The Population and Community Ontology (PCO) is licensed under a Creative Commons zero (CC0) license - http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. We ask that anyone using this ontology follow the standards of the scientific ontology community by re-using ontology identifiers whenever possible and properly citing the ontology and its creators.
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
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.
example of usage
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 term
An alternative name for a class or property which means the same thing as the preferred name (semantically equivalent)
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
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.
term tracker item
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.
ontology term requester
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.
Chris Mungall
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
Alan Ruttenberg
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/>
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)
has ID digit count
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
Relating an ontology used to record id policy to the ontology namespace whose policy it manages
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.
has ID prefix
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)
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
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
Add as annotation triples in the granting ontology
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"
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.
Edges asserting this should be annotated with to record evidence supporting the assertion and its provenance.
may be identical to
Used when the class or object is scheduled for obsoletion/deprecation on or after a particular date.
Chris Mungall, Jie Zheng
GO ontology
scheduled for obsoletion on or after
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Material anatomical entity that is a member of an individual species or is a viral or viroid particle.
organism or virus
organism
A general term for organism that is agnostic about single cell vs multi-cellular. Note that this is a subclass of 'anatomical structure', meaning that an organism must be a connected structure. So, if I take one plant and make a rooted cutting from a it, I now have two (clonally related) organisms.
A feature that has been constructed by deliberate human effort.
"constructed" should probably be made something like a quality and this class obsoleted or filled only by inference
A material entity which determines an environmental system.
A material entity determines an environmental system when its removal would cause the collapse of that system. For example, a seamount determines a seamount environment, acting as its 'hub'. This class is currently being aligned to the Basic Formal Ontology. Following this alignment, its definition and the definitions of its subclasses will be revised.
A system which has the disposition to environ one or more material entities.
In ENVO's alignment with the Basic Formal Ontology, this class is being considered as a subclass of a proposed BFO class "system". The relation "environed_by" is also under development. Roughly, a system which includes a material entity (at least partially) within its site and causally influences that entity may be considered to environ it. Following the completion of this alignment, this class' definition and the definitions of its subclasses will be revised.
A self-contained constructed feature used by one or more households as a home, such as a house, apartment, mobile home, houseboat or other 'substantial' structure. A dwelling typically includes nearby outbuildings, sheds etc. within the curtilage of the property, excluding any 'open fields beyond'. It has significance in relation to search and seizure, conveyancing of real property, burglary, trespass, and land use planning.
See https://github.com/EnvironmentOntology/envo/issues/264 for discussion. This definition needs a lot of clean up and links to household and related classes must be made to form logical definitions for inference to work.
human dwelling
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwelling accessed 11/25/2015
A material part of an astronomical body.
astronomical body part
A shrubland biome which is densely vegetated by dwarf or short mangroves (and associates) that are generally less than 6 meters in height, is tidally influenced, is located in tropical or subtropical areas.
This class aligns to the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). In ENVO, we may adapt the definition for consistency, but the semantics (meaning) of the term should be unaffected. Please consult the CMECS catalogue (https://cmecscatalog.org/) for authoritative and semantically unconstrained definitions. CMECS provides the following notes: "Commonly found on intertidal mud flats along the shores of estuaries. Tidal mangrove shrublands may include immature stands or stunted mature trees that indicate a harsh growing environment. Areas characterized by tall mangroves (> 6 meters) are placed in the Tidal Mangrove Forest Biotic Group. Where tidal amplitude is relatively low, the vegetation forms narrow bands along the coastal plains, and it rarely penetrates inland more than several kilometers along rivers. Where tidal amplitude is greater, mangroves extend further inland along river courses, forming extensive stands in the major river deltas. Also, mangrove cays may occur within the lagoon complex of barrier reefs. The list of biotic communities for this group is long: a few examples are provided below, and the complete list is available in Appendix F"
tidal mangrove shrubland
The internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of animals (individuals or groups) to internal or external stimuli, via a mechanism that involves nervous system activity.
