ERDS: Emerging Risks Detection Support : 2007 project report

Rapport over het detecteren van risico's met de veiligheid van voeding. Aan de hand van het melamineschandaal wordt gekeken hoe in een vroegtijdig stadium risico's onderkend kunnen worde

Development and Specification of Virtual Environments

This thesis concerns the issues involved in the development of virtual environments (VEs). VEs are more than virtual reality. We identify four main characteristics of them: graphical interaction, multimodality, interface agents, and multi-user. These characteristics are illustrated with an overview of different classes of VE-like applications, and a number of state-of-the-art VEs. To further define the topic of research, we propose a general framework for VE systems development, in which we identify five major classes of development tools: methodology, guidelines, design specification, analysis, and development environments. Of each, we give an overview of existing best practices

An object-oriented approach to structuring multicriteria decision support in natural resource management problems

Includes bibliographical references.The undertaking of MCDM (Multicriteria Decision Making) and the development of DSSs (Decision Support Systems) tend to be complex and inefficient, leading to low productivity in decision analysis and DSSs. Towards this end, this study has developed an approach based on object orientation for MCDM and DSS modelling, with the emphasis on natural resource management. The object-oriented approach provides a philosophy to model decision analysis and DSSs in a uniform way, as shown by the diagrams presented in this study. The solving of natural resource management decision problems, the MCDM decision making procedure and decision making activities are modelled in an object-oriented way. The macro decision analysis system, its DSS, the decision problem, the decision context, and the entities in the decision making procedure are represented as "objects". The object-oriented representation of decision analysis also constitutes the basis for the analysis ofDSSs

