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

Publications

2003


F. Baader. Description Logic Terminology. In Franz Baader, Diego Calvanese, Deborah McGuinness, Daniele Nardi, and Peter F. Patel-Schneider, editors, The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications, pages 485–495. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this appendix is to introduce (in a compact manner) the syntax and semantics of the most prominent DLs occurring in this handbook. More information and explanations as well as some less familiar DLs can be found in the respective chapters. For DL constructors whose semantics cannot be described in a compact manner, we will only introduce the syntax and refer the reader to the respective chapter for the semantics. Following Chapter~2 on Basic Description Logics, we will first introduce the basic DL AL, and then describe several of its extensions. Thereby, we will also fix the notation employed in this handbook.


F. Baader, J. Hladik, C. Lutz, and F. Wolter. From Tableaux to Automata for Description Logics. In Moshe Vardi and Andrei Voronkov, editors, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Reasoning (LPAR 2003), volume 2850 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pages 1–32. Springer, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between automata- and tableau-based inference procedures for Description Logics. To be more precise, we develop an abstract notion of what a tableau-based algorithm is, and then show, on this abstract level, how tableau-based algorithms can be converted into automata-based algorithms. In particular, this allows us to characterize a large class of tableau-based algorithms that imply an ExpTime upper-bound for reasoning in the description logics for which such an algorithm exists.


F. Baader, R Küsters, and F. Wolter. Extensions to Description Logics. In Franz Baader, Diego Calvanese, Deborah McGuinness, Daniele Nardi, and Peter F. Patel-Schneider, editors, The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications, pages 219–261. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

This chapter considers, on the one hand, extensions of Description Logics by features not available in the basic framework, but considered important for using Description Logics as a modeling language. In particular, it addresses the extensions concerning: concrete domain constraints; modal, epistemic, and temporal operators; probabilities and fuzzy logic; and defaults. On the other hand, it considers non-standard inference problems for Description Logics, i.e., inference problems that---unlike subsumption or instance checking---are not available in all systems, but have turned out to be useful in applications. In particular, it addresses the non-standard inference problems: least common subsumer and most specific concept; unification and matching of concepts; and rewriting.


F. Baader and W. Nutt. Basic Description Logics. In Franz Baader, Diego Calvanese, Deborah McGuinness, Daniele Nardi, and Peter F. Patel-Schneider, editors, The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications, pages 43–95. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to Description Logics as a formal language for representing knowledge and reasoning about it. It first gives a short overview of the ideas underlying Description Logics. Then it introduces syntax and semantics, covering the basic constructors that are used in systems or have been introduced in the literature, and the way these constructors can be used to build knowledge bases. Finally, it defines the typical inference problems, shows how they are interrelated, and describes different approaches for effectively solving these problems. Some of the topics that are only briefly mentioned in this chapter will be treated in more detail in subsequent chapters.


F. Baader and U. Sattler. Description Logics with Aggregates and Concrete Domains. Information Systems, 28(8):979–1004, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Free reprint

Abstract

Description Logics are a family of knowledge representation formalisms well-suited for intensional reasoning about conceptual models of databases/data warehouses. We extend Description Logics with concrete domains (such as integers and rational numbers) that include aggregation functions over these domains (such as min, max, count, and sum) which are usually available in database systems.
We show that the presence of aggregation functions may easily lead to undecidability of (intensional) inference problems such as satisfiability and subsumption. However, there are also extensions for which satisfiability and subsumption are decidable, and we present decision procedures for the relevant inference problems.


Franz Baader. Computing the least common subsumer in the description logic EL w.r.t. terminological cycles with descriptive semantics. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Conceptual Structures, ICCS 2003, volume 2746 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 117–130. Springer-Verlag, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Paper (PDF)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

Computing the least common subsumer (lcs) is one of the most prominent non-standard inference in description logics. Baader, Kuesters, and Molitor have shown that the lcs of concept descriptions in the description logic EL always exists and can be computed in polynomial time. In the present paper, we try to extend this result from concept descriptions to concepts defined in a (possibly cyclic) EL-terminology interpreted with descriptive semantics, which is the usual first-order semantics for description logics. In this setting, the lcs need not exist. However, we are able to define possible candidates P_k (k\geq 0) for the lcs, and can show that the lcs exists iff one of these candidates is the lcs. Since each of these candidates is a common subsumer, they can also be used to approximate the lcs even if it does not exist. In addition, we give a sufficient condition for the lcs to exist, and show that, under this condition, it can be computed in polynomial time.


