{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,23]],"date-time":"2026-04-23T11:04:30Z","timestamp":1776942270222,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,14]],"date-time":"2022-01-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1642118400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Information"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the deaths of millions of people around the world. The scientific community faces a tough struggle to reduce the effects of this pandemic. Several investigations dealing with different perspectives have been carried out. However, it is not easy to find studies focused on COVID-19 contagion chains. A deep analysis of contagion chains may contribute new findings that can be used to reduce the effects of COVID-19. For example, some interesting chains with specific behaviors could be identified and more in-depth analyses could be performed to investigate the reasons for such behaviors. To represent, validate and analyze the information of contagion chains, we adopted an ontological approach. Ontologies are artificial intelligence techniques that have become widely accepted solutions for the representation of knowledge and corresponding analyses. The semantic representation of information by means of ontologies enables the consistency of the information to be checked, as well as automatic reasoning to infer new knowledge. The ontology was implemented in Ontology Web Language (OWL), which is a formal language based on description logics. This approach could have a special impact on smart cities, which are characterized as using information to enhance the quality of basic services for citizens. In particular, health services could take advantage of this approach to reduce the effects of COVID-19.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/info13010040","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,14]],"date-time":"2022-01-14T03:14:03Z","timestamp":1642130043000},"page":"40","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":5,"title":["Exploiting an Ontological Model to Study COVID-19 Contagion Chains in Sustainable Smart Cities"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8436-5650","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nemury","family":"Silega","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of System Analysis and Telecommunications, Southern Federal University, 347900 Taganrog, Russia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Eliani","family":"Var\u00e9n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ciencias y Tecnolog\u00edas Inform\u00e1ticas, Universidad de las Ciencias Inform\u00e1ticas, Habana 19370, Cuba"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alfredo","family":"Var\u00e9n","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro Provincial de Higiene, Epidemiolog\u00eda y Microbiolog\u00eda, Cienfuegos 55100, Cuba"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yury I.","family":"Rogozov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of System Analysis and Telecommunications, Southern Federal University, 347900 Taganrog, Russia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vyacheslav S.","family":"Lapshin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of System Analysis and Telecommunications, Southern Federal University, 347900 Taganrog, Russia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Skolupin A.","family":"Alekseevich","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of System Analysis and Telecommunications, Southern Federal University, 347900 Taganrog, Russia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"14","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compind.2019.04.001","article-title":"Ontology for safety risk identification in metro construction","volume":"109","author":"Xinga","year":"2019","journal-title":"Comput. Ind."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4156","DOI":"10.1109\/TLA.2016.7785947","article-title":"Ontology-based Transformation from CIM to PIM","volume":"14","author":"Silega","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Lat. Am. Trans."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"148","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compind.2019.05.003","article-title":"Ontology-based systems engineering: A state-of-the-art review","volume":"111","author":"Yanga","year":"2019","journal-title":"Comput. Ind."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3329","DOI":"10.1109\/TLA.2016.7587638","article-title":"A document recommendation system using a document-similarity ontology","volume":"14","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Lat. Am. Trans."},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1758","DOI":"10.1109\/TLA.2018.8444396","article-title":"Calculating similarity of curriculum lattes","volume":"16","author":"Freitas","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Lat. Am. Trans."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"761","DOI":"10.1016\/j.procs.2021.03.094","article-title":"Applying an MDA-based approach for enhancing the validation of business process models","volume":"184","author":"Silega","year":"2021","journal-title":"Procedia Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"15","DOI":"10.1186\/s13326-021-00246-0","article-title":"Toward a systematic conflict resolution framework for ontologies","volume":"12","author":"Keet","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Biomed. Semant."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"198","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2020.00198","article-title":"Epidemiologic characteristics, transmission chain, and risk factors of severe infection of COVID-19 in Tianjin, a Representative Municipality City of China","volume":"8","author":"Wang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Front. Public Health"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3220","DOI":"10.1002\/ccr3.3331","article-title":"Pediatric COVID-19 case with regard to the family infection chain and the psychosocial context","volume":"8","author":"Schwarz","year":"2020","journal-title":"Clin. Case Rep."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e212","DOI":"10.1017\/S0950268821002089","article-title":"The characteristics of and responses to the two COVID-19 outbreak waves in Hebei Province of China, January 2020 to February 2021","volume":"149","author":"Cheng","year":"2021","journal-title":"Epidemiol. Infect."},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"598","article-title":"Identification of a super-spreading chain of transmission associated with COVID-19 at the Early Stage of the Disease Outbreak in Wuhan","volume":"5","author":"Hu","year":"2020","journal-title":"Arch. Clin. Biomed. Res."