Conceptual Graph Formalism Research Articles

Use of Conceptual Graph-based Reasoning and Modeling to Support the Forensic Analysis of Bridges Failure

Despite the development of mathematical models, procedures, decision support systems, and databases, bridges are still today confronted with failures that can lead to dramatic situations. The lack of tools allowing to learn from the past failures associated with the uncertainties in its environment makes difficult the decision making in the bridge maintenance. The difficulty of maintaining the functions of bridges comes from the complexity of relationships between random hazards, the limit states of the bridge structure, and the human decisions and activities. To date, there is no generic and holistic model capable of modeling all types of bridges failure situations and capitalizing on their knowledge. This paper proposes a knowledge model of bridge failures, based on the formalism of conceptual graphs, capable of representing and capitalizing the failures of all types of bridges in a structured common vocabulary and to conduct automatic reasoning. The aim is to be able to provide explanations of failures and alerts on future projects.

Graph based knowledge models for capitalizing, predicting and learning: A proof of concept applied to the dam systems

The capitalization and the analysis of historical information is nowadays a prerequisite for any effective risk management and assessment in a wide range of domains. Despite the development of mathematical models, procedures, support decision systems and databases, some engineering disciplines, such as civil engineering, remain resistant to the use of new digital technology due to the gap between the expectations of the engineers and the support that the tools may really provide. It is essential to propose a tool able to process both cross disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge flux and feedback from experience in a common and convenient unifying framework. The aim is to assist and to support engineering work and to make the task of knowledge modelling easier. The domain of dam systems is no exception to the rule. Dam failures are still commonplace. These failures stem from a lack of understanding about the complex relationships between three different factors: random hazards, the limit states of dam structures along with human activities and decisions. No generic and holistic approach is currently available that permits the processing of both knowledge and data, performs inferences and is easily usable for all types of users. This paper proposes the basic principles of a convenient design methodology for capitalizing, learning and predicting based on the formalism of conceptual graphs. The aim is to provide an easily usable tool able to (1) capitalise heterogeneous knowledge and store a database about dams, (2) issue alerts on current projects, (3) draw lessons from past dam failures and (4) tackle key issues in forensic civil engineering.

A cloud based architecture for competence management and discovery

This work aims to define a method based on conceptual graphs formalism for competence management, and then apply the method for competence discovery and composition on distributed competence and knowledge bases. The paper contributes towards competence and knowledge management literature in two ways. The first contribution is first to formally represent the competences and second to define detailed algorithms for competence discovery and composition. The second contribution is in defining a conceptual architecture for the system of competence management and discovery based on the cloud in order to face the problems related to scalability, to take profit of the benefits of cloud computing technology and as a basis for the proof of concepts.

Enhancing multi-document summarization using concepts

In this paper we propose a methodology to mine concepts from documents and use these concepts to generate an objective summary of all relevant documents. We use the conceptual graph (CG) formalism as proposed by Sowa to represent the concepts and their relationships in the documents. In the present work we have modified and extended the definition of the concept given by Sowa. The modified and extended definition is discussed in detail in section 2 of this paper. A CG of a set of relevant documents can be considered as a semantic network. The semantic network is generated by automatically extracting CG for each document and merging them into one. We discuss (i) generation of semantic network using CGs and (ii) generation of multi-document summary. Here we use restricted Boltzmann machines, a deep learning technique, for automatically extracting CGs. We have tested our methodology using MultiLing 2015 corpus. We have obtained encouraging results, which are comparable to those from the state of the art systems.

Argumentation graphs with constraint-based reasoning for collaborative expertise

Collaborative processes are very important in telemedicine domain since they allow for making right decisions in complex situations with multidisciplinary staff. When modelling these collaborative processes, some inconsistencies can appear. In semantic modelling (conceptual graphs), these inconsistencies are verified using constraints. In this work, collaborative processes are represented using an argumentation system modelled in a conceptual graph formalism where inconsistencies could be particular bad attack relation between arguments. To overcome these inconsistencies, two solutions are proposed. The first one is to weight the arguments evolving in the argumentation system on the basis of the competencies of the health professionals and the credibility of the sources justifying their advice (arguments), and the second one is to model some law concepts as constraints in order to check their compliance of the collaborative process.

