Mapping natural language procedures descriptions to linear temporal logic templates: an application in the surgical robotic domain

Natural language annotations and manuals can provide useful procedural information and relations for the highly specialized scenario of autonomous robotic task planning. In this paper, we propose and publicly release AUTOMATE, a pipeline for automatic task knowledge extraction from expert-written domain texts. AUTOMATE integrates semantic sentence classifcation, semantic role labeling, and identifcation of procedural connectors, in order to extract templates of Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) relations that can be directly implemented in any sufciently expressive logic programming formalism for autonomous reasoning, assuming some low-level commonsense and domain-independent knowledge is available. This is the frst work that bridges natural language descriptions of complex LTL relations and the automation of full robotic tasks. Unlike most recent similar works that assume strict language constraints in substantially simplifed domains, we test our pipeline on texts that refect the expressiveness of natural language used in available textbooks and manuals. In fact, we test AUTOMATE in the surgical robotic scenario, defning realistic language constraints based on a publicly available dataset. In the context of two benchmark training tasks with texts constrained as above, we show that automatically extracted LTL templates, after translation to a suitable logic programming paradigm, achieve comparable planning success in reduced time, with respect to logic programs written by expert programmer

Fault diagnosis in orbital refueling operations

Usually, operation manuals are provided for helping astronauts during space operations. These manuals include normal and malfunction procedures. Transferring operation manual knowledge into a computerized form is not a trivial task. This knowledge is generally written by designers or operation engineers and is often quite different from the user logic. The latter is usually a compiled version of the former. Experiments are in progress to assess the user logic. HORSES (Human - Orbital Refueling System - Expert System) is an attempt to include both of these logics in the same tool. It is designed to assist astronauts during monitoring and diagnosis tasks. Basically, HORSES includes a situation recognition level coupled to an analytical diagnoser, and a meta-level working on both of the previous levels. HORSES is a good tool for modeling task models and is also more broadly useful for knowledge design. The presentation is represented by abstract and overhead visuals only

Theoretical Legitimacy of ‘Strategic Entrepreneurship’: How does a firm engage in entrepreneurial exploration as well as strategic consolidation?

Theoretical legitimacy of ‘strategic management’ has not yet been established. This exploratory theoretical paper revisits the connection between entrepreneurship and strategy. Examining data of decisions in two firms across their initial years, one of which sold to a larger buyer and the other did not, this paper attempts to trace the firms’ path in navigating the tension between entrepreneurial exploration necessary for initial growth on the one hand, and strategic direction, on the other, through building efficiency routines necessary for profitable exploitation. Preliminary results and implications are discussed

Making sense of step-by-step procedures

Procedural instructions that consist of only a sequence of steps will probably be executable, but nevertheless ¿meaningless¿ to users of technical devices. The paper discusses three features that can make procedural instructions more meaningful: adding functional coordinating information, adding information about the use of the technical device in real life, and adding operational information about how the device works. The research literature supports the effectiveness of the first feature, but offers little evidence that real life elements enhance understanding of instructions. As for operational information, the research suggests that users are willing to read it, and that it contributes to better understanding and performance in the long term, but only if it is closely related to the procedure. As a conclusion, we propose a theoretical framework that assumes three levels of mental representation of instructions: syntactical, semantic, and situationa

Te Whakaruruhau Transition and Wellbeing programme: An implementation evaluation

Based on the recognition that many women who come into refuge have few options but to return to the sort of environment in which they have been abused, the Transition and Wellbeing programme aims to provide medium to long term housing for families as they re‐establish themselves in the community. Data for the evaluation of the programme was collected from two main sources; the women on the programme and key informants at Te Whakaruruhau. Five women, two of whom are housed in transitional accommodation were interviewed individually, while focus groups were conducted with middle and senior management teams. The completion of the interviews enabled the development of a programme logic, which describes the ‘theory’ of the programme. The model details the activities or what the programme does. These activities include linking women to programmes and resources, providing practical support, addressing specific cultural needs and the availability of quality advocates. These activities are built on foundational values, such as, whanaungatanga, manaakitanga and wairuatanga. The programme is only made possible with internal and external inputs. Of the external inputs, funding contributions are considered vital to the functioning of the programme. The women’s perspectives identified varying outcomes from their participation in the programme. The logic model details the intended outcomes in the short, medium and long‐term, reflecting personal, relational and community wellbeing. Short term outcomes include improved communication, improved self‐esteem, improved confidence and personal growth. Medium outcomes saw (re)engagement in training, education and for some, (re)entry into the workforce. Long term outcomes related to the establishment of a sustainable life style free from violence. The participants did not see a need to modify the programme in any significant way. Some did think that it could be usefully extended by adding to the existing activities a hands on, artistic approach. Programme developers may consider more creative ways in which to assess and measure the impact of the programme. Finally, it is suggested that the programme could benefit from a more systemic assessment process to determine whether women are “ready” to enter it

