Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized devices with high functionality. In recent years, MEMS products have become increasingly dominant in every aspect of the commercial market place. As the MEMS technology is in its infant stage and has several unique features compared to macro-scale products, it is faced with several challenges. One of them is that design and fabrication knowledge is very intrigue and thus very difficult to be accessible. An effective computer support to the MEMS product development is thus very important. This thesis study undertakes a thorough investigation into the MEMS product development process and its computer support. Specifically, the study examines the state-of-the-art in computer aided design systems in light of the support of product functionality. It is shown that MEMS product development involves high degree of uncertainty, which calls for an unconventional computer support. At this point, this study proposes an approach to construct a knowledge base in a fairly flexible and real-time manner. This approach is based on the extended function-behavior-structure framework and the template technique proposed in this thesis. The other finding is that the MEMS product development resembles the one-of-a-kind product (OKP) development. Therefore software tools for the OKP product development process can be applied to the MEMS product development process. These tools are examined, and further extensions upon them are proposed. Throughout the thesis, a microdispensing system is used as an example for illustration of concepts described in this thesis.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized devices with high functionality. In recent years, MEMS products have become increasingly dominant in every aspect of the commercial market place. As the MEMS technology is in its infant stage and has several unique features compared to macro-scale products, it is faced with several challenges. One of them is that design and fabrication knowledge is very intrigue and thus very difficult to be accessible. An effective computer support to the MEMS product development is thus very important. This thesis study undertakes a thorough investigation into the MEMS product development process and its computer support. Specifically, the study examines the state-of-the-art in computer aided design systems in light of the support of product functionality. It is shown that MEMS product development involves high degree of uncertainty, which calls for an unconventional computer support. At this point, this study proposes an approach to construct a knowledge base in a fairly flexible and real-time manner. This approach is based on the extended function-behavior-structure framework and the template technique proposed in this thesis. The other finding is that the MEMS product development resembles the one-of-a-kind product (OKP) development. Therefore software tools for the OKP product development process can be applied to the MEMS product development process. These tools are examined, and further extensions upon them are proposed. Throughout the thesis, a microdispensing system is used as an example for illustration of concepts described in this thesis.

My research is about monitoring the software development process to assess Capability maturity level. Capability Maturity Model (CMM) was developed to improve the software process based on subjective assessment by teams of experts. We propose an objective CMM assessment, which replaces expensive and time-consuming human effort by a knowledge-based system. Compared to Subjective CMM assessment, Objective CMM assessment can be less expensive, takes less time, and is easy to estimate the software development environment maturity. The accuracy of Objective CMM assessment can be the same as Subjective CMM assessment if enough activities are represented as objective activities. For example, if subjective activities total 80 % and objective activities total 20 %, then the accuracy of Objective CMM assessment is not reliable. It would be reliable if the objective activity is increased up to 80% from 20%. This dissertation presents how to change from Subjective CMM assessment to Objective CMM assessment, and we will prove that Objective CMM Assessment is effective.

Following the entry of Cyprus into the European Union in 2004 and based on the philosophy which underpins the language policy in Europe, the island has been investing heavily in early foreign language learning. However, despite improvements in English language learning in primary state schools, no significant changes have been evident as regards the preparation of English teachers at this level. In conducting this research, my primary intention was to offer prospective and practising primary teachers a “voice” to express their own views regarding the content and teaching approach of a potential ELT module within teacher education curricula. The research adopted a mixed-method sequential approach carried out in two phases between March and July 2010. Data were initially obtained from 296 in-service primary teachers and 124 student teachers through a questionnaire-based survey. Data obtained in the second phase through individual and focus group interviews with 9 in-service-teachers and 11 student teachers respectively were used to explain, interpret and further examine the findings of the survey. The findings have highlighted the importance of theory and practice, showing evidence that both are necessary in order to avoid fragmented language teaching. The study suggests, therefore, that providing student teachers with meaningful opportunities to form links between the taught theory and its practical application is a fundamental basis for a more holistic teacher approach to teacher education. This study has also provided evidence that participants view learning as a process embedded in a social context, within which knowledge is constructed through collaborative, awareness-raising tasks set by mentors whose mediating roles in the creation of desirable learning contexts is perceived to be crucial. Although the findings of this research directly concern the Cypriot situation, they are likely to have broader applicability beyond Cyprus, especially in countries where early foreign language learning forms part of their educational agenda. Developing primary teachers’ language teaching knowledge and skills while considering the various types of support they receive during their pre-service education form part of a wider endeavour to ensure quality in early foreign language learning, an objective set by the European Union.

