Integrated management of hierarchical levels: towards a CAPE tool

The integration of decision-making procedures usually assigned to different hierarchical production systems requires the use of complex mathematical models and high computational efforts, in addition to the need of an extensive management of data and knowledge within the production systems. This work addresses this integration problem and proposes a comprehensive solution approach, as well as guidelines for Computer Aided Process Engineering (CAPE) tools managing the corresponding cyberinfrastructure. This study presents a methodology based on a domain ontology which is used as the connector between the introduced data, the different available formulations developed to solve the decision-making problem, and the necessary information to build the finally required problem instance. The methodology has demonstrated its capability to help exploiting different available decision-making problem formulations in complex cases, leading to new applications and/or extensions of these available formulations in a robust and flexible way.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Conceptual modelling for integrated decision-making in process systems

This Thesis addresses the systematic construction of Decision Making Models (DMMs) from the conceptualization stage to its application in specific situations, with special emphasis on !he treatment of scenarios where there is a hierarchy of decision levels, common in the Process Systems (PS). Although the methodologies developed are generic, the scope of this Thesis is limited to the perspective of Process Engineering. The central component required to construct a DMM is the conceptual description of the reality, which supports the system alisation of management procedures . During this description, two different dom ains can be identified: the PS Domain, useful to describe the structure of the process as such (physical reality and the way in which its elements are related), and the Management Domain, identified in this Thesis as associated with the Conceptual Constraints (CC) that describe the restrictions associated with the management of the process . In this way, the PS Domain includes concepts and relationships that appear in the control standards of the process followed by the company: the description of the process to be developed, the description of the physical equipment in which it is developed , and that of its interactions, giving rise to the control of the execution of the procedures; this domain should allow managing the construction, design, operation and control of any manufacturing system. On the other hand, the CC Domain contains the information associated with the concepts and relationships that m ust be fulfilled to ensure a coherent set of decisions, with the purpose of identifying and representing the systematics to follow during the decision-making process, giving rise to the conceptual representation of this system and, finally, the construction of the corresponding DMM. The first challenge addressed in this thesis is associated with the systematisation of conceptual modelling from semantic information, for the construction ofontologies from textual sources and a procedure to verify the interna! coherence of lhese sources. The application of this methodology has been used for the identification of the essential concepts and relationships in the PS Domain, allowing creating a generic, common and shared model, unlike the existing models. In the next step, this PS Domain has been used to solve management problems in systems that comprise multi-level hierarchies. The resulting decision-making process allows integrating the decisions made al each level, ensuring their consistency from an approach that simultaneously considers the management of all available information (data and knowledge). On the other hand, the introduction of the necessary concepts and relationships to ensure the feasibility of the process management decisions, through the CC Domain, allows the development of systematic DMM creation procedures: this domain classifies the constrains (balances, sequence, etc.), adds abstrae! elements to them (e.g.: produced and consumed amounts) and allows to generalize the relation of its compone nis with the information associated to the PS Domain. The last part of this Thesis deals with the integration of the PS and CC Domains, and their application for the generation of new