7,259 research outputs found
Ontology Population via NLP Techniques in Risk Management
In this paper we propose an NLP-based method for Ontology Population from texts and apply it to semi automatic instantiate a Generic Knowledge Base (Generic Domain Ontology) in the risk management domain. The approach is semi-automatic and uses a domain expert intervention for validation. The proposed approach relies on a set of Instances Recognition Rules based on syntactic structures, and on the predicative power of verbs in the instantiation process. It is not domain dependent since it heavily relies on linguistic knowledge. A description of an experiment performed on a part of the ontology of the PRIMA project (supported by the European community) is given. A first validation of the method is done by populating this ontology with Chemical Fact Sheets from Environmental Protection Agency . The results of this experiment complete the paper and support the hypothesis that relying on the predicative power of verbs in the instantiation process improves the performance.Information Extraction, Instance Recognition Rules, Ontology Population, Risk Management, Semantic Analysis
"Theories are made only to die in the war of time": Guy Debord & the Situationist International as Strategic Thinkers
The Situationist International has been one of the main reference points during the past forty more years within social movement organizing, cultural studies, social theory, and philosophy concerned with the development of the city. While the SI have been understood in many ways, as inheritors as elaborators of a unorthodox Marxist politics drawing heavily from the history of the avant-garde, relatively little attention has been paid to the specifically strategic dimension of their thought and practice. This is surprising, particular in Debord?s case, given how much his work also draws from the history of military strategy. This paper particular will examine the strategic aspects of Debord and the SI?s thought and politics and how they rethinking the nature of strategy through collective forms of aesthetic-political practice
The power and vulnerability of the ânew professionalâ: Web management in UK universities
Research paper
Purpose: To explore the character of an emergent occupational role, that of university web manager.
Design/methodology/approach: The primary data used were 15 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2004. These were analysed partly for factual and attitudinal data, but also for the discursive interpretative repertoires in use.
Findings: The paper examines the diverse backgrounds, occupational trajectories, organisational positions, job roles and status of practitioners working in âweb managementâ in UK Higher Education. The discursive divide between the marketing and IT approaches to the web is investigated. Two case studies explore further the complexity and creativity involved in individualsâ construction of coherent and successful occupational identities.
Research implications / limitations: The paper examines the position of web managers within the framework of the notions of the marginal but powerful ânew professionalâ or âbrokerâ technician. It gives a vivid insight into how the web as a dynamic and open technology opens up opportunities for new forms of expertise; but also explores the potential vulnerabilities of such new roles. In order to examine personal experience in depth, data was gathered for only a relatively small number of individuals. The research was also limited to the UK university sector and to those with a broad responsibility for the web site of the whole institution, i.e. not library web managers and other web authors who work primarily to produce a departmental web presence. These limits imply obvious ways in which the research could be extended.
Practical implications: There are implications for how institutions support people in such roles, and for how they can support each other.
Originality: There is a vast literature about the web, little about the new work roles that have grown up around it
Mirror, dynamo or lens? Drama, children and social change
In this talk I will outline a collection of metaphors in search of an idea that can express theatreâs potential as a form of social pedagogy and socialisation both for young people of school age and also for its other audiences and makers. In talking of a pedagogy of theatre I will borrow from the late John McGrathâs use of the term a âlearning paediaâ which he succinctly distils into two main features:
Accuracy â the audience must recognise and accept the emotional and social veracity of what is happening on stage, must identify with the core situation, whatever styly may be used to present it.
Relevance â the core situation must reflect the central, most profound realities of its time, must speak to its audiences about a truth that matters in their lives, whether social, moral, political, emotional or individual I (McGrath 2002, p. 138)
To these features of truthfulness and relevance he adds the core principle that theatre should use all possible means to reach every citizen and not act as âan excluding agency, whether by the price of its tickets, the manner of its box office staff, its location or its impenetrabilityâ (ibid. p.139)
Modelling and simulation of paradigms for printed circuit board assembly to support the UK's competency in high reliability electronics
The fundamental requirement of the research reported within this thesis is the provision
of physical models to enable model based simulation of mainstream printed circuit
assembly (PCA) process discrete events for use within to-be-developed (or under
development) software tools which codify cause & effects knowledge for use in product
and process design optimisation. To support a national competitive advantage in high
reliability electronics UK based producers of aircraft electronic subsystems require
advanced simulation tools which offer model based guidance. In turn, maximization of
manufacturability and minimization of uncontrolled rework must therefore enhance inservice
sustainability for âpower-by-the-hourâ commercial aircraft operation business
models. [Continues.
