A pilot study in an application of text mining to learning system evaluation

Text mining concerns discovering and extracting knowledge from unstructured data. It transforms textual data into a usable, intelligible format that facilitates classifying documents, finding explicit relationships or associations between documents, and clustering documents into categories. Given a collection of survey comments evaluating the civil engineering learning system, text mining technique is applied to discover and extract knowledge from the comments. This research focuses on the study of a systematic way to apply a software tool, SAS Enterprise Miner, to the survey data. The purpose is to categorize the comments into different groups in an attempt to identify major concerns from the users or students. Each group will be associated with a set of key terms. This is able to assist the evaluators of the learning system to obtain the ideas from those summarized terms without the need of going through a potentially huge amount of data --Abstract, page iii

Sustainable competitive advantage in maternal and child healthcare institutions: A resource-based approach

The Chinese government has always attached great importance to protect the rights of women and children, and made consistent efforts to promote their all-round and health development. The country’s efforts in maternal and child health (MCH) have made significant improvements to the safety of mothers and infants, meeting their diversified health care demands and increasing fairness in medical treatment. While China’s medical reform progresses, the fall in birth rate and the growing diversified and multi-level health care service demands of people call for the survival and development of MCH institutions, especially MCH institution at the prefecture level facing more changes and challenges. Thus, MCH institutions need to explore new ways to improve their competitiveness and meet the challenges brought by these new changes. This research integrates qualitative and quantitative research methods by using scientific methods such as the Delphi Method and the Analytic Hierarchy Process. Through three rounds of expert consultation, we completed the construction of an evaluation index model of the competitive advantage of MCH institutions, and selected 10 MCH institutions to verify the applicability of the model. According to the sensitivity analysis results of the Super Decision software, the model was found to have good stability. From the evaluation model, it can be seen that human resources have the greatest weight. In practice, it is also found that people are the most controllable core resource, and the one with most potential. Therefore, by focusing on people as the core for MCH success, we have discussed the ways for MCH institutions to acquire and maintain competitive advantages from the three dimensions of discipline leader cultivation, scientific research ability improvement, and construction of a flexible hospital culture.O governo chinês sempre atribuiu grande importância à proteção dos direitos das mulheres e das crianças, desenvolvendo esforços consistentes para promover o seu desenvolvimento saudável. Nesse sentido, os esforços do país ao nível da saúde materno-infantil (SMI) trouxeram melhorias significativas para a segurança das mães e dos seus bebés, atendendo às suas necessidades específicas de cuidados de saúde e aumentando a equidade no tratamento médico. À medida que a reforma médica da China avança, a queda na taxa de natalidade e a crescente procura de serviços de saúde diversificados a vários níveis requerem a sobrevivência e o desenvolvimento das organizações de SMI, especialmente a nível municipal, que enfrentam mais mudanças e desafios. Assim, as organizações de SMI necessitam de explorar novas formas de melhorar a sua competitividade e enfrentar os desafios trazidos por essas novas mudanças. O presente estudo integra métodos de investigação qualitativa e quantitativa, nomeadamente o método Delphi e o Analytic Hierarchy Process. Por meio de três rondas de consulta a especialistas, foi possível desenvolver um índice de avaliação da vantagem competitiva das organizações de SMI, tendo sido selecionadas 10 instituições de SMI para verificar a aplicabilidade prática do sistema de avaliação. De acordo com os resultados da análise de sensibilidade realizada com recurso ao software Super Decisions, o modelo apresentou uma boa coerência interna e estabilidade no cálculo das performances parciais. Através do modelo de avaliação criado, percebe-se que os recursos humanos têm maior peso nas avaliações feitas. Também se descobriu que as pessoas constituem o recurso central mais controlável e aquele com maior potencial de desenvolvimento. Como tal, ao focarmo-nos nas pessoas como o elemento primário para o sucesso das organizações de SMI, discutimos diferentes formas para que estas organizações possam adquirir e manter vantagens competitivas sustentáveis, nomeadamente a partir da liderança, da melhoria da capacidade de investigação científica e de uma cultura hospitalar flexível

