term replaced by
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
Use on obsolete terms, relating the term to another term that can be used as a substitute
expand expression to
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
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)"
definition
PERSON:Daniel Schober
The official definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions.
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.
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
curator note
An administrative note of use for a curator but of no use for a user
definition source
Discussion on obo-discuss mailing-list, see http://bit.ly/hgm99w
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
antisymmetric property
Alan Ruttenberg
part_of antisymmetric property xsd:true
use boolean value xsd:true to indicate that the property is an antisymmetric property
first order logic expression
OBO foundry unique label
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 .
An alternative name for a class or property which is unique across the OBO Foundry.
GROUP:OBO Foundry <http://obofoundry.org/>
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
PERSON:Chris Mungall
definition editor
Name of editor entering the definition in the file. The definition editor is a point of contact for information regarding the term. The definition editor may be, but is not always, the author of the definition, which may have been worked upon by several people
expand assertion to
A macro expansion tag applied to an annotation property which can be expanded into a more detailed axiom.
Chris Mungall
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)"
alternative term
An alternative name for a class or property which means the same thing as the preferred name (semantically equivalent)
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.
editor preferred term
The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property preferred by the ontology developers. (US-English)
example of usage
A phrase describing how a class name should be used. May also include other kinds of examples that facilitate immediate understanding of a class semantics, such as widely known prototypical subclasses or instances of the class. Although essential for high level terms, examples for low level terms (e.g., Affymetrix HU133 array) are not
example
In OWL 2 add AnnotationPropertyRange('is denotator type' 'denotator type')
relates an class defined in an ontology, to the type of it's denotator
is denotator type
imported from
For external terms/classes, the ontology from which the term was imported
inheres in
inheres_in
is bearer of
bearer of
bearer_of
is aggregate of
aggregate of
aggregate_of
2009/10/01 Alan Ruttenberg. Barry prefers generic is-member-of. Question of what the range should be. For now organization. Is organization a population? Would the same relation be used to record members of a population
Relating a legal person to an organization in the case where the legal person has a role as member of the organization
BFO relation takes precedence.
We anticipate BFO 2.0 including and defining this relation. When it does, we will obsolete this property and declare it equivalent to the BFO 2.0 relation.
true
At the instance level, this relation is the named inverse of is-aggregate-of. At the type level, however, not so. We expect BFO 2.0 to have this relation as well, and we will obsolete this property and declare it equivalent to BFO's version when BFO 2.0 comes out.
data item
information content entity
curation status specification
Better to represent curation as a process with parts and then relate labels to that process (in IAO meeting)
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.
data about an ontology part
data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
obsolescence reason specification
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
The creation of this class has been inspired in part by Werner Ceusters' paper, Applying evolutionary terminology auditing to the Gene Ontology.
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.
A denotator type indicates how a term should be interpreted from an ontological perspective.
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.
Teleostomi
Euteleostomi
Homo/Pan/Gorilla group
Eukaryota
Euarchontoglires
Simiiformes
Hominoidea
Tetrapoda
Amniota
Theria
Fungi/Metazoa group
Metazoa
Bilateria
Coelomata
Deuterostomia
Haplorrhini
Mammalia
Eumetazoa
Chordata
Vertebrata
Gnathostomata
Sarcopterygii
Craniata
Eutheria
Primates
Catarrhini
Hominidae
Homo
Homo sapiens
organization
An organization is a continuant entity which can play roles, has members, and has a set of organization rules. Members of organizations are either organizations themselves or individual people. Members can bear specific organization member roles that are determined in the organization rules. The organization rules also determine how decisions are made on behalf of the organization by the organization members.
