Ontologies: How can They be Built?

Ontologies are an important component in many areas, such as knowledge management and organization, electronic commerce and information retrieval and extraction. Several methodologies for ontology building have been proposed. In this article, we provide an overview of ontology building. We start by characterizing the ontology building process and its life cycle. We present the most representative methodologies for building ontologies from scratch, and the proposed techniques, guidelines and methods to help in the construction task. We analyze and compare these methodologies. We describe current research issues in ontology reuse. Finally, we discuss the current trends in ontology building and its future challenges, namely, the new issues for building ontologies for the Semantic Web.     

Gravitating towards mobile phone (GoToMP) during lecture periods by students: Why are they using it? and how can it be measured?

With the growing amount of research on the use of technology, especially the mobile phones, the paucity of research in the area of mobile phone use that focus on the reasons why students use their mobile phones during lecture periods is somewhat surprising. Findings from the previous studies have documented that students continue to use their mobile phones during lecture periods even in classes where its use is banned. Thus, the motives that determine students' continued intention to use their mobile phones during lecture periods becomes an important issue that deserves urgent attention from researchers and education policymakers. In the present investigation, we tried to fill this gap by examining the determinants of students' continuance use of mobile phones during lecture periods. To achieve this, three stages of instrument development (item generation, scale development, and instrument testing) were undertaken through two studies. The results of the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the existence of six dimensions in the proposed measurement instrument (which we referred to as gravitating towards mobile phone (GoToMP)); the dimensions are boredom, class-related use, social connection, emergency, addiction, and perceived behavioral control. The combined findings from the two studies reported here provide initial evidence that GoToMP exhibits excellent psychometric properties and can be used in future empirical research on mobile phone use behaviors of students.     

Ergonomics in total quality management: how can we sell ergonomics to management?

The objective of this paper is to describe how and why ergonomics should be promoted in total quality management (TQM). Ergonomics and TQM activities are compared. An approach is proposed to apply ergonomics in TQM using ergonomics circles. An eight-step approach is introduced for applying ergonomics using ergonomics circles and a study that employed this approach in Korea is discussed. In applying this approach, all processes were first evaluated by workers. Processes that were identified as problematic were analysed by a company-wide committee to set priorities for improvement. An ergonomics improvement team consisting of safety and health personnel, process engineers and management innovation personnel then worked on the processes using a low-cost approach. It was found that applying ergonomics using ergonomics circles as quality circles in TQM was effective in improving workplaces and resulted in increasing productivity, cost saving and improved safety.     

Reference models: how can we leverage them?

Software and Systems Modeling -     

Backshapes of seated persons—how close can the interface be designed?

The backshapes of 114 seated persons were measured. The horizontal and vertical positions of various spinal landmarks are given for male and female subjects and for those with lordotic, straight and kyphotic backs.     

Calculation of self‐luminous neutral scale: how many neutral steps can you see on that display?

One of the dimensions of visual perception usable for information display is neutral scale, the achromatic aspect of colour. An existing neutral scale calculation, CIE L*, relates reflected luminance to lightness magnitude and discrimination. But there is no similar international standard calculation for self‐luminous displays. In this article, we introduce a candidate self‐luminous neutral‐scale calculation, to complement CIE L*. We particularly examine its low‐contrast gain, the degree of crispening. This low‐contrast gain is a function of the background luminance, from which the target contrast is an increment or decrement. We demonstrate the use of the calculation to predict matches of neutral scale across different background luminances, and to model the successive thresholds of the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine Gray Scale Display Function. Finally, the proposed self‐luminous neutral scale is calculated to show the maximum number of discriminable differences, and the associated optimum background luminance, in representative ranges of display luminance.     

FEM for elliptic eigenvalue problems: how coarse can the coarsest mesh be chosen? An experimental study

In this paper, we consider the numerical discretization of elliptic eigenvalue problems by Finite Element Methods and its solution by a multigrid method. From the general theory of finite element and multigrid methods, it is well known that the asymptotic convergence rates become visible only if the mesh width h is sufficiently small, h ≤ h ₀. We investigate the dependence of the maximal mesh width h ₀ on various problem parameters such as the size of the eigenvalue and its isolation distance. In a recent paper (Sauter in Finite elements for elliptic eigenvalue problems in the preasymptotic regime. Technical Report. Math. Inst., Univ. Zürich, 2007), the dependence of h ₀ on these and other parameters has been investigated theoretically. The main focus of this paper is to perform systematic experimental studies to validate the sharpness of the theoretical estimates and to get more insights in the convergence of the eigenfunctions and -values in the preasymptotic regime.     

Transform methods—what can they contribute to (computational) dynamics?

In comparison to FEM or to time step procedures integral transform methods (ITM) have a very restricted domain for application. Under the condition however, that they can be used at all, they lead to a deeper understanding of the physical nature of the problem, they may allow to ameliorate existing computational techniques and they can be used to develop new approaches “on their own right”.The paper shows examples for illustration. After a short introduction of different well known transform techniques and respective operations in the original and the transformed domains, it deals with signal processing: In a first example different possibilities for the interpretation of time dependent signals in the original domain, in a Fourier or in a wavelet transformed domain are compared. After that the usefulness of ITM is illustrated in regard of reliability questions. It is shown that typical characteristics known for time depending signals exist in a comparable, however more general, manner also in regard of spatial relations for problems of half space dynamics. ITM does not only allow interpretations but –– e.g. for the half space dynamics –– it leads also to very efficient solution techniques, particularly for moving loads. It can be used also for the development of auxiliary techniques for FEM or BEM approaches. Finally also in stochastic dynamics it is applicable with great advantages.     