An empirical study on credit evaluation of SMEs based on detailed loan data

Small and micro-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of Chinese economic system.The establishment of credit evaluating model of SMEs can effectively help financial intermediaries to reveal credit risk of enterprises and reduce the cost of enterprises information acquisition. Besides it can also serve as a guide to investors which also helps companies with good credit. This thesis conducts an empirical study based on loan data from a Chinese bank of loans granted to SMEs. The study aims to develop a data-driven model that can accurately predict if a given loan has an acceptable risk from the bank’s perspective, or not. Furthermore, we test different methods to deal with the problem of unbalanced class and uncredible sample. Lastly, the importance of variables is analyzed. Remaining Unpaid Principal, Floating Interest Rate, Time Until Maturity Date, Real Interest Rate, Amount of Loan all have significant effects on the final result of the prediction.The main contribution of this study is to build a credit evaluation model of small and micro enterprises, which not only helps commercial banks accurately identify the credit risk of small and micro enterprises, but also helps to overcome creditdifficulties of small and micro enterprises.As pequenas e microempresas constituem uma parte importante do sistema económico chinês. A definição de um modelo de avaliação de crédito para estas empresas pode ajudar os intermediários financeiros a revelarem o risco de crédito das empresas e a reduzirem o custo de aquisição de informação das empresas. Além disso, pode igualmente servir como guia para os investidores, auxiliando também empresas com bom crédito. Na presente tese apresenta-se um estudo empírico baseado em dados de um banco chinês relativos a empréstimos concedidos a pequenas e microempresas. O estudo visa desenvolver um modelo empírico que possa prever com precisão se um determinado empréstimo tem um risco aceitável do ponto de vista do banco, ou não. Além disso, são efetuados testes com diferentes métodos que permitem lidar com os problemas de classes de dados não balanceadas e de amostras que não refletem o problema real a modelar. Finalmente, é analisada a importância relativa das variáveis. O montante da dívida por pagar, a taxa de juro variável, o prazo até a data de vencimento, a taxa de juro real, o montante do empréstimo, todas têm efeitos significativos no resultado final da previsão. O principal contributo deste estudo é, assim, a construção de um modelo de avaliação de crédito que permite apoiar os bancos comerciais a identificarem com precisão o risco de crédito das pequenas e micro empresas e ajudar também estas empresas a superarem as suas dificuldades de crédito

CHORUS Deliverable 2.2: Second report - identification of multi-disciplinary key issues for gap analysis toward EU multimedia search engines roadmap

After addressing the state-of-the-art during the first year of Chorus and establishing the existing landscape in multimedia search engines, we have identified and analyzed gaps within European research effort during our second year. In this period we focused on three directions, notably technological issues, user-centred issues and use-cases and socio- economic and legal aspects. These were assessed by two central studies: firstly, a concerted vision of functional breakdown of generic multimedia search engine, and secondly, a representative use-cases descriptions with the related discussion on requirement for technological challenges. Both studies have been carried out in cooperation and consultation with the community at large through EC concertation meetings (multimedia search engines cluster), several meetings with our Think-Tank, presentations in international conferences, and surveys addressed to EU projects coordinators as well as National initiatives coordinators. Based on the obtained feedback we identified two types of gaps, namely core technological gaps that involve research challenges, and “enablers”, which are not necessarily technical research challenges, but have impact on innovation progress. New socio-economic trends are presented as well as emerging legal challenges

Competition Law Around the World from 1889 to 2010: The Competition Law Index

Competition laws have become a mainstay of regulation in market economies today. At the same time, past efforts to study the drivers or effects of these laws have been hampered by the lack of systematic measures of these laws across a wide range of years or countries. In this paper, we draw on new data on the evolution of competition laws to create a novel Competition Law Index (the “CLI”) that measures the stringency of competition regulation from 1889 to 2010. We then employ the CLI to examine trends in the intensity of competition regulation over time and across key countries. We also use our data to create several alternative indexes of competition law that may be appropriate for specific research applications. In doing so, we hope to demonstrate how the CLI can facilitate new empirical research on comparative and international competition law

Early stages in the entrepreneurship nexus: Business opportunities and individual characteristics

