Uma ontologia de agravos causados pelo uso indevido de agrotóxicos

Abstract

It's a great concern about an invisible threat to the eyes of ordinary citizens, mere consumers of manufactured products or products that in their production chain, suffer the action of industrialization and of a possible chemical contamination. In this context, we highlight the use of pesticides, when used improperly, can cause various diseases. However, there are difficulties in proving the origin of these problems by the lack of information that can assist in identifying their causes. This problem can be solved through the representation of knowledge about the use of pesticides using ontologies. The present paper presents an ontology on the diseases arising from the misuse of pesticides, called OntoTox, which also covers the causes and symptoms thereof. The main goal of this ontology is the repository of information about such diseases, which can be identified by the professionals of the medical and/or scientific area, allowing the inclusion of additional information the results of new researches on the subject. Thus, it will be possible to get one of the striking features of the ontology that is the aggregation of knowledge by various authors (reuse of ontology) to facilitate understanding and communication between domain experts. The OntoTox was constructed following the steps of the Methontology methodology, including some steps of the 101 method and implemented in the Protégé environment. For the evaluation of the ontology, the Data-Driven method and questionnaires to experts in the areas of health and agriculture were used. This ontology can be used to support the areas of care to victims of poisoning and sources of research into areas involving the terms pesticide and poisoning.