Alec Sculley

Tim Prudhomme, Giacomo De Colle, Austin Liebers et al.

The Provenance Ontology (PROV-O) is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommended ontology used to structure data about provenance across a wide variety of domains. Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology ISO/IEC standard used to structure a wide variety of ontologies, such as the OBO Foundry ontologies and the Common Core Ontologies (CCO). To enhance interoperability between these two ontologies, their extensions, and data organized by them, a mapping methodology and set of alignments are presented according to specific criteria which prioritize semantic and logical principles. The ontology alignments are evaluated by checking their logical consistency with canonical examples of PROV-O instances and querying terms that do not satisfy the alignment criteria as formalized in SPARQL. A variety of semantic web technologies are used in support of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principles.

Forrest Hare, Alec Sculley, Cameron Stockton

We argue that ontology-structured knowledge graphs can play a crucial role in generating predictions about future events. By leveraging the semantic framework provided by Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) and Common Core Ontologies (CCO), we demonstrate how data such as the movements of a fishing vessel can be organized in and retrieved from a knowledge graph. These query results are then used to create Markov chain models, allowing us to predict future states based on the vessel's history. To fully support this process, we introduce the term `spatiotemporal instant' to complete the necessary structural semantics. Additionally, we critique the prevailing ontological model of probability, according to which probabilities are about the future. We propose an alternative view, where at least some probabilities are treated as being about actual process profiles, which better captures the dynamics of real-world phenomena. Finally, we demonstrate how our Markov chain-based probability calculations can be seamlessly integrated back into the knowledge graph, enabling further analysis and decision-making.