Progress in the Development of National Knowledge Infrastructure

This paper presents the recent process in a long-term research project,called National Knowledge Infrastructure(or NKI).Initiated in the early 2000,the project aims to develop a multi-domain shareable knowledge base for knowledge-intensive applications.To develop NKI,we have used domain-specific ontologies as a solid basis,and have built more than 600 ontologies.Using these ontologies and our knowledge acquisition methods,we have extracted about 1.1 millions of domain assertions.For users to access our NKI knowledge,we have developed a uniform multi-modal human-knowledge interface.We have also implemented a knowledge application programming interface for various applications to share the NKI knowledge.     

COMMUNICATING KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS: Part II—Big Talk among Small Systems

Abstract

A new model is introduced for describing societies of communicating knowledge systems from an artificial intelligence perspective. The society is defined as a time-evolving concept con-taining both static and dynamic knowledge. The static knowledge includes the components of the society, namely the actor types, the communication issue types, and the behavior pattern types. The dynamic knowledge specifies how the society can evolve. Each component is a metatheory described using a specific representation system. The metatheories representing the actor types include self-knowledge, knowledge about other actors, and knowledge about the real world. The communication issues always reflect the knowledge of the sending actor and produce some effect on the receiving actor, for instance, enrichments of its knowledge or conflicts with its own knowledge. Conflicts are of two forms: routine conflicts to be solved by mediating actors with no intelligent knowledge, or conflicts that require intelligent knowledge. and that must be solved by special actors called managers. Behavior pattern rules are theories that express cause-effect rules regarding the society behavior as a whole. Technically, modifications of the society are defined as parameterized theories whose argument specifies the requirements to be satisfied before a change of the situation and whose body introduces the modifications to be performed.     

The role of social interaction in software effort estimation: Unpacking the “magic step” between reasoning and decision-making

ContextSoftware effort estimation is a core task regarding planning, budgeting and controlling software development projects. However, providing accurate effort estimates is challenging. Estimation work is increasingly group based, and to support it, there is a need to reveal how work practices are carried out as collaborative efforts.ObjectiveThis paper examines the use of concepts in software effort estimation by analysing group work as communicative practice. The objective is to improve our understanding of how software professionals invoke different types of knowledge when talking, reasoning and reaching a decision on a software effort estimate.MethodEstimation meetings in the industry where planning poker was used as the estimation method have been video recorded and analysed by means of the interaction analysis technique, focusing on the communicative and collaborative aspects of the group work.ResultsThe user story mediates the types of resources and knowledge needed to solve the task. Concepts from the knowledge domain are used to frame the task and allow the participants to reach consensus, sufficient to take the next step in the problem-solving activity. Individual knowledge seems to be the dominating orientation when it comes to specifying the work needed for solving the tasks.ConclusionThe step from reasoning to decision-making has been called the “magic step” in software effort estimation. We argue that the magic step is found in the analysis of the social interaction in which the concepts used are anchored in the knowledge domain of software engineering and in the historical experiences of the participants and subsequently become activated. We propose that by taking a socio-cultural perspective on concepts in activities, the ways in which software professionals reach a decision can be unpacked. The paper contributes to an understanding of the role of concepts in group work and of software effort estimation as a specific work practice.     

A Bayesian network model for likelihood estimations of acquirement of critical software vulnerabilities and exploits

ContextSoftware vulnerabilities in general, and software vulnerabilities with publicly available exploits in particular, are important to manage for both developers and users. This is however a difficult matter to address as time is limited and vulnerabilities are frequent.ObjectiveThis paper presents a Bayesian network based model that can be used by enterprise decision makers to estimate the likelihood that a professional penetration tester is able to obtain knowledge of critical vulnerabilities and exploits for these vulnerabilities for software under different circumstances.MethodData on the activities in the model are gathered from previous empirical studies, vulnerability databases and a survey with 58 individuals who all have been credited for the discovery of critical software vulnerabilities.ResultsThe proposed model describes 13 states related by 17 activities, and a total of 33 different datasets.ConclusionEstimates by the model can be used to support decisions regarding what software to acquire, or what measures to invest in during software development projects.     

