A Solution to Knowledge Management in Networked Collaborative Design

Concerning the demands in networked collaborative innovative design, a knowledge-based collaborative design model is introduced the model of knowledge integration along with its relevant supporting techniques are presented. After illustrating the general knowledge search paradigm, a kind of dynamic user model is proposed to improve knowledge search efficiency. At last a short introduction of the system’s implementation is described.1 Introduction companies and organizations spare no efforts i…     

‘Worksome but Rewarding’ –Stakeholder Perceptions on Value in Collaborative Design Work

In this paper, we examine collaborative design projects in school contexts with many different stakeholders. We look at the value created for and by different stakeholders, focusing on value as a benefit, which is experienced – perceived and determined – by the beneficiaries themselves in the value co-creation process. As our focus is in “value-in-use”, i.e., value which emerges through activities taking place in a specific space, time, and context, we define value through subjective experience of people involved. We apply in our study the concept of value co-creation, where value is understood emerging from collaborative activity between actors participating in the activity. We see that the value co-creation lens provides a useful means for the CSCW community to scrutinize and make sense of collaborative design projects. We categorized the perceived value for each stakeholder and discuss how these categories can help in gaining a deeper understanding of the value gained in collaborative design work as well as how value co-creation lens in more general can be used as a tool in collaborative design projects.     

Correction to ‘A note on the discrete Lyapunov and Riccati matrix equations’

In Tran and Sawan (1984), we derived a lower bound for the determinant of the discrete algebraic Riccati equation where A, B, P, Q are n x n matrices, Q = Q ^T > 0 and Rank (B) = n. We assumed that BB ^T>Q and the matrix A is stable. The purpose of this note is to include an additional assumption about the above equation in order for the result of Theorem 1 given in Tran and Sawan (1984) to be valid. Without the additional assumption, this theorem would be invalid as has been pointed out by Kwon and Youn (1985). The additional assumption is given below with the same notation as in Tran and Sawan (1984).     

Design for manufacture and design for ‘X’: concepts,applications, and perspectives

The implementations of design for assembly and design for manufacture (DFM) led to enormous benefits including simplification of products, reduction of assembly and manufacturing costs, improvement of quality, and reduction of time to market. More recently, environmental concerns required that disassembly and recycling issues should be considered during the design stages. The effort to reduce total life-cycle costs for a product through design innovation is becoming an essential part of the current manufacturing industry. Therefore, researchers begin to focus their attention on design for environment, design for recyclability, design for life-cycle (DFLC), etc. These studies are sometimes referred to as Design for X (DFX). Since the late 1990s, hundreds of papers have been published pertaining to DFX applications in manufacturing. Most of them are widely distributed over many different disciplines and publications. This makes it very difficult for one to locate all the information necessary for the application of DFX in manufacturing. A paper that can help researchers and practitioners applying this emerging technology is highly desirable. The objective of this paper is to present the concepts, applications, and perspectives of ‘DFX’ in manufacturing, thus providing some guidelines and references for future research and implementation.     

The ‘transfer of skill’ and the ‘transfer of human relations’ to machine systems

The necessity and opportunity for face-to-face contact with other colleagues is being increasingly reduced as a result of factory automation (FA) or office automation (OA). This means that human functions which are a result of human contact and relationships are substituted for by the function of machine systems. This transfer of relations from the human system to the machine system causes isolation of the individual in the process of work. This chapter considers some reasons for isolation with particular reference to the computerisation of production systems. The paper addresses the serious consequences for the environmental situation in Japan and the fabric of Japanese society.     

Geographic ‘Place’ and ‘Community Information’ Preferences

People dynamically structure social interactions and activities at various locations in their environments in specialized types of places such as the office, home, coffee shop, museum and school. They also imbue various locations with personal meaning, creating group ‘hangouts’ and personally meaningful ‘places’. Mobile location-aware community systems can potentially utilize the existence of such ‘places’ to support the management of social information and interaction. However, acting effectively on this potential requires an understanding of how: (1) places and place-types relate to people’s desire for place-related awareness of and communication with others; and (2) what information people are willing to provide about themselves to enable place-related communication and awareness. We present here the findings from two qualitative studies, a survey of 509 individuals in New York, and a study of how mobility traces can be used to find people’s important places in an exploration of these questions. These studies highlight how people value and are willing to routinely provide information such as ratings, comments, event records relevant to a place, and when appropriate their location to enable services. They also suggest how place and place-type data could be used in conjunction with other information regarding people and places so that systems can be deployed that respect users’ People-to-People-to-Places data sharing preferences. We conclude with a discussion on how ‘place’ data can best be utilized to enable services when the systems in question are supported by a sophisticated computerized user-community social-geographical model.     

