en Adam Goldstein Alan Ruttenberg Albert Goldfain Barry Smith Bjoern Peters Carlo Torniai Chris Mungall Chris Stoeckert Christian A. Boelling Darren Natale David Osumi-Sutherland Gwen Frishkoff Holger Stenzhorn James A. Overton James Malone Jennifer Fostel Jie Zheng Jonathan Rees Larisa Soldatova Lawrence Hunter Mathias Brochhausen Matt Brush Melanie Courtot Michel Dumontier Paolo Ciccarese Pat Hayes Philippe Rocca-Serra Randy Dipert Ron Rudnicki Satya Sahoo Sivaram Arabandi Werner Ceusters William Duncan William Hogan Yongqun (Oliver) He http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ An information artifact is, loosely, a dependent continuant or its bearer that is created as the result of one or more intentional processes. Examples: uniprot, the english language, the contents of this document or a printout of it, the temperature measurements from a weather balloon. For more information, see the project home page at https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO The Information Artifact Ontology (IAO) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY) version 4.0. You are free to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose, even commercially. for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms. You must give appropriate credit (by using the original ontology IRI for the whole ontology and original term IRIs for individual terms), provide a link to the license, and indicate if any changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use. For more information see http://www.obofoundry.org/docs/Citation.html is part of my brain is part of my body (continuant parthood, two material entities) my stomach cavity is part of my stomach (continuant parthood, immaterial entity is part of material entity) this day is part of this year (occurrent parthood) a core relation that holds between a part and its whole Everything is part of itself. Any part of any part of a thing is itself part of that thing. Two distinct things cannot be part of each other. Occurrents are not subject to change and so parthood between occurrents holds for all the times that the part exists. Many continuants are subject to change, so parthood between continuants will only hold at certain times, but this is difficult to specify in OWL. See https://code.google.com/p/obo-relations/wiki/ROAndTime Parthood requires the part and the whole to have compatible classes: only an occurrent can be part of an occurrent; only a process can be part of a process; only a continuant can be part of a continuant; only an independent continuant can be part of an independent continuant; only an immaterial entity can be part of an immaterial entity; only a specifically dependent continuant can be part of a specifically dependent continuant; only a generically dependent continuant can be part of a generically dependent continuant. (This list is not exhaustive.) A continuant cannot be part of an occurrent: use 'participates in'. An occurrent cannot be part of a continuant: use 'has participant'. A material entity cannot be part of an immaterial entity: use 'has location'. A specifically dependent continuant cannot be part of an independent continuant: use 'inheres in'. An independent continuant cannot be part of a specifically dependent continuant: use 'bearer of'. part_of part of http://www.obofoundry.org/ro/#OBO_REL:part_of has part my body has part my brain (continuant parthood, two material entities) my stomach has part my stomach cavity (continuant parthood, material entity has part immaterial entity) this year has part this day (occurrent parthood) a core relation that holds between a whole and its part Everything has itself as a part. Any part of any part of a thing is itself part of that thing. Two distinct things cannot have each other as a part. Occurrents are not subject to change and so parthood between occurrents holds for all the times that the part exists. Many continuants are subject to change, so parthood between continuants will only hold at certain times, but this is difficult to specify in OWL. See https://code.google.com/p/obo-relations/wiki/ROAndTime Parthood requires the part and the whole to have compatible classes: only an occurrent have an occurrent as part; only a process can have a process as part; only a continuant can have a continuant as part; only an independent continuant can have an independent continuant as part; only a specifically dependent continuant can have a specifically dependent continuant as part; only a generically dependent continuant can have a generically dependent continuant as part. (This list is not exhaustive.) A continuant cannot have an occurrent as part: use 'participates in'. An occurrent cannot have a continuant as part: use 'has participant'. An immaterial entity cannot have a material entity as part: use 'location of'. An independent continuant cannot have a specifically dependent continuant as part: use 'bearer of'. A specifically dependent continuant cannot have an independent continuant as part: use 'inheres in'. has_part has part This document is about information artifacts and their representations is_about is a (currently) primitive relation that relates an information artifact to an entity. 7/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg. Following discussion with Jonathan Rees, and introduction of "mentions" relation. Weaken the is_about relationship to be primitive. We will try to build it back up by elaborating the various subproperties that are more precisely defined. Some currently missing phenomena that should be considered "about" are predications - "The only person who knows the answer is sitting beside me" , Allegory, Satire, and other literary forms that can be topical without explicitly mentioning the topic. person:Alan Ruttenberg Smith, Ceusters, Ruttenberg, 2000 years of philosophy is about entity Entity Julius Caesar Verdi’s Requiem the Second World War your body mass index BFO 2 Reference: In all areas of empirical inquiry we encounter general terms of two sorts. First are general terms which refer to universals or types:animaltuberculosissurgical procedurediseaseSecond, are general terms used to refer to groups of entities which instantiate a given universal but do not correspond to the extension of any subuniversal of that universal because there is nothing intrinsic to the entities in question by virtue of which they – and only they – are counted as belonging to the given group. Examples are: animal purchased by the Emperortuberculosis diagnosed on a Wednesdaysurgical procedure performed on a patient from Stockholmperson identified as candidate for clinical trial #2056-555person who is signatory of Form 656-PPVpainting by Leonardo da VinciSuch terms, which represent what are called ‘specializations’ in [81 Entity doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example Werner Ceusters 'portions of reality' include 4 sorts, entities (as BFO construes them), universals, configurations, and relations. It is an open question as to whether entities as construed in BFO will at some point also include these other portions of reality. See, for example, 'How to track absolutely everything' at http://www.referent-tracking.com/_RTU/papers/CeustersICbookRevised.pdf An entity is anything that exists or has existed or will exist. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [001-001]) entity Entity doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example Werner Ceusters 'portions of reality' include 4 sorts, entities (as BFO construes them), universals, configurations, and relations. It is an open question as to whether entities as construed in BFO will at some point also include these other portions of reality. See, for example, 'How to track absolutely everything' at http://www.referent-tracking.com/_RTU/papers/CeustersICbookRevised.pdf per discussion with Barry Smith An entity is anything that exists or has existed or will exist. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [001-001]) continuant Continuant An entity that exists in full at any time in which it exists at all, persists through time while maintaining its identity and has no temporal parts. BFO 2 Reference: Continuant entities are entities which can be sliced to yield parts only along the spatial dimension, yielding for example the parts of your table which we call its legs, its top, its nails. ‘My desk stretches from the window to the door. It has spatial parts, and can be sliced (in space) in two. With respect to time, however, a thing is a continuant.’ [60, p. 240 Continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example, in an expansion involving bringing in some of Ceuster's other portions of reality, questions are raised as to whether universals are continuants A continuant is an entity that persists, endures, or continues to exist through time while maintaining its identity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [008-002]) if b is a continuant and if, for some t, c has_continuant_part b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [126-001]) if b is a continuant and if, for some t, cis continuant_part of b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [009-002]) if b is a material entity, then there is some temporal interval (referred to below as a one-dimensional temporal region) during which b exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [011-002]) (forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (continuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [009-002] (forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (hasContinuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [126-001] (forall (x) (if (Continuant x) (Entity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [008-002] (forall (x) (if (Material Entity x) (exists (t) (and (TemporalRegion t) (existsAt x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [011-002] continuant (forall (x) (if (Continuant x) (Entity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [008-002] (forall (x) (if (Material Entity x) (exists (t) (and (TemporalRegion t) (existsAt x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [011-002] Continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. For example, in an expansion involving bringing in some of Ceuster's other portions of reality, questions are raised as to whether universals are continuants A continuant is an entity that persists, endures, or continues to exist through time while maintaining its identity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [008-002]) if b is a continuant and if, for some t, c has_continuant_part b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [126-001]) if b is a continuant and if, for some t, cis continuant_part of b at t, then c is a continuant. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [009-002]) if b is a material entity, then there is some temporal interval (referred to below as a one-dimensional temporal region) during which b exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [011-002]) (forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (continuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [009-002] (forall (x y) (if (and (Continuant x) (exists (t) (hasContinuantPartOfAt y x t))) (Continuant y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [126-001] realizable RealizableEntity the disposition of this piece of metal to conduct electricity. the disposition of your blood to coagulate the function of your reproductive organs the role of being a doctor the role of this boundary to delineate where Utah and Colorado meet A specifically dependent continuant that inheres in continuant entities and are not exhibited in full at every time in which it inheres in an entity or group of entities. The exhibition or actualization of a realizable entity is a particular manifestation, functioning or process that occurs under certain circumstances. To say that b is a realizable entity is to say that b is a specifically dependent continuant that inheres in some independent continuant which is not a spatial region and is of a type instances of which are realized in processes of a correlated type. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [058-002]) All realizable dependent continuants have independent continuants that are not spatial regions as their bearers. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [060-002]) (forall (x t) (if (RealizableEntity x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (bearerOfAt y x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [060-002] (forall (x) (if (RealizableEntity x) (and (SpecificallyDependentContinuant x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (inheresIn x y)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [058-002] realizable entity To say that b is a realizable entity is to say that b is a specifically dependent continuant that inheres in some independent continuant which is not a spatial region and is of a type instances of which are realized in processes of a correlated type. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [058-002]) All realizable dependent continuants have independent continuants that are not spatial regions as their bearers. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [060-002]) (forall (x t) (if (RealizableEntity x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (bearerOfAt y x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [060-002] (forall (x) (if (RealizableEntity x) (and (SpecificallyDependentContinuant x) (exists (y) (and (IndependentContinuant y) (not (SpatialRegion y)) (inheresIn x y)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [058-002] sdc SpecificallyDependentContinuant Reciprocal specifically dependent continuants: the function of this key to open this lock and the mutually dependent disposition of this lock: to be opened by this key of one-sided specifically dependent continuants: the mass of this tomato of relational dependent continuants (multiple bearers): John’s love for Mary, the ownership relation between John and this statue, the relation of authority between John and his subordinates. the disposition of this fish to decay the function of this heart: to pump blood the mutual dependence of proton donors and acceptors in chemical reactions [79 the mutual dependence of the role predator and the role prey as played by two organisms in a given interaction the pink color of a medium rare piece of grilled filet mignon at its center the role of being a doctor the shape of this hole. the smell of this portion of mozzarella A continuant that inheres in or is borne by other entities. Every instance of A requires some specific instance of B which must always be the same. b is a specifically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant & there is some independent continuant c which is not a spatial region and which is such that b s-depends_on c at every time t during the course of b’s existence. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [050-003]) Specifically dependent continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. We're not sure what else will develop here, but for example there are questions such as what are promises, obligation, etc. (iff (SpecificallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (forall (t) (if (existsAt a t) (exists (b) (and (IndependentContinuant b) (not (SpatialRegion b)) (specificallyDependsOnAt a b t))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [050-003] specifically dependent continuant b is a specifically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant & there is some independent continuant c which is not a spatial region and which is such that b s-depends_on c at every time t during the course of b’s existence. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [050-003]) Specifically dependent continuant doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. We're not sure what else will develop here, but for example there are questions such as what are promises, obligation, etc. per discussion with Barry Smith (iff (SpecificallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (forall (t) (if (existsAt a t) (exists (b) (and (IndependentContinuant b) (not (SpatialRegion b)) (specificallyDependsOnAt a b t))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [050-003] gdc GenericallyDependentContinuant The entries in your database are patterns instantiated as quality instances in your hard drive. The database itself is an aggregate of such patterns. When you create the database you create a particular instance of the generically dependent continuant type database. Each entry in the database is an instance of the generically dependent continuant type IAO: information content entity. the pdf file on your laptop, the pdf file that is a copy thereof on my laptop the sequence of this protein molecule; the sequence that is a copy thereof in that protein molecule. A continuant that is dependent on one or other independent continuant bearers. For every instance of A requires some instance of (an independent continuant type) B but which instance of B serves can change from time to time. b is a generically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant that g-depends_on one or more other entities. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [074-001]) (iff (GenericallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (exists (b t) (genericallyDependsOnAt a b t)))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [074-001] generically dependent continuant b is a generically dependent continuant = Def. b is a continuant that g-depends_on one or more other entities. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [074-001]) (iff (GenericallyDependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (exists (b t) (genericallyDependsOnAt a b t)))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [074-001] Pour the contents of flask 1 into flask 2 a directive information entity that describes an action the bearer will take Alan Ruttenberg OBI Plan and Planned Process branch action specification data item Data items include counts of things, analyte concentrations, and statistical summaries. a data item is an information content entity that is intended to be a truthful statement about something (modulo, e.g., measurement precision or other systematic errors) and is constructed/acquired by a method which reliably tends to produce (approximately) truthful statements. 2/2/2009 Alan and Bjoern discussing FACS run output data. This is a data item because it is about the cell population. Each element records an event and is typically further composed a set of measurment data items that record the fluorescent intensity stimulated by one of the lasers. 2009-03-16: data item deliberatly ambiguous: we merged data set and datum to be one entity, not knowing how to define singular versus plural. So data item is more general than datum. 2009-03-16: removed datum as alternative term as datum specifically refers to singular form, and is thus not an exact synonym. 2014-03-31: See discussion at http://odontomachus.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/aboutness-objects-propositions/ JAR: datum -- well, this will be very tricky to define, but maybe some information-like stuff that might be put into a computer and that is meant, by someone, to denote and/or to be interpreted by some process... I would include lists, tables, sentences... I think I might defer to Barry, or to Brian Cantwell Smith JAR: A data item is an approximately justified approximately true approximate belief PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg PERSON: Chris Stoeckert PERSON: Jonathan Rees data data item information content entity Examples of information content entites include journal articles, data, graphical layouts, and graphs. A generically dependent continuant that is about some thing. 2014-03-10: The use of "thing" is intended to be general enough to include universals and configurations (see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/information-ontology/GBxvYZCk1oc/-L6B5fSBBTQJ). information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some digital_entity in obi before split (040907). information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some physical_document in obi before split (040907). Previous. An information content entity is a non-realizable information entity that 'is encoded in' some digital or physical entity. PERSON: Chris Stoeckert OBI_0000142 information content entity An information content entity whose concretizations indicate to their bearer how to realize them in a process. 