Agreeing to disagree: Applying a logic-based approach to reconciling and merging multiple taxonomies

Taxonomies are Knowledge Organization Systems (KOS) that classify concepts into hierarchies via parent-child (is-a) relationships.While taxonomies are largely used in information systems as tools for a simple controlled vocabulary, a number of challenges need to be addressed to ensure a shared understanding of the taxonomies. Structurally or semantically, multiple taxonomies about the same topic can disagree with each other; and even one single taxonomy can disagree with itself over time. Moreover, taxonomies may contain latent assumptions or biases that are difficult to detect. To address the aforementioned issues, existing approaches sought to map between taxonomies and merge different taxonomies into a single, unified representation. However, merging taxonomies into a unified representation may not always be the most desirable, given that individual taxonomies may be gravely pruned and lost its original information. To mitigate interoperability issues brought forth by taxonomies, this dissertation explores the use of a logic-based approach to align taxonomies. Specifically, two taxonomies T1, T2 are inter-linked via a set of constraint-based input relations to yield merged solutions. The merged solution(s) can be (1) a unique merged taxonomy T3 that preserves both T1 and T2's information; (2) an inconsistent result that suggests the constraints linking the taxonomies are ''illogical'', i.e., contradictory; or (3) multiple merged solutions that present different possible ways (or possible worlds) in which T1 and T2 can be aligned. The goals of this dissertation are three-fold: (1) to analyze and refine this logic-based taxonomy alignment approach; (2) to explore the applications of this approach in reconciling conflicting perspectives to different fields (i.e., geography, biodiversity informatics, and information sciences); and (3) to demonstrate how pluralistic viewpoints of taxonomies can coexist through approachable taxonomy alignment use cases

Ursolic Acid Florotriazole Treatment Causes Inhibition of Squamous Cell Carcinoma through Fas Signaling Pathway

Purpose: To investigate the effect of ursolic acid florotriazole (UFT), on SCC-15 oral squamous cancer cells.Methods: Confocal laser microscope with a 490 nm argon laser was used to record the fluorescence of the cells and capture the images. Flow cytometry and Cell Quest program were used to analyze the DNA content of the stained cells. Apoptosis was characterized by YO-PRO-1 staining.Results: Treatment of SCC-15 cells with UFT for 48 h significantly reduced cell viability in a dosedependent manner. At 20 μg/mL concentration of UFT, SCC-15, cell viability was reduced to 19 % compared to 100 % in the untreated cells (p = 0.0002). UFT treatment enhanced the proportion of apoptotic cells which was evident from YO-PRO-1 staining. In UFT-treated cultures, the population of cells in sub-G1 phase increased to 38.54 % compared to 7.32 % for control after 48 h. Expression of Fas in UFT-treated cells was also higher (p = 0.0002) than in untreated cells. In C3H/HeJ mice, administration of UFT daily for 14 days caused a significant (p = 0.0002) reduction in tumor volume and weight after 30 days of SCC-15 carcinoma cell administration.Conclusion: UFT treatment inhibits viability and induces apoptosis in squamous cell carcinoma cells through suppression of Fas expression. Therefore, UFT may be useful for the treatment of squamous cell cancer.Keywords: Ursolic acid florotriazole, Squamous cell cancer, Fas expression, Tumor volume, Cell viability, Apoptosi

Full of beans: a study on the alignment of two flowering plants classification systems

Advancements in technologies such as DNA analysis have given rise to new ways in organizing organisms in biodiversity classification systems. In this paper, we examine the feasibility of aligning two classification systems for flowering plants using a logic-based, Region Connection Calculus (RCC-5) approach. The older “Cronquist system” (1981) classifies plants using their mor- phological features, while the more recent Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV (APG IV) (2016) system classifies based on many new methods including genome-level analysis. In our approach, we align pairwise concepts X and Y from two taxonomies using five basic set relations: congruence (X=Y), inclusion (X>Y), inverse inclusion (X<Y), and disjointness (X!Y). With some of the RCC-5 relationships among the Fabaceae family (beans family) and the Sapindaceae family (maple family) uncertain, we anticipate that the merging of the two classification systems will lead to numerous merged solutions, so- called possible worlds. Our research demonstrates how logic-based alignment with ambiguities can lead to multiple merged solutions, which would not have been feasible when aligning taxonomies, classifications, or other knowledge organization systems (KOS) manually. We believe that this work can introduce a novel approach for aligning KOS, where merged possible worlds can serve as a minimum viable product for engaging domain experts in the loop.Ope

