Ontology

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Distribution within Humanities and Social Sciences

Kinds of Ontology

  • gene ontology
  • social ontology

  • Terms modified by Ontology

  • ontology analysis

  • Selected Abstracts


    EDITH STEIN, ONTOLOGY AND BELIEF

    THE HEYTHROP JOURNAL, Issue 5 2007
    JANE DURAN
    An analysis of the Christian writings of Edith Stein helps to show how her philosophical training enabled her to develop a Christian epistemology and concomitant metaphysics. Special emphasis is placed on some of her shorter works in their translation by Hilda Graef. [source]


    COMMENTS ON MERRICKS'S TRUTH AND ONTOLOGY

    ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2008
    Ross P. Cameron
    First page of article [source]


    TRUTH AND FUNDAMENTALITY: ON MERRICKS'S TRUTH AND ONTOLOGY

    ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY, Issue 4 2008
    Jonathan Schaffer
    First page of article [source]


    MAKING AN IMPRESSION: REPLICATION AND THE ONTOLOGY OF THE GRAECO-ROMAN SEAL STONE

    ART HISTORY, Issue 2 2006
    VERITY PLATT
    The debate on replication in ancient art has traditionally concentrated upon Roman ,copies' of famous Greek sculptures and paintings. This article explores a different, but no less significant, kind of replication , the use of intaglio gems as seals to create wax impressions. The mechanical transmission of a glyptic image from one medium to another played an important role in Graeco-Roman society, conferring authority upon the seal as an individual or state signature employed in legal, political and personal exchange. The direct relationship between seal and impression was also appropriated by Greek philosophers as a metaphor for unmediated sense perception , the ,impressions' made by material objects upon the soul. However, as a comparison with the ontological issues surrounding the modern photograph shows, the seemingly unproblematic relationship between image and impression is more complex than may initially seem: the seal's philosophical appeal lay ultimately more in its social significance , as a guarantor of authenticity and marker of the self , than in its true ontological status. [source]


    The Cornucopia of Formal-Ontological Relations

    DIALECTICA, Issue 3 2004
    Barry Smith
    The paper presents a new method for generating typologies of formal-ontological relations. The guiding idea is that formal relations are those sorts of relations which hold between entities which are constituents of distinct ontologies. We provide examples of ontologies (in the spirit of Zemach's classic "Four Ontologies" of 1970), and show how these can be used to give a rich typology of formal relations in a way which also throws light on the opposition between threeand four-dimensionalism. [source]


    Ontological modelling of e-services to ensure appropriate mobile transactions

    INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2002
    Vagan TerziyanArticle first published online: 21 MAR 200
    The main goal of this paper is to provide simple ontological support to mobile electronic commerce. The description of an ontology-driven Transaction Monitor (TM) for mobile business applications is considered. The approach is based on the assumption that the transaction management tool can be implemented in a mobile terminal, allowing integration of different distributed external e-services. We use the ontology-based framework for transaction management so that the TM will be able to manage transaction across multiple e-services and we consider management of distributed location-based services as an example of such ontology-based TM implementation. The core of the approach is very simple service ontologies. Ontologies should be ,placed' both in mobile terminals and in e-services. They define common multiple clients,multiple services standards and vocabularies for the use of the names, types, schemas, default values for parameters, atomic service actions with appropriate structure of action's input and output. In our implementation ontologies help to the TM to deal with multiple services during transactions and to simplify the appropriate user interface. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    Ontologies of the image and economies of exchange

    AMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 1 2004
    Fred Myers
    ABSTRACT In the early 1970s, the Aboriginal artist and activist Wandjuk Marika asked the Australian government to investigate the unauthorized use of Yolngu clan designs on a variety of commodity forms, inaugurating a process of recognizing Indigenous ownership of "copyright" in such designs. This treatment of design,and of culture,as a form of property involves understandings and practices of materiality and subjectivity that differ from those informing indigenous, Aboriginal relationships to cultural production and circulation. In this article I explore the significance for material culture theory of recent work on and events in the development of notions of cultural property. One of my main concerns is the relevance of local understandings of objectification, or objectness, and human action,as embedded in object-ideologies. I discuss the limited capacity of legal discourses of cultural property to capture and reflect the concerns of Indigenous Australians about their own relation to culture, to creativity, and to expression. [source]


    Ontologies of nursing in an age of spiritual pluralism: closed or open worldview?

