Fact-based information modeling language (see http://orm.net), relational mapper, and fact-oriented database query/update implementation to replace ActiveRecord, supporting a higher level of schema design abstraction, performance and concurrency.
D. Lawrie, C. Morrell, H. Feild, and D. Binkley. Proceedings of the 14th Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC '06), page 3--12. IEEE Computer Society, (2006)