Improving the Domain Independence of Data Provenance Ontologies

Provenance is becoming increasingly important as more and more people are using data that they themselves did not generate. In the last decade, significant efforts have been directed toward developing generic, shared data provenance ontologies that support the interoperability of provenance across systems. An issue that is impeding the use of such provenance ontologies is that a generic provenance ontology, no matter how complete it is, is insufficient for capturing the diverse, complex provenance requirements in different domains. In this paper, the authors propose a novel approach to adapting and extending the W7 model, a well-known generic ontology of data provenance. Relying on various knowledge expansion mechanisms provided by the Conceptual Graph formalism, the authors' approach enables us to develop domain ontologies of provenance in a disciplined yet flexible way.

Conceptual Graph

Business development or renovation is to introduce newer, more efficient routines and processes through redesign or re-engineering of businesses, which form a set of business patterns. Business patterns encapsulate the best solutions for business practices and tasks confirming business strategies of the enterprise. Nowadays, services with SOA (Service oriented-Architecture) become more and more important in implementing and supporting business routines and processes. An enterprise that can encapsulate their SOA solutions into patterns will make the business more agile and effective. However, with the SOA solutions to automation of locating relevant instance services for its business patterns with minimum human intervention, one has to look into the semantic and operational difference between the description of a business pattern and that of an instance service - a gap between the two levels of descriptions. In this paper, the authors introduce a conceptual modelling method to address how to bridge the gap, by a semantic service description for usage contextual approach formalized with the conceptual graphs formalism. Most importantly, they evaluate this model in this paper to study its usability in practice.

Knowledge engineering approach for the analysis of viticulture

The sustainable development of agricultural regions requires a methodical approach that will make a viable land management system policy in practice. In this regard, distinctive contextual characteristics of a country (remarkable areas for raising the regional products) could be taken into account in order to promote the good character of agricultural outputs and to increase the added value of considered lands. The manuscript primarily describes in qualitative and quantitative terms a mechanism for synthesizing information about wine production characteristics and therefore provides sufficient substantive treatment of agricultural or other system interactions. Firstly, the manuscript presents a discussion about many factors that affect wine production, and secondly, the focus is more on the development of an integrated approach using numerical and symbolic reasoning. The Geoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification (MCC) System is engaged with a methodology comprising three viticultural climatic indexes of different natures: hydric type (dryness index), heliothermal type (Huglin index), and Nictothermal type (Cold Night Index). The knowledge representation is symbolized with the conceptual graphs formalism and the reasoning mechanisms are based on graph operations. A visual reasoning development focuses more on the decision process that would seem more appropriate for a practice on decision support. In addition, the Decision Support System (DSS) component is illustrated with a case study of Croatia republic in very broad characterizations of its main regional grape varieties.

Graph-based reasoning in collaborative knowledge management for industrial maintenance

Capitalization and sharing of lessons learned play an essential role in managing the activities of industrial systems. This is particularly the case for the maintenance management, especially for distributed systems often associated with collaborative decision-making systems. Our contribution focuses on the formalization of the expert knowledge required for maintenance actors that will easily engage support tools to accomplish their missions in collaborative frameworks. To do this, we use the conceptual graphs formalism with their reasoning operations for the comparison and integration of several conceptual graph rules corresponding to different viewpoint of experts. The proposed approach is applied to a case study focusing on the maintenance management of a rotary machinery system.

Knowledge reuse integrating the collaboration from experts in industrial maintenance management

Distributed environments, technological evolution, outsourcing market and information technology (IT) are factors that considerably influence current and future industrial maintenance management. Repairing and maintaining the plants and installations requires a better and more sophisticated skill set and continuously updated knowledge. Today, maintenance solutions involve increasing the collaboration of several experts to solve complex problems. These solutions imply changing the requirements and practices for maintenance; thus, conceptual models to support multidisciplinary expert collaboration in decision making are indispensable. The objectives of this work are as follows: (i) knowledge formalization of domain vocabulary to improve the communication and knowledge sharing among a number of experts and technical actors with Conceptual Graphs (CGs) formalism, (ii) multi-expert knowledge management with the Transferable Belief Model (TBM) to support collaborative decision making, and (iii) maintenance problem solving with a variant of the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) mechanism with a process of solving new problems based on the solutions of similar past problems and integrating the experts’ beliefs. The proposed approach is applied for the maintenance management of the illustrative case study.

Conceptual graph-based knowledge representation for supporting reasoning in African traditional medicine

Although African patients use both conventional or modern and traditional healthcare simultaneously, it has been proven that 80% of people rely on African traditional medicine (ATM). ATM includes medical activities stemming from practices, customs and traditions which were integral to the distinctive African cultures. It is based mainly on the oral transfer of knowledge, with the risk of losing critical knowledge. Moreover, practices differ according to the regions and the availability of medicinal plants. Therefore, it is necessary to compile tacit, disseminated and complex knowledge from various Tradi-Practitioners (TP) in order to determine interesting patterns for treating a given disease. Knowledge engineering methods for traditional medicine are useful to model suitably complex information needs, formalize knowledge of domain experts and highlight the effective practices for their integration to conventional medicine. The work described in this paper presents an approach which addresses two issues. First it aims at proposing a formal representation model of ATM knowledge and practices to facilitate their sharing and reusing. Then, it aims at providing a visual reasoning mechanism for selecting best available procedures and medicinal plants to treat diseases. The approach is based on the use of the Delphi method for capturing knowledge from various experts which necessitate reaching a consensus. Conceptual graph formalism is used to model ATM knowledge with visual reasoning capabilities and processes. The nested conceptual graphs are used to visually express the semantic meaning of Computational Tree Logic (CTL) constructs that are useful for formal specification of temporal properties of ATM domain knowledge. Our approach presents the advantage of mitigating knowledge loss with conceptual development assistance to improve the quality of ATM care (medical diagnosis and therapeutics), but also patient safety (drug monitoring).

Using conceptual graphs for clinical guidelines representation and knowledge visualization

The intrinsic complexity of the medical domain requires the building of some tools to assist the clinician and improve the patient's health care. Clinical practice guidelines and protocols (CGPs) are documents with the aim of guiding decisions and criteria in specific areas of healthcare and they have been represented using several languages, but these are difficult to understand without a formal background. This paper uses conceptual graph formalism to represent CGPs. The originality here is the use of a graph-based approach in which reasoning is based on graph-theory operations to support sound logical reasoning in a visual manner. It allows users to have a maximal understanding and control over each step of the knowledge reasoning process in the CGPs exploitation. The application example concentrates on a protocol for the management of adult patients with hyperosmolar hyperglycemic state in the Intensive Care Unit.

Continuous improvement through knowledge-guided analysis in experience feedback

Continuous improvement in industrial processes is increasingly a key element of competitiveness for industrial systems. The management of experience feedback in this framework is designed to build, analyze and facilitate the knowledge sharing among problem solving practitioners of an organization in order to improve processes and products achievement. During Problem Solving Processes, the intellectual investment of experts is often considerable and the opportunities for expert knowledge exploitation are numerous: decision making, problem solving under uncertainty, and expert configuration. In this paper, our contribution relates to the structuring of a cognitive experience feedback framework, which allows a flexible exploitation of expert knowledge during Problem Solving Processes and a reuse such collected experience. To that purpose, the proposed approach uses the general principles of root cause analysis for identifying the root causes of problems or events, the conceptual graphs formalism for the semantic conceptualization of the domain vocabulary and the Transferable Belief Model for the fusion of information from different sources. The underlying formal reasoning mechanisms (logic-based semantics) in conceptual graphs enable intelligent information retrieval for the effective exploitation of lessons learned from past projects. An example will illustrate the application of the proposed approach of experience feedback processes formalization in the transport industry sector.

A relational vector space model using an advanced weighting scheme for image retrieval

In this paper, we lay out a relational approach for indexing and retrieving photographs from a collection. The increase of digital image acquisition devices, combined with the growth of the World Wide Web, requires the development of information retrieval (IR) models and systems that provide fast access to images searched by users in databases. The aim of our work is to develop an IR model suited to images, integrating rich semantics for representing this visual data and user queries, which can also be applied to large corpora. Our proposal merges the vector space model of IR – widely tested in textual IR – with the conceptual graph (CG) formalism, based on the use of star graphs (i.e. elementary CGs made up of a single relation connected to some concepts representing image objects). A novel weighting scheme for star graphs, based on image objects size, position, and image heterogeneity is outlined. We show that integrating relations into the vector space model through star graphs increases the system’s precision, and that the results are comparable to those from graph projection systems, and also that they shorten processing time for user queries.