This thesis focuses on the individual-opportunity nexus in the early stages of the entrepreneurship process, and includes five empirical studies. The aim of Study 1 was to contribute to the explanation of cognitive maps during the early stages of entrepreneurship. Results suggest that individuals with greater entrepreneurial experience have richer, clearer and simpler cognitive maps. Study 2 sought to obtain evidence concerning the basic dimensions included in cognitive prototypes pertaining to opportunity recognition and decision to launch a new venture. For the “business opportunity” prototype these are utility and distinctiveness while for the decision to launch a new venture, the basic dimensions are feasibility and motivational aspects. The two studies mentioned above focused on the opportunity side of the nexus. For the individual side of the nexus, we focused on the entrepreneurial potential construct applied in different contexts. With Study 3, we put forward a theoretical model for the entrepreneurial potential construct. Through six research steps, this study presented the development of the Entrepreneurial Potential Assessment Inventory, which can be used to measure the entrepreneurial potential construct. Study 4 aimed to analyse the predictive capacity of entrepreneurial potential profiling among entrepreneurial team members. Our results showed that, in a venture competition context, the teams with higher results in socio-psychological aspects became finalists. Study 5 presented a methodology for the selection of potential entrepreneurs for an entrepreneurship promotion program. The main results showed that individual and business opportunity characteristics are critical dimensions. Based on these empirical studies, this thesis also describes valuable tools that can contribute towards fostering entrepreneurship in Portugal.Esta tese focaliza-se no nexus indivíduo-oportunidade durante as fases iniciais do processo empreendedor e apresenta cinco estudos empíricos. O estudo 1 contribui para compreender a evolução dos mapas cognitivos nas fases iniciais do processo empreendedor. Os resultados mostram que os indivíduos com uma maior experiência empreendedora apresentam estruturas cognitivas mais ricas, claras e simples. O estudo 2 desenvolve um modelo bi-dimensional do processo de reconhecimento de oportunidades e da consequente decisão de lançar o negócio. Os resultados sugerem que o protótipo de oportunidade de negócio inclui duas dimensões: utilidade e distintividade. Por sua vez, o protótipo da decisão para fundar o negócio inclui os aspetos relacionados com a fiabilidade e com a motivação para lançar o negócio. O estudo 3 apresenta o modelo teórico do potencial empreendedor, e o desenvolvimento do Inventário de Avaliação do Potencial Empreendedor. O estudo 4 analisa a capacidade preditiva do potencial empreendedor entre equipas empreendedoras. Os resultados sugerem que, no contexto de um concurso de empreendedorismo, as equipas com resultados mais elevados nas dimensões psicossociais do potencial empreendedor foram selecionadas como vencedoras. O estudo 5 apresenta uma metodologia para a seleção de empreendedores num programa de promoção do empreendedorismo, e os resultados mostram que algumas das dimensões do potencial empreendedor e as características da oportunidade de negócio são críticas para a seleção. Com base nestas evidências empíricas, esta tese apresenta instrumentos com aplicação prática que podem vir a contribuir para o desenvolvimento do empreendedorismo em Portugal

Strategies for sustainable socio-economic development and mechanisms their implementation in the global dimension

The authors of the book have come to the conclusion that it is necessary to effectively use modern approaches to developing and implementation strategies of sustainable socio-economic development in order to increase efficiency and competitiveness of economic entities. Basic research focuses on economic diagnostics of socio-economic potential and financial results of economic entities, transition period in the economy of individual countries and ensuring their competitiveness, assessment of educational processes and knowledge management. The research results have been implemented in the different models and strategies of supply and logistics management, development of non-profit organizations, competitiveness of tourism and transport, financing strategies for small and medium-sized enterprises, cross-border cooperation. The results of the study can be used in decision-making at the level the economic entities in different areas of activity and organizational-legal forms of ownership, ministries and departments that promote of development the economic entities on the basis of models and strategies for sustainable socio-economic development. The results can also be used by students and young scientists in modern concepts and mechanisms for management of sustainable socio-economic development of economic entities in the condition of global economic transformations and challenges

