‘*’ means any concept class and ‘-*->’ means any slot. For example, ‘input’ is changed to the expression ‘-input->*’. Third, the extraction of the concepts to be referred to by some relationship is changed from ‘:Y’ to ‘<-X-Y’, where X is the name of the relationship and Y is the name of a super concept of concepts of interest that are referred to the relationship X. For example, ‘:Problem’ is changed to the expression Olaparib in vivo ‘<-*- Problem’. Using this format, the command is ‘Problem (2 level depth) -target-> * <-*-Countermeasure’. The user can also input the commands by choosing aspects using the GUI shown in the upper left of Fig. 4. A new version currently under development

will provide users with more detailed options for concept extraction. For instance, users will be able to trace the chains within a range of specific concepts. In order to improve the usability of the system, future versions will let users select aspects using a point-and-click GUI. From the extraction of concepts based on a viewpoint, the system obtains conceptual chains that match with the user’s interest.

The conceptual chains are visualized as a conceptual map. In the conceptual map, the focal point is located INCB018424 supplier in its center, and the conceptual chains are represented as a divergent network. The nodes and links of the network show how the extracted concepts and relations between them represent different aspects of the conceptual chains, i.e., the relationships selleck kinase inhibitor followed and the concepts selected (Fig. 4). The network represents the aspects that are in focus during the exploration. Figure 4 shows the conceptual map generated in the above example. It expresses the result of an exploration from the viewpoint of “What kinds of problems are defined in the SS ontology? What are their targets? And, what countermeasures are being considered?” In

this way, the system can explore the ontology divergently and generate conceptual maps based on any viewpoint. Consequently, the system helps users understand the extracted knowledge HA-1077 mw embedded in the ontology. Our map generation tool has the following additional functions for helping users to explore ontologies: Highlighting a specified conceptual chain. By clicking a node, which represents a concept on the map, the tool highlights the conceptual chain from the focal point to the selected concept. The tool can also give the details of the conceptual chain in another window, as shown in Fig. 4. This function helps the user understand the relationships and the causal chains among concepts. Controlling the range of exploration. The tool can manage the range of exploration by controling the number of relationships that it traces for the exploration. In other words, the viewpoint is managed based on the depth of the range of exploration. Linking a conceptual map with data stored at Layer 0. The nodes in a conceptual map are based on the SS ontology at Layer 1.