Individual Ontologies Research Articles

Bayesian-knowledge driven ontologies: A framework for fusion of semantic knowledge under uncertainty and incompleteness.

The modeling of uncertain information is an open problem in ontology research and is a theoretical obstacle to creating a truly semantic web. Currently, ontologies often do not model uncertainty, so stochastic subject matter must either be normalized or rejected entirely. Because uncertainty is omnipresent in the real world, knowledge engineers are often faced with the dilemma of performing prohibitively labor-intensive research or running the risk of rejecting correct information and accepting incorrect information. It would be preferable if ontologies could explicitly model real-world uncertainty and incorporate it into reasoning. We present an ontology framework which is based on a seamless synthesis of description logic and probabilistic semantics. This synthesis is powered by a link between ontology assertions and random variables that allows for automated construction of a probability distribution suitable for inferencing. Furthermore, our approach defines how to represent stochastic, uncertain, or incomplete subject matter. Additionally, this paper describes how to fuse multiple conflicting ontologies into a single knowledge base that can be reasoned with using the methods of both description logic and probabilistic inferencing. This is accomplished by using probabilistic semantics to resolve conflicts between assertions, eliminating the need to delete potentially valid knowledge and perform consistency checks. In our framework, emergent inferences can be made from a fused ontology that were not present in any of the individual ontologies, producing novel insights in a given domain.

After Neoliberalism: Economic Theory and Policy in the Polycrisis1

AbstractMainstream economic theory and policy have struggled to address (and in some cases have made worse) the multiple economic crises since 2008—global financial crash, austerity, stalled productivity, wage stagnation, rising inequality, inflation, climate and environmental breakdown. At the root of this failure is the ‘ontological individualism’ which underpins neoclassical economic theory: the belief that individual households and firms are sovereign actors. It proposes in its place a premise of ‘ontological institutionism’—the view that economic behaviour is primarily influenced by the institutional structures and rules within which it occurs. Commonplace in other social sciences, this view radically changes economic analysis and policy prescription. Based on an explicit ethical definition of policy objectives, the article offers an ‘institutionally pluralist’ view proposing different kinds of institutions for five different spheres of economic life. Arguing that economic policy should be seen as a process of institutional design (not simply making markets more efficient), it offers some illustrative policy proposals in key fields, from climate change to business investment.

Rethinking Ontological Individualism

The paper offers a critique of ontological individualism as a framework for social ontology. The phrase gives unjustified priority to facts about individuals over facts about higher-level social features. The paper reviews several important contributions to more nuanced views, including Giddens, Archer, Granovetter, Mahoney, and Thelen. It is argued that our guiding “map” of the social world needs to reflect the unavoidable reciprocal dependency over time between individual actors and social entities. The ideas of methodological localism (Little) and the diachronic character of the actor-social nexus explore the inherent interdependency between actor and structure.

The ontology of financial markets and the policy paradigm of financial regulation

ABSTRACT This study aims to discern the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm to clarify the meaning of a paradigm shift and the significance of the macroprudential turn in global financial regulation. An ontological understanding of financial markets is a key requirement to understand the hard core assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm because the conflation of distinct ontologies makes it impossible to maintain the internal coherence of the financial regulatory paradigm. In terms of the ontological assumptions of the financial regulatory paradigm, the macroprudential turn in global financial regulations after the 2008 financial crisis fell short of leading to a paradigm shift in global financial regulation since it brought about an explanatory rather than ontological change. Macroprudential ideas rejected the explanatory reductionism of existing microprudential regulation without abandoning its ontological individualism.

