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Ontology management for NLU:the L&C approach

W. Ceusters

CTO* Language & Computing nv, Zonnegem, Belgium


The main objective

• Mr. Kovács is

… an 83-year-old man with past

medical history of hypertension, congestive heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypercholesterolemia, history of CVA who presented to Budapest Emergency Room on April 25 with chief complaint of right-sided chest pain since April 24. The patient was in his usual state of health until April 24 when he experienced right-sided chest pain after 10 minutes of bicycling exercise at YMCA. He described the chest pain as a dull ache in the right side of his chest radiating posteriorly to the right scapular area. He rated the intensity as 7 out of 10. The chest pain lasted about 3 minutes and resolved with rest. That same night, the patient once again experienced right-sided chest pain while lying in bed right before he went to sleep. He describes the pain as right-sided chest pain with same radiation to posterior at an intensity of 6-7 out of 10. The chest pain lasted about 10 minutes and resolved spontaneously.

• 1. Male or female • 2. Age 50 to no upper limit • 3. Hypertension documented according to

the 6th report of the Joint National Committee on Detection and Evaluation of the treatment of high BP (JNC VI) and the need for drug therapy (previously documented hypertension in patients currently taking antihypertensive agents is acceptable)

• 4. Documented CAD (e.g., classic angina pectoris (stable angina pectoris; Heberden angina pectoris), myocardial infarction three or more months ago, abnormal coronary angiography, or concordant abnormalities on two different types of stress tests)

• 5. Willingness to sign informed consent deep text understanding


Triadic models of meaning: The Semiotic/Semantic triangle

Sign:Language/

Term/Symbol

Referent:Reality/Object

Reference: Concept / Sense / Model / View / Partition


Tetrahedric M.I. extension

concept

term referent

definition

CEN/TC251ENV 12264


“Ontological” extension• In Information Science:

– “An ontology is a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the concepts and relationships that can exist for an agent or a community of agents.” (Tom Gruber)

• In Philosophy:– “Ontology is the science of

what is, of the kinds and structures of objects, properties, events, processes and relations in every area of reality.” (Barry Smith)

concept

term referent

definition

concept

term referent

definition


Our approach

concept system

language referents

definitions

medical+linguistic ontology(data + algorithms)

language referents

concept system

the standard view our view

the real world


Exploit the relationships along the vertices

language referentsBaboons and humans have different cut-off points for discerning "same" objects because our verbal expression for "same" makes the idea of "same" more restrictive.”

Fagot and Wasserman (Centre for Research in Cognitive Neuroscience in Marseille)

Meaning is located in the interaction between living beings and the environment James J. Gibson, Ecological Realism in Psychology

The structures of language arepartially determined by ourconceptualisation of theworld. Halliday

No mental representation without language Fodor

concept

Halliday’s systemicfunctional grammar

Aristotelianrealism


The possible final picture

BFO/MedO

“validates”

linguistic ontologies

(per language)

medical+linguistic ontology

normativeconcept system(s)

Realist ontology


An integrated approach

Data structure andfunction library for

language understanding

Medical and linguisticknowledge required for

language understanding

NLU enabling tools forknowledge supported

data-entry and -retrieval


Medico-linguistic ontology

Formal Domain Ontology

Lexicon

Grammar

Language ALanguage A

Lexicon

Grammar

LanguageLanguage BB

Cassandra Linguistic Ontology MEDDRA

ICD

SNOMED

ICPC

Others ...

Proprietary Terminologies


Based on formal ontology

HAS-PARTIAL-SPATIAL-OVERLAP

IS-TOPO-

INSIDE-OF

IS-GEO-INSIDE-

OF

IS-INSIDE-

CONVEX-HULL-OF

IS-PARTLY-IN-CONVEX-

HULL-OFIS-OUTSIDE-CONVEX-HULL-OF

HAS-DISCONNECTED-

REGION

HAS-EXTERNAL-

CONNECTING-REGION

HAS-DISCRETED-REGION

HAS-TANG.-SPAT.-PART

HAS-NON-TANG.-SPAT.-PART

IS-SPAT.-

EQUIV.-OF

IS-TANG.-SPAT.-PART-

OF

IS-NON-TANG.-SPAT.-PART-

OF

HAS-PROPER-SPATIAL

-PART

IS-PROPER-

SPAT.-PART-

OF

HAS-SPATIAL

-PART

IS-SPATIAL-PART-

OF

HAS-OVERLAPPING

-REGION

HAS-CONNECTING-

REGION

HAS-SPATIAL-POINT-

REFERENCE


Linguistic and domain ontologies

Having a healthcare phenomenon

Generalised PossessionHealthcare phenomenonHuman

IS-A

Has-possessor Has-

possessed

PatientIs-possessor-of

Cancer patient

IS-A

Has-Healthcare-phenomenon

Malignant neoplasm

IS-A

11

1

2

2

IS-A

3

3lung carcinoma

IS-A

Mr. Kovács has a pulmonary carcinoma


Analysis of “History of CVA”


Concepts-terms-criteria-definitions


Ontology alignment

www.landc.be ontology management for nlu: the l&c approach w. ceusters cto * language &...

Documents

sided chest pain

belgium slide

real world slide

right scapular area

structures of language

barry smith slide

documented hypertension

chief complaint of right