We present a preliminary high-level formal theory, grounded on knowledge representation techniques and foundational ontologies, for the uniform and integrated representation of the different kinds of (quali- tative and quantitative) knowledge involved in the designing process. We discuss the conceptual nature of engineering design by individuating and analyzing the involved notions. These notions are then formally charac- terized by extending the DOLCE foundational ontology. Our ultimate purpose is twofold: (i) to contribute to foundational issues of design; and (ii) to support (...) the development of advanced modelling systems for (qualitative and quantitative) representation of design knowledge. (shrink)

Product structures are represented in engineering models by depicting and linking components, features and assemblies. Their understanding requires knowledge of both design and manufacturing practices, and yet further contextual reasoning is needed to read them correctly. Since these representations are essen- tial to the engineering activities, the lack of a clear and explicit semantics of these models hampers the use of information systems for their assessment and exploita- tion. We study this problem by identifying different interpretations of structure rep- resentations, (...) and then discuss the formal properties that a suitable language needs for representing components, features and combinations of these. We show that the representation of components and features require a non-standard mereology. (shrink)

Information entities are used in ontologies to represent engineering technical specifications, health records, pictures or librarian data about, e.g., narrative fictions, among others. The literature in applied ontology lacks a comparison of the state of the art, and foundational questions on the nature of information entities remain open for research. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, to compare existing ontologies with both each other and theories proposed in philosophy, semiotics, librarianship, and literary studies in order to understand how (...) the ontologies conceive and model information entities. Second, to discuss some open research challenges that can lead to principled approaches for the treatment of information entities, possibly by getting into account the variety of information entity types found in the literature. (shrink)

Standards and ontologies for manufacturing understand resources differently. Because of this heterogeneity, misunderstandings arise concerning the basic features that characterize them. The purpose of the paper is to investigate how to ontologically model resources with the goal of facilitating the development of knowledge representation models for manufacturing. By reviewing the literature, we discuss and compare three approaches for the representation of resources depending on whether they are conceived in connection to either processes, plans or goals. By addressing the advantages and (...) shortcomings of each view, we present a unifying perspective to enable the modeling of resources in an integrated manner. In this way, the intended meanings of the used notions are harmonized and, as a result, one can facilitate multiple experts to interact e.g., via data sharing and/or data integration procedures. Differently, by keeping three separated views, there is no guarantee that data coming from different parties will share common meanings even if the same terms are used. By the end of the paper, we present a case study to show the application of our approach and to compare it with an existing ontology for manufacturing. (shrink)

Embracing an inter-disciplinary approach grounded on Gärdenfors’ theory of conceptual spaces, we introduce a formal framework to analyse and compare selected theories about technical artefacts present in the literature. Our focus is on design-oriented approaches where both designing and manufacturing activities play a crucial role. Intentional theories, like Kroes’ dual nature thesis, are able to solve disparate problems concerning artefacts but they face both the philosophical challenge of clarifying the ontological nature of intentional properties, and the empirical challenge of testing (...) the attribution of such intentional properties to artefacts. To avoid these issues, we propose an approach that, by identifying different modalities to characterise artefact types, does not commit to intentional qualities and is able to empirically ground compliance tests. (shrink)

dolce, the first top-level ontology to be axiomatized, has remained stable for twenty years and today is broadly used in a variety of domains. dolce is inspired by cognitive and linguistic considerations and aims to model a commonsense view of reality, like the one human beings exploit in everyday life in areas as diverse as socio-technical systems, manufacturing, financial transactions and cultural heritage. dolce clearly lists the ontological choices it is based upon, relies on philosophical principles, is richly formalized, and (...) is built according to well-established ontological methodologies, e.g. OntoClean. Because of these features, it has inspired most of the existing top-level ontologies and has been used to develop or improve standards and public domain resources. Being a foundational ontology, dolce is not directly concerned with domain knowledge. Its purpose is to provide the general categories and relations needed to give a coherent view of reality, to integrate domain knowledge, and to mediate across domains. In these 20 years dolce has shown that applied ontologies can be stable and that interoperability across reference and domain ontologies is a reality. This paper briefly introduces the ontology and shows how to use it on a few modeling cases. (shrink)

Mi objetivo es discutir las principales dificultades que Frank P. Ramsey encontró en Principia Mathematica y la solución que, vía el Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, propuso al respecto. Sostengo que las principales dificultades que Ramsey encontró en Principia Mathematica están, todas, relacionadas con que Russell y Whitehead desatendieron la forma lógica de las proposiciones matemáticas, las cuales, según Ramsey, deben ser tautológicas.

