C. Maria (Marijke) Keet |
Research |
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PublicationsParts and wholes - Granularity - Bio modelling and use - Logics and conceptual modelling - Editing - PhD Thesis - Politics/Game theory sort by type of publication Parts and wholes - Artale, A. and Keet, C.M. Essential, mandatory, and shared parts in conceptual data models. In: Innovations in Information Systems modeling: Methods and Best Practices. IGI Global, Advances in Database Research Series, Halpin, T.A., Proper, H.A., Krogstie, J. (Eds.). (in print) abstract - Artale, A., Guarino, N., and Keet, C.M. Formalising temporal constraints on part-whole relations. 11th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'08). Gerhard Brewka, Jerome Lang (Eds.) AAAI Press. Sydney, Australia, September 16-19, 2008. abstract - Artale, A. and Keet, C.M. Essential and mandatory part-whole relations in conceptual data models. 21st International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'08). 13-16 May 2008, Dresden, Germany. CEUR-WS Vol-353. abstract - Keet, C.M. and Artale, A. Representing and Reasoning over a Taxonomy of Part-Whole Relations. Applied Ontology -- Special Issue on Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modelling, IOS Press, 2008, 3(1-2): 91-110. abstract - Keet, C.M. Part-whole relations in Object-Role Models. 2nd International Workshop on Object-Role Modelling (ORM'06), Montpellier, France, Nov 2-3, 2006. In: OTM Workshops 2005. Meersman, R., Tari, Z., Herrero., P. et al. (Eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 4278. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2006. pp1116-1127. abstract - Keet, C.M. Introduction to part-whole relations: mereology, conceptual modelling and mathematical aspects. KRDB Research Centre Technical Report KRDB06-3, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. October 2, 2006. 32p. pdf Granularity - Keet, C.M. A top-level categorization of types of granularity. In: Novel Developments in Granular Computing: Applications for Advanced Human Reasoning and Soft Computation. JingTao Yao (Ed.). IGI Global. (invited book chapter). - Keet, C.M. Toward cross-granular querying over modularized ontologies. International Workshop on Ontologies: Reasoning and Modularity (WORM'08). 2 June 2008, Tenerife, Spain. CEUR-WS Vol-348, pp6-17. abstract - Keet, C.M. Granulation with indistinguishability, equivalence or similarity. IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing (GrC2007), San Francisco, November 2-4, 2007. IEEE Computer Society (ISBN 0-7695-3032-X), 11-16. abstract - Keet, C.M. Enhancing comprehension of ontologies and conceptual models through abstractions. 10th Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA 2007), Rome, September 10-13, 2007. Basili, R, Pazienza, M.T. (Eds.) Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, LNAI 4733, 814-822. abstract - Keet, C.M. A taxonomy of types of granularity. IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing (GrC2006), Atlanta, USA, May 10-12 2006. IEEE Computer Society (ISBN 1-4244-0134-8) / IEEE Xplore, vol 1, 106-111. abstract - Keet, C.M. Enhancing biological information systems with granularity. KnowledgeWeb PhD Symposium (KWEPSY06), 17 June 2006, Budva, Montenegro. - Keet, C.M. Granular information retrieval from the Gene Ontology and from the Foundational Model of Anatomy with OQAFMA. KRDB Research Centre Technical Report KRDB06-1, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. April 6, 2006. 19p. pdf - Keet, C.M. A formal approach for using granularity in the subject domain of infectious diseases. KRDB Research Centre Technical Report KRDB06-2, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. April 26, 2006. 24p. pdf - Keet, C.M. Using abstractions to facilitate management of large ORM models and ontologies. International Workshop on Object-Role Modeling (ORM'05). Cyprus, 3-4 November 2005. In: OTM Workshops 2005. Halpin, T., Meersman, R. (eds.), Lecture Notes in Computer Science LNCS 3762. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2005. pp603-612. abstract - Keet, C.M. and Kumar, A. Applying partitions to infectious diseases. XIX International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (MIE2005). Geneva, Switzerland, 28-31 August, 2005. In: Connecting Medical Informatics and bio-informatics, Engelbrecht, R., Geissbuhler, A., Lovis, C. Mihalas, G. (eds.). Amsterdam: IOS Press, 2005. pp1236-1241. abstract - Keet, C.M. Moving toward computational support for biological granularity. Summer School on Biology, Computation & Information (BCI05), PhD Student Session. Dobbiaco, Italy, 12/16-9-2005. Bio modelling and use - Keet, C.M., Alberts, R., Gerber, A., Chimamiwa, G. Enhancing web portals with Ontology-Based Data Access: the case study of South Africa's Accessibility Portal for people with disabilities. Fifth International Workshop OWL: Experiences and Directions (OWLED'08). 