras, Abdelaziz, editor, Noël, Frédéric, editor, and Ríos, José, editor
- Published
- 2018
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
4. Knowledge-based adaptive agents for manufacturing domains
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Cesta, Amedeo, Orlandini, Andrea, and Umbrico, Alessandro
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
5. Foundational ontologies in action.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) , *ONTOLOGY - Abstract
Keywords: Foundational ontologies; upper ontologies; BFO; DOLCE; GFO; GUM; TUpper; UFO; YAMATO EN Foundational ontologies upper ontologies BFO DOLCE GFO GUM TUpper UFO YAMATO 1 16 16 04/07/22 20220101 NES 220101 Understanding foundational ontology through examples 1. The final FOUST template, followed by all contributions, has the following core structure, where we use I O i to denote generically some foundational ontology: Introduction: I An introduction to the ontology, together with some historical background and motivations i . Upper ontologies, BFO, DOLCE, GFO, GUM, TUpper, UFO, YAMATO, Foundational ontologies The TUpper Ontology has developed quite recently since around 2017 (Grüninger et al., [16]) and is designed as a top-level ontology that contains modules from ontologies within existing international standards, extended so as to satisfy the criteria for top level ontologies specified in ISO/IEC 21838-1. In developing ontologies for application to information systems, however, researchers have often taken pains to draw a line between what they are doing and philosophical ontology, on the grounds that the goals of the two enterprises are quite different, with applied ontology answerable to pragmatic concerns supposedly absent from purely philosophical pursuits. [Extracted from the article]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
6. YAMATO: Yet-another more advanced top-level ontology.
- Author
-
Mizoguchi, Riichiro, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGY , *MODERN society , *ENGINEERING design , *PHILOSOPHERS - Abstract
yamato sharply distinguishes itself from other existing upper ontologies in the following respects. (1) Most importantly, yamato is designed with both engineering and philosophical minds. (2) yamato is based on a sophisticated theory of roles, given that the world is full of roles. (3) yamato has a tenable theory of functions which helps to deal with artifacts effectively. (4) Information is a 'content-bearing' entity and it differs significantly from the entities that philosophers have traditionally discussed. Taking into account the modern society in which a flood of information occurs, yamato has a sophisticated theory of informational objects (representations). (5) Quality and quantity are carefully organized for the sake of greater interoperability of real-world data. (6) The philosophical contribution of yamato includes a theory of objects, processes, and events. Those features are illustrated with several case studies. These features lead to the intensive application of yamato in some domains such as biomedicine and learning engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
7. DOLCE: A descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering1.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Ferrario, Roberta, Gangemi, Aldo, Guarino, Nicola, Masolo, Claudio, Porello, Daniele, Sanfilippo, Emilio M., Vieu, Laure, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) , *ONTOLOGY , *SOCIOTECHNICAL systems , *CULTURAL property , *HUMAN beings , *PUBLIC domain - Abstract
dolce, the first top-level (foundational) ontology to be axiomatized, has remained stable for twenty years and today is broadly used in a variety of domains. dolce is inspired by cognitive and linguistic considerations and aims to model a commonsense view of reality, like the one human beings exploit in everyday life in areas as diverse as socio-technical systems, manufacturing, financial transactions and cultural heritage. dolce clearly lists the ontological choices it is based upon, relies on philosophical principles, is richly formalized, and is built according to well-established ontological methodologies, e.g. OntoClean. Because of these features, it has inspired most of the existing top-level ontologies and has been used to develop or improve standards and public domain resources (e.g. CIDOC CRM, DBpedia and WordNet). Being a foundational ontology, dolce is not directly concerned with domain knowledge. Its purpose is to provide the general categories and relations needed to give a coherent view of reality, to integrate domain knowledge, and to mediate across domains. In these 20 years dolce has shown that applied ontologies can be stable and that interoperability across reference and domain ontologies is a reality. This paper briefly introduces the ontology and shows how to use it on a few modeling cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
