Re: Specifying all biz rules in relational data

mAsterdam <mAsterdam_at_vrijdag.org> writes:
> It looks like taxonomy is closely associated with hierarchies. Not
> really a problem, is it?

a problem is that real world knowledge can quickly become a mesh .... while something like NLN's UMLS of medical knowledge has some hierarchical orginaization ... it also has MeSH organization

mesh 2004 intro
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/introduction2004.html

umls:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/

umls overview
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/research/umls/about_umls.html

medical subject heading for cataloging (effectively a form of classification)
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/catpractices2004.html

using a hierarchical view paradigm .... the organization can seem to have specific subject belonging to multiple hierarchies simultaneously, there are also mesh connections that aren't hierarchical.

this definition
http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Taxonomy

conjectures that is how the human mind organizes knowledge .... so possibly hierarchical reflects how the mind works ... even when the actual organization isn't that way.

another reference: taxonomies, categorization, classification, categories, and directories for searching: http://www.searchtools.com/info/classifiers.html

this raises a classification/cateloging issue when there is inter-species breeding
http://anthro.palomar.edu/animal/animal_2.htm and references:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/05/2/l_052_02.html

-- 
Anne & Lynn Wheeler | http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/