Page 123 - Chiral Separation Techniques

100 4 CHIRBASE: Database Current Status and Derived Research Applications using …

in a file in an archive directory of submissions. A copy of the files is then sent to the
administrator. The export function of the REGISTER program causes the data to be
read and converted into a database of the same structure as the final database storing
all the existing chiral separations data. For each record, some fields (such as the sol-
vent or modifier molecular structures) are automatically calculated from the trans-
ferred information. The administrator can then choose to add each imported record
to the master CHIRBASE database and, if necessary, add further data or comments
to each record, thus ensuring the homogeneity of the available information on each
separation.
It is important to stress that in contrast to computer-generated derived databases,
a great deal of human involvement is necessary for the creation and updating of
entries.
The most complicated aspect of the CHIRBASE project effort is the actual incor-
poration and validation of data. It is largely due to the complexity of the problem and
to the difficulty of extracting and interpreting the relevant information, since the vast
majority of all useful data is disseminated in the papers rather than in a “user-read-
able” or a “computer-readable” form.
We are providing these tools to enter data into the database and trying to convince
chemists that it is in their own interest to participate with their data for use by the
community. This is a very important aspect of the project, as an increasing number
of results obtained as a result of analytical chiral methods are published without ade-
quate description of these tools.
The REGISTER application can also be easily modified to meet the requirements
of other organizations, which may use it for corporate data registration and storage
as a central depository of proprietary chiral separations.

Fig. 4-2. Screen of REGISTER (data registration tool for enantioseparations).