Although educational content in electronic form is increasing dramatically, its usage in an educational environment is poor, mainly due to the fact that there is too much of (unreliable) redundant, and not relevant information. Finding appropriate answers is a rather difficult task being reliant on the user filtering of the pertinent information from the noise. Turning knowledge bases like the online tele-TASK archive into useful educational resources requires identifying correct, reliable, and "machine-understandable" information, as well as developing simple but efficient search tools with the ability to reason over this information. Our vision is to create an E-Librarian Service, which is able to retrieve multimedia resources from a knowledge base in a more efficient way than by browsing through an index, or by using a simple keyword search. In our E-Librarian Service, the user can enter his question in a very simple and human way; in natural language (NL). Our premise is that more pertinent results would be retrieved if the search engine understood the sense of the user's query. The returned results are then logical consequences of an inference rather than of keyword matchings. Our E-Librarian Service does not return the answer to the user's question, but it retrieves the most pertinent document(s), in which the user finds the answer to his/her question. Among all the documents that have some common information with the user query, our E-Librarian Service identifies the most pertinent match(es), keeping in mind that the user expects an exhaustive answer while preferring a concise answer with only little or no information overhead. Also, our E-Librarian Service always proposes a solution to the user, even if the system concludes that there is no exhaustive answer. Our E-Librarian Service was implemented prototypically in three different educational tools. A first prototype is CHESt (Computer History Expert System); it has a knowledge base with 300 multimedia clips that cover the main events in computer history. A second prototype is MatES (Mathematics Expert System); it has a knowledge base with 115 clips that cover the topic of fractions in mathematics for secondary school w.r.t. the official school programme. All clips were recorded mainly by pupils. The third and most advanced prototype is the "Lecture Butler's E-Librarain Service"; it has a Web service interface to respect a service oriented architecture (SOA), and was developed in the context of the Web-University project at the Hasso-Plattner-Institute (HPI). Two major experiments in an educational environment - at the Lycée Technique Esch/Alzette in Luxembourg - were made to test the pertinence and reliability of our E-Librarian Service as a complement to traditional courses. The first experiment (in 2005) was made with CHESt in different classes, and covered a single lesson. The second experiment (in 2006) covered a period of 6 weeks of intensive use of MatES in one class. There was no classical mathematics lesson where the teacher gave explanations, but the students had to learn in an autonomous and exploratory way. They had to ask questions to the E-Librarian Service just the way they would if there was a human teacher. / Obwohl sich die Verfügbarkeit von pädagogischen Inhalten in elektronischer Form stetig erhöht, ist deren Nutzen in einem schulischen Umfeld recht gering. Die Hauptursache dessen ist, dass es zu viele unzuverlässige, redundante und nicht relevante Informationen gibt. Das Finden von passenden Lernobjekten ist eine schwierige Aufgabe, die vom benutzerbasierten Filtern der passenden Informationen abhängig ist. Damit Wissensbanken wie das online Tele-TASK Archiv zu nützlichen, pädagogischen Ressourcen werden, müssen Lernobjekte korrekt, zuverlässig und in maschinenverständlicher Form identifiziert werden, sowie effiziente Suchwerkzeuge entwickelt werden. Unser Ziel ist es, einen E-Bibliothekar-Dienst zu schaffen, der multimediale Ressourcen in einer Wissensbank auf effizientere Art und Weise findet als mittels Navigieren durch ein Inhaltsverzeichnis oder mithilfe einer einfachen Stichwortsuche. Unsere Prämisse ist, dass passendere Ergebnisse gefunden werden könnten, wenn die semantische Suchmaschine den Sinn der Benutzeranfrage verstehen würde. In diesem Fall wären die gelieferten Antworten logische Konsequenzen einer Inferenz und nicht die einer Schlüsselwortsuche. Tests haben gezeigt, dass unser E-Bibliothekar-Dienst unter allen Dokumenten in einer gegebenen Wissensbank diejenigen findet, die semantisch am besten zur Anfrage des Benutzers passen. Dabei gilt, dass der Benutzer eine vollständige und präzise Antwort erwartet, die keine oder nur wenige Zusatzinformationen enthält. Außerdem ist unser System in der Lage, dem Benutzer die Qualität und Pertinenz der gelieferten Antworten zu quantifizieren und zu veranschaulichen. Schlussendlich liefert unser E-Bibliothekar-Dienst dem Benutzer immer eine Antwort, selbst wenn das System feststellt, dass es keine vollständige Antwort auf die Frage gibt. Unser E-Bibliothekar-Dienst ermöglicht es dem Benutzer, seine Fragen in einer sehr einfachen und menschlichen Art und Weise auszudrücken, nämlich in natürlicher Sprache. Linguistische Informationen und ein gegebener Kontext in Form einer Ontologie werden für die semantische Übersetzung der Benutzereingabe in eine logische Form benutzt. Unser E-Bibliothekar-Dienst wurde prototypisch in drei unterschiedliche pädagogische Werkzeuge umgesetzt. In zwei Experimenten wurde in einem pädagogischen Umfeld die Angemessenheit und die Zuverlässigkeit dieser Werkzeuge als Komplement zum klassischen Unterricht geprüft. Die Hauptergebnisse sind folgende: Erstens wurde festgestellt, dass Schüler generell akzeptieren, ganze Fragen einzugeben - anstelle von Stichwörtern - wenn dies ihnen hilft, bessere Suchresultate zu erhalten. Zweitens, das wichtigste Resultat aus den Experimenten ist die Erkenntnis, dass Schuleresultate verbessert werden können, wenn Schüler unseren E-Bibliothekar-Dienst verwenden. Wir haben eine generelle Verbesserung von 5% der Schulresultate gemessen. 50% der Schüler haben ihre Schulnoten verbessert, 41% von ihnen sogar maßgeblich. Einer der Hauptgründe für diese positiven Resultate ist, dass die Schüler motivierter waren und folglich bereit waren, mehr Einsatz und Fleiß in das Lernen und in das Erwerben von neuem Wissen zu investieren.

