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Use Case 12
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Use Case 12: Acquire Existing Synonymy Or Parent/Child Connection (Manually)

Actors

Primary Actor
a taxonomist or any individual with "permission" to transfer taxonomic concept information - particularly connections among same-level or hierarchically nested concepts - from a currently unavailable source into the SEEK Taxon database, for later access by other users.

Description

Once a set of core concepts has been transferred (manually, in this case) into the SEEK Taxon database, the contributor may now choose to also enter existing connections among them. Existing means that is evident from the source whose information is transferred at this point, that its original author recognized concepts (rather than names) and their connections. This is usually the case in the primary taxonomic literature where references for taxonomic names are appropriately cited. One can thus contribute (e.g. in 2005) the previously existing connection to the SEEK Taxon database: "author C recognized (in 1950) the synonymy of concept 1 (name 1 sec. author A, 1900) with concept 2 (name 2 sec. author B, 1850)". Similarly, one can enter (again in 2005) that "author C (in 1950) placed the child concept 1 (name 1 sec. author A, 1850) into the parent concept 2 (name 2 sec. author B, 1900)". If the source to be entered only specifies synonymous or parent/child names, however, then it is the (optional) task of the current contributor to make such connections. In that case they will be genuinely new, turning the contributor also into an author of concept connections. This latter scenario has its separate Use Case.

Flow of Events

Pre-conditions

  • The contributor has just entered a set of various existing taxonomic concepts from a particular source into the SEEK Taxon database. That same and/or other existing sources mention this set of concepts, and also specify the connections among them.

Basic Flow

  1. The contributor of the existing connection views an interface that makes it possible to view short-hands (and/or perhaps GUIDs) of a pair of taxonomic concepts, say (1) "name 1 sec. author A, GUID 123", and (2) "name 2 sec. author B, GUID 456".
  2. In addition to the pair of concepts, the interface displays a set of fields that allow one to specify the kind of connection among them, and associated that connection with the proper author (reference) vs. contributor.
  3. The contributor now connects the pair of concepts in the way the (reference) author had specified, i.e. there are 5 kinds of (lateral) synonymy connections (see http://www.bgbm.org/BioDivInf/Projects/MoreTax/standard_liste_en.htm), and 2 kinds (really only 1, due to reciprocity) of parent/child connections - at least if only the most immediate parent or child is considered.
  4. If any more specific comments are added to the connection, then the contributor should indicate whether these are propoerly credited to the author or to the contributor.
  5. The transferred information is stored in the SEEK Taxon database, sitting "on top of" the core concept information.

Examples

  1. An ecologist, having entered all 9 species concepts of "Carya" and the (10th) genus concept itself - all "sec. Chapman 1883, Flora Southern US 3rd Edition 1883" - now connects each of the 9 child concepts to the 1 parent concept, as the author "Chapman, 1883" had done before.
  2. A taxonomist enters existing synonymy connections for "Carya" species concepts between 2 electronic versions of the USDA Plant List (say, 1999 and 2004; the concepts and connections were authored by the USDA Plant specialist) into the SEEK Taxon database.

Post-conditions

The contributor may choose to establish additional connections to synonymous and/or parent/child concepts already stored in the SEEK Taxon database, though not considered in the entered reference. This is another Use Case.

Alternative Flows

  • Concepts and connections are acquired through an automated procedure, or connections are calculated probabilistically.

Further Details

Again, only relevant if the (reference) author recognized concepts. See Use Cases on acquisition of new concepts and connections from experts.

Non-functional Requirements

A (prototype) system for consistently and permanently making transparent the author/contributor distinction when it comes to entering and connecting concepts, and assigning statuses to them.

Issues

See Use Cases on acquisition of new concepts and connections from experts.

History

28 March 2004
(NMF) Use Case created (somehow) from previous Word document.


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This page last changed on 30-Jun-2004 13:57:13 PDT by LTER.stekell.


This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under award 0225676. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

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