PHI : a logic-based tool for intelligent help systems

We introduce a system which improves the performance of intelligent help systems by supplying them with plan generation and plan recognition components. Both components work in close mutual cooperation. We demonstrate two modes of cross-talk between them, one where plan recognition is done on the basis of abstract plans provided by the planner and the other where optimal plans are generated based on recognition results. The examples which are presented are taken from an operating system domain, namely from the UNIX mail domain. Our system is completely logic-based. Relying on a common logical framework--the interval-based modal temporal logic LLP which we have developed--both components are implemented as special purpose inference procedures. Plan generation from first and second principles is provided and carried out deductively, whereas plan recognition follows a new abductive approach for modal logics. The plan recognizer is additionally supplied with a probabilistic reasoner as a means to adjust the help provided for user-specific characteristics

A Bayesian Abduction Model For Sensemaking

This research develops a Bayesian Abduction Model for Sensemaking Support (BAMSS) for information fusion in sensemaking tasks. Two methods are investigated. The first is the classical Bayesian information fusion with belief updating (using Bayesian clustering algorithm) and abductive inference. The second method uses a Genetic Algorithm (BAMSS-GA) to search for the k-best most probable explanation (MPE) in the network. Using various data from recent Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, experimental simulations were conducted to compare the methods using posterior probability values which can be used to give insightful information for prospective sensemaking. The inference results demonstrate the utility of BAMSS as a computational model for sensemaking. The major results obtained are: (1) The inference results from BAMSS-GA gave average posterior probabilities that were 103 better than those produced by BAMSS; (2) BAMSS-GA gave more consistent posterior probabilities as measured by variances; and (3) BAMSS was able to give an MPE while BAMSS-GA was able to identify the optimal values for kMPEs. In the experiments, out of 20 MPEs generated by BAMSS, BAMSS-GA was able to identify 7 plausible network solutions resulting in less amount of information needed for sensemaking and reducing the inference search space by 7/20 (35%). The results reveal that GA can be used successfully in Bayesian information fusion as a search technique to identify those significant posterior probabilities useful for sensemaking. BAMSS-GA was also more robust in overcoming the problem of bounded search that is a constraint to Bayesian clustering and inference state space in BAMSS

Machine ethics via logic programming

Machine ethics is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry that emerges from the need of imbuing autonomous agents with the capacity of moral decision-making. While some approaches provide implementations in Logic Programming (LP) systems, they have not exploited LP-based reasoning features that appear essential for moral reasoning. This PhD thesis aims at investigating further the appropriateness of LP, notably a combination of LP-based reasoning features, including techniques available in LP systems, to machine ethics. Moral facets, as studied in moral philosophy and psychology, that are amenable to computational modeling are identified, and mapped to appropriate LP concepts for representing and reasoning about them. The main contributions of the thesis are twofold. First, novel approaches are proposed for employing tabling in contextual abduction and updating – individually and combined – plus a LP approach of counterfactual reasoning; the latter being implemented on top of the aforementioned combined abduction and updating technique with tabling. They are all important to model various issues of the aforementioned moral facets. Second, a variety of LP-based reasoning features are applied to model the identified moral facets, through moral examples taken off-the-shelf from the morality literature. These applications include: (1) Modeling moral permissibility according to the Doctrines of Double Effect (DDE) and Triple Effect (DTE), demonstrating deontological and utilitarian judgments via integrity constraints (in abduction) and preferences over abductive scenarios; (2) Modeling moral reasoning under uncertainty of actions, via abduction and probabilistic LP; (3) Modeling moral updating (that allows other – possibly overriding – moral rules to be adopted by an agent, on top of those it currently follows) via the integration of tabling in contextual abduction and updating; and (4) Modeling moral permissibility and its justification via counterfactuals, where counterfactuals are used for formulating DDE.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)-grant SFRH/BD/72795/2010 ; CENTRIA and DI/FCT/UNL for the supplementary fundin

