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Query Languages for the Life Sciences

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Encyclopedia of Database Systems

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Synonyms

Biological query Languages; Scientific query Languages; Biological data retrieval, integration, and transformation.

Definition

A scientific query language is a query language that expresses the data retrieval, analysis, and transformation tasks involved in the dataflow pertaining to a scientific protocol (or equivalently workflow, dataflow, pipeline). Scientific query languages typically extend traditional database query languages and offer a variety of operators expressing scientific tasks such as ranking, clustering, and comparing in addition to operators specific to a category of scientific objects (e.g., biological sequences).

Historical Background

A scientific query may involve data retrieval tasks from multiple heterogeneous resources and perform a variety of analysis, transformation, and publication tasks. Existing approaches used by scientists include hard coded scripts, data warehouses, link-based federations, database mediation systems, and workflow systems. Hard...

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Recommended Reading

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

    Authors
    1. Zoé Lacroix
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    Editor information

    Editors and Affiliations

    1. College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 266 Ferst Drive, 30332-0765, Atlanta, GA, USA

      LING LIU (Professor) (Professor)

    2. Database Research Group David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON, Canada

      M. TAMER ÖZSU (Professor and Director, University Research Chair) (Professor and Director, University Research Chair)

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    © 2009 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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    Lacroix, Z. (2009). Query Languages for the Life Sciences. In: LIU, L., ÖZSU, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-39940-9_1437

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