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Article
Publication date: 6 April 2012

Myongho Yi

As international users increase rapidly, multilingual systems have become a very important service for global users. The purpose of this paper is to design and implement an…

Abstract

Purpose

As international users increase rapidly, multilingual systems have become a very important service for global users. The purpose of this paper is to design and implement an ontology‐driven medical information retrieval (OMIR) system by building a medical ontology based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) medical records.

Design/methodology/approach

A traditional cataloging scheme is used as a navigation menu in the CDC system. This traditional cataloging scheme is transformed to a unique medical ontology for global users in the OMIR system. An experimental study was conducted on both an ontology‐driven medical information system (OMIR) and the CDC system.

Findings

The medical ontology can be used to filter out unsuitable resources based on semantic relationships. In addition, the recommended resources can be categorized and provide the patron with different languages to access resources. The OMIR system provides better relevancy and shorter search times compared with alternative systems.

Research limitations/implications

The OMIR system is currently implemented for medical resources from the CDC. The developed method may also be applied to other domain areas.

Originality/value

This paper represents a practical method of building a multilingual medical information retrieval system and explains the functional use of ontological knowledge. This study provides insights into medical information seeking performance on the medical database systems.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 30 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 May 2014

Bradley Wendell Compton

Ontology in information studies consists of antinomic conceptions, methodologies, and emphases in both application and philosophizing. A comprehensive understanding of ontology in…

1342

Abstract

Purpose

Ontology in information studies consists of antinomic conceptions, methodologies, and emphases in both application and philosophizing. A comprehensive understanding of ontology in information studies can be achieved by employing Slavoj Žižek's parallax view which holds that reality is not only best understood by articulating conflicting perspectives on a particular phenomenon, but that given phenomena are fundamentally constrained by incommensurable perspectives that must be acknowledged accordingly. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Ontology in information studies, including computational ontology development, is analyzed using critical information theory based on Heideggerian, poststructuralist, and anti-postmodern philosophy. The discussion is framed by Žižek's notion of the parallax Real.

Findings

A complete understanding of ontology in information studies that does not reduce ontology to a totalizing theory or sequester notions of ontology to conflicting, unrelated discourses, necessarily accepts articulating the alterity between differing ontological views as the means by which one can best allude to what “ontology in information studies really is.”

Originality/value

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of radically different ontological perspectives on the nature of reality with respect to digital technology.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 70 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 April 2011

Lukasz Ziemba, Camilo Cornejo and Howard W. Beck

The paper's aims is to present research that evaluates a technology that assists in organizing and retrieving knowledge stored in a variety of forms (books, papers, models…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper's aims is to present research that evaluates a technology that assists in organizing and retrieving knowledge stored in a variety of forms (books, papers, models, decision support systems, databases) through a real world application.

Design/methodology/approach

Ontology has been used to manage the Water Conservation Digital Library in Florida, USA, which holds a dynamic collection of various types of digital resources in the domain of urban water conservation. The ontology based back‐end powers a fully operational web interface, available at: http://library.conservefloridawater.org Findings – The system has demonstrated numerous benefits of the ontology application, including easier and more precise finding of resources, information sharing and reuse, and has proved to effectively facilitate information management.

Research limitations/implications

A large and dynamic number of concepts makes it difficult to keep the ontology consistent and to accurately manually catalog resources. To address these issues, ongoing research focuses on the area of information extraction with the aid of natural language processing techniques.

Originality/value

The paper presents a real‐world‐verified application of ontology to a digital library. It may be of potential interest for anyone who needs to effectively manage a collection of digital resources.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 29 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2009

Song Xiao, Zhang Lin, Gong Guang‐hong, Di Yan‐Qiang and Yu Peng‐fei

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method of ontology‐based digital product data exchange. The digital product data are enriched with virtual prototype (VP) model…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method of ontology‐based digital product data exchange. The digital product data are enriched with virtual prototype (VP) model information and the designed exchange process is discussed. Additionally, an algorithm enabling the ontology‐based data exchange method among missile guide systems is proposed and analyzed.

Design/methodology/approach

Semantic sevice‐oriented architecture (SSOA) is an innovative integration architecture for digital product information integration and process integration. In digital product ontology layer of SSOA, a new method of ontology‐based product data exchange is proposed. Compared with traditional information exchange, the method adds the VP's information to general digital products' information. The VP's information is described by building VP static structure ontology and dynamic behavior ontology. The exchange process of the novel method is discussed in detail. Finally, an example illustrating the data exchange among missile guide systems is given and the merits of the proposed method is analyzed.

Findings

Simulation information, especially VP information, is not always well defined and taken into account by product data exchange systems such as product data management or product lifecycle management. A formal description of VP information is often required in efficient and effective product data exchange. The goal is to define VP structure and behavior ontologies to enable ontology‐based digital product data exchange.

