A Knowledge Graph Based Integration Approach for Industry 4.0

The fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0 (I40) aims at creating smart factories employing among others Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Realizing smart factories according to the I40 vision requires intelligent human-to-machine and machine-to-machine communication. To achieve this communication, CPS along with their data need to be described and interoperability conflicts arising from various representations need to be resolved. For establishing interoperability, industry communities have created standards and standardization frameworks. Standards describe main properties of entities, systems, and processes, as well as interactions among them. Standardization frameworks classify, align, and integrate industrial standards according to their purposes and features. Despite being published by official international organizations, different standards may contain divergent definitions for similar entities. Further, when utilizing the same standard for the design of a CPS, different views can generate interoperability conflicts. Albeit expressive, standardization frameworks may represent divergent categorizations of the same standard to some extent, interoperability conflicts need to be resolved to support effective and efficient communication in smart factories. To achieve interoperability, data need to be semantically integrated and existing conflicts conciliated. This problem has been extensively studied in the literature. Obtained results can be applied to general integration problems. However, current approaches fail to consider specific interoperability conflicts that occur between entities in I40 scenarios. In this thesis, we tackle the problem of semantic data integration in I40 scenarios. A knowledge graphbased approach allowing for the integration of entities in I40 while considering their semantics is presented. To achieve this integration, there are challenges to be addressed on different conceptual levels. Firstly, defining mappings between standards and standardization frameworks; secondly, representing knowledge of entities in I40 scenarios described by standards; thirdly, integrating perspectives of CPS design while solving semantic heterogeneity issues; and finally, determining real industry applications for the presented approach. We first devise a knowledge-driven approach allowing for the integration of standards and standardization frameworks into an Industry 4.0 knowledge graph (I40KG). The standards ontology is used for representing the main properties of standards and standardization frameworks, as well as relationships among them. The I40KG permits to integrate standards and standardization frameworks while solving specific semantic heterogeneity conflicts in the domain. Further, we semantically describe standards in knowledge graphs. To this end, standards of core importance for I40 scenarios are considered, i.e., the Reference Architectural Model for I40 (RAMI4.0), AutomationML, and the Supply Chain Operation Reference Model (SCOR). In addition, different perspectives of entities describing CPS are integrated into the knowledge graphs. To evaluate the proposed methods, we rely on empirical evaluations as well as on the development of concrete use cases. The attained results provide evidence that a knowledge graph approach enables the effective data integration of entities in I40 scenarios while solving semantic interoperability conflicts, thus empowering the communication in smart factories

Front-Line Physicians' Satisfaction with Information Systems in Hospitals

Day-to-day operations management in hospital units is difficult due to continuously varying situations, several actors involved and a vast number of information systems in use. The aim of this study was to describe front-line physicians' satisfaction with existing information systems needed to support the day-to-day operations management in hospitals. A cross-sectional survey was used and data chosen with stratified random sampling were collected in nine hospitals. Data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The response rate was 65 % (n = 111). The physicians reported that information systems support their decision making to some extent, but they do not improve access to information nor are they tailored for physicians. The respondents also reported that they need to use several information systems to support decision making and that they would prefer one information system to access important information. Improved information access would better support physicians' decision making and has the potential to improve the quality of decisions and speed up the decision making process.Peer reviewe

Políticas de Copyright de Publicações Científicas em Repositórios Institucionais: O Caso do INESC TEC

A progressiva transformação das práticas científicas, impulsionada pelo desenvolvimento das novas Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), têm possibilitado aumentar o acesso à informação, caminhando gradualmente para uma abertura do ciclo de pesquisa. Isto permitirá resolver a longo prazo uma adversidade que se tem colocado aos investigadores, que passa pela existência de barreiras que limitam as condições de acesso, sejam estas geográficas ou financeiras. Apesar da produção científica ser dominada, maioritariamente, por grandes editoras comerciais, estando sujeita às regras por estas impostas, o Movimento do Acesso Aberto cuja primeira declaração pública, a Declaração de Budapeste (BOAI), é de 2002, vem propor alterações significativas que beneficiam os autores e os leitores. Este Movimento vem a ganhar importância em Portugal desde 2003, com a constituição do primeiro repositório institucional a nível nacional. Os repositórios institucionais surgiram como uma ferramenta de divulgação da produção científica de uma instituição, com o intuito de permitir abrir aos resultados da investigação, quer antes da publicação e do próprio processo de arbitragem (preprint), quer depois (postprint), e, consequentemente, aumentar a visibilidade do trabalho desenvolvido por um investigador e a respetiva instituição. O estudo apresentado, que passou por uma análise das políticas de copyright das publicações científicas mais relevantes do INESC TEC, permitiu não só perceber que as editoras adotam cada vez mais políticas que possibilitam o auto-arquivo das publicações em repositórios institucionais, como também que existe todo um trabalho de sensibilização a percorrer, não só para os investigadores, como para a instituição e toda a sociedade. A produção de um conjunto de recomendações, que passam pela implementação de uma política institucional que incentive o auto-arquivo das publicações desenvolvidas no âmbito institucional no repositório, serve como mote para uma maior valorização da produção científica do INESC TEC.The progressive transformation of scientific practices, driven by the development of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), which made it possible to increase access to information, gradually moving towards an opening of the research cycle. This opening makes it possible to resolve, in the long term, the adversity that has been placed on researchers, which involves the existence of barriers that limit access conditions, whether geographical or financial. Although large commercial publishers predominantly dominate scientific production and subject it to the rules imposed by them, the Open Access movement whose first public declaration, the Budapest Declaration (BOAI), was in 2002, proposes significant changes that benefit the authors and the readers. This Movement has gained importance in Portugal since 2003, with the constitution of the first institutional repository at the national level. Institutional repositories have emerged as a tool for disseminating the scientific production of an institution to open the results of the research, both before publication and the preprint process and postprint, increase the visibility of work done by an investigator and his or her institution. The present study, which underwent an analysis of the copyright policies of INESC TEC most relevant scientific publications, allowed not only to realize that publishers are increasingly adopting policies that make it possible to self-archive publications in institutional repositories, all the work of raising awareness, not only for researchers but also for the institution and the whole society. The production of a set of recommendations, which go through the implementation of an institutional policy that encourages the self-archiving of the publications developed in the institutional scope in the repository, serves as a motto for a greater appreciation of the scientific production of INESC TEC