Adam Goldstein
Alan Ruttenberg
Albert Goldfain
Barry Smith
Bjoern Peters
Carlo Torniai
Chris Mungall
Chris Stoeckert
Christian A. Boelling
Clint Dowland
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
The Information Artifact Ontology (IAO) is an ontology of information entities, originally driven by work by the OBI digital entity and realizable information entity branch.
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
IDs allocated to related efforts: PNO: IAO_0020000-IAO_0020999, D_ACTS: IAO_0021000-IAO_0021999
IDs allocated to subdomains of IAO. pno.owl: IAO_0020000-IAO_0020999, d-acts.owl: IAO_0021000-IAO_0021999
Relates an entity in the ontology to the name of the variable that is used to represent it in the code that generates the BFO OWL file from the lispy specification.
Really of interest to developers only
BFO OWL specification label
Relates an entity in the ontology to the term that is used to represent it in the the CLIF specification of BFO2
BFO CLIF specification label
editor preferred term
The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property preferred by the ontology developers. (US-English)
PERSON:Daniel Schober
example of usage
A phrase describing how a term should be used and/or a citation to a work which uses it. May also include other kinds of examples that facilitate immediate understanding, such as widely know prototypes or instances of a class, or cases where a relation is said to hold.
in branch
An annotation property indicating which module the terms belong to. This is currently experimental and not implemented yet.
has curation status
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON:Bill Bug
PERSON:Melanie Courtot
definition
The official definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions.
2012-04-05: Barry Smith The official OBI definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property: 'Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions' is terrible. Can you fix to something like: A statement of necessary and sufficient conditions explaining the meaning of an expression referring to a class or property. Alan Ruttenberg Your proposed definition is a reasonable candidate, except that it is very common that necessary and sufficient conditions are not given. Mostly they are necessary, occasionally they are necessary and sufficient or just sufficient. Often they use terms that are not themselves defined and so they effectively can't be evaluated by those criteria. On the specifics of the proposed definition: We don't have definitions of 'meaning' or 'expression' or 'property'. For 'reference' in the intended sense I think we use the term 'denotation'. For 'expression', I think we you mean symbol, or identifier. For 'meaning' it differs for class and property. For class we want documentation that let's the intended reader determine whether an entity is instance of the class, or not. For property we want documentation that let's the intended reader determine, given a pair of potential relata, whether the assertion that the relation holds is true. The 'intended reader' part suggests that we also specify who, we expect, would be able to understand the definition, and also generalizes over human and computer reader to include textual and logical definition. Personally, I am more comfortable weakening definition to documentation, with instructions as to what is desirable. We also have the outstanding issue of how to aim different definitions to different audiences. A clinical audience reading chebi wants a different sort of definition documentation/definition from a chemistry trained audience, and similarly there is a need for a definition that is adequate for an ontologist to work with.
editor note
An administrative note intended for its editor. It may not be included in the publication version of the ontology, so it should contain nothing necessary for end users to understand the ontology.
term editor
Name of editor entering the term in the file. The term editor is a point of contact for information regarding the term. The term editor may be, but is not always, the author of the definition, which may have been worked upon by several people
20110707, MC: label update to term editor and definition modified accordingly. See https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/115.
alternative label
A label for a class or property that can be used to refer to the class or property instead of the preferred rdfs:label. Alternative labels should be used to indicate community- or context-specific labels, abbreviations, shorthand forms and the like.
Consider re-defing to: An alternative name for a class or property which can mean the same thing as the preferred name (semantically equivalent, narrow, broad or related).
definition source
Formal citation, e.g. identifier in external database to indicate / attribute source(s) for the definition. Free text indicate / attribute source(s) for the definition. EXAMPLE: Author Name, URI, MeSH Term C04, PUBMED ID, Wiki uri on 31.01.2007
Discussion on obo-discuss mailing-list, see http://bit.ly/hgm99w
has obsolescence reason
Relates an annotation property to an obsolescence reason. The values of obsolescence reasons come from a list of predefined terms, instances of the class obsolescence reason specification.
curator note
An administrative note of use for a curator but of no use for a user
term tracker item
the URI for an OBI Terms ticket at sourceforge, such as https://sourceforge.net/p/obi/obi-terms/772/
An IRI or similar locator for a request or discussion of an ontology term.
Person: Jie Zheng, Chris Stoeckert, Alan Ruttenberg
The 'tracker item' can associate a tracker with a specific ontology term.
ontology term requester
The name of the person, project, or organization that motivated inclusion of an ontology term by requesting its addition.
The 'term requester' can credit the person, organization or project who request the ontology term.
is denotator type
Relates an class defined in an ontology, to the type of it's denotator
In OWL 2 add AnnotationPropertyRange('is denotator type' 'denotator type')
imported from
For external terms/classes, the ontology from which the term was imported
expand expression to
ObjectProperty: RO_0002104 Label: has plasma membrane part Annotations: IAO_0000424 "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some (http://purl.org/obo/owl/GO#GO_0005886 and http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?Y)"
A macro expansion tag applied to an object property (or possibly a data property) which can be used by a macro-expansion engine to generate more complex expressions from simpler ones
expand assertion to
ObjectProperty: RO??? Label: spatially disjoint from Annotations: expand_assertion_to "DisjointClasses: (http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?X) (http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/BFO_0000051 some ?Y)"
A macro expansion tag applied to an annotation property which can be expanded into a more detailed axiom.
first order logic expression
antisymmetric property
part_of antisymmetric property xsd:true
Use boolean value xsd:true to indicate that the property is an antisymmetric property
OBO foundry unique label
An alternative name for a class or property which is unique across the OBO Foundry.
The intended usage of that property is as follow: OBO foundry unique labels are automatically generated based on regular expressions provided by each ontology, so that SO could specify unique label = 'sequence ' + [label], etc. , MA could specify 'mouse + [label]' etc. Upon importing terms, ontology developers can choose to use the 'OBO foundry unique label' for an imported term or not. The same applies to tools .
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
PERSON:Chris Mungall
GROUP:OBO Foundry <http://obofoundry.org/>
has ID digit count
Ontology: <http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/idrange/> Annotations: 'has ID prefix': "http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/RO_" 'has ID digit count' : 7, rdfs:label "RO id policy" 'has ID policy for': "RO"
Relates an ontology used to record id policy to the number of digits in the URI. The URI is: the 'has ID prefix" annotation property value concatenated with an integer in the id range (left padded with "0"s to make this many digits)
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
has ID range allocated
Datatype: idrange:1 Annotations: 'has ID range allocated to': "Chris Mungall" EquivalentTo: xsd:integer[> 2151 , <= 2300]
Relates a datatype that encodes a range of integers to the name of the person or organization who can use those ids constructed in that range to define new terms
has ID range allocated to
has ID policy for
Relating an ontology used to record id policy to the ontology namespace whose policy it manages
has ID prefix
Relates an ontology used to record id policy to a prefix concatenated with an integer in the id range (left padded with "0"s to make this many digits) to construct an ID for a term being created.
elucidation
person:Alan Ruttenberg
Person:Barry Smith
Primitive terms in a highest-level ontology such as BFO are terms which are so basic to our understanding of reality that there is no way of defining them in a non-circular fashion. For these, therefore, we can provide only elucidations, supplemented by examples and by axioms
has associated axiom(nl)
An axiom associated with a term expressed using natural language
has associated axiom(fol)
An axiom expressed in first order logic using CLIF syntax
is allocated id range
Relates an ontology IRI to an (inclusive) range of IRIs in an OBO name space. The range is give as, e.g. "IAO_0020000-IAO_0020999"
Add as annotation triples in the granting ontology
retired from use as of
relates a class of CRID to the date after which further instances should not be made, according to the central authority
In OWL 2 add AnnotationPropertyRange xsd:dateTimeStamp
has ontology root term
Ontology annotation property. Relates an ontology to a term that is a designated root term of the ontology. Display tools like OLS can use terms annotated with this property as the starting point for rendering the ontology class hierarchy. There can be more than one root.
Nicolas Matentzoglu
may be identical to
A annotation relationship between two terms in an ontology that may refer to the same (natural) type but where more evidence is required before terms are merged.
VFB
Edges asserting this should be annotated with to record evidence supporting the assertion and its provenance.
scheduled for obsoletion on or after
Used when the class or object is scheduled for obsoletion/deprecation on or after a particular date.
Chris Mungall, Jie Zheng
GO ontology
has axiom id
A URI that is intended to be unique label for an axiom used for tracking change to the ontology. For an axiom expressed in different languages, each expression is given the same URI
has axiom label
term replaced by
Use on obsolete terms, relating the term to another term that can be used as a substitute
This is an annotation used on an object property to indicate a logical characterstic beyond what is possible in OWL.
logical characteristic of object property
'part disjoint with' 'defined by construct' """ PREFIX owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> PREFIX : <http://example.org/ CONSTRUCT { [ a owl:Restriction ; owl:onProperty :part_of ; owl:someValuesFrom ?a ; owl:disjointWith [ a owl:Restriction ; owl:onProperty :part_of ; owl:someValuesFrom ?b ] ] } WHERE { ?a :part_disjoint_with ?b . }
Links an annotation property to a SPARQL CONSTRUCT query which is meant to provide semantics for a shortcut relation.
An assertion that holds between an OWL Object Property and a temporal interpretation that elucidates how OWL Class Axioms that use this property are to be interpreted in a temporal context.
temporal interpretation
An alternative label for a class or property which has a more general meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has broad synonym
An alternative label for a class or property which has the exact same meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has exact synonym
An alternative label for a class or property which has a more specific meaning than the preferred name/primary label.
has narrow synonym
An alternative label for a class or property that has been used synonymously with the primary term name, but the usage is not strictly correct.
has related synonym
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 http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/docs/temporal-semantics/
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
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.
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
realized in
this disease is realized in this disease course
this fragility is realized in this shattering
this investigator role is realized in this investigation
is realized by
realized_in
[copied from inverse property 'realizes'] to say that b realizes c at t is to assert that there is some material entity d & b is a process which has participant d at t & c is a disposition or role of which d is bearer_of at t& the type instantiated by b is correlated with the type instantiated by c. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [059-003])
Paraphrase of elucidation: a relation between a realizable entity and a process, where there is some material entity that is bearer of the realizable entity and participates in the process, and the realizable entity comes to be realized in the course of the process
realizes
this disease course realizes this disease
this investigation realizes this investigator role
this shattering realizes this fragility
to say that b realizes c at t is to assert that there is some material entity d & b is a process which has participant d at t & c is a disposition or role of which d is bearer_of at t& the type instantiated by b is correlated with the type instantiated by c. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [059-003])
Paraphrase of elucidation: a relation between a process and a realizable entity, where there is some material entity that is bearer of the realizable entity and participates in the process, and the realizable entity comes to be realized in the course of the process
occurs in
b occurs_in c =def b is a process and c is a material entity or immaterial entity& there exists a spatiotemporal region r and b occupies_spatiotemporal_region r.& forall(t) if b exists_at t then c exists_at t & there exist spatial regions s and s’ where & b spatially_projects_onto s at t& c is occupies_spatial_region s’ at t& s is a proper_continuant_part_of s’ at t
occurs_in
unfolds in
unfolds_in
Paraphrase of definition: a relation between a process and an independent continuant, in which the process takes place entirely within the independent continuant
site of
[copied from inverse property 'occurs in'] b occurs_in c =def b is a process and c is a material entity or immaterial entity& there exists a spatiotemporal region r and b occupies_spatiotemporal_region r.& forall(t) if b exists_at t then c exists_at t & there exist spatial regions s and s’ where & b spatially_projects_onto s at t& c is occupies_spatial_region s’ at t& s is a proper_continuant_part_of s’ at t
Paraphrase of definition: a relation between an independent continuant and a process, in which the process takes place entirely within the independent continuant
contains process
has measurement unit label
The process of creation is, for example, writing down on paper the name of a friend by deliberately creating a certain pattern using ink. Here the ink + paper is the independent continuant and the carrier is the pattern in the ink. c = pattern in the ink b = paper + ink r = friend
c specifically denotes r =def r is a portion of reality & c is a particular quality & c depends specifically on some independent continuant b & b acquired c as the result of the achievement of an objective to enable pointing to r repeatedly. Marked means there is a changed or additional quality of the bearer - the quality is the information carrier. Case 1 Memory trace as mark created when reading some description of some friend. The trace can denote. Case 2 Pattern of ink arrayed on paper as mark when writing down a friend's name Case 3 Pattern of magnetic domains on scattered pieces of a hard disk platter as mark when saving a file.
8/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: The suggestions is to deprecate specific and generically denotes in favor of a single denote relationship that corresponds to the generic sense
see https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/25&q=denote
Smith, Ceusters, Ruttenberg, 2000 years of philosophy
This document is about information artifacts and their representations
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.
is about
An information artifact IA mentions an entity E exactly when it has a component/part that denotes E
7/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg. P4 RC1 munges our GCI so remove it for now: mentions some entity equivalentTo has_part some ('generically denotes' some entity)
7/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: Add this relation following conversation with Jonathan Rees that N&S GCI for is_about was too strong. Really it was simply sufficient. To effect this change we introduce this relation, which is subproperty of is_about, and have previous GCI use this relation "mentions" in it's (logical) definition
PERSON: Jonathan Rees
Person: Alan Ruttenberg
mentions
Inverse of the relation 'mentions'
mentioned by
A person's name denotes the person. A variable name in a computer program denotes some piece of memory. Lexically equivalent strings can denote different things, for instance "Alan" can denote different people. In each case of use, there is a case of the denotation relation obtaining, between "Alan" and the person that is being named.