26-27 Oct. 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany. abstract - Keet, C.M. and Rodriguez, M. Toward using biomedical ontologies: trade-offs between ontology languages. AAAI 2007 Workshop on Semantic e-Science (SeS'07), 23 July 2007, Vancouver, Canada. AAAI 2007 TR WS-07-11 (ISBN 978-1-57735-338-6), 65-68. abstract - Keet, C.M. and Rodriguez, M. Comprehensiveness versus Scalability: guidelines for choosing an appropriate knowledge representation language for bio-ontologies. KRDB Research Centre Technical Report KRDB07-5, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. May 9, 2007. 8p. pdf - Keet, C.M., Roos, M. and Marshall, M.S. A survey of requirements for automated reasoning services for bio-ontologies in OWL. Third international Workshop OWL: Experiences and Directions (OWLED 2007), 6-7 June 2007, Innsbruck, Austria. CEUR-WS (ISSN 1613-0073) Vol-258. abstract - Keet, C.M. Representations of the ecological niche. Third International Workshop on Philosophy and Informatics (WSPI2006), Saarbrucken, Germany. 3-4 May 2006. Johansson, I., Klein, B., Roth-Berghofer, T. (Eds.), IFOMIS Reports (ISSN 1611-4019), 14, 2006. pp75-88. abstract - appendix - Keet, C.M. Factors affecting ontology development in ecology. Data Integration in the Life Sciences 2005 (DILS'05), Ludaescher, B, Raschid, L. (eds.). San Diego, USA, 20-22 July 2005. Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics LNBI 3615, Springer Verlag, 2005. pp46-62. abstract - supplementary material - Keet, C.M. Current characteristics and historical perspective of Computer Science and IT with/for biology. CSBio Reader: extended abstracts of the 'CS&IT with/for biology' Seminar Series, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 2005. pp1-8. - Keet, C.M. Conceptual Modelling and Ontologies for Biology: experiences with the bacteriocin database. Agropecuaria Conference (Interjoven 2004). 3-6 June 2004, San Jose de las Lajas, Cuba. abstract - poster - Keet, C.M. Biological Data and Conceptual Modelling Methods. Journal of Conceptual Modeling, Issue 29, October 2003. abstract Logics and conceptual modelling - Keet, C.M. Unifying industry-grade class-based conceptual data modeling languages with CMcom. 21st International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'08), 13-16 May 2008, Dresden, Germany. CEUR-WS, Vol-353. abstract - Keet, C.M. A formal comparison of conceptual data modeling languages. 13th International Workshop on Exploring Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD'08). Montpellier, France, 16-17 June 2008. CEUR-WS Vol-337, pp25-39. abstract - Tziviskou, C. and Keet, C.M. A Meta-Model for Ontologies with ORM2. Third International Workshop on Object-Role Modelling (ORM'07), Algarve, Portugal, Nov 28-30, 2007. Meersman, R., Tari, Z., Herrero., P. et al. (Eds.), Springer, LNCS 4805, 624-633. abstract - Keet, C.M. Prospects for and issues with mapping the Object-Role Modeling language into DLRifd. 20th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'07), 8-10 June 2007, Bressanone, Italy. CEUR-WS Vol-250 / (ISBN 978-88-6046-008-5), 331-338. abstract - appendix (mapping and figures) - Keet, C.M. Mapping the Object-Role Modeling language ORM2 into Description Logic language DLRifd. KRDB Research Centre Technical Report KRDB07-2, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. February 15, 2007. 23p. pdf (also as arXiv:cs.LO/0702089v1) Other - M. Jarrar, C.M. Keet, and P. Dongilli. Multilingual verbalization of ORM conceptual models and axiomatized ontologies. STARLab Technical Report, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Belgium. February 2006. see also tech reports for the supported 10 languages - Keet, C.M. Aspects of Ontology Integration. Technical Report, Napier University, Edinburgh, Scotland. 2004. - Keet, C.M. Ontology Integration for Applied Bioscience. Summer School & Workshop Semantic Interoperability and Data Mining in Biomedicine (research student poster session), 3-11 July 2004, Balatonfüred, Hungary. abstract - poster Editing stuff Keet, C.M. and Franconi, E. (eds.). CSBio reader: extended abstracts of the 'CS&IT with/for biology' Seminar Series. Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, 2005. PhD Thesis Keet, C.M. A Formal Theory of Granularity. PhD Thesis, KRDB Research Centre, Faculty of Computer Science, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. 