Knowledge Discovery of Prescriptions and Similar Prescriptions of Guizhi Decoction Based on Structural Partial-Ordered Attribute Diagram

As a new tool of data analysis and knowledge processing, formal concept analysis has drawn more and more attention in various fields. This research focuses on prescriptions of GuiZhi Decoction, which is from Zhongjing Zhang´s Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases. First, we constructed the database for prescriptions of GuiZhi Decoction based on the prescriptions´ names, the concept extraction and formal expression. Then we generate the formal context and optimized it by use of the mathematical theory of formal concept analysis and the relationship between prescriptions and herbs in database. In the formal context, the prescriptions are objects and the herbs are attributes. Next the structural partial-ordered attribute diagram is generated, so as to visualize the knowledge of prescriptions of GuiZhi Decoction. Finally, through the analysis of structural partial-ordered attribute diagram, more comprehensive, objective and multileveled knowledge are discovered.