2014-08-18
2009-07-31
Please cite the OBI consortium http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi where traditional citation is called for. However it is adequate that individual terms be attributed simply by use of the identifying PURL for the term, in projects that refer to them.
en
Advisors for this project come from the IFOMIS group, Saarbruecken and from the Co-ODE group in Manchester
Alan Ruttenberg
Allyson Lister
An ontology for the annotation of biomedical and functional genomics experiments.
Barry Smith
Bill Bug
Bjoern Peters
Carlo Torniai
Chris Mungall
Chris Stoeckert
Chris Taylor
Christian Bolling
Cristian Cocos
Daniel Rubin
Daniel Schober
Dawn Field
Dirk Derom
Elisabetta Manduchi
Eric Deutsch
Frank Gibson
Gilberto Fragoso
Helen C. Causton
Helen Parkinson
Holger Stenzhorn
James A. Overton
James Malone
Jay Greenbaum
Jeffrey Grethe
Jennifer Fostel
Jessica Turner
Jie Zheng
Joe White
John Westbrook
Kevin Clancy
Larisa Soldatova
Lawrence Hunter
Liju Fan
Luisa Montecchi
Matthew Brush
Matthew Pocock
Melanie Courtot
Melissa Haendel
Mervi Heiskanen
Monnie McGee
Norman Morrison
OWL-DL
Ontology for Biomedical Investigation
Philip Lord
Philippe Rocca-Serra
Pierre Grenon
Richard Bruskiewich
Richard Scheuermann
Robert Stevens
Ryan R. Brinkman
Stefan Wiemann
Susanna-Assunta Sansone
Tanya Gray
The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations (OBI) is build in a collaborative, international effort and will serve as a resource for annotating biomedical investigations, including the study design, protocols and instrumentation used, the data generated and the types of analysis performed on the data. This ontology arose from the Functional Genomics Investigation Ontology (FuGO) and will contain both terms that are common to all biomedical investigations, including functional genomics investigations and those that are more domain specific.
Tina Hernandez-Boussard
Trish Whetzel
Yongqun He
OBI Release 2014-08-18
SVN Revision: 3939
editor preferred term
editor preferred label
editor preferred term
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
The concise, meaningful, and human-friendly name for a class or property preferred by the ontology developers. (US-English)
editor preferred label
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
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
example of usage
has curation status
OBI_0000281
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON:Bill Bug
PERSON:Melanie Courtot
has curation status
definition
textual definition
definition
definition
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
definition
The official OBI definition, explaining the meaning of a class or property. Shall be Aristotelian, formalized and normalized. Can be augmented with colloquial definitions.
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.
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obfoundry.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
editor note
term editor
20110707, MC: label update to term editor and definition modified accordingly. See http://code.google.com/p/information-artifact-ontology/issues/detail?id=115.
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
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
PERSON:Daniel Schober
term editor
alternative term
An alternative name for a class or property which means the same thing as the preferred name (semantically equivalent)
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
alternative term
definition source
Discussion on obo-discuss mailing-list, see http://bit.ly/hgm99w
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Daniel Schober
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
curator note
An administrative note of use for a curator but of no use for a user
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
curator note
imported from
For external terms/classes, the ontology from which the term was imported
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON:Melanie Courtot
imported from
axiom id
axiom id
IEDB alternative term
An alternative term used by the IEDB.
IEDB
IEDB alternative term
PERSON:Randi Vita, Jason Greenbaum, Bjoern Peters
label
is part of
There is controversy about this relation intended to represent the relation between some arbitrary physical thing that is used as a represention/proxy/pointer to something else
is part of
part of
part_of
domain of part of
has part
has part
has_part
inheres in
inheres in
inheres_in
is bearer of
bearer of
bearer_of
is bearer of
is realized by
is realized by
realized by
realized_by
realizes
realizes
participates in
participates in
participates_in
has participant
has participant
has_participant
is concretized as
is concretized as
concretizes
concretizes
s depends on
s depends on
s_depends_on
is function of
function of
function_of
is function of
is role of
is role of
role of
role_of
has function
has function
has_function
has role
has role
has_role
is about
7/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg. Following discussion with Jonathan Rees, and introduction of "mentions" relation. Weaken the is_about relationship to be primitive.
We will try to build it back up by elaborating the various subproperties that are more precisely defined.
Some currently missing phenomena that should be considered "about" are predications - "The only person who knows the answer is sitting beside me" , Allegory, Satire, and other literary forms that can be topical without explicitly mentioning the topic.
Smith, Ceusters, Ruttenberg, 2000 years of philosophy
This document is about information artifacts and their representations
is about
is_about is a (currently) primitive relation that relates an information artifact to an entity.
person:Alan Ruttenberg
is_supported_by_data
Philly 2011 workshop
The relation between a data item and a conclusion where the conclusion is the output of a data interpreting process and the data item is used as an input to that process
The relation between the conclusion "Gene tpbA is involved in EPS production" and the data items produced using two sets of organisms, one being a tpbA knockout, the other being tpbA wildtype tested in polysacharide production assays and analyzed using an ANOVA.
is_supported_by_data
OBI
OBI
has_specified_input
8/17/09: specified inputs of one process are not necessarily specified inputs of a larger process that it is part of. This is in contrast to how 'has participant' works.
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Larry Hunter
PERSON: Melanie Coutot
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process that is not created during the process. The presence of the continuant during the process is explicitly specified in the plan specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
has_specified_input
see is_input_of example_of_usage
is_specified_input_of
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process that is not created during the process. The presence of the continuant during the process is explicitly specified in the plan specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
Alan Ruttenberg
is_specified_input_of
some Autologous EBV(Epstein-Barr virus)-transformed B-LCL (B lymphocyte cell line) is_input_for instance of Chromum Release Assay described at https://wiki.cbil.upenn.edu/obiwiki/index.php/Chromium_Release_assay
has_specified_output
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Larry Hunter
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process. The presence of the continuant at the end of the process is explicitly specified in the objective specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
has_specified_output
is_specified_output_of
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
A relation between a planned process and a continuant participating in that process. The presence of the continuant at the end of the process is explicitly specified in the objective specification which the process realizes the concretization of.
Alan Ruttenberg
is_specified_output_of
achieves_planned_objective
A cell sorting process achieves the objective specification 'material separation objective'
BP, AR, PPPB branch
PPPB branch derived
This relation obtains between a planned process and a objective specification when the criteria specified in the objective specification are met at the end of the planned process.
achieves_planned_objective
modified according to email thread from 1/23/09 in accordince with DT and PPPB branch
objective_achieved_by
This relation obtains between a a objective specification and a planned process when the criteria specified in the objective specification are met at the end of the planned process.
objective_achieved_by
OBI
OBI
has value specification
A relation between an information content entity and a value specification that specifies its value.