Decolonial interventions in the postwar politics of Japanese education: Reassessing the place of Shinto in Japanese language and moral education curriculum

Much of postwar politics in Japanese education has revolved around the tensions between conservative’s retrogressive desire for the imperial past on the one hand and the liberal-left’s progressive agenda on the other. The former demands a return to the teaching of traditional (Confucius) family values, patriotism and Shinto-inspired reverence (awe) towards the universe, while the latter demands teaching for rational, critical minds deemed essential for democratic citizenship. This binary structure of political contestation is increasingly problematized by the emerging political sensibilities around the ecological crisis and eco-feminist critique of human exceptionalism, hype-separation between human and nature and ontological individualism. The chapter demonstrates how the new ecological and decolonial literature demands a fundamental rethinking of the postwar politics of Japanese education, in particular, in relation to the place of Shinto—the Japanese indigenous belief system—in school curriculum. It exposes the limitations of the postwar liberal-left discourse which has reduced Shinto to nothing but the conservatives’ retrogressive desire to ‘return.’ The chapter concludes, drawing on Chen’s (2010) notion of de-cold-war politics, that the Cold War framing of education policy debate must be overcome to unleash the decolonial and ecological potentials of Japanese education towards addressing the pressing sustainable challenges today.

Integrative Technology for Creating Electronic Educational Resources

To increase the efficiency of using ontologies in the educational process, we have developed the Ontos.xyz resource, which consists of an ontograph editor and a viewer that allows displaying both individual EERs and their collections. The editor allows creating an ontograph that describes the structure of the EER, as well as the ability to assign to each node a context of all types supported by the browser including html-pages, web 2.0 resources, etc. The EER built-in this way allows the integration of data from different sources with the ability to adapt to the conditions of any subject area, regardless of its specifics.
 Thus, the digital competencies of the EER creators remain relevant, since they do not need to learn new software resources to work with individual ontology concepts (“ontograph nodes”).
 As a result of our research, we have developed a technology for using the ontological approach to create an EER. For its implementation, the Ontos.xyz resource was developed, which is an ontological graph editor. The ontograph allows for the primary visualization of the EER structure, interpreting its structural elements as nodes (vertices) of the graph, and displaying the logic of transitions between structural elements in the form of directed links. With such an approach, the ontology is some kind of aggregator that ensures the integration of the semantic and technological approaches. Building an EER using the ontological approach requires appropriate technological support in terms of description languages, models, software tools, and systems.
 The software proposed solution, in contrast to its functional counterparts, focuses on use in the educational process.

Using sensor data to detect time-constraints in ontology evolution

In this paper, we present an architecture for time-constrained ontology evolution comprised of two tools: the J2OIM (JSON to Ontology Instance Mapper), which uses JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) objects to populate an ontology, and TICO (Time Constrained instance-guided Ontology evolution), which analyses streams or batches of instances as they are generated and attempts to identify potential changes to their definitions that may trigger evolutionary processes. These tools help compensate for identified gaps in literature in instance mapping and modular versioning. The case-study for these tools involves a predictive maintenance (PdM) scenario in which near real-time data sensor enriched by contextual data is continuously transformed into ontology individuals that trigger ontology evolution mechanisms. Results show it is possible to use the instance mapping mechanisms in an incremental fashion while assuring no duplicates are generated and the aggregation of similar information from distinct data points into intervals. Furthermore, they show how the ontology evolution processes effectively detect variations in ontology individuals, generating and updating existing concepts and roles.

USING ELEMENTS OF GAMIFICATION IN INTELLIGENT LEARNING SYSTEMS: ONTOLOGICAL ASPECT

The article considers an ontological approach to the creation and use of intelligent learning systems with elements of gamification. It is expedient to use developed multi-level ontological model in the implementation of learning processes in higher educational institutions. An ontological modeling of the intelligent learning systems based on multidimensional models is proposed. The proposed approach makes it possible to develop the multi-level ontological model of any intelligent learning system that fully reflects the pragmatics of the studied subject area. The proposed multi-level ontological model of the intelligent learning system with elements of the gamification captures and structures knowledge common to the subject area that is being studied. This allows you to reuse it as the basis of a single knowledge model, which ensures logical consistency between individual ontologies when combined to create learning content (for example, online course) with a wider list of the topics and tasks. The application of the ontological approach is an effective way to design and develop the intelligent learning systems. The constructed individual ontological models (of learning content, of tests, ontology of student results and actions, of student knowledge assessments, of the gamification components) contribute to the design of a unified information learning environment (learning content), within which intelligent learning systems that use the gamification elements. The multi-level ontological model proposed in the work helps to increase the efficiency of learning processes, maintaining interest and motivation to study the proposed learning content containing elements of gamification. The result of using the elements of gamification and the ontological modeling in the intelligent learning systems is the ability to make the necessary adjustments to the goals and objectives of the learning process, the learning process, the course of learning, the requirements for the level and competence of students.

