Materials Information and Conceptual Data Modeling

We have been developing a novel method for systematizing the concepts behind the information stored in many disparate databases containing materials test data. The conceptual structure produced will be used as a basis for the development of software systems which integrate engineers' access to many different databases. The major problems and the reason why the meanings of the concepts require explicit structuring are that (a) the everyday vocabulary used is ambiguous, (b) the same data item will have many valid names, (c) similar information is obtained by different laboratories using different methods and different scientific conceptual structures. There are also many organizational problems concerning responsibility, authority and maintenance. The complexity of the relationships between concepts requires a new technique of unusual sophistication in its handling of defaults and inheritance.

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