Potential Of Semantic Web Technologies Research Articles

Dynamic control of district heating networks with integrated emission modelling: A dynamic knowledge graph approach

This paper presents a knowledge graph-based approach for the dynamic control of a district heating network with integrated emission dispersion modelling. We propose an interoperable and extensible implementation to forecast the anticipated heat demand of a municipal heating network, minimise associated total generation cost based on a previously devised methodology, and couple it with dispersion simulations for induced airborne pollutants to provide automatic insights into air quality implications of various heat sourcing strategies. We create cross-domain interoperability in the nexus of energy and air quality via newly developed ontologies and semantic software agents, which can be chained together via The World Avatar dynamic knowledge graph to resemble the behaviour of complex systems. Furthermore, we integrate the City Energy Analyst into this ecosystem to provide building-level insights into energy demand and renewable generation potential to foster strategic analyses and scenario planning. Underlying calculations use building and weather data from the knowledge graph in place of inherent assumptions in the official software release, facilitating a more data-driven approach. All use cases are implemented for a mid-size town in Germany as a proof-of-concept, and a unified visualisation interface is provided, allowing for the examination of 3D buildings alongside their corresponding energy demand and supply time series, as well as emission dispersion data. With this work, we outline the potential of Semantic Web technologies to connect digital twins for holistic energy modelling in smart cities, thereby addressing the increasing complexity of interconnected energy systems.

Editorial: Special issue on Semantic Web for Cultural Heritage

Cultural Heritage and Digital Humanities have become major application fields of Linked Data and Semantic Web technologies. This editorial introduces the special issue of the Semantic Web (SWJ) journal on Semantic Web for Cultural Heritage. In total 30 submissions for the call of papers were received, of which 11 were selected for publication. The papers cover a wide spectrum of modelled topics related to language, reading and writing, narratives, historical events and cultural artefacts, while describing reusable methodologies and tools for cultural data management. This issue indicates and demonstrates the high potential of Semantic Web technologies for applications in the Cultural Heritage domain.

Using LIDO for Evolving Object Documentation into CIDOC CRM

Over the last years, many projects and institutions have worked on transforming object documentation from several existing cataloguing systems into a CIDOC Conceptual Reference Model (CIDOC CRM) compliant graph representation, as expressed in RDF. There were also various attempts to provide a generally valid path for the transfer of data from Lightweight Information Describing Objects (LIDO), CIDOC’s recommended XML Schema for metadata harvesting, into representations that are suitable for the Semantic Web. They all face the challenge that a detailed mapping, which fully exploits the CRM’s expressiveness and requires semantic assumptions that may not always turn out to be valid. Broad mappings, on the other hand, fail to leverage the potential of Semantic Web technologies. In this paper, we propose a method for using LIDO combined with an associated terminology as a means of evolving existing object documentation into CRM-based RDF representations. By clearly distinguishing between controlled vocabulary and ontology, it is possible to transform object data relatively easily into a minimized, though efficient structure using the CIDOC CRM ontology. This structure will open up the whole world of Semantic Web technologies to be used for further semantic refinement and data quality analysis through exploiting the underlying controlled vocabularies

O papel da web semântica nos processos do big data

A Web Semântica apresenta um corpus teórico e diversas tecnologias e aplicações que demonstram a sua consistência, inclusive no que tange ao uso de seus conceitos e de suas tecnologias em outros escopos não se limitando unicamente a Web. Neste sentido, os projetos de Big Data podem tirar proveito da aplicação dos princípios e dos desenvolvimentos realizados na área da Web Semântica, para aperfeiçoar os processos de análises de dados, em especial na inserção de características semânticas para contextualização dos dados. Assim, esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar e discutir o potencial das tecnologias da Web Semântica como meio de integração e desenvolvimento de aplicações de Big Data. Utilizou-se uma metodologia qualitativa exploratória, onde buscou-se pontos de convergência entre a Web Semântica e Big Data. Foram identificados e discutidos quatro pontos principais: a aplicação do Linked Data enquanto fonte de dados para o Big Data; o uso de ontologias nas análises de dados; o uso das tecnologias da Web Semântica para promoção da interoperabilidade em cenários de Big Data; e o uso de machine learning para extrair dados automaticamente e convertê-los para os padrões da Web Semântica. Neste sentido, foi possível identificar que a Web Semântica, em especial no que permeia suas tecnologias e aplicações, pode auxiliar significativamente o desenvolvimento do Big Data, por fornecer um paradigma complementar dos aplicados majoritariamente nas análises de dados.

Use of ontologies and semantic web to provide for the transparency of qualifications frameworks

The problem of correlating and comparing the levels of the European and national qualifications framework and the potential of Semantic Web technologies for solving this problem were explored. We substantiated the need for creating models and methods, aimed at providing transparency of the European and national qualifications frameworks and the development of tools for implementing these methods. Authors proposed a reference model of the qualifications framework that formalizes knowledge of basic information objects relating to learning outcomes and their representation in the qualifications frameworks. The specific feature of this model implies using atomic competencies: semantics of information objects of different classes is formalized through a set of such atomic competences that are associated with different properties of these objects. This should provide for the automatic juxtaposing of these information objects on the level of knowledge. The methods of calculating measures of semantic proximity between information objects of different classes of ontological models, which corresponds to different problems, are proposed in the work. This allows identifying a similarity between learning outcomes, which are described with the use of descriptors of different qualification frameworks. Information regarding atomic competences is obtained from the national and European standards, qualifications frameworks, speciality descriptions, etc. They may be automatically supplemented via analysis of relevant information of Web-resources that contain semantic markup. The work considers in detail the mechanism of integration of the reference information model of competences with technological environment Semantic MediaWiki: ontology concepts and relationships are used for semantic markup of Wiki-pages as categories and semantic properties. This allows running a variety of semantic queries to the content of pages, relating to learning outcomes. Examples of such queries are given and their expressive power is analyzed. An example of using the ontological model of competences for improving semantic Web-search for the information for the purpose of supplementing and updating Wiki-pages was studied. The ontology potential in specification of information needs and the increased intersection of the obtained results is demonstrated with the example of the semantic search engine MAIPS.

The use of Semantic Web technologies for decision support – a survey

The Semantic Web shares many goals with Decision Support Systems DSS, e.g., being able to precisely interpret information, in order to deliver relevant, reliable and accurate information to a user when and where it is needed. DSS have in addition more specific goals, since the information need is targeted towards making a particular decision, e.g., making a plan or reacting to a certain situation. When surveying DSS literature, we discover applications ranging from Business Intelligence, via general purpose social networking and collaboration support, Information Retrieval and Knowledge Management, to situation awareness, emergency management, and simulation systems. The unifying element is primarily the purpose of the systems, and their focus on information management and provision, rather than the specific technologies they employ to reach these goals. Semantic Web technologies have been used in DSS during the past decade to solve a number of different tasks, such as information integration and sharing, web service annotation and discovery, and knowledge representation and reasoning. In this survey article, we present the results of a structured literature survey of Semantic Web technologies in DSS, together with the results of interviews with DSS researchers and developers both in industry and research organizations outside the university. The literature survey has been conducted using a structured method, where papers are selected from the publisher databases of some of the most prominent conferences and journals in both fields Semantic Web and DSS, based on sets of relevant keywords representing the intersection of the two fields. Our main contribution is to analyze the landscape of semantic technologies in DSS, and provide an overview of current research as well as open research areas, trends and new directions. An added value is the conclusions drawn from interviews with DSS practitioners, which give an additional perspective on the potential of Semantic Web technologies in this field; including scenarios for DSS, and requirements for Semantic Web technologies that may attempt to support those scenarios.

