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An Introduction to Ontologies
in OWL
Bibliography
The OWL Guide
The OWL Overview
Description Logic slides from Enrico Franconi
Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach by Russel and Nordig
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What is an Ontology?
A representation of terms and their
interrelationships (OWL Overview)
A formal conceptualization of the world
Smart data
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Ontology Languages
Typically introduce concepts, properties,
relationships between concepts and
constraints
May be expressed with diagrams
ER Diagrams and UML Class Diagrams
are ontology languages
OWL (The Web Ontology Language) is
expressed in XML
OWL is a distributed ontology language
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The OWL Language
February 10, 2004 OWL and RDF become W3C
Recommendations
See Jena from Hewlett-Packard Research for an
existing Java API
See Protg-2000 at Stanford University for an
existing OWL editor
Big names in this space include Jim Hendler,
and Debra McGuiness
A large example can be found at
http://www.mindswap.org/2003/CancerOntology/
nciOncology.owl
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From the W3C
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The three sublanguages of OWL
OWL Lite (decidable)
OWL DL (Description Logic) (Decidable)
OWL Full (Allows classes as instances)

As we move from OWL Lite to OWL full we
increase expressiveness and logical
complexity.
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Decidability
A proof procedure r is incomplete if there
are true statements that the procedure
cannot infer.
Godel (1930s) showed that, for first order
logic, any statement entailed by a set of
statements can be proved from the set. In
other words, a proof procedure exists.
In 1965, Robinson found the resolution
method.
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Decidability
But, entailment is semi-decidable. If a
statement does not follow from the
premises it may go on and on.
Resolution is complete
Premises
Statment S
If S follows the proof
of S will emerge after
some time.
If S does not follow
the procedure may loop
forever.
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OWL Lite is a Decidable Language
A Class is a set of individuals
The class Thing is the superclass of all
OWL classes
The class Nothing is a subclass of all OWL
classes and has no individuals members
Classes may be defined as subClasses of
other classes
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Three classes that subclass Thing
<owl:Class rdf:ID=Winery/>
<owl:Class rdf:ID=Region/>
<owl:Class rdf:ID=ConsumableThing/>

These terms may be referred to from within this
Document by #Winery, #Region and
#ConsumableThing.

Other ontologies may refer to these terms with
SomeURI#Winery, SomeURI#Region and so on.
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Class Hierarchies built with
subClassOf
<owl:Class rdf:ID=PotableLiquid>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource = #ConsumableThing />

</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=EdibleThing>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource = #ConsumableThing />

</owl:Class>
Deduction:

If x is a PotableLiquid
then x is a ConsumableThing
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Wine and Pasta
<owl:Class rdf:ID=Wine>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource =
#PotableLiquid />

</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID = Pasta
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource = #EdibleThing />

</owl:Class>


Deduction:

If x is Pasta then x is
a ConsumableThing
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SweetFruit and NonSweetFruit
<owl:Class rdf:ID=SweetFruit> <! food.xml-->
<rdfs:subClassOf
rdf:resource=#EdibleThing/>
</owl:Class>

<owl:Class rdf:ID=NonSweetFruit> <! food.xml-->
<rdfs:subClassOf
rdf:resource=#EdibleThing/>

</owl:Class>
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Defining Individuals
<Region rdf:ID=CentralCoastRegion/>

Is identical to

<owl:Thing rdf:ID=CentralCoastRegion/>
<owl:Thing rdf:about=#CentralCoatRegion>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=#Region/>
</owl:Thing>


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Another individual
<owl:Class rdf:ID=Grape> <! food.xml-->
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=#SweetFruit/>
</owl:Class>
<! wine.xml -->
<owl:Class rdf:ID=WineGrape>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=&food;Grape/>
</owl:Class>

<WineGrape rdf:ID=CabernetSauvignonGrape />
Deduction: CabernetSauvignon is a SweetFruit
So far we have
Thing
Winery Region
ConsumableThing
PotableLiquid
EdibleThing
SweetFruit NonSweetFruit Pasta
Grape
WineGrape
CabernetSauvignonGrape
CentralCoastalRegion
Wine
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So far we have
Classes
Individuals
We now need properties to state facts
about classes and facts about individuals
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Properties
Properties are binary relations
A binary relation R from a set X to a set Y
is a subset of the Cartesian product X x Y.
If (x,y) R, we write xRy and say x is
related to y.
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Binary Relations
Suppose the set X has members {a,b} and
the set Y has members {c,d,e}.

XxY = {(a,c),(a,d),(a,e),(b,c),(b,d),(b,e)}
Let R = {(a,c),(b,e)}

Since (a,c) R and (b,e) R we write aRc
and bRe.

Notice that a binary relation is a set of ordered pairs.

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The set {x X | (x,y) R for some y Y} is
called the domain of R.

The domain of R = {(a,c),(b,e)} is {a,b}.

The set {y Y | (x,y) R for some x X} is
called the range of R.

