Software-Assisted Knowledge Generation in the Archaeological Domain: A Conceptual Framework

Comunicación presentada en la 25th International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2013), celebrada en Valencia del 17 al 21 de junio de 2013.Knowledge generation processes are traditionally related to the DIKW (data-information-knowledge-wisdom) hierarchy, a layered model for the classification of human understanding. Software components can be situated in one or several of these layers, or assist in the interfaces between two of them. Most of the knowledge generation processes that occur in the archaeology field involve complex mechanisms of abstraction, relation and interpretation. Is it possible to assist the users in performing these processes? We have detected problems in the archaeological knowledge generation process that could be improved through software assistance. We propose a conceptual framework based on the structure of the data that is being managed by the user, and on the cognitive processes that the user wishes to perform on the data. The proposed framework can, arguably, set the foundation for assisted knowledge generation implemented as software systems.Peer Reviewe

Software Support for Discourse-Based Textual Information Analysis: A Systematic Literature Review and Software Guidelines in Practice

[Abstract] The intrinsic characteristics of humanities research require technological support and software assistance that also necessarily goes through the analysis of textual narratives. When these narratives become increasingly complex, pragmatics analysis (i.e., at discourse or argumentation levels) assisted by software is a great ally in the digital humanities. In recent years, solutions have been developed from the information visualization domain to support discourse analysis or argumentation analysis of textual sources via software, with applications in political speeches, debates, online forums, but also in written narratives, literature or historical sources. This paper presents a wide and interdisciplinary systematic literature review (SLR), both in software-related areas and humanities areas, on the information visualization and the software solutions adopted to support pragmatics textual analysis. As a result of this review, this paper detects weaknesses in existing works on the field, especially related to solutions’ availability, pragmatic framework dependence and lack of information sharing and reuse software mechanisms. The paper also provides some software guidelines for improving the detected weaknesses, exemplifying some guidelines in practice through their implementation in a new web tool, Viscourse. Viscourse is conceived as a complementary tool to assist textual analysis and to facilitate the reuse of informational pieces from discourse and argumentation text analysis tasks.Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad; FJCI-2016-6 28032Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades; RTI2018-093336-B-C2

Software-Assisted Knowledge Generation in the Cultural Heritage Domain: A Conceptual Framework