1. Note that this term is in the subset of terms that should not be used for direct gene product annotation. Instead, select a child term or, if no appropriate child term exists, please request a new term. Direct annotations to this term may be amended during annotation reviews. 2. While a broader definition of behavior encompassing plants and single cell organisms would be justified on the basis of some usage (see PMID:20160973 for discussion), GO uses a tight definition that limits behavior to animals and to responses involving the nervous system, excluding plant responses that GO classifies under development, and responses of unicellular organisms that has general classifications for covering the responses of cells in multicellular organisms (e.g. cell chemotaxis).
A biological process represents a specific objective that the organism is genetically programmed to achieve. Biological processes are often described by their outcome or ending state, e.g., the biological process of cell division results in the creation of two daughter cells (a divided cell) from a single parent cell. A biological process is accomplished by a particular set of molecular functions carried out by specific gene products (or macromolecular complexes), often in a highly regulated manner and in a particular temporal sequence.
Note that, in addition to forming the root of the biological process ontology, this term is recommended for use for the annotation of gene products whose biological process is unknown. When this term is used for annotation, it indicates that no information was available about the biological process of the gene product annotated as of the date the annotation was made; the evidence code "no data" (ND), is used to indicate this.
Behavior directed towards society, or taking place between members of the same species. Occurs predominantly, or only, in individuals that are part of a group.
Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social. Communication between members of different species is also not social behavior.
Any process in which an organism has an effect on an organism of a different species.
interspecies interaction with other organisms
interspecies interaction between organisms
Any process in which an organism has an effect on an organism of the same species.
intraspecies interaction with other organisms
intraspecies interaction between organisms
A biological process which involves another organism of the same or different species.
physiological interaction between organisms
physiological interaction with other organism
Any process in which an organism has a behavioral effect on another organism of the same or different species.
behavioral interaction between organisms
behavioral interaction with other organism
behavioural interaction between organisms
behavioural interaction with other organism
data item
information content entity
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)
data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
data about an ontology part
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.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
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.
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.
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.
An ontology module that comprises only of asserted axioms local to the ontology, excludes import directives, and excludes axioms or declarations from external ontologies.
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.
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
An ontology module that consists entirely of axioms that connect or bridge two distinct ontology modules. For example, the Uberon-to-ZFA bridge 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.
An ontology module that is extracted from a main ontology module and includes only a subset of entities or axioms.
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.
An ontology module that is intended for usage in analysis or discovery applications.
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.
A subset of an ontology that is intended to be excluded for some purpose. For example, a blacklist of classes.
An imported ontology module that is derived from an external ontology. Derivation methods include the OWLAPI SLME approach.
A subset ontology that is crafted to either include or exclude a taxonomic grouping of species.
An ontology module that contains axioms generated by a reasoner. The generated axioms are typically direct SubClassOf axioms, but other possibilities are available.
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
An ontology module that is automatically generated from a template specification and fillers for slots in that template.
ontology module subsetted by expressivity
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
A dependent entity that inheres in a bearer by virtue of how the bearer is related to other entities
A quality of a single process inhering in a bearer by virtue of the bearer's occurrence per unit time.
See comments of relational quality of a physical entity.
A quality which inheres in a continuant.
multiply inhering quality of a physical entity
Relational qualities are qualities that hold between multiple entities. Normal (monadic) qualities such as the shape of a eyeball exist purely as a quality of that eyeball. A relational quality such as sensitivity to light is a quality of that eyeball (and connecting nervous system) as it relates to incoming light waves/particles.
A biological sex quality inhering in a population of multiple sexes.
For example a mixture of females and male or males and hermaphrodites.
A quality inhering in a population by virtue of the proportion of its members that are ill at a given time.
A quality that inheres in an entire population or part of a population.
Examples include: population, community, species (meaning the collection of organisms that makes up a species, not the taxonomic rank), and family.
A material entity that consists of two or more organisms, viruses, or viroids.
May be of the same or different species.
collection of organisms
This a general term that can include every organism of a species living in an area or any subset of them. Subclasses can be more specific as needed.
A collection of organisms, all of the same species, that live in the same place.
It is sometimes difficult to define the physical boundaries of a population. In the case of sexually reproducing organisms, the individuals within a population have the potential to reproduce with one another during the course of their lifetimes. 'Community', as often used to describe a group of humans, is a type of population of organisms. Classes for population already exist in IDO ('organism population', IDO_0000509) and OBI ('population', OBI_0000181). The definitions should be standardized across OBO Foundry ontologies and only one term used.
population of organisms
A multi-species collection of organisms of at least two different species, living in a particular area. Must have at least two populations of different species as members.
multispecies community
Ecological community is defined broadly here, but includes both ecological interactions (inherited from parent term community) and spatial co-existence. It may be used to describe every organisms living in an area, but is often used to refer only to organisms of a particular taxon or guild (e.g., the plant community, the insect community, the herbivore community). The word community, as it often used to describe a group of humans living together, is a type of single-species collection of organisms, not an ecological community.
ecological community
A quality that inheres in a biological population.
See Chris's comments on population qualities at: http://code.google.com/p/popcomm-ontology/issues/detail?id=4. These may not belong under BFO:quality. May be better to call them population characteristics, and classify as specifically dependent continuants. Need to look at process profiles in BFO2.
Includes qualities like population size, population growth rate, carrying capacity, immigration rate, emigration rate, fecundity, and death rate. A population quality may depend on the qualities of individual organisms in the population, but cannot be measured or described for a single organism. This term may be replaced by a PATO term.
quality of a population
A quality that inheres in a community.
These may not belong under BFO:quality. May be better to call them community characteristics, and classify as specifically dependent continuants. Need to look at process profiles in BFO2.
Includes qualities like diversity, species richness, stability, resilience, community structure, number of trophic levels. A community quality may depend on the qualities of individual organism in the community, but cannot be measured or described for a single individual.
quality of an ecological community
A process that has as primary participant a population.
Includes processes such as population growth, extinction, evolution, selection, and adaptation. Population processes may depend on the processes of individual organisms {e.g., population growth reflects the cumulative multicellular organism reproduction (GO:0032504) and death (GO:0016265) of all individuals in a population}, but cannot be described for an individual organism. Some of these processes (e.g., evolution, extinction) can also occur at the species level, so PCO distinguishes between, for example, population extinction and species extinction. The GO has the terms 'multi-organism process' (GO:0051704) and 'intraspecies interactions between organisms' (GO:0051703), but tPCOhese categories are only defined for interactions between two individuals. It is unclear at this point if 'biological process' (GO:0008150) encompasses population processes.
population process
population birth rate
population death rate
Is a rate a quality? Population growth rate may be better classified as a process profile.
population growth rate
The maximum number of individuals that can be supported in a population that is growing according to logistic growth.
Carrying capacity is better defined as a quality of the environment in which a population lives. This term will be deprecated from PCO and moved to ecoCORE.
obsolete carrying capacity
The number of different species represented in an ecological community.
This is a quality of an ecological community (PCO_0000002). If your metric includes the abundances of species (evenness) as well as the number, you should use community species diversity (PCO_0000019).
adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_richness
community species richness
A process that leads to a change in the number of individuals (positive or negative) in a population.
A population process that leads to an increase in the numbers of individuals in a population following a logistic (S-shaped) curve. Generally occurs when the population has a carrying capacity in a particular habitat.
A population growth process that leads to an exponential increase in the number of individuals in a population.
predator role
prey role
symbiont role
A collection of organisms that has as parts every organism of given species and no organisms of any other species.
At the moment there is no way to specify in an OWL axiom that the collection includes every individual of a species. This should be added, if possible.
This term is neutral with respect to which organisms are included in a species. Membership will depend on the species concept and the taxonomic assertions used to define the species. These criteria must be specified by the user.
species as a collection of organisms
A material entity that has as parts two or more organisms, viruses, or viroids of the same species and no members of any other species.
collection of organisms of the same species
single-species collection of organisms
The number of different species that are represented in a given community, weighted by their abundance. Community species diversity can be calculated in different ways, but consists of two components: species richness and species evenness.
