Towards the generalisation of a case-based aiding system to facilitate the understanding of ethical and professional issues in computing

Modern computers endow users of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) with immense power. The speed of the computing revolution has enabled the novel implementation of ICT before consideration of consequent ethical issues can be made. There is now a demand by society that students, ICT novices, and professionals should be aware of the social, legal, and professional issues associated with ubiquitous use of computers. This thesis describes the development of an Internet-based tool that may be used to raise students' awareness of the ethical implications of ICT. It investigates the application, meaning, and scope of computer ethics. Theoretical foundations are developed for the construction of the tool that will classify, store, and retrieve a suitable analogous case from a collection of realworld, ethically analysed ICT case studies. These are used for comparison with ethically dubious events that may be experienced by students. The model draws upon the theoretical aspects of mechanisms for the modification of users' ethical perception. This research is novel in linking these theories to ethical understanding and case retrieval. Little information is available upon the retrieval of documents addressing ethical issues. The classification and retrieval of material using an ethical framework has some commonality with legal retrieval. Similarities are investigated, and concepts are adapted for the retrieval of ethical documents. The differences that arise present challenges for new research. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) retrieval techniques is not acceptable to meet the pedagogic aims of the retrieval tool. A model is developed, avoiding the use of AI in the reasoning process, requiring the student to consider and evaluate the ethical issues raised. The model is tested and evaluated. The research suggests that non-AI paradigms may be used for retrieval of ethical cases, and that areas for future investigation and development exist

Development of a semantic knowledge modelling approach for evaluating offsite manufacturing production processes

The housing sector in the UK and across the globe is constantly under pressure to deliver enough affordable houses to meet the increasing demand. Offsite Manufacturing (OSM), a modern method of construction, is considered to be a key aspect in meeting these demands given its potential to increase efficiency and boost productivity. Although the use of OSM to increase the supply of affordable and efficient homes is getting popular, the focus has been on ‘what’ methods of construction are used (i.e. whether implementing OSM or traditional approach) rather than ‘how’ the alternative construction approach shall be done (i.e. choice of OSM method to meet set objectives). There have been criticisms of the approaches used by professionals implementing OSM methods as some of these approaches are non-structured and these methods have been criticised for being similar to the conventional onsite methods with little process gains. There are previous studies that have compared the performance of OSM and other modern methods of construction with conventional methods of construction. However, there is hardly any attempt nor quantitative evidence comparing the performance of various competing OSM approaches (i.e. methods with standardised and non-standardised processes) in order to support stakeholders in making an informed decision on choices of methods. In pursuit of the research gap identified, this research aims to develop a proof-of-concept knowledge-based process analysis tool that would enable OSM practitioners to efficiently evaluate the performances of their choice of OSM methods to support informed decision-making and continuous improvement. To achieve this aim, an ontology knowledge modelling approach was adopted for leveraging data and information sources with semantics, and an offsite production workflow (OPW) ontology was developed to enable a detailed analysis of OSM production methods. The research firstly undertook an extensive critical review of the OSM domain to identify the existing OSM knowledge and how this knowledge can be formalised to aid communication in the OSM domain. In addition, a separate review of process analysis methods and knowledge-based modelling methods was done concurrently to identify the suitable approach for analysing and systemising OSM knowledge respectively. The lean manufacturing value system analysis (VSA) approach was used for the analysis in this study using two units of analysis consisting of an example of atypical non-standardised (i.e. static method of production) and standardised (i.e. semi-automated method of production) OSM methods. The knowledge systematisation was done using an ontology knowledge modelling approach to develop the process analysis tool – OPW ontology. The OPW ontology was further evaluated by mapping a case of lightweight steel frame modular house production to model a real-life context. A two-staged validation approach was then implemented to test the ontology which consists of firstly an internal validation of logic and consistency of the results and then an expert validation process using an industry-approved set of criteria. The result from the study revealed that the non-standardised ad-hoc OSM production method, involving a significant amount of manual tasks, contributes little process improvement from the conventional onsite method when using the metrics of process time and cost. In comparison with the structured method e.g. semi-automated OSM production method, it is discovered that the process cost and time are 82% and 77% more in the static method respectively based on a like-to-like production schedule. The study also evaluates the root causes of process wastes, accounting for non-value-added time and cost consumed. The results contribute to supporting informed decision-making on the choices of OSM production methods for continuous improvement. The main contributions to knowledge and practice are as follows: i. The output of this research contributes to the body of literature on offsite concepts, definition and classification, through the generic classification framework developed for the OSM domain. This provides a means of supporting clear communication and knowledge sharing in the domain and supports knowledge systematisation. ii. The approach used in this research, integrating the value system analysis (VSA) and activity-based costing (ABC) methods for process analysis is a novel approach that bridges that gaps with the use of the ABC method for generating detailed process-related data to support cost/time-based analysis of OSM processes. iii. The developed generic process map which represents the OSM production process captures activity sequences, resources and information flow within the process will help in disseminating knowledge on OSM and improve best practices in the industry. iv. The developed process analysis tool (the OPW ontology) has been tested with a real-life OSM project and validated by domain experts to be a competent tool. The knowledge structure and rules integrated into the OPW ontology have been published on the web for knowledge sharing and re-use. This tool can be adapted by OSM practitioners to develop a company-specific tool that captures their specific business processes, which can then support the evaluation of their processes to enable continuous improvement