Bayesverkkosovellukset ympäristöriskien arvioinnin välineenä

Environmental risk assessment (ERA) is a process of estimating the probability and consequences of an adverse event due to pressures or changes in environmental conditions resulting from human activities. Its purpose is to search the optimal courses of action under uncertainty when striving for the sustainable use of environment through minimizing the potential losses. As environmental issues are typically multidisciplinary, addressing large amount of eco-societal inter-linkages, an optimal tool for the ERA should enable the efficient integration and meta-analysis of multidisciplinary knowledge. By describing the causalities and studying the interactions among its components, this kind of integrative analysis provides us better understanding about the environmental system in focus. In addition, the functional ERA application should allow exploring, explaining and forecasting the responses of an environmental system to changes in natural and human induced stressors, serving as a decision support model that enables the search of optimal management strategy, also in the presence of imperfect knowledge. Bayesian Network (BN) is a graphical model that enables the integration of both quantitative and qualitative data and knowledge to a causal chain of inference. It is a powerful tool for synthesising knowledge, logic and rules, providing aid for thinking about complex systems that are too demanding to be analysed by human brains alone. In a BN, all the knowledge is handled in the form of probability distributions, thus the result represents the prevailing state of knowledge. The method facilitates analysing the location and amount of uncertainty explicitly, as well as enables studying its significance when it comes to the decision making. The main contribution of this thesis is to share experiences and ideas about the development and use of the ERA applications executed by using the BN as method. The perspective of the work is dichotomic. The objective in the separate studies presented in the articles have been on one hand to develop tools for integrating available knowledge and materials to enable the quantitative assessment of the environmental risks. On the other hand, the ultimate aim has been to learn more about the environmental risks and their potential management in the case study area of the Gulf of Finland. In this thesis, both of these perspectives are considered. Eutrophication and oil transportations at the Gulf of Finland are used as the case issues. The thesis concludes that Bayesian networks have plenty of properties that are useful for ERA and the method can be used for solving problems typical for that field analytically. By planting the developed graphical BNs in the commonly used Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses -problem structuring framework, it is also demonstrated that combining these two approaches can be helpful in conceptual modeling, enabling the better framing of the research problem at hand and thinking about it systematically. The greatest challenges concerning the BN-ERA modeling are found to be related to the computational limitations of the current BN software, when it comes to the joint use of the discretised and continuous variables, as well as the restricted capacity to include the spatial resolution to the models. Producing the prior probability distributions by using deterministic models is also noted to be relatively tedious and time-consuming. The issues of end use of the applications, problems related to the scientific publishing of them, as well as the advantages and challenges of working in the multidisciplinary research teams are discussed.Ympäristöriskinarvioinnin tavoitteena on löytää optimaalisia toimintatapoja, joilla pyrkiä kohti ympäristön kestävää käyttöä. Käytännössä tämä tarkoittaa ihmistoiminnan ympäristölle aiheuttamien haittavaikutusten ja uhkien systemaattista analysoimista olemassa olevan tiedon ja siihen liittyvien epävarmuustekijöiden valossa, sekä vaihtoehtoisten skenaarioiden muodostamista sen arvioimiseksi, millaisilla toimenpiteillä asioihin kannattaisi yrittää vaikuttaa. Tällainen analyysi vaatii ihmistoiminnan vaikutusten laaja-alaista tarkastelua sekä myös yhteisten tavoitteiden määrittelyä. Näin ollen ympäristöriskien arviointi edellyttää vahvasti poikkitieteellistä lähestymistapaa. Poikkitieteelliset ongelmat nousevat käytännön elämästä ja yksittäinen tieteenala voi tyypillisesti tarjota niihin vain suppean näkökulman. Ongelmien kokonaisvaltainen ymmärtäminen vaatii usein uusia teoreettisia viitekehyksiä ja työkaluja, joita poikkitieteellinen tutkimus synnyttää. Väitöskirja käsittelee todennäköisyyspohjaisten syy-seurausverkkojen eli ns. Bayesverkkojen käyttöä eri tieteenalojen tuloksia yhdistelevänä systeemianalyyttisena menetelmänä ympäristöriskinarvioinnissa. Tällainen ns. integroiva mallinnustapa tuottaa uudenlaista ymmärrystä ihmisen ja ympäristön välisestä vuorovaikutuksesta. Parempi ymmärrys puolestaan auttaa suunnittelemaan erilaisia toimintoja ja hoitamaan ympäristöä viisaammin. Bayesverkot ovat graafisia malleja, jotka sallivat sekä laadullisen että numeerisen tiedon yhdistelyn loogisiksi syy-seurausketjuiksi. Ne ovat eräänlaisia tekoälytyökaluja, joita voidaan hyödyntää suurten tietomäärien ja moninaisten päättelysääntöjen yhdistämiseen. Näin käytettynä ne mahdollistavat sellaisten kysymysten analysoinnin, jotka muutoin olisivat monimutkaisuudessaan ihmisaivojen hahmotuskyvyn ulottumattomissa. Bayesverkossa kaikkea tietoa käsitellään todennäköisyysjakaumien muodossa, joten menetelmä mahdollistaa epävarmuuden määrän tarkastelun eri osissa analysoitavaa systeemiä. Myös vallitsevan tiedon tason riittävyyttä sekä lisätiedon keruun merkitystä päätöksenteon näkökulmasta voidaan analysoida. Lopputuloksena väitöskirjassa esiteltävät Bayesverkkosovellukset tarjoavat käyttäjälleen määrällisiä arvioita riskitasojen muutoksista erilaisille tulevaisuuden kehitys- ja toimenpideskenaarioille. Ne myös auttavat hahmottamaan konkreettisemmin ympäristön ja yhteiskunnan välistä vuorovaikutusta sekä vallitsevaa tiedon tasoa. Työkalujen avulla voidaan etsiä tekijöitä, joiden tarkempi tunteminen tuottaisi suurimman hyödyn riskinhallintatoimenpiteiden suunnittelun näkökulmasta. Tämä tieto auttaa muunmuassa tulevien tutkimushankkeiden suunnittelussa. Toisaalta väitöskirjan tapausesimerkeissä Suomenlahden rehevöitymisen ja öljynkuljetusten suhteen nousee esiin se, miten suuri merkitys analyysien lopputulokselle yhteiskunnassa vallitsevilla arvoilla ja riskiasenteilla saattaa olla. Tämän havainnon myötä korostuu julkisen arvo- ja riskikeskustelun sekä riskeistä tiedottamisen merkitys. Päätöksenteon kannalta kaivattaisiin aktiivisempaa keskustelua esimerkiksi siitä, millainen on se ympäristön tila, johon haluamme pyrkiä ja kuinka suuria riskejä olemme valmiita ottamaan tavoitteidemme kustannuksella

Automatic generation of user interfaces from rigorous domain and use case models

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Informática. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Integrity Control in Relational Database Systems - An Overview

