Comparing knowledge management in health-care and technical support organizations.

Although knowledge management (KM) tools are well established in technical support organizations, health-care organizations have only recently become aware of their benefits. This research investigates whether health care should adopt the same tools taking into account the different KM requirements in the two industries. This study analyzes narratives from key personnel in a technical support organization and a health-care organization to understand and compare their KM process components and facilitating information technology. The empirical data reveal that health care needs a personalization approach to KM focusing on new problem identification using interactive knowledge webs, while technical support relies on a codification approach for problem resolution using interpretive knowledge and a chain structure.     

Using key performance indicators as knowledge-management tools at a regional health-care authority level.

The advantages of the introduction of information and communication technologies in the complex health-care sector are already well-known and well-stated in the past. It is, nevertheless, paradoxical that although the medical community has embraced with satisfaction most of the technological discoveries allowing the improvement in patient care, this has not happened when talking about health-care informatics. Taking the above issue of concern, our work proposes an information model for knowledge management (KM) based upon the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) in health-care systems. Based upon the use of the balanced scorecard (BSC) framework (Kaplan/Norton) and quality assurance techniques in health care (Donabedian), this paper is proposing a patient journey centered approach that drives information flow at all levels of the day-to-day process of delivering effective and managed care, toward information assessment and knowledge discovery. In order to persuade health-care decision-makers to assess the added value of KM tools, those should be used to propose new performance measurement and performance management techniques at all levels of a health-care system. The proposed KPIs are forming a complete set of metrics that enable the performance management of a regional health-care system. In addition, the performance framework established is technically applied by the use of state-of-the-art KM tools such as data warehouses and business intelligence information systems. In that sense, the proposed infrastructure is, technologically speaking, an important KM tool that enables knowledge sharing amongst various health-care stakeholders and between different health-care groups. The use of BSC is an enabling framework toward a KM strategy in health care.     

A formal methodology for acquiring and representing expert knowledge

The process of eliciting knowledge from human experts and representing that knowledge in an expert or knowledge-based system suffers from numerous problems. Not only is this process time-consuming and tedious, but the weak knowledge acquisition methods typically used (i.e., interviews and protocol analysis) are inadequate for eliciting tacit knowledge and may, in fact, lead to inaccuracies in the knowledge base. In addition, the intended knowledge representation scheme guides the acquisition of knowledge resulting in a representation-driven knowledge base as opposed to one that is knowledge-driven. In this paper, a formal methodology is proposed that employs techniques from the field of cognitive psychology to uncover expert knowledge as well as an appropriate representation of that knowledge. The advantages of such a methodology are discussed, as well as results from studies concerning the elicitation of concepts from experts and the assignment of labels to links in empirically derived semantic networks.     

PCB企业知识管理实施浅析

分析了PCB企业知识管理的必要性,它是PCB企业迎接挑战、提升竞争力的必然选择。进而分析了PCB企业知识的特点和PCB企业知识管理现状,在此基础上提出了PCB企业知识管理实施的关键因素包括领导、文化与制度三个方面,同时对PCB企业知识管理实施的步骤做了初步的探讨。     

Predictive and reactive approaches to the train-scheduling problem:a knowledge management perspective

Predictive and reactive train scheduling are tactical and operational decision making, respectively, under constraints (e.g. resource capacity, managerial objectives) and under uncertainty (e.g. imprecise data and information, unforeseen events). Predictive scheduling produces timetables taking into account the market demand and resource utilization levels. Reactive scheduling challenges disruptions to timetables and schedules trains and operations with imprecise plans. Expert knowledge is indispensable for finding practical solutions for both predictive and reactive scheduling. Consequently, knowledge management strategies, processes and technologies can improve the decision-making process and outcomes. This paper focuses on the following issues. Five dimensions are introduced to distinguish predictive and reactive train-scheduling activities. The combined use of data and knowledge and the differences in uncertainty levels are used to comparatively position the two scheduling approaches. The intensity of reliance on explicit and tacit knowledge is highlighted via the elaboration and classification of knowledge used in either one or both scheduling environments. The significance of train-scheduling tacit knowledge elicitation is described by, first, presenting a real case analysis which resulted in the elicitation of rich and valuable tacit knowledge (timetabling heuristics) from explicit knowledge (timetable) and, second, generalizing lessons learned from this process. The contributions of the tacit knowledge elicitation process to the enhancement of the train-scheduling system which leads to better resource utilization and customer satisfaction are itemized     

Tacit knowledge, knowledge management, and active user participation in Web site navigation

One of the reasons that people who seek out information on Web sites may often feel powerless is that when they do not find what they are looking for, their own tacit sense of what they know is not validated. If tacit knowledge is not calculated for in the design of a Web site, it puts the people navigating the site in the position of passive observers. The primary reason for this can be found in the rigid organization schemes in place on many sites. Manuals that offer methods for designing Web site architectures could be much improved if they suggested steps to replicate what is known in knowledge management circles as an "enabling environment.".     

Explication and sharing of design knowledge through a novel product design approach

At the beginning of the 21st century, the emergence of knowledge management is viewed as a natural evolution. Knowledge management is defined as the formal management of knowledge for facilitating creation, access, and reuse of knowledge, typically by using advanced technology. To be easily communicated and shared, tacit knowledge has to be explicated as explicit knowledge (e.g., in product specification or a scientific formula or production rules); and this explicit knowledge has to be shared as applicable data through the use of information technology. Product design is such a business process that a great part of the design knowledge is often a tacit type, being difficult to share, or available only in forms of natural language documents. However, the expertise recorded in these documents is an essential resource of successful competition in the market. This paper presents a knowledge explication and sharing approach; specifically focusing on the knowledge management of modular product design. The solution approach involves modeling modular products, formulating the explicit knowledge, discovering new design knowledge with data mining, and sharing the knowledge with web services technology. The proposed approach is to be applied to an actual case of motherboard design/assembly in one of the largest PC manufacturing enterprises.     

The impact of knowledge management practices on the acceptance of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) by engineering students: A cross-cultural comparison

This study conducted a cross-cultural analysis of the impact of knowledge management (KM) practices on the acceptance of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The study extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) with KM practices. A structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the hypothesized relationships based on data collected from 540 engineering students in Malaysia and Turkey. The results indicated that KM practices, including knowledge access, knowledge storage, and knowledge application have a positive and significant impact on perceived usefulness (PU) of MOOCs. However, knowledge sharing has a positive and significant impact on perceived ease of use (PEOU) of MOOCs. Further, a SEM-based multi-group analysis was employed to identify the moderating role of culture in examining the impact of KM practices on MOOCs acceptance. The findings suggested cultural differences in patterns between acceptance behaviors of engineering students in Malaysia and Turkey.     

Knowledge representation and sharing using visual semantic modeling for diagnostic medical image databases.

Information technology offers great opportunities for supporting radiologists' expertise in decision support and training. However, this task is challenging due to difficulties in articulating and modeling visual patterns of abnormalities in a computational way. To address these issues, well established approaches to content management and image retrieval have been studied and applied to assist physicians in diagnoses. Unfortunately, most of the studies lack the flexibility of sharing both explicit and tacit knowledge involved in the decision making process, while adapting to each individual's opinion. In this paper, we propose a knowledge repository and exchange framework for diagnostic image databases called "evolutionary system for semantic exchange of information in collaborative environments" (Essence). This framework uses semantic methods to describe visual abnormalities, and offers a solution for tacit knowledge elicitation and exchange in the medical domain. Also, our approach provides a computational and visual mechanism for associating synonymous semantics of visual abnormalities. We conducted several experiments to demonstrate the system's capability of matching synonym terms, and the benefit of using tacit knowledge in improving the meaningfulness of semantic queries.     

Combining factual and heuristic knowledge in knowledge acquisition

A knowledge acquisition technique that combines heuristic and factual knowledge represented as two hierarchies is described. These ideas have been applied to the construction of a knowledge acquisition interface to OPERA (Expert System Analyst). The goal of OPERA is to improve the operations support of the computer network in the space shuttle launch processing system. The knowledge acquisition bottleneck lies in gathering knowledge from human experts and transferring it to OPERA. OPERA's knowledge acquisition problem is approached as a classification problem-solving task, combining this approach with the use of factual knowledge about the domain. The interface has been implemented in a Symbolics workstation, making heavy use of windows, pull-down menus, and other user-friendly devices.     

