A Logical Model for Taxonomic Concepts for Expanding Knowledge using Linked Open Data

1. JIST2012 Dec 2 - 4, 2012, Nara, Japan A Logical Model for Taxonomic Concepts for Expanding Knowledge using Linked Open Data Objectives To develop ontologyto present the change of taxon concepts and open link to public. To Implement a prototypeto ensure the feasibility of the model. Overview Millions of species throughout the world have been classified and named by different perspectives among taxonomists. For example, the Chinese peacock butterfly named Papiliobianorokinawensisand Papiliobianorryukyuensishave been reclassified many times. The up-to-date information may not be enough for researchers to learn from a single taxonomic name, whereas, the history of change and linked data of it can expand more knowledge about taxon concepts. A logical model for taxon concepts in RDF has been proposed in order to record the change of taxon concepts and publish in LOD. Linked Taxonomic Knowledge (LTK) Ontology The logical model is expressed in an ontology named Linked Taxonomic Knowledge (LTK). This model extends ontology of Contextual Knowledge for Archives (CKA) by focusing on the operations of changes of taxon concepts. The classification of changes of taxon concepts is Moreover, the LTK also reuses some properties from SKOS and LODAC. For example the property representing higher rank of taxon concepts called ltk:higherTaxonis derived from skos:broaderTransitive and species:hasSuperTaxon. Example of properties are Example Problem Let’s start with the scenario of the changes of two species of Chinese peacock butterflies . . . . . . . Papiliobianorokinawensis (P. b. okinawaensis) has been named by Fruhstorfer since 1898 The LTK ontology describes the change of taxon concepts by identifying the operation of changes firstly. The operation is represented by a Class that can be ltk:MergeingTaxonConcept, ltk:SplitingTaxonConcept, ltk:ReplacingTaxonConcept, ltk:ChangingHigherTaxon, ltk:CorrectSpellingLink, ltk:CommonNameLink, ltk:JuniorSynonymLink, ltk:SeniorSynonymLink, etc. After that, it needs to assign some parameters of the operation by properties cka:conceptBefore (a concept before change) and cka:conceptAfter(a concept after change). Finally, an aspect of time has to be added by a property tl:beginAtDateTime. Papiliobianorryukyuensis (P. b. ryukyuensis) has been named by Fujioka since 1975 The example RDF model illustrates that the species:Pb_okinawensis and species:Pb_ryukyuensis have been merged into species:Pb_okinawensis_yyyy. The suffix _yyyy (represent the year of change)shows that the concept species:Pb_okinawensis_yyyydiffers from the concept species:Pb_okinawensisbecause the former is broader than the latter. Thus, every change of taxon concepts results to a new identity and some old relationships have to be transferred to the new one. ltk:MergingTaxon Concept species:Pb_ okinawensis rdf:type cka:conceptBefore cka:conceptBefore species:Pb_ ryukyuensis Discover more information cka:conceptAfter One taxonomist has reclassified by merging into the older name P. b. okinawensis species:Pb_ okinawensis_yyyy tl:beginAt DateTime “YYYY-MM-dd” Afterwards, a taxonomist has considered to split that name into P. b. okinawensisand P. b. ryukyuensisagain. Prototype P. b. okinawensis P. b. ryukyuensis Jena RDF Framework SESAME RDF Store In this case, if present-day researchers study a species named P. b. ryukyuensis, they may consume only information about . However, some information of , that were recorded by with name P. b. okinawaensis, might be missing. Because, at that time, P. b. ryukyuensiswere interpreted as P. b. okinawaensis. Service Web Interface Data The prototype is a web-based system that comprises three service layers: web interface, business service, and RDF data store. (1)the Web Interface allows a user to create the knowledge of taxon concepts in RDF. It also demonstrates the temporal context and link of taxon concepts. Furthermore, it presents the reasons and details about changes of them. (2), the Java Servlet Serviceis made for managing and computing RDF data by using the power of Jena reasoning engine. Other applications can access data via this layer. (3) The Datalayer, we used SESAME, a RDF store, to record data. Moreover, the prototype can publish data to LOD cloud, and provide SPARQL endpoint for other services. Download LTK Ontology: please visit Hideaki TAKEDA Vilas WUWONGSE Utsugi JINBO Rathachai CHAWUTHAI Please visit Asian Institute of Technology rathachai.c@gmail.com National Institute of Informatics National Museum of Nature and Science Thammasat University https://sites.google.com/site/linkedtaxon