Semantic Keyword-based Search on Heterogeneous Information Systems

En los últimos años, con la difusión y el uso de Internet, el volumen de información disponible para los usuarios ha crecido exponencialmente. Además, la posibilidad de acceder a dicha información se ha visto impulsada por los niveles de conectividad de los que disfrutamos actualmente gracias al uso de los móviles de nueva generación y las redes inalámbricas (e.g., 3G, Wi-Fi). Sin embargo, con los métodos de acceso actuales, este exceso de información es tan perjudicial como la falta de la misma, ya que el usuario no tiene tiempo de procesarla en su totalidad. Por otro lado, esta información está detrás de sistemas de información de naturaleza muy heterogénea (e.g., buscadores Web, fuentes de Linked Data, etc.), y el usuario tiene que conocerlos para poder explotar al máximo sus capacidades. Esta diversidad se hace más patente si consideramos cualquier servicio de información como potencial fuente de información para el usuario (e.g., servicios basados en la localización, bases de datos exportadas mediante Servicios Web, etc.). Dado este nivel de heterogeneidad, la integración de estos sistemas se debe hacer externamente, ocultando su complejidad al usuario y dotándole de mecanismos para que pueda expresar sus consultas de forma sencilla. En este sentido, el uso de interfaces basados en palabras clave (keywords) se ha popularizado gracias a su sencillez y a su adopción por parte de los buscadores Web más usados. Sin embargo, esa sencillez que es su mayor virtud también es su mayor defecto, ya que genera problemas de ambigüedad en las consultas. Las consultas expresadas como conjuntos de palabras clave son inherentemente ambiguas al ser una proyección de la verdadera pregunta que el usuario quiere hacer. En la presente tesis, abordamos el problema de integrar sistemas de información heterogéneos bajo una búsqueda guiada por la semántica de las palabras clave; y presentamos QueryGen, un prototipo de nuestra solución. En esta búsqueda semántica abogamos por establecer la consulta que el usuario tenía en mente cuando escribió sus palabras clave, en un lenguaje de consulta formal para evitar posibles ambigüedades. La integración de los sistemas subyacentes se realiza a través de la definición de sus lenguajes de consulta y de sus modelos de ejecución. En particular, nuestro sistema: - Descubre el significado de las palabras clave consultando un conjunto dinámico de ontologías, y desambigua dichas palabras teniendo en cuenta su contexto (el resto de palabras clave), ya que cada una de las palabras tiene influencia sobre el significado del resto de la entrada. Durante este proceso, los significados que son suficientemente similares son fusionados y el sistema propone aquellos más probables dada la entrada del usuario. La información semántica obtenida en el proceso es integrada y utilizada en fases posteriores para obtener la correcta interpretación del conjunto de palabras clave. - Un mismo conjunto de palabras pueden representar diversas consultas aún cuando se conoce su significado individual. Por ello, una vez establecidos los significados de cada palabra y para obtener la consulta exacta del usuario, nuestro sistema encuentra todas las preguntas posibles utilizando las palabras clave. Esta traducción de palabras clave a preguntas se realiza empleando lenguajes de consulta formales para evitar las posibles ambigüedades y expresar la consulta de manera precisa. Nuestro sistema evita la generación de preguntas semánticamente incorrectas o duplicadas con la ayuda de un razonador basado en Lógicas Descriptivas (Description Logics). En este proceso, nuestro sistema es capaz de reaccionar ante entradas insuficientes (e.g., palabras omitidas) mediante la adición de términos virtuales, que representan internamente palabras que el usuario tenía en mente pero omitió cuando escribió su consulta. - Por último, tras la validación por parte del usuario de su consulta, nuestro sistema accede a los sistemas de información registrados que pueden responderla y recupera la respuesta de acuerdo a la semántica de la consulta. Para ello, nuestro sistema implementa una arquitectura modular permite añadir nuevos sistemas al vuelo siempre que se proporcione su especificación (lenguajes de consulta soportados, modelos y formatos de datos, etc.). Por otro lado, el trabajar con sistemas de información heterogéneos, en particular sistemas relacionados con la Computación Móvil, ha permitido que las contribuciones de esta tesis no se limiten al campo de la búsqueda semántica. A este respecto, se ha estudiado el ámbito de la semántica de las consultas basadas en la localización, y especialmente, la influencia de la semántica de las localizaciones en el procesado e interpretación de las mismas. En particular, se proponen dos modelos ontológicos para modelar y capturar la relaciones semánticas de las localizaciones y ampliar la expresividad de las consultas basadas en la localización. Durante el desarrollo de esta tesis, situada entre el ámbito de la Web Semántica y el de la Computación Móvil, se ha abierto una nueva línea de investigación acerca del modelado de conocimiento volátil, y se ha estudiado la posibilidad de utilizar razonadores basados en Lógicas Descriptivas en dispositivos basados en Android. Por último, nuestro trabajo en el ámbito de las búsquedas semánticas a partir de palabras clave ha sido extendido al ámbito de los agentes conversacionales, haciéndoles capaces de explotar distintas fuentes de datos semánticos actualmente disponibles bajo los principios del Linked Data