[EN] Software Engineering provides a repository of techniques, methods and tools to manage, process, use and exploit information. In recent decades, this corpus has not only been applied to domains that traditionally act as a receivers of software solutions, but also it has been expanded and enriched by contributions from other disciplines and domains with needs related to the information produced. One of the most common needs in these disciplines is the software assistance to experts or domain professionals in performing processes ranging from the analysis of raw gathered data to the generation of new knowledge based on these, thus allowing the continuous advance of the discipline. In order to assist knowledge generation processes through software, it is necessary a deep understanding of the Software Engineering corpus as well as the particularities of the domain assisted and how knowledge is generated inside it.This situation appears too in the Cultural Heritage domain, whose professionals produce and manage large amounts of data about evidences of our past and present, from which they create new knowledge that constitutes the knowledge about heritage of a particular community.Despite their relevance and the regular application of Software Engineering solutions to the Cultural Heritage domain, the knowledge generation process in Cultural Heritage poses a challenge for Software Engineering, mainly due to the low presence of formal studies of the process, making it difficult to assist it through software. The lack of formal studies implies that we do not know which particular processes in Cultural Heritage we must assist and what should be the appropriate assistance in each case. Furthermore, the Cultural Heritage domain and, in general, the humanities, possesses some particular characteristics that are especially difficult to deal with by software, such as the presence of high subjectivity, the fact that much information is uncertain or vague, and the importance of the temporal aspect in the information. In order to address these two challenges from a transdisciplinary perspective, this thesis presents a conceptual framework based on software models for the construction of software solutions to assist to the knowledge generation process in Cultural Heritage. Firstly, the thesis conducts a deep exploration of the knowledge generation processes in Cultural Heritage, whose inputs are mainly textual sources. As a result, the thesis proposes a methodology and a modelling language to use discourse analysis in Software Engineering. By using this approach, it is possible to relate elements of a text with the domain entities that are referenced and the argumentative mechanisms used during the knowledge generation process and captured in the text. Subsequently, the thesis proposes a conceptual framework whose implementation allows to manage the domain particularities mentioned above, providing a software assistance to the Cultural Heritage professionals through information visualization techniques.The proposed conceptual framework has been validated in two complementary ways. On the one hand, we have developed a full case study in the Cultural Heritage domain, for which we have instantiated all the software models proposed as part of the framework to represent a real-world scenario. This case study application has revealed the potential of the framework in terms of conceptual representation, technical support and software-assistance definition mechanisms.On the other hand, the proposed software models have been implemented as a functional iOS application prototype. The prototype has been validated empirically against professionals in Cultural Heritage, comparing the performance of knowledge generation processes using the proposed framework to the conventional ways without software assistance. The empirical validation has revealed how the proposed framework provides a robust solution for implementing software-assistance in Cultural Heritage.[ES] La ingeniería del software ofrece un repositorio de técnicas, métodos y herramientas como soluciones para el manejo, tratamiento, uso y explotación de información. En las últimas décadas, este corpus no sólo ha sido aplicado a dominios tradicionalmente receptores de soluciones software, sino que se ha expandido y enriquecido con aportaciones de diversas disciplinas y dominios con necesidades relacionadas con la información que producen.Una de las necesidades más habituales es la asistencia a los profesionales de dichas disciplinas durante el proceso evolutivo que realizan desde el análisis de los datos más primarios hasta la generación de conocimiento nuevo que permita avanzar en la disciplina involucrada. Este es el caso del Patrimonio Cultural, cuyos profesionales producen y manejan ingentes cantidades de datos acerca de evidencias sobre nuestro pasado y presente, y desde los cuáles descubren y generan conocimiento nuevo, que supone la herencia cultural propia de una comunidad. Este conocimiento define la comunidad en el presente y es transmitido a las generaciones presentes y futuras. Pese a su relevancia y a la habitual aplicación de determinadas soluciones de ingeniería software en el dominio, el proceso de generación de conocimiento en Patrimonio Cultural representa en sí mismo un reto para la ingeniería del software, debido fundamentalmente a la poca presencia de estudios formales acerca del mismo, lo que dificulta su asistencia mediante software. Esto implica que no sabemos qué tipo de subprocesos debemos asistir mediante software ni cuál es la asistencia más adecuada. Además, el corpus actual en ingeniería del software debe soportar especificidades del dominio patrimonial y, en general, de las humanidades, como son la presencia de una alta subjetividad, el hecho de que mucha información es incierta o vaga, y la importancia del aspecto temporal en los datos. Con el objetivo de abordar estos dos retos desde una perspectiva co-investigadora y transdisciplinar, la presente tesis doctoral