Re: Cross Language with topic maps [was Re: 答复: KB note]

Kei,
Though the concepts you raise could be modeled ontologically, I don't
believe these should be layered on top of the existing UMLS. I was simply
suggesting UMLS in an international form-- additional concepts can be
defined in other namespaces.

Eric

On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Kei Cheung <kei.cheung@yale.edu> wrote:

> Hi Eric et al,
>
> I'm glad that umls, topic map, ... were mentioned. We have to do more than
> literal translation or linguistics. It's semantics!
>
> Traditional Chinese medicine embodies rich dialectical thought, such as
> that of the holistic connections and the unity of yin and yang. It deals
> with many facets of human anatomy and physiology: 臟腑 zang-fu (organs), 穴
> meridians (main and collateral channels), 氣 qi (vital energy), 血 blood, *靜
> *jing (essence of life), body fluid, the inside and outside of the body, as
> well as the connections between the whole and the parts.
>
> I wonder if there is a Chinese counterpart of umls that have semantic
> correspondence to the English umls. Topic map is also interesting. I also
> wonder if there is a direct mapping between topic map and semantic web
> (rdf/owl) ....
>
> I agree that we should narrow the scope of our problem a little bit.
> Otherwise, things tend to fall apart if we try to be too ambitious. I hope
> we can start thinking more about this Huperzine use case, for example. I
> also hope such a use case is holistic in the sense that it is both
> scientifically and technologically interesting.
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Kei
>
> eric neumann wrote:
>
>> Why not simply use to following trick on top of universal symbols?
>>
>> <umls:male rdfs:label="male" lang="en"
>> rdfs:label="Mann" lang="ge"
>> rdfs:label="mâle" lang="fr"
>> rdfs:label="男性" lang="zh-Hans"
>> ...
>> >
>>
>> Eric
>>
>> 2008/5/28 Jack Park <jack.park@sri.com <mailto:jack.park@sri.com>>:
>>
>>
>>
>>    In cross-language data integration, it may be a simple matter of
>>    using a
>>    multitude of language-scoped labels in an ontology. Another approach
>>    that has been mentioned on this list many moons back by the late Bill
>>    Bugg was that of applying topic maps to the federation of
>>    heterogeneous
>>    resources, including disparate ontologies that don't easily merge, and
>>    data sets. Bill was referring to some of my work. Topic maps
>>    provide the
>>    ability to apply as many different names to some entity as
>>    necessary for
>>    all participants to successfully locate what they seek. At the same
>>    time, topic maps can federate each entity with external comments,
>>    dialogues (such as this email message), bookmarks (tags) and
>>    relationships with other entities.
>>
>>    Jack
>>
>>    Xiaoshu Wang 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>
>>    >> [mailto: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
>>    <mailto:kc28@email.med.yale.edu>; Tim Clark
>>    >> 抄送: M. Scott Marshall; public-semweb-lifesci@w3.org
>>    <mailto: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/
>>    >>
>>    >>
>>    >>
>>    >>
>>    >>
>>    >>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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