Polynomial-Time Reasoning Support for Design and Maintenance of Large-Scale Biomedical Ontologies

• Main Author: Suntisrivaraporn, Boontawee
• Other Authors: Technische Universität Dresden, Fakultät Informatik
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Saechsische Landesbibliothek- Staats- und Universitaetsbibliothek Dresden 2009
• Subjects: Description Logic; Tractable reasoning; Polynomial algorithms; Biomedical ontologies; Ontology design; CEL reasoner; DL systems; Beschreibungslogik; polynomielle Schlussfolgerung; polynomielle Algorithmen; biomedizinische Ontologien; Ontologie-Entwurf; CEL Reasoner; Beschreibungslogik-Systeme; ddc:004; rvk:ST 134
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-ds-1233830966436-59282; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-ds-1233830966436-59282; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/205/1233830966436-5928.pdf

Description Logics (DLs) belong to a successful family of knowledge representation formalisms with two key assets: formally well-defined semantics which allows to represent knowledge in an unambiguous way and automated reasoning which allows to infer implicit knowledge from the one given explicitly. This thesis investigates various reasoning techniques for tractable DLs in the EL family which have been implemented in the CEL system. It suggests that the use of the lightweight DLs, in which reasoning is tractable, is beneficial for ontology design and maintenance both in terms of expressivity and scalability. The claim is supported by a case study on the renown medical ontology SNOMED CT and extensive empirical evaluation on several large-scale biomedical ontologies.