Commit-Time Requirements for an Ontology Server

An ontology is recognized as the solution for the integration of information systems. The environment of interoperation may involve many players who have agreed to commit to the ontology in order to maintain their system of speech acts and institutional facts in conformance with the coordinated system. When this interoperating community is established, it can generate a large number of institutional facts due to different range of players who can request different facets of information. In this light, however, how those players commit to ontology is still unclear. This paper discusses what sort of requirements that we need to assist how the players commit to the ontology. The approach of this paper is theoretical which is based on the literature of the concepts of speech acts and institutional facts and a case study of the Olympic games. As a result, we have defined several important commit-time requirements to explain situations of players committing to ontology in the context of ontology-based interoperation of information systems

UML-based DEMO Profiles as Metaconcepts for Interlocking Institutional Worlds

An information system supporting an organisation is based on concepts from the organisation\u27s institutional world. An institutional world consists of a collection of speech acts and institutional facts . For a group of information systems to interoperate, the organizations responsible for these systems must first agree on what the words mean in the interoperation. This agreement is called an ontology. The ontology is generally defined as an explicit specification of a conceptualization . One of the major uses of ontology is to support interoperation of information systems. Many institutions whose systems are to interoperate are not fully autonomous; they do sometimes cooperate with each other, so that their institutional worlds will interlock therefore interlocking ontologies . Modeling interlocking institutional worlds (IWs) requires a dedicated representation system that gives a formal model which is the specification of institutional facts as well as the specification of speech acts . The ontology is the specification of institutional facts. However, we do not have a system that can give a formal model for the speech acts. Therefore, this paper adopts a synthesis approach to propose the UML extension for modeling speech acts in the context of interlocking institutional worlds. DEMO is one of the most popular Language Action Paradigms (LAP)-based methodologies based on speech act theory so is close to the concept of IWs. The UML is a standard modelling language in the world of information system development and currently there is a growing interest in its adoption as a language for conceptual modeling and business process representation. Taking advantage of the fact that UML is an OMG standard and its use is growing quickly, this paper proposes UML-based DEMO profiles purposely for modelling IWs

Process Modelling: The Deontic Way

Current enterprise systems rely heavily on the modelling and enactment of business processes. One of the key criteria for a business process is to represent not just the behaviours of the participants but also how the contractual relationships among them evolve over the course of an interaction. In this paper we provide a framework in which one can define policies/business rules using deontic assignments to represent the contractual relationships. To achieve this end we use a combination of deontic/normative concepts like proclamation, directed obligation and direct action to account for a deontic theory of commitment which in turn can be used to model business processes in their organisational settings. In this way we view a business process as a social interaction process for the purpose of doing business. Further, we show how to extend the i* framework, a well known organisational modelling technique, so as to accommodate our notion of deontic dependency

Intercultural New Media Studies: The Next Frontier in intercultural Communication

New media (ICT\u27s) are transforming communication across cultures. Despite this revolution in cross cultural contact, communication researchers have largely ignored the impact of new media on intercultural communication. This groundbreaking article defines the parameters of a new field of inquiry called Intercultural New Media Studies (INMS), which explores the intersection between ICT\u27s and intercultural communication. Composed of two research areas—(1) new media and intercultural communication theory and (2) culture and new media—INMS investigates new digital theories of intercultural contact as well as refines and expands twentieth-century intercultural communication theories, examining their salience in a digital world. INMS promises to increase our understanding of intercultural communication in a new media age and is the next frontier in intercultural communication

ISO--LWS observations of the two nearby spiral galaxies: NGC6946 and NGC1313

(Abridged) We present the analysis of the main FIR fine structure lines emission in NGC1313 and NGC6946. We calculate that a component probably associated with the diffuse disks contributes <~40% in N6946 and ~30 % in N1313 to the total [CII] emission. The main PDR physical parameters responsible for the neutral atomic gas emission in N1313 and N6946 do not significantly differ from what Malhotra etal (2001) found by modelling the integrated emission of a sample of 60 normal galaxies,although there are evidences for a beam averaged contribution of a less active component inside NGC6946 higher than its contribution in the integrated emission of normal galaxies. CO and [CII] in N6946 are well correlated with a mean [CII]/CO ratio similar to that of the normal galaxies sample. In N1313 the [CII]/CO seems to systematically increase from the North to the south, along the S-shaped spiral arm, indicating much more inhomogeneous conditions than in N6946. HI and [CII] in N6946 are completely de-correlated, probably because they arise from different gas components. In N1313 we successfully detect two distinct gas components: a cirrus-like component where HI and [CII] are weakly correlated as observed in our Galaxy, and a component associated with dense PDRs completely de-correlated from HI as observed in N6946.Finally, we find that the HI residing in dense PDRs and presumably recently photo-dissociated, constitutes a few % of the total HI. In turn, this dense gas component produces most of the [CII] emission emitted by the atomic neutral medium.Comment: Latex, 100 pages, 11 Figures, 11 Tables. Accepted for publication in A

Transformative sensemaking: Development in Whose Image? Keyan Tomaselli and the semiotics of visual representation

The defining and distinguishing feature of homo sapiens is its ability to make sense of the world, i.e. to use its intellect to understand and change both itself and the world of which it is an integral part. It is against this backdrop that this essay reviews Tomaselli's 1996 text, Appropriating Images: The Semiotics of Visual Representation/ by summarizing his key perspectives, clarifying his major operational concepts and citing particular portions from his work in support of specific perspectives on sense-making. Subsequently, this essay employs his techniques of sense-making to interrogate the notion of "development". This exercise examines and confirms two interrelated hypotheses: first, a semiotic analysis of the privileged notion of "development" demonstrates its metaphysical/ ideological, and thus limiting, nature especially vis-a-vis the marginalized, excluded, and the collective other, the so-called Developing Countries. Second, the interrogative nature of semiotics allows for an alternative reading and application of human potential or skills in the quest of a more humane social and global order, highlighting thereby the transformative implications of a reflexive epistemology.Web of Scienc

Overexpression of Myocilin in the Drosophila Eye Activates the Unfolded Protein Response: Implications for Glaucoma

Glaucoma is the world's second leading cause of bilateral blindness with progressive loss of vision due to retinal ganglion cell death. Myocilin has been associated with congenital glaucoma and 2-4% of primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) cases, but the pathogenic mechanisms remain largely unknown. Among several hypotheses, activation of the unfolded protein response (UPR) has emerged as a possible disease mechanism.We used a transgenic Drosophila model to analyze whole-genome transcriptional profiles in flies that express human wild-type or mutant MYOC in their eyes. The transgenic flies display ocular fluid discharge, reflecting ocular hypertension, and a progressive decline in their behavioral responses to light. Transcriptional analysis shows that genes associated with the UPR, ubiquitination, and proteolysis, as well as metabolism of reactive oxygen species and photoreceptor activity undergo altered transcriptional regulation. Following up on the results from these transcriptional analyses, we used immunoblots to demonstrate the formation of MYOC aggregates and showed that the formation of such aggregates leads to induction of the UPR, as evident from activation of the fluorescent UPR marker, xbp1-EGFP. CONCLUSIONS / SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that aggregation of MYOC in the endoplasmic reticulum activates the UPR, an evolutionarily conserved stress pathway that culminates in apoptosis. We infer from the Drosophila model that MYOC-associated ocular hypertension in the human eye may result from aggregation of MYOC and induction of the UPR in trabecular meshwork cells. This process could occur at a late age with wild-type MYOC, but might be accelerated by MYOC mutants to account for juvenile onset glaucoma