This paper offers two main contributions. On the one hand, it establishes a general formal framework for developing a foundational ontology of socially constructed entities, in the broadest sense of this notion; on the other hand, it further contributes to understanding the ontological nature of roles. The key choice here is to put all social entities in the domain of discourse: besides social ...

M. Rea, Z. Tse, H. Elhawary, M. Lampérth, G. Bydder, and I. Young Radiological Sciences Unit, Imperial College London, London, UK, United Kingdom, Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, England, United Kingdom, Brigham Womens Hospital, Boston, United States, Radiology, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States, Electrical Engineering, Imperial College Lo...

OBJECTIVE This study sought to determine whether social integration, defined as number of social roles, is associated with better pulmonary function in the elderly and which roles are associated with greatest benefit. It also examined pathways that connect social integration to better lung health. METHODS High functioning men (n = 518) and women (n = 629) ages 70-79 were recruited as part of ...

In this paper we address the problem of defining social roles in MAS. Social roles provide the basic structure of social institutions and organizations. We start from the properties attributed to roles both in the MAS and the Object Oriented community, and we use them in an ontological analysis of the notion of social role. We thus identify as the main properties of social roles being definitio...