On Mon, 1 Oct 2001, Jeremy Rogers wrote: ... > It used to be possible to download a demonstration version of ORCA > from Erasmus University in Rotterdam, but they are redesigning their > site and it does not seem to be available at the moment.
ORCA descriptions here: Self-contained patient data in ORCA to cope with evolving vocabulary http://www.amia.org/pubs/symposia/D004683.PDF Can data representation and interface demands be reconciled? Approach in ORCA http://www.amia.org/pubs/symposia/D004235.PDF ... > The principle problem we encountered with ORCA was that although > individual nodes in the user interface navigational tree structure > have unique names, the meaning of each node (and often also the links > either side of it) is not constant but changes depending on which > path it finds itself in. The best example of this would be the > terminal qualitative adjectival nodes, like 'soft', whose conceptual > representation is different when preceeded by the prior node 'faeces' > as opposed to the node 'heart murmur'. I raised this very issue in the context of the Odyssee system back in May 2001 on this list: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg04815.html The three critical issues that I posed were: 1) collisions (e.g. 'soft faeces' vs. 'soft heart murmur') 2) contradictions 3) addition / maintainence of concept space over time ... > The reader will bring the missing models with them when they read the > text, just as they do when they read the structure. > Effectively for machine processing, however, where these rich domain > and context models are missing, the true total conceptual meaning of > an individual path may not be *reliably* computed by reference to > concepts assigned to the nodes or links of which a path is > constructed. ... You raised another issue - "4) incomplete description" and identified the need to provide the "missing model". This is exactly why I have been hoping to interest some of you to study Cyc (www.opencyc.org) and discuss your work within that context. Cyc's major aim is precisely to address #4. Personally, I do not believe #4 can be solved without something like Cyc. And therefore, I did not include it in my original critique of Odyssee. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. > meaning of *some* paths might be computed from their substructural > nodal mappings to an ontology, Right. I would further argue that's the best we can ever do - even with elaborate context model and world knowledge (e.g. Cyc). *Some* understanding is all I can expect from posting this message, for example. A richer "context" model can provide greater "confidence" in the semantic interchange - but can never guarantee reliable computation from *all* possible paths. > we don't know whether it is possible > to automatically identify in advance which paths are the dangerous > ones. Odyssee provides FIL Guides which tell you which paths are safe. A more useful approach IMHO. :-) Details about Fil Guides here: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg03936.html > The alternative situation is that, in order to migrate a recorded > path into an environment in which ontological processing occurs, it > is necessary to enumerate every possible path that the interface > could ever generate and then manually declare the correct mapping for > each individual path to a concept within the external ontology. What do you mean by "external ontology"? Do you mean a "foreign ontology"? > If this is the case, then the recorded structure of a path remains > important in its role as part of the unique identifier of that path, > but it is not useful in deciding how that path as a whole relates to > concepts in some remote ontological system. It seems that ontology-to-ontology mediation will be necessary! This is precisly my rationale for proposing "Flexible Semantic Scope" and "Late Binding to Related Concepts" (http://www.txoutcome.org/scripts/zope/readings/OIO_talk/medinfo2001/overview2). Best regards, Andrew --- Andrew P. Ho, M.D. OIO: Open Infrastructure for Outcomes TxOutcome.Org (hosting OIO Library #1) Assistant Clinical Professor Department of Psychiatry, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center University of California, Los Angeles