2009-03-16: provenance: a term realizable information entity was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000337) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was "is the specification of a process that can be concretized and realized by an actor" with alternative term "instruction".It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term. 2013-05-30 Alan Ruttenberg: What differentiates a directive information entity from an information concretization is that it can have concretizations that are either qualities or realizable entities. The concretizations that are realizable entities are created when an individual chooses to take up the direction, i.e. has the intention to (try to) realize it. 8/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: Changed label from "information entity about a realizable" after discussions at ICBO Werner pushed back on calling it realizable information entity as it isn't realizable. However this name isn't right either. An example would be a recipe. The realizable entity would be a plan, but the information entity isn't about the plan, it, once concretized, *is* the plan. -Alan PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg PERSON: Bjoern Peters directive information entity data set Intensity values in a CEL file or from multiple CEL files comprise a data set (as opposed to the CEL files themselves). A data item that is an aggregate of other data items of the same type that have something in common. Averages and distributions can be determined for data sets. 2009/10/23 Alan Ruttenberg. The intention is that this term represent collections of like data. So this isn't for, e.g. the whole contents of a cel file, which includes parameters, metadata etc. This is more like java arrays of a certain rather specific type 2014-05-05: Data sets are aggregates and thus must include two or more data items. We have chosen not to add logical axioms to make this restriction. person:Allyson Lister person:Chris Stoeckert OBI_0000042 group:OBI data set plan specification PMID: 18323827.Nat Med. 2008 Mar;14(3):226.New plan proposed to help resolve conflicting medical advice. A directive information entity with action specifications and objective specifications as parts that, when concretized, is realized in a process in which the bearer tries to achieve the objectives by taking the actions specified. 2009-03-16: provenance: a term a plan was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000344) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was " a plan is a specification of a process that is realized by an actor to achieve the objective specified as part of the plan". It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term. 2014-03-31: A plan specification can have other parts, such as conditional specifications. Alternative previous definition: a plan is a set of instructions that specify how an objective should be achieved Alan Ruttenberg OBI Plan and Planned Process branch OBI_0000344 2/3/2009 Comment from OBI review. Action specification not well enough specified. Conditional specification not well enough specified. Question whether all plan specifications have objective specifications. Request that IAO either clarify these or change definitions not to use them plan specification example to be eventually removed The term was used in an attempt to structure part of the ontology but in retrospect failed to do a good job Person:Alan Ruttenberg failed exploratory term Class has all its metadata, but is either not guaranteed to be in its final location in the asserted IS_A hierarchy or refers to another class that is not complete. metadata complete term created to ease viewing/sort terms for development purpose, and will not be included in a release organizational term Class has undergone final review, is ready for use, and will be included in the next release. Any class lacking "ready_for_release" should be considered likely to change place in hierarchy, have its definition refined, or be obsoleted in the next release. Those classes deemed "ready_for_release" will also derived from a chain of ancestor classes that are also "ready_for_release." ready for release Class is being worked on; however, the metadata (including definition) are not complete or sufficiently clear to the branch editors. metadata incomplete Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term. uncurated All definitions, placement in the asserted IS_A hierarchy and required minimal metadata are complete. The class is awaiting a final review by someone other than the term editor. pending final vetting Core is an instance of a grouping of terms from an ontology or ontologies. It is used by the ontology to identify main classes. PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg PERSON: Melanie Courtot core placeholder removed An editor note should explain what were the merged terms and the reason for the merge. terms merged This is to be used when the original term has been replaced by a term imported from an other ontology. An editor note should indicate what is the URI of the new term to use. term imported This is to be used when a term has been split in two or more new terms. An editor note should indicate the reason for the split and indicate the URIs of the new terms created. term split Hard to give a definition for. Intuitively a "natural kind" rather than a collection of any old things, which a class is able to be, formally. At the meta level, universals are defined as positives, are disjoint with their siblings, have single asserted parents. Alan Ruttenberg A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf universal A defined class is a class that is defined by a set of logically necessary and sufficient conditions but is not a universal "definitions", in some readings, always are given by necessary and sufficient conditions. So one must be careful (and this is difficult sometimes) to distinguish between defined classes and universal. Alan Ruttenberg defined class A named class expression is a logical expression that is given a name. The name can be used in place of the expression. named class expressions are used in order to have more concise logical definition but their extensions may not be interesting classes on their own. In languages such as OWL, with no provisions for macros, these show up as actuall classes. Tools may with to not show them as such, and to replace uses of the macros with their expansions Alan Ruttenberg named class expression Terms with this status should eventually replaced with a term from another ontology. Alan Ruttenberg group:OBI to be replaced with external ontology term A term that is metadata complete, has been reviewed, and problems have been identified that require discussion before release. Such a term requires editor note(s) to identify the outstanding issues. Alan Ruttenberg group:OBI requires discussion