Outbound logistics exception monitoring: A multi-perspective ontologies’ approach with intelligent agents

Logistics consists of a complex network of organizations and processes where exception monitoring is critical for the success of logistics service. In order to detect exceptions effectively, exception monitoring requires proper understanding of the possible exceptions. However, the extant exception monitoring approaches or systems still lack sufficient emphasis in exceptions understanding. This paper presents a novel outbound logistics exception monitoring approach by incorporating multi-perspective ontologies and intelligent agents. Specially, the multi-perspective ontologies, involving static ontology, social ontology and dynamic ontology, are firstly employed to develop the taxonomy of the logistics exception, to reflect the situation dependencies of logistics exception and to represent the dynamic nature of business processes. From this point forwards, an outbound exception monitoring system is designed by introducing multi-intelligent agents, which can ensure autonomous, flexible, and collaborative exception monitor in logistics service. Finally, the presented approach and designed system are exhibited through a case study of two ubiquitous logistics exceptions, which indicates that the proposed multi-perspective ontologies provide better understanding of exceptions thereby enabling the designed outbound exception monitoring system to perform well.     

Queries on ontologies with temporal dependences on Allen’s extended interval logic

This paper introduces Allen’s extended interval logic whose sentences are Boolean combinations of sentences of Allen’s interval logic with metric constraints on time points. For this extended logic, a deduction method based on analytic tableaux is defined. This method is used for answering queries on ontologies specified in Allen’s extended interval logic. An example illustrating the applicability of this extended logic to the problem of workflow specification is presented.     

在线地图也玩WiKi

维客的原名为WiKi(也译为维基),原意为“快点快点”。它其实是一种新技术,一种超文本系统。也就是说,这是多人协作的写作工具。而参与创作的人,也被称为维客。在维客页面上,每个人都可浏览、创建、更改文本,系统可以     

企业知识管理的另类思考——尝试WiKi

对于一个富有个性、在行业中拥有一定地位的企业来说，往往真正可以区别于其它同类企业的根本，正在于那些素材之外的核心企业价值观和方法论。[编者按]     

Collision with friction; Part B: Poisson’s and Stornge’s hypotheses

In Part B of this paper, planar collision theories, counterparts of the theory associated with Newton’s hypotheses described in Part A, are developed in connection with Poisson’s and Stronge’s hypotheses. First, expressions for the normal and tangential impulses, the normal and tangential velocities of separation, and the change of the system mechanical energy are written for five types of collision. These together with Routh’s semigraphical method and Coulomb’s coefficient of friction are used to show that the algebraic signs of the four parameters introduced in Part A span the same five cases of system configuration of Part A. For each, α determines the type of collision which once found allows the evaluation of the normal and tangential impulses and ultimately the changes in the motion variables. The analysis of the indicated cases shows that for Poisson’s hypothesis, a solution always exists which is unique, coherent and energy-consistent. The same applies to Stronge’s hypothesis, however, for a narrower range of application. It is thus concluded that Poisson’s hypothesis is superior as compared with Newton’s and Stronge’s hypotheses.     

StoryCube: supporting children’s storytelling with a tangible tool

Storytelling is one of the effective methods used in education. Computer-aided storytelling allows children to create more free-form stories and provides a large amount of story materials. Grounded in the current related works, we design a tangible interactive tool, which supports children to interact with virtual objects via a tangible way instead of the usage of mouse/keyboard. With this tool, we also develop a storytelling system called StoryCube where children are able to create a 3D story environment and accomplish story narrations through physical manipulations to different virtual characters. From a preliminary user study, we find StoryCube full of playfulness, easy to learn and use, and somehow inspire children in storytelling activities.     

Collision with friction; Part A: Newton’s hypothesis

This paper deals with collision with friction. In Part A, equations governing a one-point collision of planar, simple nonholonomic systems are generated. Expressions for the normal and tangential impulses, the normal and tangential velocities of separation of the colliding points, and the change of the system mechanical energy are written for three types of collision (i.e., forward sliding, sticking, etc.). These together with Routh’s semigraphical method and Coulomb’s coefficient of friction are used to show that the algebraic signs of four, newly-defined, configuration-related parameters, not all independent, span five cases of system configuration. For each, the ratio between the tangential and normal components of the velocity of approach, called α, determine the type of collision, which once found, allows the evaluation of the associated normal and tangential impulses and ultimately the changes in the motion variables. The analysis of these cases indicates that the calculated mechanical energy may increase if sticking or reverse sliding occur. In Part B, theories based on Poisson’s and Stronge’s hypotheses are presented with more encouraging results.     