Ontological Semantics for Distributing Contextual Knowledge in Highly Distributed Autonomic Systems

Much recent research has focused on applying Autonomic Computing principles to achieve constrained self-management in adaptive systems, through self-monitoring and analysis, strategy planning, and self adjustment. However, in a highly distributed system, just monitoring current operation and context is a complex and largely unsolved problem domain. This difficulty is particularly evident in the areas of network management, pervasive computing, and autonomic communications. This paper presents a model for the filtered dissemination of semantically enriched knowledge over a large loosely coupled network of distributed heterogeneous autonomic agents, removing the need to bind explicitly to all of the potential sources of that knowledge. This paper presents an implementation of such a knowledge delivery service, which enables the efficient routing of distributed heterogeneous knowledge to, and only to, nodes that have expressed an interest in that knowledge. This gathered knowledge can then be used as the operational or context information needed to analyze to the system's behavior as part of an autonomic control loop. As a case study this paper focuses on contextual knowledge distribution for autonomic network management. A comparative evaluation of the performance of the knowledge delivery service is also provided. John Keeney holds a BAI degree in Computer Engineering and a PhD in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin. His primary interests are in controlling autonomic adaptable systems, particularly when those systems are distributed. David Lewis graduated in Electronics Engineering from the University of Southampton and gained his PhD in Computer Science from University College London. His areas of interest include integrated network and service management, distributed system engineering, adaptive and autonomic systems, semantic services and pervasive computing. Declan O’Sullivan was awarded his primary degree, MSc and PhD in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin. He has a particular interest in the issues of semantic interoperability and heterogeneous information querying within a range of areas, primarily network and service management, autonomic management, and pervasive computing.     

Planning and knowledge about strategies: Their relationship to work characteristics in software design

This paper describes an empirical study of software design processes in which both cognitive i.e. planning the work process, knowledge about strategies and organizational i.e. work characteristics factors were examined. Thirty-five software designers with an average professional experience of 6.6 years worked on a software design task in a laboratory setting. Thinking-aloud protocols were analysed, and additional interview and questionnaire data were gathered. It was found that software designers do very little explicit planning but have a broad knowledge of useful strategies. Results of regression analyses indicated that the amount of explicit planning and knowledge of strategies is predicted by the amount of design work to accomplish, communication and cooperation requirements, and control at work.     

Propositionally representing incomplete knowledge about existence

Abstract

This paper considers the problem of representing the knowledge state of an observed agent who has incomplete knowledge of existence. Agents in such knowledge states are said to have existential misconceptions. We describe preliminary work on representing the knowledge state of an agent who possesses existential misconceptions and how to detect when this occurs. The method is based on a simulation of the observed agent's processes of information acquisition. We describe an implementation of this system and study its operation in a simulated microworld. The agent's acquisition of existential misconceptions is correlated with the agent's inaccurate beliefs of equality. This makes it possible to characterize an agent's existential misconceptions by describing its inaccurate beliefs of equality.     

User-centred design does make a difference. The case of decision support systems in crop production

This paper lends weight to the argument that user-centred design is important in design and development of software systems by describing the case of decision support systems for crop production. Decision support systems (DSS) are increasingly being seen as useful mechanisms for the transfer of scientific knowledge and 'best practice'; particularly in the field of agriculture. Although many systems have been developed, few can be termed 'successful' (i.e. have a significant uptake by intended users, and used by them). This paper provides evidence to support the importance of a user-centred approach by showing that each issue considered to be relevant to the failure of DSS in crop production can be addressed by the appropriate inclusion of users in the design and development process. Positive evidence in the shape of successful systems that have employed UCD is also presented.     

A dynamic logistics process knowledge-based system – An RFID multi-agent approach

PurposeThis paper proposes a real-time knowledge support framework for the development of an RFID-multi-agent based process knowledge-based system which has the ability to solve dynamic logistics process management problems.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed system is developed with “real-time process management” capability which automatically identifies current process status, performs the process logic checking/reasoning, and, provides process knowledge support to staff members when they are tackling logistics activity problems. The unique feature of this on-line knowledge-based system, which enables it to enhance the performance of logistics organizations, is a process management engine incorporating radio-frequency identification (RFID) and multi-agent (MA) technologies.FindingsThe capability of the proposed system is demonstrated through an application case study in Eastern Worldwide Company Limited. The result reveals that both performance of operations and the utilization of resources have improved significantly.Originality/valueThe proposed system is a novel approach which leverages logistics performance and facilitates the creation of a learning organization through the provision of real-time knowledge support for those who handle logistics operations.Article typeResearch Paper.     

A model-driven approach to adopt good practices for agile process configuration and certification

ContextThe agile development paradigm has been extensively adopted in the industry. This adoption is highly dependent on the knowledge and good practices applied by most experienced practitioners in organizations. Hence, it would be valuable to count on appropriate support to preserve and systematically use this expert knowledge in configuring agile development processes aligned with organizational standards.ObjectiveThis paper presents a model-driven approach for representing and selecting good practices to configure agile practices in development processes aligned with organizational development practices and quality standards.MethodWe define a conceptual approach for configuring agile development processes that fulfills enterprise good practices and external quality standards. This approach was implemented in a tool suite and applied to an industrial development scenario related to ISO 9001 certification.ResultsThe approach was implemented in a model-driven tool that provides automatic support for identifying good practices when configuring agile development processes. The tool also verifies consistency with development methods and quality standards, such as ISO 9001.ConclusionsThe results obtained from the industrial application indicate that practitioners can reuse expert knowledge to configure agile development processes aligned with quality certifications. Moreover, the approach also facilitates the tailoring of agile practices into concrete development processes that take advantage of organizational good practices.     

Towards compatible primitive structures

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of knowledge interchange between two knowledge-based systems whose knowledge is represented using the conceptual graph formalism of Sowa (1984). For this work it is assumed that there are protocols allowing these systems to communicate, consequently a channel between the systems can be established and graphs can be exchanged. This paper concentrates on the translation of graphs from one system's semantics to the other's. Without such translation, the exchanged graphs would remain useless. The method this paper proposes aims at relating different syntactical structures by detecting their co-occurrence in semantically similar contexts. Because we need to identify such contexts, the method requires the intervention of knowledge engineers of both systems     

Solution Spaces of Multiple-Solution Connecting Tasks as a Mirror of the Development of Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge

Abstract

This study aims to deepen our understanding of the development of teacher knowledge in systematic (through learning) and craft (through teaching) modes. The main research tools of this study were multiple-solution connecting tasks. We used the notion of solution spaces to analyze the data and demonstrated that modifications of the teachers’ solution spaces were situated in their practices of varying types. We found that the implementation of multiple-solution connecting tasks in systematic mode meaningfully developed teachers’ problem-solving performance due not only to the reproduction of solutions offered during the course but to the production of new solutions. Furthermore, in creating opportunities for students to solve tasks with multiple solutions, teachers expanded their personal solution spaces. We conclude that the combining of systematic and craft modes is an optimal condition for the development of teachers’ knowledge.     

Domain-specific formal ontology of archaeology and its application in knowledge acquisition and analysis

Inherent heterogeneity and distribution of knowledge strongly prevent knowledge from sharing and reusing among different agents and software entities, and a formal ontology has been viewed as a promising means to tackle this problem. In this paper, a domain-specific formal ontology of archaeology is presented. The ontology mainly consists of three parts: archaeological categories, their relationships and axioms. The ontology not only captures the semantics of archaeological knowledge, but also provides archaeology with an explicit and forma specification of a shared conceptualization, thus making archaeological knowledge shareable and reusable across humans and machines in a structured fashion. Further, we propose a method to verify ontology correctness based on the individuals of categories. As applications of the ontology, we have developed an ontology-driven approach to knowledge acquisition from archaeological text and a question answering system for archaeological knowledge.     

