diff --git a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/JenaBaseDao.java b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/JenaBaseDao.java
index 6e1b3b60d..8c9e2e6a8 100644
--- a/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/JenaBaseDao.java
+++ b/webapp/src/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/JenaBaseDao.java
@@ -345,7 +345,7 @@ public class JenaBaseDao extends JenaBaseDaoCon {
                  model.removeAll(res, dataprop, null);
             } else if (existingValue == null ) {
                  model.add(res, dataprop, Float.toString(value), XSDDatatype.XSDfloat);	
-            } else if (existingValue != value) {
+            } else if (existingValue.compareTo(value) != 0) {
          		 model.removeAll(res, dataprop, null);
           		 model.add(res, dataprop, Float.toString(value), XSDDatatype.XSDfloat);
             }
@@ -487,9 +487,9 @@ public class JenaBaseDao extends JenaBaseDaoCon {
     }
 
     /**
-     * convenience method for use with functional object properties
+     * convenience method for use with functional properties
      */
-    protected void updatePropertyResourceURIValue(Resource res, ObjectProperty prop, String objectURI) {
+    protected void updatePropertyResourceURIValue(Resource res, Property prop, String objectURI) {
 
     	Model model = res.getModel();
     	
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ public class JenaBaseDao extends JenaBaseDaoCon {
     }
 
     /**
-     * convenience method for use with functional object properties
+     * convenience method for use with functional properties
      */
     protected void updatePropertyResourceValue(Resource res, Property prop, Resource objectRes) {
         
@@ -555,7 +555,7 @@ public class JenaBaseDao extends JenaBaseDaoCon {
     }
 
     /**
-     * convenience method for use with functional object properties
+     * convenience method for use with functional properties
      */
     protected void updatePropertyResourceValue(Resource res, Property prop, Resource objectRes, Model model) {
     	
@@ -585,17 +585,17 @@ public class JenaBaseDao extends JenaBaseDaoCon {
     /**
      * convenience method for updating the RDFS label
      */
-    protected void updateRDFSLabel(OntClass ontCls, String label) {
+    protected void updateRDFSLabel(OntResource ontRes, String label) {
     	
     	if (label != null && label.length() > 0) {
     		
-    		String existingValue = ontCls.getLabel((String) getDefaultLanguage());
+    		String existingValue = ontRes.getLabel((String) getDefaultLanguage());
     	    
     		if (existingValue == null || !existingValue.equals(label)) {
-    			ontCls.setLabel(label, (String) getDefaultLanguage());	
+    			ontRes.setLabel(label, (String) getDefaultLanguage());	
     	    }
     	} else {
-    		ontCls.removeAll(RDFS.label);
+    		ontRes.removeAll(RDFS.label);
     	}
     }
     
diff --git a/webapp/test/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/VClassDaoTest.java b/webapp/test/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/VClassDaoTest.java
index e9cd60314..3fe2a9f5a 100644
--- a/webapp/test/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/VClassDaoTest.java
+++ b/webapp/test/edu/cornell/mannlib/vitro/webapp/dao/jena/VClassDaoTest.java
@@ -75,16 +75,17 @@ public class VClassDaoTest {
 		// Save copies of sub-model and super-model
 		
 		// uncommment the next two lines to debug failures
-		//System.out.println("**Before updating VClass:");		
-		//printModels(superModel, subModel);
+		System.out.println("**Before updating VClass:");		
+		printModels(superModel, subModel);
+		
+		superModel.removeSubModel(subModel);
 		
 		OntModel origSubModel = ModelFactory.createOntologyModel(OntModelSpec.OWL_MEM); 
 		origSubModel.add(subModel);
-		
-		superModel.remove(subModel);
 		OntModel origSuperModel = ModelFactory.createOntologyModel(OntModelSpec.OWL_MEM); 
 		origSuperModel.add(superModel);
-		superModel.add(subModel);
+		
+		superModel.addSubModel(subModel);
 		
 		// Populate the VClass with the data in the sub-model and then update the combined model
 		WebappDaoFactoryJena wdfj = new WebappDaoFactoryJena(superModel);
@@ -102,10 +103,11 @@ public class VClassDaoTest {
         // Verify that the sub-model and super-model are both unchanged
 
         // uncommment the next two lines to debug failures
-        //System.out.println("\n**After updating VClass:");
-        //printModels(superModel,subModel);
+        System.out.println("\n**After updating VClass:");
+        printModels(superModel,subModel);
 
-        superModel.remove(subModel);        
+        superModel.removeSubModel(subModel);
+        
 		//modtime affects the diff but we don't care about that difference
 		wipeOutModTime(origSubModel);
 		wipeOutModTime(origSuperModel);
@@ -123,7 +125,7 @@ public class VClassDaoTest {
 		// Detach the submodel for printing to get an accurate
 		// account of what is in each.
 		
-	    superModel.remove(subModel);
+	    superModel.removeSubModel(subModel);
 	    
 		System.out.println("\nThe sub-model has " + subModel.size() + " statements:");
 		System.out.println("---------------------------------------------------");