8. TUpper: A top level ontology within standards1.
- Author
-
Grüninger, Michael, Ru, Yi, Thai, Jona, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) ,ONTOLOGY ,STANDARDS - Abstract
Upper ontologies have traditionally arisen from the approach in which concepts that are common across a set of domains can be axiomatized at a general level. The rationale is that reuse across domains is to be supported through specialization of the general concepts from an upper ontology. Similarly, semantic integration between ontologies is to be achieved through the general concepts they specialize. The TUpper Ontology follows an alternative approach (referred to as the sideways approach) to the conventional upper ontology paradigm. Rather than think of an upper ontology as a monolithic axiomatization centred on a taxonomy, the sideways approach considers an upper ontology to be a modular ontology composed of generic ontologies that cover concepts including those related to time, process, and space. TUpper is therefore composed of a set of generic ontologies, and each generic ontology axiomatizes a particular set of generic concepts (e.g., the classes and relations relevant for time, process, and space). The TUpper Ontology is designed as a top-level ontology that contains modules from the ontologies within existing international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
9. DOLCE: A descriptive ontology for linguistic and cognitive engineering1.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Ferrario, Roberta, Gangemi, Aldo, Guarino, Nicola, Masolo, Claudio, Porello, Daniele, Sanfilippo, Emilio M., Vieu, Laure, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) ,ONTOLOGY ,SOCIOTECHNICAL systems ,CULTURAL property ,HUMAN beings ,PUBLIC domain - Abstract
dolce, the first top-level (foundational) ontology to be axiomatized, has remained stable for twenty years and today is broadly used in a variety of domains. dolce is inspired by cognitive and linguistic considerations and aims to model a commonsense view of reality, like the one human beings exploit in everyday life in areas as diverse as socio-technical systems, manufacturing, financial transactions and cultural heritage. dolce clearly lists the ontological choices it is based upon, relies on philosophical principles, is richly formalized, and is built according to well-established ontological methodologies, e.g. OntoClean. Because of these features, it has inspired most of the existing top-level ontologies and has been used to develop or improve standards and public domain resources (e.g. CIDOC CRM, DBpedia and WordNet). Being a foundational ontology, dolce is not directly concerned with domain knowledge. Its purpose is to provide the general categories and relations needed to give a coherent view of reality, to integrate domain knowledge, and to mediate across domains. In these 20 years dolce has shown that applied ontologies can be stable and that interoperability across reference and domain ontologies is a reality. This paper briefly introduces the ontology and shows how to use it on a few modeling cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
10. BFO: Basic Formal Ontology1.
- Author
-
Otte, J. Neil, Beverley, John, Ruttenberg, Alan, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) ,ONTOLOGY ,INFORMATION design - Abstract
Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology consisting of thirty-six classes, designed to support information integration, retrieval, and analysis across all domains of scientific investigation, presently employed in over 350 ontology projects around the world. BFO is a genuine top-level ontology, containing no terms particular to material domains, such as physics, medicine, or psychology. In this paper, we demonstrate how a series of cases illustrating common types of change may be represented by universals, defined classes, and relations employing the BFO framework. We provide discussion of these cases to provide a template for other ontologists using BFO, as well as to facilitate comparison with the strategies proposed by ontologists using different top-level ontologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
11. GFO: The General Formal Ontology.
- Author
-
Loebe, Frank, Burek, Patryk, Herre, Heinrich, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
ONTOLOGY ,ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) ,SET theory - Abstract
The General Formal Ontology (GFO) is a top-level ontology that is being developed at the University of Leipzig since 1999. Besides introducing some of the basic principles of the ontology, we expound axiomatic fragments of its formalization and present ontological models of several use cases. GFO is a top-level ontology that integrates objects and processes into a unified framework, in a way that differs significantly from other ontologies. Another unique selling feature of GFO is its meta-ontological architecture, which includes set theory into ontology and which accounts for its specific role in common representation approaches. The second level of that architecture starts from the distinction of categories and individuals, which forms the backbone of the world's structure. Furthermore, GFO comprises several kinds of categories, among them universals and concepts, and it considers several ontological regions and levels. In the context of this special issue paper, we study five pre-determined use cases from the perspective of GFO. The results of these analyses yield insights into how the ontology treats several important notions. Very abridged, this covers material objects and their composition; roles and social entities; properties with their relations to objects and processes, and their changing; changes of processes, including a functional perspective; and, eventually, the nature and changing of concepts as well as terminology. A final part summarizes application projects that use GFO in various contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