Beschreibungslogiken (Description logics, DLs) sind eine Klasse von Wissensrepraesentationsformalismen mit wohldefinierter, logik-basierter Semantik und entscheidbaren Schlussfolgerungsproblemen, wie z.B. dem Erfuellbarkeitsproblem. Zwei wichtige Entscheidungsverfahren fuer das Erfuellbarkeitsproblem von DL-Ausdruecken sind Tableau- und Automaten-basierte Algorithmen. Diese haben aufgrund ihrer unterschiedlichen Arbeitsweise komplementaere Eigenschaften: Tableau-Algorithmen eignen sich fuer Implementierungen und fuer den Nachweis von PSPACE- und NEXPTIME-Resultaten, waehrend Automaten sich besonders fuer EXPTIME-Resultate anbieten. Zudem ermoeglichen sie eine vom Standpunkt der Theorie aus elegantere Handhabung von unendlichen Strukturen, eignen sich aber wesentlich schlechter fuer eine Implementierung. Ziel der Dissertation ist es, die Gruende fuer diese Unterschiede zu analysieren und Moeglichkeiten aufzuzeigen, wie Eigenschaften von einem Ansatz auf den anderen uebertragen werden koennen, um so die positiven Eigenschaften von beiden Ansaetzen miteinander zu verbinden. Unter Anderem werden Methoden entwickelt, mit Hilfe von Automaten PSPACE-Resultate zu zeigen, und von einem Tableau-Algorithmus automatisch ein EXPTIME-Resultat abzuleiten. / Description Logics (DLs) are a family of knowledge representation languages with well-defined logic-based semantics and decidable inference problems, e.g. satisfiability. Two of the most widely used decision procedures for the satisfiability problem are tableau- and automata-based algorithms. Due to their different operation, these two classes have complementary properties: tableau algorithms are well-suited for implementation and for showing PSPACE and NEXPTIME complexity results, whereas automata algorithms are particularly useful for showing EXPTIME results. Additionally, they allow for an elegant handling of infinite structures, but they are not suited for implementation. The aim of this thesis is to analyse the reasons for these differences and to find ways of transferring properties between the two approaches in order to reconcile the positive properties of both. For this purpose, we develop methods that enable us to show PSPACE results with the help of automata and to automatically derive an EXPTIME result from a tableau algorithm.