The role of postgraduate students in co-authoring open educational resources to promote social inclusion: a case study at the University of Cape Town
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Distance Education on 24 Jul 2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/01587919.2012.692052.Like many universities worldwide, the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa has joined the open educational resources (OER) movement, making a selection of teaching and learning materials available through its OER directory, UCT OpenContent. However, persuading and then supporting busy academics to share their teaching materials as OER still remains a challenge. In this article, we report on an empirical study of how UCT postgraduate students have assisted in the process of reworking the academics' teaching materials as OER. Using the concept of contradictions (Engeström, 2001), we endeavor to surface the various disturbances or conflicts with which the postgraduate students had to engage to make OER socially inclusive, as well as Engeström's âlayers of causality" (2011, p. 609) to explain postgraduate students' growing sense of agency as they experienced the OER development process as being socially inclusive
Simmelâs reading of Nietzsche: the promise of âphilosophical sociologyâ
This article explores Simmelâs engagement with Nietzsche to illuminate the dynamics of ethical agency in his late life-philosophy. The main argument is that Simmelâs reworking of the Nietzschean themes of the will to power, distinction, and self-overcoming lays the ground for his vitalist ethics in The View of Life. An integrative reading across Simmelâs intellectual biography points to the relevance of the Nietzschean doctrine of eternal return for Simmelâs critique of abstract Kantian morality. The Nietzschean promise of life-affirmation is problematized in relation to the broader project of sociological metaphysics, which transgresses the boundaries between classical sociology and social philosophy. Opening up the grounds for a more sustained investigation into Simmelâs engagement with Nietzsche, this article resonates with contemporary discussions on the ethics of the relational self and sociological vitalism
Mimesis stories: composing new nature music for the shakuhachi
Nature is a widespread theme in much new music for the shakuhachi (Japanese bamboo flute). This article explores the significance of such music within the contemporary shakuhachi scene, as the instrument travels internationally and so becomes rooted in landscapes outside Japan, taking on the voices of new creatures and natural phenomena. The article tells the stories of five compositions and one arrangement by non-Japanese composers, first to credit composersâ varied and personal responses to this common concern and, second, to discern broad, culturally syncretic traditions of nature mimesis and other, more abstract, ideas about the naturalness of sounds and creative processes (which I call musical naturalism). Setting these personal stories and longer histories side by side reveals that composition creates composers (as much as the other way around). Thus it hints at much broader terrain: the refashioning of human nature at the confluence between cosmopolitan cultural circulations and contemporary encounters with the more-than-human world
Feature-based methodology for supporting architecture refactoring and maintenance of long-life software systems
Zusammenfassung
Langlebige Software-Systeme durchlaufen viele bedeutende Veraenderungen im Laufe ihres Lebenszyklus,
um der Weiterentwicklung der Problemdomaenen zu folgen. Normalerweise ist es schwierig eine
Software-Systemarchitektur den schnellen Weiterentwicklungen einer Problemdomaene anzupassen und
mit der Zeit wird der Unterschied zwischen der Problemdomaene und der Software-Systemarchitektur
zu groĂ, um weitere Softwareentwicklung sinnvoll fortzufuehren. Fristgerechte Refactorings der Systemarchitektur
sind notwendig, um dieses Problem zu vermeiden.
Aufgrund des verhaeltnismaeĂig hohen Gefahrenpotenzials und des zeitlich stark verzoegerten Nutzens
von Refactorings, werden diese MaĂnahmen normalerweise bis zum letztmoeglichen Zeitpunkt hinausgeschoben.
In der Regel ist das Management abgeneigt Architektur-Refactorings zu akzeptieren,
auĂer diese sind absolut notwendig. Die bevorzugte Vorgehensweise ist, neue Systemmerkmale ad hoc
hinzuzufuegen und nach dem Motto âAendere nie etwas an einem funktionierenden System!â vorzugehen.
Letztlich ist das Ergebnis ein Architekturzerfall (Architekturdrift). Die Notwendigkeit kleiner
Refactoring-Schritte fuehrt zur Notwendigkeit des Architektur-Reengineerings. Im Gegensatz zum
Refactoring, das eine normale Entwicklungstaetigkeit darstellt, ist Reengineering eine Form der Software-
âRevolutionâ. Reengineeringprojekte sind sehr riskant und kostspielig. Der Nutzen des Reengineerings
ist normalerweise nicht so hoch wie erwartet. Wenn nach dem Reengineering schlieĂlich die erforderlichen
Architekturaenderungen statt.nden, kann dies zu spaet sein. Trotz der enormen in das Projekt
gesteckten Bemuehungen erfuellen die Resultate des Reengineerings normalerweise nicht die Erwartungen.
