Problems and solutions in manual materials handling: the state of the art

For several decades manual materials handling has been a topic of interest in many fields of research. The reason for this interest is the devastating cost of and human suffering caused by injuries associated with MMH. Prevention and control of these injuries has been a concern shared by many researchers. In order to control the nature and extent of these injuries, limits must be established for MMH, especially lifting. This paper summarizes the variables affecting the ability to handle materials and the three basic approaches to determining capacities and limits for MMH: the biomechanical, the physiological, and the psychophysical approaches. The paper presents the various models developed in each of these approaches, together with a discussion of progress made and difficulties encountered in deriving capacity recommendations from each. Finally, the paper presents the latest recommendation on how these approaches can be integrated into a single comprehensive model for establishing lifting limits.     

Automatic analysis of facial expressions: the state of the art

Humans detect and interpret faces and facial expressions in a scene with little or no effort. Still, development of an automated system that accomplishes this task is rather difficult. There are several related problems: detection of an image segment as a face, extraction of the facial expression information, and classification of the expression (e.g., in emotion categories). A system that performs these operations accurately and in real time would form a big step in achieving a human-like interaction between man and machine. The paper surveys the past work in solving these problems. The capability of the human visual system with respect to these problems is discussed, too. It is meant to serve as an ultimate goal and a guide for determining recommendations for development of an automatic facial expression analyzer.     

Medical teamwork and the evolution of safety science: a critical review

Cognition, Technology & Work - There is widespread consensus that teamwork constitutes one of the key requirements in today’s multidisciplinary and highly complex system of delivering...     

SUOWA operators: A review of the state of the art

SUOWA operators are a particular case of Choquet integral that simultaneously generalize weighted means and OWA operators. Because they are constructed by using normalized capacities, they possess properties such as continuity, monotonicity, idempotency, compensativeness, and homogeneity of degree 1. Besides these ones, some articles published in recent years have shown that SUOWA operators also exhibit other interesting properties. So, we think that the time has come to summarize existing knowledge of these operators. The aim of this paper is to collect the main results obtained so far on SUOWA operators. Moreover, we also introduce some new results and illustrate the usefulness of SUOWA operators by using an example given by Beliakov (2018).     

Computer-supported argumentation: A review of the state of the art

Argumentation is an important skill to learn. It is valuable not only in many professional contexts, such as the law, science, politics, and business, but also in everyday life. However, not many people are good arguers. In response to this, researchers and practitioners over the past 15–20 years have developed software tools both to support and teach argumentation. Some of these tools are used in individual fashion, to present students with the “rules” of argumentation in a particular domain and give them an opportunity to practice, while other tools are used in collaborative fashion, to facilitate communication and argumentation between multiple, and perhaps distant, participants. In this paper, we review the extensive literature on argumentation systems, both individual and collaborative, and both supportive and educational, with an eye toward particular aspects of the past work. More specifically, we review the types of argument representations that have been used, the various types of interaction design and ontologies that have been employed, and the system architecture issues that have been addressed. In addition, we discuss intelligent and automated features that have been imbued in past systems, such as automatically analyzing the quality of arguments and providing intelligent feedback to support and/or tutor argumentation. We also discuss a variety of empirical studies that have been done with argumentation systems, including, among other aspects, studies that have evaluated the effect of argument diagrams (e.g., textual versus graphical), different representations, and adaptive feedback on learning argumentation. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the “lessons learned” from this large and impressive body of work, particularly focusing on lessons for the CSCL research community and its ongoing efforts to develop computer-mediated collaborative argumentation systems.     

Mobile Learning projects – a critical analysis of the state of the art

This paper provides a critical analysis of Mobile Learning projects published before the end of 2007. The review uses a Mobile Learning framework to evaluate and categorize 102 Mobile Learning projects, and to briefly introduce exemplary projects for each category. All projects were analysed with the criteria: context, tools, control, communication, subject and objective. Although a significant number of projects have ventured to incorporate the physical context into the learning experience, few projects include a socializing context. Tool support ranges from pure content delivery to content construction by the learners. Although few projects explicitly discuss the Mobile Learning control issues, one can find all approaches from pure teacher control to learner control. Despite the fact that mobile phones initially started as a communication device, communication and collaboration play a surprisingly small role in Mobile Learning projects. Most Mobile Learning projects support novices, although one might argue that the largest potential is supporting advanced learners. All results show the design space and reveal gaps in Mobile Learning research.     

Web information fusion: A review of the state of the art

In this paper, we introduce and overview advances in the field of Web information fusion and integration. As it is such a broad and diverse topic that is researched in many different fields, we choose to provide a unified view by focusing on selected survey articles that extensively cover earlier research contributions. Given the important role that ontologies are playing in Web information fusion and the emergence and fast development of the Semantic Web and Web 3.0 technologies, a separate section is devoted to the topic of ontology research and the Semantic Web. Then, in the section on Web-based support systems, several applications that are enabled as the result of advances in Web information fusion are discussed.     