    NURSING PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2010
    Barbara Pesut PhD RN
    Abstract North American society has undergone a period of sacralization where ideas of spirituality have increasingly been infused into the public domain. This sacralization is particularly evident in the nursing discourse where it is common to find claims about the nature of persons as inherently spiritual, about what a spiritually healthy person looks like and about the environment as spiritually energetic and interconnected. Nursing theoretical thinking has also used claims about the nature of persons, health, and the environment to attempt to establish a unified ontology for the discipline. However, despite this common ground, there has been little discussion about the intersections between nursing philosophic thinking and the spirituality in nursing discourse, or about the challenges of adopting a common view of these claims within a spiritually pluralist society. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the call for ontological unity within nursing philosophic thinking in the context of the sacralization of a diverse society. I will begin with a discussion of secularization and sacralization, illustrating the diversity of beliefs and experiences that characterize the current trend towards sacralization. I will then discuss the challenges of a unified ontological perspective, or closed world view, for this diversity, using examples from both a naturalistic and a unitary perspective. I will conclude by arguing for a unified approach within nursing ethics rather than nursing ontology. [source]


    Towards a Field Ontology

    DIALECTICA, Issue 1 2006
    Christina Schneider
    The aim of the present article is to make the notion of an ontology of fields mathematically rigorous. The conclusion will be that couching an ontology in terms of mathematical bundles and cross-sections (i.e. fields) both (1) captures many important intuitions of conventional ontologies, including the universal-particular paradigm, the connection of universals and their ,instantiations', and the notion of ,possibility', and (2) makes possible the framing of ontologies without ,substrata', bare particulars, and primitive particularizers (a goal that trope ontologies, for example, have sought to attain). [source]


    Particulars, Modes and Universals: An examination of E.J. Lowe's Four-Fold Ontology

    DIALECTICA, Issue 3 2004
    Fraser MacBride
    Is there a particular-universal distinction? Ramsey famously advocated scepticism about this distinction. In "Some Formal Ontological Relations" E.J. Lowe argues against Ramsey that a particular-universal distinction can be made out after all if only we allow ourselves the resources to distinguish between the elements of a four-fold ontology. But in defence of Ramsey I argue that the case remains to be made in favour of either (1) the four-fold ontology Lowe recommends or (2) the articulation of a particular-universal distinction within it. I also argue that the case remains to be made against (3) a spatio-temporal conception of the particular-universal distinction. [source]


    Expressed sequence tag analysis of the diapausing queen of the bumblebee Bombus ignitus

    ENTOMOLOGICAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006
    Yeon-Ju KIM
    Abstract We constructed a full-length cDNA library from diapausing queens of the bumblebee Bombus ignitus. A total of 480 randomly selected clones was sequenced by single-run 5,-end sequencing. Of these, there were 437 high quality clones, 23 poor quality clones and 20 read-fail clones. Each high quality clone sequence was searched against a public protein database. The most frequently found matching genes were ribosomal proteins (12.5%), p10 (3.58%), cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (3.13%) and sensory appendage protein (2.9%). Sequence similarity analysis between bumblebees and other insect species showed that 72 out of 437 (16.5%) bumblebee expressed sequence tags (EST) matched sequences of Apis mellifera, with matches to Drosophila melanogaster (6.6%), Caenorhabditis briggsae (6.2%), Lysiphlebus testaceipes (4.8%), Periplaneta americana (3.7%) and Anopheles gambiae (3.4%) following, suggesting that sequence similarity of bumblebee EST is closest to that of A. mellifera. Functional classification of EST based on Gene Ontology showed that most genes found by sequencing are associated with physiological processes in the bumblebee. The results of sequencing and analysis of our 437 cDNA demonstrated that high-throughput EST sequencing and data analysis are powerful means for identifying novel genes and for expression profiling. Our bumblebee EST collection could be a useful platform for further studies of gene expression in diapausing bumblebees. [source]


    Comparative gene expression profiling of olfactory ensheathing glia and Schwann cells indicates distinct tissue repair characteristics of olfactory ensheathing glia

    GLIA, Issue 12 2008
    Elske H.P. Franssen
    Abstract Olfactory ensheathing glia (OEG) are a specialized type of glia that support the growth of primary olfactory axons from the neuroepithelium in the nasal cavity to the brain. Transplantation of OEG in the injured spinal cord promotes sprouting of injured axons and results in reduced cavity formation, enhanced axonal and tissue sparing, remyelination, and angiogenesis. Gene expression analysis may help to identify the molecular mechanisms underlying the ability of OEG to recreate an environment that supports regeneration in the central nervous system. Here, we compared the transcriptome of cultured OEG (cOEG) with the transcriptomes of cultured Schwann cells (cSCs) and of OEG directly obtained from their natural environment (nOEG), the olfactory nerve layer of adult rats. Functional data mining by Gene Ontology (GO)-analysis revealed a number of overrepresented GO-classes associated with tissue repair. These classes include "response to wounding," "blood vessel development," "cell adhesion," and GO-classes related to the extracellular matrix and were overrepresented in the set of differentially expressed genes between both comparisons. The current screening approach combined with GO-analysis has identified distinct molecular properties of OEG that may underlie their efficacy and interaction with host tissue after implantation in the injured spinal cord. These observations can form the basis for studies on the function of novel target molecules for therapeutic intervention after neurotrauma. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


    Ontology-based resource management

    HUMAN FACTORS AND ERGONOMICS IN MANUFACTURING & SERVICE INDUSTRIES, Issue 6 2009
    Jussi I. Kantola
    Managers face many difficulties in managing organizational resources, with problems arising from multi-objectiveness, lack of holism, subjective understanding, different perceptions, vagueness, and complexity. This work presents an ontology-based management framework that aims to reduce the number of difficulties related to organizational resource management. In this framework, organizational resources are considered ontologies. The technological part of the framework includes an online repository and an interpreter for ontologies; the repository provides global access to ontologies, and the interpreter enables reasoning based on meanings. Introspection and extrospection create unique instances of the ontologies. When these unique instances are used, it is possible to manage organizational resources in a new way. This management method uses situational perceptions and aspirations for the future of organizational resources. Currently the new framework is in use in the private sector, the municipal sector, and in several universities in the world. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


    Access to immunology through the Gene Ontology

    IMMUNOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
    Ruth C. Lovering
    Summary The Gene Ontology (GO) is widely recognized as the premier tool for the organization and functional annotation of molecular aspects of cellular systems. However, for many immunologists the use of GO is a very foreign concept. Indeed, as a controlled vocabulary, GO can almost be considered a new language, and it can be difficult to appreciate the use and value of this approach for understanding the immune system. This review reflects on the application of GO to the field of immunology and explains the process of GO annotation. Finally, this review hopes to inspire immunologists to invest time and energy in improving both the content of the GO and the quality of GO annotations associated with genes of immunological interest. [source]


    Towards an ontology for electronic transaction services

    INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE & MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2002
    Nick Adams
    In this paper we present an ontology for transaction services built upon an established ontology for corporate knowledge called the Enterprise Ontology. We introduce the SmartGov platform for the ,Smart' deployment of online services for Public Authorities (PAs) whose requirement of a model of PAs has motivated the ontology, and describe our approach to constructing it. After presenting the ontology we then relate it to the pilot application areas in which the SmartGov platform will be trialed and evaluated. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