Franz Baader. The instance problem and the most specific concept in the description logic EL w.r.t. terminological cycles with descriptive semantics. In Proceedings of the 26th Annual German Conference on Artificial Intelligence, KI 2003, volume 2821 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, pages 64–78, Hamburg, Germany, 2003. Springer-Verlag.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

Previously, we have investigated both standard and non-standard inferences in the presence of terminological cycles for the description logic EL, which allows for conjunctions, existential restrictions, and the top concept. The present paper is concerned with two problems left open by this previous work, namely the instance problem and the problem of computing most specific concepts w.r.t. descriptive semantics, which is the usual first-order semantics for description logics. We will show that---like subsumption---the instance problem is polynomial in this context. Similar to the case of the least common subsumer, the most specific concept w.r.t. descriptive semantics need not exist, but we are able to characterize the cases in which it exists and give a decidable sufficient condition for the existence of the most specific concept. Under this condition, it can be computed in polynomial time.


Franz Baader. Least Common Subsumers and Most Specific Concepts in a Description Logic with Existential Restrictions and Terminological Cycles. In Georg Gottlob and Toby Walsh, editors, Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pages 319–324. Morgan Kaufman, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

Computing least common subsumers (lcs) and most specific concepts (msc) are inference tasks that can support the bottom-up construction of knowledge bases in description logics. In description logics with existential restrictions, the most specific concept need not exist if one restricts the attention to concept descriptions or acyclic TBoxes. In this paper, we extend the notions lcs and msc to cyclic TBoxes. For the description logic EL (which allows for conjunctions, existential restrictions, and the top-concept), we show that the lcs and msc always exist and can be computed in polynomial time if we interpret cyclic definitions with greatest fixpoint semantics.


Franz Baader, editor. Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Automated Deduction CADE-19, volume 2741 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer-Verlag, Miami Beach, FL, USA, 2003.
Bibtex entry


Franz Baader. Restricted Role-value-maps in a Description Logic with Existential Restrictions and Terminological Cycles. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

In a previous paper we have investigated subsumption in the presence of terminological cycles for the description logic EL, which allows conjunctions, existential restrictions, and the top concept, and have shown that the subsumption problem remains polynomial for all three types of semantics usually considered for cyclic de nitions in description logics. In this paper we show that subsumption in EL (with or without cyclic de - nitions) remains polynomial even if one adds a certain restricted form of global role-value-maps to EL. In particular, this kind of role-value-maps can express transitivity of roles.


Franz Baader. Terminological Cycles in a Description Logic with Existential Restrictions. In Georg Gottlob and Toby Walsh, editors, Proceedings of the 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, pages 325–330. Morgan Kaufmann, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

Cyclic definitions in description logics have until now been investigated only for description logics allowing for value restrictions. Even for the most basic language FL0, which allows for conjunction and value restrictions only, deciding subsumption in the presence of terminological cycles is a PSPACE-complete problem. This paper investigates subsumption in the presence of terminological cycles for the language EL, which allows for conjunction, existential restrictions, and the top-concept. In contrast to the results for FL0, subsumption in EL remains polynomial, independent of whether we use least fixpoint semantics, greatest fixpoint semantics, or descriptive semantics.


Franz Baader, Diego Calvanese, Deborah McGuinness, Daniele Nardi, and Peter F. Patel-Schneider, editors. The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

Description Logics are a family of knowledge representation languages that have been studied extensively in Artificial Intelligence over the last two decades. They are embodied in several knowledge-based systems and are used to develop various real-life applications. The Description Logic Handbook provides a thorough account of the subject, covering all aspects of research in this field, namely: theory, implementation, and applications. Its appeal will be broad, ranging from more theoretically-oriented readers, to those with more practically-oriented interests who need a sound and modern understanding of knowledge representation systems based on Description Logics. The chapters are written by some of the most prominent researchers in the field, introducing the basic technical material before taking the reader to the current state of the subject, and including comprehensive guides to the literature. In sum, the book will serve as a unique reference for the subject, and can also be used for self-study or in conjunction with Knowledge Representation and Artificial Intelligence courses.