12. UFO: Unified Foundational Ontology.
- Author
-
Guizzardi, Giancarlo, Botti Benevides, Alessander, Fonseca, Claudenir M., Porello, Daniele, Almeida, João Paulo A., Prince Sales, Tiago, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
UNIDENTIFIED flying objects ,ONTOLOGY ,ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) ,COGNITIVE science ,CONCEPTUAL models - Abstract
The Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO) was developed over the last two decades by consistently putting together theories from areas such as formal ontology in philosophy, cognitive science, linguistics, and philosophical logics. It comprises a number of micro-theories addressing fundamental conceptual modeling notions, including entity types and relationship types. The aim of this paper is to summarize the current state of UFO, presenting a formalization of the ontology, along with the analysis of a number of cases to illustrate the application of UFO and facilitate its comparison with other foundational ontologies in this special issue. (The cases originate from the First FOUST Workshop – the Foundational Stance, an international forum dedicated to Foundational Ontology research.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
13. Ontology Makes Sense − Essays in honor of Nicola Guarino
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Ferrario, Roberta, Masolo, Claudio, Vieu, Laure, Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA), Istituto di Scienze e Tecnologie della Cognizione [Trento] (ISTC-CNR), MEthodes et ingénierie des Langues, des Ontologies et du DIscours (IRIT-MELODI), Institut de recherche en informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (UT1), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès (UT2J)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut National Polytechnique (Toulouse) (Toulouse INP), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (UT1), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Borgo, Stefano and Ferrario, Roberta and Masolo, Claudio and Vieu, Laure, and Grélaud, Françoise
- Subjects
knowledge representation ,conceptual modeling ,[INFO]Computer Science [cs] ,ontology ,[INFO] Computer Science [cs] ,Nicola Guarino - Abstract
International audience; Description : Nicola Guarino is widely recognized as one of the founders of applied ontology. His deep interest in the subtlest details of theoretical analysis and his vision of ontology as the Rosetta Stone for semantic interoperability guided the development and understanding of this domain. His motivations in research stem from the conviction that all science must be for the benefit of society at large, and his motto has always been that ontologies are not just for making information systems interoperable, but – more importantly – for ensuring that systems’ users understand each other. He was among the first to recognize that applied ontology must be an interdisciplinary enterprise if it is to capture the intended meaning of the terms used by an information system. This book is a collection of essays written in homage to Nicola Guarino; a tribute to his many scientific contributions to the discipline of applied ontology. The papers presented here reflect the wide variety of research topics that marked Nicola's impact on the applied ontology community. They are grouped according to the five general areas addressed by Nicola in his career: what is an ontology; knowledge engineering; ontologies and language; ontological categories and relationships; and ontologies and applications.Nicola Guarino's work and dedication will undoubtedly continue to influence the applied ontology community, and this book will be of interest to the many researchers aiming to establish ontologically sound bases for their research areas.
- Published
- 2019
14. Towards an ontology-based framework to store and recover memories for creative architectural projects
- Author
-
Melone, Maria Rosaria Stufano, Borgo, Stefano, Ferrario, Roberta, and Masolo, Claudio
- Subjects
memory ,architecture ,ontology ,pattern - Abstract
Background: Memories have a fundamental role in the creation of architectural projects. Remembrances of childhood, travel, and working experiences filtered by reflections and training paths--e.g., the following of rules typical of a discipline or of a style (with its language protocols), embraced by an architectural school--all con- tribute to the development of new ideas as described in cognitive studies, interviews with architects, critical writings on architecture, etc. (Rossi 1990; Zumthor 2003). Aims: We aim to help the architect to re-contextualize her memories when captured via external supports like photos, sketches etc., by mimicking the way image schemas are used for the resolution of metaphors in cognitive science (Lakoff 1990). Note that the approach applies also to sound, taste, smell, texture etc. Method: We use techniques of applied ontology to analyse the formal notions required to encode suitable schemas as well as their application to specific kinds of object features. Focusing on spatial/ temporal patterns, we associate and transfer aspects of recorded scenes (e.g., topological or geometrical structures that identify spatial distributions of features of objects) to imagined project solutions. For instance, the alternation of empty and full spaces perceived while looking at the rows of a vineyard on a hill may be creatively transferred to a pattern of colors, textures, or materials for a facade. Conclusions: Our framework supports architects in annotating (recorded) memories with spatial patterns and helps them to retrieve and reinterpret these patterns for the development of creative project solutions.
