Mamoru Ohta

Initial design process of the sustainability science ontology for knowledge-sharing to support co-deliberation

Implementation of the sustainability science (SS) approach is often difficult because of poor communication between experts from different academic fields. We focused on ontology engineering as a method of knowledge structuring that supports the co-deliberation process. However, SS is too broad for a few experts to construct an ontology because SS targets and covers almost all existing research fields from the viewpoint of problem-solving. The N-iteration process is required for completing an SS ontology. In the present paper, we discuss the initial design process for constructing an ontology on SS from the aspect of a knowledge-sharing tool to support co-deliberation. First, we identified the SS ontology by referring to the existing literature. Second, we traced the structuring process of the SS ontology, which is independent of the existing research domain. Third, we compared the SS ontology with existing ontologies or concept structures on SS. Fourth, we assessed the SS ontology produced in the initial process in terms of relevance and coverage and addressed areas for improvement in order to facilitate co-deliberation among researchers from different domains. As a result of developing the SS ontology and applying it to the mapping tool that we developed based on the ontology, we found the following three points: the SS ontology enables us to define concepts relevant to SS without overlapping by distinguishing part-of and attribute-of relationships at the upper level of the ontology; the SS-based mapping tool successfully represents the potential countermeasures required by the targeted problem for all scientific fields except experimental engineering; however, the SS ontology requires further improvement in order to represent the conceptual linkage arising from compound and secondary problems and the fulfillment of classes at the lower hierarchy of Shortage problem, and requires slots for the entire hierarchy. In addition, based on the discussion of the areas for improvement, we found that missing slots and classes should be added in the process in which we use or improve tools corresponding to a variety of requirements for supporting co-deliberation. In this way, we are able to propose an incremental process for constructing the SS ontology from the aspect of a knowledge-sharing tool to support co-deliberation.

A Quality Assurance Framework for Ontology Construction and Refinement

The quality of an ontology is an important factor that determines its utility. In order to assure its quality, in addition to form-based evaluation as to whether the ontology being constructed is written properly in terms of its form (syntax), content-based evaluation as to whether the ontology properly represents the target domain, whether the ontology actually serves for problem solving, etc. is also necessary. In this study, we investigate a framework for quality assurance of ontologies in Hozo, which is an environment for building/using ontologies that are being developed by the authors. As form-based evaluation, Hozo provides various assistance functions for properly editing an ontology in compliance with the rules. As contentbased evaluation, Hozo introduce a method for supporting ontology evaluation thorough conceptual maps which are generated according to the user’s viewpoint.

A planning support document based system for transformer reparation task using ontology

Engineers have to refer to various technical information to perform their job. Technical information have been accumulated in an electronic form as documents which contain texts, pictures and movies in enterprises. However, it needs expert knowledge to make use of these technical information. In this paper, we describe an ontology-centric framework, called intelligent corporate base (ICoB) which organizes a technical information into documents, assists a comprehension of documents and helps share information. We explain a prototype system for planning on repair work of transformers. Furthermore, we describe development and use of ontology for technical information sharing.

AN EXTENSION OF AN ENVIRONMENT FOR BUILDING/USING ONTOLOGIES "HOZO" TOWARD PRACTICAL ONTOLOGY ENGINEERING

Through the spread of ontological engineering, many technologies and software tool for ontology construction were developed. By using them, many ontologies have been constructed in various domains. On these backgrounds, we have been developing an ontology engineering environment “Hozo” and using the tool to construct a lot of ontologies in various domains such as medical science, bioinformatics, nano-technology, education, environment engineering and so on. Through these practical experiences, we found out many issues concerning ontology construction and have solved them by enhancing the ontological theories and technical functions of Hozo. The number of items of improvements amounts to 67 in both theoretical and practical issues. This paper focuses on the practical issues and presents the improved functions of Hozo. Then, we consider how those functions have been useful for ontology construction through actual uses in six ontology development projects and evaluation experiment of usability of Hozo. Through these extensions, usability and reliability of Hozo have been improved. It also would contribute to development of other ontology engineering environments.

Dynamic is-a Hierarchy Generation from a Clinical Medical Ontology

This article discusses an ontology-handling technology to provide on-demand reorganization of is-a hierarchy of diseases instead of one fixed hierarchy to cope with various viewpoints which physicians might have. It is one of the important benefits of our medical ontology which is developed as a Japanese national project. This technology tackles with the multi-perspective issues of medical knowledge.