This paper gives an overview of research regarding integrity control or integrity constraint handling in relational database management systems. The topic of constraint handling is discussed from two points of view. First, constraint handling is discussed by identifying a number of important research issues, and by treating each issue in detail. Second, a number of projects is described that have resulted in the realization of database management systems supporting integrity constraints; the various projects are compared with respect to a number of system characteristics. Together, both approaches give a broad overview of the state of the art in the field at this moment

Ontological interpretation of network monitoring data

Interpreting measurement and monitoring data from networks in general and the Internet in particular is a challenge. The motivation for this work has been to in- vestigate new ways to bridge the gap between the kind of data which are available and the more developed information which is needed by network stakeholders to support decision making and network management. Specific problems of syntax, semantics, conflicting data and modeling domain-specific knowledge have been identified. The methods developed and tested have used the Resource Descrip- tion Framework (rdf) and the ontology languages of the Semantic Web to bring together data from disparate sources into unified knowledgebases in two discrete case studies, both using real network data. Those knowledgebases have then been demonstrated to be usable and valuable sources of information about the networks concerned. Some success has been achieved in overcoming each of the identified problems using these techniques, proving the thesis that taking an ontological ap- proach to the processing of network monitoring data can be a very useful technique for overcoming problems of interpretation and for making information available to those who need it

Areas of qualitative psychology - special focus on design

This volume contains the proceedings of the fourth annual meeting of Qualitative Psychology in Blaubeuren (near Ulm, Germany) Oct., 22-24, 2003 organized by the Center for Qualitative Psychology (Tübingen, Germany). The question of Research Design was chosen as the central topic of the conference. Researchers from different professions took part. The range of experience of the participants was very heterogeneous: Beginning with young researchers, different levels of expertise were represented (up to and including very experienced scholars and researchers). Participants also came from different countries. The main work was done in small working groups. In these groups each study and its outcome(s) was critically discussed and remarked upon. Plenum lectures were also held, in which selected experts presented their thoughts on the central topic research design. An attempt is also undertaken to evaluate the findings and the workshop as a whole in the context of the development of qualitative research in psychology. Contents: Mechthild Kiegelmann, Günter L. Huber: Design in Qualitative Psychology (19-26). Designing the Move from Data to a Theory of Feeling - Gerhard Kleining: The Qualitative-Heuristic Approach to Theory (27-34); Leo Gürtler, Gerhard Kleining: Some Questions and Answers about the Qualitative-Heuristic Approach to Theory (35-38); Thomas Burkart Towards a Dialectic Theory of Feeling (39-62); Harald Witz: Questioning Burkart's Theory of Feeling (63-66); Thomas Burkart: Some Conclusions (67-68); Jeannette Bischkopf, Anna Auckenthaler, Christian Stiglmayr: The Application of a Grounded Theory-Based Research Design for Analyzing Caregiver Burden. How to Increase the Specificity of Concepts (69-80); M. Concepción Domínguez Garrid, Antonio Medina Rivilla: Qualitative Research in Intercultural Processes in the Fields of Geography and History in Secondary Education (81-98); Silke-Birgitta Gahleitner: Step by Step: The Significance of the Open Qualitative Research Process for Gender Research (99-110); Samuel Gento Palacios, M. Concepción a Domínguez Garrido, Antonio Medina Rivilla: The Axiologial Bases of a New Curricum Design (111-142); Michaela Gläser-Zikuda, Hanne Schuster: How Do Students Feel in Open and Direct Instruction? A Study with Mixed Methods (143-162); Leo Gürtler: Qualitative Video Analysis: Design of a Study on the Function of Humor in Teaching Discourses on Mindfulness (163-186); Günter L. Huber: Qualitative Analysis "cis transcriptionae": Direct Processing of Sound and Video Data (187-196); Günter L. Huber: Qualitative Methods in Evaluation Studies (197-206); Karin Jeschke: Contribution of a Modified Global Analysis to a Qualitative Heuristic Analysis (207-216); Levan Lim, Annette Ullrich: Living with Persons with Disabilities: Perspectives of L'Arche Assistants (217-234); Gunârs Strods, Liesma Ose, Tamâra Skoromka, Irîna Maslo: Collaboration in Computer Assisted Qualitative Research (235-248); Hannu Soini, Mark Flynn: The Importance of Emotion and Rhythm for Learning (249-264); Meike Watzlawik: Online Survey + Qualitative Analysis + Quantitative Results = Possible & Reasonable? (265-276)