Originality/value

Using VP information including structure information and behavior information, the paper provides a new method of digital product data exchange.

Details

COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 28 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 November 2016

Stefan Fenz, Stefanie Plieschnegger and Heidi Hobel

The purpose of this paper is to increase the degree of automation within information security compliance projects by introducing a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard…

1493

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to increase the degree of automation within information security compliance projects by introducing a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard. As information is becoming more valuable and the current businesses face frequent attacks on their infrastructure, enterprises need support at protecting their information-based assets.

Design/methodology/approach

Information security standards and guidelines provide baseline knowledge for protecting corporate assets. However, the efforts to check whether the implemented measures of an organization adhere to the proposed standards and guidelines are still significantly high.

Findings

This paper shows how the process of compliance checking can be supported by using machine-readable ISO 27002 control descriptions in combination with a formal representation of the organization’s assets.

Originality/value

The authors created a formal representation of the ISO 27002 standard and showed how a security ontology can be used to increase the efficiency of the compliance checking process.

Details

Information & Computer Security, vol. 24 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2056-4961

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 10 April 2009

Chuanfu Chen, Zhiqiang Wu, Congjing Ran, Qiong Tang, Song Chen and Xiaojuan Zhang

This aim of this article is to propose a technical solution for digital libraries to establish the information needs ontology based on a comprehensive understanding of…

1549

Abstract

Purpose

This aim of this article is to propose a technical solution for digital libraries to establish the information needs ontology based on a comprehensive understanding of personalized user information needs and offer an information push service by really simple syndication (RSS) in a ubiquitous computing environment.

Design/methodology/approach

First, the authors formalize an ontology model applicable to the ubiquitous computing environment to describe user information needs comprehensively. The information needs related to the user's research activities are regarded as the ontology, which is described with web ontology language (OWL), and thus an ontology knowledgebase is established. Second, in light of the user's explicit information needs, the digital library finds the hidden information needs from the ontology knowledgebase, and also extracts the information resources required by the user from the corresponding database and then pushes them to the user by means of RSS. Finally, users can browse through a man‐machine interface to access the information.

Findings

After these steps, an RSS information push service architecture is established based on the user information needs ontology, providing the users with dynamic, personalized and proactive information services.

Originality/value

The innovation of this research lies in the fact that the architecture that is put forward is helpful to improve the accuracy and integrity of information push service of digital library, and is also beneficial for the research on u‐library.

Details

The Electronic Library, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-0473

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 July 2008

Chimay J. Anumba, Raja R.A. Issa, Jiayi Pan and Ivan Mutis

There is an increasing recognition of the value of effective information and knowledge management (KM) in the construction project delivery process. Many architecture, engineering…

2173

Abstract

Purpose

There is an increasing recognition of the value of effective information and knowledge management (KM) in the construction project delivery process. Many architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) organisations have invested heavily in information technology and KM systems that help in this regard. While these have been largely successful in supporting intra‐organisational business processes, interoperability problems still persist at the project organisation level due to the heterogeneity of the systems used by the different organisations involved. Ontologies are seen as an important means of addressing these problems. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of ontologies in the construction project delivery process, particularly with respect to information and KM.

Design/methodology/approach

A detailed technical review of the fundamental concepts and related work has been undertaken, with examples and case studies of ontology‐based information and KM presented to illustrate the key concepts. The specific issues and technical difficulties in the design and construction context are highlighted, and the approaches adopted in two ontology‐based applications for the AEC sector are presented.

Findings

The paper concludes that there is considerable merit in ontology‐based approaches to information and KM, but that significant technical challenges remain. Middleware applications, such as semantic web‐based information management system, are contributing in this regard but more needs to be done particularly on integrating or merging ontologies.

Originality/value

The value of the paper lies in the detailed exploration of ontology‐based information and KM within a design and construction context, and the use of appropriate examples and applications to illustrate the key issues.

Details

Construction Innovation, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-4175

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 November 2014

S. Thenmalar and T.V. Geetha

The purpose of this paper is to improve the conceptual-based search by incorporating structural ontological information such as concepts and relations. Generally, Semantic-based…

1166

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to improve the conceptual-based search by incorporating structural ontological information such as concepts and relations. Generally, Semantic-based information retrieval aims to identify relevant information based on the meanings of the query terms or on the context of the terms and the performance of semantic information retrieval is carried out through standard measures-precision and recall. Higher precision leads to the (meaningful) relevant documents obtained and lower recall leads to the less coverage of the concepts.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper, the authors enhance the existing ontology-based indexing proposed by Kohler et al., by incorporating sibling information to the index. The index designed by Kohler et al., contains only super and sub-concepts from the ontology. In addition, in our approach, we focus on two tasks; query expansion and ranking of the expanded queries, to improve the efficiency of the ontology-based search. The aforementioned tasks make use of ontological concepts, and relations existing between those concepts so as to obtain semantically more relevant search results for a given query.