OBI
PERSON: James A. Overton
has value specification
derives from
derives from
entity
entity
continuant
An entity that exists in full at any time in which it exists at all, persists through time while maintaining its identity and has no temporal parts.
a heart
a person
a symphony orchestra
continuant
endurant
the color of a tomato
the disposition of blood to coagulate
the lawn and atmosphere in front of our building
the mass of a cloud
occurrent
An entity that has temporal parts and that happens, unfolds or develops through time. Sometimes also called perdurants.
a surgical operation as processual context for a nosocomical infection
occurrent
perdurant
the life of an organism
the most interesting part of Van Gogh's life
the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis
the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor
independent continuant
A continuant that is a bearer of quality and realizable entity entities, in which other entities inhere and which itself cannot inhere in anything.
a chair
a heart
a leg
a person
a symphony orchestra
an organism
independent continuant
substantial entity
the bottom right portion of a human torso
the lawn and atmosphere in front of our building
dependent continuant
A continuant that is either dependent on one or other independent continuant bearers or inheres in or is borne by other entities.
dependent continuant
process
A processual entity that is a maximally connected spatiotemporal whole and has bona fide beginnings and endings corresponding to real discontinuities.
process
the life of an organism
the process of cell-division
the process of sleeping
disposition
A realizable entity that essentially causes a specific process or transformation in the object in which it inheres, under specific circumstances and in conjunction with the laws of nature. A general formula for dispositions is: X (object has the disposition D to (transform, initiate a process) R under conditions C.
disposition
the disposition of a patient with a weakened immune system to contract disease
the disposition of a vase to brake if dropped
the disposition of blood to coagulate
the disposition of metal to conduct electricity
the disposition of vegetables to decay when not refrigerated
realizable entity
A specifically dependent continuant that inheres in continuant entities and are not exhibited in full at every time in which it inheres in an entity or group of entities. The exhibition or actualization of a realizable entity is a particular manifestation, functioning or process that occurs under certain circumstances.
If a realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] inheres in a continuant [snap:Continuant], this does not imply that it is actually realized.
realizable entity
the disposition of blood to coagulate
the disposition of metal to conduct electricity
the function of the reproductive organs
the role of being a doctor
quality
A specifically dependent continuant that is exhibited if it inheres in an entity or entities at all (a categorical property).
quality
the ambient temperature of air
the circumference of a waist
the color of a tomato
the mass of a piece of gold
the shape of a nose
the weight of a chimpanzee
specifically dependent continuant
A continuant that inheres in or is borne by other entities. Every instance of A requires some specific instance of B which must always be the same.
mode
property
specifically dependent continuant
the color of a tomato
the disposition of fish to decay
the function of the heart in the body: to pump blood, to receive de-oxygenated and oxygenated blood, etc.
the liquidity of blood
the mass of a cloud
the role of being a doctor
the smell of mozzarella
trope
role
A realizable entity the manifestation of which brings about some result or end that is not essential to a continuant in virtue of the kind of thing that it is but that can be served or participated in by that kind of continuant in some kinds of natural, social or institutional contexts.
role
the role of a biological grandfather as legal guardian in the context of a system of laws
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 person as a surgeon
the role of a student in a university
the role of a woman as a legal mother in the context of system of laws
the role of ingested matter in digestion
site
An independent continuant consisting of a characteristic spatial shape in relation to some arrangement of other continuant entities and of the medium which is enclosed in whole or in part by this characteristic spatial shape. Site entities are entities that can be occupied by other continuant entities.
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 sites) 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).
Maria's nostril or her intestines for a variety of bacteria
a particular room in a particular hospital
site
generically dependent continuant
A continuant that is dependent on one or other independent continuant bearers. For every instance of A requires some instance of (an independent continuant type) B but which instance of B serves can change from time to time.
a certain PDF file that exists in different and in several hard drives
generically dependent continuant
function
A realizable entity the manifestation of which is an essentially end-directed activity of a continuant entity in virtue of that continuant entity being a specific kind of entity in the kind or kinds of contexts that it is made for.
function
the digestive function of the stomach to nutriate the body
the function of a birth canal to enable transport
the function of a computer program to compute mathematical equations
the function of a hammer to drive in nails
the function of a judge in a court of law
the function of an automobile to provide transportation
the function of reproduction in the transmission of genetic material
the function of the heart in the body: to pump blood, to receive de-oxygenated and oxygenated blood, etc.
material entity
An independent continuant that is spatially extended whose identity is independent of that of other entities and can be maintained through time.
Examples: collection of random bacteria, a chair, dorsal surface of the body
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.
material entity
gross anatomical part
Anatomical structure that is part of a multicellular organism and is at the gross anatomical level, e.g. above the level of a cell. Included are portions of organism substances such as blood, multi-cell-part structures such as axon tracts, acellular anatomical structures such as hair, and organism subdivisions such as head. Excluded is the whole organism and more granular parts of the organism, such as atoms, molecules, macromolecular complexes and cells.
gross anatomical part
molecular entity
Any constitutionally or isotopically distinct atom, molecule, ion, ion pair, radical, radical ion, complex, conformer etc., identifiable as a separately distinguishable entity.
molecular entity
We are assuming that every molecular entity has to be completely connected by chemical bonds. This excludes protein complexes, which are comprised of minimally two separate molecular entities. We will follow up with Chebi to ensure this is their understanding as well
atom
A chemical entity constituting the smallest component of an element having the chemical properties of the element.
atom
cell line cell
cell line cell
A cultured cell that is part of a cell line - a stable and homogeneous population of cells with a common biological origin and propagation history in culture
'derives from' is transitive, so even cell line cells created through modification of an existing cell line cell have derived_from some initial primary cultured cell that existed at some point in time.
cell
A material entity of anatomical origin (part of or deriving from an organism) that has as its parts a maximally connected cell compartment surrounded by a plasma membrane.
cell
PMID:18089833.Cancer Res. 2007 Dec 15;67(24):12018-25. "...Epithelial cells were harvested from histologically confirmed adenocarcinomas .."
primary cultured cell
A cultured cell that is freshly isolated from a organismal source, or derives in culture from such a cell prior to the culture being passaged.
primary cultured cell
cultured cell
A cell in vitro that is or has been maintained or propagated as part of a cell culture.
cultured cell
experimentally modified cell in vitro
A cell in vitro that has undergone physical changes as a consequence of a deliberate and specific experimental procedure.
experimentally modified cell in vitro
environmental material
Material in or on which organisms may live.
environmental material
geographical location
A reference to a place on the Earth, by its name or by its geographical location.
geographical location
molecular_function
Elemental activities, such as catalysis or binding, describing the actions of a gene product at the molecular level. A given gene product may exhibit one or more molecular functions.
molecular_function
cellular_component
The part of a cell or its extracellular environment in which a gene product is located. A gene product may be located in one or more parts of a cell and its location may be as specific as a particular macromolecular complex, that is, a stable, persistent association of macromolecules that function together.
cellular_component
biological_process
Any process specifically pertinent to the functioning of integrated living units: cells, tissues, organs, and organisms. A process is a collection of molecular events with a defined beginning and end.
biological_process
measurement unit label
2009-03-16: provenance: a term measurement unit was
proposed for OBI (OBI_0000176) , edited by Chris Stoeckert and
Cristian Cocos, and subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for
which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definition
of this, different, term.
2009-03-16: review of this term done during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify this definition please notify OBI.
A data item label that denotes a unit of measure.
Examples of measurement unit labels are liters, inches, weight per volume.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
measurement unit label
objective specification
2009-03-16: original definition when imported from OBI read: "objective is an
non realizable information entity which can serve as that proper part
of a plan towards which the realization of the plan is directed."
2013-09-23 OBI call: Simplify definition by removing following part -
When the objective specification is part of a plan specification, the concretization of the plan specification is realized in a planned process in which the bearer tries to control the world so that the process endpoint is achieved.
Answers the question, why did you do this experiment?