If your metric does not include the abundances of different species, but rather just the numer of species, you should use community species richness (PCO_0000010). More specific subclasses or instances of this class may be created to describe specific ways of measuring diversity.
adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_diversity
The Shannon Index and Simpson Index are examples of ways in which species diversity is quantified.
community species diversity
A domestic group, or a number of domestic groups linked through descent (demonstrated or stipulated) from a common ancestor, marriage, or adoption.
Needs axioms for family relationships.
Family membership through marriage or adoption apply primarily to human families. In most species, family membership is defined by common anscestry.
family
A population process that ultimately leads to the death of all individuals in a population.
population extinction
A process that ultimately leads to the death of all individuals in a population.
species extinction
If there are 40 foxes, and 1000 dogs, the community is not very even, but if there are 40 foxes and 42 dogs, the community is quite even.
A quality of a community that reflects how close in abundance all species in a community are.
adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Species_evenness
community species evenness
An organismal entity that consists of one or more people who live in the same dwelling and also share at meals or living accommodation, and may consist of a single family or some other grouping of people.
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household
household
This is an example population added to demonstrate the modeling pattern for collections of organisms.
red population
An example class added to demonstrate the design pattern for collections of organism. Red organism should be automatically classified as a member of red population when the reasoner is synchronized using a DL query.
red organism
A collection of organisms of the same species that has as members only humans.
human community
human population
collection of humans
A collection of organisms of the same species whose members are all either genealogically related to each other or have mated with each other.
Biological or social relations are covered by RO_0002437 (biotically interacts with), but that relations does provide an easy way to specify that two entities are interacting with each other (participating in the same interaction). Until that axiom is specified, the logical definition of this term is incomplete.
These relations can include shared values, occupying the same spatial regkion. A community be be a single species collection of organsisms (as in a human community, which is also a type of population) or a or multi-species collection of organisms (as in an ecological community).
community
A collection of organisms that consists of two or more organisms from at least two species.
Need to add axiom to specify that it has at a mimum members of two different species, but not sure how to specify that. Can't say "('has member' only ('member of' min 2 'species as a collection of organisms'))".
multi-species collection of organisms
A household in which the majority of the income of its members is derived from agricultural activities.
This is a more narrow definition in which the majority of income of a house comes from agricultural activities, as opposed to the broad definition in which any income comes from agricultural activities. The narrow definition was chosen to be consistent with the SDGIO (UN Sustainable Development Goals) which requested this term.
agricultural household
A material entity that is one or more organisms, viruses or viroids.
organismal entity
Matthew Brush, as part of http://datamodel.clinicalgenome.org/interpretation/
biological family
A type of social behavior in which a collection of humans intentionally gathers together on a temporary basis to engage socially.
Intented to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001029
GenEpiO curators
human social gathering activity
A human social event in which humans living in the same area or neighborhood gather to carry out activiites relevent to the people living in the area.
Intended to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001034
GenEpio curators
human community event
A human social gathering in which the intention is to have a good time. Often the intention is to celebrate something like a birthday, anniversary, or holiday, but there is not always a purpose.
Intended to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001030
party
Intended to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001033
A human social gathering at which each participant is expected to bring food to share. A potluck also can be party, a social meal, or some other type of social gathering.
potluck
A human social gathering at which two people are married. May include a legal or social ceremony.
Intended to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001031
wedding
A human social gathering at which the key participant is an expectant parent and other guests bring presents for the soon to be born baby.
Intended to replace http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/GENEPIO_0001032
baby shower
A collection of organisms that consists of exactly two organism, viruses, or viroids that are interacting with each other.
pair of interacting organisms
pair of interacting organisms of the same species
A population which is participating in a migration process.
migratory population
A population process during which a population moves from one area to another.
The distance between the areas is not specified here, nor is the minimum distance required for such movements to be considered migrations.
population migration
A population migration during which a population of humans moves from one area to another with the intention of settling permanently in the new location.
