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The Web Ontology Language (OWL) (Horrocks et al.,2003;W3C OWL Working Group,2009a)has been developed and standardised by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).It is one of the key technologies underpinning the Semantic Web,but its success has now spread far beyond the Web:it has become the ontology language of choice for applications in fields as diverse as biology (Sidhu et al.,2005),medicine (Golbreich et al.,2006),geography (Goodwin,2005),astronomy (Derriere et al.,2006),agriculture (Soergel et al.,2004),and defence (Lacy et al.,2005).Moreover,ontologies are increasingly being used for ’semantic data management’,and DB (database) technology vendors have already started to augment their existing software with ontological reasoning. For example, Oracle Inc.has recently enhanced its well-known database management system with modules that use ontologies to support ‘semantic data management’,Their product brochure (http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/semantic _technologies/pdf/oracle%20db%20semantics%20overview%2020080722.pdf) lists numerous application areas that can benefit from this technology,including enterprise information integration,knowledge mining,finance, compliance management, and life science research.