OBI Plan and Planned Process/Roles Branch
OBI_0000217
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Barry Smith
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
a directive information entity that describes an intended process endpoint.
objective specification
the objective of a ChIP assay is to identify protein and DNA interaction
purpose of a study; support of hypothesis, discovery of new information
action specification
Alan Ruttenberg
OBI Plan and Planned Process branch
Pour the contents of flask 1 into flask 2
a directive information entity that describes an action the bearer will take
action specification
data item label
9/22/11 BP: changed the rdfs:label for this class from 'label' to 'datum label' to convey that this class is not intended to cover all kinds of labels (stickers, radiolabels, etc.), and not even all kind of textual labels, but rather the kind of labels occuring in a datum.
An information content entity that is part of some data item and is used to partially define the denotation of that data item.
datum label
GROUP: IAO
data item label
http://www.golovchenko.org/cgi-bin/wnsearch?q=label#4n
information carrier
12/15/09: There is a concern that some ways that carry information may be processes rather than qualities, such as in a 'delayed wave carrier'.
A quality of an information bearer that imparts the information content
In the case of a printed paperback novel the physicality of the ink and of the paper form part of the information bearer. The qualities of appearing black and having a certain pattern for the ink and appearing white for the paper form part of the information carrier in this case.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
Smith, Ceusters, Ruttenberg, 2000 years of philosophy
information carrier
data item
2/2/2009 Alan and Bjoern discussing FACS run output data. This is a data item because it is about the cell population. Each element records an event and is typically further composed a set of measurment data items that record the fluorescent intensity stimulated by one of the lasers.
2009-03-16: data item deliberatly ambiguous: we merged data set and datum to be one entity, not knowing how to define singular versus plural. So data item is more general than datum.
2009-03-16: removed datum as alternative term as datum specifically refers to singular form, and is thus not an exact synonym.
An information content entity that is intended to be a truthful statement about something (modulo, e.g., measurement precision or other systematic errors) and is constructed/acquired by a method that reliably tends to produce (approximately) truthful statements.
Data items include counts of things, analyte concentrations, and statistical summaries.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
PERSON: Jonathan Rees
data
data item
symbol
based on Oxford English Dictionary
A written proper name such as “OBI”; a serial number such as “12324X”; a stop sign.
20091104, MC: this needs work and will most probably change
An information content entity that is a mark or character used as a conventional representation of another entity.
PERSON: Jonathan Rees
symbol
information content entity
Examples of information content entites include journal articles, data, graphical layouts, and graphs.
OBI_0000142
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
an information content entity is an entity that is generically dependent on some material entity and stands in relation of aboutness to some entity
information content entity
information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some digital_entity in obi before split (040907). information_content_entity 'is_encoded_in' some physical_document in obi before split (040907).
Previous. An information content entity is a non-realizable information entity that 'is encoded in' some digital or physical entity.
directive information entity
2009-03-16: provenance: a term realizable information entity was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000337) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was "is the specification of a process that can be
concretized and realized by an actor" with alternative term "instruction".It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term.
8/6/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: Changed label from "information entity about a realizable" after discussions at ICBO
An information content entity whose concretizations indicate to their bearer how to realize them in a process.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
Philly2013 - AR: What differentiates a directive information entity from an information concretization is that it can have concretizations that are either qualities or realizable entities. The concretizations that are realizable entities are created when an individual chooses to take up the direction, i.e. has the intention to (try to) realize it.
Werner pushed back on calling it realizable information entity as it isn't realizable. However this name isn't right either. An example would be a recipe. The realizable entity would be a plan, but the information entity isn't about the plan, it, once concretized, *is* the plan. -Alan
directive information entity
algorithm
A plan specification which describes inputs, output of mathematical functions as well as workflow of execution for achieving an predefined objective. Algorithms are realized usually by means of implementation as computer programs for execution by automata.
OBI_0000270
PMID: 18378114.Genomics. 2008 Mar 28. LINKGEN: A new algorithm to process data in genetic linkage studies.
Philippe Rocca-Serra
PlanAndPlannedProcess Branch
adapted from discussion on OBI list (Matthew Pocock, Christian Cocos, Alan Ruttenberg)
algorithm
curation status specification
Better to represent curation as a process with parts and then relate labels to that process (in IAO meeting)
GROUP:OBI:<http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/obi>
OBI_0000266
PERSON:Bill Bug
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.
curation status specification
report
2009-03-16: comment from Darren Natale: I am slightly uneasy with the sentence "Topic of the report is on
something that has completed." Should it be restricted to those things
that are completed? For example, a progress report is (usually) about
something that definitely has *not* been completed, or may include
(only) projections. I think the definition would not suffer if the
whole sentence is deleted.
2009-03-16: this was report of results with definition: A report is a narrative object that is a formal statement of the results of an investigation, or of any matter on which definite information is required, made by some person or body instructed or required to do so.
2009-03-16: work has been done on this term during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify this definition please notify OBI.
2009-08-10 Alan Ruttenberg: Larry Hunter suggests that this be obsoleted and replaced by 'document'. Alan restored as there are OBI dependencies and this merits further discussion
An information content entity assembled by an author for the purpose of providing information for an audience, and that is meant to provide an accurate account of something that happened.
GROUP: OBI
OBI_0000099
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
PERSON:Chris Stoeckert
disagreement about where reports go. alan: only some gene lists are reports. Is a report all the content of some document? The example of usage suggests that a report may be part of some article. Term needs clarification
journal article, patent application, grant progress report, case report (not patient record)
report
data set
2009/10/23 Alan Ruttenberg. The intention is that this term represent collections of like data. So this isn't for, e.g. the whole contents of a cel file, which includes parameters, metadata etc. This is more like java arrays of a certain rather specific type
A data item that is an aggregate of other data items of the same type that have something in common. Averages and distributions can be determined for data sets.
Intensity values in a CEL file or from multiple CEL files comprise a data set (as opposed to the CEL files themselves).
OBI_0000042
data set
group:OBI
person:Allyson Lister
person:Chris Stoeckert
data about an ontology part
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
data about an ontology part
data about an ontology part is a data item about a part of an ontology, for example a term
plan specification
2/3/2009 Comment from OBI review.
Action specification not well enough specified.
Conditional specification not well enough specified.
Question whether all plan specifications have objective specifications.
Request that IAO either clarify these or change definitions not to use them
2009-03-16: provenance: a term a plan was proposed for OBI (OBI_0000344) , edited by the PlanAndPlannedProcess branch. Original definition was " a plan is a specification of a process that is realized by an actor to achieve the objective specified as part of the plan". It has been subsequently moved to IAO where the objective for which the original term was defined was satisfied with the definitionof this, different, term.
Alan Ruttenberg
Alternative previous definition: a plan is a set of instructions that specify how an objective should be achieved
OBI Plan and Planned Process branch
OBI_0000344
To lose weight, go running daily for at least 30 minutes. To isolate plasma from blood, centrifuge tubes at 1100-1300 rpm for 15 minutes.
a directive information entity that, when concretized, is realized in a process in which the bearer tries to achieve the objectives, in part by taking the actions specified.
plan specification
measurement data item
A data item that is a recording of the output of an assay.
Examples of measurement data are the recoding of the weight of a mouse as {40,mass,"grams"}, the recording of an observation of the behavior of the mouse {,process,"agitated"}, the recording of the expression level of a gene as measured through the process of microarray experiment {3.4,luminosity,}.
OBI_0000305
measurement data item
measurement datum
2/2/2009 is_specified_output of some assay?
group:OBI
person:Chris Stoeckert
material information bearer
A material entity in which a concretization of an information content entity inheres.
A page of a paperback novel with writing on it. The paper itself is a material information bearer, the pattern of ink is the information carrier. Additional examples: a hard drive, a brain.
GROUP: IAO
material information bearer
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.
obsolescence reason specification
denotator type
A denotator type indicates how a term should be interpreted from an ontological perspective.
Alan Ruttenberg
Barry Smith, Werner Ceusters
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.
denotator type
documenting
6/11/9: Edited at OBI workshop. We need to be able identify a child form of information artifact which corresponds to something enduring (not brain like). This used to be restricted to physical document or digital entity as the output, but that excludes e.g. an audio cassette tape
Bjoern Peters
Recording the current temperature in a laboratory notebook. Writing a journal article. Updating a patient record in a database. Copying the readout from an instrument into a spreadsheet.
a planned process in which input information is used to create or add to a report
documenting
wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documenting
CRID
A symbol that is sufficient to look up information about the corresponding entity from its CRID (centrally registered identifier) registry.
CRID
IAO call, 20101124: 12345 is not a CRID symbol. To be a CRID symbol you need to have some information about the registry within which the CRID is recorded.
Original proposal from Bjoern, discussions at IAO calls
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bill Hogan
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
PubMed identifier “PMID:12345”
centrally registered identifier
CRID registry
A data set that consists of CRIDs (centrally registered identifier) and additional information about their corresponding entities, that were recorded in the dataset through an assigning a centrally registered identifier process.
Original proposal from Bjoern, discussions at IAO calls
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PubMed and GenBank both have CRID registries as parts of their database systems.
CRID registry
IAO call, 20101124: PubMed registry is an instance of CRID registry
PERSON: Bill Hogan
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
centrally registered identifier registry
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
Viruses
Viruses
Euteleostomi
Euteleostomi
bony vertebrates
Bacteria
Bacteria
eubacteria
Archaea
Archaea
Eukaryota
Eukaryota
eucaryotes
eukaryotes
Euarchontoglires
Euarchontoglires
Tetrapoda
Tetrapoda
tetrapods
Amniota
Amniota
amniotes
Opisthokonta
Opisthokonta
Bilateria
Bilateria
Mammalia
Mammalia
mammals
Vertebrata <Metazoa>
Vertebrata
Vertebrata <Metazoa>
vertebrates
Homo sapiens
Homo sapiens
human
human being
man
planned process
'Plan' includes a future direction sense. That can be problematic if plans are changed during their execution. There are however implicit contingencies for protocols that an agent has in his mind that can be considered part of the plan, even if the agent didn't have them in mind before. Therefore, a planned process can diverge from what the agent would have said the plan was before executing it, by adjusting to problems encountered during execution (e.g. choosing another reagent with equivalent properties, if the originally planned one has run out.)
6/11/9: Edited at workshop. Used to include: is initiated by an agent
Bjoern Peters
Injecting mice with a vaccine in order to test its efficacy
We are only considering successfully completed planned processes. A plan may be modified, and details added during execution. For a given planned process, the associated realized plan specification is the one encompassing all changes made during execution. This means that all processes in which an agent acts towards achieving some
objectives is a planned process.
branch derived
A processual entity that realizes a plan which is the concretization of a plan specification.
This class merges the previously separated objective driven process and planned process, as they the separation proved hard to maintain. (1/22/09, branch call)
planned process
processed material
Examples include gel matrices, filter paper, parafilm and buffer solutions, mass spectrometer, tissue samples
Is a material entity that is created or changed during material processing.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
processed material
investigation
Could add specific objective specification
Lung cancer investigation using expression profiling, a stem cell transplant investigation, biobanking is not an investigation, though it may be part of an investigation
study
Bjoern Peters
Following OBI call November 2012,26th: it was decided there was no need for adding "achieves objective of drawing conclusion" as existing relations were providing equivalent ability. this note closes the issue and validates the class definition to be part of the OBI core
editor = PRS
OBI branch derived
a planned process that consists of parts: planning, study design execution, documentation and which produce conclusion(s).
investigation
evaluant role
Feb 10, 2009. changes after discussion at OBI Consortium Workshop Feb 2-6, 2009. accepted as core term.
GROUP: Role Branch
OBI
Role call - 17nov-08: JF and MC think an evaluant role is always specified input of a process. Even in the case where we have an assay taking blood as evaluant and outputting blood, the blood is not the specified output at the end of the assay (the concentration of glucose in the blood is)
When a specimen of blood is assayed for glucose concentration, the blood has the evaluant role. When measuring the mass of a mouse, the evaluant is the mouse. When measuring the time of DNA replication, the evaluant is the DNA. When measuring the intensity of light on a surface, the evaluant is the light source.
a role that inheres in a material entity that is realized in an assay in which data is generated about the bearer of the evaluant role
evaluant role
examples of features that could be described in an evaluant: quality.... e.g. "contains 10 pg/ml IL2", or "no glucose detected")
assay
Assay the wavelength of light emitted by excited Neon atoms. Count of geese flying over a house.
any method
study assay
12/3/12: BP: the reference to the 'physical examination' is included to point out that a prediction is not an assay, as that does not require physical examiniation.
A planned process with the objective to produce information about the material entity that is the evaluant, by physically examining it or its proxies.
OBI branch derived
PlanAndPlannedProcess Branch
assay
measuring
scientific observation
reagent role
Feb 10, 2009. changes after discussion at OBI Consortium Workshop Feb 2-6, 2009. accepted as core term.
May 28 2013. Updated definition taken from ReO based on discussions initiated in Philly 2011 workshop. Former defnition described a narrower view of reagents in chemistry that restricts bearers of the role to be chemical entities ("a role played by a molecular entity used to produce a chemical reaction to detect, measure, or produce other substances"). Updated definition allows for broader view of reagents in the domain of biomedical research to include larger materials that have parts that participate chemically in a molecular reaction or interaction.
PERSON:Matthew Brush
reagent
(copied from ReO)
Reagents are distinguished from instruments or devices that also participate in scientific techniques by the fact that reagents are chemical or biological in nature and necessarily participate in or have parts that participate in some chemical interaction or reaction during their intended participation in some technique. By contrast, instruments do not participate in a chemical reaction/interaction during the technique.
Reagents are distinguished from study subjects/evaluants in that study subjects and evaluants are that about which conclusions are drawn and knowledge is sought in an investigation - while reagents, by definition, are not. It should be noted, however, that reagent and study subject/evaluant roles can be borne by instances of the same type of material entity - but a given instance will realize only one of these roles in the execution of a given assay or technique. For example, taq polymerase can bear a reagent role or an evaluant role. In a DNA sequencing assay aimed at generating sequence data about some plasmid, the reagent role of the taq polymerase is realized. In an assay to evaluate the quality of the taq polymerase itself, the evaluant/study subject role of the taq is realized, but not the reagent role since the taq is the subject about which data is generated.
