Formal description and automatic generation of learning spaces based on ontologies

Tese de Doutoramento em InformaticsA good Learning Space (LS) should convey pertinent information to the visitors at the most adequate time and location to favor their knowledge acquisition. This statement justifies the relevance of virtual Learning Spaces. Considering the consolidation of the Internet and the improvement of the interaction, searching, and learning mechanisms, this work proposes a generic architecture, called CaVa, to create Virtual Learning Spaces building upon cultural institution documents. More precisely, the proposal is to automatically generate ontology-based virtual learning environments from document repositories. Thus, to impart relevant learning materials to the virtual LS, this proposal is based on using ontologies to represent the fundamental concepts and semantic relations in a user- and machine-understandable format. These concepts together with the data (extracted from the real documents) stored in a digital repository are displayed in a web-based LS that enables the visitors to use the available features and tools to learn about a specific domain. According to the approach here discussed, each desired virtual LS must be specified rigorously through a Domain-Specific Language (DSL), called CaVaDSL, designed and implemented in this work. Furthermore, a set of processors (generators) was developed. These generators have the duty, receiving a CaVaDSL specification as input, of transforming it into several web scripts to be recognized and rendered by a web browser, producing the final virtual LS. Aiming at validating the proposed architecture, three real case studies – (1) Emigration Documents belonging to Fafe’s Archive; (2) The prosopographical repository of the Fasti Ecclesiae Portugaliae project; and (3) Collection of life stories of the Museum of the Person – were used. These real scenarios are actually relevant as they promote the digital preservation and dissemination of Cultural Heritage, contributing to human welfare.Um bom Espaço de Aprendizagem (LS – Learning Space) deve transmitir informações pertinentes aos visitantes no horário e local mais adequados para favorecer a aquisição de conhecimento. Esta afirmação justifica a relevância dos Espaços virtuais de Aprendizagem. Considerando a consolidação da Internet e o aprimoramento dos mecanismos de interação, busca e aprendizagem, este trabalho propõe uma arquitetura genérica, denominada CaVa, para a criação de Espaços virtuais de Aprendizagem baseados em documentos de instituições culturais. Mais precisamente, a proposta é gerar automaticamente ambientes de aprendizagem virtual baseados em ontologias a partir de repositórios de documentos. Assim, para transmitir materiais de aprendizagem relevantes para o LS virtual, esta proposta é baseada no uso de ontologias para representar os conceitos fundamentais e as relações semânticas em um formato compreensível pelo usuário e pela máquina. Esses conceitos, juntamente com os dados (extraídos dos documentos reais) armazenados em um repositório digital, são exibidos em um LS baseado na web que permite aos visitantes usarem os recursos e ferramentas disponíveis para aprenderem sobre um domínio espec ífico. Cada LS virtual desejado deve ser especificado rigorosamente por meio de uma Linguagem de Domínio Específico (DSL), chamada CaVaDSL, projetada e implementada neste trabalho. Além disso, um conjunto de processadores (geradores) foi desenvolvido. Esses geradores têm o dever de receber uma especificação CaVaDSL como entrada e transformá-la em diversos web scripts para serem reconhecidos e renderizados por um navegador, produzindo o LS virtual final. Visando validar a arquitetura proposta, três estudos de caso reais foram usados. Esses cenários reais são realmente relevantes, pois promovem a preservação digital e a disseminação do Património Cultural, contribuindo para o bem-estar humano

Formal Description and Automatic Generation of Learning Spaces Based on Ontologies

AbstractA good virtual Learning Space (LS) should convey pertinent learning information to the visitors at the most adequate time and locations to favor their knowledge acquisition.Considering the consolidation of the internet and the improvement of the interaction, searching, and learning mechanisms, we propose a generic architecture, called CaVa, to create virtual Learning Spaces building up on cultural institution documents. More precisely, our proposal is to automatically create ontology-based virtual learning environments.Thus, to impart relevant learning materials to the virtual LS, we propose the use of ontologies to represent the key concepts and semantic relations in an user- and machine-understandable format. These concepts together with the data (extracted from the real documents) stored in a digital storage format (XML datasets, relational databases, etc.) are displayed in an ontology-based learning space that enables the visitors to use the available features and tools to learn about a specific domain.According to the approach here discussed, each desired virtual LS must be specified rigorously through a domain specific language (DSL) that was designed and implemented.To validate the proposed architecture, three case studies will be used as instances of CaVa architecture

Building the Museum of the Person from RDF Triples and SPARQL

The Museum of the Person (MP) is a virtual museum that aims to show life stories of people, whether they are famous or anonymous.Its repository contains a collection of interviews, in XML (eXtensible Markup Language).Each interview tells the story of a person's life, describing events and other special situations that person has participated.The main objective is to on build web pages that carry out the museum exhibition rooms. To feed the exhibition rooms it is necessary to (automatically) extract the information included in the repository.Initially was constructed an ontology specific to the repository of the Museum of the Person, designated OntoMP.Then we adopted a standard to create ontologies for museums, CIDOC-CRM (CIDOC - Conceptual Reference Model) refined with FOAF (Friend of a Friend) and DBpedia to represent OntoMP.This article aims to discuss the construction of virtual rooms using a TripleStore to store the repository information and SPARQL technology (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language) to extract information from the XML repository

