A generalization is a form of abstraction whereby common properties of specific instances are formulated as general concepts or claims. Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, they are the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences, where the process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation.
In metadata, the term data element is an atomic unit of data that has precise meaning or precise semantics. A data element has:
- An identification such as a data element name
- A clear data element definition
- One or more representation terms
- Optional enumerated values Code (metadata)
- A list of synonyms to data elements in other metadata registries Synonym ring
Hyponymy and hypernymy are semantic relations between a term belonging in a set that is defined by another term and the latter. In other words, the relationship of a subtype (hyponym) and the supertype. The semantic field of the hyponym is included within that of the hypernym. For example, pigeon, crow, and eagle are all hyponyms of bird, their hypernym.
In database design, object-oriented programming and design, has-a is a composition relationship where one object "belongs to" another object, and behaves according to the rules of ownership. In simple words, has-a relationship in an object is called a member field of an object. Multiple has-a relationships will combine to form a possessive hierarchy.
In knowledge representation and ontology components, including for object-oriented programming and design, is-a is a subsumptive relationship between abstractions, wherein one class A is a subclass of another class B . In other words, type A is a subtype of type B when A's specification implies B's specification. That is, any object that satisfies A's specification also satisfies B's specification, because B's specification is weaker.
A metadata registry is a central location in an organization where metadata definitions are stored and maintained in a controlled method.
The ISO/IEC 11179 Metadata Registry (MDR) standard is an international ISO/IEC standard for representing metadata for an organization in a metadata registry. It documents the standardization and registration of metadata to make data understandable and shareable.
A representation term is a word, or a combination of words, that semantically represent the data type of a data element. A representation term is commonly referred to as a class word by those familiar with data dictionaries. ISO/IEC 11179-5:2005 defines representation term as a designation of an instance of a representation class As used in ISO/IEC 11179, the representation term is that part of a data element name that provides a semantic pointer to the underlying data type. A Representation class is a class of representations. This representation class provides a way to classify or group data elements.
A data element name is a name given to a data element in, for example, a data dictionary or metadata registry. In a formal data dictionary, there is often a requirement that no two data elements may have the same name, to allow the data element name to become an identifier, though some data dictionaries may provide ways to qualify the name in some way, for example by the application system or other context in which it occurs.
In metadata, a data element definition is a human readable phrase or sentence associated with a data element within a data dictionary that describes the meaning or semantics of a data element.
Semantic translation is the process of using semantic information to aid in the translation of data in one representation or data model to another representation or data model. Semantic translation takes advantage of semantics that associate meaning with individual data elements in one dictionary to create an equivalent meaning in a second system.
A representation term is a word, or a combination of words, used as part of a data element name. Representation class is sometimes used as a synonym for representation term.
The AgMES initiative was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and aims to encompass issues of semantic standards in the domain of agriculture with respect to description, resource discovery, interoperability, and data exchange for different types of information resources.
Gellish is an ontology language for data storage and communication, designed and developed by Andries van Renssen since mid-1990s. It started out as an engineering modeling language but evolved into a universal and extendable conceptual data modeling language with general applications. Because it includes domain-specific terminology and definitions, it is also a semantic data modelling language and the Gellish modeling methodology is a member of the family of semantic modeling methodologies.
The Gellish English Dictionary-Taxonomy is an example of an open-source “smart” electronic dictionary, in which concepts are arranged in a subtype-supertype hierarchy, thus forming a taxonomy. The dictionary-taxonomy is machine readable. It is compliant with the guidelines of ISO 16354. Apart from the fact that it is an English (business-technical) dictionary, it also defines the semantics of Gellish English, which is a computer-interpretable structured subset of the natural English language for data storage and data exchange. The dictionary-taxonomy differs from conventional dictionaries because of several additional capabilities. Therefore it is called "smart." This means that it satisfies the following criteria:
Metadata is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including:
Contemporary ontologies share many structural similarities, regardless of the ontology language in which they are expressed. Most ontologies describe individuals (instances), classes (concepts), attributes, and relations.
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
The Aristotle Metadata Registry is commercial Metadata Registry software based on the ISO/IEC 11179 standard for Metadata Registries. It is influenced by the AIHW METeOR Metadata Registry and the Canadian Institute of Health Information Indicator Bank. Aristotle-MDR is designed to describe data holdings databases and associated structural metadata. The Aristotle Metadata Registry was publicly launched at the 2015 IASSIST Conference in Toronto. In 2016, the founders of the Aristotle Metadata Registry were hired by Data61 to continue development of the platform.
IEC Common Data Dictionary (abbreviated: IEC CDD) is a metadata registry providing product classification and formalized product descriptions that can be used in the context of smart manufacturing and Industrie 4.0.