Virtual Field Sites: losses and gains in authenticity with semantic technologies

The authors investigate the potential of semantic web technologies to enhance ‘Virtual Fieldwork’ resources and learning activities in the Geosciences. They consider the difficulties inherent in the concept of Virtual Fieldwork and how these might be reconciled with the desire to provide students with ‘authentic’ tools for knowledge construction evident in existing Virtual Field Sites. Following the progress in design and use of Virtual Field Sites in one UK university, the authors investigate how emerging technologies might produce a shift in thinking about the nature and role of Virtual Field Sites from being primarily visual representation tools to sites for the development of skills necessary in practice. This would represent the integration of such online tools into an expanding and evolving set of discourses and practices, rather than replacing or contributing to the loss of traditional disciplinary activities such as the collection by students of their own field data.

Case-Based Learning, Pedagogical Innovation, and Semantic Web Technologies

This paper explores the potential of Semantic Web technologies to support teaching and learning in a variety of higher education settings in which some form of case-based learning is the pedagogy of choice. It draws on the empirical work of a major three year research and development project in the United Kingdom: “Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case-Based Learning” which has been oriented toward developing a better understanding of the nature of case-based learning in different settings, but also exploring the potential for Semantic Web technologies to support, enhance, and transform existing practice. The experience of working in diverse educational settings has highlighted Semantic Web technologies that may be particularly valuable, as well as some of the enablers and barriers to wider adoption, and areas for further research and development.

A Semantic Web Ontology for Small Molecules and Their Biological Targets

A wide range of data on sequences, structures, pathways, and networks of genes and gene products is available for hypothesis testing and discovery in biological and biomedical research. However, data describing the physical, chemical, and biological properties of small molecules have not been well-integrated with these resources. Semantically rich representations of chemical data, combined with Semantic Web technologies, have the potential to enable the integration of small molecule and biomolecular data resources, expanding the scope and power of biomedical and pharmacological research. We employed the Semantic Web technologies Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Web Ontology Language (OWL) to generate a Small Molecule Ontology (SMO) that represents concepts and provides unique identifiers for biologically relevant properties of small molecules and their interactions with biomolecules, such as proteins. We instanced SMO using data from three public data sources, i.e., DrugBank, PubChem and UniProt, and converted to RDF triples. Evaluation of SMO by use of predetermined competency questions implemented as SPARQL queries demonstrated that data from chemical and biomolecular data sources were effectively represented and that useful knowledge can be extracted. These results illustrate the potential of Semantic Web technologies in chemical, biological, and pharmacological research and in drug discovery.

SERVICE ORIENTED SEMANTICS IN INDUSTRIAL OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

In order to remain competitive, novel approaches to enhance information and knowledge management are needed by industrial O&M environments. Service oriented, web service based solutions have already brought structural interoperability, but have not solved problems related to varying semantics. Applying concepts and technologies that are developed in the Semantic Web effort could provide the required enhancement. In this paper, application potential of semantic web technologies is explored in this challenging domain. Ongoing work that is based on earlier web service based approach is presented. The aim is to achieve more automatic information integration and exchange to support decision making and co-operation.

Constructing intelligent and open mobile commerce using a semantic web approach

To achieve the full potential of mobile commerce (m-Commerce), many problems need to be resolved, such as how to make m-Commerce seamlessly span wide areas with heterogeneous information sources; how to improve the matchmaking between user requirements and product specifications; and how to make m-Commerce systems more intelligent in taking different actions according to different user context environments. We believe that the semantic web is a promising technology to solve these problems. In this paper, a framework is proposed in which semantic web ontology is used to model the contexts, user profiles, and product/service information. The semantic web service ontology, OWL-S, is extended for matching user requirements with product specifications at the semantic level, with context information taken into account. Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) is used for inferencing with context and user profile descriptions. Our system adopts a multi-agent infrastructure to deal with the integration and interaction between information sources and users. This paper demonstrates some of the great potential of semantic web technology for m-Commerce.