Application of ELECTRE algorithms in ontology selection.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
The field of artificial intelligence (AI) is expanding at a rapid pace. Ontology and the field
of ontological engineering is an invaluable component of AI, as it provides AI the ability to
capture and express complex knowledge and data in a form that encourages computation, inference,
reasoning, and dissemination. Accordingly, the research and applications of ontology
is becoming increasingly widespread in recent years. However, due to the complexity involved
with ontological engineering, it is encouraged that users reuse existing ontologies as opposed
to creating ontologies de novo. This in itself has a huge disadvantage as the task of selecting appropriate
ontologies for reuse is complex as engineers and users may find it difficult to analyse
and comprehend ontologies. It is therefore crucial that techniques and methods be developed
in order to reduce the complexity of ontology selection for reuse.
Essentially, ontology selection is a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem, as
there are multiple ontologies to choose from whilst considering multiple criteria. However,
there has been little usage of MCDM methods in solving the problem of selecting ontologies
for reuse. Therefore, in order to tackle this problem, this study looks to a prominent branch of
MCDM, known as the ELimination Et. Choix Traduisant la RÉalite (ELECTRE). ELECTRE is
a family of decision-making algorithms that model and provide decision support for complex
decisions comprising many alternatives with many characteristics or attributes. The ELECTRE
algorithms are extremely powerful and they have been applied successfully in a myriad of domains,
however, they have only been studied to a minimal degree with regards to ontology
ranking and selection. In this study the ELECTRE algorithms were applied to aid in the selection
of ontologies for reuse, particularly, three applications of ELECTRE were studied.
The first application focused on ranking ontologies according to their complexity metrics.
The ELECTRE I, II, III, and IV models were applied to rank a dataset of 200 ontologies from the
BioPortal Repository, with 13 complexity metrics used as attributes. Secondly, the ELECTRE
Tri model was applied to classify the 200 ontologies into three classes according to their complexity
metrics. A preference-disaggregation approach was taken, and a genetic algorithm was
designed to infer the thresholds and parameters for the ELECTRE Tri model. In the third application
a novel ELECTRE model was developed, named ZPLTS-ELECTRE II, where the concept
of Z-Probabilistic Linguistic Term Set (ZPLTS) was combined with the traditional ELECTRE II
algorithm. The ZPLTS-ELECTRE II model enables multiple decision-makers to evaluate ontologies
(group decision-making), as well as the ability to use natural language to provide their
evaluations. The model was applied to rank 9 ontologies according to five complexity metrics
and five qualitative usability metrics. The results of all three applications were analysed,
compared, and contrasted, in order to understand the applicability and effectiveness of the
ELECTRE algorithms for the task of selecting ontologies for reuse. These results constitute
interesting perspectives and insights for the selection and reuse of ontologies.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.