Obligation As Ethics: The Power of Roman óϕϵιλη As the Key to Conflict Resolution in Romans 14:1-15:13

One weakness in some contemporary New Testament studies involves examining a word meaning without considering the depth of its meaning in light of historical, social, and customary first-century usage. The challenge comes in reading a word in contemporary twenty-first-century language, but understanding its full meaning from the first-century culture. New Testament studies of Paul in his Epistle to the Romans tend to focus on his theology as a theological treatise or to focus on certain social theories that limit the scope of cultural underpinnings in the Greek text. Obligation as ethics, the power of óϕϵιλη(obligation) as the key to conflict resolution, aims to examine Romans 14:1-15:13 in its historical-sociological context with an emphasis on Roman law. Rome was a peculiar society where its inhabitants were required to fulfil obligations and duties as a vital part of daily living. Therefore, obligation in Roman society filters through Roman law, character, customs, and a path of duty in daily life. Obligation in the Christian community required rethinking the customary standards in obligation to Jesus Christ. Roman law influenced custom, determined a course of social interactions, and reinforced behaviour patterns. It was founded on Roman law and its legal basis set forth a map, a plan, a nexus of social ties in relationships, and clear expectations in daily social practice. Roman law itself was structured in a framework of Graeco-Roman virtues and vices which influenced the character and societal customs (mores) of its citizens and non-citizens. The construct of virtue, as practiced in the first century, accentuated a long history of aristocratic rules and defined social roles that solidified a Roman social hierarchy that polarized two social classes: the strong and the weak. The strong were the aristocratic superiors based on rank, status, wealth, and prestige. The weak were social inferiors who, according to Roman law and the mores, were obligated to submit to the power of the strong. Roman obligation, a critical tool for Roman social practice, order, harmony, and conflict resolution, served in society as a lubricant to order society and to relieve social tensions. The textual evidence of Romans 14:1-15:13, and the context underpinning it, indicate that the social distinctions of ‘the strong’ and ‘the weak’ were reflected in the early church in Rome. Their tendency, based upon Roman law and social custom, was to relate as the superior strong and the inferior weak with the weak obliged to submit. However, Paul plunders this concept and makes use of the conventional tool of Roman obligation in a new way. His countercultural solution aimed to resolve the tension that threatened to split the church

Collaborative adaptive accessibility and human capabilities

This thesis discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the field of accessibility, particularly as computing becomes ubiquitous. It is argued that a new approach is needed that centres around adaptations (specific, atomic changes) to user interfaces and content in order to improve their accessibility for a wider range of people than targeted by present Assistive Technologies (ATs). Further, the approach must take into consideration the capabilities of people at the human level and facilitate collaboration, in planned and ad-hoc environments. There are two main areas of focus: (1) helping people experiencing minor-to-moderate, transient and potentially-overlapping impairments, as may be brought about by the ageing process and (2) supporting collaboration between people by reasoning about the consequences, from different users perspectives, of the adaptations they may require. A theoretical basis for describing these problems and a reasoning process for the semi-automatic application of adaptations is developed. Impairments caused by the environment in which a device is being used are considered. Adaptations are drawn from other research and industry artefacts. Mechanical testing is carried out on key areas of the reasoning process, demonstrating fitness for purpose. Several fundamental techniques to extend the reasoning process in order to take temporal factors (such as fluctuating user and device capabilities) into account are broadly described. These are proposed to be feasible, though inherently bring compromises (which are defined) in interaction stability and the needs of different actors (user, device, target level of accessibility). This technical work forms the basis of the contribution of one work-package of the Sustaining ICT use to promote autonomy (Sus-IT) project, under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme of research in the UK. Test designs for larger-scale assessment of the system with real-world participants are given. The wider Sus-IT project provides social motivations and informed design decisions for this work and is carrying out longitudinal acceptance testing of the processes developed here

