Semantic matching algorithms and implementation: PhD dissertation / Mikalai Yatskevich. - Trento : Università degli Studi di Trento, 2008. - XXIII, 175 с.

Abstract

The thesis proposes the matching algorithm implementing the so-called semantic matching approach. This approach is based on two key ideas. The first is that correspondences are calculated between entities of ontologies by computing logical relations (e.g., equivalence, subsumption, disjointness), instead of computing coefficients rating match quality in the [0 1] range, as it is the case in many other approaches. The second idea is that the relations are determined by analyzing the meaning which is codified in the elements and the structures of ontologies. In particular, labels at nodes, written in natural language, are automatically translated into propositional formulas which explicitly codify the labels’ intended meaning. This allows the translation of the matching problem into a propositional validity problem, which can then be efficiently resolved using sound and complete state of the art propositional satisfiability deciders. The basic, efficient and structure preserving semantic matching algorithms have been designed and developed. The approach has been evaluated on various real world test cases with encouraging results, thus, proving empirically its benefits.