In regard to the statement that reagents are 'distinct' from the specified outputs of a technique, note that a reagent may be incorporated into a material output of a technique, as long as the IDENTITY of this output is distinct from that of the bearer of the reagent role. For example, dNTPs input into a PCR are reagents that become part of the material output of this technique, but this output has a new identity (ie that of a 'nucleic acid molecule') that is distinct from the identity of the dNTPs that comprise it. Similarly, a biotin molecule input into a cell labeling technique are reagents that become part of the specified output, but the identity of the output is that of some modified cell specimen which shares identity with the input unmodified cell specimen, and not with the biotin label. Thus, we see that an important criteria of 'reagent-ness' is that it is a facilitator, and not the primary focus of an investigation or material processing technique (ie not the specified subject/evaluant about which knowledge is sought, or the specified output material of the technique).
A role inhering in a biological or chemical entity that is intended to be applied in a scientific technique to participate (or have molecular components that participate) in a chemical reaction that facilitates the generation of data about some entity distinct from the bearer, or the generation of some specified material output distinct from the bearer.
Buffer, dye, a catalyst, a solvating agent.
PERSON:Matthew Brush
reagent role
material processing
A cell lysis, production of a cloning vector, creating a buffer.
PERSON: Frank Gibson
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
PERSON: Philippe Rocca Serra
A planned process which results in physical changes in a specified input material
OBI branch derived
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
material processing
material transformation
participant under investigation role
A role that is realized through the execution of a study design in which the bearer of the role participates and in which data about that bearer is collected.
Human subjects in a clinical trial, rats in a toxicogenomics study, tissue cutlures subjected to drug tests, fish observed in an ecotoxicology study.
Parasite example: people are infected with a parasite which is then extracted; the particpant under investigation could be the parasite, the people, or a population of which the people are members, depending on the nature of the study.
Lake example: a lake could realize this role in an investigation that assays pollution levels in samples of water taken from the lake.
OBI
A participant can realize both "specimen role" and "participant under investigation role" at the same time. However "participant under investigation role" is distinct from "specimen role", since a specimen could somehow be involved in an investigation without being the thing that is under investigation.
Following OBI call November 2012,26th:
1. it was decided there was no need for moving the children class and making them siblings of study subject role.
2. it also settles the disambiguation about 'study subject'. This is about the individual participating in the investigation/study, Not the 'topic' (as in 'toxicity study') of the investigation/study
This note closes the issue and validates the class definition to be part of the OBI core
editor = PRS
GROUP: Role Branch
participant under investigation role
specimen role
22Jun09. The definition includes whole organisms, and can include a human. The link between specimen role and study subject role has been removed. A specimen taken as part of a case study is not considered to be a population representative, while a specimen taken as representing a population, e.g. person taken from a cohort, blood specimen taken from an animal) would be considered a population representative and would also bear material sample role.
GROUP: Role Branch
Note: definition is in specimen creation objective which is defined as an objective to obtain and store a material entity for potential use as an input during an investigation.
OBI
liver section; a portion of a culture of cells; a nemotode or other animal once no longer a subject (generally killed); portion of blood from a patient.
a role borne by a material entity that is gained during a specimen collection process and that can be realized by use of the specimen in an investigation
blood taken from animal: animal continues in study, whereas blood has role specimen.
something taken from study subject, leaves the study and becomes the specimen.
parasite example
- when parasite in people we study people, people are subjects and parasites are specimen
- when parasite extracted, they become subject in the following study
specimen can later be subject.
specimen role
population
1/28/2013, BP, on the call it was raised that we may want to switch to an external ontology for all populatin terms:
http://code.google.com/p/popcomm-ontology/
PERSON: Philippe Rocca-Serra
PMID12564891. Environ Sci Technol. 2003 Jan 15;37(2):223-8. Effects of historic PCB exposures on the reproductive success of the Hudson River striped bass population.
a population is a collection of individuals from the same taxonomic class living, counted or sampled at a particular site or in a particular area
adapted from Oxford English Dictionnary
population
rem1: collection somehow always involve a selection process
investigation agent role
Feb 10, 2009. changes after discussion at OBI Consortium Workshop Feb 2-6, 2009. accepted as core term.
Implementing a study means carrying out or performing the study and providing reagents or other materials used in the study and other tasks without which the study would not happen.
investigation agent role
investigator
study person role
OBI
Philly2013: Historically, this role would have been borne only by humans or organizations. However, we now also want to enable investigations run by robot scientists such as ADAM (King et al, Science, 2009)
Philly2013: Historically, this role would have been borne only by humans or organizations. However, we now also want to enable representing investigations run by robot scientists such as ADAM (King et al, Science, 2009)
A role borne by an entity and that is realized in a process that is part of an investigation in which an objective is achieved. These processes include, among others: planning, overseeing, funding, reviewing.
GROUP: Role Branch
The person perform microarray experiments and submit microarray results (including raw data, processed data) with experiment description to ArrayExpress.
organization
GROUP: OBI
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Philippe Rocca-Serra
PERSON: Susanna Sansone
An entity that can bear 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.
organization
protocol
study protocol
A plan specification which has sufficient level of detail and quantitative information to communicate it between investigation agents, so that different investigation agents will reliably be able to independently reproduce the process.
OBI branch derived + wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_%28natural_sciences%29)
PCR protocol, has objective specification, amplify DNA fragment of interest, and has action specification describes the amounts of experimental reagents used (e..g. buffers, dNTPS, enzyme), and the temperature and cycle time settings for running the PCR.
PlanAndPlannedProcess Branch
protocol
analyte role
Feb 10, 2009. changes after discussion at OBI Consortium Workshop Feb 2-6, 2009. accepted as core term.
GROUP: Role Branch
Glucose in blood (measured in an assay to determine the concentration of glucose).
OBI
interestingly, an analyte is still an analyte even if it is not detected. for this reason it does not bear a specified input role
pH (technically the inverse log of [H+]) may be considered a quality; this remains to be tested.
qualities such as weight, color are not assayed but measured, so they do not fall into this category.
A role borne by a molecular entity or an atom and realized in an analyte assay which achieves the objective to measure the magnitude/concentration/amount of the analyte in the entity bearing evaluant role
analyte role
drawing a conclusion based on data
Bjoern Peters
Concluding that a gene is upregulated in a tissue sample based on the band intensity in a western blot. Concluding that a patient has a infection based on measurement of an elevated body temperature and reported headache. Concluding that there were problems in an investigation because data from PCR and microarray are conflicting. Concluding that 'defects in gene XYZ cause cancer due to improper DNA repair' based on data from experiments in that study that gene XYZ is involved in DNA repair, and the conclusion of a previous study that cancer patients have an increased number of mutations in this gene.
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
A planned process in which data gathered in an investigation is evaluated in the context of existing knowledge with the objective to generate more general conclusions or to conclude that the data does not allow one to draw general conclusion
drawing a conclusion based on data
planning
7/18/2011 BP: planning used to itself be a planned process. Barry Smith pointed out that this would lead to an infinite regression, as there would have to be a plan to conduct a planning process, which in itself would be the result of planning etc. Therefore, the restrictions on 'planning' were loosened to allow for informal processes that result in an 'ad hoc plan '. This required changing from 'has_specified_output some plan specifiction' to 'has_participant some plan specification'.
