From jones at nceas.ucsb.edu Mon Mar 17 08:53:30 2003 From: jones at nceas.ucsb.edu (Matt Jones) Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2003 07:53:30 -0900 Subject: Matrix entity type In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3E75FD8A.6080606@nceas.ucsb.edu> Peter, I think I agree, but would like to wait a while before heading down this route just for stability in EML. I think further experimentation with what is needed is in order. In our case, we have been considering a matrix type for use in Monarch as well, and have even had one in various versions of the pipeline language we've been developing for Monarch. Right now, the Monarch pipeline language permits inputs and outpus from monarch steps to be one of the following: Scalar (no correspondence in EML) Attribute Table Other We have also seen a need for and experimented with: Vector Matrix When comparing these, we felt that a vector was a one-dimensional set of values of a single atomic type (ie, a colleciton of scalars), and a matrix is a 2 or more dimensional set of scalar values. Matrix subscripts usually correspond to real-world data too, often through an associated Vector of the same dimension that contains the values corresponding to each subscript. For example, one could imaging a 100x100 matrix containing current flow values in space, where the x subscripts correspond to longitude and the y subscripts correspond to latitude, and there is a 100 element 'X' vector listing the longitude values and a 100 value 'Y' vector listing the latitude values. However, we also felt that there was a strong correspondence between an Attribute and a Vector, with the major difference being that an Attribute is generally embedded in a table. We currently use Attribute like a Vector however, and it is a little confusing. A Table, however, is quite distinct from a matrix in that a Table can contain Attributes with multiple atomic types, while a matrix is homogenous with respect to its type (ie, all cells are of a single type). We've been processing data in Matlab and could really use the Matrix entity type there. We've been struggling a bit with the correspondence with the EML entity types, but haven't really worked it out well enough to know what we really need. I for one would be open to extending the entity types in a rationale and well-considered manner, as long as it is backwards compatible with EML 2.0.0. Matt Peter McCartney wrote: > Has anyone else felt the need for a new entity type to describe > matrices? Im sitting here writing the spec for a cross-tabulation module > i want to add to Xylopia am realizing that while its possible to > describe its output using the table entity module, thats really not a > good fit. I really dont need to define each column as a distinct > attribute - they are all the same data type and meaning and Im forced to > use an entirely different model to define the row headers even thought > order of rows versus columns is really arbitrary.What i need is one > description for each dimension of the matrix, plus one attribute to > describe the cell's datatype and calculation. This module would be > useful for describing lots of statistical output up to N dimensions. > > Peter McCartney (peter.mccartney at asu.edu ) > Center for Environmental-Studies > Arizona State University > > From jones at nceas.ucsb.edu Thu Mar 20 08:31:11 2003 From: jones at nceas.ucsb.edu (Matt Jones) Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 07:31:11 -0900 Subject: EML & Monarch In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3E79ECCF.5080909@nceas.ucsb.edu> Hi Jenny, We are using Monarch to develop quality assurance analyses and visualizations for marine intertidal survey data. We're hoping some of these are generalizable to other domains as well. EML is being used on a really wide variety of data types, including marine intertidal and subtidal surveys, biodiversity, productivity, meteorology, soils profiling, grasslands invasive species experiments, and lots of others. We are just starting to explore how to develop analytical tools that utilize these data. Monarch is in an early development phase, but the source code is available. Check out the Monarch development web page for details at: http://knb.ecoinformatics.org/software/monarch/ We often have a demo of monarch running, but its location changes as we work on it. If you want to see it in action, contact Chad Berkley and arrange a demo. The easiest way for you to do this is to log onto the SEEK IRC server and chat with him about it. To do so, open an IRC client to the host "irc.ecoinformatics.org" on channel #monarch or channel #seek. More info on irc is available at: http://seek.ecoinformatics.org/dev/irc.html We were not planning a demo in May, although it would be easy to do one informally. Cheers, Matt Jenny Wang wrote: > Hi, Matt, > > How are you? > > Your feedback information last time really helps me a lot, thank you > again! I think the best way to further explore EML is to try using it in > concrete ecological data integration and analysis problems. We are > looking at David's global species prediction, > the targeted problems > in > Spatial Data Workbench (land cover and climate change, and interactions > between them), and some interesting problems in > related papers > in > ecological literature. I am wondering whether you could let me know some > example problems you are trying to solve using Monarch, the data, EML > files, and pipeline files? And, if you would tell me more > information about Monarch system, > especially whether it is possible to try some already working components, > it will > be greatly appreciated! It is a pity that I could not see your Monarch > demo. Do you plan to demo it again on the SEEK technical meeting in May > here? > > Cheers, > > Jenny > > >