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ZIMS Glossary (English)                  25 February 2005

This is a working document containing terms that are used by the ZIMS teams, and within ZIMS. The document is constantly being updated, with new terms being added, and the definitions being discussed and "approved" by the ZIMS community. As the definitions are agreed upon, they will be translated into multiple languages, with all translations being contained in this document. To date we have translators for Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Descriptions that have not yet been translated will be shown in English.

 

Basic details
Term Definition Approval Date
Abort/Abortion The death of a fetus, and expulsion or extraction of the fetus from the uterus, after completion of organogenesis, but prior to completion of gestation (may be spontaneous or induced).
 
Acceptance testing See User acceptance testing 20/07/04
Accession The act of adding an individual or group into inventory, ie. creating a record for the individual or group in the ZIMS database. If an individual or group moves from one institution to another, this is considered to be a transfer between institutions, and not a new accession. 05/07/04
Accession date The date on which a specimen or group is first entered into ZIMS. This may also be the acquisition date (see acquisition date). Subsequent moves to other institutions are called acquisitions, and not additional accessions. 13/09/04
Accuracy The freedom from mistake or error: correctness. Conformity to fact or some established recognized standard value. For the purposes of the ZIMS Project, data are assumed to be accurate when they are captured from user, obtained from other systems interfaces and/or feed from other qualified external data feeds and in all cases the data have met established ZIMS accuracy criteria. 12/07/04
Acquisition The act of documenting the receipt of either the physical possession, legal ownership and/or governmental management responsibility of an individual or group, that results in a net increase in an institution's inventory or management responsibility. 12/07/04
Acquisition date The date on which an institution first gains physical possession, legal ownership and/or governmental management responsibility for a specimen or group (most often the date the specimen arrives at the institution).
 
Acquisition type The means by which an institution gains either the physical possession, legal ownership and/or governmental management responsibility of an individual or group takes place. Acquisition types can include loan, trade, donation, purchase, loan transfer etc.
 
Active medical record The medical record(s) that is/are currently being edited, entered, or updated. 12/07/04
Active problem/chief complaint A complaint, clinical sign or diagnosis that has a starting point, but is not yet resolved.
 
Activity An actual or scheduled event which is intended to be associated with an individual, group, enclosure or physical entity related to the animal collection. 20/07/04
Activity scheduling (calendar) The system that maintains the list of activities scheduled for a specific date and/or time and provides notification to appropriate staff.
 
Actor Represents a role played by an external person, process or a thing interacting with a system. Examples are: planner, recorder, reviewer. An actor is a user, another system, or anything outside the system (ZIMS) that interacts with the system to complete a task. An actor is not a description of a job function. 12/07/04
Ad hoc query An improvised and often impromptu request for database information. Within the capability of the ad hoc query tool, the user can determine how the data are filtered, and the order in which the data are presented. The results may be presented in an editable (drill down) view on screen, a new database or data set used for further analysis, or in a printed report. 12/07/04
ADISC ADSIC stands for Animal Data Informations Systems Committee.
 
Alternative flow A list of steps performed under possible conditions (other than the normally expected condition) that may occur during an activity. 14/07/04
Analgesia Loss of sensation to superficial or deep pain. Analgesia may be restricted to a particular part of the body (local analgesia)
 
Anesthesia A chemically induced state where there is loss of response to superficial or deep pain and apparent lack of reaction to visual, olfactory, auditory, tactile or other stimuli that would normally elicit a response. 05/07/04
Animal management authority A recognized organization or person providing guidance or direction on issues such as management, breeding and relocation. This may or may not be either the owner or the holding facility. Examples might be government authorities, Taxon Advisory Groups (TAGs), population managers or directors/curators. 13/09/04
Animal placement within institutions A movement of an individual, group, or part of a group, from one enclosure to another, within the same institution. 15/08/04
Authority table (domain/reference/control) A set of value choices used to maintain data integrity, contains full name and reference information, even if the lookup value is abbreviated.
 
Basic flow A list of actions (steps) performed to accomplish the goals of an activity, under normal, most often expected conditions. The steps describe what actions, not how they are performed. 14/07/04
Binomial The combination of two names, the first being a generic name and the second a specific name, that together constitute the scientific name of a species e.g.: Haliaeetus leucogaster Haliaeetus vocifer Haliaeetus leucoryphus 13/09/04
Biomaterial Sample obtained from an animal specimen.
 
Birth The event of being born, for live-bearing animals. The date from which age is calculated in animals that give birth. Can be considered as one of a number of events or transitions between life-stages for these taxa. 12/07/04
Birth date The actual or estimated date an individual or group is born in live-bearing animals. The date from which age is calculated in live-bearing species. Note for marsupials, this is not the date of pouch emergence, but the actual or estimated date of emergence from the birth canal. 13/09/04
Body condition score Describes the subjective assessment of overall muscle mass and fat reserves with respect to optimum/ideal on a scale of 1-9. BCS will be an acceptable acronym for the Body Condition Score. 21/06/04
Business The activities associated with running a zoo or aquarium. Business in the context of ZIMS does not refer to commercial activities.
 