Production scheduling with subcontracting: the subcontractor’s pricing game

This paper studies a two-stage game with a manufacturer and a subcontractor who are faced by a production scheduling problem. The manufacturer has a set of jobs to process, a subset of which can be subcontracted to the subcontractor to reduce the tardiness cost. In the game, the subcontractor makes the first decision to ask for a unit price of his machine time to be used by the manufacturer, and then the manufacturer follows to decide which jobs to be subcontracted to process and how the production scheduling is made. We analyze the game and derive how the subcontractor can optimize the unit price to maximize his profit. We then investigate the performance of such a simple contract from the viewpoint of coordination, and propose two other contracts that can achieve coordination between the two players.     

Digital natives’ coping with loneliness: Facebook or face-to-face?

This study compares online self-disclosure through Facebook with offline self-disclosure through face-to-face interactions to understand when and why digital natives may prefer to resolve perceived loneliness by turning to the Internet. Survey data from adolescents indicate that digital natives who employ passive coping favor self-disclosure through Facebook, but natives who engage in active coping prefer face-to-face self-disclosures. Both routes, through active and passive coping, appear to mediate the relationship between loneliness and online/offline self-disclosures. Moreover, the relationship between loneliness and self-disclosure exhibits gender differences. This study extends insights into digital natives, sheds light on self-disclosures, and contributes to coping research.     

Comment: collision with friction; part B: Poisson’s and Stronge’s hypotheses

For planar oblique collision with friction that opposes sliding at the contact point, this comment compares calculations of terminal relative velocity and energy dissipation obtained using the kinematic (Newton), kinetic (Poisson) and energetic (Stronge) definitions for coefficient of restitution. The kinematic and kinetic definitions yield results which are energetically inconsistent for some initial velocities when sliding stops or changes direction before separation. If initial sliding does not come to a stop before separation, the three definitions are equivalent. In general, only the energetic coefficient of restitution e _S satisfies e _S≤1.     

Query answering under probabilistic uncertainty in Datalog+ / − ontologies

The recently introduced Datalog+?/?? family of ontology languages is especially useful for representing and reasoning over lightweight ontologies, and is set to play a central role in the context of query answering and information extraction for the Semantic Web. Recently, it has become apparent that it is necessary to develop a principled way to handle uncertainty in this domain. In addition to uncertainty as an inherent aspect of the Web, one must also deal with forms of uncertainty due to inconsistency and incompleteness, uncertainty resulting from automatically processing Web data, as well as uncertainty stemming from the integration of multiple heterogeneous data sources. In this paper, we take an important step in this direction by developing a probabilistic extension of Datalog+?/??. This extension uses Markov logic networks as the underlying probabilistic semantics. Here, we focus especially on scalable algorithms for answering threshold queries, which correspond to the question “what is the set of all ground atoms that are inferred from a given probabilistic ontology with a probability of at least p?”. These queries are especially relevant to Web information extraction, since uncertain rules lead to uncertain facts, and only information with a certain minimum confidence is desired. We present several algorithms, namely a basic approach, an anytime one, and one based on heuristics, which is guaranteed to return sound results. Furthermore, we also study inconsistency in probabilistic Datalog+?/?? ontologies. We propose two approaches for computing preferred repairs based on two different notions of distance between repairs, namely symmetric and score-based distance. We also study the complexity of the decision problems corresponding to computing such repairs, which turn out to be polynomial and NP-complete in the data complexity, respectively.     

MemHolo: mixed reality experiences for subjects with Alzheimer’s disease

HoloLens is the most recent and advanced forms of wearable Mixed Reality (MR) technology. It enables the user wearing a head-mounted device to experience 3D holographic objects “inside” the visualization of the real environment where he or she is located. Existing HoloLens applications have been developed in domains such as data visualization, entertainment, industrial training, education, and tourism, but the use of this technology in the arena of mental health is largely unexplored. The paper presents a HoloLens-based system called MemHolo that addresses persons with mild Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). AD is associated to a chronic progressive neurodegenerative process that severely affects cognitive functioning (especially memory) and some motor functions. MemHolo is intended to be used as a cognitive training tool to practice short-term and spatial memory in a safe and controlled virtual environment, and to mitigate the effects of mental decline. The paper discusses the design process of MemHolo, and describes three evaluation studies on progressive prototypes. To our knowledge, MemHolo is the first HoloLens application designed natively for persons with AD. Our empirical work sheds a light on how these people experience HoloLens applications, highlights some challenges and potential benefits of using MR technology in the AD arena, and may pave the ground towards new forms of treatment.