Resumen En esta discusión expongo algunas objeciones a las siguientes tesis de Velázquez 2020: 1) que tanto Descartes como Frege sostienen que las entidades aritméticas son irreductibles a procesos empíricos; 2) que, en el caso de Descartes, dichas entidades son “perennes, inherentes a la propia constitución y funcionamiento de la mente” y 3) que Frege impugnó la filosofía matemática de Mill por psicologista. Sostengo que la segunda tesis no es, per se, controversial, pero que sí lo es en el contexto (...) del artículo de Velázquez.In this discussion I present objections to the following theses in Velázquez 2020: 1) that both Descartes and Frege maintain that arithmetic entities are irreducible to empirical processes; 2) that, in the case of Descartes, these entities are “perennial, inherent to the very constitution and functioning of the mind”, and 3) that Frege contested Mill’s mathematical philosophy for being psychologistic. I argue that the second thesis is not, per se, controversial, but that it is controversial in the context of Velázquez’s article. (shrink)

The main purpose of this work is to introduce the class of the monadic dynamic algebras. Similarly to a theorem of Kozen we establish that every separable monadic dynamic algebra is isomorphic to a monadic Kripke structure. We also classify the simple dynamic algebras. Moreover, in the dynamic duality theory, we analyze the conditions under which a hemimorphism of a dynamic algebra into itself defines a quantifier.

Após a obrigatoriedade da educação sexual (ES) nas escolas portuguesas em 2009, pretendemos conhecer que perspectiva têm os professores ( N = 307) sobre a ES. Através de um questionário on-line , analisado através de estatística descritiva e de análise factorial e inferencial, avaliámos as atitudes ..

We present the first comprehensive taxonomic revision and review the biology of the olingos, the endemic Neotropical procyonid genus Bassaricyon, based on most specimens available in museums, and with data derived from anatomy, morphometrics, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, field observations, and geographic range modeling. Species of Bassaricyon are primarily forest-living, arboreal, nocturnal, frugivorous, and solitary, and have one young at a time. We demonstrate that four olingo species can be recognized, including a Central American species (Bassaricyon gabbii), lowland species with (...) eastern, cis-Andean (Bassaricyon alleni) and western, trans-Andean (Bassaricyon medius) distributions, and a species endemic to cloud forests in the Andes. The oldest evolutionary divergence in the genus is between this last species, endemic to the Andes of Colombia and Ecuador, and all other species, which occur in lower elevation habitats. Surprisingly, this Andean endemic species, which we call the Olinguito, has never been previously described; it represents a new species in the order Carnivora and is the smallest living member of the family Procyonidae. We report on the biology of this new species based on information from museum specimens, niche modeling, and fieldwork in western Ecuador, and describe four Olinguito subspecies based on morphological distinctions across different regions of the Northern Andes. (shrink)

Definitions for heterogeneous congruences and heterogeneous ideals on a Boolean module equation image are given and the respective lattices equation image and equation image are presented. A characterization of the simple bijective Boolean modules is achieved differing from that given by Brink in a homogeneous approach. We construct the smallest and the greatest modular congruence having the same Boolean part. The same is established for modular ideals. The notions of kernel of a modular congruence and the congruence induced by a (...) modular ideal are introduced to describe an isomorphism between equation image and equation image. This isomorphism leads us to conclude that the class of the Boolean module is ideal determined. (shrink)

Introducción, traducción y notas de Mari Luz Pintos PeñarandaUniversidad de Santiago de Compostela.

For a Peirce algebra equation image, lattices equation image of all heterogenous Peirce congruences and equation image of all heterogenous Peirce ideals are presented. The notions of kernel of a Peirce congruence and the congruence induced by a Peirce ideal are introduced to describe an isomorphism between equation image and equation image. This isomorphism leads us to conclude that the class of the Peirce algebras is ideal determined. Opposed to Boolean modules case, each part of a Peirce ideal I = (...) determines the other one. A similar result is valid to Peirce congruences. A characterization of the simple Peirce algebras is presented coinciding to that given by Brink, Britz and Schmidt in a homogeneous approach. (shrink)

El objetivo fundamental de la arqueología ha sido el de perseguir la vida que ha habido detrás de todos los objetos encontrados del pasado humano 'huesos, cerámica y trozos de piedra' y tratar de descifrar sus contextos histórico y cultural. Este libro ofrece un resumen del discurso escrito de los arqueólogos sobre la instrumentación técnica y los métodos que se han ido proponiendo como la mejor forma de acercarse objetivamente a este pasado.

Este Artigo pretende acompanhar a análise bergsoniana da multiplicidade numérica e do tempo homogêneo, conceituação do tempo operada principalmente pela ciência; o objetivo desta análise é esclarecer o papel do espaço na formação do número e na apreensão conceitual da duração, explicitando o procedimento geral da inteligência humana.