Implicit knowledge and fault diagnosis in the control of advanced manufacturing technology

Abstract

Field studies have shown that increasing operator responsibility for running advanced manufacturing technology can substantially enhance system performance. Improved fault diagnosis is central to such performance gains, and observations suggest this depends on implicit as well as explicit knowledge. However, the question of whether this is the case has not been systematically investigated. Evidence from field settings is circumstantial, and laboratory investigations of implicit knowledge have been based on other types of task. In this paper we described a study of implicit knowledge in fault diagnosis based on laboratory simulation of a robotics line. This confirms the existence of implicit knowledge in fault diagnosis, as well as raising both conceptual and methodological issues relevant to experimental approaches. We discuss the implications of the study for organizational practice and for the interaction between cognitive and organizational psychology.     

A Critical Assessment of Studies Relating Whole-body Vibration to Passenger Comfort

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the major work which has been carried out over the past 40 years to investigate the relationship between whole-body vibration and comfort. Although a fair amount of work has been completed in this area, this review demonstrates that the majority is unacceptable from most practical standpoints although some concordance exists. Finally, the paper shows that attempts which have been made to draw the field together (including an International Standard) to produce curves of equal comfort have not significantly increased our knowledge of how people react to whole-body vibration.     

A UML profile for the conceptual modelling of structurally complex data: Easing human effort in the KDD process

ContextDomains where data have a complex structure requiring new approaches for knowledge discovery from data are on the increase. In such domains, the information related to each object under analysis may be composed of a very broad set of interrelated data instead of being represented by a simple attribute table. This further complicates their analysis.ObjectiveIt is becoming more and more necessary to model data before analysis in order to assure that they are properly understood, stored and later processed. On this ground, we have proposed a UML extension that is able to represent any set of structurally complex hierarchically ordered data. Conceptually modelled data are human comprehensible and constitute the starting point for automating other data analysis tasks, such as comparing items or generating reference models.MethodThe proposed notation has been applied to structurally complex data from the stabilometry field. Stabilometry is a medical discipline concerned with human balance. We have organized the model data through an implementation based on XML syntax.ResultsWe have applied data mining techniques to the resulting structured data for knowledge discovery. The sound results of modelling a domain with such complex and wide-ranging data confirm the utility of the approach.ConclusionThe conceptual modelling and the analysis of non-conventional data are important challenges. We have proposed a UML profile that has been tested on data from a medical domain, obtaining very satisfactory results. The notation is useful for understanding domain data and automating knowledge discovery tasks.     

Designing a dynamic system traffic control of a freight railway

This paper empathizes the interface design for a new control system for freight that was developed during the process of modernization in a company. On one side, there are managers, intermediate decision levels, that dialogue with the ergonomists and, on the other side, the operators with their own opinions about the system. These last ones are rarely asked by the managers about their opinions. The proposed system is configured from the opinions of the operators. Other problems, such as technology transfer and insistence of the managers about using similar systems obliged that the final project should include some modifications.     

The importance of task analysis in Usability Context Analysis - designing for fitness for purpose

Usability Context Analysis (UCA) suggests the use of task analysis in order to characterize the user's requirements of a product. This paper shows that a task analysis is a necessary (but not sufficient) part of a usability context analysis. Further, it is argued that it is necessary to carry out the task analysis to sufficient depth to establish fitness for purpose of the product under test. In addition, the analyst should have some knowledge of the application domain so that from various task sequences, that giving the best user-product task match can be used. The paper indicates by using an example of an echosounder that discrepancies of use can be highlighted through this task-based approach to usability context analysis.     

Image Compression And Watermarking By Wavelet Localization

This paper has presented two image processing applications, compression and watermarking, by exploiting the localization property of wavelet transform. The first application proposes a simple region-based and scalable image compression algorithm. We locate the wavelet coefficients in the region of interest in each subband, and these groups of wavelet coefficients are used to adjust the resolution of the interested region. A watermarking method is described in the second application of this paper. The scheme examines the variations of the local Hölder regularity of the image and calculates the similarity of the correct watermark before and after modifications. Experimental results show that the proposed approach is quite effective in authenticating the origin of an image.