2008. Politics/Game Theory - Keet, C.M. (2008). Book review "The Changing Dynamic of Cuban Civil Society" by Gray and Kapcia. Latin American Politics and Society. Blackwell Publishing. (forthcoming). - Keet, C.M. (2003). Towards a resolution of terrorism using game theory - coalitions, negotiations and audience costs. Dept of Politics and Public Admin Working Papers, University of Limerick. Number 1, December '03. abstract - preprint - Keet, C.M. (2003). Democracy in the European Union. UL Perspectives, Journal of Political Studies, 2, 71-80. abstract - Preprint: html pdf Other published articles and essays - Marijke Keet."Europeanization of education". International Workshop on the Impact of EU Education Policy and Educational System Reforms on Youth and Society, 29/30 March 2006, Brussels, Belgium. - Marijke Keet."Book review 'La personalità nonviolenta' [the non-violent personality]". Irish Peace Society, 2004. - Marijke Keet."Causes of terrorism". Everything2.com, 2003. - Marijke Keet."Interview with the Hizbollah webmaster". Sesame, 2003, 217:22. - Marijke Keet."The role of Pakistan in deterring terrorism". An Focal, 2003, 13,11:24. - Marijke Keet."Agriculture and (under)development". The Conflict Resolution Information Source, Conflict Research Consortium, University of Colorado. 2002. (here too) - Marijke Keet."Women's rights in Islamic marriage". Irish Peace Society, 2002. Enhancing web portals with Ontology-Based Data Access: the case study of South Africa's Accessibility Portal for people with disabilities Keet, C.M., Alberts, R., Gerber, A., Chimamiwa, G. Web portal software is relatively easy to set up and populate from the perspective of the end-user, but it leaves the back-end database devoid of subject domain semantics due to the requirement for a generic implementation. This approach seriously hampers effective search capabilities to retrieve relevant information. Ontology-based data access (OBDA) could, in theory, solve this problem through adding a semantic `layer' over such web portal implementations. To this end, we provide and demonstrate the proof-of-concept methodology by enhancing the operational National Accessibility Portal of South Africa. We developed the ADOLENA ontology, which is based on both the semantics in the database and augmented with notions from foundational and related domain ontologies. ADOLENA was then made compliant with the OWL2 profile DL-LiteA and mapped to the relational database using the OBDA Plugin for Protege. Experimentation with OBDA queries unequivocally demonstrates its advantages compared to the portal's keyword-based search. back - article Essential, mandatory, and shared parts in conceptual data models Artale, A. and Keet, C.M. In: Innovations in Information Systems modeling: Methods and Best Practices. IGI Global, Advances in Database Research Series, Halpin, T.A., Proper, H.A., Krogstie, J. (Eds.). This chapter focuses on formally representing life cycle semantics of part-whole relations in conceptual data models by utilizing the temporal modality. We approach this by resorting to the temporal conceptual data modelling language ERvt and extend it with the novel notion of status relations. This enables a precise axiomatization of the constraints for essential parts and wholes compared to mandatory parts and wholes, as well as introduction of temporally suspended partwhole relations. To facilitate usage in the conceptual stage of information systems development, a set of closed questions and decision diagram are proposed. The long-term objectives are to ascertain which type of shareability and which lifetime aspects are possible for part-whole relations, investigate the formal semantics for sharability, and how to model these kind of differences in conceptual data models. back - article Formalising temporal constraints on part-whole relations Artale, A., Guarino, N., and Keet, C.M. 11th International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR'08) Representing part-whole relations and effectively using them in domain ontologies and conceptual data models poses multiple challenges. In this paper we face the issue of representing the notions of essential and immutable parts and wholes in addition to the usual mandatory participation of the part or whole in the partwhole relation. Our approach is based on i) an explicit temporalization of the part-whole relation, which allows us to introduce a novel notion of status for part-whole relationships; ii) an explicit account of the ontological nature of the classes involved in a part-whole relationships, which distinguishes between rigid and antirigid classes. The main novelty in this paper is to resort to a temporal logic approach to capture the above mentioned notions. The formalization proposed here is grounded on the temporal description logic DLRUS and is based on previous successful efforts to formalize temporal conceptual models. back - article Toward cross-granular querying over modularized ontologies Keet, C.M. International Workshop on Ontologies: Reasoning and Modularity (WORM'08) To address the problems of both structured coordination of linked and modularised ontologies and to query a large dynamic ontology system, we propose a basic granularity framework and a set of functions to query such a granulated system. The granularity framework enforces a constrained and structured modularization. This facilitates automation of both dividing a large body of represented information as well as re-linking the pieces. The functions enable basic cross-granular querying in a transparent and scalable way, as they rely on the unambiguous management layer provided by the granularity framework, and are reusable for ontologies represented and stored in different formats. back - article A formal comparison of conceptual data modeling languages Keet, C.M. 13th International Workshop on Exploring Modeling Methods in Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD'08) An essential aspect of conceptual data modeling methodologies is the language's expressiveness so as to represent the subject domain as precise as possible to obtain good quality models and, consequently, software. To gain better insight in the characteristics of the main conceptual modeling languages, we conducted a comparison between ORM, ORM2, UML, ER, and EER with the aid of Description Logic languages of the DLR family and the new formally defined generic conceptual data modeling language CMcom that is based on DLRifd. ORM, ER, EER, and UML class diagrams are proper fragments of ORM2 and CMcom has the most expressive common denominator with these languages. CMcom simplifies prospects for automated, online, interoperability among the considered languages so that modelers not only can continue using their preferred modeling language yet be compatible with the other ones, but also have a common ground that eases database and software integration based on commonly used conceptual data models. back - article Essential and mandatory part-whole relations in conceptual data models Artale, A., Keet, C.M. 21st International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'08) A recurring problem in conceptual modelling and ontology development is the representation of part-whole relations, with a requirement to be able to distinguish between essential and mandatory parts. To solve this problem, we formally characterize the semantics of these shareability notions by resorting to the temporal conceptual model ERvt and its formalization in the description logic DLRus. back - article Unifying industry-grade class-based conceptual data modeling languages with CMcom Keet, C.M. 21st International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'08) From the side of modelers and early-adopter industry, interest in reasoning over conceptual models and other online usage of conceptual models is growing. To obtain a more precise insight in the characteristics of the main conceptual modeling languages, we define the (semi-)standardized ORM, ORM2, UML, ER, and EER diagram languages in terms of the new generic conceptual data modeling language CMcom that is based on the DL language DLRifd. CMcom has the most expressive common denominator with these languages. CMcom advances prospects for automated, online, interoperability among diverse conceptual data models and ensures compatibility with and between industry-grade conceptual data modeling languages. back - article A Meta-Model for Ontologies with ORM2 Tziviskou, C., Keet, C.M. Third International Workshop on Object-Role Modelling (ORM'07) Development of ontology development tools and ontology-enhanced software applications requires thorough understanding of ontology languages in order to implement them according to their specification. We present a formal specification of the ontologies part of the Web Services Modeling Language WSML documentation as a conceptual model in ORM2. Such an approach abstracts the semantics about ontological constructs, axioms, and properties from their implementation in arbitrary formats, thereby making the model easily understandable and reusable. This formal model in ORM2, which is understandable by both logician and software developer, can be used as any other conceptual model to develop applications, thereby ensuring smooth transition from theory to implementations that are faithful to the theory. back - article Granulation with indistinguishability, equivalence or similarity Keet, C.M. IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing (GrC2007) One of the relations used with granularity is indistinguishability, where distinguishable entities in a finer-grained granule are indistinguishable in a coarser-grained granule. This relation is a subtype of equivalence relation, which is used in the other direction to create