<div dir="ltr">I have one suggestion for conversation because the idea is incomplete. "Sex: null" might not reflect the current knowledge about multiple sex identified specimen individuals. Null seems to connote that the sex is unknown or just not filled in. An option might be to add an item to the controlled vocabulary such as "mixed" as in a mixture of sexes. Such a designation could be a signal to look in dynamicProperties for additional information on counts. I am not happy with the word "mixed" since it might be read in rare cases to be a gender chimera but not hermaphrodite. <div><br></div><div>--bryan </div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Feb 5, 2015 at 8:09 AM, John Wieczorek <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tuco@berkeley.edu" target="_blank">tuco@berkeley.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>There is a body of topics surrounding Darwin Core terms for which it is tempting to overload the content in an effort to provide richer data than the standard would seem to support. We have a pair of older open issues on this general topic in the Darwin Core issue tracker.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><a href="https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/35" target="_blank">https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/35</a></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><a href="https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/36" target="_blank">https://github.com/tdwg/dwc/issues/36</a><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">You can see in the discussions on those issues that there is some consensus that the content of Darwin Core terms should remain consistent with the definitions and not mix concepts.</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:small">I've had recent questions in particular about the fields 'sex' and 'individualCount'. Here is an example. How should one populate Darwin Core terms for a record of 2 males and 5 females in a single lot?</span><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:small"><br></span></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">I propose that part of this is easy - the individualCount should be 7.</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">The definition of the sex term (without looking for clues in the Comments) might be seen as a little a</span>mbiguous, "The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary."<br><br>Strictly speaking, there is no single sex that matches the biological individuals in this example lot Occurrence record, and so the sex fields should be left blank.</div><div><br></div><div>There are a number of terms in Darwin Core whose definitions suggest that a list (formatted with ' | ' as a separator) be used to match multiple values. Though it might seem that sex could be one of these terms, it isn't currently. Again this argues for a single value for sex from a controlled vocabulary.</div><div><br></div><div>The biggest problem is with the Comment on the sex term, which gives an example with different semantics from what the definition says - namely "8 males, 4 females". I pose that this is an error and must be corrected.</div><div><br></div><div>Yet, all hope of retaining information in the Occurrence record is not lost. <span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">To capture the richness of the information in the multi-sex lot example, I would recommend the use of dynamicProperties. </span></div><div><br></div><div>How should one populate Darwin Core terms for a record of 2 males and 5 females in a single lot? I would do this:</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">sex = null</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">individualCount = 7</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">dynamicProperties= { "count of males":2, "count of females":5 }</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Hope that makes sense.</div></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Since this topic has arisen from multiple independent sources, I would like to formally propose changes to the sex and lifeStage terms to remove the spurious examples. Today begins a minimum 30-day public commentary period to close on 5 March 2015 if no dissenting opinions are made in this public forum. </div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Here is how the new terms would appear if the changes are accepted:</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Identifier:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/sex" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/sex</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Namespace:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Label:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Sex</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Definition:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>The sex of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Comment:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Examples: "female", "hermaphrodite", "male". For discussion see <a href="http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:sex" target="_blank">http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:sex</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Type of Term:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Refines:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Status:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>recommended</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Date Issued:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>2008-11-19</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Date Modified:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>2015-02-05</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Has Domain:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Has Range:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Version:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>sex-2015-02-05</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Replaces:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Sex-2009-04-24</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Is Replaced By:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Class:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">ABCD 2.06:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/Sex</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Identifier:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/lifeStage" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/lifeStage</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Namespace:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Label:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Life Stage</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Definition:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>The age class or life stage of the biological individual(s) at the time the Occurrence was recorded. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Comment:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>Examples: "egg", "eft", "juvenile", "adult". For discussion see <a href="http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:lifeStage" target="_blank">http://terms.tdwg.org/wiki/dwc:lifeStage</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Type of Term:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#Property</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Refines:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Status:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>recommended</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Date Issued:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>2008-11-19</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Date Modified:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>2015-02-05</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Has Domain:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Has Range:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Version:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>lifeStage-2015-02-05</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Replaces:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>LifeStage-2009-04-24</span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Is Replaced By:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Class:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span><a href="http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence" target="_blank">http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/Occurrence</a></span></div><div><span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">ABCD 2.06:<span style="white-space:pre-wrap"> </span>DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MycologicalUnit/MycologicalSexualStage or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/MycologicalUnit/MycologicalLiveStages/MycologicalLiveStage (Note DwC spec uses ”MycologicalLifeStage” or DataSets/DataSet/Units/Unit/ZoologicalUnit/PhasesOrStages/PhaseOrStage</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div></div></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">Cheers,</div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px"><br></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">John</div></div>
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<br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">Bryan Heidorn<br>University of Arizona<br><a href="http://www.sirls.arizona.edu/heidorn">http://www.sirls.arizona.edu/heidorn</a></div>
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