Re: 答复: KB note

Huajun Chen@Zhejiang University wrote:
> Another challenge is cross-language data integration, which is actually a
> job that ontology should do. 
>   
I honestly disagree. Ontology is about the semantics of *being* but that
of symbols. It doesn't matter if how "gene" is called, named, or
written. It symbolize the same objective entities. A URI such as
http://www.example.com is not written in English. It is just a bunch of
symbols. Let's not introduce linguistic issues into data integration,
which already have a lot of issues.

Xiaoshu Wang
> Best wishes, huajun
>
> -----邮件原件-----
> 发件人: public-semweb-lifesci-request@w3.org
> [mailto:public-semweb-lifesci-request@w3.org] 代表 Matthias Samwald
> 发送时间: 2008年5月26日 21:22
> 收件人: kc28@email.med.yale.edu; Tim Clark
> 抄送: M. Scott Marshall; public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org
> 主题: Re: KB note
>
>
>   
>> Speaking of national boundaries, I wonder if alternative medicine (e.g., 
>> herbal
>> medicine) would also be of interest to this community. For example, 
>> Huperzine
>> is a drug derived from the herb Huperzia serrata. I also wonder if there 
>> are
>> hypotheses regarding the study of herbs in the possible treatment of
>> neurological diseases.
>>     
>
> I would also be very motivated to help in this kind of research. 
> Specifically, Huperzine A would be a very interesting use-case for our 
> developments. It is a herbal compound with a history in folk medicine and is
>
> available OTC in most countries, yet it rivals the effectiveness of 
> currently leading Alzheimer medications such as Tacrine. It also has a dual 
> mode of action that does not only involve acetylcholinesterase inhibition, 
> but also modulation of the NMDA receptor. The implications of this for the 
> treatment of Alzheimer's are still a rather hot topic.
>
> The integration of knowledge from traditional medicine, plant 
> taxonomy/phylogeny/biochemistry and receptor binding databases (PDSP Ki 
> database, IUPHAR) could lead to the identification of some extremely novel 
> therapeutic strategies. Finding candidate molecules in such a way might be 
> much more effective than weeding through libraries of compounds generated by
>
> combinatorial synthesis etc. The challenge lies in the integration of some 
> very heterogenous datasets that come from vastly different disciplines, 
> which is exactly the field of research where Semantic Web technologies are 
> most effective.
>
> I guess the major problem for this kind of research is that there are no 
> funding programmes that span China, the US and Asia...
>
> Cheers,
> Matthias Samwald
>
> DERI Galway, Ireland // Semantic Web Company, Austria
> http://www.deri.ie/
> http://www.semantic-web.at/
>
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Wednesday, 28 May 2008 13:59:41 UTC