Composite Ontology-Based Medical Diagnosis Decision Support System Framework

Current medical decision support systems have evolved from the automation of medical decision routines to improving the quality of health care services. Knowledge-based systems, compared to conventional data-driven techniques, are promising to support medical decision making. However, knowledge acquisition is usually a bottleneck in the process of developing such systemsOne possibility for acquiring medical knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge, is to use data or cases in both syntactic and semantic ways. Case-based Reasoning (CBR) methodology provides a practical way of problem solving with recalled knowledge memory of solved cases. To reduce the difficulty of knowledge acquisition, this paper proposes a design of the system framework that utilizes the simplified medical knowledge:disease-symptom ontology for prediagnosis, given patients symptoms and signs as input. In the first stage, simple pattern matching is used to gather candidate diseases in diagnosis. Following that, case-based reasoning is used to refine diagnostic decision. The case base is structured with ontological knowledge model. The case retrieval process is based on semantic similarity. The diagnostic system uses a composite knowledge base, and will allow automated diagnosis recommendation. The system framework also aims at facilitating semantic explanations to the solution derived

Workforce Management to Innovate, as a Driver for Romanian Development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain the case of Romanian workforce management as regards the innovation and knowledge transfer from abroad, conducted over twenty years within Romania. Design/approach – As part of this project a large survey is conducted on an annual basis, which aims to track redesigning business processes in terms of workforce management amongst small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with Romanian cultural specificity and the effects of such adoption upon Romanian development. Findings – The paper presents findings from this longitudinal study and discusses these findings in terms of innovation and knowledge transfer and the importance of developing more sophisticated instruments for assessing e-Business maturity amongst SMEs. The research clearly emphasizes the role of adopting an innovative organizational environment as a driver of Romanian development. The initial benefits are take several years for being materialized, after the completion of the first four years of the ten-year project. Originality/value – The importance of the study consists in adding information and acquiring knowledge for the organizations’ benefit, regarding the employment and management of the working force for crating the framework and the environment which encourages innovation in the SMEs. This paper describes the cases of many programs funded by the European Union involved with innovative organizational environment adoption, the transfer of knowledge, the e-Business knowledge to SMEs within major regions. The scope of the research project and its longitudinal nature make the study original. Research limitations/implications – This is a study specific to România.romanian development, Innovation, workforce management, knowledge transfer, small to medium-sized enterprises

The curious case of cases:An inquiry into the effects of video upon teachers in training

How can the use of video contribute to the training of teachers? No day is the same in education. Every moment and every child call for a responsible approach from the teacher in each specific situation. To put it briefly, a complex profession that requires situated knowledge. This knowledge develops through the teacher’s mental activity, which is connected to the interactions between their body and the physical environment in which they act. Situated knowledge includes educational purposes and action patterns (design patterns). These purposes determine the design patterns used in learning situations. Little attention is paid to the situated aspect of professional knowledge, as shown by empirical research in second-degree teacher training. However, literature search shows that video cases are used in order to achieve both lower and higher learning objectives. This research demonstrates that the use of video cases contributes to a stronger development of situated knowledge in second-year teachers in training, reflected in the form of educational purposes, the pattern language ‘teaching’ and the design pattern ‘dealing with disorder’. Furthermore, four cases demonstrate that fourth-year teachers in training have acquired the situated knowledge that can be expected of them. According to these four studies, assignments based on video cases that focus on acquiring educational purposes and design patterns can contribute to the situated knowledge of teachers in training. At the end of their training, teachers in training are able to reflect on their actions, insights and identity, which contributes to their situated knowledge. Teacher trainers can optimize the acquisition of situated knowledge by using instruments discussed in this dissertation

Computational case-based redesign for people with ability impairment: Rethinking, reuse and redesign learning for home modification practice

