Semantic Capabilities Research Articles

Automated discovery, interaction and composition of Semantic Web services

In this paper, we introduce a vision for Semantic Web services which combines the growing Web services architecture and the Semantic Web and we will propose DAML-S as a prototypical example of an ontology for describing Semantic Web services. Furthermore, we show that DAML-S is not just an abstract description, but it can be efficiently implemented to support capability matching and to manage interaction between Web services. Specifically, we will describe the implementation of the DAML-S/UDDI Matchmaker that expands on UDDI by providing semantic capability matching, and we will present the DAML-S Virtual Machine that uses the DAML-S Process Model to manage the interaction with Web service. We will also show that the use of DAML-S does not produce a performance penalty during the normal operation of Web services.

Building Agile Systems with Mobile Code

Mobile code has been championed as a solution to a plethora of software problems. This paper describes investigative work undertaken in order to evaluate the mobile code abstractions of Mobile Agents and Mobile Objects, and to understand the implications of using these abstractions to build distributed systems. We describe two systems built to support the Sales Order Process of a distributed manufacturing enterprise, using IBM's Aglets Software Development Kit. The Sales Order Process model and the requirements for agility used as the basis for these implementations are derived from data collected in an industrial case study. Both systems are evaluated using the Goal/Question/Metric methodology. Two new metrics for Semantic Alignment and Change Capability are presented and used to evaluate each system with respect to the degree of system agility supported. The systems are evaluated through a set of scenarios generated during the case study in an attempt to see if they support system integration and agility in the manufacturing domain. Further we examine the implications of using a mobile code abstraction when compared with the abstraction offered by traditional distribution technology. The work described provides evidence that both Mobile Agent and Mobile Object systems have inherent properties that can be used to build agile distributed systems. Further, Mobile Agents with their additional autonomy provide marginally greater support.

Assessment of safety-critical specifications

Formal methods can reduce the ambiguity in specifications and provide a basis for verification later on/spl minus/especially important for safety-critical systems. The author compares specifications in the software cost reduction method and in the Vienna Definition Method for a safety-critical system and identifies several key assessment issues: understandability, assessment criteria, and semantic capabilities.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Non-verbal environmental sound recognition after unilateral hemispheric stroke.

Recognition of non-verbal environmental sounds was investigated in 52 subjects with unilateral cerebro-vascular accidents and 18 age-matched normal controls. Impaired performance was most consistently found following cortical damage of homologous areas in either the left or the right hemisphere. Lesions involved the superior temporal gyrus (including the planum temporale), the inferior parietal lobe and the parietal operculum; this area appears to constitute the human auditory cortical processing area. We found different error patterns dependent upon the side of the lesion: patients with right hemisphere damage failed to discriminate between acoustically related sounds, patients with left hemisphere lesions tended to confuse semantically related sound sources. The impairment following right hemisphere damage was specific for non-verbal environmental sounds while left hemisphere damage was associated with disturbed semantic capabilities in multiple modalities.

SQL/SE

The incorporation of a knowledge of time within database systems allows for temporally related information to be modelled more naturally and consistently. Adding this support to the metadatabase further enhances its semantic capability and allows elaborate interrogation of data. This paper presents SQL/SE, an SQL extension capable of handling schema evolution in relational database systems.

Ada as a preprocessor language

Preprocessors are components of a software development environment that can increase productivity by providing semantic capabilities for expressing certain source language statement s concisely and directly which would otherwise be expressed indirectly and verbosely. Moreover, it is frequently necessary to reflect a single programming decision in several places in the source text; a preprocessor can propagate a single specification of such a decision to the points it affects thereby reducing effort and removing the possibility a consistency error. In traditional environments, the language of preprocessor statements differs from the underlying programming language, e.g., CPP differs from C itself. If such deviations were allowed in an Ada environment, they would impair portability and detract from the effort to provide widespread, uniform language training in pure Ada. This paper demonstrates, however, that Ada is, by itself, a viable preprocessor language provided two conventions are adopted. First, the compilation sequence of preprocessing must be used; fortunately, an Ada compiler can serve in a preprocessor step without affecting its validation under the ACVC. Second, normal and preprocessor statements are not intermixed; Ada package structure must be employed to separate contexts that would be differentiated by syntax in traditional preprocessing. The distinctive compilation sequence of Ada preprocessing is a multiple pass compilation where compilation steps are connected via Ada text, not Ada library units. The results of one compilation pass are converted to text via an execution step and then provided as text input to the next step. As an example, the paper describes a preprocessor that constructs subsystem interfaces.

