Grains, components and mixtures in biomedical ontologies.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In biomedical ontologies, mereological relations have always been subject to special interest due to their high relevance in structural descriptions of anatomical entities, cells, and biomolecules. This paper investigates two important subrelations of has_proper_part, viz. the relation has_grain, which relates a collective entity to its multiply occurring uniform parts (e.g., water molecules in a portion of water), and the relation has_component, which relates a compound to its constituents (e.g., molecules to the atoms they consist of).

Method

We distinguish between four kinds of complex entities and characterize them in first order logic. We then discuss whether similar characterizations could be given in description logics, and finally apply the results to mixt

SUBMITTER: Jansen L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3194169 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature