Background/Objectives: Silver’s ability to kill pathogenic bacteria is being widely researched in environment, consumer, and health-related applications. One topic of voluminous research is the antimicrobial properties of silver and silver in wound dressings. This research literature has been reviewed in articles using qualitative analyses, meta-analyses, systematic reviews, bibliometric analyses, and other grounded methods. We present a new strategy for the analysis of the population of articles on the subject based on an ontology of this topic. Methods: A search of the Scopus database for all peer-reviewed articles on silver in wound dressings yielded a population of 4711 relevant ones. The ontology is a logical deconstruction of the problem: “use of silver species on nanosupports deposited on a matrix with antimicrobial effectiveness assayed by methods to promote wound healing of chronic wounds as determined by recovery”. Each bolded term denotes a dimension of the ontology, and each dimension denotes a taxonomy of constituent elements. A Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was trained using a manually mapped subset of articles. The CNN was then used to map the population of articles. Results: Out of the 4711 articles, 3079 dealt with silver and wound dressings; the others involved silver, but were not related to wound dressings and were not considered. Overall analysis shows that three classes of silver encompass the entire field: silver nanoparticles (AgNP) (78% of papers), inorganic silver-ion-containing species (7%) and silver associated with organic molecules (15%). AgNP papers have grown exponentially beginning in the early 2000s; there is no clear trend regarding inorganic silver-containing-species papers; whereas with the silver-organics species papers, there has been growth in the past decades, but now the number of publications is stabilizing. Research on the AgNPs has primarily focused on in vitro testing (54%), with very limited animal testing (17%) and human testing (3%). On the other hand, with silver-organics, animal (30%) and human testing (38%) are prominent. Inorganic silver ion species also have been human-tested extensively (43%). Thus, in clinical applications of silver wound dressings, AgNP lags considerably as compared to the other silver species, though academic research in AgNP is robust. Conclusions: From detailed temporal visualizations of the ontological mapping, the antecedents and consequences of silver in wound dressings are presented. This first ontological analysis is a novel way of visualizing an entire research field and the temporal characteristics of the various dimensions of the ontology provide information on the current state of research as well as where the field is headed.

Invasive, semi-invasive, and non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCI) are playing an increasingly important role in mental healthcare. They play a central role in all the stages of neuro-behavioural interventions, both by the care providers and the caretakers of a patient. The novelty of the technology and its rapid development create complex ethical challenges that must be balanced against the potential gains in efficiency and effectiveness of using the technology in mental healthcare. The paper presents an Ontology of Ethics of Brain-Computer Interface in Mental Healthcare, as a roadmap to guide to balance the ethics, effectiveness, and efficiency of the use of the technology. Like a ‘Google Map’ the ontology presents all the pathways by which the three issues can affect neuro-behavioural interventions using BCI technologies by the variety of agents that deliver mental healthcare. Using the ontology one can determine (a) the desired ethical pathways and reinforce them, (b) the undesired/unethical pathways and redirect them, and (c) discover novel ethical pathways and explore them.

Oral health is a fundamental yet frequently neglected component of supportive and palliative care for older adults, directly influencing comfort, nutrition, and communication. Despite this, geriatric oral healthcare (GOHC) remains fragmented and poorly integrated into palliative care systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries such as India. This study applies an ontology-based approach to systematically examine barriers to and facilitators of access to GOHC and to identify neglected pathways relevant to supportive and palliative care. An ontology encompassing eight interrelated dimensions of access to GOHC was developed. A structured synthesis of peer-reviewed literature indexed in Scopus and PubMed was undertaken, and 100 eligible articles were mapped onto the ontology. Monad and theme maps were generated to assess patterns of research emphasis and gaps. The findings indicate a strong research focus on financial and temporal barriers to physical access and on dentist-led preventive care for edentulism and dental caries. In contrast, promotive, rehabilitative, and palliative oral healthcare, virtual and home-based care models, non-dental and community-based providers, and conditions highly relevant to palliative care, including oral cancer and symptom-focused oral management, are substantially underrepresented. The ontology highlights critical misalignment between current research and the oral health needs of ageing populations requiring supportive and palliative care and provides a framework to guide integrated and equitable oral healthcare strategies.

Over the past four decades, scholars in information systems (IS) have explored the intricacies of social inclusion/exclusion within IS (SI/E in IS). Despite 40 years of investigation, there remains a notable absence of a systematic analysis of the accumulated knowledge in SI/E within IS research. Addressing this gap, our research aims to organise the literature, identify trends and gaps and propose future research directions for SI/E within IS. Recognising SI/E as an umbrella concept, we employ ontological analysis, offering a comprehensive depiction of the domain's scope, boundaries, key constructs and relationships. We construct an ontology of SI/E within IS and employ it to compare literature from 20 established IS journals with a broader range of publications-from this analysis, we examine 4211 articles and code 897. This analysis unveils potential research avenues and highlights the distinctive focus of IS scholarship in SI/E compared with other fields. The ontology aids in conceptualising the research landscape and guiding future investigations in SI/E in IS.