presenta un marco conceptual basado en modelos software para la construcción de soluciones software que asistan a la generación de conocimiento en Patrimonio Cultural. La tesis explora a fondo el proceso de generación de conocimiento en Patrimonio Cultural, cuyas fuentes eminentemente textuales han dado lugar a la propuesta de una metodología completa y un lenguaje de modelado para utilizar análisis del discurso en ingeniería del software. Esta propuesta permite que se puedan relacionar elementos de un texto con las entidades del dominio que se referencian, así como los mecanismos argumentativos que se emplean.Posteriormente, la tesis propone un marco conceptual completo cuya implementación permite gestionar las especificidades del dominio antes señaladas, ofreciendo una asistencia mediante técnicas de visualización de información software a los especialistas en Patrimonio Cultural. El marco conceptual propuesto ha sido validado de dos maneras complementarias. Por un lado, se ha desarrollado un caso de estudio patrimonial completo, para el cual se han implementado todos los modelos software del marco conceptual propuesto, representando un escenario de aplicación completo del mundo real. Este caso de estudio ha permitido comprobar la potencia del marco conceptual propuesto en cuanto a representación, soporte y definición de mecanismos de asistencia software. Por otro lado, los modelos software que conforman el marco conceptual propuesto han sido implementados en un prototipo funcional en forma de aplicación iOS. Esto ha permitido contar con una implementación real de asistencia software en Patrimonio Cultural. Dicha solución se ha validado empíricamente con profesionales del dominio, comparándola con los modos de generación de conocimiento habituales sin dicha asistencia.La validación empírica ha permitido comprobar cómo el marco propuesto constituye una solución sólida para la construcci[CA] L'enginyeria del programari ofereix un repositori de tècniques, mètodes i eines com a suport per la manipulació, tractament, ús i explotació d'informació. En les darreres dècades, aquest corpus no sols ha sigut aplicat a dominis tradicionalment receptors de solucions de programari, si no que s'han extés i enriquit amb aportacions des de diferents disciplines i dominis amb necessitats relacionades amb l'informació que produeixen. Una de les necessitats més habituals és l'assistència als professionals d'aquestes disciplines durant el procés evolutiu que realitzen des de l'anàlisi de les dades més primàries fins la generació de nou coneixement que permet avançar en la disciplina involucrada. Aquest és el cas del Patrimoni Cultural, el professionals del qual produeixen i manipulen grans quantitats de dades sobre evidències del nostre passat i present, i des de les quals descobreixen i generen nou coneixement, que suposa l'herència cultural pròpia d'una comunitat. A pesar de la seua relevància i a la normal aplicació de determinades solucions d'enginyeria de programari al domini, el procés de generació de coneixement en Patrimoni Cultural representa, en sí mateix, un repte per a l'enginyeria del programari, fonamentalment per la poca presència d'estudis formals sobre aquest domini, cosa que dificulta la seua assistència per programari. Açò implica que no sabem quin tipus de subprocessos hem d'assistir amb programari ni quina és l'assitència més adient. A més a més, el corpus actual en l'enginyeria del programari ha de suportar especifitats del domini patrimonial i, en general, de les humanitats, com són la presència d'una alta subjectivitat, i el fet que molta informació és incerta o imprescisa, o la importància de la dimensió temporal en les dades. Amb l'objectiu d'abordar aquestos dos reptes des d'una perspectiva de recerca colaborativa i transdisciplinar, aquesta tesi doctoral presenta un marc conceptual basat en models de programari per a la construcció de solucions de programari que assistisquen a la generació de coneixement en Patrimoni Cultural. En primer lloc, la tesi explora en profunditat el procés de generació de coneixement en Patrimoni Cultural, les fonts de les quals són majoritàriament textuals han sigut l'orige per a la proposta d'una metodologia completa i un llenguatge de modelatge per emprar anàlisi del discurs en enginyeria de programari. Aquesta proposta permet que es puguen relacionar elements d'un text amb les entitats del domini que es referencien, així com els mecanismes argumentatius que s'empren. Posteriorment, la tesi proposa un marc conceptual complet amb una implementació que permet gestionar les especificitats del domini abans esmentades, oferint una assistència mitjançant tècniques de visualització d'informació de programari als especialistes en Patrimoni Cultural.El marc conceptual proposat ha sigut validat de dues maneres complementàries. Per una banda, s'ha desenvolupat un cas d'estudi patrimonial complet, implementant tots els models de programari del marc conceptual proposat, representant un escenari d'aplicació complet del món real. Aquest cas d'estudi ha permés comprovar la potència del marc conceptual proposat en quant a la representació, suport i definició de mecanismes d'assistència de programari. Per una altra banda, els models de programari que conformen el marc conceptual proposat s'han implementat en un prototipus funcional en forma d'aplicació iOS. Aquest fet ha permés comptar amb una implementació real d'assistència de programari en Patrimoni Cultural. Aquesta solució s'ha validat empíricament amb professionals del domini, comparant-la amb els modes de generació de coneixement habituals sense aquesta assistència. La validació empírica ha permés comprovar com el marc conceptual proposat constitueix una solució sòlida per a la construcció, a partir dels models de programari especificats, dels sistemes de progMartín Rodilla, P. (2016). Software-Assisted Knowledge Generation in the Cultural Heritage Domain: A Conceptual Framework [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/68496TESI