Program automated documentation methods

The mission analysis and trajectory simulation program is summarized; it provides an understanding of the size and complexity of one simulation for which documentation is mandatory. Programs for automating documentation of subroutines, flow charts, and internal cross reference information are also included

The Permanent Tourist: Guidebooks in Travel and Education

About a year ago I heard a paper presented by Gary Day at the University of York on the fate of theory in higher education. He looked at the ways in which university departments had been brought within the auspices of a culture of inspection. In a world where higher education commands a fee and is thus becoming more and more commodified, there must be some means of assuring the quality of the product on offer, as there are for other kinds of product on the market ranging from telecommunications to food safety. In particular, he references Catherine Belsey’s Critical Practice (1980) and Peter Barry’s Beginning Theory (1995) as landmark moments in a drive to render the skills gleaned from English courses more quantifiable. If a Higher Education course is a commodity in which students are investing time and money, they need to feel certain that by the end of the course they will have received the skills in which they have invested, otherwise they will select another course from the market. These guidebooks to literary and cultural theory are thus an important means of providing the students with the skills they require. They minimize the students’ personal response to texts, providing instead a checklist of what various authors and critics ‘do.’ It is a scenario in which the reader is rendered entirely passive, as if he or she simply absorbs from the manual a basic sense of how they should approach a text if they want to give it a post-colonial, gay, or Marxist reading. To do this is to measure English and the human sciences against the material progress of science and technology – criteria by which they will always be judged wanting since the study of English per se does not achieve material results. Instead, the trend is to generate a set of students who will at least read and think in certain routine ways, which in this case means not thinking for themselves at all, merely consuming and absorbing passively the skills which their theoretical manuals provide. The use of guidebooks in higher education in many ways thus forestalls the possibility for really creative individual work and expression, generating instead a gradually homogenised discipline, English Literature. The production of a passive reader and routine patterns of response informs my idea of guidebooks more generally. It is in the nature of guidebooks to present stable meanings and self-contained units of information. At the same time, the construction of a guidebook means that it is not amenable to interrogation. To depend on a guidebook is not to know what questions we would need to ask in order to disavow the contents of that book. The user of the guide – whether reader or traveller – is thus in many ways a passive figure. In this paper I look both at travel guides and fictional representations of the Guide and suggest that the line dividing them might not be as clear as it seems

Service Implementation Framework in Manufacturing Firms: A Case Study

The culture and the operational methods of service management have become a formidable competitive weapon even for manufacturing firms. The term "service factory" has been proposed for identifying that particular integration of products and services, achieved by the excellent manufacturing firm, where "service is a multidimensional concept". The creation of a service factory necessarily implies a radical change in the operational and organizational characteristics of the firm. In order to support manufacturing firms in adopting a service strategy, it is relevant on the one hand to identify the bundle of services which have to be provided for the customers and, on the other hand, to understand the implications for firm management model. As regards the first point, the paper proposes a framework which classifies the services along with two dimensions: Timedimension and target-dimension. The proposed framework is of interest for manufacturing firms because it allows a better recognition of services that are more perceptible for the customers. In the second part of the paper, authors discuss the implications of a service strategy adoption on the management model of manufacturing firms. In order to carry out this analysis, authors propose a model that combines four service dimensions with three decision-making categories (Organization, Methodologies and Technologies). In the end, the proposed framework has been applied in a sample of Italian hot water heater manufacturers and a case study analysis has been carried out

'Sexercise': Working out heterosexuality in Jane Fonda’s fitness books

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in Leisure Studies, 30(2), 237 - 255, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02614367.2010.523837.This paper explores the connection between the promotion of heterosexual norms in women’s fitness books written by or in the name of Jane Fonda during the 1980s and the commodification of women’s fitness space in both the public and private spheres. The paper is set in the absence of overt discussions of normative heterosexuality in leisure studies and draws on critical heterosexual scholarship as well as the growing body of work theorising geographies of corporeality and heterosexuality. Using the principles of media discourse analysis, the paper identifies three overlapping characteristics of heterosexuality represented in Jane Fonda’s fitness books, and embodied through the exercise regimes: respectable heterosexual desire, monogamous procreation and domesticity. The paper concludes that the promotion and prescription of exercise for women in the Jane Fonda workout books centred on the reproduction and embodiment of heterosexual corporeality. Set within an emerging commercial landscape of women’s fitness in the 1980s, such exercise practices were significant in the legitimation and institutionalisation of heteronormativity

Process Evaluation of the Realising Ambition Programme

Launched in May 2012 by the Big Lottery Fund (hereafter 'the Fund'), the Realising Ambition programme aims to help more young people aged 8-14 fulfil their potential and avoid pathways into offending. It does this by supporting 25 organisations to replicate proven youth interventions at new sites across the UK. The Realising Ambition process evaluation covered the first three, of five, years of the programme (2012-2015). The process evaluation had two key objectives:* To gain an understanding of the practical issues associated with replication, including issues emerging for organisations involved in replication themselves.* To explore what does and doesn't work when supporting organisations to replicate proven models, and the resources required to support different approaches to replication