Findings

The proposed ontology-based indexing technique is investigated by analysing the coverage of concepts that are being populated in the index. Here, we introduce a new measure called index enhancement measure, to estimate the coverage of ontological concepts being indexed. We have evaluated the ontology-based search for the tourism domain with the tourism documents and tourism-specific ontology. The comparison of search results based on the use of ontology “with and without query expansion” is examined to estimate the efficiency of the proposed query expansion task. The ranking is compared with the ORank system to evaluate the performance of our ontology-based search. From these analyses, the ontology-based search results shows better recall when compared to the other concept-based search systems. The mean average precision of the ontology-based search is found to be 0.79 and the recall is found to be 0.65, the ORank system has the mean average precision of 0.62 and the recall is found to be 0.51, while the concept-based search has the mean average precision of 0.56 and the recall is found to be 0.42.

Practical implications

When the concept is not present in the domain-specific ontology, the concept cannot be indexed. When the given query term is not available in the ontology then the term-based results are retrieved.

Originality/value

In addition to super and sub-concepts, we incorporate the concepts present in same level (siblings) to the ontological index. The structural information from the ontology is determined for the query expansion. The ranking of the documents depends on the type of the query (single concept query, multiple concept queries and concept with relation queries) and the ontological relations that exists in the query and the documents. With this ontological structural information, the search results showed us better coverage of concepts with respect to the query.

Details

Aslib Journal of Information Management, vol. 66 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-3806

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 September 2015

Moumita Das, Jack C.P. Cheng and Kincho H. Law

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for integrating construction supply chain in order to resolve the data heterogeneity and data sharing problems in the…

1442

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for integrating construction supply chain in order to resolve the data heterogeneity and data sharing problems in the construction industry.

Design/methodology/approach

Standardized web service technology is used in the proposed framework for data specification, transfer, and integration. Open standard SAWSDL is used to annotate web service descriptions with pointers to concepts defined in ontologies. NoSQL database Cassandra is used for distributed data storage among construction supply chain stakeholders.

Findings

Ontology can be used to support heterogeneous data transfer and integration through web services. Distributed data storage facilitates data sharing and enhances data control.

Practical implications

This paper presents examples of two ontologies for expressing construction supply chain informationontology for material and ontology for purchase order. An example scenario is presented to demonstrate the proposed web service framework for material procurement process involving three parties, namely, project manager, contractor, and material supplier.

Originality/value

The use of web services is not new to construction supply chains (CSCs). However, it still faces problems in channelizing information along CSCs due to data heterogeneity. Trust issue is also a barrier to information sharing for integrating supply chains in a centralized collaboration system. In this paper, the authors present a web service framework, which facilitates storage and sharing of information on a distributed manner mediated through ontology-based web services. Security is enhanced with access control. A data model for the distributed databases is also presented for data storage and retrieval.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. 22 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 July 2021

Farhad Sadeghineko and Bimal Kumar

Facilitating the information exchange and interoperability between stakeholders during the life-cycle of an asset can be one of the fundamental necessities for developing an…

Abstract

Purpose

Facilitating the information exchange and interoperability between stakeholders during the life-cycle of an asset can be one of the fundamental necessities for developing an enhanced information exchange framework. Such a framework can also improve the successful accomplishment of building projects. This paper aims to use Semantic Web technologies for facilitating information exchange within existing building projects.

Design/methodology/approach

In real-world building projects, the construction industry’s information supply chain may initiate from near scratch when new building projects are started resulting in diverse data structures represented in unstructured data sources, like Excel spreadsheets and documents. Large-scale data generated throughout a building's life-cycle requires exchanging and processing during an asset's Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase. Building information modelling (BIM) processes and related technologies can address some of the challenges and limitations of information exchange and interoperability within new building projects. However, the use of BIM in existing and retrofit assets has been hampered by the challenges surrounding the limitations of existing technologies.

Findings

The aim of this paper is twofold. Firstly, it briefly outlines the framework previously developed for generating semantically enriched 3D retrofit models. Secondly, a framework is proposed focussing on facilitating the information exchange and interoperability for existing buildings. Semantic Web technologies and standards, such as Web Ontology Language and existing AEC domain ontologies are used to enhance and improve the proposed framework.

Originality/value

The proposed framework is evaluated by implementing an example application and the Resource Description Framework data produced by the previously developed framework. The proposed approach makes a valuable contribution to the asset/facilities management (AM/FM) domain. It should be of interest to various FM practices for existing assets, such as the building information/knowledge management for design, construction and O&M stages of an asset’s life-cycle.

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