NEIMiner: A model driven data mining system for studying environmental impact of nanomaterials

As more engineered nanomaterials (eNM) are developed for a wide range of applications, it is crucial to minimize any unintended environmental impacts resulting from the application of eNM. To realize this vision, industry and policymakers must base risk management decisions on sound scientific information about the environmental fate of eNM, their availability to receptor organisms (e.g., uptake), and any resultant biological effects (e.g. toxicity). To address this critical need, we propose a model driven data mining system, called NEIMiner, for studying nanomaterial environmental impact (NEI). NEIMiner consists of four components: NEI modeling framework data integration, data management and access, and model discovery and composition. The NEI modeling framework defines the scope of NEI modeling and the strategy of integrating NEI models to form a layered, comprehensive predictability. The data integration layer brings together heterogeneous data sources related to NEI via automatic web services and web scraping technologies. The data management and access layer reuses and extends a popular Content Management System (CMS), Drupal, and consists of modules that model the complex data structure for NEI related bibliography and characterization data. The model discovery and composition layer provides an advanced analysis capability for NEI data. Together, these components provide significant value to the process of aggregating and analyzing large-scale distributed NEI data. A prototype of the NEIMiner system is available at http://neiminer.i-a-i.com/.