Figure 5.

Acquisition of a state-abstraction parameter with the temporal-abstraction knowledge-acquisition tool. The Systemic toxicity parameter is abstracted, in the context of therapy by the CCTG522 AIDS therapy protocol, from values of the Temperature, Chills, and Skin_Exam parameters. The classification scheme defined by the expert is shown in the table displayed in the bottom-right subwindow. In this case, the expert has chosen to define the classification function using a maximum OR table; that is, after the toxicity value is determined individually for each input parameter (i.e., in each row), the KA tool selects the maximum value (i.e., the column whose output toxicity grade is maximum). The resultant output values of the Systemic toxicity parameter (Grade_0, Grade_1, etc.) are constrained by the Allowed value list, shown in the top-right subwindow. The values in this list (like the allowed values for each of the input parameters) have been defined by the user as part of the essential knowledge about each clinical parameter.