Description logics are embodied in several knowledge-based systems and are used to develop various real-life applications. Now in paperback, 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. As well as general revision throughout the book, this new edition presents a new chapter on ontology languages for the semantic web, an area of great importance for the future development of the web. In sum, the book will serve as a unique resource for the subject, and can also be used for self-study or as a reference for knowledge representation and artificial intelligence courses.

List of contributors	p. ix
Preface to the second edition	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
An Introduction to Description Logics	p. 1
Introduction	p. 1
From networks to Description Logics	p. 5
knowledge representation in Description Logics	p. 13
From theory to practice: Description Logic systems	p. 17
Applications developed with Description Logic systems	p. 22
Extensions of Description Logics	p. 32
Relationship to other fields of Computer Science	p. 39
Conclusion	p. 42
Theory	p. 45
Basic Description Logics	p. 47
Introduction	p. 47
Definition of the basic formalism	p. 50
Reasoning algorithms	p. 81
Language extensions	p. 98
Complexity of Reasoning	p. 105
Introduction	p. 105
OR-branching: finding a model	p. 109
AND-branching: finding a clash	p. 117
Combining sources of complexity	p. 124
Reasoning in the presence of axioms	p. 127
Undecidability	p. 133
Reasoning about individuals in ABoxes	p. 140
Discussion	p. 144
A list of complexity results for subsumption and satisfiability	p. 145
Relationships with other Formalisms	p. 149
AI knowledge representation formalisms	p. 149
Logical formalisms	p. 161
Database models	p. 174
Expressive Description Logics	p. 193
Introduction	p. 193
Correspondence between Description Logics and Propositional Dynamic Logics	p. 195
Functional restrictions	p. 202
Qualified number restrictions	p. 209
Objects	p. 213
Fixpoint constructs	p. 217
Relations of arbitrary arity	p. 221
Finite model reasoning	p. 226
Undecidability results	p. 232
Extensions to Description Logics	p. 237
Introduction	p. 237
Language extensions	p. 238
Non-standard inference problems	p. 270
Implementation	p. 283
From Description Logic Provers to Knowledge Representation Systems	p. 285
Introduction	p. 285
Basic access	p. 287
Advanced application access	p. 290
Advanced human access	p. 295
Other technical concerns	p. 301
Public relations concerns	p. 301
Summary	p. 303
Description Logic Systems	p. 304
New light through old windows?	p. 304
The first generation	p. 305
Second generation Description Logic systems	p. 313
The next generation: FaCT, DLP and RACER	p. 324
Lessons learned	p. 327
Implementation and Optimization Techniques	p. 329
Introduction	p. 329
Preliminaries	p. 331
Subsumption-testing algorithms	p. 336
Theory versus practice	p. 341
Optimization techniques	p. 347
Discussion	p. 371
Applications	p. 375
Conceptual Modeling with Description Logics	p. 377
Background	p. 377
Elementary Description Logic modeling	p. 379
Individuals in the world	p. 381
Concepts	p. 384
Subconcepts	p. 387
Modeling relationships	p. 390
Modeling ontological aspects of relationships	p. 392
A conceptual modeling methodology	p. 399
The ABox: modeling specific states of the world	p. 399
Conclusions	p. 401
Software Engineering	p. 402
Introduction	p. 402
Background	p. 402
LaSSIE	p. 403
CODEBASE	p. 408
CSIS and CBMS	p. 409
Configuration	p. 417
Introduction	p. 417
Configuration description and requirements	p. 419
The PROSE and QUESTAR family of configurators	p. 433
Summary	p. 434
Medical Informatics	p. 436
Background and history	p. 437
Example applications	p. 441
Technical issues in medical ontologies	p. 447
Ontological issues in medical ontologies	p. 453
Architectures: terminology servers, views, and change management	p. 456
Discussion: key lessons from medical ontologies	p. 457
OWL: a Description-Logic-Based Ontology Language for the Semantic Web	p. 458
Background and history	p. 458
Steps towards integration with the Semantic Web: OIL and DAML+OIL	p. 461
Full integration into the Semantic Web: OWL	p. 467
Summary	p. 484
Natural Language Processing	p. 487
Introduction	p. 487
Semantic interpretation	p. 488
Reasoning with the logical form	p. 492
Knowledge-based natural language generation	p. 497
Description Logics for Databases	p. 500
Introduction	p. 500
Data models and Description Logics	p. 504
Description Logics and database querying	p. 513
Data integration	p. 517
Conclusions	p. 523
Appendix Description Logic Terminology	p. 525
Notational conventions	p. 525
Syntax and semantics of common Description Logics	p. 526
Additional constructors	p. 531
A note on the naming scheme for Description Logics	p. 534
Bibliography	p. 537
Index	p. 593
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

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The Description Logic Handbook: Theory, Implementation and Applications

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