decision-making systems . For this, algorithms have been designed that, starting from the previously identified and classified restrictions, and patterns of DMMs also previously identified from existing cases, exploit the information available through the instances in the PS Domain, to generate new DMMs according to the user's specifications. lts use is illustrated through cases from different environments, demonstrating the generalisation capacity of the created systematics.Esta Tesis aborda la construcción sistemática de Modelos para la toma de Decisiones (DMMs) desde la etapa de conceptualización hasta su aplicación en situaciones concretas, con especial énfasis en el tratamiento de escenarios en los que existe una jerarquía de niveles de decisión, habitual en la Industria de Proceso (PS). Aunque las metodologías desarrolladas son genéricas, el alcance de esta Tesis se limita a la perspectiva de la Ingeniería de Procesos. El componente central requerido para construir un DMMs es la descripción conceptual de la realidad a la que se orienta, que a su vez respalda la sistematización de los procedimientos de gestión. Durante esta descripción, se pueden identificar planteamientos asociados a dos dominios diferentes: el Dominio del Proceso (PS), útil para describir la estructura del proceso como tal (realidad física y forma en la que se relacionan sus elementos), y el Dominio de Gestión, asociado a las Restricciones Conceptuales (CC) que describen las restricciones asociadas a la gestión del proceso. El Dominio PS incluye conceptos y relaciones que aparecen en los estándares de control del proceso que sigue la empresa: la descripción del proceso a desarrollar, la descripción de los equipos físicos en los que se desarrolla, y la de sus interacciones, que dan lugar al control de ejecución de los procedimientos; este dominio debe permitir la construcción, el diseño, la operación y el control de cualquier sistema de fabricación. Por su parte, el Dominio CC contiene la información asociada a los conceptos y las relaciones que deben cumplirse para asegurar un conjunto coherente de decisiones, con el propósito de identificar y representar la sistemática a seguir durante el proceso de toma de decisiones, dando lugar a la representación conceptual de esta sistemática y, finalmente, a la construcción del correspondiente DMM. El primer reto abordado en esta Tesis está asociado a la sistematización del modelado conceptual a partir de información semántica, para construcción de ontologías a partir de fuentes textuales y de un procedimiento para verificar la coherencia interna de dichas fuentes. La aplicación de esta metodología se ha utilizado para la identificación de los conceptos y las relaciones esenciales en el Dominio PS, permitiendo crear un modelo genérico, común y compartido, a diferencia de los modelos existentes. En el siguiente paso, este Dominio PS se ha utilizado para la resolución de problemas de gestión en sistemas que comprenden múltiples niveles de jerarquías funcionales. El proceso de toma de decisiones resultante permite integrar las decisiones tomadas en cada nivel, asegurando su coherencia a partir de un enfoque que contempla simultáneamente la gestión de toda la información disponible (datos y conocimiento). Por su parte, la introducción de los conceptos y relaciones necesarios para asegurar la factibilidad de las decisiones de gestión del proceso, a través del Dominio CC, permite el desarrollo de procedimientos sistemáticos de creación de DMMs: este Dominio clasifica las restricciones (balances, secuencia, etc.), agrega elementos abstractos a dichas restricciones (p.e.: cantidad producida y consumida) y permite generalizar la relación de sus componentes con la información asociada al Dominio PS. En la última parte de esta Tesis se aborda la integración de los Dominios PS y CC, y su aplicación para la generación de nuevos sistemas de toma de decisiones. Para ello, se han diseñado algoritmos que, partiendo de las restricciones anteriormente identificadas y clasificadas, y patrones de DMMs también previamente identificados a partir de casos ya existentes, explotan la información disponible a través de las instancias del Dominio PS, para generar de nuevos modelos de toma de decisión de acuerdo con las especificaciones del usuario. Su utilización se ilustra a través de casos procedentes de diferentes entornos, demostrando la capacidad de generalización de la sistemática creada.Postprint (published version