A primitive, instance-level, relation obtaining between an information content entity and some portion of reality. Denotation is what happens when someone creates an information content entity E in order to specifically refer to something. The only relation between E and the thing is that E can be used to 'pick out' the thing. This relation connects those two together. Freedictionary.com sense 3: To signify directly; refer to specifically
2009-11-10 Alan Ruttenberg. Old definition said the following to emphasize the generic nature of this relation. We no longer have 'specifically denotes', which would have been primitive, so make this relation primitive. g denotes r =def r is a portion of reality there is some c that is a concretization of g every c that is a concretization of g specifically denotes r
Conversations with Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters, Bjoern Peters, Michel Dumontier, Melanie Courtot, James Malone, Bill Hogan
denotes
m is a quality measurement of q at t. When q is a quality, there is a measurement process p that has specified output m, a measurement datum, that is about q
8/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: The strategy is to be rather specific with this relationship. There are other kinds of measurements that are not of qualities, such as those that measure time. We will add these as separate properties for the moment and see about generalizing later
From the second IAO workshop [Alan Ruttenberg 8/6/2009: not completely current, though bringing in comparison is probably important] This one is the one we are struggling with at the moment. The issue is what a measurement measures. On the one hand saying that it measures the quality would include it "measuring" the bearer = referring to the bearer in the measurement. However this makes comparisons of two different things not possible. On the other hand not having it inhere in the bearer, on the face of it, breaks the audit trail. Werner suggests a solution based on "Magnitudes" a proposal for which we are awaiting details. -- From the second IAO workshop, various comments, [commented on by Alan Ruttenberg 8/6/2009] unit of measure is a quality, e.g. the length of a ruler. [We decided to hedge on what units of measure are, instead talking about measurement unit labels, which are the information content entities that are about whatever measurement units are. For IAO we need that information entity in any case. See the term measurement unit label] [Some struggling with the various subflavors of is_about. We subsequently removed the relation represents, and describes until and only when we have a better theory] a represents b means either a denotes b or a describes describe: a describes b means a is about b and a allows an inference of at least one quality of b We have had a long discussion about denotes versus describes.
From the second IAO workshop: An attempt at tieing the quality to the measurement datum more carefully. a is a magnitude means a is a determinate quality particular inhering in some bearer b existing at a time t that can be represented/denoted by an information content entity e that has parts denoting a unit of measure, a number, and b. The unit of measure is an instance of the determinable quality.
From the second meeting on IAO: An attempt at defining assay using Barry's "reliability" wording assay: process and has_input some material entity and has_output some information content entity and which is such that instances of this process type reliably generate outputs that describes the input.
This one is the one we are struggling with at the moment. The issue is what a measurement measures. On the one hand saying that it measures the quality would include it "measuring" the bearer = referring to the bearer in the measurement. However this makes comparisons of two different things not possible. On the other hand not having it inhere in the bearer, on the face of it, breaks the audit trail. Werner suggests a solution based on "Magnitudes" a proposal for which we are awaiting details.
is quality measurement of
inverse of the relation 'denotes'
Person: Jie Zheng, Chris Stoeckert, Mike Conlon
denoted by
relating a cartesian spatial coordinate datum to a unit label that together with the values represent a point
has coordinate unit label
relates a process to a time-measurement-datum that represents the duration of the process
is duration of
inverse of the relation of is quality measurement of
2009/10/19 Alan Ruttenberg. Named 'junk' relation useful in restrictions, but not a real instance relationship
is quality measured as
A relation between a data item and a quality of a material entity where the material entity is the specified output of a material transformation which achieves an objective specification that indicates the intended value of the specified quality.
Person:Bjoern Peters
is quality specification of
inverse of the relation of is quality specification of
quality is specified as
relates a time stamped measurement datum to the time measurement datum that denotes the time when the measurement was taken
has time stamp
relates a time stamped measurement datum to the measurement datum that was measured
has measurement datum
has_specified_input
see is_input_of example_of_usage
The inverse property of is_specified_input_of
8/17/09: specified inputs of one process are not necessarily specified inputs of a larger process that it is part of. This is in contrast to how 'has participant' works.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
is_specified_input_of
has_specified_output
The inverse property of is_specified_output_of
is_specified_output_of
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process. The presence of the continuant at the end of the process is explicitly specified in the objective specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
inheres in
this fragility is a characteristic of this vase
this red color is a characteristic of this apple
a relation between a specifically dependent continuant (the characteristic) and any other entity (the bearer), in which the characteristic depends on the bearer for its existence.
inheres_in
Note that this relation was previously called "inheres in", but was changed to be called "characteristic of" because BFO2 uses "inheres in" in a more restricted fashion. This relation differs from BFO2:inheres_in in two respects: (1) it does not impose a range constraint, and thus it allows qualities of processes, as well as of information entities, whereas BFO2 restricts inheres_in to only apply to independent continuants (2) it is declared functional, i.e. something can only be a characteristic of one thing.
characteristic of
bearer of
this apple is bearer of this red color
this vase is bearer of this fragility
Inverse of characteristic_of
A bearer can have many dependents, and its dependents can exist for different periods of time, but none of its dependents can exist when the bearer does not exist.
bearer_of
is bearer of
has characteristic
participates in
this blood clot participates in this blood coagulation
this input material (or this output material) participates in this process
this investigator participates in this investigation
a relation between a continuant and a process, in which the continuant is somehow involved in the process
participates_in
has participant
this blood coagulation has participant this blood clot
this investigation has participant this investigator
this process has participant this input material (or this output material)
a relation between a process and a continuant, in which the continuant is somehow involved in the process
Has_participant is a primitive instance-level relation between a process, a continuant, and a time at which the continuant participates in some way in the process. The relation obtains, for example, when this particular process of oxygen exchange across this particular alveolar membrane has_participant this particular sample of hemoglobin at this particular time.
has_participant
A journal article is an information artifact that inheres in some number of printed journals. For each copy of the printed journal there is some quality that carries the journal article, such as a pattern of ink. The journal article (a generically dependent continuant) is concretized as the quality (a specifically dependent continuant), and both depend on that copy of the printed journal (an independent continuant).
An investigator reads a protocol and forms a plan to carry out an assay. The plan is a realizable entity (a specifically dependent continuant) that concretizes the protocol (a generically dependent continuant), and both depend on the investigator (an independent continuant). The plan is then realized by the assay (a process).
A relationship between a generically dependent continuant and a specifically dependent continuant, in which the generically dependent continuant depends on some independent continuant in virtue of the fact that the specifically dependent continuant also depends on that same independent continuant. A generically dependent continuant may be concretized as multiple specifically dependent continuants.
is concretized as
A journal article is an information artifact that inheres in some number of printed journals. For each copy of the printed journal there is some quality that carries the journal article, such as a pattern of ink. The quality (a specifically dependent continuant) concretizes the journal article (a generically dependent continuant), and both depend on that copy of the printed journal (an independent continuant).
A relationship between a specifically dependent continuant and a generically dependent continuant, in which the generically dependent continuant depends on some independent continuant in virtue of the fact that the specifically dependent continuant also depends on that same independent continuant. Multiple specifically dependent continuants can concretize the same generically dependent continuant.
concretizes
this catalysis function is a function of this enzyme
a relation between a function and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the function specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A function inheres in its bearer at all times for which the function exists, however the function need not be realized at all the times that the function exists.
function_of
is function of
This relation is modeled after the BFO relation of the same name which was in BFO2, but is used in a more restricted sense - specifically, we model this relation as functional (inherited from characteristic-of). Note that this relation is now removed from BFO2020.
function of
this red color is a quality of this apple
a relation between a quality and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the quality specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A quality inheres in its bearer at all times for which the quality exists.
is quality of
quality_of
quality of
this investigator role is a role of this person
a relation between a role and an independent continuant (the bearer), in which the role specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A role inheres in its bearer at all times for which the role exists, however the role need not be realized at all the times that the role exists.
is role of
role_of
role of
this enzyme has function this catalysis function (more colloquially: this enzyme has this catalysis function)
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a function, in which the function specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many functions, and its functions can exist for different periods of time, but none of its functions can exist when the bearer does not exist. A function need not be realized at all the times that the function exists.
has_function
has function
this apple has quality this red color
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a quality, in which the quality specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many qualities, and its qualities can exist for different periods of time, but none of its qualities can exist when the bearer does not exist.
has_quality
has quality
this person has role this investigator role (more colloquially: this person has this role of investigator)
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a role, in which the role specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
A bearer can have many roles, and its roles can exist for different periods of time, but none of its roles can exist when the bearer does not exist. A role need not be realized at all the times that the role exists.
has_role
has role
a relation between an independent continuant (the bearer) and a disposition, in which the disposition specifically depends on the bearer for its existence
has disposition
disposition of
this cell derives from this parent cell (cell division)
this nucleus derives from this parent nucleus (nuclear division)
a relation between two distinct material entities, the new entity and the old entity, in which the new entity begins to exist when the old entity ceases to exist, and the new entity inherits the significant portion of the matter of the old entity
This is a very general relation. More specific relations are preferred when applicable, such as 'directly develops from'.
derives_from
derives from
this parent cell derives into this cell (cell division)
this parent nucleus derives into this nucleus (nuclear division)
a relation between two distinct material entities, the old entity and the new entity, in which the new entity begins to exist when the old entity ceases to exist, and the new entity inherits the significant portion of the matter of the old entity
This is a very general relation. More specific relations are preferred when applicable, such as 'directly develops into'. To avoid making statements about a future that may not come to pass, it is often better to use the backward-looking 'derives from' rather than the forward-looking 'derives into'.
derives_into
derives into
is location of
my head is the location of my brain
this cage is the location of this rat
a relation between two independent continuants, the location and the target, in which the target is entirely within the location
Most location relations will only hold at certain times, but this is difficult to specify in OWL. See http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/ro/docs/temporal-semantics/
location_of
location of
located in
my brain is located in my head
this rat is located in this cage
a relation between two independent continuants, the target and the location, in which the target is entirely within the location
Location as a relation between instances: The primitive instance-level relation c located_in r at t reflects the fact that each continuant is at any given time associated with exactly one spatial region, namely its exact location. Following we can use this relation to define a further instance-level location relation - not between a continuant and the region which it exactly occupies, but rather between one continuant and another. c is located in c1, in this sense, whenever the spatial region occupied by c is part_of the spatial region occupied by c1. Note that this relation comprehends both the relation of exact location between one continuant and another which obtains when r and r1 are identical (for example, when a portion of fluid exactly fills a cavity), as well as those sorts of inexact location relations which obtain, for example, between brain and head or between ovum and uterus
located_in
This is redundant with the more specific 'independent and not spatial region' constraint. We leave in the redundant axiom for use with reasoners that do not use negation.
the surface of my skin is a 2D boundary of my body
a relation between a 2D immaterial entity (the boundary) and a material entity, in which the boundary delimits the material entity
A 2D boundary may have holes and gaps, but it must be a single connected entity, not an aggregate of several disconnected parts.
Although the boundary is two-dimensional, it exists in three-dimensional space and thus has a 3D shape.
2D_boundary_of
boundary of
is 2D boundary of
is boundary of
2D boundary of
my body has 2D boundary the surface of my skin
a relation between a material entity and a 2D immaterial entity (the boundary), in which the boundary delimits the material entity
has boundary
has_2D_boundary
has 2D boundary
An organism that is a member of a population of organisms
is member of is a mereological relation between a item and a collection.
member of
has member is a mereological relation between a collection and an item.
has member
DEPRECATED This relation is similar to but different in important respects to the characteristic-of relation. See comments on that relation for more information.
DEPRECATED inheres in
DEPRECATED bearer of
has measurement value
has x coordinate value
has z coordinate value
has y coordinate value
A planned process that has specified output a software product and that involves the creation of source code.
William R. Hogan
A planned process resulting in a software product involving the creation of source code.
software development
A measurement datum that is the output of counting.
count
The planned process of finding the number of elements in a finite set of objects.
counting
software source code version control repository
A document that comprises at least one source code module and provenance data about who contributed the set of files making up the module(s), and optionally comprises also multiple versions of files with detailed change history about who committed files and when, a license for the software, readme files, documentation, executables, etc.
Refers to the stuff that lives on GitHub, not to GitHub or the git software on which it is based
source code repository
process of compiling software
A planned process that converts human-written or curated software into a machine-executable or interpretable set of instructions.
It's compiling "software" (scare quotes) and not "source code" because you can compile Java bytecode to machine code, and Java bytecode is not technically "source code". Compiling source code would be a subclass of this class (as would compiling Java bytecode, etc.).
Source code can be automatically generated to some extent, but we're assuming humans still curate it minimally. Also, in the case of Java and its JVM, it's machine interpretable instructions, not directly executable. Ditto for other languages with intermediate form like Java byte code.
compiling software
creating a data set
A planned process that has a data set as its specified output.
data set creation
dataset creation
dataset creating
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
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
An entity that has temporal parts and that happens, unfolds or develops through time.
BFO 2 Reference: every occurrent that is not a temporal or spatiotemporal region is s-dependent on some independent continuant that is not a spatial region
BFO 2 Reference: s-dependence obtains between every process and its participants in the sense that, as a matter of necessity, this process could not have existed unless these or those participants existed also. A process may have a succession of participants at different phases of its unfolding. Thus there may be different players on the field at different times during the course of a football game; but the process which is the entire game s-depends_on all of these players nonetheless. Some temporal parts of this process will s-depend_on on only some of the players.
Occurrent doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the sum of a process and the process boundary of another process.
Simons uses different terminology for relations of occurrents to regions: Denote the spatio-temporal location of a given occurrent e by 'spn[e]' and call this region its span. We may say an occurrent is at its span, in any larger region, and covers any smaller region. Now suppose we have fixed a frame of reference so that we can speak not merely of spatio-temporal but also of spatial regions (places) and temporal regions (times). The spread of an occurrent, (relative to a frame of reference) is the space it exactly occupies, and its spell is likewise the time it exactly occupies. We write 'spr[e]' and `spl[e]' respectively for the spread and spell of e, omitting mention of the frame.
An occurrent is an entity that unfolds itself in time or it is the instantaneous boundary of such an entity (for example a beginning or an ending) or it is a temporal or spatiotemporal region which such an entity occupies_temporal_region or occupies_spatiotemporal_region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [077-002])
Every occurrent occupies_spatiotemporal_region some spatiotemporal region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [108-001])
b is an occurrent entity iff b is an entity that has temporal parts. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [079-001])
(forall (x) (if (Occurrent x) (exists (r) (and (SpatioTemporalRegion r) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion x r))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [108-001]
(forall (x) (iff (Occurrent x) (and (Entity x) (exists (y) (temporalPartOf y x))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [079-001]
occurrent
a chair
a heart
a leg
a molecule
a spatial region
an atom
an orchestra.
an organism
the bottom right portion of a human torso
the interior of your mouth
b is an independent continuant = Def. b is a continuant which is such that there is no c and no t such that b s-depends_on c at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [017-002])
For any independent continuant b and any time t there is some spatial region r such that b is located_in r at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [134-001])
For every independent continuant b and time t during the region of time spanned by its life, there are entities which s-depends_on b during t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [018-002])
(forall (x t) (if (IndependentContinuant x) (exists (r) (and (SpatialRegion r) (locatedInAt x r t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [134-001]
(forall (x t) (if (and (IndependentContinuant x) (existsAt x t)) (exists (y) (and (Entity y) (specificallyDependsOnAt y x t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [018-002]
(iff (IndependentContinuant a) (and (Continuant a) (not (exists (b t) (specificallyDependsOnAt a b t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [017-002]
independent continuant
BFO 2 Reference: Spatial regions do not participate in processes.
Spatial region doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the union of a spatial point and a spatial line that doesn't overlap the point, or two spatial lines that intersect at a single point. In both cases the resultant spatial region is neither 0-dimensional, 1-dimensional, 2-dimensional, or 3-dimensional.
A spatial region is a continuant entity that is a continuant_part_of spaceR as defined relative to some frame R. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [035-001])
All continuant parts of spatial regions are spatial regions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [036-001])
(forall (x y t) (if (and (SpatialRegion x) (continuantPartOfAt y x t)) (SpatialRegion y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [036-001]
(forall (x) (if (SpatialRegion x) (Continuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [035-001]
spatial region
Temporal region doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the mereological sum of a temporal instant and a temporal interval that doesn't overlap the instant. In this case the resultant temporal region is neither 0-dimensional nor 1-dimensional
A temporal region is an occurrent entity that is part of time as defined relative to some reference frame. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [100-001])
All parts of temporal regions are temporal regions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [101-001])
Every temporal region t is such that t occupies_temporal_region t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [119-002])
(forall (r) (if (TemporalRegion r) (occupiesTemporalRegion r r))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [119-002]
(forall (x y) (if (and (TemporalRegion x) (occurrentPartOf y x)) (TemporalRegion y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [101-001]
(forall (x) (if (TemporalRegion x) (Occurrent x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [100-001]
temporal region
an infinitely thin plane in space.
the surface of a sphere-shaped part of space
A two-dimensional spatial region is a spatial region that is of two dimensions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [039-001])
(forall (x) (if (TwoDimensionalSpatialRegion x) (SpatialRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [039-001]
two-dimensional spatial region
the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life
the spatiotemporal region occupied by a process of cellular meiosis.
the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor
A spatiotemporal region is an occurrent entity that is part of spacetime. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [095-001])
All parts of spatiotemporal regions are spatiotemporal regions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [096-001])
Each spatiotemporal region at any time t projects_onto some spatial region at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [099-001])
Each spatiotemporal region projects_onto some temporal region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [098-001])
Every spatiotemporal region occupies_spatiotemporal_region itself.
Every spatiotemporal region s is such that s occupies_spatiotemporal_region s. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [107-002])
(forall (r) (if (SpatioTemporalRegion r) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion r r))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [107-002]
(forall (x t) (if (SpatioTemporalRegion x) (exists (y) (and (SpatialRegion y) (spatiallyProjectsOntoAt x y t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [099-001]
(forall (x y) (if (and (SpatioTemporalRegion x) (occurrentPartOf y x)) (SpatioTemporalRegion y))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [096-001]
(forall (x) (if (SpatioTemporalRegion x) (Occurrent x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [095-001]
(forall (x) (if (SpatioTemporalRegion x) (exists (y) (and (TemporalRegion y) (temporallyProjectsOnto x y))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [098-001]
spatiotemporal region
a process of cell-division, \ a beating of the heart
a process of meiosis
a process of sleeping
the course of a disease
the flight of a bird
the life of an organism
your process of aging.
p is a process = Def. p is an occurrent that has temporal proper parts and for some time t, p s-depends_on some material entity at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [083-003])
BFO 2 Reference: The realm of occurrents is less pervasively marked by the presence of natural units than is the case in the realm of independent continuants. Thus there is here no counterpart of ‘object’. In BFO 1.0 ‘process’ served as such a counterpart. In BFO 2.0 ‘process’ is, rather, the occurrent counterpart of ‘material entity’. Those natural – as contrasted with engineered, which here means: deliberately executed – units which do exist in the realm of occurrents are typically either parasitic on the existence of natural units on the continuant side, or they are fiat in nature. Thus we can count lives; we can count football games; we can count chemical reactions performed in experiments or in chemical manufacturing. We cannot count the processes taking place, for instance, in an episode of insect mating behavior.Even where natural units are identifiable, for example cycles in a cyclical process such as the beating of a heart or an organism’s sleep/wake cycle, the processes in question form a sequence with no discontinuities (temporal gaps) of the sort that we find for instance where billiard balls or zebrafish or planets are separated by clear spatial gaps. Lives of organisms are process units, but they too unfold in a continuous series from other, prior processes such as fertilization, and they unfold in turn in continuous series of post-life processes such as post-mortem decay. Clear examples of boundaries of processes are almost always of the fiat sort (midnight, a time of death as declared in an operating theater or on a death certificate, the initiation of a state of war)
(iff (Process a) (and (Occurrent a) (exists (b) (properTemporalPartOf b a)) (exists (c t) (and (MaterialEntity c) (specificallyDependsOnAt a c t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [083-003]
process
an atom of element X has the disposition to decay to an atom of element Y
certain people have a predisposition to colon cancer
children are innately disposed to categorize objects in certain ways.
the cell wall is disposed to filter chemicals in endocytosis and exocytosis
BFO 2 Reference: Dispositions exist along a strength continuum. Weaker forms of disposition are realized in only a fraction of triggering cases. These forms occur in a significant number of cases of a similar type.
b is a disposition means: b is a realizable entity & b’s bearer is some material entity & b is such that if it ceases to exist, then its bearer is physically changed, & b’s realization occurs when and because this bearer is in some special physical circumstances, & this realization occurs in virtue of the bearer’s physical make-up. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [062-002])
If b is a realizable entity then for all t at which b exists, b s-depends_on some material entity at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [063-002])
(forall (x t) (if (and (RealizableEntity x) (existsAt x t)) (exists (y) (and (MaterialEntity y) (specificallyDepends x y t))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [063-002]
(forall (x) (if (Disposition x) (and (RealizableEntity x) (exists (y) (and (MaterialEntity y) (bearerOfAt x y t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [062-002]
disposition
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
A zero-dimensional spatial region is a point in space. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [037-001])
(forall (x) (if (ZeroDimensionalSpatialRegion x) (SpatialRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [037-001]
zero-dimensional spatial region
the ambient temperature of this portion of air
the color of a tomato
the length of the circumference of your waist
the mass of this piece of gold.
the shape of your nose
the shape of your nostril
a quality is a specifically dependent continuant that, in contrast to roles and dispositions, does not require any further process in order to be realized. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [055-001])
If an entity is a quality at any time that it exists, then it is a quality at every time that it exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [105-001])
(forall (x) (if (Quality x) (SpecificallyDependentContinuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [055-001]
(forall (x) (if (exists (t) (and (existsAt x t) (Quality x))) (forall (t_1) (if (existsAt x t_1) (Quality x))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [105-001]
quality
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 shape of this hole.
the smell of this portion of mozzarella
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
John’s role of husband to Mary is dependent on Mary’s role of wife to John, and both are dependent on the object aggregate comprising John and Mary as member parts joined together through the relational quality of being married.
the priest role
the role of a boundary to demarcate two neighboring administrative territories
the role of a building in serving as a military target
the role of a stone in marking a property boundary
the role of subject in a clinical trial
the student role
A realizable entity the manifestation of which brings about some result or end that is not essential to a continuant in virtue of the kind of thing that it is but that can be served or participated in by that kind of continuant in some kinds of natural, social or institutional contexts.
BFO 2 Reference: One major family of examples of non-rigid universals involves roles, and ontologies developed for corresponding administrative purposes may consist entirely of representatives of entities of this sort. Thus ‘professor’, defined as follows,b instance_of professor at t =Def. there is some c, c instance_of professor role & c inheres_in b at t.denotes a non-rigid universal and so also do ‘nurse’, ‘student’, ‘colonel’, ‘taxpayer’, and so forth. (These terms are all, in the jargon of philosophy, phase sortals.) By using role terms in definitions, we can create a BFO conformant treatment of such entities drawing on the fact that, while an instance of professor may be simultaneously an instance of trade union member, no instance of the type professor role is also (at any time) an instance of the type trade union member role (any more than any instance of the type color is at any time an instance of the type length).If an ontology of employment positions should be defined in terms of roles following the above pattern, this enables the ontology to do justice to the fact that individuals instantiate the corresponding universals – professor, sergeant, nurse – only during certain phases in their lives.
b is a role means: b is a realizable entity & b exists because there is some single bearer that is in some special physical, social, or institutional set of circumstances in which this bearer does not have to be& b is not such that, if it ceases to exist, then the physical make-up of the bearer is thereby changed. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [061-001])
(forall (x) (if (Role x) (RealizableEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [061-001]
role
or with divisions drawn by cognitive subjects for practical reasons, such as the division of a cake (before slicing) into (what will become) slices (and thus member parts of an object aggregate). However, this does not mean that fiat object parts are dependent for their existence on divisions or delineations effected by cognitive subjects. If, for example, it is correct to conceive geological layers of the Earth as fiat object parts of the Earth, then even though these layers were first delineated in recent times, still existed long before such delineation and what holds of these layers (for example that the oldest layers are also the lowest layers) did not begin to hold because of our acts of delineation.Treatment of material entity in BFOExamples viewed by some as problematic cases for the trichotomy of fiat object part, object, and object aggregate include: a mussel on (and attached to) a rock, a slime mold, a pizza, a cloud, a galaxy, a railway train with engine and multiple carriages, a clonal stand of quaking aspen, a bacterial community (biofilm), a broken femur. Note that, as Aristotle already clearly recognized, such problematic cases – which lie at or near the penumbra of instances defined by the categories in question – need not invalidate these categories. The existence of grey objects does not prove that there are not objects which are black and objects which are white; the existence of mules does not prove that there are not objects which are donkeys and objects which are horses. It does, however, show that the examples in question need to be addressed carefully in order to show how they can be fitted into the proposed scheme, for example by recognizing additional subdivisions [29
the FMA:regional parts of an intact human body.
the Western hemisphere of the Earth
the division of the brain into regions
the division of the planet into hemispheres
the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body
the upper and lower lobes of the left lung
BFO 2 Reference: Most examples of fiat object parts are associated with theoretically drawn divisions
b is a fiat object part = Def. b is a material entity which is such that for all times t, if b exists at t then there is some object c such that b proper continuant_part of c at t and c is demarcated from the remainder of c by a two-dimensional continuant fiat boundary. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [027-004])
(forall (x) (if (FiatObjectPart x) (and (MaterialEntity x) (forall (t) (if (existsAt x t) (exists (y) (and (Object y) (properContinuantPartOfAt x y t)))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [027-004]
fiat object part
an edge of a cube-shaped portion of space.
A one-dimensional spatial region is a line or aggregate of lines stretching from one point in space to another. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [038-001])
(forall (x) (if (OneDimensionalSpatialRegion x) (SpatialRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [038-001]
one-dimensional spatial region
a collection of cells in a blood biobank.
a swarm of bees is an aggregate of members who are linked together through natural bonds
a symphony orchestra
an organization is an aggregate whose member parts have roles of specific types (for example in a jazz band, a chess club, a football team)
defined by fiat: the aggregate of members of an organization
defined through physical attachment: the aggregate of atoms in a lump of granite
defined through physical containment: the aggregate of molecules of carbon dioxide in a sealed container
defined via attributive delimitations such as: the patients in this hospital
the aggregate of bearings in a constant velocity axle joint
the aggregate of blood cells in your body
the nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere
the restaurants in Palo Alto
your collection of Meissen ceramic plates.
An entity a is an object aggregate if and only if there is a mutually exhaustive and pairwise disjoint partition of a into objects
BFO 2 Reference: object aggregates may gain and lose parts while remaining numerically identical (one and the same individual) over time. This holds both for aggregates whose membership is determined naturally (the aggregate of cells in your body) and aggregates determined by fiat (a baseball team, a congressional committee).