Analyzing social wrongs

Analyzing social wrongs

The Nature of Social Fact in B. Epstein’s Social Ontology

The research analyzes the social ontology of the American philosopher B. Epstein. Social ontology studies the nature of the social world: what are its main elements and how they come together. There are different theories in modern social ontology: the theory of structuration, the theory of communicative action, social constructivism, critical realism. B. Epstein opposes psychological theories of social ontology and ontological individualism in explaining the social world. B. Epstein distinguishes between ontological questions about the social world and causal relationships between events. The initial category of social ontology for American philosopher is a social fact. To establish a social fact, two actions are necessary: to give an ontological explanation of the existing social fact and to find facts that determine the conditions necessary for a social fact. Accordingly, B. Epstein distinguishes between two projects: the project of the foundation of a social fact and the project of fixing a social fact. The project of the foundation of a social fact provides an ontological explanation of a social fact, studies the conditions for the presence of social facts. The fixation project explores what gives rise to the conditions of the basis for social facts. The ground relation and the fixation relation are not causal relationships. A social fact must have diachronic constituent elements, which is, in particular, a test of social theory for truth. The article also discusses the theory of social facts by J. Serle. The theory of J. Serle B. Epstein refers to a psychological concept based on the collective acceptance of certain rules by the community. This position does not seem to be entirely correct, since J. Searle, in understanding the nature of a social fact, relies on social institutions, and the fact itself refers to institutional facts.

A Framework of Social Ontology

The research sets out an organizing framework for the field of social ontology, the study of the of the nature of the social world. Social ontology is also gaining prominence in traditional philosophical discussions. The subject matter of social ontology is clarified, in particular the difference between it and the study of causal relations and the explanation of social phenomena. For any social fact, there are two distinct ontological questions: what is the ground for that fact, why is that fact grounded just the way. Two different inquires are defined and explained: the study of how social categories are “anchored” or “grounded”. The distinction between these inquires is used to clarify prominent programs in social theory, particularly theories of practice and varieties of ontological individualism. Anchoring and grounding are two fundamental aspect to the building of the social world, Correspondingly, social ontology consists of two distinct project - “project of grounding” and “project of anchoring’.

B. Epstein’s Social Ontology

The article realizes the analysis of B. Epstein’s social ontology. Social ontology is teaching on basic principles of constructing of social reality, founded on interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary strategies of investigations of the social world. There are five leading programs in contemporary social ontology: “CIIF-program” of J. Searle, “Cambridge program” of T. Lawson, “Tufts program” of B. Epstein, “critical realism” and “the other institutionalism”. “Tufts program” is one from them. Social ontology tries to make progress on clarifying all of these in the context of specific topics: group intentions, laws, corporations, property, institutions, social groups. To begin an inquiry in social ontology, we need to choose which entities to work out the ontology of, that is, where to focus our attention in analyzing the social world. B. Epstein supposes his own model of re-conceptualization of framework of social ontology: two concepts play here a leading role, - “grounding” and “anchoring”. “Anchoring” and grounding”: these are two fundamental aspects to the building of the social world. Correspondingly, social ontology consists of two distinct projects. The grounding project is the inquiry into the conditions for the social facts to obtain. There are facts in the world are metaphysically sufficient reasons, - that is, grounds, - but it is more exact social facts of some kind. The anchoring project is the inquiry into what puts those conditions in place. Also it should be realized research concerning the grounding conditions for social facts. The last work of B. Epstein “The Ant Trap: Rebuilding the Foundations of Social Sciences” is devoted to criticism of ontological individualism in philosophical analysis of social knowledge.