finer-grained granules. Together with the notion of similarity, we formally prove some intuitive properties of the indistinguishability relation for both qualitative and quantitative granularity, that with a given granulation there must be at least two granules (levels of granularity) for it to be granular, and derive a strict order between finer and coarser granules. Based on these results, granulation hierarchy is defined as extra assisting structure to augment implementations. back - article Representing and Reasoning over a Taxonomy of Part-Whole Relations Keet, C.M., Artale, A. Applied Ontology (accepted). Many types of part-whole relations have been proposed in the literature to aid the conceptual modeller to choose the most appropriate type, but many of those relations lack a formal specification to give clear and unambiguous semantics to them. To remedy this, a formal taxonomy of types of mereological and meronymic part-whole relations is presented that distinguishes between transitive and intransitive relations and the kind of entity types that are related. The demand to use it effectively brings afore new requirements for automated reasoning over a hierarchy of relations. To ensure logically and ontologically correct inferencing over both the class and role hierarchy, the new reasoning service RBox compatibility for Description Logics reasoners is introduced. The proposed combination of formal semantics and the new reasoning service will improve the representation of the application domain when using part-whole relations in conceptual models and ontologies. back - article Enhancing comprehension of ontologies and conceptual models through abstractions. Keet, C.M. 10th Congress of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AI*IA 2007) In addition to the Database Comprehension Problem, where diagrammatic conceptual data models are too large for a modeller or domain expert to comprehend or manage, an Ontology Comprehension Problem is emerging. The latter faces not only the same visualization issues, but also that the logical theories are less accessible to the domain expert. Formal ontologies are, however, more amenable to automated abstractions to improve understandability. Three ways of abstractions are introduced with corresponding abstraction functions that take into account foundational ontology categories. Usability of both the abstraction functions and the more and less detailed (views of) ontologies is enhanced by associating abstraction functions with a basic framework of levels, thereby facilitating querying and visualizing ontologies. back - article Toward using biomedical ontologies: trade-offs between ontology languages Keet, C.M., Rodriguez, M. AAAI 2007 Workshop on Semantic e-Science (SeS07) Ontology representation languages for the Semantic Web have their strengths and weaknesses, in particular in the light of deploying them in information systems. We survey and compare the Description Logics-based OWL variants, and the DL-Lite and DLR families of languages. We demonstrate distinguishing features with examples from the biological and biomedical domains. Language choices that an ontology developer has to make are, among others, expressivity versus ontology usage for data-intensive tasks and having mereological parthood versus n-ary relations (where n > 2). Guidelines are suggested to facilitate choosing the language best fitted for a task. back - article - tech report Prospects for and issues with mapping the Object-Role Modeling language into DLRifd C Maria Keet. 20th International Workshop on Description Logics (DL'07) Object-Role modellers miss the advantages of automated reasoning over their ORM conceptual models, which could be addressed by DL reasoners. DLs are not considered user-friendly and could benefit from the easy to use ORM diagrammatic and verbalization interfaces and modelling methodologies. Relating the two would greatly expand the scope for automated reasoning with additional scenarios to improve quality of software systems. Given that none of the extant DL languages are as expressive as ORM or its successor ORM2, the 'best-fit' DLRifd was chosen to map the formal conceptual modelling language ORM2. For the non-mappable constraints, pointers to other DL languages are provided, which could serve as impetus for research into DL language extensions or interoperability between existing DL languages. back - article A survey of requirements for automated reasoning services for bio-ontologies in OWL C Maria Keet, Marco Roos, and M. Scott Marshall. Third international Workshop OWL: Experiences and Directions (OWLED 2007) There are few successful application of automated reasoning over OWL-formalised bio-ontologies, and requirements are often unclearly formulated. Of what is