Methods, software, and systems for knowledge base coordination

A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium that is executed by a computer and that comprises one or more logic instructions that:

• determine, at runtime, whether to include one or more ontology types in another ontology;
• control, at runtime, user access to individual ontologies;
• hide information relating to:
• data source locations for ontologies, how to connect to data source locations for ontologies, and how to make data source locations for ontologies available to authorized users when offline;
• determine source ontologies for instances in a knowledge base;
• and
• control, at runtime, ontology versions so as to prevent concurrent modification and to keep offline caches belonging to authorized users in sync with updated versions.

A computer program product comprising a computer readable medium that is executed by a computer and that comprises one or more logic instructions that:

• at runtime, construct a merged ontology from one or more source ontologies, thereby providing combined access to multiple ontologies through a single merged ontology;
• at runtime, control a user's access to individual source ontologies, such that a user, while working with said merged ontology, can only access instances in authorized source ontologies;
• at runtime, determine whether to include one or more ontology types into said merged ontology;
• make transparent to a user in said merged ontology information relating to one or more of:
• data source locations for source ontologies;
• how to connect to data source locations for source ontologies, and
• how to make data source locations for source ontologies available to authorized users when offline;
• control ontology versions so as to prevent concurrent modification and to keep offline caches belonging to authorized users in sync with updated versions.

A method of representing and accessing a knowledge database on a computer system, said method comprising:

• at runtime, constructing, by a processor of the computer system, a combined ontology from one or more source ontologies, thereby providing combined access to multiple ontologies through a single merged ontology;
• at runtime, controlling, by the processor of the computer system, a user's access to individual source ontologies, such that a user, while working with said merged ontology, can only access instances in authorized source ontologies;
• determining, by the processor of the computer system, whether to include one or more ontology types into said merged ontology;
• hiding from a user in said merged ontology, by the processor of the computer system, information relating to one or more of:
• data source locations for source ontologies;
• how to connect to data source locations for source ontologies, and
• how to make data source locations for source ontologies available to authorized users when offline;
• and
• controlling, by the processor of the computer system, ontology versions so as to prevent concurrent modification and to keep offline caches belonging to authorized users in sync with updated versions;
• thereby presenting interactively to a user on an output of the computer system data related to biological information to improve the results of a biologic assay.