Determination of Endangered Freshwater Fishes: Can Value Be Estimated?

The determination of endangered species is problematic. If one considers a species to be ontological individuals, then if a species goes extinct, it is gone forever. The Brook Trout is used as an example of a “species” which may be comprised of several unique entities that warrant a specific status. In addition to determining the specific status, it is difficult to determine how to place a monetary value on endangered species that do not have a general appeal to the public (e.g., many bird species), a commercial value, no known medical properties (e.g., deep water sponges vs. cancer), or generate monies for recreation. Perhaps if we could identify the unique information carried by a particular species, we could place a value on that information and assess the monetary value of the information lost.

Entrepreneurial Opportunity Revelation as the “Anti-Antenarrative”.

Discussions of entrepreneurial opportunity revolve around two competing constructions – opportunity as discovered vs. opportunity as created. Those in the discovered approach are predominantly in the Austrian Economics camp and postulate that entrepreneurs achieve opportunities through expertise or superior knowledge to spot gaps within the market place. Alternatively, created approached in entrepreneurial opportunity thrive in processual approaches, such as effectuation, bricolage, and even the awakening of social capital. Each of these orientations is nonetheless built upon different antenarratives. In the discovered approach, astute entrepreneurs are able to successfully navigate between competing antenarratives to select the “correct” choice, or that which emulates a more faithful interpretation of a supply and demand curve, or best approaches to a metaphysical source as shown in the undifferentiated individual ontology. In the created approach, entrepreneurs choose antenarratives embodied in personal networks, material objects, and preexisting knowledge to create new future oriented narratives as embodied in the differentiated individual ontology. Based on the selected antenarrative, actions occur such as new venture and organization formation.

리쩌허우의 쌍본체론적 관점을 통해 본 개체의 심리본체

Li Ze-hou has presented the task of the times by saying that it transcends Marx through Marx. This means that it is necessary to pursue the mental and psychological aspects of the individual while maintaining the historical materialism. In particular, analyzing Li's perspective on 'Chinese Marxism' can serve as a foundation for understanding his philosophy. He suggests that how to accumulate deep history into deep psychology in exploration about ontology should be a research task. Li's main interest is to let the techno-social ontology head to the psychological ontology, and to move away from the historical materialism and language to psychological sedimentation and education. He presents sedimentation and education as a way for the individual's psychological ontology to be established.

Constructive-Synthesizing Modelling of Ontological Document Management Support for the Railway Train Speed Restrictions

Purpose. During the development of railway ontologies, it is necessary to take into account both the data of information systems and regulatory support to check their consistency. To do this, data integration is performed. The purpose of the work is to formalize the methods for integrating heterogeneous sources of information and ontology formation. Methodology. Constructive-synthesizing modelling of ontology formation and its resources was developed. Findings. Ontology formation formalization has been performed, which allows expanding the possibilities of automating the integration and coordination of data using ontologies. In the future, it is planned to expand the structural system for the formation of ontologies based on textual sources of railway regulatory documentation and information systems. Originality. The authors laid the foundations of using constructive-synthesizing modelling in the railway transport ontological domain to form the structure and data of the railway train speed restriction warning tables (database and csv format), their transformation into a common tabular format, vocabulary, rules and ontology individuals, as well as ontology population. Ontology learning methods have been developed to integrate data from heterogeneous sources. Practical value. The developed methods make it possible to integrate heterogeneous data sources (the structure of the table of the railway train management rules, the form and application for issuing a warning), which are railway domain-specific. It allows forming an ontology from its data sources (database and csv formats) to schema and individuals. Integration and consistency of information system data and regulatory documentation is one of the aspects of increasing the level of train traffic safety.

