Chair for Automata Theory of the Institute for Theoretical Computer Science, Faculty of Computer Science at TU Dresden

Publications

2002


C. Areces and C. Lutz. Concrete Domains and Nominals United.. In Carlos Areces, Patrick Blackburn, Maarten Marx, and Ulrike Sattler, editors, Proceedings of the fourth Workshop on Hybrid Logics (HyLo'02), 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

While the complexity of concept satisfiability in both ALCO, the basic description logic ALC enriched with nominals, and ALC(D), the extension of ALC with concrete domains, is known to be PSpace-complete, in this article we show that the combination ALCO(D) of these two logics can have a NExpTime-hard concept satisfiability problem (depending on the concrete domain D used). The proof is by a reduction of a NExpTime-complete variant of the domino problem to ALCO(D)-concept satisfiability.


F. Baader, I. Horrocks, and U. Sattler. Description Logics for the Semantic Web. KI – Künstliche Intelligenz, 4, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

The vision of a Semantic Web has recently drawn considerable attention, both from academia and industry. Description Logics are often named as one of the tools that can support the Semantic Web and thus help to make this vision reality. In this paper, we try to sketch what Description Logics are and what they can do for the Semantic Web. It turns out that Descriptions Logics are very useful for defining ontologies, which provide the Semantic Web with a common understanding of the basic semantic concepts used to annotate Web pages. We also argue that, without the last decade of basic research in this area, Description Logics could not play such an important role in this domain.


F. Baader and R. Küsters. Unification in a Description Logic with Inconsistency and Transitive Closure of Roles. In I. Horrocks and S. Tessaris, editors, Proceedings of the 2002 International Workshop on Description Logics, Toulouse, France, 2002. See http://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/Publications/CEUR-WS/Vol-53/.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Unification considers concept patterns, i.e., concept descriptions with variables, and tries to make these descriptions equivalent by replacing the variables by appropriate concept descriptions. In a previous paper, we have shown that unification in FLreg, a description logic that allows for the concept constructors top concept, concept conjunction, and value restrictions as well as the role constructors union, composition, and transitive closure, is an ExpTime-complete problem and that solvable FLreg-unification problems always have least unifiers. In the present paper, we generalize these results to a DL which extends FLreg by the bottom concept. The proof strongly depends on the existence of least unifiers in FLreg.


F. Baader, C. Lutz, H. Sturm, and F. Wolter. Fusions of Description Logics and Abstract Description Systems. Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR), 16:1–58, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Fusions are a simple way of combining logics. For normal modal logics, fusions have been investigated in detail. In particular, it is known that, under certain conditions, decidability transfers from the component logics to their fusion. Though description logics are closely related to modal logics, they are not necessarily normal. In addition, ABox reasoning in description logics is not covered by the results from modal logics. In this paper, we extend the decidability transfer results from normal modal logics to a large class of description logics. To cover different description logics in a uniform way, we introduce abstract description systems, which can be seen as a common generalization of description and modal logics, and show the transfer results in this general setting.


F. Baader and C. Tinelli. Combining Decision Procedures for Positive Theories Sharing Constructors. In S. Tison, editor, Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Rewriting Techniques and Applications (RTA-02), volume 2378 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 338–352, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2002. Springer-Verlag.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

This paper addresses the following combination problem: given two equational theories E1 and E2 whose positive theories are decidable, how can one obtain a decision procedure for the positive theory of their union. For theories over disjoint signatures, this problem was solved by Baader and Schulz in 1995. This paper is a first step towards extending this result to the case of theories sharing constructors. Since there is a close connection between positive theories and unification problems, this also extends to the non-disjoint case the work on combining decision procedures for unification modulo equational theories.


F. Baader and C. Tinelli. Deciding the Word Problem in the Union of Equational Theories. Information and Computation, 178(2):346–390, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Free reprint

Abstract

The main contribution of this article is a new method for combining decision procedures for the word problem in equational theories. In contrast to previous methods, it is based on transformation rules, and also applies to theories sharing "constructors."


