{ "model": { "rank": 12777, "code": "thing-q594595", "model_id": "vr.tr.sex-determination-system", "name": "sex-determination system", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sex-determination systems and their diversity across organisms, describe genetic, chromosomal and environmental mechanisms, describe their evolution, and support learning in biology with careful and neutral language.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q594595/", "tier": 2, "score": 39, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "mating type determination", "ZW sex-determination system", "male sex determination", "primary sex determination", "female sex determination", "XY sex-determination system", "germ-line sex determination", "somatic sex determination", "processes downstream of sex determination signal", "Nuclear sexing", "environmental sex determination" ], "aliasCount": 11, "merged": 11, "knownIn": 39, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q594595", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q594595", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-12T05:41:24Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 2, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q594595", "registryId": "vr.tr.sex-determination-system", "name": "sex-determination system", "version": "0.2.0-wave.2", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q594595/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.sex-determination-system", "name": "sex-determination system", "purpose": "Let an agent explain sex-determination systems and their diversity across organisms, describe genetic, chromosomal and environmental mechanisms, describe their evolution, and support learning in biology with careful and neutral language.", "definition": "A biological system that determines the development of sexual characteristics in an organism, including chromosomal systems such as the XY system of mammals and the ZW system of birds, haplodiploidy in many insects, temperature-dependent sex determination in reptiles, environmental and social determination in some fish, and mating type determination in fungi and algae, operating through genes and hormones in primary and secondary sex determination; sex-determination systems vary widely across life and are studied in genetics, developmental and evolutionary biology.", "what_it_is_for": "Mechanisms determining biological sex.", "affordances": [ "explain systems and diversity", "describe mechanisms", "describe evolution", "support learning" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Diverse mechanisms", "Genetic or environmental", "Primary and secondary determination", "Evolutionary turnover" ], "appearance": "Not physical; a biological mechanism.", "visual_identification": [ "Mechanism determining sexual development", "XY, ZW, haplodiploid, temperature-dependent, mating types", "Gender is a social and personal category; sexual differentiation follows determination" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "XY and related chromosomal systems", "ZW systems", "haplodiploid systems", "temperature and environmental systems", "mating type systems in fungi and algae" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "biological system", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "developmental process involved in reproduction", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "ontogeny", "why": "sexual development within ontogeny" }, { "relation": "is related to", "target": "biological selection", "why": "evolution of determination systems" } ], "identifiers": [], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Genetic nomenclature", "Research ethics", "No regulation of the concept" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Conflating biological sex determination with gender", "Oversimplifying diversity", "Using findings to make social claims" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "understand", "name": "Understand", "description": "What sex-determination systems are.", "rationale": "Biology.", "layers": [ { "id": "concept", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept and diversity.", "findings": [ { "id": "concept-finding", "name": "Concept", "description": "Concept.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is a sex-determination system, and how do XY, ZW, haplodiploid, temperature-dependent and mating type systems differ?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which organism or system is meant?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "mechanism", "name": "Mechanism", "description": "Mechanisms.", "findings": [ { "id": "mechanism-finding", "name": "Mechanism", "description": "Mechanism.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do genes, chromosomes, hormones and environment act in primary and secondary sex determination?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which entry fits developmental biology?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evolution", "name": "Evolution", "description": "Evolution and variation.", "rationale": "Science.", "layers": [ { "id": "evolution", "name": "Evolution", "description": "Evolution of systems.", "findings": [ { "id": "evolution-finding", "name": "Evolution", "description": "Evolution.", "questions": [ { "text": "How do sex-determination systems evolve and turn over across lineages, according to research?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which findings are contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "variation", "name": "Variation", "description": "Variation in development.", "findings": [ { "id": "variation-finding", "name": "Variation", "description": "Variation.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does variation in sex development arise, and how is it described in biology and medicine with neutral language?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is the presentation neutral and careful?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "apply", "name": "Apply", "description": "Applications.", "rationale": "Applications.", "layers": [ { "id": "agriculture", "name": "Agriculture", "description": "Agriculture and conservation.", "findings": [ { "id": "agriculture-finding", "name": "Agriculture", "description": "Agriculture.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is knowledge of sex determination used in aquaculture, poultry and conservation of temperature-sensitive species?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits aquaculture?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "climate", "name": "Climate", "description": "Climate effects.", "findings": [ { "id": "climate-finding", "name": "Climate", "description": "Climate.", "questions": [ { "text": "How does climate change affect species with temperature-dependent sex determination?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which entry fits climate impacts on wildlife?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "learn", "name": "Learn", "description": "History and teaching.", "rationale": "Education.", "layers": [ { "id": "history", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "findings": [ { "id": "history-finding", "name": "History", "description": "History.", "questions": [ { "text": "How were sex chromosomes and other systems discovered?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which references are standard?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "teach", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "findings": [ { "id": "teach-finding", "name": "Teach", "description": "Teaching.", "questions": [ { "text": "How can sex determination be taught accurately and without conflating it with gender?", "kind": "action" }, { "text": "Which misconceptions arise?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should each system be a separate entry?", "How should research literature be linked?", "How should human development resources be linked?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a sex-determination system, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain sex-determination systems and their diversity across organisms, describe genetic, chromosomal and environmental mechanisms, describe their evolution, and support learning in biology with careful and neutral language.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: mating type determination, ZW sex-determination system, male sex determination, primary sex determination, female sex determination, XY sex-determination system, germ-line sex determination, somatic sex determination, processes downstream of sex determination signal, Nuclear sexing, environmental sex determination.", "11 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 39 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a sex-determination system, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "mating type determination", "ZW sex-determination system", "male sex determination", "primary sex determination", "female sex determination", "XY sex-determination system", "germ-line sex determination", "somatic sex determination", "processes downstream of sex determination signal", "Nuclear sexing", "environmental sex determination" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 39 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 11 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one sex-determination system from another, and a sex-determination system from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a sex-determination system sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a sex-determination system from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a sex-determination system passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a sex-determination system between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a sex-determination system, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a sex-determination system is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a sex-determination system proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a sex-determination system, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a sex-determination system and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a sex-determination system consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a sex-determination system takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What sex-determination system is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of sex-determination system are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is sex-determination system operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of sex-determination system and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of sex-determination system?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as sex-determination system?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a sex-determination system came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a sex-determination system and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a sex-determination system is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a sex-determination system, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a sex-determination system, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a sex-determination system is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }