37 research outputs found

    Conceptual knowledge acquisition in biomedicine: A methodological review

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    AbstractThe use of conceptual knowledge collections or structures within the biomedical domain is pervasive, spanning a variety of applications including controlled terminologies, semantic networks, ontologies, and database schemas. A number of theoretical constructs and practical methods or techniques support the development and evaluation of conceptual knowledge collections. This review will provide an overview of the current state of knowledge concerning conceptual knowledge acquisition, drawing from multiple contributing academic disciplines such as biomedicine, computer science, cognitive science, education, linguistics, semiotics, and psychology. In addition, multiple taxonomic approaches to the description and selection of conceptual knowledge acquisition and evaluation techniques will be proposed in order to partially address the apparent fragmentation of the current literature concerning this domain

    Decision Support Systems: From the Past to the Future

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    METAPLEX: AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENT FOR ORGANIZATION AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

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    This paper presents an integrated environment, called MetaPlex; for organization and information systems development. The kernel of MetaPlex is a knowledge base management system which captures the semantic primitives of a domain at the meta level and uses these primitives to describe target systems. Three levels of abstraction are used in MetaPlex for representing knowledge: the axiomatic, median, and instance levels. The MetaPlex Language Definition System is used to name the object types in the domain of interest and to define the attributes, relations, and descriptions which can be used by these object types. The structural knowledge of the domain in general is thus captured at the median level. Knowledge of the domain captured at the median level is used by the MetaPlex Specification System to define a target system at the instance level. A rule-based inference engine is embedded in the MetaPlex environment as an intelligent assistant to help end users. The expertise of a designer can be codified into a rule set which can assist users in classifying an object, in decomposing a high level system component, or in clustering the detailed components at the lower level. Both topdown and bottom-up approaches for systems development are thus supported. A layered approach has been proposed to manage the dynamics of such a metasystem environment. An enterprise model has been developed to demonstrate the usage of MetaPlex and the integration of organization and information systems modeling. Directions for future research are also discussed

    An Overview and Tutorial of the Repertory Grid Technique in Information Systems Research

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    Interest in the repertory grid technique has been growing in the IS field. This article seeks to inform the reader on the proper use and application of the technique in IS research. The methodology has unique advantages that make it suitable for many research settings. In this tutorial, we describe the technique, its theoretical underpinnings, and how it may be used by IS researchers. We conclude by detailing many IS research opportunities that exist in respect to the repertory grid technique

    Data-Flow Modeling: A Survey of Issues and Approaches

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    This paper presents a survey of previous research on modeling the data flow perspective of business processes. When it comes to modeling and analyzing business process models the current research focuses on control flow modeling (i.e. the activities of the process) and very little attention is paid to the data-flow perspective. But data is essential in a process. In order to execute a workflow, the tasks need data. Without data or without data available on time, the control flow cannot be executed. For some time, various researchers tried to investigate the data flow perspective of process models or to combine the control and data flow in one model. This paper surveys those approaches. We conclude that there is no model showing a clear data flow perspective focusing on how data changes during a process execution. The literature offers some similar approaches ranging from data modeling using elements from relational database domain, going through process model verification and ending with elements related to Web Services

    Towards a framework for comparing data models

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    Weaki - A weakly-typed wiki for incremental software knowledge acquisition

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    O desenvolvimento de software pode ser visto como a última etapa de um processo de aquisição de conhecimento, durante o qual o conhecimento adquirido se acumula e evolui para um código fonte que cumpre um conjunto de condições previamente definidas pelos stakeholders. O conhecimento adquirido desta forma é armazenado sob a forma de artefactos de software, artefactos estes que têm dois aspectos diferentes: a estrutura e o conteúdo, que são muito difíceis de alterar em separado um do outro.Para gerir o conhecimento adquirido e a complexidade do processo de aquisição existem métodos, práticas e ferramentas que são de maneira geral usados ​​para facilitar a aquisição de conhecimentos e o seu processamento. Entre essas ferramentas, um dos mais populares são as wikis.Wikis proporcionam uma boa plataforma para gerir o conhecimento para além de suportarem trabalho colaborativo. No entanto para além do que as wikis já fornecem, seria útil se estas tivessem suporte para outros aspectos, tais como o reconhecimento de estruturas de conhecimento e suporte para a sua evolução à medida que conhecimento é adquirido e as mudanças que sofre ao longo do tempo.O principal objetivo deste trabalho é desenvolver uma extensão para um wiki já existente, adicionando funcionalidades para apoiar o reconhecimento da estruturas da informação, assim como na inferência dessas estruturas pelo conteúdo, com o objetivo de auxiliar no desenvolvimento de artefactos de documentação de software, ao permitir um aumento gradual na formalização da sua estrutura e do seu conteúdo. A utilidade da extensão da wiki foi validada através de uma experiência empírica envolvendo estudantes.Software development can be seen as the final stage in a process of knowledge acquisition, during which the acquired knowledge accumulates and evolves towards a source code that fulfills a set of conditions previously defined by the stakeholders. The knowledge acquired this way is stored in the form of software artifacts which have two different aspects: structure and content, that are very difficult to change separately from each other. To manage the acquired knowledge and the complexity of the acquisition process there are methods, practices and tools that are commonly used to facilitate the acquisition and processing of knowledge. Among these tools, one of the most popular are the wikis. Wikis provide a good platform to manage knowledge while also supporting collaborative work. However beyond what wikis already provide, it would be useful if they had other aspects such as the recognition of knowledge structures and the support for its evolutionary behaviour. The main goal of this work is to develop an extension to an existing wiki, by adding the functionalities to support structure recognition and type inference, with the goal of aiding in the development of software documentation artifacts, allowing for a gradual increase in the formalization of its structure and content. The usefulness of the wiki extension was validated through and empirical experience with students

    Issues in concurrent knowledge engineering : knowledge sharing and knowledge base evolution

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    The development of knowledge-based (KB) systems for solving real-world problems has become a very time-consuming and expensive task. Over the last years, more and more people started to investigate how to share and reuse knowledge once it has been formally represented. Moreover, as the world around is changing continuously, the KB system and its knowledge base have to change, too. Thus, recently the issue of knowledge base evolution came up that deals with the continuous improvement of a KB system during its entire life-time starting with the first formalizations and still continuing along its practical use. We discuss the current efforts in knowledge sharing and reuse and then study the knowledge evolution approach, that can be seen more technically as an interleaved combination of knowledge validation and exploration techniques

    Management information systems : a comparison of the network and relational models of data

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    Thesis. 1975. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Alfred P. Sloan School of Management.Bibliography: leaves 100-102.by Charles Arthur Ziering, Jr.M.S
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