F. Baader and A.-Y. Turhan. On the problem of computing small representations of least common subsumers. In Proceedings of the German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 25th German Conference on Artificial Intelligence (KI 2002), Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, Aachen, Germany, 2002. Springer–Verlag.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

For Description Logics with existential restrictions, the size of the least common subsumer (lcs) of concept descriptions may grow exponentially in the size of the input descriptions. The first (negative) result presented in this paper is that it is in general not possible to express the exponentially large concept description representing the lcs in a more compact way by using an appropriate (acyclic) terminology. In practice, a second and often more severe cause of complexity was the fact that concept descriptions containing concepts defined in a terminology must first be unfolded (by replacing defined names by their definition) before the known lcs algorithms could be applied. To overcome this problem, we present a modified lcs algorithm that performs lazy unfolding, and show that this algorithm works well in practice.


S. Brandt, R. Küsters, and A.-Y. Turhan. Approximating ALCN-Concept Descriptions. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Workshop on Description Logics, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Approximating a concept, defined in one DL, means to translate this concept to another concept, defined in a second typically less expressive DL, such that both concepts are as closely related as possible with respect to subsumption. In a previous work, we have provided an algorithm for approximating ALC-concept descriptions by ALE-concept descriptions. In the present paper, motivated by an application in chemical process engineering, we extend this result by taking number restrictions into account.


S. Brandt, R. Küsters, and A.-Y. Turhan. Approximation and Difference in Description Logics. In D. Fensel, F. Giunchiglia, D. McGuiness, and M.-A. Williams, editors, Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2002), pages 203–214, San Francisco, CA, 2002. Morgan Kaufman.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Approximation is a new inference service in Description Logics first mentioned by Baader, Küsters, and Molitor. Approximating a concept, defined in one Description Logic, means to translate this concept to another concept, defined in a second typically less expressive Description Logic, such that both concepts are as closely related as possible with respect to subsumption. The present paper provides the first in-depth investigation of this inference task. We prove that approximations from the Description Logic ALC to ALE always exist and propose an algorithm computing them. As a measure for the accuracy of the approximation, we introduce a syntax-oriented difference operator, which yields a concept that contains all aspects of the approximated concept that are not present in the approximation. It is also argued that a purely semantical difference operator, as introduced by Teege, is less suited for this purpose. Finally, for the logics under consideration, we propose an algorithm computing the difference.


S. Brandt and A.-Y. Turhan. An Approach for Optimized Approximation. In Proceedings of the KI-2002 Workshop on Applications of Description Logics (KIDLWS'01), CEUR-WS, Aachen, Germany, September 2002. RWTH Aachen. Proceedings online available from http://SunSITE.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE/Publications/CEUR-WS/.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Approximation is a new inference service investigated in [BKT-KR-02]. An approximation of an ALC-concept by an ALE-concept can be computed in double exponential time. Consequently, one needs powerful optimization techniques for approximating an entire unfoldable TBox. Addressing this issue we identify a special form of ALC-concepts that can be divided into parts s.t.\ each part can be approximated independently.


S. Demri and U. Sattler. Automata-Theoretic Decision Procedures for Information Logics. Fundamenta Informaticae, 53(1):1–22, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)


T. Hinze. Universelle Modelle und ausgewählte Algorithmen des DNA-Computing. PhD thesis, Technische Universität Dresden, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