Top-down learning strategies: can they facilitate stylus keyboard learning?

Learning a new stylus keyboard layout is time-consuming yet potentially rewarding, as optimized virtual keyboards can substantially increase performance for expert users. This paper explores whether the learning curve can be accelerated using top-down learning strategies. In an experiment, one group of participants learned a stylus keyboard layout with top-down methods, such as visuo-spatial grouping of letters and mnemonic techniques, to build familiarity with a stylus keyboard. The other (control) group learned the keyboard by typing sentences. The top-down learning group liked the stylus keyboard better and perceived it to be more effective than the control group. They also had better memory recall performance. Typing performance after the top-down learning process was faster than the initial performance of the control group, but not different from the performance of the control group after they had spent an equivalent amount of time typing. Therefore, top-down learning strategies improved the explicit recall as expected, but the improved memory of the keyboard did not result in quicker typing speeds. These results suggest that quicker acquisition of declarative knowledge does not improve the acquisition speed of procedural knowledge, even during the initial cognitive stage of the virtual keyboard learning. They also suggest that top-down learning strategies can motivate users to learn a new keyboard more than repetitive rehearsal, without any loss in typing performance.     

Finally,how many efficiencies the supercomputers have?

The Journal of Supercomputing - Using extremely large number of processing elements in computing systems leads to unexpected phenomena, such as different efficiencies of the same system for...     

How mild can slow controls be?

For a linear control system, if a state can be steered to zero in some time, then it can be steered to zero in any larger time and it is expected that, as the time grows, the norm of the corresponding control to be smaller. We study here the behavior of the minimum \(L^p\) -control, \(p\in (1,+\infty ]\) , as time duration goes to infinity.     

The analytic hierarchy process: can wash criteria be ignored?

We define a wash criterion as one where the decision-maker is indifferent among the alternatives when they are compared on that criterion. In view of the Belton–Gear example and other such anomalies associated with the analytic hierarchy process (AHP), we ask whether eliminating a wash criterion will affect the overall ranking of objects. In the case where there is only one level of criteria, the rank-order of objects is unaffected by leaving out a wash criterion. However, in the case where the wash criterion is a subcriterion, the rank order may be affected by leaving it out.Scope and purposeA wash criterion is defined as a criterion where the decision-maker is indifferent among the alternatives when they are compared on that criterion. We would like to think that the overall rank-order of objects would be unaffected in the case where the wash criterion is excluded. We give an example of an AHP hierarchy where this is not the case. In our view this presents another challenge to the AHP methodology.     

Solving problems: How can guidance concerning task-relevancy be provided?

The analysis of eye movements of people working on problem solving tasks has enabled a more thorough understanding than would have been possible with a traditional analysis of cognitive behavior. Recent studies report that influencing ‘where we look’ can affect task performance. However, some of the studies that reported these results have shortcomings, namely, it is unclear whether the reported effects are the result of ‘attention guidance’ or an effect of highlighting display elements alone; second, the selection of the highlighted display elements was based on subjective methods which could have introduced bias. In the study reported here, two experiments are described that attempt to address these shortcomings. Experiment 1 investigates the relative contribution of each display element to successful task realization and does so with an objective analysis method, namely signal detection analysis. Experiment 2 examines whether any performance effects of highlighting are due to foregrounding intrinsic task-relevant aspects or whether they are a result of the act of highlighting in itself. Results show that the chosen objective method is effective and that highlighting the display element thus identified improves task performance significantly. These findings are not an effect of the highlighting per se and thus indicate that the highlighted element is conveying task-relevant information. These findings improve on previous results as the objective selection and analysis methods reduce potential bias and provide a more reliable input to the design and provision of computer-based problem solving support.     

When–and how–can a cellular automaton be rewritten as a lattice gas?

Both cellular automata (CA) and lattice-gas automata (LG) provide finite algorithmic presentations for certain classes of infinite dynamical systems studied by symbolic dynamics; it is customary to use the terms ‘cellular automaton’ and ‘lattice gas’ for a dynamic system itself as well as for its presentation. The two kinds of presentation share many traits but also display profound differences on issues ranging from decidability to modeling convenience and physical implementability.     

Visual capability to receive character information Part I: How many characters can we recognize at a glance?

Abstract

A study was made on the capability to receive character information and the factors restricting it. The study showed that the capability indicated by the memory span was limited by the average number of characters for words that are made up of individual characters, and calculated in terms of information quantity, there was no difference among the individual characters. The differences in memory span, depending on the size of the pattern presented, was negligible. The difference in the way characters were arranged produced the difference in memory span saturation. This phenomenon is explained by the nature of the lateral interference effect working among the adjacent characters.