Papers for

ontology developers

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Minimum-cost certificates ensure rule conclusions withstand multiple source failures

Minimum-Cost Robust Evidence Certificates for Horn Reasoning under Correlated Source Failures

Abstract: A small justification for a rule-based conclusion may disappear when a source is withdrawn, and multiple derivations need not provide independent evidence. We study minimum-cost certificates that preserve a Horn conclusion under every withdrawal of at most k source domains. Evidence records remain distinct from asserted facts, supporting replicated attestations and overlapping failure dependencies. Transversals of minimal-support footprints characterize robustness and explain why disjoint-proof requirements can reject valid certificates. An exact procedure alternates weighted evidence selection with a source-failure oracle. A rule-closed counterinterpretation yields a globally valid selection cut without enumerating supports or failure scenarios. We prove correctness, finite termination, and cost optimality, establish coNP-completeness of unrestricted verification and NP-completeness of synthesis for every fixed budget, and identify a tractable reachability restriction. Experiments on controlled benchmarks, reachability graphs, and ontology-derived instances demonstrate that our counterinterpretation-guided synthesis achieves up to 92% optimum coverage within practical resource bounds, outperforming scenario expansion and general abduction while confirming the necessity of transversal-based reasoning over proof-packing heuristics.

Mon 19 OctArtificial Intelligence
The gist
Sometimes, a conclusion drawn from multiple evidence sources can become invalid if some sources stop providing information. The paper studies how to find the cheapest set of evidence that guarantees a conclusion remains valid even if up to k sources fail. The authors introduce a method using special mathematical structures called transversals to make sure the evidence set is robust and explain why requiring completely separate proofs can wrongly reject valid solutions. Their approach efficiently finds optimal evidence without checking all possible failure scenarios and works well in tests compared to other methods.
Open → 2610.25865v1

Method for ongoing ontology checking using external knowledge sources

Continuous Ontology Assurance through External Resources -- An Ontology Engineering Method with a Case Study in Software Language Engineering

Abstract: Domain ontologies require review against knowledge recorded in evolving external resources. We propose COATER, a method that manages executable review components called arrows. Each arrow compares a scoped part of an ontology with a relevant resource and reports support or challenges to its axioms. Challenges may prompt proposals for completion, correction, or restructuring and become tasks for human or agent-assisted triage. Per-axiom coverage summarizes the assessments. We illustrate COATER with the FSL ontology in software language engineering (SLE): arrows review language coverage, language conceptualization, and software-engineering activities. An LLM-assisted linkage exercise increases compliance with a defined Wikipedia-linkage policy from 405 to 600 of 600 entities. A structured catalogue of SLE resources organizes review opportunities.

Fri 16 OctArtificial Intelligence
The gist
Ontologies are structured ways to represent knowledge, but they need to stay current with changing information elsewhere. The authors present COATER, a method that continually checks parts of an ontology against outside resources, spotting where it agrees or conflicts. When problems appear, COATER can suggest fixes or flag tasks for humans or helpers to review. They tested this on a software language engineering ontology, improving how well it links to Wikipedia and organizes software concepts.
Open → 2610.24322v1