ISBN:978-3-938793-98-5pp124-158#Thomas Bittner and Barry Smith, 'A Theory of Granular Partitions', in K. Munn and B. Smith (eds.), Applied Ontology: An Introduction, Frankfurt/Lancaster: ontos, 2008, 125-158.
b is an object aggregate means: b is a material entity consisting exactly of a plurality of objects as member_parts at all times at which b exists. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [025-004])
(forall (x) (if (ObjectAggregate x) (and (MaterialEntity x) (forall (t) (if (existsAt x t) (exists (y z) (and (Object y) (Object z) (memberPartOfAt y x t) (memberPartOfAt z x t) (not (= y z)))))) (not (exists (w t_1) (and (memberPartOfAt w x t_1) (not (Object w)))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [025-004]
object aggregate
a cube-shaped region of space
a sphere-shaped region of space,
A three-dimensional spatial region is a spatial region that is of three dimensions. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [040-001])
(forall (x) (if (ThreeDimensionalSpatialRegion x) (SpatialRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [040-001]
three-dimensional spatial region
Manhattan Canyon)
a hole in the interior of a portion of cheese
a rabbit hole
an air traffic control region defined in the airspace above an airport
the Grand Canyon
the Piazza San Marco
the cockpit of an aircraft
the hold of a ship
the interior of a kangaroo pouch
the interior of the trunk of your car
the interior of your bedroom
the interior of your office
the interior of your refrigerator
the lumen of your gut
your left nostril (a fiat part – the opening – of your left nasal cavity)
b is a site means: b is a three-dimensional immaterial entity that is (partially or wholly) bounded by a material entity or it is a three-dimensional immaterial part thereof. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [034-002])
(forall (x) (if (Site x) (ImmaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [034-002]
site
atom
cell
cells and organisms
engineered artifacts
grain of sand
molecule
organelle
organism
planet
solid portions of matter
star
BFO 2 Reference: BFO rests on the presupposition that at multiple micro-, meso- and macroscopic scales reality exhibits certain stable, spatially separated or separable material units, combined or combinable into aggregates of various sorts (for example organisms into what are called ‘populations’). Such units play a central role in almost all domains of natural science from particle physics to cosmology. Many scientific laws govern the units in question, employing general terms (such as ‘molecule’ or ‘planet’) referring to the types and subtypes of units, and also to the types and subtypes of the processes through which such units develop and interact. The division of reality into such natural units is at the heart of biological science, as also is the fact that these units may form higher-level units (as cells form multicellular organisms) and that they may also form aggregates of units, for example as cells form portions of tissue and organs form families, herds, breeds, species, and so on. At the same time, the division of certain portions of reality into engineered units (manufactured artifacts) is the basis of modern industrial technology, which rests on the distributed mass production of engineered parts through division of labor and on their assembly into larger, compound units such as cars and laptops. The division of portions of reality into units is one starting point for the phenomenon of counting.
BFO 2 Reference: Each object is such that there are entities of which we can assert unproblematically that they lie in its interior, and other entities of which we can assert unproblematically that they lie in its exterior. This may not be so for entities lying at or near the boundary between the interior and exterior. This means that two objects – for example the two cells depicted in Figure 3 – may be such that there are material entities crossing their boundaries which belong determinately to neither cell. Something similar obtains in certain cases of conjoined twins (see below).
BFO 2 Reference: To say that b is causally unified means: b is a material entity which is such that its material parts are tied together in such a way that, in environments typical for entities of the type in question,if c, a continuant part of b that is in the interior of b at t, is larger than a certain threshold size (which will be determined differently from case to case, depending on factors such as porosity of external cover) and is moved in space to be at t at a location on the exterior of the spatial region that had been occupied by b at t, then either b’s other parts will be moved in coordinated fashion or b will be damaged (be affected, for example, by breakage or tearing) in the interval between t and t.causal changes in one part of b can have consequences for other parts of b without the mediation of any entity that lies on the exterior of b. Material entities with no proper material parts would satisfy these conditions trivially. Candidate examples of types of causal unity for material entities of more complex sorts are as follows (this is not intended to be an exhaustive list):CU1: Causal unity via physical coveringHere the parts in the interior of the unified entity are combined together causally through a common membrane or other physical covering\. The latter points outwards toward and may serve a protective function in relation to what lies on the exterior of the entity [13, 47
BFO 2 Reference: an object is a maximal causally unified material entity
BFO 2 Reference: ‘objects’ are sometimes referred to as ‘grains’ [74
b is an object means: b is a material entity which manifests causal unity of one or other of the types CUn listed above & is of a type (a material universal) instances of which are maximal relative to this criterion of causal unity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [024-001])
object
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.
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
the function of a hammer to drive in nails
the function of a heart pacemaker to regulate the beating of a heart through electricity
the function of amylase in saliva to break down starch into sugar
BFO 2 Reference: In the past, we have distinguished two varieties of function, artifactual function and biological function. These are not asserted subtypes of BFO:function however, since the same function – for example: to pump, to transport – can exist both in artifacts and in biological entities. The asserted subtypes of function that would be needed in order to yield a separate monoheirarchy are not artifactual function, biological function, etc., but rather transporting function, pumping function, etc.
A function is a disposition that exists in virtue of the bearer’s physical make-up and this physical make-up is something the bearer possesses because it came into being, either through evolution (in the case of natural biological entities) or through intentional design (in the case of artifacts), in order to realize processes of a certain sort. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [064-001])
(forall (x) (if (Function x) (Disposition x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [064-001]
function
the boundary between the 2nd and 3rd year of your life.
p is a process boundary =Def. p is a temporal part of a process & p has no proper temporal parts. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [084-001])
Every process boundary occupies_temporal_region a zero-dimensional temporal region. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [085-002])
(forall (x) (if (ProcessBoundary x) (exists (y) (and (ZeroDimensionalTemporalRegion y) (occupiesTemporalRegion x y))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [085-002]
(iff (ProcessBoundary a) (exists (p) (and (Process p) (temporalPartOf a p) (not (exists (b) (properTemporalPartOf b a)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [084-001]
process boundary
the temporal region during which a process occurs.
BFO 2 Reference: A temporal interval is a special kind of one-dimensional temporal region, namely one that is self-connected (is without gaps or breaks).
A one-dimensional temporal region is a temporal region that is extended. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [103-001])
(forall (x) (if (OneDimensionalTemporalRegion x) (TemporalRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [103-001]
one-dimensional temporal region
a flame
a forest fire
a human being
a hurricane
a photon
a puff of smoke
a sea wave
a tornado
an aggregate of human beings.
an energy wave
an epidemic
the undetached arm of a human being
An independent continuant that is spatially extended whose identity is independent of that of other entities and can be maintained through time.
BFO 2 Reference: Material entities (continuants) can preserve their identity even while gaining and losing material parts. Continuants are contrasted with occurrents, which unfold themselves in successive temporal parts or phases [60
BFO 2 Reference: Object, Fiat Object Part and Object Aggregate are not intended to be exhaustive of Material Entity. Users are invited to propose new subcategories of Material Entity.
BFO 2 Reference: ‘Matter’ is intended to encompass both mass and energy (we will address the ontological treatment of portions of energy in a later version of BFO). A portion of matter is anything that includes elementary particles among its proper or improper parts: quarks and leptons, including electrons, as the smallest particles thus far discovered; baryons (including protons and neutrons) at a higher level of granularity; atoms and molecules at still higher levels, forming the cells, organs, organisms and other material entities studied by biologists, the portions of rock studied by geologists, the fossils studied by paleontologists, and so on.Material entities are three-dimensional entities (entities extended in three spatial dimensions), as contrasted with the processes in which they participate, which are four-dimensional entities (entities extended also along the dimension of time).According to the FMA, material entities may have immaterial entities as parts – including the entities identified below as sites; for example the interior (or ‘lumen’) of your small intestine is a part of your body. BFO 2.0 embodies a decision to follow the FMA here.
A material entity is an independent continuant that has some portion of matter as proper or improper continuant part. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [019-002])
Every entity which has a material entity as continuant part is a material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [020-002])
every entity of which a material entity is continuant part is also a material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [021-002])
(forall (x) (if (MaterialEntity x) (IndependentContinuant x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [019-002]
(forall (x) (if (and (Entity x) (exists (y t) (and (MaterialEntity y) (continuantPartOfAt x y t)))) (MaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [021-002]
(forall (x) (if (and (Entity x) (exists (y t) (and (MaterialEntity y) (continuantPartOfAt y x t)))) (MaterialEntity x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [020-002]
material entity
b is a continuant fiat boundary = Def. b is an immaterial entity that is of zero, one or two dimensions and does not include a spatial region as part. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [029-001])
BFO 2 Reference: In BFO 1.1 the assumption was made that the external surface of a material entity such as a cell could be treated as if it were a boundary in the mathematical sense. The new document propounds the view that when we talk about external surfaces of material objects in this way then we are talking about something fiat. To be dealt with in a future version: fiat boundaries at different levels of granularity.More generally, the focus in discussion of boundaries in BFO 2.0 is now on fiat boundaries, which means: boundaries for which there is no assumption that they coincide with physical discontinuities. The ontology of boundaries becomes more closely allied with the ontology of regions.
BFO 2 Reference: a continuant fiat boundary is a boundary of some material entity (for example: the plane separating the Northern and Southern hemispheres; the North Pole), or it is a boundary of some immaterial entity (for example of some portion of airspace). Three basic kinds of continuant fiat boundary can be distinguished (together with various combination kinds [29
Continuant fiat boundary doesn't have a closure axiom because the subclasses don't necessarily exhaust all possibilites. An example would be the mereological sum of two-dimensional continuant fiat boundary and a one dimensional continuant fiat boundary that doesn't overlap it. The situation is analogous to temporal and spatial regions.
Every continuant fiat boundary is located at some spatial region at every time at which it exists
(iff (ContinuantFiatBoundary a) (and (ImmaterialEntity a) (exists (b) (and (or (ZeroDimensionalSpatialRegion b) (OneDimensionalSpatialRegion b) (TwoDimensionalSpatialRegion b)) (forall (t) (locatedInAt a b t)))) (not (exists (c t) (and (SpatialRegion c) (continuantPartOfAt c a t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [029-001]
continuant fiat boundary
BFO 2 Reference: Immaterial entities are divided into two subgroups:boundaries and sites, which bound, or are demarcated in relation, to material entities, and which can thus change location, shape and size and as their material hosts move or change shape or size (for example: your nasal passage; the hold of a ship; the boundary of Wales (which moves with the rotation of the Earth) [38, 7, 10
immaterial entity
The Equator
all geopolitical boundaries
all lines of latitude and longitude
the line separating the outer surface of the mucosa of the lower lip from the outer surface of the skin of the chin.
the median sulcus of your tongue
a one-dimensional continuant fiat boundary is a continuous fiat line whose location is defined in relation to some material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [032-001])
(iff (OneDimensionalContinuantFiatBoundary a) (and (ContinuantFiatBoundary a) (exists (b) (and (OneDimensionalSpatialRegion b) (forall (t) (locatedInAt a b t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [032-001]
one-dimensional continuant fiat boundary
On a somewhat higher level of complexity are what we shall call rate process profiles, which are the targets of selective abstraction focused not on determinate quality magnitudes plotted over time, but rather on certain ratios between these magnitudes and elapsed times. A speed process profile, for example, is represented by a graph plotting against time the ratio of distance covered per unit of time. Since rates may change, and since such changes, too, may have rates of change, we have to deal here with a hierarchy of process profile universals at successive levels
One important sub-family of rate process profiles is illustrated by the beat or frequency profiles of cyclical processes, illustrated by the 60 beats per minute beating process of John’s heart, or the 120 beats per minute drumming process involved in one of John’s performances in a rock band, and so on. Each such process includes what we shall call a beat process profile instance as part, a subtype of rate process profile in which the salient ratio is not distance covered but rather number of beat cycles per unit of time. Each beat process profile instance instantiates the determinable universal beat process profile. But it also instantiates multiple more specialized universals at lower levels of generality, selected from rate process profilebeat process profileregular beat process profile3 bpm beat process profile4 bpm beat process profileirregular beat process profileincreasing beat process profileand so on.In the case of a regular beat process profile, a rate can be assigned in the simplest possible fashion by dividing the number of cycles by the length of the temporal region occupied by the beating process profile as a whole. Irregular process profiles of this sort, for example as identified in the clinic, or in the readings on an aircraft instrument panel, are often of diagnostic significance.
The simplest type of process profiles are what we shall call ‘quality process profiles’, which are the process profiles which serve as the foci of the sort of selective abstraction that is involved when measurements are made of changes in single qualities, as illustrated, for example, by process profiles of mass, temperature, aortic pressure, and so on.
b is a process_profile =Def. there is some process c such that b process_profile_of c (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [093-002])
b process_profile_of c holds when b proper_occurrent_part_of c& there is some proper_occurrent_part d of c which has no parts in common with b & is mutually dependent on b& is such that b, c and d occupy the same temporal region (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [094-005])
(forall (x y) (if (processProfileOf x y) (and (properContinuantPartOf x y) (exists (z t) (and (properOccurrentPartOf z y) (TemporalRegion t) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion x t) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion y t) (occupiesSpatioTemporalRegion z t) (not (exists (w) (and (occurrentPartOf w x) (occurrentPartOf w z))))))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [094-005]
(iff (ProcessProfile a) (exists (b) (and (Process b) (processProfileOf a b)))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [093-002]
process profile
a marriage bond, an instance of requited love, an obligation between one person and another.
b is a relational quality = Def. for some independent continuants c, d and for some time t: b quality_of c at t & b quality_of d at t. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [057-001])
(iff (RelationalQuality a) (exists (b c t) (and (IndependentContinuant b) (IndependentContinuant c) (qualityOfAt a b t) (qualityOfAt a c t)))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [057-001]
relational quality
a two-dimensional continuant fiat boundary (surface) is a self-connected fiat surface whose location is defined in relation to some material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [033-001])
(iff (TwoDimensionalContinuantFiatBoundary a) (and (ContinuantFiatBoundary a) (exists (b) (and (TwoDimensionalSpatialRegion b) (forall (t) (locatedInAt a b t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [033-001]
two-dimensional continuant fiat boundary
the geographic North Pole
the point of origin of some spatial coordinate system.
the quadripoint where the boundaries of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet
zero dimension continuant fiat boundaries are not spatial points. Considering the example 'the quadripoint where the boundaries of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona meet' : There are many frames in which that point is zooming through many points in space. Whereas, no matter what the frame, the quadripoint is always in the same relation to the boundaries of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona.
a zero-dimensional continuant fiat boundary is a fiat point whose location is defined in relation to some material entity. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [031-001])
(iff (ZeroDimensionalContinuantFiatBoundary a) (and (ContinuantFiatBoundary a) (exists (b) (and (ZeroDimensionalSpatialRegion b) (forall (t) (locatedInAt a b t)))))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [031-001]
zero-dimensional continuant fiat boundary
a temporal region that is occupied by a process boundary
right now
the moment at which a child is born
the moment at which a finger is detached in an industrial accident
the moment of death.
temporal instant.
