A System for Computing Conceptual Pathways in Bio-medical Text Models

This paper describes the key principles in a system for querying and conceptual path finding in a logic-based knowledge base. The knowledge base is extracted from textual descriptions in bio-, pharma- and medical areas. The knowledge base applies natural logic, that is, a variable-free term-algebraic form of predicate logic.

Natural logics are distinguished by coming close to natural language so that propositions are readable by domain experts. The natural logic knowledge base is accompanied by an internal graph representation, where the nodes represent simple concept terms as well as compound concepts stemming from entire phrases.

Path finding between concepts is facilitated by a labelled graph form that represents the knowledge base as well as the ontological information.