Analysis of end-to-end multi-domain management and orchestration frameworks for software defined infrastructures: an architectural survey

Over the last couple of years, industry operators' associations issued requirements towards an end-to-end management and orchestration plane for 5G networks. Consequently, standard organisations started their activities in this domain. This article provides an analysis and an architectural survey of these initiatives and of the main requirements, proposes descriptions for the key concepts of domain, resource and service slicing, end-to-end orchestration and a reference architecture for the end-to-end orchestration plane. Then, a set of currently available or under development domain orchestration frameworks are mapped to this reference architecture. These frameworks, meant to provide coordination and automated management of cloud and networking resources, network functions and services, fulfil multi-domain (i.e. multi-technology and multi-operator) orchestration requirements, thus enabling the realisation of an end-to-end orchestration plane. Finally, based on the analysis of existing single-domain and multi-domain orchestration components and requirements, this paper presents a functional architecture for the end-to-end management and orchestration plane, paving the way to its full realisation.This work was partially supported by the ICT14 5GExchange (5GEx) innovation project (grant agreement no.671636) co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 EU Framework Programme.Publicad

CaVa^DSL: Virtual learning spaces formal specification

In the context of Cultural Heritage, memory institutions build exhibition rooms to expose their assets and disseminate knowledge through these learning spaces. CaVa project aims at facilitating the process of learning spaces construction on the web to implement virtual museums. This paper presents CaVa^DSL, an external Domain-Specific Language (DSL) designed to specify virtual Learning Spaces enabling their automatic generation. To introduce CaVa^DSL language, the paper runs a case study, Museu Virtual Interativo da Fotografia (MVIF), presenting the specification for the museum's exhibiting rooms and their final layout. The process that analyzes and transforms the formal specification into the virtual Learning Spaces is briefly described to present the core engine of CaVa platform.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Analysis of end-to-end multi-domain management and orchestration frameworks for software defined infrastructures: an architectural survey

Over the last couple of years, industry operators' associations issued requirements towards an end-to-end management and orchestration plane for 5G networks. Consequently, standard organisations started their activities in this domain. This article provides an analysis and an architectural survey of these initiatives and of the main requirements, proposes descriptions for the key concepts of domain, resource and service slicing, end-to-end orchestration and a reference architecture for the end-to-end orchestration plane. Then, a set of currently available or under development domain orchestration frameworks are mapped to this reference architecture. These frameworks, meant to provide coordination and automated management of cloud and networking resources, network functions and services, fulfil multi-domain (i.e. multi-technology and multi-operator) orchestration requirements, thus enabling the realisation of an end-to-end orchestration plane. Finally, based on the analysis of existing single-domain and multi-domain orchestration components and requirements, this paper presents a functional architecture for the end-to-end management and orchestration plane, paving the way to its full realisation.This work was partially supported by the ICT14 5GExchange (5GEx) innovation project (grant agreement no.671636) co-funded by the European Union under the Horizon 2020 EU Framework Programme.Publicad

Global attitudes in the management of acute appendicitis during COVID-19 pandemic: ACIE Appy Study

Background: Surgical strategies are being adapted to face the COVID-19 pandemic. Recommendations on the management of acute appendicitis have been based on expert opinion, but very little evidence is available. This study addressed that dearth with a snapshot of worldwide approaches to appendicitis. Methods: The Association of Italian Surgeons in Europe designed an online survey to assess the current attitude of surgeons globally regarding the management of patients with acute appendicitis during the pandemic. Questions were divided into baseline information, hospital organization and screening, personal protective equipment, management and surgical approach, and patient presentation before versus during the pandemic. Results: Of 744 answers, 709 (from 66 countries) were complete and were included in the analysis. Most hospitals were treating both patients with and those without COVID. There was variation in screening indications and modality used, with chest X-ray plus molecular testing (PCR) being the commonest (19\ub78 per cent). Conservative management of complicated and uncomplicated appendicitis was used by 6\ub76 and 2\ub74 per cent respectively before, but 23\ub77 and 5\ub73 per cent, during the pandemic (both P < 0\ub7001). One-third changed their approach from laparoscopic to open surgery owing to the popular (but evidence-lacking) advice from expert groups during the initial phase of the pandemic. No agreement on how to filter surgical smoke plume during laparoscopy was identified. There was an overall reduction in the number of patients admitted with appendicitis and one-third felt that patients who did present had more severe appendicitis than they usually observe. Conclusion: Conservative management of mild appendicitis has been possible during the pandemic. The fact that some surgeons switched to open appendicectomy may reflect the poor guidelines that emanated in the early phase of SARS-CoV-2