With the ever growing complexity of aircrafts, new tools and eventually methods to use these tools are needed in aircraft conceptual design. To reduce the development cost, an enhancement in the conceptual design is needed. This thesis presents a knowledge-based aircraft geometry design tool RAPID and the methodology applied in realizing the design. The parameters used to create a geometry need to be exchange between different tools. This is achieved by using a centralized database or onedata concept. One-database will enable creating a less number of cross connections between different tools to exchange data with one another. Different types of aircraft configurations can be obtained with less effort. As RAPID is developed based on relational design, any changes made to the geometric model will update automatically. The geometry model is carefully defined to carry over to the preliminary design. The validation of RAPID is done by implementing it in different aircraft design courses at Linköping University. In the aircraft project course, RAPID was effectively used and new features were added to the obtained desired design. Knowledge-base is used to realize the design performance for the geometry with an integrated database approach for a multidisciplinary aircraft conceptual design.

Ontology integration is a process of matching and merging two ontologies for reasons such as for generating a new ontology, thus creating digital services and products. Current techniques for ontology integration, used for information and knowledge integration, are not powerful enough to handle the semantic and pragmatic heterogeneities. Because of the heterogeneities, the ontology matching and integration have shown to be a complex problem, especially when the intention is to make the process automatic. This thesis addresses the problem of integrating heterogeneous ontologies, first, by exploring the context of ontology integration, secondly, by building a context knowledge base, and thirdly, by applying the context knowledge base. More specifically, the thesis contributes a context knowledge base method for ontology integration, CKB-OI method, which contains: 1) A method of building a context knowledge base by extracting context and contextual information from ontologies in an ontology repository to improve ontology integration. 2) A method of refining the result of ontology integration with the help of the context knowledge base and expanding the context rules in the context knowledge base. In the first method, the context of the ontology integration is identified by examining the content and metadata of the integrated ontologies. The context of an ontology integration contains the information describing the integration, such as the domain of ontology, the purpose of ontology, and the ontology elements involved. Context criteria, such as the metadata of ontologies and the element of ontologies in the repository, are used to model the context. The contextual information is extracted and integrated from ontologies in an ontology repository, using an ontology integration process with non-violation check. With the context and the contextual information, a context knowledge base is built. Since this is built by reusing ontologies to provide extra information for new ontology integration in the same context, it is quite possible that the context knowledge base will improve the earlier ontology integration result. A method for identifying the domain of an ontology is also proposed to help in building and using the context knowledge base. Since the method considers the semantic and pragmatic heterogeneities of ontologies, and uses a light-weight ontology representing a domain, this work increases the semantic value of the context knowledge base. In the second method, the context knowledge base is applied to the result of an ontology integration process with a non-violation check, which in turn results in an ontology intersection. The contextual information is searched for and extracted from the context knowledge base and then applied on the ontology intersection to improve the integration result. The ontology non-violation check integration process is adjusted and adopted in the method. Moreover, the context knowledge base is expanded with perspective rules, with which the different views of ontologies in a context are preserved, and reused in future ontology integration. The results of the CKB-OI methods are: 1) a context knowledge base with rules that consider semantic and pragmatic knowledge for ontology integration; 2) contextual ontology intersection (COI) with the refining