Extracting and using procedural knowledge in a CAD task

The declarative and procedural knowledge, or cognitive strategies, used by expert and novice CAD operators on a 3D design task are determined in order to understand how training and management of CAD operators could affect this knowledge. Results indicate that novices were variable in performance not because of differences in declarative knowledge (on which they were trained) but because of differences in procedural knowledge (on which no training was given). The design expert could transfer procedural knowledge from other systems to the CAD system tested. The system expert could perform fast, because of the highly developed declarative knowledge, without thinking about the strategies. This research indicates the need for attention by managers of CAD systems to procedural knowledge training for system experts and novice CAD operators; declarative knowledge training can be emphasized for design experts     

Sharing knowledge through intranets: a study of organizationalculture and intranet implementation

Explores factors affecting the implementation of intranets, which are the technology upon which many knowledge management (KM) systems are built. Because intranets facilitate the sharing of employee knowledge, many believe that organizational culture influences intranet implementation. The results of this study found that intranet implementation is facilitated by a culture that emphasizes an atmosphere of trust and concern for other people (ethical culture), flexibility and innovation (developmental culture), and policies, procedures and information management (hierarchical culture). Management should ensure that the proper values are in place to optimize intranet implementation and to facilitate knowledge sharing     

Method of high-level technology mapping based on knowledge(rule)

This paper studies the linkage problem between the result of high-level synthesis and back-end technology, presents a method of high-level technology mapping based on knowledge, and studies deeply all of its important links such as knowledge representation, knowledge utility and knowledge acquisition. It includes: (1) present a kind of expanded production about knowledge of circuit structure; (2) present a VHDL-based method to acquire knowledge of technology mapping; (3) provide solution control strategy and algorithm of knowledge utility; (4) present a half-automatic maintenance method, which can find redundance and contradiction of knowledge base; (5) present a practical method to embed the algorithm into knowledge system to decrease complexity of knowledge base. A system has been developed and linked with three kinds of technologies, so verified the work of this paper.     

Learning knowledge representation with meta knowledge distillation for single image super-resolution

Although the deep CNN-based super-resolution methods have achieved outstanding performance, their memory cost and computational complexity severely limit their practical employment. Knowledge distillation (KD), which can efficiently transfer knowledge from a cumbersome network (teacher) to a compact network (student), has demonstrated its advantages in some computer vision applications. The representation of knowledge is vital for knowledge transferring and student learning, which is generally defined in hand-crafted manners or uses the intermediate features directly. In this paper, we propose a model-agnostic meta knowledge distillation method under the teacher–student architecture for the single image super-resolution task. It provides a more flexible and accurate way to help teachers transmit knowledge in accordance with the abilities of students via knowledge representation networks (KRNets) with learnable parameters. Specifically, the texture-aware dynamic kernels are generated from local information to decompose the distillation problem into texture-wise supervision for further promoting the recovery quality of high-frequency details. In addition, the KRNets are optimized in a meta-learning manner to ensure the knowledge transferring and the student learning are beneficial to improving the reconstructed quality of the student. Experiments conducted on various single image super-resolution datasets demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms existing defined knowledge representation-related distillation methods and can help super-resolution algorithms achieve better reconstruction quality without introducing any extra inference complexity.     

Genre knowledge and teaching professional communication

Recent years have seen increased attention to the examination of the genres that people use in professional communication. C. Berkenkotter and T.N. Huckin's book “Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication” (1995) is an important contribution to this discussion. Their view of genre has important implications for the teaching of professional writing. Their view gives us an insight into the ways in which people both acquire and use genre knowledge as they participate in the knowledge-producing activities of their field or profession. It shows us how important the process of genre acquisition is in the learning of disciplinary genre knowledge. Linguistic knowledge is necessary for effective communication, but it is not sufficient for writers to achieve their goals. Just as important, writers need to understand the underlying views, assumptions and aims of a field. They need control of the rhetoric through which they are expressed. They also need to understand the history, knowledge and expectations of their particular area, and to locate their writing clearly within the context of this work. The notion of genre can provide students with the tools for both recognizing and adapting to the changing genre landscapes that their professional lives will travel across. While we cannot hope to predict all of our students' possible future genre needs, we can help them ask questions of texts, of contexts, and of themselves, so they can produce and understand the kinds of texts which they need to control in their professional lives     

Transferring bioelasticity knowledge through haptic interaction

This study establishes a practical environment for transferring knowledge on bioelasticity between expert and trainee medical practitioners. Through haptic interaction with a deformable virtual anatomical model, experts set the model's elasticity conditions by simulating a surgical procedure. Trainees experience the elasticity by attempting the same surgical manipulation.     

软件企业知识共享影响因素模式研究

知识被认为是企业最重要的战略资源，企业成功与否取决于知识管理的成败。知识共享是企业实施知识管理活动的重要议题。本文详细分析了软件企业员工知识的特点，识别出影响员工知识共享的关键因素，提出了影响软件企业知识共享的基本模式。