A framework for integrating syntax, semantics and pragmatics for computer-aided professional practice: With application of costing in construction industry

Producing a bill of quantity is a knowledge-based, dynamic and collaborative process, and evolves with variances and current evidence. However, within the context of information system practice in BIM, knowledge of cost estimation has not been represented, nor has it been integrated into the processes based on BIM. This paper intends to establish an innovative means of taking data from the BIM linked to a project, and using it to create the necessary items for a bill of quantity that will enable cost estimation to be undertaken for the project. Our framework is founded upon the belief that three components are necessary to gain a full awareness of the domain which is being computerised; the information type which is to be assessed for compatibility (syntax), the definition for the pricing domain (semantics), and the precise implementation environment for the standards being taken into account (pragmatics). In order to achieve this, a prototype is created that allows a cost item for the bill of quantity to be spontaneously generated, by means of the semantic web ontology and a forward chain algorithm. Within this paper, ‘cost items’ signify the elements included in a bill of quantity, including details of their description, quantity and price. As a means of authenticating the process being developed, the authors of this work effectively implemented it in the production of cost items. In addition, the items created were contrasted with those produced by specialists. For this reason, this innovative framework introduces the possibility of a new means of applying semantic web ontology and forward chain algorithm to construction professional practice resulting in automatic cost estimation. These key outcomes demonstrate that, decoupling the professional practice into three key components of syntax, semantics and pragmatics can provide tangible benefits to domain use

Ontology modeling for generation of clinical pathways

Purpose: Increasing costs of health care, fuelled by demand for high quality, cost-effective healthcare has drove hospitals to streamline their patient care delivery systems. One such systematic approach is the adaptation of Clinical Pathways (CP) as a tool to increase the quality of healthcare delivery. However, most organizations still rely on are paper-based pathway guidelines or specifications, which have limitations in process management and as a result can influence patient safety outcomes. In this paper, we present a method for generating clinical pathways based on organizational semiotics by capturing knowledge from syntactic, semantic and pragmatic to social level. Design/methodology/approach: The proposed modeling approach to generation of CPs adopts organizational semiotics and enables the generation of semantically rich representation of CP knowledge. Semantic Analysis Method (SAM) is applied to explicitly represent the semantics of the concepts, their relationships and patterns of behavior in terms of an ontology chart. Norm Analysis Method (NAM) is adopted to identify and formally specify patterns of behavior and rules that govern the actions identified on the ontology chart. Information collected during semantic and norm analysis is integrated to guide the generation of CPs using best practice represented in BPMN thus enabling the automation of CP. Findings: This research confirms the necessity of taking into consideration social aspects in designing information systems and automating CP. The complexity of healthcare processes can be best tackled by analyzing stakeholders, which we treat as social agents, their goals and patterns of action within the agent network. Originality/value: The current modeling methods describe CPs from a structural aspect comprising activities, properties and interrelationships. However, these methods lack a mechanism to describe possible patterns of human behavior and the conditions under which the behavior will occur. To overcome this weakness, a semiotic approach to generation of clinical pathway is introduced. The CP generated from SAM together with norms will enrich the knowledge representation of the domain through ontology modeling, which allows the recognition of human responsibilities and obligations and more importantly, the ultimate power of decision making in exceptional circumstances

Semantic technologies: from niche to the mainstream of Web 3? A comprehensive framework for web Information modelling and semantic annotation

Context: Web information technologies developed and applied in the last decade have considerably changed the way web applications operate and have revolutionised information management and knowledge discovery. Social technologies, user-generated classification schemes and formal semantics have a far-reaching sphere of influence. They promote collective intelligence, support interoperability, enhance sustainability and instigate innovation. Contribution: The research carried out and consequent publications follow the various paradigms of semantic technologies, assess each approach, evaluate its efficiency, identify the challenges involved and propose a comprehensive framework for web information modelling and semantic annotation, which is the thesis’ original contribution to knowledge. The proposed framework assists web information modelling, facilitates semantic annotation and information retrieval, enables system interoperability and enhances information quality. Implications: Semantic technologies coupled with social media and end-user involvement can instigate innovative influence with wide organisational implications that can benefit a considerable range of industries. The scalable and sustainable business models of social computing and the collective intelligence of organisational social media can be resourcefully paired with internal research and knowledge from interoperable information repositories, back-end databases and legacy systems. Semantified information assets can free human resources so that they can be used to better serve business development, support innovation and increase productivity