result compared to the ontology intersection (OI), and 3) an extended context knowledge base with the different views of both ontologies. For evaluation, ontologies from the Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) and from ontology search engines Swoogle and Watson have been used for testing the proposed methods. The results show that the context knowledge base can be used for improving heterogeneous ontologies integration, hence, the context knowledge base provides semantic and pragmatic knowledge to integrate ontologies. Also, the results demonstrate that ontology integration, refined with the context knowledge base, contains more knowledge without contradicting the ontologies involved in our examples. / Ontologi-integration är en process för att matcha och sammanfoga två ontologier för att t.ex. generera en ny ontologi, och därmed skapa digitala tjänster och produkter. Aktuella tekniker för ontologi- integration, som används för information och kunskapsintegration, är inte tillräckligt kraftfulla för att hantera semantiska och pragmatiska heterogeniteter. På grund av heterogeniteter, har ontologi- matchning och -integration visat sig utgöra ett komplext problem, särskilt när avsikten är att göra processen automatisk. Denna avhandling behandlar problemet med att integrera heterogena ontologier; för det första genom att undersöka kontexten för ontologi-integrationen, för det andra genom att bygga en kunskapsbas för kontexten, och för det tredje genom att tillämpa denna kunskapsbas. Mer specifikt bidrar avhandlingen med CKB-OI-metoden för ontologi-integration, vilken innehåller: 1)      En metod för att bygga en kontextkunskapsbas, genom att extrahera sammanhang och kontextuell information från ontologier i ett ontologi-förvar för att förbättra ontologi-integrationen. 2)      En metod för att förfina resultatet av ontologi-integration med hjälp av kontextkunskapsbasen och för att utöka kontextreglerna i kunskapsbasen. I metod nr. 1 identifieras kontexten genom att undersöka innehållet och metadata för de ontologier, som ska integrereras. Kontexten innehåller information som beskriver integrationen, till exempel domän och syfte för varje ontologi, samt element som ingår i respektive ontologi. Kontexten  modelleras med kriterier, såsom metadata och element för ontologierna i förvaret. Den kontextuella informationen extraheras och integreras med användning av en integrationsprocess med icke-överträdelsekontroll. Kontextkunskapsbasen byggs utav kontext samt kontextuell information. Eftersom kunskapsbasen är byggd av återanvända ontologier för att ge ytterligare information till ontologi-integrationen inom samma kontext, så är det mycket möjligt att kontextkunskapsbasen kommer att förbättra det tidigare integrationsresultatet. En metod för att identifiera domänen för en ontologi föreslås också, för att hjälpa till att bygga och använda kontextkunskapsbasen. Eftersom metoden tar hänsyn till de semantiska och pragmatiska heterogeniteterna hos ontologier, och använder en enkel ontologi för att representera en domän, så ökar detta arbete det semantiska värdet av kontextkunskapsbasen. I metod nr. 2 tillämpas kontextkunskapsbasen på resultatet av en ontologi-integrationsprocess med icke-överträdelsekontroll, vilket i sin tur resulterar i ett ontologisnitt. Den kontextuella informationen extraheras från kontextkunskapsbasen och appliceras sedan på ontologisnittet för att förbättra integrationsresultatet. Icke-överträdelsekontrollen i integrationsprocessen justeras och används på nytt. Dessutom utökas kontextkunskapsbasen med perspektivregler, med vilka de olika vyerna av ontologier i en gemensam kontext bevaras och återanvänds i framtida ontologi-integrationer. Resultaten av CKB-OI metoden är: 1) en kontextkunskapsbas med regler som avser semantiska och pragmatiska kunskaper om en ontologi-integration; 2) ett kontextuellt ontologisnitt (COI) med ett förfinat resultat jämfört med ontologisnittet (OI) och 3) en utökad kontextkunskapsbas med olika vyer av båda ontologier. För utvärderingen har ontologier från Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) samt ontologisökmotorerna Swoogle och Watson använts för att testa de föreslagna metoderna. Resultaten visar att kontextkunskapsbasen kan användas för förbättring av heterogena ontologi-integrationer. Följaktligen tillhandahåller kontextkunskapsbasen semantiska och pragmatiska kunskaper för att integrera ontologier. Dessutom visar resultaten att ontologi-integrationer, utökade med kontextkunskapsbaser, innehåller mer kunskap, utan att motsäga de ontologier som ingår i våra exempel. / <p>QC 20141017</p>

