CS549 Distributed Information Systems:
This document contains the examination paper for the above named module.
Terms and conditions
By downloading this document, you have agreed not to share it with others or publish any of
the questions on the Internet. You have agreed that you will not share your answers or
thoughts on this paper with anyone until the examination period has ended. By submitting
answers, you agree that your answers are entirely your own. Failure to observe these
terms and conditions may result in disciplinary procedures undertaken by the University.
Preparing your answers
Answers must be prepared within a Microsoft Word (docx) file. If equations or diagrams are
needed to answer the questions, then they can be prepared separately and then inserted
into the Microsoft Word document. If these are hand written, a photograph can be taken and
inserted into the Microsoft Word document.
The Microsoft Word document that is submitted must not include personal
information, such as a student registration number or name. Likewise, the file name
must not include personal information. Instead, it should be named
“exam_submission.docx”.
You should make sure that your answers are legible, and preferably typed. If you produce
hand-written diagrams or equations, you should write legibly. If you are taking photos of
hand-written materials, you should make sure that the text is legible.
Students that do not have Microsoft Word installed locally, should work locally and then use
the University’s O365 service to create a Microsoft Word document. This document should
be downloaded and then submitted to MyPlace.
Students should download all files needed to complete the exam and work locally to reduce
dependence on Internet connectivity.
In preparing your answers note that each question has an indicative word count. You should
endeavour to stay within this word count in your answers.
Submission
Students must submit answers to the examination questions by the deadline for the exam. A
single Microsoft Word document that contains all responses must be uploaded to
MyPlace. This will generate a receipt to indicate that the file has been received.
PLEASE TURN OVER
Students must check that the submitted file is the correct one and has not been
corrupted during submission. It is not possible to correct a wrong submission at a later
point.
Submission deadline
This is a 3 hour exam. Students with extra examination needs are provided with the usual
additional time. The submission deadline on MyPlace reflects your actual deadline for the
completion of the exam. Do note what your deadline is.
Answers must be uploaded by the exam deadline. Late submissions will not be
marked. If you face any problems during submission, you must report it, see below.
Reporting issues during the exam
If you have any questions or require any clarification about the exam paper you
should email [email protected]. Your email will be logged and you will receive
an automated response. During the 3 hours of the exam the invigilators may respond to your
email. MyPlace notices will be used to publish any clarifications/corrections on the
exam paper. Keep an eye out for them.
You must report any technical issues during the exam to cs549-
[email protected]. If Internet connectivity is disrupted and you are not able to use
email, then you must phone 0141 548 3160 to report any issue. The phone will only be
staffed for the duration of the exam.
To report any issues with MyPlace connectivity email [email protected].
If you face any other issues (personal/medical) that mean you are not able to complete
the exam, then you should record personal circumstances with student business.
PLEASE TURN OVER
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 1 of 8
Department of Computer and Information Sciences
CS549 Distributed Information Systems

