Foundations of Knowledge Base Management : Springer : 9783642833991 : 3642833993 : 16 Jan 2012 : In the past, applied artificial intelligence systems were built with particular emphasis on general reasoning methods intended to function efficiently, even when only relatively little domain-specific knowledge was available. In other words, AI technology aimed at the processing of knowledge stored under comparatively general representation schemes. Nowadays, the focus has been redirected to the role played by specific and detailed knowledge, rather than to the reasoning methods themselves. Many new application systems are centered around knowledge bases, i. e. , they are based on large collections offacts, rules, and heuristics that cap­ ture knowledge about a specific domain of applications. Experience has shown that when used in combination with rich knowledge bases, even simple reasoning methods can be extremely effective in a wide variety of problem domains. Knowledge base construction