BP: The definition summarizes long email discussions on the OBI developer, roles, biomaterial and denrie branches. It leaves open if an organization is a material entity or a dependent continuant, as no consensus was reached on that. The current placement as material is therefore temporary, in order to move forward with development. Here is the entire email summary, on which the definition is based: 1) there are organization_member_roles (president, treasurer, branch editor), with individual persons as bearers 2) there are organization_roles (employer, owner, vendor, patent holder) 3) an organization has a charter / rules / bylaws, which specify what roles there are, how they should be realized, and how to modify the charter/rules/bylaws themselves. It is debatable what the organization itself is (some kind of dependent continuant or an aggregate of people). This also determines who/what the bearer of organization_roles' are. My personal favorite is still to define organization as a kind of 'legal entity', but thinking it through leads to all kinds of questions that are clearly outside the scope of OBI. Interestingly enough, it does not seem to matter much where we place organization itself, as long as we can subclass it (University, Corporation, Government Agency, Hospital), instantiate it (Affymetrix, NCBI, NIH, ISO, W3C, University of Oklahoma), and have it play roles. This leads to my proposal: We define organization through the statements 1 - 3 above, but without an 'is a' statement for now. We can leave it in its current place in the is_a hierarchy (material entity) or move it up to 'continuant'. We leave further clarifications to BFO, and close this issue for now.
PMID: 16353909.AAPS J. 2005 Sep 22;7(2):E274-80. Review. The joint food and agriculture organization of the United Nations/World Health Organization Expert Committee on Food Additives and its role in the evaluation of the safety of veterinary drug residues in foods.
organism
10/21/09: This is a placeholder term, that should ideally be imported from the NCBI taxonomy, but the high level hierarchy there does not suit our needs (includes plasmids and 'other organisms')
13-02-2009: OBI doesn't take position as to when an organism starts or ends being an organism - e.g. sperm, foetus. This issue is outside the scope of OBI.
A material entity that is an individual living system, such as animal, plant, bacteria or virus, that is capable of replicating or reproducing, growth and maintenance in the right environment. An organism may be unicellular or made up, like humans, of many billions of cells divided into specialized tissues and organs.
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organism
animal
fungus
plant
virus
human social role
A social role inhering in a human being.
Mathias Brochhausen William R. Hogan
party to a legal entity
party to a legal proceeding
party to a legal agreement
party to a marriage contract
party to a power of attorney
gender role
A human social role borne by a human being being realized in behaviour which is considered socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture.
Mathias Brochhausen
male gender role
A gender role borne by a human being that is realized in behaviour which is considered socially appropriate for individuals of the male sex in the context of the culture in question.
male gender
female gender role
A gender role borne by a human being that is realized in behaviour which is considered socially appropriate for individuals of the female sex in the context of the culture in question.
female gender
human health care role
A human social role that is realized by health care processes such as seeking or providing treatment for disease and injury, diagnosing disease and injury, or undergoing diagnosis.
William R. Hogan Mathias Brochhausen
health care role
patient role
A role borne by an organism being as the recipient of a health care service.
patient
health care provider role
A human health care role inhering in an organization or human being that is realized by a process of providing health care services to an organism.
physician role
A health care role borne by a human being and realized by promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments.
physician
nurse role
A health care role borne by a human being and realized by the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life.
based on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursing
nurse
health care provider organization role
Definition needed, but the idea is that we want to differentiate between provider and payer organizations. Some organizaitons have both roles (e.g., UPMC has a Hospital Division, a Physician Divison, and an Insurance Division).
person health care provider role
physician practice
hospital role
A role borne by an organization and realized by providing healthcare services by healthcare professionals of multiple different disciplines of medicine and enabling stationary treatment.
hospital
integrated delivery network
collection of organisms
An object aggregate of organisms.
Any arbitrary collection of organisms. They need not be of the same taxonomic class.
collection of humans
An object aggregate all of whose components are human beings.
role in human social processes
A role inhering in an entity realized by social interactions in human society.
Previous definition: A role played by an entity in human social processes.
organization social role
A role in human social processes that inheres in an organization.
Defined class that we will ultimately move to an application ontology. We are leaving here for now until we determine which application ontology: it is likely going to be an ontology that does not currently (2012-06-05) exist. Ditto for its current descendants.
William R. Hogan
organism social role
A role in human social processes that inheres in an organism.
Includes animals as well as humans. For example, pet, assistance animal, animal grown for food, work animal, domesticated animal, K-9, etc. Human roles include gender role, party to legal entities, health care provider roles like doctor, nurse, etc.