Home modification practice for people with impairments of ability involves redesigning existing residential environments as distinct from the creation of a new dwelling. A redesigner alters existing structures, fittings and fixtures to better meet the occupant's ability requirements. While research on case-based design reasoning and healthcare informatics are well documented, the reasoning and process of redesign and its integration with individual human functional abilities remains poorly understood. Developing a means of capturing redesign knowledge in the form of case documentation online provides a means for integrating and learning from individual case-based redesign episodes where assessment and interventions are naturally linked. A key aim of the research outlined in this thesis was to gain a better understanding of the redesign of spaces for individual human ability with the view to computational modelling. Consequently, the foundational knowledge underpinning the model development includes design, redesign, case-based building design and human functional ability. Case-based redesign as proposed within the thesis, is a method for capturing the redesign context, the residential environment, the modification and the transformational knowledge involved in the redesign. Computational simulation methods are traditionally field dependent. Consequently, part of the research undertaken within this thesis involved the development of a framework for analysing cases within an online case-studies library to validate redesign for individuals and a method of acquiring reuse information so as to be able to estimate the redesign needs of a given population based on either their environment or ability profile. As home modification for people with functional impairments was a novel application field, an explorative action-based methodological approach using computational modelling was needed to underpin a case-based reasoning method. The action-based method involved a process of articulating and examining existing knowledge, suggesting new case-based computational practices, and evaluating the results. This cyclic process led to an improvement cycle that included theory, computational tool development and practical application. The rapid explosion of protocols and online redesign communities that utilise Web technologies meant that a web-based prototype capable of acquiring cases directly from home modification practitioners online and in context was both desirable and achievable. The first online version in 1998-99, encoded home modification redesigns using static WebPages and hyperlinks. This motivated the full-scale more dynamic and robust HMMinfo casestudies prototype whose action-based development is detailed within this thesis. The home modification casestudies library results from the development and integration of a novel case-based redesign model in combination with a Human- Activity-Space computational ontology. These two models are then integrated into a relational database design to enable online case acquisition, browsing, case reuse and redesign learning. The application of the redesign ontology illustrates case reuse and learning, and presents some of the implementation issues and their resolution. Original contributions resulting from this work include: extending case-based design theory to encompass redesign and redesign models, distinguishing the importance of human ability in redesign and the development of the Human-Activity-Space ontology. Additionally all data models were combined and their associated inter-relationships evaluated within a prototype made available to redesign practitioners. v Reflective and practitioner based evaluation contributed enhanced understanding of redesign case contribution dynamics in an online environment. Feedback from redesign practitioners indicated that gaining informed consent to share cases from consumers of home modification and maintenance services, in combination with the additional time required to document a case online, and reticence to go public for fear of critical feedback, all contributed to a less than expected case library growth. This is despite considerable interest in the HMMinfo casestudies website as evidenced by web usage statistics. Additionally the redesign model described in this thesis has practical implications for all design practitioners and educators who seek to create new work by reinterpreting, reconstructing and redesigning spaces

Alexa, Can You Help Me Solve That Problem? – Understanding the Value of Smart Personal Assistants as Tutors for Complex Problem Tasks

In recent decades, the number of students per lecturer at universities has constantly risen. In these learning scenarios, individual lecturer support for helping students actively acquiring new knowledge is hardly possible. However, active student behavior is necessary for successful learning. Smart Personal Assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Home promise to fill this gap by being students’ individual tutors. In order to understand what students expect from Smart Personal Assistants as tutors and how they interact with them, we will carry out an experiment. In this research in progress paper, we present our experiment design, where we observe the individual interaction between students and a Smart Personal Assistant tutor and between students and a human tutor applying the same methods in both cases. Drawing on the concepts of parasocial interaction and trust, we derive hypotheses, present the Smart Personal Assistant development and explain the experiment process in detail

Computational case-based redesign for people with ability impairment: Rethinking, reuse and redesign learning for home modification practice

Home modification practice for people with impairments of ability involves redesigning existing residential environments as distinct from the creation of a new dwelling. A redesigner alters existing structures, fittings and fixtures to better meet the occupant's ability requirements. While research on case-based design reasoning and healthcare informatics are well documented, the reasoning and process of redesign and its integration with individual human functional abilities remains poorly understood. Developing a means of capturing redesign knowledge in the form of case documentation online provides a means for integrating and learning from individual case-based redesign episodes where assessment and interventions are naturally linked. A key aim of the research outlined in this thesis was to gain a better understanding of the redesign of spaces for individual human ability with the view to computational modelling. Consequently, the foundational knowledge underpinning the model development includes design, redesign, case-based building design and human functional ability. Case-based redesign as proposed within the thesis, is a method for capturing the redesign context, the residential environment, the modification and the transformational knowledge involved in the redesign. Computational simulation methods are traditionally field dependent. Consequently, part of the research undertaken within this thesis involved the development of a framework for analysing cases within an online case-studies library to validate redesign for individuals and a method of acquiring reuse information so as to be able to estimate the redesign needs of a given population based on either their environment or ability profile. As home modification for people with functional impairments was a novel application field, an explorative action-based methodological approach using computational modelling was needed to underpin a case-based reasoning method. The action-based method involved a process of articulating and examining existing knowledge, suggesting new case-based computational practices, and evaluating the results. This cyclic process led to an improvement cycle that included theory, computational tool development and practical application. The rapid explosion of protocols and online redesign communities that utilise Web technologies meant that a web-based prototype capable of acquiring cases directly from home modification practitioners online and in context was both desirable and achievable. The first online version in 1998-99, encoded home modification redesigns using static WebPages and hyperlinks. This motivated the full-scale more dynamic and robust HMMinfo casestudies prototype whose action-based development is detailed within this thesis. The home modification casestudies library results from the development and integration of a novel case-based redesign model in combination with a Human- Activity-Space computational ontology. These two models are then integrated into a relational database design to enable online case acquisition, browsing, case reuse and redesign learning. The application of the redesign ontology illustrates case reuse and learning, and presents some of the implementation issues and their resolution. Original contributions resulting from this work include: extending case-based design theory to encompass redesign and redesign models, distinguishing the importance of human ability in redesign and the development of the Human-Activity-Space ontology. Additionally all data models were combined and their associated inter-relationships evaluated within a prototype made available to redesign practitioners. v Reflective and practitioner based evaluation contributed enhanced understanding of redesign case contribution dynamics in an online environment. Feedback from redesign practitioners indicated that gaining informed consent to share cases from consumers of home modification and maintenance services, in combination with the additional time required to document a case online, and reticence to go public for fear of critical feedback, all contributed to a less than expected case library growth. This is despite considerable interest in the HMMinfo casestudies website as evidenced by web usage statistics. Additionally the redesign model described in this thesis has practical implications for all design practitioners and educators who seek to create new work by reinterpreting, reconstructing and redesigning spaces

