Exploiting an Ontological Model to Study COVID-19 Contagion Chains in Sustainable Smart Cities

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the deaths of millions of people around the world. The scientific community faces a tough struggle to reduce the effects of this pandemic. Several investigations dealing with different perspectives have been carried out. However, it is not easy to find studies focused on COVID-19 contagion chains. A deep analysis of contagion chains may contribute new findings that can be used to reduce the effects of COVID-19. For example, some interesting chains with specific behaviors could be identified and more in-depth analyses could be performed to investigate the reasons for such behaviors. To represent, validate and analyze the information of contagion chains, we adopted an ontological approach. Ontologies are artificial intelligence techniques that have become widely accepted solutions for the representation of knowledge and corresponding analyses. The semantic representation of information by means of ontologies enables the consistency of the information to be checked, as well as automatic reasoning to infer new knowledge. The ontology was implemented in Ontology Web Language (OWL), which is a formal language based on description logics. This approach could have a special impact on smart cities, which are characterized as using information to enhance the quality of basic services for citizens. In particular, health services could take advantage of this approach to reduce the effects of COVID-19.

Towards an Ontology of Representation

In philosophy information is mainly discussed along with the notion of aboutness. In more practical communities, information is mainly addressed together with notions like data and knowledge. This paper proposes a different approach. We look at information (and related concepts) as roles played by representations. This view implies that the notion of representation is central for any ontological analysis of information and related concepts. The paper provides arguments for this new stand and discusses an ontological model of representation based on the systematic distinction between form and content. The broadness and flexibility of the proposed model is shown by discussing a list of variegated representation entities from music to procedure, from novel to painting. The paper also investigates the role of letters (characters) in natural language expressions, which turns out to be quite complex.

Analysis of approaches for identification the ontological model components of the searching system

The object of research is the components of an intelligent system for searching information in electronic repositories of unstructured documents, which based on the ontologies of the subject area. One of the most problematic areas is the processing and analysis of information contained in electronic repositories of unstructured documents. There are considered the some possibilities of increasing the efficiency of information processing. In the course of the study, using the method in which ontologies comprise sets of terms presented in it. In addition, the ontological set also includes information about subject areas, areas of definitions, etc. There are obtained the sequence of defining the conceptual representation of an intelligent search system based on ontological components. There are presented the composition of the ontological system model. There are described the main functional components of the system for intelligent processing of information about electronic documents. The proposed approaches for identifying the component components of the ontological model of the search system have a lot of features. This is due to the fact that the search system model must have a set of properties: integrity, coherence, organization, integrability, mobility. Ontologies which representing the basic concepts of the domain in a format available for automated processing in the form of a hierarchy of classes and relationships between them allow automated processing. The using of ontologies in the role of an intermediary between the user and the search process, between the search process and the search system that can facilitate the solution of a number of complex and non-standard tasks of information retrieval (for example, the automation of the search process). It is possible to solve the problem of knowledge representation for displaying information relevant to user requests, as well as to solve the problems of filtering and classifying information. Compared to similar well-known search systems, this provides such advantages as creating a common terminology for software agents and users, protecting the information store from total overflow and errors, as well as solving the issue of information aging.

AN ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE BASE OF A DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR CHOOSING AN INDIVIDUAL EDUCATIONAL TRAJECTORY

В статье рассмотрены актуальные вопросы онтологического моделирования базы знаний интеллектуальной системы поддержки принятия решения (СППР) по выбору индивидуальной образовательной траектории. Цель работы – разработка онтологической модели базы знаний системы поддержки принятия решения для построения индивидуальной образовательной траектории обучающегося. Предметом исследования является онтологическое моделирование процесса построения индивидуальной образовательной траектории. Актуальность работы обусловлена индивидуализацией образовательного процесса, который предлагается осуществлять по индивидуальным образовательным траекториям (ИОТ). При построении ИОТ большая роль отводится самостоятельному выбору и принятию решения обучающимся, где необходимо ясно видеть возможный результат своего выбора. Система построения сценариев выбора ИОТ или Система поддержки принятия решения (СППР, Decision Support System, DSS) является интеллектуальной системой, ядром которой будет база знаний на основе онтологической модели. Представлены методологические и технологические аспекты моделирования онтологии базы знаний предметной области индивидуальных образовательных траекторий, применение современных программных средств и стандартов разработки онтологических моделей. Описан метод и технология онтологического моделирования, представлены основные технологические стандарты и их теоретические основания, а также основные процессы методики проектирования. Дано описание предметной области онтологической модели, подход к построению модели базы знаний индивидуальной образовательной траектории, где сформулированы целевые вопросы данной онтологии для определения её масштаба и компетентности. Представлен последовательный процесс онтологического моделирования знаний описанной предметной области. Разработаны правила логического вывода для проверки компетентности онтологической модели и представлены результаты логических вычислений. Представлен выбор семантических технологий для разработки СППР. В заключение сделаны выводы о преимуществах онтологического подхода к разработке базы знаний системы поддержки принятия решения по выбору индивидуальной образовательной траектории и о программной архитектуре реализации данной системы. The article deals with topical issues of ontological modeling of the knowledge base of the intelligent decision support system (DSS) for the choice of an individual educational trajectory. The purpose of the work is to develop an ontological model of the knowledge base of the decision support system for building an individual educational trajectory of a student. The subject of the research is the ontological modeling of the process of building an individual educational trajectory. The relevance of the work is due to the individualization of the educational process, which is proposed to be carried out according to individual educational trajectories (IOT). When building an IOT, a large role is assigned to the independent choice and decision-making of students, where it is necessary to clearly see the possible result of their choice. The system for constructing IOT selection scenarios or the Decision Support System (DSS, Decision Support System, DSS) is an intelligent system, the core of which will be a knowledge base based on an ontological model. Methodological and technological aspects of modeling the ontology of the knowledge base of the subject area of individual educational trajectories, the use of modern software tools and standards for the development of ontological models are presented. The method and technology of ontological modeling are described, the main technical standards and their theoretical foundations are presented, as well as the main processes of the design methodology. The article describes the subject area of the ontological model, an approach to building a knowledge base model of an individual educational trajectory, where the target questions of this ontology are formulated to determine its scale and competence. A sequential process of ontological modeling of knowledge of the described subject area is presented. The rules of logical inference for checking the competence of the ontological model are developed and the results of logical calculations are presented. The choice of semantic technologies for the development of DSS is presented. In conclusion, conclusions are made about the advantages of the ontological approach to the development of the knowledge base of the decision support system for choosing an individual educational trajectory and about the software architecture of the implementation of this system.