Intelligent techniques for effective information retrieval

Intelligent techniques for effective information retrieval

Building a concept hierarchy from corpus analysis

Corpus analysis is today at the heart of building Terminological Knowledge Bases (TKBs). Important terms are usually first extracted from a corpus and then related to one another via semantic relations. This research brings the discovery of semantic relations to the forefront to allow the discovery of less stable lexical units or unlabeled concepts, which are important to include in a TKB to facilitate knowledge organization. We suggest a concept hierarchy made of concept nodes defined via a representational structure emphasizing both labeling and conceptual representation. The Conceptual Graph formalism chosen for conceptual representation allows a compositional view of concepts, which is relevant for their comparison and their organization in a concept lattice. Examples manually extracted from a scuba-diving corpus are presented to explore the possibilities of this approach. Subsequently, steps toward a semi-automatic construction of a concept hierarchy from corpus analysis are presented to evaluate their underlying hypothesis and feasibility.

Using BWW model to evaluate building ontologies in CGs formalism

The Bunge–Wand–Weber (BWW) representation model defines ontological constructs for information systems. According to these constructs the completeness and efficiency of a modeling technique can be defined. Ontology plays an essential role in e-commerce. Using or updating an existing ontology and providing tools to solve any semantic conflicts become essential steps before putting a system online. We use conceptual graphs (CGs) to implement ontologies. This paper evaluates CG capabilities using the BWW representation model. It finds out that CGs are ontologically complete according to Wand and Weber definition. Also it finds out that CGs have construct overload and construct redundancy which can undermine the ontological clarity of CGs. This leads us to build a meta-model to avoid some ontological-unclarity problems. We use some of the BWW constructs to build the meta-model.

Conceptual modeling for data and knowledge management

In order to exploit knowledge embedded in databases and to migrate from data to knowledge management environments, conceptual modeling languages must offer more expressiveness than traditional modeling languages. This paper proposes the conceptual graph formalism as such a modeling language. It shows through an example and a comparison with Telos, a semantically rich knowledge modeling language, that it is suited for that purpose. The conceptual graph formalism offers simplicity of use through its graphical components and small set of constructs and operators. It allows easy migration from database to knowledge base environments. Thus, this paper advocates its use.

Abstraction of objects by conceptual clustering

Very bound to the logic of first-rate predicates, the formalism of conceptual graphs constitutes a knowledge representation language. The abstraction of systems presents several advantages. It helps to render complex systems more understandable, thus facilitating their analysis and their conception. Our approach of conceptual graphs abstraction, or conceptual clustering, is based on rectangular decomposition. It produces a set of clusters representing similarities between subsets of objects to be abstracted, organized into a hierarchy of classes: the Knowledge Space. Some conceptual clustering methods already exist. Our approach is distinguishable from other approaches in as far as it allows a gain in space and time.

UMLS-based conceptual queries to biomedical information databases: an overview of the project ARIANE. Unified Medical Language System.

The aim of the project ARIANE is to model and implement seamless, natural, and easy-to-use interfaces with various kinds of heterogeneous biomedical information databases. A conceptual model of some of the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) knowledge sources has been developed to help end users to query information databases. A query is represented by a conceptual graph that translates the deep structure of an end-user's interest in a topic. A computational model exploits this conceptual model to build a query interactively represented as query graph. A query graph is then matched to the data graph built with data issued from each record of a database by means of a pattern-matching (projection) rule that applies to conceptual graphs. Prototypes have been implemented to test the feasibility of the model with different kinds of information databases. Three cases are studied: 1) information in records is structured according to the UMLS knowledge sources; 2) information is able to be structured without error in the frame of the UMLS knowledge; 3) information cannot be structured. In each case the pattern-matching is processed by the projection rule according to the structure of information that has been implemented in the databases. The conceptual graphs theory provides with a homogeneous and powerful formalism able to represent both concepts, instances of concepts in medical contexts, and associations by means of relationships, and to represent data at different levels of details. The conceptual-graphs formalism allows powerful capabilities to operate a semantic integration of information databases using the UMLS knowledge sources.