On the meaningfulness of data in product design for lifetime optimization

Planned obsolescence is generally considered as a negative business strategy that induces replacement needs and affects attachment dynamics, as opposed to the goal of elongating product lifetime. At the present, however, an early replacement of long-lasting products is preferred in at least two cases which can be addressed during the design stage i.e. when the cost of maintaining is higher than product benefits and when there are environmental reasons to replace obsolete products. Furthermore, designing meaningful products that help the user in his/her daily activities, while addressing environmental issues, could help affecting attachment even in standardized and utilitarian products, such as home appliances. In this study, the holistic view and the management of the complexity of Systemic Design, combined with the use of the IoT technologies are proposed using the refrigerator as a case study. Acquiring information is considered as a tool for product innovation; the data is divided into (i) static data, related to the product and (ii) dynamic data, which derive from the context of use and interaction with users. The latter can be acquired by investigating the object's daily use and environment, with data acquisition through quantitative tools (sensors) and qualitative ones (feedback, questionnaires, interviews). IoT and data retrieval open a variety of possibilities in monitoring, accessing more precise knowledge of products and households useful for design purposes. This paper seeks to demonstrate how IoT can support and trigger a design transition towards more durable products and components, by focusing on sustainability and simplifying people's lives in daily actions

Reducing queues: demand and capacity variations

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to investigate how waiting lists or queues could be reduced without adding more resources; and to describe what factors sustain reduced waiting-times. Design/methodology/approach – Cases were selected according to successful and sustained queue reduction. The approach in this study is action research. Findings – Accessibility improved as out-patient waiting lists for two clinics were reduced. The main success was working towards matching demand and capacity. It has been possible to sustain the improvements. Research limitations/implications – Results should be viewed cautiously. Transferring and generalizing outcomes from this study is for readers to consider. However, accessible healthcare may be possible by paying more attention to existing solutions. Practical implications – The study indicates that queue reduction activities should include acquiring knowledge about theories and methods to improve accessibility, finding ways to monitor varying demand and capacity, and to improve patient processing by reducing variations. Originality/value – Accessibility is considered an important dimension when measuring service quality. However, there are few articles on how clinic staff sustain reduces waiting lists. This paper contributes accessible knowledge to the field

An explicit model for learning to structure and analyze decisions by judges

Legal practitioners and legal scientists need to have knowledge of the general rules that apply in the legal system. This involves both knowledge of the legislation and knowledge of the decisions by judges that function as general rules of law. Law students preparing themselves for the legal profession need to acquire these kinds of knowledge. A student has to have knowledge about where to look for decisions, understand the structure of decisions and learn to determine what makes a decision relevant to the body of applicable rules in the legal system. Legal education primarily aims at acquiring insight in the legal sources, their history and background. This basic knowledge is of great importance; legal problem solving is hardly possible without an understanding of the legal knowledge. To illustrate the use of this knowledge in practice, teachers work through decisions as examples. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to learn by explanation or by imitation alone. A more effective way to obtain expertise is by actually performing the task, i.e. students should do the exercises, while the teacher provides feedback on their solutions. For effective learning, also the solution process should be monitored and provided with feedback. Furthermore it is desirable for students to be able to ask for help at any time during the process. They should also be able to practice over and over again. An ideal situation would have a teacher available for every student, monitoring the student while practicing and providing support where and whenever necessary. However, this being not practically feasible, the second best option is to offer the student electronic support. CASE (Case Analysis and Structuring Environment) is an environment where a law student can practice with finding decisions, with structuring its text and with analysing the decision in order to be able to determine in what way it adds to the body of applicable rules in the legal system. CASE is developed using a principled and structured design approach. A short description of this approach is followed by an analysis of the learning task, the difficulties law students experience and the remedies proposed on the basis of both the task analysis and the stated difficulties. This is followed by a description of architecture, functionality, platform and implementation of CASE and a description of a session with CASE and future work

Designing library tools: the (un)importance of employee involvement

The growing trend of public institutions to open up data and information to citizens encouraged archives and libraries to enhance the disclosure of their content towards end-users. This implies technical challenges as more and more information is exchanged not only between people, but also between different databases and applications which are consulted by different user groups through different devices and entry points. For libraries, the challenge lies in constructing a properly functioning catalogue which is able to combine a huge amount of information from various sources and is consultable by a large group of end-users in a user friendly manner. Based on the User Centred Design paradigm and Kaulio’s (1998) degrees of user involvement in innovation, this paper wants to consider whether involving users during the creation of metadata tools can result in more motivated library co-workers and a more appreciated tool and (hopefully) in a permanent tagging tool