Dear Colleagues
I'm involved in the development of systematic descriptors and associated
vocabulary for maize (a component of the Missouri Maize Project). These
descriptors for maize (terms & their definitions & axioms relating them) are
being organized in a taxonomy - the developing taxonomy falls within the
area of Ontology design (Ontology being an explicit specification of a body
of formally represented knowledge). While this work is principally focussed
on maize, the desire is to develop an expandable list of descriptors
arranged in an expandable ontology which will be able to accommodate data
from other members of the grass family (e.g. wheat, rice, sorghum, barley,
sugarcane...), other monocots and even dicots at a later stage.
The purpose of this project is to facilitate easier access to the vast
amount of data in the Maize database (MaizeDB), via the www, and to assist
the curation of this data.
I would very much appreciate your comments on the contents of the
provisional list of essential descriptors organized in a provisional
taxonomy of 'containment hierarchies' (logical groupings). Please select
the following URL to view this information:
http://www.agron.missouri.edu/body/containment_hierarchies.html
You don't have to be working on maize to contribute valuable input.
1. Does the range of descriptors cover the plant taxon you're researching
(assuming you're working on a member of the grass family)? (what's missing?)
2. Other comments are most welcome.
For an overview of the Systematic Descriptors project access the following
link with associated graphic:
http://www.agron.missouri.edu/mnl/74/89vincent.html
Thank you very much for your time and any feedback you have to offer.
Sincerely,
Leszek Vincent
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P. Leszek D. Vincent Ph.D., FLS
Plant Science Unit, Dept. of Agronomy, 209 Curtis Hall,
University of Missouri-Columbia, MO 65211-7020, USA.
Ph: (573) 884-3716 (Agronomy), (573) Fax:(573) 884-7850;
Ph/Fax (Home): (573) 441-1228; Email: Leszek at missouri.edu
Plant Systematist on the Missouri Maize Project - NSF award 9872655 -
(http://www.cafnr.missouri.edu/mmp/ and http://www.agron.missouri.edu/)
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