A framework for Adaptive Capability Profiling

This thesis documents research providing improvements in the field of accessibility modelling, which will be of particular interest as computing becomes increasingly ubiquitous. It is argued that a new approach is required that takes into account the dynamic relationship between users, their technology (both hardware and software) and any additional Assistive Technologies (ATs) that may be required. In addition, the approach must find a balance between fidelity and transportability. A theoretical framework has been developed that is able to represent both users and technology in symmetrical (hierarchical) recursive profiles, using a vocabulary that moves from device-specific to device-agnostic capabilities. The research has resulted in the development of a single unified solution that is able to functionally assess the accessibility of interactions through the use of pattern matching between graph-based profiles. A self-efficacy study was also conducted, which identified the inability of older people to provide the data necessary to drive a system based on the framework. Subsequently, the ethical considerations surrounding the use of automated data collection agents were discussed and a mechanism for representing contextual information was also included. Finally, real user data was collected and processed using a practically implemented prototype to provide an evaluation of the approach. The thesis represents a contribution through its ability to both: (1) accommodate the collection of data from a wide variety of sources, and (2) support accessibility assessments at varying levels of abstraction in order to identify if/where assistance may be necessary. The resulting approach has contributed to a work-package of the Sus-IT project, under the New Dynamics of Ageing (NDA) programme of research in the UK. It has also been presented to a W3C Research and Development Working Group symposium on User Modelling for Accessibility (UM4A). Finally, dissemination has been taken forward through its inclusion as an invited paper presented during a subsequent parallel session within the 8th International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction

Linking knowledge and action for sustainable development

It is now commonplace to assert that actions toward sustainable development require a mix of scientific, economic, social and political knowledge, and judgments. The role of research-based knowledge in this complex setting is ambiguous and diverse, and it is undergoing rapid change both in theory and in practice. We review conventional views of the linkages between research-based knowledge and action, and the early response to concerns that these links could and should be improved, through efforts at translation and transfer. We then examine the range of critiques that challenge those conventional views by highlighting different aspects of the relationships between science and society, focusing on the implications for action toward sustainable development. We then review the theories and strategies that have emerged in the attempt to improve the linkages between research-based knowledge and action in the context of sustainability across four broad categories: participation, integration, learning, and negotiation. These form a hierarchy with respect to how deeply they engage with the various critiques. We propose that the relationships between research-based knowledge and action can be better understood as arenas of shared responsibility, embedded within larger systems of power and knowledge that evolve and change over time. The unique contribution of research-based knowledge needs to be understood in relation to actual or potential contributions from other forms of knowledge. We conclude with questions that may offer useful orientation to assessing or designing research-action arenas for sustainable development

Helping with inquiries: theory and practice in forensic science

This thesis investigates the reasoning practices of forensic scientists, with specific focus on the application of the Bayesian form of probabilistic reasoning to forensic science matters. Facilitated in part by the insights of evidence scholarship, Bayes Theorem has been advocated as an essential resource for the interpretation and evaluation of forensic evidence, and has been used to support the production of specific technologies designed to aid forensic scientists in these processes. In the course of this research I have explored the ways in which Bayesian reasoning can be regarded as a socially constructed collection of practices, despite proposals that it is simply a logical way to reason about evidence. My data are drawn from two case studies. In the first, I demonstrate how the Bayesian algorithms used for the interpretation of complex DNA profiles are themselves elaborately constructed devices necessary for the anchoring of scientific practice to forensic contexts. In the second case study, an investigation of a more generalised framework of forensic investigation known as the Case Assessment and Interpretation (CAI) model, I show how the enactment of Bayesian reasoning is dependent on a series of embodied, experiential and intersubjective knowledge-forming activities. Whilst these practices may seem to be largely independent of theoretical representations of Bayesian reasoning, they are nonetheless necessary to bring the latter into being. This is at least partially due to the ambiguities and liminalities encountered in the process of applying Bayesianism to forensic investigation, and also may result from the heavy informational demands placed on the reasoner. I argue that these practices, or 'forms of Bayes', are necessary in order to negotiate areas of ontological uncertainty. The results of this thesis therefore challenge prevailing conceptions of Bayes Theorem as a universal, immutable signifier, able to be put to work unproblematically in any substantive domain, Instead, I have been able to highlight the diverse range of practices required for 'Bayesian' reasoners to negotiate the sociomaterial contingencies exposed in the process of its application

