Issue-76: SymbolicLabels

Dear all,

Previous drafts of SKOS included skos:prefSymbol and skos:altSymbol and the
issue is if they should be dropped.
I am here giving use cases in support of these elements. 
Of course is they will be dropped then we have to use skos:altLabel to
represent those elements.

1) If we take the AGROVOC thesaurus: it contains all the chemical elements,
which are currently in agrovoc 60, but could be more than 120...
Example: Phosphorus is a term with a specific termcode (5804). Another term
exists with code 13015 which is "P (symbol)", and these are related by the
USE/UF relationship. BUT, if we could have skos:altSymbol, we would not need
to use skos:altLabel and we would not need to indicate "(symbol)" in the
agrovoc term.
Also: this symbol in general is the same for all languages except for
non-latin alphabets. But these could be represented with the skos:altSymbol:
in this case we may need to assign a language to the skos:altSymbol. If we
decide not, then we could treat the different languages for symbols as
skos:altLabel.

P (symbol) (EN)
P (symbole) (FR)
P (símbolo) (ES)
磷元素 (ZH)
P (símbolo) (PT)
P (CS)
リン (JA)
พี (สัญลักษณ์) (TH)
p (chemická značka) (SK)
P (SYMBOL) (DE)
P (vegyjel) (HU)
P (symbol) (PL)
P (simbolo) (IT)
पी फास्फोरस का (चिन्ह) (HI)

Below the full list of terms in agrovoc indicated as symbols.

2) AGROVOC contains chemical compunds such as "1,2-Dibromoethane", which has
the formula BrCH2CH2Br. This formula may be represented as  skos:prefSymbol. 
Chemicals may also have associated other codes coming from internationally
recognized standards, such as the CAS Number: 106-93-4.... This can be
skos:altSymbol, but in this case we would need an attribute to indicate which
skos:altSymbol it is (CAS or others...)... Otherwise again skos:altLabel
could be used.
Number of these terms in agrovoc: more than 100.

3) Other substances such as ASPARAGINE may have symbols:
di-N-acetylchitobiosyl poly(L-asparagine) (source MESH Thesaurus)

4) The food component ontology (or repository) in FAO has food substances
with symbols:  phosphatidyl choline  --> symbol:  CHLNP
dodecanoic acid. Saturated fatty acid with 12 carbons  --> symbol:  F12D0
Note these are not a termcodes, but a international symbols given to the
substance. These are indipendent from the language. May have alternative
symbols in other systems.

5) Vitamins also have symbols: around 20 in agrovoc. Some also in MESH. E.g.
alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol succinate --> vitamin E-TPGS

6) The tag skos:prefSymbol and skos:altSymbol may also be used to represent
codes referred to the same concept in other systems (specifying the source
somehow).

7) Geographical names may have associated symbols: ALBANIA has ISO country
code (alpha-3-code) -->  ALB
But also here we may need to specify an attribute for the code (ISO3 ISO2 UN,
etc)

8) Currency Symbols:  Q for guatemala, $ for USA, EUR or € for european
countries (we may use both skos:prefSymbol and skos:altSymbol).


So, based on this I support the idea to keep them. Sorry for not having
provided before use cases.

Hope this helps.

Regards
Margherita


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List of terms (symbols) from agrovoc

Ag (symbol)   (EN) 
Al (symbol)   (EN) 
Am (symbol)   (EN) 
As (symbol)   (EN) 
Asymbolus analis   (EN) 
Asymbolus spp   (EN) 
Asymbolus vincenti   (EN) 
B (symbol)   (EN) 
Ba (symbol)   (EN) 
Be (symbol)   (EN) 
Bi (symbol)   (EN) 
Br (symbol)   (EN) 
C (symbol)   (EN) 
Ca (symbol)   (EN) 
Cd (symbol)   (EN) 
Cl (symbol)   (EN) 
Cm (symbol)   (EN) 
Co (symbol)   (EN) 
Cr (symbol)   (EN) 
Cs (symbol)   (EN) 
Cu (symbol)   (EN) 
F (symbol)   (EN) 
Fe (symbol)   (EN) 
H (symbol)   (EN) 
Hg (symbol)   (EN) 
I (symbol)   (EN) 
K (symbol)   (EN) 
Li (symbol)   (EN) 
Mg (symbol)   (EN) 
Mn (symbol)   (EN) 
Mo (symbol)   (EN) 
N (symbol)   (EN) 
Na (symbol)   (EN) 
Ni (symbol)   (EN) 
Np (symbol)   (EN) 
O (symbol)   (EN) 
P (symbol)   (EN) 
Pb (symbol)   (EN) 
Pt (symbol)   (EN) 
Pu (symbol)   (EN) 
Ra (symbol)   (EN) 
Rb (symbol)   (EN) 
S (symbol)   (EN) 
Sb (symbol)   (EN) 
Se (symbol)   (EN) 
Si (symbol)   (EN) 
Sisymbrium   (EN) 
Sn (symbol)   (EN) 
Sr (symbol)   (EN) 
Symbionts   (EN) 
Symbiosis   (EN) 
Tc (symbol)   (EN) 
Te (symbol)   (EN) 
Tl (symbol)   (EN) 
U (symbol)   (EN) 
V (symbol)   (EN) 
W (symbol)   (EN) 
Zn (symbol)   (EN) 
Zr (symbol)   (EN) 
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Received on Tuesday, 13 May 2008 16:55:23 UTC