Seminars & Events

Mathematics and Computer Science Seminar
"Rumsfeld's axiom, knowledge bleed, and NamesforLife"

DATE: February 5, 2007
TIME: 10:30am
SPEAKER: George M. Garrity, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI and NamesforLife, LLC
LOCATION: Bldg 221 Rm: A261, Argonne National Laboratory

Description:
Within the Genomes-to-Life Roadmap, the DOE states that a significant barrier to effective communication in the life sciences is a lack of standardized semantics that accurately describe data objects and persistently express knowledge change over time. As research methods and biological concepts evolve, certainty about correct interpretation of prior data and published results decrease because both become overloaded with synonymous and polysemous terms. Ambiguity in rapidly evolving terminology is a common and chronic problem in science and technology and inevitably leads to a phenomenon we refer to a “knowledge bleed”. NamesforLife (N4L) was designed to solve this problem. It consists of an ontology, an XML schema, and an expertly managed vocabulary, interlinked and directly accessible by Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs), and forms a transparent semantic resolution service that disambiguates terminologies, makes them actionable, and presents them to end-users in the correct temporal context. As proof of principle, the N4L architecture was used to build a prototype to disambiguate bacterial and archaeal names. These names serve as key terms used to index and access information in databases and the scientific, technical, medical, and regulatory literature. These names also play a significant role in science, medicine, and government, carry specific meanings to end-users, and trigger responses that may not always be appropriate. The prototype has allowed us to validate our concepts and gain new insights into previously unaddressed complexities of dynamic vocabularies. It also allowed us to introduce the technology to businesses that rely on the proper use of biological names in their product offerings, including publishers, instrument vendors, and suppliers of information and biological materials. This has provided us with an opportunity to explore how N4L technology can be applied in various commercial settings, fulfill unmet business needs, and create badly need infrastructure in a self-supporting manner.

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