Re: KB Note

The use of ontologies, whether they are industry standards
or master data, can facilitate data mapping by providing a
more commonly understood language. If both source and
target systems map thier low-level schema into a commonly
shared ontology this can facilitate (semi)automated data
mapping. I say semi-automated becuase in OWLs current state
it does not provide data profiles needed for cleansing the
data structure.

Steve


On Wed, 28 May 2008 14:58:32 +0100
 Xiaoshu Wang <wangxiao@musc.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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 Thursday, 29 May 2008 00:22:50 UTC