Business activity (use case) Deeds or processes within a business function. Business use cases will be done at this level. Business activities should be discrete, logically separate activities that result in a meaningful result of business value to the participants. 14/07/04
Business analysis
 
 
Business function The highest level business function e.g. functional areas or areas of responsibility. Business functions drive the design of the use cases.
 
Business modelling
 
 
Business party A business party is a uniquely identified institution. When animals are permanently moved, a business transaction identifies the animal(s) and the business parties effected.
 
Business rule A pre-requisite, condition or process that must be in place or occur during an activity to achieve expected results. 12/07/04
Business use case Describes the interaction between the people, departments and organizations within the ZIMS user community. There is no mention of technology since these use cases are focused on business operations. The focus of the business use cases is to highlight how the organizations that are part of the ZIMS user community interact - currently and in future. 09/07/04
Captive management plan A regional or institutional plan for the management of a species in captivity. The plan is normally updated on a regular (yearly) basis, and may include specimen level recommendations for breeding-related activities, eg pairing or separation with or from
 
Carcass
 
 
Case Opinions, diagnosis, procedures, treatment of an animal.
 
Census A report of the total count of a collection as of a specific date. A census can be for a single taxon, family, order etc. or for an entire collection. 06/07/04
Character A symbol that requires a single space in an ID number or data field and is not treated as a numeral; letters, blank spaces and graphics may all be used as characters; usually refers to a keyboard symbol.
 
Clinical note
 
 
Clone An individual derived by asexual reproduction from a single ancestor; one of a population of genetically identical individuals.
 
Collection plan A regional or institutional plan referring to the proposed changes to an institution’s inventory over a given time period, eg documentation of an institution’s current collection (inventory), its planned inventory, and details about how it proposes to progressfrom its current inventory to its planned inventory.
 
Collection type Collections are an internal categorization of animals for inventory reporting, tracking and accountability purposes. Collections do not imply physical location of animals, nor is their purpose for physical management of animals. There are two types of collections - main and secondary. Typically, an institution will have a main collection and one or more secondary collections. A main collection is an institution’s official animal inventory. Animals in the main collection may be sub-categorizedbased on species e.g. mammals, birds, fish, arthropods, lizards, etc. Each institution can have only one main collection. Secondary collections are collections of animals that are not part of the official collection, categorizedfor internal tracking of the animals. Secondary collections are specific to an institution, based on the institution’s individual needs. The need for a secondary collection typically relates to the action to be taken on the animals and/or why the institution may have the animals.
 
Colony A community of individuals (especially corals, social insects such as ants, bees etc.), or a cluster or aggregation of a compound animal such as corals etc. The number of individuals in a colony generally cannot be determined.
 
Common Name A common name is a name used by an institution or region to refer to one or more species, sub-species or cohort. A common name is not the official scientific name and is not regulated, although the global common name list is made up of names that have been published by recognised authorities. An institution may however, elect to use a common name that is not on the global common name list.
 
Common name flip Alternative ways of searching for common names e.g. Lion, African vs. African lion.
 
Concentration Amount of active agent per measurement unit (mg/ml).
 
Conceptual data model A static picture of the data requirements of the system.
 
Constraint A condition that will affect the initiation or successful completion of a use case or activity. Constraints are limiting factors that define the boundaries of the use case or activity, and represent ongoing conditions, not a state at a point in time. 14/07/04
Construction phase The third stage of the development process. The developers will begin to acquire and install necessary hardware, operational software (e.g. the operating system) and any network connectivity. They will develop the required documentation and develop detailed plans for training, deployment and User Acceptance Testing. 09/07/04
Contraception A management action or medical treatment/procedure that prevents reproduction. This may include chemical treatment or surgical alteration of the reproductive tract and may be temporary or permanent. Physical separation of animals is not considered to be contraception. 05/07/04
Controlled drug
 
 
CT scan - Computed Tomography imaging Computed Tomography (CT) imaging, also known as "CAT scanning" (Computed Axial Tomography), combines the use of a digital computer together with a rotating x-ray device to create detailed cross sectional images or "slices" of the different organs and body parts such as the lungs, liver, kidneys, pancreas, pelvis, extremities, brain, spine, and blood vessels.
 
Dam The biological female parent. An animal may have multiple dams recorded if a single female cannot be determined from a limited number of possibilities. The dam might also be wild or completely unknown, e.g. from historic records. 15/08/04
Data field An individual data item in a record within a database file; a group of adjacent characters (e.g. accession number, birth date, sex, ID numbers) all occupy a field; all entries in a specific field convey the same type of information.
 