Modelling decision support systems using conceptual constraints: linking process systems engineering and decision making models

This paper presents the use of a Conceptual Constraint (CC) Domain to systematize the construction of Decision Making Models (DMMs). The modelling systematics include the integration between the CC Domain and production systems as well as an identification procedure which contains some steps aimed at constraint identification using the CC Domain. The CC Domain consists of different modelling elements such as Conceptual Constraints (generic constraint types), Conceptual Components (pieces of a constraint), and Conceptual Component Elements (pieces of a conceptual component that may be connected to production systems). In this instance, the CC Domain is integrated with the Process Systems Engineering (PSE) Domain as a production system domain. The PSE Domain contains information from the multi-level functional hierarchical in an enterprise and it will be used to cover a wide range of scenarios related to hierarchical integration of DMMs. In addition, an integration step between the CC and PSE Domains is illustrated. The focus of the work is to show how these models should be developed in order to be properly integrated, and how they are used by different functionalities with an identification procedure.Postprint (author's final draft

Improving automation standards via semantic modelling: Application to ISA88

Standardization is essential for automation. Extensibility, scalability, and reusability are important features for automation software that rely in the efficient modelling of the addressed systems. The work presented here is from the ongoing development of a methodology for semi-automatic ontology construction methodology from technical documents. The main aim of this work is to systematically check the consistency of technical documents and support the improvement of technical document consistency. The formalization of conceptual models and the subsequent writing of technical standards are simultaneously analyzed, and guidelines proposed for application to future technical standards. Three paradigms are discussed for the development of domain ontologies from technical documents, starting from the current state of the art, continuing with the intermediate method presented and used in this paper, and ending with the suggested paradigm for the future. The ISA88 Standard is taken as a representative case study. Linguistic techniques from the semi-automatic ontology construction methodology is applied to the ISA88 Standard and different modelling and standardization aspects that are worth sharing with the automation community is addressed. This study discusses different paradigms for developing and sharing conceptual models for the subsequent development of automation software, along with presenting the systematic consistency checking methodPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Optimisation of industrial scale batch systems: Addressing the inherent dynamics through stochastic and hybrid approaches

Postprint (published version

On the process of building a process systems engineering ontology using a semi-automatic construction approach

This work presents a novel systematic approach for the construction of domain ontolog ies . The s ugge sted approach uses a semi - automatic construction methodology . F or this study , parent - child concept pairs are taken from a previous work. Novel contributions include bu ilding and completing branches, introducing new relations , and resolving inconsistencies and contradictions. For the p rocess s ystems en gineering (PSE) domain the ISA88 Standard is chosen as a promising starting point for automatic text processing. Finally, this work concludes with a discussion of the ISA88 S tandard based on the conclusions tha t can be obtained from the application of this semi - automatic construction methodologPostprint (published version

Machine learning for estimation of building energy consumption and performance:a review

Ever growing population and progressive municipal business demands for constructing new buildings are known as the foremost contributor to greenhouse gasses. Therefore, improvement of energy eciency of the building sector has become an essential target to reduce the amount of gas emission as well as fossil fuel consumption. One most eective approach to reducing CO2 emission and energy consumption with regards to new buildings is to consider energy eciency at a very early design stage. On the other hand, ecient energy management and smart refurbishments can enhance energy performance of the existing stock. All these solutions entail accurate energy prediction for optimal decision making. In recent years, articial intelligence (AI) in general and machine learning (ML) techniques in specic terms have been proposed for forecasting of building energy consumption and performance. This paperprovides a substantial review on the four main ML approaches including articial neural network, support vector machine, Gaussian-based regressions and clustering, which have commonly been applied in forecasting and improving building energy performance

walls of buildings

The city of Denizli is in the 3rd climatic region in Turkey and there is a heating requirement for a period of approximately five months. During this period, thermal insulation of buildings is very important in minimizing the energy usage and reducing emission. In this study, environmental impact of optimum insulation thickness in external walls has been investigated for the case of Denizli, Turkey. In the calculations, coal was used as the fuel source and the expanded polystyrene as the insulation material. The results proved that when the optimum insulation thickness was used, energy consumption was decreased by 46.6% and the emissions Of CO2 and SO2 were reduced by 41.53%. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

