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Use Case 4
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Use Case 4: Display Concepts Associated With Names (Isolated, Statically)

Actors

Primary Actor
most likely an individual researcher, ecologist or taxonomist, or an entity intending to view concepts, connections (synonymy, parent/child relations), and statuses according to one or more sources of information that the SEEK Taxon database makes available.

Description

This is a very common activity and part of many work flows. It serves as an entry into the "concept world" to which a (code, common, or scientific) name is the "key". Once a user has made that transition, he or she can then continue (in other Use Cases) to view connections (synonymy, parent/child relations), and other relevant information pertaining to one or more (unique) concepts (e.g. "Carya sec. Stone, FNA 1997"), as opposed to an unreferenced occurrence of a name (e.g. "hickory").

Flow of Events

Pre-conditions

  • The SEEK Taxon database has stored concept information from a variety of sources, and employs an (intelligent) algorithm to achieve the name-to-concept matching.

Basic Flow

  1. The Primary Actor initiates a SEEK Taxon database query session, having passed "registry" with SEEK, and having selected one or more preferred views on concepts (i.e. sources of information to be checked for concepts matching the queried name).
  2. Now a query interface appears, and the Primary Actor can enter a name string (code, common, scientific, informal, etc.) to be matched to concepts.
  3. A listing of "short-hands" for complete concept entries is returned, possibly arranged according to probabilistic matching values.
  4. The Primary Actor now selects one or more of these concepts, and can then (in other Use Cases) view their complete entries, connections to other concepts, etc.
  5. In case no matching concepts are returned for the queried name, the selection of preferred views must be expanded, and the query will be made again.

Examples

An ecologist selects "FNA 1997" and "USDA Plant List Version 2003" as her preferred sources to do name-to-concept matching, and enters the name "shagbark hickory". She receives a listing that includes the concept short-hands "Carya ovata (Miller) K. Koch sec. Stone, FNA 1997" and "Carya ovata (Miller) K. Koch sec. USDA, Plant List Version 2003". Each of these concept entry short-hands may come with a probability value, status assignment, and "signs" that indicate what kind of taxonomic information is associated with the complete entry. That entry is displayed once the ecologist clicks on a particular concept short-hand. She is now in the "concept world" and can access additional information linked to it.

Post-conditions

It should be apparent to the user interested in further detail just how much information is available, and how much "reasoning" can be done with a selected concept entry. For example, some concepts may already have been connected to various alternative hierarchical classifications by experts (permitting a dynamic view on them), whereas others are more isolated and require probabilistic matching to such hierarchies.

Alternative Flows

  • More sophisticates queries can involve additional variables to narrow down the listing of matching concepts, such as (1) name is "shagbark hickory", and (2) rank is "species".

Further Details

See other Use Cases involving or expanding on queries.

Non-functional Requirements

An intelligent, interactively usable algorithm to achieve name-to-concept matching; and presumably a minimum set of expert-made connections.

Issues

The query interface will link to others that should be (somewhat) optimized for particular user communities.

History

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


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This page last changed on 30-Jun-2004 13:03:37 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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Long Term Ecological Research Network, UNM National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UCSB Biodiversity Research Center, KU San Diego Supercomputer Center, UCSD
 
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Copyright 2004 Partnership for Biodiversity Informatics, University of New Mexico, The Regents of the University of California, and University of Kansas