Franz Baader, Jan Hladik, Carsten Lutz, and Frank Wolter. From Tableaux to Automata for Description Logics. Fundamenta Informaticae, 57:1–33, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between automata- and tableau-based inference procedures for description logics. To be more precise, we develop an abstract notion of what a tableau-based algorithm is, and then show, on this abstract level, how tableau-based algorithms can be converted into automata-based algorithms. In particular, this allows us to characterize a large class of tableau-based algorithms that imply an ExpTime upper-bound for reasoning in the description logics for which such an algorithm exists.


Sebastian Brandt. Implementing Matching in ALE—First Results. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

Matching problems in Description Logics are theoretically well understood, with a variety of algorithms available for different DLs. Nevertheless, still no implementation of a general matching algorithm exists. The present paper presents an implementation of an existing matching algorithm for the DL ALE and shows first results on benchmarks w.r.t. randomly generated matching problems. The observed computation times show that the implementation performs well even on relatively large matching problems.


Sebastian Brandt and Anni-Yasmin Turhan. Computing least common subsumers for FLE^+. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics, CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Transitive roles are important for adequate representation of knowledge in a range of applications. In this paper we present a first algorithm to compute least common subsumers in a description logic with transitive roles.


Sebastian Brandt, Anni-Yasmin Turhan, and Ralf Küsters. Extensions of Non-standard Inferences to Description Logics with transitive Roles. In Moshe Vardi and Andrei Voronkov, editors, Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Logic for Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Reasoning (LPAR 2003), Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Springer, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

Description Logics (DLs) are a family of knowledge representation formalisms used for terminological reasoning. They have a wide range of applications such as medical knowledge-bases, or the semantic web. Research on DLs has been focused on the development of sound and complete inference algorithms to decide satisfiability and subsumption for increasingly expressive DLs. Non-standard inferences are a group of relatively new inference services which provide reasoning support for the building, maintaining, and deployment of DL knowledge-bases. So far, non-standard inferences are not available for very expressive DLs. In this paper we present first results on non-standard inferences for DLs with transitive roles. As a basis, we give a structural characterization of subsumption for DLs where existential and value restrictions can be imposed on transitive roles. We propose sound and complete algorithms to compute the least common subsumer (lcs).


Nachum Dershowitz and Mitchell A. Harris. Enumerating Satisfiable Propositional Formulae. In Eurocomb, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PDF)

Abstract

It is known experimentally that there is a threshold for satisfiability in 3-CNF formulas around the value 4.25 for the ratio of variables to clauses. It is also known that the threshold is sharp, but that proof does not give a value for the threshold. We use purely combinatorial techniques to count the number of satisfiable boolean formulas given in conjunctive normal form. The intention is to provide information about the relative frequency of boolean functions with respect to statements of a given size, and to give a closed form formula for any number of variables, literals and clauses. We describe a correspondence between the syntax of propositions to the semantics of functions using a system of equations and show how to solve such a system.


J. Hladik and U. Sattler. A Translation of Looping Alternating Automata to Description Logics. In Proc. of the 19th Conference on Automated Deduction (CADE-19), volume 2741 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag


Jan Hladik. Reasoning about Nominals with FaCT and RACER. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

We present a translation of looping alternating two-way automata into a comparably inexpressive description logic, which is contained in SHIQ. This enables us to perform the emptiness test for a language accepted by such an automaton using the systems FaCT and RACER. We implemented our translation and performed a test using automata which accept models for ALCIO concepts, so that we can use SHIQ systems to reason about nominals. Our empirical results show, however, that the resulting knowledge bases are hard to process for both systems.


I. Horrocks and U. Sattler. Decidability of SHIQ with Complex Role Inclusion Axioms. In Proc. of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-2003). Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PDF)


O. Kutz, C. Lutz, F. Wolter, and M. Zakharyaschev. E-connections of Description Logics. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Recently, E-connections have been proposed as a new means for connecting knowledge representation systems. We illustrate how this connection technique can be used for combining description logics, thereby surveying various extensions of the original E-connections. For all these extensions, general transfer results for concept satisfiability are given.