Es kann passieren, dass sehr bald ein neues, kostspieliges Reengineering erforderlich wird.
In dieser Arbeit werden das Problem der Softwareevolution und der Zerfall von Softwarearchitekturen
behandelt. Eine Methode wird vorgestellt, welche die Softwareentwicklung in ihrer entscheidenden
Phase, dem Architekturrefactoring, unterstuetzt. Die Softwareentwicklung wird sowohl in technischer
als auch organisatorischer Hinsicht unterstuetzt. Diese Arbeit hat neue Techniken entwickelt,
welche die Reverse-Engineering-, Architecture-Recovery- und Architecture-Redesign-Taetigkeiten unterst
uetzen. Sie schlaegt auch Aenderungen des Softwareentwicklungsprozesses vor, die fristgerechte Architekturrefactorings
erzwingen koennen und damit die Notwendigkeit der Durchfuehrung eines Architektur-
Reengineerings vermeiden.
In dieser Arbeit wird die Merkmalmodellierung als Hauptinstrument verwendet. Merkmale werden
genutzt, um die Abstraktionsluecke zwischen den Anforderungen der Problemdomaene und der Systemarchitektur
zu fuellen. Merkmalmodelle werden auch als erster Grundriss fr die Wiederherstellung
der verlorenen Systemarchitektur genutzt. Merkmalbasierte Analysen fuehren zu diversen, nuetzlichen
Hinweisen fuer den erneuten Entwurf (das Re-Design) einer Architektur. SchlieĂlich wird die Merkmalmodellierung
als Kommunikationsmittel zwischen unterschiedlichen Projektbeteiligten (Stakeholdern)
im Verlauf des Softwareengineering-Prozesses verwendet und auf dieser Grundlage wird ein neuer
Anforderungsde.nitionsprozess vorgeschlagen, der die erforderlichen Architekturrefactorings erzwingt.The long-life software systems withstand many significant changes throughout their life-cycle in order
to follow the evolution of the problem domains. Usually, the software system architecture can not
follow the rapid evolution of a problem domain and with time, the diversion of the architecture in
respect to the domain features becomes prohibiting for software evolution. For avoiding this problem,
periodical refactorings of the system architecture are required.
Usually, architecture refactorings are postponed until the very last moment, because of the relatively
high risk involved and the lack of short-term profit. As a rule, the management is unwilling to accept
architecture refactorings unless they become absolutely necessary. The preferred way of working is to
add new system features in an ad-hoc manner and to keep the rule âNever touch a running system!â.
The final result is an architecture decay. The need of performing small refactoring activities turns into
need for architecture reengineering. In contrast to refactoring, which is a normal evolutionary activity,
reengineering is a kind of software ârevolutionâ. Reengineering projects are risky and expensive. The
effectiveness of reengineering is also usually not as high as expected. When finally after reengineering
the required architecture changes take place, it can be too late. Despite the enormous invested efforts,
the results of the reengineering usually do not satisfy the expectations. It might happen that very
soon a new expensive reengineering is required.
This thesis deals with the problem of software evolution and the decay of software architectures.
It presents a method, which assists software evolution in its crucial part, the architecture refactoring.
The assistance is performed for both technical and organizational aspects of the software evolution.
The thesis provides new techniques for supporting reverse engineering, architecture recovery and redesigning
activities. It also proposes changes to the software engineering process, which can force
timely architecture refactorings and thus avoid the need of performing architecture reengineering.
For the work in this thesis feature modeling is utilized as a main asset. Features are used to fill the
abstraction gap between domain requirements and system architecture. Feature models are also used
as an outline for recovering of lost system architectures. Through feature-based analyses a number of
useful hints and clues for architecture redesign are produced. Finally, feature modeling is used as a
communication between different stakeholders of the software engineering process and on this basis a
new requirements engineering process is proposed, which forces the needed architecture refactorings
Prepared for a world that no longer exists : white Afrikaner males revise identity for a transformed world
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87).Following the peaceful transition in 1994 from apartheid to democracy, and the political realignment of power from the Afrikaner minority to the Black majority, South Africa has been thrust into a social climate of radical and far reaching change. As one formerly advantaged group in the new dispensation, white Afrikaners are facing new and often bewildering challenges as they struggle to carve out an appropriate space for themselves in the new political ethos of non-racialism and equality for all. This study examines how a particular group of white Afrikaner men between the ages of 28-42 in the town of Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, are negotiating their way in post-apartheid South Africa
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