Die Arbeit beleuchtet das Forschungsgebiet des DNA-Computing vordergründig aus dem Blickwinkel der Berechenbarkeitstheorie. Universelle sowie platzbeschränkt universelle Modelle des DNA-Computing, deren DNA-basierte Daten auf der Abbildung linearer DNA beruhen, werden untersucht, klassifiziert und als Beschreibungssysteme für Algorithmen angewendet. Mit dem TT6-EH-System und dem Simulationssystem Sisyphus werden zwei universelle DNA-Computing-Modelle eingeführt, deren Modelleigenschaften labornah ausgerichtet sind. Das TT6-EH-System stellt ein endlichkomponentiges verteiltes Splicing-System dar, das sich durch einen statischen Systemaufbau, eine Minimierung der in die Verarbeitung einbezogenen Ressourcen und ein niedriges Abstraktionsniveau der Modelloperationen auszeichnet. Das Simulationssystem Sisyphus berücksichtigt Seiteneffekte der den Modelloperationen zugrundeliegenden molekularbiologischen Prozesse. Zusätzlich besitzt das Modell die Eigenschaften "restriktiv" und "multimengenbasiert". Anhand einer Probleminstanz des NP-vollständigen Rucksackproblems erfolgte eine laborpraktische Verifikation.


T. Hinze, U. Hatnik, and M. Sturm. An Object Oriented Simulation of Real Occurring Molecular Biological Processes for DNA Computing and Its Experimental Verification. In N. Jonoska and N.C. Seeman, editors, DNA Computing. Proceedings Seventh International Workshop on DNA-Based Computers (DNA7) Tampa, FL, USA, 2001, volume 2340 of Series Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer Verlag, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Paper (PDF)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

We present a simulation tool for frequently used DNA operations on the molecular level including side effects based on a probabilistic approach. The specification of the considered operations is directly adapted from detailed observations of molecular biological processes in laboratory studies. Bridging the gap between formal models of DNA computing, we use process description methods from biochemistry and show the closeness of the simulation to the reality.


J. Hladik. Implementation and evaluation of a tableau algorithm for the Guarded Fragment. In I. Horrocks and S. Tessaris, editors, Proceedings of the 2002 international workshop on description Logics (DL 2002), volume 53 of CEUR, Toulouse, France, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

In this paper we present SAGA, an implementation of a tableau-based Satisfiability Algorithm for the Guarded Fragment (GF). Satisfiability for GF with finite signature is ExpTime-complete and therefore intractable in the worst case, but existing tableau-based systems for ExpTime-complete description and modal logics perform reasonably well for ``realistic'' knowledge bases. We implemented and evaluated several optimizations used in description logic systems, and our results show that, with an efficient combination, SAGA can compete with existing highly optimized systems for description logics.


J. Hladik. Implementation and Optimisation of a Tableau Algorithm for the Guarded Fragment. In U. Egly and C. G. Fermüller, editors, Proceedings of the International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Tableaux and Related Methods (Tableaux 2002), volume 2381 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

In this paper, we present SAGA, the implementation of a tableau-based Satisfiability Algorithm for the Guarded Fragment (GF). Satisfiability for GF with finite signature is Exptime-complete and therefore theoretically intractable, but existing tableau-based systems for Exptime-complete description and modal logics perform well for many realistic knowledge bases. We implemented and evaluated several optimisations used in description logic systems, and our results show that with an efficient combination, SAGA can compete with existing highly optimised systems for description logics and first order logic.


I. Horrocks and U. Sattler. Optimised Reasoning for SHIQ. In Proc. of the 15th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Paper (PDF)


O. Kupferman, U. Sattler, and M. Y. Vardi. The Complexity of the Graded mu-Calculus. In Proceedings of the Conference on Automated Deduction, volume 2392 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag


C. Lutz. Adding Numbers to the SHIQ Description Logic—First Results. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR2002). Morgan Kaufman, 2002. To appear.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Recently, the Description Logic (DL) SHIQ has found a large number of applications. This success is due to the fact that SHIQ combines a rich expressivity with efficient reasoning, as is demonstrated by its implementation in DL systems such as FaCT and RACER. One weakness of SHIQ, however, limits its usability in several application areas: numerical knowledge such as knowledge about the age, weight, or temperature of real-world entities cannot be adequately represented. In this paper, we propose an extension of SHIQ that aims at closing this gap. The new Description Logic Q-SHIQ, which augments SHIQ by additional, "concrete domain" style concept constructors, allows to refer to rational numbers in concept descriptions, and also to define concepts based on the comparison of numbers via predicates such as "<" "=". We argue that this kind of expressivity is needed in many application areas such as reasoning about the semantic web. We prove reasoning with Q-SHIQ to be ExpTime-complete (thus not harder than reasoning with SHIQ) by devising an automata-based decision procedure.