available, usage and prospective scenarios of automated reasoning is often different from the straightforward classification and satisfiability. We list nine types of scenarios and specify the requirements in more detail. Several of these requirements are already possible in practice or at least in theory, others are in need of further research, in particular regarding the linking of the OWL ontology to data, reasoning over roles, and dynamically linking modular ontologies. back - article Part-whole relations in Object-Role Models C Maria Keet. 2nd International Workshop on Object Role Modeling 2006 (ORM2006) Representing parthood relations in ORM has received little attention, despite its added-value of the semantics at the conceptual level. We introduce a high-level taxonomy of types of meronymic and mereological relations, use it to construct a decision procedure to determine which type of part-whole role is applicable, and incrementally add mandatory and uniqueness constraints. This enables the conceptual modeller to develop models that are closer to the real-world subject domain semantics, hence improve quality of the software. back - article Representations of the ecological niche C Maria Keet. Third International Workshop on Philosophy and Informatics (WSPI2006) A formal theory of the ecological niche is indispensable not only for semantic precision in philosophy to understand and compare it with other meanings of niche, but also when computer scientists and ecologists desire to create interoperable software where one can retrieve the niche of a species and compare their parameters. The proposed model is a more fine-grained description of the ecological niche, including the distinction between its complex concept, the abstract niche ('fundamental niche') with its hypervolume in multidimensional space, and its realisations ('realised niches'). The presented ecological niche may initiate new avenues for research in ecology, particularly concerning the conditions/categories of a hypervolume, as well as further philosophical inquiry and comparison with other niches. back - article - appendix A taxonomy of types of granularity C Maria Keet. IEEE International Conference on Granular Computing 2006 (GrC2006) Multiple different understandings and uses exist of what granularity is and how to implement it, where the former influences success of the latter with regards to storing granular data and using granularity for reasoning over the data or information. We propose a taxonomy of types of granularity and discuss for each leaf type how the entities or instances relate within its granular level. Such unambiguous distinctions can guide a conceptual modeler to better distinguish between the types of granularity and the software developer to improve on implementations of granularity. back - article Using abstractions to facilitate management of large ORM models and ontologies C Maria Keet. International Workshop on Object Role Modeling 2005 (ORM2005) Due to ever larger ORM models and ORM-represented ontologies, information management and its GUI representation is even more important. One useful mechanism is abstraction, which has received some attention in conceptual modelling and implementation, as well as its foundational characteristics. Extant heuristics for ORM abstractions are examined and enriched with several foundational aspects of abstraction. These improvements are applicable to a wider range of types of representations, including conceptual models and ontologies, thereby not only alleviating the Database Comprehension Problem, but also facilitate conceptual model and ontology browsing. back - article Factors affecting ontology development in ecology C Maria Keet. Data Integration in the Life Sciences 2005 (DILS2005) Few ontologies in the ecological domain exist, but their development can take advantage of gained experience in other domains and from existing modeling practices in ecology. Taxonomies do not suffice because more expressive modeling techniques are already available in ecology, and the perspective of flow with its centrality of events and processes cannot be represented adequately in a taxonomy. Therefore, formal ontologies are required for sufficient expressivity and to be of benefit to ecologists, which also enables future reuse. We have created a formal mapping between the software-supported ecological modeling method and software tool STELLA and ontology elements, which simplifies bottom-up ontology development considerably and has excellent potential for semi-automated ontology development. However, the conducted experiments also revealed that ontology development for ecology is close to being part of ecological research that through the formalized representation of the knowledge more clearly points to