From ‘simulation optimization’ to ‘simulation configuration’ of systems

Simulation optimization aims at determining the best values of input parameters, given an output criterion. We address here the much more complex case where design options have to be chosen, which can themselves necessitate choices about other sub-options, as well as numerical parameters. This so-called configuration problem is addressed using simulation associated with a distributed evolutionary algorithm, and is illustrated through an example. This approach allows a large variety of new types of problems to be solved, such as design of complex dynamic systems. In the light of these results, the limits in the optimized configuration of systems are shown to be now determined by the modeling and simulation tools and concepts. In this respect, a possible research direction, based on so-called functional simulation, is discussed and some research perspectives are introduced.     

An Indian solution to ‘incompleteness’

Kurt Gödel’s Incompleteness theorem is well known in Mathematics/Logic/Philosophy circles. Gödel was able to find a way for any given P (UTM), (read as, “P of UTM” for “Program of Universal Truth Machine”), actually to write down a complicated polynomial that has a solution iff (=if and only if), G is true, where G stands for a Gödel-sentence. So, if G’s truth is a necessary condition for the truth of a given polynomial, then P (UTM) has to answer first that G is true in order to secure the truth of the said polynomial. But, interestingly, P (UTM) could never answer that G was true. This necessarily implies that there is at least one truth a P (UTM), however large it may be, cannot speak out. Daya Krishna and Karl Potter’s controversy regarding the construal of India’s Philosophies dates back to the time of Potter’s publication of “Presuppositions of India’s Philosophies” (1963, Englewood Cliffs Prentice-Hall Inc.) In attacking many of India’s philosophies, Daya Krishna appears to have unwittingly touched a crucial point: how can there be the knowledge of a ‘non-cognitive’ mok?a? [‘mok?a’ is the final state of existence of an individual away from Social Contract]—See this author’s Indian Social Contract and its Dissolution (2008) mok?a does not permit the knowledge of one’s own self in the ordinary way with threefold distinction, i.e., subject–knowledge-object or knower–knowledge–known. But what is important is to demonstrate whether such ‘knowledge’ of non-cognitive mok?a state can be logically shown, in a language, to be possible to attain, and that there is no contradiction involved in such demonstration, because, no one can possibly express the ‘experience-itself’ in language. Hence, if such ‘knowledge’ can be shown to be logically not impossible in language, then, not only Daya Krishna’s arguments against ‘non-cognitive mok?a’ get refuted but also it would show the possibility of achieving ‘completeness’ in its truest sense, as opposed to Gödel’s ‘Incompleteness’. In such circumstances, man would himself become a Universal Truth Machine. This is because the final state of mok?a is construed as the state of complete knowledge in Advaita. This possibility of ‘completeness’ is set in this paper in the backdrop of ?rī ?a?karācārya’s Advaitic (Non-dualistic) claim involved in the mahāvākyas (extra-ordinary propositions). (Mahāvākyas that ?a?kara refers to are basically taken from different Upani?ads. For example, “Aham Brahmāsmi” is from B?hadāra?yaka Upanisad, and “Tattvamasi” is from Chāndogya Upani?ad. ?rī ?a?karācārya has written extensively. His main works include his Commentary on Brahma-Sūtras, on major Upani?ads, and on ?rīmadBhagavadGītā, called Bhā?yas of them, respectively. Almost all these works are available in English translation published by Advaita Ashrama, 5 Dehi Entally Road, Calcutta, 700014.) On the other hand, the ‘Incompleteness’ of Gödel is due to the intervening G-sentence, which has an adverse self-referential element. Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in its mathematical form with an elaborate introduction by R.W. Braithwaite can be found in Meltzer (Kurt Gödel: on formally undecidable propositions of principia mathematica and related systems. Oliver &; Boyd, Edinburgh, 1962). The present author believes first that semantic content cannot be substituted by any amount of arithmoquining, (Arithmoquining or arithmatization means, as Braithwaite says,—“Gödel’s novel metamathematical method is that of attaching numbers to the signs, to the series of signs (formulae) and to the series of series of signs (“proof-schemata”) which occur in his formal system…Gödel invented what might be called co-ordinate metamathematics…”) Meltzer (1962 p. 7). In Antone (2006) it is said “The problem is that he (Gödel) tries to replace an abstract version of the number (which can exist) with the concept of a real number version of that abstract notion. We can state the abstraction of what the number needs to be, [the arithmoquining of a number cannot be a proof-pair and an arithmoquine] but that is a concept that cannot be turned into a specific number, because by definition no such number can exist.”.), especially so where first-hand personal experience is called for. Therefore, what ultimately rules is the semanticity as in a first-hand experience. Similar points are voiced, albeit implicitly, in Antone (Who understands Gödel’s incompleteness theorem, 2006). (“…it is so important to understand that Gödel’s theorem only is true with respect to formal systems—which is the exact opposite of the analogous UTM (Antone (2006) webpage 2. And galatomic says in the same discussion chain that “saying” that it ((is)) only true for formal systems is more significant… We only know the world through “formal” categories of understanding… If the world as it is in itself has no incompleteness problem, which I am sure is true, it does not mean much, because that is not the world of time and space that we experience. So it is more significant that formal systems are incomplete than the inexperiencable ‘World in Itself’ has no such problem.—galatomic”) Antone (2006) webpage 2. Nevertheless galatomic certainly, but unwittingly succeeds in highlighting the possibility of experiencing the ‘completeness’ Second, even if any formal system including the system of Advaita of ?a?kara is to be subsumed or interpreted under Gödel’s theorem, or Tarski’s semantic unprovability theses, the ultimate appeal would lie to the point of human involvement in realizing completeness since any formal system is ‘Incomplete’ always by its very nature as ‘objectual’, and fails to comprehend the ‘subject’ within its fold.     

Nomadic Work: Romance and Reality. A Response to Barbara Czarniawska’s ‘Nomadic Work as Life-Story Plot’

This article takes departure in Barbara Czarniawska’s discussion of ‘Nomadic Work as Life-Story Plot’. It contextualises her analysis of actors’ interpretations of nomadic work with a bi-focal review of the ambiguous realities of these phenomena. Firstly, an examination of key aspects of the socio-economic and political context of nomadic work in global neoliberal economies reveals precarious conditions that cloud romantic interpretations of nomadicity. Secondly, a review of studies of everyday practices of nomadic work shows how neoliberal, but also alternative futures are enacted through creative appropriation of collaborative technologies. One example is the work of digital ‘disaster deck’ volunteers and its potential for the mobilization of ‘rapid, highly localized assistance’ through closer collaboration between a distributed crowd, local communities, and official emergency responders (Starbird and Palen 2013). This and other examples suggest emergent new practices and politics of dwelling in mobility that are focused on sociality and collaboration, straddling virtual and physical commons. The twin critique developed in this response can augment narrative analysis to inform more integrated CSCW innovation that challenges the ‘brave new world of work’.     

An Intelligent Tool to Support Requirements Analysis and Conceptual Design of Database Design

As an application of artificial intelligence and expert system technology to database design,this paper presents an intelligent design tool NITDT,which comprises a requirements specification language NITSL,a knowledge representation language NITKL,and an inference engine with uncertainty reasoning capability.NITDT now covers the requirements analysis and conceptual design of database design.However,it is possible to be integrated with another database design tool,NITDBA,developed also at NIT to become an integrated design tool supporting the whole process of database design.     

Comment on ‘ Tolerance analysis using fuzzy sets ’ and ‘ A procedure for multiple aspect decision making ’

The problem of tracking a reference vector variable from a given class is considered for discrete time linear multiple input-output plants. The plant and the reference are both described by an input-output relation and the objective is to track so that a quadratic criterion is minimized. This tracking problem is solved by reformulating it as a regulator problem for an augmented system. The optimal control law is shown to contain both feedback and feedforward terms and it is obtained by applying polynomial matrix techniques. The design procedure consists in spectral factorization and the solution of linear equations in polynomial matrices. The case of unstable references is included and a natural solvability condition is derived in the form of divisibility of polynomial matrices.     

A Design and Implementation of Secure Login System

According to the secure problems existing in the login system, a new secure scheme on login system is proposed. This scheme encryptedly transmits the input information after filtration and digestion so that it can efficiently avoid the replay-attack and the man-in-the-middle attack.