C. Lutz. Description Logics with Concrete Domains—A Survey. In Advances in Modal Logic 2002 (AiML 2002), Toulouse, France, 2002. Final version appeared in Advanced in Modal Logic Volume 4, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Description logics (DLs) are a family of logical formalisms that have initially been designed for the representation of conceptual knowledge in artificial intelligence and are closely related to modal logics. In the last two decades, DLs have been successfully applied in a wide range of interesting application areas. In most of these applications, it is important to equip DLs with expressive means that allow to describe ``concrete qualities'' of real-world objects such as their weight, temperature, and spatial extension. The standard approach is to augment description logics with so-called concrete domains, which consist of a set (say, the rational numbers), and a set of n-ary predicates with a fixed extension over this set. The ``interface'' between the DL and the concrete domain is then provided by a new logical constructor that has, to the best of our knowledge, no counterpart in modal logics. In this paper, we give an overview over description logics with concrete domains and summarize decidability and complexity results from the literature.


C. Lutz. PSpace Reasoning with the Description Logic ALCF(D). Logic Journal of the IGPL, 10(5):535–568, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Description Logics (DLs), a family of formalisms for reasoning about conceptual knowledge, can be extended with concrete domains to allow an adequate representation of "concrete qualities" of real-worlds entities such as their height, temperature, duration, and size. In this paper, we study the complexity of reasoning with the basic DL with concrete domains ALC(D) and its extension with so-called feature agreements and disagreements ALCF(D). We show that, for both logics, the standard reasoning tasks concept satisfiability, concept subsumption, and ABox consistency are PSpace-complete if the concrete domain D satisfies some natural conditions.


C. Lutz. Reasoning about Entity Relationship Diagrams with Complex Attribute Dependencies. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Workshop on Description Logics, 2002. To appear.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams are among the most popular formalisms for the support of database design. To aid database designers in building (extended) ER schemas, Description Logics (DLs) have been proposed and successfully used as a tool for reasoning about such schemas. In this paper, we propose the extension of ER diagrams with dependencies on attributes and show how such dependencies can be translated into DLs with concrete domains. The result is an integrated approach to reasoning with conceptual models and attribute dependencies.


C. Lutz and U. Sattler. A Proposal for Describing Services with DLs. In Proceedings of the 2002 International Workshop on Description Logics, 2002. To appear.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Motivated by the semantic web application, we present a generic extension of description logics to describe actions. These actions can then be chained to service descriptions. A web page providing a service can be annotated with a description of this service, which can then be taken into account by agents searching for a web service. Besides defining syntax and semantics of this extension of DLs, we introduce and discuss inference problems which are useful to annotate web pages with a description of the service they provide.


C. Lutz, H. Sturm, F. Wolter, and M. Zakharyaschev. A Tableau Decision Algorithm for Modalized ALC with Constant Domains. Studia Logica, 72(2):199–232, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to construct a tableau decision algorithm for the modal description logic K/ALC with constant domains. More precisely, we present a tableau procedure that is capable of deciding, given an ALC-formula x with extra modal operators (which are applied only to concepts and TBox axioms, but not to roles), whether x is satisfiable in a model with constant domains and arbitrary accessibility relations. Tableau-based algorithms have been shown to be `practical' even for logics of rather high complexity. This gives us grounds to believe that, although the satisfiability problem for K/ALC is known to be NEXPTIME-complete, by providing a tableau decision algorithm we demonstrate that highly expressive description logics with modal operators have a chance to be implementable. The paper gives a solution to an open problem of Baader and Laux.


G. Pan, U. Sattler, and M. Y. Vardi. BDD-Based Decision Procedures for K. In Proceedings of the Conference on Automated Deduction, volume 2392 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag, 2002.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag


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