Transcript Understanding the Message: Linking Aristotelian Realism to

Ontology management for NLU:
the L&C approach
W. Ceusters
CTO
* Language & Computing nv, Zonnegem, Belgium
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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 rightsided 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.
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•
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
Reference:
Concept / Sense / Model / View / Partition
Sign:
Language/
Term/
Symbol
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Referent:
Reality/
Object
Tetrahedric M.I. extension
CEN/TC251
ENV 12264
concept
definition
term
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referent
“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)
concept
• 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)
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definition
term
referent
Our approach
medical+linguistic ontology
concept system
(data + algorithms)
definitions
concept system
the real world
language
referents
the standard view
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language
referents
our view
Exploit the relationships along the vertices
Halliday’s systemic
functional
grammar
The structures of language are
partially determined by our
conceptualisation of the
world.
Halliday
No mental representation
without language Fodor
Aristotelian
realism
concept
Meaning is located in
the interaction between living
beings and the environment
language
James J. Gibson, Ecological
Realism in Psychology
referents
Baboons 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)
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The possible final picture
medical+linguistic
ontology
linguistic
ontologies
(per
language)
normative
concept system(s)
“validates”
Realist ontology
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BFO/MedO
An integrated approach
NLU enabling tools for
knowledge supported
data-entry and -retrieval
Medical and linguistic
knowledge required for
language understanding
Data structure and
function library for
language understanding
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Medico-linguistic ontology
Language A
Proprietary Terminologies
Language
LexiconB
Lexicon
Others ...
Grammar
ICPC
Grammar
SNOMED
Formal Domain
Ontology
ICD
Cassandra Linguistic
Ontology
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MEDDRA
Based on formal ontology
HASOVERLAPPING
-REGION
HASPARTIALSPATIALOVERLAP
ISSPATIAL
-PARTOF
ISPROPERSPAT.PART-OF
HAS-DISCRETEDREGION
HASSPATIAL
-PART
HASPROPERSPATIAL
-PART
HASDISCONNECTEDREGION
HASEXTERNALIS-NONCONNECTINGTANG.ISREGION
SPAT.TANG.IS- HAS-NON- HASPART-OF
SPAT.- SPAT.- TANG.- TANG.PART-OF EQUIV.- SPAT.SPAT.OF
PART
PART
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HAS-SPATIALPOINTREFERENCE
HASCONNECTINGREGION
ISIS-PARTLYIN-CONVEX- INSIDECONVEXISHULL-OF
HULL-OF
OUTSIDECONVEXHULL-OF
ISIS-GEOINSIDE- TOPOINSIDEOF
OF
Linguistic and domain ontologies
Generalised Possession
Human
Haspossessor
1
2
IS-A
1
IS-A
Healthcare phenomenon
Haspossessed
1
Having a healthcare phenomenon
IS-A
2
Is-possessor-of
Patient
3
Has-Healthcarephenomenon
IS-A
Malignant neoplasm
IS-A
3
Cancer patient
lung carcinoma
Mr. Kovács has a pulmonary carcinoma
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Analysis of “History of CVA”
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Concepts-terms-criteria-definitions
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Ontology alignment
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