Data standard Data standards define the structure, content, and values that collection information comprises. Data structure concerns what constitutes a record, such as the different fields used to record information and their relationships.
 
Data warehouse Generally refers to the combination of many different databases across an entire enterprise. Data from the production databases are copied to the data warehouse so that queries can be performed without disturbing the performance or the stability of the production systems.
 
Deaccession NOTE: Do not use this term - individuals and groups are not deaccessioned in ZIMS. 20/07/04
Deliverable A measurable result or output of a process able to be provided, especially as a product of a development process. ZIMS deliverables include document templates and application prototypes.
 
Demographics
 
 
Deployment
 
 
Deployment options
 
 
Diagnosis
 
 
Discovery document A draft document that was compiled by the ZIMS Technical Working Group (ZTWG) and various Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to document everything we know about the current systems. The document is being used to help us develop the high lkevel requirements for ZIMS.
 
Dispense To deal out in portions; to distribute; to give; as, the steward dispenses provisions according to directions.
 
Disposition The act of documenting the ending of either the physical possession, legal ownership and/or governmental management responsibility of an individual or group, that results in a net decrease in an institution's inventory or management responsibility. 20/07/04
Disposition type The means by which the ending of either the physical possession, legal ownership and/or governmental management responsibility of an individual or group takes place. Disposition types can include loan, trade, release, sale, loan transfer etc.
 
Documenter A performer is one of the actors in ZIMS. This role captures the information about the individual/group, but is not necessarily responsible for entering the data into the system. Examples of institutional job descriptions that might be documenters are: keeper, veterinarian etc.
 
Dosage Amount based on a weight or body measure (mg/kg, g/kg).
 
Dose Total amount (mg, g).
 
Drug Any substance used in the composition of medicines.
 
Echocardiography Echocardiography is a diagnostic test, which uses ultrasound waves to make images of the heart chambers, valves and surrounding structures.
 
Elaboration phase The second phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) software development methodology. This stage is important to the RUP because it is here that developers analyze the risks associated with changing the scope of the project or adding new technologies along the way. 09/07/04
Electrocardiography The making of graphic records of the variations in electrical potential caused by electrical activity of the heart muscle and detected at the body surface, as a method for studying the action of the heart muscle.
 
Embryo The early developmental stage of mammals. It generally defines the period from cleavage into two blastomeres to the end of embryonic differentiation of basic structures. In the human, the embryo represents the first two months of intrauterine development preceding the stages of the fetus.
 
Embryonic death The death of the fetus prior to completion of organogenesis (seems that use of "early embryonic death" may be either redundant, or inclusion of "early" should only be used in instances when you are dealing with embryos of different ages or stages.
 
Enclosure A location that physically confines a single or multiple animals. Examples: tank, aviary, pond. Ideally, each enclosure should have a unique code and/or name/description associated with it for identification purposes. 20/07/04
Enclosure system The system by which an institution organizes the enclosures within its facility. These are often structured in hierarchical groups.
 
Enclosure tracking
 
 
Endoscopy The visual inspection of any cavity of the body by means of an endoscope.
 
Entity 1) Synonym for Entity Type or Entity Set - that is the set of all possible instances of an object e.g. the set of all animals, set of all persons employed at an institution, the set of all institutions. This usage is the most common but is not strictly correct (see 2). This is the meaning in the ZIMS documentation. In the data model diagrams it is represented by a rectangle (with square or rounded corners). Each member of an Entity Type is identified by a unique value in the Primary Key. 2) An instance of an entity type e.g. a particular animal in the Animal Entity Type. Because of the common use of definition 1) for Entity, it is safer to use Entity Instance to refer to a particular instance.
 
Entity relationship diagram A diagram showing the entity types used by a system and the relationships between them. In the ERwin data model, the entity types are shown as rectangles and the relationships as lines between them. The symbols at each end of a relationship line indicates whether the entity at that end is mandatory and whether the relationship between entities is one to one, one to many or many to many. When a one-to-many relationship is defined between two entity types, the primary key of the entity type with one occurrence appears as a foreign key in the entity type with many occurrences.
 
Environmental monitoring
 
 
Episode
 
 
Event
 
 
Exam This is a visual or hands-on evaluation of an animal by a Veterinarian or Veterinary Technician.
 
Extensible The ability to easily add more functionality or incorporate new technologies. Able to be extended or expanded. Extensible programming languages allow the programmer to customize: to add new functions and modify the behaviour of existing functions or data types.
 