A zero-dimensional temporal region is a temporal region that is without extent. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [102-001])
(forall (x) (if (ZeroDimensionalTemporalRegion x) (TemporalRegion x))) // axiom label in BFO2 CLIF: [102-001]
zero-dimensional temporal region
A history is a process that is the sum of the totality of processes taking place in the spatiotemporal region occupied by a material entity or site, including processes on the surface of the entity or within the cavities to which it serves as host. (axiom label in BFO2 Reference: [138-001])
history
conditional specification
A directive information entity that specifies what should happen if the trigger condition is fulfilled.
PlanAndPlannedProcess Branch
OBI branch derived
measurement unit label
Examples of measurement unit labels are liters, inches, weight per volume.
A measurement unit label is as a label that is part of a scalar measurement datum and denotes a unit of measure.
2009-03-16: provenance: a term measurement unit was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000176) , edited by Chris Stoeckert and Cristian Cocos, and subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definition of this, different, term.
2009-03-16: review of this term done during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify this definition please notify OBI.
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
objective specification
In the protocol of a ChIP assay the objective specification says to identify protein and DNA interaction.
A directive information entity that describes an intended process endpoint. When part of a plan specification the concretization is realized in a planned process in which the bearer tries to effect the world so that the process endpoint is achieved.
2009-03-16: original definition when imported from OBI read: "objective is an non realizable information entity which can serve as that proper part of a plan towards which the realization of the plan is directed."
2014-03-31: In the example of usage ("In the protocol of a ChIP assay the objective specification says to identify protein and DNA interaction") there is a protocol which is the ChIP assay protocol. In addition to being concretized on paper, the protocol can be concretized as a realizable entity, such as a plan that inheres in a person. The objective specification is the part that says that some protein and DNA interactions are identified. This is a specification of a process endpoint: the boundary in the process before which they are not identified and after which they are. During the realization of the plan, the goal is to get to the point of having the interactions, and participants in the realization of the plan try to do that.
Answers the question, why did you do this experiment?
PERSON: Barry Smith
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
goal specification
OBI Plan and Planned Process/Roles Branch
narrative object
Examples of narrative objects are reports, journal articles, and patents submission.
A narrative object is an information content entity that is a set of propositions.
2009-08-10 Alan Ruttenberg: Larry Hunter suggests that this be obsoleted and replaced by 'textual entity' and 'figure'. Alan restored as there are OBI dependencies and this merits further discussion
agree - DENRIE. Issue(alan) do we only mean text? What about a story told by mime. Does music count? (no) what about an oral report. Regarding definition, saying it is a set of propositions means we loose the idea that wording matters. Maybe adjust saying a narrative object has some relationshop to a set of propositions
person:Chris Stoeckert
Pour the contents of flask 1 into flask 2
A directive information entity that describes an action the bearer will take.
OBI Plan and Planned Process branch
action specification
datum label
A label is a symbol that is part of some other datum and is used to either partially define the denotation of that datum or to provide a means for identifying the datum as a member of the set of data with the same label
GROUP: IAO
9/22/11 BP: changed the rdfs:label for this class from 'label' to 'datum label' to convey that this class is not intended to cover all kinds of labels (stickers, radiolabels, etc.), and not even all kind of textual labels, but rather the kind of labels occuring in a datum.
software
Software is a plan specification composed of a series of instructions that can be interpreted by or directly executed by a processing unit.
see sourceforge tracker discussion at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1958818&group_id=177891&atid=886178
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
GROUP: OBI
obsolete_digital entity
A digital entity is an information entity which is a collection of bits that can be interpreted by a computer. Two digital entities are the same if they are bitwise identical.
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4 Superclass was 'digitial quality'
obsolete2_digital entity
journal article
Examples are articles published in the journals, Nature and Science. The content can often be cited by reference to a paper based encoding, e.g. Authors, Title of article, Journal name, date or year of publication, volume and page number.
A report that is published in a journal.
information carrier
In the case of a printed paperback novel the physicality of the ink and of the paper form part of the information bearer. The qualities of appearing black and having a certain pattern for the ink and appearing white for the paper form part of the information carrier in this case.
A quality of an information bearer that imparts the information content
12/15/09: There is a concern that some ways that carry information may be processes rather than qualities, such as in a 'delayed wave carrier'.
2014-03-10: We are not certain that all information carriers are qualities. There was a discussion of dropping it.
model number
A model number is an information content entity specifically borne by catalogs, design specifications, advertising materials, inventory systems and similar that is about manufactured objects of the same class. The model number is an alternative term for the class. The manufactered objects may or may not also bear the model number. Model numbers can be encoded in a variety of other information objects, such as bar codes, numerals, or patterns of dots.
manufactered items may have more than one model number, sometimes by rebranding, or because companies are sold and the products issued new model numbers
binary digital entity
MS Word document, ZIP file, DICOM file, JPEG file
A binary digital entity is a digital entity that is encoded in a way that is not easily human readable and that contains other than text characters.
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4 Superclass was 'digital entity'
digital_entity
obsolete2_binary digital entity
a unit of measure is the quality of some material entity compared to which another quality is some multiple of.
programming language
R, Perl, Java
A language in which source code is written that is intended to be executed/run by a software interpreter. Programming languages are ways to write instructions that specify what to do, and sometimes, how to do it.
data item
Data items include counts of things, analyte concentrations, and statistical summaries.
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
data
symbol
a serial number such as "12324X"
a stop sign
a written proper name such as "OBI"
An information content entity that is a mark(s) or character(s) used as a conventional representation of another entity.
20091104, MC: this needs work and will most probably change
2014-03-31: We would like to have a deeper analysis of 'mark' and 'sign' in the future (see https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/154).
PERSON: James A. Overton
based on Oxford English Dictionary
numeral
A symbol that denotes a number.
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.
integer numeral
A numeral that denotes an integer
10 feet. 3 ml.
A scalar measurement datum is a measurement datum that is composed of two parts, numerals and a unit label.
2009-03-16: we decided to keep datum singular in scalar measurement datum, as in this case we explicitly refer to the singular form
Would write this as: has_part some 'measurement unit label' and has_part some numeral and has_part exactly 2, except for the fact that this won't let us take advantage of OWL reasoning over the numbers. Instead use has measurment value property to represent the same. Use has measurement unit label (subproperty of has_part) so we can easily say that there is only one of them.
scalar measurement datum
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
directive information entity
time trigger
obsolete_study interpretation
A study interpretation is a textual entity about the implications of a study result. Examples include discussion of whether a hypothesis is false, whether the study failed to address the hypothesis, and whether the study results have led to new hypotheses
2009-03-16: definition was "A conclusion is a narrative object which can be published in a paper summerizing and interpreting a protocol application."
2009-03-16: work has been done on this term during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify this definition please notify OBI.
The obsoleting of narrative object required a modest change in the definition of this term. Circularity with "interpretation... interprets" has been removed, using "about the implications" instead.
dot plot
Dot plot of SSC-H and FSC-H.
A dot plot is a report graph which is a graphical representation of data where each data point is represented by a single dot placed on coordinates corresponding to data point values in particular dimensions.
person:Allyson Lister
graph
A diagram that presents one or more tuples of information by mapping those tuples in to a two dimensional space in a non arbitrary way.
PERSON: Lawrence Hunter
text based digital entity
XML file, C++ source code file
A text based digital entity is a digital entity that is encoded so that it only contains text characters.
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4 superclass was 'digital document'
obsolete2_text based digital entity
rule
example to be added
A rule is an executable which guides, defines, restricts actions.
MSI
PRS
contour plot
Contour plot of SSC-H, FSC-H, and FL1-H.
generically_dependent_continuants
group:Flow Cytometry community
report figure
A report figure is a report display element that has some aspect of illustration, but may be a composite of figures, images, and other elements
I prepended the 'report ' to make it clear that we mean parts of reports here. We may want a more generic version of 'figure', in which case this would become a defined class - figure and part_of some report
Replaced by defined version of figure
obsolete2_report figure
algorithm
PMID: 18378114.Genomics. 2008 Mar 28. LINKGEN: A new algorithm to process data in genetic linkage studies.
A plan specification which describes the inputs and output of mathematical functions as well as workflow of execution for achieving an predefined objective. Algorithms are realized usually by means of implementation as computer programs for execution by automata.
adapted from discussion on OBI list (Matthew Pocock, Christian Cocos, Alan Ruttenberg)
software interpreter
R program, Perl interpreter, Java virtual machine
A software interpreter is a software application that executes some specified input software.
Do we care? Jennifer: Yes, there was a particular version of R that had a bug and it was fixed later. That would imply that we mean specific version of an interpreter. So an instance of this would be a particular version of the interpreter
curation status specification
The curation status of the term. The allowed values come from an enumerated list of predefined terms. See the specification of these instances for more detailed definitions of each enumerated value.
Better to represent curation as a process with parts and then relate labels to that process (in IAO meeting)
density plot
Density plot of SSC-H and FSC-H.
A density plot is a report graph which is a graphical representation of data where the tint of a particular pixel corresponds to some kind of function corresponding the the amount of data points relativelly with their distance from the the pixel.
report
Examples of reports are gene lists and investigation reports. These are not published (journal) articles but may be included in a journal article.
A document assembled by an author for the purpose of providing information for the audience. A report is the output of a documenting process and has the objective to be consumed by a specific audience. Topic of the report is on something that has completed. A report is not a single figure. Examples of reports are journal article, patent application, grant progress report, case report (not patient record).
2009-03-16: comment from Darren Natale: I am slightly uneasy with the sentence "Topic of the report is on something that has completed." Should it be restricted to those things that are completed? For example, a progress report is (usually) about something that definitely has *not* been completed, or may include (only) projections. I think the definition would not suffer if the whole sentence is deleted.
2009-03-16: this was report of results with definition: A report is a narrative object that is a formal statement of the results of an investigation, or of any matter on which definite information is required, made by some person or body instructed or required to do so.
2009-08-10 Alan Ruttenberg: Larry Hunter suggests that this be obsoleted and replaced by 'document'. Alan restored as there are OBI dependencies and this merits further discussion
disagreement about where reports go. alan: only some gene lists are reports. Is a report all the content of some document? The example of usage suggests that a report may be part of some article. Term needs clarification
report element
A report element is a narrative object in which information is presented and consumed by a human being, and is part of a report. Examples of report elements are figure (dot plot), table, text portion (may include a movie or audio clip on a web page).
2009-03-16: needs some more work (clarify relations).
2009-03-16: was report display element with definition: A report display element is a narrative object that is part of a report. Report display elements are set off from the textual parts of a report and are typically given a label(e.g. Figure 2) which is used to refer to the element from the text. Typically the 2d layout is part of the identity of such elements.
There will be some issue here about whether these are defined classes. As intended these are meant to denote the parts of the report that are not textual but are typically boxed and set within the text, labelled with some identifier, and referred to in the text
PERSON: Allyson Lister
obsolete_report element
binary executable
Binary executable is a digital entity consisting of the binary representation of machine instructions of a specific processor or they may be binary pseudocode for a virtual machine. A non-source executable file is also called an object program. It is assumed that the binary executable file contains properly-formatted computer instructions. (derived from Wikipedia, Nov 1, 2007)
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4 superclass was 'digital entity'
person:Jennifer Fostel
obsolete2_binary executable
source code module
The written source code that implements part of an algorithm. Test - if you know that it was written in a specific language, then it can be source code module. We mean here, roughly, the wording of a document such as a perl script.
A source code module is a directive information entity that specifies, using a programming language, some algorithm.
report table
A report table is a report display element consisting of a matrix of cells layed out in a grid, some set of which are filled with some information content
2009-08-10 Alan Ruttenberg: Larry Hunter suggests that this be obsoleted and replaced by 'textual entity table'. Alan restored as there are OBI dependencies and this merits further discussion
obsolete_report table
data format specification
A data format specification is the information content borne by the document published defining the specification. Example: The ISO document specifying what encompasses an XML document; The instructions in a XSD file
2009-03-16: provenance: term imported from OBI_0000187, which had original definition "A data format specification is a plan which organizes information. Example: The ISO document specifying what encompasses an XML document; The instructions in a XSD file"
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.
image
An image is an affine projection to a two dimensional surface, of measurements of some quality of an entity or entities repeated at regular intervals across a spatial range, where the measurements are represented as color and luminosity on the projected on surface.
data about an ontology part
Data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
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, and that may be concretized as a realizable entity that, if realized, 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.
2022-01-16 Updated definition to that proposed by Clint Dowloand, IAO Issue 231.
Alternative previous definition: a plan is a set of instructions that specify how an objective should be achieved
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
digital document
A digital document is a digital entity consisting of an electronic file which can be rendered into human-readable form by one or more computational applications. The digital document does not refer to the information content of the document but to an instance of the file.
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4 superclass was 'digial entity'
obsolete2_digital document
measurement datum
Examples of measurement data are the recoding of the weight of a mouse as {40,mass,"grams"}, the recording of an observation of the behavior of the mouse {,process,"agitated"}, the recording of the expression level of a gene as measured through the process of microarray experiment {3.4,luminosity,}.
A measurement datum is an information content entity that is a recording of the output of a measurement such as produced by a device.
2/2/2009 is_specified_output of some assay?
_identifier is a container under information content entity for collecting types of terms to indicate a specific instance or clas of what was used or participated in an investigation. Identifiers are borne by a product or its packaging, and can be encoded in a variety of other information objects, such as bar codes, numerals, or patterns of dots. Note: everybody agreed that identifier is probably a too general term. We however felt that it would be appropriate to group "identifiying" terms under some kind of umbrella. We therefore propose to use _identifier for that purpose. As per OBI conventions, the _ prefixing identifier indicates that this is a helper class and shouldn't be considered as final.
version number
A version number is an information content entity which is a sequence of characters borne by part of each of a class of manufactured products or its packaging and indicates its order within a set of other products having the same name.
