Qualitative Modeling and Simulation of Socio-Economic Phenomena

This paper describes an application of recently developed qualitative reasoning techniques to complex, socio-economic allocation problems. We explain why we believe traditional optimization methods are inappropriate and how qualitative reasoning could overcome some of these shortcomings. A case study is presented where an authority is expected to devise a policy that satisfies certain constraints. We describe how sets of rules of thumb implementing such a policy can be analyzed and validated by the decision maker using a program which automatically builds and simulates qualitative models of the underlying dynamical system. Such a program constructs and simulates models from incomplete descriptions of initial states and functional relationships between variables. We show that it nevertheless gives sufficient information to the decision maker.Qualitative Modeling, Qualitative Reasoning, Decision Making, Allocation

information seeking as explorative learning

The paper starts with an overview of major problems hindering effective interactions with information retrieval systems. A brief review of models of the interaction taking place during information seeking is then provided with the aim of lying the ground for yet another model based on two levels of interaction: presentation and navigation. The former encompasses interactions with the user interface of the retrieval system, whereas the latter deals with the interaction that users experience with the information resource. It is claimed that this second level of interaction can be framed as an exploratory learning process and that its analysis provides adequate support for designing and evaluating information access systems

Group versus Individual Web Accessibility Evaluations: Effects with Novice Evaluators

We present an experiment comparing performance of 20 novice evaluators of accessibility carrying out Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 conformance reviews working individually to performance obtained when they work in teams of two. They were asked to first carry out an individual assessment of a web page. Later on, they were matched randomly to constitute a group of two and they were asked to revise their initial assessment and to produce a group assessment of the same page. Results indicate that significant differences were found for sensitivity (inversely related to false negatives: +8%) and agreement (when measured in terms of the majority view: +10%). Members of groups exhibited strong agreement on the evaluation results among them and with the group outcome. Other measures of validity and reliability are not significantly affected by group work. Practical implications of these findings are that, for example, when it is important to reduce the false-negative rate, then employing a group of two people is more useful than having individuals carrying out the assessment. Openings for future research include further explorations of whether similar results hold for groups larger than two or what is the effect of mixing people with different accessibility background. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS When novice accessibility evaluators work in groups, their ability to identify all the true problems increases (by 8%). Likewise, reliability of group evaluations increases (by 10%). Individual or group evaluations can be considered as equivalent methods with respect to false positives (if differences up to 8% in correctness are tolerated). Individual or group evaluations can be considered as equivalent methods with respect to overall effectiveness (if differences up to 11% in F-measure are tolerated)

A Dual-Stream architecture based on Neural Turing Machine and Attention for the Remaining Useful Life Estimation problem

Estimating in a reliable way the Remaining Useful Life (RUL) of a mechanical component is a fundamental task in the field of Prognostics and Health Management (PHM). In recent years a greater availability of high quality sensors and easiness of data gathering gave rise to data-driven models based on deep learning for this task, which has recently seen the introduction of \u201cdual-stream\u201d architectures. In this paper we propose a dual-stream architecture to address the RUL estimation problem through the exploitation of a Neural Turing Machine (NTM) and a Multi-Head Attention (MHA) mechanism. The NTM is a content-based memory addressing system which gives each of the streams the ability to access to and interact with the memory and acts as a fusion technique. The MHA is an attention mechanism added as a mean for our architecture to identify the existing relations between different sensor data in order to reveal hidden patterns among them. To evaluate the performance of our model, we considered the C-MAPSS dataset, a benchmark dataset published by NASA consisting of several time series related to the life of turbofan engines. We show that our approach achieves the best prediction score (which measures the safety of the predictions) in the available literature on two of the C-MAPSS subdatasets

A user interface framework for the Square Kilometre Array: concepts and responsibilities

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project is responsible for developing the SKA Observatory, the world's largest radio telescope, with eventually over a square kilometre of collecting area and including a general headquarters as well as two radio telescopes: SKA1-Mid in South Africa and SKA1-Low in Australia. The SKA project consists of a number of subsystems (elements) among which the Telescope Manager (TM) is the one involved in controlling and monitoring the SKA telescopes. The TM element has three primary responsibilities: management of astronomical observations, management of telescope hardware and software subsystems, management of data to support system operations and all stakeholders (operators, maintainers, engineers and science users) in achieving operational, maintenance and engineering goals. Operators, maintainers, engineers and science users will interact with TM via appropriate user interfaces (UI). The TM UI framework envisaged is a complete set of general technical solutions (components, technologies and design information) for implementing a generic computing system (UI platform). Such a system will enable UI components to be instantiated to allow for human interaction via screens, keyboards, mouse and to implement the necessary logic for acquiring or deriving the information needed for interaction. It will provide libraries and specific Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to implement operator and engineer interactive interfaces. This paper will provide a status update of the TM UI framework, UI platform and UI components design effort, including the technology choices, and discuss key challenges in the TM UI architecture, as well as our approaches to addressing them

Breaking The Exclusionary Boundary Between User Experience And Access: Steps Toward Making UX Inclusive Of Users With Disabilities

This research paper points out that we as Designers have failed to come up with a model of UX that would proximate a satisfying user experience for users with disabilities. It underscores the gaps in designer knowledge about disabled bodies. The research paper also draws the attention of the designer community to the limited understanding we presently possess of the disabled people\u27s notions of, and expectations from, satisfying user experiences. It proposes a multi-step process for shifting the focus of design activity from a medical model of accessibility design that retrofits normative designs to the needs of users with disabilities to developing an accessible user experience model (AUX) of design that counts these users as design collaborators, possessors of special knowledge about disabled bodies, and untapped sources of innovative designs that might offer additional design features for all users

SKA telescope manager: a status update

The international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project to build two radio interferometers is approaching the end of its design phase, and gearing up for the beginning of formal construction. A key part of this distributed Observatory is the overall software control system: the Telescope Manager (TM). The two telescopes, a Low frequency dipole array to be located in Western Australia (SKA-Low) and a Mid-frequency dish array to be located in South Africa (SKA-Mid) will be operated as a single Observatory, with its global headquarters (GHQ) based in the United Kingdom at Jodrell Bank. When complete it will be the most powerful radio observatory in the world. The TM software must combine the observatory operations based at the GHQ with the monitor and control operations of each telescope, covering the range of domains from proposal submission to the coordination and monitoring of the subsystems that make up each telescope. It must also monitor itself and provide a reliable operating platform. This paper will provide an update on the design status of TM, covering the make-up of the consortium delivering the design, a brief description of the key challenges and the top level architecture, and its software development plans for tackling the construction phase of the project. It will also briefly describe the consortium’s response to the SKA Project’s decision in the second half of 2016 to adopt the processes set out by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) for system architecture design and documentation, including a re-evaluation of its deliverables, documentation and approach to internal reviews.publishe

Achieving universal web access through specialized user interfaces

www.dimi.uniud.it/giorgio Abstract. The paper discusses how accessibility helps in extending the range of goals that users (disabled or not) can achieve, and how it fails to increase user bandwidth for achieving those goals. The paper then illustrates how transcoders that satisfy a set of requirements, can effectively deal with the problem of generating, on the fly, specialized user interfaces that would support a more universal web access leading to a greater bandwidth. An informal analysis of a commercially available text-transcoder is used as an example of what can be done. 1