TÜRKİYE'DE ORTAÖĞRETİMDE FELSEFE ÖĞRETİMİNİN DEĞERLENDİRİLMESİ

Bu araştırmanın amacı Türkiye'de ortaöğretimde felsefe öğretimi uygulama ve etkinliklerinin durumunu tespit ederek değerlendirmek ve gereksinimleri belirlemektir. Araştırmanın modeli, sosyolojik bir yöntem olan alan araştırması kapsamında tarama modelidir. Araştırmada yöntem çeşitlemesinden faydalanılarak, nicel ve nitel veriler toplanmıştır. Araştırmanın uygulaması iki aşamada gerçekleştirilmiştir. Birinci aşamada 68 öğretmen ve 73 öğrenci ile görüşme yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın ikinci aşamasında ise 500 öğretmen ve 1500 öğrenciye anket uygulanmıştır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak öğretmen ve öğrenci için görüşme formu ile öğretmen ve öğrenci için felsefe öğretimi değerlendirme anketi uygulanmıştır. Görüşmelerden elde edilen verilerin çözümlenmesinde betimsel analiz tekniği kullanılmıştır. Anket ile elde edilen verilerin çözümlenmesinde ise Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, varyans analizi (anova) ve ilişkisiz t-testi, yüzde, frekans ve ortalamalardan yararlanılmıştır. Araştırmada elde edilen veriler araştırmanın temel ve alt problemleri doğrultusunda çözümlenmiş, elde edilen bulgular tanımlanmış ve yorumlanmıştır. Araştırmada şu sonuçlara ulaşılmıştır; Öğretmenler felsefe öğretimi programının öğretmene rehberlik etme konusunda yetersiz olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Öğretmenler felsefe öğretiminin hedef ve davranışlarının gerçekleştirilebilirliği ile ilgili olumsuz görüşe sahiptirler. Öğretim programının güncel olmadığı, bilgi yükünün çok fazla olduğu ve sorgulama boyutunun yetersiz kaldığı düşünülmektedir. Ayrıca öğretmenler ünitelerin işleniş sırası ile ilgili sıkıntılara dikkat çekmişlerdir. Öğretmenler ülkemiz düşünce tarihindeki önemli kişi ve görüşlere yer verilmesi gerektiğini belirtmişler ve ders araç gerecinin yetersizliği ile kitapların nitelik ve nicelik yönünden eksik olduğunu dile getirmişlerdir. Öğretmen görüşlerine göre felsefe öğretiminde en sık kullanılan sınav teknikleri; klasik yazılı yoklama ve testtir. Öğretmenlerin cinsiyetlerine, görev yaptıkları okul türüne, mezun oldukları kuruma, mesleki kıdemlerine, görev yaptıklari ilin gelişmişlik düzeyine ve almış oldukları hizmet içi eğitime göre görüşleri arasında anlamlı bir fark bulunmamıştır. Buna karşılık ders dışı etkinlik düzenleme durumlarına göre görüşleri arasında anlamlı bir fark bulunmuştur. Ayrıca öğretmenler üniversite seçme sınavının felsefe öğretimi üzerinde olumsuz bir etkisinin olduğunu belirtmişlerdir. Öğrenciler felsefe dersinin kendi ilgi ve ihtiyaçlarının göz önünde bulundurularak hazırlanmadığını belirtmelerine rağmen felsefenin bir gereklilik olduğunu vurgulamışlardır. Öğrenciler felsefe öğretiminin içerik bakımından yetersiz olduğunu ve güncel olmadığını belirtmişlerdir. Felsefe ile ilgili bir meslek seçmeyi düşünmediklerini belirtmişler ve derslerin aktif öğrenme yöntemleriyle ele alınması gerektiğini ifade etmişlerdir. Öğrenciler felsefe öğretiminin kendi düşünme becerilerine katkı sağladığını düşünmektedirler. Dersin içeriğinde Türk düşünürlerin bulunması gerektiğini belirtmişlerdir. Öğrenciler derslerin en sık düz anlatım yoluyla işlendiğini belitmişler bunun yanında test tipi sınavlara daha çok ilgi gösterdiklerini ifade etmişlerdir. Ders kitaplarını yetersiz bulmuşlar ve kitapların üniversite seçme sınavı ile ilişkili hale getirilmesi gerektiğine dikkat çekmişlerdir. Öğrencilerin cinsiyetlerine ve öğrenim gördükleri ilin gelişmişlik düzeyine göre görüşlerinde anlamlı bir fark bulunmamıştır. Ancak öğrenim gördükleri okul türü ile alanlarına göre görüşleri arasında anlamlı bir fark olduğu görülmüştür. Ayrıca öğrenciler felsefe dersi ile üniversite seçme sınavı bağlamında ilgilendiklerini belirtmişlerdir.The purpose of this study is to determine the status of practices and activities of philosophy education at secondary school in Turkey by evaluating them and to find out the needs. The model of is the model scanning within the scope of field research which is sociological model. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through the the benefit of method variation in the study. The practice of the study was carried out in two steps. In the first one, 68 teachers and 73 students were interviewed. In the second one, 500 teachers and 1.500 students were given questionnaires. The interview form for both teachers and students was used as a data collection instrument and an evaluation questionnaire of teaching philosophy was also employed for both teachers and students. Descriptive analysis was employed to analyse the data obtained through interviews. Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis, variance analysis (anova) and percentage, frequency and means were benefited for the solution of the data obtained through questionnaires. The data collected were solved within the framework of main and sub problems the findings obtained were described and evaluated. The following was reached in the study; Teachers indicated that the curriculum of philosophy teaching is inadequate in guiding teachers. They have negative ideas concerning the realizability of the objectives and behaviors of philosophy teaching. They think that the curriculum is not up to date, the knowledge load is too much and that the dimension inquiry is not adequate enough. Besides, they drew attention to the fact that they have a problem with the order of teaching the units. The teachers interviewed in the study expressed that some leading intellects and some major views in our history of thought should be included and stressed that the course books and teaching materials used are inadequate quantitatively and qualitatively. Depending on the thoughts of teachers, the most frequently applied test techniques in teaching philosophy are classical written and test type exams. No difference was found concerning the genders of teachers, the types of the schools they work, the institution they graduated, their working experience, the development level of the city they work and the in-service training they took. However, a significant difference was found among their views over the status of arranging activities out of class. Further, teachers expressed that university entrance exam has a negative effect on philosophy teaching. Although students stated that the course of philosophy was not prepared depending on the interests and needs of theirs, they stressed that philosophy is a necessity. They also stated that philosophy teaching is inadequate and it is not up to date in terms of content. They indicated that they do not think of choosing a profession concerning philosophy, adding that the courses be taught through the method of active teaching. Students are of the opinion that philosophy teaching contributes to their thinking skills. They have an idea that Turkish intellects should be included in the content. They stated that the courses were mostly taught through straight teaching method and they paid more attention to test type exams frequently. They thought that course books are not adequate enough and put an emphasize on the fact that course books should be related to university entrance exam. No difference was found concerning the genders of students and the development level of the city they study. Whereas, a significant difference was found among their views over the type of school they attend and the field they study. Also, students stated that there is a correlation between the course of philosophy and university entrance exam