The cropping-plan decision-making : a farm level modelling and simulation approach

L'assolement' c'est à dire l'attribution des cultures sur les différentes parcelles de l'exploitation agricole' est un élément fondamental de la stratégie de l'agriculteur. Il provient d'un équilibre entre des contraintes et objectifs multiples alliant les dimensions sociale' économique' agronomique et environnementale (utilisation des ressources). Il reflète deux dimensions: une dimension stratégique (lié aux orientations de l'exploitation) et une dimension tactique plus lié à l'adaptation des attributions suite à des contextes changeant (climatique' prix). Afin représenter ces deux niveaux et ainsi structurer les enjeux relatifs aux choix d'assolement à l'échelle de l'exploitation nous proposons une approche basées sur : i) une analyse du processus décisionnel par le biais d'enquêtes en exploitation; ii) une modélisation dynamique aussi bien sur des processus biophysiques (modèles de culture) que sur des processus de gestion (modèle de décision) pour comprendre et simuler. ABSTRACT : Evolutions of the institutional and environmental contexts are driving search for alternative cropping systems to reduce water use while maintaining high levels of productivity. This thesis is an account of the long tradition of research on cropping-plan choices at the farm level. It concerns the scope of modelling agricultural systems with an opening to economy. The objective of the research described in this thesis is to produce formalised knowledge on farmers’ croppingplan choices under uncertain environment (price and weather) by analysing and modelling their decision-making processes. Formalising and modelling decision-making processes is becoming a crucial point to develop decision support systems that go beyond limitations of formerly developed prescriptive approaches. This thesis contributes to the development of a formalised and integrated methodology to study and model complex decision-making process. This methodology enables to fill the gap between field surveys and decision-model implementation. The methodology is drawn upon a theoretical background of the decision-making' and consistently combined tools to respectively survey' analyse' model and implement coupled agent and biophysical models. In this thesis' I address the question of uncertainty in two directions. I first analyse the spatio-temporal dynamic of individual farmers’ decision-making process. Then I estimate farmers’ aversion to risk by comparing stated and revealed elicitation methods. On the basis of field survey results' I develop a decision model called CRASH. The approach to develop the model stresses on explicit formalisation of the decision-making process in its temporal and spatial dimensions' and representation of the domain knowledge through generic concepts that are close to ones used by decision-makers. The implementation of developed models is carried out on the RECORD platform as trail blazing project. The originality relies on the use of dynamic models on both the biophysical and management processes. This research opens new perspectives for developing farm specific decision support systems that are based on simulating farmers’ decisionmaking processes. The modelling and simulating the cropping-plan decision-making processes should enable to design with farmers cropping systems that re-conciliate the required adaptive capacities and needs to maintain cropping systems productivity

The Limits and Opportunities of Using GIS as a Boundary Object to Represent Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation (BOFN) Indigenous Knowledge in the Nisbet Provincial Forest Implementation Processes

In Canada, forest and natural resource management is guided by a paradigm that is predominately based on the understandings and values of Westernized society. As a result, the application and meaningful inclusion of other knowledges, such as Indigenous Knowledge (IK), to influence the decision-making process within these management systems is fraught with challenges. Although extensive research has been done on addressing these challenges and including Indigenous communities in a decision-making role, practical and innovative tools are still needed to focus on how IK may more effectively shape forest and natural resource management. My study assessed the limits and opportunities of using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps as a boundary object to represent IK in resource planning and implementation processes. Four boundary object criteria were derived from the boundary object literature and used to evaluate the limits and opportunities of GIS maps to act as boundary objects: flexibility, concreteness, joint process, and information need. The IK used in the thesis was categorized according to the Six Faces of Traditional Ecological Knowledge, a framework developed by Houde (2007). Knowledge for this study was provided from a case study community: Beardy’s and Okemasis First Nation (BOFN) of Saskatchewan, Canada. Through document analysis and semi-structured interviews, knowledge was categorized, and GIS maps were then developed to display this knowledge. I then evaluated whether and how the GIS maps were effective boundary objects using the boundary object criteria. There are four main findings from my study. First, GIS maps have the potential as boundary objects to effectively represent IK in resource planning and implementation. Second, not all of the Six Faces used to inform the GIS maps met the criteria at the time the knowledge for these Faces was collected. Third, some Faces were not suitable to include in the GIS maps, partly as a result of not meeting all the criteria and limitations due to the data that were collected. Fourth, the criteria suggested specific ways to improve on the current barriers inhibiting greater use of IK in GIS maps such that they can function as effective boundary objects. In summary, this research has helped to partially address the gap in knowledge for developing boundary objects to facilitate the use of IK in forest and natural resource management planning processes