Previous definition: A role in human social processes played by an organism.
organization health care role
An organization social role that is realized by a health care process.
Previous definition: An organization social role played by an organization in health care processes.
geopolitical organization
An organization that governs the people living in a particular geographical region or aggregate of geographical regions. The geographical region it governs can change over time (such as the westward expansion of the United States and the addition of Hawaii).
sovereign state
A geopolitical entity with a defined territory on which it exercises internal and external sovereignty, a permanent population, a government, and the capacity to enter into relations with other sovereign states.
Per Wikipedia, the word 'nation' does not always refer to soverign states. For example, the "nation of Islam".
nation
nation state
subnational entity
A geopolitical entity that recognizes a sovereign state as its only higher political authority.
major administrative subdivision
A subnational entity that is the primary organizational member of a nation, is subject to the full set of laws of the nation, enjoys all the privileges established under the laws of the nation, is not a member of any other geopolitical entity, and itself governs a part of the geographical region governed by the nation.
geopolitical dependency
A subnational entity that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state, but remains politically outside of the controlling state and controls a geographical region that is outside the controlling state's integral region.
Typically, the common feature is that the dependency does not conduct foreign affairs, and relegates this authority to the sovereign state. BUt otherwise, it is largely or completely autonomous relative to the administrative subdivisions. Examples include Puerto Rico (U.S.), Guam (U.S.), Greenland (Denmark), French Polynesia (France), and Falkland Islands (United Kingdom).
aggregate of organizations
An aggregate of organizations that have some feature in common, but is not itself an organization.
It is often convenient to group organizations together that otherwise might not even interact with one another.
aggregate of sovereign states
An aggregate of sovereign states that share some feature in common, but is not an organization nor necessarily the outcome of some treaty among them.
aggregate of geopolitical organizations
An aggregate of geopolitical organizations with some feature in common.
Examples: all sovereign states whose territory is part of North America, all British Crown Dependencies, all midwestern US States, all US dependencies, etc.
aggregate of dependencies
aggregate of major administrative subdivisions
Definition: An entity [bfo: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.
Examples: a heart, a person, the color of a tomato, the mass of a cloud, a symphony orchestra, the disposition of blood to coagulate, the lawn and atmosphere in front of our building
Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that is either dependent on one or other independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] bearers or inheres in or is borne by other entities.
Definition: A realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] that essentially causes a specific process or transformation in the object [snap:Object] in which it inheres, under specific circumstances and in conjunction with the laws of nature. A general formula for dispositions is: X (object [snap:Object] has the disposition D to (transform, initiate a process) R under conditions C.
Examples: the disposition of vegetables to decay when not refrigerated, the disposition of a vase to brake if dropped, the disposition of blood to coagulate, the disposition of a patient with a weakened immune system to contract disease, the disposition of metal to conduct electricity.
Definition: A material entity [snap:MaterialEntity] that is part of an object [snap:Object] but is not demarcated by any physical discontinuities.
Examples: upper and lower lobes of the left lung, the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the body, the east side of Saarbruecken, the lower right portion of a human torso
Definition: A realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] the manifestation of which is an essentially end-directed activity of a continuant [snap:Continuant] entity in virtue of that continuant [snap:Continuant] entity being a specific kind of entity in the kind or kinds of contexts that it is made for.
Examples: the function of a birth canal to enable transport, the function of the heart in the body: to pump blood, to receive de-oxygenated and oxygenated blood, etc., the function of reproduction in the transmission of genetic material, the digestive function of the stomach to nutriate the body, the function of a hammer to drive in nails, the function of a computer program to compute mathematical equations, the function of an automobile to provide transportation, the function of a judge in a court of law
Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that is dependent on one or other independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] bearers. For every instance of A requires some instance of (an independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] type) B but which instance of B serves can change from time to time.
Examples: a certain PDF file that exists in different and in several hard drives
Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that is a bearer of quality [snap:Quality] and realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] entities, in which other entities inhere and which itself cannot inhere in anything.
