Space mission design ontology : extraction of domain-specific entities and concepts similarity analysis

Expert Systems, computer programs able to capture human expertise and mimic experts’ reasoning, can support the design of future space missions by assimilating and facilitating access to accumulated knowledge. To organise these data, the virtual assistant needs to understand the concepts characterising space systems engineering. In other words, it needs an ontology of space systems. Unfortunately, there is currently no official European space systems ontology. Developing an ontology is a lengthy and tedious process, involving several human domain experts, and therefore prone to human error and subjectivity. Could the foundations of an ontology be instead semi-automatically extracted from unstructured data related to space systems engineering? This paper presents an implementation of the first layers of the Ontology Learning Layer Cake, an approach to semi-automatically generate an ontology. Candidate entities and synonyms are extracted from three corpora: a set of 56 feasibility reports provided by the European Space Agency, 40 books on space mission design publicly available and a collection of 273 Wikipedia pages. Lexica of relevant space systems entities are semi-automatically generated based on three different methods: a frequency analysis, a term frequency-inverse document frequency analysis, and a Weirdness Index filtering. The frequency-based lexicon of the combined corpora is then fed to a word embedding method, word2vec, to learn the context of each entity. With a cosine similarity analysis, concepts with similar contexts are matched

Analysis reuse exploiting taxonomical information and belief assignment in industrial problem solving

To take into account the experience feedback on solving complex problems in business is deemed as a way to improve the quality of products and processes. Only a few academic works, however, are concerned with the representation and the instrumentation of experience feedback systems. We propose, in this paper, a model of experiences and mechanisms to use these experiences. More specifically, we wish to encourage the reuse of already performed expert analysis to propose a priori analysis in the solving of a new problem. The proposal is based on a representation in the context of the experience of using a conceptual marker and an explicit representation of the analysis incorporating expert opinions and the fusion of these opinions. The experience feedback models and inference mechanisms are integrated in a commercial support tool for problem solving methodologies. The results obtained to this point have already led to the definition of the role of ‘‘Rex Manager’’ with principles of sustainable management for continuous improvement of industrial processes in companies

Medical WordNet: A new methodology for the construction and validation of information resources for consumer health

A consumer health information system must be able to comprehend both expert and non-expert medical vocabulary and to map between the two. We describe an ongoing project to create a new lexical database called Medical WordNet (MWN), consisting of medically relevant terms used by and intelligible to non-expert subjects and supplemented by a corpus of natural-language sentences that is designed to provide medically validated contexts for MWN terms. The corpus derives primarily from online health information sources targeted to consumers, and involves two sub-corpora, called Medical FactNet (MFN) and Medical BeliefNet (MBN), respectively. The former consists of statements accredited as true on the basis of a rigorous process of validation, the latter of statements which non-experts believe to be true. We summarize the MWN / MFN / MBN project, and describe some of its applications

Nature-based supportive care opportunities: A conceptual framework

Objective: Given preliminary evidence for positive health outcomes related to contact with nature for cancer populations, research is warranted to ascertain possible strategies for incorporating nature-based care opportunities into oncology contexts as additional strategies for addressing multidimensional aspects of cancer patients’ health and recovery needs. The objective of this study was to consolidate existing research related to nature-based supportive care opportunities and generate a conceptual framework for discerning relevant applications in the supportive care setting. Methods: Drawing on research investigating nature-based engagement in oncology contexts, a two-step analytic process was used to construct a conceptual framework for guiding nature-based supportive care design and future research. Concept analysis methodology generated new representations of understanding by extracting and synthesising salient concepts. Newly formulated concepts were transposed to findings from related research about patient-reported and healthcare expert-developed recommendations for nature-based supportive care in oncology. Results: Five theoretical concepts (themes) were formulated describing patients’ reasons for engaging with nature and the underlying needs these interactions address. These included: connecting with what is genuinely valued, distancing from the cancer experience, meaning-making and reframing the cancer experience, finding comfort and safety, and vital nurturance. Eight shared patient and expert recommendations were compiled, which address the identified needs through nature-based initiatives. Eleven additional patient-reported recommendations attend to beneficial and adverse experiential qualities of patients’ nature-based engagement and complete the framework. Conclusions: The framework outlines salient findings about helpful nature-based supportive care opportunities for ready access by healthcare practitioners, designers, researchers and patients themselves

FESTivE: an information system method to improve product designers and environmental experts information exchanges

Effective collaboration between product designers and environmental experts is an important driver for the ecodesign practice in industry. This paper investigates the principal functions required for such an e ective collaboration and aims at facilitating them. Product designers should be able to integrate the environmental parameters into their activities, and to exchange information dynamically with the environmental expert whenever needed during the design process. Therefore, the IT system should be in itself dynamic and exible to the integration of new concepts (knowledge, software). Recent developments in Model Driven Engineering (MDE) are showing some interesting results to gain exibility and dynamism in the IT system. Combining software interoperability using model federation based on MDE with the speci city of ecodesign practice in industry this paper proposes the FESTivE method for Federate EcodeSign Tool modEls. Experimented in two different industrial contexts the practical feasibility of FESTivE has been validated with practitioners. Results on the e ects of using FESTivE in industry shows that product designers and environmental experts are more equipped to anticipate and to respond to each other's needs at each stage of the design process of product or service

The Case for Dynamic Models of Learners' Ontologies in Physics

In a series of well-known papers, Chi and Slotta (Chi, 1992; Chi & Slotta, 1993; Chi, Slotta & de Leeuw, 1994; Slotta, Chi & Joram, 1995; Chi, 2005; Slotta & Chi, 2006) have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that they think about concepts as things rather than as processes, and that there is a significant barrier between these two ontological categories. We contest this view, arguing that expert and novice reasoning often and productively traverses ontological categories. We cite examples from everyday, classroom, and professional contexts to illustrate this. We agree with Chi and Slotta that instruction should attend to learners' ontologies; but we find these ontologies are better understood as dynamic and context-dependent, rather than as static constraints. To promote one ontological description in physics instruction, as suggested by Slotta and Chi, could undermine novices' access to productive cognitive resources they bring to their studies and inhibit their transition to the dynamic ontological flexibility required of experts.Comment: The Journal of the Learning Sciences (In Press

Standardising through concepts: scientific experts and the international development of the HACCP Food Safety Standard

This paper deals with international standard-setting. Using the HACCP food safety standard as the basis of discussion, this paper considers the influence of scientific experts on the regulatory process. What is usually referred to as the diffusion or dissemination of soft or voluntary standards is here explained in terms of transferability of a regulatory concept. It is the ability of scientific experts to transform practices into a universal concept and, conversely, to develop technologies for users which translate the concept into practice, that explains why this reference has travelled so well across countries, industry sectors and historical periods. Scientific experts played a translating role between standard-setters and groups of practical users. This highlights the counter-intuitive distribution of power in standard-setting: while experts dominate the development of generic rules, official rule-makers (such as governments) assert their authority by developing alternative technologies for the appropriation of the standard by users and, sometimes, allow the latter to deviate from experts' universal concepts where these are shown to be problematic