CBR and MBR techniques: review for an application in the emergencies domain

The purpose of this document is to provide an in-depth analysis of current reasoning engine practice and the integration strategies of Case Based Reasoning and Model Based Reasoning that will be used in the design and development of the RIMSAT system. RIMSAT (Remote Intelligent Management Support and Training) is a European Commission funded project designed to: a.. Provide an innovative, 'intelligent', knowledge based solution aimed at improving the quality of critical decisions b.. Enhance the competencies and responsiveness of individuals and organisations involved in highly complex, safety critical incidents - irrespective of their location. In other words, RIMSAT aims to design and implement a decision support system that using Case Base Reasoning as well as Model Base Reasoning technology is applied in the management of emergency situations. This document is part of a deliverable for RIMSAT project, and although it has been done in close contact with the requirements of the project, it provides an overview wide enough for providing a state of the art in integration strategies between CBR and MBR technologies.Postprint (published version

Innovation Energy on Converting Employees' Innovation Properties Into Innovative Work Behaviour

Organisations seek strategies to navigate and thrive amid rapid global transitions. Over the past few decades, businesses have had to address more stringent customer demands and have experienced heightened price competition and shorter delivery times (Crossan & Apaydin, 2010). Recent challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, global environmental issues, fossil fuel shortages and worldwide geopolitical tensions, suggest companies must address changing circumstances. The demand for innovation and articulation of ideas by employees and customers has become increasingly pressing across various businesses (Guterres, 2020; Schröder, 2020). Previous research poses that while management can foster a conducive environment for innovation, a novel idea usually stems from a talented employee (Mumford, 2000; Tang, 1998; Nijhof et al., 2002). Employees with creativity, characterised by diverse backgrounds, experiences and activities, can develop, execute, react to and modify ideas within socio-political organisational processes (Van De Ven, 1986). Innovative Work Behaviour (IWB) of employees has extensively been researched since Scott and Bruce (1994) addressed its importance in innovation. Factors impacting IWB have theoretical been specified (Bass et al., 1999; Bos-Nehles et al., 2017a; De Jong & Den Hartog, 2010; De Spiegelaere, 2014; Van Den Brand et al., 2021). The variability in the impact of these factors is one uncertain aspect serving as a motivation for our research. Therefore, it is scientific interesting why specific individuals exhibit openness to innovation while others do not. The valid question to that end is also whether this openness is consistent across individuals who demonstrate IWB. The other relevant question is: Are all factors equally important for every employee demonstrating IWB? When we began our research, we assumed that there must be the existence of an overarching personal energetic factor. This assumption is based on recognizing the often long lead time of innovations, which is characterised by highs and lows, requiring overcoming numerous obstacles. Much of the literature on IWB accentuates the role of thoughtful managerial choices to stimulate innovation in organisations, we acknowledge and do not dispute this perspective. Nevertheless, IWB also results from the empowered, energetic employee demonstrating such behaviour with creativity. In our research, we extend the focus beyond the influence of the environment on employees with IWB to explore the impact of these individuals on their work context and vice versa. This aspect is deemed an underexplored theme in the literature. Upon interpreting our case studies findings, we pose a novel concept called innovation energy as our primary contribution to science. Schippers and Hogenes (2011, p. 193) reviewed and outlined the research agenda on human energy management with the following remark: ’Although energy is a concept that is implied in many motivational theories, it is hardly ever explicitly mentioned or researched’. The construct of innovation energy with five working mechanisms which we propose as our research result, provides a deeper understanding of the IWB process from the perspective of the engaged employee demonstrating IWB. Our research substantially contributes to the body of knowledge on IWB, human innovation energy and engagement. Our research encompassed three case studies conducted at domestic and international operating organisations: Philips Research, IT Company Topicus, and Saxion University of Applied Science, all located in the Netherlands. The research spanned seven and a half years (2016–2024). In the dissertation, we sequentially describe this developing