Proceedings of The Multi-Agent Logics, Languages, and Organisations Federated Workshops (MALLOW 2010)

http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-627/allproceedings.pdfInternational audienceMALLOW-2010 is a third edition of a series initiated in 2007 in Durham, and pursued in 2009 in Turin. The objective, as initially stated, is to "provide a venue where: the cost of participation was minimum; participants were able to attend various workshops, so fostering collaboration and cross-fertilization; there was a friendly atmosphere and plenty of time for networking, by maximizing the time participants spent together"

Human Resource Information Systems and the performance of the Human Resource Function.

Historical overview – From transactional HR to Strategic HR. Benefits and Drawbacks. Empirical studies in HRIS. Elements of current technology in HRM. Trends in the HR technology. Impact of the HR integrated model. HR specialist systems in the back-office. Self-Service and Shared Service Systems. The integrated management of HRIS. Research Model. Rational and Design.Historical overview – From transactional HR to Strategic HR. Benefits and Drawbacks. Empirical studies in HRIS. Elements of current technology in HRM. Trends in the HR technology. Impact of the HR integrated model. HR specialist systems in the back-office. Self-Service and Shared Service Systems. The integrated management of HRIS. Research Model. Rational and Design.LUISS PhD Thesi

Ontologies as a Solution for Simultaneously Integrating and Reconciliating Data Sources

International audienceWith the increasing needs for the world wide enterprises to integrate, share and visualize data from various heterogeneous, autonomous and distributed sources data and Web data covering a given domain, the development of integration and reconciliation solutions becomes a challenging issue. The existing studies on data integration and reconciliation of results have been developed in an isolated way and did not consider the strong integration between these two processes. On one hand, ontologies were largely used for building automatic integration systems due to their ability to reduce schematic and semantic heterogeneities that may exist among sources. On the other hand, reconciliation of results is performed either by considering that all sources use the same identifier for an instance or by means of statistical methods that identify affinities between concepts. These reconciliation solutions are not usually suitable for real-world sensitive-applications where exact results are required and where each source may use a different identifier for the same concept. In this paper, we propose a methodology that simultaneously integrate source data and reconciliate their instances based on ontologies enriched with functional dependencies (FD) in a mediation architecture. The presence of FD gives more autonomy to sources when choosing their primary keys and facilitates the result reconciliation. This methodology is experimented using the Lehigh University Benchmark (LUBM) dataset to show its scalability and the quality of the reconciliation result phase