Metainformation scenarios in Digital Humanities: Characterization and conceptual modelling strategies

Requirements for the analysis, interpretation and reuse of information are becoming more and more ambitious as we generate larger and more complex datasets. This is leading to the development and widespread use of information about information, often called metainformation (or metadata) in most disciplines. The Digital Humanities are not an exception. We often assume that metainformation helps us in documenting information for future reference by recording who has created it, when and how, among other aspects. We also assume that recording metainformation will facilitate the tasks of interpreting information at later stages. However, some works have identified some issues with existing metadata approaches, related to 1) the proliferation of too many “standards” and difficulties to choose between them; 2) the generalized assumption that metadata and data (or metainformation and information) are essentially different, and the subsequent development of separate sets of languages and tools for each (introducing redundant models); and 3) the combination of conceptual and implementation concerns within most approaches, violating basic engineering principles of modularity and separation of concerns. Some of these problems are especially relevant in Digital Humanities. In addition, we argue here that the lack of characterization of the scenarios in which metainformation plays a relevant role in humanistic projects often results in metainformation being recorded and managed without a specific purpose in mind. In turn, this hinders the process of decision making on issues such as what metainformation must be recorded in a specific project, and how it must be conceptualized, stored and managed. This paper presents a review of the most used metadata approaches in Digital Humanities and, taking a conceptual modelling perspective, analyses their major issues as outlined above. It also describes what the most common scenarios for the use of metainformation in Digital Humanities are, presenting a characterization that can assist in the setting of goals for metainformation recording and management in each case. Based on these two aspects, a new approach is proposed for the conceptualization, recording and management of metainformation in the Digital Humanities, using the ConML conceptual modelling language, and adopting the overall view that metainformation is not essentially different to information. The proposal is validated in Digital Humanities scenarios through case studies employing real-world datasetsThis work was partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under its Competitive Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Research Programme (FJCI-2016-28032)S

Building Cultural Heritage Reference Collections from Social Media through Pooling Strategies: The Case of 2020’s Tensions Over Race and Heritage

Preprint del artículo[Abstract] Social networks constitute a valuable source for documenting heritage constitution processes or obtaining a real-time snapshot of a cultural heritage research topic. Many heritage researchers use social networks as a social thermometer to study these processes, creating, for this purpose, collections that constitute born-digital archives potentially reusable, searchable, and of interest to other researchers or citizens. However, retrieval and archiving techniques used in social networks within heritage studies are still semi-manual, being a time-consuming task and hindering the reproducibility, evaluation, and open-up of the collections created. By combining Information Retrieval strategies with emerging archival techniques, some of these weaknesses can be left behind. Specifically, pooling is a well-known Information Retrieval method to extract a sample of documents from an entire document set (posts in case of social network's information), obtaining the most complete and unbiased set of relevant documents on a given topic. Using this approach, researchers could create a reference collection while avoiding annotating the entire corpus of documents or posts retrieved. This is especially useful in social media due to the large number of topics treated by the same user or in the same thread or post. We present a platform for applying pooling strategies combined with expert judgment to create cultural heritage reference collections from social networks in a customisable, reproducible, documented, and shareable way. The platform is validated by building a reference collection from a social network about the recent attacks on patrimonial entities motivated by anti-racist protests. This reference collection and the results obtained from its preliminary study are available for use. This real application has allowed us to validate the platform and the pooling strategies for creating reference collections in heritage studies from social networks.This research has received financial support from: (i) Saving European Archaeology from the Digital Dark Age (SEADDA) 2019-2023 COST ACTION CA 18128; (ii) “Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades” of the Government of Spain and the ERDF (projects RTI2018-093336-B-C21 and RTI2018-093336-B-C22); (iii) Xunta de Galicia - “Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidade” (project GPC ED431B 2019/03); (iv) Xunta de Galicia - “Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Universidade” and the ERDF (“Centro Singular de Investigación de Galicia” accreditation ED431G 2019/01)European Cooperation in Science and Technology; CA18128Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2019/03Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

Experimental Analysis of the Relevance of Features and Effects on Gender Classification Models for Social Media Author Profiling