Students´ language in computer-assisted tutoring of mathematical proofs

Truth and proof are central to mathematics. Proving (or disproving) seemingly simple statements often turns out to be one of the hardest mathematical tasks. Yet, doing proofs is rarely taught in the classroom. Studies on cognitive difficulties in learning to do proofs have shown that pupils and students not only often do not understand or cannot apply basic formal reasoning techniques and do not know how to use formal mathematical language, but, at a far more fundamental level, they also do not understand what it means to prove a statement or even do not see the purpose of proof at all. Since insight into the importance of proof and doing proofs as such cannot be learnt other than by practice, learning support through individualised tutoring is in demand. This volume presents a part of an interdisciplinary project, set at the intersection of pedagogical science, artificial intelligence, and (computational) linguistics, which investigated issues involved in provisioning computer-based tutoring of mathematical proofs through dialogue in natural language. The ultimate goal in this context, addressing the above-mentioned need for learning support, is to build intelligent automated tutoring systems for mathematical proofs. The research presented here has been focused on the language that students use while interacting with such a system: its linguistic propeties and computational modelling. Contribution is made at three levels: first, an analysis of language phenomena found in students´ input to a (simulated) proof tutoring system is conducted and the variety of students´ verbalisations is quantitatively assessed, second, a general computational processing strategy for informal mathematical language and methods of modelling prominent language phenomena are proposed, and third, the prospects for natural language as an input modality for proof tutoring systems is evaluated based on collected corpora

Inferring Complex Activities for Context-aware Systems within Smart Environments

The rising ageing population worldwide and the prevalence of age-related conditions such as physical fragility, mental impairments and chronic diseases have significantly impacted the quality of life and caused a shortage of health and care services. Over-stretched healthcare providers are leading to a paradigm shift in public healthcare provisioning. Thus, Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) using Smart Homes (SH) technologies has been rigorously investigated to help address the aforementioned problems. Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is a critical component in AAL systems which enables applications such as just-in-time assistance, behaviour analysis, anomalies detection and emergency notifications. This thesis is aimed at investigating challenges faced in accurately recognising Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) performed by single or multiple inhabitants within smart environments. Specifically, this thesis explores five complementary research challenges in HAR. The first study contributes to knowledge by developing a semantic-enabled data segmentation approach with user-preferences. The second study takes the segmented set of sensor data to investigate and recognise human ADLs at multi-granular action level; coarse- and fine-grained action level. At the coarse-grained actions level, semantic relationships between the sensor, object and ADLs are deduced, whereas, at fine-grained action level, object usage at the satisfactory threshold with the evidence fused from multimodal sensor data is leveraged to verify the intended actions. Moreover, due to imprecise/vague interpretations of multimodal sensors and data fusion challenges, fuzzy set theory and fuzzy web ontology language (fuzzy-OWL) are leveraged. The third study focuses on incorporating uncertainties caused in HAR due to factors such as technological failure, object malfunction, and human errors. Hence, existing studies uncertainty theories and approaches are analysed and based on the findings, probabilistic ontology (PR-OWL) based HAR approach is proposed. The fourth study extends the first three studies to distinguish activities conducted by more than one inhabitant in a shared smart environment with the use of discriminative sensor-based techniques and time-series pattern analysis. The final study investigates in a suitable system architecture with a real-time smart environment tailored to AAL system and proposes microservices architecture with sensor-based off-the-shelf and bespoke sensing methods. The initial semantic-enabled data segmentation study was evaluated with 100% and 97.8% accuracy to segment sensor events under single and mixed activities scenarios. However, the average classification time taken to segment each sensor events have suffered from 3971ms and 62183ms for single and mixed activities scenarios, respectively. The second study to detect fine-grained-level user actions was evaluated with 30 and 153 fuzzy rules to detect two fine-grained movements with a pre-collected dataset from the real-time smart environment. The result of the second study indicate good average accuracy of 83.33% and 100% but with the high average duration of 24648ms and 105318ms, and posing further challenges for the scalability of fusion rule creations. The third study was evaluated by incorporating PR-OWL ontology with ADL ontologies and Semantic-Sensor-Network (SSN) ontology to define four types of uncertainties presented in the kitchen-based activity. The fourth study illustrated a case study to extended single-user AR to multi-user AR by combining RFID tags and fingerprint sensors discriminative sensors to identify and associate user actions with the aid of time-series analysis. The last study responds to the computations and performance requirements for the four studies by analysing and proposing microservices-based system architecture for AAL system. A future research investigation towards adopting fog/edge computing paradigms from cloud computing is discussed for higher availability, reduced network traffic/energy, cost, and creating a decentralised system. As a result of the five studies, this thesis develops a knowledge-driven framework to estimate and recognise multi-user activities at fine-grained level user actions. This framework integrates three complementary ontologies to conceptualise factual, fuzzy and uncertainties in the environment/ADLs, time-series analysis and discriminative sensing environment. Moreover, a distributed software architecture, multimodal sensor-based hardware prototypes, and other supportive utility tools such as simulator and synthetic ADL data generator for the experimentation were developed to support the evaluation of the proposed approaches. The distributed system is platform-independent and currently supported by an Android mobile application and web-browser based client interfaces for retrieving information such as live sensor events and HAR results