A Design for Safety (DFS) Semantic Framework Development Based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) for Automated Compliance Checking Using BIM: The Case of China

For design for safety (DFS), automated compliance checking methods have received extensive attention. Although many research efforts have indicated the potential of BIM and ontology for automated compliance checking, an efficient methodology is still required for the interoperability and semantic representation of data from different sources. Therefore, a natural language processing (NLP)-based semantic framework is proposed in this paper, which implements rules-based automated compliance checking for building information modeling (BIM) at the design stage. Semantic-rich information can be extracted from safety regulations by NLP methods, which were analyzed to generate conceptual classes and individuals of ontology and provide a corpus basis for rule classification. The data on BIM was extracted from Revit to a spreadsheet using the Dynamo tool and then mapped to the ontology using the Cellfie tool. The interoperability of different source data was well improved through the isomorphism of information in the framework of semantic integration, causing data processed by the semantic web rule language to be transformed from safety regulations to achieve the purpose that automated compliance checking is implemented in the design documents. The practicability and scientific feasibility of the proposed framework was verified through a 95.21% recall and a 90.63% precision in compliance checking of a case study in China. Compared with traditional compliance checking methods, the proposed framework had high efficiency, response speed, data interoperability, and interaction.

Rescuing Ontological Individualism

AbstractStandard defenses of ontological individualism are challenged by arguments that exploit the dependence of social facts on material facts—that is, facts that are not about human individuals. In this article, I discuss Brian Epstein’s “materialism” inThe Ant Trap: granting Epstein’s strict definition of individualism, I show that his arguments depend crucially on a generous conception of social properties and social facts. Individualists, however, are only committed to the claim thatprojectibleproperties are individualistically realized, and materialists have not undermined this claim.

Polishing the pearls of indigenous knowledge for inclusive social education in Ghana

The goal of my paper is to argue for the need to polish the pearls of Akan indigenous wisdom as creative cultural eclecticism to constitute a theoretical base for destabilising cultural imperialism and ontological individualism in favour of inclusive social education. Since the sixteenth century, European expansion to the rest of the world, particularly, Africa has imposed an European single narrative on Africans. This is to the extent that, as a result of the colonialization of Africa, western cultural values have been homogenised and hegemonized as a template for the rest of the world. Consequently, the cultural uniqueness of different African societies has been marginalised – leading to the imposition of a western education system that undermines indigenous knowledge systems of Africa for collective living. And as part of the western dualization of time into “modernity” and “tradition”, African cultures have been profiled as “tradition” and concurrently relegated to the background. Through the deployment of the Akan historical philosophy “Tete wo bi kyere” and “Sankofa” as creative cultural eclecticism given Ghana's cultural pluralism, my paper provides a theoretical foundation for the need to integrate the Akan indigenous values of inclusiveness to foster inclusive social education. I argue that theory is as important as practice and activism in re-imaging social justice education that upsets neoliberal individualism embedded in western education.

OBO Foundry in 2021: operationalizing open data principles to evaluate ontologies.

Biological ontologies are used to organize, curate and interpret the vast quantities of data arising from biological experiments. While this works well when using a single ontology, integrating multiple ontologies can be problematic, as they are developed independently, which can lead to incompatibilities. The Open Biological and Biomedical Ontologies (OBO) Foundry was created to address this by facilitating the development, harmonization, application and sharing of ontologies, guided by a set of overarching principles. One challenge in reaching these goals was that the OBO principles were not originally encoded in a precise fashion, and interpretation was subjective. Here, we show how we have addressed this by formally encoding the OBO principles as operational rules and implementing a suite of automated validation checks and a dashboard for objectively evaluating each ontology’s compliance with each principle. This entailed a substantial effort to curate metadata across all ontologies and to coordinate with individual stakeholders. We have applied these checks across the full OBO suite of ontologies, revealing areas where individual ontologies require changes to conform to our principles. Our work demonstrates how a sizable, federated community can be organized and evaluated on objective criteria that help improve overall quality and interoperability, which is vital for the sustenance of the OBO project and towards the overall goals of making data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR).Database URL http://obofoundry.org/