process. We employed two main dimensions with four stages of IWB derived from Dorenbosch et al. (2005) for recognizing if voluntary respondents could be considered as innovative. These dimensions comprised the development-oriented IWB with problem recognition and idea generation stages and the implementation-oriented IWB encompassing idea promotion and idea realisation stages. We posit that creativity as innovation property, which is outlined by Amabile (1988, 1998) and psychological empowerment innovation properties of employees, as suggested by Spreitzer (1995, 2008), influence their innovation energy and IWB. Moreover, we consider transformational and transactional leadership (Bass, 1990; Bass et al., 1999) as contextual factors within the work environment influencing innovation energy and IWB. Other contextual factors include perceived room for autonomy (e.g., Bos-Nehles et al., 2017a) and having external contacts (e.g., De Jong & Den Hartog, 2005). The case study method was chosen to research the IWB phenomenon within its natural environment, considering IWB and the environment as integral parts of a system (Swanborn, 2013). We adopted an abductive interpretive approach in our study, as suggested by numerous scholars (Saetre & Van De Ven A., 2021; Goldkuhl, 2012; Dubois & Gadde, 2002, 2014; Annosi et al., 2016). Our study involved individual interviews with 26 managers, individual interviews with 70 employees, and 17 employees participating in five focus groups across various departments in all three organisations.Following the abductive systematic combining method (Dubois & Gadde, 2002, 2014), our sensitising conceptual theoretical framework underwent modifications based on the results of case study one. This modification yielded a sensitising conceptual model based on new, inductively coded factors stimulating IWB. These factors comprise co-creation (as a specification of having external contacts), optimism, supportive leadership (as a specification of transformational leadership), the degree of formalisation (influencing the perceived room for autonomy), innovative teamwork and the overall factor innovation energy. After completing case study two, modifications were made to the conceptual model, yielding the final ‘Innovation Energy and IWB model’. The two models differ because the relations between the factors have became mutual. After completing case study two, the ‘Innovation Energy and IWB model’ did not undergo further redirection. Case study three was highly inductive providing a deeper understanding of innovation energy, its relationships with various factors and its role in the overall IWB process to finalise the conceptualisation process for this new construct. Readers of the dissertation can track the change process because the matching, directing and redirecting steps inherent in the systematic combining method are transparently elucidated while concluding each case study chapter.The results revealed that employees with IWB exhibited the required creativity, psychological empowerment and optimistic innovation properties for this behaviour. Innovation energy is essential for generating new ideas and persisting through obstacles until an invention develops into a recognised innovation. Our data interpretation suggests that this energy converts these properties into IWB mutually influenced by five working mechanisms: (1) the individual mechanism where the person finds the energy in themselves leading towards IWB with or without the other working mechanisms, (2) the work design autonomy mechanism where the individual energy shapes and is shaped by the tasks with various levels of perceived autonomy, (3) the team mechanism where the person’s energy influences the collective team behaviours and vice versa, (4) the leadership mechanism where the innovation energy affects and is affected by leadership and (5) the external mechanism where the person’s energy influences the external stakeholders and vice versa. We suggest that the employee with IWB possesses a ‘second order cybernetic result driven directing’ role in this complex process with five mechanisms and uses the innovation energy as a convertor (Heylighen and Joslyn 2003). The main result of our case studies conceptualises the innovation energy as follows: ‘Innovation energy is a stimulus converting personal innovation properties into IWB in a mutual dependency with the work context and the innovation properties.We conceptualised the converting stimulus as follows:The energetic power which gives result drive, flow, and stamina in the total IWB process’In the IWB process, innovation energy is not a stand-alone factor; it intricately relates to the personal innovation properties, work contextual factors, and IWB. This energy differs from general human energy because employees driven by their nature or life experiences exhibit a passion for channelling this energy into innovation processes because they like change processes. Without innovation energy, nothing will happen; it must be present to light the innovation fire