Construction and Demolition (C&D) waste results from the process of construction, demolition, repair, and re-modelling operations and has adverse impact on the health, aesthetics, environment, social wellbeing, and economy of the community. Addressing this complex issue requires a holistic, and systematic understanding of its multiple dimensions. This study develops a comprehensive ontological framework of C&D waste management to clearly represent interrelated components of the system and guide future research and policy. A systematic mapping review was conducted using a corpus of 189 journal articles published over 30 years (1989-2019), identified using Scopus search using the term ("construction and demolition waste" AND management). The results reveal that research in this domain is fragmented and siloed, with dominant themes focused on waste generation, disposal, and the environmental and economic impacts. Regulatory frameworks supporting reuse and recycling are relatively well covered, but important dimensions, such as health impacts, stakeholder roles, waste types, and sources receive limited attention. These gaps indicate an urgent need for more integrated, policy-relevant research to address overlooked yet critical elements of the waste management system. The proposed ontology provides a basis for developing a roadmap for future research, helping to identify effective pathways for reinforcement, ineffective ones for redirection, and innovative ones for exploration. The study recommends fostering cross-sectoral collaboration, embedding circular economy and life-cycle principles into regulations, and developing adaptive, data-driven policy tools. These insights aim to support the transition toward zero-waste, whole-process, and sustainable C&D waste management systems through informed, systemic approaches.

Water reuse is critical to national development, sustenance, and survival in this era of climate, demographic, and social changes. There is no systemic national approach to systematically addressing this challenge. This paper presents a framework and method to develop a national research strategy for water reuse. It presents an ontology of water reuse strategies that encapsulates the combinatorial complexity of the problem clearly, concisely, and comprehensively. Subsequently, it discusses the method to use the framework to develop a national strategy, adapt it through feedback and learning, and ultimately effect a revolutionary change in the strategy for water reuse.

The global food system has three recognized challenges: (a) increasing the availability of food for consumption; (b) reducing food loss; and (c) reducing food waste. The increasing demand for food for consumption, the increasing quantity of food loss, and the corresponding increase in food waste are resulting in serious health, aesthetic, social, economic, and environmental problems due to a lack of appropriate planning and management. Despite its importance, there is no clear, concise, and comprehensive definition of food consumption, loss, and waste. Generally, food consumption, food loss, and food waste are dealt with separately. This article presents a logically constructed ontological framework of food consumption, loss, and waste. It gives equal importance to all three aspects of global food management. The systemic ontological framework is general, and the analysis can be applied to any country. The framework deconstructs the combinatorial complexity of the problem and explicates the pathways to manage the consumption, loss, and waste. The ontological framework encapsulates 19 × 11 × 7 × 4 × 6 = 35,112 possible components of the challenge. A critical analysis based on available data using the framework will help to develop strategies to deal with the problem. It can help us to discover the gaps and to find ways to bridge the gaps. It is a novel way to conceptualize food consumption, loss, and waste together.

Evidence on urban governance has expanded but is fragmented and inadequate. It fails to articulate the complexity of urban governance in a way that would facilitate effective urban transitions. Using a conceptual-cognitive lens, this article describes a method to move away from governance solutions based on functional silos to those based on multidimensional, sustainable systems. Based on a combination of concepts from public policy, governance, public administration, and urban service management, it frames the problem of urban governance as a comprehensive conceptual-cognitive map of the domain. The study validates the framework through expert feedback and the mapping of the literature on urban governance in India between 2018 and 2020. The monad map and theme map emphasise the ontology’s applicability as a methodological tool for evidence generation. The analysis reveals a need to reconfigure urban governance pathways to work towards a sustainable future. The article concludes by offering new conceptual constructs of governance pathways to enhance the policies and practices that shape such transitions.

The mental health effects of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe have been significant, are ongoing, and will persist for a long time. Mental healthcare systems (MHS) to address these effects have been stressed beyond their limit. They have had to: (a) sense the developments and respond to the changing needs quickly, (b) be agile in obtaining feedback and learning from it in very short cycle times, and (c) immediately integrate their personal local experience, the reported global experience and translate the learning to practice. This intense learning cycle has spawned an enormous corpus of research on MHS during COVID-19 and shifted the paradigm of research. Lessons from the paradigm shift should be embraced and normalized in the roadmap for MHS research post COVID-19. This paper presents an ontology of MHS as a framework to systematically: (a) visualize in structured natural-English the dimensions, elements, and narratives of MHS research, (b) map the emphases and gaps in the research during COVID-19, and (c) develop a roadmap to shift the future research paradigm.

