Templates
There are nine fundamental template types in which to store data in a referent tracking system (RTS).
They are:
| Name | Abbreviation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| assignment | A | Captures the assignment of an IUI to a particular (or instance) |
| particular to universal | PtoU | Captures the assertion that a particular, identified by an IUI, is related to a universal by a particular relation. It is typically used for the instance of relation. |
| temporal entity | Te | Captures the assignment of an IUI to a temporal entity, as well as the basic type (interval vs. instant) of the temporal entity. This template is a "shortcut" combination of assignment and particular-to-universal for temporal entities. It and the Ten template help to reduce significantly the number of templates needed to capture temporal entities and their names. |
| temporal entity name | Ten | Captures the name of a temporal entity (e.g. "2013-10" for the month of October in the Gregorian Calendar according to the ISO 8601 standard). Names of other entities are explicitly represented with an A template (assign IUI to name), a PtoP template (relate name to the entity it designates), and a PtoDR template (relate name to its concretized form). |
| particular to particular | PtoP | Captures the assertion that two particulars are related by a particular relation such as part of. |
| particular lacks universal | PtoLackU | Captures the assertion that a particular lacks a specific relation r to any instance of a universal. |
| particular to concept | PtoCo | Captures the annotation of a particular with a concept from a concept-based terminology. It does NOT assert that the particular is an instance of a given type (or universal), is related to other particulars by specific relations, or lacks a relation to any instance of a given universal. |
| particular to digital entity | PtoDE | |
| metadata | D |
Assignment
The assignment template captures the assignment of an instance unique identifier (IUI) to a particular (or instance) in reality.
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iuip | The IUI that has been assigned to a particular | IUIs that designate entities (other than temporal regions or templates themselves) must first be assigned using an A template. |
| iuia | The IUI that designates the entity who assigned iuip to a particular | To avoid infinite regress, somewhere early on in the RTS, some person must assign an IUI to herself. |
| tap | The time when the assignment was made | To avoid complexities of using temporal region IUIs here, we simply use an ISO8601 compliant date/time string (e.g., 2013-10-31T14:48:32.234-05:00) |
| iuit | The IUI of the A template itself | Every template gets an IUI that is referenced minimally by one metadata template |
PtoU
The particular-to-universal template captures the assertion that a given particular is an instance of a given universal. It can also be used to capture other particular-universal (a.k.a. instance-type) relations, such as is_about.
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iuip | The IUI that designates the particular that is the subject of this template | |
| iuia | The IUI that designates the author of this template | |
| ta | The IUI that designates the temporal region at which this PtoU assertion was made | |
| inst | The relation that holds between the particular denoted by iuip and the universal denoted by uui | It is called "inst" because it is typically the is instance of relation, but other relations can be used here such as is about. |
| uui | The UUI that designates the universal to which the particular is related | Typically a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) from an OWL ontology. But not necessary. |
| iuio | The IUI of the ontology from which uui and inst were obtained | Increasingly, this parameter seems irrelevant. Although MIREOT allows that a given URI for a universal could come from any number of ontologies, it is not clear that it is valuable to say which one it came from specifically. Furthermore, we might have taken the relation (inst) and uui from different ontologies. It is not clear how to handle that situation either. |
| tr | The temporal region during which the relation inst holds between the particular (iuip) and universal (uui) | |
| iuit | The IUI of the template itself | Every template gets an IUI that is referenced minimally by one metadata template. |
Te
The temporal entity template captures both the assignment of an IUI to, and the basic type (instance vs. interval) of, a given temporal region. With the Ten template, it simplifies management of temporal entities and their names.
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iuip | The IUI that has been assigned to a temporal region | IUIs that designate a temporal region must first be assigned using a Te template. |
| iuia | The IUI that designates the entity who assigned iuip to a particular | The entity that assigned the IUI to the temporal region. |
| tap | The time when the assignment was made | To avoid complexities of using temporal region IUIs here, we simply use an ISO8601 compliant date/time string (e.g., 2013-10-31T14:48:32.234-05:00). |
| uui | The basic type of the temporal region, according to Basic Formal Ontology | Either temporal interval or temporal boundary (a.k.a. temporal instant). |
| iuit | The IUI of the Te template itself | Every template gets an IUI that is referenced minimally by one metadata template. |
Ten
PtoP
The particular-to-particular template captures the assertion that a relationship holds between a set of particulars.
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iuip | The IUI that designates the particular that is the subject of this template | |
| iuia | The IUI that designates the author of this template | |
| ta | The IUI that designates the temporal region at which this PtoP assertion was made | |
| p | The set of IUIs that denote that particulars that stand in the relation r | The first IUI in the set is redundant with iuip. Also, typically these will be binary relations, and there will only be two IUIs in this set. However, there is nothing inherent to referent tracking that limits the PtoP template to binary relations, and relations of any arity can be accomodated. |
| r | The relation that holds between the particulars | It is called "inst" because it is typically the is instance of relation, but other relations can be used here such as is about. |
| iuio | The IUI of the ontology from which r was obtained | Increasingly, this parameter seems irrelevant. Although MIREOT allows that a given URI for a relation could come from any number of ontologies, it is not clear that it is valuable to say which one it came from specifically. |
| tr | The temporal region during which the relation r holds between the particulars (p) | |
| iuit | The IUI of the template itself | Every template gets an IUI that is referenced minimally by one metadata template. |
PtoLackU
The particular-lacks-universal template captures the assertion that a given particular does not stand in a given relation r to any instance of a given universal. For example, we would use this template to assert that a person has not had a cough for the past 4 weeks (i.e., he has not participated in any coughing processes during the 4 week interval ending today).
| Parameter | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| iuip | The IUI that designates the particular that is the subject of this template | |
| iuia | The IUI that designates the author of this template | |
| ta | The IUI that designates the temporal region at which this PtoU assertion was made | |
| r | The relation that does not hold between the particular denoted by iuip and any instance of the universal denoted by uui | |
| uui | The UUI that designates the universal to which the particular is not related by r | Typically a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) from an OWL ontology. But not necessary. |
| iuio | The IUI of the ontology from which uui and r were obtained | Increasingly, this parameter seems irrelevant. Although MIREOT allows that a given URI for a universal could come from any number of ontologies, it is not clear that it is valuable to say which one it came from specifically. Furthermore, we might have taken the relation (inst) and uui from different ontologies. It is not clear how to handle that situation either. |
| tr | The temporal region during which the relation r does not hold between the particular (iuip) and universal (uui) | |
| iuit | The IUI of the template itself | Every template gets an IUI that is referenced minimally by one metadata template. |
PtoCo
PtoDE
Metadata