     

Playing ‘catch up’ with blended learning: performance impacts of augmenting classroom instruction with online learning

This study examines the efficacy of blended learning – an approach that combines in-class and online methods in a way that leverages the strengths of both – using a field experiment spanning 16 weeks. An information-processing model of learning suggests that learners will weigh the cost of information accessibility against its value in ways that will impact their interactions with the available information sources, which will consequently affect learning outcomes. Results of our study suggest that such an assessment did indeed occur and that it impacted learning performance. Specifically, our results support the idea that providing high-value content in both settings – the classroom (rich, yet high cost) and online (efficient, yet low cost), enhances performance. The largest gains in performance were seen by those who used the blended learning system the most, with the lowest gains by those who did not use the system at all (i.e. the control group).     

Leonardo’s choice: the ethics of artists working with genetic technologies

Working with current methodologies of art, biology, and genetic technologies, the stated aims of artists working in this area include attempts both to critique the implications and outcomes of genetic technologies and to forge a new art practice involved in creating living beings using those technologies. It is this last ambition, the development of a new art practice involved in creating living beings, that this essay will particularly take to task by questioning the ethics of that goal and the uses of biotechnology in reaching it.

‘Podracing’: experimenting with mobile TV content consumption and delivery methods

Recently, mobile TV has been launched in several countries. While mobile TV integrates television contents into mobile phones, the most personal of communication devices, it becomes interesting to know how this feature will be used throughout the day and in varying contexts of everyday life. This paper presents empirical results on the use of mobile TV with different delivery mechanisms and both quantitative and qualitative results on how end-users prefer to use mobile TV contents in different situations. The data is based on ongoing empirical research in Finland in 2006 and 2007. The mobile TV services under study included both news and entertainment contents, and were tested in 3G, DVB-H and Wi-Fi networks using different delivery paradigms: broadcast, on-demand and download. To explore the use of different delivery methods and content consumption, we have developed a mobile TV service protoype, called Podracing. The analysis shows that users appreciated up-to-date information and information-rich media forms and contents especially for mobile news delivery. There was high demand for only the latest news on mobiles. The real-time property was considered important. Most of the users looked at the headlines or followed the news several times a day – much more often than the traditional TV and news prime times would allow.     

Phone n’ Computer: teaming up an information appliance with a PC

Facing the ever growing complexity and usability problems of the PC, some propose specialized computers as a solution, while others argue that such “information appliances” are unnecessary. Rather than pitting information appliances and PCs against each other, we argue instead for exploring the design space in using them together. We experimented with a device teaming approach that takes advantage of both types of devices: the familiar and high bandwidth user interface of the PC, and the task specific form factors of an information appliance. In our experimentation, we designed and developed a phone n’ computer (PnC) by teaming up an IP phone with a general-purpose PC. We outline the design space for such a combination and describe several point designs we created that distribute functions between the two devices according to their characteristics. In comparison to separately using phones and computers, our designs provide new and richer user experiences including Drop-to-Call, sharing visual information, and caller information display.     

Smart Workplaces for older adults: coping ‘ethically’ with technology pervasiveness

Universal Access in the Information Society - Pervasive technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality and the Internet of Things, despite their great potential for improved...     

User bias in online trust systems: aligning the system designers’ intentions with the users’ expectations

The advent of social networks opened a myriad opportunities for merging the social character of trust with the technical possibilities offered by the Internet and its availability as a mobile service. While most of the computational trust models aim to detect trustworthy entities, much less attention is paid to how these models are perceived by the users who are the core of the system. This paper delves into the workings of online trust systems under user bias and analyses the user behaviour through biases defined by Prospect theory. By performing empirical study on an existing system, we are able to demonstrate that there is a huge discrepancy between the aim of implementation of the online trust models and the users’ perception of those models. Understanding of this relation by the system designers can reduce complexity and improve the user experience and the system performance. The results imply that the tendency of the users to exhibit cognitive biases is not only the cause, but also the effect from the trust system design. These results and the analysis are then used to propose to the system designers a methodology for user bias identification and mitigation in the form of a Choice architecture for trust systems.     

Matching couples with Scarf’s algorithm

In a seminal paper Phan Minh Dung (Artif. Intell. 77(2), 321–357, 1995) developed the theory of abstract argumentation frameworks (AFs), which has remained a pivotal point of reference for research in AI and argumentation ever since. This paper assesses the merits of Dung’s theory from an epistemological point of view. It argues that, despite its prominence in AI, the theory of AFs is epistemologically flawed. More specifically, abstract AFs don’t provide a normatively adequate model for the evaluation of rational, multi-proponent controversy. Different interpretations of Dung’s theory may be distinguished. Dung’s intended interpretation collides with basic principles of rational judgement suspension. The currently prevailing knowledge base interpretation ignores relevant arguments when assessing proponent positions in a debate. It is finally suggested that abstract AFs be better understood as a paraconsistent logic, rather than a theory of real argumentation.