In India, a large quantity of bio-medical waste is generated by healthcare facilities. This study analyses the geographical and temporal variations in bio-medical waste management (BMWM) in India systematically. A comprehensive BMWM inventory of India's states and union territories for the period 2008–2017 was prepared and analysed. The objectives of this study were to analyse BMWM implementation geographically across the country to assess its performance, and to understand its policy implementation gaps over time. During 2008–2017, the total bio-medical waste generation increased from 409 to 558 Mg/day. Among all the states and union territories, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat have the highest number of healthcare facilities. The quantity of waste generated is the highest in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Bihar, West Bengal, and Gujarat. The quantity of waste treated has also increased with the enforcement of the Bio-Medical Waste Rules (2016). The quantity of bio-medical waste treatment is highest in Karnataka and Maharashtra. This analysis will help to improve the practice of BMWM, and it can be used to bridge the gaps in effective and efficient management of bio-medical waste in India.

The need for systemic healthcare policies to systematically eliminate NTDs globally and in India has been stressed for more than two decades. Yet, the present policies and the research on them do not meet the need. We present an ontological framework, a research roadmap, and a policy brief to address the gap. The ontology clearly, concisely, and comprehensively represents the combinations of diseases, the objectives regarding the diseases, the entities to address them, the outcomes sought, and the potential policy instruments to invoke. The paper explicates the state of the-policies and state of the research on policies to eliminate NTDs in India. It highlights the significant gaps in the diseases covered, balance in the objectives, comprehensiveness of policies, portfolio of outcomes, and involvement of entities. Last, it presents a set of systemic policies congruent with the ontology to systematically address the gaps. The recommendations are aligned with the present research, policies, practices, and recommendations in India and of the WHO, UN agencies, and other similar bodies. The approach can be generalized to provide roadmaps for other countries facing a similar challenge and for other diseases of similar complexity. The roadmaps, with continuous feedback and learning, can help navigate the challenge efficiently and effectively.

Knowing the state of mental health research in adolescents and youth can be an important tool for decision-making, especially in contexts of limited resources. The aim of this study is to map the scientific research on adolescent and youth mental health in Chile using an ontological framework. We have mapped the population of research articles on mental health of adolescents and youth in Chile in Scopus, Web of Science, and SciELO databases onto the ontology. The PRISMA reporting guidelines were used to screen the 1688 items based on relevance, duplication, and version. The corpus of 346 articles was coded into the ontology through an iterative process among the seven authors. This ontological mapping shows isolated research efforts that have been carried out in Chile to explain the whole state of mental health in adolescents and youth. There is a lack of coordination between the priorities established by the decision-makers and the researchers. Our results coincide with the need to strengthen mental health research in the country, and to prioritizing those topics that contribute to decision-making based on the needs of the population.

EDITORIAL article Front. Artif. Intell., 02 December 2022Sec. Artificial Intelligence in Finance Volume 5 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frai.2022.1096496

This paper presents an ontological review of the global research on access to geriatric disability care and a roadmap for future research to address the problem in India. First, the dominant research focus is on resources (human, financial, and spatial) that affect access to disability care; there is little focus on informational and technological resources. Second, functional disabilities are the dominant focus of the research, followed by cognitive, mental, and locomotor disabilities; there is little focus on speech, hearing, and visual disabilities. Third, barriers, inhibitors, and catalysts of physical access are the dominant focus, with relatively less focus on virtual access; there is very little emphasis on the drivers to access. Fourth, the primary, although not dominant, focus is on access for urban and rural populations; there is very little focus on access for underserved and indigenous populations. Future research must address these gaps systematically to improve access. This paper adds: (a) a systemic framework for the study of an important, complex, emerging problem; (b) a systematic review of the global research on the problem; and (c) a research roadmap to address the emerging problem in India.

In this paper, the reflexive designer-user co-creation in the innovation process is addressed. To do this, this paper danced with two reasoning approaches—1) deductive and 2) inductive reasoning. As a deductive reasoning, first, it theoretically conceptualizes a model of the designer-user reflexive co-creation and ten archetypes by a view of reflexivity theory. Second, it empirically explores patterns of the reflexive designer-user co-creation by an inductive reasoning. Throughout the analysis of the collected data, as a result, five patterns of designer-user reflexive patterns were identified.

This paper presents an ontology which encapsulates 6,480 pathways for sustainable social development through innovation of materials (IOM). After reviewing evolution of perceptions on IOM, and their strong links with society and its sustainable development, different dimensions of an ontological framework are identified and deliberated upon leading to the comprehensive ontology. As illustrated by a few examples presented in the paper, the ontology can be applied to develop a roadmap for future research while balancing IOM according to the relevance and potential impact on sustainable social development.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 120, NO. 8, 25 APRIL 2021 1295 Munikrishnappa Anilkumar, Shwetmala Kashyap, Susanna G. Mitra, Devina Neogi, Arkalgud Ramaprasad, Anupama Sanjeev, Chetan Singai, S. D. Sreeganga and Nibras K. Thodika are in the Ramaiah Public Policy Centre, Gokula Education Foundation (Medical), MS Ramaiah Nagar, MSRIT Post, Bengaluru 560 054, India; Arkalgud Ramaprasad is also in the University of Illinois at Chicago, IL 60607, USA. *For correspondence. (e-mail: shwetmala.kashyap@rppc.ac.in) The pathways to manage air pollution: an ontological assessment of the National Clean Air Programme 2019, India