Skip to main content
Springer Nature Link
Log in

A Method for Representing and Querying Temporal Information in OWL

  • Conference paper
Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies (BIOSTEC 2010)

Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 127))

  • 1226 Accesses

Abstract

Ontologies are becoming a core technology for supporting the sharing, integration, and management of information sources in Semantic Web applications. As critical as ontologies have become, ontology languages such as OWL typically provide minimal support for modeling the complex temporal information often contained in these sources. As a result, ontologies often cannot fully express the temporal knowledge needed by many applications, forcing users and developers to develop ad hoc solutions. In this paper, we present a methodology and a set of tools for representing and querying temporal information in OWL ontologies. The approach uses a lightweight temporal model to encode the temporal dimension of data. It also uses the OWL-based Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL) and the SWRL-based OWL query language SQWRL to reason with and query the temporal information represented using our model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Allen, J.F.: Maintaining knowledge about temporal intervals. Communications of the ACM 26(11) (1983)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Amagasa, T., Yoshikawa, M., Uemura, S.: A Data model for temporal XML documents. In: Ibrahim, M., Küng, J., Revell, N. (eds.) DEXA 2000. LNCS, vol. 1873, pp. 334–344. Springer, Heidelberg (2000)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  3. Baratis, E., Petrakis, E.G.M., Batsakis, S., Maris, N., Papadakis, N.: TOQL: Temporal ontology querying language. In: Mamoulis, N., Seidl, T., Pedersen, T.B., Torp, K., Assent, I. (eds.) SSTD 2009. LNCS, vol. 5644, pp. 338–354. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Bedi, P., Marwah, S.: Versioning OWL ontologies using temporal tags. In: World Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology (March 27, 2007)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Berners-Lee, T., Hendler, J., Lassila, O.: The Semantic Web. Scientific American (2001)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Bohlen, M.H., Snodgrass, R.T., Soo, M.D.: Coalescing in temporal databases. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Very Large Databases, Mumbai, India (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Bry, F., Koch, C.: Querying the web reconsidered: design principles for versatile web query languages. Journal of Semantic Web and Information Systems (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Chatziantoniou, D., Ross, K.A.: Querying multiple features of groups in relational databases. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Very Large Databases (1996)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Das, A.K., Musen, M.A.: A temporal query system for protocol-directed decision support. Methods of Information in Medicine 33, 358–370 (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  10. Frasincar, F., Milea, V., Kaymak, U.: tOWL: integrating time into OWL. In: Semantic Web Information Management. Springer, Heidelberg (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gao, C., Snodgrass, R.: Temporal slicing in the evaluation of XML queries. In: 29th International Conference on Very Large Databases, Berlin, Germany (2003)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gutierrez, C., Hurtado, C.A., Vaisman, A.: Introducing time into RDF. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering 19(2), 207–218 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Hassanpour, S., O’Connor, M.J., Das, A.K.: Exploration of SWRL Rule Bases through Visualization, Paraphrasing, and Categorization of Rules. In: Governatori, G., Hall, J., Paschke, A. (eds.) RuleML 2009. LNCS, vol. 5858, pp. 246–261. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  14. Hobbs, J.R., Pan, F.: An ontology of time for the Semantic Web. ACM Transactions on Asian Language Processing (TALIP): Special issue on Temporal Information Processing 3(1), 66–85 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Horrocks, I., Patel-Schneider, P.F., Boley, H., Tabet, S., Grosof, B., Dean, M.: SWRL: a Semantic Web rule language combining OWL and RuleML. In: W3C (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Hripcsak, G., Ludemann, P., Allan Pryor, T., Wigertz, O.B., Clayton, P.: Rationale for the Arden Syntax. Computers and Biomedical Research 27, 291–324 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Kim, S.K., Song, M.Y., Kim, C., Yea, S.J., Jang, H.C., Lee, K.C.: Temporal Ontology Language for Representing and Reasoning Interval-Based Temporal Knowledge. In: Domingue, J., Anutariya, C. (eds.) ASWC 2008. LNCS, vol. 5367, pp. 31–45. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  18. Krieger, H.-U.: Where temporal description logics fail: Representing temporally-changing relationships. In: Dengel, A.R., Berns, K., Breuel, T.M., Bomarius, F., Roth-Berghofer, T.R. (eds.) KI 2008. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 5243, pp. 249–257. Springer, Heidelberg (2008)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Levy, M., O’Connor, M.J., Rubin, D.L.: Semantic reasoning with image annotations for tumor assessment. In: San Francisco, C.A. (ed.) AMIA Annual Symposium, San Francisco, CA (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  20. Lutz, C., Wolter, F., Zakharyashev, M.: Temporal description logics: a survey. In: 15th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Mabotuwana, T., Warren, J.: An ontology-based approach to enhance querying capabilities of general practice medicine for better management of hypertension. Artificial Intelligence in Medicine 47(2), 87–103 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Manola, F., Miller, E.: RDF Primer. In: W3C Recommendation (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  23. McGuinness, D.L., van Harmelen, F.: OWL web ontology language overview. In: W3C (2004)