Bjoern Peters
Bjoern Peters
Plans and Planned Processes Branch
The process of a scientist thinking about and deciding what reagents to use as part of a protocol for an experiment. Note that the scientist could be human or a "robot scientist" executing software.
a process of creating or modifying a plan specification
planning
analyte measurement objective
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PPPB branch
The objective to measure the concentration of glucose in a blood sample
an assay objective to determine the presence or concentration of an analyte in the evaluant
analyte measurement objective
assay objective
PPPB branch
PPPB branch
the objective to determine the weight of a mouse.
an objective specification to determine a specified type of information about an evaluated entity (the material entity bearing evaluant role)
assay objective
analyte assay
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
PERSON:Helen Parkinson
PERSON:Philippe Rocca-Serra
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
GROUP:OBI Planned process branch
PERSON:Bjoern Peters, Helen Parkinson, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Alan Ruttenberg
logical def modified to remove expression below, as some analyte assays report below the level of detection, and therefore not a scalar measurement datum, replaced by measurement datum
and
('has measurement unit label' some 'measurement unit label') and
('is quality measurement of' some 'molecular concentration'))
2013-09-23: simplify equivalent axiom
An assay with the objective to capture information about the presence, concentration, or amount of an analyte in an evaluant.
Note: is_realization of some analyte role isn't always true, for example when there is none of the analyte in the evaluant. For the moment we are writing it this way, but when the information ontology is further worked out this will be replaced with a condition discussing the measurement.
analyte assay
example of usage: In lab test for blood glucose, the test is the assay, the blood bears evaluant_role and glucose bears the analyte role. The evaluant is considered an input to the assay and the information entity that records the measurement of glucose concentration the output
measure function
A glucometer measures blood glucose concentration, the glucometer has a measure function.
PERSON: Daniel Schober
PERSON: Helen Parkinson
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
PERSON:Frank Gibson
Measure function is a function that is borne by a processed material and realized in a process in which information about some entity is expressed relative to some reference.
measure function
material transformation objective
GROUP: OBI PlanAndPlannedProcess Branch
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Frank Gibson
PERSON: Jennifer Fostel
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
PERSON: Philippe Rocca-Serra
The objective to create a mouse infected with LCM virus. The objective to create a defined solution of PBS.
an objective specifiction that creates an specific output object from input materials.
artifact creation objective
material transformation objective
study design execution
6/11/9: edited at workshop. Used to be: study design execution is a process with the objective to generate data according to a concretized study design. The execution of a study design is part of an investigation, and minimally consists of an assay or data transformation.
a planned process that realizes the concretization of a study design
branch derived
injecting a mouse with PBS solution, weighing it, and recording the weight according to a study design.
removed axiom has_part some (assay or 'data transformation') per discussion on protocol application mailing list to improve reasoner performance. The axiom is still desired.
study design execution
specimen collection
5/31/2012: This process is not necessarily an acquisition, as specimens may be collected from materials already in posession
6/9/09: used at workshop
A planned process with the objective of collecting a specimen.
Bjoern Peters
Note: definition is in specimen creation objective which is defined as an objective to obtain and store a material entity for potential use as an input during an investigation.
specimen collection
Philly2013: The specimen_role for the specimen is created during the specimen collection process.
Philly2013: A specimen collection can have as part a material entity acquisition, such as ordering from a bank. The distinction is that specimen collection necessarily involves the creation of a specimen role. However ordering cell lines cells from ATCC for use in an investigation is NOT a specimen collection, because the cell lines already have a specimen role.
drawing blood from a patient for analysis, collecting a piece of a plant for depositing in a herbarium, buying meat from a butcher in order to measure its protein content in an investigation
specimen collection objective
A objective specification to obtain a material entity for potential use as an input during an investigation.
Bjoern Peters
Bjoern Peters
The objective to collect bits of excrement in the rainforest. The objective to obtain a blood sample from a patient.
specimen collection objective
study design independent variable
2009-03-16: work has been done on this term during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify thisdefinition please notify OBI.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
Web: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_and_independent_variables
study factor
experimental factor
In the Philly 2013 workshop the label was chosen to distinguish it from "dependent variable" as used in statistical modelling. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_modeling
a directive information entity that is part of a study design. Independent variables are entities whose values are selected to determine its relationship to an observed phenomenon (the dependent variable). In such an experiment, an attempt is made to find evidence that the values of the independent variable determine the values of the dependent variable (that which is being measured). The independent variable can be changed as required, and its values do not represent a problem requiring explanation in an analysis, but are taken simply as given. The dependent variable on the other hand, usually cannot be directly controlled
independent variable
2/2/2009 Original definition - In the design of experiments, independent variables are those whose values are controlled or selected by the person experimenting (experimenter) to determine its relationship to an observed phenomenon (the dependent variable). In such an experiment, an attempt is made to find evidence that the values of the independent variable determine the values of the dependent variable (that which is being measured). The independent variable can be changed as required, and its values do not represent a problem requiring explanation in an analysis, but are taken simply as given. The dependent variable on the other hand, usually cannot be directly controlled.
In a study in which gene expression is measured in patients between 8 month to 4 years old that have mild or severe malaria and in which the hypothesis is that gene expression in that age group is a function of disease status, disease status is the independent variable.
study design independent variable
study design dependent variable
2009-03-16: work has been done on this term during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify thisdefinition please notify OBI.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dependent_and_independent_variables
dependent variable
In the Philly 2013 workshop the label was chosen to distinguish it from "dependent variable" as used in statistical modelling. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistical_modeling
2/2/2009 In the design of experiments, independent variables are those whose values are controlled or selected by the person experimenting (experimenter) to determine its relationship to an observed phenomenon (the dependent variable). In such an experiment, an attempt is made to find evidence that the values of the independent variable determine the values of the dependent variable (that which is being measured). The independent variable can be changed as required, and its values do not represent a problem requiring explanation in an analysis, but are taken simply as given. The dependent variable on the other hand, usually cannot be directly controlled.
In a study in which gene expression is measured in patients between 8 month to 4 years old that have mild or severe malaria and in which the hypothesis is that gene expression in that age group is a function of disease status, the gene expression is the dependent variable.
dependent variable specification is part of a study design. The dependent variable is the event studied and expected to change when the independent variable varies.
study design dependent variable
study design controlled variable
2009-03-16: work has been done on this term during during the OBI workshop winter 2009 and the current definition was considered acceptable for use in OBI. If there is a need to modify thisdefinition please notify OBI.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Bjoern Peters
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
WEB: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_variable
Controlled variable specification is a part of a study design. They are the entities that could vary, but are kept constant to prevent their influence on the effect of the independent variable on the dependent.
In a study in which gene expression is measured in patients between 8 month to 4 years old that have mild or severe malaria and in which the hypothesis is that gene expression in that age group is a function of disease status, age is a controlled variable.
controlled variable
2/2/2009 Original definition: Controlled variables are also important to identify in experiments. They are the variables that are kept constant to prevent their influence on the effect of the independent variable on the dependent. Every experiment has a controlling variable, and it is necessary to not change it, or the results of the experiment won't be valid
In the Philly 2013 workshop the label was chosen to distinguish it from "controlled variable" as used in statistical modelling
study design controlled variable
informed consent process
09/28/2009 Alan Ruttenberg: This is made a subclass of the higher level processual entity in BFO because I don't want to take a stand on whether it is a process aggregate. Analogous to the situation with Material entity.
2009/09/28 Alan Ruttenberg. Fucoidan-use-case
A planned process in which a person or their legal representative is informed about key facts about potential risks and benefits of a process and makes a documented decision as to whether the person in question will participate.
