This is one of the possible Use Cases.
1. Abstract
This is a possible classification of rules according their use (at knowledge level). Rules can be classified according the role they play in different tasks [1]: deductive rules, meta-reasoning rules, connecting rules, mapping rules, querying rules.
Note that this classification is application independent, e.g. mapping rules can be used in different applications concerning medical data integration or travelling as well.
The same rules can be used for different tasks and play different roles, e.g. meta-rules can serve to build an ontology or as constraints to check its consistency. The same rule can serve as a normative rule (constraint), deductive rule, or other.
2. Status
Originally proposed by: Christine Golbreich (posted by IanHorrocks on her behalf)
3. Relationship to OWL/RDF Compatibility
Rules are often used to extend the expressive power of OWL/RDF, so compatibility with these languages is essential.
4. Benefits of Interchange
- Ontologies and rulebases are costly to build and are often intended as shared resources to be freely exchanged and reused.
5. Requirements on the RIF
- At the representation level, a single rule language, independent of the rule role, and compatible with OWL
- Needs of an integrated framework.
For example in data integration, mapping rules, querying rules, and ontology, should be integrated in a uniform framework.
6. Narratives
Rules can be classified according the role they play [1]:
'deductive rules' are needed for inferences based on dependencies between some ontology properties, such as the transfer of properties from parts to wholes (e.g. a disease located in an organ part, is located in the organ), or dependencies between topological and mereological properties in the brain-cortex [4] http://idm.univ-rennes1.fr/~obierlai/anatomy/annexes/annexes.pdf ([CG-3] 3.2).
- For a long time, rule-based expert systems have shown the usefulness of deductive rules in health care e.g. for diagnosis ([CG-6]- 5.2), guidelines (CG-7] 5.3) etc.
- 'meta-reasoning rules' are needed for facilitating meta-reasoning on ontology in control or knowledge engineering tasks e.g., acquisition, validation, maintenance of an ontology [1] [10] ([CG-8] 5.4)
- 'connecting rules' between ontologies are required for reasoning across several domains such as Genomics, Proteonomics, Pathology, for example when searching for correlations between diseases and the abnormality of a function of a protein coded by a human gene.
- 'mapping rules' for mapping ontologies in data integration, and querying heterogeneous sources e.g., patient data scattered in many Hospital Information Systems [11 -13-14-15] ([CG-5] 5.1)
- 'querying rules' expressing complex queries upon the Web or sources ([CG-5] 5.1) etc.
References available at http://www.med.univ-rennes1.fr/~cgolb/RIF/OntologyWithRule-CG.pdf