NutriSonic web expert system for meal management and nutrition counseling with nutrient time-series analysis, e-food exchange and easy data transition

This study was conducted to develop the NutriSonic Web Expert System for Meal Management and Nutrition Counseling with Analysis of User's Nutritive Changes of selected days and food exchange information with easy data transition. This program manipulates a food, menu and meal and search database that has been developed. Also, the system provides a function to check the user's nutritive change of selected days. Users can select a recommended general and therapeutic menu using this system. NutriSonic can analyze nutrients and e-food exchange ("e" means the food exchange data base calculated by a computer program) in menus and meals. The expert can insert and store a meal database and generate the synthetic information of age, sex and therapeutic purpose of disease. With investigation and analysis of the user's needs, the meal planning program on the internet has been continuously developed. Users are able to follow up their nutritive changes with nutrient information and ratio of 3 major energy nutrients. Also, users can download another data format like Excel files (.xls) for analysis and verify their nutrient time-series analysis. The results of analysis are presented quickly and accurately. Therefore it can be used by not only usual people, but also by dietitians and nutritionists who take charge of making a menu and experts in the field of food and nutrition. It is expected that the NutriSonic Web Expert System can be useful for nutrition education, nutrition counseling and expert meal management.

Uso de un sistema experto en ambiente web para facilitar la identificación de géneros de bacilos gramnegativos no fermentadores de la glucosa / Use of a web expert system to facilitate the identification of glucose non fermentative gram-negative bacillus

Resumen La identificación de bacilos gramnegativos no fermentadores de la glucosa (BGNNF) es una tarea compleja y laboriosa que exige la participación de expertos. Para facilitar la toma de decisiones se desarrolló y puso a prueba un Sistema Experto (SE) con una base de conocimientos construida aplicando el algoritmo C4.5 modificado, capaz de inducir un árbol de decisión (reglas primarias) para un conjunto de géneros, y la diferenciación entre éstos (reglas complementarias) para la identificación de géneros específicos. La incertidumbre del sistema es tratada mediante el esquema de factores de certeza. En este trabajo se sometió a prueba el SE con una selección de cultivos de BGNNF de diferente origen, identificados y preservados en el Centro Venezolano de Colecciones de Microorganismos (CVCM): géneros Achromobacter, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Brevundimonas, Burkholderia, Chryseobacterium, Comamonas, Delftia, Moraxella, Myroides, Ochrobactrum, Oligella, Pseudomonas, Shewanella, Sphingobacterium y Stenotrophomonas. Mediante la aplicación de 11 pruebas (características primarias) se obtuvo una aproximación entre varios de los géneros posibles. Las pruebas complementarias sugeridas (entre 1 y 9), permitieron una mayor aproximación al género posible. Los resultados muestran una coincidencia del 95.8% con los reportados por el CVCM. En base a estos resultados se estudia la ampliación de la base conocimiento para la identificación de especies de BGNNF, y de otros grupos de bacterias.

Abstract The identification of glucose non fermentative gram-negative bacilli (NFGNB) is a complex and laborious task. In order to facilitate genera identification an Expert System (ES) was developed applying a modified C4.5 algorithm able to induce a decision tree (primary rules) for a set of genera, and the differentiation between these (complementary rules) for the identification of specific genera- The uncertainty of the system is treated by means of a certainty factors scheme. In this work the ES was put on approval using a selection of cultures of NFGNB of different origin, identified and preserved in the Venezuelan Center for Microbial Collections (CVCM): genera Achromobacter, Acinetobacter, Alcaligenes, Brevundimonas, Burkholderia, Chryseobacterium, Comamonas, Delftia, Moraxella, Myroides, Ochrobactrum, Oligella, Pseudomonas, Shewanella, Sphingobacterium y Stenotrophomonas. By means of the application of 11 tests (primary characteristics) an approach between several of possible genera was obtained, The suggested complementary testes (between 1 to 9) allowed great approach to the possible generas.-.The results show a coincidence of the 95.8% with the reported ones by the CVCM. An extent of the ES for the identification of other genera is under study.