    Google Scholar 

  24. O’Connor, M.J., Tu, S.W., Musen, M.A.: The Chronus II temporal database mediator. In: AMIA Annual Symposium, San Antonio, TX, pp. 567–571 (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  25. O’Connor, M.J., Shankar, R.D., Parrish, D.B., Das, A.K.: Knowledge-data integration for temporal reasoning in a clinical trial system. International Journal of Medical Informatics 78(1), S77–S85 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. O’Connor, M.J., Das, A.K.: SQWRL: a query language for OWL. In: OWL: Experiences and Directions (OWLED), Fifth International Workshop, Chantilly, VA (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  27. O’Connor, M.J., Das, A.K.: Semantic reasoning with XML-based biomedical information models. In: 13th World Congress on Medical Informatics (MedInfo 2010), Cape Town, South Africa (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  28. Pugliese, A., Udrea, O., Subrahmanian, V.S.: Scaling RDF with time. In: WWW Conference, pp. 605–614 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  29. Rafiq, M.I., O’Connor, M.J., Das, A.K.: Computational method for temporal pattern discovery in biomedical genomic databases. In: IEEE Computational Systems Bioinformatics Conference (CSB 2005) (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  30. Snodgrass, R.T.: The TSQL2 Temporal Query Language. Kluwer, Boston (1995)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  31. Snodgrass, R.T., Böhlen, M.H., Jensen, C.S., Steiner, A.: Transitioning temporal support in TSQL2 to SQL3. In: Etzion, O., Jajodia, S., Sripada, S. (eds.) Dagstuhl Seminar 1997. LNCS, vol. 1399, pp. 150–194. Springer, Heidelberg (1998)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  32. SWRL Temporal Built-ins (2010), http://protege.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SWRLTemporalBuiltIns

  33. SWRL Temporal Ontology (2010), http://swrl.stanford.edu/ontologies/built-ins/3.3/temporal.owl

  34. Tappolet, J., Bernstein, A.: Applied Temporal RDF: Efficient Temporal Querying of RDF Data with SPARQL. In: Aroyo, L., Traverso, P., Ciravegna, F., Cimiano, P., Heath, T., Hyvönen, E., Mizoguchi, R., Oren, E., Sabou, M., Simperl, E. (eds.) ESWC 2009. LNCS, vol. 5554, pp. 308–322. Springer, Heidelberg (2009)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  35. Visser, U.: Intelligent Information Integration for the Semantic Web. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3159. Springer, Heidelberg (2004)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  36. Welty, C., Fikes, R.: A reusable ontology for fluents in OWL. In: Formal Ontology in Information Systems: Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference (FOIS 2006), pp. 226–336. IOS Press, Amsterdam (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  37. Wiederhold, G.: Databases for healthcare. Lecture Notes in Medical Informatics. Springer, Heidelberg (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  38. XML Schema (2009), http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema11-1/

  39. Zhang, S., Dyreson, C.E.: Adding Valid Time to XPath. In: Bhalla, S. (ed.) DNIS 2002. LNCS, vol. 2544, pp. 29–42. Springer, Heidelberg (2002)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford, CA, 94305, U.S.A.

    Martin J. O’Connor & Amar K. Das

Authors
  1. Martin J. O’Connor
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amar K. Das
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. IST - Technical University of Lisbon, Av.Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Ana Fred

  2. Departament of Systems and Informatics, Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal – INSTICC, Rua do Vale de Chaves - Estefanilha, 2910-761, Setúbal, Portugal

    Joaquim Filipe

  3. Institute of Telecommunications, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001, Lisboa, Portugal

    Hugo Gamboa

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

O’Connor, M.J., Das, A.K. (2011). A Method for Representing and Querying Temporal Information in OWL. In: Fred, A., Filipe, J., Gamboa, H. (eds) Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. BIOSTEC 2010. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 127. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18472-7_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-18472-7_8

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-18471-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-18472-7

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics