/
Examples of OWL in RF2 reference set format

Examples of OWL in RF2 reference set format

2017-Jul-13

Each axiom needs to be associated with a concept in order to address the issues identified for OWL in concept table format. This is similar to the state relationship table. Each concept can have many relationships. However, the format of relationship table is not suitable for OWL expressions because it breaks down relationships into triples of sourceId, typeid, and destinationId. The additional fields are also not useful for OWL, e.g role group number which is no longer relevant because role group is represented by role group attribute. 

The OWL axioms can be represented by annotation type reference set. An 900000000000516008 |Annotation type reference set| allows String (data type) to be associated with components for any specified purpose. It would be ideal to have a specific refset type for OWL expressions. The OWL refset could be a single refset, such as OWL expression, or multiple refsets which can potentially make distinctions between axioms and annotations, such as 1234567 |OWL axiom|, 2345678 |OWL annotation|. The following table demonstrates some examples of OWL axioms and annotations in reference set format. 

The OWL refset can potentially replace the state relationship table to be used for terminology editing, in particular, the DL reasoners can directly consume these OWL axioms without any transformation or modification.

All descriptiones can also be represented by annotation assertion in OWL format. The annotation assertions are not necessary for concept modeling and classification purpose. They could be used to generate a full OWL files with different descriptions for different languages if it is needed. The examples only include the FSN for readability.  

The effectiveTime assignment:

  1. effectiveTime of Declaration(Class X)  = effectiveTime of concept in the Concept table

  2. effectiveTime of AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label X "Y"@en) = effectiveTime of FSN in the Description table.  The formal specification for OWL annotation assertion is needed to represent different description types, FSN, Preferred term, Synonym,  and Definition.

  3. effectiveTime of EquivalentClasses(), SubClassOf() = latest effectiveTime of one of the relationships in the Stated Relationship table. 

The following issues still need discussion:

  1. Recommendation on which concept GCAs should be associated with, e.g. root concept SNOMED CT concept (SNOMED RT+CTV3), or SNOMED CT Model Component (metadata), or a new GCA concept in the model component hierarchy

  2. QA expressions to ensure they are not out of sync due to inactivation of concepts, attributes, or change of modeling in related concepts.

  3. Recommendation on which concept property chain should be associated with, e.g. superconcept of chain expression

  4. Representation for ontology management information,  where and how? root concept?

  5. Single OWL refset set or mutiple refsets that explicitly represent OWL axiom, entity declaration, OWL annotation in separate refset


id

effectiveTime

active

moduleId

refsetId

referencedComponentId

OWL expression

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

138875005

# example of declaration of Class (Concept in SNOMED CT)

Declaration(Class(sctid:138875005))

UUID

20030731

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

517382016

# example of annotation for label (Description in SNOMED CT)

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:138875005 "SNOMED CT Concept (SNOMED RT+CTV3)"@en)

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

138875005

# example of GCA (General Concept Axiom)

EquivalentClasses(ObjectIntersectionOf(ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:182245002))) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:181469002 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 sctid:182245002))))

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

138875005

# example of GCA (General Concept Axiom)

EquivalentClasses(ObjectIntersectionOf(ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:302539009))) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:181469002 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 sctid:302539009))))

UUID

20040131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

404684003

Declaration(Class(sctid:404684003))

UUID

20040131

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

2148514019

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:404684003 "Clinical finding (finding)"@en)

UUID

20040131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

404684003

# example of SubClassOf (Equivalent to IS A relationship in SNOMED CT)

SubClassOf(sctid:404684003 sctid:138875005)

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123037004

Declaration(Class(sctid:123037004))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

724699017

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:123037004 "Body structure (body structure)"@en)

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123037004

SubClassOf(sctid:123037004 sctid:138875005)

UUID

20040131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

118234003

Declaration(Class(sctid:118234003))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

697938013

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:118234003 "Finding by site (finding)"@en)

UUID

20090731

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

118234003

# example of equivalence between Classes (Concept is fully defined by relationships in SNOMED CT)

# example of role group (609096000 |Role group (attribute)| as attribute has one attribute/value pair as its value)

EquivalentClasses(sctid:118234003 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:404684003 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:609096000 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:363698007 sctid:442083009))))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

900000000000441003

Declaration(Class(sctid:900000000000441003))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000012004

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

900000000000952015

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:900000000000441003 "SNOMED CT Model Component (metadata)"@en)

UUID

20130731

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

900000000000441003

SubClassOf(sctid:900000000000441003 sctid:138875005)

UUID

20110131

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123005000

# example of object property declaration

Declaration(ObjectProperty(sctid:123005000))

UUID

20110131

1

900000000000012004

2345678 |OWL annotation|

724452016

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:123005000 "Part of (attribute)"@en)

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123005000

# example of property hierarchy (IS A relationship between attribute concepts in SNOMED CT)

SubObjectPropertyOf(sctid:123005000 sctid:733928003)

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123005000

# example of transitive object property

TransitiveObjectProperty(sctid:123005000)

UUID

20130731

1

900000000000012004

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

123005000

Declaration(ObjectProperty(sctid:609096000))

UUID

20130731

1

900000000000012004

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

2958853015

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:609096000 "Role group (attribute)"@en)

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

244130001

Declaration(Class(sctid:244130001))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation|

633908017

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:244130001 "Entire skin of upper extremity (body structure)"@en)

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

244130001

# example of one of multiple sufficient definitions

EquivalentClasses(sctid:244130001 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:362889002 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 sctid:182245002)))

UUID

20180131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

244130001

# example of one of multiple sufficient definitions

EquivalentClasses(sctid:244130001 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:362889002 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:181469002) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:362889002 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000002 sctid:5682004) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:1000000003 sctid:182245002)))))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

126516008

Declaration(Class(sctid:126516008))

UUID

20020131

1

900000000000207008

2345678 |OWL annotation| 

730492015

AnnotationAssertion(rdfs:label sctid:126516008 "Neoplasm of skin of upper limb (disorder)"@en)

UUID

 20100131

1

900000000000207008

733073007 |OWL axiom reference set|

126516008

# example of role group (609096000 |Role group (attribute)| as attribute has conjunction of two attribute/value as its value)

EquivalentClasses(sctid:126516008 ObjectIntersectionOf(sctid:64572001 ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:609096000 ObjectIntersectionOf(ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:116676008 sctid:108369006) ObjectSomeValuesFrom(sctid:363698007 sctid:371311000)))))

Copyright © 2026, SNOMED International