Model-driven eGovernment interoperability: A review of the state of the art

This paper reviews the state of the art in the area of enhancing eGovernment interoperability by using common models and/or ontologies. This area has currently become a very active research field. We identify and present a significant number (> 40) of relevant efforts. These initiatives are grouped into categories based on the owner, scope and modelling perspective of each project. We then focus on the cases that build generic and universal eGovernment representations and models. We analyse, evaluate and rate them using an additional set of criteria. We end up with conclusions and possible directions for the exploitation and usage of these models.     

CNLs for the semantic web: a state of the art

One of the core challenges for building the semantic web is the creation of ontologies, a process known as ontology authoring. Controlled natural languages (CNLs) propose different frameworks for interfacing and creating ontologies in semantic web systems using restricted natural language. However, in order to engage non-expert users with no background in knowledge engineering, these language interfacing must be reliable, easy to understand and accepted by users. This paper includes the state-of-the-art for CNLs in terms of ontology authoring and the semantic web. In addition, it includes a detailed analysis of user evaluations with respect to each CNL and offers analytic conclusions with respect to the field.     

Mining textual requirements to assist architectural software design: a state of the art review

Modern Software Engineering (SE) is characterized by the use of several models that establish and show the different states a software product goes through, from its initial conception to its end, passing across its development, setup and maintenance among others. Each phase produces a set of deliverables following different documentation standards, but in many cases, natural language text is a key aspect in the elaboration of such documents. This work surveys the state of the art in the application of text mining techniques to architectural software design, starting from the role of text documents during development phases, specifically the kind of text documents that can be subsequently exploited to assist architects in the complex task of designing software. Intelligent text analysis techniques utilized in software engineering tasks across the software life-cycle are detailed in order to analyze works focused on automatically bridging the gap between requirements and software architectures.     

Online knowledge sharing mechanisms: a systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future research

Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge, namely, information, skills, or expertise, is exchanged between people, friends, families, communities or organizations. Online knowledge sharing activities are flourishing with the advent of social media and digital life. However, despite of the importance of the online knowledge sharing methods and mechanisms, there is not any comprehensive and systematic study about studying and analyzing its important techniques. Therefore, the main aim of this paper, the comprehensive, detailed, and systematic study, and survey of the state-of-the-art knowledge sharing mechanisms in an online environments is provided. Also, this paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) on the online knowledge sharing literatures up to end of 2015. We identified 348 papers, which are reduced to 251 primary studies through our paper selection process. Also, the broad overview of the literature provides insights into potential areas for further research. By providing state-of-the-art information, this survey will directly support academics and practicing professionals in their understanding of developments in online knowledge sharing mechanisms and techniques.     

Quantum games: a review of the history,current state,and interpretation

We review both theoretical and experimental developments in the area of quantum games since the inception of the subject circa 1999. We will also offer a narrative on the controversy that surrounded the subject in its early days, and how this controversy has affected the development of the subject.     

Digital watermarking: Applicability for developing trust in medical imaging workflows state of the art review

Medical images can be intentionally or unintentionally manipulated both within the secure medical system environment and outside, as images are viewed, extracted and transmitted. Many organisations have invested heavily in Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), which are intended to facilitate data security. However, it is common for images, and records, to be extracted from these for a wide range of accepted practices, such as external second opinion, transmission to another care provider, patient data request, etc. Therefore, confirming trust within medical imaging workflows has become essential. Digital watermarking has been recognised as a promising approach for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of medical images. Authenticity refers to the ability to identify the information origin and prove that the data relates to the right patient. Integrity means the capacity to ensure that the information has not been altered without authorisation.This paper presents a survey of medical images watermarking and offers an evident scene for concerned researchers by analysing the robustness and limitations of various existing approaches. This includes studying the security levels of medical images within PACS system, clarifying the requirements of medical images watermarking and defining the purposes of watermarking approaches when applied to medical images.     

A review of Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis: state of the art and applications

This article reports the evolution of the literature on Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis (DDEA) models from 1996 to 2016. Systematic searches in the databases Scopus and Web of Science were performed to outline the state of the art. The results enabled the establishment of DDEA studies as the scope of this article, analyzing the transition elements to represent temporal interdependence. The categorization of these studies enabled the mapping of the evolution of the DDEA literature and identification of the relationships between models. The three most widely adopted studies to conduct DDEA research were classified as structuring models. Mapping elucidated the literature behavior through three phases and showed an increase in publications with applications in recent years. The analysis of applications indicated that most studies address evaluations in the agriculture and farming, banking and energy sectors and consider the facilities as transition elements between analysis periods.     

Illuminating the past: state of the art

Virtual reconstruction and representation of historical environments and objects have been of research interest for nearly two decades. Physically based and historically accurate illumination allows archaeologists and historians to authentically visualise a past environment to deduce new knowledge. This report reviews the current state of illuminating cultural heritage sites and objects using computer graphics for scientific, preservation and research purposes. We present the most noteworthy and up-to-date examples of reconstructions employing appropriate illumination models in object and image space, and in the visual perception domain. Finally, we also discuss the difficulties in rendering, documentation, validation and identify probable research challenges for the future. The report is aimed for researchers new to cultural heritage reconstruction who wish to learn about methods to illuminate the past.