Examples: an organism, a heart, a leg, a person, a symphony orchestra, a chair, the bottom right portion of a human torso, the lawn and atmosphere in front of our building
Definition: An independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] that is spatially extended whose identity is independent of that of other entities and can be maintained through time. Note: Material entity [snap:MaterialEntity] subsumes object [snap:Object], fiat object part [snap:FiatObjectPart], and object aggregate [snap:ObjectAggregate], which assume a three level theory of granularity, which is inadequate for some domains, such as biology.
Examples: collection of random bacteria, a chair, dorsal surface of the body
Definition: A material entity [snap:MaterialEntity] that is spatially extended, maximally self-connected and self-contained (the parts of a substance are not separated from each other by spatial gaps) and possesses an internal unity. The identity of substantial object [snap:Object] entities is independent of that of other entities and can be maintained through time.
Examples: an organism, a heart, a chair, a lung, an apple
Definition: A material entity [snap:MaterialEntity] that is a mereological sum of separate object [snap:Object] entities and possesses non-connected boundaries.
Examples: a heap of stones, a group of commuters on the subway, a collection of random bacteria, a flock of geese, the patients in a hospital
Comment: Boundaries are theoretically difficult entities to account for, however the intuitive notion of a physical boundary as a surface of some sort (whether inside or outside of a thing) will generally serve as a good guide for the use of this universal.
Definition: An independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] that is a lower dimensional part of a spatial entity, normally a closed two-dimensional surface. Boundaries are those privileged parts of object [snap:Object] entities that exist at exactly the point where the object [snap:Object] is separated off from the rest of the existing entities in the world.
Examples: the surface of the skin, the surface of the earth, the surface of the interior of the stomach, the outer surface of a cell or cell wall
Definition: A spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] with one dimension.
Examples: the part of space that is a line stretching from one end of absolute space to the other, an edge of a cube-shaped part of space
Definition: A specifically dependent continuant [snap:SpecificallyDependentContinuant] that is exhibited if it inheres in an entity or entities at all (a categorical property).
Examples: the color of a tomato, the ambient temperature of air, the circumference of a waist, the shape of a nose, the mass of a piece of gold, the weight of a chimpanzee
Comment: If a realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] inheres in a continuant [snap:Continuant], this does not imply that it is actually realized.
Definition: A specifically dependent continuant [snap:SpecificallyDependentContinuant] that inheres in continuant [snap: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.
Examples: the role of being a doctor, the function of the reproductive organs, the disposition of blood to coagulate, the disposition of metal to conduct electricity
Definition: A realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] the manifestation of which brings about some result or end that is not essential to a continuant [snap:Continuant] in virtue of the kind of thing that it is but that can be served or participated in by that kind of continuant [snap:Continuant] in some kinds of natural, social or institutional contexts.
Examples: the role of a person as a surgeon, the role of a chemical compound in an experiment, the role of a patient relative as defined by a hospital administrative form, the role of a woman as a legal mother in the context of system of laws, the role of a biological grandfather as legal guardian in the context of a system of laws, the role of ingested matter in digestion, the role of a student in a university
Comment: An instance of Site [snap:Site] is a mixture of independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities which act as surrounding environments for other independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities, most importantly for instances of object [snap:Object]. A site [snap:Site] is typically made of object [snap:Object] or fiat object part [snap:FiatObjectPart] entities and a surrounding medium in which is found an object [snap:Object] occupying the site [snap:Site]. Independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities may be associated with others (which, then, are site [snap:Site] entities) through a relation of "occupation". That relation is connected to, but distinct from, the relation of spatial location. Site [snap:Site] entities are not to be confused with spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities. In BFO, site [snap:Site] allows for a so-called relational view of space which is different from the view corresponding to the class spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] (see the comment on this class).
Definition: An independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] consisting of a characteristic spatial shape in relation to some arrangement of other continuant [snap:Continuant] entities and of the medium which is enclosed in whole or in part by this characteristic spatial shape. Site [snap:Site] entities are entities that can be occupied by other continuant [snap:Continuant] entities.
