NTR: control specimen role

[DanBerrios]

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Preferred term label

control specimen role

Synonyms

Textual definition

A control specimen role of a biotic or abiotic sample or individual describes a specimen by its purpose, and therefore treatment, within a planned experimental process that tests hypotheses by isolating variables as dictated by the scientific method in order to make a conclusion about the effect of such variables. The quality of control inhering in the sample role exists as a result of the historical treatment of the sample. In a controlled experiment, two or more virtually identical experiments are conducted, but the factor being tested is varied in only one of them. This serves to isolate any causal phenomena. A control may have been subject to treatments during the experiment that might alter its state or behaviour and is therefore distinguishable from the sample as initial input into the experiment. However such treatments should in all cases but that of the variable under scrutiny, be the same as the experimental sample.

Suggested parent term

Parent: http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OBI_0000112 (specimen role) and/or http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OBI_0000097 (participant under investigation role)

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Attribution

ORCID: 0000-0002-5111-7263

Editor's Notes

This role is distinct from "control role in a case-control study", and in fact could (and we think should) be the parent of "control role in a case-control study".

[DanBerrios]

Dan to research proposed "material entity control variable specification" pattern for this and discuss as an alternative.

[DanBerrios]

So, looking at reference subject role http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OBI_0000220 ...this could work for what we are looking to use, except that its definition and the word "subject" imply only living material entities can have this role. This would exclude investigations that use non-living samples/specimens. Can we:

1. Broaden the definition as follows: "A role which inheres in a specimen or its origin so that the characteristics or responses of the specimen are used for comparison or reference"
2. Add the synonym/alternative term "control role"
3. We think writing an additional subclass axiom tying the role to value specification for one more control measurement datum(data) would be overly complex and not very useful to most users of this term/class.

[cstoeckert]

Discussed on OBI dev call Feb. 13, 2023. Another option is to create a more general class as parent to this to capture non-organisms (material entities in general). Point made about the difference between a control and reference. May be different roles. Likely need more terms and need to discuss more.

[DanBerrios]

Discussed on call 02/27/23:

1. Consider a new child class of "reference subject role" that would be for "unexposed/untreated" specimens. What should the label be? "Control specimen role"? "Negative reference substance role" with a synonym of some sort? Further discussion needed...