Method and System for Associating Data with Figures

• US 20140351678A1
• Filed: 05/22/2013
• Published: 11/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: European Molecular Biology Organisation
• Original Assignee: European Molecular Biology Organisation
• Inventors: Lemberger, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US13/899,891
• Publication Number:
  US 20140351678A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data

Abstract

A system and method for associating data with figures is disclosed. The system comprises a figure storage database and one or more data files storing a plurality of data items associated with the plurality of figures. The system provides a curation tool that enables the association of the plurality of data items with legends on the figures and a computer-readable representation of the figure and enables searches of underlying data.

Claims

1. A system for associating data with figures comprising

a figure storage database for storage of a plurality of figures;

one or more data files storing a plurality of data items associated with one of more of the plurality of figures or panels; and

a curation tool adapted to access the figure storage database and the one or more data files in order to create links between elements of the plurality of figures and at least one set of the plurality of data items.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one or more connections for accessing remote databases.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the figures include one or more legends.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the curation tool is adapted to access the one or more legends and compare at least part of the accessed legend with entries in a nomenclature database.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the curation tool is adapted to access the one or more legends and to generate metadata items from the accessed one or more legends.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the curation tool is adapted to generate machine-readable metadata items representing directional relationships between perturbed components and assayed components depicted in at least one of the figures.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising a query system for accessing and returning as output a subset of the plurality of figures.

8. A method for creation of a figure representation database comprising

identifying one or more legends associated with a figure;

accessing a plurality of data items associated with the figure;

associating the plurality of data items with at least one of the one or more legends;

creating links between the at least one figure and at least one of the plurality of data items.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising accessing a nomenclature database and comparing elements of the one or more legends with entries in the nomenclature database to identify alternative entries.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising replacing elements from the one or more legends with the alternative entries from the nomenclature database.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising extraction of terms from textual elements on the figures.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising determination of directional relationships of the textual elements.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising using the extracted terms for text mining.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising generating one or more metadata items from at least one or more of the legends.

15. A method of deriving a graph from a figure representation database comprising accessing one or more metadata items in the figure representation database;

associating one or more nodes of the graph metadata items representing components;

associating one or more directed edges of the graph with the metadata items representing connections between the components; and

displaying the graph on a display device.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising ranking of the components according to their importance based on measures of the components in the graph, the measures being selected from at least one of centrality of the components and local patterns of connections.

17. The method of claim 15 wherein the components biological components and the ranking is based on properties of associated ‘

master regulator’

motifs in the graph.