Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface
- 1 An Introduction to Description Logics
- Part I Theory
- Part II Implementation
- Part III Applications
- 10 Conceptual Modeling with Description Logics
- 11 Software Engineering
- 12 Configuration
- 13 Medical Informatics
- 14 OWL: a Description-Logic-Based Ontology Language for the Semantic Web
- 15 Natural Language Processing
- 16 Description Logics for Databases
- Appendix: Description Logic Terminology
- Bibliography
- Index
16 - Description Logics for Databases
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface to the second edition
- Preface
- 1 An Introduction to Description Logics
- Part I Theory
- Part II Implementation
- Part III Applications
- 10 Conceptual Modeling with Description Logics
- 11 Software Engineering
- 12 Configuration
- 13 Medical Informatics
- 14 OWL: a Description-Logic-Based Ontology Language for the Semantic Web
- 15 Natural Language Processing
- 16 Description Logics for Databases
- Appendix: Description Logic Terminology
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
In contrast to the relatively complex information that can be expressed in DL ABoxes (which we might call knowledge or information), databases and other sources such as files, semistructured data, and the World Wide Web provide rather simpler data, which must however be managed effectively. This chapter surveys the major classes of application of Description Logics and their reasoning facilities to the issues of data management, including: (i) expressing the conceptual domain model/ontology of the data source, (ii) integrating multiple data sources, and (iii) expressing and evaluating queries. In each case we utilize the standard properties of Description Logics, such as the ability to express ontologies at a level closer to that of human conceptualization (e.g., representing conceptual schemas), determining consistency of descriptions (e.g., determining if a query or the integration of some schemas is consistent), and automatically classifying descriptions that are definitions (e.g., queries are really definitions, so we can classify them and determine subsumption between them).
Introduction
According to [EIMasri and Navathe, 1994], a database is a coherent collection of related data, which have some “inherent meaning”. Databases are similar to knowledge bases because they are usually used to maintain models of some universe of discourse (UofD). Of course, the purpose of such computer models is to support end-users in finding out things about the world, and therefore it is important to maintain an up-to-date and error-free model.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Description Logic HandbookTheory, Implementation and Applications, pp. 500 - 524Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007
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