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/info/glossary#informed
informed consent process
measurement device
A device in which a measure function inheres.
A ruler, a microarray scanner, a Geiger counter.
GROUP:OBI Philly workshop
OBI
measurement device
processed specimen
A specimen that has been intentionally physically modified.
Bjoern Peters
Bjoern Peters
processed specimen
A tissue sample that has been sliced and stained for a histology study.
A blood specimen that has been centrifuged to obtain the white blood cells.
A tissue sample that has been sliced and stained for a histology study.
device
2012-12-17 JAO: In common lab usage, there is a distinction made between devices and reagents that is difficult to model. Therefore we have chosen to specifically exclude reagents from the definition of "device", and are enumerating the types of roles that a reagent can perform.
2013-6-5 MHB: The following clarifications are outcomes of the May 2013 Philly Workshop. Reagents are distinguished from devices that also participate in scientific techniques by the fact that reagents are chemical or biological in nature and necessarily participate in some chemical interaction or reaction during the realization of their experimental role. By contrast, devices do not participate in such chemical reactions/interactions. Note that there are cases where devices use reagent components during their operation, where the reagent-device distinction is less clear. For example:
(1) An HPLC machine is considered a device, but has a column that holds a stationary phase resin as an operational component. This resin qualifies as a device if it participates purely in size exclusion, but bears a reagent role that is realized in the running of a column if it interacts electrostatically or chemically with the evaluant. The container the resin is in (“the column”) considered alone is a device. So the entire column as well as the entire HPLC machine are devices that have a reagent as an operating part.
(2) A pH meter is a device, but its electrode component bears a reagent role in virtue of its interacting directly with the evaluant in execution of an assay.
(3) A gel running box is a device that has a metallic lead as a component that participates in a chemical reaction with the running buffer when a charge is passed through it. This metallic lead is considered to have a reagent role as a component of this device realized in the running of a gel.
In the examples above, a reagent is an operational component of a device, but the device itself does not realize a reagent role (as bearing a reagent role is not transitive across the part_of relation). In this way, the asserted disjointness between a reagent and device holds, as both roles are never realized in the same bearer during execution of an assay.
A material entity that is designed to perform a function in a scientific investigation, but is not a reagent.
A voltmeter is a measurement device which is intended to perform some measure function.
An autoclave is a device that sterlizes instruments or contaminated waste by applying high temperature and pressure.
OBI development call 2012-12-17.
PERSON: Helen Parkinson
device
instrument
selection criterion
A directive information entity which defines and states a principle of standard by which selection process may take place.
OBI discussion summarized under the following tracker item : http://sourceforge.net/p/obi/obi-terms/678/
Person: Philippe Rocca-Serra
rats should be aged between 6 and 8 weeks and weight between 180-250grams
selection criterion
selection rule
secondary cultured cell
A cultured cell that has been passaged or derives from a cell that has been passaged in culture.
A secondary cultured cell has been passaged in culture or is a descendant of such a cell that is derived through propagation in culture.
PERSON: Matthew Brush
The term 'secondary cell culture' is generally used in biological texts/protocols to refer to any culture following an initial passage. We include it here because there are often a number of passages between a primary culture and the establishment of a stable, homogenous cell line. Such cultures are considered to be 'secondary cultures' but not 'cell lines' during this intermediate passaging/selection period between their derivation from a 'primary cell culture' and derivation into a 'cell line', which is a more specific type of secondary culture.
secondary cultured cell
Person: Matthew Brush
reagent
(copied from ReO)
Reagents are distinguished from devices/instruments that also serve as facilitators in scientific techniques by the fact that reagents are chemical or biological in nature and necessarily participate in or have parts that participate in some chemical interaction or reaction during their intended participation in some technique. By contrast, devices do not participate in a chemical reaction/interaction during the technique.
Reagents are distinguished from study subjects/evaluants in that study subjects and evaluants are that about which conclusions are drawn and knowledge is sought in an investigation - while reagents, by definition, are not. It should be noted, however, that reagent and study subject/evaluant roles can be borne by instances of the same type of material entity - but a given instance can only realize one of these roles in the execution of a given assay. For example, taq polymerase can bear a reagent role or an evaluant role. In a DNA sequencing assay aimed at generating sequence data about some plasmid, the reagent role of the taq polymerase is realized. In an assay to evaluate the quality of the taq polymerase itself, the evaluant/study subject role of the taq is realized, but not the reagent role since the taq is the subject about which data is generated.
In regard to the statement that reagents are 'distinct' from the specified outputs of a technique: note that a reagent may be incorporated into a material output of a technique, as long as the IDENTITY of this output is distinct from that of the bearer of the reagent role. For example, dNTPs input into a PCR are reagents that become part of the material output of this technique, but this output has a new identity (ie that of a 'nucleic acid molecule') that is distinct from the identity of the dNTPs that comprise it. Similarly, a biotin molecule input into a cell labeling technique are reagents that become part of the specified output, but the identity of the output is that of some modified cell specimen which shares identity with the input unmodified cell specimen, and not with the biotin label. Thus, we see that an important criteria of 'reagent-ness' is that it is a facilitator, and not the primary focus of an investigation or material processing technique (ie not the specified subject/evaluant about which knowledge is sought, or the specified output material of the technique).
PERSON:Matthew Brush
PERSON:Matthew Brush
A biological or chemical entity that bears a reagent role in virtue of it being intended for application in a scientific technique to participate in (or have molecular parts that participate in) a chemical reaction that facilitates the generation of data about some distinct entity, or the generation of some distinct material specified output.
2013-6-5 MHB: Clarifications regarding the distinction between reagetns and devices were made at the May 2013 Philly Workshop. Reagents are distinguished from devices that also participate in scientific techniques by the fact that reagents are chemical or biological in nature and necessarily participate in some chemical interaction or reaction during the realization of their experimental role. By contrast, devices do not participate in such chemical reactions/interactions. Note that there are cases where devices use reagent components during their operation, where the reagent-device distinction is less clear. For examples, see editor note on OBI:device.
reagent
testable hypothesis
testable hypothesis
that fucoidan has a small statistically significant effect on AT3 level but no useful clinical effect as in-vivo anticoagulant, a paraphrase of part of the last paragraph of the discussion section of the paper 'Pilot clinical study to evaluate the anticoagulant activity of fucoidan', by Lowenthal et. al.PMID:19696660
hypothesis
In the Philly 2013 workshop, we recognized the limitations of "hypothesis textual entity", and we introduced this as more general. The need for the 'textual entity' term going forward is up for future debate.
Group:2013 Philly Workshop group
An information content entity that expresses an assertion that is intended to be tested.
Group:2013 Philly Workshop group
conclusion based on data
The conclusion that a gene is upregulated in a tissue sample based on the band intensity in a western blot. The conclusion that a patient has a infection based on measurement of an elevated body temperature and reported headache. The conclusion that there were problems in an investigation because data from PCR and microarray are conflicting.
The following are NOT conclusions based on data: data themselves; results from pure mathematics, e.g. "13 is prime".
In the Philly 2013 workshop, we recognized the limitations of "conclusion textual entity", and we introduced this as more general. The need for the 'textual entity' term going forward is up for future debate.
conclusion based on data
Group:2013 Philly Workshop group
Group:2013 Philly Workshop group
An information content entity that is inferred from data.
selection
A planned process which results in the creation of group of entity from a larger group by the application of predefined criteria.