National Patient Flow Framework: An Ontological Patient-oriented Redesign

This study aims to redesign and measure patient satisfaction and treatment of the patient flow process. Based on ontology, it will redesign the core patient flow processes with the simultaneous introduction of a patient-oriented model that will conceptualise and implement this ontological framework. A gap regarding scientific, patient-oriented, measurable frameworks has been discovered and demonstrates the need for a new healthcare management framework. As the need for this new framework is identified, this study aims at fulfilling the following objectives: A novel redesign of core transactions of the patient flow process, based on ontology, and its supporting patient-oriented information system, from being healthcare oriented to being patient oriented. Implement this study’s conceptualisation (patient-oriented flow) in a novel beyond any doubt, way through the function of the supporting information system as well as its measures used for the ontological process redesign. Improve efficiency in the healthcare system through competent management of institutional resources by providing a fertile framework for strategic cooperation among patients and healthcare providers. Assist in the development and maintenance of measurable activity-based driven results that improve patient quality value added services, turning everyday healthcare acts into healthcare facts relevant to this study’s concept. Concluding, scientific contributions of this study include the discovery and redesign of the contemporary both conceptual and structural gaps in the patient flow process and the introduction of a measurable scientific, not practical, redesign through the enterprise ontology methodology. Finally, the implementation of a novel patient-oriented framework (OS), based on universal characteristics, that results to effective GP appointment, proper diagnosis and referral, economically traceable and structurally measurable, both qualitative and quantitative, hospital inflow-outflow as well as patient awareness and patient relations management

The Social Cognitive Actor

Multi-Agent Simulation (MAS) of organisations is a methodology that is adopted in this dissertation in order to study and understand human behaviour in organisations. The aim of the research is to design and implementat a cognitive and social multi-agent simulation model based on a selection of social and cognitive theories to fulfill the need for a complex cognitive and social model. The emphasis of this dissertation is the relationship between behaviour of individuals (micro-level) in an organisation and the behaviour of the organisation as a whole (macro-level)

Working Women in the Sandwich Generation

Women more often than men take care of their ageing relatives together with their own children or grandchildren. These Sandwich Generation (SG) women constitute an expanding vulnerable group on the labour market at higher risk of discrimination, work-family conflict, burnout, and withdrawal from the labour market and unemployment. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation helps present a clearer view of how to support this group both now and in the future. Beginning with a presentation of quantitative and qualitative research that sheds light on the SG situation in Poland, Finland and Flanders, this volume provides insights into various components from the SG life domains such as personal development and learning, connection to the labour market, coping strategies, resources, and energy drainers. In the second part the book provides tools for SG women, their supervisors, educators, and coaches to help manage challenging situations and improving wellbeing at work. Working Women in the Sandwich Generation then introduces the results of international comparative research the purpose of which was to identify and characterise the SG in five European countries before concluding with recommendations for supervisors and policy makers in supporting SG women

Profiling behaviour: The social construction of categories in the detection of financial crime.

Profiles are knowledge constructs that represent and identify a data subject. While not a new phenomenon, the use of profiling has exploded and its ubiquity is likely to increase, as a result of the widespread adoption of monitoring technology. The literature on profile development tends to refer to the practice, the technique or the technology of profiling, separately. Little has been written on how the perspectives interact with each other and, ultimately, shape the emerging behaviour profile. In order to map out the elements that impact on behaviour profiling, this thesis uses organisational semiotics, enhanced with classification theory, for key constructs. The study views profilers as agents who interpret and act on available information according to particular sets of technical, formal and informal factors and who, in the presence of incomplete or ambiguous stimuli, may fill in or distort information. Furthermore, the thesis examines how the position of the interpreter in the profiling process influences the result of the exercise. A case study conducted in a British financial institution demonstrates how technical systems and profilers acting in particular contexts influence each other in a dialectical process, whereby the characteristics of the data available impact the analysts' ability to interpret an event and, at the same time, the analysts tend to look for in the data only what they consider conceivable. The discussion centres on the influence of the type of stimuli available, the relational context and the actions of individual profilers in shaping the emerging meaning, in the context of financial crime detection. In addition, it considers the role of technical, formal and informal systems to overcome eventual variances in meaning. The thesis extends the applicability of organisational semiotics with classification theory. Inspired by models of sequential encounters, the thesis provides a methodological contribution by developing a tool for the analysis of sequential meaning making processes. A practical contribution emerges from mapping the impact of the profilers' perceptions into the emerging profile, and by suggesting mechanisms for shaping those perceptions