The distance between the areas is not specified here, nor is the minimum distance required for such movements to be considered migrations. "Nomadic movements are normally not regarded as migrations as there is no intention to settle in the new place and because the movement is generally seasonal. Only a few nomadic people have retained this form of lifestyle in modern times. Also, the temporary movement of people for the purpose of travel, tourism, pilgrimages, or the commute is not regarded as migration, in the absence of an intention to live and settle in the visited places." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migration
human population migration
A migratory population of humans, travelling with the intention of settling in a new area.
human migratory population
An ecological community which is composed of co-existing populations of microbial organisms that interact, directly or indirectly, such that they impact one another's ecological fitness.
A class for a collection of organisms considered "microbial" and an accompanying quality in PATO (e.g. "microscopic") would be useful to better axiomatise this class. See https://github.com/PopulationAndCommunityOntology/pco/issues/22
microbiota
The definition of a microbial species is deeply debated, however, units of phylogenetic and functional diversity are recognised with respect to their varying roles in an ecosystem. In turn, there exist multiple operational definitions of microbial community, such as local, phenomenological, and indexical communities. This class seeks to capture microbial communities in a very broad sense, as collections of phylogenetically and functionally divergent microbial organisms co-existing, potentially interacting, and competing for niche space in the same ecosystem over a period of time in which their causal footprints overlap one another.
microbial community
obsolete organismal entity
An ecological community which is composed primarily of dwarf or short mangroves, often populations of Laguncularia racemosa, Avicennia germinans, Sarcocornia pacifica, or Batis maritima.
mangrove community
tidal shrubland community
tidal mangrove shrubland community
A physical object quality that is inhered in a material entity that is too small to be viewed by the unaided eye.
should move to PATO
invisible to unaided eye
microbial organism
microbe
A collection of organisms consisting of two or more microbes.
collection of microbial organisms
A multi-species collection of organisms that consists of two or more microbes from at least two species.
multi-species collection of microbes
A single-species collection of organisms that consists of two or more microbes of the same species and no members of any other species.
single species collection of microbes
A population of organisms consisting of only microbes of the same species, that live in the same place.
microbial population
example to be eventually removed
The term was used in an attempt to structure part of the ontology but in retrospect failed to do a good job
failed exploratory term
Class has all its metadata, but is either not guaranteed to be in its final location in the asserted IS_A hierarchy or refers to another class that is not complete.
metadata complete
term created to ease viewing/sort terms for development purpose, and will not be included in a release
organizational term
Class has undergone final review, is ready for use, and will be included in the next release. Any class lacking "ready_for_release" should be considered likely to change place in hierarchy, have its definition refined, or be obsoleted in the next release. Those classes deemed "ready_for_release" will also derived from a chain of ancestor classes that are also "ready_for_release."
ready for release
Class is being worked on; however, the metadata (including definition) are not complete or sufficiently clear to the branch editors.
metadata incomplete
Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term.
uncurated
All definitions, placement in the asserted IS_A hierarchy and required minimal metadata are complete. The class is awaiting a final review by someone other than the term editor.
pending final vetting
Core is an instance of a grouping of terms from an ontology or ontologies. It is used by the ontology to identify main classes.
core
placeholder removed
An editor note should explain what were the merged terms and the reason for the merge.
terms merged
This is to be used when the original term has been replaced by a term imported from an other ontology. An editor note should indicate what is the URI of the new term to use.
term imported
This is to be used when a term has been split in two or more new terms. An editor note should indicate the reason for the split and indicate the URIs of the new terms created.
term split
Hard to give a definition for. Intuitively a "natural kind" rather than a collection of any old things, which a class is able to be, formally. At the meta level, universals are defined as positives, are disjoint with their siblings, have single asserted parents.
A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf
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.
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
Terms with this status should eventually replaced with a term from another ontology.
to be replaced with external ontology term
A term that is metadata complete, has been reviewed, and problems have been identified that require discussion before release. Such a term requires editor note(s) to identify the outstanding issues.
requires discussion