Wednesday 27th July 2022

9:30am – 12:30pm Duration: 3 hours

Attempt ALL questions.
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 2 of 8
Question 1.
(a) Explain the terms class, property, facet and instance in the context
of ontology engineering. Give one example of each that could be used in a
formal representation of the following information:
Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish writer. He was born in
Edinburgh. His mother was Margaret Balfour and his father was
Thomas Stevenson. His best-known works are the novels Treasure
Island, Kidnapped and The Black Arrow, and the poetry collection A
Child’s Garden of Verse.
(2 marks)
(b) Explain what is meant by a folksonomy and compare the approach it offers
with the approach offered by ontology engineering, indicating the strengths
and weaknesses of each approach.
(4 marks)
(c)
Develop an ontology to represent a library that covers the items listed below.
Items to be represented
Books, index card, publications, librarians, photocopies, electronic copies,
shelves, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, rooms, categories of work
such as Travel, Cruises, Knitting etc, borrowers, loans and provide sufficient
concepts and relations to represent the statements:
The ontology should also model information about:
Librarian in charge of publications.
Books written by library staff.
Catalogued books.
Books on travel for which there are two or more copies in the library.
Journals for which there is an electronic copy but no paper copy.
Your ontology should allow the following competency questions to be
addressed:
(i) What is the average age of library staff who write books?
(ii) What is the gender of Librarian in charge of Journals?
(iii) Which categories of book are borrowed most frequently?
In your solution list the standalone classes, modifiers, relations and
definables, distinguishing between classes and instances. Indicate the
hierarchies for classes.
Give a definition of each definable.
Explain how the ontology addresses each of the above competency
questions.
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 3 of 8
State any assumptions that you make.
Note: you may add other concepts, and it may be necessary to do so to
complete the exercise. Note any ambiguities and key design choices.
(7 marks)
(d) Represent your ontology in diagrammatic form.
(3 marks)
(e) Explain the extent to which the concept of borrower in this ontology could
be represented as XML, RDF or OWL. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each of these approaches?
(3 marks)
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 4 of 8
Question 2.
(a) Explain the concept of a triple in RDF. Illustrate each of the points you
identify with an example. Examples may be represented graphically or by
code as appropriate. (4 marks)
(b) Draw a graph to represent the RDF/S document contained in Figure 1.
(4 marks)
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
xmlns:rdfs=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#”
xmlns:expl=”http://www.example.com/#”
> <
rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.example.com/#country”>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class” />
<rdfs:label xml:lang=”fr”>Pays</rdfs:label>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.example.com/#city”>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#Class” />
<rdfs:label xml:lang=”fr”>Ville</rdfs:label>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.example.com/#capital_of”>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property”/>
<rdfs:domain rdf:resource=”http://www.example.com/#city” />
<rdfs:range rdf:resource=”http://www.example.com/#country” />
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.example.com/#france”>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://www.example.com/#country” />
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=”http://www.example.com/#paris”>
<rdfs:label xml:lang=”en”>Paris</rdfs:label>
<rdf:type rdf:resource=”http://www.example.com/#city” />
<expl:capital_of rdf:resource=”http://www.example.com/#france” />
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
Figure 1.
(c) Explain the meaning of the RDF/S text in Figure 1.
(4 marks)
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 5 of 8
<?xml version=”1.0″?>
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
xmlns:cd=”http://www.recshop.fake/cd#”>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about=”http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque”>
<cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist>
<cd:company>Columbia</cd:company>
<cd:year>1985</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about=”http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Hide your heart”>
<cd:artist>Bonnie Tyler</cd:artist>
<cd:company>CBS Records</cd:company>
<cd:year>1985</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about=”http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Ultimate Kylie”>
<cd:artist>Kylie Minogue</cd:artist>
<cd:company>Parlophone</cd:company>
<cd:year>2004</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
Figure 2
(d) Explain the meaning and purpose of the following text from Figure 2:
xmlns:rdf=”http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#”
xmlns:cd=”http://www.recshop.fake/cd#”>
(2 marks)
CS549 PLEASE TURN OVER Page 6 of 8
(e) Assuming that the default data source is that shown in Figure 2 and that
PREFIX cd: <http://www.recshop.fake/cd/”>>
Is available, write SPARQL queries that will:
i) List all the data contained in the data source. The results should appear as
shown in Table 1 (2 marks)
Table 1: Results of Q1.
ii) List the artist and the year of each of their cds in the collection. The results
should appear as in Table 2. (2 marks)
Table 2: Results of Q2.
iii) List the artist and year for each cd in the collection with a year greater than
2000. The results should appear as in Table 3 (1 mark)
Table 3: Results of Q3.
iv) Count the CDs for each year.
Results should appear as in Table 4. (Note that the type tag
^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#integer is added to the integer
automatically) (1 mark)
Table 4: Results of Q4.
CS549 Page 7 of 8
Question 3.
(a)
Using the concepts Mammal, Animal, Dog, Carnivore, Giraffe, Herbivore,
Meat, Fish, Vertebrate, Backbone, Water, Bird, Wing, Leg, Egg, Insect,
Seed the properties eat, has, livesIn and lays and the instance rezy, create
a description logic knowledge base that models the following facts:
(i) Mammals are animals.
(ii) Dogs are carnivorous mammals.
(iii) Giraffes are herbivorous mammals.
(iv) No herbivores are carnivores
(v) Carnivores eat meat.
(vi) Vertebrate is any animal with a backbone.
(vii) Every fish is an animal that lives in water.
(viii) A bird is vertebrate that has wings, legs and lays eggs.
(ix) Those who eat meat are carnivores.
(x) Rezy is a bird that eats insects and seeds only.
(5 marks)
(b)
Using concepts BA, MA, Module, Scholar, Tutor, jill, french and the
properties teaches and hasDegree, write down a description logic knowledge
base to represent the following set of circumstances, separated into axioms
(TBox) and assertions (Abox).
jill teaches french.
Everybody who teaches a Module must either have an MA degree or be a
Tutor.
Every Tutor has a BA Degree.
Everybody with an MA degree has a BA degree.
Every Tutor teaches some Module.
french is a Module.
(5 marks)
(c)
Is the statement “jill has an MA degree” a logical consequence of the
knowledge base? Explain your answer.
(3 marks)
(d)
Is the statement “Everybody who teaches a module must have a BA degree” a
logical consequence of the knowledge base? Explain your answer
(3 marks)
PLEASE TURN OVER
CS549 Page 8 of 8
(e)
Explain the use of the terms owl:eqivalentClass and owl:Restriction in the
following code. Give the meaning of the code in English (do not simply
paraphrase the structure).
<owl:Class rdf:ID=”BackpackersDestination”>
<owl:equivalentClass>
<owl:Class>
<owl:intersectionOf rdf:parseType=”Collection”>
<owl:Class rdf:about=”#Destination”/>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:onProperty>
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:about=”#hasAccommodation”/>
</owl:onProperty>
<owl:someValuesFrom>
<owl:Class rdf:about=”#BudgetAccommodation”/>
</owl:someValuesFrom>
</owl:Restriction>
<owl:Restriction>
<owl:someValuesFrom>
<owl:Class>
<owl:unionOf rdf:parseType=”Collection”>
<owl:Class rdf:about=”#Sports”/>
<owl:Class rdf:about=”#Adventure”/>
</owl:unionOf>
</owl:Class>
</owl:someValuesFrom>
<owl:onProperty>
<owl:ObjectProperty rdf:about=”#hasActivity”/>
</owl:onProperty>
</owl:Restriction>
</owl:intersectionOf>
</owl:Class>
</owl:equivalentClass>
(4 marks)
END OF PAPER
Dr. J.N.Wilson