    The Form of the Matter: Heidegger, Ontology and Christian Ethics

    INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY, Issue 3 2001
    Brian Brock
    Martin Heidegger's late thought on technology raises a potent set of observations regarding the relationship of technology and ontology. Oliver O'Donovan is shown to have similar concerns to Heidegger on this topic, concerns which he addresses from within a theological framework which places technological making within the guiding role of created order. Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics II/1 account of the perfections of God is applied to sharpen O'Donovan's account of natural knowledge, clarifying the relation between natural and redeemed understandings of the normativity of the form of matter. [source]


    Rules, Social Ontology and Collective Identity

    JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2009
    NUNO MARTINS
    Mainstream game theory explains cooperation as the outcome of the interaction of agents who permanently pursue their individual goals. Amartya Sen argues instead that cooperation can only be understood by positing a type of rule-following behaviour that can be (and often is) out of phase with the pursuit of individual goals, due to the existence of a collective identity. However, Sen does not clarify the ontological preconditions for the type of social behaviour he describes. I will argue that Sen's account of collective identity can be best interpreted in the light of John Searle's notion of collective intentionality, while Sen's explanation of rule-following behavior and agency is best understood using the critical realist transformational model of social activity. [source]


    The Secret Life of Things: Rethinking Social Ontology

    JOURNAL FOR THE THEORY OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR, Issue 3 2003
    Iordanis Marcoulatos
    Despite a recent resurgence of interest in social ontology, the standard conceptualization of social/cultural objects reiterates dichotomies such as nature and culture, subjectivity and objectivity: the objective components of a social/cultural environment are usually divided into their (symbolically vacuous) material substratum, natural or manufactured, and their imposed or assigned social import. Inert materiality and subjectively or intersubjectively assigned meanings and functions remain distinct as constitutive aspects of a reality that is intuitively experienced as a whole. In contrast,by means of examining a broad range of natural/cultural entities,I propose an experiential or visceral ontology of the social, which addresses the comprehensive nature of our experience of cultural objects, as well as their perpetual transmutability within the space between nature and culture, objectivity and subjectivity. This perspective allows for a cathexis of meaning in the material constitution of cultural entities,in contrast to a mere imposition of detachable layers of meaning,and suggests a reconsideration of our unexamined perception of social/political action as editorial supervision and correction. Moreover, I point out the centrality of the concept of practice for recovering the lived sense of social things, since practice, by virtue of its inalienable informality, constitutes the field of Protean renewal of this sense. I understand my approach as complementary to the body-turn in contemporary social theory, since I extend the postulation of meaningfulness in the objective aspect of subjective existence (i.e. the body) towards its lived surroundings, which are here perceived as engaged in a process of meaningful practiced reciprocations with corporeal subjectivities. [source]


    Methodological Questions about the Ontology of Music

    JOURNAL OF AESTHETICS AND ART CRITICISM, Issue 4 2009
    ROBERT STECKER
    First page of article [source]


    Confucian Onto-Hermeneutics: Morality and Ontology

    JOURNAL OF CHINESE PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2000
    Chung-Ying Cheng
    [source]


    Perspectives on social tagging

    JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 12 2009
    Ying Ding
    Social tagging is one of the major phenomena transforming the World Wide Web from a static platform into an actively shared information space. This paper addresses various aspects of social tagging, including different views on the nature of social tagging, how to make use of social tags, and how to bridge social tagging with other Web functionalities; it discusses the use of facets to facilitate browsing and searching of tagging data; and it presents an analogy between bibliometrics and tagometrics, arguing that established bibliometric methodologies can be applied to analyze tagging behavior on the Web. Based on the Upper Tag Ontology (UTO), a Web crawler was built to harvest tag data from Delicious, Flickr, and YouTube in September 2007. In total, 1.8 million objects, including bookmarks, photos, and videos, 3.1 million taggers, and 12.1 million tags were collected and analyzed. Some tagging patterns and variations are identified and discussed. [source]


    Ontology-based speech act identification in a bilingual dialog system using partial pattern trees

    JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 5 2008
    Jui-Feng Yeh
    This article presents a bilingual ontology-based dialog system with multiple services. An ontology-alignment algorithm is proposed to integrate ontologies of different languages for cross-language applications. A domain-specific ontology is further extracted from the bilingual ontology using an island-driven algorithm and a domain corpus. This study extracts the semantic words/concepts using latent semantic analysis (LSA). Based on the extracted semantic words and the domain ontology, a partial pattern tree is constructed to model the speech act of a spoken utterance. The partial pattern tree is used to deal with the ill-formed sentence problem in a spoken-dialog system. Concept expansion based on domain ontology is also adopted to improve system performance. For performance evaluation, a medical dialog system with multiple services, including registration information, clinic information, and FAQ information, is implemented. Four performance measures were used separately for evaluation. The speech act identification rate was 86.2%. A task success rate of 77% was obtained. The contextual appropriateness of the system response was 78.5%. Finally, the rate for correct FAQ retrieval was 82%, an improvement of 15% over the keyword-based vector-space model. The results show the proposed ontology-based speech-act identification is effective for dialog management. [source]


    "All These Things Are Bodiless": Perception, Ontology, and Consciousness in Moby-Dick

    LEVIATHAN, Issue 1 2009
    Michael S. Martin
    [source]


    A network analysis of the single nucleotide polymorphisms in acute allergic diseases

    ALLERGY, Issue 1 2010
    J. Renkonen
    Abstract Background:, Genetics of acute allergies has focused on identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within genes relevant in the pathogenesis. In this study, we begin a systems biology analysis of the interconnectivity and biological functions of these genes, their transcripts and their corresponding proteins. Methods:, The literature (Pubmed) was searched for SNPs within genes relevant in acute allergic diseases. The SNP-modified genes were converted to corresponding proteins and their protein,protein interactions were searched from six different databases. This interaction network was analysed with annotated vocabularies (ontologies), such as Gene Ontology, Reactome and Nature pathway interaction database. Time-series transcriptomics was performed with nasal epithelial cells obtained from allergic patients and their healthy control subjects. Results:, A total of 39 genes with SNPs related to acute allergic diseases were found from a literature search. The corresponding proteins were then hooked into a large protein,protein interaction network with the help of various databases. Twenty-five SNP-related proteins had more than one interacting protein and a network contained 95 proteins, and 182 connections could be generated. This network was 10-fold enriched with protein kinases and proteins involved in the host,virus interaction compared with background human proteome. Finally, eight of the 95 nodes on our network displayed nasal epithelial transcriptomal regulation in a time-series analysis collected from birch allergic patients during the spring pollen season. Conclusions:, Signal transduction with special reference to host,virus interactions dominated in the allergy-related protein interaction network. Systems level analysis of allergy-related mutation can provide new insights into pathogenetic mechanisms of the diseases. [source]


    Increased expression of aquaporin 3 in atopic eczema

    ALLERGY, Issue 9 2006
    M. Olsson
    Background:, Dry skin in atopic eczema depends on increased water loss. The mechanisms behind this are poorly understood. The aim of this work was to identify genes that may contribute to water loss in eczema. Methods:, Affymetrix DNA microarrays U133A were used to analyse gene expression in skin biopsies from 10 patients with atopic eczema and 10 healthy controls. Results:, DNA microarray analysis showed up-regulation of 262 genes and down-regulation of 129 genes in atopic eczema. The known functions of these genes were analysed using Gene Ontology to identify genes that could contribute to increased water loss. This led to identification of aquaporin 3 (AQP3), which has a key role in hydrating healthy epidermis. Increased expression of AQP3 was found in eczema compared with healthy skin. This was confirmed with real-time polymerase chain reaction (P < 0.001). In healthy skin, epidermal AQP3 immunoreactivity was weak and mainly found in the stratum basale. A gradient was formed with decreasing AQP3 staining in the lower layers of the stratum spinosum. By contrast, in acute and chronic atopic eczema strong AQP3 staining was found in both the stratum basale and the stratum spinosum. Conclusions:, Aquaporin 3 is the predominant aquaporin in human skin. Increased expression and altered cellular distribution of AQP3 is found in eczema and this may contribute to water loss. [source]