Semantic and Syntactic Matching of Heterogeneous e-Catalogues

In e-procurement, companies use e-catalogues to exchange product infor-mation with business partners. Matching e-catalogues with product requests helps the suppliers to identify the best business opportunities in B2B e-Marketplaces. But various ways to specify products and the large variety of e-catalogue formats used by different business actors makes it difficult. This Ph.D. thesis aims to discover potential syntactic and semantic rela-tionships among product data in procurement documents and exploit it to find similar e-catalogues. Using a Concept-based Vector Space Model, product data and its semantic interpretation is used to find the correlation of product data. In order to identify important terms in procurement documents, standard e-catalogues and e-tenders are used as a resource to train a Product Named Entity Recognizer to find B2B product mentions in e-catalogues. The proposed approach makes it possible to use the benefits of all availa-ble semantic resources and schemas but not to be dependent on any specific as-sumption. The solution can serve as a B2B product search system in e-Procurement platforms and e-Marketplaces

Risk Management for the Future

A large part of academic literature, business literature as well as practices in real life are resting on the assumption that uncertainty and risk does not exist. We all know that this is not true, yet, a whole variety of methods, tools and practices are not attuned to the fact that the future is uncertain and that risks are all around us. However, despite risk management entering the agenda some decades ago, it has introduced risks on its own as illustrated by the financial crisis. Here is a book that goes beyond risk management as it is today and tries to discuss what needs to be improved further. The book also offers some cases

24th International Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases

In the last three decades information modelling and knowledge bases have become essentially important subjects not only in academic communities related to information systems and computer science but also in the business area where information technology is applied. The series of European – Japanese Conference on Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases (EJC) originally started as a co-operation initiative between Japan and Finland in 1982. The practical operations were then organised by professor Ohsuga in Japan and professors Hannu Kangassalo and Hannu Jaakkola in Finland (Nordic countries). Geographical scope has expanded to cover Europe and also other countries. Workshop characteristic - discussion, enough time for presentations and limited number of participants (50) / papers (30) - is typical for the conference. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: 1. Conceptual modelling: Modelling and specification languages; Domain-specific conceptual modelling; Concepts, concept theories and ontologies; Conceptual modelling of large and heterogeneous systems; Conceptual modelling of spatial, temporal and biological data; Methods for developing, validating and communicating conceptual models. 2. Knowledge and information modelling and discovery: Knowledge discovery, knowledge representation and knowledge management; Advanced data mining and analysis methods; Conceptions of knowledge and information; Modelling information requirements; Intelligent information systems; Information recognition and information modelling. 3. Linguistic modelling: Models of HCI; Information delivery to users; Intelligent informal querying; Linguistic foundation of information and knowledge; Fuzzy linguistic models; Philosophical and linguistic foundations of conceptual models. 4. Cross-cultural communication and social computing: Cross-cultural support systems; Integration, evolution and migration of systems; Collaborative societies; Multicultural web-based software systems; Intercultural collaboration and support systems; Social computing, behavioral modeling and prediction. 5. Environmental modelling and engineering: Environmental information systems (architecture); Spatial, temporal and observational information systems; Large-scale environmental systems; Collaborative knowledge base systems; Agent concepts and conceptualisation; Hazard prediction, prevention and steering systems. 6. Multimedia data modelling and systems: Modelling multimedia information and knowledge; Contentbased multimedia data management; Content-based multimedia retrieval; Privacy and context enhancing technologies; Semantics and pragmatics of multimedia data; Metadata for multimedia information systems. Overall we received 56 submissions. After careful evaluation, 16 papers have been selected as long paper, 17 papers as short papers, 5 papers as position papers, and 3 papers for presentation of perspective challenges. We thank all colleagues for their support of this issue of the EJC conference, especially the program committee, the organising committee, and the programme coordination team. The long and the short papers presented in the conference are revised after the conference and published in the Series of “Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence” by IOS Press (Amsterdam). The books “Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases” are edited by the Editing Committee of the conference. We believe that the conference will be productive and fruitful in the advance of research and application of information modelling and knowledge bases. Bernhard Thalheim Hannu Jaakkola Yasushi Kiyok