| چکیده انگلیسی مقاله |
Practiced for thousands of years, Iranian Traditional Medicine is an elaborate system of healing founded on philosophical bases. According to this holistic school of medicine, the elements constitute the primary components of virtually all matter, living and non-living. When intermixed in various proportions, they act upon and react with one another ultimately reaching a state of equilibrium and a new quality called mizaj or temperament. As a key concept of Iranian traditional medicine, mizaj is an attribute of all that exists in the universe. Materia medica, whether herbal, animal or mineral are no exception, the mizaj of which is determined based on the prediction of the effect they have on the human body. Makhzan-al- Advieh, compiled by Mohammad Hossein Aghili - a prominent physician of the 18th century - includes 1744 herbal, animal and mineral monographs, each described by a number of attributes one of the most fundamental of which is mizaj. A wide terminology has been used to describe the assets of the vast materia medica in Iranian traditional medicine textbooks including Makhzan-al- Advieh. The many concepts are at times vague, both in definition, and the existing intricate relationships between them. Coupled with the large amount of data, this ambiguity impedes acquisition of knowledge from this rich resource. Clearly demarcating concepts and extracting a semantic network of relations may help resolve this issue and also bridge the gap between traditional and conventional schools of medicine. Thus, developing an ontology of the concepts in this domain will provide a whole range of benefits that include offering a shared and common understanding of Iranian traditional medicine, enabling reuse of the knowledge in this field, making the assumptions explicit and finally gaining new knowledge by analyzing the concepts and their relationships. In order to develop an ontology of mizaj the following steps were followed. Initially, the mizaj section of the monographs in Makhzan-al-Advieh was mined and a table of frequent words extracted. Words pertaining to the concept of mizaj were then determined. Based on this list and the general principles of mizaj definition and attributes in Iranian traditional medicine as described by Avicenna and Aghili, classes were defined and subsequently arranged in a taxonomic hierarchy. Descriptions for mizaj in Makhzan-al-Advieh generally include a type and a degree. Mizaj type was categorized into balanced and unbalanced each with further classifications, which were identified in a manner as to reduce multiple inheritance and optimize number of classes while maintaining comprehensiveness. Mizaj degree lies in a range from first (weakest) to fourth (most potent) degree for qualities of hotness, coldness, wetness, and dryness, each comprising of three sub-degrees of minimum, medium, and maximum. The next step consisted of defining axioms for the classes, including descriptions for mizaj types with certain mizaj degrees, and when applicable covering, closure and defining axioms. Finally, annotation properties including a code based on the parent-child hierarchy, English and Persian labels, synonyms, and definitions were determined for each class. This ontology is available online at http://Jafarilab.com/irgo. |