lacunas and suggestions for further research in ecology. back - article - supplementary material Applying partitions to infectious diseases C Maria Keet and Anand Kumar. XIX International Congress of the European Federation for Medical Informatics (MIE2005) Due to exponential growth in biological data, partitioning is a necessity to manage data and to use it for reasoning mechanisms to deduce and infer new information automatically. Starting from a categorisation of infectious diseases, we formalise the relations of relevant partitions, such as mode of transmission, pathological process, and infectious organism, with examples for pneumonia and cholera to illustrate usage of partitioning and the relations between the granular levels. back - article Ontology integration for applied bioscience C Maria Keet. Summer School & Workshop Semantic Interoperability and Data Mining in Biomedicine 2004 Ontology development in the subject domain of applied bioscience, such as biomedicine or food science, blend combinations of concepts of various core sciences, which are only valid for particular contexts within the chosen domain or sections thereof, which may imply reuse and integration of segments of various existing ontologies. This is illustrated with an example from the perspective of bottom- up ontology development for bacteriocin-related knowledge. It is important first to determine what kind of integration is required for which type of goal, therefore a literature research was carried out resulting in a construction of a preliminary categorization of types of ontology integration together with a list of factors and properties that contribute to distinguishing the multiple methods of ÂintegrationÂ. Some challenges are highlighted such as the potential for development of an ontology library that might facilitate reuse/integration, how to address context-dependent data where the same basic concepts reappear but with other constraints and options for modularization to abstract away details that may not be relevant in the particular situation to be ontologised. back - poster Conceptual Modelling and Ontologies for Biology: experiences with the bacteriocin database C Maria Keet. Agropecuaria Conference (Interjoven 2004) This article outlines some characteristics of biological data, which affect its modelling as well as ontologies in the subject domain of biology (including ecology and agriculture), which in turn influence the quality of developed software and the reusability of the models. These aspects arose from a literature review and a case study of developing a bacteriocin database. Conflicting goals in software requirements and aspects for future research are highlighted. back - article - poster Biological data and conceptual modelling methods C Maria Keet. Journal of Conceptual Modeling, Issue 29, October 2003 The article highlights characteristics of biological data, and its effect on conceptual modelling. Regarding biological data and its semantics, there is no legacy to rely and build upon, there is an abundance of non-discrete data, uncertainties on relevant parameters and a general lack of standardization in nomenclatures and concepts. General features of ER, OO and ORM are discussed, emphasising differences in graphical representation, understandability from the customer's perspective and inclusiveness of types and attributes in the model. A second example, taxonomy, addresses (Extended-) OO, ad hoc solution POOM and the possibilities of FCA to formalize biological data and its concepts. The more abstract conceptual modelling techniques ORM and FCA may be more promising in capturing the biological semantics as inclusive and formal as possible, in order to build-up an extensive repository and aid standardization, which in turn will improve the quality of developed software. back - article Conceptual Modelling for Applied Bioscience: The Bacteriocin Database C Maria Keet. CSPS/computational intelligence/0310001 Semantic aspects are discussed for constructing a conceptual model capturing data across biological disciplines (biochemistry, microbiology, genetics) and including applied sciences (food science), by taking the development of a relational database for bacteriocins as a test case. Capturing the subject domain semantics of an applied bioscience faces different problems compared to conceptual modelling for the primary biological sciences, as the former requires an emphasis on practical solutions conceptually representing the integration of various disciplines, necessarily reducing representation of biological complexity, whereas the latter stresses conceptually and ontologically comprehensive models within their primary specialisations such as biochemistry and genetics. back - article Applying audience costs to the