External transfer An event that changes an individual or group’s legal and/or physical status in a collection, eg. sale, trade, purchase, loan, title transfer etc. The term that defines a change in state of an individual, group or colony, which alters their legal and/or physical status. A physical transaction involves movement between collections, while a legal transaction involves a change in legal title (or ownership) e.g.. sale, trade, loan (in or out), title transfer, etc. 20/07/04
Extinction (of a group) Set the official count of a group to zero and prevent any further transactions for the group. Once the number of individuals in a group has reached zero, any new specimens of the same taxon should be considered as a new group, and accordingly, should have a new group accession number.
 
Extraction (from a group) Removal and accession of an individual specimen from an existing group of animals.
 
Failed post-condition An expected result, condition (state at a point in time) or event after unsuccessful completion of the activity. 14/07/04
Family group In the hierarchy of classification, the highest ranking group of taxa whose names are regulated by the Code. The family group includes taxa at the ranks of superfamily, family, subfamily, tribe, and any other rank below superfamily and above the genus group that may be required, such as subtribe.
 
Female
 
 
Final diagnosis
 
 
First recordable event
 
 
Fission Asexual reproduction by a division of the cell or body into two or more parts of roughly equal size.
 
Fledge date The date at which a bird takes flight for the first time, or in the case of flightless and precocial birds, the date at which they leave the nest for the first time. 30/07/04
Fledgling A young bird which has acquired feathers for flight.
 
Fluoroscopy An X-ray procedure that makes it possible to see internal organs in motion.
 
Foreign key A foreign key in a database table is a key from another table that refers to (or targets) a specific key, usually the primary key , in the table being used. A primary key can be targeted by multiple foreign keys from other tables. But a primary key does not necessarily have to be the target of any foreign keys.
 
Formulary External reference that details drug information, drug dosage (class related), drug interactions, contra-indications and formulations of drug available.
 
Formulation The drug form (tablet, capsule, suspension, liquid, injection) and concentration of each.
 
Founder An individual (often from the wild) that is considered to be related only to its direct living descendants in the specified living population and assumed to be completely heterogenous to the current population (ie non-inbred). It is assumed that all founders are unrelated to one another. 20/07/04
Functional requirement A description of users’ needs (business functions) for how users will interact with the system (ZIMS). They also describe the business rules that must be applied and enforced by the system. The complete set of functional requirements will document the total needs of the system. This may include examples and/or workflow diagrams. They define the scope, boundaries and external interfaces, based on the business requirements.
 
Functional standard Provide documentation for standards around a process that are not related to a specific data standard. They are not necessarily related to a specific data standard, but may be related to multiple data standards. Functional standards are attached to a concept, eg group management and accessioning.
 
Functionality The capabilities or behaviours of a program, part of a program, or system, seen as the sum of its features. Approximates to, "the things it can do".
 
Generic name (drug) A misnomer for nonproprietary drug name.
 
Genetic information
 
 
Genus group In the hierarchy of classification the group of taxa ranked between the family group and the species group. The genus group includes taxa at the ranks of genus and subgenus
 
Gestation In mammals, the act of retaining and nourishing the young in the uterus; pregnancy
 
Global accession number A globally unique identification number that will be used within the ZIMS database to identify each individual or group. This number is mandatory and is automatically assigned by the system at the time of accession. Each individual or group can only ever have one global accession number within ZIMS. 13/09/04
Goal The result or achievement toward which effort is directed. For purposes of the ZIMS Project, a qualitative statement of direction regarding a benefit to a stakeholder as a result of developing the system.
 
Group 1. Two or more individuals with a shared physical environment where management decisions affect all individuals. A group may be classified for example by age, gender, or social group. Individual specimens within the group may or may not be recognizable as individuals. 2. Specimens of the same species, housed together; these specimens are often either not individually marked or readily distinguishable from other individuals in the group
 
Hatch The complete emergence from an egg for egg-laying animals. The date from which age is calculated in animals that lay eggs. Can be considered as one of a number of events or transitions between life-stages for these taxa. (see also hatch and pip). 12/07/04
Hatch date The actual or estimated date an individual or group completely emerges from an egg in egg-laying animals. The date from which age is calculated in egg-laying species. 13/09/04
Health status The presence or absence of a detectable illness or other problem within an individual or group. The history of that status is maintained by the system, and is available for viewing and updating.
 
Herd A group of animals, typically ungulates, that congregates or are housed together.
 
Hermaphrodite An organism with both male and female functional reproductive organs; may or may not be self-fertilizing.
 
History Complete record of a specimen listed by date.
 
Holding institution The institution or person which has physical possession of an individual or group. 15/08/04
Hybrid Offspring of two different subspecies, species or genera. 15/08/04
IADISC IADSIC stands for International Animal Data Information Systems Committee
 
Identifier The means by which an individual or group is differentiated from other individuals or groups of the same species. It may be a physical entity, e.g. tag, band, tattoo, transponder, ear notch, or a descriptor used to associate the individual or group with data, e.g. local ID, house name, studbook number. etc. 15/08/04
Imaging Radiological production of a clinical image using X-ray, ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance, radionuclide scanning, thermography, etc.; especially, cross-sectional imaging, such as ultrasonography, CT, or MRI.
 
