Open4st Family, Clone and Database Naming Conventions

Patrick N McGovern 2018

Below are the Open4st database column descriptions and family/clone taxa naming conventions.

Family Naming Scheme (pre-2011)

Family names are delimited by alpha-numeric characters that denote the Family ID, an "x" which denotes "cross", the Taxa abbreviations and the year the cross was made (now deprecated).  A sample family name is: 1xGAA91 with the following syntax: [Family number]x[parent taxa][year of cross].  The parent letters are general taxa description of the cross. The family, “gaa” might indicate ga x a with the specific details in the online r4st database.  See "Using and Accessing the r4st Database".  Several pre-2004 crosses denoted ploidy by including the ploidy number of the non-diploid parent between the taxa letters (eg. 1xT4E04)  This convention is deprecated in favor of not including the expected ploidy in the name. 

Family Naming Scheme - Post 2011

Newer family names do not include the year the cross was made for conciseness.  Most new hybrid parent names use a single character to describe them (e.g. R instead of AG and B instead of CAG).  A sample family name is: 2xb with the following syntax: [Family ID number]x[parent taxa] which has the taxa parents P. canescens x (P. alba x P. grandidentata).

Open4st Clone Naming Scheme

Internal (Open4st) syntax:                [Family ID number][Family Taxa][Clone ID] (e.g. 41aa102, 2b25, ) 

External cooperator Clone syntax:   [Family ID number][Family Taxa][Clone ID][CooperatorSite] (e.g. 15AG4MF)

Taxa table: common aspen taxa_key single character abbreviations:

Plant table, "alba_class" column:

In 2018 eight high level "hybrid name" classifications were developed to categorize alba/aspen materials from a higher level P. alba family

percentage context. Below is a listing of these classes which are are associated to each clone in the Plant table in the "alba_class" column.  It was not added to the Taxa table to ease manual data updates and improve accuracy, since there are many taxa and male/female reciprocal combinations.  Note that the Family and Plant tables have foreign key relationships to the Taxa table. Below are the "alba_class" data descriptions:

Test_Detail table, "planted_order"column:

Records in the test_detail table are typically ordered by the test_detail_key (variety) for easier selection processing.  The "planted_order" column simply contains the original planted order of the materials to verify records over time.

Test_Detail table, "selection_type"column:

Nursery testing involves the selection, promotion, demotion and removal of materials over time. The Test Detail table contains the "selection_type" column to track selections in a given year.  These values are typically associated with ranked data to assist with selection decisions.  Below are the definitions for each selection type:

Test_Detail table, "stock_type" column:

Nursery stock types typically describe the size, age and stage of nursery grown trees.  The Test Detail table contains the "stock_type" column to track the stock types in a given year.  These values are typically associated with ranked data to assist with selection decisions.  Below are the definitions for each stock type:

Test_Detail table, "leaf_score" column:

Updated in 2017.  Based on an intuitive grading score where a low score is bad and highest is best.  The 5 point system uses 3 as a true middle metric and allows room for 5 to represent a "perfect" plus score.  The -1 is the default r4st value for "Not Scored".  This system can be adapted for scoring other attributes.

Signicant va1_master_test_detail view columns:

This view contains all McGovern nursery data based on the test_detail table with additional averaged detail columns listed below.  These column terms are repeated in many test_detail nursery views.  Results can vary annually per variety as different mix of stock types may be used.

Signicant vw_2017_2_nursery_key_stock_summary and vw_2017_5_nursery_field_summary view columns:

These views contain the 2017 McGovern nursery data aggregated by variety (test_detail_key) and stock type.  Below are 2  multi-data columns related to the Mini-stool (MS) and Dormant Cutting (DC) stock types, not commonly used in other views.  They add their respective average vigor survival metric to the average number of field cuttings in feet, multiplied by the number of replications in the 2017 nursery. Below are the respective, formulas in SQL:

stools_cut_fcut_reps:

trunc(avg(stool_vigor_survival) + avg(field_cuttings_ft) * (count(replication_nbr) *.1),2)

cut_fcut_reps:

trunc(avg(vigor_survival) + avg(field_cuttings_ft) * (count(replication_nbr) *.1),2)