Conceptual modelling for integrated decision-making in process systems

This Thesis addresses the systematic construction of Decision Making Models (DMMs) from the conceptualization stage to its application in specific situations, with special emphasis on !he treatment of scenarios where there is a hierarchy of decision levels, common in the Process Systems (PS). Although the methodologies developed are generic, the scope of this Thesis is limited to the perspective of Process Engineering. The central component required to construct a DMM is the conceptual description of the reality, which supports the system alisation of management procedures . During this description, two different dom ains can be identified: the PS Domain, useful to describe the structure of the process as such (physical reality and the way in which its elements are related), and the Management Domain, identified in this Thesis as associated with the Conceptual Constraints (CC) that describe the restrictions associated with the management of the process . In this way, the PS Domain includes concepts and relationships that appear in the control standards of the process followed by the company: the description of the process to be developed, the description of the physical equipment in which it is developed , and that of its interactions, giving rise to the control of the execution of the procedures; this domain should allow managing the construction, design, operation and control of any manufacturing system. On the other hand, the CC Domain contains the information associated with the concepts and relationships that m ust be fulfilled to ensure a coherent set of decisions, with the purpose of identifying and representing the systematics to follow during the decision-making process, giving rise to the conceptual representation of this system and, finally, the construction of the corresponding DMM. The first challenge addressed in this thesis is associated with the systematisation of conceptual modelling from semantic information, for the construction ofontologies from textual sources and a procedure to verify the interna! coherence of lhese sources. The application of this methodology has been used for the identification of the essential concepts and relationships in the PS Domain, allowing creating a generic, common and shared model, unlike the existing models. In the next step, this PS Domain has been used to solve management problems in systems that comprise multi-level hierarchies. The resulting decision-making process allows integrating the decisions made al each level, ensuring their consistency from an approach that simultaneously considers the management of all available information (data and knowledge). On the other hand, the introduction of the necessary concepts and relationships to ensure the feasibility of the process management decisions, through the CC Domain, allows the development of systematic DMM creation procedures: this domain classifies the constrains (balances, sequence, etc.), adds abstrae! elements to them (e.g.: produced and consumed amounts) and allows to generalize the relation of its compone nis with the information associated to the PS Domain. The last part of this Thesis deals with the integration of the PS and CC Domains, and their application for the generation of new decision-making systems . For this, algorithms have been designed that, starting from the previously identified and classified restrictions, and patterns of DMMs also previously identified from existing cases, exploit the information available through the instances in the PS Domain, to generate new DMMs according to the user's specifications. lts use is illustrated through cases from different environments, demonstrating the generalisation capacity of the created systematics.Esta Tesis aborda la construcción sistemática de Modelos para la toma de Decisiones (DMMs) desde la etapa de conceptualización hasta su aplicación en situaciones concretas, con especial énfasis en el tratamiento de escenarios en los que existe una jerarquía de niveles de decisión, habitual en la Industria de Proceso (PS). Aunque las metodologías desarrolladas son genéricas, el alcance de esta Tesis se limita a la perspectiva de la Ingeniería de Procesos. El componente central requerido para construir un DMMs es la descripción conceptual de la realidad a la que se orienta, que a su vez respalda la sistematización de los procedimientos de gestión. Durante esta descripción, se pueden identificar planteamientos asociados a dos dominios diferentes: el Dominio del Proceso (PS), útil para describir la estructura del proceso como tal (realidad física y forma en la que se relacionan sus elementos), y el Dominio de Gestión, asociado a las Restricciones Conceptuales (CC) que describen las restricciones asociadas a la gestión del proceso. El Dominio PS incluye conceptos y relaciones que aparecen en los estándares de control del proceso que sigue la empresa: la descripción del proceso a desarrollar, la descripción de los equipos físicos en los que se desarrolla, y la de sus interacciones, que dan lugar al control de ejecución de los procedimientos; este dominio debe permitir la construcción, el diseño, la operación y el control de cualquier sistema de fabricación. Por su parte, el Dominio CC contiene la información asociada a los conceptos y las relaciones que deben cumplirse para asegurar un conjunto coherente de decisiones, con el propósito de identificar y representar la sistemática a seguir durante el proceso de toma de decisiones, dando lugar a la representación conceptual de esta sistemática y, finalmente, a la construcción del correspondiente DMM. El primer reto abordado en esta Tesis está asociado a la sistematización del modelado conceptual a partir de información semántica, para construcción de ontologías a partir de fuentes textuales y de un procedimiento para verificar la coherencia interna de dichas fuentes. La aplicación de esta metodología se ha utilizado para la identificación de los conceptos y las relaciones esenciales en el Dominio PS, permitiendo crear un modelo genérico, común y compartido, a diferencia de los modelos existentes. En el siguiente paso, este Dominio PS se ha utilizado para la resolución de problemas de gestión en sistemas que comprenden múltiples niveles de jerarquías funcionales. El proceso de toma de decisiones resultante permite integrar las decisiones tomadas en cada nivel, asegurando su coherencia a partir de un enfoque que contempla simultáneamente la gestión de toda la información disponible (datos y conocimiento). Por su parte, la introducción de los conceptos y relaciones necesarios para asegurar la factibilidad de las decisiones de gestión del proceso, a través del Dominio CC, permite el desarrollo de procedimientos sistemáticos de creación de DMMs: este Dominio clasifica las restricciones (balances, secuencia, etc.), agrega elementos abstractos a dichas restricciones (p.e.: cantidad producida y consumida) y permite generalizar la relación de sus componentes con la información asociada al Dominio PS. En la última parte de esta Tesis se aborda la integración de los Dominios PS y CC, y su aplicación para la generación de nuevos sistemas de toma de decisiones. Para ello, se han diseñado algoritmos que, partiendo de las restricciones anteriormente identificadas y clasificadas, y patrones de DMMs también previamente identificados a partir de casos ya existentes, explotan la información disponible a través de las instancias del Dominio PS, para generar de nuevos modelos de toma de decisión de acuerdo con las especificaciones del usuario. Su utilización se ilustra a través de casos procedentes de diferentes entornos, demostrando la capacidad de generalización de la sistemática creada