Immersion
 
 
Immobilization Sternal/lateral recumbency after receiving a dose of an anesthetic drug.
 
Implementer
 
 
Inception phase The first phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) software development methodology. The developers will review and establish the scope and extent of the work, the procedures and processes to be followed, the tools to be used and the management infrastructure for the ZIMS Project. These items will be detailed in a Project Management Plan. 09/07/04
Included use case A business use case that documents additional steps during an activity. Included use cases are used to document complex or common activities. 20/07/04
Individual A single organism, separate and recognizably distinct from others of the same kind. 15/08/04
Infusion/ insertion (to a group) * We may need a more appropriate term here. The process of adding an individually accessioned specimen to an existing group of animals. During this process, the individual may or may not loose its individual identity.
 
Institution An organisation which has some association with the zoological community. These include zoos, aquariums, wildlife reserves, laboratories, museums (and many others). These organisations may or may not be ISIS members.
 
Integrity For purposes of the ZIMS Project, calculations, data entry and data manipulation are performed correctly and consistently.
 
Inventory List of taxa and the total count of each as of a certain date. It can be summarized or detailed. (In ARKS, we generally refer to an inventory as a report detailing the changes in the collection count over a given period of time - should we be using a different title for this?)
 
Inventory Management (Acquisition/Disposition) A core business function in ZIMS. Includes various means of acquisition and disposition of specimens and/or groups into or out of the collection.
 
Iteration 1)The RUP model for application development, used in ZIMS, employs an iterative form of development i.e. the functionality of a system is delivered in a successive series of releases of increasing completeness. Thus in RUP, an iteration is a release of the application developed in a specific time period.
 
JAD JAD stands for Joint Application Development. JAD is a requirements-definition and software system design process in which stakeholders, subject matter experts, end-users, software architects and developers attend intense off-site meetings to work out a system's details. 09/07/04
Job title Names applied to various positions within institutions (eg. Curator, veterinarian, keeper, etc.) Example of data recorder: registrar, veterinarian, intern.
 
Legal status Possessing legal ownership, physical possession or governmental management title to an individual or group.
 
Life stage The major definable stages or events an individual or group progresses through from conception through to death. Birth and death are considered to be events, but not life stages. 15/08/04
Local acquisition number An institution-level identification number that will be used within the ZIMS database to identify an individual or group within an institution. This number is unique within an institution and is assigned at the time of acquisition. The local acquisition number is not mandatory - other forms of identifiers can be used instead, eg house name, tag, transponder etc.
 
Localization Allows the representation of data such as time or date, currency, time zone handling, and data sort sequence, to be customized via the operating system, to suit regional preferences.
 
Logical data model The Logical Data Model is a method of describing data requirements for a set of applications such that redundancy in the data is removed.. The process used to do this is called data normalization, and in the standard logical data model this is carried out to 3rd normal form. In 3rd normal form, each entity is uniquely defined by a primary key, and each attribute within the entity is fully dependent on the primary key. It contrasts firstly with a Conceptual data model which is a much less detailed model, where individual entity sets, primary keys and attributes may not have been fully defined, and secondly with a Physical Data Model where additional formatting information has been added, and where some data redundancy may be designed in, in an effort to enhance performance.
 
Main collection A main collection is an institution’s official animal inventory. Animals in the main collection may be sub-categorizedbased on species e.g. mammals, birds, fish, arthropods, lizards, etc. Each institution can have only one main collection.
 
Male
 
 
Managed species A taxonomic classification that is locally, nationally, or globally managed on a genetic planning basis.
 
Management group Individuals that may or may not be in the same physical space. Decisions are made based on the collective group.
 
Management plan
 
 
Management set One or more individuals, groups and/or enclosures, to which management activities can be performed. All individuals and groups within the management set will inherit the activities that are assigned to the completed management set.
 
Management status
 
 
Management transaction Any change in animal status. Examples: physical move internal, physical move external, medical procedure, accession, legal ownership change.
 
Manager (of data) A manager is one of the actors in ZIMS. A manager is responsible for the overall accuracy, setup, performance and resource allocation of the application. Examples: setting limits on the dispensation of drugs, or assigning responsibility for a set of species or enclosures, ensuring that processes are followed, and in the case of tasks that are late or overdue, re-assigning the work to other qualified individuals.
 