OBI
PMID: 24023800. In this study, a set of eleven genes (VATP16, 60 S, UQCC, SMD3, EF1α, UBQ, SAND, GAPDH, ACT, PsaB, PTB2) was evaluated to identify reference genes during the first hours of interaction (6, 12, 18 and 24 hpi) between two V. vinifera genotypes and P. viticola. Two analyses were used for the selection of reference genes: direct comparison of susceptible, Trincadeira, and resistant, Regent, V. vinifera cultivars at 0 h, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours post inoculation with P. viticola (genotype effect); and comparison of each genotype with mock inoculated samples during inoculation time-course (biotic stress effect). Three statistical methods were used, GeNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper, allowing to identify UBQ, EF1α and GAPDH as the most stable genes for the genotype effect.
Person: Philippe Rocca-Serra
selection
selection process
this term refers to a planned process and therefore is distinct from the notion of 'natural selection', a process covering the operation of natural causes by which those individuals of a species that are best adapted to the environment tend to be preserved and to transmit their characters, while those less adapted die out, so that in the course of generations the degree of adaptation to the environment tends progressively to increase. (as defined by Oxford English Dictionary)
value specification
An information content entity that specifies a value within a classification scheme or on a quantitative scale.
PERSON:Bjoern Peters
value specification
The value of 'positive' in a classification scheme of "positive or negative"; the value of '20g' on the quantitative scale of mass.
This term is currently a descendant of 'information content entity', which requires that it 'is about' something. A value specification of '20g' for a measurement data item of the mass of a particular mouse 'is about' the mass of that mouse. However there are cases where a value specification is not clearly about any particular. In the future we may change 'value specification' to remove the 'is about' requirement.
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.
GROUP: OBI Biomaterial Branch
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
organism
plant
virus
specimen
Biobanking of blood taken and stored in a freezer for potential future investigations stores specimen.
Note: definition is in specimen creation objective which is defined as an objective to obtain and store a material entity for potential use as an input during an investigation.
PERSON: James Malone
PERSON: Philippe Rocca-Serra
A material entity that has the specimen role.
GROUP: OBI Biomaterial Branch
specimen
data transformation
Philippe Rocca-Serra
The application of a clustering protocol to microarray data or the application of a statistical testing method on a primary data set to determine a p-value.
A planned process that produces output data from input data.
Branch editors
Elisabetta Manduchi
Helen Parkinson
James Malone
Melanie Courtot
Richard Scheuermann
Ryan Brinkman
Tina Hernandez-Boussard
data analysis
data processing
data transformation
data transformation objective
An objective specification to transformation input data into output data
James Malone
Modified definition in 2013 Philly OBI workshop
PERSON: James Malone
data transformation objective
normalize objective
study design
A plan specification comprised of protocols (which may specify how and what kinds of data will be gathered) that are executed as part of an investigation and is realized during a study design execution.
Editor note: there is at least an implicit restriction on the kind of data transformations that can be done based on the measured data available.
PERSON: Chris Stoeckert
a matched pairs study design describes criteria by which subjects are identified as pairs which then undergo the same protocols, and the data generated is analyzed by comparing the differences between the paired subjects, which constitute the results of the executed study design.
experimental design
rediscussed at length (MC/JF/BP). 12/9/08). The definition was clarified to differentiate it from protocol.
study design
eligibility criterion
Adapted from Clinical Research Glossary Version 4.0 CDICS glossary group
PMID: 17579629 -Eligibility criteria included: untreated ED-SCLC; age >/=70 and performance status 0-2, or age <70 and PS 3.
Person: Philippe Rocca-Serra
an eligibility criterion (rule) is_a selection criterion which
defines and states the requirements (positive or negative) for an entity to be considered as suitable for a given task or participation in a process.
eligibility criterion
eligibility rule
human subject enrollment
As with group assignment, should the specified output here be an organism which bears a role
A planned process with the objective to obtain a population of human subjects to participate in an investigation by determining eligibility of subjects and obtaining informed consent.
Bjoern Peters
IEDB
criteria come from plan / clinical trial branch
enlisting familiy members of HIV patients into a study
human subject enrollment
acquisition
5/31/2012 - OBI workshop: This process is not implying ownership of the material / information.
Downloading a 3D structure from the PDB. Purchasing antibodies from sigma.
Bjoern Peters
Following OBI call November 2012,5th:
addition of a restriction to acquisition class to capture the need of having selection criteria
Relates to the creation of a class 'selection rule'
IEDB
This needs to be fleshed out and logical definitions added that will allow to place the children terms automatically under acquisition
acquisition
the planned process of gaining possession of a continuant
material acquisition
The assumption is that the object already exists in its current state, e.g, an available mouse strain purchased from the Jackson Lab, this is the differentia from specimen creation
material procurement
This excludes processes that create or change materials, such as material transformations.
Acquiring 50 C57BL/6 mice bred in the animal facility of the institute as a service to investigators. Purchasing 1 mg of peptides synthesized by Mimotopes at 80% purity. Getting a gift of purified CD4+ specific antibodies presented by Stephen Schoenberger at LIAI.
An acquisition in which possession of a material entity is gained.
Bjoern Peters, Alan Ruttenberg, Helen Parkinson
IEDB
material acquisition
information acquisition
data collection
Bjoern Peters
Gathering all influenza HA sequences from GenBank, Retrieveing HLA allele frequencies in the North American populations from dbMHC
This excludes processes that create or change information, such as assays and data transformations.
An acquisition in which possession of information is gained.
OBI branch derived
information acquisition
disease
IEDB
IEDB
disease
placeholder to be imported from disease ontology
disease course
replace 'OBI:occurrence of disease', need to add logical definition
The axioms of OBI occurence of disease:
Equivalent classes:
realizes some disease
Superclasses:
'has part' some 'pathologic process'
'has participant' some
(organism
and ('has role' some 'host of immune response role'))
biological_process
realizes some 'host of immune response role'
The totality of all processes through which a given disease instance is realized.
disease course
example to be eventually removed
example to be eventually removed
failed exploratory term
Person:Alan Ruttenberg
The term was used used in an attempt to structure part of the ontology but in retrospect failed to do a good job
failed exploratory term
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.
metadata complete
organizational term
PERSON:Alan Ruttenberg
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."
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.
metadata incomplete
uncurated
Nothing done yet beyond assigning a unique class ID and proposing a preferred term.
uncurated
pending final vetting
All definitions, placement in the asserted IS_A hierarchy and required minimal metadata are complete. The class is awaiting a final review by someone other than the term editor.
pending final vetting
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.
PERSON: Alan Ruttenberg
PERSON: Melanie Courtot
core
placeholder removed
placeholder removed
terms merged
An editor note should explain what were the merged terms and the reason for the merge.
terms merged
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 imported
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.
term split
universal
A Formal Theory of Substances, Qualities, and Universals, http://ontology.buffalo.edu/bfo/SQU.pdf
Alan Ruttenberg
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.
universal
defined class
"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
Alan Ruttenberg
defined class
named class expression
A named class expression is a logical expression that is given a name. The name can be used in place of the expression.
Alan Ruttenberg
named class 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
Alan Ruttenberg
Terms with this status should eventually replaced with a term from another ontology.
group:OBI
to be replaced with external ontology term
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.
Alan Ruttenberg
group:OBI
requires discussion