HOME	MEDED 534 , Autumn 2004 Biology and Informatics
	Exam 1 Classical Biology 1. Knowledge Organization Template for the Heart (50 points) A Knowledge Organization Template (KOT) is an organizational framework, taught in the medical school anatomy class, for organizing knowledge about a particular organ. KOT's have many common elements for all organs, but also may have elements that vary according to differences among particular organs. Here is the Organ KOT with most of the questions needed for the lung and heart. Your assignment is to create such a KOT for the heart. In order to do this you will need to read introductory chapters on the anatomy, histology, and physiology of the heart, or go on the web to find the information. Using the organ KOT as a template for your heart KOT, fill in the answers to the questions, with one paragraph for each (except for physiology, which can have up to two paragraphs). Use images to illustrate your concepts as appropriate. For the physiology question describe the events of the cardiac cycle, and how a heartbeat is initiated. Also describe the cardiopulmonary circulation: ie, describe where de-oxygenated blood enters the heart, how the blood reaches the lungs, where the oxygenated blood re-enters the heart, and where it leaves the heart to enter the systemic circulation. For this section of the midterm each question will be weighted equally, and will be evaluated in terms of the accuracy of your answer, the comprehensiveness within the 1-2 paragraph limit, and the organization and clarity of the presentation. 2. Anatomy Information System (1 page or less, 20 points) How would you represent your KOT other than physiology in the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA)? Would you include the images in the FMA? If yes, where would you put them? If no, how would you link to them? In either case describe in broad terms a computer system that could dynamically generate a document like the one you created in question 1, not just for the heart, but for any organ. What problems need to be solved to build such a system? 3. Imaging Informatics (1 paragraph, 10 points) What is content-based image retrieval? Why are there few if any content-based retrieval systems in biomedicine? 4. Physiology (1 page or less, 20 points) The problem is how to represent in computable form the physiology portion of the KOT you developed in question 1. Since this is a very large field the goal here is simply to get a feel for the kinds of modelling and simulation technques available. To do this compare and contrast the modelling approaches described in the papers by Lu and Hunter (readings for Wed Oct 20). Each paper is describing one of two modelling approaches. Give an overall description of the two approaches. For each approach discuss the level of detail, the amount of data likely to be needed and available to train and validate the model, the computational complexity (runtime), and the appropriate situation for using the model. How could the physiological reference ontology (PRO) proposed in the paper by Cook possibly be used to help tie together the two different kinds of models? Maximum possible score is 100 points. Answers to all questions should be submitted in a single Word document, with all images included, twelve point font, single spacing. If you want to use a different output format than Word check with me first. For all questions it should be obvious, but I repeat it here, that all writing MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Ie you may not cut and paste from existing sources. Send your completed exams to brinkley@u.washington.edu by Thursday Oct 28 at 8 AM.
BACK TO TOP  Last Updated: 10/19/2004	Contact the instructor at: brinkley@u.washington.edu