Note: we feel that at the moment we are happy with a general version number, and that we will subclass as needed in the future. For example, see 7. genome sequence version
serial number
A serial number is an information content entity which is a unique sequence of characters borne by part of manufactured product or its packaging that is assigned to each individual in some class of products, and so can serve as a way to identify an individual product within the class. Serial numbers can be encoded in a variety of other information objects, such as bar codes, numerals, or patterns of dots.
Note: during the call there was some confusion between serial number and model number. We agreed that it would be very helpful for all those terms to have example of usages - please add if you have any :-)
lot number
A lot number is an information content entity which is an identical sequence of character borne by part of manufactured product or its packaging for each instances of a product class in a discrete batch of an item. Lot numbers are usually assigned to each separate production run of an item. Manufacturing as a lot might be due to a variety of reasons, for example, a single process during which many individuals are made from the same portion of source material. Lot numbers can be encoded in a pattern of other information objects, such as bar codes, numerals, or patterns of dots.
batch number
A settings datum is a datum that denotes some configuration of an instrument.
2/3/2009 Feedback from OBI This should be a "setting specification". There is a question of whether it is information about a realizable or not. Pro other specification are about realizables. Cons sometimes specifies a quality which is not a realizable.
Alan grouped these in placeholder for the moment. Name by analogy to measurement datum.
setting datum
3/22/2009 Alan Ruttenberg, obsoleted per http://groups.google.com/group/information-ontology/browse_thread/thread/789ad4b7708d5cf4
Need to rework digital entity. Digital quality was suggested by Barry.
conclusion textual entity
that fucoidan has a small statistically significant effect on AT3 level but no useful clinical effect as in-vivo anticoagulant, a paraphrase of part of the last paragraph of the discussion section of the paper 'Pilot clinical study to evaluate the anticoagulant activity of fucoidan', by Lowenthal et. al.PMID:19696660
A textual entity that expresses the results of reasoning about a problem, for instance as typically found towards the end of scientific papers.
2009/09/28 Alan Ruttenberg. Fucoidan-use-case
2009/10/23 Alan Ruttenberg: We need to work on the definition still
material information bearer
A page of a paperback novel with writing on it. The paper itself is a material information bearer, the pattern of ink is the information carrier.
a brain
a hard drive
A material entity in which a concretization of an information content entity inheres.
histogram
A histogram is a report graph which is a statistical description of a distribution in terms of occurrence frequencies of different event classes.
PERSON:Chris Stoeckert
PERSON:James Malone
heatmap
A heatmap is a report graph which is a graphical representation of data where the values taken by a variable(s) are shown as colors in a two-dimensional map.
Venn diagram
A Venn diagram is a report graph showing all hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets.
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venn_diagram
obsolete_survival curve
A survival curve is a report graph which is a graphical representation of data where the percentage of survival is plotted as a function of time.
WEB: http://www.graphpad.com/www/book/survive.htm
dendrogram
Dendrograms are often used in computational biology to illustrate the clustering of genes.
A dendrogram is a report graph which is a tree diagram frequently used to illustrate the arrangement of the clusters produced by a clustering algorithm.
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrogram
scatter plot
Comparison of gene expression values in two samples can be displayed in a scatter plot
A scatterplot is a graph which uses Cartesian coordinates to display values for two variables for a set of data. The data is displayed as a collection of points, each having the value of one variable determining the position on the horizontal axis and the value of the other variable determining the position on the vertical axis.
scattergraph
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scatterplot
A photograph is created by projecting an image onto a photosensitive surface such as a chemically treated plate or film, CCD receptor, etc.
PERSON:Joanne Luciano
WEB: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/photograph
photograph
photographic print
A photographic print is a material entity upon which a photograph generically depends.
obsolescence reason specification
The reason for which a term has been deprecated. The allowed values come from an enumerated list of predefined terms. See the specification of these instances for more detailed definitions of each enumerated value.
The creation of this class has been inspired in part by Werner Ceusters' paper, Applying evolutionary terminology auditing to the Gene Ontology.
textual entity
Words, sentences, paragraphs, and the written (non-figure) parts of publications are all textual entities
A textual entity is a part of a manifestation (FRBR sense), a generically dependent continuant whose concretizations are patterns of glyphs intended to be interpreted as words, formulas, etc.
AR, (IAO call 2009-09-01): a document as a whole is not typically a textual entity, because it has pictures in it - rather there are parts of it that are textual entities. Examples: The title, paragraph 2 sentence 7, etc.
MC, 2009-09-14 (following IAO call 2009-09-01): textual entities live at the FRBR (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_Requirements_for_Bibliographic_Records) manifestation level. Everything is significant: line break, pdf and html versions of same document are different textual entities.
text
citation
Verspoor, K., Cohen, KB., Hunter, L. Textual characteristics of traditional and Open Access scientific journals are similar, BMC Bioinformatics 2009, 10:183.
A textual entity intended to identify a particular publication.
author identification
L. Hunter
A textual entity intended to identify a particular author
institutional identification
University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine
A textual entity intended to identify a particular institution
caption
Figure 1: A system diagram describing the modules of the Hanalyzer. Reading methods (green) take external sources of knowledge (blue) and extract information from them, either by parsing structured data or biomedical language processing to extract information from unstructured data. Reading modules are responsible for tracking the provenance of all knowledge. Reasoning methods (yellow) enrich the knowledge that results from reading by, for example, noting two genes that are annotated to the same ontology term or database entry. All knowledge sources, read or reasoned, are assigned a reliability score, and all are combined using that score into a knowledge network (orange) that represents the integration of all sorts of relationship between a pair of genes and a combined reliability score. A data network (also orange) is created from experimental results to be analyzed. The reporting modules (pink) integrate the data and knowledge networks, producing visualizations that can be queried with the associated drill-down tool.
A textual entity that describes a figure
document title
Textual characteristics of traditional and Open Access scientific journals are similar
A textual entity that names a document
table
| T F --+----- T | T F F | F F
A textual entity that contains a two-dimensional arrangement of texts repeated at regular intervals across a spatial range, such that the spatial relationships among the constituent texts expresses propositions
table of abbreviations
IAO information artifact ontology OBI ontology of biomedical investiations GO gene ontology
A table where the constituent texts are abbreviations and their expansions
figure
Any picture, diagram or table
An information content entity consisting of a two dimensional arrangement of information content entities such that the arrangement itself is about something.
diagram
A molecular structure ribbon cartoon showing helices, turns and sheets and their relations to each other in space.
A figure that expresses one or more propositions
document
A journal article, patent application, laboratory notebook, or a book
A collection of information content entities intended to be understood together as a whole
publication
journal article, newspaper story, book, etc.
A document that is the output of a publishing process.
PERSON: Jie Zheng
published document
Revisit the term in Octorber 2020. Improve the defintion.
publication about an investigation
Most scientific journal articles
A publication that is about an investigation
scientific publication
patent
US Patent 6,449,603
A document that has been accepted by a patent authority
document part
An abstract, introduction, method or results section.
An information content entity that is part of a document.
abstract
The profusion of high-throughput instruments and the explosion of new results in the scientific literature, particularly in molecular biomedicine, is both a blessing and a curse to the bench researcher. Even knowledgeable and experienced scientists can benefit from computational tools that help navigate this vast and rapidly evolving terrain. In this paper, we describe a novel computational approach to this challenge, a knowledge-based system that combines reading, reasoning and reporting methods to facilitate analysis of experimental data. Reading methods extract information from external resources, either by parsing structured data or biomedical language processing to extract information from unstructured data, and track knowledge provenance. Reasoning methods enrich the knowledge that results from reading by, for example, noting two genes that are annotated to the same ontology term or database entry. Reasoning is also used to combine all sources into a knowledge network that represents the integration of all sorts of relationships between a pair of genes, and to calculate a combined reliability score. Reporting methods combine the knowledge network with a congruent network constructed from experimental data and visualize the combined network in a tool that facilitates the knowledge-based analysis of that data.
A summary of the entire document that is substantially smaller than the document it summarizes. It is about the document it summarizes.
precis
introduction to a publication about an investigation
Section labelled 'introduction' of a typical scientific journal article
A part of a publication about an investigation that is about the objective specification (why the investigation is being done)
background
introduction
overview
methods section
The section labelled 'Methods' or 'Materials and Methods' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a publication about an investigation that is about the study design of the investigation
experimental
experimental methods
experimental procedures
experimental section
method
methodology
methods
results section
The section labelled 'results' in a typical scientific journal article
A part of a publication about an investigation that is about a study design execution
results
discussion section of a publication about an investigation
A part of a publication about an investigation that is about the study interpretation of the investigation
discussion
discussion section
discussions
references section
The list of citations found at the end of a scientific publication, grant proposal or patent application, sometimes called "literature cited" or "bibliography"
A part of a document that has citations as parts
literature cited
reference
reference list
references
author list
Lawrence Hunter and Kevin Brettonel Cohen
A part of a document that enumerates the authors of the document
institution list
The University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine and the University of Colorado Boulder.
A part of a document that has parts that are institution identifications associated with the authors of the document
author contributions section
LH conceived of the hypothesis, designed the study and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. KBC executed the experiments, analyzed the data, and contributed to the writing of the manuscript.
A part of a publication that is about the specific contributions of each author
author contributions
authors' contribution
authors' contributions
authors' roles
contributions by the authors
contributorship
acknowledgements section
The authors wish to thank Alan Ruttenberg for his constructive comments about an earlier draft of this manuscript
Part of a publication that is about the contributions of people or institutions other than the authors.
acknowledgement
acknowledgements
acknowledgment
acknowledgments
footnote
The referent in the text is usually indicated by a special typographic character such as * or a superscripted number, which is also used to indicate the footnote that refers to that text.
A part of a document that is about a specific other part of the document. Usually footnotes are spatially segregated from the rest of the document.
endnote
footnotes
supplementary material to a document
A part of a document that is segregated from the rest of the document due to its size
additional file
additional files
additional information
appendix
electronic supplementary material
electronic supplementary materials
supplemental data
supplemental information
supplemental material
supplementary data
supplementary files
supplementary information
supplementary material
supplementary materials
supporting information
table of contents
A table that relates document parts to specific locations in a document (usually page numbers). This is also a document part (subsumption there should be inferred).
table of figures
A table that relates figures in a document to specific locations in that document (usually page numbers). This is also a document part (subsumption there should be inferred).
running title
A shorter version of a document title
copyright section
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
A document part that describes legal restrictions on making or distributing copies of the document
A cartesian spatial coordinate datum is a representation of a point in a spatial region, in which equal changes in the magnitude of a coordinate value denote length qualities with the same magnitude
2009-08-18 Alan Ruttenberg - question to BFO list about whether the BFO sense of the lower dimensional regions is that they are always part of actual space (the three dimensional sort) http://groups.google.com/group/bfo-discuss/browse_thread/thread/9d04e717e39fb617
AR notes: We need to discuss whether it should include site.
cartesian spatial coordinate datum
A cartesion spatial coordinate datum that uses one value to specify a position along a one dimensional spatial region
one dimensional cartesian spatial coordinate datum
A cartesion spatial coordinate datum that uses two values to specify a position within a two dimensional spatial region
two dimensional cartesian spatial coordinate datum
A cartesion spatial coordinate datum that uses three values to specify a position within a three dimensional spatial region
three dimensional cartesian spatial coordinate datum
A scalar measurement datum that is the result of measurement of length quality
length measurement datum
denotator type
The Basic Formal Ontology ontology makes a distinction between Universals and defined classes, where the formal are "natural kinds" and the latter arbitrary collections of entities.
A denotator type indicates how a term should be interpreted from an ontological perspective.
Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters
A scalar measurement datum that is the result of measurement of mass quality
mass measurement datum
hypothesis textual entity
A textual entity that expresses an assertion that is intended to be tested.
A scalar measurement datum that is the result of measuring a temporal interval
time measurement datum
A textual entity that is used as directive to deliver something to a person, or organization
2010-05-24 Alan Ruttenberg. Use label for the string representation. See issue https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/59
postal address
email address
Alan Ruttenberg 1/3/2012 - Provisional id, see issue at https://github.com/information-artifact-ontology/IAO/issues/130&thanks=130&ts=1325636583
Person:Chris Stoeckart
author role
A role inhering in a person or organization that is realized when the bearer participates in the work which is the basis of the document, in the writing of the document, and signs it with their name.
A planned process in which journal articles are read or processed and data items are extracted, typically for further analysis or indexing
data item extraction from journal article
A planned process of making information, such as literature, music, and software etc., available to the public for sale or for free.
Person: Jie Zheng
VEuPathDB
publishing process
A document that is in preparation for submission to be published.
EFO_0001795 in preparation
document in preparation for publication
Recording the current temperature in a laboratory notebook. Writing a journal article. Updating a patient record in a database.
A planned process in which a document is created or added to by including the specified input in it.
6/11/9: Edited at OBI workshop. We need to be able identify a child form of information artifact which corresponds to something enduring (not brain like). This used to be restricted to physical document or digital entity as the output, but that excludes e.g. an audio cassette tape
wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documenting
documenting
line graph
A line graph is a type of graph created by connecting a series of data points together with a line.
line chart
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_chart
A new pubmed ID being created for a journal article, and the associated pubmed record containing information to the journal article. A license plate number registered at the DMV to be belonging to a specific vehicle and owner. Placing a barcode on a product and entering information in a database that this barcode is assigned.
A planned process in which a new CRID is created, associated with an entity, and stored in the CRID registry thereby registering it as being associated with some entity
2014-05-05: It is the CRID registry that assigns CRIDs, not the users of the registry.
Person:Melanie Courtot
assigning a centrally registered identifier
Articles in Pubmed are reviewed by curators who add MESH terms to the Pubmed records in order to categorize them better and improve the ability to search for them.