Towards incorporating the notion of feature shape in music and text retrieval

Extracted feature data augment information resources with concrete characterizations of their content, but only approximate to the meaningful high-level descriptions typically expected by digital musicology scholars (domain experts with some technological affinity, but with no expertise in signal processing or feature data). Feature shapes provide abstract aggregations of feature types which share common characteristics when applied in extraction workflows. We explore the feasibility of feature shape-based filtering and querying within a large audio dataset of live music performances, employing operation sequences as specified by the Audio Feature Ontology and Vocabulary. We further implement analogous semantic structures for the HathiTrust Extracted Feature Dataset to demonstrate the general applicability of feature shapes in music and text retrieval

Middle of the (by)line: Examining hyperauthorship networks in the Human Genome Project

The era of big science promises rapid growth of scientific innovations and complex problem-solving, bringing forth the practice of doing science in large-scale collaborative effort rather than single author, solitary work. In disciplines such as genomics and high-energy physics, it is not uncommon that hyperauthorship phenomenon with the amount of authors soaring high from hundredth to thousandth. The purpose of this research is to explore the collaboration dynamics and the partial alphabetical author byline in one of the primary research article within the Human Genome Project (HGP). Using co-authorship network analysis, we find that middle authors play crucial roles in facilitating collaboration among previously unconnected authors as well as contributing to genetic sequencing efforts. Future work entails network analysis of all published works by HGP to comprehensively capture collaboration dynamics among multiple research centers.Goggin fundSmith fundOpe

Middle of the (by)line: Examining hyperauthorship networks in the Human Genome Project

The era of big science promises rapid growth of scientific innovations and complex problem-solving, bringing forth the practice of doing science in large-scale collaborative effort rather than single author, solitary work. In disciplines such as genomics and high-energy physics, it is not uncommon that hyperauthorship phenomenon with the amount of authors soaring high from hundredth to thousandth. The purpose of this research is to explore the collaboration dynamics and the partial alphabetical author byline in one of the primary research article within the Human Genome Project (HGP). Using co-authorship network analysis, we find that middle authors play crucial roles in facilitating collaboration among previously unconnected authors as well as contributing to genetic sequencing efforts. Future work entails network analysis of all published works by HGP to comprehensively capture collaboration dynamics among multiple research centers.Goggin fundSmith fundOpe

INTEGRATING TRA AND TOE FRAMEWORKS FOR CLOUD ERP SWITCHING INTENTION BY TAIWANESE COMPANY

ERP systems had played an important role in Taiwanese industry in the past. Nowadays, most of companies have already install traditional type of ERP. However, with the development of cloud computing recently, the scope of applying cloud computing have been gradually expanded to the enterprise information system, such as cloud CRM provided by Salesforce.com, Business by Design provided by SAP. The model in this study is based on TOE model combination of Theory of Reasoned Action(TRA). We try to develop a model and utilize this model to defines critical effect factors to company’s intention of switching to cloud ERP from traditional type of ERP. This study used quantitative research methods and survey questionnaire, dates were collected from the 283 employees in Taiwanese company whose companies have already install traditional type of ERP and for cloud ERP have a certain understanding. This research has adopted SPSS and AMOS to analyse the reliability and validity. Last, structural equation model (SEM) for the data analysis to investigate the causalities among all parameters constructed in the proposed model. The results of this study were summarized as follows： The attitude of switching to cloud ERP positively impacted the intention of switching to cloud ERP, system quality positively impacted the attitude of switching to cloud ERP, financial benefit positively impacted the attitude of switching to cloud ERP, the trust factor positively impacted the attitude of switching to cloud ERP, industries pressure positively impacted the intention of switching to cloud ERP, surprisingly, government support is not perceived significant impacted the intention of switching to cloud ERP. This study provides a well criteria for cloud ERP vender, not only system design but also system sales. In addition, business user can also utilize this criterion

The Improvement of Reliability of High-k/Metal Gate pMOSFET Device with Various PMA Conditions

The oxygen and nitrogen were shown to diffuse through the TiN layer in the high-k/metal gate devices during PMA. Both the oxygen and nitrogen annealing will reduce the gate leakage current without increasing oxide thickness. The threshold voltages of the devices changed with various PMA conditions. The reliability of the devices, especially for the oxygen annealed devices, was improved after PMA treatments