The range of R = {(a,c),(b,e)} is {c,e}.
Domain and Range
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Properties
R is Transitive if and only if
xRy and yRz imply xRz
locateIn is transitive in the wine ontology
R is Symmetric if and only if
xRy iff yRx
adjacentTo is symmetric in the wine
ontology
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Properties
R is Functional if and only if
xRy and xRz implies y = z
hasVintageYear is functional in the wine
ontology
R
1
and R
2
are Inverse Properties if and only if
xR
1
y iff yR
2
x
hasMaker and producesWine are inverse
relations in the wine ontology
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OWLs Property Hierarchy
Thing is a superset of Property
Property is a superset of ObjectProperty
Property is a superset of DataProperty

An ObjectProperty associates a class
instance with another class instance.
A DataProperty associates a class
instance with a datatype value
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OWLs Property Hierarchy Example
Thing
Mammal
Person
Mike
Sue
ObjectProperty



DataProperty
Property
hasRelative

hasSibling
(Mike,Sue)
hasAge
(Mike,23)
Indentation shows subset
relationships.
Set elements are marked
with dots.
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OWL Property Syntax
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=locatedIn>
<rdfs:domain
rdf:resource=OWLURI#Thing/>
<rdfs:range
rdf:resource=#Region/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

OWLURI will actually appear as the official OWL URI.
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Adding pairs to locatedIn
<Region rdf:ID=SantaCruzMountainsRegion>
<locatedIn rdf:resource=#CaliforniaRegion/>
</Region>

<CabernetSauvignon
rdf:ID=
SantaCruzMountainVinyardCabernetSauvignon>
<locatedIn
rdf:resource=#SantaCruzMountainsRegion/>

</CabernetSauvignon>

Can we make a
deduction?
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locatedIn
locatedIn is defined as a set of ordered pairs.
Each pair must contain an owl:Thing (maybe a Region)
followed by value from the set Region.

For example:
locatedIn =
{(SantaCruzMountainsRegion, CaliforniaRegion),
(SantaCruzMountainVinyardCabernetSauvignon,
SantaCruzMountainsRegion)}

A deduction like the following is not yet possible
The Thing SantaCruzMountainVinyardCabernetSauvignon
is locatedIn CaliforniaRegion

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locatedIn is Transitive
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=locatedIn>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=TransitiveProperty /> <! include an OWLURI -->
<rdfs:domain
rdf:resource=OWLURI#Thing/>
<rdfs:range
rdf:resource=#Region/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>

A deduction like the following is now possible
The Thing SantaCruzMountainVinyardCabernetSauvignon
is locatedIn CaliforniaRegion

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Given the madeFromGrape
property
<owl:ObjectProperty
rdf:ID=madeFromGrape>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=#Wine/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=#WineGrape/>
</owl:ObjectProperty>
madeFromGrape
(#Wine,#WineGrape)
(#Wine,#WineGrape)
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And
<owl:Thing
ref:ID=LindemansBin65Chardonnay>
<madeFromGrape
rdf:resource=#ChardonnayGrape/>
<owl:Thing>

We can deduce that
LindemansBin65Chardonnay is a Wine.
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Given a Property
<owl:Class rdf:ID=WineDescriptor/>
<owl:Class rdf:ID=WineColor>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource=WineDescriptor/>

<owl:Class>
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=hasWineDescriptor>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=#Wine/>
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=#WineDescriptor/>
<owl:ObjectProperty>

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We can define a subproperty
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=hasColor>
<rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource=#hasWineDescriptor/>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=#Wine/>
<rfds:range rdf:resource = #WineColor />

</owl:ObjectProperty>





hasWineDescriptor
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineColor)
(#Wine,#WineColor)
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And make it functional.
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:ID=hasColor>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=&owl;FunctionalProperty/>
<rdfs:subPropertyOf rdf:resource=#hasWineDescriptor/>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=#Wine/>
<rfds:range rdf:resource = #WineColor />

</owl:ObjectProperty>





hasWineDescriptor
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineDescriptor)
(#Wine,#WineColor)
(#Wine,#WineColor)
Now, for each Wine, there
can be at most one WineColor.

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<owl:Class rdf:ID=Wine>
<rdfs:subClassOf rdf:resource = &food;#PotableLiquid />
<rdfs:subClassOf>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource=#madeFromGrape/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype=
&xsd;nonNegativeInteger>1
</owl:minCardinalty>
</owl:restriction>
<rdfs:subClassOf>

</owl:Class>
Anonymous Classes
So, those Things that are in
the PotableLiquid set that are
also in the set of things made
from at least one grape are
Wines. If we know that x is
a Wine then we know it has at
least one madeFromGrape
property defined.
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A Wine Individual
<CabernetSauvignon
rdf:ID= SantaCruzMountainVinyardCabernetSauvignon>
<locatedIn rdf:resource=#SantaCruzMountainsRegion/>
:
</CabernetSauvignon>

This says nothing about what grape its made from. To find that out
we must look to the class CabernetSauvignon. There we learn all
wines of this variety are madeFromGrape CabernetSauvignon.

So, individuals inherit properties and property values from their class.


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What does this mean?
<owl:Class rdf:ID="#Student">
<owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType="Collection">
<owl:Class rdf:about="#Person"/>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty rdf:resource="#enrolledIn"/>
<owl:minCardinality rdf:datatype=
"&xsd;nonNegativeInteger"> 1
</owl:minCardinality>
</owl:Restriction>
</owl:intersectionOf>
</owl:Class>

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And this?
<Student rdf:ID="John">
<friendOf>
<Student rdf:resource="#Peter" />
</friendOf>
</Student>

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How about this one?
<Student rdf:about=" http://www.student.org#DanielaRenuncio ">
<owl:sameIndividualAs rdf:resource=
"http://www.student.org#Daniela_de_Senna_Eyng_Renuncio"/>
</Student>