A planned process in which a CRID registry associates an information content entity with a CRID symbol
associating information with a CRID in the CRID registry
associating information with a centrally registered identifier in its registry
a planned process with the objective to establish a system that allows to refer to specific entities of a certain kind and store information about them, by establishing a CRID registry and plan specifications for the process of 1) assigning a CRID and 2) looking up a CRID.
MC, 20101124: deprecated following discussion at IAO call 20101124. Term was deemed not necessary - no use case for now.
The sentence "The article has Pubmed ID 12345." contains a CRID that has two parts: one part is the CRID symbol, which is '12345'; the other part denotes the CRID registry, which is Pubmed.
A symbol that is part of a CRID and that is sufficient to look up a record from the CRID's registry.
PERSON: Bill Hogan
Original proposal from Bjoern, discussions at IAO calls
centrally registered identifier symbol
An information content entity that consists of a CRID symbol and additional information about the CRID registry to which it belongs.
2014-05-05: In defining this term we take no position on what the CRID denotes. In particular do not assume it denotes a *record* in the CRID registry (since the registry might not have 'records').
Alan, IAO call 20101124: potentially the CRID denotes the instance it was associated with during creation.
Note, IAO call 20101124: URIs are not always CRID, as not centrally registered. We acknowledge that CRID is a subset of a larger identifier class, but this subset fulfills our current needs. OBI PURLs are CRID as they are registered with OCLC. UPCs (Universal Product Codes from AC Nielsen)are not CRID as they are not centrally registered.
centrally registered identifier
PubMed is a CRID registry. It has a code set of PubMed identifiers associated with journal articles.
A code set of CRID records, each consisting of a CRID symbol and additional information which was recorded in the code set through an assigning a centrally registered identifier process.
Justin Whorton
centrally registered identifier registry
Going to the PubMed website and entering a PubMed ID in order to retrieve the Pubmed information associated with that ID.
A planned process in which a request to a CRID registry is made to return the information associated with a CRID symbol
looking up a centrally registered identifier
time stamped measurement datum
pmid:20604925 - time-lapse live cell microscopy
A data set that is an aggregate of data recording some measurement at a number of time points. The time series data set is an ordered list of pairs of time measurement data and the corresponding measurement data acquired at that time.
experimental time series
time sampled measurement data set
written name
"Bill Clinton"
"The Eiffel Tower"
"United States of America"
A textual entity that denotes a particular in reality.
The qualifier "written" is to set it apart from spoken names. Also, note the restrictions to particulars. We are not naming universals. We could however, be naming, attributive collections which are particulars, so "All people located in the boundaries of the city of Little Rock, AR on June 18, 2011 at 9:50a CDT" would be a name.
A software method (also called subroutine, subprogram, procedure, method, function, or routine) is software designed to execute a specific task.
PERSON: Michel Dumontier
software method
A software module is software composed of a collection of software methods.
PERSON: Melanei Courtot
software module
A software library is software composed of a collection of software modules and/or software methods in a form that can be statically or dynamically linked to some software application.
software library
A software application is software that can be directly executed by some processing unit.
software application
A software script is software whose instructions can be executed using a software interpreter.
software script
abbreviation textual entity
From Shiba et al. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2013; 1: 45. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893467/): BAC: Bacterial artificial chromosome; CR: Calretinin; GFAP: Glial fibrillary acidic protein; MAP: Microtubule-associated protein; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging; NSC: Neural stem cell; PDA: Patent ductus arteriosus; PMG: Polymicrogyria; PNH: Periventricular nodular heterotopia; VSD: Ventricular septal defect.
A textual entity listing abbreviations and their expansions that are used in a document.
PERSON: Bill Baumgartner
abbreviations section
The section labelled 'abbreviations' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document where abbreviations and their long-forms used within the document are listed.
abbreviation and acronyms
abbreviation list
abbreviations
abbreviations and acronyms
abbreviations list
abbreviations used
definitions for abbreviations
list of abbreviations
list of abbreviations used
non-standard abbreviations
nonstandard abbreviations
nonstandard abbreviations and acronyms
author information section
The section labelled 'author information' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Takon. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2011; 10: 25. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204268/)
A part of a document about the authors that provides biographical information and may discuss how the authors' professional experiences are relevant to the work described in the document.
author information
authors’ information
biographies
contributor information
author information textual entity
From Takon. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2011; 10: 25. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3204268/): IT [the author] is the lead paediatrician for ADHD services in East Hertfordshire, UK, where she runs a weekly joint ADHD clinic with the Child and Adolescent psychiatrist and works within an ADHD specialist team. IT also sees children with other neurodisability issues who may have comorbid ADHD, where the presentation may be more complex and challenging to manage. IT has vast experience in managing children with complex ADHD. She has 18 years of experience in paediatrics and also has extensive experience in the use of psychopharmacologic agents in managing children with ADHD.
A textual entity expression information about an author of a document. This information may include biographical information and may discuss how the authors' professional experiences are relevant to the work described in the document.
author summary section
The section labelled 'synopsis' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Pendse et al. BMC Genomics. 2013; 14: 136. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3608171/)
A part of a document, distinct from the abstract, that describes the significance and broader context of the document content. The author summary is often written in a non-technical manner and is aimed at both scientists and non-scientist readers.
author summary
summary
synopsis
Article submission guidelines for PLoS Genetics (http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/s/submission-guidelines)
author summary textual entity
From Pendse et al. BMC Genomics. 2013; 14: 136. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3608171/): The search for genetic risk factors for common human diseases often relies on the use of linkage and association studies to establish correlation between genomic markers and disease risk. These studies require additional functional evaluation of candidate genes, including their possible interaction with diet and environment. The number of candidate genes is typically large and the development of appropriate genetic tools in mammalian systems is slow. By contrast, large-scale genetic screens, using widely available genetic tools, are routinely conducted in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In this study, we used Drosophila to screen candidate genes identified in human genome-wide scans as associated with risk of metabolic abnormalities such as type 2 diabetes. We show that a number of human candidate genes have fly orthologs that play an important role in Drosophila tolerance to high dietary sucrose. We further explored some of the specific metabolic abnormalities that can result when these genes’ activities are reduced in flies, focusing on a gene we call dHHEX (CG7056), the fly ortholog of human HHEX.
A textual entity, distinct from the abstract, that describes the significance and broader context of the document content. The author summary is often written in a non-technical manner and is aimed at both scientists and non-scientist readers, e.g as described in the article submission guidelines for PLoS Genetics (http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/s/submission-guidelines).
Article submission guidelines for PLoS Genetics (http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/s/submission-guidelines).
availability section
The section labelled 'availability and requirements' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. Qi et al. BMC Bioinformatics. 2014; 15: 11. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897912/).
A part of a document about a resource described in the document, e.g. software, that describes where and/or how that resource can be obtained.
availability
availability of data
data archiving
data availability
data availability statement
data sharing statement
availability textual entity
From Qi et al. BMC Bioinformatics. 2014; 15: 11. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897912/): Project home page:http://krux.googlecode.com
A textual entity expressing the location of a resource, e.g. software, or the manner in which a resource can be obtained.
case report section
The section labelled 'case report' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Taglia et al. Acta Myol. 2012 Dec; 31(3): 201–203. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3631801/)
A part of a document about the medical history of a specific patient as it relates to the topic of the document.
case presentation
case report
case report textual entity
Excerpt from Taglia et al. Acta Myol. 2012 Dec; 31(3): 201–203. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3631801/): The patient is a 50-year-old man. His medical history was not contributory. At the age of 37 years, he complained of persistent fatigue and dyspnoea even for modest efforts and oedema of lower limbs. The patient was examined at the department of internal medicine of the local hospital, and hospitalised with a diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy probably consequence of a myocarditis process. Soon after he was transferred to the cardiologic department of the regional hospital, and pharmacologically treated for heart failure and pulmonary hypertension.
A textual entity that expresses a detailed account of a portion of the medical history for a specific patient.
conclusion section
The section labelled 'conclusion' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document used to summarize the findings discussed in the document. The conclusion section is typically found near the end of a document.
concluding remarks
conclusion
conclusions
findings
conflict of interest section
The section labelled 'conflict of interest statement' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document used to declare any competing interests regarding the authors and/or funding organization for the work described in the document.
authors' disclosures of potential conflicts of interest
competing financial interests
competing interests
conflict of interest
conflict of interest statement
conflict of interests
conflicts of interest
declaration of competing interest
declaration of competing interests
declaration of interest
declaration of interests
disclosure of conflict of interest
disclosure of potential conflicts of interest
duality of interest
statement of interest
SD [an author] is a Merck employee and Merck is the sponsor of this study. [Taken from 'Effects of obstructive sleep apnoea risk on postoperative respiratory complications: protocol for a hospital-based registry study' Shin et al. 2016 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4735131/)]
A textual entity that expresses a situation involving one or more of the authors, or the funding source of a document whereby the authors or funding source stand to potentially gain (typically financially) from the results reported in the document.
conflict of interest textual entity
consent section
The section labelled 'consent' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. Shiba et al. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2013; 1: 45. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893467/)
A part of a document about the consent process that was used to enroll patients in a study.
consent
consent textual entity
From Shiba et al. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2013; 1: 45. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3893467/): Written informed consent was obtained from the patient’s parents for publication of this Case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in chief of this journal.
A textual entity that documents the consenting process used to enroll patients in a study.
ethical approval section
The section labelled 'ethical approval' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document about the governance body responsible for approving the work discussed in a document on an ethical basis.
ethical approval
ethical requirements
ethics
ethics statement
ethical approval textual entity
From McLean et al. Br J Gen Pract. 2014 Jul; 64(624): e440–e447 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073730/): The NHS National Research Ethics Service had previously approved the use of these anonymised data for research purposes and this analysis did not require independent review.
A textual entity that documents the ethical approval of some study design.
figures section
The section labelled 'figures' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document that contains one or more figures.
figures
funding source declaration section
The section labelled 'funding' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document used to detail information regarding the source of funding used in support of the generation of the document content.
financial support
funding
funding information
funding sources
funding statement
funding/support
grants
role of the funding source
source of funding
sources of funding
study funding
funding souce declaration textual entity
From Stephan et al. Accid Anal Prev. 2011 May; 43(3): 1062–1067. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3062852/): This study was supported by the International Collaborative Research Grants Scheme with joint grants from the Wellcome Trust UK (GR071587MA) and the Australian NHMRC (268055). The funding sources played no role in study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation, writing the report, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.
A textual entity documenting the source of funding that supported some study.
funding source declaration textual entity
future directions section
The section labelled 'future directions' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document detailing extensions of the described work that may be implemented at some future point in time.
future challenges
future considerations
future developments
future directions
future outlook
future perspectives
future plans
future prospects
future research
future research directions
future studies
future work
outlook
future directions textual entity
Excerpt from Wang and Li. Acta Pharmacol Sin. 2016 Jan; 37(1): 25–33. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4722976/): In the future, several questions will need to be resolved regarding the physiological assembly of KCNQ channels and their functional implications in complex neural circuits. First, we still lack sufficiently selective inhibitors and activators among the KCNQ family members.
A textual entity expressing ideas regarding future work relevant to work described in a document that could be done.
genome announcement section
The section labelled 'genome announcement' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Kim et al. J Bacteriol. 2011 Oct; 193(19): 5537. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187466/)
A document part announcing the publication of a novel draft genome sequence.
genome announcement
genome announcement textual entity
Excerpt from Kim et al. J Bacteriol. 2011 Oct; 193(19): 5537. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3187466/): Here we report the genome sequence of Lactobacillus malefermentans KCTC 3548, which we obtained using a whole-genome shotgun strategy (4) with Roche 454 GS (FLX Titanium) pyrosequencing (257,559 reads totaling ∼89.8 Mb; ∼45-fold coverage of the genome) at the Genome Resource Center, Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB).
A textual entity that describes the generation and public release of a novel, draft genome sequence.
keyword textual entity
From: Fu and Lin. Identification of gene-oriented exon orthology between human and mouse. BMC Genomics. 2012; 13(Suppl 1): S10. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3303729/): Exon orthology; alternative splicing; exon duplication; intron-exon structure.
A textual entity listing keywords indicating the major theme(s) of a document.
keywords section
The section labelled 'keywords' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document where keywords selected by the author to categorize the major theme(s) of a document are listed.
keywords
study limitations section
The section labelled 'limitations' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document about biases or short comings related to the study design and execution.
limitations
study limitations
Author guidelines published by The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1553-2712/homepage/ForAuthors.html)
study limitations textual entity
Excerpt from the Limitations section of Fermann et al 2015, Acad Emerg Med. 2015 Mar; 22(3): 299–307 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4405051/). Owing to the nature of a post hoc study, any significant values must be interpreted with caution. In the current analysis, no multiple testing was conducted and p-values remain unadjusted. Moreover, a selection bias arising from the randomized open-label design of the original EINSTEIN PE study cannot be ruled out.
A textual entity addressing a shortcoming or bias of a study design or execution.
materials section
The section labelled 'materials' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. Nguyen et al. BMC Bioinformatics. 2010; 11: 279. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2889936/)
A part of a document about the materials required to reproduce the content of the document.
materials
notes section
The section labelled 'notes' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. McLean et al. Br J Gen Pract. 2014 Jul; 64(624): e440–e447 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073730/):
A part of a document containing typically short notes about the document itself and/or the authors. Often the notes section contains subsections related to funding, competing interests, ethical approval, etc.
notes
patients section
The section labelled 'patients' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Citak et al. Acta Orthop. 2013 Jun; 84(3): 326–327. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715825/)
A part of a document about the patients that participated in a study.
patients textual entity
Excerpt from Citak et al. Acta Orthop. 2013 Jun; 84(3): 326–327. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3715825/): Between January 1996 and February 2012, we treated 4 patients with interprosthetic femoral fractures (3 of them women) (Figure 2) using a custom-made interposition device (Waldemar Link GmbH, Hamburg, Germany) (Figure 1). Mean age was 74 (59–86) years. The fractures occurred mean 18 (13–28) years after primary THA and mean 14 (10–17) years after primary TKA. At the latest follow-up, after mean 8 (0.5–16) years, revision surgery with a total femur replacement was required in 1 case due to aseptic loosening. No other complications requiring revision surgery occurred.