- Published
- 2018
15. Urban Artefacts and Their Social Roles: Towards an Ontology of Social Practices
- Author
-
Calafiore, Alessia, Boella, Guido, Borgo, Stefano, and Guarino, Nicola
- Subjects
000 Computer science, knowledge, general works ,Ontology ,Social practice ,Urban planning ,Computer Science ,Urban artefact ,Software - Abstract
Cities can be seen as systems of urban artefacts interacting with human activities. Since cit- ies in this sense need to be organized and coordinated, convergences and divergences between the "planned" and the "lived" city have always been of paramount interest in urban planning. The increasing amount of geo big data and the growing impact of Internet of Things (IoT) in contemporary smart city is pushing toward a re-conceptualization of urban systems taking into consideration the complexity of human behaviors. This work contributes to this view by pro- posing an ontological analysis of urban artefacts and their roles, focusing in particular on the difference between social roles and functional roles through the prism of social practices.
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
16. Trait-Based Module for Culturally-Competent Robots.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano and Blanzieri, Enrico
- Subjects
HUMAN-robot interaction ,ROBOTS ,AUTONOMOUS robots ,ARCHITECTURE ,BUILDING permits - Abstract
Robots might not act according to human expectations if they cannot anticipate how people make sense of a situation and what behavior they consider appropriate in some given circumstances. In many cases, understanding, expectations and behavior are constrained, if not driven, by culture, and a robot that knows about human culture could improve the quality level of human–robot interaction. Can we share human culture with a robot? Can we provide robots with formal representations of different cultures? In this paper, we discuss the (elusive) notion of culture and propose an approach based on the notion of trait which, we argue, permits us to build formal modules suitable to represent culture (broadly understood) in a robot architecture. We distinguish the types of traits that such modules should contain, namely behavior, knowledge, rule and interpretation traits, and how they could be organized. We identify the interpretation process that maps situations to specific knowledge traits, called scenarios, as a key component of the trait-based culture module. Finally, we describe how culture modules can be integrated in an existing architecture, and discuss three use cases to exemplify the advantages of having a culture module in the robot architecture highlighting surprising potentialities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
17. Understanding architectural types
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano and Melone, Maria Rosaria Stufano
- Subjects
architecture ,ontology - Abstract
Background: Traditionally, architecture blends knowledge, doing and context in ways that largely anticipated the situated cognition movement. Within this area, the notion of architectural type has been proposed to help organize and communicate interesting patterns across the variety of spatial entities. Types have been isolated looking at different aspects like the relationship between architectural entities and the surrounding space, the form and/or functionality of the entities, and the interactions among entities and users. This led to different understandings of what types are with arguments often driven by the architects' background perspective and their historical motivations. Aims: To collect and review notions of architectural type that have been particularly influential to highlight how they have been motivated, to show their similarities and dissimilarities, and to discuss the elements that can be taken as unifying across the different views. Method: We apply techniques of applied ontology to develop a cognitive framework for the understanding of architectural types and in particular their cognitive elements. We then use this framework to analyse the different notions in the literature. We also discuss advantages and limitations of our approach. Results: The analysis is ongoing, and we have partial results at the moment. We can show that some types are constant across time and cultures and that over time new types are introduced as merging/transformations of previous types. The comparison of the different definitions in the literature allows also to clarify how the notion has been understood in different historical periods.
- Published
- 2015
18. An Ontological View of Components and Interactions in Behaviorally Adaptive Systems.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano
- Subjects
- *
CYBER physical systems , *SOCIOTECHNICAL systems , *ENGINEERING systems , *ENGINEERING models , *SOCIAL systems - Abstract
Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Socio-Technical Systems (STS) are two popular paradigms for the analysis and modeling of engineering and social systems. These paradigms are complementary and particularly apt to model complex adaptive behaviors from both the component and system points of view. Notwithstanding historical and methodological differences, nowadays research in CPS and in STS converge to study similar system characteristics. The integration of expertise from both these domains can help to develop new approaches to study information- and human-centered systems like factories in Industry 4.0 and urban environments. To foster their integration, an overarching framework and a coherent conceptualization of adaptive systems must be put forward. This paper faces the challenge by the introduction of core distinctions, the characterization of the class of Agent-based Cyber-Physical Social System (ACPSS), and the development of an ontology-based framework. The paper builds on the traditional notions of component and interaction here re-elaborated from a domain-neutral viewpoint. The outcome of this analysis is proposed as a foundational basis to model behaviorally adaptive engineering systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