Manager (of data)
 
 
Mean kinship
 
 
Metabolic scaling
 
 
Methodology A body of methods, rules, and postulates employed by a discipline: a particular procedure or set of procedures. The basic approach providing the basis for a strong logical and a consistent work structure for any assignment
 
Metric A standard of measurement
 
Monotypic A taxonomic division that has only one sub-division (e.g., a family with one genus). Examples of monotypic species (no subspecies identified): Haliaeetus leucogaster Haliaeetus vocifer Haliaeetus leucoryphus
 
Morphometrics Measurements of the forms or structures of an organism for example weights and lengths.
 
MRI- Magnetic Resonance Imaging A special imaging technique used to image internal structures of the body, particularly the soft tissues. An MRI image is often superior to a normal X-ray image.
 
Non-accessioned individual This term will not exist in ZIMS. It will be replaced by non-aquired individual, since every individual or group must be accessioned before additional data can be recorded about it. Individuals or groups can be accessioned into the main collection or other collection types eg rescue/rehab, quarantine etc.
 
Non-functional requirement Describes required standards and capabilities that a system must implement that do not directly relate to functions e.g. legal, language and system performance requirements, operating environment and system security.
 
Nuclear scan A nuclear scan that images the adrenal glands after a radioactive tracer is injected into the bloodstream.
 
Objective For purposes of the ZIMS Project, a quantitatively measurable indicator of progress related to a goal.
 
Observation
 
 
Observer
 
 
Oviparous Egg laying; unfertilized or fertilized eggs are released by the female; embryonic development and hatching take place outside the maternal body.
 
Ovoviviparous Producing living young from eggs that hatch within the body, eg some fish and reptiles.
 
Owner The institution or person which has title to the physical individual or group.
 
Parthenogenesis Process in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual; common among insects and some other arthropods.
 
Parturition In viviparous animals, the act of bringing forth young (see also Birth).
 
Pedigree A register or record of a direct line of ancestors and/or descendants.
 
Performer A performer is one of the actors in ZIMS. Responsible for carrying out various actions or activities. Examples of institutional job descriptions that might be performers are: curator, keeper, veterinarian etc.
 
Pharmacy A place where drugs are stored, compounded, and dispensed.
 
Phenotype What an organism looks like based on its physical and behavioral characteristics. Phenotype is a consequence of the genotype (actual physical material made up of DNA passed on by parents).
 
Photographic images
 
 
Physical animal The actual biological specimen which much of our data refers to.
 
Physical examination
 
 
Physical status
 
 
Physiological data Biological study of the functions of living organisms and their parts.
 
Pip To crack or break through, as an eggshell, during the process of hatching. Pipping can be either an internal pip (when the chick pierces the air cell membrane) or an external pip (when the chick pierces the egg shell). Internal pip Piercing the air cell membrane of an egg, during the process of hatching. Internal pipping may occur quite some time (up to several days) before complete emergence (see also External pip). External pip Cracking or breaking through an eggshell, during the process of hatching. External pipping may occur quite some time (up to several days) before complete emergence (see also Internal pip).
 
Planner A planner is one of the actors in ZIMS. Responsible for initiating various actions or activities. Examples of institutional job descriptions that might be planners are: curator, director, veterinarian etc.
 
Potential founder An individual (often from the wild) that is capable of reproducing and is unrelated to the specified population. 15/08/04
Precocial Advanced developmental state at birth or hatching; eyes and ears are open, capable of independent locomotion, thermoregulation, and excretion without assistance (e.g. ducks and grazing mammals).
 
Pre-condition A result, condition (state at a point in time) or event that must exist or occur prior to the activity. The condition does not trigger the activity. 20/07/04
Premature birth The birth of a live animal, but prior to completion of normal gestation length. Also used when a fetus which has not completed full gestation is removed from the uterus via surgical means (i.e., 'caesarian section'), but the fetus is alive at removal, and continues to live for some time following surgery.
 
Prescription A written direction for the preparation and administration of a remedy.
 
Primary actor Role(s) that performs most of the steps of the activity. 20/07/04
Primary key The primary key of a relational table uniquely identifies each record in the table.The primary key may consist of a single attribute or multiple attributes.
 
Problem (medical) Anything that interferes with patient's well-being. Further diagnostics and/or therapeutics may be planned.
 
Problem list A summary of what happens to an animal in a medical sense, and usually consists of one word, or a few words, which define or describe the problem. A problem typically would be the same as a diagnosis. Also included in a problem list are a date for when the problem started, and a date for when the problem resolved. 12/07/04
Procedure Medical activity that that involves physical contact with an animal.
 
Process An activity or function which is an action within the system.
 
Protocol A standard plan of action for a given activity.
 
Provenance A geographic reference, either a point or a place. The place of capture, of a single or group of wild-caught specimens.
 
Provenanced population A group of individuals all caught in the same locality or descended from those caught there, and intended to be managed as a unit
 
Radiography The making of film records (radiographs) of internal structures of the body by passage of X-rays or gamma rays through the body to act on specially sensitized film.
 
Rank The level of a taxon in the zoological hierarchy (e.g. all families are at the same rank, which lies between superfamily and subfamily).
 
Rational Unified Process A software development methodology, often referred to as RUP. RUP organizes the development of software into four phases (Inception, Elaboration, Construction and Transition), each consisting of one or more executable iterations of the software at that stage of development.
 
Rearing The method or methods of feeding, raising and caring for an individual from neonate to independence. Rearing types include hand, parent, peer, colony, none etc.
 
Recorder
 
 
Reference-taxonomic
 
 
Reference-technical
 
 
Regulated species A taxonomic classification that is locally, nationally, or globally managed by the government.
 
Remedy Any medicine or application, which puts an end to disease and restores health.
 
Reporter A reporter is one of the potential actors in ZIMS. While reports are used by everyone, there is the potential for specialized roles here, where regulations require reports to 3rd party organizations.
 
Reports A series of pre-determined (canned) or ad-hoc extracts of data from the system. These include pre-determined reports that we are familiar with (eg specimen, taxon, inventory etc.), and other reports that can be configured on an as-needs basis by the user.
 
Representative subgroups Representative subgroups refer to individual animals belonging to the same accessioned group that will be analyzed in order to develop a better overall understanding of the accessioned group to which they belong
 
Reproductive management
 
 
Retriever (of data)
 
 
Reviewer (of data) A reviewer is one of the actors in ZIMS. Responsible for ensuring that various data that have been entered into the system are factual. Examples of institutional job descriptions that might be reviewers are: registrar, curator, veterinarian, records officer etc.
 
Role Basically similar to an actor. Actors model roles, not positions. As actors tend to define roles, the word role is often used instead of actor to clarify the term.
 
RUP RUP stands for Rational Unified Process, a software development methodology. RUP organizes the development of software into four phases (Inception, Elaboration, Construction and Transition), each consisting of one or more executable iterations of the software at that stage of development. 09/07/04
Sample
 
 
Sample bank Catalog of animal samples (DNA, tissues, feathers, blood etc.). Samples may or may not involve some sort of veterinary procedure or purpose.
 
Scalable Able to be changed in size or configuration to suit changing conditions. For example, a scalable database can grow in the number of users it supports, in the number of records it stores, or in complexity.
 
Secondary actor Role(s) that performs one or more steps of an activity, but not in a primary role. 20/07/04
Secondary collection Secondary collections are collections of animals that are not part of the official (main) collection, categorizedfor internal tracking of the animals. Secondary collections are specific to an institution, based on the institution’s individual needs. The need for a secondary collection typically relates to the action to be taken on the animals and/or why the institution may have the animals.
 
Sex The genetic (chromosomal and biological) sex of an animal. This may be recorded as male, female, abnormal, hermaphrodite, or undetermined. The gender of an animal may change through its lifetime only through biological circumstances. 15/08/04
Sire The biological male parent. An animal may have multiple sires recorded if a single male cannot be determined from a limited number of possibilities. The sire might also be wild or completely unknown, e.g. from historic records. 15/08/04
Source *DO NOT USE THIS TERM
 
Special requirements Requirements related to the activity that are of a non-functional nature.
 
Species A taxonomic group whose individuals can interbreed.
 
Species group In the hierarchy of classification, the lowest ranking group of taxa the names of which are regulated by the Code. The species group includes all taxa at the ranks of species and subspecies
 
Specimen An individual animal.
 
Stakeholder For purposes of the ZIMS Project, any person or constituency that has an interest in an activity or is a beneficiary of the activity, and who may also be actors. 20/07/04
Standard Something set up and established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value, or quality
 
Step
 
 
Stillbirth The death of the fetus, and expulsion or extraction through the birth canal, after completion of a normal gestation. Also used in cases of removal of the full term fetus from the uterus via surgical means (i.e., 'caesarian section').
 
Studbook A subset of animals records of one taxonomy for a defined geographic area, typically a managed species.
 
Subject Matter Expert (SME)
 
 
Subspecies A subdivision of species, often a geographically distinct race and capable of reproducing with others of the same subspecies.
 
Success post-condition The expected result, condition (state at a point in time) or event after successful completion of the activity. 20/07/04
Synonym 1) With regards to Taxonomy, synonyms are alternative taxon names preferred by an institution. These may or may not conform to an entry on a taxonomic list held within the system. A synonym identified by an institution is an alternative name to the scientific name held on the institution’s preferred taxonomic list. 2) In the Information Technology world it is an alternate name for a table, or data item.
 
System The databases, graphical interface, data entry forms, reports etc. that combined form ZIMS.
 