terrorist theatre C Maria Keet. Simulation & Gaming: an International Journal The audience cost model, based on a War of Attrition, is generally applied to international politics. In this article the model is analyzed on its applicability to a terrorism framework, with regard to the terrorist theatre and democratic states desiring to 'combat' terrorism. In the non-negotiation phase, aggrieved groups exploit the audience cost model to their own benefit for instilling fear, alike a War of Nerves. Audience costs can be generated and identified in terrorist frameworks involving peace negotiations. However, modeling audience cost parameters, in particular the rate of deduction in crisis prolongation, depends on the situation being modeled and the preference, or moral bias, of the modeler and therefore is qualitative and not (yet) quantifiable. back Experimental gaming: effects of negotiations between terrorists and the government C Maria Keet. Online Journal of Peace and Conflict Resolution An experimental game was designed and tested with volunteers and assessed several aspects of game theoretical models for political science, including the hypothesis that violence will increase when nearing a peace agreement between 'moderate' terrorists and the government, adverse effects of deadlines and coalition formation between actors involved in the peace negotiation process. Although some behaviour of the players was in line with the expectations based on the game theory, a single regularity in either coalition-forming or bargaining behaviour in the three-player game government - terrorists negotiations could not be observed. However, the perceived relative importance and influence measurements obtained with the coalition calculator are a very promising approach to gain insight in the players' expectations and stability of a coalition. The set-up provides the outline for an adequate experimental game in a larger setting, i.e. a 'world' scenario, in addition to the single conflicts that were tested. back Towards a resolution of terrorism using game theory - coalitions, negotiations and audience costs C Maria Keet. Department of Politics and Public Admin Working Papers, University of Limerick. Number 1, December '03 Both terrorism and game theory are contested concepts within the social sciences, but in this paper, I will show that a rational approach (game theory) towards the emotion-laden idea and practice of terrorism does aid understanding of the "terrorist theatre". First, an outline will be provided on the type of actors (game players) that are, or may be, involved to a more or lesser extend in (supporting) terrorism. Then several game models will be assessed on their applicability. This includes averting the joint bargaining paradox when asymmetric actors cooperate to achieve a joint goal, governments who may fare better from their point of view when dividing up refugees into geographically separate areas to decrease the possibility of cooperation between aggrieved groups and recognizing two-speed negotiations, which can have a (detrimental) effect on (deadline) negotiations. Further, an adaptation of the audience cost model explained the "war of nerves" of the terrorist theatre involving the generation of fear amongst its targets and the updating of information on moderate actors by action of extremists. Several mutations of the Prisoner's Dilemma were discussed as options to prevent mutual harm. back - preprint Democracy in the European Union C Maria Keet. UL Perspectives, Journal of Political Studies, 2, 71-80 There has been an increase in peacekeeping and an introduction in peacebuilding operations after the end of the Cold War, directed by the United Nations and actively supported by Western democracies, where one of the aims was to 'aid in establishing democracy' in a nation (e.g. UNTAC and ONUSAL) as a means for conflict resolution and prevention of recurrence of the conflict in the future, i.e. introducing democratic structures as a component for achieving positive peace. But what means democracy and what are democratic structures? And do 'we', citizens of the European Union, have the legitimate moral high ground to impose such a government system onto other peoples, in the light of the rising amount of criticism on the democratic deficit of the EU structures? In this article I compare ideas about democracy as surfaced in the 18th century, when modern forms of democratic structures were, either by revolution or gradually, introduced in Western countries, with the EU and the nations that make up the EU, and the validity/sustainability of claims to introduce democracy as a means to achieve lasting peace in non-Western nations. back - Preprint: html pdf | ||||||||||
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