Facing the growing amount of information in today's society, the task of specifying human knowledge in a way that can be unambiguously processed by computers becomes more and more important. Two acknowledged fields in this evolving scientific area of Knowledge Representation are Description Logics (DL) and Formal Concept Analysis (FCA). While DL concentrates on characterizing domains via logical statements and inferring knowledge from these characterizations, FCA builds conceptual hierarchies on the basis of present data. This work introduces Relational Exploration, a method for acquiring complete relational knowledge about a domain of interest by successively consulting a domain expert without ever asking redundant questions. This is achieved by combining DL and FCA: DL formalisms are used for defining FCA attributes while FCA exploration techniques are deployed to obtain or refine DL knowledge specifications.

This research seeks to connect the philosophical focus of the agency-structure debate with the practice of management through a comparative study of organisational decision-making in situations involving stakeholder consultation. Set in the context of decision-making following an airport master plan consultation, the study considers how the stakeholder framework can be integrated within institutional theory using institutional logics as a theoretical link between these two literatures. This thesis, which adopts a critical realist perspective, takes a comparative case approach of four airports, each owned in different ways. Interviews with airport managers are supplemented by discussions with stakeholders and industry experts. Two sets of a priori themes were identified from the literature. The first focuses on the institutional logics prevailing in the field and their influence on managers as they make decisions. The second considers four decision-making strategies managers might employ in this situation. Findings centre on the causal powers acting upon airport managers as they make their decisions. Whilst normative isomorphic pressure enables stakeholder consultation, the coercive pressure on the decision-making process deriving from English planning law, the adversarial and oscillating nature of Central Government policy, and a mimetic response to the nature of local authority development plans constrain the actions of airport managers. Indeed, the current bureaucratic form of capitalism limits stakeholder contribution to final master plans. This research makes four main contributions: Firstly, reflecting upon the agency-structure debate from a critical realist perspective has facilitated development of a model integrating the stakeholder framework within institutional theory. Secondly, it improves our understanding of how stakeholder contribution is managed in master planning. Thirdly, the study adds to the growing body of work that employs a critical realist perspective. Lastly, since reconciling conflicting stakeholder opinions may well be of vital importance to the future of the UK’s airport infrastructure, this work has practical significance for airport managers, government policy-makers and stakeholders as they strive to formulate worthwhile airport consultations.

Starting from the overall Revitalizing Small Millets in South Asia (RESMISA) project objective and question, how to increase millet production and consumption, I will use the same to enter Chintaguda and understand how that can be accomplished in the village. As millets do not occupy a significant aspect of the lives of people in Chintaguda, I essentially sought to understand the general decision-making logics that operate therein. This objective will help me understand which factors and their interactions influence activities around socio-ecological engagements. I aim to devise a framework to comprehend these logics and the complexities found in Chintaguda by using social theories. These will help me stitch together a narrative for Chintaguda that will contextualize the people’s relationship to millets. This study will show the various ways people can and do relate to millets. / February 2016

No description available.

Description Logics (DLs) are a class of knowledge representation formalisms that can represent terminological and assertional knowledge using a well-defined semantics. Often, knowledge engineers are experts in their own fields, but not in logics, and require assistance in the process of ontology design. This thesis presents three methods that can extract terminological knowledge from existing data and thereby assist in the design process. They are based on similar formalisms from Formal Concept Analysis (FCA), in particular the Next-Closure Algorithm and Attribute-Exploration. The first of the three methods computes terminological knowledge from the data, without any expert interaction. The two other methods use expert interaction where a human expert can confirm each terminological axiom or refute it by providing a counterexample. These two methods differ only in the way counterexamples are provided.

