]> 1.1.1 bfo http://www.ifomis.org/bfo/1.1 Examples: the spatial and temporal location of an individual organism's life, the spatial and temporal location of the development of a fetus Examples: the 1970s years, the time from the beginning to the end of a heart attack, the time taken up by cellular meiosis Synonyms: endurant Definition: A continuant [snap:Continuant] that is either dependent on one or other independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] bearers or inheres in or is borne by other entities. Examples: the disposition of vegetables to decay when not refrigerated, the disposition of a vase to brake if dropped, the disposition of blood to coagulate, the disposition of a patient with a weakened immune system to contract disease, the disposition of metal to conduct electricity. Synonyms: fiat substance part Examples: chewing during a meal, the middle part of a rainstorm, the worst part of a heart-attack, the most interesting part of Van Gogh's life Examples: the function of a birth canal to enable transport, the function of the heart in the body: to pump blood, to receive de-oxygenated and oxygenated blood, etc., the function of reproduction in the transmission of genetic material, the digestive function of the stomach to nutriate the body, the function of a hammer to drive in nails, the function of a computer program to compute mathematical equations, the function of an automobile to provide transportation, the function of a judge in a court of law Examples: a certain PDF file that exists in different and in several hard drives The Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science (IFOMIS) http://www.ifomis.org/ Synonyms: substantial entity Examples: collection of random bacteria, a chair, dorsal surface of the body Synonyms: substance Synonyms: substance aggregate Definition: An independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] that is a lower dimensional part of a spatial entity, normally a closed two-dimensional surface. Boundaries are those privileged parts of object [snap:Object] entities that exist at exactly the point where the object [snap:Object] is separated off from the rest of the existing entities in the world. Synonyms: perdurant Examples: the part of space that is a line stretching from one end of absolute space to the other, an edge of a cube-shaped part of space Examples: the life of an organism, the process of sleeping, the process of cell-division Examples: the beating of the hearts of each of seven individuals in the room, the playing of each of the members of an orchestra, a process of digestion and a process of thinking taken together Examples: birth, death, the forming of a synapse, the onset of REM sleep, the detaching of a finger in an industrial accident, the final separation of two cells at the end of cell-division, the incision at the beginning of a surgery Comment: An instance of a processual context [span:ProcessualContext] is a mixture of processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] which stand as surrounding environments for other processual entity [span:ProcessualEntity] entities. The class processual context [span:ProcessualContext] is the analogous among occurrent [span:Occurrent] entities to the class site [snap:Site] among continuant [snap:Continuant] entities. Examples: the life of an organism, the process of meiosis, the course of a disease, the flight of a bird Examples: the color of a tomato, the ambient temperature of air, the circumference of a waist, the shape of a nose, the mass of a piece of gold, the weight of a chimpanzee Comment: If a realizable entity [snap:RealizableEntity] inheres in a continuant [snap:Continuant], this does not imply that it is actually realized. Examples: the role of a person as a surgeon, the role of a chemical compound in an experiment, the role of a patient relative as defined by a hospital administrative form, the role of a woman as a legal mother in the context of system of laws, the role of a biological grandfather as legal guardian in the context of a system of laws, the role of ingested matter in digestion, the role of a student in a university Examples: the space and time occupied by the individual games of the World Cup, the space and time occupied by the individual liaisons in a romantic affair Examples: the time occupied by the individual games of the World Cup, the time occupied by the individual liaisons in a romantic affair Comment: An instance of Site [snap:Site] is a mixture of independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities which act as surrounding environments for other independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities, most importantly for instances of object [snap:Object]. A site [snap:Site] is typically made of object [snap:Object] or fiat object part [snap:FiatObjectPart] entities and a surrounding medium in which is found an object [snap:Object] occupying the site [snap:Site]. Independent continuant [snap:IndependentContinuant] entities may be associated with others (which, then, are site [snap:Site] entities) through a relation of "occupation". That relation is connected to, but distinct from, the relation of spatial location. Site [snap:Site] entities are not to be confused with spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities. In BFO, site [snap:Site] allows for a so-called relational view of space which is different from the view corresponding to the class spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] (see the comment on this class). Comment: An instance of spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] is a part of space. All parts of space are spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities and only spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion] entities are parts of space. Space is the entire extent of the spatial universe, a designated individual, which is thus itself a spatial region [snap:SpatialRegion]. Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a single instantaneous temporal slice (part) of a process Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a process or by a fiat processual part Examples: the spatiotemporal region occupied by a human life, the spatiotemporal region occupied by the development of a cancer tumor, the spatiotemporal context occupied by a process of cellular meiosis Synonyms: property, trope, mode Examples: right now, the moment at which a finger is detached in an industrial accident, the moment at which a child is born, the moment of death Examples: any continuous temporal duration during which a process occurs Comment: All instances of occurrent [span:Occurrent] are temporal entities, that is, they enter in the relation of (temporal) location with temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] entities. As a particular case, the exact spatiotemporal location of a temporal region [span:TemporalRegion] is this region itself. Continuant [snap:Continuant] entities are not temporal entities in the technical sense just explained; they are related to time in a different way, not through temporal location but through a relation of existence at a time or during a period of time (see continuant [snap:Continuant]. Examples: a cube-shaped part of space, a sphere-shaped part of space Examples: the surface of a cube-shaped part of space, the surface of a sphere-shaped part of space, the surface of a rectilinear planar figure-shaped part of space Examples: a point actual global mixed