We present an approach towards knowledge acquisition of process knowledge for the natural sciences. The work has been conducted within Project Halo, which is creating advanced knowledge authoring and question answering systems for the natural sciences. An analysis of AP®-level questions for Biology, Chemistry and Physics uncovered that process knowledge is the single most frequent type of knowledge required. Thus, we developed means to acquire process knowledge, to formally represent it, and to reason about it in order to answer novel questions about the do-mains.
All these tasks are supported by an abstract process meta-model. It provides the terminology for user-tailored process diagrams, which are automatically translated into executa-ble FLogic code. The meta-model and the code generation are based on the notion of Problem Solving Methods (PSM) which represent an abstract formalization of the reasoning strategies needed for processes.
1. Applying Problem Solving Methods for Process Knowledge Acquisition, Representation, and Reasoning Jose Manuel Gómez-Pérez iSOCO, S.A [email_address] K-CAP 2007
11. A PSM example: decompose & combine Combination, Byproduct output roles Recombination set, Decomposer, Combinator input roles combine output action decompose input action decompose, combine actions member(Recombination set, Element) and member(Constituents set, Piece) and part-of(Piece, Element) and part-of(Piece, Combination) and properties(Element, ep) and properties(Combination, cp) and not equal(ep, cp) goal decompose & combine name
12. The Process Editor: Enabling SMEs to Formulate Process Knowledge Domain-level reasoning and control flow evaluation Process metamodel PSM library (e.g. decompose & recombine) Domain process to which this process diagram is bound Associated process explanation
20. iSOCO Valencia +34 96 3467143 Oficina 107 C/ Prof. Beltrán Báguena 4, 46009 Valencia iSOCO Barcelona +34 93 5677200 Edifici Testa A C/ Alcalde Barnils 64-68 St. Cugat del Vallès 08190 Barcelona iSOCO Madrid +34 91 3349797 C/Pedro de Valdivia, 10 28006 Madrid iSOCO http://www.isoco.com Jose Manuel Gómez-Pérez [email_address] #T +34 91 334 9778 #M +34 609 077 103 Thanks for your attention!
Notas del editor
Analysis of AP syllabus resulted into a number of knowledge types
Processes are special concepts that…
Partially inspired by existing process ontologies e.g. EO, GLIF Many of these preexisting resources were domain specific. We abstracted them for a generic use and completed the remnants
First two points of the slide: We intended to produce a PSM library which allows describing a particular process and also providing the means to reason about and solve process-related problems. Therefore, we have approached processes as special types of problems and PSM as the way to represent and solve them.
Two main phases: Identification of domain-specific processes in the syllabi Decomposition and abstraction of the domain-specific processes into domain-independent processes expressed in terms of the metamodel
Each process category specialized into a number of generic, abstract processes, which can be achieved by one or more PSM.
We focus on one of the methods of the “Split” category: “decompose & recombine”
The Process Editor allows SMEs to author themselves process knowledge without intervention of Knowledge Engineers Graphical representations of process metamodel entities and methods of the PSM library provide SMEs with guidance during Knowledge Formulation and avoid the blank page syndrome The components of a process diagram are first modelled by choosing a role of the process metamodel from the palette. Then, these components are mapped to concrete domain entities by means of the interface shown. In the example, domain-level concept Ionic Compound is modelled as a process metamodel Resource . This perspective allows importing rules into process actions enabling domain-level reasoning within processes
FLogic representation and reasoning language Process diagrams authored by SMEs using the process metamodel and the PSM library are automatically translated into FLogic (OntoBroker) code
The frame of action “Dissolve” is comprised by all the “Ionic Compounds” of the Solutions contained in the knowledge base. However, action “Crystallize” is applicable exclusively to the “Cations” and “Anions” produced by action “Dissolve”.
The execution of an action allows transition from its pre to its post state
Though process knowledge is accessible via the overall Question Formulation system, the most comfortable and complete way to use the authored process knowledge is by means of the test & debugging perspective, which executes queries and is also helpful to validate the formulated knowledge bases.
Performed in the context of the overall Halo evaluation. This explains why some parts of the syllabus showed not very representative for processes, while their domains are actually very rich in this kind of knowledge. The intermediate evaluation is not to be understood as a usability test in a formative sense, but as an empirical assessment of DarkMatter’s performance in a setting that is representative, in terms of the profile of recruited SMEs and their assigned tasks. In the case of PCS, since our approach is focused on enabling SMEs to model executable processes at the knowledge level without intervention of KEs, the evaluation was specially aimed towards collecting direct experience of SMEs on PCS knowledge formulation and reasoning. This was measured according to two main dimensions: usability and utility. These metrics must be modulated by the actual relevance of the PCS knowledge type with respect to the selected syllabi, which we measured in terms of the number of issues raised by SMEs on PCS in specific domains and the number of processes modeled by SMEs in each domain.
Physics SMEs did not use processes Not so important for Chemistry SMEs but… Biology SMEs found it very useful with a score of 3 out of 4. Being the domain with a more representative amount of process knowledge in the evaluation syllabus (the selected Chemistry and Physics syllabi contained a negligible amount of process knowledge) this mark can be considered representative as well.
Key Concepts: Encapsulation Reusability: small number of entities and PSMs in metamodel and library which can be reused (generic enough) and aligned with particular domains of application SMEs building KBs instead of KEs (mess up domain KBs and are expensive) They know the domain and are willing to formalize this knowledge Ex: heart inheriting from diaphragm pump. Inheritance is not always a good idea (e.g. one chamber a the pump, four in the heart) Process diagrams can be easily moved from one domain to a different one where an analogous process happens. Data Flow view simplifies visualization and keeps representation to the Process-level (unlike in Aura) Similarities with CLib (Ken Barker) To provide SMEs with the means required to acquire , formally represent and reason about processes in the target domains by Creating an abstract process metamodel that supports these tasks Supporting the creation and edition of user-tailored process diagrams based on this terminology, without intervention of knowledge engineers Automatically translating process diagrams into executable code Based on Problem Solving Methods (PSM) , which represent an abstract formalization of the reasoning strategies needed for processes
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