19. Data distribution in public veterinary service: health and safety challenges push for context-aware systems.
- Author
-
Contalbrigo, Laura, Borgo, Stefano, Pozza, Giandomenico, and Marangon, Stefano
- Subjects
- *
VETERINARY services , *PUBLIC health , *MEDICAL record access control , *DATA distribution , *DATA mining - Abstract
Background: Today's globalised and interconnected world is characterized by intertwined and quickly evolving relationships between animals, humans and their environment and by an escalating number of accessible data for public health. The public veterinary services must exploit new modeling and decision strategies to face these changes. The organization and control of data flows have become crucial to effectively evaluate the evolution and safety concerns of a given situation in the territory. This paper discusses what is needed to develop modern strategies to optimize data distribution to the stakeholders. Main text: If traditionally the system manager and knowledge engineer have been concerned with the increase of speed of data flow and the improvement of data quality, nowadays they need to worry about data overflow as well. To avoid this risk an information system should be capable of selecting the data which need to be shown to the human operator. In this perspective, two aspects need to be distinguished: data classification vs data distribution. Data classification is the problem of organizing data depending on what they refer to and on the way they are obtained; data distribution is the problem of selecting which data is accessible to which stakeholder. Data classification can be established and implemented via ontological analysis and formal logic but we claim that a context-based selection of data should be integrated in the data distribution application. Data distribution should provide these new features: (a) the organization of situation types distinguishing at least ordinary vs extraordinary scenarios (contextualization of scenarios); (b) the possibility to focus on the data that are really important in a given scenario (data contextualization by scenarios); and (c) the classification of which data is relevant to which stakeholder (data contextualization by users). Short conclusion: Public veterinary services, to efficaciously and efficiently manage the information needed for today's health and safety challenges, should contextualize and filter the continuous and growing flow of data by setting suitable frameworks to classify data, users' roles and possible situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
20. Towards A Unified Definition of Function
- Author
-
Mizoguchi, Riichiro, Kitamura, Yoshinobu, and Borgo, Stefano
- Subjects
function ,engineering function ,role ,ontology ,biological function ,context - Abstract
Both natural objects and artifacts have been studied from a variety of perspectives by the different sciences. One issue that has so far resisted philosophical and ontological investigations is the definition of a general notion of function capable of making sense of the functions attributed to natural objects, such as biological organisms, as well as of the functions attributed to artifacts, such as (designed) tools. The paper starts from the notions of role and context to study a definition already used to define artifact functions. The clarification of types of functional contexts and of the role of intentionality in defining function leads to a new proposal that applies to functions of natural objects as well as of artifacts. Finally, we evaluate our proposal against some desiderata discussed in the literature.
- Published
- 2012
21. What are features? An ontology-based review of the literature.
- Author
-
Sanfilippo, Emilio M. and Borgo, Stefano
- Subjects
- *
FEATURE extraction , *VOCABULARY , *COMPUTATIONAL complexity , *PRODUCT life cycle , *DATA structures - Abstract
Feature-based product modeling is the leading approach for the integrated representation of engineering product data. On the one side, this approach has stimulated the development of formal models and vocabularies, data standards and computational ontologies. On the other side, the current ways to model features are considered problematic since it lacks a principled and uniform methodology for feature representation. This paper reviews the state of art of feature-based modeling approaches by concentrating on how features are conceptualized. It points out the drawbacks of current approaches and proposes a high-level ontology-based perspective to harmonize the definition of feature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
22. Information and organization in public health institutes: an ontology-based modeling of the entities in the reception-analysis-report phases.
- Author
-
Pozza, Giandomenico, Borgo, Stefano, Oltramari, Alessandro, Contalbrigo, Laura, and Marangon, Stefano
- Subjects
- *
PUBLIC health , *ONTOLOGY , *LIFE sciences , *DATA integration , *SEMANTICS - Abstract
Background: Ontologies are widely used both in the life sciences and in the management of public and private companies. Typically, the different offices in an organization develop their own models and related ontologies to capture specific tasks and goals. Although there might be an overall coordination, the use of distinct ontologies can jeopardize the integration of data across the organization since data sharing and reusability are sensitive to modeling choices. Results: The paper provides a study of the entities that are typically found at the reception, analysis and report phases in public institutes in the life science domain. Ontological considerations and techniques are introduced and their implementation exemplified by studying the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe), a public veterinarian institute with different geographical locations and several laboratories. Different modeling issues are discussed like the identification and characterization of the main entities in these phases; the classification of the (types of) data; the clarification of the contexts and the roles of the involved entities. The study is based on a foundational ontology and shows how it can be extended to a comprehensive and coherent framework comprising the different institute's roles, processes and data. In particular, it shows how to use notions lying at the borderline between ontology and applications, like that of knowledge object. The paper aims to help the modeler to understand the core viewpoint of the organization and to improve data transparency. Conclusions: The study shows that the entities at play can be analyzed within a single ontological perspective allowing us to isolate a single ontological framework for the whole organization. This facilitates the development of coherent representations of the entities and related data, and fosters the use of integrated software for data management and reasoning across the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
