Semantic network skeletons - a tool to analyze spreading activation effects

Spreading Activation algorithms are a well-known tool to determine relevance of nodes in a semantic network. Although often used, the configuration of a spreading activation algorithm is usually very problem-specific, and experience-driven. There are practically no guidelines or tools to help with the task. In this paper, we present semantic network skeletons, which are essentially a structural summary of a semantic network. We show how to derive the skeleton from a given semantic network, and how to derive conclusions about good configurations from it. Our results are then demonstrated in a case study from the automotive domain

Spreading activation simulation with semantic network skeletons

Spreading activation algorithms are a well-known tool to determine the mutual relevance of nodes in a semantic network. Although often used, the configuration of a spreading activation algorithm is usually problem-specific and experiencedriven. However, an excessive exploration of spreading behavior is often not applicable due to the size of most semantic networks. A semantic network skeleton provides a comprised summary of a semantic network for better understanding the network’s structural characteristics. In this article, we present an approach for spreading activation simulation of semantic networks utilizing their semantic network skeletons. We show how expected spreading activation behavior can be estimated and how the results allow for further effect detection. The appropriateness of the simulation results as well as time-related advantages are demonstrated in a case study

Recommendation-based decision support for hazard analysis and risk assessment

Since 2011, automotive companies have to adhere to the functional safety standard ISO 26262. One important safety activity described in the standard is the hazard analysis and risk assessment, which is strongly expert-driven, and therefore expensive, time consuming, and dependent from the individual expert’s opinion. In this paper, we present a decision support system for hazard analyses in order to increase their consistency and efficiency. The system automatically combines results from finished analyses and supporting information in a knowledge base and searches it for useful recommendations during a new hazard analysis and risk assessment

Explanation Retrieval in Semantic Networks : Understanding Spreading Activation based Recommendations

Spreading Activation is a well-known semantic search technique to determine the relevance of nodes in a semantic network. When used for decision support, meaningful explanations of semantic search results are crucial for the user’s acceptance and trust. Usually, explanations are generated based on the original network. Indeed, the data accumulated during the spreading activation process contains semantically extremely valuable information. Therefore, our approach exploits the so-called spread graph, a specific data structure that comprises the spreading progress data. In this paper, we present a three-step explanation retrieval method based on spread graphs. We show how to retrieve the most relevant parts of a network by minimization and extraction techniques and formulate meaningful explanations. The evaluation of the approach is then performed with a prototypical decision support system for automotive safety analyses

Automatic glossary term extraction from large-scale requirements specifications

Creating glossaries for large corpora of requirments is an important but expensive task. Glossary term extraction methods often focus on achieving a high recall rate and, therefore, favor linguistic proecssing for extracting glossary term candidates and neglect the benefits from reducing the number of candidates by statistical filter methods. However, especially for large datasets a reduction of the likewise large number of candidates may be crucial. This paper demonstrates how to automatically extract relevant domain-specific glossary term candidates from a large body of requirements, the CrowdRE dataset. Our hybrid approach combines linguistic processing and statistical filtering for extracting and reducing glossary term candidates. In a twofold evaluation, we examine the impact of our approach on the quality and quantity of extracted terms. We provide a ground truth for a subset of the requirements and show that a substantial degree of recall can be achieved. Furthermore, we advocate requirements coverage as an additional quality metric to assess the term reduction that results from our statistical filters. Results indicate that with a careful combination of linguistic and statistical extraction methods, a fair balance between later manual efforts and a high recall rate can be achieved

Supporting the Development of Cyber-Physical Systems with Natural Language Processing: A Report

Software has become the driving force for innovations in any technical system that observes the environment with different sensors and influence it by controlling a number of actuators; nowadays called Cyber-Physical System (CPS). The development of such systems is inherently inter-disciplinary and often contains a number of independent subsystems. Due to this diversity, the majority of development information is expressed in natural language artifacts of all kinds. In this paper, we report on recent results that our group has developed to support engineers of CPSs in working with the large amount of information expressed in natural language. We cover the topics of automatic knowledge extraction, expert systems, and automatic requirements classification. Furthermore, we envision that natural language processing will be a key component to connect requirements with simulation models and to explain tool-based decisions. We see both areas as promising for supporting engineers of CPSs in the future

Empirische Methoden und Ergebnisse in der Fremdsprachenforschung – Einführung in die Themenausgabe