The use of formal methods in software development seeks to increase our confidence in the resultant system. Their use often requires tool support, so the integrity of a development using formal methods is dependent on the integrity of the tool-set used. Specifically its integrity depends on the theorem prover, since in a typical formal development system the theorem prover is used to establish the validity of the proof obligations incurred by all the steps in the design and refinement process. In this thesis we are concerned with tool-based formal development systems that are used to develop high-integrity software. Since the theorem prover program is a critical part of such a system, it should ideally have been itself formally verified. Unfortunately, most theorem provers are too complex to be verified formally using currently available techniques. An alternative approach, which has many advantages, is to include a proof checker as an extra component in the system, and to certify this. A proof checker is a program which reads and checks the proofs produced by a theorem prover. Proof checkers are inherently simpler than theorem provers, since they only process actual proofs, whereas much of the code of a theorem prover is concerned with searching the space of possible proofs to find the required one. They are also free from all but the simplest user interface concerns, since their input is a proof produced by another program, and their output may be as simple as a `yes/no' reply to the question: Is this a valid proof? plus a list of assumptions on which this judgement is based. When included in a formal development system a stand-alone proof checker is, in one sense, superfluous, since it does not produce any proofs -- the theorem prover does this. Instead its importance is in establishing the integrity of the results of the system -- it provides extra assurance. A proof checker provides extra assurance simply by checking the proofs, since all proofs have then been validated by two independent programs. However a proof checker can provide an extra, and higher, level of assurance if it has been formally verified. In order for formal verification to be feasible the proof checker must be as simple as possible. In turn the simplicity of a proof checker is dependent on the complexity of the data which it processes, that is, the representation of the proofs that it checks. This thesis develops a representation of proofs that is simple and generic. The aim is to produce a generic representation that is applicable to the proofs produced by a variety of theorem provers. Simplicity facilitates verification, while genericity maximises the return on the effort of verification. Using a generic representation places obligations on the theorem provers to produce a proof record in this format. A flexible recorder/translator architecture is proposed which allows proofs to be recorded by existing theorem provers with minimal changes to the original code. The prover is extended with a recorder module whose output is then, if necessary, converted to the generic format by a separate translator program. A formal specification of a checker for proofs recorded in this representation is given. The specification could be used to formally develop a proof-checker, although this step is not taken in this thesis. In addition the characteristics of both the specification and possible implementations are investigated. This is done to assess the size and feasibility of the verification task, and also to confirm that the design is not over-sensitive to the size of proofs. This investigation shows that a checker developed from the specification will be scalable to handle large proofs. To investigate the feasibility of a system based on this architecture, prototype proof recorders were developed for the Ergo 5 and Isabelle 98 theorem provers. In addition a prototype checker was written to check proofs in the proposed format. This prototype is compatible with the formal specification. The combined system was tested successfully using existing proofs for both the Ergo 5 and Isabelle 98 theorem provers.

Les logiques multivalentes sont définies comme une famille de logiques non classiques dont la caractéristique commune est de ne pas restreindre les valeurs de vérité aux seuls « vrai » et « faux ». À cet égard, Kleene (1938) a offert une logique se fondant sur l’intuition que tout énoncé est soit vrai, soit faux ; mais qu’il existe néanmoins des énoncés dont la valeur de vérité n’est pas connue. La formalisation d’une telle intuition amena Kleene à introduire une troisième attribution de valeur de vérité pour les énoncés : « inconnu ». Pour autant, une telle formalisation reste ambiguë : elle échoue à résoudre la dichotomie entre le fait que tout énoncé est soit vrai, soit faux et le fait qu’il existe des énoncés dont l’attribution de valeur de vérité n’est ni « vrai », ni « faux ». L’enjeu de la présente thèse sera l’introduction d’une nouvelle logique multivalente intitulée logique de l’agent rationnel se fondant sur les idées de Kleene tout en en éliminant l’ambiguïté décrite plus haut.La logique de l’agent rationnel permet de modéliser le raisonnement d’un agent en considérant la connaissance (ou l’ignorance) qu’il peut avoir de la valeur de vérité classique des énoncés. D’un point de vue technique, nous introduisons plusieurs définitions de la notion de conséquence logique dans ce cadre, et construisons sur cette base, des sémantiques complètes de notre logique. Nous montrons ensuite l’intérêt d’une telle formalisation en l’appliquant à l’étude d’un problème épistémologique connu sous le nom de « paradoxe de la connaissabilité ». D’un point de vue épistémologique, l’introduction de la logique de l’agent rationnel permet d’analyser la notion d’ignorance comme indépendante de celle de connaissance. Une telle formalisation ouvre ainsi la voie à une position inédite, selon laquelle la notion d’ignorance est primitive et non analysable. / Many-valued logics is a family of non-classical logics, which is characterized by the fundamental fact that they do not restrict the truth values to only truth and falsity. According to this line of inquiry, Kleene (1938) constructed a logic that is based on the idea that every proposition is either true, or false, but there exist propositions for which the truth value is unknown. The formalisation of this idea leads to the introduction of a third assignment of truth value to propositions, interpreted as “unknown”. However, this formalisation contains an ambiguity, because it does not permit the resolution of a contradiction between the fact that every proposition is either true or false, and the fact that there exist propositions for which the assignment of truth value is neither “true” nor “false”. The initial aim of the present thesis is to explore Kleene’s idea in order to introduce and analyse a new many-valued logic, to be called the logic of a rational agent, that is founded on Kleene’s ideas, but that eliminates the above-mentioned ambiguity.The logic of a rational agent models the reasoning of an agent, taking into account the knowledge (or ignorance) of the classical truth value of a proposition that the agent can have. On the technical level, we introduce diverse definitions of entailment relations and construct consistent and complete semantics on this base. We then show the interest inherent in such a formalisation, by proposing an application of this logic to a famous epistemological problem, known as the “knowability paradox”. On the epistemological level, the logic of a rational agent permits us to offer an analysis of the notion of ignorance, as understood independently from the notion of knowledge. Such a formalization.

