The Industrial Ontologies Foundry proof-of-concept project

The current industrial revolution is said to be driven by the digitization that exploits connected information across all aspects of manufacturing. Standards have been recognized as an important enabler. Ontology-based information standard may provide benefits not offered by current information standards. Although there have been ontologies developed in the industrial manufacturing domain, they have been fragmented and inconsistent, and little has received a standard status. With successes in developing coherent ontologies in the biological, biomedical, and financial domains, an effort called Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF) has been formed to pursue the same goal for the industrial manufacturing domain. However, developing a coherent ontology covering the entire industrial manufacturing domain has been known to be a mountainous challenge because of the multidisciplinary nature of manufacturing. To manage the scope and expectations, the IOF community kicked-off its effort with a proof-of-concept (POC) project. This paper describes the developments within the project. It also provides a brief update on the IOF organizational set up

Interaction Issues in Computer Aided Semantic\ud Annotation of Multimedia

The CASAM project aims to provide a tool for more efficient and effective annotation of multimedia documents through collaboration between a user and a system performing an automated analysis of the media content. A critical part of the project is to develop a user interface which best supports both the user and the system through optimal human-computer interaction. In this paper we discuss the work undertaken, the proposed user interface and underlying interaction issues which drove its development

The prevalence of AGN feedback in massive galaxies at z~1

We use the optical--infrared imaging in the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field, in combination with the new deep radio map of Arumugam et al., to calculate the distribution of radio luminosities among galaxies as a function of stellar mass in two redshift bins across the interval 0.4<z<1.2. This is done with the use of a new Bayesian method to classify stars and galaxies in surveys with multi-band photometry, and to derive photometric redshifts and stellar masses for those galaxies. We compare the distribution to that observed locally and find agreement if we consider only objects believed to be weak-lined radio-loud galaxies. Since the local distribution is believed to be the result of an energy balance between radiative cooling of the gaseous halo and mechanical AGN heating, we infer that this balance was also present as long ago as z~1. This supports the existence of a direct link between the presence of a low-luminosity ('hot-mode') radio-loud active galactic nucleus and the absence of ongoing star formation.Comment: 10 pages, MNRAS, in pres

Toray\u27s Touch Roll Manipulator

The goal of Easily Manipulated (EM) is to design and build an apparatus to effectively and efficiently manipulate a touch roll from a cart on the ground to the mounting chucks on a J6 slitter at Toray Plastics. The current process is long and involved, something that Toray is not happy with. EM has worked with the University of Rhode Island (URI) and Toray to come up with a solution that will minimize the amount of time needed to switch out the touch rolls and will only need one operator to make the process more efficient. the design had to satisfy Toray\u27s requirements of being lightweight, structurally sound, non-permanently a fixed to the slitter, and have the ability to be utilized at anytime. The design that EM has created complies with these parameters and also is a simply and easy to use design. The design being used combines a slide and a sleeve concept to be easily mounted to the winder arms on the J6 slitter and provides a bridge over the rotating floor to the mounting chuck. Because this design will be used while the winder arms are in an upright position, and the floor of the slitter rotates with the arms, a single operator will be able to push the touch rolls across the slides directly into the mounting chucks. The slide is fixed on the sleeve to not allow any rotation and maintain the simplicity of the project. The design has gone through multiple iterations and has continued to evolve over the past months. Right now the current build includes a wooden sleeve that has three sides that will fit snuggly around the winder arm, and a slide built out of 80/20 aluminum to demonstrate the overall strength of the design. The concept designed by EM will match the requirements set forth by Toray

A First-Order Logic Formalization of the Industrial Ontology Foundry Signature Using Basic Formal Ontology

Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) is a top-level ontology used in hundreds of active projects in scientific and other domains. BFO has been selected to serve as top-level ontology in the Industrial Ontologies Foundry (IOF), an initiative to create a suite of ontologies to support digital manufacturing on the part of representatives from a number of branches of the advanced manufacturing industries. We here present a first draft set of axioms and definitions of an IOF upper ontology descending from BFO. The axiomatization is designed to capture the meanings of terms commonly used in manufacturing and is designed to serve as starting point for the construction of the IOF ontology suite

A matter of (good) faith?:Understanding the interplay of power and the moral agency of managers in healthcare service reconfiguration

Previous studies of service reconfiguration in healthcare have explored the influence of power on processes and outcomes. However, in these accounts the moral agency of managers is often underemphasised. This paper draws on the theoretical tools provided by the sociology of morality to help deepen understanding of the interaction between power and moral agency in service reconfiguration in healthcare. It presents results from a qualitative study of a pan-organisational service reconfiguration in the NHS in England, involving nineteen in-depth interviews with those leading the change and the analysis of twelve programme documents. We combine concepts of the moral background and epistemic governance to interpret participants' conviction that the service change was 'the right thing to do'. The paper shows how epistemic work carried out by service change regulations shaped the moral background within which participants worked. This, in turn, channelled their moral agency - specifically their commitment to patient care - in a way that also reflected central priorities. The paper adds to sociological understandings of service reconfiguration through considering the interaction of structure, agency and power, while also developing the concept of the moral background to show how power relations can influence moral beliefs.</p

Proving and improving – evaluating policy engagement is an opportunity for researchers and institutions to learn as well as demonstrate impact.

The challenges of evaluating the contribution of research to policy making are well documented. In this post Chris Roche, Alana Tomlin, Ujjwal Krishna and Will Pryor outline seven principles for effective monitoring, evaluation and learning for policy engagement. They were developed through consultation with researchers, support staff and others in a range of science and humanities disciplines at the University of Oxford and beyond. The authors suggest if research institutions want to be able to better demonstrate policy impact, they should approach monitoring and evaluation by building on the intrinsic motivation of researchers to learn and improve, rather than as an exercise in simply recording and proving impact

Restoring eastern redcedar encroached watersheds to prairie or switchgrass improves water quality and quantity

Eastern redcedar represents a modern-day challenge to Oklahoma as it has encroached approximately eight million acres of land. This conversion is detrimental to the ecological and economic value of the land, reducing ecosystem water provisioning in particular. Eastern redcedar trees consume more water such that less is available for municipal and agricultural uses as well as ecological stream flows. Currently, efforts to reduce eastern redcedar encroachment have been unsuccessful; however, studies have shown eastern redcedar biomass to be a potential ethanol feedstock for the state. The purpose of this study is to compare eastern redcedar removal and replacement with native prairie or planted switchgrass on surface runoff, sediment yield, and biomass production. More specifically, this study monitors surface runoff and sediment yield of encroached eastern redcedar, harvested eastern redcedar, cultivated switchgrass, and native prairie using experimental watersheds (5-10 acres in size). Preliminary analysis shows that removal of eastern redcedar increased water yield by 4-5 fold. Growing switchgrass produced more biomass than restoration to native prairie, but water yield did not differ between the two. Sediment concentrations from encroached eastern redcedar watersheds were higher compared to native prairie watersheds. After harvest, previously encroached watersheds initially experienced an increase in sediment yield due to soil disturbance. After switchgrass and native vegetation re-established, sediment yields declined. These results indicate that water yield and biomass production can be increased by converting eastern redcedar woodlands to switchgrass for use as dedicated biofuel feedstock.Robert E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement ProgramNational Institute of Food and Agriculture (U.S.)National Science Foundation (U.S.)Oklahoma Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation ProgramNatural Resource Ecology and ManagementBiosystems and Agricultural Engineerin