Parameter Usage Vocabulary Ontology

An ontology for defining parameters (observable-properties) corresponding to the NVS Parameter Usage Vocabulary (P01). PUV Ontology is formally documented at the ontology namespace https://w3id.org/env/puv

P01 Semantic Model

The 'semantic model' for parameters is described in the P01 issue tracker and summarized in the following figure:

The P01 'Semantic Model' defines a rule to build a Parameter Name (seen as its skos:prefLabel). However, the current RDF representation from NVS only shows generalized SKOS relationships to the component terms (skos:broader and skos:related). For example, the description of parameter R0186569 is as follows:

<http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P01/current/R0186569/> a skos:Concept ;
    skos:altLabel "DryWt_CAS57117-41-6_BE006569" ;
    skos:broader <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P02/current/BCOC/>,
        <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S06/current/S0600045/>,
        <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S25/current/BE006569/>,
        <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S26/current/MAT01963/>,
        <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S27/current/CS003687/> ;
    skos:definition "The amount (mass or number of moles) of the specified analyte per unit weight of the specified organism or part thereof after water has been removed."@en ;
    skos:prefLabel "Concentration of 1,2,3,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran {1,2,3,7,8-pentaCDF CAS 57117-41-6} per unit dry weight of biota {Mytilus galloprovincialis (ITIS: 79456: WoRMS 140481) [Subcomponent: flesh]}"@en ;
    skos:related <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UUKG/>,
        <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S02/current/S041/> .

PUV Ontology

Using PUV-ont the relationships in the same example are encoded as follows:

<http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P01/current/R0186569/> a skos:Concept , puv:Parameter ;
  skos:altLabel "DryWt_CAS57117-41-6_BE006569" ;
  skos:broader <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P02/current/BCOC/> ;
  skos:definition "The amount (mass or number of moles) of the specified analyte per unit weight of the specified organism or part thereof after water has been removed."@en ;
  skos:prefLabel "Concentration of 1,2,3,7,8-pentachlorodibenzofuran {1,2,3,7,8-pentaCDF CAS 57117-41-6} per unit dry weight of biota {Mytilus galloprovincialis (ITIS: 79456: WoRMS 140481) [Subcomponent: flesh]}"@en ;
  puv:biologicalObject <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S25/current/BE006569/> ;
  puv:chemicalObject <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S27/current/CS003687/> ;
  puv:matrixRelationship <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S02/current/S041/> ;
  puv:matrix <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S26/current/MAT01963/> ;
  puv:property <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/S06/current/S0600045/> ;
  puv:uom <http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/P06/current/UUKG/> ;
.

This follows an OWL implementation defined in PUV-ont which specifies explicit links to the dependency terms from different vocabularies.

Other considerations

Units of measure

Note that the Semantic Model does not include units-of-measure.

A parameter could be linked to a unit-of-measure using qudt:applicableUnit

Parameter dimensionality

A parameter may be linked to a dimension vector using qudt:hasDimensionVector

Prior work

The Complex Property Model in OWL developed by Adam Leadbetter also addressed this issue. See our comparison of PUV-ont with CPM ontology