MetaBrowser: A combined browsing, query, and analysis tool

The MetaBrowser design is based on the premise that scientists should not be forced to learn new languages or commands for finding the data they are interested in and for selecting subsets of the data for further analysis. Furthermore, there should be a single system that permits browsing, query, and analysis of the data, so that the scientist does not have to switch between systems. The current version for the MetaBrowser was designed for the DOE CEDR (Comprehensive Epidemiological Data Resource) project, but the same principles can apply to other scientific disciplines. Browsing and query should be combined. It is quite natural for a user to explore the information in the database before deciding what subset of the data to select for further analysis. In general, if there is a large number of datasets (i.e. databases) in the system, then the user would want to find out information about the various datasets (called metadata), before choosing one or more datasets for further exploration. Thus, a metadatabase that holds information about datasets in the systems must exist.