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Robert B Trelease

Publications and source records attributed to Robert B Trelease.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Anatomical reasoning in the informatics age: Principles, ontologies, and agendas.

Reasoning about anatomy shares historical scientific roots with formal logic and artificial intelligence. With advances in computer-based intelligent programming, high-level biological structural knowledge may be exploited directly for biomedical research, clinical tasks, and educational applications. We consider the special nature of anatomical domain knowledge, emphasizing the complex concepts and semantics that must be represented in the development of ontologies, formally structured databases of biological information. We review the evolution of the fundamental scientific principles of logic and artificial intelligence needed for building machines that can make use of anatomical knowledge. We look at methods for compiling ontologies and compare the structural designs of the Foundational Model of Anatomy and Open GALEN ontologies. We further consider issues related to mapping developing anatomy resources with other biological ontologies in genomics, proteomics, and physiology. Although early results are promising, considerable resources and continuing effort must be committed to completing and extending anatomical ontologies for the ultimate success of computer-based anatomical reasoning. Anat Rec (Part B: New Anat) 289B:72-84, 2006. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Artificial Intelligence↗

Diffusion of innovations: anatomical informatics and iPods.

Over the course of many centuries, evolving scientific methods and technologies have advanced the study of anatomy. More recently, such dissemination of innovations has been formally studied in multidisciplinary psychosocial contexts, yielding useful knowledge about underlying principles and processes. We review these precepts and show how diffusion of innovations theory and principles apply to the development and dissemination of anatomical information methods and resources. We consider the factors affecting the late-20th-century dissemination of personal computers and World Wide Web hypermedia into widespread use in anatomical research and instruction. We report on the results of a small experiment in applied diffusion, the development and Internet-based distribution of learning resources for a popular, widely distributed personal media player. With these wearable microcomputer devices already in use by a variety of students, new opportunities exist for widespread dissemination of anatomical information. The continuing evolution of wearable computing devices underscores the need for maintaining anatomical information transportability via standardized data formats.

Anatomy↗

Anatomy meets architecture: designing new laboratories for new anatomists.

General notions of architecture are familiar to anatomists, and they frequently use the word in describing the functional structures of cells, tissues, and whole organisms. Beyond concepts relating to orderly structure, anatomists infrequently encounter the profession of architecture and practicing architects. Significantly, anatomists can work with architects in the design and building of laboratories and classrooms, efforts that can have sustained effects on the practice of anatomy. In this paper, we consider cooperative interactions between anatomists and architects in designing new laboratories that accommodate educational innovations and increasingly valuable dissection resources. We begin by introducing architecture and architects in their roles in design and building. We next consider essential features and technologies for new laboratories that support a combination of classical dissection, prosection, models, and computer-based information. Different working conditions are reviewed for designing renovations of existing facilities, long-term planning for new, same-institution buildings, and extramural planning and construction for new medical schools. Whatever the project, anatomists work with architects in repeated interactive planning meetings that arrive at working laboratory designs by a process similar to successive approximation. In consulting on designs for extramural institutions, anatomists must balance client administration and faculty needs with objective oversight of practice-side design features, constraints, and capacity for innovative uses with new curricula. Architects are the key agents in producing laboratories designed for flexible and innovative anatomical education, although client-favored models for Internet-based technology can limit future use of cadavers in multiyear teaching of medical and health sciences students.

Anatomy↗

Anatomical informatics: Millennial perspectives on a newer frontier.

One of the most ancient of sciences, anatomy has evolved over many centuries. Its methods have progressively encompassed dissection instruments, manual illustration, stains, microscopes, cameras and photography, and digital imaging systems. Like many other more modern scientific disciplines in the late 20th century, anatomy has also benefited from the revolutionary development of digital computers and their automated information management and analytical capabilities. By using newer methods of computer and information sciences, anatomists have made outstanding contributions to science, medicine, and education. In that regard, there is a strong rationale for recognizing anatomical informatics as a proper subdiscipline of anatomy. A high-level survey of the field reveals important anatomical applications of computer sciences methods in imaging, image processing and visualization, virtual reality, modeling and simulation, structural database processing, networking, and artificial intelligence. Within this framework, computational anatomy is a developing field focusing on data-driven mathematical models of bodily structures. Mastering such computer sciences and informatics methods is crucial for new anatomists, who will shape the future in research, clinical knowledge, and teaching.

Anatomy↗