Semantic capabilities of the left and right cerebral hemispheres in categorization tasks: Effects of verbal-pictorial presentation

Two lateral tachistoscopic experiments were carried out to test semantic capabilities of the left and right cerebral hemispheres through categorization tasks with verbal and pictorial presentations. RVF advantages were obtained for verbal presentations in both category-membership and category-matching tasks. However, no significant visual-field differences were found for any pictorial presentation. We also found a higher degree of sensitiveness of the positive judgements for the detection of hemispheric differences and sex differences in patterns of functional asymmetries with a greater lateralization in males.

DEFASM: a microprogram meta-assembler with semantic capability

A microprogram assembler which can assemble code for any user-defined target machine, i.e. a metamicroassembler, is described. Its most important feature is a definition phase where a description of the actual microinstruction set is given once for all, using a simple definition language. Within this definition phase, simple semantic controls may be introduced to facilitate the detection of errors that microprogram writers tend to make when the target machine has a high degree of parallelism, i.e. when long microinstructions are used.

The application of data types to database semantic integrity

Data type concepts are used to investigate the extent to which database semantic integrity can be defined and ensured through database structures. Database and datatype concepts are extended mutually to improve the semantic capabilities of both database models and data type systems and to resolve apparent discrepencies between databases and programming languages. To meet database needs, data structuring is developed to form an algebra of data types. A semantically rich database model is used to show that database models can be expressed in terms of data types. Finally, a schema specification language is presented to demonstrate the power of data type tools for the definition of database schemas and for the maintenance of database semantic integrity.

Picture naming and modification

The purpose of this paper is to review and organize the basic concepts involved in naming and modifying images presented on a graphics display, and to indicate the advantages and disadvantages of the various techniques currently used by graphics languages. We will not consider the syntactic questions of how the semantic capabilities are presented to the language users. A number of extant graphics programming languages are categorized according to their naming and modification capabilities.

Picture naming and modification

The purpose of this paper is to review and organize the basic concepts involved in naming and modifying images presented on a graphics display, and to indicate the advantages and disadvantages of the various techniques currently used by graphics languages. We will not consider the syntactic questions of how the semantic capabilities are presented to the language users. A number of extant graphics programming languages are categorized according to their naming and modification capabilities.

Semantic capabilities of thematic maps

The aim of this article is to discuss some selected aspects of thematic mapping, mainly by bringing to bear certain elementary principles of general semantics, in the hope that discussion from this unusual point of view may enrich some readers' knowledge of thematic mapping.

Word concepts: a theory and simulation of some basic semantic capabilities.

Abstract : In order to discover design principles for a large memory that can enable it to serve as the base of knowledge underlying human-like language behavior, experiments with a model memory are being performed. This model is built up within a computer by 'recoding' a body of information from an ordinary dictionary into a complex network of elements and associations. Then the ability of a program to use the resulting model memory effectively for simulating human performance provides a test of its design. One simulation program, now running, is given the model memory and is required to compare and contrast the meanings of arbitrary pairs of English words. For each pair, the program locates any relevant semantic information within the model memory, draws inferences on the basis of this, and thereby discovers various relationships between the meanings of the two words. Finally, it creates English text to express its conclusions. The design principles embodied in the memory model together with some of the methods used by the program constitute a theory of how human memory for semantic and other conceptual material may be formatted, organized, and used. (Author)