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 termreferent definition CEN/TC251 ENV 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)

Our approach concept system languagereferents definitions medical+linguistic ontology (data + algorithms) languagereferents concept system the standard viewour view the real world

Exploit the relationships along the vertices language 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) Meaning is located in the interaction between living beings and the environment James J. Gibson, Ecological Realism in Psychology The structures of language are partially determined by our conceptualisation of the world. Halliday No mental representation without language Fodor concept Halliday’s systemic functional grammar Aristotelian realism

The possible final picture BFO/MedO “validates”

An integrated approach Data structure and function library for language understanding Medical and linguistic knowledge required for language understanding NLU enabling tools for knowledge supported data-entry and -retrieval

Medico-linguistic ontology Formal Domain Ontology Lexicon Grammar Language A Lexicon Grammar Language B 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-OF IS- 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 Possession Healthcare phenomenon Human IS-A Has- possessor Has- possessed Patient Is-possessor-of Cancer patient IS-A Has-Healthcare- phenomenon Malignant neoplasm IS-A lung carcinoma IS-A Mr. Kovács has a pulmonary carcinoma

Analysis of “History of CVA”

Concepts-terms-criteria-definitions

Ontology alignment