    Common Sense as Evidence: Against Revisionary Ontology and Skepticism

    MIDWEST STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY, Issue 1 2008
    THOMAS KELLY
    First page of article [source]


    Sacramental Ontology: Nature and the Supernatural in the Ecclesiology of Henri de Lubac

    NEW BLACKFRIARS, Issue 1015 2007
    Hans Boersma
    Abstract This essay argues that for Henri de Lubac, a sacramental ontology provides the link between a Eucharistically based ecclesiology and the issue of the relationship between nature and the supernatural. For de Lubac it is the sacramental order of reality that draws humanity to a deeper participation in the divine life. Maurice Blondel's substitution of Tradition for the dilemma between extrinsicism and historicism shapes de Lubac's sacramental ontology. The latter's concern for the social character of the Church and his opposition to an individualist ecclesiology are key to his understanding of the relationship between the supernatural and the Eucharistic character of the Church. Arguing that Eucharist and Church are mutually constituting, de Lubac wants to counter both extrinsicist and historicist approaches to the Church. For de Lubac, the Eucharist provides an avenue for the mutual interpenetration of nature and the supernatural, thereby overcoming the dualism between extrinsicism and historicism. It is through the sacramental means of Christ, the Church, and the Eucharist, that God is present in the world. This presence means for de Lubac neither an acceptance of the State on its own terms nor an exaggerated spiritualist critique of Constantinianism. [source]


    A Puzzle about Ontology

    NOUS, Issue 2 2005
    Thomas Hofweber
    First page of article [source]


    Pilot Study Examining the Utility of Microarray Data to Identify Genes Associated with Weight in Transplant Recipients

    NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES, Issue 2 2006
    Ann Cashion
    Purpose/Methods:, Obesity, a complex, polygenic disorder and a growing epidemic in transplant recipients, is a risk factor for chronic diseases. This secondary data analysis identified if microarray technologies and bioinformatics could find differences in gene expression profiles between liver transplant recipients with low Body Mass Index (BMI < 29; n = 5) vs. high (BMI > 29; n = 7). Blood was hybridized on Human U133 Plus 2 GeneChip (Affymetrix) and analyzed using GeneSpring Software. Results:, Groups were similar in age and race, but not gender. Expression levels of 852 genes were different between the low and high BMI groups (P < 0.05). The majority (562) of the changes associated with high BMI were decreases in transcript levels. Among the 852 genes associated with BMI, 263 and 14 genes were affected greater than 2- or 5-fold, respectively. Following functionally classification using Gene Ontology (GO), we found that 19 genes (P < 0.00008) belonged to defense response and 15 genes (P < 0.00006) belonged to immune response. Conclusion:, These data could point the way toward therapeutic interventions and identify those at-risk. These results demonstrate that we can (1) extract high quality RNA from immunosuppressed patients; (2) manage large datasets and perform statistical and functional analysis. [source]


    Hermeneutics and the Heidegger = Schumpeter Theses

    AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, Issue 1 2010
    Yuichi Shionoya
    This paper is a part of an attempt to develop an economic philosophy of ontology based on the Continental tradition of hermeneutics. Ontology explores the meanings of entities as the objects of knowledge to posit the orientation of knowledge. Heidegger developed hermeneutical ontology, focusing on the self-understanding of Dasein (human beings), which consists of the "projection" of its possibilities into the future and the "thrownness" of it into the restrictions by the past history. Dealing explicitly with the pre-structure of knowledge, hermeneutics opens the perspective of knowledge much broader than permitted by the analytical tradition of philosophy. It is the contention of this paper that Schumpeter from the Austrian subjectivist circle could cope with this approach in social science by the use of the concepts of "innovation and tradition" or "creation and routine." The paper discusses the relationship between Heidegger and Schumpeter on various philosophical issues and derives what might be called the Heidegger = Schumpeter theses. [source]