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Date: | Mon, 4 Mar 1996 09:02:53 -0600 |
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Tony Hunt's recent message on the convergence of
experimental data and data for modeling agrees with my
experiences at CIAT and CIMMYT. We are fast moving to a
situation where researchers will want to have all of their
data stored in a database and have the option to examine
the results with models. One might add that in
international centers, where data are publicaly owned,
administrators may start requiring such databases. As you
finish a project, data will be deposited in a data
wharehouse as a condition for terminating the project.
Concerning the present file system in DSSAT3, I encourage
people to take Tony up on his request for feedback. The
better we make the system, the more widely it will be used
and supported.
My thoughts are as follows:
1) Site location should include latitude, longitude,
altitude. Ten years from now a farm or institute may have
changed names or owners, so a FILEX should always be tied
to an exact location. GPS-level accuracy can be assumed
(e.g. decimal fractions of seconds).
2) Associated publications should be cited in FILEX. For the
moment, I use the "notes" section for references, but I
would prefer to see a separate section. My experience
with other databases is that "note" sections create
a lot of problems for searches.
3) Data distribution limitations should be noted. People
may want to submit data to databases with restrictions on
distribution (particularly "in-house" databases). Options
might be:
Public domain - no limitation on use
Acknowledgment requested - may be used, but contingent
upon acknowledgment in publications
Institutionally held - cannot be released externally
without permission
4) Number of treatments should be increased. At the
moment FILEX accepts up to 999 treatments, but that is done
using up the blank in column 3. I would add two columns to
permit up 9999 treatments. This is mostly of interest for GIS
applications, but I have run replicated photoperiod
screening trials with over 1000 entries.
Best regards,
Jeff White
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