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"181","DOI":"10.1038\/s41597-020-0523-6","article-title":"CIDO, a community-based ontology for coronavirus disease knowledge and data integration, sharing, and analysis","volume":"7","author":"He","year":"2020","journal-title":"Sci. Data"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dutta, B., and DeBellis, M. (2020). Codo: An ontology for collection and analysis of COVID-19 data. IC3K 2020, Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management, Budapest, Hungary, 2\u20134 November 2020, SciTePress.","DOI":"10.5220\/0010112500760085"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4","DOI":"10.1186\/2041-1480-5-4","article-title":"The epidemiology ontology: An ontology for the semantic annotation of epidemiological resources","volume":"5","author":"Pesquita","year":"2014","journal-title":"J. Biomed. Semant."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hulo, C., Masson, P., de Castro, E., Auchincloss, A.H., Foulger, R., Poux, S., Lomax, J., Bougueleret, L., Xenarios, I., and Le Mercier, P. (2017). The ins and outs of eukaryotic viruses: Knowledge base and ontology of a viral infection. PLoS ONE, 12.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0171746"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ricaurte, J.A.B., Sanabria, J.S.G., and Castellanos, G.C. (2016). Ontomastitis: Ontolog\u00eda para la Mastitis Bovina. Ing. E Innovaci\u00f3n, 4, Available online: https:\/\/revistas.unicordoba.edu.co\/index.php\/rii\/article\/view\/1183.","DOI":"10.21897\/23460466.1183"},{"key":"ref_17","unstructured":"Noy, N.F., and McGuinness, D.L. (2001). Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology, Stanford University. Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory Technical Report KSL-01-05 and Stanford Medical Informatics Technical Report SMI-2001-0880."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Yang, C., Ambayo, H., De Baets, B., Kolsteren, P., Thanintorn, N., Hawwash, D., Bouwman, J., Bronselaer, A., Pattyn, F., and Lachat, C. (2019). An Ontology to Standardize Research Output of Nutritional Epidemiology: From Paper-Based Standards to Linked Content. Nutrients, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/nu11061300"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Magumba, M.A., and Nabende, P. (2017, January 21\u201323). An ontology for generalized disease incidence detection on twitter. Proceedings of the International Conference on Hybrid Artificial Intelligence Systems, La Rioja, Spain.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-319-59650-1_4"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Amith, M., Fujimoto, K., Mauldin, R., and Tao, C. (2020). Friend of a Friend with Benefits ontology (FOAF+): Extending a social network ontology for public health. BMC Med. Inform. Decis. Mak., 20.","DOI":"10.1186\/s12911-020-01287-8"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.17485\/ijst\/2015\/v8i34\/54249","article-title":"Ontology development: A comparing study on tools, languages and formalisms","volume":"8","author":"Slimani","year":"2015","journal-title":"Indian J. Sci. Technol."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"41","DOI":"10.1016\/S0169-023X(02)00195-7","article-title":"Methodologies, tools and languages for building ontologies. Where is their meeting point?","volume":"46","author":"Corcho","year":"2003","journal-title":"Data Knowl. Eng."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4","DOI":"10.1145\/2757001.2757003","article-title":"The prot\u00e9g\u00e9 project: A look back and a look forward","volume":"1","author":"Musen","year":"2015","journal-title":"AI Matters"},{"key":"ref_24","unstructured":"Kumar, M.K. (2017, January 7\u20139). Creation of Dynamic Ontologies for Graphical Representation in User Interface using NeOn in Shodhganga. Proceedings of the ETD2017 Symposium, Washington, DC, USA."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e4","DOI":"10.1017\/S0269888920000065","article-title":"Ontology engineering methodologies for the evolution of living and reused ontologies: Status, trends, findings and recommendations","volume":"35","author":"Kotis","year":"2020","journal-title":"Knowl. Eng. Rev."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Su\u00e1rez-Figueroa, M.C., G\u00f3mez-P\u00e9rez, A., Motta, E., and Gangemi, A. (2012). Introduction: Ontology Engineering in a Networked World, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-642-24794-1"},{"key":"ref_27","first-page":"99","article-title":"Comparative analysis of methodologies for domain ontology development: A systematic review","volume":"11","author":"Sattar","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Comput. Sci. Appl."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7","DOI":"10.4018\/ijswis.2014040102","article-title":"Oops!(ontology pitfall scanner!): An on-line tool for ontology evaluation","volume":"10","year":"2014","journal-title":"Int. J. Semant. Web Inf. Syst. (IJSWIS)"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"471","DOI":"10.3233\/SW-160217","article-title":"Ontop: Answering SPARQL queries over relational databases","volume":"8","author":"Calvanese","year":"2017","journal-title":"Semant. Web"},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"(2021, December 28). Ontolology to Represent COVID-19 Contagion Chains. Available online: https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1PhnpnRseyTczAySlt_0SFDTxzf1yQutF\/view?usp=sharing."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sintchenko, V. (2010). Infectious disease ontology. Infectious Disease Informatics, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-1-4419-1327-2"},{"key":"ref_32","unstructured":"Alsudias, L., and Rayson, P. (2020, January 13\u201315). Developing an Arabic Infectious Disease Ontology to Include Non-Standard Terminology. Proceedings of the 12th Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, Marseille, France."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"Satpathy, R., Choudhury, T., Satpathy, S., Mohanty, S.N., and Zhang, X. (2021). Survey of Various Statistical Numerical and Machine Learning Ontological Models on Infectious Disease Ontology. Data Analytics in Bioinformatics: A Machine Learning Perspective, Scrivener Publishing LLC."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"20","DOI":"10.1016\/j.artmed.2018.01.003","article-title":"An ontology-driven clinical decision support system (IDDAP) for infectious disease diagnosis and antibiotic prescription","volume":"86","author":"Shen","year":"2018","journal-title":"Artif. Intell. Med."}],"container-title":["Information"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/13\/1\/40\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,13]],"date-time":"2025-10-13T14:02:21Z","timestamp":1760364141000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2078-2489\/13\/1\/40"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,14]]},"references-count":34,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,1]]}},"alternative-id":["info13010040"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/info13010040","relation":{},"ISSN":["2078-2489"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2078-2489","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2022,1,14]]}}}