Web Ontology Language (OWL), recommended by and based from Resource Description Framework (W3C), is used to define ontologies. OWL uses XML syntax to express semantics. OWL can formalize a domain by defining classes, properties of these classes, and relations between them. OWL can also define individuals and assert properties about them, and furthermore reason about these classes and individuals to the degree permitted by the formal semantics of the OWL language.
Using OWL, we have created the Purdue Ontology for Pharmaceutical Engineering (POPE), which is the first attempt to create a unifying ontology to address the informatics and modeling needs and challenges faced in pharmaceutical product development and manufacture.
The POPE framework has a strong relationship to the Semantic Web and is an implementation of the same concepts in the domain of pharmaceutical product development and manufacture. Within this framework, we have (1) identified the key components of this infrastructure and the technologies to implement them, (2) integrated the components into an infrastructure, and (3) demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed framework for the product formulation process.
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