23. A unifying definition for artifact and biological functions.
- Author
-
Riichiro Mizoguchi, Yoshinobu Kitamura, and Borgo, Stefano
- Subjects
ANTIQUITIES ,FUNCTION (Biology) ,BIOLOGICAL systems ,ONTOLOGY ,INTENTIONALITY (Philosophy) - Abstract
Physical artifacts and biological systems have been studied from a variety of perspectives in different disciplines. These entities show many common characteristics and are investigated using similar notions except for one important aspect: functionality. Notwithstanding many attempts, the search for a unified notion of functionality that could encompass both the functions attributed to natural objects, like biological organisms, as well as those attributed to designed objects, like artifacts, to date has remained an open challenge. Deepening an earlier characterization of engineering functions, this paper starts with an introduction to the notions of behavior and context, which become the basic blocks for the construction of a general framework for a unified definition of function. The approach distinguishes three types of functional contexts (systemic, user and design) and clarifies the role of goals in defining biological and artifact functions. Finally, it shows that the notion of systemic function, as detailed in the paper, succeeds in comprising both biological and artifact functions. The proposal is evaluated against a collection of desiderata and examples taken from the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
24. From Data to Knowledge Objects, Ontological Considerations With Inputs From the Public Health Domain.
- Author
-
Pozza, Giandomenico, Borgo, Stefano, and Ravarotto, Licia
- Subjects
- *
INFORMATION technology , *KNOWLEDGE management , *INTELLECTUAL capital , *INFORMATION resources management , *INFORMATION services management , *ONTOLOGY , *COMPUTER software - Abstract
The notion of knowledge object is central to the modern company due to the increasing awareness of the need of properly managing knowledge. Still, there is no clear idea on how to understand this notion, let alone characterize it. Information technology (IT) is of little help on this issue. It has been focussing almost exclusively toward the regulation of data types, data flows and their management; the complex interaction between information and the human agents, one of the characteristics of knowledge, is unfortunately disregarded. If we aim to develop systems for intellectual capital and knowledge management, we need to study notions like knowledge object, knowledge transfer and knowledge measurement. Here we make a first step in this direction by setting the basis for an analysis of (a class of) knowledge objects with which we highlight some interesting behaviour and dependences. The approach we follow is based on the ontological perspective and is driven by questions like: what is a knowledge object, what composes a knowledge object, how do knowledge objects change? These topics are complex for a variety of reasons and we make some simplifying assumptions by working in a standardized environment where the relationship between data and knowledge is fairly intuitive. Clearly, the general framework that we want to develop has to do justice of a series of elements (from activities to data, from physical entities to agents' role) that cannot be introduced in a single paper. We limit our presentation to just a few basic notions designed for a generic domain and take advantage of our guiding scenario to show how these can be exploited in specific contexts. The case study is given by the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVE), a veterinary public health institute that conducts laboratory controls and research activities in three main areas: animal health and welfare, food safety, and environmental protection. Ideally, the IZSVE receives samples of material with some accompanying information (date, owner, typology etc.) and decides to run analyses to establish properties of the material or to detect infectious agents. In our theoretical perspective, the IZSVE receives a complex object in the form of a pair (M,D) constituted by a piece of material (M) and relative data (D), and exercises its knowledge with the goal of extracting new data. The process relies in manipulations of M and of D causing a variety of changes in M (from reduction in size to biochemical alteration to complete destruction) while data D evolve. Calling (M',D') the material and relative information we have at the end of an activity, our aim is to understand and describe the relationship between (M,D) and (M',D') in the perspective of organization IZSVE. Thus, we view knowledge objects as triples (M,D,O), where O is an agent, e.g. IZSVE, a department or a technician, and focus on the relationship between the first two components in the perspective of the third. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
25. Two ontology-driven formalisations of functions and their comparison.
- Author
-
Garbacz, Pawel, Borgo, Stefano, Carrara, Massimiliano, and Vermaas, PieterE.
