Figure 8

Overview of the Framework. Overview of the different types of compositional, spatial, and resolution granularity perspectives of the General Integrated Spatio-Structural Granularity Framework and how they relate to the basic subtypes of 'material entity', with 'Cell', 'Organ', 'Cell aggregate with ECM', 'Cell part aggregate with ECM', 'Organ part aggregate with portion of tissue', and 'Fiat organ part' as examples. The arrows indicate whether it is a compositional, a spatial, or a resolution perspective and how many granularity levels it distinguishes. Different subtypes of 'fiat object part' are distinguished (i.e. 'Cell part aggregate with ECM', 'Organ part aggregate with portion of tissue', 'Cell aggregate with ECM', and 'Fiat organ part'), which allow the differentiation of further subtypes of spatial and compositional granularity perspectives, which, however, are not discussed in detail here. All perspectives involving object aggregates are not covered in detail, since they are of limited relevance for cumulative-constitutively organized entities. ECM: extracellular matrix.