[go] Fwd: [Go-database] Synonym length

[Alexander Diehl]

I also favor allowing long synonyms, particularly for chemical names, 
particularly as successful searching does not require a match to the 
entire string, but rather only to parts of it.  This can be useful in, 
for instance, finding terms for a set of related chemical compounds.

-- Alex


Midori Harris wrote:
> In fact, it's for the RSC's text mining system that the synonyms were 
> requested and added in the first place.
>
> (There were 9 over the limit; I took them out yesterday but could put 
> them back, as Chris says he's increased the limit in the meantime.)
>
> m
>
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2007, Jennifer Deegan (nee Clark) wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> They might also be useful for reasoning and natural language 
>> processing applications where a human would not be involved to spot 
>> that the text is very long.
>>
>> Jen
>>
>>
>> Amelia Ireland wrote:
>>
>>> Back in Gotham City, Harold Drabkin wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> I would doubt someone would search on such a synonym.  Our synonyms 
>>>> should aid in searching for the right term.
>>>>
>>>
>>> As a general rule, though, we should not let the database structure
>>> dictate what information the GO holds; if more cases come up where 
>>> there
>>> are lengthy synonyms, we should consider allowing longer entries in the
>>> synonyms field to accommodate them. With some of these chemical 
>>> names, it
>>> might be that people see them in a paper or online somewhere, and they
>>> just cut and paste them into the search box in AmiGO (or whatever GO 
>>> tool
>>> they are using). They probably wouldn't stop to consider how long 
>>> the name
>>> of the chemical is.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>


-- 
Alexander Diehl, Ph.D.
Senior Scientific Curator
Mouse Genome Informatics
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, ME  04609

email:  adiehl at informatics.jax.org
work:  +1 (207) 288-6427
fax:  +1 (207) 288-6131