Doctoral symposium: Visualising complex event hierarchies using relevant domain ontologies

© 2017 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). With the growth of data available for analysis, people in many sectors are looking for tools to assist them in collating and visualising patterns in that data. We have developed an event based visualisation system which provides an interactive interface for experts to filter and analyse data. We show that by thinking in terms of events, event hierarchies, and domain ontologies, that we can provide unique results that display patterns within the data being investigated. The proposed system uses a combination of Complex Event Processing (CEP) concepts and domain knowledge via RDF based ontologies. In this case we combine an event model and domain model based on the Financial Industry Business Ontology (FIBO) and conduct experiments on financial data. Our experiments show that, by thinking in terms of event hierarchies, and pre-existing domain ontologies, that certain new relationships between events are more easily discovered

A semantic Bayesian network for automated share evaluation on the JSE

Advances in information technology have presented the potential to automate investment decision making processes. This will alleviate the need for manual analysis and reduce the subjective nature of investment decision making. However, there are different investment approaches and perspectives for investing which makes acquiring and representing expert knowledge for share evaluation challenging. Current decision models often do not reflect the real investment decision making process used by the broader investment community or may not be well-grounded in established investment theory. This research investigates the efficacy of using ontologies and Bayesian networks for automating share evaluation on the JSE. The knowledge acquired from an analysis of the investment domain and the decision-making process for a value investing approach was represented in an ontology. A Bayesian network was constructed based on the concepts outlined in the ontology for automatic share evaluation. The Bayesian network allows decision makers to predict future share performance and provides an investment recommendation for a specific share. The decision model was designed, refined and evaluated through an analysis of the literature on value investing theory and consultation with expert investment professionals. The performance of the decision model was validated through back testing and measured using return and risk-adjusted return measures. The model was found to provide superior returns and risk-adjusted returns for the evaluation period from 2012 to 2018 when compared to selected benchmark indices of the JSE. The result is a concrete share evaluation model grounded in investing theory and validated by investment experts that may be employed, with small modifications, in the field of value investing to identify shares with a higher probability of positive risk-adjusted returns

Two Layers of Annotation for Representing Event Mentions in News Stories

In this paper, we describe our preliminary study of methods for annotating event mentions as part of our research on high-precision models for event extraction from news. We propose a two-layer annotation scheme, designed to capture the functional and the conceptual aspects of event mentions separately. We hypothesize that the precision can be improved by modeling and extracting the different aspects of news events separately, and then combining the extracted information by leveraging the complementarities of the models. We carry out a preliminary annotation using the proposed scheme and analyze the annotation quality in terms of inter-annotator agreement

Residents’ coping responses in collaborative housing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying Bhaskar’s four-planar social being to tackle the affordability-integration-health nexus

The COVID-19 pandemic was a global health, social and housing crisis. Citylockdowns, stay-at-home and social distancing requirements were preventiverestrictions increasing residents’ loneliness in regular housing stock. Collaborative housing is an alternative community-led housing form where people live in complete apartments whilst sharing common spaces and resources, enabling socializing and mutual support. The paper reflects on the process of applying Bhaskar’s four-planar social being for designing a methodology to evaluate residents’ coping responses in collaborative housing during the pandemic. The methodology includes iterative stages such as integrative literature review, refining the conceptual framework and research questions, designing, pilot-testing and improving mixed-methods data collection tools and collecting empirical data. Data analysis focuses on (a) residents’ material transactions with the common spaces and the neighbourhood, (b) social interactions between residents in everyday life, (c) social relations with institutions and (d) the stratification of personality, which for this paper implies how residents influenced each other’s motivations, habits and agency. This approach enabled analysis at the intersection of housing affordability, social integration and health. The paper sheds light on the pros and challenges of having critical realism as a foundation for inter- and transdisciplinary mixed-methods research

Pediatric Oncology Nurses\u27 Experiences with Prognosis-Related Communication

Health care providers (HCPs) in pediatric oncology are faced with the challenge of communicating the devastating news of a cancer diagnosis and prognosis. This type of communication can be referred to as prognosis-related communication (PRC). While the initial conversation with the patient and family regarding prognosis is generally considered the responsibility of the physician, patients and family members will subsequently turn to nurses for clarification of the information presented. If nurses are excluded from initial conversations, they may feel as though they are “working in the dark,” trying to answer questions while not contradicting what the physician said. This strained communication limits the nurse’s ability to fully advocate and care for patients. Little has been reported regarding pediatric oncology nurses’ experiences with PRC. A cross-sectional survey design framed by the Quality Care Model© was used to examine 1) nurses’ experiences with PRC with parents of children with cancer; 2) factors associated with experiences; and 3) associations with interprofessional collaboration, quality of care, and moral distress. Three hundred and sixteen members of the Association of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Nurses completed an online survey containing measures of study variables. Correlation and regression were used to explore relationships among variables. Findings demonstrated that nurses strongly agreed that prognostic disclosure is critical for decision making, but are challenged in determining their role. Nurses who had more years of experience, more training in PRC, worked outpatient or inpatient/outpatient, and indicated higher levels of collaboration reported more positive experiences with PRC. A significant correlation was identified between experiences with PRC and collaboration, and both were significantly associated with measures of quality of care and moral distress. Implications for nursing practice, education and research are identified. Nurses should work to be active participants in PRC. When nurses sense that prognostic discussions have not occurred or if clarity is needed, nurses should feel confident in approaching physician colleagues to ensure parent understanding and satisfaction around communication. Future research and education should aim to develop interprofessional training to enhance communication and collaboration among nurses and physicians to ensure the highest quality of communication and care to patients and families

