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Biomedical subjects

T Barsalou

Publications and source records attributed to T Barsalou.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Management of complex immunogenetics information using an enhanced relational model.

Flow cytometry has become a technique of paramount importance in the armamentarium of the scientist in such domains as immunogenetics. In the PENGUIN project, we are currently developing the architecture for an expert database system to facilitate the design of flow-cytometry experiments. This paper describes the core of this architecture--a methodology for managing complex biomedical information in an extended relational framework. More specifically, we exploit a semantic data model to enhance relational databases with structuring and manipulation tools that take more domain information into account and provide the user with an appropriate level of abstraction. We present specific applications of the structural model to database schema management, data retrieval and browsing, and integrity maintenance.

Cell Separation

An object-based architecture for biomedical expert database systems.

Objects play a major role in both database and artificial intelligence research. In this paper, we present a novel architecture for expert database systems that introduces an object-based interface between relational databases and expert systems. We exploit a semantic model of the database structure to map relations automatically into object templates, where each template can be a complex combination of join and projection operations. Moreover, we arrange the templates into object networks that represent different views of the same database. Separate processes instantiate those templates using data from the base relations, cache the resulting instances in main memory, navigate through a given network's objects, and update the database according to changes made at the object layer. In the context of an immunologic-research application, we demonstrate the capabilities of a prototype implementation of the architecture. The resulting model provides enhanced tools for database structuring and manipulation. In addition, this architecture supports efficient bidirectional communication between database and expert systems through the shared object layer.

Database Management Systems

Searching gene and protein sequence databases.

A large-scale effort to map and sequence the human genome is now under way. Crucial to the success of this research is a group of computer programs that analyze and compare data on molecular sequences. This article describes the classic algorithms for similarity searching and sequence alignment. Because good performance of these algorithms is critical to searching very large and growing databases, we analyze the running times of the algorithms and discuss recent improvements in this area.

Algorithms