Examples: a particular room in a particular hospital, Maria's nostril or her intestines for a variety of bacteria.
Comment: All instances of continuant [snap:Continuant] are spatial entities, that is, they enter in the relation of (spatial) location with spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities. As a particular case, the exact spatial location of a spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] is this region itself.
Comment: An instance of spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] is a part of space. All parts of space are spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities and only spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities are parts of space. Space is the entire extent of the spatial universe, a designated individual, which is thus itself a spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion].
Comment: Space and spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities are entities in their own rights which exist independently of any entities which can be located at them. This view of space is sometimes called "absolutist" or "the container view". In BFO, the class site [snap:Site] allows for a so-called relational view of space, that is to say, a view according to which spatiality is a matter of relative location between entities and not a matter of being tied to space. The bridge between these two views is secured through the fact that while instances of site [snap:Site] are not spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities, they are nevertheless spatial entities.
Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that is neither bearer of quality [snap:Quality] entities nor inheres in any other entities.
Examples: the sum total of all space in the universe, parts of the sum total of all space in the universe
Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that inheres in or is borne by other entities. Every instance of A requires some specific instance of B which must always be the same.
Examples: the mass of a cloud, the smell of mozzarella, the liquidity of blood, the color of a tomato, the disposition of fish to decay, the role of being a doctor, the function of the heart in the body: to pump blood, to receive de-oxygenated and oxygenated blood, etc.
Definition: A spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] with three dimensions.
Examples: a cube-shaped part of space, a sphere-shaped part of space
Definition: A spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] with two dimensions.
Examples: the surface of a cube-shaped part of space, the surface of a sphere-shaped part of space, the surface of a rectilinear planar figure-shaped part of space
Definition: A spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] with no dimensions.
Definition: A spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] that has temporal and spatial dimensions such that all points within the spatiotemporal region are mediately or immediately connected to all other points within the same spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion].
Examples: the spatial and temporal location of an individual organism's life, the spatial and temporal location of the development of a fetus
Definition: A temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] every point of which is mediately or immediately connected with every other point of which.
Examples: the 1970s years, the time from the beginning to the end of a heart attack, the time taken up by cellular meiosis
Definition: A processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] that is part of a process but that does not have bona fide beginnings and endings corresponding to real discontinuities.
Examples: chewing during a meal, the middle part of a rainstorm, the worst part of a heart-attack, the most interesting part of Van Gogh's life
Definition: An entity [bfo:Entity] that has temporal parts and that happens, unfolds or develops through time. Sometimes also called perdurants.
Examples: the life of an organism, a surgical operation as processual context for a nosocomical infection, the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis, the most interesting part of Van Gogh's life, the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor
Definition: A processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] that is a maximally connected spatiotemporal whole and has bona fide beginnings and endings corresponding to real discontinuities.
Examples: the life of an organism, the process of sleeping, the process of cell-division
Definition: A processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] that is a mereological sum of process [span:Process] entities and possesses non-connected boundaries.
Examples: the beating of the hearts of each of seven individuals in the room, the playing of each of the members of an orchestra, a process of digestion and a process of thinking taken together
Definition: A processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] that is the fiat or bona fide instantaneous temporal process boundary.
Examples: birth, death, the forming of a synapse, the onset of REM sleep, the detaching of a finger in an industrial accident, the final separation of two cells at the end of cell-division, the incision at the beginning of a surgery
Comment: An instance of a processual context [span:ProcessualContext] is a mixture of processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] which stand as surrounding environments for other processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] entities. The class processual context [span:ProcessualContext] is the analogous among occurrent [span:Occurrent] entities to the class site [snap:Site] among continuant [snap:Continuant] entities.
Definition: An occurrent [span:Occurrent] consisting of a characteristic spatial shape inhering in some arrangement of other occurrent [span:Occurrent] entities. Processual context [span:ProcessualContext] entities are characteristically entities at or in which other occurrent [span:Occurrent] entities can be located or occur.