Sosiaalipolitiikka ja alkuperäiskansat Taiwanissa

This dissertation examines the relationship between the colonial state and Indigenous peoples by focusing on the case of elderly care. Studying the Tayal in Taiwan, it investigates aging, care and well-being from the Indigenous paradigm. The aim is to develop the hermeneutic perspective of the Tayal to privilege their voices in reconfiguring the concept of care. Three research questions are posed: 1) What are the “Indigenous problems” represented in long-term care (LTC) policies in Taiwan? 2) How do the Tayal experience care in a care center funded by the state? How do they contest the policies and what visions of care do they have? 3) What are the discrepancies between policy and practice? How do they reflect the relationship between coloniality and indigeneity in multicultural Taiwan? The data consists of policy documents, participant observation, field notes, interviews and personal narratives concerning the everyday experiences of Tayal elders (bnkis). Methodologically, the dissertation employs critical policy analysis and critical ethnography. The dissertation arrives at three main conclusions. First, the identified three frames depoliticize the “problem” of elderly care for the Indigenous peoples and make them “invisible.” Through frames of secludedness and inadequacy, the construction of the Indigenous problem is depicted as caused by their geographical location and by their lack of ability to be service providers or consumers. By contrast, the frame of culture emphasizes unique traditions, allowing more agency but running the risk of imposing an image of static and unchanging indigeneity. Second, the ethnographic analysis shows the strength, resilience and resistance of the bnkis. The idealized “tribal care” promoted in the Day Club, the social center which served as the core location for my fieldwork, turns a blind eye to the fluid, contextual and living Tayal culture, which underlies the kind of care that the bnkis prefer. Investigation of the experiences of bnkis shows that the Day Club is appropriated, repurposed and redefined by the Tayal community to negotiate identities and contest predominant conceptualizations of aging and care. Third, the findings indicate that contrary to Taiwan’s claims to be multicultural and its promise to recognize Indigenous rights, the approach to accommodate Indigenous elders is still predicated on a middle-class, urban, Han-Chinese norm. The novelty of this study lies in its aspiration to develop Indigenous epistemology and Tayal hermeneutics in the context of care. The results contribute to literature in critical policy analysis, care studies, Indigenous studies, critical gerontology and Taiwan studies, as they raise important questions about what indigeneity is and the role that the nation-state plays in the making of social policy for Indigenous elders.Tässä väitöskirjassa tarkastellaan koloniaalisen valtion ja alkuperäiskansojen välistä suhdetta keskittymällä vanhusten hoivaan. Väitöskirjassa tutkitaan Taiwanin atayal-alkuperäiskansaan kuuluvien ikääntymistä, hoivaa ja hyvinvointia alkuperäiskansojen paradigman näkökulmasta. Tavoitteena on kehittää atayalien hermeneutiikkaa, jotta heidän äänensä saataisiin kuuluviin hoivan käsitteen uudelleenmäärittelyssä. Väitöskirjassa esitetään kolme tutkimuskysymystä: 1) Mitä ”alkuperäiskansoihin liittyviä ongelmia” Taiwanin pitkäaikaishoivan politiikassa on? 2) Millaisena atayalit kokevat hoivan valtion rahoittamassa hoivakeskuksessa? Miten he kyseenalaistavat vallitsevaa politiikkaa ja minkälaisia näkemyksiä heillä on hoivasta? 3) Mitä eroja politiikan ja käytännön välillä on? Miten erot heijastavat koloniaalisuuden ja alkuperäiskansalaisuuden välistä suhdetta monikulttuurisessa Taiwanissa? Aineisto koostuu poliittisista asiakirjoista, osallistujien havainnoinnista, kenttämuistiinpanoista, haastatteluista ja henkilökohtaisista tarinoista atayal-alkuperäiskansan vanhusten (bnkis) arjen kokemuksista. Väitöskirjan tutkimusmenetelminä käytetään kriittistä policy- analyysia ja kriittistä etnografiaa. Väitöskirjassa tehdään kolme keskeistä johtopäätöstä. Ensinnäkin tunnistetut kolme kehystä depolitisoivat alkuperäiskansoihin kuuluvien vanhusten hoivan ”ongelman” ja tekevät heistä ”näkymättömiä”. Eristäytyneisyyden ja vaillinaisuuden kehysten läpi tarkasteltuna alkuperäiskansojen hoivaan liittyvien ongelmien katsotaan johtuvan heidän maantieteellisestä sijainnista ja oletetusta kyvyttömyydestä toimia palveluntarjoajina tai -kuluttajina. Kulttuurillinen kehys sitä vastoin korostaa alkuperäiskansojen ainutlaatuisia perinteitä, mikä lisää toimijuutta, mutta vaarana on, että syntyy mielikuva staattisesta ja muuttumattomasta alkuperäiskansasta. Toiseksi etnografinen analyysi tuo esiin bnkisien vahvuuden, sitkeyden ja kestävyyden. Kenttätyön ydinkohteena olleessa päiväkerhossa edistetty ihanteellinen ”heimoperusteinen hoiva” sulkee silmänsä muuttuvalta, kontekstuaaliselta ja elävältä atayal-kulttuurilta, joka luo pohjan bnkisien kaipaamalle hoivalle. Bnkisien kokemuksiin perehtyminen osoittaa, että atayal-yhteisö kuitenkin ottaa haltuun, muotoilee ja määrittelee uudelleen päiväkerhon ja kyseenalaistaa identiteetit sekä ikääntymisen ja hoivan vallitsevat käsitteellistämiset. Kolmanneksi havainnot viittaavat siihen, että huolimatta Taiwanin monikulttuuriseksi julistautumisesta ja lupauksesta tunnustaa alkuperäiskansojen oikeudet, lähestymistapa alkuperäiskansoihin kuuluvien vanhusten hoivaan perustuu edelleen keskiluokkaiseen, urbaaniin ja han-kiinalaiseen normiin. Tämän tutkimuksen uutuus piilee pyrkimyksessä kehittää alkuperäiskansojen epistemologiaa ja atayalien hermeneutiikkaa hoivan viitekehyksessä. Tutkimuksen tulokset tarjoavat panoksensa kriittistä policy-analyysia, hoivatutkimusta, alkuperäiskansojen tutkimusta, kriittistä gerontologiaa ja Taiwan-aiheista tutkimusta koskevaan kirjallisuuteen, sillä ne tuovat esiin tärkeitä kysymyksiä alkuperäiskansoista ja kansallisvaltion roolista alkuperäiskansoihin kuuluvia vanhuksia koskevan sosiaalipolitiikan toteuttamisessa