A textual entity expressing information regarding the patients used in a study.
pre-publication history section
The section labelled 'pre-publication history' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. in Xiao et al. BMC Anesthesiol. 2013; 13: 33. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4016475/)
A part of the document about the publication history of a document. This section typically details dates of document submission to a journal and dates of any re-submissions as well as reviewer comments and responses to reviewers by the authors.
notice of republication
pre-publication history
pre-publication history textual entity
From Xiao et al. BMC Anesthesiol. 2013; 13: 33. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4016475/): The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2253/13/33/prepub
A textual entity that expresses the pre-publication history (submission dates, reviewer comments, etc) for a document, often including a hyperlink to a web page detailing the information.
related work section
The section labelled 'related work' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. Žitnik and Zupan. Bioinformatics. 2015 Jun 15; 31(12): i230–i239. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542780/)
A part of a document about work in other publications that is relevant to the content of the document.
related literature
related work
related work textual entity
Excerpt from Žitnik and Zupan. Bioinformatics. 2015 Jun 15; 31(12): i230–i239. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542780/): Our work presented here is similar in spirit to our recently developed methodology for data fusion via collective matrix factorization (Žitnik and Zupan, 2015).
A textual entity that discusses work from other publications and expresses their relevancy to the content of a document.
requirements section
A part of a document about a resource described in the document, e.g. software, that describes the requirements necessary to use the resource, e.g. operating systems, hardware, etc. in the case of a software resource.
requirements
requirements textual entity
From Qi et al. BMC Bioinformatics. 2014; 15: 11. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3897912/): • Operating systems: Platform independent • Programming language: Matlab, R, Python • Other requirements: None • License: GNU GPL v3 • Any restrictions to use by non-academics: None
A textual entity that expresses the requirements necessary to use a resource, e.g. software.
statistical analysis textual entity
From Mondo et al. Cardiovasc J Afr. 2013 Mar; 24(2): 28–33. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734881/): Data were captured into EPI-DATA (version 3.1), cleaned and then exported to Stata version 10 for analysis. Continuous variables were summarised as mean (± standard deviation) and median (inter-quartile range), and presented in the tables. Categorical data were analysed using frequency and percentages, and results are presented in frequency tables and bar charts. Test of significance (p-value) was determined using the chi-square test. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.
A textual entity documenting statistical analysis tools and techniques employed.
statistical analysis section
The section labelled 'statistical analysis' in a typical scientific journal article, e.g. Mondo et al. Cardiovasc J Afr. 2013 Mar; 24(2): 28–33. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3734881/)
A part of the document used to describe the statistical methodologies employed in the work presented in the document.
statistical analysis
tables section
The section labelled 'tables' in a typical scientific journal article.
A part of a document that contains one or more tables.
tables
An identifier that denotes some postal delivery route, some aggregate of postal delivery routes or a geographical region and was created for the purpose of sorting and delivering mail.
postal code
A plan specification that if realized, is realized by the delivery of mail to some facility or mailbox within some geographical region.
Postal delivery route
A postal code that is used in the United States for the purpose of sorting and delivering mail, and that denotes some postal delivery route or some aggregate of postal delivery routes.
ZIP code
zone improvement plan code
database extract, transform, and load process
A planned process which takes as input a database and fills another database by extracting concretizations of information entities from the first, transforming them, and loading the transformed concretizations into the second.
Alan Ruttenberg 12/21/16: Maybe this definition instead: A planned process which takes as input a database and copies concretizations from the first, optionally transforms then copies the result to the second
Alan Ruttenberg 12/21/16: We don't define database in IAO, currently, as the bare word is ambiguous. Reasonable interpretations of the word might be the material entity, an information structure, an information content entity. However this definition commits, at least, to there being some material thing which bear concretizations of information entities and that there are new concretizations created during the process. We consider the ETL process in terms of information entities rather than the concretizations. No committment is made as to whether the specified output.
ETL
descriptive data section
A document part that lists and defines data variables, describes data characteristics (e.g. missing data information) and any assumptions and simplifications made.
additional results section
A results section that reports analyses other than main results of the study (e.g. subgroups analyses, adjusted analyses, sensitivity analyses, etc.)
research participants section
A document part that describes human subject(s) that participated in a study (e.g. inclusion & exclusion criteria, recruitment methods, reasons for non-participation, grouping and randomisation, methods of follow-up, etc.).
measurement methods section
A methods section that describes details of data assessment methods (data measurement).
research settings section
A document part that describes the physical/social/cultural conditions around a research trial.
study bias section
A study limitations section that describes systematic error introduced into sampling or testing by selecting or encouraging one outcome or answer over others.
graphical abstract
An abstract that is pictorial summary of the main findings described in the document.
visual abstract
A centrally registered identifier that is issued by ORCID (https://orcid.org/) and used to persistantly identify oneself as a human researcher or contributor.
"You can connect your iD with your professional information — affiliations, grants, publications, peer review, and more. You can use your iD to share your information with other systems, ensuring you get recognition for all your contributions, saving you time and hassle, and reducing the risk of errors." [https://orcid.org/]
This class was originally defined in Apollo_SV (http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/APOLLO_SV_00000496) but due to it being more in scope of IAO, it was decided to add it to IAO and deprecate its Apollo_SV equivalent. (2022-10-25)
Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier
ORCID identifier
identifier
An information content entity that is the outcome of a dubbing process and is used to refer to one instance of entity shared by a group of people to refer to that individual entity.
proper name
Sep 29, 2016: The current definition has been amended from the previous version: "A proper name is an information content entity that is the outcome of a dubbing process and is used to refer to one instance of entity shared by a group of people to refer to that individual entity." to more accuratly reflect the necessary and sufficient condition on the class. (MB)
alphabetic letters, Chinese characters, numerical digits, punctuation marks, and the individual symbols of any of the world's writing systems
An information content entity that is a fundamental unit in a written language.
Grapheme is not about anything and hence is likely to not be an information content entity. If a new subclass of GDC for information structure entities is created it should move there.
grapheme
A planned process that provides a reference to an individual entity shared by a group of subscribers to refer to that individual entity.
dubbing process
naming
identifier creating process
An identifier referring to an individual entity that is ascribed personhood by the user of the identifier.
Personal names "today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants orphaned by natural disaster for whom no written record survives.[citation needed] The Convention on the Rights of the Child specifies that a child has the right from birth to a name. Certain isolated tribes, such as the Machiguenga of the Amazon, also lack personal names." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_name)
Personal names to not include names of fictional characters, e.g. Sherlock Holmes.
Sep 29, 2016: The comment that including the wikipedia definition of personal name is not to be interpreted in a way that restricts this class to only contain strings of letters. A numerical or alphanumerical identifier that denotes a human is being is a personal name, too. (MB)
personal name
A personal name that specifies and differentiates between members of a group of individuals, especially in a family, all of whose members usually share the same family name (surname). A given name is purposefully given, usually by a child's parents at or near birth, in contrast to an inherited one such as a family name
first name
given name
An identifier that is typically a part of a person's name which has been passed, according to law or custom, from one or both parents to their children.
last name
surname
family name
An information content entity that is a collection of other information content entities that has been created to identify or annotate things in a specified domain, and where the intention of its creators is that the collection has a one-to-one correspondence with those things.
code map
code system
codeset
coding system
controlled vocabulary
Code sets might include non-entities/things (e.g. missing thumbs).
Does not imply absence vs. presence of any taxonomy.
Does not imply that aggregated entities denote particulars, universals, or defined classes (a.k.a. attributive collections) or even that they denote only one of these three types of entities.
Each aggregated entity is often (but not necessarily) associated with a text string—variously called a “description,” “name,” “title,” or “label”—that helps humans reach the target of denotation. When there is no such string, it is almost always because the entities take the form of human language words. For example, a “sex” or “gender” code set could contain “MALE” and “FEMALE,” or even “M” and “F” (by convention, we understand what these mean).
For National Drug Codes (NDCs) and similar code sets, there doesn’t even have to be a single, fully-concretized copy somewhere (for example, for NDCs there is no centralized database or repository where they all live as one instance of concretization of code set). The code set can be “distributively” concretized. This seems like an unusual exception, but it also likely applies to Universal Product Codes (UPCs) and their follow on Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs).
For each given domain, there can potentially exist multiple code sets. The multiplicity of code sets is partially due to the different specific purposes of those code sets.
Many code sets are created for a specific purpose in addition to merely identifying or annotating core ideas of a specified domain.
The information content entities do not denote each other.
code set
ontology module
I have placed this under 'data about an ontology part', but this can be discussed. I think this is OK if 'part' is interpreted reflexively, as an ontology module is the whole ontology rather than part of it.
ontology file
This class and it's subclasses are applied to OWL ontologies. Using an rdf:type triple will result in problems with OWL-DL. I propose that dcterms:type is instead used to connect an ontology URI with a class from this hierarchy. The class hierarchy is not disjoint, so multiple assertions can be made about a single ontology.
base ontology module
An ontology module that comprises only of asserted axioms local to the ontology, excludes import directives, and excludes axioms or declarations from external ontologies.
editors ontology module
An ontology module that is intended to be directly edited, typically managed in source control, and typically not intended for direct consumption by end-users.
source ontology module
main release ontology module
An ontology module that is intended to be the primary release product and the one consumed by the majority of tools.
TODO: Add logical axioms that state that a main release ontology module is derived from (directly or indirectly) an editors module
bridge ontology module
An ontology module that consists entirely of axioms that connect or bridge two distinct ontology modules. For example, the Uberon-to-ZFA bridge module.
import ontology module
A subset ontology module that is intended to be imported from another ontology.
TODO: add axioms that indicate this is the output of a module extraction process.
import file
subset ontology module
An ontology module that is extracted from a main ontology module and includes only a subset of entities or axioms.
ontology slim
subset ontology
curation subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is intended as a whitelist for curators using the ontology. Such a subset will exclude classes that curators should not use for curation.
analysis ontology module
An ontology module that is intended for usage in analysis or discovery applications.
analysis subset ontology module
single layer ontology module
A subset ontology that is largely comprised of a single layer or strata in an ontology class hierarchy. The purpose is typically for rolling up for visualization. The classes in the layer need not be disjoint.
ribbon subset
single layer subset ontology module
exclusion subset ontology module
A subset of an ontology that is intended to be excluded for some purpose. For example, a blacklist of classes.
antislim
external import ontology module
An imported ontology module that is derived from an external ontology. Derivation methods include the OWLAPI SLME approach.
external import
species subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is crafted to either include or exclude a taxonomic grouping of species.
taxon subset
reasoned ontology module
An ontology module that contains axioms generated by a reasoner. The generated axioms are typically direct SubClassOf axioms, but other possibilities are available.
generated ontology module
An ontology module that is automatically generated, for example via a SPARQL query or via template and a CSV.
TODO: Add axioms (using PROV-O?) that indicate this is the output-of some reasoning process
template generated ontology module
An ontology module that is automatically generated from a template specification and fillers for slots in that template.
taxonomic bridge ontology module
ontology module subsetted by expressivity
obo basic subset ontology module
A subset ontology that is designed for basic applications to continue to make certain simplifying assumptions; many of these simplifying assumptions were based on the initial version of the Gene Ontology, and have become enshrined in many popular and useful tools such as term enrichment tools. Examples of such assumptions include: traversing the ontology graph ignoring relationship types using a naive algorithm will not lead to cycles (i.e. the ontology is a DAG); every referenced term is declared in the ontology (i.e. there are no dangling clauses). An ontology is OBO Basic if and only if it has the following characteristics: DAG Unidirectional No Dangling Clauses Fully Asserted Fully Labeled No equivalence axioms Singly labeled edges No qualifier lists No disjointness axioms No owl-axioms header No imports
ontology module subsetted by OWL profile
EL++ ontology module
planned process
A process that realizes a plan which is the concretization of a plan specification.
investigation
a planned process that consists of parts: planning, study design execution, documentation and which produce conclusion(s).
a planned process that carries out a study design
data transformation
A planned process that produces output data from input data.
study design
A plan specification comprised of protocols (which may specify how and what kinds of data will be gathered) that are executed as part of an investigation and is realized during a study design execution.
A quality of a single physical entity inhering in the bearer by virtue of the bearer's size or shape or structure.
A 1-D extent quality which is equal to the distance between two points.
A physical quality that inheres in a bearer by virtue of the proportion of the bearer's amount of matter.
A quality of a physical entity that exists through action of continuants at the physical level of organisation in relation to other entities.
A quality which inheres in a continuant.
example to be eventually removed
failed exploratory term
The term was used in an attempt to structure part of the ontology but in retrospect failed to do a good job
metadata complete
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.
organizational term
Term created to ease viewing/sort terms for development purpose, and will not be included in a release
ready for release
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."
metadata incomplete
Class is being worked on; however, the metadata (including definition) are not complete or sufficiently clear to the branch editors.
uncurated
Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term.
pending final vetting
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.
Core is an instance of a grouping of terms from an ontology or ontologies. It is used by the ontology to identify main classes.
obsolete_core
placeholder removed
terms merged
An editor note should explain what were the merged terms and the reason for the merge.
term imported
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 split
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.
This is to be used if none of the existing instances cover the reason for obsolescence. An editor note should indicate this new reason.
We expect to be able to mine these new reasons and add instances as required.
obsolete_other
universal
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.
A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf
defined class
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.
named class expression
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
to be replaced with external ontology term
Terms with this status should eventually replaced with a term from another ontology.
requires discussion
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.
The term was added to the ontology on the assumption it was in scope, but it turned out later that it was not.
This obsolesence reason should be used conservatively. Typical valid examples are: un-necessary grouping classes in disease ontologies, a phenotype term added on the assumption it was a disease.