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 12787.pdf: 6588986 bytes, checksum: a3586e859638aca4e1c3dc8d0f2d914b (MD5) / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T12:54:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 / Made available in DSpace on 2014-10-09T14:07:22Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 12787.pdf: 6588986 bytes, checksum: a3586e859638aca4e1c3dc8d0f2d914b (MD5) / Há mais de 25 anos, a Marinha do Brasil vem empreendendo recursos e pessoal em um programa nuclear cujo principal objetivo é o domínio da tecnologia necessária para o projeto e construção de um reator nuclear de potência e de produção de combustível nuclear para propulsão naval. Um projeto de longo prazo tende a ser muito suscetível quanto à perda de parcelas essenciais de conhecimento. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo identificar ações e iniciativas que possam potencializar o aprendizado e a disseminação de conhecimentos em uma organização que desenvolve projetos complexos por um longo período. A revisão da literatura sobre a Gestão do Conhecimento permitiu ao pesquisador selecionar uma referência que indica como as pessoas envolvidas em um projeto obtêm as informações e conhecimentos necessários às suas atividades, os utilizam para agregar valor e como elas aprendem e contribuem para a organização, a fim de evitar dificuldades posteriores. A metodologia adotada foi um estudo de caso da implantação da Unidade de Hexafluoreto de Urânio, que vem sendo desenvolvido pelo Centro Tecnológico da Marinha em São Paulo. Por meio da aplicação de entrevistas estruturadas e abertas, foi possível identificar alguns fatores relacionados com a obtenção e disseminação do conhecimento que podem ser desenvolvidos. O resultado deste trabalho foi uma proposta de ações e iniciativas visando melhorar a obtenção do conhecimento, sua construção e manutenção pela organização e a contribuição, por parte das pessoas, dos conhecimentos adquiridos para a própria organização. / Dissertação (Mestrado) / IPEN/D / Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

Over the past three decades, modelling packages for chemical processes have become more advanced and widely used. For example, equation-oriented dynamic simulators, such as gPROMS are useful for simulating plantwide processes as well as unit operations, and are widely used by process engineers. Whereas, other types of simulator (e.g. Simulink) are often used by control engineers to solve complex control problems. However, both these types of simulator rely on the user being proficient in modelling and familiar with their syntax beforehand. A useful development would be the integration of some knowledge into the formation of the process models and automatic syntax code generation. This would lead to the design engineers having a library of knowledge to check on first, much as an expert engineer uses their past experiences to help guide them through a design. If this could be incorporated into a modelling interface this would greatly help the design engineer, especially when tackling problems in areas that they have little, or no experience. The thesis addresses this problem and describes the design of an intelligent modelling interface that incorporates a knowledge base using some form of a priori case library and recall facility. The interface also incorporates an automatic input file generation stage. At present, the user can: specify a single unit operation problem to search for, retrieve similar cases from the database, specify their solution in the database based on past cases and experience, and then automatically generate an input file for either gPROMS or Simulink. These features are demonstrated through four case studies.

One of the greatest problems facing researchers in the sub field of Artificial Intelligence known as Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) is the selection of a knowledge base designs that will facilitate the modification of the knowledge base. The Class-Entity-Relationship-Attribute (CERA), proposed by R. P. Brazile, holds certain promise as a more generic knowledge base design framework upon which can be built robust and efficient ITS. This study has a twofold purpose. The first is to demonstrate that a CERA knowledge base can be constructed for an ITS on a subset of the domain of Cretaceous paleontology and function as the "expert module" of the ITS. The second is to test the validity of the ideas that students guided through a lesson learn more factual knowledge, while those who explore the knowledge base that underlies the lesson through query at their own pace will be able to formulate their own integrative knowledge from the knowledge gained in their explorations and spend more time on the system. This study concludes that a CERA-based system can be constructed as an effective teaching tool. However, while an ITS - treatment provides for statistically significant gains in achievement test scores, the type of treatment seems not to matter as much as time spent on task. This would seem to indicate that a query-based system which allows the user to progress at their own pace would be a better type of system for the presentation of material due to the greater amount of on-line computer time exhibited by the users.