System analysis
 
 
System use case Describes the interaction between an actor or user and a system (ZIMS), or by the system itself to accomplish system functions. It provides the details of the actors achieving goals within a system (ZIMS). System use cases are technology focused. 09/07/2994
Taxa (plural of taxon)
 
Taxon Taxon is a taxonomic group or entity at any of the taxon ranks. It refers to a group of animals belonging to the same taxonomic unit. While most taxa can be referred to by the Monomial name, species is a lower level taxon that is referred to by a two-part name - genus name plus species name. Taxa are classified in the taxonomic hierarchy, from sub-species up to kingdom.
 
Taxonomy This is the classification of animals in an ordered system that indicates natural relationships.
 
Taxonomy Taxonomy is the biological classification of groups of living organisms in an ordered system (hierarchy of ranks) that indicates their natural relationships, typically determined based on morphological and physiological similarities between species. Taxonomy includes naming, describing and classifying the organisms. A hierarchy exists for each kingdom (the highest rank).
 
Therapy
 
 
Thermography Measurement of the regional temperature of the body or an organ by infrared sensing devices, based on self-emanating infrared radiation.
 
Title Legal ownership.
 
Trade name (drug) Trademarked proprietary preparations containing the generic substance.
 
Transaction management The definition is contingent on current perspectives. For the end user in the role of record keeper, it encompasses the range of activities required to record the transfer of a specimen. Regardless of the type of transfer made or the nature of the origin
 
Transition phase The fourth and final phase of Rational Unified Process (RUP) software development methodology. The developers will carry out detailed knowledge transfer and related activities, including documentation, application training and implementation of any required support processes. A vital aspect of the transition stage is user acceptance of the application, which will involve ISIS users thoroughly testing the application and ensuring that complete and accurate documentation and training materials are available. 09/07/04
Treatment An action, series of actions, or medication prescribed to alleviate a medical problem. Treatment may be delivered to an individual animal, a group of animals, or an enclosure. Examples: Medication, application of a splint.
 
Trigger Specifies a condition or event that initiates a use case or activity. The trigger precedes the first step of the use case - it is not the first step of the use case.
 
Trinomial The combination of a generic name, a specific name, and a subspecific name, that together constitute a scientific name of a subspecies. e.g.: Haliaeetus leucocephalus washingtoniensis Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus
 
UDF User Defined Field. A data field specified by the user for the collection of data not collected elsewhere.
 
Ultrasonography A technique in which high-frequency sound waves are bounced off internal organs and the echo pattern is converted into a two dimensional picture of the structures beneath the transducer.
 
Unsexed
 
 
Use case A use case describes a scenario in which an actor (user) interacts with the system. A use case describes what the actor does i.e. steps performed, in normal and error situations, the conditions surrounding the function, and the outcome. They describe a complete course of events in a narrative format and/or in workflow charts. Use cases help the users to specify their business requirements and the designers and developers to understand the business processes and objectives, and design the system. There are two types of use cases - business and system. 12/07/04
Use case description A short description of the activity addressed by the use case, reflecting the actions, purpose, participants’ goals and outcome.
 
Use case frequency Indicates how often the activity addressed by the use case is performed.
 
Use case ID A unique identifier for each use case.
 
Use case priority The business priority of the activity addressed by the use case.
 
User acceptance testing The final phase in a software development process in which the software is given to the intended audience to be tested for functionality. Users provide feedback to make any final adjustments to the programming before releasing the product to the general ZIMS users.
 
User interface The screens, forms and dialogs that allow for interaction between a user and the application (ZIMS). The term User Interface is often abbreviated to UI, and is sometimes referred to as a graphical user interface, or GUI.
 
Validator (of data)
 
 
Vendor 1. Immediate past location or owner of animal or ultimate ownership of the animal. 2. any person or institution from which a specimen is acquired (i.e., by purchase, donation, trade, loan, etc.). This may include zoos and aquariums, private individuals, animal dealers, nature centres, government agencies (e.g., US Fish and Wildlife Service)
 
View Requested data displayed by filter.
 
Visit
 
 
Visual examination
 
 
Viviparous Producing young in a living state (as opposed to eggs), eg. most mammals, many reptiles, and some fish. Species in which full embryonic development occurs within the maternal body, after which offspring are born, eg most mammals, many reptiles and some fish.
 
Wild
 
 
Work process A series of tasks, activities, or events that lead to a particular result or outcome.
 
Workflow A graphical representation of all steps taken by an actor during a particular activity or task. In a use case, the steps from the basic and alternative flows are depicted. Also referred to as workflow diagrams. 20/07/04
ZIMS Technical Working Group Also known as ZTWG.
 
Zoological community Zoos, aquariums, wildlife parks and other related institutions that house and/or display captive collections of animals.