- Subjects
- *
ENGINEERING design , *ONTOLOGY , *FORMALIZATION (Linguistics) , *OPERATIONAL definitions , *TRANSLATING & interpreting , *CONCEPTS - Abstract
In this paper, we give formalisations of two engineering concepts of technical function and present in more general terms the project of supporting functional description translation by ontological analysis. The formalisations are given within the foundational dolce ontology and the concepts formalised are as follows: (1) the function as defined in the Functional Representation approach by Chandrasekaran and Josephson and (2) the function as defined in the Functional Basis approach by Stone and Wood. These two concepts represent two main ways of understanding functions in engineering: the first by means of the behaviour of artefacts, and the second by means of operations on flows as performed by artefacts. We analyse the similarities and differences between these concepts by means of the formalisations and show how the formalisations support the automated translation between functional descriptions based on these two concepts. In addition, we compare our strategy of formalising different engineering concepts of function within one foundational ontology with other strategies in the ontology-driven formalisation, such as defining a single formalised concept of function, either for replacing existing engineering concepts, or for use as a reference by which such existing concepts can be related. We compare these strategies and sketch the merits and shortcomings of our strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
26. On the ontology of functions.
- Author
-
Borgo, Stefano, Mizoguchi, Riichiro, and Smith, Barry
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGY , *PHILOSOPHY - Abstract
The article discusses reports published within the issue including, one by Marc Artiga about the organizational account (OA) approach, Ulrich Krohs about functions and fixed types and Carrara et al. on the formalization of the notion of function as used in engineering.
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
27. Ontological Modularity and Spatial Diversity.
- Author
-
Bateman, John, Borgo, Stefano, Luttich, Klaus, Masolo, Claudio, and Mossakowski, Till
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGY , *SEMANTICS , *MODULARITY (Psychology) , *COGNITION , *COMPUTATIONAL linguistics - Abstract
In this paper we propose that adequate treatments of space need to be multiperspectival and related to sound foundational ontologies. To support this, we show that natural spatial descriptions commonly appeal to diverse theories of space and these need to be formally combined to be fully interpreted. Our account draws particularly on the foundational ontology DOLCE and the algebraic specification language CASL. We show how the structuring mechanisms of CASL suggest mechanisms for both building and combining multiperspectival ontologies of space. We also suggest that these mechanisms provide a natural link both with currently emerging cognitive principles such as blending and with developments in ontology mediation and mapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
28. TUpper: A top level ontology within standards1.
- Author
-
Grüninger, Michael, Ru, Yi, Thai, Jona, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) , *ONTOLOGY , *STANDARDS - Abstract
Upper ontologies have traditionally arisen from the approach in which concepts that are common across a set of domains can be axiomatized at a general level. The rationale is that reuse across domains is to be supported through specialization of the general concepts from an upper ontology. Similarly, semantic integration between ontologies is to be achieved through the general concepts they specialize. The TUpper Ontology follows an alternative approach (referred to as the sideways approach) to the conventional upper ontology paradigm. Rather than think of an upper ontology as a monolithic axiomatization centred on a taxonomy, the sideways approach considers an upper ontology to be a modular ontology composed of generic ontologies that cover concepts including those related to time, process, and space. TUpper is therefore composed of a set of generic ontologies, and each generic ontology axiomatizes a particular set of generic concepts (e.g., the classes and relations relevant for time, process, and space). The TUpper Ontology is designed as a top-level ontology that contains modules from the ontologies within existing international standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
29. BFO: Basic Formal Ontology1.
- Author
-
Otte, J. Neil, Beverley, John, Ruttenberg, Alan, Borgo, Stefano, Galton, Antony, and Kutz, Oliver
- Subjects
- *
ONTOLOGIES (Information retrieval) , *ONTOLOGY , *INFORMATION design - Abstract
Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology consisting of thirty-six classes, designed to support information integration, retrieval, and analysis across all domains of scientific investigation, presently employed in over 350 ontology projects around the world. BFO is a genuine top-level ontology, containing no terms particular to material domains, such as physics, medicine, or psychology. In this paper, we demonstrate how a series of cases illustrating common types of change may be represented by universals, defined classes, and relations employing the BFO framework. We provide discussion of these cases to provide a template for other ontologists using BFO, as well as to facilitate comparison with the strategies proposed by ontologists using different top-level ontologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
Catalog
Discovery Service for Jio Institute Digital Library
For full access to our library's resources, please sign in.