“TREES SWING WITHOUT WIND”: A RECEPTIVE AND INTERTEXTUAL GESTURE BY DENIS TRETYAKOV (“THE CHURCH OF CHILDHOOD”)

The article is based on the hypothesis of Yu. Kristeva on gesture as a semiotic text. The text of Denis Tretyakov’s song “Trees (Trees swing without wind)” is considered as a receptive and intertextual gesture. Оbservations made in this article offer the key to this text / gesture: step by step reconstruction of its creative communication with fragments of religious and mystical teachings (Kabbalah, Crowlianism, etc.), literary and journalistic works (“Apollo Bezobrazov” by B. Poplavsky, “Trees took the form of wind” by W.S. Burroughs). As a result, it is established that all the problematic and thematic fields and connections of the text are transferred to the cosmic sphere, and this allows its author to create a universal ontological model of the world.

WikiServe: Using Wikipedia to Match IoT based Services for Situation Response

A large number of smart devices (things) are being deployed with the swift development of Internet of Things (IOT). These devices, owned by different organizations, have a wide variety of services to offer over the web. During a natural disaster or emergency (i.e., a situation), for example, relevant IOT services can be found and put to use. However, appropriate service matching methods are required to find the relevant services. Organizations that manage situation responses and organizations that provide IOT services are likely to be independent of each other, and therefore it is difficult for them to adopt a common ontological model to facilitate the service matching. Moreover, there exists a large conceptual gap between the domain of discourse for situations and the domain of discourse for services, which cannot be adequately bridged by existing techniques. In this paper, we address these issues and propose a new method, WikiServe, to identify IOT services that are functionally relevant to a given situation. Using concepts (terms) from situation and service descriptions, WikiServe employs Wikipedia as a knowledge source to bridge the conceptual gap between situation and service descriptions and match functionally relevant IOT services for a situation. It uses situation terms to retrieve situation related articles from Wikipedia. Then it creates a ranked list of services for the situation using the weighted occurrences of service terms in weighted situation articles. WikiServe performs better than a commonly used baseline method in terms of Precision, Recall and F measure for service matching.

WikiServe: Using Wikipedia to Match IoT based Services for Situation Response

A large number of smart devices (things) are being deployed with the swift development of Inter- net of Things (IOT). These devices, owned by different organizations, have a wide variety of services to offer over the web. During a natural disaster or emergency (i.e., a situation), for example, relevant IOT services can be found and put to use. However, appropriate service matching methods are required to find the relevant services. Organizations that manage situation responses and organizations that provide IOT services are likely to be independent of each other, and therefore it is difficult for them to adopt a common ontological model to facilitate the service matching. Moreover, there exists a large conceptual gap between the domain of discourse for situations and the domain of discourse for services, which cannot be adequately bridged by existing techniques. In this paper, we address these issues and propose a new method, WikiServe, to identify IOT services that are functionally relevant to a given situation. Using concepts (terms) from situation and service descriptions, WikiServe employs Wikipedia as a knowledge source to bridge the conceptual gap between situation and service descriptions and match functionally relevant IOT services for a situation. It uses situation terms to retrieve situation related articles from Wikipedia. Then it creates a ranked list of services for the situation using the weighted occurrences of service terms in weighted situation articles. WikiServe performs better than a commonly used baseline method in terms of Precision, Recall and F measure for service matching.

Decision support in the information maintenance of individual education trajectory based on ontological models and distributed RDF-storage

The article considers the problem of decision support in the information maintenance of individual education trajectory. The development of algorithms and software for processes automating in educational systems requires a special approach. The use of ontological models makes it possible to unify the description of the elements of educational systems and apply the technology of digital footprints when managing business processes in educational systems. An ontological model for managing educational trajectories is proposed. An algorithm has also been developed to compare competence-based models of curricula using latent-semantic analysis. The proposed models and methods are implemented as a distributed software system using the semantic web approach on the basis of distributed RDF-storage. The effectiveness of the developed algorithms and software solutions is demonstrated by the example of academic mobility in Ufa State Aviation Technical University. Prospects for further research in this area are outlined.