Examples: The processual context for a given manipulation occurring as part of an experiment is made of processual entities which occur in parallel, are not necessarily all parts of the experiment themselves and may involve continuant [snap:Continuant] entities which are in the spatial vicinity of the participants in the experiment.
Definition: An occurrent [span:Occurrent] that exists in time by occurring or happening, has temporal parts and always involves and depends on some entity.
Examples: the life of an organism, the process of meiosis, the course of a disease, the flight of a bird
Definition: A spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] that has spatial and temporal dimensions and every spatial and temporal point of which is not connected with every other spatial and temporal point of which.
Examples: the space and time occupied by the individual games of the World Cup, the space and time occupied by the individual liaisons in a romantic affair
Definition: A temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] every point of which is not mediately or immediately connected with every other point of which.
Examples: the time occupied by the individual games of the World Cup, the time occupied by the individual liaisons in a romantic affair
Definition: A connected spatiotemporal region [span:ConnectedSpatiotemporalRegion] at a specific moment.
Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a single instantaneous temporal slice (part) of a process
Definition: A connected spatiotemporal region [span:ConnectedSpatiotemporalRegion] that endures for more than a single moment of time.
Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a process or by a fiat processual part
Comment: All instances of occurrent [span:Occurrent] are spatiotemporal entities, that is, they enter in the relation of (spatiotemporal) location with spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] entities. As a particular case, the exact spatiotemporal location of a spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] is this region itself.
Comment: An instance of the spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] is a part of spacetime. All parts of spacetime are spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] entities and only spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] entities are parts of spacetime. In particular, neither spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities nor temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities are in BFO parts of spacetime. Spacetime is the entire extent of the spatiotemporal universe, a designated individual, which is thus itself a spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion]. Spacetime is among occurrents the analogous of space among continuant [snap:Continuant] entities.
Comment: Spacetime and spatiotemporal region [span:SpatiotemporalRegion] entities are entities in their own rights which exist independently of any entities which can be located at them. This view of spacetime can be called "absolutist" or "the container view". In BFO, the class processual context [span:ProcessualContext] allows for a so-called relational view of spacetime, that is to say, a view according to which spatiotemporality is a matter of relative location between entities and not a matter of being tied to spacetime. In BFO, the bridge between these two views is secured through the fact that instances of processual context [span:ProcessualContext] are too spatiotemporal entities.
Definition: An occurrent [span:Occurrent] at or in which processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] entities can be located.
Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life, the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor, the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis
Definition: A connected temporal region [span:ConnectedTemporalRegion] comprising a single moment of time.
Examples: right now, the moment at which a finger is detached in an industrial accident, the moment at which a child is born, the moment of death
Definition: A connected temporal region [span:ConnectedTemporalRegion] lasting for more than a single moment of time.
Examples: any continuous temporal duration during which a process occurs
Comment: All instances of occurrent [span:Occurrent] are temporal entities, that is, they enter in the relation of (temporal) location with temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities. As a particular case, the exact spatiotemporal location of a temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] is this region itself. Continuant [snap:Continuant] entities are not temporal entities in the technical sense just explained; they are related to time in a different way, not through temporal location but through a relation of existence at a time or during a period of time (see continuant [snap:Continuant].
Comment: An instance of temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] is a part of time. All parts of time are temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities and only temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities are parts of time. Time is the entire extent of the temporal universe, a designated individual, which is thus a temporal region itself.
Comment: Time and temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities are entities in their own rights which exist independently of any entities which can be located at them. This view of time can be called "absolutist" or "the container view" in analogy to what is traditionally the case with space (see spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion].
Definition: An occurrent [span:Occurrent] that is part of time.
Examples: the time it takes to run a marathon, the duration of a surgical procedure, the moment of death
example to be eventually removed
failed exploratory term
The term was used 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 definition editor.
core
Core is an instance of a grouping of terms from an ontology or ontologies. It is used by the ontology to identify main classes.
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.
other
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.
A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf
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.
"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 defined class is a class that is defined by a set of logically necessary and sufficient conditions but is not a 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
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.