Toward a systematic conflict resolution framework for ontologies

Background The ontology authoring step in ontology development involves having to make choices about what subject domain knowledge to include. This may concern sorting out ontological differences and making choices between conflicting axioms due to limitations in the logic or the subject domain semantics. Examples are dealing with different foundational ontologies in ontology alignment and OWL 2 DL’s transitive object property versus a qualified cardinality constraint. Such conflicts have to be resolved somehow. However, only isolated and fragmented guidance for doing so is available, which therefore results in ad hoc decision-making that may not be the best choice or forgotten about later. Results This work aims to address this by taking steps towards a framework to deal with the various types of modeling conflicts through meaning negotiation and conflict resolution in a systematic way. It proposes an initial library of common conflicts, a conflict set, typical steps toward resolution, and the software availability and requirements needed for it. The approach was evaluated with an actual case of domain knowledge usage in the context of epizootic disease outbreak, being avian influenza, and running examples with COVID-19 ontologies. Conclusions The evaluation demonstrated the potential and feasibility of a conflict resolution framework for ontologies.

Magnetic Nanocomposites Containing Low and Medium-Molecular Weight Chitosan for Dye Adsorption: Hydrophilic Property Versus Functional Groups

The azo dye removal from polluted water is vital from a sustainable viewpoint. In this study, we investigated the influence of chitosan molecular weight on the adsorptive removal of basic blue 41. For preparing nanocomposite containing medium-molecular weight chitosan (NC(M)), cross-linking of chitosan was done using diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid, silica-modified magnetite nanoparticles and graphene oxide. Techniques including FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, TGA/DTG, VSM and N2 adsorption/desorption isotherm were applied for characterization of NC(M). The adsorption behavior of synthesized NC(M) was compared with as-prepared adsorbent containing low-molecular weight chitosan (NC(L)) (Asadabadi 2021). The experimental design was carried out using the Central Composite Design. The effect of initial pH, temperature and adsorbent concentration on the percentage of dye removal were examined and the optimum values of variables were determined. Despite NC(M) which had maximum 31% dye removal, NC(L) led to approximately 95% adsorptive removal at optimum conditions. An increase in the monomer number of chitosan caused to reduce hydrophilic property of NC(M), which in turn resulted in a repulsion force between adsorbent and dye. However, H-bonding, coulumbic attraction and pi-stacking interactions contributed in the adsorption mechanism of NC(L). The kinetics study showed that about 30 min necessitated reaching the equilibrium and the rate-limiting steps changed from film diffusion to intra-particle diffusion as time passed. The kinetics data were satisfactorily fitted by the modified pseudo-n-order model. The maximum adsorption capacity of NC(L) was obtained 55.87 mg·g− 1. The modified Langmuir-Freundlich isotherm was the best model to reproduce data. NC(L) was recovered seven times without dramatic changes in its adsorption efficiency.

Theoretical and methodological considerations for a robust evaluation of the Linguistic Proximity Model

When we think of the debates surrounding linguistic transfer in L3 acquisition, one of the most prominent discussions concerns whether transfer occurs in a wholesale fashion or whether it is property-by-property. One such model is the Linguistic Proximity Model (LPM, Mykhaylyk et al., 2015; Westergaard et al., 2017; Westergaard, 2019), which maintains that transfer is property-by-property, with what Westergaard refers to as Full Transfer Potential (FTP). Westergaard injects the notion of complexity at each stage of development and recognizes the need to determine how a range of variables drive outcomes across these different stages. With that said, there are a set of points in the proposal that we believe are short of explanatory logic and will benefit from further consideration; we focus on two here. The first regards the need to go beyond post-hoc explanations of non-facilitative transfer via a commitment to a testable, proposal for when the LPM predicts such transfer will occur. The second relates to the current trend of using existing data to support property-by-property versus wholesale transfer. We contend that this application of existing data is an unsound practice because these data are in fact compatible with multiple theoretical accounts.

Investigation of seismic attributes, depositional environments, and hydrocarbon sweet-spot distribution in the Serbin field, Taylor Formation, Southeast Texas

We have conducted seismic-attribute analysis at the Serbin field — in an area straddling Lee, Fayette, and Bastrop Counties and covering approximately [Formula: see text] (approximately [Formula: see text]) — using new, reprocessed, 3D seismic data to provide additional understanding of depositional environments and better predict the distribution of hydrocarbon sweet spots. We converted the 3D seismic volume into a log-lithology volume and integrated core data to examine the distribution of lithology and interpret depositional environments. By conducting multiattribute analysis, we predicted resistivity (deep-induction log) volume and generated a resistivity map to identify hydrocarbon sweet spots. Our results show that reservoir sandstones in the Serbin field are storm-dominated, shelf-sand deposits. Although individual sandstone beds are lenticular and discontinuous, they collectively constitute a sheet-like geometry, trending northeast to southwest. On the basis of resistivity maps and rock property versus seismic-amplitude crossplots, we differentiated reservoirs in the lower Taylor Formation into two zones: (1) a northwest, high-resistivity, high-acoustic impedance zone and (2) a southeast, low-resistivity, low-acoustic impedance zone. The results also indicated that hydrocarbon sweet spots in the Serbin field are characterized by high resistivity and high impedance. Furthermore, the log-lithology method, although fast and effective, is limited because it cannot take into account sandstone zones having low acoustic impedance.

Landscape in Human Rights Case Law

Chapter 9 analyses the case law of two international human rights courts—the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights—dealing with landscape issues. It compares the approach of the two regional courts and highlights the synergies and antagonisms involved in landscape cases. These include the false dichotomies of ‘Indigenous’ versus ‘Western’ notions of landscape, the culture/nature dichotomy and the private right to property versus the public interest in the landscape (non-proprietary interests), as exemplified in a number of cases before the European Court of Human Rights. A typology of landscape cases is presented and the problems of articulating a right to landscape within the current human rights framework are explored. The chapter concludes by offering some thoughts on collective rights and public spaces.

Priming text function in personification allegory: A corpus-assisted approach

Current linguistic examination of allegory focuses on its cognitive structure as conceptual metaphor, with its linguistic form realised in the absence of a target domain (Crisp, 2001; 2008). The present study addresses the intersection of conceptualisation and form in examining how personification allegory functions within a literary context as either fictional world or thematic elements. Central to this is the idea of lexical priming, which suggests that readers are both textually and experientially primed to interpret personified referents allegorically or non-allegorically depending on their contextual use. In this article I draw on Mahlberg and McIntyre’s (2011) framework for literary text function to take an integrated cognitive-corpus approach to exploring allegorical function through the lens of lexical priming, with corpus analysis revealing the patterns on which these cognitive primings are textually based. To this end, real-world examples of personification allegory are drawn from the Middle English allegorical poem Piers Plowman relative to a corpus of other late medieval poetic literature. My main findings suggest that the textual functionality attributed to allegorical referents is neither mutually exclusive nor directly correlative to a particular textual pattern, but rather contingent on the degree of animacy-based priming evidenced in their core semantic meaning or textual foregrounding. These results additionally indicate that function-based primings depend on the type of allegory appearing in the text (i.e. property versus class allegory).