C. Lutz. Description Logics with Concrete Domains—A Survey. In Advances in Modal Logics Volume 4. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., 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, C. Areces, I. Horrocks, and U. Sattler. Keys, Nominals, and Concrete Domains. In Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence IJCAI-03, Acapulco, Mexico, 2003. Morgan-Kaufmann Publishers.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

Many description logics (DLs) combine knowledge representation on an abstract, logical level with an interface to "concrete" domains such as numbers and strings. We propose to extend such DLs with key constraints that allow the expression of statements like "US citizens are uniquely identified by their social security number". Based on this idea, we introduce a number of natural description logics and present (un)decidability results and tight NExpTime complexity bounds.


C. Lutz, U. Sattler, and L. Tendera. The Complexity of Finite Model Reasoning in Description Logics. In Proc. of the 19th Conference on Automated Deduction (CADE-19), volume 2741 of Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence. Springer Verlag, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

We analyze the complexity of finite model reasoning in the description logic ALCQI, i.e. ALC augmented with qualifying number restrictions, inverse roles, and general TBoxes. It turns out that all relevant reasoning tasks such as concept satisfiability and ABox consistency are ExpTime-complete, regardless of whether the numbers in number restrictions are coded unarily or binarily. Thus, finite model reasoning with ALCQI is not harder than standard reasoning with ALCQI.


C. Lutz, U.Sattler, and L. Tendera. Finite Model reasoning in ALCQI is ExpTime-complete. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

We analyze the complexity of finite model reasoning in the description logic ALCQI, i.e.ALC augmented with qualifying number restrictions, inverse roles, and general TBoxes. It turns out that all relevant reasoning tasks such as concept satisfiability and ABox consistency are ExpTime-complete, regardless of whether the numbers in number restrictions are coded unarily or binarily. Thus, finite model reasoning with ALCQI is not harder than standard reasoning with ALCQI.


C. Lutz, F. Wolter, and M. Zakharyaschev. Reasoning about concepts and similarity. In Proceedings of the 2003 International Workshop on Description Logics (DL2003), CEUR-WS, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)

Abstract

In many application areas, there exist concepts that are too vague to be captured by classical DL concept definitions. Based on this observation, we combine the description logic ALCQO with the logic MS for reasoning about metric spaces, and propose to use the resulting "hybrid" for the definition of concepts based on similarity measures: concepts can be defined by referring to (the similarity to) proptypical instances. We sketch a tableau algorithm for our logic and present an undecidability result illustrating that it can be dangerous to allow a too close interaction between the DL and MS.


C. Lutz, F. Wolter, and M. Zakharyaschev. A tableau algorithm for reasoning about concepts and similarity. In Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods TABLEAUX 2003, LNAI, Rome,Italy, 2003. Springer.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag

Abstract

We present a tableau-based decision procedure for the fusion (independent join) of the expressive description logic ALCQO and the logic MS for reasoning about distances and similarities. The resulting "hybrid" logic allows both precise and approximate representation of and reasoning about concepts. The tableau algorithm combines the existing tableaux for the components and shows that the tableau technique can be fruitfully applied to fusions of logics with nominals-the case in which no general decidability transfer results for fusions are available.


U. Sattler. Description Logics for Ontologies. In Proc. of the International Conference on Conceptual Structures (ICCS 2003), volume 2746 of LNAI. Springer Verlag, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Paper (PS)  ©Springer-Verlag


U. Sattler, D. Calvanese, and R. Molitor. Relationship with other Formalisms. In Franz Baader, Diego Calvanese, Deborah McGuinness, Daniele Nardi, and Peter F. Patel-Schneider, editors, The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation, and Applications, pages 137–177. Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Bibtex entry  Abstract

Abstract

In this chapter, we are concerned with the relationship between description logics and other formalisms, regardless of whether they were designed for knowledge representation issues or not. Obviously, due to the lack of space, we cannot compare each representational formalism with DLs, thus we concentrated on those that either (1) had or have a strong influence on DLs (e.g., modal logics), (2) are closely related to description logics for historical reasons (e.g., semantic networks and structured inheritance networks), (3) have similar expressive power (e.g., semantic data models).


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