Die empirische Wende, die sich vor dem Hintergrund einer stärkeren Output-Orientierung im Bildungswesen in allen Fachdidaktiken vollzieht, bleibt auch in der Fremdsprachendidaktik und Fremdsprachenforschung nicht ohne Widerhall. In den letzten Jahren wurden zunehmend Projekte realisiert, die unter Nutzung der vorhandenen theoretischen Modelle und curricularen Vorarbeiten einen empirischen Zugriff auf das Fremdsprachenlernen im Schulunterricht realisieren. Das Projekt DESI (Deutsch-Englisch-Schülerleistungen International; Beck & Klieme 2007; DESIKonsortium 2008) kann innerhalb der Fremdsprachendidaktik vielleicht als Startschuss für repräsentative empirische Vorstöße gewertet werden. Das von der Kultusministerkonferenz im Jahre 2001 in Auftrag gegebene Projekt untersuchte im Rahmen kooperativer Zusammenarbeit von Fachdidaktikern, pädagogischen Psychologen und DiagnostikExperten systematisch die Realität des Englisch- und Deutschunterrichts in der 9. Klasse. Der DESI-Studie folgten weitere empirische Arbeiten in den Fremdsprachendidaktiken und nicht zuletzt eine systematische Ausdifferenzierung von Leistungserwartungen in der Schule im Rahmen der Definition von Bildungsstandards für Englisch als Fremdsprache (Kultusministerkonferenz 2003; Rupp, Vock, Harsch & Köller 2008). Weiterhin gab es in den letzten Jahren international ausgerichtete Bemühungen, empirische Vergleiche von Fremdsprachenkompetenzen zwischen Sprachlernern aus verschiedenen Staaten zu ermöglichen. Das Projekt EBAFLS (European Bank of Anchor Items for Foreign Language Skills, vgl. Jurecka 2010) stellt einen Schritt hin zur Vergleichbarkeit von europäischen Sprachzertifikaten dar, teilnehmende Länder waren Deutschland, Frankreich, Luxemburg, die Niederlande, Schottland, Schweden, Spanien und Ungarn. Die systematische Einführung von Bildungsstandards seit dem Jahr 2003 einerseits und weitere Forschungsanstrengungen im Rahmen von Schulleistungsstudien, die fremdsprachliche Kompetenz einbeziehen (z.B. KESS; May 2006), begleiten und befördern die empirische Wende in den Fachdidaktiken der Fremdsprachen, die sich inzwischen in zahlreichen Forschungsarbeiten und in einer verstärkten empirischen Aktivität in verschiedenen Projekten abbildet, in die jeweils auch Nachwuchswissenschaftler involviert sind (z.B. Bayrhuber, Harms, Muszynski, Ralle, Rothgangel, Schön, Vollmer & Weigand 2011; Aguado, Schramm & Vollmer 2010)

Consideration of sex/gender in publications of quantitative health-related research: Development and application of an assessment matrix

During the last years the need to integrate sex and gender in health-related research for better and fairer science became increasingly apparent. Various guidelines and checklists were developed to encourage and support researchers in considering the entangled dimensions of sex/gender in their research. However, a tool for the assessment of sex/gender consideration and its visualization is still missing. We aim to fill this gap by introducing an assessment matrix that can be used as a flexible instrument for comprehensively evaluating the sex/gender consideration in quantitative health-related research. The matrix was developed through an iterative and open process based on the interdisciplinary expertise represented in our research team and currently published guidelines. The final matrix consists of 14 different items covering the whole research process and the publication of results. Additionally, we introduced a method to graphically display this evaluation. By developing the matrix, we aim to provide users with a tool to systematically compare sex/gender consideration qualitatively between different publications and even different fields of study. This way, the assessment matrix represents a tool to identify research gaps and a basis for future research. In the long term, the implementation of this tool to evaluate the consideration of sex/gender should contribute to more sex/gender equitable health-related research.Peer Reviewe

Consideration of sex/gender in publications of quantitative health-related research: Development and application of an assessment matrix

During the last years the need to integrate sex and gender in health-related research for better and fairer science became increasingly apparent. Various guidelines and checklists were developed to encourage and support researchers in considering the entangled dimensions of sex/gender in their research. However, a tool for the assessment of sex/gender consideration and its visualization is still missing. We aim to fill this gap by introducing an assessment matrix that can be used as a flexible instrument for comprehensively evaluating the sex/gender consideration in quantitative health-related research. The matrix was developed through an iterative and open process based on the interdisciplinary expertise represented in our research team and currently published guidelines. The final matrix consists of 14 different items covering the whole research process and the publication of results. Additionally, we introduced a method to graphically display this evaluation. By developing the matrix, we aim to provide users with a tool to systematically compare sex/gender consideration qualitatively between different publications and even different fields of study. This way, the assessment matrix represents a tool to identify research gaps and a basis for future research. In the long term, the implementation of this tool to evaluate the consideration of sex/gender should contribute to more sex/gender equitable health-related research

Operationalization of a multidimensional sex/gender concept for quantitative environmental health research and implementation in the KORA study: Results of the collaborative research project INGER

BackgroundIn environmental health research, sex and gender are not yet adequately considered. There is a need to improve data collection in population-based environmental health studies by comprehensively surveying sex/gender-related aspects according to gender theoretical concepts. Thus, within the joint project INGER we developed a multidimensional sex/gender concept which we aimed to operationalize and to test the operationalization for feasibility.MethodsIn an iterative process, we created questionnaire modules which quantitatively captured the requirements of the INGER sex/gender concept. We deployed it in the KORA cohort (Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg, Germany) in 2019 and evaluated response and missing rates.ResultsThe individual sex/gender self-concept was surveyed via a two-step approach that asked for sex assigned at birth and the current sex/gender identity. Additionally, we used existing tools to query internalized sex/gender roles and externalized sex/gender expressions. Adapted to the KORA population, we asked for discrimination experiences and care and household activities contributing to explain structural sex/gender relations. Further intersectionality-related social categories (e.g., socio-economic position), lifestyle and psychosocial factors were covered through data available in KORA. We could not identify appropriate tools to assess the true biological sex, sexual orientation and ethnic/cultural identity, which have yet to be developed or improved. The response-rate was 71%, the evaluation of 3,743 questionnaires showed a low missing rate. Prevalence of marginalized groups regarding sex/gender identity and definable by experiences of discrimination was very low.ConclusionWe have shown how the multidimensional INGER sex/gender concept can be operationalized according to an European and North American understanding of sex/gender for use in quantitative research. The questionnaire modules proved feasible in an epidemiologic cohort study. Being a balancing act between theoretical concepts and its quantitative implementation our operationalization paves the way for an adequate consideration of sex/gender in environmental health research