[Abstract] Automatic user profiling from social networks has become a popular task due to its commercial applications (targeted advertising, market studies...). Automatic profiling models infer demographic characteristics of social network users from their generated content or interactions. Users’ demographic information is also precious for more social worrying tasks such as automatic early detection of mental disorders. For this type of users’ analysis tasks, it has been shown that the way how they use language is an important indicator which contributes to the effectiveness of the models. Therefore, we also consider that for identifying aspects such as gender, age or user’s origin, it is interesting to consider the use of the language both from psycho-linguistic and semantic features. A good selection of features will be vital for the performance of retrieval, classification, and decision-making software systems. In this paper, we will address gender classification as a part of the automatic profiling task. We show an experimental analysis of the performance of existing gender classification models based on external corpus and baselines for automatic profiling. We analyse in-depth the influence of the linguistic features in the classification accuracy of the model. After that analysis, we have put together a feature set for gender classification models in social networks with an accuracy performance above existing baselines.This work was supported by projects RTI2018-093336-B-C21, RTI2018-093336-B-C22 (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innvovacion & ERDF) and the financial support supplied by the Conselleria de Educacion, Universidade e Formacion Profesional (accreditation 2019-2022 ED431G/01, ED431B 2019/03) and the European Regional Development Fund, which acknowledges the CITIC Research Center in ICT of the University of A Coruna as a Research Center of the Galician University System.Xunta de Galicia; ED431G/01Xunta de Galicia; ED431B 2019/0

Assisting Forensic Identification through Unsupervised Information Extraction of Free Text Autopsy Reports: The Disappearances Cases during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship

Anthropological, archaeological, and forensic studies situate enforced disappearance as a strategy associated with the Brazilian military dictatorship (1964–1985), leaving hundreds of persons without identity or cause of death identified. Their forensic reports are the only existing clue for people identification and detection of possible crimes associated with them. The exchange of information among institutions about the identities of disappeared people was not a common practice. Thus, their analysis requires unsupervised techniques, mainly due to the fact that their contextual annotation is extremely time-consuming, difficult to obtain, and with high dependence on the annotator. The use of these techniques allows researchers to assist in the identification and analysis in four areas: Common causes of death, relevant body locations, personal belongings terminology, and correlations between actors such as doctors and police officers involved in the disappearances. This paper analyzes almost 3000 textual reports of missing persons in São Paulo city during the Brazilian dictatorship through unsupervised algorithms of information extraction in Portuguese, identifying named entities and relevant terminology associated with these four criteria. The analysis allowed us to observe terminological patterns relevant for people identification (e.g., presence of rings or similar personal belongings) and automate the study of correlations between actors. The proposed system acts as a first classificatory and indexing middleware of the reports and represents a feasible system that can assist researchers working in pattern search among autopsy reportsThis research was partially funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and 5 Competitiveness under its Competitive Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Research Programme, grant FJCI-2016-6 28032 and from the European Union, through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network ‘CHEurope: Critical Heritage Studies and the Future of Europe’ H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, grant 722416S

Autoevaluación, co-evaluación y estudio empírico frente a técnicas de evaluación tradicionales en la asignatura de Sistemas Operativos