O objetivo deste estudo foi investigar a legitimidade das atividades relativas à comercialização da ciência através da participação de cientistas em mecanismos de transferência de tecnologia e conhecimento para empresas em uma universidade pública no Brasil. O ponto de partida da pesquisa remete às discussões em torno da relação universidade-empresa, estudadas por distintas perspectivas que ressaltam desde a emergência de novos paradigmas na produção do conhecimento científico, tais como os argumentos da universidade empreendedora, até análises mais críticas, ora sublinhando os efeitos negativos, ora demonstrando a manutenção de fronteiras institucionais entre as duas organizações. A investigação utilizou dois métodos: 1) levantamento da participação de pesquisadores em processos de transferência de tecnologia para a indústria, utilizando dados secundários; e 2) pesquisa qualitativa por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, identificando os diferentes tipos de manipulação de lógicas institucionais nas práticas acadêmicas, ora voltadas para a comercialização, ora imersas na ciência pública. Verificou-se elevado crescimento de interações da universidade com a indústria. Entretanto, dois aspectos são ponderados. O primeiro diz respeito à predominância de mecanismos tradicionais de transferência de tecnologia, comparado aos outros tipos de interações. O segundo refere-se ao baixo nível de legitimação de práticas empreendedoras nos casos analisados, visto a defesa da lógica científica sobre a lógica comercial. Para a avaliação da incorporação de novos valores e normas sociais na ciência pública, estabeleceram-se tipologias de orientações científicas: orientação tradicional, orientação tradicional híbrida e orientação empreendedora. A partir dos resultados, conclui-se que o argumento da universidade empreendedora apresenta sérias limitações, visto a baixa legitimidade de novos processos de transferência de tecnologia na amostra analisada. Assim, a difusão de novas práticas científicas orientadas para o maior contato com as demandas econômicas, não necessariamente expressam um processo de institucionalização do empreendedorismo acadêmico, como a incorporação de novos valores, normas e orientações científicas. / The objective of this study was to investigate the legitimacy of the activities related to commercialization of science, through the participation of scientists in mechanisms for transferring technology and knowledge to companies in a public university in Brazil. The starting point of the research refers to the discussions around the relationship between universities and business, studied by different perspectives that highlight since the emergence of new paradigms in the production of scientific knowledge, such as the arguments of the entrepreneurial university, even more critical analysis, sometimes stressing negative effects, sometimes demonstrating the maintenance of institutional boundaries between the two organizations. The research used two methods: 1) raising the participation of researchers in the process of technology transfer to industry, using secondary data and 2) qualitative research using semi-structured interviews, identifying the different types of institutional logics handling academic practices, now focused on marketing, sometimes immersed in public science. There was considerable growth in the university's interactions with industry. However, two aspects are considered. The first concerns the predominance of traditional mechanisms of technology transfer, compared to other types of interactions. The second refers to the low level of legitimation of entrepreneurial practices in the cases analyzed, since the defense of scientific logic on the business logic. To evaluate the incorporation of new values and social norms in public science, settled types of scientific orientations: traditional orientation, hybrid traditional orientation and entrepreneurial orientation. From the results it is concluded that the argument of the entrepreneurial university has serious limitations, as the low legitimacy of new processes of technology transfer in the sample. Thus, the diffusion of new scientific practices oriented more contact with the economic demands, not necessarily express a process of institutionalization of academic entrepreneurship, such as the incorporation of new values, norms and scientific orientations.