The European Union and Assembling Biofuel Development – topological investigations concerning the associations between law, policy and space

Biofuels for transport are a renewable source of energy that were once heralded as a solution to multiple problems associated with poor urban air quality, the overproduction of agricultural commodities, the energy security of the European Union (EU) and climate change. It was only after the Union had implemented an incentivizing framework of legal and political instruments for the production, trade and consumption of biofuels that the problems of weakening food security, environmental degradation and increasing greenhouse gases through land-use changes began to unfold. In other words, the difference between political aims for why biofuels are promoted and their consequences has grown – which is also recognized by the EU policy-makers. Therefore, the global networks of producing, trading and consuming biofuels may face a complete restructure if the European Commission accomplishes its pursuit to sideline crop-based biofuels after 2020. My aim with this dissertation is not only to trace the manifold evolutions of the instruments used by the Union to govern biofuels but also to reveal how this evolution has influenced the dynamics of biofuel development. Therefore, I study the ways the EU’s legal and political instruments of steering biofuels are coconstitutive with the globalized spaces of biofuel development. My analytical strategy can be outlined through three concepts. I use the term ‘assemblage’ to approach the operations of the loose entity of actors and non-human elements that are the constituents of multi-scalar and -sectorial biofuel development. ‘Topology’ refers to the spatiality of this European biofuel assemblage and its parts whose evolving relations are treated as the active constituents of space, instead of simply being located in space. I apply the concept of ‘nomosphere’ to characterize the framework of policies, laws and other instruments that the EU applies and construes while attempting to govern biofuels. Even though both the materials and methods vary in the independent articles, these three concepts characterize my analytical strategy that allows me to study law, policy and space associated with each other. The results of my examinations underscore the importance of the instruments of governance of the EU constituting and stabilizing the spaces of producing and, on the other hand, how topological ruptures in biofuel development have enforced the need to reform policies. This analysis maps the vast scope of actors that are influenced by the mechanism of EU biofuel governance and, what is more, shows how they are actively engaging in the Union’s institutional policy formulation. By examining the consequences of fast biofuel development that are spatially dislocated from the established spaces of producing, trading and consuming biofuels such as indirect land use changes, I unfold the processes not tackled by the instruments of the EU. Indeed, it is these spatially dislocated processes that have pushed the Commission construing a new type of governing biofuels: transferring the instruments of climate change mitigation to land-use policies. Although efficient in mitigating these dislocated consequences, these instruments have also created peculiar ontological scaffolding for governing biofuels. According to this mode of governance, the spatiality of biofuel development appears to be already determined and the agency that could dampen the negative consequences originating from land-use practices is treated as irrelevant.Siirretty Doriast

Comparing nuclear power trajectories in Germany and the UK: from ‘regimes' to ‘democracies’ in sociotechnical transitions and Discontinuities

This paper focuses on arguably the single most striking contrast in contemporary major energy politics in Europe (and even the developed world as a whole): the starkly differing civil nuclear policies of Germany and the UK. Germany is seeking entirely to phase out nuclear power by 2022. Yet the UK advocates a ‘nuclear renaissance’, promoting the most ambitious new nuclear construction programme in Western Europe.Here,this paper poses a simple yet quite fundamental question: what are the particular divergent conditions most strongly implicated in the contrasting developments in these two countries. With nuclear playing such an iconic role in historical discussions over technological continuity and transformation, answering this may assist in wider understandings of sociotechnical incumbency and discontinuity in the burgeoning field of‘sustainability transitions’. To this end, an ‘abductive’ approach is taken: deploying nine potentially relevant criteria for understanding the different directions pursued in Germany and the UK. Together constituted by 30 parameters spanning literatures related to socio-technical regimes in general as well as nuclear technology in particular, the criteria are divided into those that are ‘internal’ and ‘external’ to the ‘focal regime configuration’ of nuclear power and associated ‘challenger technologies’ like renewables. It is ‘internal’ criteria that are emphasised in conventional sociotechnical regime theory, with ‘external’ criteria relatively less well explored. Asking under each criterion whether attempted discontinuation of nuclear power would be more likely in Germany or the UK, a clear picture emerges. ‘Internal’ criteria suggest attempted nuclear discontinuation should be more likely in the UK than in Germany– the reverse of what is occurring. ‘External’ criteria are more aligned with observed dynamics –especially those relating to military nuclear commitments and broader ‘qualities of democracy’. Despite many differences of framing concerning exactly what constitutes ‘democracy’, a rich political science literature on this point is unanimous in characterising Germany more positively than the UK. Although based only on a single case,a potentially important question is nonetheless raised as to whether sociotechnical regime theory might usefully give greater attention to the general importance of various aspects of democracy in constituting conditions for significant technological discontinuities and transformations. If so, the policy implications are significant. A number of important areas are identified for future research, including the roles of diverse understandings and specific aspects of democracy and the particular relevance of military nuclear commitments– whose under-discussion in civil nuclear policy literatures raises its own questions of democratic accountability