En este artículo, presentamos un protocolo desarrollado como parte de las actividades de innovación docente en Sistemas Operativos. El objetivo del protocolo es incorporar la autoevaluación como mecanismo de evaluación formativa en competencias en Sistemas Operativos, que fomente en el estudiantado capacidades transversales de especial relevancia en diseño e implementación de funcionalidades de Sistemas Operativos: análisis crítico, detección de posibles mejoras y conciencia del propio proceso de aprendizaje. Para ello, se diseñó un protocolo de autoevaluación y co-evaluación de las pruebas prácticas de la asignatura correspondientes a tres áreas temáticas en Sistemas Operativos: sistemas de ficheros, manejo de memoria y gestión y planificación de procesos. Buscando posibilitar la convivencia de ambos sistemas de evaluación, el protocolo se aplicó a parte del alumnado, manteniendo la evaluación por parte del profesorado paralelamente. Posteriormente, se realizó un estudio empírico de precisión en autoevaluación y co evaluación de los estudiantes, comparando el protocolo con la evaluación tradicional, y evaluando inicialmente sus implicaciones en las calificaciones finales obtenidas. Los resultados permiten no sólo evaluar inicialmente el protocolo diseñado, sino también conocer el punto de partida en capacidades de autoevaluación y co-evaluación de los estudiantes en las áreas temáticas particulares de Sistemas Operativos.In this paper, we present a protocol developed as part of some educational innovation initiatives in Operating Systems subject. The protocol’s goal is incorporating self-evaluation as a formative evaluation mechanism in Operating Systems that fosters in university students of computer science the skills of critical analysis, detection of possible improvements and awareness of their own learning process, all of them of special relevance in the design and implementation of functionalities of Operating Systems. For that purpose, a self-evaluation and co-evaluation protocol was designed for the practical exercises corresponding to three thematic areas in Operating Systems: file systems, memory management, and process management and scheduling. In order to facilitate the coexistence of both evaluation systems, the protocol was applied to part of the students, maintaining the traditional evaluation by the teaching staff in parallel with all the students. Subsequently, an empirical study of precision in self-evaluation and co-evaluation of the students was carried out, analyzing the correlation with the traditional evaluation, and the implications of the designed protocol in the final grades obtained. The results allow not only to initially evaluate the designed protocol, but also to know the starting point in self-evaluation and co-evaluation capacities of the students in Operating Systems areas

Teaching Conceptual Modelling in Cultural Heritage

Specialists in the humanities and social sciences often construct models of the realities they work with; these models are usually expressed in natural language, as thesauri, or by similarly informal means. Conceptual modelling, a more formalised approach, has been used in other fields for some time, and we hypothesised that its usage in the cultural heritage field would allow specialists to create better and more powerful models. With this aim, in 2011 we launched an education program on conceptual modelling for cultural heritage. After five years and numerous experiences, we report here that specialists in cultural heritage with no previous exposure to modelling systematically learn the necessary techniques and show themselves able to develop rich models. Experience also shows that satisfaction about the approach is very high

Protocolo de autoevaluación e impacto frente a técnicas tradicionales en la docencia práctica de Sistemas Operativos

[Resumen] Estudios acerca del impacto de los mecanismos de autoevaluación en la docencia en Ingeniería Informática señalan en los últimos años los beneficios de la autoevaluación como medio formativo en sí mismo, para alcanzar una evaluación continua real y para la mejora de la efectividad de los mecanismos de retroalimentación profesor-alumnado. Esto, unido a los nuevos escenarios docentes abiertos a raíz de la pandemia Covid-19, conlleva la necesidad de puesta en marcha de dinámicas de retroalimentación y evaluación innovadoras. En este artículo, presentamos el desarrollo e implantación de un protocolo de autoevaluación como parte de las actividades de innovación docente en la materia de Sistemas Operativos. El protocolo fue diseñado con el objetivo de incorporar la autoevaluación a lo largo de todas las prácticas de laboratorio de la materia. Posteriormente se realizó un estudio empírico comparativo en el que se analizó la precisión en las autoevaluaciones emitidas por un grupo experimental en comparación con la calificación ciega emitida por el profesor del grupo de prácticas. Los resultados permiten evaluar inicialmente el protocolo diseñado y conocer el punto de partida en capacidades de autoevaluación del estudiantado en las áreas temáticas específicas de Sistemas Operativos.[Abstract] Previous studies on the impact of self-assessment mechanisms in Computer Engineering teaching have pointed out in recent years the benefits of self-assessment as a training mechanism itself, for achieving a real continuous evaluation and also for improving the effectiveness of teacher-student feedback mechanisms. Together with the new teaching scenarios opened as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the need to implement innovative feedback and evaluation dynamics is increasing in computer engineering teaching. In this article, we present the development and implementation of a self-assessment protocol as part of the teaching innovation activities in the field of Operating Systems. The protocol was designed to incorporate self-assessment as part of the laboratory practices of the subject. Subsequently, a comparative empirical study was carried out in which the precision in the self-assessment ratings emitted by an experimental group was analyzed in comparison with the blind rating emitted by the teacher. The results allow to initially evaluate the designed protocol and to establish the starting point in self-assessment capacities of the students in the specific thematic areas of Operating Systems.http://hdl.handle.net/2183/2879